Guardian 26,403 by Enigmatist

65 comments on “Guardian 26,403 by Enigmatist”

1. Thanks flashling
   I had a different parsing for 11ac:

   SHIN (swarm {as in climb}) in (checking) IN RUGS (so wig maker deals)

2. Thanks Enigmatist and flashling. This had me beaten – the most difficult puzzle I’ve tried in ages. But why James Hunt? He’s hardly in the news , is he, having been dead for some time?

3. Thanks for parsings of 1, 11, 14 and 21: 11 and 14 in particular were way out of my league as most of this was. Took a lot of dictionaries, websites and checks to even get it filled in. Thanks, flashling, and thanks (I think) Enigmatist. Hard work.

4. Wow indeed. Had to check the Japanese festival as they aren’t exactly my specialist subject. Anyone else disappointed that THE THIMBLE wasn’t in there somewhere? 🙂

   Thanks to Enigmatist for another great brain workout (and I’d only just recovered from the last one!) and thank you and well done Flashling.

5. Much obliged flashling and Gaufrid for the parsing of 11 and 21. It seems so lame; blankly staring at a puzzle AFTER you have the answers filled in.

6. Thanks for the crossword and especially to flashling the blog. I only managed about 2/3 of this, at a slog, before giving up. I did find some of the wordplay a little laboured – eg. 22d, I’d never have thought of removing ‘san’ (old hospital) from ‘sanguine’ even if I’d stared at it for another week. I find Enigmatist’s crosswords difficult but in a different way from, say, Bunthorne’s. The latter’s could be very difficult but there was a great sense of fun and also achievement in solving them. The former’s (for me) are just difficult. Sorry.

7. I echo gladys @3. Don’t give up Steve in St A.

8. Thanks, flashling. “Blimey Charley” for the second day running, only in spades today. I’m afraid as I hit the hour mark with only about two thirds completed, I began to find this a bit too hard for a workday but, all the same, it had to be finished. I’ve no wish to start the debate again but I would so much prefer to see toughies like this coming at the weekend, to be savoured at leisure!

9. It seems to me to be very unfair to key the whole puzzle on the name of an individual who has been dead for 20 years, without even straightforward wordplay to get you there. Not sure what I’m going to say about this to the young American solver I’ve been mentoring. She takes the occasional Britishisms in stride and even enjoys them, but this is a bit much.

10. logophile @ 9: I can’t say that I agree with you. I actually guessed 10 from some of the other clues (before I got the full answer to 16,10) and there’s no need to know who he was to get all those other answers. Having said that, he was the World Champion in Formula 1 motor racing so where to you draw the line? Would Donald Campbell have been more acceptable? We get composers and authors who’ve been dead for a long longer than 20 years.

11. logophile @9, not many Formula 1 fans in the US, I agree, but the film Rush was a world-wide hit only last year. The only criticism I might make is that Enigmatist could have used “wouldn’t have liked” rather than “won’t like” in the clue.

12. On a morning of inspissated gloom here in Bridport, this was an excellent brainstretcher. Thanks.

13. Aoxomoxoa @10 and NeilW@ 11 — fair enough. Enigmatist is a great setter and clues that are equally obvious to everyone would be distinctly boring.

14. NeilW @8

    I am a little surprised at you bracketing this with yesterday’s Brummie. For myself, I am vastly relieved to miss this by a day, particularly as the UK has gone off daylight savings time, and we have not, so that I would have had an hour less than usual to get out a blog. Needless to say am greatly impressed by flashling’s blog, so may thanks to him – and to Enigmatist, even though I needed all the help I could get just to fill the grid.

15. Thanks, flashling.

    Jeez, that was hard. I got about 7 answers fairly easily and then struggled for a long time to see the key words, although NATIONAL TREASURE was an early entry. Even when the penny dropped the rest was anything but straightforward, and I had recourse to the word search facility on my Chambers app to find some possibilities in several places.

    Recent Engimatist puzzles (which have not been copious, anyway) have been relatively easy – for him. This was back to his characteristic style, with some very clever and tortuous parsings.

    I concurred with Gaufrid for the parsing of INRUSHINGS (though it took an age to see), but the mechanism of CHIPOLATA, AUTOGRAPH, GUINEA and MATSURI escaped me completely.

    Bravo, Enigmatist, but I think I need to lie down now….

16. Thanks Enigmatist, my computer and I had to make a joint effort to solve this.

    Thanks flashling; I should have thought most people would know ‘Hunt the shunt’ (see 16,10) As well as a world champion, he commented for 13 years with the legendary Murray Walker, who rivals Spooner with his sayings.

    I’m afraid even after getting JAMES HUNT, I took a long time to complete the rest.

17. …… or even I would……….should know…….

18. First of all ( as I said in a previous blog) J Hunt made Russel Brand look like Cliff Richard.
    Secondly, the recent film”Rush” chronicled the one point champ victory of him over lauder.
    Hell of a weekday puzzle but excellent quality- full marks to anyone making the finishing line without a pit stop

19. PeterO @14, yesterday’s “Blimey Charley” was more in jest and a smile to those on your side of the pond complaining about anglicisms but, as I said, today’s was for real!

20. Wink, perhaps, rather than smile. 😉

21. Too hard, and a weird theme, but the setting is excellent. Like others I’m not sure this is really right for a daily. Some obscure entries as well, which I don’t like to see, even where Pasquale is a worse offender. So I don’t know about this.

22. Thanks Enigmatist and flashling

    Golly that was hard work, and like many others some of the parsings completely escaped me, so congratulations flashling (I chuckled at your 8:40 post on the graun site).

    Beery Hiker @ 45 yesterday: Boatman posted recently on twitter that he’s due on Friday, and that “It’ll be a bit of an animal”

    Perhaps Rufus has been moved to tomorrow to give us some light relief between Enigmatist and Boatman?

23. I very much agree with Aoxomoxoa @6. As well as 22d I’d add 7d, 15d, and 21d to the list of clues where cleverness in the wordplay is pursued to the detriment of its function as a means of getting to the answer. I wonder, does Enigmatist spend too long polishing his clues?

24. Thanks, Enigmatist and flashling for a sterling blog.

    My heart sank when I saw the setter on a weekday! It turned out to be a fun theme. I, too, was expecting thimble to be in the hunt.

    Good to see some of the super solvers struggle for a change!

    Giovanna xx

25. Great work flashling. Even if you had a couple of hints straight from the horses mouth in York that must have been a real challenge.

    Thanks Enigmatist for the toughest test of the year so far.

    Dear HS – surely there is room for this sort of thing in the Guardian more than 3 times a year?

26. First class blog, flashling, many thanks.

    Defeated by the SE corner within my self-imposed time limit.

    I, too, (NeilW @8) would have preferred a toughie like this at the weekend but that is absolutely no criticism.

    Many thanks Enigmatist, superb work out.

27. Thanks Enigmatist and flashling
    Well, I finished, but the solutions I didn’t parse are too numerous to mention.

    James Hunt was actually my first one in – in his early days he acquired the nickname “shunt” due to his unfortunate habit of driving into other cars.

    We have had PE = “sport” twice recently (or was the other in a Radio Times? – I forget). If the abbreviation is for Physical Education, I don’t think it is a sport – we certainly made a distinction between PE and Sport when I was at school , and also later when I was a teacher.

28. Thanks Flashling, I don’t envy you today. This was too difficult for me and felt unnecessarily obscure and laboured. As an example, I lived in Japan for 12 years so Japanese festival immediately brought MATSURI to mind but I didn’t enter it, even with a couple of crossers, because I couldn’t make “disease one is launching” match the necessary letters. Yes, I see it now, but I was cowed and discouraged at the time.

    But others appreciated it, so this is an observation, not a complaint.

29. This was way too difficult for me. I gave up after two sessions totalling an hour, during which I only got four clues. Commiserations, flashling, for getting landed with the blog today.

    I agree with others who found today’s offering extremely tough. The folks who comment on here are, I guess, more than averagely capable solvers. If most of us see a puzzle as extraordinarily hard, that’s saying something. Clever clues shouldn’t be the only yardstick for a good cryptic. At least as important is that a reasonable number of punters finish it. Using this yardstick, Enigmatist failed, I think.

30. Now that one really was very difficult, and I could never have finished it without cheating a little using Check, but on the whole I found it enjoyable and educational. First in was JAMES HUNT so the theme became apparent fairly early. Last in and least familiar was MATSURI, but I guess not much fits those crossers. Liked NATIONAL TREASURE and WITCH. There were a number I couldn’t parse.

    Thanks to flashling (and congratulations on getting the blog out at a reasonable time), and to Enigmatist for the challenge.

31. Thanks all, @Beery needed early start and I had to have it posted before I started work at 9am which I managed by seconds. Just writing this up took ages to put down in words how it falls apart.

    Must admit, rather than being on a hunt today, I felt like the hunted.

32. I agree with Mitz @25 who called this “the toughest test of the year so far”. I did enjoy it though, thanks Enigmatist. Special thanks to flashling for help with the couple I couldn’t parse – didn’t envy you your task today!

33. Impossible! By far the toughest test of the year. I’m not the greatest solver, but I expect to get more than nine solutions! Couldn’t work out JAMES HUNT.

34. Hated this, really badly hated it. Nearly bought a different paper in the newsagents, swerved at the last second and bought the Guardian. Mistake. Perhaps this self-indulgent pointlessness might appeal to people with lots of time on their hands but I can’t see how it would be enjoyed by anyone in full time employment who simply wants a little interesting diversion during the day. I’ll be happy to never see another puzzle by this setter, something I think I can achieve by not buying the same paper again.

35. Apologies for this – I’ve never done this before but I’m going to simply copy and paste a comment I made just now over the way at the Guardian blog:

    I would be really interested to hear why people think this was so much harder than standard daily fare.
    Don’t get me wrong: as I said earlier I found it very tough, but looking back now it is quite hard to pinpoint what elevated it to that level. Two or three obscurities, but none unfairly clued. A few unusual constructions, but no devices that have never been seen before. Misdirection in spades, but is that in itself enough to make things that much more difficult, especially when you’re expecting to be misdirected? Or is that the point – we all know that E is going to tie us in knots, so does that put us on the back foot before we even start?

36. Well, we had Robert Louis Stevenson the other day…

    Here is A. E. Houseman

    Home is the hunter from the hill:
    Fast in the boundless snare
    All flesh lies taken at his will
    And every fowl of air.

    I guess Enigmatist was the hunter, and poor flashling lay fast in the boundless snare, 5ac.

37. Mitz @35 – for me the only others since Christmas that came close to being this difficult were by Boatman (so Friday could be interesting). The last couple of Enigmatists have been relatively gentle by his standards. I think what makes his especially difficult is that so few of them read like “normal” clues, and because we see him so rarely you never quite get used to the style. I think there is an element of being intimidated by expectation too. I would be pushed to say whether or not this was more difficult than yesterday’s Anax, but on balance I’d still say that this was harder, not least MATSURI (especially for those of us who aren’t experts in plant diseases). Don’t get me wrong – I like having this sort of challenge occasionally!

38. Thanks to Enigmatist and flashling. Quite a workout. Doubt my check button will ever recover.
    New words for me at 6d, 7d, 21d and 26ac. Also was unfamiliar with James Hunt. Got there in the end but needed the blog to explain several parsings.

    Cheers…

39. Thanks very much for the blog flashling.

    As others have said, one of the hardest Graun puzzles for some time and I could only do about half of it, with the SW proving particularly troublesome, before guess & checking my way to the end. Not that I mind. I enjoy the challenge, even if I fail, and if I don’t try I’ll never improve. I did like CUSHTY and NATIONAL TREASURE (both honest solves).

    Thanks Engimatist – hopefully it won’t be too long until your next. Three a year is just not enough to get used to your style.

40. Median @ 29 and Waste @ 34 – hear hear!!
    Nulla-nulla? Matsuri??
    I’m all for learning new words, but this could well be the one and only time I’ll ever see these two.
    A struggle all the way.

41. I got JAMES HUNT early on (as in this morning) so thought ‘great, cracked the theme’. Now, after revisiting at odd times during the day, I have, like yesterday, all the right letters in all the right places, but with the placement of the odd bit of artificial aid to get there.

    All those hunts and no FOX. Or DEER or BEAR or pretty much anything else animate that can be shot, pursued etc. Please Mr Enigmatist, think of us mortals.

    Still, did like ROULEAU, and if I ever go to Australia I have an extra word I can drop into outback conversation.

42. To Enigmatist

    Just in case you thought I was ignoring your puzzle – I haven’t started it yet as I have been doing the ones on the calendar from Eric. I wasn’t going to do the Grauniad today but now I know it’s yours, I will go now gentle into that good crossword land!

    Back soon!

43. Very, very tricky. As a few others have noted the last few puzzles by Enigmatist have been towards the easier end of his spectrum (which is still difficult) but this one was a doozy. I was left with what I thought were three clues before I decided to resort to aids. I then got MATSURI, which led me to an unaided PLUS. I was left with 1ac which was made impossible by the fact that I’d gone for “laureau” at 2dn which I’d seen as a dodgy homophonic “law O”. When I couldn’t find anything sensible that would fit ?L?W?S? I decided 2dn had to be wrong. I finally got ROULEAU and then PROWESS even though I couldn’t parse the latter.

    One of the criticisms I have always had of ENIGMATIST in his Guardian guise is that his puzzles can be very difficult but not much fun. I find Boatman even worse in that regard so I’m not looking forward to Friday.

44. To say I found this hard is an understatement. I did finish but not without help from various gadgets. I couldn’t parse so many- even retrospectively.
    Come back Paul.

45. Thanks again flashling for a fantastic blog.

    Think we all took a good deal of ribbing today.

    Almw3 @42 says to Enigmatist that he will be back soon…I wonder.

46. Yes Cookie, 90 minutes and counting – I thought that was optimistic too!

47. Well he needn’t have wasted £1.60 when the puzzle is free online: that’s just silly isn’t it? 🙂

    Brilliant puzzle from start to finish.

48. Well, I finished but had one wrong, which I didn’t think was bad in such an unparsable (for me) crossword. I had to guess quite a lot of answers which turned out to be correct except for the country in 22d. I would never have got SAN/GUINE if I’d sat here all night. The others I guessed but couldn’t parse were INRUSHINGS, AUTOGRAPH AND SLIPPER.

    Not quite as enjoyable as the York one, but then i always enjoy solving with someone else – not a luxury afforded to me very often.

    Thanks both

49. Was it Araucaria who said that the point of setting a crossword was to put up a challenge but, ultimately, to lose. On the strength of today’s puzzle, I guess Enigmatist would disagree – he would appear to be out to win at all cost.

    I, personally, don’t see the fun in a puzzle where, even with the answers, you can’t see why.

50. Needed Mr Googles assistance purely to confirm that some new words existed, clued so they had to be what they were but why. @49 Alistair Enigmatist has a better grasp of general knowledge than I, I lost and mea culpa. Thanks to Enigmatist and Flashling

51. Far too hard but not the setter’s fault, the crossword editor should be able to spot this and use it as a prize crossword. I also expected to find thimble but never mind.

52. Sorry I missed York last weekend (the gout came on again), so was pleased to get an Enigmatist puzzle to solve anyway this week. JAMES HUNT was actually my first one in, but that didn’t make it any easier! Had to look up MATSURI and didn’t see the wordplay until I had the answer. Took a good 45 minutes if not longer, but luckily the Times was pretty easy today so managed to finish both on the hour’s commute to Euston.

53. Wow indeed had 4 meetings today and so tried to have a go in between. Was still at it when I got home over 3 hours later didn’t finish. However Aoxomoxoa I totally agree with your comments I too loved Bunthorne almost as much as Auracaria much missed . After all these years all I want to finish an Enigmatist only 3 ever completed. Thank you Enigmatist one day I’ll do it also Flashing sterling work. I must say thank you to my 6 yr old grandson expert on Formula 1 through the years for James Hunt he also knew he was Hunt the Shunt.

54. I found this fiendishly difficult, but I won’t join the chorus of sour grapes from a few above. I’m intrigued, though, that some of you, from your comments, seem to know who future setters will be. Are these published somewhere online?

55. Tom @ 54

    Tramp and Boatman generally post on twitter that they are due in the graun, and Enigmatist did the same for this one. However his appearances are so infrequent I can’t tell yet whether this is a regular thing!

    hth

56. Had in invoke my 24 hour rule for this. I was with the majority or if I am honest in the rear getting only about 10 before bedtime. Seems Enigmatist uses several techniques I don’t see elsewhere. In particular the construction of second hand anagrams,, where one has to solve mini clues to get the words for the anagram. Is ts within the rules?

57. Gave up halfway. Not enjoyable, not witty, clues seemed to be straining after gnats, made crossword solving seem a pointless exercise.

58. It was a hard puzzle, which I like and am entitled to have every so often.

    You can’t have Rufus every day. There was nothing unfair in there, although I thought MATSURI’s clue was a little bit of a stretch.

    And as for Boatman, I wouldn’t put him in the same street as Enigmatist. More from this setter please.

59. This one was for the few. Not for me.

60. Simon S @55
    Ah-ha. I follow Qaos and Paul on Twitter, but had no idea the others were on. I feel a Twitter list coming on

61. Thanks flashling and Enigmatist. Only started this yesterday, so no surprise I’m late to the party. Agreed, very tough, but mostly gettable. I couldn’t parse MATSURI, like some others, and was misled by thoughts of race courses, etc, to enter BIG RACE instead of BIG GAME. A fair cop, guv. I have some sympathy with those who found this puzzle too cruel – but I also think that crosswordland would be much duller without the occasional mindbender. Well done to both S and B.

62. This was on the kitchen table for three days and had finally to be taken at bayonet point. Interesting to be acqainted with the ultima thule of one’s intelligence. Ouch.

63. I like to do the crossword without any outside help, could not finish this (Matsuri), and got 3 others wrong. Hardest for me for ages and each answer like drawing teeth BUT it’s bearable from time to time and certainly makes you think! Definitely one for the weekend in my opinion.

64. Thanks Enigmatist and flashling

    Nearly a record late post. I never give up on a crossword – it just gets carried around until inspiration finally hits. This one was a pretty ragged copy by the time I finally penned in an unparsed GUINEA (in preference to Ruanda) at 22d in the wee small hours of last Thursday morning !! There had been about a half dozen unresolved up until that point and a few that I initially had wrong answers for (CUSHTY, INRUSHINGS and BIG GAME). Only two unparsed before coming here – INRUSHING being the other.

    Hard yes … but bloody satisfying to finally get it done !!

    Know that only flashling and Geoff will be alerted to this, but the NULLA NULLA is just as well known as a WADDY down here – and doubt whether one had been used for many a year now!!

65. @bruce well done, I went to Australia soon after this, but didn’t see a nulla nulla or hit with one, I think, did manage to break a rib which made the flight back fun.

Comments are closed.