This was a tricky and sometimes frustrating solve, but with plenty of cleverness to enjoy along the, ahem, way. Quite a few answers were filled in from crossers + definition and parsed afterwards, 4ac was a new word and my last in. Favourites were 19ac/dn, 8dn and 21 dn.
| Across | ||
| 1 | REALLY |
Truly the young American way (6)
=”Truly”; =”the young American way”, “way” being [originally US] slang for very/really e.g. “way good”
|
| 4 | BRAN-PIE |
Find the odd bargain: a prize from the lucky dip (4-3)
=”the lucky dip”, a tub of bran from which things are drawn. Found in the “odd” letters of “BaRgAiN a PrIzE“
|
| 9 | STONE YARD |
Where a mason works, reflectively? Yes, no two ways about it (5,4)
=”Where a mason works”. AYE=”Yes” plus NO, both reversed (“reflectively”) and all inside ST[reet] and R[oa]D=”two ways about it”
|
| 10 | RACED |
Quickly went to number one midway (5)
=”Quickly went”. ACE=”number one”, in the middle of R[oa]D hence “mid-way”
|
| 11 | EVOKE |
Paint picture of Kiev (O’Keeffe abstract) (5)
=”Paint picture of”. Taken (i.e. abstracted) from “KiEV O’KEeffe”
|
| 12 | NOONTIDES |
Spinning, intends to take a pair every lunchtime (9)
=”every lunchtime”. (intends)* around a “pair” of zeroes OO – pair is a cricketing term for being out for 0 twice.
|
| 13 | TUMBLER |
Vessel in lock: it must be moved to open gate (7)
=”Vessel”, a drinking glass; =”in lock: it must be moved to open gate”, the part of the lock that holds the bolt.
|
| 15 | MORBID |
Gloomy in a big way: the world and its end? (6)
=”Gloomy”. I think this is ORB=”world” in MI[le]=”a big way”, plus [worl]D=”it’s [world’s] end” – Edit: I prefer PeterO’s suggestion that MI=M1, the motorway
|
| 17 | AVENUE |
A place to meet on the way (6)
=”way”. A plus VENUE=”place to meet”
|
| 19 | AWFULLY |
Very congested freeway on outskirts (7)
=”Very”. FULL=”congested”, with (way)*=”free-way” on its outskirts
|
| 22 | INSWINGER |
Tricky delivery as victory sign removed outside (9)
=”Tricky delivery” in cricket. WIN=”victory”, with (sign re)*=”sign re -moved” outside
|
| 24 | ROUND |
Song of a robin? (5)
=”Song”; a robin can be ROUND if it’s a ’round robin’
|
| 26 | EAVES |
First lady keeping one small step from the gutter here (5)
=”gutter here”. EVE=”First lady” keeping A=”one” plus S[tep]=”small step”
|
| 27 | INANIMATE |
Lifeless, in a bad way? Maintain cheery heart (9)
=”Lifeless”. (Maintain)* plus one of the E’s found in the heart of “cheery”
|
| 28 | STRETCH |
Way of life, an extreme example? (7)
=”Way of life” – a spell of time (in prison?); =”an extreme example” or exaggeration
|
| 29 | EGRESS |
Degenerate leader is out … way out (6)
=”way out”. [r]EGRESS=”Degenerate” as a verb, with the leading r taken out
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | RESPECT |
Way of honour (7)
=”Way” – ‘in that respect’/’in that way’; =”honour”
|
| 2 | A GOGO |
Anticipating love without limit (1 4)
=”without limit”. AGOG=”Anticipating” plus O=”love”
|
| 3 | LLEWELLYN |
Put boot in guts of challenger to one of the Welsh princes (9)
The name of several Welsh princes. WELLY=”boot” in [cha]LLEN[ger]
|
| 4 | BAD FORM |
Clue from error in social ways (3,4)
=”error in social ways”. A cryptic clue for “from” might be BAD FORM i.e. (form)*
|
| 5 | AFRIT |
If art form can be puzzling, his was (5)
A crossword compiler [wiki] for whom “puzzling” was indeed an art form. (If art)*
|
| 6 | PACK DRILL |
Punishment for soldiers‘ medic after squad gets in a bad way (4,5)
A punishment where soldiers must march carrying all of their equipment. DR=”medic” after PACK=”squad” plus ILL=”in a bad way”
|
| 7 | ELDEST |
First in line? Last in line? First in line? In short, the end of the line (6)
=”First in line”. [lin]E=”Last in line” plus L[ine]=”First in line” plus DEST[iny]=”in short, the end of the line” – more likely DEST[ination], thanks again PeterO
|
| 8 | MANNER |
Say “hallway“! (6)
=”way”. Sounds like ‘manor’=”hall”
|
| 14 | MOVES OVER |
Gives way to medic so immersed in vitality, right to the end (5,4)
=”Gives way”. M[edical] O[fficer]=”medic”, plus SO inside all of V[itality] plus EVER=”right to the end” – or MO, plus SO inside VERVE=”vitality” with r[ight] moved “to the end”, thanks molonglo
|
| 16 | REFORMING |
Acting loudly, turning heads, changing … (9)
=”changing”. perFORMING=”Acting” – without P[iano]=quiet, so “loudly”, turning its remaining heads [er] around to make REFORMING
|
| 18 | ENGLISH |
… shingle found between Cornwall and Cumbria (7)
=”found between Cornwall and Cumbria”. (shingle)*, with the anagrind “changing” borrowed from the previous clue.
|
| 19 | ABROAD |
Boatman on the way across the sea (6)
=”across the sea”. A[ble]-B[odied seaman]=”Boatman”, on ROAD=”way”
|
| 20 | YODLERS |
They claim to sing badly — Lord, yes! (7)
=”They claim to sing”. (Lord yes)*
|
| 21 | MINERS |
Men found underground cathedrals? No way! (6)
=”Men found underground”. MIN[st]ERS=”cathedrals”, minus ST[reet] hence “no way”
|
| 23 | INSET |
Sharp ends of iron needles, stitching elegantly threaded gusset (5)
=”gusset”. The (sharp) ends of I[ron] N[eedles] S[titching] E[legantly] T[hreaded]
|
| 25 | USAGE |
Way to cut two slices off salami? (5)
=”Way”, a method of use. [sa]USAGE=”cut two slices off salami”
|
Thanks manehi – and Boatman for a solve that took quite a effort to complete.
4A was unfamiliar to me, so I put in BRAN in the hope of finding some justification for the second part to be TUB, rather than the PIE which was staring me in the face.
A couple of alternate readings: In 15A MORBID I took the MI – or rather M1 – as being the motorway; and in 7D ELDEST I thought that DEST was more likely to be an abbreviation for DEST[ination].
Thanks manehi. Agree with your comments and I too ended with 4A. AFRIT (I learned today) was an iconic crossword compiler. I had for 14D MO with SO inside VERVE (vitality) with R shifted to end. Generally I found the clues tiresome in a variety of ways, simply not clicking in – examples REALLY, TUMBLER. MORBID, EAVES etc.
Re 15A, DEST could be short for ‘destruction’
Thanks PeterO and molonglo: I like your suggestions re: 15ac, 7dn, 14dn – will edit the blog accordingly.
Thanks manehi and Boatman
In 23d I do not see the word sharp as being redundant.
In nautical slang, “sharp (or pointy) end” refers to the bow (or front end) of a ship. So I took “sharp ends” to be an indicator to take the front end of the words that followed. It is Boatman, remember.
I’m afraid I didn’t enjoy this and gave up before it was half done. I’m not keen on crosswords that employ different applications of the same word throughout the clues, mostly becuase I’m racking by brains for usages of the same word over and over again, and it becomes tiresome. I’ll give them ago, though, but the repetitive way(!) of this crossword, coupled with its general trickiness (to my mind) didn’t help.
Is AFRIT a fair solution? I’m not sure, I normally think that compiler’s names, which might not be familiar to those new to a paper’s puzzles, might not be “general knowledge” enough to be fair – though in this case I think it’s quite obvious from the wordplay.
Worst crossword for a long time. Too convoluted to be enjoyable. This is a boat(man) I give miss in future
Trickier than the usual Guardian fare indeed but certainly full of excellent things. (What with this and the Enigmatist puzzle last week I’ve been getting some more taxing workouts than I’m used to , and I think on balance this was a good thing!)
I got stuck on STONE YARD, having become fixated on STONE COLD. I didn’t know OO for “pair” and had never heard of an INSWINGER, so with the wordplay being also abstruse it went in unparsed. I also didn’t twig “loudly” as meaning “minus P” until I came here, so a bit of a poor showing for me really. I *did* know AFRIT but I can imagine many others throwing their pen across the room for that one.
I thought 28A might have been a triple def: way, life, extreme example.
Sorry to say, but I agree with pex
I thought it was a fair workout but maybe more fitting as a Sat Prize- I didnt know 5d as a setter but as a demon which can amount to the same thing.
I had better complete the secret handhake to submit this, being from t’other side.
I enjoyed this a lot, although I do still wonder at some of his tricksy little extras – e.g. “loudly” for “not p” in 16d (REFORMING) – he could so easily have said “not quietly” or “less quietly” (and there are lots of other possibilities, perhaps even just a question mark could have worked) so I don’t really see the point of it. It makes it harder, but at quite a cost. The problem for the solver is that while “not quietly” could conceivably, rather poetically, mean the same as “loudly”, “loudly” surely always means more than simply “not piano”. There are a lot of volume levels between F and P! I suppose it’s basically a mischievous joke at our expense. But his occasional outrages shouldn’t detract from the fact that so many of the clues are both very inventive and rock solid, from any point of view. I thought the hardest to parse was 1a (REALLY)- a simple, brilliant device that took me ages to spot. It’s, like, way clever…
PS. Come to think of it I suppose what didn’t like about “loudly” might have been the indirectness – perhaps I’d have been happy with “loudly” literally standing for “not quietly”, but “loudly” for “drop the p” is asking rather more. There was certainly something uncomfortable about it!
Something of a curate’s egg for me. I liked 3d and 13a, but could we go easy on the more arcane cricketing terminology in future? Gone are the days when the typical solver could be expected to know this stuff. 22a is fair enough as the cricket allusion is indicated, but OO in 12a is out of bounds in my view. Also problematic was 27a, where the heart of CHEERY in any sane universe would be EE or possibly HEER.
Thanks Boatman and manehi
Poc @ 13, Boatman has posted on the graun site, to someone who made the same point: “Actually, you’re right about 27 – I had a much fairer version in my first draft (X of Y, if you see what I mean) but strained the wordplay more than I intended in order to shorten the clue and save a line in the print edition. “
Thanks, SS – I was just about the acknowledge the same thing here. “Heart of cheer” it was originally, and not improved in the editing. You might be surprised by how much work goes into shortening the clues to fit the print edition – in most cases, the results are better and fairer for being more concise, but not always.
Happy Thanksgiving, to the other USAnians who do this. This puzzle was difficult. There were several clues that I entered not understanding the wordplay; I didn’t know Afrit, inswinger, or bran-pie at all. Indeed, with “inswinger,” as soon as I realized that I was supposed to know the specific name of a type of cricket delivery, I knew that one would be hopeless.
The baseball equivalents would be clues for things like “cutter,” “slurve” or “eephus,” which are all types of baseball pitches–and are the kinds of words that only afficionados of the game actually know, unlike, say, curveball (which every American has heard of).
Having said that, odds are good that some setter will read this and put “eephus” into a crossword.
Anyway, it makes a nice relief to do a crossword on Thanksgiving Day that doesn’t involve turkey, cranberries, pilgrims, or Norman Rockwell.
Thanks Boatman, I found a tricky way to solve it.
Thanks manehi; maybe ‘loudly’ meaning ‘not p’ is a bridge too far. I once put ‘left’ meaning ‘not R’ and was roundly criticised for it. I would expect to spell YODLER as yodeller, but both are in Chambers, so fair enough. I thought the ‘young American way’ would have been y + a name for an American road, so totally misled there. I’ve seen the TUMBLER vessel/lock trick recently somewhere, so that didn’t cause any problem.
I was another BRAN-tub, although it didn’t parse, never heard of the pie. I liked the salami saUSAGE and the AWFULLY nice clue.
mrpenney @16, Happy Thanksgiving. They only served us bran-pie here, guess all the pumpkins were used up at Halloween.
Thank you manehi for explaining 1a, 10a, 22a.
4a: I think bran-pie is a bit naughty. A quick search suggests that it has not been used in the bran-tub sense for many years.
6d: Is there an explanation for soldiers’ having the apostrophe?
As others have said, this puzzle had a lot of clever stuff in it as you would expect, but it might have been more suitable for a Saturday than as an entertainment on a commuter train. (But that’s the editor’s fault, not Boatman’s.)
Hi David @19; I think the apostrophe is only there for the surface i.e. soldiers’ medic
A ‘way’ terrible dose of compileritis. I can’t give examples because it would be a total reblog. Awful.
Had to give up doing this on paper due to (i) my pen running out and (ii) the impending end of my lunch break, and was only able to finish it with a bit of guess-and-check online, and there were still a couple I couldn’t parse, notably INSWINGER. For me this was almost as difficult as the recent Enigmatists. BRAN PIE and AFRIT were a bit too obscure for my liking, but both were gettable from straightforward wordplay. Last in was USAGE but I should have seen that earlier. Liked ENGLISH and BAD FORM.
Thanks to manehi and Boatman
David – I’m surprised you were the only one to question BRAN-PIE! I wouldn’t want to see more than one word as obscure as that in any one puzzle, but when you come across a really interesting old term it can be hard to resist – the wordplay has to be clear and self-checking, though. You may be amused to learn that this was the result of a late change to allow AFRIT in place of a word that had appeared in another puzzle already this week … now, there’s an interesting challenge for you …
Oh, and Robi is right about the apostrophe helping the surface reading, and it’s also an attempt at misdirection – it only looks strange after you’ve correctly parsed the clue, but until then I’m expecting your brain to be feeding you false leads along the lines of “soldiers’ medic = MO”.
BRAN TUB was firmly entered early on and, later, caused no end of problems. Yes, I know it doesn’t parse, but it does fit the definition. Eventually Mrs T was called on to perform the check function from this blog and this last recalcitrant corner became solved, but not without trouble.
Any idea why A GOGO is clued (1 4) without a comma?
I notice that Afrit had a certain reputation, according to Wikipaedia:
“For the Listener he compiled 127 crosswords from 1932 to 1948. These were usually impossibly difficult, often securing no correct entries.”
Let’s hope that’s no seen as a challenge to certain setters …
Wow! As hard as they come; but we did finish it with a bit of a struggle, and it left us feeling quite smug. We thought “really” at 1ac as hard as any. Uncomfortable with our (correct) parsing of 7d; Objected to use of just one “e” in 27ac. These quibbles rather spoilt some of the lovely clues.
Thanks Boatman @23 for your comment. No offence meant!
Trailman @24 makes a good point. A prize puzzle which secures no correct entries is a bargain for the organisers. But does it represent a good puzzle, or a failure by the setter to understand his market and to tailor his product accordingly?
Thanks Boatman @23 for your comment. No offence meant!
Trailman @24 makes a good point. A prize puzzle which secures no correct entries is a bargain for the organisers. But should the setter to be congratulated on a good puzzle, or criticised for failing to understand his market and to tailor his product accordingly?
Sorry about the near duplication.
Thanks Boatman and manehi
I found this a struggle, particularly in the SE. There are several I questioned as I was solving. I’m not sure if I understand REALLY still, never heard of BRAN PIE, never heard of AFRIT, why “Cumbria” rather than “Northumberland” in 18d? (would make more sense).
One no-one has mentioned is “manor” = “hall”. The manor is the entire property, with the hall being the manor HOUSE.
Favourite was EGRESS for the misleading “degenerate”.
Thanks, manehi.
Came to this late today, and found it very tricky, with some answers (16d and the cricketing ones!) left unparsed. I posited REALLY/RESPECT quite early for 1a/d but being very unsure of the parsings I didn’t put them in until I had confirmed all the crossers (which took a while). And of course I tried to make 4a into BRAN TUB, eventually resorting to a word search to find the solution. Duh!
I liked MORBID, AWFULLY, LLEWELLYN (FOI!), ELDEST and USAGE.
Unlike John Appleton @6, I really enjoy puzzles which use as many meanings as possible of a particular word common to many of the clues – it’s my favourite type of ‘thematic’, in fact.
Thanks to Boatman for dropping by, and for explaining how the unfortunate 27a came about.
I’m with pex and Peter and hedgehoggy.
Obscurities, anachronisms, indirect cluing a gogo, too many to itemise.
Far too concerned with being clever about the theme than with providing a fair test.
Fully half the answers had to be arrived at by working back from crossers.
“Acting loudly” takes the biscuit for this.
Sorry, Boatman, not at all to my taste.
Hmmm. All very curious. How we differ that is. I’d never heard of BRAN-PIE either, but it was my first in. I mean, come on guys, if you see the word “oddly” don’t you automatically start looking at the following odd letters? And lo, there are two words that fit (4-3), so in it goes!
BRAN PIE was my FOI too……….but only after wasting a lot of time trying to justify TUB.
It’s a shame BRAN PIE is quite so obscure, otherwise we’d be praising Boatman for his misdirection. But I think we should anyway.
Thanks Boatman and manehi.
Started this in the morning, then left off to finish “at leisure” in the evening!
Put in BRAN tub, then 6d tACK DRILL then got stuck. Finally found PIE and put it in thinking it must be one of the prizes (there are recipes for BRAN PIE on the web, but they don’t look very appetising).
AFRIT link, laughed at Ritchie exhausting the names of his staff at Wells Cathedral School, then resorting to those of his sixth form so as to be able to keep on entering for the prize crosswords. My mother and her sisters would post their entries to competitions by the last possible post so that they were on top of the pile; they often won.
A while ago I muttered a bit about James Hunt being used as the theme for a crossword, with the clue being “Driver – and two things he won’t like when touring Spain”. (Jam, Shunt around E.) I was roundly disagreed with, which is fine. Afrit in contrast I find perfectly fair (though Google had to tell me why). The wordplay is obvious, and the name is also a word you can recognize without knowing why the answer is right.
Enjoyed this a lot, but needed the blog to explain why pair = OO — thanks, Boatman and Manehi! And happy turkey day, those of you on this side of the pond!
I would normally be with John Appleton @ 6, finding the repetition of the same word in almost every clue off-putting – but not today. I didn’t even notice it till I came to this site!
Thanks maheni for the explanation to some several few I couldn’t see.
Pex, much too y for me too.
Well, I like a challenge and eventually completed all but four answers. But some were really tricky (including REALLY). I also thought AFRIT was a bit unfair, but generally it was a great workout. Thanks to Boatman (and thanks to him to visiting this forum – relatively rare among setters) and manehi.
Well I enjoyed this. Although it was difficult it did finally succumb as “most” of the cluing was fair.
I’d never heard of BRAN PIE but the wordplay was obvious. (Eventually 😉 )
My only complaint, which is echoed above is that “loudly” for “not p” is definitely a bridge too far in my opinion. Although I did eventually see that the answer came from PERFORMING I entered REFORMING without finally parsing the removal of the “P”. (I still think that “loudly” doesn’t indicate without or remove p. In fact “loudly” isn’t actually equivalent to “not softly” if one is to be strictly accurate.)
Anyway thanks to manehi and Boatman
muffin @29
I’m glad someone else wondered at Cumbria in 18d (ENGLISH). Looking at the map, I think everything between Cornwall and Cumbria that isn’t sea is actually WELSH, not English!
Herb @41
Have you come across the old quiz question “If you fly a direct line from John’o Groats to Lands End, how many English counties do you fly over?”
Answer later, if required!
I enjoyed this. Yes, there were some tough clue I wouldn’t have been able to solve “cold”, but it all came together as the grid filled in, which is surely how it ought to be. Thanks manehi for the blog and Boatman for the puzzle and comments.
@42
Just off to bed. The answer is one (Cornwall).
The worst Guardian crossword I’ve ever attempted . Deliberately obscure and badly clued in too many places to go into here. I’ve never heard of BRAN PIE and I don’t understand MANNER, neither of which I’d have got without the cheat button. I doubt I’ll even attempt anything by this compiler again!
Oh dear, found this absolutely horrible. Got a few in the NW corner but lost interest when “bran tub” wasn’t going to fit. Never heard of a BRAN PIE. Also not interested in what sundry dictionaries have to say – YODLER looks completely wrong.
AFRIT rings the vaguest of bells but a few months ago Kathryn’s Dad used the memorable phrase of “self referential bollocks” for clues referring to the names of other setters. I agree.
Tonight, our local Waitrose café (free coffee, ya know), so no access to aides whatsoever (as far as I know they don’t do WiFi) and …. we finished it, faultless.
It took about 90 minutes which included talking about work and Arauacaria and yesterday’s Guardian and John Henderson’s even more moving tribute in the FT.
Not that we could fully parse every single entry.
No idea what 1ac was about.
OO is a pair, yes but AA is too.
I knew the word AFRIT and it was an obvious anagram but using it for a setter’s name, well, that was a step too far for us and probably most other solvers.
REFORMING (16ac) – thanks manehi for explaining it. With hindsight I like it, but fair? Not sure.
A pity of the mistake in 27ac. However, it didn’t prevent us from getting it. The post @15 made things clear enough.
The shingle/English anagram is a familiar one but the definition here is hardly acceptable and not only the reasons mentioned above by others. So, English is something found between Cornwall and Cumbria? Minehead is also found between Cornwall and Cumbria.
A lot of split-ups today (hall/way, re/moved, free/way, perhaps mid/way), surely too many to hedgehoggy’s taste (@21).
I am also not very keen on an overdose of these things but as a Guardian solver you get used to it, i.e. accepting it.
We thought, all in all it was a clever crossword, certainly not middle of the road, sometimes even like driving too closely to the soft verge.
I am with Gervase in wondering why 2d is clued as (1 4) instead of (1,4).
I am also with John Appleton @4 when he says: “I’m not keen on crosswords that employ different applications of the same word throughout the clues, mostly because I’m racking by brains for usages of the same word over and over again, and it becomes tiresome”.
Still, it’s clever.
From the clumsily worded 4d to the inventive 7d.
Enjoyable? Yes but in the first half of our 90 minute session it didn’t feel like that.
Thanks manehi, thanks Boatman.
Just one more thing.
Until my 40th+ I played football, week in week out, in the Netherlands where I then lived.
The (English) word INSWINGER is a very common one in my native country. When you put a ball inside the box curving towards the goal, it’s called an inswinger.
An example of an English word that is used abroad but not familiar to British people.
It’s not the first time I came across a thing like this when solving crosswords.
Sil, I’m not sure I understand some of your complaints.
Firstly a pair is a cricketting term referring to when a batsman score zero in both innings. So it’s two zeros i.e. OO
AFRIT isn’t “used” as a setter’s name, it IS a setter’s name and a very famous one at that.
Surely (1 4) is the correct description for A GOGO as it’s not two distinct words?
Finally, surely in the first half of attempting a puzzle the solver id often “in the dark”. Once a few clues are entered then things become more clear. (I actually enjoy this period of uncertainty more than the final solve!)
Brendan.
Re OO, I am only explaining why we didn’t get it.
Why should a solver be familiar with these cricket terms?
Never seen it being used in a crossword before.
We were more thinking of a pair of glasses …. 🙂
Re AFRIT, I have never heard of AFRIT as a setter and, I fear, the majority of daily solvers hasn’t either. Now, that is of course due to my lack of knowledge in this particular area.
Not sure about your view on A GOGO.
A thing like A PRIORI (which is similar) is always clued as 1,6 as, in my opinion, it should be.
Yes, you’re right, we (Beth & I) grew into this puzzle.
And finishing it today after a difficult start, was rewarding.
O is a duck. You were out in the first innings for zero. OO is a pair: you were also out for zero in the second innings. So you have scored a pair, not of ducks, but of OO = (a vague representation of) spectacles, so there you go.
Slightly surprised that this has attracted so many unenthusiastic reactions. It was a challenge, just right for an hourlong late ferry journey (appropriately enough), and I enjoyed it very much. More of the same please, Boatman.
Typically, the theme was ‘way’ beyond me.
Hi all. Can someone explain something to me please? I understand that Arauacaria is pretty much considered God by most solvers, and not without reason, but why are so many solvers so intolerant of a setter with a different style? I have never been able to do The Rev’s puzzles, my mind simply doesn’t work in the same way. Boatman, however, I often finish or come close because I seem to be on the same wavelength. But why people wax lyrical about, for instance Wednesday’s ‘Steamed with fire’ from Big A, but then get quite unpleasantly critical of this (in my view) clever and enjoyable offering from Boatman is beyond me. Makes me wonder if ‘loudly = remove the P’ had been a Rev trick, would it still be a bridge too far, or a work of sublime genius? Why is this a badly clued crossword, any more so than most other Grauniad weekday puzzles, which often stretch one rule or another?
That one was by Philistine, not Araucaria.
I think Hile_troy deserves a more considered response than a one line dismissal. I am one of those who finds Boatman one of the Guardian’s most difficult setters (probably second only to Enigmatist). Although Araucaria was capable of setting really difficult ones, most of his (especially in his later years) were often straightforward and accessible – rather like Paul now they did get easier when you tackled them almost every week. I think I might find Boatman easier if he appeared more often, and I accept that apart from the occasional liberty his crosswords are fair, and I would certainly agree that they are clever, just (and again this is probably just personal taste) not as much fun as some of the other Guardian setters.
“Makes me wonder if ‘loudly = remove the P’ had been a Rev trick, would it still be a bridge too far, or a work of sublime genius? Why is this a badly clued crossword, any more so than most other Grauniad weekday puzzles, which often stretch one rule or another?”
Well, just my opinion, but I think this is one of the worst puzzles I’ve ever seen in a daily paper. The clues are spattered with unfair devices – the clue for PERFORMING is just ridiculous – well done to the blogger for deciphering it. I suppose if people enjoy that sort of thing then it can’t be wrong but it’s rather ironic to see AFRIT’s name being used here: he of the dictum “I must always say what I mean” – something Boatman is palinly not interested in doing.
I always enjoyed Araucaria’s puzzles because although I used to tut to myself at some of the cluing devices, there was generally enough wit and ingenuity in there to make me feel at the end of it that I’d been in the company of a great crossword cluing mind. After a session with Boatman I feel I’ve been mixing with a charlatan.
Thanks Boatman and manehi
Very interesting to see such a varied response to this puzzle. I find Boatman crosswords a real challenge and know that I’ll be in for a serious workout after I start. Maybe that’s why this one was in my backlog pile! Anyway, I got this out for a 2 hour flight from Maroochydore to Melbourne after a 2 week holiday – without aids, it eventually fell out just in time to land.
I found it completely fair even though there were 3 or 4 words that I had to check when the internet became usable again. There were still other clues, such as AFRIT (the setter), WAY (meaning very) and STRETCH (as an extreme), that came from reading the blog. Was so absorbed in getting the answers for each clue that the use of ‘way’ in so many clues completely passed me by – it is something that he does do in his clues from time to time.
Tough – certainly, fair – I reckon so (based on getting it out without aids – the obscure answers were clued so that one was confident of the answer even if the definition was still not entirely clear) and enjoyable – without doubt (how satisfying to finish a challenge like this).
Keep ’em coming I say – well done Boatman!