I really enjoyed this puzzle, which turned out to be more straightforward than it looked at first, because the long answers went in almost immediately, from the enumerations. Parsing them was fun, though, and there were lots of smiles and ‘ahas’ of admiration at clever cluing and story-telling surfaces along the way. Thanks, Paul.
[Publishing difficulties on Wednesday unfortunately delayed the appearance of the stunning puzzle [and, consequently, the blog] in the FT by Io {Enigmatist}. http://im.ft-static.com/content/images/6f95b52a-6b5b-11e4-9337-00144feabdc0.pdf If you have not already done so, I beg you to have a go at it – and then read the blog, in case you’ve missed something. I would hate you to miss the puzzle itself – it’s actually one for Guardian solvers.]
Across
1 Spring hasn’t begun in rank coastal town (7)
SEAPORT
[l]EAP [spring] in SORT [rank]
5 Sample tea, short of a brew (4,3)
TEST OUT
TE[a] + STOUT [brew]
9 Sally online? Fit! (5)
EQUIP
A sally online could be said to be an E-QUIP
10 Reason criminal on trial, a crime, ultimately! (9)
RATIONALE
Anagram [criminal] of ON TRIAL A [crim]E
11 Move precariously around vehicle that’s four feet long (10)
TETRAMETER
TEETER [move precariously] round TRAM [vehicle] – one of my favourite clues
An example of a poem in iambic tetrameters is
‘I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree…’
12 Sweet sucker (4)
FOOL
Double definition
14 Ridiculous extremes disco and rap: doubly hard to play instruments (12)
HARPSICHORDS
Anagram [to play] of R[idiculou]S DISCO and RAP + HH [doubly hard]
18 Enemy capturing the remainder of Derbyshire initially, then an area of Gloucestershire (6,2,4)
FOREST OF DEAN
FOE [enemy] round REST OF D [remainder of Derbyshire initially] + AN
21,6 Here, private views prisoner stealing military vehicle, heading off with mum (4,4)
PEEP SHOW
POW [prisoner – of war] round [j]EEP [military vehicle heading off] + SH [mum]
22 The monster’s wobbly bottom (10)
NETHERMOST
Anagram [wobbly] of THE MONSTER
25,27,7 Booty trafficker, half slippery, geezer almost getting nicked — what’s his explanation? (2,4,3,3,4,2,1,5)
IT FELL OFF THE BACK OF A LORRY
An &littish anagram [slippery] of BOOTY TRAFFICKER HALF round FELLO[w] [geezer almost]
28,26 A sizzler, artist producing blurred lines? (7,5)
STREAKY BACON
Cryptic definition, referring to artist Francis Bacon
Down
2 Urban capital in a metropolis showing keenness (6)
ACUITY
U [Urban capital] in A CITY [a metropolis]
3 There’s been a minor accident as mess turns up on platform, ending in delay (4-1-5)
OOPS-A-DAISY
Reversal [turns up] of AS POO [as mess] + DAIS [platform] + [dela]Y
4,1,5 The dessert wine with the hot liquid is drunk (5,6,2,3,4)
THREE SHEETS TO THE WIND
Another clever anagram [liquid] of THE DESSERT WINE + THE HOT
This is the expression I’m familiar with but Brewer’s explanation gives ‘Three sheets in the wind’,. quoting Dickens’ ‘Dombey and Son’. [Chambers gives both.] From Brewer: ‘The sheet is the rope attached to the clew of a sail use for trimming sail. If the sheet is quite free, leaving the sail free to flap without restraint, the sheet is said to be ‘in the wind’ and ‘a sheet in the wind’ is a colloquial nautical expression for being tipsy. Thus to have ‘three sheets in the wind’ is to be very drunk.’
8 Short of large plants, lock filled with fish (8)
TREELESS
TRESS [lock] round EEL [fish]
13 Where to rest during play? Little time to take a breather, possibly? (7,3)
THEATRE BAR
T [little time] + an anagram [perhaps] of A BREATHER
15 Collection of numbers, piano jingle encapsulating one album’s third (5,4)
PHONE BOOK
P [piano] + HOOK [jingle] round ONE + [al]B[um]
I didn’t know this meaning of ‘hook’ – ‘a catchy phrase’ [Chambers]
16 Reproduced article from newspaper covering publicity at home (8)
OFFPRINT
OF FT [from Financial Times – newspaper] round PR [publicity] + IN [at home]
17 Putting price on feeding information gratis, not right (5,3)
GREEN FEE
RE [on] in [feeding] GEN [information] + F[r]EE [gratis minus right]
19 Barbarian arresting head of conspiracy with a “You’re nicked!” (6)
GOTCHA
GOTH [barbarian] round C[onspiracy] + A
20 Rotten atmosphere around vessel (6)
STINKY
SKY [atmosphere] round TIN [vessel]
23 Handkerchief under funny, frilly, sleeveless top, fits (5)
HUFFS
Initial letters [top – I think we need a plural here] of Handkerchief Under Funny Frilly Sleeveless
24 Page back to front, which can be irritating (4)
FLEA
LEAF [page] with the last letter moved to the beginning
Thanks Paul and Eileen
I have to disagree with you, Eileen; I dislike long clues solvable from their enumeration alone. I would be very surprised if anyone solved either of these “forwards” – the answer goes in first, then the parsing (if the solver can be bothered – I’m usually sufficiently irritated at that point to simply say “anagram of something” and move on). 4,1,5 did cause a bit of bother as he has used “to” instead of the more familiar” in”, but I have heard both before.
“Artist producing blurred lines” seems the wrong way round for “streaky bacon”.
I did like EQUIP and (grudgingly) GOTCHA.
Hi muffin
My preamble was rather ambiguous: the ‘because’ clause qualifies the second, not the first clause. I, too, would prefer to get the answers from the wordplay. 😉
Thanks Eileen. I rate Paul so highly because of the everpresent fun element and because his clues click in: you know you have the right answer. An excellent example is GREEN FEE, with the aha for the revealed meaning of ‘putting.’. He had this fee is a clue on 24 October so I guess he’s a golfer (I’m not). Can someone explain the streaky bit of 28,26? Hook=jingle: if you say so.
Thanks Eileen and Paul.
Muffin, I differ from you in that it never bothers me which way round I “get” the solution – word play leading to definition, definition first and then work out the wordplay, or even (as in the case of “it fell off…”) just spotting it mostly from the enumeration with a nudge from what the definition might be. Why bother getting hung up on the whys and wherefores – just enjoy the ride!
Hi mitz @4
I agree that I don’t mind which way round I solve either – my point was more that it should be realistically possible to solve in either direction. 4,1,5 is, just about, I suppose, but I don’t think the other one is possible to get “forwards”.
Hi molonglo @3
‘Streaky’ = ‘having blurred lines’?
Have a look at these: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/francis-bacon/paintings/slideshow#/9
Thanks for the explanation of GREEN FEE, Eileen. I got hooked on GRASS FEE, which didn’t really ring any bells.
I agree that “top” should be “tops” in 23d – was this a misprint?
Thanks Eileen – I’m moderately familiar with the artist’s works, and had never thought them ‘streaky.’
Nice puzzle (great to see the poo back!), though one or two niggles – the lorry clue is really rather absurd: more like something in a pub quiz. But it’s at least an expression I knew, as distinct from the (better in my opinion) sheets clues, where even with a 6-letter word to supply and generous checkers I was still trying to work in ‘parts’. I must have been really drunk once to be inventing idioms. Also didn’t think too much of the bacon clue – needed to be slapped straight in the frying pan with the fried bread, I reckon.
GOTCHA was my favourite because that’s exactly what a barbarian would say. I reckon ‘top’ is fine, as in ‘top thereof’. A shout-out to Eileen for unravelling the phone book – and many thanks to the Irrepressible One.
Hi molonglo
That was just a bit of fun – I wasn’t really suggesting the clue was &lit. 😉
I’ve finally looked up ‘streak[y]’: Chambers gives ‘an irregular stripe’ and SOED ‘a thin irregular line of a different colour or substance from that of the material or surface of which it forms a part’, which suggests blurred lines to me.
Thanks Paul and Eileen.
Enjoyed the puzzle, but needed help with some of the parsing. I must admit that, like muffin, with a long clue I don’t always bother with the parsing, I find it too confusing (problem of age).
Favourites TETRAMETER, HARPSICHORDS (parsed) and IT FELL OFF THE BACK OF A LORRY (not parsed).
molonglo @3, an advertising jingle is used to hook customers, hence it is often called a HOOK.
Thanks Paul & Eileen.
I largely agree with Muffin@1. I didn’t really enjoy this and couldn’t get the long clues from the enumeration until I had most of the crossers. I then didn’t try to parse the lorry clue – well done, Eileen. 🙂
Anyway, perhaps my computer enjoyed the solve.
Thanks Paul & Eileen.
My previous post seems to have been removed by some gremlins.
I largely agree with Muffin@1. I didn’t really enjoy the solve and only got the long clues once I had most of the crossers. Thanks Eileen for the parsing of the lorry clue, which I didn’t attempt.
I liked Paul’s trademark poo clue.
Robi has posted twice because his comments were intercepted by the spam filter for some unknown reason.
Sorry for the (almost) duplication. For some reason the posts just disappeared into the ether.
Robi @15, think your computer was playing a joke on you. I once patted the steering wheel of my car saying “you’re a good little car”, and a few seconds later a piece of the engine dropped onto the road.
Thanks Eileen and Paul
An enjoyable puzzle. Favourite clues were 4,1,5 with the choice between liquid and drunk as anagram indicators, and 17d. I also found it fun to parse 25, 27, 7 even though the answer was obvious.
Actually, for the benefit of others, I think the problem was that I didn’t insert a space between Muffin and the ‘at 1’
Thanks both. Much like Eileen, the longer ones went in first and made for a quick solve (for a Paul), but not at the expense of enjoyment.
Muffin @1, allow me to surprise you – I solved both long answers from enumeration. I know what you mean though, often one can be completely stuck on these for ages. Today was my lucky day, I think.
John @19
I’m not quite sure what you are saying – I was making the point that the two long ones were solvable from the enumeration, with only a hint of definition from the clue required.
Ah, I’ve misread you, muffin – apologies.
Good puzzle that fitted in quite smoothly. Liked 19d 9ac. Re the ‘hook’, it should be considered a vocal device. A non vocal ‘jingle’ would be a ‘riff’.
Thanks, Eileen.
Highly entertaining puzzle from Paul, though by no means his most difficult, with pleasantly lavatorial touches.
Like others, I solved the two long answers from the enumeration and a few crossers, and didn’t bother to work out the parsing. But I didn’t feel cheated in this case because 4,1,5 has a respectable surface and 25,27,7 is nicely allusive. The latter was one of my favourites, as it raised a smile.
Favourites were TETRAMETER and GREEN FEE (for their definitions) and OOPS-A-DAISY (nice surface and a snigger).
Eileen quotes the famous first two lines of Joyce Kilmer’s poem in iambic TETRAMETER. Although it is much celebrated, it always seems like doggerel to me. I prefer Ogden Nash’s parody:
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Perhaps, unless the billboards fall
I’ll never see a tree at all.
Hi Gervase
I resisted the [strong] temptation to put inverted commas round ‘poem’. 😉
This was a lot easier than it looked at first glance, though I needed a few crossers as well as the enumeration for both of the long answers. Last in was SEAPORT – I spent far too long trying to think of specific towns – apart from that the SE corner took longest. Plenty to enjoy as always with Paul – liked TETRAMETER and PEEP SHOW.
Thanks to Eileen and Paul.
Thanks Eileen for the blog and to Paul for another amusing puzzle.
An especial thank you to Eileen for pointing me in the direction of the FT tribute puzzle. The rest of you must go and see it, if you haven’t done so already. It’s truly brilliant.
Thanks to Eileen for the blog. There were several cases where I had the right answer but not the parsing.
A small typo in your blog: for 18a you have included ‘an’ in the underlined section but it is actually part of the fodder.
Hi cholecyst
“The rest of you must go and see it…”
That’s exactly how I felt. I put a latish recommendation on this thread on Wednesday and meant to repeat it yesterday but then I didn’t make any comment on the Boatman and forgot.
Don’t be put off by the name: it’s not too fiendish. Just brilliant – and beautiful.
[Thanks, Chas – amended now.]
yes, thanks to Eileen and everyone else both here and on the Guardian site for recommending the Io – not done it yet but I have printed a copy and will take it to the pub tonight…
Very pretty puzzle! I liked the long clues, and they weren’t much effort to parse. Though I did have to count the Fs in 25,27,7 twice to make sure I’d got it right. Geezer almost = fello was a key part of getting the answer for me. Perhaps some of you are just too good at spotting phrases from patterns?
Now this is more like it after yesterday’s horror. I can always depend on Paul. I often get the phrases before parsing the clue and today was no exception. The only niggle was FLEA which I guessed. Thanks for the parsing on that one Eileen- and of course thanks to Paul.
Thanks all
Enjoyable and fairly straightforward, although I failed to parse equip which was last in.
My knowledge of 4,1,5 is solely as to the wind.
Cookie – thanks for the hook=jingle comment!
The crossword by Io in the FT in honour of Araucaria is brilliant. Thank you Eileen and others for pointing it out. Thanks also to Pee Dee for the blog.
Muffin, did you spot the 19d CAMBER 24d WELL butterfly in Araucaria’s puzzle? It did not seem appropriate to point it out that day.
Cookie @34
Missed it – and I used to live there!
My last plea – I promise!
If you’re daunted at the thought of an Io [Enigmatist], please, please, at least look at the blog.
And to support you, Eileen, I will put the link to the puzzle here as a hyperlink. For some reason, in your preamble it isn’t a hyperlink but just a “collection of numbers” …. 🙂
So, as Eileen said, those who haven’t been here should now go here:
http://im.ft-static.com/content/images/6f95b52a-6b5b-11e4-9337-00144feabdc0.pdf
After two days of much discussion, we’re back to normal with a Paul puzzle free of extremities (unless one sees a bottom (and its mess) as an extremity).
Now, think about the fact that Paul (in all his disguises) probably sets about 150 cryptics a year (just a guess), and then look at this crossword, then I cannot else than admire the continuing freshness of his clueing.
The imagery of clues like 21,6 or 3d or 18ac, all of them having nothing to do with the solution as such, is just marvellous. Or at least, storytelling as Eileen calls it.
Despite the ‘mistake’ in 23d, another very enjoyable set of clues.
And we did care to unravel the long ones – how good is 4,1,5? Very!
muffin @34, yes, I remembered you used to live there, and that you had a Camberwell Beauty hitch hiking with you on your rucksack during your holiday last spring in Northern Italy.
In the week that I deliberately saved Araucaria’s puzzle for revered weekend savouring, as I pointed out on that day’s blog (carefully only posting my delight and not reading blog or comments) how irritating that cookie@34 should choose to comment on it. I understood that one should avoid giving solutions to other puzzles in this forum. I am certain many other Araucaria lovers have also chosen to save his unfinished symphony to enjoy over the weekend and will also have been upset by this. Far better to add the comment to the relevant blog and then refer folk to it in the current one, surely?
Ironically, on solving the LORRY clue (incidentally, by solving, and enjoying, the anagram not from enumeration/crossers) I immediately thought of the great monkey puzzler’s Old Vicarage at Grantham clue!
Indeed, Paul is a very special talent!
Many thanks to Eileen (and Sil@3) for the Io link (does Gaufrid – or anyone – know whether it will/has appeared in print?)
I shall probably save the FT Io for later enjoyment. Sometimes one can be too busy during the week to attempt more than one of that day’s puzzles (I generally ‘do’ the Guardian, Indy and Times) and I usually refrain from fifteensquared until I’ve fully solved the crossword. So I hope it won’t be spoilt by someone revealing solutions other than in appropriate place!
Since above posts have taken a walk and a bath. So in a better mood to sit down with a coffee to enjoy the anticipated pleasure of the Araucaria (had felt like a child awaiting Christmas). It fell rather more quickly than I had hoped. But I am pleased to report that my enjoyment was neither spoilt, nor spoiled, by spoilers….
William F P, I am very sorry that that I spoiled your pleasure. No one seemed that interested in the actual butterflies mentioned on that special day, and I did not like to point out the CAMBER WELL butterfly as it could have been a coincidence. Please forgive me. Thank you for telling me about how to go about it another time, I am new to the procedures here.
William F P, do you think I should ask Gaufrid to delete @34, @35 (am sure muffin would not object), @38, @42 (since I mention the butterfly) and this post. Also perhaps your comment at @39, you will see why when you do the Io crossword.
I hope it is clear from my post @41 that my pleasure was not diminished as it turned out. I made that comment to ensure I’d laid no ‘guilt trip’ upon you. When I first saw the solutions given to a puzzle I’d not yet attempted I was upset I confess, particularly given the self-control I’d exercised in saving it. I had no intention of upsetting anyone. My comment at 39 references a well known John Graham clue and not the Io puzzle which I’d not seen. I have now. As it happens, my memory was at fault – Grantham, though sharing a prime syllable, is not the place in that famous long anagram (was it not the birthplace of a certain Lady – it must reside in the same dark corner of my memory, reserved for charlatans and malefactors, where also lurks that ennobled “author” of scant repute?!) I should mention in passing that I enjoy your contributions here – you’re probably an even sweeter person than am I ! I hope neither of us is reduced by our colloquy – a happenstance, no doubt, of good karma! Take care. Warmly….
I am bound to iterate my thanks to Eileen for pointing out the Io puzzle (I rarely ‘do’ the FT so would have missed it) It also turned out to be worthwhile – and poignant. I have yet to visit the blog (am about to return to Hypnos’ embrace for a couple – or several?- hours) but will do so later.
William F P, thank you for your post. I left a note for Gaufrid on the site feedback last night. I don’t think I would have made such a boob with another puzzle. Araucaria’s was such a special one that I felt it could be commented on anywhere and at any time in the future, but unfortunately had overlooked the fact that some people would have left it until the weekend. (I hope I will not rest in that dark corner of your memory.)
Cookie – many thanks. And fear not, your spot is in that expansive area where the sun is most definitely shining!
And Eileen – you may be interested by the inaccurate ways that famous Araucarian clue was reported in the Guardian following his passing (though you may well have noticed at the time). If so, please see my post of this morning on the Io blog. I cannot supply a link but I had kept a copy of that day’s paper out of respect for the great man.
William F P
I kept the paper, too, and see that there are, in fact, two different versions on page 3 and a third in the obituary! [I don’t remember noticing at the time.]
As with all with all we hold dear, I guess we love the Guardian not so much in spite of its faults but because of them!
Eileen, I am so sorry to have been so stupid on your blog. I should have thought of some clue that only muffin could solve to get my message across. It would have been rather difficult since he had posted a message about his holiday in Northern Italy in reference to butterflies not long ago, and I think many people would have remembered it. I did not want to point out the butterfly on Andrew’s blog as it could have been fortuitous.
I had hoped Gaufrid would have been able to delete 34@, but my faux pas will perhaps serve as a reminder to others.
Thank you Eileen both for this Paul (my favourite setter) blog and especially for the recommendation to try the Wednesday crossword by IO in the FT. What an amazing tribute to Araucaria. I certainly needed Pee Dee’s blog to understand the wit and elegance of the clueing. What a story!
Cookie @50
Apologies for the delayed reply – busy weekend.
I really don’t think any further apologies are necessary. There is nothing unusual here about comments made on previous days’ puzzles. I’m sure that I and many others have done the same, without a thought.
As you say @43, the ultimate irony is William’s unwitting comment on the ‘Grantchester’ clue – before he’d done the Io puzzle!
I do not seek an argument (as I hope is clear from my consistent good manners, I trust) but any suggestion that it is acceptable to post comments on other puzzles clearly infringes site policy (item 3). My comment on the Grantchester clue does not reference the Io puzzle so would not have ruined the experience for any saving it. I hoped I had approached this delicately without ending up as the object of an, albeit subtle, incorrect reproach. I have always considered fifteensquared to be a (rare) warm, thoughtful and kindly corner of cyberspace. But it has brought me sadness on two of the last three mornings. Perhaps I should desist from visiting in future.
:’-C
Dear William, please keep on with the puzzles for Araucaria’s sake. My mistake in posting a comment on his puzzle only arose because it was an in memorium tribute, and thus it seemed alright to mention it anywhere and at any time after the first day of publication (my error, I should have waited until after the weekend).
P.S. I, too, had thought it better if I never visited the site again, not for the same reason as you, but because I always seem to be causing trouble and I was very sad.
William F P and Cookie – I hope I’m not the only one who thinks that this would be a less interesting place without you, so please don’t stop posting. I’m sure I have broken the unwritten rule about mentioning previous puzzles on occasion due to coincidental clues etc.
Thanks, Eileen and Paul. I get behind in the crosswords sometimes so come here long after the fact and even though it’s too late to comment I do appreciate the blog to explain the ones I’ve missed, so genuine thanks.
But my main reason for resurrecting this so long afterwards (for which, apologies) is to thank you for the tip about the FT tribute crossword. The most brilliantly accomplished theme ever! Without the here I’d have missed it, and that would have been a pity.