Guardian 26,613 – Bonxie

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We haven’t seen a lot of Bonxie lately – his last apeparance was in April, after a gap of a year and a half, so it’s perhaps difficult to get a feel for his style. Anyway, I found this quite hard, especially the right-hand side, which stared almost blankly at me for some time. Many of the clues refer to various pop groups, but (fortunately for me) almost no knowledge of their members or works was needed. Thanks to Bonxie.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. SECRET Cloistered society bringing back holy hour (6)
S[ociety] + reverse of TERCE
4. MISSUS The Dutch Girls Aloud? (6)
Homophone of “misses” (girls), “Dutch” meaning “wife”, either as rhyming slang from “Duchess of Fife” or (more likely) just short for “Duchess”
9. ECHO Repeat multiple-choice section (4)
Hidden in multiplE-CHOice
10. PROSTHETIC Peg cheers German man with facial twitch
PROST (German “cheers!”) + HE + TIC
11. RIPSAW After turbulent stretches of water, express disappointment with cutter (6)
RIPS (turbulent water) + AW (expression of disappointment)
12. TAKE ROOT Establish oneself as a Glaswegian hit man? (4,4)
A hit man “takes people out”, so a Glaswegian one might be a “taker oot”
13. UNHEARD OF Judge found drunk outside — that’s extraordinary (7,2)
HEAR in FOUND*
15. TINT Maybe Blue can chart finally (4)
TIN (can) + [char]T
16. PATH A way for Steps to cover material lacking copyright (4)
PATCH (to cover material) less C
17. SENSITISE Suspect it’s injected to prepare for a reaction (9)
IT IS in SENSE
21. MOLASSES Most of Pussycat Dolls’ output is refined and very sweet (8)
MO[g] (most of pussycat) + LASSES
22. UNSUNG Instrumental tracks are overlooked (6)
Double definition
24. FLAGELLANT Mother leaves explorer in clutches of prone penitent (10)
[MA]GELLAN in FLAT
25. AXLE Pin left in sack (4)
L in AXE
26. MIDGET Very small head teacher stalking McFly? (6)
MIDGE (notoriously often found in Scotland, hence a “McFly”) + T[eacher]
27. DRONES Goes on and on about Queen’s mates (6)
Double definition – the Queen in question being a bee
Down
2,1. CROSS SECTION A representative sample of opinion about Boyzone (5,7)
C (about) + ROSS (boy) + SECTION (zone)
3. EMPOWER Authorise mounted soldiers to arrest Take That (7)
POW (take that!) in reverse of REME
5. INTAKE After ruling, obtain new recruits (6)
IN (ruling, as “in power”) + TAKE (obtain)
6. SPEARMINT Plant bomb under small tree (9)
S + PEAR + MINT (a lot of money, as in “make a mint/bomb”)
7. SPIT OUT Hawk ends up abroad (4,3)
Revese of TIPS + OUT (abroad)
8. CONTROVERSIAL Busted err on vocalist (that’s debatable) (13)
(ERR ON VOCALIST)*
14. ESTRANGED Separate reagents combined by head of department (9)
REAGENTS* + D
16. PROBLEM Dire Straits for Spice Girl’s comeback? (7)
PRO (for) + reverse of MEL B
18. SPUTTER S Club 7 (7)
S + PUTTER (golf club)
19. SINGLES Records by One Direction (7)
SINGLE (one) + S (direction)
20. ISOLDE Drug dealer’s confession to operatic lady (6)
“I SOLD E[cstasy]”, said the dealer
23. SPAWN Brood about Westlife (5)
W in SPAN (life) – the wordplay has to be read as “about West, life”

59 comments on “Guardian 26,613 – Bonxie”

  1. Thanks Bonxie and Andrew

    Phew! Well I finished, but I don’t remember previous Bonxies being quite as hard as this. To be honest, It wasn’t my favourite type of crossword – too many answers had to be “biffed”, then the parsing worked out (or not!) For example, look at 6d. You could guess that it starts with S for small, but then “pear” for “tree” and “mint” for “bomb” are just two of many possible examples. %d similar – “in” for “ruling” wasn’t anywhere near the first thing I thought of.

    I spent some time trying to explain TAKE in Glaswegian, with the current English “hitman” (Joe) ROOT following.

    There were several great clues, though. Favourites were MISSUS, UNSUNG, SPUTTER and COD MIDGET.

  2. I found this quite difficult and was tempted to give up on the SW corner but persevered and finally only 26a was left unsolved. But I also made a mistake with 11a as I entered JIGSAW without understanding how to parse it apart from the AW.

    I could not parse 3d, 1a, 21a, 7d.

    My favourites were 25a, 24a and 20d.

    Thanks Andrew and Bonxie.

  3. Pre-emptively, before RedSoules turns up wasting everyone’s time again –

    He/she/it also turns up on a site called the student room, asking people ‘how do I write an essay?’ ‘how do I start a paragraph?’

    If it was someone’s name, Red Soules, initialising the first name would give R. Soules. Nuff said.

    Isn’t the internet wonderful ?

  4. Thanks, Andrew.

    I wouldn’t have thought I could be so enthusiastic about a puzzle with such a theme but, as you say, it mercifully didn’t require much knowledge of it.

    But such clever and economical exploitation! Girls Aloud, McFly, S Club 7, One Direction, Dire Straits … – just brilliant!

    Apart from the theme, there were more ingenious clues with witty surfaces – I loved the TAKER OOT and the FLAGELLANT and the German with the facial twitch.

    In short, I loved it all – many thanks to Bonxie for the fun.

  5. Just awful! Where to begin?

    1a Wrong tense; 2a Wrong definition; 3a Wrong tense and definition; 4a Wrong letters; 5a Just plain wrong; 6a Even wrongerer; 7a Too hard; 8a Too easy; 9a Obscure word; 10a Too common; 11a Missing ‘; 12a Mising s; 13a Missing sense of humour; 14a Missing the point; 15a Too cryptic; 16a Too plain; 17a Too many words;

    I could go on … oh wait, I forgot – I enjoy doing this:

    18a Ungrammatical; 19a Ingrammatical; 20a Compileritis; 21a Solveritis; 22a Sinusitus; 23a Too many across clues;

    [Insert compiler name] really should do better! For me, anyway.

    I could go on, but I’ve not finished underlining all the mistakes on this Cornflakes packet with my special red pen. No matter how many boxes I send back, they never learn. And the joke on them is, as I don’t even like Cornflakes!

    TRHH

  7. buggyite @6
    It refers to the solution to 7 – SPIT OUT.

    [Thanks for wasting a minute of my time, TRHH.]

  8. Thanks Bonxie and Andrew

    I normally trepidate (sic) when I see the name Bonxie but crack on anyway, and generally take ages. But somehow today everything seemed to flow, not particularly quickly but also without any long head-scratching pauses, which I guess is a compliment to the clarity and precision of the clueing. Great stuff.

    Keith @ 3: Well spotted. I never had any doubt that my comments the other day were completely justified, and I now feel completely vindicated.

    TRHH @ 5: give that man an Oscar. Funniest post I’ve read since I stopped reading HH’s own!

  10. Thanks Bonxie and Andrew.

    I tended to enter answers, then parse, or finish parsing, but that did not work for MAKE GOOD at 12a or for JIGSAW at 11a (then RIP tide came to mind, so checked to see if there was such a thing as a RIPSAW). I luckily remembered TERCE from the other day, but needed help to fully parse PATH, EMPOWER and SPEARMINT.

    Loved MIDGET, DRONES and ISOLDE!

  14. People seem to be complaining that this is very hard. Technically it isn’t too bad, although there are enough things that irk. However, the real problem is compileritis in the sense that Bonxie expects that we will get his jokes prior to parsing. It’s easy after the event to see what he means by McFly for instance, but it’s just nonsensical for most people before. A really irritating puzzle.

    HH

  15. I thought this was very inventive, and although some of the cluing wouldn’t be acceptable in The Times it was entirely in keeping with the Guardian’s house style. My LOI was DRONES because it took me a while to see that it was a DD. At least I thought it was my LOI, but when I clicked on Check all I found that I had misbiffed “jigsaw” at 11ac so I gave it some more thought and not only came up with the correct RIPSAW but actually saw that it parsed correctly. Muppet.

  16. I must register my objection to McFly. Ours in Kielder in Northumberland are far more mordant and numerous and resolutely English.

    Thanks Andrew and Bonxie.

  17. [cholecyst@ 16
    I remember Kielder midges from a fern outing. Fortunately the next time I was there I was cycling, and they couldn’t keep up.
    Horrible, but not the worst, in my opinion. Corrieshalloch Gorge!]

  18. Feel like I have been beaten up. Thanks to Bonxie for teaching me a lesson, to Andrew for a great blog, and to the real Hedgehoggy for cheering me up!

  19. Wonder what Rod Seules will make of it: “so, is it that the across clues make you cross and the down ones depressed?”

  21. Loved this, first encounter with Bonxie for me. Completed reasonably quickly but with a LOT of guesswork, so had to come here to parse spawn, sputter and molasses, so many thanks, Andrew. Still not quite sure about Ross for “boy”, but hey, whatevs … (shrugs)

    And special thanks to TRHH for the LOTD (work it out …)

  22. I found this puzzle very difficult, so that Andrew’s parsing was especially welcome. I finally got TAKE ROOT but did not catch the Glaswegian “oot”; I got PATH but did not catch the C for copyright to be subtracted from “patch”; got MOLASSES but not the mo(g); and also missed the “midge” in MIDGET, the “Ross” in CROSS SECTION, and the “mint” in SPEARMINT. A long slog to get to the finish line. Thanks to Bonzie and Andrew.

  23. This was a cracker – almost impenetrable to start with but full of aha moments, wit and invention, and a Tramplike no-knowledge-required theme to boot. For me it was ISOLDE that finally unblocked it, since that led to MOLASSES and opened up the SW corner – last to in were PROSTHETIC and SPIT OUT.
    Ticked TAKE ROOT, MIDGET, PROBLEM, ISOLDE and MOLASSES.

    Thanks to Bonxie and Andrew

  24. Too much biffing to make it truly pleasurable but I did have the perspicacity to change JIGSAW to RIPSAW before it was too late. A pity, for Bonxie’s summoning up of all those bubblegum bands (well, maybe not Queen but they’re a long way down my faves list too) was inventive throughout, MCFLY top of the list (and they’d done for me in Scotland earlier this month).

    SE corner did for me though. DRONES, when I saw it, is very clever.

  25. Wow! Took us ages to get properly started. First round produced only 9a and25a. then gradually got going with the two anagrams 8d and 14d. We wondered about jigsaw then remembered ripsaw. We failed to parse 12a (Take root) and 21a (Molasses)Loves 24a Flagellant – having tried Polo for the explorer and words like apologetic. Very satisfying to have got it all right at last. Thanks Bonxie and Andrew

  26. The pop groups caused some apprehension, so I was relieved that the theme turned out to be largely irrelevant to solving the clues. I did struggle with the NW corner, not helped by the presence of a two-part clue, and my attempt at a Glaswegian accent was not good enough to help me parse 12a. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it.

    I particularly like UNHEARD OF, SENSITISE, ESTRANGED and SPAWN.

    Thanks, Bonxie and Andrew.

  27. I found this difficult as well and,if it hadn’t been raining outside, I might well have abandoned it. However -sod you Mr Gove-I’m glad I didn’t because as it unravelled it became quite enjoyable. Alright it took me ages to equate MINT with bomb and SPUTTER with SPIT OUT but that’s my fault. I loved TAKE ROOT and MIDGET. In the end quite good fun.
    Thanks Bonxie.

  28. TRHH@5 – Loved your comment, but HH seems to have missed it or is being extremely diplomatic.

    This was hard work but worth it, although I got stuck on the SE corner and gave up on quite a few. As others have said the parsing wasn’t that difficult with a bit of lateral thinking – e.g. one didn’t need to know the names of McFly’s greatest hits. Favourites were many, including TAKE ROOT, FLAGELLANT, CROSS SECTION and PROSTHETIC. Altogether a lot of very well constructed clues (despite HH’s irritation). Many thanks to Bonxie and Andrew.

    Captcha: 2 x 2 = ?? Hmmm … have to think about that one.

  29. Thanks, Bonxie and Andrew. This was just too hard for me, and I slogged through the left-hand side before giving up on the right.

    After reading the blog, I’ve had to give up my hopes of blaming the setter. I’m not entirely convinced by the adjectival definition of MOLASSES, and to my mind “hawk” is intransitive while “spit out” is transitive, and that’s all I’ve got. I liked CROSS SECTION and FLAGELLANT, and S Club 7 was excellent. The clue, not the band. Or so I’m told.

  32. I have asked before. What for are comments re the ‘capatcha’. For example today’s at 28. “2 x 2 = …”.

    I believe it isn’t to check your mental arithmetic. Or a hurdle to be overcome.

    Why all the interest?

    yours sincerely

  33. It’s been a long time since I. Last left a crossword unfinished, but too many obscurities today to enjoy. I know from this site that there are crossword solvers who like popular music, though the two pastimes don’t seem natural allies. I know Mt plea will fall on deaf ears, but surely it would be better to avoid such Marmite subjects as pop music and football.

  34. @Ian SW3

    I have already posted this elsewhere today, so apologies for the repetition. The theme today wasn’t “pop groups beloved by girls under the age of 7”, it was “word play riffing on pop groups beloved by girls under the age of 7” which is an entirely different thing. The quality of the clueing makes it possible to entirely ignore “themes” like this if the subject matter is not to your taste.

    As for your accusation of obscurity: really? Which word amongst the solutions had you never encountered before?

  35. The obscurity was in the clues, not the solutions, and even if familiarity with the subject matter is irrelevant (which can only be determined after a lot of head-scratching), it made what you suggest was meant as a playful riff into a tedious slog. (And I am dismayed to think that there are parents who would let their children under the age of seven listen to pop.)

  36. Cyborg @ 29

    I think you can hawk (something unsavoury) up or spit it out. My wife agrees with me too, and she is, of course, always right. 🙂

  37. Ian, you didn’t like the puzzle today; I thought it one of the best of the year so far. Both opinions are completely valid. But you then went on to say (basically) “I don’t like this type of puzzle so I don’t think they should be published.” A wee bit dogmatic, don’t you think?

  38. Simon @36, I agree “hawk up” is transitive and would work well enough, but the clue has just “hawk”. I’ll allow it in this instance though, since I’m taking your wife’s infallibility on trust.

  39. Mitz @37 – I agree 100% – I’m sure there are enough positive comments both here and on the Guardian site to counteract the naysayers.

  40. But there are certain themes that will always raise positive and negative reactions in more or less equal numbers. I would personally consider it a failure if, in an attempt to delight half my audience, I alienated the other half. You can’t please everybody, but why pick one of those themes that always generates complaints unless that’s what you wanted all along?

  41. Ian SW3 @40

    I can see that this theme might alienate some solvers if it required them to know anything about the subject, but this time only one of the answers (PROBLEM) required any such knowledge. I think the nicknames of the Spice Girls are fairly widely known even among people (like myself) who aren’t interested in that type of music. The information is also easily available online.

    There is also a solution (ISOLDE) which requires more classical knowledge. Should that have been excluded because a lot of people dislike opera?

  42. One can only be a ‘naysayer’ if one does not accept the use of, let’s say it mildly, ‘popular culture’ in crosswords.
    Unless one thinks, of course, the clueing was bad.
    Surfaces like today’s wouldn’t be allowed in The Times (no living people, please).
    But I am actually quite happy The Guardian isn’t like that.

    Seeing all these boy/girl bands (not just pop groups!), instantly made me want to solve the puzzle.
    Not because I like ‘this kind of music’, certainly not, but because I felt that Bonxie wanted to do something special (and he did).
    [I was actually a bit shocked to read: “And I am dismayed to think that there are parents who would let their children under the age of seven listen to pop”]

    I think, for example, that ‘S Club 7’ is stunning clueing.
    In his grid design Bonxie had to make sure that 7d meant ‘sputter’.
    On several other occasions I said that One Direction is a gift for setters – in that respect, 19d is one of the best I’ve seen so far.
    But my CoD must really be 3d, ‘Take That’ for POW – how good is that!
    Paul is probably still gushing about it.

    Many of you called 26ac (MIDGET) a favourite, for me it wasn’t.
    Not because of McFly but because of ‘head teacher’ for T.

    Having all these Boys & Girls, I think Dire Straits was out of place (in 16d).
    The clue had a Spice Girl which was sufficient.

    The only one I didn’t understand was 12ac (TAKE ROOT) but as Eileen approved of it, I won’t complain.
    Last one in was DRONES (27ac) for the same reason Andy B made clear @15.

    A big Thank You to Bonxie for what was both very difficult and very rewarding.

  43. Celia @32: comments on Captcha. I agree. Will someone please explain – preferably Cookie, who seems obsessed by them.

  44. JennyK @41, I’ve never to my knowledge met anyone who disliked opera (though, to be fair, the subject does not always come up in conversation), but I certainly don’t know anyone who wouldn’t say that opera is an important part of one’s education and general knowledge.

    And Sil @42, I similarly don’t know anyone who would say ‘popular culture’ was at all important or worthwhile knowing about.

    My original point was that such subjects as popular culture and football, even if they are enjoyed by many, are anathema to many solvers. I know it’s been said many times before, but if a forum like this can provide any sort of feedback to setters and editors, I’d rather repeat the comment than accept the inevitable with grim resignation.

  46. Ian SW3 @ 44

    May I gently suggest that you broaden your view of the world.

    Surely “popular culture” implies that as it’s popular people think that it is important and worth knowing about. How wide is your circle of friends?

    And if you state that many people enjoy popular culture and football, but that many solvers find them anathema, what is your empirical substantiation for this assertion?

    I can’t stand football but I love the Grateful Dead.

  47. Celia @32 and Cholecyst @43, for the technical reasons for captchas you can consult the web (they are to help stop spam).

    I pretend that Gaufrid allots the captchas and that when I have been particularly stupid he gives me a simple sum – yesterday I failed on an easy clue and had a captcha of 1 + one = ?, the level of arithmetic I could hopefully cope with to enter my comment.

    Poor drofle @28 found the puzzle hard going today, so assumed the captcha, being a multiplication, 2 x two = ?, might be too difficult for him (note that he has made an error in writing out the sum, one of the figures must be represented by a word or the protection system could be easily overcome).

    Help, ? x seven = 56

  48. I can’t stand opera. Opera could hardly be less central to education & general knowledge. I am quite good at crosswords, though I didn’t much enjoy this one. Very fond of football…
    Is IanSW3 TRHH in disguise?

  49. Yes, who is TRHH? Will we ever know? In fact, is one of the people wondering who it could be cleverly diverting attention away from themselves?

    Celia@32: as Cookie@47 says, I was having a bit of a hard time digging away at the SE corner, but then when it came to solving 2 x 2 . . . it was a different kettle of fish. So just a very small joke.

  50. Thanks to Cookie and Drofle for their explanations of their captcha mentions. I missed the irony, but in any case,it loses its edge with repetition.

  51. Ian SW3 – just to be slightly contrarian, I enjoy a lot of classical/”serious” music, but I really don’t get on with opera and operatic singing (for crossword purposes, knowing a few names is usually enough to get me by. The key point is that the theme here is a deceptive piece of window dressing – the PROBLEM clue was the only one that depended on any knowledge of the names being dropped, and as jennyk rightly points out, knowing names of Spice Girls would not be a problem to anyone even slightly conversant with popular culture. I would have more sympathy with complaints about the difficulty of the clues, but for those of us who like a challenge, that made it even better…

  52. beery hiker@51 – I agree. The theme itself was just a nice piece of deception, which enabled Bonxie to have a lot of fun. And as Sil @47 said, ‘S Club 7’ is a piece of stunning clueing.

  53. I’m with Sil on this one – one of the best themed puzzles we’ve seen in the Graun for a while. My only gripe is that the difficulty of the puzzle detracts somewhat from the full enjoyment that could have been had. But I’ll be looking out for more Bonxies in future.

  54. I’m not sure where is the most appropriate place to ask if and when there is going to be a blog today for the Nutmeg puzzle. It seemed to me to be fun, but was also simple: still deserves a blog though!!

  56. drofle @55 is there a precedent for this? Has it happened before? It is a shame because I can imagine HH and TRHH are keen to get there hands on the Nutmeg. Still at least rsouls will be silenced for the day!!!

  58. I stopped solving this one after about six clues, as I was already too cross to carry on. For instsnce, in what world does “head teacher” = T? Not mine.

  59. Thanks Bonxie and Andrew

    Really like this setter, although his name does alert that one is up for a fight. As it was, I didn’t start it until a fortnight after publication … and up until now to check it off!!

    As with a couple of others, I had written in JIGSAW unparsed initially – and only after a lot of dead searches for JIG = turbulent waters, did finding an alternative turbulent water lead to RIPSAW coming to light.

    Was pretty confident with TAKE ROOT, but don’t think that I would have ever come up with the correct parsing of it.

    Originally had SACRED in at 1a, but with the final parsing run-through, thankfully saw that SECRET was the answer.

    Again, like many, I ended up with the left hand side to finish and SENSITISE, SINGLES and DRONES in the SE corner the last few in.

    Much to like, including the clever idea of having a theme within the clue structure and no knowledge or it required to get the solutions out.

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