The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26685.
There was I, hoping for something nice and easy, and what do I get? The Enigmatist! This has been quite a week at the Guardian Cryptic – what do they do for an encore? This one started off with a few clues which I could answer readily, but after that it became rapidly more difficult, particularly in the bottom half. Barring a flash of last-minute inspiration, there are still a couple of answers which I cannot adequately explain. Over to you.
| Across | ||
| 1 | GNOCCHI |
Starters in Italian hardly cooked deceive German, sending back dumplings (7)
A reversal (‘sending back’) of IHC (‘starters in Italian Hardly Cooked’) plus CON (‘deceive’) plus G (‘German’). |
| 5 | IMPROVE |
To get a better position, White’s third play captures pawn with rook (7)
An envelope (‘captures’) of P (‘pawn’) plus R (‘rook’, both chess notation) in I (‘whIte’s third) plus MOVE (‘play’). |
| 10 | ARIA |
Essentially, lifting legendary setter’s gold wheels is a strain (4)
A subtraction: AR[aucar]IA (‘legendary setter’) minus AU (‘gold’, chemical symbol) and CAR (‘wheels’). |
| 11 | RE-ENGAGING |
Instigating new action executing the picking of plums? (2-8)
A punning reference to the (green)gage plum. |
| 12 | JUDGES |
Book 16s gutted about Elbow missing lead (6)
An envelope (‘about’) of [n]UDGE (‘elbow’) minus its first letter (‘missing lead’) in JS (the answer to 16A is JOINT, so this is J[oint]S ‘gutted’). The book is in the Old Testament. |
| 13 | GUINNESS |
This Alec displaying genuine class in cast (8)
The answer, with its extended definition, is an anagram of ‘genuin[e cla]ss’, but which of ‘displaying’ and ‘cast’ indicates the anagram, and which justifies the exclusion I am not sure. |
| 14 | WET SEASON |
Set One was scuppered when the rains came (3,6)
An anagram (‘scuppered’) of ‘set one was’. |
| 16 | JOINT |
Quickly set down outside fashionable nightclub, maybe (5)
An envelope (‘outside’) of IN (‘fashionable’) in JOT (‘quickly set down’). |
| 17 | STOCK |
Such a change would make this thick soupy liquor (5)
To make ‘this’ into ‘thick’, one must change S TO CK. |
| 19 | STOP THIEF |
That man’s just robbed me of the tips off trolley! (4,5)
An anagram (‘off trolley’ -a reference to “off ones trolley” – crazy) of ‘of the tips’. |
| 23 | ROLLOVER |
Nothing left between Romeo and his Juliet but the bigger prize (8)
A charade of R (‘Romeo’, phonetic alphabet) plus O (‘nothing’) plus L (‘left’) plus LOVER (‘his Juliet’). |
| 24 | IDEALS |
Current partner with wheels seeking the highest standards (6)
A charade of I (‘current’) plus DEALS (‘partner with wheels’, as in wheeler-dealer). |
| 26 | NOT A STROKE |
What one versed in dodges does right in order to crack what’s typical of Philistine (3,1,6)
An envelope (‘to crack’) of R (‘right’) plus OK (‘in order’) in NO TASTE (‘what’s typical of Philistine’). |
| 27 | DRIP |
One’s pathetic GP coming over all sanctimonious (4)
A charade of DR (‘doctor, ‘GP’) plus IP, a reversal (‘coming over’) of PI (‘all sanctimonious’). |
| 28 | REVELRY |
It’s jolly good fun returning to your little bar (7)
A reversal (‘returning to’) of YR (‘your little’) plus LEVER (‘bar’). |
| 29 | JOURNEY |
Youngster from Australia secures place for Ashes tour (7)
An envelope (‘secures’) of URN (‘place for ashes’) in JOEY (‘kangaroo, ‘youngster from Australia’). |
| Down | ||
| 2 | NURTURE |
Training courses lifted the lid on education (7)
I think this is a reversal (‘lifted’) of RUT and RUN (‘courses’) plus E (‘the lid on Education’). |
| 3 | CLANG |
Loud sound signal cues packing up (5)
A hidden (‘packing’) reverse (‘up’) answer in ‘suGNAL Cues’. |
| 4 | HARISSA |
A filling in hot recipe, is it? (7)
An envelope (‘filling’) of ‘a’ in H (‘hot’) plus R (‘recipe’) plus ‘is’ plus SA (sex appeal, ‘it’), with an &lit definition for the Tunisian chili paste. |
| 6 | MAGPIE |
The first person to entrap a Group One flyer (6)
An envelope (‘to entrap’) of ‘a’ plus GP (‘group’) plus I (‘one’) in ME (‘the first person’ accusative). |
| 7 | ROGAN JOSH |
Jargon so bemusing, Henry’s order in Indian? (5,4)
An anagram (‘bemusing’) of ‘jargon so’ plus H (‘Henry’, unit of inductance).
|
| 8 | VENISON |
Serving of 7 is only meat (7)
A sort-of hidden answer in ‘seVEN IS ONly’. |
| 9 | REIGN OF TERROR |
Referring to revolutionary, if not horrific period of history (5,2,6)
An anagram (‘revolutionary’) of ‘referring to’ plus OR (‘if not’). |
| 15 | SICK LEAVE |
Surely not as address for the Hammers? It’s taken off (4,5)
I suppose the reference is SICKLE AVE. |
| 18 | TWOSOME |
Couple setting up broadcast in personal dedication (7)
An envelope (‘in’) of WOS, a reversal (‘setting up’) of SOW (‘broadcast’) in TO ME (‘personal dedication’).
|
| 20 | PRIMERO |
Perhaps The Ancient Mariner’s stopping for an ancient card game? (7)
An envelope (‘stopping’) of RIME (the full title of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem is “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”) in PRO (‘for’). |
| 21 | EEL-LIKE |
Murderer’s chopped up diminutive missing women round Serpentine (3-4)
An envelope (’round’) of ELLIK, a reversal (‘up’) of KILLE[r] (‘murderer’) without its last letter (‘chopped’), in [w]EE (‘diminutive’) without the W (‘missing women’). |
| 22 | AVATAR |
Open tank to replace Japanese icon (6)
A substitution: A[j]AR (‘open’) with the J (‘Japanese’) replaced by VAT (‘tank’). |
| 25 | EIDER |
Bloody Viz goes up and down on it! (5)
A reversal (‘goes up’) of RED (‘bloody’) plus I.E. (id est, videlicet ‘viz’). |
New word for me was PRIMERO and I needed help with the parsing of 11, 12, 13, 17, 24a and 22d. I guess that for about half of the puzzle, I sort of guessed the solutions first and parsed later.
I liked JOURNEY, IMPROVE, TWOSOME, REIGN OF TERROR, EIDER, VENISON, EEL-LIKE and my favourites were ARIA and GNOCCHI.
For 1a I parsed it as reversal of IHC (starters in Italian Hardly Cooked) + CON + G. I parsed 18d as SOW (= broadcast, set up/reversed) in TO ME (personal dedication) and I parsed 2d in the same way as PeterO.
I still don’t fully understand the parsing of 11a.
Thank you Enigmatist and PeterO
Is 11a (g)REENGAGING with “executing” = beheading or removing the first letter?
Thanks Peter. More than one here where the answer went in with a shrug, like NURTURE and 15D (could it be sic=surely not, and the rest sounds like cleave?). Agree with Muffin on C for Cooked. Had to look up the last-in card game. But it was a good puzzle, notably the Philistine clue and the down on 25 down.
Sorry Michelle, it was you not Muffin.
michelle @1
Thanks. I dropped the C in 1A. I agree with your parsing of 18D. PeeDee’s utility, which I use to write the blog,has been suffering recently from denial of service problems, and tends to drop entries occasionally. I am sure that I entered 18D twice, and it still did not appear. Both now corrected.
molonglo @ 3
I am fine with 15d being SICKLE AVE(nue) as being “surely not as address for Hammers” and def being “It’s taken off”.
PeterO@5 – I guessed it was a technical problem regarding 18d parsing going AWOL.
Also, my question@2 was because @1 I wrote -“I still don’t fully understand the parsing of 11a.”
Thanks to Enigmatist and peterO for the early blog – which I needed for AVATAR and NURTURE.
In 13a, ‘Genuine class’ is an anagram of ALEC GUINNESS.
Thanks Enigmatist and PeterO
It’s entirely my fault, but I din’t enjoy this, as I had to enter so many unparsed. I generally find Enigmatist difficult, so I was surprised to write in the first two across, and then a few more, but then I ground more or less to a halt. Eventually I had to cheat on STOCK to get the SW completed.
I loved EIDER (“down on it”!). I’ve not seen the trick in 8d before, but I think that it’s fair enough, particularly with the misdirection to the food in 7d.
@7
Yes. The parsing of 13a should read “Comp. anag. & lit. Utterly brilliant.”
Thanks Enigmatist and PeterO.
I wish I had more time to spend on the parsing, hope to go over it all again this evening. I do like Michelle’s @2 (g)RE-ENGAGING.
Some terrific clues, especially STOCK!
Thanks, PeterO, for a fine blog.
I enjoyed this more than I would have yesterday! Its always a privilege to blog Enigmatist’s puzzles – but a rather daunting one, it must be said, as, throughout the solving process, there’s always the fear of failing in the parsing and thus not doing them justice.
I got off to a good start with the first three clues but then progress slowed considerably. I failed to see the device in 17ac but gradually managed to tease out the rest, I think. The cluing is so meticulous that there were many instances of ‘Ah, of course’, as the penny dropped.
There isn’t one dud clue here but I have to pick out 13, 19 and 29ac and 9dn – this list could be much longer!
[It probably didn’t hinder anyone’s solving but I think the paper version of ‘surely not AN address…’ in 15dn must be the correct one.]
Very many thanks to Enigmatist for a tough but most satisfying work-out.
Thank you PeterO.
Too tough for me to unravel in the time available, sadly.
STOCK was brilliant, as was GUINNESS, but my confidence became a bit rattled as there were too many I failed to completely parse.
Fine crossword, nonetheless.
I had the pleasure of JH’s company at a gathering of Graun threaders in Birmingham in the early summer. We met at a large boozer in the city converted from a handsome banking hall. It is called “The Joint Stock”. One of our number mis-spelled GUINNESS on the round sheet, which amused E as I recall
muffin @7: “It’s entirely my fault, but I didn’t enjoy this”. No it’s not your fault, it’s Enigmatist’s (and the editor’s). I didn’t enjoy it either, because it was far too hard for a non-prize puzzle. Yes, there were some neat clues – I liked VENISON and RE-ENGAGING, for example – but it was a pretty bad case of compileritis.
Commiserations, PeterO, for being landed with blogging it.
I really enjoyed solving this. It wasn’t Enigmatist at his most tricky – some of it was even R&W which doesn’t usually happen with one of his crosswords.
Thank you to Enigmatist for a Thursday treat and to Peter O for the explanations.
Thanks to Enigmatist and PeterO. I did manage to finish this puzzle but only after much guessing and many trips to Google. HARISSA and ROGAN JOSH were new to me (perhaps my range of cuisine needs expanding), and I needed help parsing STOCK, SICK LEAVE, EEL-LIKE, AVATAR, and NOT A STROKE. For me, the most difficult puzzle in some time (including the Saturday prizes).
I think I’m like everyone else, making a fantastic start with the top soon filled in and thinking either I’m getting good or Enigmatist is getting soft. Eventually most stuff fitted but I needed aid or google for SICK LEAVE, PRIMERO, NOT A STROKE where I had no idea at all what was going on. Particularly naughty was PRIMERO as that’s a rare word and by convention the clue level eases down a bit. But no harm done I suppose to have a puzzle that’s targetted at the super-solvers out there.
And of course lots of fantastic stuff too with EIDER and especially JOURNEY top of the crop.
[In fact I had come across PRIMERO. Robert Carey and his circle are always playing it in the P.F.Chisholm Elizabethan Carlisle detective stories (I recommend them).]
Thanks Enigmatist and PeterO.
Eventually solved with liberal use of word searches and the Check button. I missed the STOCK trick.
Lots to admire here. NOT A STROKE seems not to be used much without ‘of work.’ GUINNESS is a classic, although I prefer Arthur to Alec. I also particularly liked EIDER & SICK LEAVE.
Wiki tells me Elbow is a character in William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure – presumably that’s the reference?
Tough but fair. It took longer than usual but I enjoyed it; many thanks to Enigmatist
Special thanks to PeterO for the blog – can’t have been easy!
Thanks Enigmatist and PeterO. I’m with the unfortunate crowd that found this one a bit of a slog – for some reason it felt more malicious than playful today. I probably just tackled it in the wrong mood. Thanks also to baerchen @13 for explaining the in-joke, I was wondering where to find all the GUINNESS and REVELRY.
Could some kind soul please elaborate on the parsing of SICK LEAVE? I still don’t quite get it.
Too hard for me to finish, but those I did get, I loved.
The GUINNESS clue reminds me of a lovely bit from the Simpsons, where Lisa and a new friend are challenged to anagram the names of famous actors. The friend immediately comes out with “Alec Guiness, genuine class”, but the best Lisa can do is “Jeremy Irons… Jeremy’s iron?”
Thanks Enigmatist and PeterO
Put me in the pro crowd, very definitely.
Cyborg @ 21: my interpretation is that it’s a reference to the old Hammer & Sickle emblem of ther USSR, hence the hammers could live on Sickle Ave(nue). And you take SICK LEAVE from your job if you’e ill. Nice clue, I thought.
Thanks Simon @23, it was the first part I was struggling with. It also makes more sense after reading Eileen’s note @11 on the as/an correction. Much obliged.
Enigmatist’s appearances are becoming very rare treats – this wasn’t as intimidating as he can sometimes be, with a number of fairly accessible clues, but the last few were quite tricky and I had to cheat a little with the Check button to finish. Last in was PRIMERO, which was unfamiliar but fairly clued. Liked ARIA, STOCK, ROLLOVER, JOURNEY, SICK LEAVE, AVATAR and EIDER.
Thanks to Enigamatist and PeterO
Freddy @7
I was so near but so far: the little word ‘this’ is so important to the excellent clue.
michelle @2 and 6
I was too busy answering you @1 that I did not notice you @2. Yes, I agree with you about 11A.
Now that I have a little time to stand back and admire, I must say how impressive a crossword this is for me. As I asked in the preamble, what comes as an encore? Perhaps something gentle – in which case you are a lucky devil, scchua.
what comes next? My guess is Paul…
I found this really tough and couldn’t complete the SW corner, but enjoyed the rest. I particularly liked JOURNEY, EIDER, DRIP and ARIA. Like others I thought NURTURE was perhaps a bit iffy. GUINNESS was very clever but maybe a bit too much so, although at least I can now see how the answer was derived. Thanks to Enigmatist and PeterO.
Too difficult to be enjoyable. I always struggle with this setter and today was no exception. The NE corner went in reasonably quickly but the rest was like pulling teeth, even with liberal use of the check button and a great deal of guesswork and parsing after the event.
Paradoxically, my LOI was JOURNEY which was perhaps the best clue of all.
I don’t think ENIGMATIST’s puzzles are for me.
Nina alert, and it’s a brilliant one too. Ref: baerchen’s comment @13: top left to bottom right (Dirky is the “one of our number” that baer mentions).
Yup, pretty hard.
I’m surprised everyone bar a few of you seem to have heard of PRIMERO though. It’s highly unlikely that you’ve played it as it was a 16th century game and nowadays people are still trying to figure out what the rules might have been. So you all knew that eh? Guess you’ve all read that series of books muffin mentioned then, never heard of them myself.
http://www.pagat.com/vying/primero.html
I don’t think there’s any subtraction in 13a. With answer referred to as ‘this’, you’d get GUINNESSALEC=GENUINECLASS ‘in cast’, i.e. ‘in an anagram’: an equation of sorts.
Can anyone explain 15d? Still scratching our heads.
Paul B @32
That is what I meant by my comment @26.
Derek @31
I think the Robert Carey books are rather good – I learnt about the Border reivers from them, and I was eventually encouraged by them to read the definitive work “The steel bonnets” by George MacDonald Fraser (of “Flashman” fame, but we won’t hold that against him).
Carey was a real person, probably most famous for riding as fast as he could from London to Edinburgh so that he could be the first to tell James VI of Scotland that he was now also James I of England.
Re PRIMERO, Falstaff says (after being tricked and beaten) that “I never prospered since I foreswore myself at primero” (Merry Wives of Windsor, 4.5) and someone reports that he just left Henry VIII “at primero / With the Duke of Suffolk” (Henry VIII, 5.1). The note to the Arden 2 edition of the latter reads: “a card game which was popular at court and played for high stakes; the game was played with a limited number of cards, the seven, six, five, and ace having special values; each player had four cards dealt to him, and then he had to show them. He whose cards were of different suits won the prime; if they were all of one colour he won the flush, which was the best hand.”
Nutmeg and Picaroon are great setters but in their recent crosswords I wasn’t very much on their wavelength.
Especially, the Picaroon that nearly everyone raved about, I couldn’t really get in to.
Ample compensation from Enigmatist today, in my opinion.
Unlike on other occasions, his puzzle wasn’t very hard to open up.
Perhaps, a ‘Nimrod light’ but what a joy to solve.
We did it on paper, far away from resources.
So many clues with an extra element of depth.
Some may call this ‘compileritis’, others may call this ‘too clever’, for us this was ‘the real thing’.
It was just a matter of persevering and not giving up.
Only 17ac (STOCK) went in without seeing the wordplay but now that it’s explained, one more ‘tick’.
We are (including me) clearly in the pro camp today.
Wonderful crossword.
Many thanks to our beloved setter and to PeterO for the blog.
This was another slog for me – it’s been a tough week! I needed help with parsing RE-ENGAGING, STOCK, NURTURE, AVATAR and EIDER, and also needed confirmation for a few about which I was uncertain. I loved some clues (JOURNEY, the misdirection for VENISON) but some others were too convoluted for my taste.
Thanks to Enigmatist and PeterO.
I did not think ‘compileritis’. It is very complex, and maybe a bit too hard, but fair and square.
15d is as blogged, duffyhudds. Sickle Avenue is not for example Hammer Avenue.
muffin @35
If you like Robert Carey, try Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond series (Game of kings etc) – same period, same historical accuracy – except they play Tarot not primero!
Mitz at 30: Wow! How amazing this was and how mind-blowing for you to spot it! Enigmatist must have chuckled to include it. What a shame no-one else commented about it. Well done to you both!
Vic @41
Thanks for the tip – I’ve just bought the first one for my Kindle.
Duffyhudds @33 (with all due respect to hedgehoggy @40 and the blogger)
First, there is, I think, following Eileen’s lead, a misprint in the online version, so that the clue should read (as the paper version does) ‘Surely not an address for the Hammers? It’s taken off (4,5)’.
My parsing has AVE as the Latin word for a greeting or salutation (or ‘address’), as most famously seen in Ave Maria. The setter sets up a whimsical world in which it is to be imagined that someone wishes to salute a sickle (‘Sickle, ave!’) rather than a hammer. I guess the plural ‘Hammers’ is used to create a further association with West Ham United football club.
Oddly, my beef with the clue was that one takes sick leave, rather than taking it off. One takes a day off.
Anyway, I hope I’m on the right lines. Excellent puzzle, I thought (loved the device at 17a). This could well be the first Enigmatist I’ve ever finished unaided!
Thanks PeterO and (grudgingly) Enigmatist.
It’s a long time since I had such a mauling.
I failed on STOCK, NOT A STROKE, REVELRY, SICK LEAVE and TWOSOME and still don’t get why ‘executing’ is REEN in 11ac.
High quality stuff – so like all my school reports – MUST TRY HARDER.
Thanks Enigmatist and PeterO
This was like a good shiraz – meant to be savoured for the time that it took to appreciate it rather than quaffed down to meet some sort of time line (with sympathy to the poor soul blogging it) ! I enjoyed it across a number of sessions over a full 24 hour period and was able to enjoy this setter’s wily craft on each and every clue – some easier starters and others just downright devious. The only one that I didn’t end up fully parsing was the clever anagram of ALEC GUINNESS. Also failed to see the well-hidden diagonal nina.
Admire the respect that this guy still has for John Graham in his 10a, but it did lead me astray for a long time with what was my last in by going down the path of another Guardian setter at 26a.
After untangling a good variety of devices, I finished down in the SW corner with TWOSOME (so simple on reflection but not easy to see with only the first O and the E), the brilliantly tricky STOCK and that NOT A STROKE (after finally twigging to NO TASTE and working out the phrase from there) the last few in.