Guardian Cryptic 26,880 by Boatman

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26880.

A very up-front theme of the press, some distinctly allusive “definitions”, some strange surfaces and a cavalier attitude to Truth in Capitals.Even if the puzzle had arrived on time, I doubt that I would have made head or tail of 2D.

Across
1, 4 TISSUE OF LIES Independent’s last edition attracts love and goes quickly — can’t believe it (6,2,4)
A charade of T (‘IndependenTs last’) plus ISSUE (‘edition’) plus O (‘love’) plus FLIES (‘goes quickly’), with an allusive definition.
4   See 1
9 IN BLACK AND WHITE How the papers show the truth in ink, with balanced exchange of letters (2,5,3,5)
An anagram (‘exchange of letters’) of ‘ink with balanced’.
10 DEXTER Crossword fan put off taking on Times (6)
An envelope (‘taking on’) of X (‘times’) in DETER (‘put off’). Colin Dexter, like his character Inspector Morse, is a crossword fan.
11 DURABLES Consumer items for Boatman bound by a large number of perverse rules (8)
An envelope (‘bound by’) of AB (‘boatman’) in D (Roman 500, ‘a large number’) plus URLES, an anagram (‘perverse’) of ‘rules’
12 LYINGS-IN Periods of confinement for deceitful offence (6-2)
A charade of LYING (‘deceitful’) plus SIN (‘offence’).
14 LATHER One causes cuts in circulation, with red top in panic (6)
A charade of LATHE (‘one causes cuts in circulation’, a cryptic definition, as a lathe rotates) plus R (‘Red top’)
15 PEEWIT Bird in Mirror to mourn Independent, gutted (6)
A charade of PEEW, a reversal (‘in mirror’) of WEEP (‘to mourn’) plus IT (‘IndependenT gutted’).
18 DEFORMED Crooked act conceals class (8)
An envelope (‘conceals’) of FORM (‘class’) in DEED (‘act’).
21 APOPLEXY Fury at American church leader having cash injected by unknowns (8)
A charade of A (‘American’) plus POPLE, an envelope (‘having … injected’) of L (pound, ‘cash’) in POPE (‘church leader’), plus XY (‘unknowns’)
22 ETHNIC Newspaper’s leader has moral code about racial designation (6)
An envelope (‘about’) of N (‘Newspaper’s leader’) in ETHIC (‘moral code’).
24 KEEP OUT OF THE WAY Don’t hinder telling of legend with face pulled repeatedly by hack, ok? (4,3,2,3,3)
A charade of KEE, sounding like (‘telling of’) KEY (‘legend’ to a diagram, say) plus POUT (‘face pulled’) plus OFT (‘repeatedly’) plus HEW (‘hack’) plus AY (‘ok’).
25 SERIFS Times, say, shows these unpaid workers absorbing a newspaper (6)
An envelope (‘absorbing’) of I (‘a newspaper’) in SERFS (‘unpaid workers’).
26 ATTACH Couple lose last scrap of hope in case (6)
A subtraction: ATTACH[é] (‘case’) minus the E (‘lose last scrap of hopE‘)
Down
1 TANNERY Have a go, grabbing girl where skin is dressed (7)
An envelope (‘grabbing’) of ANNE (‘girl’) in TRY (‘have a go’).
2 SPLIT Drew attention (lose no time!) to rat (5)
I cannot make any sense of the wordplay. Hopefully, someone will put me out of my misery soon enough.
3 UNCORKS Unleashes chaos to rock Sun (7)
An anagram (‘chaos to’) of ‘rock sun’.
5 FEDERAL Showing political unity in savage newspaper leader (7)
An envelope (‘in’, with unusual but allowable placement: read a comma after ‘savage’) of ED (editor, ‘newspaper leader’) in FERAL (‘savage’).
6 INHIBITOR It prevents rust in gold finish to exotic metal in heavy tap (9)
A charade of ‘in’ plus HIBIT, an envelope (‘in’) of BI (bismuth, ‘exotic metal’) in HIT (‘heavy tap’) plus OR (‘gold’, with ‘finish’ indicating its place in the word). An inhibitor may prevent rust, but may hold back other chemical reactions.
7 SO THERE End of quote from paper’s other edition (2,5)
A hidden answer (‘from’) in ‘paperS OTHER Edition’.
8 WARDEN Guardian in conflict over retreat (6)
A charade of WAR (‘conflict’) plus DEN (‘retreat’).
13 NEWSPAPER Snapper we found misbehaving in one publication (9)
An anagram (‘found misbehaving’) of ‘snapper we’.
16 EXPRESS Former newspaper, one that never stopped (7)
A charade of EX (‘former’) plus PRESS (‘newspaper’?). The definition refers to a train, for example.
17 THE BUFF Article on Polish nudity (3,4)
A charade of THE (definite ‘article’) plus BUFF (‘polish’).
18 DRY ROT To the Left, Conservative way causes decay (3,3)
A reversal (‘to the left’) of TORY (‘Conservative’) plus RD (‘way’). In line with other clues here, perhaps ’causes’ may be included in an allusive definition
19 FLEET ST Here find a newspaper, a revered one; a river runs through it (5,2)
An envelope (‘runs through it’) of LEE (‘a river’) in FT (Financial Times, ‘a newspaper’) plus ST (saint, ‘a revered one’). As Fleet Street is named from the River Fleet, the clue has an extended definition, even if neither the River nor the press is much in evidence now – the river is subterranean, and the papers have moved elsewhere.
20 EPITAPH “Goodbye Porkpie Hat” or “1,000 lost, sadly”? (7)
An anagram (‘sadly’) of ‘p[ork]pie hat’ minus (‘lost’) ‘or’ and K (‘1,000’).
23 HYENA One’s end: laugh wildly; guzzle an impala (5)
Last letters (‘end’) of ‘laugH wildlY guzzlE aN impalA‘ with an extended definition.
completed grid

54 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26,880 by Boatman”

  1. I think you’re being a bit kind to Boatman here. Like yourself, I found 2D incomprehensible. 6D is, to be honest, a rubbish clue: yes, it can ultimately, laboriously, drearily be parsed, but Araucaria must be spinning. I got a different parsing of 19D but was unhappy with it: yours is far better and obviously the right one.

    I solved the puzzle through recognizing words and I did like some of the clues but, overall, I think there was rather too much up-himself going on.

    Thanks, PeterO, for the wisdom.

  2. 2D is SPOTLIT (drew attention to) minus OT (lose no time); to split and to rat both mean to inform on.

  3. what I like most about Boatman is that the more flak he cops for going “off-piste”, the further off-piste he goes, cocking a snook in the process.
    I finished this, but had to come here for the parsings of 2d (where I got the idea, just not the right bits of omission so thanks to Deke) and 6d where, frankly, I was losing my enthusiasm having read the surface which looks like something Google translate spat out.
    I think “to the left” can’t work in a down clue (18).
    Of course, there are many things to admire here, with plenty of original thought.
    Thanks to S&B

  4. Deke@2- I had that as the 2d wordplay but others werent so forthcoming.

    baerchen@3- maybe Boatman is the Neil Young of crosswords. “I dont give em what they want and they come back for more”

  5. 19D there is a river Lee in Ireland, but the river that most solvers will know is the river LeA. Perhaps the clue should have read “An Irish river runs through it”?
    We were also stumped by 2D – even though Deke has explained it I don’t think many people would equate spotlit with drew attention to.
    Thanks to PeterO for the blog

  6. Thanks Boatman and PeterO

    I do usually like Boatman puzzles, but there was quite a lot I didn’t like about this one. 10 wasn’t understandable without the requisite general knowledge (which I did have, in fact); 24 went in solely from the crossers; 25 should really be “Times New Roman” rather than just “Times”, though I suppose you will see serifs if you read the paper; 6d others have commented on; I have never seen THE BUFF by itself – “in the buff” is the expression used; I too don’t like the reversal indicator in 18d.

    Favourite was EPITAPH. Charles Mingus actually wrote “Goodbye, Porkpie Hat”(his most famous composition) as an epitaph for Lester Young.

  7. I rather liked 6d.

    EPITAPH I got without realising the anagram!

    And on a similar note: HYENA is also “YEN” (if you have a yen for something it could be described as your end?) inside “HA” (ok, not particularly wild).

    Didn’t parse 2, but think SPOTLIT is perfectly fair.

    Spent ages wondering whether KEE could be a face-pull, to go with POUT making it repeatedly….

  10. Enjoyed the newspaper theme which I was relieved was not too obscurely UK-centred.

    Liked the two long phrases at 9a IN BLACK AND WHITE and 24a KEEP OUT OF THE WAY. They helped with getting some of the answers.

    Found the top half very difficult – I didn’t get 2d and like PeterO I didn’t understand until coming here, so thanks to Deke@2.

    Had a breakthrough with 6d INHIBITOR thanks to my Macgyver husband who understands about rust inhibitors. Not that I got the parsing at all, except for the OR “gold” at the end. After that breakthrough, some more answers fell into place.

    But in the end kicked myself for missing 10a DEXTER (even though I have one of Colin’s books about solving cryptics, and I love Inspector Morse) and 14a LATHER, and had to come here for the PDM for both.

    Love the Neil Young allusion, Copmus@4. Yes good on you Neil and Boatman for “cocking a snoot” at the critics!

    Thanks to PeterO and Boatman.

  11. I’m with Baerchen and Jason on 18d. Perhaps Boatman intended this as an across clue and then forgot to transpose the instruction.

  12. PS Like baerchen@3, I say, keep going “off piste” whenever you like, Boatman. I appreciate your cleverness and the many in-built challenges you present, despite the impediments I experience because of my own dull-wittedness. There will always be flak from the purists. I still find succeeding or not, that I have fun!

  13. Just got the Captcha sum wrong as I saw it as 4+6 rather than 4×6. It basically tells you to try again. So I have the answer to my question of last week. Duh – my poor maths!

  14. I failed to solve 2d and needed help to parse 6d, 19d, 23d, 20d.

    I agree with others that 18d probably started life as an across clue and does not work (for me) as a down clue.

    My favourites were APOPLEXY, TISSUE OF LIES (new phrase for me), PEEWIT (new word for me) and KEEP OUT OF THE WAY – I was pleased when I finally managed to parse the KEE bit.

    25a – does the I = Independent (newspaper)? I could parse the SERFS but I did not know what the I was supposed to be.

    Thanks PeterO and Boatman

  15. Thanks Boatman & PeterO.

    I BIFD a few of these and was another to fail on the parsing of SPLIT. I don’t particularly like ‘To the left’ in DRY ROT, although I think Eileen explained a previous clue in the sense that when the phrase is written it is of course left to right, so the instruction could pertain to the written form.

    Some nice quirky clues; my LOI was DEXTER. I don’t really understand the ‘guzzle’ in 23, unless it is a cocktail?

  16. Copmus – Excellent! I’ll have to remember that … And yes, Julie, the point is indeed to have fun. Ok, there may be a little gentle torture along the way, but once you know what to expect you shouldn’t take it too personally …

    Baerchen and others – Of course you’re right in principle about the clue to DRY ROT as used in a down light, and I think I’d mention it as a concern if anyone did the same thing in one of my (excellent value, book now for June!) masterclasses. I’d probably say that it’s clear what the clue means, but it’s not Ximenean and it’s potentially confusing. The most important test is whether it’s possible to solve the clue and to know that you have the right answer, and I’m fairly sure that in this case nobody would have spotted the solution but then ruled it out because of the way the clue was constructed. A second consideration is whether the idea is too entertaining to ditch … You mustn’t think that I have no scruples about this sort of thing, though – as you know, I’ll argue that “on” in a charade clue means “after” with an Across light but “before” with a Down, and that there the distinction matters, because giving the wrong indication really would prevent the solver from getting the right solution.

    By the way, Baerchen and Robi, there’s someone you should recognise making his debut at the Indy today …

  17. Thank you, PeterO.

    Some things to admire here – cuts in circulation for LATHE(r) was nice and FEDERAL was smooth, but I became bored and disinterested with too many that pretty much had to be right but which I couldn’t parse.

    Someone cleverer than me described the art of the crossword as, “an intriguing duel between setter & solver which the latter should be ultimately destined to win”. I don’t feel that Boatman is getting this balance quite right just now.

    Nice week, all.

  18. Perhaps being a chemist made 6 seem entirely reasonable to me. Favourite was 10. LOI was 2, of course, and I too failed to parse it (trying to add NOT rather than OT). However, I thoroughly enjoyed it all, so keep ’em coming, Boatman!

  19. It seemed, paradoxically, rather easier than most of Boatman’s efforts and more annoying. I’m also a chemist but really didn’t think that Bismuth is particularly exotic, unless the word applies to a whole range of metals (metalloids?) a bit out of the ordinary. I was irritated by DRY ROT (not only Ximenes rotating) and quite a few definitions.

    I was one of many who failed to parse 2D, but was I the only person to confidently enter OUTAGE at 14A – the definitions involved seem no more outrageous than a good few others – before deciding that 5D really wasn’t going to end in O?

    Still, pushing the boat out is always a risk and I wouldn’t want him to stop challenging us.

  20. Thanks to Boatman and PeterO. I had my usual difficulties with this setter and ended up with lots of BIFDs. E.g., FLEET ST was obvious but I could not parse it; I didn’t get the lathe-circulate in LATHER or the “keep” in KEEP OUT OF THE WAY (though the long answers were what helped me finally make it through).

  21. Deke @2

    Thanks for the explanation of 2D – obvious once you have seen it!

    In general I am on Boatman’s side in the argument over his style of crossword (and thanks to him for explaining his position so clearly), but in this case I can see the force of William’s comment @17. Perhaps it has something to do with having to blog the puzzle after its late arrival!

    michelle @14

    The i is a newspaper in its own right.

  22. Thanks Boatman and PeterO

    Am always tempted to put this fellow’s puzzles aside to a weekend because I find them such a challenge – felt brave today and started it on the train ride home. Was pleased that the bottom half went in quite nicely – with DRY ROT actually my first one in. It took ages to get a break in the top half and only WARDEN and SO THERE were there at the end of the train trip.

    Eventually got the grid completed with at least half a dozen not parsed – and still ended up not seeing the anagram of the 9a, anything other than POUT in 24a and had no idea what was going on between the IN and the OR of 6d (kept thinking H=heavy and T=tap which really led me nowhere). Was able to unravel my initial entry of SETTER in at 10a to find DEXTER – could find the times (TT) but the SEER =’put off’ just didn’t work. Eventually got DEXTER and all was well.

    Quirky ? Somewhat. Entertaining ? Definitely !!! Keep them coming, I say !!! And I’ll try to continue to be brave … 🙂

  23. 16D doesn’t necessarily refer to trains – I took it to be a neat play on clue (former newspaper = Ex-press) and answer (one that never stopped *publishing* – Express)

    9A was straight in which opened things up a bit. 24A was annoying as it was clearly OUT OF THE WAY but the KEEP bit never quite came into focus for me.

    Not too keen on the grammar of 12A.

    20D was a favourite – delighted when that one clicked.

  24. Well I did eventually manage to finish this in paper – the first few were easy enough but the last few were a real struggle and I couldn’t parse SPLIT or INHIBITOR so thanks for those. Liked TISSUE OF LIES (which also took ages to see) and EPITAPH.

    Thanks to Boatman and PeterO

  25. I had fun, though not without niggles. Seen the grid before and have never liked it, with just two links between N and S. DRY ROT I parsed OK but only on the basis that ‘To the left’ was an error. Parsed INHIBITOR too, but thought it overly tortuous. Failed to parse SPLIT, which might put me in the majority.

    But against all of that, bravo to Boatman for so many inventive ways of playing with newspaper titles – and, of course, his own name. TISSUE OF LIES was a cracker, as long as one does not take it too literally with respect to the dear old Indy.

  26. Hmm. Not happy with ‘to the left’ as a reversal in a down clue. Surely something along the lines of ‘up’ or ‘rising’ is the normal form. Not a bad crossword though and I actually found Boatman a little easier than I usually do.

  27. I’m not one of Boatman’s fans but I rather liked this. Some goodies here especially LATHER,PEEWIT,TISSUE OF LIES and EPITAPH. The latter held me up because I was vainly trying to get some reference to Charlie Mingus or Lester Young- Hi Muffin! I had trouble with HYENA and SPLIT but in the end both were OK. For some reason DEXTER eluded me. Still,good fun!
    Thanks Boatman.

  28. I was wondering when someone would mention the grid, @25. We used to have lots of such comments once upon a time. It occurred to me, when I saw it, that perhaps we might expect a bit of help in the way that has been done previously, to whit a two part answer split between top and bottom. No such luck though. Never mind, got there in the end.

  29. I enjoyed this a lot – well done Boatman for a great puzzle! It was challenging, and I didn’t manage to parse 2d (though the answer was pretty clear anyway), but lots to admire. LATHER was lovely.

    In terms of whether Boatman breaks/bends/plays with “the rules”, my view is that the rules are there for exactly that treatment. Crosswords have evolved hugely down the decades, and continue to evolve, and pushing the boundaries is an important part of that. Nowhere is it ordained that Ximenean puzzles are best/most fun/preferred by all – so why not mix it up a bit?

    Bravo Boatman!

  30. This was my first time at a Guardian Crossword, let alone a Boatman one, so I was very bewildered — at the crossword itself, and its parsing (I solved it quite quickly before turning to you guys for explanation). Thanks all concerned for an interesting experience. I might stick with the FT.

  31. Hornbeam @30, you have provided a good illustration of the fact that if the setter is going to bend the rules, then it relies on the solver bending with them. If you haven’t previously stretched the muscles on the exercise deck of the good ship Boatman, you are unlikely to be supple enough to have a clue what is going on at certain places. The danger is of evolving into the more esoteric, where a dwindling number of solvers are left to take on the challenge.
    Fine for the occasional work-out (I did enjoy it), but not for me a paragon of how the crossword should be everyday.

  32. MM and others – Thank you! Always nice to finish the day on a positive note … As for pushing boundaries, if I couldn’t set crosswords the way I do, I’m fairly sure that I wouldn’t be setting them at all – in fact, without the example of The Rev before me, I probably wouldn’t have been interested in solving them, either. Expect more of the same … which is to say, you won’t know what to expect.

    Hornbeam – Good to see a visitor from foreign parts. Some bewilderment is to be expected, so please don’t give up – I wouldn’t recommend my puzzles for a first visit to the Guardian, but do try some of my better-behaved colleagues and perhaps you’ll return to mine if you acquire a taste for them.

  33. Dexter fit, so I put it in without knowing why. Now that I’ve been reminded — didn’t Morse go for the Times puzzles rather than ours?

    If you’re in the buff, are you in nudity? Seems like the same difficulty as with “endear” yesterday.

    What can be both leashed and corked?

    Thanks Boatman, and PeterO I wish you better timing next time — thanks for the blog.

  34. Thanks all
    I agree that 6d was a pretty dreadful clue.
    I liked 14 ac and 2& 3 down, My last in was serifs, although I was within touching distance from the set off!
    15 ac left me puzzled after I had solved it.

  35. Hornbeam @30

    Welcome. I would echo Boatman’s advice – you picked on a particularly idiosyncratic puzzle, and there are many other Guardian setters who may be more to your taste.

  36. Hi Hornbeam
    Not to mention that many of the setters are in fact the same – Rufus (Dante), Paul (Mudd), Philistine (Goliath), Crucible (Redshank), etc. You can check for more in the SETTERS tab on this site.

    The nice thing is that I find that they do set slightly differently and with a different degree of difficulty at each paper.

  37. Shouldn’t the rot associated with Left Conservatives be wet rather than dry?

    Thanks to Boatman and PeterO.

  38. [DuncT @37
    Reminds me of the “Spitting Image” sketch of Thatcher dining out with her cabinet. She orders rare steak. The waiter asks “What abou the vegetables?” – “Oh, they’ll have the same as me.”

  39. Sue and I found this quite hard but enjoyable, and we could not parse SPLIT either. We were on the right track, but did did not hit on “spotlit”. I think that it’s a rather good clue on seeing that now.

    Incidentally, in lieu of last Sunday’s Everyman which would not appear for me, I took a 2002 Paul crossword to the pub instead. I found it fiendishly difficult, much harder than this. I hope that we solvers are not becoming enfeebled with the passing of the years…

    Many thanks setter, blogger and all.

  40. Pretty much illiterate crossword compiling, I thought, there’s nothing strong here at all.

    Boatman’s struggling to tell us his stories, but can’t find the right words! I used cheat a lot just to see what was intended, but in the end gave up in exasperation. Take out the trash, the grotesque forms, and solving time would be halved, I’d say. Edit edit edit.

    Let’s hope we get one of the more skilled contributors tomorrow.

  41. Valentine at 33. Yes he did, but which crossword was not specified in the clue. I rather like this and found it a fairly quick solve, although I didn’t get Dexter because I’d forgotten he wrote Morse. Some went in unparsed as usual. If I had a hat I’d take it off to PeterO for managing to parse Keep out of the way.
    I think Bill_Taylor at 40 is being perhaps a little churlish. If a quick solve is what he wants there is always the quick crossword.

  42. Muffin @ 6

    Times is a Linotype typeface subtly different from Monotype’s Times New Roman. Perhaps Boatman uses an Apple computer, (which has both).

  43. Excellent puzzle. Nice handling of the theme.

    Good to see some decent cluing for a change – the landscape is becoming so bland these days – mainly since the bare-faced lie – that ximeneanism was “orthodox”, when it was actually at that time the exception – in early editions of the Chambers Manaul – has become what is now known as “the narrative”.

    Barnard never recognised “truth in capitals” – why should anyone. Aruacaria and the other guardian greats mainly followed his ideas – I believe they were quite well thought of in their day.

    The only boundaries being pushed here are those around the cruciverbal children’s paddling pool. Give me deep-end cluing any day. Those who can’t swim (or don’t want to) should note the setter’s name and stay away if they don’t like that sort of thing – spare us their pre-baked quibbles.

  44. Thanks PeterO and Boatman. I only started on this puzzle today, and was surprised to find it relatively tractable – I usually find Boatman one of the hardest setters. Some of the wordplay was pretty involved, I agree, but in those cases the solutions were usually not too hard to spot. Overall, I liked this – and I agree with Boatman@16 that the fun factor in 18d (DRY ROT) outweighs the questionable nature of the reversal indicator. Please keep ’em coming (but only on my good days!).

  45. I think it’s great that people can criticize a puzzle, say what they think. It’s not so great that they are then criticized for criticizing. I would be critical of that. No … wait …

  46. Hi Meg

    A quick solve for me is neither here nor there, it’s about the quality of the workmanship! There are enjoyable fast solves, and enjoyable slow solves, of course, as well as puzzles like this.

    Unlike JollySwagman I don’t know about Ximenean orthodoxy, as a matter of fact, couldn’t care less, but I like to think I know a little of basic English grammar.

  47. PaulB @45
    I’m with you – if we are criticised for criticising, this site seems to lose its raison d’etre

  48. There is a kind of illiteracy here, you could say, in that the understanding between surface and underlying grammar is disrupted in a number of clues. That worries me re Guardian. This ‘technique’ is not so difficult to get really, and we have puzzle upon puzzle that doesn’t make the connection. I agree with others that an editor is needed urgently here, and the current guy doesn’t cut the mustard. Let’s try ….anyone else ASAP, and let’s sack these crappy ‘compilers’.

  49. @metraton

    ” Let’s try ….anyone else ”

    Precisely. Why do you come here at all? Why did you do this puzzle; with its setter’s name clearly indicated? What is this technique that you purport to understand that you claim Boatman doesn’t?

    The whole thing is so trivially easy that people who boast about their intense understanding of it are really only revealing how minimal their intellect is. If you don’t understand the style of cluing used by Boatman – which is merely a continuation of what Araucaria (who is widely (and rightly) regarded as the all-time doyen of setters) did – you’d be better off somewhere else. Maybe The Times – where they have a painting-by-numbers rulebook to keep the curtain-twitchers at bay – although apparently the current rulebook is slightly different from the rulebook of the previous editor – just as cluing a la Ximenes is slightly different from cluing a la Barnard (referring to their books) – even though for the most part they overlap.

    Addording tho the site rules you need to specify precisely which clues were illiterate etc.

    These broadside attacks on non-ximenean setters are all the same. Non-specific and pre-baked. You have to wonder whether those supplying them even did the puzzle. They just see the setter’s name and out it all comes.

    As far as sacking setters goes if I were a puzzle editor I would apply a simple rule – any setter who back-stabs anyone else on the team is immediately cast into outer darkenss.

    That would be Manley and Bringloe gone – in the past Custos (one of the better ximmies by his puzzles – but a devious backstabber by his writings) would have been out too – that would have saved a lot of trouble.

    Everyone knows what to expect on the Guardian – variety. Boatman’s stuff is part of the mix – a very significant and well-established part.

    There are plenty of other sources of puzzle – if you’re poor quite a lot of them are free – surely enough to keep almost anyone busy.

    Boatman’s in good company here – Araucaria had to put up with this sort of nonsense to the extent that (so we are told) he never even looked at the blogs. Why would he? If you were The Beatles you wouldn’t waste your time reading negative comments from fans of the Dave Clark Five.

  51. “Bits and Pieces is a song by 1960s quintet The Dave Clark Five. The single hit number two in the UK and number four in the US. The song was a success in other countries too. It was number two in Australia and number one in Canada and Ireland. It reached number four in the Netherlands.”

    The unknown entity Barnard wasn’t even in the charts, as far as I know. So put a sock in it, Swagshout.

  52. The River Lea is also known as the Lee and flows from near Luton, through Hertfordshire and into the Thames. I only found out about the alternative spellings a couple of weeks ago.

  53. Catching up.
    Jolly S – Hear! Hear!
    I had no trouble solving, parsing or enjoying this puzzle – fully. Swifter solve, sadly, than the usual maritime fare but definitely one of the more enjoyable Guardian puzzles of recent days. I don’t believe I’m imagining it but could the Guardian puzzles be getting generally less puzzling? I thought Boatman’s use of theme and some of the attendant surfaces quite superb. I did raise an eyebrow slightly at DRY ROT (wondering whether another contributor might have suggested “on the up” instead of “to the Left” but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment). EPITAPH was a great clue I thought.
    So thanks Boatman – nicely done!

  54. Thanks PeterO and Boatman, and especial thanks to Deke for the parsing of SPLIT which fouled me as well – my other parsing failure being INHIBITOR.

    On the whole, I agree with BruceW’s comments. I always find Boatman tough and sometimes infuriating, but so long as there’s nothing plainly wrong and the answer can only be what it is, then that’s good enough for me.

    And a tough challenge risen to is all the more rewarding.

Comments are closed.