Guardian 26,900 / Bonxie

40 comments on “Guardian 26,900 / Bonxie”

1. Thank you, Eileen.

   I was doubly pleased to see this fine offering from Bonxie. Firstly, because of its wit and elegance, but secondly because it gives me a chance to counterbalance my rather negative comments of yesterday about surface.

   This, for me, is a tutorial on how to create excellent crossword clues. It’s not simply a question of difficult v easy, it’s all about creating a word picture which initially false-foots the solver but which eventually yields with a grin.

   Instances are everywhere today, but I particularly liked DEALERSHIPS, GLAD RAGS, and CANISTER.

   COPERS went in unparsed so thanks to Eileen for ferreting that out (no reference to 16d intended.)

   Also smiled at the ‘high doubts’ homophone.

   Smashing stuff, Bonxie, more please.

   Nice week, all.

2. …I forgot to mention the theme – when I saw your COPER, I put it alongside PINNACE and dealerSHIP and thought we were going nautical, but it didn’t seem to lead anywhere.

3. Thank you Bonxie and Eileen.

   There was a theme for me, my first entry was MEIOW followed by SMOGGY and “put away one dropping litter” – sadly one of our cats had to be put to sleep yesterday evening.

   Well done, Eileen, finding the second definition of COPERS.

   Many great clues, HIDEOUTS, TABLESPOON, WORD GAME and PERVERSE, among others, and the quadruple definition for BUTT!

4. Thanks Eileen. Your blog was very informative.

   Off my game today with problems in both NE and SW, with few solves. Enjoyed the rest. May have given up too easily or just not on Bonxie’s wavelength?

   Of the ones I got, favourites were 18d PERVERSE and 22d CANOPY.

   Thanks to Bonxie as well; hope to see more puzzles from this setter so I can get a better feel for his/her style.

5. [cholecyst – please see my comment @39 under yesterday’s blog]

6. WFP – I never read yesterday’s blog.

   Thanks Eileen and Bonxie. Much wit here, though I’d never heard of COPERS meaning booze suppliers but it had to be that.

7. Thanks to Bonxie and Eileen. Great fun, particularly BUTT. I struggled at times because of various components of the clues that were new to me, so that I needed Eileen’s help in the parsing. E.g., I did not know “moggy” as a pet, the cricket BYES, the nautical sense of COPERS, or the plant lupin for MANIPULATE and did not catch the “boing” sound for BORING, but perseverance paid off.

8. Its great to see Bonxie again-a class act indeed.I liked just about all the clues and your blog,Eileen. As for COPERS- it was the only word fitting the crossers and complying with any definition…then Chambers to the rescue.

9. Apart from the computer problems (I don’t want any of them please) my thoughts on this crossword coincide with Eileen’s introduction, but then it is a rare day when we disagree about crosswords.

   Thanks to Eileen and Bonxie

10. I found this just as hard as yesterday, and needed a couple of stabs before I got the likes of WORD GAME and BUTT, but found it a much more rewarding solve – as you say, Eileen, it’s all a matter of surfaces. I liked the sound of spring – BOING – and the “BUM PINTO”.

11. We agree with everyone else. A great crossword , not unduly hard, lots of laughs. Like the rest of you, great thanks to Eileen for parsing COPERS, and for the blog itself. Thanks Bonxie. More please

12. I enjoyed the humour in this puzzle. My favourite was PERVERSE and I also liked BORING, MEOW, MANIPULATE, DEALERSHIP, BUMP INTO.

    I was unable to parse 23a.

    Thank you Bonxie and Eileen.

13. Bonxie is a very fine setter – this was just as good as yesterday’s Screw if not quite so difficult. Some lovely misdirection. COPERS was unfamiliar but easy enough to check. SMOGGY was last in but should have been obvious in retrospect (another mark of great setting). Favourite was probably WORD GAME.

    Thanks to Bonxie and Eileen

    PS Since Eileen was there, I noticed that Big Dave has posted some pictures from Derby (and various other recent gatherings) here:

    http://bigdave44.com/features/the-gallery/cruciverbal-meetings-2016/

14. Can’t say I cared for SMOGGY much- smoggy is bad for one’s breathing- seems rather clumsy. The rest was ok though. I rather liked PINNACE,TABLESPOON,CANOPY and DEPUTISE. I didn’t know the nautical COPER and I didn’t spot the four definitions in BUTT so thanks for them- oh, BORING was good too!
    Thanks Bonxie.

15. I too found this both easier and more enjoyable than yesterday’s – just a style preference, not a criticism of Screw. I couldn’t fully parse OREGON or WORD GAME. I often forget that “men” can be OR, and I missed WORD = “undertaking”. I also needed to confirm online that COPERS supply alcohol.

    Like Eileen, I have too many favourites to list them all here.

    Thanks, Bonxie and Eileen.

16. This took a bit of cracking, but I got there in the end with a bit of help. Some excellent clues; to take just one example, 26ac needed reading really carefully to realise that ‘in’ was part of the definition and that the ‘back exercise’ was ‘sit-up’ reversed, not ‘PE’ reversed. And there were plenty more.

    Thanks, Bonxie and Eileen.

17. I liked GLAD RAGS with its pleasing noun/verb switch between surface and cryptic readings – one of my favorite devices. I guessed 24d was a multi-definitional type but needed both crossers to see it. The lustre’s somewhat taken off by the fact that the second and fourth synonyms are so similar. Might have been nicer as, say, “Hit barrel behind target”.
    Quite tough, but I’m not sure why, having looked again after the fact.
    Thanks, Bonxie and Eileen (especially for finding the second COPER meaning).

18. A crossword to leave you smiling. Great.

19. Late to the party, but just to say that I agree with all the positive comments on this puzzle.. Lovely surfaces & much fun – your use of “quirky” really does describe many of the definitions, Eileen. My favourite was “butt”!

    Many thanks to Bonxie & Eileen.

20. I’ve been out since shortly after posting the blog – I’m glad to see such general enjoyment of the puzzle. I wish we saw more of Bonxie.

    There do seem to be rather a lot of animals, mostly in the clues – sow, horse, ferrets, poodles, ape and moggy, plus its beastly outburst – but I didn’t notice that this morning, because I’d looked up to see when was the Bonxie puzzle I blogged [three years ago!] http://www.fifteensquared.net/2013/05/23/guardian-25955-bonxie/ and discovered it was one I particularly remembered – a real tour de force, in which every clue contained the name of an animal, most of them cleverly not actually referring to an animal. So I’m not sure whether this one was just a coincidence – but there are rather a lot! 😉

21. Thanks to Eileen and Bonxie.

    Eileen, your answer for 11ac was Flood Plains. It should read Plain. I parsed it as Plain = regular. Flood = current. An excellent puzzle, I thought.

22. I meant to say ‘when was the *last* Bonxie puzzle I blogged’.

23. Thanks, ChrisS @21

    I [re]wrote the blog in rather a hurry! – amended now.

24. Would you say ‘it’s bad for one’s breathing out today’, meaning ‘it’s smoggy out today’? I would not. A few other things are a little loose, but Bonxie is pretty good really. Enjoyed it.

25. bill_taylor @24

    Perhaps not – but ‘It’s / the weather’s smoggy/bad for one’s breathing today’ works for me.

26. Very enjoyable…. Copers possibly more a prize word,and I spell blather with an a 🙂 . Some nice misdirection and a good variety of clue types.

27. Hi Westdale @26

    …and some would with an e – they’re all in the dictionaries – but I would only ever say ‘blithering idiot’. 😉

28. That’s interesting, Eileen (@27). I hadn’t made the mental connection. If I were to use any of the variants as a verb to describe someone talking too much, I would say they were ‘blathering on’ but, like you, I’d only use the ‘idiot’ phrase as ‘a blithering idiot’.

29. Smog caused by traffic pollution still occurs in “modern” London.

30. I’m with Eileen, William (@1) and others who say that this was an excellent crossword. I thoroughly enjoyed tackling this today on a park bench and finishing it in a cafe – with no internet or books to hand. It was most rewarding and a joy to solve.

    I counted 10 favourite clues, of which the best was 24D (BUTT). The quadruple definition really took me too long to twig, as there was no other possible construction to the clue. After failing to get it with just B––– I got it quickly when the ‘T’ dropped in. On this subject, I liked phitonelly’s point @17 and thought his revised clue for this was even better (but Bonxie may have thought that ‘barrel’ pointed too readily to the answer).

    Many thanks to Bonxie and to Eileen.

31. Lots to enjoy. Hope Bonxie comes back again soon. Thankyou Eileen for copers second def. I justified it as COOPERS, the brewery , with a letter deletion, ie in the main/mainly.
    Still not clear about FLOOD PLAIN. Was looking for a ‘contrarily’ indicator. ie Regular = PLAIN. Flood = CURRENT

32. Thanks bonxie and Eileen
    Struggling with an uncooperative tablet, I have up in frustration with about 2/3done; nevertheless just about every clue done was a real joy to solve!

33. AB @30

    Surely there is another another construction for BUTT. (in fact one which is more likely IMHO). It’s a Double Definition.

    “Hit victim” = BUTT as in 4 An object of (or of) teasing, ridicule, abuse, etc. e17.

    and

    “behind target = BUTT as in 1 A mound upon which a target is set up for archery or shooting practice;

34. BNTO @33

    Very ingenious! I thought of ‘hit victim’ in that sense but not ‘behind target’ – so I did miss this possibility.

    However, I did think of an alternative clue for 20A (BUMP INTO) that some solvers might think a bit unfair:

    “Brendan (not that one) envelops posh member I meet by chance (4,4)”

35. BNTO @33
    Doesn’t “A mound upon which a target is set up for archery or shooting practice” suggest “below target” rather than “behind target”?

    Like you and Alan Browne, I did group “hit” and “victim”, making it a triple definition, but now I think Eileen’s parsing is better. Otherwise it’s a heck of a coincidence that each of the four words individually can mean BUTT.

    Alan Browne @34
    Your alternative clue may perhaps be unfair, but it is amusing nevertheless.

36. jennyk (@35)
    Concerning the quadruple definition, I thought the clue’s surface was good too.
    And when I joined ‘hit’ and ‘victim’ it seemed at the time to lead nowhere, so I rejected it. When the penny dropped I saw it only as a quadruple definition.

37. JennyK @35

    It may “sound” like it’s under the target but just look up “archery butt sale” and you’ll see hundreds of “butts”

    Click here for an example. They are all definitely behind the target. If they weren’t archery would be even more dangerous!

    This probably works better as a Double Def as “hit” = “butt” is rather weak.

38. BNTO @37
    That type of butt is definitely used behind the target and so would fit your parsing of the clue. However, my comment was about the definition you gave @33, which was for a different type of butt (a mound on which the target stands), and that would have to be below the target.

    I don’t see why you think “hit” = “butt” is weak when Oxford, Chambers and Collins all give “hit” as one of the definitions of “butt”, at least in their online versions.

39. Thanks Bonxie and Eileen

    Got to this one on Friday and only managed to check it off tonight. Agree with the plaudits for a very good puzzle that I found pretty hard going in the early stages but then it came in a mini rush at the end.

    Was another who didn’t know COPER … and have still not been able to find the deep-sea meaning in any of the on-line references. It was my last one in after CANISTER (which was quite well hidden in reverse) and CANOPY (which looks simple now its in although it did hold out for a while).

40. Thanks Eileen and Bonxie.

    A beautifully crafted puzzle this with smooth surfaces.

    I didn’t know the grog-supply meaning of COPERS but it was in my old faithful Shorter OED so that went in early.

    CANISTER was my last one in. I spent a short diversion looking up collective nouns – fruitless in terms of this crossword but interesting for future reference – it’s a BUSINESS or BUSYNESS of ferrets!

    Favourite was BUMP INTO.

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