The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27201.
When you see the name Enigmatist at the top of a crossword, you know you are in for a work-out, as indeed proved here. It was a matter of staring for quite a time at a few answers in an otherwise empty grid; but gradually the blanks filled in, and the wordplay unravelled (in a few cases the latter a considerable time after the former), until the grid was completed.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ROSE BOWL | Stadium‘s 12 tiers back housing appeal to Lord Coe (4,4) |
| An envelope (‘housing’) of O SEB (‘appeal to Lord Coe’) in ROW L (’12 tiers back’ A, B, C…). | ||
| 5 | SHUT UP | Cage St! (4,2) |
| Double definition. ‘st’ as an injunction to be silent. | ||
| 9 | CONSTRUED | Interpreted reductions suspiciously (getting one free) (9) |
| An anagram (‘suspiciously’) of ‘reduct[i]ons’ minus the I (‘getting one free’). | ||
| 11 | SHEET | Something for the bed made from these? (5) |
| An anagram (‘made from’) of ‘these’. | ||
| 12 | MEDDLESOMELY | Gong sounded by wretched Moyles so intrusive (12) |
| A charade of MEDDLE, a homopone (‘sounded’) of MEDAL (‘gong’) plus SOMELY, an anagram (‘wretched’) of ‘Moyles’. | ||
| 15 | I SAY | A twist of celery as inherent goodness! (1,3) |
| A hidden reversed (‘a twist of’ – at a pinch, it can serve to describe both manoeuvres) in ‘celerY AS Inherent’. Goodness has nothing to do with it. | ||
| 16 | STENOTYPER | Shorthand recorder sent poetry for review (10) |
| An anagram (‘for review’) of ‘sent poetry’. | ||
| 18 | GUMSHOEING | Pinkerton’s work setting for choppers, scrapers in hand (10) |
| A charade of GUMS (‘setting for chopper’) plus HOEING (‘scrapers in hand’?). Pinkerton founded the (American) National Detective Agency. | ||
| 19 | ASTI | Italian wine‘s up 80% (4) |
| 4/5 (‘80%’) of ‘asti[r]’ (‘up’). Cruciverbalists may be dumbfounded, but there are other Italian wines. | ||
| 21 | CHEESETASTER | Bare pass (Group A) obtained in old Roman city sampler (12) |
| An envelope (‘obtained in’) of E (‘bare pass’ – at least, not an F) plus SET A (‘Group A’) in CHESTER (‘old Roman city’). | ||
| 24 | OVOLO | Totally silent, it appears, over architectural feature (5) |
| A charade of O VOL (zero volume, ‘totally silent’) plus O (‘over’). | ||
| 25 | NEEDS MUST | Adolescent problems? Daughter accepted reverses couldn’t be helped (5,4) |
| An envelope (‘accepted’) of D (‘daughter’) in NEESMUST, a reversal (‘reverses’) of TSUMSEEN, an indirect envelope of SUMS in TEEN (‘adolescent problems?’). | ||
| 26 | STEAMY | Tropical divers mistakenly missing broken link (6) |
| An anagram (‘divers’) of ‘mistakenly’ minus the letters of ‘link’ (‘missing broken link’). | ||
| 27 | STRIKE UP | Protest’s afoot: start singing! (6,2) |
| A charade of STRIKE (‘protest’) plus UP (‘afoot’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ROCK | Woman’s dress sets off fine diamond (4) |
| [f]ROCK (‘woman’s dress’) minus the F (‘sets off fine’). | ||
| 2, 22 | SINECURE | Like a cold seat on the gravy train? (8) |
| Cryptic definition, I suppose. | ||
| 3, 4, 6 | BUTTER WOULDN’T MELT IN HIS MOUTH | He’s not troubled with tumult in a little margarine spread (6,7,4,2,3,5) |
| An anagram (‘spread’) of ‘hes not troubled with tumult in’ plus M (‘a little Margarine’), with I suppose what is intended as an extended definition, but I think it is rather flaky. | ||
| 4 | See 3 | |
| 6 | See 3 | |
| 7 | THE TEMPEST | Work of weather people, half looking up in anticipation of trouble (3,7) |
| A charade of THE TEM, which is THE MET (‘weather people’) with the latter half reversed (‘half looking up’) plus (‘in anticipation of’) PEST (‘trouble’). The ‘work’ is by Shakespeare, of course. | ||
| 8 | POTTY-TRAIN | Tube to Barking? Show children the way to go (5-5) |
| Cryptic definition and definition. | ||
| 10 | DIE ON ONES FEET | Come to an unexpected end, as addition to private bill going through Parliament? (3,2,4,4) |
| An envelope (‘going through’) of ON ONES FEE (‘addition to private bill’) in DIET (‘Parliament’). | ||
| 13 | KINGS CROSS | “End of the line” letter on valentine’s card to Mrs Simpson? (5,5) |
| Definition and cryptic definition (with reference to Wallis Simpson, the King being the uncrowned Edward VIII). | ||
| 14, 17 | CALM BEFORE THE STORM | 0 or 1, then 10 — or, on the face of it, 3,4,6, then 7? (4,6,3,5) |
| The Beaufort scale: CALM (‘0 or 1’ – 1 is actually light air) BEFORE (‘then’) THE STORM (’10’); then essentially the same repeated in terms of clue answers – although CALM for “‘on the face of it’, BUTTER WOULD’NT MELT IN HIS MOUTH” seems to me a bit of a stretch, though I think I get the idea that such a person’s face would show calm. | ||
| 17 | See 14 | |
| 20 | JET SKI | Either side of Channel I voiced disapproval aboard water vehicle (3,3) |
| An envelope (‘aboard’) of TSK (‘voiced disapproval’) in JE plus I (‘either side of Channel, I’ – French and English). | ||
| 22 | See 2 | |
| 23 | STOP | Block series of TGVs to Paris (4) |
| A hidden answer (‘series of’) in ‘TGVS TO Paris’. TGV is Train à Grand Vitesse,a high-speed train. | ||
I was able to guess/solve a lot of answers but could not parse them – 2/22 (I thought it might an anagram but was too lazy to work out the fodder), 3/4/6, 1a, 5a, 24a, 7d, 20d, 23d. It was not a very satisfying experience for me – it was hard work and not much fun. Of course, that is not the fault of the setter. I was just unable to see how the clues worked.
My favourites were KINGS CROSS and POTTY TRAIN.
New word for me was GUMSHOEING and I failed to solve I SAY.
Thanks PeterO and Enigmatist.
Well, I knew SH and PSST but ST is a new one on me, as was OVOLO. I enjoyed this more than I expected, especially the Tube and the Valentine.
St means “be silent”? How come?
I noticed a simpler, and perhaps more direct, parsing of NEEDS MUST. “Problems Daughter” gives SUMS D, inside T EEN, all reversed.
I parse 2,22d as “sine cure” as in (Latin) “without a cure”, much like a cold is – with “seat on the gravy train” as the definition.
A real workout today, with a few new words in both the answers and the parsing. Satisfying once solved though, although I confess that I probably wouldn’t have made it without the aid of some of the online checking helping to nudge my hunches along.
Thanks Enigmatist and PeterO
Too many “guess first, then try to parse” (or not!) ones for me to really enjoy this, though I did solve CONSTRUED and STENOTYPER the other way round. Like Michelle, my favourites were KINGS CROSS and POTTY TRAIN. I parsed SINECURE as Fieldsman at 5 (I remembered S.P. – sine prole). “ST” for “be quiet” is new to me too.
I got THE TEMPEST from “Work of weather”, but that was just luck, as “weather” would have to be doing double duty for that to be the construction.
I forgot to say that “strike up” in a musical sense suggests instruments rather than voice to me, as in “strike up the band”.
….though Chambers does include “sing”.
Three quarters of this went in relatively easily I was starting to say ‘who are you and what have you done with Mr Henderson?’ but then I hit the SW corner. The lovely 13d helped me finish off the rest in a very reasonable time for an Enigmatist.
I only found out that ST could mean quiet the other day when testing a crossword so I’m glad I filed it away for future use.
Thanks to Enigmatist for a lovely start to Friday morning and to PeterO for the explanations
Crypticsue – could you share with me how St means “be quiet”, please? I can see p or sh being used but haven’t come across St. In what context is it used?
David @10 “St!” is a fairly archaic version of “Psst!”, I think, “a sound made to attract someone’s attention” according to Chambers.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
This was very tough in places, as is to be expected with E. Can’t recall seeing or hearing The Met (as opposed to The Met Office) = weather people. And sine cure = ‘like a cold’ didn’t really work for me, as it’s half Latin and half English – all in Latin would be sine cura… those aside, very enjoyable.
Yes. “The met” without “office” is surely the police. Incidentally, is anyone else haunted by clues from the past? I can’t see the phrase “potty train” without the word “loco” popping into my head!
Thanks, Brian, but that doesn’t work for me at all.
The best that I can come up with is that it could be a contraction of hist, an archaic (Scottish?) way of telling someone to be quiet, but that explanation is very unconvincing.
I await enlightenment.
Occasionally I think Enigmatist is trying a bit too hard.
I’m with muffin on “strike up”. I know one ought to defer to Chambers, but I’m a singer, and I can’t imagine “strike up” being used for singing – it always refers to instruments (though singers might be involved in the same piece with them). I tried to make “sine cure” work like Fieldsman, but I don’t think it does (colds do have cures, after all), and I think the double definition idea is probably correct, the seat being cold because the incumbent doesn’t do much work so doesn’t occupy it.”St” for silent can also be found in Chambers, though I think it’s old-fashioned now. And surely “butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth” implies that somebody appears to be perfectly innocent of any wrong-doing, rather than that they are calm, as such.
Just adding my voice to the others. I was expecting a tough workout and that’s what I got. I needed to look up OVOLO, and a few other solutions were written in lightly at first.
POTTY TRAIN and KINGS CROSS were the highlights.
Thanks Enigmatist and PeterO.
Jason @15 – there is no cure for the common cold, although there are ways to relieve symptoms! If I have parsed it right then I find the juxtaposition of Latin and English a bit awkward but I don’t really see how the clue works otherwise.
Bravo PeterO for hacking your way through this lot
I got the answers – some I tried to parse but failed (OVOLO, CALM BEFORE THE STORM) some I didn’t bother trying, in particular CHEESETASTER. What is that about? It’s not as if the incomprehensible parts add up to a satisfying whole, is it? Who says E is a bare pass, anyway?
I liked SINECURE, ASTI, POTTY TRAIN and STEAMY
I agree on POTTY TRAIN and KINGS CROSS being highlights.OVOLO was cool too.
But thank you Peter O for the GUMS
And thank you so much Enigmatist.
Perhaps Enigmatist might consider a new pseudonym. I’d suggest”Humpty Dumpty”.
This puzzle was a little too convoluted for my liking though with the exception of SINE CURE I did manage to complete it. However, like others it would seem, I needed PeterO’s input to fully grasp some of the solutions. But I still don’t understand how MEDDLESOMELY (an adverb) equates to intrusive (an adjective). POTTY TRAIN was my favouriteMy thanks to setter and blogger.
Thank you Enigmatist and PeterO.
I managed to fill in the grid, but had to cheat on OVOLO. As for the parsing, a lot of it was done post solve, but not that for ROSE BOWL or JET SKI – or for some of the long answers.
The only Pinkerton that came to my mind was the naval officer in Madama Butterfly, I could not see him painting on a Plimsoll line.
The clues for KINGS CROSS and POTTY TRAIN were great.
lancsolver@21
I think the ‘so’ in ‘so intrusive’ gives you ‘[acting] in this manner one is intrusive’. I suppose it’s just to avoid having a ‘-ly’ in the clue, but I agree it’s a bit awkward.
I must say that this was a test too far for me. On the first pass I only had 20d and then just stared at the puzzle for ages without any comprehension. Then, 1a came, but not parsed, and that led to 3,4,6 and then others rolled. I failed totally in the SW as I had LATINITASTER for 21a. Lots I couldn’t parse. GUMSHOEING is a totally new word for me.
Thanks to PeterO for the education and Enigmatist for the challenge.
Thanks to Enigmatist and PeterO. I got what I expected here – words new to me or that I could not parse. Like others I could not explain the extra E in CHEESETASTER or THE TEMPEST or CALM BEFORE THE STORM and had difficulty with SHUT UP and ROSE BOWL.
Like some others I had some reservations about the over-complexity, but as I remember that’s par for the course with Enigmatist. I particularly liked ROSE BOWL, POTTY-TRAIN, JET SKI and KINGS CROSS. Many thanks to E and P.
Not my sort of crossword. Mostly only solvable by converting it into a Quick Crossword by identifying and deleting the cryptic content. Then to find out that a full solve relied on one being aware of the Metropolitan Police’s recent move into the weather forecasting business and that the Romans occupied a city called Chester; disappointing.
Cookie @22
I believe that the Pinkerton in Madam Butterfly is named after the one in the clue. Puccini’s librettists chose it as a typical American name – which is ironic, since the real Pinkerton came from Scotland.
Van Winkle @27
The name Chester even derives from the Latin castrum.
@PeterO
…though the city of Chester was called Deva in Roman times.
“Pinkerton” reminded me that I used to think that “Grieg” was a typical Norwegian surname, until I discovered that he had inherited it from a Scottish great-grandfather called Greig.
Didn’t do at all well with this!
Some of it my stupidity, such as 13d, even though I’d used that very terminal on Sunday and Tuesday, and in 18a, despite knowing perfectly well that Pinkerton’s profession was a gumshoe, I didn’ t think of it as a verb.
Some of the others were a bit odd, such as E for a bare pass in 21a, the definition of 3, 4 and 6d, which I understand as referring to someone who appears totally innocent while being guilty as sin.
Despite all of that, thanks to Enigmatist for a devious puzzle and to PeterO for making the best of it!
Sorry, PeterO – I’ve only just noticed your Mae West (?) paraphrase in the explanation of I SAY!
Does the clue for CALM BEFORE THE STORM have a definition? Peter has generously given it as a double definition. It seems to me more like a double wordplay. The second part is pretty odd. The first part literally describes calm before a storm, but doesn’t try to give the essence of the phrase, which is generally not used in a meteorological context.
James @ 33: I saw the definition as ‘0 or 1, then 10’, meaning the wind speed: 0 or 1 is calm, 10 is storm.
drofle@33
Yes, I get that. My point is that that only indicates the elements of the solution (as does the other half of the clue) rather than give the meaning of the phrase.
Thanks PeterO (for parsing many that I could not) and Enigmatist.
re 16a – I have heard of ‘stenographer’ and ‘steno-typist’, but not stenotyper!
I also recall an old joke: The striking stenographers declared: “We shall not be dictated to!”
PeterO @28, that is interesting, talking of Scotland, muffin @32 is right, Grieg’s great-great-grandfather was named Alexander McGregor, he changed his name to Greig after emigrating to Norway in 1770, the family later changed it to Grieg since that was easier for Norwegians to pronounce.
This has taken me all day. When I saw it was an Enigmatist this morning, I put away the BRB and Bradfords, did the shopping and printed it out, pencils sharpened. I never do crosswords online as its all too easy to to use that cheat button. Get the answer but not really solving? I once had a puzzle from this setter on my clipboard for ten days! So, today I am pleased to have completed it and it was a refreshing change from what has become usual, boring Guardian fodder (which I still do anyway, daily).
Thanks to the setter and the very brave Peter O
A late post. I wonder why? Partly because I had little time before 4pm, but it’s nearly 7 now; it’s not been full on all that time I do have other things to do in my life – but nearly.
When Pasquale is the week’s light relief, pretty much, you know it’s been a tough time. With some other setters (yes you Imogen) I doubt if I would have persevered that long, but there’s something about Enigmatist that dares you to stare a little longer. Yes, sometimes the surfaces are nonsense – tumult in margarine? – but it’s as if he dares you to keep on going. Well, works for me anyway.
The best that can be said for this is that, by Enigmatist’s own personal standards, this is far from the most unfair puzzle he’s had published. Nonetheless, there’s no pleasure to be derived from a setter who is so in love with obscurity for its own sake.
I agree with all the criticisms made above, so won’t repeat them, other than to say that to clue an adverb as an adjective is unpardonable, and 14,17 is an abomination not only with regard to Beaufort.
Thanks Enigmatist; I did solve this with a bit of guessing; 3,4,6 went in early, which helped.
Thanks PeterO; I can’t see what the problem is with SINECURE. SINE is in Chambers as without, and the common cold certainly hasn’t a cure as Fieldman @17 points out.
A tough but enjoyable solve.
Re SINECURE – I think Fieldsman @5 has the right idea – thanks! I only wish one day they would discover a cure!
On the whole an excellent puzzle, very challenging: but a few negative points:
I’m not sure about definition of 3/4/6. In my book it means “insincere”, “feigning innocence”, that sort of thing. Maybe “not troubled” is vaguely relevant?
MEDDLESOMELY is an adverb but the definition seems to want an adjective. Any comment on this? And I didn’t think GUMSHOE could be used as a verb – but maybe it can still take the -ING suffix. As to STENOTYPER, I thought the word ended in -IST. CHEESETASTER looks like it should be two words, perhaps the letter-count should have been “6-6”.
Sorry about the gripes! Enjoyed this one though.
Point of info: for those who didn’t know, Pinkerton’s Detective Agency features in the Sherlock Holmes story ‘The Valley of Fear’. Not that this bit of knowledge will help you in the puzzle!
As usual, this was a struggle. LOI was GUMSHOEING and I thought it quite excellent, even though I tore my hair out while trying to get it. I got STRIKE UP, POTTY TRAIN and JET SKI fairly quickly, and there were a few which were almost absurdly easy-STOP,ASTI,I SAY and ROCK – but others which were really tricksy- even STENOTYPER, which was an anagram!
I wouldn’t say I enjoyed this but I’m chuffed that I finished it albeit with a little help!!!!
Thanks Enigmatist
Just too tough for me! Two in, then I surrendered.
Nightmare. I agree with many of the criticisms above. As a professional singer I have never been invited to “strike up” and can only imagine a band doing so.
I don’t recall how many years Enigmatist has been setting, but I have never completed a single one! My average achievement is about 70% clues completed for him.
The problem for me for today’s was the proliferation of long, semi-interdependent clues. I failed to get any one of them, and after completing about eight, I cheated on 1ac, and then 3d was immediate so I quickly then completed about three quarters.
Thanks Enigmatist and definitely PeterO.
(Looking forward to seeing the solution to last Saturday’s prize – my worst crossword ever, I think, just four clues completed)
Re AlexCrewe @45: Wise decision. I’ve learnt from experience that the best way to deal with an Enigmatist is to wait for the blog and decide retrospectively just how unfair it was.
We’re really proud of ourselves today!
We got it all right.
Which I think is quite an achievement given that we tackled the puzzle – as ever – at the local Waitrose cafe without any external help whatsoever.
Understanding how it all worked was a different matter.
We couldn’t (fully) parse 5ac, 2/22d, 7d and 14/17d.
And we gave up doing so (which is something that’s very unlike me).
Enigmatist’s brain and what’s inside my head were clearly not created by the same God.
I can easily say that because my brain wasn’t created by a God anyway.
Fair? Unfair?
Loose at times?
Whatever one thinks, it felt actually as something very satisfying to have it all right.
[which isn’t always the case in a Rufus!]
Tomorrow’s Paul wiil surely be a pushover after this!
Many thanks to B & S.
I feel I have to strke a blow for the defence…
I think Enigmatist is a top class setter. But, as others have commented above, you know that you’re going to be in for a struggle. That doesn’t mean it’s unfair, just that you have to be prepared to step out from the comfort zone of your usual thinking. I did hear him say once, when asked why he set such difficult puzzles, that he didn’t set out to set difficult ones. It’s just the way his mind works, and that’s not a criticism in the slightest.
The clues are always very fairly constructed once you’ve worked out where he’s coming from.
I solved this on trains, mostly, with no access to external aids of any form. And I enjoyed the tussle very much.
Ouch – this was hard and no Suzee to help me as she is at a wake this evening – anyway I love seeing Enigmatist as he is one of the few compilers who were around when my Mum was alive – I didn’t parse some but I don’t really care once they’re obvious – I cheated on one by looking up word O_O_O – I had tentatively entered a half-remembered word “OGIVE” which was something architectural but clearly now not correct – my main faux pas was putting in “DIE IN ONES VEST” – I couldn’t parse it (obviously) but I loved the image…
I suppose I approach an Enigmatist puzzle with a sene of defeatism that means I give up whereas with another setter I might persevere.I did solve about three-quarters – not the SW – but can’t say I enjoyed it. 3,4,6 and 27 seem to me to be wrongly defined and 7d “work” as a definition for THE TEMPEST seems inadequate. 21a -there are too many old Roman cities for this to be helpful in solving. I liked 8d and 19a was a new approach to crosswordlan’s favouite tipple. I must admit that I spent some time trying to fit “Marge” into 11d. Many congratulations to all who succeeded in solving it all and even more to anyone who parsed it.
Pino@52: but the point about old Roman cities is that so many of them are -chester (or -cester or -caster).
I got held up for a while assuming it was *tester…
Not that this is in any way relevant to the puzzle, but German productions of Madame Butterfly routinely change Pinkerton’s name to Linkerton, which is amusing when you realise the reason.
Sinecure is derived from the Latin sine cara which means without care.
julie paradox @ 53
Thank you for that. It makes the clue a bit more acceptable but I’ve never heard anyone refer to a “chester” meaning an old Roman city.
Frank @ 55
I think the Latin is ” sine cura” and “care” in this sense means a specific responsibility.
Just realised I never commented on this one – another fine crossword from a setter we should see more of (by which I mean in the Guardian). Not at his fiercest, though as always there were a few decidedly tricky parsings.
Thanks to Enigmatist and PeterO