Guardian 27,255 / Enigmatist

55 comments on “Guardian 27,255 / Enigmatist”

1. I must have been ‘on the wavelength’ as I found this fairly friendly for an Enigmatist. Lots of fun with the wordplay too.

   11a – I think the definition is just ‘letter’ so no double-duty going on at all if I am correct

   Thanks to Enigmatist and Gaufrid

2. Thanks Enigmatist and Gaufrid

   Well, I completed the grid, but I can’t feel much satisfaction in this “achievement” as too many were guessed from definition and only part of the parsing. Favourites were ALIGNED and CAROB.

   I think the definition for MICRON is just “letter”, thus avoiding the double duty.

3. Yes, a hell of a struggle but got there apart from ENVOI. Enigmatist’s clues are always rather convoluted, but that’s how it goes with him. Favourites were PHYLA, VENT-PLUG, ALIGNED and THONG. Never got round to parsing several clues (BIFD), so thanks to Gaufrid, and to Enigmatist.

4. Thanks Gaufrid. As usual with Enigmatist, this started off seeming utterly impenetrable, but I got there in the end.

   I agree with muffin about the definition of OMICRON [sic]. It was also used by Gaff last week: “Very small working clothes for character from Athens (7)” – both rather unsatisfactory clues in my option, as the micro/micron part means small, in contrast to “mega” (large) in ‘omega’.

   I was hoping there would be more to 2d than I could see, as it seems very weak to me as a CD (more of a definition-by-example), but perhaps not.

5. Oh my goodness. That was a fight not a puzzle. And a few too many low blows for me to feel like going over to the corner and offer respect.
   A couple of convoluted or obscure clues I can take but several of each or both doesn’t make it much fun in my book.

6. In the clue for OMICRON, I assumed double-duty was used too, unless one can get away with “one’s initial”= “O”
   I don’t think there is any doubt that the def is “letter” (@cs and @muffin).
   Brilliant clue for TOBACCO and an enjoyable experience all round.
   Thnaks to E & G

7. Thanks, even.
   Thnaks are what Violet Elizabeth has at 11 o’clock

8. My feelings were the same as crypticsue@1, although I failed to fully pares some. Got the reference to Occam’s razor then tried to make sense of TOB As ‘Direction taken from’. If I’d only thought to include the A – drat. Wasn’t sure of ‘given bar’ to give NOT ON’ or ‘want means’ as the definition for 5,19. Still don’t really get these. I guess if something is barred it is not on but that doesn’t work for me. ESTOC was new to me but easy to guess, bet I’m not the only one.

9. Thanks to both. Didn’t quite finish it but, as others have said, I got several from a combination of definition and crossing letters without actually understanding the wordplay until I came here. I can see that it’s all very clever but, for me, it wasn’t a very satisfying solve (my problem, not Enigmatist’s).

10. Phew! a tough workout, had to come here for some parsing. Much admire TOBACCO, couldn’t figure the first part.
    I suppose it matters not a jot, but for 14D my mind’s eye had AYE for of course rather than YEA. Six of one I suppose.
    Thanks to Enigmatist and Gaufrid for an excellent blog.

11. I am amazed that I didn’t find this as tricksy as I usually find an Enigmatist. In fact today I have warmed to his style.

    Maybe I was fortunate in that I got a couple of clues like 11a OMICRON and 1d TESTOSTERONE on the first pass, and then after googling some unknown guy called Gavin Williamson, realised he was a British parliamentarian, and concluded that a fair piece of the cake, or the pie, or the action, which would not cut it, were entirely wrong, and that 26 and 27a might work as A FAIR CRACK OF THE WHIP (I actually thought that was an Australianism – sorry to be so parochial. A favourite useage here is “a fair suck of the saveloy”).

    So with some significant crossers, as aforementioned, all gradually unfolded (and I mean very gradually!).

    Overall, I quite liked it.

    Thanks to Enigmatist and Gaufrid. Well done, Gaufrid, for your perseverance and hope you found some sustenance even if it was post-brunch time! I sat in the winter sun here on the Sunshine Coast with my third cup of tea, still solving at (our) 11.00 am, but at least I didn’t have the pressure of being the solver today. Thanks for a blog which helped explain what were, in my case, sometimes intuitive rather than well-parsed solutions.

12. Thanks, Gaufrid, and very well done! I found this Enigmatist offering a stiff challenge and resigned myself to entering six solutions without being able to parse them.

13. Wow, a red letter day! The first time I have completed an Enigmatist in however long he has been setting them.

    Thanks Gaufrid and E.

14. Julie @11
    You may find it reassuring that I (based in the UK) had to Google Gavin Williamson too!

15. Many thanks to Enigmatist and Gaufrid – a tough one.
    I suspect 24d is a triple definition, where ‘neath = unworthy

16. Enigmatist is brilliant whether he has his foot fully on the throttle or not(in this case)
    A really enjoyable puzzle-and blog-particularly for TOBACCO.
    As someone on t’other side said, there is no-one quite like him
    Thanks Gaufrid and Enigmatist.

17. Very awkward clunky cluing . I prefer concise clever witty clues with fanciful definitions , but hey ho , its horses for courses . Its very much like going to the gym and only doing exercises that you like , sometimes you have to do the difficult compound movements to make any gains in strength/fitness . After saying all that I enjoyed the struggle through the long grass.

18. I felt this was at the more accessible end of Enigmatist’s range, but as always there were a few parsing challenges. Plenty of wit and ingenuity, so no complaints from me. ENVOI was last in and least familiar, ESTOC distantly familiar from a previous crossword.

    Thanks to Enigmatist and Gaufrid

19. Thank you Enigmatist and Gaufrid.

    I was surprised that I managed to finish this, a real challenge. I failed to parse THEORIST and ‘snout’ for TOBACCO was new to me, as were ENVOI and ESTOC, the latter gettable from the clue.

    Not sure about A FAIR CRACK OF THE WHIP for Gavin Williamson, he has a henchman.

20. I go along with the general view that this was a real challenge. I managed to finish only with a bit of cheating, and with several left unparsed.

    I thought ANNO REGNI was really good, and was pleased with myself for figuring it out! And I liked the clue for NEAREST which was very neat (and rather more straightforward than a lot of the rest).

    I am a bit dubious about “destitute” as an anagram indicator (5d). I suppose the argument is that “poor” can indicate an anagram. But that is using a different sense of “poor”, ie meaning not very good.

21. Tough as always with Enigmatist- but worth the struggle. A tough ending to a good week

22. Thanks to Enigmatist and Gaufrid. Very tough going for me (as expected from this setter), so much use of Google and the check button. I did know ENVOI and ESTOC (my spell checker rejected both) but not the link between snout and TOBACCO. Both A FAIR CRACK OF THE WHIP and FEEL THE DRAUGHT were new to me, and I needed help parsing THEORIST and HORSE AND TRAP. A struggle.

23. Each to his own. The first pass didn’t yield anything! An hour and 3 solutions later I gave up and revealed 1ac and solved the rest without further cheating but little enjoyment and much unresolved parsing. This is the joy of the Guardian’s approach of using different setters, and by its nature there will be times when their styles don’t appeal to me – or maybe I just find them beyond my level. Nevertheless thank you Enigmatist for staying true to your style and Gaufrid for providing the parsing.

24. Another tough one at the end of a tough week. Some solutions barely remembered and some forgotten that came back with a little prising. 1d was quickly followed by 1a and then…mmm! Thanks to everyone.

25. A late start with Enigmatist usually means a failed solve but today he was in relatively gentle mode. That is a long, long way of course from saying I could parse everything – eg THEORIST (though I was tantalisingly close) and TOBACCO (nowhere near), just from the top of the acrosses. But that only makes it doubly satisfying to have worked out unaided the likes of ANNO REGNI and TESTOSTERONE.

26. Well I got most of it, then enjoyed reading the review to see what the parsing should have been. Always amazed how John manages to put these together, I thought 1a for example was superb – and many more.

    Many thank enigmatist and gaufrid

27. Possibly a result of the general anaesthetic and surgery I underwent yesterday, but when I first skimmed through this puzzle I thought it was stupidly difficult for the sake of being so. However after getting a start and completing about 75% I realise I was being very unfair to Enigmatist ! Nevertheless, solving clues as convoluted as these can quickly become a chore rather than an enjoyment when you’re not quite feeling your normal self – I should have known better than attempt a Friday puzzle in the circumstances !

28. George VI died in 1952. So why is it the third?

29. PaulW @28
    So Elizabeth’s first “anno regni” was 1952, second 1953, and third 1954?

    (Though it throws it out if “anno regni” is counted from the Coronation – but I don’t think it is.)

30. I missed ANNO REGNI altogether. Now I see the expression, it rings a bell somewhere – is it inscribed on Acts of Parliament or whatever?

    Instead I was trying to fit in ANNE somebody or ANNA somebody – and wracking my brains trying to remember all the actresses who’ve played Elizabeths (Cate Blanchett? Helen Mirren? Helena Bonham Carter?). No ANNE’s anywhere.

    And the ESTOC also escaped me. Never heard of the word, and didn’t realise we hadn’t had a ‘hidden word’ clue elsewhere (is there a rule there has to be a hidden word in every Grauniad cryptic?)

    Aside from that, plenty of non-parsers for me. I only realised just now, I’d written in THEORISE for THEORIST – but since I’d failed to parse it, understandable.

    1a/8a is simply – what can I say? – MAGNICICENT! Why oh why did I spend so much time trying to make it a “SIGNIFICANT OTHER” and looking for some pejorative reference to a wife? No don’t answer that!

31. “MAGNIFICENT”. I can’t even type the word!

32. Thanks to setter and blogger (esp for PHYLA, TOBACCO and HORSE AND TRAP – all of which I biffed).

    I loved THEORISE, substituting the A for an “ow” and bunging in the extraneous I until I hit reveal and found that I deserved a slap on the wrist not, ahem, elsewhere. A Pauline slip?

    But THONG was the best surface in a while, good chuckle.

33. This was much too hard for me – but thank you, Gaufrid, for your very helpful blog. I learned a lot. Hope you got your breakfast eventually.

34. muffin @ 29

    My understanding is that the new monarch starts when the previous one dies, the actual coronation date being irrelevant. Otherwise there’d be an interregnum (or maybe a regency).

    What think you?

35. OMG I must be on fire – or like crypticsue this was exactly on my wavelength – I looked at it with trepidation seeing Enigmatist and having already drunk a few pints – but everything just fell in – the definitions, although cleverly hidden in retrospect, were standing out like beacons – maybe I wrote some in without parsing 🙂 hey I’m such a rebel (not) – and I do love seeing an Enigmatist crossword because (and I must have said it before) he is one of the few who was compiling when I used to do crosswords with my mother – who is long gone…

36. Completed but not without help. I only stayed with this because of the torrential rain.Otherwise I’d probably have abandoned it. The first read through gave me absolutely nothing and it was only after getting FAIR CRACK OF THE WHIP that I decided to persevere and it gradually unravelled-er,very gradually actually. Sometimes I wonder if I decide that a puzzle is going to be difficult, because I’ve seen who the setter is,I make heavy weather of even the easier clues. Anyway, it’s done!
    Thanks Enigmatist.

37. I finished this more quickly than the usual Rufus but only completely parsed about half. Not my idea of what a crossword should be.
    1954 was HM’S third annus regni. How did the ablative anno creep in? Perhaps “in” is doing double duty as part of both the anagram and the definition.

38. 10d. A trap is a type of carriage, normally pulled by a horse. Can some one explain how “carriage” is definition of “horse and trap”?

39. We are in the Plus camp today.
    An unusually quick solve for an Enigmatist.
    [I didn’t define what ‘quick’ means, did I?]
    Without doubt also due to the fact that most of the long ones fell into place without too many problems.
    Giving a lot of useful crossers.

    We enjoyed it although some after-parsing was needed (for THEORIST and TOBACCO).
    And quite a few words of which Pasquale would have been proud! 🙂

    Only ENVOI (2d) stumped us and like Andrew @4 I’m afraid I cannot see anything cryptic here.
    So, I don’t think we were to blame.
    Frustrating, though.

    Thanks Gaufrid (and Mr E).

40. Tough? I dunno… I finished it, but I just couldn’t parse anything 🙂

    So thanks to setter (because I finished it) and to blogger (who did the really hard part for me!)

41. Like others, I see the name of this setter and my heart sinks. Even though this was much more straightforward and on the level than most of his, bordering on easy in parts, it just seemed joyless and laboured.

42. Well done, Gaufrid! A couple of words I had to check in Chambers post-solve and I couldn’t justify definition of ANNO REGNI (Pino – nothing wrong with the ablative, could be dative actually? – since I seem to recall Acts of Parliament used to be dated precisely thus? IMHO only, of course).
    I do enjoy a tussle with E – and this was easier than some (though it still took well over half an hour to my shame!). Some delightful clueing. My only quibble: should not “those” rather than “these” have better indicated THEM in wordplay for 1ac, and without spoiling the
    surface?
    I understand from previous comments here that G readers are lobbying for simpler puzzles – accusing us of elitism. Well, though relieved we don’t have this difficulty every day, I firmly believe it would be a sad one were we deprived of the odd Alzheimers-beating challenge. Is this all a kind of intellectual inverted snobbery? If so, I say “rowlocks”!

    Many thanks again to our two “heavyweights”.

43. William F P @ 42
    Anno regni in designations of Acts of Parliament means “in the year of the reign” which is why the ablative “anno” is used rather than the nominative “annus” or it was when I last studied Latin 50+ years ago.

44. Pino @43
    Quite right. The clue as written and as blogged would give ‘annus regni’ as the answer. If, however, you allow the word ‘in’ to do double duty as part of the anagram fodder and as part of a phrase beginning ‘in 1954 …’, then the clue is sound.
    ‘Anno’ is indeed in the ablative case in this context. It also happens to be the dative case, but that is not relevant here.

45. The only commment I’ll make myself on this quite extraordinary puzzle is that I found it challenging and I eventually completed it.

    I have collected some general comments solvers have made up to this point – with a bit of paraphrasing for succinctness.

    The more favourable comments were:

    fairly friendly
    enjoyable experience
    quite liked it – some unparsed
    first completion of an E ever
    brilliant and enjoyable
    plenty of wit
    a real challenge
    tough but worth it
    a tough one
    some BIFD but all very enjoyable
    I enjoy a tussle with E – this was easier than some
    the more accessible end of E

    and the less favourable ones were:

    convoluted – typical of E
    tough
    too hard
    several convoluted/obscure – ‘a fight’
    too many guesses – some unparsed
    several unparsed – very clever but not very satisfying
    several unparsed
    several unparsed
    several unparsed
    several unparsed
    six unparsed
    many unparsed – not what a crossword should be
    many unparsed
    a struggle – needed help with parsing
    some doubtful definitions and some guesses
    I prefer wit to awkward and clunky cluing
    joyless and laboured

    From the first set you get some idea of the level of challenge, although there is a range of views there.

    From the second set it is easy to see where the ‘problem’ lies – if there is one. The sample is small and may not be representative of the total solving community – but it might be. Perhaps it is pertinent to ask at what audience the crossword was aimed and whether the end-product came out as intended.

46. William @42
    I understand from previous comments here that G readers are lobbying for simpler puzzles – accusing us of elitism. Well, though relieved we don’t have this difficulty every day, I firmly believe it would be a sad one were we deprived of the odd Alzheimers-beating challenge.

    I’m with you all the way there. Cryptics are meant to be hard. Reminds me of JFK’s immortal speech: “we choose to do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard“. Much the same can be said for crosswords!

47. FirmlyDirac @46
    Not only hard, though. As well as being hard, a cryptic crossword might be ‘joyless and laboured’ or ‘brilliant and enjoyable’ (to quote from two different comments on this page). Solvers look for certain qualities as well as a tough mental challenge and enjoy cryptic crosswords that have those qualities.

48. Plus, for many of us the crossword is still just one part of the newspaper that we buy every day. We therefore have some expectation that the crossword will at least be approachable every day. Perhaps to be able to fill in half the grid in the time we have available between reading the rest of the paper. Alan B’s work @45 would be more useful if it could be analysed between those who make a financial contribution and those who don’t, and I would guess there would be a very close correlation. I can imagine that the Guardian themselves would certainly be more interested in keeping the former happy. Perhaps those in the latter group who favour Enigmatist could approach him direct to send them free puzzles.

49. Van Winkle @48
    What an interesting observation – if only we had the data to do the analysis! For my part, by the way, I buy the Guardian newspaper every Monday to Friday. Four others I know do the same, or subscribe, for six days of the week.

50. Yes, Enigmatist does set difficult clues, and I can remember finding his puzzles totally impossible, but the most incomprehensible comment is “joyless and humorous”. I value the diversity of the Guardian’s crosswords, and I buy the paper every day. I have also gradually moved from being a reader brought up in a household where the daily Guardian was taken for granted to a crossword fan who often tackles the crossword before reading the paper. Enigmatist’s appearances are all too rare these days too.

51. beery @50
    I think you meant “joyless and laboured” (not “joyless and humorous” – you might have been thinking of ‘humourless’ as you typed!). David @41 actually said “it seemed joyless and laboured”, and I quoted the phrase in my round-up.

52. Thanks Alan. Unfortunately there is no way to edit the comment…

53. beery, I know – I remember discovering that to my cost.

54. pino, Alan B – Of course, “anno regni” translates literally as “in the year….”. The point I made was that such style in, for example acts of Parliament is fairly translated as, in this case, 1954 (the third year of our current monarch’s rein) – simply – so there is an argument to propound, as I have tried, in favour of E’s clue not making “in” work twice – colloquially at least. Though I find it harder to justify “these” rather than “those” to mean THEM, about which neither of you commented.

    beery hiker – Hear! Hear! (though I’m not surprised to agree with you – I invariably do!) on both comments.

    Firmly Dirac – nice point!

    (I also usually buy the paper or else photocopy from library; never on line. And Van Winkle – I imagine your final sentence is just you being provocatively…..winkly?! As beery explains, we see Enigmatist rarely; I hope you’re not suggesting that our good Guardian crosswords shouldn’t cater for varying tastes and abilities……or maybe you are?)

55. William @54

    Re: anno regni
    I agree that, informally and colloquially, anno regni (or anno domini or whatever) can be understood and used in the way you describe (i.e. ‘the year’, not ‘in the year’). I prefer my more literal interpretation and would stick to it if I were to use it in a crossword clue, for example, but this crossword is by Enigmatist, not me!

    Re: THEM
    There is nothing wrong with this. Both ‘these people’ and ‘those people’ can be referred to as either THEY or THEM, depending on its function in a given sentence. Examples:
    “These people hide.” = “They hide.”
    “Those people hide.” = “They hide.”
    “Find these people.” = “Find them.”
    “Find those people.” = “Find them.”

    It was interesting for me to hark back to solving this clue, because I was one of those who couldn’t get “significant other” out of my head for a while. When I started to think sensibly, I thought straight away that the phrase is going to begin “THE M…” or “THE Y…”, both being equally possible at that stage.

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