Guardian Cryptic 27,482 by Paul

55 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,482 by Paul”

1. Did most of it except the theme, then once the penny dropped I had to google most of the bingo calls, which filled in most of the rest. LOI “knot”. Thanks to Paul for directing us to a less intellectual topic!

   And thanks to Manehi for the blog.

2. Great fun and over too soon. Who knew there were nicknames for bingo calls beyond legs 11? Like Auriga said how nice to have a light hearted theme. I had lots of smileys against non-theme clues – 10,12,21 (anyone else start with HEART BEAT and then BLOOD something before getting there) and 23d were a few of them.
   I know some people don’t like this type of puzzle but I enjoyed it. Thanks Paul and manehi.

3. Thanks Paul and manehi

   What a tedious puzzle! I was making slow progress until I put together GRANDMAS GETTING FRISKY. It wasn’t a phrase I was familiar with, so I Googled, which immediately gave me a list of BINGO calls, allowing me to fill in most of the rest of the grid.

   I particularly didn’t like “rate’s extreme” to give E in 21a.

   SOLICITOR was favourite.

4. Fun idea. But once I’d realised the theme was bingo – and knowing very little about the calls – I felt the need to Google. Then I wished I hadn’t because it was over too quickly. Thanks to Paul and Manehi.

5. I didn’t know any of the thematic bingo calls but thoroughly enjoyed working out the answers from the clueing, which I found to be both witty and fair. No Googling needed.

   Well done Paul, and thanks for the blog @manehi.

   Nice weekend, all

6. Such a good laugh with this, well done Paul!

7. Thanks manehi. I failed to parse a lot of this, including “Bingo”, so I found it pretty tedious, even though I managed to work out that the theme was Bingo terms, from the crossers. I had no clue as to the parsing of “chicken vindaloo”, either.

8. Baerchen@5 – that was my experience. Just goes to show we all enjoy different things – thank goodness.

9. Thanks manehi for parsing of BINGO.That seems spot on. I was wondering if GRACE was an acronym but..( I think it is but n/a).

   I said on the other site that to make 12d too obvious would be to let the dog out of the bag a bit soon.First themer was 77 (Ed Cookie Byrnes was it?)

   Got CHICKEN VINDALOO again from parsing and it was only when I twigged BUGGY(lovely clue) that the pfennig dropped.

   This’ll probably go down as a marmite puzzle but you can put me in the “like” camp.

   I seem t remember Vivian Stanshall doing the honours once on this silly game. Hilarious.

10. baerchen @5

    Did you work out DROOPY DRAWERS from the wordplay alone? I wouldn’t ever have got that, never having heard of the character.

11. My first “thematic entry” was CHICKEN VINDALOO, prompted by some crossers, but fully parsed. I just didn’t realise from it what the theme was!

12. I found this one rather unsatisfying, but following Arachne, Screw, Picaroon and Imogen was always going to be a tall order. I guessed the theme pretty early, and in looking the first one up to check, it I stumbled on a complete list, and the temptation was then to use it rather than work them out properly. Some of the themers would be very difficult to deduce from the wordplay alone.

    Thanks to Paul and manehi

13. In the “very enjoyable” camp. Lots of fun once the penny dropped, or should I say, when the bingo calls came to mind with “77 SUNSET STRIP” (20d and 20a).
    Agree with muffin@3 that 10a SOLICITOR was a good clue, but I also liked all the amusing bingo references…and felt lucky to have enough crossers, and some great wordplay, to assist.
    KNOT 15a was my LOI too, Auriga@1.
    And yes, WhiteKing@2, I tried “BLOOD” for a start until I considered that the pairing of “Pulse” and “rate” might just be tricksy, this being a Paul puzzle after all.
    Thanks to Paul and manehi.

14. PS I must admit that I did have to use that list to get 19d 7a DROOPY DRAWERS, beery hiker@12.

15. I gave up on this one. I haven’t played bingo in decades, and many of the terms in the puzzle were coined after my exposure to the game. Not enjoyable for me and I hope for something more to my taste tomorrow, though, having had some of my very favourite setters earlier in the week, I may be disappointed.

16. I got SUNSET STRIP, and then somehow worked out that they must be Bingo numbers – although I didn’t know any of the slang and couldn’t parse BINGO in a month of Sundays. CHICKEN VINDALOO went in next, and after a long tussle I managed to finish, and to feel very pleased with myself! Favourites were CHICANES, MARINATE and CHICKEN V. Many thanks to Paul and manehi.

17. Add me to those who found it fun, despite not having played bingo since I was a child decades ago. I got SUNSET STRIP early, but failed to comment it with bingo (though I remembered it was an old TV programme); I didn’t twig till I worked out CHICKEN VINDALOO, saw the rhyme, and realised what was going on. I got the other theme answers from the clues, which  I thought were perfectly fair – no googling needed. I needed help parsing BINGO itself, though.

18. Aaargh. That should of course read ‘connect’, not ‘comment’.

19. Like drofle@16 and Sarah@17, I guessed they must be bingo numbers, reinforced by SUNSET STRIP and then CHICKEN VINDALOO, and managed to work out other (hitherto unknown) theme answers without googling, though had to discover Kelly’s Eye to parse BINGO. Fun puzzle – many thanks to Paul and manehi.

20. Thanks Paul and manehi.

    I got SUNSET STRIP fairly early on and then wasted a considerable amount of time looking at the TV series to try to solve 12D, which had a fairly impossible clue to solve ‘cold’.

    Once I realised it was bingo, I did just look up all the calls as otherwise I think it would have been a DNF.

    Like yesterday’s it was very difficult but made enjoyable by the humour.

21. I’m in no way a bingo fan, but it was a challenge to work out the clues. As with so many of these cryptics I get a certain number of solutions from parsing, but often see a possible word outlined by the letters forming the skeleton. I then try to fit the answer to the clue. It’s not as satisfying as solving the clue without guessing the entry, but there is however a certain satisfaction. Bonne journee.

22. After getting a few of the non-thematic entries, I saw SUNSET STRIP – but after googling the TV series, failed to find anything plausible for 12dn,(for which I had no checkers).

    So eventually gave up and revealed it – but still couldn’t see any connection till I looked up the calls – none of which I knew: once I had them I was able to see how they were parsed, but I must admit that the puzzle had completely defeated me – so a win for Paul !

23. Thanks to Paul and manehi. Well I got there but only after a struggle and could not get the theme despite having sunset strip and guessing 16d must end in frisky. At one point I had b-n-o and was still bemused until I got droopy drawers when the penny dropped. The rest went in readily after that. Like others I spent ages on the TV show for 20a and like WhiteKing@2 spent quite a while trying to parse heart beat or blood something for 21a. That said made me smile when the penny dropped with lots of misdirection (which I largely fell for) and thanks again to Paul and manehi.

24. What peterM said @22.

25. @muffin 10

    I knew the character and had heard the expression before, likely in some downmarket Saturday evening “family” tv show in the 70s, so I didn’t have a problem with that one but I can’t for the life of me see why it became used in bingo. I think the last time I played in a seafront amusement arcade in Bridlington the term for no. 10 was “Harold’s Den”

26. copmus@9

    Yes, Ed Byrnes did play “Kookie” (aka Gerald Lloyd Kookson III), probably the best liked character on the show. His obsession with combing his hair (you weren’t the first, Fonzie!) inspired the record “Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb, a duet with Connie Stevens, who starred in ‘the other’ detective series of that time, “Hawaiian Eye.”

    Thanks manehi for the blog, and Paul for a fun puzzle, and lots of memories.

27. Liked it but only after completing.

28. I found this fairly unsatisfying.  The keystone clue 12d, for me (and I accept not all would agree) needs to be gettable from the clue itself.  In this case one needed knowledge of the theme embodied in the answer to get the answer – so no chance for me.  Once I had the answer I still had no idea how it was parsed – but it did make the rest of puzzle doable.

     

    Still – some ticks for me as well:  BUGGY, BROAD BEAN (for which I did have an unparsed HEART BEAT for quite some time).

    Calling the I a British “newspaper” is clever, manehi.  However, as I read at 1320 BST, the parsing for 23a, though simple enough, is not in the blog?

     

29. Not impressed with this one. Too many definitions and a very obscure key clue depending on a fairly obscure set of rhyming jargon. OK a lot of people like bingo but a lot don’t and wouldn’t have a clue.

30. For 22,5 to work properly, both parts of the solution need to appear as ‘down’ words. As it stands, three quarters of the Avon is flowing westwards, not rising.

31. Thanks to Paul and manehi. For me this puzzle was more a research project than a cryptic. I did start off with some of the non-bingo items (though CHICANES was new to me) but was faced with many blanks until, like others above, I got SUNSET STRIP and CHICKEN VINDALOO. Google then provided the link (I would never have parsed BINGO on my own) , and since I have no experience with the terms for the game in either the US or UK (which apparently differ) I used a list of roughly 90 items to track down the missing answers. My LOI was KNOT.

32. A light hearted end to a tough week. Also educational as I always thought 52 = Danny La Rue!

    Thanks to Paul and manehi

33. Fun crossword. Once I worked out it was bingo calls I finished quickly. Not sure about 22,5 having the clue ‘river rising’ as ‘Avon’ backwards? Wouldn’t that be for a down clue not one split across and down?

34. I really enjoyed that, took ages to work out the theme, but worth the struggle. I loved 10.

35. Got Chicken Vindaloo first and assumed all the others were curries, which slowed me down a bit

36. I’m with Muffin @3. A disappointing end to the week, I got the four themed answers before 12d so can’t complain about the wordplay but to have it so openly telegraphed for 9 out of 30 words is poor show in a cryptic (had I known the theme and got 12d first then 9 out 30 would have been write-ins).

37. Our pub quiz has numbers up to 25 so that’s as far as my knowledge goes. After SUNSET STRIP I was trying to think of ancient US TV shows cf Sarah @17 et al, until with crossers someone, possibly GRANDMA, seemed to be GETTING FRISKY … I quite like it when I sidle up to a theme rather than take it head on.

    LOVE SCENE an absolute cracker. CHICANES took me far too long, which is why I’m a bit late posting. If a Greek character had been beating the bends I’m sure I would have been a lot quicker!

38. Thanks Paul and Manehi. I enjoy this sort of puzzle now and again, and a light-hearted theme was a very welcome change Once I got SUNSET STRIP I was away, although I would never have worked out the parsing of 12d without Manehi’s explanation. I agree with others that the keyword should be gettable from the clueing, not a circular reference like this !

39. I got CHICKEN VINDALOO first so I went briefly down a curry house menu line of thinking.

40. This was the third in a row that I’ve abandoned. Worst week ever for me!

41. Bit of a slow start but sped up and was my first finish of the week! 12d I agree is extremely tough from the clue itself but then I looked at the other clues and thought ‘what has a 44, a 50, a 77 etc?’ – and…bingo! I’m also not familiar with the calls but worked them all out from a combination of crossers, wordplay and knowing that they generally rhyme. I still couldn’t parse 12d itself mind! 17d my favourite

    Thanks Paul and manehi

42. Thank you Manehi and bravissimo Paul.
    This was first rate and you kept me guessing until the very end. The B made me think bible and so it was an age before the penny dropped.

43. Finished.
    Time for a curry.

44. I am complete befuddled by ” bingo”. Observer of Grace? I know Grace Kelly and Kelly’s eye as number one but I still don’t get it after it has been parsed for me – and that is a first. Without that “Vindaloo” was very difficult and I soon gave up.
    Everyone else seems happy….. must be me.

45. I knew that some people made cute rhyming jokes when they called bingo but had no idea there was a defined way of calling.  Since I couldn’t find a way into the theme, I hit REVEAL ALL for the first time in my solving career and still didn’t know what Paul was on about. Zero fun for me today.

46. Usually I am a big fan of Paul but this was a genuinely tiresome and unpleasant experience at the end of an excellent week. All those split clues to contend with. I normally write them out with the gaps but this time I frankly couldn’t be bothered. As for the Bingo theme, ho hum. Thanks Manehi but Paul, really?

47. If you’re still around woodbine@44, (not that I solved it, I think I now understand ‘observer of Grace’). It’s simply Grace’s eye.  ‘of’ denoting  possession, belonging to, and reverse the word order in the phrase. I’m reminded of primary school grammar lessons, the book of John = John’s book. Have tried, but  can’t think of a comparable example to this phrase. Tricky with a noun from a verb like ‘observer’ which really turns the agency on its head,

48. I’m with those disappointed especially as it’s the first not completed this week – have never played bingo and couldn’t work out what all the numbers meant – got chicken vindaloo eventually and about half the others but nothing to do with the bingo connection, may have done better if I’d started it this morning! So thanks for solving it but not to the setter. If I’d worked out it was bingo the rest would have followed (easily looked up) but no way of getting 12d from the clue unless one first knew the calls – bit of a catch 22 really.

49. Thanks to Paul, Manahi and Goog!e.
    Went in rapidly once directed to Wikipedia’s comprehensive list. Otherwise not a hope.

50. A real disappointment for me, which is unusual for Paul puzzles.  Like most here, I’m not familiar with obscure bingo calls and had to resort to Googling to get them, and then everything became obvious.

51. A lot of whingers on here today.

    First of the theme entries was SUNSET STRIP so I thought we had TV addresses! When later I finally got DROOPY DRAWERS the penny dropped. That gave me 12D so although I wasn’t familiar with the other calls (they’re are regional differences) I worked them out without recourse to Google.

    Shame on you solvers for Googling and even greater shame for then moaning about the puzzle being spoiled.

    Obviously this theme was not intellectual enough for some of our complainers 😉

    I enjoyed this.

     

52. I agree strongly with killerwhaletank @28.
    And Howard March @29.
    And Dafydd @46.

    After solving 10a, 1d, & 21a, I found this to be entirely exasperating 🙁
    It found it to be unsolvable without resort to outright cheating for most of the answers.

    My problem largely derived from the fact that my Inner Toddler was provoked almost straight away; when I found that the grid was built around a keystone clue that was unsolvable from the wordplay (unless you already knew its solution).
    It didn’t help that this keystone was the supposèd ‘in’ to thematic solutions from the (to me at least) totally obscure parts of the Bingo lexicon. Parts that are (unlike the well-known ones) not even based on rhyming slang. 77 = ‘Sunset Strip’? Really?

    The fact that these answers are multiple-word phrases meant that they had to be spread across much of the grid. Which meant that I had no chance of getting most of the crossers. So I didn’t even go on to attempt the rest of the (as-enjoyable-as-usual) non-themed clues, but instead just gave up.

    OK, de gustibus non est disputandum, but: what proportion of solvers would persist with a grid that was largely based on some of the less-well-known terms from, say, Snowboarding’s lexicon of aerial trick names? Or the technical terms within the disciplines of Epistemology or Psychology?

    I think that this one veered too far off the beaten track, and did so too often 🙁

    Now that I have my Whingeing out of the way, I must also say that I also agree very much with WhiteKing @ 8 – it is indeed a good thing that our individual tastes are so different 🙂
    So, I shall bid you all ‘goodnight’, and make a start on picking my toys up and putting them back IN to my pram… 😉

    Slàinte,
    Gem.

53. I realise I’m a novice compared to most on here…I do know some bingo calls and therefore sadly stuffed myself on this puzzle by whacking in ‘kelly’ for 12d ( definition Grace = kelly; if ‘one’ is the observer (eye) then grace = kelly), which I still reckon parses just as well as the actual answer!

54. What a load of snobbery over Bingo.  I play Bingo every week in a small social club and have never heard of any of this slang!  I got Chicken Vindaloo and thought it must be something to do with an Indian takeaway menu!!  I don’t know why people google and check as they go along.  Why not give your brain more of a workout?  If you left it and came back to it, pennies would drop.  I often wake up in the morning and fill in the remaining blanks.

55. PS It’s an Irish social club (in GB) and at first I thought the caller was saying “Washy water” for 76, but it turned out to be “Was she worth it?” – apparently the cost of a marriage licence in the past.

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