An unthemed and fairly tough puzzle from Tramp this week.
Timon and I failed to finish this puzzle in the hour we usually allow ourselves, and it wasn’t till much later the same day that I finally completed the grid. There were one or two clues which we felt had a distinctly Pauline flavour, and overall the surfaces were entertaining. However, I do have a few minor and not so minor quibbles over definitions or component parts which I’ve mentioned in the blog. Comments as always will be welcome, in case I’ve missed something. Thanks to Tramp for the challenge.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PROVERBS | Show bank book (8) |
| A charade of PROVE (show) and RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland). | ||
| 5 | EDUCED | Developed castle, ultimately went down with knight taken (6) |
| (castl)E DUC(k)ED (went down). I found this impossible to work out from the clue alone without help from crossers. | ||
| 9 | RACECARD | Guide for meeting people at club? (8) |
| A charade of RACE (people) and CARD (club). The clue cleverly conceals the join between the definition and the wordplay; I think the question mark indicates that club is a fairly loose synonym (indeed, a definition by example) for card. | ||
| 10 | MANIAC | Mad mother turned murderer (6) |
| MA CAIN(rev). I did harbour some doubts about whether “maniac” could be an adjective as well as a noun, bearing in mind the existence of maniacal, but I was wrong to do so. | ||
| 12 | ENROL | Learning about name inside record (5) |
| N(ame) inside LORE (learning – rev). Another clue where I had doubts, but Chambers gives ENROL as one of the meanings of “record”, so again I was wrong. | ||
| 13 | HIERARCHY | Greeting with bow at end of day following queen’s order (9) |
| HI (greeting) ER (queen’s) ARCH (bow) (da)Y. I was looking for the more familiar “arc” as a synonym for bow, but “arch” is equally acceptable. Having said that, the clue jumbles up the components of the solution, and I wasn’t entirely happy that the apostrophe was fair. | ||
| 14 | DECONGESTANT | Aged ten, snot loosened having swallowed cold medicine (12) |
| C(old) in *(AGED TEN SNOT). The use of “snot” as part of the anagram fodder, along with “loosened” as the anagrind, help to give the clue a semi-& lit flavour. | ||
| 18 | PROSTITUTION | Run out in strip to the game (12) |
| *(OUT IN STRIP TO). I confess that this one had Timon and I completely fooled; we wasted a lot of time looking for words meaning “strip” into which we could insert RO for “run out”. As it happens, the solution does include the letters RO, but only because they are part of the anagram fodder. The definition is very misleading, but completely fair. | ||
| 21 | PEPPERONI | Go with beer and spicy food (9) |
| A charade of PEP (go) and PERONI (a popular bottled beer). | ||
| 23 | CHURL | Check web address: rude one (5) |
| CH(eck) URL (Uniform Resource Locator). | ||
| 24 | ADDICT | Head did act when ordered (6) |
| *(DID ACT). | ||
| 25 | STAIRWAY | Flight path for pilot on superjet cleared (8) |
| S(uperje)T AIRWAY (path for pilot). Although flight for stairs is something of a crossword cliche, we liked the clever way this clue brought in some misleading references to aviation. | ||
| 26 | YIPPEE | Expression of delight finally, pay one penny to go (6) |
| (pa)Y 1P PEE (go). It’s not a criticism to say that this clue could have been composed by Paul. | ||
| 27 | DRAGSTER | Street covered in smoke, let me see fast car (8) |
| DRAG (smoke) ST(reet) ER (let me see). I’m not entirely happy with “covered in”, which suggests that the letters ST should be inside DRAG, not following it. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PARSEC | Copper locks up idiot for a very long stretch (6) |
| ARSE (idiot) inside PC (copper). A parsec is a measure of distance, not time, but I suppose that “a very long stretch” could apply to distance as well as to tiime. | ||
| 2 | OXCART | Steer at front of thing possessing wheels? (6) |
| I’m struggliing with this one, to be honest. An ox is a steer (a steer is a young ox), and front of thing suggests T; but what about car? And the definition, even allowing for the question mark, seems far too vague. I wasn’t helped by the fact that this apparently familiar word is not included in Chambers, and the OED has it as hyphenated. Suggestions, please. | ||
| 3 | EXCELLENT | Office data analyser that’s fast is superb (9) |
| EXCEL (Office data analyser) LENT (fast). By putting Office (the brand name for a suite of Microsoft software programs including Excel) at the beginning of the clue, Tramp has cleverly included the capital letter without giving the game away. | ||
| 4 | BIRTH CONTROL | Detailed writer needs time, hard lead and a rubber for this (5,7) |
| BIR(o) (writer) T(ime) H(ard) CONTROL (lead?). I really struggle to see how lead can be said to equate with control. I suppose it could be said that a dog’s lead is used to control the movements of the dog, but that is not a synonym. And the definition would perhaps be adequate if the rest of the clue had some connection with sexual intercourse, but it’s only the double meaning of “rubber” that gives any hint of what the phrase means. As it stands, “a rubber for this” is hopelessly vague. | ||
| 6 | DRAMA | Tot and adult play (5) |
| DRAM A(dult). | ||
| 7 | CHITCHAT | Tom Thumb interrupts gossip (8) |
| HITCH (thumb) in CAT (tom). | ||
| 8 | DECRYPTS | Does crack and cocaine lines within department store, primarily (8) |
| C (ocaine) RY (railway lines) in DEPT S (tore). I thought the definition here was cleverly misleading without being in any way unfair. | ||
| 11 | WEIGHTLIFTER | One could do a clean with crew and Jack (12) |
| W (ith) EIGHT (a crew) LIFTER (a jack). | ||
| 15 | SMOOCHING | Walk aimlessly in grass, having a pet (9) |
| MOOCH (walk aimlessly) in SING (grass). | ||
| 16 | EPIPHANY | Realisation I didn’t catch that one squeezing spot (8) |
| PIP (spot) in EH (I didn’t catch that) ANY (one). | ||
| 17 | SOUPED UP | Modified Lotus regularly went faster on the outside (6,2) |
| (L)O(t)U(s) in SPED UP (went faster). | ||
| 19 | OUTWIT | Wife, not in normal position, coming first given sex trick (6) |
| OUT (not in normal position) W(ife) IT (sex). I’m not happy with the definition, which seems to me to import a suggestion of deceit which is not connoted by the word “outwit”. | ||
| 20 | PLAYER | Actor’s introduction in porn film (6) |
| P (orn) LAYER (film). | ||
| 22 | EMCEE | Present case for music on the radio (5) |
| Sounds like (“on the radio”) EM CEE, i.e. the letters M(usi)C spoken aloud. The verb clearly derives from the noun, which itself obviously comes from the initials of Master of Ceremonies, and both have been around (in the States, at any rate) since the 1930s. | ||
*anagram
Thanks for the blog. In 2d I think ‘wheels’ is doing double duty – ‘car’=‘wheels’ as in ‘nice set of…’.
4d – ‘to lead the cabinet’=‘to control the cabinet’? Seems plausible.
And thanks to Tramp for a puzzle that kept me puzzled till Wednesday. The whole NW corner was blank, just an unfortunate grouping of blind-spots but I’m glad I stuck it out.
Thanks bridgesong. I found this hard too and it took me quite a lot longer than an hour. I probably had only about seven or eight answers in that time. I thought 27a was OK, ST is covered by DRAG and EH. And isn’t 2d something of an &lit? CAR is a thing possessing wheels. I wanted to put OXFORD in there initially. I had a similar problem to yours with 18a and was looking for a sport of some sort. Well, I suppose so. I liked 9a and 4d: my LOI was 11d, I just couldn’t see why. A very good test which brought a sense of achievement on completion.
Thanks for the great blog Bridgesong. I thought this was the toughest puzzle I can remember but with all the hallmarks of a great setter – once you’ve got the solution you wonder why it was so difficult. That said I’ve no suggestions as to how to parse OXCART any more than you have, and on reflection your other queries are valid – I just didn’t delve too deeply once I felt I’d got the general drift of them as I’d spent enough time on it over the weekend as it was. It took a longtime to get going then the NE succumbed, followed by SW, then SE and the NW finally fell when I came up with PARSEC – and I didn’t question whether it was a measure of distance or time as I was just delighted to have found the key to the corner.
I had too many ticks to list but I think I’ll pick DECRYPTS as my clue of the puzzle. I’ve still got an outstanding question mark – in what context is “head” a synonym for ADDICT?
Many thanks too to Tramp for the workout.
ER of course not EH.
WhiteKing @ 4. I wondered about that too but thought of words like crackhead and petrolhead – and others.
WhiteKing@4:
Head is in the online Collins – as in pothead,acidhead etc.
“We used to go down to Haight-Asbury and laugh at all the heads”.
Thanks Biggles A and gonzo. I thought of acidhead etc. but not the more general usage as in your Haigh-Ashbury quote gonzo.
Thanks to Tramp and bridgesong. Like others I got stuck on the NW corner, mainly because I stuck with Oxford rather than OXCART, so that I did not get PARSEC and RACECARD.
Well I gave up without a clue, but had another look the next day and started chipping away at it. And I’m pleased I did because, despite the concerns noted there were also some brilliant clues. Yippee was probably my favourite but closely followed by Souped Up, Chitchat and Decrypts. You did well Gonzo; it was Thursday when I finally finished with the NW corner
I thought this was a suitably tough and entertaining prize.
For 2d, I saw it as simply OX (steer) at the front of CART (thing possessing wheels) with an &littish surface. Seems a bit weak and I’m hoping there’s a better take.
In 5, not sure why K should be Knight (it’s King in chess of course), but maybe it’s in Chambers. I parsed it as E (end of CASTLE) + DUCED (REDUCED minus RE (right excellent)).
BIRTH CONTROL went in with the second word unparsed, but I now think “lead” for CONTROL is fine (reminded me of the Fat Controller in the less PC versions of the Rev W. Awdry’s railway books). Possibly the definition could have included a hint at the American usage of rubber to make it a bit fairer, but I liked it anyway.
Good puzzle. Thanks, Tramp and bridgesong.
Please don’t think of me as a sourpuss because I typically only post the problems I have, not the delights, but I think it’s quite important to keep setters and solvers sync’ed. This puzzle I found quite sloppy; you’d get that feel from Bridgesong’s comments alone, but here are some more. ER in 27a and EH in 16d are almost the same device, which is just “not done” for rare devices (unless it’s a theme). I don’t think MC is a “case for magic”; case of/in maybe. They’re a case for “agi” in fact. As for head=addict, the examples given would be closer to devotee, frequent user, even abuser; addict implies a medical condition not justified here. Don’t want to dwell too much on 15d, but thinking back to earlier times I would say smooching in practice usually came before petting, which was a whole other stage. In 3d, LENT is not a synonym of “fast” (is there a sentence where you could have either?), and the “that’s” is superfluous; alternatively, LENT is not a synonym of “that’s fast” either. There may be more but I did this puzzle a week ago and who can remember so much so long? Did Tramp have a bad day or did I – can’t decide!
phitonelly @11. KG, KCB, KBE etc
I seem slightly out on a limb here, but I found this a really good and sometimes challenging puzzle, but totally fair throughout. One can get a little too precious about the devices a setter sometimes falls into in order to have clean, sweeping surfaces. To select just a few: “Detailed writer needs hard lead” and “(Detailed) writer needs rubber for this” seems perfectly fine; MC is the case(outside covering) of and for the word music; to trick and to outwit are exact synonyms in what I felt was the funniest clue of the lot. Ah well, thanks anyway to Tramp, Bridgesong and other contributors.
I had ?s next to some of the clues already mentioned, record for enrol, lead for control, and while wheels is ok as street talk for car, you need an ‘a’ with car to equate and substitute them. As for ‘head’, while it was a suffix for all kinds of drugs (pot, acid, pill, smack, speed), as a standalone it in fact signified non-addict among those who kept away from the hard stuff.
All minor points though in a toughish but pretty fair prize with some great surfaces. Thanks Tramp and Bridgesong.
Too tough in the end for me, three unsolved in the NW but I thought it was excellent on the whole and very enjoyable. Thanks also for the thorough blog which I needed for a few other clues!
I had OXCART as an &lit – OX (steer) + T (front of thing) possessing CAR (wheels – having learned on this site about synecdoches!). Although perhaps not very elegant as there’s quite a bit of overlap with the final answer
More quibbles in the comments here than I expected, yes a few loose definitions but would others be complaining if it had been easier?
Dr. Whatson – I just took LENT as an example of a fast – in a similar way to BIRO being an example of a ‘writer’, RBS a bank etc…
A tough puzzle and I had a lot of problems parsing several clues – mostly clear now having read the blog.
I was one of those who wanted to put Oxford, changed it eventually. A weak clue,
But there were also some very pleasing clues with perfectly readable but misleading surfaces: 18 ac, 23 ac, 25 ac, 26 ac, 20 dn I particularly liked.
Thanks to Tramp and to Bridgesong.
I found the whole left hand side very difficult and for a long time I only had the right hand part of the grid with anything filled in. Then 18a PROSTITUTION helped with several crossers and I ticked it for its clever definition: “the game”. As several previous posters have said, the NW proved particularly resistant. I echo others’ comments on 5a EDUCED.
I had “unparsed” question marks for 4d BIRTH CONTROL and 16d EPIPHANY. “Royal Bank of Scotland” made 1a PROVERBS a bit tricky to solve. I thought the WEIGHTLIFTER move (11d) was a “clean and jerk” but I have only heard that on the Olympics and I don’t know diddly “squat” about that sport. I jotted “not a great clue” beside 20d PLAYER but now I am not sure why.
In the end, I had quite a few ticks – for 14a DECONGESTANT, 21a PEPPERONI, 24a ADDICT, 25a STAIRWAY, 26a YIPPEE, 3d EXCELLENT (an excellent clue I thought!), 8d DECRYPTS (very tough clue!) and 7d CHITCHAT, so I eventually talked myself into liking the puzzle overall – it was fun in places but very hard in others. Thanks to Tramp and bridgesong, and to other players who have commented.
P.S. Dr Whatson@2, re the “EXCELLENT” CLUE at 3d, from my memories of a Catholic girlhood, Lent is a time of fast.
{Sorry about the block letters for CLUE there}
Julie @ 18. I smiled on reading ‘diddly squat’ I hadn’t seen or heard that for a long time. But I think your use of it should be reversed; ‘you knew diddly squat’ i.e. ‘nothing’, rather than ‘I don’t know diddly squat’ i.e. ‘anything’. However, for me it’s a reminder of long ago; is its antipodean use has inverted its meaning!
Sorry for the sloppy grammar at the end of mine (21) – fat fingers despatched it too soon.
The puzzle was the first for a long time to hold me up until Wednesday. Yes, one or two clues strained the conventions a little, adding to the satisfaction of solving them. Thanks to Tramp for a pleasing challenge.
This puzzle kept me amused off and on for the whole week! Like others I found the NW the hardest. Having now seen the solution (I remained six answers short), I agree with Nobby @16 that 2d is an &lit. I had LENT in 3d, N inside LORE at 12a without reversing it (d’oh) and thought of RBS for the end of 1a, but couldn’t make that “long stretch” to get the answers. Rather than complaining about the clues, I’m inclined to berate myself for not thinking flexibly enough…
The best, meatiest Guardian puzzle for quite some time. Even the good ones have gone a bit milky.
The criticisms seem misplaced:
13a queen’s – apostrophe not fair? I doubt I’ve ever solved a crossword without at least one of those apostrophes
27a: ‘covered in’ does not suggest ST should be in DRAG; it suggests it should be in something, to be determined, which it is. Hardly unusual again.
4d: ‘a rubber for this’ hopelessly vague? What?
2d: OXCART, as per nobby@16 is a perfectly sensible, accurate &lit.
Thanks Tramp, bridgesong
Agree with James@24 – I thought it was an excellent puzzle.
And I can’t see anything wrong with MC as ‘case for music’.
[Caesario@21, thanks for smiling at my attempt at humour. It sounded a bit like a double negative when I read your post. But I have always said it that way – it could be an Aussie “upside-down” variation???
Merriam-Webster says
diddly-squat noun
slang
: the least amount : anything at all
didn’t know diddly-squat about sports
— Sam Toperoff]
Hmm JinA, totally confused; at first agreed with Caesario, in that I always thought diddly squat=nothing, hence ‘I knew ds’=’I knew nothing’. Now I know even less.
A good lad, that Tramp.
Not much to add. I got stuck in the NW along with others. The PC in PARSEC was pretty obvious but ARSE took a long time and OXCART even longer.I suppose it’s an &LIT but that didn’t occur to me at the time. Anyway,I always find that device somewhat troublesome.
In the event I got the answer from the crossers which was a bit unsatisfying. I wasn’t too happy with EDUCED or MANIAC.
I did like PROSTITUTION.
Thanks Tramp.
Thanks Tramp and bridgesong, pretty tough, but no real complaints. I’m another (of the many) who was held up by the top left corner, primarily by having ESCORT at 2d (thinking police escort/Ford model) which screwed up 1a. Eventually resorted to checking (about an hour ago) and discovered my error. Things then fell into place.
I liked 17 and 27. In fact, if I were a petrol head, I’d very much like to own a 17, 27!
Thanks to Tramp and bridgesong. No great surprises here, I was another who found this very tough and another who came to a grinding halt in the NW. I meant to come back to it after giving up on Saturday, but forgot all about it until now. I think the problem for me was that I could not find a way in due to the lack of crossers. I only had enrol and excellent. That said enjoyed what I did and looking back now I cannot see what the problem was. Hey ho good fun and thanks again to Tramp and bridgesong.
Forgot to say that 1ac could be a triple def. for REGISTER – I abandoned it as none of the down crossers became clearer!
Too tough for me. Even by the end of the week still about 12 blanks staring back at me.
Very impressed by the erudition of bridgesong and many others here.
While I found many clues both ‘solved’ and ‘unsolved’ rather clever, I didn’t enjoy this as an experience; some of the definitions are just too loose to be satisfying (Gossip= chitchat ? Surely chitchat is small talk not malign slander ?) and there are too many highly specific references (Bank = RBS ? Beer = peroni) to make it feel fair.
That said I really enjoyed STAIRWAY and EXCELLENT and am in awe at the achievements of Tramp and the numerous solvers who got all the way through.
Julie @26 & grantinfreo @27
Chambers (the big red book) gives diddly-squat = nothing, so both meanings seem acceptable; I must remember to use it. It’s wonderful how these discussions digress away from the puzzle.
Julie in Australia made my point exactly, unintententionally. LENT is “a time of fast”, LENT is not equal to fast. Also, I still think that if X is a case for Y, then logically X and Y are two distinct objects. I guess I’m just being too picky. Sorry.
I really enjoyed this.
OXCART is CAR (wheels) in OX T(hing) & lit. Though they looked related, CAR is derived from Latin and CART from old Norse, so the etymologies are quite different.
Oxford dictionaries defines FAST as “an act or period of fasting”. By this definition Lent is a fast, and the usage in the clue is entirely legit.
Biggles A @13
I don’t think cherry-picking K from KG, KBE etc is legit. In the same way, why not C =christian from YMCA?
Curiously, online Chambers gives K = “chess knight.” Is this true? Was K = knight ever used in chess or is this a mistake?
There is the expression ‘he got his K’ – meaning he was knighted.
Apropos not very much, I think the first time I remember diddly squat was in the excellent “A very peculiar practice” (1986) by Andrew Davies.
Thanks bridgesong and Tramp. As others have said, I also found this very hard, but enjoyable.
And as for Sam T, JinA, que??
phitonelly @ 37. Point taken but it still looks OK to me.
As with many people the NW held me up but I more or less got there in the end apart from (stupidly) not getting decrypts in the NE. (Having got all the crossers I was looking for an unlikely synonym for “does” a la deer)!
I’m surprised that no-one is questioning one = any in 16 down. Am I missing something?
Having finished it on Thursday and thinking it a grind till then, I now think it’s got quite some merits. Thanks Tramp.
Also, lent = fast may not be strictly correct but has been crossword fodder for years and to support Max @38 many undeserving civil servants are waiting for their “K”s but I too spent a long time thinking that a knight was “Kn” or “N”
Please could someone explain why, in 4d, ‘detailed’ means ‘leave the O off’?
mirandamoon @43
You need to read it as de-tailed, ie the tail is removed.
Ha! So easy when explained. Thank you Gaufrid @44. Now I can get on with the current one in peace.
Summing up the debate, I think we can agree that OXCART was intended to be an &lit clue, although opinions are divided as to whether it was entirely successful.
I had to put this down and return to it several times before finishing.
Bridgesong, surely the ‘s in 13a = “is”, joining wordplay to def, which, as James says you see all the time? Similarly, in 9a, ? is frequently used to indicate a DBE.27a, as James also suggests,can be read as ST covered in (smoke + let me see). I wonder if finding this puzzle hard has made you extra picky?
In 13d, Office as a MS product didn’t occur to me, but it still seemed to work.
In 16a one = ANY. Is that like “take one/any card”? Or what?
@Biggles A, Like Phitonelly, I didn’t think it was considered acceptable to use one letter from a multi-letter abbreviation. Maybe if it’s the same letter in lots of abbrevs, though? I think this is the justification for F = fellow (FRCS, FRS etc, although (my old) Chambers has an entry for F=fellow on this basis, while K doesn’t). Max’s “got his k” seems to circumvent the argument (although I didn’t think of that at the time; just “why is knight K?”). Btw, I think Kt was the old chess notation for knight (Kt-B3 etc), while K has always been “king”.
Tony
Chambers has ‘one (unspecified)’ as the first definition of “any” so I think that’s all right. Your other points seem fair enough. I was holding back in the hope that Tramp himself might drop by, as he sometimes does, but perhaps not this time.
Some of the misdirection in this puzzle was very fine and occasioned some mopping of the brow. Reassured that the majority seem to have had trouble with the NW. Very enjoyable: thanks to Tramp and bridgesong.
Great puzzle, as ever. Disagree mostly with quibbles (though agree that “head” does not necessarily imply addiction).
Thought that OXCART was a lovely &lit. and actually ticked it, along with YIPPEE (twice!), CHITCHAT, DECRYPTS and SMOOCHING.
Perhaps I was lucky to complete in one sitting, judging from others’ experience, so found I was not moved to find fault.
[grantinfreo@15 – Not so! “do you like my new car?” has identical meaning to “do you like my new wheels?” Surely.]
Many, many thanks to Tramp. And thanks to bridgesong for kind effort.
Bridgesong
Thanks. That seems to explain it adequately! Should have looked it up myself.
Just noticed this in margin of puzzle which I must have written immediately after solving:
“some hot stuff here! YIPPEE five star! Four stars included the lovely/clever &lit OXCART. Also CHITCHAT was most pleasant. Loved DECRYPTS.”
…so there it is, from the heart; unswayed by others’ views – and of the moment!
I didn’t have time to comment on this on Saturday – a tricky prize and an enjoyable challenge. Can’t believe how long it took be to see PARSEC…
Thanks to Tramp and bridgesong