I enjoyed this very much. I solved the puzzle a little at a time over a few days, just right for a Christmas special. Thank you Azed.
Normally Playfair puzzles can be intimidating as they require some serious codebreaking skills. However in this puzzle we we can deduce the codeword from solving the other clues so no codebreaking required. Phew!
I made some reasonable progress on the down clues then came to a halt. After that it was slow progress, each visit I got a few of the “missing letter” across solutions and one or two more down solutions. I didn’t even attempt the Playfair clues as even if I solved one I wouldn’t be able to enter any letters into the grid.
I had 12 of the 13 letters required to make the codeword but only one vowel – what was going on? Had I misunderstood the instructions? Eventually a flash of enlightenment provided FLOCKS BY NIGHT and I could deduce PATRIATE as the remaining remaining solution. Putting FLOCKS BY NIGHT into a Playfair grid gave:
Now I could decode the crossing letters and solving the remaining Playfair clues was straightforward. All that was left was to encode the full solutions and enter them into the grid.
I can’t explain the title Christmas Play-tent, can anybody help?
UPDATE: the title is a combination of “Playfair” and “Letters Latent”, the two types of special puzzle combined here.
| 1 | KICKSTART | To get moving, cart’s given a shake in it (9) |
| entry ICSTART omit letter K – anagram (given a shake) of CART in IT | ||
| 7 | FUNFUR | Oddly unruffled, led off in cheap boa? (6, 2 words) |
| Playfair encoded entry SFSCZE – anagram (oddly) of UNRUFFled missing (off) LED | ||
| 12 | CLOCKWATCHER | Work late shifts, extra hour put in? Not him! (12) |
| entry LOKWATHER omit letter C – anagram (shifts) of WORK LATE containing (put in) H (hour, extra to the main anagram fodder) | ||
| 14 | GARGET | Former affliction of cows perhaps lost award (6) |
| entry ARET omit letter G – double definition GARGET (animal disease) and ARET (award) both words now archaic or obsolete | ||
| 15 | PATRIATE | Pass self-rule to Irishman, with cost (8) |
| entry PATRATE omit letter I – PAT (Irishman) and RATE (cost) | ||
| 16 | CONTINGENT | Group of soldiers I catch behind bed (10) |
| entry COTIGET omit letter N – I GET (catch) following (behind) COT (bed) | ||
| 18 | ABELIA | Flowering shrub’s name in label I affix (6) |
| Playfair encoded entry HNMFND – found inside lABEL I Affix | ||
| 19 | MISFIRED | Bogged down, is trapped – failed in one’s aim (8) |
| entry MISIRED omit letter F – MIRED (bogged down) containing (trapping) IS | ||
| 20 | ASSOCIATIONAL | Lacking Latin, A1 Latin class struggles making connections (13) |
| entry ASSCIATINAL omit letter O – anagram (struggles) of AI LATIN CLASS missing one L (Latin) | ||
| 24 | HOTELING | Line got scrambled booking NY desk (8) |
| entry OTELING omit letter H – anagram (scrambled) of LINE GOT | ||
| 25 | TRENCH | Fish round river verge (6) |
| Playfair encoded entry DPQSLA -TENCH (fish) contains (round) R (river) | ||
| 28 | EARTHMAN | Terrestrial bear (old) nursing terrible harm (8) |
| entry EARHMAN omit letter H – EAN (bear, old=Shakespearean) contains (nursing) anagram (terrible) of HARM | ||
| 31 | ILL NATURE | Harden at being confined, being bad- tempered (9, 2 words) |
| entry INATURE omit letter L – INURE (harden) contains (…being confined) AT | ||
| 32 | BOARD | Company row brought to an end by Director (5) |
| entry OARD omit letter B – OAR (row) followed by (brought to an end by) D (director). I can’t find support for board meaning company in Chambers or OED: a company is governed by a board. Have I missed something? | ||
| 33 | MINERALISE | What fossickers do, remain changing situation? (10) |
| entry MINERALIE omit letter S – anagram (changing) of REMAIN then LIE. On its own the clue might lead to either mineralise or mineralize but S is the letter needed for the Playfair codeword. | ||
| 34 | SEDATE | Rear moving forward sat composed (6) |
| Playfair encoded entry GUGDGP – SEATED (sat) with D (the rear, last letter) moved forward in the word | ||
| 35 | SYNDACTYL | Sand troubled cattle regularly having fused digits (9) |
| entry SNDACTL omit letter Y – anagram (troubled) of SAND then cAtTlE (regularly, every other letter) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | CORONATE | Duck in cereal consumed with capital adornment (8) |
| O (duck) in CORN (cereal) then ATE (consumed) | ||
| 3 | SHET | Husband admitted to coterie once close (4) |
| H (husband) in SET (coterie) | ||
| 4 | TITI | Little bird is avoiding sun in US shrub (4) |
| TIT (little bird) then IS missing S (sun) | ||
| 5 | ALIGN | A party with free eats? Put on new dress (5) |
| A LIG (party with free eats) on N (new) | ||
| 6 | ROWED | Made progress facing to rear? Sounds like one of the ways (5) |
| sounds like “road” (one of the ways) – when rowing an oarsman faces the rear of the boat | ||
| 7 | SWAG IT | Was vagrant fool to bum around Oz? (6, 2 words) |
| anagram (vagrant) of WAS then GIT (fool) – Oz being Australia | ||
| 8 | FATS | Vessels for liquids or oils (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 9 | STRAIN | Stock put through sieve (6) |
| double definition | ||
| 10 | CHAKRA | King borne in coach, symbol representing the sun (6) |
| K (king) inside (borne in) CHARA (coach) | ||
| 11 | MACHZORIM | Odd extracts from Zachariah dour imam scribbled in prayer-books (9) |
| anagram (scribbled) of the odd letters of ZaChArIaH dOuR and iMaM | ||
| 13 | REED-RANDS | Thickets in the Broads? Deer wandering in margins (9) |
| anagram (wandering) of DEER in RANDS (margins) – The Broads is a wetland area of East Anglia | ||
| 17 | CELLARET | Wine cupboard: example of its contents including the Spanish (8) |
| CLARET (example of the contents of a wine cupboard) contains EL (the, Spanish) | ||
| 19 | MAG | Periodical supplying gossip (3) |
| double definition | ||
| 21 | SERANG | Boatswain performed shanty maybe, crew’s heart lifting inside (6) |
| SANG (performed shanty maybe) contains (with…inside) cREw (heart of) reversed (lifting) | ||
| 22 | SLATED | Like many roofs, (items viewed from below I omitted) (6) |
| DETAILS (items) reversed (viewed from below) missing (omitted) I | ||
| 23 | INWRAP | Get engrossed in informal discussion about women (6) |
| IN RAP (informal discussion) contains (about) W (women) | ||
| 25 | DATIN | Noblewoman of high rank embraced by husband at induction (5) |
| found inside (embraced by) husbanD AT INduction | ||
| 26 | PRIED | Had a nose of various colours, including a bit of red (5) |
| PIED (of various colours) contains Red (first letter, a bit of) | ||
| 27 | BURG | Food hauled up for walled town historically (4) |
| GRUB (food) reversed (hauled up) | ||
| 29 | HOYA | Rambling holiday? Hat lost, seek exotic plant (4) |
| anagram (rambling) of HOlidAY missing HAT. Seek seems odd as a link word. Might seek be a misprint for see? | ||
| 30 | MARC | Polo finishing early? Refuse (4) |
| MARCo (Marco Polo, explorer) unfinished | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
I think this puzzle is still live, PeeDee. The closing date in my copy of the Observer is Saturday 5 Jan.
I don’t have my copy to hand to check, but I assumed that both Azed and Maskarade had deadlines later than usual: hence the delay in posting a blog for the latter.
Thanks Azed and PeeDee
I can help with the crossword title, which is a mixture of “Playfair” and “(letters) latent”, the latter being the term used by Azed (and others before him) for the type of clue that you have called “missing letter”.
Thanks PB@3 for explaining the title, which had me mystified. I should have seen it myself, though the large gap between the “play” and the “tent” in the online version suggested another Guardian printing goof.
I’m not a fan of Playfair (to put it mildly) and I usually don’t bother with the fiddly and tedious procedure of working out the key and coding the entries if the Quinapulus code breaker can’t crack it (it wouldn’t have done so here). In this case Azed was generous enough to all but give us the key so it was possible to complete the coded entries with little bother, and of course the main part of the puzzle was as thoroughly enjoyable as ever.
Alas. I had no flash of enlightenment.
Due to Christmas travel and spending time with the family, I didn’t get to start this until the Friday after Christmas. I managed to get most of the uncoded clues, but failed to get 14ac, and was totally in the dark as to the anagram and had to leave it there.
Thanks to Blorenge for alerting us to the extended deadline. The Guardian website showed the usual one-week deadline, different to the printed edition.
Pelham – of course! Thanks for explaining the title.
The Playfair element (in what was otherwise an enjoyable puzzle) struck me as futile. I find it hard to believe that PeeDee and I were alone in ignoring the clues for the encoded solutions until we had established the four checked letters in each, and the upshot was that those of us who approach working out a Playfair code with the same relish as unblocking a drain were spared the task, whilst presumably those who savour the process were left frustrated that we code-dodgers were able to reach the same conclusion with much less effort (the paucity of vowels being a big help).
I think that the use of ‘company’ as the definition of BOARD in 32ac is indeed an error. OED does give ‘board’ as “The company of persons who meet at a council-table”, but ‘company’ on its own is far too vague; it seems more likely that Azed has mistakenly assumed a punctuation mark after the word ‘administers’ in the Chambers definition “a formal group or committee, esp one that administers a company, etc”.
Thanks to Azed, and to PeeDee for the blog. This was a treat- perhaps giving us a bit more help than usual at the season of good will. As one who enjoys the wrestle with Playfairs it was still kind of Azed to enable us to fall back on finding the three-word phrase. I kicked myself for how long it took as the K in 1 across pointed to the number one in English carols.
It is usually said that during the Commonwealth, when the Cromwellians banned Christmas jollification, the only carol allowed was “While Shepherds Watched”. It is also the only one so ingrained into the English hymnal that “good will to men” remains, rather than being replaced by a PC rewording, in modern hymnals. And how many choir boys have “washed their socks” when joing with their fellows?
Now we await what tomorrow will bring to start the New Year. Not another EPILIMNIUM I hope.
Though Google says that “While Shepherds” is later than the Commonwealth.
I always thought it was “washed their socks at night…”. Oh well…
As a Playfair fan, I am surprised that many people seem to dislike it. The decoding process is something that I always look forward to.
The completed grid appears to have a mistake at 34. The encoded form of SE should be GU, not TS.
Thank you Chris, I have no idea where TS came from. Fixed now.
I sit on the fence about Playfair puzzles: on the one hand I quite enjoy cracking the code but on the other hand this code cracking activity is not solving cryptic crosswords, it is another type of activity entirely. I think many people come to a cryptic crossword expecting to solve cryptic clues not to play a mathematical guessing game, however enjoyable that game may or may not be.
In this particular case I thought the Playfair element sat reasonably well. I think DRC is correct to point out that in this puzzle the Playfair element was futile, but I quite liked this. In a Christmas puzzle it took the role of a Christmas cracker: the little toy or gadget it contains is a bit pointless but it is there as a diversion not as a serious piece of work.
Perhaps I could have chosen a word with less negative connotations than ‘futile’ – based on Chris’s comment @11 I think that Azed’s move in recent years to what might be described as the ‘optional Playfair’ (from which you can be excused if you’ve got a note) is the ideal solution to the problem of keeping both camps (the Playfairs and the Playfouls) happy.