The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28100.
I try not to be negative, but the best I can say here is that it was over quickly. Three cryptic definitions about which Rufus might have had second thoughts (or not, as may be). On the plus side, there were no major howlers, but it was all very familiar and limited.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | PANORAMA | Soldiers wearing hat that gives a wide view (8) |
| An envelope (‘wearing’) of OR (Other Ranks, ‘soldiers’) in PANAMA (‘hat’). Rather familiar. | ||
| 9 | EXISTS | Is pushing spades through leaves (6) |
| An envelope (‘pushing .. through’) of S (‘spades’) in EXITS (‘leaves’). | ||
| 10 | KIDS | Teases children (4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 11 | CAT BURGLAR | Persian thief? (3,7) |
| Marginally cryptic definition. | ||
| 12 | WINCED | Shrank back as gale enveloped church (6) |
| An envelope (‘enveloped’ – what else?) of CE (“Church’ of England) in WIND (‘gale’). | ||
| 14 | MANIFEST | Isn’t fame ridiculously obvious? (8) |
| An anagram (‘ridiculously’) of ‘isn’t fame’. | ||
| 15 | FACTUAL | Real force applied to concrete (7) |
| A charade of F (‘force’) plus ACTUAL (‘concrete’). ‘Real’ and ‘concrete’ could well be interchanged. | ||
| 17 | ADVISOR | Counsellor these days in need of sunshade (7) |
| A charade of AD (Anno Domini, ‘these days’ for the last 2000-odd years) plus VISOR (‘sunshade’). | ||
| 20 | ASSASSIN | Killer finds a pair of idiots at home (8) |
| A charade of ASS ASS (‘a pair of idiots’) plus IN (‘at home’). Another bell ringing. | ||
| 22 | TWEEDS | You and I wearing Edward’s country outfit? (6) |
| An envelope (‘wearing’) of WE (‘you and I’) in TED’S (‘Edward’s’). | ||
| 23 | PREEMINENT | Outstanding temper — nine injured (10) |
| An anagram (‘injured’) of ‘temper nine’. | ||
| 24 | MALE | Man‘s meal spoiled (4) |
| An anagram (‘spoiled’) of ‘meal’. | ||
| 25 | FINITE | Piece of fish, I note, not unlimited (6) |
| A charade of FIN (‘piece of fish’) plus ‘I’ plus TE (‘note’ of the sol-fa; also rendered ti). | ||
| 26 | TROTTERS | Horses moving along, though not on these (8) |
| As a clue, I would say an idea in need of work. TROTTERS are horses in harness racing, but the term is also applied to (principally) pigs’ feet. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BASILICA | Fawlty in charge of a church (8) |
| A charade of BASIL (‘Fawlty’ of Faulty Towers) plus I/C (‘in charge of’) plus ‘a’. | ||
| 2 | TOSS | Opening action at cricket? (4) |
| Hardly cryptic definition. | ||
| 3 | RANCID | Was chief of detectives: rank? (6) |
| RAN CID (‘was in charge of detectives’). | ||
| 4 | RETURNED | Stupidly deter run to be elected as MP (8) |
| How about NEUTERED as an answer? Actually, a genuine anagram (‘stupidly), not a near miss, of ‘deter run’. | ||
| 5 | RING OF FIRE | Cash standard in unstable Pacific region (4,2,4) |
| Double definition, ‘Cash’ being singer Johnny; if you are not familiar with the second definition, try Wiki. | ||
| 6 | STEAMS | Cooks‘ company on board (6) |
| An envelope of TEAM (‘company’) in SS (‘on board’, using the last two words before the bracket for the common trick of indicating at once the envelope and the outer part). The apostrophe is just for decoration. | ||
| 8 | ASTHMA | An inspiring problem (6) |
| Slightly cryptic definition. | ||
| 13 | COTTAGE PIE | Simple supper: about time a piece got cooked (7,3) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of T (‘time’) in COTAGEPIE, an anagram (‘cooked’) of ‘a piece got’. | ||
| 16 | AUSPICES | Patronage of USA epics doubtful (8) |
| An anagram (‘doubtful’) of ‘USA epics’. | ||
| 18 | OLD GLORY | Ancient distinction in national flag (3,5) |
| A charade of OLD (‘ancient’) plus GLORY (‘distinction’). OLD GLORY is the Stars and Stripes. | ||
| 19 | INVENT | Create one new hole (6) |
| A charade of I (‘one’, the Roman numeral, or the impersonal personal pronoun) plus N (‘new’) plus VENT (‘hole’). | ||
| 21 | SPRAIN | European country imprisons king? That’s a wrench (6) |
| An envelope (‘imprisons’) of R (Rex, ‘king’) in SPAIN (‘European country’). | ||
| 22 | TATTOO | Military display is tawdry stuff, as well (6) |
| A charade of TAT (‘tawdry stuff’) plus TOO (‘a well’). | ||
| 24 | MOTH | Keep it off clothes: some harm, otherwise (4) |
| A hidden answer (‘some’) in ‘harM OTHerwise’, with an extended definition. | ||
Cryptic clues with no wordplay have an obligation to be clever, and these really weren’t. On the plus side, RING OF FIRE was nicely done, and as PeterO says, there was nothing to cause consternation or hinder the solving. Thanks to Vulcan for the too-brief challenge and to PeterO for the blog.
If anyone were to give a course on cryptics I would think this puzzle suitable as a first homework assignment.
I agree with all the above, there was not really much to say about this puzzle, so I won’t say it. But what I wanted to ask others on this blog was what you all thought of the weekend prize cryptic? For my money it was just about the most challenging of the past decade or so. Or was it just me?? After taking three or four times as long to complete it than normal, I almost cried with joy at having worked through such a sophisticated and immensely enjoyable puzzle. Oh that there were more of these …. but again, that could just be my opinion.
Thanks for the blog. I thought that assessments to date are a bit harsh for a Monday puzzle, all clues within the usual margin of error, IMO, albeit some of the CDs were a bit feeble, perhaps.
I liked rancid, finite, advisor
Auspices took a minute or two but, as said, lots of gimmes, like clues in the glossies you find in waiting rooms: kids, cat burglar, win ce d, ad visor, T we eds, and so on. My best were exists, preeminent and auspices, and I thought 24d qualified as &Lit, because if you don’t keep moth off clothes (woolen ones anyway) some harm results. Thanks both. Now to tackle the prize to see if I agree with rodshaw.
Sorry to sound a bit overly confident but yes I also got through this one quickly and without any aids. I agree about TOSS at 2d against which I wrote “barely cryptic”? But there were others that pleased – 1d BASILICA, 3d RANCID (as Andy@5 mentioned), 5d RING OF FIRE (as Dave@1 said) and 24d MOTH. It took me far too long to get 8d ASTHMA, my LOI, so I shouldn’t be too arrogant.
Lots of anagrams, so I started making a note of the anagrinds – “ridiculously”, “injured”, “spoiled”. “stupidly”, “cooked”, “doubtful”. I once started entering the ones I encountered in the Guardian puzzles into a Word document but it began to interrupt the flow of my solving – and then I read on this site that there is an extant list so I didn’t bother any more. But there is certainly a variety!
As DrW@2 remarks,this might be the sort of puzzle that would be a good entrée into the craft of solving and we all had to start somewhere.
Thanks to Vulcan and PeterO.
[I prefer not to comment on the weekend puzzle at all while it is still “live”, rodshaw@3. I feel it’s not fair to people who are saving it and the blog isn’t published until Saturday.]
JiA@7 The solution is due today for the prize puzzle (due to the virus), so I imagine comments are allowed now.
rodshaw@3 I didn’t find it extraordinarily difficult, though “cheat” books were in evidence for the last few clues, and there are two or three I couldn’t parse.
Is the blog for it due today, or will that be Saturday still?
Dave Ellison @8 – the Guardian site, main page for Prize Puzzles, states the solution is due this Friday at noon. I agree with JinA that comments should only be made on the blog for that puzzle.
Thanks, PeterO and Vulcan.
I agree, nothing too testing here. But we’ve got the quiptic as well today to make up for it. Anyway, I suppose this might be the last walk in the park we’re allowed for a while, if we don’t stick to the social distancing.
On a pedantic note: in asthma, the airways constriction causes difficulty breathing out, not in.
Definitely not the hardest monday cryptic ever. I completed all but one of the downs on the first quick scan through, the exception being toss. Getting that without the crossers would have to be guesswork.
Rodshaw @3 – not the hardest prize for me, though sometimes you get lucky with particular ones. I did give up and do a little cheating when I was down to the last 5 though, and I still have one left with a puzzling combination of characters and quadruply checked crossers.
Thank you Vulcan and PeterO especially for the early blog. I agree with most of the comments here about the level of difficulty, but we have the same moans every week, so we should let it drop, and there are some fine clues along with the more obvious ones.
But I have a question. I have only very recently started doing the Quiptic. This weeks Quiptic is set by the Don, is this a first or does he often set them? Suffice to say I am enjoying it a lot. All the best and see you on the Quiptic blog idc!!
I have just checked again: the paper edition says the solution to the prize is due Monday 13 April, so not today – so not sure about discussion now
P.S. Please stop writing about this weeks Prize. Until we are told of a change we should observe the rules!!
Please do not post comments about Saturday’s “prize” puzzle in this blog. To quote the Guardian website – “We regret that in the present circumstances we are unable to process prize entries for this puzzle. The solution to each puzzle will still be published online at midday on the following Friday”. The blog for 28,099 will therefore appear on Saturday 11th April as usual.
At last! Thank you Gaufrid for stepping in. We haven’t even looked at it yet.
I’m not knocking setters but I do feel a tad robbed this morning. This was as straightforward as a Monday crossword gets. And I did the Telegraph cryptic beforehand which fell in just over 8 minutes. I’m not bragging – I’m a fairly average solver. But it seems I have to be resigned to strolls in the park on a Monday. Until the UK Government bans those too as a result of the flouting of social distancing guidelines.
I’m totally in favour of avoiding any kind of spoiler comments on the Prize though, in defence of rodshaw@3, I’m not particularly upset by a comment as general as his/hers. To simply remark that it was an enjoyable stretch doesn’t seem to impinge on those who haven’t yet started/finished it.
A quick postscript to last week’s discussion regarding the absence of flour in the shops. An interesting article here in the UK at the weekend noted that, whilst we are actually self sufficient in flour, the issue is with the packaging. A large proportion of the finished product is sent out in very large bags to the food and catering industries – many of whom are now not using their usual allocations due to closure/refocus of operations. But the existing lines filling 1.5 kg bags for consumers are at capacity. So the flour is there; it just isn’t in the bags.
Thanks to Vulcan and PeterO
Re. 17a, I wince every time I see the word spelled this way. When I was at school in the 1960s it would have earned a red line through the ‘o’ and a mark deducted. I know that language changes over time, but old habits and prejudices die hard.
Gaufrid @15 We crossed. My comments @17 are not in response to yours @15 – which would be impertinent of me!
Thanks Vulcan and PeterO
Yes, it was quick, but I enjoyed it. I liked TWEEDS and RANCID, and CAT BURGLAR actually made me laugh!
All bin said, except to add that one of the most endearing (and enduring) features of the Graun crossword is the variance of degree of difficulty. This one probably defined the left hand outer marker but there’s nothing terribly wrong in that.
It prompted a little research on the Pacific Rim and for that alone, I am grateful.
Thank you, Vulcan, and stay safe everyone.
Rancid was good but can someone please explain “toss”? It is the opening action at cricket – you toss to decide who bats first. Is it an allusion to “toss the die” as an opening and a “full toss” being something from cricket? Or is it just a dead straight definition?
As has been said – very straightforward with immensely clearly projected anagrams and their fodder (though meal -> male was a bit lame!) “ring of fire” came to me from the second definition, never having listened to Johnny Cash, but that’s the way GK goes and meant the clue was accessible.
On to the quiptic and let’s see how many errors there are in this month’s genius!
TROTTERS reminded me of Danny Dyers’ TV rant about “Call me Dave” Cameron trotters up in Nice. Also, I’m sure many of you are waiting with bated breath for today’s tenuous Half Man Half Biscuit connection … “Sh*t arm, bad TATTOO” is a track from their “Achtung Bono” album and believed to describe their disappointment with the Libertines’ second album https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/4771-the-libertines/
The most gentle of gentle Monday puzzles but I enjoyed completing it in what I’m sure would have been record time if I kept them. CAT BURGLAR also made me laugh muffin, and I thought EXISTS was a perfectly crafted clue. I never knew Pasquale did quiptic so I’ll try that. Thanks to Vulcan and PeterO- and to Mark for the update on the flour shortage.
Vulcan is always reliable for the gentle Monday slot, and if it is too easy for you – don’t bother to do it!
At the beginning, I thought 2D might have been ‘bowl.’ It was my LOI, which rather proves the point that it wasn’t as obvious as some are claiming.
I enjoyed this, and I’m not sure why PeterO didn’t like TROTTERS. I thought it was quite a good clue as horses obviously (unlike pigs) don’t move on trotters.
Thanks Vulcan and PeterO – I forget about the Cash song, so couldn’t parse RING OF FIRE.
Given the dismissive references to Rufus, I suppose one’s pleasure in this crossword is dependent upon whether one was a fan of his or not – and I’m guessing you weren’t, PeterO. Personally, I was charmed by the Rufusian quality of 19d, 11a, 22a and 26a, and whilst 22d, 10a and 3d were indeed straightforward, I found them amusing in their daft simplicity.
I share RogerN’s problem with 8d – but this was easily compensated for by RING OF FIRE: I spent an eternity fruitlessly researching banking terms, then switched to geological ones – and when light finally dawned, I realised I’d been completely taken in by the misdirection of “cash”.
Thank you Vulcan: I, for one, enjoy your gentle Monday starts to the week. There are plenty of other setters to drive one mad with obscure GK, tortuously assembled solutions and archaic terminology; it’s also good, just occasionally, to have someone who doesn’t try to disappear up their own fundament. Thanks also to PeterO for the blog.
I’m with Robi on TOSS. I left it until last, and had to fill up my little anagram blackboard with alphabetical chalk before the penny dropped. The St. Radegund public house has the privilege of playing at The Close, Jeusus College, Cambridge. My memories of the opening action of cricket there was invariably the opening of a bottle or the tapping of a barrel !
Thanks to Vulcan for the memories and PeterO.
After the pleasure of the Pasquale Quiptic came this.
First, tanks to Vulcan and Peter O. I agree with Robi. For those of us who are relative beginners, the Monday cryptic crossword is pitched about right. Some of you may have forgotten the sense of achievement we newcomers get from managing to complete the crossword. To misquote Bob Geldof, if you don’t like Mondays there’s the rest of the week to look forward to
If Peter’s definition is extended from Horses to Horses moving along, I’d say it works fine.
Whilst walking round the paddock, cantering down to the start and galloping back are the three paces you should see at a racecourse, trotters describes all too well many of the beasts (without a harness) that have carried the weight of my money.
Couldn’t parse 21d SERBIA, maybe because it was wrong.
I once went to a trotting race. Didn’t know anything about the sport, but chose a horse with well-developed hind-quarters to bet a shilling on. Obviously a good choice as (unknown to me) he was heavily handicapped and had to start way behind the other trotters. He nearly caught up even so, but I lost my shilling.
Well, I enjoyed it and didn’t find it especially easy so thanks Vulcan and Peter.
For me , the confusion in parsing 5d was the part -anagram suggested by “REGION” hey , ho
TheZed @8 It depends on where you see the definition beginning. If you read it as “a habit,” then it’s ADDICTION. If you read it as “becoming a habit,” then it’s ADDICTIVE.
American robins are the only kind I’ve ever seen. They really have a lovely song, google it on youtube.
I also have an ocarina someone gave me, which I’ve never played. But in elementary school we all played them in music class. They were called “sweet potatoes” then, they’re a similar shape.
grantinfreo @6
Perhaps we need a FAQ “What is an &lit?”. The answer, I believe, would be on the lines that it is a clue which, in its entirety, reads as a definition of the answer, bur which, again in its entirety, may be re-interpreted as wordplay for the same answer. In 24D, ‘keep it off clothes’ contributes to the definition, but not to the wordplay. A clue like this is sometimes referred to as being a semi-&lit, or, as I put it, as having an extended definition.
Hello Valentine
I think you might be posting comments on the quiptic in the cryptic blog! I’ve been working on today’s quiptic for an hour or so, and three words you mention have appeared….
(I won’t say which, obvs!!) x
Wellbeck@38 You’re right. I must have written some comments for the cryptic but forgotten to hit “copy,” so when I hit “paste” I pasted in the ones still on my clipboard from the quiptic. I wonder what I meant to say about the cryptic?
I think the setter comes in for a little too much abuse for Monday puzzles. I used to skip Mondays, but with time now weighing heavy I’m giving it a go.
TOSS was my last one in, because I had to convince myself it really was that straightforward. Which is a strength rather than a weakness of the clue. I agree with some others that MALE was almost insultingly easy, along with ASSASSIN & EXISTS, but I thought TROTTERS was good, and I almost got stuck in the SERBIA trap at 21d, so I didn’t feel like I’d wasted my time.
Can’t say I found anything wrong with TROTTERS and I rather enjoyed the puzzle as a whole. I may be in an affable frame of mind having located a supplier of homebrew kits so I won’t be deprived of my favourite tipple during these dark days. I liked RANCID and BASILICA even if they did go in easily.
Thanks Vulcan.
I’m a novice at cryptics (Everyman is the one I go for), and this was about my happy level. Only a couple needed help (ASTHMA being one of them).
I’ve never managed to get more than one or 2 filled in to one of Paul’s crosswords, so for now I’m quite happy with the easier Monday puzzles.
Smot @42: If I’m not mistaken, Paul sets crosswords in the Financial Times under the name Mudd. I find these a bit easier to penetrate and they are no less clever.
I agree with Colin – this was a rare cryptic I complete, please grant us this pleasure! I do agree a few clues were a bit limp – but the disdain a little excessive.
Having said that, after an awful lot of work I did complete Saturday’s prize crossword too, so perhaps I have turned the corner.