Guardian Cryptic 28,402 by Nutmeg

91 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,402 by Nutmeg”

1. Aren’t Caesar’s last words “Then fall Caesar”?

2. Again this wasn’t particularly difficult, but the clues were beautifully elegant throughout. FAMOUS LAST WORDS was superb, closely followed by PLUTOCRAT, IN GOOD CONDITION, PARTICLE PHYSICS, EXHORTING and SQUARED UP. I didn’t know the artist or HALLE but both gettable.
   I wonder if KILN under the WINE GLASS is deliberate? I enjoyed this so much, I was actually sorry when it was over.

   Ta Nutmeg & manehi

3. I must have been on Nutmeg’s wavelength this morning because much of this just fell in! 5a gave me a moment of upset because I thought the studio in question was a recording studio and therefore had to be MONITOR (as in studio monitors).

   And for MONOPOD alone, I can’t resist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbnkY1tBvMU

   A very nice and hugely satisfying puzzle.

   Thanks Nutmeg and manehi!

4. PARTICLE PHYSICS and recent unexpected behaviour by the beauty quark at the Large Hadron Collider leads us to Hawkwind’s Quark, Strangeness and Charm.

   Oh and I enjoyed the puzzle.

   Thanks to Nutmeg & manehi

5. A lovely crossword. I liked the funny dog in 3d and the removing of the autograph in 8d. The PHYSIC in 7d reminded me of Macbeth’s “Throw physic to the dogs, I’ll none of it.”

   Thanks manehi, particularly for the parsing of SANDPIPER – I was stuck on the idea that we had to do something to “sandpaper” (“smoother”). And many thanks Nutmeg.

6. 24a I couldn’t parse DRESSED but it’s clear now. I got TALUS by remembering endless viewings of the film “Jason and The Argonauts” only to realise later that the giant bronze statue (with its own version of an Achilles Heel) was, in fact, TalOs

7. I thought the misdirection in the clue for CELLO was particularly good, and enjoyed plenty of others (e.g. WINEGLASS, GLOBE and EXHORTING) as always with Nutmeg. Many thanks to N & m.

8. Thank you manehi as I guessed DRESSED and still don’t understand the erroneous wordplay, couldn’t parse DRY UP (I always forget the DUP, I’m sure a few politicians wish they could too) nor 22A, and took a while to remember that a tape deck/player/recorder could be a DRIVE, but the usual clear definitions from Nutmeg were a big help and I found this much easier than Tramp/Brummie this week.
   I liked the double but differing uses of Ball/s, the long clues, the tap switch, and lots more, but thanks especially Nutmeg for bringing Dame Laura to my attention, a fascinating life (ta wikipedia) and will enjoy exploring further.

9. I needed several sessions for this, but it all fell into place. I had IN MINT CONDITION for a while (and never did work out where the IN came from, so thanks, manehi for that and for unscrambling HELLO). ‘Mint’ seemed OK to me but then… I was chuffed that my construction of DAME LAURA KNIGHT turned out to be a real person. PARTICLE PHYSICS was very satisfying. The HALLE swam up into consciousness from somewhere. Thanks, Nutmeg and manehi.

10. I am getting to enjoy misdirection, so it was a pleasure to realise that northern was part of the definition for HALLE and not an “n” we had to remove from something else. All that time I spent yesterday creating a mental list of wading birds meant that SANDPIPER came immediately to mind. I keep saying HATLESS in my head and I think the homophone works, when you say it in a sentence.

11. MaidenBartok @3: Funny you should mention Peter Cook. Only yesterday I was sharing with friends the Jeremy Thorpe judge sketch, and Teaching Ravens to Fly Underwater.

12. Enjoyable puzzle.
    Favourites: DESIGNS, SYNOD (loi).
    New for me: DAME LAURA KNIGHT, HALLE orchestra, TAPE DRIVE, TALUS.

    Thanks, Nutmeg and manehi.

13. Didn’t know the artist so had to nag the agram which I usually avoid. Vaguely remembered the Halle orchestra (via Barbirolli, sort of), but forgot about the chestnut in = ruling in 22ac… dim! Not to fret, lovely gridfill as ever with Nutmeg, who was alluding to some serious boozing in 18ac. All enjoyable, ta both. Will now enjoy the links from MB and Penfold, and any others that rock up.

14. Lots of good stuff especially DESIGNS, CELLO and EXHORTING but SQUARED UP took me far longer than it should have done. Thanks Nutmeg and manehi

15. I’m another who got DRESSED this morning without knowing why, so thanks Nutmeg and manehi for resolving my puzzlement.

    Very much liked the four long ones and the potty WINEGLASS.

    Shirl @1: I think you have a point, but then as we now know Caesar’s actual last words were “Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me”.

    Does DRY UP = harden??

    Thanks both, and also MB and Penfold for the particle spigots. 🙂

16. Thanks Nutmeg and manehi
    Very nice, though I also put DRESSES first, but it had to be REPINED. I didn’t parse GLOBE.
    Very similar tricks in 10a, 11a, and 6d.
    Lots of favourites. WINEGLASS tops the list.

17. Penfold @4: thanks for the earworm. I was already there! Some delightful, if outrageous, lyrics.

    Gazzh @8: I’m trying to recall how often DUP appeared, clued by ‘party’ before they rose to prominence in a recent parliament. I wonder if they will disappear of whether they’re part of the setters’ arsenal for good.

    I hadn’t heard of DAME LAURA so, even with KNIGHT, I wasn’t able to get that one. But everything else solved and parsed satisfactorily. I’m another fan of PARTICLE PHYSICS and, like AlanC, I ticked PLUTOCRAT, FAMOUS LAST WORDS and IN GOOD CONDITION. Like drofle, I admired WINEGLASS and GLOBE and I’d add the lovely word MAWKISH for the surface, MISSHAPEN for the anagram and SYNOD for the construction.

    Thanks Nutmeg and manehi

18. [TheFSG@6, I had the same false A-ha moment as you, except that mine was even wronger as I thought it came from Clash of the Titans!
    And Penfold@4 good suggestion and you could also consider “Particle Man” by They Might Be Giants for today’s playlist, lyrics contain some interesting philosophy.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsAiCs66l40 ]

19. [MaidenBartok – it’s acknowledged as being quite tricky but could I suggest you have a bash at today’s Independent puzzle by Hob (our Puck)?]

    Cellomaniac, if and when you turn up later: nice to see a – cunningly clued – partial name check today!

20. Looks like it this puzzle was well received, quite rightly!

    Thanks manehi, you have tidied up the ones I did not fully understand.

    I use a cheat whereby I take the most common common letter from an anagram and flood the answer with it to find where they are positioned!

    I was certain 5a was going to be an anagram of the tenor, DOMINGO ans was pleasantly suprised to get back the O’s in MONOPOD

    Wrongly, it seemed to parse perfectly OP for IN and it is only now I realise it is IG not IN so I was lucky. No reveals or cheats is superb for me.

    Thanks Nutmeg , enjoyed it.

21. Thanks Nutmeg and manehi.

    Superb puzzle.

    essexboy @ 15: if a river bed dries up it hardens, as do mortar and concrete.

22. PM @17: I’m presuming your comment about the DUP was tongue in cheek, since it rose to prominence in 1971, under the leadership of Ian Paisley. I’m very sure it will not be going anywhere soon!

23. [PostMark @19: Will do but may not get round to it until much later}.

24. [Gazzh @18: thanks for reminding me of that. Surreal lyrics. I remember being quite taken with it – it came out 30 years ago! One other source of musical reference today is lurking in 1d. I’ve been luck enough to see Focus perform several times and met Thijs van Leer on a couple of occasions. Remarkable sound and man. For gif @13 who’s awaiting another link to follow, here’s a slightly less obvious one of theirs – House of the King.]

25. Simon S @21: true. In terms of the physical phenomenon I can’t argue, but in terms of our use of language I still don’t feel they’re interchangeable. I can’t recall ever having heard “the river bed hardened” or “the mortar/concrete dried up”.

26. MB @3 yep the Tarzan applicant is a bit of a fave. Penfold @4, great track, fab trippy visuals, reminds me of that Kubrick masterpiece.

27. [AlanC @22: it’s the appearance in crosswords I’m trying to recall. Yes, the party’s been around for ages but I’m just more aware of its occurrence in clues as an addition to the usual C/Con/Tory/L/Lab/Lib references since they enjoyed their spell as holders of the balance of power. The letters DUP were like a rash during the first year.]

28. Glorious. Just yesterday I was musing on how if Tramp was akin to a boozy trifle then Nutmeg is more perfectly presented patisserie and here she is to prove the point 🙂

    [essexboy @15 there used to be a point in my hot yoga class where the teacher would say “big breaths” and the carry on line “yeth and I’m only thixteen” would inevitably spring to mind]

29. Good fun, despite the minor blooper in 24a. 23a raised a smile.
    AlanC @22 – I think the DUP may well find itself going into the Republic within a few years. Which will be amusing. As will be the fact that a whole lot of politicos will then have to go out and buy new, redesigned, Union Jacks.

30. At first a struggle, with only my back to front Pud a rather pathetic effort towards 12ac. Though it did help with the D and the P for those down clues. But I then gathered pace until finally a very slow solving of the NW corner. Rather shot myself in the foot by mistakenly thinking that 2d’s Dame had an 11 letter surname rather than 5,6. Not quite on the ball today, wrong side of the bed exit, but as ever enjoyed another excellent Nutmeg puzzle..

31. Went a bit Bung Ho to start with, there’s getting on a setters wavelength or there’s granting oneself a non-existent mind reading superpower. Once all the clutter had been removed I got the majority of it and was not ashamed of falling short on REPINED or the MONOPOD, both new to me, but gettable with application. DRESSED I got from the oven ready portion and guessed that the tense might have been wrong for the getting into line piece. All in all, no quibbles at all. Enjoyable and pitched right for a Thursday (just beyond my pay grade).
    Thanks to Nutmeg for the puzzle and manehi for the explanations (quite a few ‘devices’ in play today).

32. Neil @29: ‘into the Republic’ You can’t imagine how objectionable I find that comment.

33. With IN DEPTH in place, I was fairly sure that I was looking for a DAME artist (not so many Daves at the easel), and with the fodder LAURA KNIGHT popped into my head – where from, I’m not sure, I’m not that familiar with her work. My first pass had been slow, so this helped open things up greatly.

    Shame about DRESSED, but it hardly detracts from another fine crossword. And just to check (pace yesterday), there really isn’t a theme?

34. [PostMark @19: Oh LOVELY!!! Thanks – got a few things to do but will head to the Indy forum after that…]

35. I don’t see why ‘adequate’ is included in the clue for 18a. Am I missing something?
    And I also find the equation of DRY UP=’harden’ to be a little too much of a stretch. But overall I enjoyed this one. I was sure the definition for 2d would be a type of ‘hat’ and that the anagrist would include B and RA and you would be amazed at the wonderfully bizarre names I concocted for types of headgear.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and to today’s blogger.

36. Greatly enjoyed this, though I’m afraid I had to reveal the artist and the DRESSED/S mixup was annoying. The surface for CELLO was excellent and HALLE made me think of that great Irish conductor, Sir John Bob O’Reilly.

37. Another lovely puzzle from Nutmeg.

    My favourites today were FAMOUS LAST WORDS, SANDPIPER, HATLESS and PLUTOCRAT.

    I admired the way virtually the same device was cleverly used in 10 and 11ac and 6dn.

    Many thanks to Nutmeg and manehi.

38. pserve_p2 @ 35

    I suspect ‘adequate’ is a Nutmeg whimsy: a wineglass would probably not be adequate for a beer drinker.

39. All my favourites have been mentioned but I will still highlight MAWKISH and SYNOD as they made me smile. And I haven’t seen PHYSIC referred to as ancient medicine for ages – lovely word and sometimes spelled with *k* I think, which looks even better (tho not for this clue).

    Woke up in the middle of the night and started but found it really hard. Went back to sleep and then tried again and managed to parse a load I had failed with earlier. Still think it was hard but lots of lovely clues – but needed help to parse a couple.

    Did anyone else start searching to see whose last words were *how wrong I was* or just me?

    Thanks to Imogen and manehi

40. Another great crossword from Nutmeg. I got REPINED early on, so the DRESSED/(s) mix up was fairly obvious.

    Out of all the good clues, I think my favourite was for CELLO. I didn’t know the artist but after a while (s)he was obviously a KNIGHT. My chess sensibilities always interfere with K = knight (in MAWKISH) because K = king is used there (and N or Kt for knight). This has put me in a good mood for the rest of the day (I hope).

    Thanks Nutmeg and manehi, especially for the DE-SIGNS, which I failed to parse, doh!

41. [I’m enjoying today’s comments. Lots of people seem to be on the same wavelength. Like MB @3, MONOPOD had me thinking of the Tarzan sketch and I was amused that MB @34 is so busy that he can’t remember what he did @23.

    I opted for Hawkwind (glad gif enjoyed it), but considered the Dutch prog rockers. As Hall of the King was the theme tune for Don’t Ask Me with Magnus Pyke, that completes the circle back to physics.

    Thanks for those links, to Gazzh @18 for TMBG and to Essexboy for all that Carry On.]

42. Another masterclass in concise, precise and elegant clueing. That said I didn’t follow the precise instructions in 11a and put in EXPORTING which meant that MISSHAPEN was my loi when I eventually decided the wasn’t a word M_S_P_P_N. MrsW wasn’t amused that I had her working on that. I thought of HELLO for HAIL but still didn’t make the hot and cold connection so failed to parse it. Thank you Nutmeg for the puzzle and manehi for the blog.

43. poc@36: Not to mention the conductor’s tonsorial cousin, Mr. Barber Olly.

    Fiona Anne @39: yes, I also looked for “how wrong I was” as literal famous last words. I think the best example are the apocryphal words of a First World War general visiting the trenches, on being warned about putting his head above the parapet: “Don’t be silly, they couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist….”

    Thoroughly enjoyed this – I didn’t know TALUS or MONOPOD (so that’s what that gizmo is called) but got both from impeccable clues. Shame about DRESSED – I thought about TRUSSED for a while there. Took a long time to get TAPE DRIVE and will admit to never attempting to parse IN GOOD CONDITION. Favourites DESIGNS, WINEGLASS and MAWKISH.

44. Must admit it took me a while to get into = late night early morning. But really enjoyed when finally took it seriously. Great fun

45. [Penfold @41: If work expands to fit the time available, and for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, time for work must contract if something infintely more enjoyable pops-up?

    I know I shouldn’t comment on the Indy crossword here, but PostMark piqued my interest and the theme just popped-out! I’m off to make a nusiance of myself on the Indy thread…

    Penfold – can you remind me of what it was I supposed to be doing? I appear to have gone a bit Arthur Strong this morning…]

46. I knew TALUS from O-level geography, where it was a steep slope formed by glaciation rather than a bone in the ankle, but the solution was clear enough once I had corrected my spelling of ARTICLE. I was another with MINT instead of GOOD at 22a, but the extra M wasn’t in the anagrist for 2d so I wasn’t held up for long. Despite a couple of errors, probably my quickest ever Nutmeg solve, so I’d have said this was one of her easier ones except that manehi said this was a slower solve – I guess my “fastest” and manhi’s “slower” are probably about the same time!

    akaRebornBeginner @20 – if Nutmeg were to include an anagram of DOMINGO with just ‘tenor’ in the clue, there would be ructions here. That’s the sort of unfair cluing that would see amendments made to Christmas card lists.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi.

    [Taffy @31 – good to see you here in non-controversial mode. I apologise for my hostility on the GD thread the other day.]

47. Shirl@1 made me realise that the clue was self-referential, so even better than it first appeared.

48. Fiona Anne@39: You are not alone – I also wondered if, approaching the terminus, someone must have said “how wrong I was” (Of course it’s not arsenic. It’s table salt – give it here).

49. I’m feeling very stupid, as even with the error in tenses explained I still can’t parse 24…

50. Chris@49, I was the same, I think it is something military as per this:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drill_commands

    If you look a little way down there are various commands to do with “dressing” which seems to involve lining up on the parade ground for some sort of inspection etc. Hopefully someone (maybe with experience of such things) can offer a more authoritative version.

51. Can anyone explain what
    “Gets into line” gives DRESSE-S
    means?
    Dressed seemed obvious solution.

52. Chris @24 That makes two of us
    I’m feeling very DistRESSED by the clue.

53. ‘dress’ can mean to ‘get into line’ in the context of getting a military troop into formation – as suggested by Gazzh. Apologies for not clarifying earlier in the blog, I was more focused on the error while writing up the clue.

54. Katherine and Timmy,
    In the army, a squad on the parade ground might be given the command ‘In open order, right dress’ basically meaning to get into a straight line, taking the right end of the line as a reference point.

55. It’s not unusual for me to struggle with a Nutmeg crossword but I keep coming back because she’s among the best in writing clever clues that read so naturally. I was pleasantly surprised to finish this gem without assistance and with only one error at 12c. Favourites were IN DEPTH, HATLESS, PLUTOCRAT, PARTICLE PHYSICS, DESIGNS, and DISTANCES. Thanks manehi for parsing and to Nutmeg for another excellent crossword.

56. Thanks everyone for the explanations for 24a.

57. If anyone who objects to “dry up” equating to “harden” can give me an example of something that doesn’t become harder when it dries up, I’d at least have a start point to argue against. If you take the moisture out of something it becomes less liquid and more solid. I’ve got a dehydrator at home – I’ve not yet put one thing in it that didn’t come out harder than when I put it in. Even water will leave behind solid impurities (such as salt) when it evaporates.

    There are probably rare materials that actually become softer if the water is removed but everything I can think of gets harder. I’m not sure you need a corresponding dictionary definition for something that is demonstrably obvious in our day-to-day lives.

58. Thank you for the excellent blog. Cello is clue of the week and nice to see the Halle orchestra get a mention.

59. [sh @46. That’s very noble of you kind sir, my escutcheon is now gleaming nicely! Thank you and apologies for winding you up in the first place. I prefer to wear my clown hat in all honesty.

    K @56 if you google this “youtube dress right dress” the first option you get is a troop of squaddies lined up hand touching the shoulder of their colleague on their left while looking right. It seems to be both for alignment (r) and spacing (l). ]

60. [More on the dress business, the first two words are the command, the final dress, shouted, is the time to execute said command. So more often written Dress Right, DRESS or Dress Left, DRESS. Anal pedant and pub bore hats returned to drawer].

61. Sorry I can see dress military meaning but
    “Gets into line” gives DRESSE-S

    What is dresse-s ?

62. Timmytimtim
    If you read through the blog and previous posts, you will see that the compiler has apologised for an error in the clue – it should have been “got” rather than “get”.

63. Timmytimtim

    I was just highlighting the final ‘s’ in ‘dresses’, as opposed to the correct ‘dressed’ ending in a ‘d’.

64. Thanks manehi and everyone else who clarified 24, I can sleep easier now!

65. Thanks for the empathy folks.
    Sorry if I’m being thick. I read enough to understand compiler error with tense.
    Is “dresse” supposed to be a thing? Is is dresse-s just a way of indicating present tense ?

66. Also re ‘Dress’, shop workers dress shelves by ensuring that they are fully stocked with all the correct labels facing out and aligned.

67. Not sure what you’re asking, Timmytimtim. The correct clue would give DRESSED as both definitions.

68. Tim@65 it is just ordinary dresses. The blog showed dresse-s to emphasise that the final s is wrong because it has to cross with a d.

69. muffin @67: my use of ‘DRESSE-S’ in the blog could be read in other ways e.g. ‘dresse’ minus ‘s’, rather than a way of drawing attention to the incorrect verb ending.

70. pserve_p2 @35: “adequate” is there in 18a largely for the surface, which is asking whether just one potty was enough. But it also works fine as part of the definition, along the lines suggested by Simon S @38. So it seems to me that the (whimsical) definition is in fact “adequate receptacle for drinker?”, and maybe “adequate” should be underlined in the blog.

    [Roz: I think you were asking recently when it was that Araucaria and Paul had the same clue with the same answer (deliberately) on consecutive days. In case you haven’t since found it, it was 23,295 and 23,296 on 9 and 10 November 2004, 24a in both cases.]

71. Ttt @65. Precisely that. It was manehi’s way of highlighting that using gets in that portion of the clue yields DRESSES, which clashes with the DRESSED option of the other definition. As REPINED provides the final D, then it is DRESSE(S) that is at fault and the clue should have been Got into line. It’s still not been amended on the G despite the setter requesting it quite some time ago. Don’t run yourself down, I’m way dumber than you, promise.

72. [ Thank you very much Lord Jim , there is no way I could find it myself. Proud of my memory ! I said it was Paul and Araucaria, 2004 or 2005 and in the bottom right corner. Different clues but same answer, DEJA VU, Very amusing at the time.]

73. A strange one for me today. Really struggled for 30 minutes or so, gave it up with about five clues solved, nodded off for 10 minutes, then polished the rest off in about 10 minutes wondering what the initial problem was. Nice puzzle: thanks to setter and blogger. Why is it that a ten minute unplanned nap always leaves you feeling rotten?

74. Aaah I understand now. Dress-es would be better to indicate it taking present tense of verb. The dresse-s was throwing me. Anyway I enjoyed the crossword so thanks to Nutmeg and all.

75. Thanks Manehi and Nutmeg. A nice steady solve today, helped by being on Nutmeg’s wavelength for once – just the SE corner took a little longer. REPINED, TALUS and DAME LAURA KNIGHT were unfamiliar but very fairly clued. I think this particular grid is quite a help to solvers too – very nice. Only one minor quibble – as an amateur photographer I can’t imagine using a MONOPOD inside a studio since they are of most use with long telephoto lenses and those are mainly employed outdoors. You see some interesting ones at County Championship cricket matches.

76. Just failed on 3d, whoopee…which as a success, would be the same as San Marino winning the World Cup.
    Thanks to Manehi and Nutmeg, a few parsings to confirm…

77. I found this one quite tough for a Nutmeg, particularly in the NW. I enjoyed the SANDPIPER and DAME LAURA KNIGHT clues the best, although have to confess not knowing the latter.
    K for knight sent me off the Cambers online where I found, bizarrely:
    K3 abbreviation… chess knight.
    K4 symbol… chess king.
    I’m not sure what that means, tbh. I find it hard to believe that the rigorous world of chess notation could ever use K alone to mean simultaneously knight or king.
    Your, confusedly, Phito.
    Thanks, manehi and Nutmeg

78. phitonelly
    Chambers is wrong (not for the first time!). In chess, the abbreviation for “knight” was originally “Kt”, but this was replaced by “N”.

79. @78 muffin totally agree, for someone who played a lot of chess many years ago, K has never been a chess notation for Knight.

80. If, like me, you did The Scotsman Cryptic every day you would dismiss DRESSES/DRESSED as just another error.

81. Hi MarkN @57 (if you’re still around – only just seen your interesting challenge). My problem with DRY UP = harden, which I may not have made entirely clear in my exchange with Simon S earlier, was that I don’t use ‘to dry up’ synonymously with ‘to dry’ or ‘to dry out’.

    To me, ‘dry up’ means that the liquid (or the words, or the money, or the job offers) stops flowing. If it rains in the morning but dries up in the afternoon, that means it has stopped raining, not that all moisture has disappeared. (And if the ground is pebbly, the pebbles, when they do dry out completely, are no more or less hard than when they were wet.)

    I realise there are ‘dry up’ usages where all the wetness disappears. You can dry up after washing up. If you spill milk on the kitchen floor, a couple of hours later it might have all dried up. If someone has been crying but is now feeling better, the tears may have dried up. But in none of those cases do I think of anything ‘hardening’.

    Conversely, you can watch paint dry (and harden!), but you wouldn’t say that you’re watching it dry up. Similarly with concrete.

    And finally (promise!) I have a philosophical problem. Even if change A inevitably or normally brings about change B, can B be clued as synonymous with A, or vice versa? For example, things which dry out completely normally also change colour; does that mean ‘dry’ could be clued as ‘fade’?

82. JohnB @75. Thanks for the quibble, it didn’t sit right as a sort of studio shooting stick. Would have thought that there would be all sorts of complicated and extremely steady ‘gantry’ affairs indoors.
    Was going to address you as ‘Sloop’, but being more than adequately wineglassed, realised that would be far too ‘familiar’ for a first reply. Regardless, chapeau. I’ve been educated again as I am daily here. Enjoy it all.

83. Taffy @82 — I recommend Les Barker’s “Sloop John A,” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTecSzvlV0o.

84. Searching for ‘studio monopod’ on duckduckgo shows that such things are available: a single pole on a heavy disc base, like old microphone stands. Smaller footprint than a tripod, but equally steady, so suitable for restricted spaces.

85. I thought CELLO was beautifully elegant.

86. Found this hard, gave up with three to go. Even some I got I couldn’t parse. Could not believe I didn’t spot the anagram for 18ac. My partner said, “that must be an anagram” and I then immediately got it!

    One gripe (sorry). You wouldn’t use a monopod in a studio, you’d use a tripod, that really threw me. Monopods are used for things like sports photography where you’re moving around a lot and take fast shutter speeds.

87. Valentine @83. Thank you so much, very entertaining. I will post that onto my Rugby Wotzap group….”We couldn’t find it, so we went home”! priceless. Apologies for the tardy response, I was momentarily discombobulated by a Nebuchadnezzar of Chateaux Col Aps Eau. I’m trying to find someone who will supply a Beelzebub of the stuff, more adequate for my wine glass.

88. Great puzzle, and an engaging set of comments.
    Not surprisingly, 10a CELLO was my cod, amidst a host of excellent clues, for which much thanks, Nutmeg, and manehi for the explanations.
    Thanks MB@3 fo the Pete and Dudley reminder, and PM@19 for spotting the semi-name check.
    poc@41, if you’re still there (or come back), here’s a little clerihew inspired by your comment:

    Sir John Bob O’Reilly
    Disguised his heritage slyly;
    To get the Halle job in Manchester
    He pretended to have an Italian ancestor.

89. Classy crossword, highly enjoyable.

90. What’s the point of the Guardian having a crossword editor if they’re still going to publish puzzles with fairly obvious errors? I don’t blame setters for occasional boo-boos, but surely they should get picked up by the editor? The phrase “you had one job” comes to mind.

91. I can’t associate a MONOPOD with a studio. It’s used out in the field so that you don’t have to carry a tripod. Only a small distraction though in an otherwise peachy puzzle.

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