Thank you to Vlad. This took a bit of time to take off. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Vice squad heartily entertained — say no more! (4,2)
CLAM UP : CLAMP(a vice/device for, well, clamping/holding things together) containing(… entertained) middle letter of(… heartily) “squad“.
5. Position not conducive to firing CO? (4-4)
HALF-COCK : A reverse clue: First 2 letters of(HALF) COCK = CO.
Defn: Partly raised position of the cock of a pistol, and hence not firing.
9. He’s out, free to work where 8 is (8)
HOUSETOP : Anagram of(…, free) HE’S OUT plus(to) OP(abbrev. for “opus”, a piece of literary or musical work).
Defn: Where a chimney pot/answer to 8 down is.
10. Time, perhaps, Hamlet returned? So it is (6)
TRAGIC : T(abbrev. for “time”) + reversal of(… returned) CIGAR(a brand of which/perhaps, is a Hamlet of a Japanese brand).
Defn: …, the Shakespearean character, that is.
… and that would be tragic.
11. Rows in Costa following this order (12)
ALTERCATIONS : A reverse clue: After/following this order, viz. anagram of(ALTER) CATIONS= in Costa.
13. Finishing early, read up on boss (4)
STUD : Last letter deleted from(Finishing early) “study”(to read up on and gain knowledge of a subject).
attached to the centre of a shield.
14. An achievement, of course — yes, picked up a good looker (5,3)
EAGLE EYE : EAGLE(a score of 2 under par on a hole in a golf course) + homophone of(…, picked up) “aye”(yes/a affirmative answer, in voting, say).
Defn: …, that is, an eagle’s eye, which is many times stronger than a human’s.
17. Runs through a tunnel breaking out (not yet discovered) (8)
UNLEARNT : R(abbrev. for “runs” in cricket scores) contained in(through) anagram of(… breaking out) A TUNNEL.
18. Mysterious travellers returned from occupying country (4)
UFOS : Reversal of(returned) OF(from/specifying something’s origin or cause, as in “the result of a university education”) contained in(occupying) US(abbrev. for the United States).
Defn: Unidentified Flying Objects.
20. Main treatment centre (8,4)
HOSPITAL SHIP : Cryptic defn: A ship operating as a medical treatment centre/facility on the open ocean/the main.
23. Fury over Rex playing a stage villain (6)
VIRAGO : V(abbrev. for “very”/extremely/over, as in “don’t get over-confident”) + R(abbrev. for “Rex”, Latin for “king”) contained in(playing/in the role of) IAGO(the villain in Shakespeare’s play, “Othello”).
Edit: See comments 7 and 14.
Defn: A person, in this case, a woman with a violent temper.
24. Suddenly got nasty with a small number (6,2)
TURNED ON : A reverse clue: Reversal of(TURNED) ON = “No”(abbrev. for /small “number”).
Defn: … somebody, say.
25. Heading off, one subsidising fellow journalist short of fare (8)
UNDERFED : 1st letter deleted from(Heading off) “funder”(one subsidising/providing funds for an expenditure) + F(abbrev. for “fellow”) + ED(abbrev. for “editor”, a journalist).
Defn: …/food that is.
26. Repeat right away what’s left (6)
ESTATE : “restate”(to state again/repeat) minus(… away) “r”(abbrev. for “right”).
Defn: … in terms of assets by a deceased person.
Down
2. Spoils look of tin-openers (4)
LOOT : LO(look, as in “lo and behold”) + 1st letters, respectively, of(…-openers) “of tin“.
3. Deal inappropriately with the Wolverine State (9)
MISHANDLE : A reverse clue: MI(abbrev. for Michigan, the US State)’S HANDLE (nickname) = the Wolverine State.
4. Little boy is holding it (6)
PETITE : PETE(a boy’s name) containing(is holding) IT.
5. Not on — Telegraph, evidently worried, showed sign of panic (15)
HYPERVENTILATED : Anagram of(… worried) [“leg”(on/the half of a cricket field to the back of a batsman in position to receive the ball) deleted from(Not …) “Telegraph” + EVIDENTLY].
6. Left with broken heart — man you dumped not wanting to do anything (8)
LETHARGY : L(abbrev. for “left”) plus(with) anagram of(broken) HEART + “guy”(man/fellow) minus(… dumped) “u”(abbrev. for “you”, in texting).
7. An animal in bed (one having taken Viagra finally) (5)
COATI : [COT(a small bed) + I(Roman numeral for “one”)] containing(having taken) last letter of(… finally) “Viagra“.
8. Child one is longing to lift up to secure access to Santa? (7,3)
CHIMNEY POT : CH(abbrev. for “child”) + I’M(“I am”/one is, with the Roman numeral for one as the first person pronoun) + reversal of(… to lift, in a down clue) YEN(a longing/a desire) + POT(to secure/to succeed in obtaining).
Defn: Through which Santa Claus supposedly visits houses, assuming he’s not too chubby.
12. Strangely resonant — it is loud (10)
STENTORIAN : Anagram of(Strangely) RESONANT — IT.
15. ‘Stuff it!’ — Queen unhappily entertaining Johnson (9)
EQUIPMENT : Anagram of(… unhappily) IT!’ — QUEEN containing(entertaining) PM(abbrev. for “Prime Minister”, an example of which is Boris Johnson).
16. Crooked aristocrat caught — one beyond redemption (5-3)
WRITE-OFF : Homophone of(… caught) [“wry”(crooked/twisted) + “toff”(an aristocrat/an upper-class person)].
19. It should be paid daily (gets 50% off) (6)
CHARGE : CHAR(short for “charwoman”/a daily/one who cleans daily) + “gets” minus its last 2 letters(50% off).
21. When there’s no actual fighting, he’s great in the gym (5)
PEACE : [PE ACE](what you might call someone who is an ace/great at doing physical exercises/PE, abbrev. for “physical education” in the gym).
22. Presenter short, so had to show up (4)
HOST : Hidden in(… to show) reversal of(up) “short, so had“.
Defn: … of a TV show, say.
Ugh. After finding the last few Vlads quite straightforward, we’re back to Bad Vlad at least for me.
Hard graft all the way with 2d being my FOI and then nothing for nigh-on 15 minutes. So a huge DNF and you can put everything other than 2d as my LOI!
Memo-to-self: 2 scoops of coffee in the cafetiere for a Vlad…
Thanks (!?) Vlad and scchua
Thanks for parsing of 8d (and everything else of course). I had two children – Ch and imp, with the rest as you say. Really enjoyed this one.
I filled in the top half quickly, thinking it was particularly benign for Vlad but the bottom half proved a lot trickier. I ticked a lot including CLAM UP, HALF-COCK, EAGLE EYE, EQUIPMENT, VIRAGO, UFOS and PEACE. Needless to say, STUD wasn’t on the list. TRAGIC brought back happy memories of this https://youtu.be/FvNdhriwGuM
I tried UNMANNED for UNDERFED at first, without trying to parse and TURNED ON was an interesting device. A very entertaining, chewy challenge in the end.
Ta Qaos & scchua
Addendum – not the rest as you say, scchua – I had a reversal of “to” also.
AlanC@3 – your link – oh so funny – can’t stop laughing. I remember it well.
23ac: Over for v is a big stretch, and while ‘playing’ and ‘in the role of’ are interchangeable, does this do the job?
I parsed VIRAGO as (V (playing as in versus) and I AGO) over (covering) R (REX)
Really liked TRAGIC.
Yes, quite hard work. I stared at VIRAGO and WRITE-OFF for ages, being unable to parse them but twigged both eventually. Loved CLAM UP, LETHARGY and EQUIPMENT. Vlad’s puzzles are always entertaining. Thanks to him and to scchua.
Is Vlad now the toughest setter in the Guardian? This was a struggle from start to (not quite) finish. Thanks Vlad (I think!) and scchua.
Loved it but all over too quickly! I had same parsing as pentman@7 for VIRAGO
Hard to pick a fave with so many excellent clues but EQUIPMENT & HYPERVENTILATED tickled my fancy
A tough solve and very rewarding. Laugh out loud for 10a and admiration for many others eg 3d and 16d. Many thanks Vlad – I’m paler from exhaustion.
Thanks to Vlad and scchua.
Enjoyed the topicality of 5d – hopefully more of that to come as the political scene unwinds.
6d LETHARGY caused a slight raising of the eyebrow, as surely the wordplay indicated an adjective rather than a noun?
I had parsed 23a as V(resuscitations) IAGO (playing a stage villain) over R(ex). Think it works but hey ho
Pentman@7, I have to admit yours is a better parsing. Cheers.
Oops. Bloomin’ Predictive text. “Resuscitations” is meant to be “ersus”
23ac: I think the v. is probably “playing” as in versus, so v. Iago over R (Rex)
I see I was beaten to it by Pentman@7 who clearly does suffer from mistyping like myself
Thanks Vlad and scchua
Very inventive, but a bit too much so in places? I don’t think MI’S works to give the S in MISHANDLE – surely you would say “Michigan’s handle”? The subtraction of LEG from the fodder for 5d is a stretch too far – though I did get it retrospectively by guessing the answer, then crossing out all the letters I had used.
In 21d the “in” leads to PACEE, not PEACE.
However, lots to enjoy in this challenge. Favourite HALF COCK, for the misleading definition.
(A DNF in fact, as I had to reveal UFOS, and even then didn’t understand the worplay.)
I failed to parse several. In 23A, couldn’t the V be versus = playing?
I’m with Pentman@7 on the parsing of VIRAGO.
Despite seeing the reverse clue device in HALF-COCK quite early on, I completely failed to get the reversal trick in ALTERCATIONS, TURNED ON or MISHANDLE. These were biffed with a shrug and a sigh.
Now that I’m alerted to this setters’ ploy, perhaps I might enjoy solving such clues from here on.
I finally wrestled this one to the ground, but it was a titanic struggle.
me @18
PEACE is OK – I interpreted “in” as a containment indicator, but it’s just the location.
Vlad on top of his form – and so enjoyable and satisfying.
I had so many ticks – CLAM UP, HALF-COCK, TRAGIC, ALTERCATIONS, VIRAGO (where I followed Pentman and others), MISHANDLE, HYPERVENTILATING, LETHARGY, EQUIPMENT, and WRITE-OFF. (Sorry, I couldn’t leave any of them out.)
dantheman@12 – LETHARGY is the state of not wanting to do anything (verbal noun).
muffin @18 – scchua’s parsing is spot on: a PE ACE is great in the gym.
Huge thanks to Vlad for a brilliant workout and to scchua for the blog.
sorry, muffin- I missed your amendment.
Yes, quite tricky. I didn’t manage to parse a couple. Favourites were 11a ALTERCATIONS and 21d PEACE.
13a, “Boss” = STUD again!
(TerriBlislow @2: your children are called Ch and Imp? 🙂 )
Many thanks Vlad and scchua.
Not easy. I usually have less trouble with Vlad. I am now convinced that I am getting dumber 🙁 If many solvers found this easy, I will feel even worse…
Favourites: EQUIPMENT (wonderful visual on this), PEACE.
New for me: Wolverine state = Michigan.
Did not parse: CHARGE, WRITE-OFF, VIRAGO, TRAGIC, EAGLE EYE.
Did not parse POT bit of CHIMNEY POT
Thanks, Vlad and scchua.
As usual with Vlad I filled the grid but had to come here for the convoluted parsing. I hate reverse clues!
Thanks, anyway.
[Re.TRAGIC. Looking back to when Hamlet could advertise their product on television… Many fellow-commenters here will, I suspect, be old enough to remember this 64 seconds of genius, but younger participants may not, and it may be new to those resident in other parts of the world.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlYMID5qCdE
I seem to remember that, to my amazement, I managed to make headway with one of Vlad’s puzzles recently. Not today – back to normal.
Really tough – DNF at all and needed help parsing many of those I got from the description / crossers.
I find reverse clues particularly tough. Managed to get one in a puzzle last week – that was a first – didn’t get any of today’s ones.
Agree with Muffin@18 about 5d
Of those I got and parsed I liked LETHARGY, EQUIPMENT (although could do with not being reminded of the PM), CHIMNEY POT
Thanks to Vlad and scchua
SC @27: me @5, we obviously both enjoyed Gregor Fisher’s comedic genius 🙂
Surprised myself by fairly breezing through this – until I could not for the life of me see HOST hidden away for 22d. So a DNF today. Nice to see the Coatimundi finding its way in at 7d, not such a cute creature as it might look…
Excellent puzzle from Vlad – I was impaled as usual by those characteristic hidden definitions, but got there in the end. I failed to parse MISHANDLE (I couldn’t remember which state was gluttonous) and HYPERVENTILATED (which was obviously anagrammatic in some way) but pressed on regardless.
I agreed with Pentman et al on the parsing of VIRAGO. The homophone clues were nicely disguised and I like the reverse clues for HALF COCK and TURNED UP but there was much more to enjoy (apart from 13ac!).
Many thanks to Jim and scchua
Thanks for the blog and the pictures. We need more crosswords like this. EQUIPMENT was super and too many others to name. Only quibble is the boss and the stud once again, think we have reached Aleph nought, sorry I do not know how to do the symbol.
Excellent – a lot of tricks to enjoy, with some wit too. I liked LETHARGY, MISHANDLE, TRAGIC and HYPERVENTILATED most of all.
One trick that is quite common now is to indicate rather than state a word used in the wordplay, like ‘man you dumped’ indicating GUY without U and ‘not on’ indicating that you take LEG from TELEGRAPH (as noted by muffin). I like this sort of thing as long as it is not overdone, and here it was not.
Thanks to Vlad and scchua.
I usually struggle with Vlad (and quite often with other setters, even the Monday ones) but for me this was just right – suuficiently challenging to be enjoyable, and giving me the satisfaction of solving and parsing all the answers. Favourites MISHANDLE and WRITE-OFF, but I didn’t think there were any duds.
@scchua – I think there’s a small error in your parsing of 7d. COATI should surely be A (last letter of Viagra) contained in COTI (bed, one).
Thanks Vlad and scchua.
[ AlanC @ 3 . I do not know how to do links sorry but I do remember a Hamlet advert with a man in a restaurant with a pretty girl and his wig comes off and the pianist starts to play the Hamlet theme, hilarious when you are about seven years old ]
Ground this one out with my computer to help; so not very entertaining for me. I see some of the cognoscenti really enjoyed it though.
I liked the TRAGIC clue, although that would have been very difficult methinks for overseas solvers or those not ‘of a certain age’.
Thanks Vlad and scchua for making sense of it all.
An excellent puzzle that I appreciated all the more when I came here to get some of the parsing I didn’t. I really like the cleverness of reverse clues, although I didn’t spot them all here. Many favourites with the amusing TRAGIC a highlight. Many thanks to Vlad and scchua for making everything clear.
Sorry Alan C @3 and others – you had got in ahead of me on that – I just hadn’t checked your link. D’oh.
[AlanC and Spooner’s catflap: Further to TRAGIC, there were many other great Hamlet ads. This was a favourite of mine:]
https://youtu.be/y3MtaKdZiec
I have to confess to being with Michelle and Auriga (25 & 26). I don’t expect to finish a Vlad but this seemed worse than usual in convolutions.
Thanks to fatclap @ 27 for the excellent clip
Roz @35: MST for you https://youtu.be/BNMcTkj8utA
Agree muffin @18 re 5d, what would you call it.. indirect anagramatical subtraction? Otoh, I don’t mind the Mi’s handle contrivance, though had to stop thinking about Jackman and look up Mi and the animal.
Oops Just*
GinF @42
The saving grace, if there is one, is that it isn’t an anagramatical subtraction – the letters LEG are contiguous.
Thanks beaulieu@34. Blog corrected.
[ Thank you so much AlanC, still hilarious. I had forgotten the bit about striking the match on his head. ]
Great crossword to exercise the brain first thing. And thank goodness not a theme in sight (apart from the Hamlet one, which doesn’t really count). Am I the only one who has had enough of themes?
Many thanks Vlad and scchua.
PHIL+K @13
“I see I was beaten to it by Pentman@7 who clearly does suffer from mistyping like myself”
Please enlighten, I’m struggling to see the typo, which is worrying.
[Pentman @48
I don’t know if it’s the case here, but when I’m typing, frequently a “n’t” somehow gets missed out, so I convey exactly the opposite meaning to the one intended.]
muffin@49: my thoughts also.
Thanks to Vlad and scchua.
Just great. There is little in life (well, current life) more satisfying than eking out a completed crossword of this quality. Favourite was TRAGIC, not least for the attendant link from AlanC and Spooner’s catflap. (Although, as Robi@36 points out, the “cigar” reference will have missed a large demographic.)
Hi everyone. I love these “reverse clues” but I’m wondering if there might be another name for this clue type? Googling “reverse clues” brings up results for clues featuring “reversed” letters instead. I would like to read more about these “reversed clues”/ see more examples if anyone could point me in the right direction.
Thanks.
Is the Prime Minister doing double duty in 15D? In certain circles, a man’s “equipment” is sometimes referred to as his “Johnson”. See The Big Lebowski.
VIRAGO comes from Latin “vir” (man) and “ago” to act or behave. If a virago is a woman with a violent temper, that tells me that the attitude was that having a violent temper is normal for a man Depressing thought, but often culturally true.
When I was visiting Iguacu, the great waterfalls of Brazil/Argentina, a coati climbed me like a tree and grabbed the snack out of my hand. Apparently it’s what they all do there, where tourists are a resource to them.
I don’t think you can use the Roman I for “one” when it’s in “I am.” I think rather that it’s in the sense of “One has to admit,” meaning “I have to admit.”
Subtracting LEG was beyond me. I’ve never heard of Hamlet cigars — I only smoke Romeo y Julieta — but I do know that Hamlet is a tragedy, so I biffed that one.
I have to stop at 8am, so will post even though I haven’t read all the posts. Apologies to those I duplicate. Thanks to Vlad and scchua (and for the pictures).
Brilliant!
Found this tough but enjoyable, esp as had only a couple on first pass through, though not completely satisfying as not all clues parsed fully. Thanks to those posting links to the cigar ads – I has never heard of the brand nor seen the ads. Lots of ticks. Fav was EQUIPMENT. Thanks to Vlad and to scchua
Feeling pleased to have finished a Vlad for once (albeit with a couple of biffs)… And I always like a xwd that gives me a chuckle!
Never thought I’d finish but somehow staggered over the line – with little understanding of how I got there, in far too many instances. But I all too nearly biffed in a ‘hospital shop’ right at the end. Wouldn’t that have been a shame?
Please Mr Guardian Crossword Editor, if you are reading this, resist those siren voices who felt barely challenged and ask for more like this.
Back in the 80s and 90s my father spent his dotage years sitting in his favourite chair doing the Guardian crossword, muttering phrases like ‘ bugger Bunthorne!’ and smoking (foul-smelling) Hamlet cigars. The smell in that room was still evident ten years after his death, I swear. Still, happy memories…
Inspired by Sheffield hatter’s paean in General Discussion to the joys of persevering when it seems you can make no progress without assistance, I almost completed this unaided (I confess to looking up Wolverine State). Everything eventually fell into place, and I really enjoyed the process, but it took an age and several visits. I have the same favourites as Eileen.
Another great puzzle from Vlad. Tough but scrupulously fair. Loved 3d, 5d, and 15d in particular. Many thanks
I love Vlad’s clues. I don’t usually finish, but – as with Araucaria – I carry on a lot longer than I would, because it’s so entertaining to get them.
[Thanks everyone for the various Hamlet clips. If anyone would like to take a 9-minute TRAGIComedic trip down memory lane, it’s here – including an interesting one that must pre-date Levi’s launderette.]
[I can’t see Pentman’s typo either – has it been corrected?]
Very tricky today; UFOS last in and favourite. Thanks Vlad and scchua for the parsings.
Some baffling ones for me but some excellent ones too, MISHANDLE and STENTORIAN and PEACE all raised a smile. OTOH “leg” for “on” seems a bit much, though that wasn’t hard to reverse engineer from the definition, and the parsing for UFOS was beyond me. Also I wouldn’t mind not seeing boss/stud again (I had interpreted it as meaning someone who was very good at something, as in “like a boss,” until seeing the explanation in terms of shields here a while back).
I had thought 23 might be MIKADO, with “fury” as ADO and MIK being KIM “over.” Rex Kim appears to be the chief investment officer of the state of Oregon. This is perhaps a bit more obscure than most of the people who show up on the crosswords!
[ Thank you Mr essexboy @62, some of these were too early for me to remember and some must have been in the cinema when tobacco adverts were banned on TV, My favourite adverts were the Unigate milk ” Humphreys ” series. Arthur Mullard pretending to be sophisticated. ]
Before managing to solve 5 ac, and with the A and I in place for 7 down was trying to convince myself that the answer was okapi, with “a-kip” being in bed; but couldn’t make the whole clue cohere. Should have known better with Vlad. Some excellent clueing here.
JerryG @9. Vlad well up there as one of the toughest I’d say though for me the infrequent appearances of Enigmatist hold most terror.
Tricky but doable: I doubt if I’d ever have parsed HYPERVENTILATED but it was one of those bizarre experiences where one reads a clue for a monster word, sees “signs of panic” and thinks ‘hyperventilated’! To my amazement if fitted both word length and the one crosser I had at the time so it was a huge pleasure to see other solutions gradually intersecting as I progressed through the solve.
Certainly at the tougher end of Vlad’s spectrum. I’m amazed I finished though I needed scchua and the community here for some of the parsing. And I agree with the various verbally raised eyebrows from other commenters. However, I had many I loved and agree that the overall sense of satisfaction on completing a hard one makes it all worthwhile. Big ticks from me for CLAM UP, HALF COCK, MISHANDLE (having watched the Wolverines play college football on my one visit to Detroit, I had the link to the state), EAGLE EYE, TURNED ON and EQUIPMENT.
With regard to the lovely TRAGIC, thanks to all for the links to the Hamlet ads – I seem to recall Silk Cut also ran some very creative ads back in the day when they were allowed to. And, of course, there was also the supposedly least successful ever advert, also for cigarettes: “You’re never alone with a Strand”
Thanks Vlad and scchua
Loved it! More like this please! Thanks to Vlad for the fun and to Schiaparelli for the blog. I really enjoy reverse clues. They must suit some weird sort of backward thinking process I have.
Schiaparelli?? Who’s that?
Trailman@57. I’m asking for more like this, not because I felt barely challenged, but because I enjoyed the considerable challenge.
mattw @ 63
LEG for ON shouldn’t seem a bit much, as they’re synonymous in cricket and hence crossword staples. One to stash in your etui.
[trishincharentiaparelli @69: far too cold in the UK to be barely challenged by a crossword!]
PostMark @ 66
I remember the Benson and Hedges adverts in the seventies where a B&H packet(s) replaced another object(s). In one, instead of three plaster ducks in a diagonal row on a wall there were three B&H packets. In another there was a packet in a cage with the shadow behind having a bird in the cage and then there was one outside a mouse hole instead of a mouse trap. There was a whole series of these – we used to look out for the next one.
[PM@71 – haha! Pareil ici!]
[Fiona Anne @72: you might like this ]
I’m with MaidenBartok@1.
Thanks to Scchua for parsing several that I gave up on. The fact that you were satisfied with V=very=over for the Virago clue though says it all for me (about this setter). I rather like it when the penny drops on a clue, a lightbulb moment etc. Having to grind to an answer and then not even be sure how it works isn’t my idea of fun.
Each to their own.
I put 1A as SHUT UP being SHTUP around U. It took some time to see the right answer. Since SHTUP means to have sex, that could be vice, and the U the same as in the correct answer.
PostMark, essexboy and Fiona Anne. The drug dealers round here definitely fall short on the witty ads front, but, as they say, the devil has all the best tunes.
I’m surprised that nobody else toyed with Head Lock for 5ac. Held me up for a while. Really enjoyed this, tho.
MartinD @78. Not HEAD LOCK for me, but FIRE DAMP. I convinced myself that “not conducive to firing” was giving DAMP. I skated over the fact that “position” didn’t make sense. Carbon monoxide (CO) is one possible constituent of fire damp.
After finally seeing the light here, the H provided the key to unlocking HYPERVENTILATED, which I couldn’t see earlier, even though I correctly figured the fodder.
Tough puzzle, but fun to solve. I agree that Vlad is one of the harder puzzlers. Perhaps the balance in the Guardian stable of easy vs hard setters has shifted too far over to the right with the passing of Chifonie last year and the retirement of Rufus a couple of years ago.
Thanks, Vlad and scchua. Liked the photos as usual.
phitonelly @79
Congratulations on spotting the fodder for HYPERVENTILATED – I’m impressed! I toyed with removing ON, but there didn’t seem to be an O. As I said earlier, the indirection (rather than misdirection) of ON = LEG I thought was a stage too far.
I think Anto, Carpathian, Qaos , Pan and Vulcan have shifted things way too far to the left, and we do not have a single seriously hard setter anymore.
Petert @59: I was hoist with my own petard (or was it a paean?) and struggled to the bitter end despite having a brain like concrete today. (A sensible man would have realised it was not going to be my day.) Took a break of about three hours to finish a John Le Carre I started last night, and finally started to see some of the obvious stuff I had missed before. Gave up after having the perfectly plausible SNOW (presenter of Newsnight on BBC2; short=S; had=WON (show up=rev)) ruled out by TURNED ON and ESTATE. VIRAGO was my last one in before folding, but I didn’t have a functioning brain cell left for parsing.
Hugely impressed by those who found this easy, and great envy for those who enjoyed it. (For those who enjoy Enigmatist too, I can recommend his alter ego Io in the FT last week.)
Roz@81: Those would be Mondays for the most part? But I couldn’t allow that Qaos is at all on the easy side – my quill quails at the sight; I miss the inkwell; blots. And Anto is getting into his stride.
Paul? Is he not a single serious hard setter?
muffin @80
I see what you mean by the indirectness, but this one feels OK to me. Quite a few anagram clues these days use some operation before the final fodder is assembled. I’ve grown accustomed to looking for these tricks. My problem is that I’m hopeless at long anagrams, so needed crossers before solving this one. Araucaria’s monsters used to put the fear of God in me!
Paul is variable on a spectrum from middling to (for me) too tough. Tramp and Crucible can be quite hard enough for me when they put their minds to it, but then I’m not at the expert end of the spectrum myself. Apart from Enigmatist, we don’t have a setter who is consistently very difficult (even I sometimes finish a Vlad), but whether that is good or bad news is up to you.
Because someone above mentioned Enigmatist being so hard I dug out one of his Prize puzzles, and found it no more difficult than a Paul prize one. Roz @81 is at the top end as regards solvers, and is saying that on average they are getting too easy; and Phitonelly @79 is saying that they are getting too hard!
I didn’t know Chifonie was gone! He will be missed.
Many thanks to scchua for an excellent blog and to others who commented.
By seriously hard I mean such as Bunthorne, Gemini, Fidelio and others. Twenty years ago, Paul and Enigmatist would not have been in the top five for difficulty.
I have nothing against easy crosswords, I learnt myself doing Everyman , Custos , Crispa and others. I have known weekends not getting a single answer to a Bunthorne Prize. Recent puzzles from Anto and Carpathian have been highly enjoyable.
I just think the Guardian should return to the former policy of two easy, two medium and two hard per week.
Thanks, Vlad. This was moderately hard for me but very enjoyable. And thanks to scchua for the parsings that eluded me!
Pentman@48, Muffin@49 has precisely explained what happened and thereby what I meant. Another predictive text example. I really must check more carefully before Posting.
Too hard for me, but I did spot a potential double definition for 15d. A gentleman’s EQUIPMENT is also referred to as a Johnson in the USA.
Two posters have said they didn’t understand the word play in UFOS. Neither do I. Help please.
Roz@81, if you think that there isn’t a single seriously hard setter here anymore, then I assume that you find, for example, Enigmatist and Maskarade too easy to be worth your while, in which case I tip my cap to you. I even struggle with some of the others, so I guess I’ll never be in your league. I do enjoy your comments, though, so I hope the too-easiness doesn’t drive you away from the Guardian and this site.
Thank you cellomaniac @94 , I have a 19 year continuous record of completing the Guardian so I will never stop, I also boycott the Times and Independent because of their ownership.
I do not mind easy crowwords when they are entertaining like Imogen yesterday but I do think there are too many now.
I do not want to be unkind about Maskarade but I think it is time to let someone else have a turn with the specials.
Deadhead @ 93. UFOS are Unidentified Flying Objects also call Flying Saucers so they are mysterious travellers. Much loved by conspiracy theorists although this has died down now that nearly everybody carries a camera.
FROM can mean OF and is returned so is FO.
It is occupying ( INSIDE ) the country which is US the United States.
FO in US gives UFOS.
Thanks Roz. Just couldn’t make the leap from ‘from’ to ‘of’. Must wake up earlier.
I tend to think that a crossword clue should give you the answer. When, in a crossword like this one, the answers often come first and then you spend ages trying to parse them (not always successfully), it just feels things are the wrong way round and it’s not very enjoyable.