Guardian Cryptic 28,492 by Qaos

97 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,492 by Qaos”

1. Thanks for the blog. Liked the puzzle, but thought LINCOLN and CHEDDAR were rather weak.

2. Thanks Qaos and manehi
   I didn’t enjoy this as much as the previous ones this week. I saw some thematics, but couldn’t be bothered to track them all down.
   Two quibbles: “look” isn’t a synonym for SPOT – you would have to look in order to spot something, but they aren’t interchangeable. The “on” in 4d is meaningless in the wordplay.

3. Quickest solve of the week – in fact, probably of the last couple of weeks! Didn’t spot the theme at-all and wouldn’t have had the GK to complete it anyway.

   Some VERY clear cluing from Qaos and the long ones were write-ins which helped enormously. BartokJr has a tank of Neon Tetras so the Amazonian fish at 14d were known to me.

   In recognition of 4d, please find some more Cheddar Gorge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6sP0qZWllM

   Thanks Qaos and manehi!

4. muffin @2: you beat me to it re SPOT. Can’t quite understand the blogger’s justification and can’t find a sentence where they are interchangeable.

   Failed to split 150 so RECOILS went in unparsed.

   Many thanks both.

5. The BOND was a little 3-wheeler wasn’t it?

6. Thanks for parsing RECOILS which escaped me, nor did I know that VANTAGES without an AD was a word in its own right. Didn’t see the theme until I’d finished, and didn’t twig that it was specifically BOND cars – not something that fascinates me, so it wouldn’t have helped.

   Clues like LINCOLN and CHEDDAR are either blindingly obvious, or won’t come at all: In my case CHEDDAR was the first kind and LINCOLN the second.

7. I wondered if 6d was an attempt at some sort of CAD i.e. “look its mark!’ = SPOT. Maybe justified by the exclamation mark? Not convinced though.
   Nice to see JB’s favourite tipple making an appearance – shaken not stirred 🙂

8. muffin/William/bodycheetah: ‘Look, it’s the Guardianista!’ could be understood as equivalent to ‘Spot the Guardianista!’

9. Thanks for that link MB @3 – very good.

   Puzzle not so tricky as some Qaoses (for some reason I had in mind it was a Vlad). Didn’t spot the theme; never heard of NEON TETRAS; couldn’t parse STRENGTHEN although it looked as though string must be in there somewhere; and took some time to get the long ones (12a and 20a). But an enjoyable solve. Thanks to Q & m.

10. I don’t know if I’m relieved or disappointed to discover there’s no Rolls Royce SABOTEUR or BMW CHEDDAR and genuinely surprised that there isn’t a HYDRA which screams out to be a type of supercar.

    I did like the anagram and surface for METHODISTS and the device used in STRENGTHEN, the charade for LOTUSES and the assembly of VANQUISH. And, as a Midlander, I did appreciate the neat clue for ASTON – which was my way into the theme as it seemed a slightly parochial answer for an international readership.

    Thanks Qaos and manehi

11. essexboy@8 – not great, but passable, I think. So the first definition is “Look, it’s”, right?

12. A faster than usual Qaos for me, though the last few took as long as the rest of the puzzle. If I had LOOKed for and SPOTted the theme it would have helped a lot… I enjoyed the journey nevertheless.

    Less of the alphanumerics than we expect from this setter. When my first entry was VANQUISH I expected a pangram, but I was sorely disappointed! Clearly clued but with no real standouts for me, though I did like the mild misdirection of ‘high priest’.

    Thanks to S&B

13. The car names are not unfamiliar, but no bells rang (I think my theme bell and wit bell are cracked, they just go donk). Hey ho. Agree about the ‘on’, muffin @2 (isn’t Cheddar Gorge in a running isihac shaggy joke?). Speaking of wit, never knew esprit could mean wit; rather spirit, as in esprit de corps. And dnk the Amazon neon fish, but with crossers a bung with just the hint of a prayer. So, an enjoyable amble, thanks Qaos and manehi.

14. Like some others, I found most of this very straightforward and not terribly exciting. But was held up by a few. I parsed ASTON but the definition was way over my head – parochial indeed, PostMark@10. LOI was LINCOLN as both city and colour are on the far, outer reaches of my vocabulary. CHEDDAR on the other hand, was a write-in. There only seems to be one English cheese?.

    Thanks Qaos and manehi.

15. Oops, forgot the space ?

16. I give up.

17. KLColin @11: yep, ‘Spot… ’ = ‘Look, it’s… ’, or at least that’s how I saw it.

    [drofle @9: not so tricky as some Qae? 😉 ]

18. Surely the intention in 5d is that SPOT = mark as nouns.

19. [gif @13: the link is to a game of Cheddar Gorge from ISIHAC although nothing but nothing beat Jeremy Hardy in One Song to a Tune of Another https://www.isihac.net/jeremy-hardy/ ]

20. Thanks Qaos and manehi. Some clues I enjoyed here like 20a PERSONALISATION, 1d MARTINI, 2d SQUARE EYES and 22d NAIL. Some unfamiliars like the Gorge that went with 4d CHEDDAR, and the Amazonian fish 14d NEON TETRAS (the latter as mentioned already by others above), but I worked them out from the crossers assisted by some of the wordplay. Led off track by putting in EMERALD CITY from the Wizard of Oz at 7d, even thoguh I had heard of Lincoln green (maybe from Robin Hood?) – once I was stumped in the top right I had to have a re-think. I didn’t understand some things so I appreciated the blog.

21. PostMark @10 I’m not sure that Aston is too parochial. It’s got a university, a Villa, an Expressway and Black Sabbath!

    Thanks Qaos and manehi

22. KLColin@14 over 700 British ones

23. [Ta for both links MB @3, 19, those blokes were quirky and bent and just fab; I mourned when Humph died]

24. For the first time ever I clicked on the Guardian comments for this puzzle to see if I might possibly be missing something.
    One of the earlier bloggers there opined: “Not only too easy – it’s the most boring puzzle since …… “
    This at least confirmed I wasn’t missing anything, after all.

25. Penfold @21: very droll. I’ve been thinking about how many suburbs, districts or wards of non-UK cities with which I am familiar. Not many. NY boroughs, of course; one or two bits of Paris, and then I’m beginning to struggle.

    [Sabbath were ‘my’ band as a teenager and I later lived in a village where the band once cohabited in a farmhouse. Stella McCartney then bought herself another farmhouse nearby and occasionally brought Dad into the local pub, which was run by the bassist who’d supported the Winwood brothers in a precursor band to Traffic. With Toyah and husband Robert Fripp also living quite close, we were once profiled in a Sunday newspaper, with a degree of poetic license, as a village of rock stars!]

26. Thanks manehi for sorting out ASTON as I had thought that the TON was some fashion award and for your theme research, essexboy@8 for propping up that clue, and MaidenBartok@3 for some very welcome ISIHAC. My experience matched the general tone above and think RECOILS and LOTUSES took me as long as all the rest put together. I almost really liked the ie switch device but thought it a little imprecise (the E of THEN doesn’t switch), hopefully it will pop up again unambiguously. Popping into the pet shop to look at the NEON TETRAS was the highlight of many an otherwise dreary childhood shopping trip, but my favourite was SQUARE EYES which I will probably have by the time the Euros are over, thanks QAOS.

27. Essexboy @8: That’s a very spirited defence. I still don’t much care for it but I feel you’ve made it passable.

28. Btw… I think it was called the Bond Bug.

29. During a three year exile in Brum, I watched ASTON Villa in their short spell in the third tier – and went to Wembley with them for the 1971 League Cup Final where Spurs robbed them.

    Thanks to manehi for parsing SABOTEUR.

    I also don’t equate SPOT with look, but it was clear what Qaos intended – obviously the theme passed me by as usual !

30. [I wonder if I’m unusual here (I know I would be in the wider community) in that I’ve only ever seen one Bond film – Dr. No. This made spotting the Bond cars difficult! (I have read 4 or 5 of the books, though.)]

31. William@4 muffin@2 Yes, Trainlookers, or Look don’t touch, or Look the Ball, Look check, Look Cleaner, Wifi hot look,…doesn’t work for me either.

32. Had to look up the Birmingham suburb and never thought to split 150 so failed to parse 17. Otherwise all seemed pretty straightforward with no real standouts. Thanks for the puzzle & blog.

33. Don’t understand COS = cosine “function”

34. Enjoyable solve where I sort of noticed the theme, which helped me to solve LOTUSES at the end.

    muffin @30; yes, that’s pretty unusual I would have thought …

    I liked SABOTEUR and STRENGTHEN, but failed to parse RECOILS, where the 150 gave me CL and I couldn’t get a function out of ois.

    [Thanks to MB @3 & @19 for the hilarious links.]

    Thanks Qaos and manehi.

35. Minor quibble / query re 26a:
    I know they share the same root but to me, ADVANTAGES means “benefits”; ‘VANTAGES’ something rather different. Just me?

36. “Ah Mr Bond -the usual, sir?”

    No I’ll have a double Aston Martini

37. Grizzlebeard @35
    I thought that, so checked Chambers. This gives it as the same as advantage, then adds “a now less usual form of advantage (tennis)”

38. hilt @33. COSINE, shortened to COS is a mathematical function. Adjacent over hypotenuse in a right angled triangle if my very elderly mathematics A level recollection is correct.

39. Chardonneret @31: That was where I was coming from but Essexboy’s take on it was that the first def is “Look it’s…” not simply look . Thus you can interpose the 2 defs in examples such as “(here comes/spot/look it’s) the ice cream man”.

40. Whoopee. I just finished yesterday’s Picaroon. About 3 hours worth on and off of fun. For the usual suspects for whom it was a write-in lasting 15 mins, eat your hearts out.

41. Can’t believe I missed the theme… pah!

    Thanks Qaos, and manehi for unravelling the bits I couldn’t quite parse (I’m another who was misled by the 150 in 17dn, even though I’m sure we’ve seen exactly the same trick used by another setter very recently).

42. Hmmm. I found the clueing a bit slapdash… Qaotic even. I wasn’t keen on look=spot, the odd ‘on’ in CHEDDAR, the iffy VANTAGES=benefits, ‘high’ as anagrind, the split ‘a-ward’ for ASTON, or indeed the clumsy ‘with’ in ‘with benefits’.
    But I did enjoy LOTUSES, and the letter swaps in [C|H]ORNET and STR[I|E]NG-THEN.
    Thanks manehi and Qaos.

43. Glad I came back to a relatively easy crossword today, thank you Qaos and manehi.
    VANTAGES brought to mind the tennis calls “Van in” and “Van out”.

44. A bit pedestrian, as others have said – no stinkers, but a couple of weak dds and no standouts. I’d have enumerated 11A as 2-4, I think.

    I’ll admit to having checked whether there was some arcane mark called a LOIT…

    Thanks Qaos and manehi.

45. Like most other commenters I found this straightforward except for LOTUSES which was my loi and I resorted to word search. I didn’t look for a theme which is a pity as if I had done it would have helped solve it. Thanks to Qaos and manehi.

46. Always good to hear how very, very, very clever the blogger is, and how quickly they solved it. Encouraging for beginners.

47. JinA @20 – I also thought of the EMERALD City, not to mention Emerald in Queensland – though with only 14 000 inhabitants, it hardly counts as a city. I did look for a theme (it is Qaos) and suspected there was a Bond car one (it gave me MARTINI – even though I was trying to parse [Aston] MARTIN). But given I know (and care) little about cars and stopped watching Bond movies post Sean Connery… It should have helped with LOI LOTUSES, but it didn’t until I had it from another approach. I did like METHODISTS for the smooth surface and lovely anagram. Thanks, Qaos and manehi.

48. peter & ant @46. “Always good to hear how very, very, very clever the blogger is…” I don’t think manehi is the boastful type, and in fact often owns up to being bamboozled by some setters. “Quick” is just comparative – I did this quite quickly (for me), but if I said exactly how many minutes there’d be a derisive raspberry from some of our speedier solvers.

49. [muffin @30. I can beat your solitary Bond film, as I have only ever seen the occasional scene or trailer, never an entire film. ]

50. Tc @40 – I agree with your sentiments. I do these puzzles for enjoyment, not as a race against the clock. The only thing that does concern me is if I feel that I’m getting slower rather than quicker, as it makes me wonder whether there is a diminution in the number of grey cells.

51. Sh@48 that’s quite right – I always take “quickly” here to mean “quickly for me”. On the other hand, there are some commentators in the Guardian’s comments whose only purpose in posting seems to be to show how quickly (absolutely) they can finish. [That comments section opens up the instant the puzzle is released, so you can infer the solving speed from the posts’ timestamps. Those people are, well, fill in the blank].

52. Hilt @33. COS, SIN and TAN are shorthand for the cosine, sine and tangent functions respectively – all of which appear in GCSE mathematics. I’ve also seen setters use the shorthand for their reciprocal functions SEC, COSEC and COT (from A level). I’ve yet to see a hyperbolic function used!

    I really enjoyed a relatively quick solve today, although I thought that ‘on’ served no purpose in 4d. Maybe just “cheese gorge” would have sufficed?

    Thank you, Q and M.

53. I enjoyed this and took about my usual amount of time. I particularly liked Beat queue, you say (Q U) and SQUARE EYES, an expression I haven’t seen before but I like the concept. Good job.

    I give myself no reprimands for not spotting this theme. My hat’s off to manehi today and to all the bloggers for spotting theme after theme in various far-fetched categories.

    LINCOLN green I’ve only ever heard of in the Robin Hood stories, with his color-coordinated Merry Men. Thanks for the interesting link, manehi, because I was wondering how they had a colored dye before the Industrial Revolution.

    I’m about even with muffin@30 on Bond. I think I’ve seen one film (was it Goldfinger?) and read several of the books. The film was on my first date with what turned out to be my all-time most horrible boyfriend. It was at a drive-in — remember those?

    That number-splitting in RECOILS defeated me. I got as far as separating the C and the L in CL and then gave up on the parsing.

    Thanks, Qaos and manehi.

54. peter & ant @46: Also encouraging for beginners to hear how very very easy everybody thought the crossword was that they are struggling with.

55. I am struggling to understand the negativity concerning the word “on” in 4d. To me, the clue would not make sense without it (taking “gorge” to mean devour greedily). Can someone please explain?

56. rullytully @55
    Yes, it makes the “surface” of the clue better, but it plays no part at all in the wordplay.

57. [peter & ant @46: do you remember the Douglas/Richard Adams puzzle in January on which you posted

    Peter & Ant
    January 22, 2021 at 1:42 pm
    Didn’t like the Adams theme – if you know the books, as we do, then half the crossword was just write in without looking at the clues at all – not much fun.

    Always good to hear how very, very, very clever you are, and how quickly you solved it. 😉 ]

58. peter & ant @46 – I assume it’s a prerequisite of being a 15^2 blogger that you are a highly experienced cruciverbalist who is able to solve most crosswords relatively quickly (in order to get the post online in a timely fashion), and that you are able to parse all the clues (with the odd exception allowed). If manehi says this was quick for him, I read that in the same way as sheffield hatter @48, not boastful at all.

    As a mere dilettante, I doubt I will ever be good enough at crosswords to become a 15^2 blogger, but this was a relatively easy one for me too, for what that’s worth.

59. muffin@56
    I still don’t really get it. Are you suggesting that every word in every clue has to be part of the wordplay. If so, it seems to me that all we would ever get is gobbledegook.

60. And unlike TC @40, I’m still working on yesterday’s Picaroon.

61. As a function cosine is more properly an infinite series in powers of x ( or theta )
    Cos x = f(x) = 1 – ………. . My typing skills are not up to it. I am sure someone can manage or provide a link.

62. Does anyone still have a square TV? Maybe the expression needs updating to rectangular or wide-screen eyes?

63. As always, I enjoy Qaos crosswords and this was no exception. I spotted all of the cars and thought they might be connected to 24d, BOND. Favourites included MARTINI, STRENGTHEN, and METHODISTS for its apt surface. Thanks to both.

64. rullytully@59: Yes, in an ideal world every word in every clue would be part of either wordplay or definition. That this doesn’t invariably produce gobbledegook shows how skilful our setters are, but there is a trade-off between technical minimalist “perfection” and readability, with perhaps a small allowance for misdirection, too. “Gorge cheese” is correctly minimal, but in my opinion a bit more obvious than “gorge on cheese”. How much it matters to eliminate all unnecessary words is a personal judgment: I tend to prefer readability to briefness.

65. A straightforward enough solve, although I failed with the parsing of ASTON so thanks manehi.

    5d METHODISTS was my COTD – elegant surface.

    Thanks to Qaos

66. Much fun as Qaos’ crosswords always are, in spite of a post-football hangover.
    As ever the theme flew over my head, I must remember to actually look out for it.
    I spent 3 years of my life at Aston University, and enjoyed myself immensely. When not playing was a frequent spectator at the Hawthorns, watching the great WBA team including the likes of Regis, Cunningham and a young B Robson, etc.
    The crossword? Getting the two long ones in the middle greatly, not too many problems with the rest.
    Thanks both.

67. Object to ‘City Green’ as EMERALD is a good answer which even fits with one of the across clues. Otherwise, great crossword.

68. I thought my difficulty yesterday was just from me coming off a long weekend, but I found this one even more difficult, especially the left side. I have to assume my brain is beginning to fail me permanently. The theme, if I were ever to spot one, would have been useless to me here. I don’t know US car brands, much less UK ones. Never heard of square eyes either. Crossing my fingers for a strong comeback tomorrow!

69. In the days when TV, instead of computer games, was the new thing that kids were absorbed by and parents worried about, children in the UK were constantly told that they’d get square eyes from so much watching. Not that screens then were much squarer than they are now.

70. BlueDot @68. I get days like that too. Sometimes it’s just a few missing pieces of GK (like SQUARE EYES was for you today) or just not being on the setter’s wavelength (like HUNGER-STRIKER for me yesterday). Keep plugging away! And good luck tomorrow…

71. I’m still pretty confused as to why TON = “fashion”?

    Also, I can’t think in what context “sun” is abbreviated as S. Likewise “adult” as A.

72. Roz @61. Here’s a link to the Wiki page on trigonometric functions, including cosine (=COS), which starts off with right-angle triangle definitions before going on to talk about infinite series. As far as we in crossword land are concerned, the fact that there is a function called (or abbreviated to) COS is enough!

73. To reinforce Andrew’s comment @18, surely the intention is to equate “look” meaning SPOT (verb) with “mark” meaning SPOT (noun). Simple as.

74. speckled jim @71. S for sun is in Chambers, and I imagine it would be used in maps or diagrams of the solar system. A for adult (superseded by PG but still in use here in crossword land) is in cinema classifications (as is U for universal or “suitable for all”, for future reference).

    TON is also in Chambers, directly borrowed from the French, meaning fashion, or person of fashion.

75. Thanks. I think all three of those are pretty unfair but clearly I need to spend more time committing Chambers to memory just in case something comes up in future!

76. jeceris @73
    You’re missing the point. No problem with SPOT = mark, but SPOT doesn’t mean look.

77. muffin & jeceris. I think essexboy @8 provided a semi-convincing explanation: ‘Look, it’s…’ can be a close equivalent to SPOT, as in “Look, it’s a spotted flycatcher!” or “Spot a spotted flycatcher!” (Chambers: to watch for and record the sighting of.) OK, bad example, but it sort of works.

    If it’s not ‘look, it’s’, then the objection muffin also raised to the function of ‘on’ in 4d would apply to ‘it’s’ in this clue! The only function ‘it’s’ seems to have is as part of ‘look it’s’.

78. Well explained, SH – I’m (semi) convinced!

79. sheffield hatter @77 : I wasn’t totally convinced by essexboy@8 – a good try though. Try this example :

    “Look, it’s a fox !” indicates the presence of the animal, ready for all to see.

    “SPOT the fox !” would indicate that the animal may be there, or not. It’s probably concealed from view.

    Maybe I’m being pedantic (I’ve been at it for 70 years or so), but it didn’t really affect anybody’s ability to solve the clue – which is what really matters.

80. sh@77 So can you say “look, it’s a lookted flycatcher” 🙂

81. I’m with @20JulieInAustralia, @47TassieTim & @67Harmonica: EMERALD is a clearer answer than LINCOLN, the automotive theme notwithstanding

82. Postmark@10
    Captain America had a Schmidt Hydra V16 coupe-car, even appeared on Topgear in 2012, a true supercar.

    https://www.topgear.com/car-news/captain-america-v16-coupe

83. sheffield hatter @72 , of course function = cos is fine for a crossword as shown today, I just wanted to give due credit to cosine as a function far more important than the triangles we did at school. It is crucial in most analysis, especially Fourier analysis and complex analysis and is even hidden away in Euler’s equation.

84. muffin & TR. I’m still not a huge fan of this clue, but I think the explanation put forward by essexboy has a little support from Chambers and is near enough.

    Dave Ellison – very funny!

85. Postmark@10
    Koenigsegg, a Swedish car builder, announced a new supercar last year, Jesko Hydra, a true supercar, priced at around €4 million, with a production line of 125 cars.

86. AndrewTyndall @81
    I had EMERALD as well, glad someone thought like me!

87. Thanks to Manehi and Qaos. Excellent as always from Qaos and eminently solvable, in fact Qaos is rapidly becoming one of my favourite setters. I managed to spot all of the cars for a change, and having VANQUISH and ESPRIT adjacent to one another did rather telegraph the nature of the theme. However I failed to make the association with James Bond and still might not have done even if I had remembered him driving a LINCOLN. As I’m sure I have said here before, it’s very well-known that Qaos’s puzzles invariably have a “hidden” theme so I’m rather bemused when regular contributors here say not that they didn’t spot the theme – we all do that sometimes, after all – but that they didn’t look for one !

88. Somewhere in the back of my mind is the idea that NEON was a car model made by one of the American manufacturers.
    Qaos, I did enjoy this little excursion and found getting the two long cross answers helped considerably. Thanks for the explanations Manehi, although for once I think I managed to sort out the parsing of all of them myself. I usually wind up with a few bung and hope answers.

89. Cliveinfrance @85: so glad I popped in afore bedtime. Unfortunately, as you posted a couple of hours ago, there’s every chance you won’t see my thanks for your titbit. Rather glad to see that; as I said, it seems a name just made for a supercar. If I win the lottery….

90. Like PM, glad I popped back before bedtime.

    Mystogre @88: yes indeed, the Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth Neon. And the TETRA was a Mitsubishi concept car.

    Just a few more thoughts. I liked the way there were hints of 007 sprinkled through the clues. Q, wno invariably introduces Bond to his new vehicle, is there (homophonically) right in the first clue. Then we have buzzing instruments, a ‘special sailor’ (Commander Bond, mirroring Ian Fleming’s background in Naval Intelligence), Vegas (Diamonds are Forever), a car taking a right into the drink (virtually every film), the difficult-to-find evil criminal, the ‘adult wearing nothing’, and the black tie to round things off. And I thought 20a was a great way to signal the theme: PERSONALISATION/ ’tailored configuration’ was/is the essence of every Bond car and gadget. Kudos to Qaos.

91. @essexboy, you popped back just as I was going to thank you for your suggestion @8! I’m struggling to explain to myself why “Look, it’s the X” works better in my mind than just “Look, the X!”, but “Look, it’s” definitely feels closer to SPOT in the examples suggested.

    Thanks everyone else for comments also. I agree that the intention with SPOT=”Mark” was almost certainly as a noun, and thought it worth mentioning that they can also be synonymous as verbs – it reminded me of Blake’s lines: “And mark in every face I meet / Marks of weakness, marks of woe”

92. NEW: Cheddar Gorge, Somerset; neon tetra (fish); ASTON = suburb of Birmingham.

    Liked STRENGTHEN, HORNET, ALPINE (loi)

    Forgot to look for a theme, and did not spot it when I finished the puzzle. Guessed it was car brands but did not check via google.

93. I managed to look the theme but no vantage as don’t know Bond or cars. Neon fish guessable. Is it my imagination or has “Mark” figured several times this week?
    Thanks Qaos and Manehi

94. I enjoyed this, but didn’t finish SW corner due to confidently putting in NADA for 22d (AD for Adult inside NA for nothing), but now I see NAIL is so much better. I thought the D of NADA gave ending …DIE (of metal) for 25a which didn’t help either….

95. Muffin@37. Thank you. Glad I wasn’t alone; but I should have checked Chambers as you did!

96. I don’t think the SABOTEUR clue works.

    Special sailor’s regret? To retire destroyer

    It parses as ‘(S+AB) has (RUE+TO) retire’, which is not grammaticaly correct. The reversal indicator needs to be ‘retiring’ or ‘in retirement’ or something.

97. David, while I am totally with you, you should be aware of the fact that this is The Guardian (and, for example, not The Times where greater precision is expected from a setter).
    I think it was in a recent Everyman blog that someone said something along the lines of ‘a clue is fair and sound if the solver can find the solution without too much trouble’. A bit similar to ‘I know what the setter means, so that’s all right’.
    It is not how I look at crosswords but I think the average solver is not interested in your objection to SABOTEUR.
    But as I said earlier, I am totally with you.
    [but to be fair to Qaos, he never pretended to be Ximenean when it comes to cryptic grammar]

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