Guardian Cryptic 28,522 by Matilda

127 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,522 by Matilda”

1. 2d I read this as U(niform) IN (adopted) RED

2. I’m too old to remember nursery rhymes! It took me ages to get FIVE FARTHINGS. But, for once, I spotted the theme before finishing! Great crossword, thanks Matilda.

   And thanks, manehi, for your assistance with the parsing. I struggled over SAINT CLEMENTS because I insisted on inserting AINT for ‘isn’t’ which meant I had an extra S I couldn’t account for. Not to mention a missing A. Why are the answers always so obvious when the light finally dawns?

3. Thanks Matilda and manehi. I found this a relatively quick and pleasant solve, but none the worse for that.

   I read “No” in 12a as Number, so didn’t quite parse that one (along with RUIN and SUSPENSE)

4. Toadfather @1: doesn’t that mean adopted does double duty? I thought along similar lines but couldn’t make it work and concluded it must parse as manehi suggests with the ‘form’ an anagrind for ‘uni’

   Like yesyes, I struggled to remember what came between St Clements and Bow! So FIVE FARTHINGS took a while. I liked the half minute device in MARTINS, the split in TREASON, the homophone and definition for LIGHT BREEZE and, now I see it, the alternative parsing of DEFENCELESS – though I suspect that’s either unintended or a byproduct. I agree THE SON/THE SUN is ambiguous.

   Thanks Matilda for a puzzle that rang plenty of the right notes and manehi for the blog

5. Very enjoyable and inventive. I liked “thirty seconds” for MIN and the lift-and-separate “uniform.” Set myself back a bit by thinking there was a game called fours (I couldn’t remember how many farthings were in the rhyme).

   Knocking a point off for 20d. Even with crossers, impossible to see which is the definition and which the homophone.

6. Short but very sweet. Thanks Matilda and manehi.

7. I really struggled until I got to 24, 15 and would probably still have struggled if I hadn’t already got 26.

   Thanks to Manehi for the clear explanations, and also the recognition that sometimes both homophones can fit in the grid and the position of the indicator leaves the choice ambiguous – one of my pet dislikes in crosswords.

8. Good fun, if a bit Mondayish – very different from yesterday’s Imogen! I also liked the unusual constructions, e.g. for MARTINS, SUSPENSE and TREASON. Dredged up FIVE FARTHINGS from somewhere deep in the memory. Many thanks to Matilda and manehi.

9. A fun puzzle from Matilda. I remembered most of the nursery rhyme and I used to play fives.
   Thanks to M&m.

10. Nice gentle potter today, bit of a gearshift from Imogen, but variety is the spice… Liked far thing in fives after nutting it out, after which I did vaguely remember that bit of lyric in the rhyme/song. Stylus too was a fave, for its neatness [and for reminding me that I’ve never lost my childhood amazement that an infinity of sound, no matter how symphonically complex, can be encoded in a tiny vinyl groove, then turned back into sound by a tiny pointy thing wiggling in it]. Heard of Shrek the movie, didn’t know he was an ogre, but no matter. The no-good idea was good too. All fun, ta M & m.

11. Fairly easy overall but a pleasant solve with a theme that didn’t overwhelm the clueing as it sometimes can.

    Particularly liked ‘no good idea’!

    Didn’t parse 8D so thanks for the explanation.

    Thanks both

12. Interesting alternative parsing for DEFENCELESS. My problem with it is that the three-letter blocks BOR and AUX are a bit too ‘thick’ to be a fence. Also that if you remove ‘without barriers’ from the wordplay, then ‘DE, FENCELESS’ isn’t like the centre of Bordeaux, because prior to being operated on the outer layers are still there.

    I didn’t think THE SUN was too ambiguous as I always work on the principle that a multi-word answer has to be a recognised phrase, not just a possible combination of words. ‘The Son’ by itself doesn’t really qualify, without being part of a longer phrase.

    ‘No 7 assistant’ had me thinking of Boots – lovely clue.

    Thanks Matilda & manehi

13. Yes, I enjoyed the decrease and the light Bries.

    [The theme reminded me of a quiz round with four questions about England goalkeepers and then Q5 was to name the missing places. Questions 1-4 gave Ray Clemence, Nigel Martyn, Gary Bailey and Alex Stepney leaving Shoreditch and Bow.]

    Thanks Matilda & manehi

14. Lots to enjoy in this puzzle. I picked up on the theme more than halfway through with a vague memory of the nursery rhyme, which I then googled as I had forgotten all but the first two lines.

    My favourites: STAIR, DEPENDABLE, AGITATOR, MARTINS; LIGHT BREEZE; STEAM IRONS, SUSPENSE.

    I did not parse: TREASON = twit.

    Thanks, both.

    * I parsed 1ac incorrectly as U+IN in RED. I see now that it is a very clever clue. Thanks, manehi

15. Re 5d: The alphabet which contains ‘India’ has nothing to do with phonetics. The International Call Sign Alphabet, to give one of its names, is a spoken alphabet used to uniquely identify spellings. A phonetic alphabet is a written alphabet used to uniquely identify speech sounds.

16. A fairly rapid but enjoyable solve. A pleasant indulgence of we thickies to actually see the theme for once although had to get ex-teacher memsahib to sing the rhyme.

    Not over happy about WIT = REASON but the answer came readily enough.

    Enjoyed the gag at THE SUN and the inventive “no good idea” for AIDE.

    Took ages to dredge up Jeremy IRONS.

    Many thanks, both.

17. An enjoyable and unusually fast solve, greatly helped by getting the theme early and dredging up enough of the rhyme from my memory.

    Thanks Matilda and manehi

18. Thanks Matilda and manehi
    This was a fun 19a. I saw the theme for once – indeed I entered 9,16 and 24,15 from the theme rather than their clues.
    I didn’t parse AIDE or SUSPENSE. I did see how TREASON was intended to work, but thought “wit” for REASON a bit loose.
    Apart from the ambuguity in 20d, the clue also has a meaningless “in”.

19. Thanks Manehi and Matilda.

20. I get particular pleasure when I recognise the seemingly effortless work of a setter to ensure a puzzle’s clues have narrative plausibility and I thought this puzzle from Matilda was particularly lovely.

21. After yesterday’s struggle which was too much like hard work for me, this was much more enjoyable. Saw the theme reasonable early which helped. Thanks to Matilda and manehi.

22. Enjoyed this even if over too soon.
    Thanks Matilda

23. Quickest solve for me for ages (that is if I have actually managed to solve any of the rest this week…)

    And…. the theme was there (and I know the rhyme backwards) which helped no-end, St. Clement Danes being where one of the choirs I’m in holds their annual (although not last year) Christmas concert.

    Obviously, the earworm of the day has to be XTC’s album ‘Oranges and Lemons’ from which please have a dose of ‘Mayor of Simpleton’ https://youtu.be/5Da9sc6YDBo

    Thanks Matilda and manehi!

24. Well that was certainly a LIGHT BREEZE after yesterday’s Imogen. Got the theme quickly after getting the first three ac answers in sequence. I liked the devices for TWIT and AIDE and I agree with the ambiguity of THE SUN. A lot to like here

    Ta Matilda & manehi

25. Thanks for the blog, manehi. As so often, I agree with your favourites, with the addition of 25ac, which made me smile, as NIT NURSE, for some reason, always does. I initially parsed 2dn as Toadfather did but came round to your way of thinking.

    Like yesyes @2, I was beguiled for a while with AINT for 9,16.

    I didn’t have a problem with 20dn, largely because I agree with essexboy @12 about answers being meaningful phrases (which is why I dislike so many poor attempts at Spoonerisms) and, for me, the surface reading made the intention clear.

    I really enjoyed this fun puzzle – many thanks to Matilda and, again, to manehi.

26. Thanks Matilda and manehi

    Re ‘wit’ & ‘reason’, how about “beyond the wit of man”?

27. Thanks for the blog, some nice clues here . I actually got the theme for once as early as 5AC, I thought about 1984 and I do remember all my nursery rhymes.
    I thought 12AC and 8D were very clever.
    grantinfreo@10, the wonders of electro-magnetic induction, you have Michael Faraday to thank.

28. [Eileen @25
    I don’t know how common this is, but when I was at school the nit nurse was always “Nitty Norah, the bug explorer”.]

29. Having got ‘oranges and lemons’ and ‘bells’, I was able to bung in the rest of the answers from the nursery rhyme without much thought, since I remember it very well, and to parse them afterwards. I paused over ‘The/Son/Sun’ (I used to teach Paradise Lost, in which Christ is referred to as ‘the Son’, so had no problems with it as a stand-alone), but plumped for the slightly more likely ‘Sun’.

    As others have said, a pleasant if quick solve; and unlike yesterday’s (which I did eventually finish) it hasn’t left me with a headache, a nagging suspicion of not being quite clever enough, and a guilty feeling that I really ought to be getting on with my work.

30. I seem to be getting worse at solving of late, but completed this one fairly rapidly, my favourite being TREASON (IMO in some contexts “wit” can be close enough to “reason”).

    I didn’t think THE SUN was really ambiguous. The wordplay is “Member of Trinity reported”. If the answer were “the son”, the wordplay would be “reported in newspaper”, which would imply the answer was “in the son”, i.e. the homphone doesn’t work. This also means the “in” is not redundant – it clears the ambiguity in the clue. It still wasn’t a great clue.

    Thanks manehi and Matilda.

31. Great fun. A few years ago Jeremy Irons would have been the first Jeremy to come to mind, but the former leader of the Labour Party proved a distractor.

32. It’s a pleasant theme and nicely executed. I liked ‘suspense’ among several others, but to be honest, after the past couple of days, what I enjoyed most was the relief that I could still actually complete crosswords.

33. I can ride my hobby horse all over 12a. – ie, how are anagram indicators with negative connotations expected to work? What makes AIDE a “no good” version of IDEA, when it is a perfectly fine word in itself and highly functional for the purposes of solving the clue? Admittedly my hobby horse is more regularly saddled up when the indicators are ones based on mental illness, but I do find it odd in this case too.

34. This was a lot of fun. Is the ‘split the words’ trick (used in T-wit and UNI-form) a peculiarly Guardian feature? I don’t think I ever came across it after some years doing The Times cryptic. Anyway I think it’s rather good as a setter’s device.
    ‘Wit’ = ‘reason’ seems completely fine to me (as I am sure it would have been for Shakespeare, Pope, Johnson or Dickens), though modern usage has pulled ‘wit’ in the direction of cleverness with words while ‘reason’ remains a matter of unshowy, but solid, rational thought.
    Thanks to Matilda and our blogger today.

35. I got confused over FIVE FARTHINGS because I thought the nursery rhyme was THREE FARTHINGS. I resorted to Google as it was a long time ago.
    I spent too long trying to shoe horn OLD BAILEY in somewhere, but it all fell into place OK.
    Enjoyable after the maulings of the last couple of days.
    Thanks for the parsing of 8d, I think I comprendez.
    All in all, very enjoyable, thanks both.

36. I took the long way round and left the long ones to last which made for a fine finish, In fact The bells were ringing.I think I’ll now play The Sad Bells of Rimini
    Thanks Matilda and manehi

37. WIT also has a verbal form that means to know, recognise, or discern so it seems reasonable to use it in this case
    I enjoyed this and thought there was some excellent cogitating outside the carton
    JEREMY IRONS reminded me of our old drinking game involving celebs with “true or false” names like Camilla Parker Bowles, Lyn Faulds Wood, Dorothy Squires etc.
    Lovely stuff Mathilda and many thanks manehi

38. Re 20d, ‘reported IN’ suggests to me that the homophone should be the newspaper. Am I alone in this?

39. PeterT @31 oddly the first Jeremy that came to mind was Jeremy Thorpe, the infamous ex-leader of the Liberal Party.

40. I bunged in an unparsed ‘vice’ @ 12ac thinking it probably had something to do with the 7 deadly sins and intending to come back to it later. Of course I then forgot to do so and this was consequently a DNF for me; grrr! Otherwise I enjoyed it as a bit of pleasant relief after the last (confidence-sapping) couple of days.

    Thanks to Matilda and manehi.

41. No Lonewilf@38, I’m with you on that

42. [HIYD @39
    The only person I’ve ever voted for who was elected!]

43. Lovely puzzle with a couple of innovations that have been mentioned. I put THE SON in without a second thought. Thanks to Matilda and manehi.

44. I don’t often have time to post much these days but I did want to pop up today to say how much I enjoyed this. Sure, a couple of iffy constructions, but the whole thing was nicely put together and I even managed to twig the theme as I went along.
    And the added bonus of the tremendous LIGHT BREEZE.

45. Getting ORANGES AND LEMONS virtually straightaway had me on the lookout for the rest of the rhyme. Like many others I found this quite quick – so much so that I realise I didn’t get around to parsing quite a few, so thanks to manehi for that, and to Matilda for this very enjoyable crossie.

46. @44 should have the moniker Trailman, it’s been so long that I forgot to be anonymous.

47. Muffin @42 MP for North Devon wasn’t he?
    He at least gave the world a bit of rhyming slang, Jeremy Thorped = warped

48. Ding Dong!
    Lovely. Thanks very much. And to MaidenBartok for the link – Love On A Farmboy’s Wages has always been both a favourite track and a description of a long life with Mr Bwycd.

49. Enjoyable solve; as others have said a bit of a relief after yesterday’s.

    Getting the theme certainly helped with SHOREDITCH. I didn’t get the parsing of AIDE, but I now think it’s quite a good clue. Van Winkle @33, no good is defined in Chambers as useless, which is a recognised anagrind in the Chambers’ list.

    I liked LIGHT BREEZE. I thought the ‘Twit’s betrayal’ was some reference to Donald Trump’s tweet, including the single word of ‘treason’.

    Thanks Matilda and manehi.

50. [The more serious business of my morning being over, I think I can flesh out the point made by pserve_p2 @34 about wit=reason being historically unproblematic. The standard analysis running through the 16th & 17th centuries of what happened at the Fall of Man was that Reason, sometimes called Wit, man’s higher faculty, remained UNfallen, but his Will, the executive power, as it were, of individual action, had become perpetually impaired by the lower promptings of Passion, or sensual appetite. Therefore, Reason, if consulted, would infallibly tell an individual what he or she ought to do, but Passion, infecting the Will, would prevent him or her from pursuing that correct path, leading to lives of perpetual self-recrimination. This is the analysis made explicit by Milton in Paradise Lost, and, as Sir Philip Sidney expressed it in his ‘Defence of Poesy’, “Our erected wit maketh us know what perfection is, and yet our infected wil keepeth us from reaching unto it”

    This runs through the works of Shakespeare, Sidney, Milton and other Early Modern writers, and uncannily anticipates Freud’s theory of the workings of the Superego, the Ego and the Id, but that is another story.]

51. A very enjoyable puzzle. I know that some people such as Eileen like to look at the clues strictly in order, but my less disciplined approach is usually to look at the first two or three, then start randomly glancing around to see if anything catches my eye. This “strategy” paid off here as I got 24, 15 very early on and that made the theme clear.

    VW @33: surely the idea is that if a word is misspelt, by having the letters in the wrong order, it is incorrect or “no good”?

    muffin @18, I don’t see anything wrong with the “in” in 20d – “The Son” is heard in “The Sun”. On the other hand the “of” in 1a seems to be there just for the surface; but that’s a minor quibble.

    Many thanks Matilda and manehi.

52. Jumping back in to support WIT meaning REASON – it can’t be beyond the wit of man to think of examples where it’s synonymous

53. Jim @ 52: see my post @ 26!

54. Great fun. Thanks, Matilda. Thanks manehi for parsing the convoluted logic of AIDE which I didn’t work out. Matilda does fine surfaces – Everyman needs to take lessons from her on how to do a first-letters clue: it took me ages to spot how GOOD IDEA works.

    Favourites STEAM IRONS (“decrease”, ouch!) LIGHT BREEZE, STYLUS, FIVE FAR-THINGS.

    Nice to see that SHR(I)EK has made it into crosswords.

55. A very quick but fun puzzle. Saw the theme after 1a and 9a so the others were a write in. On a par with normal Monday fare

    Thanks Matilda and manehi

56. – and I have just realised that I was also misled by AINT in SAINT CLEMENTS.

    pserve_p2 @34: the usual name for the t-reason = twit trick around here is a “lift-and-separate”, like the old bra advertisement. They are pretty standard in Guardian puzzles, and some setters are very fond of them.

57. [Roz@27, yeah I had a favourite uncle who was an acoustics engineer; he explained to young grant that the other end of the tiny pointy thing was a magnet moving within a coil etc etc, but the amazement was more that all that marvellous sound could be found within a tiny groove in a bit of plastic]

58. [gif@57 and Roz@27: There is the story of Dr Arthur Lintgen who supposedly could identify records by simply looking at the grooves…

    My grandad was a great believer in the restorative properties of Tetrion filler. When the diamond came out of the end of the Shure stylus on his record player he created the tiniest lump and plopped it into place. He also filled a hole in his dentures with the stuff…]

59. [ It is also why vinyl is superior to any modern digital system, sound is analogue, travels as analogue and our ears detect it as analogue . I can identify any record simply by looking at the label. ]

60. Lord Jim @51 – I would dispute that there is any misspelling going on. As anagram fodder IDEA has no substance; it is just four letters in a particular order. Why are the same four letters in a different order in any way less good. In the context of 12a, it is a great deal more useful that they be rearranged to give AIDE.
    Robi @49 – unfortunately, this confirms my view that the Chambers list of indicators is flawed. It would get closer to working if IDEA was being manipulated to make something that wasn’t a word – eg, to make IEDA to fit into a charade for CARRIED AWAY. But even then there would be a deal of utility.

61. [Roz – as you clearly pop back in occasionally – I just thought I’d acknowledge your spotting of the theme which merits not just bell-ringing but also flags flying and cannons saluting. You do appreciate, I hope, that this is another nail in the coffin of your carefully honed image! You have now been caught making puns, cracking jokes, identifying elements of the keyboard and spotting themes – all within a week. You will be posting emojis and pasting Web links by the end of tomorrow!]

62. I’m another who knew only the first line of the song, so had to go listen to it before finishing the bottom half. I’d have had no chance on FIVE FARTHINGS otherwise. It’s not a super-common song over here, but not utterly unknown either; I wonder how the rest of the American contingent fared here.

    Christ is referred to as “the Son” often enough that that could indeed have been the answer. But I agree with the camp that says what saves the clue (just barely) is the placement of the word “in”.

63. Well, thanks Matilda and manehi, that was an entertaining way to spend my lunch break – and still have time to make something to eat as well. “Easily digestible French cheeses” made me chuckle. 17dn also amused me – the surface sounds like the kind of thing I have to deal with at work every day.

    I’m with beaulieu @30 on 20dn – I read it as “Member of Trinity reported” with the “in” functioning as a link word. [As an aside – I don’t know if it was an intentional reference on Matilda’s part, but Trinity is the former name of the publishers of The Mirror, ie The Sun’s main rival. They’re now called Reach.]

    Roz @59 – LOL, as the kids say.

    Van Winkle @60 – If the letters are in a different order, they’re no good as a spelling of IDEA.

64. [Roz @59: Oh come on – you know that we’re all determined by our atomic energy levels which are as digital as digital can be! One could say that our seemingly analogue world is actually all a bit of a discrete value illusion 😉 ]

65. Lovely puzzle, a quick solve but a pleasure to see a lot of these come together like 13d and 17d. 1ac was nice; 30 seconds for MIN would’ve had me banging my head on the desk in most other puzzles, but with the crossers it was easy enough to work back from the definition.

    In case anyone wants a report from the US, the rhyme is very familiar (to me at least) from things like L.P. Hartley’s A Visitor From Down Under and the XTC album Oranges and Lemons and other things. Though I get it mixed up with The Bells of Rhymney which was on a Pete Seeger album my parents have. [Looking it up the words were by the Welsh poet Idris Davies who modeled them after Oranges and Lemons, which makes sense.]

    I didn’t parse 24/15; “Fives” is new to me (it seems like it’s roughly what we call handball and doesn’t involve any fives?). But it came quickly from the rhyme.

    Thanks Matilda and manehi!

66. My family members remind me that Oranges and Lemons is also in 1984–guess that went down the memory hole!

67. The argument that THE SUN is a proper phrase but THE SON is not doesn’t seem to hold water. Despite being an atheist I have heard the phrase “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” more than once in my life. Neither am I convinced that the homophone indicator implies that one answer is correct and the other not: the clue is perfectly symmetrical.

    Given how easy a lot of this crossword was, I think the clue for AIDE is devious in the extreme. I tried reading it as ‘no good idea’ but couldn’t see ‘no good’ as an anagrind (see Van Winkle @33 – how often have we been on the same wavelength?).

    I liked ‘distant object’ for FAR THING, for its (perhaps distant) echo of Father Ted and Father Dougal “small … far away”. Thanks to Matilda and to manehi, and to MaidenBartok @23 for the XTC link.

68. matt w @65 – Fives is traditionally played at Eton and a few other public* schools… and absolutely nowhere else. It’s pretty obscure, and has probably only become known outside Eton at all because this country is mostly run by Old Etonians. (*which you would refer to as private schools, of course)

69. [matt w @65
    I wince every time I hear “The bells of Rhymney”, as Pete Seeger obviously wasn’t aware that it’s pronounced “Rumney”.
    roz @59
    It’s not impossible, but it would take a lot of searching to find a vinyl record in which the recording hadn’t passed through a digital process somewhere along the line.]

70. [widdersbel @68
    Most public schools other than Eton play Rugby fives. The court doesn’t have a step in it, as an Eton fives court does (mimicking the side of the building where it was first played, as a real tennis court mimics the court at (?)Versailles).]

71. mrpenney @62 & widdersbel @63 (and others). ‘Member of Trinity reported in newspaper’. The clue, in effect, says “THE SON sounds like THE SUN”. The positioning of ‘in’ is not relevant; the fact remains that there is nothing in the clue to tell the solver which of the two possible answers is to be inserted in the grid.

72. muffin @70 – Thanks, the existence of Rugby fives had passed me by, but a quick bit of internet research shows there appear to be several other versions in existence too. There’s also a quisling comprehensive school in Norwich that plays fives. Burn the lot of them down, I say.

73. [ MrPostMark@ 61, I often pop back a few times, I really enjoy reading all the comments, crossword related or not. As for themes, this was one of the about 1 in 10 that I spot, Oranges and Lemons is a real giveaway, I know the rhyme it is also possibly the saddest part of 1984.
    As for keyboards , I know the space bar obviously and the Shift button for capitals, I have seen references to the Alt, Esc and Any keys but I do not know them or what they are for.
    As for puns and cracking jokes I have no recall and I am sure the written record will support me . ]

74. sheffield hatter @71 – I don’t disagree, I was just saying how I read the clue – and because of how I read the clue, I wrote in THE SUN without thinking about it any further. And to be honest, I’m not sure it warrants thinking about any further. Complaint noted. Move on.

75. [muffin @69 – but the half-rhyme with “give me” in the first line doesn’t work if you pronounce Rhymney correctly…]

76. [ MaidenBartok @ 64, energy levels and therefore photons and all of LIGHT is of course digital, but sound is as analogue as can be. As analogue as the standing waves on a violin string ]

77. [southofnorth @75
    Exactly – that’s what makes it obvious that Seeger didn’t know the correct pronunciation 🙂 ]

78. [ Muffin @ 69 I would expect that most or all vinyl before say about 1980 had no digital processing. Not hard to search, many vinyl record stores will have pre 1980 pressings. ]

79. As someone unfamiliar with the theme/rhyme I was nearly finished the crossword when I decided to look up “bells of Saint Martin” and then I realized that several answers came from the poem. All in all a good bit of fun — thanks Matilda. Favourites included LIGHT BREEZE, SHRIEKS, GOOD IDEA, and DEPENDABLE. Now it’s onto the FT where Matilda’s alter-ego Velia has a crossword today. Thanks manehi for the blog.

80. [muffin@77 But the original by Idris Davies has the same opening couplet – and he was Welsh!]

81. [Roz @76: But but but – wave particle duality?! Phonons? 🙂 (I know, I know…)

    I once convinced myself that if I jumped up in a lift whilst it was going down I would emit a pulse of energy. Instead I fell over.]

82. widdersbel @74. “…because of how I read the clue, I wrote in THE SUN without thinking about it any further.” That’s exactly what I did, except that I wrote in THE SON!

    The point is that unless there is a crossing letter that determines which is the entry, the words involved in homophone clues need to be of different lengths – such as SCENE and SEEN, or SLAY and SLEIGH; SITE and SIGHT would do, but not SITE and CITE.

    OK, moving on now. 🙂

83. [southofnonorth @80 (sorry I missed the “no” earlier – you read what you are expecting to!)
    OK, so Seeger is excused, then. I still will wince!
    Roz @78
    When I used to follow the hi-fi press, I remember there was a fad for (highly-expensive) “direct-cut” masters for vinyl records. From the mid 70s for a while, as I remember. Main drawback was it didn’t permit editing.]

84. [ MB @ 81 phonons are just in solids and have no physical evidence, just a computational tool. Even quantum mechanics is surprisingly mainly analogue, the energy levels are discrete ( digital if you like ) but the Dirac state functions for the electrons are polynomials of sine and cos functions ]

85. Muffin@69 and Roz@78 – at least 95% of my own vinyl collection (from the 60s and 70s) involves no digital processing. ?

86. [ Muffin @83, good point, I have heard about this, I think album sales were so high they could still make lots of money. Editing was not really thought about then once an album was finished. It is a more modern thing to have it all re-mastered and re-packaged and seven different versions of each track . ]

87. [Muffin@69, Roz@78: PCM was invented in the 1930s and was being used on telephone trunk circuits by the mid 1940s. NHK were the first to use it for audio recording in the late 1960s and the first multi-track (actually multi being ‘2’) was made by Denon in about 1972 whilst the Beeb had a recorder and were using PCM on their transmitter links in 1970. Denon issued several digitally-mastered recordings in the mid 1970s.

    There are still many CDs available which were analogue-recorded and mastered – marked AAD. There are several claims to the ‘first’ DDD release but all around 1980-84]

88. [ Sourdough @ 85 perfect , original pressings . We recently found the Pretty Things – SF Sorrow, original 1967 pressing, hardly been played ]

89. I had thought this was a bit unfair, that many people wouldn’t have heard of the rhyme (all I remembered were the first two lines), but nobody seems to have complained. I put the clues together from the worldplay when it formed something plausible.

    Loved bouncy castle. It’s always fun when a pair of words that are “a thing” separate into
    different roles, such as in this case anagram indicator and fodder.

    I got a bit hung up on25a — is there some kind of patent food called “nutri-nuts”? Oops, too many U’s.

    Anybody else put in an unparsed “moth” for the bug in 21a?

    Thanks, manehi, for parsing TREASON, RUINED and FIVE FARTHINGS, since I’d forgotten there was a game called “fives,” and “nine” fit just as well.

    I had thought of an ORDINANCE as a law, but if I google ORDINANCE + LAW + WIKI then I learn about the special meaning in Christian practice. I thought It had been perhaps confused with “ordination,” but no.

    Until reading this blog, I hadn’t realized that a nit nurse was something other than a harebrained nurse. Thanks, Eileen and muffin.

    As well as the vowel in Rhymney (not really the short u of “drum” but more of a schwa sound) there is another sound that occurs in Welsh but not English — RH is pronounced like an unvoiced rolled R.

    Here is Pete Seeger singing The Bells of Rhymney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0HEXdKXSaY It is a moving plea for justice to miners — the lyrics are too long to post here, but here’s the linkhttps://www.google.com/search?q=bells+of+rhymney+lyrics&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS875US883&ei=wDIVYdmJFZbatQaK2J_oCQ&oq=rhymney+lyrics&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMYADIGCAAQFhAeMgYIABAWEB4yBggAEBYQHjoJCAAQsAMQBxAeOgkIABCwAxAIEB46DgguEIAEEMcBEK8BEJMCOgkIABDJAxAWEB46CAguEIAEEJMCOgUIABCABDoLCC4QgAQQxwEQrwE6BQguEIAEOggIABCABBDJA0oECEEYAVDvowFY3rsBYM_aAWgCcAB4AIABmgGIAZoJkgEEMTIuMZgBAKABAcgBBcABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz
    Good lord, thel ink is as long as the lyrics!

90. [Thank you MB@ 87 very interesting. I read it was Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms ??? but I will happily stand corrected ]

91. [Roz @84: From a stupid comment of mine (sorry!) that is genuinely really interesting and I’m now digging out my old Quantum notes. I think I gave-up writing things down when we hit Dirac though…!]

92. [Roz @90
    The success of Brothers in Arms is credited with establishing CD as a format, but I’m not sure it was the first.
    Ironically, my copy of the album is on vinyl!]

93. [Roz @90: I’m pretty sure it wasn’t because that was 1985 and I know that Nippon/Denon/NHK were doing things in the early 1970s but probably only available in Japan… Certainly the first CD I had was the first CD (if you see what I mean) which was on Philips in 1982 (Claudio Arrau). I had it until quite recently when the silvering had fallen out and it no longer played. That was recorded in 1980 and pre-dates the AAD/ADD/DDD marking. It has ‘Digitally mastered from an analogy recording’ on the back which would make it ADD though. Goodness me, we are off-topic, aren’t we? I’ll slap my own wrists…]

94. [ Going to swim now in the very analogue sea, I think the Dire Straits is as muffin @92 says, being first is perhaps an urban myth, ]

95. [Me @93; ‘…an analogy recording…’ maybe we are back on topic…]

96. [MB, Roz et al – digital formats like DSD use almost 3 million samples per second which I imagine should give whatever you can cut into the surface of vinyl a run for its money – more info here ]

97. muffin et al

    I think you may be confusing two different types of specialist record pressings

    Direct-cut were, as you say, cut directly to the master, so no edits or retakes were possible. Because of the limited life of the master quantities were restricted, hence the high prices, and they were rarely mainstream.

    There was also a fad for half-speed mastering, where, as the name implies, both tape and cutting lathe ran at 50% of the normal rate. The greater cutting time was supposed to ensure a truer reproduction of the analogue sound wave. Because subsequent pressing processes were normal, the numbers didn’t need to be restricted, though the high prices charged for these ‘premium’ pressings put people off.

    The only one I recall hearing was Born To Run, which did sound tremendous

98. [ and Dire Straits is almost an anagram of TIRED ARTISTS 🙂 ]

99. According to wikipedia, the first all-digital release was Peter Gabriel’s fourth album, which had been recorded and mixed digitally prior to its original vinyl release in 1982. Its subsequent 1984 release on CD made it the first DDD.

    Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms was the first release where CD sales exceeded those of vinyl.

    links to the relevant article, which has lots of fascinating snippets in the timeline it gives.

100. Came to the party late but thanks for a lovely puzzle and a walk down memory lane, via Amen Corner

101. I don’t think anyone else has mentioned it but could 28ac be a double definition with twit meaning a betrayal such as one made by a tell tale twit?

     Thanks to manehi and in particular thanks to Matilda for an enjoyable and, for me, doable puzzle. Very rare that I complete one and spot the theme. (In contrast I got half a clue right yesterday).

102. Lord Jim @51: perhaps we can remove your quiblet by reading the answer as MARTINS’

103. Andy @101

     I’ve never heard of ‘tell-tale twit’.
     We used to sing,
     ‘Tell-tale tit,
     Your tongue shall be slit
     And all the doggies in the town
     Shall have a little bit.’

104. This actually happened. I was doing the clues in order, and 5,10 was second up. I thought, this has to be a combination of fruits, but not just any fruits, must be 2 or 3 bound together in a known phrase, like ORANGES AND LEMONS in that nursery rhyme. So I got the theme before I got the theme, so to speak. Never happened before and probably won’t ever happen again.

     [Regarding fives, a few years ago I was trying to explain the game to my American brother-in-law and I went to Google to find images, and one of those that came up was one I played on at school decades ago. I suppose there aren’t all that many to choose from.]

105. Eileen @103.

     Thanks for your reply. I remember the phrase being used in my junior school and googling suggests it might be a regional thing, and even then not all that common in my region:

     https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=U-QkDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT161&lpg=PT161&dq=tell+tale+twit&source=bl&ots=S9XjVxoWrg&sig=ACfU3U16X7l87vsWbJ0PWzzKchhqXJxR6A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjt3aHM9KvyAhVioVwKHVBTA84Q6AF6BAgvEAI#v=onepage&q=tell%20tale%20twit&f=false

     So it looks like a local quirk of dialogue inadvertently helped me answer a clue.

     Conversely I hadn’t come across your rhyme so thanks for that.

106. What a wonderful puzzle – I just love it when the clues make sense by themselves as intelligent stand-alone phrases or sentences. Of course, as usual, I missed the theme until the very end 🙁
     I don’t have a single quibble (although I had to enlist Mr. Google’s help to verify that London has a neighborhood called Shoreditch!).
     Thanks Matilda and manehi…

107. [Andy @105
     Use the “link” option that Gaufrid has provided. Copy the URL you want, highlight some text, click on “link” above the text box, then paste the URL in the box that appears.]

108. [muffin @107.

     Thank you. I’m new to posting here. I’m going to see if I can do it properly:

109. [ muffin @107.
     Failed.

     If this doesn’t work I don’t know what I am wrong.

     Apologies for any annoyance this causes]

110. [muffin @107.

     Sorted. Thank you very much ]

111. Thanks Matilda & manehi – that was fun in a campanological way. Really liked ‘uniform’ and ‘thirty seconds’
     [analogue for me, digital = ‘the matrix’]

112. [MB and Roz, is it the question “but what about wave-particle duality…” that’s stupid? Cos that was my response too. (Well out of my depth here, with just A-level maths and Physics 101 fifty-odd years ago)]

113. … I mean that was my question too…

114. BoLB @102: I suspect your brain is not in fact little. That is clever thinking.

115. A lovely quick solve, especially after seeing the theme and immediately writing in BELLS and SAINT CLEMENTS. Sad at nearly 70 but I can actually remember most of the rhyme, or at least the parts of it which Matilda used. FIVE FARTHINGS came out without any difficulty !

     Still waiting for the Lord of the Rings theme or possibly Game of Thrones or His Dark Materials. You just know one of those will happen along one day (especially if Qaos or Maskarade are watching………………….)

     Many thanks to Matilda and Manehi !!

116. Just finished – a rarity for me. Loved SHRIEK – made me laugh. (I didn’t spend the entire day on it – it was slotted around a working day).
     Thanks to Matilda.

117. I was stumped by the UNI and AIDE anagram indicators, so those were unparsed. I like both, now I’ve read the blog. I see no problem with NO GOOD as as indicator, since it’s synonymous with rotten and that’s long been used as an anagrind.
     I also plumped for the wrong SON and I am in the camp of those who think it can easily be read either way. Changing the linker IN to FOR would, I believe, resolve the ambiguity and keep a decent surface.
     Thanks, manehi and Matilda. A merry waltz.

118. Oranges and lemons
     Said the bells of St Clements
     I owe you five farthings
     Said the bells of St Martins
     When will you pay me said the Bells of Old Bailey
     I do not know
     Said the great bell of Bow
     Here comes a candle
     To light you to bed
     And here comes a chopper
     To CHOP OFF YOUR HEAD
     It was an action game and the child under the reciting pair was the final victim (probably me around 1934)

119. Keith@118 you missed a little bit after Old Bailey.

     When I grow rich said the bells of Shoreditch
     When will that be said the bells of Stepney
     I do ……..

120. grant @ 112 , wave particle duality applies to LIGHT also particles, easiest to show for electrons which will diffract through a carbon graphite crystal.
     Light can behave as photons , they can be detected individually in a charge coupled device CCD. This was invented for astronomy but is now used in DIGITAL cameras. Everyone, except me, has one in their mobile phone.
     SOUND is a mechanical . progressive , longitudinal wave, so is completely analogue.

121. A nice change from the recent puzzles that had convinced me I was starting to go doolally. BELLS led me to the theme, while O&L was the first answer in.

122. And I was another one who bunged in an unparsed VICE, having read “No” as number.

123. Thank you Matilda for a very fun and clever puzzle, and thank you to manehi for the blog and for parsing a couple I couldn’t on my own. I was pleased to fill this quickly even as an American who only recognized the theme and several of the answers through doing too many crosswords and reading too many British mystery novels.

     I liked TREASON a lot for my part, and for 12A I have no problem with “no good” as an anagram indicator…the letters of a word in the ‘wrong’ order is no good enough for me.

     I liked the clean surfaces; 21A was particularly apt; I also liked 27A.

124. Super fast completion for a change. Always nice to be able to spot the theme! Like some others I could have sworn it was three farthings – inflation I guess …

125. Lovely puzzle, thank you Matilda and manehi.

     Re SUN v. SON, I too thought the clue was ambiguous, until I decided that “reported in newspaper” as homophone didn’t ring as true as “Member of Trinity reported”, and it was the “in” that created the dissonance.

     Diversions on vinyl recordings and wit/reason were most enjoyable. (I still have a direct to (vinyl) disc recording of the Bach Violin Sonatas and Partitas by Ruggiero Ricci – a bold undertaking at the time.) So thanks to the commenters for even more fun.

     Loren ipsum@123, is it possible to do too many crosswords and read too many British mystery novels? (Perhaps in theory, but highly unlikely.)

126. I found this straightforward and for once the theme helped.
     Thanks Matilda and manehi.

127. Thanks manehi for explanations and gang above for discussion of recording standards and more. My school had fives courts, relics of pre-comp days, and we used to play a football/fives fusion game there while the edgier kids skulked around smoking. I really enjoy Matilda’s smooth cluing style which can mask the odd deceptive touch, and surprisingly this puzzle features my brother-in-law as a very niche mini-theme! So thanks, Matilda.

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