Guardian Cryptic 28,538 by Brendan

by

A tough challenge – my favourites were 13ac, 17ac, 3dn, 13dn, and 14dn. Many thanks to Brendan.

…as well as the many uses of Greek letters in clues and answers, there is an E-PSI-LON in the grid, referenced in the wordplay for 18ac. Edit – thanks to gladys for pointing out the RHO, Flavia for the MU and NU, and Jude for the THETA. I’ve also highlighted the TAU in TAU-t and the XI in TA-XI, as well as a U above E-PSILON that almost makes UPSILON, and a similar Z above THETA that almost makes ZETA.

ACROSS
9 OMEGA
Mature medic returned for last in series (5)
definition: last letter of the Greek alphabet

AGE=”Mature” + MO (medical officer); all reversed
10 AQUILEGIA
Eagle seen in sky holding, for instance, one flower (9)
AQUILA=Latin for “Eagle” and the name of a constellation (“seen in sky”); around E.G.=”for instance” + I=”one”
11 BETA TESTS
Art patron beset by defeats in final trials (4,5)
Henry TATE [wiki]=”Art patron”; inside BESTS=”defeats”
12 HINDI
Part of speech in dialect, old language (5)
hidden in “speec-H IN DI-alect”
13 MENACED
Expert in fix, under threat (7)
ACE=”Expert” in MEND=”fix”
15 LAMBADA
Bit of Greek text about a number of Brazilians (7)
definition: a Brazilian dance, “number” as in a dance

LAMBDA the Greek letter, around A
17 RHONE
Name held by tragic hero — it ends with delta (5)
the RHONE ends in a river delta where it flows into the Mediterranean

N (Name) inside anagram/”tragic” of (hero)*
18 PSI
Extra piece the author put in letter, section of second letter or third (3)
definition: a third [letter] in the context of the surface

PS=postscript=”Extra piece… put in letter”, with I=”the author”

“section of second letter” – the letters PSI form a section of the Greek letter E-PSI-LON in the grid, with letters from 17ac and 20ac
20 LONER
Recluse‘s side-splitting joke (5)
ONE=”joke”, as in ‘have you heard the one about…’, in the middle of L and R (splitting the Left and Right sides)
22 GRAMMAR
Kind of school mark covering reading and writing, perhaps (7)
GAMMA the Greek letter (“mark” as in a symbol), around R (reading); then plus R (writing, perhaps) – as reading and writing are two parts of ‘the three Rs’
25 ESSENCE
Core point rejected in half of Greece (7)
NESS=”point” reversed/”rejected” in half of [Gre]-ECE
26 SIGMA
Timeless part of flower as symbol of summer? (5)
definition: “summer” as in someone doing ‘sums’ in maths, where sigma is used as notation for summation

a flower has a S-T-IGMA, minus the T (time)
27 PHILIPPIC
A couple of characters put over edge about orator’s tirade (9)
PHI and PI are a couple of Greek letters/”characters”; around LIP=”edge”; plus C (circa, “about”)
30 UNSHEATHE
Draw representation of Athens in strange hue (9)
definition: “Draw” as in drawing a weapon from its sheath

anagram/”representation” of (Athens)*, inside anagram/”strange” of (hue)*
31 TANGA
An annoying summer visitor’s back in minimalist garment (5)
definition: a type of briefs or bikini bottoms

A GNAT=”An annoying summer visitor”, reversed/”back”
DOWN
1 TOMB
Grave situation as doc sees it (4)
TO=from the perspective of, as seen by; MB (Bachelor of Medicine, “doc”)
2 WENT INTO
Investigated and turned up modern colour, then old (4,4)
reversal/”turned up” of NEW=”modern”; plus TINT=”colour” + O (old)
3 TAUT
Tense, as is pupil in audition (4)
homophone/”in audition” of ‘taught’=”as is pupil”
4 PASSED UP
Didn’t accept immature setter, say, since second editor intervenes (6,2)
PUP=”immature setter, say” with “setter” as the dog breed; around all of AS=”since” + S (second) + ED (editor)
5 MUSSEL
Having cut off tails, has to dispose of shellfish (6)
MUS-T SEL-L=”has to dispose of”, with the “tails” i.e. final letters removed
6 ALPHA MALES
Eg Ajax and Achilles, initially? (5,5)
the Greek heroes Ajax and Achilles would have their names spelled in Greek with an initial Alpha
7 AGENDA
Point in old article showing hidden motivation? (6)
N (North, “point” of the compass) inside AGED=”old” + A=indefinite “article”
8 TAXI
Exhaust on one vehicle (4)
TAX=”Exhaust” + I=”one”
13 MORAG
Lassie named in second paper or in short periodical (5)
two forms of wordplay:

1) MO (moment, “second”) + RAG=”paper”

2) OR inside MAG=short for magazine=”short periodical”
14 CREAM CAKES
As specially ordered, make scarce culinary treats (5,5)
anagram/”As specially ordered” of (make scarce)*
16 AGREE
Say OK — conclusion drawn from one such as Plato (5)
A GREE-k=”one such as Plato”, with the “conclusion” or final letter removed
19 ITEMIZED
The speaker arranged time before last in series is listed (8)
I=”The speaker” + anagram/”arranged” of (time) + ZED=the letter ‘z’=”last in series”
21 NINEPINS
Awful ninnies holding power — they fall dramatically (8)
definition: skittles used in bowling

anagram/”Awful” of (ninnies)*; around P (power)
23 ARGOSY
Old merchant ship making ancient city before day’s end (6)
ARGOS=”ancient city” + the end of da-Y
24 REPUTE
As expressed in Greek, unlimited fame (6)
PUT=”expressed”, inside [G]-REE-[k] “unlimited” i.e. removing the outer letters
26 SNUG
Source of shots being set up in part of pub (4)
definition: a small room in a pub

GUNS=”Source of shots”, reversed/”set up”
28 IOTA
Turn up first part of encyclopaedia, perhaps — it’s very small (4)
reversal/”Turn up” of A TO I (as in from letter A to letter I)=”first part of encyclopaedia, perhaps”
29 CHAI
Letter containing a kind of tea (4)
CHI=Greek “Letter”, around “A”

109 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,538 by Brendan”

  1. Found this quite difficult and hard to parse a few solutions, but I particularly enjoyed the theme as I have started to learn Greek recently.

    I failed 3d TAUT I had entered PAST = tense but could not parse it as pupil in audition.

    18ac I parsed as PS + I (setter) -> PSI but did not understand the rest of the clue. I still do not get the ‘section of second letter’ bit but now see the EPSILON reference. Can someone explain?

    I also did not parse 20ac LONER; 22ac GRAMMAR, ; 5d MUSSEL; the ISED bit of 19d – I see I got this wrong too as I entered ITEMISED – I only got the anagram of TIME right; 24d REPUTE.

    Favourite: PHILIPPIC.

    New for me: LAMBADA (Brazilian dance); AQUILEGIA, SNUG = a small, comfortable public room in a pub or inn; ARGOSY = large merchant ship.

    Thanks, both.

  2. What a dramatic change from the grim little write-in we were offered yesterday. Almost every clue pleased – with many chuckles along the way – to LOI (TAUT).
    Especially enjoyed LAMBADA, RHONE, ALPHA MALES, BETA TESTS, SNUG, ARGOSY & AQUILEGIA.
    PHILIPPIC was N-T-M but readily solved from the clue.
    No parsing problems or quibbles.
    Thanks Brendan, for a truly worthy puzzle.

  3. michelle @1
    PSI (the answer) is a section/part of another letter EPSILON.
    “second” indicates that EPSILON is a different letter to PSI and/or that this is a different use of “letter” after the PS+I wordplay

  5. Absolutely tipota (I looked that up) from the acrosses, so ‘went into’ was first in. Then the SW, then the rest slowly, with help from my little printout of the Greek alphabet, e.g. chi around ‘a’ to give the tea and hence the final ‘ic’ in philippic, which does ring the faintest of bells, though from where I’ve absy no idea. A few unparsed, e.g. ePSIlon, good one manehi, and ‘put’ for ‘expressed’, d’oh. And a few dnks, e.g. beta test and tanga. So, yes, quite tough, thanks Brendan and manehi.

  6. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I pledged a college fraternity where one of the requirements was reciting the Greek alphabet while holding a lighted match between your thumb and index finger. You couldn’t blow it out until you reached omega. I still remember the alphabet and it helped me solving Brendan’s masterful crossword.
    Favourites included RHONE, ALPHA MALES, AGENDA, and NINEPINS. I missed seeing EPSILON but I did see THETA spanning UNSHEATHE and TANGA. There were many clues I could not fully parse — thanks manehi. And thanks Brendan for another class act.

  8. Not greatly impressed by ‘seen in sky’ to give the Latin for eagle. Who’s going to put up their hand and claim they got that?

  9. That was great but failed to spot the extra bit (if it had been Serpent I might have!)
    As for 10, I knew there would be EG in there and having got AGENDA and TAXI
    and guessing the first part of 6 there werent many words to fit 10 so I worked backwards
    latin was my lowest grade at school.
    Thanks Brendan and manehi

  10. thank you, manehi @3 – I understand it now – phew, that is very convoluted, but luckily it was easy to get PSI from the ‘Extra piece the author’ bit.

  11. I’m not sure the parsing for 18 you’ve given is correct, manehi. Surely “extra piece the author” is the PSI with the “put in letter“ indicating this clue, ie 18. The references to second and third letters are epsilon and upsilon. Otherwise the instruction “put in” would lead to PIS.

  14. Second of a trio of toughies today with about five unparsed, including EPSILON. Still, stayed on the right side of the “challenging but enjoyable” vs. “a real slog” divide.

    I won’t give the game away, but I missed the parsing of exactly the same answer both here and in another crossword today. The wordplay was not dissimilar but I obviously failed to learn.

    Many good ones with my pick being the ‘symbol of summer?’ wordplay for SIGMA.

    Thanks to Brendan and manehi

  15. Snap, gif @5 – exactly my experience at the start. I did twig the Greek letters after a few down answers which helped considerably (note TAU in TAUT). Thanks, Brendan and manehi.

  16. PS: I had ATOM (A to M) for 28d, but was puzzled by the unnecessary “turn up”. As I tried to justify it, I suddenly saw that the same trick would work upside down, provided the volume only went to I. Nice clue.

  18. Wow that was hard. After the acrosses I had two and was beginning to panic. Thank goodness for the downs and the first inklings of a theme. Then it (mostly) went in smoothly. DNK AQUILEGIA but it was gettable even though I didn’t know the constellation. Couldn’t parse REPUTE so thank you manehi. But there was so much joy. ALPHA MALES made me chuckle and CREAM CAKES was a clever anagram. PHILIPPIC was also brilliant. Thank you Brendan.

  20. Gladys, Flavia, Jude – thanks! Have updated the grid image.

    I’ve also highlighted the TAU in TAU-t and the XI in TA-XI, as well as a U above E-PSILON that almost makes UPSILON, and a similar Z above THETA that almost makes ZETA. With ETA also contained in (TH)ETA, I think that only leaves Kappa and Omicron not in the grid or surfaces – their capitals could be written as the “OK” in 16ac…

    @Deegee – I read “put in letter” altogether as additional context for the “Extra piece”=PS part of PS+I, and I think that works without having “put in” be an insertion indicator. I do also like your suggestion that PSI is the “put in letter”, and your mention of UPSILON led me to find the wonky U-PSILON mentioned above.

  21. Brilliant! ETA can also be seen in the THETA/ZETA ensemble, so as far as I can see the only ones missing are kappa and omicron. Having said that μ (MU) is the symbol for ‘micro’, and we could take the O from omega, so that’s kind of there. Kappa anyone?

    Many thanks for the fun, Brendan and manehi.

  22. I take it that ALPHA, BETA, IOTA, and OMEGA too obvious to be highlighted?

    Aphid @8 As well as manehi, you mean? Having been observing the sky since I was 12, it was my FOI.

    Thanks manehi and Brendan for another fine challenge

  23. essexboy – I think we may have crossed while I snuck in an extra mention of O and K into my comment @20

    Dave Ellison – I had started with only EPSILON highlighted for the sake of 18ac, and updated when more hidden ones were mentioned – hadn’t thought to also highlight ALPHA BETA etc but it may make sense now that I’ve gone this far.

  24. Feel bruised after that. Nho PHILLIPIC or TANGA. PASSED UP and ALPHA MALES were excellent but I definitely feel humbled after reading earlier learned comments.

    [I recommend the original Victorian SNUGS in The Crown in Belfast, if you ever visit].

    Ta Brendan & manehi for deciphering everything.

  25. Fell at two hurdles: PAST tense – a pupil having passed an audition and rushing in with ITEMISED without thinking about the full parsing.
    Damnit!
    Fun puzzle, thank you to Manehi for the blog and all other contributors for the additional Greek illuminations.

  27. hi manehi
    there is also
    alpha 6d
    beta 11ac
    omega 9ac
    phi + pi 27ac
    sigma 26ac
    iota 28d

    lambda and chi were sort of in 15ac and 29d
    + gamma in 22ac

  28. Ooops, sorry for crossing with others above. I should have read more carefully, but I got excited!

    I think that Brendan got all 24 letters in if we count ETA as part of the THETA that is already highlighted, plus the ‘split’ ones (gamma, lambda, chi)

  29. Excellent puzzle. I found that the Hellenic theme helped a lot and fortunately there were no words that I had never encountered before, so it yielded fairly easily for me.

    I didn’t spot the EPSILON Nina (which explains the otherwise baffling clue for ?). The U above which makes upsilon and the Z for zeta are well spotted – I don’t like the ‘-ize’ spelling (Thou whoreson zed! Thou unnecessary letter!) although it reflects the ? in the original Greek suffix and is recommended by style guides.

  31. I think it’s all been said. A lovely difficult challenge and very satisfying to complete. I picked up the Greek letter theme (hooray!) but missed the ones hidden in the grid (boo!). Much thanks to Brendan and manehi for explaining a few that went unparsed.

  33. whoops, me again correcting my post above

    I can’t see delta, kappa, omicron – so maybe there are 21/24 letters in the grid

  34. Always a pleasure to get a crossword from Brendan. Another enjoyable solve while spotting the Greek alphabet as I went along

    Many thanks to both Brendan and manehi

  35. Despite being unable to parse it, I opted for the British spelling of 19d. Otherwise, I had all the solutions correct, but parsing them is another matter. Thanks to setter and blogger.

  37. Absolute, sheer delight – another brilliant puzzle from Brendan and an excellent blog from manehi to match.

    As JerryG says @31, it’s really all been said but I’d just like to add, away from the theme, that I loved the way the Scottish name MORAG was clued as ‘lassie’.

    Huge thanks to setter and blogger – you’ve really made my day.

  39. [Gervase @30: Try typing & psi ; (but without the gaps) for ψ

    (The last character is a semicolon.)

    I’m indebted to Gonzo for this, which gives the above method plus a couple of others for good measure.]

  40. Thanks manehi for explaining LONER (when will I remember that joke = ONE?) and making full sense of PSI, I did spot a few greeks lurking but missed the biggie across the middle and some other split characters. I failed a couple of times eg aguilegia and itemised but not complaining as there were other hits that would have stumped me on other days.
    Small query on HINDI: in the blog you have not highlighted “old” as part of the definition and I agree as it is certainly a current tongue but then I wondered when it developed and the Google top search on “age of Hindi” suggests it really only arose in C20th from Hindustani which itself developed c 1200, can anyone elaborate on this? https://autolingual.com/hindi-how-old/
    Anyway thanks Brendan, my favourite was MORAG with honourable mention to NINEPINS.

  41. As a former IT professional, I’d contest that beta tests were the final tests. We had a concept known as “gamma testing”, where we tested it on the unsuspecting public.

  42. Well, that was all Greek to me! I didn’t spot all those identified above but enough to recognise a theme though I wouldn’t say it helped me. Maybe if I’d had a list to hand.

    GRAMMAR was my favourite today for the lovely relevant surface with ALPHA MALES, BETA TESTS, AGENDA and, as Eileen notes @37, the beautifully defined MORAG. Particularly as I’ve woken to yet another stunningly gorgeous morning in NW Scotland which appears to have garnered the best weather in the country over recent weeks. There is a Morag two doors away and all the ladies are lassies.

    Less in the way of obvious ear worms today. Having name-checked the lovely Sandy Denny yesterday, there is IOTA – a three piece band featuring Marion Fleetwood, Anna Ryder and Sally Barker, all three of whom perform a lot of Sandy’s music. But here’s a snippet: ARGOSY was a short-lived band – 1969 – and here’s their song Mr Boyd featuring both Roger Hodgson who founded Supertramp and a certain Reg Dwight on piano!

    Thanks Brendan – classy as ever – and manehi

  43. [apologies Petert@36 for repeating your query as I fell victim to some connection failure when first posting but this also reminds me to thank Dr Whatson@7 as that is a new song for me and would have shaved some minutes off the time spent working out what to put between PHI and PI!]

  44. Thought this was brilliant; erudite and clever. In fact too clever for this plodder who had to wordsearch PHILIPPIC and failed to parse ITEMIZED by spelling it with an S instead of Z.

    Loved the immature setter gag.

    Many thanks both.

  45. PHILIPPIC’s previous sustainability in crosswordland was based almost exclusively on paparazzi hanging around the royal family hoping to get a PHILIP PIC, an opportunity now forever denied them. It is good, therefore, to see it reinvented here for a post-DofE life, although today’s parsing is rather specialised in relation to the theme. (That said, of course, Prince Philip was himself a Greek character.) I was unfamiliar with the Simon & Garfunkel song to which Dr. WhatsOn alludes @7 and Petert @36, but I did know this passage from Sense and Sensibility, where Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, Fanny Dashwood and the ghastly Mrs Ferrars, her mother, are invited to comment on some painted screens done by Elinor. Fanny compares them to the work of Miss Morton:

    “Do you not think they are something in Miss Morton’s style of painting, Ma’am?—She does paint most delightfully!—How beautifully her last landscape is done!”
    “Beautifully indeed! But she does every thing well.”
    Marianne could not bear this.—She was already greatly displeased with Mrs. Ferrars; and such ill-timed praise of another, at Elinor’s expense [,,,] provoked her immediately to say with warmth,
    “This is admiration of a very particular kind!—what is Miss Morton to us?—who knows, or who cares, for her?—it is Elinor of whom we think and speak.”
    And so saying, she took the screens out of her sister-in-law’s hands, to admire them herself as they ought to be admired.
    Mrs. Ferrars looked exceedingly angry, and drawing herself up more stiffly than ever, pronounced in retort this bitter philippic, “Miss Morton is Lord Morton’s daughter.”

  46. GregfromOz @41. I wondered about that too, but as gamma tests involve a released product I don’t think they really qualify as trials.

  47. As, according to wiki, Oxford spelling (ize vs ise) justifies the Z form based on Greek etymological origins I should have sussed the correct spelling for 19D. (I did take a side trip to tanga while I was there.)

  49. Something for everyone here – those who think cryptics are all about latin and greek obscurities will feel vindicated and those who love a smattering of classics will be delighted as well. Chapeau Brendan!
    Not sure I buy JOKE=ONE, you might as well say IT=PUNCHLINE as in “Do you get it?”
    Still it did at least remind me of the joke about the woman who asks the barman for a double entendre so he gives her ONE

  50. Excellent puzzle with fine setting to get in all the Greek characters.

    I liked the ALPHA MALES, the Brazilians, AGREE, and SIGMA and IOTA.

    Slight quibble about side-splitting; isn’t joke splitting sides?

    Thanks Brendan and manehi.

  54. To AlanC at 24. Thanks so much for hitting me with nostalgia through mention of the snugs in the Crown Liquor Saloon in Great Victoria Street, Belfast (John Betjeman’s favourite pub and notably featured in the James Mason film “Odd Man Out”). I will raise a Murphy’s to you next time I manage to get back there. Robinson’s Bar next door possibly even better.

  55. Superb – loved it all but especially MORAG (with ‘or’ working well), GRAMMAR, the tragic hero & dramatic falling.
    Thanks to Brendan and manehi (for blog & parsing REPUTE & IOTA)

  56. Thanks Brendan and manehi. Tough but rewarding. I was very slow to get going though – after 20 minutes I only had four solutions filled in (SNUG, SIGMA, IOTA and NINEPINS) but then it all gradually started to fall into place, and it was all done in just over an hour – although I had several unparsed, or only partially parsed, so many thanks for the detailed explanations, manehi. PSI was LOI, and I guessed it had something to do with EPSILON but didn’t spot the nina. Pah!

    Aphid @8 – I knew of AQUILA as the Latin for eagle, for some reason, but didn’t know of the constellation, so found “seen in the sky” confusing. Assumed it had to be one of those Latin grammar things – ie AQUILA only describes an eagle in flight, but if you see an eagle in its nest, it’s AQUILUM… or something like that.

    TassieTim @16 – that one came easily to me because Paul used much the same trick not so very long ago.

  58. Fantastic crossword. Brought back school lessons of 60 years ago. The lassie/Morgan ue was priceless. What made it better was that Brian was on Mr Halpern s zoom last week and yes Robinsons is the pub to be in Belfast many thanks for the challenge abd the analysis.

  60. For whatever reason I have always had stored in my brain all the letters in the Ancient Greek alphabet, from having to learn them over 60 years ago. Can still reproduce them out loud on cue. Why not something more useful and relevant to today? No idea. Anyway, therefore I’m another who really revelled in this, though can understand why others did not. Not their cup of CHAI at all.
    However, I made a poor, impetuous start at the top, turning an anagram of Art Patron at 11ac into an irrelevant Torn Apart. (Just been listening to a band called Pulled Apart By Horses, maybe that influenced me a little).
    And then improbably deciding that Cuttle was a shellfish for 5d, produced by “cutting of the tails” of Scuttles, as in Dispose Of.
    Therefore rather messed up the top half before I got ALPHA MALES and was then on my smooth Hellenic way thereafter…

  61. Thanks for the blog, I think the standing ovation may be over, a bit of Saint Nutmeg syndrome today I think. Perhaps sometimes we could have fewer convolutions for the theme and just some proper hard clues instead. Far too many write-ins today which then give far too many letters for the rest.

  62. Missed the theme, as usual. Had an impression briefly that it was something classical and then forgot to think about it.

    Thank you manehi, I could never have parsed IOTA or PHILIPPIC — that was as much as I could do to dredge it up from the mental murk.

    Lots of fun. Thanks Brendan and manehi.

  63. ?? Taxing and very clever cryptic. Once we spotted the Hellenic theme (with no list to hand) it was very enjoyable. Thx to Brendan, Manehi and those who posted links.

  64. Eileen @51; maybe I’m still not understanding this. My point was that R and L are sideS, but the clue says side … ??

  65. This was a fun work-out. Started off pretty well and got most done quickly, aided by seeing the theme. But then I hit the wall, not helped by mis-spelling PHILIPPIC. Ground my way through the final few, however my English spelling left me with itemised rather ITEMIZED.

    Favourites were LAMBADA and MUSSEL

    Thanks to Brendan for the challenge and to manehi for some parsing I missed

  66. Late to the party today so will just echo several above…

    Reasonably tough but very satisfying to solve. Loved the theme and nina.

    Thought Brendan missed a trick by not adding ‘or me’ to the end of 16D. But then again apart from cluing I or me from setter/author etc, I don’t remember him ever using brendan in a clue let alone his real name.

    Thanks both.

  67. Robi @50 & 64. A joke that is so funny it causes you to split your sides is a ‘side-splitting joke’. But cryptically ONE (the ‘joke’) splits the sides (L & R).

  68. Robi and sheffield hatter – to address the singular/plural point: if egg beating involves beating eggs, road sweeping involves sweeping roads, and so on, presumably side-splitting can mean splitting sides.

  69. I was tuck with 8d unfilled for quite a long time (no doubt it was a write-in for Roz!), with FAG for ‘exhaust’ leading to an unlikely ‘vehicle’, the FAGI. Then I looked at MAXI, the larger car of the 1960s, but it would have to be max out (give your greatest effort). Eventually TAXI appeared, though I wasn’t convinced that TAX = ‘exhaust’ – thinking it meant put a great strain on, until I checked my Oxford Thesaurus. (Doh.)

    It was an enjoyable crossword to solve, and it was clear that Brendan also had a good time setting it, and manehi seems very enthusiastic about it too, so a pleasant time was had by all. I don’t usually mention favourites, but SIGMA for ‘sign of summer’ was very good, as was the triply defined MORAG.

  71. Lord Jim @68. Thanks for that. Yes, it would be strange if a side-splitting joke only caused one member of the audience to split one of their sides!

  72. I thoroughly enjoyed this, being a Hellenophile and spotting the theme right away. However, I did initially put MOTE for 28D (encyclopaedia perhaps being tome, with the tom- becoming mot- and a mote being very small…). Only rectified when PHILIPPIC was solved. I was another who had an unparsed ITEMISED.
    Thanks Brendan and manehi.

  73. Hi again, Robi @64

    I wasn’t ducking this – I had to go out. (Sorry to have been over- succinct. 😉 )

  77. Even with my tenuous grasp of the Greek alphabet, “section of second letter or third” didn’t help me much in getting to epsilon and upsilon. Maybe “section of another letter, or another” would have been clearer.
    Have to agree with Roz though. Too many clues involving racking the brains for half an hour or so – and then writing in the answer.
    (Perhaps Philippic could be used as the starting point for a Paul Simon themed crossword.)

  78. Although, come to think of it, I’m not sure the word in question has genuine Greek etymology. It seems unlikely.

  81. [Spooner’s catflap @80: very good! A political yolk indeed.
    ‘Why am I soft in the middle when the rest of my life is so hard?’]

  82. Couldn’t get going this morning, but a late afternoon second attempt got there. Eventually! Thankfully a Maths degree is just as handy as Claasics for knowing the Greek alphabet.

    I too failed on ITEMIZED / ITEMISED, parsing it as S for last in series. I saw the answer before I had thought about where ED comes from, so now see that doesn’t work in as valid a way as I thought it did. As my teachers would say (and did), Read The Question!

  84. Like michelle and SteveThePirate, I had PAST for 3dn, which I think just about works (a pupil might have PASSED an exam). But clearly TAUT is better, even leaving the theme aside.

    I confess that even after reading the blog and comments, I still don’t see how 18ac works. I get the reference to EPSILON and the fact that PSI is itself a letter, but I can’t make “extra piece the author put in letter” come out to PSI.

  85. 18AC does not work, two possibilities . extra piece=ps the author = I letter = definition = psi and the ” put in ” is completely superfluous.
    OR extra piece = ps the author = I is put in giving pis .
    Plus we have the nonsense from epsilon and upsilon.
    This is the most ridiculous clue I have ever seen for a three letter word.
    This is what happens when a setter is showing off with a theme and forgets that a crossword should contain good clues.

  88. What Postmark @42 and Dutch @86 (mine’s a double) said! Goodness me, that was tough and my more-than-slight hungover self managed almost nothing on first pass. In fact, I was up to the lambda variant until anything meaningful started to pop through.

    At least the sun is well-and-truly over the yardarm now so I feel a drink is in order.

    Thanks Brendan and manehi…

  89. Ted/Roz @84/85 – how about a ‘four-legged’ parsing for 18ac?

    1st leg: conventional wordplay (extra piece = PS, the author = I)
    2nd leg: instruction to solver (Put in letter! – the letter being PSI) – the closest to a straight definition
    3rd leg: ‘containment’ type clue (‘section of second letter’ = something hidden in ePSIlon)
    4th leg: alternative containment (‘or (section of) third (letter)’ = hidden in uPSIlon)

    (with acknowledgements to Deegee @10, and apologies to manehi – I like your parsing too. By the way, very belatedly, I think your ‘OK’ idea for the missing omicron and kappa is great, and probably what Brendan intended, since that is exactly what an upper case omicron and kappa look like!)

  91. Roz – aren’t there other instances of an imperative verb being used to introduce a definition, eg ‘Find’, ‘See’? Logically, how is that different from connecting phrases like ‘found in’, ‘seen in’, etc?

  93. We KNOW we have to put it in , no need to be told. A clue should be elegant and precise , this is simply self-indulgent and frankly insulting to the solver. Crosswords like this just annoy me so much because the theme takes precedence over quality of clues. I will say no more , just hope for better clues tomorrow. I appreciate your efforts though, my annoyance is entirely with the crossword.

  94. Good puzzle. I enjoyed discovering the theme elements throughout the grid and clues, but I also found the clues sufficiently opaque to prevent the puzzle becoming a write-in.

    Roz et al,
    I think 18 works well enough as 3 parts:
    1. Extra piece, the author (put in letter) = PS + I, as written in a letter (where the author would write “I”)
    2. Definition: section of second letter (i.e Epsilon. The first letter being the answer, by implication).
    3. Definition: section of… third (i.e Upsilon).
    My two cents…

    Thanks, Brendan and manehi

  96. Self-indulgent? Guilty as charged; I have no wish to be a harmless drudge. Insulting? Be assured I have no intention to be an offender; for the perceptions of the offendee, I take no responsibility. Please bear in mind, however, that your blunt barbs also scratch all those who have commented favourably on the puzzle.

  97. Thanks manehi. I did fail on PSI – rather impenetrable – but enjoyed the challenge. Thanks Brendan. ‘Blunt barbs’ don’t sound too scary.

  98. MORAG, who seems to be much loved, leaves me cold. Surely the wordplay produces MORAGMORAG which doesn’t fit the definition?

  99. Brian @ 26

    There seem to be some solvers whose mere 20-odd years of solving seem to have given them an idée fixe of what is or is not permissible within a crossword, with no apparent understanding that there are conventions not rules, or that such conventions evolve over time.

    Others of us relish that the conventions are there to be pushed and flexed, and that, far from clues being forced in order to accommodate a theme, the theme allows the clueing of so many related elements.

    Power to your elbow, and many more such puzzles please. They never fail to delight.

  100. @manehi: 22ac (GRAMMAR), the GAMMA is surely ‘mark’ as in ‘grade’ (not ‘symbol’)? My prof at Uni once told me I was an “alpha/gamma” type of pupil, rather than a “beta”; a guarded complement apparently, at least meaning that I did either well or badly, never just average. I’m certainly not alpha at all these crosswords, some of them take me hours and hours…Thanks manehi and brilliant Brendan!

  103. Monkey@98: yes i sort of see your point but doesn’t every clue of the form ‘Wordplay then definition’ or ‘Definition then wordplay’ produce the answer twice, and we ‘know’ that it needs to be entered only once? It would be a bit much to expect a setter to fill a grid with &Lits i reckon! There are also double and triple definition clues, maybe even a quadruple? On the other hand with the “MORAG” technique we could see setters producing clues of the form Wordplay – definition – alternative wordplay, so the definition is no longer at either end, and this would be a lot trickier to unravel surely?

  104. I don’t know if anyone will see this, but I’ll post it anyway. I took the parsing of GRAMMAR to be an &lit sort of clue. “Kind of school” is GAM and “mark” is M, covering R for “reading” with “AR” (the phonetic spelling of R) for “writing, perhaps”. It took me a while to parse because I couldn’t accept “mark” for GAMMA until the penny finally dropped.

    Excellent puzzle all around, though, so thanks Brendan and manehi!

  105. [AlanC @95: A few years ago, I had the pleasure of being a co-author on a paper with some at QuB. Normally, email would be the perfect way of exchanging ideas, editing, etc., but not with the QuB mob – “It’ll be much easier and quicker if you pop over…” “OK – I’ll come late on Sunday and leave late on Monday then” thinking that 4 hours would be plenty.” “You’d better make that the week” was the answer. I did. The paper took about 4 hours 🙂 Can’t wait to go back.]

  106. Basically a DNF as we entered PAST thinking as a homophone of PASSED. PSI was basically a meh, apart from the first part of the clue, and only put in after ITEMIZED. I did not like ONE = JOKE, by that reasoning ONE could be virtually anything.

  108. Am sure nobody will read this. I was a couple of days late to this puzzle but it was well worth saving.

    Well said Simon S@99 and Brian himself @96.

    Many Thanks for great puzzle and to manehi for excellent blog

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