Guardian Cryptic 28,545 by Brummie

62 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,545 by Brummie”

1. Thanks Brummie and manehi
   A couple of parsings I hadn’t quite seen – DROP SHOT and CALM. My favourite was POWER too.
   Only quibblet was the PARIS was straight GK, though fairly well-known, I would guess.

2. Defeated by ORTOLAN and SPOT CASH today. The second is new to me, the first I recognised after Revealing but I had flags and decoration fixed in my mind for bunting and couldn’t shake it.

   Not the easiest of recent Brummies but some very nice clues including CEREBRAL, TESTY, DEAD, PARIS and SURLY. I share our blogger’s appreciation of POWER but find myself torn between the elegant MAQUIS, the nice surface for COLLOID and – probably my overall favourite – LINGERIE which brought a big smile.

   Thanks Brummie and manehi

3. Spot cash was new to me too, though I suppose “spot” means the same in spot markets in financial trading.

4. I thought this was a tremendous puzzle – really quite tough, but satisfying. LOI was TYPESET, after spending ages trying to find an unlikely anagram of ‘scenery’ (Cyrenes?). Loved ENTIRETY, CEREBRAL and LINGERIE in particular. Many thanks to Brummie and manehi.

5. Quite difficult I thought but all fair and square. SPOT CASH was new to me but google confirmed and it was easily filled in from crossers. Didn’t know bunting as a bird but I cheated early and looked up bunting to see what else it might be and once I’d eliminated UR and EC etc for city, it fell in place.

   I thought TESTY was excellent!

   Thanks Brummie and manehi.

6. Raised my eyebrows at a few of these, SPOT CASH – already mentioned – and DROP SHOT for instance. Last two in the interlocking TICKLE and PRESENCE. Do people still tickle trout?

7. …PRETENCE, or TICKLE doesn’t even feature…

8. Thought I was being slower than usual so reassured to see many found this tough. Enjoyed it though – especially liked “testy” (is not adding a y to make an adjective a Paul device?), “lingerie” and “sweetness” for their clever disguises. Was proud to suss “ortolan” and “colloid” v quickly (but thought “state” in latter wordplay a touch redundant?). Didn’t find a theme but I often don’t as I get tunnel vision, focusing on one clue at a time. Thanks for crisp blog, manehi, and for all the fun, Brummie.

9. I don’t know why there were so many complaints about the difficulty of this puzzle..it wasn’t easy but there have been many others much tougher which did not attract this level of criticism

10. Not sure it was intended, but all the 4 letter words can be paired in a phrase. In addition to the ones given (BACK AWAY etc) there are DEAD CALM and DROP DEAD.

    Thanks Brummie and manehi

11. I could repeat exactly the comments and experience of drofle @4.

12. I liked SURLY but it didnt feel like a Brum puzzle.

13. Like PostMark @2 and drofle @4 I’m a fan of LINGERIE.

    Thanks Brummie and manehi

14. David@9

    I’m not sure I agree with your categorisation of some comments as complaints. I think they are more critique than criticism? Certainly I intended no complaint and I read the other comments the same way.

    Dave@10 good spot!

15. Found this a grind from the beginning to the end (noticeably Eurocentric, which didn’t help – for example, neither SPOT CASH nor CLOCK=SPOT are common parlance in Australia), and LOI 7ac got a genuine out loud “you have got to be freaking kidding me!”

16. That is an intriguing point, Dave Ellison @10. In fact, the eight four-letter solutions can be reconfigured as DEAD CALM, as you say, CASHBACK, DROP SPOT and SHOT AWAY. A cunning ploy, Brummie, or a coincidence?

17. Hard puzzle. I was not on setter’s wavelength today and was almost prepared to give up on it.

    Failed 5d MEDLAR (never heard of this tree).

    New for me: COLLOID, ORTOLAN bunting, MAQUIS; clock = spot/see/notice.

    I did not parse: 16ac LOTUS (only got as far as def = tropical aquatic plant), 19d TICKLE (def = try to catch a fish // never heard of stickleback).

    Thanks, both.

18. I don’t see much criticism in the comments so far: for the avoidance of doubt, none is intended here. I was going to question show-off=PRETENCE, but I see it was me who had the parsing wrong by taking draped as the anagram indicator.

    It took a while to decide what kind of CASH it was, and I revealed SURLY. I was also fixated on bunting=flags until a kind btl commenter on the Guardian website spoke of “a” bunting and the light dawned – and then I got fixed on ORAN being the city (probably due to the French associations of ortolans with Marcel Pagnol) and couldn’t parse it for some time. I would never have got COLLOID from the def, though I knew it was a word: I trust Brummie to have described it correctly.

    Tricky but providing plenty of enjoyable AHA moments: favourites UNSETTLED, TICKLE, LINGERIE, DEAD.

19. LINGERIE ain’t pants. They’re so much more, or less than, that. Although you could get CYSTITIS , if you’re not careful.

20. Could this be the theme?

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/09/ortolan-bunting-slaughter-ignored-france

21. I felt a bit thick (like the MAQUIS) but kept CALM and carried on, until the sticky, ticklish, insoluble quality of an UNSETTLED COLLOID gave way to a sweeter, more meditative alchemy.
    Thanks Brummie and manehi. Several ticks today.

22. And there’s a colloid cyst
    https://www.pacificneuroscienceinstitute.org/brain-tumor/conditions/colloid-cyst/#:~:text=Colloid%20Cysts%20are%20benign%20cystic,hydrocephalus%20(excess%20brain%20CSF).8

23. And if you google Ortolans + Successor/ssion you’ll get all sorts of unprintable things.

    It’s a clear preoccupation in Succession, for example, where wealth is positioned as something that removes you from the domain of everyday people with their everyday concerns.

24. Thanks for the blog, super crossword, MrPostMark and drofle have nicked all my favourites, saves me from typing.
    Well done PDM@20 , the poor ortolans are still slaughtered in their thousands
    STRESS= FORCE ?? it is in Chambers so no complaints.
    Surely time for Brummie to get some Saturday crosswords.

25. I met some people trying to tickle trout on a camping holiday this year.

    Loved this puzzle, and sorry if people from other countries haven’t heard of some English words, I suggest embracing the expansion of knowledge (and possibly trying to become a setter yourselves and foxing us Limeys! )

    Thanks to Brummie and Manehi for the parsing.

26. Absolutely no criticism, but I found this hard going at the beginning and only got into my stride once I’d got a reasonable number of checkers in place. I was also held up by foolishly putting BACK AWAY in the left-to-right 15, 22 slots (because I didn’t take care to read the “22, 15” indication!). I really liked the MAQUIS clue: not really hard, but the surface and wordplay worked so well together.
    Regarding COLLOID: there is a common belief that one uses a dictionary to help in understanding the meaning of a word about which one is unsure — many years ago, when I was employed in dictionary-making, I was amused to point out to laypeople the entry in Collins English Dictionary for the headword “emulsion”, defined as “a colloid whose first phase is a liquid”. Oh, great! That’s cleared that up, then.

27. Sincam@25. Some of us colonials have said that we enjoy the added dimension of UK cryptics, expanding our horizons. We know what we’re getting ourselves in for. I, for one, think we’re more fortunate for that. Makes it even more enjoyable. How boring if you can get an island or a town somewhere in the UK. (UK, what an anacronism, but then on the other hand we in Oz still have Lizzie as our head of state. Madness.) I’ve tickled a trout, in Tasmania. Sorry for the trout. It was a captive audience.

28. I’m not a Cockney, but have dropped my ‘aitch’ in anachronism. Time for bed. Lockdown fever. Glad your Brits have some freedoms.

29. yesyes @13: not something we should, perhaps, be shouting about outside of these pages!

30. MEDLAR conjured up memories of one of my favourite Saki stories, The Boar-Pig (available online), about a 13-year-old girl setting off on a career of extortion. “Come, Tarquin, dear old boy; you know you can’t resist medlars when they’re rotten and squashy.” It’s a good introduction to this writer if you don’t know him. If you’re already a fan, there are two “rediscovered” stories here.

31. [Indeed so, PostMark @29. Somehow I was reminded of the time that Father Ted and Father Dougal, along with other priests, became trapped in the LINGERIE section of a large department store and had to engineer an escape to avoid a scandal.]

32. [ MrPostMark and others , surely you can wear what you want to in this day and age, nobody will judge you. ]

33. After being in a hurry and cheating towards the end, could’ve sworn I’d seen an Orton play (thought it was Joe Egg, but no) so no help, dnk the word or the bird. No prob with spot cash (“clock” via my London bro-in-law), would’ve thought the solution was common anglo. ‘Saw’ a trout tickled yesterday (binging the Outlander series). And loi ‘dead’, finally twigged via my younger Lancs rellies (Aye, tha’ were dead good). So, yes, chewy but good, ta both.

34. Thanks both,
    I thought his would be hard at the outset, but it gave steadily. LOI was 7ac as I spent too long thinking the city was Rio.
    [For me, one of the joys of crosswords is reflecting on where one’s knowledge of an unfamiliar word comes from. For example, I first met ‘medlar’ in Cornford’s wonderful ‘Microcosmographia Academica’ in his discussion of the principle of ‘unripe time’. ‘Maquis’ I wouldn’t have got if I hadn’t just finished reading Leo Marks’s ‘Between Silk and Cyanide’ – a dated but compelling book. And ‘ortolan’ came from a none too pleasant memory of a programme in which the oaf from ‘Top Gear’ consumed one whole with a napkin over his head.]

35. Challenging for a newbie, but as I loved the very clever surfaces I persevered. Lots of favourites with Colloid and Ortolan new to me. Thanks to Brummie and manehi.
    (Similar thoughts to paddymelon @19)

36. [As for lingerie (dead easy clue), Roz, PM and pm, cross-dressing not my style but I did once buy Mrs ginf a pair of ……less knickers]

37. [… and S’s c…]

38. Tantalisingly tricky but after a slow start it began to fall enjoyably into place. Happy to recall COLLOID from O level Chemistry and had ticks against UNSETTLED, MONTEREY and LINGERIE. Like others, had to block out mental images of fabric bunting to get at the bird. This was my kind of puzzle; many thanks to Brummie and to manehi.

39. SC @31: I recall it well. Another comedy classic that, like Fawlty Towers, is probably all the more precious for being so limited in number. I laughed as much at that as you did at yesterday’s LHC Autocorrect.

    blaise @30: thanks for the suggestions. I recall commending Saki’s Sredni Vashtar here a while ago. Another well worth reading for those who haven’t encountered him before.

40. Thanks Brummie and manehi. Very enjoyable. I’m another who took a while to get going but it all fell into place eventually, raising numerous smiles along the way – how TICKLEd I was, by that clue in particular. And LINGERIE got a proper chuckle too. Also loved TESTY and UNSETTLED – lovely cryptic definitions. SURLY was LOI – took me aaaaaages to work out what was going on there, but another one I appreciated when the penny finally dropped.

    Only slight quibble would be that “ready” in this sense (9,17) is very close in meaning to the definition/solution, no?

    Tyngewick @34 – my memory is a bit hazy, but I think I first came across medlar and ortolan in the names of restaurants – the Quince & Medlar in Cockermouth and L’Ortolan in Reading – from my days of working on a restaurant guide (late 1990s). (By the way, saying “The oaf from Top Gear” hardly narrows it down – they’re all oafs (oaves?) – but I think I know which one you mean, and it sounds like standard behaviour for him. In fact, oaf is putting it too kindly.)

    gif @36 – TMI!

41. A very worthy challenge – had to wrestle with every clue, right to the LOI @ 2D ( I’m ashamed to say – since I live there).
    Other than MONTEREY, I enjoyed DROP SHOT, LOTUS, ORTOLAN, SUCCESSOR, MEDLAR among others.
    My personal embarrassment was complete by taking a further few minutes over-the-hour to parse ENTIRETY (duh) – I was looking for a far more complicated construction.
    Thanks Brummie, for one of the best puzzles of this recent era.

42. [@40, yeah you’re right, mea c etc, incl to herself; liked ’em tho!]

43. Well that was a toughie for a (pleasant) change! Not helped by having had two days of grandparenting duties, so I was very slow off the mark.

    Favourites were SWEETNESS for its beautiful simplicity and CEREBRAL for its smooth surface

    Thanks to Brummie and manehi

44. I never did know what kind of fruit medlars were until I looked them up today, seems they’re a kind of rose hip. Reminds me of a detective story in which the English cop protagonist visits the US and is confused by our overhead traffic lights but delighted by rose hip jam, which apparently dedn’t exist in the UK.

    Ortolans I first met in Colette’s novel Gigi, in which Gigi, in training to be a high-class concubine, has an ortolan-eating lesson. I was dumbstruck at the idea that you were supposed to eat the whole bird in one mouthful. Googled that too today to learn more about the tradition. (Top Gear oafs not discussed.)

    Thanks to Brummie for a tougher than usual puzzle (didn’t get much done last night) and to manehi for the parsings.

45. Slap bang in my Goldilocks zone, tough but loved it.

    My mother used to make a syrup from the hips of a medlar and we kids were given a spoonful every morning during winter. Still remember the wonderful flavour and syrupy consistency.

    Many thanks, both.

46. First mauling in a while with only 50% done. Brilliant Brummie now I have read the blog. Well done everyone who completed this. Always tomorrow…

47. Perfect attitude AlanC , the setter may defeat us but we live to solve another day, I thought this was the hardest puzzle for a long time but quality clues.

    William@45 , medlar are renowned for being healthy, vitamin C and lots of Bs plus minerals.
    Did your mother tell you how to recognise medlar ? I am , of course, far too polite to mention it on here.

48. Roz @47: No she didn’t. Can you hint at it and stay the right side of PC?

49. [There is no call for ‘politeness’ on here, Roz – we are all grownups. I know what you mean, and could probably unearth a number of obscene jokes about medlars and figs from older literary texts in support, if it were not 18.45 and therefore too late for them usefully to reach a wider audience … which is, to be truthful, a euphemism for ‘I can’t be asked’. ]

50. Is it this reference, perhaps?

    Now will he sit under a medlar tree,
    And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit
    As maids call medlars, when they laugh alone.
    O Romeo, that she were, O that she were
    An open-arse and thou a pop’rin pear!

51. That is certainly one of them, William, yes.

52. Tee-hee, this is fun.
    Any more, Roz?

53. That is perhaps why I’ve seen it suggested that the fruit of the tree of knowledge was the fig rather than the apple….

54. William the one I know is to do with dogs and I am not saying anymore.

55. I never got to grips with this properly and was well defeated – no complaints and hats off to setter and blogger.

    Without trying to be roguish I first got CYSTITIS and then TESTY and then tried “impair” (I knooow) for what turned out to be MEDLAR when I revealed – so all was spoiled and I treated myself to a ponder and reveal; still needed to come here for help. I wasn’t going to finish this so I was glad to miss MEDLAR in the end.

56. I managed to solve and parse with no quibbles here. Held up slightly by thinking of LOCUS as =position from my maths days. Just enough head scratching to entertain.
    Thanks Brummie and blogger.

57. Valentine@44. My grandad, long deceased, was a railway clerk in Northumberland and used to make some spare cash collecting rose hips for some firm or other. I think they made a jelly out of them, but you can, apparently, make your own…

58. We used to make rose hip syrup, grinding up the rose hips in an old mincer. Delicious on ice cream and packed with Vitamin C. Apparently it was introduced during WW2 as an alternative source of Vit C when it became difficult to import citrus fruit.

59. Roz @54: Aaah, yes, I know the one. Wise of you to leave it there.

60. At primary school, in the 50s, we used to collect rose hips for a government scheme. A badge was awarded depending on amount collected. The bushes were prolific along the roadsides around our farm, so in various years, we siblings each won top prize. The bushes are extremely thorny. The resulting syrup (‘Delrosa’) was delicious.

61. Interesting blog. MAQUIS and ORTOLAN eluded me. I have always disliked Brummie puzzles but maybe I should think positively and see them as a tough challenges. The answers I missed certainly look gettable. I’d seen Joe Orton cited before in crosswords and I know his work so no excuse!

62. Strictly a DNF as bunged in COLD rather than CALM. A clod as a dullard could be reticent, perhaps.

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