Guardian Cryptic 28,666 by Picaroon

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28666.

I have been treated to two Picaroons in a row; this one was also a tussle to finish, but without last week’s flying start. The four perimeter pairs were a nice feature of an altogether excellent puzzle.

ACROSS
1, 4 BEHIND SCHEDULE
Backing man and daughter to crack cryptic clues, going slowly (6,8)
A charade of BEHIND (‘backing’) plus SCHEDULE, an envelope (‘to crack’) of HE (‘man’) plus D (‘daughter’) in SCULE, an anagram (‘cryptic’) of ‘clues’.
4
See 1
9 LENITY
Gentleness keeping idiot in line (6)
An envelope (‘keeping …in’) of NIT (‘idiot’) in LEY (‘line‘).
10 IMPLICIT
Suggested not breaking any laws on terror (8)
A charade of IMP (‘terror’, a obstreperous child; last week it was perisher and monkey) plus LICIT (‘not breaking any laws’), with ‘on’ indicating the order of the particles.
11 ORBITS
Travels round with some soldiers and privates (6)
A charade of OR (‘some soldiers’) plus BITS (presumably naughty, ‘privates’)
12 COMEDIAN
Card trick taking in broadcasters, say (8)
An envelope (‘taking in’) of MEDIA (‘broadcasters, say’) in CON (‘trick’).
14 ALL-ROUNDER
Cricketer less streamlined after a couple of starters for lunch (3-7)
A charade of ‘a’ plus L L (‘couple of starters for Lunch’) plus ROUNDER (‘less streamlined’).
18 MONTEVERDI
He made great scores in game with cracking drive (10)
A charade of MONTE (‘game’) plus VERDI, an anagram (‘cracking’) of ‘drive’. Two days in a row – a composer in a clue with a cricketing surface.
22 AT BOTTOM
A saying about limiting consump­tion, fundamentally (2,6)
An envelope (‘limiting’) of TB (tuberculosis, ‘consumption’) in ‘a’ plus OTTOM, a reversal (‘about’) of MOTTO (‘saying’).
23 FRANCO
General staff ultimately administered business (6)
A charade of F (‘stafF ultimately’) plus RAN (‘administered’) plus CO (company, ‘business’).
24 TIA MARIA
Drink — it’s knocked back by family member breaking into song (3,5)
A charade of TI, a reversal (‘knocked back’) of ‘it’ plus AMARIA, an envelope (‘breaking into’) of MA (‘family member’) in ARIA (‘song’).
25 KOBOLD
Decisive strike with daring German spirit (6)
A charade of KO (knock out, ‘decisive strike’) plus BOLD (‘daring’), for a German goblin – and the derivation of cobalt; early attempts to smelt cobalt ores were unsuccessful, producing a noxious smoke from the contained arsenic, which was attributed to the work of a goblin.
26, 27 ELECTRIC HEATER
Pick flavoursome apple that’s warmer (8,6)
A charade of ELECT (‘pick’) plus RICH (‘flavoursome’) plus EATER (‘apple’).
27
See 26
DOWN
1, 19 BALMORAL CASTLE
Something soothing spoken by man in the corner in a holiday home (8,6)
A charade of BALM (‘something soothing’) plus ORAL (‘spoken’) plus CASTLE (‘man on the corner’ in chess, more often called a rook). Not just any ‘holiday home’ …
2 HANDBALL
Threw party, embracing new game (8)
An envelope (’embracing’) of N (‘new’) in HAD BALL (‘threw party’).
3 NOTATION
Signs midday’s about time when lunch is taken? (8)
An envelope (‘about’) of T (‘time’) plus AT I (at one, ‘when lunch is taken’) in NOON (‘midday’).
5 COMPONENTS
Contests securing figure London theatre parts (10)
An envelope (‘securing’) of ONE (‘figure’) plus NT (National Theatre, ‘London theatre’) in COMPS (abbreviation for competitions, ‘contests’).
6 EILEEN
Lady setter in trim condition picked up (6)
Sounds like I LEAN (‘setter in trim condition’) for our own grande dame.
7 URCHIN
Ragamuffin staggering out of bounds (6)
[l]URCHIN[g] (‘staggering’) minus its outer letters (‘out of bounds’).
8, 17 EATING DISORDER
Troubled diet, or danger, is this? (6,8)
An anagram (‘troubled’) of ‘diet or danger is’, with an extended definition.
13 ANNO DOMINI
An indication of assent over car’s current age (4,6)
A charade of ‘an’ plus NOD (‘indication of assent’) plus O (‘over’) plus MINI (‘car’).
15 OVERDONE
Bagging 500 in opening spell of bowling is excessive (8)
An envelope (‘bagging’) of D (Roman numeral, ‘500’) in OVER ONE (‘opening spell of bowling’).
16 BRING OUT
Highlight from fight, including its location (5,3)
An envelope (‘including’) of RING (‘its location’) in BOUT (‘fight’).
17
See 8
19
See 1
20 ABLAZE
Burning tar by lounge (6)
A charade of AB (able-bodied seaman, ‘tar’) plus LAZE (‘lounge’).
21 STRAIT
Channel‘s special feature (6)
A charade of S (‘special’) plus TRAIT (‘feature’).

picture of the completed grid

94 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,666 by Picaroon”

  1. Thanks, P and P!

    OR’BITS’ is naughty, yes!

    ‘Lunch at one’ kinda smacks of ‘lunchtimism’ like ‘colorism’ and other isms 🙂

    Other interesting ones for me: ALL-ROUNDER and BRING OUT

  2. Somehow I didn’t find this much fun, although I can’t put my finger on why. I did appreciate the double-entry edge clues which served to make the unfriendly grid much more friendly.

    I was a little surprised to see ALL-ROUNDER bound to cricket, since it can apply to any sport or in fact any skill-based activity. But then I’m not a follower, so it might be a term-of-art there – I’m sure you folks will know. Also, congrats to EILEEN.

  3. Thanks Picaroon for an excellent crossword. My first pass yield little but I worked from the bottom up and somehow everything fell into place. I thought EATING DISORDER was brilliant and it’s my clue of the week. I also enjoyed IMPLICIT, FRANCO, URCHIN, BRING OUT, and ABLAZE. KOBOLD was new but easy to derive. I couldn’t full parse NOTATION or COMPONENTS — thanks PeterO for the early blog.

  4. Thanks to the two ps. I needed Chambers to figure out KOBOLD (new to me as well). I resisted FRANCO for a long time (well, I would have had I been alive then) since he’s strongly associated with Generalissimo rather than General — at least in my mind.

  5. Four puzzles in one which is how I ended up solving it with a 5.00 start due to insomnia! Each quarter was very slow to start – I found much of this challenging today. But then suddenly something would make sense and then several solutions in that quarter all fell into place. On to the next quarter and repeat. As Dr W says @2, thank Goodness for the inter-connected solutions.

    That said, the clueing was of the highest order; I have no quibbles at all. Like Tony @3, I loved EATING DISORDER but it was only one of many ticks. ANNO DOMINI, IMPLICIT, ORBITS, NOTATION, COMEDIAN and the very neat BRING OUT are all standout clues so to get them all in one puzzle was a joy.

    Not only do we have EILEEN name tagged and delightfully defined but muffin can probably celebrate too – even if the solution to that one was less complimentary.

    Thanks Picaroon and PeterO

  8. I still remember a clue for ELECTRIC HEATER from when my mum was teaching me how to do cryptic crosswords on a family holiday in the late 70s: it was “Choose wealthy diner to get warmer”, probably in the Telegraph. I think Picaroon’s version is much better.

  9. I found this rather difficult: I only got 3 across clues on the first pass. But when the pennies finally dropped. I discovered some delightfully clever clues.

    I guessed my dnk LENITY from ‘Lenor’ the washing aid (amd the parsing).

    Couldn’t parse IMPLICIT not AT BOTTOM till the blog; thanks PeterO.

    Cotd? Probably my loi ANNO DOMINI.

    Many thanks Picaroon

  10. EILEEN my last.

    Nothing is more satisfying than a puzzle that draws a complete blank on the first pass and then yields to treatment, slowly but steadily. Thank you, Picaroon and PeterO!

  11. I had a similar experience to Postmark@5.
    I enjoyed this much more than yesterday because whilst lenity and kobold were new the puzzle wasn’t awash with obscure words. I think all-rounder works best with cricket as it specifically means someone who bats and bowls well eg Beefy Botham.
    Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO and great to see our esteemed Eileen get a mention.

  12. I’m glad that others found this tricky to break into. I thought I was just having an off day, because many clues seemed obvious – when I eventually solved them. The pirate’s smooth surfaces probably distracted me. Anyway, this took me twice as long as yesterday’s Pasquale, despite the more accessible vocab.

    Lots of good clues: I enjoyed HANDBALL, OVERDONE, BRING OUT and the surface for ALL-ROUNDER raised a smile. And of course it was great to see EILEEN (Whom God Preserve).

    LOI was KOBOLD, not because the word was unfamiliar (I knew the connection with cobalt) but because the nearby TIA MARIA had me groping for a variety of schnapps.

    Many thanks to S&B

  13. npetrokov @ 10 Snap!
    I don’t understand the clue after seeing Andrew’s explanation , but it was a nice gesture towards Eileen (if it was intentional). Does Eileen set crosswords – the clue suggests she does – and Dexy’s song “Come on” could be “picking her up” and all gentlemen would say she is trim condition?

    How does trim condition lead to leaning? I is confused!

  14. akaRB @13: it’s EI (Sounds like I = setter) + LEEN (Sounds like ‘lean’ = slim, fit or otherwise in trim condition). Picked up is the homophone indicator. I’m not sure Dexy’s have anything to do with it today.

  15. akaRB @13: ‘lean’ as an adjective, in the sense of ‘not fat’ = ‘in trim condition’. Nothing to do with slanting orientation.

  16. akaRebornBeginner@13 I assume it’s lean as an adjective as in slender. Was I the only one who thought the surface of 5 down was clunky to the point of not making sense? Maybe I’m missing something. I rarely post but read this blog every day after completing the crossword. Many thanks for the explanation and to all for insights and entertaining comments.

  18. Lovely stuff: pick of the week. Orbits reminded me of the true story about a Monty Python episode that included someone reciting a children’s story with the words “They washed their arms; they washed their legs; then they washed their naughty bits”. When it was broadcast in the US, the censors bleeped out the last two words.

  19. So glad it wasn’t just me. On my first try I had only one clue solved – FRANCO (an evil spirit to go with KOBOLD), but it came together steadily.
    Some delights here – the clue for EATING DISORDER is a work of genius, and I liked AT BOTTOM, reminding me that one definition of a fundamentalist is someone who talks out of their…
    The tongue in cheek definition of BALMORAL CASTLE and the slightly Pauline BITS were fun, too.
    I guess SueB @16 is right about 5 down, but there was so much else to enjoy that it didn’t seem to matter. The only thing that would have improved it would have been if synchronicity had meant that EILEEN (Whom, indeed, God preserve) had the pleasure of blogging.
    Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO

  20. I find Picaroon is a setter who encourages me away from my bung-and-parse-later style. ANNO DOMINI, OVERDONE, FRANCO, KOBOLD all came from the word play. Great stuff.

  21. It took me quite a while to gain a foothold on this one, so I appreciated the four long ones round the edge to soften the impact of a rather unkind grid. Then, like PostMark, it went in quarter by quarter. Had fun trying to fit COOKER into 26/27 before the penny dropped. Liked the ‘man on the corner’ for CASTLE. Failed to parse COMEDIAN or COMPONENTS; liked EATING DISORDER, MONTEVERDI, ANNO DOMINI.
    Yes, it would have been the icing on the cake to have EILEEN blog this (sorry, Peter!)

  22. Well, NeilH @19, this must be the only time I’ve ever not been sorry to have missed a Picaroon blog by a day. As one who sets great store by surfaces, I can only say, ‘I wish!’ – but it seems that, in spite of ANNO DOMINI, I might be described as ‘well-preserved’. 😉 (And no, akaRebornBeginner @13, I don’t set crosswords – I just stand in awe of and am thankful for Picaroon and my other favourites who do.)

    My ticks today were for IMPLICIT, ORBITS, AT BOTTOM, TIA MARIA, KOBOLD (a jorum), ELECTIC HEATER, BALMORAL CASTLE and, of course, the splendid EATING DISORDER.

    Thanks, as ever, to Picaroon and to PeterO.

  23. Widdershins, SW to NW. The final quarter held me up for quite a while. Tough to start too; a wild guess AT BOTTOM provided the basis, parsed only on completion of business. For 1a and 1d I had the accompanying words first. 1d was one of several penny drops.

    A bit too tough to be entirely entertaining, but nice to stop banging my head against a brick wall – in other words, a fine puzzle.

  24. As others a slow start, then a gradual fill as crossers suggested possible solutions, just chewy enough for a Friday without being impossible.

    Will be chuckling over AT BOTTOM and EATING DISORDER most of the day I suspect, what lovely surfaces. COTD for me was the smoothly done BRING OUT.

    Lastly congratulations to Eileen on a well deserved name check, the homophone reminded me of the old joke ‘What do you call a woman with one leg shorter than the other?’

  25. Superb. Wot Eileen said!
    I didn’t get anything on my first try, but like others got Franco and then Monteverdi on the second try. So many excellent clues – I loved eating disorder (so clever, even had diet in the anagram). I even got Kolbold from the clueing, never heard of it before.
    Thanks Picaroon and PeterO

  28. This was an excellent puzzle, and as someone remarked, one where you don’t just “bung it in and parse later”. It seemed to encourage the winkling out of the solution from the clues, and when the solution is found, there’s a satisfying feeling of everything clicking into place, which is not always the case with some setters. Bravo, Picaroon, and thanks for the blog, Peter.

  29. A well-constructed puzzle that pays heed to conventions without losing anything in terms of creativity as a consequence. The grid on the other hand is horrible and should be retired, I feel.

  31. An all-round treat, with great orbiting components.
    I particularly liked TIA MARIA, KOBOLD, BRING OUT, the CASTLE in the corner, the BOTTOM/BEHIND pair, all the cricket & lunch references, and of course the (indication of assent) nod to Eileen & muffin.
    Thanks Picaroon, and PeterO

  33. PeterO MOZART, the cricketing composer, was the day before yesterday.

    I don’t think I’d ever have parsed AT BOTTOM or COMPONENTS. Thanks, PeterO.

    I always forget the UK eater/cooker distinction. We have both apples but neither term.

    Where is the reference to muffin in the puzzle?

    This was lots of fun. Thanks to the two Ps.

  34. Offspinner @27, yes indeed!

    Is your name a reference to a possible solution to 14? I tried so hard to parse “off-spinner” and “leg-spinner” before eventually thinking of ALL-ROUNDER.

  35. As others, slow start with the NE holding out last, very satisfying solve though.

    It’s interesting how people attack cryptics. I remember someone saying that they always go to the long ones first. I, on the other hand, often start with short answers first because the wordplay is relatively simple. However, I managed to get BALMORAL CASTLE fairly early on, which was a help. My other picks were ELECTRIC HEATER, IMPLICIT, COMPONENTS and BRING OUT (and a mention of course for EILEEN).

    It’s also interesting at the divergence between people who do the crossword in the paper or use a print-out and those who do it online, like me although I’m a digital subscriber (and use to have the real paper until I was spooked by Covid). The latter often spell out the answers because they don’t have the hard copy in front of them; the former often just refer to clue numbers, which for me means changing tabs backwards and forwards to relate to the clues.

    Thanks Picaroon and PeterO.

  37. With 1d, no doubt it’s just me, but I couldn’t help but take a perverse delight in the image I had of a man in a bit of a corner stewing (though not sweating) in his family’s well-appointed occasional holiday retreat.

  39. The hardest of the week for me. I think it’s Picaroon’s smooth surfaces that regularly stump me. The user-friendly grid always helps. Like others, the first pass yielded practically nothing. Slowly, I unravelled the clues. And, of course, when I finished, I wondered why it took so long because everything was so meticulously clued.

    Lots of favourites, already mentioned, but “man in the corner” = CASTLE was nicely done.

    Thanks Picaroon and PeterO for parsing AT BOTTOM.

  40. A fantastic puzzle (as others have said in so many words). Stumped by KOBOLD, and took a long time to finish but worth it. As pdp11 @39 says, the clueing/cluing was immaculate. Many thanks to P & P.

  43. [Robi@35, I go for long ones first if they’re c12-15 letters because they’ll result in many crossers (and because I find getting long answers very satisfying!). If the grid is friendly, I’ll try the top row and left hand column because they’ll reveal many first letters. Based on the outcome, I’ll either tackle clues with crossers (especially if I have the first letter) or proceed sequentially, across then down (but tackling crossers if I get anything). Sometimes I scan for an obvious anagram or hidden clue; and other times I just scan the clues and see if a clue catches my eye eg because it has an equation or unusual form 🙂

    The upshot of this non-linear “technique” is that sometimes I won’t read a clue until it’s the only one remaining unsolved.

    I solve in the Guardian (Android) app and can flick easily between browser for 15^2 and app.]

  45. Smashing. As Blah @24 says, just the right level of chewiness to be satisfying without being too tough. And funny. I would agree with copmus @7, except that like SueB @16 I was slightly baffled by the surface of 5d – grammatically fine, just reads a bit oddly. Oh well, nobody’s perfect, not even Picaroon!

    tlp @29 – as others have commented, I felt the long answers round the perimeter were an excellent and creative way to compensate for the shortcomings of the grid and provide extra connections between the quadrants.

    And thanks for an exemplary blog too, PeterO.

  46. SueB @16 That is certainly an odd clue. Figure seems to muck it up. If there was ‘me’ or ‘ace’ instead of figure it would make sense. I wonder if it was the editor being his usual helpful self.

  47. Really tough but hugely enjoyable challenge. EATING DISORDER was the pick of a very fine crop.

    Thanks Picaroon and PeterO

  49. Did anyone else notice that BOTTOM was a solution in the Quick today as well as being here?
    [newbie poster but long time reader and appreciator if all the wit and erudition here]

  50. Not sure we all needed to be reminded of eating disorders, but with this rather poor grid it was helpful to have some extra way (via the four double clues) to get into the quadrants. A competent puzzle nonetheless. Thanks setter and PeterO.

  51. Thanks Picaroon and PeterO
    LENITY is an example of my favourite type of clue – construct an unlikely looking word from the parts, then discover that it’s correct!
    URCHIN favourite, of course.
    I agree about the clue for COMPONENTS, but I might be biased, as I didn’t parse it.

  52. Couldn’t parse AT BOTTOM and didn’t know the MONTE part of MONTEVERDI. TIA MARIA defeated me. BALMORAL CASTLE was delightful.

  53. [Pdp11@43 I do something similar in my books of Times Jumbo puzzles (reserved for throne rooms), but that misses an opportunity that I exercise here. I find that if you make one pass through each clue, ignoring any crossers you may create, gives you a reading on how difficult the clues are as standalone entities, as opposed to the difficulty of the puzzle.]

  54. Thanks both and what npetrikov@10 said: blank, blank, blink, blink until light dawns and then slow succulent fun all the way.

    I thought all the perimeter clues were great but LENITY got the high five for the same reasons mentioned by muffin@51. EILEEN was my LOI and while I had reserved applause for the clue (some were similarly unimpressed by a general to particular definition in Wednesday’s Nutmeg) I was as pleased as others to see the name-check for that most estimable lady. Is it your birthday again Eileen? If so congratulations but if not…….

    I’m off to General Discussion for help with some late correspondence in yesterday’s blog BTL.

  55. Hi Alphalpha @54 – no it isn’t my birthday again. It’s about time to forget them now, anyway: I can’t believe it’s three and a half years since that puzzle!

    For curiosity, I just entered E?L?E? into Chambers Word Wizard and all it came up with was EELIER, EEL-SET and EILEEN!

  56. I would have been familiar with KOBOLD had I spent my youth playing Dungeons and Dragons, but as I didn’t, I wasn’t, because I’ve never played it, and anyone who says otherwise is lying.

  57. Thanks for the blog, awful grid but the clues and the perimeter made up for it and it lasted a perfect time for my journey home. IMPLICIT and URCHIN my favourites out of many and three on the perimeter had the definition at the end.

  58. Very late to the replies today. I have just had the last three teeth in my upper jaw extracted, and am having to deal with the inert lump of blubber in my mouth which will hopefully return shortly to being my upper lip.
    James @46 & SueB @16
    I agree that in particular ‘me’ for ‘figure’ would make for a much improved surface.
    blaise @18
    The Monty Python naughty bits that sprang to my mind showed various of those aforementioned items wearing polka-dot undies (including the horse and the Cabinet of the time). I could not find a YouTube link for it.
    Monkey Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Crossword @23
    Widdershins likewise, if deasil is taken as anti-clockwise. I generally start off looking at 1A, or whatever comes first; if I can solve it cold, I begin to suspect I am in for an easy ride, but if not, I hunt around – with increasing desperation in this case – for any way in. Here I found entry with two of the less likely answers in the SE, 18A MONTEVERDI and 25A KOBOLD.
    Notabene @49
    Welcome. I hope that now you have stuck your head above the parapet we will be seeing more from you.

  59. Alphalpha @ 54, sincere apologies. Please don’t take it personally. Bad mood. Didn’t really understand why so many posters had taken against a puzzle of moderate difficulty, at least for me and my cryptic background. I hope no hard feelings.

    Thanks to those who said to please continue posting.

    See, now this was a hard crossword. Much to enjoy in retrospect, but a proper head-in-hands-where-can-I-get-a-foothold type effort. Maybe I’m too obsessed with getting through a puzzle quickly, given other priorities.

    Crossers came, and the clues unravelled and I got there in the end.

  60. [DrW@53 – you’re right: my semi-random walk technique very occasionally results in the LOI being the easiest clue of the puzzle! Even worse, if I happen to get an answer along the bottom, I can find myself solving from the bottom up, which is somewhat disorienting but I persevere. This may be driven by my inconsistent desire to avoid anything that is too algorithmic (I leave that to my now recreational programming and where being methodical is important).]

  61. hopkinb@59 – I too found this harder than yesterday’s.

    [I used to find it curious when I looked here after solving a puzzle to find some people found it a breeze and others struggled. This points to how subjective hard and easy are. For example, someone may grade a puzzle that took them, say, 30 mins to solve as “hard”, whereas I would regard it as a triumph!

    I found Alphaalpha’s idea yesterday of grading crosswords like sudokus interesting. I wonder if this is just too difficult in practice; sometimes the Guardian Quiptic is harder than the cryptic of the day. If the Guardian’s crossword editor can’t do it, I’m not sure who can!]

  62. pdp11 @61 – I had an idea about grading difficulty of crossword clues that uses a similar principle to the idea of “bits of entropy” that is used to grade passwords. Call it the “bits of wordplay” system. You’d start by giving a point for every individual element of the clue that requires deciphering, and then extra points for each bit you’re required to insert, re-order or reverse etc. So to take 22a for example: A + MOTTO + reversal + TB + insertion = 5pts.

    Then you’d add or subtract points based on other criteria. So a straightforward dictionary definition would score zero points, but you’d have bonus points for cryptic/whimsical/misleading definitions (1d today would get points for both “man in the corner” and “holiday home”). Maybe extra points for disguised word breaks (aka “Philistine nonsense”), or a disguised break between the wordplay and definition, and subtract points for link words (unless they are misleading). Subtract points for common abbreviations and tropes (so “he made great scores” would get zero points despite being a misleading definition). Extra points for deviousness or unusual instructions – like Pasquale’s “half filled” yesterday. Extra points for obscure words (but how would you measure this objectively?).

    To be honest, I think actually going through a crossword and working out scores for all the clues using this system would be a tedious exercise and hardly worth the effort!

  65. Thanks PeterO and Gute Besserung, hope you have some barley-derived oral disinfectant or similar to assist. After yesterday’s dismal failure I was grimly determined to keep plugging away at this and glad to see I am not the only one who found it slow going, but generating great satisfaction. Specific points to note chimed with Monkey@34 and SueB@16 today, plus Gervase@12 re KOBOLD (surely not a spirit, more like an orc, but not an ogre!). Thanks yesyes@9 for the Lenor reference which hadn’t occurred to me, I had to check validity and learned that LENITY shares a source with Lenient, another corroboration i should have spotted. Thanks Picaroon, I thought the whole and all the parts of BALMORAL CASTLE were especially superb.

  66. widdersbel@: The setters themselves would have an idea if they had come up with an eater or a cooker and might perhaps be asked to grade accordingly? The problem with this solving game is that it is difficult to get a toehold of experience and capacity without spending forever in a muddle of failure and puzzlement.

  67. [widdersbel @62 – I admire your attempt at objectivity in your grading system. Obscure words could simply be those not in a list of the most commonly used 5000 (say) words. The issue, as you said, is the grading effort.

    I vaguely remember Araucaria saying his puzzles were first tried by someone and he would invariably take her advice, for example, if a clue was too difficult. I don’t know whether setters beta-test their puzzles before unleashing them but giving them to three people (one to act as tie-breaker) and letting them grade the puzzles would be subjective but straightforward.]

  68. [pdp11 @67 – that’s how Carpathian does it]

    EILEEN eluded me all day, but I got her in the end 🙂

    Carlsberg don’t do holiday homes, but if they did…

    Top notch, thanks P & P

  69. Very late to the party today after a successful day spent at Huntingdon Races. Cobbled together my answers, all except for KOBOLD, which I simply didn’t know. Liked ABLAZE and URCHIN…

  70. I scrutineer for a few people who set for the Listener , it is not official , they are not meant to show it to anyone , just send it off to the people who run it.

  71. Ronald @69: if there were entrants from overseas at Huntingdon Races, you might have been lucky enough to encounter KOBOLD, a 3 year old German colt by Oasis Dream out of Kasala. 1 win and 3 placings out of 5 starts: one to watch!

  72. [widdersbel@various, you have proposed something very interesting, like a “Bloom’s taxonomy” of cryptic clues,maybe you could also add a “user GK/experience factor” to deal with the subjective solver strengths – eg pdp11 and hopkinb finding this harder than yesterday’s Pasquale, vs me and I think a few others finding the opposite. Also the difficulty of a clue, for me at least, correlates with the difficulty of crossing clues (in these daily puzzles where no clue is an island) so that might need to be considered.]

  73. Postmark@71…Well now, how about that! Though as it was Huntingdon, they were all stoutly bred British and Irish National Hunt horses. Perhaps Kobold might make an appearance soon at one of the two Newmarket flat racing courses nearby where we are, though…

  74. What a super puzzle. I thought it was going to be beyond my solving capability but got there eventually after a number of revisits. Impeccable clueing throughout & the peripheral ones were splendid & particularly EATING DISORDER & ELECTRIC HEATER.
    Great stuff Picaroon & thanks for the review Peter

  76. Widdersbel@… it can all be done automatically. What you need, though, is training material in the form of a number of puzzles/clues with human judgments, from which the program can learn the optimum point settings for use with new test cases. I would be happy to undertake this myself, but what is lacking is the set of human judgments on at least thousands of clues.

  77. Many thanks to PeterO for yet another corker of a blog in just over a week.
    And I’m always happy to include a reference to the grande dame of Cruciverbia – or, as I put it last time, “Lady Picaroon’s inclined to listen to”.
    Wishing everyone a great weekend!

  78. Thank you again for the blog PeterO. Just read your entry @58, at least those were the last in your upper jaw – rather a relief I hope.

  79. Is it just me who dislikes clues that don’t make grammatical sense ? 5 down doesn’t make sense in itself , even if the answer does.

  80. I do these every day, and, even though I’m across the pond and now and then befuddled by various Britishisms, I refuse to go hunting for possible answers. If I don’t get, I don’t get it. So when I finally fill out an entire grid, and actually understand how it all works, I am inordinately pleased with myself. And today is one of those days. Thank so much to you all!

  84. Late to the party & empty-handed, but great to enjoy the solutions here. Possibly the best crossword I never started so the grid friendly or otherwise had no effect. Intrigued by the grid gripes here and I can only assume the issue is that each quadrant only has one or two connecting clues. Given most solvers here are more proficient that me I’m surprised it really makes that much difference, assuming you would not be reliant on crossers anyway.

  86. [PeterO and I are in for a Nor’easter, possibly a blizzard, especially on Long Island, where Peter is, a bit less so in north central Connecticut. where I am. Good day to do nothing and recover, Peter. I’m going to make stew.]

  87. erike@85 Crosswords have nothing to do with large punch bowls, but something to do with odd, uncommon words. Did you ever put together a word you didn’t recognize from the word play and then find it was a real word? Eileen told us about doing that, and her word was Jorum. It’s come in this group to mean a word you discovered to be real after you’d assembled it.

  89. Valentine @86
    I will not be over your way. Even a stew would have to be cooked to distraction for me to handle it at the moment.

  93. pdp11@61 and others.

    Someone has devised a “same day numeric index of Times cryptic hardness”, or SNITCH for the Times main cryptic. It compares the time taken to correctly solve the puzzle and submit to the club leaderboard by designated reference solvers of all abilities to that solvers’s average time.
    It’s pretty accurate. A snitch score of 50 to 70 is easy, 70 to 100 moderate, 100-140 hard, and above 150 is rare and extremely difficult.
    It requires a place where everyone’s time is submitted, and someone to write and maintain the site, and to filter out the “neutrinos”, who for some reason solve the crossword, and then type the correct solution in as quickly as they can.
    It works though.

  94. Thanks to Picaroon for a splendid puzzle. Two days late, but nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of many of the clues, for their wordplay, construction and parsing. KOBOLD was new to me, as was the list of German spirits that I found on my search for the answer.
    Too many favourites to choose from. Thx also to PeterO for his blog.

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