Guardian 28,760 – Crucible

70 comments on “Guardian 28,760 – Crucible”

1. A nice gentle offering with an obvious theme. It took me almost as long to see the parsing of 22 across as the rest of the puzzle.
   I think that 14ac needs the first letter (opening) of factor for the parsing, and that the definition is ‘that’s amazing’
   Thanks to Crucible and Andrew for an enjoyable start to this morning.

2. @Norbrewer – there was a typo in the blog (now corrected) : the F comes from OF so I think my parsing is correct.

3. Thanks Andrew & Crucible. Strange one – first run through the across clues didn’t yield much, but then it all fell into place very quickly. Almost too quickly! Partly thanks to the unusually high proportion of hidden word clues? But enjoyable overall, and worth the entry fee for PIANOLA alone.

4. Sorry, maybe that should be W OF ACTOR including W(ith) (opening it)

5. “Tim, Nice but dim”, here! I didn’t find this anything like the walk in the park enjoyed by our blogger and first posters. Very few on the first pass through, nearly all of those in the South and, unlike yesterday, I didn’t get the words that would give me purchase in the North. Indeed, the puzzle seemed to fall into two halves with the SE diagonal slowly populating whilst the NW remained largely bare.

   Got there in the end but no doddle. Good to see a novel clueing of ORCHESTRA and WIND FARM was a nice alternative to a Spoonerism( which wouldn’t have worked) as Andrew said. I didn’t parse PIANOLA – I never spot those – and am not surprised it leapt straight onto widders’ podium. My own podium today sees WOW FACTOR, DRAMAS and the superb NARROWBOAT take the medals. RED CARPET was delightful too, though the town is unknown to me and associated in my mind with the production of steel rather than a resort – though I discover it is one from the Yorkshire Tourist Board this morning. I’m not sure whether I have seen SCARFACE clued similarly before but it is a lovely charade. And isn’t SMASH HIT gorgeously simple? So, not easy but well worth persevering.

   Thanks Crucible and Andrew

6. Orra = occasionally, what a braw word. Orchestra is clued occasionally, but I don’t remember orra.
   Is TSOM the one with Doh a Deer in it ?.. my sister used to sing it as a kid. Didn’t get the +/– anagram for pianola .. dim! Otis to me means Redding, but yes, remembered the liftmakers.
   Nice gentle potter, thx AnC.

7. Like Widdersbel @3, my first read through the clues garnered very few across solutions, but it all came together surprisingly quickly. ORRA in ORCHESTRA was new.

   Do you need to underline “It’s blown” as the definition for EUPHONIUM?

   Thank you to Andrew and Crucible.

8. Loved the scarf ace, and the ‘Old king left Queen’ wordplay for Cole Porter.

   Ringo is always Ringo, so much so that I spent a while wondering if Freddie or Kenneth Starr played the drums.

   Thanks Crucible and Andrew, especially for the parsing of PIANOLA.

   [ginf @6, you’re thinking of The Simpsons]

9. Oi, PostMark @5, who are you calling dim? 🙂
   A nice connection having Crucible as the setter after yesterday’s theme.
   I struggled a bit with the parsing of WOW FACTOR wondering how the position of W for ‘with’ was indicated but it’s clear to me that “opening” is an insertion indicator.
   I did like SCARFACE and UPBEAT but the two favourites were COLE PORTER and DRAMAS.

10. Very enjoyable, thank you Crucible. It did come together quite quickly but didn’t feel easy. The two 14’s foxed me a lot longer than they should!
    My one frustration was 9ac which went in easily once I’d got the first and last letter but are obscure Scottish words reasonable GK?
    Thanks for the blog Andrew.

11. Loved this musical treat, especially SMASH HIT and the ‘Aeolian harp’. Thanks Crucible and Andrew.

    ‘Miss OTIS Regrets’ is a song by Cole Porter.

12. Well it must have been pretty straightforward for me to finish it without the help of ‘er indoors by 8.15 in the morning rather than 9.00 at night. Didn’t know ORRA for 9a, but CHEST made the answer clear enough, and while I could see there was some kind of anagram play in PIANOLA I could see how it worked so thanks for the explanation Andrew.
    Favourites were NARROWBOAT and WIND FARM

13. [Ta, eb@8, great counterpoint!]

14. I seem to be on a roll, finishing all this week’s Guardian crosswords so far the same morning! I didn’t know Orra, but decided from all the clues that ORCHESTRA must be right, so deduced Orra. Checked in Wiktionary where it is defined as ‘Superfluous, Odd, Unmatched, Leftover’, so thank you to Andrew for confirming it can also mean Occasional.

15. Found this quite tough – not on the wavelength at all – and annoyingly kept missing the hidden ones. NW took ages.

    Favourites include: NARROWBOAT, SCARFACE, PEAL, WIND FARM

    Thanks Crucible and Andrew

16. Thanks Crucible and Rew. I thought “while in Glasgow” at 20a meant that AS (while) was hidden in glASgow. I’m not sure I understand what “referring to the first part” means? Is there something particularly Scottish about drams?

    (Now I want a shot of whisky … Scotch for choice.)

17. An unusually comfortable solve for me.
    Getting 12a very early, making 16a and 9a obvious was the start point.
    I was interested in the use of WARM in 7d to = FRIENDLY. There is a Sherlock Holmes short story, “The Blue Carbuncle”, where WARM = ANGRY, almost a complete antithesis….

    “Well, then, I shan’t tell you. So now!”
    “Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don’t know why you should be so warm over such a trifle.”
    “Warm! You’d be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am.”

    Thanks Andrew…

18. I’ve rarely finished a Guardian crossword so quickly, and I’ve even been to Redcar.

19. I really enjoyed this. At first I thought I’d only get a few clues, but steadily and surely it all went in. It helped to get Rodgers and The Sound of Music early on. I’m not sure how much I like the parsing for 22A, but the answer was obvious and it was fair. Orra is new to me. With thanks to Crucible and Andrew.

20. A very enjoyable puzzle. The scarf ace at 2d brought a smile – it’s probably been done before, and no doubt someone will say it’s an old chestnut, but I don’t recall having seen it.

    I must admit I momentarily wondered if there was a lift manufacturer called Zorp for 8d.

    The stovepipe hat at 23a was of course made famous by our old crossword friend Abe.

    Many thanks Crucible and Andrew.

21. “My Favourite Things are playing
    Again and again
    But its by Julie Andrews
    And not by John Coltrane”
    (“This is hell” -Elvis Costello)

22. Thanks Andrew, I felt the same as your intro about this but needed your explanation for PIANOLA, great clue.
    As I may have suggested before, surely the litmus test of a resort is availability of seaside postcards and sticks of rock, so we await the proof re Redcar from anyone who has been.
    On a standalone basis I may never have got 9A but with crossers and other signposts to the clue, eg 14D and the overall theme (surely as close to unmissable as possible?) it was not too hard and nice to pick up a new term that way.
    Hoofit@17 great recall, must be one of those words that has changed in meaning over time (I don’t think anyone uses “warm” that way now do they?) OR can we add it to the list of auto-antonyms?
    Thanks Crucible for the fun, with EUPHONIUM topping the charts for me.

23. (Lord Jim @ 20 SCARF ACE was another of many that I first heard on ISIHAC. Always worth a listen to the ‘Uxbridge English Dictionary’ section.)

24. Tough puzzle but I enjoyed it. Took me a while to catch on to the theme found in 9ac, 16ac, 12ac etc and then it went more smoothly.

    Liked WIND FARM, NARROWBOAT.

    I did not parse 22ac.

    New for me: ORRA = occasional; stovepipe hat for 23ac.

    Thanks, both.

25. Yes, this went together quickly once I’d got started, but had some very enjoyable stuff on the way.
    Didn’t manage to parse ORCHESTRA or PIANOLA – slightly annoyed with myself for not getting the composite anagram.
    WIND FARM was a neat variant on the Spooner theme, as PostMark @5 observes.
    EUPHONIUM had a particularly neat misdirection because if you are looking at the crossers E_P_O_I__ with a clue that starts “It’s blown up…” it is very difficult to tear yourself away from exploding/explosive. It would be fascinating to know if this was deliberate or a happy accident.
    RODGERS, WOW FACTOR and NARROWBOAT particularly appealed as well.
    Many thanks to Crucible for the gentle pleasure and to Andrew for the explanations.
    PS Sympathy to JimAZ @ 18 on having been to Redcar.

26. A gentle and enjoyable solve for a sunny morning.

    My favourites were RODGERS, WOW FACTOR, PIANOLA, NARROWBOAT, WIND FARM and ORATORIO and I smiled when I saw COLE PORTER and OTIS at the edges, as pointed out by wynsum @11.

    Gazzh @22 – here’s a bit of HYPE for Redcar: https://www.yorkshire.com/places/yorkshire-coast/redcar

    It was a relief to see that not a single CARTHORSE was destroyed in the production of this puzzle.

    Many thanks to Crucible and Andrew.

27. Verbose @16: in answer to your question, dram is very strongly connected with whisky. Can clearly be used for other spirits and occasionally is but the Scots/Scottish/scotch association is strong. Apparently it’s also the standard monetary unit of Armenia, somewhere where you can clearly buy your drams in drams.

28. Eileen @26: lovely comment on avoiding the flogging of said carthorse. Chapeau. And thanks for the link: yes, that is how I learned earlier that Redcar is, indeed, a resort. Like Port Talbot, presumably.

29. Thanks Eileen@22, that has convinced me – i was aware of the beaches but amusements are the icing on the cake.
    NeilH@25 vg point, i nearly fell for that and I even rechecked the anagram for 15D to make sure that M was correct!
    Verbose@16 for what it’s worth I had the same thought re “as” – surely a record number of “Hidden words” in one puzzle?
    And thinking about 22A: isn’t one of “played” and “possibly” redundant?

30. Gazzh @29 – it needs the “possibly” because “aeolian harp” is only one of many possible outcomes of jumbling up the letters of “hear pianola”. Normal anagrams have the possible outcome restricted by the definition (which is not to say they’re always unambiguous).

    PM @5 – it’s all relative. I bet you still finished it quicker than me.

31. I’d not met the Redcar pet before so came to it with fresh and innocent delight!
    On that note, I followed your link Eileen @26. From the home page it does rather seem that the helter skelter is the sole focus of the town’s entertainments! I do hope they also have a little more to offer…

32. I echo Eileen’s first paragraph verbatim (and was also thinking about the old chestnut carthorse! Actually, it’s been a little while, but there was a time in recent years when there almost seemed to be a running competition between setters to clue ORCHESTRA!)
    This delightful puzzle had almost as much containment as music! Others here may not agree, but thought this would be wonderful for a beginner; Crucible is usually trickier I feel.
    Gazzh@24 Known as Janus words – for obvious reasons (I’ve a growing list to which I shall now add “warm”)

    Many thanks Crucible and Andrew

33. Nice and gentle.

    Ta Crucible & Andrew

34. [I was taken to Redcar races once, with stepfamily and friends. One of them won big and treated us all to a slap-up Chinese to celebrate. Happy memories, although never saw the beaches…]

35. Same experience as many others that I started quite slowly but then suddenly it all came together, very enjoyable.

    I did enjoy the cluing of ORCHESTRA without, as Eileen said, the carthorse. I didn’t know orra, but our Scottish-inclusive BRB has it, so fair game. I also like PIANOLA for the good spot of the compound anagram and WOW FACTOR for the player’s wag. I know of Redcar from the steelworks and the racecourse but I’ve never visited there.

    Thanks Crucible and Andrew.

36. I think the use of the word “gentle” to describe a crossword should be forbidden. 🙂 It’s all very well to find a puzzle easy, but the use of gentle implies that everyone should find it a doddle. Which some solvers have already said they did not.

    After a slow start this all fell into place fairly steadily, held up only by thinking of the Beatles drummer as Ringo rather than STARR (as essexboy has mentioned), and by not initially recognising NUT as a synonym for ‘fan’ – the cheek of it!

    Thanks to Crucible and Andrew.

37. hatter @36: I long ago stopped using the word ‘gentle’ – if I ever did use it. Approachable and penetrable are my terms of choice, these days, for the ones that don’t have me rattling my brains in desperation.

    Given your moniker and proud adherence to a cause, do you nut consider yourself a fan?

38. 22 Aeolian harp, Was trying to get Jan Garbarek’s album Dis, one of my all time early favourites on vinyl.
    Couldn’t find the Dis audio, but here’s a bit of UKGK and other GK with a bit of sound if anyone’s interested.
    https://www.zmescience.com/science/physics/aeolian-harps/

39. My final word on the subject has to be the Bonzo Dog Band (“Only the other day…..”)
    As for Redcar-I spent a wonderful fortnight there one Sunday
    I’ll get me coat

40. Mark @37. I embrace ‘fan’, even though it’s short for fanatic, but NUT implies a degree of derangement.

41. copmus@39 I was going to ask what happened to the doo dah? Looked them up in one of their incarnations and they called themselves the Bonzo Dog Dada band, but apparently dadaism was a bit esoteric.

42. An enjoyable solve, so thanks, Crucible.

43. Thanks Widdersbel@30: I was assuming that “played” could operate on “Aeolian Harp” in a Qaotic/function way and was happy that the definition being “This” was implied, but maybe that’s not fair – I like the “possibly” (equivalent to ? in def by eg) now that you mention it.
    William F P@32 – thank you, a far more succinct term and as my classical gk is meagre but sufficent I will refrain from suggesting the Simpsonian association re its origin!

44. copmus@21 I love the Elvis Costello quote. I got hung up on the fact that a pianola and an Aeolian harp are both played without a human player. This wasn’t as “gentle” for me as it was for some.

45. Thanks for the blog , some fine clues here, sorry for repeating some comments but worth saying again.
    PIANOLA is a perfect compound anagram, proper use of “this” so that each letter is included in the anagrams TWICE.
    WOW FACTOR was intricate but very precise . RED CARPET is great even using the NE term PET.
    WIND FARM is very original use of exchanging introductions.
    [ I have been very careful not to use the word gentle ]

46. Thanks both – a fine slow-yielding entertainment for me.

    TSOM (I can’t bring myself to spell it out in full) is a favourite bugbear: surely the greatest collection of earworms ever. (And thanks to eb@8 for the link to Dame Julie mugging away (but convincingly enough) at the guitar (which seems to be a Goya – out of place and time in pre-war Austria (they were available only in the USA post-1950).)

    Verbose@, PM@27: Dineen’s Irish-English dictionary defines ‘dram’ as ‘a drink of spirits’. Since whisk(e)y would be the only spirit available it would be sufficient to ask for a dram – the whisk(e)y is implied.

47. I wasn’t as enamoured with PIANOLA as some – not 100% sure why – maybe just the definition in the middle of the wordplay? Also two outings for “about” as a hidden indicator rankled a bit. And the cliche klaxon sounded for BARMAN and OR. I liked WIND FARM, RED CARPET and the silliness of HIGH HAT

    And for once, even I got the theme

    Ta C&A

48. HYD @17: And warm can also mean sexually explicit or titillating as in Georgette Heyer’s Frederica: “Frederica, when the tale was manfully disclosed to her, took a lenient view. She did not think that a twelve-year-old boy stood in much danger of being corrupted by witnessing either an exciting melodrama, or a bout of fisticuffs; and even when Jessamy told her that there had been aspects to the melodrama which were decidedly immoral, she said, with strong common-sense: “I don’t suppose he paid the least attention to what may have been a trifle warm: all he cared for was the adventure!”

49. I’ll call this an “accessible” puzzle, but even so failed on the unknown (in both senses) HIGH HAT, plumping for “hag’s hat” instead.

    I enjoyed the theme and it was an added bonus to spot the LSO down there in the SW corner, playing quietly away in the background.

    Thanks to Crucible and Andrew

50. A delightful, though brief, diversion. The obvious theme helped a lot.

    Favourites were WOW FACTOR, NARROWBOAT and ITEM.

    Thanks Crucible and Andrew

51. I found that slightly hard going, but I’m still a relative newbie (and so pleased to finish at all) and my musical knowledge is rather more pop than classical. STARR was easy, AMATI and PIANOLA less so.

    I loved SCARF ACE (as some have pointed out, a punchline as well as clue) and REDCAR PET and am gradually realising that I need to remember to disregard spaces in crosswordland.

    New to me: ORRA, AMATI. Every day’s a school day.

    Thanks both.

52. SueB @48

    [One of my favourite Georgette Heyer books.]

53. A great puzzle with lots to like about the theme. Thanks to Crucible and Andrew, and to contributors to the site for some enjoyable and interesting comments.

54. I’ve struggled with some of Crucible’s in the past, so almost didn’t attempt this, but I’m glad I did. It was most enjoyable, and fell into place relatively smoothly without too many hurdles. Half a world away I was stumped by the Scottish “orra” and I’d never heard of the town of Redcar. But I’m beginning to remember that in the UK OR are troops! Still deciding whether composer/barman is clever or silly. Handel wrote one oratorio? I thought he’d written a few more than that! Parsing 22a took me a while.

    Thanks Crucible & Andrew.

55. Well spotted wynsum @11; of course, a Cole Porter classsic.

56. sh and PM, but I like gentle; it’s exactly how it feels sometimes…sort of happily cogitating along, muttering to myself contentedly; nice and …

57. [For those who like an accessible puzzle, today’s Eccles in the Indy is really quite an enjoyable offering. And a smile or two thrown in.]

58. I thought this was a lot of fun and over too quickly. Only other thing I was planning on saying was just brought up by bodycheetah@47: “about” is not very satisfying as a hidden indicator.

59. Very enjoyable, helped by the fact I spotted the theme unusually quickly. SCARFACE and RED CARPET were particularly clever. Like a couple of others, I fell into the explosive/EUPHONIUM trap, but wriggled out of it. ORRA and AMATI were new to me too.

60. [gif @56: completely agree with the sentiment but, as hatter suggests, it can all get a bit rough if we start calling things ‘gentle’]

61. grantinfreo @56. I appreciate that your experience might be gentle waves of billowing clues lulling you to sleep, but to some it’s choppy breakers on a lee shore.

    Some days every synonym and all the word play seem obvious; other days I struggle through a cocoon of cotton wool. Even when the setter intends to set a “gentle” puzzle, use of the word can be demoralising to relative beginners, or those of us trying to break through those clouds of cotton wool.

62. Ok. PM and hatter, alright already, I’ll be, er, sensitive about it ?

63. ? = 😉

64. Thanks Crucible. Like others I found this slow going at first but things fell into place eventually. Favourites included the nicely hidden EARDRUM, SCARFACE (for once Capone was the definition and not the letters “al”), and ORATORIO. I could not parse ORCHESTRA, PIANOLA, or EUPHONIUM so thanks Andrew for the help.

65. I had a bit of “bung it in without parsing” itis (bungitis?).
    First I assumed 9a was bagpipers which was confirmed by 14d. Of course nothing else worked on the NW after that.
    Then I wanted plutonium as the explosive which slowed down the SE.
    Eventually got everything back into harmony.
    Once saw TSOM performed a la Rocky Picture Show with audience dressed up and talking back to the screen. Never been the same since.

66. Straightforward solve, pretty well top to bottom, and, though I don’t time myself, there’s no doubt that I’ve set a personal 15D today. Enjoyable stuff anyway. Thanks to setter and blogger.

67. [Thank you paddymelon@38, I have enjoyed reading and listening to that – Ballard’s sonic sculptures! I had assumed that an Aeolian harp was just one that played itself, I am sure I have seen one in some fairy tale or other, which contributed to my parsing failure there.]

68. [Glad you enjoyed it Gazzh@67]

69. I love 19 across – REDCAR PET. Made me smile.

70. Most enjoyable.

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