Guardian Cryptic 28,779 by Qaos

87 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,779 by Qaos”

1. Far too good for me. Missed the definition for STOP so thanks PeterO. Even though I was looking out for a theme, there’s no way I would have got this one.

2. The theme is spelled out down the 10th vertical, and it includes TS’s television play, TEETH.

3. Well I finished, but didn’t spot the theme, the Nina or the STOP at the end of 5d, so I wouldn’t call my effort a huge success. Speaking of 5d, while the S-TO-P seemed to be what the clue was getting at, the syntax seems a little weird, doesn’t it?

4. Thanks PeterO for the early blog. I had a great time with this crossword — I thought it was going to be difficult at first but it unfolded nicely. There were many excellent clues including DASHED, EXCAVATE, HARD (a good example of “guess, then parse”), ETERNITY, DEDUCE (love the Qaos numerical clues), and LOVE. I spent a bit of time searching for the theme and I spotted Stoppard — his works quickly followed. Thanks Qaos for a splendid time.

5. Spooner’s catflap@2. Good spot for the nina.
   As well as the Stop/par/d plays, I wonder if APPETITE is also related to the underlying themes in ARCADIA?

6. Although it’s not really a nina but in plain sight.
   The theme intrigued me and I read on a Tom Stoppard bio that he nearly ended up on ship to Australia.
   There seems to be some relevance there to the characters in ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead’.

7. A great crossword with some lovely clues (DEDUCE was my favourite); thanks Qaos.

   And thanks PeterO for the parsing, especially STOP. Very clever.

8. Same as yesyes @7 and well done SC @2. Couldn’t DEDUCE the theme.

   Ta Qaos & PeterO

9. Still struggling with the parsing of FEATHER-BED. Is ‘down’ referring to feathers?

10. I could not parse INCIPIENCE, because I had convinced myself that the “little cash” was PENCE. Having done that, I had no hope.

    A nice touch on 20D is that Nellie Melba was famous for her repeated retirement tours, which have made her the byword here for an artist that can never give it away. So she was also the “retiring opera singer”.

11. Thanks Qaos, just the right degree of hardness for me. As many others, looked carefully, but saw no theme, nor the definition for STOP. I solved the two “3” clues before I got INDIA.

    Thanks PeterO for the explanation to a handful I couldn’t see.

12. Yes, Alan C@9. Although as an Antipodean I was looking for something else. I think the question mark says it.

13. Solved, came here to parse INCIPIENCE, and now kicking myself because ARCADIA and TRAVESTIES should have given away the STOP/PAR/D theme. I should remember to look for themes, particularly this week when this is the third in a row.

14. Well, the full stop appearing in 5d had to be either significant to the solve or a Guardian typo and, since we rarely get the latter (!), it had to play a part. But it was the only playing part I spotted, the works of Tom Stoppard being insufficiently familiar. Did anyone else spend time fruitlessly wondering how to insert a D in a version of HARD to get DEDUCE?

    ETERNITY, INVENTIONS, GLACIAL, EXCAVATE, CHASSEUR and ARCADIA were my favourites. I was aware of a LEPTON as a particle of sorts but not as currency though it seemed a sensible stab in the dark. I was less sure of ASCOT as a race; I thought it either a racecourse or a race meeting but not a single race. I am sure I will learn how wrong I am before too long.

    Thanks Qaos and Peter O

15. 7d MA for master, SCOT for race, of people?

16. [Gregfromoz@10. Or Johnny Farnham with repeated retirement tours. He could also do the high notes.]

17. Much to enjoy here. Favourites were DEDUCE, APPETITE, EXCAVATE, GLACIAL, INCIPIENCE, PROBLEM, ARCADIA (loi).

    New for me: SHRAPNEL = loose change / coins; TONGA = a light carriage; LEPTON (well-clued); 24ac FEATHER-BED = provide (someone) with excessively favourable economic or working conditions.

    I see now that I had not fully parsed 5d.

    Thanks, both.

    * I did not see the theme.

18. I think PM @14 you might have the Master Race.
    Ian Graham @15. Whaddayareckon? M -ASCOT, or MA -SCOT?

19. I’m another not to spot the theme but, in my defence, it’s not one I’m familiar with. Lots to enjoy here even so, so thank you Qaos. Also to PeterO especially for the parsing of Stop.

20. Definitely MA and SCOT.

    Ascot is a race course, never a race.

21. I like how INDIAN INK lines up in the grid. Also STREAKER DASHED. And many, many more as people always seem to say when they can’t think of any 🙂

22. Thanks Qaos and PeterO
    I generally don’t like Qaos’s “mathematical clues, but DEDUCE was my favourite today.
    Not impressed by the clue for STOP – why Russia and Qatar? If the order had been different, the Roman acronym SPQR might have been the answer!

23. I love Stoppard and missed the theme despite repeatedly looking for it (it is Qaos). In my defence, it is decades since I last went to one of his plays (not often performed here) – oh, I do remember an Inspector Hound fairly recently. The version of Jumpers I saw definitely had a STREAKER in it.
    I am another with MA+Scot, though I did wonder about the political correctness of calling the Scots a race. I did enjoy lots of these, many mentioned already, but have to pick out DEDUCE.
    Thanks, Qaos and PeterO.

24. muffin @22 – Russia to reference The Russia House – a Stoppard screenplay?

25. I’m with muffin@22 regarding the clue for ‘stop’: surely there must be some relevance in the inclusion of Russia and Qatar. I inserted ‘step’ as a hazard, and failed to see the theme.

26. Cracking puzzle-thanks @Spooner’s catflap and Peter O
    I loved R&G are dead with Gary Oldman and Tim Roth
    And Professional Foul-must check some of the others out.

27. [copmus @26
    I’ve seen R & G are dead a couple of times on the stage (one of those starred Christopher Timothy, later of vet fame), and also the film. The film version was able to include a lot of stage “business” that wasn’t possible on an actual stage.
    I didn’t see the Stoppard theme, of course!]

28. My first one in was TRAVESTIES and I immediately thought “Tom Stoppard theme?” – then promptly forgot all about it!

    The relevance of Russia and Qatar is that with SRQP you are going in reverse alphabetical order from S to P.

    Minor quibble – I’m not sure that I buy “buys” as an inclusion indicator (12a).

    Thanks Qaos and PeterO.

29. muffin@27-I remember when TS was married to the lovely Miriam who said Tom just thought he was a hypochondriac. Then he chose the good life!
    I didnt twig the theme but should have with STOP

30. Thanks for those who’ve pointed out the MA SCOT parsing. Although, I still feel a niggle: is SCOT sufficient for the race (assuming it is OK to refer to to those North of the Border as a race)? Scots might be a race, Scottish might be a race but the singular SCOT works less well for me. How would one use the singular in this context? Sorry if I’m missing something glaring; I usually do.

31. Despite essexboy telling us yesterday that Qaos always has a theme I still couldn’t spot it. I guess I’m not a big enough luvvie darling. Enjoyable crossword all the same. Thanks to setter and blogger.

32. Started off quite well for a Qaos puzzle getting and parsing half the clues on my first (admittedly slow) pass. Then things got tougher and while I got all but one I didn’t parse a few.

    My favourites include: LEPTON, LONG, EXCAVATE, TRAVESTIES, ETERNITY, DEDUCE

    Lovely to be reminded of ARCADIA which I saw when it was first performed. I liked it so much I went back and saw it again in that first run.

    Thanks Qaos and PeterO

33. George@25 (and others). I read the logic of the named capitals in 5d simply providing 4 letters giving a reverse alphabetical order of SRQP. So – you go from S to P.

34. Very clever – and the best sort of themed puzzle in that you can complete it without either seeing the theme or having the relevant specialised knowledge. I like the inclusion of STOPPARD in 5d, 15d, 23d, though I completely overlooked it (thank you Spooner’s catflap @2).
    I was so accustomed to current being i (which for some reason is the convention) that I struggled with current = IN in 11a. And I also failed to see the clever significance of the full stop in 5d. But of those I worked out unaided, I thought FEATHER-BED was a particularly clever bit of misdirection (and it’s even cleverer when you learn that Stoppard nearly ended up in Australia – thank you paddymelon @6), TEETH was a superb surface, and DEDUCE was especially neat, too. Even better when the clue to it comes a little way below 17d and the clues, though superficially quite similar, point in completely different directions.
    There are a lot of little details, too, which suggest that an enormous amount of thought has gone into this; such as the fact that, as Gregfromoz @10 mentions, like Sinatra Nellie Melba kept making “farewells”, though unlike Sinatra Melba could sing.
    Blow the political correctness of calling SCOT a race – the only real criticism is that, as the great John Arlott insisted when asked to state his race when visiting apartheid South Africa, the answer to that question whether you are a Scot, an Englishman or a 3d, is HUMAN.
    Thanks to Qaos and PeterO.

35. Lovely extra overtone about Melba retiring, GregfromOz @10. The theme was well over my head, the only Stoppard I’ve seen being Professional Foul on the telly decades ago. R and G Are Dead is of course a famous title, but it would have had to be fully present, and up in lights, to wake me up. But anyway, it was a pleasant solve at Qaos’s easy end, so ta to him and to Peter.

36. FWIW I still agree with Postmark’s parsing of M-ASCOT. Yes, Ascot maybe a racecourse, but some/many of us might think of it as a race. I find it improbable that Qaos would have clued Scot as a race. And there’s the thing of MA , as compared to M. MA is not clued.

37. For some unaccountable reason this took me less time than any of this week’s previous puzzles, with only the NE quadrant holding me up a bit. Unlike muffin @22 I enjoy the Qaotic alphanumeric clues and I was disappointed that there weren’t many here – but DEDUCE is a cracker.

    I parsed 7dn as M+ASCOT, although I would consider Ascot to be strictly a course rather than a race. SCOT can only refer to an individual Caledonian – surely the ‘race’ would have to be the SCOTS? And I parsed STOP as TerriB @33.

    There was a theme? 🙂

    Thanks to S&B

38. I’m with you TerriBlislow@33. A bit like HIJKLMNO for water.

39. PS Like PM @14, I too thought a lepton was a type of electron (or is an electron a type of it … Roz would know) …

40. I looked in all the obvious places for a Nina but missed the one in plain sight. Will Roz be disappointed with the missed opportunity with the definition of LEPTON or relieved that it avoids scientific inaccuracy? I think ASCOT is close enough for race. “Did it win the Cheltenham Gold Cup? No, the Ascot.”

41. I like Stoppard too, but didn’t spot him lurking here. Particularly admire his The HARD PROBLEM. Not sure whether this detracted in any way from a difficult at times but rewarding solve. First two in were SHRAPNEL and HARD, which involved a similar kind of word in Shards. TONGA and LEPTON were clear enough from the cluing, but I did need to look the words up to discover exactly what they were…

42. paddymelon @36: funnily enough, I feel it’s equally improbable he would have clued Ascot as a race! I like Qaos and have a high opinion of his puzzles but both of the alternatives we’ve discussed here appear flawed. Despite Petert’s valiant defence @40, I struggle to imagine anyone seriously referring to a single race as ‘the Ascot’. In that quote, Ascot is surely being used as an adjective, even with the ‘the’? There are much better linguists on here to tell me whether that’s right. It certainly didn’t prevent a solve but it is slightly odd.

43. Gervase @37. “The Scot is legendarily tight-fisted” refers to Scots in general, I would have thought. It is a bit strange, I agree, but so is the Ascot for race, as PostMark says. Similarly, paddymelon @36, we see ‘bachelor’ cluing BA, so why not ‘master’ for MA? (OK, it is usually said ‘masters’). gif @39, I was thinking elementary particle too when I considered LEPTON – had to go searching to see if it came up as a coin too.

44. A fine puzzle and I completely missed the theme too, despite having seen a few of his plays.

    New meaning for LEPTON for me although the wordplay was clear.

    Faves were DEDUCE and ETERNITY

    Thanks Qaos and PeterO

45. Thanks to Qaos & PeterO for an enjoyable solve.
    I liked the simplicity of ARCADIA and the use of ‘clamped’ in 9a.

    Knowing there must be a theme, and after INDIAn and ECHO, I looked for more NATO code words (so close with TONGA). Then maybe hard cash? But all to no avail and I finished without seeing STOPPARD.

46. I was almost as puzzled by PeterO saying that the definition was the period after Peru as I was by the clue. STOP was a bung for me. Full marks to Qaos & PeterO.

47. TassieTim @43: ‘Bachelor’ in a charade invariably indicates B rather than BA (which is typically ‘graduate’), so as paddymelon @36 commented, the A is unclued. I think you could say ‘He won Ascot’ just as you might say ‘He won Wimbledon’, so it would become a race by metonymy. Not ideal, I grant, but still for me the lesser of two (very mild) evils!

48. Curate’s egg for me. Loved some clues but loathed others. The lovies won out however and PeterO’s and Catflap @2 were very helpful at making me appreciate some I hadn’t. Thanks to all.

49. Chambers has “a running or racing place” (rare) for RACE so that’s Qaos off the hook in my book

50. Gervase @47. “Invariably”? i.e. without exception? Empirical support needed.

51. Was wondering if 9ac was part of the Stoppard theme since he did adapt the Polish play “Tango”‘- hence the anagram TONGA to indicate not in its original form.

52. Like PeterO, I found this slightly more difficult than some other crosswords by Qaos. I looked for the theme and failed to find it – good move to incorporate Stoppard in the grid.

    I rather liked INCIPIENCE, where, like GregfromOz @10 I was looking at 1 pence as the little cash for a while. I also liked the STREAKER as ‘one
    running out of clothes.’ I also failed to notice the full stop in Q5D.

    Thanks Qaos for an enjoyable puzzle and PeterO for explaining everything.

53. Q5D? Must have been the Q from Qaos that got misplaced.

54. TassieTim @50: I’m with Karl Popper on this one – it’s impossible to prove an empirical theory. But it can be disproved by finding a counter-example. I charge you to find one and I shall eat my words! 🙂

55. Gervase @54: It seems you are uninterested in doing a trawl of all past crosswords. So am I. 😉

56. I would never have got this theme, having never heard of most of the plays.

    In 5d How is S R Q P “S to P”?

    Thanks, Qaos and PeterO.

57. A quibble Strictly speaking one K is1024 and G(rand) is $1000 rather than £1000

58. Really enjoyed that today, despite having never heard of any of the Stoppard plays mentioned, so the theme (and nina) very much passed me by! Absolutely loved the definition of STOP being the full stop at the end of 5d, again I’d missed that. Also learned that Lepton was something other than an elementary particle, and Tonga was something other than a country. Thanks Qaos and PeterO.

59. KT @57 K may be 1024 in the IT world but it’s 1000 in lots of other places including Chambers. Also GRAND is in common usage in the UK

60. valentine @56: re 5d, see my comment @28 (and TerriBlislow @33 and paddymelon @38).

61. I wish K was 1024 in salary discussions.

62. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is my favourite play not written by Shakespeare, although it sort of is, of course. Also loved Arcadia. Didn’t spot the theme though!

63. 1 pence is grammatically incorrect, of course, as pence is plural!

64. Enjoyable, but missed the theme.

    With Chicken Chasseur (and Cacciatore, Hunter’s Chicken etc.) I always think what kind of a hunter hunts chicken? Seriously, set your sights a little higher perhaps.

65. [A curiosity I’ve only just noticed, after having seen two or three posters referring to ‘one pence’. Is it rather odd that we tend to say ‘pence’ even when there is only a singular penny involved, whereas on the other hand we tend to say ‘pound’ even when the number of pounds is greater than one? £10:01 in speech might, therefore, be rendered as ‘ten pound, one pence’, which on the face of it seems passing strange.
    Thanks to PeterO and to Qaos:
    I enjoyed this puzzle with its theatrical connections, being of the species that some might describe as a “luvvie” (a word I find almost as offensive as many other terms of abuse which have been, quite rightly, cancelled in the cause of political correctness and general good manners.)

66. Thanks, PeterO. I also found this harder than usual for Qaos, but just as enjoyable as he always is.

    Bizarrely, being someone who *never* spots themes, along with spotting Serpent’s theme in the Indy very quickly, I got the theme of this one from my FOI: ARCADIA (perhaps the helpful hint Qaos posted on Twitter helped – “Play around with my latest”). That instantly put me on the lookout for other works by my favourite playwright. Lovely stuff. Completely missed the hidden name though – great spot, Spooner’s Catflap!

    Many thanks for the fun, Qaos.

67. I’m sure I’ve said it before, but the style of this compiler is remarkably similar to that of the incumbent Everyman. And so I tend to have the same kinds of pause with the person’s work.

    In the Acrosses, ‘head’ at 11 is usually a down top letter indicator, 12 ‘buys’ I don’t buy as a container indicator, plus the definition is obscure; 18 ‘kidnap’ doesn’t really contain for me either, 23 ASHE could be any four-letter person fitting the bill, 24 second definition I do not understand, 27 the ‘retiring leaders’ construct seems fishy to me, and in 28, perhaps ‘which’ could have been better than ‘it’. Looking Down, the ‘with’ at 1 is bad style for some people, 3 is a bit of a mess and I don’t like ‘legless’ to remove the last letter, 4 maybe ‘single calorie up’ could have been the way forward, 5 seems a total mess, 6 I would have preferred cook-ing, 7 is Ascot a race? I wasn’t aware of it, except as a racecourse or a race meeting, 17 INDIAN is an adjective, though it could be used as a noun in some circles I suppose, but Collins doesn’t have it, 19 want-ing I’d have liked more, and 26 ‘to solve’ as the anagrind I didn’t like.

    What did I like? Well STREAKER, although it is a bit of a chestnut, and TREATY was nice.

68. Gert Bycee @65: I wonder if on the “pound” side of things it might be because it doubles up as a unit of weight. So you’d absolutely call something a ten pound weight, and maybe that gets carried across into the currency. As to the pence, my guess would be that there are 98 other quantities that use pence, so it extending to the one where it shouldn’t really apply is kinda natural. All guesswork, obviously, but a fun thing to think on.

69. Ascot is not a race, but it is “the races” so M(aster) + races (ignoring the apostrophe) = M ASCOT. But MA + SCOT works better, and is probably what was intended.

70. I didn’t have much time for this today, so it ended up with three or four unfinished, and of course no themes spotted. LEPTON was a jorum: I sort of knew the particle but not the coinage – speaking of which, I haven’t heard anyone call loose change SHRAPNEL for many years. I think the aversion to loose coins is a male thing – I never seem to have enough of them.
    Favourites DEDUCE and the STREAKER.

71. gladys @ 70: I love the term “shrapnel” for loose change, so that was a favourite clue. I’ve only recently acquired some for the first time in ages after selling some old videogames, and having to break up the notes. Haven’t used cash for a fair while before this. It used to wear out the pockets incredibly quickly. I’ve taken to keeping it in a pocket in the rucksack I carry with me now, to save on the trouser distress. Carrying a purse makes a good deal of sense, I think.

72. Valentine @56 – in the reverse alphabet 🙂

73. DNF, got about ? way through then came here to see what I missed.

    Loved the meta reference to using a thesaurus in 26d (guilty as charged).

    And the use of the full stop as part of the clue in 5d was genius.

74. The ? above was obviously the forum software’s best guess at the “2/3” symbol that my phone insists on using, unless I tell it not to…

75. The lp @67 I concur with most of what you say but in 26, “solve” isn’t the anagrind it’s the fodder. The anagrind is “cryptic”.

76. Too hard for me.

    I don’t think MASCOT works however you try and parse it. And I still don’t get STOP.

77. This was one of those puzzles that really help to improve puzzling skills and knowledge for us relative newcomers. Grateful to Peter O and Qaos for this lovely blog and puzzle. Could not parse 3 d without the blog and unfamiliar with LEPTON. Solved 9 ac without really understanding the answer for a considerable time but had to be based on the clue. Too many great clues to mention, really enjoyed the tussle even though as usual the setter wins!

78. Great fun. As well as his wonderfully eclectic cultural tastes, I would guess his chosen moniker hints at more than a passing interest in matters scientific. So, as the young genius in Arcadia, I think, plays with the second law of thermo-dynamics, surely the inclusion of the INCIPIENCE of a (LONG) GLACIAL ETERNITY is no coincidence.
    Thank you PeterO and bravo Qaos!

79. MarkN@68 You’d say a ten-foot board, or a ten-mile drive, or a ten-minute wait, or a ten-ton truck — counts of any kind of measurement always use the singular. That would go for currency too, be it a ten-penny, ten-shilling (as was) or ten-pound purchase. So not a ten-pence purchase, but not a one-pence one either: it would be a one-penny purchase.

80. The only thing I know about Tom Stoppard is that he went out with Felicity Kendall.
    Got a fair way with the crossword but lost the plot in the end.
    Thanks both.

81. Re MASCOT I think gladys @69 has probably got the parsing right (despite disagreeing with herself!) – it’s ‘race’s’ but ignoring the apostrophe. ASCOT cannot be ‘race’ any more than SCOT can be all the Scots.

    [MarkN @68 The use of pence when referring to just one penny came about soon after decimal currency was introduced in 1971. Before that people had used pence in words like tuppence (for two pennies) and thruppence (for three pennies) without thinking that they were plurals. Pennies was normal usage for a number of coins, but pence for an amount of money, I think. Though “one shilling and sixpence” was normally just “one and six”, written 1/6, or sometimes 1s/6d. (See how simple it used to be?)

    Then the new coinage was labelled “one new penny” and “two new pence” and so on, so people started using “pence” as though it was the name of the unit, rather than the plural; hence “one pence”. (Which was common usage here in the UK, Valentine @79, even though “one penny” would have been correct.) Partly this was from a wish to make it clear they were talking about the new coinage rather than the old. This was compounded by “ten new pence” replacing the coin that used to be called two shillings, or a florin, and “five new pence” replacing the old shilling, or bob. (See how simple it used to be? 🙂 )

    We had lost the old words along with the old coins. ]

82. MarkN@65 Should you still be around: Yes, I agree with you on both counts. Thanks for responding. And I agree with Sheffield Hatter’s analysis as well.

83. Well done anyone seeing STOP PAR D(…) ! …and theme.
    New TONGA.

    Thanks both

84. Thanks to PeterO ! Considerably harder than usual for Qaos so a DNF for me. Qaos’s themes have become rather abstruse of late, to the point where I don’t try to look for them until the puzzle is completed unless they leap out at me. I do hope we aren’t reverting to crosswords where the GK required presupposes a certain kind of education, that’s where I came in 50-odd years ago.

85. Well, my vote as a non-Brit is M + ASCOT, which I mainly know from My Fair Lady. Besides, I don’t think of the Scots as a race.

    I came back to this puzzle several times before finally giving up. I LOVEd getting 26d on my last pass, after finally getting the V crosser!

    Thanks, Qaos, for the challenge and PeterO for the blog! (PS, I like that you include the link — this would be especially helpful on the Prize puzzles, where the blog isn’t posted until the new puzzle is out and the numbers aren’t sequential.)

86. Late again! After finishing all of last week’s Guardian crosswords, I have failed every day this week. Teach me humility! I didn’t get INCIPIENCE, despite having more or less worked out the parsing, and that it probably meant At The Beginning. And I didn’t get STOP, and couldn’t parse it even when I saw the answer. Sneaky full stop! I had worked out it was P,Q,R,S backwards. And I tried to convince myself GROOMER was a Criminal, but I didn’t really believe it.

    Face Palm

87. Hard puzzle, but enjoyable when done. I, too, failed at 5d guessing STEP to mean stepping through the alphabetic sequence. But that was my only error and for a Texan who has been doing these for years, I think I did brilliantly despite not spotting the theme or the nina. Even if i say so myself. ?

    Once again, thanks for this wonderful web site.

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