Guardian Cryptic 29,005 by Matilda

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29005.

Plenty of witty clues, and mostly not too difficult. I particularly liked 1D OPEN SESAME and 11D DESIGNER BABY. However, I did not like it that there were three clues which involved people, perhaps moderately well known, in 8D, 10A and 12A, identified by just their first names – the intersectng clues 8D and 10A were particularly unhelpful.

ACROSS
1 OLIGARCH
One powerful goal, with rich result (8)
An anagram (‘result’?) of ‘goal’ plus ‘rich’.
5 OBJECT
Protest article‘s purpose (6)
Triple definition.
9 ESSAYIST
Writer, some lefties say, is Tory (8)
A hidden answer (‘some’) in ‘leftiES SAY IS Tory’.
10 CAVEAT
Notice Nick appearing in … (6)
A charade of CAVE (“Nick’, singer etc) plus AT (‘appearing in …’?).
12 SPRINGFIELD
Dusty town in an unspecified location (11)
Double definition: the singer Dusty SPRINGFIELD, and the numerous towns of that name.
15 SAMBA
Relish short dance (5)
A subtraction: SAMBA[l] (Indonesian ‘relish’) minus its last letter (‘short’).
17 NAIL-BITER
Britain’s entanglement with EU law starts a tense situation (4-5)
An anagram (‘entanglement’) of ‘Britain’ plus EL (‘Eu Law starts’).
18 MANNEQUIN
Model style mostly followed by one in five (9)
A charade of MANNE[r]) (‘style’) minus its last letter (‘mostly’) plus QUIN (‘one in five’).
19 SLANG
Island egg shelled, so to speak? (5)
‘iSLANg eGg’ minus the outer letters (‘shelled’).
20 ALTERCATION
One way of seeing action is to have a row (11)
Wordplay in the answer: an anagram (ALTER) of CATION is ‘action’.
24 SHODDY
Throw covers not even cheap! (6)
An envelope (‘covers’) of ODD (‘not even’) in SHY (‘throw’).
25 CASTANET
Start fishing for one of a pair (8)
CAST A NET (‘start fishing’).
26 SHERRY
Be quiet, be human and, finally, enjoy this wine (6)
A charade of SH (‘be quiet!’) plus ERR (‘be human’ – “to err is human, to forgive divine” Alexander Pope) plus Y (‘finally enjoY‘).
27 MY FRIEND
Matilda’s mate? Crikey! Right into the devil’s clutches (2,6)
A charade of MY (‘crikey!’) plus FRIEND, an envelope (‘into … clutches’) of R (‘right’) in FIEND (‘the devil’).
DOWN
1 OPEN SESAME
One’s silly to accept portal entry initials with identical password (4,6)
A charade of OPENSE, an envelope (‘to accept’) of PE (‘Portal Entry initials’) in ONSE, an anagram (‘silly’) of ‘ones’; plus SAME (‘identical’).
2 INSTRUMENT
Home before ten, perhaps play guitar or something similar (10)
A charade of IN (‘home’) plus STRUM (‘play guitar’) plus ENT, an anagram (‘perhaps’) of ‘ten’.

 

 

 

 

 

 
3 ARYAN
Race fairly, gain evenly (5)
Alternate letters (‘evenly’) of ‘fAiRlY gAiN‘.
4 COSI FAN TUTTE
Fun to tie cast in knots — that’s entertainment (4,3,5)
An anagram (‘in knots’) of ‘fun to tie cast’, for Mozart’s opera.
6 BOARD A BUS
Endless abuse after directors take public transport (5,1,3)
A charade of BOARD (‘directors’) plus ‘a bus[e]’ minus the last letter (‘endless’).
7 EVEN
Smooth beginning out of this clue (4)
The clue is number [s]EVEN.
8 TATE
Collection for Catherine (4)
Double definition: the art collection, and the actor comedian and writer.
11 DESIGNER BABY
Carefully selected result by breeding as ordered (8,4)
An anagram (‘ordered’) of ‘by breeding as’, with an extended definition.
13 AT VARIANCE
A television song with nations competing (Eurovision) starts in disagreement (2,8)
A charade of ‘a’ plus TV (‘television’) plus ARIA (‘song’) plus NCE (‘Nations Competing Eurovision starts’).
14 ORIGINATED
Spoke about drink after one began (10)
An envelope (‘about’) of I (‘one’) plus GIN (‘drink’) in ORATED (‘spoke’),
16, 23 ALEXANDER POPE
Poet would need to swap places for religious leader (9,4)
There have been 8 Roman POPE ALEXANDERs and one Coptic. Note 26A.
21 ASTIR
Not still a prison (5)
A charade of ‘a’ plus STIR (‘prison’).
22 AS IS
A member of the family in this state (2,2)
A SIS (‘a member of the family’).
23
See 16

picture of the completed grid

101 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,005 by Matilda”

  1. Quite like Cave’s work, so didn’t mind Nick, but can’t do a sentence for at/appearing in. Probly just being lazy, it’s a hot day in Freo. Thanks Matilda and PeterO.

  2. Yes, a mixed bag. Much to like, including the elegant cluing for SLANG and CASTANET; “be human” for the ERR in SHERRY; the infiltration of the answer into the wordplay in INSTRUMENT and especially DESIGNER BABY. I wasn’t fussed either way about the first-name terms. Talk of “sauce” and “dance” misdirected me away from SAMBA to “salsa” for a while. I don’t like “cheap” as a definition of SHODDY (for me low in price is not the same as low in quality, much though they may frequently collocate), but I otherwise liked the surface of that clue.

    Thanks to Matilda for the waltz, and to Peter O for the parsing

  3. I found 10a sufficiently obscure that I couldn’t even parse it having guessed the answer, and ‘Matilda’s mate’ being the definition of 27a felt a bit off to me.

  4. I agree with 2 out of 3 of PeterO’s comments about first names – Dusty is rare enough that I think the clue is fine. As for Springfield itself, I’ve heard it said that every state in the US has a Springfield; I don’t know if that’s true, but I’ve certainly heard it. Wouldn’t “insufficiently specified” be a bit more accurate?

    It seemed a bit weird in 2d to say that an instrument is something similar to a guitar – a specific instrument maybe, but as it stands it sounded like saying colour is similar to red.

    As for 16,23, doesn’t the clue need to indicate “names”? If you told someone they needed to swap places, I don’t think reordering their names would come to mind. Maybe it’s just me.

    Thanks M&P

  5. Didn’t get Tate nor caveat. Did get but couldn’t parse Alexander Pope nor Springfield. I thought some of these were a trifle odd.

  6. Thanks Matilda for an excellent set of clues including the triple definition OBJECT, NAIL-BITER, ALTERCATION with the wordplay in the solution, EVEN, DESIGNER BABY for its great surface, and SHERRY. I missed TATE (don’t know Catherine Tate) and couldn’t parse SAMBA so thanks PeterO for the early blog.

  7. The hardest Matilda puzzle I can remember doing. Of the names, CAVE was the one that took longest to spot and I was slow getting a few others like the ALTERCATION reverse anagram. Ended up as a DNF, putting the E and the I the wrong way round for the Mozart opera at 4d, which I also found pretty hard. I liked the three word OBJECT triple def.

    With reference to Dr. WhatsOn @4’s comment, I wonder if the parsing for 2d is STRUM for ‘play’, with the def being ‘guitar or something similar’.

    Thanks to Matilda and PeterO

  8. I think Springfield refers to the town in The Simpsons. There was a running gag where the maps of it’s location in the US were always obscured

  9. Still don’t get why Springfield is a town in an unspecified location, but got the answer thanks to Dusty. Even as a UK solver, Tate wasn’t the Catherine that sprang immediately to mind, and not sure how well known she is elsewhere. Also felt that 2d needed an insertion indicator. Thanks to Matilda and PeterO.

  10. About 18 months ago I learned the meaning of the word ‘pangram’. Since then I have a childlike excitement when I think one is happening. Hopes dashed once more.
    Enjoyed the journey on this one. Although ALEXANDER POPE brought back nightmares of A Level English Lit. The Rape of The Lock wasn’t exactly a page turner.
    Thanks Matilda and PeterO

  11. I enjoyed nearly all of this, but had no idea what SAMBA might be short for. 8d obviously couldn’t be KITTY: I eventually remembered TATE, then tracked down CAVEAT via a word finder, and then had trouble remembering the right Nick and what the … might be all about. Too many hard to remember people in the same corner there.

    However, I liked the reverse clue in ALTERCATION, INSTRUMENT (I agree that “guitar” is part of the def while also providing a hint for STRUM), DESIGNER BABY for a great surface, and NAIL BITER for a topical one, the ERR in SHERRY, and many more: Matilda is fast becoming a favourite setter.

    CASTANET has the air of being a chestnut, but it’s clever and I haven’t seen it before myself.

  12. We agree about the names. Dusty was OK, but CAVEAT was odd (as ginf @1 said, and also becuase ‘notice’ seems a strange synonym for a warning) and we still have no idea who the TATE woman is. Did not get the parsing for SLANG, so thanks to PeterO there. All that said, there were many good ones: the poet, the well hidden writer, DESIGNER BABY, SHERRY (is human indeed, and the A. POPE crossers), AT VARIANCE… Thanks, Matilda and PeterO.

  13. I thought this was the finest puzzle Matilda has produced. Unlike PeterO, I enjoyed going through the list of possible second names, making the hunt more interesting and I am a fan of all three. I liked the link between ALEXANDER POPE and SHERRY as identified by Peter. ESSAYIST, DESIGNER BABY AT VARIANCE and ALTERCATION were amongst many ticks. Her best yet by far.

    Ta Matilda & PeterO.

  15. Thanks, Matilda and PeterO. I thought this was a delight – filled with fun. Definitely trickier than I’m used to from Matilda but that just made the fun last longer. Same favourites as AlanC @13.

    I forgot about the Indonesian sambal but thought of the South Indian sambal instead – a coconut chilli relish that goes well with dosas. Mmmmm.

    Gladys – CASTANET is most definitely a chestnut but the clue is sufficiently cleverly worded that it still held me up for a bit.

  16. Thanks Matilda and PeterO
    Matilda is one of my favourite setters, but there were some things I didn’t like about this. “unspecified location” for SPRINGFIELD seemed odd; Andy Doyle’s explanation @8 gives it more coherence, but flew past me as I have never seen the Simpsons. CAVEAT was triply odd; definition, and both bits of wordplay. TATE is rather parochial.
    On the other hand there was lots to like. CASTANET favourite.
    [I learned last week from one of the excellent Michael Portillo programmes what SHODDY actually is. It’s cloth made from recycled cloth, and isn’t necessarily of poor quality. Batley in Yorkshire did very well out of making it. Google tells me that a firm is looking to revive the production.]

  17. Held up by my own laziness in entering ‘salsa’ for 15 (never heard of sambal) and ‘catch a bus’ for 6. Guessed 10 CAVEAT before parsing as well. Liked the anagram in 4 and the charade in 26. Thanks to blogger and setter.

  18. Great fun, thank you Matilda. I thought this would make a great puzzle for a starter as it contains just about every example of the setters tricks of the trade. Yes, Tate and Cave (and the Springfield DD) were a little obscure but definitely gettable. Thanks PeterO for the excellent blog.
    ( For an earworm today how about Nick Cave’s wonderful Into Your Arms?)

  19. No problem with Nick (CAVEAT) as I saw him at (appearing in?… I share your query grantinfreo @1 ) The Enmore where it was Grinderman for the first half and Nick solo on piano for the second. I thought Nick, Dusty and Catherine all lacked DBE indicators but I sort of got what Matilda was getting at. At least a DBE reduces the “is this really the answer?” question which is usually a sign of a not very good cryptic clue. I too thought of the Simpsons for SPRINGFIELD (muffin @8, you really should try it).
    SAMBA(l) came easy as I used to frequent a local eatery called Sambal (now sadly closed, which was actually more Malaysian, although their languages are 90% common). Nice and spicy.
    “In this state” I thought a weak definition for AS IS.
    Favourites were the reverse anagram of ALTERCATION and the POPE A or A POPE.

  20. I liked ALTERCATION but there were far too many dubious definitions for my taste – COSI FAN TUTTE for example

    Cheers P&M

  22. Springfield, the home town of the SImpsons, is famously undefined in its location.
    Thought that was a precise clue.

  26. I’ll echo Alan C @13 and Widdersbel @15 – I’m a great fan of Matilda’s puzzles.

    As well as the neat link between 26ac and 23,16dn, there’s the fact that ALEXANDER POPE was also an ESSAYIST.

    Many thanks to Matilda and PeterO.

  28. Mixed bag here. Random first name / surname guessing isn’t my favourite way of deconstructing a clue, though at least Dusty is a fairly distinctive name. I thought ‘so to speak’ to clue SLANG was a little loose, as was ‘entertainment’ for a specific opera title.

    But I very much liked EVEN, SHERRY, OBJECT and MANNEQUIN.

    Thanks both.

  30. Very enjoyable puzzle. It was great to have some references to contemporary performers: singer Nick Cave and actress Catherine Tate.

    Liked EVEN, AT VARIANCE, CASTANET, DESIGNER BABY, ALTERCATION (loi).

    Thanks, both.

  31. We are always delighted to see a Matilda crossword, and this was an absolute joy! We never know any of the public figures appearing in clues, but today we recognised all three, which seems to indicate that they’re not at all obscure. We had none of the gripes mentioned by other solvers, didn’t know sambal but the dance was obvious….big thanks to Matilda, and PeterO

  32. Nice to see Nick Cave in a clue, and got him fairly quickly from having seen him 40 years ago in an excellent Fall / Birthday Party double bill. Perhaps one to have avoided though if you are partial to things like melody and harmony. I did however wonder if it was totally fair for a crossword outside the NME, duets with Kylie Minogue notwithstanding.

    Great fun though, and I’m off to release some bats.

  33. I really like Matilda’s puzzles, so was pleased to complete this one today. Thanks to Matilda. Hear hear to michelle’s comments@30, which coincided nicely with what I thought, including the favourites cited (and I had some more ticks which concur with favourites of some other folk). I was another who tried SALSA at 15a with a question mark over the “small”, before I got the delightful INSTRUMENT at 2d and I had to re-think, and then found that I really liked SAMBA. Thanks to PeterO and other contributors for a very readable blog with some interesting posts to follow.

  34. I found this hard, much harder than Saturday’s prize, but got there in the end with only one reveal – CAVEAT of course, and thanks for the parsing.
    Liked SPRINGFIELD, CASTANET, OPEN SESAME, INSTRUMENT for the lovely surface, and DESIGNER BABY in particular. Agree it was ultimately a puzzle full of fun. Thanks Matilda and PeterO

  36. Is it me or is the clue for INSTRUMENT in the wrong order? Home – IN, before ten perhaps – ENT, play – STRUM.
    Apart from that, all good fun. Thanks Matilda and PeterO.

  38. I thought at first this was going to be a write in. Not so. That said, I managed to get within three of completing. I am another who was defeated by CAVEAT. Nick Cave is not on my radar. I liked DESIGNER BABY and ALEXANDER POPE. With thanks to Matilda and PeterO.

  39. Enjoyed this very much. Although all analysis fully explained and debated, would just like to mention (20a) CATION, a word in its own right, a positively charged ion ; I like that word.
    Dusty Springfield is my favourite female singer and, in my teens, I was lucky enough to see her three times.
    Thinking of POPE and her wonderful INSTRUMENT of a voice, here’s one of her most famous renditions

    https://youtu.be/b4pYANUAJAI

    With Northern Ireland matters going on in the UK just now and coming up to the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, I got a memory jolt. So here’s Catherine TATE and Tony Blair doing a twosome sketch and raising money for charity in “Comic Relief”. A bit dated now but well acted.

    https://youtu.be/sfkjvagVsRI

    Don’t think I was AT VARIANCE with anyone’s opinions, this morning.

    Thank you Matilda and PeterO.

  40. Thanks Matilda and PeterO

    I saw the construction of INSTRUMENT as IN (home) with STRUM (play guitar) *before* ENT (ten perhaps).

  41. Lots to like, especially the neat SHODDY and SLANG. Couldn’t however parse SPRINGFIELD or SAMBA. Last to yield the NE corner, with CAVEAT the final one, which rather required the same solving process as TATE did, I thought, very much what PeterO says…

  42. trishincharente@36 I think you can read the clue as telling you to play the guitar before ten (maybe so as not to annoy the neighbours?) SHERRY my favourite among many. Nick CAVE was the subject of a themed puzzle elsewhere recently so came to mind readily.

  43. Simon S: yes, the “before ten perhaps” applies to the “play”, not to the “Home”. But I agree with WordPlodder @7 that “play” = STRUM and the definition is “guitar or something similar”.

    grantinfreo @1, how about “Nick Cave at the Royal Albert Hall” / “Nick Cave appearing in the Royal Albert Hall”? Ok, the latter is not the most natural phrasing, but it’s accurate enough.

    I thought this was great fun. Many thanks Matilda and PeterO.

  45. Great fun and, for me, a much quicker solve than most offerings from Matilda. A mixture of write-ins and some much more abstruse clues – and some very exiguous definitions (‘entertainment’, ‘town in an unspecified location’, ‘so to speak’).

    Something for everyone here, from Nick Cave (CAVEAT was my LOI) to Mozart opera. I particularly liked the DESIGNER BABY(great surface), the self-referential INSTRUMENT and the clever intersection of POPE and an allusion to one of his most famous lines. SAMBA sneakily hinted at ‘salsa’, which I’m sure most of us first posited.

    Thanks to S&B

  46. Mostly very good fun indeed, although I share the eyebrows at ‘random first names’. Also not keen on anagrams of foreign/unusual words/phrases where there are multiple plausible spellings – if (like me), you didn’t know the opera well, you’re left with a completely 50/50 choice between COSI/E FAN TUTTE/I, both of which seemed quite possible. And is ‘result’ really an anagram indicator? Hmmmmm.

    But these are fairly minor quibbles in an enjoyable puzzle.

    Thanks Matilda and PeterO.

  47. [Hear hear, JerryG @18. First heard it staying with mates in NZ, playing ‘pick any song’, and the hostess picked Into My Arms. Very arresting]

  48. SimonS, Petert and Lord Jim. Yes, I see now how it can be read a different way. Home. Before ten perhaps, play. Guitar or something similar.
    Objection withdrawn!

  49. Crispy @9 and trisincharente @36
    In 2D INSTRUMENT, I think ‘before’ is a valid indication to place STRUM before ENT.

  51. I started off solving thinking “Matilda, this should be quick”, assuming she’d be in Quiptic mode, to be swiftly disabused. Completed, but didn’t parse CAVEAT, as Nick Cave didn’t come to mind. He should have when the pennies had dropped on Catherine and Dusty. I wasn’t bothered about the unspecified Springfield (and spent some time trying to think of Nicks in The Simpsons for CAVEAT). Really great surface and anagram for DESIGNER BABY.

    I am not one of Catherine Tate’s fans, but I was working in schools when her school girl sketches were on TV, and I got very fed up with trying to negotiate with 10 year olds saying does this face look bovvered. (That’s her French lesson sketch on YouTube.)

    Thank you to PeterO and Matilda.

  52. Enjoyed this, and don’t really get the complaints. Surely oblique references are part of the fun? Quite a few clues made me smile and ALEXANDER POPE came to me as I was doing lengths in the pool! Favourites are OPEN SESAME and SHERRY.

  53. Had to give up on this, as NHO Nick at 19ac, where definition doesn’t really work: didn’t know Catherine at 6dn either.
    27a was barely acceptable as a phrase, whilst 4dn really doesn’t do it for me.

  56. Found this hard to get started, but managed to finish after suppressing my surprise that Nick Cave and Catherine Tate were supposedly well known. SPRINGFIELD is well known to me as the state capital of Illinois. As I don’t watch the Simpson the “unspecified location” was a complete mystery to me. But many clues to like and a reasonable crossword (CAVEATs aside) for a Wednesday.

  57. I have never heard of Nick Cave nor Catherine Tate, so color me annoyed by that whole corner. But the town in an unspecified location is clearly a Simpsons reference, and works fine in that context. (It is not actually true that there’s a Springfield in every state–I’m sure there’s not one in Hawaii, for example–but there are enough of them to make it a good running gag for the show. (The capital of Illinois, plus decent-sized cities in Missouri, Ohio, and Massachusetts; the other Springfields are mostly tiny towns.))

  58. Not too difficult except that to the best of my recollection I’ve never heard of Nick Cave, so CAVEAT eluded me. Thanks forthe

  59. Dr Whatson@4 and mrpenney@57 There isn’t a Springfield in every US state, but there are 34 of them according to Google, of which five are in Wisconsin. (How can that be?) That’s why it’s a generic place name for the Simpsons. I’ve never seen the show but I have heard that. I lived in one of the Springfields as a teenager, in Massachusetts, home of the Springfield rifle. (It has a Rifle Street, location I suppose of the old factory.) When my family moved, they went to Hartford Connecticut, home of the Samuel Colt factory of Colt-45 fame. The other famous firearm in US history is the Winchester rifle (the “Gun That Won the West”) , made not in but by a Winchester, Oliver, in Connecticut. The family got fabulously rich. When Oliver’s son Walter died, his widow Sallie moved to San Jose CA. Legend has it that she felt terrible guilt about the many deaths the rifle had caused and feared that her family was under a curse, and that the only way to protect them from it was to keep adding to the house forever. Whether that is true or not, the house is a maze of rooms, and a tourist attraction now. Whether Sallie believed all that or not, she was definitely not crazy, but very ably ran a series of businesses in San Jose.

    PeterO you have a tiny typo in the parsing of iSLANd eGg.

    Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO for a morning’s entertainment.

  61. If someone else has said this already, apologies, slightly distracted reading through.
    I think it’s worth pointing out that CAVEAT has a distinct meaning in Law, listed as the second definition in the dictionaries I’ve looked at. Perhaps most of you knew this, I didn’t, and a couple of comments allude to the definition being odd.

    LAW
    a notice, especially in a probate, that certain actions may not be taken without informing the person who gave the notice.

    Mind you, it seems atypical of Matilda to select the less well known definition whilst also referencing Mr. Cave. Brilliant as he is, perhaps not a name that leaps into all minds.

  63. Agree with the various criticisms above of this one, personally I think referring to Dusty Springfield is fine, although the rest of the clue definitely required “esoteric knowledge” (which I didn’t have, never watched The Simpsons), while the references to Ms Tate and (especially) Mr Cave were again needlessly esoteric….and three in one crossword was definitely crossing the line!

  64. I am another who was defeated by CAVEAT because I could find nothing for the definition, as well as not knowing Nick!

    I found the following in Oxford Languages:

    LAW
    a notice, especially in a probate, that certain actions may not be taken without informing the person who gave the notice.

    So Matilda is not MY FRIEND

  67. [Valentine @59: Springfield Mass is also known as the birthplace of basketball. James Naismith, a Canadian, invented the game at the Springfield YMCA training facility as a way for Y patrons to keep fit in the winter. The original baskets were literally peach baskets, if I recall correctly. This makes basketball one of the few popular sports whose origins are definitely known. The Basketball Hall of Fame is located in Springfield for this reason.]

  69. Simon S@60 Springfield NY is nexta Schenectady.

    mrpenney@67 I know the Basketball Hall of Fame well, though I’ve never been inside. It’s shaped like a giant basketball, several storeys tall, and is right next to Interstate 91 as you drive north to whatever is is in Springfield or beyond that you’re actually going to.

  70. mrpenney again — I’d always thought that basketball was invented at Springfield College. I do recognize the name Naismith as somehow connected.

  71. Another bit of Springfield fame is Dr. Seuss (actually Theodore Geisel), who lived there. His first book was “To Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” in which increasingly improbable and Seuss-ish things happen on the narrator’s humdrum street. One day I happened on the real Mulberry Street (I think Dr Seuss lived there) and sure enough, it was really boring. There’s a Dr Seuss museum downtown now.

  73. A few short…I lost interest as I found this a bit of a grind TBH. Matilda has never been up high on my setters list. Like Brendan, I always struggle.
    Having never heard of 4d, it made a finish pretty much impossible.
    Quite a lot of parsing was pretty obscure.
    Thanks both.

  74. I’m another who fell at the CAVEAT hurdle, but that’s a reflection on me, not the setter.

    19d ‘Island egg shelled, so to speak’ led me to confidently write in WHITE; as I’m a resident of England’s South Island, how could it not?

  75. Thanks for the blog, really enjoyed this overall.
    I think the trouble with Nick and Catherine is that there is no deception, has to be a name. Dusty is very good, at the front hides the capital and the clue misleads us with the usual meaning of dusty .
    ALTERCATION is very clever and I like the ” be human ” bit for SHERRY, ESSAYIST is very well hidden.
    Apart from two of the names I would agree with AlanC@13 ( not in the top 10 even today ) .

  77. Add me to the list of those beaten by CAVEAT which is particularly irritating as I love Nick Cave. Otherwise reasonably straightforward & enjoyable
    Thanks all.

  79. Roz @75: I think I would have needed to suffer from severe insomnia to have achieved that goal this morning! I see what you mean about Catherine but Nick had me thinking of jail and the devil as mentioned in ASTIR and MY FRIEND (the poorest clue IMO).

  81. I see what you mean AlanC @79 but I still think it would be better to start the clue with Nick. I now see that you had Number 1 yesterday , I make it 13 -8 but I have a chance with Azed and that of course counts double.

  84. Maybe for 1a “One powerful goal, with rich results” might suggest the anagram a little more?
    Otherwise, I liked this. Thanks to commenters for the proper way to read 2d, which eluded me too.
    Cheers, Matilda and Peter.

  85. [ AlanC my prediction has just come true this minute, and some people still do not believe I can see the future. My lead is now 15-8 . ]

  87. For those interested in furthering their Springfield enquiries at this later stage of the day, here is a fairly exhaustive site that highlights them all – pretty much – along with vintage photographs – and even a route that connects them all1

  88. Roz@75: the other problem with Nick and Catherine was that they were postioned together in the grid, so that similar difficulties with two similar clue types reinforced each other. I had heard of both of them, but both are frustratingly common first names, and in neither case was there any hint about what they were supposed to be “well known” for.

  91. Simon S@60, FrankieG@78 : For what it’s worth, I have some stills of Buffalo ( taken from Niagara falls ). I was a young buck, messin a round with my old Canon.

    Matilda has already been thanked for a great waltz by bonangman@2, so I’ll just say once more it was a honey of a puzzle.

  92. Quibbles: 6D was too literal…why wasn’t a synonym for “abuse” used in the clue rather than the actual word? 17A & 13D repeat the same device with “starts” for both “EU law” and “nations competing (Eurovision)” and the double Europe for “E”. 10A & 8D not only have the general knowledge problem that everyone else has identified but also they appear in a poorly constructed corner of the grid: the northeast and the southwest were virtually discrete puzzles, little desert islands almost completely bereft of crossers.

  93. Seemed a fine puzzle to me. I think some of the unhappiness about names is misplaced when the entertainers involved have been internationally known for decades. Not easy, I agree, but not unfair either.
    Thanks, Matilda.

  96. Simon S @ 95, FrankieG @ 78 : The nearest I got to taking pics of Buffalo Springfield memorabilia is when I took my brother-in-law to Brookfield in Elstead UK to photograph the garden through a hole in the fence !
    The real gardener had inspired Peter Sellers as to his final performance – Chance, the gardener in “Being There”. Peter Sellers sold Brookfield to Ringo Starr who sold it to Stephen Stills ( coiner of the band name ).
    I thought we were steam-rollering the Surrey countryside and doing well but my brother in law got into a Furay of a mood and cursed the waste of time. I just gNASHed my teeth. made Cros by his attitude.

  98. [Simon S @97
    Best one so far. As I remember, they only took Neil Young in as they couldn’t reproduce their studio harmonies live with only the three of them.]

  100. 10a. “Caveat emptor” (Buyer beware) is well-known legal maxim and Nick Cave is a well-known artist, i.e. I’ve heard of him (but none of his work). He’s been mentioned here recently, I think, and his picture was in the paper – odd looking cove.
    4d. I’m a “Cosi” fan but I agree that the definition is a bit loose.
    27a. On reading the first two words I wondered if Matilda was going to confirm that, as has been suggested here, she is Mrs Philistine, but the rest and numeration put me right.
    Muffin @ 16. 24a reminded me that, from memory, “When every single thing you wear Is made of silks and satins rare, For satins rare you cease to care Up goes the price of shoddy”. G and S “The Gondoliers”.
    Thanks to Matilda and PeterO

  101. Thanks PeterO and to Alan@61 and HoustonTony@64 for improving my understanding of that definition. I enjoyed the discussion of Springfield too, and thought that was an excellent clue, but raised an eyebrow at 27a and 6d as borderline ‘green car’ territory. Matilda has pulled the wool over my eyes before so I wondered if there was something else going on and slept on it before posting, but if so it is (as so often) beyond my ken. Lots to enjoy, thanks Matilda.

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