Guardian 29,094 / Carpathian

61 comments on “Guardian 29,094 / Carpathian”

1. Anto gets a lot of flak for making quiptics too easy and maybe the reverse is true here? I’d give this top marks as a Q

   I did like CLODHOPPER which I only knew as a shoe

   Cheers E&C

2. Too hard!

3. Thanks, Carpathian and Elieen!
   Liked NOTE, MOPED and SOMETIMES.

4. What Eileen said, really.

   A pleasant solve helped by a kind grid format.

   BECOMING was ticked but enjoyed the long anagrams, too.

   Neat to spot thermos in NETHERMOST.

5. Comfortable slipping nothing too slippery or uncomfortable. Good Monday offering.

   Liked MOPED.

   Tx Eileen and Carpathian.

6. If I was asked by someone doing their first cryptic to recommend a puzzle to start, this would be it. No unusual words, lots of anagrams to get a foothold and lots of well constructed clues. Lovely surfaces as well. Thanks to Carpathian and Eileen for her excellent blog.

7. I recommended the Monday Guardian crossword to a newbie on the Everyman blog here yesterday. Hope he / she looked at it. Everything a Monday crossword should be! Thanks to Carpathian and Eileen

8. Simply lovely.

   Ta Carpathian & Eileen.

9. This was brilliant and a gentle start to Monday, but it did feel as if the Quiptic and Cryptic were in the wrong slots.

   Loved the spot of thermos in NETHERMOST, I had enough crossers from tge across clues to slot in thermos and work out the rest.

   Thank you to Eileen and Carpathian.

10. Shanne @ 9 – I agree: I meant to include NETHERMOST in my favourites – I’ll add it now.

11. DRAWN
    I thought of ‘curtains drawn’ as you did, Eileen!

12. Perfect start to the week, thanks.

13. This was my quickest ever solve of a crossword. I was like a man possessed. Any faith in the indicators paid off immediately. Always enjoy a clue where the letters as clued sound nothing like the letters as solved, eg thermos.

14. Eileen & KVa@11. DRAWN always reminds me of a quote from one of Spike Milligan’s writings: “Inside the room the curtains were drawn. But the furniture was real.”

15. blaise @14
    🙂

16. William @4 – I should have included you @10: my apologies.

17. Great way to start the week. Thanks C and E

18. blaise@14
    That was a good one!

19. I really enjoyed this. There was just enough bite for me to grapple with but the answers came relatively easily. I particularly enjoyed the setter’s choice of words. There was nice variety and they were just different enough to stir interest in this logophile, especially misappropriated, shrubbery, nethermost (big tick), and the wonderful clodhopper. Thanks, Carpathian for the fun, and Eileen for the helpful blog.

20. Smooth, smooth crossword. Liked the 10 lettered ones the most NETHERMOST, CLODHOPPER and GREYBEARDS.

    Earworm of the day must surely be

    https://youtu.be/NrgmdOz227I

    ( It was “scrambled plural-of-OVUM” when first conceptualised and then his dream came along and nailed it ).

    Thank you Carpathian and Eileeen

21. Quite enjoyable, and easier than the Quiptic. If I heard someone was moping, I’d picture them feeling sorry for themselves, but I guess it means moving aimlessly. I only knew a clodhopper as a boot.

    Thanks Carpathian & Eileen.

22. What a great Monday puzzle to start the week! Nothing too convoluted, just concise clues with clever surfaces, and enough misdirection here and there to keep me entertained. I had to nod at all the aforementioned favourites – my “big tick” (cf Rosella2@19) was for 24a SHRUBBERY – but really it was all very likeable and amounted to a smooth solving experience for me. Thanks very much to Carpathian and Eileen.

23. I agree with everything Eileen wrote. Carpathian is such a classy setter – and the blog was great too.
    Thanks to you both

24. Good start to the week with Carpathian’s usual precise clues.

    I liked the Thermos flask, the surface for PERFORATE, and the old CLODHOPPER.

    Thanks Carpathian and Eileen.

25. Very enjoyable puzzle.

    FavouriteS: DAMNATION, NOTE, NETHERMOST, SHRUBBERY.

    Thanks, both.

26. I liked the way the definition for CLODHOPPERS hints at the origins of the word.

    I started putting together the pieces of 14d from the wordplay: SO(METI)(ME)S and tried to think what word it could be: so-meti-mes? Doh! (Monday mornings have never been my favourite part of the week. 🙂 )

    Thanks to Carpathian and Eileen.

27. Lovely smooth clueing today, I thought. Nice to see NETHERMOST and the Roald Dahl-esque CLODHOPPER getting a rare airing. Last one in SOMETIMES…

28. GDU@21
    ‘mope’ is used in both senses you have talked about.
    Anyway, not a ponglicated puzzle. To that, cheers!

29. And the blog is as Eileenistically neat as ever! More cheers!

30. I agree with JerryG@6. Ideal beginner’s puzzle. Thanks to Carpathian and Eileen.

31. As many have said, one for the beginners. Certainly nothing here to frighten the horses, but a fun few minutes even so.

32. Definitely easier than the Quiptic (which I haven’t finished yet). NETHERMOST definitely my CoD.

33. Thanks Carpathian and Eileen
    A lovely puzzle from one of my favourite setters – though easier than the “Quiptic”, as people have said both here and there.
    Lots of smiles. My ticks were for YESTERDAY, MOUNTIE, and NETHERMOST.

34. Excellent, it’s all been said.
    Thanks both.

35. Sh + rubbery made me laugh! All very enjoyable, so thanks C and E.

36. Very enjoyable start to the week. My only complaint is that it was over too soon! Like David @13, this was my quickest solve yet of a Guardian crossword. 🙂

    Thanks Carpathian and Eileen.

37. Eileen, thanks for parsing SOMETIMES, I didn’t know what to do after “seriatim” not only didn’t parse but didn’t fit!

    I enjoyed all the anagrams, especially YESTERDAY.

    Thanks to Carpathian and Eileen.

38. Thanks both.

    It’s Monday so I forgive myself for being defeated by BECOMING (even with all the crossers). (It’s no harm to taste defeat now and again. (But not smell – that’s never good.))

    Flea@20: Eileen beat you to it with that earworm I’m afraid. [But fun fact: In Eileen’s version Macca plays a rare solo live version (how did they manage to produce the strings arrangement? Must perforce have been a string quartet in the orchestra pit. Or is he miming? (I think he’s miming)) on his Gibson (J45?) acoustic tuned down a full tone so as to produce the song in the key of F using ‘G’ chord shapes (not a lot of people know that). Here is a live version where he steps forward from the band to perform ‘Yesterday’ with conventionally tuned instruments and he just about manages to produce it in the key of G.]

39. Carpathian always makes Mondays a gentle pleasure with nothing to quibble about. The anagram clues are all good, with well chosen combinations of fodder and anagrind.

    Thanks to Carpathian and Eileen

40. Alphalpha @38 – I’d assumed that Flea @20 had read the blog and was disagreeing with me. 😉
    Valentine @27 – I’m still trying to work out “seriatim”!

41. Just realised I never solved TURNOVER either – what a nice clue.

    [Turns out it was an Epiphone Texan guitar on ‘Yesterday’]

42. Was just trying to convey that the working title was, at first, “scrambled eggs”!

43. This was my quickest solve yet but a lot of fun. I briefly got stuck on CLODHOPPER as I think of the word as meaning an ignorant country bumpkin rather than a peasant, per se.
    Thanks to Carpathian for a lovely gem of a puzzle and to Eileen for the blog.

44. Thanks Carpathian for demonstrating that a crossword need not be diificult to be excellent. My top choices were PERFORATES, EMERGENCY, CLODHOPPER, AMUSEMENT ARCADE, and MISAPPROPRIATED, the latter two for their great anagrams in very smooth surfaces. Thanks Eileen for the blog.

45. Alphalpha @38: your comment about smelling defeat reminded me of spotting spotting BO across the middle line earlier…

46. …in the Quiptic!

47. [AlanC@: I’ve done the Quiptic now and I see what you mean.]

48. Further to my last post, I looked up “peasant” in the dictionary and see it does have that second, derogatory definition that I hadn’t encountered before. I think of “peasant” as a poor person who works the land rather than as an insulting term for low-class country folk. Perhaps I’m the country bumpkin here!

49. CLODHOPPER carries pretty much the same connotations as Teuchter (has that ever been clued?) or bumpkin.

50. Ragged@49 Teuchter is a neat word that I had never come across before. Thanks for that! What I notice is that in North America terms like that aren’t necessarily related to social status or wealth, rather just a lack of cultural knowledge or sophistication derived from a person’s rural upbringing. Do you think that such words would be similarly applied in Scotland?

51. @49 ragged: There’s a good word I haven’t heard in a long time!

52. It always amazes me when people complain that the Monday cryptic is easier than the Quiptic. If both are easy, then
    (1) whether one is easier than the other is surely subjective, and
    (2) since both meet the criteria for Monday puzzles, how on earth does it matter which one is the easier?

    This was a Monday-level delight from start to finish, for which much thanks to Carpathian. Thanks also to Eileen for the excellent blog.

53. Like bodycheetah @1, I’ve only ever known CLODHOPPER to mean a bulky shoe, and have not encountered it in the sense used by Carpathian. Maybe the former is an Australianism? Once again, the cryptic provided a learning experience. Thanks to Carpathian and Eileen.

54. Cellomaniac @52
    The Quiptic puzzle is for “beginners, and people in a hurry”. Today’s didn’t match these criteria, so it does matter that it was harder than the cryptic (which would have made a very enjoyable Quiptic, in fact).

55. I don’t know if I am too late for help, but I am so close to completing this…

    What kind of clues are:

    20a
    12d
    14d
    24d?

56. Hi Steffen – sorry for the delay: I’ve been out and only just seen your post.

    I’m not sure whether you’ve actually read the blog, so I’ll just repeat what I said there, to give you give hints at this stage, if you want to soldier on.
    20ac – a simple charade, just like the game: a 4-letter word for ‘twist’ and another for ‘on top of’.
    12dn – an insertion clue: a word for ‘chopper’ ( axe) round (cut by) an anagram (strange) of old.
    14dn: A reversal (returned) of ITEM (thing) + ME (Carpathian, the setter) in SOS (cry for help)
    24dn – a hidden answer (overcome by) in chemical imbalance: the definition is ‘part of body.

    I’ve said more than once that I admire your perseverance and I’ve tried to help as far as I can. I’d be glad of some feedback. 😉

57. Eileen thank you.

    I have now completed it with those clues!

    I am trying not to read the blogs before becoming completely stuck. I needed multiple “check” attempts but I got there.

    The help from everyone on these blogs is fantastic.

    I had lost my enthusiasm for a few weeks to be honest.

58. Many thanks, Steffen – keep at it! 😉

59. I actually found this cryptic more straightforward than the recent Everyman (in fact all Everyman cryptics).

    The way that clues are explained in Everyman is extremely helpful – pitched to folk like me and not assuming any crossword knowledge.

60. Cellomaniac @52 — to agree with and expand upon muffin @54, the idea that the Monday cryptic and the Quiptic are somehow interchangeable is in itself a subjective thing; first of all, the concept of the Guardian’s cryptic weekday offerings working on an upwards sliding scale of difficulty from Monday to Friday is based on custom and practice which is in itself often subverted anyway (and I’d much rather have a trickier Tuesday vs Thursday than I would a trickier Quiptic vs Monday cryptic); and secondly the Quiptic has the qualifier already quoted by muffin.

    I only started doing cryptics just over a year ago and early on I found the Quiptics that genuinely met the brief to be extremely useful in my crosswording journey, and those that did not meet the brief to be very dispiriting, almost to the point of giving up the hobby completely. But I persevered!

    It’s really not that hard to pitch the level of difficulty correctly. The sheer number of comments on puzzles such as this stating that it’s too difficult for a Quiptic suggest that something is awry. I for one will continue to judge the Quiptic against its stated objective and not treat it as an extra Monday cryptic.

61. Bravo Steffen! – glad you got there 🙂

    Cellomaniac/muffin/Rob T

    It would be so nice to have a Guardian Quiptic slot that I could reliably recommend to beginners. I do take Cello’s point that, if the Quiptic meets the brief, it doesn’t really matter if it’s easier or harder than the Monday cryptic.

    But the thing is – in my view it so often doesn’t meet the brief (as Rob T experienced). And when it doesn’t, it’s so frustrating to see a perfectly good Quiptic sitting in the cryptic slot, while the actual “Quiptic” is of a kind more likely to put beginners off rather than encourage them to continue their journey.

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