Guardian Cryptic 29,263 by Fed

78 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,263 by Fed”

1. “yomp” came into common use during the Falklands War, when British troops carried heavy equipment over difficult terrain. But that was over 40 years ago – does anyone still use the term now?

2. In 12a you need to subtract the last letters of each of “prim(e) ministe(r) i(s) ala(s)” in order to generate the necessary fodder.

3. I began with 8a, and thought such an “approximate” Spoonerism disappointing. But I persevered, and there were only one or two other groans. I’d have put “initially” after “business” in the clue for 23a. Too many words are being reduced to initials without indication here in Crossword Land. I don’t care what Chambers says.

   I couldn’t fully parse IN HEAT (good grief!) nor LIVELIHOOD. Nor LARK AROUND never having heard of the poet. Never heard of YOMP. Had to look up Chancellor Hunt.

   I often don’t get far with Fed’s offerings, but completed today’s despite the above, and on the whole found it enjoyable.

4. Thanks for the blog, I enjoyed this but needed some help with parsing. For 12 across, I belive that all of the words have their last letters omitted – otherwise we end up with 2 rs, for example.

5. Great puzzle. “YOMP” was a well used word during the reporting of the Falkland war ( British soldiers’ manoeuvres ). My favourite was STEPHEN HAWKING.

   Thank you Fed and manehi.

6. Angela Almond @1, Yomp was used in last weekend’s Azed competition, a Spoonerism crossword in its entirety, as part of the title for the crossword which was “Cool Yomp” (aka “Yule Comp”)

7. As usual, Fed seems to have come up with a couple of different devices – not sure I’m a fan of them, but each to his own.

   Thanks to him and manehi

   Angela Almond @2 – I for one still use yomp. Seems particularly appropriate at the moment when walking the dog through the mud!

8. Sorry – Angel Almond @1.

9. thanks manehi! couldn’t workout the wp for IN HEAT (despite being oh so hep myself). and had to back into YOMP as it were.

10. Fed isn’t my favourite setter but maybe I’m slowly getting on his wavelength – his clues definitely seem to be getting more concise and witty. Liked NEGOTIABLE and IN HEAT. Will non-UK solvers have problems with definitions for SHOP and YOMP, and possibly the poet in the clue for LARKING AROUND? I agree with GDU@3 that initial letters of individual words are sometimes overused in crosswords generally, but AOB refers to a phrase rather than a word, and the term is surely familiar to anyone who’s attended a formal meeting (or is it also UK-specific?).
    Thanks Fed and manehi.

11. Delightful. Top ticks for LARK AROUND, SHOP and IN HEAT

    Cheers F&A

12. Smashing fun puzzle, lots of clever, inventive and amusing wordplay. Thanks, Fed and Duncan.

    GDU @3 – I’m all too familiar with AOB, alas, from the endless meetings I have to sit through at work. It’s a perfectly legit abbreviation.

13. *manehi not duncan

14. I’m totally with Widdersbel @12.

    Stand-outs for me today were STEPHEN HAWKING and LARK AROUND.

    Many thanks to Fed and manehi.

15. Thanks Fed and manehi
    Several unparsed. I had no chance with IN HEAT as I’ve never heard of a hep cat.
    I know people are fed up with “sounds like” discussions, but I can’t imagine that anyone pronounces “one” and “gone” with the same vowel sound.
    YOMP was favourite.

16. Angela Almond @1 – we YOMP a lot, meaning to roam freely and by compass or dead reckoning rather than on designated footpaths.
    I always enjoy Fed in any of his guises. Top today 2d and 4d. Thanks to Fed and Manehi

17. Favourites: EXPAND, LIVELIHOOD.

    New for me: YOMP; AOB = any other business.

    12ac – why is anti-imperialism ‘opposition to growth’? Is this from the perspective of the empire-builder?

    I could not parse 9ac, 4d apart from HEN + HAWK = two birds; 19d.

    Thanks, both.

18. I suspect I’m not the only one to have the equally plausible MOUNTS UP for 10a, until the cross with NEGOTIABLE made me rethink it. IN HEAT was good once I managed to parse it.

19. As others have said, tricky but lots of fun. IN HEAT took some parsing, as did LIVELIHOOD, my LOI. Didn’t quite bother parsing ANTI-IMPERIALISM, and share michelle @17’s eyebrow about the def. I suppose that’s what the question mark was for.

    The Falklands War was before my time, but YOMP has made it to me via my parents. AOB is a regular sight on meeting agendas – this is the first time I’ve spotted it in a puzzle, and nicely done it was too.

    muffin @15 – I would rhyme ‘one’ with ‘gone’…

    Thanks Fed & manehi.

20. muffin@15. There are several dialects of British English that really do rhyme “one” with “gone” rather than with “done”.

21. Muffin @ 15. One and gone sound the same to me.

22. Great fun and not as tricky as many of the crosswords I’ve solved in the last few days

    My friend and I often use the word yomp when we are walking across fields etc

    Many thanks to Fed and Manehi

23. @19, 20, and 21
    Obviously my imagination is insufficient!

    I don’t think I’ve ever heard “one” pronounced other than “wunn”.

24. beaulieu @10 – yes, AOB is British but not American usage (based on the two countries I’ve been to meetings in)

    Tough but fun, love the surface of 1d, with at least four entered from definition but not fully parsed.

    Imperialism, I suppose, is “growing” a state beyond its national boundaries.

25. oh, and for 6d, you do need to have a transatlantic mind to know the “shop” in question and that particular word for O.

26. Muffin @23 – I think Dave Gorman’s accent rhymes “gone” and “one” – it’s close to one of my childhood accents (we moved around, I chameleon accents), so that, for me, was a relatively easy Spoonerism.

    I like Fed’s cluing, but I never did find Rufus and his double meaning cryptic clues as satisfyingly certain as this sort of crossword. I find if I follow Fed’s instructions I can solve the clue.

    I thought hep cat and PC when I read IN HEAT, but then couldn’t see how the solution worked, doh, other than that all parsed. I wrote AOB on my last agenda, but it was abused, as it often is, so am aware of that abbreviation.

    Thank you to Fed and manehi.

27. I found that a touch easier going than a usual Fed, with over half going in on the first pass which made me feel rather clever. The rest was trickier but lots of fun. My favourite: GONE WEST, as I’m usually not a fan of Spoonerisms but making one so concise is a rare treat.

    Thanks both.

28. Anyone who’s been to the northwest of England will have heard ‘one’ rhyme with ‘gone’

29. Muffin @15 et al – I hail from Derbyshire and my accent rhymes ‘one’ with ‘gone’ so, as per Shanne @26, it was relatively straightforward for me.

30. Ex225
    I actually live in the northwest of England, and I’ve never heard it!

31. poc@18 ditto on “MOUNTS UP for 10a”
    loi LIVELIHOOD – nice one
    Thanks F&m

32. An enjoyable and quick solve, other than failing to parse 9A. Those reverse clues get me almost every time!

    Pedant point: There is no Foreign Office, and has not been since 1968 when it became the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and most recently the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). So while it is often casually referred to as the Foreign Office, it should not be abbreviated to FO except perhaps historically. However, I suspect it is far too handy to ever disappear from our cryptics.

33. Yomp (Royal Marines slang) and Tab (Parachute Regiment slang) both surfaced during the Falklands War, as others have said. Forty-plus years on, only yomp has survived in common usage – perhaps because of the lovely onomatopoeia (as others have also said). Happy Xmas & NY all!

34. Oh dear – as a speaker of R.P. (Received Pronunciation circa 1960, frequently accused of being posh) I definitely pronounce ONE to rhyme with GONE. Have I been brain-washed by years away from the South of England? Enjoyed this puzzle very much, although I needed hep parsing INHEAT. Thanks to Fed and manehi.

35. Thanks for the blog and all the others this year, a fine puzzle with a string of imaginative clues.
    I pronounce one and gone to rhyme with scone.
    IO is in the FT today for people who like a challenge.

36. I pronounce scone as in clone?
    Nottingham.

37. I pronounce scone as in clone.
    Nottingham.

38. Roz@35 😀 😀

39. Nice puzzle. Really liked IN HEAT, GONE WEST and, posthumously, LIVELIHOOD (couldn’t parse).
    Thanks to setter and blogger.

40. Hope I’m not being too Political, but I did wonder at first whether Truss might figure somewhere in 12 ac, with “Awful Prime Minister”, and perhaps a truss being an opposition to growth. Be that as it May, thought the grid was a friendly one and with some excellent clues to boot. Raised eyebrows for a bit with loi IN HEAT. The tiddlers, YOMP, TONY and SHOP took a while, too…

41. I am another who likes Fred’s style. I think the looseness of the ANTI-IMPERIALISM definition is a price worth paying for the clever allusion to Truss. I am quite happy for a clue to depend on pronunciation different to my own.

42. I don’t normally try the grown-up crossword because I’m still at the Quiptic level, but this one was actually aimed quite low. Never heard of YOMP and the wordplay wasn’t going to help; only heard of LARK ABOUT (not AROUND) so I wasn’t going to get that… kicking myself about the rest that I didn’t get, though!

    Enjoyed GAME SET AND MATCH

43. Fun puzzle, not as knarly in its construction as Fed’s used to be, and all the better for it IMHO.

    Favourites have all been mentioned.

    I’m also NW English, and one/gone/scone all rhyme for me, which I think is standard ‘local RP’ 🙂 I don’t know where muffin has been hiding, but ‘one’ pronounced to rhyme with ‘pun’ is very rarely heard in those parts, unless you count the more strongly dialectal pronunciation where both have the same vowel as RP ‘foot’. Of course in older RP ‘gone’ is pronounced ‘gawn’ rather than ‘gonn’….

    Thanks to S&B

44. I’ve only ever heard the phrase ON heat when referring to animals, never IN heat. I pity Fed’s wan guest.

45. One additional data point: This American has frequently seen AOB on meeting agendas.

    Never heard of YOMP, but it was quite gettable.

    I quite enjoyed this puzzle. Particular favorites were 3dn (MESS) and 19dn (SCARPER). I always find it striking how often hidden clues like the latter fool me: they seem like they should be easy, with the answer sitting there in plain sight, but they often aren’t, at least to me.

46. For 9a I had twigged that the definition was “up for relations” but I thought the expression was “on heat” which threw me until the penny finally dropped. The Collins online dictionary suggests that “on heat” is British English and IN HEAT is American.

    muffin @30: have I remembered correctly that you live near Skipton? I know that is actually nearer the west coast than the east, but it would never occur to me to refer to any part of Yorkshire as being in the northwest of England!

    Thanks Fed and manehi.

47. [Lord Jim @36
    We are in the “disputed area”. The locals were incensed on being moved from Yorkshire into Lancashire – it’s well known that Lancashire is so much wetter!]

48. I pronounce “one”, “won” and “wan” (and the first syllables of “wonder” and “wander”) exactly the same (/w?n/), but I’m pretty sure that I’m in a minority in doing so.

49. Thanks Fed for a most satisfying crossword. The Spoonerism made no sense to me but I know better than to get invovled in complaints about pronounciation. Not all the abbreviations were familiar but I know there are accepted lists of such things so a setter as meticulous as Fed will always be on solid ground. My top picks included SHOOTS UP, ABOVE BOARD, and HARNESS. Never in ten thousand years would I have been able to parse IN HEAT. Thanks manehi for the blog.

50. As an ex-pat, didn’t know YOMP or AOB but was able to get the answers anyway. GONE/ONE don’t rhyme for me, but as long as they do for somebody, that’s fine. Surprised myself by figuring out IN HEAT. A raised eyebrow (a smidge) over ANTI-IMPERIALISM, but altogether a fun puzzle.

51. Well, I’m truly surprised how many people rhyme one with gone. I’m learning more about the world every day.

52. Rhyming “one” with “gone” – “wan” – is also common in Hiberno-English.

53. I was completely misled by the _E_T of the old-school jazz fan, assuming it was a BEAT-nik, which seemed to chime with the copper’s rounds, and so ON BEAT…which, of course, has nothing to do with relations, so was obviously wrong.

54. Thanks manehi and thanks all.

    Hope you’ve all had a lovely Christmas and here’s wishing you all a very happy new year.

55. Very much enjoyed today’s offering. Some unfamiliar (to me at least) approaches to arriving at the basis for the anagrams. 9a was the last to go on. It had to be “In Heat” but couldn’t quite see why. I even had Hep Cat for old school jazz fan but couldn’t make the connection. So close and yet so far!

56. Late to the party here.

    Someone up above suggested that Philip Larkin would be unfamiliar to American solvers. I’d just counter that we do read things here. Are you unfamiliar with Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, Plath, or Stevens because they’re American? I doubt it, but if so, read more. 🙂

    But it’s true that I only know Boots as a SHOP because I’ve been doing these puzzles for too long. And YOMP was one of those “guess it must be British” moments, but the wordplay was unambiguous, so it presented no problems.

57. I hope that I don’t moan too often, but this one was contrived and dismal. I looked at those I hadn’t parsed, and I couldn’t be bothered to think about them. I’m sure it was clever in Fed’s head.

58. Well I thought this was fantastic – thanks Fed! And thanks manehi for a couple of the tricky parsings. I had a feeling the one/gone thing might spark some comments. I don’t personally pronounce them the same way but fully aware that people in the north of England do!
    (Jorge @57 – ‘contrived and dismal’ is harsh. No need for that, especially if you know the setter reads the comments.)

59. Like others who’ve already posted, I had some of troubles with parsing. But I did like the aforementioned 20a GAME, SET AND MATCH, 4,18d STEPHEN HAWKING and 14d LARK AROUND. Thanks to Fed and manehi.

60. My goodness, I did solve this puzzle with references to crossword solvers and thesauruses, but much parsing escaped me, no wonder. Some pretty fiendish ideas eg “essential Williams = ll. Sorry, that’s just ridiculous. I didn’t enjoy this puzzle at a ll. . Boots is a shop? and “up for relations”, I’ll just have to remember next Fed puzzle, not to take him too seriously or avoid…..

61. I know it’s late and everyone’s moved on, but I wanted to record that I solved and parsed this puzzle without any aids. Even words I didn’t know, like YOMP and AOB, I just followed the impeccable clueing and it worked.

    My favourites were IN HEAT when I finally worked it out, ANTI-IMPERIALISM, and GONE WEST, but that’s just being picky on my part, because I really liked it all. Oh, and I did know Boots the Chemist despite living in the Antipodes, from a couple of sojourns in the UK. Thank you, to Manehi, for a comprehensive blog, and to Fed for a most satisfying crossword.

62. TomC @58. I think Jorge@57 is perfectly within his rights to say what he thought about the puzzle. It wasn’t offensive, and just as valid as all the “wasn’t that brilliant ” comments

63. Crispy @62 – well if I was the setter, I would have been offended. But of course everyone is free to say what they like (just as I’m free to say I thought it was harsh are you’re free to tell me I’m wrong!)

64. *and

65. Crispy @62 I completely agree that Jorge is within his rights to say what he thinks. And if he thinks it was contrived and dismal then so be it.

    Jorge @57 I’m sorry you didn’t like it. But when you say, “I’m sure it was clever in Fed’s head” I think you miss the mark. I’ve never once thought that the goal of a crossword was to be ‘clever’.

66. [Whatever happened to Timothy Whites? Boots takeover ’68. Defunct ’85.]

67. Fed@65. Thanks for that. As for whether crosswords should be clever, there’s a whole blog to itself with that one! Have a happy new year.

68. It depends what you mean by “clever” . I am with Torquemada on this one. A clever setter who aimed to give the solver a thorough beating.
    I do not agree with Jorge@57 for this one but Crispy@62 is quite right, he should say what he thinks. Far too many mediocre puzzles on here get lavish praise.

69. Gosh! I agree that “contrived and dismal” is harsh but not insulting. “Clever in Fed’s head” on the other hand is well below the belt. Congratulations to Fed for dealing with it without losing your rag.

    I appreciated the skill involved in these clues. The accuracy at times was astonishing but at the same time well disguised by the surface. Challenging but enjoyable. Some solvers say things like “all you have to do is follow the instructions”, which may be true, but first you have to disentangle the instructions from the surface!

    The Spoonerism was spot on as far as I’m concerned. The other day I realised after sending a text message that I had typed “one” instead of “won” – that’s how close together those sounds are for me. (Perhaps muffin would say that “won” sounds nothing like “gone”. 😉 )

    Thanks to Fed and manehi.

70. SH @69
    Yes, my “gone” sounds not much like one/won. Do you pronounce it “gun”?

71. muffin: no not “gun”. Just a normal short O, as in won/gone/gondolier. But this is like the split between those who pronounce Coventry with an O sound, as in gone and won, and those who say it as though it were spelt Cuventry, with an BBC newsreader-type U. Admittedly some of my vowels are a bit odd from having lived more than 10 years in Lancaster, 12 years in Leeds and now 26 in Sheffield. I see Chambers has difficulty with these sounds too, and has short O for all of one/gone/gondolier/wonky/wan/wander and won ton but not won/wonder/gun which are all the short southern U. I would say gun/tun with a northern U, a sort of short OO. [I can remember discussing wander/wonder with my mother after I’d lived in the north for 20 years or more, and I couldn’t remember ever having pronounced them differently as she did. My school years were spent mostly with children whose families had moved out from London to the satellite town where we lived, and others like me from the south coast, and a couple of northerners too, so it was a bit of a linguistic melting pot.]

    But I’m not the only one here who didn’t have a problem with the sounds in ONE GUEST and GONE WEST. In fact, it was so far from being a problem for me that it’s probably my fastest Spoonerism solve, ever!

72. I’m reminded of this Flanders and Swann song
    I lost my horn
    I lost my horn
    I found my horn
    Gorn!

73. I only did this today, but I think it was smashing. Smart, funny, sweet, fair.

    I didn’t know YOMP, but the clue made the answer inevitable, and now I know what yomp means! Why is that a bad thing? It would be quite narcissist to imagine that only the words in your vocabulary are acceptable answers to things. Nobody would watch University Challenge and then be riled not to know all the answers.

    Thank you, Fed/Dave. Keep strong and yomp on.

74. I always love Fed’s puzzles. They always have a dash of the original. Could not parse “in heat” despite knowing Hep Cat but it was obviously the answer.

    I found it hard to imagine people who did not rhyme one and gone but I guess some people pronounce one like wun.

75. @john m I guess you are not from UK so perhaps you are missing some things that are in our culture? “Essentially” as the centre letter(s) of a word is very common in our crosswords- the “li” in Williams – it was the first part of that clue I got. Boots is one of the most iconic chains of shops on the UK high street. “Up for relations” almost immediately implies willingness to have sexual relations – though the ambiguity with relations as members of your family is deliberate.

76. Richard Clegg @74
    I find your post really difficult to believe. I have never heard “one” pronounced other than “wunn”.

77. @muffin where in the UK are you from? I grew up in Lancs for 18 years moved to Yorks for 18 years but now live in London for the last 18 so I think I have a fair sample. Wunn seems a really weird way to pronounce it. Like someone is putting on an accent.

78. My first ever girlfriend had family in Darlington (UK) who I think would have rhymed “one” and “gone”.

    Her father also insisted that “their” and “they’re” and “there” all sounded different, though when he demonstrated this to me I heard them all the same!

Comments are closed.