Guardian Cryptic 29,277 by Brummie

82 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,277 by Brummie”

1. I seem to have lost my ability to solve cryptic crosswords recently. It might be due to the fact that I enjoy them less now, or perhaps it’s the other way round. Might be time to take a break.

   I guessed quite a few that I could not parse: 12ac, 13ac apart from IM, 25ac, 7d, 19d apart from EYE and I failed to solve 10ac, 15ac, 26ac, 5d, 16d.

   New for me: SKIMMIA, MERGANSERS.

   Thanks, both.

   I did not see the theme.

2. Very few on the first pass, but I slowly filled in the bottom and then worked my way up. I didn’t parse ROYAL ROAD and have never heard of the expression, but what else could it be?
   Thanks both

3. I found this oddly tricky for a Brummie puzzle, but got there in the end. Fortunately the anagram clues were well signposted but there are some unexpected synonyms in the charades. The theme escaped me, as per…

   I did like AYE AYE SIR and ROYAL ROAD is nicely constructed.

   Thanks to Brummie and manehi

4. I didn’t see the theme but there is also the indicative PAIRS at 26a.
   Favourite was EYE.

5. I found this as much a challenge as yesterday’s Imogen, and even though I thought it’s Brummie, there’s a theme, I couldn’t see it – and I can even recognise those flowers, including the SKIMMIA which went in early.

   ROYAL ROAD was the only new one to me, the rest in and parsed. I’m another who filled anticlockwise from the southwest corner, finishing in the northwest.

   Thank you to Brummie and manehi.

6. Tough; but no unfair clues. Per usual, I failed to spot theme.

   Needed a couple of hints on parsing.

   I must admit that as a 4th floor city apartment dweller I find the number of obscure gardening references in crosswords a bit tiresome. But at least skimmia was perfectly clued – so no complaints.

   A relief after yesterday’s struggle

   Thanks Setter and Blogger.

   Ps have powers-that-be increased edit time or was it 2:30 when it started?

7. michelle@1. Don’t be put off. The last couple of days have been toughies, with lots of “What?” moments for me.
   Thanks to Brummie and manehi

8. I started with RIC (centre of huRICane) for EYE and thought King’s taps was some kind of bugle call like a 21-gun salute, so a poor performance all round from me.

9. You’ll find the solar TOPEE in the lyrics of “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” – but I ended up revealing it, as I did CRESTA RUN and one or two more: too tough for these little teeth.

10. There is also GROUND ELDER.

11. I confess to using the ‘check’ button rather more than usual, failed to parse ROYAL ROAD and missed the definition of SWEET. The botanical theme includes GROUND ELDER, the bane of my life. Thanks to Brummie and manehi.

12. Well, I had Yore in at 28d fairly confidently as sounding like “you are”, so couldn’t get LARKS at the very end. I also wondered for a while whether Ric as a version of Dick, appearing as the central letters of Hurricane might fit the bill for 18ac. So strictly a DNF today
    …and I see that Petert@8 had the same thoughts as me, using my check button for the very first time.

13. …edit button, I meant to say.

14. ronald@12: another YORE here.
    Matthew Newell@6: just be grateful that gardening is one of the areas of knowledge that it’s socially acceptable to be ignorant about in crossword circles! Try admitting that you don’t know about football, modern novelists or mathematics…

15. Thank you manehi for your beautifully illustrated illustrations of my ignorance of some. I didn’t find this as enjoyable as usual for a Brummie.
    Why is EYE for dick without the private? Or is there a cryptic element there with storm centre, ie private, secluded, in the middle?
    There’ll be those who say the anagram for ROYAL ROAD is not legit. ( and not just because I didn’t get it)
    Re the theme, I was looking for Watership Down, BRIGHT EYES.

16. I found this to be a strange mixture of the straightforward, difficult/obscure and slightly unsatisfactory. It took me a good while to parse ROYAL ROAD, which is fine. I resorted to a dictionary to confirm that SKIMMIA was a shrub and TOPE a shark, which is also OK. But my LOI was PAIRS, and I’m really not sure that I like AIRS for “looks”. If someone has an air about them, I’m not sure I agree with manehi that it’s a comment on their looks. Giving oneself airs seems to me a matter of affectation, and while it could involve looks it doesn’t necessarily. And while one airs opinions in order to examine them, the airing and the examining aren’t the same, are they? Not keen on that one.
    Slightly surprised to see that I have a namesake in Charles@10, I assumed the software would reject any duplicate handles. He’s better than me at spotting themes, anyway: completely missed this one.

    Thanks to Brummie and manehi.

17. Hey, I missed the theme again! I perservered with this and solved about three quarters, but didn’t enjoy it much. Too many obscure words (I hadn’t heard of CRESTA RUN, AYE-AYE, SKIMMIA, MERGANSERS, TOPEE or for that matter TOPE), and there were six I couldn’t parse. I shall be charitable and say that perhaps I just wasn’t on the right wavelength. Gurney’s in the FT, which I turned to subsequently, was like a breath of fresh air.

    I initially had YORE for 28d, and have just noticed from the above that I was not alone.

18. thanks all, and those who spotted GROUND ELDER

    paddymelon @15 Chambers lists ‘private eye’ as one of the meanings of ‘eye’

    Charles @16 I think it it requires a bit of flexibility in how “look” is used, not necessarily in the way that is usually meant when talking of someone’s looks

    e.g. ‘they have the air of an artist’ / ‘they have the look of an artist’ works for me

19. Charles@16: “he had a cheerful air, as if things were going well”; I think you could substitute “look” for air without affecting the meaning?

20. What a week we’ve had. I wonder if Alan Connor, the Guardian Crossword Editor, has decided to mix it up a bit, crank up the toughometer, to respond to those who’ve wanted more challenging puzzles? We’ll probably have a cruisy Prize tomorrow, good for the weekend readership. I may yet eat my words.

21. Quite a few unfamiliar words in this one, and not spotting the theme of clever pairs, probably combined to make me feel dissatisfied with my performance on this puzzle. I quite liked 13d SPEED, though I didn’t realise it was a theme word. Quite a few unparsed, so thanks to Manehi for the blog. I thought a couple of the surfaces were a bit clunky and overwrought, for instance, I couldn’t see the sense in 15a “Flow-interrupter put on party’s oddballs!” Nor in 20a “What’s resorted to by the hot-headed shark (oriental)? But nevertheless, thanks to Brummie for some good clues and ideas in today’s cryptic offering.

22. Michelle, it could also be the fact that it has been a pretty tough run from start to finish this week. I completely missed the theme too.

23. Thanks Brummie & manehi.
    I found this quite tricky, perhaps not as much as yesterday’s, and I failed to see the clever theme, but it was still a PLEASURE, especially after entering ANS into MERGERS and discovering they are indeed ducks.

24. I loved this. It just seemed to flow. Perhaps after yesterday’s Imogen anything would seem like a breeze. I especially liked AYE AYE SIR, SWEET, SKIMMA, and TOPEE. I was a child at the time but I remember being delighted on hearing that LBJ’s wife was called Ladybird. I just wish I’d looked back to see if there was a theme….Many thanks to Brummie and manehi.

25. Not a fan of lesser-spotted headgear being clued by a lesser-spotted shark plus Oriental for E, which is rather indirect. Tough GK clued by tough GK + a verging-on-unfair letter indicator, grumble grumble. SKIMMIA and MERGANSERS, on the other hand, were entirely unknown to me but enjoyable to tease out with a degree of certainty, even if an abbreviation of a synonym to reach ANS was also a bit mean. No idea what was going on with the first half of the clue for LADYBIRD, but a penny dropped somewhere.

    Theme? Wot theme?

    Thanks Brummie and manehi.

26. Euclid: “there is no royal road to geometry “.

27. SKIMMIA was a jorum for me which was rather nice; MERGANSER, I had encountered before. nho TOPE/TOPEE, ROYAL ROAD – which is very nicely constructed – or LADYBIRD Johnson (where I got far too fixed on Mrs Bojo). PLEASURE, IN HARMONY and STEPSISTER were my podium – what an obvious and yet not-obvious definition for the latter!

    Thanks Brummie and manehi

28. Not to mention Uncle Siggy’s royal road to the unconscious …

29. Is a meadow @5 down a “riverside area”? I didn’t spot the theme either end couldn’t parse royal road. Thankyou for the blog and thanks to Brummie.

30. I thought this was a very mixed bag, with some tough clueing amid some very straightforward stuff. I hadn’t heard of the primate but solved it scratching my head, and also nho the helmet.

    The clue I find unfair is 2d. Who under the age of 50 is expected to know about Ladybird Johnson? My daughter in her 30s is trying to learn the art of solving cryptics but references to people who were prominent in the media/press in yesteryear is going to put her off. And, of course, it could easily have been clued differently.

    Thanks Brummie and manehi

31. I missed the theme, which might have helped. I was in the unusual position of having a number of part-solutions with all the crossers and still not seeing the answer for a while.

    I did like the wordplays in ROYAL ROAD, SKIMMIA, SWEET and AYE AYE SIR, and the definition of ACCOLADE. I didn’t see the significance (if there is one) in the capitalisation of Beetle.

    Thanks Brummie and manehi.

32. Lady Bird Johnson is principally remembered for her campaign of planting roadside flowers so she does fit in with the theme.

33. I assumed Mrs Johnson was Carrie, to no avail.
    Not convinced that spotting the theme would have been any help whatsoever and begin to wonder if it’s just an extra level of challenge.
    Not as much fun as some of Brummie’s offerings?

34. As usual I’m going to complain about some beyond-general knowledge, particularly aye-aye but also skimmia, merganser, and (borderline) tope. All perfectly familiar to the biologically inclined among us, I’m sure, but I take no pleasure in learning new words that I will never have occasion to use again.

    I did know of Lady Bird Johnson, Cresta Run, and Royal Road, but sympathize with those for whom these were not GK.

    Thank you manehi for several parsings that I failed on, and for the theme that, as always, escaped me even after completing the grid.

35. Arklark@30: Well, it’s true that I’m in my sixties and was aware of Lady Bird Johnson; but I don’t agree with your comment. I am also aware that George Washington’s wife was named Martha. There are some First Lady names that are well known. Abigail Adams is another. Again, way before my time (!) If I hadn’t known it I might well have Googled LBJ to check on his wife’s name. I can’t prove it but I bet if this were a straight question on University Challenge then some youngster on the panel would get the right answer.

36. A tough, no theme Brummie today, with a few guesses from the wordplay, like TOPEE, ROYAL ROAD, SKIMMIA, AYE AYE SIR and like wynsum @23, I was delighted to see that MERGANSONS are indeed ducks. I see there is also a LADYBIRD rose (nasturtium) and a LADYBIRD poppy. I had the same podium as PostMark @27.

    Ta Brummie & manehi.

37. michelle@1. I bet a lot of us feel the same, otherwise we wouldn’t be here looking for explanations! I hope you get the enjoyment back soon.

    Same nho’s as most others for me today. A groan or two and of course, theme, what theme?

    Thanks Brummie and manehi.

38. Looking up ACCOLADE to decipher the “King’s taps”, I found that it can also mean a curly bracket in music. So Brummie could have clued it as “{ (8)”
    Paul still might, given these recent typographical clues:
    https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/prize/29129#19-down “See eh? (6)” — BEHOLD and
    https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29206#21-down “Mashed smashed — that’s it! (2,4)” — EM DASH
    At the time of publication it wasn’t even an en dash – , just a hyphen (-). Now it’s a proper em dash — , as wide as the “M” at the front of the clue.
    Better late than never. No indication that the puzzle’s been changed, though.
    Thanks B&m

39. One of the things I like most about Boatman is he manages to be difficult without resorting to obscure words and GK

    Cheers B&M

40. This took me almost double my usual time for a Brummie, but I enjoyed it. We have two species of breeding Mergansers in the UK, although the bird called a Common Merganser in the US is known as a Goosander here. They are relatively common, and at this time of the year are often seen in groups on lakes. Males are quite stunning.

41. Bodycheetah@39…and I thought I was the only one occasionally getting Boatman and Brummie mixed up!
    Perhaps it’s some kind of association with The Grand Union Canal…

42. If the Grauniad has decided to crank up the difficulty permanently, I will have to waste my time elsewhere. I don’t expect a struggle every day. Of course there will be some that like it tough but I do wonder if there are many.

43. Stick at it Michelle – you’re echoing what we all might feel sometimes. I’m sure we would miss your almost-daily comments.
    Bit of a curate’s egg today, but just about flogged it out in the end.
    Thanks Brummie and manehi

44. Nice theme – but totally missed it, as usual. Wouldn’t it be nice if the app had an initially unrevealed field which said whether there was a theme or not, so that at the end (or any time) if you don’t see a theme but suspect there might be one, you could get a yea/nay to inform you if it’s worth your time looking further (the print paper could have said info on a different page)? Just a thought.

45. Thanks manehi, no theme and indeed too tough for me today (crossing TOPEE and SWEET) though I may have had a chance (I kid myself) had latter used pass instead of make. Lady Bird also gives her name to the lake in Austin, Texas which is how I know her, following a short stay there. Thanks to others for notes on her and the ROYAL ROAD (no sign of it here, for me). I did manage to construct some new terms from wordplay and always appreciate that, and thought AYE AYE SIR was excellent. Thanks Brummie.

46. According to Freud, dreams are the _royal road_ to the unconscious.

47. I liked this one. Yes, it was a did-not-finish for me, failing with WELL and TOPEE. Yes, I struggled with several clues, and I had to check some guesses (MERGANSERS, I’m looking at you). But it was one of those where the pleasure of finally finding the answer was fun, and often amusing.
    I laughed out loud at the excellent and smooth STEPSISTER.

48. To all those who complain about the broad GK that seems to be appearing recently – I suggest you should stay in more…

49. Thanks both and I was royally entertained – strange how one person’s NHO doesn’t cause even a twitch of another’s eyebrow. (For all that, the definition for ACCOLADE was news to my humble self.)

    I won’t resist the temptation to post my favourite frying pun which runs that while I am no great cook I am a DAB HAND at fish fingers.

50. Ronald @41 no mix up – just trying to stick to my New Year’s resolution to focus on positives 🙂

51. ronald@41: I think that Bodycheetah is, far from confusing Boatman and Brummie, actually differentiating between them.

52. Gervase@48. LOL! I absolutely agree. Fairly staggered that anyone who makes a habit of solving cryptic crosswords should “take no pleasure in learning new words.”

53. Bodycheetah@50…and Alphalpha@51…I’m suitably and doubly corrected. Apologies…

54. Straightforward crossword. Parsing no problem. Only needed to check skimmia and topee.
    I don’t always find parsing easy, just happen to be on Brummies wave length!
    To be fair, I didn’t spot the theme though.

55. Tricky week, but most(ly) enjoyable. Perhaps Paddymelon@20 is right, in which case we’d better get acclimatised to Paul being the new Monday standard.
    Thanks B and M

56. nho TOPE shark or SKIMMIA. Jorums, both of ’em.

    Why is a MEADOW particularly beside a river?

    7d GO ROUND defeated me. I’d thought of a circle as a round, but if you take away the O you get “rund” … ??

    But I put in all the answers last night, though some in very light ink because I couldn’t think why they were in. Thanks to Brummie and manehi.

57. [And Melanie Mitchell’s royal road in genetic algorithms. Her recent book on Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans is well worth a read]

58. 29d I thought was RAYS (sounds like Raise) = Lines. Oh well.

59. Thanks both,
    Re: meadow. I, too, questioned whether meadows are associated with rivers but OED says that a ‘regional’ usage is any wet area of land especially by a river. Sort of OK, I suppose.

60. 31 large craft conveying capers. I convinced myself it was farce rather than larks. No one else did. Must try harder!

61. Too tough for me. Got about half way through and then gave up. Still a better outcome than yesterday!! I like the Guardian cryptic for its variation in difficulty and style but I’ve found this week ( bar Wednesday) a real struggle. Tomorrow is a new day!!

62. Thanks for the blog, well said Jerry@61, the setter may win sometimes but we live to solve another day . I thought this was really good but I have found this week a bit monotonous . We have had four puzzles at the trickier end of medium. I think the Guardian should try to broaden the range on both sides. Stated policy is two “easy” puzzles a week , we rarely get this and it is not fair for newer solvers.

63. Thanks Brummie and Manhi.
    I didn’t spot the theme. But I have now spotted EYEBRIGHT, another flower.

    ArkLark @30, OK, I’m over 50, but I only learnt about Ladybird Johnson last year when I read about her online, probably as a result of a previous crossword clue. I’m all for crosswords increasing my general knowledge.

64. My comment yesterday was ‘Oh well, there’s always tomorrow … ‘, and then this is served up! Was delighted to get within three solutions of a full grid today. WELL, TOPEE and SWEET eluded me. As did the theme, but that is par for the course.
    Hopefully tomorrow’s offering is a little more charitable for us medium level solvers.
    Thanks manehi for the blog.

65. stp @ 64

    Medium level solvers who persevere become accomplished solvers

    Stick at it!

66. Gave up, wasn’t enjoying it much. Earlier I had put in ‘ric’ for 18 it being the centre of ‘ hurricane’ or storm and abbreviation for Dick. Shows you how desperate I was.

67. SueB, Valentine and Tyngewick, I wondered about the meadow definition too.
    Collins online has:
    2. a low-lying piece of grassland, often boggy and near a river. So definitely OK, I’d say.
    Charles @52, are you Charles I, Charles II or Charles III? Here’s hoping you’re the latter and THAT one!
    Michelle, I often have periods of ennui in crossword solving. I’d say hang in there too. There’ll be another cracker just around the corner. PS I struggled mightily over the last couple of days, with several reveals 🙁 .
    Cheers, manehi and Brum

68. Failed on ‘topee’ and didn’t see the theme.

69. Re: Michelle @ 1
    You are not alone. I think there is a degree of boundary pushing that I’m too old to deal with. I occasionally resort to the FT for a head holiday.

70. After the urinary SWEET, I thought SPEED rhymed with it, being its mirror image in the grid. So a “profound rejection” referred to the excretion of liquid from the lower half of the body, therefore “peed” therefore S+PEED

71. Definitely a tough week. I am afraid that I don’t necessarily agree with SimonS @65. Certainly, more experience at some endeavour will, for a time, result in improvement… to a degree. But we all hit a ceiling sooner or later. If the Grauniad is going to regularly up the difficulty level to this week’s, then it is going to drop a lot of solvers, judging by the majority of comments above.

72. Thanks Brummie for the challenge. The bottom half went in smoothly but I struggled with many in the top half. I resorted to the guess-then-check function for a number of these. In any event I liked much of this with DAB HAND, SPEED, and MERGANSERS being my top picks. Thanks manehi for the blog.

73. michelle@1: Perhaps a break might be indicated. The thing about addictions is that they quickly become central to life and the question is can life go on without the daily (more?) fix? Would life be less fun? More fun?

    TOPEE or not TOPEE I suppose.

    (I’m up to a couple a day with at least two weekly prizes and a couple of volumes of Boatman in the background. Do I need help?) 😉

74. AndrewTyndall@70: ‘profound rejection’ – I enjoyed your reasoning.

75. Gervase@48
    You can get GK by getting out too. Coincidentally I saw Hooded and Scaly-sided Mergansers this morning. I still needed the crossers to solve the clue.
    I got rid of a skimmia because we didn’t like the smell.
    Thanks to Brummie and manehi

76. Michelle @1 – don’t worry too much- you just have to learn more Latin, and French, and botany, and biology, and religious terms, and sports terms, the Greek letters (and Gods), food and drink, places both extant and extinct, composers, poets and artists..and movie stars and singers who may or may not have had a hit movie or song in the last 50 years!..etc etc

    And after all that, the definition of any of the words used may be the seventh entry in the Holy Book of Chambers, but never actually used that way by anyone.

    Tough week, for sure.

    Thanks Brummie and manehi

77. DaveJ 🙂

78. Thanks DaveJ@76 and idioms like rate for rabbit, dicky for not well.

79. oakvillereader@78 ..I forgot Cockney rhyming slang, cricket and bridge positions, and, of course, Crosswordese: spoken in that place were rivers become flowers and bankers..

80. Easily a record for me in terms of NHO: Cresta Run, skimmia, topee, aye-aye, “slate” to mean pan, “rabbit on” to mean talk too much… Pretty sure I was never going to twig to “King’s taps” either. Ah well; let’s call it “mostly successful” and move on to tomorrow.

81. Michelle @1: I was beginning to wonder too. I think DaveJ @76 is right but there has not been enough insight from thoughtfully arranged field-narrowing crossers to lead one on. AlanD

82. Like Charles@52, I’m astounded to hear a cruciverbalist expressing a lack of interest in (new) words. The mind boggles…
    Thanks Brummie for an enjoyable puzzle and manehi for the excellent blog. I managed to entirely miss the theme, as per… And it was such a lovely one, too! Apart from the Ground Elder, that is. BTW, I live in a fourth-floor flat, too. Doesn’t stop me from knowing the names of very common wild flowers 🙂

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