Guardian 29,287 / Maskarade

92 comments on “Guardian 29,287 / Maskarade”

1. A smooth, pleasant stroll compared to yesterday’s struggle. I liked SERENGETI, ERMINE STREET, QUESTION TIME, THIS MINUTE, ROENTGEN, STEM GINGER (presumably referring to the cricketer, Tony Greig) and the parallel AQUARIUS and GEMINI. All over too soon.

   Ta Maskarade & Eileen.

2. Thanks Setter and Blogger

   For some reason Aileron really made me smile. Lots of lovely cluing across whole puzzle

3. Thank you Eileen. 24d SNIP posed the same question for me, but that sort of clue often throws up, or down, some tricky question. Could go either way, and had to wait for crossers.
   Lots of ticks today. Amongst others, I like AILERON, for the surface. Knew it from watching docos about planes falling out of the sky, something I do when not doing cryptics. Don’t know what that says about me, except there are many ways to come to a solution. Also liked PUNNET, for the misdirection and the laugh.

4. Snap Matthew@2.

5. Thanks Eileen, I agree with you except for my being unable to parse TEENAGER, having failed to spot either element of wordplay. Also I found STRETTI hard to justify (imprecise?) although I was happy to guess and check it. And does “Infection” also act as inclusion indicator in STYE? So it’s an extended def but not &lit in my book, to avoid double duty of infection, but await more learned opinion. Early Repetition of “blowing top” had me worried but this was fun, thanks Maskarade.

6. Thanks Maskarade and Eileen
   I enjoyed this. Favourite ROENTGEN. I realise now that I never knew the plural of “genie”!

7. All understood and enjoyed. New to me: ERMINE STREET, SCRAPIE,, STRETTI.

   Thanks Maskarade & Eileen.

8. Ticks for NOISETTE and THIS MINUTE

   I’ll leave it there

   Cheers M&E

9. And not being very musically minded, I really liked STRETTI. Didn’t need to know anything about fugues or the composers. Thank you Maskarade.

10. Going by the accolades heaped upon this puzzle on the G’s own page, I fear I shall be a bit of a lone voice here but I was disappointed by a few elements in this one. Eileen has mentioned the repetition of ‘blowing top’ for first letter deletion (for me, this came in consecutive clues, 4d and 5a). And the double appearance of GEN, at least slightly differently defined as information/lowdown but pretty close. Both zodiac signs are defined as ‘sign’ which could have been more imaginative. SNIP is at best ambiguous but I read it, as Eileen seems to have done, as cluing PINS. I’m not convinced by the STRETTI device and raised an eyebrow at STYE: I struggle to see the hidden indicator and am trying to persuade myself it’s an &lit with the solution ‘infecting’ the fodder … but I’m not convinced. Sorry – grumpy PM today.

    On the plus side, ARNO was delightful.

    Thanks Maskarade and Eileen

11. Gazzh @5: we crossed ref STYE. Apols.

12. After yesterday’s struggles this was welcome relief, just enough short of a write-in to be pleasurable.

    Thank you Maskarade and Eileen

13. Thanks Maskarade and Eileen
    Liked STYE, THIS MINUTE (my newt-LOL) and AGREEMENT.
    Gazzh@5
    I had considered STYE &lit till I saw your post. Now in doubt. Why do you think it’s not &lit?
    If the ‘infection’ is an inclusion indicator, the whole clue is participating in the wordplay.
    And it looks like a CAD as well. What am I missing?
    AGREEMENT
    Is there another layer in the clue (not essential to parsing it)?
    Yes and Of course have a grammatical parity. Or not a valid application of the phrase?

14. Not only “blowing top” was repeated but also “sign” as a definition for the AQUARIUS/GEMINI pair (twins?!). I had Al(l)’sAce instead of Als(o)Ace for ALSACE but as usual Eileen is correct.
    I didn’t appreciate AILERON’s surface until reading paddymelon @3, but I’ve not considered them as “section of wing”. Maybe I’ve worked on too many over the years, but it’s a close enough definition in crossword land.
    Favourite for me was NOISETTE.

15. Enjoyable puzzle. It was really lovely to be able to do one of Masakarade’s puzzles. Usually it is not possible for me to do his larger puzzles online because I do not have a printer for pdf versions.

    Favourites: GENII, ALSACE, NOISETTE, PUNNET (loi).

    New for me: SCRAPIE; ERMINE STREET; AILERON; STRETTI.

    I did not parse 17d or 1ac apart from AUS = Australia.

    Thanks, both.

16. Gazzh@5. STYE. I saw it as an &lit, indicated by the question mark, in which case there is no double duty, the clue needs to be read as a whole, definition and wordplay, with infection as the indicator. Our illustrious Eileen, or others, will put me right. I have never seen a ‘hidden’ indicator before in an &lit. I like it.

17. paddymelon!
    I pre-agreed with you @13 🙂

    Read ‘inclusion’ as ‘hidden’

18. I was thinking Watling for the street, the only Roman era one I knew. But yes, pretty smooth from the Maskar, and thanks Eileen. A r no was cute. Dnk the fugue parts. [Stretto/a means narrow, and features in a very rude Italian folk saying]

19. TimC. Maybe the surface of AILERON tickled me because I used to work in a gaol, sorry jail, and I knew about ailerons. Made me laugh out loud.

    The discussion above about STYE, I will follow carefully with what eyesight I have left. I’m still going for an &lit.

20. Sorry KVa@17, 13. A bit slow on the uptake. 🙂

21. This setter’s name is usually enough to start heart palpitations due to the several maulings I’ve had from him over the years.

    Unjustified here, I’m delighted to say, plain sailing, mostly.

    Wasn’t too impressed by the (I thought) dodgy construction of STRETTI but, being an amateur muso, the word was familiar enough.

    Many ticks everywhere but best in show went to the neat ALSACE.

    Many thanks, both.

22. Ah, gif@18. Fortunately I didn’t know STRETTO (please do not explain 🙂 , or fugues or the composers, and just followed the wordplay. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

23. I wondered if the construction of STRETTI would cause a debate. I started off thinking just S and T and then realised how it worked, but there was no indication of how much of the two names to use. But I suppose the answer was so straightforward that there was sufficient information in the clue; though I’m not sure how familiar the term is to non-musicians generally. I agree with most of the comments so far. This was very easy for a Maskarade puzzle. Not quite a write-in as I had to return to the top to complete it, but nothing much to hold one up. I was fortunate to have the required GK, which helped. Thanks to Maskarade and Eileen.

24. Like others I enjoyed this finding it easier than the few jumbo Maskarade puzzles I have recently tried (which I enjoyed spending many hours on tho not finishing).

    Liked ARNO, AILERON, TEENAGER

    Thanks Maskarade and Eileen

    [ps – really appreciating the edit feature – this is the second time I’ve been able to correct a typo]

25. NHO STRETTI and I couldn’t get it from the word play, so a DNF for me. And have also learned that an ‘elector’ is a German Prince. I especially liked ARNO and PUNNET, and generally liked the entertaining surfaces. Thanks Maskerade and Eileen.

26. Wouldn’t dare, pdm @22.

27. I found this considerably easier than Monday’s quiptic which I did today as our daily Guardian was not delivered until much later than usual. So for once I completed a cryptic on line which is usually much harder for me, but somehow I got M’s wavelength. I usually avoid trying him because of the enormous ones at Christmas, but for the first time I completed it which gave me courage.
    But I couldn’t find F squared until now! Thanks for the parsing Eileen and thanks for an accessible but delightful puzzle Maskarade.

28. I did get STRETTI but wondered how anyone who didn’t know it would tease this out. Apparently some did.

    “A fugue is a piece of music where the instruments enter one by one and the audience leaves two by two”.

29. paul @25
    As well as being princes/rulers, the German Electors were responsible for choosing the Holy Roman Emperor

30. On second thoughts, I’m now in two minds about STYE. The sticking point is whether ‘yes’ is superfluous for an&lit. Doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, I liked it.
    ROENTGEN another that amused me for the surface. And also because I knew it. I agree with all of Alan C’s ticks @1.

31. As others have noted, this was quite gentle for Maskarade and I for one are not complaining! I didn’t know Stretti or Noisette but got there on both. Punnet was my favourite, it just tickled me for some reason. Thanks to M and Eileen.

32. Feeling pleased with myself for getting ROENTGEN (a name I must have heard but really wasn’t familiar with) from the clueing/parsing: I’m either on the wavelength, or it was very well clued (or both).

    Similar with AILERON, though I did need an assist from Word Wizard for STRETTI.

33. I agree with Eileen’s picks and will add genii.
    STRETTI was either going to be that or strepit, I could have plumped but I checked.
    A delightful puzzle that entertained me without taxing me too much. I expect to be staring at the grids for the next couple of days with scattered solves across them. The prize never feels as hard as some previously in the week.
    Thanks M and Eileen, your explanation of AGREEMENT made me laugh more than the puzzle.

34. Beautifully clued puzzle which slipped down relatively easily. Broad range of GK required, from Shakespeare to prion diseases, but nothing too out of the way.

    I especially liked the amusing little ARNO and PUNNET – one of the best CDs for a long time.

    muffin @6: GENII is the plural of ‘genius’, the Latin for a tutelary spirit, rather than ‘genie’, from the Arabic ‘jinni’ – though these words are suspiciously similar and may ultimately be cognate.

    The members of the committee who selected the Holy Roman Emperor were known as prince electors (Kurfürsten): ‘prince’ in the original sense of ruler. The traditional seven included three archbishops, a king, a duke, a margrave and a count.

    Thanks to Maskarade and Eileen

35. Paddymelon, KVa, Postmark and anyone else – my problem with STYE as &Lit is that i don’t see “for the” as part of the wordplay (because “for the” does not make sense in that way – i would be happier with “Infection of oculist? Yes” even if some surface sense is lost) – but maybe I am being picky or just misreading it?
    Could there be a theme to do with twins or pairs : the signs, the blowing tops, the gens, the triplets in STRETTI?

36. Fairly straightforward but pleasing in parts with some GK I didn’t know.

    I liked the wordplay for ROENTGEN, the No.1 setter and the PUNN(l)ET – a good cd after I struggled for a while trying to think of which small-holders were involved.

    Thanks Maskarade and Eileen.

37. The word PUNNET is not known in American English, at least in my dialect, and the dictionary says it’s British. So it’s quite a pity that was a cryptic definition, as it meant I got no help at all. So I can’t agree that that was one of my favorites.

    Also, over here brill is a fish, so brill=ace was new to me too.

    Otherwise, as others have said, this was, um, brill? Am I using that right?

38. Nothing difficult here, though because of the poverty of my musical education I had to check that STRETTI shouldn’t be STRATTI, both of which worked with the clueing. But straightforward or not, I like the economy of Maskarade’s surfaces, a lot of the clues feel tight and concise. Thanks to him and to Eileen

39. I’m with PostMark @10 on this actually, the level of repetition for a pro setter is surprising. And I’ve done Maskarade’s jumbo prize puzzles so I know that ‘lack of imagination’ isn’t the problem. But even as an amateur I can think of alternative clues for the (several) that repeated definitions or devices.

    I found STRETTI unsatisfactory for a couple of reasons (and not simply because I didn’t know it and it prevented a finish!) – first, it lacks precision on how much of each name to use, and second, the directionality of “started by Stravinsky and completed by Tippett” seems to be the wrong way round; ‘STR’ starts ‘Stravinsky’ and ‘ETT’ completes ‘Tippett’.

    But apart from that it was fun 🙂

40. Very good puzzle today….smooth sailing.
    ARNO..quite cleverly constructed clue.
    Liked COUNTESSES too. Needed Eileen’s help to parse TEENAGER.
    Thank you Maskarade and Eileen.

41. Found this a friendly and most agreeable challenge. Getting both AQUARIUS and GEMINI early on, I began to wonder if there might be a signs of the zodiac theme in place. But no. Particularly liked QUESTION TIME. Seem to think that both TEENAGER and ROENTGEN have popped up recently…

42. I enjoyed this one. Everyman and Quiptic are usually my level, but I’m tentatively dipping my toe into the turbid waters of the daily cryptics too. There were lots of favourites here: ARNO, ROENTGEN and QUESTION TIME to name a few. I think the repetition of “sign” and “blowing top” probably helped me too.

43. Gervase @34
    Wiki also gives it as the plural of genie – see here.

44. Lovely puzzle. Thanks, Maskarade and Eileen.

45. I usually solve online, so Maskarade’s plus-size puzzles are off my radar and I’m not that familiar with him. No problems with this one apart from STRETTI (a jorum: I’m not enough of a musician to know whether the definition is accurate) and TEENAGER which I failed to parse.

    SCRAPIE is the classic “obscure word meaning a Disease of the Sheep” – nice to see it, though the thing itself sounds pretty unpleasant. ARNO and PUNNET made me smile.

    [GENII also happens to be Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s numberplate.]

46. [muffin @43: It’s most unlike you to be so tolerant of an erroneous usage 🙂

    From Chambers:

    jinn /jin/
    plural noun (sing jinnee or jinni /j?n?i or jin-??/)
    A class of spirits in Muslim theology and folklore, assuming various shapes, sometimes as enormous monstrous men with supernatural powers (also djinn (sing djinni) or ginn (sing genie))

    —The jinn are often called genii by a confusion and jinns sometimes occurs as a plural in non-standard use

    ORIGIN: Ar jinn (pl), jinn? (sing)

    An obvious source of the confusion is that the Arabic singular ‘jinni’ looks like a plural, and the plural ‘jinn’ like a singular]

47. [Gervase
    I’m trapped under a cat, so couldn’t get to Chambers!
    btw Wiktionary also accepts it as a plural of genie. It has to be one in this puzzle, or the clue doesn’t work, as the definition is “spirits”.]

48. Kept looking for a theme – Maskarade often does them, and wanted to spot it in time for it to be helpful – but to no avail. Liked ARNO and AQUARIUS, the latter for the simple reason that on first reading the clue, I thought: how on earth is that a clue?, but it is!

    Didn’t know STRETTI, but it was the most Italian-sounding result of following the instructions in different ways, so in it went.

49. muffin @47 – there is no doubt that GENII is plural. When you can escape the cat, you’ll see that Chambers has (separate entry) ‘genii see genius‘ and ‘genius (pl geniuses, or, in sense of spirit, genii)’

    I have to confess that genie never occurred to me!

50. [muffin @47: Also from Chambers, under ‘genius’:

    A good or evil spirit, supposed to preside over every person, place and thing, and esp to preside over a person’s destiny from his or her birth

    And it gives as the usual plural ‘geniuses’, but ‘genii’ in the sense of ‘spirits’]

51. Eileen – snap!

52. Gervase @51
    😉

53. Thanks both,
    After a very hard week last week, we seem to be having an easy one so far. (I’m in the camp that found yesterday’s Paul straightforward.) Like Eileen, I assumed ‘genii’ was the plural of ‘genius’ in its meaning of ‘spirit’.
    The T. Grieg who came to mind was the actress, Tamsin, who played Debbie in the Archers before her career moved on to other roles.

54. A fairly gentle offering from Maskarade, whom I’ve rarely tackled – I tend to pass over his Bank Holiday ‘jumbos’. But plenty of fun here. I got stuck on NOISETTE my LOI – I’d guessed it wasn’t an English word but to me NOISETTE is just the French for ‘cobnut’ or ‘hazelnut’.

    Like many others I guess, I got caught out by SNIP/PINS: if the clue had simply been “Cut skittles up” there would have been no ambiguity. A minor flaw in an otherwise well-clued puzzle.

    I liked STRETTI even if the wordplay needed a bit of thinking out: a word familiar to me. The singular form, STRETTO, brings back memories of struggling (in my younger years) with Beethoven’s Sonata in A flat, Opus 110. Anyone else familiar with that work? The last movement, the fugue, has a fiendish STRETTO at the end – though not so difficult, perhaps, as the fugue in the Hammerklavier (opus 106) which I never tried…

    Liked TEENAGER (doesn’t need much GK to hit on the King Lear connection, does it?) and AQUARIUS (ditto: know your cars of an earlier generation?). Perhaps age was a help here. And SERENGETI for the great surface! (Who else got their lions and tigers mixed up?).

    Thanks to Maskarade and Eileen.

55. Eileen and Gervase
    As in the gardeners’ expression “the gehius of the place”, meaning a feature that makes the garden special? (The gorge at Bodnant is a very good example.)

56. Lechien@42: welcome to the cult.
    If you coped with this I’d say you’re ready to step up to the Graun’s cryptic offerings more routinely. My rule is never to be deterred by being unable to finish. If it’s too accessible it’s not worth the time.

57. Same as GDU@7.

    I found this difficult – probably a wavelength thing. Thanks for warning me off Maskerade’s jumbo puzzles.

    I am surprised no-one has noticed that “tigers not found here” is a bit vague for SERENGETI. I guess Rocky Mountains, Nagasaki and Freemantle did not fit.

    No favourites – again, probably a wavelength thing

    Thanks Maskerade and thanks Oriel

58. Thanks Maskarade, Eileen and all – I enjoyed the discussions as much as the puzzle, particularly those on STRETTI, GENII and STYE.

59. Thanks Maskarade for an enjoyable crossword with AILERON, ARNO, THIS MINUTE (my COTD), ROENTGEN, NOISETTE, IRON HORSE, and GEMINI being my top picks. I missed PUNNET and without clear wordplay I had no chance. Thanks Eileen as always.
    [PostMark @10: I somehow knew you would raise a question about the STRETTI device : ) ]
    [poc @28: Re: fugue –That’s funny!]

60. Tony @59
    I agree – it wouldn’t have been difficult to provide wordplay for PUNNET.

61. After yesterday’s fun I found this a bit dry, though PUNNET did raise a smile.
    Thanks Eileen and Maskarade.

62. I’m another non-Brit who couldn’t get 19d PUNNET, even with all the crossers. As muffin@60 says, a bit of wordplay would have helped.

    28a STRETTI was my favourite, helped by knowing what it means. The fun was in figuring out the unusual parsing device, which I thought was very clever, as was the excellent surface.

    Laccaria@54, you were wise not to attempt the Hammerklavier sonata. I listened to it once, and that was enough. I love Beethoven, but he did occasionally lapse into bellicose bombast. And poc@28, thanks for the fugue definition.

    As I noted yesterday, I was expecting another painful slog today, so I was pleasantly surprised by this very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Maskarade for the fun, and Eileen for the friendly and useful blog.

63. [Muffin @60: Fruit basket from homespun network (6) ]

64. [Muffin @60: Addled nun with pet in fruit basket (6)]

65. Nice ones Tony!
    I was thinking of “Wordplay to trap fruit”

66. Thanks both.

    Maskerade always seems to mix gentle offerings with at least one obscurity. I wonder if he starts off with ‘I’ll stick STRETTI in down here and work from there’ or is it more ‘…nearly finished – garn, whatever will I fit in here? Oh! STRETTI will do…’

    Anyway I generally approach a Maskerade expecting to be skewered at some point and I always am. But a welcome distraction (from all that) for all that.

67. Tony@63&64, but the joy of this clue is the play on “small-holder”. Cryptic definitions will never work if you don’t get the definition.

68. A puzzle of two halves: I found bottom half gentle but too half a bit more of a workout apart from 28a which I should have known. Isn’t 8d a triangular green Quality Street?

69. Muffin @29 and Gervase @34: knowing that princes were among the Electors for the Emperor, I could not decide whether the clue was clumsy (because there was no difference in the use of Elector in the wordplay and the solution) or clever (because a Prince inherits his title, rather than being voted into office by an ELECTORATE).

    Laccaria @54: I was pleased with the double duty performed by “flipping” in the King Lear clue: first to instruct us to spell the daughter backwards; second because her father went flipping bonkers.

70. Andrew @69
    I was leaning towards clumsy. Perhaps the setter didn’t realise the significance of “Elector”.

71. Martyn@57 – I think the point is: in the SERENGETI there are lions in abundance – so some less-well-informed safari-goer might well ask “why aren’t there tigers here too?”. I have yet to hear of any big cats inhabiting Nagasaki or Fremantle (I may be wrong!) though I suppose you might get the odd cougar in the Rockies.

    Cellomaniac@62: actually I did use to rattle through the first and third movements of the Hammerklavier – and bits of the second. Just not the 4th movement, the fugue. Thankfully none of the recordings I made survive!

    [For those who don’t know what a STRETTO is in a fugue (sorry paddy@22 – please look away!) it’s when the second, third, fourth etc. strands ‘come in’ earlier than they did at the start of the piece: this often happens at the climax. Outside of fugues, the word is also used by some composers as a synonym of ‘accelerando’ i.e. ‘faster’. In Beethoven’s Op.110 the main theme also more than doubles in tempo.]

72. [Laccaria @71: According to mountainlion.org there are 20,000 – 40,000 mountain lions in the US, mostly in the Western states. No tigers, however, have been seen : )]

73. Thanks Laccaria@71. I did get it, but still thought the clue a bit vague

    On Hammerklavier: a fairly well-known pianist after (brilliantly) performing the piece commented to me that the piece put the soul of the performer on full display to the audience. A bit melodramatic but interesting, I thought

74. 13a I’m hoping that B.Stokes’ men can emulate T.Greig’s in beating India in India in the Test match series that starts tomorrow. It doesn’t happen often.

75. Gazzh@35. You may be on to something with the doubling. There are pairs in TEENAGER, AGREEMENT, NOISETTE, COUNTESSES, and STRETTI, which has the added thing of being a double triplet in the wordplay, as you say.

76. PUNNETS was a superb clue. To those who have complained may I take an answer from Paul and say TOUGH TITTIES.

77. Just not on the same page, I fear. Did not get SHAVE (my bad), ALSACE (seriously?), or PUNNET (nho, somewhat offended that a double definition clue would use such an obscure term). NHO ERMINE STREET but obvious from the clueing and I’m happy to learn about it. Ditto QUESTION TIME. Had never seen “loco” as short for “locomotive”. On the other hand, didn’t expect a knowledge of fugal forms to ever help with the Guardian cryptic…

78. nicbach@76, your friendly and helpful attitude towards those of us from across the pond (and who therefore are not familiar with the word PUNNET) is duly noted. In fact, if you read our comments carefully, you may conclude that we were not complaining, just noting the fact that the clue, with no wordplay, was not easy for non-Brits. Most of us understand that we are solving British crosswords and expect words and phrases that are beyond our ken. By commenting we are just pointing that out, for the benefit of setters and other readers of the blog. As Tony and I said @59 and 62, we enjoyed this puzzle very much. I hope you did, too.

79. Lots to like here, but I did think that ERMINE STREET was a bit too arcane for overseas solvers. But this is an argument that I am never going to win; we just don’t matter enough to be front of the setters’ and editors’ minds.

80. gfo@79. So why do you persist? We wouldn’t expect overseas solvers to get some of David Astle’s local references, (oval-shaped) football teams, place names etc. I don’t mind having to look things up, for a word or a bit of UKGK I would never use again. I feel we’re a guest on a British crossword and very lucky, as our homegrown cryptics are pretty poor in comparison, and we are fortunate to be able to join in. Enjoy!

81. paddymelon @80, weird isn’t it. Just when I said @78 that we non-Brits don’t complain about UKisms, along comes one @ 79 who does exactly that. From what I can tell, he’s part of a very small minority. You put it well – here in Canada we have hardly any home-grown cryptics, just one per week in the Globe and Mail. We are delighted to have access to the Guardian and FT puzzles and the (mostly UK) 15^2 community.

82. Cellomaniac@81. I concur. Sounds like you’re even worse off in Canada than we are here. But 15 sq is such a global community. I enjoy your posts.
    I did get PUNNET, loved the ”small-holder” in the fruit trade., as that’s what we call it here. How are strawberries sold where you are?

83. Charles @56. Thank you! I failed dismally with today’s, so I’m really interested to see the blog post on it.

84. cellomaniac@78: there needs to be a way of indicating whether we are complaining about an unknown word or a difficult parsing, or simply noting it as a neutral fact.

85. Sorry cellomaniac, I just wanted the opportunity to be rude. I don’t really care, but the alternatives put forward had none of the wit of the clue. What do you buy strawberries in?

86. The arguments about PUNNETs are somewhat skewed by the impression this site gives that there is a relative global balance of solvers. My guess would be that solvers are very much majority British, seeing as the crossword is still predominantly one published in a daily newspaper. This majority will be even greater if weighted by the financial contributions made to secure access to the crossword.

87. nicbach @85: In the US we buy strawberries in pint boxes or quart boxes. My alternative clues were meant to demonstrate how easy it can be to clue the word PUNNET; they were not meant to be a substitute for the wit of a pro like Maskarade. On the plus side, I have learned a new word.

88. paddymelon and nicbach @ 82&85, we buy our strawberries in baskets, like Tony, or in disgusting unrecyclable plastic things called oyster or clamshell containers. I’m not sure which are your PUNNETS. (It’s a good word, I’ll try to use it next time I shop.)

89. [Cellomaniac @88: Those plastic containers may not be easy to recycle but they certainly can be reused multiple times. We always bring them to our local farmers’ market where the merchants happily take them from us.]

90. Tony S and Muffin @ 63-65
    The alternative clue for PUNNET must surely include something along the lines of “construct a homophone clue, we hear”.

91. Enjoyed being able to do quite a lot of this Maskarade! 🙂 ARNO was my favourite, so clever (and happy memories of visits – our local airport used to have direct flights to Pisa, much missed)

92. Wellcidered@90. Well done! I was waiting for the pun on punnet and not disappointed.

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