Guardian Cryptic 29,369 by Brendan

91 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,369 by Brendan”

1. Confidently put in NATO for 12a – “tan” is a function!

2. Really enjoyable puzzle, loved the long down clues. Perfect level for Monday.

3. Certainly the quickest Brendan, I’ve ever completed but what a thing of beauty with the various connecting down clues. Some lovely anagrams including PROBATIONS, MYRTLES and WOODLAND. I also liked the surfaces in DERIVING, INVITATION, RENOIR and ORGY. All happily parsed for a change.

   Ta Brian & manehi.

4. Brendan in Monday mode. Going down a treat in this house.

5. manehi, if you go out of bounds, you must play another ball rather than take a drop. A drop is for when you go into penalty areas such as water or WOODLAND, where you declare your ball unplayable. Boring for non-golfers of course.

6. Lovely start to the week. I didn’t spot the theme but that didn’t spoil the enjoyment. Thanks Brendan and manehi.

7. KewJumper @4 – I see what you did there 😉
   Nicely done, especially the long down clues clued so concisely. The only problem with a puzzle like this first thing on a Monday is that you feel the day can only go downhill from here…
   Thanks, both.

8. Loved this, although also started with NATO, and didn’t parse ORGY. I looked up TAKES A DROP in golf having started with TAKES A shot and am none the wiser. Thank you AlanC @5 for clarifying.

   Thank you to manehi and Brendan.

9. I do admire the way some solvers are able to switch modes between demanding and accessible. As KewJumper says, Brendan in Monday mode. Very cleanly clued, something clever in the background but certainly nothing like as devious as he can be. MYRTLES, RENOIR, WOODLAND, SKYDIVE and LOWDOWN were my particular favourites.

   Thanks Brendan and manehi.

10. Lovely crossword. Good concise cluing with no surprises and some well signed anagrams to get monday-puzzle beginners started.

    Thanks Brendan and Manehi

    Only fault is I have hardly started,let alone finished, my breakfast coffee and crossword is done!

11. Shirl@1 I also fell for Nato but I had a slight hesitation because the definition was so vague. I always feel slightly disgruntled by ambiguous clues.
    Other than that it was a pleasant solve with some head scratchers for me.

12. I was helped a lot by the down clues, especially the 4 long ones, but I slowed down in the SE corner. I guessed the theme was about downward motion in the down clues but I did not understand why ‘takes a drop’ = ‘replaces ball on course’ (I guessed it might be a golf reference) in 14d, or why low and down = ‘appropriately placed, doubly so’ in 17d.
    Also could not work out what type of clue 6d and 7d were/are.

    Favourites: UNDO, RENOIR, WOODLAND.

    New for me: the order of the colours in the visible spectrum. Never learnt this but I love looking at rainbows!

    Thanks, both.

13. Self @9: …some setters …

14. I had ticks for ORGY, DERIVING & PROBATIONS but that’s as good as it got.
    Some of these clues were barely cryptic; SHERLOCK and all the 15s

    Cheers M&B

15. Lovely. Snap, Shirl@1 – but NATO didn’t last once THE PENNY DROPPED. I thought FROM TOP TO BOTTOM was referencing that it was 15 letters long, manehi, and hence literally true. I learnt the colours of the rainbow via the mnemonic ROY G BIV, so ORGY made wonderful sense. So much to like… Thanks, Brendan and manehi.

16. Another NATO rubber out here.
    Also, wondered whether the APEMAN could have had an alternative MAN in the clue.
    Otherwise, a lovely start to the week.
    Thanks B&M

17. That was a nice start to the week. For once, I was able to parse every clue. I liked the cleverness of ORGY and RENOIR. I also thought that the clue SKYDIVE was very good. Some great anagrams too. Like Wellcidered@16, I was a little disappointed to see MAN appear in the clue and the solution.

    It all made for a fun Monday, anyway. Thanks Brendan & manehi.

18. I agree with all the comments so far. A lovely start to a Monday. Even I got the theme for once. Brendan – that was brilliant. Manehi – yet another great blog. I needed help on parsing INVITATION. Alan C @5, thanks for clarifying the golf reference. I was wondering why “course” featured in what I thought was a football clue… Difficult to choose favourites, but UNDO, PROBATIONS and GRAVITATIONALLY, were amongst mine.

    [With many thanks to paddymelon for advice last week on how to do it, here’s my contribution of an earworm on today’s theme. Hope it works. Sorry for the ad at the start]
    https://youtu.be/zPNw_2h0CnU?si=RxA5WkaZQhnRjc9T

19. Very nice Monday fare. I also tried NATO, and only parsed ORGY a few minutes after completion.

    Thanks Brendan & manehi

20. Nice one PinB @18: choon 👍

21. I didn’t parse LOWDOWN, and I thought there must have been a trick to DOWN TO THE GROUND, but it was simply a definition.

    I found this to be very enjoyable. Thanks Brendan & Manehi.

22. A great puzzle to start the week.

    Like some others, I momentarily wondered where the O came from in NATO, which made 12ac one of my favourites when THE PENNY DROPPED. I’m with manehi’s other two favourites, too, with the addition of the clever anagrams at 18ac PROBATIONS, 24ac WOODLANDS (great surface) and 3dn COINCIDENT (ditto).

    michelle @12 – someone may well have overtaken me by now – we have the following mnemonic for the colours of the rainbow: Richard Of York Gave Battle In VAIN.

    NeilH @7 – I liked your comment, too. 😉

    Many thanks to Brendan and manehi.

23. Splendidly Monday, with appropriately transparent (don’t be so curmudgeonly Bodycheetah @14 🙂 ) but well varied clues.

    I enjoyed all the anagrams, UNDO, ORGY and RENOIR.

    Thanks to S&B

24. Thanks Brendan and manehi
    Great fun. INVITATION was favourite from many good ones.
    I was briefly held up by having NOSE instead of DOWN at 7d – I think it fits the definition slightly better.

25. Fastest ever Brendan solve! Tend to agree with Bodycheetah@14

    Thanks Brendan and manehi

26. First time for ages I have completed the crossword in time to join in the blog! Feeling confidence boosted. I also went down the trig function line for 12a convincing myself ENIS was an international energy supplier, until the penny dropped. Also fell flat on my face putting flat to the ground for 7d, until 13a didn’t fit. Loved it, ❤️ Brendan .

27. Brendan seems to have Holmes and Watson on his mind because a few weeks ago he had “Medical assistant for consultant on many cases (6)”. On that occasion I mentioned that while Watson is indeed introduced as John in “A Study in Scarlet”, in “The Man with the Twisted Lip” he mysteriously becomes “James”. People have come up with ingenious theories to try to explain this away, but in fact it was just that Conan Doyle never bothered to check the details of previous stories, giving rise to many inconsistencies.

    (Is there also a suggestion of Dr John the Night Tripper in 8a?)

    Enjoyable Monday puzzle. Many thanks Brendan and manehi.

28. Totally and fundamentally lovely – thanks Brendan & manehi.
    I like how the symmetrically opposed pair, STAR and GARB, have ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ respectively in their wordplay, and there’s ‘falling’ in 3d to complete the ‘down’ clues.
    The anagram for WOODLAND is also appropriate and the definition felt like a Monday advisory!

29. I’m another who bunged in NATO before tripping over the crosser. A slight flaw in an otherwise impeccable crossword. Brendan seems to have been asked to do a Monday as this is quite a bit easier than his usual fare.

30. Great puzzle. Brendan’s name at the top of a puzzle always makes my heart happy.
    Like others I loved the long clues, though stupidly I didn’t really connect them to all those downward themed clues.
    Thanks to Brendan and manehi – and to other contributors, as I’ve really enjoyed reading the different perspectives and the added nuances some solvers have added.

31. Parsed 3d COINCIDENT with the definition as “falling at the same time” — with “fall”= “occur” — as in ‘Thanksgiving always falls on a Thursday.’ We all fall down.

32. Enjoyed this, but couldn’t parse ORGY. Could someone explain for me why it isn’t an indirect anagram? It seems to me that you have to work out what ‘start of spectrum initially’ means and then solve the anagram.
    Thanks Brendan and manehi.

33. Weird one, this. I completed it fairly quickly, but didn’t parse a good few, and SHERLOCK barely felt cryptic – I held off from putting it in originally, certain there must have been something I was missing, but there wasn’t. Didn’t spot the theme, as always.

34. Can’t resist adding a down under element from on high.

35. @34

    Beautiful – thanks!

36. In 7d isn’t the definition just “completely”?

37. [(continued from @31) …like Toy Soldiers(1988)]

38. Offspinner @36: I agree

39. [I learnt the spectrum upside-DOWN, but I didn’t know this mnemonic for VIBGYOR]

40. Very quick. I’m with Bodycheetah@14 and one or two others – some clues were barely cryptic. But pleasant enough.
    I agree with SourDough@32 that ORGY seems like an indirect anagram – which doesn’t bother me at all, but I’m surprised no-one has complained about it.
    Favourites ORGY and SKYDIVE.
    Thanks manehi and Brendan

41. Thought this was going to be a losing struggle as I unavailingly steadily read down through the across clues. Until I arrived at the leg up with the anagram of MYRTLES, swiftly followed by the helpful further ones – PROBATIONS, UPSTAGED and WOODLAND. This gave me a generous toehold for the long down solutions. Wasn’t sure about the construction of SKETCHY, with Sketch a possibility of a form of artwork as well as Etch, nor that SHERLOCK was a sharp enough clue for the very first one to be read. Loi was ORGY as I dimly remembered that VIBGYOR was my childhood way of recollecting the order of the colours of the rainbow. Good fun throughout however, eventually…

42. Good start to the week. Perhaps it’s just downhill from now?

    I was another NATO, disabused when (finally) THE PENNY DROPPED. Despite this, I liked UNDO. SHERLOCK just seemed like a straight description to me. The example in Collins for 7 is: Brit informal Completely; absolutely: it suited him down to the ground.

    Thanks Brendan and manehi.

43. … I’m not sure that I agree that the clue for ORGY is an indirect anagram. I can’t think of any other way of expressing the ‘start of spectrum initially’ in four letters, apart from ROYG, although technically you’re not given the fodder in plain sight.

44. DOWN TO THE GROUND
    I read it as a DD
    1. Completely
    2. Prone to face this way?
    Sorry if someone has already said this.

45. Just listened to Start the Week on R4 which is all about GRAVITY. A COINCIDENce ?

46. [paddymelon@34 – the timing of that release was so poignant, just as Chris Hadfield came back to Earth, one of the most dangerous bits of being on ISS – I saw it then because I was following him on Twitter while he was on ISS. I’m glad David Bowie fought to keep it online.]

47. [.. lost in rain in Juarez … and your gravity fails, skydiving … heeelp … sorry, too many shirazes …]

48. Agreed with KVa@14 and Offspinner@36 about DOWN TO THE GROUND as a dd. And FrankieO@31 about “falling” as part of the definition for 3d.

    And, sorry if someone has said this, but I think every single down clue has a reference to verticality in the answer or clue? “Falling” in 3d, “at the top” in 5d which is, “at rock bottom” in 21d which also is.

    Thanks Brendan and manehi!

49. Lots of fun, though I as usual completely missed the theme. Thanks to Brendan and manehi.

50. Like some others here, I found some clues weak – not really cryptic (particularly SHERLOCK). On the other hand, WOODLAND was a surprisingly good anagram. I liked LOWDOWN as well.

51. I only just realised that 1,2,6 and 7 can be read as a continuous sentence. Apart from that cleverness, I thought RENOIR was particularly neat, Managed not to spot the theme at all till I came on here. Thanks, bloggers and M and B of course.

52. My first thought for 12ac was also: NATO fits but doesn’t parse. So I left it blank – and UNDO was my LOI, though I’m sure the device must have been used before….

53. Good start to the week. Thanks.

54. Certainly the clue for SHERLOCK is barely cryptic, but Doctor John did flash up for me The Night Tripper, aka Mac Rebennack

55. @48 it gets better, the two 4 letter verts refer to their own position in the clues, reinforcing 2d.

    For some reason I didn’t mind the weaker puns and double definitions on a Monday. I suppose there’s more misdirection to 8a if you know the jazz canon. And not sure how people were sticking to NATO once no O could be found.

56. Very enjoyable puzzle and theme, thanks Brendan.
    Most informative blog and discussion, uncovering the layers of cleverness and trickiness; thanks manehi and commenters.
    Agree with mattw@48 (and others?) about all the down clues referencing the theme.
    I liked THE PENNY DROPPED, TAKES A DROP, UPSTAGED, RENOIR and the lovely surface for WOODLAND.
    And thanks to pdm@34 for the beautiful ear worm.

57. Took me back 70 years to physics lessons when one had VIBGYOR drummed into oneself! Very nice crossword as one expects from our friend across the pond! The best Monday offering for yonks

58. Another themed tune, Sweet and Lowdown, George Gershwin
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX9MCyO6smk

59. Roger GS @55 – my thinking with NATO was that ‘of’ might be ‘o’ (as in tam o’ shanter or O’Really), particularly with Brendan’s Irish origins. I still think it parsed (but crucially didn’t work with the crossers, and it’s a crossword for a reason).

60. Enjoyed the indirect name-check.

    Also enjoyed the puzzle immensely. Only puzzling thing was why 2d said “and the one before” when it was true of other down clues too. Was it just that it was true, and easy to say without the surface getting clumsy. Anyone? Time for coffee. Thanks.

61. I think there is a stronger cryptic element to SHERLOCK but I’m not fully sure how it works. A ‘lock’ is certainly an assistant for many cases – I’ve used one myself for suitcases and briefcases. And there’s some sort of doctoring going on to get from ‘was his’ to ”s her’. Beyond that, and where John fits in cryptically, I don’t know.

62. After a long day of unpacking boxes I was hoping for a breezy and enjoyable puzzle as a change of pace before bed and Brendan delivered perfectly, giving us a friendly grid and lots of brilliant clues. Has made my evening, and now for some zzzs. Many thanks Brendan and manehi, and all above who have pointed out how cleverly the crossword is constructed as well as being a pleasure to solve.

63. Very nice solve once the penny had dropped.
    I think the new Saturday Guardian quick cryptic has tuned my brain up. Time to rest on my laurels till the weekend.

64. Job Well done @51. I had a feeling there was more to this theme than had been commented so far – Brendan is well know for his multiple layers, and it felt bland without something further.

    Thanks B and M

65. Thanks for the blog, good puzzle for the Monday tradition. INVITATION was very neat , WOODLAND a nice complete anagram and certainly not an old chestnut, it may become one in the future. ORGY earned a severe Paddington stare.

66. [ Lord Jim @27, Dr Watson had a war wound that mysteriously travelled between the shoulder and the leg. ]

67. What Postmark@9 wrote

    I did not understand DOWN TO THE GROUND and thanks to Offspinner@36 for putting me out of my agony. I actually do not know the phrase to mean “completely”, and what you wrote explains the clue to me

    Thanks Brendan and manehi

68. Lovely puzzle. I had serious fear after only getting a couple of across solutions on the first pass but the down clues fell more easily and everything was done when I got to the bottom of 19 across, as it were. I think “risky diversion” is a much more apt description than the “leisure activity” we had recently!

69. OK, but absolutely nothing there to stretch the brain. Hope for a challenge tomorrow.

70. Didn’t get to do this till lunchtime but feel I ought to join in. A jolly dolve. thanks to Brendan and manehi. Surprised that several didn’t reconise the rainbow clours I remember “Richard of York gained battles in vain”-ine of those useless mnemonics, more difficult to remember than the facts themselves.

71. Nicely pitched for a Monday. Favourites RENOIR, LOWDOWN and WOODLAND.

72. In 7d DOWN TO THE GROUND, the word “face” is key. To be prone you have to be face down, as opposed to supine, face up – As discussed at length here last month, When Anto clued “19d Prone to prosecute, hiding fix (6)” for SUPINE.

73. Great Monday puzzle! Very enjoyable. I only failed due to having put in TAKE A SHOT in 14d which made DRAGON ungettable. I thought shot was ok for a wee dram, but clearly drop fits better. Thanks to Brendan and manehi.

74. Isn’t 19a [ORGY] an indirect anagram?

75. [Boz Scaggs’ Lowdown(1976)]

76. A doable (by me) Brendan is much appreciated. Liked Re:Noir. Thanks manehi for super-clear parsing too.

77. FrankieG @72
    That’s why I suggested (@24) that NOSE was closer than DOWN.

78. 21d GARB is also a “game” upside-DOWN: BRAG — (like 5d STAR RATS)
    And 4d SKYDIVE is brilliant – hidden in a second definition – ‘risky diversion’

79. Jepi@74, arguably so, which is why Roz@65 gave it a hard Paddington state. Or you could say it is clear indication of the letters in the anagrind. It’s up to you what you think is a fair search space for the answer. I was more worried about describing four out of seven letters from the sequence as the start.

80. Like many others, I parsed “overturn function” = NAT, “of” = O, as in 5 o’clock. But PENNY was so obviously right….
    No complaints though, and all very satisfying

81. Thanks Brendan. The left side felt like a Monday but I struggled a bit with the SW corner and I revealed DRAGON and ‘GROUND’ from 7d. My top picks were UNDO (ignorance can be bliss – NATO never crossed my mind), DERIVING, PROBATIONS, SKYDIVE, and RENOIR. I failed to parse SHERLOCK and ORGY. Thanks manehi for the blog.

82. Dr. WhatsOn@60 – Only the four long clues are entered 2d FROM TOP TO BOTTOM – that’s why it says “the one before”.
    The one after, 3d COINCIDENT is too short, and doesn’t “Totally” fill the column.

83. I too wondered whether 19ac should be condemned as the forbidden indirect anagram. Robi @43 provides a good defense of the clue. The stricture against indirect anagrams is to avoid the problem that there could be many different possible anagram fodders, which would be unfair to the solver (since there are also many ways of anagramming the fodder). But the range of possibilities suggested by the phrase “Start of spectrum” is limited enough to avoid that unfairness.

    Guardian puzzles pretty frequently contain “slightly indirect anagrams” (a term I just made up), in which one has to substitute a common abbreviation for a word in the fodder before anagramming, or perhaps make some other very common substitution (such as VI for six). Those seem perfectly fair to me. This is a shade more indirect, but not as much as a true indirect anagram.

84. I usually struggle with Brendan, but not today.
    I’m not sure Sherlock Holmes ever referred to Watson as an ‘assistant ‘, biographer, friend, colleague…but happy to be corrected.
    For Brendan, a strangely uncryptic clue too.
    Thanks both.

85. I thought the them was well known sayings ile the penndropped, down to the ground, takes a drop, low down etc.. Thoroughly enjoyed this, made me think but within my range of knowledge and thinking. Thanks!

86. I thought the them was well known sayings like the penny dropped, down to the ground, takes a drop, low down etc.. Thoroughly enjoyed this, made me think but within my range of knowledge and thinking. Thanks!

87. I’m very late, but wanted to thank setter and blogger. Finished this very quickly, only hiccup was trying anagrams of “Vibg”, before I saw the light. Also, trying to parse “Sherlock” another way…
    I now realise, there was a theme…
    Thank you to Brendan and to Manehi.

88. I’m a day behind again, but this gives me an opportunity to enjoy all those comments that try to exonerate Brendan from using an indirect anagram in the clue for ORGY. It is futile to deny that it’s an indirect anagram, as it clearly is! The crux of the matter is whether it’s unfair to solvers, which it doesn’t seem to have been. Though I must admit to having just bunged the answer in with a shrug, before doing the same with UNDO to complete the grid. This sort of loose cluing can feel unsatisfying – I miss that solid clunk as the jigsaw piece fits neatly into place. Yes, there are all the ‘down’ references to enjoy, but that’s not the same as the resounding clang as the tea tray hits the floor.

    Thanks to Brendan and manehi.

89. Excellent!

90. As far as I am concerned there is a category of cryptic clues called “cryptic definitions” and I have no intention of abandoning them. I do admit that not all of mind have the brilliance of “Bar of soap” for ROVERS RETURN

91. Just for the record. There are other instances where a ball is dropped. E.g relief from GUR, casual water, immovable obstructions etc.

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