Guardian Cryptic 29,490 by Matilda

58 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,490 by Matilda”

1. Mostly Quiptic level but worth the price of admission for TECHNO, BRAKE LIGHT, & GENRE

   Also liked the “quite the reverse” misdirection in TETHER

   Cheers M&S

2. This was just delightful, reminded me of Nutmeg. NINETEEN TWENTY the fave.

   Thanks both

3. Thank you, Shanne, for leaping in for all our sakes. It was a delightful puzzle, so thank you Matilda too.

4. Found myself waltzing through this until I hit the buffers in the NE corner. But thought GENRE (COTD for me, anyway), OGRE, BRAKE LIGHT all excellent clues. Loi was TECHNO, not my favourite – well, GENRE of music – at all…

5. I’m more familiar with Matilda setting the Quiptic but this proves that she can produce an excellent Cryptic. There was a nice mixture of devices with TECHNO being my favourite. Also ticks for GENRE, BRAKE LIGHT, BROADSHEET, NINETEEN TWENTY, CHIN CHIN, NUMBER ONE SEED and INTIMIDATE. Very enjoyable with SOCLE being my only nho.

   Ta Matilda & Shanne for filling in.

6. Thanks Matilda and Shanne
   I found this harder than I would have expected from Matilda. SOCLE was a jorum for me, but I liked the extended definition. TECHNO (LOI) was another I liked.
   I thought the second definition for NINETEEN TWENTY was a bit loose.

7. How is The Guardian a broadsheet newspaper?

8. Just lovely. Not a write in, but great fun. Thanks for stepping in, too.

9. jackkt @7 – it used to be, and arguably still is figuratively compared with the old tabloids, though I’m not impressed with its quality these days, as it seems much more biased towards a particular worldview than it used to be.

10. Definitely a step up from the Quiptic, and a pleasant solve.

    I failed to see the CON FORMING – nice! I liked the simple GENRE, 1920, No 1 seed, PROVENANCE, and TETHER with the misleading ‘reverse’.

    Thanks Matilda and Shanne.

11. Confusingly a ‘lift and separate’ is of two words that normally go together, but are already separated by a space.
    There’s one in 9a GENRE: “green salad”, that needs splitting into anagram fodder and anagram indicator.
    Another in 19d DETAINEE: “tea break”, that needs splitting into partial anagram fodder and anagram indicator.
    In 7d TECHNO, the splitting of the single word conforming into partial anagram fodder and anagram indicator is what Roz calls a Playtex.
    They can be hard to spot, and some solvers frown on them.
    There’s also a ‘rarer opposite process when we need to push two words together to solve a clue’ — a Gossard. (I’ve yet to spot one in the wild.)
    [It’s all very sexist, and has been called “tedious” before now on 15².]

12. jackkt@7: British newspapers are divided into tabloids – smaller format, sensationalist, low quality journalism – and broadsheets – larger format, more serious, higher quality journalism. The latter traditionally includes the The Times, The Guardian, and The Telegraph.

    The same categorization exists in the US, although the description of “higher quality journalism” seems to be on the wane in some notable places. I can’t speak to other countries.

13. Thanks both,
    I found this very difficult at first. The across clues yielded nothing to begin with but it eventually fell into place.

14. Classy crossword, quite a challenge for this solver but really enjoyed it, lovely surfaces. Just one gripe- not at all sure about ‘in a halting style’ for staccato (1d). ‘Esitando’ is ‘haltingly’ in music. Even staccato speech isn’t halting, it’s clipped but not in the faltering and unconfident manner suggested by ‘halting’? But a great puzzle. Thank you Matilda, and Shanne for saving the day!

15. Lots of nice surfaces, favorite was 21/23A. The parsing of 4D defeated me.

    Thanks Matilda and Shanne.

16. 21/23 last two numbers to a score (twenty)

    Wouldn’t they be 18 and 19? I took it as clue 21, so the last two clues before would be 19 and 20

    Thanks for stepping in shanne. Thanks, too, to Matilda for an enjoyable outing.

17. Very enjoyable. SOCLE was a jorum for me too: needed all the crossers for that one. I enjoyed NINETEEN TWENTY, GENRE, LOLLIPOP, PROVENANCE. This took me a while to get going, but was worth the wait – the anagram for BROADSHEET took ages to click, and I never did spot TECHNO (not a familiar music genre) which was a pity as it’s such a good clue.

    My personal vocabulary for the L&S/Playtex type of clue doesn’t match the official terminology – whoever it was that called the interminable hair-splitting about it tedious, I agree! I just enjoy the things when I manage to see them.

    (Dave Ellison@16 – if you’re counting up to 20, the last two are NINETEEN TWENTY – ready or not, here I come..)

18. Especially liked (as bodycheetah@1) 23d TETHER, where the solution is hiding in a stock setter’s phrase, as seen here in a clue by Picaroon:
    “It’s clear dope’s seized by copper? QuiTE THE Reverse (2,5)” — IN FOCUS — It’s the INFO’S that’s seizing the CU, not vv.
    Thanks M&S

19. FrankieG @11 – this nit picking is why I don’t often volunteer to blog the Cryptic crosswords – life is too short.

    I also think you’re wrong. Roz is being mischievous – the Playtex Cross-Your-Heart Bra, designed in the 1960s and still going strong, famously advertises that it “lifts and separates the breasts”. Playtex is Roz’s naughty name for a lift and separate clue – it doesn’t depend whether it is a word or phrase that is being is lifted and separated.

    The Gossard also refers to a bra – the Gossard Wonderbra worn to create cleavage in the 1970s and 80s. It was designed to push the breasts up and together to that supposedly sexy breast shape for low cut tops. It is no longer produced, as Gossard have expanded into a range of push-up bras.

    Personally, I’d rather use English rather than referencing rather boring underwear, but whatever gets you through.

20. This was a lot of fun! Favs were BREAK LIGHT, NINETEEN TWENTY, GENRE, TECHNO, DETAILS (made me re-laugh), SOCLE (a lovely semi-&lit jorum) and TETHER for the misdirection.

    Thanks both

21. Thanks for the blog, excellent puzzle with many very concise clues , could almost have been Fidelio . NINETEEN TWENTY was very original, TETHER a very clever idea , numerous neat clues.

    Lift and separate was coined for splitting two words that are already SEPARATE , I fail to see the point of naming this. Who is ever going to be fooled by this, not even a KPR fan .

22. Well done both. Entertainment and guidance much appreciated – DETAILS and TECHNO both stand-out clues. I haven’t had a jorum for a while so SOCLE eluded me – ah well. (But all this talk about busts indicates ‘must do better’.)

23. 13d Struggling to workout how ‘without’ is an insertion?
    I spent ages trying to think of a part of France that I could take ‘an’ out of!

24. I endorse the positive comments – in particular those praising the nice surfaces, some original clues and (quoting Roz for a second time today) the numerous concise clues.

    And a great blog too, particularly for one written at speed.

    I do have a question. What is a “jorum”? I have never quite understood its use in reference to crosswords (in real life it means a large drinking vessel according to my dictionary).

    Thanks Matilda and Shanne

25. Martyn@24 When the word play indicates a word you have never heard of but, when you look it up, there it is in the dictionary – that’s a ‘jorum’. I believe this refers back to the large drinking vessel being the answer to such a clue.

26. Martyn @24 A jorum is one of the things discussed in the FAQ, where it says:

    A Jorum. in this context, is a word that a solver works out from the clue and despite never having heard of it before, it turns out to be a real word.
    This term came about on this site when a blogger described the above situation regarding the word “JORUM”. A commenter replied to the effect that he or she had often wondered if there was term for such a situation and announced that he or she would think of them as JORUMs from now on.

    Lloyd @23 – Part of France without an origin (10)
    insertion (without) of AN (from the clue) into PROVENCE (part of France – it’s the order – PROVENCE is without AN

    And sorry for crossing, slow posting on my phone.

27. Many thanks Judge and Shanne. I had not spotted the FAQ – I will go there first next time

28. Lloyd @23, is it that you are unfamiliar with “without” meaning “outside”? See also “outwith” in Scotland.

29. Thanks Matilda. Except for revealing 13d this was smooth sailing with ATTITUDE, SOLOMON ISLANDS, and EYELINER being among my favourites. I endorse all comments that praise the very readable surfaces of Matilda. Thanks Shanne for the blog.

30. Lovely puzzle. Hats off to Shanne for the excellent emergency blog.

31. Lloyd @23
    As a child I was always puzzled by “There is a green hill far away, without a city wall”. Why should a green hill have a city wall?

32. Much enjoyed this this morning and I too thought of Nutmeg as I solved it.

    Not heard of SOCLE and didn’t parse TECHNO – been a while since I have seen one of these – well that’s my excuse.

    Thanks Matilda and Shanne

33. Martyn@24, for more on jorums, there’s this fun article out there: https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/do-you-know-what-jorum-is-i-ll-give-you-a-clue-20230328-p5cvwm.html

    Like a typical newspaper, they seem to get most specific factual details wrong about the coining of this term, despite the overall effect being correct: Eileen was a blogger here rather than a commentator; the puzzle wasn’t quite of the type described; and she knew from the start that the answer began with J. IIRC it wasn’t even she who suggested that the term be added to the cruciverbial glossary but rather some other commentator. Still, piece is fun to read and captures the feeling of snaring a jorum in the wild.

34. Adrian @14 I agree. The definition of STACCATO is wrong. Interesting to see it’s an anagram of toccatas though.

35. Just a thought: Is the Guardian paper size not a ‘Berliner’? Somewhere between broadsheet and tabloid.

36. It was a Berliner size briefly (downsized from true broadsheet), but is now even smaller than that.

37. me @36
    Not all that briefly – 2005 to 2018 apparently. I thought it gone smaller considerably earlier than 2018.

38. Berliner for a long time, a beautiful newspaper , the presses needed replacing and it was too expensive . They went in with the Mirror so had to become tabloid size but reduced costs from sharing .

39. @28 Monkey & @31 Muffin – thank you for the explanation. Just something I wasn’t familiar with! I shall add it to my arsenal!

40. Lloyd@39 outwith is almost a contranym! Fun things, contranyms (and indeed English as a whole); https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contronym#English

41. The irony of the Berliner presses being too expensive to replace is that they were bought new when the G changed size, but couldn’t find anyone willing to share them, so had to bear all the costs themselves.

    I guess they didn’t at that time want to be the same size as the redtops.

42. Pretty much what bodycheetah @1 said. I didn’t know SOCLE and couldn’t square it with “bust”, missing the extended definition, so thanks, Shanne, for that.
    And thanks, Matilda, of course.

43. Many thanks to Matilda and to Shanne for stepping in. Lots of lovely clues. I particularly liked TECHNO, NINETEEN TWENTY, GENRE and LOLLIPOP. It was lovely to get SOCLE – a Jorum for me and for others too from the above thread. It’s such a good feeling. It always makes me think I might be getting the hang of solving, until I remember that really it’s down to impeccable clueing.

44. muffin @31: me too, as a child in Scotland. Of course the Scottish ‘outwith’, avoiding what AP@ 40 calls a contranym, was what I was familiar with. It was many years later that I realised that ‘outwith’ translates as ‘without ‘ in English English/

45. Sorry but it’s ‘Cin Cin’ ……..

46. Thanks for the extra info on jorum, AP@33.

    Unfortunately the article is behind a paywall for me and I need to subscribe to read it. That is also why I do not do the SMH cryptics as I currently do not live in Australia.

47. I had a similar experience with without as muffin@31. A little off topic, but I had the same problem as a child with “want”. The words of a hymn or a psalm were “the lord is my shepherd, I will not want”. I could not work out for the longest time why the singers do not want the lord as their shepherd.

48. Enjoyable challenge.

    New for me: SOCLE.

    Favourites: TECHNO, GENRE (loi).

    Thanks, both.

49. Very late to the party today – very discourteous, as it’s one that I was down to be hosting. 🙁

    It’s been a rather hairy twenty four hours or so. After discovering yesterday evening that I’d apparently lost my internet connection, with no means of letting anyone know that I wouldn’t be able to access the puzzle to solve – my paper boy doesn’t come that early – let alone write and post a blog, I did manage to get a message through to Ken and, fortunately, Shanne stepped up to the mark – my thanks to her. 😉

    It turned out during the day that the problem was with my laptop, rather than the internet, which was rather more scary but, after two half-hour telephone sessions with my grandson and his girlfriend, a hundred miles away in London, all seems now resolved (fingers crossed). They do say – don’t they? – ‘Ask a (grand)child’.

    I was disappointed to have missed blogging a Matilda – I love her puzzles – but it was good to settle down with it later in the afternoon to calm my frazzled nerves.

    I won’t list all my favourites but must just highlight SOLOMON ISLANDS, NINETEEN TWENTY and NUMBER ONE SEED, all for surfaces but most of all for the ‘run-ons’ (so like Philistine! 😉 ) and PROVENANCE, because I love Provence.

    SOCLE was a jorum for me, too – and yes, I was the blogger who promoted the use of that word, after a commenter said that his/her grandmother delighted, like me, in such a solution.

    Many thanks to Matilda and to Shanne.

50. I am (too easily?) amused by the vigorous arguments over the proper definition or categorization of cryptic devices and clue types. For me there are three types – clever, not so clever, and too clever by half. All else is window dressing, although I admit to liking Roz’s distinctive bras. 😉

    7d TECHNO fell into the clever category for me, and it was my favourite clue. I also had big ticks for the equally clever 9a GENRE and 16/18a SOLOMON ISLANDS.

    Thanks, Matilda for the fun, and Shanne for filling in so ably.

51. [ Eileen, we crossed. I’m glad your laptop issue is resolved, and that Matilda was able to defrazzle you. I recently asked a grandchild a question concerning a CD – she had no idea what I was talking about, but her father was old enough to remember them. ]

52. [Pleased that you are sorted, Eileen, and have been given due credit for “jorum”!]

53. Eileen@49: I think you’re stuck with ‘jorum’ although it was marienkaefer(?) who was the neologiseristical person. Might as well relax and enjoy….

    (It occurs to me that a laptop and a grandchild should always be conjoined.)

54. Alphapha @53 – so glad that someone remembers the occasion!
    I still miss marienkaefer – and I love your epithet. 😉

55. It took me a while to get going, having mistakenly written a couple of solutions into the wrong places in the grid, something I haven’t done for ages – and no Tippex to hand on holiday in the Lake District. A satisfying solve in the end, especially when I saw how SOCLE works! My second last in was PROVENANCE, which should have leaped out at me much sooner, an indication of how distracted I was when attempting this.

    [Alphalpha@53. Sadly, my grandson is only five months old, so won’t be much help with my laptop for a year or two yet. In fact, I’m blaming him for my lateness in solving this puzzle, as we’re on our first family holiday with him, and he’s a distraction, to say the least.]

    Thanks to Matilda for the challenge and to Shanne for stepping up, and welcome back to Eileen and her laptop.

56. Two immensely enjoyable cryptics on the trot. So much to like about this one as mentioned by others. Tea tray moment with detailed as usually see that as an indicator, but loved it when figured out. SOCLE was a Jorum for me too, but obvious from the crossers, just had to check it actually was a thing.

    Thanks very much to Matilda and Shanne and delighted to have you back Eileen.

57. [sheffield hatter@55: Think dandling?]

58. Very late to add my penny’s worth, but I wanted to endorse all those who have praised the surfaces of Matilda’s clues. I find this is not so common these days and I for one would like to see more attention paid to it. It makes the whole exercise much more pleasurable.

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