Guardian Cryptic 29529 Qaos

104 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29529 Qaos”

1. 27d DAD’S ARMY 8d

2. I see a Warmington on Sea theme

3. What a wonderful puzzle! I think a mini break in snooker is just a euphemism for the smallest break possible (2 balls) rather than a proper break when you pot squillions.
   Thanks so much Q and S

4. To pot only two colours and two white balls playing snooker would constitute a ‘mini-break’. Thank to Qaos and scchua.

5. @James G. Like minds. Sorry I crossed.

6. A break is a series of pots in snooker. The smallest possible would be just two, hence MINI-BREAK. I see lots of you got there before me.

7. Plenty of Dad’s Army references including DON’T PANIC, (sergeant) WILSON, HOME(r) GUARD, DAD’S ARMY, STUPID BOY, WALKER, COLONEL and MAIN WAR ING(le)

8. I saw DON’T PANIC and thought, hooray – a Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy theme!
   Whoops.
   (Spent rather longer than I should have, trying to fit Marvin and Dent in various spots.)
   But still an’ all, wotta lovely puzzle.
   I counted 15 references to W-on-Sea’s finest – and I now have the Bud Flanagan theme running around in my head
   Thank you Qaos and scchua

9. Oh and PIKE(man) (the stupid boy)

10. I was dreadfully misled for ages by 5D because the crossers suggested encUMBER and UMBER is a brown pigment but I couldn’t for the life of me justify ?ENC or ENC? as a fruit. And I bet I’m not the only one to have thought “Of course! Cucumbers ARE fruits, like tomatoes, but I wouldn’t dream of putting them in a fruit salad.” Mind you, could be interesting?
    Nearly forgot to say what a great crossword, although I did panic at not seeing the theme. Never saw the show…

11. Lovely puzzle! I’m usually hopeless at spotting themes, but I did get this one. So far: DONT PANIC, DADS ARMY, WILSON, WALKER, PIKE, (STUPIDity BOYs?) but can’t quite squeeze out COLONEL MAINwaring, WARmington. There are probably more? I thought 13ac was very clever, but a bit “niche”?

12. Many happy returns to FifteenSquared! Good to have Qaos on great form to celebrate both your birthday and mine.

13. Enjoyed the theme a lot but my favourite was MINIBREAK.
    https://youtu.be/bF6qElf9GJ8

    Ta Qaos & scchua.

14. I can only agree with others above that this was tip top. Last in was ENCUMBER, which took me a while. Missed the theme, which I should have seen. I always mean to get into the habit of pausing half way through and ponder if there is one, but always forget. Anyway, a great end to the week. With thanks to Qaos, and to scchua for the colourful blog.

15. Brilliant crossword. Just a shame that he was Captain Mainwaring not Colonel.

16. [Blaise @10: it shouldn’t be too difficult to track down episodes of Dad’s Army, wherever you are in the world. Although they date from decades back, they’re still being broadcast by the Beeb fairly regularly, and will also be on the BBC’s catch-up outlet. Or just try YouTube.
    And I promise you, it’s worth the effort. Ostensibly a gentle comedy set in wartime, it’s actually a perceptive and sometimes poignant exploration of all sorts of quintessential elements of British life and character.
    It’s also beautifully-acted.
    And, for the record, occasionally it’s screamingly funny.]

17. Not a puzzle for US solvers who wouldn’t know the theme, but for those of us in the know a lot of fun spotting the references (as usual I didn’t see the theme whilst doing the puzzle, only once alerted by commenters on the G site). I thought 13 PIKEMAN was well constructed, but possibly again not one for the US solvers, or for those below a certain age. I don’t think MAINwearing got beyond the rank of captain, so COLONEL wasn’t a direct theme reference. Agree with the others about the parsing of MINIBREAK, just a CD. Thanks to Scchua and Qaos.

18. Oh dear – very slow typing here, and didn’t even get the edit done in time. Thank you TimC@7 and 9. And Wellbeck@8.

19. Thanks Qaos and Scchua.

    For reference, the smallest two-ball break in snooker is 3 – red and yellow. Technically, I suppose you could pocket two reds in one shot and then not get a colour.

20. @Andy Doyle – I reckon Mainwaring always thought of himself as a colonel at the very least…

21. Andy Doyle@15: Indeed, though Colonel Pritchard does appear in several episodes. Played by Robert Raglan. That said, this may not have been intended.

22. First two in were WILSON and ARMY, so I didn’t panic and wasn’t a stupid boy!
    I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle so thanks go to my favourite setter.

23. That was a mental workout for me. I always struggle with Qaos, but got there in the end.

    The theme completely escaped me, as it always does, even after completing the grid, and even though I am exactly of the right age to have enjoyed Dad’s Army at the time it was first broadcast. But at least that means the puzzle should be accessible to those unfamiliar with the show. However, for non-Brits or younger solvers I suspect that 13A is very obscure.

    And for completeness, for those who care, Dakota was what the RAF called the C-47, the WWII military workhorse derived from the DC-3. Built in massive numbers, after the war many were sold off for civilian use, and the plane was so robust and reliable, some are still in use today.

24. Pace @23: and of course, Spike Milligan served in the British army during WWII.

25. Is this the first time BIRD has actually meant bird, and not a specific breed?

26. Lovely stuff, thanks to Qaos and scchua

27. Wasn’t exactly BOWLING along with this, so had a long pause and then returned much later with much more success. A thoroughly enjoyable solve in the end, though couldn’t quite work out exactly what the mathematics were trying to tell me at 13 and 21ac, but just bunged in PIKEMAN and COLONEL without a backward glance. I’m another ignoramus who wouldn’t necessarily think of a cucumber as a fruit. Last to yield the NE corner.
    Years ago primary school pupils in my class wrote optimistically to several well known authors hoping they might make an appearance during their Book Week. (The beheaded at 13ac) Spike Milligan sent a very sweet handwritten reply, sadly saying he couldn’t make it, with “You do realise I am nearly seventy years old now.”
    And as usual with me, didn’t see the wood for the trees, with the Dad’s Army theme all over this, even with loi WILSON another giveaway

28. Thanks Qaos and scchua
    No theme, of course. I had got to ITALY before I solved one, so I thought it would be a struggle, but the downs were easier.
    I didn’t parse STUPIDITY or the MAN part of PIKEMAN; COLONEL not completely parsed either.
    Is FAILING the same as “forgetting”?
    I do get cross when PE is equated with games. When I was at school, games was always fun, but PE wasn’t (unless it was basketball or pirates).
    Favourite DON’T.

29. That was fun, especially once I began spotting themers, which helped to get ARMY, though it took me a long time to find MAIN WAR ING(LE), as I was thinking of WAR as a themer in its own right. I failed to parse the fiddly STUPIDITY and had to research the chess champion TAL (a bit of a stretch, imho, though maybe not if you’re into the game).

    [No, Mainwaring was a captain, not a colonel. Being very class conscious and a snob, he was furious to discover that during the First World War Sergeant Wilson had held the rank of captain while he had been a mere lieutenant. He never missed a chance to emphasise that it was now he who OUTRANKED the laid-back Wilson, who didn’t give a hoot about any of that nonsense.]

30. gladys @29: I was about to compose something similar about OUTRANKED with M & W, but I’m glad you beat me to it, as you summed it up perfectly.

31. Love Dad’s Army and love this puzzle. Thanks to the setter and blogger.

32. Interesting that people think the show was set in Warmington-on-Sea when it was actually Walmington-on-Sea. The distinction would have been clear to Fraser at least.
    Many thanks for crossword and blog.

33. Lovely puzzle – I always look for the numerical clue first – and I was pleased I remembered from past outings that the numbers could be separated – e.g. 1000 to 100 and 0 etc

    Didn’t parse STUPIDITY or second half of PIKEMAN sadly and, as usual, didn’t spot the theme.

    Loved ENCUMBER, MINIBREAK, DONT and BOYS

    Thanks Qaos and scchua

34. Fine puzzle, I took a while to get going for no apparent reason.

    Figuring out PIKEMAN and COLONEL took some doing! Spotted the Dad’s Army references, but too late to help.

    ENCUMBER was my fave

    Thanks Qaos and scchua

35. [“DON’T tell him, PIKE!”]

36. Thank you Qaos for a mostly fun solve. I thought I was getting better at spotting themes but failed on this. It didn’t help that I was sure 13a was pokemon from the crossers, and I’d never heard of a pikeman.

    I suppose Tal is the chess equivalent of Ernie Els in golf: not exactly a household name, but one that crossword solvers are expected to have heard of. At least I now know how many hundreds of chess champions I’ve never heard of, and how many of them have quite extraordinary names!

    Thanks to scchua for the excellent blog.

37. Sorry, I’m hopeless with trying to provide links, but here’s perhaps a Spike Milligan poem that links to today’s theme, sort of…
    Soldier Freddy
    was never ready
    But! Soldier Neddy
    unlike Freddy
    was always ready
    and steady,

    That’s why,
    when Soldier Neddy
    is-outside-Buckingham-Palace-in-the-pouring-wind-and-rain-being-steady-and-ready,
    Freddy
    is home in beddy.

38. I always enjoy Qaos’s offerings and this was no different.

    One thing I never like to see is (as in this example) “Amy” clued as “girl”. IMO it’s far too broad to clue [any boy’s name] as “boy” or ‘any girl’s name] as “girl”. It goes against the natural solver’s enjoyment of piecing together the clues and just becomes an exercise in “OK, how many names can I think of, and do any of them work here?”

39. Completely missed the theme of course, but enjoyable nonetheless. 10a is perhaps overstated, as HOMER is a valid equivalent to ‘home run’ without the additional qualification.

40. I would probably have spotted the theme if I had bothered to look for it – even I was aware of something militaristic here – but the puzzle flowed and I didn’t require any extra hints. I always enjoy Qaos’s alphanumeric clues – todays COLONEL was clever and PIKEMAN was especially tortuous. I also liked STUPIDITY, WILSON and SELENIAN (great word).

    ENCUMBER reminded me of the aphorism attributed to Mikes Kington: “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”

    Thanks to S&B

41. Enjoyed today’s crossword
    Thanks to Q and S
    And to Ronald @ 37 for the poem 🙂

42. Me @40: MILES Kington, of course.

    Fru @38: The ‘boy/girl’ device is one which irritates several of our regulars. For the record, it doesn’t bother me in the least – it isn’t so different from searching for an unlikely synonym to complete a charade. Sometimes a stronger hint is given – a surname, perhaps – but we don’t always need to be spoon-fed the solution. And for those of us who value good surfaces, the device often helps.

43. Harold Wilson was twice PM once. [Our French teacher stuck his nose into every classroom to excitedly announce Wilson had resigned in 1976. Not that a bunch of schoolboys could care less.]

    Thanks Qaos and scchua.

44. Thank you to Qaos for the challenging but fun puzzle and to scchua for the awesome blog.
    I couldn’t get the NE part of COLONEL or the chess grandmaster in ITALY, although the definitions were obvious. Thanks for the explanations.
    I did eventually see the DADS ARMY theme, but not all of the themed solutions, having rarely watched the show.
    PIKEMAN was my favourite – getting that from the lovely Spike Milligan was genius.
    I also loved TRACE, STUPIDITY, ENCUMBER, SELENIAN, DAKOTA.

45. Didn’t someone tell us recently that no American crossword editor would permit a name to be clued simply as “boy” or “girl”? As unacceptable as an indirect anagram.

46. Liked the puzzle, as always with Qaos. Saw DAD’S ARMY in the grid, but as it had been over 50 years since I saw the show, didn’t recognize any of the other references.

    Was going to make the same point as poc@39 about HOMER, but now I won’t.

47. Fru @38 it may help to start with the most specific parts of the clue and work from there? So in this example you’re maybe looking for a four letter word that means force and probably has an R(omeo) in it. Then you’re just looking for a three letter girl’s name which narrows things down significantly. That said I spent an age going though every four-letter bird I could think of for DRIBBLE 🙂

    By happy coincidence ARMY provides today’s earworm from Ben Folds

    Cheers Q&S

48. [I have a memory of a reference, but can’t place it, to someone spending his life’s work trying to prove that Homer’s poems weren’t written by Homer, but by another Greek of the same name….]

49. Just not on the right wavelength today. Didn’t even work out the theme and I do love DAD’S ARMY…..

50. Of course! Colonel Dribble was the officer commanding Operation Homer. I love these carefully hidden ninjas.

51. I’ve heard of Dad’s Army but never seen it, so the references all escaped me.

    If Wilson was a captain in WWI, why is he a sergeant now?

    But the puzzle was fun anyway. Thanks,Qaos and scchua.

52. Spotted my second consecutive theme and early enough to help me complete the puzzle. Feeling like I’ve levelled up the last couple of weeks.

    And it’s always good to be reminded of Dad’s Army.

53. Mostly fell into place on the second look. But beaten by a margin of 3, all in the southwest, which I just couldn’t unpick.

    Thanks Qaos, a real test! And thanks scchua

54. [Valentine@51: because both he and Mainwaring left the regular Army after the war and were civilians for many years until they joined the Home Guard which is a different organisation. ]

55. Lovely puzzle. Spotted the them just too late to be of any help.

    I haven’t seen this show for years, but remember it being poignant and beautifully performed by 4 or 5 actors at the the top of their powers. Worth a few-visit.

    Many thanks, both.

56. Hard to get started but I found an in in the SW. I couldn’t fully parse several clues, especially those with Qaos’s trademark numberplay – PIKEMAN and COLONEL!!! I recognised a military theme but didn’t get the Dad’s Army connection, stupid boy that I am!
    What a week! Thanks to Qaos and scchua.

57. On the clue for HOMER: “homer” is probably the most common casual reference to a home run (can be a noun or a verb, as in, Freddie Freeman earlier this week became the first person ever to homer in the first four games of a World Series–true story). So the clue could have stopped there, without the instructions to drop a French “un.” Which meant I was confused a bit by what that last part was even doing.

    The PIKEMAN clue was a complete mystery to me. I saw that POKEMON also fits, and Pokémon characters do in fact have battles, so I did try that first. (Qaos, being one of our younger setters, is the sort who might put that in, though I imagine the overlap between 15^2 posters and Pokémon players is pretty close to nil.)

    I had not heard of the show, so no theme for me.

58. [Oh, and I missed my chance to object that baseball is approximately as American as cricket is British. Born here, yes, but now as or more popular in many of the other places where it’s taken root (Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, and the Dominican all take their baseball more seriously than we do, for starters). To be sure, it’s a crossword clue, designed to guide you to the right answer, which this one did.]

59. I went astray twice on the theme. First of all HOMER put me in mind of those yellow-skinned folk inhabiting Springfield … and then DONT and PANIC suggested a trip with the Vogons. But then WILSON appeared, followed by DADS and ARMY – and it all clicked! I like the way MAINWARING has been contrived out of MAIN, WAR and ING[LE]. And I failed to parse “Don’t tell him!” PIKEMAN but it so obviously fits the theme, along with “you STUPID[ITY] BOY[S]”.

    All good fun. Incidentally the esteemed Mr Mainwaring didn’t quite make it to COLONEL did he? I thought he remained just a captain. Was there a colonel in the series?

    Thanks to Qaos and scchua.

60. [me @48
    Google has found an Oscar Wilde quote “The Odyssey was written by Homer, or another Greek of the same name.”]

61. [Sadly, with Ian Lavender’s death earlier this year, the last of the DAD’S ARMY team have passed away. R.I.P. all of them.]

62. Very enjoyable.
    The clue for COLONEL is just genious and very amusing.

63. [mrpenney @58: Although the modern codification of baseball is certainly American, the sport wasn’t ‘born in the USA’ – there are references to ‘base ball’ being played in England in the mid 1700s, from where it was carried across by the colonists 🙂 ]

64. Very good puzzle. Didn’t spot the theme (I never do) but that didn’t spoil things. Had the same thought as mrpenney @57 about HOMER. Favourites: PIKEMAN is really very clever, and I thought PANIC a fine surface.

65. [Gervase@63: Famously Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey prefers cricket, base ball and horse-riding to books.]

66. I vaguely remember a Colonel Square, and the Square(d) could be a reference to the crossword, but again this may not be intended.

67. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MtQJVLSkSFk&pp=QAFIAQ%3D%3D

68. I entered POKÉMON at 13A — and I’m sticking with it!

69. Togs@66: Square was another Captain (he and Mainwaring disliked each other). The Colonel was Pritchard, as mentioned above.

70. Given that Colonel and Captain both start with C and have the same number of letters, I suspect this was a deliberate misdirection on the part of Qaos.

71. Thanks to scchua, and to Qaos — I’m a big fan of your mathematical clues. Just a slight quibble on the clue for HOMER: in baseball “successful hit” is a redundancy. ANY hit (incl. single, double, triple) is a “success” for the batter. “huge hit” would do the trick, I think, and actually enhance the surface.

72. Could be, Nuntius. I had CHOU at 1D for a while (“suggesting” as a vague soundalike indicator, and no idea of American pastries) and I wonder if that had occurred to the setter too. Really enjoyed the puzzle which I thought had even more creative wordplay than usual, thanks Qaos and scchua. [mrpenney257, as long as you count ‘training games’ with the boy, I can assure you that the intersection of Pokemon players and 15sq devotees is not the empty set. I took a long time to get away from that as the answer despite having no idea how it might fit the wordplay.]

73. Frankie G @35[ The ‘Don’t tell him Pike’ joke first appeared in the Goon Show when Minnie Bannister, in a similar situation, says ‘Don’t tell him Henry ‘ to Henry Crun]
    Muffin @28 I’ve agreed with you before about P.E.
    Was no-one else bothered by IL for 49?

74. Zoot @73
    Thanks!
    I’ve given up complaining about incorrect Roman numerals. Naturally, with all his “mathematical” clues, Qaos is the worst offender.

75. Zoot@73. Clues like IL for 49 have become more frequent, not only in Qaos, and are commented on from time to time, but I think, for the most part, they’re now considered as setter’s licence and a bit of trickery.

76. Zoot@73 I think a lot of people are bothered by Qaos’s irregular use of Roman Numerals – it’s almost as if he is deliberately trying to mislead us 😁

    P.S. Sorry muffin, paddymelon.

77. Sorry, muffin, and Ricardo . Glad I said ”for the most part”. 🙂

78. 1d and 15d were my successfully solved clues.

    Roll on the QC and Quiptic.

79. thanks for the clear and detailed parsing, sschua. i thought romeo=r because it was a capitalised name – the phonetic police alphabet didn’t occur to me. that will be helpful going forward.

    my last two attempts at qaos didn’t go well, but i finished and really enjoyed this one. didn’t see the theme, but i’m one of
    those who never does!

80. Totally failed to get the “French” part of 10A, because the first 5 words make a perfect double definition.

81. It’s Qaos: of course there’s a theme, and this time it’s a TV favourite from many years ago: great for solvers of a certain age; possibly a blank for more recent generations. I picked up on it somewhere between PIKEMAN (great clue subtracting bits from the comedy giant Spike Milligan) and WILSON (great anagram), and it actually helped later on as I was looking for MAIN and GUARD, though both were perfectly solvable.

    SELENIAN was new, though very solvable in my case as I have recently been re-reading The God Beneath The Sea, a book on Greek mythology (featuring the moon goddess Selene among others), that I read many years ago. This was inspired by the recent Netflix Updated Greek gods series Kaos, which has sadly not been renewed but is highly recommended. Kaos and Qaos, hmmm – are they connected, like a King and Queen of chaos?

    Anyway, thanks to Qaos for the fun, and to scchua for sorting out COLONEL which had defeated me apart from the final L.

82. I thought I knew SELENIANS from H G Wells “First men in the moon”, but Google tells me I had misremembered – they were “Selenites”.

83. A very enjoyable puzzle, definitely Friday strength. Some of the charades were beyond my paygrade due to the complex parsings but thankfully the crossers got me there for COLONEL (not seen the playtex trick used in this way before, ditto the 4951 piece) and STUPIDITY. Totally missed the theme. Will definitely have to remember the setters who frequently have themes, like the seals and Dad’s Army.
    Thanks very much to Qaos and scchua.

84. A finished Friday puzzle, there never were such times, as Dickens might have remarked. Just SELENIAN nho.
    Don’t understand WALKER-ON, odd, because that’s my surname.
    Thanks both, looking forward to reading the blog.

85. Q. How did I miss the theme?
    A. Because I always do!
    Very clever theme.

86. HIFYD @84
    “Walk-on” would be more familiar to me.

87. Muffin @86 – Yes indeed, thanks

88. [Very late replies: (1) Yes, baseball has roots in several old-world games, none of which had standard rules when they were imported here, as well as in some games (notably the “town ball” played in New England) that were home-grown. It’s been a subject of some scholarly research; the only thing everyone is sure of is that Abner Doubleday (the supposed founder of baseball) actually had nothing to do with it. Truly, the only two popular sports that we can be sure originated in North America are lacrosse (invented by the Iroquois before they ever met any Europeans) and basketball (invented by James Naismith (a Canadian) in Springfield, Massachusetts. American football is just bastardized rugby, btw.]

    (2) Gazzh @72: I thought of SHOO for a moment (the pastry is choux, right?) but the cryptic grammar would have been backwards, so I held that thought. And for the record, I’ve always hated the “donut” spelling; it’s a doughnut, and no one would look at you funny here if you spelled it that way.

    Also, glad to see that I wasn’t the only POKEMON person.

    @86-87: yeah, WALKER-ON seemed strange to me too. I thought it might be British, but I then thought of Pink Floyd (very British), and “Did you exchange/A walk-on part in a war for a lead role in a cage” (from “Wish You Were Here,” for my money their best song).

89. Thanks both and I managed to enhance the entertainment value by remembering: ‘Qaos=theme’.

    So when I got stuck in SW (like Perfidious Albion@53) I went looking for the inevitable theme and felt all smuggly wuggly when I spotted it. (A new feeling for me.)

    gladys@29: A truly brilliant spot of Mainwaring. There must be more…

    ronald@37: Thanks for the Spike poem.

    Fru@38: Thumbs up

    [Valentine@51 and gladys@54: ‘If Wilson was a captain in WWI, why is he a sergeant now?’ It’s something that has always piqued my curiosity and notwithstanding that the Home Guard were separate from the regular army it has always seemed something of a stretch for the purposes of the required comic conceipt. Perhaps in the iterim the demographic of the regular army had altered to the point that Wilson was no longer so obviously ‘officer material’.]

90. LOI was SELENIAN, and I took ages to get EMAILING because though I had EM-I-ING I was imagining the ‘E’ would be short not long, so had a confounding aural prejudice in my head.
    Quick solving definitely needs a brain that doesn’t jump to such assumptions… Thank you Qaos (and for the lovely clever theme!) and scchua!

91. An actor with a walk-on (adj) part could be a WALKER-ON (n) = “individual with a small part”. This seems fine to me. The fact that nobody ever says that is irrelevant, I think, in the same way as nobody ever claimed that IL = 49.

92. I had assumed not #1 in France in 10A referred to Homer Simpson’s comment about French
    people, perhaps unfairly calling them cheese eating surrender monkeys. I can’t remember the story but there was significant consternation at the time.

93. [nuntius@21 – that was a blast from the past! My girlfriend and I briefly lived in the same house in Strawberry Hill as Robert Raglan (and his actress partner, Pauline – Letts or Yates I think) many decades ago. He was a lovely man and far more avuncular than his Dad’s Army character …. I recall him helping me with cufflinks on a dress shirt (the first shirt I’d worn with ‘proper’ studs since wearing my RAF uniform at school!) …. you’ve made me recall an acquaintance which has never crossed my mind since! Blooming 15² – now I feel old again…
    And you’ve started me thinking again as I write this. As a toddler, I lived in the same block of flats in Putney as Clive Dunn – though this was before Corporal Jones’ creation. Later I lived in a house in East Sheen opposite James Beck (Private Walker) who died as a relatively young man. I’ve only linked these three connections on writing this; funny old world – as I say, Blooming 15²!]

94. One thing is a certainty in my life – Qaos will never disappoint. He really seems to care. Bless you, Qaos …

    And thanks to blogger and my fellow commenters

    [1961Blanchflower@81 – I’m unsure how SELENIAN can be new to you as you mention that you know Selene!! 😇]

95. [Excuse my further indulgence, as tardiest poster (so far); having posted above comments, and being a dreary Saturday afternoon, I was ready to look at this week’s Prize. And who will be the setter, I wonder …. Wow! Frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
    I live alone, and had to share my joy. (Now, I ask myself, should I save for later ….?)]

96. William F P@: Careful now! I haven’t managed to lay hands on the Guardian yet today so I haven’t got to that delicious moment when I discover the prize setter. Saturday is the only day I attempt hard copy so I enjoy every step of the ceremony.

97. Perhaps because I am only a beginner I found some of the puzzle clues a bit convoluted. For example: attached = plus = A1, and clues where you have to mix Roman numerals with the letter ‘o’.
    It was not the most elegant puzzle IMHO, but as many others enjoyed it, it is not a strong criticism. It’s just how I feel.

98. William FP @94.
    Not trying to out-tardy you, but just responding to your query about Selene/SELENIAN: my point was that though the latter is a new word to me, it was fortuitous that I had recently been reading a book in which the former features as Greek Moon Goddess, so the moon-related definition – plus crossers and wordplay – made it an educated guess, and it now joins the long list of words I have learned through crosswordery.
    And I totally share your words of praise for Qaos, who has become a setter I really look forward to: consistently ingenious, entertaining and fair.

99. William F P@93: Thanks for sharing; as you say: funny old World. I remember watching the original broadcasts as a teenager. As someone else points out above, there is no one from the cast that is still with us. But not really a surprise I suppose given it was half a century ago.

100. Just a couple of minor errors in the parsing I noticed. For STUPIDITY it should be Cupid minus c inside either reversal or anagram of it’s, not cycling the last letter to the front.
     WALKER-ON should be Keir minus i inside anagram of law on

101. Correction: anagram of law no

102. Failed 1d and did not see a theme but guessed it might have something to do with DAD’s ARMY, a show I have never seen.

     I couldn’t parse 24ac and the TAL bit of 28ac.

     Favourites: COLONEL, BOYS.

103. I had no chance of spotting the theme: for both spatial and temporal reasons, I have never seen Dad’s Army, although I knew that such a thing existed. But as usual with Qaos’s puzzles, spotting the theme isn’t necessary to solving the puzzle.

     Other things I didn’t know about (some due to my being from the other side of the Atlantic, I assume, and some due to a more general ignorance): PIKEMAN, anything at all to do with snooker, the chess player Tal, the plane called DAKOTA, this usage of the verb BLANK, and WALKER-ON (which would just be WALK-ON in any context I can think of). But I muddled through and finished nonetheless, so now I know a bunch of new things.

     [My Greek teacher in school used to say that the Iliad and Odyssey were written by Homer “or another blind poet of the same name.” I hadn’t realized that this was attributed to Wilde, although I can’t say that I’m shocked to learn it. A quick googling turned up a number of references to the quote but none that give a clearly traceable source, so I won’t say I’m sure that the attribution is correct: Wilde seems like the sort of person that quotes get attributed to.]

104. I had FRAY for 8d which I still don’t think the clue rules out. I probably would have thought of ARMY if I had an eye for themes.

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