Chandler is a regular setter of the Quiptic who has also popped up occasionally in the Cryptic slot, and once in the Genius. A couple of answers here were unfamiliar to me, but readily gettable from the clues. Thanks to Chandler.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | SAFARI PARKS | Electrician touring a fine Arab island – and sites to see game? (6,5) A F[ine] AR[ab] I[sland] in SPARKS (nickname for an electrician) |
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| 9 | SPORRAN | Part of Highland outfit rushed to get behind a lot of shinty, say (7) SPOR[t] (of which shinty is an example) + RAN (rushed) |
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| 10 | REBECCA | Novel park with area fringing British city (7) B[ritish] + EC (postcode area for the City of London) in REC (recreation area, park) + A[rea] |
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| 11 | GRONINGEN | Good club first to last with new information in Dutch city (9) G[ood] + IRON (golf club) with the first letter moved to the end + N[ew] + GEN (information). Not sure I would have been able to spell this without the clear instructions |
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| 12 | TWANG | Form of intonation in island without excellent speaking, ultimately (5) TAIWAN less A1 (excellent) + [speakin]G |
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| 13 | SATE | Startled on a regular basis to get Indonesian dish (4) Alternate letters of StArTlEd – I’m more familiar with the spelling “satay” |
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| 14 | KEEP TABS ON | Monitor replacement of open basket (4,4,2) (OPEN BASKET)* |
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| 16 | PREVALENCE | Place never analysed for currency? (10) (PLACE NEVER)* |
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| 19 | SCAM | Dishonest scheme infiltrating this campus (4) Hidden in thiS CAMpus |
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| 21 | PIPIT | Investigator twice beginning to tail flier (5) PI (Private Investigator) twice + T[ail] |
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| 22 | PINCHBECK | Nick by stream to get something resembling gold (9) PINCH (to steal, nick) + BECK (a stream) |
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| 24 | GRANOLA | In short, very good introduction in Spain for alternative to bacon and eggs? (7) GRAN[d] (very good + OLA (Spanish greeting) – both Granola and bacon & eggs are breakfast foods |
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| 25 | OUTWARD | Leaving pair from the East around start of this conflict (7) T[his] WAR in reverse of DUO |
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| 26 | ESSENTIALLY | European has quip about set in broadcast in a basic way (11) E + (SET IN)* in SALLY (a quip) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | SLOW ON THE UPTAKE | Engineer to shake up new lot being dim-witted (4,2,3,6) (TO SHAKE UP NEW LOT)* |
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| 2 | FARHI | Fashion designer giving distant greeting (5) FAR (distant) + HI (greeting). I hadn’t heard of this designer, but the cluing is clear |
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| 3 | RENEGUE | Disown Green in a nervous state for all to see over energy (7) U (for all to see, as in film classification) in GREEN* + E[nergy] |
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| 4 | PARSNIP | Normal bargain to get vegetable (7) PAR (normal) + SNIP (a bargain) |
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| 5 | REBUTTAL | Detective when snubbed has dry line about a counterargument (8) REBU[s] (detective in the novels of Ian Rankin) + A in TT (teetotal,dry) + L[ine] |
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| 6 | SOCIAL SECRETARY | Retail accessory designed for one organising group’s parties etc (6,9) (RETAIL ACCESSORY)* |
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| 7 | USAGES | Habits in American games company from the south (6) US + reverse of SEGA (video game company) |
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| 8 | MARGIN | Profit or thing, say, with it to support 50% of commercial exchange (6) Half of MARket (commercial exchange) + GIN (a thing served with it, as in the drink “gin and It”, where It is short for Italian Vermouth) |
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| 15 | CAUTIOUS | Economy concealing a collection of financial debts makes one wary (8) A in CUT (economy) + IOUS (evidence of debts) |
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| 16 | PIPAGE | Annoyance over time in transportation of oil? (6) PIP (annoyance, as in “get the pip”) + AGE (time) |
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| 17 | EXPLAIN | Account for former proposal to acquire centre for dairy (7) [da]I[ry] in EX-PLAN (former proposal) |
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| 18 | CANNOLI | Colin is free to grab a new dessert (7) A N in COLIN* – another unfamiliar (to me) word helpfully clued |
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| 20 | MAKE DO | Manage to reach party (4,2) MAKE (reach) + DO (party) |
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| 23 | HOTEL | Section in shot elevating place for guests? (5) Hidden in sHOT ELevating |
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Perhaps more suitable for the quiptic? A 15 minute solve.
Considerably tougher than his quiptics. Surely the Spanish greeting is HOLA?
Thanks to Chandler and Andrew
I can honestly say I have never come across a Guardian Cryptic that has involved quite as much retroparsing after inserting the answers from the definition. PINCHBECK a prime example of this. Rather took the pleasure away at completing the solving of this, with loi MARGIN…
Tough. Gave up on 1d even though I had all the crossers.
I did not parse 12ac apart from something like TWAN + G; the REBU bit of 5d (not familiar with these novels); 8d.
New for me: PINCHBECK, RENEGUE; shinty = sport (for 9ac); SEGA = games company (for 7d); PIPAGE.
More Portugal than Spain I think Crispy @2.
ronald@3 (and Crispy@2) has said it for me. Some lovely long anagrams though.
Thanks both
Definitely a breezier solve than yesterday, mostly steady away until a handful at the end. NHO my LOI PINCHBECK but wordplay and crossers got me over the line. Didn’t fully parse a few e.g. second half of MARGIN. But overall a nice solving curve for me.
Many thanks both.
Thanks Chandler and Andrew
Mostly pleasant, but the clue for MARGIN is awful – the surface makes little sense (“or thing”?), and the construction is loose. PIPAGE isn’t a lot better.
No particular favourite.
Like Crispy @2 I’m not really clear about parsing of 24a. “Gran” (without the D) is used before a noun to mean big, great, etc, and “Hola” is the introduction, but it seems odd if “in short” indicates taking off the first letter of Hola rather than the last. Nonetheless, a very enjoyable puzzle, with many thanks to Chandler and Andrew.
I quite enjoyed this – maybe on the simpler side but no grumbles. I liked the two long anagrams, and always good to be reminded of The Godfather movie (“leave the gun, take the 18d”)
Thanks Andrew and Chandler
An enjoyable romp with some great anagrams and tricky wordplay in places. Delighted to remember gin & IT for once though yet to hear anyone use it in the real world
Top ticks for SOCIAL SECRETARY, REBECCA & REBUTTAL among many others
Cheers C&A
Tim C @5. My wife studied Spanish at university, and she say it’s Hola – and I’m not going to argue with her!
Each to his own, and although I thought the long anagrams in particular were brilliant I thought the obscure GK went too far and if I never see PIPAGE again I shall shed no tears. Didn’t manage to parse MARGIN, either. I wasn’t familiar with that spelling of RENEGUE, so I’ve learned something this morning.
Those who have posted references to the Quiptic are invited to submit clues for HUMBLEBRAG (10). I found this one quite tough going.
But a pretty decent puzzle overall and the usual prompt and helpful blog. Thanks to Chandler and Andrew.
I parsed granola as GRAN(D) + (H)OLA i.e. both parts “short” of a letter
I make my own granola so I must be right 🙂
Yes Crispy @12, that’s why I said more Portugal (Ola) than Spain (Hola).
Tim C @15 – Aha! I understand your original comment now. Thanks for clearing that up.
Failed with the u in renegue otherwise easier than the last two. Thanks.
Some great anagrams and wicked wordplay. For example, I was really pleased when the dictionary confirmed PINCHBECK (NHO but guessed from the final two crossers). But someone with such a huge collection of gins as I have should parsed marGIN. Maybe I failed because I never include them in that cocktail, but more likely because I interpreted “with it” as IN and couldn’t work out where the G came from.
@epop (17)
This threw me too. I’ve seen ‘reneague’ but rarely and usually use ‘renege’ but I’ve never ever seen ‘renegue’ so I felt that answer was a bit fast and loose. Fairly enjoyable otherwise though, thanks Chandler and Andrew
I’ve never seen renegue. Is it really the same as renege? The meaning seems different and I can’t check it because it’s not in my Concise OED. Renege means to go back on, e.g. a promise and that is almost but not quite the same as disown.
This was an enjoyable solve for me. Some unfamiliar words e.g. FARHI, and unusual spellings e.g. PIPAGE and RENEGUE, but the clueing was very fair. A fair bit of reverse parsing, such as SPORRAN and TWANG. My favourites were SOCIAL SECRETARY and REBUTTAL. Many thanks to Chandler and Andrew. NeilH@ 13, you’ve made me smile 😎. I believe I have only ever seen the word in Cryptics and look forward to seeing whether you get any suggestions….
Chambers has….
renege or renegue, also (Irish) renig or renague transitive verb
To renounce
To apostatize from
intransitive verb
To deny (often with on)
To refuse (often with on)
To revoke at cards
renegˈer or renegˈuer noun
I used to love Nicole FARHI clothes when her clothes turned up in the designer outlet shop I frequented, so didn’t have a problem with that one (I suspect the clothing I still had wandered into my daughter’s wardrobe and didn’t survive university with her). Another who blinked at RENENGUE, and thought both grand and hola where cropped to get GRANOLA. I thought the SOCIAL SECRETARY anagram spot was brilliant.
This is a definite step up from Chandler’s Quiptics, which are accessible for the new Quick Cryptic solvers, but not as chewy as yesterday. A satisfying solve with clear cluing, so it all went in parsed, either from building from clues or retroparsing.
Thank you to Andrew and Chandler
Nigel Stephens@1 – it didn’t feel like a Quiptic to this beginner! I was pleased to solve 2d, 20d, 13a and 21a easily and I guessed/muddled through on a fair few more but hadn’t any idea how to approach many of the clues. In 1a for example I assume ‘touring’ tells you to pick out some letters from ‘a fine Arab island’? I would have thought ‘touring’ one of the countless anagrinds.
LOi 24d GRANOLA – In Galician it’s ¡Ola! (That makes Galicians the Spanish equivalent of Cockneys.) [Knew 18d CANNOLI from The Sopranos.]
@Tim C (22)
Thanks for the info 🙂 I’ll bear it in mind for future use.
All done and very enjoyable.
I thought the two long anagrams were excellent. COTD was REBECCA, but that is partly because it is one of my favourite books.
Thanks both.
I knew CANNOLI from MasterChef – could even tell you how to cook them. I also know shinty from Manran, as one of their musicians used to be a star shinty player.
FrankieG@25: Although OLA may be Galician, I don’t believe for a second that this isn’t simply a mistake. The Castilian Spanish word, which is what we are clearly meant to understand, is HOLA.
Nho the fashion designer,
I find it frustrating when a puzzle, that is otherwise relatively straightforward leaves me with one clue that I just don’t get, MARGIN, in this case. I had “mar” for half of market and “in” for “with it” but couldn’t see where the “g” came from. A margin of error in this case.
Just finished visiting the Hiroshima Memorial Museum. No comment necessary.
As for the crossword I really enjoyed the long anagrams, which were great spots, and like others pleased to work out PINCHBECK. I actually solved this from top to bottom without flitting around which is my usual.
Alex in SG @10: I had the very same thought about CANNOLI, one of the many standout lines.
Ta Chandler & Andrew.
That was enjoyable, thanks. However I struggle with the concept of granola being an alternative to bacon and eggs. They may be breakfast foods but that does not make them alternatives!!
Maybe I’m just grumpy because of the cold weather, but I found the construction of several of the clues rather too strained.
Makes no difference, but ¿isn’t the parsing of RENEGUE slightly simpler?: it’s just a charade of GREEN* + U + E. I needed TWANG explained but otherwise I’m clearly on the same wavelength as Chandler. ¡Thank you to them and Andrew! (Can now revert to British keyboard.)
NeilH @ 13.
I am no setter, and I am not up to speed with Quiptic, but here is my amateur attempt at HUMBLEBRAG:
Blackberry bush back to front in embrace. That’s nothing special.
Amma @24 – ‘touring’ is the containment indicator i.e. S_PARKS is ‘touring’ (going around) the other letters, which apart from the plain-sight A are dictionary-supported abbreviations (F for fine, Ar. for Arab, I for island). Hope this makes sense! 🙂
NeilH @13: Heep’s first continuous claim about clothing. I’ll stick to solving🤣
10a – where does “city” fit into the clue?
14a – is “replacement” an anagram indicator?
5d – how does “snubbed” fit into the clue?
Steffen @38
10a – the postcode for the city of London is EC. It’s a relatively common usage in cryptics.
14a – agree that “replacement” is a relatively unusual anagram indicator (anagrind) but yes it is.
5d – snubbed as in “a bit of it has been chopped off” in this case Rebus has been “snubbed” by losing the “s” from the end.
Feels a bit held together with string this one, a lot of boring definitions, and those few odd entries are a bit annoying.
It’s been said above, but OLA is ‘hello’ in Portuguese, not Spanish (where it’s HOLA). OLA in Spanish means ‘wave’ as in moving water. One for the editor there I think.
NeilH@13, not sure about humblebrag (great word), but I can offer “Hermie’s wine cocktail for commenter declaring quick solve time on 15^2. (11)”
No, not a Quiptic, though one or two clues were at that level. Chandler likes to choose the less than obvious example: islands (Taiwan), detectives (Rebus), designers (FARHI) and Dutch cities (GRONINGEN, for which both Amsterdam and Rotterdam were the right length). Not remotely unfair, but makes life more difficult, and I missed Taiwan and Rebus. Like Blaise@18 I thought the “with it” in MARGIN was IN, and got no further. PIPAGE and CANNOLI were new, and I didn’t even realise that SATE=satay.
Chandler also likes little-bits-of-Lego clues and I dont, much (a personal preference you may well disagree with). But the two big anagrams were good (particularly SOCIAL SECRETARY).
RobT@36 – thank you, that makes perfect sense. I haven’t really got my head round containment indicators. I did wonder too why it was the first letter of ‘fine’ and ‘island’ but the first two letters of ‘Arab’. I need to look into abbreviations obviously. So much to learn!
Failed to solve MARGIN and probably spent as much time on that as the rest of the puzzle. Worth it for the retail accessory/SOCIAL SECRETARY spot.
Thanks Chandler and Andrew
For 1ac, I had A for Arab followed by RI (Rhode Island). This seems to fit as well
Who are all these people who know CANNOLI only from films about mobsters? You’re missing out on one of the world’s best desserts. [I had eaten at least two dozen cannoli before the first time I saw The Godfather (though I agree that’s one of the classic lines from that film). Many Italian restaurants here offer them. There was also a pastry shop near where I went to college where they sold cannoli; they pre-made only the shells, and didn’t pipe them full of the creme until you ordered them to ensure that you didn’t get soggy cannoli.]
I did not parse TWANG–I always assume that if a clue involves an island and I can’t figure it out, it must be a Scottish isle that I haven’t heard of (there are so many, with such odd names). And I was entirely defeated by MARGIN. Otherwise, this was more difficult than this setters usual standard, but still good fun.
Cannoli are ubiquitous in Bristol cafes. I eat them often. Almost as common as those Portuguese custard tarts.
Remind me to visit Bristol! Never tried one, but they do look more-ish (and fattening).
A bit of a doddle once misspelling of Groningen corrected.
This was not as fun as some. I filling everything in correctly, but there were a lot of unparsed or unfamiliar aspects. For example, I know what “gin and it” is but did not make the leap to “thing”= “gin” in 8D.
gladys@48 – they are small so not that fattening. I especially like the salted caramel ones. They have loads of them in our John Lewis cafe, much frequented by me.
Enjoyable puzzle, not too difficult, but with some knottier bits here and there. The two long anagrams were the highlights for me. Like blaise and others, I read ‘with it’ as IN, and thereby failed to parse MARGIN, which was my penultimate entry, followed by TWANG (which I COULD parse retrospectively).
RENEGUE is not a spelling I recognise, but the wordplay clearly led there. And I was another to raise an eyebrow at ‘ola’ instead of ‘hola’ (bodycheetah @14: surely ‘short’ invariably indicates that the end rather than the beginning of a word is missing?).
Although ‘dessert’ could certainly comprise more than one cannolo, I have a sinking feeling that Chandler is analysing CANNOLI as a singular noun (like the regrettable ‘panini’ 🙁 ).
Thanks to S&B
[Amma @47: Although I am an inveterate (and probably tedious) Italophile, give me pastéis de nata over CANNOLI any day 🙂 ]
Gervase@53 – I love both. Quite fond of a panini too; I know it’s plural but panino is a long-lost battle. I’m trying hard to adopt Susie Dent’s tolerant attitude towards language – and I’d feel very self-conscious asking for a cannolo or a panino!
SLOW ON THE UPTAKE probably described my experience with this puzzle.
Quite a few bifd and retro parsed but there were several components of clues, possibly GK, that eluded me. I needed your help, Andrew to explain REBECCA, MARGIN and the U in RENEGUE.
FARHI and PINCHBECK were new, but gettable from wordplay.
I did love the anagrams SOTU and SOCIAL SECRETARY, as well as the clues for SAFARI PARKS, REBUTTAL and SPORRAN.
I was delighted to learn about the sport of shinty, what a great word!
Shanne@28, I really enjoyed seeing Manran at our National Folk Festival (Canberra, Australia), probably in 2019, and still enjoy their cd.
Thanks to Chandler and Andrew
Thank you @39
Can’t wax lyrical, but nothing got on my wick.
Too many clues were a bit samey, sort of flat-pack instructions for letter manoeuvres.
However, “snubbed” in 5(down) is a new one for me, as a word-truncation indicator, and I quite like it.
In fact, all-in-all, I quite liked the puzzle.
I went gungadin on 8(down), MARGIN, because I simply just could NOT parse it……and now I can see why.
Wasted far too much time trying.
I can’t imagine how “thing,say” equates to a DBE for gin??
Even “Profit, or something paired with it……” might have worked better?
( OK… so this one did get on my wick).
This is too good a puzzle to finish on a downer….so I’ll finish on two: 1(down) & 6(down). Brave to set, + enjoyable to tackle, 2 x 15-letter anags., even if they did rather announce themselves with a megaphone.
Ta, Chandler & Andrew
Me too for IN = WITH IT.
Liked the long anagrams.
Thanks Chandler and Andrew.
Fun fact: the line “take the cannoli” was allegedly improvised.
Otherwise, similar highs and lows to others here. I completed it despite the NHO Farhi nor Rebus. IMO the former is fair in that one can readily construct an answer from the wordplay and then verify the person. The latter however is unfair in that it requires obscure GK to construct the answer, without which one is left with bunging something that fits and no possibility to even retroparse.
Cheers for the long anagrams. Boos for some strained constructions, in particular TWANG which I retroparsed and consider a step too far.
As a regular quiptic solver, this was considerably harder than Chandler’s quiptics but still solvable for me. Very enjoyable but I can see that the experts might be bored. However, the last two Guardian cryptics were beasts for me, so somehow we all get our money’s worth. Thanks Chandler for pinchbeck, new to me.
Often when I think the setter has made a mistake (e.g. OLA) I’m wrong myself, but here there seems to be community support. Maybe the setter was confusing with Olé?
The ambiguity of “with it” seems ripe for turning into the basis of a clue. “It is good with it (3)” or something similar, maybe?
Matt S @ 41. As an irritated slow solver I liked your inferred sentiment but couldn’t solve your anagram. How about ‘Occidente translated for self declared quick solvers (9)’.
Hope this entry is not considered to be indecorous…
Dr. WhatsOn@61, that is indeed a rather pleasing semi-&lit!
Gervase @52/Amma @54: the workaround I use is to order “one of the panini.” (Or biscotti, or CANNOLI, or whatever the next Italian treat we try to singularize turns out to be.)
Matt S @ 41. Thoroughly enjoyed solving that one. Well played!
[mrpenney @64: Great solution – I’ll use it myself. The British coffee shop chain Caffè Nero has started to offer maritozzl (pl!) – generously filled cream buns, very local to Rome and practically unknown elsewhere in Italy. I went into my local branch and pointedly ordered a maritozzo to accompany my double espresso. Blank look from the barista, but not because of the grammar – I had to re-request it as an Italian cream bun! Presumably uncertainty about the pronunciation makes customers avoid the official name 🙂 ]
Pace @59: I don’t know where you spring from but if you like gritty Scottish bizzy fodder, then Ian Rankin’s novels are the go to.
Job@62 very good!
I too would spell it RENEGE but given that it is normally pronounced with a hard g RENEGUE seems more ‘correct’ – c.f. ALLEGE and LEAGUE.
Nho CANNOLI and have no wish to see The Godfather but familiar with Gin and It and Pinchbeck. Thanks both.
Gervase @52 short could mean deficient or lacking? As in short of money. Then again I was always taught to suspect cock-up before conspiracy so maybe it was just an error
E.N.Boll@57…I love that description you use: “…flat pack instructions for letter manoeuvres” which is pretty much how I felt about many of the clues today, without quite being able to put it into words as tellingly as you have managed to do. Though I agree with others that the two long anagrams at 1 and 6d were most impressive. Mustn’t be too negative now…
I’m interested in the HOLA debate. My feeling is that in English usage, it’s quite usual without the H, “Ola! old bean!” But that’s not “in Spain”. I do feel the fuss is in danger of splitting hairs, but it’s good to be accurate.
E.N.Boll & ronald: I love the metaphor – but you must find instructions for assembling flat pack furniture easier to follow than I do!
James G @72: Neither ‘hola’ or ‘ola’ is in Chambers. Just saying….
….and of course initial H is never pronounced in Spanish.
[Gervase @75
You’ve reminded me of the story of a Danishman named HØST trying to check in to a French hotel. The concierge said “welcome Monsieur”, then looked at the register. He didn’t know what to say as he didn’t pronounce to initial H or the trailing ST, so that only left him with the O, and that was crossed out….]
PINCHBECK was one of the first in. I knew it from the Hornblower novels. As a young officer he couldn’t afford anything else.
Like many others MARGIN was LOI. I must have been drinking the wrong stuff all these years.
I’ve never seen RENEGUE with a U before, and I see my spellchecker prefers it without. Couldn’t parse MARGIN, so thank to our blogger for the explanation. Straightforward enough otherwise. Thanks to Chandler, whom I’ve not encountered before.
Roz has not been around recently??
NeilH @13, just had to have a go:
Rather posh for an article of Spooner’s, “Briar Witch” shows a sly immodesty. (10)
Apologies, and thanks to Chandler & Andrew.
Gervase@52. Please see TimC @22, or here: Chambers has ‘renege or renegue’ and ‘also (Irish) renig or renegue’ but no mention of RENEAGUE as claimed by Elaine@19. 😃 I always thought the spelling without the U looked odd, as the G in French would be soft (as MikeB@69 points out) but Chambers has it as a back-formation from Spanish renegado, so perhaps it’s ok.
As a vegan I wouldn’t be eating either GRANOLA (honey) or the other stuff mentioned in the clue, and this was one of my last three to go in, along with CAUTIOUS (misled by the verbose ‘collection of financial debts’) and PIPAGE, having got stuck on ‘annoyance’=PEST, which was obviously a dead end.
I liked 5d, as I have read all the REBU(S) books except the latest – and the series has been going for over 30 years! – I must put that right asap.
Thanks to Chandler and Andrew.
[HoofIt@79. Others may know more, but all I know can be seen in Site Feedback #33ff.]
Tough one this: if Chandler (whom I haven’t come across before) is a regular on Quiptic, I reckon their Quiptics are no picnic either!
Never heard of FARHI – couldn’t think what else it could be so looked the word up. If this was a filler word, FARSI or FERMI would have been easier. Also I thought RENEG[U]E was usually spelt without the U. But Chambers says otherwise so let it be. PIPAGE seems a strange word to me but it stands. Finally, the Spanish greeting is spelt HOLA – with the H silent of course. Is the ‘in short’ doing double duty?
Enough of gripes. Likes for REBECCA (still haven’t got round to reading it!), PIPIT, OUTWARD, GRONINGEN, and the two long down clues (but then I’ve a ‘thing’ about long anagrams…)
Thanks to Chandler and Andrew.
comment #84 and not much to add… MARGIN was my LOI, as for so many others and having chewed on it all day. TWANG was the assist, going in just before it (POI?) to give me the ‘GIN and it’ realisation moment. Thank you Chandler and Andrew…. And here we are, 2 mins to go before the next one 🥁
[Job@62, Matt@68 – Oh! Dear, not again. How come it’s OK for newbies to repeatedly moan about difficulty of some easier puzzles and are responded to by encouraging words. Yet if someone, with more experience, dares to suggest that they may be pining for a challenge, then they are insulted?]
@85[and MattS@41, who whipped up the hate – in blatant disregard of Admin’s recent plea. None of the commenters here has been “showing off” apart, perhaps, from the first who is not a ‘regular’]
Nigel Stephens @1, I found this much harder than a quiptic – it took me 10 minutes, where the quiptics take 5 minutes. 🙂
NeilH@13, do I qualify as a humblebraggart? (I love the word.)
P.S. True confession – this was a DNF for me, missing 8d MARGIN and 12a TWANG, both of which I thought were excellent clues, along with many others. Thanks to Chandler for the fun challenge, and Andrew for the fine blog.
William F P @86. One doth protest too much methinks. If you go back through the comments carefully, you will see that NeilH @13 started the ‘competition’ and many, many others found the comment @1 demeaning to the setter. It most certainly was not “Quiptic” level as pretty much everyone else attested to. Whilst I agree that people should be free to state their solving experience, complaints about the level of difficulty should be aimed at the editor not the setter. Unnecessary and contrary to Admin’s plea.
Long anagrams often announce themselves by a rather strained string of words in the clue. Not so with many of today’s lot: 6d’s ‘Retail Accessory’ was a brilliant clue, not immediately obviously an anagram, particularly with several other clues mentioning terms of trade or business – eg bargain, commercial exchange, profit, economy.