Guardian Cryptic 29,565 by Boatman

109 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,565 by Boatman”

1. I had a similar experience to PeterO. The acrosses were at first impenetrable, so I tried a few downs. This gave enough crossers for BRIGHT HUED, which gave the game away. Then all the acrosses became write-ins, and then likewise for the remaining downs.

   In the comments to Anto’s puzzle earlier this week, I asked if “good book’s contents” could (in some circumstances) be interpreted as OODBOO (as opposed to just the O’s). Here in 1d we are required to treat “middle of the Red Sea” as DS, which is the same idea. So, thank you, Boatman!

2. Thanks PeterO and Boatman.

   STATUE and HABITUES led me to the theme. Nicely worked.

   Liked MONARCHS, FRISKY, SATANIST, and AORTAS.

3. Fun puzzle, like others I found it largely inscrutable and only after solving a few downs and getting some acrosses through definitions did I crack the wordplay and hence the solution.

   I realise it’s playing a little fast and loose with ‘next’ referring to days, but 9A and 1D really bending the rules of cryptics to a significant degree rubbed me the wrong way. Especially 1D which did not need the ‘the’ even for the surface reading.

   On that note, I’ve never seen 22A’s method of splitting the definition part way through the word and using the apostrophe S as wordplay… it seems wrong but would like to hear other opinions on that.

4. Liked BRIGHT-HUED, IS THAT SO and ASHURST (Didn’t know this station. Googled.).
   A pleasant solving experience. Thanks Boatman.
   Neat and detailed blog. Thanls PeterO.

5. I was thinking next referred to the solution of the next clue, until SUNDRIES put me right.

   I couldn’t parse 1d and now think it was a terrible clue. Some excellent others. I liked SWEDEN and HUMANS, but not FORT, though I won’t mention that.

   Thanks PeterO and Boatman for an original idea

6. Lovely to see you Peter O, bright and early, and even more so with the Guardian comments not available today.
   My first in was STATUE, wondering what the “‘next” trick was. I also spent a bit of time on HARD, wondering which end of the vegetable was chopped off,
   The key/first clue MONARCHS was my second last in. I loved the way Boatman did that, keeping me guessing until nearly the end, as to what was next referring to, although I had got it was days of the week. By then I thought I should go back to the beginning.
   I was determined not to look up Oxted Line for ASHURST, and misdirected by “time slipping away”. Thought it was a deletion. Eventually got there.

   I liked the hidden SEDANS, the tricky inclusion of the ‘s in SWEDEN, Boatman’s cell (brig) in BRIGHT-HUED, and MALTHUSIAN. FRIT I solved but had to look up to confirm.. Liked FRISKY for reach for the sky.

7. It was trying to work out how to parse SATANIST and MONITOR that gave the game away for me, though I didn’t find that the rest were write-ins by any means, and like paddymelon@6 MONARCHS was my second last in. The last was ASHURST, a really parochial clue, unless you happen to travel on the Oxted line, which isn’t exactly well known itself. I guess Boatman had painted himself into a corner, and it was fairly clued.

   Unusual idea, and I liked IS THAT SO, HUMANS and SEDANS. Thanks, Boatman and PeterO.

   PS: I thought it was “the sky’s the limit” in FRISKY, but I see I was wrong.

8. A similar experience to others in that once the ‘next’ penny dropped the across clues became much easier.
   Interesting that “first” in MONARCHS is Monday. Chambers gives…
   Monday
   noun
   The second day of the week and first day of the working week…

   Sunday or Monday? It depends on a lot of stuff. If you suffer from insomnia you can read the Wikipedia page.

9. I really enjoyed this, thanks Boatman. I like it when solutions just emerge from the background, as the day of the week thing did for me without even looking for it, a bit like doing a jigsaw without looking at the box, and letting the picture reveal itself.. (try jigidi online)

10. Same.
    A clever idea but once I had worked out the NEXT bit from STATUE, the acrosses could all be penciled in.
    Sunday is always the first day of the week for me.
    ASHURST was a bit obscure, I live about 3 miles from Oxted (I take my granddaughter swimming there) and have never heard of it.
    Good stuff, horrible grid again.

11. Same as Gladys for me – got SATANIST and MONITOR then worked backwards to get the linkage. Interesting concept but not sure it’s one I’d like to see repeated too often!

12. I thought that ‘next’ in 11 was THUS until I realised that there would then be a surplus S. I then guessed the answer to 9, realised what the actual pattern was, and as with PeterO, the rest of the across clues fell out steadily. Thanks PeterO and Boatman.

13. What an incredibly stupid idea—I love it!

14. MONITOR, then SATURN did it for me. Otherwise, a similar experience to many others, with a really difficult looking crossie suddenly looking a lot easier. ASHURST was, as others have said, extremely parochial. DAMSON WINE brought back great memories. Thanks, Boatman and PeterO. PS: most diaries seem to think Monday is the first day of the week.

15. I think there’s a bit more to 9a – A = abbr for before rather than just sneaking in.

    I got the gimmick with MALTHUSIAN & like others it all became rather straightfroward for a Boatman puzzle after that.

16. Just to join the chorus, it was STATUE that gave the game away to me (I notice PeterO had the ‘A’ sneaking in as well), but given the days of the week device I think a little leeway is allowable. Once the device was discovered then all became clear and the puzzle was effectively solved. Forgot about the EN in SWEDEN at first, but it’s beloved of setters for obvious reasons. Thanks to Boatman and to PeterO.
    Plus support for the Guardian journos striking again.

17. Same as everyone else.Solved a few downs(including ASHURST) and sussed his shtick
    Very neatly done but I seem to remember something similar a while ago
    very enjoyable.Thanks Peter O and Boatie

18. Yes, rather too easy once the clever days-of-week device became clear. Like some others, I don’t think I’d heard of ASHURST, but the answer was clear enough from the clue, and a quick check on Wikipedia confirmed it – so I don’t think it was very hard even for solvers who’d never been near Britain.
    Thanks PeterO and Boatman.

19. Very enjoyable puzzle. I solved 14ac SATANIST first and caught on to the Mon-Sat theme when I solved 15ac ASUNDER. Theme was very helpful for all of the across clues.

    New for me: ASHURST.

    I parsed 9ac as A = before / (used before a date) before: a1200. [from Latin ante.]

    Favourite: SWEDEN.

    Thanks, both.

    EDIT: I see now that shikasta@15 has already mentioned that “I think there’s a bit more to 9a – A = abbr for before rather than just sneaking in.”

20. What a clever concept. Brilliant. Loved it.

    And some very clever clues of which my favourite were 23ac and 21dn

    Thanks Boatman and PeterO

21. Nothing to add. Just thought I’d say ‘hello’ as I don’t usually do the crossword this crazily early, and quite like being among the pre-dawn finishers, commenters and other brainboxes. Time for a cuppa.

22. A very cheeky theme which slowly became apparent when I solved STATUE. I couldn’t work out the ‘A’ in that clue but I think shikasta and Michelle @15 &19 have done so. A pity there was no ‘night’ to go with FORT for the theme.

    My favourites were USELESS, HUMANS and SWEDEN – Mr Dice@3, I’ve seen it that ‘S device done before so I think it is acceptable.

    [Eileen, if you drop in, just to let you know I really enjoyed the Arachne puzzle you posted in yesterday’s blog – thank you.]

    Last, but by no means least, thank you to Boatman for the fun and to PeterO for the blog.

23. Satanist was the route in for me, with Malthusian confirming the device. Yes, it was straightforward from there but I thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless. Thank you Boatman and PeterO.

24. Loved this, and can’t help thinking Boatman has been setting his hot water/heating programmer: MON, set time on, set time off, press NEXT, TUE, copy day, press NEXT, WED, copy day, press NEXT, etc. AORTAS my LOI, great clue. Thank you Boatman and PeterO!

25. Very cleverly done. To be as constrained as Boatman was with his themed across solutions, and end up with the worst obscurity being ASHURST, is really impressive. Though I tend to agree that the cluing of 1d is imprecise, even though easily gettable.
    Thank you shikasta @15 for explaining the “A” in STATUE.
    Thanks to Boatman and to PeterO

26. Same experience here as for most other commenters; a remarkably quick grid fill, considering it’s Boatman. STATUE was the giveaway and, as soon as AWED followed it in, ‘themo collapso’. The theme is a neat idea but, once rumbled, became a bit too easy a fill. I am not a fan of the ‘wordplay of definition’ construct for FRIT or the ‘definition for wordplay’ in SATURN but that’s a personal thing and this is Boatman so I should not be surprised. The ‘a’ before a date is new to me – decidedly sneaky!

    Thanks Boatman and PeterO

27. Whatever next?

28. My first two were Monitor and Statue after which I rushed back to 1a to see if my theory was correct. Some people (not me) call Wednesday “hump day” and it gave me the hump for a while due to the apostrophic sneakiness of Sweden. Overall, the device made this quite easy but I liked and admired it.

29. I didn’t know the A=ante=before abbreviation as applied to years, though it’s also part of AM (ante meridian), but for those of us who didn’t get that clever, the plain A is enough to solve the clue.

30. Thanks Boatman and PeterO
    Boatman is high on my “don’t bother with” list, and this one illustrated why. Impenetrable until I worked out what was going on with “next”, then it became a write-in.
    I would question whether AORTAS “keep blood flowing”, though I suppose arteries do have some muscular input.

31. Yes, for some while, as I hadn’t yet solved 8ac, I could quite see the relevance of the word “next” in all the other across clues. Though I had solved two or three of them without appreciating its true significance. And I only knew FRIT previously as an East Anglian(?) term for Frightened.
    I see that the comments today began in the wee small hours. I’ve rather got myself into the very bad habit recently of delaying shuteye by pouncing on the pristine new Guardian Cryptic online as soon as it appears at just past midnight. Must manage my sleep patterns a little more sensibly in future…

32. Ronald @31 I woke up needing the loo at around 02:30 and solved this before going back to sleep. I think the phone’s going to be banned from the bedroom again soon!

33. Same.
    ronald @31, I have recently succumbed to the same nasty habit, but only completed half last night w/o noticing the trick.

    Ta Boatman & PeterO.

34. Very clever. Total desperation, and then irritation, but then realisation, then acceleration, and finally acclamation- a veritable Fry’s chocolate cream bar!

35. Ingenious and fun. Although I twigged the shtick very early with STATUE (confirmed by AWED), like paddymelon and gladys, MONARCHS was a late entry. ASHURST was also my LOI – the place name was familiar, but not its position on a railway line.

    My pick of the clues: MALTHUSIAN, SWEDEN, AORTAS (muffin @30: no need to invoke peristalsis – without an aorta nothing could come out of the left ventricle).

    Thanks to S&B

36. Did anyone else, having cracked the theme, confidently put FRIT for 10a and thus scupper the NW corner? Actually I think it’s a better answer, as awe is not the same as fear.

37. Gervase @35
    It’s the “keep” that sounds odd. “Allow” is more accurate.

38. Roger @36: From Chambers:

    awe
    noun
    Reverential wonder or fear
    Dread
    Power to inspire awe (archaic)
    transitive verb
    To strike with or influence by awe or fear

    Awe = fear is perfectly acceptable, but perhaps this meaning is fading because of the (regrettable) use of ‘awesome’, like ‘terrific’ just to mean ‘very good’.

39. I have a tendency to be overly critical in a sour grapes kind of way of crosswords that beat me. In retrospect there is a lot to like here. Some definitions seem slightly off e.g. awed and aortas as others have mentioned, but I think a bit of flexibility is OK (or okay) if the wordplay is fair.
    My only real grumble is the reference to the Oxted line, which was so parochial I assumed it wasn’t meant to be taken literally. The wordplay was fair but I feel the definition should have been different. Perhaps just “station” or “town” would be too vague but would be preferable in my opinion.

40. I tackled the Down clues first. This turned out to be a good (if inadvertent) strategy, as the meaning of “next” in all but one of the Across clues was almost immediately obvious. A rapid but not entirely straightforward completion of the puzzle came next.

41. Once the daily penny dropped (which it did in next to no time), all the across clues fell like nine(seven?)pins. That more than made up for the trickier downers, which were fairly soluble with the crossers in place. In toto, a delightful frolic. Thanks BoatO and PeterO.

42. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

    Well, it’s got to be BRIGHT HUED hasn’t it?

    But where does the THU come from?

    Oh, right.

    (A few minutes pass)

    I seem to have finished.

    I think of this type of puzzle as “ketchup”:

    You bang and bump and shake the bottle
    First none’ll come and then a lot’ll

43. Well, that particular penny drop was the quickest a puzzle has gone from impenetrable to a near write-in! A neat idea and well executed.

    Thanks both.

44. I assumed that the only small station well-known enough to appear in a crossword was the one in the Edward Thomas poem, but I finally remembered that was Addlestrop. Nice to reread the poem, though.

45. As usual, I agree with muffin@30.

46. Thanks Boatman & PeterO, that was fun in a frisky
    TGIF 13th sort of way.
    It was nice that 25a gave us Saturday’s derivation and that we had a FORTnight.

47. Adlestrop

48. Not much new to add – SATANIST my first one in, then figured I’d need some down clues to get anything else. Needed STATUE and MALTHUSIAN before the penny finally dropped, and then so did most of the rest of the puzzle.

    Was thrown off by the apostrope for SWEDEN, and needed a Check button to be put right. Most other stuff felt relatively fine to parse (but as ever, mostly only after I got the answers from crossers). Finished it off, ironically, with FORWARDS, which I think could have done without the extra ‘the’

    Also never heard of ASHURST but got it pretty quickly from the clue without crossers. The name does ring a vague bell though, so maybe I have heard it and just don’t know it…

49. I thought this was Boatman at his very best.
    I did not mind at all that the acrosses were easy once the device was resolved.
    That was the reward for working it out!
    Loved every minute of it.

50. The device is never explicitly defined, and is really only discoverable by implication after failing to solve (or revealing) several Across solutions, but once discovered the Across clues are practically write-ins. I hope Boatman had more fun compiling it than I did in solving it.

    I know ‘scrumptious’, but Nho (s)CRUMMY (yes, it’s in Chambers). Then we have the station on some railway line unknown to me, and to cap it all the excruciating FORT.

    I did not enjoy this.

51. 12ac. got the answer but why does next = fri ?

52. Ridiculously, I only realised the true brilliance of the clueing once I put my last one in, 8a, which should have been (and, of course, was) the first. I clocked early on that ‘next’ referred to abbreviated days of the week, but couldn’t figure out why until………the penny finally dropped!!!

53. phil @51
    I think you must have missed the “next” trick in the across clues

54. This was a very enjoyable crossword but, as others have said, over too quickly once I realised the across theme. My last one in was Ashurst despite living on the Oxted line! Thank you Boatman and PeterO.

55. muffin @53. I did and I still don’t get it 🙁

56. Rarely previously venturing away from the Quiptics and Quick Cryptics, I chose this week to try my luck on the daily cryptics with mixed results. Today went like this… 8A no idea, 9A no idea, 10A no idea, 11A no idea, 12A no idea, 14A SATANIST, but why is it SAT… oh hang on…

    I was finished about 15 minutes later. All fully parsed too, minor quibbles already mentioned aside. My only difficulty was writing in PATIENTS for 20A a little too quickly (I assumed PAT must be yet another synonym for sailor that I didn’t know and that Tuesday could just abbreviate to T), and 6D – not knowing much about wine I found Google results for MAISON WINE and JANSON WINE, both of which would parse, so spent time trying to decide between them.

57. Hi again phil
    Because 11a has THU, so “next” is FRI.

58. Thanks but what starts this theme ?

59. 8a “first”

60. I enjoyed this and thought the clue for aortas was hilarious. Thankyou.

61. Re quibbles about AORTAS – they keep blood flowing in the sense that if they weren’t there the blood would stop flowing with fatal results.

62. As everyone else it seems, a strange experience of being baffled completely then sudden realisation. And then a speedy solve.

    Thanks Boatman and PeterO

63. Pretty much in line with other solvers…impenetrable…exasperation…realisation…write-in.

    Loved IS THAT SO but less keen on dries = DRAINS. Has anyone given a working usage? I suppose one could drain/dry a boil on the skin?

64. Ingenious! I had the same experience as vannucci@52. MONARCHS was my last in, and it was only then that I saw what ‘next’ was about! However, before then I had worked out that all of the across clues contained a day of the week. The sequence wasn’t clear until the end, because I completed the RH side before starting the LH side, from the bottom up.
    Favourites: MALTHUSIAN, AORTAS, MONARCHS.
    Thanks Boatman and PeterO

65. At first I thought we were in for a Ronnie Barker theme of answering the next question, but it was MONITOR that opened the gate. I associate FRIT with a word uttered by an unlamented (at least in these parts) ex-PM.
    I like the ketchup analogy, Mitz.
    Thanks to PeterO and the Jolly Sailor.

66. What Jay said @13. “(Stupid. Love it!)
    Liked the sneaky s in SWEDEN!

67. Very unenjoyable

68. Yikes, a very slow start (I nearly said next!) but a quick finish once the penny dropped. I was hampered a bit by trying to work out what ATUE refered to after solving that. Once MONARCH fell and I relooked at my pencilled in SWEDEN it was pretty obvious. Feel I made this harder work than it needed to be.

69. I am in the minority of finding this very clever without in any way being fun.

    Once I saw there was a gimmick in the across clues, I skipped to the down ones, and filled in enough to get 25A and 26A without fully parsing them. And then the penny dropped and the rest of the grid was a write-in. Deeply unsatisfactory.

    As far as “first” being Monday, this is normal in many non-anglophone countries, so much so that many calendar apps give one the choice of what day of the week to start on.

70. Well done to Boatman. Like others I couldn’t make head or tail of the acrosses at first, got a couple of downs and then the penny dropped with SATANIST. Smooth sailing after that but the ingenuity of the construction is admirable, and on a day when I was forced to get up ridiculously early (over here) I was glad not to have to struggle! The occasional looseness seems forgivable in such a constrained grid (mostly the “a” in STATUE, even given michelle@19’s point about “before”).

    The ‘s in SWEDEN seemed fine to me, given the other “lift and separate” clues we get, or perhaps Playtex, I’ve never understood the difference. In a way I think of the clues as continuous strings of letters though they usually break with the words.

    Also particularly liked EXULTANT (LOI) and USELESS.

    William@63, Merriam-Webster does have “drain” as a synonym for “dry,” but it’s true, I can’t think of a case where I’d use them interchangeably.

    Thanks Boatman and PeterO!

    [Here’s a quibble: The first day of the week isn’t Sunday? is this another US/UK thing?… ah, anticipated by Jacob@69 while I was typing]

71. A very clever puzzle that, I suspect took longer to set than it took, for most on here, to do ….. once next became clear. I got there via BRIGHT-HUED and MONITOR and SATANIST.
    I like clever ones like this provided they’re not so obscure that they can’t be done.
    Thanks setter and blogger.

72. I enjoyed the weekday thing once I caught on to it, even though it made the across clues go quicker. Enjoying the cleverness of it more than made up for the easy fill.

    One of the THU clues happened to be my first in, and I thought for a while that the reference was to a series of books I haven’t read about a character named Thursday Next.

    I don’t complain about the Oxted line, wherever it is. I’m used to knowledge of British geography being assumed, with such clues as “town in Essex.” I often have heard of the town, though I almost never know what county it’s in.

    Never heard of FRIT, but I learned some useful stuff by googling it.

    Thanks, Boatman and PeterO.

73. [Valentine @72, sent you a message yesterday re Arachne query. It’s @101. Oh, and if you’ve not read them, the Jasper Fforde books you refer to above are good fun.]

74. Thanks, PeterO and all –
    As a few of you have guessed, it definitely gave me more trouble to set this one than it took you to solve it – it seems only fair that it should be that way round sometimes. In fact, I’ve been trying to get this idea to work for years – I remember that Araucaria tried the same thing perhaps 20 years ago, and he got as far as linking 10 consecutive days, so I wasn’t going to give up until I could give you a full fortnight. And that was a very nice spot, wynsum @46 – if I’d thought of it myself, I’d surely have tried to work in a reference.
    Mitz @42 – For my money, you win the prize for today’s most evocative description of the solving experience – I’m going to remember that image for a while!

75. Since Anglophone countries are nominally Christian one might expect Sunday to be considered the last day of the week, as in Genesis 2:
    And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.

76. MikeB@75: that is precisely the point. You have just quoted from the Jewish Torah, and in Judaism the last day of the week, on which God rested, is Shabbat, or Saturday in English. All New Testament accounts agree that the Resurrection happened on the day after Shabbat (“on the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene to the tomb…..”), and that day was therefore Sunday.

77. This made for a rollicking time at breakfast, once we’d got past the initial head-scratching. (MALTHUSIAN got us in.)
    Economical surfaces elicited laughs as the answers emerged. We were dazzled by Boatman’s cleverness. Thanks!

78. William @63, and matt w @70
    Wouldn’t drains a swamp, and dries a swamp mean the same thing? Or maybe even a kitchen sponge?

79. There is a website/app (which I will not name) that provides language lessons for dozens of languages from any language – you choose the TO and FROM language and they compile the lessons by interleaving identical scripts in the individual languages. A very clever idea. Except that the English text for the days-of-the-week lesson has lines like “The first day is Monday, the second day is Tuesday …”. All well and good unless the target language does not name the days but counts from Sunday – like Hebrew. Then you get bizarre sentences in that language like “The first day is the second day” etc.

80. MikeB @75: Portuguese, unusually, does not have separate names for days of the week, apart from Saturday and Sunday. Monday is ‘segunda-feira’ (literally ‘second market’), Tuesday ‘terça-feira’ (‘third market’) and so on – Sunday clearly being considered the first day of the week.

    But in a more secular age we consider Sunday to be part of the ‘weekend’, and as the standard working week starts on Monday, it is perhaps more logical to consider this the first day of the week.

81. Just to be pedantic on the parochial ASHURST…. As a regular user of Ashurst, it would never be referred to as on the Oxted line. It is on the Uckfield line, Uckfield being the terminus.
    As any fule know, there are 2 ‘lines’ through Oxted, terminating at East Grinstead and Uckfield respectively and you go through Oxted to arrive at Ashurst – about half an hour later.

    Anywho…

    A great fun crossword with an interesting twist which did, once twigged, provide a lot of assistance on the D clues.

    Thank you Boatman and PeterO

82. This was a joy and a delight from one of my favorite setters. Thanks, Boatman and PeterO.

83. Boatman is my favourite setter, so can’t be objective about their puzzles. Personally thought the relative ease of solving (once the trick was discovered after a fashion) was a fair price to pay for appreciating the brilliance of the concept. SEDANS is a great clue.

84. I originally had HEARTS for 21d – thought gay porn might be ‘he arts’

85. Used to live near Uckfield and agree with Morten@81 that Ashurst is more naturally described as on the Uckfield line. As with Adlestrop, no-one gets on or off there in my experience, but every time I went through it wondered whether the ‘h’ in the middle belonged to ‘ash’,’hurst’ or both.

    Brilliant puzzle, anyway

86. Greek has Sunday as the first day -Κυριακή – Lord’s day, with Monday to Thursday given ordinal numbers – Δευτέρα, Τρίτη, Τετάρτη, Πέμπτη – Second, Third etc.
    (Spellchecker seems to know I’m a Gooner. It keeps trying to change ‘third’ to ‘Thierry.)

87. Mandarin @83 said it all for me I think – my fave setter (should finish the “second 50” over xmas)… a thoroughly entertaining crossword… loved it, despite being a pretty straightforward solve once the theme became plain. Thanks again Boatman.

88. Another Boatman grid where the top row doesn’t cross.
    A bright-hued epiphany here too.
    Very enjoyable.
    Thank you both.

89. Wonderful crossword. I think the ingenuity of the gridfill deserves acknowledgment and there was lots of fun to be had. Reminds me of some of Brendan’s finest work, with the theme only emerging gradually. Thank you Boatman – having wrestled with many of your puzzles over the years, this was one of the most enjoyable and, in my opinion, one of the most original and skilful.

90. Lovely puzzle, thank you Boatman and Peter O. Satanist was my entry ticket. It’s twigging puzzles like this one that make all my efforts to fathom cryptics worthwhile.

91. The Russian words for Tuesday, Thursday, Friday indicate that they are the second, fourth and fifth days; making Monday the first day, by implication. On the other hand the word for Wednesday indicates that it is the middle of the week, which would seem to require the week to start on Sunday.

    I haven’t done any Googling on the topic, so I don’t know if this is some mystery that will forever be unresolved or if instead there is a consensus of Slavic language etymologists about how this came about.

    There is an easy way to have the week start on Sunday while having Monday be the first day of the week: let Sunday be the zeroth day of the week. Probably most people would find this unacceptable. Personally I include zero in the set of natural numbers, and am rather fond of “zeroth” as its ordinal
    adjective.

92. This is how we solved it. I put in a few Down answers and got stuck. Later I saw that my partner had put in another Down or two and 14A SATANIST. “How did you do that?”, I asked. And her parsing included “It’s Friday today so I thought ‘next’ would be Sat”! And all became clear. Thank you Boatman and Peter O.

93. I have probably asked this before and I’m sorry if I’m repeating myself.

    What does … mean or refer to in clues?

    I’ve seen this yesterday and today and I have no idea what it’s all about.

94. Steffen @93
    Generally … (ellipsis) means nothing at all. The example yesterday was an exception, in that it was important to the solution of the two linked clues.

95. Steffen @ 93:

    There are two related uses.

    One is purely at the “surface” level: the clues are to be solved separately, but the surface meaning is obtained by reading the clues run together as one long sentence. Part of the aesthetic of a good crossword is that the clues should read as meaningful sentences. With the … connectors, the setter arranges for two or more clues to read well when combined.

    In the more complex version, the two parts interact with each other when solving the clue (and not just for the surface reading). Quite commonly, we may need to read one the full combined sentence to understand the definition for one or more of the parts. The wordplay will never cross over.

    In this crossword the … are being used in the first way. You can solve each of the clues 8a, 9a, 10a completely independently of each other. You can choose to enjoy the surface reading by combining the three clues into one sentence, or you can completely ignore it. It doesn’t affect the solving in any way.

    Perhaps another commenter will provide us with a good example of the second type. I can’t think of one right now.

96. Thanks Boatman. I got to this late but I’m glad I got to it because it ended up being my favourite puzzle this week. Thanks PeterO for the blog.

97. Very very clever!

98. Girabra @95. There was an example yesterday. 1d and 2d only worked as a pair. Personally I felt it went too far because the wordplay needed both clues to work.

99. The first day of my week has always been Sunday. Too old to accept change now!

100. Gillian @99 etc
     I hope that my edit to the blog for 8A MONARCHS has settled the controversy (please no further comments from priests).
     Girabra @95
     I wonder if the ellipses here between 8A, 9A and 10A are intended as a nudge to direct the solver to the “first’, ‘next’, ‘next’ business.

101. …and my first has always been Monday – because Saturday and Sunday are the weekEND; because that’s when school/uni/work started; because I was not raised as a religious believer of any sort, etc. As I said way earlier, week-to-a-page diaries always start on a Monday. Each to their own …

102. I thought this was splendid, and my admiration for the puzzle wasn’t diminished, as it seems to have been for some, by the theme making it easier to finish than most other Boatman crosswords.

     The gap between realising that the days of the week were in there, and realising that they were in there – *in order* (twice!) – made the full appreciation of how smartly this was done the best part of the overall experience.

     Thanks, Boatman.

103. Thanks to Boatman for a splendid puxzzle and to PeterO.

     Does anybody know whether the absence of comments on the Guardian crossword over the past couple of days is industrial action-related, or a new policy? I hope it’s not the latter.

104. Just terrible

105. As long as we have the likes of Boatman inventing stuff like this I doubt that AI will have the edge on us mortals when it comes to solving cryptic crosswords.

     I loved it.

     Thanks all.

106. JayZed @ 103

     Just as during the last strike by G staff, comments across the website have been turned off.

107. I didn’t twig, so although I got satisfaction from the answers I did get, this was ultimately a far from completed puzzle for me. I was feeling off-colour yesterday, and I’d at least like to think I would have done better if it wasn’t for that.

     JayZed @103, just to echo what Simon S @106 said, there were a further 48 hours of industrial action, so the absence of comment threads is connected to that.

108. Many solved intuitively without getting the “next”. The Aha! moment came when PeterO explained it, Flickered on like a tubelight! Thanks both.

109. Really loved this — maybe because it was one of my occasional completed puzzles. Brilliant and delightful gridfill from Boatman.

     Postmark@26, loved your “themo collapso” — a good description!

     Mitz@42, your ketchup bottle rhyme is another good description, with the added benefit that it brings to mind my dear departed mother who taught me that rhyme, and who also introduced me to cryptics

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