Guardian Prize 29,589 by Enigmatist

83 comments on “Guardian Prize 29,589 by Enigmatist”

1. Many thanks for parsing some that were beyond me, especially BAMBINO, and the Oasis number I’d never heard of.
   It took some time for me to see it, but I think 20,17 is an anagram of T(Time) plus FOR THE MIND-BLOWING.

2. jkb_ing@1: Of course. Thanks for spotting that.

3. DNF with 8 eight across and down clues unsolved. I had a few guesses for these but couldn’t parse them enough to enter. Despite the frustration, I enjoyed solving the other clues, especially the wonderfully hidden anagram in 20, 17.

   Thanks Cineraria and Enigmatist

4. I decided life is too short for an Enigmatist puzzle so I did not attempt this. Pity, as this is about the fourth week in a row I have chosen to skip the prize. Back in the saddle next week.

   Regardless, thanks Enigmatist and thanks especially to our blogger Cineraria

5. 20, 17 is an anagram of T(ime) FOR THE MIND BLOWING

6. Needed all crossers before guessing the Oasis song, a dnk. And I think I remember doing a guess letter and check to get ataxy, though I’ve met ataxia before. Otherwise, yes, not too fiendish from the big bad E. Thanks to him and Cineraria (a fave of the gardeners in my extended fam).

7. Thanks Cineraria. Your first sentence pretty much summed up what I felt; Enigmatist scares me, and I considered avoiding this one, but I got there in the end. I think I parsed AMALGAM the way you did, but I wasn’t completely convinced. I didn’t get anywhere near parsing CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA (a song I didn’t know, I confess) but it had to be right. I still don’t really see BAMBINO (irrelevantly, I kept remembering the family cars with ‘Bimbo a bordo’ signs in Rome) – I saw it included ‘Bambi’, but couldn’t twist that into relevance either. I guessed PLING from the crossers, once I had them, but in a long career spent with computers and computer people, I don’t ever remember hearing that used for an exclamation mark. Checking, I finally found it mentioned in an aside in a question on StackExchange about the use of ‘bang’ for ‘!’. Personally, I’ve never liked ‘bang’ or ‘shriek’ and have usually just said ‘exclamation’, if I have to say it at all. Oh, and I thought 20,17 was just a cryptic definition, too.

   So, quite satisfying in the end to complete this, and with relatively few unparsed. Thanks Enigmatist, and thanks again, Cineraria.

8. For PLING I had PAING, I couldn’t parse it but it contained pain. I even tried a word searcher, but P?I?G got no matches found and I have never even seen the symbol.
   I also failed to parse ASP TIPS, CHAMPAGNE S, BAMBINO, I’ve only recently stopped riding a motorbike due to AMD, not terrible yethut my vision is blurry, and have never heard th term no Bambi.
   I also wondered why SA reversed became AZ and looking back I see I had BENCH&BHAJI wrong.
   I’m glad to see this was an easy one. Thanks both.

9. This was honestly a puzzle from outerspace. Finding the “probable” answers was one thing, but it was really a stretch parsing the answers even after you got the most likely answer – not what a cryptic clue should be! I don’t think this is a fair puzzle; the setter really needs to rethink his crossword setting strategy.

10. Thanks Cineraria, I very rarely give up on a puzzle, refusing to admit defeat and enjoying a knotty challenge. But BAMBINO and PLING were beyond me – obscure terms unlikely to feature in any dictionary I knew of, seemed unfair. Pin=spit and sugar=money in ASPARAGUS TIPS were dodgy too.

11. I was another DNF as I found this one too tough. Even though I tussled with it all week, I still fell a fair way short of a full solve. That being said, I liked what I did solve and I now see a few of my guesses were correct but I couldn’t parse a lot of the solutions in full. Thanks to Cineraria for the elucidatory blog which made for good reading and to Enigmatist for such a clever puzzle. Bravo to those greater minds than mine who solved this one in its entirety.

12. I was yet another DNF. Too many obscurities for me.

13. Another here who found this a struggle. Didn’t have the GK to make a stab at some. Made numerous attempts at PLING, some of which I could (almost) justify until I got crossers. Unfair I say. Unusual word, not very helpful definition.

    Not familiar with BAMBINO . I may have had more success with MAMIL, middle-aged man in lycra, (on bicycles).

14. I was another one who couldn’t parse BAMBINO, so kudos to Cineraria there. Never heard the term BAMBI for an older motorcyclist, nor, despite being an IT professional in my career, had I heard the term PLING for an exclamation mark. So outside my GK for those clues. CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA came from somewhere in the memory banks after the crossers suggested the second word. Found this on the difficult end of the spectrum for the prize puzzles. Thanks to Enigmatist and Cineraria.

15. DNF for me too – but just PLING defeated me, as I’ve never heard of it and the word finders didn’t know it either. I did spot the anagram for WIMBLEDON FORTNIGHT and had the rest in and parsed, including ASPARAGUS TIPS as you did.

    Fun challenge from Enigmatist, thank you, and thank you for the blog Cineraria.

16. Finished but did not parse a significant portion.

17. Took me all week too, and DNF. Ironist and Ataxy were beyond me. Many others were look-ups or unparsed. A real toughie for me.

18. I really enjoyed what I completed and parsed, which was probably about 3/4. The rest I found irritatingly obscure (pling??) or irritatingly obscurely parsed (asparagus tips, bambino.) It was almost like Enigmatist was trying very hard to be nice but sometimes couldn’t help himself.

19. Forty years in IT, never heard anyone call a ! anything but exclamation mark. Don’t usually complain about obscurity but this seems a step too far!

20. Very tough – my FOI was 4d AZTEC. Reading my notes now, I remember how baffled (and stressed out) I felt while doing this puzzle.

    Failed to solve 23ac (never heard of NEB=beak), 5d, 23d.

    I could not parse:
    1ac apart from asparagus = spring vegetable + TIPS
    11ac apart from BAMBINO = Italian kid
    13/2
    25ac apart from A MA
    8d apart from def = summons // I did not understand why does three line = the cat o’twenty seven tails?
    22d apart from NYALA = antelope

    New for me: ATAXY; HOP-OAST; SATELLITE = companion / a person, esp one who is obsequious, who follows or serves another; PLING = computing slang / an exclamation mark.

21. And how is AMALGAM an ingredient? It’s a mixture surely.

22. MinG@20: “Ingredient” is listed in Chambers as a synonym for AMALGAM.

23. Found the puzzle tough. Could not parse BAMBINO (Googled and found the BAMBI connection but couldn’t proceed further) and BHAJI (couldn’t think of a word for ‘guy seen on canal’).

    Faves: W FORTNIGHT, TIMEPIECE, T-L WHIP and H S HOME.

    Thanks Enigmatist and Cineraria.

24. Thanks for the blog; agree with your assessment. I think that I would have needed help with BAMBINO as well, had it been my turn to blog. But PLING is in Chambers, so I’m surprised that Shanne’s word finder didn’t produce it.

    One small point: I know that Chambers gives W as an abbreviation for the Korean currency “won”, but I think that many UK solvers will be familiar with the rubric PWLD (played, won, lost, drawn) from football league tables and will derive the abbreviation from there. Sadly, Chambers doesn’t support this analysis!

    I think the ellipsis at 15, 16, 21 is there because all the clues have references to playing poker, but I agree it’s a bit loose and certainly doesn’t help the solver.

    Well done for spotting the pangram; and are those Enigmatist’s initials in the bottom right-hand corner (where an artist might put his signature)? Probably just a coincidence.

25. I enjoyed the challenge and the satisfaction of completing this but I thought BAMBINO was weak and symptomatic of Enigmatist’s tendency to sacrifice clue quality for difficulty

    And I’m another with 30+ years in IT who’s never heard of”pling” but there it is in Chambers. Another school day 🙂

    Cheers C&E

26. Much easier to solve than to parse. Once the grid was complete I gave up trying to understand half-a-dozen clues, and having read the explanations in the blog I’m glad I did!

27. I liked this a lot. The fact that it was a prize and I felt the need to fully parse to be sure (rather than the apps helpful confirmation and time at completion added to the fun.

    Some answers / parsings were a little too tortured, a bit overly convoluted – but it is the prize so fair enough.

    Thanks Enigmatist and Cineraria

28. bridgesong @23 – I meant to go old school and work through Chambers for words that fitted my P_ I _ G gap, as I used to back in the day solving Araucaria, but I didn’t make time this week.

29. I eventually got there on Wednesday, having struggled through, and failed to parse several, like michelle@19, so thanks, Cineraria and others, for the clarification. I cannot agree that this was on the easier end of the scale.

    The Oasis track is just obscure. BAMBI is unknown to me in this sense, and I needed Chambers to check NYALA, PLING and others. I assumed there was some theme I had missed, particularly as I could not see the definition in BHAJI. But all is now clear, and my thanks to Enigmatist for the challenge.

30. So… to sum up people’s experiences from the above. A large amount of DNF’s. A large amount of I haven’t a clue about the parsing and a large amount of never heard of that word even though I worked in IT!!

    Conclusion: This was officially a difficult prize crossword!

31. Yes, when I said not too fiendish, I meant as a gridfill. I had the same unparsed ones as others did..

32. Adding to the score, another DNF. Five not solved, a few more not parsed, some way out of my GK. I admitted defeat early in the week.
    Of those I did know/ solve/ parse, I liked best WIMBLEDON FORTNIGHT, THREE LINE WHIP, HOME SWEET HOME and TIME PIECE.
    I thought the … before the QUIDDITCH clue was just to misdirect solvers towards another poker/ betting word.
    Thanks to Enigmatist, to Cineraria for the explanations and congrats to the solvers who managed to tame this beast.

33. Well, I managed to finish last Saturday morning with a completed grid having realised, a while after ending up with one empty light, that it was BHAJI – which is a neat homophone and well hidden def. However, to add to the litany above, quite a few were unparsed and/or nho. Very much on the margin wrt enjoyment – a real struggle at times and I had to keep reminding myself that this is something I do for fun. My ticks go to the anagrams – WIMBLEDON FORTNIGHT, CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA (though that was a nho) and HOME SWEET HOME.

    Thanks (I think) Enigmatist and Cineraria

34. Another dnf for me, but it was mostly enjoyable. There were some clever and helpful anagrams – even I’ve heard of CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA and I can’t stand Oasis – and I enjoyed the subtraction for IRONIST, but as Dave F says @17, Enigmatist just can’t help himself.

    I eventually wrote in BAMBINO from the definition, but the parsing is not just convoluted, it’s downright obscure. And the fact that this clue crossed with the equally obscure PLING was a blot on the grid. It looked as though it had to be the answer but I refused to write it in when I had no idea what the clue meant; it’s good to know it’s not just me, as all those IT guys have confirmed this morning.

    And I should have got ATAXY, but I just don’t see taxes as a strain, they’re just the price we pay for living in a (semi)civilised society, so it’s a synonym too far for me.

    To those who object this is not easy, I heartily concur, but it’s only at the easier end of Enigmatist’s spectrum, in other words, still utterly fiendish. I did enjoy parts of this, especially the bargee with his Indian meal at 23d and the very clever ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, for which I needed all the crossers.

    Thanks to JH and to our blogger for dealing so well with such a difficult assignment. To those who say they didn’t attempt this because it’s Enigmatist, that’s not a comment on the crossword or the setter, it’s a comment about yourself. I’m glad to see him getting a slot on the Guardian again, after being seemingly cold shouldered by the previous editor. More please (PLING!)

35. I found Enigmatist too hard for me when he was a boy. Now I find he still is. 😀

36. Another DNF here too… I don’t use aids until I have an idea to put in, and have never heard pling! Not an Oasis fan either, though supernova was guessable from the crossers and I had an idea of the anagram fodder. Ironist? Hmm. Failed on ataxy too, though I knew what I was looking for. A lot of good misdirections, I thought. But we enjoyed wrestling with this, thank you Enigmatist, and Cineraria and everyone for the explanations.

37. I got, and know well, Champagne Supernova. Even though the clue references that it wasn’t a single, I think it’s a bit of a stretch to expect non-pop fans to know this song so my sympathies with them.

    It had to be “bambino” and I was looking forward to the explanation but don’t feel completely satisfied now I’ve found out. Not to worry.

    All that said, it was an enjoyable puzzle which kept me going through the week and a particular hats off to the blogger for obvious reasons!

38. All the comments on CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA remind me that one solver’s obscurity is another’s write-in! That one was a doddle for a chap of my particular vintage 🙂 Overall this was certainly at the tougher end of Prizes, and I personally think BAMBINO and PLING went beyond the pale, but I did finish and with only a couple unparsed. With Enigmatist puzzles I think it’s fair game to invoke my Genius/Inquisitor rule of external reference aids being necessary at some point, and that was definitely the case here e.g. I only got PLING through the Chambers app, and I’m another one that was in IT for donkey’s years.

    Thanks both!

39. sheffield hatter @33 – there is a non-fiscal meaning of the word TAX which is “to make heavy demands on” so I reckon that synonym works 🙂

40. I suppose Enigmatist can use Chambers as justification, but I really cannot see how AMALGAM can be regarded as an “ingredient”.

41. Thanks Enigmatist and Cineraria

    I for one really enjoyed the struggle that a JH puzzle usually is.

    I don’t think SHRIEK is a slang term for an exclamation mark, it’s a mathematical expression. 5! = 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1, for example, and is referred to as “five shriek”.

42. Long time visitor, first time commenter. I like to think I’m more flexible than many with definitions and wordplay, and have no gripe with fiendishness in its many forms, but BAMBINO is surely just nonsense. And while I got CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA, it’s a pretty broad clue definition. Nevertheless, always happy to be challenged by Enigmatist, and thanks to both setter and blogger.

43. Simon S @40
    Yes, but “shriek” is still a slang usage. The correct term is “factorial”.

44. We guessed BAMBINO then parsed as follows:- Vespa is a brand of scooter so googled Bambi scooter and found BAMBI is a model of scooter, fifty-something is a number.

45. A bit of a slog, and I left a couple of clues unsolved.
    I guessed ASPARAGUS TIPS straightaway but didn’t see the parsing.
    A few I liked, such as AZTEC, but I’d never heard of PLING and had to ask my son for an explanation on the use of #. I don’t think I’ll ever see the need to start using it!
    Overall I didn’t love it, but Saturday is the only day I buy the actual printed newspaper, so it’s easy to keep tinkering at it for a day or two.

46. I worked in IT for over twenty years without ever encountering PLING, so this was a dnf for me too, but then I expect to be defeated by Enigmatist and was surprised to get as far as I did. Must be one of his easier ones. I couldn’t parse BAMBINO (nho any of that), CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA or UPBEARING. I have fond memories of NYALAs from a safari holiday in South Africa, where they wandered freely around the camp, but I couldn’t parse it.

    I liked WIMBLEDON FORTNIGHT, EARLY, QUIDDITCH, BHAJI and the THYME PEACE.

47. I didn’t find this at the easier end of Enigmatist puzzles – I’ve found the previous few less tricky – but I got there in the end, albeit a technical DNF.

    BAMBINO went in from the definition but remained unparsed. HOP-OAST took an age to solve (is there any oast not used for drying hops?). I had to reveal PLING, which I didn’t know. I guessed that it was something to do with an exclamation mark; like Simon S @40, I knew ‘shriek’ as mathematical slang for ‘factorial’, but only when ! Is used to represent the function – there are other notations – so it does represent this mark. Perhaps Enigmatist believed that the word was well known; why else give it a cryptic definition?

    Ingredient = AMALGAM? Another of those bizarre definitions that appear in Chambers, perhaps as a faithful recording of an authorial howler, as the dictionary is descriptive rather than proscriptive.

    Some great clues: I particularly liked CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA, WIMBLEDON FORTNIGHT, QUITE A FEW.

    Thanks to JH (not Paul 🙂 ) and Cineraria

48. For 11a I assumed a middle-aged biker would have a powerful motorbike, so if he chose a Vespa he would be disparagingly downgraded from BAMBI to BAMBINO?

49. Rob@38. Thanks. I didn’t say there was anything wrong with the clue. It was my fault for not seeing ‘strain’ in the way that the setter was thinking. Perfectly fair clue.

50. I don’t think anyone should be scared of Enigmatist, or avoid his puzzles, as they yield such joy. They may take a little longer, but it is worth it.

    Beware the cat-o-twenty-seven-tails however.

51. Another DNF. I could have got HOP-OAST but I think defining one jargon word PLING with another is unfair. Parsed everything else bar BAMBINO not knowing the acronym. Also never heard of the song, but know the album title, lifted from Mary Lou Williams’s 1938 composition for the Andy Kirk band. I’m with all those who complained about AMALGAM.

52. Simon 40: SHRIEK is printer’s argot for the exclamation mark. I knew PLING from years in IT.

    I got BAMBINO from the def and crossers but couldn’t parse it to save my life. Is there really such a term as ‘Bambi’ with that meaning? The cat -o’-nine tails has 9 cords (it’s right there in the name), so surely a 3-line whip would have only a third of them, not three times as many. BHAJI is not a homophone of Bargee to me and many others.

53. Can someone please explain how “form” defines “bench”? I can’t see it. Looking through online dictionaries the nearest I can do is a definition for “bench” as “(Agriculture) NZ a hollow on a hillside formed by sheep” and “form” as a hollow made by hares.

    Or is it some synonymical relationship of “form” and “platform”?

54. Barry R @52
    Form and bench are both terms for long seats, often seen with schoolchildren on them. I think it was the origin of “form” for “class” at schools – the different ages sat on different forms.

55. muffin @53 thanks for that! Just found “Chiefly British A long seat; a bench.” as the 9th definition of “form” on an online dictionary, but even as a British schoolchild from 1970 to 1984 I don’t think I ever heard it in that context, only in its meaning of a cohort of students (“fifth form”).

56. I liked some of this but think “tendency to sacrifice clue quality for difficulty” sums up a lot of the rest, especially now I find the explanation that “form” is supposed to mean a long seat and “NEB” is beak. I had PINCH for that, eventually looked up BHAJI and failed to slap my forehead, and then put BUNCH. The BAMBINO-PLING-UPBEARING corner I also found pretty tortuous (UPBEARING is fairly clued but not a word I see every day).

    On the plus side, very much liked NEAR THING, QUITE A FEW, WIMIBLEDON FORTNIGHT, and CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA (It was very popular!). I do agree with poc@51’s reservation about the number of lines in a cat o’nine tails.

    bridgesong@23: We also have W-L standings for just about every team in the US–surely this is a fine reason to use “W” for “won” even if it’s not in Chambers! I’m not a judge, I don’t worry so much about whether something is in Chambers.

57. Barry R @54
    I remember forms in dining halls of various schools that I’ve been to or taught in, but none actually in classrooms. However when I started, we had old desks with inkholes for dip-pens, though they were never used. (The best woodwork lesson I ever had was when we were given mallets to break these up!)

58. Surely Judge’s explanation for BAMBINO @47 is the only sensible one?
    LOOKS – amazing that ‘is, in the viewer’s opinion’ is just sitting there in a ready-made phrase. Must have been nice to spot that. I liked BHAJI too for its unexpectedness.

59. Tricky puzzle..and where is Bargee a homophone for Bhaji? Home counties? I find myself putting on an absurd ‘received English’ accent to get these. Which accents in the UK lose the ‘r’ in Bargee?

60. Smoz @58: Most accents in England (but not Scotland) are non-rhotic, so that ‘bargee’ and BHAJI are homophones for most English people apart from those in the south west, although ‘bargee’ has almost equal stress on the two syllables

61. I’ve worked in IT for nearly 40 years and never heard pling for exclamation mark. I’ve heard bang or shriek occasionally but actually it doesn’t need naming very often.
    The wordplay for Bambino was hopelessly complicated.
    Other than that lots of nice clues. I guessed Nyala and Amalgam but wasn’t certain because I couldn’t parse them. Bhaji also beat me but I like it now.

62. There’s difficult and there’s easy but, to me, wrong eg cat o’ twenty-seven tails = 3 whips without the line, more of the same @21d should be a synonym for FORTNIGHT or, at a stretch, QUIDDITCH.
    I couldn’t parse AMALGAM because I didn’t get GLAM and to me “the old woman”= wife (not that I would ever use it!) not mother. I too was surprised that Chambers defined it as both a mixture of ingredients and an ingredient.
    I parsed 18a as (Vixe)N EARTHING (going to her earth or den)
    I liked 5d for the misleading lead = pb and BHAJI which is a homophone to me (born Leeds, living on the South coast).
    Thanks to Enigmatist and Cineraria

63. My computer and I did solve this and I think I parsed most but I can’t remember if any were left unparsed. For those perplexed by BAMBI, it’s there in Collins: n acronym for
    Born-again middle-aged biker: an affluent middle-aged person who rides a powerful motorbike.

    Thanks Enigmatist and Cineraria.

64. poc @51
    I knew screamer as a printer’s term for an exclamation mark and assumed that shriek must be the IT equivalent (having got PLING by searching on P_ING).

65. Robi @62
    If it’s an acronym, shouldn’t it be BAMAB? I thought it was a very unfair clue, an “acronym” that virtually no-one has heard of, as part of a convoluted construction.
    btw, aren’t these people at the highest risk of death by road accident?

66. muffin @62, I think people often bend the rules with acronyms to make a nice word; thus, Born Again Middle-aged BIker. 🙂 Yes, I think the BAMBIs have a lot of road accidents because they weren’t taught how to control a powerful motorbike.

67. Pino@61: That was probably the intended meaning for EARTHING.

68. PWLW@43: Your suggested parsing for BAMBINO is plausible as a construction, and is the sort of thing that I was trying to make work when I was writing up the blog, except that the Bambi model of scooter was apparently manufactured by Halleiner Motoren Werke A.G. (not Vespa) back in 1955 and sold only a few hundred scooters. I thought BAMBI as an acronym was already pretty obscure for GK (in my proposed parsing), and BAMBI as a scooter from 70 years ago unfortunately strikes me extra obscure.

69. Yes, NO BAMBI cycling works for me.

    It’s just that being on a Vespa is a bit of a stretch to cycling?

    Thanks all.

70. Perfect Prize fodder, by which I mean it certainly kept me chewing beyond Saturday, thank you Enigmatist! Having been confused by amalgam=ingredient I looked up the etymology and now wonder whether this particular rare definition is actually the truer one? The Greek malagma means ‘emollient’, and so ‘amalgam’ – in relation to its usual definition of the dental mixture of silver/gold and mercury – perhaps refers better to the mercury ingredient alone, the ingredient that ‘softens’ the silver or gold into a form that can be shaped before hardening?

71. I greatly enjoyed 99% of this puzzle, but agree with the criticisms of the ridiculous Pling. Please use wordplay rather than cryptic definitions for obscurities, setters. For what it’s worth both Shriek and Pling were entirely unknown to me, so the clue was impossible, and not in a clever way.

    Bambino as a solution is fine, though the parsing is baffling. Champagne Supernova is probably one of the more famous album tracks in history.

    My thanks to Cineraria and Enigmatist

72. After a long break from buying the Saturday hard copy, did so last weekend, struggled with it all week, DNF with 7 missing, but really enjoyed getting back to this blog and reading all the comments, great seeing sheffield hatter and bridgesong still contributing, feel like I’m back on the horse

    The Winter’s Tale, Act I, Scene II “How she holds up the neb, the bill to him!”

73. No fun for me – too many obscurities – but I’m guessing that it was just right for Roz, so I have no complaint. It’s only fair to provide puzzles to satisfy the supersolvers among us, as long as the rest of us are not left behind too often. (I usually do try them, but I don’t lose any sleep over the inevitable failure.)

74. Umm, Ian @73 – “blowing smoke up his own arse” is an expression that has passed me by. What does it signify?

75. Hi Muffin,
    It’s an expression that signifies flattery, in this case it’s the setter indulging himself.

76. Come back Roz, we miss your contributions

77. For once being Australian may have been a help rather than a hindrance, as Champagne Supernova was a single down under, and less obscure!

78. My view is that the “it” at beginning of the clue for HOME SWEET HOME may disqualify it from true &lit status – a shame since a great clue; as were so many others!
    A wonderfully entertaining solve – many thanks to Enigmatist, and thanks to cineraria for your kind contribution

    [muffin@43 – I agree]

79. I’m late getting to this, but since I’m here I’ll say that even after reading the blog and all the comments, I still have no idea how 11ac (BAMBINO) is meant to work. I’ll accept that the term BAMBI exists, but I don’t understand where the NO comes from. I also don’t really get the joke of THREE-LINE-WHIP. I can see how a cat-o’-27-tails could be three whips, but where does LINE fit in?

    I managed to solve this whole puzzle apart from one clue (BHAJI — never heard of this or its homophone, so really I had no chance). But I didn’t understand the parsing of over a dozen clues. Some were surely my fault, but not all.

80. Just to say I think cryptic definitions should stand alone, and not be used as the definition part of a normal clue, unless essential for the surface.

81. Ted@79 , my take on BAMBINO . BAMBI? ( a fifty something biker on a Harley-Davison maybe ) pause NO! ( on a Vespa) , Not a great clue.
    Cat-o’-nine- tails is a whip with a single line plus nine flails (tails) . A cat-o’-27-tails would need three lines ( 9 tails each) so a three line whip.
    The Bargee is a much repeated UK film .

82. For what it’s worth, very good to see roz again!!!!

83. At uni (in the 1970s) we only ever used pling for ‘!’
    Thereafter I never used it at work!

    BAMBINO most unsatisfactory

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