Guardian 29,692 / Brummie

65 comments on “Guardian 29,692 / Brummie”

1. A tough Monday challenge but a very satisfying solve. I had a lot of ticks for this but favourites were EXACERBATION, SENIOR MOMENT, CUBIST and ELOQUENT. As Eileen says, THEREBY seems wrong as surely THY means your rather than you. Didn’t spoil a great puzzle though.

   Ta Brummie & Eileen.

2. Eileen – colour scheme is DECOR, otherwise you have no R

3. Thanks Brummie and Eileen
   A bit up from standard Monday fare! Favourite SPHEROID.
   Eileen, the colour scheme in5d is DECOR – you have removed R twice!

4. Thanks, Crispy and muffin – careless typo amended forthwith.

5. Found this quite tough going but patience and a decent cup of tea got me there. Thanks Brummie.
   General query
   I have been a cryptic crossword solver for many years with varying levels of success. However, one aspect I (and my two equally experienced friends) have never understood is the use of ellipses in two adjacent clues. Can someone be kind enough to explain their significance please? Perhaps use today’s 27 and 28 across as an example.

6. I really enjoyed this one, just about my perfect level. At first attempt still had a good few left to unravel. But a second push just now filed the grid. Last two in were the nho RADICCHIO, which simply had to be that from the clueing and all the crossers in place. And finally ALLEGE. Lots of cleverly constructed clues, I thought….

7. SENIOR MOMENT was my favourite too, with ALLEGE hard on its heels. Given the comment about the former in the blog, I feel rather guilty in pointing out that there’s a wee typo in KNOCKOUT which has a superfluity of O’s. IBERT was an nho for me but, fortunately, the clue made it very gettable. Not wildly enthusiastic about ‘infestation’ as a nounal anagrind following the fodder in CUTICLE but I guess I knew what the setter wanted.

   Thanks Brummie and Eileen

8. Thanks, PostMark @7 – amended now. Seems I haven’t dodged the 18acs after all. I think I need a prooofreader. 😉

9. Liked SPELLCHECK, SENIOR MOMENT and ALLEGE.
   CUTICLE: Noticed the nounal anagrind pointed out by PM@7.

   Thanks Brummie and Eileen.

10. Tricky for a Monday especially the NE corner which really held out. Liked SPELLCHECK (oh that what WP stands for) and SENIOR MOMENT.

    Last one in the NHO (not much of a culinary person) RADICCHIO. Hard but the clues were there.

    Terrified for the rest of the week now.

    Thanks Eileen and Brummie

11. I explained away the THY in THEREBY by equating it to “BY you” (in the clue): The book you wrote = the book by you = your book = thy book.

12. I don’t always finish Brummie’s, but I dived in today and made it out the other end. BEGUM was my only unknown.

13. SteveThePirate @5
    Here’s my take on it – whenever I tackle a clue I immediately start deconstructing the words, looking for anagrams, synonyms etc and I often forget that setters write clues as complete (often very funny) sentences. I’ve found setters, when they have a clue which doesn’t read as a complete sentence, can make it complete by joining it to an adjacent clue using ellipses.

    As far as the solvers are concerned, the golden rule about any punctuation (including ellipses) seems to be: ignore it – it’s just there to mislead you!

14. Blaise @11 – I did think of that but it means that ‘by’ is doing some heavy lifting. What do others think?

15. Blaise@11: Cunning but then “by” has to do double duty as it is part of the phrase “drunk by” telling you to put the dodgy beer inside the “your”. Doesn’t work for me – I think it is simply a compiler and editor error.

    SteveThePirate@5: …ellipses…usually have no meaning at all! Sometimes compilers use them to allow them to set a clue which is not a full sentence, perhaps dangling a participle or omitting a verbal phrase, which is then sort of picked up in the next clue. It is exceedingly rare (to the point that it is commented on by bloggers and posters) when there is an actual link.

    “senior moment” was brilliant but the error in “thereby” really threw me. I am not a fan of clues like “launch site” where I could see what I needed to do with “lunch” but the second word could have been almost anything (spot, base, area, slot…). And I am fairly generous with anagrinds but “infestation”? Why?

    Many thanks Brummie – lots to enjoy in spite of my grumpy moans, and to Eileen for keeping us entertained.

16. simonc@13 I quite agree. ‘Because of that dodgy beer drunk by you once.’ doesn’t really work as a standalone statement. The ellipses are there to make that look like a proper statement and are purely for display.

17. I found this a bit harder than the Vulcan/Everyman/Quiptic level people tend to expect on a Monday, but that is not a complaint: nicely crafted clues and no write-in. CODICIL, INDECORUM and SENIOR MOMENT were fun, and I liked the neat CD for PACK, and the wizard having problems with the SPELLCHECK. I thought it might be LAUNCH PADS at first, and I remembered IBERT but not BEGUM.

18. SteveThePirate @5 and Jack Of Few Trades @15

    … although I’m sure I saw a clue once which began with three dots, and the answer was ELLIPSIS.

19. Lovely puzzle which I was pleased to solve without looking things up, as I didn’t have access to the internet while completing it. That always makes for a satisfying solve for me as I think I rush too quickly to look up possible synonyms etc.
    I appreciated the same clues as Eileen and some others highlighted. I also liked 24d DISC which I thought was a clever little clue. I was strangely reassured by 18a SENIOR MOMENT.
    I always enjoy reading Eileen’s blogs which have a certain sparkle while being very thorough. I also really appreciate how self-deprecating Eileen is when she might make a mistake or two rushing for that deadline to publish the blog so that the rest of us can have our say. I also like how receptive and responsive Eileen is when she is the blogger.
    Thank you too to Brummie for a puzzle I really enjoyed.

20. With that meaning, I would spell 23d as AUGHT rather than OUGHT, but that’s what the wordplay says it is, so I expect it’s in the dictionary.

21. gladys@20, indeed, Chambers gives…
    ought2 /öt/
    (noun) a variant of aught

22. Thanks Jay – Chambers is currently upstairs in milady’s chamber where I have been having a go at the Azed, and I couldn’t be bothered to go and fetch it.

23. … ‘dodgy beer taken in by you once’ would have worked ok..

24. I had a different route to ELOQUENT, going with an anagram of QUEEN interspersed with LOT (group, with ‘rock’ showing it was broken up). I’m not saying this is correct over the parsing given above, but it got me to the answer at least.

    Great fun anyway. A slow start but once I’d eventually got a handful of clues then it really flowed until a few chewy ones at the end. LOI SPHEROID, with some assistance from Word Wizard.

25. Re my above comment, Eileen’s parsing for ELOQUENT is clearly the correct one, otherwise ‘tune’ wouldn’t be of any use in the clue.

26. IBERT was the only solution I had at first pass (his ‘Little white donkey’ being a piano piece I learnt many years ago) but gradually more of the answers became apparent. The SW corner held out longest but with a few checks and a couple of reveals and a look at a map of France I finally got there. I especially liked SPELLCHECK.

27. ‘Infestation’ is further support for my theory that virtually anything can be an anagrind. Not happy about this.

    SENIOR MOMENT was good but I must have had some this morning as I found this rather a struggle, though in retrospect it’s fairly smooth (apart from the THY blooper).

28. My (admittedly old) Chambers defines infest as to disturb, to harass, so by that interpretation, infestation is a synonym for disturbance, which is an acceptable anagrind to me.

29. Solved nothing on a first read through, but the Guardian bloggers said it was worth persevering so I did and was duly rewarded. Thanks to all.

30. The easiest Monday for sometime but like others “thy” gave me pause, as well as thinking of a “launch silo” – and I’ve always spelled the insult as “diss”.

31. Criceto @28 – it’s in the most recent edition, too. It works for me.

    Terry @30 – both Collins and Chambers give either spelling.

32. That was a bit of a workout for me on a Monday morning, with the NE in particular holding out to the end, not helped by BEGUM being new to me. I raised an eyebrow at OUGHT but apparently it’s in the dictionary.

33. The problem with infestation is not the meaning of the word Criceto @28 and Eileen @31 which of course can mean a disturbance, but the fact that it is a noun. That is what Postmark @7 and KVa @9 are objecting to. For an anagram indicator, you need a verb to describe the action on the fodder, which a noun cannot do

34. Thank you for the answers simonc@13, Jack of Few Trades@15 and Andy in Durham @16
    It all makes sense now …

35. Tim C @33 – I see what you (and PM and KVa) are saying but I still think it works: ‘lice infestation’ = ‘lice being/ having been infested/ disturbed’.

36. Tim C @33 Would you have the same problem with ‘mix-up’ or ‘rearrangement’ as anagram indicators? Both nouns … I can’t help feeling that the alleged problem with ‘infestation’ derives from the unfamiliarity of the meaning that the word has to carry in order to function as intended in the clue.

37. Balfour @36 – you expressed what I meant better than I did.

38. Yes, Eileen @35, there are differences of opinion on this (not surprisingly), but one of the “rules” of cluing is to say what you mean.
    As Jonathan Crowther (Azed) says “I concede (just) that for cluing purposes ‘prawn cocktail’ means ‘a mixture of prawns’ and could therefore indicate an anagram of the letters in ‘prawn’……… but ‘dolly mixture’ is certainly not a mixture of dollies (or even of a single dolly), so it simply cannot imply an anagram of ‘dolly’. When it comes down to it, it’s a case, as always, of saying what you mean. I make it a personal rule to avoid noun anagram indicators at all time”. Of course, the rules vary between publications.

39. I liked SPELLCHECK, IBERT and the well-hidden URDU.
    I agree with Eileen that THY is “your”, not “you”.
    Aught seems better than OUGHT – but if that book says otherwise, I’ll have to accept it.
    Here in SW France, where nobody says cul-de-sac, IMPASSE was a write-in, and if this was meant to be an “easier” crossword I would have thought a french-indicator would have been kind.
    Then again, “easier Mondays” have disappeared, haven’t they?
    Many thanks Eileen & Brummie

40. I enjoyed this puzzle. I find that Brummie’s puzzles rarely disappoint. And a lovely, informative and friendly blog from Eileen, as usual. Thanks to both.
    My favourites were the wonderful SENIOR MOMENT and the neat surfaces for ELOQUENT, ALLEGE and IBERT.

41. Balfour @36, if you take the hyphen out of mix-up then it would be a verbal phrase (to confuse). With “rearrangement”, work out a way to write the clue to use the word rearrange, a verb not a noun. I’m not saying I have a problem. I was just trying to correct the misconception that that Postmark and KVa were objecting to the word used as an anagram indicator. They weren’t. They were objecting to the part of speech.

42. Sorry, off to bed.

43. Thank you, Brummie and Eileen. I greatly enjoyed this puzzle too. Even though two or three words were new to me as was the composer, the puzzle was so much more penetrable than yesterday’s quiptic.

44. Maybe I’m having a bad Monday as I found this difficult but got there in the end. I liked the well-hidden URDU and LURCH, the old codger on the metro for SENIOR MOMENT, the mug colour for COMPLEXION, the wordplay for RADICCHIO, and the aggressive Conservative club for COMBATIVE.

    Thanks Brummie and Eileen.

45. Earliest ever finish as done online on the ferry between Belfast and Scotland. Have never done it online before the last few days. You have to get to the shops really early in rural N Ireland to buy a Guardian.

46. Clues using nounal anagrams can very often be fixed without disrupting either the surface or the cryptic reading, by inserting words that give the noun a sense that it is acting upon the fodder letters… here for example the wording “infestation of lice” might not have exercised any eyebrows.

47. Thanks to all who pointed out that ‘infest’ can mean ‘disturb’. You learn something every day.

48. I have found (the hard way) that usually when I think the setter has made an error it is I who was having a SENIOR MOMENT (great clue), so I held up putting in THEREBY until all the crossers were in place, and it just had to be. Rest of the puzzle was fun.

49. A very enjoyable puzzle today, with several smile-raising definitions. My favourite, like lots of people’s, was SENIOR MOMENT with its well-hidden definition. Came here to check if I was missing something with THY=you.

    It took me a while to get started on this one (and it’s only Monday!). Having done a first pass over most of the clues my FOI was 7d – the astronomer/geometrist in me immediately came to “oblate spheroid” for “form of earth”, however hard Brummie tried to disguise the definition. Thanks B&E.

50. Thanks Eileen and Brummie. Enjoyable.I had LAUNCH TIME for 13d, which I think works equally well.

51. Brummie on a Monday, well. It’s great to have you back.

52. Thanks Brummie. I found this challenging & revealed a couple to ‘complete’ this. In addition to SENIOR MOMENT I liked ALLEGE, EXACERBATION, and IMPASSE. I didn’t like the word ‘making’ in GENTRY because it implied the definition was ‘making’ the wordplay which is backwards. Thanks Eileen for the blog.

53. Thanks for the blog , very good set of clues but not a Monday puzzle by any means .
    ISOTOPIC was a chance to reference strong interactions and the SU(2) Lie group .

    Steve @5 , just to cloud the issue , the best use of … is when the ANSWER to the first clue is then used in the solution of the next , I will look out for the next example .

54. I think I’ve used this clue …

    Country which, apart from it’s capital, is covered by … (4)

55. I’d also write it as AUGHT rather than OUGHT – but since in conversation with my family I’d pronounce it OWT I suppose I can’t complain.

56. Very nice clue Mr Greer@54, and I assume the “it’s” was down to an 11ac, not an 18ac…

57. BG @ 54 Ha! – and just the right number too!

58. Oops, I’m generally careful about its/it’s. My aplogies.

59. I wholeheartedly concur with the general consensus that this was indeed a fine puzzle by Brummie. Took a while to get there but well worth the effort. Thank you sir.
    However, as others have noted, this was not ‘Monday’ strength. Again I’m unsure if the Setter was asked to compile a Monday puzzle or the Editor chose it from the taxi rank of puzzles awaiting their turn.
    Shanne who blogs the QC, the puzzle for the initiates to the puzzle cult would correctly recommend the Quiptic, Everyman and the Monday puzzle as the next step up in terms of difficulty. Everyman has lost its way for some time now. I usually finish but am frequently baffled and often have to use Danword to unlock a quadrant. This Sunday’s Quiptic and today’s cryptic are not next level in the least.
    There was a comment on the Quiptic about the Times Quick Cryptic. Said to be 6 days a week of very even consistency and the few times I’ve had the paper to try it, I agree. Why are a the Quiptic and Monday proving so difficult to hit the spot? The Quick Cryptic was an excellent idea and thus far has been superb, bar one or two clues. Where is one supposed to go next, reliably?

    Thanks Brummie and well blogged that lady!

60. BG@58… ‘aplogies’…very droollee!

61. What does “I had ticks” for these clues mean?

62. nickjason @61: Ticks mean likes. If one does these crosswords with pencil on paper (my preferred way) you put a check mark or ‘tick’ next to clues you especially like.

63. Thanks.

64. Thanks for the explanations and the discussion.

    3 clues solved.

65. Managed to complete this one, except…

    …like MikeC@50 I had LAUNCH TIME for 13d (“…starting point [in time]…”). However, unless someone can make spot = time in the wordplay, I have to concede that this answer doesn’t work

    Hawa@26 I also played IBERT’s “Little White Donkey”, and loved it at the time. I also have an organ piece by him in my repertoire

    My favourite, not shared by many (Julie in Australia @19), was probably 24a DISC, for the concise, elegant, misdirecting clue

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