Guardian 29,759 / Alia

62 comments on “Guardian 29,759 / Alia”

1. Enjoyable puzzle.

   Favourite: CAMERA-SHY.

   New for me: ESTOP = bar.

2. I agree with you Eileen, you’ve picked out most of my favourites there. It was gentle – all solved and fully parsed before I got up – but also very crisp and rewarding with plenty of variety. I looked up ESTOP without huge optimism, it’s a new word for me.

   Thanks Alia and Eileen.

3. Yup, this was a quick solve but nicely clued and no quibbles. Welcome to Alia and thanks!

4. Liked this a lot. On the gentler side (and why not?) but nice, neat surfaces, some clever misdirection (4dn especially) and flashes of wit… I look forward to the next Alia cryptic. Thanks to Alia and to Eileen.

5. I also liked CAMERA SHY and it took me longer than it should have done to spot the intended meaning of “shot”. I took too long also to spot the “entrance” ploy in 4d. Otherwise that was a very pleasant stroll and I look forward to more from Alia who I expect will up the ante (is that what they say?) in due course.

6. Thanks Alia and Eileen
   FOI was OUT OF HAND, where the definition wasn’t what I would understand by it, so I thought I wouldn’t enjoy the puzzle. The rest was fine, though, with the neat anagram for GRANDIOSE favourite.
   A couple of clues where you haven’t actually given the answer, Eileen – TERRAPIN and MARINE.

   [NEPOTISM derives from the Italian for “nephew”, and refers to the habit of popes to favour their “nephews”.]

7. Thanks, muffin – fixed now.

8. I suspect those who didn’t like Sunday’s Quiptic will like this. (The Alia Quiptic was one I blogged and there were lots of theories as to who it was as Alia is Paul’s sister in Dune.)

   Fun puzzle. Thank you to Alia and Eileen.

9. Nice puzzle. Good and clear blog.
   Thanks Alia and Eileen.

   OUT OF HAND
   The def seems all right.
   Collins has
   If you dismiss or reject something out of hand, you do so immediately and do not consider believing or accepting it.

   BY HEART
   I read the second part as WP.
   Using=BY
   courage=HEART.

   NEPOTISM
   Yes. A great surface, as Eileen says. Thanks muffin@5, for the additional info.

10. Neat, fun puzzle offering a variety of clues. I particularly liked 3d and 12a. hope to see more of. this setter. Thanks, Alia and Eileen

11. I’m with michelle@1 and TerriBlistow@5 – 9a CAMERA-SHY was my favourite – but I did like those mentioned by Eileen and others above as well.
    Thanks to Alia for the enjoyment and to Eileen for the neat blog.

12. Cineaste (and cinephile) has come up before I’m sure. And estop too was familiiar-looking, although the legalese word I remember is estoppel. Thx to Eileen’n’Alia (sounds like a duo 🙂 )

13. Sorry – I know most will hate me for saying this but today really isn’t Monday. I checked!

    Eileen – your answer for 22dn is very cryptic indeed! 😇

14. Very nice puzzle indeed – no, it was far from taxing, but some very deft cluing made it a pleasure to solve. [Btw, I agree with KVa about the parsing of BY HEART]. NEPOTISM was a terrific clue. Many thanks A and E.

15. Eileen – and 18dn!! (I know it seems obvious, but those needing your blog today could well be very new to our game….)

16. NEPOTISM was my favourite. It looks like the Guardian have listened to those who ask for a greater range of difficulty in puzzles.

17. CAMERA-SHY, NEPOTISM and GRANDIOSE are very good.

    Ta Alia & Eileen.

18. William F P passim

    I don’t know what has happened – I ‘fixed’ the omissions earlier: see me @7!

19. …oops, I see muffin@6 already made the point

20. My fixing seems permanent now! – thanks, William F P.

21. I too wondered about the definition of OUT OF HAND, as I was thinking more along the lines of “out of control”, but KVa’s explanation above makes sense.

    I hadn’t encountered this setter before and thoroughly enjoyed this. Alia goes into my “good” list!

22. Brilliant puzzle! As others have said, a ton of excellent surfaces and some really lovely tricks scattered throughout.

    Don’t agree with the comments on the Guardian site saying this was too easy. It definitely was a more straightforward puzzle than some we’ve had recently, but that’s not a bad thing. I’m always happy to see so many lovely surfaces in one puzzle. Really have to admire Alia’s wordplay.

23. A warm welcome to Alia, thanks, and ditto to Eileen. I agree that NEPOTISM was an outstanding surface, among many delightful clues.

24. In relation to OUT OF HAND can I recommend that people on here get the best single volume dictionary of the English language…..

    out of hand
    1. at once, immediately, without premeditation
    2. Out of control

25. Lots of smooth surfaces, and 4D was a delightful penny-drop moment. I was held up for a while by confidently writing in NEEDLE-SHY for 9A on my first pass. Just me?

    I for one would be happy to see Alia again in a Monday or Tuesday at this level of difficulty, and later in the week if they choose to do something more chewy.

26. Very good puzzle. Not hard, but not “too easy” (no such thing for a weekday slot). High quality set of clues with no clunkers, NEPOTISM is a classic.

27. Thank you Eileen
    Your answer to 1d is missing its U.
    A pity 9a didn’t have some real wordplay. I suggest Yea! Mr C has trouble

28. Straightforward but fun puzzle, which I appreciated after the hour-plus efforts over the last couple of days.
    New to me: CINEASTE and ESTOP but the parsing was inescapable so just had Google to confirm.
    Thanks Alia and Eileen

29. I enjoyed this, especially these two. Entrance as a clue for enchant- you puzzle over it, then the coin drops. And the homophones phrase and frays! Also, though easy, the cluing was super smooth.

    Thanks Alia and Eileen

30. It sounds like a few people among others are into Alia. I’ll get my coat.

31. CINEASTE was new to me – reminds me of the immortal Araucaria’s alter ego as CINEPHILE (an anagram of CHILE PINE) but that word didn’t fit. Easy enough from the fodder and the crossers though.

    I did however know SEETHE, though I’ve only seen the word from the biblical reference (Exodus 23:19 and others): “Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk” – and memories of having to obey the fleishig and milchig rules during my Jewish upbringing!

    Also knew ESTOP – definitely a rarity but I have come across it.

    Likes for CAMERA-SHY (maybe some folks are indeed more jittery about a camera being pointed at them, than a gun); NEPOTISM; BROTHER; PROPERTY; MARGIN; TERRRAPIN. Just a selection.

    Altogether a fairly gentle introduction from a new setter – welcome!

    Thanks to Alia and Eileen.

32. What Dynamite @22 said. I’ll add my favourites — SEETHE, BROTHER, PROPERTY, GRANDIOSE, PHRASE, ENCHANT, SPUR, and MARINE. Thanks Alia & Eileen.

33. I have always fancied a go at cryptic solving – tried once or twice in my younger years but gave up. I have been attempting the guardian cryptic every day for 3 weeks and trying to parse and make sense of as much as possible on my own before coming here to make sense of the clues. Thursdays and Fridays puzzles are normally well beyond me at present. Yesterday and today have given me some hope and joy. Managed to get 90% of both solved and parsed. Feels like i’m making progress at last!

    Thanks Alia and Eileen

34. BigbadL @33 – the Guardian Quick Cryptic on a Saturday is intended to teach Cryptic crosswords. We’re up to #69. And the Quiptic varies in difficulty but is advertised for people in a hurry – now published on a Sunday.

35. Gentle but enjoyable solve.

    I came here expecting to see some discussion of whether MOMENTUM was the same as impetus or rather was the result of it. I thought the latter, but apparently no-one else does (decades of not doing physics seems to be degrading my memory, no surprise!).

36. Dr. WhatsOn@35: Impetus and momentum are not the same thing in physics. Indeed, I am not aware of “impetus” (as opposed to “impulse”) having a scientific definition. However, the use of the words is not limited to the strictly scientific. I am sure people would happily have said that, after their equaliser in the Euros final “the momentum/impetus was with the Lionesses” and I would struggle to disagree with the sentiment.

    Thanks to Alia for a quick but fun puzzle (marked, I thought, by many excellent and really smooth surfaces) as I had to go out early today, and to Eileen for the blog.

37. A nicely clued, not too difficult puzzle. Recently Tuesday appears to be the new Monday, but no complaint from le about it.
    I’d like to see more puzzles from this setter.

    Thanks Alia and Eileen

38. Thanks Alia and Eileen.

    A nicely clued, not too difficult puzzle. Recently Tuesday appears to be the new Monday, but no complaint from me about it. I’d like to see more puzzles from this setter.

39. I certainly didn’t find this easy but it was enjoyable and satisfying. Puzzles like this are very encouraging for those of us (and there are probably many) who are learning. If the idea is that the cryptics become harder as the week goes on, then a Tuesday puzzle should still be in the gentler range.

40. JoFT@36 so I think you are saying that my memory wasn’t so bad, but I was not making allowance for casual usage. Fair point, tx!

41. Pleasant puzzle, though I left a surprising amount of it blank — and filled it in at about 3am.

    I don’t think “frays” = “wears thin,” but rather “gets thready at the edges.” (Like cuffs of shirt sleeves, for instance.)

    But that’s minor. Fine surfaces and anagrams. Thanks to Alia and Eileen. Welcome back from wherever you went yesterday, Eileen.

42. During my previous career as an attorney I had occasion to use the word ESTOP, in at least one motion that I can recall (which I won; I’ll spare you the details, but the other side was trying to pull a fast one that they didn’t get away with–they were estopped.) ESTOP is the verb; estoppel is the noun.

    The puzzle? I always prefer elegant to difficult if choice there must be, and this certainly had plenty of elegant clues.

43. Petert @30 wait for us … just grabbing ours as well.
    Surely this cannot be! A cryptic puzzle does not just mean clues with a meaning and a construction, it surely also means deceptively presented. The compiler attempts to disguise which part is which, frequently using words that mean one thing in the context of the cover but quite another in the context of the solution.
    This presumably is Quiptic rather than Cryptic – please, please let us keep that distinction.

44. Thoroughly enjoyed this. It was right in the middle of my Goldilocks zone. Lots of wit, misdirections, clever wordplay, and smooth surfaces.

    I have only one (very very) minor quibble: ‘bar’, in 26ac, is a capitalised definition that does not have a capitalised answer.

45. AS @ 44 Faux capitalisation has long been seen as acceptable misdirection (though not faux decapitalisation). Do you object when words act as different parts of speech in surface, wordplay and / or solution?

    Thanks Alia and Eileen.

46. When you’ve been doing the Guardian crossword for more than 50 years this one does sit at the less taxing end of the spectrum. But we all had to start somewhere and I can see that a puzzle like this would have been helpful when I was relatively new to the genre. So I’m not complaining, especially as the clues are so sound and well constructed.

47. AS @44 – as the convention is that solutions are entered with capital letters, then there will be no such thing as an uncapitalised answer. Hence the effects of faux capitlaisation will be corrected for in entering answers.

48. Tend to agree with Caroline@43 that this is solidly in the quiptic zone and that it is better placed there. But I also agree the clues were good with NEPOTISM being a standout.
    Do setters label their submissions quiptic, cryptic or prize I wonder?
    Thanks Eileen, and welcome Alia.

49. I agree with the general enthusiasm, and thanks to Alia and Eileen.

    But I really don’t like the grid. Four 5-letter solutions with only 2 checked letters each are not my Idea of fun. And it’s compounded by the 9-letter solutions with only 4 checked letters each.

50. Whilst the Quiptic is billed as “… for beginners and those in a hurry …”, I am not aware that the Guardian has ever stated that the Cryptic must then be “… for non-beginners and those not in a hurry …”. There is no reason why the Cryptic should not be more approachable than any given Quiptic, it being a significant fact that the Cryptic is the only cryptic crossword published in the weekday newspaper and thus the only one that many buyers see.
    The regularly published letters to the Editor complaining about the hardness of the Cryptic suggest there is quite a constituency of readers who hope for something that they get value out of, and I imagine that this crossword caused much happiness across the breakfast tables and in the commuter trains of Britain this morning.
    Please – no more “should have been a Quiptic”.

51. I come to praise not to… oh dear.

    I wish I had a friend. Who is interested in cryptic crossword initiation? This wood before them. A lass, a doughnut. A low fewer lean injure Gawain song (et al…)

52. Kingsley@49, I agree about the grid. Does the Guardian still use standard grids? If so, and if this is one of them, the editor should discard it.

    Van Winkle@50, you have described me. I do the crossword in the newspaper, and don’t buy it on Saturday, so don’t see online puzzles and Quiptics. I’m probably facing extinction but, for the moment, I’m still here.

53. Never really thought about grid design being good or bad, but it’s obviously a factor.
    Maybe the difficulty level of the clues was compensation for the grid design?

54. Hector @52 – from my experience of family, friends and colleagues who have a go at the Guardian crossword almost exclusively on paper, I suspect the balance of commenters on this website are not representative of the actual paper/online and dabbler/expert proportions of solvers. It would be very interesting to know if the Guardian has ever collected any relaible data on its audience.

55. I do prefer grids that give me first letters along the top and down the LHS.

56. Kingsley@49 and subsequent comments, about the grid:

    I accept that many solvers feel aggrieved about a light with an odd letter count and only (n-1)/2 crossers. But many grids are indeed formatted that way. The Guardian, as I understand it, only allows setters to use grids from their own library of about 70 grids – many of which are of the ‘Ends on Edges’ type (like this one) and are hence more likely to have lights with (n-1)/2 crossers.

    Grids of this type are easier for the setter to fill – and bear in mind that Alia is new to the Graun cryptic scene.

    I don’t really have a problem. Ideally, every clue ought to be solvable without the aid of any crossers at all. Otherwise, how would you get your FOI? But in the real world, of course, one finds many clues that can only be solved with a few crossers. Whether it’s (n-1)/2 crossers or (n+1)/2 crossers makes little difference.

    Having the first letter of the solution unchecked does, however, make the clue that little bit harder!

    Incidentally, the Crossword editor of another paper (which I won’t mention here: not the Guardian) has, I’ve been told, set a limit on the number of lights with (n-1)/2 crossers before he’ll accept a puzzle – I believe it’s around 4 or 6. For a themed puzzle he allows a bit more flexibility though.

57. Van Winkle @ 50
    It may well be that the presence of Check/Reveal buttons on apps have shifted some compilers in the direction of ever more unfathomable constructions, daft amounts of dubious definitions etc. who rather than get taken to task, also get rave reviews on this site. But this is another issue.
    What I would really like to establish is the essential difference between Quiptic and Cryptic. I am sure there is no official definition for either! But language evolves and Eileen correctly predicted that some of us might say Quiptic and indeed we did. So why? Because there was no (or very little) attempt to deceive. Meaning + construction does not equal Cryptic otherwise we could all be Guardian setters.

58. As a beginner solver, I thoroughly enjoyed managing a Tuesday – they’re normally a DNF for me still.
    Thanks to A&E!

59. Shanne @5 – let us hope she isn’t the fully-fledged St. Alia of the Knife !

    Kingsley @49 – The Guardian does seem to have an endless supply of vile grids, most of which our setters are very keen to make use of. It’s just as well that the editor occasionally allows a friendly one ! This coming weekend we’ll almost certainly have one of Maskarade’s one-off big grids to contend with too, with the usual profusion of short answers and distinct dearth of long ones.

    As regards today’s offering i think it has all been said already, so I will just add my welcome to the new setter and my thanks for a pleasant solve.

    Thanks to Eileen and to Alia.

60. Thanks for a lovely crossword to Alia! Easier so I could do it but some beautiful clues to enjoy. Thanks to Eileen for explaining the obscure.

61. Yes, thanks Alia for lots of great stuff, and I hope that you enjoyed the many well-deserved compliments here.

    Cheers all.

62. A great start by Alia. Looking forward to future puzzles. Some clever and amusing surfaces. Favourite was loi 12a SEETHE (Behold the stew!). Also several others: 9a CAMERA-SHY, 14a STUMBLE, 26a ESTOP, 27a GRANDIOSE, 3d PHRASE, 15d TIRAMISU, 22d MARINE

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