We have an Enigmatist puzzle in the prize slot today. If you like a challenge then Enigmatist is the setter for you
There were a few opportunities today to use your knowledge of French and Latin. Combine that with some English words that are not in common use, your vocabulary will have increased as a result of solving the crossword. The less well known words were seen in both the wordplay and the answers.
Yes, it’s a hard puzzle, but it is also a prize puzzle, which to my mind should always be a bit more difficult than the standard weekday offerings. The new words for me were EVEJAR, DIASTEMA, ADUNC, limen and lig.
Enigmatist writes well-formed clues with plenty of misdirection that make you think laterally. The wordplay is often quite intricate, but everything fits together in the end. There are difficult clues, but there are also a few clues that can be answered fairly quickly from the definition immediately, or soon after you have one or two crossing letters.
I knew or vaguely remembered the named people in the grid. ERIC CLAPTON fell very quickly with a couple of crossers, as did GAWAIN. DOUG MCCLURE from the western series The Virginian needed a bit of research, but ARTHUR C CLARKE was an easier one for me to recall.
There were at least two examples of wordplay with nested containers – ECCLES CAKE and MACCLESFIELD
There are nine occurrences of the string CCL in the entries. These are all highlighted in the grid below. CCL is the Roman numeral for 250, so I’m guessing this is Enigmatist’s 250th crossword for The Guardian. I doubt if it is simply his 250th puzzle in total as he has been around in various guises for many years.
I reckon the inclusion of CCL in so many words forced Enigmatist to include DIASTEMA and ADUNC as entries. The CCL in CRYPTIC CLUE is highly appropriate. I am impressed that Enigmatist got CCL into both Across and Down entries. Often, theme words go in one direction, making it difficult to find additional theme words that fit the crossing letters in the other direction.
I thought the clue for CRYPTIC CLUE was particularly clever in the way it wove the anagram of PICTUR into the correctly order letters of CYCLE.
I enjoyed this, but I didn’t come close to solving it in one sitting.
Thanks and congratulations to Enigmatist on his 250 milestone. Here’s to the next 250!
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Weather movement forced cloud up north with reduction in temperature (8,5)
OCCLUDED FRONT (an advancing cold front into which a mass of warm air has been driven obliquely, forming a bulge which narrows as the warm air is lifted up and the cold air flows in beneath; weather movement) Anagram of (up) FORCED CLOUD + N (abbreviation [with reduction] for North) + T (temperature) OCCLUDED FRO* N T |
| 9 | A fair few, but no miles at all (3)
ANY (at all) mANY (a great number; a fair few) excluding (but no) M (miles) ANY |
| 10 | Planter involved with 10cc guitarist (4,7)
ERIC CLAPTON (reference ERIC CLAPTON [born 1945], English rock and blues guitarist) Anagram of (involved) PLANTER and (with) IOCC (10cc) ERIC CLAPTON* |
| 12 | React nervously when receiving specific tube (8)
CATHETER (a tube for admitting or removing gases or liquids through channels of the body) Anagram of (nervously) REACT containing (receiving) THE (definite article, used to refer to a specific person or thing, or a group of things) CA (THE) TER* |
| 13 | Arthur’s nephew, first in Winchester, taking a cut in profit (6)
GAWAIN (Sir GAWAIN [a character in Arthurian legend, in which he is King Arthur’s nephew]) (W [first letter of {first in} Winchester] + A ) contained in (cut in) GAIN (profit) GA (W A) IN |
| 16 | Special constable in unwanted entrance has look around selection in patisserie (6,4)
ECCLES CAKE (a small cake [patisserie] or bun filled with raisins, currants, etc) (SC [Special Constable] contained in [in)] LEAK [an unwanted entrance of water]) all contained in (has … around) ECCE (Latin for behold!; look!) ECC (LE (SC) AK) E |
| 18 | Mercury coating blade (4)
FOIL (mercury coating on a mirror) FOIL (a blunt fencing sword [blade] with a button on the point) double definition FOIL |
| 20 | Double headed once (4)
FOLD (a double of anything upon itself; double) oF OLD (in times long past; once) excluding the first letter (headed [topped]) O F OLD |
| 21 | In salute of magician abroad, keeping cool on vacation (10)
ACCLAIMING (welcoming with enthusiasm; in salute of) Anagram of (abroad) MAGICIAN containing (keeping) CL (letters remaining in CooL when the central letters OO are removed [on vacation]) AC (CL) AIMING* |
| 23 | On retirement along Riviera, je veux un oiseau local (6)
EVEJAR (dialect [local] name for the nightjar [bird [oiseau in French]) EVEJAR (reversed [on retirement] hidden word [along] in rivieRA JE VEux) EVEJAR< |
| 24 | Top surfaces of sponges intermittently with pepper (8)
CAPSICUM (a tropical American shrubby plant of the genus Capsicum, of the potato family, yielding a fleshy, many-seeded fruit, also called green pepper or red pepper) CAP (top) + SI (initial letters of [surfaces of] Sponges and Intermittently) + CUM (combined with) CAP S I CUM |
| 27 | US actor reportedly understood the attraction of Lord’s membership? (4,7)
DOUG MCCLURE (reference DOUG MCCLURE [1935 – 1995], American actor, best known for his role as the cowboy Trampas during the entire run from 1962 to 1971 of the series The Virginian) DOUG (sounds like [reportedly] DUG [got; understood]) + MCC LURE (attraction [LURE] of Lord’s membership – the Marylebone Cricket Club [MCC] is based at Lord’s cricket ground) DOUG MCC LURE |
| 29 | Hold individual to confess (3)
OWN (have; hold) OWN (personal; individual) OWN ([with ‘up’] confess) triple definition OWN |
| 30 | Author, high flier, sticks right through reworking of Chaucer (6,1,6)
ARTHUR C CLARKE (reference Sir ARTHUR C CLARKE [1917 – 2008], English science fiction writer) (RT [right] and LARK [high lying bird; high flier]) contained in or placed in different places [sticks through]) an anagram of [reworking of] CHAUCER A (RT) HUR C C (LARK) E* |
| Down | |
| 2 | Perhaps this blurred, incomplete picture contributes sporadically to cycle (7,4)
CRYPTIC CLUE (‘this’ is a reference to the CRYPTIC CLUE we are solving) Anagram of (blurred) PICTURe excluding the final letter(incomplete) E with the letters forming the anagram being entered within the letters of (contributes sporadically) CYCLE which appear in the correct order within the answer C R Y PTI C C L U*E – the C at one or more letter(s) from PICTUR within all of the letters of CYCLE |
| 3 | Subjects like English will expand threshold (8)
LIEGEMEN (subjects of a feudal Lord) (EG [for example; as an illustration; like] + E [English]) contained in (will expand) the length of LIMEN (the threshold of consciousness; the limit below which a stimulus is not perceived) LI (EG E) MEN |
| 4 | Road one’s GP is coming over (5)
DRIVE (road) DR (doctor; General Practioner [GP]) placed over (is coming over, in this down entry) I’VE (I have, one has; one’s) DR IVE |
| 5 | Avoid a failure to trouble the scorers (4)
DUCK (avoid) DUCK (zero runs score in cricket; a failure to trouble the scorers) double definition DUCK |
| 6 | Is avoiding anger over actor becoming politician (6)
REAGAN (reference Ronald REAGAN [1911 – 2004], former President of the United States. REAGAN was an actor before he became a politician) iRE (anger) + AGAiN (repeated; over) with each word excluding (avoiding) the letter I, so we have to omit I twice, written as ‘avoiding Is‘ REAGAN |
| 7 | Clear catch (3)
NET (clear of all charges or deductions) NET (capture; catch) double definition NET |
| 8 | Wrongly claimed to possess square in key French market town (12)
MACCLESFIELD (market town in the English County of Cheshire) Anagram of (wrongly) CLAIMED containing (to possess) (S [square] contained in [in] CLEF [French for ‘key’ ]) MAC (CLE (S) F) IELD* |
| 11 | Political neutrality soon upset idle soldiers in Northern Territory (3-9)
NON-ALIGNMENT (political neutrality) ANON (soon) reversed (upset) + LIG (to idle) + (MEN [soldiers] contained in [in] NT [Northern Territory {of Australia}) NON A< LIG N (MEN) T |
| 14 | Mike plugs in ‘ABC’ to jam timer (6,5)
ATOMIC CLOCK (a clock in which, to achieve greater accuracy, the oscillations of a quartz crystal are regulated by the vibration of certain atoms such as a caesium atom; timer) (MIC [MICrophone; Mike] contained in (plugs in) (A TO C [the letters ABC]) + LOCK (jam) A TO (MIC) C LOCK |
| 15 | Local to drink toasts: bottoms up! (4)
SKOL (friendly exclamation in salutation before drinking, etc, expressing a similar sentiment to ‘bottoms up!’) LOKS (final letters of [bottoms] each of locaL, tO, drinK and toastS) reversed (up) (SKOL)< |
| 17 | Chanel business merger? (4)
COCO (reference COCO Chanel [1883 – 1971], French fashion designer and businesswoman) CO (company; business) + CO (company; business) run together (merger) to form one word COCO CO CO |
| 19 | Gap in Features reported from the floor team’s sorted (8)
DIASTEMA (a natural space between two consecutive teeth, or series of teeth; gap in features) SAID (reported) reversed (from the floor) + an anagram of (sorted) TEAM DIAS< TEMA |
| 22 | Nightstick, say, for one getting in with heat (6)
WARMTH (heat) WiTH with ARM (weapon – a nightstick [truncheon; baton] is a form of weapon) replacing (for) I (Roman numeral for one) W (ARM) TH |
| 25 | Individual who finds classes challenging not completely hooked (5)
ADUNC (hooked) A (one; individual) + DUNCe (slow learner; one who finds classes challenging) excluding the final letter (not completely) E A DUNC |
| 26 | He makes a hole in one tree (4)
ACER (one who scores an ACE [hole in one] in golf) ACER (tree or plant of the maple genus) double definition ACER |
| 28 | Regiment once the focus of docudrama (7)
UDR (the former[once] Ulster Defence Regiment, now replaced by the Royal Irish regiment) UDR (central letters of [the focus of] docUDRama) UDR |
An excellent puzzle I thought. Between us, across various forums, we confirmed last weekend that this was indeed a 250th milestone puzzle for Enigmatist.
CRYPTIC CLUE is an interesting construction. An anagram placed between the letters of a word which letters remain in order. Very precise.
“Is avoiding” for “avoiding the i’s” didn’t really work for me, but the construction was clear enough.
Good fun, thanks to Enigmatist and Duncan
We had OCCLUDED FRONT only two days before this. I didn’t have a lot of trouble with the puzzle, but given that I usually see cricket references quickly, it took me ages to see MCC in 27ac.
Agree wholeheartedly with the bloggers estimate of this puzzle. Certainly took time to solve. Missed the CCL in the puzzle as a celebration. MACCLESFIELD took me ages, despite having lived there for 18 years. I was misdirected as intended and trying to find a French market town. FOLD was my LOI, and I was uncertain of the parsing, though I did see that ‘of old’ meant ‘once’. Was delighted to get CRYPTIC CLUE of course, and to solve DIASTEMA and ADUNC from the wordplay. Thanks to Enigmatist and to duncanshiell
Thanks duncanshiell. Certainly hard and I only got there through sheer stubbornness and more recourse to Google than I liked. As usual completely missed the theme. With the first three crossers of 2d in place I tried unsuccessfully to justify ‘crystal ball’.