A fun solve – I particularly liked 9ac, 23ac, and 5dn. Thanks to Brendan.
There are several clues and solutions connected to spelling, magic spells, and spelling errors, and SPELL CHECK next to each other in the middle of the grid. (1dn and 19dn also had me briefly looking for more butterflies)
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | WIZARDRY |
Great skill from expert – start from pub, needing a drink (8)
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WIZ="expert" (e.g. a 'wiz' or 'whizz' at computers); plus [b]-AR="pub" with the "start" removed; plus DRY="needing a drink" the dash in "- start from pub" can be read as a minus sign, reinforcing the idea of removing the start |
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| 9 | PRAGUE |
Widespread complaint following change of side in this city (6)
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P-[L]-AGUE="Widespread complaint", with a change of side from L (Left) to R (Right) |
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| 10 | BEELINES |
Optimal routes for those wanting to enter spelling contest (8)
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BEELINES could be read as queues or LINES for those entering a spelling BEE |
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| 11 | CHEQUE |
Form of payment native of 9 or 16 announced (6)
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sounds like (announced): 'Czech' = native of PRAGUE (9ac); or CHECK (16 across) |
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| 12 | COMPLIMENTARILY |
How to secure admission in kind way that careless writer might get wrong (15)
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not sure how to parse this, but perhaps two definitions: "How to secure admissions" – admission to an event might be achieved complimentarily i.e. for free "in kind way" – words can be used complimentarily to say kind things then the rest of the clue indicates that this is a word that might be spelled incorrectly as complEmentarily |
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| 15 | SPELL |
Period charm (5)
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double definition: a spell of time; or a magic spell |
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| 16 | CHECK |
Inspector is employed to do this arrest (5)
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double definition: an inspector inspects/checks things; or to check is to stop or to arrest |
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| 20 | FOUR LETTER WORDS |
E.g. minimal answers for today – they may not be fully spelt out (4,6,5)
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definition: some offensive 'four letter words' might be censored in today's crossword, the shortest/minimal answers are four letters long |
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| 21 | ERRATA |
Results of writer’s carelessness, as revealed in slips (6)
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cryptic definition: the surface can mislead if 'slips' is read as meaning 'unintentional errors', but 'slips' can also refer to the use of 'errata slips' which are slips of paper inserted into a document to correct errors |
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| 23 | ACROSTIC |
Finishes off this kind of clue with mark of approval – it uses initial letters (8)
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The last letters or "Finishes" are taken "off": ACROS-[s]="this kind of clue" (i.e. this is 23 across); and TIC-[k]="mark of approval" |
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| 25 | MANAGE |
Run article old-fashioned spelling expert goes over (6)
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AN=indefinite "article"; with MAGE="old-fashioned spelling expert" going around it "spelling" as in magic spells |
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| 26 | GRAUNIAD |
Satirical publication a university degree-holder pens (8)
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definition: a nickname for the Guardian based on its reputation for spelling errors A (from surface) + UNI (university); both penned inside GRAD="degree-holder" |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | VICEROY |
Person representing monarch butterfly (7)
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double definition: someone governing on behalf of a monarch; or a type of butterfly |
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| 2 | DAILY PAPER |
Two pages I already revised for publication (5,5)
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anagram/"revised" of (P P I already), where P P comes from "Two pages" with P for 'page' |
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| 3 | ADEN |
With cargo on board, hasn’t left port (4)
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definition: a port in Yemen [L]-ADEN="With cargo on board" without L for "left" |
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| 4 | GYPSIES |
Travellers having pain that is contained in seconds (7)
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GYP="pain"; plus IE=id est="that is" inside S and S (s for 'second', more than once) |
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| 5 | SPYCATCHER |
Smiley type and a cryptic she reviewed without one (10)
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definition refers to the character of George Smiley [wiki] in the novels of John le Carré anagram/"reviewed" of (a cryptic she)*, minus the letter i="one" |
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| 6 | MATE |
Final 16 victory for partner (4)
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the final CHECK (16 across) in a game of chess means victory through CHECK MATE |
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| 7 | MUTUALS |
Investments as usual fluctuating over time? Bond’s superior initially (7)
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definition: mutual funds as a form of investment anagram/"fluctuating" of (usual)*, around T (time); and with M=James "Bond's superior" [wiki] going first/initially |
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| 13 | ILL-BEHAVED |
Naughty Brendan will cheat in plot (3-7)
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I'LL=I will="Brendan will"; plus HAVE=noun meaning a trick or swindle="cheat" inside BED="plot" e.g. in a garden |
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| 14 | RECROSSING |
Republican congress upset about one taking new steps to reach other side (10)
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R (Republican), plus anagram/'upset' of (congress)* around I="one" |
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| 17 | DOORMAT |
Submissive type may be bearer of welcome message (7)
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double definition: used to describe a submissive person; or referencing a doormat with a welcome message by a door |
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| 18 | STRANGE |
Unfamiliar stone on chain (7)
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ST (stone, abbreviation for the unit of measurement), plus RANGE="chain" |
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| 19 | ADMIRAL |
Naval officer I’d alarm at sea (7)
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anagram/"at sea" of (I'd alarm)* |
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| 22 | AJAX |
High cards followed by a ten and top club (4)
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definition: a club in the top tier of Dutch football A J A (Ace, Jack, Ace, high-value playing cards); plus X="ten" in Roman numerals |
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| 24 | READ |
Forecast being heard as weak person or lefty, depending on tense choice (4)
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definition: READ can mean to assess or to interpret, or "Forecast" in present tense, READ sounds like 'reed'="weak person" in past tense, READ sounds like 'red'="lefty" (as in left-wing) |
Always a pleasure to see Brendan’s name and this was to his usual high standard. I was surprised at GYPSIES, but some sources say it is acceptable to the Romani or Irish groups; I don’t know. With that, ADMIRAL and VICEROY, I was looking for a butterfly/moth theme but I don’t think so. I struggled to parse COMPLIMENTARILY like you manehi, but I think you’ve cracked it with the theme. My favourites were WIZARDRY, MANAGE, GRAUNIAD, RECROSSING and AJAX and I enjoyed the placing of PRAGUE, CHEQUE and SPELL CHECK. I always marvel at his trickery with the language and it is a pangram to boot.
Ta Brendan & manehi.
I parsed AJAX as Ace, Jack followed by A & X.
13a: surely HAVE in that sense is a verb not a noun isn’t it?
Thanks Brendan and manehi
I didn’t enjoy this as much as most seemed to on the Guardian site. Isn’t “WIZ” in 8a a contraction of “wizard” anyway?
there is a spelling bee
thanks both
I should have felt more confident about AJAX as I suspected a pangram. On the other hand, as somebody who follows the Champions League, I’d quibble with the definition as “top club”… they’re currently 36th out of 36 in the league stage!
I’d put this slightly below Brendan’s usual standard. The two long central answers were a bit weak, though GRAUNIAD raised a smile. I agree with Muffin@4 regarding ‘wiz’.
SPYCATCHER was the last one I solved – and took me almost as long as the rest of the puzzle put together. I had all the crossers and just kept staring at it, having run out of things that smiled (Cheshire Cat, Laughing Cavalier, Emojis, Mona Lisa….)
Then it hit me. Nice one!
I also enjoyed the surfaces to ADEN & DOORMAT.
The theme helped for once, as did the pangram (especially with AJAX)
My only tiny quibble is that GRAUNIAD isn’t a satirical publication, it’s Private Eye’s nickname for the newspaper (arising from the time its notoriously incessant misprints actually included its own name). But this sort of looseness is acceptable in crosswordland.
Thank you manehi for the blog, and a round of applause for Brendan
Tricky puzzle – I failed to solve 22d although I had thought of A X for ‘a ten’ like AlanC@2.
I needed to check how to parse the third part of 12ac and also 21ac (had forgotten about errata slips but have seen them in the past) .
Favourite: SPYCATCHER.
New for me: MUTUALS = investments; GYP = pain.
A very enjoyable puzzle, I thought, which I completed a bit more easily than usual for a Brendan. I expected the pangram but didn’t need to rely on it for help. Top marks for ACROSTIC, being a self-referential yet misdirected clue. LOI was COMPLIMENTARILY, which I liked and parsed as per our blogger. And I parsed AJAX as per AlanC@2.
SPYCATCHER (I didn’t know the reference) and WIZARDRY were the only ones I didn’t parse; I didn’t spot the clever device for AR in the latter, and like muffin@4 I wasn’t convinced by wiz, which seemed to be a contraction of wizard anyway. The expert would (to me) be a whizz, which is something different.
Thanks both for the fun
Top club once might have been more accurate for AJAX
I find myself using pencil more with Brendan than with any other setter as the definitions often exhibit a certain vagueness but that could be entirely in my head. GYPSIES would have worked (stand alone) with an I instead of a Y and PRAGUE could have gone either way
Very enjoyable nonetheless, and SPYCATCHER was excellent
Cheers B&M
Generally, I agree with the praise here, but I am still unsure as to how one can be entirely sure that “city” is the definition for 9a, and not “Widespread complaint”. I kept vacillating between the two, and the letter in question isn’t a crosser. Nevertheless, thanks Brendan and manehi.
TassieTim@12 If you look at the clue in isolation, then either would work. However, the answer is referred to in the clue to 11a – native of 9 or 16 announced. That means the correct answer has to be Prague.
The definition in 9a is not city.
It is “this city” – which removes the ambiguity.
TassieTim@12 re 9a: while it is possible to read the clue both ways I think it would be a much weaker clue if read to give the solution PLAGUE because the wordplay would rely on you guessing an undefined city rather than the wordplay leading you to the name of the city. Hope that makes sense!
Of course any doubt is removed by the clue at 11a.
Sorry to cross, slow typing on phone.
Thanks to Brendan for a fun puzzle and manehi for the blog.
Fun puzzle, nice touches of theme. The SPYCATCHER clue made me smiley for a bit.
Agree that 9a could gave gone either way, but 11a caused the wavefunction to collapse and it had to be PRAGUE.
BC@11 is right re: AJAX, but the surface would suffer. Don’t know if there is a great fix.
Fun puzzle. (I’m not used to being this early in the sequence.)
I’ve never heard of errata slips or the AJAX club — I don’t even follow British football, let alone Dutch.
I’m with muffin on WIZ. Also, a viceroy butterfly protects itself by looking like a monarch, which tastes as horrible as its pre-metamorphosis diet of milkweed does. (I’ve tasted milkweed, it really is dreadful.) So the definition is the same as the wordplay.
But quibbles aside, as others have said, it was a fine puzzle whose theme I totally missed as I did the pangram. I always miss those.
The moment of epiphany when I latched onto SPYCATCHER made it all worthwhile.
Don’t know why all the fuss over AJAX. I parsed it the same way as Alan.
I parsed AJAX as per AlanC @2. Saw the pangram coming, but it didn’t help as l know nothing about football.
Didn’t know that meaning of ”slips” in ERRATA, just thought it wasn’t very cryptic.
As a former participant in spelling bees, the related clues were the ones I found most accessible
Learned a lot online about how the viceroy butterfly mimics the monarch for protection.
DOORMAT my favourite today,
Enjoyed this one – started slowly except for the SE corner, which went in fairly smoothly. Ran out of time for 1d and 4d, both of which seemed obvious on the reveal, even if I’ve never heard of a viceroy butterfly. Similarly no idea about the parsing of COMPLIMENTARILY, but with the crossers it was about the only thing there could be; I think manehi’s stab at it must be right.
I parsed AJAX the same was as AlanC @2, otherwise the extra ‘a’ is unnecessary. I won’t accept any quibbles about Ajax being a top club; they might not be in their finest moment right now, but they are still European royalty! Do four European Cups/Champions Leagues not count for anything? And if you remove the ‘top’ or add a qualifier, the surface doesn’t work. I thought it very well constructed.
Thanks Brendan and manehi!
Did anyone else make an attempt with emoticon, or some such, for Smiley type?
Hmmm… as a huge fan of this setter, I didn’t think this was up to his usual high standard.
Plenty to admire, I liked the PRAGUE/plague gag, and the plays on SPELL CHECK, and GRAUNIAD was fun, but the two long answers felt a little contrived and odd.
Never seen wiz spelt like that but I suspect the young do.
Many thanks, both.
I enjoyed studying the answers rather than the puzzle itself.Few interesting ones like WIZARDRY,PRAGUE.I just tend to shy away from the long-winded clues.
Oops an incorrect EMPEROR instead of VICEROY blocked WIZARDRY in what was a very enjoyable puzzle.
Liked GRAUNIAD being an avid Private Eye reader. There must have been a lot of pressure on the setter in this puzzle not to make a typo.
Thanks Brendan and Manehi. This one started off tough but seemed to pick up speed with a few in.
Undone at the last by the interlinked WIZARDRY and VICEROY. I simply did not recall the second and had no idea of the butterfly. Otherwise, an enjoyable set of clues. No issues with AJAX being a lesser club right now than they used to be. Also no problem with GYPSIES – I appreciate the term has to be used with care but if Tyson Fury can market himself as the Gypsy King and if there can be willing participants in a reality show called My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, then I feel it ought to be an acceptable solution in a crossword.
Thanks both
That’s a yes from me re emoticons at 5d (SPYCATCHER), paddymelon@21. Lovely puzzle but I couldn’t get 25a MANAGE (MAGE unfamiliar though I recall there was a novel called “The Magus” by John Fowles so I should have seen that) or 22d AJAX: just couldn’t do the wordplay and didn’t know the club. But lots of fun and lots of ticks especially for 20a FOUR LETTER WORDS. Thanks to Brendan and manehi.
Wellbeck@8, I see you also mentioned emojis in your post detailing your thinking processes about “Smiley” in 5d SPYCATCHER – sorry I didn’t mention that.
Thanks Brendan and Manehi.
Liked PRAGUE, ERRATA, GRAUNIAD, ILL-BEHAVED and READ.
Agree with muffin@4 on WIZ(ARDRY).
AJAX: Agree with all those who used the ‘a’ in the clue.
wellbeck@8
GRAUNIAD
Satirical publication: I took it to mean ‘a satirical name of a publication’
PRAGUE
We often come across CADs, which aren’t &lit clues. Here we have a clue,
Every word of which participates in the WP, but the def is just one word
(I think ‘city’ is adequate).
COMPLIMENTARILY
I took ‘How to secure admission in kind way’ as the def.
I agree with William (the Second*) @ 22. I think it was the point made by muffin @ 4 that began to make me feel this was not up to Brendan’s usual high standard …
Seems unfair of me – but this is the price a great compiler pays; as soon as I saw his name I expected a real treat, so it follows that he is more likely to disappoint …
Nevertheless, a wonderful diversion for which my gratitude is felt…
[(*for new fifteensquarers, I’ve been posting for nearly 15 years but thought it would be arrogant/selfish to grab “William” for myself. It still irritates to see “William” on its own used by another 😅, but in fairness, he does post daily unlike myself. And it only irritates enough for me to rarely mention it – though I get the same feeling as all those years ago whenever a new poster arrives and uses “Paul” or “John”, for example, without a second’s hesitation or the wit to realise they may not be the only Paul or John we know here. It demonstrates, to my mind, either ignorance or being self-centred – which makes me a little sad)]
A charming puzzle,
I liked the use of ‘at sea’ for ADMIRAL, before which you could add READ (as ‘lefty’).
I also liked that reCROSSing crossed with WORDS.
And of course no review is complete without 😀
Thanks to Brendan and manehi.
In FOUR LETTER WORDS, I think “they may not be fully spelt out” refers to the way swear words are often represented by their first letter and a dash — I’m not sure if that’s what you meant manehi.
An interesting challenge as usual from Brendan. Many thanks both.
Shame on Brendan for clue 4. That’s a slur.
Really enjoyed this. Liked the PRAGUE / CHEQUE / CHECK set, and SPELL is a lovely dd. Seeing the pangram coming helped me with last one in VICEROY (butterflies are my crosswording Achilles’ heel – along with botany, musical notation and classical mythology). Favourite was GRAUNIAD – my lovely old dad never calls the paper by any other name.
Chris L.@32 The Gypsy community disagree.
Rather lurched my way through this. Not too impressed by the long COMPLIMENTARILY, and had very little idea why FOUR LETTER WORDS deserved its/their place in the grid. I imagined that there was probably something fiendishly clever going on as a theme as it was Brendan at work to mystify us today, especially with 20ac in place. Finally gave up with half a dozen blanks. Namely: READ, GRAUNIAD, WIZARDRY, GYPSIES, DOORMAT (should really have got that one) and MANAGE. Ah, well, enjoyed the journey as ever until I hit the buffers. Time to read the comments above now to see the chinks of light and understanding…
I don’t think we need to query GYPSIES – afaik most people including Romani don’t see it as derogatory. I’m glad to see it spelt with a Y, though – correct according to Fowler’s – although we have to accept the fact that the railway station in South London is named ‘Gipsy Hill’. The tabloids tend to use the ‘I’ form too – perhaps to save ink.,.
Had some difficulties with the parsing: WIZARDRY, COMPLIMENTARILY and ERRATA were just write-ins. The rest was fine: especially liked GRAUNIAD (ha ha! – has the masthead of this esteemed publication really ever been spelt thus?!); BEELINES; PRAGUE; FOUR LETTER WORDS; ACROSTIC. And others.
Thanks to Brendan and manehi.
The Viceroy butterfly is so called because its coloring mimics that of the poisonous and apparently bitter-tasting Monarch butterfly, as a means of putting off potential predators. (Monarch caterpillars are able to deal with the bitter, poisonous, alkaloid-rich latex of milkweed; Viceroy caterpillars dine on less noxious plants.) To my mind, that makes 1D subject to the same sort of objection that Muffin@4 had to “wiz”. Both minor quibbles in an otherwise satisfying puzzle.
Re 26, the Grauniad’s reputation for typos used to be well justified. I remember one of the biggest (literally, it was in 96pt type) in its headline on 5 November 1980 which read “Landside makes it President Reagan”.
Gypsies may not be a slur, but the derivation of ‘gyp’ for pain, probably coined by British forces in Egypt, as in ‘gyppy tummy’, and also its connection with the definitely racist ‘gyp’ meaning cheat or rob, do make the whole thing a bit problematic.
I am not overly convinced by complimentarily – it would have worked better if the answer had been complementarily in my view and if the crosser had fit
Delightful puzzle from Brendan. Lots of great surfaces and humour, with too many favourites to list. Couldn’t quite dredge up 1d VICEROY, so dnf. NE last to fall, with 9a PRAGUE, 11a CHEQUE, 16a CHECK, and 12a COMPLIMENTARILY (I agree with your parsing manehi, though KVa’s@28 is also plausible)
4d GYPSIES, for the moth, to go with the butterflies? And there does seem to be an AJAX butterfly
8a WIZARDRY, I agree with muffin@4 and others that the clue is a bit weak
ADMIRALs of various colours are also butterflies
…muffin, as mentioned by manehi in the preamble!
Mig @43
I’m better at words than numbers!
muffin @42: and me @1 😉
AlanC, sorry, I missed your reference to the gypsy moth @1 with “with that”! I think Muphry’s Law is at work here somehow! 🙂
Mig @46: 🙂
It would not have made much difference but my Chambers Dictionary app does not give butterfly as a meaning for viceroy and the Thesaurus does not give viceroy as a type of butterfly!
Did nobody else start looking out for a pangram (which it was) as soon as they got AJAX? Also had a chuckle at GRAUNIAD. Thanks Brendan and Manehi.
Now I come to think of it, I didn’t know VICEROY as a butterfly (the insect), so that was a guess. ‘Butterfly’ can also mean either a flighty, amorous person, a swimming stroke, or a type of flick-knife – besides other meanings probably – but I couldn’t find any connection with those either.
I know plenty of names for the few British butterflies we cherish, and some European ones – but very little about their North American counterparts – except perhaps the Monarch and what they call the ‘Mourning Cloak’ and we call the ‘Camberwell Beauty’ – if it’s ever to be seen in the UK!
I didn’t even get close to AJAX, so congrats to all those who did. This left me with a three clue hole in the SW, with DOORMAT being in a temporarily unavailable memory cell, and ‘spelling expert’ flying quite some distance over my head.
I enjoyed Brendan’s accustomed wit and left field cluing, but the two long acrosses fell a bit flat. There was a pair of witty clues waiting to be discovered, but the setter’s arrows missed their mark on this occasion. Or maybe I’m just being particularly dense today. 🤔
Thanks to Brendan for the entertainment and to manehi for the elucidation.
Piglet@49. It depends on when one got AJAX. I was already impressed with the theme, and then there was the extra thrill.
From the clue, I figured out it had to end in an X, but the high cards AKQ plus X wasn’t a goer, even in indigenous South and Central American languages. Having no knowledge of football didn’t help.
Brendan/Brian Greer usually drops in here. Hope you haven’t been put off by some of the negative comments and can see the appreciation in others. Love your work. Please come back again.
Laccaria @50
Once, walking in northern Italy, a Camberwell Beauty hitched a ride on my wife’s rucksack for several miles!
We lived in Camberwell for a while, but the only one we saw there was a large metal one on the front of a shop.
SH@51 – I had some difficulty with DOORMAT too – I at first wrote in COURIER (-‘type’ – geddit?) but couldn’t account for the ‘Submissive’.
Muffin@53: I saw plenty of ‘Mourning Cloaks’ on my last trip to the USA, on the Appalachian trail – along with Monarchs and several other beauties the names of which I don’t recall. But in Europe my only suspected sighting of a Camberwell Beauty was in Andorra some 40 years ago. I can’t be sure of that last though: it’s not listed among Andorra’s fauna.
…”We’re off to see the wizard…he really is a wiz of a wiz…”
Maybe there are two meanings to wiz?
Super puzzle as always from Brendan. I find it hard to credit that the enumeration error at 20 was his (I’d have solved it quicker if it had been 4-6,5), but I’m used to The Guardian’s crossword editors overlooking small details.
https://youtu.be/nP7vFG4XfmU?si=8U1kHsSUARhWmkZJ
Ballad of a Spycatcher (composed shortly after the publication of Peter Wright’s book).
“And how the senior officers [of MI5] began their working day by trying to solve the crossword – in the Times needless to say.”
This had some great clues and a great theme. (And thank you manehi for the translation!)
I’m late getting here, but a quick comment anyway.
I thought there was a lot to enjoy in this puzzle. There were several clues that I didn’t understand before coming here, but I don’t blame anyone but myself for that, and now they’re almost all cleared up.
I’m still puzzled that “reed” can mean “weak person”. I’ve heard the expression “weak reed” used to describe such a person, and various dictionaries tell me that “broken reed” has the same meaning. But I can’t find examples where “reed” has this meaning without an adjective like this in front.