Thank you to Soup. The definitions, where applicable, are underlined in the clues. Apologies again for the delay.
Per the special instructions, the thematic definition for eleven clues is the puzzle itself, ie. the crossword/cross word. Or simply put the definition is “Cross”. Their solutions are highlighted in the grid.
Across
7. One’s struck by shattering of only hope (9)
XYLOPHONE : X(signifying times/multiplication/by) + anagram of(shattering of) ONLY HOPE.
Edit: In response to comments, the original clip is replaced (correctly, I hope).
https://youtu.be/rfSbMFWCReQ
8. Gary Coleman’s last performance? (5)
ANGRY : Anagram of(… performance) [GARY + last letter of(…’s last) “Coleman” ].
9. Scientists propose more scientists retract first (9)
IRRITABLE : [ RI(abbrev. for the Royal Institution of Great Britain, an organisation for scientific education and research, though currently its members need not be scientists) + TABLE(to propose/to present formally for discussion or consideration at a meeting) ] placed after(… first) reversal of(… retract) RI(more of/again, the abovementioned institution).
10. Haul bundled crops with bits falling off (5)
HEAVE : “sheaves”(bundled crops after harvesting) minus its 1st and last letters(with bits falling off).
12. A time to have chocolate-covered dates? Quite the reverse! (6)
ADVENT : Cryptic defn: The period leading up to Christmas, during which, in some traditions there is fasting, ie. the reverse of eating chocolate-covered dates. I’m not sure whether there is something more.
Edit: Yes, there is! The proper parsing can be found in the comments.
13. On a crest, fur, metal, splash of colour? Amazingly, true! (8)
TINCTURE : TIN(a metallic chemical element) + 1st letter of(splash of) “colour” + anagram of(Amazingly) TRUE.
Answer: Any of the colours of metals, stains and furs on a crest/coat of arms in heraldry.
14. Sum up about two seconds’ talk (7)
ADDRESS : ADD(to sum up/total) + RE(with regard to/about) + S,S(twice the abbrev. for “second” in time notation).
17. Space not quite enough for a big red book? (7)
CHAMBER : “Chambers”(short for the Chambers Dictionary that is bound as a big red book) minus its last letter(not quite enough for …).
Defn: An enclosed …
20. Those north of Zimbabwe and South Africa going round South Namib (8)
ZAMBIANS : ZA(international code for the country, South Africa) + anagram of(going round) [ S(abbrev. for “South”) + NAMIB ].
Answer: Those people living in Zambia, a neighbouring country to the north of Zimbabwe.
22. Soup with crust of skin covering (6)
PELMET : ME(the self-referential pronoun for Soup, the writer of this clue and crossword) contained in(with crust of) PELT(skin of an animal with the fur, wool or hair still on it).
Defn: … for curtain fittings.
24. Poor excuse? (5)
SORRY : Double defn: 1st: …/pitiful; and 2nd: Expression used to excuse oneself.
25. In brief: about time (9)
INTERSECT : IN + TERSE(brief/curt) + C(abbrev. for “circa”/about/approximately, when used with dates) + T(abbrev. for “time”).
26. Mind thematic character’s greenery (5)
CAREX : CARE(to mind/to be concerned about) + X(the character/letter shaped like and used to represent a “cross”, the theme of this crossword).
27. Showing age, uncomfortably nude, I covered wiener, backing indoors (9)
UNRENEWED : Anagram of(uncomfortably) NUDE containing(… indoors) reversal of(…, backing) [ “wiener” minus(… covered) “I” ].
Down
1. Timothy and Bridget met and stripped (6)
HYBRID : Hidden in(… and stripped) [ “TimothyBridget “(Timothy and Bridget met) ].
2. Bully is one acting to grab that which belongs to me (8)
DOMINEER : DOER(one doing a deed/one acting) containing(to grab) MINE(describing that which belongs to me).
3. Thrilled at first quarter growth (6)
THWART : 1st 2 out of 8 letters of(… at first quarter) “Thrilled” + WART(a small hard growth on the skin).
4. Balloon is no fun from the outset, and others go up (7)
INFLATE : 1st letters, respectively, of(… from the outset) “is no fun” + reversal of(… go up, in a down clue) [ET AL](Latin phrase for “and others”).
5. Setting off, parking Tesla to have something to eat (6)
INGEST : Anagram of(… off) [ “Setting” minus(parking) “T”(symbol for “tesla”, unit of magnetic flux density in physics).
6. Dancers in mid-step … (8)
TRAVERSE : RAVERS(those at a rave/a party involving dancing and drinking) contained in(in) middle 2 letters of(mid) “step”.
11. … seen during Bank Holiday … (4)
ANKH : Hidden in(seen during) “Bank Holiday”.
15. … game, where girl goes across line (8)
DIAGONAL : [ GO(a board game originating from China) contained in(where … goes across) DIANA(a girl’s name) ] + L(abbrev. for “line”).
16. Rests up (4)
SPAN : Reversal of(… up, in a down clue) NAPS(sleeps briefly/rests).
18. Twinkling girls that might be described as ‘thick and sweet’ (8)
MOLASSES : MO(abbrev. for “moment”, a very brief period of time such as in “in the twinkling of an eye”) + LASSES(girls/young women).
19. Silly, like in fifth grade? (7)
ASININE : [AS IN](as an example/like) + IN + E(denoting the fifth grade with A as first, B as second and so on).
21. Half-upset, was suffused with passion (6)
BURDEN : 1st 2 out 4 letters of(Half) “defy”(to go against/to upset) contained in(was suffused with) BURN(fiery sensation/passion?)
Defn: As it “it was his cross to bear”.
Edit: The proper parsing can be found in the comments.
22. Number 1 against seeds in third and fourth place (6)
PEEVED : PEE(passing of urine/number one, in slang) + V(abbrev. for “versus”/against) + 3rd and 4th letters of(… in third and fourth place) “seeds”.
23. Ate out, went and got topless (6)
ETCHED : “fetched”(went and got/went to collect something and brought it back) minus its 1st letter(topless).
I think ADVENT refers to Advent calendars with a chocolate treat in each window. I got off to a bad start with oenophile for xylophone and went downhill from there.
ADVENT
Any WP involving A VENT (opposed to covered) and D (dates)?
Well I got ASININE and the generous ANKH last night and then gave up in despair. I slowly worked my way through it this morning, but it really was a long hard slog. I think I’ve spotted the theme with ANGRY and IRRITABLE linked to ANKH (cross)and then BURDEN, DIAGONAL and INTERSECT but I may be off beam. The special instructions sort of helped. My favourites were the brilliant XYLOPHONE, TINCTURE, ZAMBIANS, THWART and the twinkling MOLASSES.
I agree with Petert’ take on ADVENT.
Soup has made a comment on the G site a few hours ago, saying that he expected it to be a Saturday puzzle, and if so, without the check button, I wouldn’t have had a chance in hell.
Ta Soup & scchua.
Oenophily not oenophile, otherwise the anagram wouldn’t work.
I agree with Petert#1 on ADVENT, but unlike him I got off to a good start with 1a, and I wonder if the X at the head of the solutions was a nudge to getting the theme.
Many thanks to Soup and scchua
scchua has of course covered the theme beautifully.
I finished today before the blog went up, which was a first. First in was ‘ankh’, which made me think of Egypt for a while, then ‘intercept’ got me to all the crosses and Xs. The ‘check’ button on the Guardian site is hard to resist with these undefined clues. I have to rap myself over the knuckles each time I sneak a look.
A great challenge. I was utterly flummoxed by the theme until about three-quarters of the way through. I even tried googling “span traverse diagonal thwart” which led me to a site which said “This program accepts a string input of perfect-square-length, converts it into a square matrix where each cell is a character, diagonally traverses the matrix saving each visited cell, and outputs a transformed diagonally-traversed string”, and I started to think it might be a bit beyond me! Then with CAREX and the “thematic character” the penny dropped. Brilliant.
Yes Petert @1, I liked the date-covered chocolates 🙂 .
Many thanks Soup and scchua.
I found it harder than some genius puzzles and only managed to solve a handful. Ankh was my first and I briefly hoped for a Discworld theme. I didn’t know that it was a cross, but even after I revealed a few to get the theme I was still struggling.
Re 12ac ADVENT, my take was advent calendars often contain chocolate under the date – hence the opposite of chocolate covered.
First time posting after long time lurking (and enjoying!) the comments section as this offering took me all day with multiple breaks to complete. Tough challenge and thanks to soup (I think) and scchua for the enlightenment
My first themer was “traverse” which got me to thinking of theatres (The Traverse in Edinburgh being a fond haunt of my fringe days) but ankh scuppered that. Took a couple more before the right idea crossed my mind.
As an uncheckable Saturday I think I’d still be at it long after the classified football results came in but phew that was a toughie for a Friday!
thanks scchua and Soup – keep taking the dried frog pills at High Table.
When I saw the name on the puzzle and the Special Instructions, my immediate reaction was intense relief that I was not down to blog it. I know that Soup writes very clever puzzles but they’re usually above my pay-grade.
However, ‘just for fun’, I cast my eye over the clues and it was caught by what seemed a likely anagram at 8ac, so I entered ANGRY and clicked the check button – Bingo! It didn’t mean anything, of course but I was encouraged to try a possible hidden word at 11dn – success again. I’d solved a handful of ‘normal’ clues, including 7ac, which gave me the Y for 1dn, which led to HYBRID and, along with TRAVERSE, the penny dropped and I was hooked and just carried on chipping away.
I’ll willingly admit that I couldn’t have got as far as I did without the Check button, which was invaluable but at least I didn’t resort to ‘Reveal’. I really enjoyed the journey – many PDMs and smiles along the way – and I was very glad that I’d persevered.
My favourite clues were 7ac XYLOPHONE, 12ac ADVENT, 13 ac TINCTURE, 17ac CHAMBER, 26ac CAREX, 4dn INFLATE, 18dn MOLASSES, 21dn BURDEN and 23dn ETCHED.
I interpreted the clue for ADVENT as did Lykacrypt @10.
Many thanks to Soup for a most enjoyable challenge and to scchua for the blog.
PS I think BURDEN is BURNED (“was suffused with passion”) with the second half reversed.
Also ashamed to say my first thought for 22d was “pissed”😳 until crossers proved otherwise…
I thought the anagram for Gary Coleman’s last was ‘rangy’ but once I had resolved that to ANGRY and then got ANKH, I realised the theme was probably ‘cross’. Even then quite a few toughies; I DNK CAREX, and couldn’t parse ADVENT and BURDEN, where I took the suffuse as meaning permeate rather than cover. I liked the IRRITABLE scientists (I’ve met a few!), the PELMET soup, the first quarter of THWART, the Paulian PEE VED, and the balloon going up to give INFLATE.
Thanks Soup and scchua
I agree with Lord Jim @13 re BURDEN.
That was tough, tough, tough. It eased a little bit once the penny dropped after my 4th cross of TRAVERSE. It took the time to power through it especially as I was quite enjoying the challenge, only to see I had lazily put in GAMBIANS when I hit check all.
Thanks for the blog scchua it needed a good read today. Liked XYLOPHONE, CHAMBER (I have the big red book on my desk) and ADVENT.
Thanks Soup as well.
Didn’t bother to read more than a couple of clues, given the “special instructions”. As someone commented elsewhere…life’s too short. I’ll remember to avoid Soup in future
I found the missing definitions gimmick irritating. Not sure that it adds anything to the solve – quite the opposite
Probably the least enjoyable puzzle I’ve ever done. Only sheer bloody-mindedness kept me going to the bitter end. Shame really as most of the theme clues would have been good with a definition
Cheers S&S
Taken as a straightforward puzzle it was enjoyable. All my faves happened to be acrosses: the semi-&lit TINCTURE, ADDRESS, UNRENEWED, ADVENT and INTERSECT.
But I’m afraid the special device didn’t do it for me, although I appreciate the idea. Since I typically start with the shortest entries, ANKH was my FOI, followed by SPAN, both theme words. With no other context than “the puzzle itself defines the theme”, and having not seen 26a yet (nor for ages to come), I looked at the grid and decided I saw a visual ankh using the unches above ANKH itself, and SPAN, well, spanned a long line of unches. Next theme one was TRAVERSE (it did). So all good until the seemingly unrelated THWART came up, followed by HYBRID, at which point I was lost. (I’d never have take thwart and cross as synonyms, nor later DIAGONAL for that matter.) And as for IRRITATED, well I kind of was by then. But lots of others had fun with it 👌
Ironically, 26a was the only one I couldn’t get; I’d never heard of the plant. I do think an easier keystone clue and an earlier position in the grid would have been preferrable. Ironically again, a perfect opportunity in the form of XYLOPHONE was sitting right there.
Thanks both
Oh, a point of order regarding IRITABLE: does “retract” in the active voice work as a reversal indicator? It only makes sense to me as an imperative, but that requires us to have “more scientists – retract! – first” which is a bit too stretchy for my taste.
I found this extremely clever but many were far too stratospheric for me, so I felt no shame in resorting to the reveal. Despite solving XYLOPHONE, a lucky guess for DIAGONAL (with some crossers) with a reveal of CAREX made think this was mathematical, so had no hope for the theme. Was sufficiently satisfied with the few clues I “nailed”!
I had thought 22D was “PITTED” – the surface of seeds and imagining a bit of a Wimbledon David v Goliath.
Good show and thanks Soup and scchua!
Certainly a tough challenge but that is not too unusual on a Friday. As with Eileen, the check button was my friend today but, even with that, a few beat me, I’m afraid. PELMET and UNRENEWED, I simply didn’t see and I never parsed THWART. I also failed to spot some of the setter’s slightly more adventurous devices. However, the theme revealed itself with FOI ANKH – with no def, it had to be a themer and, if not Discworld (and quite how Soup would have clued Morpork, I dread to think. (I think we can guess how Paul might go about it!)), then it surely had to be cross which has plenty of thematic potential and fitted the SI.
XYLOPHONE was a cracking first across clue and I also had ticks for DOMINEER, INGEST, ASININE and INTERSECT from amongst the undefined clues.
Thanks both
Also parsed BURDEN as Lord Jim @13.
I was (and remain) very 8a and 9a with this, not so much with the setter but more with the Grauniad web people.
I prefer to do the crossword on my iPad by clicking on the Puzzles icon in the Guardian Editions app, which takes me to the crossword – but this is displayed without the setter’s name name or the special instructions. Why??
Yes, I know I can go elsewhere to find those, but I shouldn’t have to. Am I the only one who is 22d by this?
This got a lot of flak on the Guardian website but I found it rather interesting, although I gave up about midway through the puzzle. I would say it’s fair game on a Friday… it’s not that there are no definitions; one has to figure out the definition while solving, and it’s doable (not initially clear for which clues, yes, but that’s mostly not too difficult to discern, either)… Takes a lot of time – yes. I parsed BURDEN as Lord Jim @13, and I agree with others re: ADVENT. Thanks Soup and scchua!
I found this a real struggle too – not least because I couldn’t see the special instructions on my Android phone app! I gradually realised that some clues lacked definitions and managed to work it all out in the end – without recognising the theme, natch.
I particularly liked MOLASSES and ETCHED. Thanks Soup and Scchua.
Like Eileen, I’ll willingly admit that I couldn’t have got as far as I did without the Check button. In fact, it more or less started me off, serendipitously. I’d spotted ANKH (but forgotten the Discworld) and then for 26 across suspected “MIND” = “CARE” plus the first character of Thematic: CARET. “Aha, the theme is symbols” I thought. When the check button confirmed only the first four letters I couldn’t imagine another possible word. Luckily I had my battered red copy of 17 acrosss to hand, and the only other word that fitted was the NHO careX, which also matched the unparsed-by-me greenery. I won’t say it was plain sailing from then on (more like battling through a hurricane, in fact), but it did get me going. Loved every minute, in a masochistical way…
In the end, the only one I couldn’t parse was BURDEN, but I think Lord Jim @13 has nailed it.
Layman #27, agreed. I found it unsatisfying to not determine the theme (or, somewhat irrationally on my part, for the theme to turn out not to be what I thought it was) and I would have enjoyed the themed entries rather more if they had made sense in context, rather than the that’s another one then moment being tiresome. But the themed entries themselves were doable without even needing a definition (which in fact is quite interesting in itself), and I didn’t find it as hard to distinguish them as I might have thought. It was a similar experience to handling &lits.
But yes, the intended Prize slot would have been more suitable, given the time commitment and style of puzzle.
PhilMcHale@26, there were no problems with seeing the special instructions on my phone (looking at G website in my usual browser); I guess it was app only.
Hi folks,
Well, a mixed bag today (though way more friendliness on here than on the G’s comments! (“Horrible”, “Life’s too short”, “Dismal”, “Belongs in the bin”…!). I was very surprised the Editor put it on a Friday – I’ve never seen a Friday puzzle with special instructions before, and I guess after this we might not see another. (I set and send puzzles which are then scheduled ad hoc – I’m not given a particular date to set for.) It’s hard for a daily, for sure, but I don’t think it’s hard enough for a Genius.
ADVENT I was indeed intending would be to mean ‘date-covered chocolates’, referencing an advent calendar – that one made me giggle. I think ‘scientists retract’ is ok for IR because ‘retract’ as an intransitive verb means ‘to take back or draw back’ (admittedly ‘from what has been said or granted’, but ‘I retracted the blade on my extendable knife’ feels an appropriate construction so I think I’m still happy with it).
Hope people still had a little fun with it and, if not, that I didn’t spoil people’s fish and chips. Thanks to scchua for the blog (and sorry for the extra workout!); see the rest of you around sometime, though I understand you might be giving me a wide berth!
PS Point noted about the app not displaying the special instructions, I’ll feed that back.
As a novice solver this was way beyond me.
On 5d I figured that ‘setting off’ was an anagram indicator, then P from Parking + TESLA gave me STAPLE as something to eat. Hey ho.
Special instructions for a Bank Holiday.
Luckily a beautiful day in Kent, far too nice to waste on this.
lots of moaning from the usual sorts who can’t abide challenging themselves outside of their comfort zone in any way.
ADVENT was a great clue, I thought.
I managed to do this with some lucky guesses, some solves with words that happened to fit, and a couple of reveals, and I don’t mind admitting that most of the time I didn’t have a clue what was going on. MOLASSES showed up in another puzzle a few days ago – either in the FT or the Grauniad. Thanks for all the explanations!
Other than two word plays I got it all, but it took a long time, and that was with finding the theme very quickly. It was an enjoyable puzzle but I think it is better suited to be a prize or possibly even an easier genius puzzle.
Well done, Lykacrypt @ 10 (chocolate under the dates) and Lord Jim @ 13 BURNED/BURDEN. Especially well done sschua for parsing a whole number of things I couldn’t …. no wonder it was late in posting! And especially especially well done Hamish/Soup for setting up a challenging Friday. I got the theme after irritable and traverse (used to run the Traverse Theatre) but still found it hard to separate out the undefined clues.
thanks S and S! i really enjoyed this — when I had ANKH and HYBRID things started to become clearer. I too suffered from oenophilia. Briefly. Unusually for a daily I had to take copious notes in order to keep track.
thanks!
19d solvable without knowing school grades as E is the fifth letter of grade
@MrEko #34 – please don’t sneer at those of us who do crosswords for our pleasure rather than the setter’s.
I did complete this but in more than twice my usual time. I stupidly cling to my Grauniad streak but some setters are just not enjoyable.
First hour or so – aaaaaargh!!
Second hour – ah-haah!
Third hour – PHEW 🙂
Took a while to get going, but so many delightful, witty clues in this, and a fun theme. Quite a few where I guessed at the answer and then spent some time figuring out the construction. Well worth the extra effort.
And for everyone discussing 8 across
Whatchu talkin’ ’bout, Willis?!
PS: Was great to meet you, and discuss your craft, and hope we get to see another of your puzzles in the Grauniad before too long.
An absolutely brilliant crossword that was unfortunately beyond my ability to solve. Thanks to both.
Orcwood@39 Ah, but that would be fifth *of* grade. (I do care quite a lot about making sure that cryptic grammar works; I sometimes make exceptions for things like ‘Maidenhead’ for M because I know I’m breaking the rules with full knowledge there. But something like ‘second November’ for O would be out. (November 2nd would be ok, though, because that means ‘the second of November’.))
Actually in this case I was thinking first-grade work is A, second-grade is B, and so on.
I gave myself a mulligan with 1D to ease the grauniad grind and failed to solve any of the others. Convention dictates Fridays are rough but I bow to the great and good once again. Thank you for the comments/blog.
What special instructions? None shown on the iPhone version of the paper. No wonder it made so little sense. What a waste of time.
Hamish @43: I am curious as to whether the nounal anagrind after the fodder in ANGRY is you breaking the rules with full knowledge? Performing/in performance/to perform would be my preferences there but you clearly have a different view.
Postmark@46: Here I think that ‘”thing” performance’ is ‘performance of “thing”‘ but ‘to perform’ would probably be nicer. Only just though.
Ian Shale@47: I refer to you point 1 of the site policy. I’m sorry you didn’t like my puzzle, but there’s no need to be rude. It’s only a crossword.
Couldn’t understand the instructions, didn’t get a single clue at first pass, gave up.
Now I know why. Respect to anyone who enjoyed this.
Ian S @ 47
I took your comment as a verbal instruction rather than a grossly rude and unnecessary comment, and uttered “shite”.
Nothing happened.
What was supposed to?
Thanks Soup and Scchua
Unlike Blaise @29, after ANKH was an early entry, I spent some time trying to see where MORPORK would fit!
Like some others above, I wouldn’t have got very far without the Check button.
We were delighted to see Soup’s name at the top of the puzzle this morning and we were even more delighted when we finished it, which of course took us a little more time than usual. We used the check button for advent and diagonal but we managed to parse advent as intended eventually, probably our fave clue….and didn’t parse diagonal although we felt so stupid when we saw how simple it was. What a joy to have something to get our teeth into. Thank you to Soup and scchua! We want more like this!… maybe you could feed that back to the guardian editors?
To reply to Ian shale@47 would oblige us to contravene the policy rules for 15 squared
I was well out of my depth here but good that many of you enjoyed it.
I’m debating with myself whether the SPECIAL INSTRUCTION is preferable to the cross-references we often see in a Paul puzzle e.g. “8 seen during bank holiday”.
I’ve read the blog (thank you!) … and I think this crossword is brilliant.
It was way, way too hard for me
(8 solved, 5 parsed). That doesn’t make it any less brilliant!
And, I really appreciate, setters telling us their thoughts and reading the comments, so thanks to Soup for dropping by.
#26 and #45 Same here: at some point I realised the definitions were missing but wasn‘t aware there were special instructions to be found elsewhere. The Grauniad does encourage us to use the app.
Being an intermediate solver this was too advanced for me, especially with the definitions missing, so I revealed most of the clues and waited for the explanations in the blog.
It was too hard for me, but I enjoyed trying it, making a little progress before giving up. I don’t understand why that should be such a problem.
I think it’s bordering on miraculous that something that’s so much fun is available every day for free.
There are bigger things in life to get upset about, surely, especially now The Ashes have started.
I don’t no why, but this puzzle made me a bit (just a bit) cross.
Btw, the clip is not a xylophone but a vibraphone.
Thanks to scchua for a great blog, and to Petert@1 and Lord Jim@13 for clarifying ADVENT and BURDEN.
But, especially, thanks to Hamish/Soup for the crossword, and for dropping in. The solve was much too hard for me, but the half I managed was fun. XYLOPHONE was my favourite.
(As a Morton fan, I’m used to accepting defeat gracefully. And often.)
As scchua’s blog showed, the crossword was hard but perfectly fair.
gtimprov @59
Indeed. In a xylophone the keys are made of wood – the clue is in the name (xylon is Greek for wood).
I could never listen to most numbers from the MJQ as the sound of the vibraphone sets my teeth on edge.
This took me a very long time to complete and I am rubbish at spotting themes but there were some very enjoyable clues like XYLOPHONE and it feels satisfying to have filled the grid. So thank you Soup, and also thank you Scchua for clarity on some of the half parsed answers.
There are good weeks and there are bad weeks, and this has been a bad week for me in cryptic crosswordland. First pass only yielded ADDRESS, thereafter a real struggle and a dnf. The only personal connection was with the life SPAN of my mother, 100 years young on Wednesday.
Well done those that had more success than I did today…
Firstly, thanks to Scchua for the excellent blog – truly needed today! And thanks to Soup for what I thought was a great crossword. But I’m here to deplore the rudeness of too many contributors. This puzzle defeated me comprehensively, but that’s on me and my skills, not the setter. Shame on the moaners.
Not so much a “Did Not Finish” as “Could Hardly Get Started”. I normally reckon to be a fair way to solving a weekday Cryptic, even a Friday one, part-way through my second (slow) mug of breakfast coffee…. but I got three answers* in and then was utterly stuck. Came back later. No joy. And again. Nope. Gave up.
Well, that’s me taken down a peg or three. Ho Hum.
(* SPAN, ASININE and ZAMBIANS)
Second rough ride in a row. Completed the NE and a smattering of others. I did catch the theme, though, and it helped a bit. I don’t use the check button until I’m done
12a I really wanted to enter ADVENT, but didn’t for lack of parsing. Hamish/Soup’s explanation @31 of “date-covered chocolates” is actually very funny!
1d HYBRID, having never encountered the device before, this is the second time recently I’ve seen a container with the particles separated
21d BURDEN, “Half-upset” for “de” would not be fair, so Lord Jim’s parsing @13 is better
I wonder if the Guardian is returning to form, with easier puzzles early in the week, and harder ones later
Thanks both
A tough one, and besides some checking in the end I had to reveal IRRITABLE–I had PELMET down as an undefined one with “covering” as an envelope indicator, so I thought there must be a definition somewhere in 9ac. Also “table” in US parliamentary procedure means “stop considering,” so with the RI it was hard to work out!
Somewhat abashed to say that I didn’t twig the exact theme until I got HYBRID, even getting to the point of thinking “Intersect and span are synonyms more or less, I wonder if there’s a place for CROSS as a synonym for ANGRY.” In my defense, cross = burden is a bit of a stretch to me even though it’s been used a few times.
Some very nice constructions and surfaces, especially liked ANGRY, ADDRESS, XYLOPHONE (FOI), TRAVERSE, and ETCHED.
Lykacrypt@14: Not just you!
Was also going to raise the same quibble about the blog as gtimprov@59 and muffin@61. For mallet percussion, more or less if it’s metal with resonators it’s a vibraphone; wood with resonators is a marimba; metal no resonators is a glockenspiel (or orchestra bells if it’s big?); wood no resonators is a xylophone. I think.
Thanks Soup and scchua!
Well if we are talking about different percussive keyboard instruments then you *have* to watch this video of Reg Kehoe and his Marimba Queens. The bassist is just FABULOUS, darling.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pyrIUKeTXRA
PS – major kudos to anyone who finished this one, and Scchua for not only finishing but in good time to blog it: also I note Hamish/Soup’s point @31 that the placing of puzzles is outwith his control. Definitely “Hard for a Daily” – “Campbell’s Condensed Soup”? Had it been flagged as a “Come on then , if you think you’re ‘ard enough” level puzzle, I might (might…) have summoned some sinew and persisted; though tbh I doubt I’ve got that much further.
And of course, there’s no need to be rude! Thanks, as always, to setter and blogger.
Nifty. The penny dropped after ANGER and TRAVERSE. After that, the extra dimension of CROSS words was fun.
Admitted defeat after several hours and revealed the last half dozen, one or two of which I struggled to parse. Too tough for a weekday IMHO, but Soup’s point is fair. It was a good training exercise, with much satisfaction coming from the small successes. Thanks both.
muffin @61 If you don’t like the sound of the vibes, try Red Norvo’s early recordings. He played xylophone before switching to vibes.
Not my wavelength, and really not for me, so I think managing to get more than half the clues (by fair means or foul, but not by pressing the ‘reveal’ button) was not bad going at all.
As I often say when this end of the week is (rightly) more at the difficult to impossible end, I’ll take that.
After drawing a complete blank when trying to solve this in the iPhone App, I went to the website and thankfully found the special instructions.
Tough solve and definitely needed the check button. Thankfully Carex gave me a hint to the theme. Thanks to S for the blog and S/H for the crossword and for dropping in.
Many thanks Scchua and to Soup. It is always appreciated when the setter drops in. I was relieved that Eileen, who I admire greatly, also found this a challenge. I certainly found it tough but enjoyed persevering. I did wonder if 24c was an almost playful admission this was never going to be a write in.
I enjoyed winkling out the undefined and thematic clues. I couldn’t crack IRRITABLE though, before getting the theme right. I didn’t know RI, and when punching the crossers into a word-filler-inner there were too many options.
My take on the theme earlier on, with words like ANKH, SPAN, TRAVERSE, INTERSECT, DIAGONAL, and the Special Instructions their entries defined by the puzzle itself , was that there was something to be found if you looked at the letters running diagonally in the form of a cross. Went cross-eyed trying that!
Missed the significance of puzzle>crossword>cross word. I was being too visual, instead of verbal, probably because I had just been looking at Douglas Adam’s visual puzzle of Number 42 (after Pangakupu’s latest).
Looking back I think that Soup gave multiple signposts, including the two prominently in the middle, SPAN and ANKH, and the first two intersecting clues in the NW corner, where many people start, both of which were gettable without knowing the theme at that stage.
There have been many weekday puzzles which I have found more difficult, and less fun. More Soup please!
I do wish this had run on a Saturday when I would’ve had hours, not a Friday when I only can give it 25 minutes or so. Alan Connor, ye bastard!
Nobody gave me any “special instructions”. As a result this was not much fun as I slogged away to the end. I feel Soup has been done a disservice. However, we had one of these before where various clues had no definition (Ludwig? April 1?) I’m sure it’s already in the comments, but I can’t be bothered today, anyway, it’s not an experiment that works for me. Thanks all.
But mrpenney #77. Sometimes, even often times nowadays, we get a Prize that’s easier to solve than a weekday puzzle. You may be glad of some leftover Soup. :
That is a great video Hamish #68, the bassist is crazy!
(On the other hand mrpenney@77, I was dreading who todaý’s Prize setter might be, and I wish I had some leftover soup. I know we have different tastes. )
[Antonknee It was great. What followed (for me) was very revealing about Trump
Times Radio video]
Soup, old chap. I’m firmly of the opinion that setters should have a sense of humour, and I think that you’ve put the matter beyond doubt with this puzzle, so it’s point proven.
In principle, the solver was put into a Catch Twenty-Two position: he can’t solve the crossword until the special instructions are properly understood, and those can’t be got with certainty until the puzzle is – at least substantially – solved.
Whatever, my first solve was THWART, which was unfortunate really, as I think that it’s an outlier among synonyms for “cross”, meaning for me rather to outwit, or to preempt.
I made shameless use of the check facility to verify deduced solutions where there apparently wasn’t a definition – and that was seldom clear – until the theme struck me.
Thanks one and all.
FWIW I’ve discovered that the special instructions are available in the Guardian app, if you tap the ? icon. Hidden, for sure, but there if you know where to look (but why would you?).
Left me in the bouillabaisse…and cross!
This really was quite hard – today’s Prize Paul was straightforward by comparison – & took me longer than usual. Things got easier after HYBRID when I realised the theme, but it was never plain sailing & I have to tip my hat to Soup for his deviousness in using so many different meanings of “cross”.
I certainly should have struggled without the special instructions so I sympathise with anybody who went without. But overall, I’d be happy with a few more crosswords like this. Not every day though.
I parsed 20 slightly differently, with “north of Zambia and South Africa” as the first and last letters of Zambia and Africa, and an &lit definition.
Soup’s wry comment on a Facebook group was “If you’ve got a spare three days…” And I duly finished this one this morning.
I have no idea what the Grauniad was playing at in not having this as the Prize. It’s the sort of thing you may well spend quite a lot of time chewing over; and absolute kudos to those who finished it on Friday. And whatever is one up from kudos to any one who managed to crack it without the special instructions.
And I was especially grateful to Soup for cheering me up this morning; I was feeling distinctly 22d with the Observer, who have evidently decided that the Everyman isn’t difficult enough, so they will leave out the enumeration.
That said, as someone has said here, it’s a crossword. If it’s not to your taste, leave it.
Thanks to Soup for a clever and frequently witty puzzle, and to scchua for the customary impeccably thorough blog.
Phew finally had to thrown in the towel after three days (our first DNF this year so well and truly beaten by Soup) … we do it on old fashioned paper so didn’t have the advantage of the Check or Reveal buttons. That was a toughie! But the ones we did manage to solve were very satisfying.
Soup @31 thanks for the challenge … now need a lie down. And thanks to Scchua for the blog, which is very much needed today!
This crossword was very challenging; the grid layout didn’t help.
That said, I thought the theme was very clever.
Thanks to blogger and setter.
Genius theme and some genius clues but oh what a slog that early promise became. My advice to Soup:,do not wear all your ribbons ion one bonnet! Many thanks to all – I have only just finished this!
Managed to solve 18 clues and left it at that. Nothing on Friday but Saturday afternoon produced 9a and 11d which gave me theme as I parsed 9a wrong and thought it was an indirect anagram. Few more over weekend but that was it. This was like Mahler: brilliant, challenging and sometimes beyond me but still worth listening to. Nobody will read this but never mind… Thank you Soup and Scchua
I gave this a couple of extra days, treating it as a pseudo-prize. But much as I like the idea of the theme, which we did get, we’re just stuck with about 2/3 in, and copious use of aids. So… too hard for me. Agree Forest Fan @92 that the grid didn’t help.
This was a real challenge, not helped by this solver being so dense that I got 10 of the 11 undefined answers and still didn’t get the theme until I read scchua’s exceptional blog. Ultimately a DNF as I was timed-out and defeated by THWART (ironically) and UNRENEWED. Enjoyed the attempt though, and I can’t find anything unfair or impossible. Favourite: ADVENT, which I thought was magnificent.
Hamish (85), there is no ? Icon in the Guardian Editions app.
This was like a Genius puzzle for me, and like ravenrider at comment 9 says, more difficult than some, but I managed to get most out except for four words. Caught the theme quickly with one down being hybrid. Did not have irritable (had not heard of RI, but should have got the answer from the crossers, thwart, burden, and much to my “doh” and shame, span. Advent was very clever.
After a week of struggling I started using the reveal button. Some great clues, e.g. XYLOPHONE and MOLASSES, but some seemed unfair to me. I know there’s no rule to this effect, but I took “stripped” in 1d to mean both names lost an equal number of letters. And in 9ac, surely IR is not more scientists retracting, it’s the same scientists.
Well, finally completed yesterday! Used pen, paper and Chambers as usual, so no checks or reveals. Came here to reveal the parsing of BURNED only to discover that I had mis-counted the themed clues. I like to think that if I had known it was a themed clue that I could have seen BURDEN, so a moral victory…
Mrs. Jumper was in the “life’s too short” camp, so I had to slog it out alone.
Thanks to scchua and, reluctantly, to Soup.
TripleJumper, my other half is so much in that camp that he won’t do them at all, and his eyes glaze over a bit on the occasions I try to explain a really clever clue.
David@97: working on it. Thanks.