Brendan provides the Tuesday Guardian challenge this week …
… and a challenge it was. Despite having a bit of knowledge of probability and statistics, I struggled with this.
In particular, I am not entirely sure of the wordplay / parsing for GUESSWORK (29 across), CUBIC (13 down) and TOSSED (23 down)
I am fairly happy with my definition and wordplay for TOSSED and I have pasted, immediately below, a fairly badly worded extract from the internet, that might explain CUBIC. However, the parsing of GUESSWORK still eludes me.
An Artificial Intelligence search on the internet tells me that a “cubic random number” likely refers to generating random numbers near the centre (like 0 for a range like -1 to 1) are more probable than extreme values (like -1 or 1), or it could be a misunderstanding of cube numbers (like 8, 27, 64) or using a physical cubic die for random selection. In computing, it usually means using a function that produces numbers with a non-uniform, cubical shape for their probability density, often for simulations where central tendency is key.
No, I don’t really understand it either, but it does relate to CUBIC to randomness. (The comment at 4 below, suggests a much simpler parsing)
For GUESSWORK, the best I can offer is that GUESt or GUEStS, excluding the T (time), refers to ‘company’ and K is the last letter [end of] weeK. Maybe WORK refers to the time before a week-end (a time when one doesn’t work)? But, as many people do work at week-ends, I don’t have much faith in that suggestion. I look forward to solvers explaining what I have failed to see. (I knew it wouldn’t take long – see comments at 2 and 3 below, which explain that WORK is parsed as W OR K, either of the end letters of WeeK)
At 27 down, I wondered whether RAKE and playboy were synonyms. I don’t think all playboys are necessarily as debauched and dissolute as RAKEs.
Despite my struggles, there was much to enjoy in this puzzle as the theme of probability, gambling and gameplay in various forms was well handled and covered a wide range of scenarios. There were some good definitions requiring a bit of lateral thinking and some clever wordplay.
Thanks to Brendan for the challenge.
| Across | |
| 9 | Chance to happen, as you announced in gallery, on drawing (9)
EVENTUATE (turn out; happen) EVEN (tied on the same score; drawing) + (U [sounds like {as announced} YOU] contained in (in) TATE (reference one of the TATE art galleries) EVEN T (U) ATE |
| 10 | Location for dicey games lacking excitement, we hear (5)
BOARD (games involving dice are often played on a BOARD) BOARD (sounds like [we hear] BORED [wearied by tedious things; lacking excitement]) BOARD |
| 11 | Probability in relating to one sense organ – or another (5)
OPTIC (relating to the eye; relating to [another] sense organ) P ([statistical] probability – abbreviation listed in the Oxford Dictionary of English) contained in (in) OTIC (relating to the ear; relating to the sense of hearing) O (P) TIC |
| 12 | Origin of theme in Brendan’s collection – they can be hard to solve (9)
MYSTERIES (things that are hard to solve) T (first letter of [origin of] Theme) contained in (in) (MY [the crossword setter’s [Brendan’s] + SERIES [set /collection of things]) MY S (T) ERIES |
| 13 | Associated with probability one can tire when wrecked (7)
CERTAIN (descriptive of an outcome with a probability of one; something associated with probability) Anagram of (when wrecked) CAN TIRE CERTAIN* |
| 14 | Bet on way of escaping and withdraw (4,3)
BACK OUT (withdraw) BACK (support by placing a wager; bet) + OUT (a way of escaping) BACK OUT |
| 17 | Wager I had placed inside – it helps one clean up (5)
BIDET (basin on a low pedestal, for washing the genital and anal areas, etc; it helps one clean up) I’D (I had) contained in (placed inside) BET (wager) B (ID) ET |
| 18 | Not enough, as cash – toss for it (3)
SHY (short, lacking) SHY (specifically, short in payment, especially in the game of poker, not enough cash) SHY (toss) triple definition? – maybe just a double definition as the first two are variations on the same definition. SHY |
| 19 | A non-English type in English course that offers better opportunities (5)
ASCOT (an English racecourse which offers opportunities for punters to lay bets; an English course that offers better opportunities) A + SCOT (a person from Scotland; a non- English type) A SCOT |
| 21 | Poet having change of heart is opportunist (7)
CHANCER (opportunist) CHAUCER (reference Geoffrey CHAUCER [c1343 – 1400], English poet) with the central letter U replaced by N (change of heart) to form CHANCER CHANCER |
| 23 | Diplomacy’s about constant plans to reduce risk (7)
TACTICS (the science or art of manoeuvring in the presence of the enemy; plans to reduce risk) TACT IS (diplomacy is, diplomacy’s) containing (about) C (specifically, a constant representing the speed of light; more generally, a constant in mathematics) TACT I (C) S |
| 24 | Embezzles or gambles after initial loss (9)
PECULATES (appropriates dishonestly for one’s own use; embezzles) sPECULATES (gambles) excluding the first letter S (after initial loss) PECULATES |
| 26 | Player out of luck, perhaps? Not so far losing head (5)
LOSER (a player who doesn’t win; a player out of luck) cLOSER (not so far) excluding the first letter C (losing head) LOSER |
| 28 | Uncertain news from France I don’t broadcast (2-3)
ON-DIT (French word for hearsay or rumour; uncertain news) Anagram of (broadcast) I DON’T ON-DIT* |
| 29 | Company losing little time before a week-end? It has some chance of success (9)
GUESSWORK (a conjecture which has some chance of success) I’m not entirely sure of the parsing here. We have GUESt or GUEStS (company) excluding (losing) T (abbreviation for [little] time) and we have K (last letter of [end of] worK), but that leaves TWOR or WOR that I can’t fit into the wordplay. Perhap’s there is some reference to TWO (as in TWO’s company …) excluding the T? I am sure someone will tell me what I am missing. GUESSWORK |
| Down | |
| 1 | Minimum probability one can get out of maze, roughly (4)
ZERO (A probability of zero is the lowest possible probability that relates to an outcome that will not happen) ZERO (hidden word in [out of] maZE ROughly) ZERO |
| 2 | Person risking money on form of Edward is beaten (8)
BETTERED (beaten) BETTER (someone risking money on a wager) + ED (one of the shortened forms of EDward) BETTER ED |
| 3 | Calm about players including husband – it’s randomly determined (10)
STOCHASTIC (random; it’s randomly determined) STOIC (indifferent to pleasure or pain; calm) containing (about) (CAST [players in the theatre] containing [including] H [husband]) STO (C (H) AST) IC |
| 4 | Stake a lot – mostly that’s nonprofessional (6)
LAYMAN (a non-professional person) LAY (place a bet; stake) + MANy (a lot) excluding the final letter Y (mostly) LAY MAN |
| 5 | Within bounds of possibility, female having no difficulty ensnaring bachelor (8)
FEASIBLY (within the bounds of possibility) F (female) + (EASILY [having no difficulty] containing [ensnaring] B [bachelor]) F EASI (B) LY |
| 6 | Accomplished what’s likely after 24 down (4)
ABLE (skilled; accomplished) ABLE can be placed after PROB [the entry at 24 down] to form PROBABLE [likely] ABLE |
| 7 | Place for gambling in which cash is not always endless (6)
CASINO (a place for gambling) CASh excluding the final letter H (endless) + Is excluding the final letter S (endless) + NOt excluding the final letter T (endless) [CASh Is NOt always endless] CAS IN O |
| 8 | Probability of dice delivering six initially (4)
ODDS (probability) ODDS (first letters [initially] of each of Of, Dice, Delivering and Six) O D D S |
| 13 | Like simple random number generator, sugar? (5)
CUBIC (one form of sugar is CUBE-shaped [CUBIC]) CUBIC – I am defeated by the wordplay or second definition here, as I can’t see how CUBIC can be defined as random. Surely a cube of a number (a CUBIC) is clearly defined as the number raised to the power three? However, see the material in the introduction to the blog that attempts to relate CUBIC to randomness. CUBIC |
| 15 | Perfectly played in part of church, with female ending (10)
CHANCELESS (without [an opportunity for] error; perfectly played) CHANCEL (the eastern part of a church, originally separated from the nave by a screen of latticework to prevent general access to the altar, sanctuary and choir) + –ESS (suffix indicating a female) CHANCEL ESS |
| 16 | Betting system’s takes (5)
TOTES (carries; takes) TOTE’S (Totalizer’s [betting system’s]) TOTES |
| 18 | Contract overturned in random long- term plan (8)
STRATEGY (long-term plan) GET (contract as in ‘get a disease’ [contract a disease’]) reversed (overturned) and contained in (in) STRAY (casual; isolated; random) STRA (TEG<) Y |
| 20 | Approach counter in gaming club and drink (4,4)
CHIP SHOT (an approach SHOT to the green in golf) CHIP (a small flat piece of wood used to represent money in a casino [gaming club]) + SHOT (a dram [a small drink of whisky]) CHIP SHOT |
| 22 | A wrong card, bridge player concludes, for game situation (6)
ARCADE (an amusement location for playing games) A + an anagram of (wrong) CARD + E (East, a designation for one of the four bridge players) A RCAD* E |
| 23 | Decisively raised a little bit of money – wasn’t easy (6)
TOSSED (reference a coin [little bit of money] thrown up in the air to make a decision; decisively raised a little bit of money) TOSSED – another clue where I am a bit unsure of the wordplay. Possibly a reference to being TOSSED about [rolled or thrown violently from side to side] in a situation that wasn’t easy? TOSSED |
| 24 | A little difficulty? Before 6, it’s to be expected (4)
PROB (informal, abbreviated [little] term for a problem [difficulty]) PROB can be placed before ABLE [the entry at 6 down] to form PROBABLE [likely] PROB |
| 25 | Something drawn using paper a great deal? (4)
LOTS (something drawn as in ‘draw LOTS‘) LOTS (a great deal) double definition LOTS |
| 27 | Playboy that takes in money at roulette table (4)
RAKE (a tool for various purposes, toothed, notched or bladed and with a long handle (e.g. a croupier’s implement for drawing in money at a roulette table) RAKE (debauched or dissolute person; playboy [light-hearted irresponsible person, who, to me, doesn’t sound quite as bad as a RAKE) double definition RAKE |
TOSSED as in coin, is correct I think. Annoying, as it was where I failed. (Pass the tea tray). A very nice Tuesday challenge. Thanks Brendan and duncanshiell
Guesswork….guests without t + w or k end of week?
GUESSWORK
weekend W OR K
CUBIC
Is the clue referring to a die, which is a cube?
23d Tossed as in being uneasy, agitated (toss and turn)?
David Boddington @ 2 and KVa @ 3
Thanks – that makes a lot of sense and is clearly correct.
KVa @ 4
That too makes a lot of sense, as a die can be considered to be a random number generator, if it isn’t loaded. Your suggestion is certainly more understandable than the extract I found on the internet.
13d a die is cubic and can be used to generate random numbers?
Thanks Brendan and Duncanshiell
I saw a theme!
I did parse CUBIC (as KVa), but failed on GUESSWORK; also on STRATEGY.
Fasvourite CHIP SHOT for the misleading definition.
TOSSED
Does this work?
Easy: slightly drunk
TOSSED: heavily drunk
adam @5 has it right imo.
not easy = uneasy and tossed as with turned.
i threw in cubed for 13d way too quickly and got properly stuck on the poet/gambler before the penny dropped as ’twere
I thought the theme would defeat me but the lovely clues made it a reasonably straightforward solve. I managed to solve it consecutively, which is rare for me. I also parsed the clever GUESSWORK as DB & KVa and I also thought like KVa of the sugar cube shaped die as a random number generator (haven’t seen ERNIE for a long time). ASCOT was a bit of a groan and I was surprised to see ‘losing’ in the clue for LOSER. Nice to see STRATEGY alongside TACTICS as well.
Ta Brendan & duncanshiell.
Definitely tough for a Tuesday! 4d held me up for a while as I had PARLAY, which also works [par(t)lay]. But I got LAYMAN eventually. I was fine with CUBIC and GUESSWORK.
So I’m annoyed to have missed TOSSED, my first failure of the year as well. I had TESTED which at least fitted the definition even if there was some guesswork in the wordplay.
Nonetheless, a very entertaining puzzle. Thanks to Brendan and duncanshiell!
As someone with a maths degree and an interest in poker and probability I should have found this easier than I did.
Funny that alanc@12 mentioned ERNIE I was expecting him to make an appearance today.
Liked GUESSWORK (parsed as above) and STOCHASTIC.
When you start playing games with polyhedral dice the regular die is referred to as the cubic die so it can be differentiated. I did originally have CUBES in there which slowed me down.
Also unsure about TOSSED but happy with previous comments.
Thanks Duncan and Brendan.
With KVA and Colm on cubic relating to the use of a die to generate random numbers
Have seen it referred to as the “cubic method” for such use
Enjoyed this with a theme I am at least know som3thing abou, unlike many other themes which have exposed the extensive holes in my general knowledge
Thanks to Brendan for the fun and duncansheill for filling in the parsing gaps
That was so tough! I failed with 23d TOSSED where I also had TESTED, Lockjaw@13. I was unsure of several parses so I’m glad to be able to come here to get it all to make sense with the help of the blog and other participants. I still enjoyed the puzzle and the theme, and particularly liked 21a CHANCER.
Thanks to duncanshiell and Brendan.
Well, I was fine with pebbles on the beach yesterday but this was no fun for me. Worked out a few, guessed some more and got STOCHASTIC (really?) via crossers and Crossword Solver then lost the will. I liked CHANCER, BOARD, ON-DIT and OPTIC.
A personal clue in a Brendan puzzle is something special indeed! It made my day. Thanks Brendan!!
A brilliant puzzle, enjoyed it thoroughly. Many favourites including PROB ABLE, STOCHASTIC, CHANCELESS, CUBIC, PECULATES (a jorum but a nice word), EVENTUATE. Thanks Duncan for the blog!
After the first three clues, guessed we might see STOCHASTIC somewhere, but the smugness of being right was erased when being defeated by TOSSED at the end.
Agree with those who see CUBIC as being related to dice.
I too put in CHANCER, but I think CHAUCER technically works too, although the reading there is a little more awkward.
Amman @17 Stochastic was my favourite! As soon as I got the theme I was hoping it would make the cut
I think that TOSSED, which I didn’t get, needs the definition “decisively raised a little bit of money” (ie tossed a coin to decide), with “wasn’t easy” being used slang-wise as in “that exam paper tossed”.
Like many others I couldn’t get TOSSED. There was no ‘oh of course’ moment when I read the answer. I still don’t really get it. I put in CUBIC as it was the only possible answer. Being a mathematician didn’t help at all. Enjoyed the rest very much. Favourite CHIPSHOT.
DropBear@20 I’m glad someone liked STOCHASTIC. I have an arts background and good general knowledge but probability and statistics are not my thing!
Is TOSSED as wasn’t easy referring to tossing and turning, so wasn’t at rest? I am always amazed at Brendan’s ability to include so much thematic material.
Not my thing today, either. The clues didn’t really appeal as I read through them. Just me…
Missed out on TOSSED and LAYMAN. Should have got the latter.
Given the theme, the expression ‘you have to PECULATE to accumulate’ seems apt.
As a non-mathematician, non-gambler, non-bridge player, and non-golfer, I felt decidedly at a disadvantage with this…
Thought this was a great puzzle apart from the rather poor 26a where the clue contains most of the answer. Thanks to B and D
KVa#4: yes, a die (a cube with numbers on it) is one of the simplest random number generators, along with a coin and a teetotum
PECULATES was new to me, but guessing at a shortening of speculates got me there. Even with all the comments above, I still don’t get TOSSED.
Fun fact: Roman dice were often irregular, and therefore not fair like modern dice. It has been suggested that the Romans believed that fate decided the outcome, so the shape didn’t really matter.
I assumed that CUBIC had something to do with dice. Couldn’t parse GUESSWORK.
Didn’t get TOSSED, and wasn’t aware of P=probability (Chambers doesn’t have it) but bunged OPTIC anyway.
Thanks for the elucidation.
In 25, “Something drawn using paper a great deal?“ what does paper add?
Something drawn is LOTS
A great deal is LOTS
Something drawn using paper is a drawing?
“They divide my garments among them: and cast lots for my clothing” – paper had not been invented then.
Like many others, defeated by TOSSED. I entered TESTED, thinking “wasn’t easy” for definition and “decisively raised” to give TES (set reversed) but was left wondering how “a little bit of money” gave TED. It doesn’t. Overall very enjoyable and the theme suited me having worked in clinical trials and statistics – I was surprised to see the huffy comments in the G blog from people who assumed statistics is only about gambling.
…and JaMaNn@33, agreed “Something drawn a great deal” would have done the job.
My knowledge of the language of probability theory is small, so the significance of “one” in the clue for CERTAIN escaped me. I liked the CUBIC random number generator.
There should be a term for those words that you work out from wordplay and know to exist and be valid, but have never been sure what they mean: STOCHASTIC is today’s example. Not quite a jorum. CHANCELESS, on the other hand, has a pretty obvious meaning but I never knew until today that it was a real word. I gave up on that one and GUESSWORK, and I didn’t know ON-DIT, though I see it’s in Chambers (it would be, wouldn’t it), marked as “Fr”. I didn’t like the ugly split of PROB/ABLE.
LOTS and “with paper”: my Oxford Dictionary of English says “the making of a decision by random selection, especially by a method involving the choice of one from a number of pieces of folded paper, one of which has a concealed mark”.
Crossword compilers and lexicographers! What a bunch, eh?
Sarah@28: “As a non-mathematician, non-gambler, non-bridge player, and non-golfer, I felt decidedly at a disadvantage with this…” — yeah, I suppose that’s what GK is all about!
TOSSED: Seems to me as if Brendan came up with a straight cryptic def for this one (Decisively raised a little bit of money) … and then thought that might be too hard so added the second def.
I think he ended up with a rather good clue.
Brendan’s usual impressive grid-filling. Even though it may be a chestnut, I enjoyed the clue for ASCOT with its misleading surface. I also liked CHIP SHOT and ARCADE. I failed to parse CERTAIN (I needed the blog interpretation for the ‘one’). GUESSWORK (clever!) and ARCADE.
Thanks Brendan and Duncan.
pserve – p2 @ 37: “Crossword compilers and lexicographers! What a bunch, eh?” Harmless drudges, to quote Dr Johnson.
I’m in with several others here. I took cubic to refer to dice, I had parsed guesswork with work being Mon-Fri before a weekend (but much prefer “w or k” now it’s been pointed out) and had tested with “set” raised and a puzzled expression for the rest. I’m still not totally convinced by either of the suggested parsing for “wan’t easy”.
A nice challenge, this being Tuesday if the week continues to increase in difficulty Roz should be happy on Friday.
Some of these compilers have really weird brains
Stochastic is how SJ Gould describes evolution — drunkard’s walk rather than Design.
Great puzzle, provoking theme, ta Brendan and duncan.
Sorry if I’m being dense but I still don’t understand where the parsing for GUESSWORK comes from (more specificially, what “W or K” refers to).
I didn’t get TOSSED but as others have mentioned it’s surely a reference to sleeping (didn’t sleep easy, i.e. wasn’t easy = tossed and turned)
Sen @45
The weekend (“end of WeeK”) is either W or K. (I didn’t see that.)
Sen#45: as KVa#3 pointed out, an end of the word “week” (both of which you get from a “lift-and-separate” procedure on the word “weekend”) is either W or K
(muffin#46 – we crossed)
Thanks both for the fuller explanation, I see it now – so the fact that the clue says ‘a Week-end’ rather than ‘the week-end’ is actually quite important, to tell you mean it could mean either end of the word. That’s quite intricate!
In 13d I think simple random number generator = dice, which like a sugar lump is cubic.
29a can be parsed if we take “work” to be what comes before a weekend.
I did it all pretty quickly but put ‘tested’ for 23d. Def: Wasn’t easy = tested (or even tester?) but couldn’t parse, so it probably is tossed, although I’m not particularly happy with that.
As ever, half done quickly, the rest impossible.
Thanks both.
29A isn’t ‘work’ just what you do ‘before a week-end’?
Ianw@51, see my note #34. We need to put our heads together and dredge up an obscure currency that uses the ted as its equivalent of the penny.
Thanks Brendan for a well-crafted challenge. I was impressed with the depth of the theme and some of the inventive definitions. Unfortunately I used more GUESSWORK than logic to solve much of this. It was still worthwhile due to clues like ASCOT, TACTICS (LOI), LOSER, ZERO (took forever to see), CASINO, and ODDS. Thanks duncanshiell for the blog.
I rarely give up on a crossword, but gambling is not a world I know, and I am concerned about the harm it causes.
Thanks for the blog , very neat set of clues not spoiled by the theme . It requires very little actual knowledge of probability , gambling etc .
I am with the poor sleeper suggestions for TOSSED .
I am surprised that people did not know STOCHASTIC from the cooling method for particle beams invented by Simon van der Meer .
Sagittarius@22, I parsed it the same way
My heart sinks a little when I see a Brendan, I’m afraid. I find his cluing often impenetrable and clunky. And today’s quasi-mathematical hinterland lost me completely.
Really well worked theme. Probability is the one bit of mathematics I remember enjoying at school. Got TOSSED once I thought of tossing & turning, but wasn’t satisfied & it was a toss-up between that & TESTED.
When CHANCELESS is used of an innings in cricket I think it means the batsman gave no chance to the bowlers or fielders to get him out. So while the batsman made no mistakes, it is the fielding side, strictly speaking, who were chanceless. I’ve always hated the term.
For 14a, I think BACK is “bet on” rather than “bet”.
[ Roz@57, I am equally surprised that no one thought of the avant-garde music theorist Hans auf der Hinderbitz, who designed the test for analyzing aleatoric music – the SAT (Stochastic Attitude Test). ]
As a Sunday Monday solver, who occasionally attempts Tuesday, I was pleased to get most of this. Unlike Martin@59 I perk up and persevere when it is Brendan because our paths crossed briefly – playing bridge at Queen’s Belfast in 1969. I studied Maths & Stats, so today’s theme worked for me and being a golfer CHIP SHOT was my fav. Many thanks to Brendan (Brian) and all the bloggers on this site
I thought ‘wasn’t easy’ could be the opposite of ‘I’m easy’ [“
do you mind if I have the last cherry?; no, let’s toss a coin] or when it’s difficult to be decisive ‘it’s a toss up’ […whether cricket or golf is of least interest to me].
I studied maths as an adjuct to physics, so even though probability and statistics were my least favourite parts of the course, that long ago background was of quite some help with this tone. Quite a few parsings were beyond me – GUESSWORK for one – so I’m very grateful to duncanshiell and the various bloggers in reassuring me of the inner logic that I often missed.
The SE corner held out strongly to the end but I did manage to finish. (That was this morning… It’s been a very busy day!)
Quite a workout, Brendan!
Very pleased that I actually parsed them all eventually – except for TOSSED, I had TESTED which works just as well/badly, perhaps slightly better even. Though it took me far longer than it should have to see CHANCELESS. I was staring at CHANCEL for ages before the penny dropped.
Thanks, duncanshiell and everyone — and especially Dior@63 for bringing back memories of bridge at Queen’s.
Brian Greer@67
Thanks for dropping by.
Was thinking you might throw light on
TOSSED.
[Re @44, I wonder hm 225ers have read any of SJ Gould’s 20-odd books, or his great debates with Richard Dawkins in the NYT during the ’90s]
[ Cellomaniac@62 you are just being silly , great spoof name though , the SAT is used for gyroscopes . Simon van der Meer won a Nobel Prize ( a real one ) , his method led to the SPS and the discovery of the W and Z bosons . ]
[ Grant@69 , I am not a fan of popualr science books but have read a lot of his articles in the Natural History journal . ]
I was another with TESTED instead of TOSSED, but then got inward blank screen when it came to parsing.
I liked the W or K ruse.
Thanks all.
Dior@63 and Brian Greer@67: that makes three of us who were at QUB in 1969 (Applied Maths in my case). A statistical fluke, surely 🙂 I wasn’t a bridge player at the time however.
Thanks everyone for several parsings. Very slow going for me but I got there in the end with lots of what I class as cheating, and for once I recognised the theme straightaway. Personally, I rather liked the PROB ABLE split… And I do enjoy the sense I get that many of you on here know each other in real life. (I stopped myself from writing IRL).
Topnotch – as ever – from the fabulous, entertaining Brendan
Respect for duncanshiell’s effort and generosity and admiration of a beautifully presented blog
Many thanks both and all
It’s odd. For two or three months before Christmas I rarely thought of Lord Chesterfield and his excellent pieces of advice. But, since Christmas, I’ve thought of him often and, in particular, of this piece of advice:
“Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket, and do not pull it out and strike it merely to show you have one. If you are asked what o’clock it is, tell it, but do not proclaim it hourly and unasked, like the watchman.”
I knew STOCHASTIC from Robert Silverberg’s Stochastic Man, a 50 or more years old SF paperback about someone who was good at guessing being coached to actually “see” the future. Other answers were less obvious and I only finished it when picking up yesterday’s Guardian again the next afternoon. I say finished, but I had a desperate stab at GAMMON for 4d, with a loose reference to backgammon and an equally loose equivalence between gammon and ham = amateur. Close, but a little shy of the coconut.
Thanks to Brendan/Brian (no need to explain TOSSED as far as I’m concerned) and Duncan for your valiant attempts at GUESSWORK’s parsing, which completely eluded me.
Rogerpat 76,
[Someone reminded us – recently perhaps – of the saying “Don’t wear all your ribbons on one hat” which, I think, runs parallel to that advice.]
I chipped away at this one over a few days, and got to within four, except I see I had 14a BACK OFF instead of OUT, so within five. The theme helped
7a CASINO was clever, though not difficult. 20d CHIP SHOT had a good misdirecting surface
Always smile when I see Brendan’s name atop a puzzle. He has a wonderful way of making a theme obvious rather than mysterious, and yet still manages to hold the solver’s interest with the surfaces and the parsing without requiring intimate knowledge of said theme. Favourites were mysteries, Ascot, stochastic and chip shot.