The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29953.
I was more than happy to see Qaos as the setter for this blog – his clues are seldom impenetrable, but are ingenious and witty.This puzzle held up his reputation in my book, with my favourite clues being 9A ALICE and the ingenious 2D NECK. Of course, there is a theme, announced in 24A (in part) BLING. In the grid, I see NECKLACE, ALICE BAND, PEARLS, SIGNET RING, EARRING and/or EAR CLIP, CUFF LINK, and CHAIN (I wanted something to go with that, but the nearest I could find was SKI CHAIN, which does not strike me as a thing). EYELINER is related, but does not quite belong with the rest. Are there any more that I have missed?
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | BEVERAGE |
During game First Lady has energy drink (8)
|
| A charade of BEVERAG, an envelope (‘during’) of EVE (Biblical ‘First Lady’) in BRAG (card ‘game’); plus E (‘energy’). | ||
| 9 | ALICE |
A story involving Carroll’s lead girl (5)
|
| An envelope (‘involving’) of C (‘Caroll’s lead’) in ‘a’ plus LIE (‘story’). Before you complain about the use of ‘girl’ to define a girl’s name, note that the clue has an extended definition, with reference to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. | ||
| 10 | LINK |
100 escape jail ring (4)
|
| A subtraction: [c]LINK (‘jail’) minus the C (‘100 escape’ – or should it be “escapes”?). | ||
| 11 | MESSENGERS |
European town beset by germs spread by couriers (10)
|
| Am envelope (‘beset by’) of ESSEN (‘European town’, specifically German) in MGERS, an anagram (‘spread’) of ‘germs’. | ||
| 12 | CANNED |
Drunk princess breaks record (6)
|
| An envelope (‘breaks’) of ANNE (‘princess’) in CD (‘record’). | ||
| 14 | THEORISE |
God is protecting Earth leading everyone to speculate (8)
|
| A charade of THEORIS, an envelope (‘protecting’) of E (the first one, ‘Earth’) in THOR (‘god’) plus ‘is’; plus E (‘leading Everyone’). | ||
| 16 | VERBOSE |
Long winded poetry describes flower seen in the mirror (7)
|
| An envelope (‘describes’) of BO, a reversal (‘seen in the mirror’ – well, with a little leeway) of OB (‘flower’. It’s a river in Siberia) in VERSE (‘poetry’). | ||
| 18 | ORDEALS |
Read about the origin of law throughout sailor’s trials (7)
|
| An envelope (‘throughout’) of RDEA, an anagram (‘about’) of ‘read’ plus L (‘the origin of Law’) in OS (Ordinary Seaman, ‘sailor’). | ||
| 21 | PIPEFISH |
Hippies excited to catch fellow swimmer (8)
|
| An envelope (‘to catch’) of F (‘fellow’) in PIPEISH, an anagram (‘excited’) of ‘hippies’. | ||
| 23 | SPRING |
Season starter of nachos – garnish with bit of greenery (6)
|
| An envelope (‘garnish with’) of N (‘starter of Nachos’) in SPRIG (‘bit of greenery’). | ||
| 24 | ASSEMBLING |
A tip about jewellery making (10)
|
| A charade of ‘a’ plus SSEM, a reversal (‘about’) of MESS (‘tip’; among the definitions of tip in Chambers is “an extremely untidy place”) plus BLING (‘jewellery’). | ||
| 26 | CUFF |
Hit copper with great force (4)
|
| A charade of CU (chemical symbol, ‘copper’) plus FF (fortissimo, ‘with great force’). | ||
| 27 | CHAIN |
Mate finally moving to centre of mountain range (5)
|
| CHINA (plate, rhyming slang ‘mate’) with the last letter moved to the middle (‘finally moving to centre’). | ||
| 28 | EYELINER |
On river long ago, you returned with make-up (8)
|
| A reversal (‘returned’) of RE (‘on’) plus NILE (‘river’) plus YE (‘long ago, you’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DELICATE |
Fine iced tea brew includes slice of lemon (8)
|
| An encelope (‘includes’) of L (‘slice of Lemon’) in DEICATE, an anagram (‘brew’) of ‘iced tea’. | ||
| 2 | NECK |
Passionately kiss fashion designer after 1-0? (4)
|
| A charade of NE, a subtraction of [o]NE (‘1’) minus (‘-‘) O (‘0’); plus CK (Calvin Klein, ‘fashion designer’). | ||
| 3 | WARMED |
Heated battle over sea (6)
|
| A charade of WAR (‘battle’) plus MED (Mediterranean ‘sea’). | ||
| 4 | DENSITY |
God admits partners’ stupidity (7)
|
| An envelope (‘admits’) of NS (bridge ‘partners’) in DEITY (‘god’). | ||
| 5 | LACE |
Frozen without top of thin material (4)
|
| A subtraction: [g]LACÉ (‘frozen’) minus its first letter (‘without top’). | ||
| 6 | GINGER BEER |
8 queen put on big green pants (6,4)
|
| An envelope (‘put on’) of ER (one-time ‘queen’) in GINGBEER, an anagram (‘pants’) of ‘big green’. | ||
| 7 | PEARLS |
Prized examples of fruit, large and small (6)
|
| A charade of PEAR (‘fruit’) plus L (‘large’) plus S (‘small’). | ||
| 13 | NOBLE METAL |
Award – final two exchanged money and the rest gold? (5,5)
|
| A charade of NOBLE, which is NOBEL (‘award’) with ‘final two exchanged’; plus M (‘money’) plus ET AL (‘and the rest’). The question mark is for the indication by example. | ||
| 15 | EAR |
The Listener’s not half simple, right? (3)
|
| A charade of EA[sy] (‘simple’) minus its last two letters (‘not half’); plus R (‘right’). | ||
| 17 | SKI |
Runner is prepared to tackle 1K (3)
|
| An envelope (‘to tackle’) of K (‘1K’ – and there is just one there) in SI, an anagram (!, ‘prepared’) of ‘is’. | ||
| 19 | LINE FEED |
Neil cooked oats, maybe to control character (4,4)
|
| A charade of LINE, an anagram (‘cooked’) of ‘Neil’ plus FEED (‘oats, maybe’). | ||
| 20 | CHAIRED |
Church director installs locks then ran meeting (7)
|
| An envelope (‘installs’) of HAIR (‘locks’) in CE (‘Church’ of England) plus D (‘director’). | ||
| 22 | INSECT |
Perhaps cricket side’s exhausted after batting then caught (6)
|
| A charade of IN (‘batting’) plus SE (‘SidE‘s exhausted’) plus CT (‘caught’). | ||
| 23 | SIGNET |
Seal is swimming with gent (6)
|
| An anagram (‘swimming’) of ‘is’ plus ‘gent’. | ||
| 25 | BAND |
Group not allowed on the radio (4)
|
| Sounds like (‘on the radio’) BANNED (‘not allowed’). | ||
| 26 | CLIP |
Extract 150 over 3.14? (4)
|
| A charade of CL (Roman numeral ‘150’) plus IP, a reversal (‘over’) of PI (‘3.14’ approximately). |
Thanks Peter O. VERBOSE I found a flower, a real one, reversed ??
Completion was delayed by having 3d WARMER (“Heated” = “warmer” than before, and “sea” = MER) instead of WARMED, which held up 12a CANNED. After a lot of puzzling, I finally caught the error and got the win. Couldn’t see a theme — closest I could get was 8a ALICE Cooper maybe, with 28a EYELINER and a 25d BAND? Did he wear a 27a CHAIN a wring the 3d NECK of a chicken? PeterO I think your theory is much better! 🙂
Fun puzzle. Several favourites: 11a MESSENGERS (“germs spread”), 12a CANNED (I wonder what record she broke?), 1d DELICATE (“iced tea” with slice of lemon), 2d NECK (took a while to parse NE = “1-0” = ONE minus O), 6d GINGER BEER (“big green pants”)
The surface of 20d CHAIRED has a tense problem. “Installs locks” (present) “then ran meeting” (past)
Ob, a new two-letter river to go with the Po. Any more? Handy for setters. Nice puzzle, ta P&Q.
Oops, my flower was flowing the wrong way. 🙁
Mig, CHAIRED is okay. C HAIR E D. Church CE installs/contains HAIR (locks) followed by D for director. The tense of CHAIRED is different to the surface reading. It is clued as “ran meeting”, past tense.
Mig, I loved your Alice Cooper theme scenario! 🙂 I saw him live in Sydney, and all of us grey-haired old fogies were sitting there when he started up while our kids and grandkids went down to the moshpit. It was a great night. (He didn’t bite the head off a chicken. Urban myth.)
Before I found the river OB (who knew?), I toyed with using the old crossword chestnut river “po” in lower case and reflecting it (in the mirror) vertically to give “bo”. Anyway I enjoyed Qaos as usual especially the lovely NECK with the clever football score,
Thanks paddymelon@5. The parsing of the clue is fine, my query was about the surface reading — the church director “installs” a lock, then “ran” a meeting. The tenses seem backward
I wonder how familiar LINE FEED is, long after the days of Teletypes.
Thanks PeterO for LACE. I was trying to take a T off something frozen, but got nowhere.
I am surprised OB doesn’t seem to better known
Thanks Qaos, too
Ah yeah I get you Mig #8. I don’t have a good explanation for that, but I hear people talk like that. Probably not acceptable here.
Dave Ellison #9. I did know GLACE, surprised you didn’t. 🙂
Having confidently written in LEMONADE for 8a as my first move without checking the parsing resulted in 2d being my LOI by a long margin, once I eventually smote myself on the brow and corrected 8a. Otherwise this all went smoothly, particularly for a Friday puzzle.
As per others, it’s good to see BO clued as something other than a reference to smell for a change; that river should appear more often.
Favourite today was ALICE, with NOBLE METAL a close second.
Thanks to Qaos and PeterO.
Maybe CLIP goes with cHAIRed to give one more theme word?
Relatively plane sailing other than the unknown river Ob and not quite getting how 1-0 led to NE but thanks for the blog.
For about the 5th Qaos running I totally missed the theme.
Favourite today ALICE
Thanks PeterO and Qaos
I, like Mig@2, had WARMER rather than WARMED initially, but it clicked before too long.
One or two unparsed but gettable from the crossers. Overall I thought this was a nice balance of accessible/approachable but chewy enough in places to make for a satisfying finish.
I dipped into this last night and ended up finishing in record time, which seemed bizarre for this setter. Anyway, some clever clues like ALICE, ASSEMBLING and the brilliant NECK. I also listed HAIR CLIP, HAIR BAND and (W)ARM(ED) BAND as part of the theme.
Ta Qaos & PeterO.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO
Another WARMER at first here. Raised eyebrow at “great force” for FF in CUFF.
Favourites INSECT and LOI NECK (very clever).
Date-specific clueing yesterday – The Butterfly Effect? – has left us with a gentler offering today. Not that it was without OBstacles.
I was tearing through this until I wasn’t, struggling with some parsing towards the end. I tried wedging Seine in backwards before I had the B at 16A. I don’t know why I didn’t see it straight away from the definition. Kudos to the setter, I guess. I also messed around in the NECK LINK area for a while.
I liked GINGER BEER, BEVERAGE and ASSEMBLING.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO
ALICE is a marvellous clue, NECK close. Missed a very good LACE and convinced myself that gaze is a variant of gauze (and agaze could mean frozen) 🙁 Not keen on SKI. Fine puzzle overall, thanks Qaos and PeterO!
I was pleasantly surprised by this as I normally find Qaos pretty tough. I didn’t see the theme though, despite looking over it for one once everything was in. Come here.. and there it is.
LOI was ORDEALS, inserted on the basis of the crossers and the definition, and parsed (slowly) afterwards: as were several others.
NOBLE METAL was especially neat.
A good start to the day.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO.
Nice puzzle, somewhat more accessible than many from Qaos. I particularly liked GINGER BEER, ASSEMBLING and INSECT, and the construction for NECK (pity about the surface!).
Like Dave E @9, I’m surprised that OB is unfamiliar to some. ‘It’s a river in Siberia’ is rather dismissive. It’s river system is the world’s seventh longest – 8 times longer than the Po. But we are Eurocentric – even those in the former dominions 🙂
Thanks to Qaos and PeterO
paddymelon@11,
I think Dave@9 is saying that he was parsing the clue wrongly as in reading it as “frozen” w.o. “top of thin” = “t”. (The definition then being material.)
So something frozen minus “t”.
I did the same thing for long enough ;(
Hasn’t had the publicity, Protase @21, unlike the Volga and the Don…
I found this easier than many of Qaos’ creations. Even so, many thanks to PeterO for the blog: the parsing of NECK was quite beyond me.
I’m also indebted to DaveE @9: I didn’t know about teletype and had been wondering if LINE FEED was referring to the folk who sit near the stage and give forgetful actors their prompts…
I often find the 4-letter clues the most satisfying, and liked the economy of CUFF, CLIP and LINK.
Didn’t spot the theme, but then, I rarely do.
Thank you Qaos
(Anne #22. I was just joking about Dave’s comment #9. I got that, but I didn’t know OB.)
Good Friday Fun and a total theme bypass which is fine by me 🙂
LINE FEED (LF) and Carriage Return (CR) are used to indicate a new line in text files (MacOS and Linux do without the CR). The characters originate from mechanical typewriter actions: returning the carriage to the left side (CR) and feeding the paper up one line (LF).
Cheers P&Q
Lovely puzzle and blog.
Many thanks to Qaos and PeterO.
Always pleased to see Qaos as they have a distinctive style without being unduly hard. Like Mig @2 I also had WARMER to begin with. Thought there was lots of great stuff here such as ASSEMBLING and ALICE, but NECK is outstanding.
Tricky puzzle. I failed to solve 22d and 27ac and I could not parse 28ac apart from YE or the NE bit of 2d (oh, that’s clever).
New for me: LINE FEED = control character (Dave Ellison@9 – I don’t know what a Teletype is and I’m in my late 60s)
Delightful puzzle from Qaos, not too difficult to complete but there were a few bits of parsing I missed. Thanks PeterO for the river OB (good to remember), the card game BRAG, OS ordinary seaman and ET AL the rest (doh!).
My favourites were NECK and ALICE.
And I agree the HAIR accessories CLIP and BAND fit the BLING theme.
Thanks both.
Does NOBLE METAL fit the jewellery/ bling theme? Just a thought. Gold, silver, platinum ‘et al’.
Fairly straightforward solve but I couldn’t see the theme. I liked the sailor’s trials for ORDEALS, the good surfaces for ALICE and ASSEMBLING, the clever mathematical NECK, and the INSECT’s cricket story.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO.
There seemed to be quite a few clues today where I found it difficult to discover which end supplied the definition. And I did wonder for a while whether the clueing for NECK could possibly be the way that PeterO explains it away. Surely not – but yes!
And I tend to use the word as in to Neck a bottle of beer rather than passionately kiss someone. But I suppose I’m just aging gently.
No clue about the theme as ever, I’ve never much been one for BLING…
[grantinfreo @23: My point exactly – the Volga and the Don are both European rivers, unlike the Asian Ob]
Like most correspondents, I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle, and for once I was not held up by the obligatory “mathematical” clue. My only minor quibble is that Qaos, like some other setters, does not observe the distinction between a town and a city: to call Essen, with a population of about 575,000, a European town is a bit naughty.
I’m old enough to have used a teletype but control characters are now more familiar as invisible characters in ASCII text.
Entertaining puzzle. I think the standout is ALICE with the extended definition.
My one quibble is about “leading everyone” for E in THEORISE, which I was expecting to see some objections to.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO.
Tiniest quibble with parsing of GINGER BEER. Surely the queen comes after the anagram, not inside it?
Excellent puzzle and blog. As others, ALICE was my favourite.
Thanks both.
I am torn between 9A and 2D for my favourite clue. Probably Alice for the clever link to Carroll.
In 2D I assumed 1-0 was an instruction to change I to O and spent time trying to find a fashion designer called Snig before crossers sent me the right way. (I did briefly wonder whether door was some slang for kiss that had escaped me, but it seemed even less likely than snig.)
I spent a while on the same misdirection as Dave @9 trying to de-t a synonym for frozen before the tea tray hit..
Thanks both,
A very enjoyable puzzle. ‘Et al’ means ‘and others ‘. ‘Etc’ means ‘and the rest ‘. But I agree there are situations where either would do.
Thanks PeterO and Qaos! What a pleasure and a relief after yesterday’s, which I’m still not halfway through. I missed the theme completely but it did not take away from my enjoyment of a clever puzzle. LINE FEED and PIPEFISH were not in my vocabulary, but both were gettable from the clues and crossers. Like others, I loved NECK once the penny (or really it felt like pennie) dropped, and I also enjoyed the precision of CHAIN, once I remembered china/mate which I’ve never seen outside of a crossword (in my American milieu.)
Bodycheetah@26: Both Linux and MacOS use LF as an “end-of-line” character as an inheritance from UNIX. MS-DOS (and subsequently Windows) use the CR-LF combination because the designers didn’t appreciate the difference between indicating the end of a line and physically controlling a device such as a printer. Thus text files have to be converted when transferring from one regime to the other.
Thanks for the blog , very good overall with ALICE and NECK standing out , I also liked CHAIRED for the misleading CH at the start .
I did find a few clues a bit clumsy , the “by” for MESENGERS , the “of” in LACE and “is prepared” for SKI .
People should know the OB , it is far more extrovert than the Don .
[AlanC , I note that KPR continue to give up scoring goals for Lent , I do admire their dedication . ]
I had almost nothing on the first pass, got enough on the second to be motivated to push through. Quite pleased with myself in the end.
Having started with computers in the 1970s, LINE FEED was in my vocabulary, but I did wonder how many would find it obscure.
The parsing of VERBOSE escaped me. I know more Siberian rivers than Bolivian poets, but only barely. Well done to everybody who figured that out.
[Roz @44: we are so proud of their forbearance].
Always enjoy a Qaos puzzle (with or without the math). After having got 9, I was hoping for an Alice-in-Wonderland theme, but I see that Q already tackled that brilliantly back in 2023. Mig @2,8: good spot. Maybe something like: With locks installed, church director ran meeting. (7)
Thanks PeterO
Find me an anagram of “is”, Deux-Deux!
Si, Senor!
Thoroughly enjoyed this. NECK, GINGER BEER and ASSEMBLING were all very good. Raised an eyebrow at Ct = caught but I expect it’s in some edition of the BRB.
Thanks, all and happy weekend.
phitonelly @48
CT for “caught” is used in cricket scorebooks.
No-one has agreed with my doubts on FF in CUFF so far. The problem is that the F derives from “forte” – Italian for strong or loud. “Force” in Italian is “forza”.
Muffin@49 I think of FF as very loud , purely from crosswords , I was waiting for the music experts .
Phitonelly@48 Re Ct. It’s in every edition of the primrose one, new edition out soon.
Forte is loud. Fz is with force.
Anyone else miss the jewelry theme and think the theme was going to be the band “Alice In Chains”? Just me then.
muffin@49 I had the same thought about FF, but decided that objecting would be fruitless. A musician would use sforzando.
Nice to see a reference to a card game I’ve actually played.
EleanorK@54…there’s also the band Wolf ALICE who won at the very recent Brit Awards…
Thanks for the heads up on 2d, I would never have parsed it.
Very clever.
Coloradan@47 Excellent alternative!
Very nice, standouts ALICE and NECK.
EleanorK @53: I’m a big fan and I did notice the CHAIN LINK.
Fun puzzle. LINE FEED was my biggest penny-drop, very surprised to see such a niche technical clue. NECK was the only one I couldn’t parse. Big smiles for ALICE and DENSITY
It is probably too late, but can someone please explain how GINGER BEER = 8?
Ginger beer is a beverage – 8 ac.
Thanks Zoot – I just figured that out and was coming back to say “don’t worry”.
Feeling a bit silly as it is obvious really.
muffin@17 and 49
I shared your doubts. I suppose that if you play a piano with great force it will sound ff but it’s a stretch.
AS well as ALICE BAND there was ALCE SPRINGS and ALICE IN CHAINS
Re FF, people are correct to say that it in music it refers to volume of sound. But, at least for a string player, to play FF you apply greater force to the string than you do for F or MF, for example, so I think Qaos is off the hook, just. Sforzando (Sf), derived as muffin notes from forza, is a direction to play with more force at the beginning of a note, and is more about phrasing effect than volume of sound. At least that’s how I see it.
I concur with the general sentiment that 2d NECK and 9a ALICE are outstanding clues in a very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Q&P for the quiz and parsing.
TimVick#35 re city/town: “As I went down to London Town”, and “New York, New York, it’s a wonderful town”, both with populations over 10 million. This has come up before.
Roz#43, but the OB isn’t as common as the Volga, as Boatman might say.
I find myself wishing that LINEFEED had been the answer to 10 Down for a nice technology pun. Which the set me to wondering whether there exists a grid geometry that would allow a simultaneous CARRIAGERETURN at 13A.
Muffin @49 – an alternative to FF – force is F in physics, maybe Qaos was going for great force being FF ?