The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29962.
An amusing offering from Anto, and one I found not too hard, which is all to the good as daylight savings time differences rob me of an hour’s blogging time.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PAINTINGS |
Efforts made to have tin glaze initially added to artworks (9)
|
| An envelope (‘added to’?) of ‘tin’ plus G (‘Glaze initially’) in PAINS (‘efforts made’). | ||
| 6 | OBAMA |
Love to get two degrees? Yes we can, he said (5)
|
| A charade of O (‘love’) plus BA MA (‘two degrees’). | ||
| 9 | PEEVE |
Bother first lady after exercise (5)
|
| A charade of PE (physical ‘exercise’) plus EVE (‘first lady’). | ||
| 10 | SHOP FRONT |
Betray apparent leader seen on the street (4,5)
|
| A charade of SHOP (‘betray’) plus FRONT (‘apparent leader’). | ||
| 11 | AGA |
Pangram will regularly display this range (3)
|
| Alternate letters (‘will regularly display’) of ‘pAnGrAm’. | ||
| 12 | AGENT ORANGE |
A man like Trump that devastates the environment (5,6)
|
| Definition and literal interpretation. | ||
| 14 | TRANSIT |
Managed to rest after tension in crossing (7)
|
| A charade of T (‘tension’ – not a common abbreviation) plus RAN (‘managed’) plus SIT (‘rest’). | ||
| 15 | DESISTS |
Stops son joining uncaring god worshippers (7)
|
| An envelope (‘joining’) of S (‘son’) in DEISTS (‘uncaring god worshippers’ – Deism is the belief of God as creator, but not influencing human lives). Like ‘added to’ in 1A, the envelope indictor does not specifically suggest insertion. | ||
| 16 | COPPERS |
Small change as regularly spotted on the beat (7)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 19 | MAITRE D |
Servant retains half of treats for one overseeing service (6,1)
|
| An envelope (‘retains’) of TRE (‘half of TREats’) in MAID (‘servant’). | ||
| 22 | ABANDON SHIP |
Titanic orchestra perhaps, and what they didn’t do (7,4)
|
| A BAND ON SHIP. | ||
| 23 | SKI |
Runner should keep improving from the start (3)
|
| First letters (‘from the start’) of ‘Should Keep Improvimg’. | ||
| 24 | NEOPHOBIC |
No hope revolutionary writer is preferring old stuff? (9)
|
| A charade of NEOPHO, an anagram (‘revolutionary’) of ‘no hope’; plus BIC (‘writer’). | ||
| 26 | ACING |
Threatening to exclude men passing challenge with ease (5)
|
| A subtraction: [men]ACING (‘threatening’) ‘to exclude men’. | ||
| 27 | LET-UP |
Moderation of rent increase (3-2)
|
| A charade of LET (‘rent’) plus UP (‘increase’). | ||
| 28 | GENDER GAP |
Liberal agreed GNP reveals societal disparity (6,3)
|
| An anagram (‘liberal’) of ‘agreed GNP’. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | POP TART |
Leading role Spooner might have toasted? (3,4)
|
| A Spoonerism of TOP PART (‘leading role’). The Pop Tart brand wes introduced long after Spooner. | ||
| 2 | IKEBANA |
Japanese art has elements of childlike banality (7)
|
| A hidden answer (‘elements of’) in ‘childlIKE BANAlity’. | ||
| 3 | THE NAGS HEAD |
He had agents swarming around pub? (3,4,4)
|
| An anagram (‘swarming’) of ‘he had agents’. | ||
| 4 | NASCENT |
Scotch producer reports there’s no bouquet developing? (7)
|
| A ‘Scotch producer’ would probably be Scottish, and might say NA SCENT (‘no bouquet’). | ||
| 5 | SPORTED |
Arranged to have piano inside played (7)
|
| An envelope (‘to have … inside’) of P (‘piano’) on SORTED (‘arranged’). | ||
| 6 | OFF |
Travelling while ill (3)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 7 | ABOUNDS |
Jump in as there’s plenty that does this (7)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of BOUND (‘jump’) in ‘as’. | ||
| 8 | ACTRESS |
She performs in a style not approved by the Guardian? (7)
|
| Guardian style is to refer to a female thespian as an actor. | ||
| 13 | REST IN PEACE |
Tease prince worried when rip expanded (4,2,5)
|
| An anagram (‘worried’) of ‘tease prince’. | ||
| 16 | CHANNEL |
Direct passage is sound (7)
|
| Triple definition. | ||
| 17 | PLAY OUT |
Gradually develop page design (4,3)
|
| A charade of P (‘page’) plus LAYOUT (‘design’). | ||
| 18 | SANDBAG |
Knock out part of flood defence (7)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 19 | MOHICAN |
Here in Rome, complain about hairstyle (7)
|
| An envelope (‘about’) of HIC (Latin, ‘here in Rome’) in MOAN (‘complain’). The hairstyle is better known as Mohawk. | ||
| 20 | RASPING |
Harsh sounding political line carried by newspaper (7)
|
| An envelope (‘carried by’) of SPIN (‘political line’) in RAG (‘newspaper’). | ||
| 21 | DOING UP |
Kill little dog upset when redecorating (5,2)
|
| A charade of DO IN (‘kill’) plus GUP, a reversal (‘upset’ in a down light) of PUG (‘little dog’). | ||
| 25 | HOP |
Spring finishes off with Tokyo trip (3)
|
| Last letters (‘finishes off’) of ‘witH TokyO triP‘. |
Thanks PeterO. This may be essentially what you’re saying at 12, but I had as WP: A + GENT (man) + ORANGE (like Trump, i.e., so-complected). Nice challenge from Anto.
Ages waking up to expanded rip, mucking about with tear .. something .. d’oh. There’s something in muso lore about ‘The Nag’ being a hub … the oficionados will know. Liked the def of abounds, and the sound of nae scent. Thanks Anto and Peter.
Thank you PeterO, especially with your time zone difference.
With you Coloradan #1 about A GENT ORANGE. My favourite clue today, sadly. Black humour helps at times like this.
Thanks, PeterO, and thanks to Anto for an entertaining puzzle..
At 4d you’ve written “NA SCENT,” but I think (as grantinfreo @2 suggests) it’s a homophone (“reports”) of “nae scent.”
Not keen on being reminded first thing of the continued existence of Potus 45/47, but AGENT ORANGE did make me laugh.
Re 8d ACTRESS, the Guardian style guide (https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-style-guide-a) has:
As always, use common sense: a piece about the late film director Carlo Ponti was edited to say that in his early career he was “already a man with a good eye for pretty actors …” As the readers’ editor pointed out in the subsequent clarification: “This was one of those occasions when the word ‘actresses’ might have been used”
I feel “gent” is being used rather loosely in 12…
Pretty straightforward on the whole. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the ABANDON SHIP clue before.
A dnf as I had ‘amounts’ for ABOUNDS – taking ‘jump’ as slang for ‘mount’ as in animal mating behaviour; I agree the correct answer is better but the definition doesn’t quite work for me either way.
Favourite REST IN PEACE.
grantinfreo@2 – THE NAGS HEAD is one of the commonest pub names in England (not so much in the rest of the UK) – I can think of several within a shortish distance of where I live.
Thanks PeterO and Anto.
I couldn’t work out SHOP FRONT, as I’ve never heard of shop/betray. I had to use up all the rest of the anagram to work out whose head it was for the pub.
Good fun; I particularly liked ABANDON SHIP and AGENT ORANGE.
I’m not usually a great fan of Anto, but I thought this was delightful.
ABANDON SHIP is excellent even if it’s been done before; AGENT ORANGE is grimly funny and REST IN PEACE clever even though Ximenes wouldn’t have approved. NASCENT (a reminder of Steve Bell drawing Gordon Brown lamenting THERE’S NAE POONDS) made my day. Eagerly awaiting the complaints from the homophone police…
Ta very muchly, both
I particularly liked ABANDON SHIP (a marvel), REST IN PEACE and MAITRE D’ , and I’m quite happy with the definition for ABOUNDS. Like the blogger, I’m not too keen on the insertion indicator in PAINTINGS. Quite a few were guesses – me not being familiar with the Guardian style, Scottish “no”, or a common pub name, – but overall not too difficult. Thanks Anto and PeterO!
Very good. Mohawk v Mohican – I remember growing up in the 70s and 80s that ‘Mohican’ was used in the UK and ‘Mohawk’ seemed to be the US equivalent. Much as ‘punk rock’ was a US term, as against simply ‘punk’ in the UK (those were the days …)
Thanks Anto and PeterO
I nearly threw this away right at the start – I didn’t see 1a, so looked at 1d instead. The clue obviously gives TOP PART, but as it’s Anto, I thought I should check…and it wasn’t!
The rest was fine, though.
Great puzzle. Like muffin@11 I put in TOP PART for 1d, which delayed PAINTINGS for some time. Hadn’t parsed REST IN PEACE – very nice. Thanks to A & P.
I started off finding this pretty chewy; then I had to put it down, about half done, for a few minutes to attend to some business or other. When I returned, the ones I had left all fell into place pretty quickly. It’s like I needed a brain reset or something.
Doesn’t the clue for POP TART read instead like a clue for TOP PART? The latter is in “green paint” territory, so we know it can’t be right, and crossing letters would also put you right. But it really seems to me to be written the wrong way round.
Edit to add that I clearly type too slowly! 11 and 12 beat me to it.
Thanks, PeterO, for the parsings of 22A (which is brilliant!) and 26A. And Coloradan@1 for the parsing of 12A. (Though have to agree with bdg@5.) Not at my brightest today.
Think nascent would sound more like /nay/scent as some posters have indicated.
Grma, Anto.
Nice sense of humour evident in this offering. Obvious likes for SHOP FRONT, REST IN PEACE, ABANDON SHIP, AGENT ORANGE and NASCENT but my favourite was the simple but perfectly formed SKI.
Ta Anto & PeterO
Anto can be relied on for some original clues, like the “expanded rip” and the politically incorrect ACTRESS (which I
appreciate, as one who often finds “actor” misleading and irritating when used of someone who would never have described herself as such). Other favourites were NA(E) SCENT, AGENT ORANGE, ABANDON SHIP and (men)ACING. MAITRE D was perhaps a bit too obvious from the enumeration.
(Beaulieu@6: another “amounts” here.)
Thanks Anto and PeterO.
I was thrown for a long time by confidently putting “straight” for 16 down – works if “sound” is treated as a homophone indicator
AGENT ORANGE is absolutely priceless (unfortunately). A BAND ON SHIP is not far behind. Luckily for me, I had enough crossers when I got to 1d not to fall into the TOP PART trap. Quite a few others I would praise: indeed, this must be just about the best, most enjoyable Anto puzzle I can recall, with plenty of lovely penny drops. Thanks, Anto and PeterO.
DonRogers @17: how did you fit it in?
Enjoyable challenge.
New for me: POP TART (and I will not be trying one of these anytime soon); SANDBAG = knock out.
8d – I thought there might be a connection to the song “Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage, Mrs. Worthington” making the clue a cd 😉
The last two in, SHOP FRONT and ABOUNDS held me up at the very end after a fairly swift solve. Particularly liked ABANDON SHIP and AGENT ORANGE…
The last two in, SHOP FRONT and ABOUNDS held me up at the very end after a fairly swift solve. Particularly liked ABANDON SHIP and AGENT ORANGE…
[By the way, for those wondering what I meant by “green paint” @13, this article explains. It’s written with American-style crosswords as its reference point, but most of what it says about crossword linguistics applies to cryptics too. It’s from The Atlantic; I used my subscription to unlock it, I think; I hope the link works.]
I also went with TOP PART. I agree with @13 Mrpenney I don’t think the clue quite works for the correct answer. Thankfully, the in hindsight straight forward PAINTINGS put it right.
Didn’t understand the actress clue but was obvious from the checking letters. I rarely read the showbiz news though.
Good to see the old chestnut of ABANDON SHIP.
Enjoyed AGENT ORANGE.
Thanks Anto and PeterO
mrpenney @23
Thanks for the link to the Atlantic article.
Enjoyed this funny puzzle. AGENT ORANGE and ABANDON SHIP were delightful, but ACTRESS felt a bit of a navel gaze…
Spent ages trying to work out what 1 across could be starting with a T. Eventually twigged we’d put top part instead of Top part. Doh…Favourite was Abandon Ship.
Enjoyable puzzle today.
ABANDON SHIP …the best one for me.
POP TART was a NHO for me — and so was a ‘green-paint’ solution until mrpenney’s comment @13. Thanks for that explainer.
I thought the triple-def clue for CHANNEL was an absolute corker!
So, apart from the dodgy inclusion-indicator “added to” in 1a, an excellent and enjoyable puzzle for me.
I enjoyed this. ACTRESS raised a smile. NASCENT reminded me of Anto’s brilliant “Theme park reportedly doesn’t go down in Scotland? (10)”.
ABANDON SHIP is a bit of a classic but it deserves a rerun from time to time.
Many thanks Anto and PeterO.
Funniest Anto yet? For some unfathomable reason I was initially thinking of SPORTED in the sense of WORE rather than the more obvious one. Realisation only dawned with this earworm. (I’ve been kind and linked to a version with lyrics.)
FWIW, here’s the most recent use of the “a band on ship” wordplay I can find, from a Vulcan puzzle last year (blogged by Eileen):
1 Emergency call from cruise entertainers (7,4)
ABANDON SHIP
A BAND ON SHIP (cruise entertainers – I’ve seen something like this before, with reference to the Titanic, but it’s a good one)
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2025/04/07/guardian-29662-vulcan/
Worth it for AGENT ORANGE.
Thanks Anto and PeterO
Very enjoyable. Had to come here to work out actress, thanks for the explanation and the blog in general.
mrpenney@13: I agree about (TP)OP (PT)ART. The clue is poorly written.
Are Deists ‘worshippers’? Just wondering.
I had OUT instead of OFF for 6d, so deadlocked for a while.
In 13d we are to read ‘rip’ as RIP. I was under the impression that conventionally capitals can stand for lower case in clues, but not vice versa.
I struggled at first to get on the setter’s wavelength. It was worth it: I loved it all. Thanks, Anto and Peter.
A nice diversion from Anto today. I’m not sure the Spoonerism has definition and wordplay the wrong way round, but POP TART/”top part” was amusing anyway. The definition of 7D reads uncomfortably – it feels like it needs to be plural, but the answer means it needs to be singular. A-BOUND-S is clever though.
If it isn’t a bit soon for Titanic jokes, A BAND ON SHIP was my favourite (if it has appeared previously, I’m sure I enjoyed it then too).
NEOPHOBIC was new to me, but nothing to be afraid of. “Rip expanded” is a well-disguised definition for REST IN PEACE.
Having both Trump and OBAMA appear just reminds me how depressingly far things have fallen.
Thanks to Anto and PeterO
Good puzzle. I would have been misdirected longer by RIP but for being reminded of hic jacet sepultus in MOHICAN.
Thanks both.
I am very familiar with the actor/ACTRESS issue. I tend to espouse ‘actor’ like the Guardian and ‘female actor’ if there is an ambiguity, but on commenting forums more NEOPHOBIC than this one, and given to other forms of reactionary posturing, I often see this objected to: ‘Grr – it is actress,‘ howl the neophobes. ‘In that case, my last medical consultation was with a doctress and the conveyancing when I last sold a property was done by a solicitress,.’ I reply. It is really the Oscars and other award ceremonies that are responsible for keeping this particular binary going.
I loved it. Thank you Anto. I found it quite easy – I must have been on the same wavelength as Anto this morning. Not much to add to other comments. Favourites ABANDON SHIP, NASCENT, and of course AGENT ORANGE.
Enjoyable crossword with some good clues. I enjoyed A GENT ORANGE, A BAND ON SHIP, and NAe SCENT. I confidently put in TOP PART at the beginning, like some others. I’m not sure about ‘rip expanded’. If that just means expand into the full phrase, it’s a false de-capitalisation, which is a bit of a no-no. I suppose one might just take ‘expanded’ to mean make the letters larger – is that how most people parsed it? BTW, as the Oscars and, I think, BAFTA still have ‘best actress’ awards, it’s obviously still in current use. They could change to male and female actors but they don’t seem to want to do it for some reason.
Thanks Anto and PeterO.
I found this enjoyable and not too hard – I am usually on Anto’s wavelength. No doubt Crossword Karma will pay me back later in the week.
I had no objections to 13D’s non-capitalization of rip, not being aware of the convention.
If you split the clue for POP TART into wordplay; ‘Leading role Spooner might have’ & definition; ‘toasted?’ then the wordplay makes more sense, although at the expense of the definition.
Beautiful puzzle. Not too tough, but wryly witty real world references in many! Very elegant clueing which showed a mastery of the medium.
Many thanks Anto!
[The actor/ACTRESS issue does divide opinions. A couple of years ago there was a Guardian interview with Miriam Margolyes and Vanessa Redgrave which included the following.
VR: “By the way, Guardian, could you stop calling actresses ‘actors’?”
MM: “Yes, I’m an actress! On my passport I’m an actress.”]
For 25D I’d have thought “finishes off” implies deleting the end letters? What does “off” add, apart from making the solution slightly less obvious?
Nonetheless, an enjoyable puzzle. Particularly enjoyed ABANDON SHIP and (may they/may day) REST IN PEACE.
Early doors thought 9A was going to foreshadow a pangram, but not to be.
Thanks Anto and PeterO
Thanks for the article, mrpenney. The link worked fine, though I couldn’t follow on with another link in the article — fair enough.
Thanks also to Anto and PeterO.
Enjoyed this. I was another who entered TOP PART before having to change it.
Thank you mrpenney@23 for that article. It was good to see how the authors explained what we all (here) know but might find difficult to articulate.
Thanks Peter O and Anto.
Good fun today.
Really like NASCENT. Loud guffawing from my perch in the pub!
I think some of us articulate the “green paint” question when we say that a certain solution is or isn’t a Thing. Green Day (the band) are a Thing, but green paint, although such a substance exists, isn’t.
Tricky for me, with a lot of head scratching. Fortunately I had to wait a long time at the shop for a rental car, so got the puzzle finished in the meantime. Didn’t help that I (like muffin@11 and many others) confidently chose the wrong option for 1d POP TART, which held up the TOP PART of the puzzle. 22a ABANDON SHIP was fun. 24a NEOPHOBIC is a great word — nho but clearly clued. 27a LET-UP and 19d MOHICAN had a decent surfaces. 13d REST IN PEACE was a neat trick
Thanks both
Thanks both,
But now we have read the article, ‘green paint’ is a thing. Rather a nice paradox.
Naive_springwater@46, to select the last letters they need to be the finishes *from* those words. Just “finishes” doesn’t say enough. As “from”, “in”, “of”, etc wouldn’t make sense for the surface here, the “off” does that job nicely.
A little tricky in the SW I found. I read CHANNEL as a dd, but agree that the triple makes sense.
1d sacrifices clarity for a convincing surface. Might have been better as “Spooner’s leading role might be toasted.”
Interesting discussion about green paint. THE NAGS HEAD is verging into that territory. I know there are lots but how many is enough to make it a thing? By the by, nice to see that pub parrots are now doing the Graun crossword, Bardyman @49 😉 .
Thanks, Peter & Ant O
Another good one. The only one I couldn’t understand was 8d ACTRESS because I wasn’t aware of the Guardian style guide.
My favourite has to be 12a AGENT ORANGE. Quite forgivable Peter that you missed the correct parse. The one you gave seems so apt.
Thanks both.
Thanks for the blog , very good set of neat clues , NEOPHOBIC describes me . I think ACTRESS would work even if the Guardian did not have an official Style Guide . DE(S)ISTS in again , members of the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent . ABANDON SHIP , the clue references the book , film ,TV series etc – And The Band Played On .
Perhaps the friendliest grid , each answer has over half checked including the first letter .
Very enjoyable & offering just the right level of resistance for a Tuesday. Not surprised to hear ABANDON SHIP is a bit of a classic.
But doesn’t RIP stand for the Latin requiescat in pace? It just so happens to have the same initial letters in English.
Really enjoyable Anto puzzle (and not something one says of them very often LOL). On the whole very clear clueing and lots of humour, A GENT ORANGE was a real hoot for example, as was NASCENT. Overall favourite today was A BAND ON SHIP, and I liked the construction of MOHICAN. Thanks Peter O and Anto.
The Grauniad doesn’t seem to have a problem with waitress. Nor anyone else that I’ve seen.
#30 Lord Jim
What is the solution to that extra clue you have provided?
Thank you for the blog. Other than a few clues it was impenetrable for me.
Steffen@61,
I have a horrible feeling that’s DISNEYLAND………….
Yes, DISNEYLAND. Eileen commented at the time: “hilarious… I can just hear my husband saying it!”
THE NAG’S HEAD is the pub in ‘Only Fools and Horses’.
Like many others, I was fooled by 1D.
Thank you John B and Lord Jim