A prize puzzle with a twist from Brummie this week.
The twist was that “in the case of four across and four down clues a synonym of the solution is to be entered in the grid. Their letter counts apply to both the solutions and the synonyms to be entered, though one of these consists of two words”. The fact that the letter counts were the same seems hardly worth mentioning, since if they were different, there would need to be some further instruction as to what to do to the synonym to make it fit. There was of course nothing in the clues themselves to reveal which would be the special ones, so there was nothing for it but to fill the grid and wait for letter clashes. A pencil comes in useful at times like this. I’ve highlighted the eight answers in the grid; original answers are to be found in the individual entries.
The first clash we discovered came on solving MAHLSTICK, which clashed with LIKE. MAHLSTICK didn’t seem likely to have a synonym, so it had to be LIKE for which we needed to find a synonym. We applied similar logic in the other cases, but nearly went badly wrong at 12 across where I confidently entered AMPERE. We were also tempted by CONGEALED at 5 down. The fact that GEL=SET doesn’t in fact seem to have been exploited in the clue for CUDGELLED.
Anyway, it took Timon and I over an hour before I got called away with a few blanks left in the grid. I soon filled them in on my return. I was expecting some form of theme to become apparent, but if there is one, I can’t see it. Thanks to Brummie for the additional challenge.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ANALGESIC | A number of battered slices again is missing (9) |
| *(SLICES AGAIN – IS). An analgesic numbs the pain. | ||
| 6, 22 | PINE NEEDLE | Long spur that’s commonly shed by tree (4,6) |
| A simple charade: LONG can mean to pine, and to NEEDLE is to goad or spur. | ||
| 8 | ALL-ROUND | Counterfeit dollar takes in global body completely (3-5) |
| UN in *DOLLAR. | ||
| 9 | DARING | Bold page — auspicious (6) |
| The original answer is PLUCKY (P LUCKY). The first of the synonym answers. | ||
| 10 | FRIDAY | I would, to get in fight just before the weekend (6) |
| I’D in FRAY. | ||
| 11 | ABERRANT | Odd priest returns holding new born (8) |
| The original answer is ABNORMAL (*BORN in LAMA (rev)). | ||
| 12 | IMPEDE | Bar — one’s p-paradise almost! (6) |
| I think that this parses as I’M (one’s) P EDE(n). But I’m not happy to equate I’M with one’s. | ||
| 15 | MALAYSIA | Put in sprawling Masai country (8) |
| LAY in *MASAI. | ||
| 16 | CHEW OVER | Ponder a time run out (8) |
| The original answer was RUMINATE *(A TIME RUN). | ||
| 19 | DACTYL | Foot of lady dancing round court (6) |
| CT in *LADY. | ||
| 21 | ESPOUSAL | Slippery slope, embracing America’s Act of Union? (8) |
| USA in *SLOPE. | ||
| 22 | See 6 | |
| 24 | TILLER | Which may help the steersman shoot (6) |
| Double definition, but the second one (that a tiller could be the shoot from a tree stump) was new to us. | ||
| 25 | THIEVING | Lifting rumpled nightie over Vera’s head (8) |
| V in *NIGHTIE. | ||
| 26 | AKIN | Fancy Latin president (4) |
| The original answer was LIKE (L IKE), of which AKIN is a synonym, but not of the meaning conveyed by the definition. | ||
| 27 | PAPETERIE | Tucking into typical pub grub, randomly repeat: “Stationery case” (9) |
| *REPEAT in PIE. Lovely surface, although the word itself is unequivocally French and I doubt that it appears very often in an English context. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ADLER | One who mixes up daughter-less psychologist (5) |
| To be addled is to be mixed-up, so invent the word “addler” and remove a d. | ||
| 2 | ABRIDGE | Refrain from speaking with gold figure, prune! (7) |
| The original answer was SHORTEN (SH OR TEN). | ||
| 3 | GAUDY | Floor wood beam (5) |
| The orginal answer was FLASH (FL ASH); the synonym uses the adjectival sense of the word. | ||
| 4 | SIDEARM | Gun: right type of action for ducks and drakes? (7) |
| A cryptic definition conjuring up a vivid image. | ||
| 5 | CUDGELLED | Set about being a clubber? (9) |
| I think that this is just a cryptic definition. | ||
| 6 | PORTRAY | Paint Dover fish? (7) |
| PORT RAY. | ||
| 7 | NONENTITY | Ninety ton, miserable lightweight! (9) |
| *(NINETY TON). | ||
| 13 | MAHLSTICK | It helps an artist represent silk match (9) |
| *(SILK MATCH). This is “a stick with a pad on the end, used by painters to steady the hand holding the brush”. Timon was familiar with the concept, but it was new to me. | ||
| 14 | EAVESDROP | Spy uses overhead projection — abandon (9) |
| A charade of EAVES and DROP. | ||
| 17 | WOOLLEN | As a certain fabric adapts well on being injected with oxygen (7) |
| O in *(WELL ON). | ||
| 18 | ROLL-TOP | Sort of desk getting first 25% off duty in port, perhaps (4-3) |
| (T)OLL in *PORT. | ||
| 20 | CLEAVER | Means of cutting film after opening (7) |
| The original answer was HATCHET (HATCH ET). | ||
| 22 | NOINT | Newton into deceitful poetic smear (5) |
| N *INTO. It’s an aphetic form of ANOINT, presumably used by poets. Aphesis is the gradual and unintended loss of an unaccented vowel at the beginning of a word (as in squire for esquire). | ||
| 23 | LANCE | Pierce soft fruit (frequently lacking) (5) |
| And the original answer was SPEAR (S(oft) PEAR). | ||
*anagram
I enjoyed the extra layer of solving in this clever puzzle from Brummie.
Can’t quite recall the order of my solves but fortunately I got 17d WOOLLEN early, so was able to see that the anagram RUMINATE couldn’t work at 16a, which gave me the first synonym, CHEW OVER (the two words indicated in the instructions). Once I got 12a, IMPEDE, I scoured my dictionary for a word with M-H—– (not sure if they are dashes or hyphens!!!!) and found a new word, MAHLSTICK at 13d.
Found it quite slow-going and challenging after that, but eventually succeeded to complete the grid!
Another new word for me was PAPETERIE, which I biffed in from the crossers and confirmed via Google.
I had lots of favourites, including lifting the rumpled nightie at 25a to yield THIEVING, 26a (which took me ages to parse to my eventual embarrassment), 2d ABRIDGE (which I need to do with my posts!), 3d GAUDY, 20d CLEAVER and 23d LANCE.
Many thanks to Brummie and bridgesong.
Thanks bridgesong and Brummie.
This was a disaster of a minor magnitude!
Other than ruminate (mull over) and maulstick (which was another spelling for mahlstick) vs ‘like’ as sore thumbs (woolen, eavesdrop, roll-top not fitting in), I didn’t even recognize the other 6.
Dropped mull over in favor of chew over for ruminate, and settled on ‘akin’ which is ‘like’ but not fancy as you point out!
The other 6 went in merely because crossers were there and fit the definition, with “why” scrawled around the grid. Thanks for parsing them.
I had rifler for tiller – at that point, I could not care less.
Lifting crumpled nightie over Vera’s head provided the only mirth!
rumpled not crumpled ..well.
Thanks bridgesong. I filled the grid in after a while but could only account for 11, 16 and 26. The others were clear enough from the crossing letters and one word in the clue, except for GAUDY, but I couldn’t explain them. I flirted with CONGEALED = SET too.
I wondered about IMPEDE too but concluded that ‘one is’ (as sometimes in royal usage) is the same as ‘I am’.
Some new words and meanings but it all adds to the educational process.
Thanks to Brummie and bridgesong. After a lot of guessing I eventually got 6 of the 8 pairs but not HATCHET or FLASH (though I did get GAUDY and CLEAVER from the crossers). I did not get MAHLSTICK (I guessed wrongly) and only got PAPETERIE, my LOI, by googling the possibilities. Too tough for me.
I completed the grid correctly, despite not solving some of the clues — not sure if that’s good or not. I think I would have solved them with the help of check letters; I got the substitutions just from that and a shrewd guess as to the definition part:
(11a Got ABBERANT, but not ABNORMAL
20d Guessed CLEAVER right, but never worked out HATCHET
23d Got LANCE, not SPEAR, although a friend I asked about it did)
Maybe this is an interesting twist that doesn’t quite work? Others may disagree, of course.
24a TILLER as shoot is a nice new word to know, and 13d MAHLSTICK was not a word or concept I was familiar with, but I knew mahl(en) means paint in German so I solved the anagram and checked the dictionary.
I, too, chuckled at the rumpled nightie.
@Bridgesong re 12a, IMPEDE, I can imagine someone quite posh (esp HM ER II) saying “One is far too well-mannered to refer to oneself in the first person”.
@Biggles A
Ah! You explained “one’s” as I wrote.
@ACD I only found PAPETERIE by search, too.
Too hard for me.
I almost didn’t even start when I saw the rubric. How could you know whether to write in your first answer or not?
Got some answers that fit together. Got some that didn’t. Abandoned it.
I thought the special instructions sounded fairly harmless but in fact that simple device made it impossible to be sure of any answer. I got through most of it but gave up before I’d finished; partly because it was tough but also I didn’t like the lack of perfection which usually comes with a cryptic crossword
We got there, but didn’t really like it. I found it a bit of an unsatisfactory half-way house between cryptic and genius
Thanks Bridgesong and Brummie. Certainly a good work out and some neat clueing but I didn’t find the extra level of difficulty having to find synonyms satisfying, at least not without some link between the specials.
Odd one,this but, in the end, not too difficult- give or take a MAHLSTICK or two. I got all the synonyms-largly, as a result of the crossers. Fortunately, most of the orthodox clues were rather easier than is usual with this setter so I made reasonably good progress. In retrospect the special instructions looked more challenging than they proved to be.
Thanks Brummie.
Quite a tricky challenge (particularly solving on paper on a train), and I’m not sure that I liked the element of guessing synonyms. There were a couple I couldn’t parse but the completed grid was correct. A few unfamiliar words too – full marks to anyone who did this on paper without crossing anything out.
Thanks to Brummie and bridgesong
Godd to see some variety in the prize puzzle, but unfortunately this didn’t really work for me. In several cases I got the special solution simply from the crossing letters in the grid, then looked for a common synonym between it and a part of the clue, then checked that this fitted the wordplay in the rest of the clue. Pretty much the reverse of the usual process and not really very satisfying.
Thanks to Brummie and Bridgesong.
Is FL a common or even uncommon abbreviation for FLOOR? I have never seen it.
Herschel @15: all I can say is that I found it in Chambers – I can’t remember seeing an example of it being used.
Thanks Brummie and bridgesong.
Yes, this was tough but I found it very satisfying to solve – a clever idea, I thought.
I got DARING fairly early on but stubbornly stuck to LIKE for a long time until I found the MAHLSTICK, a new word for me.
I can’t find s = soft in most dictionaries, Bradford’s etc. Is it the abbreviation used in horse racing for the state of the ground?
Robi @17
“I can’t find s = soft in most dictionaries …”
It isn’t an abbreviation, it’s S[oft] (soft … (frequently lacking)).
Thanks all. Finished it and enjoyed it, but could someone explain the vivid image that 4d’s cryptic definition conjures (for SIDEARM)?
The word ‘cudgelled’ contains ‘gell’/ ‘gelled’ (set), which confused me when I tried to parse it. I agree that it must simply be a cryptic definition.The instructions put me off completely and got in the way of solving. Congrats to you and Timon on a brilliant job.
bridgesong @16. Thanks
@mdmaylwin
“Ducks and drakes” is the name of a pastime where you skim stones across the surface of water. SIDEARM is the throwing technique (not over- or underarm)
Gaufrid @18, doh, I remember it now and it’s in the blog! Thanks anyway.
Thank you Brummie and bridgesong.
Solving this ABERRANT crossword was AKIN to a GAUDY, there was too much to CHEW OVER; to ABRIDGE the time I was DARING and cut the meat from some clues with a CLEAVER since I could LANCE the answers in from the crossers – once a year is enough.
Groan – more special instructions today…
It’s just occurred to me that guessing the synonym isn’t that far from indirect anagrams which i think are widely regarded as no-no.
Thnks to Brummie and bridgesong.
I found the special instructions irritating rather than intriguing, possibly because I always use a pen and this was a pencil job – solve the clue, pencil it in then find that it doesn’t work with the crossers so rub it out and find a synonym.
27A pub grub = pie reminds me – Notice outside pub says ” a pie, a pint and a friendly word”. Having been served with the pie and pint he asks the barman, “What about the friendly word then?” “Don’t eat the pie”.
The old ones are always the best.
Although this ended up quite easy it was bizarrely unsatisfying.
As I was doing it online it was simplicity itself to fill in the answers as one went and then issue “Clear this” if future crossers indicated a mismatch.
In effect the “special” clues consisted of a definition and the word play was simply an indicator that this wasn’t in fact a cryptic clue but a simple definition! Bizarre!
Of course our “illustrious ed” have must thought this through and deemed it OK. 😉
Many thanks, Tony @22. Didn’t know that. Thought it might have something to do with cricket (ducks) and/or baseball, but it was fairly obvious it didn’t…
I enjoyed the synonym idea and the ferreting out of the right lights to change, but I came badly unstuck at 3 because I parsed the clue as a double definition – Floor/wood beam = STUMP. Admittedly, the second definition for a cricket stump is a bit weak. Needless to say, I was stumped when it came to finding a synonym that fitted!
I think the puzzle would have been better and possibly easier if the definitions of the theme clues had been omitted. Firstly, it’s usually possible to spot a missing definition and this would have helped identify the themers. Secondly, the solver would then have had to solve the clues to find the word and then the synonym. As it is, I simply entered ABRIDGE, ABERRANT, CLEAVER and LANCE from the crossers and the clue definitions a la the quick crossword, with no need to fathom the wordplay. I did manage to solve most of them but for ABNORMAL, where I needed the blog.
Thanks, bridegsong and Brummie
Cookie @25 Don’t despair, today’s is not as fearsome as it might appear.
I enjoyed the ‘extra layer’ (as Julie @1 called it) at first, but later on I had a very similar experience to that of other commenters, when I solved ABRIDGE, CLEAVER and LANCE very easily from the definitions and a few crossers without needing the wordplay (but I did get ABNORMAL as the intermediate answer to ABERRANT).
I’d like to give Brummie some credit for trying this variation of a standard cryptic, and I was interested to read the suggestions that others have come up with that might make the idea work better.
Thanks to both Brummie and bridgesong.
Too tough for me. I got about 70% of the way through, including some of the themed words with little or no idea of why they should be there !
Maybe I’m being thick, but is another way of phrasing the rubric : for 4 Across and 4 Down solutions, discard the wordplay and just use the definition part of the clue. i.e. for these clues, proceed as if this is a Quick crossword.
I did see early on that RUMINATE was an answer that wouldn’t fit, but never moved beyond CONSIDER as a synonym (word count was an extra consideration here). I settled for LIKE on the bottom row and MAHLSTICK was way beyond me, so the entire SW corner remained pretty much undone.
Maybe this kind of puzzle would be more tractable if the specials were marked with an asterisk, or indeed if every clue was a special ?
I got completely stuck in the SW corner, not helped by confidently putting in MULL OVER rather than CHEW OVER. Also I had PAPETIERE rather than PAPETERIE. Basically, a bit of a mess. Oh well. At least yesterday’s prize puzzle was straightforward!
I would just like to add to my own comment @31 because at that time I couldn’t put my finger on what made Brummie’s idea ‘work’ or not. As Tony, phitonelly and others commented, when you had some crossers and you found or suspected a clash, you could just bypass the answer to the clue and find a word to match the definition.
This was not true of 3d GAUDY, however, which you can’t get from the definition in the clue directly but only by solving it first and then finding a synonym for another meaning of the word ‘flash’. Perhaps all special clues should have been like that.
I’m not quite sure how I finished this – normally puzzles with special instructions completely mystify me (like today’s Crucible, for example). Somehow, I managed to guess and stumble my way through.
ABERRANT was a classic example of how I got lucky. I had the crossers and took a wild and inaccurate guess that the RR had something to do with a priest (I was thinking of Right Reverend) and the other 6 letters were some sort of wordplay for “returning new born”. Well, even though I was wrong – I was also right! And there were many other clues that fell this way.
Thanks, Bridgesong for explaining the bits I was bamboozled by and Brummie for the taxing workout.
I think what AlanB says (2 above) is right. 26, AKIN (as Bridgesong noted) and, to some extent(?), 2d, ABRIDGE were also not direct synonyms of the clue’s definition. Of course the setter’s task would have been much harder to make all the special clues like that.
Not sure that would be much harder, Tony @36. One grid with answers, and another list of cryptic clues for a completely different set of words with no crossers! Still enjoyed it though. Thanks Brummie and Bridgesong.
Tony @ 36
The special instructions said that what was to be entered was a synonym of the first solution, not of the definition. Perfectly fair and clearly laid out.
FWIW Whilst Suzee and I eventually finished this crossword (although we didn’t get the synonym for ABERRANT), we found it deeply unsatisfying and, to be honest, very irritating. A significant part of the pleasure and means to solving clues is trying to interpret the wordlay and see how it fits in with the letters one has discovered from crossing answers. When the word to be entered bears no relation to the wordplay then this basic crossword mechansim is broken – you have to work out the wordplay from cold – it might as well not be a crossword. Not a theme we’d look forward to seeing again…
Simon S @38
Yes, it wasn’t a quibble about fairness, but an endorsement of a suggestion as to how the format could be improved: I and others found the right answers to some clues without figuring out what they were synonyms of, or how the wordplay led to those synonyms, by using what appeared to be the definition part of the clue, in conjunction with the crossers. This couldn’t be done where the definition wasn’t itself a synonym of the answer to be entered (as AKIN and GAUDY weren’t). Alan suggested it would have been a better puzzle if all the special clues had been like that, and I agreed. I venture to say Brummie might well agree too, but for whatever reason he/she didn’t manage to achieve that this time, or perhaps didn’t forsee this consequence.
Julie in Australia @ 1, I find Grandma Alice’s Crossword Cracker quicker than trawling through the dictionary, though some might call it cheating!
Thanks to Brummie and bridgesong.
Tony @40
Thank you for your comment, which describes very well what I was getting at in my earlier comment as a suggestion for improvement.
Judy Bentley @41
Thanks for the tipoff about Grandma Alice. I’ve used crosswordsolver.org in the past but although it supplies the words, it really irritates me because in the examples it often doesn’t actually use the word it is supposed to be exemplifying but (ironically in the context of this post) a synonym!
Alan B @42
You’re most welcome. Btw, just (yesterday) seen your lovely S&B puzzles with the ‘Guardian setters’ theme. Nice work! I’ll have a go at them.
Tony @43
I hope you enjoy them!