The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27412.
Perhaps there are a few less familiar items here, but nothing I did not know or could not work out, so that I found the puzzle a fitting entry for easy Monday.
| Across | ||
| 1 | EXPECT | Imagine old favourite catching cold (6) |
| An envelope (‘catching’) of C (‘cold’) in EX (‘old’) plus PET (‘favourite’). “I imagine that I will finish this crossword in short order”. | ||
| 4 | DIABETES | Passes on without a risk of illness (8) |
| An envelope (‘without’) of ‘a’ plus BET (‘risk’) in DIES (‘passes on’). | ||
| 9 | TONGA | Knight wears old clothing in island kingdom (5) |
| An envelope (‘wears’) of N (‘knight’ in chess notation) in TOGA (‘old clothing’). | ||
| 10 | PUFFINESS | Distension of birds grasping opponents (9) |
| An envelope (‘grasping’) of ES (‘opponents’ – East and South in bridge) in PUFFINS (‘birds’). | ||
| 11 | AGAMEMNON | Bold maiden interrupts unnamed Greek king (9) |
| An envelope (‘interrupts’) of GAME (‘bold’) plus M (‘maiden’) in ANON (‘unnamed’). | ||
| 12 | ADDLE | Confuse designated driver tucking into alcoholic drink (5) |
| An envelope (‘tucking into’) of DD (‘designate driver’ – it’s in Chambers) in ALE (‘alcoholic drink’). | ||
| 13 | CLOSE FITTING | Meet behind bar when tight (5-7) |
| A charade of CLOSE (‘bar’) plus FITTING (‘meet’ and right). | ||
| 17 | HEDGE SPARROW | Winger prevaricates even before disagreement (5,7) |
| A charade of HEDGES (‘prevaricates’) plus PAR (‘even’) plus ROW (‘disagreement’). | ||
| 20 | RHONE | Heron played in the river (5) |
| An anagram (‘played’) of ‘heron’. The Rhône happens to have been on my mind as I have just taken inventory of my wine cellar, including Château Neuf du Pape and Hermitage – and Bourgogne, adjacent to its tributary the Saône. | ||
| 21 | HOME-GROWN | When groom transformed native (4-5) |
| An anagram (‘transformed’) of ‘when groom’. | ||
| 23 | SHORTFALL | Deficiency in squat, leading to collapse (9) |
| A charade of SHORT (‘squat’) plus (‘leading to’) FALL (‘collapse’). | ||
| 24 | STALL | Old Bob’s lofty hedge (5) |
| A charade of S (shilling, ‘old Bob’) plus TALL (‘lofty’). | ||
| 25 | SPOTLESS | Notice the French head of state is immaculate (8) |
| A charade of SPOT (‘notice’) plus LES (‘the French’, plural for a change) plus S (‘head of State’). | ||
| 26 | TOP-END | Be inclined to keep work of the highest quality (3-3) |
| An envelope (‘to keep’) of OP (‘work’) in TEND (‘be inclined’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ENTRANCE | Delight in appearance (8) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 2 | PENTAGON | Held back a girl working in military HQ (8) |
| A charade of PENT (‘held back’; generally in the form “pent up”) plus ‘a’ plus G (‘girl’) plus ON (‘working’). | ||
| 3 | CRATE | Anglican keeps rodent in chest (5) |
| An envelope (‘keeps … in’) of RAT (‘rodent’) in CE (‘Anglican’). | ||
| 5 | INFINITESIMAL | Inane film? It is terribly insignificant! (13) |
| An anagram (‘terribly’) of ‘inane film it is’. Nice surface. | ||
| 6 | BRITANNIA | Beaten up in Rabat in old Roman province (9) |
| An anagram (‘beaten up’) of ‘in rabat in’. | ||
| 7 | TRENDY | Latest result in evaluation (6) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of END (‘result’) in TRY (‘evaluation’). | ||
| 8 | SISLEY | Painter of body of land in the Seychelles (6) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of ISLE (‘body of land’) in SY (‘the Seychelles’, IVR). | ||
| 10 | PINKING SHEARS | Hold down cards and pick up special scissors (7,6) |
| A charade of PIN (‘hold down’) plus KINGS (‘cards’) plus HEAR (‘pick up’) plus S (‘special’). | ||
| 14 | ELEMENTAL | Let enamel fuse! That’s basic (9) |
| An anagram (‘fuse’) of ‘let enamel’. | ||
| 15 | ARROGATE | Claim for oneself Yorkshire town lacks aspiration (8) |
| [h]ARROGATE (‘Yorkshire town’) minus the H (‘lacks aspiration’ – a more apposite alternative to the common Cockney reference). | ||
| 16 | SWINDLED | Turn in the troika is done (8) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of WIND (‘turn’) in SLED (‘troika’: literally, a vehicle drawn by three horses abreast; but, given the Russian climate, for a good part of the year, at least, that would mean a sled). | ||
| 18 | CRISES | Emergencies? Charlie does his best! (6) |
| A charade of C (‘Charlie’) plus RISES (‘does his best’). | ||
| 19 | ROCOCO | Royalist leaders capture commanders in style (6) |
| A charade of RO (‘ROyalist leaders’; some – perhaps many – dislike to vagueness of such a construction) plus CO CO (‘commanders’ – two of them, to be precise). | ||
| 22 | GUSTO | Some bring us together for exhilaration (5) |
| A hidden answer (‘some’) in ‘brinG US TOgether’. |
||
This went in easily enough, apart from a couple of archaisms – “meet” = fitting as an adjective?, and SY as the Seychelles and not Syria.
Surely ROCOCO is RO around OC OC, which fits the clue (“captures”) better.
Thanks to PeterO and Chifonie
Usual gentle Monday. I thought designated driver very obscure when there are alternatives for DD that might make for a better clue.
Thanks to Chifonie and PeterO. A more gettable (for me) Monday puzzle is always a confidence booster…
I liked 23a SHORTFALL. Meanwhile, 10d PINKING SHEARS was a real blast from the past. I don’t think I have seen a pair since I did rather badly at “Domestic Science” in my first year of high school in 1966! I must admit that 8d SISLEY was a bit of a guess, and my LOI.
Frankie the cat@2, I didn’t mind DD for designated driver in 12a – we often ask each other who the DD is tonight on our way out to dinner. In Australia it is also an abbreviation of “designated dickhead” which says a lot about the drinking culture here. My father (who was a bit of an “Aussie bloke” and drank far too much beer at times) had a saying “Never trust anyone who doesn’t drink”, kind of like the Australian version of “Never trust a skinny chef”. In the current TV ads about curbing drink driving, rather than suggesting designated drivers, the focus question is “Do you have a Plan B?”.
Julie in Australia:
Are pinking shears the ones that leave a zig-zag edge?
You referred to a “dead rubber” in your last post. Are you a bridge player ?
I have this fanciful notion that all English speaking, non-UK-resident cruciverbalists are bridge enthusiasts; probably as a result of Sandy Balfour’s (?) book ‘Pretty girl in crimson rose (8)’.
Loved this,
Thank you Chifonie and Peter.
We enjoyed this start to the week – thank you. Struggled with Sisley…thought we might need to go through all 115 of the Seychelles to find a painter. Particularly liked ‘arrogate and pinking shears. Yes, il principe dell’oscurità, they are the zig zag ones which stop the fabric from fraying.
Il…@4. This UK resident is.
Wasn’t happy with ‘meet’ and DD either although I take JiA’s point
Thanks Chifonie and PeterO
Pleasant enough. I took longest to find a word to follow TOP at 26a, and didn’t see it until I had E?D!
“Pinks” (Dianthus) are so-named because of the ragged-edged petals, as if cut by pinking shears. “Pink” (the colour) is named after the flower, not vice versa.
Yes – a pleasant start to the week. No real problems. DD was new to us, but addle was obvious. We spent most time on 13a – close fitting. Now no excuse not to start the list of jobs to be done today. I dont know whether I should search for mypinking shears
Nice to see Chiffers with a slight raise in OG
Thanks all.
Copmus @9
Please explain.
Thanks Chiffonie and PeterO.
Thanks Chifonie and PeterO.
Pleasant start to the week.
From humorous answers to exam questions: ‘Bob has 36 sweets, he eats 29, what does he have now?’
DIABETES
P.S. With apologies to anyone suffering from this debilitating illness.
A nice Monday puzzle. My only (minor) quibble is the recurrence of HEDGE, first as part of an answer (in 17ac), and then as the definition portion of a clue (24ac). Ideally (for me at least) a different definition would have been used for STALL. But, as I said, just a minor quibble with an enjoyable puzzle.
Many thanks to Chifonie, PeterO, and the other commenters.
il principe dell’oscurità @4 – I am a non-UK cruciverbialist, but not (to date, at least) a bridge enthusiast.
I had the same quibble as DaveMc @13, and didn’t know this use of DD, but there were no real problems (except that, before today, I thought that INFINITESIMAL had one S).
It didn’t help that I spelt 6 Down as “Brittania”, and therefore was stumped by 12 Across and 7 Down for some time…
It didn’t help that I initially spelt 6 Down as “Brittania”, and therefore was stumped by 12 Across and 7 Down for some time…
Thanks to Chifonie and PeterO. Started off quite slowly but unpacked quite readily. Like others thought this was a nice start to the week.
pvb@10 OG is original gravity in a beer. If it is upped the beer has a higher ABV.
This was a pleasant start to the week. BRITANNIA seemed a bit topical in view of the much hyped TV series of that name which has just started. (If you’re bothered about historical accuracy give it a miss – it’s done in a Game of Thrones fantasy style.) I would have kicked myself if I hadn’t got 15d, as Harrogate is where I live. Luckily I did get it!
Re 2d: we’ve discussed this before, but G is not a standard abbreviation for “girl”. It’s only crossword setters who seem to think it is.
Not too exacting, this one – but not quite in the Rufus tradition (I wonder how long it’ll be before we stop citing Rufus?).
My LOI was SISLEY – it took quite a while before the name of the painter ‘clicked’ into place, and then I wasn’t too happy about SY for Seychelles. I googled and it turns out to be, as Peter says, the IVR code, i.e. equivalent to “GB” on the back of cars. But only relevant if any vehicles are actually driven out of the Seychelles – which I doubt! (Incidentally, the internet TLD “.sy” stands for Syria, not Seychelles).
Apart from that, a smooth ride. Some perhaps a bit too easy, like RHONE? I don’t know what the majority want for a Monday.
Thanks to Chif and Peter.
Muffin:
I much prefer your etymology of ‘pink’ to the one I heard on Radio 4 (Start the Week, or something like it). It was claimed that pink was the name of the weather-proofing wash or paint applied to medieval cottages, and an important ingredient was urine.
When the pink version of pink, that we know from East Anglian villages, was developed, the paint’s name stuck and became associated with pink as we know it, not the original yellow. Hmmm ?
Just re-read my comment@14. Two S’s. But you’d worked that out.
[Il principe
I was reading about the pink houses of East Anglia recently. Apparently the colour came from pigs’ blood.]
[I don’t know why the scarlet jackets worn by huntsmen are called “pink”, and a quick Google didn’t turn up an explanation. Anyone know?]
I think 17 should have had “Old winger” as the name Hedge Sparrow for a Dunnock was abandoned some time ago. Dunnocks look a bit like sparrows but they are Accentors.
copland smith @25
You are correct that they aren’t actually sparrows, and I would generally say “dunnock”, but “hedge sparrow” is still in common use.
I’ll never forget the day a dunnock flew into my bummock.
A puzzle that fits the Monday remit. I struggled to see the painter for a while, and the parsing of CLOSE-FITTING seemed a bit of a stretch, using as it does an archaic meaning of “meet”. I’m also not sure about ROCOCO. I can’t quite see how “capture” can explain the order of the particles. MarcoPoloOz’s alternative would need a reversal indicator. Maybe “dominate” for “capture” would have been better.
I parsed SPOTLESS as SPOT + LE + S(tate) +’S (IS), but I’m sure PeterO’s version is the intended one, now I’ve seen it.
Nice to learn at last how to spell INFINITESIMAL 😉 .
Thanks, S&B.
Thanks to Chifonie and PeterO. An enjoyable Monday offering. I struggled a bit with SISLEY (my LOI) and paused with SWINDLED before I saw a troika-sled link, but, given my limited knowledge of UK place names, I was pleased to get ARROGATE at my first go.
MarcoPoloOz @1 and phitonelly @28
Now that I have seen it, I prefer MarcoPoloOz’s version: Chambers gives OC for Officer Commanding or Officer in Charge.
Since when is G an abbreviation for “girl”?
I think “meet” as an adjective meaning “fitting” is perfectly acceptable in a crossword clue, even on a Monday. Two examples right off the bat:
Meet it is I set it down / That one may smile and smile and be a villain (Hamlet)
O Caledonia! Stern and wild / Meet nurse for a poetic child (Walter Scott)
I am a diabetic but I can’t say I find it especially debilitating. Despite this DIABETES was one of the later ones in. LOI, however, was PENTAGON which I couldn’t parse. The rest of this was fairly straightforward- or Mondayish as we now say.
Quite enjoyable.
Thanks Chifonie.
PeterO@30
Thanks. That would explain it! Apologies to Chifonie and MarcoPoloOz for doubting.
Priest.
Let us give thanks unto our Lord God
Answer.
It is MEET and right so to do. (Book of Common Prayer)
Perhaps archaic but still around.
Thanks for that, il principe. I knew I heard in church, but I couldn’t bring to mind the exact phrase.
Hello all, I’ve been attempting the Guardian cryptic (weekdays only) since September and have had much help and amusement from visiting this site, so thanks all round.
I’m learning. For example, today I have learnt to check for International Vehicle Codes! I make (sparing) use of the check button as well as frequent trips to the (virtual) dictionary and thesaurus, and even sometimes some Googling in desperation.
I am grateful for a relatively straightforward Monday puzzle so I get the chance to post here for the first time. If I posted when I finished a Friday puzzle I don’t think anyone would see it!
Mrs N-L helped with STALL. (A clue to my age: she couldn’t believe they were still using shillings in the year of my birth!)
Thanks, PeterO and Chifonie.
Muffin: I thought I remembered it from evensong but couldn’t place it; it’s from Holy Communion.
Come to think of it I remember it as ‘Let us give thanks unto THE Lord our God.
A welcome to Newby-Lurker ! DON’T BE A LURKER ! We must be about the same age; my first birthday present cost 20 shillings.
(Chambers is much more satisfying than online help and doesn’t feel like cheating.)
Thanks both.
I found this tough for a Monday. PeterO’s parsing of shortfall is better than mine which was deficiency=short, squat=nothing=eff-all, collapse=shortfall.
Thanks to Chifonie and PeterO.
And welcome Newby-Lurker – hope you enjoy as I do (well most days when I have the time).
I found CLOSE for “bar”, ENTRANCE for “delight in” and EXPECT for “imagine” to be arguable synonyms and they marred for me what otherwise was a very Goldilocks Monday offering. Favs were PUFFINESS, PINKING SHEARS and HEDGE SPARROW.
Tyngewick@40 – I was struggling to parse SHORTFALL as you did but didn’t see your way of interpreting “squat”. Very amusing.
I think the parsing of 19D is adrift. It reads better as RO “capturing” OCOC, I. e. OC = “officer commanding”.
Thanks Chifonie and PeterO – no complaints from me. Like many loi was SISLEY, and I thought heron was a lovely anagram which took me far too long to get. I didn’t know troika was also (originally) a sled with 3 horses – nice to see how language evolves.
I’d also like to welcome NewbyLurker and encourage you to keep posting, and to say that practice does lead to improvement if not perfection. I remember Tim Henman commentating on Wimbledon a couple of years ago and saying “practice doesn’t make perfect – it makes permanent. Whether or not it’s perfect depends on what you’re practicing!”
Thank you for the kind words of welcome, everyone.
Il principe dell’oscurità: thank you for the encouragement to emerge from the shadows and comment! Decimal currency had been in use for a few months when I was born but yes, I guess we must be close in age. (I assume you have been told the cost of that present, rather than remember it!)
WhiteKing: thanks, that’s good advice – I’ll keep at it!
@Newby-Lurker…..
what’ll you do when you’re no longer a Newby? The Lurker bit seems redundant already! (happily)
I may be short but I’m certainly not squat
Thanks to both for another enjoyable after lunch pursuit.
I agree with Hagman@42 in that it reads as the ROyalist leaders are capturing the OCs.
I also had trouble parsing PENTAGON and resisted putting that in for a long time even though it was my initial thought. I also wondered about the use of DD for designated driver but that fitted well.
Oh yes, I do not play bridge, even though I drive over a number most days.
JimS @19, Rompiballe @31
I believe “G” is an abbreviation for “girl” in at least three contexts: (1) Here in the US, the “Girl Scouts of America” have always been abbreviated as “GSA”; (2) I believe that in the UK and Australia, the analogous organization is known as the “Girl Guides Association” and “Girl Guides of Australia, respectively, both abbreviated as “GGA” (and, after looking on Wikipedia, I now see that there is an organization called “World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts”, who go by the acronym “WAGGGS”, where two of those three Gs stand for “girl”); and (3) in the lexicon of texting, “gf” and “bf” are used to mean, respectively, “girlfriend” and “boyfriend”.
There are probably more examples that others could think of, in which G is accepted to mean “girl”. But as you point out, it is a crossword, and all part of the game.
I think (?) an even stronger question could be raised regarding the use of “maiden” to clue M, as in 11 ac. I know I have seen this many times in crosswords, but off the top of my head, I’m not aware of any real word abbreviations and acronyms in which M stands for maiden — although I expect they exist (and someone on this site can likely step up with that explanation — or maybe M is listed as an acceptable abbreviation of maiden in Chambers, a reference work that I understand from 15^2 is the gold standard for cryptic crosswords, even though I do not have a copy or look for it online myself).
For my part as a solver, if I had an answer that I knew was correct from the definition and crossers, with an otherwise unaccounted-for “R” and the word “rutabaga” in the clue, I would probably be ready to believe that, somewhere in the English speaking world, “R” is in use as an abbreviation for “rutabaga.” Perhaps in the “World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and Rutabagas” (WAGGGSR).
I enjoyed the puzzle. Am not a bridge player, but I thought the opponents would always be N and S, or E and W, not S and E as indicated above in respect of 10 across. I’m sure am missing something; could someone enlighten me? thanks
DaveMc @48
Cricket reference I’m afraid – M stands for “maiden”, an over (six balls) in which no runs are scored
Nuntius
N and S, E and W are partners, not opponents (or at least they shouldn’t be!)
muffin @50
(Sound of my hand slapping my forehead.) Ah, cricket – of course!!
Of that sport, I’m afraid my only knowledge comes almost exclusively from two sources: the Guardian cryptic (with blogs and comments on 15^2 to explain what I missed), and the Google Doodle from last year that had a little interactive game built into it, with a team of crickets at bat against a team of snails. An entertaining few minutes of diversion if needed during a stressful work day.
Reinforcing the always-quick-off-the-mark Muffin @50. Cricket statistics regularly, for every match, tabulate the bowlers’ figures: O-M-R-W. Overs, Maidens, Runs conceded, Wickets. O for Over (usually singular) is, like R for run(s), already a common crossword abbreviation – not sure about W for wickets, but it would be legitimate, as surely is M/Maiden. Personally I contrive, almost as a point of honour, never to remember those tedious bridge abbreviations (see muffin likewise, @51), but who am I among so many?
Thanks to Chifonie and PeterO
I found this quite a toughie for a Monday morning.
But no difficulty with “meet”. In Holy Communion the minister goes on to say “It is very meet, right and our bounden duty, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O Lord, holy Father, almighty, everlasting God, through Jesus Christ thine only Son our Lord”.
It is also encountered here:
The mountain sheep are sweeter,
But the valley sheep are fatter;
We therefore deemed it meeter
To carry off the latter.
(The War-song of Dinas Vawr, by Thomas Love Peacock)
I remember that one too, Marienkaefer! Learnt it at school – just about rises to the level of “doggerel”, I think!
Pinking Shears were first in thanks to my Gran some 30 years ago. After that managed not to bad guessing at one or two, pretty pleased by my efforts today.
I did have real trouble with Hedge Sparrow but ok when you know how.
Thanks.
muffin @ 55 – I think it is meant to be doggerel, with the pun on “meeter”. I also think it is in the Penguin Book of Comic and Curious Verse.
A very mixed bag altogether, but we enjoyed it. Thanks to all and especially Chifonie and PeterO.
@baerchen, good question. I was wondering that too! I still feel like a newby, so that might last a while. Yes, I suppose the lurker description is automatically redundant now!
DaveMc @48: certainly you can find abbreviations in which G stands for “girl”. Equally there are abbreviations where A stands for “air” (eg RAF or USAAF) or B stands for “birds” (eg RSPB), but I don’t think you would expect to see “air” used to indicate A, or “birds” used to indicate B, in a crossword clue.
G on its own is not a recognised abbreviation for “girl” in Chambers or any other dictionary that I’m aware of.
Happy Monday. Nothing too diverting, all fair and competently clued but I’m afraid nothing really grabbed me, favourite-wise (sorry Chifonie). I didn’t like ROCOCO much (the clue, not the baroque artworks, which I enjoyed studying in Art lessons at school many years ago).
I don’t have a problem with g for girl, or vice versa, and thanks to DaveMc for supplying plausible examples; glad the cricket explanation for m/maiden got through to you as well.
I seem to have got through a million puzzles or so since the 1970s without checking everything in Chambers; am I doing it wrongly?
Thanks to PeterO for clear blogging.
Another lurker putting his head above the parapet.
Not lurking through shyness but as a relative novice it often takes me a couple of days to either find inspiration and puzzle it out (even Mondays’) or admit defeat and come here for explanations. By that time everyone has moved on and comments seem superfluous.
Today was the first time I’ve solved it inside the day (it’s 11pm) – I came to raise a virtual glass.
Some I got without understanding (Close Fitting for example) so thanks for the explanations. Arrogate was my favourite.
It was no so very long ago that I flagged up the – in my opinion, incorrect – use of G for ‘girl’.
It’s only crossword setters who seem to think it is. (JimS @19).
No, it’s mainly Chifonie who seems to think it is.
I don’t have a problem with g for girl, or vice versa, and thanks to DaveMc for supplying plausible examples. (1961Blanchflower @ 61)
I do have a problem with it because it is just not properly justifiable, and unfortunately DaveMc supplied the wrong examples. JimS @60 made that very clear. Abbreviations should be stand-alone ones (or have a mention in one of the dictionaries, like indeed M for ‘maiden’). Dave Mc tells us more or the less the opposite, that it’s all right when abbreviations are part of a well-known acronym. If his criterion was valid then we can have K for Kingdom, can’t we? Meanwhile, if a solver is happy with it, that’s fine by me as we all look for different things in a crossword. It also doesn’t (and in today’s puzzle, didn’t) spoil the fun for me.
That said, in the last five years or so I’ve noticed that I can become very annoyed when a setter does annoying things, being iffy etc. I can become even more annoyed when the average solver cannot be bothered by iffiness etc. It is one of the reasons my comments are not as frequent anymore as they used to be. I do not want to upset (or even infuriate) fellow solvers and setters as I know they only want to have or give some entertainment.
When KirinChris @62 says “Today was the first time I’ve solved it inside the day (it’s 11pm) – I came to raise a virtual glass”, then does my opinion (on mostly technical things) really matter?
I’ll raise a glass too! [not a virtual one, though 🙂 ]
I am a dead-tree solver, and never seem to get around to sitting down to have-at it until late at night.
Which of course means not only that I am always late to the ‘225’ party, but also that my brain often isn’t working well enough to complete the day’s grid; I usually end up coming here in order to find out what I’ve failed to work out, and to see whether any of those of you who do the crossword at a sensible time have encountered similar problems to me.
That said, I actually completed this one (I thank Great Cthulhu for ‘easy Mondays’)! 😉
Anyway, as the normal Last One In here, I welcome the idea that other ‘newbies’ might occasionally be around this long after everyone else has finished and left.
Cheers!
Sil van den Hoek @63 –
I always enjoy reading your comments … but I think I have a different opinion than you today regarding what makes an abbreviation “acceptable” . I think K for Kingdom [by which I assume you are referring to the “K” of “UK”, and not the “K” of “KPCOFGS” — for which biology students back in the day had their chuckles, there being a popular mnemonic device for taxonomy order] *would* be acceptable.
I think it is all in good sport, and that, if one believes s/he has solved a given clue fully, i.e., is able to confirm the definition portion and has at least a defensible understanding of the wordplay/parsing, then I believe by definition the clue was “fair”, even if part of the wordplay was an abbreviation that required the solver to think outside of the box (and to think outside of a list of conventional stand-alone abbreviations contained in Chambers or any other dictionary).
Some of the most satisfying (for me, at least) PDMs come when I realize the setter used a bit of envelope-pushing trickery, such as where a punctuation mark such as a period or colon turns out to be the definition, or where a single ordinary word like “informal” in the clue turns out to be an essential “road map” to the solution, as an instruction to the solver to insert some other parsed letter or letters obtained from the wordplay, “in” a synonym of “formal”. So, in that vein, I think that the word “kingdom” (for example), appearing in a smoothly worded surface, but turning out to signify only the letter “K” (as commonly seen in “UK”), could be amusing rather than exasperating, in an otherwise enjoyable clue.
All fine by me, DaveMc.
But when writing a clue I would never ever use K meaning ‘Kingdom’. You may not object to it (perhaps like others) but there are some rules in Crosswordland that I’d like to adhere to.
Genesis once sang “I know what I like and I like what I know”, which is how I feel.
Just a liitle aside on “M” for maiden.
Anybody who has ever been a scorer for a cricket match will be very aware of this.
A standard cricket scorecard has a section for the Batters and one for the Bowlers. Each over of 6 balls is entered against the bowler’s name with a dot for each bowl or a number indicating the runs scored off that ball. If there are no runs the over is just six dots and is a Maiden Over. Often the six dots are joined to make a large “M” so that maiden overs can easily be counted at the end of the match for the bowlers “figures”!
Here is an example
… the scribbled M explaining why exceptionally M can stand for “maiden”, but R can only stand for “run(s)” and not “run”.
I agree with DaveMC @13: “My only (minor) quibble is the recurrence of HEDGE, first as part of an answer (in 17ac), and then as the definition portion of a clue (24ac).”
Thank you blogger and setter