We both really like these alphabetical jigsaw (which I remember someone on this site referring to as “Araubeticals” since they were such a speciality of Araucaria). This is an excellent one from Paul.
There was some tough clues here: ZAFTIG, MONSTERA, SPADIX and XENOCRATES were all new to me anyway. And it took us a while to put anything into the grid because it was hard to break the symmetry, which we eventually did after getting the two 7 letter clues. Anyway, this was very good fun – thanks to Paul!
Thanks to bridgesong for making this image of the completed grid – I forgot about including anything like this when writing the post!
A On, all bar the last ten clues? (4)
ATOP
A-to-P is all but the last 10 clues / letters of the alphabet
Definition: “On”
B Don’t take long, girl (8)
BEATRICE
If you don’t take long, you might “be a trice”
Definition: “girl”
C Black and white plai? (5-3)
CLEAR-CUT
“plai” might be clued by CLEAR-CUT (PLAI[n])
Definition: “Black and white”
D Team on a mission set at reaching moon, earth perhaps to orbit? (10)
DEPUTATION
PUT AT = “set at” + IO = “moon”, surrounded by DEN = “earth perhaps” (referring to an animal’s den – an fox’s den is an earth, for eaxmple)
Definition: “Team on a mission”
E Making a comeback, the way for Napoleon to bury lower number (8)
EPIDURAL
LA RUE = “the way for Napoleon” reversed (“Making a comeback”) around DIP = “lower”
Definition: “number” as in “something that numbs”
F Might one lie on bed if tired, originally getting up in very quick time (8)
FLATFISH
IF + T[ired] = “tired, originally” reversed (“getting up”) in FLASH = “very quick time”
Definition: “Might one lie on bed”
G Gritty novel Laura hasn’t finished, relation starting it (8)
GRANULAR
(LAUR)* after GRAN = “relation”
Definition: “Gritty”
H As a woman find fault, as old actor dumps wife (7)
HENPECK
WHEN = “as” + PECK = “old actor” (Gregory Peck) without W = “wife”
Definition: “As a woman find fault”
I Coach tours in Scutari oddly cancelled, unfortunately (10)
INSTRUCTOR
(TOURS IN CTR)* – the CTR in the anagram fodder is from [s]C[u]T[a]R[i] = “Scutari oddly cancelled”
Definition: “Coach”
J Divine being in conversation in US city (6)
JUNEAU
“Divine being in conversation”: sounds like Juno (the Roman goddess)
Definition: “US city” – Juneau is the capital of Alaska
K Bandaging tail of dog, one obsessed with imperfection in Great Dane (4,4)
KING KNUT
KINK NUT = “one obsessed with imperfection” around [do]G = “tail of dog”
Definition: “Great Dane”
L Niece extremely overwhelmed by someone with underwear on fire in One Direction only (6)
LINEAR
N[iec]E = “Niece extremely” in LIAR = “someone with underwear on fire” (referring to “liar, liar, pants on fire”)
Definition: “in One Direction only” (the surface reading refers to the band “One Direction”)
M Climber runs into something brewing in Belgium? (8)
MONSTERA
R = “runs” in MONS TEA = “something brewing in Belgium?” – Mons is a Belgian city
Definition: “Climber”
N A philosophical discipline coupled with meditation ultimately for uplifting island city (6)
NAGOYA
A + YOGA = “philosophical discipline” + [meditatio]N = “meditation ultimately” all reversed (“uplifting”)
Definition: “island city” (Nagoya is the 4th largest city in Japan)
O Golf tournament over, say what you feel (4,2)
OPEN UP
OPEN = “Golf tournament” + UP = “over”
Definition: “say what you feel”
P Harold Wilson perhaps: one politician such as he suffocating opposing players in game (4,6)
PIPE SMOKER
I = “one” + PM = “politician such as [Harold Wilson]” around ES = “opposing players” (East and South are opponents in bridge) in POKER = “game”
Definition: “Harold Wilson perhaps”
Q Sally, who translated page (4)
QUIP
QUI = “who translated” (into French) + P = “page”
Definition: “Sally”
R Once more deliver drink: come back to collect it (8)
RESUPPLY
SUP = “drink” in REPLY = “come back”
Definition: “Once more deliver”
S Bit of a bloomer seeking home in number of Australian states (6)
SPADIX
PAD = “home” in SIX = “number of Australian states”
Definition: “Bit of bloomer” – “bloomer” as in a flower. Chambers says “spadix” means “a fleshy spike of flowers”
T Indication of error against clue, marker finally erased — with this (6)
TIPPEX
X = “Indication of error” beside TIP = “clue” + PE[n] = “marker finally erased”
Definition: “with this”, in the context of the clue
U Groom someone in trade association? (5,3)
UNION MAN
A groom might be the UNION MAN, in the sense of union = marriage
Definition: “someone in trade association?”
V Defender of Rome showing spirit after fourth of goals in match against Irish (6,6)
VESTAL VIRGIN
GIN = “spirit” after [goa]L[s] = “fourth of goals” in VESTA = “match” + V = “against” + IR = “Irish”
Definition: “Defender of Rome”
W Holiday not much warmer (7)
WHITSUN
The SUN is a “warmer” and there’s not much of it, there might just be a WHIT of it
Definition: “Holiday”
X Lack of cases opened by old retiring philosopher (10)
XENOCRATES
NO CRATES = “Lack of cases” after EX = “old” reversed
Definition: “philsopher”
Y I’m delighted company’s ending what was the going rate? (6)
YIPPEE
[compan]Y = “company’s ending”. Then I’m really not sure about the next bit: to pee is to “go”, and maybe the expression “to spend a penny” is then “the going rate”. But why do you have both 1P + PEE? I’m sure one of you can explain… Update: the consensus seems to be that a “1p pee” would be the rate for “going”, because of “spend a penny”.
Definition: “I’m delighted”
Z Round towards the back, half of snake bites (6)
ZAFTIG
ZIG-ZAG = “snake”, so “half of snake” is ZIG – around AFT = “towards the back”
Definition: “Round” – ZAFTIG is a Yiddish word from the German “saftig” (juicy) – Chambers defines “zaftig” as “(of a woman) attractively full-figured”.
This was the first puzzle of this nature that I’ve encountered, and I almost gave up before starting. I’m glad I didn’t, because it kept me entertained for several hours over the course of a few days (during which I should have been doing more useful things, of course). It was only after I had solved a few clues that I realized that each gave the initial letter of the answer, and that helped more than I would have expected. As mhl noted in the blog, getting the two 7-letter answers was the key to beginning to fill in the grid. All in all a most satisfying experience.
Thanks to Paul and mhl. (I came here hoping to see the parsing of YIPPEE, so I’m afraid I can’t help with that.)
I thought it my have been 1p for one penny but in the days when a pee did cost one penny it was written 1d
Thanks Paul and mhl.
Several clues short of completion on this one but I managed to get some in. C took me down many rabbit holes around chess and check before the penny dropped but in the end it was the key to being able to place some solutions in the grid. Many new words for me here.
Parsing for “G” appears above but not the solution GRANULAR – may need an edit.
Very good, and much enjoyed.
Spend a penny (1d/1p) for having a pee – you gave a penny to the attendant for the privilege of using the facility, which in turn became the circumlocution. The two together – ‘1p’ and ‘pee’ – a bit mischievous, but clever. Yippee long considered but never written in.
Spadix and tippex came out fairly, but really couldn’t be confidently placed due to confusion as to which was the two-word solution, until Grauniad supplied the J-clue.
Some terrific clues. thanks Paul and MHL. Apols. to cross posters who may have snuck in first re 1p per pee.
Thanks Paul and mhl. This was tough both with some of the clues and the grid. I do enjoy these puzzles and usually like to work out the logical certainty of how it all fits, but with this one I had to go on high probability to get started. In the end I got Yippee and Tippex the wrong way around and so failed to get Spadix, which seems a very strange clue anyway
Re y-clue again – could it actually parse like ‘a 1p pee’, as in ‘a two dollar ticket’, the rate then being two dollars per ticket?
This was a lot of fun. I’m still occasionally doing Araucarian jigsaws because I have some yet unfinished paperback Guardian collections I keep around the house. Still, very nice to see in this venue, and an epic challenge from Paul.
It was also an epic fail by the Guardian web/IT dept., just as with the Maskarade from April. There would be no need for us to print off the puzzle if they supplied an indexed scratchpad: anyone who could program the Anagram Helper could program this.
That said, it was very enjoyable; many thanks to Paul and mhl.
Thanks mhl. I found this difficult and it was a struggle to put together enough clues to enable a start to be made on the grid. My entry was the two ending in X and the two ending in P. At the very first pass YIPPEE leapt off the page but I couldn’t make sense of it then and while I had thought along the same lines as you and those preceding I’m still not really convinced. HENPECK emerged later but I had to wait for your help there too. JUNEAU was another that was obvious as a US city but which took me too long to understand. Google had to come to my assistance with the M and X words but I did still complete the grid with some satisfaction.
Black and white plai? (5-3). I had plaid in my mind for the longest time, which meant the clue just had to be CHECK – ???. Grr.
I found a lot of the clues had fiendishly obscure parsing. Perhaps Paul was trying to make it more difficult, having given us the first letter already? But anyway, it was a comfort to actually find out the machinations of the likes of EPIDURAL and FLATFISH, thanks to this blog.
I didn’t do this puzzle as I was busy last week, and also I do not have a printer so I find it hard to do a puzzle as a PDF file.
I enjoyed reading this blog and I fondly recall doing some of these types of puzzles in the past by Araucaria – and maybe Maskarade? I had a printer back then!
Thank you Paul and mhl.
I was looking forward to this blog as I had completed this but had two answers that I really could not parse. Alas, I see I had completed it wrong. Like brownphel, I had Tippex and Yippee the wrong way round, with Resubmit for Resupply (‘once more deliver’), which seemed fine, though unparsed. Then Smudge fitted as ‘bit of a bloomer’, again unparsed. I was so pleased at the time, convinced myself there would be an ‘aha’ with this blog on the two unparsed. Morals of the story: Paul’s clues always have nice parsings; and having two unparsed answers that cross is a clue itself!
Is there an apt word to describe my crossword-specific experience, i.e. having the feeling of completion, but with unparsed answers?
Gosh, that was hard! I’m not even going to claim I really finished it honestly, having fallen back on the word search in Chambers for Zaftig and Spadix, although of course the parsing then became perfectly obvious, even if I’d never heard of the words. A great challenge, though, even if I wasn’t quite up to it, so thanks Paul. I remember some of these from Araucaria, but most like this often seem to have somewhat easier clues. I don’t think that was the case here, and I started trying to fill out the grid with only about 11 solved, which is why I went wrong twice, none of which helped. I saw Yippee like chinoz@6 – a ‘1P pee’ was the ‘going’ rate. I thought a lot of those rather difficult clues were very clever in the end, and I’m impressed by anyone who solved this without help. A very nice blog, mhl, thanks!
malawinick @11
I wasn’t going to comment until I saw yours, but I had very nearly the same mistakes, except that I put an unparsed SMIDGE (“a bit”) for the S.
Thanks, mhl, for explaining a puzzle I found particularly hard, and eventually gave up. But we still have not seen the actual grid completed – as this was a major part of the difficulty, it would be helpful if somebody produced one.
The Guardian did not help, by failing in the printed version to include the clue for J, or the number of letters in two clues. Presumably most of us went online to find the missing details, but this was not the paper’s finest hour.
I’ll second all that sjshart says @15. Thanks for the parsings though mhl – from which I see I stymied myself with things like guessing DELEGATION instead of DEPUTATION.
I’ve always assumed that alphabeticals’ clues were easier/less ambiguous to compensate for the added difficulty in filling the grid. Paul seems to have chucked that convention out here, though apparently that bothered me more than others.
At least when you’ve had to print the PDF out, you have the satisfaction of screwing it up in a temper and chucking it in the bin!
When I saw the clue for YIPPEE, I had a deja vu moment. In puzzle 27,645 by Tramp (it appeared last October and I blogged it) there appeared the following clue:
Expression of delight finally, pay one penny to go (6)
I commented at the time that the clue might have been written by Paul!
It was tougher still to start with the word count for S and T missing-as was the entire clue for J. I thought “summer gold in America’s largest state(6)”
Well done as ever to Paul for creating an excellent Araubetical – Araucaria would surely have approved. Not so well done to The Grauniad for the omissions and am in agreement with Dr. WhatsOn that it would be a nice little challenge for a developer to whip up something simple like a scratchpad to assist the ever growing army of online-only solvers.
Some great fair clues which proved too much of a challenge for me with the limited time I felt I had for this one. I hope that having read Mhl’s excellent parsing blog will help me in future to get into Paul’s head next time. Thanks both.
DaveInCarolina@1, you should treat yourself to the odd Araucaria Alphabetic puzzle if you can get hold of one.
Have a great weekend all
Mhl, I have uploaded a grid to the media library, if you want you can now add it to the blog .
sjshart@15 and anyone else looking for a filled out grid – this link may work:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/75zl998g414fl75/IMG_1727.JPG?dl=0
There are even traces of the original entries pencilled in in the wrong places..
I enjoyed this puzzle. I started it on Sunday morning and got it finished about lunchtime on the Monday. So, good value for money!
Luckily I managed to solve all the 10-letter words early on and they were fairly easy to position in the grid first. Then I was able to place the two 7-letter words and the rest fell into position without too much trouble. I had less problems with the grid in this puzzle than I had on previous holiday jigsaw-type crosswords.
I originally entered DELEGATION by mistake but, by a miracle this didn’t cause any problems. For the F-crosser I had FLAGFISH (verified in the dictionary). It was only when I was left with the Y-crosser that had to be YIPPEE that I was able to correct my mistake.
I found out the capital of Alaska and that there are six states and two territories in Australia – a country I have always wanted to visit but probably never will. I got ZAFTIG but wasn’t quite sure why. I sort of assumed it was Dutch (what with the z) and that it referred to the ‘bite’ of an acidic juice. Not too sure about the definition of VESTAL VIRGIN – were they defenders or guardians?
Favourites were C, P and Y. And I agree with Chinox @6 and KeithS @13, that it’s ‘1p pee’.
Thanks to Paul and mhl.
Many thanks to Paul and mhl
My heart always leaps when I see an alphabetical, and this was no exception.
I thought the missing J was a devious trick of Paul’s, but it was eventually clear what was going wrong.
Bodge @ 9 – yes, me too.
Great misdirection for M – I spent ages going through all the Belgian beers I could think of, and there are lots of them. And good to see a proper reference to King Knut as a Danish king, rather than the erroneous one about the tide.
I Googled “plai” and so was convinced for some time that the second word was “oil” – CEDAR OIL perhaps?
“D’ye know” occurred to me as a near homophone for JUNEAU.
Thanks Paul & mhl,
very ejoyable, once the Graunaid web-site filled in the missing info from the print edition.
I lucked out by putitng the V and K clues in the correct orientation before spotting the 7-letter crossers which bedded them in.
Only got ZAFTIG by a quick trawl in the big red Chambers, so maybe a bit of a cheat. Nice word, pretty hard to get from the wordplay though I had the (bit of a leap) Z—IG for the half a snake.
Some good/great (FLATFISH super definition/wordplay, EPIDURAL, great construction. MONSTERA, great all round, YIPPEE groanworthy but also great) and a few that are easier (OPEN UP, HENPECK, LINEAR) which helps to keep the flow of solutions and thus the solver morale higher.
Thanks again Paul and mhl and all the learned cotributors on here.
Thanks, bridgesong, for making the image of the completed grid – I’ve added that to the post!
I’ve corrected the typos or omissions that people have pointed out as well, hopefully.
Pretty much everything that Bullhassocks@16 said regarding the clues. Harder than most recent alphabetical puzzles and a relief when it was finished. Not my favourite Paul.
Thanks Paul.
muffin @24:
“What’s the capital of Alaska?”
“Juneau?”
“I asked you first.”
I love alphabeticals, but I gave up early with this – partly because Paul made the clues so difficult by alphabetical standards and partly because I could see no obvious or even obscure way of resolving the symmetry although it’s plain enough now. Araucaria did it so much better !
Thanks to mhl and Paul
If I remember rightly, when 1d was required, it was for rather more substantial matters.
Hence the old graffito:
Here I sit, broken-hearted
Spent a penny and only ……
Perhaps Paul is too young to remember.
Some tough clues and an unbelievably devious grid. I must’ve had 80% solved before I wrote anything in and even then it was in pencil! Luckily I made a good guess and everything fitted together but the spontaneous symmetry breaking on this was like sitting at a round table of 12 people at a dinner, each with a side plate to their left and their right and no-one wanting to take their bread roll first. Oy veh!
Anyhow, let not the cleverness, the difficulty or the oddness of the grid distract me from thanking Paul for a goodly number of excellent clues. “clear-cut” – I also thought “check-something” for ages. I was deceived every which way but loose and got there in the end. What could be more satisfying. Plaudits (pauldits?) sir! And thank you mhl, a brave fellow indeed to parse that lot.
I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle, despite the Grauniad’s publishing SNAFU last Saturday (I see they finally corrected the pdf sometime during the week).
I was aware during the initial cold-solving of some pointers to resolve the symmetry problem, namely the reversal indicators in FLATFISH and NAGOYA (“getting up” and “uplifting” respectively), but I couldn’t see exactly how to place either on the first attempt. I guessed (wrongly!) the orientation of VESTAL VIRGIN to get started and ended up in an awful mess. The second attempt gave me the appropriate crossers for the second 7-letter solution, WHITSUN, which I was missing the first time round. After that, it all fell nicely into place.
Some lovely cryptic ideas here – MONS TEA, BE A TRICE, KINK NUT, VESTA V IR and the 1P PEE ( I tend to agree that there’s a problem with 1P here, should be 1D). Loved the concise clue for WHITSUN.
Great fun! Thanks, Paul and mhl.
I managed to cold-solve fifteen answers (counting VESTAL VIRGINS as two) or not quite, as I got either QUIP or ATOP with the help of the final P from whichever (can’t remember) I solved first. I also managed to get VESTAL VIRGINS and KING KNUT in correctly with the help of UNION MAN, but still couldn’t see which way round QUIP and ATOP would go. I had exactly the same problem as Bodge@9 with the C-clue (thinking of plaid and so CHECK ???). Soon after placing VESTAL VIRGINS, intrigued by the word ‘defender’, I spent a long time reading (with fascination) about vestal virgins and other Romanalia, fell asleep and waking up forgot all about the puzzle, only remembering last night that I hadn’t finished it. I had another look, failed to get any more and decided to leave it. Thanks for explaining everything, mhl. I don’t think I would ever have completed this puzzle. So glad I was able to help a few by advertising the Guardian’s addition of the missing clue and enumerations.
copmus@18, Your clue, “Summer gold in America’s largest state(6)” would be thought erroneous by some (and would not, I believe, be set by Paul) without, e.g., ‘somewhere’ after “gold” to make the definition and answer both nouns.
Dave from Asheville gave the standard “dad joke” about Juneau already, and most have commented on the things I would have said. It’s fun to see a semi-obscure American city for a change instead of a super-obscure British one.
I was unfamiliar with TIPPEX (the brands here are White-Out and Liquid Paper), so a British friend clued me in. That gave me SPADIX, my last.
I guessed correctly which way to fill the grid, symmetry-wise (VESTAL VIRGIN and KING KNUT had to go in the lower right, but with no clue as to which way, I had to put stuff in to get something going). It would have been a train wreck if I had guessed wrong.
I’m getting better at these. For those who still find them hard, it’s worth noting that I got no headway at all on the first couple I tried.
copmus@18
It happened that my next e-destination was to the results of the Sunday Times cluing competition for HASTINGS where editor Peter Biddlecombe makes exactly the same point in relation to a clue:
Illicit gin stash found on South coast
An anagram of “gin stash”, and a lively story, possibly about smuggling, but “found on South coast” is a description of the answer rather than a definition, although many crossword setters working for less strict editors are allowed to use definitions like “in Sussex”. We could tell the same story and have a true definition by using “Illicit stash somewhere on South coast”.
http://thesundaytimes.co.uk/cluewriting
bridgesong@20 and KeithS@21 (and mhl), many thanks for answering my plea for the grid.
Thanks Mhl. This was a good challenge for a prize. Breaking the symmetry of the grid was difficult partly because there were some strategically placed common letters in the solutions – PIPESMOKER and INSTRUCTOR both ending in R for example, so not helping with fitting into VIRGIN. Deviously clever (I assume it was deliberate).
What I like about the jigsaws is that they force one to solve a number of clues without crossers, many more than for a normal crossword, and that I pleasantly surprise myself that I can actually do it with enough staring (but to be fair it took all of last Saturday). The other nice thing is that once you get to the point where you can start entering answers, the holdouts fall like dominoes, which feels good too. I did not find the grid as difficult as some have reported here – if I remember rightly it was just the two 7’s and 3 (or maybe 4) of the 10’s to get going.
DaveinNCarolina @28’s dialogue about Juneau is reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s music-hall joke reference: D’yer Make’r = Jamaica. Haven’t seen that in a clue (yet).
[Also,
My wife’s gone to Italy
Genoa?
Of course I do — she’s my wife!]
Thank you Paul. Instinct made me assume that the first word in V and K would go across – hats off for adding that as an additional problem. I failed to get E M N R S & T but then as I’d put Y into the wrong place I was faithful jiggered in any case. But I enjoyed this thoroughly even so – particularly H & L which both made me laugh out loud
That should have read thoroughly jiggered
The missing pieces and the unfriendly grid made this one pretty tricky, but I got there in the end. Did most of the jigsaw without resorting to guessing – getting both the 7 letters and the two that hung down from them revealed the orientations of KING KNUT and VESTAL VIRGIN, but the top half was stubbornly blank for ages, and I didn’t help myself by writing YIPPEE in the wrong place, and I had to fix that to sort the NW corner out. SPADIX and ZAFTIG were the most unfamiliar solution – looked the latter up more in hope than expectation but should have been able to see the German roots. XENOCRATES was distantly familiar from a previous crossword (Puck 26627). Could have done without the editing errors which tipped this too far into hard work territory for my liking.
Thanks to Paul and mhl
Managed to fill about half the grid including the obscure ZAFTIG and SPADIX (which I was pleased to learn).
However once words like this came up I felt it probably not worth the effort of trying to complete and effectively followed, Bullhassocks (@16) satisfying conclusion.
Dr Whats On, Tony,
My wife’s playing in Oedipus Rex next week?
Jocasta?
I’m the director, so, yes, and I’ve had a lot of flack.
Great puzzle. Thanks to Paul and mhl
Got most of it, but some sloppiness in the setting and printed version caused me to waste too much of my time on a wild goose chase. I depend on the setting being reasonable. Clue J was missing from printed version, and no numbers given for clues S and T, so I thought that one of them must be a two word 6-6 answer. Also, I suggest that ‘Cedar Oil’ is a better answer to clue C than ‘Clear Oil’. Also, the words ‘Zaftig’ and ‘Spadix’ are too obscure to be reasonable.