Guardian 28,136 / Vulcan

128 comments on “Guardian 28,136 / Vulcan”

1. Thanks, Eileen, for explaining POLKA. Otherwise straightforward.

2. I thought “as” at the beginning of 13a a bit unfair. Ran is a synonym of “directed” but not of “as dircted”.

3. Thanks both. Re POLKA – having no knowledge of bridge, I thought that “A K” might be a knighthood. But that’s not the top honour is it?

4. First, for Anna. Just recently I waxed lyrical here about English being a marvellous bricolage. While typing it I was thinking “This is just an enthusiatic amateur’s riff, I’d love to know what Anna thinks”. I wish I’d said so. Sorry.

5. Frankie @2: I agree. “As directed” has a particular meaning in TV production, meaning an unscripted free-for-all where nobody knows what’s happening.

6. Good Monday fare, helped by a couple of the long clues round the perimeter going in easily. Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen.

7. I too didn’t see the bridge reference for KA in 24 but the answer was clear. I am not sure that gauche is the same as clumsy so I didn’t like this clue. I enjoyed18.
   Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen

8. Eileen – your comment is bang on.

   I liked the definition for WOMEN, SOAP OPERA made me smile, I can never remember which is Flotsam and which is JETSAM (memo to self: possible mnemonic – Jetsam is Jettisoned), I was slightly concerned by 22a first thing on a Monday morning (being a Mark).

   COTD for me is GAUCHE: neat double definition and smooth surface.

   Thanks Vulcan and Eileen for parsing POLKA by making sense of the AK

9. Munromad @7 Gauche in the sense of socially clumsy or awkward?  My French is not strong but I think gauche means both left and awkward.

10. Another who got polka and the “lop” bit but not the AK so thank you Eileen. I found this a mix of very neat clues with excellent surfaces and ones I could not understand because they were so barely cryptic (“wicket” – it’s a definition, not a CD, and “a bird in the hand” for example). I was delayed on “pavement artist” seeing random anagram fodder of “ensign” but got out of that rut quickly enough.

    Many thanks Vulcan…back to the lawn now!

11. As for today, a nice trot, more effort than the Quip but not much.

    Deep breaths everone, and lots of compassion,
    ginf.

12. ..everyone..

13. Thanks Mark perhaps you are right; gauche certainly in my view means socially awkward but I don’t associate that as clumsy. Maybe that’s just me……

14. Shame makes me come clean re 24ac: this is one of the very few times that I have not acknowledged help from Gaufrid. [I have no knowledge of bridge, either. 😉 ]

    [Shirl @3, I found AK: Knight of the order of of Australia in Collins.]

15. Ditto what TheZed says. Kicking myself as I’m a bridge player so should have got AK.

    Ah yes, time I did the lawn.

     

     

16. I too had a ? next to entry, both as competitor list and as lobby. Plus a couple of ‘erk’s, one for hangar and the other for ‘atia’ as homophone for the continent.

17. Munromad @13 You should meet my teenage sons!  Gauche, clumsy, awkward and more…  I’m assured it’s just a passing phase.  (Hopefully grown out of it, myself)

18. Re 18, in Australia, Croatia has crèche sound ending while Asia has beige sound ending. Is this a UK pronunciation thing?

19. What Eileen said in her intro, including the fact that I know nothing about bridge either!

    Thanks to her for the blog and Vulcan for the nice Monday-level crossword – solved outside in the sun which makes it even better in my view, old friends and all

20. Nice relaxing fare for a sunny monday morning (and, because of that, for a little while it almost felt like a “normal” monday!).
    Like John Wells, I don’t play bridge and know little of its terms – so thanks to Eileen (& Gaufrid) for the explanation. Thanks also to Vulcan for a host of delights, especially GAUCHE, INSTINCT, COLOSSI, CROATIA.

21. Not really my cup of tea this morning.  Can’t put my finger on it – just a general looseness abounding.

    Re the laws of salvage, I understand there to be 4 categories:- flotsam; jetsam; lagan; & derelict.  All explained better than I could here.

    Always said look sharp rather than LOOK SMART.  It’s not in Chambers under look but it is under smart.

    Many thanks, both.

22. … I meant to add: Robert Vere, I think it must be an English pronunciation thing – for, to me, it sounds just like “crow” “asia”. Sorry!

23. Robert Vere @18:  I had the same misgiving.  The difference is subtle but, for me Croatia ends in a “sh” sound, while Asia ends with a “zh” sound.  Someone with a knowledge of phonetics might come to the rescue here.

24. Thanks Eileen, esp for the parsing of polka – despite some knowledge of bridge (I used to make up the foursome with my parents and grandmother) I did not think of that for AK, d’oh. I’m not sure if I have met PAVEMENT ARTIST before; it was my LOI and I did like it.Fav was COLOSSI. Thanks to Vulcan.

25. CANONISED, GAUCHE & INDISTINCT got ticks from me. With a little extra time on my hands this morning I got to wondering which setters use the most multi-part answers (my gut feel was Paul) and what are some of the longest answers ever? The results are here 

26. Another bridge player who didn’t get the AK reference – thanks Eileen (and Gaufrid). I ticked three in a row – WOMEN EMITS and SOAP OPERA and did like the reprised classics Eileen mentioned. Thanks to Vulcan for starting the week – I’m hoping for a Puck as we haven’t had one for a while – or even a much missed Arachne.

27. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen

    I’m another non-bridge player who didn’t know what was going on with POLKA.   I also raised an eyebrow at DEEP SPACE, which to me suggests something a bit more distant than just ‘translunar’, but I see from wiki and Collins online that it is used that way, if not by everybody.

    William @23, Robert, ginf – in my experience SH in ‘Asia’ is most common in the UK, ZH in the US and down under – perhaps others can confirm?

    Eileen, re ENTRY:  your ‘narrow lane between houses’ is what I would call a twitten, but I think I got that from my Grandad who was a sussexboy.

28. What most of you said, not too difficult except for parsing polka. I did wonder at 10a if Vulcan was declaring herself female.

    Thanks for the puzzle and the blog

29. Thanks Eileen, and Vulcan. Add my name to those nonplussed by the bridge reference. I often wonder how many non-players like me have a crossword-derived knowledge of bridge terms without ever having played it. It’s odd, but must be written into cruciverbal law somewhere…

30. Eileen and essexboy – as children we used to play “on the backs” and it was only a few years ago I realised the backs were just the dirt tracks at the “back” of the houses. Side alleys or ginnels (spelling?) were between houses.

31. bodycheetah @25 Thanks for compiling those.  Very interesting and didn’t expect to see Enigmatist up there.  Bunthorne and Araucaria were a bit before my Guardian crosswording time but I’m less surprised by the others.  Good old Rufus: not one!  Regarding solution length I am truly astounded at the longest ever – and haven’t had the faintest success in solving it.  I’m was intrigued to find Vlad and Chifonie – two setters I find decidedly challenging – towards the shorter end – although sometimes the shorter solutions are the trickier, given there are bound to be more possible words that fit, I guess.

32. Pronunciation of Asia here (UK) seems to me to be randomly voiced/unvoiced, parhaps depending on the words before and after it. Croatia is always pronounced unvoiced.

    I noticed as a child growing up in SE London that Greenwich had four pronunciations: Grinnich, Grinnij, Grennich and Grennij, sometimes in the same speaker!

    Thanks to all.

33. For me too, the entry is the passage between my house and the next in the terrace.  But I have heard it used in this way before, when Sherlock Holmes explains to Watson why his hall is painted yellow.

34. I love regional words for alleys: slip, slype, ginnel, snicket, entry and shut are the ones that spring immediately to mind, I’m sure you know others.

35. Auriga @34 – I’m totally with you!

36. ‘jigger’ was the scouse version I recall.

    Btw, I always took ‘Deep Space’ to be beyond the Solar System so surprised to hear otherwise.

37. Skip @33 ,Nice quip Skip

    Africa @34 Gennel here in North Derbyshire.

38. Thanks to Eileen and Vulcan

    When I was driving along the seemingly endless motorway from Rijecka to Split, I don’t remember thinking of Croatia as a small country. Its surface area is quite a bit bigger than Switzerland.

39. Auriga sorry, bothersome autowotsit!

40. 17A. Surely, to be caught out and to lose a wicket are different things.

41. On a sticky wicket here, but I’d say if you are caught out you definitely lose a wicket in cricket.

42. Auriga, your Greenwich versions reminds me of argument, Lancashire in the ’60s, about whether water was pronounced waht’r or weht’r, but that was between TWO individuals who, moreover, lived fully 3 miles apart!

43. Apparently there are 10 ways to lose your wicket – I only got 7 of them

44. @22 For statistics on preference for /?/ versus /?/ in ASIA, see my Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Briefly, Americans and younger Brits tend to prefer /?/ (as in beige).

45. @22 For statistics on preference for /?/ versus /?/ in ASIA, see my Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Briefly, Americans and younger Brits tend to prefer /?/ (as in beige).

46. Sorry, forgot this site doesn’t accept phonetic symbols.

47. @Pedro, @bodycheetah. I was thinking that to lose a wicket was to be ‘stumped’. Thanks for the lesson.

48. I would have thought that ENTRY referred to a single contestant, but Chambers allows it as a list, so TILT for me.

    GAUCHE always reminds me of a witty headline in The Economist some years ago: “The Left in Canada is More Gauche Than Sinister”.

49. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen

    Quick but pleasant. PAVEMENT ARTIST my favourite too.

    I really don’t see how the “in” fits in 22a. LOOK SMART (and look sharp) are both instructions meaning “hurry”, not “in hurry”.

50. I enjoyed that.  But I got one wrong:  I had EDITS for 11a, with the reversed period being TIDE, and I decided that given an editor issues a magazine, “edits” could fit “issues” for definition.  Emits is much better.

     

51. William @23, “look sharp” brought back memories for me. I heard it many times in my childhood days!

52. This was a fairly quick solve today, but I think lockdown is having an effect on my (never very good) anagram-solving skills. For 1d I had As The Rice Flows and As the Wolf Cries before the d’oh moment….. I was even about to look up rice to see if that was an expression meaning ‘straight’!
    Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen.

53. I often find crosswords with lots of CDs quite difficult – either you see them straightaway or you go off in a completely wrong direction.

    Although it is quite interesting to hear of variant pronunciations, I think the arbiter of the ‘correct’ pronunciation as used in a homophone should be the dictionaries. Collins and Oxford are useful in this regard and when setting, if the pronunciation is different, it can be indicated by Scottish, Welsh, American etc – at least, that’s what I would do.

    I liked the clue for WOMEN.

    Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.

54. Just to add to the ‘entry’ synonyms: in Great Yarmouth we always referred to a passage or, more traditionally, a row. How do we ever manage to communicate? Thanks to all for the enjoyable blog, and especially to the setters and bloggers who help keep the brain active.

55. Apart from what essexboy and Pedro said surely Over the Moon means something quite specific, and it isn’t ‘deep space’?

56. Then again this is a cryptic crossword so we can look beyond the normal meaning of a phrase like “over the moon” and interpret is as possibly meaning to the far side of the moon? Isn’t that how a lot of misdirection in cryptic crosswords works?

57. Alan @55:  I suppose it could have been clued, extremely obscurely, as ‘secret room where parrots aren’t sick?’  🙂

    By the way, thanks to John Wells for dropping in @44.  We asked for a phonetician and we got one!

58. Penfold @ 37 & 39: I was amused!

    Grantinfreo @ 42: Having lived in Bolton and worked in Accrington, nothing’s changed!

59. I could not parse 24a except for LOP, and 21d – the French drive on it over here bit.

    I failed to solve 19a unfenced.

    Thanks Vulcan and Eileen

60. As an aside, but one I hope is of interest, Robert Macfarlane’s “Landmarks” (reviews in Teh Grauniad here) is a fascinating journey into our use of language to describe our environment and how each shapes the other. As with any other of his books, I’d thoroughly recommend.

61. I thought this was mostly good, especially WOMEN, GAUCHE and the long anagram (thanks for the laugh, Christa @52), but I enjoy Vulcan less than most setters because I generally prefer clues with wordplay to purely cryptic definitions. Vulcan uses so many of the latter that I sometimes get tripped up by looking for them when they’re not there. Today my downfall was 19a, where I thought that perhaps “open field” referred to a tournament with no ranked, or seeded, slots, so “unseeded.” The actual answer is clearly better.

    Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen (like many others, I needed help with the KA in POLKA).

62. A pleasant and gentle puzzle (though like others I didn’t get the “honours” in 24a POLKA, even though I’m sure we’ve had this before).  I particularly liked 10a WOMEN and 4d NAMESAKE, a nice cryptic definition.

    Skip @33 – it took me ages to get your joke (it’s a lemon entry, my dear Watson).  I do remember that Holmes’s study was scarlet…

    Many thanks Vulcan and Eileen.

63. Skip @33 (via Lord Jim @62) I have not heard that one before!  Which is why I hadn’t complimented you until now.  Thanks to Lord Jim for the – correct – assumption that some of us just went “Eh?” and then moved on.

64. Auriga @ 34 vennels and wynd in Scotland

65. Relatively easy, but then it is Monday.  I very much enjoyed POLKA, GAUCHE and PAVEMENT ARTIST.  Many thanks to Vulcan and Eileen!

66. @18, 22, 27, 32, 44, 45, 53 (sorry, too time-consuming to type out all your names!)

    Re 18D…

    Yes, Croatia is always pronounced with an unvoiced “sh” – as far I’m aware, world-wide amongst English speakers.

    But it’s so interesting to see everyone’s different reactions to how Asia is generally pronounced.

    Rather than it being a regional issue, isn’t it a class issue?

    I’ll be the first to admit my experience is no substitute for a scientific mapping, but for what it’s worth, my experience doesn’t tally with what many of you are suggesting.

    I’m English (from the South-East) in my mid 40s. I’ve never heard, or heard of, the same people varying their pronunciation of “Asia” depending on what comes before or after. In my experience, the voiced “zh” pronunciation in Asia is absolutely standard for everyone of my generation and younger generations in England (from north, south and everywhere in between, at least everyone I’ve ever met or heard on radio or screen, of my generation and younger from England). The “zh” pronunciation is also, in my experience, absolutely standard for most English people from older generations (at least all those I’ve encountered or heard on radio and screen).

    The only English people I’ve ever heard use the unvoiced “sh” pronunciation in Asia are some people from older generations who are from what used to be called the upper and upper-middle classes. And – exceptionally rarely – a minority of people from my generation who are from the upper or upper-middle classes.

    Generally I’m against homonym-based clues for the usually rehearsed reasons. In this particular case, the difference of pronunciation is sufficiently small that I don’t think it really made the clue unfair either way – the answer was pretty obvious anyway, and the “sh” pronunciation of Asia is a legitimate pronunciation. But the clash between my own experience, and the setter’s unspoken assumption that this is the natural way for people to say “Asia”, did leave me with the impression that Vulcan must be extremely well-to-do. Which raised a chuckle.

     

67. Baerchen @ 38 – my gut reaction was also to query whether Croatia counts as a “small” country. It’s definitely not a “microstate” (e.g. Vatican City, Monaco). But based on this Wikipedia list of countries ranked by size, I think it’s probably fair to describe Croatia as small.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area#Countries_and_dependencies_by_area

    Not that much bigger than Switzerland in area (which is only 8 places lower in the table). And both of them pretty firmly in the bottom half of the table. (Croatia 124 out of 194)

68. Thanks John Wells @44  – I too was struggling with the pronunciation of Asia. I am please to be told that places me in the “young” category (I’m in UK) and will make the most of this.

69. [David @67

    You can use the “link” icon to make your links neater. Copy the URL, highlight some text in your protopost, click on the icon (2nd from the right above the text entry box), then paste your link into the dialog box, click on the “Return” arrow.]

70. Muffin @ 67. Thanks for the tip. I had no way of knowing that the link would spill over the edge of the text box once posted. But I don’t think i can correct this now, after the event.

71. I play bridge but I still did not get the reference to AK, neither did the ‘poisonous gas’ trigger CO. Had to reveal these two, novices eh! Someone on the Guardian message board will have to think up something more patronising than just ‘novice’ now.

72. Dave Ellison@ 64. I knew wynd, and I’ll add vennels to my list.

73. bodycheetah @ 43, handled the ball now falls under obstructing the field, but a batsman can retire so it is still 10 ways.

74. Never played bridge but honours for Aces and court/coat cards (J,Q,K) is a fairly common staple in cryptics – and possibly applies to more than just bridge.
    After a tip off from Mark I solved last Mondays

75. …oops)….Anto (don’t usually bother with Mondays) and rather enjoyed it so thank you Mark

76. ….and thanks to Eileen and Vulcan. My first Vulcan; seems quite suitable for beginners with one or two nice constructions such as HOW-TO and, best of all, TRADESMAN

77. bodycheetah @ 25: Those are fascinating graphs – thanks so much for linking.

    Enjoyed this puzzle – great Monday fare. Thanks setter and blogger.

78. It’s a sound like – not claimed to be an exact homophone. But to add my own take – I think I use both. ‘zh’ when Asia stands alone but ‘sh’ in Asia Minor. But it really doesn’t matter…..!?

79. Does anyone pronounce Asia as /ee s i a/? (Not having IPA on this phone, ee is the long a sound in English.) I find that I tend to use the s sound (not sh nor zh) especially when saying derived words such as ‘asiatic’. Perhaps I’m being influenced by the Spanish asiático.

80. David @70

    Your link would have looked like this.

    “Ay sha” for me, every time, so identical to CROW AY SHA.

81. Generally enjoyable — thought WOMEN, INSTINCT, and RANSACKS were clever but I felt there were too many cryptic definitions — I don’t understand PAVEMENT ARTISTS — are flags graffiti? I had “unseeded” for UNFENCED but couldn’t parse it for obvious reasons. Thanks Eileen for parsing, esp. POLKA — bridge, like cricket, is out of my league. Thanks Vulcan.

82. Tony @81

    In the UK the stone or concrete rectangles used to make pavements are called “flags”.

83. I’m from Cheshire and say Aysha (and can no longer be described as young). I use ENTRY as a narrow passage between houses although my Yorkshire husband taught me ginnel and snicket. I also decided AK was something to do with a Knighthood. I enjoyed this crossword and all the correspondence that followed. Is anyone going to give us the answer to the longest ever multi word clue? I assume it’s an anagram.

    Thanks Eileen and Vulcan

84. I don’t know about LOOK SMART. Never heard it phrased like that I don’t think – “look sharp” perhaps? Something wrong with this puzzle. Perhaps it’s too many CD’s,some a bit forced but perhaps I’m being over critical!
    Thanks Vulcan.

85. I don’t know if it’s the one you are referring to, but the longest anagram I remember seeing was an Araucaria that gave the title of a Rupert Brooke poem. There’s also a Jeffrey Archer connection.

86. I don’t think anyone has answered the point made by Totterdown @40 (except for a semi-humorous riposte by Pedro @41):

    “17A. Surely, to be caught out and to lose a wicket are different things.”

    I agree. The method of dismissal is caught, not caught out. I’ve never heard caught out used in a cricketing context, except by people who know little or nothing about cricket. Apologies to setter and blogger if this includes you and you feel offended.

    To be caught out is to be discovered doing something illegal, dishonourable or disreputable. To be caught in cricket is to be dismissed in accordance with the rules of the game. Not the same thing at all. The ball is caught and the batsman is then out. Or you could say the batsman was out caught. But that wouldn’t work in the clue. (And yes I know it is in Chambers, but Chambers is just wrong. Read the rules of cricket instead: http://www.rulesofcricket.co.uk/the_rules_of_cricket/the_rules_of_cricket_law_32.htm  –  “Out Caught”.)

    There were eight cryptic definitions in this crossword, or as Eileen put it at 1a: ‘cryptic’. One fewer would have gone a small way towards restoring some sort of balance.

87. muffin @85 you have an excellent memory: “O Swindon Town! outed from highest league — a fair cow — or a Houlier needed: would this clarion call be any compensation? (3,7,4,2,8,4,2,5,2,3,7,1,4)” from crossword 25220

88. muffin@ 85
    I’m referring to the one in bodycheetah@25’s charts. It starts “O Swindon town…” (click on the first graphic and it’s at the bottom of the page.

89. Sorry, that link to the rules of cricket is not working. Try this instead: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caught

90. The classic Araucaria ones are

    ‘O hark the herald angels sing the boy’s descent which lifted up the world,’
    a [brilliantly allusive] anagram of “While shepherds watched their flocks by night, all seated on the ground”

    … and the one muffin was thinking of:

    ‘Poetical scene with surprisingly chaste Lord Archer vegetating (3, 3, 8, 12)’
    for  “The Old Vicarage, Grantchester”. by Rupert Brooke.

91. Sorry bodycheetah, I’m a slow typist

92. Thanks bodycheetah and Eileen. I think the Grantchester one is one of the funniest clues I’ve seen! (For those not in the know, Lord (Jeffrey) Archer was living there at the time.)

93. Dave @66. Perhaps Aysha is ayshibboleth?

94. My belated thanks to John Wells for his contribution @44. Being non-American and ancient, I’m in the non-beige camp.

95. Tony Santucci @81. I see your UNSEEDED and raise you UNHEDGED. I was hoping this would turn out to have an appropriate meaning from the business world, but fortunately I got COLOSSI and had a rethink.

96. SH @95

    I thought of UNHEDGED too as the puzzle was printing, but fortunately I got distracted and saw the right solution when I came back to it.

    [I mention printing off the puzzle quite often – I like to solve at least one clue as it’s doing so. I’m not a freeloader, though – I am a subscriber, but I do the puzzle on a printout (a) so as not to hog the paper, and (b) because my newsagent doesn’t open until 9!]

97. Muffin @82 Of course flag would be short for flagstone, common in the US. Thanks.
    Sheffield Hatter @95 Having failed at COLOSSI, my “unseeded” never got corrected.

98. Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen.  As you have said, typical Monday fare althogu I nevertheless tripped over a few – brain must need re-engaging after the weekend, or possibly it got overheated after atempting Saturday’s offering.    Despite knowing that meaning of “honours” I don’t think I’ve ever seen it used in a crossword clue before, so kuds to Vulcan for defeating me there.    Today’s useless fact – I’m sure I’ve seen PAVEMENT ARTIST(s) used to describe the members of an armed robbery gang…………

99. PS my keyboard is on its last legs so lots of typos !!

     

100. 100 comments for a Monday crossword must be a record??  Liked 21d Gauche which was elegant and my LOI.   Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen

101. sheffield hatteer @ He was caught in the slips but also he was caught out on the boundary!!

102. Simon @100 – not a Monday record yet – just look back a week!

103. SimoninBxl @100

     “100 comments for a Monday crossword must be a record??”

     Actually no, last Monday’s Anto had 129 comments. In the 13½ years since the site opened, there have been 19 blogs (all Guardian) where the number of comments has reached three figures, 7 of these have occurred during the last 6½ weeks!

104. Eileen @ 90: I remember the Araucaria one and kept it somewhere to quote at Christmases (to anyone who might appreciate it). I could never find it so I’m very grateful to you for reproducing it here.

105. SPanza @ 101. Very clever, but a bit naughty. It should be “caught, out on the boundary”. Nice try though!

106. This crossword illustrates what I don’t like about Vulcan puzzles.  The padding he sometimes includes is frustrating (e.g. “as” in 13, “over here” in 21, “small” in 18).  For instance, I spent ages trying to put “ici” in the answer to 21.  Some of the cryptic definitions are barely more than vague allusions to the answers, e.g. those for A BIRD IN THE HAND and SOAP OPERA.  This makes the solving slower because solvers can’t quite trust the way the clue’s written.  This isn’t always true – TRADESMAN and SKYPE are both neat and concise.  I often feel I’ve been on a wild goose chase on a Monday as a result.

     Thanks anyway, Vulcan and Eileen.

107. Pedro @104 – it wasn’t so hard to find as past puzzles usually are. It’s in the Wikipedia entry for Araucaria.

108. Aha! Thanks for the link. It is good to read about the person whose just been a name to me for maybe 45 years. [I also enjoyed seeing the video of John Halpern that was posted last week.

109. Gaufrid @103

     I wonder why?

     Actually, less frivolously, why do the Guardian blogs tend to get far more comments than the others? Is it the relative ease of accessing the puzzles online?

110. Gaufrid @103 and others on the thread. Particularly impressive numbers last Monday given that technical issues delayed kick off by a considerable time. I’m guessing a number of our community from Australia and NZ might have missed out.

111. sheffield hatter@95 I had unhedged too, in the hope that dodgy hedge funds had been made illegal.

112. Thanks Eileen, I had no idea how to parse POLKA and clearly wasn’t alone.

     Muffin @109, Yes that is why I tend to do the Guardian (the CHECK function in particular has helped me a great deal when I think I have parsed part of a clue but not got the whole thing), the tone of the puzzles is usually on the lighter side with relatively amusing clues fairly regularly appearing, and the named setters helps somehow in gauging difficulty and ‘wavelength’. Am also a fan of their helpful blog setting out many of the commonly used devices, interviews with setters and so on.

     Thanks Vulcan, an enjoyable diversion to start the week and I appreciated the relative simplicity of many clues as I enjoyed a little too much sunshine and booze over the weekend.

113. muffin @109

     “Actually, less frivolously, why do the Guardian blogs tend to get far more comments than the others? Is it the relative ease of accessing the puzzles online?”

     No, the other puzzles can easily be accessed online. It is due to the fact that the Guardian has a far greater readership than the other publications.

114. Gaufrid @113

     I have to disagree. The Independent , for some time, hasn’t let me participate unless I disable my AdBlock; and I haven’t found a way of doing the FT without connecting to a computer from which I can print it off.

115. Robert Vere @ 93 Very droll! And nice to see shibboleth used in its original sense for a change

116. Vulcan’s best so far I thought. Thanks Eileen for the bridge reference.
     To answer Frankie the Cat @2: ‘As/ in the form of’ WORDPLAY, DEFINITION – it’s a link word.

117. …and quite a few phonetic symbols are at
     https://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/ipa-charts/ipa-symbols-with-html-codes/
     – just type the ampersand-something-semicolon code here.

118. [Seem to recall that several of the earlier ton-ups were in response to Araucaria’s final appearances (honest, positive but sadly revealing) and his final disappearance. Well over six years ago now – hard to believe)

119. Re “O Swindon Town…” anagram: at last I found it posted by Eileen 22 Jan 2011

     ONE CROWDED HOUR OF GLORIOUS LIFE IS WORTH AN AGE WITHOUT A NAME (Sir Walter Scott)

     Totally unfamiliar to me and nothing to do with Grantchester!

120. Hi Julia – I’ve only just seen your comment.

     I didn’t take much notice of the discussion about this clue yesterday because I didn’t recognise it. If someone had posted the answer, rather than the clue, I just might have remembered that I had blogged the puzzle where Araucaria used it. Thanks so much for directing me to it.

121. I’ve commentated on cricket on the radio and I would never say ‘caught out’, but if he’s caught, he’s out, so I enjoyed the wordplay and the crossword in general.

      

122. Thanks, Jeremy.

     Not being an authority on [or having an interest in] cricket, I read it as having a comma between ‘caught’ and ‘out’ which led me to the answer – pretty much as you saw it, I think – and couldn’t really see what all the discussion was about. 😉

123. Thanks Eileen for your response. Perhaps you could tell me how to use the ‘search’ facility, please. bodycheetah had given the crossword number 25220 which of course was correct. I typed it in but it just came back ‘not found’. Google got me there in the end.

124. Hello Julia

     Under ‘Site search’ on the right of this page, type the number of the puzzle [or the setter, or the answer] that you’re looking for and click ‘search’. You do have to insert the comma in the puzzle number, so I think that may have been your problem. I’ve just tried it again and It’s here http://www.fifteensquared.net/2011/01/22/guardian-prize-25220-araucaria/

125. Thanks Eileen, it was the missing comma!

126. Why would every anaesthetist have the Book of Numbers?

127. bounceback @126

     As I said in the preamble, this is an old favourite crossword device – a sort of double / cryptic definition.  An anaesthetist would have ‘numbers’ [things that numb]. ‘Number’ is often used to clue ETHER.

128. @66 david.  The phonetic transcriptions of words in dictionaries mainly conform to a Received Pronunciation which hardly anyone speaks, except maybe a few ancient buffers of the aristocracy, like Her Madge. I hate these clues, too. Coming from Oop North may make it worse, but I have a degree in linguistics and they still often stump me. I think some setters do not know phonetics. We may get clues like: Yob sounds fair (4) = LOUT (\”Light\” in Posh RP.)!!

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