Guardian 28,345 / Carpathian

100 comments on “Guardian 28,345 / Carpathian”

1. A fairly straightforward start to the week. Couldn’t parse PEPPER so thanks, Eileen. Favourite was probably HALLUCINATION. LOI = HANDLE. Many thanks Carpathian

2. Arch being playful new to me.

3. Lovely gentle teasing beginning to the week. We had “outbid” for 1AC, which also works, no? Though “outwit” is a better better… Thanks Carpathian.

4. Wow, new site theme is very nice.

   Enjoyable puzzle. Did not know the theatre or (like Pedro @2) ARCH = playful. Favourites were HALLUCINATION and FASTIDIOUS.

   Thanks B & S!

5. Nice puzzle for the Monday slot
   New: crib = plagiarise
   Favourite: PETULANT

6. Thanks Carpathian and Eileen
   Nice puzzle. Favourites were LACERATE for the unusual “doctor”, and INTERSECT. I didn’t parse PEPPER either.
   Tiny quibble – a plea in court isn’t the same as a defence.

7. Nice Monday stroll and like the new ‘CITE’. HALLUCINATION and INTERSECT were favourites. Didn’t know that meaning for CRIB. Ta Eileen & Carpathian.

8. Pleasant to pick away at between overs of an intriguing fourth Test. Stared dumbly for a while at the crossers for the last two in, earner and encounter, both of which are cw 101, which suggests that cricket is not good for one’s brain. Hey ho, all good fun, thanks both.

9. Thanks both. I seem to remember CRIB from Molesworth books about public school. PLAGIARISE takes me straight to Tom Lehrer!

10. Enjoyed this – some lovely clues. Didn’t manage to parse CITE (so often don’t get homophones) and IMPASSE (clever).

    Favourites: HALLUCINATION, PLAGIARISE, PEPPER, DEFERENCE FASTIDIOUS.

    One of the commenters on Everyman yesterday was saying that it would be good to have a different island to Man in a clue for ISLE – and today we had Skye (name of my brother’s dog).

    Thanks to Carpathian and Eileen.

11. Good fun. Also couldn’t parse PEPPER, and messed up EARNER: I had EARNED as in ‘lucrative’ (literally = paying rather than free), so it didn’t parse. Many thanks to Carpathian and Eileen.

12. An enjoyable start to the week. I see there is a post by Admin (see recent posts list on home page) regarding the advantages of the new theme. For 22A, I mistakenly had POP (go, as in have a go / try) + PER, thinking there was a plant called a ‘popper’ – oh, well, at least I was, sort of, on the right tracks. Thanks to Carpathian and Eileen.

13. Presumably PLAGIARISE is the setter’s admitting to using PostMark’s suggestion for using Skye rather than Man in cluing ISLE 😉

    Thanks to Carpathian and Eileen

14. muffin @6
    PLEA – Collins: something alleged by or on behalf of a party to legal proceedings in support of his claim or defence
    Chambers: a prisoner’s or defendant’s answer to a charge or claim

15. Good start to the week. Thanks Carpathian. Thanks also to Eileen for the parsing of HANDLE. Thought of every sort of stock except that one!
    Love the new site, Gaufrid. Much easier to use on my iPhone.

16. Lovely puzzle this morning with quite a bit of head-scratching but probably mostly because I was dealing with finally saying “bye-bye BT” as my DSL was switched to a new provider.

    Thanks to Carpathian, Eileen and Gaufrid for a fantastic-looking new theme! I’ve just cancelled my optician appointment as a result!

17. Eileen @14
    Isn’t the plea just “Guilty” or “Not guilty”? That’s what the Chambers definition you give implies.

18. Fiona Anne @10: I, too, was delighted to see a different definition for ISLE! And I’m another who had a tentative sniff at both POPPER and OUTBID before the correct alternatives struck me. The latter is particularly tricky, given the single crosser but I couldn’t persuade myself of a bid being a card. I suspect there are games in which laying down a particular card does constitute a bid, which would make OUTBID a viable alternative, but I don’t know any.

    My favourites have already been mentioned – HALLUCINATION, LACERATE and ROSETTE (I rather liked ‘trotting’ as an anagrind though suspect it won’t appeal to all). I parsed HANDLE wrongly, taking stock in the sense of maintaining and selling goods: “do you stock/handle billhooks?” for example. But it got me there.

    Having rejoiced in an alternative ISLE, my only (tiny) gripe is at the lock/TRESS equivalence which appears so regularly. As bodycheetah once said, “One of these days someone will use LOCK to mean something other than hair and I am going to be baffled, bamboozled and bewildered”.

    Thanks Carpathian and Eileen

19. Pleasant enough stroll if a little on the joyless side perhaps. Most of the devices just a felt a little hackneyed.

    Many thanks, Eileen, I was moved to look up PLEA as well.

20. A tad chewier than the average Monday puzzle, I thought. I had a smattering of clues and then ground to a halt with the grid half-filled and unhelpful crossers. Still, worrying away at it provided plenty of rewards: I thought PEPPER was particularly sharp.

    Thanks Eileen and Carpathian

21. Like Blady @3 I had OUTBID for 1ac but didn’t feel happy with bid = card (I suppose it could work at a stretch; I believe that in serious bridge players hold up cards to indicate their bids rather than saying them out loud, and many auction houses ask you to hold up a bid card). OUTWIT is much neater.
    Had to resort to a word finder to identify the possibilities for 24ac, my excuse being that it’s Monday morning.
    Some really good clues, I think favourites being PORTRAITS and ROSETTE.
    Are we having yet another dig-ette at the Dear Leader with references to plea involving Queen (prorogation?), meticulous firm promises (irony?), student left out (Erasmus?), repeated deadlock, oddly deficient vistas, leaderless troops, the state becoming mean, “Worker left European stock” and “individual is lying”?
    Thanks to Carpathian and to Eileen, and double thanks to Carpathian if the dig-ette was intentional.

22. trish@15, stock/handle…the art of the [non]obvs (oblique but viable synonym).

23. Got carried away writing up my Bulgarian grammar notes well into the night and still in bed at 11 o’clock (lazybones) so started late. Expecting a walkover but no! I was pleasantly surprised. This was just right for a Monday morning. Some write-ins but several clues that really made me think.
    I was wondering if there was such a word as Ance before ARCH dawned. FASTIDIOUS also held me up, as I was convinced it started with CO-.
    The surfaces weren’t too bad either.
    Nice little puzzle.
    Thanks to Carpathian and to Eileen.

24. [Mathematicians and computer programmers on Fifteensquared: there is such expertise here – could I please access your insight into a – non-cruciverbal – topic: what is the use/application of digital roots? I’ve posed a query over on GD and would really value tapping into the collective mind..]

25. A very nice crossword, this. This is exactly the kind of puzzle I’d use to show someone who wanted to get into cryptic crosswords how they work – lots of different techniques used, elegant cluing, it sticks to the rules but is a little bit playful too – and I’d know that person would be sold immediately. I think that’s why the ‘Monday is easier’ theme is important, to let people get a toe-hold into the enterprise of cryptic crosswords. Many thanks to Carpathian and Eileen. And I’m really liking the new site layout, good work!

26. Larry @12 and PostMark @18, I am another POPPER. There are apparently plants known as poppers so it seems like a perfectly acceptable answer to me. They are however pretty obscure, so given that it is a Monday I probably have to accept PEPPER over POPPER.

27. DNF because of HANDLE, so frustrated by that.

    I like the new site layout. Any chance of being able to edit typos in one’s own comments? (I realise this is non-trivial and would involve a more rigorous login system).

    PostMark@24: I recognise numerical roots and roots of polynomials, but not “digital roots” as a term of art, though Wikipedia has this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_root. What does “GD” refer to?

28. [MaidenBartok @16 Did you channel your inner Bay City Roller whilst saying “bye-bye BT”?]

29. I’ve joined the OUTBID queue. I did come here rather nervously because of it, and it’s doubly annoying to slip up on a Monday.

30. I agree with Boffo @20 and others who thought this was tough for a Monday. As Eileen says in her preamble, “Some of the definitions are not the first to spring to mind”.

    Indeed, some of them are so ‘not the first’ that I don’t think they are equivalent at all.

    Does OUTWIT really mean ‘better’? It means to ‘get the better of’ someone, but that’s not quite the same. To ‘better’ as a verb is to surpass or exceed, not to outsmart. Can anyone come up with a sentence in which they are interchangeable?

    But if I seem to be ‘complaining’, I hope I don’t come across as PETULANT 😉

    And it was good to see the PostBirthday present for PostMark.

    Thanks Carpathian and Eileen.

    [Penfold: I’m not going to play a-lang with that one]

31. [poc @27: GD is General Discussion page for topics not directly associated with the day’s puzzle. Which mine is not but I appreciate your reply and the article – which I’ve read but which doesn’t address the purpose/point of the concept.]

32. Thank you to Carpathian for an enjoyable challenge today, and to Eileen for her usual FASTIDIOUS (24a) blog. I thought a number of clues were very neat – my favourites have already been cited by others above.
    Many thanks to Gaufrid as well for the new, clear layout of 15².

33. Thought this took a bit more unpicking than is usual for a Monday. A good challenge, and a very smart new look to the site…

34. NeilH @21 – as with your possible theme-ette last Wednesday, I enjoyed your suggestions for a dig-ette today. It’s better than crying at the ironies we’re constantly exposed to these days, anyway.

35. Kudos on the new look, 15^2.

36. Thanks Eileen. ARCH is a new definition for me so a bit of a bung in. I also needed the explanation for PEPPER, doh.
    Those excepted, a nice start to the week.
    The new site looks good.

37. [Penfold @28: definitely a case of “Let’s Go” to my new ISP, Angel Angel, initially…

    PostMark @24: Digital Roots for me means trying to put back some of the colour using fingers on my scalp… (will answer)]

38. Postmark@24 : “Digital Roots” sounds like a modernisation of the slang for “boots – Daisy Roots”.
    “I must put my digitals on to go down the allotment…”
    Apologies for the flippant answer to a serious question.

39. Frequent visitor, second-time poster, first moan.

    19d – cement is not a “glue”. It’s a powder that when mixed with water (and perhaps aggregate) becomes a binder. It is not the same thing as concrete. i wish setters would refrain from this glaring mistake.

40. Peter Storch @39
    Portland cement isn’t the only type of cement. There’s rubber cement, for instance.

41. Just for a change, I had ‘outdid’, which is certainly ‘better’ but even less to do with cards! Very nice crossword, thanks to setter and blogger

42. A standard romp through plenty of well-known devices. A bit of editorial oversight (what that? Ed) would have prevented the answer to 4ac appearing in the clue to 3d.

43. Thanks to Carpathian and Eileen.
    With all crossers in place, I had to do a (lengthy) alphabetical trawl to unearth OUTWIT (LOI). And HALLUCINATION took far too long. So an entertainment overlain with moments of panic – just the ticket for a Monday.
    Came here for a smug peruse to find that I hadn’t parsed PEPPER at all – thought it was just “go” as in, perhaps, “ginger” and had ignored the “-PER” contributed by “by” (baby) and now that I see it I’m struggling to find an equivalence. But no biggie.
    For what it’s worth (cap in hand, eyes downcast) I feel the ROSETTE winner might more likely be trotting around Crufts than a gymkhana?

44. Have either Muck or Rum been used as Isle I wonder? I thought Skye was way too obvious. Also did not parse Pepper or Outwit.

45. Poc@27
    digital roots are a mathematical concept that allows you to check if your maths are accurate and thus helps to improve numeracy skills and obtain better grades, I was taught then in school 60 years ago and they have been very useful throughout my business life as an accountant
    See this article
    https://www.teachingideas.co.uk/sites/default/files/digitalroots.pdf

46. Postmark@24
    My @45 was supposed to reference your post, apologies

47. Spent too long thinking about the wrong sorts of lobby, doctor and mean. I was pleased to see the setter as neither I, me or a dog.

48. [Cliveinfrance @45: many thanks]

49. Peter Storch @39: I took cement/glue as verbs, both meaning to fix in place?

50. Peter Storch @39 (muffin @40): I took cement as a verb (eg cement a relationship)

51. KeithM @42 – I noticed that when I solved the puzzle, then forgot to mention it when I came to write the blog.

    Alphalpha @43 – Collins, Chambers and SOED all give PER: through, by, by means of – more usually in Latin phrases e.g. per capita (counting) by heads, per se (by him/her/itself).
    I haven’t been to a gymkhana since I was a child but I remember the winners getting rosettes. I’ve never been to Crufts.

    moraysinger @ 44 – we’ve had more than one puzzle themed on Scottish isles.

    Petert @47 – we had the setter as both I and me in 3dn.

    PostMark @49 – that was my interpretation of cement / glue.

52. I agree about DEFENCE – a plea is in support of the defence, as Chambers says. And it was a bit irritating to have HAMPER as both answer and wordplay. Surely this should have been the Quiptic, which was harder today. All those standard devices here: lock = tress; bury = inter; actor = ham; the French = le; promises = IOUs… etc would be ideal for a beginner to get to know, but a bit old hat for the rest of us.

53. When I did this last night, the blog was not yet up so I made a couple of mental notes for the morning, namely that this was generally easy, in fact a good puzzle for beginners, but with one or two words with less-obvious synonyms. It seems I’m not alone thinking this.

    Regarding the notion of digital roots, it is a part of Number Theory, whose main goal it seems to me is to come up with conjectures that can only be solved by more number theory.

54. [Dr W @53: many thanks. I suspect Class 2 will be excited to know what they can now do!]

55. Enjoyable overall — thanks Carpathian. I always appreciate readable surfaces. Favourites were PETULANT, FASTIDIOUS, PORTRAITS, AVERAGE, and PRONE. Somewhat surprised that ARCH as playful seemed new to some — it was new to me until I began attempting British crosswords a couple of years ago — I could swear I’ve seen that use a number of times in previous puzzles. Thanks Eileen fir the blog.

56. moraysinger @44: no idea how you feel about past puzzles – or, of course, which ones you might have done but you may well enjoy either/both of these:
    https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/12/16/guardian-cryptic-28318-by-puck/
    https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/10/13/independent-10609-crosophile/

57. Thanks admin. A vastly improved site!

58. Much of my childhood was spent making Airfix models (& Tamiya when funds allowed). The glue was called cement and Chambers first definition for cement is any substance that sticks things together

59. I wonder if ARCH meaning playful comes from the raised eyebrow that can sometimes accompany a witticism?

    I’ve just come back here after solving the Quiptic in about a third of the time that this one took. As usual, it was the short homophone that held me up longest, though DEFERENCE ran it a close second as there seemed to be so many words that would potentially fit and the synonyms just wouldn’t make themselves known.

    Thanks to Carpathian and Eileen, and well done to Gaufrid for the smart new appearance of the site.

60. Bodycheetah @ 58

    That reminds me that, when the first stamps were printed, the adhesive on the back was referred to as cement.

61. Fun, easy start to the week. Thanks.

62. Anna all this cement confusion reminds me of this Jack Dee show

63. Bodycheetah

    Haha, love it 🙂

64. sheffield hatter @59

    ARCH (Collins: ‘coyly playful’; Chambers: ‘roguish’. I’d always wondered about a connection with the adjectival prefix ARCH-, chief or principal ( Archbishop, arch-enemy) etc and have just found this:

    “arch – adjective
    1540s, “chief, principal,” from separate use of the prefix arch-, which is attested from late Old English (in archangel, archbishop, etc.). The prefix figured in so many derogatory uses (arch-rogue, arch-knave, etc.) that by mid-17c. it had acquired a meaning of “roguish, mischievous,” softened by 19c. to “saucy.” The shifting sense is exemplified by archwife (late 14c.), variously defined as “a wife of a superior order” or “a dominating woman, virago.” Related: Archly; archness.”

    (Originally from the Greek archon – ruler, a chief magistrate in ancient Athens.)

65. Eileen @64: many thanks. You have made a huge contribution to marital harmony insofar as Mrs PM, having taught her primary class the rudiments of electronic data encryption, has returned to discover that, as “a wife of a superior order”, she is henceforth to be entitled archwife!

    BTW, one nice feature of the new format here is the evident installation of an error checker for the blogger’s personal use prior to publication. You occasionally self-castigate for the odd inaccuracy but no typos, missed underlinings, omissions of any kind today! 😀

66. Bodycheetah @58&62: On a particularly dull family holiday at my (then childless) uncle’s house in Weymouth where my brother caught measles I spent the entire fortnight building an Airfix LTV A-7 Corsair II “SLUF” model where I discovered that not only did the modelling cement stick the plane parts together it also stuck the smoked plastic lid of my uncle’s prized turntable firmly shut…

    Fab video. Starburst is all I have to say…

67. Eileen @64. Thanks for the research. Interesting shift in meaning, with the prefix acquiring overtones from the attached noun, and no mention at all of eyebrows!

68. sheffield hatter @67
    How about this, then?
    ‘The English word supercilious ultimately derives from the Latin word supercilium, “eyebrow.” Supercilium came to mean “the eyebrow as used in frowning and expressing sternness, gravity, or haughtiness.” From there it developed the senses “stern looks, severity, haughty demeanor, pride.”‘
    (But you probably knew that. 😉 )

69. Eileen @ 51 I wonder if Carpathian toyed with the idea of also using setter instead of glue in 19dn.
    [I always want Tatrasman to comment on Carpathian crosswords, sharing the same mountain range]

70. MaidenBartok @66 – lovely story! I remember similar accidents in my sons’ Airfix days.

71. Would have solved sooner but had a doze half way through, not a comment on how interesting I found it! I count only two anagrams in the whole puzzle. Not a setter I’ve seen many times. Good fun. Thanks Carpathian

72. Petert @69.

    I wonder if you did today’s Indy puzzle? i can’t say more, for fear of spoiling – but take a look at the blog, if not.

73. Madryn @71
    Carpathian is a frequent Quiptic setter, and my favourite in that puzzle.

74. [Eileen @70: Accident? 😉 ]

75. [Cliveinfrance@45
    Neat! I’m an ex maths teacher and I’ve never come across this use of digital roots.
    The other use is as a test of divisibility.
    Multiples of 3 have digital roots 3, 6 or 9
    Multiples of 9 have digital root 9]

76. MaidenBartok @74 – ah, so you didn’t share his taste in music, then?

    PostMark @65 I’ve only just taken in your BTW – Ouch! No – just lucky today.

77. Really enjoyed this one but I would have thought “in Skye” was more appropriate than “on Skye”.

78. A pleasing start to the week. I thought the surface to 7d was delightful.
    (And, like Shirl at 9, whenever I hear the word PLAGIARISE, my mind promptly adds:
    “Let no-one else’s work evade your eyes,
    Remember why the good Lord made your eyes”…)
    Thanks to Eileen for the help in completing the parsing to PEPPER (I’m another who didn’t quite twig the “per” part), to Carpathian for an entertaining afternoon – and to the indefatigable Gaufrid for the new look!

79. Eileen @ 72 I have just looked. Another of those strange crossword coincidences!!

80. Eileen @68. Thanks! I did know that, but had forgotten about it when the conversation turned to eyebrows.

81. Gary Baum @77: actually No. It seems more appropriate, I agree: one lives “in” England, London, a cottage, Shropshire whatever. But the Scottish islands, for sure, have tended toward the “on”. You might live “in” Portree or Dunvegan but “on” Skye. Not so sure what they say on/about Man, Wight, Jersey etc. Islanders also speak of others living “on” the mainland – though that’s, perhaps, more intuitively obvious.

    Eileen @76: surely no need for an Ouch! I was very, very gentle in my tongue-in-cheekiness and referred more to your own self-deprecation than any recollection of errors on your part….

82. Katherine@75 Postmark@24
    Doubt they are of any use today as everything is done by computers, but when I was taught there were no calculators or adding machines so DR showed wrong calculations but of course they might still be wrong. Useful in checking invoices, tax calculations, audits etc
    They were used verify credit card and VAT numbers, there was a DR relationship within the number that could be checked by early computers to verify that the number was not fraudulent
    Really however just a bit of fun in maths. I think they helped me to pass exams.

83. [PostMark @81 There are people in the Peak District who live in Hope, but perhaps they’re not as fortunate as those who live on Rum.]

84. [MaidenBartok @74 glue/cement related “accidents” are inevitably a sticky subject – I once super-glued my hand to my shoe attempting a last minute repair before a job interview]

85. [bodycheetah @84: Oh you’ve just reminded me of something! About 3 years ago, I got invited to a “big” 5GUK presentation in the BT Tower. Suited and booted – very unusual for me. On the way up to London, the sole of my shoe fell off and I stopped at Victoria and bought a tube of glue, did a quick repair job and thought nothing more of it.

    Walking into the lift with various (self-)important people there was a strange flapping noise as I walked along and a very, very strong smell of petroleum-based adhesive. I decided to hit the freebie drinks and just go for it…]

86. [MB @54 I think you took the only appropriate course of action under the circumstances 🙂 ]

87. [Er MB @85]

88. Sometimes there’s a clue with two equally correct answers – equally correct where the crossers are not affected. This is not a problem, unless there is a prize involved (e.g., in a competition), and only one answer is deemed to be the right one.
    So it is, I would argue, with 22a PEPPER/POPPER. Pep and pop both mean go, and pepper and popper are both types of plants. Just because pepper comes to mind more readily than popper in that context doesn’t make it more correct – more intuitive perhaps, but not more correct.
    So those who went with POPPER and who keep score should not deduct points for that answer.

    Belated happy birthday to Rishi and PostMark, and thanks Carpathian and Eileen for the P&B.

    [ Penfold@83, I live neither in or on Islay, but I happily wallow in it. ]

89. Another Tom Lehrer fan here!

90. [bodycheetah @ 84 and maidenbartok @ 85. – Stuck way out in the bush in East Africa many years ago my dental cap came off, but luckily I happened to have a tube of Superglue. You guessed it. Finger and thumb firmly fixed to front tooth!]

91. Much enjoyed that and found it went in faster than the Quiptic. And I think I parsed it all, so that was pleasing. Late to the blog because I did it early… Looking forward to seeing how the new-look blog looks on my phone.

92. Bodycheetah @52: I recall instructions like “locate and cement davit 52 to gunwale 30” before kit makers moved to wordless exploded drawings. Unfortunately an excess of cement (the noun) often ruined the appearance of the Bismarck, if one looked closely.

93. Postmark@81 – I can assure you that, at least as far as Wight is concerned, we live ON the island. Particularly at the moment, when Covid restrictions and a severe reduction in ferry services make trips to the mainland very rare events. Still, there are many less congenial places to be sitting out the lockdown.

94. Postmark@31: Thanks, I’ll look at GD.
    CliveInFrance@45: this sounds like an elementary kind of checksum, similar to “casting out nines”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casting_out_nines

95. Cellomaniac@88 I am puzzled by your statement that a POPPER is a plant. Which dictionary definition do you have in mind here? I have consulted Chambers, Collins and the Oxford Dictionary of English without finding any evidence to support what you say.

96. Muffin @6, 17; Eileen @14; copland smith @52

    As a criminal barrister (albeit still a baby barrister, not long post-pupillage) I agree about plea. In criminal the plea is guilty or not guilty, an answer to the charge, given by the defence, after which the defence will set out their defence… but a plea does not mean defence.

    Alternatively in civil (disclaimer, I do no civil work at all) in terms of pleading, it can be a statement in support of a (claim or) defence… but again, to my knowledge does not mean defence.

    I don’t think either of the Collins or Chambers definitions for plea fit the word defence. But it’s given in Chambers Thesaurus high up the list, so I can’t fault Carpathian, and it makes me think I’m missing something.

    I wonder whether there is something to plea = pleading which means defence, re a civil claim? I don’t practice in civil so am not sure. Or maybe just an older meaning of plea from an erstwhile criminal context?

    Nice cryptic anyway, the right level for me given my relative inexperience, so enough to struggle with. I liked CRISIS, simple but pleasing.

97. ContrapuntalAnt @96: Interesting to get a barrister’s perspective. I think if we move outside strict courtroom definitions and into everyday usage, you could ‘plead ignorance’ of a rule, and such a ‘plea’ would be an attempted ‘defence’ against whatever accusation you are facing.

    (For example, if I gave away the solution to a clue in yesterday’s crossword, I could claim I had no idea that anyone would mind 😉 )

    And in the US one can ‘plead the Fifth’ (Amendment), which is a defence (sorry, defense!) against self-incrimination.

98. ContrapuntalAnt @96

    Many thanks for your valuable input. I think the fault is mine in having added ‘in court’, to ‘defence’ in the blog. I realised afterwards that essexboy’s interpretation of ‘plea’ (tis perfectly acceptable but I just didn’t get round to saying it! – so my thanks to him, too and my apologies to all.

99. Essexboy @97; Eileen @98: thank you both!

    It took me a moment to follow there, because plea in ‘plead ignorance’ (the most common phrasing) is a verb, whereas defence isn’t – but as you point out essexboy, such a plea would be a ‘plea of ignorance’, where plea works perfectly as a synonym of defence. Thank you!

100. I don’t know about isles but where I’m from we live on the Wirral Peninsula

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