Guardian 28,348 – Boatman

122 comments on “Guardian 28,348 – Boatman”

1. With obvious Royal/Northerly themes, this was a fun solve with a few generous anagrams along the way and linking of clues such as ORDURE and CONSPIRE. I needed Andrew’s help with ACHE. I liked the amusing REIGNING IN and THINKING. TYPIFY had a neat surface as did VIKING, ORDAINED and HARLESDEN, which I thought was clued fairly for non-UK solvers (surely everyone has a battered A-Z, lurking somewhere) :-). Ta Boatman & Andrew

2. A great start at 1A. Someone will have been excited to see his name up in lights 🙂

   I enjoyed the kings, especially the THINKING and VIKING.

   Thanks to Boatman and Andrew

3. I’m with Penfold @2: loved THINKING and VIKING.

   I was with Andrew about GNASH so thanks for doing the dictionary work: another thing I’ve learned today.

   Lots of fun. Thanks Boatman

4. Well I got them all eventually though several only from the description and the crosses, including THINKING, ACHE, MANNER so thanks for the parsing explanations. Still I was glad to finish it and I enjoyed it.

   Favourite was VIKING. In Scots he was known as Jamie the Saxt (the sixth). Also liked POSTMARKS, ORDAINED, HEIR (got the homophones – not common for me) and ORDURE.

   Thanks to Boatman and Andrew

5. A nice use of a theme in the clues that makes a change from seeking it in the solutions. And some intriguing anagram indicators – misquotes, murder, unlikely. The lurkers were well hidden and I stared at the initials that result in TYPIFY for ages before realising they spelled a word. And 23ac continues the aristo-bashing of yesterday.

   I really enjoyed ORDAINED for the homophone, ORDURE and CONSPIRE for their neat surfaces, NORTHERLY for the anagram (although there may be complaints about the direction from our community based in North America, Scandinavia and the Arctic), REINING IN for the image of a queen rolling/ruling in the liquor supposedly enjoyed by her mother in law, SCOTCH EGG and RED HEAT for their relevant surfaces. Victoria had me thinking waterfalls, lakes, states, capitals and even Coren before I spotted the wee anagram. And VIKING made me laugh out loud. Brilliant. And finally, I do admire the consistency with which Boatman manages the two self references – one for I or similar and one for sailor or similar. Very clever.

   Thanks Boatman and Andrew

6. This was a piece of gentle fun. I enjoyed the royals, esp VIKING and Victoria, ie STATION. Whilst I don’t have a battered copy of A to Z to consult (though I or my parents did at one time) HARLESDEN was indeed fairly clued. Thanks to Boatman and Andrew

7. Oh, nearly forgot, 1ac was cute! And almost, almost how I arrived at my moniker! Thanks Boatman

8. Yes, I also enjoyed this a lot, including NASTIER, STATION, REINING IN and GNASH. Didn’t get VIKING – thought it might be RIDING as in Yorkshire. Many thanks to Boatman and Andrew.

9. Self @5: oops – mother, not mother in law. Not sure where that came from – except it’s my own MIL’s favourite tipple too.

10. Postmark @5: yes I thought of the Queen mum as well (and daughters) in REINING IN but didn’t comment for fear of ending up in the Tower 🙂

11. Of course GNASH also reminds us of Gnasher, Dennis the Menace’s Abyssinian wire-haired tripe hound from the Beano.

    Biblical weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth inspired Starkey Banton’s Weeping & Wailing

12. Oh damn, tar for Boatman of course, d’oh, 25 ac my sole dnp. Easier than yesterday tho, more in on first pass. Seen the thin king trick before, some time ago, and know about James I and VI courtesy of Mrs ginf’s history tutorials. Nho Harlesden (tho my bro-in-law’s dad ran a pub ‘somewhere near Wembley’). As for retsina, I’m sure the finest is perfectly elegant, but what we backpackers afforded in the ’60s was for putting dentures in overnight. All fun, thanks both.

13. Two namechecks in two weeks! Our friend will need REINING IN if this goes on. (Although this time he managed to keep his head 😉 )

    [Re Victoria, PM @5 – yes, wee are amused. I wonder if Mrs Mitchell ever visits these pages? Secretly, of course.]

    Very enjoyable, but much quicker than the average Boatman.

    Thanks to him and Andrew.

14. Thanks for explaining TEAR INTO: I got fixated on “BoaTman at heart” being T and then of course couldn’t account for the AR.
    I liked the THINKING and the VIKING.

15. Thanks Boatman and Andrew
    Easier but more fun that the usual Boatman, though I didn’t parse ACHE or MANNER. Loved VIKING, even though it was a bit GKy. STATION was another favourite.
    “Getting” intrudes on 18d, though.

16. Clever to get so many references to royalty into the clues, and none in the answers – a bit of a reverse of the usual way Guardian themes work. VIKING was a delight, and HEIR had me tearing my… no, I won’t go there. I put together HARLESDEN then checked that such a place exists. No doubt I will not be the only one to see the name check at 1a. LOI TYPIFY – couldn’t make head or tail of the clue until… so simple (me, that is). Thanks, Andrew and Boatman.

17. This was a classic case of needing to be on the right wavelength as the setter. Still bruised from yesterday’s struggles I expected to do the same today. I limped through the first pass with meagre gleanings but then snapped into Boatman’s way if thinking and polished it off. Thanks for a really entertaining solve. VICTORIA, VIKING and especially THINKING all raised a smile.
    Thanks to both for an enjoyable start to the day.

18. Lots of fun with a very quick solve this morning but laughs a-plenty along the way.

    Nice of our setter to give a 225 regular what I believe the young’uns (good group, btw) refer to as a “shout out” at 1a but could PostMark ever be plural? Ugh – perish the punning thought.

    As with others, loved 14d which was a lovely surface witty answer. Very clever.

    Here’s hoping that despite his moniker Boatman is not currenly afloat given that the storms round here last night (and only about 10 miles north of Boatman) were horrendous. Maybe if it started raining gin?

    Thanks Boatman and Andrew!

19. Thanks Boatman, and Andrew, for a challenging and fun puzzle. I erred with passports for 1ac ( unparsed obviously) which led to pongy for 3dn!! Otherwise it came together well.

20. New: HARLESDEN (thanks, google maps)
    Favourites: THINKING – I have seen a similar clue before, but it still makes me chuckle; VIKING (loi)

21. I found quite a bit to admire and enjoy here: the clever use of regnal numbers in 9ac and 24ac; the allusions in 6ac and 4 and 14dn and the linking of ORDURE and CONSPIRACY noted by AlanC @1.

    I was also pleased to spot the subtlety in HARLESDEN: ‘King to be beheaded’ could refer to either Charles I, the king who was beheaded, or Prince Charles, the king-to-be, or HEIR, which I also liked.

    Top favourite, though, has to be NASTIER – I have commented more than once here about the ghastly retsina!

    I had the same thoughts as Andrew about GNASH, then, when I saw his explanation, immediately, like Penfold, thought of Dennis the Menace.

    Many thanks to Boatman and Andrew for an entertaining start to the day.

22. I polished this one off nice and quickly, which was a relief after being put through the wringer by Picaroon yesterday. The theming was great throughout, no more so than in the adorably daft VIKING. SCOTCH EGG was also nicely constructed, I thought.

23. Can anyone clue me on as to why MR = ‘man’?

24. Nice steady write in this morning, with HEIR last one in. Does SCOTCH EGG deserve any kind of discussion currently when described as a snack? ORDURE one of those very expressive words.

25. MR short for mister

26. ‘in’ not ‘on’.

27. AlanC, thank-you. Obvious now, dammit!

28. Delightful and also a theme which didn’t require any specialist knowledge (SK?) – yay
    And nice to see the undisputed king of action movies Arnold Schwarzenneger referenced via RED HEAT
    ORDURE my fave – loved the Richard III misdirection
    Cheers all

29. [ORDURE reminded me. I have a very small collection – two, to be precise – of poems I’ve written in a dream. This one is called, “Free verse, or dog dirt”
    Most free verse
    Is ordure, or worse,
    Like dog dirt, which oughter
    Be cleaned up, as it carries diseases such as toxoplasmosis]

30. I liked the monarchical theme. I needed help to check that 7d HARLESDEN was correct – an unfamiliar place name, only guessed from the crossers. Overall, I enjoyed this one, especially such clues as 3d MANKY and 13d APHRODITE, as well as some other clever clues mentioned already like 1a POSTMARKS and 24a VIKING. Many thanks to Boatman and Andrew.

31. MB @18, essexboy @13, AlanC @10: I, too, shudder at the thought of more than one PostMark though it compensates for the other losing his head on Boxing Day (which, the worst having happened, is why, AlanC, the Tower holds no fears for me)

    [I ought to acknowledge the Christmas Picaroon to which some have referred. I feel somewhat churlish in that I failed to acknowledge any of the comments arising from the appearance of ‘Ostmark’ – and Eileen even referred to it in the blog (and a rather plaintiff “Wot, no PostMark?” late in the day. Sweet!) Not only did I fail to acknowledge, I failed to find the puzzle in the first place! Probably hung over. Had I found it though, I would probably have given it a miss – I tend to avoid anything with Special Instructions. It looks to have been very clever. But I did go back through the blog with many a smile! 😀 ]

32. Fairly easy romp through the puzzle this morning, which is just as well, as I again got up late.
    Stupidly, the clue that held me was ARDOURS. For some reason I just failed to see it for ages.
    Wasn’t too sure about the parsing of ACHE, either, though it had to be that.
    Nice to see PostMark getting another mention!
    Thanks to Boatman and to Andrew

33. [muffin @29: my father (who has popped up a few times in recent posts) worked in local government where his brief covered both very major and frustratingly minor matters. Once, when responding to a local councillor’s complaint about dog dirt, he decided to reply in verse. I have the original somewhere – I know he referred at one point to the fewmets of a questing beast – but I have never forgotten the opening lines:

    “Allow me to address you, Peter,
    Further re the dog excreta…”

    I’m afraid the rhyme remained in the collective consciousness of the local authority for the remainder of the councillor’s tenure.]

34. [PostMark @33
    🙂 ]

35. For me this one of the most elegant use of a theme I’ve seen.

    Lovely surfaces combined with fun and wit (THINKING, VIKING etc).

    Not sure HEIR needs the question mark – seems and excellent clue in its own right.

    Many thanks, Boatman, and to Andrew for unraveling TEAR INTO which a number of us failed to fully parse.

36. PostMark @33:

    “Allow me to address you, Peter,
    Further re the dog excreta,
    I know you’re trying to do your bit
    but, after all, it’s only ….”

37. Well, regarding the crossword themes, I half expected Macbeth to appear somewhere.

    Enjoyed this clever use of sovereigns.

    Tar Boatman

38. There are times when a crossword is so enormously entertaining that I’m somewhat saddened when I’ve completed it and the fun is over. This was the case today.
    A cavalcade of crowned heads, some pleasingly original anagrind indicators – and, in 23D, a fitting finale to all that royal hob-nobbing.
    As a Londoner born and bred (within the sahnd of Bow Bells, no less!) though not living there now, I wracked my mental dog-eared A-Z for ages; Hillingdon, Hounslow, Hammersmith, Hampstead, Hoxton, goddammit there are so many that begin with an H!
    POSTMARKS, NASTIER and HEIR were very satisfying – whilst GREATER, THINKING and VIKING were such a hoot that I sashayed across the kitchen in delight when the respective pennies dropped. (You gotta get your exercise where you can, during a lockdown…)
    I also really enjoyed the (undoubtedly deliberate) allusion, in ORDURE, to the fact that “Richard the Third” is cockney rhyming slang for a turd.
    Thank you Boatman for all the fun, and thanks to Andrew for the blog.

39. Wellbeck @38: Didn’t know the Richard the Third reference – makes the clue even more brilliant.. I do so hope it was intended.

40. William at 39: it has to be – Boatman is too masterly for it to be coincidental!

41. I knew Richard III as rhyming slang for a Third Class Degree!

42. Wellbeck @38 & others: all of this discussion has reminded me of the Two Ronnies (well, Ronnie Barker actually) Cockney sermon about Richard III. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RwyPDPlFA8

43. An entertaining puzzle which I enjoyed greatly. I was held up a while by trying to fit Hendon in at the end of 7d and thereby blinded myself to the obvious. In 20d, I just saw the plural ‘persons’ as referring to both ‘noble and royal’ [but it could refer to both Queen Elizabeths, although also to Edward Rex of course]. Thank you both Boatman and Andrew.

44. He’s right about Retsina! I wonder if it makes food disagree with him too.

45. Clearly, Muffin @41 you are more cultured than me; Thora Hird was our name for that class of degree!

46. What a pleasure that was! Mrs petert kept asking me what I was smiling about. The clue with allusion, as with Richard III, seems to be another Boatman speciality, alongside the double use of his moniker. I toyed too long with Harpenden, not near Wembley and doesn’t really parse. Nice to be reminded of Gnasher and his offspring Gnipper, Gnorah and Gnaomi

47. Settled in for my usual dour tussle with Boatman only to find that this one flowed neatly in. Yes, as others have said, clever use of a clue-theme as distinct from an answer-theme; I especially enjoyed the VIKING and was surprised a few moments later with the same device in THINKING – not complaining though.

48. Thanks Andrew as I fell into the same trap as Gladys@14 and others re the TEAR part of 25A, apart from that eventually everything clicked although I completely failed to notice the ref to Buck House rather than Palace, otherwise that would probably have thrown me off on a wild goose chase too.
    Minor quibble that the duplication of MAN in clue and solution of MANNER is unfortunate especially as there is some neat misdirection as pointed out by Andrew.
    Like Eileen@21 I think the clever use of regnal numbers was the highlight of an overall very witty and enjoyable puzzle so will award joint honours to ORDURE and VIKING, thanks Boatman.
    [Muffin@41, that’s new for me – a third was known as a Douglas in my day, probably because as oiks educated in the comprehensive era we couldn’t be trusted to get any medieval/Shakespearean reference, but Tory cabinet members came all too readily to mind.]

49. Re GNASH – worth noting that the USA also has a Dennis The Menace (a rather different character to the Anglo-Australian who also possesses a dog – named Ruff. This fact caused controversy in a pub quiz I once did, whose organiser had found his questions online and flat-out refused to accept Gnasher as the answer to the name of Dennis The Menace’s dog when his crib sheet said Ruff.

    Postmark@33: the fewmets of the Questing Beast are an obsession of Sir Pellinore in T H White’s The Once and Future King, who is doomed to hunt the Beast forever but never catch it.

50. Thanks, Andrew, PostMark and all – glad you had fun today. I too had to double-check the definition of GNASH, which I definitely associated with grinding, no doubt because of that biblical reference. Mrs B agreed with Chambers and suggested the idea of “snapping in anger”, which is a lot more evocative than “striking (the teeth) together”.

51. [Sorry, must remember the square brackets in future. Don’t know what happened to the closing round bracket after “the Anglo-australian one”.]

52. Am I the only one to find this week’s puzzles have been progressively easier to solve? I struggled a bit with Monday’s but sailed through this – appropriately enough for a Boatman. Hugely enjoyable nevertheless; like others I particularly enjoyed the sixth king and the thin one, and the misdefined (according to government sources) SCOTCH EGG.

    Thanks to Boatman and Andrew.

    [A word in defence of RETSINA: I have found a glass or two of the same to be an ideal accompaniment to a dish of souvlaki at a taverna on an island in the Dodecanese. Although the glass or two of ouzo which preceded it may have blunted my discernment…]

53. [gladys @49: Lovely book and, yes, I remember Sir Pellinore.]

    Boatman @50: thanks for popping in. We solvers always enjoy that and you tend to make a practice of it. (Glad I edited pre-post for once. ‘popping’ just rendered itself as ‘pooping’ which, whilst relevant to some of the discussion above, might not have endeared me to you!)

54. PostMark@5: It is not only our community based in North America. What about our meteorologists who, somewhat perversely, insist that a northerly wind goes south?
    I’m wondering if I am upwardly mobile.

55. [Larry
    Yes, Richard III isn’t really rhyming slang, is it? Especially as the next degree up was known as a Desmond….]

56. [muffin – yes. I think the Cockney for that class of degree has to be inferred]

57. Bob Wells @54. It’s not just “meteorologists who, somewhat perversely, insist that a northerly wind goes south” – this is the usage among sailors as well. And when I’m cycling north into a northerly wind, I know I’m going to be having a hard time, so it makes sense to me, too!

    I had the opposite of a hard time with this very amusing and enjoyable puzzle from Boatman. As Wellbeck said @38, it was a sad moment when there were no more clues to solve.

58. [SH @57
    I don’t see why it’s perverse. We describe a wind by where it’s come from, not where it’s going to – amongst other things, because it will affect how cold it is. Hence a wind from the north of course will be going south.]

59. [Solvers @ALL: Harlesden is incredibly famous and immortalised on the album “Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps Please” by Splodgenessabounds in the track “I fell in love with a female plumber from Harlesden NW10” https://myspace.com/splodgetheband/music/album/two-pints-of-lager-and-a-packet-of-crisps-please-16048171]

60. [muffin @58. Yes, I agree. But it was Bob Wells @54 who called that way of naming winds perverse – I was making the same point that you are!]

61. Worth doing for the appearance of MANKY alone – and GNASH. What great words. (HEIR and ACHE must present significant pronunciation problems to anyone learning English, when you think of it, so also remarkable words.)
    I enjoyed that so thanks to Boatman and to Andrew.

62. [hatter @57: when I was at Oxford, I was one of many who had to contend with Iffley’s Law (Iffley Road being a long straight route out of town towards the SE, off which many students had digs): whichever way you are cycling along Iffley Rd, the wind will be in your face.

    Oh, and I’ve never thought of you and perverse in the same sentence 😀 . Mind you, it’s rare for me to actually think in sentences!]

63. [MaidenBartok @59 Harlesden is also home to the McVitie’s biscuit factory that churns out 180 tonnes of chocolate digestives and 50 million Mini Cheddars daily.]

64. Easy. Like filling in a form

65. Edward Foster @64. Surely this crossword was more enjoyable than filling in a form? Perhaps you’ve filled in some fun forms in your time…

66. [My friends once had a sign-writing business. They told me that the first duties of an apprentice were keeping the workplace clean, fastening strips of wood together to make sign-boards, and ensuring a constant supply of hot beverages to all employees: sweeping and nailing and mashing of tea.]

67. Thank you to Boatman for this – one of the most enjoyable ones of his from my point of view. Just enough of a theme not to feel wearisome and some great surfaces. (10a stood out as masterly of its kind.) the discussion on here has been fun to read too. Thanks Andrew and others.

68. [Nice one, Tyke. I’m not sure “mashing” is known outside Yorkshire?]

69. PostMark @53 – Excellent! I would have construed it as an oblique reference to Officer (“I was pissing by the door, so I thought that I would drip in”) Crabtree, and no offence would have been taken …

70. Hatter @68 – Mrs B assures me that “mashing” is also known in Manchester, though it was new to her when she went there as a student and her landlady asked to make the tea and “be sure you mash it properly”. Mrs B found a use for the landlady’s potato masher which she had not expected, and much hilarity ensued.

71. [Penfold @63: Is that all? (!) They’ll have to make more than that to keep up with the lockdown requirements of the Bartok household. Jr Bartok with his enforced (and increasingly grumpy) return from uni would polish that lot off in an evening whilst playing something unspeakable on his electronic “things…”

    In a strange twist of geography, Harlesden is also quite close to (the) North Pole.]

72. Thanks both,
    I had gnash right because, for me, an unbreakable association with Flanders and Swann’s Song of the Gnu
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_cC_Ngx_iV8.

73. Enjoyed this. The parsing of ACHE eluded me, so thanks for that. I managed to get HARLESDEN, which I’ve never heard of and still haven’t looked up, with only the H, the D, and the directions given in the clue.
    That to me is a sign of a well-written clue.

    [PostMark @7: does that mean that your given name is Luke?]

    [In other news, today I learned of the British Dennis the Menace. Apparently the two comics are unrelated but debuted almost simultaneously! Our Dennis seems to be a bit younger.]

74. Folks: no reaction at all, in the last 3 hours, to the Two Ronnies clip back @42? (It’s not the crossword one). No probs for me but I do hope some who haven’t seen it before have taken a gander. Not only is it very funny and relevant to the earlier mentions of Richard III and certain rhyming slang but the real punchline (imo), about 4 minutes into the 5 minute video, is right up there with the crossword clip.

75. sh @68… and Lancs…I’m sure my great aunt Nellie, near Preston, used to say Leave it to mash, lad…

76. [mrpenney @73: actually, I’ve been extremely fortunate since adopting the pseudonym in October. My cup overfloweth. Not just the couple of references in the Guardian but a straightforward unadorned Postmark appeared in a November Indy by Rodriguez clued, “Where Luke is found, or Frank (8)”. Great minds, it would seem 😀 ]

77. [PostMark @74
    Thanks for that – – I guess you mean it flying back to its nest.
    Thanks also for inspiring finally to work out why I haven’t been getting any sound on YouTube clips recently. Simple, really – I had turned it off, then forgotten about it!]

78. What a wonderful puzzle this was my favourite so far this year – and most have been really good. Loved the inverted theme, and favourites (though hard to choose) were VIKING, THINKING, TYPIFY and ORDURE. I have so enjoyed reading the contributions today, especially the scatalogical poetry. The icing on the cake was the Two Ronnies link and its lovely use of Richard The Third. Finally, if only it were raining gin here MB – I hope it is where you are. Love the new format. Many thanks to Boatman and Andrew.

79. sh @68 and grant @75
    … and Leicestershire.

    PostMark @76 – Rodriguez, of course, is our Picaroon.

80. [Postmark – thanks for the Ronnie Baker clip. I think I must have seen it before, but the brilliant “real punchline” came as a delightful surprise. Up there with some of the lines in the Four Candles sketch.]

81. Thanks Boatman, so far this has been my favourite puzzle of the week and NASTIER ranks as my favourite clue of the month — what an apt surface! I also enjoyed MANNER, GLEANS, STATION, and ENTRY. Like Anna @32 it took forever to find ARDOURS. I failed at ORDURE, a new word for me but I was able to get another unfamiliar word, MANKY — learning that alone made this crossword worthwhile. Thanks Andrew for the write-up.

82. I grew up in Harlesden so it was a pleasant surprise to see that clue.

83. [muffin @77 – yes, video clips with rhyming jokes definitely work better when you unmute 😉
    ]

    [PM @74: Thanks, I hadn’t seen that one before – and I’ll add my appreciation to muffin’s, Pauline’s and Andrew’s. Don’t worry if sometimes there’s no reaction – I generally assume that people are so stunned by my brilliance that they find it difficult to put their feelings into words.]

84. Oh, and I forgot to mention re the RETSINA / NASTIER anagram: this one’s familiar to any half-serious Scrabble player. If you have to decide which letters to keep on your rack, retain the letters in RETAINS, because they make it easiest to play all your tiles (“bingo”), and also pair well with most of the difficult consonants. RETAINS itself has the distinction of forming the most bingos: RETAINS, RETSINA, NASTIER, ANTSIER, RETINAS, STAINER, ANESTRI (plural of anestrus, a period of low hormonal activity in a female mammal), STEARIN (a chemical found in tallow) and RATINES (plural of ratine, a yarn or the fabric made from it). The one time I held all seven of them, I chose to play RETSINA–I needed the S in the middle–even though I dislike the wine quite a bit. It’s interesting that STAINER (a thing that stains) is a valid word but RESTAIN (to stain again) is not.

85. essexboy @83: I wasn’t worried. Just didn’t want folk to miss out on a super clip. First time I’ve ever posted a “did anyone see my post?” message but worth it for Mr Barker’s genius.

86. Postmark@73 [re The Two Ronnies sketch. My only fear is you have now provided setters with a primer in obscure rhyming slang references]

87. [PostMark @74: It’s hilarious. Very long time since I’ve seen it…]

88. I normally find Boatman tricky but whipped through this. Very good crossword and fun though.

89. MrPennney @84 – Quite right! Mrs B has become slightly obsessed by online Scrabble recently, and I’ve had to remind her more than once about the wisdom of the RETAINS tiles. Perhaps if I changed the message to one about RETSINA, it might be more memorable …

90. Thanks to Boatman and Andrew.
    Great fun. I particularly liked 16 and 24 ac.

    Tyngewick @ 72 – my immediate thought too. Pronounced g-nash of course.

91. PostMark@74 that’s very funny, thanks a lot for posting it.

    Re: 7d, as a former Londoner (45+ yrs ago) I was temporarily very pleased with myself for thinking of Willesden, which fitted the few crossers I had at that point, the location near Wembley, and most of the clue – even the first, wrong part of the word felt it could be massaged into a king. But it was not to be.

92. Very enjoyable, VIKING and THINKING were outstanding clues.
    All seems a long time ago now as I did this atbthe crack of dawn.
    Thanks Andrew for making sense of 25a.

93. Mrpenney@73 For ACHE I tried a lot of permutations of the sea (C) going back, but none quite worked

94. [Postmark at 74: yes it is a good bit of writing, isn’t it? The wordplay in some of The Two Ronnies’ sketches is excellent, and quite a few were written by Mr Barker himself, though under the pen-name of Gerald Wiley, so production staff wouldn’t know…]

95. Postmark@74 – Thanks from me also for the Ronnies clip, which I hadn’t seen. I’m particularly fond of the Fork Handles and Squash ones.

96. Dr WhatsOn @91, Harlesden and Willesden are now reminding me of Harden and Wilsden north west of Bradford.

97. I’m guessing no one will read down this far in the comments but did anyone else try
    authored for 8ac au (gold) + thor (man of the north) + ed?
    authored = decreed seemed weak but not implausible
    Made the NW corner tough until I decided party and manky must prevail.

98. acrossthepond @97: have faith my friend. In my opinion, an excellent alternative. Some might quibble Thor is more god than man but it’s a nice try. Authored/decreed could equate in some circumstances. As the old saying goes, shame about the crossers!

99. Fun puzzle, well clued. I liked all the royal, Scandinavian and London references. I missed the HARLESDEN parsing element of Charles = king to be (thanks, Eileen @21). I knew the place because I once went to see an Irish band, De Danann, at The Mean Fiddler there about 30 years ago and missed the last train back (to Welwyn GC) and had to wander around London aimlessy until the first train left King’s Cross. Not advisable and especially not near the station!

    Wellbeck @38 Re: there are so many [London placenames] that begin with an H. I didn’t think there were any: ‘Illingdon, ‘Ounslow, ‘Ammersmith, ‘Ampstead ‘n’ ‘Oxton, innit?

100. [phitonelly @99
     On a London pronunciation theme, how many Ls are there in Millwall?

     None – it’s Mi wa, of course!]

101. [Phitonelly @99: Surelyyou mean ‘Ampstead ‘Eath? Alexei Sayle did a lockdown bike-read (reasonably expletive free, at least for Comrade Sayle) in December https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPPFoco223Y]

102. Very nice puzzle – ‘mashing’ also known in Shropshire by way of Northamptonshire; one of my father’s favourite expressions.

103. Easy but very clever puzzle with some wonderful clues (STATION, THINKING, CONSPIRE, VIKING); truly enjoyed it.
     And of course, as an American I filled in HARLESDEN without a clue about the vicinity of Wembley!
     Thanks Boatman and Andrew.

104. acrossthepond @97 – Excellent discovery! Almost worth rebuilding that corner of the grid around it …

105. phitonelly @99 – many thanks for the careful reading at this late stage of my post back @21. 😉

106. Yet again, I’m reminded of ‘dinnerladies’, and Twink announcing the canteen to be “manky, manky, manky”! Excellent crossword.

107. phitonelly @99: I was there! 1989. Could’ve given you a lift home – only I lived in Streatham at the time so somewhat out of my way. That’s the second “we were both there at the same gig” coincidence in the last day or so. Spooky!

108. Well done Michelle for finding Harlesden in Google maps. When I looked at Google maps, I found HORSENDEN right next to Wembley.

109. [PostMark @107, Ha! Small world, innit. Strangely, I can’t remember how I got from Harlesden back to central London. I’m guessing I caught the last tube from Neasden. Great gig! Well worth the loss of a night’s sleep, but I felt a bit embarrassed walking into the house I was sharing at 6:30 am the next morning looking like something the cat dragged in!]

110. [phitonelly @99
     You’ve reminded me of a sad story. A group, including a friend of mine, went for a holiday on the Cote’dAzur. One (not my friend) went for a walk the first night and couldn’t remember where they were staying. He slept on the beach all week until it was time to meet up at the irport.]

111. I did this shortly after midnight but have just read the review & comments. Very gentle but thoroughly entertaining so thanks Boatman. It’s a rarity when I’ve properly parsed the lot. Looking through the comments I’ve just nearly choked on a mouthful of coffee when reading comment 46 from Petert – now retired & living in Harpenden I only rarely have the nightmares of the time I had the misfortune to run a district of betting shops in & around Harlesden – a truly awful part of town & I suspect it hasn’t got any better in the 30 years since I was there.
     Thanks for the review

112. Shame on us commenters for not waiting for PostMark to post, so he could be first in the crossword and first in our thoughts.

     eileen @21, I couldn’t agree more about retsina. Whoever first concocted it must have been really desperate for the alcohol in order to keep drinking it.

     Muffin@29, I love your dreamy poem.

     PostMark@33, could you dig out your father’s poem and share it with us, please? William@36’s conjecture was good, but we’d like to see the real thing.

     Thanks Boatman for the superb crossword and for your contributions to the comments.

113. We thought this was one of the best crosswords Boatman produced of late.
     Like most other commenters, probably everyone, we enjoyed it very much.
     A puzzle with good surfaces too.
     But, at this very late moment, I do want to say something about what I didn’t like (if I may).
     The use of the past tense in 6dn (‘showed’) is one of my pet hates but most editors accept it (and so why complain about it?).
     Whether you like retsina or not, in the clue at 17dn ‘than’ is only there for the surface.
     Not being a link word, it is just padding.
     But hey, a splendid crossword – kudos to Boatman!

114. jellyroll @108
     I found it in a back to front way, thinking that the answer might be Harlesden, but was/is that anywhere near Wembley? Google maps confirmed that for me 🙂

115. [MaidenBartok @101. Thanks for the vid. Just watched it. He seems to have mellowed over the years! 😀 ]

116. This was the most pleasing solve I have had in a long time. Maybe ever. Accessible yet with some really clever, enjoyable constructions.

     I normally only comment when I have a query or specific clue I want to refer to, but I just had to say thanks to Boatman for this cryptic – it was a delight!

117. Does anyone know why I am suddenly not seeing the cryptic crosswords in the Guardian app? Thursday’s and Friday’s have both nit appeared.

118. Beobachterin@117: I’m having the same problem. Can someone help? Thanks!

119. [Beobachterin at 117 & Peri1561 at 118: are you using an android phone? My partner has had the same trouble – with an android. I have an iPhone and all’s working fine.
     We simply assumed the problem was at the Grauniad end, but perhaps we’re wrong…..]

120. Darn it! I had Horsenden for 7d…

121. cellomaniac @112: doubt you’ll see this but, just in case you check in AM your time to see if I replied, I have done and there’s a post FYI in today’s blog referring to a General Discussion post where I’ve reproduced the poem.

122. Wellbeck @119, yes android. I will report it on Monday if it’s still not working.

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