Guardian Cryptic 28,639 by Qaos

103 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,639 by Qaos”

1. I can only assume that for 21A you are being asked to write Dele Alli as D. Alli (matching H. Kane) and then remove the central L

2. pavement @1 – yes, that makes sense – in my defence, I am still half asleep

3. Kinky! When two of my first four were LOLA and SOCIETY, I started looking for Kinks titles – and their name popped up quickly (as did affRAY Davies). I did expect to find a few more – where were Waterloo? Sunset? Day? Night? Does RELY got MEre count? A steady solve, though not as quick as the fall of six English wickets. Lots to like: THRIVES, APPRECIATION, APPETISING, EPIDEMIOLOGY, IN FAVOUR OF… the list goes on. I had no idea about Harry Kane’s mate and the relation to DALI, but once DAVE (Davies) was ruled out by the crossers, what else could it be? PANGLOSSIC is a bit weird, too – not the clue, which was clear enough, but the word. Thanks, Qaos and loonapick.

4. I was convinced that LOG was the ‘record’ in EPIDEMIOLOGY, so couldn’t parse it. Liked VILLAGER, ARTWORK, NECKLACES and IN FAVOUR OF. I always find Qaos’s clues rather tortuous, but he provides an enjoyable tussle. Thanks to him and to loonapick.

5. Didn’t understand the parse for 21a DALI which was just a guess. I was pleased to spot the theme referencing The Kinks, one of my favourite bands. Other than the themed solutions, I did enjoy 5a THRIVES. However 13d PANGLOSSIC was an unfamiliar word for me. Thanks to Qaos and loonapick.

6. I only twigged the theme towards the end even though LOLA was an early solve. Found this relatively straightforward for this setter and agree that DALI was unfair for various reasons. Nho PANGLOSSIC and like drofle@4, I was trying to parse 18a with LOG.

   Ta Qaos & loonapick

7. I agree with loonapick that the theme sits slightly awkwardly; it just about works. There is a song by the Kinks simply called VILLAGE GREEN – but then SOCIETY is in there too. APPRECIATION is used in the lyrics of the VGPS song (Custard Pie Appreciation Consortium). I didn’t spot any more than our blogger though there is a rich seam of material on which to draw. Maybe more could have been done – even though that sounds rather churlish.

   It certainly started well. I liked ARTWORK and APEMAN and the two mathematicals, THRIVE and IN FAVOUR OF and it was good to see the use of the ellipsis linking STEER with STREETS. PANGLOSSIC is a fun word to discover in a Jorum experience.

   I think I’ve said this before but, for a supposedly rare creature, the yeti has been appearing a lot on this site of late.

   Thanks Qaos and loonapick

8. I’m guessing that Qaos really wanted “Preservation” to be the solution to 14 across, but couldn’t make the rest of the grid fit round it. A missed opportunity.

9. Thanks Qaos and loonapick
   Neither I nor Google believed PANGLOSSIC is a word (panglossian is the common form), so I was surprised to find it in Chambers.
   I entered DALI without knowing any Spurs players. I also didn’t parse IN FAVOUR OF.
   Does ST really mean “quiet”?
   No theme, of course, even though I knew the songs.

10. Fancy me missing the link? with Kinks, Lola and Apeman(which may have influenced Will Self)
    Thanks @pavement for DALI parsing
    I thought DALI might be hard on non football fans but with the D and L it couldnt be anything else
    I have never heard of ST for quiet but if its in Chambers….
    I enjoyed this
    Thanks Qaos and loonapick

11. muffin @9 – agreed. It was the ‘IC’ ending that made it weird. I would have gone for the ‘ian’ end. Andy @8 – I also thought preservation should have gone there.

12. I had the same take as pavement@1 on D. Alli although I had to Google a list of Spurs players to confirm my guess of DALI. I find the &lit of NECKLACES to be a bit forced in terms of the wideness of the definition, but otherwise some enjoyment including the mathematical THRIVES and IN FAVOUR OF. I’m also still chuckling at the idea of Depp made up like a tart.

13. Re comment about a certain clue being unfair to non-football fans such as myself. I’m sure football fans may feel the same when operas crop up in crosswords. You just have to accept that things outside one’s area of interest come up.

14. Chris@13 I was about to make exactly the same point. I used to run a pub quiz and people would frequently complain that some question or other wasn’t fair to those who didn’t know anything about the subject!

15. For once I got the theme, though it didn’t really help. Still a pleasant way to iron out the KINKS in my post-Christmas brain. PostMark@7 Someone even defined YETI recently as “hard to find”. Evidently not in crosswords.

16. TT @3: you RE(al)LY got me indeed 😉 I was looking for Waterloo too; we did have ‘couple by river’ at 1ac – Terry and Julie perhaps? Alas no frilly nylon panties.

    I don’t think the clue for EPIDEMIOLOGY quite works – what’s the ‘to’ doing? It can’t be part of the verb ‘to record’, because EP = record as a noun. So just a connecting word between def and wordplay? Surely that only works if it’s wordplay leading to def, not vice versa?

    I thought VILLAGER (‘one in Hamlet’) was great.

    Thanks Qaos and loonapick

17. Easier to solve/guess a few of my answers than to parse them. I did not parse 18ac (apart from MI = 1001, + LOG = record – like Drofle @ 4), 27ac ST? + rev of STEER, 21ac (no idea – something to do with a soccer player?)

    I liked VILLAGER, IN FAVOUR OF, ELOPE (loi).

    New: PANGLOSSIC.

    Thanks, both.

    I missed seeing the theme – I am not very familiar with the KInks apart from Lola.

18. I loved IN FAVOUR OF and EPIDEMIOLOGY. Thank you also for PANGLOSSIC: I love Voltaire’s Candide: it’s a brilliantly surreal picaresque and well worth a read.

    Thanks Qaos and loonapick.

19. In 25a, isn’t cattle explicitly plural, but steer is singular?

20. Thanks for the blog and all the others this year. I really enjoyed this , for once when I got LOLA I thought KINKS theme but it was a bit sparse, D.A(L)LI was fine for this very much NOT football fan, Chris @13 makes a good point.
    Many favourites here, VILLAGER, PANGLOSSIC ….. I could go on.

21. Good puzzle with some nice Qaotic alphanumeric clues. At first pass I couldn’t see much in the top half, so had to start from the bottom. Theme escaped me, as usual, because I omitted to look out for one.

    PANGLOSSIC, though not the usual form of the adjective, as others have noted, was a virtual write-in for me, with just the final C – ‘panic’ had to be there. DALI remained unparsed….

    Favourite clues – VILLAGER and NEGLECTED.

    I agree with SeanW @9 that STEER is one bovine but ‘cattle’ is a collective noun, so this doesn’t quite work. As PM remarks, yetis have become common lately, but I haven’t encountered an ide for a while.

    Thanks to S&B

22. Yes, STEER singular (bullock); CATTLE plural (large ruminant animals…) so 26a doesn’t work “Guide one of the cattle”?) 8d SUSTAINS feels a bit tautological. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. Especially the mathematical clues.

23. Sorry, I’m not buying ST=quiet. SH or P would be fine. I think this is a mistake.

24. Well I enjoyed this, but have to admit that there was a bit of the alignment of the stars in my case. The Kinks were my local group when growing up ( I went to school in Muswell Hill). When I saw Kane my first thought was Dele Alli ( I must watch far too much PL, despite being 3,000 miles away).

    Regarding RELY, isn’t “on” doing double duty, since rely = count on?

25. The theme was beyond me, but I really enjoyed the puzzle, thanks to Qaos and loonapick.
    “Steer ranching”, “cattle ranching”

26. Could have spent all day and all of the night without spotting the clue and I love the Kinks!! Not helped that 4dn was LOI. Enjoyed this. Thanks Qaos and loonapick.

27. Sorry, ‘theme’ not ‘clue’.

28. I have never seen ST as quiet before, but as a kid I did hear certain adults make a clipped hushing sound that I could imagine being written that way, so I suppose it’s fair.

29. I found this generally easier than a Monday. Maybe my guessing just was better than usual. Didn’t find theme but then not my bag.

    Thanks Qaos and loonapick

30. Even though I solved KINKS and LOLA early on, the fog descended and I couldn’t obviously see any more of the Davis Brothers’ musical renderings. Perhaps it was something to do with the difficulty and distraction I had parsing some of these – STREETS, PANGLOSSIC and my last one in, the wholly unsatisfactory DALI – and as already mentioned this was rather unfair to non soccer fans ( with D already in place I was fiddling about for ages with another teammate of H Kane, Dier). Did appreciate APPRECIATION and VICTORIA, though…

31. First Cryptic I got all the way out since beginning to focus on this … pastime … at the start of Christmas Holidays. Fifteen squared has been a brilliant tutor, provider of d’ohs, and explainer of guesses, so thanks to ALL the bloggers, and loonapick for adding theologians (DEAD ENDS loi) to the list. Special thanks to Qaos for INFAVOUROF!

32. One of these crosswrods in the middle of the enjoyment spectrum, for me. Liked many including ARTWORK, THRIVE, DEAD ENDS, IN FAVOUR OF. Didn’t fully parse DALI, don’t much like it – because it’s a bit clumsy, not because it requires specialist GK (I’m no foorball fan, but I was aware of Mr Alli). Also thought SUSTAINS was weak, like c+s@22, and ST doesn’t mean quiet to me.
    I’ve never knowingly seen an adjectival form of Pangloss, so I was happy enough with PANGLOSSIC.
    Of course I didn’t see the theme, even though the name LOLA immediately reminded me (and probably almost everyone of similar age and culture) of the song.
    Dr. WhatsOn@24 – “I can count/rely on her” – the two words alone are pretty much synonymous.
    Thanks loonapick and Qaos

33. Beaulieu@32 yup, of course. Brain fart.

34. Dr. Whatson @28
    I think the sound you are referring to is usually written “tsk” 🙂

35. Enjoyable challenging puzzle with some great surfaces and equally impressive parsing. Should have spotted theme – songs by the KINKS – you really got me!
    Thx to Qaos and Loonapic

36. There is an early Kinks song called DEAD END STREET which turns the corner between 16d and 27a. I started in the NE corner and got LOLA and VICTORIA very quickly, so was looking for the theme: disappointed that neither of the two long acrosses were PRESERVATION to go with VILLAGE(r), GREEN(e) and SOCIETY.
    As for DALI, I can never do anything that requires me to know about footballers…

37. Thanks loonpick, I was also feeling quite muddy-headed this morning but somehow this helped to shake me out of it – although I had the Kinks’ Victoria going through my head for several minutes after solving those clues before I remembered that there had to be a theme and realised what it was!
    While raising the monobrow at Dali (and I had assumed that STEER could also be plural, so maybe should have raised it there too), I found lots to enjoy, learned ST and PANGLOSSIC, and liked the trademark Qaotic (Qaotian?) THRIVES most – thanks Qaos.
    [ps JFlo@31, I think that is remarkably rapid progress, congratulations and all the best for future success and enjoyment.]

38. Yes, 13 and 19 very unfair on people who aren’t literature fans.

39. Like Tassie Tim & Muffin I’m used to seeing Panglossian rather than Panglossic – but nevertheless it’s good to see the infuriatingly upbeat fellow put in an appearance. I’m another who steered clear of STEER to begin with, since it’s in the singular, and tried to wedge HERDS in there instead. Got nowhere, gave up, went back to plan A.
    VILLAGER was lovely, as were the two numerate ones THRIVES and IN FAVOUR OF.
    The theme, however, sailed right over me. Hey ho
    Thanks to Qaos and Loonapick, who I hope has now caught up on lost sleep.

40. Thanks for finding ST = Hush!, loonapick. It wrote STREETS in but couldn’t think why it wasn’t “shreets.” And I couldn’t figure out how to change KINGS to KINKS, so thanks for that demystification.

    Not my cup of theme. I do as badly with bands as with sports and that DALI sport clue was really unfair.

    I’m not sure PANGLOSSIC is actually a word. Surely excessive optimism. if you want to invent a word for it, would be “Panglossian.”

    Driving through southern New York State on the way to and from a family Christmas, I saw signs for “the hamlet of …”. I had already wondered whether New York was the only state that actually named hcommunities as “villages,” but surely it’s the only one where “hamlet” is an official designation.

    muffin@34 I think “tsk” is a reproachful noise, like “tut tut.” (Does anybody actually say that?) ST! for “hush!” is more like “hist!”, which google tells me is “used to attract attention,” rather like “psst.” It
    reminded me of a line from a poem — “Hist! whist! little ghost things.” So I looked it up, it’s by e.e. cummings. It’s a charming poem about Halloween here’s the link. https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/hist-whist.

    Thanks to Qaos, though the theme was beyond me the entertainment wasn’t, and to loonapick. I hope you had a good snooze, and by this time you’re probably sipping tea and having a nice holiday lull-time.

41. Thanks Qaos and loonapick.

    I was ok with the DALI clue as both Kane and Alli are sufficiently well known (albeit to football fans) as international players. The experience of Lyssian @14 as a question master is one I’m familiar with. If there is one thing worse than someone complaining that a question is unfair to people who know nothing about a subject, it is someone complaining that a question refers to something ‘before my time’.

42. I knew the name Harry Kane but have no idea who his teammates are. I wondered if one of them could be named Dasoulli.

43. JFlo @31 – [ congratulations, similar experience to you, I started my first cryptic earlier in the year and now have several favourite setters including Qaos. Add my thanks to the many Fifteen squared bloggers who are now part of my day.]

44. [dantheman @41: I agree with you about the annoyance of folk bleating that such-and-such is “before my time”! Whenever someone was crass enough to come out with that line to an esteemed professor I used to work with, he always responded, “Mozart was before MY time, darling, but I’ve still heard of the little beggar! It’s what’s called Intellectual Breadth!!]

45. I made heavier weather of this than the usual Qaos, and having had my guess as to the solution to 21a confirmed by the on-line system, I really didn’t care which (to me) obscure footballer’s name was being tortured to give it.

46. @44 Wellbeck, I wouldn’t place some random footballer in the same need to know space as Mozart. We can’t know everything about everything, and it’s pretty arrogant to assume that others care in the slightest about sportsball.

47. Having taken a crossword break, this was a nice, gentle re-introduction, even though I’m not usually a big Qaos fan.

    I particularly liked APPRECIATION, EPIDEMIOLOGY, IN FAVOUR OF and APPETISING.

    Thanks to Qaos and loonapick (for ST)

48. For once I got the theme early after LOLA, VICTORIA, and APEMAN. KINKS was the only one it really gave me. It went in pretty quickly but I agree with loonapick that the parsing isn’t as quick as it might be; “C” for many seems forced, as “ST” for quiet (it could’ve been “…back to pursue roadways”), and 8d is barely a charade; it could’ve been “Feeds bears.”

    On the bright side, I like the way the wordplay comes together in 5ac, 18ac, and especially 1ac.

    Thanks Qaos and loonapick.

49. For anyone who likes the subject of the theme but is not overly familiar with all their music, I heartily recommend their two back-to-back late-’60s albums, ‘The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society’ and ‘Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)’. Ray Davies at his wonderfully wistful best, and both easily sitting in my all-time top ten…although, to be fair, the vast majority of my favourite music came from the mid to late-’60s.

50. [Dantheman @41 and Wellbeck @44: I fear the excuse that it was “before my time” wouldn’t have helped me much in my History A Level! Mind you, that was before many people’s time, too 😉 ]

51. Cookie @25: Nice try, but I’m still not convinced. STEERs (the plural requires an S, unlike sheep and deer) are a subset of cattle. You can have ‘child carriers’ and ‘people carriers’ but, although children are certainly a subset of people, this doesn’t mean that child = people.

52. Maarvarq @ 46: I’d never heard of him either!! And although I was aware of a footballer called Kane, I hadn’t a clue about his first name nor team. DALI was simply a lucky, and unparsed, guess…
    I may not have made myself clear in 44: we all have subjects we know about, subjects we can busk our way vaguely through, and subjects that are a closed book. However, someone insisting that something which happened before their birth is axiomatically of little interest is, you have to admit, a tad irritating…

53. maarvarq @ 46: As an international player, Dele Alli will be known by countless millions more people than other names we’re expected to know to solve crosswords. And whilst I used to be a fan of the game, I’ve long fallen out of touch with it. And yet I know the player. Very few folk complain when cricketers pop up. We had Steve Harmison pop up a while ago, and I seem to recall that got less flak. I’m starting to enjoy it when people who are proud of their ignorance in certain subjects get annoyed by crossword clues. I suspect it’s only going to become more common as new setters appear, and the need to appeal to a wider audience increases.

54. I got LOLA early on and thought it ironic to have Lola=woman when the most famous Lola turned out to be a man. The theme clicked later when APEMAN went in.
    First one I’ve solved fully with no help for a while – thanks Qaos.

55. I checked after solving: st = hush is in Chambers. I just biffed that one, and Dali as well – what other painter fits D – L – ?
    If you’re solving a puzzle by a setter who calls himself Qaos, you’d better be ready for some wild constructions.

56. For a minute I thought the Monday and Tuesday crosswords must have gotten mixed up as yesterday’s was much more difficult to me than today’s. I enjoyed both and for once I knew today’s theme but only superficially. Favourite clues included ARTWORK, THRIVES, TROOPS, PANGLOSSIC, and VILLAGER. Thanks Qaos, and loonapick for filling in some of my parsing deficits.

57. Got nowhere near the theme despite humming 12a as I entered it, but this was some time before 4d dropped for me and I didn’t make any connection. I agree 21a is rather unfair on non-footballers, not least because Alli hasn’t been a regular in the team for a couple of years.

    Other than that, very enjoyable. Thanks loonapick and Qaos.

58. I have zero interest in football, but Dele Alli cropped up in a crossword a couple of years ago, and I filed him away in my ‘might be useful to remember that’ section.

    And the H Kane device is a standard trope too – T Hanks and Swanson G have each cropped up more than once.

    So no complaints from me. Thanks Qaos and loonapick.

59. Valentine @40: Thanks for the e e cummings poem (whose lower case styling was clearly the unconscious inspiration for my own 😉 ).

    My initial reaction to PANGLOSSIC was the same as yours, but I did a little searching and…

    here’s Julian Huxley in a letter to Nature (Sept 6, 1941, p. 280, first column, about 20 lines down):

    “Dr. Waddington writes : “an existence which is essentially evolutionary is itself the justification for an evolution towards a more comprehensive existence”. While this is true, it is so general as to smack of Panglossic optimism.”

60. Well, I got there eventually, but it was clunky in places. Cattle and STEER mix singular and plural, as has been pointed out above; I’ve heard of Spurs but can’t name a current player for any football team anywhere (I really don’t understand the appeal of football at all), but DALI went in from the checkers; ‘st’ in STREETS is a stretch at best. On the other hand, I liked the numerical THRIVES and, once I’d twigged the ‘3Rs’ point, I gave RE-IGNITES an appreciative nod (I don’t recall seeing that device before). Thanks to our blogger and setter.

61. With ref to several posts, I too am a quizmaster and get the usual complaints about questions being too hard or on subjects competitors know nothing about. I generally point out that the winning team seem to have overcome such obstacles despite facing the same questions . . .

62. Gervasse@51
    Cattle is often treated an uncountable noun, also known as a mass noun. Others include money, music, wine.
    They are treated as singular and use a singular verb, Indefinite articles are not used but some or any can be used. To specify a number of cattle you would say ten head of cattle, not ten cattle. There is not a singular non gender specific word for one cattle
    For more info on uncountable nouns see
    https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns-countable-un.htm

63. Cliveinfrance @62: Absolutely, but unlike money, music, wine, the word ‘cattle’, like the word ‘people’, takes a plural verb. ‘The cattle are lowing’ is a seasonal example.

64. Gervase @51, you could conceivably have ‘children carriers’, for instance the nursemaids’ perambulators for several children in the past, but you could not have ‘steers ranching’

65. [Of course, the really controversial aspect of DALI is the assertion that Dele Alli is currently a teammate of Kane given that he hardly ever plays these days (yes, I know he was in today’s team but he barely showed up)]

    Otherwise I did enjoy today’s puzzle, thanks to both.

66. Pleasant way to spend a dull holiday afternoon and worth it for the clues to Villager and Dali alone.

    Good discussion on ‘unfair’ clues. I side with the quiz setters. I’m not remotely interested in the Kinks but if the theme gives many solvers additional pleasure, that’s fine by me. As for things than happened ‘before my time’, my problem, as we octogenarians never tire of saying, is with the inclusion of just about anything that happened recently ie within the past twenty years. I can even summon up a spurious justification: it’s far too early to judge whether they are of even the slightest significance.

67. Chris@13 but not if they are also fans of opera.

68. [Thurmy99 @67
    I expect that most football fans will be familiar with Nessun dorma!]

69. I rather enjoyed this, quite a few fell into place quickly and I even managed to piece together a few of the Lego clues that I normally wait for a few crossers before unpicking. Was mystified by the new (to me) bears called USTAINS but the answer looked near enough to Feed to do. Biffed DALI in without a second thought as to the parsing which was a rather clever device once explained.
    I did wonder if the occupants of a hamlet ever had their own nomenclature, even if deprecated…hamsters and the like, but they have been villagers throughout it would seem.
    Missed the theme of course.

    Thanks Qaos and loonapick.

70. I’ve just conducted a straw poll amongst my Christmas visitors, and they’re of the opinion that the only footballers allowed in a crossword are George Best, Geoff Hurst, Pele, Maradona, Bobby Moore and Gaza. As for me I doubt that, unlike Mozart, any footballer will be remembered more than 250 years after their birth. It’s a slow evening chez Crossbar.

71. Crossbar @70 – Gaza, the well-known Palestinian footballer?

72. I see those who wrote in HUNG for DALI, because they know nothing about art, are keeping very quiet.

73. Crossbar @70
    I would add Eden Hazard for the fertile clueing possibilities!

74. Crossbar @70 and muffin @73

    Qaos 27,345:
    Perhaps Eden Hazard’s foot is within shot range (6)

75. Eileen
    …or Picaroon @27000
    Opening game turned around by header from Eden Hazard (7)

76. Oh dear, muffin@73, and Eileen@74. I’ve never heard of Eden Hazard. 🙁

    drofle@71 Paul Gascoigne, but I’m sure you know that.

77. Crossbar @76 – neither had I!

78. At the risk of sounding like the Christmas grinch I didn’t enjoy this very much. Nothing to do with the theme, or football.
    I just found that there were too many clues of a similar type, ie the one letter embeds in 1,10,12,and 25 across and 2and 13 down, and a number of other clues with 1, 2 and 3 letter abbreviations. At least there weren’t any military, biblical or cricket abbreviations.

    Cricket! Would love to see a Qaos numerical clue for: 6 for 7 from 4 overs at the MCG. 🙂 But then we’d have 15squarers saying they’d never heard of Scott Boland. 🙂

    Happy New Year one and all.

79. No problem with DALI. I like it when I learn something from a crossword, even if it is about football…

80. having said which, I still don’t follow STREETS unless someone can provide an example of ST being used for quiet or hush?

81. [I have only come across Eden Hazard in crosswords – the first time I had no idea who he was.]

82. I think there is a difference between saying that one hasn’t a clue about how to parse a certain answer, which one has none the less entered correctly (as I suspect many – like me – did with DALI), and saying the clue was unfair. (The situation is similar to the mentions of “Britishisms” from time to time.) The setter sets the crossie, based on knowledge they have, and the solver tries to unravel it. Sometimes the solver lacks the requisite knowledge (see the frequent use of NHO). Sometimes this means that they can’t solve the clue at all, or maybe have to resort to “aids”. So what? I would never say that the clue is unfair, just that I couldn’t make sense of it. My fault, not the setter’s.

83. One football clue! One!! And so much negativity. How do you cope with quizzes on TV, radio or in the pub? Sit there with sulky faces until the Mozart round? Try turning it on its head. You now know the names of a couple of Tottenham players just like I now know the origin of the word “panglossic”. It’s all good stuff.

    This was quite a cute little puzzle which didn’t tax me too much but which I enjoyed doing and I got the theme to boot (not a football boot, God forbid).

84. As the blogger, I want to retract my comment about the DALI clue – I’m OK with general knowledge clues and may have been grumpy about my inability to properly parse the clue. There are, however, many solvers who prefer puzzles without GK. As a quizmaster, quiz compiler and avid quizzer, I’m not one of those people.

85. I think that perfect clues should be solvable simply from the words on the page. However I concede that crosswords might be a bit dull if that was all there was….

86. muffin@85, I agree. But nevertheless I’ve now stored Dele Alli and Eden Hazard in my memory banks for future reference. I wonder what two items they have replaced.

87. Crossbar @86 – I was just delicately pointing out that he was known as Gazza, not Gaza.

88. Not only missed the theme, but completely ignorant of it. Unlike others, our association with Lola is with a song from the musical DAMN YANKEES: “Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets.”

89. Thank you Qaos,I especially loved the numericals this time. I too wrote-in Dali, accepting that I know next to notheeng about the practitioners of that Beautiful Game; the hush at the start of STREETS was not a problem, I’m sure I have heard “Hsst!!” in (melo)damatical settings.
    Thanks also to loonapick.

90. I did well. My personal rule is, no google, no look ups, not even dictionaries, or reference books or any thing. But I allow myself occasional use of reveal this when I am totally stuck. I feel less guilty if the answer turns out to be some UK general knowledge like sports teams or old celebrities and such stuff.

    This one I got all but two on my own.

91. Re numerous comments about ST for ‘quiet(!)’.

    Groundhog day

    It’s in Chambers. Whether or not one likes it or not, if it has dictionary support it’s fair game for the setter.

    We all have our bugs about usage (me: humanitarian, refute, impact, inter alia), but they are there. We can’t change it, so we need to accept it.

92. Despite being an avid football fan, I didn’t parse DALI, so thanks to pavement@1 for the explanation. I’ve never come across the adjective PANGLOSSIC, but am very familiar with Voltaire’s Candide, having studied it for A-level and at university, and then taught it to A-level students. Thanks to Qaos for the enjoyment, and loonapick for ST (new to me). I didn’t appreciate that there was a theme, as The Kinks is not my kind of music (but I had heard of them!), but no complaints.

93. Of course the clue for DALI isn’t unfair, and saying that it happens to be in my own area of general ignorance doesn’t mean I think it is. Other people have trouble with flowers or fish, mathematical terms, poetic quotes or even Kinks songs: we don’t all know everything.

94. Agree with Tassie Tim@ 82 and Gladys above, a clue is only unfair if it does not WORK, for this puzzle DALI works perfectly well as does STREETS ( see Simon S @91) and it was nice to see connected clues actually connected.
    Well done Ravilyn @90, nice to see your comments.

    Quiz questions – if you know the answer then the question is too easy, if you do not then the question is ridiculously obscure.

95. I’m not really concerned about fairness. A crossword is just a bit of fun, so it’s about enjoyment. If a reasonable number of people have some idea of the solution and parsing, then that’s ok by me, even if it l passess me by entirely. Thing is though, will it still be “doable” by anyone in 5, 10, 15 etc years time? That’s why e.g. Mozart works for me, but not most footballers.

96. Still on catch up after a busy couple of days watching football, so not many will see this.

    Loonapick @84. Re your withdrawal of the comment on DALI in the blog. “This is a really clumsy clue and very unfair on non-football fans.” I think withdrawing the second part is ok, but how is one of the three Ls in Dele Alli ‘his soul’? The only way I can make it work is by making Dele Alli into DALLI and taking out the middle letter (i.e. the first rather than the second L, as you have it in the blog). But, leaving aside for a moment that the answer is the obvious DALI, is it fair on the solver to transform a name by reducing the first name to an initial, and then scrunch that together with the surname to make a new word and then take the middle letter out?

    OK, maybe it’s fair enough when the answer is only four letters and very obvious. And bonus points to Qaos for riling all the never-heard-of-football posters on here!

    Happy New Year!

97. Didn’t get round to solving this yesterday, but I just wanted to drop in to express belated thanks to both Qaos and Loonapick. Thoroughly entertaining crossword. Cultural breadth is fine by me. And 21a is a great clue. Bravo, Qaos.

    Some of the comments are hilarious.

98. Sheffield hatter – the required form of D.Alli is alluded to in the clue, with the reference to H.Kane… That seemed fairly obvious to me, but I’m guessing by the general tone of comments that it wasn’t obvious to everyone.

    The funny thing is that Dele prefers to be known by just his first name these days (personal reasons, not just an affectation), so most actual football fans wouldn’t refer to him as D.Alli.

99. widdersbel @98. Yes, I agree that D.ALLI was the “required form”, but that’s not a natural way of referring to him, so ‘his soul’ seems to perhaps unfairly refer the middle letter of what is after all a derived name, rather than the name he was given (Dele Alli) or the name he uses on his shirt (Dele, as you point out). On balance, with the answer being obvious, a little unfairness is not, um, unfair.

100. Although I disliked the clue, I think “H.Kane” indicated how the construction should work.

101. Thanks, muffin, that’s what I was trying to convey in my last comment, but you’ve put it more clearly.

102. Was away, so only just looked at this something of a struggle, KINKS was LOI – am aware that there was such a group, but didn’t think of googling them, so no idea of theme (LOLA was FOI, as a random woman NHO otherwise) At 29a, seeing ‘artist’ meant DALI went in from checkers, so I didn’t bother to look up Spurs on wikipedia to find which of Kane’s team mates would make sense of the rest of the clue.

103. Some late comments on themes, and GK complaints.

     If a themed crossword can be solved without knowledge of the theme, then (a) if you know and like the theme, it adds to your solving pleasure, but (b) if you don’t know anything about the theme, it doesn’t detract from the solving pleasure. I don’t know anything about The Kinks or any of their songs, but I enjoyed this well-constructed puzzle.

     If you can solve a clue without knowing a piece of what you regard as esoteric GK (now there’s an oxymoron – it should be called SK or UK, for specialized or uncommon knowledge), then the SK/UK is not a problem. DALI is an example of this for us non-footies. Getting the full parsing from 225 makes for a TILT, but not knowing about D. Alli doesn’t make the clue unfair. And there is nothing wrong with having a few clues that require uncommon knowledge. That’s how we learn new stuff. But puzzles that have too many such clues aren’t as much fun.

     There have been themed puzzles where the puzzle was unsolvable without knowledge of the theme – the infamous Paul puzzle about ABBA and their song titles comes to mind. If you knew the songs the puzzle was easy, if you didn’t it was impossible. Those are, in my view, less successful puzzles (but still fun for the solvers who have the required knowledge.)

     Thanks Qaos, for the fun puzzle, and loonapick for the helpful blog.

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