Guardian 28,672 / Enigmatist

91 comments on “Guardian 28,672 / Enigmatist”

1. 13a – Ajax is also a football club
   20a – re-yap reversed
   25a – e for Europe, op for preformed in theatre with two ‘last’s

   22d – assumed same, in for pop(ular) in cha

2. 17d Anagram (you need to recycle) of TAN (brown) TINS (cans).

3. Eileen 20A Payer is Re yap backwards.
   How infuriating to lose your work like that.
   Sounds like you had a good evening anyway!

4. I think the TYPE in TYPESETTING is akin to the way “type” is used in French, to mean a bloke or some guy: type is sometimes used this way in English too (so this nosy type asks me what I’m doing…)

5. (performed rather than preformed in my last post)
   17d – tan tins with letters cycled

   15d is only one I can’t parse

6. 17d is not an anagram – it would be indirect if it was. it is TAN TINS recycled – i.e. with the last three letters cycled to the front.

7. I have two:

   25 across is OP (job performed in theatre as in an operating room) within E (European) LAST + LAST (finals) outside.

   15 down is all going up (turned): ASTIR (up) + AS (when) + T (cross)

8. ELASTOPLAST is OP inside E and two LASTs.

9. 1a – Enigmatist is the type setting ?
   20a – RE YAP
   25a – E LAST OPeration LAST
   8d – Secondo is the lower part in a duet
   15d – ASTIR AS T (cross)

   Thanks Enigmatist & Eileen

10. 8d: the Secondo is the lower part of a duet.

11. In 8d, SECONDO is the lower part in a piece of music.
    Glad it isn’t just me with 15d.
    I think 17d works as TAN (brown) + TINS (cans) with the T recycled to the end. Don’t greatly like it; it feels very much like an indirect anagram.
    Generally enjoyed this, though, the carefully constructed SEMICOLON being my favourite.
    Thanks to Enigmatist and the Sleeping Beauty

12. 20ac I have as on = re and bark = yap backwards (after wind) …
    17dn must be anagram of tan = brown and tins = cans …
    Can’t see any other way of parsing 22ac either …

13. Sympathies Eileen….and thank you as ever. I think 1ac is just that he’s a type setting; 20ac is re-yap(bark)reversed; 25ac is op in E last last (2 finals)17d is Tan Tins cycled, and 22d uses in as popular in/breaking cha (not entirely impressed at the abbreviation if I’m right). Hope your memory reboots rapidly. Now where am I?….

14. Damn. Took me too long to type….

15. Simply brilliant crossword! And Eileen you have no need to apologise – you do a great job.

    1a I agree with type = person so person setting = me = Enigmatist

    22d in inside Cha
    I agree with the earlier suggestions too.

    The only parsing I can’t see is 15d

    Thanks Enigmatist for brilliant clueing, so many with big ticks. And thanks Eileen for doing so well in difficult circumstances

16. Let’s see: can’t parse TSARITSA or SEMICOLON, didn’t get PERP or AN EVEN BET, didn’t know about the SECONDO in a duet. Thought the tan tins were an indirect anagram. All the same, not bad for what must have been fairly gentle by Enigmatist’s standards.

    Smiles for BEAR IN MIND, INSOLENT, CROATIA, LYING TO, GYM SLIP.

17. I can think of nothing worse than losing a draft blog, particularly one of such a splendid crossword as this one

    Enigmatist in very kind to solver mode – but full of fun throughout – I marked lots of the clues for favouritism but would particularly select 1a, 2d and 4d

    Thanks very much to Enigmatist and (lucky but unlucky today) Eileen

18. A yes, astir. What a great clue in retrospect. Thanks to Enigmatist and Eileen

19. After seeing the setter, I almost gave up on this after SUGAR AND SPICE was my only entry. However, this built up slowly but beautifully, with superb clues like THERES ALWAYS ONE, INSOLENT, BEAR IN MIND, SECOND OPINION, GO OUT LIKE A LIGHT, DOWNSWINGS, SEMICOLON, ELASTOPLAST, and my cotd, TWISTER. Feeling really chuffed to have completed this although I couldn’t parse CROATIA or TSARISTA. Probably on the gentler side but I loved it.

    Ta Enigmatist & Eileen

20. Some interesting clueing here. Managed to solve most, but put HEAP for 19a without much real hope, as in ‘heap pressure on’. Didn’t know secondo from opera, so assumed that O was the SECOND letter in ‘lower’. Ah well! Thanks to Enigmatist and to others for the enlightenment.

21. Many thanks to everyone – I knew it wouldn’t take long. It all seems so simple now!

    But – Wayne @1, I did get the Dutch club!

22. I won’t contribute to the parsing attempts, as most of the ones you had troouble with, Eileen, were ones I had BIFD. Too much enter a guess from definition and crossers, hit the check button, shrug, repeat, for my liking, though there were some clever long anagrams and a few nice constructions. Not sure I have ever heard duffer = prune before, though I liked the ‘erstwhile plum’ part. Thanks, Enigmatist and Eillen.

23. The name Enigmatist usually strikes fear into the heart, but this was indeed not as fiendish as he often is.

    I don’t think 18d is an &lit. “Part of uniform” isn’t part of the wordplay, and in any case a GYM SLIP is a sort of dress rather than a top, isn’t it? (Not that I’m an expert.) I think the definition is just “part of uniform”.

    I agree that CROATIA was very good.

    Many thanks Enigmatist and Eileen.

24. A lovely crossword, but several I could not parse which means it was pleasantly challenging, thank you Enigmatist, and thank you Eileen for the blog so well done after your rude awakening…

25. Thanks, Lord JIm @23 – I think you’re right (but they were ghastly!).

    (I’ve several times promised myself not to use ‘&lit’ any more. I almost invariably get it wrong: I say one is when it isn’t and omit to say one is when it is. I’ll stop now.)

26. AlanC@19: sums up my experience and reaction to this puzzle. My first pass left me with just four solutions entered into the grid and little idea about the others. But it did fall slowly but surely and I ended up with the full grid, albeit not fully parsed. Thanks for the great combined effort, fifteensquared! Clearly there are plenty of potential bloggers out there if you were to retire, Eileen. But please don’t!

    INSOLENT, SUGAR AND SPICE, PRUNE, ELASTOPLAST and UNEQUAL were my honours winners today with a toss up between the lovely &lit GYMSLIP and the elegantly phrased BEAR IN MIND as my COTD.

    My only quibble is with 11a where only in second half is eleven seems an ungainly way of indicating VEN.

    Thanks Enigmatist and Eileen

27. Great to see Enigmatist again, with a splendid puzzle, full of ingenious constructions. There were quite a few bung-and-parse entries, but I managed to deconstruct all but TWISTER (I should have seen that ‘Checker’ could be a proper noun) and TSARITSA – clever use of ‘up’ here, like the slightly more familiar ‘a’ for PER.

    Favourites were PERP, INSTANT and CROATIA for the constructions and GYMSLIP for the surface (very Angela Brazil).

    Many thanks to JH and Eileen.

28. As usual, a very clever crossword from Enigmatist. I was quite chuffed that I solved four clues on the first pass – must be a record for me with E.

    I questioned pop=popular, but there it is in Chambers, so all’s well in the Enigmatist world. I ticked AN EVEN BET, DOWNSWINGS and ELASTOPLAST. Like some others, I failed to parse the ‘astir’ in TSARITSA; it seems so obvious now.

    Thanks Enigmatist and Eileen.

29. … and I’ll add CROATIA now that Eileen has explained it to me.

30. … and I thought the -ATIA was a homophone for Asia, which left me with an African CRO!

31. Lots of ticks today, despite a slow start. TYPESETTING,SEMICOLON, SOLUBLE, TWISTER,INSOLENT, SUGAR AND SPICE (FOI), BEAR IN MIND,THERES ALWAYS ONE… I won’t go on, but what a lovely puzzle. Thank you Enigmatist, indeed a type of setter, and Eileen and everyone else who helped with the parsing.

32. Surprised at queries over ‘pop’ = popular. Haven’t we been listening to pop music since the sixties?

    Thanks Enigmatist and Eileen.

33. I don’t get Croatia! Please help

34. Made things difficult for myself by imagining On Tap might be the answer to 12ac rather than LET GO. And therefore spoiled the NE section, which contained the extremely satisfying (eventually!) INSOLENT and SECOND OPINION. Didn’t know PERP, so had to look that up for my last one in. Lots of challenging anagrams to solve today, but as Eileen says at the very start, a gentler than usual Enigmatist made it all eminently gettable today…

35. Hi kirsty @33 – if you add CROATIA to AS IF and make an anagram of it, you get Afro Asiatic . Sorry if it wasn’t clear.

36. Thx to Enigmatist for a very enjoyable Friday puzzle. Big lol at 14ac with BEAR IN MIND and my favourite of the day was TWISTER doing double duty as a blast from the past with the dance by Chubby Checker, and the card game pontoon. Thx also to Eileen for her blog and agree with her we should see more from the excellent Enigmatist.

37. kirsty allan@33 “AS IF CROATIA (this country)” is an anagram of “Afro-Asiatic.” I just figured it out myself.

    “Pointless” contestant? Is Pointless a game?

    I’ve heard of plum duff, but how is a prune a duffer?

    Why not stick at 21? What does twister have to do with pontoon?

    Sympathy, thanks and admiration for you, Eileen, in a situation we’ve all met in one form or another. I do wish the posters had read the previous comments before posting their own repetitions. And thanks to Enigmatist for starting all this.

    In 6d Doesn’t “broadcast” mean “send out” rather than “go out”?

38. This puzzle was better than it looks, or looked! Thanks to all here for clearing up several loose ends.

    I do still think VEN wasn’t clued so well, agreeing with pm@26.

    I’m also not terribly convinced by “initiates” to mean initials (in AJAX). If it were to be read as a verb, that would be one thing, but there is a pesky “of” following it.

    On the positive side, there is another angle to the duffer part of PRUNE. Both words can mean a dull or incompetent person, so mission accomplished, but prunes can also be used in plum duff, so it gets to be a duffer twice.

39. Valentine@21 – in the card game Pontoon (also called blackjack / 21 etc), the player needs to decide whether to stick [i.e. receive no further cards], or twist – i.e. ask for another card – hence they could be called a twister.

    Pointless is a BBC quiz show in which contestants are given a category and must try to find an example of the category which few others have mentioned. The ideal answer would be to find an example which no-one else has mentioned i.e. a pointless answer. This is rare as there is ‘always one‘ who will have mentioned your answer.

40. Sorry Valentine at 37. I was thinking if 21 in the card game!

41. I had the same parsing difficulties as Eileen, except that I couldn’t work them out after completing last night either. I also had trouble with the first TSA in TSARITSA despite having seen “astir”.

    I do not like INSTANT. I have only just worked out why it’s a synonym of the definition (not a usage I would use) and even if it’s not seen as an anagram, it’s surely too indirect to be strictly fair?

    Erstwhile seemed superfluous to me. Is “prune” not a “plum” synonym (at least for crossword purposes)?

    TWISTER was only partly parsed by me. I had heard of Chubby Checker, but that was the limit of my knowledge. It’s quite astonishing that I completed the puzzle.

    The two long anagrams 1d and 7d were sufficiently tricky to hold me up for quite a while; nicely done.

42. I forgot to mention that no-one twists at 21, so “below 21” might have been preferable.

43. Hi Valentine@ 37
    I see that while typing I’ve been overtaken by several others, but, since I’m rushing out, I’ll post my comment anyway- ‘Pointless’ is a TV quiz show, of which I am a fan (my grandson and his University friend appeared on it – they didn’t win the jackpot!).

    I didn’t know prune = duffer, either but Chambers has ‘a despised or silly person’.

    I have to go out in a few minutes, so haven’t time to explain the rules of Pontoon! – see here: https://www.blackjacktactics.com/guide/pontoon/

    Chambers has broadcast (also) meaning ‘to take part in a broadcast’.

44. I came here for enlightenment as to the parsing of some clues but sadly didn’t find it readily available.

45. Monkey@41 my online dictionary has prune = any plum as one meaning BUT I, and maybe Enigmatist, know prune more specifically as a dried plum, hence “erstwhile”. I would be more likely to insult someone by calling them a plum than a prune however!
    Monkey@42 and Valentine@37, I think Larry@39 hit the nail on the head – Enigmatist is using twenty-one as one of the alternative names for pontoon/blackjack rather than suggesting that anyone would twist when their cards totalled that figure.
    Thanks Eileen, and gang earlier for picking up the rest – I still have one query – in TSARITSA why does Cross = T?
    Anyway i was delighted not only to finish with relativey little external assistance but also to get CROATIA as first one in, as it was clued so smoothly and clearly – also big smiles with CHINA and PERP, thanks Enigmatist.

46. Please don’t retire Eileen. Rare fallibility on your part is a great encouragement to us all. Heart sank on seeing Enigmatist’s name so rather pleased to fill the grid except for that damned empress. Thanks to Eileen and all the others here for several parsing explanations where the setter’s devious mind defeated me and Mrs Job. Thanks to E for the delightful BEAR IN MIND.

47. Dr Whatson @ 38: from Chambers:
    Initiate
    noun
    1 The lead, first step, often considered as determining the conditions for oneself or others

    Gazzh @ 45:
    “Dot your Is and cross your Ts”

48. No worries Eileen. I can’t think o anything to add to the comments so far other than to say, like yesterday, initial impressions were that this was going to be tough/impossible but it all worked out in the end. Thanks to E, E and everyone else who explained a goodly number that I had to guess.

49. Simon S @47 thanks but I think for the first time in many vital contributions you leave me dissatisfied – this does not mean a T is a cross any more than an i is a dot. If anyone here used to do “Spot the Ball” and marked their guess with a T rather than an X I will take it all back.

50. Gazzh@49: I wondered about a T-beam which is a T-shaped construction joist so possibly a cross. However, subsequent research, on the basis of a minor Eureka moment, led me to the tau or St Anthony’s cross which is, indeed, T-Shaped. On this occasion, not a cross on which said saint was crucified but the emblem worn on his cloak and subsequently those of the Antonine Order. I suspect earlier posters who contributed to the parsing of TSARITSA were aware of this.

51. Generally I skip crosswords by Enigmatist but I immediately saw TYPESETTING so I thought I’d give this one a go. It turned out to be a steady solve on my part with AN EVEN BET being my favourite among many fine clues. There were a number I couldn’t parse but it’s rare that I understand everything. Thanks to both.

52. I biffed this left, right and centre: completely fuddled by those parsings that have been singled out above as particularly tricky. I do think there were a few overstretched points: T = cross, duffer = PRUNE, twister = CHECKER, the second half of eleVEN, et al.
    But there were some neat and satisfying puzzles to compensate. I thought SECOND OPINION was a cracker.
    Oh, and I do agree with your assessment, Eileen, that GYM SLIP is an &lit. Surely it is [was?] a regular item in the list of uniform kit prescribed for school and it was (probably? I have no direct experience!) ghastly for teenage girls to have to wear it, and it’s a ‘top’ in the same sense as a top coat, the outermost layer of the gym kit.

53. Admittedly not in tune with crossword-filling convention, lower-case t-s are crosses.

54. I managed to solve two clues, then decided to walk to Wansfell Pike. Glorious view of Lake Windermere from the top, but it was very windy and hailing too!

    Thanks, Eileen and others who helped parse the remainder. I enjoyed reading the blog. And now to light the fire….

55. How can I switcbh.off the correction?? Facility. It is driving me mad!

56. I think the problem with pop = popular is that the abbreviation is only used in the sense of ‘appealing to/accessible to/aimed at ordinary people’, eg pop music, pop psychology. I’ve never seen it meaning ‘currently fashionable’. You wouldn’t say ‘That style is very pop’ – or if you did, it would mean it’s associated with pop (rather than rock groups, or classical music, say), not that it’s ‘in’ right now.

    To quote wiki, Although the terms “pop” and “popular” are in some cases used interchangeably, and their meaning partially overlap, the term “pop” is narrower. Pop is specific of something containing qualities of mass appeal, while “popular” refers to what has gained popularity, regardless of its style.

    So pop = popular, and popular = in, but pop ≠ in.

    Gripe No. 2: I agree with PM and Dr W about VEN in 11ac. In fact it’s not just ungainly; I don’t think it works logically. The problem is that pesky word ‘is’. Understood as a cryptic instruction, ‘only in second half is eleven beaten badly’ could mean:
    (a) treat ELEVENBEATEN as a composite thing, take the 2nd half, i.e. BEATEN, and jumble it;
    (b) apply ‘2nd half’ to both ELEVEN and BEATEN, then make an anagram of VENTEN;
    (c) treat ‘only in 2nd half is eleven’ and ‘beaten badly’ as two separate cryptic instructions, giving you VEN + an anagram of BEATEN.
    But even with the most painful mental contortions I can’t get it to mean what the setter needs it to mean.

    I did enjoy (most of) this though, thanks to the Es.

57. Pserve_p2@52 I believe the reason GYM SLIP is not an &lit. is that the “part of uniform” part does not participate in the wordplay (as Lord Jim said@23) – a necessary condition for an &lit.

58. Thanks E & E. Despite the “fear factor”, I always enjoy facing up to the challenge. Filled the grid today but somewhat foxed by 15d. Great fun – ingenious as ever.

59. PostMark@50 thank you very much, that works for me, Simon S@53 thanks also, i did think of lower case but the bar on my handwritten “t” only sticks out on one side so decided I wasn’t happy with that either though I am sure many typefaces have a cruciform t.

60. pserve_p2@ 52 – Lord Jim @23 explained why 18d GYM SLIP is not an &lit – because not all of the clue is wordplay. In the true &lit, each word contributes to the cryptic content and then the whole clue happens to provide a definition. Here “part of uniform” makes no contribution to the wordplay.

61. Thanks for the blog, my eyes lit up on seeing the name Enigmatist but my heart sank after the first three clues. Best I say very little, CROATIA was a neat compound anagram.

62. t = tau a type of cross

63. Well having been thoroughly TRAMPled earlier in the week I was expecting to be totally schooled today, but found this an enjoyable experience, much like yesterday’s puzzle, so all smiles here, meaning Roz is massively underwhelmed as a result!
    On the prune debate, I believe the term is usually ‘Old Prune’… if said directly to the person, a term of endearment, if said out of earshot, usually disparaging. The implication being that one is of advanced years although not necessarily of faltering mental agility.
    I did fail on Mrs Tsar, but noticed the ASTIR part once revealed and was unsure of the TSA until now.

    Thank you as always Elieen. Enigmatist too.

64. Glad you enjoyed it Taffy, trying not to be ratty, it is just we get so few from this setter and my expectations were too high. It is the hope that kills you they say.

65. Gazzh @ 59 Look at every lower-case t on this site… 😉

66. Pretty close to my Goldilocks zone, this one, so, of course, I loved BEAR IN MIND. Ticks also for IN STORE and GO OUT LIKE A LIGHT for the surfaces, although the latter is somewhat sombre.
    I’m another who biffed TSARITSA and TWISTER. Can’t believe I forgot about good old Chubby.
    Thanks, Enigmatist and Eileen. Sympathies for the lost work (I know the feeling only too well). Always appreciate yours and other bloggers efforts to enlighten.

67. Thanks, everyone, for the kind words and elucidations. I’ve been out since my comment @ 43 but I think I would have been keeping my head down today, anyway – not my finest hour, I’m afraid! I hope to do better on Monday.

68. Thanks Eileen, sorry to hear about your woes- hope the night out was worth it! And thanks Enigmatist – definitely gentler than anticipated when I saw the byline but lots of fun. BEAR IN MIND made me laugh out loud, and CROATIA is a first-rate comp anag.

    Simon S @65 – but T for cross in a clue means Tau. And I’m slightly surprised at how many experienced solvers apparently aren’t familiar with it, because it’s hardly the first time this has cropped up.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_cross

69. Just to clarify, widdersbel et al – it wasn’t particularly riotous (moi?). It was a visit to my local Little Theatre to see a production of ‘Handbagged’.

70. Was somewhat delicate this morning after a night out (not with Eileen before someone asks) so kept this until this evening. Wise decision I feel even it was on the gentler side for Enigmatist, as it still took quite a while to actually parse everything.

    Croatia absolutely beautiful example of a comp anag. I’m glad to see these are becoming more main stream, and I’m now wondering which UK daily will be the first to include a letter bank.

    Thanks Enigmatist and Eileen.

71. I saw ‘duffer’=PRUNE exactly as Taffy @63 has explained. It’s old fashioned public school abuse, isn’t it? In 11a I tend to agree with the criticisms – it looks like the TYPE who was doing the SETTING has got a bit carried away by the surface that suggested itself, and forget about the cryptic grammar. I thought the ‘recycle’ trick was well executed in 17d, and only TSARITSA held me up for any time – I went away and did the killer sudoku and then saw the solution as soon as I came back (though not the parsing, I have to admit).

    I know from meeting Enigmatist at the gathering in York last autumn – I instinctively knew it wasn’t a work event 😉 – that he has been a little disappointed at not getting as many gigs on the Guardian cryptic as he used to. Perhaps he has tried to set something a little less taxing this time, which has maybe pleased the editor – and I enjoyed it myself – but 1d, isn’t there.

    Many thanks to E and E.

72. Took ages for the penny to drop with some wordplays but I got there in the end. Wasn’t a fan of INSTANT like others but thoroughly enjoyed DOWNSWINGS, ELASTOPLAST, THERES ALWAYS ONE and SOLUBLE.

73. Thanks for shedding light on so many parsings that had me beaten today Eileen, that was a tough one. Eventually had to reveal Tsaritsa in order to finish it.

74. Roz @64, you rat away! Thankfully there are the Prize/Azeds at the weekend to tie you up for a fleeting moment. Only fair that you get your challenging puzzles too. I’d have swapped that Tramp puzzle to the Friday slot, which would have made the progression from Monday more linear. I’m sure there will be a thoroughly depressing(me)/invigorating week along presently.

75. Thanks Eileen and others. I found this a challenge but got there in the end but the parsing of TWISTER (did not think of Chubby nor know the pontoon allusion) and TSARITSA eluded me. I agree with others that pop is not equivalent to in. I did like BEAR IN MIND, CROATIA and ELASTOPLAST. Thanks to Enigmatist.

76. I’m hoping this relatively accessible and highly entertaining and witty puzzled got a few more hooked on this setterThanks E and Eileen

77. Sheffield hatter@ 71 you make an interesting point and yes I am quite happy to be 1D.
    I hope you are wrong about Enigmatist having to make puzzles easier to get in the Guardian, I have long suspected this for Vlad and Philistine, people have been sceptical, perhaps the recent Saturday Vlad will make them think again. We have more than enough accessible puzzles, plus Everyman and the Quiptic, surely there is room for at least one challenging puzzle per week ?
    I doubt the Guardian ever expected Bunthorne, Fidelio , Gemini etc to make their puzzles easier.

78. essexboy@56 after some thought I am in agreement,with both your gripes: at the time I was so relieved to finally get the definitions and (I thought) understand the parsing that I sort of glossed over the detail – the VEN seems OK if a bit Yodal if you skim read the whole of “only in second half is eleven” but as you say does not really stand up under dissection. For direct equivalence of pop= IN I got as far as looking at the Eton society but still doesn’t really work, a shame as I allowed myself smug smile when writing in the answer.
    sheffieldhatter@71 (and others) I would be very happy to see more from Enigmatist but even happier if they appeared on Saturdays to give us more time to hunt out the obscurities and enjoy the gradual dropping of pennies.

79. If I hadn’t got the first three across clues, I would have passed on this puzzle as I usually do with this setter. Big mistake, as I didn’t even make it to the 50% mark. Part of the problem is that I start an Enigmatist (or a Maskarade) with an expectation of failure. A defeatist attitude seldom fosters success.

    Nevertheless, I promise not to complain about puzzles being too difficult, if others will promise not to complain about puzzles being too easy. Deal?

    I did like 8d SECOND OPINION, one of the few that I got, and 21d SEMICOLON, one of the many that I didn’t (but should have).

    A masochistic thanks to Enigmatist for the mauling, and thanks to Eileen and the commenters for the explanations.

80. Deal. I am not saying this is too easy I just had hopes it would be seriously hard as we seldom see this setter these days.

81. For hard puzzles by Enigmatist, as Elgar he currently appears fortnightly as the Friday Toryrag Toughie. There should be one next week.

82. Thanks for the tip Simon S, alas there are many newspapers that I refuse to buy.

83. I always think of T=cross as deriving from a T junction where two roads cross.

    jackkt@44: I think you’re entitled to a refund.

    Poor Eileen. Don’t you dare retire!

    Thanks Enigmatist – I just didn’t have the time (on my travels) to give this succulent offering my full attention but I enjoyed it until I came a cropper trying to shoehorn a bad guess into SEMICOLON.

84. [Hi Roz, I concur with your dislike of certain papers. I could tolerate the Times as it is still pretty good journalism even if the owner leaves much to be desired. Back to the question at hand. If you are a fan of Enigmatist and would like to see some more of his fare, there is a blog similar to this which has all the Telegraph puzzles (and seemingly explanations too) at http://www.bigdave44.com. If you ask one of the brood to navigate it looking for the alter ego, it should be printable and for free. A win-win for you and the setter I feel. Apologies to anyone offended by my mentioning this, none intended but that is not the point.]

85. [ Thanks Taffy, very thoughtful , sounds a bit technical for me. On this Chromebook I have four pictures I can click on, do not know how to use anything else. I will bear it in mind for the future. ]

86. [My pleasure]

87. [You probably know this anyway Roz…. John also sets as Nimrod for the Independent, as Io for the FT, as Elgar for the Telegraph and has set for the fiendish Listener.]

88. [ Thanks again Taffy, I do IO in the FT sometimes , they have proper owners. I boycott the others of course although I do test solve for a few people setting for the Listener just as a favour ]

89. I have to agree with Roz. I get excited when I see an Enigmatist but this, though still hugely enjoyable, didn’t deliver the challenge for which I was hoping.

    Eileen – small error in your parsing that none has mentioned. The anagrind in 12ac is “hit” rather than “free” I think. I hate to appear a Zoilist but I’m confident your blogs will be referred to for years to come, so my comment is for completeness’ sake only.
    I enjoyed the suggested Sleepy Beauty moniker!

90. …oops, Sleeping not Sleepy. I blame the speelchucker!

91. Thank you, William, as ever.
    For the sake of the archive, I have amended the blog.

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