Guardian 28,693 – Brummie

113 comments on “Guardian 28,693 – Brummie”

1. Spotted the theme early, which helped with the weird words – QUIVERISH??? ALBI???

2. … and TATOU???

3. Guessed 4d once 1a was first one in, but couldn’t justify it until the end (at 0:16). Upon which I felt I’d been squished by a giant foot. Then sussed the theme and down came the second one (at 0:31).

4. 26ac. This is a reference to street cries ‘Strawberries, wild strawberries!’ etc

5. How on earth did I miss the theme? I even said to myself, “Is there a theme? Nah…” Still that’s ok. I’m not fond of themes. Regardless, somehow managed to solve & parse it all.

   I found some of the clues a bit clumsy and really, QUIVERISH? What sort of word is that? And I see that old crossword favourite REBEC has another outing.

   Still can’t please everybody. Good one for Python fans.

   Thanks Brummie and Andrew.
   Happy St David’s day to all. Will you be having Welsh Cakes or pancakes?

6. Shirl @1&2: … and ESCADRILLES???

   Nice incorporation of the theme though I suspect that led to some of the more unusual (!) inclusions amongst the solutions. All very clearly clued, though, as Andrew observes. Some lovely surfaces like FLYING, ACADEMIA, SPANISH and NORWEGIAN – along with a couple that seemed more contrived like CIRCUS and, again as Andrew notes, OLIVE OIL. I want to like QUIVERISH but can’t quite convince myself – I think I do; DEFENCES, SAND DUNE and INQUISITION all great fun.

   Obviously attuned to direct/indirect anagrams at the moment, I note the nothing = O used in the above-mentioned INQUISITION and might start according myself a little more leeway with my own constructions…

   Thanks Brummie and Andrew

7. So for someone who has the videotapes, the books (scripts) and the records, after getting PYTHONS at the onset it was more a matter of thinking up likely words and looking for their clues than anything else. (There were a few UNlikely words, as Shirl@1/2 points out.)

   There was also an OSCAR WILDE sketch, maybe not one of the classics. And of course NOBODY (expects the Spanish Inquisition).

8. Good fun!

9. Yet again I missed the theme even though it was spelt out!! Doh!! Still the top half went in quite quickly and the rest yielded eventually. As noted, a few obscure words didn’t help. 22ac reminded me of the very funny Henning Wehn and his Westphalia is not an Option show at a local outdoor theatre.
   Thanks to Brummie and Andrew.

10. Amazed that I missed the theme! Ridiculous – shows how I can’t see the wood for the trees. Hadn’t heard of teddy as in EDDY. Good puzzle. Thanks to Brummie and Andrew.

11. Why is it that when I check for themes there isn’t one, and when I don’t (usually because everything goes in reasonably quickly) there isn’t one. I’m old enough to remember its ground breaking appearance on UK TV and I’m annoyed enough at not spotting this one to make a COMPLAINT. Even NOBODY (expects the Spanish Inquisition) makes an appearance.
    Unlike others, I liked OLIVE OIL and thought it was reasonably hidden. My other favourite was MISS THE CUT for reminding me of another word for canal.

12. Apart from the obscure ones already listed, this was a write in for me, as I had MONTY AND PYTHONS as my first two solutions. I’m a fan of themes (and of the show) but half the puzzle was just looking for the obvious answers and therefore not much of a challenge. All nicely clued though.

    Ta Brummie & Andrew

13. PYTHONS was my second in and what with Tuesday and Brummie, I was on high alert
    I wonder if Barry CRIER wrote with any of the Pythons earlier on
    And I seem to remember an obscure episode where Basingstoke, Westphalia is mentioned (but no more silly then Berlin W13 or whatever it was in Ulysses)
    Good fun.

14. Thanks Brummie and Andrew
    I would have enjoyed this more if I had seen the theme, but of course I didn’t. Clumsy in places; I don’t buy the “backed” in 22a despite Andrew’s explanation, another partial indirect anagram for CRIER (which reminds of the riddle “What'[s the difference between a barrow-boy and a dachshund?”), 1d has a completely nonsensical surface, “backed” for a reversal in a down clue at 17?, you mentioned ALIBI not equal to excuse.
    I didn’t parse MONTY. I didn’t know TATOU – I tried and checked TATTU first, which is just as plausible from the wordplay.

15. Oh, and LYING for tales/untruths twice.

16. There is also the Courtmartial/Basingstoke in WESTPHALIA sketch.

17. Missed the theme, which is so obvious now. Certainly there were some obscurities, mostly pretty well clued, though I don’t see how you can get TATOU unless you already know it is an obscure word for a certain type of armadillo (or have all the crossers) – there is no word play to construct it. It could be TATTS, or TATOO, or TATUS. the others mentioned by Shirl @1 and PM @6 can be sorted out from wordplay (OK, crossers are needed for the latter one). I did think that OLIVE OIL would have been better clued as “Sailor’s girlfriend – the virgin kind” and wondered what that stuff in the middle was doing – but I had forgotten (or never knew? I was young when I watched Popeye) about her spelling. Thanks, Brummie and Andrew.

18. I did wonder about Barry, copmus@13 but his last name was CRYER.

19. I knew ESCADRILLES from reading the WW1 Biggles books when I was young.

20. [I remember a Dennis Waterman scene – can’t remember the programme – where he asks his secretary to buy a birthday present for his teenage daughter. She tells him she has got a teddy. He thinks that she might be a bit old for a teddy, but is absolutely horrified when he sees it!]

21. Missed the theme, mostly because I was looking for a geographic one of towns, states etc: WESTPHALIA, Norwegian, Spanish, Albi.

    Never heard of ESCADRILLES, so this held up finishing. I tentatively put ILLES (knowing the answer was a French word), and picked my way through the rest using letter/check button philosophy.

    Thanks Andrew and Brummie

22. Correction: may have heard of ESCADRILLES (now that muffin has commented on Biggles), but certainly don’t remember it

23. The WESTPHALIA sketch also mentions mispronounced ALIBIS.

24. I thought I was getting better at spotting themes. I’m not.
    Thanks to A and B.

25. Auriga- me too!

    Thanks Andrew and Brummie. Bit of a crash and burn for me today, but no complaints. As someone who is happy to accept Earl for E, I can’t really grumble about obscure words if they’re in Chambers. (Assuming they are – I’ve not checked.)

26. I felt this was one of those thematic crosswords where you admire the gridfill more than you enjoy the solving. Somehow, it doesn’t feel right to get the answer from the theme rather than the wordplay. I liked OSCAR WILDE, though, which I took to be a comment on Robbie rather than Lily Savage.

27. Another serial theme-misser here. Staggering. Just don’t look for them, s’pose.

    Thoroughly enjoyable crossword nonetheless.

    Felt backed in the WESTPHALIA clue somewhat superfluous.

    PS Any idea how to get this site to remember me? I still have to re-enter name and email despite ticking the box.

28. TATOU sent me down one of those linguistic rabbit holes that I and I know some others here enjoy. I discovered that it’s one of the four words for ‘we’ in the indigenous language of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). They are –

    Dual exclusive: maua – I and he/she but not you
    Dual inclusive: taua – I and you but no one else
    Plural exclusive: matou – I and others but not you
    Plural inclusive: tatou – I and you plus any number of others
    (see here on ‘clusivity’)

    Re PARROT – the part/leave quibble has been raised before, but at the risk of boring everyone, I’m going to raise it again. ‘We must leave’ means something quite different from ‘we must part’. Or as they might say in Rapa Nui, tatou must leave ≠ taua must part.

    Thanks Brummie and Andrew.

29. Barry Cryer did appear in MPFC, playing the part of Algy Braithwaite, copmus@13 & Tim C @18 – but as you say he is a Cryer and not a CRIER.

30. Great memory, muffin @19! I read plenty of Biggles, but that word had disappeared. Re Cryer/crier – are they homophones? [Sorry I asked!]

31. [William @27
    Drastic but I’ve had this problem and solved it by clearing all the stored Cookies, and starting again with them. Good luck with that!]

32. Thanks to Brummie and Andrew. Yes I had “unfamiliar” beside a couple and several unparsed. However, I did like the “grannie” fodder for NORWEGIAN at 10a, as well as the CIRCUS at 1d, the NOBODY at 2d, and OSCAR WILDE at 3d. 8d SAND DUNE was also quite good fun. Several already mentioned of these, so apologies for the repetition.
    Looking at the bigger picture though – yes, I missed the theme but seems I am in good company of minds greater than my own. Disappointing, however, as I am a long-term Python fan. I can’t believe I missed it. Have enjoyed the blog, evoking lots of nostalgia for me, as well as several smiles. Reading the comments on the theme has taken my enjoyment of the puzzle to a higher level, so thanks to all contributors.

33. [William@27, as mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I am also still having to re-enter my details every time I post, despite my long history with this site. I looked at deleting cookies/history as advised by Gaufrid on FAQs, but then got cold feet as I am concerned that some cookies are perhaps necessary for other sites I go to, and my partner also uses this computer, so if I clear all the history it could well compromise his useage. Think I will put up with the inconvenience rather than do anything drastic.]

34. Is 13 also a reference to the fish-slapping sketch, where Michael Palin does end up in the canal?

35. [Picking up “drastic” from you, muffin@31.]

36. Having found PYTHONS and CIRCUS very early, this quickly became an exercise in looking for probable candidates. (NORWEGIAN? check, so there must be DEAD and PARROT somewhere. INQUISITION? Right, where’s SPANISH? I did miss COMPLAINT though).

    However, it was only partly a write-in because of the unknowns (ALBI, TATOU) and QUIVERISH which I wouldn’t have believed was a real word until this morning.

    I liked UNDERLYING, MISS THE CUT, DEFENCES and the aforementioned NORWEGIAN for its surface.

37. Crossbar @ 5
    Diolch i chi! Dydd Dewi hapus ichi i gyd.
    Thanks to you. Happy Saint David’s Day everyone.

    Alas no Welsh cakes or bara brith to be had here but I might make a pancake or two.

38. I thought to myself “Nobody expects . . .” as I filled in INQUISITION and still missed the theme. No theme is so obvious that I can’t miss it.

39. Monty was a Field MARSHAL not martial.

40. Well, I enjoyed this one, despite (or because of?) the unusual vocabulary in places. I don’t have any quibbles with the clueing – I’m relaxed about single letter insertions in anagrists and the ‘backed’ in 22ac is perfectly logical and necessary for the surface, which is cogent and the whole clue would have to be recast without it.

    Unusually for me I spotted the theme, albeit almost at the end, but it helped me with DEAD, my LOI.

    Diolch yn fawr to S&B

41. Well, I did see the theme …
    … but only after finishing, so no help there. I’m embarrassed to say that I put in tatoo at the start before realising the error, doh!

    Yes, MPFC seems to appear quite regularly in crosswords; nice setting to get in all the theme words. I liked PYTHONS for it’s misleading visions of Hypnos; I even looked up the Wiki article before realising the significance of cast. I also liked ACADEMIA, as Andrew said it took a while for me to realise that ‘set’ was in the past tense.

    Thanks Brummie and Andrew.

42. Dr WhatsOn@7-it wasnt a bad sketch actually-nice one Osc!
    Sorry about spelling of Barry’s name-just a stab in the dark

43. Roughtrade – you are of course right about Monty’s rank. Blog corrected.

44. [Robi @41: ‘set’ is one of those useful verbs for setters (like hit, put, cut) whose present, past and past participle forms are identical]

45. There was an OSCAR WILDE sketch as well

46. I have been getting better at spotting the themes lately, and cannot believe I missed this one. “Spot the brain cell”, as they say. With NORWEGIAN and SPANISH I wondered if there was a European theme going on, but still missed all those clever references to one of my all time favourites, the holy grail of comedy.

    I was too Idle to spot the obvious Cleese, it’s quite beyond the Palin. Brummie may be a clever Chap, man, but he’s not the Messiah. “Say No More!”

    Even without spotting the theme, this was a lot of fun: nothing particularly hard but a variety of satisfying clues and a couple of gettable obscurities like TATOU.

    Hoping this post gets through the Spam filter, thanks to Brummie and Andrew.

47. [Anna @37 Mr. Crossbar is the one with Welsh connections here. And he is making Welsh cakes even as we speak. 😀
    I really must learn some Welsh. I get very few clues to it from the other languages I have some familiarity with. Thank goodness for Google ]

48. Great fun and memories of MPFC came flooding back. Helped a lot by the fact I’ve been watching the documentaries about them on catch-up. Apart from the obvious ones, I remember the OSCAR WILDE sketch well.

    Thanks Brummie and Andrew

49. I, too, missed the theme, despite thinking of Monty Python when I entered PYTHONS. I guess it’s because the puzzle was fairly easy for me, so I was solving too quickly.

    ESCADRILLES are familiar to me from the Lafayette Escadrille, a (much-romanticized) squadron of American volunteer pilots who went to France early in WWI, before the US was in the war. The name reflects that they were repaying a debt to the Marquis de Lafayette, who did the reverse in the 1770s. And TATOU successfully came out of some dim recess of my brain. So for once the obscurities weren’t too obscure for me.

    I agree with the sentiment that the “backing” in WESTPHALIA seemed odd, since the WE is fronting the ST, not backing it. But that’s an argument I don’t care to repeat here.

50. Thanks to Brummie and Andrew, we found the theme fairly early on and was a lovely reminder of times gone by.
    18ac was a bit off-piste and didn’t know ALBI or TATOU either.

51. I also count Westphalia as a theme word because I first heard of it in the Coal Mine (Historical Argument) sketch, i.e.
    “Third Miner: He’s thinking of the Treaty of bloody Westphalia.”

52. Missed the theme as usual, but was hoping to discover what exactly a Teddy is in reference to a woman’s undergarment. If I’m not being too inquisitive, or too ignorant.

53. [ShropshireLass @50
    Albi has a historical significance as one of the centres of the Cathar religious dissidents. The churches attempt to suppress them was called the Albigensian Crusade.]

54. [“churches” doesn’t look right for the possessive. Should it be “church’s”? “churche’s”? “churches'”?]

55. [ShropshireLass @50: Further to muffin’s comments, the centre of Albi, including the cathedral, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and includes the former bishop’s palace, now the Toulouse-Lautrec museum – T-L was a native of the city]

56. Ronald @52: it’s a lacy thing that covers approximately what a one-piece bathing suit would, only more revealingly. It’s an impractical garment, of the sort that a woman would never wear if she weren’t trying to be seductive.

57. CRIER reminds me of an actual town crier I knew, who asked the town of Martinez CA, where he lived, to make him their town crier and who added greatly to public events there, as well as placing first with the American Guild of Town Criers (who knew there was such a thing?) and 11th in the world one in Otago NZ at the World Town Crier Tournament.

    Anybody else try “stairwell” for “flight case” in 15d?

    I have to leave now, so I’ll post even though I haven’t yet had time to read all the comments.

    Thanks, Brummie and Andrew. Still pining for the fjords …

58. Was Westphalia an intended theme word? We may never know, but I would have expected to see Wensleydale before Westphalia. Which reminds me, my younger son tells me that Stephen Fry refers to the Cheese Shop sketch (because of “Terpsichorean”) in his Mythos opus.

59. The penguin on top of my television set could have exploded whilst I was solving, and I still wouldn’t have noticed the theme. Fortunately, I prefer not to notice.

60. No QUIVERISH in any dictionary as far as I can see, not even the dreaded C.

61. Muffin the Denis Waterman TV series was a sitcom called On the Up. Denis played a successful businessman whose private life was a mess (divorced, teenaged daughter), who had a housekeeper (played by Joan Sims) and a driver (Sam Kelly) who kept the comedy rolling along. It also had a memorable theme song. Can’t quite remember who wrote it and sang it…I’m sure it will come to me…

62. Sorry jeceris@60, but Chambers 13th edition (2014) does have QUIVERISH. Doesn’t sound like a real word though, does it.

63. jeceris @60, Chambers strikes again:
    transitive verb
    (of a bird) to cause (the wings) to move rapidly
    ORIGIN: Prob imit, perh connected with quiver3
    quiv?er or quiv?ering noun
    quiv?eringly adverb
    quiv?erish adjective
    quiv?ery adjective

64. @62 & 63. I only looked online. Should have known.
    QUIVERING would have been much better. Any number of -ing words for 27ac.

65. Dr W @58. Nice try but Wensleydale has too many letters

66. Thanks both,
    I got somewhat stuck in the middle of this but all came right in the end. OED has ‘quiverish’ although marking it as rare. It also has ‘tattu’ and ‘tatoo’ as variants of ‘tatou’ so I’m counting my ‘tattu’ as right.

67. jeceris@64: but Brummie wasn’t expecting the SPANISH INQUISITION, which left him needing a 9 letter word beginning with Q and ending with H … There aren’t many to choose from.

68. gladys @67
    quidditch?

69. …though it would spoil COMPLAINT. Might be fun to clue, though…

70. muffin@68: Has that made it into Chambers yet?

71. No idea, gladys – my edition is from the last century. I wouldn’t take a “not in Chambers” objection seriously in this instance, though.

72. Dr W @58. Nice try but Wensleydale has too nany letters

73. Don’t know why the post @72 was sent twice.

74. Gladys @ 67. Just another example of a theme taking priority over sensible cluing.

75. [I saw QUAVERISH clued somewhere recently – Shaking like a note? (7)]

76. muffin@71 and gladys@70 quidditch is in my 2014 Chambers

77. [Thanks Crossbar. I must update my Chambers. Christmas is coming!]

78. [btw when I said “my edition is from the last century”, I have at least two more even older – 70s and 50s, I think!]

79. Thanks for the blog and the parsing of MONTY, doh. Nice puzzle, IMO Brummie has upped his game a lot.

    Shirl@1 ALBI is absolutely worth a visit, ominous vast mediaeval cathedral from the Albigensian Crusades, poor Cathars. Interior decor on a “more is more” philosophy – think you could get another star in there? Hieronymous Bosch style fresco across the width of the cathedral at the front, to terrify the faithful – the good rising from their graves, the sinners cast into hell with lava, pitchforks and demons – the effect slightly marred by the two primary personnel, God with Jesus dispensing the last judgement having been excised by a door installed by some mediaeval bishop who couldn’t be arsed to walk round the cathedral. Google it, amazing. ALBI also has a really nice old town, great food, bars, all sorts of wonderful local places to visit – not least the Millau motorway viaduct across the Tarn valley – 1000 foot high, pylons 30 metres diameter, fading like strands of cotton into the sky above. Tarn valley is old France, like Disney might have imagined. Steak frites, mushroom sauce, 1/2 litre local decent plonk, 10 euros tops, fab climate. If it weren’t for the kids and grandkids I would relocate there tomorrow.

80. [muffin – you can never have too many dictionaries. 😉 I have a whole shelf full of them, various dates and publishers and languages. ]

81. [Crossbar @80
    I also have ancient SOED and COED, but I’ve never had a Collins – is it recommended?

    btw anyone want the answer to my riddle @14? No? Possibly wise!]

82. Muffin @81 I think it’s the one about bawling his wares out on the street

83. muffin@81 – one bawls his wares, the other?

84. jeceris@82 sorry, we crossed.

85. …has very short legs!

86. [muffin – Chambers is the most reliable for Guardian crosswords, but the Concise Collins we have also has famous people and places in it, which is often handy. Also a nice clear layout.]

87. [Thanks crossbar]

88. Jackkt @ 4:
    Indeed, a market trader cries his/her wares. As in the rhyme –

    If the man who turnips cries
    Cry not when his father dies,
    ‘Tis a proof that he had rather
    Have a turnip than his father.

    Now where in the lumber room of my brain did that come from?!!!

89. Solved 7 clues and gave up. My mind not on puzzles today.
    I enjoyed reading the blog.
    Thanks, both.

90. Many thanks MrPenney@56, I certainly revealed my innocence or ignorance in equal measure there, perhaps. That kind of teddy was never part of my childhood or later experience, I have to say. Took a while responding as I have been away, out and about…

91. I see that the BBC is to reassess Mary Whitehouse. Certainly the Guardian setters sometimes seem to be aiming to out-Paul for smut. TEDDY today foxed me and underwear seems innocuous but SAFE WORD a few days ago took me into territory I would have been happier not to explore. I found this a good work-out and much enjoyed.

92. Muffin@19: Biggles?? Blimey, you must be as old as I am.

93. [SanDiegoBrit @92
    I only enjoyed the WW1 ones – the Sopwith Camels (me and Snoopy!), to be honest. But yes, I’m probably as old as you; 70 later this year.]

94. Enjoyed this puzzle a lot. I did manage to spot the theme and it helped with a few near the end. I think I’d include EDDY and SAND DUNE in the themer list. There was an early sketch featuring an Edward who didn’t mind Ted but objected to Eddy baby and the opening sequence with Palin as a castaway features loads of sand dunes.
    Thanks, Brum and Andrew for a fine lunchtime’s entertainment

    essexboy @28
    What about parting as in leaving a person – “parting is such sweet sorrow”?

95. essexboy@28 Thanks for the ways of saying “we.” It reminds me that when I design a language it’s going to have two words for “or,” one inclusive as in “do you have brothers or sisters?” (a yes-no question) and one exclusive — “Would you like honey or condensed milk with your bread?”,. Questions are supposedly only yes-no or wh- (who? where? why? etc) but I think there’s a third category, either-or, and my new form of “or” would recognize that. Actually, I think I’d use the regular “or” for the exclusive question and some equivalent of “and/or” (that awkward phrase) for the inclusive one.

96. Valentine @95
    But don’t bother about the bread?

97. Thank Brum, unusual to find Brum in fairly benign mode. I got the theme by dint of 4d,5d and 1d, and then completely forgot to look for the rest of the theme, until the end. The Life Of Brian remains at the very pinnacle of British comedy and it was wonderful to be around when it came out to witness the furore.
    18a had to be dredged from the dark corners of my brain and the parsing of MONTY eluded me.
    Thanks Andrew.

98. phitonelly @94: Thanks, I thought nobody had noticed! Yes, I can see that ‘Leaving each other is such sweet sorrow’ could be the same as ‘Parting is such sweet sorrow’, but in that case you need the ‘each other’. If you just said ‘Leaving is such sweet sorrow’, it might mean leaving a place, or a job, or a school, but it wouldn’t successfully convey the idea of parting company with a person.

    I’m sure some will say it’s ‘close enough for a crossword’, but to me it’s not quite satisfactory if you can’t substitute one word for t’other without changing the meaning.

    [Valentine @95: More power to your elbow! I look forward to the launch of your new language.]

99. Chambers has part = leave (albeit Shakespearean)

100. Thanks bc. Maybe the clue should read ‘Leave archaic wrapping right round bird’?

101. I think Brummie was just trying to avoid “the standard rubbish”

102. [muffin@96 No bread required. I thought “condensed milk” was the same as evaporated milk, which is truly loathsome, and couldn’t (still can’t) imagine why anybody would want it, with or without bread. Or hunny, for that matter. I still haven’t had condensed milk, though have made a South American recipe for a very nice cake which begins with boiling an unopened can of condensed milk for a long time till it gets thickish and brownish (as I recall, this was years ago). While that’s boiling you make a lot of layers of cake about the size and thickness of pancakes. You mix I forget what with the condensed milk to make a filling, spread it over the thin cake layers and stack them, and refrigerate the whole thing for a couple of hours. (I was a guest at someone’s house for a big party and that cake was my assignment.) It was very good, and it’s the most unusual recipe I’ve ever followed, I think.]

     [essexboy@98 My new language will also include singular and plural as number indicators, but also binary and if I’m feeling ambitious perhaps ternary. Why not?]

103. Anna@37 I have enough Welsh to say Diolch yn fawr, but could you take your greeting apart morpheme by morpheme for me? I thought David was Dafydd, but I’m obviously wrong.

104. [Petert @101: 🙂 ]

     [Valentine @102: The Lihir language, spoken in Papua New Guinea, has a five-way number distinction system: singular, dual, trial, paucal (i.e. ‘a few’) and plural. If your new language could combine that with inclusive/exclusive markers, we (by which I mean tatou, of course) could have 8 different words for ‘we’.]

105. MrPenney@56,

     I once had a young adult female student on a computer course I was teaching, who wore jeans and a jumper which didn’t quite reach one another and thus revealed a black teddy beneath. It was a very unlikely environment in which to choose to appear seductive, but then us techy types can be a bit eccentric !

     Spotted the theme quite quickly as I’m sure Brummie intended us to, and thus this puzzle was rather easier than yesterday’s Anto even with a smattering of obscure words. Thanks to Brummie and to Andrew.

106. [essexboy@104 I like that numbering system and I think I’ll adopt it, but extend it a bit at the far end. On beyond plural will be “helluva” for gigantic numbers like the speed of light and “oyvey” for numbers which may not be objectively large but are much too large for the thing they’re counting. For martinis, it might be five.]

107. I thought I had failed at this, but Tyngewick @66 has very helpfully confirmed my spelling of TATTU, which fits both clue and crossers, as well as making a V- sign in the direction of anyone who says that this obscurity was fairly clued. 🙂

     Like Michelle @89 I couldn’t finish this yesterday but the remaining dozen or so fell into place very easily this morning and I still didn’t spot the theme!

     essexboy @98: I would not only say “close enough for a crossword”, I would say that it is wrong to expect direct equivalence between definition and solution. A hint or an allusion should be good enough most of the time. So leave and part are more than good enough as far as I’m concerned.

108. essexboy @28 etc – “part” is used in both senses, either separating from a person or simply leaving a place. OED has plenty of citations for both. Your quibble holds no water.

109. Valentine @103: in case Anna doesn’t see your question, Dewi is the diminutive (or more friendly) form of Dafydd, as is Dai.

110. Me @109… so the meaning of “Dydd Dewi hapus” is literally “day David happy”, as Welsh word order is different from English.

111. widdersbel @108 (if you drop back in – sorry for the late response)

     For me it would be helpful if you could give an example of a natural-sounding sentence, written in current standard English, in which ‘part’ and ‘leave’ are interchangeable (perhaps from the OED citations you mention?) I’ve looked at Collins online and Lexico but I can’t find any (including in the extra material you get if you click on ‘more example sentences’).

     The closest is Lexico (Verb: 2 – Leave someone’s company), but if you look at the example sentences they’re all ‘part from’ / ‘be parted from’, not ‘part’ on its own. I think ideally a setter would avoid this (I would aim to, if I ever tried my hand at it).

     Wiktionary does have two instances of part = leave, but the first is marked as archaic (which ties in with bodycheetah’s Shakespearean suggestion @99) and the second is specialist Internet chatroom-speak – neither really fair game in my view, without some kind of indication in the clue.

     sh @107: ‘I would say that it is wrong to expect direct equivalence between definition and solution.’ I’m saving that one up for future arguments! 😉 I would say that there ought to be some point at which the Venn diagram circles meet, even if the overlap is very small.

112. [essexboy @111. I agree to leave this for a future discussion, but very briefly I would respond to your Venn diagram with the concept of fuzzy boundaries.]

113. Sailed straight over my head, which led to a big ol’ DNF. Head hung in shame.

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