Guardian Cryptic 28720 Anto

71 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28720 Anto”

1. This puzzle would probably fitted well in the Quiptic slot. Enjoyable and a bit challenging but not too difficult.

   Liked EXONERATED, CHESSMEN (loi).

   New: BIFFO the Bear – never heard of it before.

   Thanks, both.

   I see I messed up the parsing of ADIOS which I hurriedly parsed as rev of DA (pop, father) + a rev of SO (as) I.

2. I wondered which way round the answer for 6 down was – so had to rely on crossers.
   a straightforward and entertaining crossword otherwise

3. Thanks Anto and scchua
   Mostly very entertaining and good. Favourites were PROVERB (FOI) and CHANCELLOR.
   I was a bit irritated by 6d. It works either way, but I think it reads more naturally to give VIPS, which is what I entered at first.

4. michelle @1
   Yes, I remembered Biffo the Bear, but I expect lots won’t!

5. Which day of the week is it?

   I liked PROVERB, HORSE TRADING, PHEROMONE, MUTATION and EL NINO (sorry, no tilde).

   Thanks to S&B

6. Enjoyed this.Thought it was easier than usual for a Friday which was welcome after the last two days. Was much helped by the anagrams.

   Favourites were: BIFFO, CHANCELLOR, LEAVE IT OUT, DISSIDENT, ADIOS, CHESSMEN, THE ROPES, DRIP FEED

   Thanks Anto and scchua

7. In my opinion, a big improvement over Anto’s earlier puzzles. My only gripe is the same irritation as others have mentioned; that is the clue for 6d: it’s a personal thing, but I just do not like clues where the crossers are needed before the solver knows which possible answer to enter.

8. For 6d my reading was to put in SPIV, which is odd for me as I usually get these either-way solutions the wrong way round.

   I was expecting the crossword to mark April Fool’s Day, so I was a bit disappointed to find something Mondayish.

   Otherwise no quibbles, so mustn’t grumble.

   Thanks Anto and scchua.

9. I thought RAP was excellent
   Its difficult to decipher if Biffo is on the front cover of the Beano that Eric seems to be reading on that Bluesbreakers album
   I think SPIV may be even earlier-I was so much older then!

10. Michelle@1: I parsed ADIOS just as you did. It took me a while to work out that the Nazi soldiers weren’t the SS in CHESSMEN, but I enjoyed that, as well as PROVERB, EARTHWORM, SIT and THE ROPES – and for once even I knew the footballer for PEBBLE.

    I did get BIFFO, but non-readers of the Beano won’t know him. Does it circulate outside the UK? Even inside the UK, girls without brothers and boys whose middle class parents restricted them to the Eagle will be at a disadvantage.

11. Being a dog-lover I enjoyed SIT, and the EARTHWORM amused me too. And lovely to be reminded of BIFFO, though I don’t think I actually ever read the Beano much. Strange how one acquires this sort of knowledge by some sort of osmosis.

12. Thanks Anto and scchua. I didn’t find this as easy as some – but I often struggle to get on Anto’s wavelength. For me it was a mix of write-ins (including BIFFO) and some that had me scratching my head for a good while. But all good fun. As others, I liked PROVERB. I’ve liked that particular bit of wordplay since the first time I saw it many years ago, and I’ve continued to enjoy it on the many subsequent occasions I’ve seen it. Also enjoyed HORSE TRADING, DISSIDENT, DRIP FEED, THE ROPES and others.

    I had no problem with SPIV/VIPS – largely because I’d filled in 5a before I’d got as far as reading the clue for 6d.

13. A good, straightforward puzzle. Thanks to setter and blogger!

14. Like many I hadn’t met the bear. My brother only read Eagle but the clue was very basic so no problem there. I loved the anagrams in this one and 1a was a favourite.

15. Unlike muffin @3 I forgot BIFFO to my shame as my auntie used to buy me the Beano when I were a young lad. Thanks for the nostalgic picture scchua.
    I cringed a bit at EL NINO, given that with the current one I ca see that I have two leaks in my roof and it reminded me that I need to find a Roofie (no, not the drug but the Tradie).
    Favourites were PROVERB for a great surface and the misdirection of “lead” and EXONERATED for the adult drug (not a Roofie).

16. Thanks Anto and scchua for colourful blog.
    I liked PROVERB, DASHCAM for its economy, all the neat anagrams (14a, 18a, 25a, 5d & 15d) and the anagrind in ‘online distortion’

17. I found this more approachable than Anto often is (snap, GC @7). However, I had SET for 12a – a set for a play is a model of, say, a living room, and I can imagine the crossword editor giving this order. I suppose the repetition of set/setter makes it unlikely, but it worked for me. BIFFO was dredged from who knows where – given Australia was a little England in the 50s (people even talked of England as “home”), I suppose I saw Beano then. Plenty to like, though, as others have listed. Thanks, Anto and scchua.

18. gladys @10 I used to get the Beano and the Eagle. Not sure what that says about my parents? 😉

19. Good to do an Anto puzzle without thinking “This is too hard for a cryptic”. Sadly, people then say it’s too easy for a Friday.

20. TimC @18: it says that they weren’t snobbish enough to think that the Beano was too “common”.

21. Sometimes I think we should just be grateful for the quality Guardian puzzles we are lucky enough to be given no matter on which day they appear, without complaining about whether they are “too easy” or “too hard”. Personally I found lots to like in today’s offering, and ticked at least eight clues as enjoyable. Many of these have already been mentioned above. My favourite was 14a RAVEL’S BOLERO. But the puzzle as a whole was one I had fun solving. Thanks to Anto and scchua.

22. A good standard Friday puzzle for me. As a non-UK solver, I didn’t know the BIFFO reference, but even if I had been brought up as a child in the UK, my middle class parents wouldn’t have allowed any comics in the house.

    I liked the double def + wordplay for the three-letter RAP and the reversed hidden ENTROPY which remained hidden from me, even after I bunged it in from the def.

    Thanks to Anto and scchua

23. Just one tiny comment on scchua’s customarily excellent blog: SIDEARM is not a slang word – it’s a valid term for a small ballistic weapon [my father was a small arms instructor during WW2, though I never saw him anywhere near a gun in civilian life].

24. JinA@21 A comment as to whether we found a puzzle too hard or too easy is not necessarily a complaint. Presumably the setters like to know how their puzzles are received. And if you subscribe or contribute to the Guardian then it’s not just a matter of luck or gratitude. I think you’re entitled to an opinion.

25. I think Julie @21 hits the nail on the head – quality puzzles, day after day, on a free-to-access user-friendly website. What’s not to like?
    I found this quite tough to get into – the first time through the only across clues I solved were the two three-letter ones – but it gradually came together pleasantly, with a lot of entertainment on the way. The combination of neat anagram and good surface in RAVEL’S BOLERO, HORSE TRADING, PHEROMONE and EARTHWORM was particularly pleasing, and I thought there was a cleverly subtle misdirection in CHESSMEN. DISSIDENT and EXONERATED were nicely done, too.
    Yes, I suppose 6d does work either way. Easy to miss as a setter, I think.
    Gladys @10 – Be thankful for small mercies. The Eagle (or Swift if you “weren’t old enough” for Eagle) was preferable to Children’s Newspaper.
    Thanks to Anto and scchua

26. [Re 14A: Ernest Newman (I think) said: “There is a limit to the time for which a composer can go on writing in the same dance form. This limit is reached by Ravel towards the end of La Valse, and towards the beginning of Bolero.”]

27. Gervase @23, scchua writes that ‘piece’ is a slang word for a sidearm.

28. I agree with Gervase @5.

    What day of the week is it? Did I miss the weekend?

    I liked PROVERB and DASHCAM.

    Thanks Anto and scchua

29. Hi, Gervase@23, apologies, I believe I caused a little misunderstanding. My comment was “piece, slang for …”; I meant that “piece” was slang.

30. Thanks, Conrad, we crossed.

31. Thanks scchua, I was quite fickle in my comic allegiances and couldn’t remember where in my childhood I had come across BIFFO (though my favourite bear was Barnaby who must have appeared in Pippin, for younger children). After a flying start with 1a and 1d straight in, I found this tricky but will borrow Widdersbel’s wavelength excuse rather than blame the extra tot of rum I allowed myself last night. Very enjoyable, understand the quibbles over SPIV (my LOI, needed penultimate DASHCAM to get it at all) but liked the fact that those two are slang from different generations happily coexisting here. I will plump for SIDEARM as today’s favourite, thanks Anto.

32. Conrad and scchua: Sorry for my misunderstanding (though I’m not sure I agree that ‘piece’ is slang either! 🙂 )

33. A delight from start to finish, thanks Anto and scchua.

34. This puzzle had a number of clues that you’d want to use when trying to convince a friend how wonderful cryptics can be. PROVERB was the best of the lot imo, for a couple of extra reasons that aren’t mentioned too much: the meaning of the definition word (saw) is different in the surface (contrast say, PEBBLE), and the surface is very close to something you might actually say or hear.

    BTW, 21a (musical style) reminded me of something my younger son announced when he was about eight: “the C is silent in RAP”. I still think it’s funny.

35. The top half slipped in almost like a Monday puzzle solve, but the bottom half took much longer to fathom. Though it took a while to see what might go with OFF for 2 down, even with the A in place for the middle letter of the second word. Couldn’t quite see what the word that had I parsed and written down as SIDEARM was supposed to be, as I was pronouncing it in my head as Sid-erm. A bit like thinking the word written down as Misled, perhaps could be pronounced something like Mizzled. My brain not quite clicked into gear yet today. Some nice clues nevertheless…

36. Crossbar@24. Just saying that I try to maintain an attitude of gratitude (sorry if that sounds cliched and Pollyanna-ish) while continuing to contribute via my online Guardian subscription. Excellent value every day as far as I am concerned.

37. Yes it is JinA @36. Totally agree

38. Dr. WhatsOn @34

    Agree – some lovely clues to share with friends who have yet to discover how good cryptics are

39. As Widdersbel @12 says, the construction of PROVERB comes up fairly often. But I’m a little surprised to see it worded in that way, because that was a Chifonie clue. Here’s an extract from Alan Connor’s 2020 blog after Chifonie died:

    The Guardian’s crossword editor, Hugh Stephenson, remembers Dawson fondly. “John was a delight to work with as a person and as a setter, of both cryptic and quick puzzles. His clues were always fair and elegant, and never pretentious.” When asked for his favourite of his own clues, Dawson deferred judgment and said: “Hugh Stephenson’s favourite is: ‘Saw dog wearing lead (7)’”. The answer is a synonym of “saw” as a noun, and comes from putting a dog’s name (ROVER) inside the chemical symbol for lead (Pb) for PROVERB.

40. THE ROPES is a noun phrase, and “known to experienced types” is an adjective phrase. HE is inserted in TROPES, which scchua doesn’t make clear. And how is “that, which are figuratively” a definition?

    What is the picture with DRIP FEED? Scchua’s are usually so good that I must be missing something.

    scchua, you have CD as the abbreviation for the Church of England.

    1a was probably easier for me as a non-UK solver, since although I know the British meaning of “lead” for dogs, I call it a leash, so I went straight to Pb the element.

    Hearing that Gazzh@31 had a favorite (comic book) bear made me wonder how many bears there are as comic book/cartoon figures. As far as I know there is no Disney bear. The only one I can think of is Yogi Bear, whose name non-US solvers may not register as a echoing Yogi Berra, the catcher for the New York Yankees whose gnomic utterances are part of our lexicon — “It’s deja vu all over again,” “When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” “Nobody goes there any more, it’s too crowded,” “The future ain’t what it used to be,” “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there, ” and many more. He himself commented, “I really didn’t say everything I said.”

41. I enjoyed this but found it harder/took longer over it than yesterday’s Paul; no idea why in retrospect as it all made sense when I’d finished. Some really neat clues, like SIDEARM, where, although I’d thought DEAR = expensive some time before, I couldn’t sound it out in my head to get a final answer.

    I also subscribe to the Guardian so am not getting my crosswords free.

    Thanks to scchua and Anto.

42. [Valentine @40
    Baloo the bear in The Jungle Book?]

43. Valentine@40, I’ve corrected the parsing for 16 down. My comment has the ellipsis to represent the underlined part of the clue, thus: “Defn: That, which are figuratively known to experienced types”.
    The picture is of a device for drip-feeding lubricants to machine parts.
    Blog corrected for typo with the Church abbreviation.

44. I like clues that rely on crossers. Otherwise the ‘crossword’ is just a list of cryptic puzzles.

45. Valentine @40
    Rupert Bear – Daily Express?

46. A lovely puzzle to end the week on. My favourite was Sit when I finally got it, Very nice.

    Valentine @40: Off the top of my head – Winnie the Pooh, Paddington, Rupert, SuperTed, The Care Bears, Teddy Ruxpin, Kung Fu Panda, The Hair Bear Bunch. Probably others. Misspent childhood. Loved the Yogi Berra quotes, so thanks for those.

47. Anto has risen to my upper echelon of Guardian setters (along with Picaroon and Nutmeg) because I love the style of clueing along with the readable, witty surfaces. I had many ticks which included PROVERB, RAVELS BOLERO, ADIOS, SIDEARM, DISGUISED, MUTATION, DRIP FEED, and YOGA. SPIV and BIFFO were new to me but easy to get from the crosses and wordplay. Yes, this could be considered “easy for a Friday” but to paraphrase Eileen “easy can also be good.” Thanks to both.

48. Valentine@40 and MarkN@46 Do bears that started off in books count as cartoon bears? I’m thinking of Winnie-the Pooh, Paddington, Baloo and possibly some of the others you mention that I’m less familiar with.

49. We Bare Bears? (Cartoon Network)

    I was so made up to finish a Friday for the second time ever and then rather deflated when I came here and saw everyone else found it easy too. RAVELS BOLERO was my FOI and probably my favourite. BIFFO took me back!

50. James @39 – thanks for the citation. I think I first came across the clue mentioned by D.Manley in the Chambers Crossword Manual but I couldn’t remember the originator. I’m not surprised so see so many people mentioning it as a favourite – it’s a bona fide classic, a superb clue – but I am slightly surprised that so few have recognised it.

    That said, I’m sure Anto came up with it himself – it’s the nature of cryptic crosswords that there are very few genuinely original ideas, it’s always likely that some other setter had the same idea before you, and many chestnuts are chestnuts precisely because the wordplay readily presents itself to the setter in that form. I’m certainly not accusing Anto of plagiarism. (I’d be on thin ice if I did that, given the number of chestnuts that appear in my own efforts at clue-writing.)

51. Crossbar @48: I think Winnie the Pooh and Paddington both originating in illustrated books makes them relevant examples. Not necessarily comic, and not exactly cartoon, perhaps, but everyone’s mental image is defined by the drawings, I would suggest.

52. Yes PROVERB, EXONERATED and CHESSMEN were lovely clues among others. Great surfaces made this a quite slippery puzzle. Thanks Anto and scchua.

53. MarkN @51 One of my pet hates is the Disney version of Winnie-the-Pooh, compared to the original brilliant E H Shepard drawings. I do like the Paddington films though, especially Paddington 2. Not exactly cartoon though, is it?

54. [Crossbar @53
    There was a cartoon version of Paddington on the BBC some time ago. I do agree, though, that Paddington 2 is the best film so far this century!]

55. Widdersbel @50
    A quick search on here shows:
    Radian, Independent 9,885: Saw dog restrained by lead
    and, rather perversely if you ask me:
    Knut, Independent 10,744: Saw dog biting lead
    What surprises me is not that Anto came up with it, but that it’s sitting there at the top of a Guardian puzzle, when it’s such a famous clue known to be written by someone else. If it were my puzzle, I’d have wanted the editor to give me a nudge.

56. [muffin@54 The Beeb Paddington cartoon has passed me by. Probably just as well. 😀 ]

57. muffin@42, BenW@45, MarkN@46 & 51, Crossbar@48, WhiteDevil@49

    I was thinking only of bears who originated as cartoon characters, like Yogi and the new to me Biffo, not ones who began in books like Pooh or Paddington, or as cards and merchandise like the Care Bears. (I never quite knew who they were till now when I had to look them up.) Teddy Ruxpin is an animatronic toy. I also don’t count illustrations as cartoons, even though Disney’s Pooh characters are obviously influenced by the Shepard illustrations. I don’t know that the original Jungle Book illustrations are as famous, I don’t think my childhood copy had any that have become iconic. (Maybe they are, I’m just pleading ignorance.)

    I should also have said that I didn’t know of any American cartoon bears, Biffo being a good example of British ones I’d never heard of. So are Rupert and SuperTed, it seems. But Kung Fu Panda is American, though I could argue that pandas aren’t bears, they just look like them, and the Hair Bear Bunch are American too and are actually bears, as are We Bare Bears. I’ve never heard of any of them.

    Nobody has mentioned the Berenstain Bears, who are in a series of American picture books for small children and who are also not cartoon characters.

    I wasn’t claiming that there weren’t any other cartoon bears, just that Biffo made me wonder whether there were more of them. Crossbar, I didn’t mention any other bears, that was MarkN and others.

    I can’t bear any more of this.

58. There is a tendency among some commenters here to jump in and say outright that such-and-such is wrong, or something in a clue doesn’t work, or “I do not like clues where crossers are required”. It’s getting like a Mr Grumpy competition some days. I’m with Julie @21. Please show a little appreciation or gratitude. If you’ve got something to bring up, please do it in a way that doesn’t sound like only you are right and all the world is against you. This should be a place for sharing thoughts, ideas and funny things that occurred to you while solving.

    Anyway, I enjoyed this very accessible crossword from Anto. Thanks to setter and blogger, and all their loved ones and dogs. Hugs and kisses. XXX

59. God bless you Anto. Your lovely, elegant crossword was a pleasure to solve. And thank you scchua for your blog.

60. Valentine@57: Maybe you should be more rigorous on what you were looking when you suggest the question, rather than after, otherwise people might feel like they’ve wasted their time, or even been rebuked for replying to you, and might consider not bothering in future.

61. I’m very late to the party today – busy all morning, out all afternoon then daughter’s regular post-work get-together (with wine).

    As one of Anton’s (very early Quiptic) critics, I felt I had to express my appreciation of this excellent puzzle – his/her best so far, I think.

    Excellent anagrams RAVEL’S BOLERO, HORSE TRADING, PHERONOME, DISGUISED. Other ticks for CHESSMEN, MUTATION and DRIP FEED.
    Tank @44 – totally agree

    I have skimmed through the comments but please forgive me for any repetitions – which I know can be irritating – just to mention:
    PROVERB is a chestnut but a lovely one to bear repeating for newcomers – thanks to James @39 for the link.

    BenW @45 – If you can believe it, I used to cut out the daily cartoons, colour them in and stick them in a scrapbook! (I’ve never met ‘pell mell’ anywhere else . 😉 )

    And, of course, I’m in total agreement with JinA and sheffield hatter.

62. Widdersbel and James, passim: PROVERB has been universally admired because it is such a perfect clue. I don’t recall ever seeing it before, but that may be a defective memory, or simply that you tackle far more puzzles than I do!

63. When you see ‘saw’, ‘dog’ and ‘lead’ in a clue, you can never fail to get PROVERB if you are an experienced solver. I guess TREASON is another chestnut. Gladys @ 10, I used to be an avid reader of Beano in the seventies here in Kenya so it was a write- in for me.

64. Eileen@61 as usual you are quite right – for everyone who is meeting an old friend for the umpteenth time there are many (like me, I think, today) who are meeting PROVERB for the first time and loving it – it’s like a DJ playing a 60s/70s classic on the radio, there will always be some people who are hearing it for the first time and subsequently go off on a journey of discovery.
    [Valentine, sorry if I kicked off a stream of ursine digression but thanks for reminding me of Yogi Berra who features heavily in my Dictionary of Quotations which is a favourite tome. And anyone who thinks today’s kids programmes are too soft should check out Canadian computer animated cartoon “Grizzy and the Lemmings” for some good old slapstick violence in the grand tradition of Roadrunner, Tom and Jerry etc.]

65. PROVERB is an absolute chestnut, and while it is a delightful clue, it is simply not original, and no editor should let it through (it is of course possible the setter devised it entirely unassisted – but it’s surely part of an editor’s job to weed out the already-taken clues).

    VIPS/SPIV could have also done with a rewrite so it could be reliably known without crossers which was the answer.

    Other than those (quite important!) complaints, I enjoyed this a lot.

    Thanks Anto & scchua.

66. To all who added bears and bear thoughts to my original question — thank you for enriching the topic and opening me to far more children’s entertainment than I’d known. I probably should have thought more about my original statement to make it more precise — after all, in the words of Yogi Berra, “Ninety percent of the game is half mental.”

67. Re Gladys @20. I’m surprised anyone would imagine the Beano as “common”. It’s a comic!
    Thanks both

68. I looked all through the paper for the April 1st spoof and here it was all along . “Cryptic” Crossword , very droll.

69. [Roz @68 Didn’t you see the piece about giving the Queen a superyacht confiscated from an oligarch, as a replacement for The Royal Yacht Britannia? 😀 ]

70. I agree with James and others that PROVERB at 1a is a bit rum precisely because it’s the editor’s favourite Chifonie clue.
    The editor himself said so in his 2006 blog; it was quoted in Alan Connor’s crossword guide to chemical symbols; Chifonie mentioned it in a Guardian interview; and, as James said, it was cited again in the Guardian blog’s tribute to Chifonie.
    Either the editor didn’t see it, or didn’t recognise it, or thought it was okay to have Chifonie’s exact wording. (Maybe he changed Anto’s original clue.)

71. What a load of old tosh about PROVERB. These crosswords aren’t written for the sole delectation of solvers/contributors to 225, y’know. I suspect that for the majority of ALL solvers, this was a first. It was for me as a ‘part-timer’, both solver and 225 follower.

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