Guardian Cryptic 28,726 by Paul

80 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,726 by Paul”

1. Goodness, this blog is up bright and early!

   Excellent blog for a super puzzle – thanks, both.

   Defeated by 19 just when I thought I had it beat.

   Bah!

2. After an excellent trifecta of Brummie/Picaroon/Fed I found this crossword to be a bit of a slog. I don’t doubt its cleverness but I found myself guessing more solutions than I was parsing. I finally gave up and revealed the last few. Still I found clues to like — CHURCHILL, BESEECH, RIYADH, and NUDISTS — and one that summed up the exercise for me — RECONDITE. Thanks to both.

3. A response to the tragedy in Ukraine?

   As well as the RUSSIA quote from CHURCHILL, lots of references to war, soldiers, misery at the front, the MESS emerging from the middle of the SOMME.

   12a – “one suddenly attacking country” – surely can’t be coincidental? (the “verbal” assault, declaring essentially that Ukraine had no right to exist, preceded the physical one)

   21d – “endless beauty in cojones – for those showing them?” – perhaps a tribute to those fighting back.

   And at the end – many would BESEECH the “peculiar old leader” to REVERSE – albeit without much hope.

   Thanks Paul and PeterO.

4. Not my favourite puzzle despite getting 20 quickly. Cross references leave me cold I’m afraid. Even when they aren’t :). Was defeated by first word of 16a – not heard of this garment, wordplay was fair though.

5. Spot on essexboy @3.
   It didn’t help not being able to spell RIYADH, and I was one PeterO trying to work out how the answer to 24 across fit into the wordplay for HARBOUR.
   Favourites were the long Churchill qhote and ETON MESS.

6. Brilliant.

   Thanks Paul and PeterO

7. I always enjoy unravelling a Paul but spoilt for me this morning by a spoiler in the Guardian comments just below the puzzle which I saw by accident. Grrrrr. Why do people do that?

8. 18 brought a smile to my face – years ago I taught my young daughter that word. That night she put a fork up to her nose, and sung, to the tune of that lindisfarne song “snot on the tine, it’s all mine, all mine…”

9. [Lovely story, ANGELA ALMOND@8. Made me smile.]
   Thanks to Paul and PeterO. A good solve for me especially when I manage to dredge up that quote from the dark recesses once I saw some crossers for MYSTERY in 11a. I’d forgotten it was CHURCHILL and RUSSIA so was pleased to get them then, also with the aid of crossers. ETON MESS at 10,27a was my favourite (cf Tim C@5) [I have been making a variation with cherries, aperol and meringue nests recently].

10. [P.S. I also thought CAPRI PANTS (16a,3d) was cleverly linked to EPITAPH at 4d.]

11. I got the long one early, although I had to look up the exact quotation as I just had vague memories of a riddle inside a mystery inside an enigma. That should have given me RUSSIA and CHURCHILL faster than they did (I realised the numbers in the clue must refer to those names, but doing this on my phone on the Guardian app in the wee small hours doesn’t help referring back and forth quickly).

    I too thought, like essexboy @3, that this was a reference to current events. NUDISTS felt like a Pauline clue and I really liked ETON MESS. I parsed it all, but there was a lot of bung in and parse later.

    Thank you to PeterO and Paul.

12. Sometimes, Paul’s undoubted skill with wordplay is let down by some weak surfaces. Today, it isn’t. A brilliantly constructed puzzle, with a bit of a theme that is all the better for not being rammed down the solver’s throat.
    Thanks, both.

13. I enjoyed this although the long quote was fairly obvious from the clue. It just took me a while to remember the correct phrasing. (I suspect we’ll see some complaints about how quickly this opened up the rest of the crossword but it didn’t worry me.) I was approaching the finish thinking we didn’t have Paul’s usual bit of smut but then I got 21 dn. Phew!!
    Thanks Paul and PeterO.

14. Excellent!

15. I, too, thought I had never heard of CAPRI PANTS, but I see Paul had them in a puzzle in 2014.

    ETON MESS my fave, too.

    Thanks Paul and Peter)

16. Loved this. I followed my usual practice of solving all the clues in order so was getting slightly irritated by all the references to 20d – until I finally reached it. Then I had to laugh. Very Paul. Also enjoyed the way the double envelope theme ran through several other clues, very clever. Had another laugh when I finally cracked my LOI – CAPRI PANTS – for the “soldiers’ epitaph”.

    JerryG @13 – what surprised me was how little of the rest of the grid it opened up. It was certainly a useful foothold but no more than that.

    Thanks for an exemplary blog as ever, PeterO.

17. Funny how certain words seem to appear like a rash in crosswords and then disappear. Tbf, I’m doing quite a few puzzles at the moment but I’ve encountered lots of NUDISTS. And, when, you look at them, their nuts do rather jump out and beg to be clued.

    Not a huge amount to add to what’s already been said. A couple of the non-themers appealed to me – RECONDITE, CALIBRATED and the excellent RIYADH. I had the same struggle to arrive at DREAMLAND as PJ @1 by the sounds of it and I do not think I would have made the jump in 5ac from ‘well’ to ‘OH’ in a month of Sundays.

    Thanks Paul and PeterO

18. Yep, the y of Riyadh plus the enumeration pretty much did the long one, but one or two others the aging grey cells biffed. E.g. cap rip ants … very cute (and nho the garment). And for some reason the cooking liquid took ages to bubble up. 5ac always reminds me of what Marie Antoinette probably didn’t say: Il n’y a pas de pain? Qu’ils mange des brioches (approx). Fun puzzle, ta PnP.

19. I stumbled over what might have been deliberate misdirections. HEDGE = question (?), so where does the ROW come in? PARADISE Lost originally looks like a cue for an anagram. And spent ages wondering how hold was a definition for harbour, until I realised I was unfairly harbouring a grievance. Etc etc. Got there in the end, though I failed to parse ON THE NAIL or spot the DISh in NUDISTS. Thanks Paul and PeterO

20. Didn’t get the long wordy clue by solving CHURCHILL at first, but with a shrug of the shoulders thought I might as well see how much of the rest of the crossword I could solve to get a few crossers in place to help. However, first one in was AGARIC, which gave me the G of what I thought could be ENIGMA, and it all fell into place then. However, didn’t know BALTI PANTS, and didn’t quite see ON THE NAIL answering 7d, so strictly a non finish but lots of fun along the way, including the typical unashamed Paulism involved with the NUDISTS…

21. Indeed…CAPRI PANTS, what was I thinking of…the unpleasant aftermath of an Indian takeaway, perhaps!

22. Having looked up the pants, I think we call them pedal pushers, but that’d be pretty ancientspeak. And had forgotten about the origin of the long one … well threaded together, essexboy @3.

23. … qu’ils mangent…

24. Really enjoyed that. Had heard of the long phrase, but only roughly remembered it and didn’t know it was Churchill. Decided to try to work it out from crossers rather than Google it, and the puzzle was all the more enjoyable for that.

    Worth it for the LOL moments of RUSSIA and RIP ANTS alone.

25. I managed to get RUSSIA and CHURCHILL at the start, which then made the long one obvious from the enumeration.

    What we normally call the Battle of the Somme (in 1916) is sometimes called the First Battle of the Somme, with the second taking place in 1918. 25d SOMME could therefore be an &lit or clue-as-definition.

    Many thanks Paul and PeterO.

26. Hard work, and getting the long one didn’t unlock much, as I couldn’t remember offhand who said it or about which country, or even (at first) what the second word was. I think my favourite clues were the bad hair day and the NUDISTS. Never managed to parse BACHELOR PARTY or CAPRI PANTS, and by the time I finally sorted out DREAMLAND I had had quite enough, thank you.

    I can just about equate pap with gibberish, but how does determined=calibrated?

27. I have got to get some of those Balti Pants Ronald@20!! Widdersbel@16, I think I was assuming that if you got the quote then 12 and 14ac were solved and by that stage, there was an awful lot of ink on the grid!

28. Me @25: … actually I think a semi &lit or clue-as-definition, as “battle” isn’t part of the wordplay.

29. gladys @26, Chambers has calibrate as “to determine the diameter of a gun barrel or tube; to determine true values by comparison with an accurate standard”.

30. gladys @26: according to online Chambers, both determine and calibrate can mean quantify .

31. The puzzle was clever. essexboy is perceptive, but this morning I was neither, even after getting the long one.

32. Quite an achievement getting that wonderful phrase into a 15sq grid
    Only one reservation-Somme-He wasnt exactly on top form in those days
    But a fine puzzle-he can still produce them
    Thanks all.

33. Another tough one from Paul. I needed help from google for the Churchill quote: “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.” I found it via google by doing a search on the words ‘saying riddle russia ‘ having guessed the word riddle. Had never heard this “famous quote” before.

    Failed 5ac, 16ac, 8d.

    Did not parse 7d.

    New: AGARIC.

    Thanks, both.

34. Lots to enjoy. 1st in was Riyadh and the “the” of 7d which gave me mystery and opened it all up. I liked the interconnectedness of clues – although was misled for ages about “24” in 8d

35. Paul has his fans but I am not among them and this puzzle indicates some of the reasons why. The mandatory bit of smut,the inter-connecting clues. The long one seemed to me to need an extra element to suggest context. But we can now get back to Brendan, Philistine, Picaroon and other aces. Somme feeble clue.

36. When I first started this morning I was convinced I would be defeated but it’s Paul and his genius is that you know that if you persevere you will get there. A superb offering from a brilliant setter. Thanks all

37. I also had never heard of the quote.

    In general today I used word finder way too much to find the answer and then tried to parse it – not always successfully.

    It wasn’t till near the end that I realised that many of the clues involved putting one word inside another and sometimes then in another – which helped me parse a few.

    I find that the kind of clue where you have to find alternative words for the words in the clue and then fit them together to get the answer the most difficult. So e.g. for RECONDITE (which I did manage to parse) you have to find another word for each of “trick”, “journalist” and “solemn observance” to solve the clue – this one was easier than some of the others as I am used to “ed” for journalist and “con” for trick but in general I find this type of clue the hardest.

    Thanks to Paul and PeterO

38. Gladys @26 – we have to calibrate all the equipment before using it – like recalibrating scales to determine zero with a bowl on the platform?

    Just went to check because I was interested and I didn’t have a problem with Capri Pants as it’s used to describe cropped trousers occasionally, interchangeably with pedal pushers. It’s not really the current term as that tends to be cropped trousers, but checking, Capri Pants date from 1948 and Pedal Pushers from a century before when in the 1840s knickerbockers used for sporting activities were nicknamed pedal pushers from their use in women’s cycling. Old fashion histories chat about pedal pushers in the 1940s and 1950s and again when revived in the 1980s (40s revival), Capri pants tend to be more 50s and 60s – think Audrey Hepburn – but were one of the patterns set on series three of the Great British Sewing Bee in 2015, and in that case, not necessarily cropped and called Casual Trousers in my copies of the book and patterns.

39. After the past three days, this was tough going. Perhaps the sombre theme made a difference. Also having just the one plain anagram didn’t help (Fed gave us zero yesterday).

    For ages I wondered what co-jones (as I pronounced it) could mean. I then looked it up and saw the pronunciation! This was a regular in US TV/films but I’d never seen it written down, only spoken.

    I got the Churchill quote early (which I didn’t know was his) but, as Widdersbel@16 said, I didn’t find this opened up the grid as much as I had hoped. There were, however, many good clues, which have already been pointed out.

    Thanks Paul for the challenging end to the week and PeterO for helping parse PAP, OH and TINE.

40. Fiona Anne@37 – I’m the same with the construct-answer-out-of-synonyms-for-some-words-here clues (rolls off the tongue!). And the more synonyms the harder the clue. Even worse is when other tricks I don’t know are used (like the 24 one). Usually I can parse them in retrospect but I often end up solving based on definition and crossers. Sometimes, I work out one of the synonyms and that gives me just enough of a foothold to get the answer. All part of improving…

41. As ever with Paul a mixture of guesses, the odd clue solved from the wordplay and luck. No fun for me, a shame after an excellent solving week . When you think the corner has been finally turned, there is another one round the corner…

42. Just to add, thanks Peter for the hints, once explained, all becomes clear, but life is a bit like that, isn’t it…

43. I knew the quote so 20 was my first one in, which obviously helped a lot. Along with others, it’s a reference to the current invasion.

    Brilliantly constructed and clued by Paul, I thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish. 20 etc was the clear highlight. Other favourites were BRIOCHE, CHURCHILL, CAPRI PANTS and DREAMLAND (LOI)

    Thanks Paul and PeterO

44. I usually come on here to praise the setter and thank the author of the blog, so it only seems fair to chip in when I think little of the crossword. Simply not enjoyable.

45. Who says “ON TAIL”?

    PeterO, thanks for parsing BACHELOR PARTY.

    I think of RECONDITE as “abstruse” rather than “puzzling.”

    I like puzzles with multi-part answers, as Araucaria used to create in the 80’s. I think it was the reinserted “puzzle” that clued me in, though not at first. Thanks for the fun, Paul, and for the good blog, PeterO.

46. I found that tough, for similar reasons to Fiona Anne.

    My way in was to guess synonyms of puzzle and check them. It was obvious how the clue worked, but I didn’t remember the quote.

    ETON MESS eventually came to mind with a triumphant groan.

47. Got very few at first and was fearing a massive non-completion, but CHURCHILL and RUSSIA led to the long quote and away we went!

    Given the length of the pipeline we are led to believe the editor has, I wonder if this was written well before the current events started. Because of the heavy emphasis on nesting in the puzzle, it would be perfectly understandable if it was. It would also be understandable if it wasn’t!

48. Thanks for the blog, a sombre theme well summarised by MrEssexboy @ 3 , not quite convinced it is meant to be topical, maybe just using the quote to link with clues of three inside each other.
    Not really a fan of jumping around the numbers but this was worth it for the brilliant clues , especially after the Roger Bannister puzzle last Friday.
    Fly AGARIC is the most famous variety, bright red with white spots, the one the pixies always sit on. Very hallucinogenic but also quite poisonous.

49. Various helpful people@various places: I’m happy that you can calibrate your scales, gun barrels etc. to determine their accuracy – but can you determine your scales? Doesn’t work for me, but if the Holy Book says they are synonyms I will say no more.

50. Roz@48 Roger Bannister?

51. Far to obscure for me and cross reference are tiresome and lazy it was emperors new clothes for me, its Paul it must be good, its not

52. Thank you PeterO as like Valentine I couldn’t parse most of BACHELOR PARTY (and also raised an eyebrow at ON TAIL, maybe we have to split it so that ON = at or at the (?) and TAIL = back, still not fully convinced).
    I am aligned with the many who found that knowledge of the quotation, its source and subject did not lead to a swift resolution, a good thing I think.
    Thank you Shanne for the fashion background, also essexboy, Dr Whatson and Roz for adding to my enjoyment by pointing out various connections that I had overlooked, and thanks Paul for another fine challenge.

53. No problem parsing ON THE NAIL but I’ve never heard it used in that sense – I thought it meant accurate? The long one must rank as one of the hardest ever to do on a mobile phone! In the plus side it got me or of bed to fetch the paper 🙂

54. Bodycheetah@53 now I think about it I agree (about both your points but especially ON THE NAIL)!

55. Valentine @50: at a guess, I’d say the 4 minute has something to do with it. Mile, probably less so. 😉

56. Sorry Dr.WhatsOn@47, when I started my post I had not seen yours, I type slowly and I was distracted, I have said more or less the same thing.
    Gladys @49 we calibrate temperature scales and other things by determining fixed points using accurate standard values.
    Valentine@50 this is a cryptic crossword site and Roger Bannister is rather famous. It is one step up from a soft-boiled egg puzzle.

57. ON THE NAIL does not mean ‘ [at] this minute.’ In terms of payment it means ‘immediately’ a price is agreed, whether in the past, present or future. ‘At once’ might have been an acceptable definition. The phrase ON TAIL does not exist in English. Poor clue in every respect.

58. Hi Crossbencher @57 – thanks for mentioning that.

    There’s more information here

59. Try here!
    https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-nails-bristol-england

60. As Gazzh@52 says, ON TAIL is not being used as a phrase. ON=AT TAIL= THE BACK , no problem.

61. PDP11 @40

    Yes I do that too (work out one of the synonyms to get a foothold) all part of learning as you say

62. [Roz@ 56: “Soft-boiled egg puzzle?” Would that be one you solve in three minutes?]

63. [Tony Santucci @62: in which case, this is a typical Paulian “Scrambled-egg puzzle” and we’ll probably be getting a Maskerade “Runny-egg puzzle” for Easter; I tend to runny away from most puzzles with Special Instructions 😀 ]

64. [ Yes Tony @62, it is about the limit for puzzles of this size if you write in the answers , very rare really even with the modern Guardian setters. ]

65. We generally approach Fridays wuth some trepidation but enjoyed today’s challenge.
    Dreamland was a guess – it wouldn’t be Paradise living in mine tbh.
    Reading the comments here when we’ve done what we can is a reward to look forward to, thanks all.

66. [PostMark @63: Yes, “special instruction” puzzles can be more trouble than they’re worth but I always attempt crosswords by Maskarade/Gozo due to their high level of craftsmanship. I seldom complete them but I feel rewarded nonetheless.]

67. Is Russian there to make us think of Russian dolls, given the fact that so many clues are nested?

68. [ The large grids can be a bit of a chore just from the sheer amount of clues but the last couple from Maskarade have been really good. The special instructions usually just mean some clues have no definition. I actually like this if the clues work well and as Tony says, a high level of craftsmanship, ]

69. Postmark @63 I feel the same about the “specials” – I’ve been meaning to try Maskarade’s approach at work: “some of this software is incomplete …” 🙂

70. CAPRI PANTS are womenswear I see. Don’t remember hearing that before. That defeated me as did DREAMLAND. I was trying for anagram of paradise and L which fitted the crossers I had…unfortunately.
    Thanks Paul and Peter

71. To my mind crosswords are recreational. References to Russia in one with the current horrific situation in Ukraine somehow don’t seem appropriate, regardless of how good the clueing, or when it was set.

72. Thanks Paul and PeterO
    I was a bit cross at first. FOI was RUSSIA, which immediately gave me the long one from the enumeration, and then CHRUCHILL, so I felt that I had solved about half of the puzzle in under a minute. Fortunately the rest didn’t yield as easily…

73. Crossbar @71
    Well said! I agree with you. I don’t think this would have appeared in the Independent, which has an active crossword editor and final proof solver, and probably not in the FT. Unfortunately the Guardian appears to lack an editor that performs this function.

74. Bless you, Crossbar @71 – I’ve spent the whole day feeling alienated.

75. Thank you, Gaufrid – we just crossed.

76. Eileen @74 – I’m sorry you felt that way. I didn’t associate this puzzle with the current situation – for me its brilliance was in the theme of multiple envelopes. But Gaufrid makes a fair point – a more sensitive editor might have delayed publication of this one for another time.

77. Crossbar, Eileen and Gaufrid. I voiced my unease at a much more explicitly themed Hypnos crossword in the Independent. https://www.fifteensquared.net/2022/03/22/independent-11057-hypnos/ There have been a number of unfortunate coincidental references across both Guardian and Independent over the last month.

78. I was quite pleased to solve the long one quite quickly, and I remember thinking it would open things up. But I was definitely not on this setter’s wavelength today: ‘top on which written soldiers’ epitaph’ for CAP RIP ANTS? ‘Cold cuts well’ for OCH? ‘Endless beauty’ for DIS? ‘This minute’ for ON THE NAIL?

    I don’t know about Roger Bannister or a soft boiled egg, but I put a nut roast in on a low heat several hours ago and it’s still not done.

79. I wonder if peculiar in 14 also has the meaning of a drunk? It was a reasonably common expression to describe a drunk as being peculiar in my youth. (I often wonder if the very tasty beer old peculiar referenced this). As soon as i saw peculiar old leader churchill jumped to mind….

80. I came to this rather late (afraid I often skip “Paul”s) – but was prompted by a discussion going on on MyCrossword – re ‘Widdersbel’s excellent contribution at #400.

    The discussion was, is a non-word (or should that be “nonce-word”?) valid in a clue’s surface (see 19a in Widdersbel’s)? I queried this, but others insist it’s OK. So I concur.

    Talking of nonce-words, would such a beast be accepted if it occurs in Finnegan’s Wake? Plenty of fertile hunting-ground for cruciverbalists there – if you’re so minded!

    Anyway, Paul’s 20d etc. etc. is excellent – although I’d only a faint recollection of the quote, and didn’t know it was one of Churchill’s. I’m a bit doubtful of some of the others – but 10a/27a perhaps my fave – another ‘reverse anag’.

    LOI for me is CAPRI PANTS – afraid that phrase had passed me by. Wiki came to the rescue!

    Roz@48: “Agaric” is sometimes used as a generic word for any type of mushroom of the ‘cap-on-top-gills-underneath’ type. But the Latin name for the (cheapest) sort you see in the supermarket is Agaricus bisporus – and there are other wild species of Agaricus of which some are edible, some poisonous. The ‘Fly Agaric’ (Amanita muscaria) doesn’t belong to that genus – so it’s perhaps a misnomer.

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