The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28892.
As usual, I started off looking at the first clue, and when that yielded easily, continued in order, filling most of the top half before pausing for breath. The bottom half took somewhat longer, and then finally I came to 23D, announcing the obvious theme. In the meantime, I had noted all sorts of wisps of themes, including the device of first-and-last letters of words. That last I struck me at the time as too repetitive (there are 4 of them, plus one each of first and last separately) , but, as a whole, the puzzle was a joy.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | MAJORCA |
Predicament about marine predator in holiday resort (7)
|
| A charade of MAJ, a reversal (‘about’) of JAM (‘predicament’) plus ORCA (‘marine predator’). | ||
| 8 | BOURBON |
Backing rich man with problem round old French house (7)
|
| A reversal (‘backing’) of NOB (‘rich man’) plus ROUB, an envelope (’round’) of O 9’old’) in RUB (“Ay, there’s the rub”, ‘problem’). | ||
| 9 | STAY |
What remainers do, eg accepting Brexit ultimately (4)
|
| An envelope (‘accepting’) of T (‘BrexiT ultimately’) in SAY (‘eg’). | ||
| 10 | UNCAREFUL |
Cavalier and knight stopping a flu cure working (9)
|
| An anagram (‘working’) of N (chess notation, ‘knight’) plus ‘a flu cure’. | ||
| 12 | CLONE |
Dolly, perhaps, was 151? (5)
|
| A charade, requiring a little mathematics à la Qaos: 151 = 150 + 1; then a charade of CL (150) plus ONE (1). The Dolly in question was a sheep. | ||
| 13 | AUDIENCE |
One concealing fancy undies, mostly, in public (8)
|
| An envelope (‘concealing’) of UDIEN, an anagram (‘fancy’) of ‘undie[s]’ minus the last letter (‘mostly’) in ACE (‘one’). | ||
| 15 | FURY |
Boxer, you heard, punching cook (4)
|
| An envelope (‘punching’) of U (‘you heard’) in FRY (‘cook), for Tyson Luke FURY, British heavyweight boxer. | ||
| 16 | BULGE |
Salient, good point following a lot of rubbish (5)
|
| A charade of BUL[l] (‘rubbish’) minus the last letter (‘a lot of’) plus G (‘good’) plus E (‘point’ of the compass). I think of ‘salient’ as angular, but BULGE as rounded, but they are both prominences. | ||
| 17 | MIEN |
What’s said to be average appearance (4)
|
| Sounds like (‘what’s said’) MEAN (‘average’, near enough). | ||
| 18 | LETS DO IT |
A number on Broadway perform in new titles (4,2,2)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of DO (‘perform’) in LETSIT, an anagram (‘new’) of ‘titles’, for the Cole Porter standard, first introduced in the musical Paris. | ||
| 20 | BRACE |
Pair maybe 200 metres beyond Belgium’s capital (5)
|
| A charade of B (‘Belgium’s capital’) plus RACE (‘maybe 200 metres’, a dash). | ||
| 21 | STRANGERS |
Newcomers in clothing of Stockport FC (9)
|
| A charade of ST (‘clothing of StockporT‘) plus RANGERS (Scottish ‘FC’). | ||
| 22 | LIMP |
Record-breaking compiler’s very relaxed (4)
|
| An envelope (-‘breaking’) of I’M (‘compiler’s’) in LP (‘record’-). | ||
| 24 | VERMEER |
Artist‘s sudden change of direction, absorbing right tips from Magritte (7)
|
| An envelope (‘absorbing’) of R (‘right’) plus ME (‘tips from MagrittE‘) in VEER (‘sudden change of direction’). | ||
| 25 | SUZANNE |
A pair of names adopted by Zeus? Oddly, this one’s for a girl (7)
|
| An envelope (‘adopted by’) of ‘a’ plus NN (‘pair of names’) in SUZE, an anagram (‘oddly’) of ‘Zeus’. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TART |
Nothing’s missed by card sharp (4)
|
| A subtraction: TAR[o]T (‘card’) minus O (‘nothing’s missed’). | ||
| 2 | ROLY-POLY |
Stout men put up walls of lovely old college (4-4)
|
| A charade of RO, a reversal (‘put up’ in a down light) of OR (military ‘men’) plus LY (‘walls of LovelY‘) plus POLY (polytechnic, ‘old college’). | ||
| 3 | SCOUSE |
Second track Queen’s put out — it’s like the Beatles (6)
|
| A charade of S (‘second’) plus COU[r]SE (‘track’) minus R (Regina, :Queen’s put out’). Very clever. | ||
| 4 | PORRIDGE |
What convicts do half-heartedly, wanting cash by bank (8)
|
| A charade of PO[o]R (‘wanting cash’) minus one interior O (‘half-heartedly’) plus RIDGE (‘bank’). | ||
| 5 | TRIFLE |
Right back providing extremely loose play (6)
|
| A charade of TR, a reversal (‘back’) of RT (‘right’) plus IF (‘providing’) plus LE (‘extremely LoosE‘). ‘Play’ as a verb. | ||
| 6 | FOOL |
Charlie following ladies around (4)
|
| A charade of F (‘following’) plus OOL, a reversal (‘around’) of LOO (‘ladies’, an indication by example). | ||
| 11 | CHARLOTTE |
Welsh Church‘s plan to secure good deal on energy (9)
|
| A charade of CHARLOTT, an envelope (‘to secure’) of LOT in CHART (‘plan’); plus E (‘energy’). for singer CHARLOTTE Church. | ||
| 12 | COUPE |
British racer keeping ahead in this kind of car (5)
|
| An envelope (‘keeping’) of UP (‘ahead’) in COE (Sebastian, ‘British racer’). | ||
| 14 | CREPE |
Cloth seller plugging jacket of cashmere (5)
|
| An envelope (‘plugging’) of REP (‘seller’) in CE (‘jacket of CashmerE‘). | ||
| 16 | BROWNIES |
Guides have cheese sandwiches with hint of salsa (8)
|
| An envelope (‘sandwiches’) of OWN (‘have’) in BRIE (‘cheese’) plus S (‘hint of Salsa’). | ||
| 17 | MEAT LOAF |
Satisfied, engaging a lounge singer (4,4)
|
| A charade of MEAT, an envelope (‘engaging’) of ‘a’ in MET (‘satisfied’); plus LOAF (‘lounge’), for the stage name of Michael Lee Aday. | ||
| 19 | SHRIMP |
Model Jean, losing weight, is a diminutive sort (6)
|
| A subtraction: SHRIMP[ton] (‘model Jean’) minus TON (‘losing weight’!). | ||
| 20 | BISQUE |
Family member knocked over that Parisian porcelain (6)
|
| A charade of BIS, a reversal (‘knocked over’) of SIB (sibling, ‘family member’) plus QUE (‘that Parisian’). | ||
| 21 | STEW |
Moderate old Conservatives, after revolution, in nervy state (4)
|
| A reversal (‘after revolution’) of WETS (‘moderate old Conservatives’ under Margaret Thatcher). | ||
| 23 | MENU |
The two of us, informally, showing where all other down answers may be found (4)
|
| ME ‘N’ U (me and you, ‘the two of us, informally’), indicating that all the other down answers are food items. |
I felt myself getting gradually hungrier as I completed this. Mind you, there were a few rather uncommon ones, such as SCOUSE (all too obscure for me, but I found it eventually), COUPE & CHARLOTTE. Nor had I heard of Rangers football club, Jean Shrimpton, or Tyson Fury. “F” for “following” in 6d was a bit odd, although I’m sure someone will tell me why it’s legit. I coudn’t parse ROLY-POLY, as I got stuck on the OR and the POLY. Uncareful? What’s wrong with “careless”? All right, I suppose they’re not exactly the same. I chuckled at the LP in 22a, as I always do. Despite vinyl’s renaissance, would anyone under the age of sixty know that it’s a record? One of cryptic crosswords’ quaint anachronisms.
Despite my litany of grumbles, I enjoyed this, as I usually do with Picaroon’s. Thank you, and thank you PeterO.
Great puzzle. The theme was the icing on the cake!
The theme was actually very cleverly done, since none of the definitions in the down clues themselves were for the “menu” sense of the words. Talking of which, BOURBON could also have qualified.
Some fine surfaces; particularly liked MAJORCA, MIEN, SCOUSE, TART, almost all the downs in fact.
Tx P&P
Geoff Down Under @1
F for following is one to note, as it comes up occasionally in crosswords; it is used to indicate a following line or page in a book, and helps to keep footnotes as short as possible. It has a plural ff.
Know of Mike Tyson but not Tyson Fury; otoh The Shrimp was my era [by ’67, London was full of barely-there skirts, and toe flowers. Young ginf’s eyes were on stalks!]. Forgot about Charlotte Church, so a bung, but loved it and all the foods. Have met scouse stew before (were scousers named for it or vv?), but what about coupe? Lots of fun, ta PnP.
Once I got 23d, most of this fell out fairly quickly. I couldn’t parse COUPE, and I don’t really see what it has to do with the theme, either.
Greg @ 5, a coupe, I came to discover is “a dessert of fruit and ice cream, usually served in a glass goblet” (Collins)
Oh, right, ta for that, GDU@6 … a relation of the parfait maybe…
While enjoying clues like MAJORCA, FURY, ROLY-POLY, and COUPE I found this crossword oddly unsatisfying. Generally Picaroon’s a delight so maybe it’s just me. Or maybe it was just a letdown after the challenge I tackled (almost) by Leonidas in the FT on Tuesday. In any event, thanks to both.
Thanks Geoff and Grant. I’d have called that a parfait too.
For once I solved the “gateway” clue at 23d first which helped with the rest of the down clues, even if there were a few unfamiliar dishes, such as COUPE (described as an ice-cream sundae on a Swiss cooking site I found) as mentioned. Stand-outs for me today were the clue for PORRIDGE and the ‘Welsh Church’s’ def for CHARLOTTE.
GDU @1, Jean Shrimpton is (or maybe was, but 1965 was only yesterday wasn’t it?) a legend down here. Do a search on “Jean Shrimpton, Derby Day” and you’ll see what I mean.
I see, WordPlodder. I was only eight then, so I hope I’m forgiven for not remembering!
My only question was whether LIMP should be “compiler’s breaking record” and not t’other way round.
COUPE was in a recent SMH crossword but I’d forgotten it. It’s not only the dessert but also the name of the glass in which it.s served. It’s the wide dish shaped glass that’s used for champagne if you’re naff like me.
CHARLOTTE took a while to realise that Church was part of the definition and not the first two letters with me wondering why art was plan and thinking that Welsh was a lousy definition. 🙂
I did like CLONE for the maths.
This took several passes through the puzzle to complete with LOI, MAJORCA, holding out until I boarded a train to London and then the O-C- marine predator leapt out at me! As usual, precise cluing though I sympathise with those who found the GK challenging. Jean Shrimpton is before my time though I’m aware of who she was; lobscouse/scouse I have encountered and even cooked; Rangers held out for a while as I was trying to insert newcomers into something else to get a footie club. I’m guessing RANGERS could also be taken as referring to the suffix found in Queens Park etc and thus indicating football club? Like UNITED which does not have to mean Man U.
MAJORCA, AUDIENCE, STEW and the beautifully clued CHARLOTTE were my favourites.
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO
Just not good enough, Pickers
No drink menu in the acrosses! Shrimp bisque could have done with a Muscadet or a Macon Villages-I spose Boubon could have gone with brownies
And where was the x to complete the pangram
Seriously though I loved this and rushed to get my muesli after
Thanks Peter and JB
Copmus @14. K missing too. Definitely a sandwich short of a pangramic picnic. Lovely as ever from Pickers. Ta both.
Yes, a wonderful puzzle with Picaroon’s trademark wit. My favourites were PORRIDGE, BROWNIES and the MENU which, like PeterO, I arrived at late in the day. Many thanks to P&P.
Liked 23d – and this made it easier to solve the rest of the down clues but I failed to parse some of them: 5d, 11d, 12d.
New for me: SCOUSE = stew; SALIENT = bulge of land.
Re the GK today, I wonder how many young solvers know about the model Jean Shrimpton? Luckily I knew of the Wets from rewatching The Crown recently plus I heard it on one of my regular political podcasts last week.
Thanks, both.
Quite slow getting going, took a few passes before I got a decent foothold. And the theme passed me by til the end, with the curious wording of the last down clue MENU nudging the penny loose. So a lovely theme but I wished I’d spotted it sooner, it might have sped me up a bit! As ever for me, some solutions bunged and unparsed, but that’s what this site is for 🙂
Cheers both.
Having been caught out by COURT=CARD before I confidently penned in CURT for “sharp” so not the best starter
We’ve also got ORIO, BUN & ROE between the answers to complete the banquet
cheers postage & packing
A very appetising puzzle from Picaroon. Just right to go with my breakfast.
Yes I certainy enjoyed this one – a delicious MENU, Picaroon. The theme actually helped me as I spotted what was going on there about a quarter of the way through, when some of the south-east revealed itself. 25a SUZANNE gave me an earworm for both Leonard Cohen and Nina Simone, so probably my favourite. I think of “salient” more as a synonym for important or significant, so 16a BULGE was my last one in as I wasn’t 100% sure of my solve. I hate to be even a tinsy bit critical but just wondering if it is okay to have to get the “S” in BROWNIES at 16d from “a hint of salsa”?
Thanks to Picaroon, a wonderful setter, and PeterO, such a detailed and careful blogger!
There have been and still will be many documentaries on the swinging 60s and Jean Shrimpton often features so I don’t have an issue with that.
Tim C @12 I thought same at first then saw it was “record-breaking”. The hyphen makes it work.
Loved the theme. Loved the puzzle. Thanks to both.
Lovely puzzle, and despite having NHO Jean Shrimpton, I’d long since got the theme so that went in OK.
Aren’t Brownies and Guides different age groups?
Thanks PeterO & Picaroon
Very tasty, Pickers, although maybe hard to digest all at once. [I couldn’t work out at first why LIMP had me laughing out loud, and then I realised that it reminded of one of my favourite jokes, which works best when the person you’re telling it to comes up with the right responses…
“Have you heard about the new contraceptive pill for men?”
“Uh, no?”
“It’s about an inch long and half an inch thick…”
“Huh?”
“And you put it in your shoe…”
“What?”
“…and it makes you limp.” ]
I struggled with this at first, but MENU was third one in, after BRACE and MIEN which also gave me CREPE and from then on the down clues sailed in. The crossers were harder, and the UNCAREFUL had be both puzzled and then cross, as it is a dreadful word, nobody uses it, ever.
And yet again a small grumble back at the lucky Ozzies who get to finish this puzzle long before I’m awake but then grouch about UK GN! For goodness sake, get a life! Aren’t there any Oz cryptics you could do instead?
Phew, got that off my chest at last! Also jealous of your climate (apart from the bush fires) and food. I ;ast visited in 2000, seems a very long time ago.
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO, as ever
Me @25 UKGK and last, sorry, bad typing
Fun puzzle, well clued (though, like PeterO, I did spot rather a lot of wordskins) with some entertaining surfaces. Over too quickly on account of the theme – which even I saw – providing a second def. The Pirate became confusingly Qaotic with CLONE.
I liked ‘have cheese sandwiches’, the Welsh Church (I had the crossing L and first tried to insert LLAN) and, of course SCOUSE – an excellent clue, appealing to this Liverpolitan 🙂
Jean Shrimpton was nicknamed ‘The Shrimp’, so she didn’t even have to lose weight!
Thanks to S&B
SinCam @25, I honestly don’t think (most of) the Aussies were being grouchy. “Lots of fun” from ginf, “delicious” from JinA, GDU @1 a bit grumpy but he ends on a positive note, Tony @8 doesn’t count ‘cos he’s in the States and they’re notoriously hard to please 😉
I’m glad the Graun and its crossword have a global audience, and I find it interesting to get a window on the wider world through the comments on 15². That goes for homophone-related posts too – discovering which homophones (don’t) work in different accents is a source of interest for me, and the “I never heard of that/it doesn’t work in my accent” comments shouldn’t necessarily be interpreted as criticisms, just part and parcel of the World Wide Window.
Re UNCAREFUL, Collins online has a graph showing it peaking around 1750, but it hasn’t totally disappeared. Here’s Cornershop (remember Brimful of Asha?) with the delightful One Uncareful Lady Owner.
Thanks Picaroon and Peter.
Just about managed this, but had question marks about the clueing and validity of all these – SUZANNE, CHARLOTTE, BROWNIES, BISQUE. Liked MEAT LOAF and the SCOUSErs of course. Found this a strange mixture, but probably wouldn’t have if I had managed to tease out the theme which was tantalisingly out of reach.
Right up my alley – a lovely entertainment.
But then I am somewhat antique and remember Jean SHRIMPton (just about – it seems to me she was quickly eclipsed by the ubiquitous Twiggy), LETS DO IT (before even my time), Sebastian (now Lord) Coe, that the Beatles were SCOUSE (but never heard of a dish by that name) and of course LPs. So it definitely helped to be born before 1960 – whatever about UK GK (SinCam@25) my sympathies are with those who may have found a lot of this to be pre-historic.
Thanks both – a puzzle which deserves to be called ‘chewy’.
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO
I saw ‘salient’ in the military sense, ie a push out from one side’s lines into those of the enemy, which tends to be more-or-less rounded. The Battle of the Bulge in WW2 was an attempt by Hitler’s forces to break out in a salient, and by the Allies to push them back.
Salad @22, ahhh, the hyphen makes all the difference. Cheers.
SinCam @25… “Aren’t there any Oz cryptics you could do instead?”. In a word, no, or at least maybe DA in Friday’s Age/SMH and even then he can be a bit dodgy, but none with the breadth, depth and variety of the Grauniad. Why else do you think we keep bugging you Poms. The climate’s overrated. It’ll be drought next.
A very nice puzzle. At first I thought the theme was just desserts, but then it broadened out. It certainly helped with some, including CHARLOTTE (Welsh Church, very good).
JinA @21: “a hint of” or “a bit of” to mean the first letter is just one of those rather arbitrary crossword conventions that is perhaps due for retirement. As Brian Greer (our own dear Brendan) says in How to do the Times Crossword: “The convention found in some other crosswords that ‘bit of’, or similar expressions, points to the first letter of a word has always struck me as illogical. I see no strong reason why ‘bit of cheese’ is C rather than H, E or S, or indeed HE”.
Many thanks Picaroon and PeterO.
Luckily, I managed to solve MENU fairly early on and it was a help.
The SHRIMP is going back a bit but not as far as Shakespeare! I was mystified by the Welsh Church (should have noticed the second capital). I managed to sort of parse it with CH/ART/E, although art = plan didn’t really work. I liked STRANGERS because of the wrong FC, PORRIDGE for half-heartedly wanting cash, and TRIFLE for the football surface.
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO.
… the system didn’t like my chevrons putting LOT inside ART.
Is the BULGE in the middle a result of the theme?
Another splendid test of the cryptic grey matter and the chance to choose what to eat later too! I did smile at Peter’s comment at 36 about the bulge in the middle!
Reading through the comments before posting, I am reminded of a discussion on Times for the Times the other day about most of the GK in crosswords being ‘geriatric’, LPs for records, Jean Shrimpton and so on – I suppose some of it is, but there is still a lot of ‘young’ GK about too
Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO
For those unfamiliar with SCOUSE (grantinfreo @4: Liverpudlians are named after the dish and not vice versa) it is a one-pot stew of meat, potatoes, carrots and onions, not unlike Irish stew, much beloved of the natives of the city on the Mersey. The word is a contraction of lobscouse, an old sailors’ dish containing much the same ingredients plus the ubiquitous ship’s biscuit – the weevils may have supplied the protein sometimes 🙂 . The etymology is unclear, but similar words for similar stews exist in German and the Scandinavian languages.
Incidentally, the same preparation without the meat is known as ‘blind scouse’.
Cracker from The Pirate which I really enjoyed.
Felt equating guides and BROWNIES was a bit of a stretch. Don’t you pass from one to the other as you age? Perhaps I’m out of touch.
Had to look up salient and still feel it’s a bit of a stretch to equate it with bulge.
Like essexboy, I enjoy the antipodean contributions and am delighted to share our hobby with those folks and also our cousins over the pond.
Many thanks both
… so about italics.
Sorry grrr
William @39: BROWNIES are known as Brownie Guides in some regions and contexts. Good enough for me.
Gervase@38…your comments and info about SCOUSE are one of the reasons I love this site. So much fascinating (new, in my case) input, broadening out one’s own GK. Many thanks for that!
…and I always imagined MIEN was pronounced as a two-syllable word: “Mee-en”, so I’ve learned something else new today…
Thanks for the blog, a nuclear theme but fortunately I did not notice until the very last clue. Found this all a bit obvious, some of the word play could have had neon flashing lights.
PORRIDGE was quite neat , cheese sandwiches surely well past their sell-by date by now.
Geoff @1 we have about 2000 original vinyl LP records, I was not born until the 1970s.
SinCam @25, I apologise if I’m one of the grouchy Aussies. As Tim C pointed out, we have a paucity of decent cryptics in this part of the world and being recently retired I’m grateful that we can access the daily challenges — for free — that you Brits kindly provide. I’m a relative newcomer here but I’m keen to assimilate all the uniquely British elements — all part of life’s rich tapestry, as they say — and I believe that so far I’m doing reasonably well! Perhaps one day I’ll be well enough informed to apply for British citizenship? (Don’t worry — just kidding.) Meanwhile I’ll try to keep any grumbles to a minimum. ?
Grrr. I cut and pasted an emoji from above to finish, but it’s turned into a question mark …
GDU @ 47 There’s a link to the way to show emojis on the site’s FAQ page.
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO. Much fun. Nothing much to add to what everyone else has already said, but I’m glad you picked up on the Qaos-like nature of 12a, PeterO, as that was exactly my thought on solving that one. Hope Qaos doesn’t mind Picaroon stealing his trademark!
Simon S @ 48. So there is. Ta.
My experience was different to PeterO’s, 8a being my LOI. Knowing the theme was not actually all that helpful, given the wide variety of food names, and as noted those meanings having nothing to do with the cluing.
I also failed at the 1d fence, entering a confident CURT. Kicking myself because, of course, it doesn’t appear on a menu. Not even a Fawlty Towers menu.
Oh well, we go again tomorrow.
I was brought up on SCOUSE ah the nostalgia. Thought CHARLOTTE was very amusing clue.
Thanks both
Salient = BULGE is a military term, much used in WW1. I remember as a lad reading a novel in which one of the characters had been ‘wounded in the Salient’, which made me wince at the time 🙂
[Essexboy @28: I noticed from your emoticon that your comment about me being “hard to please” was made in good-natured jest but in case anyone missed that I want to say that I am pleased about 95% of the time with Guardian/FT/Indy crosswords. And I will never complain about clues being “too British” because that makes no sense when evaluating British puzzles.]
[Tony @55: Emoticons (or emotica?) do have their uses. I probably overdo them a bit compared to others here, but I’d rather err in that direction than risk someone taking a deadpan dig too seriously. After all, in cyberspace, no one can see you smile.
On the substantive point, I know you and your countrypeople are overwhelmingly positive in your contributions here.]
Gervase @ 54 – see my comment @ 31.
A bit late to this today, but thanks to Essexboy @28 for the Cornershop link. Though I’m a fan, this song is new to me, and delightful as you say.
My first half dozen themers were all desserts, so I didn’t put in the obvious bisque until meatloaf prompted me to expand my menu choices. Failed on bulge, biffed in bilge (a lot of rubbish).
Tim C and GDU. I always thought the Saturday SMH cryptic was the pick of the week, but I haven’t done it for a few years.
Late thanks PeterO, I was delighted when 8a popped into my head this morning (that def a distant third to the biscuit and booze in my world) but fell back to earth with a bump thanks to same failure as GreginSyd@59 for the same reason. But at least I have learned something! Very good puzzle, thanks Picaroon.
Couldn’t parse PORRIDGE. Is it some type of cockney rhyming slang?
Rats@62 it is just UK slang really, one of many words for being in prison.
Prisoners do TIME, do BIRD , do PORRIDGE and others. The prison can be called STIR, the NICK , CHOKY etc.
PORRIDGE also a very popular TV comedy from the 1970s.
I had to let this stew for a day and finally finished.
Gervase@38 – thanks: I didn’t know that 🙂
[Eb@27 if you get fed up being a linguist, a career in the diplomatic corps awaits you 😉 ]
GreginSyd @60, yes DS (David Sutton) on Saturday is pretty good and I do it occasionally if time permits. Apparently he used to do Friday but moved to Saturday when DA (David Astle) came back to fill the Friday slot in 2003.
What’s SMH, if anybody’s still here?
Valentine @66
Sydney Morning Herald was my guess, confirmed by google.
Re the “grouchy aussies” thread, I think it’s worth noting that The Guardian has an Australian edition. I am a subscriber and read it every morning at breakfast here in KL, online of course. It’s full of Aussie news, politics, sport, culture, cartoon etc. with some “international” articles, taken from the UK edition I presume. The very last section of the scroll-down paper is Crosswords. These are the same as those in the UK edition, presumably. So it isn’t just Aussies seeking out free British cryptics. The Guardian is providing British cryptics in an Australian newspaper.
I don’t think I am either grouchy or (true) Aussie. Born there but left in 1977 and only been back as a tourist. There is a lot of recent Aussie GK that goes over my head but I’m catching on with help from the Australian Guardian. And I learned long ago not to moan about parochial content in the crosswords.
Not complaining at all. The challenge is all the better for not knowing some of the UK references and it makes it a learning experience. It takes me days to get these crosswords out, so good value. This site is great for explaining those tricky few words that I just can’t get sometimes. My dad was Liverpuddlian, so some of the terms are familiar to me anyway. I remember the sensation that the model in 19D made here in Melbourne with her so-called mini skirt…it was just above the knee. Shocking.