Guardian 29,023 – Imogen

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This seemed quite impenetrable at first, and didn’t get much easier even with some answers entered. But I think I managed to work it all out in the end. Thanks to Imogen.

(Please excuse any errors or unexplained points – I’m away from home for a family emergency and am writing this in a hurry on a tiny laptop in a hotel room.)

 
Across
1 STRUCK HOME A few circling wagon have initially found their target (6,4)
TRUCK (WAGON) + H[AVE] IN SOME
6 HIGH Eminent school in street slightly tainted (4)
A quadruple definition, I think
9 ILLUMINATI Wise guys‘ initial gathering around chimney (10)
LUM (chimney) in INITIAL*
10 VAST Very large piece of meat saved to take back (4)
Hidden in reverse of meaT SAVed
12 ROLE REVERSAL Change in personal relations suggesting trap? (4,8)
“Trap” is a REVERSAL of “part” or ROLE
15 HINDSIGHT Does battle losing head and part of a rifle (9)
HINDS (does, female dear) + [f]IGHT
17 RINGO Call round for the one with the sticks (5)
RING + O – the one with the drumsticks, that is
18 SKIER For a sportsperson it would have been more hazardous to have run one at the start (5)
If you add R I to the start you get RISKIER = more hazardous
19 OENOPHILE Reds fan broadcast report on 1-0 reverse (9)
Reverse of ONE O + homophone of “file” {report); an oenophile is a lover of wine
20 HIERARCHICAL Welcome back occasional elegant adult learner to be graded (12)
HI (welcome) + reverse or RARE (occasional) + CHICH (elegant) + A[dult] L[earner]
24 REAM Some paper, off-white, with no heading (4)
[c]REAM
25 JUDGMENTAL It’s critical stir-crazy daughter is kept in (10)
D in JUG (prison, STIR) + MENTAL (crazy)
26 STEM Support opera’s return (4)
Reverse of MET’S (nickname of the Metropolitan Opera of New York)
27 PENTATHLON Collapsed on tenth lap in this challenge (10)
(ON TENTH LAP)*
Down
1 SLIP Small edge goes to fielder (4)
S + LIP
2 ROLL Keep going round for a light lunch? (4)
Double definition
3 COME ON STREAM Hurry up selected pupils to start working regularly (4,2,6)
COME (hurry up) + STREAM (selected pupils)
4 HINGE Turner‘s affair, heading off to Spain (5)
[t]HING + E (Spain)
5 MOTH-EATEN Shabby way of working not right to challenge (4-5)
MO (Modus Operandi) + THREATEN less R
7 IN ABSENTIA Innate bias to be reviewed, when convicted so? (2,8)
(INNATE BIAS)*
8 HOT-BLOODED Rash and blot spread into eyes so half-closed (3-7)
BLOT* in HOODED
11 HEIR APPARENT As eldest child, male, I severely criticise Dad (4,8)
HE (male) + I RAP PARENT
13 PHOSPHORUS An element of pressure over revised shop hours (10)
P + (SHOP HOURS)*
14 INCINERATE Commit to flames popular heretic for speaking out — consumed! (10)
IN + homophone of “sinner”+ ATE
16 GOOD CAUSE Let balance dip into red, about to take advantage of charity (4,5)
GO OD (overdrawn) + CA (about) + USE (take advantage of)
21 INGOT Back to front, managed to enter expensive bar (5)
GOT IN (managed to enter) with its two words swapped or “back to front”
22 IT’LL That is going to time, visiting sick (4)
T in ILL
23 CLAN Macs grouped together and left in lavatory (4)
L in CAN, “Macs” being a generic word for Scots

66 comments on “Guardian 29,023 – Imogen”

  1. Very tough. Ran out of time and gave up on 6ac, 10ac, 1d.

    Liked HIERARCHICAL, role reversal.

    I did not parse 15ac, 16d.

    Thanks, both.

  2. Didn’t understand ROLE REVERSAL until coming here.

    I knew sight was part of a rifle but not HINDSIGHT.

    It’s Chic rather than Chich in HIERARCHICAL but you have a good excuse Andrew. Hope things resolve well for you.

    Favourites were OENOPHILE for the deceptive football surface, PENTATHLON because it gave me an idea for my next crossword (hehe) and MOTH EATEN.

  3. Thanks Imogen and Andrew
    Several unparsed for me too – ROLE REVERSAL (a bit unfair, I thought), HINDSIGHT (I didn’t see the definition), and HIERARCHICAL (I think you have a superfluous H in your parsing, Andrew).
    Not keen on ITLL; TILL works nearly as well (orbadly!)
    Lots of fun though. I smiled at CLAN.

  4. What is a hindsight? Yep, quite tough from Imogen, needed a bit of guess and check. Hinge was a groan .. seen it before but took ages to click. Likewise it’ll, cheeky trick. Ditto stir=>jug, didn’t click, needed all crossers, then backparse. Good workout, ta both.

  6. Andrew, echo gif’s message@5 and thank you for your blog of what I found was a very challenging crossword, How you could focus on this or any Imogen with what’s happening in your life. Best wishes.

  7. Chambers does have HINDSIGHT as the rear sight on a rifle, but I’ve only heard it as the BACKSIGHT.

  8. Yes, best wishes, Andrew. Beyond the call of duty in the circumstances to submit a blog on what was an extremely tricky puzzle. The crossers frequently weren’t a lot of help and the definitions were definitely cryptic. Liked 11, 19(but I think I’ve seen it before) and 25. Thanks to Imogen and Andrew.

  9. As per TimC’s and GIF’s posts, first thought is I trust all goes OK with your emergency, Andrew, and well done, and many thanks, for still finding time to produce a blog. Like you, I found this a very tough start with a full first dozen passing me by before PHOSPHOROUS gave me a way in.

    ILLUMINATI, HINDSIGHT, OENOPHILE, JUDGMENTAL, ROLL, COME ON STREAM, GOOD CAUSE and CLAN were my favourites today. SKIER seems to have generated a particularly long clue: at 15 words, that’s three for every letter in the solution!

    Andrew, not that you should be thinking of edits, but I don’t think ‘male’ is part of the def in HEIR APPARENT.

    Thanks Imogen and Andrew

  12. Yes, PostMark@9 is right; the male is the “he” part of the answer for 11d. But as others have pointed out given your circs, Andrew, you have done a cracking (pun intended) blog. Hope all goes well for you and yours – and deep gratitude to Imogen for a fab crossie and a memorable image of all those raincoats left in the lav. My COTD, that one.

  14. All the best, Andrew. Not that I’m Scottish, growing up in RINGO territory, but I see a few coincidences in this week of asking the CLAN of the Scottish National Party to be JUDGMENTAL over electing an HEIR APPARENT to Sturgeon. IT’LL be Monday when the GOOD CAUSE is finished and the result is ROLLed out for the winner to COME ON STREAM. Lang may the HIGHest vote collector’s LUM reek.

    Being a REDs supporter and a lover of RED wine and witnessing a homophone that was bang on, I loved OENOPHILE ( COTD ).

    Thank you Andrew and Imogen.

  15. A bit challenging for me and I needed some help to complete. Looking back, it all seems very fair, but HINDSIGHT is a wonderful thing. Thanks, Andrew for going beyond the call of duty and hope all goes well.

  16. The toughest challenge for some time. I got STRUCK HOME and HINGE quite quickly but then went into a very low gear. I ran out of time with five to go. Am not sure about IT’LL: is that “fair”? I’m in too minds. Anyway, lots to admire and like. With thanks Imogen and to Andrew, especially as he seems to have more than enough on his plate today.

  17. Bravo, Andrew, for unpicking this little lot in amongst your family problems. Hope things go well with the latter.

    Felt HINGE strayed into the slightly ‘unfair’ category. Firstly for the loose def, and secondly for being asked to find tHING from affair.

    Spent ages on on STEM looking for an opera rather than an opera house.

    If anyone solved HIERARCHICAL from the wordplay rather than a word search – chapeaux!

    Chewy one this morning.

    Thanks, both.

  18. Nice to see Imogen on top form.
    ITLL was a late adjustment-TILL didnt quite parse-or allow the crosser!
    Enjoyed every minute.

  19. @9 and @12 – the heir apparent is conventionally the eldest son so ‘male’ is both part of the answer and the definition. A daughter would be a heir presumptive.

    https://www.britannica.com/topic/heir-apparent

    Thanks for taking time to blog given your difficult circumstances Andrew and I hope all your family troubles resolve well.

  20. I’m glad everyone else found this as tough as I did. Mostly when I’d puzzled out the answer I could parse it, but not HINDSIGHT or ROLE REVERSAL.

    Thank you Andrew and hope you and your family member resolve things. Thank you for the blog and disentangling this challenge from Imogen, and thanks, I think, to Imogen.

  21. Agree with everyone so far, except i did manage to get HIERARCHICAL from the word play and a couple of crossers (maybe others did too). Tough but fair, and a good workout while waiting (for ever) for our bathroom fitters to arrive (they stripped it out yesterday but are they going to leave us forever with nothing??)
    Thanks Imogen and Andrew especially for doing this in a hotel room in the midst of a crisis. Hope all goes well.

  22. First of all I wish you well Andrew and bravo for producing the blog. Tough solve but glad I persisted after only getting 5 solutions on my first attempt. Like Flea, I thought OENOPHILE was the standout. Andrew, you have overlooked the ON in COME ON STREAM although as Post Mark states, editing will be way down your list today.

    Ta Imogen & Andrew.

  23. Excellent puzzle, for me the trickiest for some time, full of splendid clues. Quite a few I entered from the crossers, sometimes even before spotting the cryptic definition, with the parsing coming along later – but that’s no criticism!

    Wonderful anagrams for IN ABSENTIA and PENTATHLON. Great surfaces (and constructions) for OENOPHILE, JUDGMENTAL and INCINERATE. Nice to see a ‘lum’ again, and CLAN raised a laugh. But this is just a selection – many of the others would be highlights of lesser puzzles.

    LOI, and my favourite, was ROLE REVERSAL.

    Thanks to Imogen, and to Andrew, to whom every best wish.

  24. Found this very tough so had to resort to the reveal button frequently. Mainly though, I wanted to join the others in wishing you all the best in your family emergency, Andrew.

  25. Tough (but fair) going. Well done and thanks, Andrew, for producing a blog in the circumstances (which I hope will turn out well).

    Didn’t get anything until PENTATHLON, and very slow going after that: gave up on STEM and INGOT and failed to parse ROLE REVERSAL, OENOPHILE and GOOD CAUSE. No complaints, as I enjoyed all the ones I could do. Liked all the CLAN’S macs hanging in the loo, the Wild West vibe of STRUCK HOME, PENTATHLON, SKIER and of course RINGO. Can’t believe how long it took me to see VAST, though I did work out HIERARCHICAL.

  26. Like some others, I had TILL without liking it much, until the crossing T put me right; I now think it’s a good clue – it seems to me acceptable to ignore apostrophes in the enumeration.
    I also liked STRUCK HOME, GOOD CAUSE and HEIR APPARENT.
    Ellie@19 – your point used to be true, but nowadays, at least in the UK royal family, the monarch’s oldest child of either sex is the heir apparent. See Wikipedia.
    Thanks both.

  27. I must have been on the right wavelength because a lot of this slotted in with little difficulty.

    I like HIERARCHICAL and INGOT for their construction and surfaces.

    I too had TILL until the crazy daughter put me right!

    Thanks Imogen and Andrew (and good luck with the family issue)

  29. I always find Imogen’s puzzles a bit of a slog, although there were some clues to be appreciated here, as others have mentioned. I thought ROLE REVERSAL had one indirection too many, but oh well. I got the answer, but didn’t see the parsing of GOOD – not so good on my part.

    Best wishes to you and your family Andrew.

  30. Another one here who finds Imogen’s crosswords a bit of a slog, with rarely any enjoyment to be found along the way. One particular thing that had me spitting feathers when I realised what the answer was – ITLL is not a word, as it requires an apostrophe.

  31. Imogen right back in the zone after a couple of slightly vulcan-esque outings recently. Too many ticks to list but I loved the ODES misdirection in HINDSIGHT

    GIF@28 an oblique reference to this lot ?

    Cheers I&E

  33. In 19ac, as a New Englander I couldn’t get past being a fan of the Boston Red Sox, the well-beloved eternal foe of the New York Yankees. And why are they the Yankees anyway — everybody knows that Yankees are New Englanders!

    I wouldn’t call a ROLL a light lunch — more of a snack, no?

    I liked HOT-BLOODED, with a meaning I don’t usually think of for HOODED.

    ginf@4 I was stirring up a stirrup cup in a stolen sterling stein
    When I chanced upon a ladle who was once my Valentine
    (Natural, this was a ladle I used to spoon with)
    “Oh, whence that wince, my wench?” quoth I — She blushed and said, “Oh, sir,
    “My daddy isn’t stirring since my momma’s been in stir.”
    Walt Kelly, Songs of the Pogo

    I have to leave and haven’t read all the comments, so apologies for that.

  34. Thanks to Imogen and to Andrew for going to such trouble in the middle of a crisis.

    A slow hatch but quite satisfying though a dnf: I revealed ‘gulp’ for 2d to discover it was ROLL ( but I was glad to have the defeat behind me) at which point I began to enjoy it. It had to be HINDSIGHT but I’m left wondering what on earth could that be? Perhaps a mechanism for shooting something creeping up behind you? Favourite was ILLUMINATI for the appearance of ‘lum’ – a genuine crossword veteran.

  35. Andrew, thans for an excellent blog under difficult circumstances.
    5D MOTH-EARED reminds me of a Guardian Genius of long ago, for which the rubric said (probably in veiled terms) that the wordplay of some clues led to the answer, not necessarily a word, to be entered into the light, and the definition led to the answer plus a thematically-related word. In the first such clue that I solved, the wordplay gave me the correct entry MOTHEA; the definition was something like ‘run down’, which I decided must be the ludicrous MOTH-EARED. I was quite a while before I stopped looking for a theme built around RED.

  36. Also, thanks Andrew. Why is it that errors are so easy to spot the moment you hit ‘Post’?

    Flea @14 and Alphalpha @35
    I have been waiting a long time for an opportunity to deliver a parting line “.. and lang may your lum reek”, in a situation where to recipient might be unsure whether I was delivering good wishes or an insult

  37. Best wishes to Andrew and kin–hope all resolves well.

    As with others, I found this rough going at first, though almost all of it eventually yielded. I was forced to cheat on COME ON STREAM (“stream” as “selected pupils” isn’t in my dialect, though I’ve seen it here before so that’s no excuse), which gave me what I needed for ILLUMINATI.

    Valentine–but wouldn’t the clue suggest the Cincinnati Reds, not the Red Sox? (Of course, we’re intended to think of any of the several English soccer teams informally called the Reds, notably Liverpool.) [Famously, a Yankee is an American if you’re from abroad, a Northerner if you’re from the South, and a New Englander if you’re from the rest of the North. Or it’s a member of the baseball team that everyone else despises. So it’s rarely a compliment.]

    [In other baseball notes, the championship game of the World Baseball Classic is tonight, featuring for the first time in the tournament’s history what you’d assume would be the logical matchup, USA v Japan. For our readers from elsewhere, Australia made the knockout rounds for the first time, while team GB, in its debut, flamed out in the group stage as expected.]

  38. Some tough parsing here. New word to me: LUM.

    I remain unhappy about HINDSIGHT, pace Chambers. I have always known it as rearsight, as do various gun sites I consulted in my confusion.

  39. [PeterO @36: My abode is of sufficiently recent construction to be entirely lumless, so any emergent reek would be an indication of something more sinister 🙂 ]

  41. [Interesting that the meaning of ‘reek’ has drifted to ‘stink’ except in Scots, where it retains the original meaning of ‘smoke’ (cf German ‘rauchen’, Swedish ‘röka’)]

  42. Personally, I didn’t find this too taxing, but as I also had Till instead of the rather awkward IT’LL in at 22d, I was struggling to fit in JUDGMENTAL at the very end. The long lettered clues with several crossers in place helped a great deal. Some tricky parsing here and there, as others have said…

  44. Thanks for the blog , beyond the call of duty I think and best wishes for a swift resoluton. Very good puzzle , I agree totally with Bodycheetah @31, numerous interesting clues. Only ITLL was weak and I think it was a tricky bit of the grid to find a word.

  45. Perfect crossword to fill the wait at Sydney airport. Kept me occupied for a couple of hours and it all eventually became clear except for a couple of pesky parsings which Andrew has sorted out for me. Thanks Andrew and Imogen. Things I learnt today. Lum, hindsight as a ‘thing on a gun’ and to keep an eye out for ‘does’ misdirecting me!

  46. Oof! Did I sleep through Tuesday to Thursday?! Quite the slog. No reveals but an embarrassing amount of bung-checking in the second half.

    Thanks both but especially Andrew.

  47. Ellie @19: the rules of primogeniture (for the crown, at least) were changed by the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 – it’s now absolute for those born after 28/10/2011. What the lords of the shires are doing, I know not.

  49. It is interesting to me that the “indirect synonym reversal” at 12a – I don’t know what else to call it – engendered only one mild complaint @29 while indirect anagrams incur the wrath of many solvers. I found it trickier than most indirect anagrams I have encountered. I have no quarrel with either device.

    Valentine@33, thank you for reminding us of the sheer genius of Walt Kelly. I still can’t get through a Christmas season without singing “Deck us all with Boston Charlie”.

    Thanks Imogen for the meaty challenge, and Andrew for the excellent blog under trying circumstances. May I add my hopes for a satisfactory resolution to your family crisis.

  52. Cellomaniac, muffin – I thought 12a was no more or less fair than Paul’s “eg Assam” the other day, and everyone loved that. What made it really difficult for me was the fact that most of the checked letters are vowels.

  53. Although Cellomaniac doesn’t object, I think his description of the clue as “indirect synonym reversal” is apt. I regard it as equally unfair as an indirect anagram.

  54. Cellomaniac and muffin: There’s only one possible operation to be performed for an indirect reversal, once the synonym has been found. For an indirect anagram there are n! possibilities for a word of n letters: eg for a five letter word there are 5x4x3x2 = 120 theoretical solutions. That’s much trickier, even though many of the permutations are unlikely 🙂

  55. I see what you mean, Gervase, but there surely could be lots of possibilities for the unspecified synonym?

  56. muffin on Guardian Cryptic 29,019 by Paul: “I liked BACK RUB when the penny dropped”

    I don’t understand why you would have liked that one but call Imogen’s clue unfair. What’s the difference?

    Cellomaniac went so far as to name that Paul clue as a favourite.

    I’m not having a dig, I’m genuinely intrigued as to why you’d react differently to a clue of almost identical form – is it because you are more accustomed to expecting that kind of thing from Paul?

  57. Sorry, Widdersbel, I don’t follow. There isn’t anything indirect in Paul’s clue – MASSAGE is there (though well hidden), so we just need to find a synonym – one step fewer than this one.

  58. Imogen’s clue only asks you to find a synonym for PART, which is likewise there in the clue. Exactly the same number of steps as Paul’s clue.

  59. …but then you have to reverse it, whereas in Paul’s clue the reversal is actually in the solution. I think we need to agree to disagree!

  60. I couldn’t parse ROLE REVERSAL, but having had it explained I think it’s clever. Maybe “indirect anagrams are always unfair because Ximines said so” is a bit too rigid, and “this clue is unfair because it’s like an indirect anagram” is too rigid as well. This clue does satisfy one of Ximines’ requirements in that if you look hard enough it confirms that you have the right answer. You have “role reversal”, you idly reverse “trap”, and Eureka. Well, if you’re a lot sharper than me, anyhow.
    My last ones in were JUDGMENTAL and GOOD CAUSE, and I thought they were both superb. Tough, but finally yielding.
    Thanks to Imogen and Andrew.

  61. Didn’t know LUM and didn’t like ITLL which is I think dodgy. THING clues by affair also unthinkable…. anything is a thing?
    Thanks both

  62. Hoping things are okay for your family, Andrew. Thank you for blogging under challenging circumstances. Thank you also to Imogen for the challenge. I enjoyed some of the clues though generally this was an uneven solve for me. I think it is a wavelength thing in my case. Glad some other contributors rose to the challenge and liked the puzzle.

  63. Tim@61 I would agree that THING=AFFAIR is a bit much, as you say thing can be almost anything . But this has AFFAIR = THING , and not many terms for affair .
    I never do links but ” Me and Mrs Jones – we have a THING going on ” .

  64. I have seen ROLE REVERSAL to clue TRAP on numerous occasions so today was a treat to see the roles reversed.

  65. Cellomaniac@49
    Re ROLE REVERSAL – “indirect synonym reversal” describes it very neatly. I too found it “trickier than most indirect anagrams” because there is an extra step.
    But that is precisely why it’s such a good clue. You have to go the extra mile to get the pdm. COTD. I liked [t]HING+E too. Thanks for the EarWorm Roz@63.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_and_Mrs._Jones
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYOQDnWFXYI
    ‘The saxophone quotes the first seven notes of the Doris Day song “Secret Love”, heard in the intro and outro of the song.’

  66. Very tough. It’s taken me until Thursday to complete, with my only excuse that I’ve been cycling in the Lake District in the wind and rain.

    OENOPHILE was my last in – I’d never have thought of FILE for ‘report’. Similarly GOOD CAUSE was from the crossers, with the parsing a distant second.

    Thanks to Imogen (I described to a fellow hosteller how my cycle ride yesterday was “type 2 fun” – no fun at the time but enjoyable in retrospect.) And thanks and best wishes to Andrew.

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