Quite a tricky solve from a relative newcomer to the Guardian (though he’s been around a bit longer at the Independent as Grecian) – thanks to Brockwell.
There’s an obvious theme, with several references to BEAR at 6d, but also a couple of bears (actually more than just a couple – see comments) that don’t mention 6, e.g. TEDDY and PADDINGTON, and the homophonic Grizzly. Very nice.
| Across | ||||||||
| 9 | UNSCARRED | Beaten crusader around the end of campaign showing no sign of injury (9) [campaig]N in CRUSADER* |
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| 10 | ELOPE | East European slides back bolt (5) Reverse of E POLE |
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| 11 | STAND | 6 in partnership (5) Double definition: the second is a cricketing reference |
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| 12 | STAIRCASE | Gogglebox broadcast in flight (9) Homophone of “stare case” |
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| 13 | BALONEY | 6 almost gets desire returning in bunk (7) BALO[o] (bear in The Jungle Book) + reverse of YEN |
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| 14 | ENGROSS | Arrest in 1440 needing no introduction? (7) TEN GROSS minus the first letter |
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| 17 | REBUT | Drive back in revolutionary Tesla taxi (5) Reverse of T (Tesla, SI unit) + UBER (taxi) |
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| 19 | BAT | Buffalo Bill going west for club (3) Reverse of TAB (bill); I presume “Buffalo” is there because tab for bill is a mostly American usage |
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| 20 | AUDIO | Car wheel making sound (5) AUDI (car brand) + O (wheel-shaped letter) |
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| 21 | ACORNED | Growth in agenda oddly bearing fruit (7) CORN in the odd letters of AgEnDa |
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| 22 | BLACKLY | Player in game with Hull City finishes in a threatening manner (7) BLACK (player chess) + last letters of hulL citY |
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| 24 | HONEYMOON | Doctor pursuing love on holiday (9) HONEY (love) + MO (doctor) + ON |
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| 26 | TEDDY | Something stuffed in woman’s underwear (5) Double definition |
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| 28 | ORANG | Primate dropping ecstasy in drink (5) ORANG[e] – as I’m sure has come up before, although ORANG is given in dictionaries as a shortening of orang-utan, it’s rather inaccurate as it means “man” in Malay, with the full name meaning “man of the woods” |
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| 29 | MILLENARY | A thousand pound piercing upset Marilyn Monroe ultimately (9) L in anagram of MARYLIN + [Monro]E |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | CUBS | Young copper’s arresting bishop (4) B in CU’S |
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| 2 | ASSAIL | Jenny over trouble in attack (6) ASS (a jenny is a female ass) + AIL (to trouble) |
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| 3 | PADDINGTON | Walking on foot to Swindon Central station (10) PADDING (walking) + TO + middle of swiNdon |
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| 4 | GRISLY | Frightful animal picked up (6) Homophone of “grizzly” [bear] |
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| 5 | ADJACENT | Lying by a judge accepted by Ant and Dec surprisingly (8) A J in (ANT DEC)* |
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| 6 | BEAR | Maybe Rupert Everett’s heading inside pub (4) E[verett] in BAR |
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| 7 | POLAROID | Designer cut up about a photograph (8) A in reverse of DIOR (designer) + LOP |
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| 8 | DENE | Home for 6 above English valley (4) DEN + E |
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| 13 | BURSA | Part of joint treasurer’s brief (5) BURSA[r]. A bursa is a fluid-filled sac that reduces friction between surfaces in an anatomical joint; perhaps better known in the form bursitis, when it gets inflamed |
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| 15 | GUARANTEED | Assured Great Dane managed to secure 3rd in Crufts (10) Third letter of crUfts in (GREAT DANE)* |
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| 16 | SOOTY | 6 and his girlfriend extremely tipsy (5) SOOTY is the long-running children’s puppet bear; his girlfriend is SOO, followed here by T[ips]Y |
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| 18 | BROWN RAT | Naughty child trapping worn out animal (5,3) WORN* in BRAT |
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| 19 | BEDROOMS | Editor’s rule-breaking escalates quickly in Chambers (8) ED + R[ule] in BOOMS (escalates quickly) |
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| 22 | BUNGLE | Duff note held by trumpet (6) N in BUGLE |
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| 23 | KODIAK | Film-maker entertaining 1 in 6 (6) 1 in KODAK |
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| 24 | HOOP | Ring 6 up (4) Reverse of [Winnie the] POOH |
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| 25 | YOGI | Unknown soldier transfixed by love guru (4) O in Y (unknown quantity) + GI (US soldier) |
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| 27 | YO-YO | Could that be ma‘s plaything? (2-2) Double definition – Yo-Yo Ma, cellist, and the toy; the lower-case M in “ma” is a bit naughty |
||||||
The theme was obvious with CUBS, PADDINGTON and BEAR being early entries. This was fun spotting the real and fictional bears. Embarrassingly, I wonder how many spotted BUNGLE, the large TEDDY from the children’s gogglebox series, Rainbow. Lots of ticks but my standout was STAIRCASE. Hadn’t heard that meaning for BLACKLY, as I thought it meant gloomily. Super stuff.
Ta Brockwell & Andrew.
Ant & Dec two days in a row. There’s also Yogi bear not mentioned in your blog Andrew.
I realised this had a theme of bears early on, but being a bear of small brain it took a while to spot how many others there were without explicit linking – PADDINGTON, POLAROID, BUNGLE and a few others would have been quicker in if I’d been more alert to this.
Needed the blog to parse ENGROSS.
Thank you to Andrew and Brockwell.
Thoroughly enjoyed it although it took me forever to get GRISLY (senior moment!).
…and HONEY BEAR.
Also black, brown, honey, polar, Ursa. Any more?
Thanks Brockwell and Andrew. I thought this was a very entertaining puzzle. Buffalo Bill was ingenious. Mixed in with all the named bears, there’s also BROWN, BLACK, POLAR and URSA.
Sorry Jay@6 – we crossed
Moon bear too.
There’s a Polar Bear in POLAROID, too. I liked the mix of explicitly referenced and hidden bears. I couldn’t parse BEDROOMS, never having heard of R for rule.
Ted, the movie bear? Soo, Sooty’s girlfriend? Brockwell was new to me but I found this a lot of fun. 12ac was one of many favourites. Thanks B and A.
Sorry for the repetition. Slow typing.
And of course BROWN and POLAR bears. Didn’t know BUNGLE was a bear though (a bit too old for that show). Took me a while for the penny to drop for GRISLY. Got 6d BEAR fairly quickly, which helped with the solve, but still found this tough going. Got 14a because I’d been explaining a gross to my nine-year-old granddaughter a couple of days ago. I didn’t understand the Buffalo in 19a either and needed a word search to remind myself of BURSA. Thanks to Andrew for the clear blog and, of course, to Brockwell for the challenge.
Delightful and, as we have come to expect with Brockwell, densely themed with references to bear, in more than one sense, all over the place. I enjoyed PADDINGTON which was originally clued, along with BALONEY, ENGROSS, HONEYMOON, TEDDY, GRISLY and BUNGLE.
KODIAK is another bear.
Isn’t coincidence glorious – I recently encountered elsewhere YO-YO clued used the same construction and the same dropping of the capital M in Ma which is a shame as Ma would have worked in the surface.
Thanks Brockwell and Andrew
Sorry, I knew others would beat me to the other bears.
My ear worm and was lucky to be at this concert. https://youtu.be/7jY4rhp5zFo?si=ppUfoZ_vYXg9VmQO
I liked the ursine theme and was annoyed to miss the thematic GRISLY at the end. I stared at the crossers and just bunged in “trashy” for ‘Frightful’ because I couldn’t think of anything better.
Thanks to Andrew and Brockwell (especially for not including “koala”!)
thanks A and BW — very enjoyable. Ant and Dec in two consecutive puzzles! will that streak continue tomorrow?
No problem remembering BUNGLE (a verb) but how does he = duff (noun or adjective) ?
I ran out of steam about halfway through this, but enjoyed finding all the bears. Favourite STAIRCASE (ouch). Buffalo Bill was lost on me and MILLENARY was new. ACORNED? Really?
We’ve had an excellent week of crosswords so far and this one certainly keeps up the standard – a most enjoyable bear hunt.
Favourites today were 9ac UNSCARRED, 24ac HONEYMOON, 29ac MILLENARY, 5dn ADJACENT, 15dn GUARANTEED, 16dn SOOTY, 19dn BEDROOMS, and 27dn YO-YO.
Just take a look back at the surfaces of all of those.
I have to agree with Andrew that 27ac is a bit naughty – but I liked itI PostMark @14, the clue rang an immediate bell with me, too but I couldn’t find the clue in question in the archives until I realised I was searching for the wrong word(s). It obviously isn’t the one you’re thinking of, though.
‘What Ma plays from some contrary collection (5)’ (Leonidas FT August 4) – where Ma gets his proper capitalisation. I think Brockwell could have done the same, since Ma is a recognised title for mother – or even omitted ‘Could that be’.
Many thanks to Brockwell for a fun puzzle and Andrew for a great blog.
Don’t forget Pooh backwards in HOOP !
Like gladys, I jibbed at BUNGLE = duff; the former could be a noun or a verb, but the latter only an adjective. “He’s duffed it again.”(?) “Oh dear! I’ve made a duff.”(?) Nah.
But I rather enjoyed the rest of it. The ursine SOOTY with Soo in a tidy surface clue: very neat. And the PADDINGTON clue was a corker.
The world is changing. There are now, apparently, themes so obvious that even I notice them.
Too many envelopes in this one for me. And there was a bit of confusion because being a northerner, I initially went for the Eden valley instead of the generic (and correctly clued) DENE. However, STAIRCASE was a highlight. Genius.
Thanks to Brockwell and Andrew.
Not sure gladys@19 what you meant by “he=duff(noun or adjective)”.
From Collins: duff, transitive verb, British English, informal, golf
to bungle (a shot) by hitting the ground behind the ball
Only knew about half the bears, and I had a list of eight clues wll up that I couldn’t parse. The lower case “ma” is, as you said, Andrew, a bit naughty. Didn’t like R for “rule” in BEDROOM, but no doubt it’s in Chambers and I don’t have a leg to stand on.
My online Chambers has duff as a verb “to bungle”.
Re. ORANG: Andrew, no inaccuracy really — is man not a primate?
Very challenging but also very enjoyable.
Re. “duff” as verb: OK, OK — if it’s in Collins (labelled as an informal golfing word) then that’s fine. I didn’t look it up. It just seemed wrong to me.
With you WordPlodder@17 about koala not being included. As we all know, it isn’t a bear. On the other hand, I learned that a baloo is a sloth bear. Then is a sloth a bear? No but a sloth bear is.
https://allaboutsloths.com/is-a-sloth-a-bear-hmmmm-lets-look-into-this/#:~:text=Despite%20some%20similarities%20between%20sloths,sloth%20bears%20are%20definitely%20bears).
pserve_p2@28. Is ORANGe a drink?
I have solved 1d, 6d & 9a.
I would love to know what kind of clues these are before reading any of the answers above.
Steffen @33….
1d “arresting” is an inclusion indicator with the usual 1 letter for bishop and the abbreviation for copper (‘s)
6d heading for “Everett” is included in a word for pub.
9a Beaten is an anagram indicator (of the next word + the ‘end’ of campaign)
Quite a tough challenge but I enjoyed the theme.
Favourites: YO-YO, ENGROSS.
New: SOO bear (part of Sooty franchise); BUNGLE = duff; BURSA.
I could not parse the Buffalo bit of 19ac – is it the Buffalo brand of cricket bat that turned up on a google search?
Thanks, both.
Quite chewy but on the whole very good, though my ignorance of cricket held me up at 11a. I also didn’t know SOO, so tried to parse it as S.O. (significant other) and was defeated by the second O. STAIRCASE is certainly my COD.
This certainly wasn’t as straightforward as first appeared, and I really struggled to complete. Not helped by one or two iffy definitions. ENGROSS for arrest, BLACKLY for a threatening manner, to name a couple. Couldn’t parse YO-YO, MILLENARY or ENGROSS itself. Another cricketing term to deal with in STAND for those who don’t take much of an interest in the flannelled foolishness. And in the Sport of Kings, and recently Queens, PADDINGTON a much touted but beaten favourite at York yesterday, while Designer from 7d did fashion a win in the 6th race…
Yoyos are kids’ fruit snacks made by…BEAR.
ORANGEADE is a drink. So is ORANGE JUICE.But ORANGE is a colour, fruit, royal house etc
No objections to ORANG though.
KODIAK not in Chambers crossword dictionary(minor niggle)
Didnt much enjoy this much and didnt know it was a GRECIAN aka-[I’ve liked his last Indy puzzles)
And it didnt help being alongside Rodriguez who is testing batsmen and goalkeepers of late.
Hoping for a bit more sharpness on the next one
Thanks for blog
From the NW I really thought this was going to be a write-in. I was wrong. In the end I was held up by three clues in the NE. A theme even I could spot, and a fun one. I really liked YO-YO, BALONEY, STAIRCASE, and ACORNED. More like this please. With thanks to Brockwell and Andrew.
question time:
11a : 6=stand? Lost on me.
12a: where does STARE CASE come from?
29a: should pound not be LB?
7d: I thought “cut up” meant anagram.
13d: where are we told that “r” from BURSAR needs removed?
Just to put things in context as there’s also a soccer themed clue at 22ac, it was Kipling who rather scornfully referred to “flannelled fools at the wicket, muddied oafs at the goal”…it’s all become a bit more serious and drowning in money since Rudyard’s time…
Very surprised that 13d wasn’t Berra, which would have fitted the theme nicely.
…and of course RK’s Baloo the Bear making a brief appearance at 13ac. Time to shut up…
Steffen @41…
11a; Can you STAND it? Can you BEAR it?
12a: Goggle = stare, Box = case
29a: Not if pound is money (LSD = pounds, shillings, pence) rather than weight (when it is LB).
7d: Cut up isn’t always an anagram indicator. In this case it means take a word for cut and reverse (up in a down clue)
13d: From the word brief which say shorten the word for treasurer.
Thanks for the blog, starting to find the themes a bit tiresome this week, I hope we do not get eight in a row again. ENGROSS was a nice idea and BEDROOMS was a good construction.
Loved this although it was tricky. A shame he couldn’t find a place for Fozzie somewhere
Good in parts, and certainly quite hard. Like many, thought STAIRCASE the best clue, also liked BROWN RAT, BURSA, ADJACENT among others.
Less keen on redundant words. For BAT, tab for bill doesn’t seem specifically American to me, and how/why does buffalo indicate American? For PADDINGTON – how does one walk if not “on foot”?
Also some dodgy/stretched definitions as mentioned by others.
No problem with orange=drink – certainly when I was a child in Scotland, “orange” could mean the sickly-sweet cordial with fluorescent orange colour, and vaguely tasting of the fruit (quite likely due solely to artificial flavourings).
Thanks both.
This was an entertaining theme with some of the BEARs being explicitly indicated and some just appearing (eg TEDDY, YOGI).
paddymelon @32 and copmus @39: Chambers includes “an orange-flavoured drink” for orange.
When Harry Corbett had the idea to introduce a new character who would be a girlfriend for SOOTY, the BBC refused because they thought it would be too risqué. He mentioned this to a journalist, and, as he recalled, “the next day the papers were full of stories with headlines like ‘No sex for Sooty’. Every paper from the Times down carried it. Jean Rook of the Daily Express later told me that Fleet Street had never known anything like it – the whole place went completely mad because it was such a great story.” In view of the publicity the BBC relented and Soo appeared – but she and Sooty were not allowed to touch! (Source: “The Secret Life of Sooty” by Geoff Tibbals.)
Many thanks Brockwell and Andrew.
Thanks Andrew for sorting out a few gaps eg MOON, and everyone for raising the quibbles so that I don’t feel alone (as he was the naffest of the three Rainbow characters i thought it apt that the clue for 22d was a bit “duff”). beaulieu@48 I thought “barefoot” would have been better. Lord Jim@49 thanks for that note as I don’t recall any romance between the two, the only sign that Soo is in a relationship being that she does all the housework. Somehow also seems apt therefore that Nookie Bear is nowhere to be seen. AlanC@16 it is a great song and you were lucky indeed. Thanks Brockwell, I liked the mix of overt and hidden themesters, and the shift needed for STAND.
Thank you Brockwell and Andrew, a very satisfying solve. For once I spotted the theme, although I needed a couple of the bears themselves before I twigged to 6D itself!
Favorites: 14A which was very clever, and 4D which was a real groaner but justified by the theme.
Like nuntius @40, I started well in the NW but then hit some buffers.
Beaulieu @48, Buffalo is the second-largest city in NY state, according to Wiki. I liked the stare CASE homophone, the (t)EN GROSS, HONEYMOON and PADDINGTON for the surfaces, and BEDROOMS for the editor in Chambers.
Thanks Brockwell and Andrew.
[Gazzh @50: The Queen of Denmark album is exquisite imo. Laughed at your assessment of the asinine BUNGLE character],
I didn’t parse a few here, missing UBER and ignoring the buffalo. BEDROOMS guesses but disappointed to see R meaning rules.
Otherwise nice puzzle and enjoyed the bears.
Thanks both
What pserve_p2@30 said about duff=bungle: it’s a specialised sporting term that I should have looked up and didn’t.
beaulieu@40: Buffalo (a place in the US) here indicates American usage in the same way that the misleading Nice is often used to hint that a word is French: in Buffalo the bill is called the tab. (It went straight over my head with a deafening whoosh, but that’s how it was supposed to work).
There are also MOON bears.
Baloo is the Hindi word for bear, more usually rendered bhaloo or ????.
Several Jungle Book characters have a similar derivation.
I was pleased when I discovered I knew more Hindi than I thought.
The chat didn’t like the Devanagari script – it worked in the box!
I ran out of time and started hitting the cheat buttons when I was not even halfway through, but I still mostly enjoyed this. SOOTY has not crossed the Atlantic, nor has BUNGLE. In general, very little children’s TV programming gets exported by you to us. I wonder why that is.
Was unaware that TAB for bill was an Americanism. Of course, both words work here.
Thanks Brockwell for an excellent crossword. This was the right balance between write-in’s and head scratchers for me and in the end I solved everything. I missed a few of the theme bears but who’s counting? Favourites included BAT (for its surface), AUDIO, POLAROID, BROWN RAT, and BEDROOMS. Thanks Andrew for the blog.
This may be excessively pedantic, or simply wrong, but I would have preferred ‘finishers’ rather than ‘finishes’ in 22 across
Gods stuff though. Thanks to all of you.
I’d never heard of SOOTY, SOO or BUNGLE bears, or the cricket meaning of “stand” (or of most anything else).
The “padding” in PADDINGTON (no, I don’t know either how you walk except on foot) used for “walking” is a particularly English usage I’ve run across in fiction. “He padded into the kitchen.” It seems from context to mean “walking barefoot indoors.” Nobody says “she padded down the beach,” where everybody’s barefoot.
There are Honey bears, which are bears, and kinkajous, which aren’t but which are called honey bears. There are also the four-inch clear plastic bear-shaped containers for honey, common in the US, on my pantry shelf.
Yogi Bear deserves a bit of comment, and if I don’t do it mrpenney will. He derives his name, though not particularly his personality, from Yogi Berra, long-timec catcher for the New York Yankees, given to such gnomic statements as “when you come to a fork in the road, take it,” or “nobody goes there any more, it’s too crowded.” or “Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.” Probably the most widely used is “It’s deja vu all over again,” which is puzzling to foreigners who don’t realize it’s a quotation.
michelle@35 and beaulieu@48 Buffalo is an American city in western NY state, and is there to signal American usage. Another city would have done that job, but “Chicago Bill,” say, doesn’t mean anything.
A bear I think I should mention is the giant yellow teddy bear in Doha airport, towering over everybody. Here’s its picture: https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=559732191&q=doha+airport+teddy+bear&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj1k8yrvvWAAxVDJDQIHZ2gDoYQ0pQJegQIDRAB&biw=896&bih=415&dpr=2.14
Thanks, Brockwell and Andrew.
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
So he wasn’t very fuzzy, was he?
Very enjoyable puzzle – I loved the theme and the mischievous diversion in 11 ac! Had to cheat on SOOTY – that was a new one to me.
TedDay is a filmmaker so thought “entertaining 1 in 6” could be “a” in Teddy. But then it was obviously Kodiak….
Too tough for me. Thanks for the parsing. Duff as a synonym for the Rainbow bear seems excessively weak
[Valentine @64
I know the last line as:
Fuzzy Wuzzy Wuznt Fuzzy Wuzzy…]
Loved the theme, but is Orange a drink? Orange juice, yes. Orange soda, yes. Orange?
Once I twigged the theme (easy one this time) I spend my the whole time convince Goldilocks would have to come up (it’s a gift for a setter). Or even porridge. In the end I convinced myself that Bedrooms was about her sleeping in the bears beds, even though it’s stretching things beyond the credible. Loved he ten gross too–the 144 stood out but still took a pleasing amount of time for the penny to drop
I’m with those who look askance at orange = drink.
If Buffalo is an indicator of American usage, I don’t like it. Wiktionary lists an archaic usage meaning to pistol-whip. That seems a little better. But I also like Michelle @35’s idea that it refers to a particular manufacturer of bats.
I guessed that Buffalo referred to the city, not the animal. And that reminded me of that peculiar, but perfectly grammatically correct sentence:
“Buffalo buffalo, Buffalo buffalo buffalo, buffalo Buffalo buffalo.”
Look it up in Wiki if you don’t believe me!
As to the rest of the puzzle, ENGROSS took me a while (shades of Qaos and his numerical clues!) but once I twigged, I thought it was brill! I was wondering whether to look up who might have been arrested in the year 1440, but glad I didn’t! Top marks for that one.
A couple of words new to me: MILLENARY and BURSA – but the wordplay helped me out there. And BUNGLE as ‘Duff’ was another I didn’t know – I was thinking of ‘duff’ meaning a sort of steamed pudding (‘plum duff’), but no it didn’t work.
Certainly on the tougher side.
Rupert Bear was required reading for me in my more youthful days, so 6D went in quickly and then the theme was obvious. I still have annuals for 1952, 1953 (some pages missing), 1955 (ditto), 1957 and 1958. I’m sure someone on here can improve on that.
Thanks to Brockwell (could that be a bear’s name?) and Andrew.
Thanks to Andrew for the blog and to all of you for commenting on the puzzle. The different reactions to Buffalo are particularly interesting. As Gladys @56 said, we’ve all got used to Nice in cryptics and I felt that TAB needed an American indicator. Clearly, it’s a “marmite” clue. I am guilty of all too frequent “duffs” on the golf course, so I’m confident that this one’s ok. Appreciate all the comments, as always. B
Valentine, I’d say the most-quoted Yogiism is “it ain’t over till it’s over,” which seems tautological until you think about it, and applies in many places besides baseball.
I found this quite difficult and had to cheat on about four clues, but there was certainly a lot to like. I found 14ac (ENGROSS) particularly amusing when the penny dropped.
It’s too bad about the capitalization in 27dn, especially since, as Eileen @20 points out, the clue could have been simply “Ma’s plaything? (2-2)”, which solves the problem and seems more elegant to me in any case.
Loved ENGROSS.
Been away all day. @48 I queried how Buffalo indicated American – as many have pointed out (and I did know but forgot) it’s a US city, so that’s fine. I still don’t think ‘tab’ is now particularly American, even if originally it was.
@57 Haj – there is also a creature called the Honey Bear aka as the kinkajou
beaulieu@77
I’ve only ever heard ‘tab’ meaning ‘bill’ in an American context – never heard it said unironically by a Brit or an Aussie. Still, language is changing all the time, (I guess).
Grecian @73: good to see you drop in and I share your frequent duffs on the golf course, so disagreed with the quibbles. Collectively, did we find all the BEARS in the wood?
Yes, I think you hunted them all down AlanC @80. I was very close to getting a Care Bear in, at 9ac ?.
I have never seen Ant and Dec, but I sometimes wonder what UK crossword setters would do without them. Same as a certain style of wine, and a certain car maker.
Enjoyable except for the racist solution to 22 across. It’s such an old-fashioned term, it causes offence, and it would never be allowed in the main paper. Is the crossword editor not subject to the same standards as the rest of the paper?
https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-b
‘black
should be used only as an adjective when referring to race, ie not “blacks” but “black people” or whatever noun is appropriate. There is debate about the capitalisation of black, with some using it as a physical descriptor, others to describe a specific cultural group, therefore while generally lower case, if a subject, writer or editor of a story prefers to use Black then that choice should be respected. (See also BAME.)
BAME
black, Asian and minority ethnic; spelled out in full at first mention, but where possible it is always preferable to be more specific and to avoid using BAME in furniture. Other alternatives are person/people of colour, or minority ethnic people. However, when using an alternative always check that it doesn’t change the accuracy of the story, eg the term minority ethnic in its broadest sense includes white people, such as Travellers and Gypsies, so if a story citing BAME research is actually only about people of colour, use of the term minority ethnic would be incorrect. Likewise, avoid using people of colour when the BAME research in question may include minority ethnic white people. (See also black.)
blackberry – fruit; plural blackberries
BlackBerry – handheld wireless email device; plural BlackBerrys
black cab-driver – a black person who drives a cab
black-cab driver – a person who drives a black cab
Black Country
the Black Forest – for the place, but black forest gateau
black holes – referring to a fiscal “black hole” gives the impression there is an inexorable compulsion to fill the gap. As governments are able to run a deficit if they choose, this can be misleading. There are other, less politically loaded alternatives, such as “shortfall” or even, simply, “hole”
black market or black economy – hidden or parallel economy are preferable
black-on-black violence – is banned, unless in a quote, but even then treat with scepticism (imagine the police saying they were “investigating an incident of white-on-white violence between Millwall and West Ham supporters”)
blackout
Blackpool Pleasure Beach – a giant funfair, not a beach, so do not illustrate with a picture of donkeys on the sand’
POLAROID always gives me this earworm…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey_Ya!
‘The lyric “shake it like a Polaroid picture“, along with the song’s commercial success, helped to temporarily revitalize the Polaroid Corporation, which had declared bankruptcy in 2001. Because modern Polaroid film is sealed behind a clear plastic window, casually waving the picture has no effect on the film’s development. Vigorously shaking the film may actually distort the image by causing the film to separate prematurely and creating blobs in the final image. Nevertheless, Polaroid sought to capitalize on the allusion… Polaroid sponsored parties for OutKast at which Euro RSCG distributed Polaroid cameras. OutKast also made a deal to hold Polaroid cameras during some of its performances. While Polaroid did not release sales figures, its public image, which was in decline with the growing popularity of digital cameras, was bolstered by the song. However, despite the welcome exposure, Polaroid eventually discontinued the sale of original Polaroid cameras and film, and again declared bankruptcy in 2008.’
I’m deliberately posting a day late because today is its 20th birthday:’
“Hey Ya!” is a song by American hip hop duo Outkast, specifically group member André 3000, who wrote and produced … released by Arista Records … from the … album, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, on August 25, 2003.’ – A 20-year anniversary.
The video is good, too – though I’m surprised it wasn’t widescreen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWgvGjAhvIw
Thanks for a real world example of the duff, Grecian@73, I apologise for dissing the clue despite paddymelon’s dictionary spot, as I have some golfing friends but never heard the term so wondered if it was extinct or even a trap word. Clearly they are less forthcoming about their shortcomings! And I hope you consider it suitable punishment that I did spend a fair amount of time reading the wikipedia entry for Care Bears, wondering if there might be one in the grid (SHARE was a contender at 11a for a while).
FG@84 “avoid using BAME in furniture”
Seems like good advice 🙂
Typical Guardian – taking wokeness too far.
First crossword I’ve completed for months, so couldn’t have been that hard.
Too much pedantry here about orange and things not being in chambers. You all solved it, so who cares.
I’m very much a newbie in the Guardian crossword world, but I reckon this was my favourite so far. Loved the bear theme, and thought the clues were fair and fun. Like others, Buffalo threw me a bit. Also not clear why rule abbreviates to r with no other signal (and judge to j for that matter) but that’s probably my inexperience. All in all, great stuff!