Guardian 29,161 / Anto

111 comments on “Guardian 29,161 / Anto”

1. Thanks, Anto and Eileen!
   Liked OUT WITH IT, TWO-SEATER, SODA POP, BUTTER CUP, MUST SEE and REPLY.

   SUGAR FREE (or SUGAR-FREE?)-does it qualify a lifestyle or is it a lifestyle per se?

   TWO-SEATER
   Third wheel=a third person on a date or in a romantic outing.
   A TWO-SEATER won’t accommodate a third wheel?–>a cryptic/whimsical def.

2. Chambers…
   third wheel
   noun (informal)
   A person in a group of three whose presence is unwanted by the other two

   I think this is the intended reference.

3. @Eilleen for 10D, a “third wheel” is slang for a third person who is in the way when two other people would like to get romantic, so to speak. So a two-seater sports car literally does not have room for that person, presumably to the delight of the canoodling couple

4. KVa and Jay – thanks both. I didn’t know that expression.

5. Did wonder about BUTTER CUP, so thanks for update Eileen. Also struggled with OU in OUT WITH IT so grateful again. Overall enjoyed it.

   Ta Anto & Eileen.

6. … and Jacob!

7. Thanks Anto and Eileem
   I agree that 21a clearly clues REPLAY. I concur with KVa’s interpretation of “third wheel”. I also agree that PASS OUT doesn’t seem to work.
   I liked SCROTUM!

8. SHOVELS
   I find that both HOVEL and PIT mean something similar (a small room).
   REPLY
   Agree with you. Just took it as a reverse logic for parsing (not fully convincing).

9. 26A I think the parsing is slightly incomplete? Should it be APE around GA, which is silver back[wards]?

10. Some might find MORON offensive thes days and for a horrible moment I thought there was a Nina of CRETI?.

11. Thanks and commiserations Eileen. I agree with your quibbles, and would add that SHOVELS are used for moving stuff around, not for digging.

12. I came straight to the blog to try and understand the parsing for TWO SEATER, REPLY and SPINE, but, like Eileen, I’m still at a loss!

13. Andrew @11 Thank goodness for people who know the difference between a shovel and a spade!

14. Jacob @9 – you’re quite right. I’ll amend the blog now.

    Me @4
    PS: I only knew ‘gooseberry’!

15. I came here hoping that someone could explain 23d as anything other than a mistake. Hopefully, it isn’t but I can’t make sense of the clue either. I was also puzzled by BUTTER CUP as two words, but I obviously did the crossword before the correction was made. Plus I didn’t see the logic of 10a. Perhaps it’s just holiday season and a rushed edit, but rather ruins the whole effect. I have an aversion to the word MORON as well, so I didn’t enjoy this too much, but did like SCROTUM and ICENI. In 26a, the AG is, of course, reversed. Thanks to Eileen for the blog and Anto.

16. BUTTER CUP
    Just adding…(The blog is quite clear).
    BUTTER UP setting for C=C set in BUTTER UP.

    PASS OUT
    read this way. Please see if this works
    reveal support for=PASS (as in passing a bill)
    discharge=OUT

17. I suppose if you had your PASS OUT you would be revealing support for something, which would make it a triple definition. For SPINE I wondered about the President moving North, but it seems a bit thin.

18. REPLY is a trademark Anto reverse thingamijig. If REPLY gets A it becomes REPLAY ie solution for unresolved contest

    Cheers A&E

19. I usually like Anto, but I really didn’t like this one as I had too many quibbles. BUTTER CUP was still as two words when I solved it, I struggled with REPLY as it didn’t make sense in that order, entering it with a “well it passes the checker” shrug, nor could I parse SPINE.

    However, SCROTUM made me grin, I didn’t have a problem with the TWO-SEATER as I knew third wheel meaning a spare person, and I recognised the equivalence of hovel with a pit, a terrible place to live in SHOVELS.

    Thank you to Eileen and Anto.

20. My other thought was that PASS OUT could be a triple definition:
    1. Reveal – to pass out the answers in a class???
    2. support for discharge – although not happy with that phrasing
    3. faint

21. I agree with you, Eileen, that there is a lovely surface for PLATO. I think you have been generous in your commenting, though, in that you have inserted the additional ‘of’ in your notes that has been dropped from the clue to accommodate the surface. It should, surely, begin with ‘Principals of ..’? ‘Principals prohibit learning about …’ does not actually say ‘take the first letters of’; it just assumes that solvers will see the word ‘principals’ and conclude the clue is an acrostic.

22. I parsed 1 own as OUT (“reveal”, as in to “out” someone) supporting (having before it in a down clue) PASS (“discharge”, as in to “pass” water)

23. Interesting to see so many interpretations of PASS OUT. I had it as OUT (reveal) supporting PASS (discharge?)

24. I also couldn’t work out SPINE with the elevated P? for president. Even if you accept P is for president (as in POTUS) it still doesn’t seem to work.
    The third (spare) wheel in a TWO SEATER is usually on the top of the boot (trunk for Americans) lid. Not the best of clue even with the explanations above.
    Just had a shrug at Hovel – Pit in SHOVEL. Took me back to Uni days.
    No idea what reveal is doing in PASS OUT.
    SCROTUM was COTD.

25. PASS OUT
    I think Cicero@22 and Arossignol@23 have the correct parsing.

26. PARIS
    In the interest calculation formulas, i stands for ‘interest rate’.
    I drops in PAIRS—>this seems all right.

    SNIPE
    Work in progress
    (assuming that the clue has no errors).

27. PASS OUT-‘OUT’ means to reveal as in outing someone, PASS means discharge (passing water say). OUT supports (is under) PASS

28. Kva@25 agreed although although feels a bit redundant. I was just glad discharge wasn’t pus as I was eating breakfast. Apologies to anyone who still is although by now it would be brunch?

29. I had fool=twit as well, and didn’t get as far as identifying the proper solution. I share the various quibbles (glad BUTTER CUP has now been corrected: the enumeration stopped me putting in the obvious answer for some time). We had the third wheel/gooseberry divide when GOOSEBERRY was clued in that sense: I didn’t know third wheel but guessed it must mean that.

    The grammar for ICENI doesn’t work for me: “in” seems to bd doing double duty: EN is IN “here IN France”?

    Is MORON on its way into the Too Offensive To Be Clued box? I think it generated complaints last time it appeared.

30. KVa @26 – many thanks for the interest rate info. I’ve amended the blog.

31. Bodycheetah@28
    I agree with you that ‘although’ is redundant.
    ‘OUT support for PASS’ is how the clue can be re-read.
    I am not sure the cryptic grammar works perfectly here.
    Still, this seems to be the most plausible parsing.

    SPINE
    If someone establishes that president=NIP, then it works ok. 🙂

32. I enjoyed this, but I seem to have an unusually long list of head scratchers today, more than for previous Anto puzzles.

    Couldn’t see what a wheel has to do with TWO-SEATER, so thanks to those above who had heard an expression that I hadn’t. Didn’t know digs had to be temporary. Hovel/pit? Cute/clever? I suppose so. I for interest rate? Hmmm. I did remember safe/peter, from some other crossword many moons ago. Still mystified.

    I assumed that the clue for HIT THE BAR must have had something to do with darts. I could see how the clue for SPINE was supposed to work, but it’s faulty isn’t it? It would produce SPNIE. Isn’t BUTTERCUP one word, not two? (I see above that this has been addressed.) And I think the clue for PUBLISH works better if “if” is replaced by “before”.

    The two I’d never heard of were TARNATION & ICENI.

33. GdU
    If you have heard of Boudicca/Boudica/Boadicea (no consensus on how to spell her!) you’ve heard of one Iceni.

34. Technically a DNF for me today. Never come across SORRY PASS as an expression. I went for STRAY PASS as in deplorable transfer in a game of football or rugby. Glad to see similar comments about SPINE as it didn’t work for me either. Thanks Anto and Eileen.

35. gladys @29
    I wondered about commenting on MORON, so I looked it up. According to both Collins and Chambers, the word has been updated.
    Collins: 1 slang a foolish or stupid person
    2 old-fashioned, offensive, a person having an intelligence quotient of between 50 and 70, able to work under supervision
    Chambers: a somewhat feeble-minded person; a former category of mental impairment, describing a person with an IQ of 50-69 …

    Re ICENI – I originally worked on EN = French ‘in’ but, when that didn’t work, settled on EN coming from [TR]EN[DY], as in the blog.

36. SUGAR-FREE (SUGAR FREE)
    This is an adjectival phrase and the def is a nounal phrase. Am I right in assuming so?
    A part of speech mismatch?
    And of course, the missing hyphen has been discussed already.

37. I agree with others above that PASS OUT could be a triple definition, I thought of examination question papers being passed out/revealed to students.

    Enjoyed this puzzle, thanks Anto, and thank you Eileen for the blog.

38. I’ve often heard HOVEL and TIP used interchangeably (mostly by my dear old mum, who would frequently observe that my room was one or the other). But PIT surely means something different?

    Agree with others about REPL(A)Y and SPINE.

    Liked SCROTUM, CULTIVATE and DIGRESS.

    Thanks to Anto and Eileen.

39. MORON is one of several words that were originally strictly defined diagnostic terms, as per Eileen’s comment, but have now become offensive through common misuse.

40. Re SPINE: I can just about accept it as the President (P) being elevated by swapping places with the N that’s higher up. But only just!

41. I too took PASS OUT as a triple definition, exam results being revealed/ passed out occured to me as well.
    Despite the quibbles, I thought this worth while for SROTUM alone.
    Muffin@33: The modern Welsh name Buddug (the dd pronounced a little like TH in English) is a derivation of Boudicca etc.
    Thanks for blog and crossword.

42. GDU @32
    I nearly commented on the fact that the unusual TARNATION appeared in a Picaroon puzzle just a couple of weeks ago.

    PeterH @34 – I’m more familiar with ‘pretty pass’.

    KVA @36 re SUGAR-FREE: I decided to read the clue as ‘Urge safer cooking – it’s a healthier style (of cooking).

    TorsionWire @40 – I’m afraid that’s a step too far for me. 😉

43. For whatever it’s worth, my dear mum has often referred to messy or unpleasant dwellings (my teenage bedroom, for instance…) as a “pit”. I do appreciate that my mum isn’t Chambers, though!

    Also lost on SPINE and miffed by REPLY but SCROTUM was absolutely superb – made up for the gripes.

44. Eileen@42
    SUGAR-FREE
    Thanks, Eileen for your explanation.
    The clue works as a CAD/an extended def. Agree.
    I am still finding the same mismatch. I will leave it
    here.
    🙂

45. I did initially try SPIKE @23d as IKE is the usual crossword President, but it doesn’t have anything else going for it.

46. Found this quite tricky, and not completely convinced by some elements of the parsing. However, whenever SCROTUM gets a mention I’m reminded of the time a 9 year old boy in my primary school class had returned from a small op to release something in that region of his body that should already have dropped, and who announced proudly to one and all that “I’ve had my spectacles lowered”.

47. Good in parts, as Eileen suggested in her patient blog. It did provide an appropriate earworm for TWO-SEATER.

48. ronald @46 and TimSee @47 – thanks, both. 😉

49. thanks A and E. I don’t see a problem with “occasionally” in 13a — I believe wp is simply “Team in loss? Occasionally” for the alternate letters and def is “it’s a result of the toss” — not “the result”, just one of many (ok, two). So no double-duty.

50. 10a TWO-SEATER: I knew what “third wheel” meant, but I looked it up anyway to make sure gooseberry was there as a synonym. It is. But there’s also…
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fifth_wheel#English
    ‘Noun – fifth wheel … (chiefly US) – (idiomatic, informal) – Anything superfluous or unnecessary. Synonyms: spare tool, third wheel
    “I felt like a fifth wheel when both of them started giggling and making out during dinner.””
    …presumably for gooseberries so superfluous they wouldn’t even be allowed in the back of a four-seater, but would be relegated to the boot or a trailer.

51. For those who don’t like offensive words, don’t, whatever you do, but a dictionary. It’s full of them, depending on who is reading them of course.

52. i’m pretty sure ANto biffed 23d.
    criticise is SNIPE, but elevating P gives SPNIE
    oops

53. Ilan Caron@49
    TAILS
    Your parsing makes sense.

54. Ilan Caron @49

    I added the ‘double duty’ as an afterthought, not a criticism. (I don’t always regard double duty as a fault.) As you say, the clue does have ‘a’ result. I’ll amend the blog.

55. Nice to see Old SCROTUM again – the “wrinkled retainer” from Viv Stanshall’s…
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Henry_at_Rawlinson_End_(film)

56. I didn’t know 3rd wheel. The clue for SHINE could have referenced the hyperbolic function Sinh which is pronounced “shine”.
    Thanks Anto and Eileen.

57. FrankieG @55 – yes, after less than two weeks!

58. Tricky in parts but overall enjoyable.

    I was another TWIT who got left with ‘OU’ in the parsing of OUT WITH IT. The ODE, which tends to reflect current usage has MORON as derogatory. I liked the short report in SODA POP and the HOVEL in SHOVELS; Wiktionary says: A hand tool with a handle, used for moving portions of material such as earth, snow, a grain from one place to another, with some forms also used for digging. I also liked the surface and wordplay for BRISTLING, and, of course, the popular SCROTUM. I can see Eileen’s objection to the grammar to give REPLY but of course the enumeration would not yield replay, and if one assumes a ‘gives’ between ‘a’ and ‘solution’ it sort of makes sense. SPINE seems obviously to me to be a mistake but I doubt there are any setters who never make errors.

    Thanks Anto and Eileen, who outwitted me.

59. … snow AND grain …

60. I parsed PASS OUT as Criceto@22 & Arossignol@23 did in their dead heat photo finish at 10:22 am – (not Cicero, KVa@25)
    The OUT being what happened to George Michael:
    https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/mar/06/george-michael-outed-review-this-will-make-you-love-him-even-more-than-you-did-as-a-screaming-teen

61. Gosh – I must’ve solved too quickly as I didn’t spot the twisted SPINE – my take on PASS OUT had “showing” in clue to imply that a physical pass had to be shown, but then “exit”, or similar, would be better than “discharge”. Nor did I notice the REPLY/replay clue mistake that you point out
    It seems that, on this occasion, my speed of solving deprived me of corcumspection – and Anto of criticism
    So I rather enjoyed today’s puzzle

    Many thanks both and all

62. ICENI – how to pronounce it: EYE-SEE-NIGH or EYE-SEE-KNEE.
    I seem to remember ICK-NEE from somewhere, because Celtic languages don’t have a soft C.

63. I enjoyed this. Anto seems to be the ‘enfant terrible’ of 225. SPINE is just indefensible, yes, but REPLY is pretty much an ANTO trademark clue by now. And I’m surprised this blog made such heavy weather of PASS OUT which seems straightforward in the parsing of Criceto@22. My main grumble would be that ‘PASS’ appears twice both in PASS OUT and SORRY PASS. I thought that was supposed to be poor etiquette.

64. Criceto@22
    My apologies for addressing you Cicero.

65. Had the same questions/quibbles as just about everyone else with SPINE and BUTTER CUP, and thought PASS OUT was a strained triple definition. Agree with pm@21 that PLATO, otherwise a great clue, was spoiled by missing “of”.

    I can give the setter the benefit of the doubt with REPLY – if you add A to it you get a word for solution for … .

    SCROTUM was my fave too (try getting that clue accepted in the Times).

66. Re the quibble about shovels, I just remembered that you can use them for digging horizontally. As I once did when helping my brother make a garden pond using a Cornish shovel?

67. I mostly enjoyed this, though I was held up by a couple of clues in the SW. I got SPINE without any difficulty, but I realised afterwards that I had got the parsing wrong by moving the P. Having read the comments above I’m now convinced that it is a mistake. I also liked PLATO, along with SALAD and SHOVELS. With thanks to Anto and Elieen

68. CULTIVATE – (a)CUTE meaning clever is widely used my the !rish.

69. Thanks Eileen and criceto/Arrosignol/Bob M for making full sense of PASS OUT. Can’t help with SPINE, sorry. [muffin@33 was Boudicca an Icenus?] I thought there were a few clues here which could be read “either way” but enumeration and/or crossers resolved them so I am more forgiving of Anto this time round and one of them, SCROTUM, was top notch. I had no problem with PIT = Hovel, perhaps it’s a more common descriptor of a teenager’s room nowadays. As usual some interesting quirks and flashes of wit, thanks Anto.

70. FrankieG@62: however you pronounce ICENI, you’re OK because there are no longer any actual Iceni around to correct you. It’s probably just a garbled Roman attempt at saying the real word anyway.

71. I suppose anyone known for plain speaking would call a spade a shovel.

72. 😉

73. Although 15 across changed to (9) in online version NOT changed in the linked print version!

74. Claret @73; you’re right, although the .pdf has changed.

75. Re: SPINE/SNIPE; if we read “president” as “p-resident” then resident=IN so p-resident = PIN.

76. I got the third wheel reference from watching American sitcoms.
    I think spine – 23d – is wrong
    For 1d I agree with those who see it as out (reveal) supporting pass (discharge) giving pass out (faint)

77. Despite Simon@75’s generously ingenious attempt to excuse it, add me to the list of those who think the clue for 23D doesn’t work. Raise the president in snipe as high as you like, it won’t spell SPINE.

    Thanks to Anto and Eileen.

78. Simon @75: That’s so clever. It may or may not be what Anto intended, but your solution works for me. Makes the crossword much more satisfying – and I’m impressed.

79. very well done Simon @75
    happy to suspend disbelief for the sake of that cheeky parsing 🙂

80. I think pit for HOVEL is fine, as long as you don’t mean either word literally: “his apartment is am absolute pit.”

    I also think MORON is inoffensive if you don’t mean it literally–stop being such a moron–rather than actually applying it to someone with developmental disabilities.

    The person up above who found some source for “fifth wheel” as an Americanism for someone who’s de trop found a mistaken source. A fifth wheel, everywhere here, is a type of hitch that connects a trailer to the vehicle that pulls it, so called even if the trailer has more than four normal wheels. The American term for a third wheel is a third wheel.

    I won’t pile on the sniping about SPINE.

81. mrpenney@80 – I was only quoting Wiktionary. I omitted senses 1, 1,1 & 2 – indicated by an ellipsis.
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fifth_wheel#English
    1 – (road transport) – A type of trailer hitch, which consists of a horseshoe-shaped plate on a multidirectional pivot, with a locking pin to couple with the kingpin of a truck trailer.
    1.1 – In full, fifth-wheel trailer: a large caravan or travel trailer that is connected to a pickup truck for towing by a hitch similar to the one described in sense 1 located in the center of the truck’s bed.
    2 – (road transport, historical) A horizontal wheel or segment of a wheel above the front axle and beneath the body of a carriage, forming an extended support to prevent it from overturning.
    3 – ‘Noun – fifth wheel … (chiefly US) – (idiomatic, informal) – Anything superfluous or unnecessary. Synonyms: spare tool, third wheel
    “I felt like a fifth wheel when both of them started giggling and making out during dinner.””
    There are 7 citations for sense 3 from 1818 to 2015.

82. Thanks Anto for an enjoyable crossword. Except for SPINE I think most of the Anto bashing on this blog is really quite petty. I liked many of the clues including OUT WITH IT, TAILS, SALAD, AGAPE, MUST SEE, HIT THE BAR, TREE RINGS, and SCROTUM.
    [Years ago a MORON was defined as a person with an IQ between 50 and 75, an imbecile between 25 and 50, and an idiot between 0 and 25. If the word MORON is now “offensive” then certainly “idiot”, commonly found in crosswords and elsewhere, must be judged in the same light.]
    Thanks Eileen for the blog.

83. mrpenny@80: The fifth wheel is on the towing vehicle: originally a horizontally mounted wheel on a pickup It is commonly used for large ‘gooseneck” camping trailers.

    And totally off the point for the crossword!

84. Setting aside the offensiveness of MORON, could a parsing to account for Eileen’s concerns about busier = to *have* more on be ‘This fool is busier’ => ‘He’s more on’? With the ‘s doing double duty for has/is in a homophone clue?

85. Tony Santucci @82: I mostly agree with you and I’ve always defended Anto’s SCROTUM from day one. However, I think SPINE spoiled a very good puzzle.

86. KVa@26: Not wishing to be seen to be nitpicking but I think you are being over-generous to the setter. In all interest rate formulae I’ve used, I is the interest and r (or R) the interest rate so I think the setter has it wrong here. (i.e. for simple interest you’d get I by multiplying the principal amount, P, the interest rate, r, and the number of interest periods).

    Thanks to all for the explanations of “pass out” which I think must just be very weak as I don’t think any of the answers I’ve seen is more than a “it could be this…” and also for confirming that I am not completely bonkers with the spine/snipe/spnie mixup!

87. Graham @84
    I see where you’re coming from – but I’d be more easily convinced if the clue had read,
    ‘… although this fool’s reportedly busier!’

88. Re PASS OUT:
    Thanks, everyone but I’m afraid I’m with Jack of Few Trades @86 in concluding that this is just a poor clue, indicated by the number of different interpretations we’ve had.

89. Simon@75 that’s ingenious but if you elevate NIP in SNIPE don’t you just get NIPSE?

90. How strange – I’d never heard the term “third wheel” until this crossword today. And yet, here‘s an article also from today’s Guardian where it is used (see the start of the 8th paragraph). I’m now waiting for the 3rd occurrence.

91. I think I’m alone in finding 22d worded the wrong way round. The “i” in “Paris” raises (goes up) to get “doubles”. I find it difficult to parse it any other way, even though the answer and intention is clear.
    And NHO “third wheel” – I’m in the gooseberry camp.
    All aside, I actually enjoyed this crossword.

92. Jack of Few Trades @86,
    I think you’re right about interest rate = R. Then the parsing is PARIS (Capital) [becoming] PAIRS (doubles) when the R drops.
    No issues with PASS OUT (a la Criceto), but agree about the SNIPE/SPINE problem.
    Thanks, Anto and Eileen.

93. 89. Nick ; no, it’s a down answer, so “elevate” may simply mean “turn it upside down”. So, if you turn NIP upside down, you get PIN.

94. phitonelly@92: that makes better sense though I’d struggle to say which of the two answers should be entered until I had the crosser in the middle. But yes, looks like we all had that wrong and it took a team effort to parse it!

95. It’s (to me) a strangely changed world where offence may be taken at MORON but not at SCROTUM. To me neither is offensive but perhaps it’s just as well Anto managed to avoid certain anagrammatical possibilities when conjuring SPINE from the ether.

    Thanks Eileen, thanks Anto – I thought OUT WITH IT alone was worth the entry fee.

    [Thanks also to TimSee@47 – decades since I heard that one. And now off to watch FrankieG@55’s recommendation (new to me – but likely to be right up my (I’m not proud of it) street).]

96. I don’t have a ‘Do Not Attempt’ setter list as I enjoy the daily practice, but I do have ‘Expect Some Slack Clueing That’ll Make Me Roll My Eyes’ list.

    Guess who’s on it? 🙂

97. Simon@93 “Elevate” isn’t the same as “invert” in my book down clue or not. Just a duff clue.

98. 21. It is a double definition of sorts. “Come back”, REPLY, accepts an ‘a’ to make “unresolved contest”, REPLAY.

99. I came here hoping for an explanation of 23dn. Apparently I’m not the only one.

    Every time I start to forget about Anto’s dodgy beginnings, he pops up with an extra-dodgy puzzle to remind me. It’s too bad — he’s capable of some very clever and amusing clues, but he needs to take more care.

100. Amanda @98
     I think it takes special pleading not to read 21 as “come back” (REPLY) to accept A to make “solution for unresolved contest” – REPLAY.

101. Thanks for the blog Eileeen.
     I equated “hovel” with “the pits”, as in “that place is the pits”. In other words it wasn’t really an equivalent for me but it sort of fitted.
     Other things I looked sideways at have all been mentioned.

102. With 1D, I went for the military/police angle of a passing-out parade, but took it to mean (slightly convolutedly) that the cadets are passed out from training by the instructors.

103. I think PASS OUT has been fully parsed out (Criceto@22) and it’s actually a cracking clue (it outwitted me for one).

104. I think some of the missing hyphens can be explained by the fact that the solutions are stand-alone phrases here – eg one might find a sugar-free sweet, but that sweet is sugar free. Or you might buy a two-seater car, in which case your car would be a two seater.

105. Jack of Few Trades@86

     One last post from my side on PARIS:

     The relationship between nominal annual and effective annual interest rates is:

     i = [ 1 + (r / m) ] m – 1

     where “i” is the effective annual interest rate, “r” is the nominal annual interest rate, and “m” is the number of compounding periods per year.

     i & r are both interest rates. I took i as I thought it suited us most. r would have suited us as much as much as phitonelly@92 points out.

106. “Issue is open, if Conservative becomes quiet”

     I actually though that this clue was wrong. It should read something like “quiet (SH) becomes Conservative (“C”) to take “issue” to “open”.

107. I failed to solve 14d and I could not parse 27ac, 23d, 1d apart from the def pass out = faint.

     Thanks, both.

108. Anto seems to use the device of making a change to the letters of definition 1, which leads to definition 2, while leaving ambiguity about which is to be inserted in the grid. In most cases (PUBLIC=>PUBLISH, REPLY=>REPLAY, SCROTUM=>SCRUM) the enumeration is enough to tell us what is intended, and in the case of PAIRS=>PARIS, there is a crosser to help.

     There has been much praise for SCROTUM and a similar amount of disapprobation for REPLY, but basically both clues are of the same form. In 21a we have ‘come back to accept’ and in 18d ‘ball carrier loses’, both implying that an operation is to be carried out on the defined word. So, REPLY ‘accepts’ an A, and SCROTUM ‘loses’ OT, but in both cases the word to be entered in the grid is the unaltered one.

     Perhaps we need to just get used to this way of writing clues?

109. Wanted to add to the hovel / pit / tip debate. Where we grew up in Yorkshire a tip is a dwelling that is untidy / messy, whereas or a hovel or a pit is a dwelling that is in a dilapidated state … so to me hovel and pit are synonymous whereas tip has a different meaning. So my room can be both a tip and a pit, but equally could be a pit and very tidy (but still not very nice to live in).

110. sheffield hatter@108. Yes indeed – a number of the critiques about Anto are always that he does what’s not expected. And as normal, most of the quibbles have been answered fully. Doesn’t seem a problem to me – I like his cluing style.

111. An eventual completion, although it was a slog.

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