Guardian 29,283 – Fed

101 comments on “Guardian 29,283 – Fed”

1. This all went in fairly smoothly for me, with a refreshing lack of obscurity or niche GK. No real quibbles (2 and 20 had me stumped for a while though, and 27,28 seemed a rather laboured surface in service of a witty definition). Thanks Fed and Andrew.

2. Lots to like here. I enjoyed every clue. The short ones took the longest to parse. I forgot about the snooker-playing Trump at 17d until it could be nothing else. 15d reminded me of my favourite Everyman clue: In which every second one is a starter (12). Interesting to note there were only 3 comments on that fifteensquared blog back in 2012. 20d describes Kiwi interest in the Auld Mug once Team New Zealand, having won it back, decided to take its defence overseas. I came across Harry Ramsden’s during my time in West Yorkshire and having already experienced the local fish’nchips, I was astounded to see several coaches parked outside.
   Thanks Fed and Andrew.

3. Nice to see a different Trump in CUE.
   This went in mostly smoothly for me, although I left it a while and came back to it.
   Favourite was the lovely BRAND NAMES for the clever “Harry Ramsden” although I’m not sure I would enjoy his chippy tea.

4. Me@2 sorry, I’ll try that link again https://www.fifteensquared.net/2012/12/09/everyman-no-3452-2nd-december/
   18a.

5. Parses for the top and bottom doublets were in the cqba category, but some fun surfaces like the wife’s dress and the tuba on the counter. Thanks Fed and thanks Andrew for your customary succinctness, I like it.

6. Thanks Fed and Andrew
   A couple not parsed – I didn’t see the “hastiest” in11a or “slowing” in 2d. Apart from those, a lot of fun. Favourites TIMBER for the (slightly) misleading “Deal” (a generic term for softwood in woodworking), BRAND NAMES for “Harry Ramsden”, and the simple but pleawsing SODA.
   Not sure how well Judd Trump will be known across the pond.

7. BRAND NAMES and FIELD HOSPITAL brought a smile, the former for the surface and the second for the definition. Agree with Andrew that this was quite straightforward for a Friday. I just assumed there must be a snooker or pool player called Trump without checking as the answer was obvious from the crossers. Took me a while to realise 8, 9 was just an anagram, but then the puzzle was completed fairly quickly. Thanks to Andrew and Fed.

8. [Edit time now 3 mins? I think pdm mentioned this too …]

9. Thanks Setter and Blogger. No huge smiles but no quibbles whatsoever. Some nice misdirection regarding US politicians and wives.

   Lovely start to the day.

10. After staring at it for ages thinking I couldn’t do any of it, the penny suddenly dropped and I finished without having to look up anything. Favourites were BRAND NAMES, GHASTLIEST and FIELD HOSPITAL. Struggled with parsing ANTICLIMAX but thanks to Andrew I learned that discovered means to take the cover off(wild). Thanks to Fed for some clever short clues which helped to start it off.

11. I really enjoyed this, though it didn’t take me long, and thought FIELD HOSPITAL and BRAND NAMES were clever for their neat use of Harry Ramsden and San Diego. I knew of Judd Trump but needed the C to click.

    Fed is fast becoming one of my favourite setters.

    Thank you to Andrew and Fed.

12. PT @2 The original Harry Ramadan’s in West Yorkshire was great but since Harry died it’s become a mediocre (in my view) chain. I suspect he’d be turning in his grave!

13. Great fun after a couple of days of hard slog for me!

    Thanks to Fed and Andrew.

14. I tried very hard to put beans in 13 down, before working it out. Why the apostrophe s in 20 down?

15. [SueB@12 I should have mentioned it was back in the 80’s when I lived there.]

16. Fun, enjoyable puzzle.

    Favourites: MODISH; ISLANDS; ABUT.

    I could not parse 27ac apart from anagram of LIFE; 17d apart from CUE = sign – never heard of Judd Trump.

    Thanks both.

17. Myrvin@14
    ATROPHY
    The ‘s is mainly for the surface reading. In the cryptic reading the relevant part of the clue is read as ‘America has cup’ or ‘A has TROPHY’

18. I was making swift progress with this until the clues steadily got more chewy. It took me a while to parse 2dn.

    I had ticks for 8/9 NO CLAIMS BONUS, 11ac GHASTLIEST, 6dn ANTICLIMAX and 22dn BEREFT. Top favourites were 13dn BRAND NAMES and 27/28 FIELD HOSPITAL: like Shanne @11, I particularly admired the clever exploitation of Harry Ramsden and San Diego.

    Thanks to Fed for the fun and Andrew for the blog.

19. when I lived in Leeds we preferred Brian’s on the Otley Road to Harry Ramsden’s.

20. I enjoyed this very much – BRAND NAMES was (were?) a favourite. Still don’t understand the letter order in GOWN though. Getting old, I’m afraid. Thanks to Fed and Andrew.

21. Got off to a flier but hit the buffers with a few to get and they were my faves; ANTICLIMAX, FIELD HOSPITAL & GHASTLIEST

    Cheers F&A

22. It’s a long time since I’ve seen Harry signalling an anagram and I had completely forgotten it.

    Good puzzle. Favourites mentioned, but also particularly liked BROADSWORD

    Thanks Fed and Andrew

23. Meandme@20
    GOWN
    W having N=WN…GO to open (to come at the beginning of the word)
    GO WN

24. I usually enjoy Fed and this was no exception, though I bunged SLOG as it couldn’t be anything else. Obvious in retrospect of course.

25. I liked BRAND NAMES and FIELD HOSPITAL. Matthew Newell@19. Me too. Happy memories.

26. Friendly Friday Fun

    Thanks to Fed and Andrew

27. Yes, quite straightforward for a Friday, and a Fed.

    I liked the wordplays of GHASTLIEST, GOWN and ANTICLIMAX. Once I had what I thought was the fodder, I couldn’t see how an X would go in until I solved MEXICO, which had a good, misleading definition. I also liked the San Diego in the clue for FIELD HOSPITAL. I also failed to see the omitted win in SLO(win)G.

    Thanks Fed and Andrew.

28. Muffin @6: you can depend on the fact that no American knows any snooker players, and this one is no exception. The mere idea that snooker is a sport popular enough that its practitioners are widely known at all is completely foreign. But as has been pointed out already, that clue was gettable from the definition and crossers.

    Deal as a type of wood is known to me from this poem, which I’ve linked to here before. But since then I’ve discovered that y’all are allergic to American literature, so I’ll point you to it again to help you overcome that affliction. Speaking of which, I saw “Deal maybe” in that clue and immediately thought “so, lumber?”, then quickly remembered that British for lumber is timber, and saw that the wordplay (which I hadn’t even chewed on yet) unambiguously led to the latter.

29. [That poem is also the only place I’ve ever seen the word “concupiscent” in the wild.]

30. Harry signalling an anagram got a bit overused in the heyday of Harry Potter – good for Fed for finding someone else to harry. Loved the definition for FIELD HOSPITAL.

    I failed to see the “lift and separate indicator” in OBEDIENT: we aren’t usually given such a luxury so I didn’t realise what it was. Like Meandme@20 I had trouble sorting out the order of GOWN.

    How appropriate that the hat covering the Frenchman’s head is a BERET.

31. Having the crossers B & A, I was convinced it was the slogan Beanz Meanz Heinz, until the clever OBEDIENT put me out of my misery. Ticks for BRAND NAMES, GHASTLIEST, BROADSWORD, SLOG, ISLANDS and FIELD HOSPITAL. A bit trickier than yesterday’s Paul but still relatively easy for a Friday. I’m always pleased to see this setter’s name; never disappoints.

    Ta Fed & Andrew.

32. [MrP @28
    If you ever get a chance to watch top-class snooker, take it. The skill with which the pros manoeuvre the cue ball after striking the object ball is amazing.
    I was watching Judd Trump play last night, in fact.
    There are now a lot of successful Asian players, particularly Chinese.
    I’ve seen it said that it’s a game that could have been invented for colour television. There’s famous early commentary “for those watching in black and white, the pink ball’s behind the green”!]

33. Strangely accessible for a Fed, but none the worse for that.

    I concur with the plaudits for Harry Ramsden (though I agree with SueB @2 that the chain is a travesty of the original) and San Diego. SLOG has a clever subtraction to give a neat and concise surface. ‘Passbooks in two parts’ is oddly Ximenean – most Guardian setters wouldn’t make a L&S explicit in this way.

    TIMBER was a write-in for me, as the significance of ‘deal’ came to mind immediately [I have always assumed it was cognate with the Swedish word for pine: ‘tall’, but in checking I find this is coincidental]

    Thanks to Fed and Andrew

34. Mrpenney @28, many thanks for the link to the Wallace Stevens poem – reading it, and the linked notes, took me back to my days studying “Practical Criticism”, long ago…
    Thanks also to Fed & Andrew

35. I agree with Gervase @33 about the clue for OBEDIENT: ‘oddly ‘Ximenian’ is a good way of putting it. On solving, I ringed ‘in two parts’ because they seemed redundant. Enjoyable puzzle, though.

    Thanks to Fed and Andrew.

36. Paul, Tutukaka@2,4 – 🙂 that Everyman clue is brilliant. (Your link lost its colon – it’s happened to me and others before. I wonder why.)
    grantinfreo@5 – 🙂 cqba (can’t quite be arsed).
    mrpenney@28-9 – thanks for the poem link – I needed the Poem Guide to understand it – “Let be be finale of seem.” Very fine.
    concupiscent – wiktionary cites Plato’s The Republic, Wallace Stevens, and David Foster Wallace.

37. I liked the lift-and-separates – Harry Ramsden, San Diego; and “Order passbooks in two parts” explicitly signalling the repunctuation.
    Thanks B&A

38. A lot of smile-inducibg cleverness. I especially liked the treatment of San Diego, the BRAND NAMES and the ISLANDS. I’ll blame it on simultaneously watching the Australian Open, but it took me as long to realise/remember the “discovered” part of ANTICLIMAX as to fill in the whole puzzle. (I don’t consider it done until I’ve parsed everything, or at least given it all a serious try.)

39. Re Brand Names. To ‘Harry’ is to worry, so an anagram of ‘Ramsden’ and ‘ban’ is how I read it. Nice use of the northern brand name in clueing.
    Completed Fed straight off and feeling Friday Good.

40. 4d reminds me of a friend who was raised in the Church of England. When he was asked what religion he was, he replied, “C and E”. The usual response to that was, “Don’t you mean C of E?”
    To which he replied, “No, Christmas and Easter.”

41. No so hard but I had five not fully parsed. Annoyed by the obscure other Trump but otherwise enjoyable.
    Thanks both.

42. A challenging (for me, anyway) and satisfying end to the week. Favorites included 4D for the misdirection, 22D for everything, and 8A.

    NHO the chap at 17D but with the crossers in place it was not hard to deduce and verify the existence of such a person.

43. ANEMONE – it’s surprising how often this word is misspelt and/or mispronounced as ANENOME.
    Even Wiktionary had it wrong back in 2009.
    I found a few occurrences in the archives here, too.

44. A pleasant end to the week. I completed it without too much difficulty but was puzzled by some of the parsing. The Trump reference for example. (I’ve never heard of him. Wish I could say the same thing of “you- know-who”…). All now explained. BRAND NAMES was my favourite. With thanks to Fed and Andrew.

45. NHO of “deal” as meaning wood, but I will put it in my back pocket for the next time it comes up. Fortunately I got there from the word play and the crossers.

46. Thanks Andrew, while I found this a welcome ego-booster following some chastening experiences this week (and I think Fed was helping us with some pointers as noted above), I never did spot the subtraction in SLO(WIN)G but at least I’m not alone there. While I thought this wasn’t as spectacular as some of Fed’s other puzzles there were more neat, economical clues eg MODISH and SODA than usual – maybe it’s an experiment in a new style of setting- and it raised plenty of smiles too, so thanks Fed.

47. Totally on Fed’s wavelength for a change, though had to come on here to find out how SLOG and VAN worked. Last one in was ANTICLIMAX, though inserting it finally felt nothing of the sort, quite the opposite in fact….

48. You got it FrankieG @36

49. mrpenney @28, I also thought of Wallace Stevens when I figured out TIMBER.

    NO-CLAIMS BONUS was a new concept to me, and I couldn’t parse a few (CUE, OBEDIENT, SLOG). I’d figured out that I needed a word meaning “flagging” from which to remove either V or WIN, but somehow never came up with “slowing”.

    Nice surfaces on LINGER and ATROPHY.

50. Gentle end to the week. Favourite was BEREFT.

    Thanks Fed and Andrew

51. Thanks for the entertainment and much to enjoy.

    Hats off to Andrew for parsing SLOG. I’m fairly certain I could sit until the crack of doom without getting there.

52. Proof that a crossword doesn’t have to be tortuous to be enjoyable.
    I particularly liked ATROPHY, BEREFT, the simple yet satisfying SODA, and BRAND NAMES (though it’s distressing to hear Harry Ramsden’s nosh has declined in quality).
    Thank you Fed for the fun, and Andrew for explaining SLOG and CUE: both were guesses, the latter very much a CFE (crossed fingers entry) as I assumed it must be yet another reference to the incessant calumnies of the Tangerine Tyrant (it never occurred to me that there was another sleb with the same name. Poor fellow!)

53. First Fed for me. Per comments above, some nice clues (favourite was ATROPHY for the surface), but some clues seemed a struggle for both solver and setter.

    I agree with mrpenny@28 on the strangeness of being expected to know a snooker player, and I had also never heard of deal. Having looked up Harry Ramsden, I failed to spot the anagram indicator.

    Thanks Fed and Andrew

54. M @53 I didn’t know the snooker player either so I just took pot luck

    Obviously it would be fairer if setters stuck to GK that 100% of solvers know 🙂

55. Although snooker players might be obscure to many, Trump isn’t a lesser known one; he has been World Champion and topped the world rankings.
    bodycheetah @54
    Pot luck 🙂

56. Poor Trump isn’t a poor man either: he has won over seven million pounds in prize money in the course of his career.

    Never mind, MrPenney: many of us over here don’t recognise baseball and basketball stars either.

57. Loads to enjoy here, and no raised eyebrows let alone quibbles. I had smiles for the inspired definition of FIELD HOSPITAL and for the delightful surface of BEREFT. Nice end to the week and wishing all a lovely weekend.

58. Refreshingly accessibly crossword for a Friday and lots of cute clues to enjoy, as many of you have already said. For once, even the unfriendly grid didn’t get in the way. I was lucky enough to spot NO-CLAIMS BONUS instantly and everything went more or less smoothly from there. My wife is a bit of a snooker afficionado so Judd Trump was within my compass too.

    SueB@12 – “Harry Ramadan’s” !! A truly classic typo, that’s quite made my day.

    Thanks to Fed and Andrew

59. [mrpenney @28 reminds me that, many years ago, when my American mother was studying at Reading University, one student asked another what she was studying. When the second said, “American literature,” the first replied, “And what do you do in the afternoon?”]

60. [JohnB @58
    You can’t have fish and chips until after sunset?]

61. Thanks for the blog, a few more concise clues in this one which I like, not so keen on superfluous words for GHASTLIEST and NECKWEAR.
    We really do not need ” in two parts ” for OBEDIENT , we are not children.

62. Roz@61. You may not need “in two parts” but some of us did. Please don’t assume that everybody is as experienced / good at crosswords as you.

63. Roz @61: we were at one time 🙂

64. Thanks Andrew. And thanks all.

    Roz @61 we will have to disagree here. I don’t think it is treating you like children to have ‘in two parts’ I think it is treating you like grown ups. Without it, I think the clue is unfair.

    “I need not mean what I say, but I must say what I mean.”

    Passbooks does not mean pass books. Unless you have been instructed to see the word in two parts the clue does not say what it means.

    You might be quite happy with a less Ximenean approach – many are – but please don’t associate rigour with being patronising. I prefer the rigour because I think it fair – and it’s absence unfair.

    PS – I’m curious to know which words you think are superfluous in GHASTLIEST and NECKWEAR?

65. Unlike others, I found this difficult and time-consuming: not complaining, just a sign of me getting old.

66. I am afraid I prefer Torquemada to Ximenes, when approached by the editor bacause two of his puzzles had only one correct entry he replied that he would have to make his puzzles harder. I totally agree.
    GHASTLIEST does not need also . NECKWEAR does not need to build.

    AlanC@63 – 1 Corinthians 13:11 ( almost )

67. I will quote from his nibs: ‘Mark you this, Bassanio, The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.’

    I was gonna say that I thought the ‘in two parts’ referred to the ‘-books’ being divided between OT and NT (so I got there without the intended assistance (I was wrong but I got there.)).

    AlanC@63: Ask Val

    George Clements@65: Oh NO. Not you.

68. Fed @64 – many thanks for your courteous response (as we always say, ‘always appreciated’).

    And Alphalpha @67 – thanks so much for the evocative links. I can sing along entirely with the second. 😉

69. Roz @66

    I can see the clue for GHASTLIEST without ‘also’ – but I prefer the surface with it and it’s a perfectly legitimate linking word. GHASTLIEST = wordplay and also definition.

    But I can’t see how ‘to build’ is really superfluous.
    Drink with Don ties, say
    Is a meaningless sentence. On that basis, the word ‘with’ is also superfluous and the clue could just as well be:
    Drink Don ties, say

    You might have come up with a shorter version of your own. Which is fine. But that’s not the same as saying these words are superfluous. If the surface would be meaningless without them and they do no harm to the cryptic grammar they definitely aren’t superfluous.

    I’m amused by those who think of Judd Trump as unfair general knowledge. He’s a top ranking player and former world number one in a sport that still gets big viewing figures. (The recent Masters final was watched by about 3 million people on the BBC and a further 5 million on iplayer).

    I guarantee that across the population as a whole more people know that Judd Trump is a snooker player than that AB is an abbreviation for Able-bodied seaman.

    I’ve learned loads about cricket and opera and Shakespeare from solving crosswords and never resented a bit of it!

70. Thanks Fed – lovely crossword. To reassure you and other Setters re nautical abbreviations. In shipping industry we regularly use AB and (the less used in crosswords) OS. But then we still use the boe code – well probably only NKAWW to be honest – shipping is rife with terrible acronyms and abbreviations

71. Alphalpha, my maternal grandfather taught me Delaney’s Donkey and Paddy McGinty’s Goat, so I’m sleeping with a big smile on my child-like face tonight. Eileen, we must get together and sing the former one day, although I imagine my voice will be much inferior. And what about Val’s Colgate smile?

    Fed I look forward to your next challenge.

72. Fed @69

    I’m completely with you in your regard for surfaces, always appreciated.

    I grinned at your penultimate paragraph: I learned (through crosswords) just a few weeks ago that there is another Trump.
    Throughout the decades that I have been solving cryptics, I’ve accepted AB as Able-bodied seaman – and still don’t really understand why!

    AlanC @71 – Aah 😉 – but it’s the latter that chimes with me , these days!

73. Very enjoyable albeit quite gentle from one of my fav setters. Quite a contrast to his Django puzzle in the Telegraph this week where the clues were much more wordy & in places difficult to parse.
    Thanks all.

74. Really enjoyed this crossword, many thanks to Fed and Andrew. Lots of ticks and smiles. Level of difficulty was spot on for me. Fed is one of my favourite setters (and also one of my favourite comedians!).

75. Very good, quite gentle fun, and thanks as usual to Fed for popping in. I agree with his interpretations of ‘passbook’ and thoughts on surfaces, and while others might legitimately take & express different views, there’s really no need for the rather tart certainty expressed in some of the above comments.

    FIELD HOSPITAL was lovely, and the definition so good that I suspect it could have stood alone as a cryptic definition.

    Thanks Fed and Andrew.

    PS. AlanC@71 to me Paddy McGinty’s Goat is from a Stewart Lee routine… but perhaps the less said about that here the better!

76. Very enjoyable, and challenging in places. I liked BEREFT, BRAND NAMES and GOWN the best. I appreciated most of all the setter’s own expert contributions to the discussions on particular clues.

    Thanks to Fed and Andrew.

77. I do not think anyone said the Trump clue is unfair – strange, yes. But the more I do crosswords the more I come to accept that we will always see strange and unexpected references in crossword puzzles. We had a gymnast from USSR yesterday, for example. Whether the strange reference is amusing or annoying for the majority of solvers may be the more important consideration.

78. Thanks Fed for your customary excellence and for joining the blog discussion. I got to this late but I can’t let a Fed/Bluth crossword slip by me. Great clues all around. Thanks Andrew for the blog.

79. I really enjoyed this puzzle and so it was great to see such an overwhelmingly positive blog. As others have said it’s always great to hear from the setter. It’s such a privilege when setters contribute to the blog as we can understand more of their thought processes, which then adds to the pleasure of trying to get our minds around their clueing and their style. So huge thanks to Fed and also to Andrew for a helpful blog which helped to clear up a few things for me.

80. Just feel the need to say ta very much to Fed for joining in, and defending his corner most admirably.

81. Almost as if Monday (Paul) and Friday crosswords got swapped this week! Very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Fed for the fun and Andrew especially for passing VAN which I scratched my head over for a while before coming here for relief.

82. The only quibble I had was with a capital D for Don in the NECKWEAR clue. As a don is a university teacher the clue would work just as well without it and I wouldn’t have spent time thinking needlessly about the Capo di Capi and suchlike. But I guess some misdirection is to be expected.

83. Fed@69 thanks for the interesting reply , too late for me last night. I am sorry for being churlish@61 , on Friday I get tired and ratty and my journey home when I do the puzzle is a chore. I should have listed more praise for the puzzle first but I do stand by my points.
    For PASSBOOKS you say “instructed” but I would prefer to think for myself, this technique often used in the Guardian and sometimes by Goliath in the FT.
    For GHASTLIEST we agree that ALSO is not needed for wordplay or definition, You leave it in I would remove it.
    For NECKWEAR you invoke the dreaded surfaces so no point me discussing this.
    GOWN, SLOG , SODA, GRID many more work perfectly, neat and precise and not a single surplus word.
    I hope your next puzzle is not on a Friday .

84. I forgot my Azed quote in response to your quote from Afrit @64.
    This may not be word for word but the same meaning.

    A cryptic clue should have three things. A grammatically meaningful definition. A cryptic indication of the answer. Nothing else.

85. Fed@69. ”’Guarantee” is a very strong word. But I’ll be on the lookout now for Judd Trump. I biffed the C(L)UE without knowing him, but had a fair idea of who or what was at the table. I’ll add him to my list learnt from British crosswords, along with AB. ( Here in Oz, AB would be a cricket clue, for one of our eminent captains, Alan Border. Fortunately I know enough about cricket to solve cryptic crosswords.) Thoroughly enjoyed your crossword, and thanks for dropping in.

86. Roz @84 – as you will know, Azed often goes against his own dictum by using “superfluous” link words. But as long as those link words are consistent with the grammar of the cryptic reading of the clue, we can consider them fair. Fed is always pretty scrupulous and consistent in this regard (and with things like indicating the need to split words) and that is one of the things I like about his style. I like Philistine too but he is definitely not so scrupulous about his grammar, often chucking in words that have no function other than to help the surface reading of the clue. But that’s also fine – forewarned is forearmed, so when we see Philistine’s byline on a puzzle, we know what to expect (consistency is in some ways more important than precision – I just hope Philistine isn’t so slapdash when it comes to operating on people’s hearts). And despite what Sil used to call “Philistine nonsense”, I find his puzzles a lot more fun to solve than Azed’s. YMMV.

    PS I’m sure you also know that Torquemada was most likely joking when he said he needed to make his puzzles harder. In any case, I prefer Enigmatist’s view that the setter should put up a fight but always aim to “lose graciously”, allowing the solver to win in the end. As a setter, your aim is to provide those penny drop moments that are the most rewarding part of solving crosswords.

87. And for me, the realisation it was *Judd* Trump being referred to was the most enjoyable penny drop moment of this puzzle. Great clue, thanks Fed!

88. Widdersbel @86 every setter has to use link words within reason, for NECKWEAR “with” is fine but “to build” sounds like someone explaining a clue. I am fairly sure that Torquemada was not joking and I totally agree. The setter should sometimes aim to give the solver a severe beating.

89. Yes, I take your point about “to build” – it does rather telegraph the solution. But I also agree with Fed that it is necessary in order for the clue to make sense in English, and it is consistent with the cryptic grammar, so it is not entirely “superfluous”.

    As a setter, I would be dismayed by the kind of comment we often see here – “too difficult to be enjoyable”. If frustrating solvers is your aim, well, any fool can write a cryptic clue that’s impossible to solve (as you’d know if you ever watched 3-2-1) but to write clues that are grammatically sound, entertaining and eventually lead the solver after some thought to a single definitive conclusion takes some skill. I rate Fed as a very skilful setter.

90. If “to build” is necessary then it is time to write a new clue.
    I am not advocating clues that do not work, just clues that give so little away that it is very hard to solve them. If you crack the code then you see that the clue works perfectly. Fidelio was the master of this and of minimalism. And I do not mean every day, just Wednesday and Saturday.
    I am strongly in favour of the Guardian having two “easy” puzzles each week for newer solvers, it used to have great setters of easier puzzles. Now we get 5 or 6 “medium” puzzles every week, mostly very good, but the range is so narrow.

91. Roz, I do broadly agree with your first sentence but this is largely a stylistic judgment rather than a matter of soundness and accuracy.

92. Fed’s comment above @69 that “across the population as a whole more people know X than Y” got me musing about what the appropriate reference population might be for that claim. The population of the UK? The English-speaking population of the world? The population of English-language crossword aficionados? I suspect that the truth of the claim depends upon which population one has in mind.

    Fed, if you don’t mind telling, which population do you set for?

93. The only one I can’t still fully parse is ANTICLIMAX. Though I’ve never seen it as an indicator before, I can only presume that ‘discovered’ is supposed to equate with ‘found inside’ of (w)il(d)?

94. Blue Manc it is crosswordspeak , DIS COVERED , take the cover off, the outer letters .

95. Roz@the middle of my comment sandwich.
    Cheers, many a thanks. Noted and logged for future reference.

96. I liked this very much, but where is san used as an abbreviation for sanatorium?

97. oed.com has ‘colloquial (chiefly British) San n.4 = sanatorium n. (esp. in sense 3).’ and
    ‘sanatorium n.3 1860– A room or building in a boarding school for the accommodation of the sick. Cf. San n.4’
    3 of the 4 quotations mention Eton.

98. Thanks, FrankieG.

99. You’re very welcome, aicul@96&98.

100. [@96-99 such a beautiful, uplifting glimpse of an older, slower, sunnier time … but just right for now too. Smile on my face and in my heart Bless you, guys!]

101. Fed – I’m liking your style increasingly, as I forecast. You clearly work well; keep that sure foot on the pedal …. and with cat drop sleight of paw. The glint in your eye is appreciated too!
     Many thanks – and to Andrew, of course

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