Guardian Cryptic 29,381 by Paul

78 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,381 by Paul”

1. Agree with loonapick’s assessment. Not the normal easy Monday ride, but nicely entertaining. Took me a while to remember ‘ORDINARY’ for penny farthing. Had to work out ‘CHAKRA’ from the wordplay, and ‘INDIANAN’ wasn’t the fi first word that came into mind for American – I tried to find a word starting with ‘inca’ initially. Thanks to Paul and loonapick.

2. A bit easier than the usual Paul fare. I loved COINCIDE for the death of liquidity.

3. Thanks loonapick, you were needed for explanations for FLAPJACK, and TANNER. Still don’t know why penny farthing = ORDINARY.

   Not only quite difficult for a Monday but also for a Paul, I thought.

   I had trouble with INDIANAN. I had an O for D (remaining from an early guess and check), and despite numerous pressing of the check button, the O persisted, until I had to reveal. This failure of the check button seems to occur occasionally – anyone else find this?

   Thanks to Paul, too

4. That was fun, but definitely not an easy Monday breeze (it took me as long as the Quiptic and Everyman together).

   COINCIDE and TANNER amused me, it took me looking it up to remember a penny-farthing could be a ORDINARY.

   I don’t get problems with the check button keeping wrong letters, just my clumsiness hitting clear clue instead of check

   Thank you to loonapick and Paul.

5. Proper groan / chuckle at coincide. I found this very tough going at first – so pleased to get through at one sitting.

   Thanks Paul and loonapick

6. A lot of this was fun. However, if I had been hoping for a Vulcan-level easier Monday, this definitely wasn’t it. I failed to see CRACKING=sterling, CHAKRA=centre or PARENTAL=tender (though the PA-rental and the COIN-cide made me laugh.) I suspect ORDINARY for penny farthing will be news to some people.

7. Agree with all the early comments. I got through it with TANNER the LOI and agree that COINCIDE is typically Paulian amusement.

   I am not quite seeing what tells me to repeat TOY in YO-YO. Is ‘time after time’ telling me to repeat plaything or to twice remove a T or both? Or am I simply being dim?

   Thanks Paul and loonapick

8. PostMark@7
   YO-YO
   I had and have the same issue (I am missing something).
   Play=TOY, thing=TOY? That’s a stretch, I know but …
   COTD: COINCIDE

   Thanks Paul and loonapick

9. Likes for COINCIDE, COPPER and ORDINARY (nho). Thanks.

10. I see YO-YO as the blog has parsed it. It’s a reversal.

11. And &lit.

12. I usually only attempt Paul’s if I’m feeling brave, but I managed today’s minus a couple of reveals to finish. I liked the theme, and there were a good number of smiles.

    I would never have equated PARENTAL with tender, and had to reveal. Unfamiliar with the Roman goddess of hunting, so INDIANAN was a head scratch. And I’d forgotten the old word for a British sixpence, but I did find it in a dictionary. Not sure about jump/start. I could see that the clue for YO-YO was trying to be an &lit, but it didn’t quite seem to work.

    Thanks Paul & loonapick.

13. I tend to avoid looking at who the setter is until I’m a few clues in, to try and avoid any preconceptions. Yes this was certainly chewier than one might expect on a Monday, but I was genuinely surprised to see it was Paul. Enjoyable, anyway.

14. Dave Ellison @3 – ‘ORDINARY’ was another name for a penny farthing. I had to use Google for that one but for some reason I knew there was a word I couldn’t quite bring to mind.

15. COINCIDE is, coincidentally, another recycled Paul clue.. How does he get away with this? There were several lately from one in mid 2023. I remembered this one, as recently as March 29, 29,343 COINCIDE Agree with token killing?

16. Took forever to think of Diana as the hunter, and thought PARENTAL = tender quite a strain.

    Failed to spot the tanner gag and got in a tangle thinking I couldn’t spell Cheyenne (Wyoming, I think).

    AMEX was neat, though.

    I think the penny farthing got called the ORDINARY when the new “safety cycles” came out, which were considerably easier to ride.

17. I quite liked this crossword and managed to get as far as the intersecting INDIANAN, and TANNER my last two in, both of which I thought a bit unfair. DIANA for hunter was not indicated as a goddess, and SOL is a trade name, from what I could find out. On the way, I learned that a Sol is a Mars day. I’ll put that away for future reference.

    Another TILT was ORDINARY, which I found quite extraordinary. Interesting word, and thanks to William@16 for the explanation. I don’t find any cycles ordinary. It’s a question of balance.

18. paddymelon@17
    TANNER
    Thanks for the additional info on SOL.
    Sun is not the sol meaning but why did you find it unfair?
    Just curious.

19. About 4A: “Cop” and “nick” are both also slang for theft so the wordplay works on both sides of the law!

20. What joy to see Paul on a Monday! Nowhere near his normal level of difficulty but still full of fun and inventiveness. So what if we’ve seen a clue for COINCIDE before, it still makes me laugh out loud.

    Great start to the week! Thanks Paul and loonapick

21. It’s a while since I began to despair on a crossword and thought I might not finish it. Perseverance saw us through and each time the thematic penny dropped it was such a joy. BTW, loonapick, the MI ends just after Leeds – it does not continue to Edinburgh. Wish it did – but not at the cost of ripping up wonderful scenery in order to cut 10 minutes off a journey. Thanks very much for your excellent blog and thanks to Paul for his usual brilliance.

22. Paul on a Monday is not my cup of tea. I agree with loonapick’s assessment. Beginners beware!

    LHS was easier for me.

    I needed help form google searches for GK unknown to me: ORDINARY cycle = penny farthing bicycle; CAYENNE=capital of French Guiana; sol=TANNER.

    Thanks, both.

23. KVa @18. Because whether Sol is a god, or the brand name of a tanning solution, neither is indicated. In this country with such a high incidence of melanomas due to exposure to the sun, perhaps I’m a bit sensitive, especially with my Celtic skin. 🙂

24. Definitely not an easy Monday, this was slow going for me.

    Geoff Down Under @12: JUMP = start as in when a loud noise makes you jump or start. But I agree that tender = PARENTAL seems a bit of a stretch.

    I thought YO-YO was very clever, but I can see the difficulties (PostMark and KVa) when you try to break it down in detail.

    Thanks Paul and loonapick. (Pedant’s corner: you don’t have to say “and &lit” – it already has an & in it! 🙂 )

25. All done.

26. Terriblislow@21 – my apologies – I have got that wrong in the past – in my head, I consider the A1(M) as the M1, but even that only goes as far as Newcastle, so I’m doubly wrong!

27. What a nice surprise to find a Paul on a Monday.

    I particularly liked 11a, 17a, 24a, 4d and 13d.

    7d also drew a smile. Perhaps I’m being fanciful but, as the English football season draws to a close, it felt as if Paul was bidding a temporary farewell to the home of his beloved Albion.

    Thanks to Paul and loonapick!

28. In 23a TANNER “Sol” can also be various outdated coins, as well as the current “new” unit of currency in Peru, (and Solana, a cryptocurrency)…

29. …[“Money money money…“] – Not ABBA

30. paddymelon @23, Sol in the clue is neither a God nor a brand name for a tanning solution, which is why neither is indicated in the clue. As the blog says, Sol is an alternative name (from the Latin sun=sol) for our sun which when exposed to it “tans” the skin, hence a “tanner”. I share your concern about the effects of sol on the skin. It’s ironic that Australians are known for vitamin D deficiency.

31. paddymelon @17: yes, sol as a Mars day featured heavily in the excellent film The Martian with Matt Damon. Worth a watch.

32. A puzzle of two halves. I found the LHS easy, the RHS much harder and had to reveal several, including ORDINARY (nho that meaning).

    Dave Ellison@3: the web version of the check button has been erratic for several (i.e. over 5 I think) years and I’ve repeatedly complained about it to no effect.

33. Thanks Tim C, but still Sol as Latin is also not indicated. I think I should take some vitamin D tablets.
    [In a new study published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, researchers examined vitamin D in brain tissue. They found that higher levels of the vitamin were associated with better cognitive function—a stronger memory and a slower progression of cognitive decline.

    Might need more than cryptics for mental decline.]

34. A nice workout from Paul. I thought coincide was clever and particularly liked Cayenne and tanner. Ah the old coins, l miss them – l used to like the half crown, always seemed like a lot of money and sounded like a lot of money. Thanks Paul and loonapick

35. Capital stuff, a crackerjack!
    Paul, to his credit, hits the mark & bucks Monday mode with a stock of taxing clues, raking in a wealth of coinage.
    Thanks to Paul and loonapick.

36. I think the YO-YO clue really should have started “A plaything or two…” to make it parse smoothly.
    But otherwise, all good. Liked the huntress in particular.

37. Wynsum@35. Gold!

38. Different approach to Monday, but none-the-worse for that.

    I liked the wordplays of FLAPJACK and FREELANCER. I still do not get PARENTAL = tender; a parent is a tender but … perhaps someone can explain. As it says in the blog, PLASTIC means credit card surely, not credit. I thought the ‘plaything’ in 8 was doing double-duty but I accept the clue could be read as an &lit, so negating the issue.

    Thanks Paul and loonapick.

39. Thought this a classy Monday offering from Paul, without his usual quirky stuff. Ely doing overtime as a See again, and it took me ages to see COPPER as a Nicker, and AMEX stared me in the face for quite some time before the penny dropped. I imagined my boyhood hobby of Numismatics might come in handy, but it really wasn’t needed in the end. I never quite know how the adjectival descriptions of those from or in the U.S States will work out – didn’t we have the slightly more awkward Ohioan recently? – but I suppose INDIANAN was more straightforward. Liked COINCIDE and CONTEMPLATE. Last one in was The Lord Of The Manor at 22ac…

40. I too thought the grid made the solving harder. I got quite lost in the SW, convinced Tea vessel = Cutter, until 💡 Tanner and Brandy. Cruel!
    Favourite also Copper, for much the same reasons given by Roger GS@19. I liked 11A too. Thanks to all.

41. As a person who originally hails from Indiana, I have to grumble a bit at INDIANAN. Yes, the word exists, but is only used by people who are not from Indiana. We call ourselves Hoosiers; you literally never hear the other word spoken in the state. It’s something of a shibboleth.

    [I have now lived in Chicago for far longer than I lived in Indiana, but as a native, I’m still a Hoosier. Unfortunately.]

42. Just had a call from a COPPER to say they’ve nicked the scoundrel who stole my wife’s bag on Friday. Hopefully he’s for the HIGH JUMP

    Puntastic Paul a welcome change on Monday. I suspect the editor’s motto may be “variety is the spice of life”

    Cheers L&P

43. I didn’t do well on this at all.

    I’ve found that the check button will sometimes remove one letter that’s actually correct, and will let it stay on a second application.

    Are flapjacks sweet? News to me. I think of the word as another name for pancake, and those aren’t sweet either unless you pour syrup on them.

    Thanks Paul and loonapick.

44. The Guardian’s lack of consistency strikes again. A simple prize crossword followed by the impenetrable Paul in the supposedly simpler Monday slot.

    I read through this one but couldn’t get it started. I object to paying £3 for the paper when the crossword is rubbish.

45. Valentine@45 – flapjacks in the UK are made with both sugar and golden syrup, and are most definitely sweet – they aren’t pancakes.

46. Much easier than I expected. Spent a few minutes thinking of Orion as the hunter but otherwise no worries. Thank you to Paul and Loonapick

47. Paul meets Monday in something of a sweet spot.

48. Bit of a shock for a Monday i.e. having to think. Great puzzle though and good fun.

49. I have to say, Alastair@44, I feel a setter as clever, witty and fun as Paul deserves better than being described as “rubbish”. He certainly sets us some tough challenges (and this was hard for a Monday), but I’m sure he would not want to be seen as impenetrable. You might find it useful to use loonapick’s helpful blog to work backwards from the answers, see what’s going on, and have better luck next time.

50. More money: 4a “Nicker” = £1 0s 0d
    21d “Guinea” = £1 1s 0d – (£1 plus… …5%)
    15a “sovereign“:
    ‘4.a. 1503– A gold coin minted in England from the time of Henry VII to Charles I, originally of the value of ‘ a quid plus half-a-crown, but later only 10 or 11 bob.
    ‘4.b. 1817– A British gold coin of the (nominal) value of one ‘ nicker.
    [No florins, though].

51. For 8d I can’t make the parsing given work (I see the &lit part).
    I get plaything=TOY and time=T, I can also see the repetition of removing T (time after time gone) and the reversal (up) but in order to repeat it I need to reuse time after time.
    Could the parsing actually be using time = YO (Years Old) repeated (time after time) and reversed (up) leaving plaything as definition?

52. As ever, after about 6 completed cryptics on the bounce, I can only get three clues of this.
    Congratulations to everyone who could sort this Spaghetti out.
    Thanks both.

53. Sad to say that The Grauniad’s Puzzle App has finally stopped updating. At least we got 12 free days out of it. Not sure why the Grauniad still has a banner line on the Cryptic web page promoting the download of the Puzzle App. It’s going to take a while for my fingers to understand the Web version of the crossword doesn’t automatically skip over pre-filled letters.
    Meanwhile, today’s crossword was fully solved after two sessions. Some fine clues in there with ORDINARY my favourite.

54. Reading the blog, I can see why those who solved it enjoyed it. Clever!
    No complaint, but this one was not for me. I managed a spattering of answers, and finally gave up.

55. I couldn’t parse YO-YO, thought it was just a CD without any internal wordplay, but no matter. Everything else went in smoothly, though this was far from straightforward for a Monday.

    A lot of Y’s in this puzzle, don’t know whether that’s significant.

    Likes for ORDINARY (how many knew that this was the term, back in the 19th century, for a penny-farthing bike?); SECURELY; DRACHMA (yes we need to move on from the eternal ER for sovereign); CAYENNE; RUDIMENT; COINCIDE (haha!); FREELANCER.

    Had to think for a while about CHAKRA (tried CHANRU first but there’s no such word) but when I realised it forms part of many Indian surnames, it clicked.

    Missing some of Paul’s ‘toilet humour’ perhaps – till next time?

    Thanks to Paul and Loonapick.

56. Laccaria @55 I confess I googled chanru too. According to Chambers CHAKRA is a Hindu term for a discus representing the sun. It’s a “centre” in yoga which I knew but couldn’t see the Hindu connection. Possibly because it wasn’t there?

57. Thanks for the blog, good set of clues and free from the usual childish attempts to amuse, perhaps the Christmas crackers have run out at last .
    I like it when parts of the wordplay sound totally different to the final answer. YO-YO needed an edit.
    Not very suitable for a Monday .

58. As a fellow Hoosier, I agree with mrpenney 41.INDIANIAN made me wince.

59. Enjoyable and infuriating in parts! Incidentally, the M1 goes between London and Leeds. The A1, occasionally A1(M) goes between London and Edinburgh.

60. I, too, spent too much time trying to find justification for CHANRU! Thanks, loonapick, for parsing GET CRACKING for me. An interesting change for a Monday. Thanks, both.

61. Challenging puzzle; definitely not a Monday. That is not on Paul but on the Guardian editor who needs to do a better job slotting the puzzles in. Thank you to Paul and Loonapick.

62. Found this quite difficult. Not a normal Paul. No smut!! Now he’s got the Amex in we’d better watch out for bloom, barber, dunk. Sorry that’s an Albion in joke!! Ta for the blog: it was needed. Definitely not Monday fare!

63. Did about two thirds during coffee breaks in a training day. Came home to tackle rest but brain too frazzled after all those PowerPoints. Has the “Monday must be easier” rule ever been stated as policy or assumed? Similarly are prize puzzles written as prize puzzles or random? If the approach was clearer – and consistent – perhaps complaints would be fewer. Thank you setter and blogger and the presenter who didn’t read out all the slides when it was her turn.

64. Enjoyed this once I dug deep for some currency knowledge.

    I imagine this crossword will mean another week where Paul doesn’t do the Prize.

    Is this his longest run ever? The last one he did was December 2 by my reckoning.

65. I got bored/frustrated and gave up. I enjoyed CONTEMPLATE and COINCIDE, but that was about it.

66. I wrote almost nothing in first look through – and also found LHS easier – but in the end finished with no need to look anything up. In response to a few comments above – it was well worth the effort in persisting. Thanks to Paul.

67. Not only has Alistair@44 been rude about the setter (as pointed out by 1961DB@49) but he has also referred to an active prize puzzle, which is likewise verboten on this site. Rather than saying the crossword is rubbish when I cannot get started, I assume that I am having an off day. And £3 spent on the Guardian is never a waste of money.

    I’m getting more than a little cheesed off with some of the comments below the blog, especially people making a point that someone else has already made. If they can’t be bothered to read through the comments before commenting, who do they think will be reading their own comments?

    Apologies if I have repeated what someone else has already said – I did read all the comments, but I might have skimmed past something. Mostly I skim past comments that refer to clue numbers – “I thought that 7d and 22a were really good/bad” – I’m really not sufficiently interested to look up the clue in the grid, especially if you can’t be bothered to tell us what you liked about the clue.

    And apologies to loonapick, as you may well be the only one to read my grumpy diatribe. Thanks for your very thorough and useful blog.

68. mrpenney@41
    Back in 2016 the answer to a clue by Maskarade was HOOSIER which I thought a little unfair on us Brits.

69. What a delightful surprise…

    Sheffield hatter @ 67 – Hear, hear! Two of my major bugbears (I’m never sure whether it’s selfishness – or simple dumbheadedness!)

    Huge thanks to Paul, loonapick and the Guardian Crossword Editor for a great call!

70. I thought this was very unfair for a Monday! I only managed two clues and found the rest completely opaque. That’s my week gone then – I usually take a few days to do the Mondays – I’ll hope next Everyman is OK. I’m not sure what the editor had in mind. I know a lot of the more skilled solvers loved this one, but it was utterly incomprehensible to some of us.

71. I didn’t get any of these! But most seemed fair looking here.

    Could someone please explain MINUTELY? I understand NUT being crazy, and MI being motorway, but how do we get MI before NUT? And what’s driver doing in the clue?

72. Sam it is two equivalent phrases . A crazy motorway driver could be called a M1 NUT .

73. Very late to the party but I liked the money puzzle (as opposed to the monkey puzzle), so thanks to Paul and loonapick (and no thanks to all those who complained about the editorial placement of a Paul crossword on a Monday. Personally, I like surprises! My delay in posting wasn’t due to level of difficulty, although it was a really good work-out, I thought.

74. As someone who only ever attempts, and rarely completes, the Everyman and the Monday puzzles (and, now, the easier Quick Cryptic) this was way too much. After two days of attempting it I had to admit defeat having only managed three clues. Dispiriting.

75. Fabius – keep plodding on and learning. I was the same but I now attempt, though rarely finish, the Saturday Guardian.

76. Thank you Roz! 🙂

77. A bit late to the party but dear loonapick American Express do not provide credit cards, but charge cards. You have to settle in full each month.

78. Me my big mouth! It seems – I went to check- that Amex do(es) now offer a credit card. Back when I wrote copy for their direct mail, they didn’t! But that was in another lifetime! Apologies.

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