Guardian 29,407 / Sphinx

141 comments on “Guardian 29,407 / Sphinx”

1. Ho hum. Give me a real crossword any day.

2. NET – NE(A)T – Arranged (NEAT) to spring A gives NET

3. Agree with Tim C. This felt contrived.

4. I am glad that you were confused about this as much as me, Eileen. I imagine that this puzzle will prove unpopular.

5. Is BLESS taking ILL out of BILL LESS?

6. Forgot to say thanks for the blog, Eileen – I really needed it today. I think in the parsing for MAPLE, it should be LE(D) rather than LEA(D). That pesky autofill again?

7. Thanks Sphinx and Eileen
   I enjoyed this much more than Monday or Tuesday, though a couple were unparsed, and the SW took a long time to fall. Favourites GOOSE and DAHLIAS.
   No idea of the theme – I watched the first programme and heartily disliked it, so haven’t see it since. I’ve also not watched Bake Off, so had to Google for presenters – Mary Berry is actually listed as “judge” rather than “presenter”!
   I saw the NET parsing, but can’t help on BLESS, I’m afraid.
   Eyebrow raise at kids=lambs. I suppose it’s metaphorical.

8. I think your parsing for MAPLE should have LE[d] (beat as a past tense) rather than LEA[d] Eileen.
   HEADACHE is EH(what)CA(about) all back for the last four letters.
   The only parsing I can think of for BLESS is if you take Bill to be B-less that gives you ill=unwell, sort of.

9. NET is 10 (TEN) arranged.

10. 24: I think BILL when it is B-LESS is ILL.

11. Oh, and CONCLUSION is ONC inside an anagram of LCOUSIN.

12. SOCIETY
    Looks like this:
    hundred (C) and (ET) one (I) before=C I before ET

    Thanks Sphinx and Eileen!

    Tim C@9
    NEAT
    I had it like Crispy@2

13. Thanks, all, for correction to MAPLE.
    Shirl @5 – that’s as far as I got – but couldn’t see how to express it. (Ah, ChannelSeimmer (thank you!) has it, I think)
    Tim C @9 – I think Crispy @2 has it – thanks, Crispy!

14. I thought 10A is an anagram of TEN the number of the clue.

    MULBERRY – Mary Berry hasn’t been on Bake Off for the last 7 series (she was judge from 2010-2016, since 2017, when GBBO moved to C4, Prue Leith took over). I went through every host but and judge trying to work that one out!

    I couldn’t work out CAST = count either, but the rest made sense.

    [cross-posted with the world]
    Thank you to Sphinx and Eileen

15. I keep getting told by my test solvers that things like “the last” or “the finale” (in CURSE) to denote E are bad form (and it should be “last of the” or “finale of the”). Similarly “bare dumb” for UM would raise eyebrows I think.
    I’ve no idea where ET comes from in SOCIETY.
    I also paused like muffin @7 re kids=lambs.

16. Thanks for the effort Eileen. All the bits I can’t parse you can’t parse either! I hope others will join Crispy@2 to fill in the blanks.

17. Excuse my ignorance, but does CTRL-ALT-ESC actually do anything? Can’t find it in Microsoft’s list of shortcuts.

18. I took ET in 16 to be a “being” (with CI before it). Makes a change from a film.
    I thoroughly enjoyed this. Many thanks to Sphinx and Eileen.

19. Thanks, ChannelSeimmer @11 – you’re right, of course – I’ll amend the blog.
    I don’t recognise your name, so welcome (especially for that!) to the site, if you’re a new commenter – and my apologies if not.

20. Awful (I was going to say Sphinx stinks, but I refrained). Couldn’t parse the ones giving others trouble. Mary Berry was a judge, not presenter. CNTR-ALT-ESC is not a recognised hotkey in my experience and not one I could find by googling. It isn’t refresh, which is usually F5 or CNTR-R. So I thought the definition must just be KEYS – so for example, one three pi would be acceptable as answer to the clue number? I suppose that it is part of a theme may just about justify it, but how many would recognise the theme?

    SUM is not an equation so SCUM is a terrible clue.

    Thanks Eileen for your comforting blog

21. I believe the ET in society is the (alien) being with CI placed before it.

22. Thank you Eileen for sticking with this and providing the parsing for what I found to be a very tedious self-indulgent crossword!

23. Didn’t like this! Crispy @ 17 – it cycles you through open windows

24. Crispy@17 it seems to switch to the next open application when I tried it, something like ALT-TAB I think

25. Crispy@17, I seem to remember using those keys if the computer screen froze, used as a sort of re-set?

26. SOCIETY
    DuncT@18
    Your parse may be the one intended by the setter. Better than my suggestion of ET for and (@12).
    In both cases, something is missing but yours justifies the ‘being’ which is redundant otherwise.

27. Took a while to get into this but mostly enjoyed it, especially EXPUNGING and MIDAS TOUCH. The various explanations for NET seem equally valid and I also took ET as a being, like DuncT @18. Well done Eileen for taking on the struggle.

    Ta both.

28. Other links to the series:

    An episode called The Bill (which is indeed about arguing over paying the bill)

    An episode called Zanzibar is named after the HOTEL in which it is set

    Also two Ninas:

    HARE (each episode features a carefully placed hare statue, extending the grid to a bonus round of spot-the-hare)

    And BUS (in series 8 they famously previewed an episode set on a bus that was a misdirect for what actually was broadcast)

    Not sure about I/ERGO in the middle, maybe a happy accident

29. Thanks to Eileen for the blog and those commentators who helped to parse the awkward clues. Didn’t enjoy this puzzle. Rather self-indulgent I thought.

30. I confidently entered CTRL-ALT-DEL without even bothering to de-anagram, as that’s a much more common key combination in my computer experience.

    I finished most but not all of this but didn’t enjoy it much. My “Huh?” list was too long and several clues seemed overly contrived. Groans outnumbered smiles. Perhaps I just wasn’t in the right mood.

    Thanks for the blog, Eileen.

31. I wondered if ‘cast’ may be an election related ‘count’. I too was flummoxed by CTRL ALT ESC, much more familiar with CTRL ALT DEL to reboot a computer, but I already had ‘CUES’ in and could not figure it out.

    In the end I gave up to this one, so thank you for the blog and the explanations, and I’m grateful too for the lessons here in the comments, which I hope will serve me well in the future.

32. Definition 13 of CAST in my on-line Chambers is” to add-up, compute, calculate, now rare”. While I found this impenetrable at times, I still appreciate a fresh approach from a setter, so I won’t join the chorus of disapproval.

33. I am left with a strange combination of admiration and disappointment by this puzzle. Many of the clues are incredibly tightly written such that every word works hard to give you the correct order of elements (“society” for example) but others just seemed to try too hard to be clever without producing any sort of fun (“Bless”, say). A clue which is unusual in structure, like one of Paul’s yesterday, should produce an “aha” moment when you get it, and you should then be convinced it is the only correct answer.

    And isn’t “ninth” requiring double duty from something? “Partial” tells you it is a hidden word, “fraction” is the definition and “fraction (in theory)” hides the word, if you ignore brackets. I’m not sure that it really works fully.

    I got “mulberry” from “shade” and back-parsed to Mary Berry, whom I know as an author of a couple of cookbooks I own, so guessed she had to have something to do with Bake Off. If the clue had only worked by knowing presenters of a TV show, it would be unfair. I did need most of the crossers however!

    And I am another one griping about “ctrl-alt-esc”. The big refresh button is “ctrl-alt-del” on Windows machines.

    Of the theme, I am utterly ignorant, but, like Eileen, I felt no loss at not knowing it or spotting it as it made no difference to the solving.

    And thanks to Eileen and various posters for helping parse a couple I could not see my way through, and Sphinx for the puzzle.

34. NINTH
    Jack of Few Trades@33
    Agree with you. Someone may have an explanation.

    BLESS
    Though ChannelSeimmer’s explanation @10 seems what the setter had in mind, the clue reads a
    bit awkward.

35. Looking back at 3a, the answer has nothing to do with ‘refeshing’ keys – F5 is the usual one

36. KVa @12 Wouldn’t ET=and in SOCIETY need some French indication?

37. As a Mac user, I don’t have an ALT key. Or, at least, I have one called Option which I think might do much the same but the combo did not come to mind. Totally flummoxed by that.

    As Eileen says, knowledge of the theme was, thankfully, not required but as soon as I saw the compiler’s name, I suspected this would be another puzzle whose purpose is to advance the setter’s progress in another world and so, it seems, it is. I was able to complete the grid, apart from the computer command and two others linked to it – LAMBS which never occurred and EXPUNGING. I am sorry but I do not like ‘Middle Eastern’ = T – it’s the middle of easTern – and I have never encountered gulf = G. I see it’s in Collins but I’m struggling to think of an application: is there a Gulf political grouping that uses it?

    Thanks Sphinx and Eileen

38. Woah, this was very tough, maybe because I’m not used to this setter. Gave up in the SW corner. Failed to solve 23ac, 22d, 24d. Know nothing about Bake Off so was put off the clue for 23ac.

    I am not familiar with Inside No. 9 so the theme passed me by. Tbh I am totally uninterested in themes in crossword puzzles but it is good for those who enjoy them.

    3ac was a surprise!

    I could not parse 1ac; 10ac; 16ac like Eileen I only got as far as rev of OS + CI (101) + ET? + Y.

    For 17d – I don’t get why/how the second column of the grid has alternate black and white squares? What grid is that?

    New for me: GOOSE=poke (someone) in the bottom; CHARGER = a large flat dish; the fact that a LEMUR is a primate (never thought about it before today).

    Thanks, both – as well as those who have posted above re parsing some of the clues.

39. I wasn’t totally defeated by this extremely challenging puzzle this morning, as I did manage to solve about a dozen. Then gave up and repeatedly pressed the reveal button. Very glad I did, as I never in a month of – well, Wednesdays – have sussed out the solution to 3 ac, amongst many others. Above my pay grade, I’m afraid, but plaudits to those who persevered and completed…

40. Some cute stuff, such as the Spanish city and two doses of one Celsius, and some quibbles. (Eileen, your first one in the explanation of CRYONIC shouldn’t be there.)

    CTRL-ALT-ESC is nothing in real life, IME. It might have been something in the show, but that doesn’t count.

    As DE@20 says, a sum is not an equation. 1+2 is a sum, 1+2=3 is an equation. Very disappointing.

    BLESS is very peculiar. Even if we take the wordplay as suggested by commentators above, the definition rather grates.

    Not the best experience.

41. CTRL-ALT-ESC relates to escape rooms, and there’s a company called that (as well as an Inside No. 9 episode entitled this in this series.) Because it’s the route into Task Manager (possibly on Apple Macs) it also lets you escape a looping program.

42. Thanks, KV @12 and DuncT @18, but I’m afraid I’m not convinced by either ‘and’ (I can’t find dictionary support) or ‘being’ for ET in SOCIETY (why should ‘being suggest ‘alien’? What about ‘human beings’?)

    RP @28 – thanks for all the extra bits.

    Jack of Few Trades @33 – I wasn’t happy with NINTH, either.

43. Angus@23, Dave@24, Kate@25. Thanks all for your input. Having tried that out on my keyboard (should have tried that first!), I find that the CTRL is redundant – ALT + ESC cycles through open windows without the CTRL, which is what the Microsoft support page says.

44. I enjoyed this pithy challenge, with neat clues such as for OVEREAT and CURSE.
    And I liked the use of ‘lines’ in CUES.

    Jack of Few Trades@33 & KVA@34
    re NINTH
    – I understood ‘partial’ to be an overtone or harmonic, giving ‘Partial fraction’ as the definition

    Thanks Sphinx & Eileen

45. Thanks, Crispy – I live and continue to learn (hopefully!)

46. Thanks, Dr. WhatsOn @40 – first ‘one’ now deleted.

47. I knew this was going to be a tough one when NET was my first one in, and I struggled with the parsing. I parsed it as Tim@9. The clue is 10 across, so reading “10 arranged to spring a trap” got me NET.

    I second that CTRL+ALT+ESC does nothing, so describing them as “refreshing keys” seems peculiar.

    I think CAST is a quadruple definition too. Players, count (to add or calculate as in “forecast”), bung (to throw) and shed.

    I enjoyed the challenge today. Thanks Sphinx and Eileen.

48. michelle@38 The grid referred to is Sphinx’s crossword grid. Have a look at column 2. Alternating black and white squares. (chequered)

49. Well, I enjoyed it mostly, but I don’t have a television so the internal references which annoyed so many others passed me by. Laboured a bit over a few, and I agree with some of the quibbles above, but got there in the end. Failed to parse a couple (NET, BLESS) but that’s often the case. Thanks to Sphinx and Eileen.

50. A puzzle like today’s reminds me just how good the Guardian’s regular stable of setters are in comparison – or maybe just how bad a solver I am, though it was reassuring to find that I shared several difficulties with Eileen. Several reveals and lots of HEADACHE-inducing parses.

    The only justification I can see for CTRL-ALT-ESC is that in the series which forms the theme (which I don’t watch), it was a significant key sequence: otherwise it’s just a random selection of “keys”. I didn’t get it. Like others, can’t see how count=CAST (though you did “cast up” your accounts in olden times) or ET=being. I had SET (which I can sort of parse) for NET (which I can’t) and GROPE for GOOSE.

    I rather liked the B-less ILL, along with LEMUR, CURSE, LEEWARD and MIDAS TOUCH, but EXPUNGING ended up in the Life’s Too Short tray.

51. With TimC and others. This felt flat.

52. SOCIETY
    Eileen@42 (and Tim C@36)
    I agree that both parses aren’t convincing. I thought DuncT’s was somewhat better (me@26).

    NINTH
    wynsum@44
    You may be right but then again it has the double duty issue ( a different one this time).

53. I got there in the end, but the NINTH clue is indeed in the wrong order. And Mary Berry is not one of the Bake-Off presenters – she was one of the judges.

54. And CTRL-ALT-ESC is definitely the refresh combination on a Mac.

55. Thank you to everyone here for the parsing, which I had need of for multiple clues…
    The theme totally escaped me…
    DNF due to “Chequered” and “Overeat”.
    Thank you to Sphinx and Elaine

56. Took a bit longer than usual – morning coffee break completion; this irked me till I logged on here to find I was by no means alone.

    There were a few clues that I felt stretched things a little and, like many of commentators above, the theme passed me by completely (at least it wasn’t needed in order to solve). Lots left partially unparsed and a few hit and hopes. I liked LEMUR a lot.

    Thanks Sphinx and Eileen

57. wynsum @44 clever alternative definition, but it still requires either partial to do double-duty (overtone and hidden indicator) and fraction (as part of the hidden word) so it doesn’t solve the problem!

    Shanne @41 But it doesn’t – Macs have no “alt” key or “ctrl” key (they have “option” and “command” instead) so that’s not right. Are you thinking of “crtl-alt-del” on PCs with Windows which takes you to the task manager? In which case the given answer is just plain wrong.

    From a purely psychological perspective it is fascinating how we find ourselves torn between wanting to nitpick (I know I can be very guilty of this, and often it’s when I’ve actually missed a subtlety) or to defend the setter, which can end up with us getting into massively convoluted or obscure reasoning. Something to do with the human psyche and wanting or needing to take sides, perhaps? I shall try to follow the teachings of George du Maurier’s famous cartoon and accept that some things can be good and bad in parts…

58. copland@54 – there’s no ALT key on a Mac. I’ve tried CTRL+OPTION+ESC and CTRL+COMMAND+ESC but they do nothing. COMMAND+OPTION+ESC opens the Force Quit task manager, which isn’t “refreshing”.

59. copland at 54 – my mac keyboard does not have those keys. the mac equivalent of Ctrl Alt Del is Command Option Escape

60. Solved nearly all of it but often mystified by the parsing, so I concur with Eileen. My list of objections is so long that I can’t be bothered, and I think most of them have been covered already so I’ll refrain.

61. I found this to be like wading through treacle, from it taking a while to getting anything into the grid, to completion with help from Word Wizard for the final couple of clues. A few did fall into place and which I could parse, but mostly it was a slog and not a particularly enjoyable one, with answers mainly coming via crossers and often guesswork from bits of the clues.

    I realise it may say more about my solving skills but looking at the parsing of many, I just found myself shaking my head, thinking ‘no way’. Thanks Eileen and many commenters for going where I wasn’t able!

    I don’t like to be so negative: mostly if I find the day’s puzzle challenging or beyond me, I can appreciate that it’s often just me, given the comments from others. I see I’m in company today though, and hope that I can get on better with the next puzzle by this setter.

62. oed,com has cast ‘
    VI.37. To count or reckon, so as to ascertain the sum of various numbers, originally by means of counters, to the manipulation of which the word probably refers.
    VI.37.a. 1330– intransitive. Formerly in the phrases to cast in or at accounts. Now, to add a column of figures.
    …1884 A resort to the court in order that..a mistake in casting be corrected. Law Times 25 October 419/2′

63. I also enjoyed this and mostly parsed happily. Not knowing the theme was possibly an advantage.
    I liked partial fraction in the clue for NINTH. I
    thought the question mark at the end may have been indicating that partial, as well as indicating the hidden, may also have been pointing to the word fraction as also being partial, using some in the def and some in the answer. Anyway, I think it showed that Sphinx knew what he was doing and that we would notice.
    LAMBS and kids I saw as colloquial words for children.
    As with Dr. WhatsOn@40 I had ticks for TORONTO and CRYONIC. Tramp’s fuzz made me laugh.

64. goose – to poke between the buttocks with an upward thrust (Merriam Webster)

    Not really feel

65. Lechien @58: my MacBook Pro *does* have an alt key (between cmd and ctrl) but I’ve never used the key combination in the clue. Refresh, on mine, is cmd plus r.

66. Scraggs@65 – interesting, on my 2022 MacBook Pro it looks like this

    Regardless, the key combination doesn’t do anything!

67. Lechien @66 – mine has that symbol at the bottom of the key with alt at the top. I suspect my machine being a good few years older than 2022 accounts for the difference.

68. Forgot to mention – interesting to see PLOD today after bluebottle yesterday.

69. Dave Ellison@64. I never like these euphemisms for what amounts to sexual assault, in a supposedly jovial way, but in terms of the clue for GOOSE the synonym, as Eileen has underlined, is feel up. Agree that it’s still grossly understated. The clue jarred with me.

70. Thought, as Jack of Few Trades@33 that 29a was a bit Naughty, with the “N” of the definition “fractioN” doing double duty as part of the hidden fractioN (IN THeory.
    But maybe “Partial” in the musical sense (as wynsum@44) is a combined definition and hidden indicator. Or is that not allowed? I liked it, anyway.

71. Thanks, paddymelon @69
    Yes, it seemed to me that the definition must be ‘feel up’ – a new expression for me, not in either of my dictionaries but I found this online:
    https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/feel-up, along with several other similar, all noted as American usage. I didn’t feel like elaborating – it jarred with me, too.

72. Self-indulgent is the kindest word that comes to mind for this poorly-clued puzzle with an obscure theme.

    Shame on the editor for accepting this.

73. LOi: 3a CTRL-ALT-ESC – Why wasn’t the enumeration “(4,3,3)” as in episode 4 “CTRL,ALT,ESC”?
    They’re all useful keys separately (and an escape room in Margate), but don’t function together.
    Maybe 4-3-3 alluding to a formation of football “star”s in “clubs”?

74. It occured to me calling for bill as in ‘Bill us” is a homophone of ‘bilious’ , feeling ill. How that equates to “bless” other than by another very forced, secondary homophone, escapes me. I suspect the clue slipped vetting before it was finalised.

75. Quirky but quite refreshing in parts.

    I liked the anagram for OSTRACISED and the wordplays for GOOSE, DAHLIAS, MIDAS TOUCH, ADHOC, EXPUNGING, and CRYONIC. I thought I must have misunderstood the clue at 3A because I had only two vowels, which seemed to give impossible answers, but I found it using a word search. CTRL-ALT-DEL would have given DEPENDING for 7 and a better definition for 3. I’ll probably restart ‘the spider on the ceiling’ discussion but I still dislike the use of ‘on’ in a down clue (9) to mean underneath. I just assumed ET was a ‘being’, and accepted with a shrug. I’m not sure if Crispy @2’s explanation for NET is the one intended, but I quite like it.

    Thanks Eileen (it is this time) and Sphinx.

76. I’ll break my usual rule of adding nothing when I have nothing to add this time, because Eileen deserves many thanks for this one, as do the others here.

    Solving this was like doing a cryptic written by someone whose first language was German: it did all add up, but with some awkward grammar. I got there in the end, but still with a few kinks to work out, so thanks again.

77. Give the kid a break. Many themed puzzles are very contrived. If this was compiled by an admirer of the series rather than a creator of it would it be getting criticised quite as much.
    I didn’t see the theme, not having seen any TV for seven years so I only remember the early episodes and I didn’t complete it by a long chalk. Quailed at the definition for GOOSE and still baffled by BLESS.
    Apart from that, some to like and some not so much. Just like the first few series of the programme if you ask me.
    Thanks Eileen for the sterling effort and Sphinx for the puzzle.

78. Thanks Eileen

79. pentman@74. Another one here who thought that the clue for BLESS might be a poor homophone for bilious.
    As for vetting, I don’t think the editor was going to touch this, as it’s a special one-off, has a life of its own, and promotes cryptic crosswords in a ”popular” medium.

80. Well I haven’t watched TV for a long time, so I just ploughed on blissfully unaware that there might be a theme. Managed to complete the grid after having to look up the presenters of Bake Off, but with an incomplete understanding of several clues. Re 16a SOCIETY, I’m not completely convinced by et= being, but I have nothing better to offer myself. Hopefully Sphinx will drop in to resolve the issue. 19dn HEADACHE I read as HE+A+D+[EH (what)+CA (about)] reversed.

    Many thanks to Eileen for the blog and for the explanations (and indeed the other contributors who have helped to resolve the queries) and to Sphinx for an entertaining puzzle

81. matematico @80 – many thanks.

    Oops! – I seem to have lost half of the comment (and it has taken until now for someone to notice!) I’ll correct it now.

82. Never heard of the TV programme this excuse for a crossword was based on. Next time Sphinx appears I won’t waste my time

83. As a non-Brit, I found the theme totally unavailable, and the Bake-off too.

    The clues were still solvable mostly, but a bit tortured in spots.

    TILT — the origin of the “curate’s egg” joke.

    Thanks to Sphinx I suppose, and to Eileen uproariously.

84. I wanted to like this, but sadly, I really didn’t. Way too difficult for me, and the reveals I needed had me more “err, ok” than “oh yeah, that’s good, how silly of me not to get it”. Am I the only one who has an issue with ‘on’ being used in a down clue not meaning ‘on top’ (AGGRIEVE)?

85. Sorry, but I found this tortured and largely unenjoyable.

    Clues like Players count bung in shed make no sense, are inelegant, and spoil the process of solving for me.

    I sat through the crossword themed TV broadcast and found that nonsensical too.

    … I’ll get my coat…

86. Dave @84, re AGGRIEVE – not entirely: see Robi @75

87. Chapeaux to Eileen for sure. Another all day slog. I watched a few No. 9s years ago but found them way too gory. Different strokes. I didn’t realise a Goose was so ahem probing, always thought it was just a pinch, affectionate in my relationship but again, different strokes. I knew Charger from antiques shows on tv and Lemur from Attenborough so tv time not entirely wasted. My childlike mind liked Plod best. As for Cast, Gladys@50 is right, and the phrase means to vomit, I wonder if she too is a Heyer reader.
    Thanks to everyone for all the efforts.

88. I have thought long and hard about whether to post today. I am a barely competent solver and aspire to be able to set a Cryptic one day. I just want to say to Sphinx that you’ve done a better job than I could. Thank you for the effort involved. Also many thanks to Eileen for the blog, and to everyone who helped with the parsing 😎.

89. Me @81 re HEADACHE – ‘(and it has taken until now for someone to notice!)’

    My apologies, Tim C @8 – I didn’t read your comment carefully enough. Ditto ibid. re BLESS: I was in too much of a hurry to amend MAPLE. 🙁

90. NINTH is simply an &LIT , the whole clue gives the wordplay and definition .
    Partial fractions in theory are widely used to split complex fractions into a sum of simpler fractions, an example of which could be a NINTH , hence the ? showing an example.

91. Thank you, Roz @90.

92. What a week. Imho the torture of Yank now followed by this. I remember an early edition of No 9 which featured a Grauni crossword. This one was a bit too far for me. I watched the first one of this series which featured Mark Bonnar: couldn’t fathom it out at all. Anyway can’t win them all. At least Paul brought some sanity to me yesterday! Thanks Eileen for a sterling job trying to work out some of the parsing which was extremely complex .

93. Thanks for the blog, well I thought it was really good apart from 3Ac, I know we have to put up with the nerds but there is no need to encourage them.
    CAST is a neat quadruple, Chambers has ample justification for cast=count.
    TORONTO and CRYONIC both clever constructions.
    CHEQUERED had a very nice second definition.
    Nice to have to actually scratch my head for once.

94. NINTH
    Roz@90
    I was under the impression till a few minutes ago that partial fractions meant algebraic expressions decomposed from complex rational functions.
    When you say something, I know it’s authentic. I didn’t know that fractions like NINTH could qualify as partial fractions. Thanks for the info.

95. Non-UK solver here, gave up after about a quarter of the puzzle. Upon seeing this blog, glad I didn’t spend any more time, as I know zero about the theme. Was struggling with wordplay in any case. Not to my taste, but I imagine many UK solvers enjoyed it.

96. I really enjoyed this puzzle and finished it despite having no knowledge of the theme or the TV series. Although Mary Berry seems to have reached these shores.
    I found many of the clues quite tricky eg CRYONIC, with others more accessible. That said, there were a few I couldn’t parse, including the ET in SOCIETY, NET and BLESS. So I have really appreciated Eileen’s blog and the subsequent discussion for the context and explanations.
    I had liked CTRL ALT ESC but after the discussion, I agree it doesn’t quite make it. And I’m still not convinced about ET or BLESS.
    I liked EXPUNGING, LEMUR, MULBERRY, TORONTO, MIDAS TOUCH, CRYONIC. And PLOD was funny.
    New – definition for CHARGER.
    Thanks to Sphinx and Eileen.

97. KVa@94 partial fractions often used with polynomials to simplify things for integration.
    They are also used with numbers – 15/54 = 1/6 + 1/9 .
    Early Egyptians always did this , apart from 2/3 and 3/4 they only used fractions of the form 1/x . They did not consider other fractions to be “real” .

98. Thanks again Roz@97.

99. Not totally my cup of CHAR, but an interesting challenge anyway. I haven’t watched the programme yet but I am told it’s very good, by people whose opinion I trust, so it’s on my list. Sphinx has come in for some curmudgeonly criticism above, but is also the creator of a much admired show, so I hope that compensates.
    I loved TORONTO the “Spanish city”.
    Struggled to get all the bits of SOCIETY in the right order, but no problem with ET for “and”, as in et al.
    Thanks to Eileen and various posters for sorting it out. Thanks to Sphinx for the riddles.

100. 10a is NE(a)T. Neat = Arranged as in ‘neat and tidy’

101. Well, we should have expected something inscrutable. Still can’t quite get my head round bliss!
     Please, ed., give us a break from themes.

102. As a Yank with minimal Inside No. 9 exposure, I quite enjoyed the puzzle. A bit on the complex side in some constructions but didn’t find any egregious issues.

     re BLESS (Alans@101) — it’s definitely “to write ‘bill’ as ‘ill,’ you write it B-LESS.”

103. LEMUR, TORONTO and MIDAS among the standouts in this difficult one, don’t really care about the obscure and self-promoting theme (just the same as no theme to me). Agree in general that some of these are awkward and inexact. Among them, the second aggressively rude clue this week (recalling “tail”), which I hope is not a trend.

104. Steve should stick to dark comedy.

105. I’m really surprised that so many people have said it was difficult. I found it easier than Paul’s yesterday, and far easier than Yank’s stinker on Monday. In fact, even some clues in Chandler’s “Quiptic” were trickier.

106. A zebra crossing is striped. Would a narrow one be chequered?

107. Thanks very much indeed to Eileen for her tremendous resilience and patience. A spectacular DNF for me! I felt very much like Sergeant Schultz from Hogan’s Heroes – “l know nothing… nothing!” After the joy of Paul’s offering yesterday l was well and truly in the Slough of Despond today – l shall give Sphinx a wide berth in future.

108. [It’s interesting to contrast the responses on the G’s own site with the comments here. I have not done any proper statistical analysis – life’s too short to go counting posts – but skimming through it would seem that the G comments are on balance positive about the puzzle and the 225 comments on balance negative. Diff’rent strokes and all that but it’s intriguing that it seems to apply to such large communities.]

109. Ah. I only came here to see if any fellow fans of the show had worked out clues to the final installment of Inside No 9 this evening.

     I applaud the editor of the Guardian for allowing Easter Eggs for the fans – Steve has set three crosswords as far as I know: one to tie in with the episode Riddle of the Sphinx, one to tie in with Taskmaster and this – a final goodbye to the show. I think he has now retired Sphinx.

     All 55 episodes are on BBC iplayer and (showing my age) I adore it (I am in my fifties, brought up with Tales of the unexpected, Creepshow, Alfred Hitchcock presents etc) I also love Black Mirror.

     Inside no 9 is so varied – it takes amazing minds to have come up with 55 very different stories with twists in the tale. I heartily recommend it (I have been bingewatching – if one does not appeal, the next one will). I just admire the sheer chutzpah and scale of the project.

     I understand that it might frustrate you all – you all seem very clever – but for a geek girl like me, it’s just fun to have a tie-in like that.

110. Thank you for this! There were quite a few I couldn’t parse.

     There are also a couple of Ninas in the puzzle. On the second row, starting from the h in ‘shtum’, is ‘hare’ (there is a hare statue hidden somewhere in every episode of Inside No. 9). Also ‘bus’ is hidden in the third row, starting at the b in ‘lambs’. Inside No. 9 advertised an episode set on a bus last season which turned out to be fake and a surprise episode was sprung instead.

111. Thanks for that, tmetic @ 110 (and welcome if this is your first time here – apologies if it isn’t).

     This point, along with a couple of other nuggets, had been made earlier (by RP @28) but, with over 100 comments today, it would have been easy to miss it!

     And Eddie S @100 – please see comment 2 and others, including different suggestions, throughout the blog.

     Hope to hear from you again.

112. Wilma Dickshow@109 (& I see what you did there): I fully echo your views on ‘Inside No. 9’. Some episodes are quite simply brilliant, as is the quality of acting.
     I found the puzzle a tussle, and missed the theme. I had SET for 10a for a long time (it works as well as NET, I reckon). Can’t add anything about the ET in SOCIETY.
     Thanks to Sphinx, and hats off to Eileen for the donkey work.

113. Is that the real Wilma@109, or a replacement service?

114. I’m another hater of this puzzle. I didn’t know anything about the theme, but that’s not the problem. The problem is that a huge fraction of the clues are flawed in some way.

     One minor question that I don’t think has been addressed here: are PLOD and FUZZ really the same? I thought that the former referred to an individual police officer and the latter to the police collectively. Can you refer to a police officer as “a fuzz”? Conversely, surely you don’t refer to the police force collectively as “the plod”.

     On the plus side, I did learn a new word today, namely SHTUM.

115. I really enjoyed the crossword. It was tough and I had to reveal several clues, but the ones I got were satisfying and fun.

     I’m with Wilma “109 – a big fan of the show. It is very varied, and so some episodes fell flat for me, but many more were remarkable. If you are interested, and have half an hour to spare start with The 12 Days Of Christine (Season 2, episode 2). It’s an astonishing piece of TV with Sheridan Smith playing a blinder in a hugely-affecting story.

     Thanks to Sphinx (for so very much), and also to Eileen for the blog.

116. Huge fan of the Inside No 9 series, but seriously disliked this crossword! Didn’t spot the setter, connection or theme until I came on here, so thanks to Eileen for the enlightenment.

117. Don’t think you needed to know of or have watched No 9 for this puzzle. If you did, added another layer that was all: some like looking at paintings; some like looking at the brush strokes in paintings. So the debate is purely the cluing and nearly all seemed fair to me – as ever, a few have caused grumbles or comments and that’s pretty typical isn’t it?
     Thank you Eileen and Sphinx for showing us writing crosswords is much harder than commenting on them

118. I slogged my way through it with wordplay questions about NET and BLESS. Turns out NET was brilliant and I just didn’t see it. All in all a fine puzzle from my perspective. I like compilers who venture outside the box.

119. As per Paddymelon I don’t think the phrase ‘felt up’ should be anywhere near a Guardian crossword. I spent years working with victims of sexual offences and domestic abuse. I have a ten year old daughter who looks over M shoulder as I do these. I don’t really want to have to tell her what ‘touched up’ means and I think she’d wonder why I do crosswords with such expressions. This casual minimising of unwanted touching is wrong as are derogatory terms regularly used in Guardian crosswords which are (heaven forbid I be accused of being woke) micro aggressions. They are such tiny things but they have no place anymore. Again, I don’t want my ten year old to think it’s ok.

120. paddymelon@48
     thanks for explaining
     The grid referred to is Sphinx’s crossword grid. Have a look at column 2. Alternating black and white squares. (chequered)

121. I enjoyed this in its convoluted way. CTRL-ALT-ESC was pretty weird, but I thought everything else was fair, if tricky. Sphinx may be an outlier in terms of the rich tapestry of setters, but an interesting one. Thanks to him, and to Eileen as ever.

122. I think ET in SOCIETY might be a ‘being’, with one hundred and one (CI) ‘before’ it.
     Thanks for your work on this.

123. Dave F–It may just be a question of usage, but in the states a goose is just a pinch on the bottom. It describes the act and not whether it was objected to or not. Feeling up on the other hand (pardon the pun) would involve more “action”. In the states they are not comparable, but when doing the puzzle I just assumed they were for the intended audience. Personally, I like that your puzzles are a little edgier than ours, but I can see the other side too.

124. Well, lots of moans but I found it tough but enjoyable!

     Thanks to Sphinx and Eileen.

125. I think Steve is improving as a setter and I would encourage him to continue this sideline more frequently. This was quite hard, and some of the surfaces are not the most elegant, but there’s a lot of originality and many classy touches. TORONTO and MIDAS TOUCH both absolutely excellent.

126. Saved this for a four hour flight to Rhodes and it passed the time effectively. Sheer bloody-mindedness kept me going til the grid was filled but I can’t really say I enjoyed it much. Overall it felt like an amateur setter trying just a little bit to be hard

     Cheers S&E

127. Eileen @89, no worries. 🙂 It was past my bedtime when your comment appeared. I can imagine how easy it must be to miss a comment in that initial flurry (yesterday) especially if you’re making changes to the blog as well. You do a great job for which many thanks.

128. well i liked it

     and CTRL-ALT-ESC cycles through windows in the order that they were opened as any Google search would have told you.
     I can’t imagine why anyone would use this shortcut rather than the well established and GUI-enhanced ALT-(SHIFT)-TAB, though.

     so “refreshing keys”? … no

129. For 16a SOCIETY KVA@12 had the correct parse very early on (before 9am), with ET as the Latin (not French) “and”, as in etc (formerly known as “&c.”)
     but chickened out when others suggested the erroneous ever-present ET as an alien “being”
     “Big setback” – Playtex (not a ‘lift and separate) – OutSize “set back” – OS< – SO
     (“being” – link word – ignore it – no Extra Terrestrials need be involved)
     “a hundred” – C
     “and one before” – ET with 1 before it – I+ET
     “your first” – Y
     “club” – the definition – SO+C+I+ET+Y
     ‘Thanks Sphinx and Eileen!’

130. I’m with you, Roz @ 93.

     Thanks all.

131. I agree Wilma @09. Sphinx – I love your series and your crosswords. The finale is a masterpiece.Thank you.

132. Yes, thanks Eileen, it was a bit left-field, but really wasn’t that hard, just odd and thoughtful, a bit like the series “Inside No 9”, and I think thats why there was a lot of marmite in the comments!

     Steve, please don’t be disheartened by the above, the world needs more people like you!!!

133. I don’t normally come in as I always leave it till the next day, but it was most unpleasant. I found too many parsings not quite there and reading the blog shows I was misdirected too often.

     I had an unparsed GROPE so technically a DNF.

     Googling ctrl-alt-esc only revealed the escape room company but the anagram had to be it. My newspaper doesn’t have any keys so couldn’t try it.

134. Interesting how controversial this is! As someone who didn’t go to private school or study classics I thoroughly enjoyed the lack of the typical cricket/bible/greek mythology obscurities.

     Apart from 3ac (obviously a bit of a fudge to fit the theme, but clearly clued) and 16ac it was all fair, with some refreshing ideas. I loved B-Less bill->ill.

     Thanks to Eileen and Sphinx/Steve!

135. DNF, not least because I tried to make CTRL+ALT+DEL work for 3a.
     No point in repeating “wading through treacle” and “didn’t enjoy very much”, so I won’t. There were some good and clever ideas.
     The one thing I will pick up is the comment of DaveF @119. You’re absolutely right to complain about expressions like “feel up”, for the reasons you give, and for Pity’s sake don’t fall into the trap of treating “being woke” as something to be ashamed of. “Woke” is neatly defined by NewsThump on one of their mugs – 1. Alert to prejudice and injustice. 2. Not a p****.
     The so-called “War on Woke” is far more accurately described as a War on the Weak, usually involving vulnerable minorities (it’s entirely in keeping that the latest target is trans people) and it is among the most contemptible recent developments in British politics.
     Rant over. Thanks to Eileen for the blog and to Sphinx for putting in the work, some of which I enjoyed (and to Brummie, whose Guardian cryptic this morning was a breeze by comparison and most welcome when I couldn’t get back to sleep at 2 a.m.)

136. NeilH @ 135. I agree entirely about being woke. I’m proud of being as woke as I am (and strive to be more). The alternative is admitting you’re asleep in my opinion. I know which I’d rather consider myself.

137. Neil and Mark – if you’re still there,

     Many thanks for your comments – rant all you like, Neil, on this, as far as I’m concerned!

138. Way too late to comment now, but I had to respond to Neil, Mark and Eileen @135-7, even if it’s off topic as regards the puzzle in question. I know we are all Guardian readers, but it is still heartening to read posts like yours when so many stoke up culture wars against the idea of being woke (which translates as being decent in my book).
     I may investigate the NewsThump mug that Neil describes, as it sounds like just my cup of tea, so to speak. I generally drink from a Spurs mug, the only cup we are ever likely to see.

139. Long time reader, first time poster, but I had to. There is a lot of pretentious pooh-poohing going on in the comments section. Some of ye need to grow up and embrace different and new things, wander out of your comfort zone once in a while. So what, the crossword was different than you are used to and gave you a small challenge, big deal, get on with it. 99% of the cryptics have contentious clues and a lot of groans, especially the clues that require the need to say a word in an English accent (I’m Irish, I know how to pronounce ‘R’s in words), I don’t complain. So enjoy the different take on the setting and refrain from insulting the setter and his other works just because he made you think a little differently.

140. Hear hear Ao.

     Having to power through clue after clue that assumes you have a working knowledge of sitcoms that aired between 1951 and 1954, or that “H” is a common initialism for the word “Cat” in some obscure college’s century old conventions, it is fun to see a more contemporary-minded setter.

141. This was a slog but got there in the end with the exception of 17D. Don’t like the use of the number in the grid as part of the clue. (10A) Have not come across that before and it seems a little out of order. Haven’t encountered Sphinx before. Not really a fan… And never heard of the TV series. Did like and correctly parse 24d bless!

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