Boatman is today's setter.
When I saw who today's compiler was, I was glad I woke up an hour before my alarm as I find Boatman puzzles more challenging than the norm. Thankfully, I had completed three of his puzzles at the weekend (from the book which contains his first 50 Guardian puzzles), so was more on his wavelength than usual, and I finished this one just before my alarm rang. This probably means that this was on the easier end of the Boatman spectrum. I certainly didn't write any notes about him stretching the "rules" of crosswords as he sometimes could be accused of, but again that may be because I acclimatised myself to his style over the weekend. Boatman also doesn't hide his themes, which means I didn't have to spend an extra ten minutes trying to work out what linked the answers.
Thanls Boatman.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | STORIES |
HS2, missing both ends, has party members instigating plots (7)
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(h)S(2) [missing both ends] has TORIES ("party members") |
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| 8 | CRUCIAL |
Company will sound decisive (7)
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Homophone/pun/aural wordpplay [sound] of CREW ("company") + SHALL ("will") |
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| 9 | RAIL |
Transport protest (4)
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Double definition |
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| 10 | IN GENERAL |
Largely in order? Enlarge (2,7)
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IN + *(enlarge) [anag:order] |
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| 12 | STEED |
Transport to go too fast, not quietly: take time instead (5)
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S(p)EED ("to go too fast") with T (time) instead of P (piano, so "quietly" in music) becomes S(T)EED |
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| 13 | BULLDOZE |
Shockingly, bold ULEZ militants say they’ll do this to enforcement cameras (8)
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*(bold ulez) [anag:shockingly] |
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| 15 | BUST |
Broken transport systems’ core (4)
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BUS ("transport") + (sys)T(ems) [core] |
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| 16 | OUTER |
Surface of cycle path … (5)
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If you cycle ROUTE ("path"), you will get (OUTE)R |
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| 17 | CARP |
… where vehicle hits edge of pothole: complain! (4)
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CAR ("vehicle") hits [edge of] P(othole) |
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| 18 | ENTRANCE |
Boatman abandons rail service: outside, small change, with no parking for transport (8)
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(p)ENCE ("small change" with no P (parking) outside TRA(i)N ("rail service" I ("Boatman", the setter) abandoned) |
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| 20 | TRAMS |
Intelligent to go back to public transport (5)
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<=SMART ("intelligent", to go back) |
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| 21 | SCRIVENER |
Writer not exactly sincere about very right-wing origin (9)
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*(sincere) [anag:not exactly] avout V (very) + R(ight-wing) [origin] |
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| 22 | TAKE |
Return transport (4)
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Double definition, the first referring to profit or income. |
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| 24 | AIRFARE |
Transport charge much involved in type of road rage (7)
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FAR ("much") involved in A(-road) + IRE ("rage") |
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| 25 | FREIGHT |
Conflict, including about transport of supplies (7)
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FIGHT ("conflict") including RE ("about") |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ETNA |
Burning neat alcohol powers this stove (4)
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*(neat) [anag:burning] An etna (named after the volcano) is a vessel that holds a saucer in which alcohol is burned to produce heat. |
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| 2 | DROLLEST |
Peer brought up in case: most amusing (8)
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<=LORD ("peer", brought up) + LEST ("in case") |
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| 3 | LEVIED |
Charged to have dissembled about zero-emissions transport (6)
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LIED ("to have dissembled") about EV (electric vehicle, so "zero-emissions transport") |
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| 4 | WRANGLER |
Cowboy in west moved fast, not complacent in one transporting goods free of duty (8)
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W (west) + RAN ("moved fast") + (smug)GLER ("one transporting goods free of duty", not SMUG ("complacent")) |
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| 5 | SCORED |
Achieved goal of speed limits around centre (6)
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S(pee)D [limits] around CORE ("centre") |
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| 6 | HALL |
Reported transport passage (4)
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Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [reported] of HAUL ("transport") |
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| 11 | GO-BETWEEN |
One relays messages by mouth, initially enjoying trust while effecting eventual nemesis (2-7)
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GOB ("mouth") + [initially] E(njoying) T(rust) W(hile) E(ffecting) E(ventual) N(emesis) |
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| 12 | SPURN |
Reject northern support for branch line? (5)
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N (northern) support for SPUR ("branch line") |
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| 14 | ZEROS |
These are the lowest limits of zone covering roads banning a diesel’s lead (5)
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[limits of] Z(on)E covering (i.e on top of) RO(ad)S banning A + D(iesel) ['s lead] |
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| 16 | OMNIVORE |
Two eggs, one taken by terrible vermin – it eats everything (8)
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O (egg) + O (egg) taken by *(vermin) [anag:terrible] |
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| 17 | COAT-TAIL |
Company (American) to be sick about empty transport: it’s not as long as a train (4-4)
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Co. (company) + A (American) + AIL ("to be sick") about [empty] T(ranspor)T |
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| 19 | RAREFY |
A ferry scuttled to become lighter (6)
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*(a ferry) [anag:scuttled] |
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| 20 | TORERO |
One must approach a bull in lust or eroticism (6)
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Hidden [in] "lusT OR EROticism" |
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| 21 | SHIP |
Boatman’s transport’s popular (4)
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S (from the end of "Boatman's") + HIP ("popular") |
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| 23 | KOHL |
Finally, gridlock to diminish: will changes in complexion come from this? (4)
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[finally] (gridloc)K (t)O (diminis)H (wil)L |
NW corner last to yield, as STORIES and DROLLEST took a while to unravel, and couldn’t parse OUTER, ENTRANCE or AIRFARE along the way, so many thanks for the enlightenment, Loonapick. Enjoyed this.
I didn’t parse AIRFARE, but otherwise all in and parsed. I found this chewy, but I usually find Boatman takes me longer than others.
Thank you to loonapick and Boatman.
11d GO-BETWEEN – the &littish clue containing the plot of the novel (1953) or film (1971) – Julie Christie -> Dominic Guard -> Alan Bates.
L2i: 8a CREW SHALL 🙂 & 21d ‘S HIP 😐
I agree with loonapick that this was at the more approachable end of Boatman’s range. I was held up by WRANGLER – I had been thinking smuggler for ages but had not spotted the deletion element – and AIRFARE – where I simply did not spot road = A – which is quite a tough equivalence. Boatman has certainly been more evil in the past: using the ‘S trick in SHIP was pretty cheeky but I have seen worse. Faves from today’s puzzle include IN GENERAL, GO BETWEEN, DROLLEST and RAREFY.
Thanks Boatman and loonapick
I really enjoyed this and certainly on the gentler side. Apart from the obvious theme, I also liked the pair of jeans in 3 & 4d. SCRIVENER and TORERO were my favourites.
Yes FrankieG @3, I also had the same thought about GO BETWEEN. Your mention of Julie Christie reminded of the recent passing of Donald Sutherland. Great to see this setter back again.
Ta Boatman & loonapick.
I liked the homophone at 8, SCRIVENER (nice word) and WRANGLER (I too initially stopped at an unparsed SMUGGLER until the crossers intervened and I saw the wordplay). Thanks to FrankieG@3 for pointing out the surface for GO-BETWEEN described the plot. Despite having read the novel and seen the film, I have only a vague memory of the story. Never heard of an ETNA stove, so that was LOI with a google to verify. Thanks to Boatman and loonapick.
I thought there may have been some significance in that GO_BETWEEN lies in the middle down, so wondered if the transport lay in each answer either side of GO_BETWEEN: RAIL-GENERAL (Buster Keaton); STEED-BULL; BUS-CAR; AIR-FREIGHT but it seems not for TRAMS.
Thanks Boatman and loonapick
Phew. I found that very tough – hardest daily crossword for quite some time. Nothing that wasn’t a good precise clue but almost nothing that was a write-in.
Thanks Boatman and Loonapick
Got to love “crew shall”
I could not parse OUTER, AIRFARE, GO-BETWEEN.
New for me: ETNA = a device for heating liquids in a saucer of burning alcohol; SPUR = a short branch road or railway line (for 12ac ).
Thanks, both.
Thank you loonapick.
I suppose for UK solvers HS2 in STORIES didn’t need explaining. I thought it might be a chemical compound. But I see it’s a ”high speed rail network”. Went straight past me.
My take on SHIP was that the ”s” that was needed was the ”s” from ”transport’s”. Boatman’s transport def, ‘s popular (hip) WP. (Or is that what Frankie G was saying@4?)
CRUCIAL was my last one in, and made me laugh, as did so many of Boatman’s clues today.
I very much enjoyed this, despite some tricky parsing. TORERO was new to me, but clearly clued. Thanks to both of you
Failed to finish and, as usual, Boatman’s style was not to my personal taste.
Another bit of UKGK I learned today was ULEZ. Ultra Low Emission Zone, not that it was needed for the solve. But I now get the bit about the enforcement cameras.
Boatman’s packed so much into these clues. Impressive. Interesting, being Boatman, not a lot about waterborne transport, except for his own SHIP.
Usually think of hip people, as in switched-on and with-it, but I guess ucn say eg Indy is (was?) the latest hip thing. Nice to see Boatie again, ta to him and loona.
[Smuggler reminds me of the lovely story Void tells on the “off-grid” podcast. He was busking and a boy passing by said to his dad “Look, a juggler”. The dad replies (in earshot of Void) “No – a juggler is someone who brings in wine in jugs without paying the duty. He’s a smuggler – he performs tricks and looks all smug about it.”]
Lovely puzzle – great surfaces, clever and inventive wordplay without being too outré. Thank you Boatman and Loonapick.
I don’t think I was quite on the wavelength, which meant a few of the clues took far more effort than needed (1, 9, 10, 14) but I was at least in a frame of mind to take my time and work through it, and it made for a very satisfying solve as a result. I liked the handling of the theme in the different aspects of the clueing, and the fact that not trying to rush to the finish line yielded the results all in good time.
I feel stretched slightly, in a good way 🙂
I also think your speed of solve reflects the difficulty (or lack thereof) in the puzzle rather than your weekend’s activity…. I can’t recall a more straightforward Boatman (only the NW applied some brake!)
But great to see his name after quite some time I feel
But I enjoyed the solve. Many thanks, Boatman – and to loonapick for his unending generosity
Didn’t manage to parse AIRFARE but the clue is perfectly fair (see what I did there). Quite up to Boatman’s usual standard, quite chewy, sometimes pushing the boundaries a bit (OUTER; SHIP); but entirely sound and fair and with some amusing subtexts, e.g. the party members plotting and the reference to ULEZ cameras. Actually that definition is slightly inaccurate, because the weapon of choice of the vandals seeking to attack these is the angle grinder, but there you go. (For those not in the UK, the ULEZ – Ultra Low Emission Zone, as one would expect from something which started off with Boris Johnson, includes a whopper in its title; it’s not really “Ultra” anything, merely discouraging the most polluting vehicles. And it has improved air quality in London immensely. The fact that the Policing Minister appeared to be a member of a Facebook group celebrating the idiots who vandalised ULEZ cameras ought to have shocked us more than it did).
As usual when I finish the Grauniad crossword by 9 am, I feel the day can only go downhill from here…
Thanks to Boatman and loonapick.
Thanks Boatman and loonapick
Lots of question marks as usual. I don’t enjoy Boatman’s puzzles.
Before I had any crossers, MINE works very well at 21 down – ME around IN, with an extended definition.
The surface of 16d doesn’t work, as “vermin” is plural, so can’t be “it”. Shame, as otherwise it would have been my favourite.
Oh and ETNA = stove was new for me, too, but (unlike a couple of yesterday’s answers) it didn’t feel like too much of a leap to reasonably assume something along those lines, once I’d actually hit on the likely answer.
Seeing that old chestnut ENTRANCE make an appearance yet again reminded me of the sometimes completely different alternative meanings of words written in the English language. 18ac spoken with the stress on the first syllable, meaning “way in”. Spoken with the stress on the second syllable, meaning “bewitch” or indeed “transport”.
The other day, coming across the expression “fetching and carrying”, I realized that “fetching” can also mean “rather attractive”…
Thanks, Loonapick and all –
Loonapick – I approve of your method of preparing for this puzzle! Opinion seems to be divided as to whether this was harder or easier than usual. Perhaps some of the earlier solvers were distracted by looking for the significance of UK-specific terms like “HS2” and “ULEZ” – not that that should have derailed their solving, of course, as knowing the background wasn’t necessary in order to parse the wordplay.
FrankieG @3 – I’m glad you noticed! Acrostics can look very contrived if they don’t have some deeper meaning.
Jack @16 – Very funny! I may have to steal that quote, with attribution to the Void, of course.
Muffin @20 – MINE is very good! And I have to accept your point about vermin – I should have written something like “one of them eats everything” but I changed the clue at the last minute to “it eats everything” because I didn’t like the echo of “one taken … one eats everything”.
NielH@19: the reason we aren’t more shocked is because we expect the same old (S)TORIES,
I was another smuggler, being too complacent to ditch smug for too long. SHIP; I’m with pdm@11.
Witty, enjoyable and reasonably difficult I thought.
Thanks both.
I can’t say I found this any easier than Boatman usually is, not helped by tying myself in knots getting AB to leave a cable car in an attempt to justify CLARENCE for ENTRANCE. I liked SHIP.
Enchanting, I was quite carried away by this.
I liked the ‘bold ULEZ militants’, IN GENERAL, the ‘terrible vermin’, and the scuttled ferry.
Thank you Boatman & loonapick
My guardian app times tell me that Boatman is the hardest of all setters for me (4 years records), in terms of time taken to complete. This was actually, on that measure, a bit harder than average for the setter but only just. I love the way Boatman isn’t afraid to use extended definitions, just to add a little complexity (13 ac, 20 dn)
nicbach’s comment @24 is how I felt about the puzzle: witty, enjoyable and reasonably difficult. I found this harder than most recent Boatman crosswords – the grid doesn’t help, of course. The four-letter words caused me a lot of trouble.
Lots to like, though many of the clues anre uncharacteristically verbose. I enjoyed the ULEZ reference and the allusion to L P Hartley’s novel, amongst others.
[ronald @22: Sometimes this is because two different etymologies have converged. ENTRANCE meaning ‘way in’ is obviously related to ‘enter’. The meaning of ‘captivate’ is ‘en-trance’, ie put into a trance. However ‘fetching’ meaning ‘attractive’ does not have a different etymology from the meaning of ‘bringing’ but is a metaphorical usage – the same metaphor as the description of a ‘come-hither look’]
Thanks to Boatman (and for your comments) and loonapick
The S in 21d is from the the end of Transport (not Boatman).
A very enjoyable puzzle with its misdirections, tricky clues and intricate parsings.
I hadn’t parsed OUTER (Doh! misdirected by cycle) or AIRFARES (as a non-UK solver, I don’t immediately think of A roads). With the other UK terms ULEZ cameras, HS2, ETNA, I was still able to solve the clues despite not knowing these terms.
My favourite was CRUCIAL. I also liked ENTRANCE, STORIES, LEVIED, WRANGLER.
Thank you Boatman and loonapick.
Many thanks to Boatman. I very much enjoyed this and it was good of you to drop in. Also thanks to loonapick. I needed your help to parse AIRFARE. My favourite was CRUCIAL 😎. An earworm for the (S)HIP amongst us…
https://youtu.be/stMf0S3xth0?si=_UD_VEWv2wu4O_DL
Thank you Boatman, loonapick and especially FrankieG@3: I was thinking of Cyrano and Troilus & Cressida, which to my feeble memory and shallow cultural exposure didn’t quite seem to fit. Couldn’t go into detail on the Guardian page of course, but I love how GO-BETWEEN both represents transport services and also encapsulates where it is in the grid, linking the top and bottom halves, and that he didn’t give it a thematic clue (“link” would have been easy to use, and a sadist might have said something about Hartley’s Works, with the Histon to Cambridge line replaced by a misguided busway). I suppose that as a Graduate and proud but often bamboozled owner of both books I’m used to Boatman tactics and quality, but I still found it a most stimulating two-and-a-half-mug problem.
Relatively plain sailing but thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless. I do wish we could see Boatman more frequently
Gold stars for ENTRANCE & SCRIVENER
BTW I think the A is “type of road” in AIRFARE?
Cheers B&L
I meant AIRFARE
That was a lovely puzzle today. I was concerned that the difficulty level may have been beyond me, but it all unfolded very satisfactorily.
GO BETWEEN was a great clue. The L.P. Hartley novel has the memorable opening line, “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” I also liked ENTRANCE and SCRIVENER. Never heard of ETNA or TORERO, but they were both fairly clued and gettable.
Thanks for a fun Tuesday solve, Boatman, and loonapick for the ever-excellent blog.
Thanks to Boatman and loonapick, and fellow solvers. Glad to see all those various “transports” contributing to a theme ..,
Very nice to see Boatman on one of his (these days) fairly rare appearances. Favourites were the pun of “crew shall” for CRUCIAL, and the clever SHIP. (As poc points out @29 there’s a slight mistake in the blog about the latter.)
And on the subject of SHIP, it was good to see the traditional dual use of “Boatman” in that clue and in 18a. You can always rely on it meaning I/me in one and an actual boatman in the other.
Many thanks both.
Lord Jim @37 – You’re very kind, but if you want some entertainment of an obsessive nature, you can try looking through my past puzzles (it’ll help if you own both books, of course!) to find the very occasional times when either I forget (or can’t find a good enough excuse) to insert both usages or I get carried away and use three.
Pleasing crossword with lots of transport links.
I liked the definition for COAT-TAIL, the anagram for BULLDOZE, and the wordplay for AIRFARE. I DNK the Etna stove but with the A at the end it became fairly obvious.
Thanks Boatman and loonapick.
Four blanks but still enjoyed it. Should have Googled ETNA stove. Thanks both.
Boatman, I have to ask if you do return, was LEVI(ED) and WRANGLER beside each other purely coincidental? Ta.
Thanks for the blog, Lord Jim @37 , yes the classic double Boatman but we did have three quite recently , three men in a boat seems more appropriate. WRANGLER and SCRIVENER very neat constructions.
AlanC you have stolen my prime number but at least I get the final answer.
Triple Boatman 20/7/23 , unfortunately the internet is too primitive to interface with my diary .
Ah be careful what you wish for l say to myself. Was discussing a little bit yesterday the level of difficulty with G’s daily crossword and a perceived homogeneity of such when lo and behold the wonderful Boatman appears on the horizon preparing to take no prisoners. A top crossword, plenty difficult enough for me, for sure, but all very gettable. Couldn’t parse levied so thanks very much to loonapick for the enlightenment. Thanks very much to Boatman – l shall be keeping a weather eye out for you, please sail by again soon.
Thanks Boatman and loonapick. Both a straightforward but also chewy in bits. Funny thing about TORERO is that it appears in reverse in “or eroticism” which is what I saw first and then spent time trying to figure out why the word “lust” before that phrase meant I had to reverse it…
Tough and I failed to parse AIRFARE although I ought to have spent longer on it (LOI and that’s me being impatient!).
Boatman’s cryptic grammar is not always that of Ximenes, as I know well (he being one of my mentors) so I ought to have sussed ROUTE -> OUTER sooner.
KOHL was new to me – I thought it was merely the German for ‘cabbage’ (and the name of an ex-Chancellor) – but easy enough to guess. As for ETNA – not come across the stove but again it seemed plausible. Sounds a bit iffy as a means of cooking!
I knew SCRIVENER on the other hand, a ‘tick’ for that one – also likes for WRANGLER, RAREFY, OMNIVORE, STEED, GO-BETWEEN, and others. It’s Boatman – what else can I say?
Muchas gracias to Ashley and Loonapick.
Thanks Boatman for quite an impressive feat of incorporating a theme into so many clues and solutions. I got mired in the NW and revealed STORIES and DROLLEST but managed all else. I particularly liked SCRIVENER and SCORED. On the downside I thought a few of the surfaces were a bit wordy and needed re-reading but overall I liked this. In OMNIVORE, perhaps ‘that’ (or ‘who’ if you think ‘vermin’ can be people!) could replace ‘it’ to solve the plurality issue. Thanks loonapick for the blog.
Enjoyed this. Up to Ashley’s usual high standard. Never thought of Etna as a stove: spent ages to see if oast or oven would work. nah !! Must get his second book. Ta for a tough workout and the blog. Living near him he must have been sweltering in 30 degrees today. Glad of the sea breeze!
Sorry to carp, but I thought CREW SHALL = CRUCIAL a pretty poor homophone (not to mention that “shall” and “will” don’t mean the same thing). And I thought 10A was a bit clunky, using IN to clue IN!
Ashamed that I missed the EV in levied especially as I drive one although dissembled is new to me. Not sure what the “one” in 16d is doing in the clue but that’s probably me. I loved crucial but then I love a Zaltzman-esque bad pun. Felt 18a a bit convoluted but you have to admire the skill. Felt pleased to have done this one and really enjoyed it. Job done. Thanks Loonapick and Boatman.
For OMNIVORE we do need the “one” . We have OO and only one O is eaten by the terrible VERMIN , the other O has to stay at the front.
Thank you Roz @52 – makes perfect sense now.
I fond this easier than some of the recent ones. I seem to get Boatman. Interesting how different people are in what they find hard.
[Cellomaniac yesterday. Yes, Stan’s another favourite, but Mr Sims was an all round nicer bloke, and his nickname makes a snappier alias. But it was Pres who inspired me to buy a saxophone. (Autocorrect kept turning Stan into Satan!).]
Like Roz@52 I liked the precise placing of the Os in 16d OMNIVORE, my clue of the day. Other favourites were the smug cowboy at 4d WRANGLER, and the exCRUCIAting wordplay at 8a.
PostMark@5, I saw the’S trick at 21d but I thought it was a double trick, so I took TAR’S and transported the S to the beginning, giving STAR (= popular). That led me to a semi-parsed 24a WAYFARE ( way for road, plus the transport charge as definition). Sometimes we can be too clever for our own good.
Re that CRUCIAL clue at 8a and 6d HALL, I was pleased to see loonapick deal with the awkward phrase “sounds like but not necessarily exactly, depending on your personal way of speaking”, by translating it as “homophone/pun/aural wordplay”. Nicely done, and it should reduce the number of HP complaints.
[ Roz @ 44, I wouldn’t say “unfortunately”. The internet is already sufficiently Orwellian without having the capability that you appear to be wishing for. ]
Thanks Boatman and loonapick for the fun and enlightenment.
[ Zoot@55, 😎. ]
Thanks Roz@52 for explaining what “one” is doing in OMNIVORE – that had me puzzled too.
Cellomaniac@56 I just meant I could not share my comments on the triple Boatman . My Personal Electronic Notemaker is far too advanced .
This was too difficult for me, I couldn’t finish and some of the answers I got I had no idea how to parse. Thank you for the blog loonapick, there have been quite a few ‘aaah now I see’ noises in response. Interesting to read that Birdfossil @27 personally finds Boatman to be the hardest setter. I don’t know how to access that info for myself but think that on present evidence I would concur. Thank you though Boatman, onwards and upwards.
Transports of delight as usual with Skipper Ashliegh. I hadn’t time to ponder it all through so was grateful for the blog.
(Feeling kind of spooky because of yesterday’s contribution to the blog.) :]
Cellomaniac@56/7
Amanda @60
Ditto. You’ve said it all for me
[ FrankieG@62, thanks for the birthday wishes yesterday. I didn’t do the Gozo, so I didn’t see your comment.
One nice thing about having your mid-life crisis at age 76 – it’s too late to try to change yourself into someone your middle-aged self foolishly thinks you ought to be. The angst might be there – briefly – but the will to do anything about it is blessedly absent. ]