Last week Eileen wrote of the ‘delight’ of landing an Arachne puzzle to blog, ‘especially on a Saturday, when there’s more time to savour it‘. This week it was more like the dread in the pit of the stomach on finding one has an Enigmatist! But at least it is a Saturday, so I should have plenty of time to struggle through it…
…and a week to get the blog done.
[N.B. I subscribe to the Grauniad on the Pressreader app/site, where it is free via my Library Card number. Worth checking out, but UK only, obviously! I only discovered the library option recently, as before then I used to pay Pressreader about £100 a year for the same service. So now I pay that £100 direct to the Guardian via their ‘Supporter’ scheme.
Anyway, you get an as-published facsimile copy of the paper in electronic format, and I have found that I can also take screenshots of puzzles on my iPad and then solve on the resulting image using my iPencil (other tablets and writing devices are available)]
To cut to the chase, the Guardian Journal has recently started appearing on Pressreader at around 11pm the night before publication, whereas I used to have to wait until about 5-past midnight to download the PDF version from the Grauniad site.
I merrily snapped a copy of the puzzle and started solving away, thinking I would have it done by bed-time…but I had to think again! After the best part of an hour, I probably had 4 or 5 answers entered, and a lot of scribbling and head-scratching, and I put it down, gingerly, hoping that things might look different in the morning.
Wishful thinking, although a few hours’ sleep must have helped, as I gradually whittled away at a few more clues, not helping myself by putting ROYAL ENGAGEMENT at 7D. 1D and 2D eventually yielded, to the sound of much groaning and face-palming, and these helped with a few crossers for the remaining Across entries.
For 6D, I settled on <game, POLO?> + VI (6) + GOD (Olympian) + IN AUDI, giving that famous composer POLOVIGO DINAUDI – and luckily that was near enough for an online search engine to point me in the direction of LUDOVICO EINAUDI. I had pondered on COE for an Olympian, but didn’t think a 7-letter surname would start EI… (with apologies to the 8-lettered Albert Einstein!)
I eventually saw the error of my ways with PRIOR at 6D, worked out that the STOCK RIDER at 13A was not at London Victoria Station, found the triple definition at 12A, made my way to Hogwarts on a BROOMSTICK, spotted the mis-informed IMOGEN and heard the dreaded ‘invitation’ to SEE ME AFTER CLASS!
My LOI was KNOBKERRIE, as I got fixated the initial K and the Hitler reference being related to a short KAISE(R). I was familiar with the word, but it took a while to realise that ‘broken’ was anagram fodder, not indicator.
No obvious theme, apart from general difficulty(!), and a J, W and Z short of being a pangram:
All-in-all I’d say it took me at least 2 hours to complete (including some e-help at 6D). I know we aren’t really supposed to mention solving times on here but, to calibrate this, it usually takes me maybe 15-30 mins to solve a prize puzzle, with or without a little Wiki-oogling or pattern matching for obscure GK or new (to me) words – so I would say this was about 4-8 times, let’s average that to 6 times, harder than the usual Saturday prize. Would be interesting to know if others found a similar multiple?!
My thanks – I think! – to Enigmatist for a major brain-frazzling, and I trust all is as clear as I can make it below.
(As is often the case, I will be out golfing on the morning this blog comes out, so may be a little tardy in replies to any comments/quibbles below – talk amongst yourselves please, and I will chime – or wade – in later if needed…)
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 8A | REPROACH | Blame argument for cutting hand (8)
RE_ACH (hand, or pass something – reach out?) around (cut by) PRO (argument for) |
| 9A | SQUARE | Old fogey just quits (6)
triple defn. – a SQUARE can be an old fogey; SQUARE can mean just, as in fair/equitable; and SQUARE can mean quits, or evens – ‘we are all square then’ |
| 10A | IMOGEN | One’s apparently not informed m’colleague (6)
I’M (one is, from the setter’s point of view) + OGEN (O, zero, GEN info, so zero info = uninformed!) [IMOGEN is a Grauniad crossword setter, so ‘m’colleague’ from Enigmatist’s point of view] |
| 11A | TOP-TO-TOE | In games, two out of three forwards appear overall (3-2-3)
TO, or forward, appears three times here, two of them within PE (physical education, or ‘games’, at school), so TO + P_TO_TO_E |
| 12A | MAYO | Knock here – radio presenter dressing! (4)
triple defn. – Knock is a town in County MAYO; Simon MAYO is a radio presenter; and MAYOnnaise is a dressing |
| 13A | STOCK RIDER | Standard supplement for contract worker at Victoria Station? (5,5)
STOCK (standard) + RIDER (supplement for legal contract) [Victoria as in Australia; station as in cattle ranch – not Victoria Station in London!] |
| 15A | STEEPER | Salon’s No 1 supporter given a vessel for immersion (7)
S (no. 1 letter of Salon) + TEE (supporter, of a golf ball) + PER (a, as in each, per person) |
| 16A | BOROUGH | Town branch taking delivery of precious commodity (7)
B_OUGH (branch) around (taking delivery of) OR (gold, heraldry, precious commodity) [not sure if OR is precious itself – it refers to a golden colour, or tincture, but it is often used to mean gold, which is precious…] |
| 18A | BROOMSTICK | Means to get to Hogwarts chambers in two seconds (10)
B (second, after A) + TICK (a second, as in just a tick), around ROOMS (chambers) |
| 19A | INGE | Uncassocked choirboy maybe depressing clergyman (4)
( [William Ralph INGE, the ‘gloomy dean’] |
| 20A | OLD-TIMER | Veteran car – Model T, I suspect – about to be driven away (3-5)
subtractive anagram, i.e. suspect, of ( |
| 22A | REALMS | Champion FC’s no longer ad-free action arenas (6)
REAL M( |
| 23A | ISOGON | Perhaps 9 is impossible, on reflection (6)
IS + OGON (NO GO, or impossible, on reflection) [a square (9A) being an example of an ISOGON] |
| 24A | SKIDDING | On the slide not one is playful (8)
( |
| Down | ||
| Clue No | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 1D | SEE ME AFTER CLASS | Upper third of school eats free meals, which degrades teacher’s “invitation” (3,2,5,5)
anag, i.e. which degrades, of SC( |
| 2D | FROGMORE COTTAGE | Royals, predominantly, come and go, revelling in sexual activity … none here now (8,7)
FRO_TTAGE (or FR_OTTAGE) (sexual activity) around GMORE_CO (or OGMORE_C) (anag, i.e. revelling, of R, first, or predominant letter of Royals, plus COME and GO) [said cottage having been the recent ‘grace-and-favour’ home of ‘Randy Andy’…although his brother has been trying to evict him, or already has? This is the British royal family, not an episode of EastEnders, by the way…] |
| 3D | SAINT-SAENS | Isn’t it being overlooked by second Carnival man? (5-5)
S (second) plus (overlooking) AINT (isn’t) + S_A (sex appeal, ‘it’) + ENS (being, existence) [Camille Saint-Saens composed the Carnival of the Animals] |
| 4D | PHOTO OP | Staying in, waste a chance for publicity (5,2)
P_O_OP (waste) around HOT (staying, fashionable?) |
| 5D | ASAP | Terminally, Cleopatra so bitten yesterday? (4)
AS_P (snake which mythologically bit Cleopatra) around (biting) A (terminal letter of cleopatrA) [ASAP being ‘as soon as possible’, sometimes exaggerated to ‘yesterday!’…] |
| 6D | LUDOVICO EINAUDI | Game 6: Olympian driving German car – he scores (8,7)
LUDO (game) + VI (six, Roman numerals) + CO_E (Sebastian Coe, Olympian) + IN AUDI (driving German car!) [a rather esoteric bit of General Knowledge, Einaudi being a modern-day Italian composer, or scorer] |
| 7D | PRIOR ENGAGEMENT | A happy day in prospect at the Abbey? (5,10)
CD – if the PRIOR announces their ENGAGEMENT, then there is a wedding, or happy day, in prospect at the Abbey! [I’m not too up to date with theological matters – can priors get married? Have they not taken a vow of celibacy?…] |
| 14D | KNOBKERRIE | Club badly broken during Hitler’s short war (10)
K_RIE( [LOI] |
| 17D | DIGRESS | Wander here, when prowler’s night finally becomes day (7)
( |
| 21D | MANX | Our race times, from the people staging the Tourist Trophy (4)
MAN (mankind, our race, or species?) + X (times) [the TT motorbike race event is held on the Isle of Man, so staged by the MANX.] |
I always find Enigmatist’s clues very challenging, this puzzle being no exception. Guess first, parse later. I agree with the parsing in the blog. Well done. The only clue that struck me as somewhat unconventional was the one for ASAP.
I managed to solve none – a first for me
Thanks for the blog
There’s no problem mentioning solving times except for the Quick Cryptic.
Thanks mc-rapper67. This was just too hard and in the end I only filled in each square through sheer bloody mindedness and much more recourse to Google than I’m comfortable with. Even so I had to wait for your explanation of several answers before enlightenment, ASAP = yesterday? 17 and 22 I noticed also appeared in last week’s Prize. Can’t say the experience was an enjoyable one.
Finally completed this at 1.34 am on Wednesday after much obsession, but came out of the battle with more respect than ever for Enigmatist. I too spent ages trying to make ROYAL ENGAGEMENT work, didn’t lift and separate ‘contract worker’ until well into Tuesday, and wasted hours thinking ‘Salon’s no1’ had to be a buzzcut or equivalent. Bravo Enigmatist, Bunthorne of our time, and thank you mc_r for the fine blog.
Yes, quite a challenge – I’d say it took me twice as long as usual, but that’s just my memory 1 week after the event.
Can someone explain why IMOGEN is “m’colleague” rather than “my colleague”? Usually when some kind of non-standard device like this is found in the clue it is reflected in the answer, but not here. Is it idiomatic or regional – who speaks this way?
What held me up a bit was trying to treat “Hitler’s short war” literally, to get BLITZKRIEG or BLITZ. So close! Also, didn’t see the alternate meanings of MAYO and STOCK RIDER. The rest unfolded in a slow and jerky fashion.
PS Einaudi has almost twice as many monthly listeners (10.1M) on Spotify as Saint-Saëns (5.2M). But then again Quick crosswords are probably at least twice as popular as Cryptics?
It took me far longer than 2 hours – I greatly respect you mc_r.
In general I am happy to tackle a more difficult puzzle on the weekend when I have more time. For this puzzle I ticked no clues. With that and a lack of variety I do wonder whether it was time well spent
Thanks Enigmatist and mc_rapper67
At 2D Frogmore Cottage is more associated with Prince Harry and Megan than with Prince Andrew.
Unlike Hadrian@5 I came out with less respect for Enigmatist than before. I found this the hardest crossword I’ve ever done by a long margin. Questionable equivalences (reach = hand, to = forward, staying = hot and others), questionable facts (or = precious, Priors being linked to abbeys rather than monasteries or priories), not very well known people (Einaudi, Inge), foreign word knowledge (German word for war), the redundant and unclued ‘m’ in m’colleague, reference to a Guardian setter’s monicker as an answer. It was as if it was being difficult for difficulty’s sake. I normally enjoy crosswords when they are hard but mostly do-able but this one I found laborious and ultimately unfair.
Well done mc_rapper67 for an excellent blog explaining it all.
What a challenge! We only managed to solve a few clues in a first trawl. However, we stuck to the task to fill the grid correctly in a single (long) session but with some help from sources and seven answers not fully parsed until later!
We were left with just two slight niggles : in 4D, we felt that HOT was ‘in’ and hence we and not it are in the POOP! ; in 17D, the word ‘here’ seems superfluous.
Well done to E for setting such a clever and subtle puzzle and to MCR for a brilliant explication.
Marser@10 – I parsed 4D the same way, with ‘staying’ meaning ‘propping up/surrounding’, and ‘in’ meaning ‘hot’
Thanks for that excellent blog, and to Enigmatist for a major challenge. I must admit to feeling a little smug at having eventually finished it – after much struggle, having read of so many others who did not. (Is it just my dirty mind, or are there quite a few ‘rude’ words relating to sexual practices hidden in answers and ninas around the grid?!)
Yes, this took me several sessions during Saturday and Sunday, nibbling away a few answers at a time, but I did finish it, which I think is a first for Enigmatist. Another ROYAL ENGAGEMENT here, but I laughed when I finally saw the real answer (though I don’t think Priors are supposed to marry). Thank goodness I solved BROOMSTICK before KNOBKERRIE, or I’d undoubtedly have got hung up on BLITZKRIEG like Dr. WhatsOn@6. Couldn’t parse TOP TO TOE or PHOTO OP. Difficulty for the sake of difficulty about sums it up.
The Gloomy Dean? Really? I thought he passed his set-by date decades ago. And like Larry@9 I dislike the use of other setters’ names. But I do know and enjoy LUDOVICO EINAUDI – this is probably his best-known piece.
(Forgot to say I couldn’t parse SAINT-SAENS either: ENS=being unknown to me, even if I’d managed to sort it out from the rest: AINT was the only bit I could identify.)
I shared the dread mc_rapper67 felt on seeing Enigmatist’s name on the Prize last Saturday, but in the end I didn’t fare too badly though it was a terribly slow solve for me too. I remained unsure about 10a IMOGEN even after I parsed it as I was left wondering whether “m’colleague” is a common endearment between setters, or just a common and unfamiliar to me Britishism. 13a STOCK RIDER was a favourite for the misdirection in referencing Victoria Station (Aussies love to get a mention!). The former teacher in me really liked that scary phrase I would once upon a time utter in serious, lowered tones – 1d SEE ME AFTER CLASS. I got that one early enough for it to be very helpful in terms of the cross letters. Seeing 3d FROGMOPRE COTTAGE was a “laugh out loud” moment – yes the Royals get a lot of press in Australia too!
Thanks to Enigmatist for a tough but ultimately (in my opinion) fair work-out.
I’m also very grateful to mc_rapper67 for explaining 22a REALMS (I knew REAL Madrid but couldn’t get the AD RID bit), 3d SAINT-SAËNS (I understood the “Carnival of the Animals” reference but not the “overlooked” and “being”/ENS part) and 5d (like some previous posters, I wasn’t fussed on “yesterday” as the definition here). It’s always good to have some loose ends tied up when I haven’t parsed a few clues to my satisfaction.
I think I managed to finish the last Enigmatist prize, but that was a first for me, so I didn’t have high hopes of finishing this, and was actually quite pleased to end up with only three left blank. When that happens, you come here, see the answers, and there’s usually at least one ‘damn, I should at least have seen that!’. In my case that was IMOGEN – sorry, Imogen, I really should have realised you were the colleague. But even then, I don’t think I’d have thought of FROGMORE COTTAGE. (Although I had thought it must begin with ‘fr’ and end in ‘ottage’.) Or MAYO, come to that, not being up to date with UK radio. I’d also, I’m afraid, never heard of LUDIVICO EINAUDI – I only got him by, almost on a whim, Googling ‘composers ending in audi’ and there he was! I’d been trying to make a modern Vivaldi fit – I was going to worry about the difference between a German supermarket and a German car later.
So, quite a challenge, particularly some of the more, um, enigmatic clues. But I didn’t miss by much, given I was swimming out of my depth. Thanks, Enigmatist, we’ll meet again, and thanks mc_r for the entertaining blog. Two hours!
Well above my level of ability; I had one clue answered (21d) after looking at it on and off all week.
Thanks to Enigmatist, for showing me how far I have to progress if nothing else. 🙂
Thanks to mc_rapper67 for the detailed explanation.
Enigmatist continues to be an enigma to me! It is almost like he doesn’t want anyone to solve his clues. Even after getting the answer (more or less), parsing is still a stretch. For example, 3D tough charade made tougher by the definition (Carnival man??), 4D staying=HOT (have rarely come across this one), 7D really out there, 12A “Knock here” as one of the triple definitions (I got the answer, but never quite parsed it because of “Knock here”), 2D the definition gives the average solver no chance whatsoever … I could go on and on, but like all Enigmatist’s puzzles, I just don’t enjoy them anymore (even though I kind of solve them without ever parsing them to my satisfaction). I notice that I am not alone.
PHOTO OP
Treated in as HOT like Marser@10 with staying meaning holding/restraining.
DIGRESS
Agree with Marser@10 that the ‘here’ seems redundant.
Found the puzzle very tough. Happy I could finish it at all.
Top faves: STOCK RIDER, BROOMSTICK, ISOGON, SKIDDING DIGRESS.
Thanks Enigmatist and mc.
I’m another who solved it all, but it took me a good 3 hours in bits and pieces until I finally got the last few in on Tuesday, with LUDOVICO EINAUDI my last in. Not helped by being away last weekend and working on my phone until Sunday evening, so no access to all the extra aids I used. I did go and check EINAUDI out, there’s a YouTube of him playing his most famous piece.
KNOBKERRIE I got much earlier, and was disabused about my initial thought of royal ENGAGEMENT by solving SQUARE from ISOGON.
I found it entertaining, but challenging. Thank you to Enigmatist and mc_rapper.
Saw 9a SQUARE as a quadruple definition. — 15a STEEPER: the “a” = PER shouldn’t be part of the definition. — 4d PHOTO OP: Staying = containing; in = HOT.
Loved the puzzle. Every clue a gem. Great fun! 😀.
Very much a DNF for me, only my second in many years, even after several attempts, and looking at the blog I am not surprised. Esoterica in answers and convoluted parsing made this an exercise in masochism. I really should avoid Enigmatist puzzles in future for the sake of my mental health. Thanks mc_rapper.
m’colleague as in m’lud, m’learned friend for the defence. Or Flanders & Swann’s Madeira M’Dear? (1957).
Thanks for a great blog, very tough indeed , a left to right solve for me , found the left side easier and just enough poking into the right to help . KNOBKERRIE very helpful , Vlad used it last summer and seen it in Enigmatist before and Puck , always clued by “club” . REALMS and DIGRESS my favourites.
Beautiful sunny day , first of the year , so we spent the time in the garden . Every cup of tea I sat with the puzzle in the sun for 20 minutes , finished on my fifth go so took about 90 minutes plus a lot of thinking time . Typical Guardian time for me about 10 minutes but I have had a LOT of practice.
Thanks for the explanation of how the SAENS in SAINT-SAENS was arrived at. Didn’t see it at all, and I also missed the reference to County MAYO. I am another one who took much longer than usual to complete this puzzle with a couple of loose ends as above, but I don’t have a problem with a difficult prize crossword to sort out the sheep from the goats from time to time (and all I can say is baa!). Thanks to Enigmatist and to mc_rapper for the explanations.
I do think the Guardian should have puzzles like this but on a Saturday and not too often .
I remember my first Bunthorne , spending all weekend trying to solve clues and getting zero . No point complaining , just called him a B…… and promised to get him eventually .
Well, I came here expecting to see confessions of failure left, right and centre but should have known better. So far, only three commenters seem to have fallen significantly short of a full grid and the vast majority have completed it. I absolutely take my hat off to you all. Much like when I occasionally read the blog for an Inquisitor for the hell of it and wonder how solvers even get started, let alone finish. I think I managed to solve about half a dozen clues and, looking at mc’s remarkable notes, I can see why I didn’t get much further. Way above my pay grade. Let’s hope Matilda is a little kinder this week.
Thanks Enigmatist and mc rapper
PM @27, well I’m in good company then as I was an abject failure with only 4 solved when I gave up. Last one in was PHOTO OP but couldn’t get across “staying” for hot. I was obviously in synonym hell and gave up at that point. Even the tried and tested “leave it for a bit and come back to it didn’t help at all.
[Did you have a go at my recent January crossword centre puzzle? A lot seemed to find it at the easier end!!]
Postmark @27 Spent all week and only managed 11 clues which was ten more than the other folk in the household….
Admin@4 I wish there was a ban on people giving solving times. It can be very dispiriting to those of us who are just pleased to finish at all.
Well I did go back to it a couple of times this week but only got three.
One of these was 6d. I was sure I was looking for a composer and I had a thought that the name might have AUDI in it but there was no such name in my list of composers.
BUT on Sunday in the Observer food magazine there was an article “My Life on a Plate” about Ludovico Einaudi – and there was my answer.
Anyway maybe some years in the future I’ll have more success with puzzles like these.
Thanks Enigmatist and mc_rapper67
It was quite a tricky puzzle, I only got started in the early evening but managed to have it all done by bedtime. But, like Roz @24, I have had donkeys years of practice.
4d. Waste is POO in English. The poop is a part of a ship.
And that takes me to the advertisement for the Guardian newspaper that our blogger has seen fit to insert in his blog. A pity. The blog itself is, as always, excellent. But I don’t think blatant advertising should feature. If the blogger is allowed to do it, then I am allowed to say that I hate the Guardian in its every manifestation. It represents the betrayal of its British socialist roots. It uses american whenever it possibly can. I hate it and loathe it. And that, from someone whose views are very left-leaning.
But our blogger is going ‘golfing’ so I suppose he’s in the Guardian camp.
I doubt if this comment will be allowed to stand, as the modern world allows the free expression of views, but only if they are in line with party thought.
PostMark@27 Just to clarify, I’m another who got only a few. Reading the blog, this crossword feels very self indulgent. An example being, why m’colleague? It adds nothing that I can see to the clue that the standard ‘my colleague’ wouldn’t and just added a needless complication to an already difficult clue. I’ve only previously heard m’ for my used in m’lud so (presumably intentionally) thought it was somehow relevant.
Anna@32 as a declared lefty myself, I’m just grateful there is a moderating voice, however flawed. These are very dark times.
Congratulations to anyone who managed to finish this. We gave up on Monday having only solved 9 clues. I suppose there has to be the occasional bar steward like this to exercise the few who are up to it, but we didn’t enjoy it ay all.
PS Anna @32, well, the crossword is provided free by the Guardian, so a little plug for it doesn’t seem out of order, IMO.
Hmm. I managed about 80% of this and gave up on Tuesday.
I found I was often filling in answers but not feeling very satisfied that I was right.
As for PRIOR ENGAGEMENT, the trouble seems to be that there is no wordplay to nail down this quaint and amusing clue, so those who went for ROYAL (as I initially did) had nothing other than crossers to put them right.
Anna @32 Chambers has the 3rd definition of poop as:
noun
1. Faeces
2. Defecation
intransitive verb
To defecate
poop scoop or poopˈer-scooper noun
An implement for lifting and removing faeces (esp one used by dog-owners to remove faeces deposited by their pets on pavements, in parks, etc)
Faeces sounds like waste to me.
Dave F @27 IMOGEN was one of my first few in. I started from the left and SEE ME AFTER CLASS, then very slowly worked across.
By some minor miracle I found myself on
Enigmatist’s wavelength for once. I think getting some of the long ones early was obviously a big help. I thought this was outstanding – if only we got one of these on bank holidays
I obviously know more about sexual practices than the goings on of the royals and I’m ok with that balance
In the past I’ve criticised this setter for putting difficulty before clue quality but I thought he hit the sweet spot here
I shall now clean up the garden with my pooer scooer 🙂
Cheers mc&e
Postmark@27 et al, I too really struggled. It was a busy weekend so I thought that was the problem but when I looked at it again on Monday was still none the wiser. Three, including SAINT-SAENS which I couldn’t parse. An all time low for me. Looking back I only solved about half of his last Prize too.
🙂 Bodycheetah @39
Only got the one, and was perplexed all week. This crossword only had two full anagrams, which I think was a big factor in its difficulty, apart from the obvious other deviousness. I am not surprised at all that loads of people DNF’ed this one. It was the hardest puzzle I have ever come across.
[ Anna@32 , Happy St David’s Day . I wonder if the Guardian online is very different to the print edition ? Perhaps they are catering for a different audience .
The paper seems its usual bumbling self to me , many things I love and some I can’t stand . A trivial thing is letters referring to online articles , so annoying , surely letters in the paper should refer to the paper only.
I do not know what newspapers are like in Finland but in the UK there is only one choice , the rest are disgraceful . ]
DaveF@30 – on this occasion I found it heartening to know that even the best solvers were taking hours to finish!
I usually like to finish the Prize crossword on Saturday morning if possible but I’m happy to use any help at my disposal. In this case, my computer and I solved this in two parts and I found the break really helpful in finishing it. I think I managed to eventually parse nearly everything but wasn’t sure about TOP-TO-TOE, where I thought the forwards were W, an abbreviation for wing-forwards, that magically disappeared somehow.
I ticked BROOMSTICK for the unexpected two seconds, the sexual activity of the royals at FROGMORE COTTAGE, and the nice charade for LUDOVICO EINAUDI, who I did know of, although I needed some help with the spelling.
Thanks Enigmatist for the brain-frazzling and mcr for explaining it all.
Priors would normally be monks and therefore celibate (7 down)
I saw ‘m’collegue’ as a reference to m’learned friend rather than m’lud. But then this friend was ‘not informed’, so take out learned, leaving friend, so AMICUS. I had nine entries, two of them incorrect (a bunged in WASP at 5d in a moment of ex*asp*eration 🙂). One of my worst incompletions – I don’t call it a failure when it’s this tough.
I got KNOBKERRIE among my first clues in. Actually, all my entries were among my first few in. 😂
Congratulations to the enigmatic one for a comprehensive victory. Thanks to mc_golfer for the super blog. And to all who completed I doff my hat.
We’re baffled by to for forward in 11A. Could someone clarify?
Very difficult and frankly not that enjoyable for most of the reasons listed above. I was particularly irritated by IMOGEN (the clue, not the setter) for its self referencing and for having spent ages trying to work out how m’ affects the solution. That’s not misdirection, it’s just pointless use of obscure language.
Failed on STEEPEN instead of STEEPER, having failed to parse the a bit. A serious challenge, and it would have been nice to have felt more satisfaction than relief at the end of it.
[Anna@32 I think the blogger is telling us how he accessed the crossword, rather than advertising the paper. After all we are doing their crossword. This may be useful for others. Similarly, I have free access to the BorrowBox app with my library card. This gives access to many newspapers and magazines as well as the Guardian.]
Thanks to mc_rapper67 and Enigmatist for a good workout.
Blady@48. Chambers has TO as an adverb: “in one direction, forward”.
In 5dn the clue words seem be doing double duty, Cleopatra so bitten = asp, but Cleopatra also for the A and bitten for the folding of the A within the Asp
And in 10ac “m'” is utterly gratuitous.
When I first read 23a I wondered if the 9 referred to the (square) number, and not a reference to 9 across.
In a way, it turned out to be both.
Thanks to Enigmatist and mc_rapper67
I assumed that IMOGEN was a lawyer but having no information was just a colleague as not a learned friend. I am another who failed to complete, in spite of using every help in the book. I got closer than I thought I would by repeatedly coming back. I liked MAYO.
I didn’t start this until the Sunday. On that day the Observer Food Monthly included the article “My life on a plate” featuring Ludovico Einaudi, who I’d never heard of. I thought when I saw it that his surname would be good for crossword purposes. Then of course I turned to the puzzle and found him waiting for me at 6d. Was this an amazing coincidence, or did Enigmatist know about the article?
Anna @32, I believe you’ve said before that you hate The Guardian. My feelings are completely the opposite. It has always been my paper, and though I certainly don’t agree with everything in it, overall I think it is a rare voice of reason amidst a sea of awfulness.
Many thanks Enigmatist for a very challenging puzzle and mc_rapper67 for a great blog as usual.
Felt a great sense of achievement when finally completed last night – although definitely a joint effort for me & my partner. Couldn’t parse everything – so thanks all for various explanations. Had to resort to a search engine for the composer & cleric & had to double-check meanings of isogon & stock rider.
We’re too innocent to recognise sexual practices round the outside though ?
Very hard and I didn’t finish. Would never have got FROGMORE COTTAGE and I hate the in-crowd reference to IMOGEN. And although I got it, because I’m very old, no-one should be referring to Dean INGE in this day and age. (Seems I’m still grumpy a week later!)
Yes, took me longer than normal too. And I came away with a record number of queries/grumbles (not including the fact so many answers seem esoteric, to put it mildly), only some of which have been partially reconciled by this blog (many thanks, mc_rapper67, hope the golf is going well). I shall list two here, which still seem out and out wrong to me:
DIGRESS what is that “here” doing?
IMOGEN I, too, am irritated by the “m’colleague”, but it is the “I’m 0 gen” that is the real problem. “0 gen” is effectively a noun (zero information) and “uninformed” is an adjective. If Imogen’s name were Iveogen, it might have worked. But it’s not…
I echo the reasoning and analysis of Larry@9, Shafar@18 and others with negative reaction to a puzzle that came over as compiled-to-impress rather than as intended to be a shared pleasure with the solver. For me, this puzzle lacked a sense of what I might call ‘flow’.
For what it’s worth, it took me 5 days, 11 hours and 22 seconds to complete it with some outside help 🙂
Thanks to mc-rapper67 and Enigmatist
I found this very difficult and was surprised and relieved to finish, albeit with several unparsed. I remember that Fry and Laurie had a comic routine that used m’colleague extensively and (not from personal experience) that ‘Eton-speak’ used to include m’tutor and m’dame, but don’t see how either accounts for its use regarding Imogen.
Shane@38, yes but you could solve the whole thing, we’re on very different levels!!
Sheffieldhatter@47 I think your explanation is right and I was wrong. In my defence, I’ve frequently heard m’lud in court but never m’colleague as the correct address is ‘my learned friend’. So that would probably have been more accurate but still wouldn’t have helped me.
Climbing walls cover grades from 3 to 8 but as most of us sit in the 5/6 category that’s where most of the routes are set. There’s only one grade 8 at the wall I go to which, to my knowledge, nobody but the setter has ever climbed. This was a grade 8 but it’s only fair the crazy clever solvers get the occasional outlier so I’m not moaning.
Except about the ‘I did this before I finished my coffee’, ‘well I did it before the kettle boiled’, ‘well I did it before the exploited farmer had even finished harvesting the coffee beans’ types!
Just as well that it wasn’t my turn to blog, as Timon and I failed to finish this last weekend and I realise now that I never remembered to come back to it. We didn’t help ourselves by entering AMTMAN instead of IMOGEN at 10 across, making FROGMORE COTTAGE impossible. We thought it had to be a cottage of some kind. As for AMTMAN (which can mean a district magistrate, hence a lawyer or m’learned friend) we parsed that as a homophone of an empty (or uninformed) man. We didn’t think it was a particularly good clue!
Thanks to mc-rapper- it must be a glorious morning for golf!
I spent hours on this and got five. Someone said the art of cluing was to ‘yield gracefully’ but this doesn’t apply here. Though it’s fine to every now and then have a crossword where the setter is making it as hard as possible.
13A might just be the most reluctantly yielding clue I’ve seen for some while. I had no idea a ‘station’ is a ranch. And I’ve never heard of a ‘stock rider’ before. Even if I’d somehow worked out ‘Victoria Station’ was Victoria in Australia (which I didn’t) this still wouldn’t have helped. And the word play was – for me – really difficult too. I don’t think I’ve ever have arrived at ‘rider’ being a synonym for ‘supplement’.
This was way above anything I could ever hope to complete.
@63Mikeymike. I agree with your comments. I had four by Sunday and did wonder if it was worth bothering with. On balance, I decided it was. I finished it on Thursday. I did happen to know the Aussie usage of ‘station’, but the answer still didn’t come till about Wednesday.
Sometimes, I take a stubborn clue for a walk up a hill with the dog. There were enough here for half the Pennine Way.
Thanks and sympathy to the setter. You must be exhausted from your efforts!
Dave@61. My reasoning may have been sound, and I arrived at an answer that means friend or comrade, but AMICUS was still the wrong answer! Maybe a good answer, but wrong.
I agree with others about what seems to be the deliberately misleading use of m-apostrophe in this clue. I don’t think I have previously objected, as others sometimes do, to the use of compiler names in the grids or clues. It’s a little bit of inside knowledge that regular solvers should be able to pick up. But if a setter’s name is the answer, surely it should at least be clued fairly? It can’t be too much to ask, that either definition or wordplay should not be deliberately obscure.
This was like crawling over broken glass. I managed to complete it in three sessions with a lot of googling, so I got some satisfaction from that, but the parsing was in many cases incomprehensible. The “m’colleague” abbreviation is particularly egregious. It adds nothing whatever to the clue other than obfuscation.
Tricky indeed. A three-session solve for me (the equivalent of a three-pipe problem?) and I still failed on IMOGEN (the m’colleague threw me, as it obviously did many others) and FROGMORE COTTAGE, a dwelling whose name I didn’t recall (I did toy with FROTTAGE, but thought it couldn’t possibly be that…).
Like Lord Jim, it was the Observer which gave me the composer. I’m reasonably au fait with ‘scorers’ – I managed the recent notorious vowelless special without too much difficulty – but Ludo E was beyond my ken. On reflection, I should have got him sooner nevertheless: EINAUDI is familiar as an Italian publishing house, and there aren’t any other first names that would have fitted the crossers, but difficult puzzles tend to create a panicked brain freeze.
A good workout for the little grey cells, certainly.
Thanks to JH and mc
M’colleague also adds to the “wink wink, one for the in-crowd” vibe of a clue that depends on being familiar with the noms-de-plume of other Guardian setters. Since this is Enigmatist, it’s unlikely that a newbie would ever have got as far as that, but I see several people here failed to see what the definition was alluding to.
I’m very much in the make the prize crossword tougher than the others as you’ve got all week to solve it but this was well beyond my paygrade. I’ve been keeping stats of all the prize 15 squared puzzles for about 4 years and my previous worst was 28/32 correct for a Vlad. Here I only got 6 correct so I would say this is 4 times tougher than the toughest puzzle I’ve ever encountered. Well done to the setter for giving me a sound thrashing and well done to the blogger for sorting it all out.
Tough, indeed. I expect E to be difficult – but also, in the end, worthwhile. I was more than happy to fill the grid here, though I couldn’t parse 11a. Many thanks to JH and our stalwart blogger.
The second completed Enigmatist in a row and in about the same time as Roz, though I’m not normally in her league. That doesn’t mean that I enjoyed it. Too many marginal synonyms for me, with REALMS = “action arenas” or “arenas” being one that hasn’t already been mentioned.
13, 15 and 23 were new to me though clearly clued.
6d was an early OI for me from the German car as I couldn’t fit VW, Merc(edes), or Porsche. Pace gladys @ 13 I think of his music as a sort of musical lava lamp.
Thanks to Enigmatist and mc_rapper67
Pino@71, 90 minutes was my pen and paper time , I was also pondering whilst sweeping up to add to this. I normally think about neutrinos , they are even more cryptic.
I never really worry about definitons unless it is a really bad science definition, as long as the word play works.
This was extremely challenging, but I enjoyed the challenge and had an unusual determination to finish last weekend. Very satisfying when I did. I found the RHS in particular to be very tough and ground to a halt on my first go at this. Finally seeing how REALMS worked got me over the hurdle by unlocking where the AUDI was in 6. I actually googled Augustus Vivaldi in desperation for that one at one point – he’s in an Audi and he has a VI (six) in his name, but not much else from the clue!
I enjoyed TOP-TO-TOE (Blady @48, to = forwards as in to and fro), the SQUARE/ISOGON pairing, MANX, PHOTO-OP (my LOI) and MAYO best. Some brilliant surfaces in this puzzle. It’s certainly one where crossers were very important to keep going.
Many thanks for the work-out, Enigmatist and for the excellent blog, Mc-R. Hope the round went well.
I didn’t time my solve but it was probably a few hours total in more than one session.
My ‘O’-level German came in very handy again for KRIE(G) to assemble the fodder for the club, and although the puzzle was exasperating for quite extended periods, the satisfaction on completion was in proportion to that.
I too get infuriated by the Guardian, mainly for its sticking every conceivable knife, at every available opportunity, into the only thing which prevents the continual rule of the last excuse-for-a-government. That said I am a subscriber, but I’m with the late Higgs, who said, I think, that Private Eye was the only decent British paper.
Many thanks all, and well done.
Thanks for all the comments and feedback so far – much appreciated as usual. Lovely weather for golf today – shame my score didn’t match the -2 degrees when we started – it was more of a balmy +30 (;+<)
Far too many comments to address individually, but there seems to be a fair level of acceptance that an Enigmatist will be hard, and then some marmite-y views on whether the hardness is enjoyable and/or worth the effort – or like 'crawling on broken glass‘! I’m sure things will calm down until the next one comes along…
Thanks to everyone who has stepped in to explain/expand/answer quibbles – around ‘m’unlearned colleague’; TO = forward; the poo vs poop debate; etc.
Interesting that so many people had heard of Einaudi, although I am a cultural desert, so hardly surprising I hadn’t. I imagine it must have been a coincidence that he was also featured in an Observer supplement around the same time…
Apologies if I offended Anna at #32 with my plug for free newspaper access via PressReader and a UK Library card – other publications are available on there – I also get the Telegraph (for the EV and Griddler puzzles, which aren’t available online) and Viz (for the ‘craptic’ crossword, which is not for the faint-hearted…like Cyclops but on steroids that are taking steroids). This self-confessed ‘prize puzzle tart’ also holds his nose and downloads the Mail on Sunday via this route, for the £1500 General Knowledge prize crossword – not won yet, but one day… the only mainstream paper that isn’t on there is the Times – presumably Rupe doesn’t want people accessing his rag for free…
mc_rapper67 @75. Don’t the various publications on Press reader get some payment from the app? When I queried Bolinda, the company that provides BorrowBox I was told that they did, but they didn’t reveal how much.
Alan Cripps @69 There are many people who only do the weekend crosswords because of work commitments during the week. Those of my acquaintance are pleased to get one they can complete occasionally.
I managed 5 of these. I thought I would read the blog and see what an idiot I’ve been but having seen the answers and word play I don’t feel so bad now. That was one tough puzzle. I have solved Enigmatist under his other guises but he just seems to step it up a notch (from an already high point) for the Guardian.
Staticman1@77 , I have solved this setter for many years , including as IO in the FT , and this was the toughest I have seen . One factor is a very unfriendly grid giving very few first letters checked , these are always the most useful . IO is usually in the FT once a month on a Wednesday , the grid is often more helpful with long perimeter clues and the clues perhaps a touch more friendly .
PostMark@27 has said it all. I spent hours off and on with this and didn’t really get very far. From the comments so far I see that I am in good company. I really do admire everyone who could solve this. I doubt I’ll ever be good enough to solve a puzzle by this setter TBH. Thank you for the blog mc_rapper67.
After an almighty struggle, a workout for Señor Google, and a phone-a-friend for my last three, I did manage to finish this. On Sunday. This is the first Prize I’ve done in years, not counting the Maskarade jumbos, that wasn’t completed on Saturday. (Oh, I guess there was one Paul last year where I found I wasn’t in the mood and never got back to it. That shouldn’t count.)
I had not heard of Dean INGE; that’s a common name in US crosswords, but it’s always playwright William of Bus Stop fame. I also didn’t know EINAUDI, but I figured out the first name and Googled “composer Ludovico” to get me there. I’ll spare you the rundown of my other tortures, but just add me to the very long list of the tortured.
Oh, and I agree with the general sentiment that Guardian setters name-checking each other in their puzzles makes this whole thing into something of a clique. Can I sit with the cool kids at lunch too?
This was my first ever finish of an Enigmatist cryptic. It was a hell of an arm wrestle. I managed about half of it on Saturday on a nice return train ride down to Chichester (to see the Dora Carrington exhibition at the Pallant, highly recommended), but I think it was Wednesday night by the time I finished it. I managed to jorum my way to EINAUDI, though he sat there in pencil as “Einauto” for many hours. I thought the puzzle was hard but fair. REALMS was my favourite.
This was indeed a tough puzzle, as I expected. It took me a long time to solve, but I enjoyed it very much, revelling in the unexpected twists and tricks in the wording of many of the clues. It helped that I knew both Saint-Saëns and Ludovico Einaudi (and, being a Brit, Frogmore Cottage as well), otherwise I would have struggled with some clues in those parts of the grid. My favourite clue was STOCK RIDER – Victoria Station indeed! I was puzzled – non-plussed, even – by the expression “m’colleague” in the clue to Imogen. As has been pointed out already, we would not expect to see that contraction of “my” except in “m’learned friend” or “m’lud”.
Thanks to both Enigmatist and mc_rapper.
Obviously the most difficult puzzle in February, probably too difficult. I managed 9 answers, and looking at the rest I don’t think I would ever have managed a complete solve.
I was busy yesterday, and so I am late again to this blog. I read mc-r’s explanations with interest this morning. I see that he has already reviewed the many responses @75. I will add my name to his ‘broken glass’ camp (or Tomsdads’s sheep) as I didn’t solve very many. Looking through mc-r’s explanations, I should have got a few more, but they were well dispersed among harder clues. I have marked 8 clues with a big red X as unreasonable or self-indulgent. This puzzle was, for me, a time-waster. My best decision of the week was to abandon it. I have been an occasional solver of the dead-tree version of the Guardian prize crossword for over 50 years. I must try to remember the name of this setter to avoid any repeat episodes.
Just popped by to see what others thought of this crossword. As expected, it has divided opinion. Also as expected, everyone found it hard!
Solving is usually a joint activity with ShowJumper, but when m’spouse saw the setter’s name, she said words to the effect of “all yours” and moved on to the FT.
So, I rolled my sleeves up, opened up my favourite e-helps and got stuck in. Several hours later the last clue was solved and the smugness ensued.
The Italian composer was easy since I used to commute during ClassicFM’s “Hall of Fame” hour and Einaudi’s twee pop tunes were a regular feature.
As I have flown into Knock, MAYO was a gimme. Only NHO was ISOGON, but obvious thinking about the Greek.
Thanks to Enigmatist for the challenge and to mc_rapper67 for the explanations.
Seeing Enigmatist filled me with apprehension; it wasn’t misplaced.
It took me (on and off) until Tuesday to complete.
M’colleague only added to m’consternation.
Thanks for the continued comments…m’ore m’armite, vicar?!
Roz at #78 – I hadn’t realised this setter was also IO in the FT, so I learned something new today…
[Crossbar at #76, I’m sure the papers must get some sort of revenue from PressReader, but I bet the Grauniad didn’t get all of my £100. I presume the Library Card thing is some sort of bulk-buying power by the libraries – I remember back in the day that most big libraries would have dead-tree copies of that day’s mainstream papers – I wonder if they do now…it has been a while since I went into a physical library…]
Came here for the parsing – I did end up with a letter in every space, but little confidence in some of the words they produced. All OK, though I have to face it, much of it was luck combined with what part of my GK would fit . I particular, I thought ‘revelling in sexual activity’ must definitely be ‘cottage’ (noun to verb transition achieved by some crossword convention new to me) which then meant that the rest of the wordplay was meaningless. But like I said – ‘what will fir’.
[mc_r67 @87 I’m visiting my local library later this week. I’ll look to see if they still do hardcopy newspapers.
Also, I do actually subscribe to the Graun anyway. I was just curious how all this online borrowing works. I know that for online book-borrowing there is a limit on how many people can borrow a title at one time, hence waiting lists. ]
It’s interesting what people mean by “hard”.
Quite often I can’t “see” through – say – a Monday Vulcan or Sunday Everyman clue, and when I can’t it’s every bit as hard as an Enigmatist clue where that also applies.
So this puzzle was a case of going through that sensation rather more often than usual during the solve, but in essence no more than that.
Unstressed stubbornness is, as others have said, key, I think.
Here’s how I approached this puzzle, as I do with all Enigmatists. I tried all the across clues, and having solved none of them I used the reveal button to write in all the solutions. Then, with all the crossers, I had a go at the down clues. That way I managed to get three clues.
For the clues I didn’t get, I revealed them and tried to parse them, to see how many I could understand. This is how I try to improve my solving skills. Even seeing the answers, there were at least 10 that I couldn’t parse.
Enigmatist will always remain beyond me. I’m glad he appears, for the benefit of Roz and others, but equally glad that he doesn’t appear too often.
It is becoming increasingly clear that this setter compiles puzzles purely for his own enjoyment.
The parsing of “Saens” is as obscure as “Bambino” from the last self indulgent offering.
Well Ian, I post comments here purely for my own enjoyment, so even if what you claim were true, I can’t knock anyone for that.
I’ll join the chorus — this was a brutally hard puzzle! I had to cheat on about a half-dozen clues, mostly on the right side.
Even after reading the blog and the comments, I’m still confused / troubled by the “m'” in 10ac, and I definitely don’t like “precious commodity” for OR in 16ac. Here’s a comment I made on an earlier puzzle on a very similar topic:
“It’s true that the word ‘gold’ is a synonym for both, but in two different senses (a metal and a color). Synonymy is not transitive in this way. A ball can be a sphere or a dance, but ‘sphere’ and ‘dance’ cannot be used to clue each other.”
Interestingly, the phrase “‘gold’ is a synonym for both” applies to both clues, but the actual words were different: in the earlier puzzle, they were “Au” and “yellow”.
Just given up on this with 2/3 done, at least they were correct. Far too much obliquely alluded-to GK from realms I have no interest in – more Telegraph than Guardian IMO.
Ted @94 , maybe I am not saying anything new but I have lost track.
The M I think is just a play on the idea – m’learned friend – a phrase used in things like Rumpole of the Bailey .
In the UK at auctions , if something is clearly gold but not properly hallmarked , they list it as yellow-metal ( this is actually a brass alloy but everyone knows they mean gold but can’t say so ) . Silver not hallmarked is listed as white-metal .
Sorry I’m late – just remembered to check this! Even after a week, a DNF for me – LH side all OK but 5 missing and two errors on the RH side. For 24a, I had SLIPPING (“lippy”=cheeky/playful), which stymied 6d. Brutal is hardly adequate to describe it – definitely the hardest I’ve ever tried. But well done to all who completed this one.