The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29693.
That was over surprisingly quickly, given that I see no real write-ins. If I were being picky, I might complain of too many envelopes indicated by ‘in’.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BICYCLE |
Reportedly purchase farming tool for a penny farthing? (7)
|
| Sounds like ‘reportedly’) BUY (‘purchase’) plus SICKLE (‘farming tool’). | ||
| 5 | CASH COW |
Steady earner from clubs beginning to collaborate in adult entertainment (4,3)
|
| A charade of C (‘clubs’) plus ASHCOW, an envelope (‘in’) of C (‘beginning to Collaborate’) in A (‘adult’) plus SHOW (‘entertainment’). | ||
| 9 | RULES |
English involved in slight about Aussie football (5)
|
| An envelope (‘involved in’) of E (‘English’) in RULS, a reversal (‘about’) of SLUR (‘slight’). | ||
| 10 | HOME GUARD |
Force once made rough bombs (4,5)
|
| An anagram (‘bombs’) of ‘made rough’. | ||
| 11 | EDITORSHIP |
Top hack’s office tried so desperately to get joint (10)
|
| A charade of EDITORS, an anagram (‘desperately’) of ‘tried so’ plus HIP (‘joint’). | ||
| 12, 14 | FACE RECOGNITION |
Only real mugs should survive its scrutiny (4,11)
|
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 14 |
See 12
|
|
| 18, 21 | PORTMANTEAU WORD |
Perhaps cyborg’s faulty power unit discharged at random (11,4)
|
| An anagram (‘faulty’) of ‘power’ plus UT (‘UniT discharged’ – that is, with its middle letters removed) plus ‘at random’. Cyborg is an example of a portmanteau word, combining cyber- and organism. | ||
| 21 |
See 18
|
|
| 22 | WEATHER EYE |
Having a change of heart, female sheep chasing castrated ram around area shows alert gaze (7,3)
|
| A charade of WEATHER, an envelope (‘around’) of A (‘area’) i WETHER (‘castrated ram’ the word came up a fortnight ago in Tramp’s Guardian 29681); plus EYE, which is EWE (‘female sheep’) with the W changed to Y (‘having a change of heart’ – some would like a more specific indication). | ||
| 25 | NOSTALGIA |
Longing for what was left in Santiago, unfortunately (9)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of L (‘left’) in NOSTAGIA, an anagram (‘unfortunately’) of ‘Santiago’. | ||
| 26 | AMOUR |
Fling means of protection, sacrificing first rook (5)
|
| A subtraction: A[r]MOUR (‘means of protection’) minus the first R (‘sacrificing first rook’). | ||
| 27 | SPRAYED |
Posy heads evenly covered in mist (7)
|
| A charade of SPRAY (‘posy’) plus ED (‘hEaDs evenly’). | ||
| 28 | TREADLE |
Boy cycling in bay maybe finds lever (7)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of ADL, which is LAD (‘boy’) ‘cycling’, in TREE (‘bay, maybe’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1, 2 | BORDER COLLIE |
Stock gatherer seen around Suffolk, for one (6,6)
|
| Cryptic definition, the ‘stock’ being sheep, and Suffolk being a breed of sheep. | ||
| 2 |
See 1
|
|
| 3 | COSMODROME |
Revamped Commodores launch site in Russia (10)
|
| An anagram (‘revamped’) of ‘Commodores’. | ||
| 4 | ETHOS |
Distinctive character conveyed by Internet host (5)
|
| A hidden answer (‘conveyed’) in ‘internET HOSt’. | ||
| 5 | COMMINGLE |
Mix with Marxist holding no good line (9)
|
| A envelope (‘holding’) of N G (‘no good’) plus L (‘line’) in COMMIE (‘Marxist’). | ||
| 6 | SAGA |
Company for older folk horrified, mainly over losing hospital (4)
|
| A reversal (‘over’) of AG[h]AS[t] (‘horrified’) minus its last letter (‘mainly’) and minus the H (‘losing hospital’). For the company, see here. | ||
| 7 | CHAPATIS |
Flat baked objects Dave’s mate put across majority of terrace (8)
|
| An envelope (‘put across’) of PATI[o] (‘terrace’) minus its last letter (‘majority of’) in CHAS (‘Dave’s mate’ in the English pop rock duo Chas & Dave). | ||
| 8 | WIDGEONS |
Ducks, say – 50% died in winter going north (8)
|
| A reversal (‘going north’ in a down light) of an envelope (‘in’) of EG (‘say’) plus DI (‘50% DIed’) in SNOW (‘winter’). | ||
| 13 | VITUPERATE |
Rivet up broken corroded pan (10)
|
| A charade of VITUPER, an anagram (‘broken’) of ‘rivet up’, plus ATE (‘corroded’). | ||
| 15 | CONVERGED |
Prisoner, curt church officer and daughter came together (9)
|
| A charade of CON (‘prisoner’) plus VERGE[r] (‘church officer’) minus its last letter (‘curt’), plus D (‘daughter’). | ||
| 16 | UPSWINGS |
Pressure in America superficially harms economic recoveries (8)
|
| A charade of UPS, an envelope (‘in’) of P (‘pressur’) in US (‘America’); plus WINGS (‘superficially harms’). | ||
| 17 | DRY RISER |
Fire safety measure identified in formal part of flight (3,5)
|
| A charade of DRY (‘formal’) plus RISER (‘part of flight’ of stairs). A DRY RISER is a pipe, normally empty, which can distribute water throughout a building in the event of a fire. | ||
| 19, 20 | SECOND DEGREE |
Category of disastrous result in eg MSc or PhD (6,6)
|
| Definition and literal interpretation; the definition refers to burns. | ||
| 20 |
See 19
|
|
| 23 | TRACT |
Diplomacy surrounding Republican’s religious pamphlet (5)
|
| An envelope (‘surrounding’) of R (‘Republican’) in TACT (‘diplomacy’). | ||
| 24 | BABY |
Pamper bishop wearing laurel (4)
|
| An envelope (‘wearing’) of B (‘bishop’) in BAY (‘laurel’). |
Super early blog, thanks PeterO. Just finished, hour-and-a-half, ageing brain def slowing. And that was with help to get the o of border to finish the NW. Vaguely knew Suffolk as sheep but it didn’t click. Portmanteau too, known but no click, and the WP too hard, so all crossers needed. That’s life, ta Harpo and Peter.
I don’t know how non-residents are supposed to know SAGA (the company), but at least it was figurable-out from the wordplay.
When a relatively uncommon word (BAY in this case) makes an appearance both in a clue and an answer I never know whether or not it is an intentional gift by the setter, because the word being top-of-mind the answer always seems to come more easily than it should.
I had to shrug at winter=snow (WIDGEONS) since I know many people who don’t get any snow at all; where I live we get on average one day a year, not exactly a season. Still, the association is probably strong enough for the majority of solvers.
I assumed 6d was SAGA, a rather convoluted clue, although I couldn’t see why. Now I see it was a clue for Brits only, alas. I also had never heard of Chas & Dave, nor Suffolk sheep.
Others that were new to me COSMODROME, WIDGEONS (winter=snow is a bit of a stretch, methinks), COMMINGLE, DRY RISER (rather technical?). PORTMANTEAU WORD only came after I’d entered all the intersecting solutions; I couldn’t be bothered untangling the convoluted anagram.
Like my brothers before me @1, 2 and 3, I had trouble with the Suffolk part of the clue for 1,2d BORDER COLLIE, 6d SAGA and 17d DRY RISER. Of course it’s our choice to do British crosswords so I’m not complaining. At least I got 9a (Aussie) RULES! I also had to wait to get everything else before I solved 18,21a PORTMANTEAU WORD. So not my finest hour in terms of parsing! Thanks though to Harpo for a good mental workout and new learnings for me, also to PeterO for the prompt and helpful blog!
No clue ref. portmanteau words, never come across 3d either, they and one or two others susssed because of crossers and lucky guesswork and an ability to decrypt anagrams etc.quickly. Appreciated the v. early brief this morning. Another school day…
Thanks all.
Thought a lot of this was easier than yesterday’s Brummie, but held up by BORDER COLLIE (I knew Suffolk was an animal breed, but was fixated on a Suffoll Punch for some reason) and RULES, plus UPSWINGS and PORTMANTEAU WORD (which I got from the crossers rather than the anagram). I can appreciate that the UK GK was a stretch for the solvers in Australia and the US. Thanks to Harpo and to PeterO for the usual early and thorough blog.
I have some sympathy for our friends from the South today: deffo some UK GK that was likely to challenge. Mind you, the odd bit challenged this very UK solver – like GDU, I wasn’t going to untangle the anagram for PORTMANTEAU WORD and the ‘War and Peace’ clue for WEATHER EYE could have been very scary, had we not been reminded of WETHER by Tramp, as PeterO notes in the blog. COMMINGLE is not a word I’ve encountered that often and it feels like it has too many ‘M’s – though it doesn’t!
Thanks Harpo and PeterO
“A Winter” is the 4th definition for ‘Snow’ in Chambers. I managed to drag up Suffolk and SAGA from the depths somewhere, but then I’m just a reffo expat and must have come across them somewhere.
[PostMark @7… using words like “deffo”, you’ll be an honorary Aussie before you know it. 🙂 ]
Thanks Harpo and PeterO
Significantly easier than Harpo’s recent “Quiptic”, though I hadn’t heard of Suffolk sheep (Cheviots would have been easier!) or DRY RISER. I also didn’t bother to sort out the anagram for PORTMANTEAU WORD after the crossers made it obvious.
Yes, some UK GK involved, a bit unfairly, I thought. “Dave’s mate” immediately suggested CHAS to me, but I am quite old!
All reasonable, although snow for winter brought a shrug.
Never seen WIDGEONS spelled like that although I see it’s an alternative.
My heart always sinks a little when I see cycled in a clue. ‘Think of one of a dozen possible synonyms, then do something to it’!
Many thanks for the excellent blog, PeterO.
This may just be my ignorance: I know it’s “Aussie rules football”, but is it really just called “RULES”?
Don’t know why, but I didn’t like this as much as the recent Quiptic. One or two where I didn’t get around to doing the parsing: CASH COW, WIDGEONS (which I usually spell without the D, but both are legit), PORTMANTEAU WORD. I didn’t get the reference to Suffolk sheep, but at least I now know what’s behind those DRY RISER doors.
The one that held me up the longest, even with all the crossers in place was EDITORSHIP which turned out to be my favourite clue in the end…
At first I thought that Harpo’s quiptic and cryptic this week had been mixed up, but was soon disabused of that idea as I slowed down considerably in the second half of the puzzle. Lots to like and a few quibbles as well (glad it’s not just me who wondered where the ‘y’ in EYE was indicated). NHO ‘dry’ for ‘formal’ or ‘snow’ for ‘winter’, so some learnings as well. Thanks Harpo and PeterO.
I always thought the accepted plural of WIDGEON was, er … WIDGEON
Thanks Harpo and PeterO
Peter, there is nothing in the header or URL to indicate that this is a Guardian puzzle.
gladys@12: certainly Aussie Rules Footy used to be called ‘Rules’ by many, but that whole name seems to be disappearing now. Most people call it AFL (or just footy) nowadays, which grates for me (confusing the top level competition with the game). I hesitated a long time before entering RULES because of that. BORDER COLLIE also took me ages, though sheep had occurred to me. My LOIs. Thanks, Harpo and PeterO.
I thought this was on about the same level as the recent Quiptic. Was pleased to get RULES and it reminded me of the time I went to a game at the MCG in Melbourne and not having a Scooby about was going on. I liked BORDER COLLIE, CASH COW, PORTMANTEAU WORD, NOSTALGIA and VITUPERATE. I also wondered about snow and winter but seems to be fair and Mug seems to be the go to word for face recently.
Ta Harpo & PeterO.
This grid is suddenly becoming extremely common. Harpo used it again for the Sunday’s Quiptic; Kite used it on Thursday last week (where AMOUR, coincidentally, was in the same position at 26a), and Brummie used it yesterday with only the slight variation that 14a and 16a were one character longer. Carpathian also used it fr the Monday Cryptic on 28th April.
Only time I’ve heard it called Rules was by a Queenslander, ie a bloke from a Rugby League state (though Qld now has two ‘Rules’ teams … bit of a turf war).
I liked the way CHAPATIS was constructed (pace those who have never heard of the Cockney duo) but I wondered if CHAPATIS are really baked?
Petert @21
They are generally heated in a very hot, dry, pan, so “baked” seems the best description.
It’s all been said about BORDER COLLIE and RULES. I got the game after an age, though only with a leap of faith as I’ve never heard it abbreviated that much. But I suppose if you can call the Melbourne Cricket Ground ‘the G’, anything goes. Couldn’t get past the Suffolk Punch. So defeated by two clues today.
That was a bit of a struggle but I mostly got there. As often happens, my experience was the opposite of many. COSMODROME, DRY RISER, and PORTMANTEAU were all familiar, and EYE for EWE popped into my head without further prompting.
Conversely, NHO WIDGEONS nor Suffolk sheep, forgot the other meaning of bay, and wrote in RULES with a shrug. And I missed the obvious-in-hindsight parsing of ETHOS.
Unlike the blogger this was not a quick one. Quite a lot of unheard ofs both in the clue components and answers. As I finished it though maybe those with a larger lexicon found this on the easier side. I seem to go against the consensus in finding this harder than yesterday.
A few weren’t fully parsed so I used the blog quite a bit today. A few were met with eye-rolls so used the blog to check I had understood them properly.
Liked CASHCOW
Cheers PeterO and HarpO
I’m not sure if there are any others in Russia itself, but the only cosmodrome I’m aware of is in Kazakhstan.
Thank you, Harpo and PeterO. I’ve always heard Aussie Football called “Aussie Rules” by my Australian friends but this may be a generation thing. I found Harpo’s Quiptic on Sunday impenetrable whereas today’s Cryptic went quite quickly. Even the words I wasn’t sure of were well clued. Could it be that today’s Cryptic should have been Sunday’s Quiptic and vice versa? This is The Grauniad, after all.
No one spells wigeon with a d nowadays, so some indication of archaism was required. Winter does not equal snow, or vice versa. It was June when Derbyshire v Lancashire famously lost a day to snow, for example. I found the wording of many clues rather convoluted, which detracted from the surfaces. And I think antipodean solvers doing a crossword in a British paper have to put up with a few British references. Sorry.
I like that, in addition to Suffolk being a breed of sheep, there is a county border around Suffolk. Very clever. Thanks Harpo and PeterO
Chris Allen @ 5 – I’d also never come across COSMODROME. So what?! I rarely solve a Don Manley puzzle (PASQUALE, QUIXOTE, BRADLEY etc.) without encountering a selcouth word – but this one was clear
[I would mention that it’s a generally accepted convention here to state the solution in capitals, rather than the clue number, as it saves others the hassle of having to scroll back through the clues – and also lowers the chance of your comment being passed over! 😇]
Nice enough puzzle – many thanks to Harpo
Some of these ‘envelope’ clues are really hard for a (relative) beginner. 5a, CASH COW, was bad enough though I figured ‘show’ featured somehow. But 22a (WEATHER EYE)!! I liked the cryptic definitions and the anagrams. 6d was easy for me as one of those older folk because I insure both my car and my house with SAGA.
grantinfreo @20 Agreed – Queensland and NSW too.
David@32 it would be (Aussie) rules in UK as footie here is a whole other ball game
Well, there’s Real Footy, and there’s soccer and various rugbys.
I started quite well but then slowed considerably. I came here for the wordplay of BORDER COLLIE and found there wasn’t any. I thought of Iris RECOGNITION at the start but it didn’t parse. I liked the cyborg and his PORTMANTEAU WORD and the formal part of flight for DRY RISER.
Thanks Harpo and PeterO.
A few of my nerdy friends coaxed me into trying cryptics.I’d say thank you very much but this is just not my cuppa.I’d rather stick with scrabble and the occasional chess.To those who love it keep doing what you do.
Thanks for the blog , nice variety of clues and pleasing to see the double entries follow on . Amour was very precise , W(a)ETHER used for the third time this month , poor ram .
Norman@26 , Russia does have Vostochny but much smaller than Baikonur , this was originally Soviet Union of course , Russia still leases the land , I do not know the legal position .
[[[Carn’ the Bombers!]]] 🧣
I have said this before, but no-one should be surprised or annoyed if a British crossword has British references/gk. I absolutely love hearing a different viewpoint from our friends across the pond and down-under, but the idea of me logging in to an American or Australian (or anywhere else) crossword & then complaining about foreign references is just unthinkable. Perhaps people are not complaining, just commenting.
I am also in the snow not equalling winter camp. It has been quoted that (in the northern hemisphere, maybe specifically Britain) you are more likely to see snow in April than on Christmas day.
And as to the friend of Dave, there is the UK Gold tv channel that peddles endless repeats that calls itself Dave, apparently because “everyone has a friend called Dave”. Which I do as it happens. I was also going to rant about rules not meaning Aussie football in particular, but it seems many do indeed use it as a synonym, so hey-ho I’ve learnt something.
[monkeypuzzler @39
I believe the TV channel Dave took its name from Dave Lister, of Red Dwarf.]
Well – moderately tough: I stumbled on CHAPATIS, trying to figure out how to parse OATCAKES at first. Speaking as my family’s accomplished chapati-maker, I can state with conviction that my chapatis are never baked: they are heated briefly in a hot frying pan and then puffed up over an open gas flame. But maybe someone else on here has a different recipe?
WIDGEONS is probably more often spelt without the D but Chambers says that the version with the D is OK (“now rarely”). So be it.
Didn’t we have AMOUR just a few days ago, same wordplay? Ah yes, I see it’s already mentioned.
Like others I think WEATHER EYE should have had a stronger indication of ‘Y for W’. But EYE was obvious enough from the crossers. I tried TUP at first but that’s wrong! – it means the opposite of WETHER – a ram who’s still got his ‘bits’. Should have known better.
Liked BORDER COLLIE – very well misdirected, especially as I was firstly thinking of ‘Suffolk Punch’, the breed of horse. Plenty of others to like: hard to choose. PORTMANTEAU WORD stands out perhaps – but once I saw the U crosser in PORTMANTEAU, it got a lot easier!
Thanks to Harpo and Peter.
My second favourite position again , I now know the answer to everything .
EYE and winter=snow aside I enjoyed this, though it took a few sittings. Also, isn’t a PhD usually a third degree, after Bachelor’s and Master’s? Third degree more ‘disastrous’ than second, but I suppose all burns are a disaster. Thanks Harpo and PeterO
Hadrian @43
Not necessarily. You don’t have to do a Masters before a PhD.
Roz #37. Thanks, I wasn’t aware of that one. I’m 100% sure Harpo knew of it as well 🙂
PhD or DPhil used to usually be straight after a science degree , a Masters was a shorter alternative , it may have been different for other subjects . These days most science degrees are MPhys , four years , and Masters have largely gone , sadly it is largely a money-making exercise .
Norman , Baikonur is complicated . When the USSR broke up , Russia owned the site and facility but you are right about Kazakhstan so the legal position is difficult . ESA has suspended all launches because of the war in Ukraine .
Roz @46
Actually, currently my wife is in the process of finishing her PhD in Botany (in her 70s) after having completed her Masters’ a few years ago, so it seems that either pathway is still valid.
Can I ask for a bit of help please?
I can solve 1a and 3d.
A hint or guidance for any clue would be appreciated !
I parsed 8d slightly differently. I interpreted “in winter” as an indication of “covered in snow” (so avoiding having to consider “snow” as somehow equivalent to “winter”). The clue is then “E.G + DI(ed) covered in SNOW, reversed”. I felt that “winter” suggesting “covered in snow” (and vice versa) was common enough to be acceptable, irrespective of the actual meteorology.
Bolb @49 – given that the same setter used a similar trick in Sunday’s Quiptic, that’s a plausible sounding explanation. However, Occam’s razor says it’s simply a straight synonym, which has dictionary support as per Tim C’s comment @8.
If you remain unconvinced, OED has some helpful illustrative citations, eg:
“Those [Indians] in the interior parts..count their years by winters; or, as they express themselves, by snows”
Harpo is a hugely experienced and meticulous writer of clues and I wouldn’t expect him to be as careless with his definitions as some seem to be suggesting. Perhaps some people need to be more ready to accept that they don’t know all meanings of a word rather than leaping to the conclusion that the setter is at fault.
Also found this easier than his quiptic on Sunday. Chapati a very popular food here in Kenya and was also surprised by ‘baked’ . It’s heated on a hot pan, actually. It was introduced here by Indian immigrants.
Well done to your wife Muffin@47 , fantastic , there are always some people out of the usual pattern . In my field a PhD is normally the second degree and it used to be when I was a student so the setter is fine .
BORDER COLLIE stood out as soon as I had the B and C. But no way could I parse it. Someone earlier mentioned Cheviots as a more well known breed of sheep. That would have made it an almost straight definition, given the Cheviots are the hills that form the eponymous border.
I too had my doubts about COSMODROME, but a check on Wikipedia found a still active site in the RF itself.
PW fell in as soon as I got the final U.
Who’da thunk that there was something in the real world called Babyshambles? (My own picture of the word was less an abbatoir, pace an earlier comment that seems to have disappeared, than of any room that a two-year-old has recently spent time in.)
Kva@13 PRESTO changeo is a phrase that people doing magic tricks supposedly said after producing some sort of “magical’ effect. I doubt that anybody has ever actually used it.
Like Eileen, I’ve heard “footsie” on the radio for years. Unlike Eileen, I never did know until now what the actual letters of the acronym were.
Thanks, Philistine and loonapick.
Thanks Roz @52
She took it up after retiring from being a GP – she’s hoping, at last, to become a “real” doctor.
[When I was up at Cambridge, the doctors weren’t allowed to style themselves “doctor” unless they had a PhD!]
me @55
…or other doctorate, of course.
Can someone explain how VITUPERATE is related to “pan” please? But I I may be too late!
R Srivatsan @57
To vituperate or pan: to criticize harshly. Vituperate is more commonly used intransitively.
Thanks PeterO. To me, pan meant to pass by or superficially refer to (as in news that barely touches on a statement). Vituperation is straight out abuse. Perhaps a local use?
In Canada the normal path to a PhD is via a Master’s degree, in almost every discipline. It is unusual, but not unheard of, for a student to be admitted to a PhD program directly from an undergraduate degree.
Years ago I was told that a Master’s degree from Oxbridge meant that the person tried for a PhD, failed, and was awarded the Master’s by default. In the ‘60s and ‘70s we had quite a few of these on faculty at my university. Some of them were very good teachers, who presumably emigrated due to the lack of academic opportunities in the UK for mere Masters.
Steffen @48 – 10 across is an anagram meaning force (as a noun); 12/14 across is a surface – the key words to think about being real mugs and scrutiny; 25 across means “longing for” and is an anagram plus a letter.
Really enjoyed this, and was able to complete it. Almost second in a row. NE last to fall