Guardian 29,719 by Fed

52 comments on “Guardian 29,719 by Fed”

1. Enjoyed this greatly, though didn’t realise that 2d was an anagram for a long while, fooled by the repetition, perhaps. This meant that the last two in were the long ones, with lots of crossers already in place, TUMBLEWEED and SHOULDERED. Many thanks Fed and Manehi…

2. Splendid puzzle. Packed with contemporary references as is Fed’s wont and some super spots for constructions. ANTIQUE makes neat use of the central character in a believable context, WOODEN SPOON is a brilliant charade, BERLIN WALL is amusing, ENCORES has a very natural surface, THE BOY NEXT DOOR is a great anagram spot and I liked the repetition in the clue, SLAPDASH is another that made me laugh when I saw the sneaky use of the punctuation. A fizzy puzzle which was great fun.

   Thanks Fed and manehi

3. Liked THE BOY NEXT DOOR and LIE DETECTOR.
   1a ‘wordplay “gets” definition’ is fine, similarly “getting” in 22d, but 1d ‘definition “get” wordplay’ doesn’t work for me. You could also argue that using ‘get, gets and getting’ as link words in one puzzle is a bit much.
   Thanks to Fed and manehi

4. Super puzzle and super blog to match – got stuck on the parsing of PERSEVERE as I failed to twig the ultimate-letter indication. Faves 2/17, 11, 14 and 18. Thanks to Fed for a stiff challenge and to manehi for clear and precise explanations.

5. This definitely hit my Goldilocks zone.
   As it’s my 60th birthday today, I’d like to raise a metaphorical glass to my father, who inspired me to start doing the Guardian crossword, but didn’t reach that milestone himself.
   Over the years, there have been so many crosswords I’d have loved to share with him.

6. Great fun, couldn’t initially parse PERSEVERE so thank you manehi, and thanks to Fed for an entertaining breakfast diversion

7. Really enjoyed that! Fun puzzle at the right difficulty level, for me, at least.

   I really wanted 9a to be MOXIE, but I couldn’t justify the E…

   Great clues and surfaces all round, thanks Fed and manehi!

8. [Adriaan @7 – yes, my first thought was MOXIE too! Which, had it worked, would have been rather more satisfying than the relatively pedestrian STEAM]

9. Thanks Fed and manehi
   Sorry, manehi – 1a is just wrong. A potato is a tuber, not a root.
   I didn’t know Lee Mack was a question master, so 7,19 was a guess. STEAM for “spirit” seems a bit odd – I tried MOXIE too.
   I liked 2,17.

10. My faves: ROTATOR, PERSEVERE, LIE DETECTOR, THE BOY NEXT DOOR and SLAPDASH.
    Thanks Fed and manehi.

11. Excreta the obvious theme today with wooden sPOOn, tumbleWEEd and ruPEE, not to mention STEAM. Number ones and twos. Eat your heart out Paul.

    Favourite was ELEPHANT for the “Jumbo Jet” as an ex-Aero engineer.

    muffin @9, Chambers has STEAM as spirit (informal). I’ve run out of steam maybe?

12. Cracking puzzle!

    Had to leave the NW corner till last as I’d bifd in moxie unparsed.

    I wonder if anyone else noticed that there are no fewer than 16 occasions where ‘E’ is the crossing letter?

    Many thanks, both.

13. Like Adriaan, William, moh and muffin, I also had MOXIE for 9A; it was an early answer, and a satisfying one – till TUMBLEWEED wiped the smile off my face. (I agree that it has more oomph as “spirit” than STEAM.)
    I’d heard of Lee Mack, but not the tv show – so thank you manehi for the explanation. Also for help finishing the parsing to ANTIQUE: QI never crossed my mind…
    METRE was very neat, and BERLIN WALL was pleasing too.
    Thank you Fed for the fun.

14. I really liked the orthodox teen, and generally what PostMark said @2.
    I might be swimming against the stream here, but I felt that Fed was working overtime on some of the wordplay. If you get the def straight away, it’s like when I was teaching…. if you’re doing most of the work, the students are doing less.

15. Very good. Favourites include TBND, PLIERS, SLAPDASH. On the last of these I didn’t parse ‘dash’ and thought the clue had been carelessly written/edited until manehi enlightened me.
    muffin@9 – a potato may be a tuber botanically but for a cook it is surely a root.
    Tim C@11 (and many others’ comments on past crosswords) – I know Paul is often singled out for being over-fond of references to coarse bodily functions, but in the years that I’ve been doing Grauniad puzzles fairly regularly, I don’t think his clues have noticeably more of these than many other setters’.
    Thanks Fed and manehi.

16. I failed to solve 11ac, 20d and I couldn’t parse 1ac, 10ac.

    Favourite: TUMBLEWEED.

    Happy Birthday to Ravenrider!

17. Superb! Such fun and so clever.

    Cleverer even than I thought. I had ticked ANTIQUE for its construction and surface but didn’t, as I should have, look up Bauer – I hadn’t heard of him or his TV show – but manehi’s parsing revealed the sheer brilliance of the clue, which gives it, for me, top position on the podium.

    There are many other contenders. Like paddymelon @14, I actually guessed a number of the clues from the definition (TUMBLEWEED – ‘corporation’ was the giveaway – AGREEMENT, ELEPHANT, OVEREXERT, SLAPDASH) but that didn’t spoil the fun, the pieces were so deftly put together, causing many a chortle.
    Other favourites were PERSEVERE, WOODEN SPOON, LIE DETECTOR, BERLIN WALL, ADORNMENT, THE BOY NEXT DOOR, ASTRONOMIC and PLIERS.

    Huge thanks to Fed for a brilliant start to the day and to manehi for brilliantly rising to the occasion.
    Congratulations to Ravenrider, too – have a great day!

18. As it’s Fed, I tried to separate Lee Mack.

19. What Eileen said in her first and last paragraphs

20. Enjoyed that and completed in a reasonable time for a change. I seem to be on Mr Gorman’s wavelength. Maybe because I did his entire back catalogue across three newspapers when I first moved on to the ‘proper’ crosswords.

    Liked QUESTION MASTER. The 1% club is one of the rare quiz shows I seem to be ok at. The skills needed overlap with cryptic crosswords quite a bit. The neat anagram of THE BOY NEXT DOOR also gets a round of applause.

    Thanks Fed and Manehi

21. Happy Birthday Ravenrider!

    I thought this was great and more accessible than previous Feds. I had to retro-parse a handful, but the cryptic definitions were rewarding enough in their own right. manehi has expertly uncovered some extra flair that had passed me by. I was scratching around in the North West, it really was TUMBLEWEED for a while and even spotting that one didn’t prove to be a catalyst. THE BOY NEXT DOOR and SHOULDERED were definitely worth the wait, with the latter being held up by a typo I’d made in 5D.

    I saw a Meet the Setter (type) post with Dave where he talked about clues always having been there, waiting to be discovered. I imagine that’s what he was thinking with the carry on and the jumbo jet.

    Challenging, amusing, rewarding. Top bombing! Thanks Fed and Manehi.

22. Was very slow as I had S – O – L – – – – – and entered SPOILSPORT without really thinking it through. Took me a while to realise I’d made a mistake. Fortunately I don’t use the Check button any more so I can still claim an unaided completion.

23. After relatively mild Monday and Tuesday cryptics, I’ve been encouraged to more but have been completely defeated by yesterday’s Paul and barely managed Fed today, without understanding much of the parsing, with too many references not known to me/escaping me. Well, I’ll know better not to jump above my head and go back to quiptics/lighter cryptics, and hopefully one day in distant future I’ll be able to share the appreciation for such puzzles expressed here by the proficient 🙂

24. Enjoyed this a lot . The anagram at 2d,17d is a great spot, though I couldn’t parse RUPEE. Pity about the potato not being a root.

25. The clever contemporary references were wasted on me: never watched 24 or Lee Mack’s quiz show, so although I have heard of him I didn’t know he was a QUESTION MASTER. STEAM=spirit was a bit of a stretch, and no, a potato isn’t botanically a root. But this was a lot of fun: I liked SHOULDERED, THE BOY NEXT DOOR and the Carry On clue (well spotted!) Sorting out the fodder for PLIERS gave me trouble, and so did ENCORES: I started with the cycling score, which led me to an obviously wrong ESCORTS – I never remember those wretched en-and-em-spaces.

    Thanks Fed and manehi.

26. Good fun, I particularly enjoyed the surfaces for ROTATOR, BERLIN WALL and RUPEE, the court motion for WOODEN SPOON, and THE BOY NEXT DOOR for a clever anagram.

    Thanks Fed and manehi.

27. A potato is a stem tuber, not a root

28. I thought that was a lovely puzzle with smooth-as-butter surfaces. ROTATOR, ANTIQUE and ELEPHANT were fantastic, and I really liked THE BOY NEXT DOOR…actually, I don’t have quibbles with any today.

    ArkLark@27, agreed – but potatoes are also classified as “root vegetables” despite not being true roots, so I think the clue holds up.

    Thanks for an enjoyable Thursday puzzle, Fed and manehi for the detailed blog.

    (Edited because I can’t believe I said the word “great” so often!!)

29. ArkLark@27, that must explain why I couldn’t parse that one.

    [Happy birthday Ravenrider. My own father just did the quick crossword in the Mirror.]

    [It’s not the first time TUMBLEWEED has appeared and I still feel I should earworm everyone with a bit of Thin Lizzy. But instead without a word, without a sound, I’ll disappear without a trace. I’m going southbound.]

    Thanks Fed and manehi.

30. With ‘pee’ and ‘poo’ as partial answers I thought that Paul had come back for a second day in a row! But many thanks to Fed for a fun puzzle. Ticks for RESIST, BERLIN WALL, ADORNMENT, WOODEN SPOON and the use of – in SLAPDASH and ‘ in METRE. I’m sure that some will find the reference to Lee Mack as a quiz show host (assuming that I have understood the definition correctly; it could also mean an adroit panel show member I suppose), and the quiz show QI a bit UK-centric. As an ex-pat who is out of touch with current UK television I only knew Mack as a comedian and actor. Thanks manehi for the blog and for confirming Lee Mack’s role.

31. I enjoyed this. It took 30 minutes. I actually parsed every one

32. After the first pass I had scratched off only ITCH and was ready to despair. I plugged away and eventually got a couple more, and slowly got on to Fed’s wavelength of clever constructions. Eventually I had everything filled in, and most parsed, albeit after the fact in some cases. For the remainder, thank you manehi.

    I particularly liked THE BOY… and LIE DETECTOR.

    Fed remains for me the hardest setter, sometimes more admired than enjoyed in the moment, but I feel like I’m getting closer with every attempt.

33. A really fun puzzle, lots of smiles, but no particular fave.

    I was another who tried hard to justify MOXIE. When I ultimately gave up, I wondered if there was a way to substitute the “shows” in the clue for something else that would still work here, but could also be construed as E, thus giving one of those rare two-completely-different-but-perfectly-correct-answers clues. But I couldn’t.

    I guessed ROTATOR from the spinner and tried far too long to construct it from the letters of Root plus other stuff. I must have spent as long on these two clues as the whole rest of the puzzle.

34. Thanks Fed and Manehi. Many happy returns Ravenrider.

    A lot of very satisfying constructions here making for one of the best I’ve seen from the Gormster. BERLIN WALL, PLIERS, ELEPHANT, SHOULDERED, ASTRONOMIC, SLAPDASH.

    Managed to jam RUPEE, by think the sport was PE and RUE somehow meant number one.
    I cleverly held myself up by thinking the politician in 5d was Gordon Brown, giving the very iffy ABROWMENT. Oh dear.

    He might be trying to prove a point to someone, but I think sticking ‘pee’ and ‘poo’ in clues is a bit meh. It’d be naff anywhere else, it wouldn’t make a joke funny on stage, worthy of an eyeroll in a cryptic in my book.

35. Just a minor quibble in a very enjoyable puzzle with many good surfaces:

    “Change” in India should be Paise, not Rupee?

    Thanks Fed and manehi

36. Thanks Fed for a praiseworthy crossword. The NW corner held me up a bit but otherwise this was smooth sailing with many splendid clues like ANTIQUE (fan of the show), BERLIN WALL, TUMBLEWEED, ELEPHANT, PLIERS, and LITHE. Thanks manehi for the blog.
    [WordSDrove @ 35: Change is what you get back from a purchase when you overpay; it can be bills or coins. RUPEE is OK.]

37. WordsDrove @35

    Given the value of the Rupee, it counts as change. I have never seen a smaller coin there. Paise have probably gone thew way of the farthing,

38. Is the reversal “back” in OVEREXERT just for the benefit of the surface? The clue works without reversing them.

    Otherwise a fun puzzle and enlightening blog, thanks both.

39. Thanks for the blog and Happy Birthday RavenRider .
    Pretty good with some clever and neat wordplay . I appreciate the double entries being lined up in the grid . ROTATOR my favourite , OVEREXERT gave far too much away .
    Maybe something tough tomorrow , I have not scratched my head for five weeks .

40. Testing
    My name works again , my Paddington stare worked .

41. [Roz @40 Saw your comment on Site Feedback as well. That happened to me several months ago and neither Kenmac nor a Paddington stare could solve the problem, which remained inexplicable. My Paddington stare is possibly not as practised or as powerful as yours. I had to change my nom de guerre entirely. Pleased you got yours back.]

42. Thanks manehi and thanks all.

    Tachi @34 Don’t assume that if pee and poo are included, the setter must be snickering behind their hands at the rudeness. I certainly don’t have that attitude at all. I think it’s rather more prosaic than that. Because polite society has found lots of ways of talking about such things euphemistically, the English language tends to be full of innocent words and phrases that can be construed in different ways and, when it comes to constructing a clue – anything that can be taken to mean one thing in a surface and another in the cryptic grammar is obviously very useful. It’s not that I think pee and poo are funny and I don’t expect solvers to either, it’s more that, in this instance, ‘motion’ is a useful word for a legalistic surface and ‘number one’ is a useful phrase for a sporting surface. No more, no less.

43. Ed@31 Very impressive but I’m sure you’ll agree that Roz@39’s comment is even more so. You’ve been outdone. What I particularly like about this forum is the modesty of everyone on it.

44. Thanks to Fed for the puzzle and for dropping in. I appreciate your very cogent explanation for the use of words with more than one meaning. It has often irked me when commenters here refer to the use of smut or lavatory humour and I wish they wouldn’t do it!

    They’re just words with alternative meanings.

45. Down under here in Alice Springs we don’t get the Brits’ 1% Club, so the 7/19 allusion was lost on me. But we do get Would I Lie To You, in which Lee Mack is both a regular master of questions and a lie detector (here’s looking at you, 18). And doesn’t he pop up on QI (5) too? Does this make for another mini-theme? Nah, but thank you Fed and Manehi, masters of, respectively, questions and answers.

46. Nice one Fed, very much enjoyed. And happy birthday Ravenrider! I still imagine my late dad at the table when doing the crossword, sharing the “aha’s” with him is a very precious memory

47. Thanks Balfour @41 , it was only a day , no reason , and now back to normal I hope . My Paddington stare has developed over many years , first for cricket and then adapted for IT , I also threatened to snap this Chromebook in half .
    Roger@43 , I would prefer a site where everyone pretended to be stupid , especially the women .

48. I came here for the parsing of ROTATOR, and probably wish I hadn’t. I’d got the parsing of TBND wrong as I had used the wrong “Orthodox teen” as the fodder and somehow coerced “maybe” to be “by”. Whenever I see “court” I think “woo”, today is the first time it’s worked!

49. I was also slapdash with SLAPDASH and used “hasty” for DASH.

50. Great puzzle, too many ticks to choose a winner. Thanks Fed and manehi.

    [ Ravenrider and Hadrian, my father introduced me to cryptics with the (relatively easy) Globe and Mail daily puzzles. Now when I do a Quiptic or a Monday cryptic, I feel viscerally that I’m solving it with him, after 20 years. A good parent is at your side forever. ]

51. Fed is clever and fair.

    I completely it but did not find it very easy.

    I have seen “is in France” for answers that are superlatives a few times.

52. Pleased to complete this superb puzzle. Great surfaces, decent challenge, and lots of fun

    9a I wanted MOXIE, too

    LOI 10a PERSEVERE, great use of a real Carry On title

    21a PATH, beautiful concise clue with a meaningful surface

    THE BOY NEXT DOOR just brilliant, probably my favourite

    16d SLAPDASH, I also missed the punctuation trick and thought “hasty” indicated DASH

    Cellomaniac @50, for me it was my Mother and the Globe and Mail cryptics. She also did books of Times puzzles

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