It’s only a couple of weeks since Qaos’ welcome return …
… and I’m very pleased that it’s fallen to me to blog today’s puzzle.
Having said that, there are two certainties in a Qaos puzzle: a mathematical clue and a theme, not always easy to find. I’m afraid I’ve failed completely on the first of these: the parsing of 1ac is quite beyond me – not a good start – but I did manage to find the following references, in one way or another to 13ac: COMMON, GRASS, SECTOR, GARDEN, ANGEL, CRAFT, SYNDICATE, CELLAR, MONEY, WIDOW, NIGHT, GREEN, SILVER, WEBCAM, WATER and GIANT – an impressive list, too long to provide links for them all – and you may have more.
There are a couple of other places where I am not sure of the parsing and so my thanks in advance for the help I know is at hand.
My favourites today were 9ac LINGERING, 10ac GRASS, 13ac SPIDERS, 2dn MONEY, 3dn OVERSPEND, 6dn BLACK HOLE and 7dn RESENT.
Many thanks to Qaos for an interesting and enjoyable challenge.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 1000100010000 number this ordinary? (6)
COMMON
Over to you
4 Where short lawyers are getting hotel drinks? (7)
MINIBAR
Whimsically, short lawyers might be in a mini bar
9 Underwear 12.5% off – no good hanging around (9)
LINGERING
LINGERI[e] (underwear minus one of the eight (12.5%) letters + NG (no good)
10 Talk about Romeo initially smoking pot (5)
GRASS
GAS (talk) round R (Romeo) + S[moking]
11 Doing a somersault during embassy ball is void (5)
ABYSS
A hidden reversal (doing a somersault) in embaSSY BAll
12 Passed public knowledge involving answer (9)
OVERTAKEN
OVERT (public) + KEN (knowledge) round A (answer)
13 Team wins penalty to begin with, Rovers gutted by rests (7)
SPIDERS
SIDE (team) round P[enalty] + R[over]S – a spider is a type of rest used in snooker
15 Escort criminal to district (6)
SECTOR
An anagram (criminal) of ESCORT
17 Sharp one enters currents circling island (6)
ACIDIC
I (one) in AC DC (currents) with the insertion of I (island)
19 Plots with strange dangers (7)
GARDENS
An anagram (strange) of DANGERS
22 Energy moving wheels on to another place (9)
ELSEWHERE
E (energy) + an anagram (moving) of WHEELS + RE (on) – ‘to’ could be included in the definition
24 Financial backer’s article on returns (5)
ANGEL
AN (article) + a reversal (returns) of LEG (on, in cricket)
26 Dexterity keeping service in court (5)
CRAFT
RAF (service) in CT (court)
27 Model Cindy eats in group (9)
SYNDICATE
An anagram (model) of CINDY EATS
28 Old city in China 500 developed (7)
MATURED
UR (old city) in MATE (china – Cockney rhyming slang) + D (500)
29 I leave pool outside? No, it’s difficult (6)
KNOTTY
K[i]TTY (pool minus i) round NO – I think there may be quibbles about the cryptic grammar here: a common way for setters to get round this is to say ‘I must leave’
Down
1 Holding areas, holding area and royal vaults (7)
CELLARS
CELLS (holding areas) round A (area) and R (royal)
2 M–mark? (5)
MONEY
Double definition
3 Squander 2 or 6 balls to dispatch, including roof of pavilion (9)
OVERSPEND
OVER (six balls) + SEND (to dispatch) round P[avilion]
4 Mother’s picking up £10,000 drawers? (7)
MAGNETS
MAS (mother’s) round G NET (£10,000?); please see comment 8 – thanks to Steve
5 Dark, hard spirit – about time (5)
NIGHT
I can’t see this at all, I’m afraid – please see comment 3
6 British want zero sterling hidden by ambassador where things disappear without trace (5,4)
BLACK HOLE
B (British) + LACK (want) + HE (His/Her Excellency – ambassador) round O (zero) + L (pound sterling)
7 Take exception to unwrapped Christmas gifts (6)
RESENT
[p]RESENT[s]
8 They’ve lost partners to nameless operating system (6)
WIDOWS
WI[n]DOWS (operating system, minus n – nameless)
14 Non-stop tennis, as played around #1 court (9)
INCESSANT
An anagram (played) of TENNIS AS round C (court)
16 In land of automobile fanatics, one’s found in bed (9)
CARNATION
CAR NATION (land of automobile fanatics)
18 Gripping end to poker: stopped and folded (7)
CREASED
C[r]EASED (stopped) round [poke]r
19 New York notes some of your five-a-day (6)
GREENS
Double definition, the first being American slang for money
20 Lithium’s turning so grey (7)
SILVERY
A reversal (turning) of LI’S (strictly Li’s – lithium’s) + VERY (so)
21 What’s taking digital images, wide, became mostly blurred (6)
WEBCAM
W (wide) + an anagram (blurred) of BECAM[e], mostly
23 Drink whiskey next, topless (5)
WATER
W (whiskey) + [l]ATER (next)
25 In Italy, John finally beat heavyweight (5)
GIANT
GIAN (short for Giovanni, Italian John) + [bea]T
Clocked the theme about halfway through, but it didn’t really help that much; having little knowledge on the subject, with the help of google, I counted up to 14 references last night, all covered by Eileen. I didn’t know, for instance, that a daddy long legs is in fact a CELLAR spider.So much to enjoy with favourites being COMMON, ELSEWHERE, SYNDICATE, KNOTTY, MAGNETS and INCESSANT. A very intricately woven puzzle.
COMMON is C=100, 0, then 2 x Ms= 1000, 1000, 0, and finally N for number.
Ta Qaos & Eileen.
I parsed 1ac as
100 0 1000 1000 0 number this ordinary
?
C (100) O M(1000) M(1000) O N= number
Enjoyable puzzle. Not quite as 29 as I expected from this setter.
Favourites: COMMON, MINIBAR, MAGNETS (loi).
New for me: SPIDER = a long-legged rest for a billiard cue that can be placed over a ball without touching it (for 13ac).
I actually saw the theme of spiders today 🙂
5d. H GIN turned then t
20 down – the ‘s’ needs to be accounted for. It comes from reversing lithium’s – ie ‘lie’ to make the opening letters ‘sil’
20d
Eileen – I think you missed the S from reverse of LIS (lithium’s) then add VERY = so
Whoops, I was too slow typing, I did not see Arpee@4 before I posted.
Can someone explain the ‘M’ part of the double definition please. I understand the unit of currency being a Mark
I went down a highly tenuous rabbit hole of M being a M(ale) with ONE Y chromosome.
For the theme, I also had BLACK WIDOW and ACIDIC maybe for its venom. Agree with Joseph @3 for parsing of NIGHT.
#1 c-0-m-m-o-n
#4 teng is ten grand – going up
Thank you, JKM @3 and Arpee and Michelle @4 and 5 – I’ll amend the blog now.
Steve @6 – M is an abbreviation of MONEY
Unlike last week where I went undefeated until Thursday, this week this is the first puzzle that I was able to finish. I was looking for the theme – thought of spiders, gardening, there’s also something about black hole/abyss – but couldn’t really make sense of it. Lots of favourites: COMMON, OVERTAKEN, MINIBAR, LINGERING, WIDOWS, SILVERY, KNOTTY. Thanks a lot Qaos and Eileen!
SteveThePirate @6: I think this refers to monetary aggregates such as M0, M1, M2 and M3, where M stands for money
NIGHT – H (hard) + GIN (spirit) all reversed + T for time (with apologies to Joseph @3)
I loved this but forgot to look for a theme. I parsed COMMON as AlanC.
Thank you to Eileen and Qaos.
(and Goliath in the FT)
Apart from ACIDIC, which I couldn’t parse, I managed and enjoyed all of this. It was clear from the Guardian website that there was a theme, but after trying for a very long time I was unable to find it until I came here. But I don’t feel too bad — arachnidology is not one of my fortés. 🙂
Easiest Qaos ever! I couldn’t see the theme, though. I find the mathematical clues easier than they look because there is a limited number of tricks the setter can employ.
Thanks to Qaos and Eileen.
So good to see Qaos back and to be able to solve 1A almost straightaway. I do enjoy the mathematical clues. Thank you Qaos and thank you Eileen for explaining KNOTTY which I had no idea about.
Smooth puzzle, pretty breezy I thought. I had more or less the same faves as Eileen, and shared the same quibble about KNOTTY.
I parsed MAGNETS as per Steve@8: MA_S around TEN G <
I held myself up momentarily by putting hangars instead of CELLARS, with some hand-waving about suspended church incense holders which hang/vault above us, but fortunately I came to my senses.
As usual, I didn't spot the theme, though vicariously I like the compound BLACK WIDOW SPIDERS.
Thanks both
What’s the point of a crossword with a theme of spiders without a mention of the funnel web??!!! I still have one cast in resin which I nearly stood on in bare feet after getting out of bed many years ago. I got the Material Scientist at work to embalm it in epoxy for me after I’d stunned it and put it in a jar (and put some slippers on).
Thanks Eileen and Layman. I still quite like mine though even though it is unadulterated tosh!
Oh, meant to say thanks to folks for confirming the parsing of MONEY. Not my favourite clue, I must admit (unless the term “M-mark” has some inherent meaning).
I was trying to convert it into a stutter, such as SUSTAIN (S-stain).
I spotted the theme (after noticing the proximity of BLACK, WIDOW and GARDEN) but, as with AlanC @1, it really wasn’t any help as I know so little about spiders. (Though I did keep an eye out for a Shelob or a Charlotte.)
MINIBAR made me grin, I liked the surfaces to WIDOWS and RESENT, and thought ABYSS was well-hidden.
Am also feeling dead chuffed because I actually managed to parse 1A. Admittedly, it was after I’d guessed the solution but, being terminally innumerate, I take my wins wherever I can…
Many thanks to Qaos and to Eileen for a predictably entertaining blog.
Steve@8 – can’t see that anyone has acknowledged your correct parsing for 4d so, for what it’s worth, I’m weighing in to agree with you. I scratched my head, to begin with, about how G could turn in to £10,000 and then saw the “picking up” instruction had a second meaning and did not just apply to Ma’s. This was an easy but nonetheless very clever crossword. Thanks all round. [PS: Sorry AP@17 – just saw you sussed the MAGNETS also. Good thing this chance to edit comments….]
I think the “c” in INCESSANT is #1 court, i.e. the first letter of court.
Thanks Eileen and Qaos, and also Michelle@2 for mentioning spiders! I never spot a theme and was at a complete loss even when Eileen listed so many. At least I enjoyed the mathematical clues today.
Petert @23: that’s the way I parsed it, hence one of my favourites.
Thank you, TerriBlislow @22 – and my apologies to Steve @8, acknowledged in the blog now.
I started to get an inkling of the theme near the end but too late to help. But it was an enjoyable challenge.
Re the cryptic grammar of KNOTTY, could we see “leave” as an imperative — the setter is telling the letter I to leave?
Many thanks Qaos and Eileen.
Lovely stuff. Top marks for COMMON, OVERSPEND for stoking up the Ashes excitement and LOI KNOTTY – I was happy to accept “I leave pool” as a command
Cheers E&Q
Didn’t see the theme at all! It took quite a while to get in tune with the setter’s style, so it was steady work. Quite a few were put in on the basis of crossers and the definition, with parsing slowly dawning after: KNOTTY, for one. 1ac’s appearance got BINARY stuck in my head until I worked it out after most of the crossers were in: very nice once I’d seen it. Minor quibble in that things don’t fall into BLACK HOLES without trace: mass and charge are conserved and I think spin as well… but those caveats would have made for a rather unwieldy clue!
Thanks to Qaos for a chewy start to the day, and Eileen for showing me the various subtleties I’d missed.
A very enjoyable puzzle, without too many speed bumps but some satisfying word play. Favourite clues included COMMON and MAGNETS. Thanks Qaos.
Thank for all the help. I have to go out pretty soon and so I hope there are no more errors or omissions.
Derek @29: I think Qaos might have intended it in the colloquial sense — all the pens in our house seem to disappear into a BLACK HOLE.
Jim@32 – but of course. But if I can’t flaunt a little pedantry here from to time, then where can I?
Pens will do that. Somewhere there is a supermassive black hole originating in missing pens, odd socks, measuring tapes, 10mm spanners, reading glasses and car keys. Don’t get too close!
Completely missed the theme of course. Is ‘W’ a legitimate abbreviation for ‘wide’? Chambers only has ‘width’.
DerekTheSheep@33: you may be amused by Avram Davidson’s oft-anthologised short story Or All The Seas With Oysters, which touches on the reasons why there seem to be too many coat hangars and not enough paperclips, and why bicycles are the only machine that comes in male and female versions.
poc@34 W=wide in cricket notation
Poc#34 – thanks! I’ll check it out. Despite my being an avid reader of that era of SF, back in the day and to some extent still now, that’s not one I’ve come across before.
DTS #33 😂
poc @ 34 the Chambers app entry for w = wide is lower case.
I thought this was a delight from start to end. Having the pseudo-mathematical clue at 1ac to start the entries was a tiny bonus.
With Qaos, I know there is going to be a theme, so my normal m.o. is to wait till I’m temporarily stuck, and then start looking for it. Today, there was no such pause, so I missed it, but in a good way!
Tx Q&E
1a) was just a correct guess from crossers and “ordinary”. What else? More write-ins followed.
The clever maths prodigies among you will doubtless have had more fun with it!
Thanks all.
This was a gentler Qaos indeed. Was able to spot the theme but didn’t need it to solve. I’ve never heard of the phrase “greens” to indicate bills (greenbacks yes, but not greens). Perhaps it’s older U.S. slang. Thanks to Eileen, Qaos and the commenters who added to the parsing.
Very enjoyable. I didn’t know that Qaos was a ‘theme’ setter, so I missed it entirely. But I like the numerical clues that Qaos brings. While I appreciate the fun for the setter in having a theme (and it sometimes is a help to solvers) I can’t help but think – without evidential proof – that the limitations inherent in sticking to a theme mean that puzzles end up with too many uses of [letter] = [word] indicator (m for money; w for width etc) which are my least favourite trick in crossword land. Thanks Qaos and Eileen.
A good challenge, I parsed everything except 25D, never would have thought of GIAN for John. 1A was almost my last one in, the parsing falling out once I had the first letter.
As usual the theme escaped me, but would not have helped anyway.
I managed to fill it all in without spotting the theme. Thanks for all the parsing.
Lord Jim@42, the BLACK HOLE in our house is partial to odd socks, which are forever going missing after a washing machine cycle.
Enjoyed this, though I was totally unaware of the spider theme, even with the cue rests soon in place on the baize at 13ac.
COMMON was my loi – I was always hopeless at Maths at school, and now two consecutive Guardian Cryptics have seemed to have homed in on this particular weakness of mine.
Many thanks Qaos and Eileen…
I found some time to focus between meetings and got it done this afternoon. Like bodycheetah, my LOI was KNOTTY which I also parsed. This was actually quite straightforward, some very easy clues, but overall not the breeze the Guardian comments would have you believe, a little concentration and staying in the zone was required. The theme seems a bit vague this time, but I rarely spot them or rely on them anyway.
A good puzzle, thanks Qaos and Eileen.
Finally, I have completed a cryptic crossword.
🤣🤬🤣🤬
Just kidding. I solved a mighty 4 clues.
Thank you for the explanations.
No problem with the mathematical parsing here, COMMON was my first one in (and fully parsed). The theme however was another matter entirely – not only did it pass me by completely while doing the (pretty straightforward) crossword, I came here only to feel slightly miffed at Eileen for not actually saying what the theme was. Eileen clearly assumed that anyone with half a brain would get it when presented with that long list of theme clues. Not me, I’m afraid – I was still in the dark, needing the first comment on here to finally put me out of my misery… so it turned out to be spiders, who knew? 😂 To be fair, having just checked the list again, there were only three that I actually knew were names of spiders (MONEY, WATER and WIDOW), so I was never going to guess it today. Thanks to Qaos and Eileen.
I don’t know about the MINIBAR spiders, but some spiders seem to like living under our fridge 🙂
I’m on a roll this week. Enjoyable stuff today, and, for the third time this week, pretty well a top to bottom solve. No less fun for that though. Thanks to setter and blogger.
I’ve been out until now, so just catching up.
Ian W @48 – sorry to have miffed you – unintentionally! 😉 I did, in fact, state the theme:
“I did manage to find the following references, in one way or another to 13ac …” The answer to 13ac was SPIDERS, which I didn’t want to actually highlight at that point , for the sake of those who’d perhaps just hastily dropped in to the blog.
I liked 8d and 12a
but overall didn’t feel very inspired by this today.
No crticism of the crossword, probably just my age or my hormones.
I just lost the will with about 4 left to do.
Nonetheless – thanks are due, as always, to the setter and the blogger.
Like KateE@24 I’m glad a couple of commenters actually named the theme, as I didn’t get it even with the list of clues mentioned by Eileen.
Good grief that was a challenge, and even after all that trying still DNF.
Had a lot of answers that I solved but could not parse. Qaos is still far beyond me it seems.
DerektheSheep@33 when fate delivers you an opportunity to display unnecessary pedantry you should grasp it with both hands. Good for you.
Ah, thanks Eileen, you’re forgiven…. so my fault, and that’ll teach me to speed-read the blog!
scraggs @54
Please see me @51 – and Ian W @57! 😉
Although I knew that a theme is de rigeur for Qaos, I was breezing through this with sufficient fluency that I just deferred spotting it until I had finished. I didn’t see nearly as many arachnids as Eileen and others, but I did note that WEBCAM was doing thematic double-duty, as a ‘Spider Cam’ is a tracking device used nowadays, particularly, I think, at sporting venues, to obtain overhead pictures of the action.
Nice crossword. Thanks both.
I have never spotted a theme, and even with Eileen listing the thematic answers, I still can’t see it.
Anyone help?
HYD @ 60
Please see me @58!
I promise that I won’t try to be discreet in my preamble again!! 🙂
Fun crossword we really enjoyed that. Favourites COMMON and MINIBAR.
We spotted what we thought was a theme early on (gardens) and totally missed that the theme is in fact spiders 😂
Thanks to Qaos and Eileen.
Eileen @61 – Not a problem. You are writing a blog to an audience far above me!
Final word – I’m going out again soon:
I said, in the preamble, “… the following references, in one way or another to 13ac …”, the answer to which was SPIDERS!
Ace @43. I was equally surprised at GIAN for John. His Russian/Hungarian wife used to call my good Sicilian friend and next-door neighbour Giovanni “Gianni” (although we never dared), which got me there with serious doubts, but I still can’t imagine how an Italian would pronounce the brief version…
I agree with Eileen that Qaos’ return is very welcome. A very enjoyable puzzle, despite not catching the theme (though I did get it from Eileen’s preamble!). I was slow today with anagrams that should have been straightforward: 15a SECTOR (escort — I’ve had trouble with this one before), 19a GARDENS (dangers). Enjoyed 1a COMMON (I first thought it was a binary number, but fortunately couldn’t be bothered to count it), 26a CRAFT (loi, good misdirecting surface), 18d CREASED (poker misdirection), 25d GIANT (smooth surface with a story)
1d CELLARS I confidently entered PALACES at first (royal vaults)
Steffen@47 You had me going! One day! 🙂
Blaise @65
I agree. I suppose an Italian would pronounce GIAN rather like “John”, but I’ve never heard it. Virtually all Italian nouns end in a vowel, so “Gianni” is much more likely.
Thanks Qaos and Eileen. I’m thinking of adding Qaos to my “don’t bother with” list. I’m not keen on themes in general (mostly becaue I rarely see them), and I really dislike his cod “mathematical” clues.
Blaise@65, muffin@67, for John in Italy I thought of the composer Gian Carlo Menotti
Mig @68
Of course! Saved my sanity…
Yeah I’m pretty sure that’s it; I also have a friend called Giancarlo (not sure if there’s a space in the middle; we know him as Gianca). Perhaps the shortened version ‘Gian’ is used when it comes before another forename.
A plea to setters: enough of the cricket references, please!
(I’m Scottish and I just don’t get them.)
Mig @68
Good call. I always thought he was Giancarlo, but it appears he did separate the names.
Thanks Qaos for the fun. I knew to look for a theme so it was easy enough to spot, adding to the enjoyment of this crossword. Favourites included COMMON, GRASS, OVERTAKEN, MATURED, INCESSANT, & GIANT. I couldn’t parse KNOTTY and I was a bit bothered with the word ‘by’ linking the wordplay to the definition in SPIDERS (I can see definition by wordplay, however.) A petty thing I guess. Thanks Eileen for the blog.
Lots to choose from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gian
Thanks Eileen. Nearly all of them have a second name that ends with a vowel, so it must have been a personal quirk to separate them (as Giancarlo to Gian Carlo as an example).
I once knew somebody named Gianrenzo. Gian seems to be usually a name in combination with others, pace Sr Menotti.
Thanks Qaos and Eileen — boy, did I need you!
Valentine @76
Thank you 🙂
I hesitate about calling clues like 1a ‘mathematical’. You don’t need to know any maths to solve this one – just a couple of cyptic solvers standbys: splitting up something that seems like it ought to go together (e.g. royal vaults in 1d), and roman numerals. No actual mathematical operations involved at all. And themes are harmless enough. As often commented on this site, it is almost always possible to solve a cryptic crossword without noticing or identifying the theme (I did it for this, even though I was looking for it, I didn’t twig until I had completed it), so it is merely an added bonus for those who like themes, or something to be ignored for those who don’t. Thanks, Qaos (definitely on my ‘hooray’ list) and Eileen.
I agree 1a isn’t really mathematical, because I was delving into my maths degree to parse the damn thing and it didn’t help at all. The number as such and its properties have nothing to do with it. Had to reverse engineer from crosses in the end. The cube from yesterday was much nicer on my brain, especially as I have been doing numerical crosswords recently.
Re: Gian as Italian for John. I was on a train ride from Roma to Palermo many years ago, and fell into conversation with a high school philosophy teacher (if only we’d had philosophy in Australian high schools!). What made the conversation interesting was that his English was even worse than my barely existent Italian. Turned out he was a big fan of some English philosopher I’d never even heard of named Gianni: Johnny Lucky, to be specific. It took me most of the way to Napoli to figure it out.
Meanwhile, thanks Qaos, thanks Eileen, parsed the arithmetic, but missed the theme.
Nice puzzle and blog
Thanks Qaos and Eileen
Thanks again, this time to Qaos, for a decent crossword, requiring little if any esoteric knowledge.
I neither looked for nor noticed the theme, and managed not to be distracted by the usual blog and first few comments not making its nature expressly clear either!
I quite liked the pseudo-mathematical diversion device.
Cheers one and all.
Rusty@79. If we see a clue in future along the lines of Philosopher Gianni Lucky on the radio in Italy (4, 5) it’ll be your fault.
I think TRESCO is a district of the Scilly Isles so put that instead of SECTOR