Happy New Year Greetings to one and all! Thank you (I think) to Enigmatist. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
This was a slog (at times I asked myself, “What am I doing here?”). Hence apologies for the late blog.
The significance of “B is the same throughout” escapes me.
Edit: Thanks, commentators below for the explanation of “B”. I’ve deleted my guess of what it was.
Across
1. Move work base away from Rink B? (4,6)
POST OFFICE : POST(a place where someone is on duty, eg. a soldier/work base) + [OFF ICE](move … away from an ice skating rink).
6. Computer plug, cheapest possible? (4)
IPAD : [ IP(one penny, abbreviated and with the Roman numeral substitution – the cheapest possible cost) AD(short for “advertisement”/a promotional piece/plug) ].
10. Power to the Common People is not B (5)
PAINT : P(abbrev. for “power” in physics) + AIN’T(vernacular/dialectal/to the common people, form of “is not/isn’t”).
11. What Met man uses elaborately to measure drops in the first instance address depth (9)
UDOMETERS : Anagram of(elaborately) [“to measure” minus(drops) 1st letter of(in the first instance) “address” + D(abbrev. for “depth”) ].
Defn: … to measure how much rain:
12. ‘You shouldn’t have squeezed into hot Tube’ – having gone west, words to remember you by (7)
EPITAPH : TA(informal form of “thank you!” or “you shouldn’t have! “) contained in(squeezed into) reversal of(… having gone west, in an across clue) [ H(abbrev. for “hot”) + PIPE(a tube used to covey fluid) ].
13. Origin of our poetry’s American, like Browning’s land from Whitman’s? (7)
OVERSEA : 1st letter of(Origin of) “our” + VERSE(poetry) + A(abbrev. for things American).
Defn: Like England, poet Robert Browning’s homeland in relation to America, poet Walt Whitman’s homeland.
14. The stuff of myths cool dude assimilates well! (5,4)
FANCY THAT! : Inner letters of(The stuff of/the insides of) “myths” contained in(… assimilates) [ FAN(to cool by using, say, a fan, to create a current of air) + CAT(like “dude”, American slang for a man) ].
Defn: …, an expression of surprise.
16. Impressive jpeg? (4)
EPIC : Double defn: 2nd: Cryptically, a pic/picture/photo in an electronic format denoted as “e”, such as “email”.
20. A big fan of messing about on it (4)
INTO : Anagram of(messing about) ON IT.
Defn: …/very interested in.
21. Unable to get off, recall vacuous Smiths album and vacuous lyrics (9)
SLEEPLESS : Reversal of(recall) [ all inner letters deleted from(vacuous) “Smiths” + ELPEE(or LP, abbrev. for a long playing record/album) plus(and) all inner letters deleted from(vacuous) “lyrics” ].
Defn: … to sleep.
24. Side set back, fielding captain may employ it (3,4)
LEG TRAP : Reversal of(… back) [ PART(an example of which is the left or right side of, say, an object) + GEL(to set/to solidify) ].
Answer: In cricket, a group of fielders placed close to the wicket on the leg side.
26. Vietnam city taxi’s reversing place (3,4)
BAC LIEU : Reversal of(…’s reversing) CAB(a taxi) + LIEU(place/stead, as in “in lieu of”).
Answer: City in southern Vietnam.
27. My intake is predominantly seeds, rum or vinegar (9)
GRANIVORE : Anagram of(rum/odd) OR VINEGAR.
An example:
28. One ‘i’ needs tittle for screening B (5)
IDIOT : I(Roman numeral for “one”) + [ ’I’ contained in(needs … for screening) DOT(a tittle/a written dot to indicate omitted letters in a word) ]
29. A bit of ‘Acol-ade’ as top bridge-player! (4)
EAST : Hidden in(A bit of) “Acol-ade’ as top”.
Answer: Designation for the player in bridge in the position corresponding to the compass point, east.
30. B metal one owes to Spooner (4-6)
DEAD-LETTER : Spoonerism of [ “lead(a metallic chemical element) + “debtor”(one that owes a debt) ].
Down
1. Go with a B (6)
PEPPER : PEP(go/energy) plus(with) PER(a/each).
2. Comic Sans 28, so-called (3-6)
SOI-DISANT : Anagram of(Comic) [ SANS + IDIOT(answer to 28 across).
Defn: …/self-styled.
3. Do better than B&B (8)
OUTMATCH : Straight definition? Double definition?
4. Fine and attractive B (5)
FLUSH : F(abbrev. for “fine”) plus(and) LUSH(attractive/pleasing).
5. B almost alcohol free, usurping Independent in name (9)
CHOCOLATE : Anagram of(… free) [ last letter deleted from(almost) “alcohol” ] replacing the (usurping) “I”(abbrev. for “Independent”) in “cite”(to name/to refer to).
7. Stamp one’s taken from B (5)
PRESS : “impress”(to stamp/make a mark on something with pressure) minus(… taken from) “I’m”(“I am” or “one’s”, refering to oneself).
8. B channel for bathing resort (8)
DISPATCH : DITCH(a channel dug in the ground) containing(for bathing) SPA(a resort with a hot spring).
9. B flew ejector seats to the north (5)
JEWEL : Hidden in(… seats) reversal of(… to the north, in a down clue) “flew ejector”.
15. B worker leaves trumpeter in shade (9)
TELEPHONE : [“ant”(an social insect, one of whose castes is the worker) deleted from(leaves) “elephant”(an animal that makes a trumpeting sound/a trumpeter) ] contained in(in) TONE(a shade/a colour with regard to its comparative lightness or darkness).
17. Flighty young woman is seduced by my beloved doom-merchant! (9)
PESSIMIST : [Reversal of(Flighty/taking flight?/going up, in a down clue) MISS(a young unmarried woman) + IS] contained in(seduced by) PET(an endearment for “my beloved”/loved one).
18. Brussels, say, put up B (8)
DIALOGUE : Reversal of(… up, in a down clue) [ EU(abbrev. for the European Union – Brussels is the de facto capital of, and hence synonymous with, the Union) + GO(to say, as in “They go “Hallelujah!” at the end”) + LAID(put down in position) ].
19. Road travellers should be warned about this B&B (5,3)
BLACK ICE : Straight definition?
22. Receptacle where artist hides B (5)
BRAIN : BIN(a receptacle for unwanted things) containing(where … hides) RA(a member of the Royal Academy of Arts, an artist).
23. B, though steep on incline (6)
BUTTER : BUT(though/however) + reversal of(… on incline, in a down clue – not sure, as this doesn’t specify in which direction on the incline) RET(to soak/steep plant fibre, such as flax, in water to soften it).
25. Ruddigore creators initially introducing its lead character as B (5)
GRASS : 1st letters, respectively, of (initially) [Gilbert and Sullivan](creators of the comic opera, Ruddigore) containing(introducing) [ 1st letter of(… lead character) “Ruddigore” + AS ].
26. Ill, being fed on B (5)
BREAD : BAD(ill/not well) containing(being fed) RE(with regard to/on).
I wondered if B might be something to do with games, as many are card games, but I can’t find several.
Is B box?
B is Box. All the B’s are kinds of box, and it is Boxing Day! I twigged after IDIOT, TELEPHONE and BLACK ICE. Extremely helpful thereafter.
I revealed all, as at a certain point I was sure I was going to get nowhere (I was correct). But after the fact, and due to a spoilerish comment, I realised the B was box. I’m not sure if, or how much, that would have helped me.
Having seen the blog above, then I still don’t understand some of the parsing (not a criticism of scchua). I don’t see what PEPPER has to do with the clue, and UDOMETERS just leaves me confused as to what’s going on there.
B just stands for BOX – all of the solutions concerned can be followed by BOX to make a phrase (some more obscure than others). For the B&B clues that applies to both parts of the solution.
Comment #6
Very clever, thanks.
Even with the information that B is box, I am none the wiser. And far too much obscure GK for me. This was a thankless slog and I’m not even sure why I bothered to finish it (with one reveal as a LOI because I lost patience). Ah well. Win some, lose some.
B is box, for Boxing Day. Pepperbox is a kind of pistol, post office box, black box, ice box, idiot box, dialogue box, grass box, brain box telephone box etc
BLACK ICE
B&B
B=black
B=Box=ICE (box)
OUTMATCH
OUT (Box)+MATCH Box
UDOMETERS and CHOCOLATE were my top faves. Great puzzle. Thanks Enigmatist.
Superb blog. Thanks Scchua.
POST OFFICE
I think it reads better if we consider ‘move work base away from rink’ as ‘POST (as a verb) OFF ICE’.
Wow. Managed to finish but like scchua had no idea what the B was for. I had thought about ‘box’ early on but managed to forget it. A lot of words seemed to be to slang connected with drugs (black, ice, grass, butter etc). Anyway, a fun challenge as usual from Enigmatist. Thanks to E and s.
I thought 1A might be HEAD OFFICE, but it was POST OFFICE. I guessed B was “box” for “Boxing Day” after seeing “receptacle” in 22D, but it didn’t help me at all. This crossword was beyond me: I thought about each clue but got nothing, and even scchua’s explanations left me feeling dissatisfied. But, my thanks to Enigmatist for the good challenge, and to scchua for the solutions.
Thanks Enigmatist and Scchua
Well, by dint of a lot of guessing and checking, I filled the grid, but about 3/4 was unparsed. I didn’t work out what B was either – I thought it might be BAR after I got CHOCOLATE, but that didn’t fit with many others.
Can’t say I enjoyed it much.
I have completed the Grauniad puzzle every day this year and at times thought this nightmare would break my streak. Struggled to complete but managed it without figuring out B. And, of course, I come here and am told that the English call St Stephen’s Day Boxing Day.
This was the least enjoyable crossword of the year.
So John Henderson is setting the Guardian, FT, Independent and Telegraph today. Just when you want a nice easy puzzle for the Christmas hangover.
Two miracles here. Firstly that I finished the puzzle and secondly that I didn’t get what the B was until 5 minutes after finishing. Not sure it would have been much help, there are an awful lot of words that prefix box.
Quite the slog and a few words bunged in on the basis of them fitting the checkers so thanks Scchua for persevering with the solve and explanations.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas.
I managed to get further through this one than I did through either the Indy Nimrod or the FT Io but didn’t finish and did not work out what B might me. I had a feeling it was Black though it was then surprising to encounter BLACK ICE. Box never crossed my mind. A degree of using the Check button but no revealing got me to about 75% of the way through before I threw in the towel. Thanks to scchua for doing the heavy lifting: very much needed today.
Thanks both
I share scchua’s feelings about this. Gave up after getting one clue (GRANIVORE) on the first pass. I did vaguely wonder if B was ‘Boxing’ because of the date, but that didn’t work for the few I revealed, and just couldn’t be bothered with the slog. Nho LEG TRAP.
A complete and utter waste of my time and I’m sure the time of dozens of other people.
Probably the worst crossword I’ve ever seen in this Paper. To think I spent £3.20 for this load of rubbish
The Guardian site comments are so unbearable and miserable. It seems like so many people upon becoming proficient at guardian cryptics suddenly believe they are entitled to have every puzzle not be too difficult for them. I enjoyed reading the blog.
Whoof. Heavy use of check and a few reveals, and completely stumped on the B in a way I don’t feel bad about at all; about half of the Bs were nho or UK usages (pepperbox? flush box?), ntm Boxing Day is not a thing here and I am not a Christian anyway. At one point I fed the ones I’d gotten into a search engine and Google Overview informed me that they were a bunch of words that could be prefaced by “black,” such as “black post office” and “black black ice.” Not that I begrudge a UK crossword UK usages, but I had to treat a bunch of these as unclued.
Some very nice clues in there too, especially the elegantly compact IPAD and INTO and EPIC. On the other hand, 7D seems like the wordplay is redundant as PRESS already means stamp in the same way, and I wouldn’t mind if “ret” stayed in Chambers.
Thanks Enigmatist and scchua, and merry boxing day to all who celebrate!
Minor note on the blog–I believe the album in 21ac is ELPEE?
Enjoyed this very much.
I don’t think anyone has mentioned DEAD-LETTER BOX which is defined in Chambers as “A place where secret messages may be left”.
The entry for UDOMETER is also interesting in that it appears not to be an officially recognised term. I didn’t think that the clue sufficiently indicated the plural however.
Thanks to Enigmatist and Scchua
Edit: just seen Matt@21, fully agree about “elpee”… also in Chambers.
Ed @19 There are other bits of the paper that you might find interesting.
Also, well said to Eddie 27 @20.
Oh the irony of all the Guardian commentators complaining about the lack of a long-lasting Maskerade yesterday and then today complaining about a puzzle that could have lasted just as long.
Last time I tried an Enigmatist puzzle, I likened it to listening to a Mahler symphony: more going on than I can understand and not to everyone’s taste but nevertheless you admire the fact someone came up with it and you get what you can out of the experience.
I got eleven of the B’s but couldn’t see connection so used some online trickery but even then didn’t click with what today is which was enough to make me smile/groan. I used a lot of checking and my dictionary app to clear final hurdle. 2d NHO 11a sounds like something to do with cows and 21a I really liked. Yes it was a slog but Channel 5 was showing Ten Commandments this morning so it could have been worse. Like the cricket.
Thank you Enigmatist and scchua…
Well I didn’t finish it without help, not by any means, but there were some helpful clues with which to get started. I enjoyed the tussle, up to a point!
Wow! That was very hard work for me. Spotted the B= Box trick but the wordplay and parsing were way too much for this novice/improver. A DNF from me but no fault of the setter, just my inability.
Thanks to Enigmatist and Scchua.
HNY to all.
Very clever, Enigmatist. I’m sure that you’re proud of being smarter than us.
I remember once being in New York at Xmas in the ‘90’s, where Boxing Day is not a thing, and 12/26 is just a normal day. The financial report on the TV news noted the UK markets were closed that day “as it’s Boxing Day, when English people give presents to their servants”!
I’ve been fretting about the significance of ‘B’ all morning so am very grateful to scchua and those who’ve commented. I thought of Box, for Boxing Day, early on but couldn’t see how it worked in the clues. Not sure why I didn’t think of kinds of box though there are some quite obscure ones here. I put in FLUSH, IDIOT and PEPPER because they fitted and was surprised to find them correct. I do now remember that IDIOT BOX was once used as a term for the TV. The crossword was frustrating but I managed somehow to produce answers for most of the clues. It was something to occupy my mind on a cold grey day when the world has closed down for the dubious pleasures of Christmas.
Tedium of the worst sort, very much NOT in holiday spirit as far as I was concerned. UGH. I may have to give up on crosswords after this torture.
What a lovely concept – so obvious that I’m astonished how long it took me to twig. About 2/3 of the way in and I was still thinking: these B words have absolutely nothing in common!
Once I felt Enigmatist was playing fair. (Not that I finished, even with heavy use of the check button).
I tried Google AI to find a connection between PAINT, CHOCOLATE, and POST OFFICE (my first three Bs). It didn’t find BOX!
Never did get the BOX theme so a very weird solve overall. IPAD made me laugh when the penny dropped
Ed@19 maybe in the spirit of “man bites dog” you could just let us know when you actually enjoy something? I appreciate it may be a long wait 🙂
Cheers S&E
Muffin @32 ’twas Copilot that sorted it for me but then I did put in 11 words so maybe the extras helped.
Thanks mattw. Blog corrected.
Thanks for persevering with a very difficult blog .
I normally save the Maskarade for Boxing Day so this and IO in the FT a welcome replacement , even got to sit in the sun (indoors) .
I like clues without a definition so the Bs suited me , did not get the link until DISPATCH and then it rang out , perhaps a few in a row prompted me .
FANCY THAT is a brilliant clue .
I do think the Guardian should have puzzles at this level occasionally , they used to be far more frequent .
[Greetings Roz – welcome back!]
Well, I enjoyed the tussle, and almost won the battle, except I had to check IPAD and still failed to parse it. Can’t recall when/how I worked out that B was BOX, but the realisation certainly helped crack the north-east corner. Thank you, Enigmatist, for the fun, and scchua for the valiant blog.
I didn’t do this puzzle. Way too difficult for my small brain 🙁
Came here to find out what the B is. I thought the B might be BOXING (Day) – did not think of BOX on its own.
Congrats to all above who managed to complete this puzzle and enjoy it!
B=balderdash B=blah.Nothing intelligent let alone challenging here!
Alan Connor has said that there will be a Guardian jumbo cryptic puzzle tomorrow, in the paper edition only however, and I’m guessing in a puzzles supplement of some sort.
BOX came very late in the solving; it was useful for the last few answers. I don’t know why it was so difficult to spot – it isn’t anything esoteric. As others did I tried googling several of the B word answers that I had solved, but that led nowhere.
I didn’t find this so hard as many Enigmatists, and despite what many people have said, I think it is worth giving it a good go.
That said it was a dnf, as I had to reveal 14ac, 26ac (I would never have got that) and 2d.
Thanks m an e
.
Grateful for the blog and the illuminating comments. Glad that some enjoyed this as it was obviously very cleverly done.
Enigmatist dividing opinion as always. Managed to solve it on paper over a couple of hours. Luckily got the BOX after BREAD, TELEPHONE and GRASS, so just asked the internet for a list of all phrases matching “* box” and browsed for candidates for the toughest ones.
Thought BAC LIEU was a bit too obscure, although managed to find it by getting a list of all Vietnamese cities and finding (3,4) pattern.
This would have been impossible without modern technology but enjoyed the challenge.
I guess the crossword editors must talk to one another and conspired to give us a triple (or quadruple via paywall) dose of JH as some kind of cruel joke.
Congrats to blogger!
I managed to almost solve this puzzle (I revealed jewel, as I was running out of patience) with a lot of wild guesses, checking letters, and googling. I needed this blog to parse quite a few lucky guesses and for the meaning of B. I didn’t make the connection with boxing day. This puzzle was too difficult for me, but I still had fun along the way, particularly when managing to parse a few solutions.
Wow! This was a toughie. I was delayed for a while by entering LEG SLIP at 24a but eventually saw the light. Nho Bac Lieu (Ty Google). Very pleased to fill the grid, though with a couple unparsed. Thanks to E and s for excellent work. HNY all.
I figured out the box connection fairly early and I am happy to say this is the first regular Enigmatist puzzle that I have completed (I did his genius puzzle earlier this year). I thought it was fun with many relatively easy clues. As for the IO in the FT–not so happy a result there.
Think it would have helped to have something explaining that they were examples of B. I tried to imagine B as part of the wordplay but I’m not sure it works if replaced by “box” each time.
Managed half and gave up but glad of the hard puzzle given no Maskarade yet.
Go not bring equivalent to say in my brain confused me too for 18d but it had to be dialogue.
[ Thank you Crispy – Season’s Greetings ]
Thank you Jay@41 , I will look out for it tomorrow . We have already had the puzzles supplement and the Jumbo in it was very poor . I suspect that tomorrow will be the Maskarade and last weekend was thought to be too early .
22D could have been TRAIN but I think BRAIN a better fit for wordplay and theme .
Good to see Roz is back. Happy New Year!
Thank you for E for a teasing puzzle and scchua for the blog.
Happy Xmas Roz. Nice to see you reappear. Miracles and Christmas and all that …
I liked this but like many, found it hard (though about average for Enigmatist). I revealed POST OFFICE to get some starters for down clues – which I regretted later as it wasn’t a very hard clue and once I’d figured out what B was, I’m pretty sure I’d have got it. Other than some use of the Check button that was my only fail, which means I did pretty well with this setter, by my standards.
Especially liked the aforementioned P.O., FANCY THAT and GRANIVORE. I was employed by the Met Office for five years, long ago, and don’t recall rain gauges ever being called UDOMETERS but the clue was fair.
Thanks Enigmatist and scchua.
Guardian puzzle nornmally a good start to the day affter finishing breakfast. This merely gave me indigestion!
Feeling like Enigmatist’s punching bag on this Boxing day (sorry). I’ll be screaming not the Bs in my sleep.
Lovely puzzle idea, even if I ended up thoroughly knocked out. Thanks Enigmatist and scchua!
I really can’t put my finger on what it is with Enigmatist. I want to get beaten now and then otherwise I’m not being challenged, and I enjoy the challenge of Azed or Gemelo while quite expecting to lose it. But Enigmatist really is a joyless slog. I really dont know why, they are just not fun.