After a number of Quick Cryptics in between, Ludwig returns to the Cryptic slot.
Yesterday morning, I was thanking my lucky stars that I had missed blogging an Enigmatist puzzle by one day. This morning, I’m not sure that my escape was as clean as I thought: The clue for 7dn is a reverse clue for Enigmatist’s 8dn yesterday, which suggests that he had at least a hand in this one.
The first couple of Ludwig puzzles, coinciding with a TV series of the same name, both of which I blogged, were acknowledged to be a collaboration between Crossword Editor Alan Connor (Everyman) and Enigmatist and there have been several different team efforts since then. These puzzles proved controversial for several reasons, not least because the second contained identical solutions, with different clues, to the first. I was expecting a challenge today, when I saw the name and I’m afraid I did not fare well. There are a number of gaps in my solutions / parsings, for which I am going to need help, as there is obviously something going on that I have missed.
Today is the Vernal Equinox for which several clues (12ac, 14ac, 21ac, 23ac, 24ac) seem to have some significance – and we have NOON BST in the bottom row. I’m just not sufficiently astute / awake to tease it all out.
I had ticks for 14ac DUE NORTH, 24ac HEMISPHERE, 26ac ALMS, 28ac EMOTIONS, 6dn PSEUDOCODE, 13dn DIDGERIDOO and 26dn ALMS and would doubtless have had more if the clues had made sense to me.
My apologies for my woeful inadequacy and my thanks to Ludwig and to commenters here who, I know, will soon set me right.
More apologies: I don’t know what has happened to my spacing throughout the blog!
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
8 Originally, baker oversupplied lightly – 13 – he often leaves éclair in safe place (4-4)
BOLT-HOLE
Initial letters of Baker Oversupplied Lightly Thirteen He Often Leaves Éclair
9 Zero tolerance finally adopted during time off (5)
RESET
[toleranc]E in REST (time off)
10 Slightly rotten greeting yelled (4)
HIGH
Sounds like (yelled) ‘Hi’ (greeting)
11 Intrude, all agitated and surly (3-7)
ILL-NATURED
An anagram (agitated) of INTRUDE ALL
12 The reverse of ‘dark’ and ‘night’? (6)
MIDDAY
Cryptic definition?
14 And also not included in song: Hamilton’s lead wanting direction (3,5)
DUE NORTH
NOR (and also not) in DUET (song) + H[amilton] – thanks, MattS @6 for pointing out my omitted ‘not‘
16 Gunman’s order delivered with difficulty, it’s implied (5,2)
HANDS UP
Double definition
18 Excellent: room’s confining, at last, Bruno Mars (7)
DEFORMS
???
21 Zoned out: this is ignoring the writer’s parts (8)
DOZENTHS
TH[i]S (minus i (the writer) in an anagram (out) of ZONED
23 Figure set around mostly satisfactory constant (6)
TWELVE
TV (set) round WEL[l] (mostly satisfactory) + E (constant)
24 Border has shown up throttling power in world? Not half (10)
HEMISPHERE
HEM (border) + IS HERE (has shown up) round P (power)
26 Relief: American sizes successively decreasing (4)
ALMS
A (American) + L[arge] M[edium] S[mall]
27 I’m surprised by cellists’ kit that’s heard in woodwinds (5)
OBOES
O (sounds like – that’s heard – ‘Oh’ – I see) + bows (cellists’ kits)
28 Rebutted curt prig with one book, The Agony and the Ecstasy? (8)
EMOTIONS
A reversal (rebutted) of (curt) SNO[b] (prig) + I TOME (one book)
Down
1 Amino acid tipped for synthesis in volcanic island (8)
DOMINICA
An anagram (for synthesis) of AMINO [a]CID
2 Playing autoharp; regrettably a pro’s left it in a state (4)
UTAH
An anagram (playing) of AUT[o]H[arp] minus an anagram (regrettably) of a pro
3 Using cunning, zip about No 4 in Second Eleven (6)
FOXILY
FLY (zip) round secOnd XI (eleven)
4 Dance, as Marillion song on the radio (7)
CEILIDH
Sounds like (on the radio) Kayleigh (Marillion song)
5 A drowned valley that’s conveyed by piping (4)
ARIA
A RIA (a drowned valley)
6 Deduce spoof largely concocted with AI instructions? (10)
PSEUDOCODE
An anagram (concocted) of DEDUCE SPOO[f] (largely)
7 Hopefully, with finale from tenor to replace bass, producing calm (2,4)
AT REST
AT [b]EST (hopefully), with [teno]R replacing b (bass)
(cf Enigmatist 8dn yesterday: Still preferring bishop to rook, extremely optimistically (2,4))
13 Was Spice Girl impersonating duck that’s low-pitched and resonant? (10)
DIDGERIDOO
DID GERI DO (was Spice Girl impersonating) O (duck)
15 Middle of Feb, day in early May, or one late in Dec? (3)
EVE
[f]E[b] + VE (day) – May 8th)
17 Sunhats: oddly ignored means of preserving life (3)
UHT
[s]U[n]H[a]T[s]
19 Composition part #2 (8)
MOVEMENT
I have no idea of this one – over to you
20 Sicilians possibly expelling a Milanese, awkwardly (7)
ISLEMEN
An anagram (awkwardly) of MIL[a]NESE
22 Character in Globe – Roneo? – Not quite (6)
OBERON
Hidden in glOBE RONeo
23 Former student crowned by those people – wise guys (3,3)
THE MOB
OB (old boy – former student) after (crowned by, in a down clue) THEM (those people)
25 Peep Show regularly lost money in Philippines (4)
PESO
P[e]E[p] S[h]O[w]
26 Miles – perhaps not 500 – in cars offered here (4)
AVIS
[d]AVIS (Miles, perhaps) minus d (500)
MOVEMENT – Part of a composition such as a symphony; #2 – Bowel movement (number two)
DEFORMS
excellent=DEF
Room’s=RM S
O in RMS
MOVEMENT
Def: #2
It seems ‘movement’ is a part of a music composition.
MIDDAY
dark/DIM reversed=MID and reverse of night=DAY
DOZENTHS
ZONED*+THS
I thought that this was a fascinating puzzle and enjoyed it immensely. Worth it just for the hilarious DIDGERIDOO. There seems to be a bit of a theme, as mentioned by Eileen with MIDDAY, DOZENTHS, TWELVE and HIGH completed by the Nina, NOON BST. AT REST was interesting, again highlighted by Eileen, after yesterday’s ENIGMATIST and Paddymelon’s first comment on the G site, implied that he might be one of today’s setters. DOMINICA was nice and I also liked the juxtaposition of the Sicilians and THE MOB.
Some strange surfaces like in DEFORMS but it made it very interesting.
Agree with Crispy and KVa @1 & 2.
Ta Ludwig, whoever you may be & Eileen.
I see some are quicker to type!
MIDDAY
DIM << and DAY opposite of ‘night’
DEFORMS
DEF(O)RMS = excellent (brunO) rooms
MOVEMENT
‘Number two’ poo
me@2
DEFORMS
Sorry
I meant O in DEF RMS
My top faves: HEMISPHERE and DIDGERIDOO.
Thanks Eileen for the detailed blog.
Thanks Eileen and Ludwig. For MIDDAY I took it as a reversal of dim (MID) followed by reversal of night (DAY). In DUE NORTH I think “and also not” gives us NOR. I take MOVEMENT as a double definition, with musical movement (part of a composition) and bowel movement (number two, poo). DIDGERIDOO comes in for a lot of praise from the Aussies in the G site and I can see the attraction though it’s a ‘close but no cigar’ for me.
[Apologies to others who I can see made most of these points while I was typing mine.]
KVa@ 2 and @5 – I had a slightly different take on DEFORMS. I read “confining” the O (last letter of Bruno) meaning the opposite of what we would normally expect – that is you take away (and lock up?) one of the Os in ROOMS. I found this crossword a real challenge and did not suss out TWELVE – so thank you very much for your excellent parsing of that, Eileen.
A quibble from a (retired) IT person. AI instructions doesn’t, to the extent of my knowledge, define PSEUDOCODE. When I programmed we created pseudo code as a preliminary step to creating the full code. Happy to be corrected by anyone who is more up to date.
That apart this was a tough but fair puzzle. I had to reveal a few after my self-imposed time limit expired.
Well, I’m delighted that AlanC @3 (and doubtless others) really enjoyed this.
After clunking my way to ISLEMEN (is this a word?) and DOZENTHS, I gave up while I still had some will to live.
DIDGERIDOO raised a smile; THE MOB was neat.
But just not my cup of tea, I’m afraid.
Thanks nonetheless to Ludwig for putting in the hard yards and to the indefatigable Eileen.
Thanks Ludwig and Eileen
Rather an odd one. Several smiles (AVIS, ALMS, DIDGERIDOO for instance), but also several where the definition was loose or the surface didn’t make much sense. In particular, why does HANDS UP mean “with difficulty, it’s implied”? What does “volcanic” contribute to 1d? Why is THE MOB “wise guys”?
“One late in December” is a ridiculous definition for EVE. Every day has an eve; the December one is specifically Christmas Eve.
Why is UHT “means of preserving life”? It is used to kill any life present.
TerriBlislow@7
DEFORMS
I took ROOM as RM and ROOM’s as RMS
DEF RMS confining O (Bruno’s last letter)
Is that what you say too?
KVA@11. No, I had a different take. I perfectly get your – and Rich@4’s – parsing and it is probably right. I clearly did not express myself well. I mean I took away or “confined” the last letter of Bruno from “room’s”. This would be an unusual use of “confine: but I think it works. Anyway, not worth more deliberation as the abbreviation of “rooms” works well, also . Thanks for the debate though!
I thought this was a big improvement on some of Ludwig’s previous offerings. In some ways I found it tougher than yesterday’s Enigmatist although that could be due to excess consumption in the Barrel House last night
Ticks for AVIS, ALMS and MIDDAY
Muffin@10 a wise guy is just another term for gangster in the US
Cheers E&L
Thanks bodycheetah @13. New to me.
Muffin@10 I shared some of your disgruntlement with UHT and HANDS UP but took the eve to be New Year’s Eve which is after all as late as you can get in December so makes more sense. I got Dominica from the anagram and thought “that’ll do” though it’s only half a volcanic island. Wise guys for THE MOB seemed fine to me, given the clear wordplay and coming to it with hands up and the Sicilians fresh in the mind.
As my old Mum used to say, “Too clever by half”. Maybe because of my DNF, I didn’t enjoy this even as the solutions were dragged out like a nasty weed in the lawn. What are DOZENTHS and ISLEMEN anyway?!! Some of the surfaces are very odd – what does 8a mean?
I realise that the solvers have to be beaten occasionally, but would the editor have presented this if it hadn’t been partly his creation?
Anyway, enough whingeing, congrats Eillenn on battling through it, and thanks Ludwig.
I’m not sure if I’m missing something obvious, but why is ‘with difficulty it’s implied’ a clue for HANDS UP. Deliver, is a definition for ‘hand up’ in the dictionary, but that would require ‘delivers’ in the wordplay. Thanks to. all.
I’m not sure anyone has yet explained the “with difficulty, it’s implied” definition of “hands up” in 16a (mentioned @10 above). It’s a play on “hands down”, meaning easily.
If this really is Enigmatist and Alan Connor collaborating, I think it worked really well today. Not only some really unusual, challenging clues but also some wrongfooting me by turning out to be much simpler than they looked. Perhaps that was me expecting a Henderson when I was getting a Connor?
Interesting crossword. What function does “wanting” have in 14a? If you’re “wanting direction” are you facing due north? I loved Digeridoo, but quite a lot of Huh?s from me.
Thanks Ludwig and Eileen
muffin @ 10
“ why does HANDS UP mean “with difficulty, it’s implied”? “
Because HANDS UP is the opposite of HANDS DOOWN, ie with ease, not difficulty.
December also includes New Year’s Eve as a famous one, and it’s later than the one on Dec 24 – you can’t get much later than it.
Way beyond my pay grade, a bit of a shock really, after feeling fairly upbeat after not doing too badly with yesterday’s Enigmatist.
Did spot the lurking OBERON, and that cryptic crossword chestnut OBOES, but not much else. Plaudits to those that did rather better than me today, however…
I did find this odd, with some baffling surfaces as others have already said..It was less navigable for me than Enigmatist yesterday, but I really was not up for it during my customary solving hour between 3.00 and 4.00 and probably should have left it until the daylight hours. To pursue the theme, I would just point out that at TWELVE MIDDAY both clock HANDS are pointing straight UP in the direction of DUE NORTH.
Definitely one to avoid as far as I’m concerned. Thanks Eileen for sticking with it!
Muffin@10, and others.
I might be completely wrong with this, but is “delivered with difficulty, it’s implied” a reference to farming? If a cow or ewe is having difficulty giving birth, the farmer may have to give a helping hand, or hands.
Interesting crossword.
Turns out I have been mispronouncing CEILIDH all these years not that i knew the song anyway.
Couldn’t work our EVE and provisionally put in eid given what day it was (Eid Mubarak for anyone celebrating today). Unfortunately DEFORM took an age to correct it.
I liked MIDDAY, ALMS, HEMISPHERE, DIDGERIDOO and PSEUDOCODE
Thanks Ludwig and Eileen
Although I’ve enjoyed Ludwig puzzles in the past, there was so much of this that I disliked I won’t even bother detailing it, as I largely agree with the various objections already mentioned. And I’ve only barely even heard of Marillion, let alone been able to identify one of their songs and use it in a ‘sound-alike’. Ludicrous.
STP@8: As you say, pseudocode has nothing to do with AI. It’ s simply a way of expressing an algorithm in a semi-formal manner for ease of comprehension.
I didn’t understand the ” with difficulty” definition for HANDS UP, and it looks as if I had better add def=excellent to my vocabulary as this is the second time it has tripped me up lately. And I know no Marillion songs (not a bad sound-alike if you do).
I did not enjoy much of this: BOLTHOLE was nicely hidden and DIDGERIDOO was fun, but I wouldn’t have bet on ISLEMAN or DOZENTHS being real words, and never met PSEUDOCODE in a twenty-year IT career. Oh, and I managed to convince myself it was DUE SOUTH (something to do with out=not included?)
Interesting theme: the HANDS or pointers point straight UP for NOON BST, HIGH NOON, TWELVE, DUE NORTH and MIDDAY (and maybe others).
I intended to add @22 that when a baker oversupplies lightly, as the clue at 8a specifies, he bakes 13, which is thus known as a ‘baker’s dozen’, again tying that clue to TWELVE and its various manifestations elsewhere in the puzzle.
James G #19. wanting direction. 14a DUE NORTH may have been clued by Alan Connor, one of the compilers of Ludwig, at least originally. I remember him, as Everyman, often using wanting as a link word/pointer to the definition. I found it strange at first, never really understood it, as I’d expected that “wanting” would indicate an omission, but I got used to it. I think I’ve only encountered it one other time outside of an Everyman crossword.
Look, I’m no Marillion fan myself, but I don’t get the whingeing on here from those for whom they are NHO. They’ve been going for over 40 years and sold over 15 million albums. It’s not that much of a stretch to think people might have heard of them.
Too difficult for me. I managed eight answers, so an improvement on yesterday, but I’ll wait for the Quick Cryptic tomorrow.
I was happy to recognise DEF in DEFORMS as excellent this time. It came up in Pasquale a couple of weeks ago, clued in DEFuse as ”brill”, which I didn’t know.
The Spice Girl clue appeared in a Guardian cryptic/prize/everyman some years ago. Something about Spice girl achieved nothing. It was one of the last across clues – bottom of South West corner. Can’t remember the date.
i interpreted WANTING = DUE. So, a ‘wanting’ direction could be DUE NORTH. A stretch, I know, but my mind couldn’t leave it unparsed
SteveThePirate@8, poc@26 – it’s quite common to use pseudocode as part of the “instructions” to AI to generate a working application.
Many thanks to Ludwig and Eileen
Started quickly with about half of the clues but then hit a minor brick wall; I eventually sorted it all out. I liked Hamilton’s song DUE NORTH, FOXILY my LOI, DIDGERDOO, where the duck wouldn’t have been needed in a homophone, and the Paulian MOVEMENT. Muffin @10; I had the same thoughts about UHT at first but I think what is meant is that UHT treatment increases the life of say milk, preserving it longer.
Thanks Ludwig and Eileen.
I wondered if there was a connection to today being the vernal equinox with the central column CEILIDH and ISLEMEN. Is the vernal equinox celebrated with CEILIDHs (or cèilidhean or céilithe) in the Isles off Scotland and Ireland?
Steve @8 – as a very recently retired IT professional, I agree. AI tends to give you actual code snippets, not pseudo code.
Gladys @27 – such an IT baby! Pseudocode is right up there with Matchbox Specs. (Requirements so abbreviated they’re written on the back of a match box)
On a different note, I took “with difficulty, it’s implied” as the “Gaelic shrug” – shoulder twitch, hands to the side, palms turned up “I have no idea”….
RCH @33 Possibly ‘Could Ginger achieve nothing on this instrument? (10)’ by Vulcan on 31st July 2023.
HANDS UP
Herb@18 and Simon S@20 have explained this.
Adding to that:
I feel that ‘it’s implied?’ is a ‘whimsical def’ indicator.
DUE NORTH
Agree with paddymelon@29 that ‘wanting’ is a linkword.
Re the Marillion conversation, not many years ago I spent a weekend in a holiday cottage in a small village in Northants. To discover that Steve, the lead singer from that band lived next door. And on the Sunday evening in the local pub just along the street he was joined by four more verging on elderly guys who had played with Bowie and other top names in their past. Ex Marillion singer on the drums, a bit like Phil Collins used to do, they belted out a few rock classics quite effortlessly, greatly entertaining just the dozen of us watching in awe as we sipped our drinks…
RCH # 33 and Balfour # 39. I was surprised to find on a fifteensquared search how many times that DIDGERIDOO was clued using the Spice Girl/s
Gila Indy, 2023 Did one of the Spice Girls perform over musical instrument?
Vulcan 2023 Could Ginger achieve nothing on this instrument?
Tees Indy 2019 It’s used in Bush, but was there nothing from Halliwell?
And Paul 2020 Instrument blown: were only Victoria, Emma, Mel B and Mel C performing?
Kangacam@38: my twenty years ran from 1973-1993, after which I did other things. I’m familiar with the concept behind PSEUDOCODE (we used to draw flowcharts), just not that particular buzzword.
Above my paygrade, but annoyed that I missed Miles Davis. When I saw ‘Avis’, the miles that came into mind were airmiles – Avios for BA – and I couldn’t figure out how O was 500!
Kangacam@38, see my post @35. It’s the instructions to, not from, AI.
ronald @41
Wasn’t the singer called Fish?
Misplaced childhood is one of my favourite albums. Worth a listen.
Bit of a mixed bag for me, I liked some clues e.g. UTAH and BOLT HOLE, but as others have noted there were a fair few questionable surfaces as well.
I don’t mind references to bands, but expecting people to know specific songs by them for a clue feels a bit unfair. I feel like that would be annoying even if the band were much better known than Marillion.
Anyway, thanks Ludwig and Eileen.
‘Definition’ wanting ‘wordplay’ makes more sense to me than ‘wordplay’ wanting ‘definition’ but there’s yoda-speak plenty of in cryptic clues and the wordplay ‘wants’ the definition to be put into the grid.
UHT I also humphed at before thinking of shelf-life.
Muffin @46. Fish (real name Derek Dick) was replaced by Steve Hogarth in 1989
No chance of completion as I had no idea of CEILIDH and DIDGERIDOO. FOXILY and MIDDAY, on the other hand, I could have got, and was midway there but gave up. I agree that this was more difficult than yesterday’s Enigmatist.
I enjoyed a lot of clueing though, including DEFORMS (on which I agree with KVa), DUE NORTH, HEMISPHERE, TWELVE, DOZENTHS, EMOTIONS, OBOES. Thanks Ludwig, and Eileen for the courage!
Not as hard as yesterday’s Enigmatist, but still no walk in the park.
To mar and to DEFORM are not the same, but the narrowing is going in the right direction, so the clue does work.
I thought that the clue for UTAH was unnecessarily complicated for such a short answer – why not take a 10,000 character essay and subtract a 9,996 word essay, and voila, the desired 4-letter word! Just an aesthetic thing.
I’m with those who think the association between AI and PSEUDOCODE is a bit too loose.
I liked FOXILY, but I was thinking it should be “No.” not “No”. A little research tells me the full stop/period is required in American English, but only desired in British English. Who knew?
I thought MIDDAY was an excellent &lit. I also ticked OBERON which was quite amusing, as was DIDGERIDOO (though I had a vague idea that it had been done before).
Re 28a, I’m not sure that “prig” really means SNOB, the former being “a person of precise morals without a sense of proportion… a sanctimonious person”, while the latter is “a person who sets too much value on social standing… treating those viewed as inferior with condescension” (Chambers).
Many thanks Ludwig and Eileen.
Well done Eileen. Not the most pleasing of puzzles for me.
Eileen, thank you for your excellent blog, as always, and with IT issues. No need for apologies. As others have said, a mixed bag.
Hope you’re resting and recovering from your recent illness.
No more Ludwig for me.
I agree with Lord Jim@53. And the clue’s number is 12, as if to press the point home.
Sen @47, Knowing a specific song by Marillion may well be a challenge.
But asking for any other song by Marillion is far more so.
I liked that TWELVE DOZENTHS formed ONE row.
Chewy but got there after some tactical Chamber’s consultation! Thanks Ludwig and Eileen!
I also discovered DIDGERIDOO by complete mishap; having the initial D from a crosser, I was erroneously speculating whether this charade ended with “MOO” (thinking there was a “low” being “pitched”). I pencilled it in, stepped back to look at the word and had an absolute “Eureka!” moment. Those little moments are so joyous!
I agree with Kangacam @38 regarding his “Gaelic Shrug”. I took it to mean the hands up gesture associated with “I give up! It’s too difficult.”
MattS @15… you are confusing the Dominican Republic (half an island) with Dominica (a whole island).
Thanks Eileen for a sterling effort, and Ludwig for some challenging clues.
Late to straggle in. Last night I got more than in Enigmatist’s the night before, but with plenty left blank.
Marillian may have been around for yonks, but I’ve never heard of them, and I can’t tell a well-established group I’ve never heard from from one that really is obscure.
I’ll buy “dozenth” as an adjective (“that’s the dozenth time I’ve told you”) but not as a noun. “You’ve eaten five dozenths of the pudding!” Naaah. I don’t buy “islemen” either.
MattS@15 The Dominican Republic may be half the (volcanic?) island of Hispaniola, but Dominica is a whole island all by itself.
Zero = reset? Snob = prig? More naaaah.
Thanks for lots of fun to Ludwig, whoever you are, and to Eileen, who is definitely our beloved blogger, and so good to see you emerging.a
I’m definitely in the camp of those who think that PSEUDOCODE is too loose. I’m a software developer and lecturer, and since there are so many prompts you can give to an LLM, I don’t get why you’d just choose this one. There were another couple of quibbles too – I don’t like random brand names appearing, so AVIS caused a raised eyebrow. “Zero” for RESET felt a bit loose, and “Roneo”???
I’ll stop there because overall I enjoyed it. DIDGERIDOO gave me a smile, MOVEMENT felt Paulesque, and I liked HEMISPHERE. In crosswordland, woodwind is always the oboe!
Thanks Ludwig and especially Eileen.
Valentine @65
I took RESET=zero as you might do to a stopwatch/timer.
I missed out the worst clue earlier – the one for ARIA. What is “that’s conveyed by piping” have to do with a drowned valley? (And equally it’s a very loose definition.
Defeated by a handful today, including DEFORMS, MOVEMENT and ARIA. Some good stuff though too, DOMINICA and HEMISPHERE particularly.
ISLEMEN seemed a little sexist. The HANDS UP wordplay is interesting. If it is implying the opposite of HANDS DOWN, which means by far, shouldn’t it say slightly rather than with difficulty?
Lots to chew on!
Thanks, Ludwig and Eileen. Happy Spring, to those in the northern 24!
muffin @67: pipes as in vocal chords for singing an ARIA.
AlanC @69
Yes, I saw that, but it is extremely loose.
Not the best of clues, I grant you.
[btw Roz, if you visit, I read your post about Spenser from yesterday’s puzzle – who’d have thunk!]
Thanks for the blog , not an easy task to try and explain this one in a hurry ,
HEMISPHERE was neat , DIDGERIDOO needs a new idea , I have seen
this type of wordplay so many times . I having a running league table in my diary for – Ten worst clues of the year – today there are seven new entries .
It was the Vernal Equinox this afternoon and the Ostara Festival tonight , try and celebrate in the traditional way .
[ AlanC , my closest friend is a Professor of English Literature so I admit to having some form when it comes to teasing in this area . Spenser could not even spell his own name . ]
Tell more about the ten worst clues, Roz! I would certainly include ARIA.
It seems there were no takers for my attempted farmyard explanation (@24) of “delivered with difficulty, it’s implied”: if a farmer had to put his/her HANDS UP some heavily pregnant but struggling cow or ewe, “it’s implied” that the calf or lamb was “delivered with difficulty”.
Afraid I’d been watching too much ‘Countryfile’, often graphic at this time of year …
My thanks to Ludwig for the celebration of the spring equinox, and to Eileen and her willing helpers.
My daughter, who is tentatively starting with crosswords, has just come in. I said to her “have a look at 4d; you might be amused”. She got it instantly (far quicker than I did!)
Sorry Muffin@74 , I really could have a rant but I would get banned again .
For your UHT it preserves shelf-life .
I see no link at all between this puzzle and the Equinox , just a half-baked theme based on twelve .
Agreed on the last point, Roz. I think the Spring Equinox is a red herring.
I thought that 22d was a Grauniad and should have read Character in Globe- Romeo? -Not quite
Globe doing double duty and not quite indicating that a letter changes.
I think DUE NORTH is simply a Ludwidesque trick: two sets of wordplay, no definition. Phi has a similar clue in today’s Indy:
University series providing enjoyment of right (4). Ximenes? Who he?
muffin and Roz: some of us like to keep a record of our favourite clues, but it comes as no real surprise that you two are interested in a list of worst clues.
All done, except 4d CEILIDH (despite looking through a list of Marillion songs) and 4d ARIA (agree with muffin@67). Seems like a fine puzzle, though I didn’t really warm to it. 21a DOZENTHS is a bizarre word, but there it is in the dictionary!
Thanks Eileen for all the care you put into your blogs, including this one
No-one seems to have linked to it yet!
Thanks to Ludwig and Eileen. Back on fifteen squared after a break, I see Mr. Muffin is still the pain in the comments class.
RabW @84
Could you expand on that comment, please? I don’t think any of my posts have been inappropriate.
Thanks muffin@83 nice song. Seems it was their single biggest hit, so a fair reference. Oh my goodness, the 80’s hair! 🙂
I found this challenging but enjoyed it a lot. Very satisfying to finish. Weirdly I don’t agree with a single one of the complaints above.
I do have one complaint which is that I count seven clues using “in” as a linking word between definition and wordplay. I don’t really see how “in” implies that relationship. I know it’s well established but seven in one puzzle is a bit many IMO. (“Wanting” is much better.)
muffin@85: You’re encountering a statistical probability – it means nothing, certainly not to those of us who thoroughly enjoy your input to the debate.
As to the crossword, thanks both. But I dozenth ink so…
I’m a bit late to comment. It took longer than yesterday’s. I struggled to finish the last few clues. I haven’t read all the comments but it felt a bit strange. I didn’t dislike it though.
Thanks Ludwig and Eileen
I must be missing something. Nobody here seems to be complaining about Excellent = Def. I am.
How does Excellent= Def?
And since when?
P.S. I’ve been doing Guardian Cryptics for 50 years. Never knew Excellent= def.
DillDawson @90
It’s relatively recent yoof slang.
Better than Thursday’s for me. Still needed two big-ish sessions over Friday and Saturday to finish it. Mostly ok with the wordplay but some guesses. Thanks Eileen and the commenters for shedding light on the ones I didn’t understand and thanks Ludwig for the challenge.
Thanks, Muffin.
DD@90 Chambers has DEF = “excellent, brilliant (orig in hip-hop culture) …from definitive or definitely”
I took “with difficulty” to refer to a teacher asking her class to do an exercise, and asking them to “put your hands up” if they get stuck.
Very late to the party but I enjoyed this. Surprised nobody has yet pointed out XII in the third row (apols if I missed it in the 90+ earlier comments!)