Guardian 26,785 – Boatman

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Boys and girls come out to play with Boatman today,

with at least one of the two words occurring in about two thirds of the clues, and quite a few names in the grid too. Most of the clues are unimpeachably Ximenean too, with a bit of a dig at an ex-commenter at 13d. Not difficult by this setter’s standard, but enjoyable. Thanks to Boatman

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. COMMENCES Initiates approaches to restrain old boys’ clubs (9)
MEN (old boys) + C in COMES
6. GALA Girl one met at a party (4)
GAL + A
8. BASS DRUM It’s part of a kit of beer supplied to Germany with chaser (4,4)
BASS (brand of beer) + D (Germany) + RUM (could be drunk as a chaser)
9. LADLED Boy initiated and carried out some spooning (6)
LAD LED
10. A LEVEL Qualification shows everything about a girl (1,5)
EVE in ALL
11. LUNAR DAY Girl, star at last in Crazy Lady for about four weeks (5,3)
UNA + [STA]R in LADY* – as the moon always shows the same face to us, its day is the same as a lunar month, i.e. about 29 days
12. JUSTIN New boy? (6)
New = JUST IN
15. EAT MY HAT Ashdown’s May forfeit at end of vote: a myth? Not exactly, at last (3,2,3)
[VOT]E + (A MYTH)* + AT. Reference to Paddy Ashdown’s promise that he would eat his hat if the exit polls at the UK General Election last May turned out be correct. They were, and he did (sort of).
16. MOLASSES It’s sweet girl in some trouble (8)
LASS in MESS SOME* Thanks to those who pointed out my careless error here
19. CARMEN Girl auto enthusiasts? (6)
CAR MEN
21. BEATRICE Girl to excel with food (8)
BEAT + RICE
22. CANNOT Isn’t able to get girl into bed (6)
ANN in COT
24. JEROME Boatman in Paris (capital!) to find a boy (6)
JE (French “I”) + ROME
25. STERLING Girl sent crazy by LSD in the ’60s (8)
(GIRL SENT)* – LSD being pounds, shillings and pence, as used up to 1971
26. IFFY Imperfect, flawed, failing you fundamentally? (4)
First letters &lit
27. SONG TITLE Perhaps my girl‘s only starting letting loose (4,5)
S (from “girl’S”) + O[nly] + LETTING* – the title of this song
Down
1. CRAWL Write badly without direction and make slow progress (5)
SCRAWL less S
2. MASH-VAT Clue for a TV show where beer is made (4-3)
MASH VAT could be a clue for “A TV” – I think the fact that MASH is also a TV show is a red herring: “show” here is just a link-word
3. ENROL Enlist boy soldier, the last to be replaced by noon (5)
ERROL with [soldie]R replaced by N
4. CAMILLE Boy and girl turned up sick inside (7)
ILL in CAME – Camille can be either a boy’s or girl’s name
5. SPLENETIC Sour spice used in and around Lent (9)
Anagram of SPICE “in and around” LENT – spLENeTic
6. GODFREY Boy said to be heathen? (7)
Homophone of GOD-FREE
7. LIES AWAKE Middle of single bed that is badly askew, in which one gets no sleep (4,5)
L (middle of singLebed) + I.E. + A (one) in ASKEW
13. UP ONESELF Cheerful Boatman’s a mischievous chap, prone to compileritis? (2,7)
UP (cheerful) + ONE’S (Boatman’s) + ELF – a bit of an in-joke, “compileritis” being many a word used on here by former commenter hedgehoggy to refer to “showing off” by setters
14. NASTINESS Unpleasant sensations, lacking love (9)
SENSATIONS* less O, &lit
17. ANTHONY Two-part choral work has no place for heartless imp of a boy (7)
ANTIPHONY less I[M]P
18. STEPSON Subdues partner’s boy (7)
STEPS ON
20. RINGLET Hairnet girl used for curling (7)
It wouldn’t be Boatman without a lift-and-separate: (NET GIRL)*
22. CHEAT Screw as a boy, perhaps eaten by lion? (5)
HE in CAT
23. OUNCE This animal under study could lead to grass (5)
If you put OUNCE under DEN you get DENOUNCE = tell on = grass

43 comments on “Guardian 26,785 – Boatman”

  1. If you are going to clue a non-existent item at 2d you really have to be 13d.

    And if 13d really is an attempted dig at hedgehoggy the setter should be ashamed.

  2. @1 and 13d. Uh oh, the discussion is starting again! 13d could actually be read as a lighthearted dig at the setter rather than at the blogger. “Compileritis”, however, is quite obscure for those that don’t read the blog although the meaning could probably be guessed. Humourous rather than offensive IMHO.

  3. In 16a, it is lass in an anagram of some.
    13d is doubtless a dig at HH, but as (according to Gaufrid) he never existed, I have no problem with that.
    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  4. Thanks Andrew and Boatman. I found this a bit iffy – e.g.,where’s the definition in 25 ac? Surely STERLING defines the pound, not its smaller parts? It’s still a pound sterling now even though we no longer have LSD.

  6. Sidey – You’re probably right in your first statement. Mrs Boatman is quite clear on my 13Dn-ness, and I know better than to disagree with her …

    If you look back at some of our exchanges, you’ll see that I have a great deal of affection for Hoggy (he once threatened to picket one of my classes, which would have been wonderful, and I was sad that he didn’t materialise on the day) and I rather miss the opportunity to banter with him. Read the clue carefully, and you may decide that it’s a salute, not a dig. Perhaps.

  7. I found this was one of those ‘kick myself’ days. First (2d) Google told me that beer-makers use a LEAD(= ‘clue’) VAT, which messed up the NW. Then (4d) Boatman’s clever misdirection trapped me into looking for a boy’s name that was ILL contained in an upturned girl’s name. Doh. But that’s the fun of it. Thanks, Boatman and Andrew.

  8. Had a bear of a time with this one for some reason, but it all fell in the end and was quite enjoyable. Thanks Boatman and Andrew!

    Andrew, the parsing at 16 should be LASS in (SOME)*, but I’m sure you knew this 😉

  9. Thanks to Boatman and Andrew. Apart from a couple of rather convoluted anagrams I found this straightforward (for the setter).

    Can someone confirm Rullytully@3’s comment about the non-existence of HH? He did give a name and say he had Aspergers – was this a lie?

  10. Thanks Boatman & Andrew.

    Fun to try to find the names, which was not that easy. JEROME was LOI, although the clue was perfectly fair. For 8, perhaps Cassandra could have been used. A bit naughty though to remove the capitals from My Girl – I don’t think that’s very Ximenean.

    I smiled at the compileritis, which I think is a good portmanteau word, and I don’t see any offence in the clue. Maybe the BASS and Ashdown might confuse some overseas solvers but that is a bit inevitable in a UK newspaper crossword.

    CAMILLE gave a PDM when I realised, like Roger @7, that ‘turned up’ didn’t mean reversed.

  11. Thanks Boatman and Andrew

    Shirl @ 9: see the comments on the graun crosswords from about Dec 30 onwards, and specifically Gaufrid’s comment 60 on the Rufus 26771 on Jan 4.

    hth

  13. cholecyst @4 – “sterling” is the name of the currency as a whole (you might hear a currency trader say “sterling is up/down today” for instance), so I think the clue works. The only other currency with a special name as far as I’m aware is China’s (the coin is called the “yuan”, but the currency itself is the “renminbi”).

  14. Great puzzle, but it took me forever to work out the answer to the compileritis clue, although it caught my eye at once. I think the hedgehoggy business is probably dead and buried, but I for one think the clue was great (and I was looking for ‘hedgehog’ in the other answers, to no avail). Other favourites were SONG TITLE, IFFY, GODFREY and CARMEN. Many thanks to Boatman and Andrew.

  15. Good fun..liked 11. 27:”My girl perhaps is” would have avoided the dodgy lowercase? Thanks to Boatman.

  16. The parsing of MOLASSES is mixed up, by the way – it’s LASS in an anagram of SOME (“some trouble”)

  17. Thanks Boatman and Andrew.

    A fun puzzle. EAT MY HAT, SONG TITLE, MASH VAT and UP ONESELF had me fooled for a while.

    I wonder if ‘compileritis’ will make it into Chambers one day?

  18. Well I got there in the end but it was a bit of a struggle, mostly due to wavelength issues. Some lovely clues – liked STERLING, GODFREY, UP ONESELF, NASTINESS and ANTHONY. Last in was CAMILLE after BASS DRUM – in retrospect those should both have been apparent much earlier.

    Thanks to Boatman and Andrew

  21. Thanks to Boatman and Andrew. As usual, I found working with this setter very difficult. I did start off with a few quick solutions (CANNOT, MOLASSES, GODFREY) but then came to a screeching halt. Only after I got a few more crossers did the names start to fall into place and finally (with the help of Google) I figured out MASH VAT, EAT MY HAT, and UP ONESELF (none of them familiar to me). Still, a good workout, so no complaints.

  26. Thanks Boatman and Andrew
    On the whole I don’t like clues with definitions such as “boy” or “girl” – too many options! – so to find a crossword full of them was a bit off-putting. However it all yielded (with some help from my better half to finish the SE), with lots of entertainment. Particular appreciative groan for GODFREY!

  27. I think is the nearest I’ve got to completing a Boatman cryptic without aids. I did use the Check button for a couple of solutions about which I was not sure, and I ate the MASH red herring and so couldn’t fully explain the parsing of that one.

    I enjoyed the puzzle as a whole, and I love UP ONESELF. I took the hh reference as being tongue in cheek, as much aimed at himself as anyone else, not as being an example of 14d. Other favourites include LUNAR DAY, STERLING and ANTHONY.

    Thanks, Boatman and Andrew.

  28. Bloody hard I thought. I got there but the check button came in to play more than once. If this is a “quite easy ” Boatman” I’d like to see a difficult one or, on second thoughts, perhaps I wouldn’t!
    However, it would be churlish to deny that there was some good stuff here- GODFREY,BEATRICE and- a personal favourite- OUNCE.
    LOI-you guessed it- UP ONESELF.
    THANKS BOATMAN.

  29. Thanks all
    I failed on Camille and lies awake but thoroughly enjoyed the rest despite my dislike of themes.
    I wondered about sterling but finally agreed with duck,@13.
    Favourite was Justin!

  30. I have the same opinion of name-based puzzles as muffin@26, but unlike muffin, I gave up quite quickly. However, after the explication of UP ONESELF (a phrase I was unfamiliar with), I have to express deep admiration for a truly brilliant surface.

  31. I found this very enjoyable, probably because it was on the easier side and I needed some relief from work this lunchtime, but plenty of humour in the surfaces and consistently fair clueing made for a pleasurable solve. Many thanks to Boatman and Andrew.

  32. Boatman not floating my boat, I fear. I know it’s Libertarian stuff, but I just didn’t think it was very GOOD Libertarian stuff. And the theme was a bit of a bore too. ‘Compileritis’? That made me laugh I do concede.

    Cheers all, Phil.

  33. I enjoyed this one very much, finding myself often taken in by Boatman’s cunning before being well chuffed with myself for finding my way to the answer – and the reason for it.

    I needed help with parsing three of the clues, so thank you Andrew for the blog.

    I failed on 12A (JUSTIN), although it was not difficult, and I didn’t get the MASH of MASH-VAT or the UP of UP ONESELF. I’ve never heard of MASH-VAT, and of the four or five possibilities for ‘– ONESELF’ I wasn’t sure enough of UP to put it in (I stupidly didn’t get up = cheerful). Unlike many of you, it seems, I never knew the meaning of ‘compileritis’, although I am otherwise fully conversant with the story referred to a few times already on this page.

    Like muffin @26 and BlueDot @30, I didn’t warm to the theme of boys’ and girls’ names, for the reason given. I almost didn’t press on with the puzzle, but my addiction took hold, and there was so much to appreciate in the end, despite some slow thinking on my part. Thank you Boatman.

  34. I liked this. Not the hardest end of Boatman’s spectrum but still a decent challenge.

    I suppose Boatman is trying to prove that he can do “normal” (Ximenean type) clues if necessary as well as the next setter. Although he couldn’t resist showing his libertarian side.

    This puzzle is testament to the idea that a setter can make a puzzle challenging and enjoyable without filling the grid with esoteric vocabularly. (Take note Don et al.)

    Thanks to Andrew and Boatman

    P.S. I don’t see how anyone can take offense at 13D. I can only see self parody , a little irony and just a hint of apology 😉 .

  35. I haven’t commented on a Boatman crossword for a while.
    While I find clues with a lot of similar words (today, boy/girl) a bit daunting, I do think this was one of the better Boatmans.
    Enjoyable, not too difficult, not overly Libertarian (read: Boatmaniacal, as he can be).

    I agree with Robi and a later commenter that the decapitalisation of ‘my girl’ (in 27ac) is a bit naughty, read: unsatisfactory.
    But five Down clues in a row (5, 6, 7, 13, 14) were highlights for me. As was 12ac (JUSTIN).

    On the other hand, there were a couple of clues that, strictly speaking, contained superfluous words.
    Especially, in 6ac there is no reason to include ‘one met’.
    And 15d, ‘at last’ is not needed. It actually threw me a bit.
    The clue has already the word ‘at’ and can be seen as (AT + [vot]E + A MYTH)*.
    I think it’s a pity that we do need ‘It’s’ in 16ac.

    I also think that 4d should have started with ‘Boy or girl’ instead of ‘Boy and girl’.
    Finally, I found 3d not completely satisfactory as there are two Rs in ‘Errol’.
    The clue doesn’t tell me which one to replace.
    But, of course, ‘ernol’ is not a word.

    Having said all that, I (we) found this puzzle a pleasure to solve.
    So, many thanks to Boatman.
    And to Andrew too.

  36. Sil

    Some might say you are nit-picking in your post @35, but I don’t think you are.

    I agree with what you say about 6A, 15A, 16A and 4D (although not 3D, as it happens). I would not be quite satisfied with these clues if I had written them myself (yet I never thought of myself as a perfectionist).

    The only reason I didn’t mention these myself was purely to ensure that I conveyed the right overall impression in what might have been my only post today (@33). I was and remain very positive about this crossword, and I salute Boatman’s ingenuity.

    I also thought the theme chosen presented the difficulty that it almost always does. If you clue any boy’s or girl’s name as ‘boy’ or ‘girl’, whether it is in the clue or the answer, there are just too many possibilities from which to pick the one that fits, as has been pointed out already by muffin and BlueDot as well as me.

    This didn’t stop me solving this crossword, but it meant I had to make too many guesses – either inspired or wild. I just prefer a different balance. There are other themes that I am not fond of for other reasons: crooners and soap operas spring to mind. But that’s just because of my total ignorance of such topics.

  37. I found this quite a challenge – more so to break into – easier as the crossers helped. I’m no good at quickies – likewise not a good biffer – so when the range of possibilities is so great (as in the case of names) I’m a bit lost.

    A shame everyone has to relate accurate cluing to Ximenes – there have always been plenty of other good approaches around and many of Ximenes’s own clues would not pass muster today. By the same token Boatman seems to be easing off on “the abominable cesspit of flawed devices” as one ximenean described them. I hope he’s not running scared of the ximtrolls.

    Thanks to SS #11. I didn’t see that at the time. Good riddance. I’m sure all those on the inside know precisely who’s behind all that. Backstabbing other setters is one thing – feigning a physical handicap to do it is surely beyond contempt.

    Even with only genuine commenters posting we still get a superfluity of criticisms of perfectly sound clues based on the laughable notion that the so-called Chambers Manual is an even-handed survey of the cruciverbal world.

  38. Oops – thanks to Andrew for the blog and to Boatman for providing quite a long period of – er – well OK – looking back it certainly was entertainment – even of it didn’t always fell like that at the time..

  39. A very late comment, which gives some indication of how “easy” I found this. I’m with you Peter Aspinwall @28. For me, a bit too hard to be truly enjoyable, but I had a sense of satisfaction in eventually solving all of the clues after goodness knows how many hours. Stand-outs were LUNAR DAY, SONG TITLE and CAMILLE.

    Thanks to Boatman and Andrew.

  41. Thanks Andrew and Boatman.

    I made heavy weather of this. Needed 6 goes to get there in the end.

    I did have MASH VAT as somewhat questionable – but everything is fairly clued.

    I think it’s a wavelength thing!

  42. Look, the horse has bolted, but I’m well behind it and not expecting it to wait.

    However, this struck me as an excellent example of a solid wrong answer…

    7dn LATE NIGHT uses INGL and E (the middles from SINGLE BED) and THAT, makes them badly askew, to get something in which one gets no sleep.

    Perhaps this indicates that I’m still pulling too many all-nighters.

  43. Thanks Boatman and Andrew

    Was another who found this on the easier side for this setter even though he drew a number of ‘false starts’ reflected in the overwritten letters of at least three clues – 7d (where initially wrote in WIDE AWAKE), 13d (where UP YOURSELF went in first) and 18d (where I wrote in STEPHEN) all unparsed and later on corrected.

    Typical originality throughout and one could see the clear glint in his eye whilst compiling it – especially with the very witty COMPILERITIS at 13d which brought a ‘loud smile’ when I eventually got it right.

    Finished in the NE corner with LIES AWAKE (after LADLED showed the errors of my ways with it), GODFREY (which was my second favourite clue when I finally saw the cleverly funny homophone) and GALA (which shouldn’t have been) as the last one in.

    Nice to see another poster coming in well after the horse has bolted !!!!

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