The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29992.
Qaos always produces an entertaining crossword, inventive without being too obscure – and they have a theme. I can generally spot the theme, but not this time, even though I completed the blog leaving plenty of time to mull it over.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | OVOID |
Like 0, nothing (0) divides 51500 (5)
|
| A charade of O (‘nothing’) plus VOID, an envelope (‘divides’) of O (‘0’) in V (‘5’) plus I (‘1’) plus D (‘500’); that VOID is ‘nothing’ is nothing to do with the case. | ||
| 10 | THORNIEST |
It’s not her fault being most difficult (9)
|
| An anagram (‘fault’) of ‘its not her’. | ||
| 11 | SPIKE-NAIL |
One secures Milligan no trouble (5-4)
|
| A charade of SPIKE (‘Milligan’, commedian) plus N (‘no’) plus AIL (‘trouble’). | ||
| 12 | GASSY |
Bubbly girl in Germany on vacation, not Luxembourg (5)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of [l]ASS (‘girl’) minus the L (‘not Luxembourg’, IVR) in GY (‘GermanY on vacation’). | ||
| 13 | CHAPATI |
Tea includes some butter and bread (7)
|
| An envelope (‘includes’) of PAT (‘some butter’) in CHAI (‘tea’). | ||
| 15 | WATTLES |
Country imports dry fencing material (7)
|
| An envelope (‘imports’) of TT (teetotal, ‘dry’) in WALES (‘country’). A wattle is a panel woven from flexible branches ot willow or other wood, and which makes easily portable fencing. | ||
| 17 | ABYSS |
Sailor’s ship crossing unknown gulf (5)
|
| An envelope (‘crossing’) of Y (‘unknown’) in AB (‘sailor’) plus SS (‘ship’). | ||
| 18 | GEO |
On retreat, say love of the earth (3)
|
| A charade of GE, a reversal (‘on retreat’) of E.G. (‘say’) plus O (‘love’). | ||
| 20 | OMEGA |
The final of some game shown (5)
|
| A hidden answer (‘shown’) in ‘sOME GAme’. | ||
| 22 | MACHREE |
In Ireland, my dear, telecom company completes high speed runs (7)
|
| A charade of MACH (‘high speed’ – Mach 1 is the speed of sond) plus R (‘runs’) plus EE (UK ‘telecom company’). | ||
| 25 | CODEINE |
Drug lines captured by film (7)
|
| An envelope (‘captured by’) of ODE (‘lines’) in CINE (‘film’). | ||
| 26 | SPELL |
Magic time (5)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 27 | BOARDROOM |
Where executives are allegedly uninterested by discharge (9)
|
| Sounds like BORED (‘uninterested’) plus RHEUM (‘discharge’). | ||
| 30 | AIRMAILED |
Sent flying, high admiral tours Italy and Spain (9)
|
| I (‘Italy’) plus E (‘Spain’) separately inserted (‘tours’) in AIRMALD, an anagram (‘high’) of ‘admiral’. | ||
| 31 | SOULS |
Call for help preserves university lecturer’s spirits (5)
|
| An envelope (‘preserves’) of U (‘university’) plus L (‘lecturer’) in SOS (‘call for help’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BOSS |
Master beginning break over the weekend? (4)
|
| A charade of B (‘beginning Break’) plus O (‘over’) plus SS (Saturday and Sunday, ‘the weekend’). | ||
| 2 | SOLITARY |
Single rebel royalist (8)
|
| An anagram (‘rebel’) of ‘royalist’. | ||
| 3 | EDGE |
Club sacks woman with fringe (4)
|
| A subtraction: [w]EDGE (golf ‘club’) minus the W (‘sacks woman’). Some do not like ‘with’ as a link word. | ||
| 4 | STEAMING |
Very angry man gets upset over independence (8)
|
| An envelope (‘over’) of I (‘independence’) in STEAMNG, an anagram (‘upset’) of ‘man gets’. | ||
| 5 | HOLLOW |
Doctor Who saves 50,500 in pit? (6)
|
| An envelope (‘saves’) of LLO (’50 50 0′) in HOW, an anagram (‘doctor’) of ‘Who’. | ||
| 6 | KNIGHTHOOD |
Piece covering honour (10)
|
| A charade of KNIGHT (chess ‘piece’) plus HOOD (‘covering’). | ||
| 7 | VESSEL |
Against German city scrapping new large ship (6)
|
| A charade of V (versa, ‘against’) plus ESSE[n] (‘German city’) minus the N (‘scrapping new’) plus L (‘large’). | ||
| 8 | STAY |
Remain close to boats on river (4)
|
| A charade of S (‘close to boatS‘) plus TAY (‘river’ in Scotland). | ||
| 13 | CHARM |
Church wing’s appeal (5)
|
| A charade of CH (‘church’) plus ARM (‘wing’). | ||
| 14 | AUSTRALIAN |
Perhaps Dame Edna is a natural disaster (10)
|
| An anagram (‘disaster’) of ‘is a natural’. | ||
| 16 | SHADE |
Floor to ceiling, hell’s in gloom (5)
|
| HADES (‘hell’) with the last letter moved to the front (‘floor to ceiling’). | ||
| 19 | ORCHARDS |
Where to find fruit tea lined by gold roads (8)
|
| An envelope (‘lined by’) of |
||
| 21 | EPILOGUE |
Corrupt police wanting Conservative government to reverse EU’s conclusion (8)
|
| A charade of EPILO, an anagram (‘corrupt’) of ‘poli[c]e’ minus the C (‘wanting Conservative’); plus G (‘government’) plus UE (‘to reverse EU’). | ||
| 23 | CHERRY |
The King asks ‘Why guard that woman’s virginity?’ (6)
|
| An envelope (‘guard’) of HER (‘that woman’s’) in CR (Carolus or Charles Rex, ‘The King’) plus Y, sounds like (‘asks’) ‘why’. | ||
| 24 | EMBALM |
Curried lamb follows starter of egg and finally plum preserve (6)
|
| A charade of E (‘starter of Egg’) plus MBAL, an anagram (‘curried’) of ‘lamb’ plus M (‘finally pluM‘). | ||
| 26 | STAG |
Male to talk about employing technical leader (4)
|
| An envelope (’employing’) of T (‘Technical leader’) in SAG, a reversal (‘about’) of GAS (‘talk’). | ||
| 28 | DASH |
Drop down tree (4)
|
| A charade of D (‘down’) plus ASH (‘tree’). | ||
| 29 | MASK |
To hide tiara from bank robbers ends in calamity (4)
|
| An anagram (‘in calamity’) of AMKS, the last letters (‘ends’) of ‘tiarA froM banK robberS‘. |
Thanks Qaos and PeterO.
Liked the trade mark OVOID, CHAPATI (‘and’ filling?), BOARDROOM (director’s cut) and EMBALM (last supper?).
CHERRY
Is the surface and the def PC? This one may not end on top of the cake, I guess.
I wondered if the theme is around death: mask, shade, soul, but I cant see others .Or magic: spells, charms?
A game called Hollow Knight, may be?
Thanks Qaos and PeterO
I see cherry, vessels, bosses, geo, nail are also involved.
DE @2 & 3 – Yes, a visit to the Wiki article on Hollow Knight strongly suggests that It is the key. Well spotted/surmised! Definitely not in my GK sphere ,,,
Quite enjoyable. Had to reveal MACHREE, as I’m afraid my Irish wasn’t up to it. (Couldn’t remember the English telecom either, despite having been helped with this previously.) And I didn’t know the Scottish river, but it wasn’t hard to guess. And I learnt that WATTLES are fencing material.
A lot of fun, as usual with Qaos. However, I disagree that MACH means high speed – it’s just a unit (although, granted, it’s typically used for high speeds, but it is not required to be). MACH 1 might be fast, but MACH .001 isn’t.
Dr. WhatsOn
MACH
Agree, it doesn’t mean high speed, but it’s a unit of speed (generally high).
I enjoyed several Antipodean references today. SPIKE, ok we’ll share him; WATTLES, happy to share them too.
Above all I loved AUSTRALIAN. What a find! A natural disaster. I’d go along with that, speaking personallyof course.
Long time since I heard cherry for virginity.. What is the male equivalent? No, don’t answer that.
Two maths clues and a theme I wouldn’t have spotted if I had all day so par for the course for Qaos. KNIGHTHOOD and CODEINE took longer than they deserved but otherwise not real trouble.
CHERRY my favourite today. Not sure if people still use that word or it is a relic from my schooldays.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO
Sort of pleased to find that the theme appears to be something I didn’t know existed, so I can stop kicking myself for not seeing it. Also failed to parse MASK.
The 10 minutes I’ve just spent learning about Hollow Knight on Wikipedia have severely tested the theory that all knowledge is useful…..
A dnf, sadly, as I had to word search MACHREE, which i now feel is unfair for the reasons given by others. (Hard to remain objective about a clue one fails on!)
Nho SPIKE NAIL but it was fairly clued, and AUSTRALIAN was brilliant.
Many thanks, both.
Thanks for this PeterO. I think your explanation of 19D has an extra R. I parsed it as CHA (tea) inside OR (gold) and RDS (roads
Thanks Qaos and PeterO
Several single letter inclusions, some a bit dubious (I for “independence”?, N for “no”? – that used to be used in computer interfaces, I suppose).
Favourite AUSTRALIAN.
N for no and I for independence
I have seen in some forms, Y/N instead of Yes/No.
Collins gives ‘n for no’ (in American English).
I for ‘independent’ as well as ‘independence’ is in Chambers.
Someone may educate us with an example of usage.
KVa @15
Yes, Y/N was what I was referring to in computer interfaces. Haven’t seen it for decades!
Thanks Chaos for enjoyable wordplay and Peter O for clear blog – but 19d think tea is just ‘cha’ followed by rds, otherwise you have an extra ‘r’
PeterO I think in 19d the charade is of CHA for ‘tea’, not CHAR (your parsing has an extraneous R).
MACHREE required a Google as it was a NHO, plus the use of Mach was incorrect as others have noted, so I was a technical DNF as per William @12.
SPIKE NAIL was also an NHO but I was able to construct that from the wordplay.
Overall I found this the hardest puzzle for some days, not helped by the overuse for mine of single letter inclusions, although the brilliant anagram for AUSTRALIAN went some way to appeasing me. 🙂
Thanks to Qaos and PeterO.
Thanks, PeterO and Qaos, this was fun and just about hard enough. Spent too long trying to find an anagram of ‘Dame Edna is’; excellent misdirection! To show my age, I have never heard of HOLLOW KNIGHT, but I do remember that in the 60s Ian Smith declared independence for Rhodesia, in what was always referred to as UDI – unilateral declaration of – so that makes 4d work.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO
For a more recent example of I = INDEPENDENCE, think (but not for too long) of the unlamented UKIP.
Thought the two anagrams for SOLITARY and AUSTRALIAN we’re very cleverly disguised. A dnf as I just couldn’t get MASK, and for that one as with several others I needed PeterO’s parsing. Not sure if it’s OK to mention this on here, but when I lost my virginity in the 1960’s, the fact that I had lost my CHERRY there and then was muttered softly in my ear, so yes Paddymelon@8, it certainly was/is a male thing!
Brian-with-an-eye @19: you weren’t the only one hammering away at the Dame Edna fodder before the light dawned.
I knew the song “Mother Machree”, a favourite of Irish tenors, in my youth: too sentimentally treacly for my taste even then, but I didn’t realise that MACHREE was a term of affection rather than a personal name until much later.
I’d have classed WATTLES as building rather than fencing material (as in wattle-and-daub) and what the clue describes are “hurdles”.
I failed to solve 22ac MACHREE (never heard this word before) and 23d CHERRY and failed to see a theme. I have never heard of a game called Hollow Knight so it would not have helped me complete the grid anyway 😉
Favourites: OVOID, AIRMAILED, ORCHARDS, HOLLOW.
11ac – NAIL bit – did not occur to me that N = no
I don’t think I’ve ever seen mo chroidhe spelt that way (lit: “my love”) other than in the dreadful song title, which is of course American, not Irish, though Wikipedia tells me that John Ford directed a film with that title.
It’s odd but I can’t offhand remember seeing “no” for N before, though it seems fair enough — Y and N for yes and no are often used on forms that you have to fill out. And like gladys @22 I always assumed that the MACHREE in the song Mother Machree was her name, like Mother Brown.
I’m afraid I’ve never heard of Hollow Knight (any relation of Italo Calvino’s Non-Existent Knight?) but it was a pleasant challenge without seeing any theme.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO.
Lovely puzzle from Qaos – I enjoyed working out the ‘mathematical’ clues and also EPILOGUE.
Three great anagrams: Dame Edna’s natural disaster was a wonderful spot and I really liked SOLITARY and THORNIEST, too. Other favourites were AIRMAILED, SHADE and EMBALM.
I found myself in complete agreement with gladys @10 re the theme – I was glad I wasn’t blogging today (but only for that reason!). And then again @22: ‘wattle and daub’ was what sprang immediately to my mind, too – and I remembered John McCormack’s ‘Mother Machree’ from my childhood. (But I continued to think that MACHREE was a personal name until this morning!) I see now I shared that misapprehension with Lord Jim, too!
Many thanks to Qaos for a lot of fun and to PeterO for the blog.
Nice one. I’m another who tried in vain to disentangle ‘Dame Edna is’ before seeing the light – this clever misdirection made it my top clue. And I’ll second michelle’s list of other favourites.
I share the quibble over MACH. Strictly, it isn’t even a measure of speed – which would be in length units per time unit – it a dimensionless number: the ratio of the speed of something to the speed of sound in the medium, most commonly air, but could be a liquid.
Theme, schmeme 🙂
Thanks to Qaos and PeterO
Very tough, for me, although I completed; I needed to check a few with PeterO’s excellent analysis.
12(ac), GASSY….why is Luxembourg, L ?
Country code, LU or LUX.
17(ac) with “sailor’s” = ABS, and “ship” = SS, is this not an “ess” too far?
There seemed to be an awful lot of container clues and “single letter” devices, so it all felt a bit tiresome. Or should that be “hollow”?
Another bizarre/unknown theme to blame. Not one for me.
Thanks, PeterO
ENB& @28: Luxembourg is L for the purpose of vehicle registration, just as we often see E for Spain and D for Germany
Enjoyable and Qaotic, but – even as an Irish speaker – the MACHREE calque was difficult. I hadn’t heard it anglicised that way, since it is always mo chroí for me.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO
A good solve, and not too tricky. Felt silly to have missed the theme as a part time Australian…
I’m actually aware of Hollow Knight (and have even played it) but nevertheless agree it’s a more obscure theme, one really only for those aware of it. Enjoyed the puzzle regardless, though MACHREE was an NHO for me so had to reveal that one.
Wonder if Qaos and Ix are friends? We have Ix’s alter-ego mentioned at 9a, and also a collapsing Hrung nina…
PD@8 First came across that meaning of cherry in the UK show A Touch of Frost when Inspector (Jack) Frost mentioned where he “lost his cherry”, so Def a male thing as ronald@21 confirms
Also one of the antipodeans who way too long to figure out Dame Edna
poc@24, Joyce uses “machree” three times in Ulysses. I had a vague recollection of “Pogue mahone! Acushla macree! Destroyed we are” and went to check, a search found two other instances.
Hollow Knight! Who knew? Who cared?Excellent crossword, however; particularly well-constructed anagrams.
I parsed EMBALM a bit differently from PeterO:
an anagram of “lamb” following both “e = starter of egg” and
“m = finally plum”, so
EM+ BALM rather than E+MBAL+M.
I think they both work.
A delight from head-scratching start to tea-tray finish (KNIGHTHOOD and CODEINE). With the crossers in place, I reverse engineered MACHREE from the telecom company and the runs, without fully understanding the answer, but CHERRY made me laugh out loud when the penny finally dropped. Thanks to Qaos and PeterO.
I was pleased with myself for decoding the numerical clues for once.
Knowing neither the Irish word nor the telecom company, I join those who had to resort to word search for MACHREE. I required enlightenment on a couple of other parsings too.
The theme was unknown to me, but didn’t seem necessary for solving.
I enjoyed this themeless(!) puzzle, and also had 14d AUSTRALIAN (“is a natural disaster”) as my COD. Also enjoyed the connection between 8d sTAY, the river rhapsodized over by poet William McGonagall, and 11a SPIKE Milligan, who brilliantly captured that great poet’s style in his own poetry
Other favourites 2d SOLITARY (“rebel royalist” an interesting contradiction), 5d HOLLOW (“Doctor Who”)
17a ABYSS I parsed as “Sailor’s” = ABS, and “ship” = S. Otherwise the apostrophe-s is superfluous
Only 8 more to 30,000. I wonder who the setter will be
I hadn’t parsed ROOM sounds like RHEUM (or that rheum was a discharge) thanks PeterO; otherwise, all present and correct.
A good challenge. The hardest puzzle for a while. Some of the solutions jumped out straight away but didn’t go in until I parsed them some time later. STAG being a prime example that looks obvious now.
I liked it. Lots of good clues. I liked ABYSS AIRMAILED and OVOID.
Thanks all.
Enjoyed this–as some others have observed, the anagrams for SOLITARY and AUSTRALIAN and THORNIEST were particularly nicely done in the surface. Used the check button a bit, had to verify the last vowels for MACHREE which I remembered from the song though I didn’t realize it wasn’t a name. Also needed it for some help on OMEGA although that turned out to be very straightforward.
I did spot the theme though not too many of the other related entries–I’ve played Hollow Knight up to the first boss and keep meaning to go back to it and get good. I wouldn’t have spotted it if I didn’t know it was Qaos.
Thoroughly enjoyed this even though Codeine took far too long having got totally hung up on Cocaine (not literally) and fighting manfully to make it parse somehow. Complete tea tray moment when it finally dawned. Agree with most about Dame Enda’s disaster, great clue, and the theme NHO but no change there, I rarely if ever spot them.
Thanks to Q & P.
Protase@29 many thanks. I didn’t know that device!
Registration plates. Gosh.
Every day is a school day.
Again, thanks, IanB
Could not parse 29d and put in ‘mess’ with calamity as the definition. Fail on my part.
A bit late to the party but I enjoyed this one despite not knowing the theme. I liked the BOARDROOM homophone, the great anagrams for SOLITARY and AUSTRALIAN, and the corrupt police EPILOGUE.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO.
WATTLE panels fenced our garden in the fifties.
Thanks Qaos. I found this on the trickier end of the Qaos spectrum. I eventually revealed the nho SPIKE-NAIL (nho Milligan) and I failed to parse my correct guesses of MACHREE and KNIGHTHOOD. The theme was way beyond my orbit but the multitude of good clues kept me entertained. Favourites included AUSTRALIAN, SHADE, CHERRY, EMBALM, STAG, and MASK, the latter being my LOI and my COTD. Thanks PeterO for the blog.
Loved the numerical clues and lots of fun as always with a Qaos workout.
MACHREE is an archaic anglicisation / warping of ‘mo chroi’, I’ve never heard it used in Ireland.
Had to give up on this, ended up with a thumping headache and got no pleasure from it at all! Checking the answers, I hadn’t recognised many of the clues to single letters, the numerical ones baffled me, and some answers seemed to require very warped meanings of words – but I suppose that’s the joy of crosswords!
Didn’t spot the theme, though I have played and enjoyed Hollow Knight: Silksong, which is a very well known and highly acclaimed game. That didn’t spoil my enjoyment of a typical Qaos puzzle, where I’d rather hae a few things that make me go “hmm” than the same old chestnuts over and over. Favourite today KNIGHTHOOD.
[Zoot@47: Quinquagenarian? Can’t quite work out the parsing.]
[Though it’s a different WATTLE, it reminded me of this AUSTRALIAN poem from Monty Python:
This here is the wattle
The emblem of our land
You can stick it in a bottle
You can hold it in your hand
Another subtheme?]
Highly enjoyed Hollow Knight (and Silksong). Highly enjoyed this puzzle. Did not spot the theme at all but it’s a pleasure to have discovered it here. Thanks to Qaos, Peter0, and Dave Ellison’s Google-fu.
Not sure if this counts as a DNF for me as I botched MACHREE and needed the check function to show as much. Good fun otherwise, and great to see the return of the numerical clue!
Very challenging but all fair clueing. Thanks to Qaos, and PeterO.
I’m also in the minority that’s very familiar with Hollow Knight. I got the rare treat to both have the theme click for me and be helpful with KNIGHTHOOD.
Thank you Qaos for the customary fantastic puzzle, and the admittedly niche theme is deeply appreciated by one in said niche.
Thanks PeterO for the blog!
I got MACHREE from the word play and thought it was a new word for me, but Eoink@35 has reminded me – not about James Joyce – but that there was a racehorse called Acushla Macree many years ago. I can remember Peter O’Sullevan calling it in his commentaries.
I enjoyed this more than Vulcan yesterday. Qaos is so accurate with his cluing and has themes that are too obscure to bother looking for. Not that I ever do.
Thanks to Qaos and to PeterO.
Mig@40 in case you drop in again. I don’t think any setter would use ‘ship’ to denote a single S. The apostrophe-s in 17a denotes “has”, meaning AB has SS (next to it) and they ‘cross’ Y.
I mention it because this sort of construction used to bother me and I was glad when someone put me right, so I hope you will benefit from me passing it on to you. 🙂
Thanks sheffield hatter @58. That construction (AB has SS) did occur to me after I posted. I thought “Ship” could be S (as in HMS), but now that I look it up in Chambers I see it’s not there, so I guess I have to withdraw my comment
Really enjoyable; the theme answers all. Thanks to Qaos and PeterO.