The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/30135.
Anto in good form, with 19A EU LAWS my pick for the best of the bunch.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | AUDEN |
Poet depicted in a university study (5)
|
| A charade of ‘a’ plus U (‘university’) plus DEN (‘study’). | ||
| 4 | WARFARIN |
Drug no good when engaging in battle (8)
|
| A subtraction: WARFARIN[g] (‘engaging in battle’) minus the G (‘no good’). | ||
| 8 | FOUR-MINUTE MILE |
Mmmmm … sporting achievement that was hard to surpass (4-6,4)
|
| A charade of FOUR MINUTE (‘mmmm’) plus MILE (‘m’). | ||
| 10 | RULED OUT |
Voiced concern after order is dismissed (5,3)
|
| A charade of RULE (‘order’) plus DOUT, sounding (‘voiced’) like DOUBT (‘concern’). Neither ‘order’ nor ‘concern’ is a very close synonym. | ||
| 11 | ODDS ON |
Different offspring almost certain to succeed (4,2)
|
| A charade of ODD (‘different’) plus SON (‘offspring’). | ||
| 12 | YESTERDAY |
Patsy’s date of birth? (9)
|
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 15 | LINDA |
Legal gag slapped on endlessly glib woman (5)
|
| A charade of LI (‘endlessly gLIb’) plus NDA (non-disclosure agreement, ‘legal gag’). Cue the gripe about ‘woman’ defining a name. | ||
| 17 | EXPOS |
Show up abruptly at trade shows (5)
|
| A subtraction: EXPOS[e] (‘show up’) minus its last letter (‘abruptly’). | ||
| 18 | REASON WHY |
Cause of ludicrous honey wars (6,3)
|
| An anagram (‘ludicrous’) of ‘honet wars’. | ||
| 19 | EU LAWS |
Oddly, equal pay was enshrined in these regulations (2,4)
|
| Alternate letters (‘oddly’) of ‘EqUaL pAy WaS’. | ||
| 21 | IN SECRET |
Surreptitiously deleting note would not be cricket? Actually it would (2,6)
|
| Deleting RE (‘note’ of the solfa) from IN SECRET gives INSECT (‘cricket?’ – example). | ||
| 24 | NIGERIAN PRINCE |
Criminal reining in caper scamming royal family member? (8,6)
|
| An anagram (‘criminal’) of ‘reining in caper’. | ||
| 25 | GENERALS |
Classes by extremely lugubrious commanders (8)
|
| A charade of GENERA (‘classes’ but not in the strict biological sense) plus LS (‘extremely LugubriouS‘). | ||
| 26 | ELECT |
Chose the final three classic test finishes (5)
|
| Last letters (‘finishes’) of ‘thE finaL threE classiC tesT‘. Is past tense ‘chose’ a misprint for choose or chosen? | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | AK FORTY-SEVEN |
Suspect key servant of being a mass killer (2,5-5)
|
| An anagram (‘suspect’) of ‘key servant of’. | ||
| 2 | DOUBLES UP |
Bends over painfully having strong drink on top of another (7,2)
|
| A charade of DOUBLE (‘strong drink’) plus SUP (‘another’ drink). | ||
| 3 | NOMAD |
French name given to commercial traveller (5)
|
| A charade of NOM (‘French name’) plus AD (‘commercial’). | ||
| 4 | WENT UNDER |
Collapsed having experienced reversal (4,5)
|
| UNDERWENT (‘experienced’) with the two halves exchanged (‘reversal’?). | ||
| 5 | ROTH |
US writer in hospital after breakdown following split (4)
|
| A charade of ROT (break down – ‘breakdown following split’) plus H (‘hospital’). | ||
| 6 | ARMADILLO |
Creature with limb trouble and unwell inside (9)
|
| An envelope (‘inside’) of ILL (‘unwell’) in ARM (‘limb’) plus ADO (‘trouble’). | ||
| 7 | ISLES |
Marine features covered in this lesson (5)
|
| A hidden answer (‘covered in’) in ‘thIS LESson‘. | ||
| 9 | ON EASY STREET |
Rogue sees attorney rolling in it … (2,4,6)
|
| An anagram (‘rogue’) of ‘sees attorney’. | ||
| 13 | ELSEWHERE |
… we see her gallivanting around Lima and other places (9)
|
| An envelope (‘around’) of L (‘Lima’, NATO phonetic alphabet) in ESEWHERE, an anagram (‘gallivanting’) of ‘we see her’. | ||
| 14 | YEARNINGS |
Variable pay packet leads to such desires (9)
|
| A charade of Y (‘variable’) plus EARNINGS (‘pay packet’). | ||
| 16 | NEWGRANGE |
Girl entering fresh pasture finds ancient burial site (9)
|
| An envelope (‘entering’) of G (‘girl’) in NEW RANGE (‘fresh pasture’). Newgrange is a neolithic site in Ireland. | ||
| 20 | LOIRE |
River pilots brief crew from the centre (5)
|
| Middle letter (‘from the centre’) of ‘piLOts brIef cREw’. | ||
| 22 | EERIE |
England has Ireland in a spin; how weird (5)
|
| A charade of E (‘England’) plus ERIE, a reversal (‘in a spin’) of EIRE (‘Ireland’). | ||
| 23 | NINA |
Puzzling message insignias regularly reveal (4)
|
| Alternate letters (‘regularly reveal’) of ‘iNsIgNiA‘. |
I didn’t really enjoy this. It started easy, but quickly became a struggle, with YESTERDAY, IN SECRET, and ROTH mysteries to me, so thanks for the explanations, PeterO. Actually I still dont understand YESTERDAY at all – is it something to do with Patsy and Edwina?
Thanks Anton
Dave @1: I think a “patsy” is one who might have been born yesterday, as in not wise to the con. “I wasn’t born yesterday you know, you can’t fool me!”
I liked the puzzle overall…hung up on the spelled-out AK-47 for a minute, but liked the dropped G in WARFARIN, the always-munificent NIGERIAN PRINCE, rolling ON EASY STREET and others. Perhaps a mini-theme of scam and con terms, with a nod to some of the foregoing, plus DOUBLES UP, ODDS ON, EXPOS and IN SECRET? And again, a NINA as an answer but none hidden in the grid. Oh, well!
Thanks Anto and PeterO!
Warfaring implies the infinitive ‘to warfare’, which feels weird. But hey ho, lots of fun stuff. The 5 ems were cute, as was the ‘honey wars’ anagram, and the one for the machine gun was a ripper, for which I needed all crossers (like, where can the k go .. aah, clever!). Ditto for the nho Newgrange. In all, most enjoyable, ta Anto and Peter.
Comment #4
A lot of good clues here, so mostly fun.
I share PeterO’s suspicion about “chose” in ELECT: if a verb then “”choose”, if an adjective then “chosen”.
Too bad there wasn’t a NINA in the grid (other than the answer to 23d). This would have been a good occasion for a Nina that spelled NINA (like the original).
Tx
As for 26ac, hmm. Can’t think how chose would ever not need elected, so yes it should be either choose or chosen.
Well, having been mean about the Don last week I want to sing the praises of Anto here. I had thumbs-ups for FMM, NIGERIAN PRINCE, YESTERDAY, IN SECRET and the AK47. Great stuff!
I’d have been more likely to get 1d had it been enumerated as 1,1,5-5, regardless of what the Guardian’s style guide might say. The clue for ELECT should surely have been choose, not chose, yes? [Edit: I see this has been discussed.]
I’m still in the dark over YESTERDAY. Please explain.
Zed622@2, I see you’ve answered my question. I really should read the earlier comments first.
An early memory of a four year old:
In 1954 TV was a novelty and my parents didn’t have one. I,therefore, grabbed any opportunity to watch fuzzy black and white pictures I was watching Grandstand (or its equivalent) on an aunt’s TV and couldn’t understand why men in fawn gaberdines were giving watches to to an exhausted man who had collapsed after a race.
I was, of course, watching them showing Bannister his time for the first four minute mile.
I thought the YESTERDAY clue was great. If someone tries to fool you on something a possible response is “I wasn’t born yesterday”, as in I am not naive enough to be fooled. If someone is naive enough then the implication is they were born yesterday.
[Historic memory Swarbrules @10! In 1958 Herb Elliott ran a sub-4mm on a grass track, first time in history. I was there, aged 10, with my dad]
I think 5 would have been better without “following split” which seemed quite unnecessary. But a fine offering for Monday.
After all this time, there are still only about 2300 humans ever to have run a FOUR MINUTE MILE (though it is probably less attempted or recorded in these metric times). I liked its ingenious clue.
“Chose” must be a misprint. I am still not sure what “following split” is doing in ROTH, and I’ve never seen the AK47 written out in full like that in real life. But I loved the patsy who was born YESTERDAY, the HONEY WARS and the scamming NIGERIAN PRINCE. Thanks Anto and PeterO.
Do Nigerian Princes still try to give away their evil uncle’s ill-gotten fortunes, or is it just that spam filters have got better at sifting them out? I haven’t received any emails from any Nigerians for many years. Loved the clue though.
Fairly straightforward.
Favourite was YESTERDAY, I liked the cryptic and humorous clueing of it. For those unsure – it’s referencing the saying ‘I wasn’t born yesterday’ – if you were a patsy, then it could be said that you were born yesterday!
LOI was the AK FORTY SEVEN – the clueing managed to distract me from the brilliant anagram. But why was it not 1-1,5-5?
A very enjoyable solve again from Anto with favourites being WARFARIN, FMM, EU LAWS and AK FORTY SEVEN. Curiously, LINDA alongside YESTERDAY reminded me of the McCartneys. I googled NEWGRANGE last night and that is definitely on my bucket list next time I’m back home.
Ta Anto & PeterO.
Very tricky and mildly enjoyable.
I could not parse 15ac, 21ac, 4d and like some others, I wondered about chose/elect.
New for me: NEWGRANGE burial site; WARFARAIN.
…and 19ac should be 1,1,4.
Good fun. Top ticks for YESTERDAY, IN SECRET & AK47
I thought the synonyms for RULED OUT were fine, plenty of support in Chambers
I might have more sympathy for AK as (1,1) if that’s how it was used in the real world. But I’ve never seen A.K. 47
Cheers P&A
simonc @19 (and GDU @8) If you were to write the name of the lethal firearm, would you place a full stop after the A and the K? I know that it stands for Avtomat Kalashnikova, but EU stands for European Union, so why are you not insisting that 19 across should be enumerated 1,1,4?
Balfour @21 – He’s saying precisely that @19!
Mea culpa, Crispy (and simonc). I quickly read it as another 1 down comment. Not long awake after a bad night … I don’t agree though.
Balfour – hope your day improves and that you have a better night tonight
Like simonc@19, and the people questioning the enumeration of 1D, I really don’t understand the reasoning behind the Guardian’s style-guide. It’s neither logical nor helpful. I can see that some acronyms, such as NATO, being said as a word might perhaps be described as “4”, but nobody says ew. EU is not a two-letter word, nor is it ever pronounced like one. And does anyone ever call the gun “an Ack 47”??
Hey ho.
Many thanks for the blog, PeterO.
This was quite tough in places, and there are so many ways to spell those blasted sol-fa notes that I’m forever getting stumped by parsings that include them…
Shame about the “chose” misprint in ELECT.
I liked WARFARIN and the misdirection in YESTERDAY.
I thought this was a jolly good crossword. The surfaces were really well phrased — a feature of cryptic setting that I am sorry to see somewhat neglected by too many setters.
“Chose” must surely be a Grauniad misprint. Like Andy (@15) I no longer receive emails from Nigerian princes, but the definition resonated with me quite pleasingly. The “patsy” clue was a cracker, as was the “Mmmmm” clue. And the whole thing had a lightness I found most appropriate for a Monday puzzle.
I read YESTERDAY in the same way as Zed622 @2.
Liked this crossword a lot.
Wellbeck@25 and passim. I think that if AK47, EU LAWS and other potential compounds/phrases (such as e.g. “BBC English” or “HP sauce”) were enumerated with the capitalized letters broken out, then the enumeration itself would become such an obvious clue that these types of compounds/phrases would not really be viable for the setter as good cryptic crossword solutions. I suspect this is why the house style permits treating a sequence of capitalized letters as single units.
I thought YESTERDAY was good, but ROTH (though I bunged it) didn’t convince. ‘Following split’ doesn’t contribute anything to the clue that I can see, so why is it there?
Kicking myself for missing NEWGRANGE. I’ve been there more than once. Very impressive, and older than both Stonehenge and the Pyramids.
Hi pserve_p2
You’re probably correct – but, be that as it may, classing a sequence of capitalised letters as a proper word in itself, is still incorrect.
Why not just avoid them altogether? There’s still a boundless teeming multitude of available words, phrases, slang, puns, profanities, dialects, foreign expressions and even meaningless “Spoonerisms” to play with…
Nice puzzle, with some trickier bits to tease the grey cells. Agree with various comments about “following split” in the clue for ROTH, but otherwise lots to enjoy. And NIGERIAN PRINCE gives me the chance to add a link to the excellent Will Varley’s hilarious song I Got This Email
Wellbeck@30: Yes, I agree, setters could avoid these. But for a setter, the slight strangeness of such composite words/phrases is attractive because we solvers (people generally) don’t tend to think of these as words — just as, for the same reason, setters like to include some arcane, technical, recondite or obsolete words among the solutions.
I agree with bodycheetah@23. It doesn’t matter how you say EU or AK, they are written as a single blocks (not E U or A K), which is surely what the enumeration refers to.
@various. ‘Following split’ is needed to give ‘break down’ (meaning rot) from breakdown (which is a noun and doesn’t quite work)
24 across made me laugh out loud. An ex gf once worked for one in Nigeria. He was as bent as a nine bob note
pserve_p2@32:
You’re right again.
I suspect my error is in thinking of setters as reasonable, humane, kindly souls – whereas, of course, they’re actually devious little beasts, doing all that they can to mislead, confound and deceive.
I really must learn to adjust my parameters accordingly…
I’m more accommodating for EU to be numerated as 2, as, although it’s not an acronym, it is a recognised, established initialism on its own. You can belong to the EU, but AK on its own makes no sense. Nevertheless, if this were my puzzle and I were unshackled by the style-guide, I still would have said 1,1,4 for EU LAWS. The question of whether there are fullstops seems a bit antiquated.
Hmmmm…. No-one here has yet complained about G=girl in NEWGRANGE.
Well, not at all straightforward for me in places today. So, even with a generous and obvious anagram on offer at 1d, I couldn’t work out the A- for the two letter word that started off the solution. The usual bugbear about whether representations such as AZ qualify as a word. As indeed EU did today further down the grid.
Then, the parsing of the three connected LINDA, ELECT and loi and nho NEWGRANGE escaped me.
Apart from that, I thought it was an excellent Monday offering from Anto…
On the subject of Newgrange, this by Clannad
Quite challenging in parts. I am disappointed in how long it took me to work out AK FORTY SEVEN, but I am quite tired again today.
I didn’t parse YESTERDAY either because I was a bit hazy on what a patsy was. In fact,I hadn’t fully parsed IN SECRET or WARFARIN either. It gets to the point where work has to take priority.
Thanks Anto and PeterO.
An excellent puzzle in my opinion. AUDEN was a nice gentle start. NOMAD was great for the misleading “commercial traveller”. There were lots of other clever clues including the apparently linked surfaces of 9 and 13 down.
I agree with others that “Chose” is a mistake in 26a. “Choose” is often misspelt this way, possibly on the analogy with “lose”.
Many thanks Anto and PeterO.
I haven’t read all of the comments so apologies if this has been said but the breakdown after split in 5dn may refer to trees, as in rot is what happens after the splitting of the wood. That’s how we parsed it anyway.
I wasn’t on Anto’s wavelength at all today, so there’s a degree of sour grapes, but: ELECT not the right verb form; is ‘warfaring’ really a gerund meaning doing battle? I would have thought ‘waging war’; what is ‘following split’ doing in 5d — even if it works, it’s not needed; is ‘abruptly’ on its own a fair way to indicate a shortening?
I know a lot of this is covered in previous comments, but it’s cathartic to type out all my gripes at once!
All that said, lots to enjoy ELSEWHERE. 8, 12, 18, 9, 13 were all ticks for me.
pavement@34 thank you, that must be the rationale for ‘following split.’ I’m still unconvinced though, because I think ‘rot’ as a noun can be a synonym for ‘breakdown,’ e.g. “that’s when the rot set in,” referring to the process of rotting.
Anyone here moaning about the lack of a NINA in the puzzle are absolute ridincils. I tenied the vergs straight away.
Thanks Anto and PeterO. I laughed at ‘yesterday’. And thanks for the Herb Elliott mention (an Australian at 88yo).
Have we all given up complaining about the new de-improvements to the Guardian’s online crossword design that came in a while back? I do these on my iPad whilst practising a musical instrument – it keeps me sane during the dull scale practice. When I click on 13d or 14d, the page highlights 12ac; when I click on 8ac, it takes me to 1d. Also deleting an incorrect answer entails much pressing of the delete key in place of the previous press-and-hold technique. All of which means more stretching and leaning across to my music stand (where the iPad lives) and general tiring out of my arm. It used to work just fine and they could easily put it back to how it was before.
I can’t comment in the Grauniad’s own comments section as that would involve paying a small fortune in subscriptions, and I’m happy to take the free crossword without knowing what the Guardian thinks of this, that and everything… There were initially lots of complaints similar to mine, but they seem to have subsided. Am I the only grumpy solver bothered by these petty annoyances?
Thanks A and P. The 8a wasn’t that hard to surpass; John Landy did it a few weeks after Roger Bannister.
Incidentally my wife 15a has been getting into cryptic crosswords by reading Pretty Girl In Crimson Rose but I’m pretty sure that’s not her #43
Seznfraz@48: Not the only one! I could understand the rationale behind the changes (accessibility, standardising keyboard shortcuts), but they really bungled it, I feel, and then kind of abandoned the whole thing without taking any of the feedback.
Although I will say that you can comment over on the Graun without a subscription – just create a free account.
Seznfraz@48: both the Guardian and the Independent online crosswords remember the direction of the last clue viewed, so if you had last viewed an across clue then clicking on 13 or 14 would highlight 12A; similarly, having viewed a down clue, then clicking on 8 will highlight the enclosing 1D. However clicking on the number again cycles the clue direction to get the one you want. Another option is to click on the second (or next unchecked) square in the grid to get the direction you want.
I’m not sure about your thought on needing to pay a subscription to comment. I’ve never needed to pay, but I registered with the G many years ago.
My problem was that I put “filed out” in at 10ac, which gave F_F to start 1dn, so I put in AK FIFTY-SEVEN, not really remembering the name of the gun. (I do better with, say, sailing ships than with firearms.) I don’t, come to think of it, know why it is forty-seven rather than fifty-two or eighty-nine.
I agree that warfaring can’t be a word, since warfare isn’t a verb, but I am reminded of the lovely American traditional song, “I am a poor wayfaring stranger.”
I biffed in LOIRE because it’s a river, but couldn’t make head or tail of the wordplay. Thanks for the help there, PeterO. (Did you get whacked by the Nor’easter or last weekend’s big rain?)
I’ve been to Newgrange, and envy poc@29, who’s been there several times. It was wonderful.
Thanks to Anto and PeterO.
Comment #53
Thank you Whatevs @46. I’m afraid I got nohniearer than the other ridincils.
This may already have been discussed and explained before, but what is/might be the significance of the many subtle variations in colour used as a background to our abbreviated 2-letter user names. In their variety they remind me of those colour charts I used when doing my stamp collecting as a boy to more precisely identify, for instance, what exact shade of red a particular stamp was. Why do I share the same shade of blue as Wellbeck, for instance. Or is there even a slight variation there too – I sometimes have difficulty differentiating between some blues and greens….
[Seznfraz @48. My biggest problem with the Android app is that I can’t see the whole grid, just a 13×13 sample. It wasn’t a problem today, but when there are solutions of 14 and especially 15 letters, it’s much easier to deal with them on the PC. I always liked to scan the whole puzzle like one would in the paper. The FT app is less sophisticated, but I prefer it for this reason. I appeared to receive the update before most (presumably part of a test release) and I told them about this a few times but, as it’s not an error, they won’t be fixing it or, as I had suggested, offering the full grid view as an option. Comments about the tablet version sound worse.]
Pace Tom@45, pavement@34 provides a convincing rationale for “following split” in 5D — the verb sense just works much better. This also makes the surface quite apt: In 1993 Philip Roth did indeed check himself into a psychiatric facility in Connecticut for several weeks’ treatment not long after separating from his wife Claire Bloom. Thanks Anto & PeterO
Some unparsed guesses (15a LINDA, 21a IN SECRET, 5d ROTH (pavement@34 finally got it — thanks)) and some nho’s (4a WARFARIN, 16d NEWGRANGE) made this tricky for a Monday. All correct, though, in the end. An enjoyable challenge
Favourites 8a FOUR-MINUTE MILE (neat idea), 12a YESTERDAY (funny), 18a REASON WHY (“honey wars” made for some interesting imagery), 7d ISLES (well hidden)
Thanks both
[In my base 14 spot]
Good crossword. Thanks. Couldn’t parse 4d, so I was stuck between ‘went’ and ‘gone’, until I got 4a.
A useless but interesting (at least to me) fact: warfarin is named after the institute that developed it: the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
Thanks Anto and PeterO
Not much to add, just that, although it is commonly misused, “odds on” doesn’t mean “almost certain to succeed”; it means “more likely than not to succeed”.
…or odds on in the betting sense would be a 4-6 chance rather than a 6-4 against chance
Thanks for the blog , good puzzle for a Monday , IN SECRET was very neat .
Ronald@55 , it was all explained at the briefing . The colours are based on the black-body emission spectrum of the star Crux Verbum in the Jewel-Box cluster . It has a surface temperature of 4996K and so peak intensity is at 580nm ( bright yellow ) . Other colours appear at lower intensity and are assigned accordingly . The dimmest is cerise and is used for football fans .
Of course, Roz, I must not have been paying attention properly at the back of the class that day! I wonder where my duck egg blue appears on this spectrum…
Coloradan@57 now that you’ve supplied that fact, I’m fully on board with 5d. Thank you!
Roz @63
If mine (@61) is cerise, I take great exception being categorised as a football fan! (You may remember I had never heard of someone called (?) Havaertz a few days ago.)
Excellent Monday puzzle, much enjoyed. Did not understand ‘following split’ in ROTH, but now do thanks to pavement @ 34. Loved YESTERDAY and AK 47 and a number of others, many thanks Anto and PeterO, although I think his explanation for YESTERDAY was a bit terse! [Did anyone solve the colour problem? I wonder what mine will be]
Gold! I’ll post again tomorrow and see if it is the same.
Thank you Pavement @34 for explaining why ‘following split’ is required.
Agree that the enumeration of abbreviations as whole words is quite infuriating
Came here to agree with muffin at #61. I’ve seen too many odds on bets lose to see odds on as a synonym for almost certain!
Roz @63: nice try, not even a nibble
ROZ @63 made me giggle!
Late to party but I don’t think anyone here has raised this. What struck me about 1D was that the clue can also be read as a slyly subversive reference to the current leader of the free world, Also Known as the 47th POTUS).
Nice one, Anton!
I loved the Nigerian prince but i failed on a few – unusual for a Monday. Defeated by 1a. Probably my fault for failing to spot it as an anagram, but even so AK is not a word. Any more than EU is in the EU LAWS. As for the burial site, never heard of it so another fail. And I only got WARFARIN through asking my nurse girlfriend. Not at all familiar with most drugs and I hope it stays that way. Not your average Monday.