Within the pattern clues under, the hyperlinks take you to explainers from our newcomers sequence. The setter’s identify typically hyperlinks to an interview with her or him, in case you are feeling like attending to know these individuals higher.
The information in clues
It’s been a type of durations the place you'll be able to’t inform whether or not the clues are topical on function or just because royalty at all times offers numerous useful abbreviations. Living proof: you'll be able to’t assist questioning when Nutmeg wrote her clue …
1a A king amid excited followers at palace fairly unruffled (4,2,1,7)
[ wordplay: A (‘A’) + K (‘king’) inside (‘amid’) anagram of FANSATPALACE ]
[ definition: quite unruffled ]… for FLAT AS A PANCAKE; likewise Pangakupu’s clue …
18a Insulting the highly effective? Not precisely seemly to incorporate a joke (4,7)
[ wordplay: anagram of (‘not exactly’) SEEMLY, containing (to include) synonym for ‘a joke’ ]
[ LESEMY containing A JEST ]
[ definition: insulting the powerful ]
… for LESE MAJESTY.
Latter patter
One purpose I discover the phrases “the king” odd in a information context is that they summon a unique set of pictures. For me, “the queen” has at all times been an actual one who stars in stamps and wears hats of assorted colors. “The king”, although, is somebody who says issues like “I care not who she loves, my daughter shall wed the Duke of Burgundy” and “Deliver me extra blasted boar and ship in my tumblers.” However I’m getting used to it.
“I can’t bear this bloody factor … each stinking time.” I’m hoping for extra low-level imprecations from our new king and have already integrated “stinking” as a go-to phrase for venting petty frustration. Pasquale affords us an all-time basic minced oath:
8dEndlessly gradual, turning up? Blast! (4)
[ wordplay: synonym for ‘slow’ without last letter (‘endlessly’), then reversed (‘turning up’) ]
[ TARDY – Y, backwards ]
[ definition: Blast! ]
… in his clue for DRAT. Which oath is minced right here? Let’s flip to this paper’s Nancy Banks-Smith, whose most up-to-date piece was about The Archers, a cleaning soap whose deal with issues ecological Nancy discovered infuriating in 2008:
Not too long ago Ambridge has change into so eco-trendy, with transition initiatives and anaerobic digesters and digital simulators, it makes your tooth peel. God rot the lot of them! A comment that no less than has the advantage of being Anglo Saxon and, come to consider it, biodegradable.
Round 1600, English audio system, cautious of claiming “God” or “Lord” whereas peeved, devised workarounds together with “Gad” and “Lud”. “Od” arrived simply in time for Shakespeare to have Rosalind bark “Od’s my will!” in As You Like It, and over the centuries “God rot!” grew to become “Od rot!” and ultimately pricey previous “Drat!”
Our subsequent problem is from the identical household, and we’ve handled one a part of it earlier than. Someplace between Dickens and Dahl, it grew to become used primarily for comedian impact; reader, how would you clue GADZOOKS?
Cluing competitors
Many thanks for your clues for POPINJAY. The phrase appears to lend itself to such elaborate multipart clues as Combinatorialist’s “Outdated man, in the course of Hey Jude, there’s little question, ‘it’s a idiot who performs it cool’”, although for directness, it’s arduous to high Wellywearer2’s audacious “The best way to make stated ex-Chancellor a dandy”.
The runners-up are Faiton77’s measured “Immodest leaders in Palace or Parliament? It’s not justified as but” and Montano’s plaintive “‘Come spherical!’ – Juliet’s plaintive cry for beau”; the winner is the astonishing “Outdated chief of Folks’s Standard Entrance of Judea – splits to atone for, dude”. Kludos to VivaZapata.
Please go away entries for the present competitors – in addition to your non-print finds and picks from the broadsheet cryptics – within the feedback, under.
Clue of the Fortnight
In Alchemi’s latest puzzle, there are repeated references to “20”, virtually all of which direct the solver to twenty down – however not all, which makes this clue …
17ac 20 probably even much less delicate (6)
[ double definition ]
… for NUMBER all of the slyer. Lastly, anybody who’s loved an Azed puzzle and has seen the next may have taken a second to wonder if these are in truth the solutions, in a grid stuffed by Azed’s Observer stablemate Chris Riddell:
Cryptic crossword nonsense. pic.twitter.com/BpyqS9B6vz
Discover a assortment of explainers, interviews and different useful fine details at alanconnor.com
The Transport Forecast Puzzle Guide by Alan Connor, which is partly however not predominantly cryptic, could be ordered from the Guardian Bookshop
Post a Comment