The Monthly Digest

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Observer barred puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if you would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Gemelo 50 ‘Anagram Act’

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/5cbe834e-63fb-4836-82a7-b6fd228ca2f5/file/puzzle.pdf.

Preamble: Anagram Act • In order to solve each clue, solvers must act to unscramble a word that has been anagrammed; first letters of the de-anagrammed words explain what must fill the unclued entries. I was pleasantly surprised to discover Chambers recognises “anagram” as a verb, but “de-anagram” is yet to make it – the petition starts now.

Please give your own G-rating for this Gemelo puzzle by clicking on the relevant star above, with one star representing a very straightforward solve by your own standards (Gentle) and five stars indicating a seriously tough one (Gnarly). Note that hovering over the ‘graph’ icon will show you the full breakdown of votes for the current puzzle.

Your rating for Gemelo 49, based on 39 votes, was a nice round 2, significantly lower than the 2.6 for G48 and the 2.8 you awarded to G47. I put it a little higher than 2.0 myself, but it certainly wasn’t one of Gemelo’s more challenging excursions.

This puzzle was very nicely constructed. Too often with themed puzzles like this the gimmick appears to have been retrospectively applied to a set of normal clues, such that the surface reading makes very little sense and the modified word is easy to spot. Here the gimmick had clearly been built into the clues when they were initially written. It was a relatively straightforward gimmick to deal with, hence Gemelo didn’t need to make too many concessions in terms of the difficulty of the ‘de-anagrammed’ clues; I will be interested to hear how you rated it for toughness. But wouldn’t it have been an excellent basis for a clue-writing competition, the challenge being to produce a clue in the style of the others to the entry at 21a, perhaps?

After the observations on individual clues I have included a checklist of the words which have been anagrammed in the printed clues.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at the techniques for writing this sort of clue. You might be lucky and find that there is an anagram (as at 32a here) of a word which can form the definition (or part of the definition) of the answer. In only five of the clues in this puzzle is the definition affected, and two of the most useful mechanisms are on display – the distorted qualifier (6d), which could be employed in a definition like ‘Dance in loos’ for HALLING [Oslo], and the definition by example (15d), as in ‘alpines?’ for DOG [spaniel]. In most instances, though, you will be focusing on the wordplay, and here there are also two key ‘tricks’. One is the disguised indicator (often an anagram indicator, largely because there are so many of them), as seen in 27a/20d or in a wordplay such as ‘teacher wary’ for HECTARE [awry]. The other involves a word which leads to an abbreviation, usually a single-letter one, as in 18a or in a wordplay like ‘oceanic fish’ for CLING [cocaine = C]. The important thing is to try not to overuse any one technique, and a review of the clues in this puzzle will show that Gemelo has mixed things up nicely. Note that although the examples here relate specifically to the ‘anagrammed word in clue’ gimmick, similar devices can be employed in clues where, for example, a word in the clue gains or loses a letter, or has one letter replaced by another.

Across

6a Trifle almost covering pistachio’s earth flavour (5)
A five-letter word meaning ‘trifle’ (in practice, both it and ‘trifle’ would be accompanied by ‘with’) missing its last letter (‘almost’) contains (‘covering’) a single letter selected from the word ‘pistachio’.

12a Maybe what is put into empty sandwich case (6)
A four-letter word which roughly equates (‘maybe’) to a de-anagrammed word in the clue is contained by (‘put into’) the outer letters (’empty’) of ‘sandwich’.

13a Select nutriments to go through ground (4)
A double-definition clue where both of the words will be familiar but one of the definitions involves the anagram.

14a Drink affecting head minutes before outburst on midterm projection (10, 2 words)
A three-letter abbreviation for ‘minutes’ and a four-letter word for an outburst or high wind follow (‘on’) a word for a projection, such as a camel would have, which has been deprived of a letter. The answer is (7,3).

18a Nectar consumer shortly dropping Royal Institute for real (6, 2 words)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘shortly’ gives up (‘dropping’) a two-letter abbreviation in favour of (‘for’) a single-letter abbreviation. The answer is (3,3).

24a Having learnt, say, about nitrogen covered in metal (6)
A five-letter word which might describe an animal (Rudolph, perhaps) having a particular sort of appurtenance contains (‘about’) the chemical symbol for nitrogen.

26a Informal thing, being together naked (4)
Here the anagram is in the definition, while the wordplay has a six-letter word meaning ‘being together’ losing its first and last letters (‘naked’).

34a Indifferent beans (groan!) eaten by you once the wrong way (7)
A four-letter word for beans of a particular type plus a single-letter abbreviation (according to Chambers, although it’s surely a symbol), contained (‘eaten’) by an archaic form (‘once’) of ‘you’, is all reversed (‘the wrong way’). The answer is hyphenated, 4-3.

Down

3d Doc suffering, we hear it’ll go down with glasses? (9)
The answer is a homophone (‘we hear’) of a (4,4) phrase which can be established once the necessary de-anagramming has been done.

4d One ton chosen by the people to pin the thing rising sharply (6)
A four-letter word whose indication includes the anagram contains (‘to pin’) a two-letter word for ‘the [very] thing’.

6d Mayor’s so taking to ancient porticos (5)
Rearranging the first word here produces a name which tells us that we are looking for a Scots form of the word ‘so’ to contain (‘taking’) the letters TO (from the clue).

7d Current measure – coteries with outsiders indulge it (3)
A five-letter word for coteries or factions is deprived of (indicated by the de-anagrammed word) its first and last letters (‘outsiders’).

8d Concealing, shortly, no great admiration through small, positive thing (11)
A shortened form (‘shortly’) of a two-letter word that isn’t ‘no’ is followed by a four-letter word for ‘great admiration’ (or a sect) contained by (‘through’) a six-letter word for a positively-charged particle (ie ‘small, positive thing’).

17d Committee’s tedious rule after date on the market? (8)
A five-letter word for a board or committee (a transferred meaning based on what they would be gathered around) contains (the de-anagrammed word) the single-letter abbreviation for ‘rule’ and the two-letter abbreviation for ‘after date’.

20d Apple product is scarier put in a cask with energy (6)
The letters IS (from the clue) contain (the de-anagrammed word) a three-letter word meaning ‘[to] put in a cask’ and the usual abbreviation for ‘energy’. The answer is an example of lower camel case (although it could more generically be described as an InterCap).

25d Earnest presenter promoting last character in group? (5)
A single-letter abbreviation (de-anagramming required) is followed by a four-letter word for a presenter (such as might appear on a chat show) with its last letter moved upwards (‘promoting last’).

(definitions are underlined)

Anagrammed words

Across: 1 – strap; 6 – earth; 11 – den; 12 – what; 13 – nutriments; 14 – midterm; 16 – pool; 18 – real; 24 – learnt; 26 – thing; 27 – ride; 29 – stale; 31 – Ruth; 32 – cowers; 33 – stream; 34 – groan.

Down: 1 – handouts; 2 – lies; 3 – Doc; 4 – ton; 5 – related; 6 – Mayor; 7 – indulge; 8 – no; 9 – Reform; 10 – race; 15 – nod; 17 – tedious; 20 – scarier; 22 – sued; 23 – mocha; 25 – Earnest; 28 – Eton; 30 – item.

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Observer barred puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if you would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Gemelo 49

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/4fcd7937-b648-466f-b26e-a2e06dff40eb/file/puzzle.pdf.

Solver difficulty rating

2.0 based on 39 votes (voting is now closed)

You gave G48 an average difficulty rating of 2.6, just a tidge below the 2.8 awarded to G47. I gave it 2.5, feeling that it struck a happy medium in terms of toughness, so we were in close agreement.

Given the standard of its immediate predecessors, today’s puzzle struck me as being a little disappointing, though I’m not sure that I could put my finger on why that was. The surface readings were perfectly serviceable, but they were perhaps rather on the dull side, which may have contributed to my relative lack of enthusiasm. A perfectly good crossword, but still no sign of the promised clue-writing comp, and you have to go back to G40 for the last ‘special’ that asked anything different of the solver.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 16a, “Where celebrations happened on account of taking vaccine, but not the last one (7)”. The wordplay has the two-letter abbreviation for ‘on account of’ containing  (‘taking’) a five-letter word for a vaccine (or a colourless bodily fluid), missing its last letter, and the Roman numeral representing ‘one’. The indicator ‘but not the last’ accurately tells the solver to omit that last letter, and the clue is fine. However, one often sees ‘not the last’ used to indicate removal of a last letter, ‘not the first’ for first letter removal, and ‘Y, not X’ for removal of X from Y. We tend to take the validity of these for granted, but I have become increasingly sceptical about them, and following a recent correspondence with a respected setter I am not convinced that they are truly fit for purpose. For instance, ‘X, not Y’, as in ‘whisky, not ice’, doesn’t mean that the whisky is lacking ice, rather that we are talking about whisky rather than ice. The former concept would be expressed by ‘whisky, no ice’. The only way that any of these ‘not’ constructions works is if a word like ‘having’ is inferred after it, but such inferences cannot reasonably be expected of the solver.

A regular correspondent has written to point out that solvers have for decades understood that, for instance, ‘Fellow not the first’ tells them to remove the first letter from a word meaning ‘fellow’. He is absolutely right, and I am not suggesting that anything should change, any more than I am suggesting that setters should no longer use ‘artist’ to indicate ‘RA’. The reality is that custom and practice trump other considerations, and whether the solver sees ‘not’ and infers ‘having’/’with’ to follow it, or their crossword brain simply says “‘not’ means removal of what follows from what goes before” is largely irrelevant. The reality is that certain established constructions are ingrained in the language of the crossword, and will remain there, even if they perhaps do not stand up to close scrutiny. New constructions are likely to be subjected to greater scrutiny – I suspect that if Gemelo used ‘sailor’ to indicate ‘RA’ it would not pass without remark.

Across

1a Apparatus for locating submerged objects like bones, mostly (5)
A two-letter word meaning ‘like’ is followed by a four-letter name given to particular objects used over many centuries in gaming, and which were typically made of bone, deprived of its last letter (‘mostly’).

6a American inclination to keep south out (6)
The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘American’ precedes a four-letter word for an inclination or tendency containing (‘to keep’) the usual abbreviation for ‘south’.

12a Pilot, through translator, detained in city near Marseille (8)
The three-letter Latin word meaning ‘through’ and the abbreviation for ‘translator’ are contained (‘detained’) in the three-letter name by which the ‘City of a Thousand Fountains’ en Provence is usually known. The ‘pilot’ could have been, for instance,  Amy Johnson or Amelia Earhart.

24a How parent may be introduced after wedding journey (4)
I picked this one out for comment just so I could quote Harry Hill’s classic one-liner, “I have a really nice stepladder; sadly, I never knew my real ladder.”

26a Musk perhaps holds revolutionary status (7)
The forename of the world’s first US dollar trillionaire contains (‘holds’) the nickname of the world’s most famous (if crosswords are anything to go by) revolutionary, this being the conversational filler in Argentine Spanish (along the lines of ‘right’ in English) which he apparently used with great regularity. Presumably Manuel in Fawlty Towers was known by a broadly similar sobriquet.

29a Company cutting part in good time for Four Seasons (6)
A five-letter word for a company, missing (‘cutting’) the consecutive letters PART, combines with a five-letter word meaning ‘in good time’ to produce the answer.

31a Tea no longer baffled couple (4)
A triple-definition clue involving three different words with the same spelling, the first often being seen with an acute accent on the last letter, the second being archaic (hence the ‘no longer’), and the third frequently being indicated in cryptics by ‘friend’ or the like.

32a Independent constituency, closely fought, losing right of representation (8)
The usual abbreviation for ‘independent’ is followed by an eight-letter word for the sort of parliamentary constituency which is prone to changing hands on a regular basis, lacking (‘losing’) the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘right’.

Down

1d Practically losing stone without a mission (5)
A six-letter word meaning ‘practically’ or ‘nearly’, missing (‘losing’, a repeat from 32a) the two-letter abbreviation for ‘stone’, contains (‘without’) the letter A (from the clue). The answer is the name of a Spanish mission and fortress in what is now San Antonio, Texas. Its lasting fame was ensured by a battle in 1836 which involved the legendary figures David Bowie and James Crockett (aka ‘Sonny’). The site is now host to a museum which welcomes several million visitors each year. Q: How many ears did Davy Crockett have? A: Three —a left ear, a right ear, a wild front ear.

2d Banger, for instance, retaining speed after leaving city (7)
A three-letter word equivalent to ‘for instance’ contains a seven-letter word for ‘speed’ from which the consecutive letters CITY have been omitted (‘leaving city’). The ‘banger’ in question should not be consumed in combination with hot sausage, mustard, cold jelly, custard and pease pudding, or in-di-gestion will surely ensue.

4d Severely criticise place with capital toward the north (5, 2 words)
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] place’ and the printing abbreviation for ‘upper-case’ (‘capital’) are reversed (‘toward the north’).

7d One’s strung up and cross, caught by fine during sting (7, 2 words)
The  single letter which represents a cross is contained by a two-letter word meaning ‘fine’ or ‘all right’, and the combination is put inside (‘caught by’) a four-letter word which might at first blush seem to be not quite the same as ‘sting’, but the two verbs have a shared meaning of ‘smart’. The answer is (3,4).

9d What’s used before birth name, maiden name, or former name (4)
The wordplay here is a charade of the two-letter word that is used when giving the original name of a titled man, the usual abbreviation for maiden, and the single-letter abbreviation for ‘name’.

10d Fly from Bristol to London, say, forgetting article, and doubling back (6)
The four-letter general direction in which you would travel to get from Bristol to London loses (‘forgetting’) a single-letter article, is duplicated (‘doubling’), and is reversed (‘back’).

17d Stay-at-home mum accepting resistance over Conservative stuff that’s grown on her (8)
A two-letter ‘childish contraction’ answering to ‘mum’ containing (‘accepting’) the usual abbreviation for ‘resistance’ is reversed ahead of (‘over’) the single-letter abbreviation for ‘Conservative’ and a four-letter word for something that naturally grows on people.

20d Aboriginal huts with modern address that is special (7)
An abbrev-fest. The usual abbreviation for ‘with’, a three-letter abbreviation for an address on the World Wide Web (‘modern address’), the abbreviation for the Latin phrase meaning ‘that is’, and the single-letter abbreviation for ‘special’ join forces to produce the answer.

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Observer barred puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if you would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Gemelo 48

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/0d0740bc-b84e-4d86-8492-b5917efb1fc5/file/puzzle.pdf.

Solver difficulty rating

2.6 based on 34 votes (voting is now closed)

Your ratings for Gemelo 47 averaged out at 2.8, a full point up on its two immediate predecessors. My own rating was a shade below that, but I thought it was pretty close to ideal difficulty and (a few minor quibbles notwithstanding) a very good crossword.

I thought today’s puzzle was excellent, with a few relatively easy starters and some cleverly disguised breaks between definition and wordplay. There was little here that jarred badly with me, although of course by now I am getting used to Gemelo’s ‘little ways’.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 10d, “Reckless gambler, holding 9 without ace, is rallying again (12)”. The wordplay involves an anagram (‘reckless’) of GAMBLER containing (‘holding’) the answer to 9d (‘9’), itself containing (‘without’) the usual abbreviation for ‘ace’. The point of interest here is that the answer is a noun while, of the two possible definitions, ‘is rallying again’ appears to indicate a verb (eg ‘recovers’), while ‘rallying again’ (with ‘is’ being a link between wordplay and definition) would seem to indicate an adjective or participle (eg ‘recovering’). In point of fact, it is the latter definition that is required, but ‘rallying’ here is not a participle or participial adjective but a verbal noun (gerund), so it could indicate ‘recovery’. The difference can be seen in examples such as “She has been unwell but is rallying” (participle), “They joined the rallying group” (adjective) and “Rallying in a telephone box is not sensible” (verbal noun). The gerund functions grammatically as a noun, and can be the subject or object of a verb (“Eating people is wrong”, “We like eating out”) and is something of a hybrid because it retains certain verbal qualities, so for instance it can (unlike other nouns) be modified by an adverb, eg “Eating noisily is impolite”. To derive an appropriate definition from a gerund, you may need to prefix it with the indefinite article, so here ‘a rallying’ and, for instance, ‘a flowing’ for ‘current’.

Verbal nouns used as definitions can be tricky for solvers because they almost invariably masquerade as participles in the surface reading, and when there is a link word like the ‘is’ here things become trickier still; for this reason, I would suggest that such definitions should be used sparingly. For solvers, a clue like this highlights the importance when breaking down a clue of separating out the definition and treating it as completely independent of the context apparently created by the surface reading.

One further observation about the definition here: the first meaning of ‘rally’ shown by Chambers suggests that the ‘again’ is unnecessary.

Across

5a Increasingly tipsy game involving chasers, with three shortly drunk (7)
A three-letter children’s game that involves chasers (this is the version with an ‘I’ in the middle, though the one I played many years ago had an ‘A’) is followed by an anagram (‘drunk’) of THREE missing its last letter (‘shortly’).

11a Where one may be putting gallons naturally around lake (10, 2 words)
The single-letter abbreviation for ‘gallons’ and a (2,6) phrase meaning ‘naturally’ are put around the usual abbreviation for ‘lake’. The answer is (4,6).

14a One’s educated about football team’s crosses in play (10)
A two-letter word equivalent to ‘one is’ and the two-letter abbreviation for ‘educated’ are reversed (‘about’) ahead of the six-letter nickname of a Midlands football team. The answer is hyphenated, 4-6, and the ‘in play’ is there because the word is shown by Chambers as being Shakespearean; whilst I appreciate that ‘in play’ makes a change from “Will’s” or the like, it does seem a bit vague – there can’t be many words that haven’t appeared in a play, somewhere, sometime.

18a Hot, naked – and separate (4)
A six-letter word meaning ‘hot’ in the sense of ‘fashionable’ is deprived of its first and last letters (‘naked’).

20a The clumsy chopping weapon? (7)
I’m not sure that &lits are Gemelo’s strongest suit (though in fairness 6d is solid enough). Here an anagram (‘clumsy’) of THE is contained by (‘chopping’) a four-letter war club (of the sort frequently wielded by General Nitt and members of his Barmy Army in Wham! comic, invariably generously endowed with spikes on the business end), with the result being loosely defined by the clue as a whole, though I’m not sure Bear Grylls would agree that such a thing is ‘clumsy’. Incidentally, we used to include ‘chopping’ in the list of insertion indicators at the Clinic, but it was recently removed on the grounds that the chopping was done by a person, not the instrument.

23a Burning ironing, ultimately from more than just pressing? (5)
The last letter (‘ultimately’) of ‘ironing’  is [removed] ‘from’ a six-letter word meaning ‘more than just pressing’. There’s a link to today’s Setters’ Corner, since the ‘pressing’ in the surface reading is a verbal noun, while in the cryptic reading it is a verbal adjective.

26a Chat about Madness, along with less sophisticated rock group (10, 2 words)
A three-letter word meaning ‘chat’ (a talent for which one might acquire through intimacy with the Blarney Stone) containing a four-letter word for ‘madness’ or ‘anger’ is followed by a word meaning ‘along with’. The result is a (6,4) expression which has had me singing the last track of the Clash’s debut album to myself on several occasions this morning.

Update: I read today that the song was written in response to a review by the NME’s inimitable (not necessarily in a good way) Charles Shaar Murray of an early appearance by the band, in which he expressed the opinion that “The Clash are the kind of ?????? ???? who should be returned to the ?????? immediately, preferably with the engine running.” Ouch!

29a At least 25 pounds for Spanish queen to board Asian carriage (6)
I’m not too keen on clues with relatively obscure answers which feature similarly obscure words in the wordplay – if the solver doesn’t know either of the words, they have no route to the answer. Here the single-letter monarchic abbreviation for ‘queen’ is contained by (‘to board’) a five-letter word for a Central Asian wheeled carriage which could itself be cryptically indicated by ‘sample from near Oban’.

Down

1d Press shoot sport informally, starting late in confusion (12)
This is a charade of three-letter word meaning ‘press’ or ’embrace’, a four-letter ‘shoot’ or ‘sprout’ (often, these days, of an idea), and a six-letter informal name given to a particular contact sport, without its first letter (‘starting late’). The answer is hyphenated, 6-6.

2d Medium or large initially claimed by one (6)
The letters OR (from the clue) are followed by the first letter (‘initially’) of ‘large’ contained (‘claimed’) by a three-letter word for the ‘one’ in cards.

4d Bit of light conflict abruptly ended when wearing uniform (8)
A five-letter word for a conflict or a scrimmage, lacking its last letter (‘abruptly ended’) is contained by (‘wearing’) a word meaning ‘uniform’ or ‘even’.

7d Erotic Greek monster killing one in three (4)
The name given to any one of three Greek monsters, of which Medusa is the most famous, loses (‘killing’) every third letter (‘one in three’) to produce the answer, which is usually hyphenated (2-2) but is also given by Chambers in an unbroken form. The surface reading makes you wonder what happened to the ones that weren’t killed.

13d Did Miss Delaware love interrupting temperamental woman from the south? (7)
The two-letter abbreviation for ‘Delaware’ is followed by the usual representation of ‘love’ within (‘interrupting’) an informal term for a temperamental, demanding woman, and the whole lot is reversed (‘from the south’).

14d Skippers mark floating crew rest regularly dismissed (7)
A three-letter word for a small marker-buoy (ie ‘mark floating’) precedes CREW REST with alternate letters deleted (‘regularly dismissed’).

17d Eg Ibizan beer stocked by Italian city clubs (8)
The usual three-letter word answering to ‘beer’ is contained by a four-letter Italian city, a popular setting for TV crime dramas (Lolita Lobosco, Cold Summer), and the usual abbreviation for ‘clubs’.

24d Antelope curry – no joke! – served up (5)
The (5,4) name of a particular variety of curry is shorn of a four-letter word meaning ‘[to] joke’ and reversed (‘served up’). I could not resist including a cartoon from the splendid Red Cat series, drawn by Robert Thompson and published in The Guardian. You will not be surprised to learn that the Red Cat’s breakfast cereal of choice is mouseli and his favourite recipe involves mixing single cream and double cream, the result being ‘triple cream’. Yum!

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Observer barred puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Gemelo 47

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/47443b9e-1247-4b8b-80a0-88a16eca0504/file/puzzle.pdf.

Solver difficulty rating

2.8 based on 38 votes (voting is now closed)

We all seemed to be in agreement that Gemelo 46 was one of the easiest plain puzzles that Gemelo has served up thus far. I gave it a difficulty rating of 1.5, and the average of the 45 visitor votes was 1.7,  below even the 1.8 that you awarded to the Beatles special.

I thought this was an enjoyable puzzle, with a good mix of clues, including enough easier ones to allow the solver to make inroads into the grid. I don’t remember coming across the word at 13d before; starting out as an Old English version of ‘Latin’, it came to mean ‘the language of a nation’, and then ‘a way of speaking’, which is the sense in which Spenser employed it. It has also been used by poets to describe the language of birds, hence the more recent dialect meaning of ‘noise’ or ‘chatter’.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 6d, “Queen caught disease (5)”. The wordplay is a charade of the two-letter abbreviation of the Latin for ‘Queen Elizabeth’ and a three-letter word meaning ”caught’ or ‘obtained’. The point of interest is ‘Queen’ being used to indicate ER. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth II it was universally accepted that ‘Queen’ or ‘The Queen’ was sufficient to yield ER, while ‘King’ can now be seen in puzzles as an indication of CR. Since this latter abbreviation does not appear in Chambers (or Collins), it is clearly considered by editors to be sufficiently well known to override the usual criteria which would be applied. But should ER now require a qualified definition, such as ‘former queen’? I’m not sure that there is a definitive answer to that question, but if ‘Queen’ is valid for ER, then the basis for its use in barred puzzles now has to be the abbreviation given by Chambers, and it must therefore also be valid for VR and VIR, with ‘King’ being acceptable for GR and ER. I know that some editors of blocked puzzles will not accept ‘Queen’ on its own for ER, and in general I would advise setters to clarify such a definition in some way.

Across

7a Bean that’s by the kilo? (4)
The wordplay makes reference to the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet (aka the NATO Phonetic Alphabet), with ‘kilo’ and the answer representing neighbouring letters. The wordplay here just about works, but I bet that Gemelo tried out a few other options in his head before having to settle for it.

12a A short walk round, meaning one is house-trained? (11)
The letter A (from the clue) is followed by a six-letter word for a walk, missing its last letter (‘short’), the letter of the alphabet which can be described as ‘[a] round’, and a four-letter word for ‘meaning’ or ‘pith’. The definition is nicely oblique, the houses in question being divisions of the heavens.

16a Go out with European, 18, after losing head (6)
The single-letter abbreviation for ‘European’ precedes a six-letter word corresponding to the answer at 18d, without its first letter (not a seven-letter word missing its first two letters, for which ‘head’ would not be appropriate).

19a Dead then alive, stopping to drink up? (9)
The usual abbreviation for ‘dead’ and a four-letter past participle meaning ‘having come into existence’ are contained by (‘stopping’) the less common verbal form (‘to drink’) of a familiar noun, almost always seen in the past tense and in the company of ‘dined’.

23a Old soldier to give way when cycling around Italian city (9)
A four-letter word meaning ‘to give way’ or ‘yield’ with its first two letters moved to the end (‘cycling’) contains (‘around’) an Italian city famous for fashion, finance and football.

29a Creep arranged to hold court in A&E, dressed appropriately (11, 2 words)
A four-letter word meaning ‘[to] creep’ is followed by the three-letter abbreviation for ‘arranged’ around (‘to hold’) the two-letter abbreviation for ‘court’ inside the letters A and E (from the clue).

31a No longer compose timeless kind of music outside the mainstream (5)
The ‘timeless’ could indicate the removal of a single-letter abbreviation from either what comes before or what comes after, but it is a six-letter archaic word meaning ‘to compose or write’ which must suffer the loss.

32a Gabonese agreed to carry about black antelope (6)
Apparently around 80% of Gabonese speak French, and it is the French word for ‘yes’ which contains the two-letter bit of commercial jargon for ‘about’ and the single-letter abbreviation for ‘black’. Chambers doesn’t give ‘agreed’ as anything other than the past tense of ‘agree’, so the translation seems a bit iffy – even if we allow it as an adverb, I suspect that “d’accord” would be a more accurate rendering, non?

Down

3d Brief sporting competition getting United expelled after attending (8)
A seven-letter word for a sporting competition (either mediaeval or modern) deprived of the usual abbreviation for ‘United’ (‘getting United expelled’) follows a two-letter word for ‘attending’ (as in ‘He was attending a conference’).

4d Indian distance runner initially hides in Ford? (5)
Similarly to 31a, Gemelo has phrased this clue so that the first letter of ‘runner’ (‘runner initially’) could be hiding in either the Indian distance or the Ford. It turns out that it is concealed within an Indian measure of distance somewhere between 1¼ and 2½ miles, depending on whether you’re buying or selling. The unnecessary capital on ‘Ford’ will, if the results of our recent poll are anything to go by, have upset 25% of solvers.

5d Thessaloniki possibly reflected on song stanzas for local church? (8)
A reversal (‘reflected’) of a four-letter word for the sort of town exemplified (‘possibly’) by Thessaloniki (Aden and Rio have always been popular ones with setters) precedes a word for the sort of song one might associate with opera. The reason for Gemelo’s unusual choice of city is that the answer is classified by Chambers as ‘Greek church’, so the ‘local’ in the definition expands to ‘local to Thessaloniki’.

18d What male lion may have, chasing missing female tiger? (8)
A charade of a four-letter word for what one expects to see on a male lion and a word for ‘chasing’ or ‘following in search of’, lacking (‘missing’) the usual abbreviation for ‘female’. The answer is hyphenated, 3-5.  Apparently, female lions are unimpressed by the length of the appurtenance, but colour is (according to a University of Minnesota study) of prime importance, with blonds reportedly having a lot less fun.

22d Wearing through standard dress fabric (6)
A two-letter word meaning (among many other things) ‘wearing’ is contained by (‘through’) a four-letter word meaning ‘standard’ or ‘price’.

24d Did Long Acre coach expand when empty? (5)
The 25% who railed at ‘Ford’ in 4d won’t have liked this one either. The usual abbreviation for ‘Acre’ is followed by the first and last letters (‘when empty’) of both ‘coach’ and ‘expand’.

28d Content of birthplace of Heracles, offspring of Zeus (4)
The six-letter name of the city where Heracles was born loses its first and last letter to produce the daughter of Hera and Zeus who served ambrosia (a form of creamed rice) and nectar (an Australian lager) to the gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus.

30d Captain determined to drop external action (3)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘determined’ or ‘chose’ loses a four-letter word for an action from its outside (ie ‘to drop external action’).

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Observer barred puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Gemelo 46

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/f77a147b-684b-42fd-8393-ba43c5f70891/file/puzzle.pdf.

Solver difficulty rating

1.7 based on 45 votes (voting is now closed)

Last week’s ‘Fab 45’ (or not) received an average difficulty rating of 1.8, with no score above 3; I felt it was reasonably tricky, but I think that was largely because the gimmick meant that Gemelo’s wordplays were rather looser than usual. I wonder if it was sheer coincidence that the puzzle number was 45, as in rpm?

I’ll be interested to hear what you made of this one. The clues to most of the 12-letter words were not too taxing, and there were several other clues which, by Gemelo’s standards, were very straightforward, the definitions often lacking disguise. With his puzzles I nearly always have to pare the clues potentially worthy of comment down to my limit of 16, but this week no such trimming was required (only 14 suggested themselves). Continuing the ‘dodgy plural’ theme of recent puzzles, the one at 7d strikes me as being particularly unlikely. 

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 28a, “Country getting rid of king for one who’ll join union (6)”. The six-letter name of a country discards the monarchical abbreviation for ‘king’ in favour of the Roman numeral representing ‘one’. This leaves “who’ll join union” as the definition, which is very much like (say) “who’ll make meals” for CHEF. I’ve seen definitions of this type before, and I’m not particularly keen on them. If you put a question mark on the end – “who’ll make meals?” – it seems absolutely fine, the answer to the question being CHEF. But if, as here, the pronoun is relative rather than interrogative, then the solver must infer a subject, with ‘one’ being the most likely candidate. “Country getting rid of king for one [one] who’ll join union” looks pretty odd, but isn’t fundamentally unsound given that the wordplay and definition are separate; however, it’s not an inference that would typically be made in real life. But could the wordplay and definition be linked? In the clue “Boss wanting one who’ll make meals”, the result of (CHIEF – I) could potentially be the subject, but the relative pronoun doesn’t match – ‘who’ relates specifically to people, and CH(i)EF is a sequence of letters. But change ‘who’ to ‘that’, producing “Boss wanting one that’ll make meals” and things start to improve – “Boss wanting one…” takes the letters C-H-E-F forward to the definition “…that will make meals”. Replace ‘who’ with ‘that’ in today’s clue, and I’d consider it much more acceptable.

Across

1a Tree and shrub family aged a decade, and led to change without any dead (12)
An anagram (‘to change’) of AGED A DECADE AND LED without every instance of the usual abbreviation for ‘dead’. But while ‘without any carbon’ certainly means that a thing contains no carbon at all, when you pre-process the expression into ‘without any C’ it does look a bit iffy.

14a Where hair’s removed from showers I’d taken in middle of engagement (9, 2 words)
A five-letter word for showers (in the sense of repeated precipitation) and the letters ID (from the clue) are contained by the central letters (‘middle’) of ‘engagement’. The answer is (5,4).

18a Flightless birds sing with allure, extremely attractive (7)
A three-letter word meaning ‘sing’ , ‘snitch’ or ‘squeal’ is followed by the sort of allure exuded by Clara Bow and the first and last letters of ‘attractive’ (‘extremely attractive’ – no comment necessary, I think).

20a Talk about old product of palm tree (4)
A word meaning ‘talk’, particularly of the empty and garrulous variety, is reversed (‘about’) ahead of the usual abbreviation for ‘old’.

25a First applications when decorating small crib no longer accepted in other cribs (12, 2 words)
The answer here starts with the single-letter abbreviation for ‘small’, which is ubiquitous IRL but not to be found in Chambers, and a six-letter archaic (‘no longer’) word for a crib to hold hay for cattle. There follows the single-letter abbreviation for ‘accepted’ inside the four-letter plural of a word for a crib or small bed, the result being the (7,5) entry.

29a Offensive decoration not really meant to put out independent Scotsman? (9, 2 words)
A six-letter word for ‘conveying meaning using words which are the literal opposite of the intended sense’, without (‘to put out’) one instance of the usual abbreviation for ‘independent’, precedes a forename  given by Chambers as ‘from the surname and place name, probably from [the] Gaelic [for] headland, peninsula’.

Down

1d Stop scraping around section that’s awkward (12)
A five-letter archaic word meaning ‘to hinder or stop’ is followed by a word meaning ‘scraping’ (more often seen  spelt with a ‘z’ and in the company of ‘to the ground’) containing the usual abbreviation for ‘section’.

2d Fulsome man perhaps gaining year, one way or another? (9)
A five-letter word exemplified by ‘man’ (but not boy) containing (‘gaining’, not a containment indicator that I like) a single-letter abbreviation for ‘year’ (‘year, one way’) combines with the letters OR (from the clue) and a different abbreviation for ‘year’.

4d Upset Los Angeles citizen in painful argument, initially about ballooning (12)
A reversal (‘upset’) of the usual abbreviation for ‘Los Angeles’, a three-letter abbreviation for ‘citizen’, a two-letter word with a very similar meaning to ‘in’ when referring to location (although in standard English the two are rarely interchangeable), a four-letter word meaning ‘painful’, and the first letter (‘initially’) of ‘argument’.

6d Scottish Highlander is embracing nationalist during unproductive uprising (7)
The letters IS (from the clue) containing (’embracing’) the single-letter abbreviation for ‘nationalist’ are themselves contained by a reversal (‘uprising’) of a word meaning ‘unproductive’ or ‘thin’.

9d Extra active duty to get into (5)
A charade of the military abbreviation for ‘active duty’ and a word meaning ‘get into’ or ‘put on’ produces the (3-2) answer.

13d What takes blood, mainly? (4)
There are some words that you hear once and which stay with you forever. In a music lesson at school many years ago, Mr Massey played a 32a by Brahms; I couldn’t describe one in any detail, but the word has remained firmly lodged in my mind ever since. Similarly, in an episode of the original TV adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small, Siegfried brought forth (much to the surprise of James) the five-letter instrument (that here must lose its last letter – ‘mainly’) in order to bleed a pony. Isn’t it always the things that you most want to forget that you can’t get out of your mind!

19d Damn accountant with unopened contract (7)
The three-letter abbreviation for ‘accountant’ goes ahead of a word meaning ‘[to] contract’, said specifically of the lips, missing its first letter (‘unopened’).

30d Disciple, like priest, ignoring peripheral parish (3)
A nine-letter word meaning ‘like a parish priest’ loses the letters PARISH from its outside (‘ignoring peripheral parish’).

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Observer barred puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Gemelo 45

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/7df02976-ab22-4651-8d5e-897337e1f49b/file/puzzle.pdf.

Solver difficulty rating

1.8 based on 45 votes (voting is now closed)

You gave G44 an average difficulty rating of 2.5, right in the middle of the spectrum and just one ‘tick’ up from its immediate predecessor. When I completed the puzzle, I wrote ‘2.6’ alongside it, so we were in pretty close agreement.

You probably know what I’m going to say about this puzzle. Ogden Nash wrote, “God in His wisdom made the fly / And then forgot to tell us why”, which pretty much sums up my feelings, although I suppose Gemelo kind of told us why. The clueing is very clever, and to be greatly admired on a technical level, but the solver gets a bunch of largely inelegant clues with no compensating challenge or reward. And I’m a Beatles fan. Now if one of the clues didn’t contain the title of a Beatles song and we had to write a clue to complete the thematic set, I’d feel very differently about it…

Note that the entry at 29d is an abbreviation (this is shown in the print version).

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 15d, “Dig It parts had to arouse (9)”. The nicely concise wordplay has a four-letter word meaning ‘cultivate’ (‘dig’) containing the letters IT (from the clue), with a three-letter word meaning ‘consumed’ (‘had’) following on. The point of interest here is the ‘noun noun verb’ construction seen in ‘dig it parts’. This is something regularly seen in real-life language, as in ‘He writes books readers enjoy’, where a relative pronoun such as ‘that’ is implied between ‘books’ and ‘readers’. This is an extremely useful part of the setter’s armoury, not least because the result is a noun expression which can be subjected to further manipulation, as in ‘Piano chap pounds in modest band’, where ‘piano chap pounds’ yields MPAN (P in MAN), which is then contained by COY to produce COMPANY. It also comes in very handy when disguising ‘hidden’ clues, such as ‘Ordinary men or male nurses’ for NORMAL. One note of caution: less experienced solvers often struggle to understand this construction, so it should be used sparingly in puzzles aimed largely at such an audience.

Across

1a Creating Across the Universe and Because before second vinyl? (12)
A three-letter informal form of ‘because’ is followed by a two-letter (similarly informal) word for a second (as in ‘just a second’) and a seven-letter word for the type of substance that could be exemplified by ‘vinyl’ (and certainly would be by ‘PVC’).

10a Detest A Taste of Honey when covered by neighbour in Suffolk (5)
The letter A (from the clue) is followed by the first letter (‘taste’) of ‘Honey’ contained (‘when covered’) by an East Anglian form of ‘neighbour’, used as a term of address.

12a Vow to delay Love Me Do (6)
A four-letter word for a vow with the letter O put back (ie ‘to delay love’) combines with the letters ME (from the clue) to produce the (2-4) answer.

25a From this place in East London, around flashy department, prepared to release Rain? (9)
A five-letter word meaning ‘from this place’, losing its initial H (‘in East London’), containing a four-letter word meaning ‘flashy’ (as a Hawaiian shirt might be), precedes the usual abbreviation for ‘department’.

27a Help!, Not a Second Time for Native American (5)
A three-letter appeal for help is deprived of a single instance of the usual abbreviation for ‘second’ (‘not a second’) and is followed by a three-letter word for a time, as in ‘the time of reason’.

28a Organic, essential For You Blue regularly containing unknown error (6)
Alternate letters from the word ‘Blue’ (‘Blue regularly’) are put around (‘containing’) one of the letters representing an unknown in algebraic expressions and a three-letter word for ‘error’ much enjoyed by crossword setters. I know of at least one expert clue writer who would consider that ‘regularly’ cannot reasonably be applied to fodder of just four letters.

30a Let It Be turned into acceptable single (6)
A four-letter interjection meaning ‘so let it be’ is reversed inside (‘turned into’) a two-letter informal adjective meaning ‘acceptable’. The answer is hyphenated, 3-3.

32a Chapters about earlier Taxman by extremely loose band (6)
The abbreviation for ‘chapters’, containing (‘about’) the two-letter abbreviation for the former department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxes (the one Ken Dodd said that he didn’t have to pay anything to because he lived by the sea), is followed by the first and last letters (‘extremely’ – NC, as people say in texts) of ‘loose’.

33a Share record in advance, recalled in wake of Sun King (5)
A three-letter word meaning ‘to record (music etc) in advance’ is reversed (‘recalled’) following (‘in wake of’) the single-letter abbreviation for ‘sun’, the whole lot being followed by the chess and card players’ abbreviation for ‘king’.

Down

1d Lash fibre, not having Any Time At All in workbasket (5)
A three-letter word for a lash (having nine tails and lives) and a four-letter word for fibre (or the surname of an unfortunate chap who met his End under a bookcase), are each deprived of the single-letter abbreviation for ‘time’ (ie ‘not having any time at all’).

4d Articulate For No One to local church (9)
A charade of a three-letter word often indicated in cryptics by ‘for’, the letters NO (‘from the clue’), a dialect word for ‘one’ (‘one to local’), and the two-letter abbreviation for a church of a particular denomination.

6d Wait on climax of record, under two hours before midnight? (6)
The last letter (‘climax’) of ‘record’ is placed under a (2,3) phrase which, since 1967, has told you when the main ITV news is broadcast.

7d Wreath reflecting final couplet of Piggies? Nonsense! (5)
A reversal (‘reflecting’) of the last two letters (‘final couplet’) of ‘Piggies’ and a three-letter word for ‘nonsense’.

11d Maybe one long period before drug lapse to make No Reply? (11, 3 words)
A three-letter word suggested by ‘one’ (the only other value it can have is zero), a three-letter word for a very long time, the usual single-letter drug, and a four-letter word for a lapse combine to produce the (4,4,3) answer, which contains an apostrophe.

19d Heir briefly coming up to support e.g. Michelle’s extravagant phrases (7)
A five-letter word for a young member of a family without its last letter (‘briefly’) is reversed (‘coming up’) underneath (‘to support’) a possessive pronoun that could represent “Michelle’s”, “Eleanor Rigby’s” or “Maggie Mae’s”.

22d To listeners, Boys is based on joints? (6)
For this homophone (‘to listeners’) clue I’ve tried to think of synonyms for ‘boys’ that aren’t the plural of a particular male forename (as borne by the co-creator of The Rutles), but I’ve come up dry so far.

26d Records are played on these screens, leaving Little Child for dead (5)
We have a six-letter word meaning ‘screens’ or ‘vets’ getting rid of (‘leaving’) the two-letter abbreviation for ‘child’ in favour of (‘for’) the single-letter abbreviation for ‘dead’.

The End? Yes It Is. I’ll Be Back…

(definitions are underlined)