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 would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Gemelo 29

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/3e7334a2-ecc0-4033-8334-fb70438d0926/file/puzzle.pdf.

Solver difficulty rating

2.6 based on 43 votes (voting is now closed)

Last week’s plain puzzle received an average difficulty rating of 3.5 (based on 29 votes); this was only 0.3 down on the previous week’s ‘Spooner or Later’ special, which I felt represented a pretty fair assessment of the (in my opinion) relatively small difference between the two puzzle difficulty-wise.

I felt that today’s puzzle was considerably more enjoyable than last week’s offering, with plenty of clever misdirection but a good helping of accessible clues to get the solve going. One or two clues were perhaps a tad convoluted, but they were balanced by some nice concise ones.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 15d, “Plate protecting large vat: item from the Louvre (9)”. The wordplay here has a four-letter word for a large vat or tub being followed by the French (‘from the Louvre’) word for an item (in Chambers), the result being a plate of armour intended to protect a particular part of the body. A perfectly good clue? Well, not quite. The problem is the definition, because ‘protect’ is a transitive-only verb, and therefore the plate has to be protecting something, such as ‘part of soldier’; similarly, ‘one making’ would not – strictly speaking, at least – be valid for ‘author’. It’s certainly an issue with the present participle (‘protecting’, ‘making’); whether the present indicative in, say, ‘one who makes’ for ‘author’ could be seen as being used absolutely, and therefore not requiring an object (as in ‘time heals’), is a moot point, although personally I would avoid such a construction.

Across

10a Month reflecting a Hindu god (4)
I confidently put an answer in for this one, and was a little surprised to find that the entry at 6d then began with ‘RR’, an unlikely (to put it mildly) combination. In fact, the clue is ambiguous – if you are using an old version of Chambers, then the only valid answer will appear to be my one, a reversal of the three-letter abbreviation for a particular month, followed by the letter A (from the clue). But those with a more recent edition will find two words which satisfy the wordplay, the second being a reversal of a ‘complete’ month, again followed by A – this is the intended solution.

12a College graduate with natural depression about commercial backing (8)
The two-letter abbreviation for a type of postgraduate degree is followed by a four-letter ‘natural depression’ particularly associated with the mountains of Scotland and Ireland, containing (‘about’) a reversal (‘backing’) of a two-letter ‘commercial’ much favoured by setters (also indicated on occasion by ‘bill’, ‘notice’, ‘poster’, ‘plug’ etc).

17a Pope shedding extremely roomy overcoat (5)
The name used by sixteen Popes between 590 and 1846 is deprived of the outer letters (‘extremely’ – a particular bête noire of Azed) of ‘roomy’.

19a 6d minus 9 for Holyrood’s inner room (6)
A clever clue, where an eight-letter word indicated by ‘6d’ (and nothing to do with any other part of the puzzle) loses (‘minus’) the Roman numerals representing ‘9’.

21a Pet sneaks out of the way, avoiding stick ultimately (5)
A six-letter word meaning ‘sneaks out of the way’ or ‘lurks’ is shorn of the last letter (‘ultimately’) of ‘stick’. The definition, like many in this puzzle,  is cunningly disguised by the surface reading.

27a Endless examination that drip feeds minor details (6)
A five-letter ‘examination’ without its last letter (‘endless’) contains the two-letter abbreviation for a medical drip (ie ‘that drip feeds’).

28a Army officer, casually circling local river, marks shoreline (8, 2 words)
The five-letter informal (‘casually’) term used when addressing a non-commissioned officer of a specific rank contains (‘circling’) the two-letter dialect (‘local’) word for a river which has come to the aid of many a setter, and the usual (at least prior to the arrival of the euro) abbreviation for ‘marks’. The answer is (3,5), and on another day the clue might have involved a homophone and Mrs Simpson (the one married to Homer rather than the former Edward VIII).

30a Bad luck which gives server advantage? (8)
A neat clue, where the (5-3) answer could indeed be something which wins the advantage point for the server in a tennis match.

31a Accepted e.g. cobble floor from earlier era (6)
The usual abbreviation for ‘accepted’ precedes a five-letter word for the sort of thing exemplified by a cobble. The ‘from an earlier era’ is there to indicate that the answer is given by Chambers as an ‘earlier form’ of a familiar seven-letter word.

Down

1d Pop’s board game (6)
I spent a minute or two trying to work out how ‘board’ could add four-letters to the two-letter word potentially indicated by ‘pop’ before deciding that ‘pop’ led to a (2,4) expression (not in Chambers, but given by Collins), and that ‘board’ was part of the definition.

3d Effortlessly draw away from dog’s lips (5)
The eleven-letter name given to a particular type of ‘designer dog’ (aka ‘crossbreed’) has a six-letter word meaning ‘aimlessly scribble’ (so perhaps ‘effortlessly draw’, although some of my creations when I’ve been on long work conference calls have involved a lot of effort) removed (‘away from’).

6d Perhaps Old King Cole, drunk from local rye, getting muddled (4)
The letters COLE in a different order (‘drunk’) are to be deleted ‘from’ LOCAL RYE, with the remaining letters being rearranged (‘muddled’) to produce the answer.

11d “European”, “energy”, “earth” briefly rendering E, and very different (10, 2 words)
A four-letter person from a specific European country combines with a three-letter word for ‘energy’ (of the sort that rises) and the word EARTH (from the clue) missing both its last letter (‘briefly’) and the letter E (‘rendering E’). A good idea, but perhaps not the best of the bunch.

19d Try Rev. with coercion (7)
A four-letter informal term for a try or an attempt is followed by a three-letter slang word meaning ‘rev up (an engine) noisily’. 

20d Proper to remove PPE – but not all together – for tobacco pipe (6)
Another nice clue, where a nine-letter word meaning ‘trim’ or ‘proper’ (originally to describe vessels on board which all was as it should be) has the non-consecutive (‘but not all together’) letters P, P and E removed. The ‘proper’ term is often combined with ‘…and Bristol fashion’, referring to the port of Bristol’s reputation for efficiency in the days of sail – the two seem to have very similar meanings, so they were presumably combined for emphasis (as in ‘bright-eyed and bushy-tailed’). Chambers makes it clear that although the answer is the name given to a flavoured tobacco, it can also be used to refer to a pipe in which it is smoked.

22d Youngster to get hugged by sister (6)
A four-letter word meaning ‘to get’ or ‘to possess’ is contained (‘hugged’) by the two-letter abbreviation for ‘Sister’.

(definitions are underlined)

The generic link to Gemelo PDFs based on the date of publication is no longer valid.

The latest puzzle can be found at:

https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/3e7334a2-ecc0-4033-8334-fb70438d0926/file/puzzle.pdf

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 28

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/00c5ba8e-987a-47b4-96d3-a3557823e4b8/file/puzzle.pdf.

Solver difficulty rating

3.5 based on 29 votes (voting is now closed)

Last week’s ‘Spooner or Letter’ special, which seemed to go down well with solvers (including myself), received a difficulty rating of 3.8, based on 37 votes, the most popular award being 4/5. Given that this sort of special has never appeared before, and some of the ‘name the letter’ clues took a bit of getting one’s head around, this seemed a pretty fair assessment. Let’s hope that Gemelo can come up with a few more ‘specials’ of similar quality and difficulty.

For me, today’s plain puzzle harked back to the early Gemelos, with rather too many clues which would have been extremely difficult to solve ‘cold’ (ie without crossing letters). I’ll be interested to hear what other solvers made of it. I marked significantly more than 16 clues as being potentially worthy of note, so just let me know if there are any which I haven’t covered below that you would like me to comment on.

Readers may be interested in this post on the Observer site about the evening session held to celebrate 100 years of their barred crossword (the work of just four setters – Torquemada, Ximenes, Azed, and now Gemelo). Courtesy of a correspondent, here is a link to the short film which was shown at the event.

I was saddened this week to hear of the death of long-time Azed competitor John Tozer, who had been ill for several years following a heart attack. Those who knew John have nothing but good things to say about him; I never met him, although we exchanged a few friendly emails about particular points in Azed puzzles, but his masterwork (and a lasting legacy) is the wonderful &lit site. Apart from being an invaluable resource when setting Azed competition clues over many years, it is a treasury of clues from 77 years of Ximenes and Azed comps and of the accompanying slips containing much cruciverbal wisdom. RIP, John.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clues 33a, “1 across eating this stew (10)”, and 4d, “You don’t mind Japanese food (4)”. In the first of these the wordplay involves an anagram (‘stew’, verb) of EATING THIS; in the second the phrase YOU DON’T contains (‘mind’, verb) the answer. These examples illustrate one of the few points that Azed and I have always disagreed over, and on which it seems Gemelo takes a similarly lenient line. In the slip for comp 2,036, Azed wrote:

“In my clue to PLIANCY (‘Being flexible I can swim in strand’) should not ‘swim’ be ‘swims’ for the anagram to work cryptically? This took me back to a similar question I put many years ago to Ximenes when the late Eric Chalkley won first prize with this clue to PANTOPHAGIST: ‘What pig has to become when gripped by hunger? (anag. in pant, & lit.). Surely, I asked, it should be ‘becomes’, unless he accepted that as a singular string of words or a plural set of words, in this case three of them, it could govern a singular or a plural verb. He replied (I still have his pencilled note) that yes, he did think either a singular or a plural verb was OK, ever since when I’ve followed his dictum, both in my own clues and in my judgement on those of others.”

For my money, a single string of ‘fodder’ such as I CAN or EATING THIS must take a singular verb, so ‘see car crashes’ is valid for CREASE; however, there are those – including Azed and (it would seem) Gemelo – who believe that ‘see cars crash’ is acceptable for CREASES. I consider that this is at odds with ‘real world’ English, but in any event a continuous string of words must surely require either a singular verb or a plural verb – the setter cannot have their cake in one clue while eating it in another, hence I can’t accept that both ‘see car crash’ and ‘see car crashes’ can legitimately lead to CREASE. Incidentally, the use of the participle verb form usually offers a way round this issue, as in eg ‘see cars crashing’ for CREASES.

Across

1a Stammering European swallowing bread without restraint (10)
A four-letter European from Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania contains (‘swallowing’) a three-letter ‘sweet roll or cake’, of which many are eaten at this time of year (quite a few of them by me, in truth), which itself contains (‘without’) a three-letter ‘restraint’.

10a A Room of One’s Own keeping you initially satisfied, but not any more (5)
The letter A (from the clue) is followed by a three-letter slang term for a room or home of one’s own which I particularly associate with the 1960s (“Let’s go back to my ??? and listen to some groovy sounds”) containing the first letter (‘initially’) of ‘you’. The answer is shown by Chambers as ‘archaic’, hence the ‘but not any more’.

12a Stain stuck with prisoner at first (8, 2 words)
A five-letter word meaning ‘stuck’, as an unlucky toreador might be, is preceded by (‘with…at first’) a three-letter slang term for a prisoner (the shortened form of a seven-letter word). The answer is (5,3).

13a Glaswegian to fashion mohawks, steering clear of prime spots (3)
There was a discussion on this site quite recently about the use of ‘prime locations in…’ to indicate the selection of letters 2, 3, 5, 7 etc from the word or words that follow, a device seemingly first used by Monk in a Times puzzle from 2005.  Here we have a variation, where the letters in the ‘prime spots’ within MOHAWKS are to be deleted rather than selected.

15a Capital T put back in “Tongue” (5)
The capital of Peru (and home of Paddington’s Aunt Lucy) and the letter T (from the clue) are to be reversed in order to produce the name of a particular ‘tongue’.

17a Old German lacking in soul (4)
A six-letter ‘obsolete’ word meaning ‘German’ is deprived of (‘lacking’) the consecutive letters IN.

26a Sodium chloride originally turned bracken orange-red (7)
The two-letter chemical symbol for sodium and the first letter (‘originally’) of ‘chloride’ are followed by a reversal of a four-letter kind of bracken found in New Zealand and Tasmania (also the name of the plantation in Georgia which Scarlett O’Hara called home, and the ancient seat of the High Kings of Ireland, in the halls of which the harp once shed the soul of music).

32a Islander‘s wine bar returned vermouth (5)
A seven-letter wine from Tuscany loses (‘bar’) a reversal (‘returned’) of a two-letter ‘informal’ term for a particular kind of vermouth, almost invariably seen in the company of gin.

Down

1d Is sewer to accumulate dogs for absent-minded don? (12)
The ‘absent-minded don’ is William Archibald Spooner, fellow of Cue Knowledge, Oxford, who last week had half a puzzle to himself. Here the spoonerism is of a five-letter word meaning ‘to pile’ or ‘to accumulate’ (usually seen with ‘up’) and a seven-letters word for dogs of the female persuasion. The definition is crafty, although it perhaps pushes the boundaries of acceptability – ‘is sewing’ would certainly be ok, but wouldn’t produce a sensible surface reading. Apparently Spooner was sensitive on the topic of his verbal slips; one of his students described being part of a group that gathered outside the venerable don’s lodgings one evening, calling for a speech; that gentleman reportedly opened his window for just long enough to reply, “You don’t want a speech. You only want me to say one of those things”.

2d Handsome man, apparently with depression, shedding clothing (6)
The two-letter abbreviation for ‘apparently’ is followed by a six-letter ‘depression’ of the physical kind missing its first and last letters (‘shedding clothing’).

3d Previous change of course mostly elevated drink (6)
A four-letter nautical term for a change of course achieved by swinging the sail of a boat from one side to the other, lacking its last letter (‘mostly’), is reversed (‘elevated’) ahead of an informal word for a drink, as in “Well, if you insist, just a quick ???”.

5d Judge cutting politician’s roast (7)
A three-letter short form of the seven-letter word for the type of ‘judge’ known to football fans as (among many less savoury epithets) ‘the man [or woman] in black’ is contained by (‘cutting’) a four-letter word for a member of a certain UK political party.

8d Heart skipped in intricate pulse (4)
A six-letter word meaning ‘intricate’, from the eight-letter name of the mythical artist who designed the Cretan labyrinth and made wings for his son, albeit using unsuitable materials, loses its two central letters (‘heart skipped’).

19d Referee finally books tackling of winger, saving centre forward for Monaco (7, 2 words)
Crikey, this is a bit convoluted, and in the end the surface reading is nothing to write home about. The last letter (‘finally’) of ‘referee’ is followed by the two-letter representation of (biblical) books that isn’t ‘OT’ containing a five-letter word meaning ‘relating to birds’ (ie ‘of winger[s]’) without its middle letter (‘saving centre’). The answer is (deux, cinq).

23d Asian title reflected North American or South American tree (6)
The four-letter Japanese title ‘given to an exalted or distinguished person’ (and also perhaps to Sam Allardyce by people who didn’t want to say his surname) precedes a reversal (‘reflected’) of the two-letter abbreviation for ‘North American’.

25d Referring to missing pastry scoop (5)
That familiar two-letter bit of commercial jargon meaning ‘referring to’ is deleted from (‘missing’) a seven-letter word for ‘a kind of choux pastry, the dough of which has been mixed with grated cheese prior to baking’. Yum.

(definitions are underlined)

It appears that the generic link to Gemelo PDFs based on the date of publication is no longer valid.

The latest puzzle can be found at:

https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/00c5ba8e-987a-47b4-96d3-a3557823e4b8/file/puzzle.pdf

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 27 – Spooner or Letter

This puzzle is available at https://cdn.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/media/documents/obs.GEMELO.20260315.pdf.

Solver difficulty rating

3.8 based on 37 votes (voting is now closed)

Good to see a proper special, and a brand-new one at that. Azed set a number of Spoonerisms puzzles, of course, but as well as the spoonerized definitions they contained spoonerized entries, which were on occasion mildly controversial. Gemelo has pursued a different course by giving us a 50:50 mix of spoonerized definitions and ‘turn one or more letters into their names’ wordplays. A couple of the latter (in particular 7d) took me a little while to get my head round, but they all worked out in the end. I’ll be interested to hear what you made of the puzzle and how much of a challenge it presented. My only specific piece of advice for solving would be to go through each clue saying any possible ‘unspoonerisms’ to yourself; if you can’t find any, then the clue is almost certainly of the Letter type. After notes on selected clues I have included a checklist of clue types.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 9d, “Horribly stern and extremely tight (7)”. The trickiest thing about this clue, an anagram (‘horribly’) of STERN, is the fact that two letters are transformed prior to entry in the grid. The point of interest, though, is the word ‘and’ linking the wordplay with the definition. In normal clues, this would be entirely acceptable, but what about here? The wordplay yields just five letters while the defined word has seven, so despite what the ‘and’ suggests there appears to be no equivalence between them. Where the wordplay and definition lead to different sets of letters, link words between wordplay and definition should normally be avoided, but the situation here is rather unusual. The preamble tells us that the replacement of letters is in effect part of the process of deciphering the clue, so the defined entry and the end result of the wordplay could be considered the same. It’s perhaps marginal, but I’m comfortable enough with the clue as it stands. There would have been no issue at all with the use of link words or phrases in the spoonerized clues, but I applaud Gemelo for avoiding them in this puzzle and thus producing more technically satisfying clues.

Across

1a Old soul had to play one of the Australian Avengers (9)
A two-letter word for an ancient Egyptian (‘old’) spirit or soul is followed by an anagram (‘to play’) of HAD. The ‘translation’ of one letter results in a net gain of four.

10a Drunk about to lose book for university course (9, 3 words)
The word ‘about’ (from the clue) loses the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘book’, which is replaced by the three initials of a degree course first offered at Oxford in 1921 and taken by many British politicians past and present including Tony Benn, Edward Heath, Michael Foot, Ed Miliband, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Rachel Reeves. The answer is (1,5,3).

12a Be part of Keir Starmer’s top two after affirmative vote (5)
The first two letters (‘top two’) of ‘Starmer’ follow a three-letter ‘formal or archaic’ word for an affirmative vote or voter.

17a Heartless, stealthy criminal sold E (6)
The tricky bit of this clue is the spoonerism, with the wordplay involving an anagram (‘criminal’) of STEALTHY missing the central pair of letters (‘heartless’).

18a Pinks in last frames of uncommon challenge with nothing in front (5)
The first and last letters (‘frames’) of ‘uncommon’ and ‘challenge’ are preceded by the single-letter representation of zero (ie ‘with nothing in front’). Part of the unspoonerized definition is a qualifier which reflects the presence of ‘formerly’ in the relevant Chambers definition.

21a Nothing saw to May, somehow seated at ten with Heath lacking any energy (12, 3 words)
An anagram (‘somehow’) of SEATED AT TEN and HEATH without all instances of the usual abbreviation for energy (ie ‘lacking any energy’).

30a Rogue messenger once seen in Scottish town (5)
A double definition, except that the first definition leads to a familiar three-letter word which then requires a letter expansion.

33a Welsh river crossed by predominantly underground soldier (9)
A three-letter Welsh river which rises on the Black Mountain and flows into the Bristol Channel at Newport is contained by a five-letter word for an urban railway that runs largely underground (in particular, the one in Paris) without its last letter (‘predominantly’).

Down

5d What bums in a County Court, framing South African man about scam (7)
The two-letter abbreviation for ‘court’ contains (‘framing’) a two-letter informal South African word for a man (also the abbreviation for ‘Open University’), which itself contains (‘about’) a three-letter slang term for a swindle or trick. After unspoonerization of the definition, the ‘County’ still has a capital letter, but not the one it started with.

7d Fraternity member once cycling round loch (6)
Initially I was convinced there was something wrong with this clue, but when you take the four-letter name of perhaps the most famous, and certainly the most monstrous, Scottish loch and ‘cycle’ it such that the first two letters end up after the last two, replacement of the first and third letters by their names will indeed produce the answer.

8d Lord is cooped in this castle abroad, with Austen hero briefly returning to visit (10)
An anagram (‘abroad’) of CASTLE has a reversal (‘returning’) of the surname of a Jane Austen hero (think Colin Firth) missing its last letter (‘briefly’) inserted (‘to visit’, not to my taste, but there it is). The answer is hyphenated, 4-6, and contains an apostrophe, something which Azed was unsure about whether to mention in an enumeration but Gemelo clearly feels does not need to be flagged (and I agree with him).

16d Stand-in worker perhaps supporting tradename, one with extended line of letters? (7)
A three-letter word for a stand-in (maybe for a footballer whose number is up)  precedes a three-letter creature ‘of proverbial industry’ (the sort that had high hopes of moving a rubber tree plant) which itself follows (‘supporting’) the two-letter abbreviation for ‘tradename’.

19d One’s restaurant discarding skin from radicchio bought of salad monger? (7)
A (1,2) phrase meaning “one’s” (or ‘one is’) is followed by a six-letter word for an intimate, relaxed type of restaurant, from which the first and last letters (‘skin’) of ‘radicchio’ have been removed.

20d Characters in ancient city found within nanoseconds (7)
A two-letter preposition which can mean essentially the same as ‘in’ when referring to a place, although the two are rarely interchangeable, and the two-letter ancient city much favoured by crossword setters are contained by the two-letter abbreviation for ‘nanoseconds’.

24d Take in second habit from a rat? (5)
The single-letter abbreviation of the Latin word meaning ‘take’, formerly used by physicians at the start of prescriptions, is contained by a word for ‘second’, as in ‘hang on a second’.

25d Boeing people share new speed for signalling – without British Airways, that is (5)
The usual abbreviation for ‘new’ is followed by a four-letter word for a unit of data transmission rate, which has been deprived of the abbreviation for ‘British Airways’, and the two letters regularly indicated in cryptics by ‘that is’. When I first started in IT, the unit was commonplace, being used interchangeably with ‘bits per second’ (although they are not exactly the same thing). I well remember using acoustic couplers to connect to remote computers at a rate of 300 of them (on a good day) by shoving a phone handset into the two rubber cups of the device; unfortunately, most of the phones in our office were shared extensions, and when someone tried to make a call on the linked phone, things went rapidly downhill (there was no error correction in those days). After that, even very slow broadband seems quite wonderful.

(definitions are underlined)

Checklist of clue types (S = Spooner / L1 = 1 Letter / L2 = 2 Letters /L3 = 3 Letters)

Across: 1 – L1; 10 – L1; 11 – S; 12 – S; 14 – L1; 15 – S; 17 – S; 18 – S; 19 – L1; 21 – S; 23 – S; 24 – L1; 26 – S; 28 – L1; 30 – L1; 31 – L1; 32 – S; 33 – L1.

Down: 1 – L1; 2 – S; 3 – L1; 4 – L1; 5 – S; 6 – S; 7 – L2; 8 – S; 9 – L2; 13 – L3; 16 – L1; 19 – S; 20 – L1; 22 – S; 24 – S; 25 – S; 27 – L1; 29 – S.

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 26

This puzzle is available at https://cdn.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/media/documents/obs.GEMELO.20260308.pdf.

Solver difficulty rating

2.5 based on 34 votes (voting is now closed)

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 (Ghastly). Note that hovering over the ‘graph’ icon will show you the full breakdown of votes for the current puzzle. Last week’s puzzle received an average rating of 2.3, which I think reflected the fact that, unlike the previous week’s constrained puzzle themed around the letter A, there were some straightforward toeholds (via ‘hiddens’ and anagrams) to provide help with the harder clues.

I thought Gemelo 26 was an excellent puzzle, featuring a good range of clue types and a mix of difficulties that offered plenty of ways in to the grid. The clueing was innovative without, for the most part at least, demanding too many mental leaps from the solver. The surface readings in general were very good, and there was plenty of legitimate misdirection to enjoy.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look not at a clue from this puzzle, but one from the latest Guardian Genius puzzle that I saw recently on one of the help forums: “Part of car sounds like exhaust (4)”.  The original poster was unsure as to whether the answer was TIRE (sounds like ‘tyre’) or TYRE (sounds like ‘tire’), the second letter being unchecked in the grid. I have noticed that even reasonably experienced solvers can struggle with homophones where both words involved are the same length such as “Reportedly, female servant is carried out (4)” for MADE. There should be no ambiguity here, as the homophone indicator can apply only to the female servant, but in any event the difference between the two possible answers means that a crossing entry will confirm which one is correct. Where the potential answers differ only by an unchecked letter (a relatively rare occurrence), in the interests of ‘solver satisfaction’ I would strongly advise asking yourself whether a homophone is the right tool for the job.

But back to that Genius clue. “Obviously”, I said to myself, “the answer is TYRE, which ‘sounds like [tire]'”. And if the clue had read “Part of car that sounds like exhaust”, I would have thought no more about it – we would be looking for “A word for a part of a car that sounds like a word meaning ‘exhaust'”. As it stands, though, the clue is simply a statement, and I think you could therefore legitimately read it as “A word for a part of a car sounds like this word meaning ‘exhaust'”, the answer being TIRE. I’ve little doubt that the intended answer was indeed TYRE, but the clue leaves room for doubt – if a setter does decide to opt for the homophone clue in a situation like this, they need to ensure that it is absolutely watertight.

Across

1a Centre-forward netting with vigour in a league match that’s decisive (8, 2 words)
The two-letter abbreviation for ‘centre-forward’ containing (‘netting’) a two-letter word meaning (among many other things) ‘with vigour’ is followed by the letters IN A (from the clue) and the usual abbreviation for ‘league’. The answer is (3,5).

6a Storm shield remaining incomplete (4)
A five-letter word from ancient history for ‘a small light shield or buckler’ is deprived of its last letter (‘incomplete’). The shield gave its name (with an ‘-st’ tacked on the end) to the sort of Greek soldier who carried one – it’s a long time since I read Xenophon’s Anabasis at school, but I’m pretty sure that there were quite a lot of them among his 10,000. The word ‘remaining’ seems somewhat redundant, and would I suspect have been removed by many editors in their quest for brevity.

9a Mary sheared pet lamb in place of amusement (6)
The word MARY (from the clue) without its outer letters (‘sheared’) precedes a word for a lamb abandoned by its mother and brought up by hand, or a pet lamb. The place of amusement is the sort likely to be found in profusion at UK seaside holiday resorts.

10a Clay later packed into court properties (6)
The second name taken by Cassius Clay when he changed his name in 1964 (ie ‘Clay later’) is contained by (‘packed into’) a word for a court, abbreviated from a ten-letter word referring to its shape and often associated with Oxbridge colleges.

11a In winter, say, bank secured over 500 rupees through close examination (9)
A reversal of a three-letter word meaning ‘secured’ followed by the Roman numeral representing 500 and the single-letter abbreviation for ‘rupees’ are contained by (‘through’) a four-letter word for a close examination (usually seen as a verb, either in connection with de-lumping something like flour or figuratively with regard to going through, say, a large pile of papers).

18a Prime Minister’s not opening private office (3)
It’s surprising how many Prime Ministers produce a real word when the first letter is dropped from their surname (ie ‘not opening’) – RUSS, AY, LAIR, HATCHER, EATH – but we have to go back to the 1950s to find the one for whom things all went wrong as a result of his ‘handling’ of the Suez crisis.

19a Stop tossing around one of 50 poisons? (9)
An anagram (‘tossing’) of STOP contains (‘around’) the five-letter name of one of the 50 currently in the process of being made great again, this example being home to Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote and the destination of Roger Miller in King of the Road.

26a May’s constituents in time for work (7)
A neat little clue, where “May’s constituents” are its first letter AND its last three, leading to the (3-4) answer, although I can’t help feeling that with the apostrophe where it is the result should actually be the (3-3) singular form. I would have preferred “Constituents of May’s”.

27a Genetic element that’s first removed from sheep (5)
The first letter of ‘that’ (ie “that’s first”) is removed from a six-letter word for the meat of a sheep or, jocularly, a sheep itself.

33a Cult attracting men, primarily, about man’s way of doing things? (8)
An &lit, though perhaps not one from the Premier League. A reversal (‘about’) of the first letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Cult attracting men’ is followed by a three-letter word meaning “[that] man’s” and a two-letter abbreviation for a Latin phrase meaning ‘method of working’, often applied to the trademark technique of a particular criminal. The whole clue stands as an indication of the answer.

Down

1d Jackal, perhaps seizing day, arrived with artillery, shooting without warning (12, 2 words)
A five-letter generic term for an animal from a large group including jackals containing (‘seizing’) the usual abbreviation for ‘day’ is followed by a four-letter word meaning ‘arrived’ and the two-letter abbreviation usually signalled cryptically by ‘artillery’ or ‘gunners’. The answer is (6,6), and while I don’t think that the definition is strictly accurate (‘one gets shot without warning’ would probably be closer), the second definition in Chambers leaves plenty of room for interpretation. UK solvers of a certain age may be put in mind of Jonathan Routh  among others.

5d Service form saving opponent of children’s disease (5)
A seven-letter word for ‘the form of service or regular ritual of a church, strictly that used in the celebration of the Eucharist’ loses (‘saving’) the two-letter word which describes the player chosen in a children’s game to oppose the others (“You’re ??”). The word may or may not have been coined by the Goons, but it was certainly turned into a household name by them, almost invariably in its ‘dreaded’ form.

8d Fancy steak and onion ruined with heat not on (12, 4 words)
An anagram (‘ruined’) of STEAK ONION and HEAT after the letters ON have been removed (‘not on’) produces the (4,1,5,2) answer.

11d Mary’s mother dropping second name for college position (6)
I would expect the crossword setter for the Church Times to know the name of Jesus’s maternal grandmother, and there, unsurprisingly, he had the advantage of me; it seems that she isn’t mentioned in the canonical books of the New Testament, but her name (and that of her husband, Joachim) starts to appear in writings from around 150 AD. Anyway, the (2,4) name by which she is often known has the second instance of the abbreviation for ‘name’  replaced by the usual abbreviation for ‘college’ (ie ‘dropping second name for college’).

12d Fail – lacking literary style – Open University (4)
The letters OPEN (from the clue) without (‘lacking’) a three-letter word for ‘literary style’ precedes the three-letter abbreviation for a private university based in the city of Cambridge, but not the one where a short post-lunch punt journey might reveal that there was still honey for tea.

17d Alexandre Manette possibly involved with threat to king (6)
A charade of a two-letter word meaning (inter alia) ‘involved with’ and a four-letter term from chess for a (terminal) threat to a king produces a word for a person of whom Alexandre Manette was one of a great many examples, perhaps rather too many for cruciverbal comfort. In Dickens’s oft-spoonerized novel about London and Paris, he spent 18 years in the Bastille as ‘Prisoner 105, North Tower’, where he took up shoemaking in order to cope with his solitary confinement.

24d Spending limit supported by partner once (5)
A three-letter word for a limit which is not to be exceeded combines with a two-letter word often indicated by ‘former partner’.

25d Straw man initially underpinning load of drag artists? (5)
The first letter of ‘man’ (‘man initially’) follows (‘underpinning’) the kind of load that a group of fishermen expert in the use of drag nets might accumulate.

(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 25

This puzzle is available at https://cdn.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/media/documents/obs.GEMELO.20260222.pdf.

Solver difficulty rating

2.3 based on 39 votes (voting is now closed)

Thanks to all those who gave a rating for last week’s special based on the letter A – the average, derived from 49 votes, was a chunky 3.8, which I think reflected in particular the almost complete absence of any obvious toeholds.

For my money, Gemelo’s return to unconstrained mode resulted in a much more entertaining puzzle, with a good variety of clues. Some tricky ones, for sure, but also a few easier ones to get us started. I’ll be interested to see how solvers rate it in comparison with last week’s offering. When it came to picking out the clues for these notes I had plenty to choose from, so if there any not shown below which you would like me to comment on, just let me know.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 22d, “Worcester’s most convenient way to support organ installed by Edward Elgar, originally (6)”.  Here the usual two-letter abbreviation for ‘street’ follows (‘to support’) the two-letter abbreviation for the pink organ favoured by those with an interest in economic rather than showbiz affairs contained (‘installed’) by the first letters (‘originally’) of ‘Edward Elgar’. The reason for picking out this clue is that it features a particular bête noire of mine, the indirect abbreviation (or ‘indir’). ‘Way’ is perfectly acceptable for ‘street’, and ‘street’ is valid for ST, but a way is not a ST. Abbreviations come in two flavours: some are very much part of the language, while others are used only in writing, and then in a specific context. The abbreviation CD, for instance, falls into the former group – you would say “I’ve got that CD” rather than “I’ve got that compact disc”, and abbreviations like CD and GP have a life of their own, such that to all intents and purposes they are nouns (and they are given as such by Collins, although not by Chambers). I have no problem with ‘recording medium’ for CD or ‘doctor’ for GP. The other class of abbreviations have restricted scope and are not part of the language – D for ‘diamonds’ relates specifically to playing cards, and not even a bridge player would say “I played the ace of D”. Similarly, abbreviations like RD and ST relate specifically to maps (and thus addresses), and would never be used in any other context, for example “He lives in my St”. I strongly believe that this type of abbreviation should be indicated only by using the unabbreviated form.

Across

9a Nothing, say, stopping one being mouthy? (7)
The usual single-letter representation of ‘nothing’ is followed by a five-letter word meaning ‘say’ containing (‘stopping’) the Roman numeral representing ‘one’. The definition is somewhat whimsical (hence the question mark). OED gives a great many meanings for the verb ‘stop’, but I’m not sure that any of them justify its use as a containment (rather than an insertion) indicator.

12a Order of business that’s lost me (4)
A six-letter word for “one’s calling or business” is deprived of (“that’s lost”) the consecutive letters ME (from the clue). The definition might feel slightly off the mark, but Chambers does give ‘order’ as (among many other things) ‘grade, degree, rank or position, especially in a hierarchy’, so I think it’s fine.

14a Running backwards, glimpse local shelving book (6)
A reversal (‘backwards’) of a four-letter word for the sort of glance that might be sneaky and a three-letter word for a ‘local’ (such as the Queen Vic) missing (‘shelving’) the usual abbreviation for ‘book’. The answer often refers these days to the cost associated with running something, but it can also describe the running itself.

18a Experts in women’s clothing at parade around square (11, 2 words)
The three-letter article of women’s clothing often (too often, some might say) indicated by ‘support’ is followed by a two-letter preposition with a similar meaning to ‘at’ when followed by a location (typically one or the other is appropriate in any given situation) and a five-letter word meaning ‘[to] parade’ as a peacock might do containing (‘around’) the usual abbreviation for ‘square’. The answer is (6,5).

20a Shakespeare’s vague fellow can notice a lot (11)
A four-letter word for ‘[the] can’, with similarly transatlantic provenance, is followed by a two-letter ‘notice’ (“Bill Stickers will be Prosecuted” / “Bill Stickers is innocent”) and ‘a lot’ of sheets of paper. The answer is hyphenated 4-1-6.

23a Some brought round rival case of chocolate beer (8, 3 words)
A reversal (‘brought round’) of a three-letter word for a rival or enemy, the first and last letters (‘case’) of ‘chocolate’, and the three-letter abbreviation for a strong pale ale specially formulated to survive the long sea voyage to India, where the heat made local brewing impractical in the late eighteenth century.

26a Much loved black Indo European family touring island (8)
The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘black’ and the abbreviation for ‘Indo-European’ are followed by a word for an appellation which can also mean ‘a family or clan’ containing (‘touring’, not a favourite of mine) the single-letter abbreviation for ‘island’. The answer is hyphenated 4-4, and its definition should have been qualified with ‘French’ or the like, since it appears under a headword shown as ‘French’. This means that it has not been assimilated into the English language, and such words and phrases, just like those shown as being Scottish (cf ‘auld’), need to flagged as such when used as answers.

29a Unusual place for pig’s second trough (4)
A charade of the usual abbreviation for ‘second’ and a three-letter word for an inclined trough used for washing ore furnishes two possible answers, and the letter by which the two differ is unchecked. One is an ‘old spelling’ of the familiar three-letter word for a pig’s place, and the other is shown as a rare spelling, so it is surely the variant with a Y which Gemelo intends us to select. I have a feeling that he may not have spotted the old spelling, which is not cross-referenced under the three-letter headword, since one could make a good case for either answer fitting the bill.

30a Cabbage one found in alley (4)
A double definition, the first one relating to a less common spelling of the name for a curly cabbage and the second to the kind of thing which when playing long alley skittles in the pubs of Leicestershire we would try to knock down with ‘cheeses’ (solid pieces of wood shaped like barrels) – though the targets were never known by the name here. Incidentally, the OED gives seventeen different spellings through the ages, none of which is the one in Chambers. In the second definition I would have preferred “one’s” to ‘one’, which looks suspiciously like a pronoun.

31a Confused dummy grabbing nearly all undealt cards (7, 3 words)
A three-letter ‘dummy’ or ‘fool’ contains (‘grabbing’) the five-letter word for what remains of a pack after the hands have been dealt (and also for a claw) without its last letter (‘nearly all’). The answer is (2,1,4). Of course, there wouldn’t be a dummy while there were still cards undealt, but we can let that pass.

Down

1d Music from Michigan’s second city? (6)
A two-letter informal abbreviation (of the entirely acceptable kind – see Setter’s Corner) of a word for a second (as in ‘hold on a second’) and a four-letter word for a city (which seems slightly counterintuitive, but Chambers gives ‘city’ as ‘a large ????’) combine to produce the term for a type of music which originated in Michigan’s first city. Incidentally, when Berry Gordy started his own record label in 1959, he apparently wanted to call it ‘Tammy’ after the Debbie Reynolds hit song of the same name, but Tony March had already established a label of that name in Youngstown, Ohio, so he decided on ‘Tamla’ instead…and the rest is history.

7d Outline of fish, almost entirely covered in gold (6)
A five-letter freshwater fish (that one might associate with rods and poles) shorn of its last letter (‘almost entirely’) is contained by (‘covered in’) the chemical symbol for gold.

19d American entering appeal with his taxman about Bollywood title? (7)
A two-letter abbreviation for ‘American’ is put inside (‘entering’) a two-letter term for ‘[sex] appeal’ originally associated with Clara Bow (from the film of that name) and the three-letter abbreviation for the US tax service (ie ‘his taxman’ – another abbreviation which passes the ‘life of its own’ test), with the whole lot then being reversed (‘about’).

20d Japanese rises topped hills to the west (6)
The single-letter abbreviation for ‘Japanese’ (a relatively recent addition to Chambers, though I’ve no idea what prompted its inclusion) is followed by a six-letter word meaning ‘rises [up]’ stripped of its first letter (‘topped’). 

21d Rainy and hot day ultimately passed up (6)
The usual abbreviation for ‘hot’ precedes the last letter (‘ultimately’) of ‘day’ and a reversal (‘up’) of a word meaning ‘passed’ in the sense of ‘deceased’.

24d Irrational rule for what to put next to 1a? (5)
The name of the symbol for a two-letter irrational number representing a well-known geometric ratio is followed by a three-letter rule. The answer might be set alongside that for 1a on a table in an Indian restaurant.

(definitions are underlined)