(Please click here for this same blog but with a picture quiz added. Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.) Another Guardian slip today, which as of time of posting has not been rectified. It’s the wrong grid in the inter-active version, but the PDF version has got the right one. Still, neither has a clue to 1 across. I wonder what’s in the paper. Thanks to Boatman, for an otherwise fairly straightforward puzzle, once the theme was identified. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1
_F_O_T : AFLOAT, EFFORT, …..? Like the puzzle, I’m clueless.
5 Bullies exploit what we give to our children (4,4)
COWS’ MILK : COWS(bullies;terrifies) + MILK(to exploit;to take advantage of).
9 Make money by the hour in gambling den with bridge player (4,2,2)
CASH IN ON : H(abbrev. for “hour”) contained in(in) CASINO(a gambling den) + N(abbrev. for “north”, designation for one of the players at bridge).
10 Stick together to make money? Self-centred (6)
CEMENT : CENT(money denomination) containing in its centre(-centred) ME(self).
11 Role of selfishness in this puzzle maybe initially lost for old solver (4)
THEE : “theme”(the role of, in this case, “selfishness” in this puzzle) minus(… lost) the 1st letter of(…initially) “maybe “.
Defn: The old;archaic 2nd person pronoun, as used by the setter to refer to the solver.
12,15 Act selfishly to make fortune, outrageously less sensitive (nothing inside?) after semblance of love (4,3,3,6,3)
LOOK OUT FOR NUMBER ONE : Anagram of(…, outrageously) FORTUNE containing(… inside) [ NUMBER(less sensitive) + O(letter indicating 0;nothing) ] placed after(after) LOOK(a semblance of;a likeness of) O( letter indicating 0;love in tennis scores).
Answer: I did look, but there is no clue there.
13 Could it be Mohammed said to make a killing? (6)
PROFIT : Homophone of(… said) “prophet”(an example of whom;could it be, was Mohammed).
Defn: …, used in a figurative sense.
14 Redeemed, made amends or converted (8)
RANSOMED : Anagram of(… converted) AMENDS OR.
16 ”Bigoted, snide, perverse” in dictionary (3-5)
ONE-SIDED : Anagram of(…, perverse) SNIDE contained in(in) OED(abbrev. for the Oxford English Dictionary).
19 Mistakes note on unknown vessels, missing cable’s header (3-3)
MIX-UPS : MI(syllable for one of the notes on the musical scale) plus(on) X(in maths, symbol for an unknown quantity) + “cups”(vessels;containers) minus(missing) the 1st letter of(…’s header) “cable“.
20 Mast’s up with difficulty? Boatman’s apt to take it for granted (10)
ASSUMPTIVE : Anagram of(… with difficulty) MAST’S UP + I’VE(contraction of “I have”;Boatman has;Boatman’s, with setter using the self-referential pronoun).
22 As one might be, following tips resulting in cash hoarding (4)
RICH : The 1st letters, respectively, of(tips) “resulting in cash hoarding “.
23 Self-absorbed, into prophet, an abstemious one (6)
SETTER : SEER(a prophet) containing(absorbed, into …) TT(abbrev. for a “tee-totaller”;one who abstains from alcohol).
24 Try to take too much and exploit selfless act? (4,4)
GOOD DEED : GO(a try;an attempt) + OD(abbrev. for “overdose”;to take too much) plus(and) DEED(an exploit;an act).
25 Was that Elvis’s pelvis? It’s seen moving across the galaxy (8)
STARSHIP : STAR(an example of whom was Elvis, the Pelvis, Presley)‘S + HIP(the lateral part of the pelvis). Elvis lives!
26 Me, me, selfish me, first and foremost? (6)
EGOISM : EGO(the “I”;the self;the me) + I(the objective case of which is “me”) + the 1st letters, respectively, of(…, first) “selfish me“.
Down
2 12 15 achievement – bird seen to fly on soft wings (7,4,4)
FEATHER ONE’S NEST : FEAT(an achievement) + HERON(a wading bird) + anagram of(… to fly) SEEN placed above(on, in a down clue) the 1st and last letters of(… wings) “soft “.
3 Heart moved to take top job and get gold (5)
OCHRE : CHORE(a job;a task) with its central letter(Heart) moved to its beginning(moved to take top, in a down clue).
Answer: A range of colours, including yellow-orange;gold.
4 Rust-proofed with poor quality paint and let down (3-6)
TIN-PLATED : Anagram of(poor quality) [ PAINT plus(and) LET ] + D(abbrev. for “down”) .
5 Outline of your body, comme le dit Spooner? (7)
CONTOUR : Spoonerism(“comme le dit”;French for as stated, by Rev. Spooner) of “ton corps”(“your body” in French).
6 Permitted to crow about being eccentric (5)
WACKO : Reversal of(.. about, in a down clue) [ OK(permitted;approved) CAW(to make the sound of a crow’s cry – though “to crow” is to make the sound of a rooster’s cry)
7 Grommet fails in old car (2,5)
MG METRO : Anagram of(… fails) GROMMET.
8 Policy a psychologist set out to 12 15 (4,4,7)
LINE ONE’S POCKETS : LINE(a prescribed policy, eg. that of a political party) + ONE(a) + SPOCK(Dr. Benjamin, paediatrician who studied psychoanalysis) + anagram of(… out) SET.
15 See 12
17 Conspicuously selfish, utterly blind (7)
SHUTTER : Hidden in(Conspicuously) “selfish, utterly “.
Defn: A blind to block out light coming through, eg. a window.
18 Kill doctor, stabbed with uniform’s fastening (5,2)
DOING UP : DO IN(slang for “to kill”) + G.P.(abbrev. for a General Practitioner, a non-specialist doctor) containing(stabbed with) U(abbrev. for “uniform”).
21 Sit and solve selfless cipher (5)
PERCH : Anagram of(solve) “cipher ” minus(…less) “I”(the self).
22 Stick at nothing to take ultimate prize in western show (5)
RODEO : ROD(a stick) plus(at) O(letter indicating 0;nothing) plus(to take) the last letter of(ultimate) “prize “.
(Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.)
Thanks scchua. The online version is “AFLOAT” – the unclued 1ac! I solved the PDF, which then showed all the solutions and made it easy to fill the online grid. The theme is LOOK OUT FOR NUMBER ONE… but with a MIX-UP in the grid so the solutions are floating about. The online first across solution then becomes just FLOAT.
I took this all as a huge joke… pity I assume it will be lost on those who buy the paper (I presume, unless there’s some pointer in the printed version to look online) and so don’t get the extra little puzzle even they are the ones financing it.
One other point: in the online grid, the final across solution EGOISM floats away to make room for FLOAT.
@NW – what in IT we used to call an “undocumented feature”.
Not a full-strength Boatman (ie in terms of Boatmanisms etc) but a very enjoyable solve.
Thanks scchua. I quite liked the puzzle without 1 across. I toyed with ‘yfront’ and put in ‘effort’ but AFLOAT seemed more nautical. Got the theme early from NUMBER in 15 down. The Spooner was no trouble but much pain: down here ‘tour’ does not rhyme with ‘four’ but is pretty well a la francaise. But thanks, Batelier.
Well that was rather fun, for slightly wrong reasons. I obeyed the instruction LOOK OUT FOR NUMBER ONE…but couldn’t find 1A. So I thought it was more cunning and I tried to tie all the references of ONE together…to no avail. Any road up, I enjoyed it even if it was un-completable (sp?). So thanks Boatman and scchua!
Ay! Ay! Ay! The online version is correct. The pdf is wrong. It’s a circle. Every across clue defines the following word. When you get to the last clue, it goes back to the first word. Think about it. Me, me, selfish me, first and foremost. Who’s me? The Boatman. Where’s the Boatman? Afloat. And where does the word go? First and foremost. Sheesh.
More truth? No, sirrah! Contrary girl dropped stitch.
Thanks Boatman and scchua
Doesn’t work in the paper version – all the clues are in the right places, except there is no clue for 1ac. What is the explanation for the online version of 1ac missing its first square?
Your explanations for the mangled grid are ingenious, and it’s tempting to agree with them in order to appear fiendishly clever. In context, the idea that you have to look out for number one (across) is hilarious!
However, I have to tell you that the grid is indeed just plain mangled – 1Ac should be there, starting in the first square of the grid, with six letters, and the final across light is entirely missing – obvious enough, really, from all the sad little dangling ends in the bottom-right corner. The missing clue is:
1Ac Boatman might be on quarterdeck keeping watch by one (6)
Kudos to you if you managed to reconstruct and solve the whole thing without that piece of information!
Well, Boatman, that’s the last time I’m taking you seriously! 😉
If you’re still confused, the correct version of the puzzle is here: http://www.boatmancryptics.co.uk/Boatman 26476.pdf Enjoy!
Love the Nina!
btw “Corrections and clarifications” today acknowledges the mistake in Otterden’s (Wednesday’s) 1ac.
Sorry, the 19 (or is it 20?) with the grid spoilt it for me. After about 20 minutes of juggling between clues and answers (and having spotted that there wouldn’t be enough white spacers for the final across clue anyway), I gave up. Probably all very clever but life’s too short…………
Very disappointing after a mixed week. Thanks anyway.
Thanks scchua and Boatman. I did the print version, and it was turning out a great puzzle until I noticed that the 1 across clue was missing – I did wonder if it was some bizarre reference to the theme, but alas, just the Curse of the Graun, it seems. So much delicious irony in the theme clue, and MIX-UPS.
The two long down answers came very easily (after getting 2d, 8d suggested itself straigth away), but other than that it’s a clever, enjoyable crossword. Favourite was DOING UP. Held up for a while by thinking there was such a car as a GM Metro.
And now I get “one” in the captcha….
What a mixup. Was it serendipitous or planned. I still managed to complete it with afew exceptions. I liked the idea that boatman is afloat so even if unplanned it provided food for thought. Aus chasing England at the cricket – same with this challenge to our down under understandings. Loved it.
Managed it all apart from OCHRE. We seem to have been here before, with a mangled puzzle (about a year ago?)
I wonder what hedgehoggy will have to say today! Bet he loves it.
Favourites were COWS MILK, MIX-UPS and STARSHIP.
A glitch in the digital file deleted the clue for 1 across and garbled the grid and clue numbers in the online version. The online version should be corrected shortly (the PDF version was in any case correct). The missing clue is: Boatman might be on quarterdeck keeping watch by one (6)
Well, I enjoyed that anyway. All added to the fun, thinking it was deliberate. Nearly got there, but for the missing lights for EGOISM, so was applying that clue to the 5 letter 1ac. Thought it might be FRONT, as in, ‘I had the FRONT to do this and mess with your heads.’ Ha-ha. 🙂
Thanks Boatman, a great puzzle despite the MIX UPS
The correct grid is up now. I managed to do the garbled version, but am going to go through it again.
Thanks Boatman & Hugh for the explanations. I started confidently with ONE-SIDED and put it in where 14A now resides, and wondered why the Check button said it was wrong! Luckily, I did have the paper version to check (although that still had the 1A clue missing.)
Thanks scchua for struggling on. I think the last time this grid was used by Audreus it was severely criticised for the two words with three unchecked lights. Time to ditch this Guardian grid!
Shame that a good crossword was somewhat spoiled by mangling. It’s quite funny that all the early birds found extra meaning in the missing 1A clue. Some nice clues. I particularly enjoyed Elvis’s pelvis and FEATHER ONE’S NEST – very clever.
In my world, prophet does not rhyme with profit, just as bucket does not rhyme with buck it.
Poor Boatman, Grauniad incompetence has overdone it today – missing clues and scrambled grids. What next?
The online version had been fixed by the time I got to the puzzle so I didn’t have the added fun that some of you did. Once I got the gateway clue the rest of the themed answers came fairly quickly, so from that perspective I found this a little easier than a lot of Boatman’s puzzles, but it still contained plenty of his trademark misdirections. I finished in the SW with PERCH, SHUTTER and SETTER.
There was a Graun-up a few months back on a Paul puzzle and I thought it was all part of the fun and somehow managed it only to find it was not intentional . The Graun has a tradition to keep and i am still a big fan!
One attempt to fix today’s had 1a as 2a with 5 letters instead of 6 and still no corresponding clue so I was thinking “first”
to go with number one but it rather clashed with 3d.Yes, poor Boatman- a great puzzle but a bit like a corked bottle of wine.
He he… trying to solve the across clues online reminded me of this old Two Ronnies sketch.
As Boatman kindly explained the grid mangling and posted the missing clue in the comments section – and here too I now see – I got there in the end, although I didn’t find it as easy as others seem to be suggesting.
My only complaint was the Spoonerism – a clue type which, unlike most people, I usually love. Knowing very little French I used Google translate to get the meaning of ‘comme le dit’. I figured out that was an instruction to get the French for ‘your body’, but sadly Google only offered ‘votre corps’ for that. I eventually got the solution from the definition and the crossers and sure enough the reverse translation of ‘ton corps’ was ‘your body’, but I’m afraid I was already rather disgruntled by it by then!
I enjoyed the rest of it though, particularly STARSHIP which made me laugh.
Thanks Boatman and scchua.
Luckily I came to this puzzle after everything had been sorted. Very nice indeed, although I spent an embarassingly long time thinking that Elvis’s pelvis must be a THRUSTER. Well, spaceships use thrusters to move, right?
Excuse if someone has already suggested this – AFLOAT is AFT (quarter-deck) containing LO (keeping watch) A (one).
Well I’d have enjoyed this more if it had been printed correctly, but in the end (once I’d found the missing clue for 1) it was one of Boatman’s less fiendish efforts, and quite an enjoyable solve, which was just as well given my struggles with both Otterden or Tramp this week. Favourite was STARSHIP, last in (apart from AFLOAT) was CEMENT – for me most of the difficulties were in the right hand side.
Thanks to Boatman and scchua
So now, I’ve had to undo the edit note I had done.
Some of those early explanations are very ingenious and amusing!
I had a quick look at the online version before it was fixed and decided to go back to the paper version – a wise decision as it turned out but the online version is now working correctly. The printed version was just missing clue number 1.
I do the paper version and thought that 1ac must be sentry (look out for number one) but luckily didn’t put it in.
It’s a while ago since I saw it, so the memory maybe faulty, but I thought there was some guideline about not having three successive unchecked letters as in 13 and 19? Remind me someone please.
All but finished the paper version in a couple of local train journeys, just 3d and of course 1a left to do. Checked the online version; OCHRE had been on my list but I had thought ‘Heart’ = H so couldn’t parse it. Suitably nautical 1a made sense of course. Oh and I found out that dashing in EGOIST was a silly thing to do.
Thanks to Boatman for a lovely puzzle and scchua for making the best of the situation! Thanks to the Guardian techies for eventually sorting it out.
@Hugh – thanks for dropping by here. Very curious as to why you don’t do the same on the paper’s own blog – I’m sure it would be appreciated.
@DL
It is very unusual – as far as I know this is the only grid in the Guardian library that transgresses the guideline, and the last time it was used by anyone was Audreus on 14th December 2012 (puzzle 25,819). I’m quite sure it wouldn’t get past the editor at (for example) the Indie, where the setters have the freedom to design their own grids rather than choosing from a set.
Derek @31 – I agree that this isn’t a nice grid, but at least Boatman used two of his easier clues for those
Well, I got to this after the correction and enjoyed it immensely, particularly the weirdly self-referential 11a. Commiserations to Boatman for having his excellent puzzle mangled, and thanks to scchua for explaining OCHRE.
I initially guessed at the existence of a GM Metro instead of an MG Metro, which seemed reasonable based on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geo_Metro:
“The Geo Metro was a marketing and manufacturing variation of the Suzuki Cultus available in North America from 1989 through 2001 as a joint effort of GM and Suzuki”.
Serves me right for not thinking British to start with.
re the MG Metro – that was my first in, and I have to admit that my first thought was “that’s not very old”, but I see it was launched in 1982…
We always do the crossword from the Print Version – and didn’t print it out until late morning, so were mystified by the first few comments!
re the Spoonerism, I was happy with the foreign language – ‘ton corps’ isn’t exactly advanced French.
But surely it’s not pronounced to rhyme with CONTOUR ?
I would pronounce the French to rhyme with ‘core’, but the English to rhyme with ‘bluer’ and I think I’m fairly RP. Am I alone?
I started this on the paper until noticing the missing 1ac. I found the complete version on my Kindle. Even without the omission I found this difficult as I usually do with this setter and I didn’t parse a good number of those I “solved”. I just don’t seem to get Boatman. Still some of this was good- I loved STARSHIP- but overall I can’t say I enjoyed this especially.
Sorry!
Seeing the mangled puzzle, I just went to bed, assuming it would be fixed in the morning. Right. Mr Stephenson, do you submit the puzzles as XML or something? I can see how that might cause problems if the first clue were left out.
So anyway, I solved away without much difficult, not understanding half the parsings but still managing to put in the correct answers. My only quibble is that I interpreted ‘self-absorbed’ in 23 to mean that Boatman was preoccupied with his puzzle theme.
I agree with you about not enjoying it, Peter @38 & I’m sure we don’t need to apologise for feeling that way. I managed it, apart from 1ac, at around 7am & it really spoilt my breakfast!
Well done Scchua, you deserve a medal.
Thanks Boatman and scchua.
I found this hard, especially the first time round in the wonky grid. Did it a second time just now.
LOOK OUT FOR NUMBER ONE, MIX UPS and WACKO were very appropriate on the first try.
Mitz and DL – Interesting statistic about the grid. It doesn’t surprise me – I’ve no idea why it appears that way in the Guardian library, as it could easily be corrected by extending two of the five-letter down lights across the unsightly gaps. As things stand, there are only nine Guardian grids with a pair of 15-letter lights, so it’s difficult to avoid this one entirely. It definitely would have been unfair to have put a pair of horror clues there, though …
Mr B – I’m sure you’re not alone. Those diphthongs are devilishly difficult to pin down: we’d all agree that YOUR and YOU’RE are very different words, but some people say YOU’RE as if it was YOUR (and some of them will sound as if they’re saying YORE while others will seem to be saying YAW) and others say YOUR as if it was YOU’RE (which might or might not sound like EWER). The only completely safe approach is to avoid them entirely, but … well, in this case it was too much fun to ignore … to my mind, at least!
I enjoyed it, clever thematic links – though came to it online when problems had been resolved. Thanks to Boatman and scchua.
And thanks to Angstony @24 for the link to the 2 Ronnies sketch – a real gem that had me in tucks.
Mr Beaver at 37: just you and me, see my comment at 4. Homophones always arouse regional ire,Spoonerisms madden many and here we have them both fiendishly together.
Thanks Scchua for your patience and steadfastness.
Thanks also to angstony for the link to the Two Ronnies sketch which is just as inventive but so much more entertaining than this crossword…
As late-in-the-day-pdf-solvers (so after 1ac was added at the website), today’s crossword didn’t cause any confusion to us.
But, poor scchua, well done you!
Not the hardest Boatman ever but a joy to solve.
There’s quite some cleverness in the clueing here.
In his last few puzzles Boatman has been less ‘outrageous’ than in some earlier offerings. All the better.
Today the only thing that perhaps the hedgehoggies of the world might not like was the split one had to make in ‘Self-absorbed’ (23ac) but it was wholly appropriate, we thought.
After yesterday’s discussion on controversial surfaces, I hope Boatman gets away with 13ac.
Good homophone or not, clever from a cryptic point of view, but.
Personally, I didn’t like the use of ‘made’ in 14ac very much but that’s only nitpicking in an in my (read: our) opinion really good puzzle.
Meanwhile, we are still waiting for a proper explanation of 26ac (is it EGOISM or EGOIST?). I’m afraid, I do not understand the parsing in the blog. As no-one seems to have any trouble with it, someone will surely stand up to enlighten me/us.
Hats off to Boatman!
Sil, long time, hi, umm, is it too late at night? What’s the problem with 26? It has to be egoism because the sm comes from the first letters of “S[elfish] M[e]”. There isn’t a T there for it to be st. OK so maybe me does double duty, it’s not the first time that has happened surely?
Ok – can I call nonsense here? We saw a minor witchhunt earlier this week for an Otterden puzzle that was far less offensive than this one (Or indeed yesterdays’s with it’s ridiculous quotation). I actually really liked Otterden’s submission, hated yesterday’s (that long quotation turned it into a quiz rather than a crossword as far as I’m concerned), & didn’t like today’s (even allowing for the snafu).
I’m just disappointed that we seem to play favourites here rather than judge puzzles on their merits.
I have to admit though – my favourite puzzle over the past months was Puck’s masterpiece. As an engineer it does my heart good to solve a puzzle that acknowledges that not every solver is a classical scholar.
Thanks, Derek, much appreciated
So it’s EGO (me) + I (me) + S[elfish] M[e] (indicated by ‘first’ for S, then ‘foremost’ for M).
Is this meant to be an &lit?
And if so, scchua should not have underlined part of the clue, I think – confusing.
It was also confusing because Otterden just recently had M clued by ‘foremost’.
We considered EGOIST because of ‘first’ perhaps being ‘1st’ (first).
I don’t think “me = I” but perhaps dictionaries will probably tell me otherwise.
I get it now but I don’t think this is the strongest of the set.
Hi Sil,
The principle I use is that &lits and partial &lits do have definitions, whether it is the clue in whole or part of it. And the underlining I use for the definition will include part or all of the wordplay.
In this case I think that “first” by itself was sufficient to give SM, and thus I took the definition to be “me first and foremost” – ignoring the punctuation between “me” and “first” to give the concept of egoism.
Sorry that I didn’t expand on the definition in the blog.
Hi scchua.
In your eyes, “selfish me, first” is clearly part of the construction.
I do agree that ‘first’ would be enough for clueing SM
But then “and foremost?” is just something that’s added.
I cannot believe that this was Boatman’s intention.
And if you underline “me, first and foremost”, then half of this is doing double duty.
Grrr.
The more I think about it, the more I think this is just a messy clue, only there to serve the theme. Not worthy to be included in this otherwise excellent puzzle.
[well, I can accept my own &littish parsing, still not happy with me = I, though]
Well, it’s a bit of a nightmare technically, to which not defining the answer correctly is an added bonus. Unless it’s DBE hahahaha!
Time for bed. Boing.
Blaise @11 mentions a Nina… I can’t see one – can somebody point me at it? Sorry for being slow.
(btw I too initially put ‘T’ at the end of 26a, but wasn’t 100% happy with it)