Guardian 28,199 – Tramp

87 comments on “Guardian 28,199 – Tramp”

1. Agreed a bit of a challenge. The parsing of 26ac was a bit of a stretch EFF=blind? although I get the logic.
   Off to tuogh up Peason behind the bike sheds

2. Yes, not as hard as Vlad yesterday, but tough going. I found the NW & SE corners easier than the other two. Liked FOLLICLY CHALLENGED (first one in), SCOTCH and GLUTEI. Couldn’t parse THESPIAN. Many thanks to Tramp for the runaround, and to Andrew for the blog.

3. Thanks Andrew.

   Did not parse 10a; after seeing your parsing, ‘ollie’ is the soul, CR is the outer layer, so body maybe.

   We are more attuned to top, tail, extremely and essentially?

   7d: I was messing around with SP for special…well.

4. I too was puzzled by body = outer letters at 10a.

   I searched around for a justification, and can offer two possibilities:

   1) the body(work) of a car is the exterior;

   2) more metaphysically, the body ‘clothes’ the soul; I also thought of embodiment = incarnation, and “veiled in flesh the Godhead see” from the Christmas hymn.

   But it’s still a bit of a stretch.

   Otherwise great puzzle, thanks Tramp and Andrew.

5. Sorry, ilippu @3, we crossed, but were clearly thinking along similar lines.

6. Yes, effing and/or blinding? Hmmm. Glad you said phew, Andrew, as it took me about as long as Vlad’s did yesterday, but I thought I was having a slow brain day. Eg, for 18ac thought of Punch (and Judy) immediately, but forgot and only remembered later after sussing bowls for delivers. And again, only sussed Teachers once the h was in…slow! Then, fell down a wormhole re The (much-acclaimed) Piano, which we enjoyed, but some Oz critics flayed. So, a good tough puzzle that deserved better attention. Thanks both.

7. Easier than yesterday, I think.

   LOI was EFFUSE,  a guess because it was a new word for us, and we had not heard ‘effing and blinding’ so parsing was tricky too (we have a ‘no google until we’re finished’ rule).

   Favourites were FOLLICLY CHALLENGED and PERSON.

   Thanks Tramp and Andrew.

8. …and definitely wasn’t up to metaphysics, thanks ilippu and essex boy; just briefly went..shell? hmm, shrug, bung.

9. I agree entirely with your preamble, Andrew. This took me so long to get a toehold that I was tempted to give up. Each quadrant seemed to be a tough climb, and when one was finished, there was the next one to surmount. Like you and others I had question marks about the “body” being the outer letters in 10a SCREAM, and while I like the creative suggestions above re bodies, souls and cars, I remain unconvinced.

   18a PUNCH BOWLS was all I had for quite some time. However as I progressed (at a snail’s pace), I enjoyed cracking 1a13d FOLLICLY CHALLENGED, 9a SCARFACE and 17d WHEELIES – though each one of those was tough. I am still kicking myself for not seeing THE PIANO in THESPIAN at 7d. Looking at my margin notes I have THE (SP) IAN – and I just didn’t see it even though I thought of O for Oscar in the NATO alphabet (cf. the comment by iluppu@3). (BTW, gif@6, it was a film I really liked.) My LOI was a desperate grab and I filled in an unparsed ICONIC at 24a instead of IRONIC, so after all the time spent on that SW corner, I was ultimately a DNF.

   Thanks for the mental stretch, Tramp, and for the helpful blog, Andrew. I am perversely pleased that I didn’t give up, but it certainly took me an inordinately long time for an unsatisfactory outcome.

10. [P.S. I do like that new phrase you have invented, “shrug and bung”, grantif@8. Very handy. I also liked the abbreviation someone included recently, IMvHO. I think I should start every comment with that, so could other members of the community please always take that humility as read?]

11. Good even by Tramp’s high standards. About the same difficulty and enjoyment as Vlad yesterday. Slowed down in the SW-as you say not helped by the grid. I thought ESCHEW and WHEELIES were brilliant.

    Thanks Tramp and Andrew(excellent blog)

12. Relieved to see that experienced solvers thought this was challenging! A three-session puzzle for me, even if easier than yesterday’s.  My first was FOLLICLY CHALLENGED, a good LEAD-IN to the rest. As usual, quite a few I could not parse but persevered with definitions and partial parsing to complete Tramp’s offering.  Do not see how one becomes ACE in 9ac unless Ace,2,3 instead of K,Q, Ace.  Also Moselle is chiefly a white wine… Have not seen EFFUSE before; it was my last bung.

    Thanks Tramp and Andrew for the illuminating blog.

13. ‘Eff and blind’ is one of those expressions in which two elements are presented as distinct concepts but are in reality the same thing. ‘Terms and conditions’ is the nearest example to it I can think of at the moment but there are others. If anything, ‘eff’ is closer in meaning to ‘blind’ than ‘terms’ is to ‘conditions’. I’m sure there is a term (no pun intended) for this grammatical device but others will I’m sure confirm.

    The example used on the G thread of ‘little’ and ‘large’ is not analogous at all.

14. @Bingybing – ship-shape and Bristol fashion?

15. Bingybing – you may be thinking of legal doublets (though effing and blinding doesn’t really count as one..)

16. [..ta JinA, tho it doesn’t really feel like an invention, more a symptom of my laziness 🙂 ]

17. Thanks both. Still puzzled by the “American” in 27a. Could it be that AD is an American abbreviation for advantage?

18. For me this was harder than yesterday’s Vlad, and I only managed to finish after some guessing and checking.  I liked 9a SCARFACE – crosswords’ favourite gangster, but I don’t remember him being clued this way before.  Like some others I couldn’t parse 7d THESPIAN because I was fixated on SP for special.

    Re 11a APIARIES: a few days ago some commenters thought “here” had to indicate something singular; but it seems fine to me.

    Andrew, your explanation of 27a ADHESION doesn’t mention the “to American” – is AD an American abbreviation?

19. Shirl, I’ve guessed the same as you re AD .

     

20. Thanks Tramp, Andrew

    Chambers gives ad. as N American abbreviation for advantage in tennis.  In the UK, van is more common – van in/van out for server’s/receiver’s advantage – but you occasionally hear ‘your ad/my ad’.

21. It was very hard to get going on this one. Due to the grid, I solved it as separate mini puzzles, starting with NW, then NE, SE and finally the SW.

    Liked FOLLICLY CHALLENGED, SCOTCH , REVEILLE, ESCHEW, WHEELIES.

    Did not parse LEAD-IN = shot at the crease; ARCHITRAVE apart from RAVE = party; KNOCK OFF = run down on vacation; or EFFUSE – which I still do not understand. What is effing and blinding?

22. ignore my question above ^

    I found it now – I had never heard of it before!

    eff and blind British informal use expletives; swear: I scrabbled for my clothes, effing and blinding. [blind from its use in expletives such as blind me (see blimey).]

23. On the subject of advantage, I just went to the first and obvious source of general information – Wikipedia – and there are several references to ‘ad’ including some ugly phrases I’ve never heard uttered in a tennis context: “my ad”, “your ad” and “ad in”.  Maybe it’s me but I feel the article does have a slightly US feel to it, suggesting it may have been written by an American contributor.  We may have to await our US community coming online in a few hours time but I suspect this will turn out to be an Americanism – hence the qualifier in the clue.

    Hmmm in Oz @12: ace is fairly regularly used in crosswordland to stand for one and, you’re absolutely right, most if not all Moselle wine is white but that has no bearing on the clue/solution.

    Good to see Tramp back again and another meticulously clued puzzle.  If you can arrive at GLUTEI without having heard of them, it must be a decent clue.  Many ticks, as is usual with Tramp: REVEILLE had a lovely construction, THESPIAN and CYCLISTS both made me smile but SCOTCH earns my COTD for the misdirection.  Isn’t ARCHITRAVE a lovely word?

    Thanks Tramp and Andrew for your hard work this morning.

24. Strewth, that yielded its secrets reluctantly.

    Notwithstanding the courageous justifications for body of collier = CR by essexboy et al, I’m not buying it.  I do hope Tramp will drop in and make a spirited defense.

    Films are hugely subjective, of course, but I found watching The Piano a joyless experience and would never want to see it again.

    Shirl @17:  Yes, that’s how I read it, anyway.

     

25. Many thanks for a great blog, Andrew – Phew indeed!

    Really satisfying to finish, after being slightly held up. like others. by SP in 7dn and some other parsings – but that just adds to the enjoyment. The ‘body’ in 10ac didn’t strike me as odd when solving. I suppose I thought of it as the body of a car – I’m not up to metaphysics at breakfast time!

    As yesterday, I had too many ticks to list but I particularly liked the two actor clues at 7 and 8 dn and the WEE LIES in 17dn made me smile.

    I’ve been typing and refreshing too slowly [and being interrupted by phone calls) to keep up with the queries such as Hmmm in Oz’s re ACE and Moselle wine and Shirl’s re AD. (I do remember American tennis commentators l- John McEnroe, for instance – talking about ‘ad point’.)

    Huge thanks to Tramp for a most enjoyable challenge – now I’ll have a go at Morph.

     

     

     

26. I found this a lot harder than yesterday’s Vlad. Nearly brilliant but for me, let down by rich=IRONIC, with=PER and nick=KNOCK OFF

    One might NICK something from a jewellers but to KNOCK OFF a jewellers refers to the robbery in toto

    Effing good overall though

    Musically we have prog rock legends Yes hiding in a nina – Tales from Topographic Oceans anyone?

    Cheers all

     

27. A pleasingly challenging and on the whole, fair crossword, I thought. I appreciated lots of the clues with 5 being especially neat.

    I too had reservations about the use of “body”in 10 to indicate the exterior and it seems like the surface was too compelling to change it.

    I thought 26 a poor clue. I have never used EFFUSE to mean DIFFUSE, but it’s there in Collins. Does “EFF” mean “blind” and normally is “get through” not to “use up”?

    7 had to be a guess then parse as there were quite a few films in 1993.

    Thanks Tramp and Andrew.

28. Too tough for me, I’m afraid. Two passes through the clues yielded only six answers, two of which I wasn’t confident about. In addition, they were spread out, so I couldn’t really build on them. Ah well, tomorrow is another day.

    Thanks to Tramp and Andrew.

29. Thanks Tramp and Andrew

    Difficult – I needed electronic help to complete, and some not parsed. Favourite SCARFACE.

    bodycheetah @26

    That’s rich coming from you!

    (intended as example only 🙂 )

30. James @20, most interesting re advantage. In a long(ish) life of learning, playing, listening to and watching tennis, I’ve never heard “van”, either in or out.

    And William @24, my most beloved Oz journo, Phillip Adams (himself an ex-film producer), is in your camp re The Piano. As a student of behaviour, what pushes people’s buttons, or fails to, is always fascinating.

31. Haha Muffin @29 That’s the thing about the English language – you can almost always contrive a sentence that seems to mean the same thing in a given context. That said, I’ve violated my own pedantry rule of thumb which is to remember that it’s a cryptic crossword not an English/Maths/Physics exam

32. Blimey glad I’m not alone – a lot of hunt the synonym. More appreciated than enjoyed. When the parsing for EFFUSE finally hove into view it was more relief to be able to get on with the day than unalloyed joy.

    SCARFACE ESCHEW and APIARIES were the pick for me.

    Can’t believe it’s getting on for 30 years since The Piano. For anyone who found it gloomy do not watch The Nightingale – despite being set in lovely Tas it’s brutal!

33. bodycheetah @26 so you’re the geezer with a double-necked guitar?

    Swerving Alanis Morissette, I’ll suggest Prince Buster. Don’t call me Scarface. My name is Capone. Al Capone.

34. A gem of a puzzle, a challenge from start to finish, but many smiles throughout the fascinating journey. I was lucky in solving FOLLICLY CHALLENGED almost immediately (an amusing term I’m familiar with), and had almost none of the troubles with the definitions and parsing discussed above. There were too many excellent clues to mention, but favorites included REVEILLE, LOCKER-ROOM and APIARIES, plus the interplay between CYCLISTS and WHEELIES.  Overall, this was crossword entertainment on the grand scale.

35. At 10a, I took “body of collier” to mean the opposite of “skeleton of collier”, so just another version of outside/inside, etc.

36. Like Median @28, I got six answers and gave up. Not just because the clues were difficult, but because there was nothing intriguing to them to make me wonder what the solutions could be. Thanks to Andrew for doing the hard work, but still glad I didn’t bother. In other words, a perfect Thursday crossword.

37. Thanks Tramp and Andrew. Excellent puzzle, two in a row.

    Lord Jim @ 18: 9 is a bit chestnutty. Stickingjust to the graun

    Paul 27835 31/5/19 “Hood, warmer one”
    Chifonie 27139 8/3/17 “Stole whizz for a notorious gangster”.

    bodycheetah @ 26: It’s not ‘with = per’, it’s a = per (the meal cost £20 per/a head). And how about “There’s a guy down the pub [remember them?] selling TVs he nicked/knocked off yesterday”?

38. Relieved to find that I wasn’t the only one to find this difficult.  An enjoyable battle as expected with a Tramp crossword

    Thanks to him and Andrew

     

39. Like many others this was a very daunting prospect after a first read through the clues with only four falling and all in separate corners of the grid. But slowly, slowly it yielded and became rather enjoyable as it did so.

    Andrew I’m sure your parsing of KNOCK OFF is what Tramp intended but I initially read it as a triple definition (“Nick” as in steal, “run down” as in knock someone off their bike, and then “on vacation“ as in to knock off work). With hindsight the grammar is all over the place but I was getting a bit desperate by that point!

    Having got SCREAM and backwards parsing I also was unsure how the body indicated the outer letters – I guess the justifications here just about work but it definitely felt back to front to me.

    Thanks Tramp for the workout and Andrew for the blog.

40. For 10a, what also is the equivalence between “seam” and “coalface”? The latter is very specifically only the bit of the former that is exposed. A pedant’s paradise.

41. Once I had the check letters in place, thought of effuse via diffuse. No problem with “eff”; it was “use” =”get through” I was unsure about.

42. Cheers Simon S @37 – I’m sure PER / A will crop up again 🙂 and it was of course explained in the blog too which somehow I missed – oops

43. bodycheetah @26: Your mention of ‘YES’ and and the marvelous TfTO prompted me to look for other ninas. There are several including POEM, but REO [speedwagon] also popped up in the SE corner.

    Enritirely coincidental I’m sure.

44. Flippin’ heck – what happened there?   Toughie today – FOI was KNOCK OFF but then I’d say almost everything else was LOI!  Plenty of checking required today but a nice mental workout to blow the cobwebs out.  Thanks Tramp!

45. First run through yielded just SCREAM (no problem for me) and IRONIC. I saw the anagram fodder for BALD but couldn’t see the answer at all, straight off. Then slowly slowly, bits fell in, but after an hour of pain and torment and the grid only half filled, I conceded defeat. Vlad yesterday was a walk in the park, comparatively.
    I am a failure, but just because I have a mountain of life to get through today. Should have been a prize challenge then I could have devoted more time to it.
    I bow down to Tramp, and applaud you Andrew.

46. I don’t always appreciate Tramp’s art, but this was a worthy successor to yesterday’s Vlad. I had only two in on the first pass and not much more on the second, so I was pleasantly surprised to finish with only ESCHEW standing between me and success. There were several well-disguised definitions, SCOTCH being among my favourites. I admired the brevity of the clue for SCARFACE (might be old, as Simon S @37 says, but new to me) and was grateful for the clarity of the wordplay for ARCHITRAVE (Is that really a word? Well, I’ll be darned, it is!). Thanks to Tramp and to Andrew for parsing LEAD-IN (note to self: get a better command of those cricket terms).

47. I too found this on the tough side, but now I’m wondering why, exactly.  There weren’t too many obscure words, unusual usages (AD was flagged as American and is in many online dictionaries), only one really stretchy synonym (body), no homophones-that-aren’t.  There were a couple of places where liberties were taken in the definition – “shop” is INFORM ON, not INFORM, and “They’re in behind” is crying out for an article or possessive.  “1993 film” was a bit vague, but helped by the literal meanings of No Oscar and special.  As Andrew said, the grid was unfriendly, but helped by a couple of long-distance connections. So really, nothing outrageous, all fair, and a lot of clues very good.

    Can anyone put their finger on why they found this difficult, other than a little bit of everything?

48. Well, looks like I’m in the lead for slowest start to this excruciating Tramp: just one entry in the grid after twice through the clues. That was PIMPLE, but I still couldn’t get a start until I recounted the number of Ls in the FOLLICLY CHALLENGED anagram fodder (five, not four!) and finally wrote it in. Things speeded up a little after that, but the SW quadrant was very reluctant to allow entry, though I was glad to eventually see one of my favourite words at 22a: ESCHEW.

    Gave up with two left. PETITE for small just would not come to me at 15d. And I was momentarily distracted by the often-confused-for-each-other-by-journalists DIFFUSE/DEFUSE at 26a (did you know that Shakespeare used defuse to mean diffuse? – it’s in Chambers), but had to give up as I couldn’t find a synonym for blind (though swear appeared briefly on the radar, albeit very indistinct and fuzzy).

    This took me back to the days when I used to stare blankly at a Bunthorne for an hour or two before finding something more productive to do. With more time on my hands these days I’m glad I persevered. Thanks Tramp and Andrew, and congratulations to all who completed.

49. Thanks Andrew for the blog and thanks to others for their comments. I’m very busy so haven’t read most of this thread.
    I only wrote this puzzle two weeks ago. The body of a car is it’s shell or frame so, for me, the body of collier is CR.
    By the way, Vlad’s puzzle yesterday was amazing.
    Neil

50. Dr. WhatsOn: “Can anyone put their finger on why they found this difficult, other than a little bit of everything?” Isn’t it the hallmark of a very good setter that the difficulties you found in solving are impossible to remember once you’ve got the answers? Trying to remember what held you up is like trying to recall a pain.

    For me it was that the surfaces were impenetrable, but I assumed that was because my brain was a little muzzy this morning, so I went and cleared the cobwebs with a killer sudoku. Some of the clues I continued to look at bemusedly, with the grid still all but blank, but with one or two crossers they were suddenly clear as day.

    Difficult synonyms, plenty of deception (“a” acting as an article in the surface but PER to be entered) and misdirection (Moselle wine is mostly white but RED is what is entered, as has been pointed out), and a couple of outrages (body for outer letters, EFF for blind). Yes, a little bit of everything in a very good crossword.

51. I set out with my usual enthusiasm and, on completion an hour later, staggered outside, dazed and blinking into the sunshine, brain frazzled but feeling immense satisfaction. Dr WhatsOn @ 47, I think the reason I found it so tough was that there were very few “sore thumb” clues where the parsing was immediately obvious. The grid is a very common one that I must have seen a hundred times before, but with only a single-letter link between each corner and its neighbours, like michelle @21 my pedestrian solving was carried out in four separate parts, switching between them. Certainly a high-quality challenge.

    I still enjoy listening to Topographic Oceans now and again, more for nostalgic reasons than for appreciation of surely the most pretentious album ever. Actually, I think I’ll put it on now as some light relief.

52. Don’t start Vlad after lunch, I said yesterday. Well, I’m glad I started this one before. My solving proceeded at two paces. Before sandwich, glacial, maybe half a dozen solutions scattered across the grid. After? Perhaps I’d looked in the mirror, but I don’t remember it, for FOLLICLY CHALLENGED leapt out at me and demanded to be entered. From here it was one inspiration after another, and it’s been a long while since I’ve been so proud of a solve.

    Tramp is very good at not wasting words, and there are some good examples here: AGITATES and LOCKER-ROOM, for example. But not everything was parsed, so thank you Andrew for your efforts.

53. Absolute rubbish, as was yesterday\’s.

    Cyclists don\’t do wheelies, you need an engine for that. Pious does not mean good. Bill Gates isn\’t (and never was) a businessman. Is the Guardian getting sponsorship for 5ac? Many more but I can\’t be bothered.

     

     

     

54. Dr. WhatsOn @47 – difficult crosswords for me are those that depend on taking a step too far (for my limited brain) in spotting synonyms and allusions. Many on this site appear to have an ability to identify solutions without parsing them, suggesting a skill in identifying the definition part of the clue and finding the appropriate synonym. I don’t have that thesauric ability and do a lot of bottom-up solving, following the cryptic logic. And coming a cropper when this logic also involves stretching synonyms.

55. Norman Stevens @53

    Have you never seen a kid on a BMX bike doing wheelies? I’ve even seen them done on mountain bikes.

56. I apologise if someone has already come up with this but I’m afraid I haven’t had time to check the whole thread at the moment… With regard to the ‘blinding’ part of EFFUSE, I read it (heard it?) as F U s – or perhaps EFF YOUSE!! to employ the Australian vernacular – and was rather impressed.

57. I’ve just had a quick look at a few of the more recent posts…
    It seems to me that some posters allow themselves to become rather hotter under their collars than is useful or strictly necessary.

58. Agree, muffin @55. My first thought, Norman S @53, was “My young bloke [now 43] would disagree”; popping a wheelie on his BMX was a major achievement. Agree, though, about piety and goodness: definitely NOT synonymous… (it’s a convenient crossword trope, but hey ho, one man’s rubbush…)

59. ..and as for product placement (Teachers), well, yes, it’s an old issue (hoover, 99, lots of others but can’t think, too many shirazes..)

60. Norman Stevens @53

    I could never hold a wheelie on my bike as a kid – my balance wasn’t good enough, but plenty of kids could. I think Danny MacAskill would have something to say about that blanket claim though (lovely video, this – please do watch).

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj6ho1-G6tw

61. Great puzzle, one of Tramp’s very best, I thought.

62. “Absolute rubbish as was yesterday’s”

    Troll. Shows how little you know. Yesterday’s was brilliant. Anyone who knows anything about crosswords will tell you that.

63. MarkN @60: thanks for the link.  You must have seen his short film, The Ridge set in the Cuillin Mountains of his Skye birthplace?  If not, it is well worth it.  I can’t post a link as I think it’ll – deservedly – be behind a paywall somewhere but there are several shortish YouTube videos about the making of the film which give a flavour.  At times he makes mountain biking beautiful which is not an adjective I’d normally associate with the sport.

64. Tramp @62: well said.  I think – apart from correcting the erroneous observation about wheelies – which has led to some interesting posts – we’re just ignoring it.

65. Many thanks, MarkN @60 – amazing!

    And well said, Mark @64.

66. OMG I found that tough – just limping over the line now, hours after the elite runners have finished the race. Challenging fun and I learned some more things about solving cryptics. There were several I couldn’t fully parse (inc 25a, 26a & 27a, my very own Amen Corner) but the blog took care of that.

    Thanks Tramp & Andrew.

    Oh, and that was the most niche bit of trolling I’ve ever seen! And a terrible effort to boot. D minus, Must Try Harder. 🙂

67. Yesterday’s was fine – today I couldn’t even get going and gave up after a bit.

68. grantinfreo @30:  Not heard of the chap but your blog prompted me to look him up.  Quite a feller – I like him already.

69. MarkN @60:  My goodness!  Thanks so much – a slice of human endeavor I knew nothing about.

    Tramp @62:  Hear-hear.

70. Not following the advice of Trailman @52, I started this after lunch. With post-prandial sleepiness I failed to complete the SW corner (or at least that’s my excuse!)

    As James @20 said earlier, ad. is in Chambers for Advantage with ‘tennis, N. American’ added, so that’s OK then.

    A stiff challenge and I have no complaints about the cluing, just my failing to put it all together.

    Thanks Tramp and Andrew.

71. in 27a, ADHESION, what does “advantage to an American” have to do with anything?

    bingybing @13 — How about “rules and regulations,” a phrase which used to make my father fulminate., for an example of two supposedly different things?

    Van Winkle @40 — a seam is a place on the coalface.  If I’m in the street I’m only on one part of it, but the street goes ever on and on.

    Norman @53.  I have seen people on bicycles make their bike stand up on its rear wheel, which I think is a wheelie in common speech.  “Pious” doesn’t mean “good” but “pi” does, in the sense of “unco guid.”  Bill Gates founded a huge business, though perhaps his role in it was more inventor and innovator.

72. When I saw it was Tramp setting this crossword I was looking forward to some fun but I found this much tougher than his last offering. A tough puzzle can be the most fun but for some reason this felt more like a slog. I found it more doable, however, than yesterday’s Vlad or Artelexen’s beast in the FT. I did manage to complete this albeit with a few look-up’s and a lot of reliance on the definition part of the clue.
    Favorites were SCARFACE, HAMMERED, and WHEELIES. I noticed APPETITE made an encore appearance. Thanks to both.

73. Valentine @71 – mining terminology might be different where you are, but in the UK the seam is definitely the whole and the coalface just the exposed part.

74. Van Winkle @73

    You must have massive coal seam where you are! Typically in South Wales (tharea I know most about – my grandfather was a miner and my uncle a mine surveyor) the coal face is 2-3metres high, but the seam less than 1m. There is (was – mined out?) a seam know as the “two foot nine seam”, as it was consistently this thick througout the coalfield.

75. Valentine @71 (and the troll earlier) so the bit about Gates being chairman or CEO of one of the largest companies in the world for nigh on 30 years means he was not a businessman? It may not be how people immediately think of him (I’m sure he’d rather be remembered as a philanthropist) but he did run the company until mid 2000s so I think we have to give Tramp that one without question.

76. Alanis Morisette had a big hit with IRONIC which, ironically, features a RICH set of examples of things that aren’t really IRONIC. Of course this could have been some sort of post-modern meta-joke on her part 🙂

77. Thanks for a great puzzle Tramp and the blog Andrew.  Hard and not helped by getting sidetracked by thinking of “tricks” and “cyclists” and therefore looking for psychiatric terms for 17d – oops!

78. Tramp @62. Hypocrites = actors? Not in my dictionary. Bi = not completely straight; that one\’s offensive.

79. Norman Stevens
    The word hypocrite ultimately came into English from the Greek word hypokrites, which means “an actor” or “a stage player.”
    From the Merrimack-webster

80. Norman Stevens @78: Hypocrite – from the Greek hypokrites – meaning actor.  In most dictionaries.  Shows how little you know, as someone once said.

81. Zowlo @79: delighted to have crossed with you 😀

82. A fun puzzle, unlike most the SW was the first to fall and the NE last… in terms of solving not too difficult, but in terms of parsing – yikes! Many thanks to Tramp, and to Andrew for a shameful (on me) number of elucidations!

83. Thanks to both. This was much more of a challenge so I will blame four days of fine weather for addling my brain. And I failed! I had INFIRM for 3D from the definition “wearing”. Fashion gave me IN and shop gave me FIRM. Just could not see it my other way. My other grumblets have all been mentioned.

84. muffin @74 – I am writing from South Wales and doing so in three dimensions. The seam can extend many miles back from the coalface.

85. Delighted to see Tramp championing Vlad, and the community rushing in to bop trollish stuff on the nose. We were of the ‘today quite a bit harder than yesterday‘ group. FOLLICLY CHALLENGED in early, so thought we were away . . . Absolutely agree the grid is not nice: effectively 4 hard mini-xwords. Thanks to setter, blogger, and all the lovely folks here.

86. Being retired I tend to finish the crossword before getting up. Going down to breakfast with, if I remember correctly, two answers filled in hasn’t happened for some time.

    With this one, the last answer went in at a few minutes to midnight after I’d come back to it several times during the day. Really tough.

    For me, not as enjoyable as Vlad’s offering, but that’s just because I really enjoy a good dig at what passes for the British Government. But a first rate puzzle for all that. Thanks to Tramp for the puzzle and awe-struck thanks to Andrew for working out the parsings first thing.

87. Haven’t done crosswords since the rev died , nothing in this anywhere near as witty or elegant as any of his .
    A for area !! Really
    Excuse my rant , i must be getting old .

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.