Guardian Cryptic 28,188 by Philistine

82 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,188 by Philistine”

1. I enjoyed the clueing of ‘nod’ and ‘not us’, clever I thought. Did not get the RM reference to jolly in TOBERMORY, needing the blog for that. I also found LEPER a bit frustrating, as could not from the clue work out which way around was meant till I had the crossers. Agree with your comment re OVULE. Nevertheless a fun solve.
   Favs were TUSK (though I not familiar with Donald Tusk and had to google that) and PSYCHIATRY.

   Thanks to Philistine and PeterO.

2. Thanks, PeterO. I thought this was a gem of a puzzle. For OVULE, I agree with your definition but thought there was a second hidden one: a “small part” of the solution to the next clue is EGG!

3. A dnf due to a too-hasty and unparsed BROGAN at 20d, but still lots to like. I generally enjoy nonstandard clue structures such as for REDS and STET provided that the intent is clear, which was the case with both of these. I also liked the reverse cluing for CRYSTAL SET and TIME OFF, as well as the creative ‘nod’ and ‘not us’ as noted by ngaiolaurenson @1. (Also held up on LEPER for the reason you give, but that’s what the crossers are for.)

   Thanks to Philistine and to PeterO for clarifying ‘jolly.’ Thanks also to NeilW @2 for your observation about OVULE, though I’m not sure it was an intended connection.

4. Whoops, I clicked on the link for the Weekend crossword. It took me a while to realise I was at the wrong place! I might go back and do it later.

   Once I got here, I found this difficult to get started on. Solved only four and a half clues (including ROOM for 22d) on my first pass.

   Liked: TIME OFF, ANTICS

   New: DEWLAP, CHAPLET, jolly = RM, OVULE, BIOPOLYMER, TOBERMORY which I found via wikipedia – it looks like a quaint, little village with population of 1,000 but I had never heard of it until today.

    

   Did not understand why to drop the D for EASTER EGG/anagram. I can see now that noD is very clever!

   In 8a clue, I failed to parse the ‘is it best to ignore the odds’ part of the clue.

    

   Thanks Peter and Philistine.

5. I normally like Philistine puzzles, but while there were some cute ideas here, there were also imo some much less so.

   23a TIME OFF and 1d CRYSTAL SET both used exactly the same device, down to the question-mark. 5d PSYCHIATRY was quite ponderous, and would have been an &lit. if it weren’t for the “whereby”. 24a OVULE is somehow both contrived and inaccurate at the same time. One of the luminaries in the field once said that there should be no more than one “hidden”-type clue per puzzle; I think there were 5 here.

   I did like the “nod” in 25a and the “not us” in 14d not being the obvious subtraction of U-S, and also 23d TUSK.

6. OVULE I took the head of LOVE (L) was to be put between the heels of LOVE (VE) to give OVLE.

   I was convinced 21 ac would be a palindrome, but not so. Also spent some time thinking it would be LOCKER ROOM.

    

   Thanks PeterO and Philistine for an enjoyable puzzle

    

7. Thanks Philistine for a nicely crafted crossword. It’s always gratifying learning new words derived from parsing clues — SQUADDIE and CHAPLET are two I’ll add to my personal lexicon. I liked the wordplay-in-the-answer of TIME OFF; I missed it, however, in CRYSTAL SET. LEPER, ANTICS, and LUMBER ROOM were favorites. Thanks PeterO for the blog and explaining OVULE and TUSK.

8. Please excuse my ignorance, but how does OR = Gold?

9. Best midweek puzzle in a while, challenging and fun, a winning combination. Mischievous clues, some LOLs. Everything readily parsed, though I’m sure the parsing-police will be out in force, as usual.  Especially enjoyed TOBERMORY.  Never heard of CHAPLET or DONALD TUSK (last-one-in), but both easily solvable from the clues, and confirmed later.

10. I really enjoyed this offering from Philistine, and 5d PSYCHIATRY has to be my clue of the week. I relished all the quirky little tricks included in the clueing. My other ticks included 14a BLIND SPOT,  3d ANTICS, 4d REDS, 17d FERRETED and 20d BROGUE. I know there will be complaints about 21a LEPER not being properly indicated [I had the aforementioned debate with myself and started off with REPEL until LUMBER (ROOM) 21,22d indicated the reverse], but I still enjoyed that clue very much. I only solved 23d TUSK as I have met Donald Tusk in a previous crossword, where I remember I was stumped by that particular Donald. The most unfamiliar answer was 19a, where I got the TO BE and the ORY part, and as I had the R, that meant I had TOBER-ORY.  So I guessed TOBERMORY and then confirmed it via google (as for others above, I needed PeterO’s parse to learn that “jolly” was something to do with a nickname for a Royal Marines, though I still don’t really get it).

    Many thanks to Philistine and PeterO for the Friday fun.

11. [We crossed, rodshaw@9]

12. JinA, something to do with RMs’ uniforms (red jackets, maybe?) being more colourful than those of the sailors, is what I vaguely remember..

13. Alan@8.  OR is French for GOLD. Some clever little devices in this as previously mentioned, such as “nod” an “not us”.  All fell into place fairly quickly.  Thanks both.

14. Ah.  Many thanks Wiggers.  Found this a very enjoyable and challenging puzzle for a relative newbie.

15. Solve interrupted today (covid-related mercy mission involving a fox, chook,bag of wheat vehicle-swap). So, rattled through the rest on return, staring at loi ovule for a good few minutes. Noticed the us for uu and nod subtractions, among other trick, but didn’t get the Ys in psychiatry (lazy, biffed from crossers). Derrida always reminds me of the Sokal, a wicked sendup of post-whatsit language and a total hoot.

    Ta P & P, quite fun.

16. ..Derrida reminds me of the Sokal hoax, meant to say..

17. Certainly simpler and more enjoyable than yesterday’s corker, with no innuendo or theme that I could see. The give-away REDS was first and getting CRYSTAL SET early meant I could do the NW quadrant first. I did not know OVULE or TOBERMORY (obtained from googling TOBER). Some I could not parse, so blog useful. DEWLAP was my last. Likes: ROOKERY, EASTER EGG and FERRETED. Helped along by having plenty of hidden clues.

    Thanks Phil and PeterO.

18. I read that Jollies was the name for citizen soldiers of the Trained Bands of London in 1664, from whose ranks Marines were first formed. Later became navy slang for a Marine, and famously referenced by Kipling “Er Majesty’s Jolly“

19. Alan@8 and Wiggers@13.

    While Wiggers is, of course, quite correct, ‘or’ is the heraldic term for gold and I think that it is that connection compilers have in mind when they compose clues like 11a.

    As usual, I enjoyed this challenge from Philistine.

20. I also didn’t know RM or TOBERMORY but had TOBER_ORY and did a guess and verify. (PeterO I think the blog is missing the OR which is lifted directly from the clue)

    JinA@10 count me as one who did not like the insoluble LEPER. When I came to it I had only the P and could see the 2 answers but without another letter it’s a total guess which I think defeats the point of a cryptic with wordplay that should not be ambiguous.

    Dr WhatsOn@5 I agree 2 reverse anagrams clued so similarly was a bit clumsy.

    Wasn’t keen on the longwinded and unpolished clue for PSYCHIATRY which was a real deduce and then unpick.

    But overall these were minor niggles and it went in pretty easily and entertainingly. Thanks PeterO and Philistine.

21. Well – considering I’m in hospital recovering from yesterday’s hip replacement and I did not get my hands on the puzzle until after 2pm our time, I was pretty pleased to (nearly ) finish. I had TIME OUT for 23a so failed to see REFUGE even with TAKE above it! Also missed OVULE with a guessed olive which is small but clearly not parsed. Favourites were TOBERMORY and eASTER EGG.

    Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be more on the ball.
    Thanks to philistine for the puzzle and PeterO for filling in blanks.

22. What a strange puzzle – if not for the many “freebies” in the hidden answers the devious trickery of “yy” (reminding me of the children’s rhyme “yy u r, yy u b, i c u r, y y 4 me”), “us”, “nod” etc would’ve made this frustrating. Instead, those and the reverse clues went in because of the helpful crossers with more of a feeling of satisfaction and “aha” than they might’ve done. Like others, I has mixed responses to a lot of this but overall enjoyed the cleverness because it never seemed unduly unfair.

    I am surprised so few people know of Tobermory. Obviously they were not brought up on a healthy diet of The Wombles…

23. I was unaware of jolly=marine, but I did know (thanks to Hornblower) that one of the boats carried by a Royal Navy sailing ship was known as the jolly boat. I always found it an odd name but the link now seems obvious. It is presumably also related to “going on a jolly” (i.e. a short excursion).

24. Thanks to Philistine and Peter O. A nice friendly puzzle for a Friday.

    TOBERMORY brought back memories of a trip to Mull many years ago where we missed the last bus back from Tobermory to Craignure and would have missed the last Oban ferry of the day. Fortunately two Scottish policemen saw our plight and gave us a lift in the back of their van – which we shared with a thankfully friendly German Shepherd police dog. Happy days – and of course Tobermory was also one of the Wombles.

25. TheZed@22 another here who knew of Tobermory the womble first. I’m not sure you would know that they were named by sticking a pin in an atlas without reading the books. I’ve never found out how Madame Cholet got her name though.

26. It’s been an easy week for me apart from yesterday. Given my background, BIOPOLYMER really shouldn’t have been LOI, but somehow I had a temporary 14a. EASTER EGG = candy really grates, though.

    Thanks P&PO.

27. Perfect difficulty level for me, happy to do a bit of word searching to get the NW. Thanks to regular visits here was able to figure out the more inventive parsings. Favourites REDS and TUSK for the surfaces. Loved it all. Thanks Philistine!

    For those missing the UK GK: TOBERMORY was a character in The Wombles (he was ex-Navy it says here, a jolly bonus) and more recently the series Balamory was filmed there. So an old friend for me 🙂

28. I must be in a grumpy mood today, because I found this rather tedious, with a mixture of unchallenging write-ins and long-winded convoluted clues (one of the worst being PSYCHIATRY). I did like TAKE REFUGE and LEPER.

    Tobermorey was also the setting for Balamory and when I was there a few years ago there were several families with young children visting because of that. For many years (at least since my first visit circa 1961) there has been a local tradition of painting the houses in bright colours which makes for a picturesque approach from the sea.

    Thanks Philistine and PeterO.

29. Thanks for the blog,PeterO.

    Well, I loved it all, especially the ‘no d’, ‘not us’ and ‘wise pronouncement’ and ‘centre of next spy plot, free warrior’ – Philistine is just so good at these kinds of clue and takes such delight in playing with words. I don’t understand the objections to LEPER – in fact, I gave it a tick.

    Other favourites were 15dn TAKE REFUGE, for the super surface and TUSK for the construction and misdirection.

    I’m with NeilW – a gem of a puzzle.

    howard @25 – Cholet is a town in France.

    Many thanks, Philistine, as ever, for a lovely start to the day.

30. Never saw the Wombles, but I remembered Tobermory as the talking cat from Saki’s eponymous short story. Which I heartily recommend. Here it is.

31. For the OVLE part of OVULE, my mind was working along similar lines to Dave Ellison @6 – the only difference being that I don’t think over = between, so I saw ‘heels’, despite the plural, as being a collective description for the nethermost part of LOVE, i.e. the E.  The ‘head’, L, then goes directly ‘over’ the ‘heels’, to make OVLE – if you imagine LOVE to be standing up, of course.

    For BIOPOLYMER, I thought the anagrind was ‘grappled with’ – the YO I is grappling with PROBLEM – it’s an anagrind that only works if the anagrist is split into two, and the grinding results from the interaction between the two semi-grists.

    Many thanks P & P

32. One thing that has not been mentioned – two uses of part of a name to substitute for the other part (“Donald” for “Tusk” and “Lewis” for “CS”). Usually when something like Donald Tusk is clued it’d be with a question mark to indicate definition by example – after all, a Donald is not equal to a Tusk, but is an example of one. Hence cryptic grammar requires something beyond a simple sentence to indicate that.

    I think this works less well with the author of “Screwtape Letters” (so much better than Narnia…) because I don’t think anyone ever called him “CS” – he was Clive  formally and Jack to his friends. Hence, to my mind, not only is there no equivalence between “CS” and “Lewis” but it is also a poor definition by example.

    I’m only nitpicking – as I said I thought the puzzle worked very well with its balance of easy clues meaning the solver always had a way in to the more unusual devices, which I am sure was intentional and fair-minded of the setter. But often people do come on here to pick over the finer points of cryptic grammar and debate what is acceptable, so I thought I’d raise this point and see what others thought.

33. TheZed  @22

    Thanks for the Wombles link.  For those who may be confused, Tobermory doesn’t appear till 6:30 (aurally), 6:40 (visually) and isn’t named until 8:18.  I noticed the crossword at 2:38, bit I can’t quite make out the clues!

    Howard @25, the origins of all the names, including Madame Cholet, are here.

34. I found myself chuckling at “wise pronouncement” and realised that it’s largely down to the brilliant bloggers and fantastic forum members here that I’ve managed to achieve any kind of competence in this cruciverbal lark. So I just wanted to say thank you all for your help and for making lockdown a little more tolerable. Cheers

    PS: If you’re in need of musical inspiration today I can recommend either Fleetwood Mac’s underrated TUSK or Scritti Poliiti’s JACQUES DERRIDA from the Songs To Remember album

35. STET could be interpreted as “ take no action.

36. I’ve been lurking here for a few years, but until today never managed to finish the puzzle until the evening, by when everything of interest had already been discussed. Maybe it’s because I’m not working today so have had more time on the morning, or maybe I was just on Philistine’s wavelength, but this felt relatively straight forward I just needed Google to confirm that OVULE and CHAPLET meant what I thought they must from the clueing. Though I had missed the second STET, so hadn’t quite seen how that one worked.
    Thanks to both setter and blogger, and keep up the good work everyone!

37. I was fine with CS for Lewis-it werent gonna be Hamilton innit

    I thought this was a fine Phil-in fact a Philday instead of Phiday

    Just what the doctor ordered

    Thanks Philistine and Peter O

     

38. KenS @35. It is a subjunctive form of the Latin verb stare, to stand, which translates as ‘let it stand’. Common as a proofreading annotation. I once put it in a margin and a secretary included stet  in the text!

39. Although this was relatively easy, it was also very inventive with all sorts of devices already mentioned. I thought Scruff of the Neck and Take Refuge were the best of the anagrams. Alas, had to cheat on Biopolymer as science has always been my ‘blind spot’.

40. [Hmmm in Oz @38 That reminds me of the first time I did a French dictation and the teacher read out the passage with the word “virgule” in it, which I dutifully wrote down wondering what it meant. As I worried over it later checking my grammar I realised it was the French word for “comma”]

    [CanberraGirl @21 best of luck with the recovery – my mother had the same op just before lock down. Improvement seems to be very dependent on the physio and doing what they ask puts you well ahead of the curve as they expect most people to do less. It’s a massive operation but the recovery rates are superb and the improvement to life well worth it according to all those I know who have had it.]

41. 7D. Can someone please tell me what 16 stands for in “16 at the front”?

42. Speedy recovery, CanberraGirl@21, with improved pain-free mobility. [They are adept at that op now; the prostheses are brilliant, and the incisions have shrunk by half from when my mum had her first done, in the ’80s]

43. VDS Prasad @41 It refers to clue 16ac (or, rather, its solution)

44. Delightful puzzle with some superb ingenious clueing. Thanks Philistine and PeterO

45. Like GeoffSoul@44 I loved this. Got the ‘not us’ but not the ‘no-d’. Favourites were BLIND SPOT, CRYSTAL SET and IMPOSTER. Many thanks to P & P.

46. VDS Prasad, to expand on TheZed’s answer if necessary. You pick an animal up by the scruff of the neck, the folds of skin at the back on a cat or rabbit say. Dewlap I learnt today is the folds of skin round the front of the neck eg of cows or dogs. Which is a chance to mention “wattle”, a lovely word for the same thing.

    While I’m here, thanks to blaise for the Saki story, very PG Wodehouse.

47. Loved this somewhat cookie offering from Philistine, with ticks at TIME OFF, LEPER (so clever to use verb one way and noun the other), EASTER EGG, and, of course, the excellent TUSK.

    The double wordplay at REDS tricked me for a while.

    Lovely example of the setter’s art at its best…”a gentle duel between setter and solver which the latter should be destined to win”.  [The Don, I think]

    Many thanks, both, nice weekend, all.

48. [I wonder if PG has ever been clued as ‘Wodehouse’?]

49. Thanks for the blog.

    I wasn’t aware that a Royal Marine was known as a jolly. I convinced myself that ‘jolly jack tar’ was a common expression* and a marine as a member of the navy may be so-called.

    * Google does not support this!

50. My best ever attempt at crip rather than quip. Thanks.

    Essex boy @33 please explain the time refs. I am sure there’s a good pun hiding & I’ll feel daft when its explained. Awaiting the omg moment!

51. I got 12 solutions on first scan through which provided sufficient crossers to ease the way to a quick solve. 4 seems to have a redundant part as does 8 but I have learned from the comments over in the Guardian that apparently, it’s a ‘trademark’ of the setter.  My favourite clue was LUMBER ROOM and TUSK was very clever.

    Don’t like 21A which is a bit insensitive as it refers to a disease that, though curable, still occurs sporadically.  I agree with @5 Dr Whatson re OVULE.

    I think that completes a week of relatively easy crosswords for me anyway, compared with last week.

    Thanks Philistine and PeterO.

52. Carol @50

    The time refs were referring back to the Wombles link in TheZed’s post @22.  If you click on it you’ll find the whole of Season 1 – all 2½ hours of it!

    I found myself drawn into the nostalgia, but realised early on that Tobermory doesn’t appear at all in Episode 1 – you have to wait till Episode 2, and even then the mystery of Tobermory’s identity is revealed tantalisingly slowly.

    Sorry for the lack of clarity (and the lack of a good pun!) 🙂

53. Well, late to come on here, so everything has been said that I was going to add.
    Absolutely delightful puzzle, as PeterO so nearly commented. Just the right level of difficulty for me, I like a head scratcher but not a write in, and this was bang in the middle. A few gimmes, to get things going, a few chuckles, especially TUSK, and a couple to look up on the old web.
    Knew TOBERMORY from the kids TV show, featuring one Miles Jupp as I recall! My, how the mighty have fallen!
    Great puzzle and thanks PeterO for the fine tuning on a couple of things.

54. Thank you, TheZed@43 and dougalf@46.  I thought as much but could not see the connection to 16ac.

55. Got there in the end, had to get some crossers in to see which way LEPER or possibly REPEL went. Memories of sending away for the new thing in technology about 60 years ago, the CRYSTAL SET, which turned out to be nothing but a plastic box and next to nothing inside. Me hanging off a tree to get it to maybe work. It never did, of course. Very wordy crossword with much trickery, as usual with Philistine.

56. So much to like with this one. Strangely, it went in quite quickly and yet I still found it very tough. There were a handful I could only partially parse (all discussed above). A nice way to end the week.

    Thanks to Philistine and PeterO.

57. I found that puzzle a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly. A couple of slightly dubious anagrinds and four solutions contained within the clue (admittedly two of them reversed) which I think is too many. Some clues I found so daunting in their gargantuan length that I had to prepare myself by making a coffee, switching off my phone and cancelling all morning appointments before steeling myself for the tortuous task of reading such a leviathan. Then I just biffed PSYCHIATRY from the S T Y crossers.

    Nobody else has mentioned this, so I might be wrong, but shouldn’t “from the east” in 17D be “from the south” as it’s a down answer? OK, it’s east when you read the clue, but this seems inconsistent with “served up” in 4D.

    Despite my sarcasm, thanks Philistine; I enjoyed it.

58. Another DNF! This time because of hurriedly putting in IMPOSTER without parsing properly.

    Favourites were EASTER EGG (nod was great!) and LEPER.

    Thanks Philistine and PeterO!

59. May I be the first to point out that along with TOBERMORY, there are at least six more stories by Saki here? The ROMANCERS, The QUEST, The CHAPLET, The EASTER EGG, The BROGUE, and The LUMBER-ROOM. Then there is STORIES and if Philistine likes Saki he can hardly have written the word FERRETED without thinking of Sredni Vashtar. Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar.

60. That all went in smoothly, although I followed a couple of dead ends with SWIVEL for 3d, and getting fixated on BROMO- for the anagram in 14d.  New for me: CHAPLET, and the “RM” part of 19a.

61. Richard @59 – well spotted!

62. Yes, 14D was my 14A.

    Well done Richard @ 59 for identifying the theme. A big omission on Saki’s part, not writing a story called The Biopolymer.

    Thanks Philistine and PeterO

63. Essex boy@48…and I suppose Hornblower author Forester might also be used by future setters for the CS device…

64. I found this the toughest of the week by some measure; it took most of the morning session in the cricket. Not very much was happening, either in the grid or on the square, so I didn’t need to distract myself too much from either. The ROOSTRY / BIOPOLYMER combo in the SW in particular held me up, neither being a word I know; I’d worked out the anagram fodder for the latter, but it didn’t look like it could form a word! And so to lunch.

65. Bravo Richard Poole!  I did suspect a theme when I saw ROMANCE, STORIES, QUEST and EXPLORER but I lacked the Saki knowledge.

    Ronald @63: yes, I thought about Forester too (along with gas, and caesium)

    A propos:

    Ayer’s trapped in brand recognition issue – surprised reaction to the Spanish-sounding landmark? (3,5)

66. Slow solve today for me.  FOI was ALTOS and overall a DNF but I’m still a newbie…   As with Trailmain @64, toughest of the week so-far but due to work rather than cricket (which I’ve never understood or liked).   Can’t ever write down TOBERMORY without seeing Archie the inventor In and Out of the Kitchen.

67. [CanberraGirl@21: Echoing healing wishes as previously expressed by other contributors. Hoping you have a rapid recovery. You are amazing to be on the blog the day after your hip operation!]

    [Enjoyed both the TOBERMORY stories from dantheman@24 and beaulieu@28]

68. [Oh my, Richard Poole@59 , I am in awe that you saw this theme here.

    Meanwhile, I have enjoyed following up Saki/H.H. Monro  references, including TOBERMORY.

    I love the fact that these crosswords lead me into things previously unknown.

    For which much thanks.]

69. When we post this late, do we get read? My first ever post/comment/ blog whatever. Brilliant challenge today and a pleasure to read above ‘analysis’.

70. What a lot of lovely clever clues! I got ‘Not us’ but not ‘nod’. Never heard the word DEWLAP before, only ‘turkey neck’ which comes as part of the ageing process! Nor did I know that meaning of ‘jolly’ although there are a lot of English pubs called the Jolly Sailor. Many thanks to Philistine and to PeterO for the detailed parsing, some of which had eluded me.

71. Sparrow @69

    I must admit that, with the recent spate of comments on Guardian crosswords (evidently the pandemic gives more people more time for the blog), I do not read every day’s comments fully; but I do follow my own blogs – and I get an email for each comment, in any case – and I get the occasional indication that there are at least some other avid readers. So welcome to the forum, and keep up the comments, however late.

72. Thanks to Philistine and PeterO.

    No much to add; I particularly like TIME OFF and CRYSTAL SET for the device.

    Welcome HarpoSpeaks@. You’ll just have to start doing the crossword (online?) at work (as (apparently) many do).

73. A wonderful crossword, full of very good clues. TUSK was a great clue, which was my LOI. I had to work out the whole word before I realised (or rather remembered) the connection with Donald.
    There were too many comments here for me to read all of them, but I latched on to some interesting topics, among them (of course) the Saki theme that I missed.
    Thanks to Philistine, PeterO and other commenters.
    [There are three Alans who have posted here! I have always posted as Alan B, and if we stick to these names (Alan, AlanC and Alan B) there should be no problem.]

74. I’m an AlanB too, but hiding under a username

75. Great Crossword and blog thank you PeterO.A dnf for as I lost patience trying to get 24ac ovule.Exactly right in terms of challenge though.A fine diversion.

76. There was some sneakiness used here so thank you PeterO and everyone above for explaining the various parsing and wordplay elements that i missed. 2ScotchEggs@57, i sometimes get mildly annoyed and confused at the variations on reversed/inverted terminology but i thought it worked ok there as i do read and write laterally, if you see what i mean, even if the clue has to be entered vertically. As well as a womble and Balamory there is a distillery at Tobermory and with that i am off for a dram. Thanks Philistine for teaching me some new tricks.

77. Thanks to PeterO and Philistine

    10a I saw the def as “search for something”, giving “quest” as a noun

    4d I’m not sure “served” works, I think “serves” would be better

    18d … plot, intrepid and merry adventurer

    23d As suggested by TheZed @32, “Trump, the first American King Donald?”, might have been better.

    Good fun

78. Is Tobermory the story where the protagonist is trampled to death by an elephant (after a misguided attempt to teach it to conjugate German irregular verbs IIRC). Brilliant find on the theme @59

79. Saki also wrote a story called The Blind Spot. Not that I saw the theme of course!

80. I was completely stuck on 7D.  VDS Prasad @41 Thank you for asking the question and thanks to TheZed @43 and dougalf @46 for the explanation.  I had heard of dewlap and knew it was something to do with dogs.

    I figured out ‘blind’ in 14 A, and had the final ‘t’ from the crosser, but for the life of me couldn’t think of the phrase.  You could say I had a blind spot about the solution.
    My favourite Saki story concerns an unpalatable breakfast food called Filboid Studge, although I can’t remember the title.

    Thanks to Phil and Peter

81. Pretty new to the Guardian cryptics, been doing them about a month. Though I didn’t manage to complete this one I got pretty close, and it’s been my favourite so far. Leper/Repel is great, and kicked myself over Ovule with Egg being in the next clue. Don’t get why RM = Jolly or Gold = Or but get the rest. Thanks for the write up!

82. Little bit late to the party, but for me Philistine lived up to his name here. I was brought up by Don Manley’s bible to crossword solving and ‘nod’ emphatically does not equal ‘No D’, nor does ‘us’ mean ‘letter Us’. I also don’t like the backward anagram device that he used TWICE.

    However, to be fair, I did like the double wordplay in STET.

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