Within the pattern clues under, the hyperlinks take you to explainers from our novices’ collection. The setter’s title usually hyperlinks to an interview with her or him, in case you’re feeling like attending to know these individuals higher.
Thanks to everybody who has stuffed some gaps, getting us nearer to figuring out each contributor to the Guardian’s crosswords. I’m particularly eager to construct an image of a specific setter. If something about Gromwell, or know somebody who would possibly know, please get in contact.
Behind bars
I can’t realistically anticipate to ever get pleasure from a crossword any greater than I did I Need You, the most recent Listener. It’s a prize puzzle, so I’ll add solely that it’s additionally entry-level for a Listener and that the setter is Twin, who created the mind-boggling Two Grids With One Stone, as talked about again in October.
The information in clues
This lumbering incumbent administration’s appointment – as deputy chair – of a Harry Enfield character put me in thoughts of the Republicans within the USappointing a Sacha Baron Cohen character as speaker of the Home of Representatives, however solely doing so after different Republicans had complained that he insufficiently resembles a Sacha Baron Cohen character.
As long as KEVIN MCCARTHY stays pitifully in publish (however maybe not afterwards), he’s eligible as a solution in a crossword, which is how we find yourself with the truthful definition on this clue from Knut …
8d Sack my thick, craven, undesirable Speaker (5,8)
[ wordplay: anagram of (‘sack’ as a verb) MYTHICKCRAVEN ][ definition: unwanted Speaker ]
… in a puzzle which features a mini-theme and different topical treats. In the meantime, a Telegraph setter depicts one other a part of the place we’re …
21d Nurses stress badly about strikes at coronary heart (7)
[ wordplay: anagram of (‘badly’) STRESS, containing (‘about’) middle letter (‘at heart’) of STRIKES ][ SSTERS containing I ][ definition: nurses ]
… with a clue for SISTERS.
Latter patter
Within the quiptic, the Guardian’s collection “for novices and people in a rush”, Chandler’s clue …
4d Sweltering Celt taking off jacket in vacationer lodging (5)
[ wordplay: synonym for ‘sweltering’ + CELT without first and last letter (‘taking off jacket’) ][ HOT + EL ][ definition: tourist accommodation ]
… for HOTEL introduced again recollections from my schooldays of guessing what some French phrase containing “ô” or “â” would possibly imply by bunging in an S and hoping the brand new phrase appeared acquainted. Quick satisfaction with “forêt” and “forest”’; advantageous after a second with “tempête” and “storm”; pleasing to consider “pâté” (which this paper calls “paté”) as merely an accented time period for the sort of factor made by Mattessons.
So it was reassuring to lately see, in Cardinal Richelieu’s papers (don’t ask why), this …
… apparently confirming that the identical applies to the topic of our subsequent problem. Reader, how would you clue CHATEAU?
Cluing competitors
Thanks to your clues for SHILL: I’m glad it led to a dialog about Invoice Hicks and I’m grateful to be reminded of this paper’s ruling on the distinction between a shill and a stooge. We appear to have encountered overlapping senses of the phrase; for what it’s price, my expertise signifies that I’ve spent years primed to set some wordplay with “S” as “shilling” and a floor involving remuneration for athletes – but it surely hasn’t but occurred. (Which jogs my memory, although I hasten so as to add not as a result of I consider Ben Stokes as something aside from honourable: I recall Eccles utilizing the nifty “S”=“Stokes” supplied in, for instance, Chambers, however can he be the one one? Absolutely not.)
The runners-up are GappyTooth’s (now tweaked) “Tip of hook pushed into window ledge for plant” and Dunnart’s splendid “Plant in small mound of earth”. The winner is the results of some pondering that I can’t think about having ever thought: “Connery’s foolish with out the ‘y’: Conner”.
Kludos to Catarella. Please depart entries for the present competitors – in addition to your non-print finds and picks from the broadsheet cryptics – within the feedback.
Clue of the fortnight
Except you actively get pleasure from anarchic shenanigans, look away and I’ll see you subsequent time. For those who’re nonetheless right here – even for those who’re merely curious – the shenanigans are Serpent’s…
19d Incontinent males receiving therapy for lack of ability to retain issues (7)
[ wordplay: inside the name of a continent (‘incontinent’), anagram of (‘receiving treatment’) MEN ][ MNE inside ASIA ][ definition: inability to retain things ]
… and the reply is, audaciously, AMNESIA. The Unbiased, in fact – and examine these perimeters.
Discover a assortment of explainers, interviews and different useful fine details at alanconnor.com. The Delivery Forecast Puzzle Guide by Alan Connor, which is partly however not predominantly cryptic, can be ordered from the Guardian Bookshop
