NPR

1A

Need to know your famous tenors for 4D. Nice one Elgar.

Rainy morning, 15C

1D 12A 4D

Hi TB.

Hi globus, hope your recovery is still all good. Just had my 2nd jab...

Stared at this for another 45 mins, the only one I can think of is

28A

tabascoboy wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 9:08 am Hi globus, hope your recovery is still all good. Just had my 2nd jab...

Had my second jab yesterday TB. Back still playing up. Should have bought shares in parrots eat 'em all.

Apparently this was a themed crossword and rated as pretty much maximum difficulty, so I don't feel bad about struggling miserably with it now.

Someone else wrote this, and no offence to Elgar but it sums up my feeling about his puzzles exactly:

Sadly, and I wish it were otherwise, attempting to solve an Elgar puzzle is never a deeply satisfying or enjoyable experience for me. I would be the first to acknowledge the cleverness of the clueing, but in addition to their subtlety, there are invariably references that simply do not resonate with me.

And the marathon clue ( 17, 20, 6 & 16), if you have never heard the expression then you simply aren't going to work it out unless you have all the letters from other clues.

tabascoboy wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 7:47 am Apparently this was a themed crossword and rated as pretty much maximum difficulty, so I don't feel bad about struggling miserably with it now.

Someone else wrote this, and no offence to Elgar but it sums up my feeling about his puzzles exactly:

Sadly, and I wish it were otherwise, attempting to solve an Elgar puzzle is never a deeply satisfying or enjoyable experience for me. I would be the first to acknowledge the cleverness of the clueing, but in addition to their subtlety, there are invariably references that simply do not resonate with me.

And the marathon clue ( 17, 20, 6 & 16), if you have never heard the expression then you simply aren't going to work it out unless you have all the letters from other clues.

Hi TB. Yep. My mate is rather good at setting. I suppose I should post his crosswords with a warning "This may cause brain meltdown".


He's a great bloke and a real personality.

Like me, he is a Rev John Graham (deceased) worshipper. I have a Monkey Puzzle tree in my garden in remembrance of Araucaria.

His very last crossword was completed by a fellow setter. I met him at his house and attended his funeral.

He is probably best known for his epic "Poetic scene with chaste Lord Archer, vegetating" anagram (3,3 8,12) of I've been there and met the "fragrant" (Private Eye) wife of the owner. A neighbour of mine was his amanuensis.

I used to enjoy the Araucaria Guardian crosswords, when themed they could be cussedly difficult if you couldn't work out the theme - and just as difficult when without a theme sometimes but I found them a fun challenge with some good humour. A group of us used to work on them together on the train to work and it certainly helped make the journey go quickly and pleasantly even if the combined brainpower often wasn't enough!

Don't remember any particular clues but a quick google gives this relatively straightforward one

21ac Squashed? Accommodation urgently needed with an easy lot of pieces (4,2,1,7)

tabascoboy wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 11:56 am I used to enjoy the Araucaria Guardian crosswords, when themed they could be cussedly difficult if you couldn't work out the theme - and just as difficult when without a theme sometimes but I found them a fun challenge with some good humour. A group of us used to work on them together on the train to work and it certainly helped make the journey go quickly and pleasantly even if the combined brainpower often wasn't enough!

Don't remember any particular clues but a quick google gives this relatively straightforward one

21ac Squashed? Accommodation urgently needed with an easy lot of pieces (4,2,1,7)

Spoiler

Show

= flat as a pancake > flat + asap + an + cake

Good man! I used to get the Grauniad (PE) paper every day, along with the Times and Telegraph. I have a record of looking at cryptics. (Bletchley Park).

I'm just a dinosaur now. But had a few of my ideas printed in Private Eye alongside Bill Tidy. The leader of the Clog Dancers has my real name!



He's in the black hat.