The official bored-at-work cryptic crossword pass it on thread.

Have the 1st, 2nd is anagram of "embargo on"? but can't see it

it'll come to you...

haha got it

couldn't see it earlier and no sooner have i got home than it clicked, before i lucked at the letters again.

conclusion: being at work is bad for my brain

looked at the letters

okay let's call it 50/50

Comedian in lace factory heading off for Wigan (5, 8)

Where do we stand on setters using old clues? That ballet one has been around for years.

i guess it's quite possible for separate setters to come up with near-identical clues ove time, or maybe they see it as a nod to the classics?

Still can't get koogs' last one, any pointers?

Think lace as in drink

nice

ha got it now, thx

you'd need to be of a certain age to get it though

i thought the 'igan' thing was a bit clumsy, tbh. but i liked 'lace' for 'spike'.

spoilers, btw 8)

(do you need to be of a certain age to know charlie chaplin?)

Well I would say Chaplin has more cultural resonance. I can't imagine many people below say 30 knowing who Spike Milligan was. But then again I can't imagine many people below say 30 doing the Observer cryptic crossword, so that's fine.

My plan was to think of a comedian that fitted the letters and I discovered the correct answer by clumsily attempting to reverse engineer Sarah Millican!

I figured out the 'head off Wigan' and worked backwards, still couldn't figure out why lace = spike until it was just explained.

(it's actually 'heading' which is usually N, S, E or W. but head works here also)

Thanks to the Guardian cryptic, this American now knows the meaning of to 'play gooseberry.'

Also, can anyone parse this one for me? (It's outstrip.)

Run faster in striking football kit (8)

run faster = definition
striking = out (as in on strike)
football kit = strip

Ah, uniform. Knew about kit, strip is totally new to me.

And I was looking at striking as in baseball. USA-centric brain.

I just completed the Guardian cryptic crossword for the first time in my life, and I am feeling really pleased with myself

Grauniad today

Where St Augustine was at university, being something of a brain? (11)

vg

i think i've solved the hardest clue of this sunday's observer crossword, but virtually nothing else.

Carved ornament from southern UK pocketed by naughty teen (7)

(as an aside there are lots of good anagrams for 'money laundering')

am reduced to grepping through lexicons...

Fine quality - for example, in eastern cavalry weapon (8)

they seem to be all like this, what i think of as ledge specials 8)

(was netsuke btw)

i've solved that one today if you need a clue. no lexicon required imo

those clues just lack a little elegance, that's all 8) and the more bits there are to them the harder it is to split the definition from the other bits. that's why i have trouble with those.

that said, i also had trouble with 14A which is blatantly obvious anagram for an everyday phrase but i just couldn't see it.

it's about 50% done now, but a lot of that is in pencil.

Had to help the folks with the guardian today, with references to x-men and rickrolling.

How do people feel about 'in' as a separator? I always feel that it's not quite okay, but some compilers use it a lot.

fine by me - definition (found) in wordplay. wordplay (found) in definition maybe a bit more awkward but still sound i think.

Grauniad, as per

Smarty-pants reports missing partition (4-3)

Abbreviations will be the death of me. As many times as I seen caught for C or dead for D, when I'm doing a new puzzle I don't recognize them at work. And there are always crazy new ones I've never seen: distinction = OM, maiden = M (HATE the cricket ones!)...

And here are two more I just had today: Edward can just be E? And "corps' soldiers" can be CRE?

http://www.acronymfinder.com/Chief-Royal-Engineer-%28Corps-of-Royal-Engineers,-British-Army%29-%28CRE%29.html

E for edward the same way E is for elizabeth on post boxes EIIR etc

Wow, never seen EIIR either!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillar_Box_War

Again, wow. It is a strange and beautiful world...

this week's Everyman (which seems easy based on the first half dozen clues i looked at)

How Alfie ends is unimaginitive (5)

Ha, I just got that one. Here's one I made up today:

Steed and partner never sag in galloping. (8)

Dammit I screwed that up:

Steed and partner never sag, galloping. (8)

Ah, OK. I was on the right line but then still struggled with the anagram, somehow.

Avengers!

today's Graun

Ketamine for breakfast? (7,1)

edgy

That is so fuckin lame

i gave up the crossword after that one, there were a few dodgy clues already but that was like "fuck you"

it's barely even cryptic