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

Played in the round? (5,2,3,7)

has anyone got anywhere on today's araucaria in the guardian? it's very araucaria-ish.

"Tyre problem - the same by Shakespeare (I'm amazed at your boast!) when year off - brings humourous acceptance of sweet talk (8, 4, 3, 3, 8)"

brevity is the key to a good cryptic crossword clue. that's rubbish.

long ones are good when they make sense. unlike that one.

I'm a huge Auracaria stan but that looks a bit unwieldy. Otoh, it's generally hard to take 1 clue from his puzzles without context.

I have enjoyed a few Araucaria puzzles immensely, but I hate it when more than one or two clues contain references to other answers, which Araucaria puzzles almost always go overboard on and the Guardian seems to love in general.

Generally if I turn to the crossword and see a sea of "2 15 3" in the clues I cannot be bothered to start it at all, because it limits your starting points so severely, and you don't even get anything to puzzle over or admire in half the clues until you've cracked the other half.

(Also because I am shit, and so am probably never going to get enough of the referenced clues to have any chance. OK, mainly that, really)

what all crossword do we do, folks? crosaire in the irish times would be my drug of choice, for obvious enough reasons.

I tend to fail terribly at the Guardian one Monday to Friday. I think other setters might be more amenable to me but I can't be arsed changing paper at this point.

The answer to the Araucaria clue above was really disappointing.

"Tyre problem - the same by Shakespeare (I'm amazed at your boast!) when year off - brings humourous acceptance of sweet talk (8, 4, 3, 3, 8)"

Flattery will get you anywhere

(crap clue as it's not a common phrase)

I don't do a crossword on the reg any more. There was a couple of years in the early 90s when the best half of my day consisted of beers and working through all of the broadsheet crosswords with a friend.

Times in pub @ lunch @ work with two colleagues. Probably my fave just 'cause it's the most consistent. Observer on sun, if I've bought it or there's someone else's to deface. Good 'cause it's easy, mostly, usually. Guardian if I'm bored at work and I remember - tho I generally don't do too well.

well done onimo, i had to check fifteensquared for that

I try and fail to do the Guardian almost every day.

rufus is the only setter I know I have a good chance at and he's by far by favourite. I haven't really got a handle on anyone else just yet.

I don't do newspaper crosswords any more, mostly because I just read the news online. the skills remain though. last year I bumped into a guy I used to share a flat with about fifteen years ago and he introduced me to his friends as "the girl who taught me how to understand cryptic crosswords" :-)

I find Rufus kind of annoying because I know if I get stuck it's probably not actually worth the effort, but that anyone that was actually good at crosswords I wouldn't be stuck

I like it when they get a more-easy-than-usual Araucaria on a Monday, because he generally rewards the work put in. Today's definitely is an off moment for him, though.

"but that if I were someone that was actually good at crosswords i wouldn't be stuck," rather

I completed a whole one once.
It was in the Metro :(

well done onimo, i had to check fifteensquared for that

Just googled that, good to have a bunch of solvers out there just solving stuff for people! I don't seem to have time for the papers any more so this thread is pretty much all of my crossword solving.

Unexpected bonus for sailor (5)

Bosun

I suck at making up clues.

In the hopes I got the above right here is a clue I ...er... lifted...
Treks on TV pricey, when broken down, leaving us destitute (7-8)

poverty stricken

I too am terrible at making up clues, so someone else can have a go.

haha was that one from the radio times menelaus

there's one of noodle vague's still unsolved. i am also terrible at making up clues, viz. this attempt:

single father (spooner's) was a horse made of fruitcake (4,3,1,6,5)

A little help

Played in the round? (5,2,3,7)

__S__ __ ___ ___E__S

how does that help?

there's not even a 9 letter word in the clue.

"Tyre problem - the same by Shakespeare (I'm amazed at your boast!) when year off - brings humourous acceptance of sweet talk (8, 4, 3, 3, 8)"

Flattery will get you anywhere

(crap clue as it's not a common phrase)

obv you've not been flattered enough then or live in the wrong part of the country or you haven't watched enough 'carry on' films.

a beautiful clue, just 'flattery' as 'tyre problem' = anagram plus flat.

araucaria rules. (i hate him though)

it's far from beautiful to my eyes - the word play is neat indeed, but the surface reading is horrendous.

Isn't the more common version of that phrase "flattery will get you everywhere"? And yes, it's a horribly convoluted clue.

no the phrase is anywhere, not everywhere.

Results 1 - 10 of about 238,000 for "flattery will get you everywhere"

Results 1 - 10 of about 13,500 for "flattery will get you anywhere"

but arguing whether it's horrible or not - the cleverness is shoving shakespeare into it hence we might be looking for a quote from a play. when all it's for is 'will'. and if you can get 'flattery' from the first part of the clue you're away with 'flattery will...'

love him or hate him you'll miss him when he goes (viz. bunthorne)

you trust google? xp

Yes, I am being entirely serious.

I like the first "Tyre problem - the same..." bit, but it's a totally unwieldy clue overall.

I think the phrase is "anywhere", not "everywhere".

"nowhere".

Yes, that's the really common one, but the clue says acceptance of sweet talk, so it's the everywhere/anywhere thing. I'm going with the Mae West version of "everywhere".

but the clue says acceptance of sweet talk, so it's the everywhere/anywhere thing

yes but the letter count is the thing

In terms of usage, not in terms of it being the answer!

This is why I have problems doing the UK puzzles, these clues that some people think are really clever and that others just groan at.

Hilarious, I lifted it from elsewhere...they obviously lifted it from the Radio Times.
I am shocked and scandalised by this sign depravity in the cryptic crossword industry.

In terms of usage, not in terms of it being the answer!

Ailsa otm - I got it from the letter count but thought it was a sucky clue as "everywhere" is by far the more common usage.

The Radio Times is (or was, when I was still living with my parents and reading their copy every week) about the only crossword I stand a chance of completing, sadly. Sent it off every week for a couple of years but never won anything - guess that's one publication whose stereotypical readership would include a lot of active crossword-completers...

I used to do OK with some of the setters at the Independent too but I wouldn't pay money for an Indy these days so this thread is pretty much my only source of crosswords. Sometimes sneak a look at the Graun website crossword at work but they look too unlike work for extended contemplation.

I would never have got that Araucaria in a million years, still not entirely sure which bits are which even now it's been explained. And yeah, put me down in the camp which has always heard "everywhere".

"Tyre problem - the same by Shakespeare (I'm amazed at your boast!) when year off - brings humourous acceptance of sweet talk (8, 4, 3, 3, 8)"

"tyre problem" - I think "problem" is being used twice, to indicate a problem with the tyre (it's flat) and to indicate an anagram of flat tyre = flattery

the same by - no idea what this bit does

Shakespeare = will

(I'm amazed at your boast!) = get you!

when year off - anagram of "when year" = anywhere

humourous acceptance of sweet talk = Flattery will get you everywhere (doh!)

Oh! Thanks onimo. I didn't get the "get you", but now I do indeed get you. Might otherwise have got "when year off" if I hadn't been too bewildered by the rest of the clue to get there.

From above posts, "tyre problem - the same" is supposed to unpack to "tyre problem = flat, tyre problem -> tyre, anag" but my hat is off to anyone who actually worked that out from the clue.

I used to do OK with some of the setters at the Independent too but I wouldn't pay money for an Indy these days

I guess you wouldn't stoop to The Telegraph either, but theirs is pretty easy these days. They often seem to be based around a particular clue type - an excess of anagrams, or hidden words, or first/last letter clues.

I had a cheerful lunchtime a while ago with a pub copy of the Telegraph, going "if THIS was the right answer it'd be a bit of a shit clue, but it fits, so I'm putting it down!" with the first word to spring to mind for each clue, and then finding that after 20 of these everything actually still fitted together and therefore presumably was right (or I was even more pissed than I thought)

Played in the round = Music of the Spheres.

I've never tried cluing, so will also pass, or postpone.

New to this thread. I've given up almost all crosswords now (I sometimes do Azed, just because I like the insane vocab/nicely clued way it works) but used to try the Guardian most days. I enjoyed its wild variability in difficulty. Just spending hours with a friend staring at Enigmatist clues, crawling towards some kind of answer.

Love Araucaria (between him and Paul for my favourite setter), but the surface sense of that clue is hideous, and the phrase in my head would be 'get you everywhere'.

Spacecadet otm with the Telegraph solving experience.

Yes, "Music of the Spheres".

Yes, love Araucaria and the mechanics of the clue are excellent but strained surface sense = bad clue.

Telegraph has always been the easiest broadsheet as far as I remember, tho the early weekdays in the Graun used to be pretty dull too.