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

damn

internet anagram server in doesn't know the word 'specula' shocker.

The duck one is mallard right?

correct

also liked this, from the same crossword:

Nancy’s first person with second person’s servant (6)

got it fairly swiftly (we had all the other letters) but struggled to parse it for ages UNTIL i remembered some obscure geography

Guardian, today, I suspect non-Britishers need not apply:

Morals in Violet Elizabeth's county (6)

lol nice one

ha nice

Think I've got this one but would appreciate a hand...

Player of loud music told to get packing (6), R _ _ _ E _

sounds like WR---E-

some dodgy stuff in that gordius (emi = musical?) but the following got a grin:

Induct Roger to such knowledge (6)

i have no idea how to parse the violet elizabeth one, i think i have the answer but why????

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

Other recurring characters include Violet Elizabeth Bott, lisping spoiled daughter of the local nouveau riche millionaire (whose companionship William reluctantly endures, to prevent her carrying out her threat "I'll thcream and thcream 'till I'm thick")

fyi i read these timeless classics in the eighties

Violet Elizabeth Bott is a character in the Just William stories who famously has a lisp

i know who violet elizabeth is, i don't understand what she has to do with the answer...

pronounce a county with a strong lisp?

i realised as soon as i posted my last post. aaaaghhhhhh

hah yeah either you get it or not I suppose

Doesn't stand up imo as she'd lisp on the X too.

you don't lisp on an x/ck sound do you?

I think lispers would have trouble with both sibilants and pronounce it ethicth.

Mr. Botts's was an Earthworm (7)

I am absolutely astounded I got this one. Just seeing if anyone else knows the obscure reference.

no.

http://www.farmcollector.com/Farm-life/The-Natural-Born-Salesman.aspx

clue a bit lacking imo.

Agree. Frank W. Lewis (The Nation has a lot of those purely cryptic clues that aren't anagrams or other wordplay, they're just arcane references to things. I guessed this one only because I had spotted the movie title Earthworm Tractors in Leonard Maltin's guide. (Joe E. Brown, 1936. I've never seen it.)

Took my own stab at it. Don't know if this exactly works, but I think so?

Model T, cart or farm vehicle. (7)

Flurry of penetrating rain washed away camping equipment (4,3)

you got it?

yeah

arachne is vg today

i did yesterday's online and it took less than 10 mins. arachne is pretty good as i remember

One for the lex from today's grauniad:

Going further shaking bottom, extremely cute singer (7)

And I wouldn't have got this if I didn't watch Family Guy:

Clam — 50p with a pig? (6)

And this neologism:

One following chatter incessantly, partial to rubbish, their characters limited (10)

Ha nice!

I liked this one from today as well:

14d Like this clue: "Bowel disorder" — its location? (4,5)

i liked the beyoncé one obv but this was my favourite clue in that crossword:

Change of heart in a little Australian prayer (5)

yesterday's enigmatist prize crossword was actually impossible beyond three obvious ones. completely stumped otherwise.

Today's Guardian:

Coldplay's latest hit (newer compilation) (3,7,4)

Beware of misleading David Essex influences.

This is driving me crazy:

Mathematicians tables (8)

--B-T-RS

There are only 6 words in my online Crossword Solver that fit those letters, and none of them seem to fit the definitions.

Gah, finally solved it myself. Mathematicians and tables are both counters, which was my initial inclination. That makes the B incorrect, because the down clue was:

Johnny Reb's counterpart?

...and I had BILLY YANK, because according to wiki:

Johnny Reb or Johnny Rebel is the national personification of the Southern states of the United States.[1] The latter part of his name is derived from Rebellion. Patriots used Johnny Reb and his Union counterpart Billy Yank to symbolize the common soldiers in the American Civil War of the 1860s.

The actual answer was UNION JACK, and it's effing horrible.

Not particularly hard but a nice clue from today's Guardian:

Anne McGregor is, perhaps, being alarmist (14)

ha

good but was slightly more impressed by

Those leading clubs ruffed Omar Sharif's spade in new game of bridge (8)

Another nice one from today's Grauniad:

10 Liam Brady played like this (9)

Setter obv an Arsenal fan.

thought about posting here, one of the wotd things (nice words today at both dictionary.reference.com and merriam-webster) but didn't bother. had a look at previous words of the day on the one site out of boredom, first time in a month or so.

i go back to observer crossword and realise one of the answers is one of the previous words of the day i've just looked at. thanks dictionary.reference.com

14A Unhappy keeping scholarly woman (12)

this crossword also contains 'plighting' and 'omerty' and i'm struggling a bit...

just plugging my friend's book about cryptics, which is funny and informative and full of good clues and well-produced. The ideal Christmas present etc.

(it cited ilx in one draft, but I think that changed in the final version)

John Graham (AKA Araucaria, Cinephile etc) RIP

my favourite. RIP

RIP :(

Damn. RIP.

aw RIP, will miss his insane Xmas crossword, though maybe he did one more before passing on for old time's sake

yeah i was selfishly hoping for a few unreleased puzzles, but tbh maybe they could just rerun v. old ones