There are usually one or two points of interest in an Observer barred puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Gemelo 45

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/7df02976-ab22-4651-8d5e-897337e1f49b/file/puzzle.pdf.

Please give your own G-rating for this Gemelo puzzle by clicking on the relevant star above, with one star representing a very straightforward solve by your own standards (Gentle) and five stars indicating a seriously tough one (Gnarly). Note that hovering over the ‘graph’ icon will show you the full breakdown of votes for the current puzzle. You gave G44 an average difficulty rating of 2.5, right in the middle of the spectrum and just one ‘tick’ up from its immediate predecessor. When I completed the puzzle, I wrote ‘2.6’ alongside it, so we were in pretty close agreement.

You probably know what I’m going to say about this puzzle. Ogden Nash wrote, “God in His wisdom made the fly / And then forgot to tell us why”, which pretty much sums up my feelings, although I suppose Gemelo kind of told us why. The clueing is very clever, and to be greatly admired on a technical level, but the solver gets a bunch of largely inelegant clues with no compensating challenge or reward. And I’m a Beatles fan. Now if one of the clues didn’t contain the title of a Beatles song and we had to write a clue to complete the thematic set, I’d feel very differently about it…

Note that the entry at 29d is an abbreviation (this is shown in the print version).

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 15d, “Dig It parts had to arouse (9)”. The nicely concise wordplay has a four-letter word meaning ‘cultivate’ (‘dig’) containing the letters IT (from the clue), with a three-letter word meaning ‘consumed’ (‘had’) following on. The point of interest here is the ‘noun noun verb’ construction seen in ‘dig it parts’. This is something regularly seen in real-life language, as in ‘He writes books readers enjoy’, where a relative pronoun such as ‘that’ is implied between ‘books’ and ‘readers’. This is an extremely useful part of the setter’s armoury, not least because the result is a noun expression which can be subjected to further manipulation, as in ‘Piano chap pounds in modest band’, where ‘piano chap pounds’ yields MPAN (P in MAN), which is then contained by COY to produce COMPANY. It also comes in very handy when disguising ‘hidden’ clues, such as ‘Ordinary men or male nurses’ for NORMAL. One note of caution: less experienced solvers often struggle to understand this construction, so it should be used sparingly in puzzles aimed largely at such an audience.

Across

1a Creating Across the Universe and Because before second vinyl? (12)
A three-letter informal form of ‘because’ is followed by a two-letter (similarly informal) word for a second (as in ‘just a second’) and a seven-letter word for the type of substance that could be exemplified by ‘vinyl’ (and certainly would be by ‘PVC’).

10a Detest A Taste of Honey when covered by neighbour in Suffolk (5)
The letter A (from the clue) is followed by the first letter (‘taste’) of ‘Honey’ contained (‘when covered’) by an East Anglian form of ‘neighbour’, used as a term of address.

12a Vow to delay Love Me Do (6)
A four-letter word for a vow with the letter O put back (ie ‘to delay love’) combines with the letters ME (from the clue) to produce the (2-4) answer.

25a From this place in East London, around flashy department, prepared to release Rain? (9)
A five-letter word meaning ‘from this place’, losing its initial H (‘in East London’), containing a four-letter word meaning ‘flashy’ (as a Hawaiian shirt might be), precedes the usual abbreviation for ‘department’.

27a Help!, Not a Second Time for Native American (5)
A three-letter appeal for help is deprived of a single instance of the usual abbreviation for ‘second’ (‘not a second’) and is followed by a three-letter word for a time, as in ‘the time of reason’.

28a Organic, essential For You Blue regularly containing unknown error (6)
Alternate letters from the word ‘Blue’ (‘Blue regularly’) are put around (‘containing’) one of the letters representing an unknown in algebraic expressions and a three-letter word for ‘error’ much enjoyed by crossword setters. I know of at least one expert clue writer who would consider that ‘regularly’ cannot reasonably be applied to fodder of just four letters.

30a Let It Be turned into acceptable single (6)
A four-letter interjection meaning ‘so let it be’ is reversed inside (‘turned into’) a two-letter informal adjective meaning ‘acceptable’. The answer is hyphenated, 3-3.

32a Chapters about earlier Taxman by extremely loose band (6)
The abbreviation for ‘chapters’, containing (‘about’) the two-letter abbreviation for the former department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxes (the one Ken Dodd said that he didn’t have to pay anything to because he lived by the sea), is followed by the first and last letters (‘extremely’ – NC, as people say in texts) of ‘loose’.

33a Share record in advance, recalled in wake of Sun King (5)
A three-letter word meaning ‘to record (music etc) in advance’ is reversed (‘recalled’) following (‘in wake of’) the single-letter abbreviation for ‘sun’, the whole lot being followed by the chess and card players’ abbreviation for ‘king’.

Down

1d Lash fibre, not having Any Time At All in workbasket (5)
A three-letter word for a lash (having nine tails and lives) and a four-letter word for fibre (or the surname of an unfortunate chap who met his End under a bookcase), are each deprived of the single-letter abbreviation for ‘time’ (ie ‘not having any time at all’).

4d Articulate For No One to local church (9)
A charade of a three-letter word often indicated in cryptics by ‘for’, the letters NO (‘from the clue’), a dialect word for ‘one’ (‘one to local’), and the two-letter abbreviation for a church of a particular denomination.

6d Wait on climax of record, under two hours before midnight? (6)
The last letter (‘climax’) of ‘record’ is placed under a (2,3) phrase which, since 1967, has told you when the main ITV news is broadcast.

7d Wreath reflecting final couplet of Piggies? Nonsense! (5)
A reversal (‘reflecting’) of the last two letters (‘final couplet’) of ‘Piggies’ and a three-letter word for ‘nonsense’.

11d Maybe one long period before drug lapse to make No Reply? (11, 3 words)
A three-letter word suggested by ‘one’ (the only other value it can have is zero), a three-letter word for a very long time, the usual single-letter drug, and a four-letter word for a lapse combine to produce the (4,4,3) answer, which contains an apostrophe.

19d Heir briefly coming up to support e.g. Michelle’s extravagant phrases (7)
A five-letter word for a young member of a family without its last letter (‘briefly’) is reversed (‘coming up’) underneath (‘to support’) a possessive pronoun that could represent “Michelle’s”, “Eleanor Rigby’s” or “Maggie Mae’s”.

22d To listeners, Boys is based on joints? (6)
For this homophone (‘to listeners’) clue I’ve tried to think of synonyms for ‘boys’ that aren’t the plural of a particular male forename (as borne by the co-creator of The Rutles), but I’ve come up dry so far.

26d Records are played on these screens, leaving Little Child for dead (5)
We have a six-letter word meaning ‘screens’ or ‘vets’ getting rid of (‘leaving’) the two-letter abbreviation for ‘child’ in favour of (‘for’) the single-letter abbreviation for ‘dead’.

The End? Yes It Is. I’ll Be Back…

(definitions are underlined)