Guardian 26,677 / Vlad

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After a week totally away from crosswords – many thanks to Gaufrid for standing in for me last Monday – it was a bit of a shock to see Vlad’s name on this puzzle.

He’s one of my top favourite setters but I knew I was in for a challenge and was feeling decidedly rusty. 1ac was a deceptively easy start and there were a few other gentle clues, like 11ac, 15ac, 22ac, 26ac, to soothe the bruises where I kicked myself when pennies dropped over some tricky parsing. I think I’ve sorted it all out, except for 18dn, where I’ve had to admit defeat.

Superb cluing throughout, with some well-disguised definitions, eg 9ac, 25ac, 2dn, 16dn and 17dn, and brilliant surfaces, along with lots of chuckles to help the solving along. As so often, too many excellent clues to pick out favourites.

Many thanks, Vlad – I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Across

1 Put up in church but it may be loose (6)
CHANGE
HANG [put up -like pictures or curtains] in CE [church]

4 Talk in backroom of pub was effective (6)
RABBIT
Reversal [back] of BAR [room in pub] + BIT [was effective]

9 Getting on to police — pinching conkers! (2,6,7)
NO SPRING CHICKEN
Lovely anagram [to police!] of PINCHING CONKERS – a real laugh-out-loud clue

10 Sell right Yorkshire bitter, I’d say (6)
RETAIL
Sounds like ‘reet ale’, as a Yorkshireman might describe his bitter

11 Stopped one looking embarrassed about lie (8)
ARRESTED
A [one] RED [looking embarrassed] round REST [lie]

12 State cover up these outrageous criminal charges (3,5)
RAPSHEET
RAP [sounds like {state} ‘wrap’ – cover up] + an anagram [outrageous] of THESE]

14 Performed valiantly in the old country (6)
YEOMAN
YE [‘the old’ for crossword purposes, anyway] + OMAN [country] – I thought at first that the definition was a bit loose but we need to take YEOMAN as an adjective, rather than a noun, and ‘performed valiantly’ as an adjectival phrase, as in ‘yeoman service’

15 Charm shown by Nicola Sturgeon, perhaps, to a degree (6)
MASCOT
MA [degree] + SCOT [Nicola Sturgeon, perhaps – and they don’t come much more Scottish!]

18 Criticising what solvers are doing? No point (8)
DECRYING
DECRY[pt]ING – what solvers do, minus point

21 Old barrister: “Men have spoken about scene of fatal shootings” (2, 6)
OK CORRAL
I was held up here for a minute or two, having taken the first O as being ‘old’ and being left with R for ‘men’ but, of course, it’s ORAL [spoken] round KC [King’s Counsel – old barrister] + the familiar OR [other ranks – ‘men’]

22 Men are set to put a new handle on (6)
RENAME
Anagram [set] of MEN ARE

24 To be the boss‘s squeeze was sheer torture (4,3,8)
WEAR THE TROUSERS
A hilarious anagram [squeeze] of WAS SHEER TORTURE

25 Grey, maybe, or blue? It’s tricky (6)
SADIST
SAD [blue] + an anagram [tricky] of ITS – the definition refers to Christian Grey in that book, which, of course, I haven’t read

26 A weave whenever you fancy it (2,4)
AT WILL
A TWILL – a weave

 

Down

1 Infection around spot needs cream applied regularly (7)
CHOLERA
C [around] + HOLE [spot – a difficult situation] + [c]R[e]A]m

2 A mountain that’s good to climb (5)
ALPHA
ALP [mountain] + a reversal [to climb] of AH [‘that’s good’]

3 Say, John Brown lying in his grave starts to rise! It’s not true (7)
GHILLIE
A reversal [to rise] of the first letters [starts] of Lying In His Grave + LIE [it’s not true] – a brilliant clue, referring to the John Brown whose soul goes marching on but the definition is Queen Victoria’s
‘Friend more than Servant, Loyal, Truthful, Brave
Self less than Duty, even to the Grave’,
brilliantly portrayed by Billy Connolly in the film, ‘Mrs Brown’: I’ll say no more

5 Lost drunk butts in here (7)
ASHTRAY
ASTRAY, as a drunk might say it

6 Supports politician — it’s happened before now (9)
BACKSTORY
BACKS [supports] + TORY [politician]

7 Lady sat round wrapping present (7)
THERESA
An anagram [around] of SAT round [wrapping] HERE [present]

8 Keeps stopping a performance car — stunned (6)
AGHAST
HAS [keeps] in [stopping] A GT [a performance car]

13 Comforted, having been duped by The Voice (9)
SUCCOURED
Sounds like [‘The Voice’] ‘suckered’ – having been duped: I hadn’t met this as a verb – Chambers says it’s esp US

16 Rings low down financial advisers after head vanishes (we should, too) (7)
ANKLETS
[b]ANK [financial advisers, head vanished] + LET’S [we should]

17 Guides through dark hills, guerilla-infested (7)
TORCHES
TORS [hills] round [infested by] CHE – guerilla

18 Cancel date set up online (6)
DELETE
Vlad has me impaled here, I’m afraid – over to you – thanks, Roger @ comment 1

19 Focus here on nothing, right? Complain! (7)
CARPORT
CARP [complain] on [in a down clue] O [nothing] RT [right] – reference to the Ford Focus and the question mark covers the definition by example

20 Maureen left for Spain after bust-up, as I was in Rome (7)
NUMERAL
Anagram [after bust-up] of MAURE[e]N with L [left] replacing E [Spain]: I think this may be my top favourite – what a superb surface!

23 Japanese-American in thirties interviewed for promotion (5)
NISEI
Reversed [for promotion] hidden in thirtIES INterviewed

40 comments on “Guardian 26,677 / Vlad”

  1. Phew! Nearly gave up, but it gradually yielded, with much pleasure. Thank,s Vlad and Eileen.
    I think 18d is D (date) + ELET (TV ‘set’ up, i.e. reversed) + E – online, as in email.

  2. Thanks Vlad and Eileen
    I found this very difficult and gave up on CARPORT – it was one of the words that fitted, and I saw “Focus” = “car”, but I couldn’t make the rest of it work.

    Great anagrams, as you say, Eileen. GHILLIE was brilliant, and ASHTRAY was a chuckle/groan moment.

    DELETE is an E-something, I expect, but I didn’t get any further either.

    I thought the parsing for CHOLERA didn’t work, as I was taking the C from “cream” rather than “about”.

    I accept that they are OK, but I wasn’t all that keen on BIT for “was effective” or AH for “that’s good”.

  3. Thanks Eileen. I think Roger @1 is probably correct, although I don’t usually use tele for TV. I was playing around with TEED for set up, and L for on line, but this doesn’t go anywhere. I liked NO SPRING CHICKEN and WEAR THE TROUSERS, and OK CORRAL was clever. Having lived in Yorkshire for 40 years (but sadly never developed an accent) I’m not sure about 10a – although I’m not an expert, I think REET would be used in the context of really or very rather than correct. But perhaps Yorkshiremen and Yorkshirewomen describe their bitter differently, Eileen? Thanks, Vlad.

  5. A really fantastic puzzle from Vlad – one of my favourite setters also. Like Eileen I couldn’t parse DELETE. Great misdirection amid some brilliant clues, including NO SPRING CHICKEN, WEAR THE TROUSERS, OK CORRAL and CARPORT. Many thanks to Vlad and Eileen.

  6. I thought this was a fantastic puzzle, and I thought 2d particularly was a thing of beauty.
    We South Yorkshirefolk would pronounce the word “right” to sound like “rate” not “reet”, but t’setter is from the wrong side of the hills and can be forgiven!
    many thanks to Vlad and Eileen

  7. Thanks Vlad, I ground this one out eventually.

    Thanks Eileen, I did manage to parse DELETE but failed to see the definition for NUMERAL, doh, no wonder you got it!

    ‘Focus here’ might be a bit unfair, especially for overseas solvers. I did especially like WEAR THE TROUSERS and ALPHA.

  9. Thanks Vlad and Eileen.

    Still trying to recover from the torture, especially at 8d, 18d (thanks Roger @1), 19d and 20d. NUMERAL was tip-top.

    SUCCOURED, I seem to remember, appears here and there in the King James version of the Bible and, on googling, I find it appears in Oliver Twist and The Hobbit (“The Elvenking is my friend and he has succoured the people of the Lake in their need…”).

  11. Thanks to Vlad and Eileen. I managed to get through with some difficulty but needed help parsing DELETE, AGHAST (AH as “feel good” was new to me), the RAP in RAP SHEET, and AGHAST, but I did get SUCCOURED and OK CORRAL (and Earp has been turning up in a lot of recent US puzzles – those four letters must be attractive).

  13. This was absolutely brilliant, thanks Vlad and Eileen. I thought I wouldn’t get anywhere and then 25 ac and 20 ac came and slowly I was away. I assumed 18 d was delete early on but it was one of the last I parsed. Like MikeP I usually think of it as telly not tele, but the latter seems to be acceptable so no complaints. I failed to get ah as ‘that’s good’. An exclamation mark might have helped me. But otherwise there was the sound of many pennies dropping: with much laughter, and then with long pauses in between. I know this was ‘hard’ but it was so satisfying that for me it was ‘easier’ than, say, Rufus, whose clues sometimes are just too oblique for me.

  14. Slow-going but fun, Thanks Eileen, I hadn’t come across REET BEER or KC before. Took me ages to see Focus as a car. I also really like 20d NUMERAL and many others, including both long anagrams, where I was misled at first by alternative anagram indicators.

    Many thanks Vlad and Eileen

  15. Good grief, tough as old boots and delete beat me too. Well done for seeing that Roger. Absolute cracker as we expect from vlad/jim. Glad I didn’t get this. Thanks Eileen, good to see you back.

  16. This was a real struggle for me. At first it wasn’t fun, but as more pennies started dropping it became more enjoyable. Some clues I could only partly parse, so thanks to Eileen and Roger (and of course to Vlad too). Like Julie @8, I had 18a as DE(s)CRYING, but having seen Eileen’s parsing, I think that works much better.

    Favourites were the two long ones and NUMERAL.

  18. Two excellent long anagrams, but I am unhappy with police and squeeze as anagrinds. Neither are in the lists given in crosswordunclued.com Seems like anything goes these days

  20. Hi JohnHurfurt @18

    I don’t recognise your name as having commented here before, so welcome if this is your first visit here – and my apologies if it isn’t.

    On her excellent website, which you quote, Shuchi – who used to be a blogger here – doesn’t suggest that her list is exhaustive and says, ‘ Anagram indicators, or anagrinds as they’ve come to be called, give wide scope for play to the clue writer. Of all clue types that take indicators, setters seem to get most creative with anagrams. In essence, any word/phrase that suggests reordering of its adjacent letters can work as an anagrind’ and she presents what she calls ‘a compilation of frequently seen anagram indicators. A huge set when compared to other indicators, and yet there are many more possibilities.’.

    Chambers and Collins both give, for ‘police’: ‘put or keep in order’ and, for ‘squeeze’, Chambers has ‘crush’ and Collins ‘crush or distort’.

    For many of us, one of the delights of setters like Vlad is the freshness of their cluing and the inventiveness of their anagram indicators and other devices.

  22. Thanks both, I guess I’m a bit of a novice, I usually finish two or three a week but Vlad defeated me completely, and I have been to Bran!

  23. Hi again John @22

    You’re doing pretty well to finish two or three a week, as a ‘novice’. I’ve been at it for decades – and still find Vlad quite hard!

    Please keep commenting!

  27. Robin @25: in addition to Eileen’s explanation, “I” is the Roman numeral for one – hope this helps.

    I was one of those who found the puzzle too hard so thank you for the apology, Vlad. Did however find much to enjoy among the clues I could manage! Thanks too to Eileen for the blog, really appreciated the help today.

  28. Hard but fair crosswords don’t need to be apologised for particularly. The ones that draw the complaints from wets like me are where the setter gives the impression that they would really rather you didn’t complete the crossword, where the clues are so clever that the cryptic part of the clue serves no useful purpose apart from being admired in retrospect. Nothing like that here.

  30. Robin @25

    If you’re new here, sorry if it wasn’t clear: I think all bloggers now underline the definition in the clues – in this case, ‘as I was in Rome’. We used to explain this each time – I’ll try to remember to start doing it again.

    Please keep commenting!

  31. I didn’t get to this until quite late in the day and for a time I wished I hadn’t started at all. It gradually- very gradually- came together but it was a difficult solve. I liked RAP SHEET,OK CORRAL and SADIST. I had to guess DELETE and I’d forgotten NISEI.
    So thanks VLAD; I’ll start your next one earlier!

  32. Wow had 9,2,5,12,14,13 left and don’t think I’d have got any of them.

    I’m sure police may or may not be on various lists on various things as you’ve seemed to argue above but it’s quite odd to me.

    Likewise the others I missed. I think I could have maybe got 13; I had all but the top crossser but was just defeated really.

  33. I passed a very few, and rare, minutes with dear old Rufus yesterday so particularly pleasant to wrestle with a Vlad today. I wasn’t defeated, but there certainly were some knock out clues! Particularly CARPORT and, my COD, NUMERAL.
    Thanks to Vlad and Eileen.
    [Welcome back. Hope the Menorca walks proved restorative….!]

  34. I passed a very few, and rare, minutes with dear old Rufus yesterday so particularly pleasant to wrestle with a Vlad last night. I wasn’t defeated, but there certainly were some knock out clues! Particularly CARPORT and, my COD, NUMERAL.
    Thanks to Vlad and Eileen.
    [Welcome back. Hope the Menorca walks proved restorative….!]

  37. Tough but eventually do-able.

    ‘Police’ and ‘squeeze’ as anagrinds are new to me but fair I think.

    Not sure I’m happy with the suggestion that a Bank is a Financial Adviser. They’re the last people I’d ask such advice from!

    Also thought the ? placement in 19dn was a bit iffy.

    But that’s being picky.

    Overall, though impenetrable for a long time, it eventually succumbed to hard work.

    So thanks for the challenge Vlad and thanks Eileen for the blog.

    Back to playing catch-up now!

  39. I’m happy with “police” but not so much with “squeeze” – maybe “crush” is an acceptable anagrind, but not every synonym of an acceptable anagrind will also be an acceptable anagrind. Otherwise, once you accept “squeeze” as acceptable, so is “girlfriend” since it’s a synonym of “squeeze”.

  40. Thanks Vlad and Eileen

    Did this one late and checked it off even later … loved it !! Was expecting a tough encounter and was duly served one up here – but like a long hard walk, it was certainly worth the effort.

    Started off easily enough – for some reason NISEI has always stuck in my mind for the overseas born Japanese person … and it caught my eye immediately. That led into 22a and 26a to get a foothold and then the gradual prising of each answer out of this seriously well-clued puzzle.

    I couldn’t parse ANKLETS, although it had to be right and it appears that I parsed OK CORRAL incorrectly and also GHILLIE (where I had G – start of grave – and HIL[L] – start of rise … which now I see doubles up on ‘start’ and ignores ‘lying in his’).

    Last in was YEOMAN that I had not seen as an adjective before. The new learning from the exercise was the relationship between Queen Victoria and John Brown – never to ceases to amaze the stuff that you just don’t know!

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