Guardian Cryptic 27,732 by Vlad

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27732.

That was quite a tussle, both in getting the answers and pinning down the wordplay. Many thanks to Vlad for the workout.

Across
1 HEPTARCH Letter penned by Thatcher (not the heartless, batty old ruler) (8)
An envelope (‘penned by’) of EP (abbreviation for Epistle, ‘letter’) in HTARCH, an anagram (‘batty’) of ‘Tha[t]ch[e]r’ minus TE (‘not ThE heartless’), for one old ruler in seven.
5 BIOPIC Bishop admitting moon I caught on film (6)
A charade of BIOP, an envelope (‘admitting’) of IO (‘moon’ of Jupiter) in BP (‘bishop’); plus ‘I’ plus C (‘caught’).
9 TRUMPET Loud sound from bottom — what was offensive about it? (7)
An envelope (‘about ot’) of RUMP (‘bottom’) in TET (‘what was offensive’ – the Tet offensive in the Vietnam war).
10 POTHOLE Deep trouble on the way? (7)
Cryptic definition.
11 EMEER Three men hold back Arab leader (5)
A hidden (‘hold’) reversed (‘back’) answer in ‘thREE MEn’.
12 HEAD START Spin result, maybe cutting advantage (4,5)
A charade of HEADS (‘spin result, maybe’ – of a coin) plus TART (‘cutting’).
13 WARM THE BENCH Fight with male judges and don’t get picked to perform … (4,3,5)
A charade of WAR (‘fight’) plus M (‘male’) plus THE BENCH (‘judges’).
17 SECOND STRING … as these may do in next series (6, 6)
A charade of SECOND (‘next’) plus STRING (‘series’). The ellipses refer the definition back to ‘don’t get picked to perform in the previous clue.
20 LOOK SMART Tramp’s unlikely to step on it (4,5)
Definition and literal allusion.
22 MERGE Join German in pool (5)
Anenvelope (‘in’) of G (‘German’) in MERE (‘pool’)
23 IGNORED New setter looks embarrassed about being passed over (7)
An envelope (‘about’) of N (‘new’) in I GO RED (‘setter looks embarrassed’).
24 GUANACO Animal droppings Bill steps in (7)
An envelope (‘steps in’) of AC (‘bill’) in GUANO (‘droppings’), for the relative of the llama.
25 THRONG Mob beginning to riot — not much cover outside (6)
An envelope (‘outside’) of R (‘beginning to Riot’) in THONG (‘not much cover’).
26 STASHING Setting by design hits snag (8)
An anagram (‘design’) of ‘hits snag’.
Down
1 HOTBED Forced development here hurt both earl and duke (6)
A charade of HOTB, an anagram (‘hurt’) of ‘both’ plus E (‘earl’) plus D (‘duke’).
2 POURED Was mother honest about Oscar and daughter? (6)
A charade of POURE, an envelope (‘about’) of O (‘Oscar’) in PURE (‘honest’); plus D (‘daughter’). The definition refers to the person traditionally in charge of the teapot.
3 APPERTAIN Apply initially after exercise, right, to stop soreness (9)
A charade of A (‘initially After’) plus PPERTAIN, an envelope (‘to stop’) of PE (‘exercise’) plus RT (‘right’) in PAIN (‘soreness’).
4 CUT THE MUSTARD Nick’s traditional enemies bother showing up to do the job (3,3,7)
A charade of CUT (‘nick’) plus THEM and US (‘traditional enemies’) plus TARD, a reversal (‘showing up’ in a down light) of DRAT (‘bother’ as a minced expletive).
6 IOTAS Day I flipped over love letters (5)
An envelope (‘over’) of O (‘love’) in ITAS, a reversal (‘flipped’) of SAT (‘day’) plus ‘I’.
7 PTOMAINE Emptied pot over me in a rage — it smells horrible! (8)
A charade of PT (’emptied PoT‘) plus O (‘over’) plus MAINE, an anagram (‘rage’) of ‘me in a’, for compounds formed in rotting organic matter, including the aptly named putrescine and cadaverine.
8 CHEETAHS Natural sprinters … like Johnson and Gatlin, say? (8)
Sounds like (‘say’) CHEATERS; Ben Johnson and Justin Gatlin are sprinters who have been disciplined for failing drug tests.
10 PLAY HARD TO GET Pat halted orgy, in order to ____ ? (4,4,2,3)
An anagram (‘in order’) of ‘pat halted orgy’.
14 BY NO MEANS Many bones broken? Definitely not (2,2,5)
An anagram (‘broken’) of ‘many bones’.
15 PSALMIST Posh occasionally: ‘I’m last to perform for David?‘ (8)
A charade pf PS (‘PoSh occasionally’) plus ALMIST, an anagram (‘to perform’) of ‘I’m last’.
16 SCHOONER Ship and train — he fiddled both in short (8)
A charade of SCHOO[l] (‘train’) plus NER[o] (‘he fiddled’ while Rome burned), each minus its last letter (‘both in short’).
18 ARGALI Sheep in main road is right little madam (6)
An envelope (‘in’) of R (‘right’) plus GAL (‘little madam’) in AI (that is, A1, ‘main road’).
19 BELONG Dismissing driver’s warning, soon fit in (6)
BE[fore] LONG (‘soon’) minus FORE (‘dismissing driver’s warning’ on a golf course).
21 SIREN Alert teacher at Eton to truanting (5)
A charade of SIR (‘teacher’) plus ‘E[to]N’, minus TO (‘to truanting’).
completed grid

51 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,732 by Vlad”

  1. Between the GK-required answers (ARGALI & PTOMAINE), the colloquial (WARM THE BENCH) and the unknown abbrevs (EPistle, BishoP), this was about as chewy as Vlad gets.

    Ta to Peter for parsing 16dn. I had a rather horrible, double duty, reading:

    S[s] ship, CHOO[choo] train, NER[o]. Obviously … it doesn’t work!

    9ac (TRUMPET) was brilliant. And 23ac (IGNORED) would make most setters proud.

  2. Brilliant, as always. Great clue for CUT THE MUSTARD and plenty more besides. The interlocking critters at 18/24 took some winkling out but I failed on 1a, having been convinced the letter was PI, so a DNF.

    Many thanks to Vlad & PeterO

  3. WARM THE BENCH is a new expression to me and I didn’t know ARGALI. Thanks for parsing CUT THE MUSTARD which I couldn’t sort out apart from the closing DRAT. Favourite clue definitely PLAY HARD TO GET.

  5. Failed on 18d. Never heard of the sheep, and while I sussed the A1 envelope and the ‘r’ I didn’t associate ‘gal’ with ‘little madam’. Many of the clues were very good, but I was less impressed with others, such as 1a, where I thought that the parsing was stretched too far.

  6. That was expletive tough, and a dnf as I bunged in armadi. Slow to get heads for spin result (nwst Oz two-up tradition), and war m with the bench (thinking he-bench for male judges, doh), and hotbed, tho easy, and psalmist tho David is a regular, and LOI ptomaine. Guanaco was a “surely not, well I’ll be, there it is in Collins”. And there were a few dnps as well.

    So, I’ll recover by taking Mrs ginf for a walk, then have another peruse to see if I enjoyed it.

    Meanwhile thanks to Vlad for the workout and to PeterO for the elucidations.

  7. Great puzzle-suitably tough for a Thursday. Agree with all parsings (loved SCHOO(L)NER(O)

    But thought of 5a as B(IO)PIC ie an &lit,

    Thanks peter and Vlad.

  8. Bamboozled by ARGANI. The mention of “madam” in the clue led me to Madame Arcati in “Blithe Spirit”, which fitted the crossers even though the parsing escaped me. Well now I know why!

    Thanks, Vlad and PeterO.

  9. Thanks Vlad and PeterO

    I thought the clue for 1a was unfair. Despite working out that I needed THACHR plus a two-letter “letter”, EP escaped me (I tried all the two-letter Greek ones). I had to resort to a wordsearch for this obscure word.

    Wordsearch also for ARGALI. “to truanting” to remove “to” from ETON was a bit of a stretch too.

    Favourites were WARM THE BENCH and THRONG.

  11. Thanks, PeterO.

    I was defeated by the ARGALI / GUANACO combination – both completely unknown, so a disappointing DNF for me.

    I did enjoy it on the way, though – especially POURED [I remember it was in an Araucaria puzzle that I first saw that device], IGNORED, PSALMIST [great surface] and the clever anagram PLAY HARD TO GET.

    Thanks for the work-out, Vlad!

  12. Very tough – nothing on the first run through the clues! Like Eileen I enjoyed IGNORED, PSALMIST and POURED. I did know GUANACO but not ARGALI and couldn’t get it from the wordplay. Didn’t see the EPistle for letter or TET for offensive or parse APPERTAIN. Unlike baerchen@2 I didn’t like 4d as whilst it was clever in retrospect it wasn’t possible (was it?) to get the solution other than from the definition.
    From where I started I feel very pleased to get within one clue of the finish – many thanks to Vlad for the challenge and to PeterO for the sterling blogging work.

  13. Yes, I agree, thought this was great throughout!  LOI was Poured, so straightforward, but very subtly disguised, though a long time since I’ve used that expression, teapot poised…

  14. What Eileen said apart from the fact that I knew the combination she didn’t

    Thanks to Vlad for a proper cruciverbal impaling and also to PeterO

  15. Thanks Vlad for an enjoyable solve, and to PeterO for much-needed elucidation. Maybe says more about my ignorance than Vlad’s cussedness, but there were a couple of obscurities too many in this. I don’t mind one or two, but  ARGALI, HEPTARCH, PTOMAINE, EMEER all in the same puzzle?

  16. It’s interesting how context affects my ability to solve. Here my loi (other than argali) was POTHOLE because I was looking for something much more complicated than a cd. If this had been a Rufus or Vulcan clue it would probably have gone straight in. I also tend to leave “fill ins” to the end.

  17. this was totally beyond my capability, but i’d like to ask a general question that arose (for me) in Mondays puzzle – the solution was “Lose Ones Balance” My query is, Is there an unwritten rule or an understanding that any such solution will always have the form “Ones” rather than the more common usage of “your”?

  18. Thanks Vlad and PeterO. Excellent puzzle, well worth the solving effort.

    PiesMcQ @ 17: I wouldn’t like to hazard whether “your” or “one’s” is more common in reality, as it may be a personal thing, but I suspect the choice when setting may be determined by the crossers (whether to fit a pre-selected solution, or to help with providing one).

  19. @PiesMcQ

    Great question. I think I’ve consistently seen “one’s” used by default over the years, although if the expression is either colloquial or imperative, eg “sling your hook” then there’s a clear difference.

  20. Unbearable. Didn’t get a thing. 1 across too annoying, since when was BP Bishop, since when was EP epistle, probably have seen E for earl and D for duke, but I really don’t care.
    I don’t think a mere is a pool, a pond yes, or a lake, never heard of a guanaco, and truanting ‘to’ is another stretch too far.
    Waiting in the hospital thoroughly feeling even worse.
    Sorry Vlad

  21. Thanks setter and blogger.
    I’m another who found this very hard but very enjoyable. A dnf because I didn’t know ARGALI even though I had worked out the parsing (I didn’t see, and still don’t like, ‘gal’ = ‘little madam’). That was my only complaint. Also missed STASHING because I looked for a synonym of ‘setting’ rather than ‘setting by’.
    Many favourites including CUT THE MUSTARD and PLAY HARD TO GET.

  22. Had Look Sharp at 20ac, at first anyway. Crosser with 10d made it unlikely even though it parsed. A hugely enjoyable struggle altogether, with lots of excellent surfaces, many with the kind of innuendo that we generally push Paul’s way.

  23. On a general note, one of the few advantages of getting older is that more and more obscure words lodge in the recesses of one’s memory. For instance I wouldn’t have said I knew GUANACO, but having got the crossers, the answer seemingly floated into my consciousness, to be confirmed by the parsing.

  24. Very tough, I thought, with the SW corner the last to fall. Thanks Vlad for the torture.

    Thanks PeterO for coming to my rescue with a couple of parsings. I thought LOOK SMART was a dd with ‘Tramp’s unlikely to’ being the first definition.

    Some unknown words; Armani could have been used instead of ARGALI for a bit of product placement. I particularly liked TRUMPET, IGNORED, THRONG and PLAY HARD TO GET.

  25. A mixed bag for me. Many lovely clues including tea tray moments as “mother” came home, “them and us” jumped out of “cut the mustard” and I too was thrown for a long while by the simplicity of “pothole”. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Psalmist was very good, as was schooner.

    However, when words are obscure I feel they need to be better clued. “!Little madam” was too ambiguous for “gal” (american girl?) so I could only fill in half the letters before resorting to a word search. Guanaco worked with old favourites (AC for Bill is well known) so was much more gettable. Like others, 1AC was annoying with the method pretty clear (take TE from Thatcher so now I need a two letter letter as it were) but the obscure use of EP there just made it hard. Ptomaine was a guess from what could fit, but the cunning use of “over” in that clue threw me for a while. “letters” for “iotas” was a bit lame too. I did not mind the truanting Etonian – but I feel a little more leeway can be given to anagrinds and the like when the surface is so fun as a result.

    The long ones went in quickly and I was patting myself on the back for doing so well at the start but I ground to a halt and had to use word searches for a couple so DNF for me, but not a satisfactory DNF.

  26. Thanks to Vlad and PeterO. No disageement here with how tough this was. Lots of great clues, but a number which required dictionary checks for me. The last ones were heptarch, ptomaine, guanaco and argali which were all new words to me. However I could get enough of the parsing to enable me to do a dictionary check (e.g knew guano, arch was gettable and main road had to be either A1 or M1). My favourite clues have already been mentioned, but I also liked head start and look smart. Thanks again to Vlad for a very tough workout and of course PeterO.

  27. Well, I wouldn’t normally attempt a Vlad but had a cancelled appointment. Got more than I expected though and did enjoy some clever clues.

    Most of my moans have already been cited but to pick a couple:

    Hilt @ 20: since when was BP Bishop, since when was EP epistle,

    Bullhassocks @ 15: there were a couple of obscurities too many in this. I don’t mind one or two, but  ARGALI, HEPTARCH, PTOMAINE ..

    I also ask the same question as Toadfather @ 4 (who means 10d presumably): What is the definition for PLAY HARD TO GET

     

  28. Toadfather @ 4 and me @ 27: Eureka! I’ve just realised that Pat halted orgy implies she played hard to get? hmmm

  30. Pretty tricky, but for the most part easier than it appeared at first glance. The sheep was unfamiliar and needed a bit of semi-cheating, and I couldn’t quite see the EP=letter, so I can’t claim a clean solve. A top class puzzle. EMEER, GUANACO and PTOMAINE were distantly familiar from previous puzzles.

    Thanks to Vlad and Andrew

     

  31. GUANACO, ARGALI and HEPTARCH are all first Guardian appearances (at least in the archive), as are POURED, PLAY HARD TO GET. SECOND STRING and WARM THE BENCH. PTOMAINE is surprisingly popular, with 9 appearances, and EMEER has 7.

  32. I’m a bit surprised that GUANACO was unfamiliar to so many. I have often seen them in zoos, and occasionally in fields in England! They are small llamas, a bit like vicunas. Alpacas (bred for their wool) are descended from the latter.

  33. Tough,tricksy and utterly beguiling. From the gorgeously simple poured and pothole to the strangely elusive stashing and unknown guacamo and ptomaine – never a dull moment. Up there with Paul for wit, variety and sheer bloody-mindedness! Thanks Vlad and PeterO

  34. Thanks to PeterO and Vlad

    Good fun but a little unfair in places.

    1a If we have to find synonym for letter and then abbreviate it then the BP @5a (which i’ve not come across before), could be clued as CLERIC.

    DNF as others with ARGALI – I had ARMA’MI and for GUANACO I had BILL =AD in GUANO to give GUANADO.

    Both parse perfectly well so slightly imprecise cluing for obscure words

  35. Thanks to Vlad and PeterO.  As usual I struggled with this setter with items already mentioned (e.g., GUANACO, ARGALI, HEPTARCH – all of which rejected by my spell-checker) and also the parsing of BELONG, but I enjoyed CHEETAHS.

  36. Thank you Vlad and PeterO.

    A real challenge.  I needed the help of the blog for some of the parsing. I particularly liked the clue for POURED, it took an age for it to click, can remember people saying “Who’s going to be mother”…

    B is the chess abbreviation for bishop, Bp is the official abbreviation.

  37. Wow, very tough one!  I needed the online guess-and-check to get POURED and ARGALI.  [Like an idiot, I completely forgot about that pet argali we used to keep out back of the house with the guanaco.  In fairness, we didn’t have the argali very long, as it got into the ptomaine that we were also stashing beck there.]  I also needed PeterO’s assistance to understand the parsing for IGNORED and the tea-serving explanation of “was mother”.  But there were plenty of clues to enjoy also, including CUT THE MUSTARD, BY NO MEANS (nice surface!), THRONG, TRUMPET, SCHOONER, and CotD for me (as it was for others, I see), PLAY HARD TO GET.

    Many thanks to Vlad and PeterO and the other commenters.

  38. Congratulations and admiration to all who ploughed through this. In large parts, totally impenetrable for me, and that’s after diligently poring over these explanations.

    Too tough for me.

     

     

     

     

  39. Sometimes I feel like I’m getting the hang of these, and sometimes like today and yesterday I’m like “nope, got a looong way to go.” I got WARM THE BENCH and BY NO MEANS, that’s something.

  40. Some of this was Ok but I kept getting bogged down. HEPTARCH was a struggle and POURED(LOI) was a guess.I didn’t understand it until coming here and I can’t say I like it much.
    Liked THRONG and BIOPIC but this was too difficult to be enjoyable.
    Thanks Vlad (begrudged)

  41. Many thanks to both. Especially PeterO as I had many solved by the crossers without understanding the parsing. I had to resort to much more dictionary trawling than usual to check things. Included in those were finding both BP and EP in my electronic Chambers. As for POTHOLE – I stared at it for ages asking myself if that was all it was. Seemed so out of line with the rest.

  42. For 2 down, I was helped by remembering the phrase “who’s going to be mother?” which you used to hear when there were a group of people (not necessarily including any women!) sitting round a table and there were drinks – tea particularly – to be served.

    I don’t suppose it’s still in common use but anyone 60+ in the UK will know the custom, I expect.

  43. Crikey that was tough (=impossible)…any chance of a ‘rating’ on crosswords so I don’t spend 20 minutes of my life trying to work out a sheep I’ve never heard (herd?!) of, even though I know it’s AR_ _ _I !

    David Stannard makes an interesting point in his comment … I often feel Cryptic crosswords rely on general knowledge from 50+ years ago…I was though happy to see a more modern reference in 8D!

  44. This was difficult but doable. Some of the cluing was a little abstruse but still fair.

    I can’t see what all the moaning is about. If you hadn’t the technique to finish this then live with it and be thankful that perhaps next time such a challenge arrives you might.

    I enjoyed it as did others it seems.

  45. Well, that was indeed tough but brilliant.

    Many clues have just that extra bit of ‘bite’ [also in some surfaces – for us 8d’s cheater was actually Boris, even though Vlad probably didn’t mean it] that makes the whole lot so inspired and inspirational.

    Many thanks to PeterO (and good luck with this weekend’s Everyman blog) and Vlad.

  46. Didn’t enjoy. Some brilliant clues but overall this was too “up itself” to be enjoyable. As others have commented, obscure words need to be better clued than some of these – heptarche, ptomaine the most obvious examples for me. I did like cut the mustard though

  48. Thanks both,

    Some years ago, in the audit room, when the tea lady had delivered a tray, I asked a colleague ‘Will you be mother?’ His reply: ‘That very much depends on who’s going to be father.’

  49. Always glad to see a Vlad; one knows there’s a good chance of some puzzlement – and less likelihood of clues being ‘write-ins’ as it should be, particularly on a Thursday.
    Nothing particularly obscure, in my opinion, though I also slowed for ARGALI where I initially thought arM’AMi was more fitting to wordplay. Ticked TRUMPET and LOOK SMART.
    Great fun – many thanks, Vlad – keep them coming (and no dumbing down, please….)
    And a superb blog from Peter.

    “Beethoven’s 7th. Boy, he’s a great composer! (4)”

  51. I misread the setter as Vulcan – soon as I realised it was the dreaded weekend impaler I dried up so SW was not totally completed. Thx all.

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