Guardian Cryptic 27,797 by Vlad

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As is often the case with Vlad for me, quite a few answers were guessed first and parsed slowly after. Lots to like, with favourites 18/24, 21ac,  22ac, 1dn, 4dn, 6dn, and 20dn. Thanks to Vlad.

Across
1, 19 GRAMMAR POLICE Lightweight compiler in trouble with a bunch of pedants (7,6)
GRAM=”Light / weight” + (compiler a)*
5 SUSPEND Delay use outside America (7)
SPEND=”use” around US=”America”
9 EXCEL Said extra large is better (5)
EXCEL as a transitive verb meaning ‘surpass’=”better”
homophone/”Said” of: ‘XL’=”extra large”
10 SHADINESS At home in hell — probing Nazi group’s sinister quality (9)
IN=”At home” inside HADES=”hell”; inside SS=”Nazi group”
11 OSTEOPATHS They offer treatment to those almost past being cured (10)
(to those past)*, with the t removed because of the “almost”
12 BARB It’s painful to hear what drinks cost, though not poor (4)
BARB=a wounding remark
BAR Bill=”what drinks cost”, minus ill=”poor”
14 LANCET WINDOW Prick! Empty rhetoric to Welsh about architectural feature (6,6)
LANCE=”Prick” as a verb; plus WIND=”empty rhetoric” with TO + W (Welsh) about it
18, 24 THE BEAUTIFUL GAME  Football lover during Fulham tie: “Get off!” (3,9,4)
BEAU=”lover”, inside (Fulham tie Get)*
21 NEAT Take home nursing assistant in the van — nice! (4)
NET=”Take home” as in ‘take-home pay’=’pay net of tax’; around/’nursing’ Assistant, with “van” indicating the front or leading letter
22 STRONGHOLD ‘Is it wrong chopping heads off?’ (Henry at historic castle) (10)
IS iT wRONG with the head letters chopped off; plus H (Henry, SI unit of inductance) + OLD=”historic”
25 RIGMAROLE Complicated procedure in part — current government getting hurt (9)
in ROLE=”part”, insert: I=symbol for electric “current” + G (Government) + MAR=”hurt”
26 CHILL Fell about at first — relax! (5)
HILL=”Fell”, with C=circa, “about” placed first
27   See 5 down
28 DOLMENS Vandalised old people’s tombs (7)
(old)* + MEN’S=”people’s”
Down
1 GOES ON Hired thug carrying drugs proceeds (4,2)
GOON=”Hired thug” around E’S=”drugs” as E=ecstasy
2 ALCOTT Writer‘s account, one side claimed, not at all measured (6)
Louisa May Alcott [wiki] ,known for writing Little Women
A/C=”account”, around/”claimed” L (left)=”one side”; plus OTT=over the top=”not at all measured”
3 MELIORATED Improved second-class accom­modation for priest and daughter (10)
MO=moment=”second” + RATE=”class”; around ELI=biblical “priest” + D (daughter)
4 RASTA Dreads person from flats arguing back (5)
hidden reversed/”from… back” inside flATS ARguing
5, 27 SPAGHETTI WESTERN Doubtful The Sting was Peter’s kind of film (9,7)
(The Sting was Peter)*
6 SAID Did state charity previously lead to scrounging? (4)
AID=”charity”, with the lead letter to Scrounging placed previously
7 EYE CANDY At lecture I see (with peachy rear) a vision of loveliness (3,5)
EYE C is homophone/”At lecture” of “I see”; plus AND=”with” and the rear of peachY
8 DUST BOWL Department’s organised but slow — it isn’t productive (4,4)
D (Department) + (but slow)*
13 LITURGICAL Medical head going to follow books of worship (10)
sURGICAL=”Medical” with the head letter going away; following LIT=literature=”books”
15 COUNTDOWN Nobleman’s wife coming in to put on show (9)
Countdown is a British TV game show [wiki]
COUNT=”Nobleman”; with W (wife) inside DON=”put on”
16 ST ANDREW Endure religious classes with holy man (2,6)
STAND=”Endure” + RE (Religious Education)=”religious classes” + W (with)
17 DERANGES Makes crazy demand to begin with — called in to get it overturned (8)
the beginning of Demand, plus RANG=”called” in SEE=”get it” reversed/”overturned”
19   See 1 across
20 ADDLES Makes rotten drinks in big cups? On the contrary (6)
“On the contrary” reverses the order and gives ‘big cups in drinks’, or DD=big bra cup size in ALES=”drinks”
23 ON END Upright individual gets nude occasionally (2,3)
ONE=”individual” plus occasional letters from NuDe
24   See 18

43 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,797 by Vlad”

  1. I enjoyed this puzzle. My favourites were LITURGICAL, DERANGES, EYE CANDY, STRONGHOLD.

    New for me was FELL = hill.

    I was not able to parse 3d + 12a, and wondered about the “in the van” bit of 21.

    Thanks Vlad and manehi.

  2. Thanks manehi. I was pipped at the post as I couldn’t solve my last blank clue, DOLMENS at 28a. 14a LANCET WINDOW was also unfamiliar, but I got it using the crossers.

    I enjoyed many other aspects of this challenge, especially 1a19d GRAMMAR POLICE (as a former English teacher, clearly I am a card-carrying member!). For me, 4d RASTAS was another fun clue.

    Thanks to Vlad – you won on the day but I still liked the challenge.

  3. Like you, michelle@1, I needed to come here to understand 21a NEAT properly, though somehow I did get BARB(ILL) at 12a. Sometimes the four letter ones are the toughest.

  4. Unusually for me with Vlad, I parsed the lot. I particularly liked second-class, although I’m familiar with ‘ameliorate’.

  6. (BTW, THE BEAUTIFUL GAME at 18a24d was a total guess from the wordplay. I have no idea about sport, really.)

  8. Julie@2

    for 21 NEAT, I thought the A was simply an abbreviation of Assistant, so I was then wondering what the “in the van” bit was needed for

  12. I thought this was superb – probably because I finished it and parsed everything which is a first for a Vlad. I’d like to think I’m improving – and I’m also expecting plentyof comments saying this was him at his most accessible. I had ticks all the way through and it’s interesting to see that manehi lists so many in his intro. Top clue for me has to be GRAMMAR POLICE – I wonder whether it is meant to be a gentle prod at some commenters? Many thanks Vlad, and to manehi for the blog.

  13. Anyway, nothing too piercing from Vlad today, in fact surfaces are very smooth I found. Football a gimme even for a vey occasional soccer watcher. A few multiple Legos, eg 3 and 17 down, a couple of dnks, eg [a]meliorate and dolmen qua tomb (thought it was just the standing stone), but all in all steady and enjoyable with no quibbles. Thanks Vlad and Manehi.

  14. I enjoyed that a lot – Vlad in a sunnier mood it seems, with lots of lovely parsing, most of which went the right way round for once. Too many favourites to pick one out, but also a nod to the overall tidiness and clarity of the cluing, plus the surfaces, which put this as top notch for me.

    Re “countdown” – this will be such an iconic program for British solvers of a certain age that the term immediately invokes images of badly knitted jumpers and jovial hosts. So when I saw that an American company is planning a horror film with the title (about an app that tells you how long you have to live – and tells one lady she has 3 days) I just thought it will not play in this particular Poughkeepsie…who could imagine being scared by Countdown?

  15. I found this quite hard to get started, so much so that I went and did the Indy and then returned to this one, only to find a bit of deja-vu in 25a

    Lots to enjoy so thank you to Vlad and Manehi

  16. What thezed said in his/her first paragraph – super puzzle!

    I must add GRAMMAR POLICE to manehi’s favourites – I stand shoulder to shoulder with JinA on this one – and also DOLMENS, for its great surface and its fair cluing, since it may be a less familiar word: grantinfreo @ 13, I think you’re thinking of menhirs – you can see them both at Carnac in Brittany

    Huge thanks, Vlad – most enjoyable – and thanks to manehi for a great blog.

  17. As it was for WhiteKing @12, this was the first Vlad puzzle I’ve completed and parsed without help. So, also with WhiteKing, I suspect this was towards the easier end of the setter’s range.

    Thanks to Vlad and manehi.

  18. Lots to like; quite a few BIFD and then parsed later, although I didn’t see the ill in BAR Bill, doh!

    Thanks Vlad, manehi and Eileen for the education about DOLMENS.

  19. The interesting thing about 13d is that according to some dictionaries/services, medical and surgical are antonyms, not synonyms. To suggest Vlad made a mistake, though, would be the role of the 1,19, not me.

  20. Dr. WhatsOn@19. Far from being a 1,19 contribution I found your entry illuminating and did check and find them as antonyms – or rather different ways of addressing a condition. For me it is further evidence of the joy of crossword solving and the benefit of joining in this forum. I still think it is perfectly valid as a clue in crosswordland.

  22. As so often with Vlad, this seemed a lot more accessible once a few crossers were in place, and in the end the only real difficulties were a couple of the parsings. No excuses for ALCOTT being last in. A top class puzzle.

    Thanks to Vlad and manehi

  23. I enjoyed this.  My own favorite was MELIORATED, though I didn’t know the word, for its MORATE for “second-class” misdirection.

     

     

  25. BH@22: Alcott was my last too! And she’s an American, even.

    As others have said, there was a lot of guess-then-parse going on here, but I did parse it all. As with so many people who do cryptics, I’m a member of the GRAMMAR POLICE, so that one was nice to see.

    Julie, THE BEAUTIFUL GAME is what Brazilians in particular call soccer.  [“Soccer,” by the way, is what Americans call the boring game.  I’m teasing, of course, but for some reason the sport took a long, long time to catch on here.  It finally has to a certain extent.]

  26. Thanks to Vlad and manehi. I was doing very well with this, and then ground to a halt in the SE and NW. Eventually got grammar police and dolmens, but the others in the NW took longer. I eventually got meliorated, but a DNF for me as a I could not see Alcott for the life of me (do not know why now). However still very enjoyable and favourites for me were barb, St Andrew and eye candy. Thanks again to Vlad and manehi.

  27. I was another who got THE BEAUTIFUL GAME from the word count and I know even less about sport than Julie. The I in BEAUTIFUL gave me SPAGHETTI WESTERN and then I was away. I have to admit to not always getting the parsing right-eg NEAT-but I managed more than I often do with Vlad. I liked SHADINESS and BARB,my LOI.
    Thanks Vlad.

  28. Now wondering if “in the van” must be memorised as another way to indicate the initial letter… If so, then it must be. I did think it was a wonderfully innovative method. Congratulations, Vlad, if you invented it – perhaps you can’t claim that distinction, but I don’t recall seeing it before.

    Thanks to Vlad, manehi and the other commentators for an entertaining puzzle and blog.

  29. Trismegistus @28 I’m sure I’ve seen the term “van” used to mean the front, though I think in a charade where a particular word or synonym went up front, rather than Vlad’s use here for the first letter. Clever either way as such a good misdirect when used well.

    Re dolmens (and menhirs) I can recommend the Channel Islands for some of the richest and densest examples of that particular part of our heritage. And in passing, it’s worth noting that Stonehenge is not strictly a “henge” even though it gave its name to the concept. All something to do with the positioning of ditch and bank apparently.

  30. An excellent puzzle by Vlad, with nothing too contrived that I sometimes find with this setter. There were many examples of ingenuity and misdirection that tested my brain, and I had to be at my sharpest.
    I got off to a good start with ON END and the two long double entries involving anagrams. In the end, I left a few clues unparsed, including BARB (as Julie said, the short ones are often the tricky ones), but with a bit more patience I think I would have sussed all of those.
    Thanks to Vlad and Manehi.

  31. Really tough; really good. As with manehi, a lot of ‘get the answer and then parse’. I learned a lot about clueing today, through this. Ninas are new to me; had to look them up. Not sure I get it in this instance (as stated by Grantinfreo @ 11). But no worries; that’s a challenge for the future.

    Thanks Vlad and manehi.

  33. Ta for that link Eileen, scary! Lots of research and media talk these days about screen time, brain and neurosis. I still use a book of maps to navigate!

  36. Thank you, Eileen@24 for a link to a very interesting article.  I read on my ipad (and do Guardian Cryptics on my laptop or ipad) and find I am not able to lose myself in a puzzle or book the way that I used to – it is too tempting to deal with the ping of an email or social media connection.  I’m only free when hiking or biking.

  37. Keyser @31your comment highlights the issues that we were having last week with regard to Crossword 27,792 and that made 1 across a topical clue.  We bottom-uppers struggle to see how “a lot of get the answer and then parse” = “really good crossword”.  For me, a good crossword is one where none of the cryptic content is redundant.  I don’t usually enjoy a Vlad, but this one I did, because there was a lot less redundancy than usual.  2d was the only one that I would challenge anyone to declare that they solved it other than by studying the crossers and isolating “writer” as the definition.

    And a very helpful set of crossers in general, thank you, Vlad.

  38. Van Winkle @37

    I’m one of the 100% who solved ALCOTT from ‘writer’ and then fitted the parts to it.  My preference is for a minority of clues to have that characteristic (and yours would evidently be for a very small minority), but such clues are still valid and part of the setter’s armoury.

    If Vlad had slightly recast his clue, simplifying a part of it and re-ordering it:
    “Writer‘s account exaggerated, one side claimed (6)”
    it would, I believe, have been more amenable to solving either way, but Vlad’s the master here, and in my view he set a perfectly good clue in the context of the whole puzzle.

  39. Thanks to manehi and Vlad

    Marvellous crossword, especially for the prescient placing of the synecdochic  TOTT above THE BEAUTIFUL GAME.

  40. I think 2d could at least have had a reference to “small females” for clarity. Otherwise, lovely puzzle though.

  41. Alan B @38 – just to confirm, I am not saying that the clue and others like it are “bad”, just explaining how they don’t bring me any particular pleasure and why crosswords by this batch of setters will always get mixed reviews, from the disappointed to the very happy.

  42. VW @41

    Point taken.  On my side, there is no question that my favourite clues in this crossword were, as usual, those where I worked out most or all of the wordplay before matching the answer to the definition.  THE BEAUTIFUL GAME and NEAT are two such examples, but there were several more.

  43. Couldn’t finish this yesterday as I was exhausted due to an 18 hour day! Everything fell in place quickly this morning after sleep. A fine crossword from Vlad again.

    Apropos of nothing I would recommend “The Beautiful Game?: Searching for the Soul of Football” by David Conn to any football fan.

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