Guardian Cryptic 28,453 by Vulcan

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An (almost) typical Monday offering.

Most of this puzzle was typical of Monday fare, with a few double definitions (and a triple) and cryptic definitions, but, for me, it was elevated slightly above the norm by the inclusion of the Paulish MILE-HIGH CLUB, and the inclusion of HOYDENISH, a new word to me.

 

Thanks, Vulcan, for the puerile giggle and the education.

ACROSS
1 TOILSOME
Pictures in large book needing effort (8)
OILS (“pictures”) in TOME (“large book”)
5 BOLTED
Ate fast, secured door and ran off (6)
Triple definition
9 OBSTACLE
Stole cab involved in a sort of race (8)
*(stole cab) [anag:involved]
10 BEACON
Go to prison? One’s a shining light (6)
BE A CON(vict) (“go to prison”)
12 BILLY THE KID
Outlaw goat and its offspring (5,3,3)
BILLY (“goat”) + THE KID (“its offspring”)
15 NOTCH
Nick is excellent with top (5)
“top” NOTCH = “excellent”
17 GALVANISE
Stimulate a Svengali into action (9)
*(a Svengali) [anag:into action]
18 SAND YACHT
Alexander and eight of the Germans bring sailboat on shore (4,5)
SANDY (“Alexander”) + ACHT (eight in German, so “eight of the Germans”)
19 NEPAL
Friend from Northumberland hill country (5)
NE (North East, so “from Northumberland”, Northumberland being in the NE of England) + PAL (“friend”)
20 EQUINOCTIAL
Notice quail buffeted in such gales (11)
*(notice quail) [anag:buffeted]

 

Traditionally, it is believed that there are more gales around equinoxes, for example March winds.
24 AFRAID
Nervous of attack by a force (6)
RAID (“attack”) by A + F (force)
25 FRENETIC
Delirious, seeing entire chaos in football club (8)
*(entire) [anag:chaos] in FC (football club)
26 HI-DEHI
Don’t show opening of conversat­ion in camp programme (2-2-2)
HIDE (“don’t show”) + HI (“opening of conversation”)

 

Hi-De-Hi was a British sitcom, featuring a fictional British holiday camp.
27 TWO-SIDED
Double-faced couple took part (3-5)
TWO (“couple”) + SIDED (“took part”)
DOWN
1 TROMBONIST
Noted his job is on the slide (10)
Cryptic definition
2 INSULATING
Rude to limit area for protecting (10)
INSULTING (“rude”) to limit A (area)
3 SEAMY
I say, look at me — so disreputable (5)
Homophone [I say] of SEE ME (“look at me”)
4 MILE-HIGH CLUB
Taking to the air, its members are bonkers (4-4,4)
Cryptic definition
6 OVERDRAWN
Exaggerated being in debt … (9)
Double definition
7 TICK
… show approval of credit (4)
Double definition
8 DONE
Accomplished teacher has energy (4)
DON (“teacher”) has E (energy)
11 SKELETON CREW
Not many hands on ghost ship? (8,4)
A “ghost ship” may have been crewed by skeletons, hence SKELETON CREW
13 PINPOINTED
Small nail with sharp end carefully located (10)
PIN (“small nail”) + POINTED (“with sharp end”)
14 WELL-PLACED
Source of water put in a favourable position (4-6)
WELL (“source of water”) + PLACED (“put”)
16 HOYDENISH
Dishy? No, he may appear like a tomboy (9)
*(dishy he no) [anag:may appear]
21 CONES
Ice creams dropped on the motorway (5)
Double definition, the second referring to traffic cones, which tend to be dropped from the back of a moving vehicle when being placed on a motorway.
22 DASH
Unhappy about hard race (4)
<=SAD (“unhappy”, about) + H (hard)
23 PROD
Poke right inside compartment (4)
R (right) inside POD (“compartment”)

44 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,453 by Vulcan”

  1. Enjoyed this puzzle – some lovely clues.

    Favourites: NOTCH (made me laugh), HOYDENISH (lovely word), SKELETON CREW, NEPAL, SAND YACHT

    Thanks Vulcan and loonapick

  2. Thanks Vulcan for a fun start to Monday. I too enjoyed NOTCH and MILE-HIGH CLUB and I enjoyed the 3d of BOLTED.

    Needed reassurance for TWO-SIDED so many thanks loonapick.

    LOI was TOILSOME, the ‘oils’ held me up.

  3. Good start to the week. Same likes as above plus TROMBONISY. HOYDENISH was new for me as well. BILLY THE KID was the easiest solution in yonks but no complaints.

    Ta Vulcan & loonapick

  5. MILE-HIGH CLUB head and shoulders above the rest for me. loonapick’s comments sum this up perfectly. Like yesyes @2, TOILSOME, which could have been ‘tiresome’ although I couldn’t account for the ‘pictures’, needed last-but-one INSULATING before it solved.

    Thanks Vulcan and loonapick

  6. Yes, it’s definitely a Monday. Off to a racing start and quickly finished, but very enjoyable none the less. I’ve never heard of hoydenish but I agree it’s a super word. Thanks Vulcan and loonapick.

  7. LAND YACHT at 18a seemed to make some sense until I couldn’t get 1d (so I changed it to SAND when I eventually saw SANDY for Alexander) – and I did like TROMBONIST there when I found it (already mentioned as a favourite in dispatches above). I also had to smile at 4d MILE-HIGH CLUB and 11d SKELETON CREW. I wasn’t familiar with the camp at 26a (HI-DE-HI) but worked it out, and HOYDENISH at 16d was new to me, again previously mentioned by some others, but again, it was gettable. Thanks for the Monday merriment, Vulcan, and I appreciated the blog, loonapick.

  8. Yes, a very good puzzle for Monday. Had to look up HOYDENISH, particularly since I couldn’t parse NOTCH (woe is me!). Like the MILE-HIGH CLUB, EQUINOCTIAL anagram and SAND YACHT. Many thanks to Vulcan and loonapick.

  9. What loonapick said. HOYDENISH was a DNK but otherwise mostly went in without too much of a complaint.

    [For those who need a bit of ‘Hi-de-Hi’ https://www.britishclassiccomedy.co.uk/its-holiday-time-hi-de-hi is full of useful info. As a Southender, Maplin’s was of course home to both the fictional holiday camp, the sands of the same name that extend out from Southend to the sea and the electronics company now sadly gone founded there in 1972.]

    Thanks Vulcan and loonapick!

  10. [MB @9: …and the Maplin Sands airport which Ted Heath never quite managed to build.]

    I think the definition for NEPAL is ‘hill country’, which is nicely understated.

    SEAMY brought back memories if the dreaded SEE ME, written in red pen underneath a failed test or a particularly catastrophic piece of homework.

    Thanks Vulcan and loonapick

  11. Thanks for the blog. Nice cluing but a Monday puzzle. I rather casually bunged in SHADY for 3d which I thought sort of worked what with Vulcan being an underworld deity…

  12. I think I knew HOYDENISH from reading books by Georgette Heyer where sometimes the heroine can be described as such (disapprovingly by some).

    I still like reading my favourites of her books like Sylvester, These Old Shades and Frederica (all of which could be said to have a heroine with some hoydenish ways).

  13. Yes, a nice level to start the week. I tried anagramming various bits of 1d as I had T,O,B… but then the penny dropped. Annoyingly, I couldn’t parse NOTCH. Favourites already mentioned. Thanks Vulcan and Loonapick

  14. [essexboy @10: Slightly before my time but I do remember there was constant talk of redeveloping Foulness Island. Personally, I like the idea of Boris Island, especially if were to be used to house Boris in some kind of Alcatrazian isolation…]

  15. The answers simply flew in at first, Mile High Club raising a smile, and I thought it was all going to be over before my cup of tea was finished. But 20a, Equinoctial, and 16d, Hoydenish, were new to me and required pencil and paper and the checking of feasible answers.
    LoI was 15a, Notch, which I had in mind for ages but just couldn’t parse until the penny finally dropped. A top-notch clue and a nice start to the week. Thanks to Vulcan and loonapick

  16. It’s Vulcan; it must be Monday.

    I couldn’t quite fit tobogganist into 1D, but I did like TROMBONIST as well as BEACON, NOTCH and MILE-HIGH CLUB. Like Julie @7, I toyed with land yacht at first. I didn’t know HOYDENISH or EQUINOCTIAL, although they were both gettable.

    Thanks Vulcan and loonapick.

  18. Thought the bonkers clue a complete hoot. Nice to be able to add HOYDENISH to my list of everyday words, too. Top NOTCH Monday fare, I thought…

  19. A NOTCH above the typical Vulcan Monday, I thought. HOYDENISH is one of those words which could lose its pejorative connotation and be turned into a positive. My OED says it is etymologically related to “heathen”.

  20. I had to google MILE HIGH CLUB to see what all the fuss was about. Never heard of it. It sounds really uncomfortable! I didn’t get the bonkers part until reading the comments.

    In WELL-PLACED, the second part of the wordplay isn’t cryptic at all. And I don’t think DELIRIOUS is a synonym for “frenetic.”

    But overall good fun. I finished it last night but still had a bit to do this morning on the Quiptic, which once again was harder than the Cryptic. (I’m surprised nobody’s said this yet.)

  21. Enjoyable Monday puzzle. I particularly liked BEACON. MILE HIGH CLUB seems to have been a general favourite, though I thought it was rather a weak clue.

    A couple of words that don’t pop up in general conversation, which I always like in a crossword, but nothing I hadn’t come across before (in fact I don’t think I have ever seen HOYDENISH, but I knew ‘hoyden’ – one of those many misogynistic terms like harridan, termagant, virago…)

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  22. 4d was a great clue with much schoolboy snorting, but I’ve never understood this Mile High Club. Didn’t it used to be the Six Mile High Club? If the plane is only a mile high, it’s either just taken off or coming in to land, so you’ll have your seatbelt fastened, table stowed and seat in an upright position, which might make things tricky.
    Residents of Denver could claim membership without even getting on a plane.

  23. Definitely not a romp through for me so a very enjoyable start to the week. All my ticks have been mentioned. Thanks to Vulcan and loonapick.

  24. Thanks to Vulcan and Loonapick. An excellent puzzle, especially HOYDENISH and EQUINOCTIAL and the clue for 4 down made me smile

  25. I enjoyed the humour in this puzzle.
    New: equinoctial gales, Hi-de-Hi! (BBC television sitcom from the 1980s).
    Favourites: SKELETON CREW, DASH, BEACON, MILE-HIGH CLUB.

  26. I enjoyed this and most of the highlights for me have already been noted, so thank you Vulcan and loonapick. MILE-HIGH CLUB raised a smile with me as well. It reminds me of the Spurious? Philistine? clue Mad crazy lovers. (7), from a few years back!

  27. Like Andy Smith @11 I had SHADY (it has exactly the same meaning as SEAMY) but didn’t write it in as I couldn’t reconcile it with the word play, and eventually the penny dropped. Lots of enjoyable clues as others have said: good surfaces and smile-worthy solutions.

    I don’t understand Valentine’s objections @20: “In WELL-PLACED, the second part of the wordplay isn’t cryptic at all.“. ‘Source of water’=WELL; ‘put’=PLACED; ‘in a favourable position’ is the definition. “And I don’t think ‘delirious’ is a synonym for FRENETIC.” Your argument here is not with our setter but with Chambers, which has frenetic: delirious, frantic, frenzied, mad, distracted.

    Thanks to Vulcan and loonapick.

    [MaidenBartok @14. Just buried up to his neck in mud would be appropriate, I think.]

  28. Thanks both,
    I’m with Valentine, whatever Chambers says about frenetic. Does anyone else have an earworm beginning ”Twas on the broad atlantic’?

  29. @Tyngewick -yes, I do:

    Britons never, never, never shall be
    Marr-eye-ed to a Mer-my-id at the bottom of the deep blue sea..

  30. Thanks both.

    A pleasant romp in (perforce) two sittings – why is it that the impenetrable becomes the clashingly obvious after a little break? Does a little part of the brain continue to whirr away, free-wheeling and un-noticed? I don’t think I’ve ever seen HOYDEN and it’s derivations outside of a crossword – perhaps I should expand my range of reading material. Now to introduce it into a conversation…..

  31. Paul the other one @22 – Agreed, it would probably need to be the 6MHC in a modern passenger jet but I think the club has been in existence since a time when they weren’t as common. As a last resort there’s always Six-Mile Bottom (in Cambridgeshire I think) but remember the old Perry Como hit — It’s impossible/ to make love in a Toyota/ It’s impossible…

  32. Surely the definition for 19 should be HILL COUNTRY, not just COUNTRY, otherwise “hill” is not accounted for. Nepal is in fact a hill country.

  33. Late to this one – but what a nice way to wind down after a busy day. Thanks Vulcan and loonapick. Didn’t twig NOTCH – best I could come up with was T (top) in NOCH (excellent???)… now I’m kicking myself.

    I managed to dig HOYDEN from the recesses of my memory, though I don’t think it’s a word I have ever used – and am unlikely ever to do so.

  34. Rompiballe @32. Yes, you are quite right, and essexboy said the same thing earlier today @10. Unfortunately, today’s blogger is not in the habit of coming back to correct minor errors in the blog.

  35. Sheffield hatter @34

    Today’s blogger has a full-time job and gets up an hour earlier than usual to write his blog. He doesn’t always have time to correct minor errors in the blog. He will always try to correct major ones, however.

  37. Well said loonapick. I think most of those who comment here appreciate the efforts bloggers go to on our behalf and would not associate themselves with the rather snide tone of SH @34! Of course, he may not have intended the remark to be critical: he will no doubt tell us!

  38. Loonapick @35. Apologies for making what has been construed as a snide remark. It was only meant to be factual, and to account for the lack of response. Of course I appreciate the efforts made by our bloggers, and I’m glad that you have time to monitor this site to the extent that you can distinguish a minor from a major error. Once again, apologies; I will have to take more effort to review my wording before pressing Post Comment!

  43. Well I’ve spent a lot of time in NI – wife from there but I never heard “C May”. It’s a big place I suppose.
    By the way surely it should said from the first that bonkers are people having sex.

  44. Blog now updated with corrections to HI-DE-HI and NEPAL as pointed out above.

    To add to the SEEMY debate, I’m Scottish and SEAMY and SEE ME are homophones to me.

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