Guardian Cryptic 28,619 by Vlad

by

I liked this a lot, a very fun and challenging solve – many favourites including 12ac, 22ac, 25ac, 26ac, 1dn, 6dn, and 20dn. Many thanks to Vlad.

 

ACROSS
1, 6 DOTHEBOYS HALL
Nick’s school loathed bolshy characters (9,4)
a school in Nicholas Nickleby [wiki] by Dickens

anagram using the letters/characters of (loathed bolshy)*
6
See 1
 
8 CRACKERS
Crazy money? It’s on credit! (8)
ACKERS is slang for “money”; after CR (credit)
9 ARRAYS
Talked about a lift — making arrangements (6)
homophone/”Talked about” of ‘a raise’=”a lift”
10 BEAT IT
Act unwisely and get lost (4,2)
BE A TIT=”Act unwisely”
11 EXPLODED
Blasted policeman stops old press chief (8)
PLOD=”policeman” inside EX=”old” and ED (editor, “press chief”)
12 LESSON
Discussed shrink, for example (6)
homophone/”Discussed” of ‘lessen’=”shrink”
15 EL DORADO
Dole desperate woman’s claimed here? Probably not (2,6)
definition: a mythical city of wealth – perhaps a place where one would be unlikely to be poor

anagram/”desperate” of (Dole)*; around DORA=”woman”
16 DOUBTFUL
Old but surprisingly keeping most of hair? Hmm! (8)
definition: “Hmm” as an expression indicating doubt or uncertainty

anagram/”surprisingly” of (Old but)*; around most of FU[r]=”hair”
19 STAIRS
Flight instruments I replaced (6)
SITARS=”instruments”, with the letter “I” re-placed
21 POSITRON
Correct, sport — ion is a particle (8)
anagram/”Correct” of (sport ion)*
22 TEMPER
Came across reactionary for a moderate (6)
definition: temper=moderate as a verb

MET=”Came across” reversed/”reactionary”; plus PER=”for”
24 BIKINI
Book related in 2, which does cover the basics (6)
B (Book); plus KIN=”related” inside II=Roman numerals for “2”
25 DEMONIAC
Briefly show murderer turned evil (8)
DEMO (demonstrate, “Briefly show”) + CAIN=Biblical “murderer” of Abel, reversed/”turned”
26, 27 SELF-IMPORTANT
Overbearing on film set — part’s recast (4-9)
anagram/”recast” of (on film set part)*
27
See 26
 
DOWN
1 DIRGE
Elegy awful, Gray initially admitted (5)
DIRE=”awful” around G[ray]

surface references Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, a poem by Thomas Gray
2 TACITUS
Historian understood country (7)
definition: a Roman historian [wiki]

TACIT=”understood” + US=USA=”country”
3 EVENT
What happens during night never brought up (5)
hidden in/”during” nigh-T NEVE-r, reversed/”brought up”
4 OBSCENE
Dirty picture upset Derek to begin with (7)
SCENE=”picture”, with BO “Derek” the actress [wiki] reversed/”upset” in front/”to begin with”
5 STAMPEDES
Careers masters forced to take care of PE department — that’s not right! (9)
anagram/”forced” of (masters)*, around PE D (department); minus the R (right) from the anagram fodder
6 HARBOUR
Shelter with or without husband (7)
without H (husband), it is ARBOUR which also means “shelter”
7 LAY READER
Song about bloody American upset serviceman? (3,6)
definition: as in church services

LAY=”Song” + RE=”about”, plus reversal of both: RED=”bloody” + A (American)
13 ECONOMISE
Cut corners — someone in charge originally needs to be disciplined (9)
anagram/”needs to be disciplined” of (someone I C), with “originally” specifying the first letters of I-n C-harge
14 NEFERTITI
Queen to retire February 1st in shock (no alternative) (9)
definition: a queen of Egypt [wiki]

anagram/”shock” of (to retire F in)*, only using the “1st” letter of F-ebruary; then minus OR=”alternative” from the anagram fodder
17 BAILIFF
Trouble inside — punch unwelcome visitor to house (7)
AIL=”Trouble” as in ‘what troubles/ails you?”; inside BIFF=”punch”
18 LINED UP
Policy supported by Unionists ready for the future (5,2)
LINE=”Policy” + DUP (Democratic Unionist Party)
20 ARMENIA
Land where people break into song (7)
MEN=”people” in ARIA=”song”
22 TAMAR
English runner participating in Jakarta Marathon (5)
definition: the Tamar is a river between Devon and Cornwall=”English runner”

hidden in Jakar-TA MAR-athon
23 EXALT
Praise highly, though out of key (5)
EX=”out of” + ALT=”key” on a computer keyboard

73 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,619 by Vlad”

  1. After two days where lack of time (or more likely, lack of brains) left half finished grids, my heart sank when I saw Vlad today. However, it proved to be one of his less challenging puzzles and I got there in about an hour. A few chuckles and a few groans, I can’t believe it took me so long to get 3dn. In most cases I guessed the answer and then worked out the parsing. Thank you Vlad and manehi.

  4. Vlad on great form today, I thought. But then that may just be because it clicked for me. Maybe not others. I have no idea at all how DOTHEBOYS HALL came to mind and why Nickleby was the first thing prompted by Nick but it did and gave me a great start. I needed manehi’s help to parse NEFERTITI, having worked out roughly but not precisely what was going on. And spent almost as long on BIKINI as everything else put together, thinking there was a link to TACITUS that I was never going to get. Whilst the biggest laugh came from BEAT IT, I thought HARBOUR a particularly elegant construction so it gets my COTD.

    Thanks Vlad and manehi

  5. Ta for the blog – and for NEFERTITI, which I biffed in but couldn’t see how it worked.

    I like Vlad as a setter, always inventive, usually good surfaces and fresh IMO.

  6. One of those where, once completed and fully parsed, you wonder why some of it gave you such trouble. Great misdirection explains the syndrome. For 15ac I thought the reference was to the gold rush site, where claims were made and very few (very hard worked) women were around. I was probably being too fanciful. Thanks, Vlad, as ever for the great workout and thanks for a lucid blog.

  7. 1ac first in for me too, and BIKINI I couldn’t get.

    A much easier crossword, but Vlad, still doesn’t appal to me.

    Thanks manehi and Vlad

  8. My experience of this puzzle, and my reactions to it, were almost word-for-word those of PostMark’s @4.

    Some great surfaces here: DIRGE, NEFERTITI and ARMENIA were especially pleasing.

    Thanks to Jim and manehi

  9. Since PM @4 has already admitted staring too long at BIKINI, I’ll confess that NEFERTITI always brings to mind Rubbatiti – at whose hands Kenneth Williams finally gets his comeuppance… ‘Frying tonight!’

    I would guess that Roz will have found this more impala than impaler, but it suited me to a TT.

    Thanks Vlad and manehi.

  10. Like PostMark @ 4after getting DIRGE (my FOI which I really liked), DOTHEBOYS HALL just sprang straight into my mind even though I didn’t know which book it came from or the plot.

    Similarly I loved HARBOUR – made me laugh. Also EL DORADO

    As always with Vlad I struggled and used aids – and like JerryG @ 1 there were more than a few I guessed and then parsed – and some that I didn’t manage to parse so thanks to manehi for help.

    Thanks Vlad.

  12. Failed to parse: STAIRS (I can never do those sliding-letter ones), the actress BO Derek, ECONOMISE, NEFERTITI – but I did finish it, which means it must have been one of Vlad’s gentler ones. Favourites DIRGE, BEAT IT, DOUBTFUL, BIKINI, HARBOUR.

  13. Tough but fair, and with some ingenious ideas – NEFERTITI, which I saw fairly quickly but took ages to parse, being perhaps the most devious.
    It’s always satisfying when an anagram just feels right, and DOTHEBOYS HALL = characters of LOATHED BOLSHY is superb. But some others fit together beautifully behind elegant surfaces – Gray’s awful elegy; the bloody American turning out to point to a LAY READER; the reactionary moderate.
    Thanks both.

  14. I’m not sure if I’ve completed a Vlad before, but the Impala kept his horns to himself this time, except that I couldn’t parse everything. NEFERTITI (obvious from crossers) and DOUBTFUL were examples of answers that would have required a lot of extra effort to parse; the check button was too tempting. Designed for more advanced / talented solvers; from my perspective they verged on unfair.

    On the other hand, when LAY READER came to mind (despite them usually being called just “reader” these days) I succeeded in parsing it.

    The story of this puzzle was my continual surprise at steady progress, with a lot of fun on the way. BEAT IT made me laugh. STAIRS was neatly clued. I’ve never heard of ACKERS.

  15. I liked DOTHEBOYS HALL but spent a while trying to derive the name of a “nick” from the bolshy characters of “school loathed”. Nice misdirection.

  16. Certainly towards the easier end of the impaler’s spectrum but a dnf for for me as I assumed 24ac was an obscure Latin text. Swimwear was certainly too much of a stretch for me. Also, I fail to see the role of the ‘a’ in 22ac. Otherwise, many thanks to Manehi and Vlad

  17. I remember first meeting the name Dotherboys and thinking Such a great caricaturist … Squeers, Bumble, Murdstone et al …
    Nice Vlad, this. Misled, like PM@4, by bikini. Who knew ackers for money… not this Oz boy. Thanks both.

  19. Definitely on the gentler side, but not a walkover either. I usually struggle with Vlad and usually wonder why afterwards. He beat me yesterday as Tyrus but I’m pleased to report that honours are now even (for this week at least).

    Lots of ticks but my COTD has to be BEAT IT, with HARBOUR a close second.

    Thanks Vlad and manehi

  20. Totally on The Impaler’s wavelength this morning, all slipped in very smoothly, though needed Manehi’s explanations to parse TEMPER, NEFERTITI, and the very last one in BIKINI, when the penny finally dropped. DOTHEBOYS HALL was a fun way to start off, even though Nicholas Nickleby didn’t find much joy there himself.

  21. …and I suppose BIKINI might be awarded clue of the day, except for the fact that it was heavily involved with the Roman historian for its parsing. Not pure enough in itself to be given this accolade, therefore.

  22. Too hard for me 🙁 Copious use of check/reveal and couldn’t parse about a quarter/third of them.

    Never heard of ‘ackers’

    Favourite was 10A, which raised a smile amongst the misery!

    Still, it’s Friday…

  23. Tough puzzle. Solved NE corner last.
    Favourites: DEMONIAC, TEMPER, HARBOUR.
    New for me: ACKERS = money (for 8ac); DOTHEBOYS HALL.

    I did not parse 14d, 15ac (I was confused because I saw it as for dole* + rado).

    Thanks, both.

  25. Like gladys @15, I got the fodder of 1A wrong, thinking it was ‘school loathed’ at first. Slow progress with this, with the bottom half solved before anything appeared in the top half.

    I’m another who has never heard of ACKERS for money, and I failed to parse NEFERTITI. Nevertheless, a good puzzle with ticks for the nicely hidden EVENT, BEAT IT, BIKINI and STAMPEDES.

    Thanks Vlad and manehi.

  26. michelle@23 Me too for a long time with El DORADO. I was thinking it was one of those dreaded indirect anagrams for a while.

  27. Ronald@21: I don’t see how 22a links with 2d at all — except that Tacitus was a Roman and II is the Roman numeral equivalent to ‘2’, but that link is not in any way necessary for the solution to 22a.
    I found this a most enjoyable puzzle. Almost every clue required a bit of lateral thinking and there were plenty of satisfying PDMs for me. “cover the basics” suggested something cheeky like a fig-leaf or cod-piece but still I had to puzzle my way round the Tacitus misdirection (with the ‘I’ at the final position, the solution looked very likely to be a Latin plural).
    I liked ‘ackers’ — at school in Hampshire in the 1960s, I and my mates often used the word, but I have absolutely no idea of its etymology. I’ll look it up…
    The anagrams has a bit of spice in them, too, with the NEFERTITI anagrist being especially peppery.
    Jolly good show. Thanks Vlad and manehi.

  29. I’ve looked up ‘ackers’ and Oxford’s opinion is that it came from British troops in Egypt in 1930s mangling the Arabic word fakka=coin, small change. My dad did his National Service in Egypt — bet that’s where I got ‘ackers’ from. Well, well.

  30. Tough but rewarding, thanks Vlad & manehi.
    I failed to parse two or three but in hindsight they all make perfect sense.
    The ‘a’ in TEMPER is misleading, which is fine, but is it required for ‘per’?
    Loved ARMENIA for its economy.

  31. pserve_p2@27…well maybe I simply thought that II is the Roman numeral representation of “2”, and as a Roman historian just happened to appear at clue 2 I assumed that rather underlined or emphasised things. Perhaps mere coincidence, and maybe not Vlad’s intention, so strictly speaking, I suppose you are correct…

  35. Hmm, I always think of Vlad the Impaler when I see a Vlad crossword. We couldn’t parse all of them, so thank you manehi. Mr Paddington Bear survived this one!

  36. I think Bikini gets my CUTD because of the double entendre, not essential I agree but clever!
    Thanks Vlad and Manehi, great fund.

  37. Thanks for the blog, great puzzle to end a week that has just got better and better after such a poor previous week.
    Got very few Across answers and then lots of Downs on my first look , three corners collapsed quickly but bottom left took a while.
    Many inventive clues here, OBSCENE and BAILIFF the pick for me, I will even forgive the use of particle for POSITRON .

  38. I didn’t know ACKERS either, but worked it out, and googled it. Thank you to those who did know it for your confirmation that it is/was used.

    Got a bit stuck because I thought of Austria before Armenia, and tried to convince myself the Ust were a people – possibly Icelandic, or Inuit. Once I gave that up, ARMENIA was easy (face-palm), and the rest of that corner succumbed. Took a while to finish off because of LESSON. Once I got it, I couldn’t work out what took me so long.

    I see the homophone police are having a day off! (Well, so far…)

  39. Unfortunately, I found this quite difficult not having my Dickens education, nor knowing about Roman historians.

    Funny how many solvers found this an easier Vlad.

  40. Roz @ 37

    Chambers has “(also pos?iton) a particle differing from the electron in having a positive charge” as the definition for positron, so even if you don’t like it Vlad doesn’t need forgiveness.

  41. I definitely thought this was a quicker-than-average Vlad; the only one that held me up was STAIRS because I’d temporarily forgotten that meaning of “flight”. I’m not keen on Dickens and have never read Nicholas Nickleby, but like PM@4, for some reason I got DOTHEBOYS HALL as soon as I saw the clue. Bo Derek’s name is memorable even if her “acting” isn’t, otherwise I’d say she was unfairly obscure to use in a daily xword. I liked STAMPEDES and BIKINI among others; but I wasn’t keen on EL DORADO which just seemed vague, though obvious enough. BEAT IT is neat but I’m sure I’ve seen it recently, with very similar wordplay.
    Thanks Vlad and manehi.

  42. I see “Derek” and I’m supposed to think of “Bo Derek”? Maybe my 13-year old self in 1979 might have got that (because…reasons) but the film “10” is 42 years old now. Ah well, memories…

  43. [BarryR@42 – I too saw the film when young (though a good bit older than 13) – my male mates and I discussed it afterwards and the consensus was that Julie Andrews was sexier than Ms Derek; at least the former appeared to be alive!]

  44. Simon S @ 40 As usual Chambers is completely wrong in this area, Collins surprisingly is correct. The POSITRON has negative Lepton number and is of course an anti-particle, without this property we could not have pair production , annihilation and no Positron Emission Tomography.

  45. Roz – looks like you need to take it up with Britannica too: “positron, also called positive electron, positively charged subatomic particle having the same mass and magnitude of charge as the electron and constituting the antiparticle of a negative electron.” No doubt there are good reasons for saying that it is not a particle, but for normal solvers being able to resolve ‘sport ion’ into POSITRON is result. Having to worry whether it’s actually a particle is just a step too far. 🙂

  46. I found this one of the most enjoyable Vlads for a long time.

    Roz was talking about anti-particles, and curiously I had some thoughts about opposites in the clue for HARBOUR. With and without are opposites, but to operationalise them for the wordplay you do not want to translate them to add and subtract, since that would make hharbour or something. However, the clue is perfectly fine since another pair of opposites does just what you want: keep and lose. Just some idle thoughts.

  47. SH@45 Britannica is just as bad as the dictionaries in this area, I see it describes it as a particle and an anti-particle in the same sentence???
    Would you care to explain how two particles can annihilate and conserve all quantum numbers ?

  48. Roz – as I said @45, this is a step too far for normal solvers. When I was doing physics at O- and A-level, half a century ago, we got about as far as the fact that there *are* anti-particles, which would annihilate if meeting their opposite numbers. The idea that an anti-particle is not a particle was not on the agenda.

  49. SH I agree with you totally. If you read my post @37 I made nothing of this and did not complain at all . If people challenge my views on particle physics using non-scientific references then I will respond.

  50. Roz @47, I don’t think it’s particularly unreasonable to describe an antiparticle as a particle. It’s a particular type of particle, as is an electron. Indeed, I would be happy to describe an electron as antiparticle to the positron particle. Admittedly this would be confusing, so in Physics it’s better to be particularly precise with particle/antiparticle terminology. But outside University level Physics there is no need for a precise definition of “particle” to exclude antiparticles.

  51. Roz @49: I’d better not throw at you either Terry Pratchett’s thaumic particles and baize space or Philip Pullman’s dust then… 😉

  52. Monkey @50. To be fair, Roz already agreed to this in her original comment @37. Mine @45 was in response to her chastisement of Chambers in hers @44, after which I somewhat lost sight of the fact that she wasn’t actually saying the clue was wrong: just Chambers and Britannica!

  53. Thank you SH@52, you put it much better than I could myself.
    PM@51 not heard of thaumic particles ? I presume they are tenuously mimicking something real and baize space is phase space.

  54. Ackers for money is new to me too. So is “tit” for whatever it’s standing for, so I didn’t share the widespread delight in BEAT IT. I also went down the same wrong path as Gladys@15, thinking that it was “school loaded” that was bolshy.

    Unlike Robi@25, I filled it all in last night except the SW corner. Had to use check this morning for some of that.

    Enjoyable puzzle and helpful blog, so thanks to Vlad and manehi. Many particles of pleasure throughout!

  55. [Mark @51 & Roz @53. Baize space sounds like a snooker table to me. Newtonian laws of motion! Now that’s what I call proper physics!]

  57. This particulate discussion is very entertaining, prompted by Roz (@37), ever the doyenne of apophasis. I’m just thankful it wasn’t a homophone clue.

  58. Moth@38 perhaps they have learned their lessen.
    Valentine@54 maybe you mean anti-particles of pleasure.
    Blah@56 we actually have much better real names- tachyons, gluons , dwarfons and of course barn, shed and outhouse.

  59. [sheffield hatter and Roz, I think there has been a considerable breakout of agreement, despite the delays inherent in composing replies, only to discover that someone else has made a similar point. Apologies if my part in this was in any way annoying.]

  60. Not at all Monkey @59 , I agree with your post @50 entirely , we could swap everything over as long as everyone agreed, it is the same for electric charge. However we do need the distinction because of conservation laws but maybe not in a crossword.

  63. Thoroughly enjoyed this despite having addled my brain particles with gin last night. All this science talk reminded me of this and I’m sure Roz et all could validate the hypotheses 🙂

    Vlad remains firmly in my top three along with Tramp and Boatman

    Cheers all

  64. NEFERTITI was obvious from the crossing letters, but it was a bit too far over the line into Indirect Anagramland, in my opinion. I think that’s why so many people failed to parse it. And I had not heard of Nicholas Nickleby’s school; while I’ve read my share of Dickens novels (six or seven, I think), that hasn’t been one of them. My patience for doorstop Victorian novels was higher in my 20s and 30s, but ebbed quite a bit after I got married. I also cheated on TACITUS–one I surely would have gotten if I’d persevered, but I’m supposed to be working right now.

    Anyway, a pleasant but chewy DNF for me.

  65. essexboy@9 Ha ha ha ha ha! What glorious silliness! Thanks muchly for the cheer-me-up. Now, where was I? Ah yes, time for tiffin. Pip pip

  66. Thanks both,

    Quite chewy at first then, after a break, most fell into place although I needed a word search for ‘bikini’. OED says ‘ackers’ comes from ‘akkas’ a word for the Egyptian piastre, adopted by the British army in the 1920s.

  67. Great stuff, thanks Vlad – challenging, rewarding and lots of fun. And thanks manehi for the blog.

    As well as several already mentioned by others (BAILIFF, DIRGE), I would pick out STAIRS as a favourite – so simple yet elegant. Also STAMPEDES for the surface that made me laugh out loud.

    NEFERTITI was perhaps a tad convoluted in its wordplay, but the instructions on how to solve it are spelled out clearly enough in the clue.

    Rodbod @33 – that was precisely my thought too.

  69. Managed to finish, but needed the blog to understand the parsing of ECONOMISE and NEFERTITI. The latter I got simply because she was the only queen whose name ending in i that I knew. Thanks Vlad and manehi.

  70. Foolishly didn’t solve BIKINI as assumed it was a book I didn’t know.

    Nice one Vlad. And manehi.

    What’s a particle…. just a bit of something

  71. Somehow always find something clunky and unsatisfying about Vlad. Got there in the end, but no real sense of satisfaction, more a chore dealt with.

  72. Nice one from Vlad. Thanls to Manehi.

    The bottom went in completely with nothing in the top. Gave to Mrs PinL who asked what’s an elegy? I thinks it’s a type of poem, so looked it up – “Song of mourning”. Mrs PinL said DIRGE and the top went in slowly after that.

    ACKERS as slang for money came to me from deep down. Though these days used a lot on gambling ads as short for “accumulators”.

  73. Thanks manehi, I found this difficult and you have sorted out quite a lot of parsing for me. I cheated and looked up a list of historians for TACITUS otherwise would have ground to a halt quite early on, but found plenty to amuse here and appreciated the challenge, thanks Vlad.

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