Guardian Cryptic 28,824 by Vulcan

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Found this trickier than most Mondays, and still not 100% sure on all of the parsings. Favourites were 4ac, 2dn, and especially 26ac. Thanks to Vulcan

 

ACROSS
1 POMADE
Commonly, chap had a mass of hair slicked back with this (6)
Edit: Widdersbel has a better explanation for the first part of the wordplay: HE’D=he had=”chap had”, dropping the ‘h’ as indicated by “Commonly”

ED (short for e.g. Edward, “chap”) + A MOP=”a mass of hair”, all reversed/”back”

“Commonly” indicates the shortening of Ed-
4 SANCERRE
About to make a mistake, wearing sensible white (8)
definition: a white wine

C (circa, “About”) + ERR=”to make a mistake”, all inside SANE=”sensible”
9 GROUSE
This to eat gives one bellyache (6)
double definition: the game bird, or to grumble
10 ATHLETIC
Vigorous, I shake the talc around (8)
I, with anagram/”shake” of (the talc)* around it
11 PAIR OF TROUSERS
Garment that only half suits one (4,2,8)
cryptic definition: “half suits” as in half of a two piece suit
13 BEER CELLAR
It’s clear rebel got drunk down here (4,6)
anagram/”drunk” of (clear rebel)*
14 EDAM
One coming from Holland forced to return (4)
MADE=”forced” reversed/”to return”
16 BUTT
Using head, attack bum (4)
double definition: attack with the head, or a person’s bottom
18 NOMINATION
The whole country after one day backing candidate (10)
NATION=”The whole country”, after I=”one” plus MON (Monday, “day”) both reversed/”backing”
21 GROUND-BREAKING
Innovative way to make dog run? (6-8)
GROUND BREAKING could be a cryptic crossword instruction to make an anagram of (ground)* i.e. a way to make DOG RUN
23 ALL CLEAR
No danger of fog, it’s understood (3,5)
I wrote this in assuming the def was “No danger”, but “No danger of fog” could indicate ALL CLEAR making the definition “understood”
24 DISOWN
Have nothing to do with row about pig (6)
DIN=”row” around SOW=”pig”
25 DISTRESS
Died, I make quite clear, in great suffering (8)
D (died) + I + STRESS=”make quite clear”
26 WEASEL
Sly creature in pop song? (6)
reference to the song / nursery rhyme ‘Pop! Goes the Weasel”
DOWN
1 PAGE
Shakespeare’s mistress and attendant (4)
Mistress Page is a character in Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor
2 MOORAGE
Perhaps a place in hotel raised charge to stay (7)
E.G.=”Perhaps” + A + ROOM=”place in hotel”, all reversed/”raised”
3 DISTRICT
Departs one precise area (8)
D (Departs) + I=”one” + STRICT=”precise”
5 ALTERNATIVE
Different tea interval organised (11)
anagram/”organised” of (tea interval)*
6 COLOUR
Pass our flag (6)
COL=Mountain “Pass” + OUR
7 RETREAD
Retired person returning has to go over the same ground (7)
double definition: RETREAD as a noun is slang for a retired person returning to work, or as a verb in the second meaning

I originally thought this was something like RETREAD-ED=replaced the tyres=”Re-tired”, minus ED=”person”
8 EXCISEMAN
Duty officer (9)
cryptic definition: “Duty” as in taxation
12 FULL OF BEANS
A field of runners is so energetic (4,2,5)
a field of runner beans would also be FULL OF BEANS
13 BABY GRAND
One played with infant: kind of mother! (4,5)
BABY=”infant” + GRAND (as in grand-mother)
15 BACKSIDE
Supports suggestion not to finish bottom (8)
BACKS=”Supports” + IDE-[a]=”suggestion not to finish”
17 TROILUS
Title character misspelled in our list (7)
definition: from the title of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida

anagram/”misspelled” of (our list)*
19 IGNEOUS
Sort of rock, belting out half-ugly noise (7)
anagram/”out” of (ug noise)*, where ug is “half” of “ugly”
20 ANGLER
Rod left in rage (6)
definition: “Rod” can be used to mean an angler using a fishing rod

L (left) in ANGER=”rage”
22 ANIL
As dye plant, use some vanilla (4)
definition: source of indigo dye

hidden in v-ANIL-la

70 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,824 by Vulcan”

  1. There were a lot of clues in this that I didn’t like much. 14a lacks a proper definition. I didn’t care much for 20d, 8d, 7d or 9a. Interesting that ANIL isn’t in the online OED — but I vaguely remembered it from somewhere. My favourite clue was the pop song for WEASEL.

  2. Thanks, manehi and Vulcan. Enjoyable as usual, and just right for a Monday morning – although with a couple of head scratchers.

    I read 1a as “he’d a mop”, commonly indicating dropping the H

    For 23a I went with the “no danger of fog” parsing.

    Not familiar with that secondary meaning of 7d but it was gettable from the last part of the clue and the crossing letters.

  3. Thank you for the blog manehi. I think ANGLER refers to the ROD only, although I’ve never thought of it as such.
    ALL CLEAR I saw as a double definition.
    At least PAGE was referenced to Shakespeare (something I didn’t know).
    The definition for TROILUS was a bit underdone.
    RETREAD is something I know, being about to become one.

    Agree GDU@1 about the inadequate definition in 14a EDAM.

    My favourite was GROUND-BREAKING for a reverse clue, with two common anagrinds.
    I spent too long on working on the breaking (barking?) part before I finally saw the DOG RUN.

  6. Thanks for explaining RETREAD and I also parsed POMADE as per Widdersbel @2. Found this quite tough for a Monday.

    Ta Vulcan & manehi

  8. WEASEL and BACKSIDE were very good. Re 6d, I thought the flag would be “colours” rather than “colour”. The SOED says “usu. in pl.” which I suppose implies it could be in the singular, but I can’t recall having heard it like that.

    Thanks to Vulcan and manehi.

  10. More difficult for me than the usual Vulcan, especially the NW corner for some reason. EDAM didn’t bother me but then I’m used to David Astle’s sometime less than adequate definitions.
    Favourites were GROUND BREAKING, WEASEL and COLOUR.

  12. Thanks Vulcan and manehi

    I think COLOUR in the singular passes muster – there’s an army rank of COLOUR SERGEANT.

  14. Yes, Simon S @12 … learnt about the Colour Sergeant rank from Zulu [the late Mrs ginf’s favourite movie]. Nice bit of chew today, ta Vulcan. ‘E’d a mop indeed .. groan. Rod for angler must be watchacallit, metanym, as in The rod on the beach is catching lots (like the cafe owner saying The cheese sandwich left without paying). All good, thx both.

  15. A bit more Imogen than Vulcan this morning. I feel bad because last week I recommended Vulcan to a beginner, saying that when he was in the Monday slot, it was “generally easier than the Quiptic”! Ah well. I enjoyed BABY GRAND and WEASEL, thanks V & m.

  16. Cheers Widdersbel@2 et al. Better than my Ade as common for Adrian. Fun puzzle. My favourites already mentioned. Thanks manehi & Vulcan.

  19. Thanks Vulcan and manehi
    Several I really liked – WEASEL for the “pop song”, FULL OF BEANS, BABY GRAND, and BACKSIDE.
    I agree that “One from Holland” is a weak definition for EDAM. I also had queries against 1a and 10a, but the blog has resolved them.
    I didn’t parse COLOUR, not helped by reading “our” as “out”! I was trying to think that if someone passes out, they might colour first…

  20. Thanks Simon S and Crispy for Colour Sergeant and Trooping the Colour, yes of course. I was thinking of contexts like “striking the colours” (the Wikipedia article for which includes the quote “Colours. A national flag (or a battle ensign). The colours . . . are hauled down as a token of submission.”)

  22. William @18, no not really sure either, but synecdoche seems to be about part-whole, eg mouths to feed, hands on deck, etc.

  23. For 16a I had BITE as a double definition (rather than BUTT). To bite can be to use one’s head to attack, and to put the bite on someone can mean the same as bumming something from them. Not so common these days, but think of “bumming” a cigarette.

  24. I found this one a bit ‘meh!’, I’m afraid. The “field of runners” is a rather lame for FULL OF BEANS, I think, and ditto for the weird cryptic def for PAIR OF TROUSERS. I couldn’t parse the “‘e’d a” = “Commonly, chap had a”, and when I saw it explained here I didn’t get that satisfying “aha!” feeling. The surface ‘has to’ in RETREAD is clumsy, isn’t it?
    I usually enjoy the quick, neat and clean style of Vulcan on a Monday. This was certainly more tricky and a bit out-of-kilter, IMHO. Sorry.

  25. Harder than the quiptic, as it should be of course, but everything was gettable.

    Loved the misdirection in WEASEL. Didn’t parse POMADE but got it from the definition. Ditto PAGE. ANIL was new to me but I guessed it was hidden in vanilla.

    Cheers both.

  26. Hmm. Well, OK – 8/10 to our setter today. One or two clues failed to satisfy, notably ‘One [what?] from Holland’, ‘Pop song [really?]’ and RETREAD, if it is slang as our blogger suggests, is unknown to me and actually rather offensive, in my opinion. Top left put up more resistance than the rest of the grid, and that’s where I finished, but not with much of a smile on my face today.

  27. A few of these took a while to winkle out, SANCERRE, BUTT (the Glasgow kiss) and TROILUS being the last three to yield…

  28. Thanks for the blog , tougher than usual , especially the top left. Chambers give support for rod=angler , I think the term is used for fishing competitions.
    Grant@22 , a good example of synecdoche is using Holland to mean the Netherlands.

  29. Just failed on 1a, thanks for the parsing.
    Steady crossword, but a shame to DNF after two completed, weekend grids.
    Thanks both, well done the England ladies.

  31. William @18, ginf @22 – synecdoche is specifically when it’s a part of the thing being used as a linguistic replacement (eg wheels = car, threads = clothes, hand = servant) and metonymy is when it’s a related aspect or item being used (eg Number 10 = the Prime Minister, crown = monarchy). So I reckon saying rod for angler is metonymy.

  33. Shqip@ 30 I agree with HYD @32 for the anagram, it is also there to mislead us into thinking of rock music.

  35. I came across SINCERRE in Silence Of The Lambs. I recall it was H.Lecter’s wine of choice to accompany his latest victim.

  36. WEASEL reminded me of this old limerick:

    A tone-deaf old person from Tring
    When somebody asked him to sing,
    Replied, “It is odd
    But I cannot tell ‘God
    Save the Weasel’ from ‘Pop Goes the King.’

    BigNorm @26
    the weasel goes pop, so I think that makes it a “pop song”!

  37. I did have a minor quibble that 6d had half of the solution in plain site in a three-word clue. That struck me as (I’ll choose a polite word) sub-optimal…

  38. I didn’t think the EDAM clue was any worse than “one played” for BABY GRAND

    Overall I thought this was a vast improvement on Vulcan’s usual standard

  39. Robt@37 yes that’s a pet peeve of mine. It always feels like slightly lazy setting. Unless it’s a clever double-bluff 🙂

  40. @39 – I’ll generally let it pass if it’s a short word in a long clue and it helps the surface flow, but this was a third of the clue and half of the answer…! I’ve reread it to check for clever double-bluffs and came away empty-handed.

  41. It’s almost like someone has listened to the comments about the Cryptic being easier than the Quiptic? I was thinking that most people I know who drop their aitches would say e ad rather than e’d, but then I began to think of examples where most of us might say e’d instead of he’d, so commonly was better than the usual Cockney.

  42. Somewhat new to these so maybe I just don’t know the accepted rules but I am not a big fan of how almost any word can be used as a single letter (Died 25ac, Departs in 3d). Agree with 37 about 6d. Never heard of 7d despite being one. Failed to get 1a because of fixation on “DA” the infamous Teddy boy hairstyle

  43. Thanks Vulcan for some really nice clues including SANCERRE, BEER CELLAR, EDAM, BUTT, DISOWN, and BABY GRAND. This was fun. I sometimes skip Monday because I’m still working on the Saturday prize and the Saturday FT but I made relatively quick work of them this time around. Thanks manehi for the blog.
    [Occasionally we get a decent cryptic on this side of the pond. The Wall Street Journal had a gem this past Saturday; there were 34 clues — in 17 of them the definition had to be anagrammed before solving; in the other 17 the solution had to be anagrammed before entering it into the grid. Here’s the link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/anagrammania-saturday-variety-puzzle-july-30-11658955298

  44. This was a lot more like a Monday crossword for which thanks after a difficult week last week. Thanks to Vulcan and manehi.

  46. excelsis @42
    d for died or departs are pretty standard abbreviations; the former in genealogies etc., the latter in, for example, bus or train timetables.

  49. Thanks Manehi, I couldn’t parse POMADE, BREAKING GROUND, PAGE (my LOI), or RETREAD. My favourite was SANCERRE. @35 Hoofityoudonkey – I thought that it was Chianti in the film? But maybe you mean the book. Thanks Vulcan.

  52. I simply (?) saw POMADE as POM (aussie slang for a Brit, ie chap) and ‘AD, which spoken commonly becomes POMADE. The rest of the clue then becomes an &lit (?) – ignoring the ‘slicked back’ as an instruction.
    I quite liked it 🙂
    Pop song I thought was cute, as was the baby grand. Retread and angler less so. Didn’t parse the ground dog – need to be more on the lookout for gegs… Thanks Vulcan & manehi

  54. I struggled, but have finally complrted it and have no quibbles. If you own the land that an angling association has fishing rights to, then you are usually granted a number of rods in the contract,b say 3, that means that you and two guests, or 3 guests, can fish on that length of the river on any day. If you sell the land, you can still keep the fishing rights.

  56. [Seems some people woke up a little grumpy today…]
    The SW corner was hardest for me, as I had plopped in BABY MAKER as a type of mother…enjoyed the runner beans and the weasel(LOI)

    Thanks to TonyS@43 for the link to an American cryptic and to muffin@36 for the limerick! (and loved ginf’s description of same).

  57. Thanks for the blog

    Can someone more experienced with crosswords tell me – does the type of clue for 21A have a name?

    Also for 13A, should the definition be “drunk down here” – and does this partial overlap with the wordplay make it an &lit?

  58. Excel is @42 – I used to think the same but d for died and departed is quite acceptable ( think of biographies and train timetables respectively)

  59. 4:58 @57 I don’t know if there’s a better expression but I call clues like 21 across “reverse cryptics”

  60. Tim C & 4:58 I agree “reverse cryptic” is an accurate descriptor, as the printed answer emerges as a cryptic clue for a word or words in the clue itself. But I think Morten @52 has used a lovely and witty term which I can only hope becomes a colloquialism on these pages. Clearly, such clues should be known as “gegs!”
    That would pay homage to the well-loved clue (others will have to provide background and authorship) which consisted of merely that dubious word, surely followed by a question mark: gegs? (9, 4)

  61. 4.58@57 I would call 21Ac a reverse anagram , the answer itself tells you to make an anagram of something to fit ( a part of) the clue. Not quite the same as gegs, this clue has a definition and an instruction.
    13Ac you need to pause after DRUNK, the first part tells you something, the second part where it happened. An &Lit is a very specific type of clue, the WHOLE clue gives the definition, the WHOLE clue gives the word play.

  62. Thought halfway though my first full day of Covid a Monday Guardian would be just the thing to take my mind off it.
    Alas, after two passes through and only four filled in (including a semi-parsed 1ac), I chose one at random for a reveal to get me going. As luck would have it, I lighted on 21, which even post-reveal I couldn’t get until this blog. This brain fog thing is real, you know. Let’s have a go later in the week

  63. Roz @61 – I would go with “reverse anagram” too. For a standard anagram you have the fodder and the indicator in the clue, here you have the fodder and indicator in the solution instead (while the “solution” is in the clue), so “reverse anagram” describes it well.

    I agree this example is definitely not &lit.

    I know it’s often cited as a classic, but I don’t like “gegs” – it’s mildly amusing (for perhaps the first 100 or so times you see it) but it’s all wordplay and no definition, so not a complete clue.

  64. Roz @61 my thought is that “dog run” is the part of the clue which is the gegs, and the whole clue, by extension, could be termed a gegs. And now we’re back to the synecdoche/metonymy discussion 🙂
    I think “dog run?” by itself would be too far a leap for most solvers, so the instructions within the clue are necessary.

  65. Thanks all – gegs! Very good

    Roz @61 13ac is a funny one because it’s not &lit but there is overlap of the wordplay and the definition. If the definition was purely “down here” then you wouldn’t get BEER CELLAR – you need some of the wordplay for it to work

  66. Oh wait…!

    The penny just dropped – Down here…

    Seems so obvious now! Is there any way to undo a comment?!

  68. Yehudi et al . GEGS is bit of a one -off clue , you need the answer and work back.
    Like B (6,6) O ( 8,6) P (10) . A reverse anagram is a fairly normal clue with a bit of a twist. Fairly common, another one today.

  69. Took a while, especially the NW corner, but finally bludgeoned it into submission. I loved BABY GRAND.

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