Guardian Cryptic 28,932 by Vulcan

by

A typical Vulcan Monday offering.

After a restless night, the last thing I needed was a challenging puzzle to blog, so I was grateful to see that Vulcan was today’s setter. As usual, this wasn’t overly challenging, but interesting enough to keep one entertained. A little bit of general knowledge was required (Roy of the Rovers, Delacroix and Baron Hardup come to mind), but nothing overly obscure, at least to a British solver.

 

Thanks Vulcan.

ACROSS
8 MANUALLY
Someone helping at Old Trafford without computer assistance (8)
“someone helping at Old Trafford” could be seen as an ally to Manchester United, so a MAN U ALLY.
9 ROOST
Marsupial’s time in sleeping place (5)
ROO’S (“marsupial’s”) + T (time)
10 NAFF
Vulgar supporter returns at start of football (4)
<=FAN (“supporter”, returns) at [start of] F(ootball)
11 CHIMNEY POT
Pipe up with strangely poetic hymn (7,3)
*(poetic hymn) [anag:strangely]
12 WINCED
Given alcohol, Charlie tucked in and made a face (6)
WINED (“given alcohol”) with C (Charlie, int he NATO phonetic alphabet) tucked in
14 GRENOBLE
Beer long brewed in French city (8)
*(beer long) [anag:brewed]
15 PERMUTE
Make several arrangements for each person unable to speak (7)
PER (“for each”) + MUTE (“person unable to speak”)
17 CRYBABY
Shout at infant, a wuss (7)
CRY (“shout”) at BABY (“infant”)
20 DETAINEE
Having eaten, die in agony as prisoner (8)
*(eaten die) [anag:in agony]
22 PRE-NUP
One is engaged in concluding this agreement (3-3)
Cryptic definition
23 UGLY SISTER
Hard-up daughter stirs gluey porridge (4,6)
*(stirs gluey) [anag:porridge]

Cinderella’s stepfather in pantomime is Baron Hardup.
24 RUMP
Unusual pressure in seat (4)
RUM (“unusual”) + P (pressure)
25 NIALL
In this part of the UK everyone is an Irishman (5)
NI (Northern Ireland, so “part of the UK”) + ALL (“everyone”)
26 PUT-UP JOB
Advertise post, a dishonest scheme (3-2,3)
PUT UP (“advertise”) + JOB (“post”)
DOWN
1 MAGAZINE
Explosive material in this publication (8)
Double definition
2 CUFF
Slap on the wrist (4)
Double definition
3 PLACID
Peaceful location finally lost identity (6)
PLACE(e) (“location”, finally lost) + ID (“identity”)
4 SYRINGE
Char wraps your medical instrument (7)
SINGE (“char”) wraps yr. (your)
5 GRANDEUR
Relative was sorry about nobility (8)
GRAN (“relative”) + <=RUED (“was sorry”, about)
6 BODY DOUBLE
Stuntman struggling duly boobed (4,6)
*(duly boobed) [anag:struggling]
7 STROLL
First to see abusive poster as constitutional (6)
[first to] S(ee) + TROLL (“abusive poster”)
13 COMPANY CAR
It’s a two-seater, as the saying goes! (7,3)
Cryptic defintion, assuming the saying is “two’s company”.
16 TANGIBLE
Material could be felt (8)
Double definition
18 BLUE MOON
A rare occasion, being depressed, to wander listlessly (4,4)
BLUE (“being depressed”) + MOON (“to wander listlessly”)
19 GESTAPO
Secret police fiddling postage (7)
*(postage) [anag:fiddling]
21 EUGENE
Delacroix shows some European DNA (6)
Eu. (European) + GENE (“some DNA”)

Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) was a French romantic painter and muralist. His most famous work was probably Liberty Leading the People.
22 PIRATE
Marine predator, one in the Caribbean? (6)
Double definition, the second referring to the film franchise starring Johnny Depp.
24 ROPY
Stringy Rovers’ striker eats a bit of pasta (4)
ROY (of the Rovers) eats [a bit of] P(asta)

For non-Brits, Roy Race, aka Roy of the Rovers, was a footballer in an eponymous comic strip which first appeared in a comic called Tiger in 1956, but which eventually became a comic of its own.

47 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,932 by Vulcan”

  1. I didn’t know Niall was an Irishman, and I thought Old Trafford was a jail (I’m not much of a sports fan). Never heard of Roy of the Rovers. These were my only sticky moments, but with a bit of help from Google I got it all out. Otherwise very enjoyable, although I did groan at PIRATE, wondering whether there was some other devious wordplay that I couldn’t see.

    Thanks Vulcan & loonapick.

  2. Always thought “a bit naff” was lacking taste or style in a wet, rather than a vulgar, sort of way, but whatevs. Yes bits of gk I dnk, like Roy, and the panto baron, and that Delacroix was a Eugene, but no real impediment. Chimney pot was nice, took a bit to stop thinking along “put in your tuppenceworth” sort of lines. Similar with char=singe, not cleaner. All fun, ta both, nice Mundy pairing with the quipt.

  3. I had nearly all the GK for this (dnk Baron Hardup) and agree it was a nice gentle start to a Monday. CHIMNEY POT, PUT-UP JOB and the excellent COMPANY CAR were favourites today.

    Thanks Vulcan and loonapick

  4. Definitely a Monday puzzle but nothing wrong with that. Living 30 mins from Old Trafford meant 1ac was first in. The grid was pretty full after 15 mins but then held up in the SW with Permute (NHO), tangible and Niall.
    Thanks to Vulcan and loonapick.

  5. GDU@1 NIALL is the Irish, and probably, original, spelling of Neil. I’m sure there are other spellings of the name around,
    I had to leave and come back to finish the left hand side, but wondered why afterwards. I had a bit of trouble finishing the Quiptic too
    Thanks to V&L
    There were 2 weevils walking across the floor and the smaller one was the lesser of two weevils. There were no homophones today, so I thought I would treat(?) you to that.

  6. I had the same thought as GinF re NAFF. Never thought of it as vulgar but perhaps the dictionary has it.

    Also, always used ROPY to mean of pour quality or poorly made rather than stringy, but the connection is obviously there.

    Heavy on anagrams this morning but a pleasant solve.

    Thanks both.

  7. As loonapick said, typical Monday stuff. There were two occurrences of “in” that to me to be unneeded and slightly incorrect. Delacroix meant nothing to me/ Magazine was my last one in after I had spent most of the time convinced it would be an anagram.

  8. Naff adj inferior, worthless, esp in style or taste; vulgar, socially crass…. (Chambers)

    Lots to like here. My favourites were MANUALLY, CHIMNEY POT for the definition of “pipe up” and GRANDEUR for a great charade.

  9. Thank you loonapick. Why restless night? Was that the soccer/football? Appreciate your endurance.
    ”A little bit of general knowledge was required (Roy of the Rovers, Delacroix and Baron Hardup come to mind), but nothing overly obscure, at least to a British solver.” Too true, but not complaining.
    Chuffed to get NIALL, my FOI. TBH I don’t think COMPANY CAR works. Where’s the crowd?
    Had a better chance with WINCED and GRENOBLE.

    Nicbach@5. Groan. Are we getting ready for Christmas cracker puns?

  10. Yes, “a typical Monday Vulcan offering” sounds about right. Which means fun and generally not too challenging, but if you don’t get on his wavelength, some of his cryptic definitions are utterly impenetrable – I had to hit reveal on PRE-NUP in the end. Pfft.

    Baron Hardup rings a vague bell, though I don’t recall the last time, if ever, that I saw Cinderella in panto, and I never would have made the connection in the clue. But the anagram was obvious enough with the aid of a couple of checking letters.

    Thanks for the blog, Loonapick. I think 15a should be broken down as for each // person unable to speak rather than the way you have it, but that’s a minor detail.

  11. Yes, I too thought NAFF was a bit, well, naff…however did like all of MANUALLY, WINCED, UGLY SISTER (COTD for me, and just after having scoffed some rather gluey porridge myself), MAGAZINE and STROLL. Last one in was TANGIBLE, rather tentatively as I wasn’t really sure about “material” suiting the other part of the double definition.

  14. Nice accessible crossword which I solved faster than the Quiptic.

    My only quibble was with the UGLY SISTER. In all versions they were the daughters of the rich stepmother, who married Baron Hardup (in the pantomime) for his castle and title, (I’m sure he was after the money) forcing his daughter, Cinderella, to skivvy. So the ugly sisters are not the daughters of Baron Hardup, but his stepdaughters. As always knowing too much spoils crosswords.

    Thank you to loonapick and Vulcan.

  15. I should have spotted Baron Hardup and didn’t (and I think the clue is wrong: he’s Cinderella’s father: the Ugly Sisters’ mum is her step-parent so he is their stepfather).

    Anyway, slightly tougher than the usual Monday Vulcan: the MAN U ALLY made me smile: I needed to look harder to stop myself thinking I had to put time in the middle of the sleeping place to make a marsupial, and the French town was BOULOGNE for a while… But I got there in the end.

    Don’t think COMPANY CAR quite works.

  16. Have edited 15a in line with the correction suggested by Widdersbel @10.

    Paddymelon@9 – no idea why I had a restless night, but it wasn’t the football – I am very confident that les Bleus will see off Maguire and Stones with little effort an Saturday.

  17. Thanks Vulcan and loonapick
    For once I found this quite a lot harder than the Quiptic. I agree with Shirl @12 about TANGIBLE; a weak clue. The rst was fine, as I had ll the required GK.

  18. I found this a lot harder than the usual Vulcan offerings, but got there eventually. I liked NIALL, CHIMNEY POT and PUT-UP JOB. Tiny typo in your explanation for WINCED, loonapick.

    Ta both.

  19. Nho the baron, so somewhat nonplussed at that clue, and didn’t much like the CD for COMPANY CAR. On the whole though I thought this rather better than usual for Vulcan.

  20. Tough puzzle. Not on solver’s wavelength. Solved half and went over to the Quiptic as I was not sure I could finish this one.

    Liked GRANDEUR.

    I could not parse
    13d
    22d
    24d P in ROY – when I googled ‘rovers striker roy’ I saw Roy Race a striker for Melchester Rovers F.C. in an old comic strip. Never would have known this in a million years!

    New for me: 8ac – I guessed that MAN U is a sports (soccer?) team that plays at Old Trafford. I only know of Old Trafford from cricket games.

    Thanks, both.

  21. To know about Roy of the Rovers you need to be a reader of British comics of a certain age, and probably male.
    Which fits the profile of a lot of cryptic solvers – but not all. (Girls’ comics of that period weren’t interested in football, and probably still aren’t, in spite of the Lionesses. Girls were allowed to fantasise about being a skater, show jumper or tennis star – but not a football or cricket player.)

  23. Michelle@20: MAN U is Manchester United, arguably the best known football team in the world. Don’t worry, I care nothing about cricket. It takes all sorts.

  24. Mondayish, although I found some of the dd/cd difficult to fathom.

    I liked MANU ALLY and the good anagram for UGLY SISTER, although I thought the hard-up was just because Cinderella was poor, doh.

    Thanks Vulcan and loonapick.

  25. Never had one so I really don’t know, but can’t getting a PRE-NUP and getting engaged occur independently? Thanks.

  26. I also consider 16d (tangible) to be a weak clue but liked the rest. Thanks loonapick and Vulcan for a good start to the week

  27. 26a PUT-UP JOB is barely cryptic. Job=post in both clue and answer. Same for the two parts of the definition for 16d TANGIBLE. And is Eu really used as an abbreviation for “European”? It always seems to be E in crosswords.

    I just assumed that there was a real footballer named Roy something on the Rovers, which is after all a real team, so lack of the proper GK wasn’t really a handicap.

    I had to google Delacroix to find out that he was a Eugene — the only French male name I could think of between two E’s was Etienne. Once I had the G in there and with the hint of Baron Hardup, who had to be a fictional character with a pantomimisn sounding name, UGLY SISTER went in. I did know there was a pantomime about Cinderella, but in the traditional story she has a stepmother. Does she have a stepfather too or instead?

    Lots of fun last night, thanks Vulcan and loonapick.

  28. Nope, never heard of Baron Hard-up, but the answer was clear enough.

    PERMUTE is an odd one, since both the process and the result (permutation) are usally rendered as “perm”, so the original word has gone out of use. As have football pools, where the word was most often used.

    NIALL became Njal in Icelandic, though whether the central character in Njal’s Saga was of Irish origin or just the name came from there, I can’t remember.

    In the Ronnie Barker prison sitcom Porridge, the expression “Naff off!” was used in place of one beginning with F that couldn’t be used on TV, and I can remember hearing the adjective NAFF for the first time in the early 1970s.

    Thanks to Vulcan and loonapick

  29. Valentine @27
    Most sources seem to agree that Baron Hardup was (Cinder)ella’s father, and stepfather to the Ugly Sisters.

  31. For a moment I fantasised about a counterpart to Teflon called Tefloff, for the material that could be felt. My brain is still in post-operative fog so I found this harder than perhaps I should have.

  33. Thanks for the blog , good puzzle , perfect for the slot. A little harder than normal but I would have loved it when I was learning.
    UGLY SISTERS was very neat, the lesser spotted Gossard, we usually get Playtex. CHIMNEY POT was delightful.
    As Sheffield Hatter@28 says, NAFF in Porridge was intended to be vulgar but let them get away with on pre-watershed TV.

  34. Tyngewick @32
    That makes logical sense, but surely the surname by itself would be taken to refer to the husband (however dated that might be)? For example, “Churchill” by itself wouldn’t be taken as referring to Lady Churchill, would it?

  35. muffin @ 34 It can cut both ways. There was a clue by Arachne some years ago that used ‘Blair’ to clue CHERIE.

  36. Simon S @35
    I don’t remember that clue, but it doesn’t surprise me that it was Arachne – or possibly Nutmeg!

  37. To quibble about the quibble (Shanne@14 et al), the stepmother presumably becomes Baroness Hardup on her marriage, so the clue is OK.

  42. Simon S @41
    I’ve used the search to find it here. I note that
    a) there was a lot of controversy in the comments,
    and
    b) I commented on it, so my memory must be failing!

  43. I couldn’t get going with this last night but easy tonight except….I’d not seen PERMUTE and didn’t know EUGENE.
    Thanks both

  44. Didn’t know about the Baron; I assumed that hard-up referred to the ugly sisters’ fate. My memory somehow landed on Roy of the Rovers almost straight away, although it must be almost 50 years since I read the cartoons about him and his mate Blackie. This clue also reminded me of the Touchline Tearaways in Smash, a truly awful attempt at humour based on football.

  45. muffin @42 – thanks for sharing that link, very amusing reading. Took me a while to realise that UY must have originally written the offending word without the asterisks.

  46. A quibble I suppose, but 1 down “MAGAZINE” is not an “explosive” or an “explosive material” but a place for holding explosive material, and “this Publication” is not a magazine either, but a newspaper or, in my case, an online site. A twofer.

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