Vlad is today's Guardian complier.
I found this quite tough, although maybe not quite as tough as I thought it was going to be after my first pass through the clues showed an almost empty grid. I plodded on though and seeing some of the longer anagrams helped. My last one (or two) in was MASTHEAD, because although I'm sure it's right, I'm not convinced by my parsing. I'm not sure why Vlad picked Harry and Meghan as WOKE, unless he's comparing them to the dinosaurs that make up some of the rest of the royal family. I liked THROW A WOBBLY, GRASS WIDOW, SHERYL and PSALTERY.
Thanks Vlad
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DROP DEAD |
Don’t play the old man — ’e kept giving very unwelcome advice (4,4)
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DROP ("don't play") + 'E kept in DAD ("old man") |
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| 5 | AFFIRM |
Repeated phrase over in American state — definitely (6)
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<=RIFF ("repeated phrase", over) in Am. (American) |
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| 9 | AGRIPPINA |
Empress with a hold on power last to get stripped (9)
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A + GRIP ("hold") on P (power) + (f)INA(l) ("last" to get stripped) |
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| 11 | CUT IN |
Caught president losing head — failed to observe queuing etiquette (3,2)
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C (caught, in cricket) + (p)UTIN ("President", losing head) |
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| 12 | THROW A WOBBLY |
Blow-by-blow account at first after cast get very angry (5,1,6)
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*(by blow) [anag:blow] with A(ccount) [at first] after THROW ("cast") |
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| 15 | EBAY |
Marketplace at side of garage — park here (4)
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[side of] (garag)E + BAY ("park here") |
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| 16 | LEAFCUTTER |
Ant and Dec finally speak after two pages (10)
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(de)C [finally] + UTTER ("speak") after LEAF ("two pages") Leaf-cutter is hyphenated in Chambers. |
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| 18 | GRASS WIDOW |
Gross behind? It’s fantastic! Instinct’s to visit (her husband’s often away) (5,5)
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Gr. (gross) + ASS ("behind") + ID ("instinct") to visit WOW ("it's fantastic!") |
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| 19 | WOKE |
Two keen to reveal like Harry and Meghan? (4)
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Hidden in [to reveal] "tWO KEen" |
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| 21 | FIDDLESTICKS |
Cons getting signs of approval — nonsense! (12)
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FIDDLES ("cons") getting TICKS ("signs of approval") |
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| 24 | NAIVE |
Simple — water’s receding (5)
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<=EVIAN ("water", receding) |
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| 25 | ERADICATE |
Time to rule heartlessly — destroy! (9)
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ERA ("time") + DIC(t)ATE ("to rule", heartlessly) |
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| 26 | SHERYL |
Crow singing to female rather softly — recital ends (6)
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SHE ("female") + (rathe)R (softl)Y (recita)L [ends] Sheryl Crow ("Crow singing" in the clue) is an American singer/songwriter whose first big hit was "All I Wanna Do" in 1994 |
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| 27 | BLIGHTED |
Badly affected blonde’s retired (8)
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LIGHT ("blonde") is in BED ("retired") |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DRAT |
Bother — nearly late for lift (4)
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[nearly] TARD(y) ("late", for lift) |
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| 2 | OARS |
Blades score midway through — no way back for Arsenal (4)
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(sc)O(re) [midway through] + no <=LANE ("way" back) for ARS(enal) |
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| 3 | DEPTHS |
Picked up taps oddly found in outbuilding — they may need plumbing (6)
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[picked up] <= (T(a)P(s) [oddly] found in SHED ("outbuilding")) |
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| 4 | ADIPOSE TISSUE |
Piteous asides about being fat (7,6)
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*(piteous asides) [anag:about] |
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| 6 | FACTOTUM |
It’s true corporation employs old dogsbody (8)
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FACT ("it's true") + TUM ("corporation") employs O (old) |
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| 7 | INTUBATION |
Ban tuition for developing medical procedure (10)
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*(ban tuition) [anag:for developing] |
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| 8 | MONEY ORDER |
Could be my one guarantee of getting paid (5,5)
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Cryptically, MY ONE could be an anagram [ORDER] of *(MONEY) |
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| 10 | AWAY FROM IT ALL |
Formally await release in solitary? (4,4,2,3)
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*(formally await) [anag:release] |
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| 13 | HEDGE FUNDS |
Green investments? (5,5)
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Cryptic definition |
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| 14 | FAR AND WIDE |
After storm dawned fair everywhere (3,3,4)
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*(dawned fair) [anag:after storm] |
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| 17 | PSALTERY |
It used to be played for a year out of season (8)
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PER ("for a") + Y (year) out of SALT ("season") |
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| 20 | SKIING |
Spoilsports! Initially one stops Charles doing what he likes (6)
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[initially] S(poilsports) + I (one) stops KING ("Charles") King Charles often used to go on skiing holidays. |
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| 22, 23 | MASTHEAD |
President leaving Hampstead going west — it’s on the front page (8)
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*(hamstead) [going west] where HAMSTEAD is P (President) leaving HAM(p)STEAD |
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| 23 |
See 22
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Thanks, Vlad and loonapick!
MASTHEAD
Your parsing seems perfect to me. Considering that ‘going west’ is ‘lost/damaged’, it works fine as an anagrind.
DEPTHS
Referring to the phrase ‘Plumbing the depths’?
All done and enjoyed. I wouldn’t describe Harry and Megan as ‘woke’ (not that I would use the horrible term anyway).
I normally give Vlad a wide berth, but I’ve completed a couple of his now. Slowly, but they were enjoyable. I couldn’t work out, in 7a, why lighted was retired. Barking up the wrong tree — a good clue. “Going west” (22d/23d) might be more suited to a reversal indicator than an anagram indicator, but perhaps more likely in an across clue.
Thanks Vlad & Loonapick.
Plumb the DEPTHS
1 reach the extremes of evil or unhappiness. 2 inquire into the most obscure or secret aspects of something.
The second sense seems to work in our case. ‘They may need plumbing’.
HEDGE FUNDS
Hedge= ‘green (a row of bushes/trees)’ as well. Hope that’s the cryptic part.
loonapick!
AWAY FROM IT ALL
Will ‘solitary’ not be a better def rather than ‘in solitary’?
Bit like loonapick, only a couple after first look at the acrosses, the downs a bit easier, and it slowly wove together. Didn’t know the singing Crow, and psaltery was an effort, but all enjoyable ntl. Thanks Vlad and Loona.
KVa@ 5 – I was thinking “in solitary (confinement)”?
I do feel that Vlad is getting kinder. Not a lot but enough to enable a much quicker solve. I failed on 2 of the shorter ones but otherwise was ok. Nice to see Sheryl Crow after Midge Ure yesterday. Thanks Vlad and loonapick.
Do I now have to avoid Vlad puzzles given that only awful people use ‘woke’ unironically, as an insult, these days?
Yes, you’d certainly await release from being in solitary, but ntl I parsed it like KVa.
Thanks, loonapick@7
With the ? at the end, ‘in solitary?’ works better.
Not having paid a great deal of attention, I always thought she was CHERYL Crow. Oh well.
Quite tough, this (well, it’s Vlad) and several unparsed. I guess drop=don’t play when you drop your star player from the team? That one eluded me as did OARS and PSALTERY. Liked HEDGE FUNDS, MONEY ORDER, LEAFCUTTER and EBAY.
gladys @12 – that’s the correct meaning for drop, I think it works better when you consider it as a whole phrase (“don’t play the old man” = “drop dad”).
I mostly found this on the gentle end for Vlad (ie still tough by most setters’ standards), until I got to PSALTERY, which stumped me entirely. I resorted to repeatedly using the check button on the first letter: once I established it didn’t begin with A, E, I, O or U, the penny finally dropped.
Thanks, loonapick and Vlad.
Quite a tough one but very enjoyable. Naturally gave a tick to FIDDLESTICKS. There ought ti be a guild for lexicographers as LEAFCUTTER is unhyphenated in Collins !
Saw Sheryl Crow supporting The Eagles, Wembley 2020 – very good too. Here’s the mandatory earworm
https://youtu.be/khrx-zrG460
My favourite S.C. and “Everyday is a Winding Road” is indeed a buzz phrase for us 15^2 participants.
Thank you Vlad and loonapick.
I had ticks for all of loonapick’s favourites and also for 9ac AGRIPPINA, 8dn MONEY ORDER, 14dn FAR AND WIDE, 20dn SKIING and 22,23 MASTHEAD.
As one who sets great store by surfaces, I thought 2dn OARS was a little gem and perhaps pick of the bunch. I know (just) enough about football to appreciate the story and the construction’s ingenious, too.
Many thanks to Vlad for the fun and to loonapick for a great blog.
A struggle but we’ll worth it.
Seeing the ends gag in the crow clue, spent some time thinking there must be some obscure bird called a GOERYL. Then the excellent HEDGE FUNDS came to the rescue.
Elegant cluing from The Impaler this morning. Many thanks, both.
Great fun, more of a workout than the last couple of Vlads I think. Like William @16 I wondered about a GOERYL.
GRASS WIDOW and AGRIPPINA were new to me, but well-clued. And Charles is a keen skier, which is news to me but checks out.
Thanks Vlad and loonapick.
I found this relatively accessible for a Vlad, though no pushover, but no less enjoyable.
Lots to like, including all the splendid anagram clues, especially FAR AND WIDE and AWAY FROM IT ALL (I agree with KVa @5 that ‘solitary’ is better as the definition, though either interpretation works). I also liked PSALTERY, EBAY (LOI as I first took ‘park here’ to be the def) and the splendid OARS – I agree with Eileen that this is perhaps the best of all.
Many thanks to Jim and loonapick
Not easy but as others say, not hard either for a Vlad. Had to search for “salt” in a list of musical instruments to get PSALTERY which I’d never heard of – I’d probably have got it unaided if I’d remembered the for a = per trick. Had slightly misparsed a couple, clarified now. Agree with doubts about H’n’M being WOKE. Favourites DROP DEAD, OARS, LEAFCUTTER.
Thanks Vlad and loonapick.
Thank you Flea @14 for the brilliant ear worm.
Thanks Vlad and loonapick and other helpful bloggers – you are all so erudite!
Re. AWAY FROM IT ALL: I think the ‘in’ is a surface linker between the wordplay and the single-word def (“solitary”).
Thank you loonapick. DRAT. Perhaps the reversal indicator (in down clue) ‘lift’ needs to be more explicit?
William@16. Another GOERYL here.
THROW A WOBBLY was favourite, although I only got that from reverse engineering, at about the time I was about to throw one of my own.
And I liked OARS. (no way back) There’s always an extra thrill when I find the setter doesn’t require me to know anything about football.
I do also think that Vlad too often twists the semantic equivalences beyond the point of elegance: in 25a , does ‘dictate’ means ‘rule’? I don’t think so. And P for ‘president’ (well, OK, sort-of in ‘POTUS’ or VP=Vice President) — this is a Chambers’ “any word can be indicated with its first letter alone” loophole for crossword compilers.
For AWAY FROM IT ALL parsed the def as “in solitary (confinement)” as loonapick and KVa@11.
OARS is very fine, especially for Sheffield United supporters. I support the Gunners.
Harry & Meghan WOKE? Well, relative to their relatives maybe. his grandmother was courting the opposite.
paddymelon@23: yes, we all had to reverse engineer that one, because “blow” is a tenuous anagram indicator.
But clever — definitely clever.
Agree about the merits of OARS, but I will also put in a word for WOKE, which made me smile. The question mark at the end of the clue makes it a quizzical reference rather than a firm description, and the Guardian crossword should be a safe space for poking a little fun at H&M.
Oh, and GRASS WIDOW was brilliant. Knew the word and solved from wordplay, but the surface made me laugh out loud. Along the way I found the collective noun for widows. An ambush!!
Loonapick seems to be something of a Grauniad dinosaur – of course H & M are woke; of course it’s derogatory… Great puzzle, Vlad – just the psalt I like.
There were two AGRIPPINAs in I, CLAVDIVS (1976) – as well as an Agrippa, a Herod Agrippa and an Agrippinilla.
…No relation to A(ngel) Grippa(age 109) – a goalkeeper who played for Argentina in the 1934 World Cup.
Thanks to Vlad andd loonapick
pserve_p2 @ 25 ‘dictate’ = ‘rule heartlessly’.
Like others I found that this gave up its secrets rather slowly. I gave up with three to go. I’ve never heard of SHERYL Crow, and GRASS WIDOW is new to me. I liked FIDDLESTICKS (one of the easier clues), LEAFCUTTER, and FACTOTUM. With thanks to Vlad and loonapick.
Tough. Literally three letters (INA) on the first pass. Then I got a foothold with ADIPOSE TISSUE which gave some useful crossers and steady away for the next 80% or so. But it was a DNF for me as beaten by PSALTERY and a couple of short ones including EBAY, rather embarrassingly as I used to work for them!
Technical quibble: in an across clue ‘on’ normally means ‘after’ (as opposed to in a down clue where ‘on’ means ‘before’)… so in AGRIPPINA the wording of “hold on power” logically suggested P+GRIP rather than GRIP+P. Or maybe ‘on’ is really bidirectional and I never noticed before…
Thanks to Vlad for the workout and to loonapick for the explanations of the trickier parts!
pserve_p2 @25
A dictator is a ruler so dictate for rule must be OK.
Thanks Vlad and loonapick
FrankieG@32: Indeed there were. Aggripina the Younger was the Empress: married to Claudius and the mother of Nero. Handel wrote an opera about her. Her mother was Aggripina the Elder, though I don’t think (?) she was ever an Empress…I also remember Herod Aggripa from the tv series (a life long friend of Claudius…at least according to Graves), but I can’t recall Agripinilla…It has prompted me to rewatch the whole thing. It made a big impression on me when first broadcast.
Rob T @36: ‘On’ certainly indicates ‘above’ for a vertical clue, but it’s surely bidirectional for horizontal one. You can be either on my left or on my right 🙂
Very tough puzzle. Failed to solve 1, 9ac and 1, 2d.
Favourites: THROW A WOBBLY, HEDGE FUNDS, LEAFCUTTER (so glad that I have seen excellent footage of these ants in wildlife documentaries).
Of the ones I solved, I could not parse 27ac, 17d.
I parsed 22/23d the same way as loonapick.
Thanks, both.
From what I have heard it is the right-wing, Meghan-hating British media such as the Daily Mail etc that write about H&M being woke as if it is an insult. From what I can understand about this US term, being woke is not a bad thing as it means being alert to injustice and discrimination in society, especially racism. But some politicans in the current UK government try to turn it into an insult using phrases such as the “Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati”.
Gervase @39 — I guess so! Maybe I’m just used to seeing it one way and not so much the other.
Rob T – it’s definitely more standard for ‘on’ to = ‘after’ in an across clue, although I confess I don’t know the logic. Chambers definition 18 is “just after”, maybe in the sense of “on re-reading, he noticed xyz” so perhaps it’s that. But you do occasionally see it the other way around, and other Chambers definitions include “in addition to”, “close to/beside”, and “against”, which are all bidirectional to me.
There are even those who’ll argue it’s bidirectional in a down clue (‘the fly is on the ceiling’ being the justification)…!
MAC089 @9
No. It’s only a crossword clue.
Michelle@40. You do not have to be right-wing to despise the hypocritical H&M who claim to want to break free of ties to the royal family yet do nothing but try to make money from their association with it. It would never occur to me to describe them as woke in a favourable or unfavourable sense, the term seems irrelevant to them.
OARS is such a clever clue, so is my favourite too. Thanks, both.
[PSALTERY occurs quite frequently in the King James Version Of the Bible, including 8 of the psalms (where it is rendered as ‘lute’ in the Book of Common Prayer). However it seems to have been a convenient translation from the Hebrew of an unidentified string instrument.
Some years ago Araucaria included the word PSALTRESS in a puzzle (a female player of the psaltery). This prompted some muttering on 15 squared about sexist terminology – rather pointless, I thought, to object to an archaic word describing an archaic occupation. ]
Questions:
18a – ID = instinct…I’m not familiar with this.
1d – how do you know to reverse TARD?
3d – I naively assumed that this kind of clue showed all the “odd” letters required for the word.
I admire anyone who can get more than 5 clues in this crossword! Frighteningly difficult for me.
Steffen@47
DRAT
The reversal indicator is ‘lift’ (go up in a down clue).
DEPTHS & in general…
With practice, you learn many tricks and also the
puzzles will progressively look friendlier to you.
Great crossword. Just the right level of toughness for me.
THROW A WOBBLY was my fave, but also liked OARS, SHERYL, EBAY and LEAFCUTTER
thanks Vlad and loonapick
Rob T @36 (and Gervase and Amoeba): the Times crossword has an in-house rule that “on” can only mean “after” in an across clue and “before” in a down clue, but this is really just an arbitrary convention and I don’t see why setters for other publications need to follow it. As regards down clues, one meaning of “on” is of course “on top of”, but it’s not the only one. The SOED says:
2. Expressing contact with any surface, whatever its position
as illustrated by Amoeba’s “fly on the ceiling” example. Also think of barnacles on a boat, “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” and so on.
Here’s the PSALTERY, a kind of early zither.
Steffen@47 : 18a ID is the instinctive part of the mind in Freudian theory ; 1d – it’s a down clue and thus it’s specifically the word “lift” that instructs you to reverse the “tard” part of “tardy”, having parsed the use of the word “nearly” and recognised that “tardy” is a synonym of “late” ; 3d – you are bang on – T P are indeed the “odds” of TAPS ; you further need to equate shed with outbuilding and recognise the phrase “plumbing the depths” and then it all ties together.
Keep going – it will all come together in the long run. Have you thought of solving in a syndicate ? This is what I did at uni and we all learned from each other.
Thanks for the blog, super crossword with very neat and clever wordplay throughout.
I disagree slightly for THROW A WOBBLY, I think A is part of the anagram – by blow A(ccount) , or it ends up in the wrong place.
Dictate=rule as a noun, it cannot be – rule heartlessly or the middle T does not get removed.
Of course H and M are WOKE , as an example they want their children to be brought up as a perfectly ordinary prince or princess .
I filled in most of the grid eventually, but I can’t say I enjoyed this. Vlad’s constructions are a bit too convoluted for my taste. Horses for courses, I suppose.
Lovely stuff Vlad, thank you!
Thanks loonapick as I couldn’t understand BLIGHTED (have met the trick before though I think), was very happy to parse everything else – eventually! I have come to appreciate Vlad for maintaining a high level of wit despite some fiendish constructions and occasional need to plumb the DEPTHS of the lumber room (AGRIPPINA, PSALTERY and something WIDOW today). Harry must be one of the few to occupy the Venn diagram intersection of those deemed woke by the media and those who have worn Nazi fancy dress. Thanks Vlad.
p.s. meant to say, ‘Blow by blow’ was inspired.
Retired = in BED
Gone camping = in TENT
Any more? I might start a list…
Couldn’t parse AFFIRM (couldn’t think of RIFF), AGRIPPINA (ditto final), EBAY (ditto parking bay), or BLIGHTED, PSALTERY (ditto “per” or “salt” for “season”).
.I hadn’t heard of Ant and Dec, but figured they were some sort of duo, and love the Playtex separation.
For years I thought a GRASS WIDOW was a woman whose husband was always playing golf.
Jay@59 Opposite = in VERSE.
What does “going west” have to do with MASTHEAD?
Michelle@40 Woke in the US began as a complimentary term with the meaning you give, but it has become an insulting derisory term with our right wing too. The appalling Governor Ron DeSantis desribed his state of Florida as “where woke goes to die.”
A tricky and very enjoyable puzzle. I particularly liked THROW A WOBBLY, AWAY FROM IT ALL and OARS.
Thanks to Vlad and loonapick.
Thanks Vlad and loonapick
I’ve only ever heard THROW A WOBBLER, but I couldn;t make it fit.
Steffen @47: I have probably been at this game a bit longer than you (I started in the 1970s), but the first Vlad I attempted utterly defeated me apart from a couple of guesses. Checking on this site back then, and reading all the comments admiring the brilliance of the Impaler’s setting, made me feel even worse. Envy and resentment aren’t a good look.
I finished today’s in about 20 minutes, so progress is possible if you persevere! I am a much better solver now, and a lot of that is thanks to the expert bloggers and commenters on here. Or maybe Vlad is mellowing with age.
I thought today’s was a lot of fun, with some jolly good anagrams (“blow by blow” for WOBBLY, “piteous asides” for ADIPOSE TISSUE, and “formally await” for AWAY FROM IT ALL).
There were a couple of Presidents, an Empress, a King plus a Prince and Princess, but not really a theme as such.
On the “woke” discussion, I believe Harry has used the term to describe himself, as he felt his social consciousness was raised once he got to know Meghan better. I prefer the earlier usage as coined by African American victims of racism, over the sneering insult it has been twisted into by right wingers and Mail readers. Harry was born a Prince, like it or not, and thrust into the public eye in awful circumstances when very young. I don’t like the Royals in principle (and mostly in practice too), but he seems OK, as Diana did.
In other news, I didn’t like 2D but only because of the Arsenal reference – though I would enjoy it if they lost to Sheffield United (The Blades).
Many thanks to Vlad and loonapick.
Me being called WOKE would be a compliment, methinks! But I’m not at all sure about H&M. I don’t really identify with that couple, whatever their merits and demerits.
Really liked OARS – splendid surface, at least for those familiar with Sheffield Utd’s nickname! – and good wordplay too, though I wondered whether ‘through’ might be redundant.
Anyway, good work from the Impaler – not as bloodthirsty as sometimes. Thanks to him and loonapick.
Valentine @60 , going West is just to give the anagram. Gone West is a UK phrase meaning spoilt or destroyed, usually plans have gone West.
Ant and Dec are a UK comedy duo with two straight men.
The ID stars in the classic 1950s film Forbidden Planet, with Walter Pidgeon , Robbie the Robot and a raging ID. Loosely inspired by The Tempest.
Roz@65 In the wonderful Exploits of Engelbrecht, the Dwarf Surrealist Boxer there is a character: “old Id, an “elemental force” who thinks nothing of venturing forth from his home at Nightmare Abbey to arrange a rugby match between Mars and the entire human race, or of playing chess with boy scouts and nuclear bombs as pieces.”
Thank you Polyphone@66 , I will look for this in the library, I just hope it is not one of those Terry Pratchett things.
A fine puzzle from a setter I enjoy, with some new ones for me (PSALTERY and GRASS WIDOW) that were fairly clued – and hilariously in the latter case. Completely missed the reverse anagram, which is (as SHERYL once sang) “my favourite mistake”.
I don’t usually have time for the mid-week Guardians but got hooked on this and enjoyed some good clues. I recognised Sheryl Crow because she was married/in a relationship with seven times (retrospectively annulled) winner of the Tour de France., Lance Armstrong. Very apposite today.
Thanks to Vlad & loonapick.
[Roz@67 – no – this is a real classic of surrealist literature – the battle with the Grandfather clock is one of my favorite bits …]
Roz@65: Thanks for reminding me of Forbidden Planet. I loved the film as a child (in the late 60s and early 70s). When I say it again a few years back it strucked me as completely bonkers; though still good fun…I never did have much time for Freudian theory. PS I may be wrong, but I think Robby the Robbot may have gone on to have a part in the 60s tv series Lost in Space.
Sorry, that should be robot, of course. Though I think it was Robby rather than Robbie…
Yes Nuntius it was Robby and he did turn up in Lost in Space, I have also seen him in The Outer Limits a few times , they all must be the same studio.
The Id, Ego and Superego are still around as concepts even though the evidence for them is zero.
Hadn’t equated ID with instinct previously. I don’t know who is WOKE or the opposite. I should stay in more.
Thanks both
I remember THROW A WOBBLER from the 70s. I think the WOBBLY is a southern version…Del Boy may have said it.
Tim The Toffee @74: I agree with you concerning the dubious equation of instinct with “Id”. The type of drives that comprise the Id are those drives that are somatic or biologically innate, antecedent to the development of the Ego through the process known as the Oedipus Complex. In translation, the somatic nature of those drives is rendered as instinctual. So there is a linguistic connection between Id and instinct — but they are not synonyms.
Thanks to loonapick for the blog and to others who commented.
According to Piers Morgan, H&M personify wokeness (yes, I know, but he must be right sometimes – virtue signalling, unconscious bias etc).
Very chewy but got there after an overnight rest of the grey cells. My favourites largely aligned with loonapick plus LEAFCUTTER and OARS. LOI was FAR AND WIDE – I don’t think that I have seen a two word anagrind before, so that’s something to look out for in future.
Not a fan of H&M and even less so of the use of word ‘woke’ as a pejorative. It’s only saving grace is that as soon as someone uses it that way I know that I can safely stop listening to anything else that they have to say. Thanks Vlad for a very enjoyable puzzle and loonapick for a monumental blog.
Found this very tough too. Finally defeated early this morning by the interlocking AFFIRM and FACTOTUM. A fair struggle, however…
KVa@48. I like the idea of the puzzles gradually looking “friendlier”! I’ve been doing Guardian cryptics (and the occasional effort at others) for about 50 years and have yet to find them other than completely hostile. Of course, each one usually seems more familiar after a while and then it’s time to say goodbye. But I wouldn’t have said friendly.
Though I’m sure the setters are.