[New comment layout] - details here
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29176.
Nothing too easy, but nothing held me up too much – perhaps it is a wavelength thing. Altogether a fine set of clues.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | ANTIPASTO |
Advice concerning article earlier — it might be taken on board (9)
|
| A charade of AN (‘article’) plus TIP (‘advice’) plus AS TO (‘concerning’), with ‘earlier’ indicating the order of the particles. | ||
| 10 | IRONY |
Press and why it doesn’t usually mean what it says (5)
|
| A charade of IRON (‘press’) plus Y (‘why’). | ||
| 11 | CANDIED |
Frank swallows tablet coated with sugar (7)
|
| An envelope (‘swallows’) of E (‘tablet’) in CANDID (‘frank’). | ||
| 12 | HOW COME |
Why no facilities in the house? (3,4)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of O WC (‘no facilities’) in HOME (‘house’). | ||
| 13 | ESSAY |
Old paramilitaries mentioned in paper (5)
|
| Sounds like (‘mentioned’) SA (Sturmabteilung Thanks to Bodycheetah @8 for the correction. |
||
| 14 | TICKED OFF |
Rebuked conspiracy theorist interrupting gent (6,3)
|
| An envelope (‘interrupting’) of ICKE D. (David Icke, ‘conspiracy theorist’) in TOFF (‘gent’). | ||
| 16 | MINISTERIAL CODE |
‘Ridiculous!’ claimed Tories about current rules of behaviour (11,4)
|
| An envelope (‘about’) of IN (‘current’) in MISTERIAL CODE, an anagram (‘ridiculous’) of ‘claimed Tories’. | ||
| 19 | NURSEMAID |
Arthur’s first minder worked with us — a female one (9)
|
| An anagram (‘worked’) of A (‘Arthur’s first’) plus ‘minder” plus ‘us’, with an extended definition. | ||
| 21 | DITCH |
Chuck and Di’s time with children (5)
|
| A charade of ‘Di’ plus T (‘time’) plus CH (‘children’). Just yesterday, Fed gave us CHUCK for Charles, | ||
| 22 | HIDALGO |
Gentleman went undercover since stealing fifty (7)
|
| A charade of HID (‘went undercover’) plus ALGO, an envelope (‘stealing’) of L (Roman numeral, ‘fifty’) in AGO (‘since’). | ||
| 23 | CHEERIO |
I’m going for toast (7)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 24 | PILAU |
Dish with sauce sent back for seconds with Ramsay cursing (5)
|
| A charade of PIL, a reversal (‘sent back’) of LIP (impertinence, ‘sauce’) plus AU (‘seconds with RAmasy cUrsing’). | ||
| 25 | ENTERTAIN |
Join teaching assistant in brook (9)
|
| A charade of ENTER (‘join’) plus TA (‘teaching assistant’) plus ‘in’. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HATCHET MAN |
Opening meant for training someone to do the dirty work (7,3)
|
| A charade of HATCH (‘opening’) plus ETMAN, an anagram (‘for training’) of ‘meant’. | ||
| 2 | STANDS IN |
Upset Eliot with wrong covers (6,2)
|
| A charade of ST, a reversal (‘upset’ in a down light) of TS (‘Thomas Stearns ‘Eliot’) plus AND (‘with’) plus SIN (‘wrong’). | ||
| 3 | UPPITY |
Revolting Ruth is being arrogant (6)
|
| A charade of UP (‘revolting’) plus PITY (‘ruth’). | ||
| 4 | USED |
Old guides upset over shows (4)
|
| A hidden (‘shows’) reversed (‘over’) answer in ‘guiDES Upset’. | ||
| 5 | ROTHSCHILD |
Writer’s offspring a rich family member (10)
|
| A charade of ROTH’S (Philip, author of Portnoy’s Complaint etc., ‘writer’) plus CHILD (‘offspring’). | ||
| 6 | BIG WHEEL |
Revolutionary entertainment for VIP (3,5)
|
| Double definition, the first being the likes of the London Eye. | ||
| 7 | KOSOVO |
Country widely recognised as stunner and very, very old (6)
|
| A charade of KO (knockout, ‘ Corrected per TA @7 et al. |
||
| 8 | BYRE |
With Rex, close to George Galloway’s home? (4)
|
| A charade of BY (‘with’) plus R (‘Rex’) plus E (‘close to GeorgE‘). A BYRE is a cowshed, and Galloway is a breed of cattle. I think it safe to say that the Scottish politician George Galloway does not live in a byre. | ||
| 14 | TREMATODES |
Dorset team cursed flukes (10)
|
| An anagram (‘cursed’?) of ‘Dorset team’. | ||
| 15 | FLESH WOUND |
Shelf causing superficial injury? (5,5)
|
| Wordplay in the answer: an anagram (‘wound’ probably to rhyme with sound) of FLESH is ‘shelf’. | ||
| 17 | SHELL OUT |
Pay hospital in betrayal of principles (5,3)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of H (‘hospital’) in SELL OUT (‘betrayal of principles’). | ||
| 18 | OUTBREAK |
Rash‘s gone away on bust (8)
|
| A charade of OUT (‘gone away’) plus BREAK (‘bust’). | ||
| 20 | RIDDLE |
Clear vacant land up and finally solve mystery (6)
|
| A charade of RID (‘clear’) plus DL, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of LD (‘vacant LanD‘) plus E (‘finally solvE‘). | ||
| 21 | DREARY |
Sad lady leaving city gets bottom pinched (6)
|
| An envelope (‘getting …. pinched’) of REAR (‘bottom’) in DY which is ‘[la]dy’ minus LA (‘leaving city’ – a tortuous version of city leaving). | ||
| 22 | HOPE |
Want quiet in garden (4)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of P (‘quiet’) in HOE (‘garden’). | ||
| 23 | CUTE |
Pretty smart (4)
|
| Double definition. |
Thanks PeterO and Vlad.
Enjoyed this. Great clues.
Didn’t know David Icke.
Re 13, shouldn’t the clue be “Paramilitary” in the singular? Thank you, PeterO, for the parsing of 8. Thank you also to Vlad for the puzzle.
Didn’t know TREMATODES. It was a fluke that I solved the anagram. So many potential conspiracy theorists these days, so it took a while to think of David Icke, and together with gorgeous George and the SA makes for an antisemitic mini-theme. Thanks Vlad and PeterO
Knew nematodes, but not their tre- relations (both nasty little bleepers if they get inside you). And vaguely knew of Mr Icke (somewhat ditto). Didn’t twig the KO bit of Kosovo … dim! Otherwise all good, not too gnarly from Vlad, thanks to him and Peter.
I guessed at Icke, but isn’t this clue a bit under-specified? How are we to know to include the initial after the surname? Otherwise plenty to admire here. I particularly liked 3d, one of my last in.
@Haggis: are you convinced Icke is an antisemite rather than just a nutcase? When he talks about inter-dimensional lizards it’s my impression that he isn’t using some arcane code for Zionists – he actually means inter-dimensional lizards. (Light blue touchpaper, retire immediately).
The PS@2. If the SA was the paramilitary wing of the nazi party, then I think the plural is fine.
Had to drag Icke from the deep recesses, plus the odd obscurity I expect from Vlad. Thanks to him a d PeterO
Surely 7d is country widely recognised rather than just country
Fantastic. Top marks for TICKED OFF, FLESH WOUND, and MINISTERIAL CODE for the surface 🙂
And an honourable mention for having revolutionary as something other than red or Che
No quibbles from me except I think it’s sturmabteilung?
Cheers V&P
Favourite: HOW COME.
New for me: TREMATODES; CHEERIO = toast.
I could not parse 13ac (got stuck thinking about the SS rather than the SA), 14ac apart from TOFF, 24ac apart from rev of LIP, and 3d.
Thanks, both.
Although Wikipedia describes Kosovo as ‘partially recognised’, I agree with TA@7 on the definition of 7d
Thanks Vlad and PeterO
This looked difficult at first, but in fact it all went in steadily. IRONY favourite.
19a is nice too, as the surface refers to Arthur Daley in Minder.
“Spanish gentleman” would have been fairer (though easier) in 22a.
Too hard for me to solve all of it, but enjoyed most of the rest. I had trouble in top right corner: I had put in RED temporarily for the start of 6d and I thought I had used the check button on it, so consequently couldnt solve the surrounds.
ICKE was fine, but, doh! couldn’t explain the D
Thanks PeterO and Vlad – Paul tomorrow I guess
I have just checked and I see it should be ICKE DV
As always with Vlad, I had to come here for some of the parsing.
My choice for the writer was Joseph Roth – Radetsky March, etc. You could also choose Henry of that ilk.
Thanks to Vlad and PeterO
Lovely puzzle and thanks for the blog. Struggled to parse “dreary”. I agree with TA @7 and pavement @ 10 that Kosovo is a “country widely recognised “, not universally.
Interesting and enjoyable workout. Liked 10 and 12a and byre. Able to parse pilau – seconds – thanks to the primary explanation earlier this week.
I do enjoy Vlad’s puzzles. Just the right level of difficulty for me.
21a reminded me of the possibly fictitious story of Charles and Diane visiting America and people shouting “Upchuck and die” (so to speak).
A slowish but steady solve for me. I didn’t know BYRE. Having guessed Icke, I couldn’t understand what the D was doing in TICKED OFF (doh…). Icke must be the conspiracy theorists’ conspiracy theorist: utterly bonkers. (That said, he seems to have plenty of competition these days). I liked IRONY, UPPITY and ROTHSCHILD. With thanks to Vlad and PeterO.
I now see that Dave Ellison @12 had the same “doh” moment on TICKED OFF. I agree that not obvious that the initial should come after the surname, but once you have toff and Icke I suppose it should be obvious.
Defeated on Rothschild and How Come (I guessed Pound child and New Home respectively, but couldn’t parse them of course). No complaints; just beaten by the better person.
I find Vlad tough and it took me ages to even get started. Patience proved to a virtue and I eventually got all but 2 clues. Thanks Vlad and PeterO.
Very nice hidden clue for USED. Took me ridiculously long to see. I do like a good lurker. Something about it being right there in front of your eyes the whole time.
Great puzzle, kept me guessing till the last. Favs 12 and 14, Agree about Kosovo as being widely recognised, why would a stunner be widely recognised?
Don’t understand why DE @13 wants it to be DV, I only know him as David Icke.
Struggled with ESSAY and BYRE but got there in the end.
Good to be doing the G cryptic again after 3 weeks away!
Thanks Vlad and Peter O
Couldn’t parse TICKED OFF. I think having a fairly obscure proper name written as surname+initial-of-first-name is GK gone mad.
Otherwise, I’d call the puzzle tough but fair. STANDS IN and DREARY were very good once I saw how they worked.
Late again today. Very pleased to have got through this one – the grid was ominously blank part way through my first pass. All my favourites have been mentioned – my only quiblet being to agree with muffin that something in the clue for HIDALGO indicating it was a non-UK title might have been helpful.
Thanks Vlad and PeterO
I got a bit stuck in the NW corner but soldiered on to completion.
I agree with TA @7 and others that the definition for KOSOVO is likely to be ‘country widely recognised’. I liked the lack of facilities in HOW COME, the surfaces of HATCHET MAN and BYRE, the good anagram for MINISTERIAL CODE, and the reverse clue for FLESH WOUNDS. A slight quibble is that the spelling of Y seems to be wye, so Y=why is text-speak. I can’t believe that I missed the hidden to make USED.
Thanks Vlad and PeterO.
Thanks to PeterO for unravelling several obscure, to me, clues.
Had never seen Ruth for pity and it’s archaic even in my oldest dictionary.
I love ministerial code, great clue.
KateE @27
But you know “ruthless” for “without pity”?
I was not at all on Vlad’s wavelength today, but I see I’m in the minority (as I so often am). Nonetheless, filled in all but the NW corner with a combination of definitions, crossers, and guesses.
Oh well. Horses for courses.
As tough as one expects from Vlad, and I didn’t manage to get TREMATODES even with the crossers; but lots of enjoyment.
I have to say I was willing to forgive Vlad almost anything after the superb MINISTERIAL CODE with its ultra-apt surface. Other particular delights for me were HOW COME, ESSAY, TICKED OFF, PILAU, STANDS IN (chapeau for getting Mr Eliot into a crossword otherwise that as an anagram of Toilets), UPPITY, KOSOVO and BYRE.
Pace Haggis @3, I find the tendency to see antisemitism when it isn’t there is a bit tiresome. Thus if I think of Goldman Sachs as a vampire squid, I’m not covertly expressing a hatred of people sharing the ethnicity of Messrs G and S, I’m overtly expressing a profound dislike of the organisation they founded. In the same way, I think the reference to the un-gorgeous George in BYRE was about achieving a fantastic surface, nothing more. And while Icke, D., may well have uttered some antisemitic lines amongst all the rest of his fruitloopery, I’d classify him as primarily a fruitloop rather than an antisemite.
Thanks to Vlad and PeterO
I’ve never heard of David Icke (looked him up — wow!), and to me “ticked off” means “annoyed” rather than “rebuked,” I did read that he invokes the Protocol of the Elders of Zion, which is antisemitic in my book.
To me, also, UPPITY doesn’t mean “arrogant” so much as “acting above your station,” said by people who see themselves as above you.
TREMATODES were new to me.
Thanks, PeterO, for many parsings that escaped me. And thanks Vlad for the morning’s pastime.
Vlad keeping up an excellent standard.
MINISTERIAL CODE was the stand out for me.
Thanks Vlad and PeterO (needed your help for the parsing of DREARY)
This in the end defeated me in the NW corner, and far too many I had wistfully (wanted wishfully there, but predictive text thought otherwise) entered to be truly described as an enjoyable solving experience today – ESSAY, TICKED OFF, PILAU, DREARY, HOW COME to name but a few. So thanks for PeterO for dispelling the mystery…
…I suppose I really should have remembered David Icke, and that infamous 1991 interview with Terry Wogan. A bit like another sportsman/sports commentator, Glen Hoddle, suddenly giving his extremely distasteful views about disabled individuals to the general media, almost out of the blue…
I wondered if Vlad had read the recent Guardian blog Meet the letter O , which says:
“As for where you come, you’re more likely towards the beginning of a word. Chambers’ “common words” has only 391 ending with you –.”
and how few words ended in O when I was solving this, when I was looking at 4 unsolved clues ending in O, but I got there in the end.
Thank you to Vlad and PeterO
SinCam@23 I didn’t want it to be ICKE DV, just reporting they are his full initials. I was looking at the wikipaedia article on him and I echo Valentine’s Wow! I wonder if he is the chief author of the piece.
Thanks for the blog , I thought this was tricky but once I entered the Downs I never really got stuck, helpful letters seemed to appear in the grid. Very neat set of clever and generally concise clues.
David Icke used to present the snooker , personally I think The Borrowers have a lot to answer for.
Tough but fun. Failed to spot Ruth (never hear it except in ‘ruthless’); but love ‘irony’ and ‘how come’ . ‘Dreary’ was hard work but gettable. ‘Ministerial code’ provided the dig that we expect from a Vlad puzzle. Thanks Vlad, and PeterO!
Thanks for the great puzzle, Vlad, especially for the ILLUMINATIng clue at 14a TICKED OFF. I hadn’t encountered David Icke before and found his Wikipedia entry fascinating. What a nutter, indeed. The only rational explanation for his existence is that he is in fact a reptilian-humanoid placed on earth by the Anunnaki to be a laughing-stock, thus hiding in plain sight the real presence of this intergalactic super-race. What a brilliant strategy on their part. (See also the clue at 10a.)
Favourites were the universally popular 16a MINISTERIAL CODE for the hilarious surface and the aforementioned 10a IRONY for its ironic surface.
Thanks also to PeterO for the excellent blog, which I needed for the parsing of the 14a and 8d (BYRE) clues.
cellomaniac@39@ You are fortunate not to have come upon Icke before; but it is depressing just how many people appear to have insane beliefs: though I don’t think they would be classed as technically insane. I keep meaning to read Steven Pinker’s Rationality. Perhaps it will throw some light on the subject. I have been an optimist for most of my life (I still cling to the thesis of Pinker’s excellent Enlightenment Now) but I confess it has not been easy for the last decade or so…. PS Where is everyone today? There are usually seventy or eighty comments on a puzzle….
[ nuntius@40, I share your admiration for Enlightenment Now, and your sense of “clinging to”. My optimistic view is that progress is not linear and that we are just experiencing a temporary trough in that regard. After my time the pendulum will swing and younger generations will restore sanity to this crazy world. Meanwhile, Bach, Shakespeare and Guardian cryptics will help me cling until it’s time to go. ]
PS: They’re hiding from the Anunnaki. 😉
Well I made heavy weather of this! The NW corner proved tricky to crack, and I crossed my fingers for the unfamiliar TREMATODES and BYRE.
As others have said, MINISTERIAL CODE was wonderful.
Thanks Vlad and PeterO.
PS. Icke is undoubtedly antisemitic! He is an all-purpose fruitcake, but you don’t have to scratch the surface too hard to get to nonsense about the Rothschilds and so on.
Nuntius @40
Perhaps solvers saw the Vlad byline and were put off? Unjustly!
Thanks to PeterO for an excellent blog and to others for their comments.
Thanks PeterO as I was trusting crossers somewhat when entering ESSAY and fully reliant on wordplay for HIDALGO but a sign of quality setting that I was comfortable to be so. No walkover for me with the usual array of devices and misdirection, but very much enjoyed the battle, thanks Vlad. [cellomaniac I agree with your take on waves of progress with the next coming from SE of the N Atlantic and equally happy to enjoy the fruits of the current wave while we can. Onwards and upwards, but not for a while maybe and probably not for us personally!]
Spent forever trying to solve 16a with “ac” and “dc” rather than “in” added to “claimed tories”.
Looks like I was alone in seeing “Ruth is”as an anagram and thus “Hirtus” meaning rough or rude and therefore at a slight pinch arrogant- threw the NW corner out for me until getting Candied!
nuntius@40 – Could be the final sunny day, though that wouldn’t explain the absence of some of our overseas compeers; perhaps the relative difficulty of a Vlad has kept the vainglorious away?
This was very enjoyable; not the toughest Vlad, but less accessible than his more recent offerings …. and nice to have a puzzle that actually requires some thought!
Bless you, Vlad!
My Fridays are always busy, so I save the crossword until I have some time free over the weekend. Unless I have missed it, I am surprised to see no comments on clue / answer 25. As I see it, ‘to join’ is to ENTER IN. I think that makes for a more satisfactory reading.
UPPITY
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/uppity
‘Adjective – uppity (comparative uppitier, superlative uppitiest) – Presumptuous, above oneself, self-important; arrogant, snobbish, haughty.
Exceeding one’s station or position, assuming prerogatives to which one is not entitled.
Usage notes
This term has historically been used in America to describe black people who were considered to be acting above “their place”, and is considered by some to have racist connotations when applied to people of color; sometimes arrogant or presumptuous, invoking the same idea, are used as codewords for it.’
William F P @48: Vlad is always tougher than most setters but I gave this one a go and treated it like a prize — solving a few, doing something else, getting a few more. After three days I actually finished this with just a bit of outside help. I found it very satisfying but I was way too late to comment in the usual manner.
Didn’t start on this until a couple of days later. I always relish Vlad’s puzzles but for some reason usually find them slow going.
Thanks V and P for some of the parsing!