Guardian 29,363 / Vulcan

76 comments on “Guardian 29,363 / Vulcan”

1. Lovely Monday quickie. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen

   Some great animal anagrams – “that can’t be an anagram can it? Oh yes, it is!”

2. This went in quickly – even for a Monday! I enjoyed the little misdirections, 13d in particular. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.

3. This was fun! I liked ADRIFT, ORCHID, SHRIMP and FORGOING. The misdirection in CLOTHES PEG was great too.

   I see some discussion in the G’s comments, which will probably be replicated here, about HYPHENED, but Chambers has it, so I’m ok with that.

   Thanks V&E.

4. BOUNCER my top pick, and I liked ORCHID as well. Thanks Eileen and Vulcan.

5. Loved the whimsical definitions.
   Here’s my tip for solving anagrams when you’re sure of the fodder. Write down the individual letters with the vowels on the left and the consonants on the right. Often the answer springs into mind before you’ve even finished. Worked a treat for the terrier, which isn’t a word I use every day.

6. That was weird, so thank heavens for the edit facility… My comment appeared under someone else’s moniker (jkb… something) with their ID and an email address I’ve never heard of under the comment box when I hit the Edit button. I had time to delete the post and put it in again with the correct info. But has security been compromised somehow?

7. I found the SW particularly tricky but great fun. BOUNCERS, HYPHENED, CLOTHES PEG, SNOOPY and POPEYE were my favourites. Hadn’t heard of BEDLINGTON and I agree that TRIPOD was barely cryptic.

   Ta Vulcan & Eileen.

8. Hello Blaise @ 6 – jkb here!

   Yeah something funny is going on – under my comment box I have the name and email address for Michelle.

9. Strange mix of easy and difficult.

   Funny to see AGOG again so soon – and this time I could parse it!

   Favourite: CLOTHES PEG.

   New for me: WING = wound (someone) superficially (for 14ac); PARK = football/soccer pitch; POP = prominent; PAN = toilet bowl (for 16d); BEDLINGTON terrier; POP EYE = an eye staring and bulging (as from excitement).

   Thanks, both.

   [blaise@6 – oh dear, that sounds weird! Also, I didn’t realise we can delete posts and start again on a post…

   jkb_ing@8 – that is also weird, must have been happening at the time I was writing my message/post above]

10. Yes, my saved details had disappeared, so I had to re-enter.

11. Thank you Eileen. AGOG was my FOI following on Qaos.
    I hesitated too at the cryptic element in TRIPOD but if the first word Stand is a verb I think it is cryptic. Funny image, standing on three legs, like the start of a three-legged race. Remember those?

    Tried to fit ”impotent” in the clue for STRIPPER.. Didn’t manage to finish that either.
    I liked PAN PIPES, with the two things, and one blown. I took that to mean you only blow a/one PAN PIPE.

12. I didn’t understand PARK, and still don’t. BEDLINGTON & buttonhole orchids were new to me. I’d have said “hyphenated” but I’ve no doubt HYPHENED is legit.

    Don’t know what’s going on with the site, but before I came here it indicated that no one had responded when in fact almost a dozen had.

    Thanks for the blog, Eileen.

13. jkb_ing @8. AlanC @10. We’re not alone, then. Looks like the site cookies file got scrambled?
    Back to normal now.

14. Ha – for what it’s worth on the identity-swapping subject, I have KVa’s details pre-entered. I shall resist the opportunity to be mischievous! Something very odd going on.

    I did not find this as easy as some earlier commenters have suggested. Not quite on Vulcan’s wavelength for some of the defs and/or constructions. The anagram for KINGFISHER made me smile.

    Thanks Vulcan and Eileen

15. I have posted on Site Feedback the issues raised above re other names and emails and no numbers of comments on the main page. Ken Mac from Admin is a busy volunteer, like all of our wonderful fifteensquared operators. He usually gets back very quickly, but of course if there are gremlins in the works, it might take some time.

16. My details on my phone had gone too, when I was checking things earlier.

    I found lots of this write ins and then spent as long again on a few clues that took me far longer than they should: BOUNCERS and DEMOCRAT – but I don’t always find cryptic definitions that straightforward (Rufus wasn’t the easy starter crossword for me).

    I was another who thought TRIPOD on first read through and did my trick of pencilling in the crossers to see if they worked when I solved the rest.

    Thank you Eileen and Vulcan.

17. GDU @12
    Re 24dn – a bit parochial, I’m afraid: Collins and Chambers both give ‘park’ as (British) informal for a football pitch and Richmond has a park.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Park

18. Jeez!

    I am SO SORRY.

    I’ve been experimenting with website caching plugins and, of course, when I test, things seem OK.

    I have disabled the culprit plugin.

19. Thanks Eileen.

20. I think that Vulcan might be hinting at the fictional AFC Richmond from the excellent Ted Lasso series in 24d. The pitch is actually at the Met Police sports ground in East Molesey, where I used to play.

21. I had no trouble with PARK – but then I live in Richmond. Fairly parochial even for non-local UK residents.

    Some fun CDs today, though TRIPOD isn’t one of them. I enjoyed CLOTHES PEG and BOUNCERS. When did anyone last see an ORCHID for a buttonhole?

22. AlanC @20: football is not my game so I have to confess I was seriously thinking about AFC for a while before recalling that it was a fictional side. And, yes, it was a delightfully done series.

23. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen
    I thought the reverse hidden DEMOCRAT was very clever. Not keen on the clue for PARK.

24. Thank you Ken/Admin@18 for fixing the gremlins, and all because you were trying to improve things! We are all grateful for the work you do.

25. I too was nonplussed about TRIPOD. It’s a straightforward definition unless you decide to interpret ‘stand’ as a verb, and the question mark is entirely optional.

26. There is of course a tradition of having lots of cryptic definitions on “easy” Monday, but in fact with this sort of clue, if you don’t happen to see the joke straight away (as with BOUNCERS) there is no real way to work out the answer (is it an anagram, or a hidden, etc etc). So I don’t necessarily find these easy.

    There is also the problem with CDs that, like TRIPOD, they can just come across as a straight definition, unless you happen to see the other possible meaning (as per paddymelon @11).

    Eileen, I was fully expecting you to mention Crucible’s classic “He wrote the Ancient Mariner (6)” in connection with 25a 🙂

    Many thanks both.

27. I’ve no doubt that Richmond has a park. Doesn’t every town? Perhaps Richmond’s is extra special? Strange clue.

28. Lord Jim @26 – as you’ve guessed, I was sorely tempted but I really can’t count the number of times I’ve done so and shame prevented me. Many thanks for doing it for me! 😉

    GDU @27 – if you followed the link I gave, you’ll see that Richmond’s is rather special. AlanC @20 and PostMark @22 may well be right – I don’t know what they’re talking about!

29. [GDU @27
    Richmond Park is particularly large. This clip made it famous a year or two ago!]

30. Firstly, thank you Admin@18, my details are as they should be so you fixed the problem very quickly. My favourites were HYPHENED, which I am used to seeing with AT before journalist (as it were); and BOUNCERS which made me laugh. A lovely start to the week and some fabulous anagrams. Many thanks Vulcan and Eileen.

31. Eileen @ 28, I followed your link and looked briefly at it, enough to come to the conclusion that if it has a Wikipedia page it’s probably more important than the park at the end of my street, which doesn’t. 😉

    So I just had a slightly less cursory look.

    I toured Britain a couple of decades ago but I don’t think we went to Richmond. My knowledge of things British continues to expand incrementally.

32. This started off well, but finally had to leave almost the entire SW corner undone.
    Can’t complain, should have got them, perhaps if I had persevered a bit more… although I doubt I would have got “Popeye” even with all the crossers. Many clues to like.
    Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen

33. [GDU@31. I lived and worked in Richmond shortly after arrival on my first (and only) trip to the UK in the early 70s. I was dismayed when an older customer came into the shop (tobacconist and confectioner, how was that? nicotine and sugar in a one stop fix) and he asked for ”an ounce of Old Holborn”. I couldn’t understand him and I was a linguist and language teacher. Poor old fella, he’d probably been going there for the past 60 years. I wasn’t expecting that so close to London.
    My next residence was right opposite Lords. I could watch the cricket without leaving my room, much more familiar.]

34. I thought the clue for Rees-Mogg was very unfair as there were so many possibilities; arrogant, demented, unhinged etc.

    I think my enjoyment of Vulcan is correlated with his use of cryptic definitions. I’m not sure, what the opposite of “the more the merrier” is but you get the drift …

    Cheers V&E

35. Bodycheetah @34

    🙂

36. Managed the right half of the puzzle O.K, but then completely foxed by the left hand side. Eventually the cleverly clued HYPHENED gave me a foothold, followed by PAN PIPES. Liked POPEYE, SNOOPY, CLOTHES PEG and FORGOING, my last one in. Personally I found this much more challenging than normal for a Monday Vulcan…

37. gladys @21 – I had no problem with PARK either – but then, I used to be an assistant groundsman at Cappielow Park, the home of Greenock Morton football club. I’ll give you parochial! And not far away from that is Hampden Park, where the Scottish national team play. But I agree that for Geoff Down Under and others the clue was a bit unfair.
    But I enjoyed today’s crossword.
    As with sofamore @4, BOUNCER was my favourite. And the clue for KINGFISHER made me smile too, PostMark @14.
    Thankyou Vulcan and Eileen.

38. A BEDLINGTON (or Fenton) would “Stand on three legs” in certain circumstances. (SNOOPY, otoh, would be a BIPOD)
    A clue to a clue: Coleridge. (Too late. Lord Jim@26 has given it away.)
    [Saw a Green Woodpecker in Richmond Park, recently, making up for bad school memories of cross-country runs there.]

39. Bodycheetah @34 😉 – cue for some G&S – The Rees-Mogg Singalong Extravaganza – lots more adjectives here.
    Thanks V&E

40. A DNF – thanks to my LOI: ROUGHING. That was at 7a, in case you are wondering. Seemed to make sense at the time… Thanks, Vulcan and Eileen.

41. Lovely Monday non-quickie; like Lord Jim @26 I always find the cds and dds challenging.

    I did like the cds for BOUNCER and CLOTHES PEG (Nutmeg: One holding to line from the gospel translated by Catholic), and the nicely hidden DEMOCRAT.

    Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.

42. FG@39 That’s brilliant 🙂

43. He’s graduated from being “The Honourable” to “The Right Honourable for life” to Knight Bachelor with a Coat of Arms: ‘…between two spearheads erect sable a cock proper…’ and a Latin motto – “Cura Pii Diis Sunt” – “The pious are an object of concern for the gods” – a proper load of cock.

44. Usual Monday fare but enjoyable nonetheless.

    I would just like to note that Richmond Park is very special indeed esp being connected to London.

    Thanks Vulcan and Eileen

45. Awful memories of Field Days in Richmond Park when in the school CCF in the 1960’s, with the young women from I think the Royal Ballet School coming out of a grand building called The White Lodge and laughing at our boy soldiers’ antics…

46. A fine Monday puzzle again from Vulcan. My LOI and favourite was FOREGOING, and I agree with Eileen on the pleasant brevity of SO LONG. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.

47. @12 When I was in OZ I heard a soccer pitch called a Park. Also Richmond has a Park

48. GDU@31 – I highly recommend a walk in Richmond Park and also nearby Bushy Park next time you go to London. You can see deer in both parks as well as many birds and other animals.

    Bodycheetah @34
    LOL 🙂

49. Well that was fun! Thanks very much. 16A was my fave, followed by 1D. What I like best in about cruciverbalising is the picking up of titbits of knowledge. Today that was one step removed, with FrankieG@43 and that “cock proper”. That’ll stay with me awhile. ;D Thanks too to Eileen.

50. NHO Bedlington, but was able to reverse-engineer it. I dredged Richmond Park (and its famous deer) from a childhood memory when I briefly lived in East Molesy.

    Favorite was 1D which elicited a smile when the penny finally dropped.

    Thank you Vulcan for a very pleasant Monday puzzle and Eileen for the blog.

51. Great fun. 20ac. like Rees-Mogg; so many 8 letter words popped into my head!

52. A fun and fair puzzle. Loi was Popeye because I wanted it to be focsle but check word proved me wrong. Never heard of Bedlington but that’s what it had to be and now I’ve learned something else. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen. Also thanks Admin for all your work keeping the blog safe.

53. Snap TassieTim@40 – ROUGHING being our LOI, and only query for here. Agree too with Bodycheetah@34 about the many suitable epithets for the Mogster: we tried one beginning W, given the woman in the clue. . .

    Thanks V&E.

54. [All this talk of Richmond Park – and its deer: if anyone has not seen the Fenton clip, here is your opportunity. 12 years and 26 million views on from its first posting. Well worth the watch – do make sure you have the sound enabled.]

55. With regards to JR-M, BC@34, FG@39 &, 43, couldn’t agree more. The link to updated G&S is wonderful, the motto almost got the last word spot on, and I do feel that “changing nappies is a job for nannies” merits acknowledgement as yet another egregious statement by him. To those among you who have no knowledge of him, you are indeed fortunate. 😎

56. PM @54: muffin had the same thought @29. Still hilarious after all this time.

57. Like others I’d never heard of Bedllington terriers; after eliminating the crossers from the anagram fodder (I use Blaise’s practice with anagrams, also putting both the vowels and the consonants in alphabetical order() I thought “maybe this ends with -ington, like Wellington or Paddington. Put that in and not much was left. So I looked up the pooch and they really do look quite endearing.

    Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen and to all for the links and comments.

58. Mildly (unrantingly) surprised no-one’s yet queried the (admittedly effective) misdirection in 7a, with ‘love’, actually part of the wordplay, awkwardly trying to seem part of the definition.

    Could it do with a punctuation tweak – a dash for the comma, say? End of mini-quibble!

    And warm thanks to Vulcan, and to Eileen.

59. Big Thank You to FrankieG @39. That will be shared!
    As per Shanne @16, the late great Rufus was the only compiler I regularly had to reveal and therefore my least favourite. If the cryptic definition is not obvious it’s sometimes impossible, especially for 4 letter words. Joked to the missus (ShowJumper) that Vulcan was channelling Rufus today.

60. Lord Jim @26 and TripleJumper @59: I often found Rufus, and now find Vulcan, trickier than other compilers precisely for the reason that you can’t work out their cryptic definitions by breaking down the clue – you need to be on the same wavelength, and I never seem to be (though ‘tripod’ was my first in).

61. Splendid puzzle, very Rufusian in its clueing, which, together with the unfriendly grid, made this much less than a walk in the PARK for me – like Shanne, Lord Jim and Robi I often find cryptic definition clues tricky as I spend too long trying to interpret them as charades. The ones here are excellent, nevertheless.

    In the other hand, BEDLINGTON was almost a write-in for me….

    I interpreted ‘stand’ as the (noun) definition for TRIPOD, but it isn’t one of the stronger clues, of which there are many. A particular favourite was FORGOING, for the misleading ‘without love’ (sorry Constable Melton @58! This sort of misdirection is all part of the game).

    One teeny quibble: PAN PIPES is plural, surely? – ‘one blown’ indicates a singular noun.

    Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen

62. Gervase @61
    Interesting point about pan pipes. There are several pipes, but making up a singular instrument? I’m not sure!

63. Gervase @61

    Re PAN PIPES: I pondered how to express that. PAN PIPES are / is a singular instrument – see here:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_flute

    Collins gives ‘panpipes|: pl n (often singular; often capital) a number of reeds or whistles of graduated lengths bound together to form a musical wind instrument’.

    (I spent too long looking up confirmation and was overtaken by muffin.)

    I remember lengthy discussion about the derivation, years ago, which I’m now going to research!

64. I found it! – from twelve years ago.
    https://www.fifteensquared.net/2012/03/09/guardian-cryptic-25579-shed-2/
    ‘Lengthy’ is the word! Fascinating, if you have the stamina. 😉

65. Interesting. I had parsed PAN PIPES as an extended definition / CAD which side-stepped the plural problem but may not be what was intended

66. This took me rather a long time for a Monday, much like ronald above I struggled with the left hand side at first. Enjoyed the anagram for KINGFISHER and the splendidly concealed DEMOCRAT.

67. I started off well on this one but then got bogged down in the S. It seemed much more difficult than the usual Monday Vulcan to me.

    I didn’t know that PAN could be a toilet bowl, so I was baffled by what you English people keep in your lavatories. I’d also never heard of the Bedlington terrier, but I managed to guess it from the anagram and crossers, so this was a true jorum for me.

68. Ted @ 67 Have you heard the expression about something “going down the pan”?

69. Simon S @68 — No, I don’t think so, but now if I do I’ll understand it!

70. FrankieG@39, thanks for that. It reminded of Randy Rainbow‘s song, to the same G&S tune, about the American “very stable genius”. (I don’t do links, but it is easily googlable.)

    I’m another who has trouble with Vulcan’s CD clues, but I’m not complaining. Some of them stump me but produce tea-tray moments on reading the blog, so I enjoy them after the fact.

    Thanks Vulcan and Eileen for the Monday merriment.

71. Too many cryptic definitions for me today. If my brain is in the right place, I enjoy them but I’ve been in a mood since this morning so I ended up revealing about a third of the answers. Once I did, they were all easily parsed – further proof that’s all on me.

72. Finally finished, though to be fair I didn’t go out to buy the Guardian until about 4pm and I was watching the snooker with only half a dozen brain cells to spare for Vulcan.

    The last three cryptic definitions shared crossers, and CLOTHES PEG, SNOOPY and BOUNCERS were therefore my last three in. I think Vulcan is the only setter where I regularly have to try words that fit the crossers until the penny drops, because as others have pointed out there is no word play.

    Unlike some frequent commenters who “don’t like” single letter abbreviations, for example, I won’t say I don’t like cryptic definitions, but I will say I often find them fiendishly difficult to solve.

    Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen.

73. If anyone happens to see this, please could you explain BOUNCERS to me? I get that they’re people at clubs, but what does “exclusive” have to do with it? Shame as it’s the only one I didn’t get

74. Sam@73. Vulcan is playing on a prime function of BOUNCERS being to exclude undesirable people from a club, but using ‘exclusive’ (for which read exclusion of undesirables) rather than ‘excluding’ as both a deception and a reference to different sorts of exclusive clubs (such as the Garrick, perhaps).

    Not exactly my favourite clue of the week either.

75. sheffield hatter@74 thank you so much – I didn’t twig that “exclusive” could be used to describe the people/thing doing the excluding. Makes sense when you think about it like that.

    I think as someone else put higher up, I really struggle with Cryptic Definitions since if you don’t “get it” on the first pass, you may never will. Luckily I had an inkling that “online” in 13D was describing a washing line, sadly it eluded me for BOUNCERS.

76. How does ´at this’ solve for ´tea break’ in 26a? I’m completely missing how this passes as a general or cryptic definition for the wordplay? I’m used to quiptics so these are clearly beyond me as half the time I find the general clue doesn’t really work for the overall answer. Am I missing something?

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