Guardian Cryptic 29,387 by Vulcan

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29387.

A couple of quiblettos, but Vulcan fills the Monday slot in style.

ACROSS
9 REMARKING
Observing what may happen to exam papers (9)
… if there is a problem with the first attempt at marking.
10 ABASE
Put down a foot (5)
A charade of ‘a’ plus BASE (‘foot’).
11 SPRAYER
Small, devout wish for one using a jet (7)
A charade of S (‘small’) plus PRAYER (‘devout wish’).
12 ABREAST
Level with a wild animal, runs into it (7)
An envelope (‘into it’) of R (‘runs’) in ‘a’ plus BEAST (‘wild animal’).
13 OBIT
Probity not altogether necessary in valedictory notice (4)
A hidden answer (‘not altogether necessary’) in ‘prOBITy’.
14 OVAL OFFICE
Where president can’t be backed into a corner? (4,6)
Cryptic definition
16 ELEANOR
Girl from Spain has to rely on soldiers (7)
A charade of E (España, ‘Spain’, IVR) plus LEAN (‘rely’) plus OR (Other Ranks, ‘soldiers’).
17 PICASSO
Artist I see talking in broadcast soaps (7)
An envelope (‘in’) of ‘I’ plus C (sounds like ‘see talking’) in PASSO, an anagram (‘broadcast’) of ‘soaps’.
19 ASTOUNDING
A depth measure including temperature is extraordinary (10)
An envelope (‘including’) of T (‘temperatire’) in ‘a’ plus SOUNDING (‘depth measure’).
22 COVE
Fielder is a little short bloke (4)
A subtraction: COVE[r] (cricket ‘fielder’) minus the last letter (‘a little short’).
24 LAOTIAN
Asian national heading off to travel (7)
An anagram (‘to travel’) of ‘[n]ational’ minus its first letter (‘heading off’).
25 HEARKEN
Try Livingstone, and pay attention (7)
A charade of HEAR (‘try’ in court) plus KEN (‘Livingstone’, former Mayor of London)
26 NIGHT
Two weeks by fort in darkness (5)
A fortNIGHT is ‘two weeks’.
27 SHOT GLASS
Where spirits may be found, ghost troubled girl (4,5)
A charade of SHOTG, an anagram (‘troubled’) of ‘ghost’ plus LASS (‘girl’).
DOWN
1 DRY STONE WALLING
Short of water, holding up progress in repairing enclosures (3,5,7)
A charade of DRY (‘short of water’) plus STONEWALLING (‘holding up progress’). Dry stone is a type of construction, not just repair.
2 AMORTISE
Slowly pay off armies to disband (8)
An anagram (‘disband’) of ‘armies to’. Or amortize.
3 GREYS
Horses eat grass, I’m told (5)
Sounds like (‘I’m told’) GRAZE (‘eat grass’).
4 MID-RIVER
Leeds to London traveller perhaps nowhere near a bank (3-5)
M1 DRIVER (‘Leeds to London traveller perhaps’).
5 AGNAIL
Piece of skin torn by silver pin (6)
A charade of AG (chemical symbol, ‘silver’) plus NAIL (‘pin’).
6 SACRIFICE
Give away pouch with grain, if hiding (9)
An envelope (‘hiding’) of ‘if’ in SAC (‘pouch’) plus RICE (‘grain’).
7 SAFARI
Expedition hunting for browser (6)
Double or perhaps triple definition; a SAFARI is any journey, particularly one searching for animals, and Apple’s main web browser.
8 FEATHER ONES NEST
Get comfortable in Tennessee, tho’ far off (7,4,4)
An anagram (‘off’) of ‘Tennessee tho far’.
15 INFURIATE
Cause anger as I sat down to dinner wearing mink (9)
IN FUR I ATE (‘I sat down to dinner wearing mink’ – more detail than in the answer).
17 PANTHEON
Heavily criticise article about the Roman church (8)
A charade of PAN (‘heavily criticise’) plus THE (definite ‘article’) plus ON (‘about’). The PANTHEON in Rome was a temple, and, since AD 609, a Catholic church, Basilica Santa Maria ad Martyres.
18 STOCK CAR
A smashing racing vehicle (5,3)
A cryptic definition – so cryptic that I am not sure what Vulcan has in mind for ‘smashing’, whether such racing is even more dangerous than other formats, or that overpowered production cars emulating racing vehicles are more dangerous on the open roads.
20 TROUGH
After a time, bristly snout goes in here? (6)
A charade of T (‘time’) plus ROUGH (‘bristly’) with an extended definition referring to a pig.
21 DYNAST
Democrat replacing nasty hereditary ruler (6)
A charade of D (‘Denocrat’) plus YNAST, an anagram (‘replacing’) of ‘nasty’.
23 BAGGY
Loose horse in stall (5)
An envelope (‘in’) of GG (‘horse’) in BAY (‘stall’ in the sense of recess – and not a horse).

picture of the completed grid

71 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,387 by Vulcan”

  1. STOCK CARs are allowed to crash into each other.
    The right hand side took much longer than the left. I had the two long clues fairly quickly, but first letter crossers are the best
    Thanks both.

  2. I admit to a big hole in my general knowledge with regard to former mayors of London — with the exception of Boris, but he was kind of special. 😉

    Apart from that, it all fell into place and provided plenty of smiles along the way. Thanks Vulcan & PeterO.

  3. A while since Red Ken appeared, he must be getting on. Going to the Claremont Speedway to watch stock cars smashing was a Friday night family outing years ago (not our family of course!).
    Nice Monday puzzle, thx VnP.

  4. Re 1d If there is already an enclosure, you must be repairing to do 1d.
    Re 18d Sounds more like the old ‘demolition derbies’ than NASCAR.

    Thanks to both, good puzzle and blog.

  5. Thank you PeterO. I also had similar quibbles with INFURIATE (sat down to ) and DRY STONEWALLING (repairing). Very glad your excellent blog is up nice and early so I can put them away now.
    I do have memories of smashing stock cars. It was about the only family ‘entertainment’ many people had when I was a child, in the days when cars were just becoming an aspirational thing. Weird.

  6. I really liked OVAL OFFICE. Where president can’t be? But of course he can. Then the penny dropped. No corners in an oval. And the added dimension. The president is clearly in charge in his own office (unless his phone is bugged). Made me laugh.

  8. I can’t believe the one cricket fielding position I didn’t think of was ‘cover’ and I ended up revealing 22 across. Otherwise I enjoyed this very much. [I had forgotten Ken Livingstone’s first name and when I looked him up was sorry to see he has Alzheimer’s now]

  9. A normal Monday, a normal Vulcan and nothing is wrong with that. Agree with the STOCK CAR definition – I certainly associate the phrase with what are now called ‘demolition derbies’ and was surprised, on checking, to discover that ‘stock car racing’ is not primarily about vehicular destruction. LAOTIAN, FEATHER ONE’S NEST and the lovely MID-RIVER were my favourites. ‘Disband’ doesn’t feel like the right tense for the anagrind in AMORTISE but I’m sure someone will be able to justify it.

    Thanks Vulcan and PeterO

  10. Enjoyed this.

    I know the M1 -> MI from crossword puzzles but today I (re-)learnt the detail that it connects London and Leeds. I travelled on it to Leeds in the early 1980s but had forgotten that.

    New for me: AGNAIL.

    Thanks, both.

  11. I also found the right hand side took longer, although several I wondered why when I solved them. AGNAIL was new to me too, but I knew STOCK CAR racing as dodgems with car wrecks, there was a local track, and beaten up cars with numbers and paint jobs on the back of trailers was a regular sight.

    Thank you to PeterO and Vulcan.

  12. COTD: OVAL OFFICE (for the same reasons as pdm says@6).
    Liked NIGHT and TROUGH.

    michelle@10
    a couple of days ago. , there was a discussion about which points M1 connects. I can’t
    recall if it was here or elsewhere (FT, Indy …).

    Thanks Vulcan and PeterO

  13. STOCK CAR RACING They are different forms in the UK and the US. In the US crashing into one another isn’t part of the racing (hence PeterO’s confusion?), whereas in the UK it is (was?) the main point.

    I found this quite tricky today.

    Thanks PeterO and Vulcan

  14. Thanks to VULCAN and PeterO for a great start to the week. I understand the quibble about INFURIATE but I loved it probably because I’ve not seen it used before. I wonder if others have? I also liked ASTOUNDING. I am grateful for the clarification of STOCK car racing. I’ve never seen it but it sounds exciting.

  15. Thanks Vulcan and PeterO
    I found this harder than most Mondays, but I enjoyed finishing it. OVAL OFFICE my favourite too.
    M1 from Leeds to London (nice to have a northerner’s viewpoint – Londoners would insist that it goes from London to Leeds, and indeed that’s the direction the junctions are numbered), and Ken Livingstone are going to be a problem for overseas solvers, I expect.

  16. Nice Crossword

    I got hung up on first across clue “observing what may happen to exam papers” convinced that this was either REGRADING or REGARDING but neither actually worked without an extra section of clue.

    Thanks Vulcan and Peter

    The local stock car /demolition derby track when I was growing up was a figure of eight so crashing was almost mandatory

  17. Found this chewier than the normal Monday Vulcan, and similar to others above the right hand side fell last. The last one in BAGGY took a while at the very end…AGNAIL and AMORTISE new ones for me too.

  18. MN@16: there must be multiple possibilities for 9a. I had REVIEWING (tentatively) for quite a while. Unlike others here, I had almost all the right hand side in before much of the left – though I had SLIP at 22a for a while (“a mere slip of a lad”), which made me hold off with STOCK CAR briefly (my memory of hearing about them certainly involved crashes). I also presumed Dr Livingston before remembering Red Ken. Thanks, Vulcan and PeterO.

  19. Sights and sounds and smell of burnt fuel is what stock car racing was all about, Pauline in Brum@14. A sensory overload, endorphins rampant. And fear that someone doesn’t get injured while you’re having a good time and can take your kids home insufficiently traumatised to come back again next week.

  20. Me@ 19 cont. But cars were made of steel in those days. They just bounced off each other.

  21. That was a nice puzzle. I drew a blank on COVE and ended up revealing, which made me annoyed with myself because, as a fan of Wodehouse, it’s a word that pops up a lot. I liked INFURIATE – it made me smile, as did HEARKEN.

    Thanks Vulcan and PeterO

  22. [Pauline @14 If you are still in Brum you could watch stock car racing at Hednesford Raceway near Cannock Chase. It was a fun family day out when I was a kid with what we called “banger racing” back then.]

  23. PostMark @9: the anagram for AMORTISE resolves so readily, I never gave the anagrind a second thought. I’m sure we’ve had iffier ones than disband!

  24. William @23: it’s not the anagrind but the tense. ‘Disband’ in front of the fodder would be an imperative and would work fine. Coming after the fodder, I feel it should be ‘disbanded’. Or ‘to disband’ – but the ‘to’ is already there as part of the fodder for the anagram.

  25. KVa@12 michelle@10 The M1 discussion was in last Monday’s cryptic. The blogger suggested it was London to Edinburgh, but you need to use A1/A1(M) north of Leeds.

  26. PostMark @24: ah, yes, I see what you mean, now. I think you have a point. Perhaps the setter didn’t like, “Disband armies to pay off slowly”.

  27. [gif@3. Claremont, Perth, WA, is infamous for murders as well. Also to do with cars. Great recommendation. 🙂 ]

  30. Horses for courses, but like TT @18 I had virtually all the RHS solved with little appearing in the LHS at the beginning.

    I thought the smashing vehicle was a SUPER CAR (noun: a high-performance sports car) at first, but the crossers disabused me (if that’s the right expression). Luckily, I got the FEATHER ONE’S NEST anagram without any crossers; otherwise, I would have been fairly stuck. I liked the OVAL OFFICE cd and the wordplays of LAOTIAN and SHOT GLASS.

    Thanks Vulcan and PeterO.

  31. Enjoyable puzzle. INFURIATE made me smile. Other ticks were for TROUGH and DYNAST for their excellent surfaces.

    PostMark @9 and 24: I took it that the words (or letters) “armies to” disband (disperse, break up), and that seems ok to me.

    Many thanks Vulcan and PeterO.

  32. Thank you Vulcan & PeterO.
    I particularly liked the troubled ghost, the ‘Asian national’ and ‘nowhere near a bank’.

  33. [It’s also gone upmarket since the stock car days, pdm@27. During ‘the Cup’ (the sailing thing), there was a T-shirt saying G’day from WA, then some wag did one with Hair Lair from Claremont]

  34. Lord Jim@31
    AMORTISE
    Oh! Yea. Thanks. (William@26 Your version remains equally good).

    PostMark! Don’t say something that will make me change my mind again.

  37. Pauline@14, and others: 15 Dn INFURIATE reminded me of the very first cryptic clue I ever solved!

    Back in the mid 70s, as a new sixth-former, I joined a group of pupils and was faced with Araucaria’s:

    Begin description of a dining room? (8)

    When I solved it, I was immediately hooked.

    I’ll just leave that here…
    (We had a couple of crossers, of course).

  39. As usual, the one referring to cricket was my last one in… ABREAST reminded me of one of my favourite limericks (sorry if I’ve already posted it in the past).
    “What’s this?” cried the lynx-eyed detective.
    “Can it be that my eyesight’s defective?
    Hasn’t your East tit the least bit
    The best of the West tit,
    Or is it a trick of perspective?”

  40. Thank you Hornbeam@37!. I didn’t know the Araucaria clue, but it’s spot on, and it gave me some idea as to why I had so much trouble with Vulcan’s clue. You’ve made my day.

  41. Nice one, thanks to V&P.

    AGNAIL was unfamiliar but clear from the clue. Ticks for IN FUR I ATE and M1 DRIVER as they hit the funny bone this morning. Thanks to Hornbeam @37: I thought the device seemed familiar, and how clever to recall it was the great Araucaria!

  42. Being now an expert on motor racing, as the result of a dip into Wikipedia, I think I have a better idea of what is going on with 18D STOCK CAR. ‘Smashing’, as Postmark @9 points out, suggests a demolition derby; as far as I can see from a quick scan, neither the Wiki article on stock car racing nor that on demolition derby makes mention of the other, but both make passing reference to banger racing, which is racing in that the winner is first past the post, but contact is allowed, even encouraged, en route. (With three hyperlinks there, I will surely have to moderate my own comment). I had not before come across banger racing, which seems to be to an extent UK-centric. Since it involves production cars, albeit stripped down as much as souped up, it may well be what Vulcan had in mind in the clue.

  43. Russthree@4 British stock racing is a very different proposition to NASCAR (or at least was, back in the 1970s when I last attended). It is – as the name suggests – cars that are very close to “stock” i.e. as manufactured, and was a very affordable and accessible form of racing almost anybody could get into.

  45. [Interesting. Comment #42 has gone through without moderation. Either WordPress knows of my hallowed status, or it recognizes Wiki as benign.]

  46. Thank you so much Hornbeam @37 . I thought there would be an honourable pedigree for the clue and you have delivered in style with a wonderful memory to boot 😎.

    [Re viewing stock car racing, Cannock sounds less edgy than Claremont…].

  47. To HEAR KEN<-click here. It's by Kate Bush – 'Who is the man we all need? (KEN!) Who is the funky sex machine? (KEN!) Who is the leader of the GLC? (KEN!)’

  48. …It’s from GLC: The Carnage Continues…, a 1990 episode of The Comic Strip Presents…, a spoof Hollywood Blockbuster,
    with Robbie Coltrane as Charles Bronson as KEN<-click here to watch the whole thing (without the need of a mirror).

  49. @FrankieG I had forgotten that Comic Strip Presents – thanks for the reminder; I will have to revisit

  50. [PeterO @45, if your comment got through without moderation, something has changed in the last few weeks. One of mine with links to Guardian blogs on a Quick Cryptic blog didn’t get through until moderated and I didn’t realise I could moderate it myself..]

  51. As a Londoner since 1972, Ken did far more for us than Boris even if his global profile is lower.

  52. Another unfinished Monday puzzle. Getting rather bored of Vulcan.
    I always assumed Everyman and Monday were supposed to be easier because the hard core took two days to do Azed.
    PS homophone moan re graze

  54. [Hornbeam @ 37

    Chatgtp solved it:

    The cryptic clue “Begin description of a dining room?” can be solved by analyzing it for possible wordplay or hidden meanings. Here’s the breakdown:

    “Begin” often indicates the start of a word.
    “description of a dining room” might be hinting at a word related to dining or the room itself.

    Let’s look at the clue again with this approach:

    “Begin” suggests taking the first letter of something.
    “description of a dining room” could be pointing to the first letter of words commonly associated with a dining room.

    One common word associated with a dining room is “Dinner.”

    Taking the first letter of “Dinner” gives us D.

    So, the answer to the cryptic clue “Begin description of a dining room?” is:

    D.

    ]

  55. Tough start to the week for me. Held me up for quite some time. Infuriate l found amusing, also M1 driver produced a glimmer of a smile as it held me up for ages thinking r_v_r must be rover, so was trying to recall yesterday older tales about farmers carting pigs to market from Leeds to London – which is a long ol’ walk for the lovely pigs and hence no tales about it. As someone who has never owned a car or driving licence and loves our natural world l think smashing up cars is a mighty fine idea so am all in favour of stock car racing – on the M1. Thanks PeterO and Vulcan

  57. Thanks Dave E@54

    It seems I got it wrong all those years ago.

    I should get an AI friend…

  59. Shanne @50
    [Of course, bloggers may only moderate comments on their own blogs. In this case, the plot thickens, or perhaps curdles. Although my post @42 appeared immediately, I was sent an email requesting moderation; when I complied, I was told that the comment had already been moderated, and as the comment appeared immediately, admin can hardly have had a hand in it. One suspects that WordPress has been getting advice from Chatgtp.]

  60. Thanks for the blog, pretty good overall but I do think Monday puzzles should be easier than this . MID-RIVER was very neat . Guardian puzzles seem to be converging on one single level of difficulty.
    [ The Guardian letters page has been had once again today. Another missive on population control from Roger Plenty. ]

  61. I have nothing new to add to what has already been said. So I won’t say anything apart from thanks to all.

  62. A rare Monday DNF for me, not knowing that a cover is a fielder in cricket (re 22a COVE). Nevertheless I enjoyed this puzzle, with special ticks for 14 OVAL OFFICE (great surface), and 4 MID-RIVER and 15 INFURIATE (clever constructions).

    Thanks Vulcan and PeterO for the fun.

  63. Cellomaniac @62
    Actually, strictly there isn’t a position called COVER. There’s cover point, extra cover, deep cover, short extra cover and so on. Collectively they are known as “the covers”.

  64. My memory of stock car racing is that they were battered old cars with any inessential items removed (including glass) and a “cage” of steel welded inside to give some protection to the driver. There were usually six races in a programme. Crashes were common but not intentional. The last race of the day was the Demolition Derby, the winner being the last car still moving.

  65. Thanks, muffin@63. My knowledge of cricket positions is limited to bowler, wicket-keeper and silly mid-off. I suppose that if you are the batsman and you can get between the covers, chances are you will score? I’ll get my coat.

  66. I’m with Roz here. Enjoyed the puzzle and very annoyed that COVE ‘stumped’ me but as with so many clues in this world, perplexed that I didn’t twig. If there was such a thing as a gradient between Monday and Friday (assuming all agree these normally are the easiest/hardest with the intervening days somewhat random in strength in between) then this was at Wednesday level for me (on a linear scale). Which is a shame as we’ve got the Saturday Quick Cryptic, the Sunday Quiptic and also the Everyman which while not easy has one thing going for it, consistency. How many budding solvers would have recoiled at this I wonder. Two steps…

  67. I managed to solve 7 clues with heavy use of the “check” button.

    I had SLIP for fielder (“slip of a man”)

    I had GRAZE for 3d, and I was so pleased that I’d thought I’d solved it….

  68. [Cellomaniac@65 – you might find that muffin’s knowledge of cricket positions is also limited. If you were ever minded to do so, you will struggle to find a chart of positions that doesn’t include cover as a specific spot.]

  69. This was a DNF for me – I had to reveal COVE having nho cover for fielder (I’m in Scotland, and we don’t do much cricket here), but I also had to reveal ABREAST, which I was then kicking myself for (I must’ve gone through dozens of potential wild animals withount once thinking it might be a synonym for wild animal)

    Steffen@67 – I’m relatively new to this, been going for about a year now, and I’m also one who make liberal use of the check button. Until a few months ago, my completions were limited to the Quiptic and Everyman (and the Quick Cryptic more recently). I still don’t have much success on the general cryptics, getting half the clues is usually as good as it gets. From what I’ve seen of your posts, solving 7 is a big step forward, so celebrate it as a win!

  71. Like everyone else, a puzzle of two halves. LH was a write-in, RH was a real struggle until I bludgeoned FEATHER ONES NEST into submission. AGNAIL was a reveal, and new to me, while COVE took a lot longer than it should have done!

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