The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29707.
One does not expect a crossword under the name of Vlad to be straightforward, and this is no exception – indeed, in a couple of places I am not in the least sure that I have got it right.
| ACROSS | ||
| 5, 13 | HOUSES OF ILL REPUTE |
Where hopeful suitor Lee’s practised? (6,2,3,6)
|
| Not at all sure. An anagram (‘practised’?) of ‘hopeful suitor Lees’. Is Lee someone making for an extended definition?. | ||
| 6 | GODIVA |
Rider revealed as demanding type gets marching orders (6)
|
| A charade of GO (‘marching orders’) plus DIVA (‘demanding type”), treated as a command GO, DIVA.The definition refers to the well-known legend of Lady Godiva’s naked ride through the streets of Coventry.
As per Mattthew @8 etc, I have added ‘revealed to the definition. |
||
| 9 | STOLID |
Investigator many rejected for not showing emotion (6)
|
| A reversal (‘rejected’) of DI (Detective Inspector ‘Investigator’) plus LOTS (‘many’). | ||
| 10 | UNEARTHS |
The runs unfortunately going round, one discovers (8)
|
| An envelope (‘goung round’) of A (‘one’) in UNERTHS, an anagram (‘unfortunately’) of ‘the runs’. | ||
| 11 | CAPO |
Head of family better off to begin with (4)
|
| A charade of CAP (‘better’, verb) plus O (‘Off to begin with’). | ||
| 12 | WITHSTANDS |
Opposes how new stadium is to be built (10)
|
| Definition and cryptic reference ( WITH STANDS). | ||
| 13 |
See 5
|
|
| 18 | WASTE PAPER |
Rubbish, mush! Weather’s awful outside, not hot (5,5)
|
| An envelope (‘outside’) of PAP (‘mush’) in WASTEER, an anagram (‘awful’) of ‘weat[[h]ers’ minus the H (‘hot hot’). | ||
| 21 | ELON |
Very rich man in Bow area not academic (4)
|
| E LON[don] (‘Bow area’) E for East, and removing DON (‘not academic’). The definition refers to Elon Musk; they don’t come any wealthier. | ||
| 22 | SOUL MATE |
China on the same wavelength but no-one else, it’s said (4,4)
|
| Sounds like (‘it’s said’) SOLE MATE. | ||
| 23 | ALL-OUT |
Making every effort for tax cheat and boor (3-3)
|
| A charade of AL (Capone, gangster eventually brought down by prosecution for tax evasion, ‘tax cheat’) plus LOUT (‘boor’). | ||
| 24 | SMOOCH |
Be amorous with sound from lower school covering (6)
|
| An envelope (‘covering’) of MOO (‘sound from lower’) in SCH (‘school’). | ||
| 25 | ADVERT |
What clearly is time for British to get promotion (6)
|
| ADVERB (‘what clearly is’) with the B replaced with T (‘time for British’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BULLY OFF |
Beginning of game offering respite for put-upon schoolkid (5,3)
|
| Definition and literal interpretation. | ||
| 2 | MEADOW |
I object to Old Bill initially taking wife in field (6)
|
| A charade of ME (‘I object’ – object grammatically) plus AD (‘Bill’) plus O (‘old’) plus W (‘wife’). ‘Initially’ is not its usual cryptic use, but indicates that AD comes before O. | ||
| 3 | COVERS UP |
Whitewashes pay for drink (6,2)
|
| A charade of COVER (‘pay’) plus SUP (‘drink’). | ||
| 4 | SIERRA |
Follower of Romeo with attractive quality holding one boob (6)
|
| An envelope (‘holding’) of I (‘one’) plus ERR (‘boob’) in SA (sex appeal, ‘attractive quality’). Romeo is R in the NATO alphabet, and SIERRA, S. | ||
| 5 | HITMAN |
Finishing off his work (6)
|
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 7 | APHIDS |
Suckers with a local Tory grandee (6)
|
| A charde of ‘a’ plus PH (Public House, ‘local’) plus IDS (Iain Duncan Smith, ‘Tory grandee’). | ||
| 8 | CUSTARD PIES |
Crude! Is past being diverted by such elements of humour (7,4)
|
| An anagram (‘being diverted’) of ‘crude is past’, with an extended definition. | ||
| 14 | LAP DANCE |
One paid to attend clean form of entertainment? Maybe not (3,5)
|
| I think this must be: an envelope (‘to attend’) of A (‘one’) plus PD (‘paid’) in LANCE (‘clean’ – to pierce an abscess). ‘Maybe not’ completes an extended definition.
As pointed out first by Dr. WhatsOn @3, LANCE is an anagram (‘form’) of ‘clean’. |
||
| 15 | THE BLUES |
Depression? That could be Everton (3,5)
|
| Double definition, the second being a nickname for the soccer team. | ||
| 16 | FAMOUS |
Well-publicised article – doctor getting into a lot of trouble (6)
|
| An envelope (‘getting into’) of A (indefinite ‘article’) plus MO (Medical Officer, ‘doctor’) in FUS[s] (‘trouble’) cut short (‘a lot of’). | ||
| 17 | LOCUST |
Gripped by desire, occasionally touch stripper (6)
|
| An envelope (‘gripped by’) of OC (‘occasionally tOuCh’) in LUST (‘desire’). | ||
| 19 | TELL ON |
National hero working in shop (4,2)
|
| A charade of TELL (William, Swiss ‘national hero’) plus ON (‘working’). | ||
| 20 | RWANDA |
Country club for golfers admitting women (6)
|
| An envelope (‘admitting’) of W (‘women’) in R AND A (‘club for golfers’ – The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews). |
Thanks for the blog, I came here to find out if Lee was anybody in particular and the parsing of LAP DANCE. I’m better informed on the second one now. Lance for clean did not occur to me.
In 4d I think cover is pay for, not just pay, but that’s a very minor quibble.
Thanks again and also Vlad
Laura Lee
Is she the Lee in 5,13?
Thanks Vlad and PeterO
I too was puzzled by LAP DANCE. I don’t think I would have ever thought lance=clean: it’s the initial step you may do to a boil in order to clean it out next. Interesting that they share the same letters, though. Liked HITMAN.
Isn’t Lee just a would-be suitor who needed practise first? Followed by the naked diva — racy start!
With stands got a Xmas-cracker groan. Do they still do One-bully Two-bully … in hockey?
Had forgotten about IDS the Tory bigwig. Check out his wiki pic — looks exactly like those Brit actors who play Whitehall types; he could play himself!
[And as it happens his wife’s tribe gave their name to my parish and moniker. She is née Betsy Fremantle. Captain Fremantle her antecedent was a Swan River Colony founder. So it goes]
Lots of fun, not overly gnarly, thanks Vlad and PeterO.
By George, KVa @2, you might be onto something. Back in 2016 when this was a story I was living in Portugal and not paying much attention to UK news except for the matter of the (ahem) ‘non-binding’ referendum, so this would have passed well under my radar. Even if it had not, however, I’m not at all sure I would have been able to dredge it up now. If you are right, it constitutes a very arcane reference on Vlad’s part.
I read lap dance as APD inside [attending] [a] clean form [a form ie anagram of clean], with ‘entertainment? Perhaps not’ as def.
Could be wrong, who knows ( Vlad, I spose …)
5,13 contd…
The word ‘suitor’ could also suit Laura Lee in a legal sense, as she was a civil rights activist,
who went to court against certain laws.
As she is no more, is it okay to say ‘Lee’s practised’?
Maybe the Lee in the clue is some other person.
I thought Lee was just a name of a hypothetical male suitor that made the anagram work, and (like grantinfreo@6) that 14d involved an anagram of CLEAN.
I’m pretty confident that ‘revealed’ is supposed to be part of the definition in 6a.
Thanks, Vlad and PeterO.
Grant@6 and Matthew@8
Your parsing is convincing. Mine may not be the intended parse.
GODIVA
Agree that the def should include ‘revealed’.
Sopranos theme? CAPO, MEADOW, HITMAN, LAP DANCE, HOUSES OF ILL REPUTE, WASTE management, morning PAPER etc. And Nadine SIERRA is a famous soprano.
Thanks PeterO and Vlad
I needed help with a lot of parsing
Al Capone doh
Thought Hitman was a great clue.
Had them all in correctly with some guess & check, but came here to understand the parsing of several. Mostly sorted: thanks PeterO.
I had NHO IDS so that explains 7, but why does AD = ‘Bill’ in 2?
Favourite was 12 with a groan and “Oh, really”.
Thanks Vlad for pushing my capabilities in the genre.
I googled Lee and brothels and got the video game Hitman: one of the contracts is the Lee Hong Assassination, in a brothel. But I’m not a video gamer so no idea if there’s anything else.
Thank you to PeterO and Vlad
Beaten by the parsing of LAP DANCE plus the “I object” = ME in MEADOW. I’d agree with nicbach that COVER is ‘pay for’ and with others that ‘Rider revealed’ is the def for GODIVA.
LOCUST my COTD with a definition that is tough but fair.
Thanks Vlad and PeterO
I took LAP DANCE as a CAD, with the anagram (form) of clean as per ginf @6 and Matthew @8.
What about Gipsy Rose Lee, the (in)famous striptease artiste practising in 5,13?
Great stuff from Vlad, as ever – my favourites today: ADVERT, APHIDS, FAMOUS, LOCUST and RWANDA.
Many thanks to Vlad and PeterO.
They dont come much better
Thanks Vlad and PeterO
Some difficult parsings (not all achieved by me!), but also several rather parochial clues. I wonder what overseas solvers will make of IDS, E LON(don), Everton being “the blues” (recently Chelsea would have been more obvious).
I started in a poor light and was held up by reading the first word of 8d as “crudel”!
Favourites CAPO and RWANDA.
I only managed to solve 5 clues, one of which I could not parse (23ac) apart from the LOUT bit.
Wonderful puzzle by Vlad—it took me longer than normal but the extra time was well worth it. Thanks to PeterO for a great blog. I missed the parsing of 21A and 25A. Coming from California I had never heard of Bow, but now I know.
GrahaminSydney @12 – a bill is a name for a paper advert, usually a one sheet poster advertising an event, like a playbill.
Struggled with this, which I thought was due to my being out of practice for quite a while, so was glad to see PeterO’s blog commentary. LOI was GODIVA, which required reverse parsing. Second last was SIERRA, which I couldn’t parse even after seeing through the (very nice) misdirection. Thanks PeterO for the explanation; I’ll have to put SA in the memory bank. LAP DANCE, ADVERT and APHIDS were also mysteries to me after getting them from the definitions. For the last one, I rolodexed through recent Tory grandees (not a pleasant exercise) but Duncan Smith did not come to mind. I liked ‘I object’ for ‘me’. I don’t recall seeing that before. TELL ON was my favourite. Thanks Vlad for a lot of fun and thanks PeterO.
Couldn’t parse LAP DANCE but I think grantinfreo @6 is right, i.e. A (one) PD (paid) in LANCE (form of CLEAN).
In looking at 5, 13, while my parsing was the same as PeterO’s (and grantinfreo @4), I couldn’t get Lee “30p” Anderson out of my head. And, paul @23, if contemplating recent Tory grandees is not a pleasant exercise, contemplating recent Tory defectors is even worse. For some unaccountable reason, though, the idea of an MP in a HOUSE OF ILL REPUTE feels remarkably plausible.
Finishing a Vlad and parsing nearly all of it before 9 am. Day can only go downhill from here…
Thanks to Vlad and PeterO
Thanks mr_bez @22. I should have though of the “Bill Posters is innocent” meaning for bill…
G 29491-Vlad
We object over a guest? That’s not it, boss (10)
Fabulous fun from start to finish. Ticks for almost every clue and podium places for ADVERT, HITMAN & ELON
Cheers P&V
SMOOCH was FOI, but SIERRA was second, in fact; whenever I see Romeo in a clue, my first thought is the “NATO” alphabet.
[I’m joining the Society for the Preservation of Semicolons! (See Guardian letters.)]
IDS = Irritable Duncan Smith?
[ Is Irritable Duncan Smith, IDS, anything like IBS? simonc @29 🙂 ]
I thought this was a slightly less painful impaling from Vlad and possibly the first time I have got through one of his without using the ‘check’ function. I seemed to be on wavelength with the multiword clues which did open up the grid. A few I didn’t fully parse. ELON was the last one in and wasn’t having a foggiest what was going on with ELON but he is very popular with setters lately. I really wanted to take a H off something. Cheers for the blog.
For what it’s worth I also anagrammed clean for LAP DANCE (well I backed into it after originally thinking dance = form of entertainment and parsed after)
Favourite was the dad joke of WITHSTANDS. It gave me a chuckle.
Not sure if it was a theme or just the usual bawdy crossword humour but there were a few raunchy references in this.
Cheers Vlad and PeterO
I think Shanne 10across the theme, though I was expecting it to be some scurrilous detail of Lee Anderson’s chequered career. TELL ON, LOCUST and ADVERT were my favourites.
[Tim C @30 – Remarkably similar!]
Interesting. Some none too obvious GK needed for this one: I failed to spot AL Capone the tax cheat; have no idea what HOUSES OF ILL REPUTE is all about; took a while to remember IDS the Tory grandee. Couldn’t parse MEADOW (last in). There is a definite Mafia vibe to this one, with Al Capone, a Don being removed in ELON, HITMAN, CAPO – but not really enough to make a theme.
Favourites WITHSTANDS, the ‘rider revealed’, CUSTARD PIES, RWANDA. I managed to sort out ‘what clearly is’, but then forgot to do the ‘time for Britain’, which meant that LOCUST took a long time to find.
Felt happy not to be skewered by Vlad today! I parsed LAP DANCE as grantinfreo@6 – an anagram of “clean” along with A and PD. It was a back parsing because I already had the L and the P from 13 and 18.
FAMOUS was my LOI because I couldn’t parse it, but WITHSTANDS, RWANDA and LOCUST were my favourites.
Thanks Vlad & PeterO
Nobody seems impressed with my theme suggestion @10. It’s my first ever stab at proposing one with MEADOW, Tony Soprano’s daughter, bringing the specificity. COVER UPS, TELLS ON and UNEARTHS (a body) also add to the entries I mentioned above.
I liked the crossword and tuned in quite well. After a nervous five minutes, it was no longer than a normal solve.
Thanks Vlad and Peter
This was slow going for me with several unparsed. I had ticks for GODIVA and TELL ON, both very neat.
I think grantinfreo @4 and Matthew @8 are right about HOUSES OF ILL REPUTE, it’s not any real life Lee, just a name to fit the anagram. Still a rather oblique definition though!
It was interesting to see AL as “tax cheat” rather than the more usual “gangster”. (It’s always seemed to me that it was a bit of a fit up that he was charged as the former because the authorities couldn’t pin anything on him as the latter. I’m not sure that any ordinary tax cheat would have got 11 years in prison. Though with American sentencing practices, who knows?)
Many thanks Vlad and PeterO.
I enjoyed this, though I only half-parsed several – and a few defeated me completely. So it was a comfort, PeterO, to read you were also unsure about LAPDANCE and “Lee”.
The ghastly Iain D-S had evaporated from my memory (too many equally egregious successors, I suppose) so thanks for the help there, too – and as for 23A, these days there’s such a plethora of tax cheats (individuals, companies, presidents of all shades but especially orange) that old Capone never even occurred to me. A loathsome villain, finally imprisoned for tax fraud. Ah, the good old days…
Lots of ticks – my faves being HITMAN, WITHSTANDS, TELL ON & SMOOCH.
Nice one, Vlad!
Martin @36
Sorry, I don’t know anything about The Sopranos. Are they a vocal group?
Very difficult for me; parsed many but some only guessed from definition/intersections and had to reveal a few…
Can someone please explain how “China on the same wavelength” makes “soul mate”? What has China to do with it?
Layman @40: Cockney rhyming slang — “china plate” = “mate”.
Hi Layman @40. ‘China’ is cockney rhyming slang for ‘mate’ – originating from ‘china plate’ I think. (sorry, beaten to it by Lord Jim)
Layman@ 40: it’s Cockney rhyming-slang. China Plate = mate.
You don’t hear it used that often, any more – but I suppose it’s just one of those Crosswordland quirks (like all films are ET, and all scotsmen are Ian even though the scottish spelling of the name is Iain)
Ah, I see Lord Jim & BullH. type faster than me. Oh well
The hoariest of pub quiz chestnuts is the question “What crime was Al Capone put in prison for?” Always catches someone out, though. This was tricky and fun, so thanks Vlad and PeterO. Favourite clue: SMOOCH, because I just love that word.
Martin @10 and @36.
I’m impressed with your theme suggestion. It seems to be plausible with too many links for mere chance to be the explanation.
[Bullhassocks and Wellbeck: at least Layman can be confident in the answer — “What I tell you three times is true” 🙂 ]
😃
[Lord Jim @46: yay – a Hunting Of The Snark reference!! 👍🏻]
Martin @10: I think you’re right about The Sopranos. Mafiosi touches are all over this crossword…
Many of the parsings were beyond me, but I managed to complete it regardless. I was befuddled enough to miss a couple of anagrams but the answers came to me eventually.
I’m with Martin, as I noticed CAPO, HITMAN, BULLY and MEADOW in the NW corner followed by LAP DANCE and WASTE etc. Ticks for every clue. Brilliant!
Ta Vlad & PeterO.
…also a nice mixture of GODIVA, COVERS UP and UNEARTHS in the NE.
@41, 42, 43 (& 46): Thank you all, chinas! 😉
Thanks to PeterO for the parsing of MEADOW. And to Martin @10 and 36 for the brilliant insight into the Sopranos theme, which had gone straight over my head.
Great puzzle from Vlad, I thought.
Very enjoyable. As a regular hockey player I feel obliged to point out that we haven’t used a bully to start a match for several decades now. The clue still works though.
Neil H@24 my deepest sympathies if the clue brought more recent party members to mind. I imagine that was quite traumatic. It it helps at all, I am mightily impressed that you got this done by 9am, which is roughly when I started, finishing well after lunchtime, and with a couple of breaks, in my time zone.
Looks like no one else made my mistake of entering POTTER(Y) for 5D (Finishing off his work). Held me up for ages with the initial anagram at 5A. Eventually unravelled. Thanks to Petero for a couple of parsing that eluded me and to Vlad though not his most impaling.
Like others, nho IDS, I’m guessing one of the obscurer Tory grandees. Also nho “bully off” or the R and A golf club. And is “boob” a verb?
PeterO, I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned this, but DI stands for “Detective Inspector,” not “Detective Investigator,” which would be redundant.
Thanks to Vlad for the puzzle and Peter O for much-needed help.
Valentine @57: IDS was leader of the Tories between 2001-2003, hardly obscure!
AlanC @58
Valentine isn’t English – American? – so is quite likely not to know who the Tories are, let alone who was briefly their leader (never PM) over 20 years ago. That’s what I meant when I said “parochial” at 19. Were you being ironic?
Somehow I didn’t notice the setter’s name until coming over here, then I was like “That makes sense.” Very challenging and I had to use a word finder for GODIVA, plus the check button a few times. It didn’t help that the long anagrams took a while to click.
Overseas report for muffin@19: Once I had bung-and-checked APHIDS I was like “oh yes, him!” Though I had forgotten that IDS was the party leader, I would’ve said “head of the ultra-conservatives in Major’s time.” For Bow location I thought “this is Swindon or something minus the don” and looked up where Bow was. Everton for “The blues” is no more obscure than Chelsea to me, which is to say I guessed it. But the real mystery was R&A; once the A from ALL OUT was in, I guessed the country and looked up the club–otherwise it might have had to be some relative of the mashie or niblick called a MALAI.
Thanks Vlad and PeterO for a doughty blog! (And the commenters who worked out the full LAP DANCE; I was at “well if you add I back in you get an anagram of paid clean, somehow?”)
muffin @59: yep, the epitome of ‘the grey man’.
Everton are The Toffees , even I know that . Chelsea are The Blues , Dorothy Parker was clearly a Chelsea fan , who knew ?
Thanks for the blog , some very neat clues , ADVERB and MEADOW very clever .
SOUL MATE , do people really say soul the same as sole .
Enjoyable but a bit Vlad the Impala , I was really hoping to scratch my head today .
PeterH@56 , that is an excellent future clue .
Matt @60 – that’s how we justified it too, not with any great conviction though. So it got the paper solvers version of the check button – pencil (as in check later).
I think Vlad may be our favourite setter now. Thanks to him and PeteO.
Martin @36 I’m with you. I (half heartedly) complained about the “Head of the family” definition for Capo but noticed MEADOW, LAP DANCE (there is no connection between me noticing those two first, none….) and HITMAN. I was starting to look forward to how he would clue “Little Lord F**k Pants” but sadly it wasn’t to be.
Me @65 [In MHO, half the fun of crosswords is having to work with uncertain evidence (not fully parsed answers/overly loose synonyms ) and Bayesian inference (as in, if it gives you something you didn’t already know, stick it in).
Whenever I have tried the App, I have found it a very mechanical and somewhat dismal experience if I do use the check button, but then I severely miss my pencil if I don’t. ]
Caroline@67 , I just use my pen and scribble over it if I change my mind . I could not bear to solve on a screen but I realise it may be the only option for people abroad and it is a delight to see so many of them on here .
Thanks for the explanations PeterO. I had no idea of the parsing of LAP DANCE, MEADOW and (my LOI, which I had to reveal) ELON. Now they’ve each been explained, with all their intricacies, I’m not surprised they defeated me!
Roz @ 68
Yes indeed it is!
But I wonder if the app might find a way to include a ‘pencil/rubber’ option – something that appeared in fainter print so you knew it was a hypothesis and you could rub out without messing up anything-else? I think people might appreciate that.
Not as tricky as Vlad can be, as evidenced by my being able to finish. Needed the blog for several parsings. Favourites were GODIVA, SIERRA and RWANDA.
Caroline@70: I insert doubtful letters in lower case in the app.
Thanks Vlad and PeterO. I think the “Lee” in 5/13 could plausibly be the UK sex workers’ rights campaigner Laura Lee, who brought suit in Belfast High Court to force a review of a 2015 Act that criminalized the paying for sex. Her case looked likely to succeed but was withdrawn following her premature death in 2018.
Coloradan @73 That suggestion was made by KVa @2!
Ah, so it was. Apologies.
Muffin @36 fckvwls @66 Charles AlanC Wellbeck MCourtney
Thanks for the mentions. I’m sure you know the show better than me, Muffin excepted 😀. Great crossword!
THE BLUES is also the nickname of Birmingham City and they’re not depressed at the moment either (and no, I’m not a fan).
Clearly the wit and imagination of football supporters knows no bounds .
IDS’s most famous line was “do not underestimate the determination of a quiet man” No one did, but tragically it was almost impossible to underestimate his ability. I failed to parse LAPDANCE but otherwise, dare I say, a little more straightforward than yesterday’s Brummie? Thank you V&P
Many thanks to PeterO for a fine blog and to others who contributed.
As several of you suggested, Lee is merely a hypothetical patron of such an establishment.
Just came to thank you, PeterO.
I needed help with a lot of parsing.
Cheers!
Thank you again Vlad, the hours spent in the company of your crosswords are always a real pleasure
Thanks for stopping by Vlad and thanks again for this most enjoyable (all the more so for being a bit over my noggin in places) puzzle.
Hi Jay@21. As somebody who comes from Mile End, one stop west of Bow on the Underground, I thought I’d bring up the topic of who can call themselves a Cockney. The usual definition is “someone born within the sound of Bow Bells”. But it’s not the Bow in this clue, it’s the church of St Mary-le-Bow in the City Of London. If you were born in Bow, East London, you might have struggled to hear those bells. Whether I could hear them over the sound of 1954 traffic, I couldn’t swear, but I definitely do consider myself a Cockney!
This was the worst most pointless crossword I’ve ever tried. Filled in about 10 and parsed about half of those. Just give us a chance. Ffs
Got really stuck after solving only a few clues and was about to give up, when the whole thing surprisingly collapsed in quick succession. Only missed 1d BULLY OFF and 11a CAPO, both of which were nho
12a WITHSTANDS, tried for ages to work “new stadium” as an anagram. Very funny when the penny dropped
25a ADVERT, I think it’s the first time I caught the substitution trick (“time for British”), so yay
5a HITMAN, I first thought of KILLER. PeterH’s POTTER(y) @56 is a brilliant alternative
17d LOCUST, great misdirection, and like PostMark@14, my favourite