Alia provides the Tuesday puzzle.
I don’t time myself when solving puzzles, but if I did, I think this may have been one of my quickest ever solves. That doesn’t mean the puzzle was a bad one as it takes skill to make a puzzle as accessible as this one, and not every crossword needs be tortuously dfficult to be enjoyable. It may have been better as a Quiptic, though. There were some very obvious anagrams (SELF-EVIDENT, TERMINAL etc), but no CONTROVERSIAL clues.
Thanks Alia.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | PLEDGE |
Promise of place with slight advantage (6)
|
| Pl. (place) with EDGE (“slight advantage”) | ||
| 8 | CLARINET |
Recital changed to incorporate new instrument (8)
|
| *(recital) [anag:changed] to incorporate N (new) | ||
| 9 | STALLION |
Stable about to take on one horse (8)
|
| STALL (“stable”) + ON (“about”) to take on I (one) | ||
| 10 | ESTATE |
Group of houses close to off-licence, say (6)
|
| [close to] (off-licenc)E + STATE (“say”) | ||
| 11 | BEWILDER |
Act more recklessly and act in a perplexing manner (8)
|
| BE WILDER (“act more recklessly”) | ||
| 12 | AGREED |
A selfish desire? No argument there! (6)
|
| A + GREED (“selfish desire”) | ||
| 13 | SELF-EVIDENT |
Clear reorganisation of field events (4-7)
|
| *(field events) [anag:reorganisation] | ||
| 18 | TO BOOT |
Little kid suppresses surprising cry as well (2,4)
|
| TOT (“little kid”) suppresses BOO (“surprising cry”) | ||
| 20 | REACTION |
Backlash concerning director’s call? (8)
|
| RE (“concerning”) + ACTION (“director’s call?”) | ||
| 22 | SNATCH |
Weightlifting move is strenuous to begin with, of course! (6)
|
| S(trenuous) [to begin with] + NATCH (“of course”) | ||
| 23 | ICE LOLLY |
Reserve money for summer treat (3,5)
|
| ICE (“reserve”) + LOLLY (“money”) | ||
| 24 | TERMINAL |
Final destination of reconstructed tramline (8)
|
| *(tramline) [anag:reconstructed] | ||
| 25 | STAINS |
On regular occasions, situations lead to sticky spots (6)
|
| [on regular occasions] S(i)T(u)A(t)I(o)N(s) + [lead to] S(ticky) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CLUTTER |
Disorderly mess left inside sailing boat (7)
|
| L (left) inside CUTTER (“sailing boat”) | ||
| 2 | ADELAIDE |
British singer accepting help somewhere in Australia (8)
|
| ADELE (“British singer”) accepting AID (“help”) | ||
| 3 | BEHIND |
The chap caught up in tough spot is running late (6)
|
| <=HE (“the chap”, caught up) in BIND (“tough spot”) | ||
| 4 | FACE CARD |
King or queen maybe meet comedian (4,4)
|
| FACE (“meet”) + CARD (“comedian”) | ||
| 5 | WINTER |
Somewhat fallow, interminably cold part of the year (6)
|
| Hidden in [somewhat] “falloW INTERminably” | ||
| 6 | WEATHER |
You and I are mostly bored by the rain and snow, perhaps (7)
|
| WE + AR(e) [mostly] bored by THE | ||
| 8 | CONTROVERSIAL |
Contentious character central to stories in horribly vile cartoons (13)
|
| [character central to] (sto)R(ies) in *(vile cartoons) [anag:horribly] | ||
| 14 | FETCHING |
Pretty fine engraved artwork (8)
|
| F (fine) + ETCHING (“engraved artwork”) | ||
| 15 | NATIONAL |
Citizen of North America – Latino, possibly (8)
|
| NA (North America) + *(latino) [anag:possibly] | ||
| 16 | COUNTER |
Token reply (7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | GOSLING |
Bird taking off around small lake (7)
|
| GOING (“taking off”) around S (small) + L (lake) | ||
| 19 | ON TIME |
No item needing to be recycled promptly (2,4)
|
| *(no item) [anag:needing to be recycled] | ||
| 21 | AVERSE |
Reluctant amateur poet’s output? (6)
|
| A (amateur) + VERSE (“poet’s output”) |
A lovely little puzzle. Did the editor accidently swap this with the tortuous quiptic this week?
I did not need 255 to parse anything, but had to think about ‘natch’. I think i’ve heard it in comedy with wives of wealthy businessmen saying it.
Thanks Alia and loonapick.
Very plain sailing although two quite obvious answers TO BOOT and BEWILDER were not coming to mind for a slight pause in the answers flying in.
As with the first commenter only sNATCH for ‘of course’ I had to check. Natch is cider here in Bristol.
I don’t think an occasionally straightforward puzzle is bad though and some nice surfaces.
Enjoyed GOSLING and STALLION.
Thanks Alia and Loonapick
Possibly my first ever completely sequential solve. Assisted by what I can only assume was a very helpful grid?
Cheers L&A
Good fun, nothing too taxing. Nice to see a clue for ESTATE that’s not a car for a change (we don’t often use it this way). Haven’t heard of an ICE LOLLY — we’d probably call it an icy pole. And lolly/money is unfamiliar, althought Collins says it’s slang in Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
Bodycheetah @3: I think you’re doing yourself a disservice, I’d have said the opposite about the grid…I was thanking my lucky stars this grid had not been used by one of our less accessible setters.
I’m not as good as Bodycheetah and always find something to hold me up, however briefly. For example, today, I toyed with the wrong definition for UNCONTROVERSIAL and thought the clue for BEWILDERED was a different type.
As a result, I have a threshold time that I can’t remember ever dipping under. Today I was within seconds of it, a couple of minutes quicker than Sunday. I don’t mind the focus switching from completion to completion time. I’m not retired and a chewy weekday Paul can hinder work a little.
I hope newer solvers get satisfaction and confidence from today’s puzzle.
Thanks Alia and loonapick
PS. I don’t time myself. The Guardian app tells you how long you took.
Martin@6, that’s a good reason not to get the app.
Well, I like the rest of The Guardian Geoff so it’s non-negotiable. What I don’t like is The Times’ app where the crossword has a ticking clock. That’s unpleasant.
Thanks loonapick. Concur with your intro, though tbe days of the week don’t seem to matter much any more.
Surfaces telling an interesting and entertaing story, accessible wordplay. BE WILDER my pick.
Thanks Alia and loonapick
Another good puzzle from this newish setter. I’m surprised I haven’t seen the nice “field events” anagram before.
paddymelon@9 BEWILDER was our favourite too
Crackers #1. NATCH. I’m surprised where you heard that, wives of wealthy business men in a comedy.
My memory, although I’ve got no evidence for it, is (mostly) men’s use of the word, on a “lower social scale”, but known in my milieu.
GDU #4. I’m intrigued as to how often our vocabulary differs. LOLLY for money well-known to me. Maybe I got it from TV when I was younger, for the few years when there was a TV in the family home.
Lovely puzzle with beautifully crafted surface readings. So much nicer than gobbledygook that would never be found anywhere except as a cryptic crossword clue! Thank you, Alia.
18ac was my loi.
I couldn’t parse 6d.
BEWILDER was my loi and like others also my favourite and STAINS was nicely done. Gentle and enjoyable with only a slight quibble about the repetition of ‘on’ in STALLION.
Ta Alia & loonapick.
I agree with you, loonapick, this wasn’t a fiendishly difficult crossword – but it does demonstrate, rather well, that a crossword that isn’t full of tortuous parsing and word-salad clues can be enormously satisfying.
Alia is rapidly becoming one of my favourite setters. I share Michelle @14’s appreciation of the host of beautiful, smooth surfaces – some of which were so natural that they misled me at first, which is part of the appeal of a good clue.
I hadn’t previously encountered the TERMINAL, SELF-EVIDENT, ON TIME anagrams, but they were so neat that I can’t believe they haven’t been used before.
Amid a host of happy ticks, BEHIND and BEWILDER were my faves.
Many thanks Alia and loonapick.
PS. Crackers @1: I use “natch” all the time (soooo much quicker to type than its synonyms) and I’m certainly not the wife of a wealthy businessman. I suspect I’m more akin to PaddyM’s “lower social scale” folk…
Bodycheetah@3: what people find unhelpful about grids varies. Some complain regularly if there are too many clues with more unchecked than checked lights. I never notice that, but I do notice “two-halves” or “four-quarters” grids (like today’s) where completing one area provides very little help with other parts of the puzzle.
Anyway, this wasn’t a puzzle where the clues themselves were unhelpful, so it went in steadily and enjoyably from some nice smooth surfaces. Thanks Alia and loonapick.
PS: Martin @6: you don’t need the app to do Guardian crosswords online, and if it insists on timing me (something of huge unimportance as far as I’m concerned) then I’ll keep right on avoiding it.
What Wellbeck said @17.
Some grids provide the solver with strings of lights along the north and west edges which help by giving us a load of first letters for subsequent clues: today’s was not such a grid and seemed therefore a little more tricky. But the accessible clueing from Alia compensated for that.
Like Michelle@14 I appreciated the setter’s attention to surfaces. The surfaces for the summer treat and the reluctant poet were really nice, I thought.
I also enjoy a good nit-pick, so I did harrumph at BEWILDER=”act in a perplexing manner”; these are surely not equivalent — “Our beloved puppy was bewildering all afternoon” [????] or “I wish you’d stop bewildering like that!” [????]
Not sure I’ve ever seen such a complete set of lovely, smooth and natural surfaces. My favourites were the clues for CLARINET and GOSLING, but they were all good.
Many thanks to Alia for the crossword and to loonapick for the blog.
This was very satisfying.
It was a challenge to me, but doable. I’m not very bright.
But the satisfaction on solving Face Card, Fetching and Gosling was pure pleasure.
And Adele, a reference from this Millennium, is a welcome relief from the usual general knowledge.
Delightful. Which is nice as still struggling with the Prize, Monday felt harder than usual, reassures me that I haven’t lost all the crossword how-to overnight.
Fairly straightforward with good surfaces, especially for STALLION. I also liked the good anagrams for SELF-EVIDENT and CONTROVERSIAL. I would say that the grid is definitely unhelpful and often used to spell a NINA around the edges. However, as said above the smooth cluing compensated for the grid. No doubt Roz will have more to say about that …
Thanks Alia and loonapick.
Seems I wasn’t alone in thinking today’s puzzle was swapped with yesterday’s – no complaints though!
Lots to like, nothing to quibble about. By no means a write-in for me but not frustrating either. I had to dredge ICE LOLLY up from my English childhood, it’s not a word I’ve heard in several decades in the US!
I was very happy to get FACE CARD – I am slowly internalizing the trick of king, queen, and knave often referring to cards. And TO BOOT took me a ridiculously long time to parse.
Thank you Alia and loonapick
Brief but fun.
I liked the anagram for SELF EVIDENT; the word count helped, but field events being a thing in their own right meant the anagrist made sense without undue straining. Likewise tramline for TERMINAL: I do like a single word anagram, though I feel this one has appeared before. Getting STAIN- out of situation is also a neat discovery.
Thanks to Alia and loonapick.
Agree with the general consensus:
It was lovely to have such smooth surfaces.
It was a little too easy for me to be captivated, though I didn’t find the top left corner a simple write-in, which made it nicer for me.
What is really pleasing is that there are such a variety of setters. Some are too easy for me, others much too hard, and this probably means different solving abilities are well catered for.
Lovely crossword.
A write in until 3d, 11a, 16d, 18a which I had to reveal as is so often the way with me and cryptic crosswords.
Thanks both.
Pleasant puzzle. I also enjoy smoothly hidden anagrams such as the ones praised here. I needed a bit of check button to get STALLION, which I’d been trying to make into something meaning “stabilize.” Once I had that, CLUTTER emerged and was my LOI.
Thanks, Alia and loonapick.
I’ll join the praise for the puzzle in general and BEWILDER in particular. And a hat tip to ADELAIDE and WEATHER, which I also quite enjoyed.
Thanks loonapick et Alia!
Where was this puzzle yesterday? After yesterday’s mauling, I wonder if Vulcan would be better off moving to another day, say Tuesday, and leaving Monday for setters who are more consistently accessible, like Alia et al
This one won me over right away with the first two across answers. Lots of enjoyable synonyms, like 7a PLEDGE (“slight advantage”), 20a REACTION (“director’s call”), 22a SNATCH (“of course”), anagrams, like 8a CLARINET (“Recital” + N), 13a SELF-EVIDENT (“field events”), 8d CONTROVERSIAL (“vile cartoons”), and surfaces, especially the pair of 5d WINTER and 6d WEATHER — ay-men! Other devices were nicely handled, too
Really delightful puzzle, and a great blog. Thank you both
GDU@4 I know “lolly” = money from Monty Python’s Money Song
Valentine@33, 1d CLUTTER was also my loi. Fortunately we had CUTTER recently, so it eventually came to mind
Pserve_p2 @21 – If you think of “act in a perplexing manner” as “act in a manner that perplexes”, then BEWILDER makes more sense
Like many others before me, I appreciated the clarity and smooth surfaces of this puzzle. It was a real pleasure to complete. I was slightly disheartened by loonapick’s comment on how easy it was – it took me a while though I have no idea how long as I never time myself. I would welcome more from Alia and fewer cryptics of the tortuous and (for me) infuriating kind!
Yesterday was one of the rare occasions on which I completed the crossword. I was particularly pleased because several people thought it a bit trickier than usual for a Vulcan/Monday.
I was pleased to see that Alia was today’s setter and anticipated a never-before double.
But, although today’s puzzle was clearly easier than yesterday’s overall, I had to admit defeat with 11 ad 18 across and 3 and 17 down unsolved.
Yet I enjoyed today’s more. This is a funny business.
Thanks Alia and Loonapick
Thanks to Alia, and to Loonapick for pointing out the slang usage at 23, for which i had invented that rare treat, the ICE jOLLY. I think Al Capp may have been the key popularizer of the locution in 22. While Popeye is famous for “I yam what I yam”, Capp’s Li’l Abner avers: “”I is what I is—and that’s all I is—NATCH!!”.
I’ve always assumed that NATCH is a bastardisation of “naturally”, but no-one seems to have mentioned that.
Found this considerably less tricky than yesterday’s Vulcan, in fact a very quick completion by my moderate standards. As others have commented, very elegant surfaces throughout. Favourite AVERSE.
muffin@40: the OED confirms your etymon, though they call the operation a “clipping”.
As a beginner (I have been for about 5 years!) really appreciated this elegant accessable puzzle – especially as I struggled with Vulcan yesterday. Agree with all Mig at 35 and others said above. Last one solved was Face Card – relief and satisfaction when it went in.
Thanks for the blog , very well set , good variety and perfect for newer solvers . There should be two like this every week and maybe a hard puzzle ??? once a week or month or even year .
Bodycheetah@3 the grid is not used for a perfect sequential solve . Write in the Across as you do them , fold the paper to hide the grid , try the Downs in order and write them all in at the end .
As with other commentators, Alia has become one of my favourite setters. Such elegant clues, and excellent surfaces. I don’t always want a challenge at every turn; sometimes I want to enjoy a crossword for how beautifully it has been crafted. This is one I would choose to tip a novice solver into truly appreciating cryptics. Many thanks Alia, and Loonapick too.
Thanks Alia and loonapick! A nicely constructed puzzle, and a quick solve for me, and a rare achievement of not resorting to an online thesaurus or a search engine for help anywhere.
Robi@26 it is a sticklebrick grid but it is reasonably well connected . Perimeter grids usually better for newer solvers , lots of first letters .
Och I dunno. Two steps forward, one step back – it’s like doing the lambada.
When I saw 3,5 beginning with ‘I’ it had to be ICE CREAM with general experience telling me that somewhere, in some dictionary, ‘cream’ would mean ‘money’. But no.
Ah well.
Thanks both and Happy St Patrick’s Day to whomsoever it may concern.
Alphalpha@48 I can relate. I had to resist entering CREAM with all my might. It was a siren song calling to me, but I knew there must be something wrong. A cunning trap by Alia! As Roz sometimes says, always be suspicious of the setter 🙂
Yes Mig@49 , be suspicious and always trust the wordplay more than the definition . Perhaps lolly=money and ICE LOLLY is quite UK specific ?
Very enjoyable puzzle and could easily have been a Sunday Quiptic or a Monday as others have said. The long crossing anagrams of 8d and 13a were my favourites with Adelaide not far behind. Nice to see some 21st century general knowledge being needed for a change. Thanks Alia and loonapick.
Roz@52 Yes, we have no LOLLY’s in NA