As I expected when I saw Vlad’s name, this was pretty tough going, with sudden bursts of progress interrupted by long periods of staring hopelessly at the clues. Of course everything looks reasonably straightforward in retrospect, though 7d took some deciphering. Thanks to Vlad.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1. | ASLEEP | Like to strip — backed out (6) AS (like) + reverse of PEEL |
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| 5. | BALLS-UPS | Popular dancer having taken to drink makes mistakes — bad ones (5-3) SUP in BALLS (Ed Balls, former politician who appeared on Strictly Come Dancing) |
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| 9. | SHRUGGED | Shut up, Rocky appeared to be indifferent (8) SH + RUGGED |
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| 10. | CREDIT | Trust councillor’s correct (6) CR + EDIT |
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| 11. | GOBI | One wet area turned into somewhere drier (4) Reverse of (1 BOG) |
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| 12,13. | THE NAUGHTY CORNER | Afterwards errancy’s corrected with tough punishment … or maybe not (3,7,6) THEN (afterwards) + (ERRANCY TOUGH)* |
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| 14. | THEARCHY | Those people outside bend the rule of God (8) ARCH in THEY |
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| 16. | STARKERS | Followers, once having changed sides, totally exposed (8) STALKERS with the L changed to R (the “once” means we don’t also have to change the R) |
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| 19. | RIGHTO | Politically correct but pointless, OK? (6) RIGHT-ON (politically correct) less N |
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| 21. | TOP BILLING | Lead left separately working out what he expects to get (3,7) PB (chemical symbol for lead) and L (“separately” – i.e. they are not adjacent) in TOILING |
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| 23. | IOWA | Area of Ohio was home to some Americans (4) Hidden in ohIO WAs – there are some easy clues in this puzzle |
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| 24. | EGGCUP | Goods stored in purple round food container (6) Reverse of (GG in PUCE) |
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| 25. | TROTTERS | Comedy family (rag-and-bone men) are caught inside (8) R (homophone of “are”) in TOTTERS (rag-and-bone men) – the Trotters are Del Boy’s family in Only Fools and Horses |
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| 26. | STRAINED | Randiest when getting massage — that’s awkward (8) RANDIEST* |
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| 27. | STRIDE | Way to travel — walk (6) ST + RIDE |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 2. | SCHOOL OF THOUGHT | Shared philosophy classes, frequently around at the same time (6,2,7) SCHOOL (classes) + THOUGH (at the same time) in OFT – the whole clue also works as a definition |
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| 3. | ELUSION | Getting away — fancy day off (7) [D]ELUSION |
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| 4. | PAGE THREE | Model here — get a paper to begin with (4,5) Anagram of HERE GET A P[aper], &lit, referring to the bare-breasted models who used to appear on page 3 of The Sun |
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| 5. | BED REST | Treatment from top Eastern doctor accepted (3,4) E DR in BEST |
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| 6. | LYCRA | Carly’s condemned loutish habit on roads (and pavements)? (5) CARLY* – reference to so-called “lycra louts” |
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| 7. | SHERGAR | Trump’s British counterpart’s the woman for you — an old nag! (7) SUGAR (Alan Sugar and Donald Trump appeared in the UK and US versions of The Apprentice) with U (“you”) replaced by HER (“that woman’s”) – I nearly had to give up on this as I was trying to use “that woman” = SHE… |
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| 8. | PAINT THE TOWN RED | “Drinking one beer in there won’t hurt” — department have a wild night out (5,3,4,3) A (one) “drunk by” PINT + WON’T* in THERE + D[epartment] |
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| 15. | EGREGIOUS | Shocking! George is rampaging round university (9) U in (GEORGE IS)* |
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| 17. | REBECCA | About to pick up Boris’s book (7) RE (about) + homophone of “Becker” (tennis player) – the book is by Daphne du Maurier, made in to a famous film by Alfred Hitchcock |
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| 18. | SHIFTED | Moved paper getting thrown around (7) FT (newspaper) in SHIED (thrown) |
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| 20. | GLITTER | Sparkle in bed at end of evening (7) [evenin]G + LITTER |
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| 22. | LUPIN | Ladies under pressure at first in plant (5) First letters of Ladies Under Pressure + IN |
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Yes another great puzzle. I thought ASLEEP, EGGCUP, TROTTERS and especially PAGE THREE were terrific. Many thanks to Vlad and Andrew.
. . . I couldn’t parse SHERGAR. Well worked out, Andrew!
Thanks Vlad and Andrew
Not a good one to come back from holiday to – too much use of the Check button for me to be satisfied by my “completion”. Several I couldn’t or didn’t bother to parse, though I did see how SHERGAR worked.
In 21 the “lead” in a play would expect TOP BILLING – does this make it &lit?
In 14, in what context would “those people” be (correctly) “they” and not “them”? Itried for ages to get some sort of ISM in.
As a cyclist, I took offence at the “loutish” part of 6d!
muffin – “Those people/they are having trouble with Vlad’s puzzle” perhaps? (I had the same problem with …ISM). I restrained myself from taking issue with 6d – even after googling “lycra lout” led me to a particularly stupid and ill-informed anti-cyclist rant from the Daily Mail..
Thanks Andrew. I couldn’t see “those people” as a subject rather than object, but your example works.
Very enjoyable thank you Vlad and Andrew.
Such a lot of lovely clues to ‘make you smile’ which is always a sign of a good crossword for me
Obviously, in his various guises Vlad can play with every club in the bag, but I am very fond of his slightly downbeat cultural references. Right up my street.
Thanks Vlad and Andrew
I never saw Only Fools and Horses so the definition part of TROTTERS escaped me. Then, when the light dawned on LUPIN I couldn’t help wondering about confusion with the Pooters in Diary of a Nobody.
Enjoyable but a couple of clues had too many mental skips and jumps for my liking. Particularly 7d and 21a. And are for r in 25 I haven’t seen before. But i guess just about limbos in.
Thanks Vlad, Andrew
Great puzzle, loved the unexpected Boris, Trump, Carly, Rocky etc.
I’ve seen another very similar clue for EGGCUP in the last few weeks. Anyone?
For 8 down, I was having trouble with the ‘in’.
However, rather than (THEREWONT)*, it must be (WONT)* in THERE, otherwise the in is redundant.
Thanks Andrew for the blog. SHERGAR was LOI for me and only after a google sojourn. But now I do remember seeing a bit of the Sugar thing on a You Tube. So a bit obscure for me (living in tropical woopwoop) but a fine end to an excellent puzzle.
Thanks James, you are quite right – blog corrected.
Rewolf@9. It isn’t so much are for r as ‘are caught’ for r, with caught signifying the sounds like.
Too difficult for me, but I enjoyed the ones that I could solve.
Having read the blog now, I could have done without the TV-show-related clues.
My favourite was GOBI.
New word for me was ELUSION, and I could not parse 21a.
I failed to solve 25a (never heard of TROTTERS family, I did not watch much TV back in the 1980s) and totally failed to solve or understand 5a (except for SUP – my fault for not watching more TV!), 6d (have no idea what is going on here – never heard of lycra louts), 7d (never heard of the horse and could not parse the answer anyway – oh I see – defeated by a TV clue again).
Thanks Vlad and blogger.
Thanks. I should have used my loaf
Thanks, Andrew – especially for the parsing of 7dn: I was struggling with that woman = she, too.
Brilliant stuff – I started ticking favourites but, as so often,had to give up.
Many thanks, Vlad – I loved it!
Thanks Vlad; slightly impaled but still intact – good crossword.
Thanks Andrew, especially for the parsing of SHERGAR, which I BIFD. I’m not very keen on ‘taken’ as a container; personally, I would have put ‘taken in,’ which I think still works OK.
I got TROTTERS, no problem, but I failed to remember TOTTERS as rag-and-bone men. I thought there was going to be an ‘os’ for bone inside, doh!
I liked STARKERS, GOBI and RIGHTO.
P.S. muffin @3; you might like to look at this.
Thank you Vlad and Andrew.
Great fun, even though I did not know of Ed Balls’ dancing ability and had never heard of the Aga Khan’s horse or the Trotter family – the only rag-and-bone men I could think of were “Steptoe and Son” from the early 1960s, at that time a cart and horse still used to go around Bloomsbury in London where I had lodgings.
Finished all correct but found some of the clues a bit of a drudge. I’m fed up with seeing “Trump” in crosswords.
When I saw Carly in the clue it took me back to the 70s with memories of “You’re So Vain”.
Great crossword – comfortably the trickiest of the week. CORNER was last in – had already guessed THE NAUGHTY. Too many favourites to mention.
Thanks to Vlad and Andrew
[Thanks for the link, Robi]
I hadn’t heard of SHERGAR so I googled him, and his story makes me very sad.
Made a total 5a BALLS-UP of the NW of this puzzle.
Did not understand the LYCRA louts referred to in 6d, no idea at all about SHERGAR at 7d and did not get THE NAUGHTY CORNER at 12,13a at all.
Disappointing not to finish as I enjoyed some parts of the puzzle.
However, some clues were unparsed until I came here. Have never heard of that dancer at 5a, BALLS-UP, for instance.
And like Cookie@19, I only knew about the Steptoes and not the TROTTERS at 25a, so this was a total guess.
Too clever for me, Vlad.
But thanks for the puzzle, and Andrew for the explanatory blog.
I broke my SW corner for a while by putting LOBBIED instead of SHIFTED (it made sense to me, I (the Independent’s sister paper) inside LOBBED), and ELUSION is a new word for me.
Couldn’t parse REBECCA for a while – loved it once the penny dropped. Lots of fun.
It’s a characteristic of most Guardian setters, Vlad included, that if you get stuck you can press on and keep trying because you can trust the clues. That heppened to me today.
There was a bit too much unfamiliar stuff for me in this: ‘Balls’ (I thought it might be ‘Ball’), ELUSION, the ‘naughty corner’ (I knew only the naughty step, but this was a straightforward one), TROTTERS, ‘lycra louts’, the connection between Sugar and Trump (or at least the intended one!) and Boris Becker. (Julie @24 met similar obstacles, but I don’t have her excuse of being Australian! I hasten to add that I once knew of the Trotters and Boris Becker but had forgotten them, never having followed that comedy or that sport.)
Vlad’s puzzles always give me a work-out, but I’m a glutton for punishment and I welcome them. There were some super clues here with several favourites of which my top one was 4d PAGE THREE.
Thanks to Vlad and Andrew.
I struggled through to the end. I was a bit disgruntled by the homophones in 7 and 17D. This seems unfair and inconsistent (witness there was an indicator in the TROTTERS clue “caught”). Is this regarded as fair game – not to indicate? I don’t recall seeing it before but then I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday most of the time….
Lovely puzzle. Best of the week comes on Friday, as it should! We got 7d but couldn’t parse it, so thanks to Andrew and Vlad .
Eric @27
“pick up” is the homophone indicator in 17d. I agree that there doesn’t seem to be one in 7d, but U is used for “you” in textspeak, so perhaps it doesn’t need one.
Tough, I agree. I failed on “Shergar” and “The Naughty Corner”. The parsing of the Shergar clue is pretty convoluted but fair, nonetheless. You just needed to be cleverer than I was today to work it out. I wasn’t helped by the fact I’d entered “Eluding” instead of “Elusion” for 3 down, thinking the answer would be a participle rather than a known, indicated by “getting away.” Not sure I would have got the 12, 13 solution anyway but with -o-g-r for its third word I got “longer” in my head, was sure first word was “the” and couldn’t find any phrase to fit with the two letters I had in word two! So I didn’t have the fifth letter in 7 down.
As others have said, some lovely clues. Many thanks to Vlad and Andrew.
Thank you to Vlad and Andrew
I trembled at the setter, but cracked it during four tube journeys. Held up at the end because I wrote in stalkers rather than starkers at 16ac.
There’s a programme on TV this evening about Carly Simon – so I dabbled with that for a while for 6dn – but then (as a Londoner) it clicked. It only applies to a small subset of cyclists.
I have definitely seen eggcup clued as a food container before – in fact I think it might be the only food container used in crosswordland.
@James (10) and Marienkäfer
re EGGCUP..if you want to jog your memory, scroll up the page and type it into the SITE SEARCH facility, which will give you the previous clues for this, or indeed any, particular grid entra in the G, Indy or FT.
(two of the recent Indy efforts for EGGCUP are mine)
It’s a bit dodgy all round this, though I felt TOP BILLING especially iffy, with the very slack indication. Generally I think it’s the so-called cultural references (like Sugar = Trump for ex) that make this one harder, because they’re opinions of the setter actually, plus the slightly awkward technique, but there are some that are okay.
Good puzzle. Progress came in fits and starts. The only one I failed on was CORNER. Like beery hiker @21, I’d guessed THE NAUGHTY, but couldn’t get the final word because I’d entered ELUSIVE for 3. (I’d thought it was OK at a stretch, and stretching seemed to be part of the game today.)
Thanks to Vlad and Andrew.
Rather harder than the last couple of Vlads but perseverance paid off. No problems with SHERGAR or the TROTTERS here, and I was only on to my third Boris before getting REBECCA, but there were plenty of problems elsewhere. I was another with THE NAUGHTY before working out the anagram fodder for CORNER, and likewise OF THOUGHT preceded SCHOOL, alas without quite working out the parsing – indeed there was a fair bit of biffing here and there.
@baerchen
Thanks, though I had tried that already. I didn’t find your puzzles originally because I only tried EGGCUP, whereas you had EGG CUP. You used puce, and I’m sure the one I’m thinking of had purple for puce as well, but I know it’s much more recent than yours, because I only noticed it having just put it in a puzzle myself.
Many thanks to Vlad and Andrew.
I thought this was an excellent puzzle, and laughed out loud at Lycra. Though I realise that those outside UK/Ireland might have problems with culture specific refs, e.g. Balls, Shergar, Trotters, page 3 …
I too had ELUDING at 3, so couldn’t find a noun to make sense after THE NAUGHTY.
baerchen @32 -thanks. My question is, do you clue any other food containers?
Hardest of the week by far. Totally impaled. To all those who found this difficult, sympathies. Only managed the right half of it before capitulating. To all ye macho solvers who actually managed the whole thing, congrats!!
Thanks Andrew.
Another Vlady difficult puzzle for me; I wish I could find the enthusiasm many others have for this setter, but he has always left me unimpressed. I am with PaulW @ 20 and AlanB @ 26 and severable others.
Trailman @25 I was the other way round: SCHOOL OF first; why the THOUGHT and the CORNER didn’t spring to mind I don’t understand.
several and 35; and I previewed it too!
Hard, but it shouldn’t have been. Just a bit plonky in the writing I think.
Dave @40
Although I was set back somewhat by a number of unfamiliar names, words and meanings in this crossword (and indeed was not surprised to find that in a puzzle by Vlad), I can’t say that I lacked enthusiasm for this puzzle or for this setter. In fact I rather relished the experience.
I’ve got to know most setter’s styles, and there are a couple that are non-favourites for me, but Vlad isn’t one of them.
Thanks to Andrew for the blog and to others who commented.
I’m late to the party but I’ve got a question no-one else seems to have asked: in 21a TOP BILLING how is the envelope/containment/insertion of the two separate components PB & L indicated? For the life in me I can’t see it!
I also wanted to point out that I parsed 8d slightly differently: (PT·IN·THERE·WONT* + D) around A. In any event I thought the ‘one’ = A was an unnecessary complication in an already complicated clue. It could have been clued directly without harming the surface or wordplay.
Other than that and a slight grumble at the prolix definition for 6d LYCRA I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle – even though it’s taken me a lot longer than usual.
Thanks Vlad and Andrew.
15dn definition is misleading. EGREGIOUS means ‘standing out from the crowd’ and, on its own, has neither positive nor negative connotations. It certainly never means ‘shocking’.
Great puzzle. I thought the long ones were particularly clever, SHERGAR took a while to parse. Difficulty spot on, I thought. Thanks to Vlad and Andrew.
Late to the party – the blog wasn’t up when I finished – but after along but massively enjoyable slow-burn solve I just had to look in and say something.
Fantastic puzzle – wit – varied cluing – that slow-burn-but-you-eventually-get-there magic – worked for me anyway.
Accustomed to a good tough workout from Vlad since he entered the fray, I thought this his best so far, certainly the wittiest – and coming after the previous day’s Philistine a hard act to follow – as indeed this one now is for anyone.
Many thanks S&B –
@Angstony #45 – it’s as per the blog – but just to detail what you questioned
working out => TOILING outside
Thanks JollySwagman. I had a blind-spot on ‘working out’ (as in exercising) = TOILING.
Hallelujah! I finished. The experience was exactly as described by Andrew in the introduction – it just took me about 23 hours longer! Great crossword with most thing’s straightforward once the answer was in – accepting that (unparsed by me) SHERGAR was virtually ungettable if you hadn’t heard of it. Seems a bit tough to have the most elusive clueing on this cultural reference.
Thanks Vlad and Andrew – onto Brummie now.
The way TOP BILLING is clued doesn’t parse.
It says, ‘PB L separately TOILING out’. But TOILING cannot by definition be ‘out(side)’, as it weaves in and out of the two elements. The definition is also rather weak — ‘what he expects to get’ — as it can’t stand alone, and doesn’t really link back to the earlier ‘extended definition’ part, i.e. ‘Lead left separately working out’.
So, in trying to get the surface to sound convincing, Vlad has forgotten that the solvers need to know what he really means! Perhaps he has attended a Boatman crossword-compiling course or something.
Tackled this over lunch today – a day late – and surprisingly we managed to deal with most of it in a couple of hours. Helps when two brains work on it! Had a lucky break with 8d early on after getting Iowa ( I don’t think there are that many 4 letter words with W as 3rd letter). Parsing of Shergar defeated us; elusion was new so gobi was last in. Thanks for explanations, Andrew – and we’re pleased to have completed a Vlad – even though we nearly didn’t start it as we know Vlad is tricky. Next for us is a Brummie from September 2016…..