Vulcan makes his (?) second appearance in the Monday slot with a puzzle that I found very straightforward – somewhat easier than today’s Quiptic, in fact – with a couple of extremely simple anagrams. Rather too many cryptic definitions for my taste (six of them), but if you want a “gentle start to the week” then this is one for you. Thanks to Vulcan.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1. | MIRACLE | Drivers get through distance that’s unnatural (7) RAC (Royal Automobile Club) in MILE |
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| 5. | HATCHET | No peace till one’s buried (7) Cryptic definition, referring to the phrase “burying the hatchet”, meaning making peace |
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| 9. | LEMON | Melon, rotten fruit (5) MELON* |
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| 10. | GANGPLANK | Board wanted to get you on board (9) Cryptic definition |
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| 11. | CINDERELLA | Her husband-to-be was a slippery customer (10) Cryptic definition, referring (rather vaguely) to Cinderella’s glass slipper, which the Prince used to find her |
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| 12. | OR SO | Trunk not to be opened roughly (2,2) [T]ORSO |
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| 14. | TROUBLESOME | Resolute mob rioting is vexatious (11) (RESOLUTE MOB)* |
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| 18. | ASKING FOR IT | Seeking computer technology is inviting trouble (6,3,2) ASKING FOR (seeking) I[nformation] T[echnology] |
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| 21. | DEAR | Precious way to start a letter (4) Double definition |
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| 22. | PEBBLEDASH | Housecoat a stone’s throw away? (10) Cryptic definition |
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| 25. | GROUNDSEL | Weed, crushed, smells oddly (9) GROUND (crushed) + odd letters of SmElLs |
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| 26. | HEADS | Schoolteacher‘s random call? (5) Double definition – headmaster/mistress and “heads or tails” |
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| 27. | DEADPAN | Showing no emotion over divine corpse (7) The divine corpse might be DEAD PAN |
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| 28. | APPROVE | Commend phone function to roam (7) APP + ROVE |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1. | MALICE | Out of spite, start to malign girl (6) M[align] + ALICE |
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| 2. | REMIND | Make one think again (6) Cryptic definition |
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| 3. | CONTESTANT | Competitor cannot broadcast about match (10) TEST (match) in CANNOT* |
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| 4. | EAGLE | Excellent performance on course for high-flyer (5) Double definition – an eagle is a score of two under par in golf |
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| 5. | HANDLEBAR | Fragment of Messiah heard, part of a cycle (9) Homophone of “Handel bar”, which might be a fragment of his Messiah |
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| 6. | TAPE | Get a peep inside binder (4) Hidden in geT A PEep |
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| 7. | HEADROOM | Top-level clearance (8) Cryptic definition |
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| 8. | TAKE OVER | Assume control of Special K and overeat (4,4) Anagram of K + OVEREAT |
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| 13. | GET THE CHOP | Be sacked — and guillotined? (3,3,4) Double definition |
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| 15. | OFF SEASON | Less popular time to be on shore, presumably, with boy (3,6) OFF SEA (“on shore”) + SON |
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| 16. | BANDAGED | Players got on, plastered (8) BAND AGED |
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| 17. | OKLAHOMA | Musical would be fine, if shortened (8) The official abbreviation for the state is OK = fine. Strictly speaking the title of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical has an exclamation mark |
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| 19. | HAS A GO | Tries hard with a cereal (3,1,2) H + A SAGO |
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| 20. | CHASTE | Restrained? Cheats appallingly (6) CHEATS* |
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| 23. | BALSA | A block picked up is wood (5) Reverse of A SLAB |
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| 24. | SNIP | Very light haircut a bargain? (4) Double definition |
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A lot of loose clueing , too much for me. 17d in particular I thought needed much more. Other than that, a write-in.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
I liked HANDLEBAR and HAS A GO. I was confused by CINDERELLA as I was trying to equate “slippery” with “Charming”. I agree that the Quiptic was more of a challenge.
A few too inaccurate clues for my liking. MALICE means spite – “out of” suggests that the answer should be MALICIOUS and so the words are redundant. Also – I don’t think Sago is a cereal as it is extracted from palms. Cereals are grains aren’t they?
Definitely at the easy end of the spectrum, but that’s OK on a Monday. Speaking of OK, I couldn’t parse OKLAHOMA, but I see it now. I agree with Uncleskinny @1 that it was too loose. Vulcan, I think you could make things a bit harder and they would still fit the bill of a gentle start to the week. Thanks anyway.
Thanks also to Andrew.
19d is plain wrong. Sago is derived from palm trees, and is no more a cereal than, say, rhubarb is.
Sorry Frankie@3, we crossed
Thank you, Andrew.
I beg to differ; after the weekend’s pig of a prize, I enjoyed this gentle start to the week.
I agree that the defs for CINDERELLA & PEBBLEDASH are somewhat on the loose side but there were plenty of ticks otherwise.
HATCHET, HANDLEBAR, OKLAHOMA & HAS A GO were all nicely clued for me.
Vive la difference, say I.
Nice week, all.
buaulieu @6 – Great minds… as they say
Re sago: in Vulcan’s defence, Chambers defines it as “a nutritive cereal substance produced from the pith of the sago palm”. However, this seems to go against its own definition of cereal as “a grain used as food..”. I didn’t dwell on it in my parsing of the clue, as the word reminds me powerfully of the disgusting milk pudding made from it that used to be inflicted on us at school dinners. Even after more than 50 years the thought of it still makes me feel slightly sick.
[Tapioca too, Andrew, or, as we used to call it, “frog spawn!]
There were some clues in this puzzle that I enjoyed such as 27a DEADPAN and 5d HANDLEBAR. I was pleased with myself that I didn’t have to look up anything, although I wondered if I should check whether SAGO was a cereal (19d) as I thought “That doesn’t sound right”, so I share others’ problems with that clue. . I wasn’t fussed on the clueing of OKLAHOMA 17d either, and even though I could smile a little at the “slippery” part of 11a CINDERELA, I agree with Andrew that it was a bit loose in terms of defining Prince Charming. I must say clues like 9a LEMON, 21a DEAR and 20d CHASTE seemed too easy and had me wondering if I had missed something.
But a good puzzle for solvers who may be just starting out…Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew.
[Sorry William@7 – we crossed as I had to take a phone call in the middle of posting.]
No problem, Julie.
I’m in line with most comments as seeing this as a gentle start to the week. My favourites were amongst those that some saw as loose – including CINDERELLA and PEBBLEDASH – and I thought the best clue was HANDLEBAR. I didn’t parse OKLAHOMA with the OK abbreviation, but didn’t worry about it given the context.
I think the anagrams and ways of indicating them could be made a bit more intriguing – and illustrative of the variety of approaches – even on a Monday. Like JinA I was looking for more in some clues, especially TAKE OVER where the rearrangement is minimal.
Thanks Vulcan – time for you to add some layers? And to Andrew for his blog.
Even my captcha is easy 1 + one!
Julie in Australia@11: I agree on the “starting out” point you made. Many thanks Vulcan and Andrew.
Andrew@9 and muffin@10 Semolina too! As Andrew points out dictionaries contradict themselves on SAGO & cereal. Very confusing. I think we have to give Vulcan the benefit of the doubt.
Like others above I was looking for more from OKLAHOMA. Made me think I hadn’t parsed it properly.
Favourites were 12a (once it clicked), 22a and 8d.
Pretty reasonable start to the week, if a tad easy.
Thank you Vulcan and Andrew.
Re sago = cereal, as Crossbar (another bicycle part) says, Chambers seems quite contradictory. My world has shaken.
Didn’t enjoy this much apart from Handlebar which raised a smile. Don’t agree that it was a good one for beginners. Too many loose clues and strange definitions for me as other have said and I ended up checking blog for further explanations to clues only to find there was nothing more to them. Hmmm
Thank you Vulcan for restoring my confidence! After a miserable time with Nutmeg last Monday, I was beginning to suspect that, post-Rufus, the Guardian had decided to aim every day’s cryptic at the elite cadre of super-cruciverbalists – and that we mere mortals were no longer wanted nor welcome. I was particularly taken with Cinderella and Handlebar – and, since we live in a pebbledashed monstrosity, that one raised a smile too…
William @7 How is the clue for pebbledash ‘loose’, it’s a house coating and it’s created by throwing stones?
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew.
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew. Like others I found this a gentle and steady solve, but nonetheless still enjoyable. I thought last week was quite tough all round, therefore I have no problem with something a bit more gentle. I am with WhiteKing in liking Cinderella and pebbledash (which some others did not like) as well as handlebar. Asking for it also raised a smile and thanks again to Vulcan and Andrew.
[Just thought I’d mention, William@17 that my name has only an accidental association with bicycles. I have never had anything to do with the contraptions. And it’s too late to start now ;)]
Thank you Vulcan and Andrew.
A pleasant crossword for Monday, except for the SAGO shock – surprisingly Collins gives “starchy cereal from powdered pith of sago palm”, so Vulcan is let off the hook (needless to say the COED does not support this definition, I wonder if the OED does, they sometimes contradict each other).
I liked the clues for OR SO, DEADPAN, HANDLEBAR, OKLAHOMA and HATCHET!
Looks like we are in the minority here. We have blogged for the Indy for quite a while and usually complete the Guardian without commenting.
So, two seasoned solvers who really enjoyed the puzzle. CINDERELLA and PEBBLEDASH both raised smiles. Yes, we solved it quickly but hardly a dull moment.
Many thanks Vulcan. We missed your debut puzzle so will check it out.
Thanks Andrew.
A rather mixed bag – some enjoyable clues like PEBBLEDASH, DEADPAN and HANDLEBAR, and some rather feeble ones like LEMON. Didn’t get the parsing of OKLAHOMA.
(my goodness, I have to work out 72/8 for my captcha. Good job we learnt all our times tables off by heart back in the 50s)
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew. Easy but fun. PEBBLEDASH was new to me (and to my spell-checker) and I too was looking for something more with OKLAHOMA.
Gladys @25, I thought LEMON was rather a joke…
Felt I was back with Rufus given that it’s a Monday and there were lots of cds – a clue type that often gives me problems but I got through things OK (groan) today.
Plenty of debate over SAGO already, so it seems – I wouldn’t call it a cereal myself: there are two kinds, one extracted from the Sago Palm Metroxylon sagu, the other from the Sago Cycad Cycas revoluta. Neither is a true ‘cereal’ – whatever the dictionaries say! More of a starchy staple.
Apart from that, a very easy ride today – a true successor to Rufus! Some neat DD’s like DEADPAN.
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew.
In The Hindu Crossword back home here in India we had a setter named Vulcan whose clues were crisp and atleast had a semi & Lit and & Lit clue. This Vulcan though enjoyable is Ruffish with a lot of CDs.
Liked in particular Peebledash, Cinderella and Oklahoma.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew
The only thing I would add to comments on this gentle solve, with its Rufusian smiles along the way, is that Bradford lists “sago” under cereal. Oh, and in my ancient (1972) Chambers it is a “nutritive farinaceous substance”
Thank you Vulcan and Andrew. I must say some of the contributers here are a miserable bunch. Because Vulcan is new, instead of offering encouragement, you write about loose clueing and easy anagrams. If Arachne or Picaroon had set the clue for PEBBLEDASH you would been falling over yourselves to say how great it was. But as it is a newish setter occupying the Monday slot you give him the Rufus treatment. I say well done Vulcan and more power to your setters elbow.
I thought PEBBLEDASH was rather a clever clue and I really don’t see what all the fuss is about. I was fine with HAS A GO too. I didn’t look up SAGO but I put the answer in without a qualm. I did the same with OKLAHOMA but this was from the crossers and I didn’t parse it- had to be right though.
But I enjoyed this.
Thanks Vulcan.
As a beginner with both the quiptic and cryptic completed before sundown, its a very happy Monday for me!
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew
William @7, I’m with you on your sentiments that “after the weekend’s pig of a prize, I enjoyed this gentle start to the week”.
LOI OR SO. I particularly liked PEBBLEDASH, HANDLEBAR, HATCHET, DEADPAN.
Thanks to Vulcan. Thanks too to Andrew, not least for the reminder that OK is the official state abbreviation.
I loved this. Completed in exactly the time I had available. Last in BANDAGED, although I don’t know what took me so long. Thanks Vulcan.
An enjoyable, straightforward solve. Last in 11ac where “slippery” threw me for far too long.
I’d count myself as firmly in the beginner camp, in that my best chance of completion in a week is either the Quiptic or the Monday cryptic (and very occasionally both). Today was shaping up well when I sailed through the Quiptic in no time at all, but I came badly unstuck on this and gave up with less than half the grid complete. For me personally, this had too many cryptic definitions and double definitions for it to be an easy solve – at least I know what I need to work on!
Robert @20: Sorry for the delay – work got in the way. The ‘looseness’ was not really a criticism; I was simply referring to the somewhat spurious definition for pebbledashing as a ‘housecoat”. I rather enjoyed the clue, actually.
La Chatelaine @35: I’m intrigued, 1) did you manage to finish ‘the pig’? & 2) do you really live in a château? If ‘yes’ to 2), shouldn’t you have a â in your name?
Chiaros @38: I do hope you persevere. If I may make an impertinent suggestion…spend most of your solving time looking for ‘the gag’ or ‘ruse’ in the clue rather than searching for the answer. I spent a long time feeling happy to have got halfway with a crossword but nowadays I’m surprised if I don’t finish a grid. If I do, it’s almost always because I failed to spot the wordplay. Hope this helps.
I quite liked OKLAHOMA . And I liked the cd’s, I think they can be hard to write so well done. Many more nice clues like PEBBLEDASH, which took me a while to twig. Many thanks Vulcan and Andrew
I forgot earlier to mention my favorite Oklahoma story. Supposedly a man from Eastern Europe went to New York City to get actor training and also improve his English. He thought he was doing well but then he came across the headline in Variety: OKLAHOMA SPELLS SUCCESS!!- and he quickly went back to Prague.
Thank you Vulcan for a great puzzle, ideal for a Monday. Too many good jokes to pick out a favourite -though handlebar was inspired. More Vulcanic Mondays please.
It’s probably just me, but I read 27 as, reverse the order of (OVER), PAN = divine and DEAD = corpse rather than as an example of godly death. I don’t suppose it makes any difference except for making better use of OVER.
I’m with Bertandjoyce @ 24: Gentle puzzles can be just as rewarding, if they are made with wit. I may be a superficial person, but I prefer puzzles that have meaningful surfaces, and some setters sacrifice surface felicity in the name of difficulty. Fsvourite was 16d – it reminded me of a Jimmy Smith concert years ago where he could barely stand up, and the rest of his band had to be on their toes just to keep the music together. (On the flip side, I read somewhere that the late great Henryk Szeryng suffered from such severe stage fright that he had to have half a bottle just to get out there, and yet he always played beautifully.) Other ticks were for HANDLEBAR, CINDERELLA, HATCHET AND HEADROOM.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew for a nice start to the week.
cellomaniac @45
I totally agree. The most elegant Guardian crossword I’ve done this year was a Monday easy one from Orlando. last month. It’s here, if you missed it.
My solving partner summed it up: Vulcan has his (or her) moments but isn’t really a match for Rufus, I’m afraid.
These ‘moments’ were e.g. 11ac (CINDERELLA) [which I actually did not like], 7d (HEADROOM), 14ac (TROUBLESOME), 5d (HANDLEBAR) and 19d (HAS A GO) [despite …].
It looks like Vulcan has to be the next Rufus (which is impossible anyway) because of the overdose of cryptic definitions.
Some puzzles are easier than others and that’s fine. But clues like 9ac (LEMON) [which Cookie called a joke – what d’ya mean] and 21ac (DEAR) are of the kind any serious setter just isn’t capable of writing. It would turn his/her stomach around.
I think if you (read: the editor) want a good puzzle for beginners, you should care for the technical aspects too – just to get them on the ‘right’ track.
1d is not just poor because of ‘out of’, it also has an answer that overlaps ‘malign’ in four places! Similar thing with 8d.
‘Get a peep inside blinder’ (6d) is another dubious one. It only works if one sees ‘inside’ as a noun [which some setters find horrible anyway]. I have accepted nounal indicators if ‘A[ fodder] B[nounal indicator]’ means ‘B of A’. Here we then have the ‘inside of get a peep’. Well, it is inside and even right in the middle – hurrah, but still.
A clue like 22ac seems nice but ‘away’ is so out of place that it spoils it. Well, for us, that was. And an ‘app’ (28ac) is a phone function? Is ‘bandaged’ really the same as ‘plastered’? Yes, for the thesauri it is.
All in all, I am more with comment #1 [though not with Oklahoma = OK (seen that before)] than with comment #43. But as I used to say “we’re all different, aren’t we?”.
Thanks nms & Vulcan.
I’m rather late to comment, but I don’t want to pass up the opportunity as once again a Monday means we actually completed the puzzle without check button assistance! I’ll defer to the experts on matters of crossword grammar but I enjoyed this. Some nice surfaces, I thought, for example those for hatchet and gangplank. I don’t mind a challenge and as a relative beginner I’m keen to learn but I did appreciate this chance to write a lot of anwers in confidently after last week’s mostly challenging puzzles. Glad too, to have an apparent inheritor of the Rufus style since that setter sadly retired just as I got on his wavelength, about a month after I started. More, please Ms or Mr Vulcan! Thanks too to Andrew et al.
I wish people would not use “I’m afraid”, or “I’m sorry, but”…
I typed this in before seeing the reference to Cookie @47, these phrases make my stomach churn.
The clue for LEMON was great, it was an ideal one for beginners, and a joke for others – a LEMON , according to the COED is “colloq. a person or thing regarded as feeble or unsatisfactory or disappointing”.
‘nice’ is a word we were forbidden to use at school…
“I’m afraid” was used because my solving partner said it.
While I still think LEMON is an example of a clue worthy of the Sun’s cryptics, I see your point Cookie.
I like Newby-Lurker‘s post @48. But saying “Glad too, to have an apparent inheritor of the Rufus style” is a real misunderstanding.
“More, please Ms or Mr Vulcan!” – absolutely fine by me but it doesn’t lead to solving the next Vlad. But perhaps that wasn’t the plan anyway.
I’ve come round to liking the clue to OKLAHOMA. As the title song of the musical says:
“You’re doin’ fine, Oklahoma.
Oklahoma, OK!”,
I’m still humming it today.
William @40 – a belated thanks for the encouragement and the advice, which I shall bear in mind! In some ways it’s no surprise to me that I found this difficult – I could never get on Rufus’ wavelength either – and it certainly won’t discourage me unduly.
I’m posting here a day or more late at this point . . . but just wanted to chime in to say that I enjoyed this second offering from Vulcan. My favorites were CINDERELLA, OKLAHOMA, and PEBBLEDASH. I also enjoyed the clue for DEADPAN because of the whole Vulcan/”showing no emotion” (Mr. Spock’s paternal lineage on Star Trek) thing.
Many thanks to Vulcan, Andrew and the other commenters.
Very late comment (had a visitor this week) but agree with the general drift off comments; some nice clues e.g. 22a and 5d but others, like 9a just painful..
However my real beef is wIth 11a where Cinderella’s slipper makes no little sense as the “slippery customer”. Rather I fear there may be a confusion with the Brother Grimms’ “The Frog Princess” which would be sad indeed.