Guardian Cryptic 27,502 by Vulcan

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27502.

This is Vulcan’s fourth essay in the Monday slot, three of which I have now blogged. I think (s)he is a good fit for the “easy start to the week” (although in this one I did dive for the dictionary to check a couple of definitions). A few minor quibbles, and one possible misprint, but on the whole an enjoyable and amusing puzzle.

Across
1 INTACT Complete diplomat excels thus (6)
A diplomat should excel IN TACT.
4 AS WELL A rolling sea, too (2,4)
A charade of ‘a’ plus SWELL (‘rolling sea’).
9 PASS My father’s son? I don’t know (4)
A charade of PA’S (‘my father’s’) plus S (‘son’).
10 MUMBO-JUMBO A rhyme for elephant? That’s incomprehensible (5-5)
Indeed MUMBO is a rhyme for JUMBO. I was in two minds whether to include ‘that’s’ as part of the definition, but “that’s incomprehensible” (adjective) is equivalent to ‘”that’s mumbo-jumbo” (noun).
11 SHARIA Part of opera needs quiet first — it’s the law (6)
A charade of SH (‘quiet’) plus ARIA (‘part of opera’).
12 NAPOLEON No French can admit another European as emperor (8)
An envlope (‘can admit’) of A POLE (‘another European’) in NON (‘no French’).
13 DEMANDING Asking is difficult (9)
Double definition.
15 RENT Flat rate? (4)
Cryptic definition.
16 TUNA One with obsessive interest about fish (4)
A reversal (‘about’) of A NUT (‘one with obsessive interest’).
17 RECAPTURE Take back on board (9)
I suppose that this is a cryptic definition, with the ‘board’ being a chess board; RE could be ‘on’, but then CAPTURE is hardly given by ‘board’; in a nautical sense, boarding may be an attempt to capture, but it’s not there yet.
21 MENSWEAR Suits people to curse (8)
A charade of MEN (‘people’) plus SWEAR (‘curse’). Slightly sexist in both parts.
22 ORANGE Fruit in old kitchen area (6)
A charade of O (‘old’) plus RANGE (‘kitchen area’; ‘area’ seems a little misplaced).
24 THE LIKES OF People such as this feel OK, surprisingly (3,5,2)
An anagram (‘surprisingly’) of ‘this feel OK’.
25 OILS First off, makes dirty picture (4)
[s]OILS (‘makes dirty’) minus its first letter (‘first off’). Did Vulcan really intend to use the singular ‘picture’?
26 DAY BED Dead, by collapsing here in hospital? (3,3)
An anagram (‘collapsing’) of ‘dead by’.
27 BY HAND Purchase bananas, we hear, but not automatically (2,4)
Sounds like (‘we hear’) BUY HAND (‘purchase bananas’).
Down
1 IVANHOE Scott’s hero in Russian garden (7)
A charade of IVAN (‘Russian’) plus HOE (‘garden’, verb).
2 TASER Stare goofily, seeing stunner (5)
An anagram (‘goofily’) of ‘stare’.
3 COMMAND Order arms, for example, for the military (7)
Cryptic definition. ‘order arms’ countermands the order “Present arms”.
5 SLOPPY Careless and sentimental about love, primarily (6)
An envelope (‘about’) of L (‘Love, primarily’) in SOPPY (‘sentimental’).
6 EBULLIENT Very enthusiastic e-bulletin put out (9)
An anagram (‘put out’) of ‘e-bulletin’. Not put out very far.
7 LAB COAT Scientist’s garment of short, dense hair? (3,4)
I take it that the wordplay is an allusion to the coat of a labrador.
8 EMINENCE GRISE Power behind the throne terrible in emergencies (8,5)
An anagram (‘terrible’) of ‘in emergencies’.
14 AUNT SALLY Target a friend of the family? (4,5)
Double definition.
16 TEETHED Suffered possibly painful eruption, by gum! (7)
Cryptic definition.
18 ALOOFLY Haughtily, ladies entering a horse-drawn carriage (7)
An envelope (‘entering’) of LOO (‘ladies’; I recall the question here of gender coming up not so long ago) in ‘a’ plus FLY (‘horse-drawn carriage’).
19 REGALED Regularly drew beer up and feasted (7)
A reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of DE (‘regularly DrEw’) plus LAGER (‘beer’), with an archaic definition.
20 HECKLE Heavens! The French abuse a speaker (6)
A charade of HECK (‘heavens’ as a general interjection, although literally it comes from the opposite direction) plus LE (‘the French’).
23 AROMA Particular smell in Emilia-Romagna (5)
A hidden answer in ‘EmiliA ROMAgna’.
completed grid

49 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,502 by Vulcan”

  1. Thank you Vulcan and Peter O.
    I thought perhaps aunt’s ally for the family friend.

  2. Thanks for the blog, Peter O. Needed ALOOFLY and COMMAND cleared up. I took the elephant rhyme to be with Dumbo.

    Thanks to Vulcan for another enjoyable Monday crossword.

  3. I was unable to solve RENT and could not parse the LAB part of LAB COAT.

    My favourite was PASS.

    Thanks Vulcan and PeterO

  4. MUMBO-JUMBO is one of my favourites on my Echo Words list, so I loved 10a. (For no really good reason, it did remind me of a recent joke – “Why do elephants drink?”)

    I also enjoyed 1a INTACT and 8d EMINENCE GRISE.

    Good parse for AUNT SALLY, il principe@1 – I didn’t see this so it was a guess from the crossers – now it is no longer “obscure”.

    I was with you, PeterO, in not being really fussed on 17a RECAPTURE and thought I might be wrong. 25a OILS seemed a little imprecise and, like michelle@3, the Labrador reference in 7d LAB COAT went over my head. I also thought 6d EBULLIENT was a bit of an obvious anagram. But who am I to criticise when I am not a setter’s bootlace?

    Thanks to Vulcan for a good tussle to the end (LOI HECKLE) and to PeterO for the explanatory solve.

     

  5. Thank you PeterO – I needed some of those explanations, though I’m still not certain over COMMAND and RECAPTURE. Given these reservations, and the possible typo, this came across as a flawed effort but not without its moments. People always seemed to make allowances for Rufus’s weaknesses; maybe we should continue that Monday tradition – so thanks Vulcan!

  6. Thanks Vulcan and PeterO

    Very enjoyable, though not difficult. EMINENCE GRISE was my favurite.

    [The rather sad story of Jumbo the elephant is given here. He was named when small, but grew so large that we now use “jumbo” to mean extra large.]

  7. I initially parsed LAB COAT as [f]LAB (short dense) + COAT (hair) and moved onto the next clue. But on second thought flab is a noun and dense is an adjective so that parsing doesn’t work.

  8. Agree with “AUNT”S ALLY”

    Also agree on “pictures”

    Not much to complain about-better than the last one.

  9. Thanks, PeterO.

    Il principe @1:  Like your Aunt’s Ally, didn’t spot that.

    Have to say I don’t quite see how COMMAND works.  It’s all there, sort of, but doesn’t quite do it for me.

    Very much an entry level puzzle but none the worse for that.  I enjoy the different levels in The Graun.

    Happy Bank Holiday if you’re having one.

    Nice week, all.

  10. Re LAB COAT, Chambers gives slab (adj) as ‘viscous’ or ‘thick’ so I guess this could be stretched to ‘dense’.

  11. Lovely Monday puzzle – the level is just right. Thanks to Vulcan (I’m assured it is a man, a very experienced setter, who also sets under another alias for the Graun) and PeterO for the blog.

  15. I had TANG for 16a. I reasoned that a gnat was someone who buzzed around obsessively, but I can’t find that anywhere.

  16. Finished and it a decent time too, so pretty pleased. I seem to have got onto Vulcan’s wavelength. I got 19 correct but for the wrong reason (Reg Aled) which kind of made sense to me at the time. Last one in was 9A because I got caught up on Vulcan’s father (Jupiter) and so from that I thought it was MARS, Vulcan’s sibling. I rather enjoyed it, overall.

  18. Thanks to Vulacan and PeterO. Most of this went in quite steadily but the last few I struggled with, including all the 4 letter clues. A DNF for me because as with Keyser @16 I got hooked on Mars, but unlike Keyser I went for it. LOI for me was teethed. I struggled with some of the definitions and maybe I am not on Vulcan’s wavelength yet. I did like mumbo jumbo and demanding and thanks again to Vulcan and PeterO.

  19. Thank you Vulcan and PeterO.  I filled this in steadily for about 30 to 40 minutes, until I only had 21a left.  I then stared at it for ages before finally in despair hitting the reveal button, only to realise that it was actually quite a good clue.  I can’t call it a senior moment because it lasted at least an hour.

    Favourites AUNT SALLY, EMINENCE GRISE (what a good anagram) and AS WELL.  I’m sure the definition of OILS should be pictures, so another in the current spate of errors.  Oh well not to worry, we all still got the answer; didn’t we!!

  20. S Panza,
    I know the feeling well. I think it’s one of those clues that is easier to get without the crossers, which just throw up too many possibilities.

  21. il principe dell’oscurità @20.  Thanks for the reassurance. You may be correct.  DEMANDING also held me up momentarily, and again I had all the crossers.  On the other hand, once I realised that 16d could not be gingivitis, the crossers made TEETHED the only option, the difference being, of course, that in the latter case I had the first letter.

  22. il principe dell’oscurità @1

    Thanks for being the first to the spot, which I missed despite being essentially the same trick as 4A AS WELL and 21A MENSWEAR.

  23. Just when I was thinking it was safe to celebrate Rufus’s retirement, along comes this insult to the intelligence. Really!

  24. Thanks to Vulcan and PeterO. Enjoyable. Nothing to add, for I had the same problems with COMMAND, RECAPTURE, and OILS (though I did spot the labrador in LAB COAT).

  25. Stick to Saturdays dcb! This is how we like it on a Monday.

    (William @ 13: Indeed – nice one)

  26. Solved on the train to the seaside, only just remembered to do the blog. Just right for a Bank Holiday in the sunshine, though I wasn’t keen on RECAPTURE either – last in.

  27. Just returned from Cheltenham Jazz Festival and this was about the right level for me,especially as I tried to do it on a train stuffed to the gunnels with holidaymakers heading for Leamington Spa. I did most of it between Taunton and Tiverton and completed it at home. Despite the puzzles relative easiness,I found some of the cluing a bit loose to say the least- RECAPTURE,OILS and COMMAND were bunged in despite my doubts. I didn’t like REGALED but that was my misparsing. I convinced myself that that the beer in the clue referred to ALE rather than LAGER because, as the discerning drinker knows, lager isn’t beer at all!
    Thanks Vulcan.
    ps For anyone interested, Kamasi Washington’s band took Cheltenham by storm yesterday!

  28. Alan Swale@14: And Scott (1dn) wrote a biography of Napoleon.  Which I only discovered visiting Scott’s house last year.

  29. I knew EMINENCE GRISE though it took me ages to sort out the anagram (four E’s doesn’t help!).

    I couldn’t parse COMMAND – my (brief, at school CCF) military experience included “Pre-sent arms!”, “Shoul-der arms!” and I think “Slope arms!” but I don’t remember “Order Arms!”.  Perhaps it’s my memory at fault here.

    The other one I didn’t like much was RENT.  Too much like a Quick Crossword clue, I thought: I was trying to figure out a double def. but it wasn’t there.

    But the rest was fine.  I think OILS (pl) is OK as a definition of a single picture.  After all one needs to use more than one OIL to paint it!

    Proper names, especially common ones like “Scott”, offer great scope for misdirection!  There I was at 1d, having settled on the wrong Scott, trying to fit his hero OATES (as in: “I am just going outside, I may be some time”) into the light.  But it wouldn’t go down.

    I think Vulcan is toughening them up a bit after a gentle start.  Thanks to him/her and Peter.

  31. You’re not alone Myrvin. I had exactly the same reasoning. Perhaps if we try hard enough we can get “gnat” into the dictionary as “someone with an (annoying) obsession”.

    Like others, I also missed the dog in LAB COAT and the apostrophe in AUNT SALLY.

    Many thanks to Vulcan and Peter.

  32. Peter Aspinwall @27. Most difficult problem today is working out why holidaymakers heading for Leamington Spa were on a train from Taunton to Tiverton. Still not solved, unlike Vulcan’s puzzle. Thanks to him and Peter O.
    17a I don’t think that this can be a chess or draughts reference as in these games once a piece has been taken it can’t be recaptured. I think that it must be a nautical reference but I agree that it doesn’t work

  34. I’m with Laccaria (and agaainst the rest, it seems) on OILS being fine in the plural. We do after all talk about a ‘painting in oils’.

  36. Thank you dcbrookes@23 for your enlightening explanation of why you didn’t like this puzzle. Really!

    Thanks in earnest to Vulcan for another pleasant Monday cryptic, and to PeterO for the blog.

  37. I thought Aunt Sally was Aunt’s Ally too. Hurray for the Monday crossword. Sets me up to feel ok about not quite managing some of the others!

  38. Pino@32.I got on the train at Cheltenham for Riverton. It was,as I said,full of holidaymakers heading for Leamington, at which station they disembarked making the train sufficiently comfortable to concentrate. Taunton is the stop after Leamington and at the former I began the crossword and made good progress before getting off myself at Tiverton. Happy now?

  39. It is kr-r-r-razy late here.  I should have been asleep hours ago.  But since I’m still up, I thought I would chime in with my appreciation for this puzzle.  I especially enjoyed LAB COAT, TUNA and MENSWEAR.

    Many thanks to Vulcan, PeterO and the other commenters.  Night night (or what’s left of it).

  40. Must be a bizarre Bank Holiday timetable, which might make Pino very happy if they are a rail enthusiast interested in unusual journeys along long-lost tracks. Or some confusion between Leamington Spa with Weston-super-Mare, perhaps.

  41. Well, I’ve heard of all the places Peter A mentions, but had no idea where any of them were.  So I made myself a google map of his journey, and am baffled.  Leamington Spa is northeast of Cheltenham, and Taunton and Tiverton are southwest of it.  So I join Pino in wondering whether the holidaymakers had begun their celebration before they left?

  42. For COMMAND I take “order” to be the target and “arms of the military” to be Coastal Command, Bomber Command etc.

  43. Andrew @42

    Interesting; but not quite what the clue says. The words ‘for example, for’ hardly fit comfortably with this interpretation.

    Perhaps you might choose another nickname, to avoid confusion with the blogger Andrew.

  44. Valentine@41. I’m sure you’re right about the geographical positioning of Leamington etc but the 10 26 from Cheltenham to Paignton passes through Leamington,then Taunton and then Tiverton. Perhaps this is illogical but I don’t plan the routes!

  45. I thought this was a very good Monday puzzle, and NAPOLEON in particular was very neat.

    [Posting a bit late because we’ve just got back from the Ribble Valley Jazz Festival in Clitheroe.  Peter A, I hope you enjoyed your jazz festival as much as we enjoyed ours.  Clitheroe is a lovely town.  (And the weather helped.)]

  46. Peter Aspinwall@38 and Van Winkle@40
    Thank you. I always appreciate both your contributions to this site. I’m not a rail enthusiast but Cheltenham to Tiverton via Leamington Spa, which is in the opposite direction on the map, did appear odd.
    The real outstanding problem is 17a in this week’s prize. I’m sure of the crossers so, by my reckoning, all I need to do is go through the 676 possibilities until I find something that seems right. On the other hand I might just start today’s Nutmeg.

  47. Re train journeys: I’m not too conversant with the routes around Cheltenham and Leamington Spa, but for anyone unlucky enough to be forced to endure the “Southern” network (aka “Thameslink” etc.), anything can happen!  I shouldn’t be surprised if those trying to go between Gatwick and Three Bridges the other day (normal journey time 4 minutes) would have done better to go via Leamington Spa! 🙂

  48. Pino@46

    Re Prize 17a.  No spoilers of course, but I think you can discount some of your “676”!  For example, either unch = “Q” is unlikely, and “Z”s or “J”s almost as improbable.  That’ll narrow it down a bit…

    Once you do get it, you’ll kick yourself! 🙂

  49. We came to this several days late, and only bothered with it because it’s one of Vulcan’s, and we’re both really enjoying getting to understand the way his/her mind works. Loads of goodies – favourites being Napoleon, Menswear, Labcoat, Command. Many thanks Vulcan!

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