Guardian Cryptic 27,564 by Vlad

55 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,564 by Vlad”

1. I enjoyed this puzzle even though I failed to solve 6 of the clues – mainly SE corner 25a, 23a and 21a as well as 8d, 3d.

   Of the ones that I did solve, my favourites were 10a, 12a, 22a, 1d, 2d.

   Thanks Vlad and teacow

2. I enjoyed this very much although I didn’t find it as tricky as some of Vlad’s previous crosswords.

   I really must remember to look carefully at anagram fodder as my first effort at 16a had DE in the middle which of course didn’t help solve 14d

   Thanks to Vlad and Teacow

3. This was hard work but I enjoyed solving it.
   I made the same mistake as you at 16a, crypticsue@2, which held me up for a while. What a dreadful practice DROIT DU SEIGNEUR was!
   I liked 1d IRON MAIDEN the best so I agree with you on that one, teacow. I also thought there was a band theme when I got that one and RARE EARTH at 9a, but they were the only two I recognised.
   Thanks to Vlad and teacow.

4. Thanks both. Put me down as another DE in 16a
   [8d reminds me of being taken to such events by my parents in th 50/60s, always referred to as “fetes worse than death”]

5. Good and tricksy puzzle. Couldn’t parse tricorne or 10a 15d but they were very guessable. Only gripe is 11a. Doesn’t it lack a reverse indicator? The about is already used in the clue

6. Great puzzle from Vlad. @Rewolf 5 re 11a: I see this as GETS (receives) inside GEN (information) about (reversed) = NEST EGSS (savings)

   Thanks to Teacow

7. Put select instead of behest. It kind of works?! Otherwise very enjoyable. Thanks Vlad and teacow

8. NEST EGG, even

9. Of course Baerchen. Obvious now!

10. I agree with the comments – a good puzzle to get the brain going. I was held up by assuming that 16ac was ‘droit de…’ as that was the form I’ve always known so had to check and found out ‘du’ was an alternative form. Like Dutchman, I also put in ‘select’ for 3d without really thinking as it seemed to fit – my fault for being lazy!

11. Thanks to Vlad and Teacow. I quailed a bit when I saw the setter but eventually got on his wavelength.

    16ac was my first one in – albeit with de at first – thanks to my love of the Marriage of Figaro. Followed by my favourite, 21ac, which raised a smile.

12. Alas DNF (the norm for me with Vlad) but felt educated by the explanations. Many thanks Vlad and Teacow.

13. Thanks to Vlad and Teacow (my first encounter and I needed you for NASTINESS which I made a half-parsed effort at).

    Too tough for me in general but enjoyable.  Glad to see that others struggled – I thought it was just me being off form.  I was pleased to get STUDIO because it means I have at last hard-wired the stud/boss equivalence which has foxed me before.  No complaints – Vlad in good form is too sharp for me. But can anyone explain to my darkened intellect how “quite” = “all” in ALLEN GINSBERG?

     

14. 21a had Mrs ginf wondering why I’d burst into Piaf’s famous No Regrets number… took a bit of explaining. A lovely puzzle I thought, though I didn’t at all get ‘as a body’ = remove first and last in 25a, or assets = pros, so 2d too was a biff, albeit clear from crossers. Some really neat surfaces, e.g. 19a, 21a and 8, 20 and 21 down, all
    of which got a chuckle. As for the horrible seigneur’s droit, I looked at the clue and thought ‘oh yes what’s it called when the lord had first-night rights?’, and looked it up. Domage, wish I hadn’t, as the enjoyment would have lasted longer. Say lar vee, as my freo cockney mates say.

    Thanks Teacow and Vlad.

15. Hi @Alphalpha. “Quite” is one of those strange words that can take on different meanings depending on the context. In this case we take it to mean:

    To the utmost or most absolute extent or degree; absolutely; completely. ‘it’s quite out of the question’
    (Taken from the Oxford dictionary online).

16. Re Alphalpha @13, I wondered about that too. The best I can come up with is ” Are you quite finished?”

17. Enjoyed the puzzle.  I liked SPANIEL.

    How does “as a body” in 25a mean “take away the first and last letters”?

    You and me both with DE, crypticsue@2.

18. 15a. Quite right!

19. Thank you Vlad and Teacow.

    First in was IRON MAIDEN, so I expected a theme of torturing devices it being Vlad, but the only torture was trying to solve some of the more difficult clues.

    Like grantinfreo @14, I did not get “as a body” in 25a – I assume it means undressed?  Also I was another with trouble trying to equate ALL with ‘Quite’ in 24a.

20. Valentine @17: We took it to mean “the body of those words”. As an example, in the context of a piece of text, the body being the core contents differentiated from the header and footer.

21. I’m with the doubters on “quite” = ALL and “as a body”, and raised an eyebrow at “fan” as an anagrind. Also don’t see “rivals” as FOES.

22. Not much to say-this was perfection. Good on you Jim!

23. Shirl@4, I’ve been chortling all through at the delicious moral ‘sardony’ in fate worse than death; I’d have loved (or would love) your parents I reckon.

24. Thanks to Vlad and Teacow. Like others enjoyed this, getting more on first few passes than I normally do with Vlad. However soon slowed down with last few taking quite a long time to get, and needed to come here to clarify some parsing. However always pleased when I crack a Vlad (failed plenty of times in the past). Most of my favourite have been mentioned, but I also liked behest. Thanks again to Vlad and Teacow.

25. I think I am getting better at reading Vlad. This was another top class puzzle – an entertaining solve full of ingenious devices, and I never got completely stuck. TRICORNE was last in.

    Thanks to Vlad and Teacow.

26. Teacow@15

    Thanks but I still have a niggle about the equivalence and it seems I’m not alone – perhaps someone can offer an expression in which they are interchangeable? The nearest I can get is from an old ballad “… I am quite undone” but that would bring us back a couple of centuries.

27. Got some but gave up I’m afraid. Too tough for me, at this stage. I enjoyed the blog more than the puzzle as it furthered my solving education. I have the same gripes as some of the others above (ALL, fan, as a body) but fully accept that Vlad is more for Premier League puzzlers, not non-league hoofers like me. One day Vlad, one day!

    Thanks to Vlad and Teacow. Oh, and I loved FA = RIEN!

28. Actually “… you are quite undone” (the Jolly Beggarman fwiw).

29. Perhaps “I am quite alone”, “I am all alone” ?

30. Many thanks Teacow and Vlad. One minor quibble, there is a difference between in the firing line (one of the people doing the shooting) and in the line of fire (the target).

31. Thanks Vlad and Teacow

    16a FOI – unfortunately another “de”, which held me up later on. Quite difficult but mostly fair, though I wasn’t keen on “after fighting” as the anagram indicator in 5d. Favourite was IRON MAIDEN.

32. JB @ 30: not necessarily so.

    From the Cambridge English Dictionary: “in the firing line
    also in the line of fire, us also on the firing line
    ?
    likely to be criticized, attacked, or got rid of:
    He found himself in the firing line for his sexist remarks.”

    and Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English: “(be) in the firing line
    to be in a position or situation in which you can be attacked or blamed for something, often unfairly”.

33. An enjoyable challenge, with BRAG, RIPEN and FETE as favourites. The last of these had a very neat surface.

    But I’m with jeceris and muffin in being a bit dubious about “fan” in 23a and “after fighting” in 5d. What is the justification for these as anagram indicators?

34. Yep! We put de instead of du. Some interesting surfaces such as 25a. We’re not familiar with this construst, leaving off the skin and using only the body of the anagram. We got select instead of behest but, apart from that, good hard fun.

35. [thanks grantinfreo @ 23 – “sardony” new word for me. Both parents long gone, but remembered, especially for their humour]

36. The slightly naughty RIPEN was favourite, with 1d next. I also had the (nearly) defensible SELECT for 3d.

37. And, of course, thanks to the wonderful Vlad and Teacow

38. Superb puzzle. I was lucky enough to test solve this. I thought RIPEN was particularly inspired.

39. As often with Vlad puzzles, I failed to parse quite a few, but after a visit here my confusions are mostly sorted. Like others, I was dubious about QUITE = ALL, and I couldn’t see what was going on with “as a body”, but now I understand these (even if I’m still not thrilled with the latter).

    The only one that still confuses me is ASSETS = PROS. In what context are these the same?

40. Thanks Teacow and Vlad.

    I parsed 25a as ‘by Blair’ as definition to match ‘Orwellian’; (eg: written by Blair, thoughts of Orwell/Blair).

41. That was tough. I managed about two-thirds before resorting to technology to finish. Clever and fair, but rather a slog. My favourite was CHARACTERS.

    Thanks to Teacow and Vlad.

42. [much later] Shirl at 35, I made it up from sardonic and irony?

43. [that ‘?’ was meant to be a smiley face]

44. I’m feeling very smug as I’ve eventually learnt my lesson and carefully checked the anagram fodder rather than just bunging in what I thought it should be – and so avoided the “de” trap.
    However I did contrive to make 14d tougher by having RACKED rather than HACKED off for 14a until I backtracked.
    Given that we managed to finish and parse this my enjoyment rating is high. Like Tramp and others I particularly liked RIPEN, along with 21,23 and 25a and the very clever SAWN.
    Definitely got out of the right side of bed today – and I expect to get my comeuppance tomorrow. Thanks to Vlad and Teacow – a tough puzzle for your second G outing and superbly blogged.

45. I got led astray in 14d HOUSE OF GOD by thinking that the “short time” would be T.  That led to TRUCE OF GOD, with CE for church and was this some obscure denomination I haven’t heard of?

46. Thanks to both for an entertaining afternoon – I had to go back to it several times to finish and needed the explanations to fully understand some bits.

    Ted@39 – ASSETS = PROS in terms of pros and cons, where a asset is something helpful rather than a detraction.

    My knowledge of colloquial French was a definite problem with 21 but the answer had to be RIPEN. BEHEST also caused problems and went in by a process of elimination, rather than any insight. As always, I enjoyed the exercise and know others would have solved it far faster than I managed.

47. Thanks, Mystogre @46! No doubt you’re right, but that correspondence seems pretty loose to me.

     

48. Many thanks to Teacow for an excellent blog and to others who commented.

49. Just finished at 1 am.  Got held up by putting in Droit De Seigneur.   Ggggrrrr.

    Great puzzle, though.  Thanks Vlad and Teacow.

50. It’s been a beastly week of work for me, so it has been all I can do to keep up with solving this week’s puzzles (sometimes in the very late evenings), and this is the first (brief) opportunity I have had to read the 15^2 blog o’ the day, let alone contribute to it.  And now, my time is almost up!  Just enough time left for me to commend today’s puzzle – especially NEST EGG, which I thought was an excellently constructed clue.  I also enjoyed RIPEN and the literary and musical reference clues.

    Many thanks to Vlad and Teacow and the other commenters.

51. Abandoned this yesterday with most of the SE undone but it was solved easily this more. REALLY and ORWELLIAN were both,er,really good.
    Belated thanks Vlad.

52. Only got to this this morning. V glad I did! First rate puzzle. I agree with Tramp that 21a (RIPEN) is exceptional. Totally plausible surface plus precise and ingenious wordplay. Wow! Thanks Vlad and Teacow.

53. Er,that’s this morning.

54. Mystogre @ 46
    It’s not colloquial French that is needed at 21a, FA=nothing is colloquial English. The time will no doubt come when The Guardian allows F to appear in full in a crossword as it does in the rest of the paper. I’m not looking forward to it.
    Thanks to Vlad and teacow.

55. Cookie@29 (belatedly) Yes that works.

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