Guardian Cryptic 27,634 by Vulcan

by

Mostly quick, but needed all the crossers for a couple of the cryptic definitions. Favourites were 8ac and 18ac. Thanks to Vulcan.

Across
1 BLUNT Unsubtle spy? (5)
the spy is Anthony Blunt, one of the Cambridge Five [wiki]
4 PRACTICE Cost to keep part of play in rehearsal (8)
PRICE=”Cost” around ACT=”part of play”
8 DOWN MEMORY LANE Many older women stray this nostalgic way (4,6,4)
(many older women)*
10 CHINLESS Upper-class type may be such a wonder (8)
cryptic def, referring to the phrase ‘chinless wonder’
11 FATHER Obese woman priest (6)
FAT=”Obese” + HER=”woman”
12 ROTTEN ROW Unpleasant argument in Hyde Park? (6,3)
=a part of Hyde Park, see [wiki]
ROTTEN ROW=”Unpleasant argument”
15 ATLAS Finally short of time for picture book (5)
AT LAS[t]=”Finally”, minus t (time)
17 PIN UP Attractive person to put on board (3,2)
double def
18 NOT AT HOME Sick Ottoman — he is refusing visitors (3,2,4)
(Ottoman he)*
19 ETCHED Attacked with acid (6)
cryptic def? Not too sure about “Attacked”
21 TRANSEPT Wing patterns are extraordinary (8)
=wing of a church
(patterns)*
24 WARS OF THE ROSES Thorny issues in this conflict? (4,2,3,5)
with a cryptic definition
25 RENDERED Translated “plastered” (8)
double definition: “plastered” in the sense of applying e.g. cement to a wall
26 HOSTS Welcomes huge numbers (5)
double definition
Down
1 BODICE RIPPER Sexed-up story of waistcoat on murderer (6,6)
BODICE=”waistcoat” on RIPPER=”murderer”
2 UNWRITTEN Such a rule never makes it into the law books (9)
cryptic def
3 TAMIL Asian dog covers miles (5)
TAIL=follow, pursue=”dog”, around M (miles)
4 PUMPS IRON Works out questions, really hard (5,4)
=”Works out” e.g. with weights in a gym
PUMPS [someone for information]=”questions” + IRON=”really hard”
5 ACRE Essentially sacred ground (4)
the ‘essentials’/middle of sACREd
6 TOLD APART Distinguished, but not given full information? (4,5)
TOLD A PART=”not given full information”
7 CONCH It’s blown out of the water (5)
cryptic def – something that can be blown into, and that comes out of the water
9 PROSPECTUSES To look for gold entails outline plans (12)
PROSPECT=”look for gold” plus USES=”entails”
13 EXPRESSED Newspaper editor forced out (9)
EXPRESS=”Newspaper” + ED=”editor”
14 WATERSHED Vital fluid spilled, a decisive juncture (9)
WATER=”Vital fluid” + SHED=”spilled”
16 LIONESSES Moving, these animals could be noiseless (9)
an anagram [indicated by “Moving”] of (LIONESSES)* would be “noiseless”
20 CRAVE Long for clubs to go wild (5)
C (clubs) + RAVE=”go wild”
22 NORTH Up in map-reading (5)
cryptic def
23 AFAR Safari covers a long distance (4)
Hidden in SAFARi

47 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,634 by Vulcan”

  1. A nice Mondayish puzzle from Vulcan, who has had a bit of flak recently for his clueing. I liked the DOWN MEMORY LANE anagram, PUMPS IRON and BODICE RIPPER. Thanks to V & m.

  3. Thanks Manehi – I agree with you re 19 that ‘etch’ does not mean ‘attack’. It seems churlish to moan when the setter obviously has taken pains to produce a simple puzzle, but I didn’t think CHINLESS was cryptic. However, one or two clues did give me pause (eg NORTH, TRANSEPT), so there was overall, a decent range of difficulty and different types of clue to give beginners an insight.

  5. Agree Manehi with your intro, and Peter O’s when he said this on February 26th this year: A new setter, with an evident sense of humour, but, I think, a few kinks to iron out.

  7. Agree that this was just right for a Monday.

    Andrew, it conjures up nasty thoughts but some might argue the same with using RIPPER, so where do you stop?

  8. Thanks Vulcan and manehi

    I agree about the poor taste of ETCHED, but “attacked” is fine for me – it’s what the acid does to a plate in making “etchings”.

    BLUNT and ROTTEN ROW rather relied on general knowledge.

    The anagram indicator is a long way from the fodder in LIONESSES!

    I possess a road map of Britain with SOUTH at the top. It’s a bit disorientating to use, though…

    My favourites were PRACTICE and TOLD APART.

  9. Andrew@2, first association for 19a was indeed the horrendous attacks that occur for a variety of rabid reasons, but I confess that on solving I sort of went Oh, right, and wasn’t offended; compassion fatigue perhaps, but…

    Otherwise, as Manehi says, mostly quick with a couple of pauses, eg transept, and a couple of quibblets: pin-up needs a hyphen, a waistcoat isn’t a bodice, and expressed isn’t necessarily forced (although the ‘press’ bit echoes ‘force’).

    Thanks Vulcan, keep at it, and Manehi.

  11. GinF

    “Expressed” in one sense is “forced”. It’s why the coffee is called “espresso” – it’s forced out rather than made rapidly!

  13. I echo the “Likes” for 8a DOWN MEMORY LANE, 1d BODICE RIPPER and would like to add 6d TELL APART. 13d EXPRESSED reminded me of Qaos’ puzzle last week. Like manehi, I was a bit iffy about “attacked” for ETCHED at 19a, and I certainly winced then when Andrew@2 and others mentioned the dreadful acid attacks which have afflicted your country, as that had not occurred to me as a reference. It seemed to me that an ALBUM would be more of a “picture book” (cryptically) than an ATLAS 15a (or am I missing something?). No idea now why I found I need all the crossers for 9d PROSPECTUSES, but I did have a little smile when I finally saw it. I felt chuffed that I knew ROTTEN ROW at 12a, I think perhaps from a Ruth Rendell novel or similar, as I have not been lucky enough to visit Hyde Park (other than imagining myself there due to the video clip of Mick Jagger reading Shelley for Brian Jones, possibly in 1968, though more years ago than I care to remember). I think Anthony Blunt would be one of the better known well-known spies, just as the Yorkshire Ripper is one of the best-known murderers, even for Aussie solvers. But we have probably wasted too many keystrokes on this forum over the years concerning what is and is not GK, muffin et. al.!

    Thanks to Vulcan and manehi.

  16. Just realised when I re-read the blog and muffin’s comment@8 again that I had TELL APART instead of TOLD APART at 6d. Sigh!!!! “Tenses must agree” was another oft-used comment on student work when I was a schoolmarm! (Speaking of trips down memory lane!)

  17. [Thanks muffin@15, “memory lane” certainly can be an interesting walk – for me, sometimes there are trips and potholes, sometimes it’s foggy, with some occasional moments of clarity, but it is always to learn to learn how others’ walks might differ from mine.]

  19. Thanks Vulcan; I never really understand why dds and cds are supposed to be so easy – only one route to the answers without wordplay. For example, I thought of froth for 7, which seemed to be an adequate answer, although maybe not as good as CONCH.

    Thanks manehi; the nasty connotation of acid attack didn’t occur to me – and it’s only a crossword, anyway. For 16, I assumed the anagrind was ‘could be’ and the moving was just there for the surface, but maybe I’m wrong.

    I did particularly like DOWN MEMORY LAND and PUMPS IRON.

  20. Down memory lane delightful; etched frightful. But all in all, soothing Monday fare. Conch was fun, had to look up transept to be sure.
    Thanks Vulcan and manehi

  21. Thanks Vulcan and manehi, a pleasant start to the week. It seems that 8a is the CotD so far, and it was for me too. This is one ‘older man’ who strayed down that path on reading the clue at 15a. An immediate flashback to Monday afternoons spent glued to our old b&w Sobell TV, watching ‘Picture Book’, presented by the lovely Patricia Driscoll (later to become the new Maid Marion, opposite Richard Greene’s Robin Hood.) Happy days.

  23. I found this one a little frustrating – I like unambiguous clueing, and cds and dds that need crossers to resolve multiple possible solutions do not qualify. I often had similar problems with Rufus, and while I know this kind of thing is popular with beginners, it won’t teach them much that will help in more advanced puzzles.

    Thanks to manehi and Vulcan

  24. I’m poor at anagrams and therefore tend not to enjoy them. But I almost clapped 8a. Superb. All in all, pretty brisk but good fun.

    Thanks Vulcan and manehi.

  26. Thanks to Vulcan and manehi. I found this a nice steady enjoyable solve. Mostly straightforward, but there were a few which made me think. Last two were told apart and chinless, and favourites were down memory lane (spend half my life there) and the aforementioned told apart. Thanks again to Vulcan and manehi.

  28. Thank you Vulcan and manehi.

    I agree with pex @7 as regards the suitability of the crossword for a Monday and the controversy over the clue at 19a.

    Some lovely clues, especially the anagrams for DOWN MEMORY LANE and NOT AT HOME.

  29. As you say, MisterTolley@27, it may be not such a long walk from Memory Lane to Amnesia Avenue, Though my gobbledygook comment involving “to learn to learn” @17 might indicate that I am only a step away.

  31. All quite ‘parsable’ for my wife and I. ‘Etched’ is fine as to ‘etch’ can be done by ‘attacking’ the medium with acid. Personally, not over-keen on 25ac, but overall a nice, satisfying puzzle. Thanks Vulcan.

  32. As well as being a very weak clue 10ac perpetuates a hateful stereotype but, what with murderers, obese priestesses, the Epresss & acid throwers, who the Hell cares?

  33. Thanks to Vulcan and manehi. Enjoyable. I had trouble spotting ETCHED but even in the US I knew BLUNT and ROTTEN ROW. In general my MEMORY LANE is significantly different from UK solvers, but that’s part of the challenge.

  34. Thanks manehi and Vulcan.

     

    16d I took “could be” as the anagram indicator. I hadn’t taken much notice of “Moving” till Muffin pointed it out. The clue would work perfectly well without it, but including it makes it an &lit?

  35. The Rolling Stones-Hyde Park 1969-I was there.

    A very old clue was “Caught in Rotten Row (4)” it could have been five letters but that would be nearer to what we need on  a Monday puzzle.

  36. A pleasingly not-too-tricky puzzle, to get the week off to a satisfying start. I enjoyed the wordplay in 8A and 16D, and Blunt, Rotten Row and Wars Of The Roses all raised a smile.
    Thanks to Vulcan and Manehi!

  38. In my books, there’s an unwritten rule that there has to be some misdirection to be a good cryptic def., so 7 (best) > 22 > 19 > 10 > 2 (worst).

  39. Excellent Monday crossword! Thanks to Manehi and to Vulcan. I’m slightly embarrassed to say that the connotations of “attacked with acid” never entered my head until I came here.

  40. I enjoyed this overall, but I agree that 19a is a weak clue and in poor taste. Robi @ 19, it may be “only a crossword” to you, but it may come as an unwelcome reminder of trauma for someone personally affected by such attacks when they are trying to enjoy what should be “only a crossword.”

    GinF @ 12: Why peril? I think the Paradox of Tolerance applies.

  41. Mildly easy solve BUT… did not think “unwritten” was well clued. I mean, I get it, but…

    Also, a quibble with plural “wars (of the roses)” being clued with a singular “conflict”, (they are defined as a series of wars).

  42. A nice (for the most part) Monday puzzle, although I needed to Google-confirm that BLUNT was a spy and that ROTTEN ROW is a place in Hyde Park — underscoring the “GK” point made by muffin @8 and others.  But they made fine TILTs, which were enhanced by coming here and reading about a Rolling Stones connection as to the latter, thanks to JinA @13 and copmus @35!

    Like Roger GS@38, I thought UNWRITTEN was the least cryptic of all of the cd clues.  In fact, I can’t find a way to see it as being cryptic at all.  If a rule, convention or standard is generally accepted despite not being written down (whether in “the law books” or otherwise), *that very fact* is the thing that makes it, literally, an unwritten rule.  To me, this would be equivalent to clueing “parallel” with “Such lines never meet”.  [Not that I’m complaining!  I have been doing American-style crosswords since the 1970s, and I enjoy doing them still.  So 2dn went in easily for me at a time when I had only the crossing W, and that in turn helped me greatly in solving all four of the other crossing answers.  I’m just saying that I think “cryptic” is not an adjective that this definition really earned.]

    Count me among those who greatly enjoyed the nice anagram clues Vulcan concocted for NOT AT HOME and DOWN MEMORY LANE.  I also had some nice PDMs with TOLD APART, BODICE RIPPER and CHINLESS.

    Many thanks to Vulcan and manehi and the other commenters.

  43. glenn @41 –

    We crossed.  I’m such a slow typist that your comment on UNWRITTEN had not yet posted when I began going on about it.

     

  44. “Patterns ARE extraordinary” grates on me. I realise it’s there for the surface grammar but I don’t think it works properly.

  45. Thanks Vulcan, for the first Guardian crossword that I’ve managed to complete.  And thanks everyone else for not “micturating on my parade” by criticising the crossword too much.

    Thanks too for the blog – I’m just glad that, at last, I didn’t need it for the answers.

  46. I very rarely ‘do’ Monday puzzles but I found this rather enjoyable (and a good ‘fit’ for the day. I had no problem with ETCHED. I only thought of metals being etched so that (and because) “attacked” worked so well; wouldn’t be surprised if Vulcan also simply saw it that way.

    [grantinfreo – unsure why you’ve got it in for the Mirror; some of its journalists (John Pilger, Paul Foot etc.) have been very special. An excellent paper (the only British newspaper never to have published a photo with a female nipple showing I once read, incidentally)]

    Many thanks to Vulcan and manehi.

  47. Thanks Vulcan and Manehi! I too was bewildered by attacked and etched. My thanks to those who’ve pointed out the effect of acid to create etchings. I am also slightly bewildered by “chinless”. Are chinless wonders always upper class?

     

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