Guardian Cryptic 27,676 by Vulcan

by

Not my type of puzzle, but a gentle start to the week.

I’m not a fan of crosswords where many of the clues are cryptic definitions, especially when some of them are barely cryptic (eg EGOTISM, EBB TIDE, EYELIDS, and SAUSAGE), so this Vulcan offering, which felt a bit like a Rufus, was not as much fun as I would have liked.  It’s a matter of taste, though, and I’m sure many solvers will have enjoyed it.

I did like SEMIFINALIST on the other hand, and although easy, there were one or two other ones I liked, including SPOILER ALERT and ADDER.

Thanks, Vulcan.

Across
1 SPOILER ALERT Allies report false plot warning (7,5)
  *(allies report)
8 LOURDES Scowl from the French in place of healing (7)
  LOUR (“scowl”) + DES (“from” in French)
9 BESIDES Most perfect short day in Rome, too (7)
  BES(t) (“most perfect”, short) + IDES (“day in Rome”, as in “the ides of March”)
11 STATINS Items of data about popular drugs (7)
  STATS (“items of data”) about IN (“popular”)
12 EGOTISM Attitude it’s vain to display (7)
  (Not very) cryptic definition
13 WHEEL Turn round with part of foot (5)
  W (with) + HEEL (“part of foot”)
14 ROAST BEEF Cooked best fare, introducing old English favourite (5,4)
  *(best fare) introducing O (“old”)
16 RIGHT AWAY Immediately suggesting wrong home? (5,4)
  If home is wrong, then presumable away is right?
19 BISON Animal‘s sexually ambivalent offspring (5)
  BI (“sexually ambivalent”) + SON (“offspring”)
21 ADOPTED A daughter chosen to be taken in (7)
  A + D (daughter) + OPTED (“chosen”)
23 UNEQUAL Somewhat lacking, prune quality is just not the same (7)
  Hidden in [somewhat lacking] “prUNE QUALity”
24 EBB TIDE Recession in a seaside town? (3,4)
  Cryptic definition
25 EYELIDS They go down for a sleep (7)
  Cryptic definition
26 WELSH DRESSER Is it shelved in Swansea? (5,7)
  Cryptic definition
Down
1 SAUSAGE Edible sort of dog (7)
  Sausage dog is another name for a dachshund.
2 OLD BILL Historic legislation for the police (3,4)
  OLD (“historic”) + BILL (“legislation”)
3 LAST STRAW A back-breaking weight (4,5)
  Cryptic definition – “the last straw” being roughly equivalent to “the straw that broke the camel’s back”
4 RUBLE Government holds British currency (5)
  RULE (“government”) holds B (British)
5 LOST OUT Look fat, so was unsuccessful (4,3)
  LO (“look”) + STOUT (“fat”)
6 RED LINE Lender I tricked, one not to be crossed (3,4)
  *(lender i)
7 CLASS WARFARE Riots in school, which Marx expected (5,7)
  Warfare between classes = “riots in school”
10 SEMIFINALIST One may only have two ties left (12)
  Cryptic definition
15 AS YOU WERE Cancelling order for troops (2,3,4)
  Cryptic definition
17 GOODBYE The last word in virtue: and extra (7)
  GOOD (“virtue”) + BYE (“extra” in cricket)
18 TITBITS Bird pecked small tasty morsels (7)
  TIT (“bird”) + BIT (“pecked”) + S (small)
19 BEE GEES Group live on geese, carved up (3,4)
  BE (“live”) on *(geese)
20 SAUCIER More fresh crockery I brought in (7)
  SAUCER (“crockery”) with I brought in
22 DREAD Fear of snaking adder (5)
  *(dread)

*anagram

36 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,676 by Vulcan”

  1. Didn’t quite gallop through this at first, with sausage and statins looking likely but the other nor’westers not jumping out. So it was the south-east to start, bison, unequal etc, then working back around, by which it all filled, without much pain but with not a lot of joy, as you said Loonapick.

    Thanks both.

    [Alan B if ur there, ta for your response re invenuity which started out, as it happened, as a fat-finger typo that I started to correct but then decided to leave, for fun.]

  2. I have never been sure why Monday has to be easy but this reminded me hugely of a Rufus back in the day.  I enjoyed SPOILER ALERT and WELSH DRESSER, looked at SAUCIER far to long before the penny dropped and generally enjoyed the puzzle.  Thanks Vulcan, and loonapick for explaining BESIDES.  I bet tomorrow will be a whole lot tougher!!

  5. Well Sri Lanka survived longer than this crossword – was hoping both might fall together as the last test wends its way to a conclusion. A lot of not very cryptic definitions made this feel more like a quick crossword at times – I could not write in some answers until I had crossers to be sure they were that plain, such as eyelids. I liked semifinalists though.

    Bee Gees put me in mind of the infamous Clive Anderson interview where they walked out – it’s 10 minutes of sly digs and insults and I am amazed they stayed as long as they did.

  6. Yes, agree, very Rufusian, with the scarcely cryptic EGOTISM and the double defs everywhere.

    Like the offerings from the erstwhile Monday incumbent, however, I did not find this yielded readily.

    EYELIDS was nice, as was SEMIFINALIST.

    Nice week, all.

  7. thezed @5:  Thanks for that link, never seen it before.  As you say, with all the snide comments it’s astonishing that they stayed at all!

  9. Took a little while to get a foothold but then everything fell into place reasonably easily. But I’m with lookapick on this – it was not to my personal taste.

    Regardless, thanks to both Vulcan and loonapick.

  10. Thanks Vulcan, although seven cryptic definitions is a bit much IMHO. So also not really my cup of tea (or coffee.)

    Thanks loonapick; I also liked SEMIFINALIST.

  11. Nice hop and skip for a grey Monday. Fine by me. Simple surfaces like this make a refreshing change from the deeper digging. Wittier than Rufus too. Liked eyelids and saucier. Bit slow to get spoiler alert. Thanks Vulcan and Loonapick.

  14. As there were seven cryptic definitions, this was definitely my cup of tea. We are already making good progress in the comments to date to having a full set of “barely cryptic”s and “my favourite”s for each of the seven.

  15. Thanks to Vulcan and loonapick. As others have said a relatively gentle start to the week, which unpacked quite readily. However “shot myself in the foot” for a while by confidently putting in low tide at 24 (that’s one of the problems with CDs). However, class warfare sorted me out and liked that one along with as you were and goodbye. Thanks again to Vulcan and loonapick.

  16. Not my cup of tea either, but I don’t begrudge its place here. Found this a little less easy than some Vulcans; which was welcome.

    Thanks to Vulcan and loonapick

  17. Thanks to Vulcan and loonapick. Little to add, though I didn’t know WELSH DRESSER but did like AS YOU WERE when I pieced it out. The dearth of comments at this hour on a Monday is suggestive.

  18. Managed to make this straight forward Monday offering complicated by confidently entering WINCH at 13A. Perfectly plausible, I thought! Otherwise a pleasant, if not exactly exciting solve.
    Thanks to VandL

  19. I read SAUSAGE as yet another cryptic definition, “dog” being short here for “hot dog” in constructions like “chili dog,” “Chicago dog,” “Coney dog,” etc.  So “Edible sort of dog” is a cryptic definition for a sausage.

    I hate cryptic definitions, so I’m in the grumpy camp today.  Since I’m doing this at work, I should get back to work now.

  20. I do like cryptics so I found this very pleasant. It did remind me very much of Rufus whose puzzles I still miss. SPOILER ALERT was FOI which opened up the top half and the rest followed apace with the excellent BISON being LOI.
    Thanks Vulcan.

  21. Talking of Bison, does anyone know why traffic advice on the road signs in France come from the “Bison Futé” (cunning bison) service?

  22. thezed @21

    As I understood it, “bison fute” (abbreviated “bis”) is the French equivalent of our HR or “holiday route” signs – an attempt to spread traffic over a greater number of roads, and hence less densely.

  24. Made a bit of a dog’s breakfast of this one, entering LOW TIDE at 24 and thinking 1a must be BURGLAR ALARM but not knowing why, obvs. I had the L-R crossers in both words … Oh well, can’t win ‘em all, and I did enjoy SEMIFINALIST.
    Thanks to Vulcan and loonapick.

  25. Thezed@21
    In August 1975 during the severe hot weather, canicle, with 600 kms of bouchons on the motorways, 145 deaths caused by the traffic chaos and the canicle, the government and media wanted to bring to attention the use of the alternate roads and itineries – Bis – in France
    In 1976 600,000 cartes de France were issued showing the alternative routes and were widely published.
    Bis on Futé was a play on words to get drivers to be Futé to avoid the motorway by using the Bis itineries
    Bison Futé was created by by Daniel Robert a publicity expert
    Livin
    It becme Bison Futé, a government infomation service

  26. Merci Clive – I do love the way our very British traffic jam (on toast) becomes a very French traffic cork (in spite of the modern trend towards screw caps)

  28. Very enjoyable. Yes,some rather straightforward cryptics but smooth surfaces and a refreshing lack of the fiddly, unparseable, clunky wordchoppings which are an occasional blight on my day. Love and peace.

  30. This was fine, very much in the spirit of a typical Monday Guardian crossword.

    Thanks to both setter and blogger.

  31. Happy to be making back here to 15^2 for the first time in 10 or so days, throughout which time my GC solving has lagged one or more days behind the pace.  I enjoyed this puzzle well enough, as a welcome (for me at least) “gentler” Monday offering for returning back to the full workweek after a 4-day weekend here in the U.S. for Thanksgiving.  I liked three-quarters of the long entries today (WELSH DRESSER was an unfamiliar term for me and required post-solving Google-confirmation), and also LAST STRAW and RIGHT AWAY.  SAUSAGE eluded me for a long while, but in retrospect it seems much more obvious than it did at the time — a bit of a TTM.

    Many thanks to Vulcan and loonapick and the other commenters.

  33. I quite liked it, so thanks to Vulcan. I did enjoy getting The BEE GEES at 19d, but once I saw it I had “Words” as an earworm. Kind of appropriate given it started with a joke clue in a crossword. [BYW, thanks for the interview link, thezed@5.] New learnings were “LOUR” for “scowl” in LOURDES 8a and WELSH DRESSER at 26a. Ironically, GOODBYE at 17d was my LOI. Appreciated the blog, loonapick.

  34. [BTW was what I meant.] [Belated Happy Thanksgiving wishes to our American friends. I missed the Picaroon blog on that day so did not get to mark the occasion.]

  35. I’m another who enjoys CDs and still misses Rufus’ wit and erudition – so I enjoyed this one and always appreciate a gentle start to the week. Mind you, to be really satisfying, cryptic clues have to be genuinely cryptic, and EGOTISM isn’t really – is it? However, SEMIFINALIST more than compensated for this slight weakness, as did BEE GEES, whilst WELSH DRESSER and BISON made me grin. Thanks to Vulcan and Loonapick

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