Guardian Cryptic 27,988 by Vlad

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27988.

I wondered for a time if I would find any entry into this puzzle, but it came together eventually, except that I had not come across the Cornish artist in 10A. I do not know how 18D became highlighted in the grid, and refuses to be unhighlighted.

ACROSS
8 ANDY CAPP Working-class stripper with Young Conservative — it may be on your phone (4,4)
A charade of AND (‘with’) puls Y C (‘Young Conservative’) plus APP (‘it may be on your phone’). ‘Stripper’ as appearing in a comic strip.
9 USAGE We object — A&E’s good in practice (5)
A charade of US (‘we object’ – i.e. in the accusative) plus AGE, an envelope (‘in’) of G (‘good’) in AE (‘A&E’).
10 OPIE Cornish artist reproduced content (4)
[c]OPIE[d] (‘reproduced’) minus its outer letters (‘content’). The artist would be John Opie.
11 WUNDERKIND Young German master‘s last to kowtow to the bottom form (10)
A charade of W (‘last to kowtoW‘) plus UNDER (‘bottom’) plus KIND (‘form’).
12 PIGSTY Shame about empty gardens in Berkshire home (6)
An envelope (‘about’) of GS (’empty GardenS‘) in PITY (‘shame’). The Berkshire is a breed of pigs.
14 EVENTERS Curt mostly follows flat horses (8)
A charade of EVEN (‘flat’) plus TERS[e] (‘curt’) minus its last letter (‘mostly’). Eventers are horses (or their riders) which take part in showjumping events.
15 STAY PUT Don’t move sheep back across river (4,3)
An envelope (‘across’) of TAY (‘river’. Remember McGonagall?) in SPUT, a reversal (‘back’) of TUPS (‘sheep’).
17 ROSETTE Favour alternative over me? No resistance! (7)
A charade of RO, a reversal (‘over’) of OR (‘alternative’) plus SETTE[r] (‘me’) minus the R (‘no resistance’).
20 PATHETIC Woeful epic that’s in need of editing (8)
An anagram (‘in need of editing’) of ‘epic that’.
22 PASTED Stuck in olden days with English definitely at the forefront! (6)
A charade of PAST (‘in olden days’) plus E D (‘English Definitely at the forefront’).
23 NOBLE METAL Able to work with molten silver or gold (5,5)
An anagram (‘to work’) of ‘able’ plus ‘molten’.
24 DISH Food is hot but not the whole course (4)
A hidden answer (‘but not the whole’) in ‘fooD IS Hot’.
25 CHEAT Do the acrosses (first two easily) (5)
An anagram (‘easily’) of ‘the’ plus ‘ac[crosses]’ using only the ‘first two’. I represent that remark (at least, for 10A).
26 RAT-ARSED Flipping costly keeping sailors in drink (3-5)
An envelope (‘keeping’) of TARS (‘sailors’) in RAED, a reversal (‘flipping’) of DEAR (‘costly’).
DOWN
1 UNSPOILT POTUS in trouble over wall, finally — that’s natural (8)
An anagram (‘trouble’) of ‘POTUS in’ plus L (‘walL finally’).
2 LYRE Old music producer very likely showing up (4)
Hidden reversed (‘showing up’ in a down light) in ‘vERY Likely’.
3 GALWAY West coast county supporting government almost every time (6)
A charade of G (‘government’) plus ALWAY[s] (‘every time’) minus its last letter (‘almost’). The west coast of Ireland, of course.
4 SPONDEE Moving date — hurry round on foot (7)
An envelope (’round’) of ‘on’ in SPDEE, which is SPEED (‘hurry’) with the D moved (‘moving date’).
5 SUPEREGO Mind part of drink before journey (8)
A charade of SUP (‘drink’) plus ERE (‘before’) plus GO (‘journey’).
6 HAS KITTENS Is extremely upset (tackle’s caught in flies) (3,7)
An envelope (‘caught in’) of KIT (‘tackle’) in HASTENS (‘flies’).
7 TENNER On which Jane‘s voice can be heard (6)
Sounds like (‘can be heard’) TENOR (‘voice’). The Bank of England ten pound note – TENNER – has an image of Jane Austen on the reverse.
13 SEYCHELLES Told state’s bombarding archipelago (10)
Sounds like (‘told’) SAY SHELLS (‘state’s bombarding’ – with the apostrophe s being is).
16 ULTIMATE Team built lead going crazy in final (8)
An anagram (‘crazy’) of ‘team’ plus ‘[b]uilt’ minus the first letter (‘lead going’).
18 THE ASHES Batters (English) not right for this? (3,5)
THRASHES (‘batters’) with the R replaces with E (‘English not right’). Australia holds the Ashes at present.
19 SCOTERS Birds in tight corsets (7)
An anagram (‘tight’ – drunk) of ‘corsets’.

A scoter (and his reflection, for the plural).
21 AT ONCE Now pay the price over Cummings’s leadership? (2,4)
An envelope (‘over’) of C (‘Cumming’s leadership’) in ATONE (‘pay the price’).
22 PILATE Roman governor gets a lot of exercise (6)
PILATES is a system of exercise, and ‘a lot of’ it gives Pontius PILATE, the governor of Judaea who presided over the trial of Jesus.
24 DART It’s thrown in hurry (4)
Double definition.

 

image of grid

43 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,988 by Vlad”

  1. Not as gnarly as Vlad can be, although held up in the NW by taking an unwarranted time to unscramble unspoilt, and by having to guess Opie, who sounded faintly familiar, as I didn’t get the content of copied. Remembered the pig, and the poetic foot, from previous cws. Liked the naughtily neat 6d, ouch! and the almost exercised Pilate. Nice job Vlad and ta PeterO.

  2. I spent too much time on this puzzle today and even so, failed to solve ROSETTE. I could not parse TENNER – that was way too niche GK for me! Also new for me were ANDY CAPP & SPONDEE.

    My favourite was SUPEREGO.

    Thanks Peter and Vlad.

  4. I had to guess that Jane Austen was on the £10 note and didn’t know the ‘Cornish artist’, though he wasn’t too difficult to work out. I couldn’t ‘Do’ the parsing of CHEAT ‘easily’ so thanks for the explanation.

    It was good to see a couple of (for me anyway) “crossword words” in SCOTERS and SPONDEE making an appearance. My favourites were the ‘Working-class stripper’, ‘Berkshire home’ and ‘in drink’ defs.

    Thanks to Vlad and PeterO – “his reflection, for the plural”, very original

  5. Re 25a: Vlad used “easily” to indicate an anagram a month ago – it was objected to then, and is no better now. The answer here is quite appropriate to that, imo.

  6. Lovely puzzle oozing wit.A while since I’ve seen a tenner but it sounds like tenor. I googled Jane Tenner just to get the full low-down

    Thanks Peter and JT

  7. Thanks, PeterO.

    ‘Lovely puzzle oozing wit’, indeed.

    Chortles for ANDY CAPP, PIGSTY, RAT-ARSED, HAS KITTENS, STAY PUT …

    Huge thanks to Vlad for brightening up yet another gloomy morning.

  8. That was a lot more fun than it seemed at first! A few easier ones to get some crossers in and gradually even the most intractable-appearing gave way. In contrast to the previous (recent) Vlad, which I found a strain and over-worked, I thought this was full of wit, inventiveness and novelty. I loved the “Berkshire home”, the “stripper” and “superego” but especially admired how not a single word was out of place or excessive across the whole puzzle. Bravo Vlad, and thank you PeterO for the lovely blog.

  9. I started off well, thinking I might actually finish a Vlad for once. Soon ground to a halt though and came here.

    Thank you Vlad for a couple of chuckles though (eg 12a and 6d).

  10. Defeated by spondee- a very unfamiliar word for me, though I have heard of it. Otherwise very enjoyable and had many of the same favs as others – ANDY CAPP(took a while for the penny to drop), RAT-ARSED and PIGSTY.
    Thanks to Vlad for the fun and PeterO for the blog.

  11. PeterO

    Re TheZed’s comment @8 [‘not a single word was out of place or excessive’] – one small point that I forgot to mention: in 14ac I read UNDER as ‘to the bottom’.

  12. Thanks Vlad and PeterO

    Very hard, and a DNF as I couldn’t come up with a word to put before KITTENS in 6d (I checked “sex”, but it wasn’t that!). I didn’t parse THE ASHES either, though I had vaguely heard of OPIE.

    Some loose anagram indicators – the “easily” in 25a and “tight” in 19d.

    Favourites were PIGSTY and RAT_ARSED – the latter as I built it up from its parts.

  13. Not as fearsome as usual with a number of anagrams to offer footholds across the grid before the meatier stuff.

    Favourites were ANDY CAPP and RAT-ARSED. Liked the “gets a lot of” instead of the usual subtraction indicator in 22d. Less convinced by the (lack of) definition for THE ASHES – not really &Lit either.

    Once went out with a girl called Sue who informed me that if we wed she would become Sue Perigo. Doomed from the start!

    Thanks both.

  14. Thanks all. I didn’t like ‘moving date’ to mean put the D anywhere. ‘date moved to middle’ or something would be better.

  15. Muffin @ 12 I’m all for an imaginative anagram and tight=drunk works fine for me, your comment brought ‘loose’ as an anagrind to mind and reverse engineering that gives tight=not loose as a justification too.

    Enjoyed this, chuckled at Berkshire home and in drink but lots else to enjoy too.

    Thanks Vlad and PeterO

  16. Found that the bottom half of this puzzle was almost a write-in, but then had a mighty struggle with the top half. The Cornish Artist and Spondee were the last brush strokes. Liked Rosette and Eventers.

  17. Thank you Vlad for a lovely puzzle and PeterO for a helpful blog.

    12a brought Blandings Castle to my mind, Evelyn Waugh said “The gardens of Blandings Castle are that original garden from which we are all exiled.” (see ref. 2 here).

  18. I found this a little too contrived for my taste (which means I found it very difficult.)

    I got RAT-ARSED fairly early on, but unlike others I thought the definition ‘in drink’ was pretty feeble – maybe I’m missing something (a few screws probably.) Easily and tight are both in the Chambers list of anagrinds, so I don’t see the objections there.

    There were, however, some gems, like HAS KITTENS.

    Thanks Vlad and PeterO – I find if you go back from the solved page to ‘Cryptic crosswords’ and reload today’s one the highlight disappears.

  20. Took a while but then it is a Vlad crossword so to be expected

    My views (once again) match those of Eileen @7

    Thanks to Vlad and PeterO

  23. Got ANDY CAPP & OPIE fairly early on and thus foolishly thought there was a theme of characters from strip cartoons (Opie being the daft dog in Garfield). Further reinforced when I mis-remembered Pig-Pen from Peanuts as PIGSTY. Further delays when I made the obvious (and obviously sexist) mistake of putting ESCORTS for SCOTERS.

    Some tricky clues but this was Vlad at his most gentle and generous. I really liked it.

    Thanks to Vlad and PeterO

  24. A pleasant evening last night and fill-in morning, though some defeated me — ROSETTE, for instance.  I enjoyed RAT-ARSE and HAS KITTENS.  Thanks to Vlad and to PeterO for the help I sorely needed.

  25. Well I got there but generally found in tough slow going. Last ones were rosette and tenner (this a guess from tenor). However some lovely clues and my favourites the same as Eileen@7. Thank to Vlad for the workout and PeterO for the blog.

  26. Good fun. I got there in the end. I like Opie’s art but didn’t think of him for ages. I especially liked Jane on the tenner, which also took a while for me to see. I wonder what our solvers abroad made of ANDY CAPP, RAT-ARSED, HAS KITTENS and TENNER.

  27. Benington and muffin, free-to-air still brings Oz viewers The Ashes (but no longer the shorter form internationals). We’re all ‘praying’ the boom doesn’t fall.

  30. copland smith@26  A local paper (the Hartford Courant?  The San Francisco Chronicle?) carried Andy Capp for some time, so I was familiar with Andy and Flo.  I’ve run across rat-arsed and have kittens somewhere, but Jane and the tenner were too much for me.

  31. Has anyone else mentioned that the apostrophe s should be included in the definition of 7D? (On which Jane is)

  33. PeterJohnN @ 32

    I think it’s {k to refer to The Ashes as ‘this’ as it’s the name of a competition, so you could refer to ‘this Ashes vis-a-vis the last one’, and also as the trophy itself is a single thing, the urn.

  37. Not fair. Doubley cryptic in a number of clues especially 10ac. Solved with a lot of electronic help and frequent use of check

  38. We thought hard, but fair and fun with lots of lightbulb moments. Couldn’t believe that RAT-ARSED was allowable, but if it’s OK with Eileen . . .

    OPIE was last one in and reminded me of the wonderful Lore and Language of Schoolchildren by Iona and Peter, with maps of where barley gave way to pax as the truce word.

    And well remembered Cookie@17/19 re the Empress!

    Thanks to Vlad and PeterO.

  39. I always expect to miss a few with Vlad, so I wasn’t grumpy about missing ANDY CAPP (head slap after revealing) or TENNER (blank look after revealing). I had heard RAT-ARSED and HAS KITTENS a handful of times in my life and claimed a moral victory by putting each together from the wordplay. Lots to like in spite of the struggle. Thanks to Vlad and PeterO.

  41. I always find Vlad puzzles a bit of a slog, and this was no exception. The Prize puzzle this week was easier than both this and last Friday’s Enigmatist monstrosity.

  42. Many thanks for that reference, Irishmen. Here in WA we used ‘barleys’, with the stress on the second syllable, and I’ve often wondered about its provenance. Much appreciated.

  43. Superb puzzle, kept us going for more than a week. Very elegant, and as others have commented, very precise in all its elements. Love particularly content meaning the innards of a word in 10a. Kicked myself for not thinking of metrical foot in spondee sooner, and as for stripper … well that now joins flower for river as beguiling -er word. Genius… Pigsty was lovely too. My partner got that one, I’d never have got it, totally thrown by Berkshire home. Wunderkind had us at the point of despair, but a flash of middle of the night inspiration and that was in the bag. More like this please!

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