Guardian 28,088 – Vulcan

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Another quickie from Vulcan, with what felt like a lot of anagrams and the usual smattering of cryptic definitions. Thanks to Vulcan.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. LEGIBLE On stage, Bible not at first readable (7)
LEG (stage, e.g. of a sporting contest) + [B]IBLE
5. BOUNCES From nightspot, ejects black cats (7)
B[lack] + OUNCES (Snow Leopards – cats)
9. CORPS Troops in a body, almost (5)
CORPS[E]
10. HIT-AND-RUN Policy for Twenty20 accident? (3-3-3)
Twenty20 is a shortened for of cricket where hit-and-run might be a good way to score runs quickly; it’s also a road accident where the culprit flees the scene
11. TRANSISTOR Electronic device starts iron working (10)
(STARTS IRON)*
12. LOT Left good books in pile for auction (3)
L + O[ld] T[estament]
14. ALL SYSTEMS GO Everything ready to forge glossy metals (3,7,2)
(GLOSSY METALS)*
18. ON ONE’S UPPERS Short of money, regularly taking stimulants? (2,4,6)
Double definition, uppers being stimulant drugs
21. DEW It is dropped on the grass (3)
Cryptic definition: dropped = consisting of drops
22. SEDAN CHAIR Its carriers are poles apart (5,5)
Cryptic definition
25. IN THE KNOW Aware when tin OK to recycle (2,3,4)
(WHEN TIN OK)*
26. AISLE Passage in a detached place (5)
A + ISLE
27. CAHOOTS In which conspirators are getting together (7)
Cryptic definition
28. SUNSPOT Star mark for tropical resort? (7)
SUN + SPOT
Down
1. LOCATE Find commanding officer getting in after time (6)
CO OC in LATE
2. GERMAN Ranger managed to arrest European (6)
RANGER* Don’t know where that came from: actually it’s hidden in ranGER MANaged
3. BEST SELLER Top salesman, hardly needed to shift this? (4,6)
A top salesman is a BEST SELLER, and BEST SELLERs (books) presumably don’t need a salesman
4. ETHOS Character of those whose energy is raised right up (5)
THOSE with E (energy) moved to the top
5. BOTTOMS UP Last drink cheers (7,2)
BOTTOM (last) + SUP
6. ULNA Some fanciful name for part of the arm (4)
Hidden in fancifUL NAme
7. CARELESS Negligent, not having transport round Spain (8)
E (Spain) in CAR-LESS
8. SANCTION Authority contains uprising (8)
CONTAINS*
13. LEPRECHAUN Fairy that’s mischievous: clean her up (10)
(CLEAN HER UP)*
15. SAUTERNES So swivel round when speaking for a glass of this? (9)
Homophone of “so turn”
16. GOLD DISC Token of success for heavy metal band? (4,4)
GOLD is a heavy metal: not sure if a DISC is a band, or if this is just an extended cryptic definition
17. DOGWATCH Follow timepiece for two hours on duty (8)
DOG (follow) + WATCH (timepiece)
19. PASS UP Don’t take opportunity to succeed at university (4,2)
PASS (succeed in an exam) + UP (at university)
20. ORIENT Find position in the east (6)
Double definition
23. AS WAS Formerly, a fascist symbol broken in half (2,3)
A SWAS[tika]
24. HERO He deserves woman’s love (4)
HER + O, and an extended definition

40 comments on “Guardian 28,088 – Vulcan”

  3. A couple of false assumptions held me up – trying to make anagrams of “fairy thats” and “ranger”, but they were clear enough on a closer look.

  4. Larry, you beat me to it as well. (RANGER)* would be GERRAN or GERNAR. It should also be “form” of cricket in the HIT-AND-RUN explanation. Otherwise: many thanks both.

  5. Thank you, Andrew, I think perhaps you liked this more than I did.

    A few barely cryptic:  CAHOOTS, HIT-AND-RUN, BEST SELLER, BOTTOMS UP, CARELESS, GOLD DISC, etc.  DEW is perhaps the worst of these.

    From nightspot, ejects black cats  is not a sentence ever likely to be used…unless it can be found in the pages of The Hitchhiker’s Guide.

    I presume the commanding officer is OC rather than CO.  (Officer Commanding?)

    But I did like the poles apart carriers of SEDAN CHAIR.

    Stay safe, everyone.

  7. Vulcan in extremely gentle mode today with many barely cryptic clues. I held myself up for longer than it took to do the rest of the puzzle by having GOLD RING for 16d (RING seems a better synonym for BAND than DISC) and being left with G H O S. Eventually I concluded 16d had to be wrong, got CAHOOTS and then DISC. I did like SEDAN CHAIR and DEW. Thanks Vulcan and Andrew.

  8. Thanks for a nice quick Monday morning solve Vulcan, albeit a Monday just like any other day of the week for us over seventies with all our activities and distractions cancelled.

    Like William I enjoyed SEDAN CHAIR. Also the double definition of ON ONES UPPERS.

    Thanks to Andrew for the blog.

  9. Nice and quick this morning but Mrs Job (PVB@8) beat me to it – I always forget that an ounce is a cat. Had a chuckle at CAHOOTS. Thanks Vulcan and Andrew..

  10. Enjoyable puzzle. My favourites were SEDAN CHAIR, HIT AND RUN.

    New for me was DOG-WATCH.

    Thanks, Vulcan and Andrew.

  11. Couldn’t get the sedan part of 22a. It’s hardly cryptic. If you don’t know the word there’s little chance of parsing it. Otherwise all good. Thank you.

  12. Another one with GOLD RING at first which, as WhiteKind says, is a better synonym. I wasn’t happy with DISC at all.

  13. And another “gold ring” here which seems to me to fit perfectly well, so a poor clue. “hit-and-run” was not my favourite – in Twenty20 there is much more striking to the boundary so more a case of “hit-and-don’t-run”! Otherwise all smooth and some neat anagrams, albeit a quick solve.

    Thanks Andrew and Vulcan – now back to using the last of the bread flour!

  14. In these days of lock-down perhaps we need to rethink the easy Monday idea.  I could have done with something that whiled away a bit more time.  But it was all fine and quite enjoyable.  Favourites were SEDAN CHAIR (poles apart indeed) SAUTERNES, perfect for my spoken french and HIT AND RUN – well sums up Twenty 20 IMHO.  Many thanks Vulcan and Andrew!!

  16. A Gold disc is awarded for an artist selling a 100,000 discs (used to be one million and think it now includes downloads!)

  17. Thanks Vulcan and Andrew

    Much easier than the Quiptic, though I had GOLD RING first too. I don’t think it quite works, but it’s better than disc, which falls between charade and just cryptic definition.

    I liked SEDAN CHAIR and the anagram for 14a.

  18. I assumed GOLD DISC was some kind of definition by example as there was a question mark. I thought SEDAN CHAIR was a nice example of a much-maligned clue type. I didn’t like BOUNCES – the mangled grammar just seems an attempt to inject a bit of difficulty. Still, I’m grateful for any distraction at the moment. I hope you’re all keeping well. Thanks to A&V

     

  19. Thanks Vulcan and Andrew. Not too hard. I also liked 14a ALL SYSTEMS GO. Thinking of our crosswording community across the world and hoping everyone is staying safe and sane.

  20. I’m not generally a fan of purely cryptic definitions with no wordplay to help, but these were certainly gettable even if “barely cryptic,” as some have said. SEDAN CHAIR was my favourite of those, and like JinA @19 I also liked ALL SYSTEMS GO. Not wanting to be accused of piling on, I’ll say no more about GOLD DISC and just thank Vulcan for a Monday offering that was easy enough and entertaining emough.

    Andrew, I parsed 28a as a double definition with a SUNSPOT being a “star mark.” I guess either parsing works. I had forgotten ounces = cats and was completely in the dark about Twenty20, so thanks for enlightening me.

  23. I’m with SPanza@14. With my class and my tennis group cancelled, I’m more in the mood for a Maskarade special!

    The one thing I struggled with was to find a way to make disc=band; annulus? a vinyl disc with the centre blown out? It would be good to know what Vulcan was thinking.

  26. I for another had GOLD RING for a while untill it had to cross with CAHOOTS. I also made the sloppy parsing of GERMAN as (RANGER)*.

  27. Good Monday fare; I always find cds tricky; so, no push over for me, especially as I had ‘cut and run’ at first, which seemed OK to me. I got a bit stuck on the SW quadrant, not seeing the obvious reference to ‘dropped’ for a long time.

    Thanks Vulcan and Andrew.

  28. SPanza@14 and Dr. WhatsOn@23. Yes, but some people are currently busier than ever and would prefer every day to be Mondayish to at least get a little light relief.

  30. Nice to see my old mate the OUNCE making another appearance. I thought some of this a bit loose too but there was enough here to make the puzzle worthwhile. I liked AS WAS and ORIENT and SEDAN CHAIR, which I thought quite clever once I got it..GOLD DISC had to be the answer but I couldn’t see how it worked and thought I was missing something clever but it seems I wasn’t!
    Thanks Vulcan.

  31. grantinfreo@29 – apologies. I did not mean to give that impression. Just adding a bit of balance that not everyone is sitting round looking for things to fill the time. I have to confess to being an inessential but appreciative worker.

  32. Nice start to the week. 24d a favourite.

    I know I’m in a minority here but I do wish setters wouldn’t define hit-and-run as “accident”. The driver’s at fault by definition.

  33. Did this over lunch so able to post on the same day – hooray! I understand why some people will like a harder crossword on a Monday to while away time – but some people out there might be taking up a new hobby and need easy puzzles. (I’ve got a couple of friends in this group). Hope you all keep blogging as the blog is often as interest as the puzzle!

  34. A mixed bag, for my money. I don’t think GOLD DISC works well enough as a cd. HIT AND RUN might seem like a description of Twenty20 cricket, but it really isn’t. Knowing when not to run is a big part of the game. Would work with baseball as the sport, though.
    I liked the anagrams in ALL SYSTEMS GO and, particularly, SANCTION, which is a beautiful little clue.
    Thanks for the distraction, Vulcan, and for the blog, Andrew.

  36. Sorry for suggesting that we ALL need a tougher crossword in the light of the current times.  Obviously health care workers are much too busy to take more time over this hobby!!  And, a massive thank you to them for, as the saying goes, going towards the danger when others are running away.  Here where I am currently living in southern Spain I have loads of ways to spend my spare time, it is just that today it is hammering it down so walking is not really an option and the bars are closed and social get together’s are banned. But, we are keeping safe.

    Current coronavirus deaths 15,500ish.  Current estimates for deaths of CHILDREN from HUNGER, up to perhaps half a million in the same time period .  Just saying!

    Did anybody else tentatively pencil in TIP AND RUN, remembering the kids game where one had to try and hit (tip) every ball and run no matter what!!  Good times!!

  37. SPanza, yes; maybe some of the (inevitably essentially public) response will persist and spill into those chronic health issues that we become inured to.

  38. Embarrassing admission for today: Despite knowing nothing about cricket, I’ve managed to memorize the fact that in crosswords, LEG = ON. So in 1a, I assumed that the first word of the clue was the indicator for LEG and was baffled by what “stage” was doing there.

     

  39. In reply to Robin at #32, the crime in a “hit and run” is the run, not *necessarily* the hit. It may well have been an accident, and not the driver’s fault. But the driver must not leave the scene.

     

  40. Thank you Womble @33. I am one of those who needs the odd ‘easy’ solve to keep me motivated
    Robin @32. Surely the ‘hit’ can be an accident, then it’s the just running that’s an offence, so surely still an initially an accident

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