Guardian Cryptic 28,112 by Vulcan

by

Mostly straightforward, getting stuck for a while in the North-West of the grid. Favourites were 23ac, 4dn, and 11dn. Thanks to Vulcan

Across
1 TIME BOMB One may go up in a few ticks (4,4)
  cryptic definition – I’m not sure I’ve heard of bombs going ‘up’ rather than ‘off’
5 GLAMIS Alluring, one’s castle (6)
  =a castle in Scotland
GLAM=”Alluring” + I’S=”one’s”
9 NO-FRILLS Plain, nothing to excite cockney (2-6)
  sounds like ‘no thrills’=”nothing to excite” in a cockney accent
10 BARREL Sort of chest that may be scraped (6)
  reference to the phrase ‘scraping the barrel’
12 EDICT Order thesaurus in online form? (5)
  E- (prefix indicating ‘electronic’/online) + DICT (dictionary/thesaurus)
13 VERSATILE Relatives reform, being adaptable (9)
  (Relatives)*
14 BILLINGSGATE British legislating blasted for its bad language (12)
  ‘Billingsgate’ is a term meaning foul or abusive language
B (British) + (legislating)*
18 LYING IN STATE Staying in bed, say, a great honour for a body (5,2,5)
  LYING IN=”Staying in bed” + STATE=”say”
21 AUSTRALIA The Commonwealth: it could hardly be more distant from Britain (9)
  officially known as The Commonwealth of Australia, and the other side of the world to Britain
23 OFFAL Refuse left by dyke builder (5)
  L (left) after OFFA=”dyke builder” [wiki]
24 CUEING Giving a signal to be lining up for hearing (6)
  homophone/”for hearing” of ‘queuing’=”to be lining up”
25 MAJORITY Officer rank needed to win a seat? (8)
  Major-ity might mean the quality of holding the rank of Major
26 TETHER Getting to the end of this exhausts one’s patience (6)
  reference to the phrase ‘the end of one’s tether’
27 STREAMER Flag when monarch’s aboard ship (8)
  R (Regina, Rex)=”monarch” inside STEAMER=”ship”
Down
1 TENDER Sensitive to pain in small boat (6)
  double definition: a ‘tender’ can be a smaller boat that supports/’tends to’ a larger vessel
2 MUFFIN Almost making a mess of cake (6)
  MUFFIN[g]=”making a mess” without its last letter
3 BRISTLING Looking offended, finding bit of toenail in small fish (9)
  T[oenail] in BRISLING=”small fish”
4 MALEVOLENTLY Man forcefully expelling one with ill will (12)
  MALE=”Man” + V-I-OLENTLY=”forcefully” minus I=”one”
6 LLAMA Some small Amazonian animal (5)
  hidden in [sma]LL AMA[zonian]
7 MARGINAL Alarming to be treated as almost irrelevant (8)
  (Alarming)*
8 SOLDERED Served in the army? Not one joined (8)
  SOLD-I-ERED=”Served in the army” minus I=”one”
11 GRIND TO A HALT Dancing, a girl hadn’t to lose all momentum (5,2,1,4)
  (a girl hadn’t to)*
15 SOTTO VOCE Italian speaking in a whisper (5,4)
  cryptic definition: an Italian phrase meaning “in a whisper”, rather than an Italian person whispering
16 CLEAN-CUT Respectably neat, is one less likely to be infected? (5-3)
  a CLEAN CUT/wound is “less likely to be infected”
17 MISSPENT Teacher locked up, being wasted (8)
  MISS=”Teacher” + PENT=”locked up”
19 AFFIRM Assert a company must employ female (6)
  A FIRM=”a company” around F (female)
20 PLAYER One taking piano course? (6)
  P (piano) + LAYER=”course”
22 RANGE What storms do, circling northern mountains (5)
  RAGE=”What storms do” around N (northern)

45 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,112 by Vulcan”

  2. No frills, handy for the hills… aye, chance would be a fine thing! A nice gentle start to the week. I hadn’t heard BILLINGSGATE as a term for bad language so that was a nice clue for me. I alsi liked MALEVOLENTLY and CLEAN-CUT. Thanks Vulcan, and manehi, I hope you’re both well.

  3. Yes, pretty straightforward. I liked OFFAL as well as GLAMIS and SOLDERED. I didn’t know that Australia was aka the Commonwealth of which makes this a better clue than I first thought. Thanks to Vulcan and manehi.

  5. I’ve often wondered if Vulcan is an experienced setter being asked to work down or a new setter being held back but the variety in quality here makes me wonder if it’s one person at all?

    Some great clues (2, 4, 5, 7, 8,17……) but dictionary in 12, the surface of 21 and the barely cryptic 15 grated and 20 reinforces my view that &lit is the last refuge for clues that just won’t work.

    Thanks to Vulcan and manehi.

  6. A good start to the week!  Favourites were NO FRILLS – well I’m from London – OFFAL and MALEVOLENT.  Did not know the meaning of BILLINGSGATE but it was a fine clue!  Many thanks Vulcan and manehi

  7. I thought this was a bit of a curate’s egg, to be honest. I agree with you, Manehi, about 1a: bombs blow “up” and go “off” – but they don’t “go up”. 26a doesn’t seem particularly cryptic, to me.
    However, SOLDERED, GLAMIS, MISSPENT and EDICT were very pleasing.
    Thanks for the blog and for the help in parsing BRISTLING (my not having an encyclopaedic knowledge of fish-types is a real handicap!) and thanks to Vulcan for some much-needed distraction on a wet monday-morning lockdown.

  8. A pleasant Monday puzzle, mostly straightforward but for me it was the NE corner that held out longest.

    Thanks to Vulcan and manehi

  10. Good Monday workout. 14ac was new to me, too, and I’m ashamed to say I couldn’t see 13ac until I had all the crossers.
    Thanks Vulcan and manehi.

  11. Thanks Vulcan and manehi

    Unlike some other posters, I much preferred this to the Quiptic (and not just for the name-check!). I liked the neat anagrams for VERSATILE, ALARMING, GRIND TO A HALT, and BILLINGSGATE. BARREL and OFFAL also made me smile.

    I wasn’t all that convinced by MAJORITY.

  12. Certainly very straightforward but I learnt something: the full name of Australia and that BILLINGSGATE isn’t just the old London fish market.

  14. A few dnks here, like Billingsgate’s particular meaning, and yet another fish! Offa is an occasional regular as word-part, not yet a chestnut, so a bit of neural dredging required. 16d’s second meaning needs the hyphen dropped, a mere quiblettino. Didn’t mind 20d, extended def, partial &Lit, whichever. Nice stroll, thanks M and V.

    PS Well done to all Maskaraders, too much like slog for this lazybones.

  15. 14ac reminds me of a Queen’s Bench Master of the old school, about 40 years ago, who had a slight speech impediment similar to Winston Churchill’s.

    Peering over his spectacles at my opponent, he announced with great distaste Thish hash a Billingshgate shmell…

  16. Didn’t know BILLINGSGATE as a term for bad language, but a straightforward anagram. Soldiered on through a pleasing puzzle, with 8d appropriately enough LOI…

  17. I didn’t know the BILLINGSGATE smell or the brisling. Bristling in this neck of the woods is with anger, not offence. I didn’t think SOTTO VOCE was cryptic, more like a quick crossword clue. For goes up, Collins has: If something goes up, it explodes or starts to burn, usually suddenly and with great intensity,’ so that seems to be OK.

    I liked the GRIND TO A HALT anagram.

    Thanks Vulcan and manehi.

  18. Scutter @2 you’ve given me an urge for OFFAL. Was BARREL actually a clever joke? As a clue it could be said to be scraping the bottom of the proverbial … Cheers V&M

  21. Pretty much all I wanted to say about this is at 26a.

    Thanks Vulcan and manehi, stay safe, everyone.

  22. I can’t join in the praise for this one. The majority were write-ins at first glance, and the whole grid was completed in under fifteen minutes. Not much satisfaction in that. Here’s hoping for more of a challenge in the rest of the week.

  23. Thanks for the mention at 21a AUSTRALIA, Vulcan. I liked 5a GLAMIS and 3D MUFFIN. Appreciated your blog, manehi.
    [i did feel a bit funny about being described as living somewhere that “could hardly be more distant”. Due to the wonders of technology, I am lucky that I am able to feel quite close to this community.]

  24. Why could Australia hardly be further from Britain? New Zealand is easily further from Britain, and no doubt there are a few islands that are exactly antipodean to somewhere in Britain.

  25. Like you, JiA, I was brought up short by being ‘hardly more distant’. At least I knew we are a Commonwealth, even if the wealth here is hardly held in common. Much easier than the Quiptic, I thought. Is a muffin a cake?

  26. I thought the ‘it could hardly be more distant from Britain’ in 21a was referring to the ‘wealth’ in Britain not exactly being ‘in common’ or spread around, but being concentrated in the hands of a minority. NZ wasn’t picked, even though it’s further away from Britain, because as far as I know it’s not the ‘Commonwealth of NZ’, whereas it is the ‘Commonwealth of Australia’. Just my take on it anyway.

    More than challenging enough for me for a Monday. One new piscine creature into the vocabulary.

    Thanks to Vulcan and manehi

  28. A bit easier than the Quiptic and a mixed bag for me. I appreciated the clever anagrams for VERSATILE and MARGINAL (which have undoubtedly appeared before, but not within my memory). On the other hand, I wrote in a few like SOTTO VOCE and AUSTRALIA wondering if I was missing something in the clue (I wasn’t). Anyway, a bit of my day pleasantly occupied, so thanks to Vulcan and manehi.

  29. Glad to see Muffin’s benefit season continues.  Maybe AUSTRALIA is a tribute to Julie?  I’ll be looking out for other 15²-ers in future grids.

    Thanks to V & M.

  30. Thanks to Vulcan and manehi.

    Gosh but I found this hard going. Perhaps it was the variety in quality mentioned by robert@5 but more likely my lazy Monday brain.  I did like the anagrams at MARGINAL, VERSATILE and GRIND TO A HALT; on the other hand BARREL, EDICT, TETHER, PLAYER, SOTTO VOCE and AUSTRALIA gave pause for brow-furrowing leading to a mild mental cramp.  Oh cheer up!  How bad to have a pleasant (enough) challenge with which to pass (perhaps too long) a while.

    COD was, of course, MUFFIN.

    [I see that while I was typing DaveinNCarolina has posted views which resonate happily with mine.] [Keep well everyone!]

  31. The trouble with CDs like 15d SOTTO VOCE is that they are so barely cryptic that there is a 50-50 chance that the first interpretation that hits the old grey cells is the one that they are looking for. I contrast this with the classic “Die of cold (3,4)”, for which it is difficult to shake the image of freezing to death, and instead get ICE CUBE. Of course, ymmv.

  33. I don’t know if I’m missing something but PLAYER is a bit naff,isn’t it. I wasn’t sure about MISSPENT: surely it should be MISSPEND to work? I did think about MISLAID but that would require Paul to clue it!
    Not a bad puzzle: I did like NO FRILLS and EDICT.
    Thanks Vulcan.

  34. Many thanks to Vulcan and Manehi and Howard March @ 24 : According to my far from exhaustive research, anyone in the British Isles, or various Bailiwicks, Crown Possessions, lighthouses etc. attempting to sail to their antipodal point would find themselves at sea. The British and Americans covered themselves in shame squabbling around the Antipodes Islands in the early 1800s, killing every seal in sight and each other, occasionally making fortunes, including a Norfolk burglar named Kable. But these islands are the antipodes of a little peninsula east of Cherbourg.

  35. PA @ 33

    If you have pent up feelings they could be said to be locked up; similarly, a misspent windfall, say, would be a wasted one.

  36. Fairly easy solve – I too didn’t quite get “player”; just though it was a (rather weak) cryptic definition. Thanks  Vulcan and manehi…

  37. A strange mix of very easy and very enjoyable clues. I wasn’t impressed with TETHER, AUSTRALIA and GRIND TO A HALT (which went in just from the word count), even for a Monday.

    But I loved: NO FRILLS (it’s how I pronounce it, and it’s nice to have a crossword Cockney doing something other than dropping their aitches, innit); some actual anagrams, rather than composite ones though BILLINGSGATE was brilliant; BARREL, and GLAMIS, my last one in. Overall the good outweighed the easy; thanks Vulcan and Manehi.

    A few days early to comment, but the vintage Paul on Saturday was a lot of fun.

  38. Where does Billingsgate (meaning bad language come from – related to the strong language of fishers?

  40. il principe dell’oscurità @34, yes the antipodes of the UK are entirely ocean. Perhaps more surprisingly, so are those of Australia

  41. Thank you Scutter; I thought I’d been fairly thorough with my scouring and Lat/Long arithmetic but I wasn’t 100% sure. Thanks for the confirmation.

  42. I’ve come across Billingsgate used as an adjective with language to mean swearing but not on its own. I remember the story of a professor who was challenged to a flyting (swearing competition) with a Scottish fishwife and silenced her by calling her an isosceles triangle. As others have said, some clever anagrams but too many barely cryptic definitions for me. Thanks to Vulcan and manehi.

  43. I suppose the Antipodes Islands were the antipodes in the time of Henry V/VI, but then they hadn’t been discovered then.

Comments are closed.