Guardian Cryptic 28,510 by Vlad

by

[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28510.

This was a fair struggle in both senses of the word, with the upper half taking the longer to yield. Somehow I left out the usual grid image, so apologies if you are disturbed by its absence

ACROSS
9 IN TROUBLE
Start down — you moved left with your back to the wall (2,7)
A charade of INTRO (‘start’) plus UBLE, which is BLUE (‘down’) with the U (‘you’) ‘moved left’.
10 EYRIE
Hoylake’s third, middle of green — I fancy chance of eagle here (5)
An anagram (‘fancy’) of Y (‘HoYlake’s third’) plus REE (‘middle of gREEn’) plus ‘I’. For the surface, Hoylake in NW England is home to a prominent golf course.
11 HIGH TEA
Old politician’s wife out — heat up meal (4,3)
A charade of [w]HIG (‘old politician’) minus the W (‘wife out’) plus HTEA, an anagram (‘up’?) of ‘heat’.
12 ASSAULT
Charlie, turn key to go outside! Mug! (7)
A charade of ASS (‘Charlie’) plus AULT, an envelope (‘to go outside’) of U (‘turn’) in ALT (‘key’ on computer keyboard).
13 HEAT
Cycling articles for celebrity magazine (4)
THE A (‘articles’) ‘cycling’.
14 FIANNA FAIL
In fix, getting nothing after foolishly trusting flipping politicians (6,4)
A charade of FIAN, a reversal (‘flipping’) of NAIF (‘foolishly trusting’); plus NAFAIL, an envelope (‘in’) of FA (‘nothing’) in NAIL (‘fix’), for the Irish political party.
15 NOTABLE
One’s well-known but talentless (7)
NOT ABLE (‘talentless’).
17 PITCHED
Badly wanted to pursue prince (was a tosser) (7)
A charade of P (‘prince’) plus ITCHED (‘badly wanted’).
19 UNCULTURED
Last month dons still sick — that’s rough! (10)
An envelope (‘dons’) of ULT (‘last month’) in UNCURED (‘still sick’).
22 SNIP
Fixes wheels — it prevents issue (4)
A reversal (‘wheels’) of PINS (‘fixes’). The definition refers to a vasectomy.
23 AMERICA
Are taking money during period running country (7)
A charade of A (‘are’, measure of area) plus M (‘money’) plus ERICA, an envelope (‘during’) of IC ( In Command, ‘running’) in ERA (‘period’), for the common name given to the USA.
24 CALIBRE
Oversight describing short politician as bore (7)
An envelope (‘describing’) of LIB (Liberal, ‘short politician’) in CARE (‘oversight’).
26 LEARN
Hear about right offering little reward (5)
An envelope (‘about’) of R (‘right’) in LEAN (‘offering little reward’).
27 ENTRE NOUS
Turn-on (see models privately) (5,4)
An anagram (‘models’) of ‘turn on see’.
DOWN
1 RIGHT HONOURABLE
Hang out with horrible characters, becoming like Boris, ironically (5,10)
An anagram (‘characters’) of ‘hang out’ plus ‘horrible’. Boris Johnson could be styled such as Prime Minister.
2 STAGNANT
Still good, old woman’s figure outwardly (8)
An envelope (‘outwardly’) of G (‘good’) plus NAN (‘old woman’) in STAT (statistic, ‘figure’).
3 GOAT
Billy — perhaps initially the best ever (4)
Double definition, the second being an acronym for Greatest Of All Time.
4 ABRASIVE
One bar’s busy and one’s rough (8)
A charade of A (‘one’) plus BRAS, an anagram (‘busy’) of ‘bars’ plus I’VE (‘one’s’).
5 REMAIN
Soldiers with major are outstanding (6)
A charade of RE (Royal Engineers, ‘soldiers’) plus MAIN (‘major’). ‘are’ fits better with the surface than the wordplay.
6 REDSTART
Winger studied recording before kick-off (8)
A charade of RED, sounding like (‘recording’) READ (‘studied’) plus START (‘kick-off’). The ‘winger’ is a bird.
7 TRAUMA
Wound up mate originally in a cunning volte-face (6)
An envelope (‘in’) of U M (‘Up Mate originally’) in TRAA, a reversal (‘volte-face’) of ‘a’ plus ART (‘cunning’, noun).
8 NEXT SLIDE PLEASE
‘Following ladies sleep around’ sounds like a witty comment? (4,5,6)
A charade of NEXT (‘following’) plus SLIDE PLEASE, an anagram (‘around’) of ‘ladies sleep’. The definition seems to refer to Boris Johnson again, but I have not come across the clip before, and am not sure of its context.
16 BILLIONS
What do we have to pay? They’ve been charged a hell of a lot! (8)
A charade of BILL (‘what do we have to pay?’) plus IONS (‘they’ve been charged’).
17 PRESCOTT
Labour minister, who once attacked political correctness, claims most of others exaggerated (8)
A charade of PRESC, an envelope (‘claims’) of RES[t] (‘others’) minus its last letter (‘most of’) in PC (‘political correctness’); plus OTT (over the top, ‘exaggerated’). For the definition, see this.
18 HANDBOOK
Manual worker right — there’s an unpleasant smell inside (8)
An envelope (‘inside’) of BO (body odour, ‘an unpleasant smell’) in HAND (‘worker’) plus OK (‘right’).
20 CRETAN
Islander in secret announcement (6)
A hidden answer in ‘seCRET ANnouncement’.
21 UNAWED
Hairy nude carrying a little weight — not that impressed! (6)
An envelope (‘carrying’) of ‘a’ plus W (‘little Weight’) in UNED, an anagram (‘hairy’) of ‘nude’.
25 LEER
Dance around, getting suggestive look (4)
A reversal (‘around’) of REEL (‘dance’).

80 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,510 by Vlad”

  1. Just when recovered from Paul, a few days ago, then along comes Vlad at his fiercest. Almost nothing solved at first pass, with eventual grid entry at LEER (symbolic?) – then cracked ENTRE NOUS from the anagram, and gradually spread out from SE to NW sectors. Too many memorable clues to mention (NEXT SLIDE PLEASE, HANDBOOK, BILLIONS, etc) through to LOI (STAGNANT – hardly).
    By then almost a couple of hours had flashed by.
    Thanks Vlad for a great puzzle. I have several little quibbles, but others are far better at articulating those, and they will surely follow.

  2. This was a struggle for me, but enjoyable.
    Liked IN TROUBLE, HIGH TEA, TRAUMA, ASSAULT, NEXT SLIDE PLEASE (*groan*), BILLIONS, UNCULTURED.

    New: HEAT magazine; John Prescott (thanks, google); REDSTART.

    Did not parse AMERICA.

    Thanks, both.

  3. I “solved’ NEXT SLIDE PLEASE and having seen the BJ press conference it now makes sense (he keeps saying “next slide please” where the current slide is in fact a photo of a slide). (this will be a very hard clue to solve 100 years from now).

  4. Thanks PeterO and Vlad.
    8d seems to be an apparent ref to Prof Chris Whitty’s Covid briefings…that include the phrase.

  6. I read the definition of 5d as ‘are outstanding’. Some great ones here, it was quite hard work but all worth it. Well maybe with the exception of AMERICA which I didn’t parse. M for money? Okay…
    Thanks, Vlad and PeterO.

  7. Thanks Vlad and Andrew
    Lots of fun, but several unparsed. LOI 8d – I put it together, but had no idea what it referred to (thanks for the link, Andrew); not a fair clue, I thought. Others I needed help with were AMERICA (I missed A for ARE), GOAT, and PRESCOTT.
    Shouldn’t 27 have an indication that the answer isn’t in English?
    Favourites NOTABLE, UNCULTURED, 1d (of course!), and HANDBOOK, for the misleading “manual worker”.

  8. Thanks Vlad and PeterO!

    11A: ‘up’ as a key to anagram doesn’t seem great (PeterO has pointed this out). Said that, parsing seems apt and there is no alternative route visible.

  10. I sincerely trust that Vlad is not implying that a NOTABLE HONOURABLE GENTLEMAN, born in AMERICA, is an UNCULTURED CRET(i)N who is IN TROUBLE over BILLIONS paid to his cronies. Or, for that matter, that he is a GOAT who could do with the SNIP.

  11. This was indeed tough and I had several unparsed. I don’t think I will ever remember “are” = A (23a). TRAUMA and HANDBOOK were both very clever with the misleading “wound up” and “manual worker” which both have to be separated out.

    Kurukveera @8: “up” as an anagram indicator has been discussed before. It tends to be a bit controversial but there are two possible justifications for it. It can mean “wrong” as in “What’s up with you?”, “Something’s up” and so on. Also there’s a rather dated usage of it meaning “in a state of revolt” – “The whole country was up like a swarm of bees”, Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four.

    Thanks Vlad and PeterO.

  13. A fun but sometimes baffling crossword today – thanks Vlad. And thank you PeterO for help with the numerous parsings I failed to get or muddled up. Favourite today was NEXT SLIDE PLEASE because of the witty surface referring to Whitty’s catchphrase.

  15. [Nice to see a REDSTART again. A couple raised their family in our garden this year. They seem much more tolerant of humans coming close than most garden birds.]

  16. That was tough.

    As others have said “sounds like witty comment” appears to refer to Chris Witty who is known for saying that phrase during corona briefings. I think it is saying that it is actually a “Witty comment” which sounds like a “witty comment” (explains the lower case w).

    Also UP as an anagrind: I always assumed it was a drugs reference. When on some drugs, you are said to be “up” so I assumed it was synonymous with “on drugs” or “high” which would be an unchallenged anagrind.

    Thank you Vlad and PeterO. I really needed this blog today.

  17. yesyes @13: I’m with you on the favourite which was my FOI!

    [Always amazed that they don’t have a presentation fob to allow them to advance the ‘slides’ themselves – I’ve found their presentation styles to be very wooden. Maybe I’m just too-used to the kind of US corporate ‘Town Hall’ meetings.]

    Otherwise, this was tough but maybe not up-there with the total impalement I’ve come to expect from Vlad and lovely to see the usual jibe at the politicos…

    Thanks Vlad and PeterO!

  18. Thanks Vlad and PeterO

    I really enjoyed that, and agree that the definition in 5 is ‘are outstanding’, which gets ‘are’ off the charge.

    Alton @ 6: M = money is a standard abbreviation in economics, generally seen as M0, M1, M2 etc which are different definitions of the money supply.

  20. Very tough today and DNF. Not helped by putting Redshank at 6dn. Thought shank might be a kick that was off!! Loved 8dn now I know the answer, with clever reference to Chris Witty. Thanks Vlad and PeterO.

  21. I gave up after solving only two clues: EYRIE and LEER. Looking at the blog, I should have got more, but even on a good day I wouldn’t have come close to finishing. Far too tough for me. 🙁

    Thanks to PeterO.

  22. Very challenging for me, but enjoyable – especially the comments!

    Thank you Vlad and PeterO

    [Blaise @15, a couple of redstarts nest every year on a beam over our noisy front and garage doors.]

  23. As I have said before, I can grind out Vlad’s answers, but only ever parse half of them. Toughest puzzle for some time.
    My thanks to all contributors.

  24. [There are redstarts – country redstarts – and black redstarts – town redstarts. The former are fairly uncommon in Britain; the latter even more so, though they have taken to some building sites. They are the more human-tolerant ones; a friend of ours in Tubingen has them nesting in the roof of her tiny balcony every year, and they don’t mind her using it at all.]

  25. This felt to me a little like having teeth pulled, but I got there in the end.

    LOI was GOAT, where I kicked myself after all the comments about Simone Biles this week. I failed to see the witty/Whitty equivalence but that is perhaps my favourite now. I couldn’t parse FIANNA FAIL, not knowing naif.

    Thanks to Vlad for the torture and to PeterO for a good blog.

  26. [muffin @24, we live in the country (in France), all farm land below the house, so think they must be country redstarts, they are certainly not black redstarts.
    I agree with you @7 that 27 should perhaps have an indication that the answer isn’t in English.
    ENTRE NOUS made me smile when I got to 18, it reminded me of Napoléon’s message to Joséphine “Ne te lave pas, j’accours et dans huit jours je suis là.”]

  27. Thanks for the blog, very topical puzzle and some excellent clues. A lot of praise above so I will just balance by noting that 13AC and 7D had very clumsy wordplay.

  28. Usual challenges from Vlad. Lots to like with high tea especially clever. Also found the w(h)itty reference very clever. Great blog too .

  29. Spooner’s catflap @10 – the CRETANs were famed to be invariable liars, giving the paradox of where does the truth lie when one says “I am lying” ?

  30. Well, that was a strange experience, ended up as strictly DNF as I simply couldn’t get NEXT SLIDE PLEASE. About ten answers I had rather biffed in more in hope than anything else, unable to completely parse them, but remarkably all were correct, so thanks to PeterO for clarifying things on here. Tough going today, not sure if I’m left with a feeling of elation or frustration, though…and I noticed as many as five exclamation marks in the cluing, not sure if that says anything further.

  31. [Cookie @26
    Interesting. My views of (country) redstarts in Britain have invariably just been a flash of red on the tail as they fly away, but we had intimate views of our friend’s black redstarts.]

  32. The common redstart is a beautiful bird sadly very much on the decline in the UK, though more prominent in Scotland.

  33. Love the irony of 1d but he is Rt Hon because he is a Privy Counsellor (of whom there are lots) rather than because he is PM.

  34. peterM @29 – that is an interesting point, especially in the light of the recent ejection of Dawn Butler MP from the house for calling BJ a liar, which is deemed unacceptable and ‘unparliamentary’. However, if she had moderated her language by calling him a ‘Cretan’, the same fate would probably been visited upon her pending the clarification of the homophone in Hansard’s written record…

  35. [Muffin@31 – you are privileged. Black redstarts a very rare and threatened, with RSPB saying there are fewer than 100 breeding pairs in the country.]

  36. [Goujeers @35
    If you look back to an earlier post, you will see that our encounter with black redstarts was in Tubingen, Germany!]

  38. As per normal for a Vlad puzzle, stratospherically above my solving level. It made Paul last Monday look like the Daily Mail children’s crossword.
    One minor quibble…for fear of opening old wounds, totally agree about Chris Witty in 8d, but is it de rigueur to ‘uncapitalise’ his name in a crossword clue?
    Thanks PeterO, even with the solutions, I could parse about 20%!

  40. That was a slog. ‘Up’ as an anagram indicator? 23a is possibly the most contrived parsing that I’ve ever seen.

  42. This was very tough. I didn’t get much of it done last night and added very little this morning till I got to the check button. Some of those assembly methods would not pass the IKEA test.

    PeterO, thanks for parsing AMERICA, STAGNANT, TRAUMA and PRESCOTT (never heard of him).

    Now that I’m reminded, GOAT “is a thing” in its acronymic way.

    But I did like UNCULTURED, BILLIONS and HANDBOOK. Nice ones, Vlad, and thank you. And thanks to PeterO for untangling my poor brain.

    HEAT Magazine was new. Never heard of Chris Whitty and didn’t know that there are people named Whitty.

  45. A tough and enjoyable puzzle from Vlad as usual. 1 and 8d were excellent for the surfaces and solutions. I needed PeterO’s help with parsing a couple – thanks to him and Vlad.

  46. Simply brilliant, and so funny! The best puzzle for a long while. For me the left hand side went in pretty quickly helped immensely by seeing RIGHT HONOURABLE straightaway. I slowed down markedly on the right side until the penny dropped for Whitty’s catchphrase NEXT SLIDE PLEASE .

    The clue for PRESCOTT was pure joy.

    Other favourites were ASSAULT, IN TROUBLE and FIANNA FAIL.

    Thanks to PeterO for parsing EYRIE and TRAUMA

    And huge thanks to Vlad for fun on a par (at Hoylake?) with Araucaria

    More please!

  47. Not if I’d sat there until Tibb’s Eve… I’m with gladys@41 (great minds?) but thanks to Vlad and PeterO for the distraction.

    [Ronald@30: left a message for you at yesterday’s 94.]

  48. Thanks Vlad and PeterO.
    Although IN TROUBLE with this I certainly was, and needed help parsing AMERICA and NEXT SLIDE PLEASE, I loved others such as EYRIE and BILLIONS.
    I was confused by the use of both ‘in’ & ‘getting’ in FIANNA FAIL, and ‘heat up’ in HIGH TEA (coincidentally flagging the solution for 13a).

  50. An enjoyable struggle, but a DNF for me by several clues.

    [We get quite a lot of redstarts where I am in the West Midlands. Lovely birds. Very well camouflaged, despite the red. You can look at the park and think there’s nothing in it at first, and then they all start hopping about and you realise it’s teeming with the things. Also, if they’re in the trees they’re noisy little buggers – until you get close, and then they fall shtum. Only when you leave do they start up again. Makes me wonder what they’re trying to hide…]

  51. Brilliant stuff from Vlad who cements his place as my favourite setter. Nice to have a puzzle to come back to at lunchtime when it all fell in to place beautifully. And delighted to finally remember ULT though I’ve yet to come across it outside a crossword. See also A = AREA = ARE
    And I was another REDSHANK victim until the crossers put me right

  53. (Bodycheetah @51 – I’ve only ever encountered ult and inst in the old days of office letter writing eg “I refer to your letter of the 8th inst…”)

  54. My comment has just been wiped before I could send it, so I’ll just say I enjoyed this characteristically clever and witty (!) puzzle from Vlad. Thanks to setter and blogger and to commenters for some interesting comments, especially those about redstarts.

  55. Crossbar @52
    Sorry, I disagree. I thought it was an unfair clue, the definition quite meaningless unless you had watched those tedious staged performances from BoJo and his acolytes.
    I preferred PeterO’s clip!

  56. [ What a nice chat about redstarts. Ours are black redstarts, but we live in a heavily wooded suburb in France. When I looked them on the RSPB site I was sad to see that their conservation status in ther UK is… red. ]

  57. Can someone explain what “A (‘are’, measure of area)” means please? How is ‘are’ a measure of area?

  58. QQQ
    You;ve probably heard of a hectare – that’s 100 ares. A hectare is an area 100m a side; an are is 10m a side.
    I always forget that too!

  60. Masses of Black Redstarts around here in SW France. We very occasionally see a migrant Redstart.

    Thank you Vlad for a great puzzle. Challenging but fun. Fave was 8D – especially when the penny dropped with the very witty ‘sounds like a witty comment ‘. Great stuff!

  62. Wow. Seriously tough, and a correspondingly serious sense of achievement when the last one fell!

  64. While 8dn gets all the credits it deserves, I think 1dn is just a stunning clue.
    Not only does it have a brilliant anagram fodder but the surface is spot on.
    No chance in The Times (my preferred crossword paper, with The Independent a close second), of course, let alone in The Telegraph.
    Anyway, not many people seem to agree (and that is perhaps why we have Boris as PM).
    Last one in was FIANNA FAIL – didn’t know how to spell it but, after finding that out, it was time to parse it.
    Some setters are better than others – Vlad’s surely better than many others.
    My favourite Guardian setter, actually.
    Many thanks to PeterO & Vlad.

  65. That was a DNF for me, and as a former Lib I am kicking myself for not getting 24a!
    While I enjoyed a lot of it, I am afraid that I think 8d is one of those clues which Boatman dryly describes as more fun for the setter than the solver. I am very much with muffin @55 on that one.
    All of which being said, I can forgive Vlad a great deal for the superlative 1d, with 17d not far behind. Actually, Sil van den Hoek @ 64, a majority of people agreed with 1d at the last General Election, but in this country you can still be Prime Minister if you can fool about 35% of the electorate.
    Thanks to Vlad and to PeterO for the explanations

  66. Many thanks to PeterO for the blog and to others for their comments.

    Spooner’s catflap@10 – nice one!

  67. What is a ‘former Lib’?
    Is there another place to go in this country’s two-party system?
    I think 8dn is really good unless you are not interested (anymore) in what is going on in this country.
    Unfair? That says more about the solver than the setter.

  68. I was totally defeated by this – can’t remember a recent puzzle where I was SO far out of it! And after looking at the solutions, I feel like there’s no way in hell I could have ever come close 🙁

  69. Sil@64 , part of the problem is newspapers owned by right-wing , tax dodging billionaires lying to the people every day. Hence I completely boycott the Times , Independent and Telegraph crosswords , only connect.

  70. Simon S @18: thanks, another essential fact to store away. It’s to be hoped that it comes to mind next time 🙂

  71. Sil @67 – I was, long ago, a member of the Liberal Party (“a former Lib”), who never joined the Lib Dems because I thought, ironically, that the SDP would drag the party too far to the right.
    There are quite a few people in Chesham and Amersham who would suggest that there is another place to go.
    Watching in mounting horror what is happening to my country (and the country which is being bequeathed to my grandchildren) I remain interested in politics, but regard Johnson/Whitty (and even more so Johnson/PMQs) as performance art rather than politics. Yes, 8d is very clever indeed; but for me, it’s too “clever” and ends up like a joke where you have to painstakingly explain the punchline.
    (Oh, and before anyone mentions it, I am aware that that’s a split infinitive, and I frankly don’t care)

  74. Had to go back the next day to finish this. Still didn’t understand the cluing for 3d, 8d and 23ac until I got here. Thanks Vlad and PeterO

  75. After having ‘lurked’ on this forum for ages without contributing (but thoroughly enjoying all the comments), I just had to break surface to applaud the brilliant 8D with its ‘witty/Whitty’ allusion. I solved the clue but missed the pun – d’oh! Anyway – hello, all. I’ll start joining in now.

  76. I’ve been away most of the week so only just caught up with this one. It was an immense struggle, with about eight or 10 not completely parsed, including 8d.

    I can’t stand watching Boris Johnson speak, it just makes me feel sick, so I have read comments and jokes about NEXT SLIDE PLEASE but haven’t actually seen/heard it.

    Just in case Butterfly flutters by again, I’ll say welcome to the site on the occasion of your first comment!

  77. Many thanks to Vlad and PeterO! I’m learning to solve cryptics by (a) trying until I’m stuck, (b) cheating a clue and seeing if I can parse it (c) reading the blog if It couldn’t parse it, then (d) starting again at (a). Will I ever be a match for such a puzzle?

  79. If you want opinions Glyn @ 77 , mine is totally different.
    Print it out and do not use any aids at all except possibly a dictionary.
    Carry it around all week and have 20 minute attempts from time to time.
    After a week print out the answers and try to work out any clues you could not solve, only then look at the blog for further enlightenment.
    I learnt to do the Azed in two years using this method but on a two week cycle.

  80. Bit hard that. America particularly with IC and A for Are. Don’t understand why “Next Slide Please” sounds like a joke. Is it really something to do with Boris press conferences? Not a fan of social media “jokes”.

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