Guardian Cryptic 28,812 by Vulcan

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Standard Monday puzzle from Vulcan

It's Monday, and so that normally means that Vulcan provides us with a puzzle more akin to a quiptic than a standard Guardian crossword, and today is no exception. Nothing obscure, no complicated parsing, just a good quality but ultimately straightforward and over too quickly, despite the unusual grid pattern.

Thanks Vulcan for the gentle introduction to the week.

ACROSS
4 HEBREW
Get ambassador to make tea? Language! (6)

HE (His Excellency, so "ambassador") + BREW ("to make tea")
6 DOVETAIL
Make surgeon fall ill and have a perfect fit (8)

DO ("make") + VET ("surgeon") + AIL ("fall ill")
9 LANDAU
Secure golden carriage (6)

LAND ("secure") + Au (chemical symbol for "gold")
10 DIRECTOR
Female priest, a senior manager (8)

DI (short for DIANE, so "female") + RECTOR ("priest")
11 TRACK RECORD
History of disc — part of it first (5,6)

TRACK ("part of it" i.e (record) + RECORD ("disc")
15 MANTRAP
What may catch trespassers, some returning to island (7)

<=PART ("some", returning) to (Isle of) MAN
17 TURN OUT
Dismiss assembly and switch off (4,3)

Triple definition
18 SPELLBINDER
Captivating orator to read out letters, having file of documents (11)

SPELL ("to read out letters") having BINDER ("file of documents")
22 HEDONIST
Pleasure seeker wandering into shed (8)

*(into shed) [anag:wandering]
23 IN SITU
Unit is reorganised without moving (2,4)

*(unit is) [anag:reorganised]
24 BRAINBOX
Clever woman has underwear stored away? (8)

BRA IN BOX ("underwear stored away")
25 GREENS
To have a lot on their plate is healthy for politicians (6)

"having a lot of GREENS on their plate" could be considered "healthy"
DOWN
1 REMARK
Comment on Matthew’s successor (6)

RE ("on") + MARK ("Matthew's successor" – Mark follows Matthew in the New Testament)
2 HORIZONTAL
As far as I can see, story mostly is on the level (10)

HORIZON ("as far as I can see") + TAL(e) ("story", mostly)
3 DEFENDER
Resistance worker put off accepting death (8)

DEFER ("put off") accepting END ("death")
4 HALF-TIME
Break point in game (4-4)

(mildly) cryptic definition
5 BANDANNA
Speaking, forbade reflective girl to wear this? (8)

Homophone [speaking] of BANNED ("forbade") + ANNA ("reflective" (i,e, palindromic) "girl")
7 AUTO
A spin out in this? (4)

A + *(out) [anag:spin]
8 LARD
Fat boy eating last of burger (4)

LAD ("boy") eating [last of] (burge)R
12 EXPRESSION
The look on the face of one on holding up a train? (10)

I (one) + ON holding up EXRESS ("a train")
13 POND LIFE
Find pole to agitate frogs, for example (4,4)

*(find pole) [anag:to agitate]
14 START-UPS
Prize rams in new enterprises (5-3)

STAR TUPS ("prize rams")
16 RESONANT
Ringing senator, confused about name (8)

*(senator) [anag:confused] about N (name)
19 IGNORE
Do nothing for stricken region (6)

*(region) [anag:stricken]
20 CHUB
Fish caught at busy centre (4)

C (caught) at HUB ("busy centre")
21 IDEA
Thought almost perfect (4)

[almost] IDEA(l) ("perfect")

51 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,812 by Vulcan”

  1. Very enjoyable and nothing too taxing. GREENS was my favourite. I’d never heard of a tup or a brainbox, both of which OED assures me are “mainly British”. (I preferred the clue for START-UP in today’s FT!) I didn’t think 4d was cryptic. Interesting triple definition in 17a. I’m sure it’s vaguely justifiable, but I don’t like “make” for “do” in 6a.

  2. Nice start to :the week. Thank you, Vulcan.
    Only query. A brain box could be female, but isn’t necessarily, so I had a bit of an issue with the definition. Otherwise, all good and enjoyable. Keep cool, everyone!

  3. trishincharente @2 I think the idea is that if the brainbox was a man their underwear wouldn’t be a bra.

  4. Lots of fun. Loved the surface for HORIZONTAL and the construction of BRAINBOX. I took woman as part of the wordplay pointing to the underwear in question. Thanks loonapick and Vulcan.

  5. trishincharente @2: I think BRAINBOX is just an example of a setter using ‘she’ where, 50 years ago, a solver would have naturally defaulted to ‘he’. As is occasionally pointed out, this is a characteristic of Arachne’s setting. Even in more enlightened times, it seems a lot of us are still hard-wired to think of ‘he’ in this context and have to give extra thought when encountering the female of the species 😉 !

    SPELLBINDER, HORIZONTAL and POND LIFE were my stars today.

    Thanks Vulcan and loonapick

  9. The usual pleasant stroll for a Monday. I think (mildly) cryptic for HALF TIME is being generous. I liked the triple definition for TURN OUT, the added “reflective”to narrow down the girl’s name in BANDANNA and the STAR TUPS.

  10. Nice easy start to the week. I don’t want too much exercise, physical or mental, in this weather. 🙂
    I like POND LIFE. And I like the use of woman/she etc whenever “he” might be more usual, although in this case it’s needed for BRA.
    DOVETAIL held me up slightly as I was trying to make it “coverall” for no good reason.

    Thanks Vulcan and loonapick

  11. I liked the way HORIZONTAL was vertical. [Fun fact: German crosswords have waagerecht and senkrecht – horizontal and vertical – for across and down.]

    Re BRAINBOX, I’m sure PM @5 is right about trying to get away from the default ‘he’. No one would have batted an eyelid if, in another clue, ‘brainbox’ had been defined as ‘clever chap’, even though clever chaps are only a subset of brainboxes. However, if one insists upon it being definition by example, there’s a question mark at the end of the clue, which, if it were working really hard, could cover both DBE and the playfulness of the charade.

    My favourite was the EXPRESSION on the face of the man (or woman) holding up the train. Thanks V & L.

    [PM @7 – it’s not Naked Gardening Day again, is it?]

  12. As Everyman might say: “Primarily quite unsuccessful in providing tough intellectual challenge!” 🙂

    Some great surfaces though

  13. [eb @11: Google tells me that was back in May. It clearly didn’t get enough coverage in the media. Or exposure. Whichever …]

  14. [PM @13 😀 or do I mean groan? And eb@11 Naked gardening!? I get bitten to shreds by insects covered from head to toe. Doesn’t bear thinking about.]

  15. Thank you Ravenrider, Paul, Mark and EB for your comments. Yes, I got the bra being woman’s underwear bit, but still didn’t like the definition. However, I like Mark’s point, which hadn’t occurred to me, about the setter choosing she over he. But I’m finally happy now EB has pointed out the question mark, which works okay for me.

  16. I think I might well be guilty of still being hardwired to ‘he’.
    Sorry, Crossbar. Thanks for your comment too.

  20. PM @7: And as Marilyn Monroe tells us in “Seven Year Itch” – “When it gets hot like this I keep my undies in the icebox”. Perhaps Vulcan saw the weather forecast…

  21. Thanks loonapick. A quibble given the BRAINBOX discussion. HE could also be Her Excellency in HEBREW.

    I like the way Vulcan has mixed up the genders here, although there are people who don’t identify either as female or male who may wear bras. The reflective/palindromic girl ANNA in BANDANNA was a goodie. The female priest in DIRECTOR had me thinking. MANTRAP may be discriminatory as there are female trespassers, but in my experience we still have manholes in the road and the ceiling.

    My favourite image was the HEDONIST wandering into shed.

  25. Thanks to Vulcan and loonapick. “Good quality” sums it up. Lots of enjoyment especially 11a TRACK RECORD, and the afore-mentioned 5d BANDANNA and 12d EXPRESSION. Thanks for some amusing comments above, co-solvers. [Your unseasonal temperatures (40 degrees – really?) seem to be counter-pointed with a very cold winter here. For me to have to wear my gloves to walk the dog on the beach in the mornings on the Sunshine Coast (in Queensland, Australia) is pretty unusual!]

  26. TURN OUT as a synonym for SWITCH OFF seems dubious to me. I don’t recall seeing it used this way (in preference to TURN OFF for example).

  28. I have to admit I found some of these clues chewier than usual for a Vulcan Monday puzzle. With three of the crossers in place did wonder whether Minorca might possibly fit the bill at 15ac. And took a long time to see GREENS and DOVETAIL, these my last two in today.

  29. Thanks Vulcan for a nice Monday challenge. It was the perfect level of difficulty for me to start the week. Thanks to loonapick for the blog.

  30. Thanks, Vulcan – after Vigo in the Indy, and Hectence, this amounted to my third “Quiptic” of the day. Nice to have such a gentle start to the week, with all three setters providing lots of entertaining and well crafted clues that are no less enjoyable for being towards the easier end of the spectrum. DOVETAIL and HORIZONTAL were my faves.

    I agree with PM @5 on BRAINBOX simply being a case of the setter not defaulting to the masculine pronoun. Let’s not overthink it. And while we’re at it, given the increasing normalisation of gender fluidity, let’s not assume that a person wearing a bra is necessarily female either!

  31. I see (the other) pm @21 has made the same point already… and some other good observations about MANTRAP etc.

    Almost seems to be a bit of a theme – and let’s not forget this setter also sometimes appears under a “female” pseudonym…

  33. Here in Wales we have had a few Dai Rectors I can recall.
    With the Tory brexiter arse licking competition going on at the moment , I wanted to put CREEPS for 25a, but who are they good for?

  34. Agree with loonapick’s assessment, and thank you to Vulcan. Did enjoy reading the comments above, especially s/he debate, undies in fridge and the brilliant “underwired from pm… a lovely start to a very hot day.

  36. This took me a couple of goes, with only just over half getting done with my morning tea. But now I’ve done it I can’t understand what took me so long!

    One of the ones which held out was HALF-TIME, and even when I saw it, I wasn’t convinced because I couldn’t get the word-play. So very relieved to come here and discovered that no-one else has either, because there isn’t any! (Or is there…)

    I also considered Minorca, and only got MANTRAP once all the crossers were in place.

  37. Thanks both. I thought HALF-TIME was just great – raised a smile. In fact I think I would enjoy a crossword made up completely of cryptic definitions. In the case in point surely the overlay of ‘break point’ from tennis represents a lovely body-swerve designed to confuse? Got me for a while anyway.

    Geoff Down Under@1: I’m reminded of the doctor telling a patient that he has only three minutes to live and on being asked for any help at all saying “Well, I could do/make you a boiled egg”.

  38. [nicbach @33 Dai Rector made me smile. I have recently come across Caradog Prichard’s 1960 novel “One Moonlit Night” which is about a Welsh quarrying village in WW1 and is populated by similarly named characters including Hughes the Parson. Brilliant book IMO. I was charmed and disturbed by it in equal measure.]

  39. A very pleasant Monday puzzle. 5d BANDANNA was a nice clue with the reflective girl. Is the definition maybe “wear this” rather than just “this”?

    (If you haven’t already done it I highly recommend today’s Quiptic by Hectence which has some great clues.)

    Many thanks Vulcan and loonapick.

  40. Thank you AlphaAlpha@37. You have shown me the true inner beauty of that clue, which had passed me by completely (meaning my serve has been broken!)

  42. Like today’s quiptic for me, i.e. pleasantly doable with no major head-scratching.

    BANDANNA took me a while as I’d actually ruled the garment out, not realising that there was a different spelling to the one I know and love. But the penny-drop of ‘reflective’ meaning palindromic made up for that. Liked HORIZONTAL for the definition part, and HEDONIST for the amusing imagery. I loved BRAINBOX and the gender in the clue made total sense given the garment. As noted above, HALF-TIME was barely cryptic and I wondered if I’d missed something, but maybe it’s just the tennis misdirection. I got LANDAU from the clueing and only discovered it was a type of carriage after looking it up, so that’s today’s new word.

    So about the same level as the quiptic but I found more to like here.

  43. Just right for a Monday. Favourite was HORIZONTAL and last one in was AUTO. Thanks Vulcan and loonapick.

  44. Thanks for the blog, will join the praise for DOVETAIL, HORIZONTAL and START-UPS .
    Trish@2, BRAINBOX far more likely to be female so the clue is fair enough.
    AlanC @23 back from your Special Branch mission, no doubt under a cover story of playing golf somewhere really nice. You have missed my numerous number 1 entries.

  45. Yippee – our quickest ever solve and full of stonking clues. High praise for 24A, 8D, 4A, 25A and, in particular, 14D. Thanks Vulcan and loonapick.

  47. Got about three quarters of the way through this before I ran out of steam.
    Pretty dismal really, ho hum.
    Thanks both.

  48. Roz @44 – ‘BRAINBOX far more likely to be female’ – perfect moniker for your good self. Mission accomplished btw.

  49. [AlanC@48, mission code name – Golf in Barbados ?
    I will be on my best behaviour now.
    Every Wednesday at 10pm BBC4 they are showing classic shows from the archives. Boys from the Blackstuff , last 2 weeks. Lots more to come. ]

  50. Imagine my disappointment, having noticed the eleven letters in the name of that spellbinding orator DEMOSTHENES, only to discover that nothing about the clue would work to get him there. We should recall that the unspellbinding Mitt Romney did not have documents in his binders: they were full of women instead, presumably a collection of brainboxes.

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