Eileen is away doing Christmas Tree stuff again today, so I'm standing in
Well I found this considerably easier than the Bluth in the Indy, most gentle stuff, for which I'm quite grateful. Thanks Vulcan, over to you.
Hidden – some – reversed – back – in reachED A CAFe
Double cum cryptic def
W(eight) & ANGLE to fish
[BOLD TRUE]* stupidly
An amazing [IN VULCANS GOB AN]* Very nice clue
Another cryptic def
A trimmed, shortened GLUT(e), muscle
To half – INCH is to steal
Well if you're UN – HAMPERED someone might have nicked your picnic
A fantastic [YOU'RE BLIND SO NO}*
Most of DEC(k) & EMBER – a burning coal say
Hidden in silK I MONOplolise
ROLY – short for ROLAND & POLY, short for polytechnic which were reformed mostly into Universities
A inserted in – packed by – a criminal THREE* I assume it's now obsolete usage
W(ife) inserted in FAN, lover of
CON – criminal & sounds like TACKED – changed course
The extremes of D(urabl)E & LIVERY – say coachman's uniform. Anyone else see SUPPLY and think that's the anagram indicator? Just me? OK then.
Cryptic def that's going to be tricky for non UK solvers who may not have these sales or indeed estate cars, well not by that name anyway
Cryptic def, although there's some debate as to what it originally indicated
If you hold all, you don't drop
An exploded [CADET DIED]*
An anagram – may make – of [GULLS WONDER]*
MAIL, a protective cover when considered chain mail & ORDER, in order, properly constituted
Double definition
Cryptic def, a codicil is an amendment to a will
Sounds like ROUTE OUT, well it does in the UK, although a ROUT would also be complete destruction
FORM – class & UP – out of bed
Never really thought them as unprofitable but there you go. ROOM – space – reversed
I really enjoyed this with some very amusing surfaces. My favourites were DEDICATED, MOTORMOUTH, HOLDALL, CODICIL and GROUNDSWELL.
Ta Vulcan & flashling.
Very much in the Monday tradition and nothing wrong with that. Some great anagrams and I’m even coming round to the riddle-style clues
Flashling you’ve whetted my appetite for the meatier sounding Bluth after this amuse bouche 🙂
Cheers F&V
The things I find hardest are cryptic definitions, so, as this was a crossword full of them, I found this chewy, although all in and parsed, but slowly for a Monday.
Those long anagrams were clever, and I looked at the supply in the DELIVERY clue, thought anagram indicator, oh, it begins with DE.
Good luck to Eileen – our tree festival has been going longer, but I was involved as she is for the first few years – it’s a lot of work.
Thank you to flashling and Vulcan.
I suppose moorland is some of the least promising terrain with which a farmer can work so unprofitable is not an unreasonable description. And profit is probably not one of the considerations for those who own moors that they’ve populated with grouse.
No grousing for me with this typical Monday puzzle: WANGLE, UNHAMPERED, DECEMBER, CAR BOOT SALE, OPEN FIRE and CODICIL my faves today.
Thinking about it, I suppose one could hold one’s car boot sale on one’s moor; its profit-making potential is going up …
Thanks Vulcan and flash
Never heard of a HEATER in this sense. Couldn’t account for the POLY in 25a. Didn’t — and still don’t — understand INCH. Don’t tell me it’s some silly rhyming slang? 🙁
These were my only speed bumps in an otherwise straightforward and enjoyable experience.
GDU @5: it’s Cockney rhyming slang for pinch unsurprisingly.
Thanks Vulcan and flashling
A couple of clues that would have been improved by leaving out words – “journey” in13a and “the enemy” in 15d. Otherwise no problems. I like the image generated y UNHAMPERED!
Sorry GDU – the rhyming slang is “half-inch” for “pinch”.
Sorry, Geoff Down Under@5, but I’m afraid it is rhyming slang: half-inch for pinch(steal). Did you or anyone else in your part of the world have a problem with the Antipodean winter not starting in DECEMBER? Someone complained about it in the Guardian comments.
I liked the long anagrams for SAUVIGNON BLANC and OLD BOYS REUNION. Other favourites UNHAMPERED and the little FAWN – and yes, I wondered about supply as an anagrind, too.
AlanC @6 and muffin@7. INCH Even with your explanations of the Cockney I don’t get how the clue works.
Some great anagrams and I loved UNHAMPERED and MOTORMOUTH ( an old kids’ Saturday morning TV programme BTW ).
Couldn’t help noticing that the occurrence of vowel “O” beat that of “E” by 18 to 17.
Thank you Vulcan and flashing.
“Steal” is half-this where this is INCH?
Really good Monday fare, I thought. As Gladys@8 said, great anagrams – and very nice surfaces. Many thanks to V & f.
Thank you, gladys @ 8, and others. I often find that if I’ve been scratching my head for some time over a clue, it turns out to be some rhyming slang that I’ve never heard of, resulting in a groan. But I have no difficulty adjusting for seasons in the northern hemisphere!
Very enjoyable puzzle.
New for me: HEATER = gun, HALF-INCH = steal.
Favourite: UNHAMPERED, CODICIL.
Thanks, both.
HEATER appears in old American crime fiction – think Philip Marlowe/Raymond Chandler, which I have read, but years ago. It surfaced as I was reading the clue.
Like Shanne, I sometimes struggle with cryptic definitions, but they all came to mind quite easily today, apart from MOTORMOUTH which, for me, didn’t quite work. [A recent study I googled found that 43% of grouse moors made a profit]
Fell down on WANGLE, I had ‘winkle’ and I did think it wasn’t a fish, but oh well.
I thought SAUVIGNON BLANC was a fantastic surface. I didn’t parse INCH but another cracking clue once explained.
I remember an episode of ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’ where the Enterprise ends up on a planet organised like 1920s Chicago and the locals are keen to get their hands on the crew’s HEATERs.
Much preferred this to the Quiptic.
In my humble opinion this was a top notch Vulcan Monday crossword, one of his very best. Thought TROUBLED, OLD BOYS REUNION, DELIVERY and Cotd for me, CAR BOOT SALE simply excellent. So I’m raising a glass of the white stuff for 11ac to our setter today, another more than splendid clue…
Excellent Monday level puzzle. Splendid long anagrams, and I enjoyed all the CDs.
I don’t see how ‘supply’ on its own could be an anagrind unless it followed the fodder: A+B supply C would work for me.
Thanks to S&B
I can only agree with others who’ve said this was a top notch Monday puzzle. I had to drag HEATER from the depths of my brain. Must be from old American gangster films. I especially liked CODICIL. With thanks to Vulcan, and to flashling for standing in and the very clear explanations.
PDM – of course ‘supply’ meaning ‘in a supple fashion’ does work 🙂
Good start to the crosswording week.
Like Shanne @3 and Petert @16, I often find cds quite difficult. However, with a few crossers they can spring to mind. I particularly enjoyed CAR BOOT SALE and CODICIL. I also liked the well-hidden FACADE, the cryptic definition of UN-HAMPERED, and the wordplay in ROLY-POLY.
Thanks Vulcan and flashling.
In case anyone hasn’t heard, Hugh Stephenson is no longer crossword editor of The Guardian. Alan Connor has taken over (see his blog today)
Very nice puzzle today. UNHAMPERED, one of the best clues.Nice long anagrams as well. Thanks Vulcan.
Straightforward as per usual with Vulcan. 11Ac is excellent, the clue being sweeter than the wine itself.
5D reminded me of a joke years ago in ISIHAC: Complete this phrase: “Don’t get your knickers in a …”?
Thanks, Flashling, for doing a double shift today.
Completely agree with ronald @18. Excellent puzzle all round – reminiscent of Rufus at his best.
Count me as another who can struggle with cryptic definitions but they were all excellent today, witty and inventive – particularly liked “one will change” and “where one shifts stuff from the estate” when the penny eventually dropped! The definition for UNHAMPERED is most amusing too and the anagram for SAUVIGNON BLANC is brilliant.
Thanks, Vulcan and flashling (I’m saving Bluth for later)
Quizzy Bob @25 – lol!
Quizzy Bob@25 🙂 – I had to Google it and found this:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5jt3jCWQ7xzgDGTNxLh5nkb/panel-beaters-the-best-of-50-years-without-a-clue
As a relative novice with cryptics (and first-time poster here) just wanted to share my appreciation with vulcan for this puzzle and also take the opportunity to thank flashing and all the other bloggers and commenters in this forum for educating me in the art of cryptics so that I could both solve and appreciate it!
Very enjoyable and quick Monday puzzle, with a decent mix of the most common type of clues and their indicators. As a collector of first editions from the 30s/ 40s era of hard boiled detectives, I enjoyed HEATER. Fantastic anagram including the setter’s name for SAUVIGNON BLANC. And a neat surface for KIMONO, given that they are almost all made of silk. Thanks Vulcan and flashling.
I thought I’d done ok until I realised I’d bunged in Wincle when wangle makes much more sense!! Otherwise, a nice start to the week. Thanks Vulcan and flashing.
Good Monday fare.
Re Cockney rhyming slang, “half-inch” is definitely in frequent common use along with “butcher’s”. The very common crossword clue “china” has, I think, dropped out of use.
Re “Heater” for gun- it’s not necessarily obsolete: the line “Grab your sap and your heater” can found in Nick Cave’s 2008 “Dig Lazarus Dig”
… that is the song “Night of the lotus eaters” on the album “Dig Lazarus Dig”
@RussellK: wecome to the forum (ace-welcomer Eileen being otherwise engaged).
Before coming here I thought a couple of synonyms were a bit iffy. You can be DEDICATED to a person or cause and still have time to think of other things, and ROOT OUT means remove not destroy.
But nobody else has brought these up so they’re probably just fine, and I’m just being too picky (or wrong!)
Just right for a Monday. And for once I had all the necessary GK tucked away in my English upbringing and my love of 1930s/1940s noir. I did have the dredge the depths of my schooldays for ROLY-POLY, however. Is that still served in Britain?
I think Jam Roly Poly came back into fashion in quite posh restaurants recently, Jacob@36…I too loved it at school with of course lashings of custard.
…just about beat Spotted Dick into first place…
A fine Monday outing. SAUVIGNON BLANC, INCH and UNHAMPERED take the plaudits from me.
It’s funny–estate cars are so common in British crosswords that seeing the word estate here automatically makes me think of vehicles, even though we of course don’t use that term here! And this wasn’t my first car boot sale either. (We do have the concept here, but not the term.)
UNHAMPERED made me think of Yogi Bear, always absconding with the hampers of unsuspecting visitors to Jellystone Park.
@5d Estate cars don’t have boots either, nor have station wagons trunks. I suspect most of us non-UK solvers have learned about estate cars and boots and car boot sales by now.
Gladys@8 One could remark that to Australians and New Zealanders, Europe and North America are the Antipodes.
Where can we see Alan Connors’s blog?
Thanks to Vulcan and to flashling for stepping in.
@Valentine 41 try here
Well this took me longer than the Bluth! Plenty of smiles along the way, particularly UNHAMPERED and the marvellous SAUVIGNON BLANC.
I can’t say I’m so keen on the cryptic defs for somewhat unusual words that Vulcan employs (see also HETACOMB from a few weeks ago), but in this case at least I knew CODICIL was a word, even if I couldn’t have told you beforehand quite what it meant.
Thanks Vulcan, and to flashling for the Eileen Replacement Service.
I actually own an estate car, but never been to a car boot sale, so I was stumped.
Nor did I attend a grammar school, so OB stuff always goes over my head.
Plus I am TT, so had to cheat for the wine.
How culturally and socially stuck are the crossword setters, I wonder.
I enjoy cryptic definitions (or riddles, as someone described them earlier) and I enjoyed this. I’d rather have them than a tortuous Spoonerism or an enclosure in an enclosure in a reversal. HEATER was new to me, but I’ve heard the (presumably) related phrase “packing heat” i.e. carrying a gun.
Thanks for the blog, perfect puzzle for the Monday tradition , J. Paul Getty was famous for his many CODICILS .
[ AlanC@1 returns in style . It is double-point December and no penalty clauses to give you a chance to catch up. It is now 63 v -14 .]
Jacob@36: I’ve just returned from a Tesco in Teddington (London) and they were selling raspberry jam roly-poly. I’m a bit over weight at the moment, so I resisted. Perhaps over the Christmas break.
Roz, I accept your challenge 🙂
Lovely entertainment – thanks both.
I will treat myself to jam Swiss Roll with custard for dessert, even though it’s Monday.
OPEN FIRE reminded me of the (chilly) intended victim of a firing squad who was asked if he had any last requests. (Although cf Marshall Ney…(clearly quite insane)).
Thank you for the explanations; it’s made to sound so easy when it’s written down like that.
9 clues solved for me.
Had a nightmare in the Quiptic as well.
Jacob@36 We called the Jam rolypoly served at my boarding school in the 1960s ‘dead man’s leg’ .