Vulcan slips comfortably into his customary fortnightly Monday slot.
A nice variety of clues, including some excellent anagrams, particularly the three long ones, 17ac STOP AND SEARCH, 3dn MANDARIN ORANGE and 9dn SEPTUAGENARIAN, with pleasingly meaningful surfaces throughout. Other favourites were 11ac CATHEDRAL, 13ac NOTATED, 26ac DOTS, both of which raised a smile, 24ac FLEDGLING and 23dn DRIFT.
Thanks to Vulcan for an enjoyable puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Glistened and nearly boiled, keeping hot (9)
SHIMMERED
SIMMERED (nearly boiled) round H (hot)
6 Swindle captured by one’s camera (4)
SCAM
Contained in one’S CAMera
10 A whole kingdom’s products I refuse to touch (5)
VEGAN
My last one to parse: I think it must be a cryptic definition, referring to the animal kingdom
11 Halted car, travelling to church (9)
CATHEDRAL
An anagram (travelling) of HALTED CAR
12 Competitive struggle to catch up the Pied Piper? (3,4)
RAT RACE
Cryptic definition
13 Wrote in symbols ‘This is no bear’ (7)
NOTATED
NOT A TED (no bear)
14 One behind betrayal? (4,2,3,4)
STAB IN THE BACK
(Not very) cryptic definition
17 Cops shan’t dare to abuse this power? (4,3,6)
STOP AND SEARCH
An anagram (to abuse) of COPS SHAN’T DARE – with a splendid surface, referring to this procedure
21 Holding container, present greenstuff (7)
HERBAGE
HERE (present) round BAG (container)
22 Ballet group in Berlin prison (7)
SPANDAU
Double definition, the first referring to this group , the second to the prison where Rudolf Hess was kept after WW2)
24 Young bird made escape, landing finally by heather (9)
FLEDGLING
FLED (made escape) + landinG + LING (heather)
25 As for cake, it is said to be welcome but not essential (5)
ICING
Cryptic definition: the icing on the cake is a welcome extra – an expression I quite often use in blogs for a clever bonus feature (and sometimes there’s a cherry on top!)
26 On and off I’d lost, as … (4)
DOTS
Alternate letters (on and off) of iD lOsT aS
27 One’s tread wildly echoed (9)
RESONATED
An anagram (wildly) of ONE’S TREAD
Down
1 Most challenging mountain son conquers? (8)
SEVEREST
S (son) on top of (conquers, in a down clue) EVEREST (mountain)
2 In the wrong order, were allowed to enter pricy bar (5)
INGOT
GOT IN (were allowed to enter) in reverse order
3 Nuts, margarine, and no fruit (8,6)
MANDARIN ORANGE
Another neat anagram (nuts) of MARGARINE AND NO
4 Filthier than anyone? (7)
RICHEST
A reference to the expression ‘filthy rich’
5 Relaxation in wigwam with river all around (7)
DETENTE
DEE (river) round TENT (wigwam)
7 One meticulous in temporary role? (9)
CARETAKER
Care-taker (one meticulous)
8 SE Asian cradles daughter in illness (6)
MALADY
MALAY (SE Asian) round D (daughter)
9 Retiree perhaps finds rotten pear nauseating (14)
SEPTUAGENARIAN
An anagram (rotten) of PEAR NAUSEATING
15 Receptive sailor dispatched round the world? (9)
ABSORBENT
AB (sailor) + SENT (dispatched) round ORB (the world)
16 Quiet and strongly built, indicated resignation (8)
SHRUGGED
SH (quiet) + RUGGED (strongly built)
18 Bust I leer at in studio (7)
ATELIER
An anagram (bust) of I LEER AT
19 Graciously agrees to accept small sketches (7)
DESIGNS
DEIGNS (graciously agrees) round S (small)
20 Was impatient to be given meal after tea (6)
CHAFED
CHA (tea) + FED (given meal)
23 Move aimlessly; meaning? (5)
DRIFT
Double definition
I had raciest for 4d. It seemed rather a loose cryptic definition. Richest is clearly better, but on a Monday where you have other examples like 14ac you don’t tend to look very deeply.
On the positive side, 9d was a clever anagram and my last one in.
I’m never sure about Mondays, as I would rather something a tad knottier to start the week. However this was a very pleasant solve, technically a dnf since I had RACIEST for 4d, which seems to fit the wordplay about as well as the intended answer. DOTS held me up for a while, a bit of a tea tray moment.
Thank you Vulcan and Eileen
Everything went very smoothly in except for loi DOTS, which took me an age to see. Couldn’t parse VEGAN for the life of me, but with all the crossers in place it had to be that…
I had raciest instead of RICHEST. I realise it doesn’t work as well and would have left the clue looking below Vulcan’s standards, but it seemed like a decent fit at the time.
Anyway, after a rare fail on Saturday, this was a welcome start to the week.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen (they’re keeping you busy at the moment!)
I started off with ‘raciest’, too but wasn’t very happy with it (I thought the cryptic definitions were the weakest today).
[Martin @4 – It’s been one of those occasional weekends when my monthly Prize blog coincided with the Friday / Monday weekly blogging overlap, so you get me three days running, which I decided not to mention this time 😉 .]
Ooh, much crossing. It seems I wasn’t alone!
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen
LET IN is much more obvious than GOT IN for “allowed to enter”, so I spent some time trying to justify INLET for 2d.
SPANDAU required not one but two bits of GK!
Favourites NOT A TED and STOP AND SEARCH.
Yes I went Hmm, racy is more like risqué, and filthy goes with rich. And yes, great surface for stop and search, with a very pertinent question mark! Good Monday puzzle, cheers Eileen and Vulcan.
Another one with Raciest. Not the best of clues.
muffin @7 – ‘let in’ is not more obvious if you read ‘were allowed to enter’ as the definition of GOT IN.
I came here to admit to raciest to find I’m not alone.
And like muffin@7 I spent a long time trying to justify inlet, but couldn’t find any sandbars called “pricy” at a harbour entrance, but there is no moaning of the bar from me. (I think in retrospect got in is a better match for “were allowed to enter” than let in which would be “allowed to enter”.)
Also in the Raciest club. I think that was a bit of a stinker amongst an otherwise great puzzle. Usual Monday stuff with a few juicier clues I thought.
Agree with the blogger about the anagrams.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen
I spent a while trying to make more of STAB IN THE BACK. “Go behind betrayal” might have made more cryptic sense. STOP AND SEARCH was my favourite.
Liked SHIMMERED, STOP AND SEARCH, SEVEREST and DESIGNS.
Nice puzzle. Great and neat blog.
INGOT
Agree with Eileen@10. I did think about LET IN for a moment
and dismissed it because of the ‘were’ in the clue.
GOT IN works better.
Petert@13
Coincidence. I was thinking ‘Go behind. Betray’.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen
Eoink@11 Nice Tennyson reference.
Favourite: DOTS.
Like Eileen, I wondered if 10ac was a cryptic definition.
I’ll be more complimentary than most (maybe as a newer solver?); I thought it was a beautiful puzzle, with lots of playful clues and not one (!) “bits-and-pieces” charade, which I especially liked. My favourites are ABSORBENT, HERBAGE, NOTATED and the three long anagrams with great surfaces, especially 9d, which I thought was a masterpiece.
I am relieved to see that I’m not the only one who put in “raciest” and struggled with “inlet” – Eileen @10, I think “let in” can also be read as past tense. Thanks for the blog! And thanks Vulcan for the puzzle!
Another one who went for RACIEST and INLET. Had to reveal VEGAN which showed the error of my ways, at least for 2d. Got 9d early which was a big help. Some lovely anagrams. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.
Thanks for the blog.
“STOP AND SEARCH” was my favourite – what a fabulous surface.
Still trying to make more of STAB IN THE BACK.
I also stumbled on RICHEST and INGOT.
VEGAN, I guess is just a cryptic definition. People do tend to turn their nose up and refuse to touch vegan food. (But if you don’t tell them it’s vegan and they happily scoff it down).
Just to add I solved VEGAN as a cryptic definition – meat being a product of the animal kingdom and obviously not touched by a VEGAN
RACIEST? Snap. INLET? Snap (for a while). STOP AND SEARCH was a great anagram and surface. Thanks, Vulcan and Eileen.
Staticman @20 – thanks: that is what I meant to imply.
No issues with INGOT and RICHEST, as the alternatives cited above didn’t occur to me. I thought STOP AND SEARCH was absolutely brilliant, and the other two long anagrams were pretty tasty as well. I agree that STAB IN THE BACK was a bit of a clunker. Pleasant Monday fare.
Ta Vulcan & Eileen.
Yup, RACIEST for me too. D’oh!
AlanC @23 – I thought you’d appreciate the brilliant 17ac. 😉
Muffin@7: Snap. I too had INLET but had to regroup. Both VEGAN and ICING seem to be of a style peculiar to Vulcan (sorry I can’t be more specific) and I’m not sure this is all that helpful to supposed beginners.
Not sure why so many people had a problem with INGOT. A gold ingot is a very pricy bar of metal, so fits the definition exactly. ‘Inlet’ doesn’t even remotely fit it.
Andy @27
Nobody is saying that INGOT is wrong. However, if you think of LET IN before GOT IN, you will try to justify INLET.
Indeed I did Eileen @25 👮♂️
I’m another who went with RACIEST, but I only saw INGOT from that clue, so wasn’t led down that path.
The other wormhole I went down was finding out what SPANDAU Ballet actually meant – don’t check if you’re squeamish. Apparently, from further explorations of the same wormhole, the band didn’t know, they got the idea from some graffiti in Berlin that linked Rudolf Hess to the Spandau Ballet.
Thank you to Eileen and Vulcan.
GOT IN is not the same as “were allowed to enter”, as anyone who’s ever sneaked into the cinema by the back door will know! (I’m sure it’s not so easy these days.)
Oh, dear. A mostly straightforward Monday offering notable only for the very loose clue at 4D which seems to have caught out a lot of us (self included). I guess ‘raciest’ went in for most of us because it comes alphabetically before RICHEST. The clue is loose enough to take this one down to a ‘6/10 – Can do better’, I’m afraid.
RACIEST and INLET? Me too! There’s comfort in numbers. Once the check button had set me on the right track, I thought VEGAN and INGOT were excellent. Not so FLEDGLING and STAB IN THE BACK , neither of which seemed very cryptic. Perhaps, I’ve seen too many fledglings on Spring Watch.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen
RACIEST never occurred to me – the hint of filthy rich made this very obvious. Although INGOT was also obvious, I think LET IN is a better match for ‘were allowed to enter’ than the required answer: GOT IN seems to imply an element of subterfuge or hoodwinking, if not downright criminality.
I didn’t find either of the “cryptic” clues (10 and 14) of any use in finding the answers, which I got from crossers and enumeration; and I’m a VEGAN! ICING was also prompted by the crossers, but at least the clue seemed to be pointing in the right direction.
Despite being a 9d myself, it took me ages to finally crack the clever anagram, possibly because ‘pear’ and ‘nauseating’ are split by a line break in the newspaper; clue of the day for me. 😄
Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen. I enjoyed that.
Small quibble – while a wigwam could be described as a tent, I think it would’ve been better to go with tipi.
Was not in the raciest group, but did think of inlet first for 2d – but was not convinced enough to enter it.
I would agree that the CDs were a little clunky today, but STOP AND SEARCH nicely compensated.
Anyone remembering shivering outside a nightclub in their youth, at the mercy of those doormen, will 100% agree with ‘got in’. (Especially when half the group got in and the other half didn’t. ) That clue is brilliant…. the bar had me going for inn etc. Also loved notated… plenty of types of bears to go through, absorbent and the excellent anagrams. Thank you
Great blog, enjoyable puzzle, interesting contributions. I liked 12a RAT RACE and 25a ICING. Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen.
Well I liked both RICHEST and INGOT! In the latter, as Eileen suggests @10, “let in” doesn’t account for the “were” in the clue. “We were allowed to enter” can mean “We got in“, but “We were allowed to enter” can’t mean “We let in“.
A very pleasant puzzle. Many thanks Vulcan and Eileen.
Raciest has absolutely nothing to do with anyone
I join in the praise for STOP AND SEARCH, and add praise for Eileen’s linked article, which taught me all the things I’d have to keep in mind if stop-and-searched, don’t quite see how anyone could.
To me DEIGN means more “patronizingly” than “graciously,,” but perhaps graciously was its original meaning and the other sense just growed.
A wigwam is definitely not a tent and not a tipi. Wigwams were the housing the tribes used in the Northeastern US and adjacent parts of Canada. It’s a semi-permanent structure made with a framework of saplings covered by sheets of bark. It’s dome-shaped, so it’s good in all weathers. It’s not portable,, as a tipi is. Tipis were the housing of the tribes on the plains, semi-nomadic folk who followed the buffalo. They were big and hard to transport, so dogs towed them on a travois, a type of sledge made with two poles joined.
I enjoyed DOTS. It is the third clue in recent times where a piece of punctuation serves as the definition — we’ve had QUESTION MARK and EXCLAMATION MARK in recent times, with the mark itself standing in for the light. I’m waiting breathlessly for SEMICOLON, PARENTHESIS and EM DASH.
Fine puzzle, thanks Vulcan. And super blog with note, thanks Eileen.
Valentine @ 41
EN DASH was in the Elgar (Enigmatist) Telegraph Toughie last Friday.
Very pleased to have finished a Guardian crossword before lunch – first time!
Was familiar with filthy rich and got 2dn from the definition so no problems there. 7dn was last one solved – tried to fit locum in there somewhere
Anyway thanks Eileen and all the other 15 squared bloggers. I couldn’t have done it without you.
Thanks for the blog , well done Tyro@43 , I thought this was perfect for Monday , even the grid was helpful for newer solvers . There should be two like this every week but it rarely happens .
VEGAN , Animalia is one of the five ( some say six ) kingdoms and a VEGAN will try to avoid all animal products , kingdom makes it a very neat definition .
[ AlanC@23 , I believe that Portugal is now safe again . My name is now working so I can continue with my homage to KPR strikers . ]
And also thanks to Vulcan for his Monday puzzles accessible to us beginners.
Add me to the Raciest Inlet club. Some very nice clues let down by some very janky cryptic definitions today.
Could swear I saw a very similar MANDARIN ORANGE very recently, if it wasn’t in the Guardian it was the Metro.
Tachi @47
Are you thinking of this one from last week’s Everyman?
Argentine mixed fruit (9)
Or this one from a Brockwell last week:
Fruit from Romanian garden (8,6)
Tachi@47: Yes, MANDARIN ORANGE was in recently, I also remembered it. INGOT, too, I think.
Another member of the RACIEST club here!
Doofs@2 as a beginner I’m extending my repertoire from weekend quick cryptic , quiptic and Everyman so this was perfect for me so I agree with Tyri @46 – thank you Vulcan.
@tachi Mandarin orange was definitely a clue last week in the guardian – maybe the quick ???
Thank you Elaine – I still needed support to understand some of the parsing
INGOT: Imogen May 31- ‘Block entered the wrong way round’
MANDARIN ORANGE: Maskarade June 9 – ‘Fruit from Romanian garden’
[Roz @45: sounds like an oxymoron to me 😉]
10a is a great example of why I can’t do cryptic crosswords.
I would not have considered that KINGDOM if I had lived to be 100.
Just can’t think laterally enough, it must be the scientist in me.
Re 2d INGOT I too thought let in was more accurate than got in for “allowed” to enter, and so I stuck with the otherwise unparsed INLET (and consequently failed to get 10a VEGAN). But as Eileen pointed out, INGOT was unambiguously correct. This made the clue even better, with a plausible but incorrect solution to misdirect (some of) us. Well done, Vulcan.
Although (because?) I didn’t get it, the aforementioned VEGAN was my favourite clue. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen for the well- calibrated puzzle and blog.
Cellomaniac @54: “let in” may be accurate for “allowed to enter”, but it’s not accurate for “were allowed to enter”, which is what the clue actually says. “Got in” on the other hand can mean “were allowed to enter”. See Eileen’s blog, and her comment @10, and my expansion @39.
Another in the Raciest group. Even as we were putting this in I knew this would lead us to yet another Vulcan near miss. A plausible answer, but clearly not as good as Richest.
This puts an end to our most successful run of solved puzzles in our six year cryptic journey. I had imagined that we would have been undone by a tricky Paul, rather than a Monday Vulcan!!
But a very enjoyable puzzle nevertheless, so many thanks to Vulcan and thank you Eileen for putting us straight
Lord Jim@55, that is what I was saying. “Allowed” sucked some of us into thinking that “let in” was correct, whereas the whole clue made “got in” unequivocally the right answer. And I noted that Eileen had pointed that out. I was praising Vulcan for this clever misdirection.
INGOT reminds me of our woodwork and rugby teacher when I was at school. I’m not sure if Welsh was his first language, but he’d say “ignot” for that word. It wasn’t that he couldn’t pronounce the “ng”, because one of his catchphrases was “brute force and ingorance”. It made him a bit of an easy target for caricature, which some teenagers exploited to the full, as they would…
Thanks all.
another victim of raciest-ism
Cellomaniac @57: sorry I misunderstood you. We’re agreed it’s a good clue.
I failed to parse INGOT, my LOI as I just had “bar” as the definition. VEGAN was the next last. Not many words V***N and when VEGAN surfaced, definitely an “ooh nice” moment. I like the S&S anagram. It’s a pity they do dare to abuse it.
Do you think VEGAN relates to Star Trek? Vulcan was a Star Trek race
Silverdale duffers
Vulcan in good Monday form. Enjoyed completing this one
14a I originally had SLAP IN THE FACE
1d Enjoyed seeing the Son conquer EVEREST visually in the grid. I could see him standing at the summit!
2d INGOT worked really well. They showed their passes and got in / were allowed to enter