A typically tough Vlad puzzle that will wake up your little grey cells.
This was a fine puzzle, as long as your politics are not too right wing, as there are digs at MATT HANCOCK and his WORLD-BEATING track and trace white elephant. In fact, the setter may have been including BRAINLESS and HYPOCRITES into his commentary on recent politics, but I may be crediting him with my own opinions there.
The puzzle was not an easy solve, and parsing was even less straightforward, and I have to confess to using the “reveal” button on a couple of clues in the NE corner to get a start there, as I was staring at a nearly empty quadrant for a while.
Thanks Vlad, for an entertaining, humorous and challenging start to the day.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | LEG-OVER | Vulgar relations have finished going on stage (3-4) |
| OVER (“finished”) going on LEG (“stage”) | ||
| 5 | SURFEIT | Piercing whistle — ref’s blowing up too much (7) |
| *(ref) [anag:blowing up] piercing SUIT (Cockney rhyming slang – “whistle” and flute) | ||
| 9 | USUAL | Start to undress in land by middle of Wimbledon Common (5) |
| [start to] U(ndress) in USA (“land”) by [middle of] (wimb)L(edon) | ||
| 10 | BRAINLESS | Admitting home’s completely out of cups — that’s stupid! (9) |
| BRALESS (“out of cups”) admitting IN (“home”) | ||
| 11 | HYPOCRITES | Actors cast ready at last — hopes to include brief review (10) |
| *(y hopes) [anag:cast] where Y = (read)Y [at last] to include [brief] CRIT(ique) | ||
| 12 | WISP | Piece of straw is perhaps thus described (4) |
| Hidden in [piece of] “straW IS Perhaps” | ||
| 14 | APPROACHSHOT | Drive’s big — what may follow? (8,4) |
| APPROACH’S (“drive’s”) + HOT (“big”, as in popular) | ||
| 18 | WORLD-BEATING | Big deal, right? Won’t work — like government’s contact-tracing app (5-7) |
| *(big deal r wont) [anag:work] where R = right.
There’s a huge slice of irony in this clue, which may be meant as an &lit. |
||
| 21, 28 | MATT HANCOCK | That man’s failing, mate — but he’s still in office (4,7) |
| *(that man) [anag:failing] + COCK (“mate”) | ||
| 22 | HERB GARDEN | Rosemary here? Gig’s beginning in where she normally drinks at lodge (4,6) |
| G(ig) [‘s beginning] in HER BAR (“where she normally drinks”) at DEN (“lodge”) | ||
| 25 | ILLGOTTEN | Maybe illegal? Vlad intends to not get involved (3-6) |
| I’LL (“Vlad intends to”) + *(not get) [anag:involved] | ||
| 26 | AUGUR | A cycling expert’s forecast (5) |
| A + (U)GUR(u) (“expert”, cycling) | ||
| 27 | GODSEND | Spurs wanting a final point getting a stroke of luck (7) |
| GO(a)DS (“spurs”, wanting A) + END (“final point”) | ||
| 28 | See 21 | |
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | LOUCHE | Disreputable, extremely short, wasn’t standing up straight (6) |
| (s)LOUCHE(d) (“wasn’t standing up straight”) [extremely short, i.e missing its extremes] | ||
| 2 | GRUMPY | Gee! Douglas’ cat is bad-tempered (6) |
| G (gee) + RUMPY (another name for a Manx cat, and Douglas is a town on the Isle of Man, hence “Douglas’ cat”) | ||
| 3 | VELOCIPEDE | Loved piece about early mode of transport (10) |
| *(loved piece) [anag:about] | ||
| 4 | RABBI | Not completely straight with lawyers about minister (5) |
| BI(sexual) (“not completely straight”) with <=BAR (“lawyers”, about) | ||
| 5 | SPAREPART | Possible replacement‘s in box — leave lid off (5,4) |
| SPAR (“box”) + (d)EPART (“leave” with its lid (first letter) off) | ||
| 6 | RAND | One side with money abroad (4) |
| R (right, so “one side”) + AND (“with”) | ||
| 7 | EYESIGHT | Sense crew’s keeping OK (8) |
| EIGHT (rowing “crew”) keeping YES (“OK”) | ||
| 8 | TOSSPOTS | When you do this, stop people drinking too much (8) |
| When you “toss POTS”, you get STOP | ||
| 13 | THINKAGAIN | A night in with back occasionally massaged? That’ll never happen! (5,5) |
| *(a night in ak) [anag:massaged] where AK = (b)A(c)K [occasionally] | ||
| 15 | REELECTED | Staggered round city — time to be taken back into house (9) |
| REELED (“staggered”) round EC (postcode for “City” of London) + T (time) | ||
| 16 | SWIMMING | Feature of golfing Masters — one embraced in another sport (8) |
| SWING (“feature of golf”) with MM (Masters) + I (one) embraced | ||
| 17 | PRATTLED | Prince getting worried talked rubbish (8) |
| P (prince) getting RATTLED (“worried”) | ||
| 19 | ADAGIO | Direction to players — Desdemona extremely upset, Iago devious (6) |
| <= D(esdemon)A [extremely] and [upset] + * (iago) [anag:devious] | ||
| 20 | ANORAK | One bloody woman initially kissed trainspotter (6) |
| A (“one”) + (bloody) NORA (“woman”) + [initially] K(issed)
For an explanation of “bloody Nora”, follow this link. |
||
| 23 | BUNCH | Crucial point about children in pack (5) |
| <=NUB (“crucial point”, about) + CH (children) | ||
| 24 | SORE | Angry when London statue’s toppled (4) |
| <=EROS (“London statue”, upset) | ||
A few bits of GK lacking for me e.g. the manx cat. The statue in Picadilly Circus is of course Anteros not Eros as any fule kno.
Thank you to Vlad for a good workout and to loonapick for the very enlightening blog. I am pleased to have solved as much of this as I did! However there was a fair amount that I could not parse, especially HERB GARDEN ans SWIMMING.
Yes, a really hard one from Vlad which involved a lot of staring for about fifteen minutes before getting anything. Couldn’t parse RABBI or GODSEND – thanks, loonapick. And many thanks to Vlad for the tough challenge.
This was quite a challenge, but very enjoyable.
Favourites: I loved the sarcastic humour of WORLD BEATING + MATT HANCOCK. Also liked THINK AGAIN.
New: Douglas = the capital of the Isle of Man; anorak / trainspotter = a person who obsessively studies the minutiae of any minority interest or specialised hobby; whistle = suit
Did not parse LOUCHE.
Thanks, B+S
I found this one frustrating. There were some I could parse but also quite a few ‘bung and shrug’ entries (to quote grantinfreo). After an hour or so of this and completing three quadrants, I decide to pack it in as I was not enjoying it. I left the NW blank.
Thanks Vlad and loonapick.
An interesting solving experience and quite a tussle. I liked the injections of wit and irony especially, and I’m glad to have picked up some new GK that I hope I will remember: rumpy for a manx cat, bloody Nora[h], and whistle as rhyming slang for suit. The NE corner was my last to finish.
Thanks to Vlad and loonapick.
Completed, but did not parse ‘louche’ or ‘grumpy’ as I failed to see ‘slouched’ and have not come across ‘rumpy’ as a Manx cat, although I twigged the Isle of Man connection through Douglas.
An enjoyable puzzle, though I thought that some of the definitions were a bit ‘iffy’, such as ‘actors’ and ‘hypocrites.’
I thought the NW was going to be impenetrable but when I twigged the cockney whistle, everything else fell in to place. I feel very chuffed to have completed this although the check button was a ‘Godsend’. Loved the political satire and lol at Tosspots. Superb puzzle – thanks Vlad and loonapick
Whew! Got there in the end, though hadn’t parsed LOUCHE so many thanks to loonapick for the blog. Apart from the obvious digs at government (and I wondered if TOSSPOTS, SPARE PART, REELECTED and possibly even LOUCHE and ILL GOTTEN could be tangential references to those in power), I also suspected, for a while, a bit of a sporting theme. References in both clues and solutions to golf, swimming, cycling, football and, in LEG OVER, a nod to the priceless Brian Johnston commentary! For those who’d like to be reminded of Johnners and Aggers corpsing on air, here’s the clip.
Thanks, Vlad, for a real tester this morning with highlights being SURFEIT, BRAINLESS, ILL-GOTTEN and the excellent misdirectional SWIMMING. I also thought WISP was nicely concealed in an &littish clue. I was – stupidly – thrown for a while by misreading Iago as Lago and seeking an anagram that wasn’t there. Doh!
Poor old MATT HANCOCK!
Oops NE corner. George Clements@7 it seems we twigged different things at the same time:-)
With LEG-OVER and [G]RUMPY in early, I thought we were in for a nudge-nudge, wink-wink theme, but not to be. Like others, I found this quite a struggle, and too many went in unparsed (5a, 11a, 18a, 1d, 5d, 16d) for my liking. I did (finally) get to the end, but there were a few I needed to check, being quite unsure. I liked VELOCIPEDE, HERB GARDEN, EYESIGHT. I had LISTED for 1d (‘lied’ around ‘s[hor]t’) for a while. Nigel @1 – thanks for the reminder of one of my favorite books when growing up. I bought a copy of the Complete Molesworth not long ago and enjoyed it all over again.
Nigel Molesworth @1: this is almost certainly my failing but I can’t say I’ve noticed your moniker come up before. Thanks so much for reminding me of Down with Skool which has not crossed my mind for years. And, for those who like to spot the unintentional musical references, a nod to Deep Purple’s Any Fule Kno That.
Skool dog eye him vengfuly! Happy days!
Like several others I couldn’t parse 1d LOUCHE, though it seems obvious in retrospect. Quite a few favourites, including MATT HANCOCK, but the stand-out for me was 19d ADAGIO which I thought was brilliant.
Many thanks Vlad and loonapick.
Tough, but enjoyable. Thanks Vlad and Loonapick.
SURFEIT always reminds me of lampreys and the demise of Henry I.
Thanks, loonapick, for a great blog of a superb puzzle.
Vlad continues to milk the political ironies for all they’re worth, to stunning effect.
I was scattering ticks like confetti and counted eleven, which really are too many to list. I could justify them all but I’ll follow Lord Jim @13 and single out ADAGIO – brilliant indeed.
Many thanks, as ever, Vlad – keep them coming!
Thanks both. There is a word-wrapping problem with the blog when viewed on an IPad, the ends of the lines disappear
[Penfold @14 – that reminds me of the death of Henry VIII according to 1066 and all that – due to a “surfeit of surfeits”]
Thanks Mark – I’d forgotten the skool dog (I can see the Searle picture of it now).
Thanks Loonapick for sorting out LOUCHE and RABBI which I couldn’t parse: nor did I know RUMPY for a Manx cat.
Lots of material here for an anti-government rant if you feel so inclined: do EYESIGHT and ANORAK suggest that Cummings might also be in Vlad’s sights?
Right up my street and I loved the sequence of USUAL BRAINLESS HYPOCRITES closely followed by you know who.
Musically we have HERB(ie) HANCOCK and at a stretch, MATT (Bianco) who’s probably more famous for the Swapshop phone-in than his music.
Thanks to loonapick for the APPROACH SHOT parsing. I’d just assumed it was a CD – if you hit a big drive an approach shot may follow.
And thanks to Vlad for a superb crossword
I sometimes think I am getting a bit too rigid in my thinking in terms of my “likes and dislikes”, so I decided to be open-minded today and just do the puzzle without thinking “Vlad is the setter and I am no good at Vlad’s puzzles”. And I found that I actually enjoyed the ride. My favourite clue was 4d RABBI. A couple went unparsed (as others above have said happened for them too) at 1d LOUCHE and 2d GRUMPY, both of which I only got from the definition (the reference to Douglas on the Isle of Man I knew, but the RUMPY thing was unfamiliar). Meanwhile, your pollie’s name at 21,28a MATT HANCOCK, was a guess guided by the wordplay and the crossers. The other references to him by loonapick and others (re COVID tracking etc) went totally over my head.
Much appreciated, Vlad and loonapick.
Magnificent but where to start with the favourites? Loved SURFEIT but the devious Iago has to take the biscuit (Frank Findlay “put munny in tha purse” great stuff).
Is it me or is Vlad taking over from Paul in the sauciness stakes?
Worrying but I almost feel sorry for the hapless Doormat Hancock.
Yes, nice chewy one from the gnarly Vlad, enjoyable though, with the long echo of Aggers and co chortling over 1ac (non-cricket lovers, just ignore this, it’s an old joke). I’d forgotten about the I of M’s town, so head scratched about ‘rumpy’ for a bit, and ditto about why Nora is bloody. Only real ? though was whether the ‘with’ in 4d is sufficient to position the ‘bi’ under the reversed ‘bar’. Not sure, but hey ho. Enjoyable cuppla hours challenge, thanks Vlad and loonapick.
Given the political theme, I initially guessed at lounged for 1d – thinking it referred to a disreputable action of a certain politician lounging on the benches in the Commons. 8d may also be part of the commentary.
…btw, the blog (but not the preamble or the posts) is running off the screen, even in ‘landscape’…
Shirl @16
Thanks for the heads-up. The word-wrapping issue should be resolved now.
Vlad’s last few puzzles have all been tough but doable. Perhaps even very tough but doable. Either way it is credit to the setter for making us stare blankly at the first dozen clues, nearly weep in despair and then let us off the hook gently and slowly. I failed to pare “louche” so thanks for that, and I thought the double-GK of Douglas -> Manx -> Grumpy a bit harsh…not unlike an indirect anagram. Maybe it was me being grumpy because I didn’t know the cat part of the GK and am a big cat lover.
I thought the political clues superb and the rest beautifully crafted – Iago and Desdemona was so neat, and it’s the first time I’ve seen the “cycling” trick done with part of a word. I was searching for a 5 letter expert to cycle before crossers told me the answer.
“Anorak” puts me in mind of a story a colleague used to tell. He’d been down to the south coast to look at a particularly fine church organ that had just been restored (and play it I think…he was a fellow of the RCO). On his return he excitedly told his wife not only about the organ but that the journey had, for some reason, turned out to be on a steam train, about which he was also rather enthusiastic. Her reply was a laconic “I suppose you had to wear two anoraks for that trip then?”.
Many thanks Vlad and loonapick.
grantinfreo @22. Agree about 4d. The cryptic grammar seems to yield BIRAB, BABIR or RABIB!
There is an extra element to 8d. If you TOSS (throw away) the POTS (drinking vessels) you would certainly stop people drinking!
Excellent puzzle. Thanks Vlad and loonapick.
Ta Gaufrid, blog all visible now.
No fault of Vlad’s but, as Mark @9, I was held up by “Lago” at 19d.
I am usually railing against Vlad’s Xwords, but today, I found this comparatively easy, compared to most other solvers, it seems.
Thanks loonapick and Vlad.
A gem of a crossword with its witty and clever clueing and mini-theme. I thought it easier that a normal Vlad with 22 being a write-in as soon as I spotted Rosemary. I wondered if 1’s were Vlad’s slant on the PM? Did anyone mention TOSSPOTS as a derogatory term to accompany “brainless”, “hypocrites” etc.
Thanks Vlad and loonapick.
Vlad at his most challenging and entertaining – thank you to him and loonapick
Rose slowly like good dough. Fav the etymologically impeccable 11ac. Hats off to Vlad and loonapick.
Having taken more time to read the comments I see Mark @9 says it all re TOSSPOTS etc.
I liked this one, it wasn’t too hard once I got started, and plenty of laughs with MATT HANCOCK, WORLD BEATING, and SURFEIT of the USUAL BRAINLESS HYPOCRITES; BUNCH of TOSSPOTS
greensward@27, yeah, don’t know where you are but here in my part of Oz a ‘pot’ was a 10oz beer glass, so I got that..
Got there in the end but with an awful lot of “bung & shrug” as grantinfreo might say.
Still can’t work out RABBI.
Good puzzle, though, enjoyed the slog.
Particular thanks to loonapick for unpicking everything.
Really loved this. Slow and steady all the way, every time I thought I’d hit an impasse something else would click into place and nudge me an answer or two closer to completion. Plenty of amusing cheek to raise a smile (BRALESS, TOSSPOTS, BI), some wonderful topical snark (MATT HANCOCK, WORLD-BEATING – surely a clue to be quoted among leftie crossword enthusiasts for weeks to come) and overall a very amusing, classy bit of cruciverbalism.
Thanks loonapick for the blog and particularly for equating whistle with SUIT which was my missing bit of parsing, and to Vlad for the excellent midweek challenge.
grantinfreo@35. Just looked up ‘tosspot’, and it’s apparently of Middle English origin, when beer/ale was served in ceramic ‘pots’. Hence a tosspot was a person who copiously ‘tossed back’ pots of ale.
The play ‘Like Will to Like’, by Ulpian Fulwell (a contemporary of Shakespeare) includes a character called Tom Tosspot, who has the lines:
‘If any poore man have in a whole week earned a grote
He shal spend it in one houre in tossing the pot.’
(not my spelling)
Now that’s what I call a good session!
As so often with Vlad, parsing is more difficult than solution. I too had a blank NW quadrant, but then I saw VELOCIPEDE and the rest crumbled. Most of what I know about golf is derived from crosswords so I was unsurprised to find 14a meaningless until I came here.
Thanks to loonapick for enlightenment and to Vlad for first class entertainment.
Yes, slim musical pickings today. Bodycheetah@19 did well to spot HERB(ie) HANCOCK. Best I can do is a Jimmy Cliff song from back in the 70s: HYPOCRITES.
A tough one today but we persisted and completed it.
Favourites were HERB GARDEN and SWIMMING.
Thanks Vlad and loonapick!
Thanks Gaufrid @25
On the musical front, any mention of rosemary and HERB sets off Scarborough Fair in my head. And of course, love grows where my Rosemary goes…
Thanks Loonapick for the parsing of RAND, my loi. It looks obvious now, but I stopped trying to justify it once I’d thought of the German Rand, meaning edge, and assumed it must have found its way into English. (In fact, according to wiki there is an English cognate, but it’s marked obsolete or dialectal.)
[Re the politics, in my experience those who call their political opponents brainless are, at least in that moment, not demonstrating the most acute insight themselves. Not that Vlad did of course ;) ]
Many thanks both.
The more experience I get with Vlad, the better I like him. This was tricky in spots but all fair and with a few laughs along the way, such as BRAINLESS. I didn’t know the rhyming slang for suit, so thanks to loonapick for explaining that. I also didn’t see the wordplay for APPROACH SHOT and thought it was just a weak cryptic definition – should have known better. Oddly enough, I did remember MATT HANCOCK from a previous puzzle. You Brits must have the same high regard for him that we have for our current ‘stable genius.” Thanks to Vlad, and also to bodycheetah @19 for pointing out the USUAL BRIANLESS HYPOCRITES sequence, which I suspect was intentional.
BTW this is the 11th outing for TOSSPOT as an answer – it did seem familiar – Chifonie used it last December. My fave version was by Bunthorne way back in 2000 …
One drunk turns to the others: “Keep quiet! We are drunkards” (8)
Excellent puzzle, one you wouldn’t find in the Torygraph, that’s for sure!
Often shudder when I read the Impaler’s name, but I must be getting to know the way
the mind works. Only LOUCHE and GRUMPY unparsed, so boy was I pleased with myself!
Loads of chuckles, too many to mention, like Eileen said, and certainly a cut out and keep for me! Thanks both L and V.
Surprisingly, I finished this in WORLD-BEATING time (for a Vlad), but I think this is a comment neither about the puzzle’s intrinsic difficulty nor my solving ability, but rather my journey there. I had encountered BRALESS just a few minutes earlier in another puzzle, and I saw the golfing mention in 16d right before APPROACH SHOT. Other coincidences helped too. You just never know.
Maybe THINK AGAIN is political – come the next election. ILL-GOTTEN? LOUCHE [Shady sinister shifty disreputable, according to Chambers]. Wonderful puzzle. Took me three passes to get it all, but worth the effort. My only slight moan is that RE-ELECTED should surely have been marked as (2-7). HYPOCRITE comes from the Greek for actor, again according to Chambers, so I think that’s perfectly fair. I like RUMPY for a Manx cat, which I didn’t know.
Dnf for me but enjoyable. I knew Douglas was the capital of the Isle of Man and Manx cats are tailless so I spent way too long thinking of cats missing their last letter. Never heard of the rumpy. Thanks to all.
In France, 1D comes out as a double meaning, since louche means squint, in the sense of the eye defect, and by extension something which isn’t quite upright, like a doorframe which is out of true. I failed to parse many of the same answers as previous commentators but an enjoyable solve.
“That man” surely points to ‘hancock”, from “it’s that man again”. And we note “usual brainless hypocrites”.
Sorry, ant & Pedro – not Tony: it was Tommy Handley in ITMA (It’s That Man Again)
I had too little time today for such a tough work-out. It would have been a DNF to be frank. Enjoyed the ones I did get!
Thanks Vlad and especial thanks to loonapick for the very helpful blog.
An absolute delight.
Some objectivity with 18ac and 21, 28 ac. A pretty clear theme with LEGOVER (one thing our Dear Leader does appear to be competent at), USUAL BRAINLESS HYPOCRITES (thank you, bodycheetah @19), ILL-GOTTEN, LOUCHE, EYESIGHT (which, of course, you get checked somewhere in the North East…), TOSSPOTS, PRATTLED, RE-ELECTED BUNCH (of 8dn?) …
And some delightfully Pauline clues at 1ac, 10ac, 4dn.
Thank you Vlad for the most enjoyable crossword since BOLLOCKS TO BREXIT and to loonapick for explaining the parsing of the three or four I wasn’t sure about
Phew. Entire NE was LOI for me! FOI was LEG-OVER and loving the political theme but so pleased to finally get there. A truly lovely puzzle with more than a few laugh-out-loud momenets. Thanks Vlad and loonapick!
Very, very tough. Luckily I had no plans for the first part of the day, so persevered knowing that I usually get there in the end with Vlad. But some of the parsing…
It’s not often we get a theme based around a surfeit of brainless tosspots. And still more than four years until the electorate gets a chance to think again (that’ll never happen, though).
Thanks Vlad for, as loonapick put it, “waking up my little grey cells”. And well done to our blogger for explaining the one that I couldn’t parse and for owning up to revealing part of the grid. (If I’d been solving this to a deadline I’d have had to reveal more than half!)
Thanks both,
Pleased with myself for getting the answers if not all the parsings in under an hour. It helps to have confidence in the setter since there is little doubt that the clue will work when you finally figure it out.
What a magnificent crossword.
Thanks Vlad.
Needed to sleep to finish getting most of this, still needed the check button for some. Huge fun, thank you Vlad and loonapick.
I know from Manx cats, but didn’t know either Douglas or rumpy. Come to think of it, we haven’t had a “manx” clue for some time, have we?
The Nora note seems to have a lot of contradictory opinions. I can add that in the Bill Slider detective stories by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Slider often vents his feelings with “Flaming Nora!”
Apropos of Nigel at St. Custard’s, does anyone remember St. Trinian’s, also illustrated by Ronald Searle? A girl’s school this time.
penfold @14 All I knew about a surfeit of lampreys was that it was the title of a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh. Now I see where she got the phrase!
Lovely!
Mark @12 not your failing, this is a first for the gorila of 3b and curse of st custards.
Pleasing to have RE-ELECTED and THINK AGAIN next to each other in the grid too. Thanks for the blog.
That Bunthorne clue is just the best, bodycheetah @55, can’t stop chortling..
Bodycheetah@19 Shirley it has to be Brian Auger with or without the oblivion express!
Valentine @59, haven’t read the Sliders but saving up the late Mrs ginf’s collection of the 35-volume Morland series by Harrod-Eagles for a re-read in the event of a second covid outbreak here…
ginf @65 I haven’t read the Morlands, but do try some of the Shepherd’s Bush Sliders if your library is supplying books these days.
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles said she’d had a book or series with a family with a different, somewhat complicated name — it had a Mac or a Mc in it — and the lesson she learned was that if you’re going to have a repeating name over many books, make it one that’s easy to type.
Vlad’s always tough for me so I was pleased to sail through the bottom half except for WORLD-BEATING, a new expression for me. The top half, however, had me hitting the reveal button more than once. I’ll keep attempting crosswords by Vlad because I find his surfaces so entertainingly readable even if the wordplay gets too dense for me (or maybe I’m too dense for the wordplay.) At any rate, thanks to both.
Nigel Molesworth @61: in which case, welcum to the site. “Hullo clouds, hullo sky, hullo Nigel”.
Never start Vlad after lunch. Loved the theme, and made steady progress other than the NE corner, and boy was I happy to see loonapick admitting to use of the reveal button in that quadrant! By then I had some crossers of course, but not enough for the likes of LOUCHE, GRUMPY and HYPOCRITES, so I went for test-a-letter with the check button. Mostly I guessed right, but sometimes needed a second chance (or three), so technically a DNF for me. Just another 5% off the difficulty level, please Vlad, that’s all it would take. Oh, and please dismember Gove next time.
Came to this late today, but so much to enjoy, with quite a few smiles on the way. RAND and SWIMMING the last two to be teased out. HYPOCRITES took ages to parse, wasn’t sure till I referred to Loonapick at the very end for confirmation.
Coming to this late on I can now see I wasn’t alone in taking a while to finish this one. Some great clues as many others have already said. I too didn’t know a Manx cat was called a rumpy presumably because without a tail that part of the anatomy is overly prominent? Couldn’t parse SURFEIT as didn’t know the rhyming slang.
Thanks Loonapick and Vlad for a tough but enjoyable puzzle.
Bluecanary @64 I wasn’t familiar with Brian Auger but his wikipedia page reads like one of Nigel Blackwell’s monologues :) And his surname naturally brings to mind the opening couplet of M6ster from This Leaden Pall
I am beginning to appreciate the extra challenge that Vlad supplies, as well as the political comment. Like Trailman I had to make a little strategic use of the Check button, but this is the first Vlad I have managed without a reveal.
Thanks to Vlad and loonapick
Thanks Vlad and loonapick
I had question marks against eight or nine clues, mostly my inability to parse them, though I did pick up on Anteros (welcome Nigel, from someone other than Fotherington-Thomas @68!).
EYESIGHT is a slightly odd word, in that it’s pretty much tautologous. I don’t think I would ever refer to my vision sense as “eyesight”, just “sight”.
Lots of very satisfying clues. My favourites were LEG-OVER, SURFEIT (which I did parse), BRAINLESS, and VELOCIPEDE.
Lots to enjoy in this tough outing, though I could only partially parse GODSEND and TOSSPOTS. WORLD-BEATING was my favourite. Just a shame that the herb garden wasn’t a rose garden, as that would have fitted the theme nicely.
Thanks to Vlad and Loonapick
[bodycheetah@72 – haha didn’t know a tenth of that CV! Some of it suspiciously Brian Pernish and definitely in a different musical universe to HMHB. I’m sure he’d do a good job on Hammond for the boys next album tho. Knew “this wheels on fire” and had the first oblivion express although on checking it seems to have disappeared or been misfiled during the lockdown vinyl reorg!]
I’ve found the last couple of Vlads really difficult and not very enjoyable but not this one. I’m not sure if this was easier or if my return to gym going has improved my solving. Either way I liked this puzzle very much: that it had anti Tory undertones made it even better- I had wanted 4dn to be RISHI but,of course,it wasn’t! I even managed to parse most of it including LOUCHE which some others have found bothersome. I admit APPROACH SHOT was a guess but I may have come across it in a crossword – I’ve never played golf in my life!
I liked ANORAK,LEG OVER,WORLD BEATING and (snigger) MATT HANCOCK- and liking the latter is something I never thought I’d write. The tragedy of this government is that MH is one of the better ones!
Thanks Vlad.
When we restarted crosswording Vlad seemed like Bunthorne of old – effectively impossible – but now he is a favourite, and this was a lovely test. LEG OVER first in, and we suspected a Pauly puzzle, but no. The political comments very much appreciated, and also the contributors here reminding us of Skool. Thanks V and l!
So no-one else went down the blind alley of “Pointless” for 10a.
What a fun puzzle! Loving all the political commentary. I was happy to need help from loonapick parsing only 3 clues – RUMPY, SUIT and BUNCH – but was then enlightened to the correct parsing of RABBI. Like Eileen I ticked loads of clues and my COD was ADAGIO. And I giggled at ANORAK.
TonyS @67: you can’t be living in UK if this is the first time you’ve come across WORLD-BEATING. Our current BUNCH of BRAINLESS TOSSPOTS (thanks Vlad!) claim this description of pretty much everything they come up with, with complete disregard for reality.
AllyGally @80 No, I live in Washington, DC. We have our own version of chest-thumping nationalism.
Before this crossword the only thing I knew about Manx cats was that they had cropped tails now I find out on further investigation that rumpy is the Manx cat with absolutely no tail and Stumpy is the name for a Manx cat with a little stump of a tail – who knew?
Thanks to Vlad for hi usual challenging crossword and Loonapick for an outstanding blog , which i needed for parsing LOUCHE and BUNCHwhiblog
HarpoSpeaks @75 – I beg your pardon, did Vlad promise you one of those?
Many thanks to loonapick for an excellent blog and to others who took the trouble to comment.
I loved this! Amidst a host of classy clues, my fave was ADAGIO, closely followed by SURFEIT – although, like Penfold, I simply can’t help thinking of lampreys whenever I see that word.
Thanks loonapick for helping me finish off the parsing of really quite a lot of them – and big thanks to Vlad for a thoroughly enjoyable solve
Loved this.Just completed after three or four visits today.Did not parse rabbi or louche.The political refs very much appreciated and enjoyed here.Thanks for a great crossword Vlad and and an enlightening blog loonapick.
Great fun – tough but fair, with several laugh out loud moments. And I would also like to add that SPURS really did need a point on the last day of the Premier League season – whether it was lucky or not is hard to say. Many thanks to both.
Took me until this morning to finish this one, with a handful still unparsed. SPAREPARTS/SURFEIT/RAND were all shrug-and-write-in.
MATT HANCOCK showed up a couple of months back (Picaroon 28145) — though the definition (and memory) meant I didn’t spend as long considering NEIL KINNOCK this time around.
Thanks to loonapick and Vlad
Occasionally new posters have asked what is meant by “cryptic grammar”. I can’t recall an answer so I’ll give my take on it here:
“Cryptic grammar” is the ordinary, accepted grammar of the English language applied to the “cryptic” reading of the clue. Most clues in a cryptic crossword can be read in two ways – that is the very essence of a “cryptic” clue. The clever bit is that both readings make sense in English, but only one yields the answer.
Inevitably, in the pursuit of misdirection/confoundment/fun, the lines between grammar and “he/she’s taking the piss” are sometimes blurred.
Vlad takes several liberties here (in my opinion), but the overall briliance renders the quibbles barely worth mentioning. But I have mentioned them now so here they are:
1a I, and I’m not alone here, would regard “leg-over” as singular (i.e. attracting a “has” rather than a “have”)
5a “too much” is an adjectival phrase equivalent to “a surfeit”
12a wispy? And, incidentally, Chambers gives “piece” as a synonym for “wisp” – Piece of straw is perhaps?
18a although there are several words making up the material to be jumbled, I regard the accumulation as a singular entity, and therefore “work” needs to be “works” or “working”.
21,28a That man’s failing mate!
8d this one is difficult to explain but we can start by agreeing what “this” means. In the context of crossword clues it means “the entry”, thus the cryptic (other) reading would be:
When you do tosspots, stop people drinking too much
At the very least I would prefer:
When you do this you might get to stop people drinking too much
Where “get to” means “arrive at”, the solver is left to isolate the definition after “stop”, (and “do” is still there just for the surface)
But, as I say, mere quibbles. I loved it.
Bedtime