Guardian Cryptic N°26,073 by Picaroon

by

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26073.

I found this quite a struggle, first to solve, and then in several cases to pin down the wordplay; but it sorted itself out eventually, so thanks to Picaroon for the workout.

Across
1. Rats! One’s spurned for love, close to distraught state (7)
VERMONT A charade of VERMIN (‘rats’) with the I replaced by O (‘one’s spurned for love’) plus T (‘close to distraughT‘)
5. Conservative certainly not about to be socially aware (5-2)
RIGHT-ON A charade of RIGHT (‘Conservative’) plus ON, a reversal (‘about’) of NO (‘certainly not’).
9. 24 down is found at the end of this puzzle (5)
SWORD The final letters (‘at the end’) of crosSWORD (‘this puzzle’). The answer to 24D is EPEE.
10. Ecstasy and speed? Swallowing flipping LSD, get weed out (9)
ERADICATE An envelope (‘swallowing’) of DICA, a reversal (‘flipping’) of ACID (‘LSD’) in E (‘ecstasy’) plus RATE (‘speed’).
11. Desperate housewives go wild, so excited about fellow’s clothing (4,6)
GOLF WIDOWS An envelope (‘about’) of FW (‘FelloW‘s clothing’) in GOLIDOWS, an anagram (‘excited’) of ‘go wild so’. 
12. Old lady’s going to walk (4)
MALL A charade of MA (‘old lady’) plus ‘LL (a contraction of WILL, ‘{i}s going to’).
14. Improvement in how sappers are deployed? (11)
REFORMATION A charade of RE (Royal Engineers, ‘sappers’) plus FORMATION  (‘how … are deployed’). 
18. Pervert tries high definit­ion porn, but not you or I! (5,6)
THIRD PERSON An anagram (‘pervert’) of ‘tries’ plus HD (‘high definition’) plus ‘porn’. 
21. Nerdy, dry, oddly re­pressed Christian Scientist (4)
EDDY Even letters (‘oddly repressed’) of ‘nErDy DrY‘; for Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science. 
22. He gets rid of lots of gold, tossing in ore etc (10)
AUCTIONEER A charade of AU (‘chemical symbol, ‘gold’) plus CTIONEER, an anagram (‘tossing’) of ‘in ore etc’. 
25. Getting boundaries in early, English batsman’s a revelation (3-6)
EYE-OPENER A charade of EY (‘getting boundaries in EarlY‘) plus E (‘English’) plus OPENER (‘batsman’).
26. US tennis player‘s return kicking right at first (5)
EVERT A subtraction [r]EVERT (‘return’) without its first letter R (‘kicking right at first’); for Chrissie Evert, who is as elegant as ever. 
27. Take a punt on this lake, with yen to catch aquatic creature (7)
LOTTERY An envelope (‘to catch’) of OTTER (‘aquatic creature’) in LY (‘lake with yen’).
28. Understanding 10 x 3 only partially (7)
ENTENTE [t]EN TEN TE[n] (’10 x 3′) ‘only partially’. 
…
Down
1. Roman sex guru’s a mug (6)
VISAGE A charade of VI (Roman numeral, for the number six – ‘Roman sex’) plus SAGE (‘guru’).
2. Search for food, turning to large caviar sandwiches (6)
ROOTLE An envelope (‘sandwiches’) of OT, a reversal (‘turning’) of ‘to’ plus L (‘large’) in ROE (‘caviar’).
3. Quaint style’s back after odd Orwell novel (4,6)
OLDE WORLDE A charade of OLDE WORLD, an anagram (‘novel’) of ‘odd Orwell’ plus E (‘stylE‘s back’). 
4. Movement that’s in time runs to a climax (5)
TREND A charade of T (‘time’) plus R (‘runs’) plus END (‘climax’). I take it that the apostrophe s is a typo.
5. Back what the children’s guardian must do (9)
REARWARDS A charade of REAR WARDS (‘what children’s.guardian must do’).
6. Carriage door’s sound (4)
GAIT A homophone (‘sound’) of GATE (‘door’). 
7. Time, an hour after midnight, to get music and liqueur (3,5)
TIA MARIA A charade of T (‘time’) plus I AM (1am., ‘an hour after midnight’) plus ARIA (‘music’). 
8. Annoying lover of Heather may well! (8)
NEEDLING A charade of NEED LING (‘lover of heather may well’).
13. Most uncommon to cover news in tropical region (10)
RAINFOREST An envelope (‘to cover’) of INFO (‘news’) in RAREST (‘most uncommon’).
15. “The commonness of the fellow! Rule by the Prince of Wales’s no good”, the Queen admitted (9)
FREQUENCY An envelope (‘admitted’) of QU (‘queen’) in F (‘fellow’) plus RE[g]ENCY (‘rule by the Prince of Wales’) without the G (‘no good’).
16. Delayed returning to wrap present that’s heavenly (8)
ETHEREAL An envelope (‘to wrap’) of HERE (‘present’) in ETAL, a reversal (‘returning’) of LATE (‘delayed’).
17. Stew for American front­iersmen? (4,4)
WILD WEST A wordplay-in-the-answer: WEST is an anagram (WILD) of ‘stew’. 
19. English runner always going in opposing directions (6)
SEVERN An envelope (‘going in’) of EVER (‘always’) in SN (‘opposing directions’).
20. Horse put in pen to struggle (6)
WRITHE An envelope (‘put in’) of H (heroin, ‘horse’) in WRITE (‘pen’). 
23. Picked up wrong cake (5)
TORTE A homophone (‘picked up’) of TORT (‘wrong’). 
24. Goalie stripped off and raised arm (4)
EPEE [k]EEPE[r] (‘goalie’) without its first and last letters (‘stripped off’), and reversed (‘raised’, in a down light). 

42 comments on “Guardian Cryptic N°26,073 by Picaroon”

  1. Thanks, PeterO. Quite brilliant and I find it impossible to begin to name a favourite clue.

    Not sure I get your point about the apostrophe in TREND: the sense of the clue seems fine to me.

  2. Thanks Peter. Stop-start with nothing until 22A, then 23A at once and much else. Dead halt at the end, at 12A, plumping for MALL in case there was some such walk in London: but you’ve explained it. Got EDDY, not knowing her. Enjoyed it all.

  3. Sorry, PeterO, coming back here, I see your point now about the apostrophe S. Perhaps both surface and construction of the clue would have been best served by omitting “that’s” altogether?

  4. Thanks PeterO and Picaroon
    Steady progress, with some nice clues. I needed you to explain EDDY for me (I hadn’t heard of her either), and to show where the second W in GOLF WIDOWS came from (FelloW, not just F for fellow).
    ENTENTE was cleverer than I thought – I hadn’t pictured writing TEN out threee times; I just considered it to be a partial anagram.

  5. Thanks PeterO.

    What a perfect crossword to come back to after a week away! Not too difficult but sheer delight from start to finish. Super surfaces and great misdirection, as always from this setter – impossible, as NeilW says, to pick out favourites.

    Some of the answers went in pretty easily, from the definition, eg 10ac, 22ac, 25ac and 16dn but there was plenty of enjoyment in unravelling the wordplay.

    [4dn works fine for me as it is.]

    Many thanks to Picaroon for brightening up my first morning back!

  6. Thanks, Peter. I had a struggle too, but it was a delightful puzzle with lots of clever misdirection and some fine surface readings. ENTENTE was my favourite – couldn’t see it for ages, but very clever. Also liked WILD WEST, but as others have said, all good.

    4dn works for me too.

    I could handle some more from this setter.

  7. Agree with everyone else so far. A really enjoyable puzzle, satisfying to complete at a steady pace.

  8. Thanks PeterO and Picaroon.

    I haven’t commented for quite some time, but just had to congratulate the setter. I was so distracted by the surfaces that it took me way into the latter acrosses to even start solving ?

  9. I was misled at first by “that’s” in 4dn, thinking that i.e was somehow part of the answer. My COD, if I had to choose just one was 18 ac. Thanks to Picaroon and to PeterO.

  10. Difficult but well worth the struggle with some exceptional clues.

    Thanks PeterO; I thought 4D was fine with, as JC @9 says, a nice misdirection for ‘that’s.’

    I agree with K’s dad @6 that ENTENTE and WILD WEST were outstanding with many other very satisfying clues.

  11. Picaroon is fast becoming one of my favourite setters.

    Totally agree about the misdirections. I spent ages working out how to fit NAG or GG (those old chestnuts, ho-ho), into 20d for example.

  12. TREND’s gotta whole lotta bits in it, and he could easily have dumped THAT’S and the A, but it’s all right anyway if you say that ‘that’s in’ is the linking material. Which it is, course.

  13. Thanks, PeterO

    A very enjoyable crossword. I must be getting the hang of Picaroon’s style because I didn’t find this at all difficult; in fact, it took me less time to finish than yesterday’s Rufus. In most of Picaroon’s clues it is reasonably clear what type of construction is being used: that isn’t always the case with our regular Monday man.

    EDDY was a write-in for me. It clearly helps if you are familiar with the name of the Bostonian founder of Christian Science. On the other hand, MALL was my last entry, and I couldn’t parse FREQUENCY – thanks for that.

    Lots of well-constructed clues with good surfaces. Favourites were ERADICATE (nice construction and surface), ENTENTE (clever), WILD WEST (I’m a sucker for reverse clues) and the ‘Roman sex guru’.

  14. Thanks to PeterO for the blog. You explained several where I had the right answer without seeing the parsing.

    I am one of those who found this puzzle hard work. On 28 I had ENTENTE (from the crossing letters) which is a French word in origin. I read ’10 x 3′ as a multiplication giving 30 which is TRENTE in French and I stuck there 🙁

  15. Well there you go: that’s an indirect hidden, that is, and I’m sure you weren’t the only one who had to wait for the crossers (i.e. me). Nice puzzle though, with some good ideas.

  16. Thanks PeterO and Picaroon. I found this tough and therefore enjoyable. But I have slight misgivings over 19d SEVERN = English runner. Surely that mighty river is British, flowing as it does from Plinlimmon (there are other spellings) to the Bristol Channel. Unless it is meant to suggest that the Welsh part of the river is properly known as Afon Hafren and therefore English river would be correct.

  17. Thanks PeterO and Picaroon

    In and out of this between spates of gardening. A fine puzzle with masses of good clues as others have said.

    I got ‘mall’ early but the penny only dropped about parsing it at the very end. I was nudged on by looking up ‘old lady’ in desperation to see if it had a special meaning, and being reminded it meant mother as well as wife.

  18. 9ac is interesting.

    ‘Epee is found at the end of this puzzle’ is a poor clue for SWORD. The definition is an unindicated example, ‘end’ is loose,
    ‘this’ is superfluous and the surface lacks the qualities of misdirection or narrative. Most unPicaresque.

    However the actual clue, ’24 down is found at the end of this puzzle’, is a simple statement of fact. I like it. And the rest.

  19. rhotician @18: For me, just a question mark at the end of the clue for 9a would suffice; ‘this’ is not entirely superfluous, as not all puzzles have SWORD at the end, only the crossword.

    Although EPEE is only a type of (particularly fencing) sword in English, it is the generic word for the weapon in French, from the Latin ‘spatha’, via the normal processes of phonetic attrition. Cognate are the Italian ‘spada’ and the Spanish ‘espada’ and the English ‘spade’ (the playing card suit is known as ‘swords’ in the Tarot pack). Curiously, ‘spatha’ was a particular type of broadsword carried by Roman cavalry officers; the generic word in classical Latin was ‘gladius’. Interesting how words which are specific can drift to being generic terms, and back again.

  20. Good puzzle with some ‘Ah’ moments. ‘Mall’ was last in for me too (OK – I had to cheat with that!). I liked ‘Tia Maria’ and ‘Third Person’ but a bit confused by ‘… caviar sandwiches’. A bacon sandwich has the bacon inside it – not outside so I was trying to insert ‘roe’ inside ‘large’!!

  21. Didn’t know about Eddy and gave up (getting too close to wine-o-clock!) on mall. Otherwise thoroughly enjoyed myself. Witty,inventive, without being far-fetched. Thank you Picaroon.

  23. I must have been very much on Picaroon’s wavelength because I found this the easiest of his to date, and in terms of time taken I also took longer to solve yesterday’s Rufus, as did Gervase@13. Having said that it was still an enjoyable solve with plenty of good constructions.

    ENTENTE was my LOI after I got RAINFOREST, although I didn’t bother to parse it, so thanks for that PeterO, and the same goes for FREQUENCY.

  24. I’ve a feeling Picaroon doesn’t mean ‘crosSWORD’: for that to work, the ‘this’ is redundant, and in any case solvers are already involved in doing a crossword as opposed to any other type of puzzle. So I think it’s rhotician Betty’s straight definition.

    I went for ‘end of this’ = S plus def for WORD for a few minutes, but abandoned ship.

  25. Paul B @24

    I do not follow you. How does ’24 down is found at the end of this puzzle’ become a straight definition of SWORD?

  26. Rhotician’s idea doesn’t work for me either.
    Perhaps, Picaroon should clear it up himself (he has been around in these places).
    Although far from perfect, crosSWORD works well enough for me.

    Otherwise, a wonderful puzzle with nearly every clue a winner.
    But then, I am a huge fan of this setter.
    This was perhaps one of Picaroon’s very best thus far.
    Great surfaces (what about 15d or 11ac), splendid constructions (how good is “Take a punt on this / lake” in 27ac). Even a simple clue like 26ac (EVERT) is well thought through [doesn’t sound like proper English but I hope you know what I mean] – tennis player & return.

    ps, my PinC was very impressed too (especially by 22ac) and by the use of the apostrophe-s in 12ac.

    This puzzle had (at least for us) the wow factor.

  27. As often at this late hour, others have said it all, but I still want to affirm the delight that Picaroon’s surfaces and constructions provide.
    Thanks to PeterO, too.

  28. Another great puzzle from the pirate.

    I found this quite difficult as I was almost always led astray by the surface. But slowly got there.

    On completion I was left wondering why I hadn’t found it easier? The sign of a good cryptic crossword I think.

    Thanks to PeterO and Picaroon

  29. 9 across is a pain. EPEE is just one type of sword, so that’s not great, that’s why I don’t really dig the straight definition idea, but the ‘cros-sword’ thing isn’t satisfying either. The idea is clearly to say that the last clue is the last clue in the puzzle, but I’m not too sure it works well enough for SWORD.

  31. Paul B, Sil, Bootsie: What’s with all this “work” stuff?

    The surface of a standard ‘def, wordplay, nothing else’ clue isn’t meant to “work”. It needn’t even make sense.
    A good surface is diverting in one way or another. It should have nothing to do with the solution.
    Picaroon’s surfaces are consistently and variously diverting.

    The surface of 9ac has nothing to do with SWORD. What is unusual (original?) about it, and what redeems the
    arguably defective “cryptic grammar”, is that it is a statement of fact. 24 down is found at the end of this puzzle.

    For Gervase(@19) “a ? at the end of the clue would suffice”, presumably to make it “work”. For me it would spoil it.
    The fact here is unquestionable.

  32. It is seldom that I take the side of Rhoticiam when he goes off on one is “mini crusades” although I do enjoy his banter 🙂

    However in the case of 9A I agree with him.

    All the discussions of bad clue, cryptic grammar, is epee a particular sword or a general sword etc etc is irrelevant.

    Picaroon has been incredibly inventive and merely written down a statement of fact. The way that this can be used to divine the answer to the clue is almost almost irrelevant but yet amazing.

    We’ll probably have to come up with a new clue type for it? Perhaps “&lit msidirection”. (No doubt somebody will tell me there already is some esoteric refernce to this somewhere.) Maybe the great “Don” will have to update his book 😉

  33. Stymied in the NE corner by convincing myself that “carriage door’s sound” was SLAM, from the old “slam doors” on the trains of my youth. Still seems a very good solution . . . or clever misdirection?

  34. ‘&lit misdirection’ we already have, shurely, where folks identify extended defs incorrectly, but it looks as if everyone now agrees with Betty, except where they don’t. I for one am not now sure. Picaroon: are you related to Wayne Picaroon, the Irish centre-forward?

  35. Am compelled to de-lurk and say I really enjoyed this and was pleased to finish it, and to parse it all (save for OLDE WORLDE, last in). Just the level of difficulty I like. Thanks, Picaroon and Peter O.

  36. Dear Rhotician, I did not make any comments relating to the surface reading of 9ac. So, please, don’t associate me with that. In fact – as I made very clear – I am completely on the setter’s side!

    That said, your post @18 still puzzles me.
    How on earth can a “statement” (as you call it) like ’24 down is found at the end of this puzzle’ lead to SWORD?
    Here ’24 down’ equates SWORD, that’s fine.
    And, indeed, ’24 down’ can be found ‘at the end of this puzzle’.
    However, the two have nothing to do with each other.
    I’ll stick with PeterO’s parsing which – sorry – ‘works’ for me.
    I do not find [cros]SWORD ideal for ‘the end of this puzzle’ but it’s good enough.

    Picaroon, where are you? Please help us out of this misery 🙂

  37. Dear Sil, I did not say @18 that PeterO’s parsing doesn’t work. I think he parsed the clue correctly. And I did not say that the “statement” works as a definition for SWORD. My point was that if the clue had said ‘epee’, or if EPEE had been at 6 down say, then it would be “poor”.

    I think if Picaroon had first constructed a grid with SWORD and EPEE included then his clue for SWORD, linked with EPEE, would have been different. I don’t know how he got there but he ended up with a clue whose surface says something about another clue. The solution to this other clue provides a definition and the “something” provides the wordplay. I suspect the final part of the process was finding a definition for SWORD to fit in the last position of the grid.

    Whatever. The idea is original. As to the clue out of context being “poor”, I think it “works” well enough. Like I said, I like it.

  38. Rhotician, I really would like to understand what you mean but so far I can not.
    I do not see any ‘original idea’ regarding 9ac.
    You mention a thing called ‘wordplay’.
    Where is it?

    I am keen to be enlightened by something I do not see.
    Perhaps, you should give it one more go to make things as clear as they are for you.

  40. Great blog, PeterO; Fantastic puzzle, Picaroon. Thanks to both of you.

    Favorites are 9 (despite the controversy), 10, 22, the lovely 22, and 17. Oh and 18. Um, and a lot more. Like all of them.

    9 gave me 24 (I forgot “keeper”). 9 is a brilliant clue.

    I started with a smattering – a few answers in the NE, SW, and SE, with no help with crossers. So I knuckled down and thought “1A might be hard, but it will be fair.” Then vermin popped into my head, and worked my way from VERMONT all the way through the rest of the puzzle as the crossers fell into place. Did not write MALL in but it was one of my several guesses on the side of the paper.

    This was a great puzzle.

  42. Rhotician, I have a feeling that I misunderstood you. I thought you didn’t accept [cros]SWORD as the actual construction.
    If you do (but now I think you do) then we’ll agree: a definition (24 Down), a construction (is found at the end of this puzzle) plus, as a real bonus, a surface that is true as true can be.
    Found at the end of this puzzle, a truly wonderful puzzle.

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