Guardian 26,366 by Picaroon

by

Lovely puzzle, not horrendously hard, see yesterday’s Donk in the Indy for that, my first Picaroon blog.

Can’t see any extras in the grid or themes but a fine workout nonetheless, thanks Picaroon.

completed grid

Across

1 Pop star, speaking drunkenly, invented language (6)
ELVISH
Well who’s to say Elves don’t actually exist? anyway it’s a drunken slurring of ELVIS

4 Cameron admits English ruined Welsh port (8)
PEMBROKE
E(nglish) inserted into P.M. for Cameron & BROKE for ruined

9 Tory Party accommodation (5)
CONDO
Short for Condominium, whatever one of those is, CON tory & DO party

10 Bourbon intoxicated relations (9)
ORLEANIST
Possibly referring to this King it’s RELATIONS*

11 Explorer receives very cool tip from Guatemalan tracker (6,3)
POLICE DOG
ICED inside (marco) POLO & G(uatemalan)

12 A reprobate abandoned by society, Archer could aim for this (5)
INNER
Jeffrey? S(ociety) removed from (s)INNER [Fixed to spare Robi from unwarranted calumny]

13 Special walk, one in Chamonix, gets strength circulating in an arm and a leg (5,7)
SMALL FORTUNE
S(pecial) & MALL (walk) & UN (one in france) inside FORTE (strength)

17 Looking in the paper to see when you can buy a drink (7,5)
OPENING TIMES
Cryptic hint for reading the Times

20 Did party welcome Democrat after Republican? (5)
RAVED
R(epublican) & AVE (welcome) & D(emocrat)

21 Time to study utilitarian but it’s a dreary experience (9)
TREADMILL
T(ime) & READ (study) & John Stuart MILL

23 A cottage gets plastered, keeping right winter protection (9)
GREATCOAT
Right inside [A COTTAGE]*

24 Current writer rejected African bounder (5)
ORIBI
It’s a type of antelope hence bounder, I (current) & BIRO all reversed

25 I dunk crackers in caviar for military leader (4,4)
IRON DUKE
I & DUNK* inside ROE (caviar)

26 What’s in cheese, note, comes from the east (6)
RENNET
TENNER reversed, from the east in an across clue

Down

1 Dreamer in dunce’s cap is teased (8)
ESCAPIST
Hidden answer

2 Greenery from a fen with vile ground (4,4)
VINE LEAF

[A FEN VILE]* is ground

3 Cool Greek stores with ices reduced by 50% (5)
STOIC
STO(res) & IC(es) both bits reduced by half

5 Reasonable age for people to get gentle hint, doddering about (13)
ENLIGHTENMENT
As in age of Reason, MEN in [GENTLE HINT]*

6 Fruit cups Elizabeth returned with loaf (6,3)
BRAZIL NUT
BRA (cups, well maybe) & LIZ reversed & NUT (head, loaf)

7 What the experts know about particles (6)
ONIONS
ON (about) & IONS (particles)

8 Blackmail’s no longer wrong? (6)
EXTORT
It’s an EX TORT

10 Corrupt world OK by Eton — it’s how Etonians thrive! (3,3,7)
OLD BOY NETWORK

Bravo setter! it’s [WORLD OK BY ETON]* is currupted

14 Revolutionary comrade I saw getting stoned (9)
LAPIDATED
PAL reversed & I & SAW(dated)

15 Is Picaroon working without scrap of hope? (8)
AMBITION
AM I ON? with BIT (scrap) inserted

16 Saint included by diviner religious composer (8)
PSALMIST
S(aint) inside PALMIST

18 Charm Hanoverian king repeatedly (6)
GRIGRI
It’s an African charm & G.R.1 repeated

19 Spaniards here struggled to break scoreless draw (6)
OVIEDO
VIED inside 0-0 a scoreless draw

22 Went for the green finish on household range (5)
DROVE
end of (househol)D & ROVE (range)

*anagram

33 comments on “Guardian 26,366 by Picaroon”

  1. Thanks Picaroon and flashling

    Mostly straightforward, but I took a long time to get FORTUNE (though I had the SMALL fairly quickly.)

    As flashling did, I wondered what language elves speak if not elvish!

    I loved OLD BOY NETWORK.

    Pedants’ corner: the definition in 22d is “iffy”. Normal golfers only go for the green on par three holes, and generally aren’t using drivers on these (irons instead), so never “drive for the green”. (Some people do use “drive” to describe any tee shot, but it isn’t common usage, at my club at least.)

  2. Thanks, flashling. As you say, quite benign for Picaroon but still good fun.

    ENLIGHTENMENT: the def is just “reasonable age”: the “people” are MEN inside GENTLEHINT*

    {fixed thanks}

  3. Thank you, flashling, nice blog.

    Elegant stuff from the Pirate this morning, although less demanding than his regular fare, perhaps.

    I wonder how many, like me, spent a few minutes scanning *(CAMERON + E) for a Welsh port.

    One tiny observation, is RAVED quite right? If the the def is “did party” shouldn’t the answer be RAVE?

    Certainly didn’t spoil anything, nice puzzle.

  4. Unlike muffin @1, I had the FORTUNE first … I had enough crossers to be able to work out where the UN must go. Nice misdirection with the walk = MALL.

    Like others I thought this might have been pretty tough but there weren’t too many hold-ups along the way.

    At 18d I tried GEOGEO first. I’d worked out that it would be a new word to me; GEEGAW/GEWGAW floated round my head but that’s hardly a ‘charm’.

    Couldn’t parse ORIBI, thanks flashling. There’s a slight misprint in 25a – you mean to start with I not an extra ampersand.

    [Fixed thanks}

  6. Thanks flashling – I enjoyed this. As you say, not too difficult, though with a few slightly obscure words that were nicely gettable from the clues (I struggled a bit with ORIBI, trying to make OKAPI work for a while).

    I presumed that ELVISH referred specifically to the languages invented by Tolkien for The Lord of the Rings, and discussed in some detail in appendices to his books.

  8. Thanks to Picaroon for a very enjoyable crossword.

    Thanks to flashling for a good blog. It might be the magic mushrooms in my diet but I saw a sort of 49 in the centre of the puzzle and a ‘pro rira’ in column 8…….. My bad French with the help of Google translate suggests that pro rira could be ‘professional will be laughing!’ 🙂
    I’m sure it must all be a strange coincidence.

    I did like the Guatemalan dog and how the Etonians thrive. Of course, DC went to Eton but didn’t study at Pembroke – I didn’t realise that there is one in Oxford and Cambridge.

    Pedant’s corner – it’s JeffREy Archer; those of us called Jeffery do not wish to be found guilty by association. 😉

  9. Thanks, flashling, for a great blog and Picaroon for another super puzzle – a little gentler than usual, as has been said.

    Like Andrew, I initially tried to fit in the more familar OKAPI and, like William, played around with CAMERON E for the Welsh port, which was one of my favourite clues, along with POLICE DOG, RAVED , ENLIGHTENMENT and [especially] OLD BOY NETWORK, when I finally saw it.

    [William, I don’t understand your comment re RAVED. ‘We really did party’ surely = ‘We really raved’? I don’t see how RAVE would fit.]

  10. Thanks, flashling.

    I enjoyed this a lot. Bravo Picaroon.

    Plenty of clever constructions, misleading definitions and good surfaces here.

    Favourites were 10a (unexpected anagram and great surface), 14d (nice word), 19d (another great surface) and, of course, the splendid 10d.

    William @3: 20a does work – ‘did party’ is equivalent to ‘partied’ = RAVED, with the ‘do-support’ construction used by poets to get the metre right, as in ‘Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May’.

  13. Thanks Picaroon and flashling, I really enjoyed this puzzle

    Got stuck on 22d trying to adapt stOVE and OVEn to get DROVE.

    Robi @8 The Iron Duke of course went to Eton, and hated it. (There were no playing fields in his time so it is very unlikely that he said “the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton”.) He was also a Tory Prime Minister.

  14. “Not horrendously hard” was still too hard for me! I didn’t find enough checkers to guess at the three unknowns in the bottom half: GRIGRI, OVIEDO and ORIBI.

  15. Enjoyed this a lot – agree that by Picaroon’s standards it was fairly straightforward, but I still needed the dictionary to check my last in (ORIBI). Gervase @11 has already said what I would have on GRIGRI, GRIS-GRIS and Mr Rebennack. I found plenty to enjoy, such as ELVISH, INNER, ONIONS and OLD BOY NETWORK.

    Thanks to flashling and Picaroon

  16. Thanks to Picaroon and flashling. I am surprised that no history buff has been up in arms about the link given for 10A ORLEANIST. My acquaintance with the area consists of a brief trawl of Wikipedia, according to which the Orleanists were a faction favouring a constitutional monarchy after the French Revolution and Napoleon. Their ascendancy was under the French King Louis-Philippe d’Orleans 1830-1848. Your link is to Henry IV 1553-1610, the first Bourbon King.

    I knew grigri as the proprietary name of a rock climber’s belaying device; now I know how Petzl came by the name.

  17. Thanks all
    Somewhat easier than the usual from Picaroon although I struggled at the eend to complete with 13 & 20 ac and 19d. I had Toledo /toiled for a long time. I didn’t know the Bourbon/ Orleanist link but solved it by the cryptic.

  19. Couldn’t parse AMBITION,which was my last one in,so I guessed it. Thanks for the reasoning-really easy now I know. I Expected this to be difficult but for the most part it was straightforward. I really liked ORIBI which was new to me.
    Thanks Picaroon

  20. Hi William @18

    Thanks for your response. Gervase and I seem to have crossed. He’s quite right, of course, about the poetic use of the construction – and he chose a lovely illustration – but I was, for once, thnking more prosaically – about its use to emphasise the verb. I only popped back to reiterate that I DID enjoy this puzzle. 😉

  21. I enjoyed this puzzle even though I must have been very much on Picaroon’s wavelength. Most of the answers went in as soon as I read the clues, and only GRIGRI needed to be entered from wordplay alone. I’m sure if Pasquale had written that clue there would have been complaints about an obscure word despite the clarity of the wordplay.

  23. A fortiori to PeterO @16: Wouldn’t an Orleanist specifically not be a Bourbonist (nor a Bonapartist nor a Republican)? That is a little funky, although Bourbon works better for the clue, of course.

    Not being British, I actually spent time trawling a map of Wales looking for obscure towns for CAMERON E*. Is there really a place called The Mumbles? And why has that not popped up in a crossword yet?

  24. Also–Flashling, are you being cheeky with “short for condominium, whatever one of those is,” or is that really an unfamiliar word / concept where you are? Interesting.

    I live in a condo. It combines the worst features of apartment living and home ownership. It’s a joy.

  26. @mrpenney, I’ve lived in England for nearly 52 years, and no I’ve no real idea of what a condo. is, I’ve heard it via US tele but here? Nah. unless some of our readers want to show me otherwise.

  27. A really lovely puzzle I thought, with a sprinkling of new words for me. And a perfect level of difficulty after a very draining day.

    I didn’t know about the Orléanists (I wasn’t allowed to do History because I did German!), but when I put Bourbon and (relations)* into my brain, ORLEANS leapt out…so there must be some memory of something there – so lovely when you have solving moments like that!

    ENLIGHTENMENT was a beauty, likewise ONIONS.

    Thanks P & f

  28. Okay, so a condo is a flat that you own rather than rent. Each unit owner is master of his domain within his four walls. The common areas of the building (e.g., boiler room, exterior walls, laundry room, front garden, etc.) are co-owned by the homeowner’s association, in which each condo owner is a member and has a vote. To pay for the upkeep of these common areas, as well as to get insurance, a monthly assessment is charged to each unit owner.

    The condo building has a plat that’s filed with the recorder’s office (just like any other property); the ownership of each unit is kept track of in just the same way. Unit owners can sell, devise, or mortgage their units as they see fit. (However, if you fail to follow the homeowner’s association bylaws–or fall too far behind on your assessments–the association can sue to get you kicked out.)

    Condos are physically indistinguishable from flats. If you walked into one, you would have no way of knowing whether it was a condo. It’s the ownership structure that’s different.

    Sorry not to post this until long after Britain went to bed.

  30. mrpenney @23

    Louis-Philippe d’Orleans (I haven’t worked out how to do alt codes on a MacBook) belonged to a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, so if ORLEANIST is taken to refer to him specifically the clue works for me at least.

  31. Delfini @29

    Sorry, we crossed (right down to the difficulty with accents) – I was not expecting anyone else to be following this so late. The Philippe Egalite that you mention was the father of the King of France to whom I referred.

  32. delfini @29

    It did not take much digging to find the answer to the accent difficulty. On a Mac, hold down the option key, and hit e (for an acute accent; i for a circumflex,` for a grave, n for a tilde, u for an umlaut). Release both keys, and type the letter to be accented. There are forumalæ for other special characters which also involve the option key.
    Under Windows, you need a alt code list, such as this. Find the numeric code for the accented letter you want (e.g. é is 130). Hold down the alt key, type the numeric code, release the alt key, and voilà.
    Note that it requires any system displaying your message to understand what is going on – it is unlikely that a mobile will register the character correctly. Hence you may be better off just leaving off the accents as you did in the first place @29.

  33. Thanks Picaroon and flashling

    Only got to this one earlier today … and it took me some time to get into it – finally with GREATCOAT. Solved it in a funny way – had a diagonal from SW to NE filled in at the half way mark. Was able to finish the NE and then took time to get a foothold in the bottom right corner until AMBITION presented. Whilst perhaps not as hard as he can be, it still felt like tough going at times.

    The good’uns have already been highlighted !!!

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