Nicely clued, challenging and fun, with some tricky surface misdirection. I particularly liked 27ac, 1dn, 2dn and 10dn. Thanks Picaroon.
| Across | ||
| 1 | FAUSTIAN |
Fellow runs away from European prepared to sell his soul (8)
=”prepared to sell his soul”. F[ellow], plus r[uns] taken away from AUSTrIAN=”European” |
| 5 | GAUCHE |
Clumsy like Hollande’s politics? (6)
Double def: =”Clumsy”; also =”like [François] Hollande’s politics”, France’s Socialist president is ‘de gauche’ – on the left |
| 9 | TRATTORIA |
Show extravagant pictures from east — there’ll be scoffing here (9)
=”there’ll be scoffing here”. AIR=”show”, O[ver] T[he] T[op]=”extravagant”, ART=”pictures” – all reversed (“from east”) |
| 11 | BOLTS |
Gobbles up accompaniment for nuts (5)
Double def: =”Gobbles up”; also =”accompaniment for nuts” |
| 12 | SMEAR TACTICS |
Deploying sarcasm etc? It’s negative campaigning (5,7)
=”negative campaigning”. (sarcasm etc It |
| 15 | OBOE |
Gong rings round part of orchestra (4)
=”part of orchestra”. OBE=”Gong”=medal, around (“rings”) O=”round” |
| 16 | EDITORIALS |
Dailies to set out to pen paper’s conclusion in these (10)
=&lit. (Dailies to)* around (“to pen”) [pape]R |
| 18 | GALSWORTHY |
Loose woman rejected by respectable novelist (10)
=novelist John Galsworthy [wiki]. SLAG=”loose woman”, reversed (“rejected”), plus WORTHY=”respectable” |
| 19 | CEDE |
Abandon offspring when outspoken (4)
=”Abandon”. Sounds like ‘seed’=”offspring” |
| 21 | PYROTECHNICS |
Hones cryptic setting to produce brilliant display (12)
=”brilliant display”. (Hones cryptic)* |
| 24 | DODGE |
Female’s dressing outside of Dog and Duck (5)
=”Duck”. DOE around (“dressing”) the outside letters of D[o]G |
| 25 | STIMULANT |
Upper seconds by alumni failing in avoiding alcohol (9)
=”Upper”. S[econds], plus (alumni)* inside T[ee]T[otal]=”avoiding alcohol” |
| 26 | EVELYN |
Just holding covers for literary chronicler (6)
=”chronicler” John Evelyn [wiki]. EVEN=”Just”, around the outer letters of L[iterar]Y |
| 27 | BESTRIDE |
Climb on fairground’s chief attraction? (8)
=”Climb on”. BEST RIDE=”fairground’s chief attraction” |
| Down | ||
| 1 | FATE |
Cheers up, entertained by extremes of fame and fortune (4)
=”fortune”. TA=”Cheers”, reversed (“up”), inside F[am]E |
| 2 | URAL |
Where men go, but not in river (4)
=”river”. UR[in]AL=”where men go”, but without in |
| 3 | TATAMI |
I’m off, then I’m back for oriental furnishing (6)
=”oriental furnishing”, a Japanese floor mat [wiki]. TATA=”I’m off”, plus I’M reversed (“back”) |
| 4 | AIRS AND GRACES |
Song by desert peoples contains constant affectation (4,3,6)
=”affectation”. AIR=”Song”, plus SAND=”desert”, plus RACES=”peoples”, around G=gravitational “constant” |
| 6 | ALBACORE |
Lab re-created a heart for a fish (8)
=a tuna fish [wiki]. (Lab)*, plus A, plus CORE=”heart” |
| 7 | CULTIVATED |
Refined schoolboy having one butt in (10)
=”Refined”. CULT=”school” plus
|
| 8 | EAST SUSSEX |
Time to leave new US states and the other part of the country (4,6)
=”part of the country”. (US states)* minus T[ime], plus SEX=”the other” |
| 10 | A STITCH IN TIME |
Sparkling stuff back in print, feature by magazine showing how to save Labour? (1,6,2,4)
=”how to save Labour”. ASTI=sparkling wine/stuff, plus [prin]T, plus CHIN=”feature”, plus TIME=”magazine” |
| 13 | HODGEPODGE |
Hot dog prepared with English, fatty mishmash (10)
=”mishmash”. H[ot] plus (dog)* plus E[nglish] plus PODGE=”fatty” |
| 14 | TOLLBRIDGE |
Group withdrawing pound before bank charge is levied here (10)
=”charge is levied here”. LOT=”group”, reversed (“withdrawing”), plus LB=”pound”, plus RIDGE=”bank” |
| 17 | TWITTERY |
Nervous, tense rabbit close to anxiety (8)
=”Nervous”. T[ense], plus WITTER=”rabbit”, plus the close to [anxiet]Y |
| 20 | ACQUIT |
Where money’s deposited and left free of charge (6)
=”free of charge”. AC[count]=”Where money’s deposited”, plus QUIT=”left” |
| 22 | MAGI |
Independent publication’s first old-fashioned spellers? (4)
=”old-fashioned spellers”/spellcasters. I[ndependent] with MAG=”publication” going first |
| 23 | STYE |
Last year, contracted medical problem (4)
=”medical problem”, an eyelid infection. Hidden in [La]ST YE[ar] |
Thanks manehi, thanks Picaroon. Great stuff. Was romping along till I got to SE corner. Needed parsing for 5a. Liked 9a, 12a, 3d, 4d, and 10d.
Nice stuff, despite wasting time trying to fit CORBYN into 10d. Initially had ‘accuse’ at 20d, which gave an unlikely ‘Tenerife’ at 27a.
Thanks, manehi. I agree with all your favourites plus all of ilippu’s plus 5ac and 8d plus … I loved it all, as usual with Picaroon.
Witty surfaces all the way through, causing lots of smiles – many thanks to Picaroon.
[In 7dn, the boy is ED, not TED.]
Much enjoyed here, TATAMI was new to me, though I did try TARAMI first, but found out it is a Japanese town with no furnishings named after it. Got URAL without parsing, but like it even more now I have seen how it’s done. Did fee l uncomfortable with the usage of slag.
Many thanks to Picaroon and Manehi for parsing my BIFDs.
An enjoyable crossword with some very good clueing, among which A STITCH IN TIME is probably the best. A shame about the GALSWORTHY clue, though.
Thanks Picaroon and manehi.
I enjoyed this, but could not parse GALSWORTHY or CULTIVATED.
Favourites were SMEAR TACTICS, AIRS AND GRACES, A STITCH IN TIME and GAUCHE!
It took me a long time to get going, but it was a very good puzzle – as manehi says, plenty of misdirection. Loved TRATTORIA, PYROTECHNICS, BESTRIDE and GAUCHE among others. Many thanks to Picaroon and manehi.
Thank you, manehi, all in but needed you to parse OBOE for me. Got in a tangle with ‘O’s and rings.
Loved STIMULANT, URAL, AIRS AND GRACES & ACQUIT but best in show was the Paulesque EAST SUSSEX…tee-hee.
Cant help but admire Picaroon’s misdirecting surfaces.
Great stuff, 2 in a row this week.
More please.
Actually, I found this puzzle harder than recent Picaroons.
Quite unusually (for me), I started off with the long ones and unravelled them all quickly (apart from 13d).
Like illipu@1 I ended up in the tricky SE corner (i.e. 27ac, 20d).
Good clueing all the way through, although perhaps 24ac (there’s a full ‘dog’ in the answer) and 17d weren’t that great, in my opinion.
I wondered why Picaroon chose to clue ‘g’ by ‘constant’.
Yes, it suits the surface nicely and according to the dictionaries ‘g’ is the ‘constant of gravitation’.
However, ‘g’ has different values at different places on earth – how constant is that?
But let’s not dig too deep into this, it was just what sprang to my mind when solving 4d.
Thanks, manehi & Picaroon.
Thanks to Picaroon and manehi. I too had trouble getting started and had more than my usual trouble with parsing. The “witter”-“rabbit” connection for TWITTERY was new to me (though from previous puzzles I did know the UK “rabbit” as a verb) as was “gong” for medal-OBE to get OBOE; I got DODGE without seeing DOE as female and took a while to see AIRS AND GRACES because 1) the phrase was unfamiliar and 2) I did not catch G as the constant. Last in were CEDE (my usual trouble with homophones) and ACQUIT (I kept trying to squeeze in “accuse”). Yes, lots of misdirection here but an entertaining exercise overall.
Enjoyed that, but found it pretty tough to finish, and had to resort to guess and check to see my last two ACQUIT and BESTRIDE, but in retrospect there is nothing unfair about either of those. ALBACORE was new to me but very guessable once the crossers were in place. Liked TRATTORIA and EAST SUSSEX.
Thanks to Picaroon and manehi
I liked this too despite some problems with parsing e.g. A STITCH IN TIME so I was glad of the blog. Some lovely stuff in here. I especially liked BESTRIDE and MAGI which was my LOI. GAUCHE made me smile.
Thanks Picaroon.
Very good one, thanks picaroon
could not parse CULTIVATED for a while thinking CUL was the french for butt 🙂 why is butt VAT?
Potenza @13 – like the thinking, but Chambers online has:
butt4 noun a large barrel for beer or rainwater, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: 14c: from French botte, from Latin buttis cask.
Vat is not too much of a stretch from that.
I thought this would be a bit of a doddle when long answers like PYROTECHNICS, AIRS AND GRACES and A STITCH IN TIME dropped in early but progress soon slowed. I should have known that Picaroon is made of sterner stuff. Still, everything made sense in the end, more or less, and some of the classiest clueing was in the shorter answers, such as OBOE and EVELYN.
@13 and 14:
I didn’t think (or have doubts) about ‘butt’ = VAT for a moment.
As sometimes is the case when solving crosswords my Dutch helped me a lot here.
‘Vat’ is in Dutch one of two very common words for a ‘barrel’, the other one being ‘ton’ (English: ‘tun’).
Moreover, during the November carnival sessions in the South of Holland (especially, Limburg and Brabant), often kind of stand-up comedians are performing.
Not seldom, they’re giving their speech on a stage made from a barrel.
They call themselves Buutreedner (a word in dialect).
A reedner is in normal Dutch a redenaar which just means ‘speaker’.
But did you notice the Buut?
Indeed, it’s that barrel again!
Sil – I think it’s “G”, rather than “g”.
I wasn’t familiar with the novelist or chronicler and I was happy to learn another expression for sex, but I had come across the Japanese rice mats in one of Don’s puzzles and was pleased to be able to use this bit of vocab.
URAL was my favourite. I liked A STITCH IN TIME though it was retroparsed, and I also thought TRATTORIA and SMEAR TACTICS were clever. I had no problems with butt but it took a bit longer to separate schoolboy.
Thanks Picaroon, very enjoyable, and thank you manehi
@17, I am afraid not.
In Mechanics, the gravity constant is g lower case (g=9.8 approx. around here).
It appears in well-known formulas like the Newtonian F=mg and e.g. s=gt+0.5gt^2 for the distance travelled in motion under gravity.
That said, Chambers tells us that it can also be G upper case.
As a sixth-form teacher I have never seen that before.
It’s not in any textbook.
But perhaps, there are other areas where they use G upper case – who knows?
For this crossword, however, it’s not important at all.
Sil, what do you mean by a full “dog” in the answer(13d)? I can see two (DOG)*, but the clue looks ok to me..
Sil, I thought ‘G’ was the gravitational constant, and ‘g’ the acceleration due to gravity, the clue is fine.
A most enjoyable puzzle: thanks both, setter and blogger.
Cookie @21 – well spotted – see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_constant – which would have been way beyond A level physics in my day. Back then g (the earth’s gravity) used to be regarded as a constant too, but as Sil points out it isn’t really a true constant.
sorry about @20, was looking at the wrong clue…
Pyro in the crossword and I don’t blog it. Damn. Thanks pickers and manehi.
I made a slow start, speeded up in the middle but then had an equally slow finish in the SW. Favourites were FAUSTIAN, EDITORIALS, PYROTECHNICS, BESTRIDE, ACQUIT and particularly TATAMI.
Thanks to Picaroon and manehi.
flashling @25 – Haha, when I solved that one I thought it would be perfect if you were on the blog!
Lovely Picaroon as always – a master setter. Plenty to get your teeth into here – I even failed to parse a couple of the more convoluted charades today, which is a bit of a worry…must’ve been away too long!
Thanks both.
Thanks Picaroon and manehi
Came to this late and BIFD a few too many for satisfaction in order to finish. URAL was the biggest grin.
G is indeed the Universal Gravitational constant; g isn’t a constant at all.
manhei – extra S in your anagram fodder for smear tactics, I think – just IT rather than IT’S)
me @28
…thus maintaining the rule that any post pointing out a misprint will include a misprint! “manehi”, obviuosly.
Thanks all
Last in was toll bridge. Favourite was bolts.
Quite a struggle in the SW corner but the rest came out quite quickly.
Dear bolb@18, Cookie@21, muffin@28:
I surrender when it comes to G/g.
I opened the Wiki link given by Cookie and then I thought, BL*&^% HE*&, Picaroon (who is a ‘language person’ as far as I know) must have looked in Chambers, not there!
I am a Maths teacher (with knowledge of only basic Mechanics, i.e g not G) and not a physicist.
So, while thanks for putting me right, it doesn’t make any difference for the crossword as such, does it?
I didn’t say anything was wrong, did I?
Dutch@20 (and perhaps @24):
In the construction you need DG of ‘dog’.
In the solution, however, there is an O (a letter that we just omitted) and the letters of ‘dog’ are all in the solution (even in that order).
There’s nothing wrong here (did I say that?) but I find this what I call ‘ugly clueing’.
I’ve just realised solution was delayed because I was watching Bolt rather than solving bolts!
Hmmh. Not sure I approve of the use of the word slag. Somewhat inappropriate!
Came to this very late as I was configuring 2 new smartphones!!!
A great crossword as ever from Picaroon which was very enjoyable and a decent challenge.
Sil I don’t understand your complaint about 24A. The wordplay gives us “female” (DOE) around outside of “DOG” (DG). No problem. Are you saying that it is not allowed to have any of the letters which have been excluded from the included word in the word which surrounds it? If you are I must disagree as that would be silly.
Thanks to manehi and Picaroon
Thanks beery hiker
now I get it, we are talking about beer kegs
could not come from anyone else 🙂
Brendan NTO,
if you read my post @31 well, you see that I said “There’s nothing wrong here”. So if you’re happy, I’m happy.
However, personally I didn’t like this clue very much for the reason given: in the clue there’s ‘Dog’ and in the solution there’s DO[d]G[e].
I simply do not find it a very elegant clue (despite it being cryptically correct).
It’s not “a complaint” (as you say), one can never fault Picaroon anyway.
Let’s not waste too much time on this.
Nice grid.
Thanks Picaroon and manehi
Great puzzle as ever from this setter with just about every clue providing satisfaction and a mini fist pump ! TATAMI was my first one in. Failed to fully parse TOLLBRIDGE – used the money pound (L) instead of the weight pound (LB) and spent an inordinate amount of time trying to fine a BRIDGE that meant ‘bank’.
Finished down in the SE corner after getting GALSWORTHY and A STITCH IN TIME with MAGI and ACQUIT the last two in.
I think that I’d seen ALBACORE before, but had to work it out from the cryptic and check it.