Guardian 26,845 – Picaroon

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A very ingenious construction from Picaroon, where the word “play” (or a variant) occurs in every single clue, used in a variety of ways. I found this in the Goldilocks zone of difficulty (not too hard, not too easy, but just right!) and fortunately the bits of dramatic, musical and even sporting general knowledge required were all familiar, though I’d be interested to hear how others found them (e.g. the reference in 24a is perhaps a bit unfair). Many thanks to Picaroon.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
5. CHORUS Caught god’s part in Sophocles play? (6)
C + HORUS (Egyptian god)
6. DRY RUN Boring 13s of play a trial (3,3)
DRY (boring) + RUN (series of performances of a play)
9. OTELLO Noted work based on play, say, 12 twice (6)
TELL (say) in O (“the round”) twice – Verdi’s opera (a “noted” work) based on the play “Othello”
10. IBSENISM Current book in mess distorted playwright’s principles (8)
I (electric current) + B + (IN MESS)*
11. CAST Players from station on the radio (4)
Homophone of “caste”
12. IN THE ROUND Hot, tense leading man — and, for Brecht, plays may be seen thus (2,3,5)
IN (hot, fashionable) + T[ense] + HERO + UND (German “and”)
13. PERFORMANCE Playing eg Willy Loman, retiring chap’s arrested by police (11)
Reverse of REP (Willy Loman is the eponymous character in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”) + MAN in FORCE
18. ALLEGRETTO Way to play with voice, capturing large bird (10)
L EGRET in ALTO – Italian word (diminutive of “allegro”) used in music to indicate a lively performance
21. UKES They’re played in Hawaii and here by two card players (4)
UK (here) + E S (players in bridge); the ukulele originated in Hawaii
22. BASEBALL Sordid party offers something to play (8)
BASE (sordid) + BALL (party)
23. DAINTY Pretty daughter is not back in play (6)
D + AIN’T + [pla]Y
24. AMENDS What Puck will make in play is what happens before PM arrives (6)
Before afternoon starts, AM ENDS. The reference is to the last couplet of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, where Puck, aka Robin Goodfellow, says “Give me your hands if we be friends,/And Robin shall restore amends.”
25. MILLER Playmaker, one running round Arsenal’s No 7 (6)
[arsena]L in MILER
Down
1. ROULETTE What 17 plays finding obstacle in course (8)
LET in ROUTE – not all betters play roulette, so this should perhaps read “What 17 may play..”
2. LUGOSI Player of monsters to pull old samurai’s clothing (6)
LUG + O + S[amura]I – Bela Lugosi famously played Dracula, and also Frankenstein’s monster, and probably others
3. ORESTEIA Greek plays Brahms and Liszt trio with ease (8)
(TRIO EASE)* – “Brahms and Liszt” is rhyming slang for “pissed”=drunk
4. BRANDO Healthy food, fare for Hollywood player (6)
BRAN + DO (fare, as in “fare you well”)
5. CATNAP Rest international player, holding six-footer back (6)
Reverse of ANT (insect, six-footer) in CAP (international sportsperson)
7. NOSING Making slow movement in song that’s playing (6)
(IN SONG)*
8. WINTER’S TALE Play with Italian footballers lacking freshness (7,4)
W[ith] + INTER (Inter Milan, football team) +STALE. To be picky the title of the play is actually The Winter’s Tale
14. FORWARDS Contest to put in crosses for these players? (8)
WAR in FORDS (crosses a river)
15. CRUCIBLE Conservative government skewered by revolutionary writer in 25 play (8)
Reverse of BIC in C RULE – again, the title of Miller’s play is The Crucible
16. ALPACA American player not in love with a shaggy-haired creature (6)
AL PACINO less IN O, + A
17. BETTER Race to enter competition with right player (6)
TT (motorbike races) in BEE (competition) + R
19. ELEVEN In Barcelona, the regular number of players (6)
EL (“the” in both Spanish and Catalan) + EVEN (regular)
20. OLD VIC Ogle diva regularly? I see plays here (3,3)
Alternate letters of OgLe DiVa + I C (no homophone needed: “see” is the spelled-out name of the letter C)

46 comments on “Guardian 26,845 – Picaroon”

  2. Thanks, Andrew.

    I agree entirely with your preamble – except that I don’t see anything unfair in 24ac.

    Great cluing and lovely surfaces throughout, as always from Picaroon. Particular favourites today: PERFORMANCE, ORESTEIA, ALPACA and OLD VIC – but the list could easily be longer.

    Many thanks, Picaroon – most enjoyable.

  3. Extraordinary puzzle, bravo Picaroon.
    I couldn’t reconcile the “do” after “Bran” in 4; at first I thought we were in tonic lift-and-separate land with fa-re and then I thought I was looking for “fare for Hollywood” which led me to consider “do” as in “donut”.
    Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew for the blog

  5. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew.

    For me, one of those great puzzles where you initially think “I can’t do any of this” and then it gradually unravels, without any aids.

  6. I agree the puzzle is ingenious but I needed you, Andrew, to explain most of it. Discouraged by the strong arts bias, I gave up after a couple of sessions and only six clues solved. IBSENISM, LUGOSI, ORESTEIA and the reference to Willy Loman? I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect us to be familiar with these terms.

  7. Expecting us to be familiar with this kind of knowledge is just as fair (or unfair) as expecting us to know the range of scientific, mathematical or sporting terms with which we are often presented – or Paul’s inexhaustible collection of birdies and beasties. This was OK by me, though I was left floundering by A(merican) LP (player) ending in À – quite clearly ALPACA, but how does AC = out of love with? Led right up the garden path and had to come here to find Mr. Pacino.

    Thanks – this was a lot of fun.

  8. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew

    To be honest, I found it a bit of a slog. I was OK with all the theatrical reference except 24a, but it had to be that. CRUCIBLE was my favourite; I agree about the clue for ROULETTE – it would have been easy to avoid the quibble.

    I must share an unfortunate review of “Death of a salesman”, where the reviewer praised “the pathetic smallness of Dustin Hoffmann’s Willy”.

  9. I’ve enjoyed recent Picaroons, and with this offering he’s gone straight to the top of my list. Once more, I’ve had tpo scan through many clues – in this case well into the downs – before finding something I could do, and from then it’s been a case of applying brain to the clever variety of surfaces to lead to such a satisfying conclusion.

    Unfair to expect knowledge of music and drama? Well, up to a point, but cryptic crosswords are not culture-free. If that’s what we want, try sudoku. Did I know the Puck line? No, I got misled by a mis-remembered ‘make a girdle round the earth’ (I’ve just checked, it’s ‘put’), so sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Did I know that Brecht was a ‘theatre in the round’ innovator? No, and since I couldn’t make it parse for ages (didn’t see the HERO), delayed entering it for ages, though it fitted; but when I was sure, and twigged where the UND came from, my belief in Picaroon’s genius was assured.

    So that’s a tick from me then.

  10. Sorry, no witticisms to match yours, muffin @8! Reminds me of the related cricket commentary faux pas which appeared in a cryptic a few months ago.

    I agree this was about the right degree of difficulty and it was clever of Picaroon to include so many different uses of ‘play’ or ‘player’. I had no idea about ‘What Puck will make…’ in 24, but the answer was gettable from the wordplay. IBSENISM is an inventive word and I also liked ALPACA, WINTER’S TALE and FORWARDS.

    Really good and challenging fun.

    Thanks Picaoon and Andrew

  11. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew.

    This was an entertaining puzzle. I found no problem with ‘The’ being dropped before WINTER’S TALE and CRUCIBLE since the definitions were ‘Play’ and ’25 play’ respectively, not ‘A play’ or ‘a 25 play’.

    AMENDS and ALPACA were my favourites!

  13. Current is I in physical symbols (V = IR is Ohm’s Law).
    B is Book
    Anagram IN MESS.

    Refers to the playwright IBSEN.

  14. Doh – wrong one.

    CASTE is social position or “station” – “on the radio” is a “sounds like”.

  15. Great puzzle!
    In 20, I assumed I C = I see because of the use in texting. Are text abbreviations now fair game for cryptics? Seems that they ought to be, now that they’re so common.
    Some great clues, of which ALPACA was my favourite. I thought of Pacino, but not of Al Pacino, so had a bit of trouble with this one.
    I wondered if there was a sub ghost theme of fellow Graun setters when Puck and Crucible appeared, but I can’t see any others.
    Thanks, Andrew and Picaroon.

  16. We have been treated to some fantastic puzzles over the last week, and this was the best yet. Loved the variety of uses of the theme – my last two were FORWARDS and BASEBALL and in both cases I was thinking along completely the wrong lines for far too long. Ticked too many to mention them all, but I did like CATNAP.

    Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew

  17. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew

    A welcome continuation of the more frequent appearance of Picaroon this year – and quite a brilliant feat to squeeze a play variable into every clue.

    Found it quite a deal tougher than his normal puzzle with so many literary terms that I was unaware of – ORESTEIA, ‘Willy Loman’, the Puck quote (even though vague bells were ringing), LUGOSI, the old Grecian CHORUS term and The CRUCIBLE. I’m not too proud to look them up after the word play (or in the case of 15 beforehand) to see what the term means.

    A lot of fun that finished up in the NW corner with IN THE ROUND (another new term), LUGOSI and CHORUS (after HORUS as the god finally dropped) the last few in.

  18. I agree. Gave up after 3 clues. I never enjoy this type of crossword. I do them to wind down, not yo become tense & frustrated. Never liked Picaroon anyway

  19. Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew. My reaction echoes that of Shirl@5, for I too had a slow start and then all became clear. I got ORESTEIA although I did not know the rhyming slang and needed the crossers to get IBSENISM, my last in, but the Miller and Shakespeare bits were in my comfort zone. Much fun.

  21. Tougher fare than usual from this setter but well worth sticking with. The first clue I saw was the lovely OLD VIC. This looks like a doddle, I thought, but doddle it wasn’t! However the puzzle got more enjoyable as I slogged through it and by the time I got to my LOI AMENDS- which was excellent- I was well pleased.
    Much better than yesterday’s which I didn’t like at all.
    Thanks Picaroon

  22. Funny you say that Peter (@21) – I actually solved OLD VIC while I was waiting for it to print off. The rest wasn’t as easy!

    When I said earlier that I found it a slog, I didn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy it; just that I found it hard work. I too don’t like themed puzzles in general, and ones where the same word is used lots of times in different contexts, but this was one of the very best of that type.

  23. Firstly, apologies if multiple comments from me appear later today – have made at least four previous attempts to submit since around 11.00 with no success.

    Most of my points have been covered since then but I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this puzzle, even though it took a while to get started on it. Good surfaces & clever wordplay which made the more obscure solutions gettable (and I’m with Eileen on 24ac – I loved that one!).

    Many thanks to Picaroon & Andrew.

  24. Thanks to Picaroon for the crossword and Andrew for the blog, including the sentiments expressed by him and many of the other bloggers.

    I didn’t think I was going to be so kindly disposed, as I only got one on my first pass, and two more on my second, but after that they began to fall into place. My LOI was ALPACA, but like Gladys and Phitonelly, I failed to parse it.

    The switches from drama to other forms of play were very neatly done.

    Regarding Ed at 18, if he wants a crossword to wind down, and gets tense and frustrated by most Guardian cryptics, why on earth does he do them?

  26. MartinD @25
    Short for “tea tray moment” – the revelation that is so startling you drop the tea tray.

  27. Thanks Andrew and Picaroon.

    Finally got there but the general knowledge references mostly eluded me until I got here, so thanks again for explaining.

    It did look formidable but sticking with Picaroon is the right thing to do!

    Too many favorites to list..

  28. Thanks, muffin@26. There is a name for everything! I shall be alert for shattering crockery from now on.

  29. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew

    Great puzzle from this ever inventive setter.

    MartinD @ 25 & muffin @ 26: I thought that a tea tray moment was derived from the way Bob Blackman sings Mule Train – he bashes his head with it. Google “Bob Blackman Mule Train” and a very early result is a youtube clip of it. Unfortunately I’m on an ipad and can’t work out how to copy the URL directly from youtube as there isn’t the same menu bar as on a PC.

  30. Simon S @29

    So it might mean that you metaphorically beat yourself up, perhaps for missing something obvious when it dawns on you? Done that too.

  32. Good night all. Hope springs briefly. Perhaps tomorrow we will have a crossword, not a tricky self-promoting exuberance of the sort of clever-dickiness exhibited in today’s offering. I sorted it, with the exception of one cheat (mind your own business, Bertolt), but it was such a dreadful, tedious BORE!

  33. A very testing but enjoyable challenge. I’d heard of ORESTEIA, but I had to check the spelling online. Reading the blog, I realised I hadn’t parsed IN THE ROUND and that I had misparsed PERFORMANCE. I had that as MAN in PER (“by”) FORCE (“police”), wondering why “Willy Loman” was mentioned. If I’d also thought to wonder why “retiring” was there, I might have seen it as I knew he was the eponymous salesman/rep. I didn’t know the Puck quote, so I spent quite a while thinking about the girdle and also his role as mischief maker before getting the answer from the crossers and “PM starts”.

    Thanks, Picaroon and Andrew.

    PS – I too think a tea tray moment is when you hit yourself over the head with it.

  34. Fantastic puzzle. I found it fairly tough – but worth every bit of effort expended.

    What on earth is in the least bit unfair about 24a? Is it “restore amends” (last line of the play) as opposed to “make amends”? Obviously that’s what he’s doing, in modern parlance, and Puck does actually use those very words a few lines earlier.

    It reminded me of the sort of literary and poetic allusions that Araucaria would sometimes drop in – and most times if you didn’t know it you could probably guess it – and having guessed it look it up and be glad of what you’d just learned.

    Anyway thanks Picaroon – and thanks Andrew – being a clue-by-clue type (like an A-to-B motorist) whilst I noticed “play” quite a few times I hadn’t spotted that it appears in every single clue. Not sure that I award extra points for that but I suppose it’s clever in its own way. Luckily it didn’t detract in any way from the quality of the puzzle.

  35. An intriguing puzzle that came together very gradually.

    I had a little problem with 11a where BAND seemed to me to be an obvious answer – players/station on the radio – but, as always my thinking was sloppy as a band is not a station. This led me to COOLIDGE as the only possibility for 1d which I assumed must be a reference to an Arthur Miller character, but that didn’t seem to fit with 17d. Aaargh!

  36. Unfortunately I wasn’t able start this crossword until this morning. I wanted to complete it unaided but had to stop with four clues unsolved, so congratulations to Shirl @5 for accomplishing that feat.

    I thought it was brilliant. The fairness of the clues enabled me to solve many clues that would have been impossible otherwise – I just don’t have the knowledge that I see some of you have. (jennyk, for example, has actually heard of Oresteia! Who has heard of ‘Horus’ in 5A? Who knew UKES at 21A?)

    Picaroon did well to keep to familiar proper names, of which there are many in this puzzle. In fact there was only one that was unfamiliar to me (‘Horus’ in 5A). Combining that with putting ‘play’ in every clue was amazingly clever. I was well and truly fooled by 16D (ALPACA) – I got no help from 24A (AMENDS) because I didn’t get that either, not knowing what Puck did or said in the play.

    Many thanks to Picaroon and to Andrew.

  38. I cut myself some slack with the crosswords that aren’t based in my knowledge comfort zone (ie I use google, crossword dictionary etc). And then I read up about the subject. So on Monday night I studied Yeats ‘Easter 1916’ never having heard of it before. A good crossword entertains, a great one also educates.

  39. Too late for anyone to read no doubt but I enjoyed most of this. Problems with 10a – I = current was new and also IBSENISM. Is this a well-known term relating to Ibsen or did Shakespeare have principles and are they known as Shakespeareanism?
    Also 23a: sorry Andrew but I can’t see an indication of how play becomes y.
    Apart from CATNAP and the I at 12a the NW corner was a no-go area for me. I did get CAST and know that caste = station but failed to parse it until Andrew showed the way and didn’t write it in. All the other clues were obscure so I couldn’t use crossers to guess the answers. I don’t have the patience to scroll through my knowledge of musical works to find one with a second letter T and two Os or to think of all the words that mean obstacle and course to find something that a better might play. Now Andrew reminds me I did know that Lugosi played a monster but, also like Andrew, I didn’t know that he played more than one.

  41. Started this a day late after noticing the enthusiasm in Andrew’s intro and was not disappointed, so many thanks to Picaroon and Andrew. Just wanted to add a note on 2dn – the crossers also match judogi, the outfit worn by a judo player, so (at least for those of us who did a bit of martial arts in their youth) the samurai was a brilliant bit of misdirection.

  42. Pino @39
    I’m surprised there have been no complaints about 23a. The parsing is “back in play”, with “back “ indicating that we need to take the last letter of “play”. Some people loathe that type of indication.

  43. You’re right jennyk, ‘back in play’ and not ‘back of play’ as I said @40.
    Personally, I am alright with ‘back in play’: it’s the back (the rear part, the furthest position) in the word ‘play’.
    I’ve seen it very often and I cannot remember many people complaining about it.
    (But if they do, I can see where they come from)

  44. Sil VdH @43
    Yes, it is very common, and I’m fine with it personally too. I think some of the people who dislike it might feel your version, “back of play”, would be more acceptable but I can’t speak for them.

  45. “Back in play” means the back letter in the word play.

    “Back of play” means the back letter of the word play.

    I’m not losing any sleep over the difference.

  46. Thanks Andrew and Picaroon.

    Not being possessed of an extended knowledge of serious or ancient plays, I had to grind this out with a lot of reference to on-line material.

    This meant that it was more of a grind than a pleasure – but a sense of achievement in having got there fully parsed.

    Huge respect to those superior solvers above who made it without aids, and huge appreciation to Picaroon for a cleverly crafted puzzle.

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