The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26886.
The Guardian seems to have reverted to publishing their crosswords on line at 1AM London time; I finished this one at a reasonable hour, so it cannot have been too difficult. Indeed, it was a steady solve, with some pleasing and amusing misdirection. I hope that there are not too many typos – I had cataract surgery this morning.
| Across | ||
| 1 | EFFUSES | Talks excitedly? Employs profanity, for a start (7) |
| A charade of EFF (bowdlerised ‘profanity’) plus USES (’employs’), with ‘for a start’ indicating the order of the particles. | ||
| 5 | BLUFFED | Pretended Cliff Richard’s back on ecstasy (7) |
| A charade of BLUFF (‘cliff’) plus E (‘ecstasy’) plus D (‘RicharD‘s back’). | ||
| 9 | ROUND-SHOULDERED | Ought queen to enter plump and slumped? (5-10) |
| An envelope (‘to enter’) of SHOULD (‘ought’) plus ER (‘queen’) in ROUNDED (‘plump’). | ||
| 10 | INTEL | What the military gathers from mujahedin, tellingly (5) |
| A hidden answer (‘from’) in ‘mujahedIN TELlingly’. | ||
| 11 | BIPARTITE | Bet pair’s involved with it, if so? (9) |
| An anagram (‘involved’) of ‘bet pair’ plus ‘it’, with an extended definition. | ||
| 12 | REDUNDANT | Opponent of capitalist worker receives demand to pay extra (9) |
| An envelope (‘receives’) of DUN (‘demand to pay’) in RED (‘opponent of capitalist’) plus ANT (‘worker’). | ||
| 14 | CANDY | Extremes of creamy New York confectionery (5) |
| C AND Y are the ‘extremes’ of ‘CreamY’. | ||
| 15 | NOMAD | Migrant from Scotland’s sane (5) |
| NO MAD (‘Scotland’s sane’ – ‘Scotland’ for the Scottish use of NO for not). | ||
| 16 | STRESSING | Dwelling on outskirts of Stirling hosts very Gallic function (9) |
| An envelope (‘hosts’) of TRES (‘very Gallic’) plus SIN (sine, mathematical ‘function’) in SG (‘outskirts of SterlinG’). | ||
| 18 | MONOTONIC | Love to get boost after day lacking variety (9) |
| A charade of MON (‘day’) plus O (‘love’) plus TONIC (‘boost’). | ||
| 21 | AXIOM | Gnome repelled me abroad, going after a kiss (5) |
| A charade of ‘a’ plus X (‘kiss’) plus IOM, a reversal (‘repelled’) of MOI (‘me abroad’). I think that ‘gnome’, as a pithy saying, is rather loose for AXIOM. | ||
| 22 | STICKING PLASTER | Fancy scarlet? It’s donned by leader power dressing (8,7) |
| An envelope (‘donned by’) of KING (‘leading’) plus P (‘power’) in STICLASTER, an anagram (‘fancy’) of ‘scarlet its’. | ||
| 23 | SAN JOSE | Sailor wearing loose jeans in US city (3,4) |
| An envelope (‘wearing’) of OS (ordinary seaman, ‘sailor’) in SANJE, an anagram (‘loose’) of ‘jeans’. | ||
| 24 | RESTYLE | Snap tersely: “Go for another look” (7) |
| An anagram (‘snap’) of ‘tersely’, with a somewhat cryptic definition. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | EARLIER | Some wheat added to pork pie recipe in the past (7) |
| A charade of EAR (‘some wheat’) plus LIE (‘pork pie’) plus R (‘recipe’). Would ‘added to’ suggest that EAR comes at the end rather than the beginning? | ||
| 2 | FOURTH DIMENSION | Hum renditions of waltzes in time? (6,9) |
| An anagram (‘waltzes’) of ‘hum renditions of’. | ||
| 3 | SIDELINED | Team showing age kept out of game (9) |
| A charade of SIDE(‘team’) plus LINED (‘showing age’). | ||
| 4 | SAHIB | Indian master, drawn to both sexes, owns up (5) |
| A reversal (‘up’) of BI (‘drawn to both sexes’) plus HAS (‘owns’). | ||
| 5 | BLUE PETER | Time to put in dirty look as signal of departure (4,5) |
| An envelope (‘to put in’) of T (‘time’) in BLUE (‘dirty’) plus PEER (‘look’). At least when in port, a Blue Peter indicates that a ship is about to set sail. | ||
| 6 | UDDER | Source of milk shake, not quiet (5) |
| A subtraction: [sh]UDDER (‘shake’) minus SH (‘not quiet’). | ||
| 7 | FOREIGN MINISTRY | Government department‘s rule: cars included in lifting of tax (7,8) |
| An envelope (‘included in’) of REIGN (‘rule’) plus MINIS (‘cars’) in FO, a reversal (‘lifting’) of ‘of’ plus TRY (‘tax’ as in patience). | ||
| 8 | DODDERY | Unsteady, like teetotaller drinking more rum, mostly (7) |
| An envelope (‘drinking’) of ODDE[r] (‘more rum, mostly’) in DRY (‘like teetotaller’). | ||
| 13 | ASSONANCE | As lad dances unclad, this is picked up (9) |
| A charade of ‘as’ plus SON (‘lad’) plus ANCE (‘dANCEs unclad’), with an extended definition. | ||
| 14 | CASTAWAYS | People on stage habitually forgetting line? Their craft deserts them (9) |
| A charade of CAST (‘people on stage’) plus A[l]WAYS (‘habitually’) minus the L (‘forgetting line’). | ||
| 15 | NEMESIS | Vengeance of Greeks in mess, introduction of euro having failed (7) |
| An anagram (‘having failed’) of ‘in mess’ plus E (‘introduction of Euro’). | ||
| 17 | GUM TREE | Fool withdraws support round river, up which you’re stuck (3,4) |
| An envelope (’round’) of R (‘river’) in GUM, a reversal (‘withdraws’) of MUG (‘fool’) plus TEE (‘support’ for golf ball). | ||
| 19 | TOKYO | Capital of Kentucky, boring as well (5) |
| An envelope (‘boring’) of KY (‘Kentucky’) in TOO (‘as well’). | ||
| 20 | CAPER | Skip training held by coach (5) |
| An envelope (‘held by’) of PE (‘training’) in CAR (‘coach’). | ||
Thanks PeterO! Hope you get better soon!
Thanks to Picaroon for an awesome puzzle, steady solve as you say.
Loved many, but favorites: SAN JOSE, RESTYLE, UDDER, SAHIB and NEMESIS.
PeterO, for some reason your posting time is shown here an hour later than you post (3:38 am in stead of 2:58 am when you must have posted the blog). Strange!
Thank you Picaroon and PeterO – I am impressed that you can write this blog after surgery on your eye.
I parsed 16a as: An envelope (‘hosts’) of TRES (‘very Gallic’) plus SIN (sine, mathematical ‘function’) in SG (outskirts of StirlinG)
For 1d – PeterO’s comment: “Would ‘added to’ suggest that EAR comes at the end rather than the beginning?” made me think that this clue could instead have been: some wheat and pork pie etc
New words for me were gnome = AXIOM but I liked this clue a lot, and ASSONANCE.
My favourites were SAHIB, EFFUSES, STICKING PLASTER, STRESSING (LOI)
All sympathies over the cataract surgery, PeterO: it’s something I hope I never have to face. Your courage in blogging a crossword the same day is extraordinary and most commendable — I’d have been just lying in bed whimpering. I hope you have a complete recovery Real Soon Now.
And many thanks for a few parsings I hadn’t worked out.
Went in without too much trouble, although I mis-parsed REDUNDANT (how could UND be ‘demand for payment’?) and guessed AXIOM from the wordplay, as I too didn’t know ‘gnome’ in this sense. STICKING PLASTER and the surface for BLUFFED were my favourites
By the way, the capital of Kentucky isn’t what you think it is, or at least it wasn’t for me.
Thanks to setter and especially to PeterO for blogging so promptly while recovering from recent surgery.
@5 WordPlodder
how could UND be ‘demand for payment’?
I had that problem for a while too! 🙂
Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO. Particularly appreciate the blog when you are recovering from surgery, PeterO; best wishes for rapid healing.
I liked this puzzle – just enough challenge and glad when my perseverance paid off.
Like others, I enjoyed 22a STICKING PLASTER, and the other “sticky” clue which gave GUM TREE 17d, although I thought the latter might refer to being stuck up the proverbial creek in a barbed wire canoe without a paddle, a much more common Aussie saying about being “stuck”.
For some reason I had a lot of trouble with 1d EARLIER, as I forgot the rhyming slang “pork pie” for “LIE”(although it has been used quite a few times before), and 1a EFFUSES, my LOI.
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO
Another “und” here too – the only problem apart from not seeing that use of “gnome” (though the clue was easy enough). Picaroon remains one of my favourite compilers.
Enjoyed this: as usual, lovely smooth surfaces & just the right amount of misdirection to make it fun. Thank you Picaroon.
Special thanks to PeterO for the blog. You’re a great role model for anyone awaiting, and apprehensive about, the same surgery.
Doing the happy dance here. Sailed through, only fretting a bit about “sine” without the “e” in 16, parsed 22 as did michelle @3, even remembered the rhyming slang “pork pie” for “lie” in 1 down. My only fail was not getting “ordinary seaman” for “OS” in 23.
Thanks Picaroon, and congrats on apparently successful surgery PeterO!
All very entertaining – not too difficult to fill in the grid but there were a couple of tricky parsings – the dun in REDUNDANT was not a familiar usage but once the crossers were all there it had to be right. Last in was EFFUSES – EARLIER also took far longer than it should have done.
Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO
Thanks, PeterO, for your heroic effort and all good wishes for a speedy recovery. [I keep being told I have incipient cataracts, so you have given me reassurance.]
Actually, I was down to blog today’s puzzle, so it was a bit of a shock to see it already done when I logged on to post it! I have joked recently that my fellow-bloggers must be getting jealous of the number of Picaroon puzzles I have managed to bag, so you are very welcome. 😉
I thought this was Picaroon on top form and I absolutely loved it.
I, too was initially perplexed by UND.
I think some folk south of the Midlands might disagree about the assonance in ‘as lad dances unclad’ but it doesn’t worry me – a very clever clue, I thought.
One more thing to add: I laughed out loud at seeing here, in euphoric Leicester, where it is emblazoned throughout the city, KING P[ower] in the middle of the answer to 22ac! 😉 Huge thanks for that, Picaroon, the icing on top of a delightful cake.
A good puzzle except for the gnome=AXIOM equivalence. The two are not the same in my book. I’m also a little bemused by migrant=NOMAD.
PeterO, you are my hero. Way beyond the call of duty. Hearty wishes for a speedy recovery from you op.
Wonderful stuff from our pirate this morning including the excellent NOMAD, STRESSING, & TOKYO.
Hadn’t come across to dun before but it makes an excellent clue.
Would someone be kind enough to explain the ASSONANCE clue to me? The answer came readily enough but perhaps my understanding of the term is holding me back as I don’t see anything assonant in the wording.
First class stuff, Picaroon, many thanks.
Nice week, all.
Great puzzle. Great blog.
Thank you Picaroon and PeterO.
Crossword and blog were tip-top. Working UND out held me up for a while. I remember looking up gnome, or gnomic, in the dictionary very recently to find the AXIOM relationship, but cannot find the relevant crossword now…
Among many great clues ASSONANCE stood out, but I will leave Eileen or someone else to explain it to William.
Don’t spend too long in front of the computer screen PeterO, it might irritate your eye; do hope all goes well and that you do not have to have surgery later for the other eye.
Hi William @14
Re ASSONANCE: Chambers’ definition is ‘a correspondence in sound; vowel-rhyme… as in mate and shape, feel and need’, hence my observation @12: folk in the South of England would not pronounce the vowel sounds in ‘lad’ and ‘dance’ in the same way.
Eileen@12; please explain your delight at the KING P(ower) part of 22a. Thanks.
Hi Julie in Australia
Where to start? Along with many people I know, I have never been a fan of soccer, except for the sake of my sons / grandsons [I prefer rugby] but this year, along with them, I’ve been caught up in the miracle / fairy tale / dream of our local team, Leicester City, who play at the King Power Stadium, winning the Premier League by ten points, with two games in hand, after staring relegation in the face a year ago. Yesterday evening, a quarter of a million people watched them parade the trophy through the streets. see here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/36309592
Lovely puzzle. “Sticking plaster” is new to me (here, it’s a Band-Aid), and I also did not know of Blue Peter. Both clues went in eventually, though.
CANDY is an Americanism? Huh.
Surprised that SAN JOSE is the city in California, not the one in Costa Rica (the list of world capitals being part of a crossword solver’s basic complement of general knowledge).
michelle @3
I forgot to post the envelope in 16A – now corrected.
Eileen @12
I did not spot the topicality of KING P until you pointed it out. My apologies for robbing you of such an excelent Picaroon.
Cookie #16
The op for my left eye is due in three weeks. In the meantime, I can see just how much of a yellow cast results from the cataracts. For all the delicacy of the operation, it is quite easy on the patient.
Thanks Peter; hope you have a speedy recovery. As Michelle @3 says the outskirts of Stirling seem to be missing in the blog for STRESSING.
Thanks Picaroon for a top-knotch puzzle. I’m another not knowing ‘dun,’ although the answer was fairly obvious.
I liked BIPARTITE among others.
… or even top-notch…
Eileen @17 The penny drops. Born in the Midlands; as a child I would have rhymed lad with dance but educated dahn sahf I no longer do.
Thanks for taking the trouble.
PeterO @21 All the very best for 3 weeks hence.
Excellent…really enjoyed-just the right level for a weekday, IMO.
Yes, Peter,the colour change once done was a real surprise to me…you are now 5D?
Good luck with the other one.
Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO. DUN was familiar to me (is it a US usage?) but not BLUE PETER or RESTYLE as used here. Last in was BIPARTITE (I needed all the crossers to see it). Great fun.
I confess that I’ve been putting off a second cataract operation because of 1) a reaction to the anesthesia and 2) the restrictions on physical activity for 2 weeks imposed by my doctor. Good luck.
great fun.
REDUNDANT was my LOI because, like several others, I couldn’t fathom the UND-so thanks to the blogger for that. Also for blogging beyond the call of duty: I’m impressed. The rest of the puzzle was very nice. I liked AXIOM,ASSONANCE,GUM TREE and INTEL.
A little easier than Picaroon’s puzzles usually are?
Thanks to setter and blogger.
I agree with everyone else – an excellent puzzle. Plenty of inventiveness and just the right level of difficulty for me. I particularly liked STICKING PLASTER and ROUND-SHOULDERED.
Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO. All the best for the next op, Peter!
As someone from up north I had no problem with either 12ac or 13d. I remember a bailiff’s being referred to as a dun (noun – see Chambers) and, to me at least, lad and dance are definitely assonant!
An enjoyable distraction as feeling returns after a dental extraction. I couldn’t parse STRESSING, and too ASSONANCE as a cryptic definition, completely missing the wordplay. I agree with PeterO the AXIOM is clued rather loosely. “Gnome” would better define the similar word MAXIM, but that wouldn’t have fitted the wordplay or the crossers.
Favourites include BIPARTITE, STICKING PLASTER and particularly FOURTH DIMENSION.
Thanks, Picaroon and PeterO – best wishes for a swift recovery, Peter.
Re 24ac
In my aborted blog, I said I would have this http://www.bing.com/videos/search?I=Do+you+know+he+wy+to+San+Jose&view=detail&mid=1650C246DDC28E3F72171650C246DDC28E3F7217&FORM=VIRE in my head all day – and so it has been. You may be thankful. 😉
Eileen@: funnily enough, so have I! Have also been racking my brains trying to remember who sang it, so many thanks for the link.
Bless you, June G . 😉
Picaroon, you are an absolute star.
Some difficulties with axiom = gnome and the ‘dun” in redundant but otherwise what a delight!
Thanks all
I could not parse redundant because of the two D’s and the brilliantly disguised definition,
Favourite was 24 across,
Thanks Eileen@19. I knew from previous posts that you were very happy about the soccer win by the underdogs Leicester, so thank you for the extra info about the stadium. Loved the link – very emotional – and warm congratulations on your team’s win. Pardon tardy post but I only just got back to the blog.
Top stuff – thanks both.
PS
My PS was going to be about the 1am time thing – got rather long so I’ve put it under General Discussion instead.
Eileen, did you know it is called a brain worm!
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO
Started this on a train ride home after going to my first ever soccer match last night – an Asia Cup game. Had to finish it off this morning.
As with many others, I found it the typically high standard and fun offering that we are used to from this setter. His misdirection of definitions would have to be among the best going around – particularly liked TOKYO and STRESSING for that.
Finished in the SE corner with STRESSING, the clever GUM TREE and the enigmatic AXIOM as the last few in.
Well done to Peter for the quality blog post op and all of the best with round 2.
R C Whiting @39. Sorry to differ but a brain worm is a parasitic nematode worm that lives in the brain. A tune that you get ‘on the brain’ is called an earworm.
I know this is late (I tackled this and the following day’s puzzle together), but I would very much like to record my appreciation of an excellent puzzle today.
It was interesting to read all about the clues and cataracts. As regards the latter, my turn will come in a few years’ time (I’m told), and I was encouraged when my next-door neighbour and I recently chatted over the garden fence (as one does) the day after her cataract operation – she was in good health and good spirits.
Thanks to PeterO, and I wish you well for next time.
Meg,I was 74 yesterday, and you have just reinforced my impression that my memory is deteriorating!
Sorry RC, know how you feel. I’m 70 and have aphasia and other cognitive problems due to fibromyalgia. I’m hoping tackling this crossword every day helps to keep it at bay. They say it’s not progressive but I do sometimes wonder.
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO.
I was fixated on UND so thanks for clearing up the DUN in 12ac.
Top quality stuff!