An enjoyable challenge from Picaroon this week, with many subtle touches.
Many thanks to my solving companions, Timon and Mrs B, whose contributions helped ensure that we completed the puzzle well inside the hour we usually set aside for the purpose. We liked the topical reference and the elegant surfaces, but none of us could come up with a sensible parsing of 4 down, so thanks to Gaufrid for explaining it.
| Across | ||
| 1 | EXPENSE ACCOUNT | Jilted lover writes online story for financial benefit (7,7) |
| EX PENS E ACCOUNT – a simple charade. | ||
| 9 | REINVESTS | Seeks further profit from check clothing (9) |
| REIN VESTS – and another one. | ||
| 10 | RECON | Lag behind army corps, gathering information for the Americans (5) |
| RE (Royal Engineers), CON. Chambers defines this as US military slang for reconnaissance. | ||
| 11 | SYBIL | Scales part of extremely stony, black, bare hill (5) |
| S(ton)Y B (h)IL(l). A subtly disguised reference to the actor Prunella Scales who memorably played this Sybil. | ||
| 12 | SALESGIRL | Assistant wrapping small hands round beer and oversexed American? (9) |
| I think this parses as ALES GI in S RL(right and left hands), but it might have been fairer if the clue specified “beers”. | ||
| 13 | EVENTIDE | Fair game to pocket diamonds, around 7 or 8? (8) |
| EVEN, D in TIE. | ||
| 14 | MOWGLI | Cut clothing for girl, one wild child (6) |
| MOW G(ir)L 1. | ||
| 17 | TUCKER | Haulier short of right fare down under (6) |
| T(r)UCKER. | ||
| 19 | PASTICHE | This pace is wrong for take-off (8) |
| *(THIS PACE). | ||
| 22 | CHIEFTAIN | Leader from English paper: wonderful, penetrating feature (9) |
| E FT A1 in CHIN. | ||
| 24 | ORANG | Love getting called a hairy beast (5) |
| O RANG. Apparently orang is an acceptable alternative to orang-outang. | ||
| 25 | SPEED | Clip top from sargasso weed (5) |
| S(argasso) PEED. Brilliant misdirection here – I was looking for a very different type of weed. | ||
| 26 | TOSCANINI | Switch contains electrical current conductor (9) |
| *CONTAINS I (symbol for electric current). | ||
| 27 | HAMPSTEAD HEATH | Green area’s politicians admitted to loathing bill by Tory PM (9,5) |
| MPS in HATE, AD, HEATH. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | EUROSCEPTICISM | Leave camp’s position with terribly imprecise scout (14) |
| *(IMPRECISE SCOUT). A topical reference. | ||
| 2 | PLIABLE | Tending to follow Putin’s lead, possibly bent (7) |
| P(utin) LIABLE. | ||
| 3 | NOVELETTE | Little work requiring 15 days and lots of character? (9) |
| NOVE(mber) (which has 30 days), LETTE(r). | ||
| 4 | EAST SIDE | Part of city street crossed by European on main track (4,4) |
| ST in E A-SIDE: I’m not entirely convinced that a track and a side exactly correspond, although I suppose that they do on a single, and perhaps only singles have A-sides. | ||
| 5 | CASTLE | Station guards left large building (6) |
| L in CASTE. | ||
| 6 | ORRIS | Something in perfume has men and gentleman spinning (5) |
| OR (other ranks, or men) SIR (rev). | ||
| 7 | NICKING | Turning in century, man in game’s making a score (7) |
| IN (rev) C KING (man in the game of chess). | ||
| 8 | IN PLAIN ENGLISH | Lenin, with sigh, resolved to tour steppe, unpretentiously (2,5,7) |
| PLAIN in *(LENIN SIGH). | ||
| 15 | OSTEOPATH | Doctor‘s promise to squeeze writer’s back (9) |
| POETS (rev) in OATH. Some may raise an eyebrow at the definition, as most osteopaths (in the UK at least) are not, I believe, doctors in the usual (medical) sense of the term. | ||
| 16 | MAGNESIA | Lady’s boring design, flipping tasteless white stuff (8) |
| AGNES in AIM (rev). | ||
| 18 | CHIMERA | It’s fabulous being rich, a poor compiler’s gathered (7) |
| ME in *(RICH A). | ||
| 20 | CZARINA | Target for red vehicle skirting unknown, hot area (7) |
| Z (unknown) in CAR, IN A(rea). Another subtly disguised definition. | ||
| 21 | RAT-TAT | Knocks seaman over on junk (3-3) |
| TAR (rev) TAT. | ||
| 23 | FED UP | Scoffed at University Blue (3,2) |
| FED (scoffed – which can be an intransitive verb) UP (meaning to be at University). | ||
*anagram
Thank you Picaroon and bridgesong.
This took me quite a while to solve last Saturday, but was enjoyable. I, too, failed to fully parse EAST SIDE and was confused over ALES = beer, I suppose “beer” is a generic term covering ales, lagers etc.. EXPENSE ACCOUNT along with REINVESTS were fun.
Thanks to Picaroon and Bridgesong.
With regards to 15d, it’s the recurring problem of who can (and should) be called doctor. Some say it is only the medicos. Others say it should only be those who have an earned doctorate (eg PhD, MD, DD etc) from a recognised university.
These days even dentists and vets are hanging up shingles with Dr in front of their name.
I hope I have not stirred up a hornet’s nest here as I suspect we may have a few medical practitioners, academics, dentists, vets and practitioners of alternative medicine in our readership.
I’d like to point out that the English word “doctor” comes from “docere”, the Latin word meaning “to teach”. The original meaning of doctor was teacher and later came to mean a learned person in a field of study (eg, but not exclusively, medicine).
An enjoyable test from Picaroon, and thanks for the blog Bridgesong – I guessed 3 early on but would never have got NOVELETTE from the clue. Stupidity or just a mental block on my part? Who knows? (Probably stupidity.)
Thanks for the blog, all three.
Another gem from Picaroon – it was worth it for the brilliant SYBIL alone [plus SPEED] but there was lots more to enjoy.
Many thanks, as ever, to Picaroon. Just one quibble: I dispute the use of ‘poor’ in 18dn! 😉
Thanks all. Re 4d – perhaps because of my age, I automatically associated “A Side” with a single, so the clue was fine by me
4d, just checked the B-side is sometimes called the “bonus track”, the A-side being the “main track” as Gaufrid explained.
A stunning puzzle from “The Pirate”.
Most clues seemed difficult but when finally solved revealed themselves to be ridiculously easy as they were flawlessly clued. This is how a prize puzzle should be.
Great misdirection and lots of fun.
Quite excellent. Everything a crossword should be. Picaroon May be an acquired taste but it’s certainly a taste that I’ve acquired. Far too many favourites to list but I thought SYBIL(LOI) was wonderful.
Thanks Picaroon.
I believe “Maggie May” was intended as a B side to “Reason to Believe” and may even have been released as such initially but the story goes that once DJ’s heard Maggie May and aired it ,the switchboard tended to light up and our Rodney gained a swag of self-confidence,
In the case of Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane which was a double A side-if someone asked for Penny Lane the sale got credited as such
same with Strawberry Fields and so “Please release me” clocked up more sales than either Beatles side making no 1 whereas the total of the two A sides for the Beatles would have trounced PRM.
Thanks to Picaroon and bridgesong. I could not parse EAST SIDE, and SPEED and FED-UP took a while, but I got through quickly. Very enjoyable.
As always from Picaroon, this was a high class puzzle and a very enjoyable challenge – did complete it on the train but it took a long time. I think MOWGLI was last in – should have seen that earlier.
Thanks to Picaroon and bridgesong
As beery hiker said @11, a classy puzzle. Favourites included SYBIL, CHIEFTAIN, HAMPSTEAD HEATH, EAST SIDE and IN PLAIN ENGLISH.
Thanks, Picaroon and bridgesong.
Could you explain the connection between clip and speed please? Also I don’t understand “ins” from hot area. Many thanks
Sorry predictive error – ina not ins
Gadwall: clip can mean to go at a fast pace – I guess it comes from horse riding.
Something that is popular may be said to be “hot” or “in”. A is just an abbreviation.
Thank you bridgesong
Thanks bridgesong and Picaroon.
I also found this enjoyable and classy with a good variety of clue styles, some wit, and a nod to Prunella Scales.
I also queried the extra S in 12ac but otherwise no parsing issues – unusually for me.
Good stuff!
I’m obviously in the minority here as I didn’t like this crossword at all. I completed about half and gave up as I realised that even when the answer dawned it didn’t raise a smile or even a shrug that I should have got it sooner. Sorry Picaroon.
Thanks Picaroon and bridgesong
Enjoyable puzzle that spilled across two days for me. A lovely balance of get / guess the definition and work out the word play and derive a word from the word play and confirm the definition. Unlike bullhassocks@3, NOVELETTE was one of the latter.
Curiously, the down under TUCKER took way longer than it should have. Thought that the four long outer words were fairly clues to be able to get early enough to provide help with other clues.
Finished on the left hand side with EUROSCEPTICISM (which was only helpful with two others), SPEED (clever diversion) and CHIEFTAIN the last in.