Special instructions this weekend, something that always gets my attention. Thanks Picaroon, most enjoyable!
All the across solutions (except 13 across) have to be made alcohol free for the wordplay to work, i.e. we have to remove an alcoholic drink from the defined solution.
| Across | ||
| 5 | SKI RUN | Tabloid — it goes downhill (3,3) |
| S kir UN – tabloid newspaper | ||
| 6 | RUMOUR | The Guardian’s unsubstantiated comments (6) |
| rum OUR (The Guardian’s) | ||
| 9 | DRYERS | Doctor’s devices producing spin (6) |
| D rye RS (doctor’s) | ||
| 10 | CHOO-CHOO | In nursery, train to speak lovingly (4-4) |
| C hooch OO (to speak lovingly) | ||
| 11 | TALE | Time is something you can tell (4) |
| T ale (time) | ||
| 12 | ROSE-TINTED | Bound to protect conservationists, being idealistic? (4-6) |
| rose TIED (bound) contains NT (National Trust, conservationists) | ||
| 13 | ALCOHOL-FREE | Everyone complimentary about salmon that’s dry (7-4) |
| ALL (everyone) FREE (complimentary) containing COHO (type of Salmon) | ||
| 18 | MONASTICAL | Like a devoted man working on calm (10) |
| MON asti CAL – anagram of ON CALM | ||
| 21 | AGIN | Scot’s opposed to answer (4) |
| A gin (answer) | ||
| 22 | DECIDERS | Final contests of the French (8) |
| DE cider S (of the, in French) | ||
| 23 | TWINED | Wound‘s taped around the edges (6) |
| T wine D – edge letters of TapeD | ||
| 24 | SOURCE | Church’s origin (6) |
| sour CE (Church of England) | ||
| 25 | PORTLY | Stout lady’s clothing (6) |
| port LY – outside letters (clothing) of LadY | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SIDEREAL | Team leading Spanish team of stars (8) |
| SIDE (team) in front of (leading) REAL (Real Madrid/Sociadad/Betis, a Spanish team) – Atletico Madrid are currently leading La Liga, though Real Madrid could still be regarded as a leading Spanish team if you prefer. | ||
| 2 | CURSOR | On-screen presence who swears aloud (6) |
| sounds like (aloud) curser (someone who swears) | ||
| 3 | RUN OUT OF | Fully exhaust and dismiss old fellow (3,3,2) |
| RUN OUT (dismiss, in cricket) than O (old) F (fellow) | ||
| 4 | TOUCAN | Withdrawing cents from account recklessly, one has a hefty bill (6) |
| anagram (reckless) of AcCOUNT missing C(cents) | ||
| 5 | STREAK | Rush in the raw meat that’s wrapped right (6) |
| STEAK (meat) containing (that has wrapped) R (right) | ||
| 7 | RHODES | Rocky shore skirts deserted island (6) |
| anagram (rocky) of SHORE contains (skirts) D (deserted) | ||
| 8 | SCISSOR CASE | Tailor is cross with suit cutter’s pouch (7,4) |
| anagram (tailor) of IS CROSS then CASE (suit, in court) | ||
| 14 | OUTREACH | Oxford University tutor embraces reading work in community (8) |
| OU (Oxford University) TEACH (tutor) contains (embraces) R (reading?) – I’m guessing that R is reading in the three R’s (reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic). | ||
| 15 | EMACIATE | Weaken English spies infiltrating China (8) |
| E (English) then CIA (spies) inside MATE (china plate, rhyming slang) | ||
| 16 | COVERS | Screens 600 balls? (6) |
| C OVERS would be one hundred overs, six hundred balls in cricket | ||
| 17 | LIVERY | Light infantry put on sort of light uniform (6) |
| LI (light infantry) on VERY (sort of light) | ||
| 19 | ANIMUS | Problem present with America’s rising hostility (6) |
| SUM (problem, maths) IN (present) and A (America) all reversed (rising) | ||
| 20 | LOTION | Great deal no one rejected for cosmetic product (6) |
| LOT (great deal) then NO I (one) reversed (rejected) | ||
definitions are underlined
Thanks PeeDee and Picaroon. First in was the 13A theme-word, derived from ‘dry’ – but it took a while to apply it properly as I imagined the grog element would be an addition not a subtraction. Though the D=deserted in 7D vexed me, it was the bottom half that was the tougher. An enjoyable hour to nut this out.
I usually enjoy puzzles with special instructions and this was no exception. There was also some nice misdirection; I particularly liked 4 and 5 D. Thanks Picaroon and PeeDee
Thanks PeeDee. I stumbled on 13a early on too and the rest followed readily enough. I share molonglo’s doubt about d=deserted and I have eaten steaks that may have been rare but not raw.
Only one C has been withdrawn in 4d and in 19d America=A.
Thanks to Picaroon and Peedee. Like molongo @1 I got ALCOHOL-FREE early on but did not know how to apply it. I then got most of the down answers along with SKI-RUN, TALE, and SOURCE so at long last I saw kir, ale, and sour. Last in were CHOO-CHOO and DECIDERS. Special instructions are usually beyond me, but this time perseverance paid off.
Thanks Picaroon and PeeDee
I think that in 5D it is the rush that is in the raw, not the steak.
Thanks PeeDee and Picaroon. Great puzzle though I found SW corner hard to complete.
Typos in 23a : TapeD
19d: C * overs = 100 * 6 balls
Good fun as always from Pickers.
Thanks Picaroon and PeeDee
I generally don’t like crosswords in which answers are only partially clued – I remember complaining about the “Neither here nor there” one last year – but I did like this one, and found it surprisingly easy. I got into the theme from CHOO CHOO and TALE, and the rest proceeded smoothly.
I had doubts about d=deserted too, but it’s there, hiding someway down the list in Chambers.
Thank you Picaroon and PeeDee.
Great fun. Got tied up for a while thinking 9a, after much search, might be DREIDL, but there was no alcohol…
I also thought the definition of STREAK was “To rush in the raw”.
I enjoyed this although once the conceit was revealed it was pretty easy.
I got there via AGIN which was fairly obvious and led to a “drinks” theme perhaps. Then RUN OUT OF gave the F for “FREE” and made the solution obvious.
P.S. I think you’ve a typo Pee Dee. “missing CC(cents)” should be “missing C(cents)”
Thanks to Picaroon and PeeDee. An enjoyable and not too taxing outing.
I agree that “rush in the raw” is the definition in 5dn (a craze when I was at University over 40 years ago), but surely a steak is indeed raw until it is cooked? And it might even be Steak Tartare.
Sorry, PeeDee. Typos in 16d and 19d:
“C OVERS would be one hundred balls in cricket” – for one read six
“SUM (problem, maths) IN (present) and US (America) all reversed (rising)” – A for America in this instance
Thanks
Thanks to setter and blogger.
FOI for me was CHOO CHOO, though I didn’t parse it completely until getting 13a. Never heard of COHO, but it had to be. I still have trouble getting on Picaroon’s wavelength, and I was still five answers short of a solution when coming here.
Re: D for deserted. In the Royal Navy they used R for deserted (= run). D was for discharged, and DD for discharged (dead). (I got this from one of CS Forester’s Hornblower books, so cannot vouch for accuracy!)
Run in raw is clearly correct. Thanks to all those pointing out the numerous typos, I must have been half asleep when writing up this one.
FOI was ALCOHOL FREE but I found it difficult to apply this to the instructions
I think it was CHOOCHOO which caused the penny to drop-well,almost!
From then on the others went in quite quickly with the exception of SKI RUN
Which was LOI. I liked OUTREACH.
Thanks Picaroon.
This turned out to be easier than it initially looked. SIDEREAL and EMACIATE were my first entries, and they gave me the first L and penultimate E in 13a. I had already been considering ALL for “everyone” and FREE for “complimentary” so ALCOHOL-FREE wasn’t a big jump. With the I already in place, SKI RUN soon confirmed the theme. I thought that might be a problem for me as I don’t drink alcohol, but they were mostly quite common drinks so the only one I needed to confirm online was KIR. Overall, it was very enjoyable, favourites being RUMOUR, ROSE-TINTED, PORTLY, TOUCAN and COVERS.
Thanks, Picaroon and PeeDee.
I tried to do this crossword using the Guardian iPhone App and failed, as the App version of the crossword did not include the special instructions!!
Another good one from Picaroon, with all of the things I always appreciate in his puzzles – lovely surfaces, clever misdirection and fun. Spotted the theme quickly for a change (I wonder why?!) – very cleverly worked in, I thought.
Thank you very much Picaroon & PeeDee.
Very enjoyable. CURSOR was FOI and after suspecting, like Jennyk, ALL and FREE then confirming the F with RUN OUT OF, CHOOCHOO (and a quick dictionary check for COHO) confirmed the key solution. However, I was stuck for a long time on the NW corner: with only the U from CURSOR in, I just kept seeing THE SUN for 5a even though I couldn’t make the wordplay work. Then SKI RUN just came to me when I wasn’t even looking at the crossword and I nearly managed to finish the puzzle, defeated only by STREAK. I tried to convince myself, not very successfully, that “raw meat” clued an anagram of TEAM and that there was a mistake in not cluing the S of STREAM. Now I’m kicking myself.
Btw, PeeDee, one more problem with your ‘riting: it should be “‘rithmEtic”, not “‘rithmAtic”!
I got RUMOUR and one or two others without ALCOHOL-FREE, figuring that they would make sense when I figured out the special instructions — which they did.
More cricket than usual. I usually recognize cricket terms as such, though I don’t always know what they mean.
Delightful device, thank you Picaroon. And thanks to you, PeeDee, for an enjoyable blog.
DMV is a fairly common acronym in archaeology … “deserted medieval village”
COHO was new to me, and I took a long time to convince myself that it was indeed SCISSOR CASE, but I enjoyed the idea and the crossword. Why does d=deserted? Because Picaroon says it does.
gladys @ 22
As someone noted earlier, d = deserted is supported by Chambers, but it’s a fair way down the list of definitions.
I took “d” to stand for “deserted” in service records & entered it confidently. Started to doubt myself when I read the posts so looked it up in Google. Sure enough it is listed as such, though in records for the American Civil War!
I remember Picaroon used the same abbreviation, D, for deserted in the Guardian Genius No. 157
19a Island country hasn’t deserted capital (5)
Why so enthusiastic about this crossword? The clues are pathetic in using so many initial letters to represent a word – “LI” = light infantry, “A” = America, “T” = tale, etc etc. These setters are amateurs. I see no fine surfaces only “C” = crossword obviously!
T=time surely, not tale
If the setters are amateurs, what does that make you?
RTH @ 26
Perhaps you should consult a dictionary before making unfounded criticisms.
Where can we get hold of your crosswords so that we can have the delight of clues that aren’t pathetic?
Standard abbreviations:
KOYLI = King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
USA = United States of America
Space launch countdown: T minus [whatever amount of days / minutes / seconds]
Found this one pretty tough despite getting the theme almost immediately – some excellent misdirection and a very satisfying challenge.
Thanks to Picaroon and PeeDee