It’s almost a year since I was half-apologising to fellow-bloggers for having managed to land five Picaroon puzzles in a row to blog. I was beginning to think I must have put a jinx on myself by even mentioning it but, at long last, here’s another one for me.
And what an enjoyable one it was, with all the Picaroon hallmarks: excellent cluing; great story-telling surfaces; some intricate constructions and some quirkily witty definitions – person tripping, drippy American, imaginary axe, trouble for head, trouble afoot – which produced lots of chortles and ahas to help things along. As usual, too many favourites to list, so it’s over to you.
Great fun – many thanks, Picaroon.
[Definitions are underlined in the clues.]
Across
1 Old boring laughter track is ancient (5)
HOARY
O [old] in [boring] HA [laughter] + RY [track]
4 Genius CGI animations, only half animated (8)
MAGICIAN
Anagram [animated] of CGI ANIMA[tions] [only half]
8 Standard article by Tory, with mission to show England overrun by foreigners (6,8)
NORMAN CONQUEST
NORM [standard] + AN [article] + CON [Tory] + QUEST [mission]
10 Linguist has appealing quality, university’s guaranteed (8)
SAUSSURE
SA [appealing quality – again!] + US [university’s] + SURE [guaranteed]
11 Yes, there’s trouble for head returning drunk (6)
STINKO
Reversal [returning] of OK [yes] + NITS [trouble for head]
12 Bachelor, one completely crazy for oily fruit (9)
BUTTERNUT
B [bachelor] + UTTER NUT [one completely crazy]
15 I must be on time for alluring lady (5)
HOURI
HOUR [time] + I
17 King wearing drag is a fruitcake! (5)
TORTE
R [king] in [wearing] TOTE [drag]
18 Rubbish men paid by firm for collections (9)
COMPENDIA
Anagram [rubbish] of MEN PAID after CO [firm]
19 Still pursuing winning result (6)
UPSHOT
SHOT [still] after UP [winning]
21 Pick fruit that’s bagged etcetera, periodically (8)
PLECTRUM
PLUM [fruit] round [having bagged] E[t]C[e]T[e]R[a]
I just loved this clue, once I’d parsed it properly: my hackles rose when I initially saw ECT for etc, having marked it wrong for so many years! I didn’t know that pick was an alternative name for a plectrum
24 Drippy American ex-president cut back security item (7,7)
JACKSON POLLOCK
[Andrew] JACKSON [ex-president] + a reversal [back] of LOP [cut] + LOCK [security item]
25 One lacking in awareness gets punishment (8)
SENTENCE
SENT[i]ENCE [awareness, lacking i – one]
26 Monarch put on excessive fur (5)
OTTER
OTT [excessive] + ER [monarch]
Down
1 Animal activist‘s outburst with a hen mistreated (4,8)
HUNT SABOTEUR
Anagram [mistreated] of OUTBURST and A HEN
2 Imagined axe slashed a rug — it cut into screen (3,6)
AIR GUITAR
Anagram [slashed] of A RUG + IT in AIR [screen]
3 Linesman scoffs, holding up end of play (5)
YEATS
EATS [scoffs] after [pla]Y – nice misleading surface and definition
4 Italian dish gets cold, with Roman and local ingredients (9)
MACARONIC
MACARONI [Italian dish] + C [cold] – I loved this one!
5 Left turn outside of Nashville (4)
GONE
GO [turn] + N[ashvill]E [I really don’t like ‘outside of’! – but, of course, it’s needed for the surface here]
6 Place for trying zip in novel female attire (5,4)
COURT SHOE
COURT [place for trying] + O [zip] in SHE [novel by Rider Haggard – which we used to see more often in crosswords]
7 With “p*** off”, clergyman gives offence (5)
ARSON
[p]ARSON [clergyman]: I’ve seen ARSON clued as [p]ARSON a number of times but never exactly like this – bravo, Picaroon! [By a rather remarkable coincidence, Hoskins used this unusual device in a different clue in his Indy puzzle on Monday .]
9 Person tripping over hat’s cracked a heavy blow (12)
HOLIDAYMAKER
O [over] + LID [hat] in [having cracked] HAYMAKER [heavy blow]
13 Heard where Apple device is charged in orbit? (3,6)
EYE SOCKET
Sounds like [heard] I-socket, where an Apple device might be charged
14 Technique when shooting is utter flipping blunder (4-5)
TIME LAPSE
A reversal [flipping] of EMIT [utter] + LAPSE [blunder]
16 Downtrodden, like Labour during Thatcherism (9)
UNDERFOOT
Cryptic definition, referring to Labour leader Michael Foot
20 Pan to fill has litres in (5)
SLATE
L [litres] in SATE [fill]
22 Where crooks are beginning to organise a big fiddle (5)
CELLO
CELL [where crooks are] + O[rganise] – great surface!
23 Trouble afoot, with commander oppressing sailors (4)
CORN
CO [Commanding Officer] + RN [Royal Navy]
Thanks Eileen and Picaroon.
Great puzzle.
Noticed, SA/it clued in 3 days in a row!
Liked Apple charger, Jackson and Foot clues.
Thanks Eileen. I thought some synonyms drew rather a long bow; drag=tote, still=shot and air=screen. I convinced myself that drag= toke (which still seems to me to be closer) and spent some time with combinations of toke, r or k to no avail before I found out about axes and guitars. I also thought by association with drippy that the second word in 24a had to be pillock and that wasted some more time. But there were some very clever misleading clues too; I added to my education and finished it with a sense of accomplishment.
12 ac. Cultural differences again. In Aust/NZealand a butternut is a vegetable, and not particularly oily. Popular kind of pumpkin, more or less cylindrical, with all the seeds in the centre of a bulbous bit down one end. Not a problem here, however, because of the clarity of the clue.
I loved this – elegant clueing with all the information contained within them and some brilliant misdirection and lovely surfaces. FOI was 21ac, favourite the drippy American and LOI 10ac which I had to Google to confirm but it can be got from the clue with crossers. My favourite G xword for months – thank you Picaroon and great that you got to blog it Eileen – thanks.
Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen. This one was too tough for me. I got about one third at my first go (e.g, SLATE, GONE, CELLO, UPSHOT, TORTE, HOURI, ARSON, SENTENCE) and later (once I finally got MAGICIAN) NORMAN CONQUEST, SAUSSURE, and PLECTRUM, but COURT SHOE (I did guess the “court”), HUNT SABOTEUR, and BUTTERNUT eluded me, as did Haymaker-HOLIDAYMAKER. I much enjoyed AIR GUITAR and JACKSON POLLOCK but overall fell short.
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen. Great stuff.
Thanks Eileen. Agree with your comments including that on 6A: almost a year ago today, blogging another Picaroon Prize, you referred to the work as “Crosswordland’s favourite novel [apart from Emma].” This was fairly tricky (as it should be) esp in the NW corner, made harder by my surmising that the 1D anagram would be a proper name unknown to me. Google called upon to check other hunches/unknowns that had to be right, namely SAUSSURE and last-in MACARONIC. Good work, Picaroon.
I mean 6 down for “She”
4 down is a candidate for clue of the year. I immediately assumed that ‘Italian dish’ was the definition and consequently that Picaroon couldn’t spell ‘macaroni’! It was a treat to realise what the definition was in fact and that ‘macaronic’ is an anagram of c (for cold) + Roman + oca (= the ‘ingredients’ of ‘local’).
Oh no, @ 9 I got it wrong! No anagram is involved as the ‘i’ isn’t accounted for. Apologies.
Not very familiar with Picaroon but enjoyed a lot of these clues.
Why is SA appealing quality? I didn’t know Saussure and was trying to fit in SASS (as in sassy) but couldn’t…
Tough but satisfying.
PLECTRUM took me far too long, considering I’m a guitarist. Eileen, there’s a whole style of playing known as finger-picking using several plectra (increasingly, “plectrums”). I’d say “pick” is more American and “plectrum” more British, but there’s overlap.
JACKSON POLLOCK was a gem.
MACARONIC and SAUSSURE were new to me, but obvious from the wordplay.
Excellent blog for an excellent puzzle. Thanks for both.
r_c_a_d @11: SA is sex appeal = “it” as in the It Girl, Clara Bow.
Hi Epeolater @9 and 10 – yes, I spent some time playing around with possible anagrams, too.
r_c_a_d @11 – SA stands for ‘sex appeal’ and we’ve had it several times in the last couple of weeks [which has caused some discussion], hence the ‘again’. 😉
Eileen, thanks for the clarification.
Never seen SA = “sex appeal”, I only do the prize on a Saturday.
I wrote “Criminal” in the margin of this one, which I think was a reminder that there seemed to be a mini-theme in the clues, rather than an assessment of the quality 🙂
This was posted on Eileen’s blog of Imogen’s puzzle @4 yesterday.
muffin says:
February 3rd, 2017 at 8:41 am
btw I’m away tomorrow, so I’d like to take this opportunity to say what a cracker of a puzzle Picaroon’s Prize last Saturday was!
Thank you Picaroon and Eileen.
A great puzzle, hard going but the only real problem I had was with TOTE for ‘drag’, as did Biggles A @2. I had to google SAUSSURE, MACARONIC and the Drippy American!
Arthur Hay @3. I, too found the clue for BUTTERNUT rather confusing, but technically it is a fruit though not an oily one – the definition is just a joke.
Apologies to PeterO and Eileen, I muddled them up in my post @16, yesterday’s blog of Imogen’s puzzle was by PeterO.
The butternut in the puzzle is not the squash, it is the fruit of a N American tree https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/butternut
Thanks, sidey @20: BUTTERNUT is in both Collins and Chambers as the oily nut of the N. American white walnut [or the tree itself].
sidey @20, thanks, I had had doubts and googled last Saturday and today, but found nothing, the ‘squash’ kept coming up – and now I even find it in my COED! Grrrr and apologies to all. My only excuse is that I too, like Arthur Hay, am a New Zealander, but here is a NZ ad for the BUTTERNUT tree with photos of the nut!
Enjoyed this and knocked it off fairly quickly. I did have AIRcutter originally but the penny finally dropped. I’ve always admired the work of Jack-the-dripper so JACKSON POLLACK made me smile. But,as Muffin, said, this was a cracker!
Thanks Picaroon.
Thanks to Picaroon for a difficult but ultimately satisfying puzzle.
I’m with the New Zealanders on 12a BUTTERNUT (called a pumpkin here too), so even though I solved it I was at a loss to understand how that “oily fruit” definition could work.
With others on having to google 10a SAUSSERE and 4d MACARONIC. I did know 24a JACKSON POLLOCK, however, due to the controversy over Australia buying “Blue Poles” for the National Gallery back in the 70s when the government of the day was trying to lead Australia away from its cultural backwater status.
I had not heard of HUNT SABOTEUR 1d but that was all that would work with the crossers.
I agree with others’ favourites but also really liked 22d CELLO.
Many thanks Eileen for an excellent, interesting blog (as ever) and further comments on the thread. I smiled when I read your comment about ECT as a derivative of etcetera in 21a – as a fellow teacher I felt like pulling out the red pen!
Reading other participants’ remarks always enhances the experience for me.
I had no problem with butternut. Both butter and nuts are oily or am I missing something? It is a cryptic clue after all.
A most enjoyable crossword, the best Prize one for ages.
rosmarinus @25, in the UK I believe the correct name is ‘butternut squash’, and in Australia and NZ ‘butternut pumpkin’, but here in France it is just labelled butternut – I was a fathead today, I remembered later that I had found the white walnut last Saturday while googling, I did not search the dictionary because I wanted a photo!
Very nice puzzle this one, I thought with great surfaces and some excellent misdirection.
I was pleased to be reminded of SAUSSURE and MACARONIC, both of which I had come across before, so got them from wordplay and crossers (but had to then look them up again).
Coincidentally, a Pollock admirer was recently explaining the artist’s “drip” technique to me (I think), but didn’t actually use that word, so it was only when I worked out the answer (again from wordplay and crossers) and looked him up that I understood the “drippy American”.
I hadn’t really understood “still” for SHOT, but have now realised the reference is to photographs.TOTE isn’t quite “drag” really, but the surface is so amusing it’s definitely forgivable; I certainly had no doubts about the answer once I got it.
rosmarinus@25 and Cookie@26 – re BUTTERNUT. As Cookie indicates my problem was not with “oily” but with “fruit”, as it is a vegetable here in Australia. I am currently using the Queensland blue – another prolific variety of pumpkin here. I think variations on the latter kind are used only as pig food in Europe (as an Aussie friend of mine found when she was living in Brussels and purchased one to make soup – it tasted ghastly and she had to throw her big pot of soup away!). However I find the ones my brother-in-law grows and gives me very tasty in both salads and soups.
Julie in Australia @28, the butternut pumpkin is classified for convenience as a vegetable, but it is in reality a fruit – it has seeds, in France I have a problem with sweet potatoes since they are classified as fruits because they are sweet, whereas in fact they are root vegetables – I spend a lot of time when shopping helping people find them on the weighing/price machine…
Thanks Cookie for further info.
Cookie @29
“…with sweet potatoes since they are classified as fruits because they are sweet, whereas in fact they are root vegetables – I spend a lot of time when shopping helping people find them on the weighing/price machine…”
Cookie, you’re a saint but don’t you think you should “get out more” 😉 🙂
[BNTO @31, a queue forms with me and others waiting to weigh our fruits and vegetables, nothing saintly about it!]
“Knowledge is knowing that the tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.”
Anybody else put TRUMP for 17a when only the T was known? No coincidence, I think.
Eileen@14
I’ve said before that I think that “appeal” for SA should be pensioned off. Can’t setters think of something better? It makes me endlessly miserable.
Yes, Graham @34, I did!
‘To tump’ is (North American for) ‘to drag’.
And the definition? Well, um ….
Just realised I have not commented on this one. Another top class puzzle from Picaroon, which required some thought but gave way at a steady rate. MACARONIC is a lovely word – remembered it because it was one of a very long list of words I looked up while reading Julio Cortazar’s Hopscotch. SAUSSURE was last in – he was unfamiliar but the instructions were clear enough.
Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen
Utterly unintelligible to the average reader and therefore no chance of attracting new eager solvers.
Nobody will read this but I’ll write it anyway. Fingerpicking does not involve the use of a plectrum, much less several (how could you use several plectra?) Fingerpicking is a style of playing. Finger picks are metal tips you can add to your fingers if you choose, but I wouldn’t call a fingerpick a plectrum. I once heard a guitarist say he had never heard anyone who played well both with and without them, and that cured me.
The style that does use a plectrum is flat picking. A flat pick is a teardrop-shaped piece of plastic, and Doc Watson was a master of it.
Valentine @39
“Nobody will read this…'” I think you know that bloggers receive an email of all comments on their blogs, so nothing goes entirely unnoticed and this comment is simply an acknowledgment of yours.
Since I know nothing about the technicalities of guitar playing, all I can say is that the clue was sufficiently clear to lead me, eventually, to the answer. As I said in the blog,I didn’t know pick = plectrum but it’s there in Chambers.
Actually, I didn’t know that bloggers got such an email — but now that I know, I’ll write back. My plectrum comment was mainly directed at the guitarist who wrote about fingerpicking, but it’s always nice to hear from you.