Guardian Cryptic 27,192 by Picaroon

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Difficult in places and enjoyable throughout. Favourites were 9ac, 27ac, 1dn, 8dn, 16dn and 21dn – thanks, Picaroon.

Across
9 JOHN LEWIS Detective’s behind convenience store (4,5)
=a UK department store chain.
LEWIS=”Detective” [wiki], after JOHN=lavatory=”convenience”
10 INFER Reason reporter’s dressed to anger animal activists (5)
“reporter’s”-> sounds like: ‘in fur’=”dressed to anger animal activists”
11 NON-IRON Zidane’s refusal to get club’s kind of shirt? (3-4)
NON is a French [Zidane is a French footballer] “refusal”, plus IRON=golf “club”
12 CAESIUM Extremely abrasive music could be metal (7)
anagram/”could be” of: (ae music)*; where ae is the extremes of a[brasiv]e
13 OWLS Hearts broken from wails in parliament? (4)
a parliament is the collective noun for owls. H[earts] broken or taken away from [H]OWLS=”wails”
14 CORONATION I’m amazed by old people’s investment (10)
COR!=”I’m amazed!”, plus O[ld] plus NATION=”people”
15 EARRING East Londoner’s trial, after hiding queen’s jewellery (7)
‘EARING might be an East London contraction of ‘hearing’=”trial”, around R[egina]=”queen”
17 SCRATCH Slight injury is no handicap (7)
double definition, the second describing a player without a handicap in e.g. golf
19 NEOLIBERAL Thatcherite maybe stirring up a rebellion (10)
(a rebellion)*
22 OSSA Spies in Jerusalem uncovered bones (4)
=plural of ‘os’ meaning a bone.
MOSSAD is the Israeli intelligence service=”Spies in Jerusalem”, with the outer covering letters removed.
23 ASTOUND Shock: divas to undress, partly (7)
Hidden in [div]AS TO UND[ress]
24 TWIN TUB Machine‘s secure, stopping end revolving (4,3)
=a washing machine with separate tubs to wash and to dry
WIN=”secure”, inside BUTT=”end” reversed/”revolving”
26 DUVET Cover musical composition with verse included (5)
DUET=”musical composition” with V[erse] inside
27 WONDERBRA Speculate British artist is a fashioner of busts (9)
WONDER=”Speculate”, plus B[ritish], plus R[oyal] A[cademician]=”artiist”
Down
1 DJANGO REINHARDT Rock and roll’s first grand hit, with Joe Strummer (6,9)
=jazz guitarist [wiki]
(and r grand hit joe)*, where r=”roll’s first”
2 CHANDLER Retailer‘s name in credit (8)
=a seller of candles
HANDLE=”name” in CR[edit]
3 BLUR Make unclear, novel advert cut short (4)
BLUR[b]=”novel advert” cut short
4 SWAN SONG New boy dips into illicit money, a career-ending moment (4,4)
N[ew] SON=”New boy” inside SWAG=”illicit money”
5 PSYCHO Horridly vacuous cops running around in film (6)
=the Hitchcock horror film
(hy cops)*, where hy=H[orridl]Y=”horridly vacuous”
6 WIREHAIR Spooner’s to rent clothing for terrier? (8)
=a breed of terrier [wiki]
Spoonerism of ‘hire wear’=”rent clothing”
7 UFFIZI Arm broken by fellow when climbing Italian building (6)
=art museum in Florence [wiki]
UZI=a submachine gun=”Arm”, around both: F[ellow] and IF=”when” reversed/”climbing”
8 ERYMANTHIAN BOAR Labour’s beast trashed May: “An abhorrent leader of idiots” (11,4)
=one of the Labours of Hercules [wiki]
(May an abhorrent i)*, where i=”leader of idiots”
16 INIQUITY I’m giving up, overwhelmed by current state of US injustice (8)
I QUIT=”I’m giving up”, inside I=symbol for electric “current” and NY=New York=”state of US”
17 SPARTANS Function assumed by Poles or Greeks (8)
TAN[gent]=trigonometrical “Function” in mathematics, inside SPARS=”Poles”
[I spent quite a while trying to parse with PART=”Function” and N[orth]/S[outh] Poles…]
18 TEST TUBE Experimental equipment fixed up underground — about time! (4,4)
SET=”fixed” reversed/”up” plus TUBE=London “underground”, around T[ime]
20 OCTAVE Green welcoming tax rises in fixed interval (6)
ECO=”Green” around VAT=Value Added Tax; all reversed/”rises”
21 ENDOWS Four card players wrapping party gifts (6)
E[ast], N[orth], W[est] and S[outh] are the “Four card players” in a game of Bridge, around DO=”party”
25 ICED How month starts to turn cold (4)
DEC I=DEC 1=the first of December=”How month starts”; reversed/”to turn”

48 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,192 by Picaroon”

  1. I needed a fair bit of help from Google to solve this – new for me were DJANGO REINHARDT, ZIDANE, ERYMANTHIAN BOAR, CAESIUM.

    My favourite was UFFIZI.

    I needed help to parse 10a, 17a, 22a – which I solved more due to knowledge of Italian than English!

    Thanks Picaroon and manehi.

  2. Thanks manehi and Picaroon.
    This was tough, not having heard of 1 and 8; thanks for parsing 7d and 22a. 27a was amusing, and a lot of other clues to like.

  3. Held up in the NE corner by UFFIZI (nice clue) and that ‘Labour’s beast…’, yet another one from the past that I couldn’t remember. Lots to enjoy including the obvious 27a, CORONATION, OSSA and the surface for INIQUITY.

    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi.

  4. Thanks Picaroon and manehi-interesting that Mossad and Uzi are old friends.Great puzzle.

  5. Got most of the bottom half (though without parsing OSSA 22a), but failed miserably on the two long clues and the top half. I had heard of 1d DJANGO REINHARDT and think I still have a vinyl somewhere in storage where he plays with Stephane Grapelli, so am ashamed to miss that one – but very distracted by memories of The Clash and tried to fit “skinheads” as the second word. The Labours of Hercules have gone to the place in my brain that is inaccessible, even though I do remember the Cleaning of the Augean Stables for some reason. I am still kicking myself for missing “PSYCHO” at 5d: such a memorable Hitchcock!

    The explanations were really appreciated and I could see this was a clever crossword. Thank you to manehi for the parsing and to Picaroon for the challenge, which though it beat me on the day, I still enjoyed. Favourites were the the afore-mentioned 27a WONDERBRA (just sorry it wasn’t a lift and separate clue ?), and 18d TEST TUBE (knowing the UK name for the underground pleased me as I was not at all familiar with 9a JOHN LEWIS – the store or the spin-off series).

  6. Thanks Picaroon and manehi

    Tough, with INFER, OSSA, UFFIZI and SPARTANS entered from definition alone (I never got away from your blind alley on the latter, manehi!). I didn’t understand “dips” in 4d either – it seems a bit odd as an inclusion indicator.

    Lots to like, with JOHN LEWIS and WONDERBRA particular favourites.

  7. Thanks for a great blog, manehi, especially the parsing of UFFIZI.

    I agree with your favourites [plus some more] but the absolute tops for me today were 8 and 9dn for both construction and surface. Of course I laughed at WONDERBRA – and loved your quip, Julie. 😉

    Yesterday, Andrew said how difficult it was to find something new to say about Rufus. I’m in the same boat with Picaroon. Every time, I think he can’t possibly keep it up – and, every time, he just does.

    Huge thanks to him for a super start to the day.

  8. [btw UFFIZI just means “offices”. It was the offices from which the Florentine state was run long before it was a gallery. The Vasari Corridor was built so that the Duke could walk from the Pitti Palace (where they lived at the time) to the Uffizi without having to go outside.]

  9. Muffin @8. We learned this the hard way, when we went (from France) on a cultural trip to Florence. The second morning’s program was a visit to the “Galérie des Offices”. We chose to skip this and go to the Uffizi instead. Imagine our embarassment when we latched on to the rest of the party…

  10. 1d was too obscure (the only guitarists who come to mind are Segovia and Julian Bream), and pretty well impossible to crack as an anagram even with all the crossings. Otherwise, a fair and enjoyable solve. Thanks, Picaroon and manehi.

  12. Terrific puzzle but i was defeated by labour’s beast – no Bolsover here – and ossa. I thought neoliberal and caesium were great clues, as were most , with quite a lot of musical references.

  13. Thanks Eileen@7 it was pretty corny but I just couldn’t resist the lift and separate reference. Can’t even recall which advertising campaign that was a part of – can you?
    Thanks, muffin@11 – we were clearly on the same wavelength there regarding the punk scene.

  15. Ian SW3@10: These long anagrams are always near impossible for me, but I got 1D purely on the J and didn’t even bother trying to unpick it as the solution was obvious. Obscurity is in the eye of the beholder. I’m often flummoxed by cricketing terminology (SLEDGES was a recent one) and couldn’t get the Blasted Boar either, so I commiserate.

  16. Thank you Picaroon and manehi.

    A great puzzle, it would have made a good Prize. I found the parsing harder than the ‘solving’, most answers went in from the definition and the crossers – except for 8d which I had to google, after entering BOAR, to find the correct spelling of ERYMANTHIAN – I had forgotten most the labours of Hercules.

  17. I found this fairly tough and in the end I had to admit defeat in the NE corner. Enjoyable nonetheless and my thanks go to Picaroon and manehi (in particular for the parsing of SPARTANS which I had solved but not fully understood!)

  18. Thanks Picaroon and manehi.

    I didn’t know the BOAR, which made life a bit difficult – don’t hold back about May! The WONDERBRA is NON-IRON, so they tell me. I remember the old nylon drip-dry, non-iron shirts, horrible!

    Clever to get Joe Strummer into the clue for 1d.

    I liked JOHN LEWIS, even though I tried to fit loo into the answer.

  19. Like poc @15, I got 1 purely on the J. In contrast, I needed my anagram solver to get ERYMANTHIAN BOAR – a new one for me. The full parsing of UFFIZI beat me too.

    A good puzzle and blog. Thanks to Picaroon and manehi.

  20. I had this long list of letters at 8d none of which helped with DENNIS SKINNER, BOLSOVER and the like. With big blank spaces in the top half and lunchtime approaching, I confess to checking the Labours of Hercules on Wikipaedia and looking for a BEAR. I bet I’m not the only one.

    I didn’t think that little cheat would be enough on its own but it was. The empty 14a ended in N, so could that be something-NATION? It was, and then 5d ended in C?O, so the def wasn’t ‘horridly’ but must be ‘film’. And so on. But this was tougher than recent Picaroons, I fancy.

    Mind you, UFFIZI was lightly inked-in just in case. I saw that UZI = arm and the I for Italian, but when = IF? Is it just me? ‘When’ something happens, it’s definite; ‘if’ something happens, it’s maybe.

  21. Thanks Picaroon and manehi

    Trailman @ 20: think algebra or computer coding: ‘IF X = Y’ is the same as ‘WHEN X = Y’.

    hth

  23. Feeling a tad miffed about 14 across which confuses investment with investiture. Didn’t that bother anyone else?

  26. Quite a workout and couldn’t parse SPARTANS but a great puzzle as always from Picaroon. Favourites were SWAN SONG, CORONATION and the two long ones. Many thanks to P and m.

  28. Mostly fair, I thought. 1D was first in, had trained myself not to be misled by Joe’s surname and Django was the first to come to mind before I worked out exactly where the letters came from!

    8D was clearly one of Hercules’ labours and that was as far as I was going to ‘get’ so Google was fair game.

    7D – Uffizi is new to me – was trying to shoehorn in the more Anglophone ‘office’!

    14A – unsure how a coronation is an investment?

  29. Thanks to Picaroon and manehi

    A toughie – I eventually had to Google 8dn. But some nice clues along the way.

    I confess I was feeling a bit sniffy about the use of brand names, despite being a typical 9ac customer. But it was worth it just to get Julie @5’s lovely comment on 27ac.

  30. Entertaining and imaginative, but pretty tough for a Tuesday. Loved the ERYMATHIAN BOAR. WIREHAIR was unfamiliar but guessable.

    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi

  31. Thanks to Picaroon and manehi. I got UFFIZI, dredged up ERYMANTHIAN BOAR (but not the correct spelling), and knew TWIN TUB from previous puzzles, but could not parse SPARTANS – and both JOHN LEWIS and DJANGO REINHARDT were new to me. For me a challenge but enjoyable.

  32. Tough but gettable with a laugh when we slotted in 13a as our last one in.
    Thanks to everyone.

  33. Manehi, at 17a a scratch golfer has a handicap of zero. A beginner who has not competed often enough has no handicap.

  34. Julie @5

    If you want a lift-and-separate clue for that branded women’s-wear, how about this?

    “Brown bread crumbled without blackbirds’ upfront support (9)”

    Or is that also a bit corny?

  35. Quite tricky but rather good. Is DJANGO REINHARDT obscure? I would have thought he was in the common knowledge category and as 1dn was obviously a guitarist—-. Nice crosser with JOHN LEWIS-at least for smug jazzers! Mind you, I had to refer to Mr Google for 1dn and had to guess SPARTANS. Loved OSSA, OWLS and WONDERBRA. LOI was ICED which I couldn’t see for ages.
    Thanks Picaroon.

  37. Late to the party, as I often am these days.

    Like someone else said, the bottom half was easy enough. DJANGO REINHARDT I knew from the Woody Allen film about (er, more like “about”) him. For the ERYMANTHIAN BOAR, I figured from context and sheer length that it had to be one of the labors of Hercules, so I went and looked up what those were.

    But I deeply object to clues of the type presented by 9-across. You have to know who LEWIS as a detective is, AND you have to know that there is a retail chain called JOHN LEWIS. As I’m an American who’s not really into detective fiction, this clue was, for a long time for me, “John somebody.” Further, both ways of cluing the “Lewis” half of the clue are as an undigested proper name. Be cleverer! An anagram of “wiles,” perhaps? “I slew?” The French fantasy, interrupted (“le wish”)? Boo.

    I also didn’t get OWLS, but that one I blame on me.

  38. mrpenney @37
    JOHN LEWIS was one of my two favourite clues today, but I must agree with you that it was unusually parochial 🙂

  40. Must confess to having cheated on 1d because my knowledge of music is limited to Vera Lynn and the Beatles. Obviously that is down to me, not Picaroon. This was an excellent puzzle, soundly clued throughout.

    Many thanks to setter and blogger.

  41. Great alternative clue for 27a, Alan B@34. Loved the blackbirds’ bread crumbs!

  43. Rompiballe @42
    Although you might bemoan it, “gift” is often used as a verb – e.g. “they were gifted that goal”.

  44. mrpenney @37 your objection would have more weight if “john” weren’t an American word for a convenience, so you did have some advantage in the clueing over those of us on the other side of the Atlantic. The parochialism of the clue might be excused if it were understood that here in the UK three of the defining characteristics of a certain social class are reading the Guardian newspaper, shopping at John Lewis (and its sister supermarket Waitrose) and only admitting ever to having watched the ITV channel to see Inspector Morse (featuring Lewis).

  45. Julie @41
    Thanks. I don’t of course claim my clue is any better than Picaroon’s – I just wanted to meet the challenge of creating a lift-and-separate clue! Some solvers might even find my effort too non-PC.

  46. Most commenters seem to have had to resort to Google or other help which puts me, as someone who believes in doing the crossword on paper without help, at a disadvantage. If you haven’t got crossers how many would know that neoliberal = Thatcherite?

  47. Pino @46
    I take your point, but what else could the anagram be? (I must confess that Thatcherite and neoliberal didn’t seem to be all that close to me; I thought that perhaps the setter was being ironic!)

  48. Muffin@47. Having done some Googling I found an article by George Monbiot in The Guardian on November 16 last year blaming the rise of Trump on Mrs T and her espousal of the neoliberal theories of Hayek. I’m afraid I had forgotten it. Google suggests too that neoliberalism and neoconservativism are the same insofar as they both involve a belief in the free market economy. I don’t know why but this seems weird to me.

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