Guardian Cryptic 27,521 by Picaroon

by

A fun and tricky solve with a lot of parsing still to do at the end.

There’s a theme around underwear, with a self-referential nod at 26ac THEMATIC. Favourites were 8/22 and 2dn. Thanks to Picaroon.

Across
8, 22 down LONG JOHN SILVER 9, vile 9, are reportedly for literary villain (4,4,6)
=villain in Treasure Island
“9”=>PANTS=LONG JOHNS; plus (vile)* with anagrind “9”=>PANTS; plus R the letter pronounced/”reportedly” like “are”
9 PANTS Criticise poet, initially rubbish (5)
PAN=”Criticise”, plus TS the initials of poet TS Eliot
10 BODY Son clothing daughter in female clothing (4)
=a bodice; or a bodysuit
BOY=”Son” around Daughter
11 EVERGREENS Woman with recipe with health food plants (10)
EVE=”Woman” with Recipe and GREENS=”health food”
12 SMALLS Walk between bodyguards in 9 etc (6)
=underwear
MALL=”Walk” inside Secret Service=”bodyguards”
14 TEAMSTER Group mostly behind driver (8)
TEAM=”Group” plus STERn=”mostly behind”
15 INQUIRE Seek information between the sheets? (7)
a quire is a stack of paper, so IN  QUIRE=in “between the sheets?”
17 THRILLS Kicks horse covered in ornaments (7)
Heroin=”horse” inside TRILLS
20 KNICKERS £1,000 gets special 18 (8)
Kilo=”1,000″, NICKER=a pound=”£”, plus Special
22 SATINY Perhaps like 18‘s attractiveness and like 12? (6)
Sex Appeal=”attractiveness”; plus TINY=like SMALLS – Edit thanks to Andrew
the S from “18′s“; plus the head or “ness” of Attractive/ness; plus TINY=like SMALLS
23 LINSEED OIL Sell iodine, perhaps, as a substance in paint (7,3)
(Sell iodine)*
24 BEEP Electronic sound in live record (4)
BE=”live” plus EP=music “record”
25 ALONG Only having left back and German forward (5)
ALONe=”Only” with the “back” letter e gone or “left; plus German
26 THEMATIC Like unmentionables here in broadcast chat item (8)
(chat item)*
Down
1 MOTORMAN Driver‘s grumble around peak months (8)
MOAN=”grumble” around TOR=”peak” and Months
2 UGLY Nasty thug, lying, is leaving thing out (4)
thUG LYing leaving thing out
3 BOXERS Sportsmen‘s 9 (6)
double definition, the second referring to underwear
4 INVESTS What backer does wearing 12 (7)
IN VESTS=wearing SMALLS
5 EPIGRAPH What entertains slob, kind of music quote? (8)
EH?=”What?” around PIG=”slob” and RAP=”kind of music”
6 UNDERSKIRT Kid returns tight item of 18 (10)
(Kid returns)*, with anagrind “tight” as in ‘drunk’
7 USANCE Country church accepts new time to pay foreign bills (6)
=the allowable period for the payment of international bills
USA=”Country” and CE=”church” of England; around New
13 LAUNCESTON Tasmanian city throws heavyweight out of hotel (10)
LAUNChES  TON=”throws heavy/weight”, losing hotel
16 RE-EMERGE Troops needing European ally to appear again (2-6)
Royal Engineers=”Troops”, plus European and MERGE=”ally” as a verb
18 LINGERIE Remain with Roman that is in 9 etc (8)
LINGER=”Remain” plus IE=id est=Roman/Latin for “that is”
19 ESCORTS Types on internet, penning chapter for partners (7)
SORTS=”Types”, with “on internet” giving the E- prefix for ‘electronic’ as in e-mail; all around Chapter
21 NAIRAS Iran’s foolishly investing a currency abroad (6)
the naira is the Nigerian currency
(Iran’s)* around A
22   See 8
24 BRAS Some 18 a lot of money (4)
most of the word BRASs which is slang for “money”

48 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,521 by Picaroon”

  1. Thanks Picaroon and manehi

    This looked daunting at first sight, but I got in “backwards” – a couple of crossers and the enumeration allowed my to gues LONG JOHN SILVER, from which I got the PANTS, then all went smoothly.

    Very clever and enjoyable!

  2. Thanks manehi. This was good fun – THEMATIC was my first, er, thematic answer, so that put me on the lookout for unmentionables elsewhere.

    I thought the SA of SATINY was just the familiar Sex Appeal (= attractiveness), thought your explanation is certainly ingenious.

  3. I was tempted to give up on this but I persevered and sometimes used the check button.

    New words for me were NAIRAS, USANCE.

    I could not parse 8/22 apart from the LONGJOHNS, nor 20a as I did not know that NICKER = pound.

    Thanks manehi and Picaroon.

  4. V much agree with Andrew re the parsing of 22ac – that is a more convincing explanation.  (At first I thought it was “as” for “like” but reversed – though as there was no indication for a reversal I was still scratching my head.)  Re 21ac – I do not buy the plural – one does not say “x many nairas” one would says” x many naira”.  Agree with others that this crossie is prize-worthy; thanks v much to blogger and setter

  5. This was a fun start to the day. Liked pants and Long John Silver. New words in Naira and Launceston…though have just been to the Cornish town which helped a lucky guess. Hadn’t heard of motorman, but it sounds logical, and may have to start calling keen surfers ‘e-sorts’.
    Will file ‘tight’ as an anagrind indicator for future use.
    Thanks to manehi and Picaroon for the entertainment.

  7. Lots of fun. Got a bit stuck in the NW corner towards the end. Like Michelle @ 3 hadn’t heard of USANCE. Favourites were THRILLS, KNICKERS and LONG JOHN SILVER. Many thanks to P & m.

  10. Thank you Picaroon and manehi.

    LONG JOHN SILVER went straight in from the letter count, then PANTS which enabled me to parse it, but the rest followed very slowly. It certainly would have made a good Prize!

  11. Drofle @ 3

    ditto – i was about to give up on the NW corner but I kept on trying and was able to finish

  12. Thanks manehi and Picaroon.

    I took the bodyguards in 12a to refer to the Nazi SS, Hitler’s bodyguards.

  13. Thanks to Picaroon and manehi. Another who nearly gave up on this but persevered and got there in the end I (though I am not sure how). Three quarters went in quite readily and even I could not miss the theme. I got stuck in the NE mainly because I could not parse pants to my satisfaction and had never heard of usance. Last two were usance and satiny (unparsed). That said still enjoyable with some tricky parsing. I liked inquire, epigraph and thrills. I am sure we have seen nairas quite recently in another puzzle and thanks again to Picaroon and manehi.

  14. I see that the Captcha has disappeared from the foot of the page. Saves me having to think what 1 + 1 is.

  16. PetHay @13

    NAIRA was in Puck’s Prize puzzle last month: ‘Writing up article about show in African capital (5)’

  17. NAIRAS was new to me, but knowing USANCE from Shakespeare helped with that one.
    This was my least enjoyable Picaroon because I felt that it was somewhat smothered by the theme. However, it was still a very good crossword with some excellent clues, like LONG JOHN SILVER and UNDERSKIRT. I thought ALONG and LAUNCESTON were a bit clunky.
    Thanks to Picaroon and Manehi.

  18. I’m with AlanB@17 in not finding this one of Picaroon’s best – it just felt a bit forced and without the lightness of touch I’ve enjoyed in his previous puzzles. Like Andrew@2 my foi was THEMATIC and without the theme this would have been even more of a struggle, although I did spend some time trying to parse THONG for 25 with O and G in. NAIRAS was 2nd to loi when I remembered it from a recent puzzle (thanks Eileen@16). Going back and forth through the alphabet eventually got BOXERS as our loi – although it was one of the simplest clues with hindsight. Favourites were THRILLS as the horse reference had me thinking of kicks as a verb and LINGERIE for the “Roman that is” – very neat.
    It was certainly a giant step up in difficulty from yesterday – thanks to Picaroon and manehi.

  19. Entertaining but pretty tricky, particularly for the day after a holiday. A fine puzzle, perhaps better suited to the prize slot.

    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi

  20. Thanks to PIcaroon and manehi. I’m another who got off to a very slow start, but LONG JOHN SILVER jumped out at me and got me going. I knew USANCE but not NAIRAS and LAUNCESTON and needed help parsing SATINY and KNICKERS (“nicker” was also new to me). I got BODY but did not get the link to bodice. BOXERS was my LOI (even with all the crossers). Nonetheless, I enjoyed this puzzle.

  21. Thanks to Picaroon for an amusing theme and manehi for a helpful blog.  There were several I couldn’t parse and others I hadn’t heard of — the ones others said plus BODY, which I hadn’t met as women’s clothing before, and ALONG — I didn’t think of ALONE.  I got LONG JOHN SILVER straight off, which didn’t help a bit.

    NICKER = “pounds,” not “a pound”, rather like TerriBlislow’s point @4 about NAIRA/

  22. LONG JOHN SILVER was a write in, as was LINSEED OIL but then things went very quiet on the solving front even when PANTS finally emerged. The latter helped though and the puzzle gradually unravelled. USANCE was LOI and,to my shame,BOXERS was very late in. Very tricky and I wouldn’t say my parsing was impeccable throughout. Still,a well constructed puzzle.
    Thanks Picaroon

  24. Oh dear. Far too hard for me. Clues like 5 or 11 are unreasonable in my view. “Eh” is not always “what” in crosswords (even Picaroon’s); and “rap” = “a kind of music” is a stretch too far.

    Still, glad some of you enjoyed it. And thanks for the blog.

  25. Eileen@16 thanks I thought I recognised it. Did not know it the first time but certainly did this time. That is the beauty of doing crosswords, increased vocabulary almost daily.

  26. I enjoyed this.  I thought the theme gateways 9 and 18 held out quite well.  Like most people, I got LONG JOHN SILVER from the enumeration alone and, in fact, forgot to go back and parse it at the end!  I thought the definition was too generous.  Perhaps something like “for Picaroon?” could have been used instead, for added misdirection.

    I failed to parse KNICKERS properly (couldn’t remember how to spell nicker).  I was pleased to derive LAUNCESTON from the wordplay.  I also parsed SS in SMALLS as the German version.  Last in was USANCE (couldn’t think of the country despite living there!).

    Thanks, Pickers and manehi.

  27. Interesting that 3 of us (at least) had BOXERS as our loi. I wonder what it is that made what was with hindsight obvious, difficult? Here’s my theory – there are lots of words we think of before we think of those with “rare” letters like X in, and it’s only as a mental last resort that we put any effort into considering these more remote possibilities. Our brains are designed to be efficient data processors and go for the familiar before the obscure. I’d be interested in any other theories.

    I also thought the UGLY clue was a new way of hiding a word – or at least one I hadn’t seen before.

    And lastly I haven’t seen any post from Laccaria for some time, and I hope he is away rather than choosing not to contribute after the recent posts which were called out by Lord Jim (I think) and others. We all have our own styles and I would like to see him back as he is a thoughtful and constructive contributor. To plagiarise the mis-attributed Voltaire quote “I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Ok, maybe to the death is a bit over the top for a crossword puzzle discussion!

  28. Fun puzzle!  I enjoyed the theme.  I needed some Google assistance to confirm LAUNCESTON, NAIRAS, USANCE, and the “nicker” needed to parse KNICKERS.  Favorites today included EPIGRAPH, BEEP, and SATINY, and my CotD was LONG JOHN SILVER.  Favorite TILT (Thing I Learned Today) was reading a bit of the Wikipedia entry for Launceston.

    Many thanks to Picaroon and manehi and the other commenters.

  29. Tough but fun. DNF but got a fair way through.

    I agree with jvh @12 about SS – that’s what immediately came to mind for me.

  30. WhiteKing @27

    That’s an interesting observation you made about BOXERS.  After a few years’ experience of Guardian crosswords I have found that the simplest types of clue are almost always the most difficult to solve.  (As well as crossers, I need something to ‘get my teeth into’, i.e. to deconstruct and work out.)  So although you thought the clue seemed ‘obvious’ I didn’t see it that way.

    However, I got lucky with this particular (Rufusian?) clue.  When I had just the ‘O’ and the ‘S’ of BOXERS I couldn’t get it, but when I got the ‘E’ I got it very quickly.  That was partly because I decided to concentrate first on a ‘double definition’ construction for the clue rather than a ‘cryptic definition’.  (And that was only because a DD would make it a better quality clue than a CD in this instance.)  Also, I focused on ‘sportsmen’ in preference to ‘pants’ because ‘pants’ has too many meanings – I used it only to check against a word already found to match ‘sportsmen’.  So in a way it was judgement as well as luck that got me there.

    Thank you for stimulating my interest in this way.  [And we score well on the relevance criterion, do we not?]

  31. Noooo!! Alan B@30 I just typed a response and must have hit a wrong key because it disappeared without appearing here.

    After thanking you it said something like: I agree the simplest clue types are the most difficult as there is less to work with, and it relies on one’s brain finding synonyms in one step. It seems your approach comes before the one I suggested. We did go down the DD for sportsmen route and came up with ROWERS, but the equally well known word with the less common X in took much longer. Indeed it was only when I said to Mrs W “I’m going to 15 squared” that she said “BOXERS” – it works every time as she hates being told the answer 🙂

    Definitely relevant – whether it’s interesting or not is in the eye of the beholder.

  35. Very enjoyable puzzle.   Like others, my last in was BOXERS.   Impressive amount of thematic material.    Chambers dict says both NAIRA and NAIRAS are acceptable as the plural.    Thanks Picaroon and Manehi.

  36. WhiteKing @31

    How galling!  But what you eventually posted (“the simplest clue types are the most difficult as there is less to work with, and it relies on one’s brain finding synonyms in one step”) describes very well how I see and deal with clues like that.  (And I enjoyed reading about your subtle method of forcing an answer out!)

  37. I was intrigued  by the cluing of the well-known [to me, having, decades ago, spent ages passing through it, on holidays to Cornwall] Cornish town as a Tasmanian city that I’ve never heard of. 😉

  38. This feels as a DNF to me, as I had to look at a map of Tasmania to find Launceston (the only Tasmanian city I have heard of is, I’m afraid, Hobart. Like many others, LJS was my FOI, and 7d was my LOI. I happen to have a bunch of Naira (or Nairas) sitting in a drawer that have lost at least half their value since I got them.

  40. Very enjoyable. Being from downunder helped to get  LAUNCESTON first up. (Off topic but relevant?  …. honeymooned there.) Only ever see PANTS used in the sense of the anagram indicator in British cryptics but it comes up often enough.  The thematics were familiar.  BOXERS went in late for me too.  JOCKS came to mind, but one letter short.

    Thanks manehi for the explanation of the final letter R = ‘are’ in Long John Silver. Surprised  there haven’t been more comments here from the rhotic crew. Liked RogerGS’ comment @9. Very funny. A hearrrrty arr to be surrrre!

  41. Trills (17a) = ornaments? We can’t find it in our dictionaries. Frills, yes, but trills? Otherwise a hard but fun solve. Thank you Picaroon and Manehi.

  42. Karen @41

    From Collins under ‘ornament’ – “music Any of several decorations, such as the trill, mordent, etc, occurring chiefly as improvised embellishments in baroque music”.

  43. Karen @41

    OED and SOED also have the “trill” entry describe it as an “ornament”. As does Collins dictionary online.

    I assume you are using the appalling Chambers! It can be used as a doorstop or for pressing flowers so at least it’s not wasted money 🙂

  44. lurkio @43. My Chambers has two separate definitions for trill, so maybe one got left out of yours?

  45. Not a hope for me this one, clearly aimed at the more experienced!

    I need to work on the basis that any word can be abbreviated, even if you can’t imagine it being used. Right, I’m off to make a nigella Lawson ‘R’ , she’s got S A that woman!….is apparently how crossword setters speak/write… 🙂

  46. Thank you Lurkio @43 and Gaufrid @42. Yes, Chamers it was, but the electronic iPad version, which sadly won’t even make a very good doorstop.

  47. After a few attempts we only had 7 answers and couldn’t parse some of those.  For the first time in 30 years we had to look up the rest.

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