The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27560.
It soon became obvious that this puzzzle was brought to you by the letter J – it’s there in every answer. Composing the puzzle with sensible clues is a tour de force of the highest magnitude. From the solver’s perspective, it might or might not come across as so impressive. The number of times that J appears was soon obvious, and quickly became an aid to solving. Yet, for me at least, it did not descend to anything like a write-in, and I am left in awe of Picaroon’s dexterity and inventiveness.
| Across | ||
| 5 | JUICER | Old magistrate drops stone in kitchen appliance (6) |
| A subtraction: JU[st]ICER (‘old magistrate’) minus the ST (‘drops stone’). | ||
| 6 | JOLENE | Dolly’s hit one boy embracing another (6) |
| An envelope (’embracing’) of LEN (‘another’ boy) in JOE (‘one boy’). My first thought was a cricketing reference to Basil D’Olivera, but it turns out to be an album and its title song by Dolly Parton. | ||
| 9 | RIOJAS | Onset of jitters, because on port wines (6) |
| A charade of RIO (‘port’) plus J (‘onset of Jitters’) plus AS (‘because’). | ||
| 10 | RAJASHIP | Society not fully open about joint ruler’s rank (8) |
| A charade of RAJAS, a reversal (‘about’) of S (‘society’) plus AJAR (‘not fully open’); plus HIP (‘joint’). | ||
| 11 | JOLT | Leader of Labour’s in touch? That’s a shock (4) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of L (‘leader of Labour’) in JOT (‘touch’, small quantity). | ||
| 12 | MAJESTICAL | Superb, enchanting joke’s swapped for £1,000 (10) |
| MA[g]ICAL (‘enchanting’) with the G (‘£1,000’) exchanged for (‘swapped out’) JEST (‘joke’). | ||
| 13 | OUTJOCKEYED | Expose sporty American observed getting tricked (11) |
| A charade of OUT (verb, ‘expose’) plus JOCK (‘sporty American’) plus EYED (‘observed’). | ||
| 18 | FORJUDGING | Taking rights away from obscure fellow mostly faking clothes (10) |
| An envelope (‘clothes’) pf JUD[e] (‘obscure fellow’, the reference being to the novel by Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure) minus the last letter (‘mostly’) in FORGING (‘faking’). Surprisingly, the definition is just as the clue says, | ||
| 21 | JUNK | Horse which is valueless (4) |
| Double definition, the first being a reference to heroin. | ||
| 22 | JUMBOISE | At work, I muse job is to expand (8) |
| An anagram (‘at work’) of ‘I muse job’. A coinage, obvious if not attractive, applied particularly to a ship stretched by adding an extra section amidships. | ||
| 23 | JAIPUR | Magistrate touring great old city, one in India (6) |
| A charade of JAIP, an envelope (‘touring’) of AI (A1, ‘great’) in JP (Justice of the Peace, ‘magistrate’); plus UR (‘old city’). Irrelevant to the clue. but Ai is also an old city, mentioned in the Book of Joshua. | ||
| 24 | DEEJAY | River bird’s a source of music (6) |
| A charade of DEE (‘river’) plus JAY (‘bird’). | ||
| 25 | JEREMY | In France, setter’s with man — a left-wing leader (6) |
| A charade of JE (French for I, ‘in France, setter’) plus RÉMY (still across the channel, ‘man’ – a French man’s name), with the definition referring to Jeremy Corbyn, the current Labour leader. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | NINJUTSU | Erotic writer stands out for everyone in Asian art (8) |
| A charade of NIN (Anaïs, ‘erotic writer’) plus JUTS (‘stands out’) plus U (film certification, ‘for everyone’). The art is, of course, martial. | ||
| 2 | JETSAM | Jack and mates scrapped this? (6) |
| A charade of J (‘jack’) plus ETSAM, an anagram (‘scrapped this’) of ‘mates’, with an &lit definition. | ||
| 3 | MOT JUSTE | What writer seeks, only in small quantity (3,5) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of JUST (‘only’) in MOTE (‘small quantity’). | ||
| 4 | JET SKI | Vehicle, facetiously a Russian plane? (3,3) |
| A jocular reference to the well-known Russian suffix -SKI. | ||
| 5 | JAILOR | Vessel smuggling crude oil — it’s an inside job (6) |
| An envelope (‘smuggling’) of IOL, an anagram (‘crude’) of ‘oil’ in JAR (‘vessel’). The ‘inside’ is a prison. | ||
| 7 | ELIJAH | Prophet and pilgrim the French sent to heaven (6) |
| A reversal (‘sent to heaven’ in a down light) of HAJI (‘pilgrim’ to Mecca) plus LE (‘the French’). | ||
| 8 | PROJECTILES | Scheme with lies when playing darts, say (11) |
| A charade of PROJECT (‘scheme’) plus ILES, an anagram (‘when playing’) of ‘lies’. | ||
| 14 | JUDAICAL | One abandons legal binding area of belief (8) |
| An envelope (‘binding’) of A (‘area’) in JUDIC[i]AL (‘legal’) minus an I (‘one abandons’). | ||
| 15 | ENJOINED | Ordered woodworker to cut back in last stage (8) |
| An envelope (in’) of JOINE[r] (‘woodworker’) minus the last letter (‘cut back’) in END (‘last stage’). | ||
| 16 | JOCUND | Sunny and warm month, day keeping nothing cold (6) |
| An envelope (‘keeping’) of O (‘nothing’) plus C (‘cold’) in JUN (June, “month’; one might hopefully add ‘warm’ or ‘sunny and warm’ to the definition) plus D (‘day’). | ||
| 17 | INJURY | Hurt like one deliberating over case (6) |
| IN JURY (‘one deliberating over case’). | ||
| 19 | JABBER | Person who punches rabbit (6) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 20 | GI JOES | Soldiers thus dance around, full of energy (2,4) |
| An envelope (‘full of’) of E (‘energy’) in GIJOS, a reversal (‘around’) of SO (‘thus’) plus JIG (‘dance’). | ||
A very impressive compiling feat! Has this idea been used much before? It certainly made it easier to solve but still good fun. Thanks Picaroon and PeterO
Wow, this took some doing! Enjoyed the exercise though – Picaroon’s surfaces always make such good reading and compensate for anything I might find obscure. Many thanks to him.
Special thanks to PeterO too. I really appreciated (and needed!) your help with parsing today.
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO
I much admired rather than enjoyed this. Favourites were MOT JUSTE and PROJECTILES.
I didn’t know FORJUDGING, JUMBOISE or NINJUTSU but was able to work them out from the clues, which were therefore good ones.
(NIN was my second thought for the “erotic writer”, having failed to work “James” in!)
Absolutely amazing! I tried to shoehorn in JIUJUTSU, missing NINJUTSU. Favourites included MOT JUSTE, ELIJAH and GI JOES. Many thanks to Picaroon and PeterO.
I think I may have (over the last 40 odd years) had a rare sighting of a crossword like this with a particular letter in every clue but crosswords like this are definitely a rarity Even though, after a while, you are looking for words with a J in them, the clues certainly made you work to find out which particular word would fit both the clue and the lights.
Thanks to Picaroon for a wonderfully special start to Friday morning and to PeterO for the explanations
Thanks PeterO, and Picaroon for IMO the best puzzle for some time.
Usually I can’t be bothered to look for embellishments such as hidden themes, pangrams, ninas etc., but in this case it was not only obvious but added to my enjoyment, and to my admiration for the setter.
I needed PeterO’s help to parse MAJESTICAL, and confess to a dictionary search for ninja-related words to find NINJUTSU; with hindsight I really should have seen both of them myself.
Thanks PeterO for the blog and Picaroon for a tour de force, which I found greatly challenging.
For once, my paraskevidekatriaphobia proved to be justified.
A cut above, as usual. The Js help, but only enough to bring what is quite a tricky set of solutions back within normal solving range.
Old Tom @1
There was an X puzzle (or was it Z?) along the same lines from Picaroon not too long ago.
Thanks Picaroon, PeterO
Like crypticsue, I reckon I’ve seen something similar over the years but, of course, J is a particularly awkward letter to deal with, which makes this tour de force even more impressive.
I’ve learned some new words, gettable, as others have said, from the meticulous cluing, along with, as June says @2, the usual splendid surfaces.
Once again, I’m with crypticsue @6 – a wonderfully special start to Friday morning! Many thanks to Picaroon and PeterO.
Hi everyone,
Many thanks to PeterO for his customarily excellent blog.
Rather unusually, I find myself with a bit of time today, so if anyone fancies asking a question about crosswords or crossword setting, then please do post it and I’ll pop in later and try to answer as best I can.
Thank you P ‘n’ P. This took me much longer to complete than any recent puzzle despite seeing the Jolly Jape early on. I blame worse-than usual-insomnia last night, as even the more unlikely answers (JUMBOISE, NINJUTSU…) were quite gettable from the wordplay.
A lovely balance – (Jude the) obscure words but fairly clued especially with the knowledge there’d be a J in there somewhere. The first few I wrote in all began with J which made me wonder if they all would, but even so this is an heroic feat. Thank you Pic and Pete. I struggled to parse the “nin” part so will add to my list, and a few were parsed after filling in, like Elijah and Riojas, but also plenty of tea trays like deejay and jetski. Not sure if I should be happy or disappointed that Jolene was my first one in! Nice balance of techniques and great surfaces too.
Excellent crossword. It really made me think. Just what a crossword should do.Jay-mendous! Many thanks Picaroon and PeterO
Phew, no write-ins from the pirate even with the Js, as PeterO says. Being slow, I’d done about ten in the NW and SE and still hadn’t twigged. Having Jogpur at 23a didn’t help, nor did biffing Parton at 6a (Pat and Ron somehow entwined), both later corrected. But I couldn’t work out 10a, so, sadly, a dnf.
Thanks PeterO for the blog and Picaroon for the impressive inventiveness.
I really enjoyed this one – a very impressive gridfill and nothing unfair about the clueing, with a few educational solutions. Still pretty tricky in places even though the Js helped a lot. NINJUTSU was last in and least familiar. A little reminiscent of the prize puzzle he did that coincided with last year’s York S&B, which I think is the one James @9 alludes to (puzzle number 27340).
Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO
I think it’s all been said. I can only add my admiration.
Thanks P&P
Wonderful puzzle. Many thanks to Picaroon & Peter O and nice weekend to all
Thank you Picaroon and PeterO.
It being Friday the 13th, Judas Iscariot and Jacques de Molay (Grand Master of the Knights Templar who was arrested on such a day and burnt to death) come to mind.
A terrific feat, I managed to get most of the answers from their clues, but did not complete some of the parsing.
I looked at the top of the page to make sure I wasn’t doing the Codeword by mistake. A fantastic feat by Picaroon, and well done, Peter 0: my thanks to both.
Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO. Impressive. A jolly jaunt through the Js. I caught on early but had the same problems already mentioned, especially with JUMBOISE and NINJUTSU.
This was really really hard but I loved all the Js!!!
In days of old I’d have had a J to celebrate this but now i dont even smoke salmon!
But a Youngs London Ale was certainly called for.
Do you call this a Jackagram? (yep its time for bed!)
Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO. Wow I found this impressive but also very tough going. Nearly gave up a few times. However a DNF for me because I had kinjutsu (forbidden techniques) for 1d. That said still an enjoyable solve and pleased to have nearly got there. Jolene made me smile when the penny dropped and thanks again to Picaroon and PeterO.
Exactly what PeterO said in his summary. To compile and then clue without sacrificing the quality of the clues or making it a write in once the ‘J’ enny dropped is indeed a master stroke. Glad you re popping in again Picaroon. Chapeau!
Initially I couldn’t get started. Put it down for a while and then got a few. Spotted the Js early which helped. I still struggled on many of them. As most have said, a top job from both setter and blogger. Thank you both!
One thing. GI JOES. Shouldn’t that be 1.1.4 not 2.4? Or is it standard practise to count the initials as a single word? I actually guessed it early (remembering my childhood Action Man was called GI Joe Stateside) but rejected it for that reason.
What beaulieu said @7. A brilliant piece of setting!
Great achievement of compilation. Some obscure words, but knowing there would be a J made it easier.
It brought back happy memories of the Araucaria April 1st alphabetical jigsaw in which every crosser was an A.
Terrific puzzle. I had JIUJITSU, thinking there must be some erotic writer I hadn’t come across in there somewhere. I should have realised that two Js in one word wouldn’t have fitted the pattern.
Superb. As often, I decided early on that I wasn’t going to get far with this.Then the ‘J’s started breaking through like sun rays dissolving a morning fog (simile cont. p.95)…
I, carelessly, misspelt “Joleen”, so didn’t get ELIJAH. Also didn’t get JUDAICAL.
Thanks to Picaroon, PeterO and all.
Not my cup of tea. Only got two answers and it’s getting late so I’m giving up. And, looking at the answers, I’m not surprised I had trouble.
A struggle indeed even when the J penny dropped. Picaroon is one of my favourite setters but I found this one to admire rather than enjoy (like muffin I think) although Mrs W played a blinder and was obviously on P’s wavelength and thought I was being uncharitable in my assessment of it because of my difficulty in making progress – and she’s right. Definitely a victory for the pirate – many thanks to him and PeterO for help with parsing (and thanks also to the check button!).
Ha ha! I remember noticing yesterday that Paul’s puzzle had an unusually large number of “J” words in it: Juno, jump jet, jigsaw, demijohn. But then we got this gem (jem?) today from Picaroon, which soars to Olympian heights (or maybe I should say Jungfrau?) in the J department. Great fun — definitely my jorum of lush! In addition to the amazing feat of getting one J, no more and no less, into every answer, Picaroon provided some great surfaces, a great &lit (JETSAM, which was CotD for me), and — sorry that this involves a letter other than J — the latest appearance of one of The Three Most Important Rivers etc. in 24ac. [Speaking of letters other than J, JABBER, which was also one of my favorites today, instantly made me think of the actor Mr. T, whose character on the 1980s U.S. TV show, “The A Team”, had a popular catchphrase: “Quit your jibber-jabber!”]
And so I shall. Many thanks to Picaroon and PeterO and the other commenters. Another great week of puzzles. Wishing a nice weekend to all.
Great blog on a “jam-packed with Js” puzzle, Everyone!
[Ha ha, copmus@14. Do you know the version of Dolly’s “JOLENE” by Aussie band The Wilson Pickers? It’s my favourite… (Tried to paste a link but it didn’t work)]
I knew you would fit in “jorum” to your post somehow, DaveMc@32,]
I was late to get started on this. muffin found the words for me (as also for WhiteKing, I see) in describing this as something to admire rather than enjoy. It was a bit of a slog at times, but there was one happy moment early on when the answers in the NE (i.e. my only answers!) all had a ‘J’ in them, and that fact definitely helped with PROJECTILES and MAJESTICAL, and more besides.
It’s a pity I am late to pick up Picaroon’s interesting comment. I did have a query about the device used in MAJESTICAL, in which G is swapped for JEST. But the clue says “joke’s swapped for £1,000”. I was looking for a word with a joke in it, in which I would replace the joke (JEST) with G. This could be called a misdirection, but was it fair?
No complaints, though. I baulked a bit at JEREMY for ‘a left-wing leader’ and AI for ‘great’ in JAIPUR, but some clues I particuarly enjoyed: JOLENE, NINJUTSU, JUICER, JABBER and JET SKI.
Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO.
Thanks both,
A brilliant puzzle that was much enjoyed. I was being ‘helped’ by the grandchildren (6&3) while doing some of this, so my street cred was on the line. Fortunately the penny dropped but I never got Ninjutsu. I did think of Nin, but couldn’t finagle Anais into the clue and moved on.