Guardian Cryptic 28,906 by Picaroon

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28906.

Quite tricky, and the theme, announced in 3D, was not of much help to me – there are so many rivers worldwide; I had no difficulty identifying the ones that appeared in the across lights, but in no case did one suggest an answer to me.

ACROSS
8 JUVENILE
Minor satirist cutting a line priest rejected (8)
A charade of JUVEN[al] (Roman ‘satirist’) minus A L (‘cutting a line’) plus ILE, a reversal (‘rejected’) of ELI (‘priest’).
9 ENCAMP
Set up accommodation leader spots to the west (6)
A reversal (‘to the west’ in an across light) of PM (Prime Minister, ‘leader’) plus ACNE (‘spots’).
10 DONE
In recital, poet performed (4)
Sounds like (‘in recital’) DONNE (John, ‘poet’ – and it seems that is how the name was pronounced).
11 EXTRAMURAL
A million pocketed by ruler — tax is high, without boundaries (10)
An envelope (‘pocketed by’) of A M (‘a million’) in EXTRURAL,an anagram (‘is high’) of ‘ruler tax’. ‘Without’ in the sense of outside.
12 SATAYS
Expresses inspiring thanks for Asian dishes (6)
An envelope (‘inspiring’) of TA (‘thanks’) in SAYS (‘expresses’).
14 EXECRATE
Damn energy-guzzling old banger! (8)
An envelope (-‘guzzling’) of E (‘energy’-) in EX (‘old’) plus CRATE (‘banger’, decrepid car).
15 GENEVAN
Dope with European camper possibly is Swiss (7)
A charade of GEN (‘dope’) plus E (‘European’) plus VAN (‘camper possibly’).
17 ONENESS
Old partners scoffing bananas seen in harmony (7)
An envelope (‘scoffing’) of ENES, an anagram (‘bananas’) of ‘seen’ in O (‘old’) plus NS (bridge ‘partners’).
20 MANATEES
Swimming team’s mostly neat, languid swimmers (8)
An anagram (‘swimming’) of ‘team’s’ plus ‘nea[t]’ minus its last letter (‘mostly’).
22 SWEDEN
Country heading for shambles with Etonian premier (6)
A charade of S (‘heading for Shambles’) plus W (‘with’) plus EDEN (Anthony, ‘Etonian premier’).
23 MIDDLEBROW
Not very cerebral Lib Dem playing with words, briefly (10)
An anagram (‘playing’) of ‘Lib Dem’ plus ‘word[s]’ minus its last letter (‘briefly’).
24 DEEP
Went backwards, a long way down (4)
A reversal (‘backwards’) of PEED (‘went’).
25 POURED
Was mother clean eating doughnut with daughter? (6)
A charade of POURE, an envelope (‘eating’) of O (‘doughnut’, from its shape) in PURE (‘clean’); plus D (‘daughter’). “To be mother” is to pour the tea.
26 SLAVONIC
Czech, say, is so concerned with sound around bathroom (8)
An envelope (‘around’) of LAV (‘bathroom’) in SONIC (‘concerned with sound’).
DOWN
1 AUTOMATE
Pre-programme car, 50% less consumed (8)
A charade of AUTOM[obile] (‘car’) minus the last 5 letters (‘50% off’) plus ATE (‘consumed’).
2 FETE
Celebration time, getting put in charge (4)
An envelope (‘getting put in’) of T (‘time’) in FEE (‘charge’).
3 RIVERS
King splits trousers? They’re in all across solutions here (6)
An envelope (no, not ‘splits’, but ‘trousers’ in the sense of pockets) of R (the second one, Rex, ‘king’) in RIVES (‘splits’).
4 BEATLES
Cover of Bible tale represented Saint Paul and John? (7)
A charade of BE (‘cover of BiblE‘) plus ATLE, an anagram (‘re-presented’) of ‘tale’ plus S (‘saint’).
5 CETACEAN
Enact novel about great creature like Moby-Dick (8)
An envelope (‘about’) of ACE (‘great’) in CETAN, an anagram (‘novel’) of ‘enact’.
6 OCCURRENCE
Firm raised a lot of money locally, back in trade event (10)
A charade of OC, a reversal (‘raised’ in a down light) of CO (company, ‘firm’) plus CURRENC[y] (‘money’) minus its last letter (‘a lot of’) plus E (‘back in tradE‘).
7 IMPART
Lend one thousand rupees to be invested by postman? (6)
A charade of I (‘one’) plus M (Roman numeral, ‘thousand’) plus PART, an ernvelope (‘to be invested by’) of R (‘rupees’) in PAT (‘postman‘).
13 ALEXANDERS
Umbelliferous plant of Pope and Pushkin, say (10)
Both Pope and Pushkin had the first name Alexander; and the plant is Smyrnium olusatrum.
16 AXE HEADS
A cross English teacher’s cutting equipment (3,5)
A charade of ‘a’ plus X (‘cross’) plus E (‘English’) plus HEAD’S (‘teacher’s’).
18 SHE-DEVIL
Sinner to dwell to the north, by Slough (3-5)
A charade of SHED (‘slough’, pronounced sluff) plus EVIL, a reversal (‘to the north’ in s down light) of LIVE (‘dwell’).
19 TSARIST
White, as opposed to red, dresses kept in dry (7)
An envelope (‘kept in’) of SARIS (‘dresses’) in TT (tee-total, ‘dry’). The definition refers to Russians at the time of the revolution.
21 AMIGOS
Foreign allies love punching American fighters (6)
An envelope (‘punching’) of O (‘love’) in A (‘American’) plus MIGS (Russian planes, ‘fighters’).
22 SO WHAT
I don’t care it’s an often-muddy female accessory (2,4)
A charade of SOW (‘often-muddy female’) plus HAT (‘accessory’).
24 DROP
Fail to catch medic before work (4)
A charade of DR (doctor, ‘medic’) plus OP (‘work’).

picture of the completed grid

71 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,906 by Picaroon”

  1. Thanks PeterO and Picaroon.
    Lots to like, getting the theme was marginally helpful.
    Didn’t know that meaning for POURED, thanks.

  2. Yes, like PeterO, was not able to use the theme, although quickly identified, to help other than confirm the across answers.

    I found the puzzle on the whole quite tricky; usually when this happens on looking back at the clues I can’t figure out what held me up, but this time I think I know. Often on looking at a clue I see its structure right away, and then only have to figure out how to anagram some letters, or what the right synonym for a word is, etc. Here, on many occasions, the way I thought it was going to go was completely wrong, and some almost unnoticed word had a different interpretation that threw the whole thing off. So bravo to Picaroon for such good misdirection.

  3. Thanks Picaroon for another satisfying crossword. After solving (almost) a cracker by Rodriguez yesterday this seemed a bit gentler. I got the theme early and it helped me solve GENEVAN and SLAVONIC. I needed a word finder for TSARIST but all else fell into place. Thanks PeterO for the early blog.

  5. Thanks, PeterO. I couldn’t see the explanation for AMIGOS – I took the American fighters to be GIs.

    I thought the theme maybe hindered rather than helped- I was trying to fit PO in 10ac, and then decided it turned up in POURED so there are two rivers there.

    Thanks Picaroon.

  6. Good to have the blog so early: many thanks to PeterO, as well as to Picaroon fpr a classy puzzle. Just a small gap in the parsing of 16 Down, which is missing the E for English before HEAD (teacher).

  7. This took ages and the key was loi … dim! Being mother’s not as much fun as How’s your father but was ntl pretty cute. The Ebro was the unknown for me, wonder if it’s popped up (City with element and river (noun) in Middle East?). All good entertainment, ta PnP.

  8. Looking at the four acrosses we already had when we came to 3d, we searched for the common factor – eventually (after many false starts) saw the crossworders favourite river URE, and that led to the others – so that gave us 3d. It did help as we looked for other rivers: the Avon and the Cam, specifically. Too many nice clues to ennumerate – looking for another way of seeing them (cf DrWO @2) was often the key. Thanks, Picaroon and PeterO.

  9. “Quite tricky” indeed, but it yielded gracefully. I didn’t spot all the rivers, but the theme did help me to ENCAMP.

    The surface of 22a – “Country heading for shambles with Etonian premier” – suggests that this puzzle was set two prime ministers ago.

  11. Spotted the theme about half way through – having initially wondered if it was the spelled out names of letters – EN, EX, ESS etc – which would have been rather meh! There just seemed to be a heckuva lot of E’s. Having spotted it, it wasn’t a lot of help in completion – there are just too many short named rivers and Picaroon was clearly setting no boundaries, internationally. Like Dave Ellison @5, I was sure PO would turn up in 10a (and initially also looking for GIs in AMIGOS).

    Favourites today include JUVENILE, EXECRATE, MANATEES, POURED, AUTOMATE, BEATLES, SHE-DEVIL and TSARIST. Delighted to achieve a clean sweep even if DONE was tentatively entered as I’m never wholly confident about the pronunciation of the poet. However, there’s something rather satisfying about any puzzle when the last solution to go in is DONE.

    Thanks Picaroon and PeterO

  13. Thanks PeterO and to Picaroon for a very satisfying tussle. Like others I found the theme not very helpful, although it did help to finally crack POURED.
    As well as the cunningly disguised definitions, another difficuly was that most of the crossers were very unhelful: lots of Es and As and other frequently occuring letters.

  14. Picaroon is one of my favourite setters – his puzzles are simply excellent. It was near the end that I got RIVERS, so wasn’t helped by the theme. Loved MANATEES, POURED and TSARIST in particular. Many thanks to P & P.

  16. Thanks Picaroon and PeterO
    Very clever, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as usual with Picaroon. A DNF in fact – I couldn’t conjure up the second word in16d.
    JUVENILE favourite, and it also gave me the theme.

  17. Tough puzzle – I was not on setter’s wavelength and I found some of the surfaces hard to read. Saw the theme quite late and did not recognise the rivers in 17ac, 22ac, 23ac.

    Failed 16d apart from AXE.
    I did not parse 5d apart from *enact.

    Liked POURED.

    Thanks, both.

  18. Loved the SOW HAT, TSARIST and POURED among many, many others

    Not sure how tricky this was as I multi-tasking between cricket, crossword & coding 🙂

    I suppose I’ll have to take a dose of my own medicine and accept PROGRAMME for “program”

    Cheers all

  19. Show some Mersey, RK0000@12and crispy@15, Don your coats and go Forth. River puns, Thurso easy to make….i don’t know Wye.
    Super crossword, thank you picaroon and PeterO

  20. With the first two in SwEDEN and DEEp, for once I was quickly onto the Riparian (ha!) theme. Mother pouring the tea at 25ac was a blast from the past. The only Umbillifer I knew did have 10 letters, but obviously Cowparsley wasn’t quite going to fit the bill this morning, so cheated by looking that one up, ashamed to say. Liked the misdirection with the BEATLES clue. Puzzled over the last one on GENEVAN, as I couldn’t spot the river there. Thanks to PeterO therefore for supplying NEVA. Tough in places, but fair enough, and fun…

  22. Excellent puzzle from the Pirate. I spotted the theme very early but the only clue it helped me to solve was for JUVENILE – a late entry. However, like Dr WhatsOn @2, the rivers provided an additional check that my solutions were correct.

    Many good clues here – my favourites (in common with previous posters) were POURED, BEATLES, TSARIST and SO WHAT.

    Please stop this potamic paronomasia! 🙂

    Thanks to S&B

  23. Another splendid puzzle from one of my favourite setters. Too many favourites to list

    Thanks very much to Picaroon and PeterO

  24. I echo crypticsue. I found this more challenging than usual with Picaroon’s puzzles but equally enjoyable. In fact, perhaps more satisfying because it stretched my limited capabilities.

  25. I liked the theme because it provided me a few nudges without making things too easy. All too often the theme is essential or makes some clues a write in.
    I like a crossword to yield gradually and this one certainly did.
    There were a couple of instances such as encamp where I guessed the answer then confirmed it with the river before I managed to unscramble the clue.
    Beatles and Tsarist were my last two and needed a second visit. Both were very nice. I would question S=Saint but I have seen it before and seems to be generally accepted here.
    My only quiblet is the plant is Alexander (never heard of it before) so surely the clue should use plants?

  26. Enjoyed this for the most part, though I think the theme, though obvious enough, was not a lot of help.
    Pleased with myself for remembering Juvenal.

    I don’t see the function of LOCALLY in 6d.

  27. Took me ages to get going and then my first three across solutions had double letters so I thought that must be the theme. That left me confused about 3dn! Then I got Poured and things started falling into place. As others have said, the theme acted as a double-check and, for me, it was only with Satays, my LOI, that it materially helped. I agree with many others that this was excellent especially the clever misdirections. Thanks P and P.

  28. I echo crypticsue, too and agree with others here and on yesterday’s Indy blog that the Pirate has turned up the heat a notch in the last couple of days. (This is not a complaint!)

    Many thanks to P and PO.

  30. I got the theme quickly and easily – probably because I do not read the clues in order and “cold solve” in sequence but, instead, dodge about letting my early leads take me where they will. My dearly beloved and infinitely better half pointed out that “manatees” sounds like a languid “man at ease” swimmer. Shame about the singular spoiling an otherwise potential pun.

  32. Just couldn’t get into this and ended up revealing a couple. However, at least this was a proper Friday challenge after a relatively easy week.

    Ta Picaroon & PeterO.

  33. Good setting to get in all the RIVERS. FOI was SATAYS, followed by RIVERS but, as PeterO said, not much help anyway, especially as I DNK NEVA and NENE.

    I liked ENCAMP for the wordplay, POURED for the ‘was mother’, BEATLES for Saint Paul and John, and TSARIST, where I was misled by thinking of white and red roses. I’m not very good on my satirists.

    Thanks Picaroon and PeterO.

  34. I follow AlanC @32, I had to reveal a couple so did not finish, but enjoyed the ones I managed to get. Thank you Picaroon for an end of week workout and to PeterO for parsing the many clues I really did not understand (especially the two I revealed, RIVERS and POURED. Did not get the theme at all, even after revealing RIVERS! Duh!

  35. Saw the main theme (not that it helped) and after SLAVONIC, TSARIST, URAL, NEVA and DON (and possibly PUSHKIN) I thought I had divined the makings of a second mini-theme, but I’m sure it was coincidental.

    Agree with others that it required some second thinking on how to interpret the clues, but it was satisfying to get there in the end. Thanks to P & PO.

  36. Slow to start, then a slow grind to finish. Got the theme fairly early, but not much help.

    Never heard of the Neva!

    Thanks Picaroon and PeterO

  37. Quite tough overall, and I had to resort to revealing CETACEAN (I’m generally more of a ‘bung and check until I get it right’ chap). But the theme actually did help slightly – I had a hunch that URE and CAM might show up so they helped me get POURED and ENCAMP. I love the ‘was mother’ definition for POURED, by the way.

    I agree with a couple of earlier comments that Picaroon has a particular way with misdirection! Quite a few remained unparsed, even though I was pretty sure I had the right solutions, until I got here to check.

    Thanks both.

  38. Is sinner the right def for SHE-DEVIL? It’s not in Chambers and is “a malicious woman” in other dictionaries. Very enjoyable, though, and I like all the rivers.

  39. Not only did the theme not help, I could not fathom the wordplay for LOI 3d so spent ages trying to get the theme and hence the solution. Tough then, and very enjoyable.

  40. Nice to see ELI back again, wonder where he’s been all this time?

    Never heard of the rivers Eden or Nene.

    The terribly British “POURED” eluded me until I had all the crossers and finally remembered all those cozy detective stories where somebody says, “Shall I be mother?”

    Gervase@22 I agree — we’ve had quite enough Potomac paranoia for one election cycle.

    Thanks, Picaroon and PeterO.

  41. I enjoyed this. As often happens I got 3 down from the theme, rather than the other way round. As Valentine says ELI comes around every now and then but, for some reason, I’ve never seen Zadok.

  43. My heart always sinks when a clue requires a river. Just too many so the theme didn’t help. Got about 3/4 done. Tough but enjoyable. Thanks both.

  44. Hurrah! Just finished, so that’s all 5 this week. That hasn’t happened in a long while. And I just went back and finished off last Saturday’s prize. (Maybe I don’t have enough to do ;-))

    I got RIVERS by looking at the Across Clues I had already solved, and dithered about about whether Rives means Splits. The only one that helped with was SLAVONIC.

    I need to Stour more rivers in my memory.
    (That’s the Suffolk Stour, pronounced differently to the Kentish Stour.)

    TSARIST was the one that held out the longest – took me a while to realise it didn’t have to be a vowel before the first S.

    poc@26 I think Money Locally equates with Currency. eg. In the UK the local money is Pounds Sterling.

  45. Alastair @43
    I agree in general about rivers, but in this puzzle the clues didn’t require rivers; you just needed to spot the river after the clue was solved. I found the presence of a river no help at all in solving any of the clues!

  47. Great puzzle to end the week. I’m still doing the daily puzzle in reverse clue order, so I was alerted to the presence of a theme before having any chance of spotting it, which added to the fun enormously. Helped me with JUVENILE, my LOI, where I thought the definition was “minor satirist” for ages. I feel the same way about them as Robi @33.
    Like poc, I wondered why “locally” was there in 6d, but I think Moth @44 has the right reason. Still, I wouldn’t have objected at all if it had been left out.
    Great fun! Thanks, Pickers and Peter.

  48. PostMark @11 I only remember it because of a joke in Inside Number 9:
    “Did you make that up?”
    “No, John Donne.”
    “It’s John did, David, John did.”

  49. A tricky but ultimately satisfying solve. I expect John Donne was the homophone, but Stephen Dunne is also a Pulitzer-winner.

    Thanks both.

  50. Thanks PeterO as I never parsed 3d despite it being second after 12a. Tough for me thanks to the misdirection noted by Dr Whatson and others. Ian F@42 I did consider WORE as maybe an actor can wear/inhabit a role and there is a poet Waugh, but a beer helped put me on track. Thanks Picaroon and congratulations Moth!

  51. C+S@38 – I share your view that She-Devil does not feel like a synonym for ‘Sinner’ in 18D; words like Shrew, Virago or Wildcat spring more readily to mind (and could easily have been substituted in the clue). But Chambers does in fact list She-devil, though in italics rather than bold, as an example of how “She” can be put in front of nouns and hyphenated to create the female of a species; it also cites She-ass and She-bear, and of course there are many others. And if a she-devil is thought of simply as a female devil, and since Chambers defines a devil, inter alia, as a wicked person, then I reluctantly think Picaroon is entitled to the clue.

  53. Got theme about half way through : maybe I should scan all clues at the start?
    Who is the “pirate” mentioned above.
    Thanks Picaroon and PeterO

  54. Moth @44: good try with the use of locally, but I am with POC @26 and Phito Nelly @47 — just drop it.

    Not only are there two rivers in POURED but DONE has two rivers too: the one that flows through Doncaster and the other that flows through Rostov.

  56. tim @53: Picaroon is Buccaneer in the FT and Rodriguez in the Indy so he’s sometimes called the pirate in all three papers.

  58. I am sure there are many, many Don Rivers – there is one that flows into Bass Strait near Devonport, notrthern Tasmania – just west of the Mersey and east of the Leven.

  59. TB@30

    Please pass on my thanks to your better half for her insightful observation on MANATEES. I was surprised that the commentariat ignored it!

  61. Did nobody else have a problem with the word order in 3D? Surely it has to be “splits trousers king” for it to work?

  62. Brilliant!Only ones I didnt pick were NENE and EDE
    Thanks all(when I first saw DON, TEES and CAM I thought the theme might be setters but that would be a very tall oprder

  63. I love my rivers and their punning possibilities. The theme helped assure where parsing failed: notably for me on the first two clues. Not sure the Mur/Mura river has been acknowledged though Ural is fine. Was expecting discussion of the pronunciation of Nene. Many thanks Picaroon and PeterO

  64. Very tough, I think because of the abstruse definitions and also, as as @ 2DrWhatsOn says, some very clever misdirection. Never heard of ‘rives’ or ALEXANDERS. DEEP made me think of Paul. Favourite was SLAVONIC. LOI was RIVERS, so, like others, no help from the theme. Thanks Picaroon for the challenge and PeterO for providing several parsings which eluded me.

  66. Steve69@61. The way I see it is as a kind of active versus passive voice.
    King is trousered by splits. Or in other words, King, with emphasis on that word up front, (pause) splits trousers (it/king).

  67. Late coming to this one, but a lot of fun: think POURED was the best. Yes I managed to pick out all the RIVERS.

    Regarding the discussion about SHE-DEVIL, I agree that ‘sinner’ isn’t a very good def. Who else remembers BBC’s excellent 1980s comedy drama The Life and Loves of a She-Devil? The She-Devil in the story (played by Julie T Wallace) was definitely the ‘good guy’, whilst her erring husband (the late Denis Waterman) and his mistress (Patricia Hodge) were undoubtedly the ‘baddies’.

    Unless, of course, you make Patricia Hodge’s character out to be the She-Devil. But that doesn’t make sense…

    Anyway. nice one Pickers! – and thanks to Peter.

  69. Thanks DD@68. Despite its large size, the river AMUR was new on me.
    I’d only spotted MUR, MURA and (after checking) URAL. [Knew of a DD in Marcham 40 years ago.]

  70. @Choldunk 69 – That’ll be me then. I spent my teenage years in Marcham and my parents still live there. Small world.

  71. A toughie for me, had to needle away at it over several days. Doesn’t help that I pick it up last thing before going to sleep! An old ‘crate’ was a new one on me, and had never heard of the white army. Is actually one of the things I like about these crosswords – always learn something new. Satisfying when you already know the obscure term or reference, but educational when you don’t. Got the ‘be mother’ reference straight away but didn’t see the rivers at all! Some of the clues bitty and tricksy – thought the ‘so’ in 26A was redundant for a while after I got it, and was annoyed that I had been trying to incorporate it until I realised it was part of the meaning! This kind of crossword is like eating my cognitive veg! A useful workout but not necessarily enjoyable…

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