It’s Picaroon providing our entertainment (and how!) today. I shan’t be surprised if someone says (again), ‘How does he keep doing it?’.
It would be easier and quicker to list the clues which I didn’t tick: I’ll just highlight 11ac SCHOENBERG, for the cleverness, and 14ac SPEED CAMERA and 17dn HANGOVER, for making me laugh, and leave the rest to you.
Many thanks, as ever, to Picaroon for another delightful puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 American sailor circling shore, by the way (7)
APROPOS
A (American) + OS (Ordinary Seaman – sailor) round PROP (shore)
5 Drunken rugby player, mostly stylishly dressed (7)
BACCHIC
BAC[k] (rugby player, mostly) + CHIC (stylishly dressed) – I’m pretty sure that ‘rugby player’ is generic but I’d like to think that Picaroon had our local legend Neil in mind
9 Old pugilist from Britain and a figure from Spain (5)
BRUNO
BR (Britain) + UNO (a figure from Spain) – talking of sporting legends, here’s another, Frank, who appeared in a number of TV adverts, including this one
10 People in a party of left-wing English radicals initially switching sides (9)
REVELLERS
l[evellers] (left wing English radicals) with the l changed to R (switching sides)
11 Expressionist composer‘s chosen new pupil of his (10)
SCHOENBERG
An anagram (new) of CHOSEN + (Alban) BERG (a pupil of Schoenberg)
12 Case of tequila? Cheers and cheerio! (2-2)
TA-TA
T[equil]A + TA (cheers!)
14 It detects law-breaking beer fans, full of energy on drug (5,6)
SPEED CAMERA
SPEED (drug) + CAMRA (CAMpaign for REAL ALE – beer fans) round E (energy)
18 Fashion designer with winning clothing male modelled in advance (7,4)
QUANTUM LEAP
(Mary) QUANT (fashion designer) +UP (winning) round (clothing) an anagram (modelled) of MALE
21 Ship — and what one may carry leaving Cuba’s capital (4)
ARGO
c[argo] minus c[uba]
22 Home rule divides party giving offence (10)
INFRACTION
In (home) + R (rule) in (dividing) FACTION (party)
25 Democrat cast a ballot in English city with loyalty (9)
DEVOTEDLY
D (Democrat) + VOTED (cast a ballot) in ELY (English city)
26 Some shenanigans turning silly (5)
INANE
A hidden reversal (turning) in shENANIgans
27 Colour’s maintained on huge screen (7)
REREDOS
RED (colour) round RE (on) + OS (huge)
28 Item destined for bathroom old men put in lounge (3,4)
LOO ROLL
O (old) + OR (men) in LOLL (lounge)
Down
1 Little girl following Jack’s elder sister (6)
ABBESS
AB (Able Seaman – Jack) + BESS (little girl)
2 Thugs picked up Elizabethan fashion items (6)
ROUGHS
Sounds like (picked up) ‘ruffs’
3 Tendency to be nosy about uninhibited model (10)
PROPENSITY
PRY (be nosy) round OPEN (uninhibited) + SIT (model)
4 Clean vessel boarded by new leader (5)
SCRUB
SUB (vessel) round CR (Carolus Rex – new leader: the former one still gets a mention at 16dn)
5 Economist who wrote a report the night before cracking game (9)
BEVERIDGE
EVE (the night before) in (cracking) BRIDGE (game) – see here: yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the National Health Service, one of the outcomes of the Report
6 Some meat sandwiches left for a bunch of zealots (4)
CULT
CUT (some meat) round (sandwiches) L (left)
7 What a day! To start with, this guy made a beastly noise (8)
HEEHAWED
HE (this guy, to start with) + EH (what) + A + WED (day)
8 Perhaps islander‘s reason for not staging play (8)
CASTAWAY
With the CAST AWAY the play couldn’t be staged
13 Drink from top composer not finishing round (10)
CAPPUCCINO
CAP (top) + PUCCIN[i] (composer not finishing) + O (round)
15 Mythic figures from Greece need muse, I suspect (9)
EUMENIDES
An anagram (suspect) of NEED MUSE I for the Furies, euphemistically named ‘the kindly ones’
16 Waste shilling on a pair of queens? (8)
SQUANDER
S (shilling, as in LSD (pounds, shillings and pence) + QU (queen) AND ER (another queen)
17 Gallons swallowed in George’s house — might this result? (8)
HANGOVER
G (gallons) in HANOVER (the house of four King Georges)
19 Asian leader toppled Asian leader? Commotion follows! (6)
MIKADO
A reversal (toppled, in a down clue) of KIM (Jong-un) (Asian leader) + ADO (commotion)
20 A European supplier of oil needing treatment (6)
UNWELL
UN (French – European – for A) + WELL (supplier of oil)
23 Liar shocked about year one’s spent in Doha (5)
RIYAL
An anagram (shocked) of LIAR round Y (year) for the currency of Qatar
24 Discharging debts, inclined to work for boss (4)
STUD
STUD[ious] (inclined to work) minus IOUS (debts)
Very tricky and I managed to solve this from the bottom up finishing with the tough NE corner, staring at HEEHAWED for far too long. I liked REVELLERS, SCHOENBERG, QUANTUM LEAP, PROPENSITY, CAPPUCCINO, MIKADO and BEVERIDGE. Super challenge.
Ta Picaroon & Eileen.
Thanks, Picaroon and Eileen!
Liked APROPOS, REREDOS, ABBESS, PROPENSITY,
SQUANDER and HANGOVER.
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen
Very enjoyable, but a lot of general knowledge required. HANGOVER made me laugh.
Well said Eileen and thank you for help with parsing 3/4 clues today. Picaroon, you are a tough solvebut a highly enjoyable one!
Another completed mainly through the definitions, then wondering what the parsing is. Thanks to Picaroon for the puzzle, and to Eileen for answering all my ‘How do you get that?’ queries.
btw refreshing to have ELY as city rather than cathedral!
Top marks for QUANTUM LEAP, HEE-HAWED, and the Rufus-like CASTAWAY
The rugby back could also be world-cup winning England legend Neil Back who ironically was a forward
Cheers P&E
muffin @6 – I nearly said that. 😉
bodycheetah @7 – and I did say that!
Picaroon is one of my favourite setters, and this did not disappoint. A fairly steady solve for me, though I got bogged down in the NE. Someone on the Guardian site is claiming that BEVERIDGE in the context of an economist is abstruse, but given all the coverage of the NHS this week (75 years) I don’t think that is quite fair. As for BERG (the pupil bit of Schoenberg),it is only his violin concerto that appeals to me. I first heard it performed by the great Ida Hanedel. The poor chap died at the comparatively young age of 50. He delevoped a boil on his back and was too poor to get medical help. The story goes (though am not sure if this is true) that his wife tried to remove it with a knife. In any event, he died of blood poisoning. With all our complaints, it is a sobering reminder of the fact that we live in much better times. With thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.
Smashing puzzle. I noted that BEVERIDGE
neatly coincided with the 75th anniversary of the NHS. Funny to see SCRUB and LOO ROLL in the same offering with various NHS analyses having come up, over time, re how officials SQUANDER money over contracts for sets of undersized SCRUBs ( Covid ppe ) and ridiculous prices paid for toilet rolls. Let’s hope this HANGOVER is CAST AWAY and disappears.
Just loved the variety of the cluing. Many were perfect but my fave was HEEHAWED
Thank you Picaroon and Eileen.
This was a splendid crossword: and thanks to Eileen I can now fully appreciate the subtlety of it.
I found this much more approachable than yesterday’s G puzzle and everything clicked very smoothly into place. As is so often the case with Picaroon. Like, Eileen, I could tick almost any clue. Forcing out a podium, I’d go for QUANTUM LEAP, BEVERIDGE (nice to be so close to the NHS anniversary) and EUMINIDES – even though it’s a word with which I am unfamiliar. Delightful puzzle; together with today’s Indy, we have been treated.
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen.
Thanks Eileen for clarifying the parsing of BRUNO. I didn’t BR=British. I agree with all the others about the high quality of this crossword, with special mentions to REVELLERS and QUANTUM LEAP. I also thought BEVERIDGE might lead on to other 75-year celebratory clues. Thanks to Eileen for the usual clear blog and to Picaroon for the puzzle.
Thanks to Picaroon for a delightful puzzle, and Eileen as always.
Apart from being good candidates for the names of rock bands, might ‘Quantum Leap’ belong with the likes of ‘Spiral Staircase’ in the lexicon of distortion?
After a year or more of doing British cryptics, I’ve assimilated many interesting though admittedly not terribly useful things, like OR are men (28a). And I’m accustomed to being introduced quite often to hitherto unknown people, such as, in this case, Frank Bruno and William Beveridge. But it took me a while to work out the beer fans. And the levellers eluded me entirely.
EUMENIDES & BACCHIC were new to me too. And I had an unusually long “Huh?” list today culminating in the odd “D’oh” upon coming here — QUANTUM LEAP, APROPOS, REVELLERS, CAPPUCCINO & SCRUB. But at least I finished, and there were quite a few smiles.
Thank you Picaróon & Eileen.
I’ve just realised that I somehow omitted 6dn from the blog. I shall reinstate it now.
Is OS huge? It stands for outsize, which I thought was just a wee bit larger than normal. Huge would be 3XL or 4XL in the new money.
Thanks to Eileen for the parsing of 4 which had defeated me.
I guess we’ll have to get used to CR being clued this way for the foreseeable.
Splendid puzzle with Picaroon’s trademark misdirections.
I liked QUANTUM LEAP for the surface, REREDOS for catching me out again using ‘on’, SCRUB for the new leader, HEEHAWED as a good charade, and UNWELL for the ‘A European mislead.
GDU @18; dictionaries give outsize as ‘exceptionally large’, so I guess that describes huge.
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen.
Found this tough and as aways I forgo that OS means outsize/huge. Didn’t know BERG was the composer’s pupil. Got more than a few from description and crosses and then parsed – and a couple didn’t parse so thanks to Eileen.
Favourites included: REVELLERS, SPEED CAMERA, QUANTUM LEAP, APROPOS, SQUANDER, CASTAWAY (Which made me smile)
Thanks Picaroon.
Robi@20, I wasn’t aware of that with OS. My Collins just says outsize.
I had the same thought about ELY.
The usual excellent standard from Picaroon, the consistency of his output is quite remarkable. The variety of clueing struck me here. If you wanted to use a puzzle to explain to a beginner how cryptic crosswords work, it would be difficult to do better – though I guess it’s possible they might be daunted.
Really enjoyed STUD and took a while to work out HEEHAWED, which was my loi.
Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.
Very nice, though I thought quite a bit of GK required for BEVERIDGE, and especially SCHOENBERG. ROUGHS made me smile. Took a while to realise yet again that CR refers now to our new King. Last one in APROPOS, and needed Eileen as ever to point out that Prop Up = Shore Up to confirm that all was neatly and satisfyingly done and dusted…
Extremely clever, though beyond my powers in several places.
The EUMENIDES are the Fates, but I beg indulgence for this old joke:
Knock Knock
Who’s there?
Euripides
Euripides who?
Euripides trousers, Eumenides trousers
I’ll get me coat …
[Apologies EIleen @9 – I was speed reading and multi-tasking]
What a setter and what a lovely blog for you to do, Eileen
poc @26 – I’m really sorry to spoil your joke but the Eumenides are the FURIES (see link in the blog). The Fates are a different bunch – see here: https://www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/The_Fates/the_fates.html?utm_content=cmp-true
bodycheetah@27 – you’re forgiven: nice to know someone else had the same thought. 😉
Eileen@29: I sit corrected. My own fault for not checking. The joke still works though 🙂
Of course it does, poc – you just shouldn’t have mentioned the Fates. 😉
Very out of practice on the crossword, took me ages. Hope to get back into it again, I definitely needed the help for parsing several of the clues and I may have cheated on a couple. Still really enjoyed finding this site and hope to become regular visitor.
A lovely puzzle as always from Picaroon. My favourites were SPEED CAMERA, CULT for the great “meat sandwiches” lift-and-separate, and HEEHAWED for the brilliant surface.
Like others I wondered if there was going to be an NHS theme when I got BEVERIDGE. (I think it’s interesting that it was a Liberal politician whose report laid much of the ground for the programme of the post war Labour government.)
Many thanks Picaroon and Eileen.
Welcome to the site, Lesley @32. Hope to hear from you again soon.
Vaguely remember the Levellers now, but 10ac was a bung. As was Bruno the boxer (started thinking ?Max something on old TV boxing shows, but he was Baer). Mary Quant another blast from his past, [London ’67, girls in minis with legs forever!]. Anyway, as others have said, great puzzle, thanks to the Pirate and Eileen.
The Levellers might well be better known from the rock group that took their name from them rather than the original protesters from the 17th century (Google seems to think so – I had to dive down a bit to find the originals rather than the group!)
I do love a Picaroon!
Many thanks, and to Eileen for the informative explanations.
SCHOENBERG reminded me of the old joke about Berg (as a more approachable composer) being “Schoenberg’s best work”
I knew about the Levellers, but had them as the answer to 10a until crossers proved me wrong-handed. Then couldn’t parse SCRUB. Or HEEHAWED. Oh dear.
Despite all this, an enjoyable solve of a quality crossword: HANGOVER, CASTAWAY and UNWELL made me laugh: SCHOENBERG and BEVERIDGE made me scratch my head but I got there eventually. Quite a lot of bung in and parse later (STUD in particular: only got that because a boss is always a stud in crosswordland!)
poc@26: You really need Chico Marx to deliver that gag. Did you know that the French cartoon sound effect for “knock knock” is POC POC?
Great puzzle, nice blog. When oh when will I get CR as quickly as ER?
Thanks P&E
Thanks to Picaroon for a puzzle which was challenging in parts but hugely enjoyable with some humourous surfaces and inventive clueing. Tick for REREDOS – an excellent example made from Caen stone with several beautifully painted panels can be seen at https://www.stpeters-stantonlacy.co.uk/history
Many thanks to Eileen for the blog.
I’d heard of people campaigning for Real Ale (though I’m not quite sure what it is), but not of the name CAMRA.
How come R = rule?
The articles on the LEVELLERS and BEVERIDGE were an education. Thanks, Eileen..
I’m with Gladys@39 on stud and DrW@40 on CR.
Thanks to Picaroon for a super puzzle and Eileen for the delightful accompaniment. I had a good time this morning.
Thanks Picaroon. I found this on the more difficult end of the pirate’s scale and I guessed more than I parsed so the “fun factor” was diminished. Nonetheless I really liked clues such as the very clever SCHOENBERG, the nicely built SQUANDER, the amusing HANGOVER, and MIKADO for its surface. I was a bit irritated with “UN” being clued as European and not French; there is no European language as far as I know though I’m certain the French would love theirs to be the one. Thanks Eileen for the blog.
Great puzzle from the Pirate, as per. Interesting how our reactions to puzzles vary. This took me twice as long as yesterday’s. Fewer unusual words than Pasquale (although I luckily knew them all) but more complicated wordplay. As others have said, it was good to see the topical BEVERIDGE, Ely as a city, and C (III) R making an appearance.
Lots of favourites, including HANGOVER, SCHOENBERG, CASTAWAY, EUMENIDES (all good constructions and surfaces).
Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen
Lots to like here. 10A and 14A were particular favorites. I failed to parse 24D and 4D; I suspect it’s going to be a long time before I pick up references to CR. It’s taken me this long to remember OR for Other Ranks.
Great puzzle and not at all easy. Favourite was HEEHAWED, but only after Eileen parsed it (thank you). I don’t get r = rule in INFRACTION but no doubt if I searched I would find some example of r being used as shorthand for rule. Failed to get BACCHIC but loved the surface. Thanks Eileen and Picaroon.
I found this rather tricky and it took quite a few visits over the day to nail everything, some of which needed dictionary / Wikipedia checks to compensate for my lacking GK (nho either SCHOENBERG or his pupil, I’m so uncultured…). But all the parsings checked out fairly so an exemplary cryptic I’d say — enjoyable, challenging and educational!
Loved HANGOVER and HEEHAWED.
Thanks both!
How does he keep doing it? (Surprised no one has taken the bait before now, Eileen. 😉 )
Great fun as ever, thanks, Picaroon and Eileen.
Paul @45 – Chambers says R for rule is used in law. I can’t give you any more useful detail than that.
I echo Widdersbel @46 exactly re R = rule.
ShropshireLass @41 – I’m only just home from a memorial + ‘gathering’ and so I missed your post earlier. Many thanks for the link – beautiful REREDOS.
[I’m off out to the theatre soon, so may miss more comments.]
Took my time over this while dealing with work and monitoring England SQUANDER another good position in the cricket. Particularly enjoyed REVELLERS. REREDOS was new to me. Very high standard throughout as always from Picaroon, and thanks to Eileen for the usual entertaining and educational blog.
Picaroon’s always a favourite of mine, and this didn’t disappoint. BRUNO probably my favourite, but the smooth ‘…year one’s spent…’ for RIYAL runs it close.
I did pause for a bit over EUMENIDES. If you don’t know the word, there are a couple of plausible options (EUMENIDES/EUMINEDES). Happily I guessed right! Didn’t know SCHOENBERG, nor that BERG was his protege, but clear enough.
Paul @45 – when I worked for a regulator, its handbook had ‘rules’ (that had to be complied with) marked with R. Perhaps that’s found in other places as well. Have yet to see the corresponding G for ‘guidance’, mind you.
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen.
Completely off topic, here’s a link (I hope) to the g obituary for Nutmeg
Unlike many others here, I found this puzzle less enjoyable than most. If one were to try to solve 11A simply by the word play then how would you know the pupil if you didn’t already know the master. I think 20D would have been better written as a French supplier of oil. A Swede or Pole might disagree with the clue.
Thanks both.
The only thought (that others haven’t expressed) I had when tackling this puzzle was that these days ‘The Mikado’ would be considered so far off the woke scale that it is unlikely to reappear in life. Please tell me I’m wrong…
Simon S@53: Thanks for that link.
#55 You’re wrong — saw it just a few months ago.
By the way, not convinced that ‘apropos’ means ‘by the way. Try putting it in for the first ‘by the way’ in this post, for example.
[Eileen: If you’re still reading, there’s an excellent crossword by Quince in today’s Indy. Keep this setter on your radar, you won’t regret it.]
buffytvs @57
Collins: ‘apropos: appropriate; pertinent; by the way; incidentally’
Chambers: ‘apropos: to the purpose; appropriately; in reference to (with ‘of’); by the way, incidentally’
Tony Santucci @58
I came here to catch up just after having looked at the Indy blog to see what I might have been missing on a busy day. I can’t remember whether I’ve ever solved a Quince puzzle but I’ll certainly look out for the next one. Many thanks for your confirmatory recommendation.
Didn’t parse STUD. First time I’ve seen CR for K Charles anywhere but I guess it will be on post boxes eventually- what a job of work.
Easily completed but I’m not complaining.
Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen
We should not overlook the alcoholic theme: beverage homophoned, BACCHIC REVELLERS, HANGOVER (and its synonyms for feeling ROUGH and UNWELL) after which one needs a CAPPUCCINO to clear one’s head, plus CAMRA and tequila in the clues.
Difficult and enjoyable puzzle. Took several sittings. Proud to say that this Texan got them all!
A struggle, but another complete, with minimal assistance. I loved ABBESS and SQUANDER.
Late thanks Eileen, while this took a while I managed to parse everything and had completely forgotten about Neil Back (probably deliberate as I am Welsh when it comes to rugby), good spot. Enjoyed the extra flavour from the comments above and chapeau to you BillinAustin!
Favourite: SQUANDER, MIKADO, HANGOVER, quantum leap, PROPENSITY, HEEHAWED, CASTAWAY
I could not parse 4d (CR in SUB? ah, I see now – thank you, Eileen); 24d.
New for me: boxer Frank Bruno; 17th century Levellers political movement; shore = PROP or beam (for 1ac); CAMRA = Campaign for Real Ale (for 14ac).
I’m Australian but I have heard of the Beveridge report as it was covered in a podcast that I follow 🙂
Thanks, both.