Guardian Cryptic 29,281 by Jack

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29281.

I seem to be cornering the market on Jack’s Cryptics, having blogged the previous two. Like those, this one needed some careful thought, but without being overly convoluted. I think I had more difficulty with yesterday’s Picaroon. I note the across parings CONCRETE JUNGLE, ACTION PAINTING, COLORADO BEETLE, and PRISON CHAPLAIN, though they do not seem to have much to do with each other.

A little digging shows that Jack had 8 Guardian Cryptics published in 2023, of which I only blogged two. My apologies to Eileen (@27) and the other bloggers.

ACROSS
8 CONCRETE
Material that’s used in construction (8)
Double definition, the first being adjectival.
9 JUNGLE
Psychiatrist barely escaped highly competitive environment (6)
A charade of JUNG (‘psychiatrist’) plus [f]LE[d] (‘escaped’) minus its outer letters (‘barely’).
10 KNIT
Draw together writer’s material over time (4)
A charade of KNI, a reversal (‘over’) of INK (‘writer’s material’); plus T (‘time’).
11 FRENCH HORN
Something in the wind from Europe projecting growth in Jersey? (6,4)
A charade of FRENCH (‘from Europe’) plus HORN (‘projecting growth in Jersey’ cattle); ‘wind’ being the section of an orchestra.
12 ACTION
Dissident group ousting leader in fratricidal gesture (6)
A subtraction: [f]ACTION (‘dissident group’) minus the F (‘ousting leader in Fratricidal’).
14 PAINTING
Suffering can start to generate work (8)
A charade of PAIN (‘suffering’) plus TIN (‘can’) plus G (‘start to Generate’).
15 SEEPAGE
Realise messenger’s leaked material (7)
A charade of SEE (‘realise’) plus PAGE (‘messenger’).
17 ANTBEAR
Nosey creature is unable to stand missing start of conversation (7)
A subtraction: [c]AN’T BEAR (‘is unable to stand’) minus the C (‘missing start of Conversation’). The critter might be this or even more so this.
20 COLORADO
Difficulty following depression as an alternative state (8)
A charade of COL (‘depression’ – a mountain pass) plus OR (‘as an alternative’) plus ADO (‘difficulty’).
22 BEETLE
Bug in live telecast (6)
A charade of BE (‘live’) plus ETLE, an anagram (-‘cast’) of ‘tele’-.
23 CURRICULAR
University starts to require registration in crucial changes relating to course (10)
An envelope (‘in’) of U (‘university’) plus RR (‘starts to Require Regestration’) in CICULAR, an anagram (‘changes’) of ‘crucial’.
24 WERE
Lived with learner losing items regularly (4)
A charade of W (‘with’) plus ERE (‘lEaRnEr losing items regularly’).
25 PRISON
Almost willing to accept one’s captive here (6)
An envelope (‘to accept’) of I (‘one’) plus S (the apostrophe s) in PRON[e] (‘willing’ – a meaning given in Chambers) minus the last letter (‘almost’).
26 CHAPLAIN
Remained behind fellow minister (8)
A charade of CHAP (‘fellow’) plus LAIN (‘remained’).
DOWN
1 CORNICHE
Coast road is my special place (8)
A charade of COR (‘my’ as an interjection) plus NICHE (‘special place’).
2 SCAT
Get lost, not entirely unscathed (4)
A hidden answer (‘not entirely’) in ‘unSCAThed’, with the definition as an imperative.
3 DEAFEN
Senior academic receives pay mainly to get rid of faculty (6)
An envelope (‘receives’) of FE[e] (‘pay’) minus its last letter (‘mostly’ ‘mainly’) in DEAN (‘senior academic’).
4 RECEIPT
Evidence of settlement upset man in rainforest on vacation (7)
An envelope (‘in’) of ECEIP, a reversal (‘upset’ in a down light) of PIECE (‘man’ in chess, say) in RT (‘RainforesT on vacation’).
5 EJECTION
Discharge Democrat kicked out of blue state (8)
A subtraction: [d]EJECTION (‘blue state’) minus the D (‘Democrat kicked out’)
6 ON THE TABLE
In contact with board about article up for discussion (2,3,5)
An envelope (‘about’) of THE (definite ‘article’) in ON (‘in contact with’) plus TABLE (‘board’).
7 FLORIN
In favour of accepting pound sterling in old money (6)
A charade of FLOR, an envelope (‘accepting’) of L (‘pound’) in FOR (‘in favour of’); plus ‘in’.
13 IN PROGRESS
On-going support mainly blocking means of access (2,8)
An envelope (‘blocking’) of PRO[p] (‘support’) minus the last letter (‘mainly’) in INGRESS (‘means of access’).
16 GLANCING
Catching sight of good way to deal with matter? (8)
A charade of G (‘good’) plus LANCING (‘way to deal with matter’ – that is, pus).
18 ALLERGIC
Reacting badly on almost being choked by fresh garlic (8)
An envelope (‘being choked by’) of LE[g] (‘on’, cricket) minus the last letter (‘almost’) in ALRGIC, an anagram (‘fresh’) of ‘garlic’.
19 POLLOCK
Swimmer left in swimming pool couldn’t know to begin with (7)
A charade of POLLO, an envelope (‘in’) of L (‘left’) in POLO, an anagram (‘swimming’) of ‘pool’; plus CK (‘Couldn’t Know to begin with’).
21 OEUVRE
Skilful plan eliminating staff work (6)
A subtraction: [man]OEUVRE (‘skillful plan’) minus MAN (‘eliminating staff’).
22 BARMAN
Person who gets shot by outlaw carrying gun? (6)
An envelope (‘carrying’) of ARM (‘gun’) in BAN (‘outlaw’, verb), with a cryptic definition.
24 WOLF
Ladies’ man disheartened female author (4)
Virginia WO[o]LF (‘female author’) minus the middle letter of her married name (‘disheartened’).

picture of the completed grid

89 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,281 by Jack”

  1. Only saw the pairs after a hint on the G-thread. Corniche has popped up a few times in the not terribly distant, but still needed crossers to click; and concrete is a grimme, but ntl they were my last 2 in. Nice puzzle, thanks JnP, French horn was a blast.

  2. Yesterday was very difficult for me and left incomplete, but finished today. Thank you PeterO, for your blog, for parsing “Beetle” and “Prison” and for explaining “Receipt”
    Thank you to Jack for the puzzle

  3. This was plain sailing until once again I was defeated by the French OEUVRE.
    My credit to Lord Jim for yesterday’s help with 1d.
    Thanks PeterO and Jack.

  4. This was very hard for me, needing copious use of Bradshaw and complete a word.

    There’s a werewolf, too but probably just a coincidence

    Thanks Jack and PeterO

  5. The blog says “mostly” in the explanation of DEAFEN but it should be “mainly”. However, I think the puzzle would be better off if the clue did actually say “mostly” because there is another “mainly” in 13d.

    I hope that “female” is in the clue for WOLF because of the semantics of the surface, not to identify Woolf.

    I didn’t see the across pairings, but then didn’t look. I don’t know if they have anything in common, and themes normally have more than 4 instances, so I think it’s not so much a theme as something the setter just wanted to do, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

    Thanks, J&P

  7. And much of Joseph Losey’s 1960 film “The CONCRETE JUNGLE” is set in a PRISON. (Maybe that’s stretching connections a bit too far.)

  8. I came here to avoid Io in the FT, and for respite after yesterday’s Picaroon. Halfway though I began wondering what I had let myself in for. When it was all said and done, I came to a similar conclusion as PeterO – needs some thought and not as bad as P.

    The problem for me with so many fiddly clues is I stop noticing the clues’ surfaces, so I am afraid I am hard pressed to name a favourite. I did not parse COLORADO, not knowing COL.

    Thanks Jack and PeterO

  9. A lot of distractions today, so I revealed all after only half finishing. Plenty of clues I thought were “meh”. I won’t elucidate because maybe nobody cares. I did like BARMAN. though — a very clever surface.

  10. I suspect I may have said this before but Jack is fast becoming a favourite setter for me. Although beaten eventually by the clever (man)OEUVRE, this went in smoothly with plenty of penny drops and admiration for Jack’s constructions. That said, I can well imagine if you don’t manage to grasp the particular synonyms Jack had in mind, then this could be quite a difficult puzzle. The grid is not friendly, though: it certainly helped getting CORNICHE and CONCRETE early so I could at least work my way into the puzzle from crossers. Spotting the likelihood of RECEIPT from its definition felt like a bit of a gamechanger early on. Faves include JUNGLE, KNIT, PAINTING, BEETLE, WERE, DEAFEN, FLORIN, ALLERGIC and the delightful BARMAN.

    Thanks Jack and PeterO

  12. Thanks Jack and PeterO
    I was a bit frustrated by this, as there were several clues I mostly but not entirely parsed – the LE in JUNGLE, the PRON in PRISON, the LAIN in CHAPLAIN, and LE in ALLERGIC all escaped me.
    Favourite FRENCH HORN for “something in the wind”, but to be pedantic, isn’t it brass rather than wind?

  14. Geoff DU @9, I care. I also thought BARMAN was good but I really struggled with the rest. It would have rated a score of 1 clue solved on the first pass in a DA on Friday in the SMH which is pretty rare.
    Just not my day I’m afraid and I had to cheat mercilessly to get there eventually (yes I struggled to find the particular synonyms Jack had in mind PostMark @10).

  15. Well I finished eventually. I struggled, but as pennies dropped, I wondered why. I had to look up ANTBEAR and was rather suprised to find it was a word. Quite a few were much easier to backparse than work out. I frequently semiparse smething , then see the answer and go back to check the rest.
    Thanks both.

  17. I too found this a quicker solve than yesterday’s Picaroon, with OEUVRE last in, but I parsed it. I know Jack in all his forms Basilisk/Serpent to be a bit more challenging, and I had to start reading down clues before I started solving them. CORNICHE was a gimme for me having seen it recently.

    There’s also FRENCH KNIT, with a twist, and PAGEANT across the middle.

    Thank you to PeterO and Jack.

  18. I also had trouble identifying the PRON(e) bit of PRISON and LAIN=remained, but I did find the fe(e) in DEAFEN, and actually remembered le(g)=on for once. But as others have said, rather a lot of “think of a synonym and shorten it” elements today.

  19. In 20A, a COL is a saddle point, which is a local minimum in one direction and a local maximum in the other direction, while a depression would be a local minimum in both directions.

  22. Very good challenge – midway I had to check if today is Friday!

    Favourites: BARMAN, KNIT, DEAFEN, CORNICHE (loi).

    New for me: ANTBEAR.

    I did not parse the HORN bit of 11ac.

    Thanks, both.

  25. Thanks Setter and Blogger

    Like the last Jack I was mildly dissatisfied with quite a few clues. They seem to be the sort that one puts in as the only possible answer with crossers and then back track to parsing; almost impossible to get from first principles. And some just wrong (noted above) as far as I am concerned.

    Still a good work out and a fun time.

  26. I liked this puzzle, so thanks to Jack. Some of these clues have been mentioned already but my particular favourites were 10a KNIT, 22a BEETLE, 21d OEUVRE, 22d BARMAN (loved the misdirection) and 24d WOLF. I needed help to parse all of 14a PAINTING (so obvious now – I was silly to overlook “can” as part of the wordplay) and 25a PRISON. Thanks to PeterO for the clarifications and also for pointing out the pairs, which went over my head entirely!

  27. I do enjoy Jack’s puzzles but I have to share some of the misgivings re his choice of synonyms today. I looked rather askance at gesture/action, difficulty/ado, remained/lain and willing/prone, for instance but – for what it’s worth – I found they were all in Chambers, though, interestingly, none of them in (my preferred) Collins. I’m not really arguing with them but it did make the solve less than completely satisfying.

    Mild grumble over – I had ticks for 3dn DEAFEN, 4dn RECEIPT, 5dn EJECTION, 16dn GLANCING, 21dn OEUVRE and 22dn BARMAN. I grinned at 1dn CORNICHE, too – looking forward to Lord Jim’s comment. 😉

    Unsurprisingly, I missed the pairs: Jack has so many different types of theme / Nina, I never know what I’m looking for!

    Thanks to Jack for the fun and PeterO for the blog. [I don’t understand the first sentence of your preamble: I blogged the two Jack puzzles immediately before this one.]

  28. Thanks for the blog, I really like this setter, clever and imaginative wordplay.
    Like Paul@3 I thought of Lord Jim for CORNICHE, my=cor seems everywhere at the moment but these things are transient.

  29. CORNICHE was clued by Picaroon on December 1st last year as:
    My hotel in Med resort in coastal route (8)
    I think I prefer this one.

  30. Can I also add my thanks to loonapick, I think it was, who also blogged this puzzle?

    Of course, thanks(ish) to Jack, and thanks to PeterO

  31. I find myself in the camp that struggled with this one, and was dissatisfied with a number of parsings even after reading PeterO’s explanations. Guessing what synonym Jack had in mind – and finding some of them a bit of a stretch – and then eliding it too is a leap too far for my aging brain, I’m afraid. As a result I did not complete the SW corner, and had several others unparsed.

  32. Very entertaining puzzle but had to reveal three to get the crossers on an unfriendly grid. FRENCH HORN was delightful, as was ANTBEAR, which I didn’t get. I did notice the pairings at least.

    Ta Jack & PeterO.

  33. I really enjoyed this. I found almost every clue amusing , eg ALLERGIC and BARMAN.
    Initially I thought Jack’s theme might have been Jackson POLLOCK, whose OEUVRE was ACTION PAINTINGs, you could say. He did one called The She-WOLF, Dr Whatson@5.
    Maybe this was a riff from Jack aka Skipjack, a fish, as a pollock is. As well as learning a lot about Jackson Pollock (not that I could connect other clues/solutions), I learned from Wordnik that a skipjack could also be defined as:
    noun obsolete An upstart. ( joke at his own expense?)
    noun An elaterid; a click beetle

  34. @Eileen #27 “I found they were all in Chambers, though, interestingly, none of them in (my preferred) Collins” Exactly replicated here – never a fan of Chambers but multiple copies of Collins, so one is always at hand. And a full OED in microprint – which is such time-sink that I tend to avoid when time-constrained (it’s the historical uses of the word that I find fascinating).

  35. Unfriendly grid but excellent clueing! I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.

    JUNGLE, ALLERGIC and RECEIPT were my favourites.

    THANKS Jack and PeterO

  36. And there are 3 clues containing the word material and one with matter. Surely that’s material/it matters?

    I have a parochial interest in Jackson Pollocks’s Blue (in the clue for 5 down) Poles..
    Over 50 years ago (I remember it well) our then Prime Minister actively promoted and signed off on the expenditure of 1.3 million dollars for the purchase of Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles which is held by the National Museum of Australia and estimated to now be worth over $500 million.

    From the NMA:
    Blue Poles became the most controversial painting in Australian history.
    Conservative elements of society saw the purchase as an indication of the Labor government’s flamboyance and economic ineptitude.
    The Daily Mirror front page for 23 October 1973 announced ‘$1mill. Aust. Masterpiece. Drunks did it’.
    Supporters of the acquisition saw the painting as symbolising a new, more internationally oriented, culturally mature nation. Both responses brought attention to the visual arts in a way never before experienced in Australia.

  37. I have a probably irrational preference for clues where the solution and the parsing dawn on me simultaneously and there seemed to be a few here (JUNGLE, PRISON, CHAPLAIN, ALLERGIC), where I could only completely parse in retrospect. Having said that I agree with Roz about the “clever and imaginative wordplay.”

  38. Willbar@6&7 – “… at sixes and sevens with you” – those are the connections I made too: Jackson POLLOCK with ACTION PAINTING.
    And The Criminal(1960) ‘(released in the US as The Concrete Jungle(1962))
    ‘In PRISON, Italian mob boss Frank Saffron takes him under his wing and secures a move to a different block through claiming to be a Roman Catholic. … They make their plans whispering to each other during Sunday mass.’ – presumably said by the PRISON CHAPLAIN.
    The film was banned in Ireland ‘because so many of the prisoners were !rish Catholics.’
    Thanks J&PO

  39. paddymelon@36. It was the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), that purchased Blue Poles, rather than the National Museum of Australia (NMA). You may have meant this, but two different places. Living in Canberra, I see this painting quite often; it has certainly survived the passage of time.
    I found this puzzle quite a challenge, but enjoyable in retrospect. I noticed the pairs only after reading comments on the Guardian site. Loved CORNICHE, DEAFEN, RECEIPT, FRENCH HORN, OEUVRE, BARMAN.
    Thanks Jack and Peter O.

  40. Badly defeated by this, managing only the top half, though even then wasn’t entirely sure of the significance of CONCRETE or ACTION. CORNICHE was a new addition to my vocab thanks to a quite recent Guardian Cryptic, so I was pleased to recollect that one. Revealing the other clues. Impressed by BARMAN and SEEPAGE. But this didn’t give me a feeling of anticipation or even joy on first sweep through. That indicated that I was going to struggle today…

  41. …though a jogged memory of POLLOCK fishing in a small boat off the coast of Looe in Cornwall as a small boy did bring me pleasure…

  42. [Yes, SueM48@39 I read a couple of sources saying variously NMA and NGA, then realised it was NGA after my 3 mins was up. 🙂 Lucky you to have seen it more than once. ]

    Jackson Pollock Wiki: Jungian concepts and archetypes were expressed in his (action) paintings.
    I think there’s more here than meets the eye.

  43. Thanks Paul @3! (I happened to mention the “my” = COR device late in yesterday’s comments – though obviously before today’s puzzle appeared.) So 1d was a bit of a write-in.

    Slightly mixed feelings about this. Some very good clues, and I would single out BARMAN as brilliant. But other clues were a bit of a stretch as PostMark and Eileen amongst others have suggested. In particular I can’t see how “Catching sight of” is a reasonable definition for GLANCING. The latter, in the sense of looking briefly, is intransitive. You can say “I glanced at my watch” but not “I glanced my watch”. (Or is the definition “Catching sight”, with the “of” just being a link word? I’m not quite sure that works either.)

    Thanks Jack and PeterO. (And commiserations to loonapick for his hard work on his alternative blog which has now disappeared.)

  44. LJ @43 “glancing my watch on the bedside table I realised I was late for choir practice”?

    Superb puzzle. Could just about have ticked everything. Top ticks for JUNGLE, RECEIPT & DEAFEN

    My only slight quibble was a lot of these were retro-parsed as the definitions were quite obvious e.g. CORNICHE

    Cheers P&J&L

  47. bodycheetah @44: “glimpsing my watch”, sure. But “glancing my watch”? Collins has for “glance”: “vb (intr) to look hastily or briefly”.

  48. Thanks for the entertainment and Lord Jim@43 saves my virtual ink.

    As I’ve observed before it’s very easy for the setter to clue a synonym cryptically and manipulate that – f]LE[d], [f]ACTION, [c]AN’T BEAR, PRON[e], FE[e], [d]EJECTION, PRO[p], LE[g], [man]OEUVRE, WO[o]LF – and while it’s a legitimate device (my dead body notwithstanding) it’s over-use is (imho) inimical to the solver’s prospects of enjoyable interaction.

  50. bodycheetah @49
    Though the transitive use might be a cricket reference? “He glanced the ball to the fine leg boundary”?

  51. mn @ 46 That requires a keyboard with a separate numeric keypad and may be limited to Windows devices (as there is no Alt key per se on Apple devices). I don’t know about Android.

  52. {This was really hard, I had to use Check a lot.

    A FRENCH HORN is made of brass, but its mild sound puts it in woodwind ensembles, so it counts as a woodwind and appears in woodwind quintets.

    Thanks to Jack and PeterO.

  53. Tough one and nearly gave up with only three filled on. Returned and completed feeling quite smug. The clues all seemed fair but I failed to parse PRISON. A pet hate is cricket terminology (“on”) but the occasional one doesn’t hurt.
    Thanks both.

  54. Jack is one of my favourite setters and this crossword reminds me why I like his work so much. My top picks included JUNGLE, KNIT, PAINTING, ANTBEAR, the very clever BEETLE, CORNICHE, IN PROGRESS, and OEUVRE. Thanks PeterO for the blog.

  56. It really is a funny old game, unlike many others I found this considerably harder than yesterday’s Picaroon. I tend to find Jack a bit tricky because of their fondness for “work something out then chop a bit off and stick onto something else” charades. Of course, that isn’t a criticism. BEETLE was a good ‘un.

  57. Thanks both,

    There may be dictionary support for it somewhere but I don’t think of a col as a depression. On a walk the col (or saddle) is likely to be the highest point in the route between two places. A depression is ‘part of a surface that is slightly lower than the rest’ according to the Cambridge dictionary which is not true of a col.

  58. fwiw, for COL:

    Chambers: A depression or pass in a mountain range, a defile

    OED: A marked depression in the summit-line of a mountain chain…

    So whether one agrees with the dictionaries or not, Jack is off the hook.

  59. I liked this a lot and found it more accessible than yesterday’s Picaroon. Nevertheless it still took a while for the first one to drop. Lots of ‘think of a word and then drop the first/last letter’ – I don’t mind a few but it seemed a fairly prominent device today. Liked BARMAN and thought CURRICULAR was a neat anagram. Last ones in were the interlocking WERE/WOLF; getting stuck with a couple of 4 letter answers at the end is always a bit frustrating I find, but they were fair enough. Thanks Jack for the challenge & PeterO for some explanations

  60. No ?s about lain in 26ac? ‘This field has long lain/remained fallow’ does it, I guess. A bit sort of niche tho …

  61. I think I would align my sentiments about this puzzle with Alphalpha@48 and with a sprinkling of Mandarin’s comments@56…

  62. Tyngewick@57 et al, to add to SimonS’ dictionary definition, ‘depression’ is the defining feature that makes it a COL and not a peak. The misleading feature is they happen to be located near the top of a mountain, but all’s fair…

  63. Perhaps the confusion is arising because “col” is the French term for what in English is a “pass” – the lowest point to traverse a mountain range.

  65. Like Shirl and minty @20&21 I entered TRANSACT at 14a, which I think parses equally well. It took crossers to straighten this out.

    24a&d had me looking for a WEREWOLF theme, and so (coupled with my error at 14a, therefore not seeing PAINTING right away) I didn’t see the Jackson POLLOCK theme.

    My favourite clue was 11a FRENCH HORN for its deceptive definition and wily wordplay. Muffin@12, to elaborate on Valentine@52, the french horn appears in the standard configurations of both wind and brass quintets. Winds – flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon; brass – two trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba.

    Thanks, Jack for the chewy challenge, and PeterO for the helpful blog.

  66. cellomaniac @65

    OK, I accept that a French Horn is a wind instrument, though I can’t go along with Valentine’s suggestion that it’s a woodwind instrument! I’m used to the reference to an orchestral section colloqially referred to as “the winds” to mean the woodwinds.

    I agree that TRANSACT is an equally valid solution @14a.

  67. Didn’t like French horn being “in the wind.” Maybe in the winds, plural? But that would cancels the misdirection. As others have said, bravo for BARMAN and SEEPAGE.

  68. Steffan@64, don’t be discouraged. As long as you can mostly understand the blog to see how the clues work then you’re in the right place. The same devices will be repeated so over time you’ll be ready for them and at the same time you’ll work out what it is the setter is asking you to do with each clue. Just keep at it.

  69. Quite apart from gesture=ACTION being some way down the synonym list, I snookered myself completely on that one by just using “leader” for the subtraction, leaving myself looking for a fratricidal gesture. Oh dear.

  70. Found this tough but fun and stimulating. No light on the first pass across going from top to bottom, so switched to trying downs from bottom to top and was rewarded immediately. Didn’t spot the pairs or the Pollock connection but then didn’t look for any possible theme either. Cotd had to be French horn.

  71. [muffin@66, I call our orchestral sections scratch, bang, and blow (strings, percussion, and winznbrass 🙂 .]

  72. I was a bit uncomfortable with col/depression, but one thing I’ve learnt over the years is that in Crossword Land, “sort of, kind of” will often do. And for goodness sake, never question Chambers. 😉

  74. Easier than yesterday, though ran out of steam in the NW corner…
    OEUVRE new word for me.
    Thanks both.

  75. Thanks PeterO for shedding some light on a very difficult puzzle.

    I can’t agree with bodycheetah @44 that the definitions were quite obvious.

    I struggle particularly with subtractions and there seemed to be boat loads of them here, a lot of them indirect rather than in the clues. I even found yesterday’s Picaroon more accessible, and that was unfinishable.

    Sorry Jack, it sounds like the better solvers love your stuff but I will be ducking your puzzles for a while at least.

  76. Like Gladys@69 I was stuck trying to think of a ‘fratricidal gesture’ – strangely, there’s not one in Chambers. 😉 (Note to self: lift and separate, the oldest trick in the book. )

    A couple of pints down the pub enabled me to see the error of my ways with this and another half dozen clues that all fell in a five minute mini-session on my return.

    I too queried LAIN but eventually thought of “that lasagna has lain/remained on the table since yesterday dinner”, which seems to work. (Is it James Mason?)

    Thanks to Jack and PeterO. Commiserations to loonapick. And to Steffen, too.

  77. Managed about 1/2 so better than I feared after Picaroon. I got barman which i thought was lovely. Need to get used to the idea of deletions etc…
    Thanks Jack and Peter O

  78. @Simon S

    Normally even easier with software keyboards on smart phones. Touch and hold O till other options appear, then slide and select. Æ is on A

  79. Ouch. Got exactly two clues on the first full pass, and struggled mightily from there. In the end failed to get RECEIPT and OEUVRE, and couldn’t parse COLORADO or CORNICHE. (At least one website suggests that “corniche” means “road beside a watercourse” in Egypt, which would make this a double definition rather than a charade. Per Wikipedia, “Three famed corniche roads of the Côte d’Azur in the French Riviera run between the sea and mountains from Nice eastward toward Menton.”) For OEUVRE, I was again betrayed by my American spelling. Noah Webster, you are a mixed blessing.

    That said, French horns are brass, not (wood)wind. Seriously. Clever but flawed clue.

  80. @ThemTates: a wind quintet comprises flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon and… french horn. So, Jack’s clue works for me. Thanks setter & blogger.

  81. ThemTates and rusty, muffin and I addressed this comprehensively earlier in the blog. (See my comment @65.)

  82. Œ æ dipthongs available on iPad keyboard by holding either the O key or the A key until the options appear. This works also for other accented letters such as ç, è etc which we don’t use much in English but they abound in other languages

  83. sheffield hatter@76 Spring and Port Wine (1970)? But that was a herring.
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lie ‘…3. (intransitive, copulative) To abide; to remain for a longer or shorter time; to be in a certain state or condition.
    to lie waste; …fallow; …open; …hidden; …grieving; …under one’s displeasure; …at the mercy of the waves – The paper does not lie smooth on the wall.’

  84. I think Jack‘s crosswords are spoilt by a device he has used 7 times (by my count) in this crossword. This is the removal of letters in a word not present in the clue and using it in the construction. Such as BARELY ESCAPED or ALMOST ON to indicate LE. Further the words he uses for thus are often loosely or obscurely defined, such as PRONE (goes to PRON) to mean willing, as similarly just what letters you have to remove, such as PAY MAINLY to yield FE.
    Needless to say, this makes clues impossible to get from the construction, and when you have got an answer, you really are not sure.
    I wish some kind setter could set Jack a crossword like this and see how he likes it!
    I’m sure if he just stopped this practice he could be a great setter.
    Many thanks Jack and PeterO.

  85. Caroline@84 – I just popped in a day late to say the same thing. Going through all the possible alternatives to ‘man’ e.g. bloke, fellow, chap, him plus all the possible short men’s names, is nothing but a grind. Not enjoyable at all. Although I did laugh when PeterO (thank you) told us it was ‘piece’.

  86. Late thanks PeterO, I failed on OEUVRE – always find subtraction clues hard, don’t think of a manouevre as a plan but rather an action, and as we had already had “work” to define PAINTING decided it could not be anything similar – I suppose it’s a body of work this time but still… I found this tougher than Picaroon and less enjoyable somehow, maybe it’s the other gripes noted above on top of my failure, but there were some happy eureka moments throughout, thanks Jack.

  87. Horses for courses, I really like the wordplay from Jack, the Picaroon the day before was deathly dull and completely obvious.

  88. It was hard and I had to reveal half of it but I’ve learned my for cor, piece for man and not to take long words literally – fratricide !!

  89. Adding a small voice to the grumbles about subtractive clues. As Gazzh@86, I object that MANOEUVRE is not a plan but an action. And it is boring to work through all the STAFF synonyms trying to find a word meaning PLAN with 6+ letters. Too much like work. (As per Jacob@31 and Alphalpha@48). And then it is French! Doh.

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