Picaroon is the Guardian inquisitor this morning.
A slow but steady solve for me, which I find is the norm for Picaroon puzzles, especially woth some of the vague definitions, for example those for EASTERN and SASHIMI (which is not necessarily fishy), although wordplay and crossers made both of these quite easy in the end. I wasn’t keen on IN being part of the wordplay and solution in EVENING CLASSES, and I don’t know why U in LOTUS is a “woeful grade”, although I’m sure someone will quickly enlighten me. I always though U (especially in Crosswordland) was a superior grade or class.
Thanks, Picaroon
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MULTIPLICATION |
Musk’s opening political unit after reforms using X (14)
|
| M(usk) [‘s opening] + *(political unit) [anag:after reforms] | ||
| 8 | SET-TO |
Barney going too far east then south westwards (3-2)
|
| <=(OTT (over the top, so “going too far”) + E (east) then S (south), westwards, i.e. to the left) | ||
| 9 | CREVASSE |
In church, churchman gets dope and crack (8)
|
| in CE (“Church” of England), Rev, (reverend, so “churchman”) gets ASS (“dope”) | ||
| 11 | EASTERN |
Make wraps set out like dim sum, say (7)
|
| EARN (“make”) wraps *(set) [anag:out] | ||
| 12 | SASHIMI |
Following band, I note something fishy (7)
|
| Following SASH {“band”), I + MI (“note”) | ||
| 13 | SUPER |
Late in the day, some scoff half- heartedly – it’s wicked (5)
|
| [half-heartedly] SU(p)PER (“some scoff, late in the day”) | ||
| 15 | CLAPBOARD |
What appreciative shareholders may do, covering for US builders (9)
|
| Appreciative shareholders may CLAP the BOARD | ||
| 17 | IRON CROSS |
Soldier could get one in case of invader playing ball (4,5)
|
| [case of] I(nvade)R + ON (“playing”) + CROSS (a “ball” or lofted pass from the wing, in football) | ||
| 20 | TREAT |
What might be scary, except for hospital nurse (5)
|
| T(h)REAT (“what may be scary”, except H (hospital)) | ||
| 21 | CHORALE |
A number in service work around a trainee (7)
|
| CHORE (“work”) around A + L (learner, so “trainee”) | ||
| 23 | POSTDOC |
Researcher’s job with Conservative Party bores (7)
|
| DO (“party”) boring POST (“job”) + C (Conservative) | ||
| 25 | HIERARCH |
Charter boat picked up for senior person (8)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [picked up] of HIRE ARK (“charter boat”) | ||
| 26 | ERATO |
Inspiration for linesman round pitch with energy ebbing (5)
|
| [ebbing] <=(O (round) + TAR (“pitch”) with E (energy))
“Linesman” here is a cryptic reference to one who writes lines (i.e. a poet) as Erato was the Greek muse of poetry. |
||
| 27 | EVENING CLASSES |
100 bespectacled guards put on uniform for training (7,7)
|
| C (100, in Roman numerals) IN GLASSES (“bespectacled”) put EVEN (“uniform”)
Not keen on this, as the IN is required as part of the solution, but also to indicate the placement of the C inside GLASSES, so is doing double duty. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MASTER SWITCH |
Daisy has flipping S&M clothing, with urge to show current control (6,6)
|
| M + S (S & M, flipping) clothing ASTER (“daisy”) + W (with) + ITCH (“urge”) | ||
| 2 | LOTUS |
Cause of forgetfulness for classicists, many bagging woeful grade (5)
|
| LOTS (“many”) bagging U
Not sure why U is “woeful grade”? |
||
| 3 | ISOMETRIC |
Picaroon and a little kid almost the same size (9)
|
| I (“Picaroon”) + SOME (“a little”) + TRIC(k) (“kid”, almost) | ||
| 4 | LACONIC |
Brief left in charge defends a criminal (7)
|
| L (ledt) + IC (in charge) defends A + CON (“criminal”) | ||
| 5 | CHELSEA |
Kind of bun that’s different dunked in tea (7)
|
| ELSE (“different”) dunked in CHA (“tea”) | ||
| 6 | TEARS |
More than one drop in high rates (5)
|
| *(rates) [anag:high] | ||
| 7 | OBSTINATE |
Perverse student no longer, say, keeping cool (9)
|
| OB (old boy, so “student no longer”) + STATE (“say”) keeping IN (“cool”, i.e. trendy) | ||
| 10 | LIE DETECTORS |
They expose the deceitful Tories etc., led astray (3,9)
|
| *(tories etc led) [anag:astray] | ||
| 14 | PROKOFIEV |
Musician and academic penning big hit that is no. 1 in Vienna (9)
|
| PROF (“academic”) penning KO (knockout, so “big hit”) + i.e. (“that is”) + [no 1 in] V(ienna)
Would have preferred “composer” to “musician”. |
||
| 16 | BATHSHEBA |
King’s wife to wash Bella’s coat, and zip it up inside (9)
|
| BATHE (“wash”) + B(ell)A [‘s coat] with SH (“zip it up”) inside
Bathsheba was the wife of King David in the Old Testament. |
||
| 18 | OVERRUN |
Cleric you heard – in baking place – go on too long (7)
|
| RR (Right Reverend, so “cleric”) + homophone [heard] of U in OVEN (“baking place”) | ||
| 19 | SAPPHIC |
Lesbian’s drain still blocked by illegal substance (7)
|
| SAP (“drain”) + PIC (photo, so “still”) blocked by H (heroin, so “illegal substance”) | ||
| 22 | APRON |
What cook may use for cutting article (5)
|
| PRO (“for”) cutting AN (“article”) | ||
| 24 | DRAWS |
Depicts small issue Guardian minds getting raised (5)
|
| <=(S (small) + WARD (“issue guardian minds”), getting raised) |
U used to be ‘Unclassified’ in exam terms and really was as bad as you could get. SASHIMI is usually fishy; it’s ‘sushi’ that is sometimes incorrectly defined as fishy when it does not have to be.
lote is an archaic spelling of lotus which would give an ‘E’ grade. LOTES was a bung without much thought or checking.
Really lovely cluing – and not afraid to refer to Greek muses, classical composers, an even more classic Lesbian, a biblical wife, a WWII decoration and the aforementioned dire exam grade: plenty for Gen Z to get their heads around this morning. But all really clearly treated so no excuses! I’d agree with loonapick that EASTERN is fairly vaguely defined but the clue assembly was one of my biggest ticks – so simple yet absolutely delightful. Other big ticks for SET TO, TREAT, CHORALE, LACONIC, CHELSEA and APRON.
I think EVENING CLASSES is OK – ‘guards’ does the insertion so IN is not doing double duty. One hundred = C bespectacled = IN GLASSES guards (container) put on uniform = all following EVEN.
Thanks Picaroon and loonapick
Thanks to early commenters – U for unclassified must be English as we didn’t have that grade in Scotland, as far. As I can recall. It isn’t in Chambers and haven’t had time to look at other dictionaries (another day where the blog clashes with an office day). I withdraw my objection to EVENING CLASSES (missed the “guards” in the clue for some reason).
Lonapick4; You have different exams . U was the lowest grade at O level and probably A level as well. When I did O levels in 1965, I think, you were directed to GCEs if you failed your mocks, so nobody got Us.
I woke early and couldn’t get back to sleep, so decided to come down and see who we’d got today – delighted, as ever, to find Picaroon here, plus Goliath in the FT (and it’s Eccles in the Indy) – all to the good, as I have to be out early this morning.
I seem to have more ticks than ever for this puzzle: from the brilliant anagram MULTIPLICATION at the beginning to the little gem DRAWS at the end, this was a real box of delights.
I particularly admired the innovative cluing of ERATO, who I’m sure must have inspired as many crossword compilers as love poets and I enjoyed piecing together 1dn MASTER SWITCH, 5dn CHELSEA, 7dn OBSTINATE, 14dn PROKOFIEV, 16dn BATHSHEBA and 19dn SAPPHIC – and laughed at the deceitful Tories at 10dn.
(When I had only L?T?? for 2dn, my first thought was LETHE.)
I see that, while I’ve been thinking about and writing this, PostMark has forestalled me re U (along with nicbach) and EVENING CLASSES (and pretty well sums up my thoughts on the puzzle).
Huge thanks, as ever to Picaroon and loonapick – a great start to the day!
Doesn’t X get a bit of use; it’s an unknown, it marks the spot as coordinate, it’s the axis when lower case, and it timeses or multiplies. Nice puzzle from the pirate with some fun clues, like the dope- and crack-taking rev, the boring Tories, the inspired linesman, the hire/d ark, and she whom David saw washing on the roof in the moonlight (washing herself, not Bella’s coat). Agree with PM @2, great range of material, and yes evening glasses works fine. Thanks Pickers and Loona.
U is still the lowest grade in A levels and GCSEs in England and Wales, the grades run/ran A*-F, U, now GCSEs have 9-1, U. It’s what students get when they just write their name on the paper and walk out.
Nicbach – if you did O levels, the alternative were CSEs, O levels were GCEs, rolled together to create GCSEs in 1986 and promptly recreated as Foundation, (Intermediate) and Higher papers.
Digressions apart, fun crossword, thank you loonapick and Picaroon
Eileen @6: LETHE was my first thought for 2dn and encloses an E which is a pretty low grade so you weren’t alone. And I had meant to highlight MULTIPLICATION as my COTD but forgot to come back to it so thanks for the reminder.
.. evening classes, not glasses ..
.. and X also registers your vote, or a wrong answer ..
The best puzzle for quite a few days IMO. Favourites include MULTIPLICATION, LACONIC, PROKOFIEV among several others. (I’d say a composer counts as a musician, and in any case apparently this one was also a pianist.)
If I’m being ultra-picky, I might say that OBSTINATE is not the same as perverse, although it’s certainly possible to be both at the same time.
Thanks Picaroon and loonapick.
Lovely. Top marks for SUPER, SAPPHIC & PROKOFIEV
Chambers has “wrong-headed or stubborn” as one of the definitions for perverse so OBSTINATE is ok?
Cheers P&L
Thank you Picaroon and loonapick, a SUPER TREAT indeed.
I loved the ‘dope and crack’, ‘the deceitful Tories’ and the blocked drain.
I too went for lethe before LOTUS.
I also thought of LETHE before LOTUS, but couldn’t parse it.
grantinfreo @7 – you missed the bit where David sent Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, to be killed in battle so he could marry Bathsheba
As usual, just what Eileen has already said in her comment.
Also nice to see SAPPHo (the tenth muse) near ERATO, which with LOTUS, LACONIC, ISOMETRIC and HIERARCH adds a little greek seasoning.
A steady solve helped by MULTIPLICATION going in early. Lots of the usual clever wordplay such as CLAPBOARD, HIERARCH, EVENING CLASSES, MASTER SWITCH, LACONIC, SAPPHIC and the topical LIE DETECTORS. Sadly I got a U in my Latin ‘O’ Level, although I think most of my class did as well. What a treat from one of my favourite setters.
Ta Picaroon & loonapick
My favourites: MULTIPLICATION, EVENING CLASSES, PROKOFIEV, BATHSHEBA.
I could not parse 26ac ERATO, 17ac CROSS = ball.
2d I wondered why does U = woeful grade. I supposed it was a joke on the more normal grades of A B C D E F but taking it all the way down to Z for the worst grade! Thanks for explaining, PostMark@1.
I also agree with PostMark @1 that sashimi is almost always fish, although a google search showed me that apart from fish, “other meats (such as beef, horse and deer) and foods (such as yuba tofu skin and konnyaku) can also be served as sashimi.”
I enjoyed all of the GK references in this puzzle. What I usually do not enjoy are references to ancient (and even current) TV shows or footballers of any era.
Like Eileen, I also thought of LETHE for 2d but could not parse it.
Thanks, both.
Good fun. IRON CROSS was the only one I didn’t parse, as cross/ball was a bit of a stretch. My favourite was ISOMETRIC.
Splendidly meaty (fishy?) puzzle with some great constructions, cryptic definitions and a wide variety of vocabulary from diverse fields.
Too many excellent clues to list them all, so instead I’ll pick out the splendidly novel one for the cruciverbalist’s favourite muse and an incontrovertible (?) homophone for HIERARCH. I spotted ‘lots’ and ‘unclassified’ immediately, so LOTUS went straight in without ‘Lethe’ ever occurring to me. LOI was TEARS, but cheers rather than tears for this crossword.
Checking the etymology, I find that SASHIMI means ‘slice flesh’, and meat can be served this way, but in the West it always seems to be raw fish.
Many thanks to the Pirate and loonapick
AlanC @18: if you all got a U, maybe it was U for ‘universal’ rather than ‘unclassified’? Maybe you did better than you thought …
I assumed the U In LOTUS was “unsatisfactory”.
What a treat to solve – thank you Picaroon and Loonapick for unpicking the peculiarities.
As ever it’s amazing how some clues which seem utterly unfathomable become perfectly clear when a crosser or two goes in. I, too, thought “lethe” at first and am sure the setter intended that. I have had horse sashimi in Japan, and of course they also sometimes eat whale sashimi. So yes, sashimi can be something other than fish, but the clue asks for something fishy and sashimi often is. I suppose it’d be like cluing “soup” as “hot meal”, which is can be in spite of gazpacho, vichyssoise etc. Or giving “double decker” for “bus”. I don’t think it’s an error just because the descriptor is not 100% inclusive of the object, so long as there is a common association.
Yep, Shanne @15, ruthless lot some of those OT characters.
Tricky in places but as enjoyable as always. I took put Lethe before it didn’t work
Thanks to Picaroon and loonapick
Way beyond my capabilities today, hardly got any clues and even then there were some I couldn’t parse. Thanks loonapick and Picaroon.
I found it hard to get started today but then it gradually slotted in to place. I was so bad at Latin that I had to do Ancient Greek at o level. How was that fair? I thought U stood for ungraded ie so bad as to not merit a grade. What a lovely stigma to attach to a 16 year old!! Now Ofsted do it to the whole school!
ERATO held me up for a while, having bunged in the unparsed ESTRO. I found this a tricky but fair puzzle.
Another excellent puzzle from Picaroon, whose difficulty level always seems just right for me.
A very minor point: I parsed 16D as BAT(HS)HE + BA with SH (zip it) going UP in a down answer.
Thanks for the blog , I liked MULTIPLICATION and EVENING CLASSES, ISOMETRIC had neat use of “little kid ” ,
Not keen on H in SAPPHIC , it is at least two steps , maybe three.
A-Level grades are A* to E , U is unclassified and officially a non-grade , no UCAS points.
Grant @ 7 you missed out the most important. X-charge is an invariant in SO(10) GUTs .
Another MASTER CLASS from the pirate.
Great anagrams for MULTIPLICATION (I had X as part of the fodder at the beginning) and LIE DETECTORS (very appropriate for the forthcoming UK election). I also greatly enjoyed the wordplays for EVENING CLASSES, ISOMETRIC, OBSTINATE and SAPPHIC. I wondered what the ‘issue’ was doing in the clue for DRAWS until I saw the blog.
Thanks Picaroon and loonapick.
Quizzy_Bob@30 – not a “minor point” – just the correct parse of 16d BAT(HS)HE+BA – not BATH(SH)E+BA.
Good stuff as usual from Picaroon with some excellent misleading surfaces.
I wondered about the “up” in BATHSHEBA, thinking that “zip it” is more normal than “zip it up” for “be quiet”. Quizzy Bob’s parsing @30 would explain that; though it would seem to work either way.
loonapick / Admin – this blog is currently “uncategorised” meaning it’s not on the Guardian page, which could cause some people to miss it (as I did until just now when I thought to look at the home page).
Many thanks both.
12A. It wouldn’t be Sashimi if it was made from anything else but fish. Sashimi means ‘ pierced body ‘ which refers to the Japanese method of preparing raw fish
Like KateE@27 I found some of the parsing very tricky today, along with a few words I’d never heard of. I’d also put Lethe instead of LOTUS and was feeling quite pleased with myself until I realised it was wrong.
I’d found it a gentle week up to today, but this definitely highlighted my deficiencies in solving.
Thanks P&L
Calling SASHIMI fishy doesn’t bother me–it does, after all, usually involve lots of fish. But calling dim sum EASTERN certainly does raise an eyebrow. Yeah, I know, referring to China, Japan, and Korea as “the far east” is still standard practice in many circles. But it’s pretty Eurocentric, innit? To get to China, I’d fly west, and our Grant down in Fremantle would fly basically north. But that’s just a quibble.
I struggled more than I usually do with Picaroon, with several unparsed, although no complaints in hindsight. Apparently, not having heard of Lethe is an advantage today!
Thank you Picaroon and loonapick.
Another trying to use Lethe. Use of U was Unknown, but gUessed in the end. Fave was ISOMETRIC, one of my FOI. Great puzzle.
PostMark @22: nice try 😉
In these parts, a grade of ‘U’ stands for ‘unsatisfactory’
Wonderful puzzle today, thanks to Pickaroon and loonapick! Like many others particularly liked MULTIPLICATION and BATHSHEBA, MASTER SWITCH too. Didn’t parse isometric because I got stuck on thinking “little kid” was SO(n), but it makes perfect sense. Somehow TEARS was LOI as I missed a straightforward anagrind.
Bespectacled (in glasses) guards 100 (C), put on uniform (even).
AlanC@18 , it probably stood for universitarium .
[Roz @45: or they were trying to get him into Uniform, even then … ]
Another unparsable LETHE here.
Thanks to Picaroon and loonapick.
Really no fun for me today, I’m afraid. A long while to get going but nothing, when I did actually get some of the grid filled in, really clicked. Like yesterday I left it for a while and then came back, but unlike yesterday my patience wasn’t rewarded. Ended up revealing about 1/4 of the grid and that was the right decision on seeing what had eluded me.
Ah well, I’ll put it down to just being not my day, as I see there’s no shortage of appreciation expressed by others.
Regarding CREVASSE – what’s the connection between ASS = DOPE?
[ MrPostMark @46 , the head of the Special Branch does not wear a uniform . ]
Scraggs@48 anyone who believes a single word spoken by a Tory is a complete ASS/DOPE .
Ha! Thanks Roz @50, I think that just illustrates how lacking my solving capabilities are today. I couldn’t get beyond DOPE meaning good, or drugs.
Can’t disagree with your statement, though.
Ginf@7 and Shanne@15, David was such a conniving deceitful and bloodthirsty king that I’m surprised that so many parents (mine included) chose that name for their offspring.
Also ginf@7&11, re 1a, was it your good taste that caused you to refrain from including Musk’s “political unit” as another meaning for X?
Thanks Picaroon for the delightful puzzle – too many ticks to enumerate. And thanks loonapick for the excellent blog, which I needed for 3d ISOMETRIC, having fixated (like matt w@43) on SO(n) for the little kid.
Excellent stuff from Picaroon – but then he always delivers!
Re LOTUS: to me a ‘woeful grade’ would probably be an F – or a 9 when I was doing O-levels. I’ve also seen (but not received 🙂 ) the mark NS (Not Satisfactory). But I guess U for Unclassified works too.
No other quibbles. Took me a while to parse SAPPHIC – until I twigged ‘still’=PIC.
I’m stumped as to which to assign ‘likes’ to – they’re all good! So can I say ‘likes’ for all…? Oh, and I loved the topical stuff in 23a and 10d! Let’s wait and see what happens tomorrow…
Thanks to Pickers and Looners…
Phew! Tough solve – stuck at it and it was well worth it, with some brilliant clues; my favourite being Prokofiev. Flat stage at the Tour today, what we call a café run, so had more time. Thanks very much to Picaroon and loonapick
Scraggs @ 51 , my first thought was information or GEN , which is common in crosswords.
Cellomaniac@52 , our Sprog3 is David but it is the Welsh connection not the Bible.
Roz @55 – yes I’ve come across that definition on a number of occasions, but that also eluded me today.
Ah well, I’ll see what tomorrow brings.
I too fell victim to Lethe, in more ways than one, as I confidently wrote it in having convinced myself I’d pared it clearly, only to find (when it became apparent it didn’t work) that I could no longer remember how I thought I’d parsed it.
Lovely puzzle all round. Thanks, Picaroon and Loonapick (or should that be Picaloon and Roonapick?)
*parsed. (I’m still not given the option to edit posts.)
I always expect a treat from Picaroon and certainly got one today. Just one quibble – after rejecting LETHE for 2D, either LOTUS or LOTOS parse in essentially the same way and are alternative spellings in C. Tennyson’s poem uses the latter.
Rather blindly blundered my way through this, with several parsings eluding me. Particularly OBSTINATE was how 7d was put together. Liked the homophonic HIERARCH. I’m never quite clear what exactly LACONIC or ISOMETRIC mean, so nice be getting a bit of further education in today…
Nothing much to add. I took Lesbian’s to be the definition in 19. Technically a DNF, as I put LOTES instead of LOTUS.
I’m continually amazed at how good the surfaces are in Picaroon’s puzzles and yet still work flawlessly cryptically. Fave was the stellar PROKOFIEV.
Bravo, Mr P and thanks for the blog, loona.
TimSee@59 Lotos (Λωτος) is the original Greek. Lotus is the Latin version. In the past when familiarity with both languages was common, I imagine the Greek form was the more frequently used.
I’m frankly amazed at the number of posters who have never come across the U grade. I suppose it reflects well on all of your upbringings.
PS. I am still reeling from the fact that someone on the G thread had never heard of Prokofiev
[In the reeling dept, Bingy @64, I have a Lancs cousin, one of whose kids married a Mid- West internet bride who, when given a gift bought in Poland, asked What’s Poland? Not Where’s? but What’s?. We, the family, all gasped!]
Left the paper copy in the office so had to use the app to finish this off this evening which seems to be slightly easier as it lets you check answers and keeps in correct answers. Needed the blog for some of the parsings (postdoc and set-to) and never heard of hierarch without the y. I’m afraid I knew about U being a poor grade having been awarded a degree so low, nobody has ever heard of the grade (the one below third). Mind you I was the only one in the department to get it.
Enjoyed the tussle with Picaroon and grateful to Loonapick and others for their comments and guidance.
Zoot@62, thanks – I’ve had most of my classical education from 225.
In retrospect (strange how typing something prompts thinking about it again), I suppose U is the grade you get for a mark of 0 – I should have expected this precision in the clue.
While technically sashimi is not always fish in practice it almost always is in the UK and it is a UK crossword. Sushi you would certainly have more of a point, that could be many things as long as sushi rice is there.
I got a ‘U’ for English Literature ‘O’ level.
Turned out they lost one of my papers.
Hmm, interesting. I went for LOTES which is an old spelling for LOTUS, and given he mentions classicists in the clue I thought he was after the former.
PROKOFIEV was my favourite. Very nice clue. Also enjoyed APRON.
12a. Not knowing any Japanese food other than sushi and teriyaki I had to Google whether mi or ti was the required note.
When God was a boy and I took O Levels we were given actual marks. I just scraped a pass in Latin with 51 so naturally that was what it was decided I would do at A Level and as a result for the first part of my degree.
[ Thanks for that, Roz@55. My grandmother was Welsh, so I’ll happily hang my hat on that. ]
I got married in Japan, and for the reception my brother-in-law chose a chicken sashimi restaurant. Bad choice.
Nice puzzle, I needed quite a few crossers and didn’t parse a couple, so thanks for those.
Just wanted to share my reading of Shanne@8 – “grades run from A-Star to F.U” – that would be a woeful result indeed!
In the international educational English-medium scene where we enter students for exams provided by Cambridge they still use the U grade but it stands for “Ungraded” and it means that the result was so disastrous that it would have been better if the school had not entered that candidate!
So many of my areas of knowledge covered in unanswered clues.
I can forgive myself for not knowing earn for make, pic for still and a poet for linesman at this stage of my solving career. I will not drink from the waters of the Lethe.
We sometimes use U = “unsatisfactory” as a failing grade in US educational institutions; I didn’t know if that usage extended to other parts of the English-speaking world.
I wouldn’t use “kid” to mean “trick”: to me it’s more like “tease” or “joke” than “fool”. But the dictionaries give that meaning, so I have no objection. I wonder if that difference is regional, temporal, or just an idiosyncrasy of mine.
I found this puzzle quite difficult, but I got there in the end and found it very satisfying. Particular favorites were 1ac (MULTIPLICATION) and 9ac (CREVASSE).
I failed with LOTES, like others, and don’t mind accepting the fail despite Rats@70 claiming that it’s an old spelling of LOTUS! I’m happy to concede defeat.
I also couldn’t solve CHORALE – the use of number for “song” is surely restricted (or should be) to circumstances where you can imagine Paul McCartney saying, “here’s a little number that we used to play on our ukuleles after dinner with George “. Church music is only a number in the sense of “hymn number 103”, which doesn’t include chorales. OK, someone tell me it’s in Chambers. 😃 And also sour grapes after being misled in the direction of cocaine or Calpol
I wasn’t sure about loonapick’s calling out of double use of IN in 27a. Isn’t it C (‘bespectacled’) IN GLASSES (the latter ‘guards’ the C), added to EVEN? It works for me, but I must admit to having to rethink it from a point where it didn’t. In addition, there are circumstances where I don’t mind double use of wordplay/fodder, but this wouldn’t have been one. (Apologies if others have mentioned this and I’ve missed it. I did the crossword during the election results and I’m trying to catch up.)
Thanks as always, if a little late, to Picaroon and loonapick.