Rodriguez’s latest puzzle has been provided for our cruciverbal pleasure this Thursday.
I actually found this quite challenging and had to work hard to finish the NE and SE quadrants. The fact that this grid reveals very few first letters doubtless added to the challenge.
The device around the football managers (alluded to at 13) added an extra layer of pleasure to the solving experience for me, although it didn’t help me to solve any of the individual clues as I went along.
My favourite clues today were 1, for the misdirection around “Murdoch”; 10, for including so many food references; and 5, 17 and 24, all for tightness of construction and/or smoothness of surface.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 07 | CLAMOUR | Case of criminal affair leading to hue and cry
C<rimina>L (“case of” means first and last letters) + AMOUR (=(love) affair) |
| 08 | IN-HOUSE | Posh bores dressed like Elizabethan gents run by that establishment
U (=posh) in IN HOSE (=dressed like Elizabethan gents) |
| 09 | BIREME | English setter with guy turning around in ship
E (=English) + ME (=setter, i.e. Rodriguez) + RIB (=guy, tease, as verb); “turning around” indicates reversal |
| 10 | RYEBREAD | Unfinished Ready Brek, bananas or baked food
*(READY BRE<k>); “unfinished” means least letter is dropped from anagram, indicated by “bananas (=mad)” |
| 11 | OILSTONE | It’s employed for sharpening loose tin fragments
*(LOOSE TIN); “fragments (=splits, divides)” is anagram indicator; an oilstone is a whetstone used with oil |
| 12 | ILL-USE | Maybe neglect vile, sullied clothes from the east
Reversed (“from the east”) and hidden (“clothes”) in “vilE, SULLIed” |
| 13 | MIDDLE MANAGER | Large-minded rogue grabbing graduate job (showing what other pairs of Across answers here have?)
MA (=graduate, i.e. Master of Arts) in *(LARGE-MINDED); “rogue” is anagram indicator; on each row of across solutions, the “middle” of the grid is straddled by the name of a football “manager”: (José) MOURINHO, (Unai) EMERY, (Martin) O’NEILL, (Alf) RAMSEY, (Mikel) ARTETA and (Ruud) GULLIT!! |
| 17 | SCRAMS | Suddenly leaves king protected by rooks
R (=king, i.e. rex) in SCAMS (=rooks, cons, swindles) |
| 20 | EYE-TOOTH | Still loves getting mobbed by the barking canine
[YET (=still, even) + O O (=loves, i.e. 2 x O (=love, i.e. zero score in tennis] in *(THE); “barking (=mad)” is anagram indicator |
| 22 | STALWART | Trusty defender’s broken law, interrupting kick-off
*(LAW) in START (=kick-off); “broken” is anagram indicator |
| 23 | ETALON | Certainly not behind revolving optical instrument
NO (=certainly not) + LATE (=behind (schedule)); “revolving” indicates reversal; in physics, an etalon is a device consisting of two reflecting glass plates, employed for measuring small differences in the wavelength of light using the interference it produces |
| 24 | SEAGULL | In market, gold rings good for high-flier
[O (=ring, pictorially) in AU (=gold, i.e. chemical formula)] in SELL (=(to) market, trade); as a bird, a seagull could be described as a high-flier! |
| 25 | ITALIAN | Boxing pugilist, I beat European
ALI (=pugilist, i.e. US boxer Mohamed Ali] in [I + TAN (=beat, thrash)] |
| Across | ||
| 01 | BLAIRISM | Labour movement’s endless reproach about Murdoch?
IRIS (=Murdoch, i.e. the Irish writer) in BLAM<e> (=reproach; “endless” means last letter is dropped) |
| 02 | IMMERSED | The writer’s tongue squeezed by doctor and soaked
I’M (=the writer’s, i.e. Rodriguez) + [ERSE (=tongue, i.e. language) in MD (=doctor, i.e. Doctor of Medicine)] |
| 03 | TUXEDO | DJ rebranded site during day before party
[X (=rebranded site, formerly Twitter) in TUE (=day, of week)] + DO (=party); here “DJ” stands for dinner jacket, hence “tuxedo” |
| 04 | INHESION | Innate belonging at home, with flipping sound husband
IN (=at home) + HESION (NOISE=sound + H=husband); “flipping” indicates reversal); inhesion is a synonym for inherence |
| 05 | CORRAL | My hands clutching a pen in America
COR (=my, gosh, as exclamations) + [A in R L (=hands, i.e. right and left)]; a corral is a pen for driving cattle into on a ranch |
| 06 | OSCARS | Mark overwhelmed by huge rewards for performing well
SCAR (=mark, of wound) in OS (=huge, i.e. outsize) |
| 10 | RHEUMIEST | Mere hut is shaking and most affected by cold, say
*(MERE HUT IS); “shaking” is anagram indicator |
| 14 | LISTABLE | Large, current firm possibly appearing in a catalogue
L (=large, of sizes) + I (=current, in physics) + STABLE (=firm, solid) |
| 15 | GLOBALLY | Shot drunk by good friend, broadly speaking
LOB (=shot, in tennis) in [G (=good) + ALLY (=friend)] |
| 16 | RATIONAL | Left beside desert island, able to think clearly
RAT (=(to) desert, abandon) + IONA (=island, in the Inner Hebrides) + L (=left) |
| 18 | CUTTER | Caught, say, someone who nicks?
C (=caught, on cricket scorecard) + UTTER (=say, deliver); to nick is to make a small cut |
| 19 | ALLEGE | Member in dailies every so often making claim
LEG (=member, limb) in <d>A<i>L<i>E<s> (“every so often” means alternate letters only are used) |
| 21 | ELECTS | Serves drinks cold after energy returns
E (=energy) + [C (=cold, i.e. on tap) in LETS (=serves, in tennis)]; e.g. to return an MP (to Parliament) is to elect one |
Well, the football managers certainly helped me to solve 23A ETALON, which was new to me. Excellent, right up my street, so thanks Rodriguez and RatkojaRiku.
Unfortunately, I don’t know many football managers (Mourinho & Ramsey, I did know but not the rest), so needed some help to get the last two, ETALON & ELECTS.
Not sure what went wrong with your parsing for 24a, but it is G (good) not O (ring).
{The third manager could be Gary O’Neil, currently of Wolves [or even Terry Neill of Arsenal (1976–83)}
Sea(GULL IT)alian = Ruud Gullit, former Newcastle Utd manager.
I only know the names of a couple of the people in the middle so solving 13a wasn’t much help
As usual with Picaroon there was lots to enjoy so thank you to him and RR
I think you’ll find that in 24A SELL and AU are around G for good. Rings is an including hint word,
I found this tough and didn’t see any football managers. Stalwart is a lovely word.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
We worked out what was happening here and recognised five of the six managers but not being into football we’ve absolutely no idea who is ‘contained’ in 22/23. (It didn’t help, either, that we’d never heard of ETALON). We were hoping that the blog would include a list of the managers to confirm the ones we did know and enlighten us as to the others.
Quite a challenge involving some lateral thinking. Favourites were OSCARS and ELECTS, even though we needed help for them.
Thanks, Rodriguez and, despite our moan, RR.
Mourinho leapt out at me (almost as if I were a fourth official) so I got the managers theme straight away. I still struggled with ArtETALON, though. Great fun all round.
allan @7. The blog does list the managers. See 13a.
Hovis @9. D’oh! That’s what comes of just skimming through the blog to check the answers and get to the comments. Thanks. And apologies to RR.
Very late to comment so just recording my thanks to both setter and blogger. A nice trick which I think I have seen this setter do before in another guise. I am not footballer but recognised MOURINHO and GULLIT and wondered whether either NEILL or O’NEILL rang a bell. Neatly done.
Thanks Rodriguez and RR
I thought it well devised
I saw EMERY and RAMSEY fairly early but didnt connect them till later when I had the middle clue
Great to see “Special one” in there
Racking my brains for a manager by the name of STONE- something – took me a while. I thought there were better options for 4d, but otherwise a great puzzle and blog.
Oh man that was tough. 🙁 Didn’t know the football managers (rugby and cricket man here). Also a couple of new words in BIREME and ETALON. Still great to see James in the regular slots. Hoping for a Buccaneer tomorrow. Thanks all.
Never seen RYE BREAD as one word, but bunged it in anyway. Fun to see the middle manager trick, even if the names were unfamiliar (to us here in Minnesota).