Hurrah! – it’s Picaroon and on top form.
We know what to expect from Picaroon and it’s all here. I’ve really run out of things to say about this setter. I just hope you enjoyed the puzzle as much as I did.
Many thanks to Picaroon for a great start to the day.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Drier and somewhat boring experience that’s tedious (7)
DISHRAG
ISH [somewhat] in [boring] DRAG [experience that’s tedious] – I think there might be some discussion about the definition, perhaps depending on local usage: Chambers defines DISHRAG as ‘dish cloth’ [‘a cloth for washing, drying or wiping dishes’, which seems to cover everything] – I personally use a dishcloth for washing and wiping and a tea towel for drying but I know there are several variations
5 Rock and roll fan after work briefly proved alluring (7)
TEMPTED
TED [rock and roll fan] after TEMP [to work briefly]
9 Dog handler with more in secure pens (7-2)
WHIPPER-IN
WIN [secure] round [pens] HIPPER [more ‘in’] – see here for what a whipper-in does
10 Lines I don’t know in performance venue (5)
ODEUM
ODE [lines] + UM [I don’t know] – the Latin version of the Greek odeon
11 Hindu ascetic American’s greeting with grunt (4)
YOGI
YO [American’s greeting] + GI [grunt – I learned this word for a soldier very recently from a crossword]
12 Regime with a skint, corrupt parliament (6,4)
ATKINS DIET
An anagram [corrupt] of A SKINT + DIET [parliament]
See here for the régime
14 Foremost of intellects in class? (6)
GENIUS
I[ntellects] in GENUS [class] – &lit
15 Vote to imprison one, then check for innocence (7)
NAIVETY
NAY [vote] round I [one] + VET [check]
16 Bill getting the water for Nancy’s group still on stage (7)
TABLEAU
TAB [bill] + L’EAU [water for Nancy]
18 Continue gambling? That’s about right for Norman’s neighbour (6)
BRETON
BET ON [continue gambling] round R [right] – Brittany is Normandy’s neighbour
20 Short-changed minor name in finance (10)
ROTHSCHILD
An anagram [changed] of SHORT + CHILD [minor]
21 For fellow, this address might be used (4)
PROF
PRO [for] + F [fellow] – another &lit
24 European assents, one giving a spirited response? (5)
OUIJA
OUI + JA [European assents] – an old favourite, with a new twist
25 Aid for flier getting good deal on gold hat (9)
AUTOPILOT
LOT [good deal] after AU gold] TOPI [hat]
26 Islander with a sore bum getting into heavy metal (7)
FAROESE
A + an anagram [bum] of SORE in FE [iron – heavy metal]
27 Grass coloured bags with no tears (3-4)
DRY-EYED
DYED [coloured] round [bags] RYE [grass]
Down
1 Note mocking the cost of the partnership? (5)
DOWRY
DO [note] + WRY [mocking]
2 Record-breaking hotel which is at the seaside (7)
SHINGLE
H [hotel] in SINGLE [record]
3 Gripped and picked up like a gift (4)
RAPT
Sounds like [picked up] ‘wrapped’ [like a gift]
4 Hero taught to perform with stage manager (6,9)
GARETH SOUTHGATE
A clever anagram [to perform] of HERO TAUGHT and STAGE for the England football manager
5 Young reporter and undatable eccentric rang (15)
TINTINNABULATED
TINTIN [young reporter] + an anagram [eccentric] of UNDATABLE
6 He has criminal still to uncover behind facial injury (10)
MOONSHINER
MOON [to uncover behind] + SHINER [black eye – facial injury]
7, 19 Luxury biography of female artist (3,4,2,5)
THE LIFE OF RILEY
Cryptic definition, referring to Bridget Riley, artist
There are possible explanations of the expression here
8 Not very bright setter does his best Russian (7)
DIMITRY
DIM [not very bright] + I TRY [setter does his best]
13 Let go of key emergency facility (4,6)
FIRE ESCAPE
FIRE [euphemistically, ‘let go’] + ESCAPE [key]
16 Don’t stay on the road — it’s a bore (4-3)
TURN-OFF
Double definition, the first without a hyphen
17 Sportsman catching one more out there (7)
BATTIER
BATTER [sportsman] round I [one]
22 Rank claimed by guard — it effectively rises (5)
FETID
Hidden reversal in guarD IT EFfectively
23 Spades do some digging, moving easily (4)
SPRY
S [spades] + PRY [do some digging]
Really Lucky Eileen today. A perfectly splendid delight of a crossword. My particular favourite (out of so many) was 5d, not least because of the splendid word itself, but because of the ‘young reporter’
I’d agree about dish cloths, rags and towels – but as you say, it probably depends where you come from
Thanks to Picaroon for the great crossword and to the afore-mentioned lucky lady for the blog
Lovely misleading definitions and cunningly misleading wordplay. I was thrown every which way but the right way by half of these, got a long way through without solving anything and then slowly, but surely, it came together. Masterful construction and beautifully blogged – thanks Eileen and to Picaroon for the morning mauling.
As a bit of an amateur at this game who is far more comfortable on Sundays and Mondays, I found the puzzle itself really hard and didn’t get far at all. Only three answers first time through. Dry eyes was FOI. However, when I get an impenetrable puzzle it’s a learning opportunity. And my goodness what a cracker this was.
As I parsed each cheated solution I had the same chuckles and admiration almost as if I’d solved it myself. Even as the parsing crystallised in front of my eyes my enjoyment of the crossword was also combined with a conviction that I’d never have been able to work it out for myself.
Loved the whole experience. Thanks to both
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen
Great fun, though I found the NW hard (I use a tea towel for drying too!). I liked the long ones, though they all rather relied on general knowledge.
Genus is different from Class, but I suppose it’s a class.
Hi crypticsue @1 – I very nearly repeated the first sentence of my preamble on January 30th. 😉
A perfectly splendid delight indeed – and I think TINTINNABULATION was my favourite, too.
Along with Tyrus a great puzzle day. Two of the best. And thanks Eileen.
Would Arachne have included “female” in 7,19?
muffin @7
I don’t think so – and did you notice I didn’t?
It’s funny how some setters just ‘have it’, and Picaroon shines brightly from within that select group; even a simple charade like DIMITRY has a charming understated elegance. It’s a bit like how certain composers produce perfectly good music by craft and toil, while for a few (such as Mozart and Mendelssohn) the inspirations seemed to flood out fully-formed. Maybe the process is harder work for Picaroon than I imagine, but anyway the end results always appear graceful and effortless and are a joy to solve.
Greetings to Eileen and Picaroon if you drop in.
Eileen @8 – yes I did!
Haha for 26 I got the ‘heavy metal’ to be FE but then used BUM to get ‘ARSE’. It was only after I couldnt get the ‘O’ that I spotted the anagram of ‘A SORE’. is ‘bum’ an unusual indicator of an anagram?
First reveals for a while, a dnf. Not helped by my determinedly wanting INSECT for 14a with Class as the definition but otherwise unable to parse it. Indeed having got taxonomic rank firmly in my head was then a tad dissatisfied to see Genus = class being used.
Otherwise a splendid challenge and most enjoyable
Thanks Eileen and Ppicaroon
Doofs @12 being a scientist I too baulked at genus = class but as muffin pointed out @4 one is being used in the purely taxonomic sense and the other the more general English sense. Genus is a level of classification and hence a class – in spite of the fact that Class is also a level of classification and so also a class. In mathematics one could (roughly) say a Group is a set and a Set is a group in similar fashion!
This was vry difficult for me but I am glad that I persevered. I am amazed that I almost finished it. I failed to solve the FIRE part of 13d – my mind went blank on that one even though I had entered ESCAPE and had the crossers. I needed some help from google as I had never heard of Gareth Southgate and had to check that he existed. Also new for me was WHIPPER-IN.
My favourites were DRY-EYED, THE LIFE OF RILEY, BATTIER, DISHRAG. I was not sure how to parse AU/TOP/I/LOT. Ah, I see now that TOPI is a hat – which I should have gotten as I live in a part of the world where topi = hat but I had no idea it has drifted into English usage. Touché!
Thank you Picaroon and Eileen.
Thanks for the blog. Had to resort to word search given crossers for whipper-in and odeum, dnk either term, Also struggled with autopilot parsing – assumed pi=good and to some kind of hat, erroneously.
Nice puzzle and surfaces.
Great crossword with superb definitions, one of the best recently – not easy though and I got stuck in the NW corner.
Collins has DISHRAG as another name for dishcloth, so no argument there.
I had one or two small niggles but they were easily dispelled by Eileen’s great blog – and thanks for the REILLY/RILEY derivation, which I found really interesting.
Many top-notch clues but I particularly liked DISHRAG, BRETON, DRY-EYED and MOONSHINER.
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen.
Beautifully put, Limeni @9 – and it’s great to see you back!
just brilliant. Thanks to Picaroon & Eileen
Can we have Picaroon (and Eileen!) every day please.
Just brilliant. Everything in plain sight – once you see it! Tick after tick with MOONSHINER getting my pick of the day. Many thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.
Agree with all – a mini masterpiece.
GARETH SOUTHGATE featured in an apposite &Lit anagram after his 1996 Euro Semi-Final penalty miss: He sought a target
Fell asleep and the day got away, so will read above posts post. I spell naivete so, and Dimitri so, so was a bit bemused. And was being dumbly literal re esc as per the keyboard, so wondered where ape came from, d’oh. Odeum was inescapable, but dnk it’s relation to odeon, sigh. Loved the usual succintness: dowry, tableau, shingle and rapt (NOT wrapped as the TV autospell usually has it…our poor grandkids!). Thanks Picaroon and Eileen.
Limeni @9 ouch it hurts putting Mozart and Mendelssohn in the same phrase.
Like Titian and Constable.
Some of us have absolutely no interest in football, whether England plays or not.How anybody could consider Gareth Southgate a hero is totally beyond me. Each to their own I suppose.
Thanks both,
Some elegant clues. I didn’t find it nearly as difficult as last Friday’s Paul. I’m always surprised when people comment that a puzzle was difficult at 9am. For me a difficult one takes several days to complete. Do people stay up all night doing it?
I too thought that Mr Southgate might be a hero when I filled it in from the crossers. But, of course, he’s merely a manager.
Another brilliant puzzle from the young master. ROTHSCHILD was last in after GARETH SOUTHGATE, and both of these should have occurred to me much earlier. ATKINS DIET and TINITINNABULATED were my favourites.
Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen
@E Foster
read the clue again
@copmus – Haha, yes, I feel your pain! I wasn’t comparing them in stature though, just that they both seem to share an extraordinary facility of composition (as though they were simply writing down complete compositions they could already hear in their heads), compared with the hair-tearing toil of someone like Beethoven.
I don’t spend a lot of my time listening to Mendelssohn, but I would venture that ‘Constable’ is a fraction harsh maybe! 🙂
Sorry, all way off topic.
Superb puzzle. 27a epitomises for me just how clever Picaroon is.
Thanks all
To construct a grid where the 15 letter answers resist
to the end (at least for me) shows panache.
Thank Eileen and bravo Picaroon.
GARETH SOUTHGATE isn’t a hero to me- I’m only dimly aware of who he is- and it will come as no surprise that I didn’t get this until late in the proceedings,er,having all the crossers!
A nice puzzle although I always find Picaroon difficult and this was no exception. As usual I looked back at the completed grid and wondered what I found so tricky!
Liked AUTOPILOT(FOi) and took a stroll down memory lane with OUIJA and ODEUM
Thanks Picaroon
As others have said, a sparkling example of what a challenging and entertaining crossword should look like. I got much closer than I usually do with Picaroon, failing on DISHRAG even though I had figured out the ‘drag’ part of it, completely overlooking ‘boring’ as an inclusion indicator. Didn’t know WHIPPER-IN, ODEUM, or GARETH SOUTHGATE, but good cluing (and confirmation from Google) allowed me to get all of those. Thanks to Picaroon for a gem and to Eileen for her usual excellent blog.
Peter@32, the definition for 4d was ‘manager,’ not hero.’
Tough for Picaroon. My only problem with this is that I wouldn’t consider iron to be a heavy metal. Loved MOONSHINER.
Thanks, E & P.
phitonelly @34
Some environmentalists regard lithium as a heavy metal!
Link didn’t attach
That’s a nice link muffin – thanks! The term “heavy metal” is somewhat nebulous. I tend to associate it with toxicity and, as iron is one of the least toxic ones, it wasn’t the first I tried here. The crossers soon sorted me out though, so no real complaints.
Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen. I dredged up GARETH SOUTHGATE from sports headlines but struggled with WHIPPER-IN and FAROESE,
Thanks to Eileen and Picaroon
A pleasure from start to finish.
As usual, a superb puzzle from Picaroon. The only clue that jarred a little was 2d. Yes, I can parse it, but I found the enclosure a bit strained as it is phrased. Just a minor niggle, and a personal one.
Great fun. Loads of ticks. All mentioned above but I specially liked the and lit in GENIUS. PRAISE as always to Ei!een and Picaroon – two names I am always glad to see.
It has mostly been said and I concur with the high praise mentioned for Picaroon and Eileen. I wonder what can be ascertained about the personality of us solvers by the setters we revere. My top three currently in order are Philistine, Arachne and Picaroon. Anyone else care to reveal their favourites?
Would someone mind expounding a bit on “ted” for me? I’m curious to both the origin and usage but it’s a term that does not lend itself well to the google machine. Does it refer to a specific person or can anyone be a ted? If I told someone I was a ted, would they know I was referring to music?
I really enjoyed the puzzle as well although I had trouble in some areas – neither Gareth Southgate nor fox hunting come up very often in my daily conversations, but I’m going to try to fit them in sometime this week. My favourites were BRETON and ATKINS DIET.
BlueDot @ 43
‘Teds’ were English fans of American rock’n’roll in the late 1950s/early 1960s.
The name derives from Edward, as a lot of the clothes they wore were based on styles from the Edwardian era (apart from the shoes that were known as brothel-creepers).
The next major English musical movement was the Mods, in the early/mid 1960s, and the Teds became known as Rockers, hence the rumbles on Brighton Beach and elsewhere between Mods and Rockers (vide the movie Quadrophenia).
The group allegiances were, of course, crucial, so Ringo Starr, when asked whether he was a Mod or a Rocker is said to have replied “I’m more of a Mocker, actually”.
hth
Thanks Simon! Very interesting. I never imagined there would be so much history or eccentric terminology behind such a short word. I think I remember brothel-creepers from a long ago cryptic and of course that term went straight over my head as well.
Simon, didn’t rockers wear winkle pickers?
I came to this puzzle very late, and I’m glad I found the time for it – it was a super crossword. I couldn’t look anything up and had to leave MOONSHINER, ODEUM and DISHRAG, not knowing those words, but the rest of the puzzle was a delight. TINTINNABULATED was my favourite too.
I didn’t ‘get’ genus = class, but I’m happy with it now after reading the interesting dialogue here.
A super blog as well. Thanks to Eileen and Picaroon.
The clue for Gareth Southgate does not suggest he is a hero. The definition word is simply manager. Hero us part of the anagram. I loved this crossword. Thanks to all.
… and he is in any case a hero to many, not just for taking England to the World Cup semi-finals but also for using his position to make a progressive contribution to social affairs and for a compassionate approach to sporting rivalry.
Never having heard of 9ac or 4dn (rather UK-centric clues) made the NW corner rather hard for me.
Hotel-breaking record, surely? How does the other way work??
Cabbeyroad @51 – it seems so at first (although that way around it wouldn’t have a hyphen of course). But you do have a Hotel that has broken into the ‘record’ – so it is undeniably therefore a “record-breaking” Hotel! 🙂
Much less obvious to solve but quite elegantly misleading when you see it.
It turns it into a clue that you might not get immediately, but when you have a few crossers in and the solution suggests itself from the definition, it does give you a nice ahaa moment (as well as a muffled grrr maybe!).
Nothing to add of any consequence. Loved 17d. Thank you setter and bloggers.