Picaroon turns up to round off an excellent week of puzzles [we have been spoiled] in characteristically witty style. Many thanks to him.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
8 Change popular stimulant for analgesic (8)
MORPHINE
MORPH [change] + IN [popular] + E [stimulant]
9 Idle, maybe cold-blooded creature (6)
PYTHON
Double definition, the first referring to Eric of Monty Python fame
10 Determined chap’s going to peak close to Everest (4-4)
HELL-BENT
HE’LL [chap’s going to] + BEN [peak] + [everes]T
11 Poor sportsman in boozer’s back part (6)
RABBIT
A reversal [back] of BAR [boozer] + BIT [part]
12 Is it grave or serious? In dark, I am confused (11,4)
DIACRITICAL MARK
CRITICAL [serious] in an anagram [confused – but all the letters are in the right order] of DARK I AM: a grave accent [as in 7dn] is a diacritical mark
16 Anxious for the future, say (5)
TENSE
Double definition
20 London dignitary, proverbially clever fellow with striking fashion (4,11)
DICK WHITTINGTON
DICK [proverbially clever fellow] + W [with] + HITTING [striking] + TON [fashion]
21 After Salah’s header, Aussie player is to dribble (6)
SLAVER
S[aleh] + [Rod] LAVER [Aussie tennis player]
23 College member acquiring second language (8)
ESTONIAN
ETONIAN [college member] round S [second]
25 Helping one to enter shop (6)
RATION
I [one] in RAT ON [to shop]
26 Busts attractive in photo (8)
SNAPSHOT
SNAPS [busts] + HOT [attractive]
Down
1 European means to be heard in argument (7)
POLEMIC
POLE [European] + MIC[rophone – means to be be heard]
2 After bout, stop to see if characters are OK (10)
SPELLCHECK
Three charades in a row: SPELL [bout] + CHECK [stop]
3, 15 This makes MP a deputy leader (4,5)
MIKE PENCE
Is this just the initials of the American Vice-President or am I missing something? [Edit: see comment 3 – thanks, RogerN]
4 Worst family turns up for Allen Ginsberg? (7)
BEATNIK
BEAT [worst, as a verb] plus a reversal [turns up] of KIN [family]
5 Oily stuff: it’s about to keep hairdo wonderful (10)
SPERMACETI
A reversal [about] of IT’S round PERM [hairdo] + ACE [wonderful]
6 Go crazy the wrong way (4)
STAB
A reversal [the wrong way] of BATS [crazy]
7 French playmaker again protects position of ball (7)
MOLIÈRE
MORE [again] round LIE [position of ball – in golf, I think]
13 Rambling in rocky north-east? Nice! (10)
INCOHERENT
An anagram [rocky] of NORTH E NICE
14 Sort of pig in soy with MSG in it getting cooked (10)
MISOGYNIST
A clever anagram [getting cooked] of SOY MSG IN IT, referring to the expression ‘male chauvinist pig’
17 Privates are behind this English flag, if ordered (3,4)
FIG LEAF
An anagram [ordered] of E FLAG IF
18 Faithless sort cheers up on the job (7)
ATHEIST
A reversal [up] of TA [cheers] + HEIST [job – as in The Italian Job]
19 It turns in either direction (7)
ROTATOR
A palindrome – &lit]
22 One in vehicle looking in the mirror a lot? (4)
VAIN
I [one] in VAN [vehicle]
24 What could be an improvement in the weather (4)
THAW
An anagram [could be] of WHAT – another &lit
A nice little puzzle today. I enjoyed it. I wasn’t sure about Mike Pence, but I don’t think there can be any other explanation to Eileen’s.
I have always called graves and acutes (and others) diacritic marks.
Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.
Excellent puzzle and blog. Thanks Eileen for parsing MORPHINE. I missed it because it was right under my nose(not literally!)
So many classy clues.
Thanks to both for a nice puzzle and blog.
In 3,15 M is Mike in the international alphabet, and P short for (new) pence.
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen
Thanks for the parsings of DIACRITICAL MARK and THAW, Eileen. I didn’t see anything else for MIKE PENCE either, but, as it’s Picaroon, surely there must be?
LAVER, although still famous, is going back a bit! “Aussie player” is very loose to indicate him.
FIG LEAF was favoourite.
Thanks, RogerN. We crossed.
Thank you, RogerN – so obvious now!
@1 … and I call them diacritics, as does the International Phonetic Association.
After first quick sweep through hadn’t got a single clue, but spotting Dick Whittington made me turn again, and it became an enjoyable if slow solve. Strange how often Estonia or Estonian appear in puzzles these days, probably a good fit for crossers. Fig leaf the kind of clue that normally Paul enjoys teasing us with…
John Wells @7 – so do I. Both Collins and Chambers give diacritic and diacritical as synonyms – and also diacritic as a noun.
11ac must be the obscurest definition of the year!
There’s been plenty worse this year Auriga. Not that I’ve ever heard of this term.
Actually, 11a was my way into this puzzle!
I think perhaps Auriga meant 12ac?
RABBIT is quite common for a poor sportsman. Many golf clubs have a “Rabbit’s Umbrella” competition for members with handicaps over 20.
My favourite, though, is in cricket, where a number 11 batsman is sometimes a “ferret” – i.e. he comes in after the rabbits!
Another great and challenging puzzle, with outstanding clues too many to mention, and no after-the-fact frustrations with obscure parsing ….. I must confess I’d never heard of 12A, but even this yielded directly from the clue. Probably my favorite Guardian cryptic of 2019.
No, Eileen @ 13, I meant 11 ac.
I’ll probably hear it everywhere now.
The parsing of 20ac is probably the correct one, but there is actually a recognised bell-ringing sequence (a “striking fashion” in other words) called WHITTINGTONS – 531246 on six bells. Rung twice, it is supposed to fit “Turn a-gain Whit-ting-ton/Lord Mayor of Lon-don town”. Pity that Richard Whittington became Lord Mayor for the first time in 1320, over 200 years before bells were hung for ringing in sequence, so that even if young Dick Whittington did hear the bells ring, he couldn’t have heard what we now know as ‘Whittingtons’, but it’s a nice story.
Many thanks for that, NeilH – most interesting. I did know the story of the bells telling Dick to turn again, of course, but didn’t know of the ringing sequence. Knowing Picaroon, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he did!
I wouldn’t call 24d THAW an &lit, because while the entire clue serves as a definition, only the first three words form the wordplay. On the whole, an enjoyable puzzle.
Nothing to add except to express my appreciation to Picaroon for his typically entertaining puzzle, to Eileen for explaining that I should read ‘raton’ as two words in 25a, and to NeilH @17 for the added insight into Dick Whittingon.
2dn Nice clue but POLEMIC does not mean argument. It means a verbal attack.
I worked my way through the bottom half of this fairly quickly, but the top half took much longer. I’m another who hadn’t encountered RABBIT, and had to look up the term, and eventually DIACRITICAL surfaced from some dark corner of a mental dungeon. I enjoyed FIG-LEAF, PYTHON and DICK WHITTINGTON – and I’m obliged to NeilH for pointing out the impossibility of the bells-anecdote! Thanks to Eileen for the blog and to Picaroon for a splendid puzzle.
Crossbencher @21 – re POLEMIC: I winced rather at that, too, so I looked it up. Both Collins and Chambers give ‘argument’ as one of its definitions. If you think of ‘argument’ in its sense of ‘a point or series of reasons to support or oppose a proposition’ [Collins] I think it does work.
Thanks Picaroon & Eileen
Crossbencher @ 21
Chambers: POLEMIC
3. A hostile controversial writing or argument
Loved the FIG LEAF.
RABBIT was my LOI, but having got it from the crossers I recalled Graeme Swann on Test Match Special frequently referring to ‘rabbit pie’, being a nice opportunity for bowlers to improve their figures by skittling out a few hapless tail-enders.
Re 22d, spent far too long wondering if Boris Vian had a reputation for narcissism. (Maybe he’d have thought this clue was about him??)
Many thanks P & E.
I thought this rather good and just right to settle down with on a late December afternoon. DICK WHITTINGTON was FOI and got me started nicely. Liked BEATNIK,MORPHINE and PYTHON. I knew the term RABBIT from old school stories- Frank Richards et al – and MIKE PENCE,LOI was my COD despite not fully parsing it.
Thanks Picaroon.
Yes, yet another lovely puzzle this week. I confused myself by putting in DRAGON (drag on seeming to be something like idling) for the PYTHON, but having corrected this managed to finish. Loved SPERMACETI and SPELLCHECK in particular. Many thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.
An excellent crossword. I’ve had time only for two daily crosswords this week, and I’m glad this was one of them.
I got the two long ones early on, and I think I would have struggled if I hadn’t. I got MIKE PENCE only when I had all four crossers, and I thought it was a very good clue. Other favourites were MOLIÈRE, MYSOGINIST, RATION and the two long ones.
I stopped with just STAB and RABBIT left to solve. (It’s a pity they crossed!)
Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.
This was certainly tough but ultimately worthwhile. Another for whom the particular meaning of 11a RABBIT here and the word DIACRITICAL for 12a were unfamiliar and I certainly needed the crossers. I enjoyed the PDM for 9a PYTHON very much. 17d FIG LEAF certainly raised a smile for its fun surface. 21a’s reference to our Rod (S)LAVER was dated but of course he was one of our best. Thanks to Eileen for the clarity of the blog and her engagement with the contributors’ comments, and of course to Picaroon for the mental stimulation.
[On second thoughts, re RABBIT at11a, think our songwriter Paul Kelly refers to the wisecrack “rabbit” (a kind of sledging?) in his song about “Bradman” but I will have another listen.
Also strangely even Aussie kids of my era heard the story of Lindon’s Mayor, 20a’s DICK WHITTINGTON. I have enjoyed the follow-up discussion about the latter.]
[Sorry for typos – on phone screen – Grrr!
And when I thought a bit more about it yes I also did know “diacritics“ from French 1A (first year at university 1971) – memories grow dim and the recall process is (definitely) slowing down – sigh!]
Very much enjoyed this puzzle though we had to cheat to finish….but as relative novices we don’t understand ‘ton’ = ‘fashion’…..
Jack Laine @32, Collins has for “ton”, after all the weight-related definitions, “style, fashion, or distinction.”
I’ve said it before: Ton = fashion ought to be one of our FAQs. I risked not spelling it out this time – my apologies, Jack Laine. 😉
thanks Eileen for the helpful blog and Picaroon for the fun. A lovely steady solve with Mike Pence being my last in, and thanks to RogerN I now see how clever it is.
Just finished before tomorrow is here and it’s all been said – thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.
[julie @30 – when a bowler keeps getting a certain batsman out, he refers to the batsman as his rabbit. In the first Test in Brisbane in 1928 a young Bradman was out to Tate for 18. In the second innings Bradman fell to the spinner White for 1, whereupon Tate called out “hey Whitey, that’s my rabbit!”. England won by 675 runs (!) and Bradman was dropped. He made England suffer later!]
Thank you Dave in N Carolina and Eileen, not only for for clarifying ton = fashion, as our OED confirms, but also leading us to the (fairly obvs!) revelation that ton and tonne derive from the tun…..though not the trendy sort of ton, of course. Bit dry, sorry, much prefer a Bradman story! Thank you all…..
11@ And a batsman noted for his lack of skill who goes in at Number 11 is sometimes called a ferret because he goes in after the rabbits.