The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28068.
An excellent puzzle from the devious Picaroon. For an uncomfortably long time I was staring at the grid with only four or five lights filled, but it yielded gradually and satisfyingly.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1, 5 | OF HUMAN BONDAGE | Hobo managed fun runs in a piece of Somerset? (2,5,7) |
| An anagram (‘runs’) of ‘hobo managed fun’, for the novel by W Somerset Maugham. | ||
| 5 | See 1 | |
| 9 | FEATHER | Large lady’s eating last of cake, a little down (7) |
| An envelope (‘eating’) of E (‘last of cakE‘) in FAT (‘large’) plus HER (‘lady’). | ||
| 10 | CON BRIO | Crook runs through life energetically (3,4) |
| A charade of CON (‘crook’) plus BRIO, an envelope (‘through’) of R (‘runs’) in BIO (biography, ‘life’), for the musical direction. | ||
| 11 | NUTRITION | Navy tour in it at sea? Goodness! (9) |
| An anagram (‘at sea’) of N (‘navy’) plus ‘tour in it’ (or if you do not like including the abbreviation in the anagram, it can stand alone as the first letter). | ||
| 12 | YOBBO | Flipping East End pastime includes nothing rough (5) |
| An envelope (‘includes’) of O (‘nothing’) in YBBO, a reversal (‘flipping’) of [h]OBBY (‘pastime’) with the aspirate dropped (‘East End’), with ‘rough’ as a noun. | ||
| 13 | SINUS | Channel as start for sail across the Atlantic (5) |
| A charade of S (‘start for Sail’) plus IN US (‘across the Atlantic’ – but not from where I am). | ||
| 15 | SEAWORTHY | Said what VIP spotter will do is fine in the main (9) |
| Sounds like (‘said’) SEE WORTHY (‘what VIP spotter will do’). | ||
| 17 | TOTALISER | Aristotle tinkered with system for the better (9) |
| An anagram (‘tinkered with’) of ‘Aristotle’, the better being at a horse race. | ||
| 19 | TABOO | Bill ducks a subject to be ducked (5) |
| A charade of TAB (‘bill’) plus O O (‘ducks’). | ||
| 22 | ODEUM | Voiced disgust in music hall (5) |
| Sounds like (‘voiced’) ODIUM (‘disgust’). | ||
| 23 | FACE CARDS | Mastiff’s tail wags around great group in pack (4,5) |
| An envelope (‘around’) of ACE (‘great’) in F (‘mastifF‘s tail’)plus CARDS (amusing people, ‘wags’). | ||
| 25 | LORGNON | It helps to see nurse with eccentric clothing (7) |
| An envelope (‘with … clothing’) of RGN (Registered General ‘Nurse’) in LOON (‘eccentric’). | ||
| 26 | OCEANIA | To the west, a cool and a green Pacific region (7) |
| A reversal (‘to the west’) of ‘a’ plus IN (‘cool’) plys ‘a’ plus ECO (‘green’). | ||
| 27, 28 | YEOMANS SERVICE | Great aid agreed, keeping Arab land waiting (7,7) |
| A charade of YEOMANS, an envelope (‘keeping’) of OMAN (‘Arab land’) in YES (‘agreed’); plus SERVICE (‘waitng’). | ||
| 28 | See 27 | |
| DOWN | ||
| 1, 17 | OFF ONES TROLLEY | How to get food from a waiter out to lunch? (3,4,7) |
| Definition and literal interpretation. | ||
| 2 | HEARTEN | Try, after tax rises, to cheer (7) |
| A charade of HEAR (‘try’) plus TEN, a reversal (‘rises’ in a down light) of NET (‘after tax’). | ||
| 3 | MAHDI | Papers theatrically exaggerate revolutionary Muslim leader (5) |
| A reversal (‘revolutionary’) of ID (‘papers’) plus HAM (‘theatrically exaggerate’). | ||
| 4 | NARCISSUS | Stood up cold topless Dutch egotist (9) |
| A charade of NAR, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of RAN (‘stood’ – eg for political office) plus C (‘cold’) plus [m]ISSUS (wife, ‘Dutch’) minus the first letter (‘topless’). | ||
| 5 | BACON | Painter‘s reason to take the bus back? (5) |
| A reversal (‘back’) of NO CAB (‘reason to take the bus’), for painter Francis Bacon.
|
||
| 6 | NANNY GOAT | One tending to brood and attack animal (5,4) |
| A charade of NANNY (‘one tending to brood’ – that is, someone else’s children) plus GO AT (‘attack’). | ||
| 7 | ACROBAT | A European gets stuffed by British athlete (7) |
| An envelope (‘gets stuffed by’) of B (‘British’) in ‘a’ plus CROAT (‘European’). | ||
| 8, 21 | ECONOMY OF SCALE | Way of saving face, so only come in disguise (7,2,5) |
| An anagram (‘in disguise’) of ‘face so only come’. | ||
| 14 | SALAMANCA | Chap sadly back around houses in Spanish city (9) |
| An envelope (‘houses’) of MAN (‘chap’) in SALA, a reversal (‘back’) of ALAS (‘sadly’) plus CA (circa, ‘around’). | ||
| 16 | ATROCIOUS | Bad debts covered by firm; investor finally cheers up (9) |
| A charade of ATROC, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of CO (‘firm’) plus R (‘investoR finally’) plus TA (‘cheers’); plus IOUS (‘debts’), with ‘covered by’ indicating the order of the particles (in a down light). | ||
| 17 | See 1 | |
| 18 | THEORBO | Instrument or article with two round objects (7) |
| A charade of THE (definite ‘article’) plus ORB O (‘two round objects’).
|
||
| 20 | BURUNDI | Make a career in China, India or another country (7) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of RUN (‘make a career’ – or perhaps just ”career’) in BUD (buddy, pal, mate ‘China’) plus I (‘india’). | ||
| 21 | See 8 | |
| 23 | FINIS | Second home providing returns in the end (5) |
| A reversal (‘returns’) of S (‘second’) plus IN (‘home’) plus IF (‘providing’). | ||
| 24 | CLEAR | Pull in outside of Lille, stopping vehicle (5) |
| An envelope (‘stopping’) of LE (‘outside of LillE‘) in CAR (‘vehicle’); CLEAR as in “on a good night I can clear/pull in £100 in tips”. | ||
Mostly enjoyable, my favourites being FEATHER, BACON, and OFF ONES TROLLEY. I was held up for a long time by entering LOTTERIAS at 17a, another anagram of “Aristotle” that fit the definition. The check button revealed my error, so a dnf, but thanks to Picaroon for all the rest and to PeterO for the helpful blog.
After yesterday’s epic (of which the final 2 in the SE had to be slept on), this was a stroll. Until, that is, I got to the last 2 in the SW, lorgnon and theorbo. Never heard of either (lorgnette, oui, but lorgnon, non). No amount of headscratching was working. So, did eventually finish the diabolically puzzling Paul, but not this otherwise quite gentle Picaroon. Hey ho, so it goes. No complaints about either, all good brain-grist, thanks all.
PeterO echoed my thoughts precisely, including the “editorial” in 13a. Thanks.
Great puzzle, uniformity of clues, and several favorite chuckles when solving. Especially liked that ‘piece of Somerset’ ….. after racking my brains of places I had visited in that county. Never actually visited that particular place, but did read the book and see the movie.
Sheer class.
Enjoyed this – just the right level of difficulty to get my brain working added to the pleasure of Picaroon’s lovely surfaces. Needed it to restore faith in myself after my failure to manage yesterday’s offering!
Thank you Picaroon and PeterO.
As usual, I agree with copmus @5. Like Nutmeg, Picaroon is a setter who consistently provides top class puzzles: fair, entertaining and full of wit. Again as usual with Picaroon’s offerings, the puzzle appeared daunting to begin with but steadily unfolded.
A happy start to my day.
Sidetracked by our local cinema being the ODEON which of course doesn’t fit the clue. I have only seen 27 as YEOMAN SERVICE – didn’t know there was also a possessive version. Thanks for explaining why CLEAR=pull in. Very enjoyable crossword: thanks Picaroon and PeterO.
Thanks for the blog, PeterO [especially for the picture of the THEORBO: the dictionaries told me it was a large lute – but really!].
1,5 set the scene beautifully and from then on it was pure delight, with lovely clues throughout. Aristotle’s tinkering, the Dutch egotist and the sad chap in Spain all made me smile.
Many thanks, as ever, Picaroon, for brightening yet another wet and windy morning. [And there’s Alberich in the FT. 😉 ]
Aaargghh – I feel stupid! Everything – and I mean every single part of every clue was perfectly fair, utterly clear (with hindsight) and nothing was extraneous to requirements. And yet it was highly devious at the same time. As is so often the case, you just do what the clue tells you to do and not what you think you should do.
Masterful.
Yes, a real delight! It took me some time, but at least I finished it (unlike Paul’s offering yesterday). Loved YOBBO, SEAWORTHY, NANNY GOAT and ECONOMY OF SCALE in particular. Many thanks to Picaroon and PeterO.
Wonderful stuff! I spent far too long trying to resolve the OBOE in THEORBO before the penny dropped. Got lucky with LORGNON as I’d just read Hilary Mantel’s “A place of greater safety” which features a number of antiquated french devices. Great book and a bit of a bargain at £1.99 on Kindle. Thanks P&P
A most enjoyable challenge today with 3 words I don’t recall seeing before.
No complaints but I did wonder if convention required indicators for Finis and Lorgnon as I don’t think that either are used in English (as opposed to being used by English speakers as the French word for something).
Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO.
Great puzzle and blog as already testified by those above, so thanks to Picaroon and PeterO. I would just like to make the point that this week we have had 5 great crosswords of varying difficulty but of high quality. So something for all of us no matter what our level. The variety of clues has been exceptional. We might all have our favourites – mine would have to be this by Picaroon – but surely no one can complain that we have not been royally treated this week. I write this just to remind those that like to carp how lucky we really are. My favourites today are, OF HUMAN BONDAGE for the great misdirection of Somerset and the nice doh moment when the penny dropped and SALAMANCA for the lovely wordplay and a reminder of time spent in that most beautiful of Spanish Cities,
Excellent crossword, although like the blogger I found this difficult to get started.
High quality clues with my picks being for FEATHER, FACE CARDS, OFF ONE’S TROLLEY and ATROCIOUS. Held up by a couple of unfamiliar words in the SE; thanks to PeterO for the nice picture of the THEORBO and to Picaroon for such an entertaining puzzle.
The south, especially the SW, was brutal, and that’s even after getting the long clue at 1d very early. Like gladys @8, I initially went for Odeon, although I marked it as an unparsed answer to check later. Like bodycheetah @12, I have read and enjoyed APoGS, but it was several years ago and I had no memory of LORGNON. I managed to parse my answer, and was happy enough with it, but it needed a dictionary check. THEORBO was another new word, and I needed that final O before I could have a reasonable go at parsing something. And it didn’t help that it took me a long time to get YEOMANS SERVICE. I couldn’t parse BURUNDI either, but it was the only thing that fit.
The northern half was a breeze!
Great stuff as ever from Picaroon, and an excellent week overall with the harder stuff at the end. Thanks to PeterO for the helpful blog. So that’s a theorbo then. Crikey.
DNF. Couldn’t get SW corner. Got but couldn’t parse oceania and Burundi(thanks Petero). Can’t be much fun lugging a theorbo from gig to gig! Thanks to Picaroon for so much fun.
A theorbo player of my acquaintance once got the long bit trapped in the closing doors of a tube train. No fun at all for her, but an amusing image.
What fun and just the right level of intractability. I’d come across theorbo but blindfolded I’d have attempted to blow it, so thanks for the pics PeterO.
Got there in the end, and lots of fun along the way. Thought, with several solutions ending in the letter O, that that would help a little. However, THEORBO was the last one in after I had to look it up. Knew LOGNETTE but hadn’t come across LORGNON before…
Excellent crossword – Picaroon is one of the setters on my ‘goody – it’s a … crossword’ list
Thanks to him and PeterO
I was sunk by too many words or phrases I didn’t know close together – theorbo, odeum, lorgnon, and face cards, plus a couple that I recognised but which didn’t come to mind in time, yeomans service and finis. I didn’t know RGN either. One of those cases where cracking just one of them might have got me the rest.
Yes, lots of fun and lots of ticks. Theorbo new to me and 1,5 quite the pdm. Thanks to Picaroon and to PeterO for the helpful blog.
This actually took me longer than yesterday’s offering. As a guitarist CON BRIO was a write-in and I knew about theorbos and arch-lutes. The top half, however, remained nearly empty until the Maugham penny eventually dropped. LOI was NARCISSUS.
Needed 225 for several parsings, so thanks to PeterO and of course to Picaroon.
Lovely.
TOTALISER was possibly my favourite as it took a while to find even though I guessed the ‘better’ ruse early on. Plenty of other excellent clues.
I hadn’t heard of YEOMANS SERVICE but got it from wordplay. Was staring at LOR_NON as my LOI for quite some time… Like others, I knew LORGNETTE.
It’s funny–I’d gotten about a quarter of this in and thought that was my ceiling. Then I put it down, made myself an Americano, and picked it back up. Whether it was the caffeine or the break I’m not sure, but all of a sudden the puzzle started to go quite quickly. As with others, the THEORBO crossing the LORGNON was my final big hurdle though. It might have helped if I knew more about nursing in Britain (RGN isn’t an abbreviation here–in descending order of education and licensure, we have NPs (nurse practitioners, who can prescribe medication), RNs (registered nurses), LPNs (licensed practical nurses), and CNAs (certified nursing assistants, who can change bedpans)).
Some clever redirections – for example, I thought of Somerset the county and somerset the somersault, but only saw Maugham’s book when I had the crossers in. I had to check up on THEORBO, LORGNON and YEOMAN’S SERVICE, which, I agree, made that SW corner tricky. Crosswords are the only place in the Guardian where you’ll see mad/eccentric people being describes as “off their trolley” or “loon”.
We too were very slow to get going, but went along satisfyingly once we had. As always with Picaroon, once you’ve got the answer, the clue is visibly fair, even if convoluted. OF HUMAN BONDAGE was first in, so we were expecting more of SM’s oeuvre – ‘not going to miss the theme yet again’, we were determined.
Favourites were OFF ONES TROLLEY and a welcome return for the MAHDI. Only tiny quiblet – with gladys @8 – is that YEOMAN SERVICE has no possessive variant, so far as we know. But a real treat: SPanza @14 is spot on as to how spoilt we are, and thanks to PeterO for his informative blog, especially the THEORBO pic. And the new Mantel is nearly with us; happy days for all her fans here and elsewhere.
What Copmus and Crypticsue said 😀 Thanks all.
In 9ac, surely “her” stands for lady’s, not lady?
Rompiballe @ 30
“Look at her.” No possessive involved.
I generally agree with the praise above. My only reservation was the clustering, and thus interdependence, of all of the obscurities – viz ODEUM, LORGNON, THEORBO and YEOMAN’S SERVICE. This made for a very knotty finish, but as others have observed, the precise clueing made even this manageable in the end.
Determined to beat yesterday’s marathon effort, I stuck to it but wasted a lot of time with a map of Somerset and also by writing in OFF YOUR TROLLEY. THEORBO and MAHDI new to me.
Ruined my afternoon trying to solve this. I’ve finally lost my patience and screwed it up and thrown it in the bin.
Thanks to PeterO and Picaroon
Always a pleasure to see a Picaroon.
Up until a short while ago most setters would clue HER by “that lady”, “this woman’s”, or the like. It seems many now simply use “lady” or “woman”. I don’t quite get it.
gladys @8 and others have highlighted an interesting point about 27/28 across. The more familiar phrase, I would say, is indeed yeoman service, but Chambers also allows yeoman’s service, as clued. Shakespeare used the phrase in this form in Hamlet: “It did one yeoman’s service.”
(Collins, incidentally, doesn’t include the phrase, but it clearly allows it by virtue of one of its definitions of ‘yeoman’, as a modifier: ‘characteristic of or relating to a yeoman’ – hence ‘yeoman service’, I would add as an example.)
Alan B @36
Collins on-line gives it under American usage.
Truly awful and one of the most frustrating and Byzantine Guardian crosswords I’ve ever encountered.
Ah, thank you Alan B @36. It took me a while to get YEOMAN’S SERVICE, but I had no problem with the possessive. That is the more familiar form of the expression to me, though it is hardly every day use, and wasn’t sure where I knew it from. Of course it’s Hamlet, as he explains to Horatio how he got out of his English predicament (and damned R&G) by putting his handwriting skills to good use. I couldn’t remember the quote, but it was in there somewhere from all of those productions. It was bugging me a little, thanks again.
Dansar @37 and Scutter @39
Thanks for your responses.
The answer YEOMAN’S SERVICE was bugging me a bit because I knew only the shorter phrase – hence the little piece of research I did. What’s good enough for Shakespeare …
Easier than Paul yesterday. Loved the misdirection of SOMERSET. My COD was YOBBO.
An afternoon well spent, albeit requiring a lengthy dog walk as a brain refresher. Tough, but fair. Slightly embarrassed that my first one in was ‘totaliser’. Sign of a misspent youth. Thanks, Picaroon and PeterO.
Gawd! Not much easier than yesterday’s but probably a better puzzle. I was quite chuffed to have seen OF HUMAN BONDAGE and,belatedly, FEATHER.The latter delayed by my bungling in MUFTI at 3dn. Last in was LORGNON which I’ve never heard of. A tussle!
Thanks Picaroon.
I agree with the praise for this puzzle but I am another who came to grief in the SW so a DNF for me. Prior to coming to a standstill, I enjoyed several clues including 1,5a OF HUMAN BONDAGE, 9a FEATHER, 15a SEAWORTHY, 17a TOTALISER and 16d ATROCIOUS. Thanks to many of the participants on the forum who have commented so positively with interesting points of view and further information, and of course to Picaroon and PeterO. (I also liked the pictures in the blog, Peter, as well as the story from Rog about the theorbo on the tube train and the Shakespeare discussion.)
Very late and much as SPanza@14 says. Despite not enjoying them all equally I do relish the variety that the G provides us with and am happy to accept that some will float my boat and with others I may feel holed below the water line – and that other solvers will have see things the other way round – vive la difference! Thanks to the brilliant Picaroon and PeterO.
I got it out much to my surprise as it was a struggle held up by my thinking of Somerset as a place. I didn’t understand the parsing of ten clues until 225. Still think OCEANIA is pretty devious. Need long arms to play the theorbo.
Struggled for ages, but eventually got there in the small hours when Storm Jorge woke me. The non-geographical Somerset was LOI. Unlike many others, it was the NE that proved the most intractable, partly because I had reasonably but wrongly put in CON MOTO, ‘with movement’.
Great puzzle, thanks to setter and blogger.