Thanks to Picaroon for the enjoyable challenge. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Complaint one twit receives over a bit of a pint (5,5)
FLUID OUNCE : FLU(short for “influenza”/an illness/a complaint) + I(Roman numeral for “one”) + DUNCE(a twit/a fool) containing(receives) O(abbrev. for “over” in cricket scores).
Defn: A unit of volume equivalent to a bit (one-twentieth to be exact) of a pint.
6 Number two failing (4)
VICE : Double defn: 1st: VICE(informal term for number two/the second in charge, as in “vice-chairman”).
9 Girl to fix clothing for church, which is to be tight (5-5)
PENNY-PINCH : PENNY(a girl’s name, short for Penelope) + PIN(to fix/fasten with, well, a pin) plus(clothing) CH(abbrev. for “church”).
10 The rich losing face? That’s for the birds (4)
AVES : “haves”(collectively, the rich, as opposed to the have-nots) minus its 1st letter(losing face).
Defn: A class of vertebrates that includes the birds.
12 Showing some cheek accepting easy extra work (12)
MOONLIGHTING : MOONING(showing/displaying one’s bare buttocks/cheeks to insult or to amuse someone) containing(accepting) LIGHT(easy/requiring little effort, as in “light duties”).
Defn: … to supplement one’s regular employment.
Remember them?:
15 Cook complimentary about most of sweet fool (9)
FRICASSEE : FREE(complimentary/without charge) containing(about) [“ice”(an ice cream/a sweet/a dessert) minus its last letter(most of …) + ASS(a fool)].
Defn: To cook/make a dish of fried or stewed meat pieces in a thick sauce.
17 Number three failing (5)
ETHER : Anagram of(… failing) THREE.
Defn: A numb-er/that which numbs/an anaesthetic.
A complementary clue to 6 across.
18 Scientist, one shrouded in smoke (5)
CURIE : I(Roman numeral for “one”) contained in(shrouded in) CURE(to smoke/to preserve meat with, well, smoke).
Answer: Marie, or her husband Pierre.
19 Working in mine with all ages (9)
MILLENNIA : Anagram of(Working) [IN MINE plus(with) ALL].
Defn: …/periods of 1000 years each.
20 Don’t mind so much running — it’s a good example (6,6)
OBJECT LESSON : [OBJECT LESS](don’t mind so much/to disagree less) + ON(running/operating as with machinery).
24 Boundary area around the Central line (4)
AXIS : Reversal of(… around) [SIX(in cricket, a hit that reaches the boundary without first touching the ground, scoring 6 runs) + A(abbrev. for “area”, in mathematics)].
25 Where clown’s shoes are made finally? (2,4,4)
AT LONG LAST : Cryptic defn: Clown’s shoes are usually oversized, and therefore have to be made at an oversized/long shoe-maker’s last.
26 Where Jezebel is found welcoming a husband’s vow (4)
OATH : OT(abbrev. for the Old Testament, in which Jezebel’s story is told/is found) containing(welcoming) A + H(abbrev. for “husband”).
27 Brash setter and solver in France drunk (2-4-4)
IN-YOUR-FACE : I(this crossword setter using the self-referential pronoun) plus(and) [YOU(a crossword solver refered to by the setter using the second-person pronoun) contained in(in) anagram of(… drunk) FRANCE].
Down
1 Leaders in fashion or pretentious show-offs? (4)
FOPS : 1st letters, respectively, of(Leaders in) “fashion or pretentious show-offs“.
A WIWD (wordplay intertwined with definition) clue.
2 Scores are reportedly lower for Ashes holders (4)
URNS : Homophone of(… are reportedly) “earns”(scores/gains, eg. points).
Defn: I presume that “lower” signifies it is “ashes” (in lower case letters, the remains after a cremation) that is refered to, rather than the Ashes trophy fought for in the cricket Test match series between England and Australia. But that may be a wrong presumption.
{See comments below for the parsing.}
3 Time to arrest every one in US resort (7,5)
DAYTONA BEACH : DAY(a time period of 24 hours) + TO + NAB(to arrest/to catch, usually criminals) + EACH(every one, as in “each of you”).
4 Place to learn about harmony (5)
UNION : UNI(short for “university”, a place of higher learning) + ON(about, as in “the talk was on the subject of….”).
5 Red or black stuff around piece of meat (9)
COCHINEAL : COAL(black stuff) containing(around) CHINE(the backbone of an animal as it appears in a joint of meat).
Defn: … colour.
7 One making beastly noise shelters against railing (10)
INVEIGHING : I(Roman numeral for “one”) + NEIGHING(making a beastly noise, specifically that of a horse) containing(shelters) V(abbrev. for “versus”/against, as in “England v. Australia”).
Defn: …/speaking or writing about with great hostility.
8 Ex-communist card player fed without hesitation (4,6)
EAST GERMAN : EAST(term for the player partnering West against the North and South partnership, in the card game of bridge) + G-MAN(an agent of the US FBI/a Fed, in short) containing(without) ER(an expression of hesitation).
11 One trading in Derby or in Leicester? (12)
CHEESEMONGER : Cryptic defn: Refering to the Derby and Leicester varieties of cheese.
13 A heartless lie, trouble for lover (10)
AFICIONADO : A + “fiction”(a lie/a fabrication) minus its middle letter(heartless …) + ADO(trouble/fuss).
14 Breaking hand, return to a bit of carpentry (5,5)
MITRE JOINT : MITT(informal term for a person’s hand) containing(Breaking …, …) REJOIN(to return to/to come back to).
16 Charlie‘s terror left during attack (9)
SIMPLETON : [IMP(a child who is mischievous/a terror) + L(abbrev. for “left”)] contained in(during) [SET ON](set upon/to attack violently).
Defn: …/a fool.
21 Extremely skilful on ball, Salah at reduced speed (3-2)
SLO-MO : 1st and last letters of(Extremely) “skilful ” placed above(on, in a down clue) O(letter representing a circular shape/a ball) + MO(reference to Mohamed Salah, Egyptian footballer).
Defn: Short for “slow-motion”/…
22 Bordeaux’s fine wine (4)
CAVA : [ÇA VA](in Bordeaux, France, the reply to the question “Ça va, …?” (How’s it going, …?) – “Ça va.”/(Fine).
Defn: …/a bubbly from Spain.
23 Caught by specialist, yeast infection (4)
STYE : Hidden in(Caught by) “specialist, yeast“.
Defn: An … on the eyelid.
Thanks scchua. I (eventually) parsed URNS as Runs but with R (= “are” reported) appearing lower. It took me a while, as did the whole puzzle today. A very enjoyable challenge. Thanks to both.
It’s simpler, I think RUNS= Scores and move down the R
Most enjoyable puzzle for some time. Many thanks to Picaroon and scchua. Ça va had me scratching my head for some time, it has to be said, but it ended up counting as my favourite clue.
Thanks both.
For 9ac, I think your parsing should be CH= church.
A proper challenge today. Thanks to seeing Nicolai Poliakoff’s (Coco The Clown’s) size 28 shoes walk past me as a child in Bertram Mills Circus one evening many years ago (too many!) helped me verify in my own mind AT LONG LAST at 25ac.
This was enjoyable. I parsed URNS as the first two commenters did.
I failed to parse CAVA, but then I don’t speak French, so it’s no wonder. (My languages in school were Latin and German; I now wish I’d chosen Spanish, which of course is the most useful second language here.)
Great puzzle! Couldn’t get VICE but loved INVEIGHING, OBJECT LESSON, CAVA, OATH and many more. Many thanks to Picaroon and scchua.
Thanks Scutter et al for the parsing of 2down. And Bracoman for pointing out the obvious error in 9across. Blog corrected.
I was a Moonlighting fan when I was younger. I remember me and my sister watching it on the portable TV on (Tuesday?) evenings as we were the only two in the house who liked it. It was a slightly earlier and much more British TV drama that led me to COCHINEAL: Alan Bleasdale’s bleakly brilliant Boys From The Black Stuff. The black stuff in their case was tarmac, not coal, but it got me thinking along the right lines. Coincidentally, one of its six episodes was called Moonlighter.
Classy stuff as ever from Pickers. Faves were OBJECT LESSON MOONLIGHTING & AFICIONADO. Thanks to P+S.
[BTW for jazz aficionados check out Ronnie Scott’s Lockdown sessions on YouTube. First up is brilliant young pianist Ashley Henry + trio]
The best of a very good week for me. It took me longer than the others but was very rewarding. Picaroon on top form IMHO. Favourites were CAVA once the penny dropped, FLUID OUNCE, very inventive but quite OK. and ETHER for what I thought was a fine and unexpected anagram and anagram indicator. Many thanks Picaroon and scchua.
Four great puzzles in a row, long may it continue. Elegant and enjoyable. Of the many induced chuckles, 25A was the loudest.
How many times have forgotten that a number is an anaesthetic? Same again today, then fruitless search for another one to go in 6D. So a dnf but nevertheless enjoyed tremendously with ticks all over the place, especially DAYTONA BEACH and CAVA. Many thanks to Picaroon and Scchua.
I enjoyed that. COD for me DAYTONA BEACH. LOI was CAVA.
Thanks all round.
Phew, I found that very hard but enjoyable.
I think the CH in 9 is ‘clothing for church,’ as I don’t think clothing means plus.
It’s very naughty to take away a capital letter from a proper noun, such as Fed; false capitalisation is OK, but the reverse is supposed to be a no-no. So I thought this must be a ‘gan’ around ‘erm,’ doh!
I particularly liked MILLENNIA, AT LONG LAST, INVEIGHING and SIMPLETON.
Thanks Picaroon for a stiff challenge and scchua for explaining the G-MAN and ÇA VA.
A fitting end to a great week of crosswords. I loved MOONLIGHTING and the contrasting clueing devices used for VICE and ETHER. I got AXIS only because a recent crossword taught me that boundary = six in cricket (or maybe four as well, I’ve already forgotten the details of the discussion on this site.) Anyway, thanks to Picaroon and scchua.
In other news, the county where I live issued a stay home order yesterday. It actually won’t require much of a change for our household, and luckily I’ll still be permitted to go out for walks as long as I maintain proper social distancing.
Cracking puzzle, so much humour! I parsed urns as Scchua did and wondered what lowers for. Thanks for enlightenment. Didn’t parse the ic part of fricassee, at long last and completely failed to get cava. (quickly dismissed the idea of Fred Bordeaux).Brilliant clue. Thank all.
Thank you BlueCanary @ 10: wonderful jazz that I am enjoying as I write this. Actually YouTube is like fifteensquared a great boon in these difficult times. And Ashley Henry is wonderful, as is the young drummer Nathan Shingler. New to me but so much talent!
Wine knowledge hindered me today as someone once brought over a lowly bottle of GAIA (ie the £90 version as opposed to the £250
Naturally it was gorgeous and French “gai”/joli/fine came to mind but there was a spare A.
Unfortunately in Cryptoville the definition is wine, not fine wine and ça va is not very fine at all-c’est la vie(or vin)
But I did like someone else’s suggestion of a bloke named FRED BORDEAUX
Thanks scchua and Picaroon-love your work.
I didn’t think this was as difficult a Picaroon as some but as enjoyable ever. I was quite pleased it was on the friendly side as the two crosswords I’d solved before this one had led me to wonder whether the current dire situation had affected my ability to solve cryptic crosswords at all. Hard to pick just one clue for extra favouritism but I think it has to be 22d
Thanks to Picaroon for the fun and scchua for the blog
I’m another to enjoy this superb puzzle, and also to fail to parse ‘urns’ – so obvious once someone else has seen and explained it !
Thanks, as always, to setter, blogger and contributors.
What a beauty! Spent a while trying to resolve the ICE in VICE as the number having finally remembered that trick and also trying to squeeze a cow (lower) into the urn. Tesco had loo roll this morning so all in all a wonderful start to the day 🙂
Thanks to sschua and Picaroon
Very nice.
The def @ 9a includes “be”
Robi @15, Collins has “fed” in that sense in lower case, and Websters also says “often not capitalized”.
Spain was the last place I was looking for the plonk. A sparkling puzzle; many thanks to the Pirate and Scchua.
For music/historical novel lovers/inmates with time for a (binge) listen, as I write there are 5 days left to listen to episode one, 6 for episode two … and so on, of The Leopard (Radio 4), punctuated with Bellini, Verdi….Highly recommended.
I forgot the link:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fwbv
Thanks for the blog, scchua and Picaroon for another super puzzle.
I’ve nothing to add to the words of praise – just to say that I loved copmus’ Fred Bordeaux contribution. 😉
Woosh, that was quick, sure I only looked minutes ago. Vice is a chestnut, but that didn’t help the brain (slow!). Liked moonlighting, tho mooning is showing more than ‘some’ cheek. Liked the imagery from ‘long last’, re Grok, Marceau, Chaplin et al. Thought “cochineal” immediately, but chine as “piece of meat” was a nho, so bung and look. Loved 7d, coherent surface and you’d be hard-pressed to find a better synonym/def. 8d was a ? Until g-man bubbled up. 13 and 14d were ticks. For 22d, cava was first thought, but delayed by memories of drinking cava root (mildly euphoric) in Fiji. Fun stroll, thanks both.
No, I don’t remember or even recognise the couple.
All good fun. I’d mainly come across “chine” as a verb – when buying a rib of beef or pork joints our butcher offers to chine it to make carving easier – meaning separate it from the big bone partially. So the meaning as a piece of meat was a bit of a guess but exactly the kind of extrapolation based on some knowledge that these puzzles are so good for. Of course, quite often we make extrapolations that are completely wrong (I was another who toyed with the well-unknown band the Okees yesterday) and just occasionally a totally wrong assumption leads us miraculously to the right answer. A score draw at best then.
Many thanks to Picaroon and Scchua for the instantly recognisable blog. Gave me some pleasant things to think on as I queued at the supermarket and then was held up at the local brewery while ITV filmed a news slot there!
@ 18 under General Discussions I have asked for any information on an old poster here called R C Smith or R W Smith. Does anyone have any news of him?
I tried to finish earlier today but picked a difficult one. Gave up on top right corner. Thanks to sschua for some amazing parsing and to Picaroon for compiling it
An enjoyable puzzle with well-constructed clues, some of which I had to parse after solving. My favourites were those that I parsed on the way to solving, and the best of those was CAVA (which dybbuk @3, crypticsue @20 and others also highlighted).
Regarding ‘fed’, I checked in Chambers as well as Collins, and that too has ‘(also without cap)’. I left VICE at the end because it was taking me too long. (I forgot VICE can stand on its own to mean, e.g., Vice-President.)
Thanks to Picaroon for a fine puzzle and to scchua for the illustrated blog and for the parsing of MITRE JOINT and EAST GERMAN.
Thanks both,
Apologies if this has already been mentioned, I parsed ‘penny pinch’ as Penny (Girl’s name) + Pin (fix clothing) + ch.
Much enjoyed ‘Cava’ – hardly a fine Bordeaux. Thanks for the parsing of ‘urns’.
Auriga@28, I don’t blame you if you didn’t recognise the very young Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd in this
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088571/
Thanks to both and I had the same experience as Julia@31. With all this self-confinement I have no excuse to duck the (very) extensive chore list so I just haven’t the time to ponder. Particularly enjoyed the VICE/ETHER diad.
[Now to clear out the side passage. Must be 20 years of accumulated gunk.]
Thanks Schua and Picaroon.
A DNF for me today: word-searched OBJECT LESSON (I had the correct parsing but not OBJECT), MITRE-JOINT and AFICIANADO. Failed to get AXIS and CAVA, though I thought it must be that, couldn’t find a French word for fine to fit. Scotch Whisky yesterday and Spanish bubbly today, what will tomorrow bring.
A 25-minute queue to get into the supermarket this morning, good thing I had more than the papers to get.
like tyngewick@33, I parsed pin = to fix clothing
great puzzle, not too hard
thanks picaroon & scchua
Even by the exalted standards of Picaroon this was a jewel, in particular the SE corner. I suppose a purist might cavil at 22d but crosswords are visual not aural challenges. Bravo.
Knew it was CAVA but couldn’t parse it due to not being able to think past the hard C – grrr! Thanks to setter and blogger, and keep safe everybody.
Despite feeling a bit peaky sat down as usual after petit dejeuner with today’s puzzle – and found the whole thing completely meaningless! As they have done for several weeks thoughts immediate turned to “the virus” despite living in the depths of La France Profonde and self-immolating religiously. However, as the day went on felt a bit better and eventually sailed through with only a minor hiccup over ça va. Fingers crossed everybody.
Pretty tough for a beginning but I eventually got everything except Cava. I apologise if this is a stupid question, but what does ‘failing’ mean in 2a?
Biddy@41: in 6a the “vice” is the failing, as in “I like a drink/you have a failing/he has a vice”. Any help?
It took me three attempts to get going on this but,once started it flowed quite quickly. I must admit to not parsing CAVA but it’s blindingly obvious now. Liked INVEIGHING and COCHINEAL. In both cases I had the answers but the parsing came later..I’ve never come across CHINE before!
Just had my porch roof repaired. All hunky dory but the scaffolders have closed thanks to the virus. Can’t blame them and if this is the worst I have to contend with then I’m doing pretty well!
Thanks Picaroon.
One definition of “vice” is a failing.
Thanks Scchua. Went to bed before blog available, but had not parsed URNS. A slower solve for me (aka a bit of a slog for some of it) but satisfting. Lots to like, some old favourites (the number clues, though it took me longer than it should’ve to remember them) and a number which made me smile. Thanks for the picture of Bruce and Cybill – I loved that show. Thanks to Picaroon for the workout and the fun.
Thank you, Alphalpha and Malcolm. How could I have missed that?
Thank you scchua@34 for putting me out of my misery! I can see now that it looks like Bruce Willis at least.
As a Scotsman, I had to speak ‘foreign’ for uurrns to be a homophone of errns!
It was AXIS that had me stumped (pun intended!), so thank you, scchua, for your help.
I’m coming to this one late as quarantine has me back cataloguing, so forgive me for whistling my titillation to the wind. I solved 2D pretty early on, which gave me the RUNS for 6A. It works doesn’t it?
\’Ca va\’ meaning \’fine\’ is pushing it. Literally, it means \’It\’s going.\’ You could then say \’how do you do?\’ means \’fine\’ because it\’s the reply to \”How do you do?\”
Why does it print a slash every time I use an apostrophe or speech marks?
OD @51
Since 20/4/20 Akismet, the spam filter, has considered all of your comments to be spam and has treated them accordingly. I don’t know if this is due to your email address (or part of it), or your IP address, being on its blacklist. For some reason unbeknown to me, Akismet inserts a slash before apostrophes and quotation marks in comments that it identifies as spam. Unfortunately there is nothing I can do to change the behaviour of the spam filter.