Thank you to Picaroon for the challenge. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Society tries wrong random number generators (11)
SONGWRITERS : Anagram of(… random) [S(abbrev. for “Society”) + TRIES WRONG].
Defn: Whimsically, composers/generators of songs/numbers.
9 Empty white sign for flags (7)
WEARIES : Inner letters deleted from(Empty) “white“+ ARIES(a sign of the zodiac).
Defn: …/becomes less dynamic.
10 Don unknown old pretty clothes (7)
QUIXOTE : [X(symbol for an unknown quantity in mathematics) + O(abbrev. for “old”)] contained in(… clothes) QUITE(pretty/to a fairly high degree, as in “that was pretty good”).
Defn: …, the fictional knight from La Mancha.
11 Relish one shot, a boundary (9)
SHORELINE : Anagram of(… shot) RELISH ONE.
Defn: … between land and sea.
12 Animal got nourishment, taken in hands (5)
RATEL : ATE(got/took nourishment/food) contained in(taken in) R,L(abbrev. for “right” and “left”, the 2 hands/sides).
13 Nanny rating Times covers (4)
BABY : AB(abbrev. for “able-bodied seaman”/a rating/a non-commissioned sailor in the navy) contained in(… covers) BY(times/multiplied by).
Defn: …, as a verb.
14 Stop talking twice before work’s close (4,2,4)
SHUT UP SHOP : SHUT UP!(stop talking!) plus(… twice …) SH!(stop talking!/be quiet!) plus(before) OP(abbrev. for “opus”/a piece of musical work).
16 Suffering from cold, maybe curator has shivers (10)
CATARRHOUS : Anagram of(… shivers) CURATOR HAS.
Defn: Suffering an inflammation of the mucous membrane that one could perhaps/maybe get with the common cold.
19 Bar Council pens instruction for one on the fiddle (4)
ARCO : Hidden in(… pens) “Bar Council“.
Defn: Musical instruction for a violinist/one on the fiddle to use the bow rather than plucking the strings.
20 One wearing ring turned a pale colour (5)
LILAC : I(Roman numeral for “one”) contained in(wearing) reversal of(… turned) CALL(… on the phone/ring).
21 Briefly want right-wingers ruling state (9)
WISCONSIN : “wish”(… for/to want) minus its last letter(Briefly …) + CONS(abbrev. for “conservatives”/politically, right-wingers) + IN(elected as the governing/ruling body).
Defn: … in the USA.
23 Mobile phone ring right for loser (2-5)
NO-HOPER : Anagram of(Mobile) [PHONE + O(letter representing a ring/circle) + R(abbrev. for “right”)].
24 Result where French book’s taken around (7)
OUTCOME : OÙ(French for “where”/in what place?) + TOME(a book, especially a large heavy one) containing(…’s taken) C(abbrev. for “circa”/around/about, applied to years or other periods of time).
25 Politician with dull look Chinese prepare to fire (4,7)
MATT HANCOCK : MATT(with a dull, as opposed to shiny, look) + HAN(the major ethnic grouping among the Chinese) + COCK(to prepare to fire a, well, firearm).
Defn: …, currently the UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
Down
1 Lily‘s better half’s home, getting frisky (4,2,9)
STAR OF BETHLEHEM : Anagram of(…, getting frisky) BETTER HALF’S HOME.
2 Natural water flowing north (5)
NAIVE : Reversal of(… flowing north, in a down clue) EVIAN(brand name of mineral water sourced from, well, Evian, France).
3 Liable to see red snake burrowing into pine (7)
WASPISH : ASP(a poisonous snake, the kind that Cleopatra supposedly clasped to her breast) contained in(burrowing into) WISH(to pine/long for).
Defn: …/easily angered.
4 How explorers are engaged with legal procedure (7)
INQUEST : [IN QUEST](searching for, as explorers are busily doing/engaged with).
Defn: …/inquiry to ascertain the facts relating to an incident.
5 Inscription I used between record and chart (8)
EPIGRAPH : I contained in(used between) [EP(abbrev. for “extended play”, short for a record/phonograph disc that used to be played at 45 rpm) + GRAPH(a chart showing the relationship between two or more variables)].
6 Jolt from spirits, Irish lagers and wine (5,5,5)
SHORT SHARP SHOCK : SHORTS(drinks of spirits/liquors in small measures) + HARPS(plural of Harp Lager, a brand first produced in Ireland by the Guinness Company) + HOCK(a dry white wine from the Rhineland, Germany).
Defn: A catchy term for … because of the alliteration.
7 Bold wife cutting girdle fastening (13)
SWASHBUCKLING : W(abbrev. for “wife”) contained in(cutting) [SASH BUCKLING](fastening/buckling a girdle/a sash worn around the waist).
… swashbuckler(s) with a sash.
8 The Guardian’s going to fill top post, offering good facilities (4-9)
WELL-APPOINTED : WE’LL(contraction for we/the Guardian staff including the setter, using the self-referential pronoun will/are going to do) + APPOINT(to fill the post/job of) ED(abbrev. for “editor”, the top job in a paper like the Guardian).
15 Foolish Sally lifted up jumper (8)
CRACKPOT : CRACK(a sally/a retort/a joke often an unkind one) + reversal of(lifted up, in a down clue) TOP(an upper-torso garment, an example of which is the jumper).
17 I see rising value in bookmaking family’s home (7)
HAWORTH : Reversal of(… rising, in a down clue) AH!(I see/I understand) + WORTH(value/a measure of what something deserves).
Defn: Village in England that was home to the Brontes, the family, specifically 3 sisters who wrote books/made books, cryptically.
18 Star with lowered head? A cape’s in need of a trim (7)
UNSHORN : SUN(the star in our solar system) with its 1st letter(head) repositioned towards its end(lowered …, in a down clue) + HORN(a cape/a promontory, as with Cape Horn which, incidentally, is also called the Horn).
Defn: …/cut of its hair/fur/wool.
22 Beat off a gathering of people (5)
OUTDO : OUT(off/not on target, as in “your guess if way off”) + DO(a social gathering).
Another brilliant puzzle from one of our finest setters.
Thanks to Picaroon and scchua
Great puzzle, witty as ever from Picaroon. Favourites were CATARRHOUS, MATT HANCOCK and SWASHBUCKLING. Got stuck on 4d & 10a until QUIXOTE came to mind. Many thanks to P & scchua.
Thanks Picaroon and scchua
Excellent puzzle. Favourite was SHUT UP SHOP.
I wonder if there’s a mini-theme with MATT HANCOCK, NO-HOPER, OUTCOME, UNSHORN, WEARIES, CATARRHOUS, NAIVE, CRACKPOT, WASPISH, and SHUT UP SHOP? 🙂
Filled the grid ok at a nice leisurely pace, but a couple of niceties of Picker parsing eluded me, viz the ‘[i]s going to’ meaning of ‘we’ll’ in 8d, and I forgot the Brontes’ house, d’oh, so Howarth was a bung and shrug. Lots to enjoy, ntl. Liked the random number generators and Quixote donning pretty clothes. Couldn’t remember the lily, so just had to grind the ana, which I find a bore and avoid if poss, waiting for crossers to pop it out. Loi was naive, neat clue (brand names forgiveable occasionally). Enjoyed muchly, ta Picaroon and Scchua, nice pics as ever.
9a “Empty white” = w[hit]e?
I enjoyed that. A slow start for me, but it fell into place after I eventually got swashbuckling; I needed the s before the penny dropped.
There were several clues that look easy in retrospect, and I liked the well hidden indirect definitions “number generators” and “bookmaking family’s home” (my last one in).
Thanks Picaroon and schua.
A steady solve, as they say. Tried to shoehorn Neil Kinnock in for a while…
Thanks to setter and blogger both.
grantinfreo @4 unfortunately “howarth” is also wrong. I only mention it because I made the same mistake before looking twice at it because it felt wrong.
Thanks for the blog, scchua.
What beery hiker said.
I had ticks galore and thought I couldn’t mention them all – and then I reached 17dn and decided I had to to highlight just that one. The Brontës actually did make books – see here.
What treats this week – Philistine yesterday, Picaroon today and still Goliath in the FT to do. My cup runneth over.
Oops, thanks howard, guess I went Oh instead of Ah, and then didn’t read scchua’ blog properly!
Very clever stuff – indeed I had not appreciated the full deviousness of some of the clues until I read scchua’s blog – the bookmaking family and so on. Picaroon is as cunning as a weasel who is professor of cunning at oxford university (as the saying goes). Delightful – thank you!
Thanks Geoff Cleasby@5 for spotting. Got my macros mixed up. Blog corrected.
I forgot to say huge thanks to Picaroon!
A delight. The concealed anagrams in 1 dn and 16 ac are especially neat, as are some of the whimsical definitions.
I do hope muffin @3 is right about the current Secretary of State for Defending Dominic Cummings.
Anyone remember Whitelaw’s 6dn?
Tragically, I needed a toughie to deal with insomnia but this, pleasant as it was, yielded rather too quickly at 0400 hours.
Failed to fully parse OUTCOME, which I now see as rather good, originally thinking around was doing double duty.
Thanks to scchua for finding an example of out = off in OUTDO…had a question mark here oiriginally.
Nice week, all.
Eileen @15
The phrase goes back (at least) to The Mikado:
To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!
Alliteration indeed!
Thanks Picaroon and sschua.
10a convinced me that there would be a ‘J’ and a ‘Z’ lurking in this somewhere. Could this have been a misdirection by the ingenious gentleman?
Lovely. Thanks both.
Very enjoyable crossword. Have only one query – re ‘Bar Council’ in 19. “Counsel” = an opinion or instruction; “Council” = a group of advisors. I would have thought clue should read “Bar Council we hear…”. What does the team think?
Feliks @18
Jay-Z does indeed seem to get everywhere – but perhaps not yet in Crosswordland? 😉
Camilla Pomeroy @20: The Bar Council is a real thing! “A bar council or bar association, in a common law jurisdiction with a legal profession split between solicitors and barristers or advocates, is a professional body that regulates the profession of barristers. “
Really enjoyed this and finishing it off in the morning sunshine on Hampstead Heath was the icing on the cake. Ticks for just about everything and gold stars for SONGWRITERS, QUIXOTE & Queens Park’s very own man of elastic principles MATT HANCOCK who I once saw at a wedding wearing a very odd pair of red shoes
Always a pleasure to see Picaroon’s byline when the puzzle appears on the iPad, and this was another joy to solve. Thanks to him and to scchua.
PeterO @ 17: I would be very surprised if Eileen were to be unaware of the lyrics you cite from ‘The Mikado’, and I suspect that she has been one of ‘Three Little Maids From School’ a time or two.
Excellent throughout. At the start I liked the prospect of tackling the six long answers, none of which fell quickly. Of those, I got SHORT SHARP SHOCK first (what a neat clue), and the K gave me the COCK of MATT HANCOCK (so to speak), which was easily confirmed by MATT = dull. STAR OF BETHLEHEM was an unexpected anagram – also very neat.
CATARRHOUS was new to me, but easily derived from catarrh. ARCO is probably the only instruction to fiddlers that I know – and to my credit I learned it as a child and not from crosswords!
Thanks to Picaroon and scchua.
George Clements @24
‘The Mikado’ was the first G and S operetta I saw, while still at school – performed by our neighbouring boys’ school! I thought it was wonderful and I’ve been an enthusiast ever since. I was lucky enough to see the legendary Peter Pratt several times at the Bristol Hippodrome, while at University, where I appeared as a grass-skirted native girl in ‘Utopia Ltd’. [Never one of the little maids, though.]
I do hope one or two of you have followed the link I gave @9 – it’s fascinating.
Hi sheffield hatter; thanks for commenting. Completely agree with you re the Bar Council, which I have heard of. But the answer “arco” is actually a bar counsel or instruction. That was what I was getting at…
Camilla @27
I think you are mixing up the wordplay with the definition; the def. is “instruction for one on the fiddle” – council/counsel isn’t relevant.
Didn’t know ARCO, but apart from that found this a highly entertaining and enjoyable puzzle. Particularly liked the assembly of SHORT SHARP SHOCK, almost like train carriages shunting together…
A delicious creation, the cherries on the top being “number generators”, “bookmaking family” and the glorious SHORT SHARP SHOCK and SHUT UP SHOP.
Thanks to Picaroon for the pleasure, to Scchua for helping me complete the parsing to OUTCOME – and to Eileen for reminding me of the risible Whitelaw and his sadistic invention.
Really enjoyed this. For me the long clues didn’t fall immediately but with a few crossers slotted into place so it felt like steady progress throughout. Like many others I enjoyed the misdirecting definitions such as the bookmakers and number generators.
I do find the way the brain works interesting. Having navigated all the wonderful trickery and with one left (9ac) and WEA_I_S knowing I was looking for a sign to fit the last 5 letters it took ages to click we were talking star sign and flagging to mean wearying rather than pointing something out.
Eileen @26
Indeed I did follow the link – a fascinating piece of literary history. I wonder if Picaroon knew – I suspect he did.
Finished before midday, for once. Does anyone know why so many Guardian setters chose setter names beginning with P? My first thought was it’s the same one as yesterday …
Thanks to the ubiquitous P, and scchua.
Alan B @32 – I’d put money on it.
[It was widely reported when the Haworth Museum succeeded in buying Charlotte’s book.]
A good clue could be constructed with Ha[penny]worth.
Lippi @33 – 7 since the archive started – all except Plodge (who was last seen in 2002) are still active:
Pan, Pasquale, Paul, Philistine, Picaroon, Plodge and Puck
Also 7 Bs but two of those were collaborations so arguably don’t count:
Biggles, Boatman, Bogus, Bonxie, Brendan, Brummie and Bunthorne
Ditto what many others have said, and I smiled at WELL-APPOINTED in addition to other favourites already mentioned, but alas, a dnf for me. I wasn’t familiar with HAWORTH, couldn’t decide whether “I see” was oh or ah, and zigged when I should have zagged. Still enjoyable in defeat, so thanks, Picaroon. Thanks also to scchua for the pictures and the parsing of OUTCOME.
What Beery Hiker said
Thanks to Picaroon and scchua
Never mind deciding whether “I see” was oh or ah – it took me a long time to stop thinking that 17d began with CI…
Thank you Picaroon and scchua.
I was puzzled at the link between the words NANNY and BABY, but the use of them as verbs explains the correlation. Not sure I’d come across BABY as a verb before.
…in fact I had Howarth.. my subconscious was calling but I mixed the vowels and didn’t re-think..
Decent challenge today. I’m not fond of clues involving brand names. Just sayin’
Frankie the cat @43. I agree. Harp comes on the heels of Maestro and Fiesta in recent days.
PeterO@17 & Eileen@15 – Others may remember SHORT, SHARP SHOCK from Pink Floyd’s 1973 Us and Them, from the mega Dark Side of the Moon. There is a Wikipedia page here which gives an 1870 translation of Horace as a first attestation.
…and Evian..
Great stuff from setter and blogger – thanks to both.
Dr WhatsOn @45
Many thanks for that – very interesting.
Lockdown confession time: I’ve been using the crossword to suggest albums to listen to. It’s working surprisingly well – yesterday we had Joe Jackson’s Look Sharp! and today we (almost) have Michelle Shocked’s “Short Sharp Shocked” and numerous choices for NAIVE
Thanks to Picaroon and scchua
Relatively gentle – it always helps when a couple of long answers go in quickly: 1 and 7dn gave good starting letters for the left hand side.
25ac was given a real grilling by Nick Robinson this morning on the Today Programme. He was led in nicely by lots of questions about what to do when you are tested positive for Covid – 19, and then in with both barrels on Cummings. Interview at about 8:10, Cummings’ actions towards the end.
I struggled to get into this to start with, just wasn’t on Picaroon’s wavelength at all. But once ‘er indoors got going we soon finished it off, with plenty of smiles and aha moments along the way. Thanks to P and S.
Marienkaefer @50 to be fair to Dominic Cummings – haha just kidding 🙂
BBC 1’s ‘Escape to the country’ has just included a visit to Haworth Parsonage.
[Despite the Bronte Museum being not far from me, it’s years since I visited. I remember some pretty dubious exhibits – two that spring to mind were a pen labelled “Pen that may have been used by Anne Bronte”, and a chair with the label “Chair that Branwell Bronte may have sat in at the pub”. At least the books are certainly genuine!]
Thanks for this very well set out blog scchua, especially for explaining the first part of my LOI 18D – I always forget the “old currant bun”, and to many of you above for adding to the ‘backstory’ in various interesting ways. I only knew Haworth because it is a stop on the Keighley-Worth Valley steam train with at least one good pub (to complement the good beer on the train). My favourite 6D, thanks Picaroon for a nice challenge and all the fun.
I could do without being reminded of MATT HANCOCK- a mixture of tiggerish enthusiasm and blind incompetence!
Still, nice puzzle.
Thanks Picaroon.
Eileen @53 After reading the first half of your note I thought it was going to be more Dominic Cummings. No, Haworth doings instead.
Valentine @57
😉
Excellent puzzle – had to admit defeat with about 20% remaining; I couldn’t progress…
Fine crossword with lots to savour. Last in was CRACKPOT where I had to think a bit to equate both parts of the answer with their respective synonyms. I very much enjoyed all the booze in SHORT SHARP SHOCK, but felt a bit queasy afterwards when confronted with MATT HANCOCK. I liked the suggestion that the definition may be a both ends (with COCK being clued by prepare alone). He doesn’t come across well, even from this side of the Atlantic.
Thanks, Picaroon and scchua. Liked the pics.
at both ends
Late to the party so it has all been said! Two crackers in a row and we can look forward to a Paul? tomorrow. I do think WASPISH is due an extra mention; well it brought a chuckle when I saw the light. Thanks to Picaroon and I would not have ever parsed UNSHORN without your help scchua so many thank too.
Isn’t it clever how setters place hopeless political figures in their puzzles without comment and let us commentators do the demolition work!
Many thanks, all, and especially to scchua for the beautifully illustrated blog.
Ideas for clues or puzzles rarely, if ever, just pop into my head: I have to sit down and work at them. However, the repeated doses of Matt Hancock’s briefings during lockdown made him inescapable. The cock = ‘prepare to fire’ did rather leap out at me, and seemed ripe for cruciverbal exploitation in a clue for a politician.
Which one?
Thanks Picaroon for the entertaining puzzle (though I would prefer not to need the knowledge of criminals required for 25) and to scchua for the parsing of OUTCOME.
Stay free everyone.
Enjoyable puzzle.
New for me were STAR OF BETHLEHEM (lily) + ARCO.
Thanks B+S
Even later to the blog: loved this. On out/off I was thinking of domestic examples where they are synonyms: “I turned the light/gas off/out.” Thanks both! (Looking forward to today’s blog as I have completed it but can’t parse a good proportion.)