Guardian Cryptic 28,264 by Picaroon

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28264.

Maybe I’m feeling dozy today, but I had more trouble with this puzzle, particularly in the top half, than it would seem to justify in retrospect. There is plenty to enjoy, however, especially after completing the solve.

ACROSS
7 GINSBERG Sing works by composer, a beat pioneer (8)
A charade of GINS, an anagram (‘works’) of ‘sing’; plus BERG (Alban, ‘composer’).
9 NECTAR It’s good to drink case of claret in the neighbourhood houses (6)
An envelope (‘houses’) of CT (‘case of ClareT‘) in NEAR (‘in the neighbourhood’).
10 CHEF Restaurant employee has red face, lacking good service (4)
A charade of CHE (Guevara, ‘red’) plus ‘f[ace]’ minus ACE (‘lacking good service’).
11 PROMONTORY American’s ball on right-winger’s head (10)
A charade of PROM (‘American’s ball’; for promenade, a school or college dance) plus ‘on’ plus TORY (‘right-winger’). Omission corrected. Thanks Beobachterin @10
12 BLOWER On which you might be called ‘b___ cow’ (6)
A charade of ‘b’ plus LOWER (‘cow’). The definition is an informal term for a telephone,
14 ORATIONS Addresses with no food supplies (8)
O RATIONS (‘no food supplies’).
15 USURPER He generates huge interest seizing power — Richard III? (7)
An envelope (‘seizing’) pf P (‘power’) in USURER (‘he generates huge interest’). The question mark definitely belongs to the “definition” part of the clue – firstly, as an indication by example, and secondly because historians differ as to whether Ricard was an usurper.
17 BED GOWN Get depressed around midnight in night attire (3,4)
An envelope (‘around’) of G (‘midniGht’) in BE DOWN (‘get depressed’).
20 CONTEMPT Coax to follow criminal offence in court (8)
A charade of CON (‘criminal’) plus TEMPT (‘coax’).
22 GUYANA Poke fun at an American state (6)
A charade of GUY (‘poke fun at’) plus ‘an’ plus A (‘American’).
23 PEEPING TOM Viewer who’s turned on first of programmes with cat that’s whizzing around (7,3)
An envelope (‘around’) of P (‘the second one, ‘first of Programmes’) in PEEING TOM (‘cat that’s whizzing’ – whiz as slang for urinate).
24 SEED Get diamonds for court favourite (4)
A charade of SEE (‘get’, understand) plus D (‘diamonds’ suit). The ‘court’ is most likely tennis.
25 POPEYE Old man and I picked up tar on the box (6)
A charade of POP (father, ‘old man’) plus EYE, sounding like (‘picked up’) ‘I’. “Popeye the Sailor” was an American animated television series.
26 CLINCHER Left cutting piece of cake, I’m not sure this settles it (8)
An envelope (‘cutting’) of L (‘left’) in CINCH (‘piece of cake’) plus ER (‘I’m not sure’).
DOWN
1 NICHOLAS Parsons, say, with nothing under their cassocks, we hear? (8)
Sounds something like (‘we hear’) KNICKERLESS (‘with nothing under their cassocks’). Nicholas Parsons, recently deceased, was an actor and radio and television personality.
2 AS IF It’s most unlikely he’s an Arab boy (2,2)
Asif is an Arabic male name.
3 WEEPER One making tears in jumper, épée waving around (6)
A hidden (‘in’) reversed (‘around’) answer in ‘jumpeR EPEE Waving’.
4 INNOVATE Create unopened wine without tax breaks (8)
An envelope (‘breaks’) of NO VAT (‘without tax’) in ‘[w]ine’ minus its first letter (‘unopened’).
5 SCATHINGLY Like a fish eating object with derision (10)
An envelope (‘eating’) of THING (‘object’) in SCALY (‘like a fish’).
6 See 16
8 GOOGOL Huge figure of Russian writer seizing doughnut (6)
An envelope (‘seizing’) of O (‘doughnut’ with a hole) in GOGOL (Nokolai, ‘Russian writer’). The arbitrary coinage GOOGOL is 10 to the power 100.
13 WIRETAPPER Wept with repair getting bodged — bugger! (10)
An anagram (‘getting bodged’) of ‘wire’ ‘wept’ plus ‘repair’. Thanks akaRebornBeginner @21
16, 6 EMMANUEL MACRON Heroine meets dashing man, no cruel foreign bigwig (8,6)
A charade of EMMA (‘heroine’ of Jane Austen’s novel) plus NUELMACRON, an anagram (‘dashing’) of ‘man no cruel’, for the current President of France.
18 WANDERED Strolled in centre of Bordeaux clad in pale colour (8)
An envelope (‘clad in’) of DE (‘centre of BorDEaux’) in WAN (‘pale’) plus RED (‘colour’).
19 STATIC Note revolving musical boxes still (6)
An envelope (‘boxes’) of TI (‘note’ of sol-fa) in STAC, a reversal (‘revolving’) of CATS (‘musical’).
21 OBERON King in robe twirling about (6)
A charade of OBER, an anagram (‘twirling’) of ‘robe’; plus ON (‘about’).
22 GAMBIT Clever opening of golf range (6)
A charade of G (‘golf’, radio code) plus AMBIT (‘range’), for various chess opening strategies.
24 SECS Moments in a hearing of Congress (4)
Sounds like (‘a hearing of’) SEX (‘congress’).

 

image of grid

60 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,264 by Picaroon”

  1. Great puzzle overall, challenging and subtly-clued – almost all of them brought a pleasant solving-smile. Many favorites – WIRETAPPER, POPEYE, PROMONTORY etc, and also that French big-wig, whose first-name I must confess I had forgotten until prompted. LOI was SCATHINGLY, but there was nothing to be scathing about in this puzzle. I suspect that NICHOLAS will bring out the homophone-cops in full force, but even that may be great fun to wait and see …

  2. I took a while to get going on this puzzle.

    Liked EMMANUEL MACRON, SCATHINGLY, WANDERED, SEED, PROMONTORY.

    Did not parse CHEF, PEEPING in 23a – I thought of P in PEEING but never heard of whizzing = urinating.

    It took me a while to understand B-LOWER COW but was pleased I could parse it (finally).

    New GOOGOL (but knew GOGOL), GUY = poke fun at, and I googled Nicholas Parsons (had never heard of him) – but could not parse the clue.

    Thanks, B+S

  3. A wonderful tussle, with each hard-won answer giving a hint to the next. That is, until I had just a few left in the northwest. I didn’t know NICHOLAS Parsons, am still unused to that name for underwear despite encountering it often in crosswords, and would never pronounce knicker-less that way anyway (and no, rodshaw, that’s not a complaint about the fairness of the clue, just my excuse for missing it). Also didn’t see the parsing for CHEF, so thanks to PeterO for that.

  4. No need for details, I’ll just say this:  this puzzle was bang slap in the middle of the Goldilocks zone.

  5. I now remember Nicholas Parsons compering Just A Minute, but it didn’t help the solve, which was loi and a shrug. It and a couple in the SW I stared blankly at for as long as the rest took, don’t know why now. Remembed whizz for pee eventually. Enjoyed the surfaces, thanks P & P.

  6. I loved it, especially 7a GINSBERG and 23a PEEPING TOM. Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO.

    [Our son is called NICHOLAS (1d) and was given a variety of “nick-names” (see what I did there!) at school including “Ridiculous” which sort of rhymes, and “Tinbum” (as in “nickel a–e), but never was he accused of going commando – though I think he might find the notion amusing. Mind you, I too had no idea who Nicholas Parsons is and solved this one only by the use of the crossers and the homophone.]

  8. Thanks to Picaroon for another top class puzzle.

    Thanks, too, to PeterO for the informative blog, and sympathy if you are feeling dozy today – it happens to us all sometimes – but you have produced the blog nice and early as usual; always appreciated.

  10. I also struggled with this and mostly then wondered why. Nicholas/knickerless is key to a stock knock knock joke; I haven’t seen/heard it in years. I had forgotten GOOGOL and did not know GOGOL but that was by far from the only try-letters-and-check clue, though once in I could parse the answers, pleasingly. PererO, ON is missing from the parsing of PROMONTORY (11acr). Many thanks to you for the (early) blog and to Picaroon for the challenge.

  11. Great puzzle, thank you Picaroon.

    No problem with “Nicholas” for me. It brought a smile to my face when I remembered the old Knock Knock joke about girls who shouldn’t climb trees!

    [Apologies for absence, have been ill for the last year (not Covid). Feeling a bit better at the moment, hope it lasts!].

  12. Took me rather longer than usual to find an opening despite a few gentle starters, but as always with Picaroon this was a fine puzzle and a rewarding solve. CONTEMPT was last in – spent far too long trying to read that the wrong way round.

  13. Just a minute? It took me more like an hour even with hesitation, repetition or deviation.

    [I detect a whiff of drugs in the air. GINSBERG uses narcotics to expand his consciousness, whilst POPEYE Doyle chases the dealers around New York in The French Connection and the WIRETAPPERs listen in on Baltimore’s Barksdale organisation in The Wire.]

  14. Lovely stuff with double ticks for CHEF, PEEPING TOM & BED GOWN plus Dolly the sheep sings Michael Jackson in a nina 🙂 What more could you ask for?

  15. bodycheetah @14: that really was BAAAAD 🙂

    GAMBIT was my first one in, which sent me on a fruitless search for Purdey and Steed.

    [For friends of Revd Spooner: ASIF, together with JinA @6’s entertaining square-bracketed material, brought to mind Brian Johnston’s celebrated mangling of the name of Pakistani cricketer Asif Masood.]

    Re Just a Minute rules: I’m glad there’s still room on 15² for a little deviation.

    Many thanks P & P

  16. Goodness that was tough and a DNF due to excessive use of the various buttons on the Grauniad website.   Abosolutely loved 23a as it appealed to all my inner 13-year old self.

    FOI was 1d.

    [For those of you interested, R4 devoted an evening to the great Nicholas Parson on the 10th October, what would have been his 97th birthday.  They didn’t mention the programme I remember seeing him on as a lad – the supremely cheesy “Sale of the Century” which always started with the slightly ironic “And now, from Norwich, it’s the quiz of the week” the city where my son is currently at uni and the 10th October happens to be his birthday…   https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p00fzl7j/2020/10/10]

    Thank you Picaroon and PeterO

  18. An excellent crossword producing lots of smiles.  I really liked 7a GINSBERG and 15a USURPER.  In the latter I think you could argue that the whole clue is also the definition.  My favourite however was 25a.  As soon as I saw “tar on the box” I thought POPEYE.  And it gives me an excuse to mention (again) Crucible’s classic “He wrote the Ancient Mariner” (27,144).

    Many thanks Picaroon and PeterO.

  19. [I haven’t even looked at this puzzle yet but I’m begging a little space here to ask those who did the Imogen puzzle yesterday and read my blog to read the comment I’ve just added. Please don’t respond to it on this thread!]

  20. On reflection maybe USURPER isn’t really a CAD (clue as definition).  What I was trying to get at is that “He generates huge interest seizing power” is in fact a brilliant description of Richard III.  Anyway it was a great clue.

  21. There is typo in your solution to WIRETAPPER Peter.

     

    I don’t understand how I miss so many solutions once you hand them to us.

    RED in Wandered is so obvious now!  In that case I got WAN for “pale colour” so colour had fulfilled it’s purpose.  I have to learn to ignore words that group easily , and consider them individually, but with 225’s help I’ll get there I hope!

     

    Splitting e.g. “midnight” into “mid night” to get the G,  is going to take me while though.

     

    Nice puzzle though. Thanks to both P’s.

  22. I noted when solving 19d that the wordplay could also give ACTIVE (C in EVITA reversed) – almost an antonym to the correct answer!

  23. I must have a sticky “a” , a typo, a while. Talking about sticky, did anyone else thinks some of the clues were not exactly PG rated?   I nearly suggested “iffyness” is the theme with the presence of bugger,sex,blower,wandered,seed,knickerless,and peeping tom all featuring.

    promontory may not be innocent either?  Theme has not been mentioned until now?

  25. An enjoyable solve, with several early write-ins and a few head-scratchers later on. LOI was POPEYE, and my favourites included BLOWER and USURPER.

  27. I found this a steady solve though I only had a few in on first scan through but that yielded sufficient crossers to help with the rest. A few clues, 9A, 4D, 29D the trademark Picaroon “non-standard syntax” have, which I’ve learned to look out for.  The eponymous 1D was the basis of old gag from schooldays, so that jumped out immediately.

  28. Add me to those who enjoyed variations on the ‘knock knock’ joke at school. Trust Picaroon to find a clever slant on it with the parsons’ cassocks – I loved it!

    Lots more to enjoy, as ever. Many thanks to Picaroon for the fun and PeterO for the blog.

    Lord Jim @18 – my train of thought re POPEYE was exactly the same as yours. I can’t count the number of non-crpssword folk I’ve tried to convert with that one. Again, Picaroon has come up with a clever new slant.

    akaRebornBeginner @21 – re mid-niGht: ‘swEet-heart’ is another that crops up quite often and is worth filing away.

    [JuneG @11 – it’s really good to see you back. I hope your recovery continues – take care.]

     

     

  30. A slowish but reasonably steady solve, with plenty of clues to like. USURPER probably my favorite – my Dad wrote a book called The Usurper (about Jorgen Jorgenson). [GinF @9 – I remember listening to Allen Ginsberg – my FOI – doing Howl live in Sydney, sometime in the early 70s. Amazing! Ferlinghetti was also on the bill.] Thanks, P+P.

  31. Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO.

    This was fun, and less testing than I often find this setter.

    Despite the fact it is my name I took ages to get 1dn. I am familiar with the knock knock joke, don’t be ridiculous etc. There is also copperbottom, which featured in a recent Azed.

  32. Rather WANDERED into this with nothing else to show for first pass. Then things opened up nicely with the W. Ticks for CONTEMPT, CLINCHER, SCATHINGLY and INNOVATE. Chewed away for ages on LOI, SEED. Needed the blog to understand the parsing of CHEF. Thanks Picaroon and Peter O…

  33. I got the same antonym as Keith @22.

    A steady and enjoyable solve for me, but spent an inordinately long time on the retrospectively obvious POPEYE. I could blame brain fade, but I’m going to give credit to Picaroon for a very deceptive surface.

  34. This was a challenging but enjoyable solve. [By remarkable good fortune I just finished reading Nicholas Parsons history of Just a Minute last night!!]
    Thanks to Picaroon and Peter

  35. 1D made me groan. The version of the joke I heard in my youth was: Nicholas Parsons shouldn’t climb trees, which helped. Thanks to PeterO for CHEF and STATIC. Loved ORATIONS, CONTEMPT & WIRETAPPER. Thank you Picaroon.

    Ps Bodycheetah, puzzled and bemused by your nina

  36. Strange how the mind works or doesn’t. For ages I could only think of obscure Parsons (Gram, Talcott) even though I listened to the Radio 4 tribute. GINSBERG, on the other hand just came into my head while doing something else.

  37. I gave up on this and came here to see if anyone else found this as hard going as I did. Not my favourite. In fact I struggled so much that on a first pass that all I came away with were 12ac and 3d. Hoping tomorrows puzzle will be more my cuppa.

  38. Fun but a DNF re Nicholas. I love the knock knock joke but despite this missed the homophone and could only think of Jim Parsons, N Parsons not known to me.
    Ta to Picaroon and PeterO.

  39. very amusing solve – never heard of guy for poke fun at. got Nicolas parsons easily enough though had no idea why it was right.   obviously there is a rich vein of humour that I’ve never heard of.  Personally how anyone can pronounce las as less is a bit weird to me, even though I’m originally a Geordie

  41. I normally breeze through Picaroon but much of this, especially on the W side, gave me a fair bit of trouble. Mind you NICHOLAS was a ‘doh’ moment when it came. So was POPEYE come to that.

  42. [Penfold @13 – I’ve got a mental image of someone trying to light a rolled-up spinach leaf in my head now and it won’t go away…]

  43. Eileen @ 28 – thanks for that. I really wonder if I get more pleasure than most of you. These little tricks (if I spot them) amuse me whilst you take them for granted.

    If I get to that point, I’ll be moving on to a more difficult croosword I think.  But that is miles off, I still don’t trust my answers enough to resist a “check all” after a few answers.   And “check this” on individual answers whether the whole thing or just a few letters.

     

    Regarding Nicholas, it is more difficult to spot the ‘downs’.  I find anagram solver very useful and with a few letters from the acrosses it was so much easier!

  44. A great puzzle: I love the way Picaroon’s thought processes gradually develop over the course of a puzzle. SCATHINGLY and USURPER were the stand-outs for me. Had all the crossers filled in on NICHOLAS before I worked out what was going on.

  45. [Pauline @35 just above PEEPING TOM you’ll find the nina BAAAAD which is how MJ’s Bad sounds when Dolly the sheep sings it. She also does a great version of BLEAT IT. I have donned my coat …]

  46. After my grim struggle with yesterday’s puzzle, this one was a delight from start to finish. I enjoyed SCATHINGLY, NECTAR and POPEYE, the schoolboy humour of PEEPING TOM and SECS made me grin – and I chuckled aloud at GOOGOL and NICHOLAS.
    Dear old Nicholas Parsons. Like Penfold at 13 it took me far more than just a minute to complete this, and there were a fair number of hesitations and deviations. Maybe even repetitions too.
    Thanks to Picaroon for the pleasure, to PeterO for the dependably informative blog – and to Bodycheetah at 14 for spotting a bonkers nina!

  48. Easier than Picaroon’s prize earlier this month but still on the difficult end for me — I did enjoy ORATIONS, SCATHINGLY, and SECS and I liked the many humourous surfaces. My GK did not include NICHOLAS Parsons so I missed out on that fun. Thanks to both.

  50. I see no complaints about the homophone, so only have fifty comments instead of 80+.

    I failed on 1d NICHOLAS because I hadn’t heard of N Parsons, whose programs didn’t cross the Atlantic. But no complaint about the homophone – oops, MaidenBartok@17, I have just broken the no repetition rule.

    Also failed on 2a CONTEMPT for the same reason that beery hiker@12 struggled with it (there I go again), but on seeing the solution I thought it a cracking clue.

    Thanks to both, and to the commenters, especially for the humour, finding Nina, and interesting reminiscences.

  52. [cellomaniac @50 “I hadn’t heard of N Parsons, whose programs didn’t cross the Atlantic” – at one point BBC World Service used to broadcast “Just a Minute” and I recall listening to them at 3am on local NPR stations (KQED is my usual) on Night/Day 2 of business trips with the horrendous “awake and hungry at 2am” jetlag.   Ah, the good old days….]

  53. Cellomaniac@50 … Just a Minute also played on CBC radio here in Canada on Sunday afternoons, though that didn’t help me solve the clue.

  54. Poor old Nicholas Parsons – every week he ritually welcomed listeners to the programme “not only in this country, but around the world”. From the responses above this appears to have been a bit optimistic.

    The burning question which I’m sure is now concerning many people is whether the programme will continue under new chairmanship or be allowed to expire. As fas I know no answer has yet emerged.

  55. [g larsen @54 – One of the problems was that HMG forced BBCWS to cut back so programmes that had been very popular around the world (“Just a Minute”, “World of Music” etc.) were stopped as they weren’t seen as core and BBCWS turned into yet-another rolling news service.  “Just a Minute” was very popular in South East Asia for example.  As to the question of a new chair; ISIHAC has survived Humph’s departure as has The News Quiz so there is hope…]

  56. [Maidenbartok @55 – I’m sure you’re right. All part of the regrettable tendency to downgrade ‘soft’ cultural exports in favour of activities intended to promote the selling of things.

    But your comment did remind me that a few years ago Just a Minute did record a series in Mumbai that involved Indian panellists as well as some of the regulars. So they certainly tried to cultivate a wider audience.

    I suppose what prompted my original comment was surprise that so many of our fellow contributors hadn’t even heard of NP. No doubt that’s a reflection of my parochialism.

  57. I’m surprised Nicholas Parsons caused so much trouble to those above. I thught he was a household name and his obit featured on most TV News bulletins and in newspapers. SE corner was last in for me with Secs and Seed last in. I still don’t inderstand why Wiretapper is Bugger. Managed to Parse it OK so I thought it could only be that.

  58. Another absolute cracker from Picaroon. Difficult but brilliantly clued. The mark of a top setter, in my opinion, is that when I solve a clue there’s no doubt in my mind that I’ve got the right answer. Picaroon hits that mark every time. It’s a toss up between him (I assume it’s a him but I could be wrong) and Paul for my favourite setter.

  60. Fun solve, moderately difficult, and beautifully blogged. Thanks to Picaroon and  PeterO. GOOGOL is familiar as the answer to the million pound question on that infamous episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? involving Major Charles Ingram and the coughing audience member.

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