Guardian Cryptic 28750 Picaroon

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Thank you to Picaroon. Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

1, 6. Register egg being eaten by tragic figure, along with large bap (9,4)

ELECTORAL ROLL : O(a circle, a rounded object resembling an egg) contained in(being eaten by) ELECTRA(the mythological main character in Greek tragedies by Sophocles, Euripides and others) plus(along with) L(abbrev. for “large”) + ROLL(bap/a large round flattish bread roll).

Defn: … of eligible voters in a district or constituency.

6. See 1

8. Obstacle to getting off home? One moans terribly (8)

INSOMNIA : IN(home/not out of the house, as in “I’m home”) + anagram of(… terribly) [ I(Roman numeral for “one” + MOANS].

Defn: …/falling asleep.

9. Memorable words of Tramp and Anto to put out (6)

SLOGAN : SLOG(to tramp/to walk with difficulty or effort) plus(and) “Anto” minus(… put out) “to“.

10. Obtain energy, conserving energy (6)

DERIVE : DRIVE(energy/determination to achieve) containing(conserving) E(symbol for “energy” in physics).

11. Visibly, it’s where drinkers are left in charge (2,6)

IN PUBLIC : [IN PUB](in a place where you will find drinkers) + L(abbrev. for “left”) + IC(abbrev. for “in charge”).

12. Intended name removed from fund … (6)

FIANCE : “n”(abbrev. for “name”) deleted from(removed from) “finance”(to fund/to provide with money for a purpose).

Defn: The …/the someone, in this case, a male, to whom one is engaged to be married.

15. … denied profits and funding (8)

GAINSAID : GAINS(profits/amount earned over and above amount spent) plus(and) AID(support of a practical nature, including funding).

Defn: …/contradicted.

16. Capers in mains, oddly, yours truly fed to cook (8)

MISCHIEF : 1st, 3rd and 5th letters of(…, oddly) “mains” + [ I(yours truly, the setter using the self-referential pronoun) contained in(fed to) CHEF(a professional cook) ].

19. Setter about to eat £25 Caesar salad, perhaps (6)

EPONYM : Reversal of(… about) ME(the setter, using the self-referential pronoun) containing(to eat) PONY(slang for the sum of £25).

Defn: A thing named after someone, an example being/perhaps “Caesar salad”.

21. Picturegoer gutted about some current spoiler? (8)

PAMPERER : “Picturegoer” minus all its innder letters(gutted) containing(about) AMPERE(a unit of/some electrical current).

Defn: …/one who spoils/indulges somebody.

22. Nuanced translation of dialogue ignores it (6)

SUBTLE : “subtitle”(captions displayed on a cinema or TV screen that translate the on-going dialogue) minus(ignores) “it“.

24. Order rubbish with a little butter to get sent back (6)

DIKTAT : Reversal of(… to get sent back) [ TAT(rubbish/shoddy items clothes, say) plus(with a) KID(a young goat/a little butter/thing that butts) ].

25. Mingle in club owned by Jagger, we hear (8)

INTERMIX : INTER(short for Inter Milan, professional football team in the Italian league) + homophone of(…, we hear) “Mick’s”(owned by/belonging to Mick, in this case Jagger of the Rolling Stones).

26. See 27

27, 26. Dance with great skill where oil’s found (9,4)

DISCOVERY WELL : DISCO(dance to disco music) [VERY WELL](with great skill/expertise).

Defn: …, specifically the first well to produce in a new oilfield.

Down

1. Wise bird swallows start to irritate (5)

ERNIE : ERNE(bird, in this case the sea eagle) containing(swallows) 1st letter of(start to) “irritate“.

Defn: First name of half of the comedic duo Morecambe and Wise.

2. Love trendy coats Oscar’s wearing (7)

EROSION : EROS(sexual love/desire, originating from the Greek god of love) + IN(trendy/in fashion) containing(coats) O(letter represented by “Oscar” in the phonetic alphabet).

Defn: …/the process of being worn by friction.

3. What may be perfect figure with statue’s outline (5)

TENSE : TEN(the figure 10) plus(with) 1st and last letters of(…’s outline) “statue“.

Defn: …, in grammar.

4, 18. Row in boxing arena because of matches where severe blow is likely (7,7)

ROARING FORTIES : OAR(to row with, well, oars) contained in(in) RING(boxing arena – a square ring) + FOR(because of, as in “he failed for lack of experience”) + TIES(sporting matches between two sides).

Defn: The ocean tracts between latitudes 40 and 50 degrees south which experience very severe winds/blows.

5. What you must pay great pianist heard on piano with lyricist (4,5)

LIST PRICE : Homophone of(… heard) “Liszt”(Franz, great Hungarian pianist) placed above(on, in a down clue) P(abbrev. for “piano”, musical direction to play softly) plus(with) RICE(Tim, English lyricist, best known for collaborating with Andrew Lloyd Webber).

Defn: … to purchase a product (except when the seller gives a discount off it).

6. Diamond edging for rich decoration on vehicle (7)

RHOMBUS : 1st and last letters of(edging for) “rich” + OM(abbrev. for the Order of Merit, an honour/decoration given by the monarch of the Commonwealth) + BUS(a large vehicle for people transport).

… a pattern made up of rhombi.

7. Pounds given to one with potential for debt (9)

LIABILITY : L(or £, symbol for the British monetary unit, the pound sterling) plus(given to) I(Roman numeral for “one”) + ABILITY(potential/skill that you possess to be able to do something).

13. Echoing musical with two notes raised (9)

IMITATIVE : Reversal of(… raised, in a down clue) [ EVITA(musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice) plus(with) MI,TI(or “me” and “te”, respectively, 2 notes in the sol-fa music scale) ].

14. Entering eg Qatar, granddaughter went abroad (9)

EMIGRATED : [ EMIRATE(a nation reigned by an emir, an example of which/eg. is Qatar) containing(Entering …) G(abbrev. for “grand”/£1000) ] + D(abbrev. for “daughter”).

17. Better country with 20% less stock (7)

CAPITAL : CAP(to better/to surpass) + “Italy”(European country) minus the last out of 5 letters(with 20% less).

Defn: Money raised by a company through the issue and subscription of shares.

18. See 4

20. English playmaker Jack heading for nightclub in drag (7)

OSBORNE : OS(abbrev. for “ordinary seaman”, a sailor/Jack) + [ 1st letter of(heading for) “nightclub” contained in(in) BORE(a drag/a tiresome situation or activity) ].

Answer: …, John, English playwright/playmaker, if you like, best known for his play “Look Back In Anger”.

22. Scrap the second group picked up (3-2)

SET-TO : Homophone of(group picked up) “set two”(the second/number 2 set/group).

Defn: …/a fight.

23. New Labourite losing head, with yen to be flashy (5)

LAIRY : “Blair”(Tony, British Labour Party leader who was a key figure in the New Labour, the brand used to signify a newly reformed party) minus its 1st letter(losing head) + Y(abbrev. for “yen”, the Japanese currency unit).

Defn: …/ostentatious.

44 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28750 Picaroon”

  2. I think 17 is 1 letter missing from 5? Thanks for the Blog; it was tricky in parts today but v satisfying to solve so thanks Picaroon for the immaculate clueing
    .

  3. Liked INTERMIX, DISCOVERY WELL, ROARING FORTIES, IMITATIVE and SET-TO.

    Thanks, Picaroon and Scchua!

  4. No real difficulties today although DERIVE did take me a while. I seem to struggle with answers where all the crossers are vowels. I enjoyed ELECTORAL ROLL especially given that I’m much more familiar with a Bap than the Farl from yesterday. Other nice ones were MISCHIEF for a great surface and ROARING FORTIES.

  5. 1,6 got me off to a good start as I have recently completed the annual review of our Church ELECTORAL ROLL. I liked the surface, too.

    As for the others, I see I have fourteen ticks, which seems to bear out George’s summary @1. It’s invidious to whittle them down but I’ll just mention the cleverly misleading EROSION, SLOGAN, which made me smile and the neat EPONYM. (I like CAESAR salad, too.)

    Once again, I’ll say how much I appreciate setters who make multiple answers run on in the grid, as in 1,6, 4,18 and 27,26 (almost).

    Huge thanks to Picaroon, as ever and thanks to scchua for the blog.

  6. Your blog is a model of explication, scchua — thanks!
    I found the top half to be rather tough, and then the bottom half went in quite easily. ELECTORAL ROLL, ERNIE and EROSION took me an inordinate amount of time. (I always start from 1a and try to proceed in a generally south-easterly direction.) Some of these clues were really well crafted, I thought: the cleverly musical clue of IMITATIVE was a particularly neat one, but the gnarly EROSION had such a good surface and the tricky simplicity of GAINSAID was another cracker. I really enjoyed this.

  7. I usually enjoy Picaroon, but I struggled with this: DISCOVERY WELL was a new term for me, though I worked it out, but ELECTORAL ROLL defeated me, as did SLOGAN, CAPITAL and EROSION (anyone else start with EMOTION?)

    Of the ones I got, I liked MISCHIEF and INSOMNIA.

  8. Long time since Minder … could remember monkey for £500 but not pony, til post-solve. Likewise, didn’t remember Senore Ampere and only saw him between the p and the r afterwards. Bit dim. Otoh, a raised Evita is a popular trick and pretty obvs. Ditto rhombus, I’m sure I saw one somewhere just recently. In all, enjoyable and nothing diabolical, tho took me over the hour, as usual! Thanks to Pickers and scchua.

  10. Great stuff, though I needed a bit of help from a wordfinder, once I’d rejected EMOTION to get EROSION with its cleverly concealed definition. I would add SUBTLE to the favourites suggested above.

  11. I solved this and parsed pretty much everything, but I wasn’t on the right wavelength this morning and found it a slog, for the most part. ELECTORAL ROLL went straight in, then I only found slim pickings for my first read through and several subsequent. I like ROARING FORTIES and the pairing of run on solutions. The bottom half went in quicker than the top half.

  12. Not easy but I enjoyed every minute of this one. I agree with Eileen@5 about the run-on clues and her ticks for 9a SLOGAN and 19a EPONYM, and with Gladys@7 regarding 8a INSOMNIA. My other ticks were for 24a DIKTAT. 27,26a DISCO VERY WELL and 13d IMITATIVE (cited by KVa@3 and the latter also by pserve_p2@6). I didn’t understand how the INTER part of Mick Jaggger’s club worked in 25a INTERMIX, although I was pretty chuffed to spot Tony BLAIR helping to make LAIRY work at 23d. Thanks a lot for the blog, scchua, and to Picaroon for showing me such a good time.

  13. I thought this was a real joy to solve. So many great clues and misdirections. Brilliantly put together, but with no major difficulties to unpick. Oh, and plenty of smiles along the way.

    Difficult to pick out favourites, but I’ll go for LIST PRICE, RHOMBUS, DERIVE, MISCHIEF and EPONYM

    (Nice to see Evita making a return! Used to be a standard.)

    Thanks to Picaroon and scchua

  15. A most enjoyable puzzle. Electoral roll made me laugh and was a very helpful starter for a number of other clues. Slogan and fiance were also favourites, and Ernie too once the penny finally dropped. Many thanks Picaroon and to scchua, especially for explaining Capital.

  16. Very clever and tricksy as is Picaroon’s way. Lots to like, especially with the penny dropping moments. Couldn’t parse penultimate one in SLOGAN, but that was a very good example once I’d come on her for clarity. Last one in was DERIVE. Too many ticks to advertise them all. Thanks P and Scchua…

  17. An enjoyable hour. Last in was SW corner, not having heard of discovery well and set on finding some sort of pillager for spoiler before penny dropped. Faves were list price, subtle and intermix. Thanks to Picaroon and scchua

  19. Great puzzle. When it came to 7d I pencilled in LIQUIDITY which definitely contains some pounds, but it would have meant that 9a was S _ O _ Q _ , which seemed more than unlikely. Favourites were SLOGAN, ROARING FORTIES and EPONYM. Many thanks to Picaroon and scchua.

  20. Another great puzzle from the Pirate, with good constructions and surfaces.

    Favourites were EPONYM, PAMPERER, EROSION and OSBORNE, but there was much to enjoy all over the grid.

    Slight correction to scchua’s comments: ‘Inter’ is certainly the Italian Serie A club from the city of Milan, but this is short for Internazionale and not ‘Inter Milan’ – an expression which the Italians don’t use themselves.

    As Tim C @4 points out, we had a farl yesterday and a bap today. Cob tomorrow?

    Thanks to S&B

  22. [Incidentally, the other Serie A football club from Milan is known in Italy as AC Milan or just Milan (stressed on the first syllable) although the Italian name for the city is Milano. This is because it was founded as the Milan Football and Cricket Club by English expats at the end of the nineteenth century, and has retained this name. Perhaps this is partly because the name of the city in the local Lombard dialect is – Milan 🙂 )

  23. scchua, I don’t know what you’re saying with 13d “me and te” respectively. They would give EMETATIVE, which sounds like vomiting, and also “me” and “te” are different notes from “mi” and “ti.” They’re the flatted versions, making a scale sound minor and mixolydian, respectively. But I’ve probably totally misread your point.

    Gladys@7 I had EMOTION too. I didn’t even notice that some of it vanished when hit “check all.”

    Thanks to Picaroon and scchua.

  24. Mostly what Eileen said

    Thanks to Picaroon for another splendid crossword and to scchua for the blog

  25. I may be missing it, but nobody seems to have mentioned a semi-theme election thing peeping out there, with of course electoral roll but also Osborne, Blair – and insomnia? anything else?

  26. Valentine, my dictionaries simply tell me that “mi” and “ti” are variant spellings (as indicated by the “or” of my comment) of “me” and “te”. And being no music student I’m not in a position to challenge that nor what you’ve written.
    And I wasn’t suggesting inserting “me” and “te” into the answer. The convention I have is that words in the upper case are those that appear in the answer.

  27. Thanks schhua as having eventually given up on CHIN… or CHIL… and cottoned on to the answer I never got past trying to reduce CAP IT ALL while somehow making sense of that 20%. Another toughie (didn’t help that I wrote DERIVE in the space for 12a) but today I did get there and again worth the battle, too many highlights to mention from start (ERNIE) to finish (PAMPERER), thanks Picaroon.

  28. Late to the party today as this was hard work. After 30 mins I only had Lairy and Intermix and I was prepared to call it a day. After several further stabs it slowly all revealed itself which was very satisfying. Thanks to Picaroon and scchua.

  29. Osborne reminds me of an all-time great clue, although sadly I don’t remember the setter:
    Play Ankoolger (4,4,2,5)

  30. Thanks for the blog, very neat clues today and nearly lasted the perfect time. Too many favourites to list and the only frown was for 8Ac.
    Ampere is foolishly an SI base unit, using the Coulomb would make things so much simpler.
    Nice to see the capital for Wise cleverly disguised at the front of the clue.

  32. Thanks Picaroon for yet another masterful crossword. This took me two “sessions” to complete but it was worth the time with clues like SUBTLE, INTERMIX (excellent homophone woven into a seamless surface), ERNIE (because I actually remembered Ernie Wise from a previous puzzle), LIST PRICE, SLOGAN, and DERIVE. I guessed ROARING FORTIES from the wordplay and I could not parse CAPITAL. Thanks scchua for the explanations.

  33. If I didn’t know that was a Paul clue, I could have guessed…

    Thanks scchua – excellent blog as usual. And thanks Picaroon for a delightful puzzle. I was definitely on Picaroon’s wavelength today, though the after effects of too much whisky last night meant it was slow going. Very enjoyable though. DISCO VERY WELL made me properly laugh.

  34. Ta for that, Bunty @29, a groanish but very cool clue, and thx Raider @31 for the link. Just popped across and did it and it was fun. Twenty years omg, no wonder he’s so prolific, he can probly do them in his sleep.

  35. We had the idea that anagram fodder had to be actually present in the clue itself. So for 8a, needing to translate “one” into “i” before mixing it with “moans” seemed to break that unwritten rule. No one else seems to have questioned this, however . . .

  36. pianola @35, you missed Roz’s frown @30. But it was outweighed by the smiles 🙂
    I’d second that proportion. Thanks P & s

  37. pianola @35 – I worked out very quickly that I was looking for IN + I + an anagram of MOANS, but was expecting the components to be in that order, so it took me far too long to spot the solution. But I enjoyed the whole thing far too much to quibble about such trifling details, so didn’t think it worthy of comment.

  38. Good to see several people refraining from commenting on 8a. My thought about this clue is that INSOMNIA is not an ‘obstacle to getting off’ – it *is* not getting off. But I thought it wasn’t worth mentioning, so I haven’t.

    I struggled to get on Picaroon’s wavelength today, which often happens for me with this setter. So I went away – well, just a little further up the page to the Killer Sudoku – and when I returned everything dropped into place, so that (like Dr. WhatsOn @18) I quickly found that I had run out of clues.

    Thanks to Picaroon and scchua.

  39. Thanks sheffield hatter @38 for explaining why I was puzzled about the definition of INSOMNIA . I had something else in mind for ‘obstacle to getting off’ and thought that people here were refraining from mentioning that one.

  40. pdm @39 – how very restrained of you 😉

    “…sans parler de c’que j’ne peux pas dire”

    All this not mentioning stuff is threatening to become an epidemic of apophasis. (Perhaps that’s why there are only 39 posts?)

    No doubt we were both thinking that the “obstacle to getting off” must be something making one unable to disembark, detrain, deplane or decamel.

  41. [Or de-surrey-wid-de-fringe-on-de-top?

    I’ll get me coat. Has anyone seen my hat?]

  43. I really enjoy Picaroon puzzles and this was a gem. Difficult clues for the most part but always immaculately clued. No loose synonyms and never any trouble working out the parsing (even if it’s sometimes after guessing the answer from the definition and crossers).

  44. Another tough puzzle. It was very hard for me to get started on this. I solved only three clues on my first pass but I then managed to solve 1ac and then got going. Lower half was more difficult for me.

    Liked ROARING FORTIES, SUBTLE, CAPITAL, DIKTAT, OSBORNE (loi).

    New: PONY = £25 (for 19ac); DISCOVERY WELL.

    Thanks, both.

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