Guardian 28,917 – Picaroon

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Picaroon never disappoints, and here’s another great example of his work. There are several well-concealed definitions, which I particularly liked. Thanks to Picaroon (whose alter ego Buccaneer is today’s FT setter).

 
Across
1 WHIMSY Question about Picaroon’s singular flights of fancy (6)
I’M (Picaroon’s) + S[ingular] in WHY
4 ESCAPISM Ginger Spice up for including adult S&M fantasy (8)
A in SPICE* + S[&]M
9 DETOUR Winding route following diversion primarily (6)
D[iversion] + ROUTE*, and it’s an &lit, meaning the whole clue is both wordplay and definition
10 UMBILICI Bits of midriff shown in club? I’m dancing with 11 (8)
Anagram of CLUB I’M 11
11 HUNGER MARCHERS Poor road users in North passing through bigger motorway curves, keeping right (6,8)
N in HUGER + M[otorway] + R in ARCHES – the “poor road users” are those on the Hunger marches of the 1920s and 3s
13 SCHISMATIC Old lady breaking layered rock, I see, causing splits (10)
MA in SCHIST + IC. I’m not keen on this, as schist and schism[atic] are very closely related (from the Greek for “split”)
14 ISLA Mike’s dumped by Faith for a girl from Aberdeen? (4)
ISLAM less M
16 LUSH Rich female leaves boozer (4)
FLUSH less F, with the boozer being a heavy drinker, not a pub as the surface suggests
18 STAIRCASES Hotshot packing current luggage for flights (10)
I (electric current) in STAR + CASES
21 SCAREMONGERING Damage jewellery pocketing one gem criminally, triggering alarm (14)
(ONE GEM)* in SCAR RING
23 ORIENTAL Exam covers scripture that is initially from Bhutan? (8)
I.E. NT in ORAL
24 SATIRE Swift work, say, with spades followed by a fag (6)
S[pades] + A + TIRE (to fag) – reference to Jonathan Swift, satirist
25 TALLBOYS Wrecking ball breaking trinkets and furniture (8)
BALL* in TOYS
26 DETEST Abhor detective’s case, pre-trial (6)
The “case” of DetectivE + TEST
Down
1 WADE What some birds do in Virginia for sport (4)
Double definition, the second being Virginia WADE, tennis player who won Wimbledon in 1977
2 IN TRUTH Really, it’s where to find Naomi saving time (2,5)
Naomi is found IN [the book of] RUTH, and we insert a T in that
3 SLUGGISH Dull soldier, donning shorts, riding horse (8)
GI (soldier) in SLUGS + H[orse]
5 SUMMARISING Giving an abstract answer after monarch’s deposed in period of July Revolution? (11)
SUMMER (“period of July”) less ER + A[nswer] + RISING
6 APIECE A head of America proclaimed truce (6)
A[merica] + homophone of “peace” (truce)
7 ICINESS Reserve this place in Nice on protruding coastline (7)
ICI (French “here”) + NESS (headland)
8 MAINSTAYS Supports corset-wearing graduate (9)
MA (graduate) IN STAYS
12 REACTIONARY Conservative‘s response first put on line (11)
REACTION + A (first) + RY (railway, line)
13 SPLASH OUT Climbing mountains, call to be extravagant (6,3)
Reverse of ALPS + SHOUT
15 SCARFACE Gangster stole crack (8)
SCARF (a stole) + ACE (crack) – Scarface was the nickname of Al Capone
17 SPANIEL Mostly painless transitions for King Charles? (7)
Anagram of PAINLES[s]
19 SUNRISE Dawn French article boring English teacher’s turned up (7)
UN (French indefinite article) in reverse of E SIR’S
20 PEN NIB Tip for writer from Pound – flipping junk! (3,3)
PEN (cage, pound) + reverse of BIN (to discard, junk)
22 PELT Ducks crossing lake hide (4)
L in PET (ducks, term of affection)

70 comments on “Guardian 28,917 – Picaroon”

  2. I always find Picaroon a bit of a struggle but I got there in the end. Favourites were the nice &lit DETOUR, and IN TRUTH for the Naomi reference.

  3. Enjoyable, but perhaps not as much as usual for this setter. My knowledge of things British didn’t extend to hunger marchers nor Virginia Wade. I don’t get the pet/ducks connection. And I just learnt a new dog (two actually — there’s one in another of today’s puzzles).

  4. I found this really difficult to get started on but I eventually ground it out. You have to have your brain at full power for Picaroon. I particularly liked the 2 long ones at 11 and 21ac. 24 ac was LOI as I didn’t know tire as a word. Thanks P and A.

  5. Too hard for me, even with liberal use of Bradford’s and checker. Gave up and revealed the last quarter of clues.

    Thanks Picaroon and Andrew

  6. Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew.
    I’m almost a week behind in my crosswording. I’ve only just today completed Picaroon’s 11th Nov offering,, including TONED (To Ned) which includes a reference to Ned Kelly. A wonderful clue for that date. I’m not sure if Picaroon or the editor know that Nov 11 is the anniversary of Ned Kelly’s hanging. If so, a nod to a national hero, albeit an alleged criminal. If not, a timely coincidence. I’m surprised that none of the Australian contributors raised it on the day.

  7. Like Andrew I’m a great fan of Picaroon’s puzzles. Favourites here were HUNGER MARCHERS, SLUGGISH, APIECE and SCARFACE. Brilliant sutff. Thanks to P & A.

  8. I thought the misdirection of “abstract answer’ and “July revolution” was spiffing
    So was the midriff and girl from Aberdeen
    Great puzzle

  9. Some suggestive whimsy from the pirate, like what Geri Spice might be up for, and whether CR, after an almost painless succession, might be seen as a bit of a spaniel (see if the journos run with it). Other clever one were 11ac, took ages to stop thinking of bad drivers, slugs for shorts (shots yes, always forget shorts), and ma in her stays. A slow potter, but a good one. Ta PnA.

  11. GDU@3 Ducks is (or maybe was) a common form of address, like mate, buddy, love, and not necessarily to someone you know. I think duck was more common in the North, e.g. Sheffield where I spent my youth. Ducks is possibly more London and the South?

    Enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew.

  12. 1977 saw ginf a new dad, rural, sans telly, so Wade was a biff. Ducks qua pet, otoh, I learnt a bit later from Judi Dench, as her character in the wonderfully whimsical Love in a Cold Climate used it as an endearment.

  13. One of my grandmothers, West Country born and bred, called me duckie when I was small. “Me duck” as a form of address was common in that area. Pet and petal was what everyone was called when I lived in Sunderland.

  14. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew
    Very nice, though I didn’t parse SCAREMONGERING or SLUGGISH. Favourite SCARFACE and SPANIEL.
    I questioned SCHISMATIC for a slightly different reason. Whether schist is a “layered” rock depends on exactly how you interpret “layered” – it has layers, or it was formed in layers. Only the former is true for schist, in contrast to sedimentary rocks.

  16. Shirl @15 you are not alone in the GG fixation – got there in the end 🙂 I was also convinced the ducks in PELT would be OO

    Perfect blend of fun & challenge for a wet Thursday morning and even a sly HMHB reference “Who’s afraid of Virginia Wade”

    Cheers P&A

  17. I don’t know how Picaroon consistently produces so many good puzzles. While I congratulated myself for knowing where to find Naomi, I couldn’t see SLUGS as shorts for ages. I liked the way we had to split Dawn from French, Ginger from Spice and abstract from answer.

  18. I appreciate the beauty of Picaroon’s clues but I had to give up on APIECE and SATIRE, the latter totally fooled me as once I revealed it of course it made sense. But I’m not fully happy with A Head meaning apiece although I’m sure it’s correct English.
    Thanks anyway Picaroon and many thanks to Andrew for parsing those I couldn’t.
    [I still see myself as a beginner, although I started during lockdown after my husband bought me Secrets of the Setters second hand. I had always wondered why that was a prize, since all the winners must obviously already know the setters’ secrets!]

  19. Another treat from Picaroon. Apart from failure to parse ‘sluggish’ (which I now see) this was a clear round for me, and very enjoyable.

  20. Most enjoyable offering with some beautifully piratical definitions. Slight downside is the wordiness of many of the clues, but this is more than made up for by ingenious constructions and amusing surfaces.

    The top half was slow to yield, so I started at the bottom and worked up. LOI were WHIMSY and then WADE (I don’t think I would ever have got this without the crossers!).

    I particularly liked DETOUR, MAINSTAYS, SCARFACE, SPANIEL and SATIRE. ‘Poor road users’ is clever, and had me fooled until almost the end. The surface for ESCAPISM is great, but the ‘for’ doesn’t really work in the wordplay.

    Many thanks to S&B

  21. I’m with Petert @17 in wonderment at the frequency and quality of Picaroon’s puzzles, noted by Andrew in his preamble. It’s less than a week since his last one – we really are being spoilt. I do worry from time to time that he might burn himself out – but there’s absolutely no sign of that at present.

    The only misdirection I didn’t initially fall for was the ‘Swift work’ (having met and admired ‘More work’ many years ago). I was with Shirl and bodycheetah and the GGs and I spent a while playing around (like copmus?) with the months of the Revolutionary calendar.

    A delight from start to finish, to cheer a very wet morning – and now for Buccaneer!

  25. poc @24: A ‘slug’ is a small portion of a (generally very) alcoholic drink – particularly if added to something else.

  26. I had a very happy time with this one. Lots of ticks – I think 8d MAINSTAYS gave me the most satisfaction. Thanks to the prolific Picaroon for the clever puzzle which provided some delightful ESCAPISM (4a). Well done Andrew on a very helpful blog!

  27. Reconsidering – I think 2d IN TRUTH was actually the one I most liked, referencing as it did my favourite book of the Hebrew scriptures …

  28. Just finished, after a couple of re-visits. Yes poc@24 – you can have a slug of whisky for example, and spirits are sometimes referred to as shorts (as opposed to a long drink like beer).

  29. Tough puzzle.

    Liked APIECE.

    New for me: TIRE = fag; SCHIST = layered rock.

    I did not parse:
    4ac
    3d I never heard of SLUGS = shorts
    5d

    Thanks, both.

  30. I was all set to put in SUNDAY DRIVERS for the poor road users – but of course it didn’t fit. Another one distracted by GG in SLUGGISH here, and I gave up completely on the APIECE/UMBILICI pairing.

    PET=ducks is fun, and very British in being applicable to either sex. An American might call a guy “pal” in a similar sentence, but not, I think, a woman?

    Favourites STAIRCASES, MA-IN-STAYS and SPANIEL (I can see that one having a long crossword life during the reign of Charles III).

  31. Given we only get one umbilicus 6d, don’t we need midriffs plural? Thanks Gervase@24 for explaining SLUGS – I was wondering whether they are what Geordies wear with their teeshirts on December nights out.

  32. Found this a real challenge, and in fact left it for a while, with only the bottom half filled in. However even with a second effort I was defeated by the NE corner, finding UMBILICI and ESCAPISM impenetrable. Liked IN TRUTH, but couldn’t quite see why ORIENTAL should be flagged up by Bhutan. And I was under the impression that being a Conservative was the opposite meaning to REACTIONARY. In a rush, haven’t yet read the other comments…

  33. Liked this a lot, as I always do with Picaroon’s offerings, but found it harder than most of his. Another GG fixation may be part of the reason. Really liked SCARFACE for the conciseness.

    [Saw Virginia Wade win in person in 1977. In those days (and in the 60’s in particular) Centre Court tickets were not that difficult to get.]

  34. Thanks to Picaroon who amazes yet again both with quantity and quality of his crosswords. Like Gervase @20 I found that the bottom half went in quickly, the top half, not so much. I ended up checking my guesses for some clues and I revealed APIECE which stumped me. Top choices included DETOUR, SCAREMONGERING, DETEST, IN TRUTH, ICINESS, and SCARFACE. Thanks Andrew for the blog.

  35. Ronald@32 There was once a time when you could have said that Conservative was not necessarily a REACTIONARY, but they are pretty much equivalent these days.

  36. My thoughts once again coincide with Eileen’s.

    A much trickier crossword than the Buccaneer but just as enjoyable

    Thanks very much to Picaroon and Andrew

  37. Never heard of Virginia Wade.

    Never would have thought of SLUG = short.

    Andrew, thanks for parsing SUMMARISING, which I would never have solved.

    Overall, plenty of fun. Thanks, Picaroon and Andrew.

  39. Like others, I found this tricky but I ultimately got there. Didn’t parse SLUGGISH though.

    Virginia Wade was familiar from the fact that she was the last British Grand Slam winner until Andy Murray finally broke through in 2012. (Murray got 3–he’s pretty clearly finished–and Emma Raducanu has since also notched one.)

    Stateside, ORIENTAL is considered slightly derogatory if used to refer to a person (but it’s fine for, say, a rug). The clue has just enough wiggle room to make the latter plausible though. Also, while we’re on transatlantic linguistic differences, over here a TALLBOY is usually a large can of beer.

  42. Enjoyable, must admit to taking ages to get 3 down, stuck on shorts being a garment until the penny dropped. Now going to get a slug of Jameson!

  43. Very satisfying. I thought that I wouldn’t get to the end, but after a couple of breaks and returns to the fray the answers finally gave themselves up. Thanks @9grantinfeo for slugs/ shorts as I was still fixated on clothing even after reading the blog! Thanks Andrew and Picaroon.

  44. A really hard one but all solved and parsed even if it took well over an hour!

    I liked UMBILICI, MAINSTAYS was cute, and SATIRE was a lovely penny-drop. But given how challenging the puzzle was overall I felt some of the clueing could have been a little more straightforwardly “fair”. “Virginia for sport”, “Rich female leaves” and “Ginger spice up for” all had me squinting pretty hard to make the grammar work. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew.

  45. Much of the NW corner defeated me today. Penciling in JARROW MARCHERS and failing to parse the front half of it slowed me down.

    I particularly liked the surface in 15D. Not only was Scarface Capone’s nickname, it was also a film in the 1980s about a fictional Cuban gangster deeply immersed in the cocaine business. The movie was a loose remake of a 1932 movie (in turn from a 1929 book) which in turn was inspired by the life of Capone.

  46. Much too hard for me…
    Can I ask:=
    1a – Why does ‘SINGULAR’ = ‘S’?
    4a – What is ‘GINGER’ doing?
    Thanks both.

  47. HIYD@46: for 1A, S is an abbreviation for “singular” in Chambers (but not necessarily in real life). I took “Ginger … up” as the anagrind for “spice ” in 4A.

  50. AndrewTyndall @48 – ISLA is a typical Scottish girl’s name, so I think ABERDEEN is just to indicate a Scottish name, it could have been GLASGOW, DUNDEE etc.

  51. If SLUGS/shorts refers to alcohol, then I finally understand the British term “short”. I found this enjoyable although I was unfamiliar with HUNGER MARCHERS and ESCAPISM escaped me because I’ve never encountered “ginger up” before.

  52. I enjoyed the puzzle. I needed the blog’s help with APIECE and SUMMARISING which I misparsed. I saw “response first” in 12 d as synonymous with Reaction A (as opposed to reaction B, C… ), rather than as separate particles.
    Lots of fun surfaces, of which the beautifully simple one in 15d is my favourite.
    Thanks, Andrew and Picaroon.

  53. This one was tough and lovely. But I got it. No reveals, no checking the internet or dictionaries or anything. I might finally be getting good at this .

  55. 10 was painful. Why try so hard to justify a filler? Can’t wait to see the parsing for the previous Prize. Not.

  56. Not sure who can listen to this as it’s BBC Radio 3, but The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff by the Young’uns but Johnny’s story starts off with the Hunger Marches from a bit further down from Jarrow, but there’s a lot of background in the recording. He went on to take part in the Spanish Civil War and WW1. I’m not sure how decipherable the Stockton-on-Tees accents will be. (I’ve seen it twice live and have the album. This version has Jack Rutter standing in for Michael Hughes and I prefer the original trio’s harmonies. )

    Johnny Longstaff’s voice as recorded as part of a History Project is also talking on this app.

  57. Always find Picaroon the toughest of setters. Was stuck on ‘bits of midriff’ – and assumed it had something to do with 11 across. Got there in the end (dancing doing the trick!). Thank you Andrew for this set of explanations – managed to parse them all this time myself.

  58. In some masochistic way I enjoyed being misdirected all over the place. Lots of fun.
    Agree with comments about the grammar in ESCAPISM.
    My quibble with UMBILICI was the location in the midriff. Dictionary definitions give that as the area above the waist and below the ribcage. Even with hipster pants and navel exposed I still don’t think you’d call that the midriff. Ask a belly-dancer. Nevertheless, I liked the clue for the dancing image, and the misdirection with II.

  60. That was hard. Even the lovely IN TRUTH, which I saw quickly, could have taken far longer. As for PELT … I’m far more familiar with duck than ducks.

  61. I did half of this quickly then failed badly afterwards.
    You have to get grounded sometimes and this was it.
    Thanks for the answers Andrew and the test Picaroon

  62. Thanks Andrew, made slow progress on this yesterday, lots of misdirection as noted, a glass of wine (or two) helped in the evening but needed to sleep on 10A and 6D. Heavy rain woke me early but the pennies dropping shortly after were even louder. I found the wordiness of 4A awkward but am grateful to TimSee@47 above for reminding me that I learned the fundamental equine source of the phrase on here. Thanks for the challenge Picaroon. And thanks kevin@11 for the Ned Kelly anniversary.

  63. ….this is exactly the sort of puzzle to play with when you’ve a full half hour or more to spend in proper pencil-sucking crossword mood. For there is so much joy to be derived….
    I don’t recall seeing the sparkling succinct SCARFACE. So good….
    Belated thanks, Picaroon and Andrew

  65. Super puzzle. UMBILICI last in & pipped ESCAPISM for top spot. Very tough but well worth the effort & perseverance for the satisfaction of a hard earned finish
    Thanks both

  66. Jennaralissima@59, wow, one clue you don’t like and Picaroon is off your acceptable list. Tough audience.

  67. Can someone explain the parsing for 4ac? I appreciate it’s an anagram but what’s the purpose of “up for”. This threw me out.

  69. Rats @67, if you drop in again, my reading of 4ac is:
    1) On the surface
    a) Ginger Spice is “up for”, i.e. willing to participate in, material that is more than usually risqué
    OR
    b) it’s so risqué that she’s “up” (in front of a judge) for having included it.

    2) At a cryptic level
    “ginger up” = spice up = excite = anagram indicator
    Unusually, that means we have a two-word anagrind, enclosing the ‘Spice’ on both sides.
    Once the spice has been anagrammed to ESCPI, it is now ready “for including” (= “for the inclusion of” (maybe a little ungainly?)) the A (abbr. of adult). So we have ESCAPI, to which we can add the S and the M at the end.

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