Thank you to Picaroon for the challenge. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Clubs brawl — it could be afters (7)
CRUMBLE : C(symbol for the suit, clubs, in a deck of playing cards) + RUMBLE(a brawl/a street fight between gangs, as between the Jets and the Sharks in West Side Story).
Defn: An example of dessert/afters viz. one made of fruit cooked with a flour topping.
5. Is Panama here, say, following winding path? (6)
HATPEG : EG(abbrev. for “exempli gratia”/for example/say) placed after(following) anagram of(winding) PATH.
Defn: Object from which one might find a Panama hat hanging.
9. Caught in wind, setter’s defective hearing (8)
MISTRIAL : MISTRAL(a strong, cold wind that blows through the Rhone valley) containing(Caught in …) I(the setter using the self-referential pronoun).
Defn: A defective/invalid trial/hearing in a court of law.
10. National kings, say, in finery that’s oddly cut back (6)
YEMENI : MEN(pieces in a chess game, that include/say, kings) contained in(in) [reversal of(… back) “finery” minus its 1st, 3rd and 5th letters(… that’s oddly cut)].
Defn: A … of the Yemen Republic.
12. Writer‘s opera lacking spirit and suffering (6,6)
EUGENE O’NEILL : “Eugene Onegin”(an opera by Tchaikovsky) minus(lacking) “gin”(a strong distilled alcoholic drink/spirit) plus(and) ILL(suffering/unwell).
15. Currently in silver, far from crazy dresses (3,3,4)
ALL THE RAGE : AG(symbol for the chemical element, silver) contained in(… dresses) [ALL THERE](far from crazy/possessing all of one’s mental faculties).
Defn: …/in fashion right now.
17. Take in husband evicted in period of arousal (3)
EAT : “h”(abbrev. for “husband”) deleted from(evicted in) “heat”(a period of arousal/intense excitement).
19. A major, maybe extremely kamikaze, back in army (3)
KEY : 1st and last letters of(extremely) “kamikaze” + last letter of(back in) “army“.
Defn: What … is in music.
20. J. Ben-Hur once grabs American with both hands in dance (10)
CHARLESTON : C. HESTON(or Charlton Heston, actor who once played the character Judah Ben-Hur or J. Ben-Hur) containing(grabs) [ A(abbrev. for “American”) + R,L(abbrev. of, respectively, both right and left hands) ].
22. Bill’s outing in street through evergreen Berkshire town (5,7)
FIRST READING : ST(abbrev. for “street”) contained in(through) [ FIR(an evergreen coniferous tree) + READING(a town in Berkshire) ].
Defn: …, ie. the first presentation to parliament for discussion of a draft of a proposed law.
26. Out of neutral voguish clothes (2,4)
IN GEAR : IN(voguish/in fashion) + GEAR(clothes/attire).
Defn: … gear/when the gears of an engine are engaged and ready to transfer power, as in, say, a motor vehicle.
27. What wit might do with small camping equipment (8)
BEDROLLS : [BE DROLL](what a wit/a humorous person might do to provoke dry, low-key amusement) plus(with) S(abbrev. for “small”).
28. Sober English teacher circles something hard to miss (6)
SITTER : [ TT(abbrev. for “tee-total”/sober by abstaining from alcohol) + E(abbrev. for “English”) ] contained in(… circles) SIR(what schoolboys might call their male teacher).
Defn: …, such as an easy goal in football or an easy catch in cricket.
29. Bread made by student, eaten by grandparent, perhaps (7)
BLOOMER : L(letter displayed by a learner driver) contained in(eaten by) BOOMER(short for a baby boomer, one who might/perhaps, have become a grandparent by now).
Down
1. Tease band releasing second disc (4)
COMB : “combo”(a small band of jazz, rock or pop musicians) minus(releasing) its second “o”(letter representing a disc/a thing circular object).
Defn: …/use a comb to separate, say, tangled hair into individual strands..
2. College administrator skinned bear (4)
URSA : “bursar”(a college administrator, in this case, one who manages the college’s financial affairs) minus its 1st and last letters(skinned).
Defn: … in Latin, as used in the name of Ursa Major, aka the Bear, a conspicuous constellation of stars.
3. Stink over hooligans in urban areas (8)
BOROUGHS : BO(abbrev. for “body odour”/an unpleasant body smell/stink) placed above(over, in a down clue) ROUGHS(hooligans/thugs).
4. Duck in English Channel heading north (5)
EVADE : Reversal of(… heading north, in a down clue) [ E(abbrev. for “English”) + DAVE(a television channel in the UK) ].
6. A redhead with higher energy going grey? (6)
AGEING : A + GINGE(or “ginger”, a term for a red-haired person/a redhead) with its E(symbol for “energy” in physics) moved up(with higher …, in a down clue).
7. Bushes, perhaps, in dense strip in need of cultivation (10)
PRESIDENTS : Anagram of(… in need of cultivation) IN DENSE STRIP.
Defn: What, in this instance/perhaps, father and son, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush of the USA, were.
(And you might say that “dense” and “in need of cultivation” might be an apt description for one of them.)
8. Group inch aboard craft, an old chopper (10)
GUILLOTINE : [ LOT(a group of similar items) + IN(abbrev. for “inch”, the unit of length) ] contained in(aboard) GUILE(craft/cunning).
Defn: …, in this instance, used to chop off people’s heads, famously used during the French Revolution.
11. Recipient of handouts has urge to stop saving (6)
BEGGAR : EGG(to urge/to encourage one to do something) contained in(… saving) BAR(to stop/to prohibit someone from doing or going).
13. Spooner’s pastry shortage? This isn’t to be trusted (4,2,4)
PACK OF LIES : Spoonerism of “LACK OF PIES”(a shortage/lack of pies/pastry).
14. Coward, say, awfully wary, in dire straits (10)
PLAYWRIGHT : Anagram of(awfully) WARY contained in(in) PLIGHT(dire straits/a difficult situation).
Defn: Description of, in this instance/say, Sir Noel Coward.
16. Fix eg Oxford house’s exterior with flipping unpleasant look about it (6)
REHEEL : 1st and last letters of(…’s exterior) “house” contained in(with … about it) reversal of(flipping, in a down clue) LEER(an unpleasant, suggestive look).
Defn: …/to replace a specific worn-out part of a shoe, an example of which/eg. is an Oxford.
18. Working hard in Bermondsey, engaged by sign painter (8)
LEONARDO : [ ON(working/in operation, such as an electrical appliance) + ‘ARD(“hard” as pronounced by one from Bermondsey, London) ] contained in(engaged by) LEO(an astrological sign).
Defn: First name of a famous Italian ….
21. Gas — more than enough but not all of it (6)
ETHANE : Hidden in(… but not all of it) “more than enough“.
23. In America, a slight girl coming out clutching the Guardian (5)
DWEEB : DEB(short for “debutante”, a girl coming out/being introduced to fashionable society) containing(clutching) WE(the presenter of this crossword, the Guardian using the plural self-referential pronoun).
Defn: …/an insult by calling someone a socially inept person.
24. Poor area in endless recession (4)
SLUM : “slump”(a recession/an economic downturn) minus its last letter(endless …).
25. Ruler after revolution dreads possessor confiscating article (4)
TSAR : Reversal of(after revolution …) [“Rasta”(short for a Rastafarian who has/possesses dreads/dreadlocks) minus(confiscating) “a”(an article in grammar)].
Defn: …/emperor of Russia, formerly.
A superb puzzle, full of wit, and a delight from start to finish. I loved HATPEG, AGEING (Prince Harry maybe?), CHARLESTON, EUGENE ONEILL (bar the apostrophe), ALL THE RAGE, PRESIDENTS, BEGGAR, PACK OF LIES and TSAR but there wasn’t a stinker amongst them.
Ta Picaroon & scchua
A challenge indeed! I took a while to get into this.
Some real corkers esp TSAR, BEDROLLS and CHARLESTON.
Thanks Picaroon and scchua
Before solving dweeb, bunged in sparkles at 27ac, thinking Oh, very droll! Hmm …
Pretty tough going, but we got there in the end. Thanks for all the help with parsing, scchua, and thanks for the crossie, Picaroon.
11 dn – thought the sense of BAR was aligned with “restricting” as in “it’s all over BAR the shouting” equates to “it’s all over SAVING the shouting” ; saw STOP as “an insertion instruction” as in .
Liked your illustration pictures, S
Thank you Picaroon and scchua
As in STOP the Gap
Yep, all very good and a lot of smiles along the way. NHO the writer or the opera at 12a, but very gettable from the crossers plus Google, so that’s not one, but two things I learnt today.
Maybe it’s just me, but it seemed that there was a lot of convoluted parsing needed in this: more than half of the solutions I guessed first, painstakingly parsed second. Or rather, in many cases, half-parsed then admitted defeat. I can’t recall ever having awaited the appearance of an FS blog as eagerly as today’s!
So thank you very much, scchua, for all the explanations – especially BEDROLLS & EVADE, both of which were CFEs (crossed finger entries). For CHARLESTON I thought it was Charlton – and couldn’t make anything of the remaining E & S. I confess I didn’t even try to parse 8D, just bunging in GUILLOTINE as soon as I saw “old chopper”, as I already had the G.
Mind you, I really enjoyed this – especially EUGENE ONEILL, ALL THE RAGE and the dense, unkempt PRESIDENTS.
Thanks to Picaroon too, of course
The thing I like about Picaroon’s offerings is that when the penny finally drops after spending a considerable time mulling over a challenging clue, unlike with some compilers, the result is never a groan, always a smile.
My knowledge of things British has been enhanced. That Oxford is a shoe That Bermondsey is another of those h-dropping places. That Reading’s in Berkshire. That a bloomer is a type of bread. But nowhere did I find that Dave is a television channel, so EVADE was in my “Huh?” list.
The only other one I didn’t parse was TSAR.
EUGENE O’NEILL was a good fun clue — one of many.
And thanks, scchua for another pleasantly pictorial blog.
Thanks Picaroon and scchua
I found the NW and, especially, the SE harder than the rest. I was thrown by grandparent for BOOMER, and also the parsing of CHARLESTON, as CHARLTON is mostly there (it would have helped if I had realised what the J. in the clue was there for). I didn’t parse TSAR either.
FOI was 13d. I’m not a fan of Spooner clues, but I liked this one.
Favourite was YEMENI – I like clues where I can construct the answer from the parts.
Not keen on “in” in 24d.
Brilliant. Left side went in quickly but for me all the true delights were on the right and it was a joy teasing out the solutions
Several LOL moments including BEDROLLS when the penny finally dropped
Any Charlton Heston reference is a welcome reminder of this timeless classic from Stump
Cheers S&P
The key is the key of A Major. Lots of very good clues in this puzzle but 23a new to me. 9a, 12a, 27a, 2d & 7d all brilliant. I’d forgotten that Charlton Heston played Ben Hur so hadn’t parsed that clue. Thanks scchua.
Great puzzel! Quite tough, with some lovely misdirection. Best for me was LEONARDO, which I gazed at for a long time before the penny dropped (having tried to shoehorn in SE1); also BEDROLLS, MISTRIAL and TSAR. See I made a mess of EAT, having put in an unparsed ECT for period of arousal (?!). Many thanks to P & s.
Right, revbob. Blog amended accordingly.
It’s ironic that SITTER means something hard to miss but is typically used when someone does miss a sitter
Needed guess and check for the i before twigging first reading, not helped by not knowing Reading’s in Berkshire, nor by it giving me a Traffic earworm.
Enjoyable puzzle even though it was quite a slow and steady solve for me. SE was last in.
Many favourites – ALL THE RAGE, BOROUGHS, EUGENE O’NEILL, BEGGAR, GUILLOTINE, PRESIDENTS, REHEEL, BEDROLLS (loi).
I did not parse 1d, 25d; 20ac apart from A RL and I was thinking of Charlton Heston but did not get there – very clever!
New: 23d DWEEB.
Thanks, both.
First-rate piece of work by Picaroon, IMHO. Geoff Down Under @9 hits the nail on the head: with Picaroon, when the penny finally drops, the result is always a smile.
It took me ages to see BLOOMER, prompting the wry reflection that it’s only as we approach the departure lounge that my generation have been called “Boomers”. It used to be enough that we had had the privilege of spending our childhood in the 1950s, a period when there was a quiet post-war conviction that things would continue to improve. And a period when, so long as you weren’t black, gay, or a single woman looking for a mortgage, life probably wasn’t too bad.
Absolute chapeau to Picaroon for coming up with an original clue for TSAR. Delightful misdirection with “dreads” resulting in a superb surface.
Just as neat is EVADE where the Channel doesn’t contain water (unless you count what washes the mud off Falken Tyres – see what I did there?).
I was convinced from quite early on that 6d had to be AGEING and was about to give up trying to parse it when I took a break from the puzzle and came back to it after reading the discussion on the Guardian site about today’s excellent cartoon. Much of which concerned the spat between The Balding One and The GINGEr one. And it clicked. Lovely. And never let it be said that HRH The Ginge doesn’t serve a useful purpose.
Warm thanks to Picaroon and scchua.
Another splendid challenge from Picaroon – many thanks to him and scchua
Agree with all the praise – another sparkling gem of a puzzle, many thanks P & s.
I particularly liked the first-word-in-the-clue-capital-letter misdirections – Bill’s outing, Bushes, Coward.
I parsed BEGGAR as Flea @5/6, with BAR = saving.
Thanks, Picaroon, splendid challenge indeed, as crypticsue says. Love the inventive, witty, misleading definitions – especially defective hearing, Bushes, dreads possessor. Also the amusing spoonerism. Have to confess I spent some time wondering how J=C. Doh! Penny dropped eventually though.
Thanks also for the blog, scchua. I parsed 11d the same way as Flea @5 – EGG “to stop” BAR – but I wasn’t 100% convinced by the grammar of that so maybe your reading is correct. It works well enough either way, to be honest, so makes no real difference.
NeilH @18 – “baby boomer” as a phrase, meaning people born in the postwar baby boom, has been around for *many* years – I first came across it when my parents bought the Baby Boomer Edition of Trivial Pursuit in the early 80s – full of questions aimed specifically at their generation. It’s only relatively recently that it’s been shortened to boomer and acquired a pejorative sense.
I too parsed 11 with ‘stop’ as the instruction, and ‘saving’ as the partial definition, and failed in full or part to parse the last 4 down clues. It took me a while but sped up after I got the solution to 5a.
Excellent puzzle, full of clever constructions (eg dreads possessor 🙂 ) and misdirecting definitions (eg ‘A major’ in a clue referencing ‘army’). Too many good clues to list.
Like Flea and essexboy I parsed BEGGAR with BAR = except (‘saving’).
Many thanks from this B(l)OOMER to the Pirate and scchua
Good fun challenge – I got a little lucky guessing EUGENE ONEILL as literally the only first/last names I could think of that would fit, with only ILL parsed. ETHANE gave me way too much trouble as I couldn’t get past my expectation that it was “more than enough” missing a last letter. Enjoyed CHARLESTON – really cheeky as at first glance I saw CHARLTON, couldn’t make sense and moved on.
My only gripe is with TSAR. “Dreads possessor confiscating article” implies that the dreads possessor has confiscated the article, i.e. a containment indicator. If we want to subtract, surely it should be “with article confiscated” or similar?
Thanks P&S.
Another tour de force from the master. Agree with Flea@5 and others re parsing of BEGGAR. Many excellent clues with BEDROLLS being my favourite. Thought the wordplay for GUILLOTINE a bit clumsy but a minor quibble in a superb puzzle. Thanks scchua (particularly for the parsing of EUGENE ONEILL which eluded me) and Picaroon.
Indeed superb and several beyond my ability to contort my brain into the required shape!
Just one point: agree with dfn. for ETHANE but has alspo read the “not all of it” as a reference to METHANE, i.e. not all of METHANE?
M Beak @ 24 If you confiscate something you take it away, so it seems OK to me
Thanks Picaroon and scchua
When the first two solved were HATPEG and PRESIDENTS, I thought to myself – what lovely smooth clueing, this should be a treat. And so I found it, from start to finish. Bravo, Picaroon, a real tour de force today. One of the very best puzzles that it has been my pleasure to solve in recent times. Had to be on my toes for each and every clue. Too many sparkling examples to single out one in particular. Last one in DWEEB…
Once again Picaroon shows his class. I have nothing to add to all the plaudits
Many thanks to Picaroon and scchua
I hadn’t seen the word DWEEB since the last time I got called a dweeb, which was probably almost 40 years ago (I’m 48). I wonder if it’s still au courant on the playground.
Since EUGENE O’NEILL was chiefly (perhaps exclusively?) a PLAYWRIGHT, I was expecting a theme, but none materialized. I echo the praise of the puzzle, including both those clues. Had to look up a list of towns in Berkshire for FIRST READING, but that’s to be expected.
Thanks scchua, I couldn’t parse 8d, it’s an even better clue now. Re TSAR I had no problem with the confiscation but thought the “after revolution” would have worked better at the end, and i had the same problems getting to 21d as M Beak@24 (Donoratico@26 that coincidence also held me up with the parsing, a well disguised hidden clue indeed). What a brilliant puzzle, thanks Picaroon.
This was a great puzzle, as determined by the many feelings of appreciation on solving some of the trickier clues. TSAR was fave.
On the first pass, I got almost none of the acrosses but almost all of the downs. So was I on the setter’s wavelength or not? Probably have to consult Schrodinger.
Like Donoratico@26 was wondering if the particular phrasing of 21d was chosen to create the mETHANE angle too.
Thanks P&S
Me @30: I looked it up, and the only non-drama output in O’Neill’s published canon was a short story written while he was still young, and something called The Last Will and Testament of an Extremely Distinguished Dog.
Re “to stop” vs. “saving”. I considered both. My conclusion was that “bar” was synonymous with “save”, as in “bar none”, and not “saving”; whereas “saving” was synonymous with “keeping”, and thus a containment indicator.
Thx to Picaroon for an challenge that was cheery and never dreary. Lots of favourites particularly BEDROLLS, CHARLESTON and EUGENEONEILL.
Thanks also to scchua for the few we couldn’t pass.
Great fun! All has been said (all that I would have said at least) but had to thank scchua for the CHARLESTON video which cheered me even further up. And thanks to Picaroon.
[Since it’s the last day of Xmas I take the opportunity to wish one and all a peaceful and healthy 2023.]
[Or was that yesterday? No matter.]
Having a rough day, so this cheered me up a lot.
PACK OF LIES made me laugh a bit. Somehow I was listening to some Tchaikovsky last night?! So EUGENE O’NEILL was also pretty funny to me.
All the words denoting letters to be moved around, especially in the down clues, baffled me for a while but still learning obvs.
I can just picture my Dad explaining TSAR to me now, he used to call himself ‘rasta’ for having dreadlocks……
Thanks guys, lightened my day!
Outstanding puzzle.
Excellent blog.
Splendid set of comments
Thanks to all, especially scchua and The Pirate.
Thanks Picaroon for another display of excellence. This was a challenge to start and my 1st two solutions were EAT and KEY. Somehow things fell into place except for my failure with SITTER and my inability to parse MISTRIAL, BEDROLLS, and EVADE. I had many favourites including HATPEG, BLOOMER, BOROUGHS, PACK OF LIES, PLAYWRIGHT, LEONARDO, and TSAR. I thought there might be a theme in the works with 12a, 22a, and 14d but I could not go further. Thanks scchua for the blog.
Thanks for the blog, AlanC back at number 1 already , you could have at least let me keep my lead for just one week . Better if I keep quiet today, suffering Azed withdrawal symptons, at least I had the Vlad yesterday .
Tip-top – seemed intractable to begin with but slowly dissolved and sublimated to the sublime.
Thanks to Picaroon & Scchua
I’m a bit late to the party, but just wanted to echo the praises to both Picaroon and Scchua
Never thought of Charlton Heston, thanks scchua.
The sports meaning of SITTER was new to me as was Dave the channel and GINGE for ginger/readhead. Ginger isn’t red, why are redheads called ginger?
Parsing of GUILLOTINE was beyond me. Bermondsey fooled me, didn’t know it was in a Cockney area. Never thought of Rasta.
Anybody else try to work NAN/NAAN into grandparent/bread?
Loads of fun. Thanks Picaroon and scchua.
[I think the channel Dave was actually named after Dave Lister from Red Dwarf]
Yet another cracking puzzle from Picaroon. I don’t know whether the Spoonerism has been used before, but it’s a corker.
Got by the J in CHARLESTON. However, liked the clue, (not the actor or person), obvious from def, the permutations for Charlton and Heston in the solution confounding me and the parsing being something else entirely. I’m old enough to remember the dance. Can’t do it now, couldn’t do it then.
Didn’t come to this puzzle until late in the day but wish to add my appreciation to everyone else’s. I only had time to complete around half, which I thoroughly enjoyed. That was challenging enough, but I got just as much pleasure from the solutions which eluded me. A classic puzzle that was worthy of the Saturday prize spot and more perusal time. Many thanks to Picaroon and scchua.
This took me a satisfyingly long time to complete. Lots of my first instinctive guesses I ignored, only to realise later they were correct. The Berkshire town wasn’t one of them as I was slow there…
Thanks Picaroon and scchua
This was a great crossword. No ploddingly boring clues and for me not even any easy ones – I couldn’t solve a single one in my first round! Stared a few into submission and got going, worked at it over 2 days and now very pleased to have finished it. So many lovely surprises revealed – Bushes, Coward, Panama, Bill… Thank you Picaroon!
Well, it has taken me until Sunday to get to the end, but it was worth the hard work. Wonderful clueing Picaroon, with too many favourites to mention. Thanks scchua for the fine blog and for explaining ALL THE RAGE, BEDROLLS, SITTER, and TSAR which were beyond my ken.
Really rewarding solve, but 8dn a bit too contrived and nho of the opera but that’s my ignorance seeing as how my son is an opera singer.
I agree with M Beak @24 that ‘confiscating’ doesn’t really work. Who is doing the confiscating? It can’t be the ‘dreads possessor’, as he doesn’t exist until gaining a final A, and it can’t be the TSAR ‘after revolution’ or solvers themselves because there is no one with an A from whom it can be confiscated. Nevertheless it was clear what the setter intended, and like almost every clue it provided a smile-worthy penny drop moment.
I wrote in EVADE before considering the reversal required by the clue, and immediately reached for the Tippex because Dave obviously isn’t a channel. 🙂 One of many original devices used here, though I also enjoyed ‘J. Ben-Hur’=C HESTON even though I’ve seen something like this before.
I also had the parsing of BEGGAR the other way round, but I now agree with scchua’s reasoning @34.
Thanks to Picaroon and scchua.