Thank you to Picaroon. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1, 6. Conservative listing dodgy deal is in the dailies (8,6)
CLEANING LADIES : C(abbrev. for a member of the Conservative Party) + LEANING(listing/tilting to one side) + anagram of(dodgy) DEAL IS.
Defn: Women employed to clean people’s houses daily, informally called …
6. See 1
9. It might help with a break in Adriatic resort around November (6)
SPLINT : SPLIT(a holiday resort in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea coast) containing(around) N(letter represented by “November” in the phonetic alphabet).
Defn: …/fracture in one of your bones.
10. Cooler suit for groups of lovers? (3,5)
FAN CLUBS : FAN(a device that cools) + CLUBS(a suit in a deck of playing cards).
Defn: …/admirers of the same well-known person or thing.
11. Given support, papa stops boy hurting daughter (9)
SPONSORED : P(letter represented by “papa” in the phonetic alphabet) contained in(stops) SON(used to address a boy or lad) + SORE(hurting/in pain) + D(abbrev. for “daughter”).
Defn: … in the form of funds.
13. Brief work by bard on American states (5)
AVERS : Last letter deleted from(Brief) “verse”(a poem/a piece of work by a bard/poet) placed after(on) A(abbrev. for “American”).
15. Rules of game are, we hear, maintained by writer (6)
RUBRIC : RU(abbrev. for “rugby union” or, commonly, rugby, the team ball game) + [ R(letter pronounced the same as/we hear, “are”) contained in(maintained by) BIC(a disposable ball-point pen/a writer) ].
Defn: A set of …, for conducting, say, a church service.
17. Car — I slip into it (6)
SIERRA : [I + ERR(to slip/to make a careless mistake) ] contained in(into) SA(abbrev. for “sex appeal”/sexual attractiveness/it).
Defn: … model by Ford Motors.
A racing version:
18. Quixotic hero has spades, good at practical work (6)
SHANDY : S(abbrev. for the suit “spades”, in card games nomenclature) + HANDY(good at practical work, thus “handyman”).
Answer: Hero in “Tristam …”, a novel by Laurence Sterne, inspired by Don Quixote.
19. Also leaving Spain, making tracks (1-5)
B-SIDES : “besides”(also/in addition to) minus(leaving) “E”(International Vehicle Registration code for Spain).
Defn: Plural of the one side of a pop single (a record with a song on each side) regarded as the less likely to catch on.
21. Jalopy‘s constant speed (5)
CRATE : C(symbol for a constant in mathematics, and, specifically in physics, for the speed of light in a vacuum) + RATE(the speed with which something moves or happens).
Defn: …/an old and dilapidated vehicle.
22. KGB, say, saving Philby time, which is most revealing (9)
SKIMPIEST : [ SPIES(examples of which are/say, members of the KGB in the former Soviet Union) containing(saving) KIM(Philby, once a British spy, and, a double agent for the Soviet Union) ] + T(abbrev. for “time”).
25. Fun activity dressing nurses in tissue (8)
LIGAMENT : GAME(a fun activity) contained in(… nurses) LINT(a fabric dressing for wounds).
Defn: A band of strong … in one’s body that connects bones
26. Head salesman to criticise returns (6)
NAPPER : Reversal of(… returns) [ REP(short for “representative”, eg. sales person) + PAN(to criticise/to find fault with) ].
Defn: Informal term for a person’s ….
28, 29. Big news! Princess in Britain was forced to ingest ecstasy and cocaine? (6,8)
BANNER HEADLINE : ANNE(Princess in Britain) contained in(in) BR(abbrev. for “Britain”) + HAD(was forced/was required, as in “he had to obey or else”) containing(to ingest) E(abbrev. for “ecstasy”, the drug) plus(and) LINE(a dose of a powdered drug, cocaine, say, laid out in a line ready to be inhaled).
29. See 28
Down
2. Current record covers showing freshness (3)
LIP : I(symbol for “electric current”, in physics) contained in(… covers) LP(abbrev. for a “long-playing record”, with a number of tracks per side).
Defn: …/impudence.
3. One single girl from Wales from the east (5)
ASIAN : A(one single) + SIAN(a feminine Welsh name).
4. Keen on fixing tungsten objects on the fence (2,3,5)
IN TWO MINDS : INTO(keen on/enthusiastic about) containing(fixing) W(symbol for the chemical element, tungsten) + MINDS(objects to/disapproves of).
Defn: …/not having decided/made up one’s mind about something.
5. Manager rolling ciggy before official turns up (6)
GAFFER : Reversal of(rolling) FAG(slang for a cigarette, in short, a “ciggy”) placed above(before, a down clue) reversal of(… turns up) REF(short for “referee”, an official in a game or a fight).
6. It might help you to see a French city (4)
LENS : Double defn: 1st: An eyepiece, say.
7. Saved extremely delicate wine cups, as it happens (9)
DELIVERED : [ 1st and last letters of(extremely) “delicate” + RED(short for a “red wine”) ] containing(cups) LIVE(describing a broadcast on radio or TV of an event as it happens).
Defn: …/liberated.
8. Shows up in empty Epsom watering hole with right idiots (11)
EMBARRASSES : Inner letters deleted from(empty) “Epsom” + BAR(watering hole/an establishment where one goes to drink) plus(with) R(abbrev. for “right”) + ASSES(idiots/dumbasses).
Defn: …/humiliates.
12. Awful porkies are told, dismissing old reform agenda (11)
PERESTROIKA : Anagram of(Awful) [ “porkies are told” minus(dismissing) “old“].
Defn: … in the former Soviet Union, that included the ending of central government planning.
14. Bathes with Arab, with a desire for a soak? (10)
DIPSOMANIA : DIPS(bathes/has a swim) plus(with) OMANI(a national of the Arab state, Oman) plus (with) A.
Defn: …/urge to drink heavily/alcoholism.
16. Transport group known for flying tours love dry and wet weather (4,5)
BOAT TRAIN : BA(abbrev. for British Airways, group/organisation known for flying/operating flights) containing(tours) O(letter representing 0/love in tennis scores) + TT(abbrev. for “teetotal”/dry/not drinking alcohol) plus(and) RAIN(wet weather).
Europe’s last:
20. Prow of sailing boat in outline (6)
SKETCH : 1st letter of(Prow of) “sailing” + KETCH(a two-masted sailing boat).
23. Force has trouble-maker held after dropping case (5)
IMPEL : IMP(a trouble-maker/one who causes mischief) + “held” minus its 1st and last letters(after dropping case).
Defn: …/to drive forward.
24. Speculator saving banks close to collapse (4)
BEAR : BAR(saving/with the exception of) containing(banks/deposits) last letter of(close to) “collapse“.
Defn: … in shares who hopes for a weakening market.
27. Age of American figure finally raised (3)
EON : ONE(an example of a figure/numeral) with its last letter(finally) moved to the top(raised, in a down clue).
Defn: American spelling of “aeon”, a very long period of time/an age.
Thanks, Picaroon and scchua!
Liked SPLINT (A break in Split at a re-sort!), SKIMPIEST (When Kim could barely hide…),
BANNER HEADLINE (There is substance in it), PERESTROIKA (re construction: all about reconstruction) and DIPSOMANIA (High class).
BANNER HEADLINE
I had a marginally different take:
‘was forced to ingest ecstasy’=HAD to eat E=HEAD.
Thanks Picaroon and Scchua.
Still don’t get LIGAMENT. Doesn’t nurses mean contains, rather than contained. This would give, e.g. GAMLINTE.
Also, ASIAN. Surely there’s redundancy in the clue. Why ONE SINGLE, when either on its own would have sufficed?
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the puzzle, just a couple of queries.
KVa @2. Isn’t that what the blog says?
LIGAMENT
I read it as:
GAME, LINT nurses.
Crispy @4
I feel reading some words together as mentioned @2 could be slightly better.
Was forced to=HAD to, ingest E
I am not sure about ‘Was forced=HAD’ (it must be my lack of understanding).
Crispy@3
I join you in asking the ‘why one single’ question.
EON I had as E (figure finally) +ON (raised) but I think it works either way.
No real favourites among a lot of good clues, and a very nice workout today.
Tough but enjoyable, it was a very good workout for my brain today.
Favourites: FAN CLUBS, BANNER HEADLINE.
New for me: NAPPER = head; W=tungsten (for 4d); LENS city in France; LINT = dressing (25ac).
I could not parse 27d.
Thanks, both.
Crispy@3
I parsed the clue for 25ac more like dressing nurses Fun activity / fun activity is nursed by dressing -> GAME in LINT -> LIGAMENT
EMBARRASSES
A minor inadvertent omission in the blog:
right=R
Wanted to say this in my first post: What a colourful, illustrated scchualog!
Great stuff as always from Picaroon. I really ought to try to remember that tungsten = W but I have to look it up every time. I did know NAPPER from “Any Old Iron”:
You look dapper from your napper to your feet
Many thanks Picaroon and scchua.
KVa @5, Michelle @9.
Thanks for your thoughts. I think it’s just a personal view that I think you have to do just a bit too much linguistic twisting to get LIGAMENT.
This was a steady solve and really enjoyable. Favourites were CLEANING LADIES, SPONSORED, SKIMPIEST, BANNER HEADLINE, PERESTROIKA and DIPSOMANIA. I parsed LIGAMENT as michelle @9 and also queried the ‘one single’ device.
Ta Picaroon & scchua for the excellent blog.
I normally find it tricky to get onto Picaroon’s wavelength, so I suppose this must have been one of his easier oeuvres. Still I’m chuffed to have completed it – and managed to complete all the parsing save RUBRIC (I clean forgot about bic biros!)
My faves were EMBARRASSES, DIPSOMANIA, SHANDY and ASIAN.
(I had a schoolfriend called Sian, who, poor soul, used to get royally fed up at so few people knowing how to pronounce her name…)
Thank you Picaroon and scchua
On 18A, I wonder if the “quixotic hero” may be Tristram’s uncle Toby, rather than TS himself. While TS narrates the book, and it is entitled “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy”, it contains virtually nothing about him, but a lot about Uncle Toby, who is eccentric, pig-headed and described with affection. If the book as a whole is inspired by Don Quixote, there’s very little evidence of it in the story, which is scarcely a story at all, though a very enjoyable read if one is in the right mood and takes it gradually.
I don’t think we have nappers here (other than people enjoying a siesta) — Collins tells me it’s British. Didn’t know Kim Philby, and SHANDY took a bit of research. We spell it EON here too — I didn’t parse that one, nor BEAR. All else fell into place and was enjoyable, thanks Picaróon & scchua.
One of Picaroon’s more straightforward offerings, I thought. Was fine with LINT nursing GAME, but tend to agree about the redundancy in ASIAN. “One girl from Wales…” would have sufficed.
Thanks to Picaroon and scchua.
Once again, there are too many fine clues to list: I’ll go along with AlanC but must add EMBARRASSES, because it made me laugh.
Crispy @12 – sorry to labour this but I don’t think there’s too much linguistic twisting to get LIGAMENT: it’s really quite common usage but it often raises discussion here when used in crosswords. Try inserting ‘which’ or ‘that’ between ‘activity’ and ‘dressing’ and think about, perhaps, ‘I really enjoyed the film I saw yesterday’.
Thank you, Lord Jim @11 for reminding me how I knew NAPPER.
Many thanks to Picaroon for another great puzzle and to scchua for the blog.
KVa@10. Thanks. An embarassing (oops!) oversight on my part. Blog corrected.
Eileen @18. I get it now, but I still don’t like the clue. As I said earlier, that’s just my personal view. In speech I’d put the ‘that’ or ‘which’ in.
Thanks, Picaroon and scchua. Great fun as ever – particularly liked “desire for a soak” in 14d. Took me a long time to work out what was going on in 27d – Picaroon deftly heading off the pedants at the pass had me scratching my head. I’m so used to seeing the non-A spelling these days that I forget it’s strictly an Americanism.
Crispy @12 – but it’s precisely the kind of linguistic twisting we do in everyday speech without giving it a moment’s thought. You can read the clue as having an elided relative pronoun if it helps, viz: GAME [that/which] LINT nurses.
“One single” is perhaps redundant but idiomatic – eg “All I need is one single moment of peace” – and it helps the surface of the clue.
Eileen @18 – great minds etc – I was still typing when you posted your comment.
Widdersbel@21
DIPSOMANIA
Immediately after getting the solution, I was thinking that the definition part was lacking something. Soon I remembered that ‘a soak’ meant ‘a drunkard’.
‘desire for a soak’ should be read as ‘a desire that a soak nurtures/a soak’s desire’. Is my understanding correct?
What Eileen said – I always enjoy “Double Pirate Day”
Many thanks to Picaroon and scchua
Widdersbel @22 😉
A dnf for me (it’s only a crossword; if it’s unfinished and I’m getting bored, I just click Reveal) as I missed LIGAMENT, and I tend to agree with Crispy@12 that its syntax is over-twisted. Also agree that there’s a redundant clue-word for ASIAN.
I’m British, and I would spell EON thus, though I’m aware of the longer version.
Favourites EMBARRASSES, SKIMPIEST among others.
Thanks both.
I, too, liked DIPSOMANIA and EMBARRASSES. I blame myself, rather than Picaroon for trying too long to have the nurses included in the fun activity, and going into contortions trying to turn “filamt” into a fun activity to give FILAMENT.
😀
Me@26 – I got interrupted before submitting the comment and missed Eileen’s comment re LIGAMENT – but (again like Crispy) I still don’t much like it.
Ha ha – DIPSOMANIA – in my innocence I tried for a while to justify HYDROMANIA.
KVA@23 I read the def for DIPSOMANIA as you did. LOL your interpretation of SPLINT, SKIMPIEST, BANNER HEADLINE and PERESTROIKA. Love the reconstructed, substantial resorts with no place to hide. 🙂
That last from me @31 was referring to KVa @1. If everyone skipped down quickly it’s worth going back for some fun.
Good puzzle, on the milder side for a Picaroon and a bit gentler than his Rodriguez in the Indy today. LIGAMENT was my last in. As others have pointed out, I took the wordplay to (deliberately) be in Yoda speak; ‘Dressing nurses fun activity…’ as per michelle @9, makes it clearer.
I learnt that I’ve never known the proper meaning of RUBRIC; I thought it had something to do with a lexical category, so an educational as well as enjoyable puzzle for me.
Thanks to scchua and Picaroon
KVa @23 – yes, exactly that!
Only one solve on first read through, but on the second the answers slowly revealed themselves. Couldn’t parse some of them so thanks for scchua and bloggers for the fun (somewhat eased my failures). Thanks Picaroon for another wonderful workout.
PS I still think of myself as a beginner although I can see a little progress.
paddymelon@31 and Widdersbel@34
DIPSOMANIA
Thanks.
paddymelon@32
🙂
I had no problem with one single girl from Wales, but one single boy from Scotland would perhaps have been less contentious. Amazing I’ve lasted 60 years without coming across W for tungsten. Thanks scchua and Picaroon for an enjoyable solve.
Though I thought both CLEANING LADIES and FAN CLUBS excellent in every way, I didn’t think that this was Picaroon at his sparkling best IMHO. Wasn’t particularly impressed by LIP, CRATE or ASIAN. Couldn’t parse SIERRA, EON, BEAR or BOAT TRAIN, which had to be the last one in once I had deciphered RUBRIC. Maybe I simply got out of bed the wrong side this morning, as I’m a usually a great admirer of this setter…
Lots to like with a smattering of unusual containment indicators.
I liked the wordplay in SPONSORED, the surface in LIGAMENT, the ‘objects’ in IN TWO MINDS, the good anagram for PERESTROIKA, and the ‘group known for flying tours’ in BOAT TRAIN.
Thanks Picaroon and scchua.
W for Tungsten always reminds me of the Endeavour (later Inspector Morse) episode when the murderer is revealed from the (atomic) numbers on a church hymn board…..
DC Endeavour Morse : Strange, there’s a blackboard there. Could you…?
[Strange gets the board]
DC Endeavour Morse : Each element is assigned a symbol: Typically an abbreviation of its name together with a unique one or two-digit atomic number. Can you write these down as I call then off?
[Strange cleans the board and writes the elements on the board as Morse calls them out]
DC Endeavour Morse : So, 74 gives us Tungsten. 17, Chlorine. 18, Argon. 19, Potassium. The elements spell out a name.
Chief Superintendent Bright : [looking at the first letters of the elements] T.C.A.P Tucap?
DC Endeavour Morse : No, not quite, sir, but you’re on the right lines.
[Morse walks over to the blackboard and Strange gives him the chalk]
DC Endeavour Morse : Um, the chemical symbol for Tungsten isn’t Tu as you might expect. It’s W from the German Wolframite. And Potassium isn’t P as you might expect but K after the Latin Kalium. Taken together they’re Tungsten…
[close-ups of these four elements and their chemical symbols in the Periodic Table are seen as Morse writes the chemical symbol W]
DC Endeavour Morse : …Chorine…
[Morse writes the chemical symbol CL on the blackboard]
DC Endeavour Morse : …Argon…
[Morse writes the chemical symbol AR on the blackboard]
DC Endeavour Morse : …and Potassium.
[Morse writes the chemical symbol K on the blackboard]
DC Endeavour Morse : W-C-L-A-R-K. Wallace Clark.
[flashbacks of Wallace Clark committing the murders are seen with close-ups of the Periodic Table]
Chief Superintendent Bright : [almost speechless] Good grief.
DI Fred Thursday : Derek’s father.
Chief Superintendent Bright : But there’s nothing to say he even knew the vicar.
DC Endeavour Morse : Ivy Clark, sir. Wallace’s wife is buried in the churchyard.
[Ivy’s Clark’s tombstone is seen]
DC Endeavour Morse : The next plot but one to Lady Daphne Sloan. Reverend Monkford performed the service.
PC Jim Strange : [laughs] Bloody hell, matey. That’s…
DI Fred Thursday : [stunned and impressed] Elementary.
Thanks for the blog, SKIMPIEST was put together very well and BOAT TRAIN was neat.
I agree with KVa@2 for had to eat E as part of HEADLINE.
Agree with Widdersbel@21 for “One single” , idiomatic is the word I was trying to think of. I often say – I need one single student for ….. Meaning A student.
RUBRIC one of my favourite words, I try to give my students a test on April 1st with a fake rubric.
Thanks to Picaroon for the workout and scchua for the blog, which explained a couple of the things I couldn’t. All my favourites have already been mentioned in the above interesting comments.
[ AlanC@13 not even in the top ten , tut tut. It is now 27-16 , I had a rare Number 1 in the FT and somehow reached Number 1 for Cyclpos . ]
I enjoyed this and it didn’t give me too much difficulty despite the complex constructions in places. I liked the misleading definitions: dailies, shows up, desire for a soak.
Favourite was SKIMPIEST for its clever surface, but most of Picaroon’s surfaces were up to his usual high standard. I don’t have a problem with ‘one single’; neither word on its own is as exact a match for the indefinite article (though this clue does have an uncharacteristically clumsy reading. Poor Siân). ‘Tissue’ is a bit vague for LIGAMENT but was constrained by the surface.
I failed to parse EON because I am more used to this spelling, which I think is standard in geochronology.
Thanks to S&B
Enjoyed it; as others wondering about one and single is ASIAN.
Thanks both
ASIAN
Widdersbel@21 and Roz@41 and others who tried to explain why the clue was all right!
I am now convinced that ‘one single’ in a clue can stand for ‘A’ in the solution. Thanks.
I think of a LIGAMENT as a tendon, whereas tissue refers to skin or similar.
A BOAT TRAIN usually carries a liner’s passengers to the quayside, not onto a train ferry as illustrated.
Thanks to Piccaroon for a most enjoyable and stimulating puzzle. Lovely bits of misdirection – cue the sound of a cascade of pennies dropping. It was a perfect example of why we do this daily cryptic crossword.
Top marks for:
CLEANING LADIES
DIPSOMANIA
SKIMPIEST
BOAT-TRAIN
BEAR
Thanks to scchua for the blog and for helping with a couple that we couldn’t pass.
…..sorry, parse ‘who needs spellcheck’.
I feel I should have known BEAR for speculator from playing the card game Pit, but had forgotten the bull and bear in that trading rumpus. Does anyone still play it?
Wasnt Maggie May a B side to start with?
The DJs thought differently
Thanks Pickers
I was wondering if the redundant single wasn’t intentionally misdirecting, since it can potentially work in one of two ways, as in:
A single Scottish man, a single Welsh woman, or a Continental person?
Roz@41 – I’m a fan of RUBRIC, too.
‘Etymology … from Latin rubrica (“red ochre”), the substance used to make red letters’ – didn’t know this until today.
Paul, Tutukaka@37
Maybe the “one single girl from Wales” and the “one single boy” from Scotland could get married.
Then poor spinster SIAN and bachelor IAN wouldn’t be single anymore.
It’s EONs since I’ve seen EON spelt AEON or even with one of these…
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C3%A6
…'(chiefly dated) The letter ash, a ligature of vowels a and e’
“Oedipus, Schmoedipus! What does it matter, so long as he loves his mother?”
Or should that be “Edipus, Schmedipus”?
On the subject of tungsten, I highly recommend Uncle Tungsten by the late Oliver Sacks. It is a memoir of his childhood and his major obsession with chemistry. Quite amazing what children’s chemisty sets contained in the 1940s. If Hitler’s bombs didn’t blow up the house then a budding scientist might….All in all, a satisfying solve, though I had a blind spot with 24 D: BEAR. I had two of the letters, and have no excuse. WIth thanks to Picaroon and scchua.
Never heard of Lens, France. scchua, thanks for parsing RUBRIC.
Got everything last night except SPONSORED, which jumped out at me this morning, and LIGAMENT, which I didn’t notice I’d missed until scchua parsed it for me.
Nice puzzle. All I got on first pass was CRATE and NAPPER, which I put in in very faint and dubious ink, not really believing it. Built the rest up from there, rather to my surprise.
Thanks to Picroon and scchua.
Am I the only one to quibble with 28/29A because “forced to” would be “had to”, not “had”? I parsed it that way but was not happy. The clue could be fixed by “…forced not to ingest…”, at the cost of a less slick surface.
Crispy @3 I had the same quibble about ASIAN and spent far too long trying to justify it. Otherwise enjoyable, thank you Picaroon
Thank you scchua for a couple of parsings, in particular RUBRIC. I got the BIC part but the rest eluded me.
Jacob @58 – when you use “have to” as a modal auxiliary in this way, that “to” belongs to the infinitive form of the main verb in the clause (ingest), which is why (as per KVa’s comment @2) that part of the wordplay reads more naturally if you take it as a whole rather than break it down into its individual parts.
WAS FORCED to ingest ECSTASY = HAD to ingest E
[Roz – I listen to cricket on the radio, and today one of the commentators said that this will be the last test match broadcast on 4 long wave. Hope this is good news!]
Thanks Picaroon. How Picaroon can crank out such a large volume of high quality crosswords remains a mystery to me. I liked this one quite a bit with ticks going to SPONSORED, RUBRIC, LIP, EMBARRASSES, DIPSOMANIA, SKETCH, IMPEL, and BEAR. I failed with LIGAMENT and I agree with PeterM @47 regarding its definition. I couldn’t parse a few so thanks scchua for the blog.
[I second the endorsement of Oliver Sacks’ writings made by nuntius @56.]
[ Thank you Crispy@60 , is this for EVER or just this year ? I thought I was doing well this week and then I switched on at 3 for Open Country and the cricket is back. I can’t switch on until 5.55 now ]
Peter@47 LIGAMENT is connective tissue , usually bone to bone across a joint, the knee is a classic example. Tendons fix muscles to bone at one end. Tendons and muscle are also tissue.
Frankie@53 they should print the RUBRIC in red on exam papers. The students would still not read it.
In my defence:
HAD(was forced, as in the example I gave) containing E per the blog vs. HAD to eat E – same difference.
I had thought of “a soak” as a drunkard, but reasoned that “soak’s desire” would be “desire of a soak”, not “… for …”
[Roz @62. Forever is a mighty long time, but from next year the cricket will only be available digitally.]
I do accept “For a soak, dipsomania is a desire.” and “Dipsomania is a desire, for a soak.”
A ‘proper’ solve for me, which is a rare commodity indeed, no checks or reveals.
I thought PERESTROIKA was excellent, struggled to parse LIGAMENT, NURSES for an insertion indicator is a new one for me.
Thanks both.
Roz@63 – 🙂
I could not parse a few of these until I saw the explanations here, but absolutely no nits to pick – great puzzle!
Thanks Picaroon and scchua.
Scchua @64 – no need to “defend” yourself, your parsing is spot on. Soak can be a heavy drinker or a heavy drinking session so it works either way.
Excellent blog for an excellent crossword. Thank you, scchua and Picaroon.
Regarding RUBRIC (15a): Rugby Union (RU) is, properly speaking, one of the two codes of rugby football played in the UK, the other code being Rugby League (RL). The split was originally an administrative/political matter, but at some point the rules of the game diverged.
So it’s not quite accurate to equate Rugby Union with rugby football, since Rugby League is also rugby football. For some reason, or maybe no reason, RU shows up in cryptic crosswords very frequently, whereas RL shows up hardly at all (I have never seen it).
Giabra, that’s interesting. Could it be a class thing or merely a reflection of relative popularity? This crossword convention is no problem in NZ a we say “rugby” for RU and “league” for RL. We would only ever say “union” when comparing the two e.g. “Do you play union or league?”
Honestly, I am so totally over this device of “SA” and “it” for sex. Never have I encountered an actual human who talks like this; these terms are reserved solely for crypticcrosswordland.
RUBRIC – “…are, we hear, maintained by writer” – The setter is cluing one single letter “R” to be included in a pen.
Completely unfair on non-rhotic speakers, who would have nothing to put in their BICs. To say nothing of Jonathan Woss.