Guardian Cryptic 29,151 by Picaroon

by

A difficult solve with tricky parsing, and many favourites including 10ac, 13ac, 26ac, 4dn, 5dn, 8dn, 15dn. Thanks to Picaroon for the puzzle

 

ACROSS
1 BALL-TAMPERING
Dicey gambler with plan — it is cause of unfair dismissal (4-9)
definition: in cricket, ball tampering [wiki] may lead to a batsman being unfairly dismissed (e.g. bowled out)

anagram/”Dicey” of (gambler plan it)*
10 OFFLOAD
Get rid of kind of 4×4 vehicle that’s changed hands (7)
OFFROAD=”kind of 4×4 vehicle”, changing hands from R[ight] to L[eft] to make OFFLOAD
11 LUCINDA
Posh Conservative hugged by one girl or another (7)
definition: another girl’s name

U (upper-class, “Posh”) + C (Conservative); both inside LINDA=”girl”
12 FARES
Gets on with fellow, having a short break (5)
F (fellow) + A + RES-[t]=”short break”
13 SWINEHERD
One tends to stock booze woman drinks, by the way (9)
in definition, “stock” as in farm animals / livestock

WINE=”booze”, inside SHE=”woman”; plus RD (road, “way”)
14 EMMET
Ant and Dec stripped by police with a stammer? (5)
definition: a word for an ant (the insect)

[D]-E-[c] “stripped” of the outer letters, plus MET (Metropolitan “police”) changed to M-MET “with a stammer”
16 CATECHIST
Hear German is engaging English teacher (9)
definition: a teacher of Christianity

CATCH=”Hear”, plus IST=”German [word for] is”; all around E (English)
18 EGON RONAY
Fussy eater I annoy, cooking without recipe (4,5)
definition: Egon Ronay was a food critic [wiki]

EGO=Latin for “I”; plus anagram/”cooking” of (annoy)* around R (recipe)
19 ENNUI
Keen on music, occasionally causing boredom (5)
occasional letters from k-E-e-N o-N m-U-s-I-c
20 VASSALAGE
A girl in, say, the Bible rejected subordination (9)
A LASS=”A girl”, inside E.G.=”say” plus AV (Authorised Version of the Bible); all reversed/”rejected”
23 SOCLE
Plinth close to rock (5)
definition: architectural term for a short plinth

anagram/”to rock” of (close)*
24 CHORIZO
Sausage from Co-op’s prime line with end cut off (7)
the “prime” or first letter of C[o-op]; plus HORIZO[n]=”line” with its end letter cut off
25 HALFWIT
Idiot‘s fatal flaw blocking success (7)
anagram/”fatal” of (flaw)*, inside/”blocking” HIT=”success” (e.g. a hit song)

“fatal” as anagram indicator – similar to ‘disastrous’, ‘ruinous’, etc
26 PENNY-PINCHING
Ungenerous sort, doing this for sport? (5-8)
“doing this” i.e. ‘pinching a penny’ or ‘taking in a letter P‘, is what “sort” needs to do to become sPort
DOWN
2 ALFA ROMEO
50% initially taken off a little jumper setter wears, a luxury brand (4,5)
definition: a luxury car brand

[h]ALF=”50%” with the initial h taken off; plus A ROO (short for a kangaroo, “a little jumper”) around ME=”setter”
3 LOOTS
Rifles, many empty, it’s implied? (5)
definition: ‘rifle’ as a verb e.g. ‘rifle through’

LOTS=”many”, with O=zero/nothing inside i.e. “empty, it’s implied”
4 ANDES
Murray and Roddick reported many high points here (5)
sounds like (reported): ‘Andys’ – Andy Murray and Andy Roddick are tennis players
5 PALMISTRY
Million is invested in China? Hear it provides fortune (9)
M (Million) + IS; together inside PAL=”China” + TRY=”hear”

China is rhyming slang: ‘china plate’ for ‘mate’ or PAL

TRY=”hear” in a court
6 RECHERCHÉ
Case of rosé right between two reds only for connoisseurs (9)
definition: rare, obscure

outer letters (“Case”) of R[os]E; plus R (right) between CHE and CHE (“two reds”, referencing Che Guevara)
7 NONCE
Hour to wrap capital part of Christmas present (5)
definition: ‘for the nonce’ = ‘for the present [time]’

NONE=the ninth hour after dawn, as a time for prayer [wiki]; wrapping around the capital letter of C-[hristmas]
8 COFFEE SERVICE
Cups etc of faience, drained during Anglican worship (6,7)
OF plus F-[aienc]-E drained of its inner letters; both inside CE (Church of England) SERVICE=”Anglican worship”

…or could be ‘C of E’ for Church of England, instead of using the “of” from the surface

 

in the surface, “faience” is a type of ceramic
9 EAU DE TOILETTE
Scent picked up by you abroad with lots of character — is it this? (3,2,8)
EAU DE sounds like (“picked up”) ‘odour’=”Scent”; plus TOI=”you” in French (abroad); plus lots of LETTE-[r]=”character”
15 TARNATION
Oath from someone seen in boat race (9)
TAR=sailor=”someone seen in boat” + NATION=”race”
16 CANTALOUP
Fruit to preserve, with a lot getting mashed up (9)
CAN=”preserve” food in a metal can; with anagram/”mashed” of (a lot)* plus UP
17 IAN MCEWAN
Novel producer in cinema working without colour (3,6)
definition: Ian McEwan writes novels [wiki]

anagram/”working” of (cinema)*, plus WAN=”without colour”
21 STOLE
Touring West End for theatres, bit of shoe pinched (5)
SOLE=”bit of shoe”, around/touring the leftmost letter (West End) of T-[heatres]
22 ETHAN
A Coen brother‘s film worker finishing early (5)
definition: Ethan and Joel Coen are the Coen brothers [wiki]

ET (the Extra-Terrestrial)=”Film” + HAN[d]=”worker” finishing early
23 SYLPH
Graceful figure, seemingly not content, left pub (5)
S-[eemingl]-Y without its contents / inner letters; plus L (left) and PH (public house)

103 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,151 by Picaroon”

  1. Again I hardly got started with this then after a break ran through it with pleasure. Another cricket reference…do we get these throughout the year?
    Thanks Picaroon and manehi

  3. I’ve always put Picaroon at the top of my list of setters, but lately I’ve enjoyed his puzzles less. I only half-finished this one, despite trying for well over an hour. Too many obscurities, people I’ve never heard of on this side of the world (Egon Ronay, Ian McEwan), cockney rhyming slang that I abhor, and wordplay that led more often to groans than smiles. I don’t care much either for the practice of chopping off last letters (eg “letter” in “eau de toilette”). Getting tired of ET for film, too.

    Until recently I’ve always felt a sense of accomplishment and even a warm inner glow completing Picaroon’s offerings, with plenty of smiles, even a few chuckles. But not today. Perhaps I just wasn’t on the right wavelength. End of whinge.

  4. Thanks Picaroon. I found this on the difficult end of the pirate’s spectrum and I eventually revealed EGON RONAY, VASSALAGE, and SOCLE but I also found much to enjoy. Clues like OFFLOAD, HALFWIT, ALFA ROMEO, RECHERCHE, ETHAN, and SYLPH will always keep Picaroon on my “must do” list. I couldn’t parse CATECHIST, STOLE, or the very clever PENNY-PINCHING so thanks manehi for explaining.

  5. Thanks, Picaroon and manehi! A lovely puzzle and an excellent blog!

    BALL-TAMPERING: Stitching the clue together is an extended def, it ‘seams’.
    SOCLE: A plinth on a rock-solid base. As if the rock is extended to define a plinth…
    IAN MCEWAN: In cinema, did he work without colour?

    Just after PENNY-PINCHING, we have ALFA ROMEO. Somewhere a beat-up 4×4.

    To GOURMANDISE we have FARE(s) and CHORIZO.
    CANTALOUP extends nicely to its jam.
    A whole SWINEHERD. Booze. Rose and reds.
    COFFEE SERVICE (with mass appeal?) to follow religiously!

  6. Hard work but I found this worth the effort. I didn’t know how NONCE meant ‘present’ and I missed the parsing of PENNY-PINCHING. A few other uncommon words like CATECHIST, VASSALAGE and TARNATION took out my solving time into “off the scale” territory.

    Favourite was definitely the ‘Posh Conservative’ LUCINDA – very appropriate.

    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi

  8. Justigator @7: no, it’s to be precise. WesT end = T would be a liberal interpretation. Many solvers would be happy with it but, equally, many would not. West end is not saying ‘the end of West’. West end for Theatres is precisely indicating the letter in question. Similar to midniGht = G or middle of niGht = G. Hope that helps.

  9. I agree with some of what GDU@3 said re obscurities and the Use of ET as a film. I find these I either love Picaroon’s puzzles or find them a bit tedious – this was the latter.
    Also, I think BALL-TAMPERING as cause of unfair dismissal is a bit of a stretch for non-cricket lovers.
    Thanks to Picaroon and Manehi

  11. Postmark @8. I agree with Justigator@7. West End is clear enough as being T, just as midnight is clearly G.

  12. This was another tough one on the back of yesterday’s Vlad. Not that I am complaining. Rather more in the way of nho (or at least not heard for a long time) which made this more of a struggle, though the cluing was as fair and clever as ever. Amusing to see PALMIST(ry) turn up for the second clue in a row.

    SWINEHERD, VASSALAGE, CHORIZO, RECHERCHE, IAN MCEWAN and TARNATION were faves today, the first and last both being brilliant examples of hiding the break between phrases in the clues. Some time ago, I tried the Andys/ANDES trick myself and was sent away with a thick ear; I can’t do the pronunciation shorthand but the difference solvers pointed to was between And-IS and And-EES. It will be interesting to see how Picaroon fares here.

    Thanks Picaroon and manehi

  13. Crispy @11: fine. You are happy with a liberal interpretation. On the whole, so am I. But Justigator’s question was whether the additional words were there to make the clue harder. They are not there for that reason.

  14. Thanks Picaroon and manehi
    9, 24, and 28 unparsed. I was puzzled by the theatres in 21 too, but see how it works now. Favourites TARNATION and SYLPH.

  16. Andys/ANDES is not an exact homophone, but near enough and clear, I think. My only problem was not knowing that Andy Roddick was a tennis player, but once I’d remembered Murray’s first name the answer was clear, and by the stage I got to that clue I was grateful for what I could get. Found this very tricky initially, but after a short break to hang out the washing realised the answer to 1a and then everything fell into place enjoyably. SOCLE was new to me, but there are not many ways to rearrange close with the crossers in place. Realise now I didn’t go back and parse PENNY-PINCHING. Lots to like, so thanks to Picaroon and to manehi.

  17. Had to Google Coen bros’ first names and anagrams of ‘close’ that mean plinth. Agree ‘for theatres’ unnecessary for STOLE, but don’t think it changed difficulty of clue – so I’d rather it wasn’t there as I think concise clues are generally better.
    PENNY-PINCHING parsing eluded me but is clever so this now my favourite..
    Is ALFA ROMEO really a ‘luxury’ brand? A housemate in the ’70s had a 2-year-old Alfasud which had already literally rusted right through the bodywork – I guess they have improved since then.
    Overall too many niggles, as mentioned by others, plus ‘fatal’ as an anagrind, for this to be really enjoyable.
    Thanks both.

  18. Tougher than usual for a Picaroon puzzle, but very satisfying. I can’t claim to have parsed everything, but got to the solutions anyway. ‘Socle’ was new to me but was easily derived once the crosssrs were in place.

  20. Excellent blog for rather curly puzzle.Tougher than the normal Pickers.
    Second J setter in a row -I hope we get Jack tomorrow
    Penny Pinching needed an explanation so thanks.
    Go the Js

  21. It took me ages to get started but then it came together rather pleasantly.
    There were a few I couldn’t parse, notably CATECHIST, PENNY PINCHING, NONCE, but once explained they appear entirely fair (and, in the case of PENNY PINCHING, really rather clever). I’d never heard of SOCLE but I don’t mind obscure words if the wordplay is as clear as this was.
    I guess that either you remember EGON RONAY or you don’t; I actually remember him as a fairly regular appearance in Pseud’s Corner in Private Eye.
    Some really fine clues in there, favourites being EMMET and TARNATION, and some lovely surfaces.
    And the day can only go downhill from here…
    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi.

  25. Too hard for me. Failed to solve 14ac, 18ac (never heard of Egon Ronay), 15d & 21d.

    New for me: alternative spelling of cantaloupe -> cantaloup (16d); SOCLE, TARNATION, EMMET.

    Favourites: ETHAN, SYLPH, EAU DE TOILETTE, CATECHIST, PALMISTRY.

    Thanks, both.

  26. Once again, I agree with crypticsue @19 – very satisfying.

    As usual, too many ticks to list – I can’t see a dud clue anywhere.

    Re 21dn: I agree with Postmark @8 that ‘for theatres’ is there for precision – and, of course, it adds value to the surface, too.

    Re 8dn: I was with manehi’s second reading, C OF E, for Church of England, as a neat change from CE. What did others think?

    Many thanks to Picaroon for a super puzzle and to manehi for a blog to match.

  27. Most enjoyable puzzle, certainly no pushover. SOCLE was new to me too, but it was clearly an anagram and with the three crossing letters in place it couldn’t have been anything else.

    I pronounce Andys and ANDES with exactly the same vowel and consonant sounds, although the stress pattern is perhaps very slightly different, but I appreciate that some people pronounce the second vowel of Andy somewhat closer to the vowel of ‘hit’. I agree with beaulieu @17 that ALFA ROMEO is hardly a luxury brand, but wotthehell.

    Lots to like here: EGON RONAY, PENNY PINCHING, LOOTS, PALMISTRY, SYLPH were particular favourites. RECHERCHE is a lovely word – better than ‘obscure’ for posters to describe NHOs? 🙂

    Thanks to the Pirate and manehi

  28. Eileen 226: I completely agree with the second interpretation of 8d – it’s not often one can work C OF E smoothly into a construction so why would Picaroon not take the opportunity?

  29. I completed this in just under an hour but had to go to bed with many unparsed. So thankyou Manehi. EMMET, SOCLE, TARNATION all new to me and I didnt know that one of the Coen brothers’ name was ETHAN. I didn’t know that china was rhyming slang for mate so would never have parsed 5a.

  30. It is easy to blame the setter if we find a puzzle on the hard side, as I did today, but I can’t fault this excellent crossword, only my own ability. As I have misquoted Julius Caesar before, “The fault, dear Brutus is not in our setters but in ourselves that we are blundering.”

  31. Couldn’t parse PENNY-PINCHING and failed on several others, but many clever clues. ANDES for Andys is fine, but I hated the supposed ‘homophone’ EAU DE for ‘odour’. This is bad even as a pun and I regarded it with something approaching incredulity.

  32. NONE=the ninth hour after dawn? Obscuresville, man. I was going to say that it’s not in Chambers… but … it’s just not there in the obvious place! It’s not given under ‘none’, but comes under ‘Nones’.

  34. I agree with others that ‘Egon Ronay’ is somewhat recherché GK. I remembered the name because at the end of his life he lived not too far from me, in the small village of Yattendon, Berkshire. In at least one of his restaurant guides a ‘best in UK’ accolade went to the Royal Oak, which is also in Yattendon and had him as a frequent customer. Pure coincidence of course… Here is a warts-and-all obituary from the Independent.

  35. Thanks for the blog, not usually keen on this setter but I found this much better. PENNY-PINCHING is a neat trick, Azed uses this idea a lot. CATECHIST is clever with the deceptive hear. LOOTS is simple but effective . Many other fine clues.
    SOCLE is a nice, new word to learn and the clue is very fair.
    I know EGON RONAY from the film Ratatouille.
    CE service for me for 8D or the “of” is a rather redundant link word. An original faience coffee service would be very nice but rather expensive.

  36. This was indeed tricky (though personally I found it less so than yesterday’s from Vlad). I think one of the many things that makes Picaroon such an excellent setter is that the grids are courteously constructed so that solving of obscure words or tricky wordplay is normally aided by more gettable crossers. At the difficult end of his work, but never a chore due to scrupulously fair clueing. My favourite was the “little jumper” in ALFA ROMEO.

  38. So he did, Roz, and you cued in TARNATION as my favourite of a superb crop today.

    I’m feeling that The Pirate, like some fine wines, continues to mature and improve with age.

    More please.

  39. [Although the term ‘faience’ comes, via French, from the name of the Italian town of Faenza in the Emilia-Romagna – a long-standing centre of ceramics production – Italian faience is usually (perversely) known in English as ‘majolica’]

  40. Early English faience is called English Delftware here but faience in Europe. Later creamware is not actually tin glazed so not actually faience but still named as such abroad.

  41. What I want to know is how many contibuters here and yesterday had a day off work or are retired? Really cballenging.

  43. [ PDM@41, I have a lot more free time at the moment so starting the crossword a lot earlier. I do think that today and yesterday have been pretty tough. ]

  44. PostMark @8: I’m not sure why West End = T would be a liberal interpretation. Fag end, beam-end, bin end, year end, weekend – these are all the ends of the things in question, so why shouldn’t West End mean the end of “West”?

    Obviously that’s not what Picaroon meant in 21d, but I think Justigator @7 and Crispy @11 have a reasonable point.

  45. paddymelon @40: Retired…..and found this a struggle. A lot of obscure words, and unknown words. Many also unparsed. So a lot guessed from the crossers. Maybe, with the passage of time, I’ll look back on my efforts with fond memory. At the moment I’m simply relieved that the struggle is over!
    Many thanks to Picaroon for the challenge, and to manehi for explaining everything and letting me appreciate the setter’s excellence

  46. In Act IV scene vii of Hamlet, Claudius talks Laertes through the plan to kill Hamlet by sabotaging his forthcoming duel with the latter:

    … I’ll have prepared him
    A chalice for the NONCE, whereon but sipping,
    If he by chance escape your venom’d stuck,
    Our purpose may hold there.

    I recall a student, writng an exam commentary on this passage, puzzling over why Claudius was calling Hamlet a nonce.

  48. pdm @41: Semi-retired and confess today and yesterday took up more time than I would normally allow for the crossword. It prompted the Memsahib to observe that, “that grass is not getting any shorter”!

  49. [The Museo Internazionale di Ceramica in Faenza is worth a visit if you happen to be in the area. In fact, the international displays are rather underwhelming – there are much better ones in places like the British Museum and the V&A. But the collection of modern Italian ceramics is splendid]

  50. A challenging solve, with some obscure words obscuring the solution. Overall, a good job well done. Thanks Picaroon.

    Ha ha ha

  51. Truly magnificent puzzle from Picaroon, probably the most enjoyable one I can remember.

    I had triple ticks against so many of the answers.

    My faves were: SWINEHERD, EGON RONAY, VASSALAGE, CHORIZO, PALMISTRY, EAU DE TOILETTE and IAN MCEWAN.

    The surfaces were so smooth as though finely polished.

    Many thanks to Picaroon and manehi

  52. Had nothing first time through then it tortuously came together except Nonce and Tarnation. I use a fair few oaths but that isn’t one of them.

  53. As tricky as yesterday’s for me, but overall a touch more satisfying. A couple of NHO words in both wordplay and solutions so a little e-help was required before the end.

    PENNY PINCHING was my CotD but only when I got here for the parsing, having entered it on definition and crossers.

    Having owned a very unreliable ALFA ROMEO, the definition as ‘luxury brand’ elicited a hollow laugh here!

    Thanks both.

  54. Lord Jim @44: “year end” (eg) does of course suggest the end of year, so fair enough but it’s still essentially a liberal interpretation – as it whimsically uses the meaning of the specific phrase to allude to the R, but doesn’t literally mean the end of the word “year”. With “West End”, the specific phrase doesn’t refer to the end of west, so it’s a further leap to then apply “end” as it’s meant in “year end” – and that is arguably *overly* liberal – imho of course!

  55. [ Gervase @49 I am a complete pottery snob, Staffordshire pottery is far superior to all other forms and the museums in The Potteries are the only ones worth a visit really ]

  56. Very pleased to have completed this, with all the crossers in place for EGON RONAY and me taking an age at the end to realise what it might be. Started off with yet another cricketing term in BALL TAMPERING, so perhaps poetic justice that we triumphed in another sport yesterday against an old foe. Well done the Lionesses. PALMISTRY popped up again after yesterday’s slight variation, and I struggled to parse CATECHIST, CHORIZO, PENNY PINCHING and VASSALAGE. Never mind, lots to enjoy and admire…

  58. One of my favourite setters but this was definitely at the tough end of his repertoire. Lots of beautifully-turned clues, as we have come to expect, although I failed to parse CHORIZO, TARNATION and PENNY-PINCHING and was defeated by NHO SOCLE. Nevertheless an exhilarating ride; thanks to Picaroon and even more so to manehi for a superb blog.

  60. Lord Jim @44 – not necessarily my own view (so don’t shoot the messenger) but…

    In his book, Ximenes talks of masthead being ok to indicate M because mast is a noun so can have a head, but not redhead for R (because red is an adjective) nor Gateshead for G (it’s the name of a place so therefore indivisible).

    To apply that principle to your examples, fag, beam, bin and year are all nouns so can have an end. West is an adjective so can’t (west end is an adjectival phrase modifying another noun, eg London or Glasgow).

  65. Thought I was being slow today so very glad to read that others found it as hard as I did.

    Is it just coincidence that 1ac appears the day after David Warner’s ludicrous “watch out for the Poms changing the ball” tweet?

  66. paddymelon @41 – I did this on the train to work this morning. (My journey is about an hour but I also had time to write a few emails too. I finished it quicker than last Friday’s Paul.)

    The only one that gave me any trouble from a GK point of view was SOCLE – but as per Tomsdad @16, once you had the crossing letters in place, there was only one possible formulation that would have made sense. My LOI was NONCE, which took a lot of staring at before the penny dropped. As per Toby @32, I’m more familiar with ‘nones’ in the plural but I got the reference. “Nonce-word” was a coinage of James Murray, original editor of the OED, to describe “A word apparently used only ‘for the nonce’, i.e. on one specific occasion or in one specific text or writer’s works.” Though I am amused by the interpretation of Spooner’s catflap’s student.

    Thanks, Picaroon and manehi!

  67. Widdersbel @60: Ximenes at his stuffiest! Actually, ‘red’ and ‘West’ can both be nouns, and the Inquisitor is censorious about Gateshead because he doesn’t allow the trick of lift-and-separate which many of us enjoy.

  68. pwm@41 – retired (or very nearly) and it took all day! A real slog. Thanks Manehi for enlightening me to many unparsed ‘bung and hopes’. Thanks (I think!) Picaroon for reminding me that I have a long way to go to be a competent puzzler.

  69. Gervase @67 – indeed, hence my caveat that it’s not necessarily my own view! I think CranberryFez @54 actually explained it better than me – yes, red can be a noun but not in “redhead”, which doesn’t literally mean the head of red, it means a head that is red. Likewise, west end doesn’t mean the end of west, it means the western end of whatever noun it is modifying.

  70. apologies paddymelon@41, I seem to have had watermelon on my mind when constructing a shortened version of your user name. I’ll write out names in full in future – clearly exhausted today by the unequal struggle with Picaroon’s offering.

  71. Postmark @23. Thanks for that. I’d assumed that was the reason, but when I went to Setters, and clicked on Buccaneer (aka Picaroon), it came back with Sandy Balfour, hence my confusion. Clicking on Picaroon takes you to James Brydon.

  72. Andy Roddick certainly says “Andys” and ANDES the same, even if Andy Murray might not. But the homophone in EAU DE TOILETTE doesn’t work quite as well. That one I slapped in unparsed. Also hadn’t heard of EGON MONAY, and I tried two or three combos of the anagram fodder before getting it.

    I am not retired. I usually do these in the morning over coffee before work. I have typically about a half-hour. If I’m not done by then, I save it for the commute (an additional 20 minutes on the train [Red Line el from Sheridan to the Loop, if you know Chicago], plus maybe up to 5 waiting on the platform). But that’s rare. My median solve time is about 25 minutes, and this one was right in that zone.

  73. Widdersbel @69: Caveat acknowledged! But to be pernickety, ‘redhead’ doesn’t mean ‘head that is red’, just as ‘blackbird’ is more specific than ‘black bird’. Instead it connotes a person with auburn hair. (Nobody has hair that is naturally ‘red’ in the way we understand the modern colour term. This expression dates from a time when English colour terminology was more limited. Before ‘orange’ was used to describe colour, such shades were considered varieties of red).

  74. BALL TAMPERING is a new term to me, but it makes sense. The baseball equivalent may be “spitball.”

    SOCLE was new to me, and since I couldn’t fathom the wordplay either, I needed the check button to get me beyond S_C_E.

    PENNY-PINCHING defeated me because I thought the definition had to be “ungenerous sort,” which would require a noun.

    I thought of the canonical hours for NONCE, but the hour is nones, not none, so I gave up. Now you tell me it’s none after all. Harrumph.

    I wondered whether “coffee service” was a joking way of referreing to coffee hour after Mass in Anglicanland. I sang in the choir of the highest Episcopal church in New York City, Saint Mary the Virgin, which did have a coffee hour, but I never heard of it called a coffee service. They used so much incense at that church it was known as “Smoky Mary.”

    Andys and Andes are exact homophones in my neck of the woods, barring a slightly longer time on the second syllable of the mountain range. (Where’s essexboy when you need him?)

    Ethan was in my mind a bit more than usual because I looked up the Sons of whatsisname yesterday, and Ethan was one of them.

    Thanks Picaroon and manehi

  75. [paddymelon @41: I began doing British crosswords in 2018 when I retired. I had always done American ones but I really enjoyed the occasional cryptic that would appear in various American publications.]

  76. Glad to see I wasn’t alone in finding this a stiff challenge as I’d had next to no sleep and wasn’t sure if it was really difficult or I was just braindead. Both probably

    I’ve come across NONCE in IT cryptography as a kind of one-off security token. Made me wonder if anyone would be cheeky enough to clue “wander” as a cryptographic nonce?

    And today’s earworm? A bit of US3’s CANTALOUPE

    Cheers P&M

  77. CranberryFez, Widdersbel, Gervase: interesting discussion. Personally I remain of the view that West End = T is fine (though as I said before, that’s not what it means in today’s puzzle). Widdersbel @69, “red can be a noun but not in ‘redhead'” – it’s part of the setter’s art to use a word apparently as one part of speech when you have to take it as another to get the answer, and Picaroon is a master of this, as in one of my favourites of his: “Loose woman in the family losing face (5)” for UNTIE. “Loose” is an adjective in the surface but a verb for the purposes of the wordplay.

  78. Lord Jim @77
    We had a similar example a couple of days ago where “present” was a noun in the surface, but a verb for the wordplay.
    Present not finished for party? (4)

  79. EGON RONAY defeated me — never heard of the guy. I got the rest, but with some gaps in parsing. SOCLE was a very satisfying jorum for me.

    I didn’t know the word EMMET (except as a proper name). I know that NONES was one of the liturgical hours, probably from reading The Name of the Rose, but I didn’t know it could be written without the S. And I’d never seen this spelling of CANTALOUP.

  80. I am retired! and I really enjoyed the challenge today from Picaroon – despite the need for rather liberal use of the Check button. I failed to fully parse either PENNY PINCHING or PALMISTRY, so thanks to manehi for enlightenment. I’m with PostMark and Eileen in having parsed CofE in 8d – very neat I thought. EMMET made me laugh.

    I got EGON RONAY right away from the definition fussy eater, which also made me laugh, despite not having given him a thought for years. Like NeilH I remember him well from the pages of Private Eye, which I think is where he was first dubbed EGON TOAST. At least that’s how he was known in our house.

  81. It is impossible to see how ball-tampering can lead to an unfair dismissal. Too many unsafe assumptions – that a ball tampered with will lead to a dismissal; that the dismissal will be judged unfair (by whom? – not the umpire, who, if he/she has not already judged the ball illegal, would not equivocate about dismissal; and, if by the batsman, then only in retrospect, after being dismissed, when it was revealed the ball with which he/she was bowled or caught had been tampered with – and even then, there could be no proof that the tampering had caused the dismissal.) If it is the tamperer who is ‘dismissed’ – perhaps banished from the field – that is not unfair. The concept of ‘unfair dismissal’ does not, in any case, arise in the Laws of Cricket (41.1 and 41.2). Just to give you non-cricketing solvers more to grind your teeth about.

  82. My second DNF in a row, plus several I did not parse (thank you manehi). I usually find Picaroon much more accessible.

    One of these days I will remember that the only film any crossword setter has ever seen is ET.

  83. [Jacob @82: In addition to ET Spielberg directed AI — I’m waiting for a crafty setter to use that.]

  84. [Jacob @82: I was once persuaded, against my better judgement, to watch about a third of Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama but I’ve never managed to work it into a clue. Not even a third of it. 🙂 ]

  85. Finished eventually, but lost the will to parse!
    I remember EGON RONAY as someone once made a joke about Egon Chips. Egg ‘n’ chips, get it!?

  86. Not retired. We usually do the crossword on the way to bed as a way of unwinding after the stresses of the day, and so are normally a bit late (and tired) to comment. This week we’re off work so had the luxury of doing it earlier.
    Lots to love here. We think West End would be fine for T, but adding in theatres makes for a more elegant and unusual clue. Thanks manehi and Picaroon for an enjoyable solve.

  88. Jacob@82 Setters used to see “Kes” in the pre-ET days, and it may surface again now and then. It sounds like a film I’d like to see, about a boy and a kestrel he finds? rescues?

  89. Thank you for everyone’s comments on how and where and when you do the cryptics. That’s one of the lovely things about 15sq where people paint a little picture of life in their part of the world.
    Me, recently retired, but a bit busy wrapping up a lifetime of work and moving on to the next phase. I’m convinced that it won’t be leisure.
    It occurred to me that if I was living somewhere I could get the paper version of the Guardian, and I was still working, and the crosswords were all challenging, I would have a pile of torn out pages of cryptics to catch up on later. Thank goodness for the different setters and degree of difficulty. It makes every day one to look forward to.

  90. PDM@89 when my students are here I normally save the crossword for my journey home, 20 minutes on the train. When I was learning I would cut the Everyman out and carry it around with me all week , get very scruffy, I later did this for Azed.

  92. Valentine@88: if you get a chance, do watch Kes. It’s a bit “northern” and gritty, as you’d expect from Ken Loach, but it’s also beautiful in its way. I think it’s available on Amazon Prime.

  93. [William
    When the school where I taught did Kes on stage, the cruel elder brother was played by Krishnan Gurumurthy!]

  95. Yes, very good. He subsequently played Luther Billis in South Pacific and one of the lost americans in Brigadoon.

  96. P.S. I was his form master for three years. At the leaving do he gave the farewell speech, saying that I had been quite a good form master really (faint praise!)

  98. Valentine @88 Yes, a working class boy with nothing else going for him rescues a kestrel. It’s well worth a watch, not least for some surprising performances from actors previously little-known. However, it is very downbeat so you have to be in the right mood.

    The book on which it is based – A Kestrel For A Knave – is also extremely good.

  99. late again (paddymelon: employed, solving in fits and starts depending on other activities, and this one was very hard!) but thanks manehi for filling in several parsing gaps. i wasn’t too happy with the “luxury brand” but, based on the experience of several above (and the mechanic I go to here, who once offered sage advice before a potential purchase), I suppose owning an Alfa must be a luxury as you would need to have a second car too, for those frequent periods when your Alfa was at the garage. Thanks for another tough one Picaroon.

  101. @PostMark @Justigator I don’t agree that ‘West end’ alone is a more liberal interpretation, especially since ‘for’ is not the correct preposition to use with ‘end’ as a location. In that context, ‘for theatres’ is surely there to make things harder. I also think ‘West end’ alone is quite precise.

  102. I’m a bit late to the party here, but would a neater interpretation of “unfair dismissal” for BALL-TAMPERING be to understand dismissal as delivery, i.e. the ball-tampering makes the delivery of the ball unfair? I’m not sure if dismissal is used in that way though, not massively into my cricket!

  103. I was busy last Thursday and only solved about 40% before putting it down. Agree with many who found this tough – the cricket reference in 1a was tough (but accurate, Alec@81!), and it took me a while to remember EGON RONAY and Andy Roddick. The mountain range is pronounced Andys, as are the tennis players, so no problems with that pun. And if ‘odour’ is not a great pun for EAU DE then I don’t know what is, and I’ve groaned at a few.

    I enjoyed the to-and-fro about ‘West End for theatres’ – yes, the last two words are not strictly necessary (or should that be liberally necessary?), but they work both cryptically and in the surface, and if it made it harder for anyone to solve the clue, then a big thumbs up for the setter. Hard, but fair. (Though personally I thought that clue was pretty easy.)

    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi.

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