Guardian Quiptic 1278 Picaroon

by

Thank you to Picaroon. Some lovely surfaces here. Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

1. Beastly utterance about public house shows pizzazz (5)

OOMPH : Reversal of(… about) MOO(beastly utterance, from cattle, in this case) + PH(abbrev. for “public hose”, or commonly, a pub).

4. Stood by US ex-president, one making bloomers (4,4)

ROSE BUSH : ROSE(stood/got up into a siting to a standing position) plus(by) BUSH(George H. W. or George W. – take your pick).

8. Female novelist and Harry Styles do badly, receiving nothing (7,1,6)

DOROTHY L. SAYERS : Anagram of(… badly) HARRY STYLES DO containing(receiving) O(letter representing 0/nothing).

Defn:  English crime novelist, author of the Lord Peter Wimsey series of books.

10. Former pilot organised large, election-day survey (4,4)

EXIT POLL : EX-(prefix denoting “former”/once) + anagram of(… organised) PILOT + L(abbrev. for “large”).

11. Model’s working on rare occasions (6)

SELDOM : Anagram of(… working) MODEL’S.

12. Bully, caught in daft error, is embarrassed (9)

TERRORISE : Hidden in(caught in) “daft error, is embarrassed“.

15. Scoundrel‘s regret, letting own goal in (5)

ROGUE : RUE(regret/remorse) containing(letting … in) OG(abbrev. for “own goal”, in football).

17. British supermodel smuggles ecstasy for prophet (5)

MOSES : MOSS(Kate, British supermodel) containing(smuggles) E(abbrev. for the drug “Ecstasy”).

Defn: … of Ten Commandments fame.

18. Cowardly son unfortunately sleeps in (9)

SPINELESS : S(abbrev. for “son”) + anagram of(unfortunately) SLEEPS IN.

19. Flowers, trees etc. aren’t cultivated round university (6)

NATURE : Anagram of(… cultivated) AREN’T containing(round) U(abbrev. for “University”).

21. Understand conservative von Bismarck gets refusal from France (6,2)

COTTON ON : C(abbrev. for a member of the Conservative Party) + OTTO(von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor of the German Empire) plus(gets) NON(“refusal”/no in the language of France).

24. Diana’s engagement is a let-down (14)

DISAPPOINTMENT : DI(short for “Diana”) + APPOINTMENT(engagement/an arranged meeting).

25. Guard, to some extent, present in Elsinore (8)

SENTINEL : Hidden in(to some extent,) “present in Elsinore“.

26. Turning mechanism going in either direction? (5)

ROTOR : A palindrome(going in either direction).

Down

1. Where to see Isaac and Ruth regularly collude with Will (3,9)

OLD TESTAMENT : 2nd, 4th and 6th letters of(regularly) “collude” plus(with) TESTAMENT(a will/legal document with instructions about a person’s estate after death).

Defn: …., Biblical characters.

2. Day before fast run, tucking into bananas, I cut grass (5,4)

MARDI GRAS : R(abbrev. for “run” in cricket scores) contained in(tucking into) MAD(bananas/nuts) + I + last letter deleted from(cut) “grass“.

Defn: Day before the start of Lent, period of fasting for Christians … and, understandably, the last day of the Christian Carnival, a period of public celebrations and feasting.

Celebrate from Rio:

  to Sydney:

3. That man Trump, oddly angry (3,2)

HET UP : HE(pronoun for “that man”) + 1st, 3rd and 5th letters of(…, oddly) “Trump“.

4. Neckwear fit for a king generates cash for writers (9)

ROYALTIES : [ROYAL TIES](what you might call neckwear fit to by worn by royals, a king, say).

Defn: …. when their work is sold or performed.

5. Average appeal for help and love (2-2)

SO-SO : SOS(an appeal for help/a signal to indicate that the sender is in distress) plus(and) O(letter denoting 0/love in tennis scores).

6. 80s singer‘s expression of astonishment, bagging Oscar (3,6)

BOY GEORGE : [BY GEORGE!](an expression of astonishment) containing(bagging) O(letter represented by “Oscar”, in the phonetic alphabet).

In his early days:

7. Say nothing revolutionary, or just a little bit (5)

SHRED : SH!(“Keep quiet!”/an exclamation to someone to say nothing) + RED(a revolutionary/a communist or socialist).

9. Reworked Monet or Paris impressionist (12)

IMPERSONATOR : Anagram of(Reworked) MONET OR PARIS.

Defn: …, not Claude or any of the artists of the movement he founded.

13. Stink raised by domestic worker having sharp eyes (9)

OBSERVANT : Reversal of(… raised, in a down clue) BO(abbrev. for “body odour”, a stink or unpleasant smell from a person’s body) plus(by) SERVANT(a domestic worker/household maid).

14. Article I stuffed into leotard I designed (9)

EDITORIAL : I contained in(stuffed into) anagram of(… designed) LEOTARD I.

Defn: Newspaper … expressing the editor’s opinion.

16. What martial artist might wear in unspoilt area (5,4)

GREEN BELT : Double defn: 1st: … to denote the level of proficiency, in this case, one of the intermediate levels; and 2nd: …/land that is, by regulation, left undeveloped or wild or agricultural, and not marred by urbanisation.

20. Time on top of mature bull (5)

TRIPE : T(abbrev. for “time”) placed above(on top of, in a down clue) RIPE(mature/ready for purpose).

Defn: …/nonsense.

22. Coach heads for the undulating hill (5)

TUTOR : 1st letters, respectively, of(heads for) “the undulating” + TOR(a high, rocky hill).

23. Iberian country saving one bridge (4)

SPAN : “Spain”(country in the Iberian Peninsula) minus(saving) “I”(Roman numeral for “one”).

30 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1278 Picaroon”

  2. Enjoyable puzzle.

    Favourites: IMPERSONATOR, SHRED, OBSERVANT, ROYALTIES (loi).

    New for me: author DOROTHY L SAYERS.

    Thanks, both.

  3. What a lovely delight on a Sunday. Can’t pick a favourite. Too many good clues to mention. For the timely laugh I’d have to go with HET UP. ”Harry Styles do” in the fodder for DOROTHY L SAYERS was a great find. COTTON ON very clever.

  4. Thanks Picaroon and scchua
    Only problem was printer not working, so I did it online for the first time, and got lots of letters in the wrong places!
    Laughed out loud at ROYAL TIES.

  5. A very enjoyable way to start a Sunday. I grinned at ROYAL TIES and BOY GEORGE.
    Thank you Picaroon for the fun, and scchua for the blog – and for the Rory Bremner clip. (Although, for my money, his take on Blair was far more wickedly accurate. Especially his Blair’s frequent use of “I say unto you…”)

  6. Elegantly done. IMPERSONATOR, DOROTHY L SAYERS (what a spot) and the splendid BOY GEORGE are my podium. (I did wonder if that last one had been done before – funnily enough, its last appearance was exactly one year ago today with Vlad cluing BY GEORGE with the reverse construction. Julius and Falcon did the same in the FT in 2019 and then nothing else until ten years ago.

    Thanks both

  7. For fans (like me) of DOROTHY L. SAYERS there are some sequels by Jill Paton Walsh that do full (whimsical?) justice to the originals. Recommended.

  8. Sorry, started posting on the wrong crossword.

    I thought this a great Quiptic and that they’ve settled down to being the next step from the Quick Cryptic. Loved the DOROTHY L SAYERS clue, as a fan of her work. Blaise @7 – I don’t think Jill Paton-Walsh gets it right and wish she’d go back to Imogen Quy, not pastiches.)

    Thank you to scchua and Picaroon.

  9. Another really well-pitched one, I thought. I think we had OOMPH in Friday’s Cryptic, but that’s not a complaint – different setter and different clueing.

  10. [Shanne @8
    I agree with blaise about the Jill Paton Walsh follow-ups, though some are better than others (also true of the originals!)]

  11. Shanne@8. Jill PW won’t be going back to anything – she died in 2020. I disagree with you about her Wimsey novels – I think the second and third are as good or better than most DLS ones, always excepting the superb The Nine Tailors and Gaudy Night.

  12. I don’t think we’ve seen a Quiptic from Picaroon before – and what a good one it is, with some great surfaces: I laughed at that man Trump and the King’s neckwear. I had trouble with BOY GEORGE: having misidentified BOY as the expression of astonishment, I was left wondering what a gerge was…

  13. Most enjoyable, if over too quickly. Thanks, Picaroon and scchua.
    DLS was more than just the author of the Wimsey novels; she translated Dante’s Divine Comedy and was the author of The Man Born to be King which was somewhat controversial when broadcast in the early 1940s.

  14. [I loved Jill Paton Walsh’s Imogen Quy books, but I partly read the Dorothy L Sayers books for the mores and feel of the times, not just the detective story. And that’s the bit I don’t think JPW got quite right. Not just from Sayers but reading a number of other authors writing contemporary fiction at the time. It’s very difficult to get right.]

  15. That was a superbly enjoyable Quiptic. I struggled a little with today’s Everyman, so the Quiptic was wonderful relief.

    Potentially controversial given the preceding comments, but I’m not a DLS fan. Maybe I need to try some other of her books, but I finished Whose Body and found Wimsey extremely irritating. I’ll stop now before I go into a full-blown rant, which will lead into my dislike of follow-up novels too!

    Thanks Picaroon for the entertainment on such a glorious Sunday and to scchua for the ever-excellent blog.

  16. [Lechien @15
    I think you have read the wrong book! I agree with you about Whose body. Try instead The nine tailors (brilliant), Have his carcase, or Gaudy night]

  17. Marvellous fun with my breakfast coffee. Thanks both.
    Making a topical point – the answer to 3D could be written as (2,3) instead!

  20. What an excellent quiptic, quite possibly the best yet this year. Entertaining with just enough misdirection to raise several smiles whilst still being readily solvable.

    More quiptics from you please Pickers. I think you’ve hit the brief perfectly.

    Thanks both.

  23. Managed all but 3 (although I had to Google the novelist, so 4 if you count that as cheating. I did get the firstname from the wordplay and the crossers). I got 21a from OTTO in CON plus N and was grumbling that it doesn’t really work, but the explanation here makes much more sense!

    I’m definitely getting better, which is encouraging. Thanks Picaroon and scchua

  24. [I thought Jill Paton Walsh did fairly well on the first of her Lord Peter books, but they declined steadily after that. She doesn’t have an ear for Sayers’s (and hence Peter and Harriet’s) language. I gave up when she actually had the word “prequel” emerge from one of those characters’ mouths. Both Peter and Harriet would regard that word as grotesque.

    If you haven’t read the original Sayers novels, stop reading this blog and go do it now. They are wonderful. Muffin’s not wrong that some are better than others, but even the lesser ones are extremely worthwhile. I recommend starting with Whose Body? Some of the later ones are better, but this one’s quite good, and it introduces the character, so it’s a better way in than some of the later, greater ones such as Gaudy Night and The Nine Tailors.]

  25. I can’t get used to the change in publication of the Quiptic so just did this now. Probably posting to myself, but so what?

    Picaroon you are brilliant as ever, and thank you sschua for the analysis and images. Dr MZ2@1, good to meet you. Great name. Shaun @23, that’s brilliant. I’m sure you will continue to improve. Hard to choose a favourite but BOY GEORGE gets top billing. Earworm below for those wanting the 80’s nostalgia 😎.
    https://youtu.be/JmcA9LIIXWw?si=Rjdon6OSJVSUYePo

  26. Just finished this one now and did enjoy it, but for some reason, I just couldn’t get my head around this one without a lot of research and dictionary searching. Still fun, but I thought this was quite challenging. Reminded me of my level. Apologies if I am being an idiot, but what is the parsing of TERRORISE? Error + ??? Had never heard of that author and boy did that middle name L send me down the garden path. Had forgotten that if the answer is a name the middle letter could be an initial…. doh! Was kind of kicking myself over MOSES. I thought for some reason this clue was telling me to interchangeably insert R and I between WILL but a part of me kept thinking ISAAC, that’s the fella in the bible no? One side of my brain was trying to tell the other the answer. Great blog entry Scchua and appreciate all the images and detailed explanations, and thank you Picaroon, you really provided me with a nice challenge this week but I appreciate your genius and will up my Cryptic game for the next.

  28. Sakenotabibito @26:
    TERRORISE is “hidden” in
    …drafT ERROR IS Embarrassed
    “Hidden” indicator is “caught in”

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