Guardian 26,756 – Picaroon

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A typically high-quality puzzle from Picaroon today, with no theme (as far as I can see at this time in the morning) though a lot of reversals in the clues. Thanks to Picaroon for the entertainment.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. VADE MECUM To avoid losing energy, mother touring city gets guide (4,5)
EVADE less its first E, + EC (postal area of the City of London) in MUM
6. SPIT Show disdain with clues written the wrong way (4)
Reverse of TIPS
10. COINS Cameron and Osborne blocking current change (5)
I (symbol for electric current) “blocked by” CONS[ervatives]
11. SWORDPLAY Battling with foremost of setters and their art (9)
S[etters] + WORDPLAY
12. DELTAIC New dialect coming from area around mouth? (7)
DIALECT*, the mouth being that of a river, i.e. a delta
13. SOLICIT Then I see inside bright lobby (7)
SO (then) + I C in LIT
14. AT ONE’S WITS’ END Stuck a fancy note and cards in post (2,4,4,3)
A + NOTE* + WITS in SEND
17. CLASS STRUGGLE Students don’t easily follow concept in political philosophy (5,8)
CLASS (students) + STRUGGLE (don’t easily follow)
21. GALILEO Stargazer is someone with a conviction about one constellation (7)
Reverse of LAG (convict) + I LEO
22. ADAMANT Firm with a flipping furious worker (7)
A + reverse of MAD + ANT
24. STATUETTE Fat, eating rubbish? Time I’m sent away to get a petite figure (9)
TAT in SUET + TIME less I’M
25. IRAQI Terrorists backing intelligence from Middle Eastern country (5)
IRA + reverse of IQ
26. ITEM A bit of excitement for people dating? (4)
Hidden in excITEMent
27. NONENTITY What could be 90-ton lightweight (9)
(NINETY TON)*
Down
1. VICE-DEAN Sin by iconic rebel clergyman (4-4)
VICE (sin) + [James] DEAN
2. DRILL Bore physician, needing his services (5)
DR + ILL
3. MASSAGE PARLOUR Where the rubber trade’s plied, or a maple sugar’s refined (7,7)
(OR A MAPLE SUGARS)* – people are “rubbed” in a massage parlour.
4. CASHCOW With assets emptied, taps into business with good revenue stream (7)
A[sset]S + H C (tap) in CO + W. Chambers only gies this as two words.
5. MOONSET Flash behind TV when satellite disappears (7)
MOON (“to display the bare buttocks for insult or shock value”) + SET (TV)
7. POLICE DOG Tracker of criminal traveller given £1,000 to hide diamonds twice (6,3)
ICE (slang for diamonds) + D[iamonds] in [Marco] POLO (traveller) + G[rand] (£1000)
8. TOYOTA Car‘s a trifle old, reaching junction in reverse (6)
Reverse of A + TOY + O + T
9. ADULT EDUCATION Flattery overwhelms daughter in cute pants, it’s learnt later (5,9)
D in CUTE* (with “pants” as the anagram indicator), in (“overwhemed by”) ADULATION
15. OSCILLATE Be undecided about transformation in Tesla coil (9)
(TESLA COIL)*
16. GENTRIFY Renovate expensively — grand door frames provided (8)
G + IF (provided) in ENTRY
18. SHORTEN Back off beach, returning catch to dock (7)
SHOR[E] + reverse of NET
19. TRADE-IN Sort of deal involved aid with rent (5-2)
(AID RENT)*
20. AGASSI Ex-champ is a legend wanting a comeback (6)
Reverse of IS SAGA
23. ABACI Entering capital, turned up taxi counters (5)
Reverse of CAB in A1

65 comments on “Guardian 26,756 – Picaroon”

  1. Thanks, Andrew.

    I enjoyed this fine crossword. I couldn’t spot a theme either, though I did wonder early on if TOYOTA and TRADE-IN might be connected.

    10a CONS – are you sure it is short for CONSERVATIVES – I had two other alternatives!

  2. Fine puzzle which I much enjoyed. Plenty of good clues, but I especially liked MOONSET (when I finally saw it).

    Dave E, the French version of CONS would certainly fit, but I’m not sure of your other one …

    [Andrew, you have a tiny typo in your parsing of 14ac – we need WITS rather than WIT to get the second S. Put it down to blogging in the dark.]

    Thanks to S&B.

  4. Thanks, Andrew – a typically fine puzzle, indeed, and a fine blog, too.

    I agree with your parsing of COINS. It’s interesting that ‘blocks / blocking’ is [more?] often used as an insertion indicator than a container, making it, like ‘about’, very useful for setters. [This is an observation, not a quibble: it works either way.]

    I liked MOONSET, TOO – and SWORDPLAY, NONENTITY, POLICE DOG and GENTRIFY, and many others. I agree entirely with copmus’ sentiment – but …

    Many thanks, as ever, to Picaroon for a highly enjoyable kick-start to the day.

  5. Thanks both – I managed this (eventually) without aids, even the completely unknown 1a. The sign of a good puzzle, I think

  6. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew.

    Like Shirl, I managed this without aids, a really good puzzle.

    I was held up for a while having entered MISTAKE EFFACER at 3d, the ACER is ‘maple’ but the EFF foxed me, not very refined.

  7. Is there an element of product placement creeping into the Guardian crossword – ADIDAS yesterday, TOYOTA today? As always Picaroon is inventive and entertaining. COINS was last in – liked that one…

    Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew

  14. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew. TOYOTA was my first in because they once sponsored Team NZ in the America’s Cup yacht race, and the big TOYOTA logo on the spinnaker turned into ATOYOT on every second gybe. However, I’ll still join the crowd and pick 5d as my favourite.

  16. Thanks Andrew. A stylish puzzle that yielded steadily.

    Loved MASSAGE PARLOUR & SWORDPLAY but feel we’ve seen the latter before.

    AGASSI took some time to parse as I was pre-sensitized to the ‘legend = g’ gag which we’ve seen recently.

    Many thanks to our favourite pirate.

  18. Cyborg @14 love it – what a great memory for you! I have a friend who’s a flag designer (vexillologist?) and who has a number of amusing examples of the mistakes people make when suggesting lettering on flags and failing to remember that the wind sometimes blows the other way! Sadly, the best of these is not printable.

  19. William @16 – 6 previous instances in the Guardian archive:

    Paul 23976: Second double entendre, perhaps, suggests going for a slash?
    Paul 25056: Ultimate in pretentiousness, crossword setter’s art, the finesse of a swashbuckler
    Gordius 25306: Point to puns, like fencing
    Paul 25324: Fencing – ‘s my sport?
    Pasquale 25929: Solver’s beginning to face setter’s linguistic tricks in a duel?
    Puck 25937: Use of weapons in second part of clue?

  20. I don’t see how “blocking” works in 10A. It seems to me it’s the wrong way round, and it’s the “I” that’s blocking (gumming up by appearing in the middle of) the CONS.

  21. An excellent puzzle. Quality clueing and some beautiful constructions. I loved the “rubber’s trade” in 3d. Really enjoyed this morning’s challenge.

    Thanks Andrew and Picaroon

  22. Well that passed an unusually early morning having had to actually get out of bed because a minor visit to the quack.

    just one thing, in 10a, shouldn’t it be CON[servative]S? The S coming from the plural indication as there are two of them?

  23. Jason @20

    As I said @4, I think it works both ways: an obstruction in a channel would block it but if, for instance, the police wanted to block an alleyway, they would seal off both ends.

  24. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew for an excellent puzzle and blog.

    Jason @ 20: blocking, eg in sport, is pretty much the same as hemming in or preventing moving, so CO and NS are blocking the I, in my book anyway. And yes, ‘blocking’does work the other way round too, so it’s a useful tool in the setter’s kit.

  27. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew
    I found this difficult but fun. I was held up for some time after having confidently entered ESTUARY (as in estuary English) for 12a and thinking it was rather a nice clue!
    I couldn’t parse 14a, LOI.
    Too many smiles to pick out individuals. One of my favourite 2 or 3 compilers.

  28. Poc, yes, I cannot find it as one word either.
    But Picaroon is someone who knows what he does, so I think it must come from somewhere.

    1ac (VADE MECUM) was very familiar to me as in Holland it is a relatively normal word for any kind of ‘handbook’.
    Funny enough, over there it is written as one word.

    Thanks Andrew for the blog.
    I think you must tweak 14ac a bit: A + (TONE)* + (WITS inside SEND).

    Many thanks to Picaroon for another excellent puzzle.

  29. Sil @28
    Re 14a – I think Andrew means by NOTE* an anagram (as indicated by “fancy”) – or wasn’t that the bit you were questioning?

  30. muffin @27

    My first thought was ESTUARY, too. 😉

    Sil @28

    Chambers has VADE-MECUM, Collins VADE MECUM and my SOED both! It is two Latin words: VADE [Go] + MECUM [with me].

  31. Shouldn’t “solicit” have some sort of indication that “IC” for “I see” is phonetic?
    I don’t think “at one’s wits’ end” means “stuck” so much as maybe “desperate”.
    THe clue for “moonset” gives “flash behind TV”, but surely it’s the opposite? “TV behind flash”?
    Agassi — small change in blogging. “Is a saga” is reversed and without the a between the two s’s — “wanting a.”
    “CLass struggle” seems barely cryptic.

    I don’t mean to be hoggy about this, it really was a charming puzzle, and as well as moonset and massage parlour I also loved “Galileo”.

    William @16 — “swordplay” seemed familiar to you because we recently had “crosswords” derived (I forget how) from “cross swords”. That’s not as exact as beery hiker’s astonishing archive retrieval, but it’s more recent.

    Thank you, Picaroon and Andrew.

  32. Valentine @31 – re MOONSET – it does work – the definition of MOON is the Paulish “flash behind”!!

  35. As for crossed swords – it was Chifonie just this time last week: “Puzzles about son’s dispute (5,7)”.
    Eileen @33 – apologies for predictive crossing…

  37. I agree with everyone else that this was a really fantastic puzzle. LOIs were MOONSET (my favourite) and SWORDPLAY. Other great clues included STATUETTE, DELTAIC, POLICE DOG and SOLICIT. Lots of great misdirection. Many thanks to Picaroon and Andrew.

  38. Valentine @31 I thought the same about IC but then, these days, with the predominance of abbreviated txt speech such UR for ‘you are’ etc, these things seem to have become acceptable with the homophone indicator.

    Oh, and you’re right about cross swords – that is where I remembered it from.

    Beery Hiker @19 – an astonishing list, did you remember these or do you have some clever way of looking them up? Either way, I’m impressed.

  39. I’m afraid it CAN’T be ’90-ton’ as that uses figures and not letters. That is indirect and wrong.

    Apart from that and one or two niggles, the usual good clues from Picaroon, who is in my top three setters for the G.

    HH

  40. William @38 – I used a program to download and extract the clues from the Guardian site (and a few hours worth of manual tidying and gap filling), so they are all now in a huge 20 MB spreadsheet (5124 crosswords, 144246 clues with 60495 distinct solutions – for those who missed earlier conversations on this EXTRA is the most popular answer with 49 occurrences. 2015’s leaders on 4 each are ADDRESS, ADONIS, AGREE, ALIBI, AMBER, CEDE, EATS, EDGE, ERATO, ERROR, ISLE, TEA and TROOP. Credit is also due to ClaireS a.k.a. MsGeek who had the idea and did something very similar herself.

  42. Pretty straightforward but surely CASHCOW should be two words. My spellchecker converts it when I try to write it as one and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it as one word anywhere. Also, I think the juxtaposition of “terrorist” and IRAQI is a little unfortunate in these sensitive times.
    Thanks Picaroon.

  44. Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew. I too much enjoyed this one. MASSAGE PARLOUR was last in (from the crossers) and I got CASHCOW but did not catch the HC = taps (a new one for me) for the parsing.

  45. Thanks Picaroon for a great crossword as always. 27a very similar to 27a clue in Mondays Quiptic one being an anagram of not ninety and todays ninety ton. I suppose that if you are a nonentity its quite a good way to get noticed.

  47. @31
    See is defined in Chambers (3rd def.) as “the third letter of the alphabet (C,c)”. That’s why setters use it, not because of textspeak etc.

  48. In common with nearly everyone today I thought this was a cracker – challenging and fair, needing some inspiration here and there as well as mental effort. I enjoyed it.

    I got 4D CASHCOW easily given C-W at the end, but the indication ‘(7)’ is a mistake, in my view, as I’m sure this is always two words.

    The clue to SOLICIT (13D) also stood out as needing a homophone indicator, as many of you have said, but I wondered later whether IC can be interpreted as a text short-form (whihc I think has been pointed out already).

    Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew.

  51. Herb @47

    You raised a good point about ‘see’ being defined as ‘c’ in Chambers. (“That’s why setters use it.”)

    I do wonder where Chambers found this strange definition. I have seen a crude ‘orthographic-cum-phonetic’ alphabetical list with the sequence ‘ay-bee-cee-dee-ee-eff …’ (ending in ‘zee’, by the way), but note that this has ‘cee’, not ‘see’. Chambers no doubt gives them all (‘dee’, for example, is the ‘fourth letter of the alphabet’), but it’s a pity it doesn’t give an authority or origin for them like it does for the letters of the NATO alphabet.

    The text-speak IC for ‘I see’ is good enough for me. Sometimes these are given an indication in clues (‘in short’, for example), but sometimes they are not.

  52. Wrt 12a: many years ago there was a clue that read something like (dialect of the rivermouth?) for which the answer actually was ESTUARY. I only recall because I wrote to the compiler, and we discussed the ambiguity with DIALECT. (It was before electrons had been invented.)

  55. copmus @3 I totally agree

    However people did pick a couple of tiny holes in it. But with cluing is as good as this it doesn’t matter. When a particular solution is discovered it is so obviously correct that any minor flaws are irrelevant.

    As you said. Perfection.

    Thanks to Andrew and even more thanks to Picaroon

  60. An entertaining puzzle. COINS was my LOI, with the wordplay unparsed, though it seems so obvious now. My favourite is MASSAGE PARLOUR, closely followed by SWORDPLAY (which I hadn’t seen before in that form), GALILEO and ADULT EDUCATION.

    Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew.

  61. Nice one, muffin (@56).

    I like a dose of humour in the blogs as well as in the crosswords. However, I’m afraid the humour prize in today’s blog must be shared between you and Qedqed (@46).

  63. Oh dear (molonglo @62 and others). I’ve already allocated the humour prize (see 61), but I missed this deserving entry!

  64. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew

    Just catching up today with the checking of this weeks’ Guardian puzzles and this was a good ‘un !

    Didn’t parse COINS, but now see that it is quite clever, if one picked up on the politicians – didn’t know the current Chancellor of the Exchequer :(. Failed to see the hidden ITEM in 26a – had gone down a weak double definition path – should have known better that this setter doesn’t do the weak dd.

    Finished up in the NE corner with the clever SWORDPLAY, TOYOTA and SOLICIT.

  65. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew.

    This is a high quality puzzle with much to admire.

    VADE MECUM was new to me but gettable from the clue so another one to add to my vocabulary.

    I personally found a couple of the clues to be the wrong way round. In 10 ‘blocking’ sounds like Cameron and Osborne should be in ‘current’ and in 5 ‘moon’ sounds like it should follow ‘set’. The answer was clear and I guess this is just style.

    I liked the simple elegance of DRILL.

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