Guardian 26,836 / Picaroon

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A fun puzzle from Picaroon, and not very taxing

My favourite clue was 11a AN IDEAL HUSBAND, I think.

Across

1. How poet’s day starts, absorbing French from novel (6)
MODERN
MORN = “How poet’s day starts” around DE = “French from”
Defintion: “novel”

4. Forceful politician enters — what a jerk! (8)
EMPHATIC
MP = “politician” in TIC = “what a jerk!”
Defintion: “Forceful”

9. Prepare miners for war in horrid place (6)
ARMPIT
ARM = “Prepare [..] for war”, PIT = “miners”
Defintion: “horrid place”

10. Fellow standing by rebuffed love for soul queen (8)
FRANKLIN
Thanks to everyone for suggesting a better parsing in the comments: FRANK = “Fellow” F = “Fellow” + RANK = “standing” + NIL reversed = “rebuffed love”
Defintion: “soul queen”, referring to Aretha Franklin

11. Unabashed lad in disorderly drama (2,5,7)
AN IDEAL HUSBAND
(UNABASHED LAD IN)*
Defintion: “drama”, referring to the Oscar Wilde play

13. Writing abridged by men who’ll require the accusative case? (10)
PROSECUTOR
PROSE = “Writing” + CUT = “abridged” + OR = “men” (“other ranks”)
Defintion: “who’ll require the accusative case?” (as in a court case)

14. Flog some 7 down (4)
VEND
Hidden in “[se]VEN D[own]”
Defintion: “Flog” (as in “to sell”)

6. Main actor having field day (4)
LEAD
LEA = “field” + D = “day”
Defintion: “Main actor”

18. A typical Telegraph reader backs party making disclosures (10)
REVELATORY
A TORY = “A typical telegraph reader” after REVEL = “party”
Defintion: “making disclosures”

21. Guides use the facilities in Scottish island, it’s reported (8,6)
INDIRECT SPEECH
DIRECTS = “Guides” + PEE = “use the facilities” in INCH = “Scottish island”
Defintion: “it’s reported”

23. Ten years of life slipped away in games (8)
TWENTIES
WENT = “slipped away” in TIES = “games”
Defintion: “Ten years of life”

24, 17. Bikini-clad star reads a Sun slur in shock (6,7)
URSULA ANDRESS
(READS A SUN SLUR)*
Defintion: “Bikini-clad star”, referring to her appearance in Dr. No, the first Bond film

25. A bit of practice time, so you must reverse park (8)
YOSEMITE
Hidden reversed in “[practic]E TIME, SO Y[ou]”
Defintion: “park”

26. Set about to finish fantastic story (6)
LEGEND
GEL reversed = “Set about” + END = “to finish”
Defintion: “fantastic story”

Down

1. Day to eat American beef (4)
MOAN
MON = “Day” around A = “American”
Defintion: “beef”

2. Opera singer to perform part, taking 30 seconds (7)
DOMINGO
DO = “to perform” + GO = “part” (as in “depart”) around MIN[ute] = “30 seconds”
Defintion: “Opera singer”

3. Dancer drops letter opener, we hear? (8)
REINDEER
REINDEER sounds like “rain dear”, where “rain” is from “drops” and “dear” is from “letter opener”, i.e. what you’d write at the opening of a letter
Defintion: “Dancer”, one of Santa’s reindeer (presumably the question mark at the end is to indicate it’s definition by example)

5. Tramp is embracing your noble lady (11)
MARCHIONESS
MARCH IS = “Tramp is” around ONE’S = “your”
Defintion: “noble lady”

6. Perfect way to be virtuous (6)
HONEST
HONE = “Perfect” + ST = “way”
Defintion: “virtuous”

7. Breaking through rickety gate, I’m going to farmland (7)
TILLAGE
(GATE)* around I’LL = “I’m going to”
Defintion: “farmland”

8. Might an old man always holiday across the Atlantic? (6,3)
CANADA DAY
CAN A DAD = “Might an old man” + AY = “always”
Defintion: “holiday across the Atlantic”

12. A little money to pen charming account one’s added to letters (5,6)
ACUTE ACCENT
A CENT = “A little money” around CUTE = “charming” + AC = “account”
Defintion: “one’s added to letters”

13. Friend is pocketing millions before tax — this generates fortunes (9)
PALMISTRY
PAL = “friend” + IS around M = “millions” followed by TRY = “tax” (as in “to try / tax one’s patience”)
Defintion: “this generates fortunes”

15. Health service not privatised? That makes you happy (8)
CAREFREE
CARE FREE = “Health servicenot privatised”
Defintion: “happy”

19. Reform Church of England could obstruct (7)
OCCLUDE
(CE COULD)* – the CE in the anagram fodder is from “Church of England”
Defintion: “obstruct”

20. Expert satisfied with a raise for now (3,3)
PRO TEM
PRO = “Expert” + MET = “satisfied” reversed (“with a raise”)
Defintion: “for now”

22. Fat, heartless landowner up north (4)
LARD
LA[i]RD = “heartless landowner”
Defintion: “Fat”

26 comments on “Guardian 26,836 / Picaroon”

  1. Thanks mhl, and Picaroon.

    I parsed 4a as what = EH and MP enters it, to be followed by A TIC.

    I quite liked the puzzle. It was fun.

  2. ilippu: oops, yes – that’s how I parsed it too, just wasn’t thinking straight when writing that. I’ve fixed it now.

  3. A thoroughly enjoyable puzzle from one of my favourite setters!! I thought YOSEMITE was a very clever reverse hidden clue. Also liked REINDEER and CAREFREE. My last in was VEND with a satisfying doh moment when I wrote out 7 as a word!!
    Thanks to Picaroon and mhl!!

  4. Thanks to Picaroon and mhl. After all the difficulties I had with unknown terms yesterday, this puzzle was a delight. I took several days to get VEND, but other bits fell into place quickly.

  5. Not sure I agree with ‘not very taxing’ but I got there in the end and it all made sense. The last to yield were 1 A followed by 3 D, but my favourite was 13 D

  6. Thanks mhl. Quite liked this, especially the ‘rain-dear’ and 14A which was last in. Kept thinking the TORY in 18A was the party: nice misdirection.

  8. Thanks, mhl. Mostly easy but still very enjoyable due to the light touch that Picaroon brings although, like ACD, I had to leave my subconscious to work on VEND: I came back to the puzzle on Sunday and it was obvious immediately.

    I thought that Frank in FRANKLIN was F(ellow) + RANK [standing].

  9. Like brownphel @5 above I found this not overly easy.

    But great fun, with some really clever clues. My LOI was 9A –armpit — juvenile but fun.

    The real a-ha moment though was a 21A –indirect speech–, even with all the crossers it took a while to realise ‘its reported’ was the definition not a pointer a homophone – clever indeed !

    Thanks Picaroon and to mhl for the blog.

  10. A good challenge from Picaroon with some excellent clues and clever misdirection.

    I particularly liked INDIRECT SPEECH, and TWENTIES.

    I toyed with your parsing of 18A but it doesn’t seem to work for me.

    It seems to be particularly clever as I finally parsed it while originally writing this. Neither the REV nor the TORY is the typical Telegraph reader. Rather this is A LEVER (back) which a lot of old telegraph devices use to make a sound or indicate a letter, followed by a party TORY. (I’m sure there’ll be some debate whether this T is false capitalisation. I personally can never remember or care which type of capitalisation is alegedly allowed. 😉 ).

    The jury is still out for me on 14A which was my LOI. It seems to have become popular recently to have a bogus reference to another clue as word play. However I’m not sure how Ximenes would have reacted to using 7 to indicate SEVEN as part of a hidden answer. (I suspect not in a favourable way!)

    I suspect the comments on this will be as much fun as the puzzle itself.

    As I started writing this I was thinking that this wasn’t quite as excellent as his recent offerings. But as I finish I’ve decided that perhaps it was after all.. 🙂

    Thanks to mhl and Picaroon.

  11. It took me until yesterday to finish this. Because of “vend” which I put in but did not see the construction. A bit unfair methinks. Should proper names be part of a crossword? (Though 24a was my foi). Thanks mhl for the explanations in some cases.

  12. Thanks mhl and Picaroon.

    I enjoyed this. Interesting debate in the parsing of 18ac. I parsed it the mhl way but Brendan’s version is just as good.

    It took a while to get started mind you with URSULA ANDRESS my first (oh I wish!) and then worked my way steadily from there.

    Really liked INDIRECT SPEECH.

  14. I enjoyed this puzzle, but it took me two days to completely finish. MINute = 30 seconds had me fooled for while as did seVEN Down. ARMPIT being a “horrid place” was new, it seems to be more an American usage. YOSEMITE was really well hidden. REINDEER was my favourite clue, but so many others were good.

    Thanks to Picaroon and mhl.

  15. This was a very enjoyable puzzle which I solved in one session, but I had to think my way through this and there was much to admire. My favourites were 4A (EMPHATIC), 18A (REVELATORY), 21A (INDIRECT SPEECH), 13D (PALMISTRY), 3D (REINDEER), 12D (ACUTE ACCENT) and 8D (CANADA DAY).

    When I had the D, C and S of 21A (INDIRECT SPEECH) I thought of ‘ordnance survey’ before anything else, but fortunately I also thought of ‘wee’ or some such for ‘use the facilities’ and had a good laugh when it turned out I was almost right (it was ‘pee’). In 2D (DOMINGO) I thought MIN = half a minute = 30 seconds was really cheeky. I had to get all the crossers before getting 10A (FRANKLIN).

    I was amazed to see an alternative interpretation for 18A. I saw it the mhl way, but I can understand the other way too.

    Thanks very much to Picaroon and mhl.

  16. Picaroon maintaining his usual high standards – not his most difficult but plenty to enjoy

    Thanks to Picaroon and mhl

  17. I thought VEND ingenious but it was my LOI anyway. I enjoyed this very much. Picaroon has a ready wit and a lightness of touch which some other setters could learn from. I don’t think this was especially easy but it was great fun to do and who can ask for more than that?
    Thanks Picaroon.

  18. I finished this on Wednesday evening which means that it wasn’t quite as difficult as some, as it usually takes me most of the week to complete. I originally put BELT in for 14a : it seemed to fit as in belt=flog and belt could be tilled land but I was left with CANADA T_Y which was obviously incorrect. Then the light filtered through although it still took a while to understand why VEND was correct.

    I especially liked URSULA ANDRESS (ding dong), ARMPIT, TWENTIES and REINDEER.

    Many thanks to to Picaroon and mhl. Very enjoyable puzzle by the way.

  19. Does anyone know why I can’t download a pdf version of today’s prize crossword? When I click on “pdf version” on the website I just get a blank page with yesterday’s solution in the bottom right hand corner.
    I am assuming it is the usual Guardian cock up, but in case I’m doing something wrong I would be grateful for any suggestions.
    Happy Easter to all
    Thanks

  20. I hadn’t made any notes on this other than that I needed to check a couple of parsings (for VEND and REVELATORY). For VEND, I hadn’t thought to convert “7” to a word. I had parsed REVELATORY in the same way as B(NTO) @10, but I think mhl’s parsing is better. While checking on the blog this morning, the clues which stood out were FRANKLIN, INDIRECT SPEECH, TWENTIES and REINDEER. A minor quibble is that I think “reformed” might have been better in the clue for OCCLUDE.

    Thanks, Picaroon and mhl

  21. Thanks all
    I enjoyed the misdirection in vend
    I do not agree that armpit is horrid.
    To some although not me it is quite the oppoite!

  23. Shirley @ 19 & jennyk @ 22: there was another case recently where the pdf was blank for ages, but they sorted it out in the end. At least it’s not as bad as the alphabetical last year, which originally had the clues presented in numerical/solution sequence!

  24. Thanks Picaroon and mhl

    Had a bit of a battle with this one – doing it with an unseasonable cold over the Easter break. I find this setter becoming the master of subtle misdirection these days, with the real definition word very well disguised until a light bulb finally goes on !

    Started it on the Saturday afternoon and finished during a middle of the night ‘awake time’ ! Finished in the NW corner with the clever REINDEER (with other entertainment personalities defined, was initially looking for a ballerina type rather than a hooved one), MOAN (easy in retrospect, but I neede the M) and ARMPIT (a new meaning for me).

    Couldn’t parse REVELATORY either way – only had the TORY bit. Did get VENT quite early on this time – must be getting used to the device, which I don’t mind at all. Thought that YOSEMITE was extremely well hidden and the anagram fodder of OCCLUDE was hard to find.

    A good challenging prize puzzle for mine.

  25. 3d reminds me of the (apocryphal) story of when Rudolf Nureyev from then Communist Russia was staying at Chequers in the 1950’s. On the Sunday morning he and Churchill were discussing the weather. Nureyev insisted that it was too wet to go for a walk while Churchill maintained that it was nothing more than a little Scotch mist. Before Lady Churchill intervened to say to her husband “Winnie, do stop arguing. Rudolf the red knows rain, dear”.

  26. The annotated solution sees 18a mhl’s way. I’ve never heard of a lever as something making a sound or indicating a letter in a telegraph device. Nor has the OED.

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