(Please click here for this same blog but with a picture quiz added. Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.) Slow to get started, but the pace quickened towards the finish (maybe it was the late night last night). Thanks to Picaroon for an enjoyable solve. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Where you might find sheep to hug (6)
INFOLD : [IN FOLD](in the fenced enclosure for sheep).
Answer: Variant of “to enfold”;to embrace.
5 Tamper with gold or silver, by the sound of it? (6)
MEDDLE : Homophone of(…, by the sound of it) “medal”(awarded in a competition, and refered to as gold, silver, or even bronze).
8 Erratic leader of London embroiled in capital cock-up (7)
AIMLESS : The 1st letter of(leader of) “London ” contained in(embroiled in) [AI(with the Roman numeral, A1;excellent;capital!) + MESS(a cock-up;a balls-up).
9 Artist admitted to revolutionary artist’s workshop (7)
SEMINAR : EMIN(Tracey, English artist) contained in(admitted to) reversal of(revolutionary) RA(member of the Royal Academy of Arts;an artist)‘S.
11 Sorrowful musings, having called honeymoon off (3,2,10)
ODE ON MELANCHOLY : Anagram of(… off) CALLED HONEYMOON.
Answer: The poem by John Keats describing the poet’s perception of melancholy.
12 Food from cooks in Hackney (4)
EATS : “heats”(cooks) as might be pronounced by cockneys in Hackney (or is that ‘Ackney?) in East London.
13 New home, tax-free, that is housing five (10)
INNOVATIVE : IN(at home) + [NO V.A.T.](free of Value Added Tax) + I.E.(abbrev. for “id est”;that is) containing(housing) V(Roman numeral for “five”).
17 Love plumpness? It’s a puffed-up quality (10)
OROTUNDITY : O(letter representing 0;love in tennis scores) + ROTUNDITY(the state of being round;plump).
Answer: Pomposity;excessive self-esteem.
18 Force back cold brandy (4)
MARC : Reversal of(… back) RAM(to force a solid object into/through another) + C(abbrev. for “cold”)
Defn: … made from the remains of grapes that have been pressed.
20 Imprisoned old fellow given sentence before it’s too late (2,3,4,2,4)
IN THE NICK OF TIME : [IN THE NICK](in slang, to be in prison) + O(abbrev. for “old”) + F(abbrev. for “fellow) + TIME(slang for a prison sentence).
Defn: …, just about.
23 Intended, without waiting, to break ruler (7)
KNOWING : NOW(at once;without waiting) contained in(to break) KING(a ruler).
Answer: Intended;deliberate;conscious, as in ” a knowing attempt to hide the facts”.
24 Miserable wretch in sort of cloth hat (7)
REPTILE : REP(a sort of ribbed fabric from various materials) + TILE(British term for a hat).
Answer: A mean and contemptible person.
25 A setter – one in the money! (6)
CEMENT : ME(self-referential pronoun for this puzzle’s setter, indicated by “one”) contained in(in) CENT(a unit of money in some currencies).
Answer: A substance that sets and hardens.
26 One won’t stand for teacher penning dry English (6)
SITTER : SIR(a term used by pupils to address a teacher) containing(penning) TT(abbrev. for “teetotal”;dry;abstaining from alcohol).
Down
2 Cracked town walls in dark shade offering a short cut? (6,3)
NUMBER TWO : Anagram of(Cracked) TOWN containing(in) UMBER(any dark, dusky or indefinite colour).
Defn: This short haircut:
3 Southern and Indian cane so in need of cultivation? (6)
OCEANS : Anagram of(… in need of cultivation) CANE SO.
Defn: The Southern, or Antarctic, and the Indian are 2 examples.
4 Round object made without a saw (9)
DISCERNED : DISC(a round flat object) + “earned”(made;gained through one’s effort) minus(without) “a “.
Defn: …, as the past tense of “to see”.
5 Tea from the south Tuscan town (5)
MASSA : Reversal of(… from the south, in a down clue) ASSAM(a tea grown in the Assam region in India).
6 Politician‘s curse about rejected advance (8)
DEMOCRAT : DRAT(a mild curse;swearword to express annoyance) containing(about) reversal of(rejected) COME(to advance to where one is, as in “come to me”)
7 Zip up coat of gigolo making speech (5)
LINGO : Reversal of(… up, in a down clue) NIL(nothing;zip) + the 2 outermost letters of(coat of) “gigolo “.
8 Reason to fall out of boat one scuttled with sharp tool (1,4,2,4)
A BONE TO PICK : Anagram of(… scuttled) BOAT ONE plus(with) PICK(a sharp tool for breaking hard surfaces).
10 Maybe ABBA anthem cut short amid wild cheers by yours truly (5,6)
RHYME SCHEME : “hymn”(a song praising, say, a nation;an anthem) minus
the last letter of(cut short) contained in(amid) anagram of(wild) CHEERS plus(by) ME(yours truly).
Answer: A rhyming pattern in a verse where the 1st and 4th lines rhyme (A) and the 2nd and 3rd lines rhyme(B).
14 Clearly not straight bypasses in suburbia? (9)
OUTSKIRTS : OUT(openly not straight in reference to sexual orientation) + SKIRTS(bypasses;goes around rather than across or through).
15 Put slant on current story – one Conservative is involved (9)
ITALICISE : I(symbol for an electric current in physics) + TALE(a story) containing(… involved) [I(Roman numeral for “one”) + C(abbrev. for a member of the British Conservative Party) + IS].
Defn: …, like this.
16 Spooner’s in favour of county, it’s guaranteed (4-4)
SURE-FIRE : Spoonerism of “for”(in favour of) “shire”(a British county … or the land of the Hobbits).
19 Rancid milk on the turn? Exactly (3,3)
OFF PAT : OFF(rancid;gone bad, as of butter, for example) + reversal of(… on the turn) TAP(to milk;to draw liquid from, like sap from a tree).
Answer: As in “he recited the ode off pat”.
21 Figure in time line (5)
TROPE : T(abbrev. for “time”) + ROPE(a line made of cord, say).
Defn: … of speech.
22 Metal block‘s hot, with raised thermal resistance (5)
INGOT : IN(hot;popular at the moment) plus(with) reversal of(raised, in a down clue) TOG(a unit of thermal resistance to measure the insulating capability of a fabric, garment, etc.).
(Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.)
Thanks Picaroon and scchua
A very enjoyable and satisfying solve. I missed a few definitions, so thanks to scchua for explaining KNOWING, NUMBER TWO and the OUT part of OUTSKIRTS.
Favourites were 11a, CEMENT and MASSA (largely because I have had several holidays in the mountains above the latter).
The only slight problem I had was with 3d – very clever (and a welcome change to *canoes), but something about the word order doesn’t seem quite right. As is obvious, I can’t quite put my finger on what’s disturbing me!
Thanks, scchua.
What a box of delights! I didn’t find this puzzle so difficult as some of Picaroon’s but it contains some of his best clues ever, I think. 11ac is simply beautiful and 10dn really made me laugh when I saw it. I also particularly liked 4dn but it really is invidious to pick out any more.
[I can’t see anything wrong with 3dn – but I think Scchua meant Antarctic.]
Huge thanks, as ever, to Picaroon for a brilliant puzzle, which has put me in an excellent mood for the day.
[Hi Eileen
“Southern Ocean” is correct, I think. It’s the route that round-the-world racers take, as it’s uninterrupted by land masses – though a bit stormy!]
Eileen/muffin, yes, I did mean the Antarctic (alternatively called the Great Southern, the Southern, the South Polar and the Austral) Ocean. Blog corrected.
[I misread yours, Eileen.]
Thanks for the puzzle and the blog.
16d would have to be SHORE-FIRE for me otherwise the Spoonerism becomes FOO-ER SHIRE (yes, yes, I know!)
Another glorious crossword – so full of ideas. CEMENT was pure joy.
Thanks both.
Thanks Picaroon and scchua.
Fantastic puzzle and blog, the latter a great help. I did like CEMENT and LINGO.
There are DARN (col 2), LOST (col 4) and ENVY (col 10), bit I cannot see a Nina.
16d Insert standard complaint about the parochialism of some Spoonerisms, including this one.
Thanks Picaroon & scchua.
The SE corner went in OK, but then the rest was a struggle, not helped by my ignorance of Keats poems. I did like the ABBA clue, although I didn’t understand it until I came here.
I thought the ‘short cut’ in NUMBER TWO was a lavatorial euphemism, just think what Paul would have done with this answer! 😉
Thanks, scchua.
Great crossword, with some imaginative clueing. I found it moderately tricky, and also had a very slow start (first entries were MARC and OROTUNDITY!), but got into the hang of it.
I had a bit of trouble with 23a, as the word KNOWING for me is not as active as ‘intended’, but closer to the more passive ‘conscious’. And I tried to make 5d SIENA (S—-) until it clicked.
Favourites, for their construction and surface, were INNOVATIVE, DISCERNED, SEMINAR and the splendid anagram at 11a. (I also enjoyed the dig at Boris at 8a).
[btw “marc” is essentially the French version of Italian Grappa (or vice versa) – there was an article a couple of days ago in the paper extolling grappa as the “next trendy drink”. I would recommend it, though I have liked it for years!]
Yes this is better after his last two, with which I had many problems.
9a is okay but the apostrophe is not really required; 25a there is double-duty needed here because ‘one’ relies on the definition for its proper meaning; 26a some would say the clue is the wrong way around, but ‘for’ isn’t needed, and removing it solves the difficulty; 5d contais the sin of ambiguity, leading to MASSA and ASSAM at the same time.
I wasn’t blown away by anything in particular, but ‘a setter’ for CEMENT caused a smile.
Really enjoyed this, even though held up by jumping tp ‘ number one’ for 2d. Great variety of clues, good surfaces and the particular pleasure of new words, e.g. ‘Rep’ . Loved 10 and 11. A treat!
Hard work for me, but got there in the end. Hadn’t heard of MARC; loved CEMENT, ODE ON MELANCHOLY and RHYME SCHEME in particular. Many thanks to Picaroon and scchua.
Agree strongly with muffin @12 about the attraction of grappa, MARC and other similar spirits.
After a couple of recent coincidental references to the crossword in the adjacent flyer for the following day’s edition of the paper (GLUTEN FREE and MARIGOLD) we seem to have broken the trend today, although if Sam Wolfson went bald at 16 he might have had to resort to a 2d.
Gervasse @17, somebody probably complained.
Thanks to scchua for the blog.
I’m with A@6: the Spoonerism in 16d doesn’t work. I can see S[h]URE / S[h]IRE but not FURE.
Loved this! Vis-vis our previous adverts next to crossword ‘giveaways’ (gluten free & marigold) & using Robi’s definition of NUMBER TWO… Were we the only ones who saw ‘smells like sewage’ on the advert today?!!! Apols if that’s a bit much, but we did laugh!!! Thanks Picaroon, great puzzle!
This was pretty difficult – needed Check to confirm the last few, but as always with Picaroon there was plenty to enjoy. Last in was REPTILE – the rep part was new to me as were MARC and MASSA. Liked RHYME SCHEME, OCEANS, INNOVATIVE, CEMENT and DISCERNED.
Thanks to Picaroon and scchua
Didn’t get close to finishing – not Picaroon’s fault by any stretch – But I did like RHYME SCHEME.
hedgehoggy @13 – we have had the debate about this kind of ambiguity here many times. I see no problem with clues such as 5d as long as there is a crosser to confirm which is right – mind you I had the M from MEDDLE before even looking at the clue.
26 is clearly SIR penning TT E – don’t see how this could be seen as the wrong way round, and in 25, one does not need any reference to setter for “one” to mean “me”. So if those are your only objections, Picaroon has got off pretty lightly.
I’m with beery a bit here – never heard of REP for a cloth, nor TILE for a hat… Tho I recognise I’m new to all this, so it’s all (good) learning to be done!!
5d ambiguity is bad style with or without crossers!
25a ONE is not a synonym for ME. In Prince Charles Speak you may get ‘one enjoys stupendous wealth at the public expense’ which would do for ‘I’, but ‘me’ enjoys? Clearly the clue refers back to the dual meaning of ‘setter’, one for the jokey def and one for the office of Mr Picaroon. he is ‘one (setter)’.
26a yes, it is clear enough, but the style is ‘not quite’ as some would say. I would agree with them, I like the machinery of the clue to be ‘for’ the answer, and not the other way around. If you drop the ‘for’ the problem goes away of course, it still makes ‘a kind of sense’ as the learned books require.
Thanks to Picaroon and scchua. Favorite was RHYME SCHEME among several others. Learned a
new definition for NUMBER TWO. Loved the puzzle.
Cheers…
Muffin@1: Perhaps 3d should be ‘Southern and Indian canes…’ to be grammatically accurate?
Nice clues as usual, liked CEMENT, DISCERNED and RHYME SCHEME a lot.
hedgehoggy @25
Chambers gives ONE = ME (formal) – it gives one great pleasure to say!
According to Chambers online, One IS a synonym for me:
one … pronoun … 3 formal or facetious I; me • One doesn’t like to pry
cholecyst @28 – sorry we crossed
hedgehoggy…
5d (ambiguity) – in a well constructed crossword there will be a few easier clues to get you started, but many which need a few letters in before they start to yield (otherwise you would just start at 1ac and write in the answers). So it doesn’t matter that a clue like MASSA is teasingly ambiguous – you just need to wait until you have a crossing letter…then come back to it. It’s not that the setter doesn’t realise it is ambiguous and has made a mistake – it is deliberately there for those of us who actually have fun being toyed with while solving these things.
25a (“one is not a synonym for me”). In your eagerness to sneer you often don’t seem to think long enough to see what the rest of us (and the setter) can plainly see. What about “It gives one great pleasure” = “It gives me great pleasure”. (In playfully Prince Charles speak of course).
26a (Def ‘for’ wordplay). Sometimes you use the Definition ‘for’ understanding the wordplay, and sometimes vice versa. Linkwords are just equals signs.
9a (“apostrophe not needed”) Eh? The S is part of the answer!
Just forget policing these things, and enjoy the dance.
Isn’t ‘artists’ RAS then?
Re one and me okay, I believe you. I’d never use it like that, and so I wonder if it was thus intended.
26a not for crossword purists it isn’t. I’m not saying I am one btw 😀
Ambiguity have it your way: I know what I like, and it is, as always, only my opinion.
Limeni – well said, but never mind enjoying the dance, I’m off to enjoy a few beers now…
I don’t think I, one, and me are necessarily interchangeable grammatically, and certainly not without replacement of contiguous wording. Collins is more circumspect than the Scots tome in any case, and rightly so!
ðŸ™
I struggled with this and I confess I relied rather too much on guesswork so I was grateful for the blog. There were a few nice clues here. I liked RHYME SCHEME,CEMENT and OROTUNDITY and I also thought NUMBER TWO had a lavatorial connection. LOI A BONE TO PICK.
I find it difficult to get on this setter’s wavelength.
Rough.
I got about 3/4 of this before hitting the “cheat” button a few times to get unstuck. The “cheats” were on Marc (which is not a word I know know), Reptile (I didn’t know “rep,” don’t think of “tile” as a hat, and seldom see “reptile” applied to humans, so that one was pretty hopeless), Off Pat (which isn’t idiomatic to American English), Outskirts (which I admit I should have gotten), and Cements (ditto).
Unusually for me, the long answers went in pretty much first; usually, I use the small ones to get crossers for the longs, but this time the long answers were the easiest clues!
Thanks all
Enjoyable, even though I failed to unearth any HH gripes, I am lacking something.
Last in was 8 down.
Never heard of Tile for Hat before…except “…brand new tile..” In Any Old Iron suddenly makes sense!
Quite a struggle, but we got there eventually. I thought 5d was unambiguous: ‘Tea from the south’= MASSA makes much more sense than ‘south Tuscan town’ = ASSAM.
As for Tile = Hat – one of those usages never found in modern life – except in crosswords where it remains, preserved like an Egyptian mummy. But not uncommon, I’d have thought.
Thanks Picaroon and scchua
Very enjoyable puzzle with great variety and innovation. A couple of new words in the Tuscan town (which I heartily agree with Mr Beaver was clear directly from the clue) and TOG as a measure of thermal resistance.
A lot of clever misdirection throughout – especially the ‘zip up’ in 7d, ‘ABBA’ at 14d and ‘not straight’ in 14d. It took an age to unravel Ms EMIN at 9a – an unlikely candidate apart from the useful run of letters in her name – to be featured in any crossword!
Like others, I loved the anagram of 11a.
Well done scchua on the very comprehensive blog.
First this: a wonderful puzzle for which thanks to one of the most talented setters in the country.
Then this: I think one should not put the blame on hedgehoggy for his critical notes on 26ac and 5d.
His points are valid.
Ideally it should be ‘wordplay’ for ‘definition’ and not the other way around (26ac, SITTER).
That said, it happens quite frequently like it is presented here and ‘we’ usually accept it without complaints.
Actually, hedgehoggy gives an alternative that does make sense.
5d (MASSA) is indeed ambiguous because the indicator is in the middle of fodder and definition.
We had discussions on this more than once and always the conclusion was ‘ideally, setters shouldn’t do this’.
I even remember Arachne apologising for it.
So, why trying to defend this thing and send the arrows in hedgehoggy’s direction?
The apostrophe-s objection in 9ac is, however, rather silly as hedgehoggy prefers … artists’. No apostrophe?
As to 25ac, I also thought that the ‘one’ in that clue referred back to ‘setter’. Kind of half double duty. The main difference is that I found it OK, quite good actually.
But dear hedgehoggy, “I wasn’t blown away by anything in particular (…..)”, when are you?
I agree with Eileen’s favourites (plus 13ac) and I think in particular the anagram in 11ac (‘having calling honeymoon off’) is marvellous as is the interaction between wordplay and surface in 4d (meaning, they are completely of two different worlds).
While I often do agree with some (sometimes many) of your remarks, there is also an overall feeling to a crossword.
For me, this feeling can easily overrule a handful of technical flaws.
I just wonder, how do you solve a crossword?
Filling the grid, meanwhile ticking boxes?
What gives you pleasure when solving a puzzle?
Perhaps, you should come to one of ‘our’ Bloggers & Setters events in the future and make your point while having a glass or two.
We’re all human, mind you.
By the way, I would like to emphasise that I do not find your posts offensive in any way (though often negative) unlike those of some of your criticasters.
Yet, I ask myself: why are you always focusing on the minus points of a crossword? You hardly ever (well, sometimes in the Indy blogs [like in yesterday’s indeed fabulous Klingsor]) give room for the plus points.
As limeni says ‘enjoy the dance’ and even if you don’t like dancing (nor do I), do appreciate the effort setters make to entertain us.
Thanks scchua for your neat blog (as ever).
Sil@41 – I must say you make your argument very well and, as usual, I concur. I feel a little guilty myself as I have probably made known my irritation with hh’s contributions in a discourteous way. I guess I’m only human and can find the seemingly incessant negativity both draining and, for this generally warm site, egregious.
Overall, I find it more rewarding to enjoy the whole picture (be that the puzzle itself or a particular clue) rather than to concentrate on the brushstrokes.
There was much to be enjoyed in this Picaroon, not least some of the superb surfaces to which some (such as the inestimable Eileen) have referred.
Thanks to Picaroon and an appreciative gasp for Scchua’s labours (of love?)
Failed on 23A
Although the only possible answer was KNOWING I couldn’t see a reason to enter it.
Can anyone give me a sentence which passes the acid test. i.e. one in which “intended” can be replaced by “knowing” without changing the meaning.
Brendan (nto) –
“She seemed to be smiling inanely but, having seen the object of her gaze, I realised it was an intended (/knowing) smile”
??weak, I know, but then I actually felt the same as you! I did try though….just for you!
🙂