Picaroon for me again, a bit wearing in places though.
Well a lot WEARing because almost every clue has clothing as the definition, answer or just used in the wordplay. Very nicely done Pickers.
Across
8 Agreement about hemming woolly angora jumper (8)
KANGAROO
ANGORA* woolly inserted hemmed by into OK (agreement) reversed about
9 What’s hoarded by materialistic celebrities (1-4)
A-LIST
Hidden in, hoarded by,materiALISTic
10 One about to follow fellow in blazer? (4)
FIRE
F(ellow) followed by 1 & RE
11 Maybe schizophrenic spasm after pet gets dreadfully pale (10)
CATALEPTIC
CAT (pet say) & PALE* dreadfully & TIC spasm
12 Men in gloves and underpants? (6)
BOXERS
Double def, the first a tad cryptic
14 Two African countries I must leave to avoid labour (8)
MALINGER
MALI & N(i)GER
16 Fool‘s coat for exhibitionistic ecstasy in seedy joint (7)
DECEIVE
Coat of E(hibitionisti)C & E(cstasy) in DIVE
18 Gag about chap finally missing another tie (7)
REMATCH
RETCH (to gag) around MA(n) finally missing
21 The two leaders in Scotland hear many tantalising plans (8)
SCHEMATA
[THE & SC(otland) {two leaders of} HEA(r) {many bits of}]* tantalising. I guess Picaroon could have made this harder to write up. Just.
23 Lover right to leave old city with ruffian about (3,3)
TOY BOY
R leaves T(r)OY & YOB reversed
24 Tools for farmer and group of workers back from tailor with loud suit (4,6)
TURF SPADES
T(rade) U(nion) & back of (tailo)R & F (loud) & SPADES (suit)
26 European novelist’s vocal parrot (4)
ECHO
Sounds like (umberto) ECO
27 Something juicy, long and round in pieces (5)
MELON
L(ong) & O (something round) in MEN (chess pieces)
28 Backing horse lacking experience, we’re told? That’s rot (8)
GANGRENE
NAG reversed & sounds like GREEN
Down
1 Old king entertains foreign allies in underwear (8)
CAMISOLE
AMIS (french friends) in (old king) COLE
2 Revolting, I must grab right brute! (4)
OGRE
R(ight) in reversed EGO
3 Menswear or ladieswear bedecking Anglicans (6)
BRACES
CE (Anglican church) bedecked by BRAS
4 Outfit has function with paunch beginning to expand (7)
COSTUME
COS(ine) & TUM (paunch) & E(xpand)
5 Love skirts ardently, at first, and collar (4)
NAIL
A(rdently) at first in NIL (0, love)
6 Boots possibly dressy — pain when moving (10)
DISPENSARY
[DRESSY PAIN]* moving
7 Way Republican president gets sock or belt (6)
STRIKE
ST (way) & R(epublican) & IKE (US Pres. informally)
13 Mischief-maker pinches uniform worn several times over (10)
ELEVENFOLD
EVEN (uniform) in ELF (mischief maker) & OLD (worn)
15 Exist without 5 or 16 (3)
LIE
V = 5 removed from LI(v)E. 16 is deceive
17 With old Liberal retiring, voila, a way for Berlusconi! (3)
VIA
O(ld) & L(iberal) removed from V(o)I(l)A
19 The theme here is what’s put on block, judge admitted, chopping off king’s head (8)
CLOTHING
THIN(k) (=judge) (with King’s head chopped off) inside CLOG (block)
20 Ensemble with silver top from Esprit and dress (7)
BANDAGE
As in dress a wound. BAND (ensemble) & AG (silver) & top of E(sprit)
22 Conservative with funny pants (6)
CRUMMY
C(onservative) & RUMMY (funny peculiar).
23 One’s drunk or sober after it’s knocked back (6)
TISANE
IT reversed (knocked back) & SANE (sober). It’s a type of tea without caffeine
25 Gasp after adult’s gone for upper-class boot (4)
PUNT
PANT with A(dult) replaced by U (upper class)
26 Cardigan, say, almost stripped off (4)
EARL
(n)EARL(y) stripped of its outside
Thanks, flashling.
I took 21a to be the leaders of Sc otland he ar ma ny ta ntalising.
Thanks David, that works better
Forgot to add, that whilst I had it quite early, I couldn’t explain CLOTHING at all!
Thanks, flashling – and David E [sorry I called you Dave on Thursday – you used to be, didn’t you?] for SCHEMATA.
Apart from that, no problems with this highly entertaining puzzle from Picaroon, with the usual witty clues and an amusing theme.
Favourite clues: 8, 14, 21 [now]ac and 1, 3, 6, 13, 22 dn – I could go on…
Many thanks, as ever, to Picaroon.
David @3. I was trying to parse it as LOT (what’s put on (the auctioneer’s) block) kING with its head cut off but couldn’t find any way to relate CH to a judge. So thanks flashling for clearing that up.
Eileen @ 4.
Yes, I used to be Dave, though clearly my name is David. I had to clear my cache the other day, which wipes out my name and email on this site. I hadn’t noticed I had re-entered it as David.
Thanks Picaroon and flashling.
I parsed SCHEMATA as David did, but needed help from flashling with several others, CLOTHING included. PUNT for boot was a new meaning. I don’t get the relationship between ‘pants’ and CRUMMY.
The theme was fun, even MELON qualified being a hat. DISPENSARY caught me out. I did like GANGRENE.
@cookie #7 CRUMMY=RUBBISH=PANTS
Thanks Picaroon & flashling.
The top half went in smoothly but I slowed in the bottom half. 😉
Like Dav(e)(id) @3, I failed to parse CLOTHING correctly, and SCHEMATA as well.
I liked ELEVENFOLD & BANDAGE. I guess Esprit must be this.
flashling @8, thanks, UK slang I see under ‘BBC, keep your English up to date’; glad mine was fossilised 50 years ago.
Count me as another who entered CLOTHING unparsed, and it was my NTLOI before REMATCH. There weren’t a lot of write-ins in this puzzle and I found it an enjoyable challenge.
TISANE makes shirts and T shirts, PARROT makes children’s clothing, Berlusconi makes men’s shoes, Pet Life makes clothing for dogs, Exist and Brute make clothing in the USA, Lover makes women’s clothes…
That leaves 9a (A-list, ‘material’istic?), 14a (but ‘Labour behind the Label’ fights child labour) and 28a.
A return to form for Picaroon, I had no technical problems with it.
My only question is regarding the pronunciation of ECO.
A very good puzzle.
Thanks flashling and Picaroon
A good puzzle if a tough one in places. I got the sense of 19d and parsed it correctly but was a little bemused by so few clothing answers and did not go back to the clues for a refill!
Wow – I had no idea about all those clothes manufacturers. Took me some time to complete but very satisfying. Favourites were KANGAROO, ECHO and ELEVENFOLD. Many thanks to Picaroon and flashling.
Pretty tough for a Tuesday, but I got there in the end, and enjoyed the challenge. Somewhat annoyingly, my last in was NAIL, which should have been obvious much earlier. Failed to parse SCHEMATA and CLOTHING so thanks for those. Liked MALINGER, CAMISOLE and DISPENSARY.
Thanks to Picaroon and flashling
The usual fun from Picaroon – thanks to him and flashling.
With a schizophrenic brother in law I am not sure about 11ac though catatonic is listed in Bradford as a symptom. Not one I have ever observed.
A tisane is what the madeleine was memorably dunked into.
Quality as ever from Picaroon – I do find his style very attractive.
Everything went in fairly comfortably – except for the parsing of both CLOTHING (which felt like a clue which had wandered in form a much harder crossword) and SCHEMATA (which shouldn’t really have caught so many of us out!).
Many thanks to Picaroon and flashling.
marienkaefer @17, I don’t suppose Tante Léonie needed many clothes.
Cookie – an interesting theory which I confess had not occurred to me before (though I admit that moment is the furthest I have got in my attempts to read the novel)…
Many thanks, flashling, good blog.
Failed on REMATCH which is annoying as I managed to parse all the rest. Got hung up looking for A gag rather than the verb.
Do enjoy this setter, just the right amount of wickedness and fun.
Thank you Picaroon.
28a, Horze riding clothes, fair enough with ‘grene’ and green.
I don’t get on with PICAROON’s puzzles usually and this was no exception. Actually the top half went in quite quickly. I’ve never heard of TURF SPADES but I suppose they exist. I don’t understand CLOTHING and I didn’t see the theme. And,despite the plaudits above, I can’t say I enjoyed this very much at all.
Oh well!
Found this very easy fora Picaroon
However it appears I failed on 3D as I had FROCKS, a triple defintions . (Works for me!)
Failed to parse CLOTHING
Otherwise all good fun
Thanks to flashling and Picaroon
See what you mean BNTO bit unlucky there – a bit out of left field answer but completely possible in the Guardian. Good job the crossers didn’t match.
@PeterA #23 re clothing, I don’t see how I can make the answer more obvious, what don’t you see?
BNTO’S FROCKS at 3d is brilliant, I find the crossers match. Picaroon threw down the gauntlet…
Picaroon is one of my/our favourite setters but for some reason this puzzle didn’t hit the spot for me/us.
Like Robi we couldn’t parse SCHEMATA and CLOTHING, in the end two of the best clues.
This crossword was (at least for me/us) one of two halves.
The top half went in very quickly with some real giveaways.
The bottom half took about three times as long.
Long, did I say long?
Once more, a setter uses L for ‘long’ today (27ac).
And once more I can only say that this cannot be found in any dictionary as a stand-alone abbreviation (as it should).
L is ‘large’ would be fine and actually, it would have made much sense for the surface too as (pieces of) melon are large rather than long.
Apart from that, a decent Tuesday crossword.
Thanks flash.
I’m another who went for FROCKS (the crossers do work) but thought it a bit of a weak clue on that basis. My abject apologies to Picaroon! I failed to parse SCHEMATA until sometime after finishing and though I thought it was CLOTHING fairly early on couldn’t parse that one at all (fixated on J for judge).
Another very enjoyable crossword from one of my favourite setters. Thanks to him and to flashling for the blog.
I had a different parsing for ECHO:
E (European) + homonym of (Jonathan) Coe
I enjoyed the crossword. I parsed SCHEMATA but not CLOTHING.
Oh, and HH, I think the Italian pronunciation of Eco is close enough to the English pronunciation of echo for it to be fine as a homonym.
Oops, I meant homophone, not homonym, of course.
Typo in the parsing of 17d VI(ol)A should be V(o)I(l)A. Apols for being so pedantic.
As Sil, how on earth is L for long?? Very much enjoyed the neat way so many sartorial threads were sewn in but not so much the solving. Know not why….perhaps my mood? No trouble with SCHEMATA – much liked but parsing of CLOTHING had me (maybe my brain rather than my mood was at fault?)
Many thanks to Picaroon and flashling.
L as in LP works for me. That has been around since at least the ’50s. There are also LDPs (long distance paths), and an LDWA (long distance walkers’ association). I didn’t question it, but I have never tried to learn the “official” list of abbreviations…
@Bob #33 fixed thanks, did think at the time viola seemed a bit odd!
I’m a little bemused as to why CLOTHING caused so many parsing problems, what is it about the clue, the lengthy def perhaps?
I’m another one who had Jonathan Coe as the novelist. May not fit the clue as well as Eco, but is more fun to read.
I’m far too late, I know (I don’t usually start doing the puzzle until most of you have long since finished it), but surely L=long is routine in clothes sizes – entirely appropriate for this puzzle.
The OCED gives l = length, could that not apply also to ‘long’?
Batsman, sorry, we crossed, your suggestion is ideal.
Thanks Picaroon and flashling
Excellent puzzle that took up the train ride in … and back … with a little sneaky look at lunchtime as well. Only saw the five clothing answers … and thought that it was just a mini-theme, but the clever pirate was much better than that !!!
Was able to parse SCHEMATA, but didn’t see the hidden A-LIST (had hoardings as a poster = list – tenuous and wrong), missed the parsing of CLOTHING (started from CLOT as ‘block’, had ING as ‘chopping off king’s head’ but couldn’t work out why H could equal ‘judge’) and was just so happy to have spotted the 7th Earl of Cardigan that I forgot to try and work out the rest of it.
Lots to like as many of you have said !!
20d I did not see Bandage = dress a wound, I thought it was a reference to a Bandage Dress!
http://www.mybandagedress.com/
flashling @37 – an interesting question. As one of those who struggled with it, I’m not sure, since once you have seen how it works, it looks straightforward in retrospect. I think it’s just one of those where two words have to be read in senses that are not immediately obvious – I didn’t see the CLOG at all.
The point I made about ‘long’ is actually similar to Picaroon’s use of G for ‘great’ in one of his recent puzzles (24 January).
Some tried to justify this by giving GB = ‘Great Britain’ as a (counter)example.
If one’s happy with that, fine, but G is not a stand-alone abbreviation for ‘great’ nor is L one for ‘long’.
So, beery hiker @35, yes, LP = ‘long play’ but that doesn’t give L the right to be ‘long’.
UK = ‘United Kingdom’, and U can indeed be just ‘United’. However, unfortunately, K is not a single letter abbreviation for ‘Kingdom’.
See what I mean?
And clothes sizes?
Batsman @39, I am pretty sure that the L in my t-shirt stands for ‘large’ (and not ‘long’).
Cookie @40, L = length = long? That’s a bit of a stretch, isn’t it?
Now Picaroon is not the first setter who triggered me to say something about this.
L = ‘long’, it happens every so often.
It’s not a major issue for me – I only wanted to give it a mention.
But mainly because I would like to understand whether this thing is right, wrong, acceptable, or?
Re CLOTHING. Clog= block. Of course it does. Couldn’t see it at the time, though.
Hi Sil@47. I thought that the L in a clothing sense would be in the context of a business shirt that was a 38L which meant that the sleeve was LONG compared to a 38S (SHORT) or 38R (REGULAR).