Guardian 26,540 by Picaroon

by

Lots to like here, with excellent surfaces and cleverly disguised definitions. Favourites were 10ac, 24ac and 3dn.

Across
1 WEIGHT WATCHER
Delay for audience, with cheers backing singer, one ditching the Stones? (6,7)

=”One ditching the Stones”. WEIGHT sounds like ‘wait‘ i.e. “Delay for audience“; plus W[ith]; plus reversal (“backing”) of TA=”cheers”=’thanks’; plus CHER=”singer”.
10 TOP DRAWER
A list of bonus funds withdrawn (3,6)

=”A list”, as opposed to B-list, C-list etc. Reversal (“withdrawn”) of REWARD POT=”bonus funds”.
11 THIGH
Part of member‘s time wasted (5)

=”Part of member” / part of a leg. T[ime] plus HIGH=”wasted”
12 FLOOD
Grub left to get eaten in swamp (5)

=”swamp”. FOOD=”Grub”, with L[eft] inside it.
13 ROUGHCAST
Bird reportedly shy, getting plastered (9)

=coated with plaster. ROUGH sounds like ‘ruff‘ i.e. “Bird reportedly” plus CAST=”shy”
14 UPTREND
Improvement from right back, cracking winning goal (7)

=”Improvement”. R[igh]T is reversed (“back”); inside UP=”winning” and END=”goal”
16 POOH-BAH
Bear with regularly brash, stuck-up official (4-3)

=”stuck-up official”. POOH=”Bear”; plus regular letters from B[r]A[s]H
18 PARTITA
Pair that trashed hotel to leave suite (7)

=”suite” of music. (Pair t[h]at)*, with H[otel] to leave
20 OFTENER
It’s not free to broadcast with higher frequency (7)

=”with higher frequency”. (not free)*
21 RATHERISH
That woman is taken in by rogue husband to some extent (9)

=”to some extent”. HER=”That woman” plus IS; taken in by RAT=”rogue” plus H[usband]
23 SHELL
Attack lines ending novel (5)

=”Attack”. LL=abbreviation for “lines”, after SHE=H Rider Haggard’s “novel” [wiki]
24 ISLAM
Slim Rocky boxing head of Apollo Creed (5)

=”Creed”. (Slim)*, around A[pollo]
25 SIMPLETON
Thick sort of drink’s taken back from William Tell (9)

=”Thick sort”. SIP=”drink”, taking in the back of [Willia]M; plus LET ON=”Tell”
26 STOCK EXCHANGE
Cliched remarks where capitalists congregate (5,8)

=”where capitalists congregate”. STOCK=”Cliched”; plus EXCHANGE=”remarks”.
Down
2 EXPLOITER
Old loaf cut by shop’s end user (9)

=”user”. EX=”Old” and LOITER=”loaf”, with [sho]P cutting in between them
3 GORED
Did Pierce blush? (5)

=”Did Pierce”. GO RED=”blush”
4 TOWERED
Groom’s intention to suppress hesitation, offering rose (7)

=”rose”. TO WED=”Groom’s intention”, around ER=”hesitation”
5 AIR PUMP
How might I deal with flat melody? Get inform­ation (3,4)

=”How might I deal with flat”. AIR=”melody”; plus PUMP=”Get information”
6 CUTTHROAT
Merciless fox to hurt cat (9)

=”Merciless”. (to hurt cat)*
7 ERICA
Woman‘s age about 101 — it’s rising (5)

=”Woman”. ERA=”age”, around a reversal (“it’s rising”) of CI=101 in Roman numerals
8 STIFF UPPER LIP
Cool having row, with stimulant swallowed by mistake (5,5,3)

=”Cool”. TIFF=”row” and UPPER=”stimulant”, both swallowed by SLIP=”mistake”
9 WHITE HART LANE
Beaten 3-0! What a place to see it happen? (5,4,4)

=a place to see football happen, Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium [wiki]. (three nil what a)*
15 EPIDERMIC
Maybe skinny dip English rejected, crime when swimming (9)

=”Maybe skinny”. DIP plus E[nglish], both reversed (“rejected”); plus (crime)*
17 BUNDESTAG
Surprisingly, nude male’s found behind British chancellor’s place? (9)

=”chancellor’s place” in Germany. (nude)* plus STAG=”male”; both found behind B[ritish]
19 AT ISSUE
Disputed a lot of lies (2,5)

=”Disputed”. A, plus TISSUE=”a lot of lies”, where “lies”=’layers’
20 OGHAMIC
Like old written lang­uage? Turn up a Master in Latin here (7)

=Like Ogham [wiki]. GO=”Turn”, reversed (“up”); plus A plus M[aster], both inside HIC=”Latin [for] here”
22 TO LET
One abandoning throne, wanting occupation (2,3)

=”Wanting occupation”. I=”One”, leaving TO[i]LET=”throne”
23 SALSA
Like girl, endlessly knocked back the sauce (5)

=”sauce”. AS LAS[s]=”Like girl”, with its end removed, then reversed (“knocked back”)

43 comments on “Guardian 26,540 by Picaroon”

  1. Thanks, manehi.

    Unusually for a Picaroon, I didn’t enjoy this very much today, too much like pulling teeth for some reason, though on reading your blog I can’t really see why this should have been.

    I thought the surfaces to 1a, 15a and 20d were pretty iffy.

  3. Thanks for spotting those, NNI – have edited (originally had WEIGHT sounds like ‘weight’, and SHE instead of HER for “that woman”.)

  8. Thanks manehi. Got the long one down the right side at once and the long one down the left with just a P crossing, but struggled a bit after that. Thanks to you I can now understand 2D and 25A, and find a definition in 5D. At the time though it all seemed RATHERISH, a word I’d never heard of.

  9. Thanks Picaroon and manehi,

    This was hard going, especially the parsing, but enjoyable.
    I did like STOCK EXCHANGE and WEIGHT WATCHER.

    19d, I read ‘a lot of lies’ as ‘a tissue of lies’, i.e. a fabrication.

  10. Thanks both. I agree with Cookie @ 9 re ‘a tissue of lies’ = ‘fabrication’. I also agree with Dave Ellison @ 1 that there wasn’t too much enjoyment in it for me, despite some clever cluing. Maybe it’s because words like 14, 20a and 21 really annoy me.

  11. It took me a while to get on Picaroon’s wavelength this morning, but once I did I made steady progress. I thought there was some devious cluing here, especially with some of the quirky definitions, and I liked the puzzle the more I got into it. While words like UPTREND, OFTENER and RATHERISH might not be to everyone’s taste I quite liked their inclusion because of their oddity.

  12. Thanks both

    I found this entertainingly teasing. It took quite a time to parse simpleton though the answer was clear enough. I failed to parse 1 a correctly – I forgot about the ‘singer’ and simply read ‘watcher’ as sounding like ‘wotcher’.

  13. Very hard work for me, but got there apart from the G in OGHAMIC. Though I might have to abandon ship half-way through, but persevered. Favourites were POOH-BAH, WEIGHT WATCHER and STOCK EXCHANGE.

  14. Well I didn’t like this much. although the technique is mostly okay. OFTENER, RATHERISH and OGHAMIC were all annoying to me, just bad setting I feel.

    In 25a I think a ‘that’s’ is needed; in 6d I don’t like ‘fox’ for the in, especially not in that position; 8d is STIFF UPPER LIP adjectival or am I being thick?; 9d just use the words, it makes no difference to the surface.

    Thank you.
    HH.

  16. Thanks, manehi.

    Struggled to find the anagram in CUTTHROAT and failed on SHELL.

    How does one use RATHERISH I wonder?

    HH @15 what does it matter? The answer is perfectly getable isn’t it?

    Nice week all.

  17. William I don’t know which one you’re talking about but as a general rule ‘of course it matters!’.

  18. Thanks Picaroon and manehi.

    I found picaroon’s offering as enjoyable as ever, with some very neat misdirection.

    William @ 8: while I don’t particularly like the word RATHERISH (I did like the clue), to me it’s redolent of Wodehouse.

  19. Thanks Picaroon and manehi

    Maybe I’m just easily pleased, but I found this a joy. Don’t think that I’ve seen this level of misdirection of definition in any puzzle before – found myself on numerous times thinking “Now, that’s what he meant!”

    It took quite a while to make any real progress early doors … but once over that, it all came together very nicely. Even then, there were still 5 or 6 that needed a bit more thinking to understand the parsing of them. Finished in the SW with EPIDERMIC, UPTREND and PARTITA the last few in.

    Couldn’t work out if he was a ‘Spurs fan or not at 9.

  20. HH@14

    I think it’s the other way round. ‘Cool’ is being used as a noun. (To lose one’s cool).

  22. Enjoyed this a lot, but have to admit a partial defeat on OGHAMIC – only found that with a bit of help from Wikipedia – in my defence I never learned Latin and I don’t remember coming across Ogham either. Plenty of amusement – enjoyed WEIGHT WATCHER, SIMPLETON, TOWERED, BUNDESTAG and WHITE HART LANE.

    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi

  23. Thanks Picaroon and manehi

    I enjoyed this a lot, with favourites being OFTENER, AIR PUMP and OGHAMIC. Refreshing to have ERICA not linked with heather for a change.

    I wasn’t sure that RATHERISH was a word, but it was clued fairly enough.

    Did you see someone asking yesterday “Why do the surfaces have to mean something?” My jaw dropped!

  24. You might be surprised to learn that the first of the long ones I got was WHITE HART LANE–living as I do in a land where we call the game soccer and find it boring. (I’m an exception, to a certain extent; I follow soccer sporadically, so I’ve heard of a few English football stadiums.) I thought it was a very clever clue.

    OGHAMIC was a new word, but after the crossing letters were in, the word play did the work. I had to come here for the parsing of SIMPLETON, which I guess means I must be one. Thanks to manehi for that.

    I should mention how pleased I am that for once (at 7 down) the setter took IC, and instead of lazily but erroneously cluing it as 99, gave us an upside-down 101. Pedants the world over rejoiced and sang hosannas.

  26. Yes, the misdirection in many of the clues was tremendous. Really inventive. A lot of thought must have gone into the clues. Your work is very much appreciated, Picaroon!

  27. Couldn’t get OGHAMIC or at least not the G. Managed the others but I can’t say I liked RATHERISH but the rest where OK. I even managed WHITE HART LANE without working it out. I can’t think of many football grounds that a soccerphobic like me would know.
    Almost enjoyable!

  28. HH@17 apologies, posted and then dashed.

    I meant the STIFF UPPER LIP clue. I think the ‘cool’ is a noun in this case but, as I said, it doesn’t really matter. I think there’s a risk of over-analysing clues until you beat the fun out of what is, after all, just a pleasant diversion.

    Sorry, LL @ 20, just seen your post – same thought as you.

  29. It was a slog for me at first, but once I got past my first few answers I speeded up and it became more enjoyable. Overall, I liked it. For once, I’d parsed them all before coming here.

    I grew up in Tottenham, so White Hart Lane should have been a lot easier for me than it was. I’m another who cringed slightly at UPTREND, RATHERISH and, to an extent, OFTENER, but they were fairly clued so I’m not complaining.

    Thanks, Picaroon and manehi!

  30. Haha…I seem to be in the minority again because I absolutely loved this from start to finish – Picaroon is so up my street that we could be neighbours.

    I’m sure it all depends on what you are looking for, but I find his definitions have just the right challenging/gettable balance (eg merciless = cutthroat, skinny = epidermic). Misdirections like the British Chancellor at the Bundestag, joyous clues like: Pair that trashed hotel to leave suite (7) = PARTITA, and the whole 3-0 WHITE HART LANE thing all seem to be examples of effortless quality clueing by one of our best setters.

    I suppose it can’t have harmed that I did it on a day off on the swing seat in the sun!

  31. I’m very much with you again, Limeni – there were so many good clues that I could mention just about all of them. My type of crossword!

  33. Thanks to Picaroon and manehi. I finally got Oghamic and guessed correctly at White Hart Lane (new to me though not to mrpenney). UK sites continue to be a challenge (recently Saint Leger and gherkin) but in such matters one must keep a stiff upper lip.

  34. This was a slog. Loi shell. Had to come here for parsing help for too many answers to mention. Thanks Manehi and Picaroon.

  35. ACD, you’ll find that UK sports stadiums are, on the whole, far more colorfully named than their American counterparts, which helps with remembering them. My favorite in the color department is Fulham’s home ground, which is called Craven Cottage. Some others that it may be useful to know: Stamford Bridge (home of Chelsea), Old Trafford (Manchester United), Anfield (Liverpool), Ibrox (Rangers–that’s in Scotland), and of course Wembley (the national stadium).

    Contrast this with U.S. stadiums. With a handful of exceptions (e.g. Fenway Park, Camden Yards, Lambeau Field), the overwhelming majority are named after the home team (e.g. Yankee Stadium), current or former team owners (Wrigley Field, Ralph Wilson Stadium), or (most commonly) some corporate sponsor. (This latter phenomenon has recently found its way to Britain, too, with Arsenal playing its home games at Emirates Stadium–named after the airline, not the country!).

  38. I sometimes blunder my way to the solution and so it was with RATHERISH .

    “That woman” to me always conjures up Edward Heath’s description of Margaret Thatcher. Thence but a knight’s move to the correct answer.

    Thanks Picaroon and manehi

  40. Excellent and enjoyable puzzle, as expected from this setter.

    OFTENER, RATHERISH and OGHAMIC are all supported by one or other of the main online dictionaries and are in any case easily guessable.

    Time was when setters, seeing the word RATHERISH in a dictionary, would deem it fair to use words such as RATHERISHNESS – ie the state of being ratherish.

    I won’t bother to quibble about cryptic grammar with one who, even though he uses setterspeak (ind) doesn’t know what a DBE is – nor when to use whom in place of who. All of these clues are completely solid.

  42. JS @40 – agree on OFTENER and RATHERISH, but not on OGHAMIC, which took me ages and in my opinion is only “easily guessable” if you are familiar with the Latin – remember that not eveyone who reads these posts is an expert solver (or went to a posh school)…

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