Well – we really made a mess of this one! Joyce takes full responsibility as Bert was busy earning money!!
We only have access to an ipad at present so we may not manage to sort this out until we are home tonight.
Our humble apologies. Thanks jmac!
I (Joyce) realised that I had completed the blog as soon as I looked at the clues. I also completed the Crosophile blog earlier this week and somehow or other I ended up copying the same puzzle in twice without realising it.
There was I thinking that I was the answer to 1ac and ended up having part of the clue itself!
Anyway, here’s the blog I prepared earlier….
This was a devilish Saturday prize crossword that we really enjoyed. We expected to have some difficulty as it was a Saturday Prize crossword but when we saw that it was Bannsider we knew that we had serious problems!
The one that foxed us the most as far as the parsing was concerned was 25ac. Very devious but good fun!
| Across | ||
| 1 | A small seizure awkward to handle, when filling in form! | |
| AS FIT AS A FIDDLE | A + S (small) + FIT (seizure) + A FIDDLE (awkard to handle) around or being ‘filled’ by AS (when) = in form | |
| 9 | Are hip-hop fans hard to find in EU perhaps | |
| DIGRAPH | DIG RAP (hip-hop fans) + H (hard) = the single sound made by two letters such as EU is called a digraph | |
| 10 | Reflecting on effect of Sun lawyer’s articles for Observer | |
| NOTANDA | ON (reversed or ‘reflected’) + TAN (effect of sun) + DA (lawyer) = articles for observer | |
| 11 | Royalty-managed organisation promoting Duke’s messengers | |
| ERRAND BOYS | ER (royalty) + RAN (managed) + BODY (organisation) with D (Duke) moved forward or ‘promoted’ + ’S = messengers | |
| 13 | Press giant in Wapping maybe keeping close to paper | |
| URGE | HUGE (giant as it would be pronounced in Wapping with ‘h’ left off) around or ‘keeping’ R (last letter or ‘close to’ (pape)R) = press | |
| 14 | Easy for one MP and his trips on the way from Westminster to Leeds? | |
| MIDSHIPMAN | ||
| 16 | Girl gives men hugs | |
| ESME | Hidden or ‘hugged by’ giv(ES ME)n = girl | |
| 18 | Peach: last one taken from the box | |
| TELL | TELL |
|
| 19 | Force back a second punch – not a sausage or a liqueur | |
| MARASCHINO | RAM (force) reversed or ‘back’ + A + S (second) + CHIN (punch) + O (not a sausage) = a liqueur | |
| 20 | Nobel laureate initially moderate in tone | |
| HUME | M (the initial letter of moderate) inside HUE (tone) = this Nobel Laureate | |
| 21 | Wanted endless variable energy, with ornate fire in addition to radiator | |
| ANTIFREEZE | ||
| 24 | Rock singer from Baywatch on the radio? | |
| LORELEI | LOREL + EI (sounds like LAUREL (bay) + EYE or ‘on the radio’) = in the German legend the Lorelei sat on a rock in the River Rhine | |
| 25 | Thus mince becomes more what a carnivore requires? | |
| INCISOR | INC IS OR the instructions to change MINCE so that it becomes MORE = a carnivore requires this type of tooth to eat | |
| 27 | Constituency chap betrays signs of running a lot on instinct | |
| SEAT OF THE PANTS | SEAT (constituency) + OFT HE PANTS (betrays signs of running a lot) = on instinct | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Left after clashing with aldermen about Conservative ex-minister | |
| ANDREW MITCHELL | L (left) after an anagram of WITH ALDERMEN (anagrind is ‘clashing’) about (Conservative) = ex-minister | |
| 2 | Confusion following blunder in penalty area? | |
| FOG | F (following) + OG (own goal or ‘blunder in penalty area’) = confusion | |
| 3 | For these Indian stations, Dynasty repeats back-to-back in middle of sportscast | |
| THANNAHS | HAN + HAN (dynasty) with the second one reversed or ‘back to back’) inside TS (middle of spor(TS)cast = Indian stations | |
| 4 | A Scottish team cycling to obtain Asian title | |
| SAHIB | A HIBS with last letter moved to the front or ‘cycling’ = Asian title | |
| 5 | Husbands exceptionally taken with New York fauna? That’s not peculiar | |
| FUNNY HA-HA | Anagram of HH (husbands) + NY (New York) + FAUNA (anagrind is exceptional as in ‘unusually’) = that’s not peculiar! | |
| 6 | Sometimes initially blind, it may lead to seeing on a regular basis | |
| DATE | The clue refers to a blind DATE which, if it’s the right person may lead to seeing them more regularly i.e. you would DATE them! | |
| 7 | Fools holding a new sign up for Scottish destination | |
| LANARKSHIRE | LARKS (fools) around or ‘holding’ A N (new) + HIRE (sign up) = Scottish destination | |
| 8 | Alternative to e.g. fried pea samosa with no filling? | |
| PATE DE FOIE GRAS | Anagram of TO E.G. FRIED PEA and S(amos)A (first and letters only or with ‘no filling’) = an alternative type of food! | |
| 12 | Puzzle’s preamble is strain on simple English | |
| RIDDLE ME REE | RIDDLE (strain) + MERE (simple) + E (English) = puzzle’s preamble | |
| 15 | Litigant’s uncomplicated words | |
| PLAINTIFF | PLAIN (uncomplicated) + TIFF (words) = litigant | |
| 17 | Sailors caught in a successful strike that bears fruit | |
| ACORN CUP | RN (sailors) + C (caught) inside A COUP (successful strike) = something that bears fruit | |
| 22 | W European blonde, rather dismissive of game runners | |
| IRISH | ||
| 23 | Pad of pink paper with note wrapped inside | |
| FLAT | FT (Financial Times – pink paper) around or with LA (note) inside = pad as in the living quarters! | |
| 26 | Native cardinals upset | |
| SON | NOS (cardinals) reversed or ‘upset’ = native | |
This is a completely different puzzle from the one in the printed version, also given as 8160 by Bannsider, with 1 ac starting “A small seizure awkward …”
Doh! What happened here, we will try and sort this out this later today! We’ve been away so I this maybeone of the ones we caught up on when we came back!
The puzzle I downloaded from Crossword Solver would appear to be the one jmac found in the dead tree version. That too is given as 8160 by Bannsider, and 1 ac starts “A small seizure awkward …”
I always enjoy a fight with a Bannsider puzzle – for me, anyway, his are always the hardest puzzles and it takes me a couple of days of looking, putting it down and leaving it for an hour or so to cogitate and then the usual great pleaasure when I finally solve the last clue. Thanks to Bannsider and to B&J too.
What a wonderful assortment of clues! An amazing puzzle. thanks to Bannsider, and B&J for the parsing!
Well, it all came right in the end – thanks, B&J
Great puzzle with numerous clues that either (a) were difficult to parse even after getting the answer, or (b) led to a facepalm moment after taking ages to work out the answer. Thanks, Bannsider.
Thanks B&J – I really struggled with this one and completely failed to make the PATE! I’d convinced myself it must be PAIN DE something something, having decided that the ‘Press’ at 13 was IRON although I couldn’t see what ION had to do with a Wapping giant! Doh!
I parsed 14 differently – anagram of MP AND HIS on M1 (the motorway North) – I think yours has two Ns. At first I thought the same as you with the N at the end being North, but couldn’t make the rest work.
Thanks Jan, you’re right! We really should have checked that one more carefully – no doubt we were so pleased to solve it that we just moved on to the next clue.
Well the Ban man is hard enough, but doing the wrong puzzle! Cheers B&J for the correct one as this was one I certainly one I just wrote in some answers without fully understanding.