Guardian 25,978 – Bonxie

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A clever and tricky puzzle from Bonxie, though with a some rather obscure words that some might find a bit much for a daily puzzle, and a couple of cryptic definitions that aren’t think are really up to the standard of the rest of the clues. Generally a tough but satisfying workout.

There’s an unusual theme in that numbers in the clues almost always (with, I think, two exceptions) are used in their literal sense rather than as references to other clues.

 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. INTEGERS STEERING*, and 2 and 4 are integers or whole numbers
5. BEEF UP FEE in PUB, reversed
9. HEADLOCK I nearly had to give up on explaining this, but it’s HEAD (first) + LOCK – in a Rugby team, number 5 is a Lock in the scrum or “pack”
10. REPAIR RE (about) PAIR (2)
12. NO ONE NOON (12) + [unsolvabl]E – a cipher is a nobody, or no one
13. NEAR THING UNEARTHING less U
14. SETTLE A SCORE SEATTLE with the A “demoted” + SCORE (20)
18. PRIME NUMBERS PRIM (proper) + E NUMBERS (labelling system for food additives)
21. CLEOPATRA (PALE ACTOR)* – fortunately there are some easy clues in this puzzle
23. PRIAL P + RIAL (currency). Prial is a variant of “pair royal”, meaning 3 of a kind in some card games, so “3 in hand” – sometimes the numbers do refer to other clues, though always, as here, in combination with another number
24. AVOWAL O W in LAVA reversed
25. AMPERAGE (AGREE PAM)*
26. ESTHER THREES* – a book of the Old Testament
27. GNASHERS SANG< + HERS
Down
1. IN HAND IN[ch] + HAND (pass, as in “please pass/hand me the marmalade”)
2. TEAPOT PO in TEAT
3. GOLDENEYE EYE (look) after GOLDEN (yellow)
4. RECONSTRUCTS (T[ory] CUTS CORNERS)*
6. EXERT X (10) in reverse of TREE (of which Box is an example)
7. FLATIRON Cryptic definition – an iron “de-creases” clothes. A nice trick, but we’ve seen it a lot.
8. PIROGUES PI (Private Investigator) + ROGUES
11. WATER BOATMEN (BARMEN ATE TWO)*
15. STRIPPERS Cryptic definition – strippers would be used by people removing paint or wallpaper, for example
16. SPECTATE ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy) in S[tra]P + ATE (corroded)
17. WIPED OUT IP in WED[nesday] OUT, definition “spent”
19. FIXATE FIX (repair, another reference to a clue) + homophone of “eight”
20. PLIERS L and R in the “edges” of PIES (food)
22. PLACE LP< + ACE

35 comments on “Guardian 25,978 – Bonxie”

  2. Thanks for the blog, Andrew. I enjoyed this crossword, with its inventive use of numbers.

    Isn’t STRIPPERS a DD – (wire) strippers and burlesque dancers?

  3. For PaulW@1: That confused me too for a bit. However, one meaning of “dug” is the nipple of a female mammal.

    I actually enjoyed the puzzle (nice to see some mathematical terms there!). Thanks to Bonxie (and to Andrew for the, as always, excellent blog).

  4. For Muffyword@2: I too took 15 down to be a DD but I can see that Andrew’s interpretation is also a possibility.

  5. Thanks Andrew, especially for explaining the lock=5 that baffled me in 9a, the ten=fix=repair in 19d and the three-of–a-kind in my last in, the very esoteric PRIAL. Lots to like here, so thanks Bonxie.

  6. Thanks, Andrew, for a great blog, and especially for the explanation of 9ac.

    I’m really enjoying Bonxie’s puzzles these days and I found this one totally absorbing. Fortunately, I got 1ac straightaway, closely followed by 26ac, so I knew where we were heading and guessed we were in for an interesting ride and so it turned out.

    Too many ingenious clues to pick out favourites, I think. I was pleased to be able to work out the [unlikely-sounding] new word PRIAL from the wordplay.

    [I know we’ve seen the likes of 7dn before but it was still my last one in! The clever 5ac had been holding me up.]

    Many thanks to Bonxie for, as Andrew says, a very satisfying workout.

  7. Thanks for the blog, Andrew – but I think you damned FLATIRON with faint praise. Yes we’ve seen the iron = ‘decrease’ idea a lot but he’s phrased it self-referentially since flat-irons are themselves ‘decreasingly utilised.’, which I thought singled it out as a clue. I too struggled with 9a – the coincidence of there being an anagram of ‘hold’ being in there complicated it. The misdirections of the packs and a PRIAL together with IN HAND convinced me I should be card-counting.

    I liked this puzzle a lot.

  8. Thanks, Andrew

    Clever numerological puzzle from Bonxie; having twigged early that the digits in the clues were to be taken in different ways, I was held up by those cases where the digit refers to another clue in the puzzle, as would be the usual interpretation. Duh! Hence FIXATE took me a while to parse, and was one of the last in, together with the unfamiliar PRIAL. I spotted the likely constructions for BEEF UP and PLIERS almost immediately, but it was a while before I came up with words that fitted. Good entertainment.

    I also interpreted 15d as a DD.

    Favourites: 13a, 27a, 2d, 6d.

  9. Thanks for the blog, Andrew.

    I enjoyed this a lot. My only quibble — and it’s minor — was the rather obscure PRIAL. That said, I did get it from the wordplay. PIROGUES rang a distant bell. But I would never have parsed HEADLOCK!

    A clever puzzle, with a good variety of clueing.

    Thanks to Bronxie.

  10. Thanks, Andrew, particularly for the explanations of HEADLOCK and FLATIRON – my guess at this was that it tapers to a point(decreasingly), but I wasn’t convinced by it. An enjoyable Xword.

    I also had 15d as a DD and also slightly CD.

    I thought PIROGUE rang distant bells – Gordius, August 3rd, 2009: South American craft for hypocrites?

  11. Add my name to Eileen’s and azto’s as one who found 7d far from straightforward! It was my second- or third-last in, I think. I thought it was an excellent CD. (I think it’s the only one today – I agree with muffyword @2 re Strippers.)

    I think I enjoyed this as much as any Bonxie I can remember; I’m hoping it’s that I’m getting on his wavelength. I find him almost the hardest of the Guardian setters (Enigmatist is capable of edging him out of the top spot). Very satisfying to complete it. Thanks for the blog.

  12. I thought that it was an an interesting use of numbers in the clues of this puzzle. My favourite clues were 4d, 17d, 14a, 21a, 22d, 15d, 27a & 10a.

    New words for me were PIROGUES, WATER BOATMENT, PRIAL & TEAT = dug.

    I couldn’t parse 9a & 19d.

    I agree with muffyword’s parsing of 15d as a dd.

    Thanks for the blog, Andrew.

  13. Thanks, particularly for clarifying 9a – I guessed it had something to do with Rugby (Are we going to have to be aware of the numbers for those other crossword standbys ‘hooker’ and ‘prop’?)
    I knew PRIAL from playing Brag. but was nearly last in because it took a while to get 1d and 12a, also wasn’t sure about 19, having ten=X and not seeing how to get the FI.

  14. Generally enjoyed this, although I led myself a merry dance by entering POUND at 23a and PUFF UP at 5a.

    Loved the differing uses of numbers. At last my mathematical and rugby background came in useful. (Though in my playing days, numbers 4 and 5 were called second rows, and lock was the number 8!)

    PRIAL new to me too.

  15. Gatacre @ 14

    Thank you! I thought I was losing it! No 8 was the lock when I was at school. I looked it up in Wikipedia and saw that the second row had transformed into ‘locks’. I thought I’d stumbled through the looking-glass or somebody had lied to me throughout my schooldays. I’m also intrigued by PeterM’s observation that Number Twos and hookers might feature in future puzzles (you can virtually hear Paul scribbling notes?). Will we get BA (Half-back) and WIN (Wing three-quarter)? Flankers would also come in handy for word-play. Quite worrying, really.

  16. Thanks Bonxie and Andrew.

    Tough numerical challenge. I was left with the SE corner to complete. Like PeterM @13, I thought the 10 in 19 was X, which left a stray ‘FI.’ 🙁

    I liked the way that the clue for PLIERS indicated that R&L were interlaced; not easy to put into a clue. Pity that E-NUMBERS are in the hundreds, otherwise 18 would have been a superb &lit – very good anyway.

  17. Thanks Bonxie and Andrew

    Another who thought that this was a very good workout – excellent use of the numerals in the clues.

    Last in for me was EXERT after initially writing in ELECT (having written C for ten in TELE (television / box) – was obviously seeing 100 instead of 10 and struggled to quite get the apply-elect definition). Finally saw the light though.

    Nice to see Bonxie demote the A in SEATTLE to the end, unlike the promotion of last week.

    I thought that STRIPPERS was a very clever and humorous slightly cryptic dd. It’s been a good week so far.

  18. Thanks, Bonxie, for a clever puzzle and Andrew for the blog.

    This is the fastest that I have ever done a Bonxie because the clueing was so good and I happened to be on his wavelength today.

    Favourites were PRIAL, which I knew from 777 Sir Lamiel and TEAPOT, which made me smile (thoughts of Paul).
    WATERBOATMEN was another. I used to spend hours watching them as a child.

    Giovanna x

  19. Thanks to Bonxie for the excellent puzzle and Andrew for explaining ones that I couldn’t parse. PRIAL was new to me. Tried to make BULK UP work in 5ac for a while. Even though there was a demotion involved, thanks for mentioning my home town in 14ac.

    Cheers…

  20. Thank you, Andrew – particularly for the HEADLOCK explanation.

    Aztobesed & Gatacre – thank heavens – thought it was just me. We must be of similar vintage as 8 was always lock for me, too. I think we adopted ‘locks’ for 2nd row from the Aussies sometime around the 80’s.

    I wonder if we’ll also see Hold son (4,6) for HALF NELSON. (Or even Holds on? – to make it even harder)

    More of Bonxie, please.

  21. A most enjoyable puzzle that required a little thought to complete. PRIAL was the one I put in without understanding why.
    Thanks to Bonxie, and to Andrew for the explanations.

  22. Thanks Andrew and Bonxie

    A tricky one completed in two sessions broken by a lengthy lunch with friends.

    I had to look up ‘prial’ and ‘pirogues’ to make sure they were right. I almost managed to parse 9a having eventually seen the rugby reference but not quite.

    Many pleasing clues – I ticked 1a, 13a, 14a, 18a, 27a,2d and 7d (my last in also).

  23. Thanks Bonxie and Andrew.

    Late to the party (but better late than never) so it’s all been said. I just wanted to add that I loved the variety, precision and near constant misdirection found throughout. I agree with others – Bonxie is one of the toughest on a consistent basis, but his puzzles never seem to be a mirthless grind.

    On first scanning through I could almost hear the knives being sharpened by those that dislike having to bounce around the references to other clues. All part of the fun!

    PS: Shameless plug, but I’m terribly excited so I hope I’ll be forgiven: I will shortly be having my first puzzle published in a national magazine…

  25. Thanks for all the comments, and apologies to Bonxie for my inadequate readings of 7d and 15d, both of which are much better clues than I gave them credit for (though I still think decreasing=ironing is getting to be a bit of a cliché).

  26. A nice variety of clues, quite cunning often too, I thought. Plenty of research needed, so I learnt stuff.

    Thanks everyone.

  27. This was a very good workout, as a lot of you have already pointed out.

    PRIAL was my LOI but I decided to check it before I entered it because it didn’t look like a word I had ever seen before. I hadn’t come across ‘pair-royal’ either. I also couldn’t parse HEADLOCK so thanks to Andrew for that.

  28. Much in common with other posts, including the belief that a lock is No8 – not that I had actually got as far as recognising the rugby link in my attempts at parsing (although I’d guessed Headlock earlier, it was last in for me.) My personal dumbo moment was the length of time trying to justify ‘peace’ at 23d before spotting that LP was more likely than EP. Doh…….

  29. Well an enjoyable puzzle but I found it rather easy! If it hadn’t been for the NW corner it would have been done and dusted in 15 minutes!

    For some reason I quickly realised the numbers misdirection so the answers rattled in.

    My misspent youth again helped. Yesterday Grateful Dead today “Prial”. Has nobody ever played 3 Card Brag?

    It does sometimes happens that one is perfectly “tuned in” to the setter’s wavelength. (Not often enough in my case 😉 )

    Anyway my anticipation of a tussle with a Bonxie turned out to be misguided. Still a nice puzzle though.

    Thanks to Andrew and Bonxie

  30. @mitz yes, I’d say that was more of a boast than a plug. By which I should not wish to imply any criticism. Boasting seems sadly to have gone out of fashion these days, other than with regard to one’s children. More’s the pity. What a repressed bunch we English have become.

  31. Really enjoyed this one.
    As for several others above, solved HEADLOCK, but couldn’t parse. Ditto – the lock was No. 8 in my county rugby days. LOI was PRIAL – had never heard of it, but remembering RIAL reassured me.
    Many thanks Andrew

  32. Ha! Thanks Eileen @24 and Morpheus @30 – you’re both right of course. Spent too much of today giggling like a schoolgirl to pay attention properly.

    Brendan (NTO) @29 – my late Granddad George, a proud Lancastrian, taught my sisters and I how to play 3 card brag when we were kids. He always described it as a filthy game, but with a glint in his eye – he enjoyed playing bridge late in his life, but I reckon deep down he preferred the baser pleasures. “Tha’s a prarl ye’ve got ther,” he’d say if one ever came up. “Grand!”

  33. Don´t know who Andrew is but please proofread your opening paragraph before heading a crossowrd description.

    with a some rather obscure words

    cryptic definitions that aren’t think are really up to the standard of the rest of the clues.

    ??

  35. Mitz @32

    Yes brag is definitely a “filthy” game. Perhaps “prial” and brag are more common in Lancashire than elsewhere. After all it is “God’s county”. (Or is that Yorkshire? 😉 )

    My late father-in-law described it as a “feeting” game and playing it was always forbidden in the pubs he ran!

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