On the whole quite easy for a prize puzzle but with some nice clues to keep it interesting.
I particularly liked MRS MOPP and PASTICHE. I was not so keen on three of the four four-letter solutions having hidden word clues, once I got one the rest were too obvious. All French words in the across clues but Philistine apologised in the end so no hard feelings ;). Thank you Philistine.
| Across | ||
| 8 | PARAMOUR | Lover gives a stuff about rain? On the contrary (8) |
| POUR (rain) about A RAM (stuff) – definition is ‘lover’ | ||
| 9 | OEUVRE | Work and overwork for European Union entry (6) |
| OVER* (over work, anagram=work) with EU (European) entering – definition is ‘work’ | ||
| 10 | CHEF | One contributing to lunch, effortlessly (4) |
| part of luCH EFfortlessly | ||
| 11 | LE MOT JUSTE | Barely in, left to express the appropriate term (2,3,5) |
| JUST (barely) in L (left) EMOTE (to express) | ||
| 12 | BLONDE | Half-bloods end badly — that’s fair (6) |
| BLOods (half of) END* badly=anagram | ||
| 14 | PINCE NEZ | Prince has no right to upset Buddhist spectacles (5-3) |
| PrINCE missing R=right and ZEN (Buddhist) reversed (upset) | ||
| 15 | BRIGAND | 2 — master together with criminal (7) |
| BRIG (two-masted vessel) AND (together with) | ||
| 17 | DEMISEC | Moore’s city is rather sweet (7) |
| DEMI’S (Moore’s, actress) EC (City of London, postal code) – sweet wine | ||
| 20 | PASTICHE | It’s cheap reproduction (8) |
| (IT’S CHEAP)* reproduction=anagram – definition is &lit | ||
| 22 | SVELTE | Graceful and selective when mixed with crushed ice (6) |
| SELEcTiVe* (mixed=anagram) ICE removed (crushed) | ||
| 23 | SILHOUETTE | It could be the outline’s forgotten name (10) |
| (THE OUTLInE’S)* with N=name removed (anagram=could be) – definition is &lit | ||
| 24 | BEAU | Transcribe author’s 8 (4) |
| transcriBE AUthor (apostrophe indicates possession, contained by) | ||
| 25,26 | PARDON MY FRENCH | I’ve sworn academic men fry bananas dry on the outside (6,2,6) |
| DON (academic) (MEN FRY)* bananas=anagram inside PARCH (dry) | ||
| 26 | See 25 | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | BACHELOR | Single composer’s part is on the rise (8) |
| BACH (composer) ROLE (part) reversed (on the rise) | ||
| 2 | CALF | Youngster’s muscles are essential to physical fitness (4) |
| in the centre of (essential to) phisiCAL Fitness – there is a double definition: ‘youngster’ (eg young cow) and ‘muscles’ (a group of muscles at the back of the leg). The apostrophe in youngster’s muscles doesn’t quite make sense to me. | ||
| 3 | COLLIE | Perhaps one from the border, with railway leading to mine (6) |
| possibly a border collie dog, add RY (railway) to get colliery (mine) | ||
| 4 | MRS MOPP | Cleaner pines for tool of the trade, or so it’s said (3,4) |
| sounds like “misses mop” – definition is ‘cleaner’, character from the 1940s radio show Its That Man Again | ||
| 5 | CONTINUE | Last unit once used (8) |
| (UNIT ONCE)* used=anagram | ||
| 6 | FUTURE LIFE | Reincarnation of alternative culture does not begin in part of Scotland (6,4) |
| cULTURE* not beginning (alternative=anagram) in FIFE (part of Scotland) | ||
| 7 | WRITHE | Legal document served on the man makes us squirm (6) |
| WRIT (legal document) on HE (the man) | ||
| 13 | NIGHTSHADE | Eight and awfully quiet in there (could be deadly) … (10) |
| (EIGHT AND)* awfully=anagram containing (in there) SH (quiet) – deadly nightshade is a plant | ||
| 16 | NOCTURNE | … having lost colour, the source of such music (8) |
| music for the night (nightshade missing shade=colour) | ||
| 18 | ENTRANCE | Charm of arrival (8) |
| double definition | ||
| 19 | BEDTIME | Dark type of story (7) |
| double definition – ‘dark’ and ‘type of story’ | ||
| 21 | APICAL | A difficulty reported at the top (6) |
| A PICAL sounds like (reproted) “pickle” (difficulty) – definition is ‘at the top’ | ||
| 22 | SEE OFF | Witness the departure of defeat (3,3) |
| double definition | ||
| 24 | BEEP | Buzzer with quiet warning sound (4) |
| BEE (buzzer) P (piano, quiet) | ||
Thanks PeeDee. The Gallic nature of the across clues had quite eluded me and I needed your help to fully understand MASTER and, having failed to register the ellipsis, NIGHTSHADE missing shade = colour. A typo in 6, Fife is the part of Scotland.
Thanks to PeeDee for the blog. I needed you to explain a couple I had failed to parse.
I read 2d actually as a triple definition (1) youngster=CALF (2)CALF muscles and (3) physiCAL Fitness.
I had failed to notice that the across answers were all French 🙁
Great puzzle! It took me a while to get going but I enjoyed it a lot, especially as I could parse all of my answers.
I parsed 2d as a dd (in same way as the first two mentioned by chas@2) and I failed to see the ha which would make it a triple def.
I liked 9a, 13d, 25/26, 14a, 11a & 22a and favourite was 4d MRS MOPP (last one in)
It was an amazing coincidence that PARDON MY FRENCH appeared in this puzzle dated 29 June and the Indy puzzle 8332 by Phi dated 28 June 2013. More amazingly, it took me too long to solve 25/26 in Philistine’s Prize puzzle!
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee.
Thanks PeeDee. Saturdays should pose a sterner test, over in half an hour. I quite liked 15 and 17a.
Many thanks PeeDee & Philistine.
This was very enjoyable and, luckily, – as Michelle @ 3 has reported – we had been given a practice run in the Indie the previous day with the identical theme.
Curiously, the Indie puzzle had been set by Phi … not quite Philistine but I bet they are at least First Cousins!
Thanks for the blog. I thought this was moderately hard, but I only do one puzzle per week…
Didn’t understand “2 — master”, fooled into thinking it referred to 2d. I did spot the French connection, but quite late on.
Overall, quite enjoyable.
Count me as another who failed to see that all but one of the across clues was a French import. D’oh!
I usually save the Saturday prize puzzle for a Monday evening, and this was no exception. I remember thinking while I was solving it that it was a fairly humourless puzzle until my LOI, MRS MOPP, which I thought was a belter.
Chas et al – I had completely overlooked the word ‘muscles’ in the clue to 2dn.
Thanks PeeDee and Philistine
A good puzzle which would have seemed even better if I’d noticed the ‘gallic saturation’. I suppose that many of the words are standard English as well, but the apology at least should have alerted me.
I ticked 11a, 22a, 4d, 7d and 13d among many good clues.
Pleasant enough but too easy for a prize.
I too didn’t spot the French across theme.
Thanks to Philistine & PeeDee
Thanks Philistine and PeeDee
Thought that this was a very clever puzzle with the French words that have been accepted into common use in English … and the little caption @ 25-26 that brought a smile. LE MOT JUSTE was the clue to alert that there seemed to be a lot of French words popping up – but still didn’t realise it was every across clue until the end.
Last in was DEMISEC after fruitlessly looking for the name of a city founded by a Mr Moore … then finally twigged that it was his daughter Demi !
Ended up failing with MRS MOPP though … having gone with dry mops.
I didn’t finish the puzzle’s Down clues but caught the theme early as my first solution was le mot juste. (Knew that 80’s A level vocab book would come in handy one day) Pardon my French took a while as I was looking for French legal oath term too long. (90s experience of French prosecutions not so handy) Silhouette a peach! But a few others I didn’t really get but on the whole a pleasant few heures in the jardin avec.