Guardian Prize Puzzle 26,202 by Paul

18 comments on “Guardian Prize Puzzle 26,202 by Paul”

1. Thanks PeeDee. Easier than Paul’s yesterday. Like the Pope and the lesbian, Bram in 13d suggested itself at once. The ‘went’ in 19d took a little longer.

2. 20d – ‘overcome by’ = under, not in.

   Whilst I often use this space to defend setters who go off piste, I cannot deny that for many this will be the ideal crossword. Great fun and time well spent allegedly postponing Alzheimer’s.

3. Did not get strad otherwise OK.
   The construction at 16d could lead to apperill (its in Chambers).
   But voice over lead me to the answer.

4. A well-crafted puzzle from Paul with some nice misdirection.

   Good to see Paul back with his characteristic “shockjock” clues which I personally find very amusing. No doubt there’ll be complaints from the usual suspects which is even more amusing 😉

   My only complaint is that it was over too quickly. Just about hard enough for a “Prize” but I prefer the weekend offerings to take me over a couple of days.

   I particularly liked 13d which was my penultimate entry. I was left with alternate A’s for the whole clue. Even though from the first reading I had suspected that Bram was involved it was ages before the light dawned.

   Thanks to PeeDee (I like the completed puzzle grid in the blog.) and Paul.

5. I agree that this wasn’t as difficult as yesterday’s puzzle but it was still an enjoyable solve while it lasted, as Paul’s puzzles usually are for me.

   It was nice to see BANANARAMA get a mention. Not that I ever bought any of their records, but I enjoyed seeing them on TOTP back in the day.

6. Thanks for the blog, PeeDee, and Paul for an enjoyable puzzle.

   I, too, liked SPEEDO and I also thought CO-OPERATE and PERESTROIKA were neatly constructed.

   [In 2dn, I think ‘sponsored’ refers to ‘boy’, ‘sponsor’ being another name for a godparent.]

7. I can’t add much, but I enjoyed this too, and found it fairly straightforward. I think STRAD was last in and remember thinking I should have seen that much earlier. Enjoyed FRANCIS I and BANANARAMA.

   Thanks to Paul and PeeDee.

8. Tim Phillips says:
   Great fun and time well spent allegedly postponing Alzheimer’s

   ==

   Haha! Let’s hope so. However, I have to deal regularly with a certain elderly one-time prolific cryptic crossword solver. She hasn’t got Alzheimer’s disease. Oh no. That would be far too straightforward. And if anyone thinks I’m trivialising the problems that that affliction brings, you haven’t met her. Mad. As. A. Hatter…

   Anyway, I don’t think the few comments here indicate anything amiss with this good puzzle: perhaps the reverse.

   Thanks everyone.

9. Enlighten me–what’s Speedo? Here in the US, it’s a brand of swimwear (or, if used generically, the kind of swimming trunks that on a man are brief and extremely revealing.)

   Judging from the clue–is it some sort of slang for a speedometer?

10. mrpenney@9 Speedo is a recognised abbreviated way of referring to a speedometer over here. The swimming trunk references are used but it is a (relatively recent) thing, which I think is copied from US and Australian tv shows.

11. Fun puzzle. Almost didn’t get STRAD … which isn’t a word, is it, really! SPEEDO was classic though so all is forgiven 😉

12. R_c_a_d @11, Strad is a reasonably accepted short form of Stradivarius. It’s a staple of American crosswords, though I’ve never seen in a British one before. And anyway, if you own a Strad you probably aren’t abbreviating it!

13. I enjoyed that. Particularly SAPPHIC and SPEEDO. Getting SPEEDO was what showed me my wild stab at a fish for 22a was indeed a ‘red herring’!

    Thanks Paul and PeeDee.

14. According to the SOED “Strad” is a colloquial abbreviation for Stradivarius and has been in use for over 100 years.

    No surprise that some of our bloggers haven’t acknowledged it yet. 😉

15. Hi cryptic sue, Speedo brand swimwear has been on sale in the UK for decades, probably as long as it has been available in the US. I doubt this is a TV influence.

16. Brendan @14: For the record, the only other famous violin maker, AMATI, also shows up frequently in American crosswords, if you ever do them. Sadly, AMATI and STRAD are both five letters, so you need crossing letters to decide between them.

    –M.

17. mrpenny – a bit off topic, but what American crossword would you recommend to have a go at? An on-line version obviously, I’m not about to go over there and pick up a newapaper.

18. PeeDee @17: I wouldn’t waste your time with anything other than the New York Times (edited by the estimable Will Shortz). Alas, online access requires a paid subscription.

    I used to think the NYT puzzle was the acme of crosswords, but, since discovering UK cryptics a few years ago, I rarely work the NYT now. But I was pleased to discover on a recent Friday that the NYT puzzle contained at least 10 cryptic definitions (signalled by a “?”), but still a far cry from the mental workout of a British cryptic.

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