Guardian Prize Puzzle 26,250 by Tramp

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Good fun from Tramp, one of my favourite setters.

I thought the film theme added interest without taking over the puzzle, so well done there.  I also liked the level of liberty taking (ignoring capitals, solution in construction etc).  Again, enough to add interest and put the Guardian’s stamp on the puzzle but not going over the top.  Thank you Tramp.

completed grid

Across
9 STONE DEAF Unable to catch director — fade out (5,4)
Oliver Stone (director) and FADE* out=anagram – definition is ‘unable to catch’.  A neat bit of misdirection with ‘catch’ here.
10 PANIC Slate one on Cape Fear (5)
PAN (slate, criticise) I (one) on C (cape)
11 RAN UP Hastily produced and directed Pixar film (3,2)
RAN (directed) UP (film by Pixar)
12 ADHERENTS They follow workers entertaining director in this place (9)
ANTS (workers) containing (entertaining) D (director) HERE (in this place) – definition is ‘they follow’.  More misdirection here with ‘follow’ and ‘in’ masquerading as position indicators.
13,3,5 THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST Harry Potter film attaches this: not for film (3,4,10,2,6)
(POTTER FILM ATTACHES THIS NOT)* anagram=harry, disturb – a film by Martin Scorsese.  Cracking anagram and well hidden, but the word count gave it away long before I figured out why.
14 ISOLATE Satellite delayed, screening start of Shutter Island (7)
IO (satellite, a moon of Jupiter) LATE (delayed) containing (screening) S (start of shutter) – definition is ‘island’ as a verb
17 PENNI Italian artist in Italy after Hollywood actor (5)
I (Italy) following Sean PENN (Hollywood actor) – Gianfrancesco Penni, Italian painter
19 SET Second film shot here? (3)
S (second) ET (film) – shot on an set
20 ENEMA Characters in scene making medical treatment (5)
found inside (characters in) scENE MAking
21 RUN INTO To quarrel before hit (3,4)
TO with RUN IN (quarrel) before – definition is ‘hit’
22 CABBAGE Green taxi driver’s short days (7)
CABBie (taxi driver, short) AGE (days) – definition is ‘green’.  I only know cabbage as greens (plural).
24 THERMOSES Hot stuff within these threesomes, having stolen one tablet to perform? (9)
THREESOMES* anagram=to perform missing E (a tablet, ecstasy) – definition is ‘hot stuff within these’
26 OBITS Oscar parts for The Departed scripts? (5)
O (oscar, phonetic alphabet) BITS (parts) – obituaries, scripts for the departed.
28 CASTS Gives parts to son in show (5)
S (son) in CATS (show)
29 SENTENCES Decisions of 10 cutting bad scenes (9)
TEN (10) in (cutting) SCENES* anagram=bad – definition is ‘decisions’
Down
1 USER One drawing on film without restriction on series (4)
U (film without restriction) on SER (series) – definition is ‘one drawing on’
2 TOWNIE Urban one in common TV programme about north (6)
TOWIE (The Only Way Is Essex) containing (about) N (north) – definition is ‘urban one’.  My wife is from Essex so I’m afraid I cannot comment any further on this clue…
3   See 13 across
4 SECANT A number in group function (6)
A N (number) in SECT (group) – mathematical function
5   See 13 across
6 SPAR Box blows up (4)
RAPS (blows) reversed (up)
7 INUNDATE Sister on time after second part of film’s overrun (8)
NUN (sister) on DATE (time) after I (second letter of film)
8 ACTS Works parts of a drama (4)
double definition
13 TAPER Listen in to TV show one records (5)
TAP (listen in) to ER (TV show)
15 OVERBOOKED Gave away too much space? Left love to give approval in bed (10)
OVER (left) then O (love, zero tennis) OK (to give approval) in BED – definition refers to hotel rooms, plane seats etc.
16 EVADE Turning over English TV channel for escape (5)
E (English) DAVE (TV channel) all reversed (turning over)
18 NONSENSE Initially going in, son’s seen Raging Bull (8)
N (the inital letter of nonsense) going in anagram (raging) of SON and SEEN (‘s=has, with) – definition is ‘bull’.  I’m not sure if I like the solution being used as part of the construction like this.  Part of me thinks it is a neat trick and part of me thinks that there is something unfair about it.  I can’t decide. Upate 1: A simpler and better way to parse this is (iN SON’s SEEN )* missing I (initial letter going), thanks to all who help on this one.  Update 2: Tramp has kindly dropped by to say that the intended parsing is an anagram of iN sON’S (initial letters going) SEEN – the prize goes to jvh@16.
19 SCORSESE Film man processes topless shot (8)
pROCESSES* (topless) anagram=shot – Martin Scorsese, film man
22 CASINO Film about crime ring (6)
CA (cica, about) SIN (crime) O (ring) – a Martin Scorsese fIlm
23 APIECE Each star hugs tart (6)
ACE (star) contains (hugs) PIE (tart)
24 TUCK Gather food (4)
double definition
25 MIST Film not heard by audience … (4)
sounds like (by audience) ‘missed’ (not heard) – definition is ‘film’, on a damp window for example
27 SASH … while in quiet frame (4)
AS (while) in SH (quiet) – definition is ‘frame’

*anagram

27 comments on “Guardian Prize Puzzle 26,250 by Tramp”

  1. Thanks PeeDee. Not knowing THE ONLY WAY IS ESSEX I never did see why TOWNIE was the answer in 2. In 18 I think it is that the initial letter of IN has gone.

  2. Thanks Tramp and PeeDee. I interpreted the N in 18D as ‘[i]n’ minus its first letter (‘initially going’). Tramp seems to like Martin Scorsese films (and why not?), including one version of Cape Fear.

  3. Sorry Biggles – I should have read your comment more closely. I’m with you on TOWIE as well.

  6. Thanks Tramp and PeeDee

    Seriously good fun … with the unobtrusive theme. There did seen to be a focus on the works of Scorsese in particular – with a number of his works in both the clues and answers.

    Thanks Biggles for the correct way of getting the N in 18d – didn’t see where it was coming from.

    Had parsed the film as The Mist in 25d – but wasn’t happy with it – the misdirection in the correct parsing was much better.

    Didn’t know the DAVE channel and nice to see some maths in the puzzle.

  7. 18; you have to take ‘in son’s seen’ as a whole so ‘initially going’ it becomes (NSONSSEEN)* ‘raging’. I love how Raging Bull has been used here!

    Does ‘one records’ really define ‘taper’? It doesn’t appear in the Wiki disambiguation.

  8. A nice workout from Tramp with not too much knowledge of the film theme required.

    I enjoyed this.

    Tim @7

    SOED has

    tape verb trans
    ….
    5 Record on (magnetic) tape. m20.

    So taper is OK.

    Thanks to PeeDee and Tramp

  9. Thanks Peedee and Tramp

    A very good puzzle. I particularly liked 13 etc., 22a and 24a. Lots of clever misdirection as others note.

  10. Sorry, BNTO, I don’t think your ‘ergo’ works at all for taper. The existence of a verb doesn’t prove there’s an associated noun, does it?

  11. An enjoyable puzzle from Tramp. I agree that TLTOC was an easy solve once a few checkers were in place, but it was still a cracking anagram. I parsed NONSENSE in the same way as Biggles and others, and I needed that answer before I knew whether the unknown (to me) artist was going to be PENNI or “Pitti”.

  12. Tim @10 – this just comes down to whether a word is in the dictionary or not. Many ‘words’ can be constructed and used from base words using a whole variety of prefixes and suffixes. Taper is a good example, it makes sense and is out there being used in real-life (in this crossword). Whether it ‘exists’ or not is really just a personal choice, whether or not you choose to define ‘existence’ as being the same as ‘in the dictionary’.

  13. Thanks to all on 18dn. Thinking further on this, I was never very happy with the role of the apostrophe in this clue. I wonder of Tramp initially had iN sON’S sEEN in mind (with all initial letters going)? At first glance this looks like a good solution.

  14. @12
    I agree – in fact if you look at the small print in the front of most dictionaries, you normally find help with constructing the words that aren’t actually listed (standard plurals, verb conjugations etc.). I don’t know if Chambers does this for words like “taper”, but the setter is surely entitled to assume that any English speaker is familiar with the convention that verbs denoting human actions can be made into nouns denoting the actor, usually by the addition of -er (exceptions, such as -or, should be found in the main text of the dictionary). I think this constitutes a linguistic rule; what happens to have made it to wikipedia’s disambiguation page (Tim P @7) does not.

  17. I do like a good Tramp. Quality clues and a nicely done theme.

    I think that trying to use wiki to prove anything is a bit pointless.

  18. Good puzzle with interesting theme.

    Thanks PeeDee; I don’t like the parsing of 18 where the ‘s is arbitrarily ignored. I think jvh@16 might have a more rational explanation.

    In terms of ‘-ERs’ and plurals etc I generally consult the Scrabble Dictionary which does have most of these extended words – it is quite happy with TAPER.

    I loved the ‘Harry Potter Film.’ I’m not really sure that ‘part of’ is required in 7 although no doubt the Ximeneans would disagree.

  19. I enjoyed this although judging by the fact that there are two colours of pen used to complete the grid and Tippex, I must have found it on the tricky side.

    Thanks to Tramp and PeeDee.

  20. Robi @18 – ‘S is not arbitrarily ignored, the apostrophe and S can indicate ‘has’, SON has SEEN. One could more justifiably argue that ignoring the beginnings of only two out of three words is arbitrary.

  21. Many thanks PeeDee for the excellent blog.

    I thought my original clue for NONSENSE,

    “One’s seen Raging Bull (8)”,

    was quite good, until Tyrus informed me that it was nonsense. I can’t count. The rewrite was my attempt at salvaging something out of the situation. jvh@16 is correct — the intended parsing is anag{i)N (s)ONS SEEN}.

    I do like Scorsese films but I haven’t seen The Last Temptation of Christ or Taxi Driver. Just because I theme a puzzle around a subject doesn’t mean I necessarily like the subject or know anything about it. I once wrote a Mad Men-themed puzzle based on information my brother told me about one of his favourite shows: I’ve never seen a second of it.

    Robi @18: for me, “second film’s” can never indicate I. “film’s second” would work.

    I apologise for including a reference to TOWIE.

    Thanks for all the comments.

    Neil

  22. Thanks Tramp for popping in and clearing up the NONSENSE. 😉

    Yes, …….’film’s second overrun’ would have worked.

  25. thanks PeeDee, confess I was stuck on several at first attempt and never got back to it, though not sure I would have made much more progress. No quibbles about some of the more, er, creative clueing. It’s unreasonable to expect every solver to be familiar with every TV show just as it is to expect them to have seen every film or know every actor. It just makes the puzzle harder, not impossible.

  26. @ various re ‘TAPER’

    For, I should think, 30 years or more audience members who record live concerts have been known as tapers.

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