Guardian Prize 26,268 / Brummie

by

The special instructions were similar to those of the previous Saturday’s Prize puzzle: ‘eight clues lack a definition; their solutions are of a kind’.

This time, the theme was islands, which I tentatively guessed on my very first entry, 10ac, prompted, I think, from the back of the mind, as Bamber Gascoigne used to say, by a memorable clue in a Philistine puzzle that I blogged a couple of months ago: ‘Compiler starts to seem lonely at notable days, such as Christmas and Easter (7)’ – and, sure enough, EASTER eventually popped up at 24dn.

I found the puzzle quite a challenge and there were not many smiles to help things along but there were some nicely constructed clues and any obscurities were fairly clued. I know that not everyone sets such store by surfaces as I do but I thought some of these were pretty outlandish – I haven’t commented on them all. 😉

Many thanks to Brummie for the work-out.

Across

9 Heard from one who’s resigned from rustic dance house? (3-2)
HEY-HO
HEY [rustic dance – also spelt ‘hay’] + HO [house]
I couldn’t find this expression in Collins or Chambers but I think it’s pretty well-known

10 Speed of light? Uncommonly smartish! (9)
CHRISTMAS
C [speed of light] I don’t remember seeing it clued this way before – nicely apt here – + an anagram [uncommonly] of SMARTISH

11 Made ornamental horse sound on eating too much? (9)
FILIGREED
FILI [sounds like filly – horse] + GREED [eating too much?]

12 Hanging arranged by a saint (5)
ARRAS
A simple charade of ARR [arranged {by}] + A S [a saint]
What people hide behind in more than one Shakespeare play

13 Lack variety in touch display type (7)
BACKLIT
Anagram [variety] of  LACK in BIT [touch]

15 Absence of right traditional music (7)
NORFOLK
NO [absence of] R [right] + FOLK [traditional music]

17 Old writers’ gathering — also abstract noun (5)
SALON
Anagram [abstract?] of ALSO + N [noun]

18 Reverse hesitation in speech (3)
RUM
R [reverse] + UM [hesitation in speech]

20 Composed clue: clue finally replaced by one with depth, easy to understand (5)
LUCID
Anagram [composed] of CLU[e] with its final letter replaced by I [one] and D [depth]: a rather long-winded clue for a shortish word meaning ‘easy to understand’  😉

22 Make it easier to bear to go to work? (7)
COMMUTE
Double definition – now, that is what I call a nice surface!

25 So long as eastern city follows cult hero (7)
CHEERIO
CHE [Guevara – cult hero] + E [eastern] + RIO [city]

26 Hot destination was in possession of drugs (5)
HADES
HAD [was in possession of] ES [drugs]

27 Make serious film, yes? No, funny (9)
SOLEMNIFY
Anagram [funny] of FILM YES NO

30 A feature of woodland, meadow and narrow borders of spinneys (9)
LEAFINESS
LEA [meadow] + FINE [narrow] + S[pinney]S

31 Stop boat leaking and one breaks bad luck? (5)
CAULK
A [one] in [breaks] an anagram [bad] of LUCK

Down

1 What’s that about cutting overtures of Cats, Follies and Oliver? (4)
CHEF
Reversal [about] of EH [What’s that] in [cutting] first letters [overtures] of C[ats] and F[ollies]: my favourite clue – a really nice surface!
For overseas readers, here’s the chef

2 Recurring action of mouse with no tail, put in clay moulding (8)
CYCLICAL
CLIC[k] [action of mouse minus its final letter – with no tail] in an anagram [moulding] of CLAY

3 Element of metal on glass (4)
LONG
Hidden in metaL ON Glass – my second island, which confirmed my guess

4 NEC moves assimilated by player (Bird) (8)
ACCENTOR
An anagram [moves] of NEC in ACTOR [player]
I remembered seeing this word before [in a crossword] – it doesn’t sound like the name of a bird, but its derivation is ‘one who sings with another’ – here it is

5 Amphitheatre seating in present times needs protection of beam (6)
GRADIN
AD [in present times] in GRIN [beam]
I  remembered this word from a Tramp puzzle that I blogged, where I had to say I was ashamed of not knowing it before. I was relieved this time when my friend who taught Classics with me long ago said that she didn’t know it, either.

6 Special faculty associated with publicity and moon furrow footwear (10)
ESPADRILLE
ESP [extra-sensory perception – special faculty] + AD [publicity] + RILLE [a furrow on the moon] – the most bizarre surface of all, I think

7 Worked more, by being in development (6)
EMBRYO
Anagram [worked] of MORE BY

8 A stretch in Oxford‘s dual central prison (4)
ISIS
[pr]IS[on] twice – the name of the River Thames as it flows through Oxford

13 Simple language when entered in pen (5)
BASIC
AS [when] in BIC [pen] – and a double definition

14 Utilising flexible capacitance of tongues (10)
LINGUISTIC
Anagram [flexible] of UTILISING + C [capacitance] – another less usual indication for the letter ‘c’

16 My young friend‘s tease act (5)
KIDDO
KID [tease] + DO [act]

19 Spotted ring in a muscle abnormality (8)
MACULOSE
O [ring] in an anagram [abnormality] of A MUSCLE

21 Heel rest with copper insert as fancy twist (8)
CURLICUE
CU [copper] in CUR [heel] LIE [rest]

23 Unclear about direction (6)
MIDWAY
Reversal [about] of DIM [unclear] + WAY [direction]

24 What’s comforting about time (6)
EASTER
EASER [what’s comforting? – hey-ho] round T [time]

26 Bush left out (4)
HOLY
HO[l]LY [bush minus left]

28 Greek character, one who once defended uprising? (4)
MUCK
MU [Greek character] + reversal [uprising] of KC – King’s Counsel [one who once defended – 61+ years ago]

29 Couple authorise interrupting you once (4)
YOKE
OK [authorise] in YE [you once]

19 comments on “Guardian Prize 26,268 / Brummie”

  1. Thanks Eileen. I got there eventually but it took quite a bit (touch!) longer than usual. 5 and 19 were new to me as was RILLE so my education continues.

    Like last week I had pretty well finished the grid before the theme dawned on me.

  2. I enjoyed this one! My first two unclued entries were Norfolk and Christmas, so my first thought was that the connection was Turkey! However, since it couldn’t fit Bernard, Matthews or Ankara in anywhere, I decided that it wasn’t! The penny didn’t drop even when I found Easter and Holy, which were my next two and sent me down another wrong pathway. Eventually I got there, though, with Rum and Muck being part of my favourite chain of Islands.

    I haven’t ever come across Gradin before in my 50 odd years of reading Classical Latin, either, and got it from the clue and then looked it up.

    So thanks, all concerned!

  3. Thanks Eilenn. Jetlag helped with this – 23d through Saturday night that answer gleamed and with it the theme. But not till first light did the more exotic ACCENTOR and GRADIN prove themselves, upon checking.

  4. Sadly having got Christmas, Easter and Holy, we went completely off on the wrong track and we’re unable to finish.

    Very tricky one and not too many smiles. Probably a better one for the more experienced solver!

  5. A nice pleasant solve for the weekend 🙂

    I too had Easter, Christmas and Holy as my first three “themes” so I was misled for a while. However after a snack break I suddenly realised that Islands was a possibility.

    From then on it was pretty plain sailing with a couple of new words which were gettable from the wordplay. (GRADIN & MACULOSE.)

    I personally found the surfaces generally quite good, even a little amusing.

    However I think this was a reasonable challenge for a prize.

    Thanks Eileen to and Brummie

  6. Forgot to say that my last one in was 23d as I spent a long time trying to create a new Shetland Island called MUDD(A)Y, and make the A work for a direction. Don’t you feel silly when you finally let go of your conviction and allow the light to dawn?

  8. I had a great time, but the H formed in the NW corner by HEY-HO linking CHEF and LONG took much, much too long. [I was convinced 3d was BAGG (B for the element Boron, AG for silver, G from glass, and there IS a BAGG Island!); consequently, 9 across seemed to end in A. It was only after letting go of BAGG that the penny dropped.]

    Thanks, Brummie! The undefined entries had very good wordplay – especially with some crossers in, the answers were quite clear.

    Thanks for all the explanations, Eileen.

  9. A tough challenge but I got there in the end. Count me as another whose first three themed entries were CHRISTMAS, EASTER and HOLY, and it was only when I got NORFOLK that I realised it was an island theme rather than something religious.

  10. Thanks Eileen. I’m another one who didn’t get islands theme until the end. NORFOLK had me looking for turkeys, RUM had me looking for festive drinks etc.

  12. I “discovered” the theme only near the end of the solving process. Having NORFOLK, CHRISTMAS, HOLY and EASTER early on, there wasn’t any bellringing in my head!
    But nothing in the way of finishing this puzzle.

    In my opinion, there is something impure about the theme.
    Six of the themed entries need ISLAND to be added on in order to become an island, eg Norfolk is not an island on its own.
    Rum and Muck, however, don’t need the word island.
    In that sense, for me, they weren’t all of a kind.

    That said, an overall enjoyable puzzle in which – like others said – the more ‘obscure’ solutions were signposted by totally fair clues.

    Many thanks to Brummie, and (as ever) to Eileen for the comprehensive blog.

  13. Thanks for the blog Eileen. EASTER was my first island — and the back of my mind suggested this might be the theme. What made it particularly tricky (and clever) I thought was that all of the island names were words in their own right — not sure if I’m putting this properly! — which meant another layer of misdirection.

  14. Hi Sil

    I quite agree with your second paragraph. As I said, LONG was my second entry and it’s certainly not an island on its own. In fact, after my first few entries, I assumed that the theme was ‘words that need ‘island’ after them’ and then found that wasn’t the case.

    There was something of a gap between solving and writing up the blog [which I usually try not to allow] and by then I’d forgotten that I meant to mention that. Thanks for reminding me. It does detract from the theme, I think.

    While I was typing the above, liz’s comment appeared. I think she has a point!

    [I did love the Turkey idea. 😉 ]

  15. I got the theme after LONG and EASTER. I’d not heard “rille” since watching the live Apollo mission coverage, but the word did stick in my mind.

    I found this quite satisfying and worked through it steadily.

    Can’t wait for next Saturday’s thread 😉

    Thanks all.

  16. Thanks Brummie and Eileen

    This was tough … didn’t start it till Thursday and still had the last four in the NW corner to finish off today – with Jamie Oliver last in (and probably my favourite clue). I got CHRISTMAS, EASTER and then NORFOLK before the island theme presented – LONG was my last island and second last clue in.

    A good level prize challenge for mine with a number of new words – MACULOSE, GRADIN, RILLE, ACCENTOR along with a few not so well known islands (from down here anyway) – HOLY, RUM and MUCK.

    Wonder whether ISIS as IS IS (islands) was related to the theme.

  17. Agree that this was fairly hard but still easier than the previous week’s Imogen, and was fairly entertaining. I had the theme fairly early from EASTER and MUCK, but the SW corner held out for some time and I needed all the crossers to remember MIDWAY. Did all except ARRAS on a train last Saturday (GRADIN and MACULOSE were unfamiliar too but all three of those were fairly clued), but I’ve only just got round to checking them, which I wanted to do before reading this. Anyone familiar with older OS maps might expect RUM to be RHUM, but the more obvious shorter spelling seems to be accepted everywhere now, so that’s fair enough – if only they could do the same with Eigg we could have more of a Small Isles mini-theme (and the fourth one (CANNA) could just about be squeezed in as dialect too).

    Thanks to Brummie and Eileen

  18. Sorry Sil @12 but I definitely don’t agree with your second paragraph.

    All the Special Instructions said was that the 8 unclued entries were “of a kind”. According to the SOED this means

    b (of two or more persons or things) similar in some important respect.

    Which agrees with my interpretation. It doesn’t mean that they are identical just similar in some respect. In this case they were all the “important” part of the name of an island.

    Also why is Norfolk Island not an island on its own?

    “Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia, 1,412 kilometres directly east of mainland Australia’s Evans Head, and about 900 kilometres from Lord Howe Island.”

  19. Well Brendan, strictly speaking you’re of course right.
    They’re all related to islands in one way or another.

    But, for me, Rum and Muck were the odd ones out for the reason given above. Therefore I found the theme a bit impure. Brummie could have restricted himself to islands that needed the word “island” which, in my opinion, would have been more elegant.
    But don’t worry, I can’t be bothered too much.

    Your last question (“Also why is Norfolk Island not an island on its own?”) doesn’t reflect what I wrote.
    I said that Norfolk (without Island) is not an island on its own, just like Holy, Easter, Long, Midway and Christmas.

    I’m going to have a lot of fun at Christmas ….. 🙂

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