Guardian Prize Puzzle 26,298 by Picaroon

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I made hard work of this one, but it was enjoyable work.  Thanks Picaroon.

The special instructions for this puzzle are:

“To mark a publishing centenary this month, nine clues lead to 7 29, not further defined.”

The nine entries not further defined are Irish authors – Literary Dubliners.  Confusingly, whilst 7 (LITERARY) is defined 29 (DUBLINERS) is not.  I’m guessing the centenary in question is of the publication in June 1914 of James Joyce’s Dubliners.

completed grid

Across
9 GOLDSMITH Good and early, mist dissipated, getting hot (9)
G (good) and OLD (early) then MIST* anagram=dissipated with H (hot)
10 SWIFT Way to embrace partner, kicking back (5)
ST (street, way) contains (to embrace) WIFe (wife, partner) missing (kicking out) the last letter
11 SYNGE Perform opera on the radio (5)
sounds like (on the radio) “sing” (perform opera)
12 PERSEVERE Don’t stop the games — run hard (9)
PE (games) R (run) SEVERE (hard)
13 BECKETT German sportsman losing his last races (7)
Boris BECKEr (german sportsman) losing his last letter with TT (races)
14 DEMEANS Disgraces from French capital (7)
DE (from, French) MEANS (capital, money)
17 HOSEA Adult put on old tights in part of Bible (5)
A (adult) on HOSE (tights, archaic) – one of the books of the Hebrew bible
19 SIN Second home’s function (3)
S (second) IN (home) – mathematical function
20 JOYCE Transport covers for cycle (5)
JOY (transport) CyclE (covering letters of)
21 NOUMENA Running around, university fellows needing answer for unknowable things (7)
ON (running) reversed (around) U (university) MEN (fellows) with A (answer)
22 JOHNSON Tory bigwig‘s heir on throne (7)
SON (heir) on JOHN (throne, toilet) – Boris Johnson
24 PHILIPPIC Paparazzo stalking the Royal Family might get this condemnation (9)
a royal photographer may get a Prince PHILIP PIC
26 DRONE M’s successor put back in Bond film with English warplane (5)
DR NO (Bond film) with N (M’s successor) moved (put back) with E (english)
28 WILDE Rather large — and large in the middle! (5)
L (large) in the middle of WIDE (rather large)
29 DUBLINERS Work to bestow titles like Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary? (9)
DUB (work to bestow titles) LINERS (like Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary).  I’m not sure if this has a definition or not.  The preamble suggests it should have, but I can’t really see one Thanks to Bryan for the missing definition.
Down
1 AGAS Military leaders having fun (4)
having A GAS (fun)
2 CLINIC Up 1-0, Celtic’s wingers coming round for treatment here (6)
I NIL (1-0) reversed (up) in (with … coming round) CeltiC (wingers, outside letters of)
3 ASSEVERATE State in US behind judge imprisoning the First Lady (10)
ASS (behind, in US English) and RATE (judge) containing EVE (the first lady)
4 TIPPET Crown to go with favourite fur cape (6)
TIP (crown) with PET (favourite)
5 SHERIDAN Woman pushing up bottom (8)
SHE (woman) with NADIR (bottom) reversed (pushing up)
6 ISLE Key passage without its opening note (4)
aISLE (passage) without its opening letter A (a note of the scale?)
7 LITERARY With illumination, English artist’s given lines of poetry, say (8)
LIT (with illumination) E (English) RA (Royal Academician, artist) gigen RY (railway, lines)
8 STYE One leaving yeast to cook — it’s swelling (4)
YEaST* (anagram=to cook) missing A (one)
13 BEHAN What breaks censorship? (5)
EH (what) in (breaks) BAN (censorship)
15 MUJAHEDDIN Guerrillas mostly leap about, cracking head with loud noise (10)
JUMp (leap, mostly) reversed (about) then HEAD* (anagram=cracking) and DIN (loud noise).  MUJEHADDIN is another possibility.  This is a bit of a nightmare to research as almost any combination of likely looking letters seems to be a possible spelling.
16 SHEEN Member of acting family observed when drunk (5)
sounds like “seen” (observed) when slurred (as when drunk)
18 STUPIDLY Performing duty, slip in an embarrassing manner (8)
(DUTY SLIP)* anagram=performing
19 STAMPEDE Take flight that’s packed in the Kent area (8)
TAMPED (packed) in SE (Kent area)
22 JACOBI Actor‘s business and current account’s broken into (6)
I’m not sure of this one.  Possibly an anagram (broken) of C/A (current account) inside (into) JOBS (business)?  I don’t know who the actor is either.  Possibly David Jacobs, but he is known as a presenter not an actor.  JOB (business) and I (current) containing (broken into) AC (account) – the actor Derek Jacobi.  Thanks to Sil.
23 STOKER Perhaps crawl right to the bottom (6)
STROKE (crawl, perhaps) with R (right) moving to the bottom
24 PAWN Man and wife tucking into roast (4)
W (wife) inside (tucking into) PAN (roast, criticize)
25 ICED Like some cakes rising at the start of a month (4)
DEC I (1st Decemebr) reversed (rising)
27 ERSE 7 composition not beginning in language of 29? (4)
vERSE (literary compostiion) not beginning

*anagram

definitions are underlined

20 comments on “Guardian Prize Puzzle 26,298 by Picaroon”

  1. 22d: JACOBI – Derek Jacobi.
    {JOB (business) + I (current, think Physics)} around AC (account).

  4. Thanks PeeDee. I found this a bit of a slog. Didn’t know Synge and didn’t realise 3-4 others were Irish.

    Agree with Sil on 22d. At 29a, DUB is just “bestow titles”, the definition is “Work”.

  5. Many thanks PeeDee & Picaroon

    This was a toughie but I did manage JACOBI @ 22d which, according to the Annotated Solution and – much more importantly – Sil @1, is correct.

    Moreover, I also managed to get TEN IRISH AUTHORS!

    How could anyone possibly forget TOM O’BRIEN JOHNSON?

    And there may even be many more!

  6. Thanks to the night owls and those in remote times zones for filling in the missing pieces.

    I checked the annotated solution for 15dn this morning and MUJAHEDDIN is the required spelling.

  7. I found this a bit tricky. Although I quickly had Synge and Behan and was suspecting an Irish playwright connection I couldn’t crack 7 29!

    I made steady progress with other clues and literary figures, all Irish! I eventually got the Literary Dubliners. Why it took so long I don’t know as my first thoughts on Mary and Elizabeth was “liners”. I must have been having another “thicky” day.

    I also spent at least 30 minutes towards the end searching for the ninth ”Dubliner” when in fact I already had all nine entered in the puzzle. (I’ll take a little more water with it I think!)

    This took three sessions to finish but was the usual well clued offering from the “Pirate”. A worthy prize puzzle.

    I too had problems with the spelling of the guerrillas(MUJA????). Howver I eventually found a spelling which matched the wordplay 😉

    Thanks to PeeDee and Picaroon

  8. An enjoyable and worthy challenge for a Prize puzzle, IMHO. I knew all of the authors (but not that they were all Dubliners) so I wasn’t tempted to enter “Singe” at 11ac. From what I recall NOUMENA was my LOI from the wordplay alone.

  9. Liked this a lot, plenty to chew on but nothing too difficult to do on the train unaided, though I’ve certainly seen other spellings of MUJAHEDDIN, and NOUMENA and ASSEVERATE were unfamiliar.

    Thanks to Picaroon and PeeDee

  10. Thanks for the blog. Why does JOY = TRANSPORT, I still don’t see it.

    I really don’t like these “otherwise undefined” themes much. Got 7 and 29 very quickly… heart sank. Only knew a few Irish writers and had no idea which were Dubliners other than James Joyce himself.

    I eventually managed to get a complete grid but with a few spelling mistakes… SINGE etc.

    Not much fun really.

  11. Really enjoyed this one. Got Swift first and that gave me the theme although I had IRISHMEN instead of DUBLINERS at first, til I got some crossers.

    Thanks very much for a very pleasurable crossword session. Excellent!

  13. Thanks Peedee and Picaroon and Sil

    I too had Jacobs and found some actors of that name in Google. But Sil is clearly right.

  14. Thanks PeeDee and Picaroon. Isn’t it extraordinary how many great writers Dublin has produced? I was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t possible to include WB Yeats (just about a Dubliner) and GB Shaw, born coincidentally in Synge St.

  15. I did think of Derek Jacobi at the time but I decided it couldn’t be him as his name ended in a Y and I couldn’t make it fit.

    I can’t understand how I managed to have such a blind spot to the spelling – he is one of my favourite actors!

  16. Thanks PeeDee @12. I missed that in Chambers. Thought it must have been an obscure kind of cart or something 🙂

    JACOBI was another one that popped straight into my head. Had a lot of trouble with STOKER though… no idea he was Irish.

  17. Thanks PeeDee. I enjoyed this, especially as I was able to get all the names without assistance, though I don’t think I knew beforehand that Bram Stoker was a Dubliner.

    Small point – the Joyce work being celebrated is just Dubliners – no “The” required.

  18. Thanks all
    This was enjoyable and would have been fairly easy for a Saturday….except for my two spelling errors!
    Firstly I had ‘Singh’ which made 3d impossible. secondly I managed to get two Ls instead of two Ps in 24ac which sent me cake – searching for L?E?
    Ah well it extended the pleasure(?).

  19. Thanks Picaroon and PeeDee

    Another who stumbled on JACOBI (with Jacobs in).

    I think that DUBLINERS was my second last one in so I was looking just for writers for the nine … which helped because I too was surprised to learn that STOKER was from Dublin. A couple of the others (SYNGE and BEHAN) I did not know at all before finding them with help.

    A couple of excellent clues – PHILIPPIC, DRONE and TIPPET. A few that were hard work in ASSEVERATE, MUJAHADDIN and LITERARY.

    A good challenge for a Saturday.

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