Guardian Prize 26,591 by Philistine

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It was serendipitous for me that I was down to blog this puzzle, in view of its theme.

The theme, as can be seen from the highlighted squares in the grid, was the game of Bridge, which as my pseudonym suggests, is one of my pastimes.  It is indeed a game in which the number of tricks a player makes determines his score (or, more accurately, the score of his partnership).  To make “game”, which carries a bonus score, a player must bid and make 9 tricks if the contract is in no-trumps, 10 if it is in a major suit (spades or hearts) and 11 in a minor suit (clubs or diamonds).  Confusingly, the first 6 tricks are ignored for the purpose of the bidding, so game is made with successful bids of 3 no-trumps, 4 spades or hearts and 5 clubs or diamonds.

I really enjoyed this crossword, and not just because of the theme.  I only have one query, which is to do with the parsing of 6,16 and no doubt somebody will elucidate this in due course.  Many thanks, Philistine.

completed grid
Across
1 LOCKJAW
Tetanus jabs are welcomed at first by key partner (7)

LOCK (key partner) plus initial letters of Jabs Are Welcomed.
5 CAGOULE
Previously enters poor clue for “anorak” (7)

AGO in *CLUE.
9 CLUBS
Alternative to part of 18 in bid for 6 beats (5)

Five Clubs, like Five Diamonds, is a bid for game in Bridge.
10 DREAMBOAT
Paper snake in empty dessert dish (9)

REAM BOA in D(esser)T.  Nicely misleading surface.
11 THE RAT RACE
Artists as a body follow a competitive lifestyle (3,3,4)

THE RA (Royal Academy of Arts), TRACE.
12 IRA
Republicans in Iraq briefly feature in admirable air composed by Gershwin (3)

There are no fewer than FOUR subsidiary indications here: hidden in IRAQ, hidden in ADMIRABLE, anagram (composed) of AIR and also the name of the more famous composer George’s brother.  I have, perhaps somewhat arbitrarily, taken Republicans as the definition.
14 THREE NO TRUMP
The tenor’s wobbly bottom in bid for 6 (5,2-5)

*(THE TENOR) RUMP.  See preamble for an explanation of this bid.
18 FIVE DIAMONDS
Bid for 6 could lead to vice (4,8)

Another game bid in Bridge; it could be represented as VD, hence the reference to vice.
21 RUN
Streak with no clothing, drunk (3)

Hidden (“with no clothing”) in drunk.
22 PUMPKIN PIE
Interrogate family on odd price for food (7,3)

PUMP KIN PrIcE (odd letters).
25 DEODORANT
Occasional dab of refreshment applied primarily in pit (9)

First letters of Occasional Dab Of Refreshment Applied in DENT.  I think it qualifies as an & lit.
26 ELDER
Bush Senior (5)

Double definition.  Thanks to my wife for getting this one.
27 EN GARDE
Take a defensive position when grenade explodes (2,5)

*GRENADE.
28 RESISTS
Revolution for some feminists is erudite and does not surrender (7)

Hidden and reversed (“revolution”) in feminists is erudite.
Down
1 LOCATE
Find, see and hear one asked for a kiss (6)

Sounds like LO KATE, as in the musical Kiss Me, Kate.
2 CAUSES
Grounds where copper leaves political meetings (6)

CAU(cu)SES.
3 JUST A SHADE
Not a lot of uniform stock in green (4,1,5)

U STASH in JADE.
4 WADER
Drew a tangled knot, perhaps (5)

*(DREW A).  A knot can mean a type of sandpiper.
5 CRESCENDO
Album includes screen shot — love the build-up! (9)

*SCREEN in CD 0.
6,16 GAME OF BRIDGE
Playing tricks, try to hug a compiler and start to blush — cool! (4,2,6)

A ME (a compiler) in GO (try), B(lush) in FRIDGE (cool).  I have some doubts about this, as the clue doesn’t really say that the B should be inserted in FRIDGE, but I can’t make sense of the clue any other way.
7 UXORIOUS
Visiting Luxor, I ousted loving wife (8)

Hidden in “Luxor I ousted”.
8 ENTHALPY
They plan to generate total heat (8)

*(THEY PLAN).  This word was new to me: Chambers defines it as the heat content of a substance per unit mass.
13 STODGINESS
Feature of food that could lead to digestion stress with spare tires (10)

Compound anagram: take the letters of “digestion stress” and remove “tires” to get the letters comprising the answer.  The anagram indicator is “could lead to”.
15 EJACULATE
Blurt that European currency unit’s dead without Angela Merkel’s approval (9)

JA in ECU, LATE.
16  
See 6
17 EVENSONG
Service, say, includes 6 but excludes 1 (8)

VEN(i)SON in EG.  A clever cross-reference utilising another sense of GAME.
19 SPADES
Diggers‘ alternative to 20 in bid for 6 (6)

Spades and hearts are known in Bridge as the major suits and contracts with either suit score the same; the minor suits score less.
20  
See 24
23 PATER
Dad‘s half-hearted talk (5)

PAT(t)ER.
24,20 FOUR HEARTS
Spooner’s unchaste lady cuts one bid for 6 (4,6)

The Spoonerism has to be “Whore farts”, but I don’t see how “cuts” equates to passing wind.  See the preamble for explanation of the bid.
*anagram

49 comments on “Guardian Prize 26,591 by Philistine”

  1. I really enjoyed this despite a very slow start for no apparent reason. Only finished it after my Sunday Azed.

    Thank you for explaining the significance of the bids bridgesong, (and the rest of the blog) I never got on with the game.

    I think in 6,16 it is simply that a B in a fridge would be cool. How I saw it any way.

    The only possible quibble I could have is that pumpkin pie is not food in the civilised world 😉

    Keep up the good work Philistine.

  2. Thanks to Philistine and bridgesong. Regards the Spoonerism: as I recollect from my uncivilized
    college years, there was an expression about cutting the cheese. Now I am going to have another
    piece of pumpkin pie.

    Cbeers…

  3. In 6 16, I think ‘Cool!’ is to be taken as an imperative verb, so the B is to be placed in [the] fridge as part of the solution.

  5. I’m sure that, in Philistine’s language, ‘start to blush – cool!’ means ‘cool the start of blush’, i.e. put B in FRIDGE. But for Christ’s sakes. And the definition? If I have a ‘game of bridge’, am I having a ‘playing tricks’?

    Who knows.

  6. Thanks bridgesong. 6/16: GO (try) round A ME (a compiler) with FRIDGE around B (start to blush). Cracked the theme in the bottom right with the diggers, before being briefly jolted by the Spooner. The top right with CAGOULE and ENTHALPY got guessed and afterwards checked. Wrapped up pleasantly within the lunch hour, well done Philistine.

  7. Enjoyed this very much.

    This is the first time I have got a spoonerism clue first time through without any letters already in it.

    Thanks bridgesong and Philistine

  8. Thanks Philistine and bridgesong

    Did the puzzle this morning and also enjoyed it a lot. Thanks bridgesong, for explaining the intricacies of the bidding process to another non-bridge player.

    Also slightly raised my eyebrows with the answer GAME OF BRIDGE, but they quickly went down again in light of how GAME was used throughout the rest of the puzzle. Some intricate parsing required in 6, 16 (all the better now that the ‘cool’ part was spelled out) and 15d. CAGOULE was a new word.

    Thought that both RUN and FOUR HEARTS were hilarious and worth doing the puzzle just for those two clues !!

  9. With 18a, I parsed Five Diamonds to give V ICE (slang word for diamonds)- rather than the disease – if that was what was intimated in the blog.

  10. Thanks Philistine and Bridgesong

    For 18a I thought it required splitting vice as V (5) ice (diamonds)

  13. For once I completed a crossword.
    Though I did not get the constructions for 13d and 17d
    21 a was last one in as I was blind to the trickiness.
    I like the explanation for 18a that Kevin@10 suggested.

  14. Thanks bridgesong. I guess that playing tricks is what you do in a game of bridge. I see 6,16 Paul B’s way and agree with brucew@aus about V Ice.

  15. Definitely v + ice. And isn’t 13d an &lit? Thanks for EVENSONG which I couldn’t sort out and for clearing up all the bridge terms.

    Thanks Philistine. That was a lot of fun especially 10, 12, 25 and 13.

  16. Really great puzzle. I finished it quite quickly(by my standards), but was missing some of the parsing (stodginess, deodorant, evensong), plus I knew almost nothing about Bridge (game of). So many thanks to Philistine and Bridgesong for entertainment and erudite explanations !9

  17. Thanks for the blog. I wondered why some of the refs were to just 6 rather than 6;16 … so thanks for explaining that.

    Couldn’t parse 18 but like Brian’s V+ICE best.

  19. Excellent puzzle. One of the most enjoyable for ages- and this from one who knows virtually nothing about Bridge and has never attempted to play it. Unusually everythingI managed to parse everything at least to my own satisfaction!
    Needless to say I loved FOUR HEARTS and many more. Perhaps a little too straightforward for a prize?
    No matter-Thanks Philistine

  20. Re 6,16

    I assumed that the “cool!” referred to this SOED entry

    ridge rid? ? adjective. Austral. slang. m20.
    Good, all right, genuine.

    So all the parsing problems disappear.

    My only complaint was that knowledge of bridge made this puzzle almost trivial. Far too many write-ins and far too many identical clues with a bridge reference to “game”.

    Thanks to bridgesong and Philistine

  21. Thanks, Bridgesong, for a great blog. It was indeed serendipitous that it fell to you and not me, for instance: I counted myself lucky to have finished it, knowing nothing of the theme, let alone being able to explain it. [This is the first time I have ever been thankful not to have landed a Philistine puzzle to blog!]

    Apart from the theme, there was lots to enjoy: I liked DREAMBOAT, RUN, LOCATE, DEODORANT, UXORIOUS, STODGINESS and EJACULATE – and loved the tenor’s wobbly bottom. And I don’t reckon to enjoy Spoonerisms, but I’m invariably amused by Philistine’s.

    Many thanks to him for delightfully lightening what could have been a bit of a slog for a bridge ignoramus.

  22. Thanks, all, for your comments. I agree with all those who parsed VICE in the clue at 18a as 5 ICE; the bridge player in me was misled by the fact that in bridge notation D = Diamonds. And thanks to all those who’ve explained 6,16 in more detail than I managed. Is the clue for STODGINESS an &lit? I’m not sure – perhaps a semi & lit?

  23. I’m not a bridge player but I saw the theme early on and it helped make it a faster solve than it otherwise might have been. I agree with the V + ICE parsing of 18ac. My laugh out loud moment was the FOUR HEARTS clue. Yes, I know that’s childish ………

  24. Thanks Philistine and bridgesong.

    What luck a bridge player got to blog this. I know nothing of the game but managed to complete the puzzle last Saturday, so it must be relatively easy, although I did need help with some of the parsing.

    FIVE DIAMONDS was one of the last in and, since all the other suits were accounted for, ‘vice’ was quickly solved.

    I did like DEODORANT, PUMPKIN PIE, THREE NO TRUMP and FOUR OF HEARTS!

  25. Re gladys, 13D isn’t an &lit because it has a definition. I can see why you were led up that path, and there may be a way to get an &lit out of the compound anag as it stands. I am not about to try!

    However, the way this comp anag’s written, I don’t think the setter can really get away without a second anagram indicator, since only one possibility (digestion stress) is allowed: TIRES isn’t available in the stated order from that letter-string, so I think it’s out of court.

    Speaking of could lead tos, there’s another one for the Guardianist V+ICE at 18A.

  26. Re 25.
    I actually don’t think the clue at 13d needs another anagram indicator.
    That is, if you read it as: ‘stodginess’ could lead to ‘digestion stress’ (when combined) with ‘tires’.
    In other words, ‘stodginess’ plus ‘tires’ could lead to ‘digestion stress’ – which is correct, I think.
    When solving this puzzle last Saturday, I was a bit confused by the word ‘spare’.
    But looking back at it, it probably means that ‘tires’ is an extra thing that should be added to ‘stodginess’ to possibly get ‘digestion stress’?

  27. Paul B @25

    I think your first point would be clearer if you expanded it a little: 13D is not an &lit , because it has a definition (as underlined) which serves no part in the wordplay (although the wordplay amplified that definition)So, it is a semi-&lit, or may be said to have an extended definition.

    Your point in the second paragraph is one that pops up now and then: I think it depends on the order in which you apply the operations. If you subtract ‘tires’ first, then a second anagrind may be required; but if you take the anagram first (as this clue suggests), to get STOGINESS TIRES, then not.

    I suspect that the expression “cut the cheese” may be primarily American.

    Time was that the merest suggestion of a derived anagram (for which you are asked to come up with a word from its definition, and then take an anagram of the result) would produce howls of protest, but two days in a row now (comments 11 and 13 here, comment 38 on yesterday’s Brummie) we have been offered alternate parsings using the device. Are these straws in the wind? Even if so, I would not go with yesterday’s, as it involves the definitely obscure acronym LARI.

  28. Sil @26, not sure that you know what ‘spare tires’ are, they are those rolls of fat around one’s body that should not be there, think of the Michelin man.

  29. Cookie, of course I know what ‘spare tires’ are.
    But this is a crossword puzzle and therefore I expect ‘spare’ to play a role in the cryptic reading of the clue.
    That’s my point.

  30. I was perplexed by the “three no trump” since I thought that the bid would be “three no trumpS”. Is it normal to have the trump in the singular like this?
    @Paul B in number 5 – Isn’t what I presume to be your expression of exasperation out of place in a Forum such as this? jm

  31. I enjoyed this. ENTHALPY was new to me but the clue was clear. I didn’t see 6d/16d for ages, even though I spotted the bridge theme early and therefore already assumed 6d must be GAME. When I did finally parse it, I took “cool” to mean putting the B in the FRIDGE. I also took “vice” as indicating “v” + “ice”. I only saw the cryptic definition of DEODORANT, missing the word play completely.

    My favourites are ELDER (simple but elegant), STODGINESS and EVENSONG (both very clever), and the amusing FOUR HEARTS.

    Thanks to Philistine and bridgesong.

  32. PeterO @ 27, thanks for explaining clearly why 13d is, at best, only a semi & lit. The point about the indirect anagram occurred to me as well.

    JM @ 30: yes, I thought about the no trump/no trumps issue and considered mentioning it in the blog, but decided that it was an acceptable variation.

  33. Here in this country (USA), I’ve never heard it called “no trumps.” The name of the bid here is “no trump,” with stress on the “no.”

    I’m a bridge player; indeed, I had just had bridge night the Thursday before doing this puzzle. As soon as I saw that this would be about bridge, it went very easily. The first of the game-bid clues that I got was CLUBS, which then led immediately to GAME OF BRIDGE and FIVE DIAMONDS. The latter went in unparsed, but it really couldn’t have been anything else, could it? That’s the problem with knowing the theme: it makes solving way too easy.

    I was wondering, while I did this, how non-bridge people would fare. Apparently, they did okay.

    STODGINESS in the context of food was new to me (I know of stodgy people, of course; I had no idea that that wasn’t the original meaning). It’s also nice to see the non-sexual meaning of EJACULATE being used. Like many others, I found FOUR HEARTS to be a giggle-out-loud moment.

  34. Thanks to Philistine and bridgesong. I got the bridge connection quickly but needed the parsing to recognize the significance of GAME in the five categories. I also failed to parse EVENSONG and struggled with CAGOULE and ENTHALPY (last in), though I did get the B in “fridge.” Very enjoyable.

  35. Thank you, Bridgesong and Mr Penny for the comments about no trump/s at 32 & 33. I’m not well versed in Bridge – it’s good to learn…j

  37. Thanks all
    Very enjoyable, especially 25ac, 17 down but most of all 6,16 which made Paul’s attempts look pathetic!
    Last in was dreamboat.

  38. Ironically probably most enjoyable for those who know a little bit about Bridge and least enjoyable for those who know a lot about it or nothing about it!

  39. Tim @38

    I agree.

    Although I would modify your “know a lot” to “had played bridge”. One didn’t need to know a lot. Just a rudimentary knowledge of the basic scoring system was enough to make nearly half the puzzle trivial!

  40. Late to this, but despite an almost total lack of knowledge of the theme, I found this very enjoyable and had no problems finishing it without references (except to verify ENTHALPY). DEODORANT was last in and took much longer than it should have done.

    Thanks to Philistine and bridgesong

  41. PeterO yes, &lits do have definitions, or ARE definitions, so I appreciate your point.

    Meanwhile:

    Feature of food that could lead to digestion stress with spare tires (10)

    I might be better disposed to take the point, or at least to engage with the equation you propose, if the word SPARE had been eliminated. That way, at least we could agree that STODGINESS equals DIGESTIONSTRESS when it (STODGINESS) is combined with TIRES. But losing SPARE spoils the surface idea, doesn’t it. As it stands, I really don’t think it is adequate. I’d stick a ‘perhaps?’ on the end.

    Pity about DIGESTION not being DIGESTIVE all the same.

  42. So, Paul B @41, to come back to my query re SPARE, how do you look at the role of SPARE in this clue?
    Does it play a role anyway other than for the surface?
    And if so?
    It seems that you think it makes that TIRES should be used in that particular letter-order.
    Or am I wrong?
    Perhaps, I’m too deep a thinker about these things.
    Kind of important to me, irrelevant to the rest of the world.

  43. Welcome to the darkness.

    Yes, it does play a part in cryptic, because Philistine thinks that SPARE needs to indicate ‘extra to what’s needed’. I assume that a double-duty thing involving SPARE = MAD is not intended.

    The way it’s worded, STODGINESS ‘can lead to’ D,I,G,E,S,T,I,O,N,S,T,R,E,S,S with spare (i.e. missing) T,I,R,E,S which, according to said wording, is actually not possible. The answer can only lead to the compound ‘with spare’ I,E,S,T,R, plus others, similarly senseless, which I can’t be bothered to list, all of which really bugger the surface.

    That’s the way my brain sees it, anyway.

  44. Sil @42, OCED spare 1 a not required for ordinary use; extra. c colloq. not wanted.

    Surely one takes the anagram fodder and removes the ‘spare tires’ from it as bridgesong says, the ‘tires’ are not wanted.

    I you and Paul B are going to analyse clues too deeply, hardly any will be found valid. To a dim solver like me the clue is super, especially as it also indicates that if you eat a lot of stodgy food you are going to put on weight, i.e. ‘spare tires’.

  46. Thanks bridgesong for elucidation of theme: I only know enough to recognise the contracts clued, and was unaware of the significance of ‘game’, but had no difficulty in completing the puzzle from the related wordplay.
    I’m with sil@26 on ‘stodginess’ that it’s OK to remove the spare ‘tires’ after sorting out the anagram.

  47. Whether I think too deeply about 13d or not, I made already clear that it’s irrelevant to ‘the rest of the world’.
    I just wanted to fully understand it myself and Paul B @43 did a good job.

    In post #26 I didn’t see the need for a second anagram indicator as I saw the clue as: (STODGINESS + TIRES)* = DIGESTION STRESS.
    However, it should probably be seen as: STODGINESS = (DIGESTION STRESS – “TIRES”)*, the subtraction indicated by ‘spare’.
    The result might the same, the cryptic construction is slightly different and one which ideally calls for a second anagram indicator.

    So, I am happy now ….. 🙂

    ps, Cookie, that Rufus clue is indeed similar though not quite.
    It’s: ARBITER = (IRRITABLE – “IL”)*.
    The letters of IL can be removed in that particular order, as it ideally should be (because the subtraction comes before taking the anagram).
    That is the difference with what’s happening in 13d and, for some, the crux of the matter.
    For others, though, it is nitpicking of the first order.

  48. Sil @47, but ‘tires’ can be taken out of DIGESTION STRESS in the right order, with ‘1L’ there are two possibilities, IRRITABLE or IRRITABLE, OK, in the second possibility the I and L follow each other, but Philistine says which letters to remove, Rufus does not (he could be referring to ‘lb’ weight, people who lose weight can be irritable, but of course the LB would not be in the right order).

    If your argument against ‘tires’ is valid, then I argue that the ‘1’ and ‘L’ should be adjacent to each other, IL.

  49. Oops, you’re absolutely right!
    After ‘spare’ initially confused me, it now blinded me as well.

    I knew what Paul B was aiming at in his recent posts (we had a similar discussion a few times before) and, perhaps, putting my trust in his words I did not look well enough (not did he).
    Mea culpa.

    Conclusion: the clue’s absolutely fine.
    And my posts were superfluous.
    Phew.

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