When we saw that it was a Donk Prize Puzzle this week, we knew we were in for a treat – and we weren’t disappointed.
There were some very straightforward clues to get us started, some ingenious misdirections, a good bit of head-scratching, several chuckles and one laugh-out-loud moment at 9ac, which had to be our Clue-of-the-Day.
One or two surfaces suffered in the cause of the wordplay, but all-in-all, great fun for the weekend.
| Across | ||
| 1 | Pinched rubbish behind cover (3,5) | |
| HOT PANTS | HOT (pinched, as in stolen) PANTS (rubbish) | |
| 5/18d | Let noisy drunk, full of wine, point to 10d? (6,6) | |
| TONSIL HOCKEY | An anagram of LET NOISY (anagrind is ‘drunk’) round or ‘full of’ HOCK (wine) – a new phrase for us – we must have had very sheltered childhoods! Anyway, it is the intended result of the party game at 10d | |
| 9 | Tennis player’s encouragement of balls (7) | |
| GONADAL | In order to encourage Rafa Nadal, one might shout GO NADAL (or maybe not if you follow Donk’s thinking!!) | |
| 10 | Bloke‘s bird, from previous marriage? (7) | |
| STEPHEN | The offspring of a previous marriage are step-sons or daughters, so a bird from a previous marriage could be described as a STEP-HEN | |
| 11 | This outsider struggles with ball in golf bags (5) | |
| LINGO | Hidden in, or ‘bagged’ by balL IN GOlf | |
| 12 | Without ending, claim movie’s rubbish in message (9) | |
| VOICEMAIL | An anagram of CLAI |
|
| 13 | Club keeps live fish within it on the counter, spread (6,6) | |
| PEANUT BUTTER | PUTTER (club) round or ‘keeping’ BE (live) round TUNA (fish) reversed or ‘on the counter’ | |
| 17 | Those succeeding in Central Park primarily seem confused (12) | |
| REPLACEMENTS | An anagram of CENTRAL P (first or ‘prime’ letter of ‘park’) and SEEM – anagrind is ‘confused’ | |
| 20 | State inmate’s arrested, briefly (3,6) | |
| NEW MEXICO | The abbreviation (‘briefly’) of NEW MEXICO is NM – hidden or ‘arrested’ in ‘iNMate’ | |
| 22 | Green light significantly shortened is cause of complaint (1,4) | |
| E COLI | ECO (green) + LI |
|
| 23 | Ready to approach level (4,3) | |
| IRON OUT | This was a puzzler, but we think it’s a golfing reference – when making an approach shot, a golfer might well have an IRON OUT | |
| 24 | We’d take in pieces, subject to alteration (7) | |
| TWEAKED | An anagram of WE’D TAKE – anagrind is ‘in pieces’ | |
| 25 | Bowler’s edging closer to leg, say (6) | |
| GUTTER | G (last letter or ‘closer’ of ‘leg’) UTTER (say). We’re not sure whether this refers to the edge of a bowler hat, or the gutter between the lanes in ten-pin bowling or around a bowling green, but it works either way! | |
| 26 | One giving up carrier covered in booze (8) | |
| BETRAYER | TRAY (carrier) ‘covered’ in BEER (booze) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Goods sound entertaining – get the best price for them! (6) | |
| HAGGLE | GG (two ‘goods’) in or ‘entertained by’ HALE (sound) | |
| 2 | Yank’s one short of a baseball team in “pitching” (6) | |
| TUNING | TUG (yank) round NIN |
|
| 3 | Stars in a cracking modern ad (9) | |
| ANDROMEDA | A + an anagram of MODERN AD – anagrind is ‘cracking’. Thanks to Pelham Barton for pointing out the missing A | |
| 4 | Evens it’ll get a radical preacher on box (13) | |
| TELEVANGELIST | An anagram of EVENS IT’LL GET A – anagrind is ‘radical’ | |
| 6 | Tubby ex-pupils’ language? (5) | |
| OBESE | A play on the fact that several languages have –ese as a suffix, so Old Boys (ex-pupils) might fancifully speak OB-ESE | |
| 7 | School’s whisky and fizz finally brings out sentimentality (8) | |
| SCHMALTZ | SCH (school) + MALT (whisky) + |
|
| 8 | Letter tips off Liberal Democrat to acquire gold (8) | |
| LANDLORD | L AND L (the first and last letters, or ‘tips’ of ‘Liberal’) D (Democrat) round or ‘acquiring’ OR (gold) | |
| 10 | She describes beer guts for fun at party (4-3-6) | |
| SPIN-THE-BOTTLE | SHE round or ‘describing’ PINT (beer) + BOTTLE (guts) | |
| 15/14 | Preparing to twerk after rest (8,2,3,4) | |
| BRINGING UP THE REAR | ‘Twerking’ appears to involve certain movements of the backside, so in preparation BRINGING UP THE REAR would be necessary. | |
| 16 | Quivering, we stop US jets (5,3) | |
| SPEWS OUT | An anagram of WE STOP US – anagrind is ‘quivering’ | |
| 18 | See 5ac | |
| See 5ac | ||
| 19 | A lot wanted by this one inside job I’d derailed (6) | |
| BIDDER | Hidden in (‘inside’) joB ID DERailed | |
| 21 | Give in to passion, taking off top outside (5) | |
| EMOTE | ||
This one certainly amused me a lot, when I finally got the answers, although before I got them it was exasperating. 1ac, 9ac, 10ac, and 15/14 all were like that.
Couldn’t parse 20ac and 25ac those other meanings of “gutter” eluded me (and I used to work on a bowling green, but that was 45 years ago), so thanks for the explanations.
Thanks for a great blog, B and J. Your preamble absolutely perfectly sums up my thoughts on this puzzle – I have nothing to add.
Huge thanks to Donk for a lot of fun.
Thanks B&J for the blog and Donk for a pretty tough puzzle.
Re 7d, how about”rhythmic”?
Yes, an amusing and enjoyable challenge at about the right standard for a leisurely Sunday evening solve. I particularly liked 13, 9, 15/14 and 5/18 though my adolescence was obviously as sheltered as yours! PANTS looked like it had to fit for 1a, but I’d not heard of this to refer to ‘rubbish’ before and the parsing of 21 completely eluded me.
Thank you to Donk and B&J.
Thanks Donk and B&J
3dn: I think there is something missing here. I took it as A + (anagram of MODERN AD).