Guardian Prize 26711 by Shed

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A very straightforward puzzle with no theme this week.

Shed doesn’t get the prize slot very often, and I think that this may be the first puzzle of his that I have had the pleasure to blog.  Although I have one or two very minor quibbles, all the clueing is perfectly sound and there are some nice surfaces.  My only real complaint is that it was over too soon.  Thanks, Shed.

completed grid
Across
1 ELECTRIC FENCE
Charged boundary with pick and staple to secure cold bog (8,5)

ELECT (pick),  C FEN in RICE(staple food).  Nicely misleading definition.
10 MACADAMIA
Scholar spooks patriarch hidden in nut tree (9)

MA,  ADAM in CIA.
11 TIDAL
Young man with it, turning, ebbing and flowing (5)

LAD IT (all rev).
12 ASIDE
Assistant catching second stage whisper (5)

S in AIDE.
13 KALAMAZOO
Instrument welcoming holy man to US city (9)

LAMA in KAZOO.  Once I had the crossing z, not much else would fit.
14 CHEAPEN
Degrade pile penetrating scent’s centre (7)

HEAP in (s)CEN(t).  I toyed with COARSEN, but couldn’t parse it.
16 SUNTRAP
Hot spot for Puritans dropping one off (7)

*PUR(I)TANS.
18 MASONIC
Mother hedgehog belonging to “boys only” club? (7)

A charade of MA SONIC (as in the video game).
20 ENTEBBE
Unruly teen absorbing reflux in African town (7)

EBB in *TEEN.
21 APPLE TREE
First bit of evening paper let loose by fruit-bearer (5,4)

*(E(vening) PAPER LET).
23 ATLAS
Expression of regret about time range (5)

T in ALAS.
24 GRIST
What’s to be ground by King George I? (5)

G R 1ST.
25 BRIGADIER
Officer finding one sort of fly in pipe (9)

1 GAD in BRIER.
26 PRONOUNCEMENT
Part of speech with which to make firm declaration (13)

A charade of PRONOUN CEMENT.
Down
2 LUCKINESS
French evangelist with cattle on ship making fortune (9)

LUC (French for Luke) KINE SS.  Not sure about the accuracy of the definition here, although the word itself is undefined in Chambers.  I would have thought that luck = fortune, with luckiness being the capacity for fortune.
3 CADGE
Bum finds penny in prison (5)

D (old abbreviation for a penny) in CAGE.
4 RAMEKIN
Gods of victory and war mostly overturned dish (7)

NIKE (Greek god of victory) and MAR(s) (all rev).
5 CHABLIS
Drink tea with endless delight (7)

CHA BLIS(s).  My last one in: I got fixated with CHARLES, but couldn’t work out why.
6 ESTAMINET
Bomb in with a will (but without limits) to cafe (9)

MINE in (t)ESTAT(e).  We’re possibly more familiar with the negative: intestate.  I wonder if Shed was tempted to link this clue in some way with the previous one…
7 CADIZ
Jessica dizzily drinking port (5)

Hidden in “Jessica dizzily”.
8 SMEAR CAMPAIGN
Magic Parmesan recipe for political skulduggery (5,8)

*(MAGIC PARMESAN).
9 BLOOD PRESSURE
Blue door curiously concealing crush — stress may increase it (5,8)

PRESS (crush) in *(BLUE DOOR).
15 PINKERTON
Butterfly catcher with clipper gaining weight? (9)

A charade of PINKER TON, although I’m not sure that pinker can be said to mean clipper, although to pink is defined as “to make a serrated edge on”, which is close to “clip”, I suppose.  The butterfly reference is to Puccini’s opera, in which Lt. Pinkerton is one of the main protagonists.
17 REBELLION
Boxer, maybe, with electronic phone featured in retrograde film genre (9)

E BELL in NOIR(rev).  The definition by example is justified by the “maybe”.
19 CARIBOU
Animals getting a bone circle copper-plated (7)

A RIB O in CU.
20 ELEGIAC
Doleful, the Spanish setter interrupts rising composer (7)

EL, I in CAGE(rev).  The composer is the American John Cage.
22 PRIOR
Allegedly nosey sort of churchman (5)

Sounds like “pryer”.  I’m not sure if “sort of” qualifies the wordplay or the definition; either way it could be said to be redundant.
23 ALARM
Startle, Madagascar-style? (5)

A charade of A LA RM(Republique Madagascar), appropriate as the island was for a while a French colony.
*anagram

18 comments on “Guardian Prize 26711 by Shed”

  1. Thanks to bridgesong for the blog. I needed you to explain why I had the right answer for 10A.

    15D led me a fine dance. I was trying to find the name of a type of butterfly, e.g. Admiral, then eventually I remembered that Pinkerton caught Butterfly!

  2. Thanks Shed and bridgesong

    This didn’t feel like it was easy or straightforward whilst doing it, but it was all done very quickly with only reference checks for John CAGE (a very different style of music after sampling his work on You Tube) and Lieutenant PINKERTON. Didn’t get the homophone for PRIOR at 22d.

    Finished in the SW corner with PINKERTON, GRIST (which was clever) and PRIOR the last one in.

  3. Thanks to Shed and bridgesong. I needed help parsing ALARM, and SUNTRAP was new to me (though clear from the clue). I found this prize puzzle much easier than at least three of the weekday ones, but that’s not a complaint – I much enjoyed it.

  4. Thanks for ELECTRIC FENCE which I hadn’t managed to parse. Thoroughly enjoyed this one – MA SONIC made me smile, GR1ST was clever, I bet I wasn’t the only one racking my brains for butterfly species or dogs in the REBELLION clue – and I shall be sticking all my sentences together with PRONOUN CEMENT from now on!

  6. Nicely clued but a little run-of-the-mill.

    Nothing too exciting and no real aha moments. No clues to comment on either for good or bad!

    Not good enough for a weekend prize IMHO. Easily finished, checked and comments written for posting here between “Stictly” and “Match of the Day”! (Including beer replenishment and snack preparation)

    I just hope MOD is more interesting.

    Thanks to Bridgesong and Shed.

  7. Thanks Shed and bridgesong
    I agree with everything you say, bridgesong. I saw the anagram for SMEAR CAMPAIGN straight off, and all went far too quickly thereafter; LOI PINKERTON. Very enjoyable and amusing, but too easy for a prize.

  8. Not “a real pipperoo” but enjoyable nonetheless. It was quite easy even for a poor solver like myself.
    Favourites were KALAMAZOO and MASONIC. Last in were RAMEKIN and ESTAMINET.
    Thanks to bridgesong and Shed. I notice that Audreus hasn’t posted in a long while. Perhaps Shed can enlighten us.

  9. 15d – one uses “pinking shears” to make a serrated edge. Howver a person using said shears could be a “pinker”?

    btw the flowers “pinks” are named after the serrated edges of their petals. The clour pink is named after the flowers, not vice versa.

  10. This was OK. Enjoyable enough but quite straightforward. Easier than any of the others we had last week with the exception of Rufus. Liked MASONIC and PRIOR.
    I had a quick look at today’s Paul before going to bed last night and it seemed to be rather difficult.
    We’ll see. Thanks Shed.

  11. Muffin @9: you may be right about the derivation of the name for the colour, although there’s nothing in Chambers to confirm what you say. It gives no fewer than 8 separate meanings for the word pink, the first of which encompasses both the colour and the plant, and the second of which includes (in its adjectival form) serrated edges.

    Brendan (nto) @6: I completed the puzzle and most of the blog while watching Strictly! Although if I’m accurate, my wife did most of the watching!

  12. I finished this more quickly than usual for a Prize, but I enjoyed it. My LOI was PINKERTON. I got side-tracked by possible famous lepidopterists (rather than butterflies), so I didn’t think of the opera for a long time. As an occasional user of pinking shears, I think “clipper” just about works. Favourites were KALAMAZOO and GRIST.

    Thanks to Shed and bridgesong.

  13. Thanks Shed and bridgesong.

    I really enjoyed this last Saturday, a prize crossword I could finish in a reasonable time for me, and without ‘cheating’. KAZOO was a new word, as was the little hedgehog’s name, SONIC, so needed help with some parsing. I particularly liked GRIST, PINKERTON and REBELLION.

  14. Thanks for the blog. For some dumb reason, I incorrectly parsed GRIST. I’d never heard of SUNTRAP, but the clue was easy enough.

    My last one in was BRIGADIER, but that was only because I’d misspelled ELEGIAC (I had ELEGAIC). Took me WAY too long to figure out what was up with that.

    I think the story with 22d is that a “nosey sort” is a pryer, “allegedly” is your homophone indicator, “of” is a (perfectly fine) linking word, and “churchman” is the definition. No unnecessary or redundant words that I see.

  16. Thanks all
    Just right for Saturday….no silly theme!
    Last in was Pinkerton, Butterfly catcher a little too indirect for me.
    Favourite was alarm.

  17. Thanks all. I was rather surprised that this got the prize slot, but it’s not me who decides that.

    mrpenney@14 has followed my thinking precisely re the parsing of 22d.

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