Guardian Prize 26,830 by Paul

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A themed puzzle for this week’s prize competition from Paul, possibly intended to draw attention to Crufts, which was on when this puzzle appeared.

Having said that, there were in fact as many references to cats as to dogs, so perhaps it was just a coincidence.  Lots to enjoy here; Paul is as inventive as ever in finding ways to mislead the solver.  I wonder whether the theme of cats and dogs was pre-determined, or just something that occurred to him when writing the clues?  Anyway, solving it filled a pleasant hour on Sunday morning for Timon and me.  As well as the cats and dogs, there were also allusions to opera, art and poetry (not to mention cricket).

completed grid
Across
8 COLLIERY Fanciful art of sheepdog training is mine? (8)
COLLIE (sheepdog) RY (short for railway – training?).  Alternatively, I think that Paul is just wondering if the (fanciful) art of sheepdog training could be so described.
9 POODLE Trick after a backflip nailed by European dog (6)
DO (rev) (in the sense of con, or trick) inside Pole.  Did’t work this one out till I came to write the blog.
10 CHOW Meals for a dog (4)
Double definition.
11 TRAUMATISE Extraordinary stature, I am in shock (10)
*(STATURE I AM).
12 JAGUAR Cat, a killer losing tail in conflict (6)
A GU(n) in JAR.
14 ABNORMAL Opera in a borstal extremely unusual (8)
NORMA in  A B(orsta)L.
15 ALL-TIME A junior officer in green, unsurpassed (3-4)
A (LT in LIME).
17 LEGIBLY Dutch painter capturing cat in a neat way (7)
GIB (a tomcat) in LELY.  Sir Peter Lely crops up in crosswords more often than his perhaps better known predecessor, Van Dyck, for reasons entirely to do with the letters in his short name.
20 GRAND CRU Fine wine, relative filth finally coming first (5,3)
GRAN CRU(D), with the final letter put at the front.
22 BEREFT Something felt to protect female suffering loss (6)
F in BERET.  Apparently berets can also be woollen.
23 MISGOVERNS Girl running round borders in garden to catch some balls, runs the wrong way (10)
OVER (some balls in cricket) in G(arde)N, all inside MISS.  Nicely misleading definition.
24 AXLE Large cutting tool’s shaft (4)
L in AXE.
25 PIG OUT Eat a lot — good taste! (3,3)
PI (in the sanctimonious sense), GOUT (French for taste).  Like many French words it is to be found in English dictionaries.  I’m not so sure that PI equates to GOOD.
26 NICOTINE Poisonous compound not designed to impress one in particular (8)
I (one) in *NOT inside NICE (particular).
Down
1 MOTHBALL Entering shopping centre, both bananas put aside for later use (8)
*BOTH in MALL.
2 FLOW Run when philanderer turns up (4)
WOLF (rev).
3 SETTER Dog in the evening sun, perhaps? (6)
Double definition, the second being by way of example, hence “perhaps”.
4 PYJAMAS Case of puppy, 3, as the best thing with the cat? (7)
P(upp)Y JAM (which sets) AS.  Took us a long time to work this one out.  Can anyone explain the origins of this peculiar phrase?
5   See 24
6 FOX TERRIER Old singer saves half of soup for dog (3,7)
OXT(ail) in FERRIER.  The singer is Kathleen Ferrier.
7 ALASKA State, I’m sorry to say, kicked around for starters (6)
ALAS, K(icked) A(round).
13 UP TO NO GOOD Top dog unsurprisingly stealing spectacles, misbehaving (2,2,2,4)
OO(spectacles) in *(TOP DOG UN).  This is a clue where you have to separate “un” from “surprisingly” in order to understand what the setter is saying.
16 MACAVITY Cat literarily a degree above hole (8)
MA over CAVITY (it’s a down clue).  The reference is to the TS Eliot poem “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats”.
18 LIFELINE Cat drops on cat as a means of survival (8)
LI(on) FELINE.
19 PURRING Dog hugging Rover, totally gutted in sounding like a cat (7)
R(ove)R IN inside PUG.
21 RAISIN Fruit is eaten by cats and dogs, perhaps? (6)
IN  IS inside RAIN.
22 BISECT Keeping dry, fragment split in half (6)
SEC in BIT.  Another French word to be found in the dictionary.
24, 5 ASTI SPUMANTE Cat partial to nastiest sort of drink (4,8)
PUMA in (“partial to”) *NASTIEST.

*anagram

31 comments on “Guardian Prize 26,830 by Paul”

  1. Thanks bridgesong. Another entertaining and enjoyable offering. NICOTINE was the last one I explained to myself after I had made it hard by spelling SPUMANTE with a final I. I had to look up GIB. I liked 8a and prefer your second explanation; fancifully a place where sheepdogs are trained could be a colliery.

  2. Thanks to Paul and bridgesong. I eventually got everything except LEGIBLY which eluded me, though I did need help parsing GRAND CRU and FOX TERRIER (I did not know Kathleen Ferrier). A good challenge that I much enjoyed.

  3. Thanks bridgesong. Twenty minutes for this, wish it was more, and several of them on 17 and 18, the last two, with cats I’d never heard of. Paul had PYJAMAS on for us in each of the last three years, always delightfully clued: the cats PJs in 2013 were Pussy warmer in bed? A wonderful thing (3,4,7).

  4. Excellent again from Paul, lots of fun & one of his easier ones, I guess. Agrre with your second parsing of 8ac – same as ‘artistry’, for example.

  5. I’m not sure whether molonglo has already alluded to this, but just in case — the cat’s pajamas (US spelling) along with the bee’s knees, were the example of excellence in American slang in the ’20s.

  6. Thanks Paul and bridgesong

    Only got to this one today and am afraid it took much longer than 20 mins and an hour – to the demise of the overdue paper filing that I should’ve been focused on. Very enjoyable though !

    Started smartly enough with the SW corner filling very quickly – smiled to see ‘crud’ paradoxically used to help build CRU. Moved to the NW which went smoothly enough, although was looking to have 12a to be in WAR rather than JAR for a start. Parsed 8a as per the second option in the blog. The rhs was a different story with some clever and tricky clues to be negotiated. Finished with BISECT (which took a while to parse), LIFELINE (which took longer – and very clever) and LEGIBLY (where GIB was new for me). Couldn’t parse NICOTINE until coming here.

  9. Thanks to Paul for an agreeable canine/feline challenge and to bridgesong for helping me to parse a last few (poodle esp).
    LoI was fox terrier – I spent a long time trying to force toy terrier in.

  10. Thanks Paul and Bridgesong. Not one of Paul’s hardest, but an enjoyable challenge.

    For JAGUAR, I had AGU(e) as the tailless killer, but I suppose A GU(n) is more likely to see you off nowadays.

  11. After last week’s excellent Saturday crossword (my first) I was encouraged to try this one. It was just as good – more entertaining, if anything, but it also made me think just as much. As I’ve said on a couple of occasions before with Paul’s puzzles, I’m glad I can rely on the rigour of his clues, especially those that I could not crack quickly.

    The cat and dog theme was skilfully deployed and highly enjoyable. 6D (FOX TERRIER) and 18D (LIFELINE) were my favourite clues today for their ingenuity, but I rate several others almost as highly. Making ‘setter’ = JAM instead of the usual ‘i’ or ‘me’ in 4D (PYJAMAS) was a neat trick. And the playtex device was an unexpected treat in 13D (UP TO NO GOOD), as explained in the blog.

    I’m glad the setter took the liberty of clueing 8A (COLLIERY) using the answer as a made-up (‘fanciful’) word equivalent to, say, ‘falconry’ (which is probably the closest analogue).

    It took me a while to parse 20A (GRAND CRU) and 9A (POODLE) properly, but I got there in the end.

    Thanks very much to Paul and Bridgesong.

  14. Thanks all
    I find that I made absolutely no mark or comment on this puzzle, the solving has deprted entirely from my mind.Decide for yourself what that means!

  15. Tim @12: thanks, I’ve corrected the typo.

    Mr Beaver @13: I don’t know about that, but it makes a change to see the name in full. ASTI on its own crops up quite often, usually defined as “wine”.

  17. Thanks Paul and bridgesong.

    This was enjoyable. Luckily I remembered googling Lely a while back, cannot remember why, to do with a crossword I guess, but the “cat’s pyjamas” was new to me as was the term “gib” for a castrated tomcat. I liked BEREFT, UP TO NO GOOD and LIFELINE!

    I parsed the killer at 12a as AGUe, as did G larsen @10 – the word’s use for malarial fever may be marked hist. in the dictionary, but it is still a great killer – around 450,000 people die from malaria each year (WHO) whereas around 200,000 die from gun shot wounds, that includes homicide and armed conflict (Geneva Convention).

  18. Well,it took longer than 20minutes but this was one of Paul’s more straightforward offerings. Very enjoyable though. I didn’t really see the wordplay that gives COLLIERY before coming here but it had to be right, and LEGIBLY was LOI because GIB was new to me- easy enough to check though. Very pleasant!
    Thanks Paul.

  20. G Larsen @10 and Cookie @17: the annotated solution confirms my supposition that GU(N) was what was intended. A, of course, is already there in the clue.

  21. Customary wit from Paul, and not too difficult. I esp. liked COLLIERY and wondered what might be a good clue for HUSBANDRY.

    GIB in 17 ac is a castrated tom cat.

    I was reminded of the following (I’m a liar – I had to look it up):

    Falstaff (Henry IV Pt 1), speaking to Prince Hal:

    Yea, for obtaining of suits, whereof the hangman

    hath no lean wardrobe. ‘Sblood, I am as melancholy

    as a gib cat, or a lugged bear,

    (lugged = baited)

  23. bridgesong @20, yes, I was sure you were right, that is what annoyed me – the word “ague” would still be in use if malaria was present in Europe and North America – malaria might come back with global warming etc., then perhaps more attention will be given to the problem.

  24. For me, it was a challenging crossword, as a prize puzzle should be. I missed the possible railway connection in the clue for COLLIERY, taking it as just a cryptic description. I also missed A GU(n) for JAGUAR, like G larsen @10 and Cookie @17 wondering instead whether AGU(e) could count as a “killer” because it is an old name for, and a symptom of, killer disease malaria. I couldn’t parse NICOTINE at all. I did get LEGIBLY from the painter and the definition, even though GIB was new to me. I don’t much like the use of “partial to” in 24d,5d as an inclusion indicator.

    bridgesong, felt is traditionally made from wool, the only natural fibre which felts properly.

    Thanks, Paul and bridgesong.

  25. jenny @ 24: thanks for that correction – I should really have known that, but was relying on the Chambers definition of “beret”:” A flat, round, woollen or felt cap”.

  26. Thanks bridgesong and Paul.

    Enjoyable. Particularly liked the cryptic 8ac.

    Needed your help to parse NICOTINE. GIB for a cat was new to me but gettable.

    So thanks again.

  27. This was all pretty straightforward apart from LEGIBLY, which defeated me until one of my friends remembered LELY – we still had to confirm GIB even after that. All very enjoyable.

    Thanks to Paul and bridgesong

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