When blogging a Prize puzzle, I usually like to solve it in one session [if possible!] and blog it immediately and so I wasn’t intending to attempt the puzzle last Saturday, as I was going to London for the day. I took my paper to read on the train and managed to resist looking at the puzzle for a while but then, after ‘just a peep’, I inevitably got drawn in and managed to fill in the left hand side fairly easily by the end of the journey there but, for some reason, had entered only 27ac and 15dn on the right hand side. As so often happens after a break, the rest unravelled very satisfyingly on the way home.
We have an entertaining variety of clue types here, with some clever wordplay and great misdirection. I know not everyone sets such store by surfaces as I do but I’ve commented before that Brummie’s are rather variable. 9ac is as smooth as they come and I liked 20dn, too, but others are fairly meaningless – but then, when you look at them again, there’s a kind of quirky logic, which adds to the interest and raises a smile.
Brummie’s puzzles usually have a theme but, apart from the two French writers, I haven’t managed to spot one here.
Many thanks to Brummie for a most enjoyable solve.
Across
1 Make awful, primitive sound: “No iron in river!” (6)
UGLIFY
UG [primitive sound – usually attributed to cavemen in comics] + LIF[fe]Y [Dublin’s river, minus fe, chemical symbol for iron]
5 Valuation reduced with chain cut off (8)
ESTRANGE
EST [estimate – valuation] + RANGE [chain – as in mountains]
9 Secret drinker reaches end of line in Morecambe? (8)
ESOTERIC
SOT [drinker] + [lin]E in ERIC [Morecambe]
10 Withdraws new state in America (6)
UNSAYS
N [new] SAY [state] in US [America] – it really is a word and it reminded me of Hillary Clinton’s ‘misspoke’, which I was surprised to find in Chambers
11,22 Coastal country footballer disheartened by team’s kit (4,5)
GAZA STRIP
GA[z]ZA [Paul Gascoigne, aka Gazza – footballer ‘disheartened’ + STRIP [team’s kit]
12 State, once, of seed-covered, wild youth (5,5)
SOUTH YEMEN
SEMEN [seed] round an anagram [wild] of YOUTH
13 Craft stones: half a smacker (3,3)
JET SKI
JETS [stones] + KI[ss] [half a smacker!]
14 It’s lucky the composer, Guy, gets left out (8)
TALISMAN
[Thomas] TAL[l]IS [composer] minus l [left] + MAN [Guy]
16 Turn your hand to flat-pack furniture with this? (5,3)
ALLEN KEY
I stared at this, looking for wordplay, but it’s a cryptic definition, I think
19 Where some academics collect one exercise, as basis for play? (6)
SCRIPT
SCR [Senior Common Room – where some academics collect] + I [one] PT [exercise]
21 Off-colour anagrams emerge thus (3,2,5)
OUT OF SORTS
Cryptic definition
24 Not an owner stocking quality unit? (6)
DENIER
Double definition – with two different pronunciations
25 Awful weapon verges on a non-ring explosive (5,3)
NERVE GAS
anagram [explosive] of VERGES ON A [minus o – ‘non-ring’]
26 Casual tense employed in old female soldiers’ essays (8)
ATTEMPTS
TEMP [casual – as a noun] + T [tense] in ATS [Auxiliary Territorial Service – the women’s branch of the army in WWII
27 Aware of not just X’s and Z’s being pronounced? (4,2)
WISE TO
Not just Xs and Zs but [pronounced] ‘Ys, too’ – I refuse to use an apostrophe as in the clue!
[So we have not only Morecambe [9ac] but WISE TOo 😉 ]
Down
2 Subterfuge a vital expedient, when one’s lacking as a writer (7,8)
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT
Anagram [expedient] of SUBTERFUGE A V[i]TAL, minus I [one’s lacking]
3 Crying “salty secretion found here!” (2,5)
IN TEARS
Again, I looked in vain for wordplay – a sort of double / cryptic definition but I didn’t like it very much
4 Standard police department’s check (9)
YARDSTICK
[Scotland] YARD’S [police department’s] + TICK [check – as in ticking boxes]
5 Measurement unit applied to low grade reddish-brown coat (7)
ENCRUST
EN [measurement unit in printing] + C [low grade – but not very low: it’s a ‘pass’ at GCSE] + RUST [reddish-brown]
6,23 Contact that hurts me — possibly beats being on the outside (5,4)
TOUCH BASE
Anagram [possibly] of BEATS outside OUCH [that hurts me]
7 Swelling muscles tax (7)
ABSCESS
ABS [muscles] + CESS [tax – Chambers: ‘[obs] n in UK, a tax, a local rate; in Ireland, the obligation by a local population to provide food, lodgings and supplies for the soldiers of the lord deputy’; I thought it must derive from the Latin verb cedere, to yield, but all my dictionaries say it comes from assess{ment}]
8 Author bloke made off on drugs with Neddy, a TV presenter (3,2,10)
GUY DE MAUPASSANT
GUY [bloke] + an anagram [off] of MADE + UP [on drugs?] + ASS [Neddy] + ANT[hony] McPartlin [television presenter, along with Dec[lan] Donnelly]
15 Goes on and on about blemish that leads to blown fuse? (4,5)
LAST STRAW
LASTS [goes on and on] + a reversal [about] of WART [blemish] – a bit of a mixed metaphor here!
17 Affecting revolutionary book one has (7)
EMOTIVE
Reversal [revolutionary] of TOME [book] + I’VE [one has, as the Queen might say]
18 Minimum wear, if frosty, round northern rocks (1-6)
Y-FRONTS
Anagram [rocks] of FROSTY round N [northern] – ‘G-string’ was the first answer to spring to mind but then I remembered one of my all-time favourite clues [from Cincinnus / Orlando]: ‘a climber of rocks in Devon (10)’
20 Like Adam, after Eve cut down the tormenting? (7)
RIBLESS
RIB LESS [cut down the tormenting]: God used only one rib to create Eve, so Adam wasn’t entirely RIBLESS but he did have one RIB LESS – or, rather, fewer!
Thanks Eileen. I got there in the end but needed some help with TALLIS, CESS and ANT. I toyed with G string too and share your reservations with 16a and 3d. I don’t see anything cryptic about ALLEN KEY though.
Thanks to Brummie and Eileen. I could not finish this one, for there were too many items that were beyond me. I did guess GAZA STRIP correctly (my last in) without knowing Gazza, got SCRIPT without knowing SCR = Senior Common Room, and got ATTEMPTS without knowing ATS as Auxiliary Territorial Service. ALLEN KEY and NERVE GAS, however, defeated me.
Thanks Eileen. Just the 5A/5D at the end to hold things up. Pity we had the Eric for Morecambe only two days earlier (courtesy Tramp). Liked the disheartened footballer and the two French-author clues.
Biggles @1 – I suppose ‘Turn your hand’ has a sort of double/cryptic meaning in 16a – but I agree, a very feeble clue. And 3d.
But mostly enjoyed it apart from those, though I might have struggled with the French authors without Mrs B’s input
I also thought ALLEN KEY and IN TEARS rather weak; those apart, most enjoyable.
Felt bound to comment in support of Eileen’s view of 27ac. In my (just invented) list of “Things to be Dropped”, incorrect apostrophes rank very highly while standards come last! (I’ll even apply a moistened digit to an incorrect chalked restaurant board when walking round town; don’t start me on ingredients that “compliment” others or the meaningless “restauranteur”. Aaaargh!)
Thanks both. Have a lovely weekend – stay cool!
Quite enjoyable but a bit of a mixed bag. Its odd how it works sometimes
GUSTAV FLAUBERT leapt off the page with no crossers and virtually no parsing
to speak of. This lead me to suspect a theme but,save for the other author
I couldn’t find one. I didn’t like ALLEN KEY either but the rest of the
puzzle kept me amused last Saturday afternoon.
Thanks Brummie.
I found this both challenging and enjoyable.
I had “scrape” instead of SCRIPT, justifying the “-ape” as A for “one” + PE. That left me rather doubtful about the definition, but violinists are sometimes referred to as scraping the strings when they play. I’m pleased to see that there is a better parsing, though. I used a wordfinder for ATTEMPTS. I doubt that I’d ever have got it without that as I hardly ever remember T for “tense” and the ATS was before my time (though my aunt was a member). CESS for “tax” was new, but once I got the crossers it had to be that.
Thanks, Brummie and Eileen (whose objection to those apostrophes I share).
As I live on the edge of Dartmoor I am intrigued by your reference to a favourite clue ‘a climber of rocks in Devon’
I am assuming the answer includes tor but could you perhaps give some hints?
Hi Dennis @8
It was the anagram indicator ‘rocks’ that reminded me. 😉 I hope that’s sufficient – if not, the answer can be found here: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2008/11/06/financial-times-12908-by-cincinnus/ – but it’s a long time ago [before we began including the clues].
Thank you Eileen,
I got it straightaway – an anagram of ‘a climber of’.
A very clever clue – I can see why it is one of your favourites.
You’re very welcome, Dennis, in both senses, since I’m not sure whether you’ve commented before – apologies if you have.
[Bloggers get email alerts of comments on their blogs: are you by any chance THE Dennis of that ilk? 😉 ]
Great crossword which I enjoyed and great blog which helped with a couple of wordplays I could not fully parse!! Just wanted to mention John Pigeon who died on Wednesday. He was a great champion of music and comedy but was in recent years a compiler for The Toughie. He will be missed. Finally can anybody advise how I can remove the ‘cookies box’ which causes much stress when trying to write a message here?
Sorry should have thanked Brummie and Eileen for crossword and blog respectively and noted that the annoying cookie box is on the tablet and smartphone formats only I think.
No I am not THAT one.
I am, however, considered to be THE one in my home town, Ashburton.
Oh dear!! Not doing too well today. It is of course John Pidgeon who died. My apologies, I could blame autocorrect but that would be a cop out as I should have proof read it properly.
Dennis @14 forgive me – of course you are!
S Panza @12: my dear crossword friend Conrad Cork alerted me to John Pidgeon’s death the other day: I wasn’t familiar with the name but knew of his work. [I’m afraid I’m the very last person to be able to help with your technical problems. 🙁 ]
Eileen: as setter of the Toughie I think he used the sobriquet Petitjean!!
I remember enjoying this but finding it a bit tricky.
Thanks to Brumme and Eileen
27ac Could “X’s” be “X is”? Though “but” would then be better than “and”.
Thanks Eileen and Brummie.
I too was surprised to find UNSAYS in my dictionary, but there it was!
And SCR was a new acronym to me – missed out on so much by not going to university!
I also had to check the spelling for the two French authors but at least I’d heard of them both.
But overall an enjoyable puzzle with plenty of varied clue styles and some nice misdirection.
Enjoyable. Thanks Brummie.
Needed help as others did with some parsing, so very grateful to you, Eileen.
I liked 21a “OUT OF SORTS”.
DE @19
Of course you’re correct about the apostrophes. That’s how I read it
“not just X is being pronounced but Z is being pronounced”
“Y is too”
Works fine with apostrophes and a good surface.
People were a little hasty to cry foul at the “grocer”! 😉
Thanks to Brummie and Eileen.
Found this nice and chewy, but had RECIPE instead of SCRIPT so that put a halt to the SE gallop; ah well. DENIER got a tick of approval.
In re of the apostrophe discussion, see https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dot_the_i%27s_and_cross_the_t%27s and other offerings from search engines: an apostrophe seems to be acceptable when a single letter is to be pluralised. (Now retiring to behind the sofa awaiting barrage.)
(Which reminds me that I was reminded over the weekend that under the table is the safest place to go if a fight breaks out in an Irish-speaking pub. Why? Because it is impossible to translate into Irish the term “Get out from underneath the table!” I wonder if that is true of other languages.)
Probably too late to be of help, but I stumbled on a way to solve S Panza’s “cookie box” problem by going to the General Discussion page where I was able to acknowledge and close the thing.
Belated thanks to Brummie and Eileen.
Thanks Brummie and Eileen
Enjoyable puzzle from Brummie although with a couple of unusually ordinary cryptic ones in ALLEN KEY and IN TEARS, as has already been noted. Made up for in spades with clues like DENIER, YARDSTICK and the two long French authors.
A couple of new abbreviations for me in SCR for the college common room and ATS for the women’s branch of the British Army during WW2. Agree with the comments of Dave and BNTO with regard to the X’s, Y’s and Z’s which was my take on the clue as well.
Finished in the NE corner with ENCRUST (where it took a long time to separate ‘coat’ as the definition), SOUTH YEMEN (seems a long time ago that it was a country in its own right before the whole place imploded) and TOUCH BASE (clever and one that I had to get the word and then try and unravel the word play).