It’s unusual to see a Paul puzzle so early in the week and I wondered whether there was an anniversary connected with the theme but I couldn’t find anything.
As I scanned the clues, my hackles began to rise at the apostrophe in ‘4’s’ but, once I had solved the clue at 26,4, all became clear. I had to do a bit of research into the works of Norman Foster and Partners but it was all very interesting and enjoyable. I have included links where appropriate.
My favourite clues today were MILLENNIUM BRIDGE, REICHSTAG and AFTERS.
Thank you, Paul, for an educational and enjoyable puzzle.
[Definitions are underlined in the clues.]
Across
9,25 Long to join club in film studios (8)
PINEWOOD
PINE [long] + WOOD [golf club]
10,1 Wobbly blundering mile, I’m one of 4’s (10,6)
MILLENNIUM BRIDGE
Anagram [wobbly] of BLUNDERING MILE I’M– lovely clue: its nickname is ‘The wobbly bridge’
11,15 Rebels like to work, workers likely to strike? (6,4)
KILLER BEES
Anagram [to work] of REBELS LIKE
12 Basic issue recalled about stuff, including redundancy, primarily (2-6)
NO-FRILLS
A reversal of SON [issue] round FILL [stuff] round R[edundancy]
13 Fruit has gone off — lemon, too (4,5)
OGEN MELON
Anagram [off] of GONE and of LEMON, too
16 Racket sport (4)
GAME
Double definition
17 One of 4’s, wife finally bagged by eligible bachelor? (9)
REICHSTAG
[wif]E in RICH STAG [eligible bachelor]
21 King into mindless chatter, as subordinate ruler (8)
TETRARCH
R [king] in an anagram [mindless] of CHATTER
22 Sweet where OAP is in EastEnders, perhaps? (6)
AFTERS
If we put OAP AFTER S, we get SOAP [Eastenders, perhaps] – a typical Paul clue
24 Shocker by executioner confined to the walls of Sherlock’s pad (10)
SKETCHBOOK
KETCH [executioner] + BOO [an exclamation intended to surprise – shocker] in S[herloc]K
26,4 French care for an English knight (6,6)
NORMAN FOSTER
NORMAN [French] + FOSTER [care for] – he’s now actually a Baron
27,23 Street cutting through centre, one with an obligation, is one of 4’s (6,5)
HEARST TOWER
ST [street] in HEART [centre] + OWER [one with an obligation]
Down
1,19 One of 4’s, big interior, Japan hasn’t an alternative (7,7)
BEIJING AIRPORT
Anagram [alternative] of BIG INTERIOR JAP[an]
2 Model one piece of wood (5)
IDEAL
I [one] DEAL [piece of wood]
3 Short piece on metre-high eucalyptus (3,4)
GUM TREE
GU[n] [short piece] + an anagram [high] of METRE
5 Old and new, very powerfully unique (3-3)
ONE-OFF
O [old] + NEO [new] + FF [very powerfully]
6 Spicy quality in North African stews, including last of cumin and a dash of saffron (9)
TANGINESS
[cumi]N and S[affron] in TAGINES [North African stews]
7 Money problems, no capital (7)
ROUBLES
[t]ROUBLES [problems]
8 Leave soon with English liberal and moderate (5,4,4)
SLING ONE’S HOOK
Anagram [liberal] of SOON ENGLISH + OK [moderate]
14 Line drawn under this word of doubt over muse parting nicer lips (9)
NUMERATOR
UM [word of doubt] + ERATO [muse] in N[ice]R
16 One of 4’s in a pickle? (7)
GHERKIN
Double definition
18 Laugh about blunder finally, short sharp sound (7)
CRACKLE
CACKLE [laugh] round [blunde]R
20 Composer not entirely a Creator (6)
BRAHMA
BRAHM[s] [composer not entirely] + A – BRAHMA is a Hindu creator god
Yes a nice surprise to get a Paul on Tuesday
Couldn’t parse 14. Thanks Eileen
A nice tough challenge for a Tuesday. Very enjoyable. Thanks Eileen as always for an excellent blog. And thanks to Paul, as always too. Isn’t a baron a type of knight?
I still don’t really get 22a
Start the day with a smile – solve a Paul! Favourites were SLING ONES HOOK and AFTERS.
3: If you put OAP AFTER S you get SOAP, of which Eastenders is an example (UK TV)
Eastenders is a soap which is ‘OAP’ after ‘S’ or afters which is what we in the north call pudding or sweet.
I’m a Paul fan but felt let down by this. What’s enjoyable about looking up a list of Foster’s works on Wikipedia?
Thank you Paul for a fun puzzle and Eileen for the blog, especially for the parsing of 22a, brilliant!
My favourite clues were those for the MILLENNIUM BRIDGE and the REICHSTAG.
poc @7. A bit harsh. Why look them up? As Eileen pointed out the Millennium Bridge clue contained the self-referencing word wobbly so no need to look that up surely. The Reichstag is not really stretching anyone’s GK that much. Even 1, 19 had a jokey Oriental hint in ‘Japan’.
Thanks both. Although I can’t tell a building by Foster from one by that chap who wrote all those musicals, I only had to look up 17a, so I thought it was fair.
Does anyone say “sling ONES hook” (apart from Her Maj of course)?
Thanks Paul and Eileen.
Nice setting to get in all the theme words. I have visited Hearst Castle but didn’t know of Hearst Tower – is it particularly famous? The others were reasonably fair.
Thanks Eileen for AFTER S; I just didn’t see it.
I liked the wobbly bridge particularly.
my worst effort at a G daily for ages (won’t Google). I couldn’t get BEIJING AIRPORT or REICHSTAG from the wordplay (eligible bachelor= rich stag a bit too taxing for me).
Tourist tip: when visiting the Reichstag, take or borrow a small child…someone will take you from the potentially lengthy queue and let you in through the staff entrance.
Thanks to Paul and Eileen
Well, from this hemisphere it was a struggle, starting with the non themed ones. Never heard the phrase SLING ONE’S HOOK, or the executioner, KETCH. Didn’t even know the particular MELON, although I did know the North African stew and what’s in a pickle. Learnt a lot about architecture though.
After the first run through the clues I thought it was going to be a struggle but the key for me was deciding that 23d had to end “OWER” so there weren’t that many options. That somehow led to FOSTER and the rest went in steadily.
Thanks for highlighting the extra subtleties of Paul’s clues Eileen (wobbly) and for parsing 22a – a very clever clue. I feel I’m getting on his wavelength as I worked out where clues like 24a were going, even though the the answer took some time to come to me. I’d better not get too cocky though!
This was my least enjoyable Paul puzzle for a long time, and I think poc @7 made a fair point. My lack of knowledge of or interest in the theme did me no favours. (I had forgotten Norman Foster was a knight, and I don’t know any of his works. [I knew about the wobbly bridge, though – is that what Foster was knighted for?])
However, I have to acknowledge the skilful way in which the theme was incorporated into the grid; and the clarity and inventiveness in the clues was up to this setter’s usual standard. The fact that this crossword was too dependent on the theme is my only criticism of it.
Thanks to Paul and Eileen.
I only got to solve this because once I had the anagram at 10,1a, MILLENNIUM BRIDGE, and I saw several clues included the words, “one of 4’s”, I realised that I would need to know more about the unfamiliar bridge. That is how I discovered 26,4a must be the architect NORMAN FOSTER. So after googling his whole story, I was able to fit the jigsaw pieces in, and around all that I managed to get most of the non-themed clues as well as the themed ones. It was fun to find out the subtleties Paul had employed as already mentioned by others, such as “Wobbly Bridge” and the “Gherkin”.
It was a clever puzzle, but so much of it was beyond me without assistance. The experience reminded me of recent General Knowledge versus Specialised Knowledge discussions on this very forum. I am not about to re-enter (or, I hope, re-ignite) that debate.
Thanks to Paul for a very clever puzzle. 13a OGEN MELON was another one to add to my knowledge bank, as was 8d SLING ONE’S HOOK (I bunged in BLUNT instead of SLING, as it was my LOI and I just wanted to fill in every square at that stage).
Thanks also to Eileen for the clarifications and interesting details in the blog, as well as for the explanations of a couple of my unparsed clues such as 3d GUM TREE, which I embarrassingly couldn’t parse, and the already discussed 22a (I guessed that AFTERS was a synonym for dessert, just did not get the OAP reference).
Thanks both,
It’s good to have a puzzle with lots of cross references once in a while, so long as we don’t have too many such puzzles. I don’t mind doing a bit of research if it expands my knowledge. It was ‘tetrarch’ that caused me most trouble since it was an unfamiliar word I didn’t spot ‘mindless’ as an anagrind.
Just one tiny point: the fodder for MILLENNIUM BRIDGE is “blundering mile I’m”.
Great crossword. Didn’t take long as I worked out the anagram for Millennium Bridge quickly then got the Foster answers. Very enjoyable.
Well, I certainly enjoyed doing the research to find the links for the blog and learned a lot in the process. I admired the work of Norman Foster that I was aware of – I love the GHERKIN and really want to go back to the Gorges du Tarn to see the stunning Millau viaduct http://en.tourisme-aveyron.com/en/discover/unmissables/millau-viaduct.php – it hadn’t been built when we holidayed there – but I didn’t realise quite how prolific he was.
Alan B @15 – as the link says, Foster was made a Knight in 1990 and a life peer in 1999 – during the building of the wobbly bridge!
I decided to research ‘sling one’s hook’: Brewer says, ‘The expression may be of nautical origin and allude to the anchor [hook], which must be secured in its sling at the bow before the ship can get under way.’
Thanks Mitz @18 – I’ll amend the blog.
One of Paul’s best for some time. I’m not too worried by the alleged specialist knowledge – I didn’t know all the references by any means, but they’re all gettable from wordplay and crossers, and isn’t that the point?
I do wish though that Paul would tidy up some of his surfaces. I’m trying to work out the circumstances in which one might say or write 1,19 or 14 for example.
Thanks to Paul and Eileen. A struggle for me. I did not know OGEN MELON, SLING ONES HOOK or the tagines in TANGINESS and could not parse AFTERS. I did finally get NORMAN FOSTER but needed Google to latch onto his works.
Thanks to Paul and Eileen.
10ac was a routine, fairly obvious anagram, giving the route in to the key ie who designed the Millennium Bridge.
Favourite was AFTERS. How many of us were looking for a word with a letter before AFTERS for the explanation of the clue – after all it is a favourite of crossword setters to use Cockney, East End (or just as reasonably Eastenders) to drop the first letter.
Eileen @20
Thank you for that basic biographical information – genuinely appreciated. While tackling the crossword, though, I had no opportunity (or inclination, even) to look anything up.
(How ironic that the Knight would get his Peerage during the building of the bridge! I know Londoners still call it the wobbly bridge.)
This was the toughest Paul for some time. Took me ages to see the theme, and even then half the buildings were unfamiliar, as were TETRARCH and OGEN MELON. Don’t think I would have finished this without Google and the Check button. Liked AFTERS.
Thanks to Paul and Eileen
@Alan B
The Millennnium Bridge does wobble a little bit – it was designed to, but not as much as it did initially! All that is water under itself now: it’s a thing of beauty, and the perfect link from the classic grandeur of St Paul’s to the modern behemoth that is Tate Modern.
I’m sure you folk will be able to explain why some crosswords (like this one) make you feel happy when you’ve completed them, while others . . . . . .
Disappointed not to find the Millau Viaduct, so thanks, Eileen, for the reminder. It’s at least as good as it looks in the pictures and must surely be one of the wonders of the modern world.
Mitz @26
Thanks for that further information.
I’ve actually walked across the bridge just once, and that was from Tate Modern to St Paul’s – something I hope to do again some time as well as do the walk the other way. (I loved the phrase ‘water under itself’.)
Eileen. To sling ones hook just means to remove your hammock (or leave).
I compare this offering from Paul with that from last Thursday. Last week’s was an excellent crossword that, as a solver, I enjoyed doing. Today’s is probably much more impressive as a compiler (getting all the different buildings into the solutions) but much less enjoyable as a solver.
I think too many of the compilers recently have been trying to impress each other rather than trying to provide an enjoyable solve. Maskarade’s recent prize puzzle is a great example – undoubtedly very hard and impressive to compile but no fun to attempt to solve. Far too many obscure words to match the mythology theme so just a matter of looking through lists of mythological characters (or Norman Foster buildings) and seeing if I can get any of them to fit the grid.
I’d ask the editor to encourage the compilers to be not quite so clever or, at least, apply that cleverness for the benefit of the solver’s experience rather than impressing each other.
MILLENIUM BRIDGE opened things up for me and I’m not sure how I got NORMAN FOSTER but it popped into my head. I knew GHERKIN but I had to look up the others. I was delayed by having SLING YOUR HOOK, which is surely the actual phrase, and I’d never heard of the OGEN MELON. But quite a good puzzle and quite educational for me.
Thanks Paul.
That was a tester. I quite liked the fact that I didn’t know much about NORMAN FOSTER and his work because the crossword did not, for once, collapse quickly when a few of the themers were found.
I got MILLENNIUM BRIDGE and BEIJING AIRPORT first. I couldn’t get REICHSTAG without Googling. I agree with baerchen that RICH STAG is a bit too much of a stretch to define eligible bachelor. Wealthy bachelor may have been a little fairer. Perhaps Paul thinks we’re all big architecture fans and wouldn’t really need the wordplay!
One other botch: I guessed 13 as EGON MELON.
I liked KILLER BEES a lot. Also NUMERATOR, which took far longer than it should have, since I guessed the muse correctly at once.
Thanks, Paul and Eileen.
I never mind having to Google. One of the best things about top cryptics is that you sometimes have to dig about a bit, and it is always instructive. Well done Paul; great stuff as ever! A brilliant Tuesday after a ho-hum Monday.
poc@7
I am a recent migrant from The Times (which now cost £300 and something per year). This Paul crossword I found particularly difficult and I left it half done … but at least managed half. I have, on occasion, spent hours, failing to solve even one. If Google wasn’t available I don’t think I would have finished a crossword this year. So why not look things up? Times solvers boast solving times of under 5 minutes, I have tried completing the Times crossword by writing the solutions in directly from a list in front of me… and it takes most of the 5 minutes to so just that! And where’s the enjoyment when you can rattle them off?
No…please leave me to do it my way. I must now go and look up the meaning of captcha.
This was a real learning experience for me — too challenging for me to solve without Googling, either to confirm a hunch or see if my grasping at straws was turning up anything reasonably close to the right straw.
Although I was able to get MILLENNIUM BRIDGE, BEIJING AIRPORT, and HEARST TOWER from the wordplay alone, the closest I could get to the answer at 26, 4 was that it was someone with the surname FOSTER who is or was an architect who has been knighted. (“Is there really a British architect named Gallic Foster?”, I doltishly wondered.) Google led me to the correct Foster – Exhibit A of Things I Learned Today. Clue of the day for me was probably MILLENNIUM BRIDGE. “Rachel Carson” of the day for me was Norman Foster.
Additional Things I Learned Today (with Google-assisted hunch confirmation) is that there is an “Ogen” melon and a famous executioner named KETCH.
My LOI, and the last Thing I Learned Today was the phrase SLING ONE’S HOOK, which was utterly unknown to me, and which I solved only by Googling some real grasping-at-straws possibilities. At one point, before I had all the crossers in, I was trying to convince myself that the phrase “fling one’s hair” could be the solution (by anagramming “on English” with “fair” (as the definition of “moderate”)), but that depended on the definition of that phrase being “leave so”. Not so!
Lunch is over, time for me to get back to work! Many thanks to Paul and Eileen and other contributors above. It was not an unassisted solve for me today, but I learned many things and had fun doing it.
Got off to a bad start after 9 shifted me into a movie mindset and subsequently I answered 26 as (Sir) NORMAN WISDOM.
I thought 17ac (rich stag) might be a nod towards JA’s “a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”.
I am always surprised at what most people commenting here have never heard of… Ogen melon, sling one’s hook, tagines.
I enjoyed this – even though the Millennium Bridge seems to be misplaced. Surely it connects Newcastle with Gateshead? And it doesn’t wobble.
Thanks E & P
It has been fascinating to read the somewhat polarised views of those who enjoyed the specialised nature of this crossword and those like me who normally enjoy themes but would prefer one that was more familiar and, more importantly, less pervasive. I am in the latter camp, as I prefer to complete the daily crossword away from the internet and book references.
I find myself 100% with Rupert @30 who compared this crossword (as I did) with the Paul crossword on Thursday, which I enjoyed hugely. Both were well-clued and challenging, but with my lack of access to any references today’s was impossible to complete. (As it turned out, I did relatively well with some guesses.)
There have been countless themed crosswords over the past few months, but none of them gave me anything like the rather ’empty’ experience I had today. I like ghost themes best, but crosswords with explicit themes incorporated into the puzzle have also been very enjoyable.
Naturally, I don’t begrudge others the extra dimension of enjoyment they get from discovering a theme and seeing the theme names (which they already know or have to look up) fall into place. It’s not my preference, though.
I for one found Maskarade’s recent prize puzzle great fun to solve.
Like some others I don’f get much pleasure from looking things up on Google. Describing Norman Foster as a knight when he has been a baron since 1999 (thank you, Eileen) is, I think, just wrong. There were plenty of clues to like as well, though.
Thanks to Paul and Eileen.
Like others, I was slightly surprised/disappointed not to see the Millau Viaduct included. However, I enjoyed the reference to the Wobbly Bridge (which I’ll probably be crossing later this week on my way to the Giacometti exhibition at Tate Modern before it finishes on Sunday), and I join others in praise of 22ac (AFTERS).
Alan, sometimes it’s all about what you know.
On other occasions, things you don’t know can still be clued in such a way that eventually everything falls in place.
Today’s crossword was like that.
No Googling whatsoever, at the same time never heard of Norman Foster (but given what he achieved, I should have).
REICHSTAG was our last one in, typical Paul – just like AFTERS.
True, both answers were parsed afterwards but I don’t object to that (as long as it doesn’t apply to half of the crossword).
Norman Foster, a knight or a baron?
Silly system anyway, from my Dutch point of view.
Lord Sugar?
Alan Sugar is his name, isn’t it?
Perhaps, it is just tradition, it is also some kind of intention to make things more important than they really are.
Anyway, we thought this was toughish on the outset but well worth the effort after finishing it.
Many thanks for your blog, Eileen.
Count me as a fan of the Maskerade one too. I thought it one of the best ever, with the B 8/8 error adding to the fun!
Really enjoyed this puzzle – I, too, was disappointed not to find the Millau bridge. I’d never heard of the Hearst Tower either but it was obviously correct.
Sil @42
You make a very good point (“sometimes it’s all about what you know.
On other occasions, things you don’t know can still be clued in such a way that eventually everything falls in place.”)
I know! But one thing I’m not very good at is solving clues ‘off the page’ (without crossers), especially for unknown words or names. And my intuitive skills are nothing special either. My success rate (I complete nearly every crossword I seriously attempt) comes from solving good clues, and I was a bit unlucky with this crossword. (I’m usually good at anagrams, but I missed an easy one here.)
A friend of mine described Rufus’s Monday puzzle this week as a ‘doddle’, but it took me longer to complete that than Friday’s Philistine. That sounds surprising but is explained (I hope) by what I have just said about my solving style (and skills).
Well done for completing this architectural monster without online help.
I regularly travel over the Millau Viaduct and have also driven under it. It is spectacular at both levels and well worth a visit in its own right.
‘Sling yer ‘ook mate’ is a regular jokey admonition in Liverpool where I come from!
There are at least a “handful” of Millennium Bridges “.
I got stuck because, having got Millenium Bridge, I assumed 4 was London. If the clue had said ‘One of 26, 4’ s I wouldn’t have made that mistake. Ho hum. Basically anyway too tough for me, Paul I find tricky and add the multitude of unusual words and general knowledge (as opposed to word building) in retrospect I shouldn’t have tried…any chance of a difficulty rating on these ?!
Completely impenetrable. Too much knowledge that I do not have. Sort of puzzle that can be solved in a couple of hours with a lot of help from Mr Google.
Could not parse 5e, 8d, 22a/24a
New words for me were SLING ONE’S HOOK, OGEN MELON
Failed to solve PINEWOOD
thanks blogger and setter
I came to this puzzle late, having been away at the time and now picking up odd bits of the past.
I’d never heard of Norman Foster or any of his creations, and I too found this an eduation. I especially enjoyed seeing pictures of the Millennium Bridge — it’s beautiful! Lucky me to have made its acquaintance.
I enjoyed the puzzle enormously, and your blog as well, Eileen. Thanks Eileen and Paul.