Guardian Prize 27,334 by Philistine

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A classically-themed puzzle from Philistine this week.

Greek and Latin both featured in this puzzle and there was a nice cross-reference at 24,12 to the preponderance of Latin words in the south-east corner of the puzzle (which I have highlighted).  I wonder if that was deliberate, or just a happy accident?

Timon and I thoroughly enjoyed untangling this one and at the end all our queries were resolved.  As always with this setter I am impressed by his wit and ingenuity, as well as by his concision: six clues have four or fewer words.

Gratias tibi, Philistine!

completed grid
Across
9 HOI POLLOI Public strip show hit for six when covering election (3,6)
POLL (election) in sHOw hIt fOr sIx (words stripped).  The first of several classical references; we were tempted by VOX POPULI but of course couldn’t parse it.
10 ASIDE Comment for the audience from a team with strange ideas (5)
Two pieces of wordplay here: A SIDE and *IDEAS.  The reference to an audience led us initially to look for a homophone; very nice misdirection.
11 ECHELON Morning gone, chameleon switches position (7)
*CH(AM)ELEON.
12   See 24
13 MERIT It’s a virtue, yet returning to cover it would be daring (5)
(TE)MERIT(Y).  We got this from the crossers and parsed it later.
14 STONE DEAF High ebbs and flows, primarily catching nothing (5-4)
STONED E(bbs) A(nd) F(lows).  Very clever; it was the last one in the grid.
16 STOMACH DISORDER Satchmo’s gripe? (7,8)
*SATCHMOS.  It’s a reverse clue, with the anagram indicator (disorder) in the answer.
19 COFFEE MUG Not on in church to finally lose face for a drink container (6,3)
OFF in CE, (los)E, MUG (face).  We seriously considered COFFIN LID (not on in church)….
21 SACKS Lots of coal fires (5)
Younger readers may not remember the coalman shouldering sacks of coal from his lorry to the house.
22 CHEMIST Scientist‘s note in box (7)
MI in CHEST.
23, 23 down MEMENTO MORI Compiler again broke monitor? Good reason to 25 (7,4)
ME ME *MONITOR.  Latin for “remember that you must die”.
24, 12 LATIN QUARTER The south-east corner is in the 5th and 6th arrondissements (5,7)
The reference is to the south-east quarter of the grid, which has three down and two across entries in Latin.
25 CARPE DIEM Relish the moment I’m deep in trouble chasing vehicle (5,4)
CAR *(I’M DEEP).  Usually translated as “seize the day”.
Down
1 SHEET MUSIC 22 across use poorly written notes (5,5)
*(CHEMIST USE).  Because “chemist” is singular, the clue isn’t quite grammatical, but it’s a lovely definition.
2 HITHERTO Other arrangement supporting strike so far (8)
HIT, *OTHER.
3 GOBLET Try hitting net after start of Badminton Cup (6)
GO, B(adminton) LET (hitting net).
4 CLAN Tribe with the magic lantern (4)
Hidden in “magic lantern”.  I’m not sure that “with” is really adequate to indicate a hidden answer, but it wasn’t hard to spot it.
5 MISQUOTING Messing up passage, turned to squirming right away (10)
* (TO SQUI(R)MING).
6 JALAPENO German approval on the rise of united China is hot stuff (8)
JA, ONE PAL (rev).  Our old rhyming slang friend China (from China plate = mate) for pal.
7, 8 LITTLE BEAR  Cub stars? (6,4)
Double definition.  The constellation known as Ursa Minor.
8   See 7
14 SCHEMATICS Diagrams showing Lewis after school holding up one train (10)
1 TAME (one train) (rev) in SCH(ool) CS (Lewis).
15 FIRESTORMS Fierce protests arising from company’s internal store layout (10)
*STORE in FIRM’S.
17 APERIENT What helps one go without head on beer? A pint, possibly (8)
*((B)EER A PINT).  An aperient is a laxative; a clue of which Paul might be proud!
18 DECENNIA A nice end for troubling decades (8)
*(A NICE END).  Another Latin term which of course shares the same root as “decades”.
20 FIESTA Fnooze party? (6)
(S)IESTA, with the initial letter replaced.
21 SEMPER In clothes? Emperor? Always! (6)
Hidden in “clothes emperor”.
22 CALF Young creature giving rise to endless criticism (4)
FLAC(K) (rev).
23   See 23 across

*anagram

25 comments on “Guardian Prize 27,334 by Philistine”

  1. I really enjoyed this. So many good clues. I think it was “Cub stars” for LITTLE BEAR I liked best. Beautifully concise, even if not terribly difficult. “Fnooze” for FIESTA was a good one too — don’t think I’ve seen one quite like that before. Big smile for Satchmo’s gripe, also.

    24,12 is a double definition, isn’t it, with “The south-east corner is” as the first? The first couple in for me gave crossers for QUARTER and I pencilled in LATIN, trying to justify it by the fact that Rome is SE of here. It was only when I was working out DECENNIAL, having already got the other Latin bits that I realised. I did wonder whether SEMPER was used in English too.

    I too thought “with” was not the best indicator for a hidden, but I loved the surface.

  2. Thanks to Philistine and bridgesong. APERIENT was new to me and took some juggling, even with all the crossers, and among the Latin terms DECENNIA too did not come easily, but, as usual with this setter, the cluing was sufficient – and very enjoyable.

  3. Thanks bridgesong and Philistine.

    I wasn’t familiar with the meaning of LET in GOBLET, so hadn’t been able to parse it. I love a reverse clue so STOMACH DISORDER was my favourite.

    I didn’t appreciate LATIN QUARTER until the grid was complete. I don’t doubt for a second that it was entirely deliberate.

  4. Thanks bridgesong. The arrondissements were an early voilà, revealing the bottom right. Small delays on parsing 9 and 14A, both likeable. Thanks Philistine.

  5. This is the third week running that the Prize hasn’t been too challenging. BNTO may not be very happy but they’ve all been good puzzles. There seems to be a general understanding that the Saturday crossword should be a bit tougher than weekday offerings, but is this actual policy at the Guardian?

  6. Thanks ! Very enjoyable. 4d had me stumped for a bit, I spent a while googling for possible tribes with names like “muvi” until the penny finally dropped.

  8. Re 22 down: Whence this alleged word ‘flack’ meaning criticism? It should be ‘flak’, the extended meaning of the German acronym meaning anti-aircraft fire.

  9. Epeolater @8: I think you’re quite right. There is a word “flack” but Chambers defines it as an American term for a press agent. I can’t find any other word beginning FLAC that could mean criticism. Well spotted!

  10. Thanks Philistine and bridgesong
    A very enjoyable puzzle, though the easiest Philistine I can remember. The only thing that grated at the time was the implied “chemist use” that you mention, though I think Epeolater has a point about “flack”; a quick look through Google only found an entry with that meaning in the “Urban dictionary“, and even that used the “flak” spelling as well, as in this example:
    The flack for the tobacco company took flak over his statement that cigarettes were not proven to cause cancer.

  12. I did wonder about FLACK, but I supposed somebody would produce it as a legitimate alternative spelling from some dictionary like a rabbit from a hat…

    Enjoyed this very much as I usually do with Philistine. Favourites Satchmo and the fnooze party, which was my last in but made me smile when I finally saw it.

  13. I had a momentary panic when I realised that COLT would also fit 22 down, although I couldn’t parse it, so I checked the annotated solution and FLACK is what the setter intended.

  14. Thank you Philistine and bridgesong.

    Just loved this puzzle. I, too, thought to enter VOX POPULI at first and parsed MERIT later.

    The COED gives FLACK as an alternative spelling for flak, “give adverse criticism”.

    The clue for STOMACH DISORDER was probably only too true, Louis Armstrong took a laxative most days to control his weight.

  15. Good fun, although younger solvers might not find it so. Top clue for me was the same as everyone else – the reverse anagram at 16. 9, 14a and 20 also had smileys by them – as did 3 which was my LOI. I’ve only just twigged the internal reference with LATIN QUARTER – very neat. In my view 18 was a weak clue with the definition and solution being so close and the anagram fodder very obvious – but that’s a minor gripe in an enjoyable puzzle.
    Thanks Philistine and bridgesong.

  16. Cookie@14: Yes, Oxford Dictionaries online (but not yet the OED itself) does give FLACK as a variant spelling of FLAK. The OED also has FLACK as an East Anglian dialect word meaning to hit, but I think that is a digression. Interestingly, some of the quotations cited by the OED in the entry for FLAK do use the FLACK spelling, the earliest going back to 1975, so Philistine is not the first person to use this spelling.

  17. Nice puzzle. I didn’t spot the LATIN QUARTER ref but everything else went quite satisfactorily. My faves were STOMACH DISORDER and FIESTA.
    Thanks Philistine.

  21. Collins Compact Dictionary 1984 gives:

    flak or flack n. 1. anti-aircraft fire 2. inf. adverse criticism.

    I guess Eileen is too busy in York to consult her larger and more recent edition!

  24. Just back from another lovely day in York, meeting friends old and new.

    I had no time to comment before leaving this morning but did look at the comments so far. I was expecting that Philistine would receive a certain amount of fla[c]k for delivering this elitist classical biased puzzle, which, of course, was right up my [state-educated, as I always point out] street and was pleasantly surprised to find no such objections – but then really disappointed to find that half the day’s comments were concerned with the aforementioned ‘fla[c]k’! Like Gladys @12, I didn’t give it a second thought.

    Like Tony @1, I was rather surprised to find SEMPER in Chambers. It’s literally the first Latin word I ever learned – in primary school! ‘Semper eadem’ [‘always the same’] is the motto of the city of Leicester – and of Queen Elizabeth I.

    Thanks to bridgesong [and Timon] for a great blog. And, of course, as always, to Philistine, for a puzzle which I, naturally, absolutely loved.

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