A characteristically tricky and witty puzzle from Puck this week, although I’m not sure I’ve spotted every piece of misdirection.
Timon and I made a slow start (although BOYCOTT was a write-in) and allowed ourselves to think that there were going to be cross-references where in fact there were none. We very much appreciated the cleverness of THIRTY-ONE DAYS and EIGHT DAYS A WEEK and the concision of the three double definitions. I guessed AMISS early on, but was not entirely convinced I was right, and still don’t fully understand the clueing of ODONATA. ANTONIO CONTE was almost impossible to work out from the wordplay but luckily we do follow football. The other Chelsea reference also required some extraneous knowledge but was very clever. Many thanks, Puck, for the entertainment.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BOYCOTT | Black cricketer (7) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 5, 3 | ANTONIO CONTE | Manager asking for one hundred and ten percent, essentially not troubled by number being irrational (7,5) |
| I offer this possible parsing: AN TON (one hundred) IO (ten) C (cent) O (essentially nOt) *TEN (irrational number). One hundred and ten per cent (in this context, an irrational number) is sterotypically the amount of effort demanded of his players by some football managers: Antonio Conte is the Chelsea manager. | ||
| 10 | DOWN | Blue drink (4) |
| Another double definition. | ||
| 11 | INHUMANITY | Lack of sense, including smell? That’s being cruel (10) |
| HUM (smell) in INANITY. | ||
| 12, 16 | BAKERS DOZEN | Dog’s first run out, before nap in front of number 13 (6,5) |
| BA(r)KER’S DOZE N(umber). At first sight this looked like a cross-reference to 13 across, but not so. | ||
| 13 | RELAXING | Peaceful angler disturbed, coming across 11 (8) |
| XI in *ANGLER. Another apparent cross-reference. | ||
| 14 | MAINSTAYS | Chief supports old woman wearing corset (9) |
| A delightful charade of MA IN STAYS. | ||
| 16 | See 12 | |
| 17 | AMISS | One letter Puck’s forgotten is out of order (5) |
| I think this parses as A MISS(I’ve), but I have a nagging feeling that there is a better explanation. | ||
| 19 | ONIONSKIN | Very fine paper soon in recycling? Sort daughter binned (9) |
| *(SOON IN) KIN(d). | ||
| 23 | INVENTED | Designed home with escape routes? (8) |
| IN VENTED. Makes sense if you think of escape routes for gases. | ||
| 24 | FRINGE | Unofficial border (6) |
| Another double definition. | ||
| 26, 27 | EIGHT DAYS A WEEK | Number scored in extra time? (5,4,1,4) |
| Cryptic definition of the classic Beatles song. | ||
| 27 | See 26 | |
| 28 | EGOTISM | Some things regularly interpreted as self-love (7) |
| *(SOME ThInGs). | ||
| 29 | ODDNESS | Quality shown by 13 with Dead Head after too much drug intake (7) |
| OD (overdose) D(ead) NESS. And another cross-reference that isn’t. | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ODONATA | In order to see dragonflies, a fellow hid in long grass earlier (7) |
| In zoological terms, Odonata is the order which includes dragonflies. The only way I can make any sense of the clue is to suggest that it is an envelope of DON inside OAT (a grass) but that leaves an A unexplained. Help, please! | ||
| 3 | See 5 | |
| 4 | TWINSET | Film following Jedward, say, in women’s clothing (7) |
| TWINS ET. | ||
| 6 | NAMELY | Meal ordered in city (North American city, that is) (6) |
| *MEAL in NY. | ||
| 7 | OBNOXIOUS | Vile smell around American seen outside Number 10, repeatedly (9) |
| BO (rev), NO X (number 10) IO (ten again) US. | ||
| 8 | INTENSE | Keen to show decimal point (7) |
| IN TENS E. | ||
| 9 | THIRTY-ONE DAYS | May’s content as a Tory? Deny this, surprisingly (6-3,4) |
| *(A TORY DENY THIS). What a clever clue! | ||
| 15 | NISSEN HUT | Shelter from the sun, after tanning back in sun first (6,3) |
| IN(rev) S(un), *(THE SUN). | ||
| 18 | MANNING | Providing people to work for Chelsea now? (7) |
| A very clever reference to the whistleblower Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning. | ||
| 20 | OFFHAND | Bad worker is laid-back and rude (7) |
| A simple charade of OFF and HAND. I wasn’t sure about “laid-back”. | ||
| 21 | INGRESS | French painter’s admission (7) |
| INGRES’S. | ||
| 22 | ETUDES | Playing duet on tablets works (6) |
| *DUET, ES. | ||
| 25 | IOWAN | Have short article in current New Statesman (5) |
| OW(n) A in IN (current). Last one in the grid for us (mind you, we thought it was someone called Irwin!). | ||
*anagram
Thanks bridgesong. The top half had tricky bits for me, a Jedward that needed googling as did the manager, although for him I had the cross letters and the answer was clear enough. On 2D the “a” before fellow was gratuitous and hence a signal: but it doesn’t work to answer your problem, in the order here. I especially liked the BAKERS DOZEN clue, recalled the Beatles song very early and right at the end got the statesman (remembering that almost always this word here points to the USA). Good work Puck.
Thanks bridgesong. My first cast revealed only one and a half answers (I wasn’t sure about DOWN) and I anticipated a struggle ahead. In the event it yielded in about the usual time though I had to seek assistance with 5a 3d and took much longer over 12 16a than I should have done.
In 2d the A is hiding between ‘dragonflies’ and ‘fellow. In 5,3 I think CONTE is C+ONT(anagram of not)+e, the irrational number and Napierian base.
I should have explained that the C in 3 is the middle (essential) letter of ‘percent’. Also, 10 is an integer and a rational number.
Third and last. The A in 2 is the last letter, ‘fellow hid in long grass’ is earlier.
I parsed 2dn (ODONATA) as:
DON inside OAT (fellow hid in long grass), all before A (earlier)
While I found the references to footballers and cricketers a tad obscure, I loved the May and Chelsea misdirections.
Thanks Puck and bridgesong.
Thanks to Puck and bridgesong. A major struggle for me. I knew Chelsea MANNING but had to make liberal use of Google for ODONATA (which I could not parse) and others. The northwest corner and 5-3 eluded me for most of the week until I finally spotted DOWN, so that again, thanks to Google, I figured out ANTONIO CONTE and my LOI BOYCOTT (and with the latter I still haven’t digested “black” as the second definition as opposed to blacklist or blackball). I thought there might be something going on with BAKER’S DOZEN, EIGHT DAYS A WEEK, and THIRTY-ONE DAYS, but, if so, I don’t get it.
This was a good way to pass one hour of a 13-hour flight on Thursday, and I enjoyed it. Without any references, I had to leave 2d ODONATA until I got home.
Puck is one of my top setters in the Guardian stable, but I thought the wordplay was too contrived in some of these clues, and for that reason the crossword did not come up to the standard of an excellent Puck Prize puzzle I remember solving earlier this year, which had a mini-theme of aerials and an armadillo incorporated somehow in the grid.
The most interesting part of the crossword for me was the top left, where I left 1A and 2D blank temporarily until I could check the answer to 2d ODONATA. Until then I had decided (somewhat impishly) to allow either WALCOTT or BOYCOTT to occupy 1A. As one of these would have been a single definition, though, and the other a double, the correct answer was of course obvious all along.
Thanks to Puck for the clever clues (it took me quite some time to get the significance of ‘number scored’ in 26/27A) and to bridgesong for what must have been a challenging blog.
Too good for me I was beaten by Manning and Nissen Hut (I thought Netted Hat for ages)
I did see Amiss but couldn’t see any parsing so thanks Bridgesong for that and the rest of this clear explication. Not sure if anyone else spotted that Amiss is a cricketer as well as Boycott ? And of course the “blue” in 10A clue is an allusion to Chelsea (“The Blues”)
Eoin Sharkey @8
Indeed, Boycott and Amiss were opening partners for England many years ago, with Boycott at No.1 (appropriate for him to occupy No.1 spot in the puzzle, then.) In the same vein, I suppose the ‘out of order’ in 17a could also be a cricketing reference (the batting order.) A pity then, that Amiss couldn’t be clue No.2!
Thanks bridgesong for the tricky blog, and Puck for the tough, but very enjoyable puzzle.
Also there are two bits of wordplay in 6d, the second being N(orth) + Am(erican) + Ely.
Thanks Puck and bridgesong
Unusually for a Puck puzzle, I really didn’t enjoy this. I thought 5,3 was completely unfair – answer unknown to anyone who doesn’t follow football, and – as the difficulty of parsing demonstrates – impossible to build up from its parts. I solved in by guessing the second name from the crossers and Googling “conte manager).
My first pass yielded half a clue less than Biggles A but we (nearly) got there in the end. Once we got going there was much to enjoy including 1, 26 and 9. I had INHUMANELY in for 11 which meant INTENSE was nearly LOI. And then there was this conversation about 5 3.
Mrs W “could it be a football manager?”
Me “no, this is a Guardian crossword, there are far too many of them and it has to be something more accessible with such a convoluted clue”
How wrong I was – hence the nearly getting there. It took the edge off a nice puzzle for me, but it was still fun overall. Thanks to Puck and to bridgesong for a sterling effort with the parsing.
Thanks for all your comments (so far). I agree that the parsing of ODONATA by Biggles A and Swatty explains the clue satisfactorily. I also prefer Biggles’ parsing of CONTE.
Well done Eoin Sharkey @8 for spotting the BOYCOTT AMISS connection: I’m sure it was deliberate.
And I didn’t spot the second piece of wordplay in NAMELY, so thanks Greensward @10.
Thanks bridgesong and Puck.
I am not too happy about the parsing of 25d – it means the NEW is unexplained. I took it to be OWA in I (current) N (new), but I wasn’t convinced. I toyed with IOWA being a new state, but couldn’t see any reason for that.
I couldn’t convincingly explain 12, 17, 2d, so thanks for those.
I thought the I in IOWAN was the (electrical) current, leaving N for the New.
Didn’t quite get there, despite something of a Googlefest – including reading the whole Wikipedia entry for UK football managers (almost none of whom I knew, and I’m glad to see you say ANTONIO CONTE was almost impossible to work out from the wordplay, bridgesong). I thought I was going to be two with no solution at all at the end, but finally guessed AMISS and that ‘M’ then gave me MANNING, which I feel I should have got much more easily, but after all that Googling I was locked into the wrong Chelsea (nice one, Puck). But I ended up with an unparsed IRWIN instead of IOWAN – the New Statesman was a nice misdirection there, given Robert Irwin’s connection, and by pure chance I’d only just come across Lord Irwin (who later as Earl of Halifax was Viceroy of India) in William Manchester’s huge biography of Churchill.
So, overall, rats! But an entertaining puzzle, so thanks, Puck, and thanks for the blog, particularly for explaining a number of tricky parsings, bridgesong.
Thanks tonPuck and Bridgestone.
I had 1a as an anagram of A IOO (“one” hundred) TEN C (perCent essentially) NOT N(umber)
I meant 5a of course
It took me some time to get started on this but then the excellent THIRTY ONE DAYS popped into my head. Then I was away.As I have said so often, I know virtually nothing about sport but even I knew BOYCOTT, and I had heard the name ANTONIO CONTE but I had to Google to find who he actually was. I had to check ODONATA but I parsed it to my satisfaction.
Nice puzzle.
Thanks Puck.
Fairly tricky I found, with some great clues. Spent a lot of tine at the end trying to think of a suitable HaT (NISSEN HUT).
Ma in stays! Haha!
Greensward, thanks for explaining “North American city”.
AlanB,
” a mini-theme of aerials and an armadillo incorporated somehow in the grid.” I think you’re conflating two puzzles here, both with a nina curling round a central box. It was ANTENNAS in the Teletubbies one, I think, and ARMADILLO (with a little tail) in the earlier one.
Bridgesong,
AMISS – parsing looks good to me.
IOWAN: OW(n) A in I (current) N(ew)
ANTONIO CONTE:
AN= one
TON=hundred
IO= ten
C= percent, essentially
ONT= not, troubled
E= number, being irrational
Help! I’m not being offered Preview!
Tony
Thanks for your correction – well spotted. It was indeed the ‘Teletubbies’ crossword that I was thinking of, and that one had ANTENNAS. I remember that one as a great crossword.
There is no Preview facility now – see Admin’s announcement on the home page.
Tony@20: Preview is no longer available for reasons explained by Gaufrid (see Comment Preview in the left hand menu, or go to the Home Page where it is pinned).
Alan, bridgesong,
Thanks for the heads-up about Preview.
This was a toughie for me and I had to look up ANTONIO CONTE (name did ring a bell as being something to do with that – er – ‘beautiful’ game which I’m not a follower of). And then I tried several ways to parse it before giving up!
I also had to look up EIGHT DAYS A WEEK. Another field of knowledge in which I’m sadly lacking. I thought I’d heard of all the Beatles’ songs at the very least*, but not this one! But after I’d written in and crossed out SEVEN DAYS A WEEK, the answer went in OK.
But – on a similar theme – thought THIRTY-ONE DAYS was excellent for its definition.
Anyway, a proper ‘prize’ from Puck – and a good effort from bridgesong at trying to parse ANTONIO etc! Thanks to both.
P.S. Today’s prize (which I’m not allowed to spoil – yet) is a tad gentler.
*as opposed to the Stones’, that is.
Never heard of the manager (have zero interest in London football clubs) but having got ANTONIO from wordplay, Google threw up many suggestions so just had to pick the one which fit. At 18ac definition was clear, so didn’t bother to look further till now.
I would ask bridgesong to please be a bit more explicit in the parsing, which is supposed to help tyros like me to understand clues and learn how to decipher them. Comments such as the one for 4d (TWINS ET) or the one for 8d (IN TENS E) offer no help whatsoever.
Point taken ArchaicArch.
In 4 down there is a charade, which means a synonym of part of the answer. Here “Jedward” stands for twins (Google the word if you’re not familiar with them) and “film” stands for ET (the Spielberg science fiction movie, very popular with crossword setters). Put the two parts together for TWINSET.
8 down is also a charade, “Decimal” can be rendered as IN TENS, and a point is usually one of the four cardinal points of the compass. Here it can only be East, or E.