Guardian Prize 27,549 by Puck

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A tough themed puzzle from Puck this week.

The grid was one which has cropped up before now in prize puzzles.  Timon spotted quite early on that the central nine letters (highlighted) formed the word MENAGERI(E), read clockwise from the M.  This helped us make sense of the puzzling wording at 2 down, but even after that breakthrough we had almost nothing on the right hand side of the grid after more than an hour.  Perhaps it was the hot sun (most of the UK has been enjoying a heatwave in recent weeks).  Later Timon completed the south-eastern corner and I did the same for the north-eastern corner.  But it was only when I came to write the blog that I was able to come up with some plausible parsings (although I still have doubts about OSTRICHES and THROWAWAY).

Anyway, there were some splendid surface readings as you might expect from Puck; my favourite was the topical 18 down.

completed grid
Across
1 FARMYARDS Cultivate areas of growth for the US stockholders? (9)
A charade of FARM (cultivate) and YARDS (areas of growth or gardens in US parlance).  Tricky, as FARMHANDS and FARMLANDS also fitted with the crossers.
9 HAIRDO “Talking 2” act in Barnet (6)
Sounds like “HARE DO”.
10 DIANA RIGG Player moving around grid again (5,4)
*(GRID AGAIN).  Dame Diana Rigg was most recently on television in the delightful series The Detectorists.
11 ZOOMED Collection of 2s going by sea? Flew! (6)
ZOO MED.
12 GANGLIONS Party 2s, a nervous lot? (9)
GANG LIONS.
13 IBADAN Scotsman taking off for African city (6)
BAD (“off”) in IAN (Scotsman).  There is also a city called ABADAN in Iran, but that doesn’t quite work.  This was our LOI.
17 MEN Males in 3, taking time out (3)
MEN(AGE).
19 SHAR PEI Cutting that is about a dog (4,3)
SHARP IE(rev).  And this is what they look like.
20 ALLERGY Funny reaction, as gods start moving in right direction (7)
I think this is (G)ALLERY (or “gods” in the theatre), with the first letter (start) moving a few places to the right.
21 REG Elton John to his mother, say? That’s right, at first (3)
R(ight) E.G.  Elton’s real name is Reginald Dwight, so presumably his mum called him Reg…
23 RETAIL Sell dog again (6)
To dog can mean to follow, or tail, so “dog again” would be re-tail.
27 THROWAWAY Casual discard, when passing ditch (9)
A charade of THROW (discard) and AWAY (using it as an imperative).  I’m not sure what “when passing” is doing in the clue: I may have missed something.
28 CHOUGH Bird: just a little chicken, but headless (6)
C(hicken) (t)HOUGH.
29 EDGBASTON Ground strokes: first two bad (gone out) (9)
*(ST(rokes) BAD GONE).  A cricket stadium in Birmingham (I shall be there for the Test Match against India in August).
30 EUSTON Brexit negotiators’ 180º change of direction is terminal (6)
EU S TO N.  (South to North).  Very clever and I only fully understood it when writing the blog.
31 PANTHEONS Buildings for honouring dead cats, acceptable for lost queen? (9)
PANTHE(R)S with ON (acceptable) replacing R (queen).
Down
2 ANIMAL Drummer: member of group contracted to do turns around central square (6)
Thanks to Timon for pointing out (a) that Animal was the name of the drummer in The Muppet Show and (b) that the letters in the centre of the grid form the word MENAGERI(e) (or a “contracted” group of animals).
3, 4 MENAGE A TROIS  Unconventional household as people get older, or as it evolves (6,1,5)
MEN AGE *(OR AS IT).
4   See 3
5 DIGANCE Folk-singing comedian, sending up soldier in the Lancers? (7)
GI (rev) in Lancers (a dance).  Richard Digance is a folk-singer and comedian, perhaps not so well-known as he deserves to be.
6 RAZORBILL Put up a poster, say, or a flyer (9)
Sounds like “raise a bill”.
7 DROMEDARY Like a desert in which roamed a southward moving 2 (9)
*ROAMED in DRY.  I’m not sure that “southward moving” adds anything essential to the clue.
8 GOLDENEYE Swimmer or observer? (9)
GOLDEN (Or is the heraldic term for the colour gold), EYE.  It’s a duck.
14 OSTRICHES Fast runners, East German, briefly carrying the most fat (9)
I’m not entirely sure about the parsing here.  An East German is an OSSI, which could give you TRICHE in OSS(i), but that doesn’t work.  Alternatively, you could take OST (German for East), followed by RICHES(t), but that doesn’t quite work either (“carrying”?).  I suspect the intended parsing is RICH (most fat) in OSTIES, but I can’t justify OSTIES.
15 CARTHORSE 18 upset her actors (9)
*(HER ACTORS).  Puck has decided not to use that old favourite ORCHESTRA for the anagram fodder here.
16 SPRINGBOK 2 born at end of season? Yes (9)
SPRING B OK.
17 MIR Russian station over in Crimea (3)
Hidden and reversed in Crimea.  It’s a Soviet era space station.
18 NAG Meghan agrees “to have and to hold” Harry (3)
Another hidden clue: Meghan agrees.  The capitalisation of Harry is deliberately misleading but allows for a topical surface reading.
22 ECHIDNA 2 that might be chained (7)
*CHAINED.
24 WOMBAT 2 with special place for carrying a 2Mb floppy (6)
*(A TWO MB).  As a marsupial, a wombat has a pouch for carrying its young.
25 LASSIE Story about donkey or 2 seen on TV (6)
ASS in LIE.
26 BABOON A bishop in favour as primate (6)
A B in BOON.

*anagram

43 comments on “Guardian Prize 27,549 by Puck”

  1. Thanks bridgesong. I don’t remember this grid before and  though I knew early on 2d had to be ANIMAL I couldn’t explain it until the grid was complete and I finally noticed the central square. I agree with you on 20a and don’t think you have missed anything in 27a. In 7d I saw the ‘a’ in ‘roamed’ as moving south; without it there is no anagrind. In 14d I like your first alternative but agree it doesn’t quite work.

  2. Thanks bridgesong. Looked up DIGANCE incredulously for LOI, and there it was.  A fair bit of frowning en route to find out how many obvious answers – eg ANIMAL, EUSTON and WOMBAT – matched their clues.  Glad to see the explanations here.  But all in all a satisfying Prize Puzzle, thanks Puck.

  3. Thanks to Puck and bridgesong. Very tough going for me. I chipped away at this puzzle over several days, doing a lot of guessing and checking once I got some crossers (e.g., with DIGANCE, barnet-HAIRDO, and EDGBASTON, all of which were new to me), though in that process I ended up with farmlands, not FARMYARDS.. I had no idea how to parse THROWAWAY though it was the obvious solution. I got several of the animals early on (SPRINGBOK, ECHIDNA), then WOMBAT and BABOON, but ANIMAL came much later until Google supplied the link to “drummer.” In this instance GK became Generational Knowledge. I.e., Our son at age 2 started with the first airing of Sesame Street in Fall 1969 but I have been out of touch for decades (and failed to consult my granddaughter).

    [In 15d you have Puch for Puck..]

  4. There were several here I didn’t get, and I also had FARMLANDS, though wasn’t sure that’s particularly American (as I understood the clue).

    I agree with BigglesA on ROMEDA =
    ROAMED, with A moving “southward” in a down clue.

    I correctly guessed ALLERGY, but couldn’t parse it, though bridgesong’s seems right to me.

    I thought THROWAWAY could be a triple def: Casual (throwaway remark)/discard (vb.) when passing (discard as you go)/ditch (vb.), but was also unsure about “when passing”.

    I guessed “Barnet” was rhyming slang (Barnet fair), but that’s just hair, isn’t it (for which I was seeking a six-letter synonym to fit), not a hairdo? “I’m going to get me Barnet done“=”I’m going to get a hairdo.

    I got ANIMAL from “drummer” plus finding animal answers, and also thought perhaps “member of group” could be referring to (60’s grouo)The Animals, but never spotted MENAGERI(e) and had no idea the clue was referring to the grid itself. Very Puckish. I did notice what an odd grid it was (like one that’s suffered a tectonic shift) and how badly interconnected between quarters, but I figured the theming would make up for that. However, I failed to get IBADAN (never heatd of it, but I was thinking ‘Ian’), EUSTON (is it EU = “Brexit negotiators”, then?), RAZORBILL or GOLDENEYE (never heard of it).

    Thanks for the illumination, bridgesong.

  6. Flavia @5: you are right. According to the annotated solution, which I have just consulted, the parsing is indeed OST/RICHES(t), or the second of the parsings I suggested above. I still don’t see how OST can be said to be carrying RICHES.

  9. Thanks Puck and bridgesong

    My first two themed answers were ECHIDNA and SPRINGBOK, and I spent some time trying to work out what those two animals had in common – doh!

    I had FARMLANDS too.

    You can get the E for MENAGERIE by taking in the E of SHAR PEI.

  10. @8 Since the ‘briefly’ comes first, I think ‘carrying the most fat’ is simply intended to define riches(t).

    Lovely puzzle. Didn’t spot Menagerie but then it is missing the final letter.
    Thsnks to Puck and Bridgesong

  12. Spent most of the week on this and still ended up with five unsolved, but nevertheless thoroughly enjoyed teasing out the answers I did get. Some very clever clues I thought. The four short ones in the middle were simple but I totally missed the ‘central square’ – so thanks for helping make sense of 1d! SPRINGBOK was also easy and luckily I am familiar with The Muppets so was on my way. Failures were CHOUGH, GANGLIONS and three in the NE. GOLDENEYE I really like having seen the answer and kicked my self a little, IBADAN was a bit obscure though and probably the only one I didn’t enjoy. 30d I also missed the parsing but again see it’s very neat

    Thanks also Puck for the reminder of Richard Digance – I spent a happy half hour enjoying some of his old songs – excellent

  13. Loved this.

    I was quite happy with OSTRICHES – if you carry your shopping home in a bag it is likely to be hanging down from your hand.

    As muffin has pointed out the whole of MENAGERIE is there in the middle – Puck has done this before with armadillos. (I’m sure Eileen can confirm this!)

    Thanks to Puck and bridgesong

  14. Yes, tough! Pecked away all week and dnf as I dnk the singer or the dance Lancers. I couldn’t parse allergy or goldeneye (or=gold/en=chestnut, doh!), looked for nag=scold before seeing carthorse (double doh!), and dnk boon as archaic for favour, and didn’t see menageri. So, lots of lessons from the clever and playful Puck, and thanks to blogger and commenters.

  16. Thank you Puck and bridgesong.

    Hard going for me, but very enjoyable, with DIGANCE last in after checking on google.  I seem to remember that I entered FARMLANDS at 1a. I did not understand the definition ‘Drummer’ for 2d, but did not have trouble in parsing the other clues.

    I took 27a as a quadruple definition, “when passing” being similar to “in passing” – now I will have to come up with an example …

  17. I don’t think there is any particular significance to the E in SHAR PEI being adjacent and available, as the clue to ANIMAL makes it clear that MENAGERIE is “contracted “ or abbreviated.

  18. We also chipped away slowly at this over the weekend and didn’t get the central square reference – very clever and another device to watch for. We went with HANDS rather than YARDS.
    We also found it doubly confusing that not all the 2s in the solutions were referenced as such (BABOON SHAR PEI nor the birds). With ECHIDNA and WOMBAT we were looking for marsupials for a while – all in all thoroughly misleading and very clever.
    We had nothing at all in the NE for ages and then eventually got the delightful HAIRDO, and I also had NAG as my favourite – not often that a 3 letter solution that can be filled in without the clue gets this award!
    The queries mentioned above passed me by, but I wondered what FUNNY was doing in 20. We didn’t parse PANTHEONS.
    Thanks to Puck for a worthy prize puzzle and to Bridgesong who deserves a prize for the blog.

  19. … ‘passing’ as such is a synonym for THROWAWAY and ‘Casual’, but so far I cannot account for the ‘when’ …

  20. Thanks to Puck and bridgesong. Like others I found this tough going, with a lot of guessing and then trying to parse. I also wondered if there was something more to the theme, with 4 birds and 2 dogs, but maybe I was just overthinking it. A DNF for me because I also put in farmlands. I did like goldeneye and hey ho sometimes it is good to be brought down to earth. Thanks again to Puck and bridgesong.

  21. DuncT @ 13. You are right, it was ARM, MAD, LID, ALL and ALCOHOL then but as bridgesong points out MENAGERI is contracted. I wonder though if the E of shar pei is accidental or deliberate.

  22. The annotated solution for  27a gives “throwaway/throw away   double def/clue” .   If ‘Casual’ is THROWAWAY from discard = THROW AWAY (as bridgesong has it)   and    ‘passing’ is THROWAWAY from ditch = THROW AWAY,  then Casual and passing are the two definitions since the letter count is 9?

    Tony @4 also finds the clue confusing.

  23. This was something of a snorter but was most enjoyable -.even though I did it the wrong way round. I didn’t see MENAGERI until I’d filled the grid and my original justification for ANIMAL was Eric Burdon’s group. I remembered the drummer in the Muppets,again, after the completion of the grid. Indeed,I only knew the name from crosswords. I’ve never seen the show to my knowledge. I knew DIGANCE as I saw him once but that was when I was at University so I imagine the name was really obscure for those younger than I am- and that’s just about everyone!
    I had to look up SHAR PEI and IBADAN and I was delayed by having RABBIT for 9ac – cockney for ‘talking’- for a while! I liked CARTHORSE.
    Thanks Puck.

  27. Maybe muffin @26. But having a child with nut allergy I can only see it as an *expletive deleted* nuisance, at best. I have a sense of humour bypass on the subject. :/

  29. I understand what you’re saying muffin @28. Not sure how unusual something has to be to qualify as peculiar, though. I’m just nit picking, of course, as the subject makes me grumpy.

  30. As well as the puzzle with the ARMADILLO in the central square (with the O being that creature’s little tail curling off into the longer answers), Puck also did one (Guardian 27,208, themed on the teletubbies) with ANTENNAS (ANT, TEN, ANN, ASA) in a central square, a featured referred to in 4d, the third of three joined by ellipsis, by the words “one of those looped round the middle”.

  31. “one of those looped round the middle”

    … which also accurately describes a ROTARY DIPOLE AERIAL, the answer to the triplet. Brilliant!

  32. I would have posted this earlier, but did not want to start a discussion about Brexit.  The first President of the European Parliament,  Simone Veil, was laid to rest in the Panthéon, here in France, on July the 1st – a survivor of the Holocaust, she had wished that the European countries would remain united so as to avoid further wars.

  33. Totally perplexed in the NE corner.

    Cause was writing in SPOONBILL at 6dn.

    “Put up” giving the SPOON part on the basis of “hit (a ball) up into the air with a soft or weak stroke” (Oxford).

    Seems OK to me even now, except for the damage to my HAIRDO.

  35. It’s “D’oh!” Not “doh” or even “Doh!”. See Grauniad style guide (or the cartoon).
    Well remembered Tony @30, i seem to recall Bridgesong blogging that one, too.

  36. I liked this the grid construction with the trademark Puck wrap-around in the middle but found the wording of a couple of clues a bit odd.  As has been pointed out, the E of SHAR PEI provides the final E of MENAGERIE, so why the “contracted” in 2?  Wouldn’t it sound better as something like “Drummer: member of group touring around central square”?  I think the allusion to the Animals pop group is an intentional bonus.  I parsed THROWAWAY as Cookie did, i.e. a quadruple, but again why the “when” in the clue?  The version “Casual discard, passing ditch” seems to have an only slightly worse surface and the distinct advantage that there are no superfluous words.  The suggestion that “when passing” = “in passing” = “THROWAWAY” may be right but is not very convincing.

    Those quibbles aside, it was thoroughly enjoyable.  I loved MENAGE A TROIS and the letter moving techniques in DROMEDARY and ALLERGY.  Last in was IBADAN – deceptively simple but hard to spot (for those of us geographically challenged 😉 ).

    Thanks, Puck and bridgesong.

  37. @Timon,

    This is the second time I’ve read your comnent while away from my (prize!) Guardian Style Guide, so I will just ask: why the apostrophe? I always write it ‘doh!’ and assumed the d’oh’ers(?) were illiterate. Re the antennae, I won’t forget that one in a hurry. I recommrnded it recently, to someone who was asking about elliptically conjoined clues.

  38. @Tony
    I’m afraid I can’t give a reason for the apostrophe, it’s not my phrase, I just remember it from the GSG (my copy missing for ages).

  40. [Thank you, Cookie@32, I hope you see this. The Simone Veil reference was a very interesting thread.]

  41. A tough crossword which I didn’t finish properly. I also filled in at 1a FARMLANDS without parsing the US reference. I was also sure 2d ANIMAL was a reference to the drummer from Eric Burdon and the Animals. 5d DIGANCE was unfamiliar. I did enjoy seeing the animals theme and solving 31a PANTHEONS.
    But overall, I have to echo the sentiments of those who declared this one of the most difficult Prize puzzles in a while. Thank you to all concerned for the blog and the varied contributions, though. It was only by coming here that I got to see MENAGERI(E) and appreciate Puck’s clever tricksiness. Thanks in particular to Bridgestone and Timon for a sterling effort.

  42. Like Tony @4  I wondered about 30 ac and EU as Brexit negotiators.  I took it as EU NOTS with the NOTS reversing (180 degrees) to give STON.

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