I found this tricky at first until I realised that I was getting too distracted by the surfaces. Once I reminded myself to just look at the words, not what they are saying, the rest of the puzzle sailed in quite smoothly. Thanks Shed for an entertaining puzzle.
| Across | ||
| 4 | SETTER | Shed for dog (6) |
| double definition – the setter of this crossword | ||
| 6 | HAREBELL | Prince sheltering insurrectionary flower (8) |
| HAL (prince) contains (sheltering) REBEL (insurresctionary) | ||
| 9 | LARIAT | Rope has number in Lithuania (6) |
| ARIA (number, a song) in LT (Lithuania) | ||
| 10 | ADORABLE | Lovely, fit woman included (8) |
| ABLE (fit) contains (with…included) DORA (a wonan’s name) | ||
| 11 | THAUMATURGE | Magician‘s impulse to follow short article on gold carpet (11) |
| URGE (impulse) follows THe (the definite article, short) on AU (gold) MAT (carpet) | ||
| 15 | DRUMMER | Musician‘s introduction to dark stranger (7) |
| Dark (introduction to, first letter) then RUMMER (stranger) | ||
| 17 | LUSTRUM | Desire to drink for five years (7) |
| LUST (desire) with RUM (a drink) a five-year period in Ancient Rome | ||
| 18 | SCARAMOUCHE | Braggadocio‘s to traumatise a 4 across, stifling cry of pain (11) |
| SCAR (traumatise) A and ME (the setter) contains OUCH (cry of pain) | ||
| 22 | MERCATOR | Map-maker finding flashy car on a hill (8) |
| MERC (flashy car) on A TOR (hill) | ||
| 23 | GEMINI | Sign of stone in Italy (6) |
| GEM (stone) with IN then I (Italy) | ||
| 24 | SENORITA | Girl from Spain retrospectively makes amends, receiving religious instruction (8) |
| ATONES (maes amends) reversed (retrospectively) containing (receiving) RI (religious instruction) | ||
| 25 | TUXEDO | Garment for old flame back in house, mostly (6) |
| EX (old flame) reversed (back) inside TUDOr (royal house, briefly) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BECALM | Salve keeping City still (6) |
| BALM (salve) contains (keeping) EC (city, postcode of the City of London) | ||
| 2 | BANDERILLA | Players, each flanking very small River Dart (10) |
| BAND (players) EA (each) contains (flanking) RIL (very small river) | ||
| 3 | FEARLESS | Bold Provençal city piercing confessor’s heart (8) |
| ARLES (Provencal city) inside (piercing) conFESsor (heart, middle letters of) | ||
| 4 | SOLITUDE | Sidle out drunk to get freedom from company (8) |
| anagram (drunk) of SIDLE OUT | ||
| 5 | TARTARUS | American sailors on top in underworld (8) |
| US (American) following (with…on top) TAR TAR (a sailor, twice) | ||
| 7 | ELBA | Part of cartel banished to island (4) |
| found inside (part of) cartEL BAnished | ||
| 8 | LEEK | Vegetable that’s not initially glossy (4) |
| sLEEK (glossy) missing initial letter | ||
| 12 | TERRACOTTA | Tat creator created from clay (10) |
| anagram (created) of TAT CREATOR | ||
| 13 | PRACTICE | Training to put turn in charge (8) |
| ACT (a turn, on stage) inside PRICE (charge) | ||
| 14 | IMPETIGO | 4 across’s 4 across, perhaps, 4 across to leave skin infection (8) |
| I’M (I am, the setter is) PET ( a setter dog perhaps) I (the setter in person again) and GO (leave) | ||
| 16 | MISCARRY | Tie knot round record, getting head wiped, and go badly wrong (8) |
| MARRY (tie knot) contains (round) dISC (record) missing first letter (getting head wiped) | ||
| 19 | OBELUS | Blouse shredded by dagger (6) |
| anagram (shredded) of BLOUSE | ||
| 20 | AMOS | Prophet giving drug up (4) |
| SOMA (a fictional hallucinogenic drug, from Huxley’s Brave New World, also a modern brand name for Carisoprodol) reversed (up) | ||
| 21 | BRAN | Make incomplete husks (4) |
| BRANd (make, tradename) incomplete | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Thanks PeeDee. It sailed in quite smoothly for me too, until the wind dropped in the NW and 11a and 5d had me becalmed. I needed to start up the Google motor to get me home and dry.
I thought 18a was SCAR (traumatise) + ME (setter) containing OUCH and in 2d the small river is RILL.
I should have said + A + ME of course.
I think 19A is SCARE A ME (ref to SETTER) contains OUCH.
Agree perfectly with your comment about avoiding the surface readings to uncover the answers – that nails the delight of this puzzle.
That said I found the indirect references to. She’s via 4A SETTER a bit clumsy.
But a fine puzzle well explained thanks to all concerned.
That’s how I eventually parsed it as well Biggles, having spent most the time with SCAREMOUCHE thinking there must be an alternative spelling until our loi BANDERILLA caused a rethink.
This felt an old school puzzle to me, and none the worse for it, which is understandable given Shed’s heritage. Words like THAUMATURGE and LUSTRUM were somewhere in my grey cells but I’ve no idea how they got there and they would never have seen the light of day again without this crossword. Everything was fairly clued and we enjoyed solving it. Many thanks to Shed and PeeDee.
Thanks PeeDee. Half a lunch-hour for this but there were some answers I had to vet on the way like BANDERELLA and last-in TARTARUS (sure as I was that ‘tars’ were the first four letters).
Thanks to Shed and PeeDee. BANDERILLA (my LOI) gave me trouble but otherwise I made steady progress and much enjoyed this puzzle. I did know TARTARUS and dredged up LUSTRUM.
Many thanks Shed and PeeDee. In 3 down, Arles is contained in FÈS ( not contains).
Slightly surprised to complete this as there were a few new to me words ( banderilla, TArtarus thaumaturge ). Very enjoyable though. Thank you
This went in easily for me too, despite THAUMATURGE, LUSTRUM and TARTARUS being new to me.
Agree with Biggles A @1 & @2 on the parsing of SCARAMOUCHE.
I enjoyed this, but I prefer it if a Prize Crossword lasts into Sunday.
Thank you Shed and Peedee.
Thanks to Shed and PeeDee. As others have said this went in quite smoothly. That said, I think I spent more time dictionary checking than I did solving. Quite a few words were unfamiliar, all of which have been mentioned above. Last one was banderilla (after a dictionary check), though I did like impetigo and miscarry. Overall learned a few more words from this and thanks again to Shed and PeeDee.
Thanks to everyone for the corrections. I can never see the errors in the blog until someone points them out. All of a sudden they become glaringly obvious.
White King @4 – “old school and none the worse for it” – you have it exactly. If I had thought of this at the time I would have used it as the introduction.
An enjoyable crossword though perhaps a little easy for a prize?
Some new words but all workoutable from the word-play.
Thanks to Shed and PeeDee.
This was the prize puzzle in the week his mother (Audreus) pass away. I kept looking at this to see if there was any reference, but I couldn’t see it. Like others, I found this a head-scratcher, but after several PDMs, it all went in.
Thanks to Shed and PeeDee.
I concur regarding those “unfamiliars” others have mentioned.
I found it interesting that we had the “SETTER” as the theme this week, whereas in the previous week’s Prize the focus was on the “BLOGGER”.
The clue for 14d “setter’s setter setter…to leave”, giving I’M PET I GO was clever wordplay. 15a DRUMMER was also one I liked.
Thanks Shed, PeeDee and fellow contributors.
Thank you Shed and PeeDee.
An enjoyable puzzle, but definitely a case of concentrating on the words and not on the surface of a clue. Living in a nature reserve we have a wild garden and at the moment the HAREBELLs are the only plants in bloom.
Yes,an old school puzzle which, as others have said,was relatively easy and very enjoyable. Nothing too obscure- I got LUSTRUM via Robert Harris rather than from previous crosswords. SCARAMOUCHE was LOI and I parsed it the way Epeesharky@ 3 did.
Much to like in a gentle sort of way.
Thanks Shed.
Thank you Shed and deepest sympathy on the death of your Mother Audrey (Audreus to those solving her fine crosswords). Like Araucaria and Bunthorn she was seminal in my early crossword adventures. For others in the 225 family your moving obituary can be found here.
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2018/jul/13/audrey-young-obituary
Thanks also to PeeDee for helping me with one or two parsing problems. My favourite clue by some distance was IMPETIGO, which to those who have never suffered from it is probably a word only ever encountered in crosswordland! I also enjoyed reacquainting myself with the word LUSTRUM, which I only know from watching Rooster Cogburn. The eponymous Rooster is asked by Katheryn Hepburn what a period of five years is called and Rooster (John Wayne) answers, much to Hepburn’s character’s surprize LUSTRUM.
I’d like to echo every bit of S. Panza’s first paragraph.
Nothing to add by way of comment on this lovely puzzle – perhaps the ‘old schoolness’ of it was itself a tribute – except renewed thanks to Shed – and thanks to PeeDee for the blog.
It was a fine puzzle, but thank you S. Panza for the link to Shed’s beautiful obituary. It amazes me that people (probably mostly young women) still “went into service” in the 30’s. What a sweep of history Audrey Young could remember!
Great puzzle.
Interesting point of “cluology”: Shed uses “on” to mean “before” in two across clues: 11, 22. Some (notably the Times, I believe) only allow “on” to mean “after” in an across clue (and “before” in a down clue). However, we don’t expect Shed to follow such petty niceties, so no problems with it.
I didn’t really know what a SCARAMOUCHE is, and when I checked in Chambers, it only gives scaramouch, with the last syllable pronounced as “ouch!”. However, I (as many others, I imagine) am familiar with Shed’s version, pronounced in the French way (“-moosh”), from “Scaramouche! Scaramouche! Will you do the fandango?” (YouTube).
Favourite clue; 19d (very racy!)
@Uncleskinny, puzzles are set and submitted a long time before they appear in the paper.
Condolences to Shed on his loss.
@tony – yes, I know, but I’m surmising they are using an extant Shed puzzle by way of tribute.
I’m still puzzled as to why Audreus, as a Guardian setter for about 50 years, didn’t get an entry in the Guardian’s main obituaries column. Her son John could still have written it.
I’ve belatedly been doing some research and it seems that I must have blogged Audreus’ last puzzle – happy memories.
Adding my sympathetic thoughts to our setter, Shed. What a wonderful tribute to his mother from her son! It speaks profoundly of the remarkable woman Audrey Young was. Her legacy is truly admirable.
Thanks to everyone for the comments and condolences. The puzzle wasn’t intended as a tribute: I submitted it several weeks before it became obvious my mother was dying. She didn’t get to solve it herself, but I can imagine her grumping that THAUMATURGE (11ac) is ‘a bloody ridiculous word’, but remembering SCARAMOUCHE from Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, even if she wasn’t sure what it meant. (I wasn’t either, till I looked it up. According to my 2014 edition of Chambers, the ‘E’ is optional.) She always kept her ears open, even if she didn’t like what she heard – though in the case of Queen she did.
She was my mentor, crossword-wise, so if I come over a bit ‘old school’ I guess that’s why. I think our styles are (or in her case were) very different, but we always enjoyed solving each other’s puzzles. May she rest in peace.
Thank you, Shed.
Shed, many thanks for coming on. It’s always an honour and a treat to receive a visit from the setter, never less than in this case.
Thanks also for the up-to-date Chambers reference (mine is the 1988 7th Edn. — still long after Queen surely made SCARAMOUCHE the dominant version of the word). In fact, Etymology Online only has that spelling and tells us that it derives not from French, but the Italian scaramuccia and is related to skirmish.
No idea where I learnt THAUMATURGE. Probably from another crossword.
I liked the picture painted by meepmeep’s comment to Audreus’ Meet the Setter interview.
Ahem! Never MORE than in this case!
Thanks for the informative blog. Some distantly remembered words like lustrum. Thaumaturgy of course via the sadly missed Terry Pratchett, splitting the thaum (smallest unit of magic) at the UU …
The clueing was impeccably straightforward, so the difficulty was only the unfamiliar solutions. A pleasant puzzle.
Thanks to Shed and PeeDee
Shed, I’m terribly sorry to hear of your loss. I wasn’t too familiar with Audreus’ cryptic puzzles, but I’m sure they were as challenging and fun as yours. You must have learned a lot from her to be such a great cryptic setter in your own right. And this puzzle was indeed quite a cerebral workout. Many times when I solve these puzzles, I’ve had to look up unfamiliar words or phrases after certain clues made me wonder about the wordplay and how to parse it out. This one became a real adventure, finding such words as THAUMATURGE, LUSTRUM, BANDERILLA(my LOI), TARTARUS, etc. But of course, I’m almost positive everyone had “Bohemian Rhapsody” going through their heads as soon as they got SCARAMOUCHE, but then again some of us were probably reminded of Anthony Scaramucci(Da Mooch!), one of the many people hired-and-fired by the current President. Anyway, it was sort of a tough puzzle, but not unsolvable, thank goodness. I will admit, I’ve occasionally had no choice but to walk away from a particularly difficult Prize cryptic. But only after it seemed like absolutely nothing was working, or maybe I had one or two answers wrong so it really screwed things up altogether. Such was not the case here, ultimately. A great puzzle worth solving, IMHO. Plus, it’s always fun to learn new words! Good job Shed, but again my condolences on the loss of your mother. I lost my father about 11 years ago to prostate cancer, and just last year I lost my only nephew Mason in a car accident. Another week, and he would have turned 20, but he never made it. No matter who it is, a death in the family is never easy. Hang in there. She’ll always be with you in spirit.