Guardian Prize 27,609 / Philistine

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For three of the last four years, on this particular day, Crucible has presented us with a puzzle themed on the Last Night of the Proms – and I’ve been lucky enough to blog all of them – but his appearance last Wednesday with a puzzle [themed on musicals] seemed to indicate, as Sil pointed out, that we were not likely to get a fourth this year. So who would it be, given that Paul had supplied the Prize puzzle the previous week?

Philistine – hurrah! – with another great puzzle, which, for me, was over too quickly – but I say that about all puzzles I enjoy and this was no exception.

With some setters, you know automatically to look for a theme. Philistine is less predictable: he has thrown in some interesting ones from time to time but –  apart from a nod to his day job* in 15 and 23dn and maybe 19dn and even 17dn – I can’t detect anything here. Over to you!

*I checked in Philistine’s interview with Alan Connor, eighteen months after he started setting for the Guardian, that this was common knowledge [and was reminded, incidentally, of one of his clues, ‘End of term party [6]’, which is in my little book of all-time favourites].

Alan Connor’s final question in the interview was, ‘What do you think goes through a solver’s mind when she [sic] sees that it’s a Philistine puzzle?’, to which Philistine replied, ‘I’d like to think that she looks forward to a challenge and a chuckle or two, but perhaps we should ask her that’.
Well, if you ask me, Philistine fulfils his own brief every time. Many thanks, as ever, to him.

Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

1 Blunder made by stepfathers? (4,3)
FAUX PAS
FAUX [of all the synonyms I have found – bogus, fake, false, etc – in this context I prefer ‘substitute’*] + PAS [fathers]
[* my children had a great stepfather-  my son recently referred to him as a ‘bonus dad’]
Last month, Philistine, with his Goliath hat on, clued FAUX PAS, again very cleverly, as ‘Dad’s following message about you, said in error (4,3)’

5 Ring road regularly is a monstrous thing (7)
CHIMERA
CHIME ring] + alternate letters [regularly] of RoAd

9 Bug recurs in pregnancy (5)
ANGER
A hidden reversal [recurs – comes back] in pREGNAncy

10 Knowledge makes sense somehow after a conflict (9)
AWARENESS
An anagram [somehow] of SENSE after A WAR [a conflict]

11 Firm changed mind and sent out for flavouring (10)
CONDIMENTS
CO [firm] + an anagram [changed] of MIND + an anagram [out] of SENT

12 Dismal heartless face (4)
DIAL
DI[sm]AL, minus middle letters – heartless

14 Concerning the province, “quiet” meant avoiding a surprise (12)
ASTONISHMENT
AS TO [concerning] + NI [Northern Ireland – the province] + SH [quiet] + ME[a]NT
An attempt to forestall possible queries / objections:  from Wikipedia – “’The Province’ refers to the historic Irish province of Ulster but today is used by some as shorthand for Northern Ireland. The BBC, in its editorial guidance for Reporting the United Kingdom, states that “the Province” is an appropriate secondary synonym for Northern Ireland, while “Ulster” is not.”

18 Is embracing spin in part of symphony refinements (12)
IMPROVEMENTS
IS round PR [spin] in MOVEMENT [part of symphony]

21 With no flaws in this diplomacy (4)
TACT
[in]TACT = with no flaws

22 A green revolution in service for the boss (10)
MANAGERESS
An anagram  [revolution] of GREEN  in MASS [service]

25 At first sight, youth may be of little importance supporting modern art movement (9)
SYMBOLISM
First letters of Sight Youth May Be Of Little Importance Supporting Modern

26 Fashionable cube unrelated to global organisation (5)
INDIE
IN [fashionable] + DIE [cube] – I’m not sure of the definition here: comments welcome

27 Melody and noise on the right wavelength (5,2)
TUNED IN
TUNE [melody] + DIN [noise]

28 One third of residents accommodated stray (7)
DIGRESS
RES[idents] in DIGS, so accommodated

Down

1 Country ragout fragrance (6)
FRANCE
F[rag]RANCE – please see my comment on 5dn re the construction

2 Pressing under guarantee, not only banks (6)
URGENT
First and last letters [‘only banks’] of UndeR GuaranteE NoT

3 Each calling for approval (10)
PERMISSION
PER [each] + MISSION [calling]

4 Remove growth that could be sown (5)
SHAVE
Aha! – this is now a trademark Philistine clue; I’ve blogged a couple of them and the first one that appeared  foxed me completely: we have to remove the S from the rest of the word in both wordplay and answer, giving us own = HAVE

5 Seaside social network (9)
COASTLINE
An anagram [work] of SOCIAL NET – more separation needed; some people don’t like this kind of clue but I do and this is a very neat example

7 Look at ship’s make-up (8)
EYELINER
EYE [look at] + LINER [ship] – an old favourite

8 Inside wash: very pure (8)
ABSOLUTE
SO [very] in ABLUTE [wash] [not in my Chambers or Collins but gettable, I hope, from its derivative, ABLUTIONS, which, as everyone knows, is an anagram of USAIN BOLT

13 Mad person in custody is not going to start casual conversation (10)
CHATTERING
HATTER [mad person in ‘Alice in Wonderland’] in the initial letters [to start] of Custody Is Not Going

15 Talk about empty pleasure in surgery (9)
OPERATION
ORATION [talk] round P[leasur]E

16 The stiff manoeuvres towards the end of a match? (5,3)
FIFTH SET
An anagram [manoeuvres] of THE STIFF

17 Half specialist soldiers, for example (8)
SPECIMEN
SPECI[alist] + MEN [soldiers]

19 Provoke pointer (6)
NEEDLE
Double definition

20 The woman’s supporting the Guardian guides (6)
USHERS
HERS [the woman’s] after [‘supporting’, in a down clue] US [the Guardian]

23 Equipped in cardiovascular medicine (5)
ARMED
Hidden in cardiovasculAR MEDicine

24, 6  There’s a thought, briefly put: God of DIY dead! (4,4)
GOOD IDEA
GO[d] O[f] DI[y] DEA[d] – briefly put

31 comments on “Guardian Prize 27,609 / Philistine”

  1. Thanks to Philistine and Eileen. Very enjoyable. I parsed COASTLINE but needed help with SHAVE. I too am waiting for an explanation of INDIE.

  2. Thanks Eileen. I agree, another great puzzle, over too quickly. Maybe a few too many clues requiring manipulation of their component letters, 7 or 8 by my count. I tried hard to make PENNY fit in 9a and still think it is a better answer to the clue. I did like both the 1s and had to think hard about 18a, my LOI. I needed Google to inform me about 26a which, as I now understand it, is music produced independently from commercial record labels. I guess these can be global organisations.

  3. I really enjoyed this crossword and Philistine is fast becoming one of my favourite setters.  I like the lift and separate type clue and no one does it better than P.  What I think sets this setter apart is the great range of clue types we see in each crossword.  Interesting Eileen that you can’t find ablute in your dictionaries I did not even think to look, so natural does it seem.  Favourites among many great clues were CHATTERING, EYELINER and the brilliant SHAVE.

    Very many thanks to Philistine for a superior puzzle and Eileen for the faultless blog.

  4. Easier than a couple of the week’s dailies, I found, and great fun to solve. That said, I was slow to get some, e.g. 12a and the brilliant 4d, both of which are sort of cunningly disguised as themselves, to borrow from the Goons. Lots of ticks, including 28a, and 8 and 16d.

    Thanks to the Don and Eileen.

  5. @ADC #1 – I enjoyed the puzzle, but I thought INDIE was a bit of a stretch. I took it as meaning, in the sense of a film production of music band, to be independent from multinationals, the most common genre being indie music of which John Peel was such a great proponent, and th NME used to have Indie charts in each issue, back in the 80s/90s at least. I thought FAUX PAS was top-notch.

    Thanks to Philistine an Eileen.

  6. Thanks both,
    INDIE is quite common in the film industry, meaning those (often quirky) low budget projects that the big globals don’t produce

  7. Thanks Eileen and Philistine.

    For me, 1a, 14a and 27a were good,  and 1d and 5d were also clever (I also quite like this type of construction) but easily guessable from the definitions.

    Apart from these, unlike previous commenters I didn’t like this much at all. Amost all the answers went straight in from the definitions, which were obvious (except perhaps 26a), plus enumeration and crossers. I don’t mind some clues being like that but there were too many here.  The whole thing would have been solvable as a ‘quick’ crossword if the wordplay had been omitted altogether.

    While I’m being grumpy – I was going to ask how ‘recurs’ is a reversal indicator (9a) as to me it means ‘comes back’ only in the sense of ‘happens again’. But having looked it up I see it can also mean ‘goes back to’ figuratively, as in ‘he often recurs to his favourite book’ so I suppose almost acceptable (and the second meaning of the word is a TILT).

  8. If I complete a prize crossword, without any unparsed solutions, I don’t normally wait for the blog and make comment. But I thought this was so good that I ought to at least say so. Love clues such as SHAVE. Such a joy when you see them.

    “End of term party (6j” . Got it! Very good.

    Many thanks to Philistine and Eileen.

  9. I meant to add that the EYELINER reminded me of once seeing EYE SHADOW clued cryptically by ‘watchdog’, which I thought very neat. Can’t remember who came up with that gem.

  10. Thanks for the comments so far re INDIE. I only knew it in connection with music. I’m going out for the day now, so can’t comment further until this evening.

  11. Very enjoyable puzzle.  Loved SHAVE and COASTLINE.  Wasn’t so sure about INDIE so thanks to everyone who has commented on it.

    Thanks of course to Philistine and Eileen.

  12. Thanks to Philistine and Eileen. I agree a very enjoyable puzzle, but probably at the easier end of Philistines spectrum. Generally a very steady solve for me and I liked improvements as well as coastline. Thanks again to Philistine and Eileen.

  13. Thanks Philistine, Eileen

    Lots of neat clues, but overall a bit disappointing.  I think that’s because for a very high proportion of solutions the letters, all or some, are somewhere in the clue.  I count 16/28, whether anagrams, acrostics, hiddens, deletions etc.  There’s not so much working out unexpected meanings of words, which is the bit I like.

  14. Thank you Philistine for an interesting puzzle and Eileen for a super blog.

    So many clue types, great fun, especially those for SHAVE, which I could not parse, FRANCE, COASTLINE and DIGRESS.

    I got the HATTER from the idiom “As mad as a hatter”,  people who made hats in the past sometimes went insane because of the mercury in the felt they used.

  15. Clever and enjoyable, yet, not 100% my cup of tea.

    Philistine has two trademark devices (multiple fodder clues, wordsplits) and there were plenty of them here. I counted four multiple fodder clues (25ac, 2d, 13d and the final clue 24d,6) plus three splits (1d, 4d, 5d).

    They add up to 25% of the whole set which I just find a bit too much.

    Especially, the multiple fodder clues have become somewhat predictable, you can wait for them.

    As to splitting words, unlike most commenters, I don’t care much for what happens in 4d [when I saw it, I thought ‘ah it’s Philistine again’] but I found 5d (COASTLINE), as you say Eileen, very neat. It makes total sense in the surface.

    My/our last one in was FIFTH SET (16d) which took ages to spot.

    Overall, fun to solve.

    As far as I can see it, there’s no-one with a style like Philistine’s (except, predictably, Goliath)

    That is really something to be admired – whether I fully like that style is another matter.

    Many thanks Eileen & Philistine.

     

     

  16. Enjoyed this a lot, so thank you to Philistine.

    1a FAUX PAS was one of the ones I ticked for special mention.

    Thanks for a really interesting blog, Eileen, including some beautifully informative additional elaborations, which really enhanced my re-visit to this crossword.

     

  19. I quite enjoyed this-easier than many of the puzzles in the week that followed it but none the worse for that. I liked FAUX PAS and CHIMERA.
    Thanks Philistine.

  20. Thanks Philistine and Eileen

    I was away last weekend, so didn’t get around to this until Sunday evening. It was quite a relief that it was an easy one, both for a Prize and for a Philistine.

    LOI and favourite was FAUX PAS. I’ve seen a campaign suggested to protect all those poor fauxs from being shot for their fur!

  21. I didn’t find this as easy as some seem to have. I ground to a total halt for a while, then got going again with the beautiful (but apparently old) 7d, EYELINER. I was also impressed with the range of clue types and was on the lookout for Philistine trickery, but still took ages to get 5d, COASTLINE, which seemed impenetrable for a long time.

    I really liked the long acrostic in 25a, SYMBOLISM and the simple yet elegant charade of 27a, TUNED IN.

    I had the same thoughts as beaulieu about recurs initially, but a visit to the BRB satisfied me.

    Nice pdm getting “accommodated”= in digs.

    @Eileen. Are you going to give us the answer, or at least further help on your favourite clue (End of term party)? Btw, the apostrophe police will be after you for “HER’S” (20d)!

    @grantinfreo, as you probably know really, Philistine isn’t “the Don”, Don Manley (aka Pasquale etc) is.

  25. Tony @21

    I’ve just returned home and, as a highly active member of the apostrophe police myself, I couldn’t be more mortified – thank goodness you didn’t comment much earlier!

    My apologies for the wrong attribution of the puzzle last night  –  I thought I’d corrected it in time.

  26. This may be so obvious that nobody has mentioned it, but as well as FAUX PAS being false fathers, ie stepfathers, PAS means ‘step’.

    As to ‘End of term party ‘, when a pregnant woman reaches the end of her term she goes into ……. (hint: not Con or Lib Dem!)

  29. @Eileen, haha! I’m sure there was no mens rea (one for Paul to clue there). Easily done, isn’t it, even when you know how to use them properly.

    As for the attribution, I think it was correct in the text from the beginning (when I saw it, anyway), but “Picaroon” remains part of the URL, as stated. Probably nothing that can be done about that now and it doesn’t really matter much anyway.

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