Well, it was pretty surely not going to be Paul, since we’d had him the previous Saturday and the following Friday, so I was intrigued as to who would get this Prize slot, since we’d had most of the usual suspects, I think, during the previous two weeks.
It turned out to be Brummie, who doesn’t occupy the Prize slot so often as some other compilers and I never know quite what to expect from him. There’s always the question of whether or not he’ll have a theme, which adds to the challenge. I do know that I usually enjoy his puzzles and this was no exception.
It was only at the end of the solve that I remembered to look for a theme and, as soon as I looked at the completed grid, RISING DAMP, together with PORRIDGE, leapt out, so we had a semi-‘ghost’ theme, which was, in fact, clearly signposted by DAD’S ARMY, one of my first entries – Doh! Then the pennies rapidly dropped with BREAD, MIRANDA, RED DWARF, REV, EPISODES and my absolute favourite [The] LIKELY LADS, TV sitcoms which were all, of course, seen in EPISODES – perhaps doubly bad luck for non-UK solvers, who may not have heard of / seen these classics – but I do hope some of them may have travelled.
I think it’s fair to say that Brummie is not noted for his surfaces but I rather liked 12,14 and 16ac and 20 and 25dn.
Many thanks to Brummie: great fun – even more so in retrospect.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
8 Spells “musical passages” (8)
EPISODES
Double definition – although they seem rather close
9 Doc possibly moves forward, or quits (5)
DWARF
An anagram [moves] of F[or]WARD minus ‘or’ – Doc is one of Snow White’s diminutive chums
11 US hospital situation popular with birds getting cool (10)
INTERNSHIP
IN [popular] + TERNS [birds] + HIP [cool]
12 Promising Latin opener with Kylie dancing (6)
LIKELY
L[atin] + an anagram [dancing] of KYLIE
14 Breakfast time? (8)
PORRIDGE
Double definition – two expressions for a prison sentence
16 Copper intercepts drunk messenger (7)
MERCURY
CU [copper] in MERRY [drunk]
18 As egg-producers do, in anticipation of a union (7)
OVULATE
Cryptic definition
21 Poor idea, roping in animals as a religious figure (5,3)
AGNUS DEI
An anagram [poor] of IDEA round GNUS – as always, I can’t resist giving this link [you don’t have to follow it 😉 ] – and I was amused to see the GNUS roped in with the Lamb of God
23 Revolution takes place in arena (6)
RISING
IS [takes place – as in ‘the party is on Saturday’] in RING [arena]
24 1960s’ youth, one linked with ailing creative artist (10)
MODIGLIANI
MOD [1960s youth] + I [one] + an anagram [creative] of AILING – a creative anagrind, which we might have expected to be ‘ailing’ – nice one, Brummie
26 Soggy embankment parking (4)
DAMP
DAM [embankment] + P [parking]
27 Book to register cash (5)
BREAD
B [book] + READ [register]
28 In awe of despotic leader at southern English town (8)
DREADING
D[espot] + READING [Southern English town]
Down
1 Assess smartphone feature and set up (8)
APPRAISE
APP [smart phone feature]] + RAISE [set up]
2 Watch (electronic) someone planted? (4)
ESPY
E [electronic] + SPY [someone planted] – ‘espy’ to me [and Collins] means ‘to catch sight of’, rather than ‘to look at or observe closely or attentively’ [watch – Collins again] but Chambers has ‘watch’ as the first definition
3 Untwinned large town abandoning its leader’s case (6)
ODDITY
ODD [untwinned – like socks coming out of the washing machine] + [c]ITY] [large town] – we often used to call each other ‘a case’ when I was at school, so it might be rather dated 😉 Collins gives it as ‘an eccentric’
4 Something at the atomic level breathes oxygen over shark (7)
ISOTOPE
IS [breathes – a second rather unusual definition for IS but I’m not complaining] + O [oxygen] + TOPE [shark – a new one on me]
5 Lines start to reflect river (4)
ODER
ODE [lines] + R[eflect]
6 Anglicised French port‘s state, for example, broadcast (10)
MARSEILLES
I’m not sure about this: English adds ‘s’ to the name of the port, which explains ‘Anglicised’; MA = Massachusetts [state] and SEILLES sounds like [broadcast] ‘say’ [for example] but I can’t explain the R: MA is surely only used in writing, not speech, so it can’t be part of the homophone – can it?
7 Removing without date in the near future (6)
OFFING
[d]OFFING [removing, minus d – date]
The OFFING is literally ‘the part of the sea which can be seen from the shore’ [Collins] as in, ‘They told me last night there were ships in the offing’, from ‘Blow the wind southerly’, which paints a poignant picture of a lass awaiting her sailor’s return – I had it as an earworm for the rest of the day after solving this
13 Scoops old sluices out to gain victory (10)
EXCLUSIVES
EX [old] + an anagram [out] of SLUICES round V [victory]
15 Pretty upset, losing top from yellow cycle (3)
REV
A reversal [upset] of VER[y] [pretty] minus y[ellow]
17 A light that’s often put in pocket (3)
RED
Double / cryptic definition, the second referring to a snooker ball
19 Flat has view over people (8)
TENEMENT
TENET [view] round MEN [people]
20 Country besieged by mad, reckless Shakespearean character (7)
MIRANDA
IRAN [country] in an anagram [reckless] of MAD
22 $1,000 campaign is thick and soft! (6)
GLOBBY
G [grand – $1.000 dollars] + LOBBY [campaign]
23 Bankrupt, one enters “under review” (6)
RUINED
I [one] in an anagram [review] of UNDER
25 Convenience that is lacking for workmates (4)
LADS
LAD[ie]S [convenience, minus ie – that is] – I wondered about ‘work’mates but Chambers has it as a definition
26, 10 Pop music’s centre host presenting a classic series (4,4)
DAD’S ARMY
DAD [pop] + [mu]S[ic] + ARMY [host]
Our experience was exactly the same as Eileen’s in that after solving it I said to Mrs W “there’s often a theme but it isn’t obvious” and she said “well there’s Likely Lads, Rising Damp” and then the Dad’s Army signpost leapt out! It was also a very slow solve as well less than half the clues had starting letters as crossers – and I find synonyms without first letters so much harder to come up with. Getting one clue didn’t open up the puzzle so each one was solved as a stand alone. Like Eileen we didn’t parse MARSEILLES fully and am grateful for her explanation of RISING. As each solution was a struggle I had few ticks but I particularly enjoyed PORRIDGE when the penny dropped and RUINED which took an age to get but is straightforward with hindsight – always the mark of a good clue to me.
Many thanks to Brummie (and it was nice to see a variation for the prize setter) and Eileen.
Thanks Brummie and Eileen.
Re MARSEILLES I could only think that ‘mar’ is short for the married state.
Thanks to Brummie and Eileen. A struggle (and the TV sitcoms were Greek to me). I did fight my way through over the weekend (and dredged up PORRIDGE as a prison sentence from previous puzzles), but I got stuck on 8 across. Only at the last minute did I come back to decide that my choice of VANITY (where the first three letters did not parse – though it is a “case”) was wrong, so that ODDITY did emerge and EPISODES followed.
Thanks Eileen. Missed the theme totally. Queries galore against probable answers like the too-obvious OVULATE and the French port. Bogged down in the bottom left until the implausible GLOBBY suggested itself, and seemed to sum up the whole thing. But I did like DWARF.
I solved this one in several sessions as the literals were rather subtle in places. A US solver like me might have heard of Dad’s Army, but that’s about it among this lot. You really didn’t need the theme to solve, and the non-theme answers gave the most trouble. I had a fair amount of struggle with the NE, biffing and then erasing ‘Marseilles’ several times. But my LOI was actually ‘Mercury’, which wouldn’t come to me until I put the puzzle down for a few days – then I saw it at once.
A fine effort from Brummie, very fair to all solvers.
Thanks Eileen-Tenement is indeed tenet ROUND men rather than over.And I didnt think anyone would be able to defend
MAR except by changing the clue.
Otherwise good fun apart from forgetting doc in Snow white’s band.
Thanks both,
I too was stumped by the parsing of Marseilles, especially as an Anglicised pronunciation would probably be something like ‘Mar sails’. But an enjoyably tough solve, irregardless (as an American friend insists on saying).
I left MARSEILLES empty for a long time thinking there must be another port that provided a better homophone. I wondered if it was ‘Mass say’ with mass being a physical state. Perhaps Brummie could enlighten us. Otherwise a challenging puzzle – DWARF took me far too long because I’d forgotten about Doc.
Thanks to Brummie and to Eileen for the usual immaculate blog.
Like others, I completely missed the theme. Wasn’t convinced by EPISODES, although I see that Chambers does give the musical sense. Still don’t understand MARSEILLES, although I had overlooked the extra ‘s’.
Eileen, glad your internet problems have been resolved; there is a tiny typo in your parsing of DAD’S ARMY.
Thanks Eileen and Brummie.
I enjoy this apart from MARSEILLES (though the extra S at the end is a useful bit of GK)
Completely missed the theme even though DADS ARMY was a pivotal clue for me. (And I’m old enough to have seen most of the episodes first time round)
Good fun!
Thank you, bridgesong @9 – amended now.
Eileen – as it was way past bedtime when I posted last night I didn’t digest your blog properly and skipped over your explanation of where OFFING comes from – very interesting. Thank you.
We are used to the zip code usage of 2 letters abbrevs for states in clues, but sometimes 3 letter or longer ones can be seen elsewhere e.g. in CalTec, TexMex, Wash state, etc. Is MAR ever used as a shortening for (I would guess) Maryland?
I have to admit my own reading of it was for the whole construction to be broadcast and not just the ‘for example’ bit i.e. “Ma-say” is how we pronounce the city in the UK (except when at school when it was always “Ma-sails”) – but then do we say “Ma” for the abbreviated state or “M-A”?
Once you say it in your head, the French city (and its proper spelling) is obvious with or without reference to the (silent) R.
BTW By “proper spelling” I of course meant in good old UK English, as quite often even the locals in these places abroad don’t seem to know how to spell or pronounce them – Deutschland, Suisse, Paree, etc. Don’t even get me started on US spelling or how the most common Welsh surname is Jones but they don’t have a J in their alphabet! ?
Kicking myself for having missed the theme. I even thought of the Likely Lads when I got LIKELY very early on, but still didn’t notice how things went together. I guessed MARSEILLES on the first pass just from the letter count (I know Marseilles quite well, but can never remember which country puts the ‘s’ at the end) but left it unentered until almost the end because I just couldn’t get the parsing to explain the ‘r’, the same as you, Eileen. Thanks for the blog, and thanks, Brummie.
Of course I didn’t get the theme even though I’m familiar with all the shows quoted. DADS ARMY was one of the last in but even that didn’t give me the hint. Of course, it’s obvious now.
I did like the puzzle though with GLOBBY,PORRIDGE and MODIGLIANI – one of my favourite painters-all having ticks.
Thanks Brummie.
Thanks to Brummie and Eileen (and especially Eileen, for the “gnus” and the “OFFING” explanation). I thought this was an enjoyable solve. Like WK@1, 14a PORRIDGE was one of my favourite clues, and I also ticked some of the others previously mentioned: 9a DWARF, 21a AGNUS DEI and 22d GLOBBY. I too was unfamiliar with TOPE for “shark” in my LOI, 4d ISOTOPE, Eileen, and I needed your help to fully parse 3d ODDITY. I didn’t untangle the wordplay for 6d MARSEILLES to my satisfaction either. I missed the theme, though I did know of the shows “DAD’S ARMY”, “RED DWARF” and “PORRIDGE”, so you would think that I would have twigged that there was something going on that would have added another layer of appreciation to my solve had I spotted it.
[We crossed, Peter A@16, or I would have more directly acknowledged that some of our ticks were similar.]
Re 6 down, Marseilles, I’ve just peeked at the annotated solution on the Guardian website (https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2018/dec/07/annotated-solutions-for-prize-crossword-27681) and even that can’t explain the “r”!
I did not enjoy this puzzle – far too many obvious answers but without satisfactory explanations. Eileen’s excellent blog has helped to some extent. But I’m still not happy with Marseilles. EPISODES, RED and OVULATE – well, pathetic clues really.
On the positive side, I did like EXCLUSIVES and RUINED. I thought the surface in the latter was particularly good.
Thanks nevertheless to Brummie and many thanks to Eileen.
(oh, and PS to Saddler @14 – the name Jones is not actually a Welsh name – ‘son of John, borrowed from English)
Well, thanks for that, Colin Sopp @19: “Marseilles Ma(ssachusetts), say (hom)”.
I’m sorry but I think that’s awful: I’d need confirmation from our US friends that they would ever actually say ‘MA[r]’ for Massachusetts – and I still wouldn’t like it!
Thanks to Brummie and Eileen. Enjoyed this in the main though did not spot the theme until it was too late to do me any good. Most of this went in quite readily, but then I got into a muddle in the NE for a while, largely because of the now infamous Marseilles. I put in a largely unparsed Versailles and it was only when I cracked dwarf that I realised my mistake. Dwarf and offing were the last ones and I did like Mercury and Modigliani. Thanks again to Brummie and Eileen.
Re MARSEILLES: Could the esteemed setter Brummie please respond to the many pleas on this page, now including mine, to explain the parsing here?
No clunky surfaces at all here, whatever Brummie’s reputation maay be. I parsed MAR as = Maryland then checked and it should be MD. I took it as a mistake. These things happen.
I shared Eileen’s original view of ESPY but if Chambers (the only dictionary I own and chose because back in the day the (Manchester) Guardian would warn us if an answer wasn’t in it) says it’s OK I’m not going to argue.
Of late I’ve found Prizes easier than some in the week but not this one.
Thanks to Brummie for a tough but fair challenge and to Eileen for her usual comprehensive blog. I could do without the earworm, courtesy of OFFING, but it was there before I read the blog so I can’t blame her.
After 40+ years on this side of the pond I have never heard of MAR for Massachusetts, maybe Mass but with short ‘a’. Of course down south here it is rare for the state to be mentioned at all. Perhaps a GD Yankee :o) could verify.
Thank you Eileen for the Flanders & Swann. You’ve solved 2 Xmas pressie problems.
@Eileen – I interpret the explanation to mean that MA is the two-letter postal abbreviation for Massachusetts, not a homophone, followed by a homophone for ‘say’.
As a born and bred yank who spent the first 60 years of his life in the States, I can declare that I have never heard Massachusetts referred to in any way that sounded like Mar. It’s particularly strange in that the most commonly noted aspect of the Boston accent is that it drops Rs, not adds them. Harvard becomes Havahd. Could this reversal somehow play in the clue? But I am left with the possibility that state in the clue does not reference Mass., but rather something else that neither I nor anyone else has yet been able to realise.
vinyl1 @26 – just what I said in the blog, I think, but it doesn’t account for the rogue R. I don’t think we’re going to get any further with this, as the Guardian’s annotated solution [which I never remember to consult] is not helpful and Brummie, as far as I remember, is not one of those compilers who occasionally drop in with clarification.
Thank you Brummie and Eileen.
All I could come up with was MAR (ISO country code) for the State of Morocco – OK, it has a king, but so does the Gulf State of Bahrain …
It’s a bit contrived, but perhaps MA, the abbreviation, when pronounced as a word, sound like “mar”
I found this very difficult. After getting stuck on Sunday, it took me till Thursday to crack 9a, DWARF, which also gave me 7d, OFFING, and confirmed the A of the suspected MARSEILLES, even though my thoughts about that were exactly the same as Eileen’s. I did wonder if MAR could be the Mauretanian Arabic Republic, but never bothered to look that up as I still had five to go, including those that gave the L and S of MARSEILLES. I did remember that that is the English version (I wonder why?) of the French Marseille.
I never did manage to get the rest, so thanks, Eileen for the explanations, which make me wonder why I couldn’t get them!
15d REV – I had it parsed correctly, but couldn’t come up with ‘very’ for ‘pretty’ and tbh, I don’t think it’s a very good synonym. I would say ‘pretty’ is considerably weaker as an intensifier than ‘very’, more akin to ‘fairly’.
18a OVULATE I just kept coming up with ‘lay’ for what egg-producers do and trying to make the rest wordplay to give ‘union’ as def. Embarrassed by the comments that say this was trivial!
19d Again, I had it parsed, with MEN pencilled in, but couldn’t come up with ‘tenet’.
23a What’s the matter with me? I even thought of IS for ‘takes place’, and had the (provisional) S from MARSEILLES
23d Aaaaargh!
Tony @ 31 re very / pretty. Think English understatement:
“What did you think of the meal?”
“It was pretty good.”
Hi Tony, if you’re still there
I thought I’d had my last word on this [see my comment re MARSEILLES – ugh] @28] but I see that you raise other issues.
I, too, played with LAY[ette] for a while but that would be wrong: it’s a trousseau!
More interestingly, re 15dn, I do really generally, I think, agree with you re the use of ‘pretty’ – but I have to look back at the first line of my preamble, where I did intend it to be mean ‘almost’, I’m afraid. I’m reminded of a former [more than thirty years ago] senior teaching colleague who would write ‘Very fair’ as a [then minimally-required] comment on school reports. We never knew – or dared to ask – whether that was better or worse than the non-committal ‘fair’ that the rest of us might resort to.
Hi Simon S – thanks, I missed yours. 😉
Eileen, sorry to be so late in — busy weekend. No idea what a layette is, and not much clearer on trousseau (even though I got it as an answer recently).
Simon S, I think I’d take that as “better than you might expect”.
Btw, Eileen, re Blow the Wind Southerly, this is my favourite version:
https://youtu.be/Zen7k4PJVZY?t=805
Also, thanks for the explanation of “in the offing”
Tony