Guardian Prize 27,764 by Paul

by

Paul on sparkling form this week, with two outrageous homophones.

I don’t know how Paul manages so consistently to come up with new ways of writing clues that are both entertaining and fair, but he‘s done it again in this puzzle.  I’m very grateful to my solving partner Timon for coming up with the parsing of HIND, which had eluded me, although I had it as the answer.

It looks as though HIROHITO has for some reason been omitted from the grid: my apologies to the Emperor.

completed grid
Across
1 WISE MAN He probably knows a South American footballer, missing centre-back, white clothes (4,3)
(Lionel) ME(s)SI (rev) in WAN (white).
5, 9 SOPWITH CAMEL British fighter once offered inducement using Arab carrier (7,5)
SOP (inducement) WITH CAMEL (Arab carrier).  It’s a World War 1 fighter plane.
9   See 5
10 CLARIFIER What might explain use of air rifle on leader in conflict (9)
*(AIR RIFLE) after C(onflict).
11 EXTRA COVER Position where very old revolutionary caught by old bullet (5,5)
VO (rev) in EX TRACER (old bullet).  It’s a fielding position in cricket.
12, 14 WASH YOUR MOUTH OUT Thus detailed humorous way to (refreshingly) stop swearing! (4,4,5,3)
*(THU(s) HUMOROUS WAY TO).
14   See 12
18 ADHESIVE TAPE Heads rolling, I check copy in binder (8,4)
*HEADS, I VET (check) APE (copy).
21 RARE Red choice (4)
Double definition, the first referring to lightly-cooked meat.
22 CLODHOPPER Boot finding flea, say, on some ground (10)
CLOD (some ground) HOPPER (flea, say).  The reversal of the constituent parts makes it a little more difficult.
25 STABILISE Support pronouncement of Scilly Isles a bit? (9)
*(ISLES A BIT).  The anagram indicator is “silly” (sounds like Scilly).
26 HONEY Picked up, like a Tiller girl who’s attractive? (5)
An outrageous homophone of “Hunny” (i.e. like Atilla the Hun).  Younger readers may not remember the Tiller Girls.
27 SHINDIG Party sealing lips, minding language (7)
HINDI (language) inside (“minded”) by S(ealin)G (“lips” of SEALING).
28 BARGE IN Stick olive finally in drink, don’t wait! (5,2)
BAR (stick) (oliv)E in GIN.
Down
1, 13 WICKED STEPMOTHER Musical put on stage to nurture traditional character (6,10)
WICKED (musical) STEP (stage) MOTHER (nurture).
2 SAMITE It lines identical old fabric (6)
IT in SAME.
3 MELBA TOAST Pole has introduced island to Aussie’s food (5,5)
ELBA (island) TO in MAST (pole).  Named after Dame Nellie Melba.
4 NACHO Chip in minimum of oil, hot vessel lifted (5)
H CAN (all rev), O(il).
5 SPACED OUT Disoriented one day in jet (6,3)
ACE D (one day) in SPOUT.
6 PAIN Immediate sensation of a breaking leg? (4)
A in PIN.
7 IMITATOR One taking someone off duty list tiny boy and I set up (8)
ROTA TIM I (all rev).  Tiny Tim was a character in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
8  HIROHITO Castle contracted to host bash after good day for old emperor (8)
HI (good day) HIT (bash) in ROO(k) (contracted castle).  At first I thought the two Os were representing 0-0, the chess notation for the castling move, but that left the R unexplained.
13   See 1
15 REVOLTING Offensive uprising (9)
Double definition
16 WALRUSES Shortage of baby food in part of the UK, those beastly things blubbered? (8)
RUS(k) in WALES.
17 WHERE AM I Collected by wife half cut, hear me performing Show Me The Way To Go Home? (5,2,1)
*(HEAR ME) in WI(fe).  Here’s a link to the Wikipedia page about the song.
19 SPONGE Wipe bum (6)
Double definition
20 CRAYON Line up that there drawer (6)
ARC (rev) YON.
23 DWEEB Jerk knocking insect on hollow wood over (5)
BEE W(o)D (all rev).
24 HIND Female animal, the Queen’s dog? (4)
Another outrageous homophone: HIND is how HM The Queen might pronounce the word HOUND (according to Steve Bell, anyway).

*anagram

33 comments on “Guardian Prize 27,764 by Paul”

  1. Thanks to Paul and bridgesong. I did not parse HIND or HONEY and struggled with STABILISE but did know SOPWITH CAMEL from Snoopy in Peanuts.

  2. Well, blimey! Honey and Hind. I got them both but didn’t write them in because no way could I parse them. But, given 25ac, I should have…. Thank you Paul for another gem, and thank you Bridgesong (and I guess Timon) for telling this poor fool how it worked.

  3. Thanks bridgesong. It had to be HIND of course but I hesitate to impute such diction to HM and don’t like it. I’m not sure about O = minimum of oil either, why not I or L? I don’t think it is a new device but I do think it’s a weak one.

  4. Thanks bridgesong.  Got Hunny=Attila-like but not the girl reference.  Ditto HIND but could not hear HM talking thus about a corgi.  Missed the roo(k) ref in 8D, too.  Mated comprehensively by Paul, the champ.

  5. Dear Lord, no wonder I couldn’t crack 25 or 26 ac, or 24 dn, yet still these indeed outrageous constructions (doubly so in the case of 26 ac – ‘honey’ -> ‘Hunny’ and ‘ a Tiller’ to ‘Atilla’?!) get described as ‘fair’.

  6. Missed the Attila link but accepted honey on crossers etc. For 24dn, is it possibly hind+er as meaning roughly “to dog”? A neat and original set of clues – thanks Paul.

  7. I know that there is no pretension to ximinean cluing here but is it “fair” to cryptically indicate the anagrind as in 25ac? I feel not even though I got there eventually

  9. Lot of sour grapes on here so far.

    There aren’t any “rules” for cryptics so what does “fair” mean in this context? I suppose it could mean “is the clue solvable by a reasonable number or people?”. The answer to this is obviously “yes” looking at the comments here. Even parsed the offending clues after a little thought. They even amused me.

    Stop moaning and try a little harder next time. Think “out of the box” 🙂

  11. Thanks Paul and bridgesong

    As well as Snoopy, Biggles flew a Sopwith Camel!

    Doesn’t HONEY need two “sounds like” indicators? One to get from “a Tiller” to Attila, then another to get from “hunny” to HONEY. As the clue stands, “hunny” is the answer.

  12. Many thanks to Paul and Bridgesong for a great crossword and blog. I tend to agree with muffin about HONEY, but as Alex says it’s fair if you get to the answer. I love dodgy homophones so I was happy, especially with HIND as I can really hear her Maj saying it. Off to tackle Picaroon now!!

  13. No disappointments here – and a cap-doffing moment to Paul when I eventually parsed HIND and HONEY. The latter was hilarious and the former (agree with Bridgesong) outrageous – but in a good way. Lots of wit in the surfaces and I don’t see anything here as “unfair” – just demanding some inventive thought. Thanks to Paul and bridgesong.

  14. I have to admit i failed to finish so I am particularly grateful for the explanations in this blog.

    Most of the grid went in fairly fluently – until the last few!  I failed to parse HIND, though guessed that might be the answer.  Ditto HONEY.

    Failed totally on STABILISE.  Oh well, must just remember in future that an anagram indicator can itself be indicated cryptically.

    The puzzle kept me occupied well into the week …

    Thanks to Paul and to bridgesong.

  15. Enjoyable as usual with lots of inventiveness and humour. Can picture the setter smirking to himself on coming up with 19d!

    I thought at the time that the Scilly device would raise eyebrows but agree with others that it was gettable and so to me, fair. I didn’t parse HONEY though and don’t think this one quite works for the reason muffin explains above (double homophone)

    Thanks Paul and bridgesong

  17. Paul on sparkling form. Loved HIND and was only delayed a little by misremembering SOPWORTH instead of SOPWITH- and I got it from Biggles as well.
    Thanks Paul.

  18. I really enjoyed this, and I seemed to mostly be on Paul’s wavelength with limited thesaurus consultation and plenty of a-ha moments. HONEY was accompanied by a half-laugh, half-groan as I clocked the pun. Great stuff.

    I did fail to parse HIND though – I eventually read it as “hinder” (to dog) minus ER and assumed I’d missed a deletion indicator somehow, even though there weren’t any words left to serve as one. I haven’t read If… in years so am clearly forgetting my Bell-isms.

    All in all a really enjoyable puzzle. Cheers Paul and Bridgesong for blogging.

  19. Thanks to Paul for an enjoyable weekend of puzzling.  I don’t recall ever laughing out loud while solving, but I did chuckle audibly at my light bulb moment for ‘hind’, my last one in.

    I feel a little sorry for Paul. No matter how tenuous his links between clue and solution, or how convoluted and complex all the allusions may be he is nowhere near defeating many solvers.  I am not familiar with any cryptic puzzles other than the Guardian’s, so the following comment may not be notable, but I recall when regularly doing the ‘The Listener’ puzzles in the 1950s and ’60s, more than once seeing the comment ‘No correct solutions received’.

    Thanks also for a clarification or two from Bridgesong.

  20. Minimum of oil? I remember when I was young (and the Tiller Girls were still going strong) before we discovered vinaigrette we used to have oil & vinegar on the table for salads. And we used to refer to them as the o&v, much like s&p for the salt & pepper. I don’t know how old Paul is, but perhaps it’s a generational thing. Crack on Paul – I love your puzzles and usually finish them even if I don’t always know how!

  21. Great fun from Paul, hind had me doing the accent and chuckling… the consonant-free zone as someone in the LRB called it (think Edward Fox in one of his many aristo roles). Loved ‘hunny’, tho dnk the Tiller ref (old, but not that old, and antipodean as well). Heard dweeb from a young Kiwi kid 20 years ago, and not since; must have stuck, or maybe it’s come up here meantime. Thanks Paul and Bridgesong, enjoyed it.

  22. Rather reflective of others before me.

    I enjoyed the experiences I had along the way to a dnf, but simply couldn’t see (or hear) HIND at 24d. Had no idea about the Tiller girls either (GIF@21) so that surface made no sense; perhaps I should have read the clue aloud! Couldn’t fully parse SHINDIG 27a, 3d MELBA TOAST or HIROHITO 8d. I did like the aforementioned cure for bad language at 12,14a. Meanwhile, CLODHOPPER at 22a and Tiny Tim in IMITATOR 7d also got ticks from me.

    Thanks to Paul and bridgesong.

  23. Thank you Paul and Bridgesong. A good one for us with many we could work out from the clues. Often we get answers from the crossers and then reverse engineer but could parse many more than usual although the bottom right defeated us. Very pleased for spotting the hidden anagram indicator in 25d; like others thought 26d less elegant (fully owned sour grapes!). However Mr K and I take exception to dweeb (great clue notwithstanding). A dweeb is a nerd (think Sheldon in Big Bang) while a jerk is a pr!@k (same ref Wolowitz). Not the same thing at all.

  24. Thanks to Paul and bridgesong. Doh a DNF for me via 26a, I could not see honey and opted for hunky instead. That said as an avid reader of Steve Bell, hind presented no problems for me. With the. exception of honey this was a typical Paul solve for me, very little on first couple of passes, but then unpacked quite steadily (if somewhat slowly). Last one I was Melba toast and favourites were clodhopper and where am I. Thanks again to Paul and bridgesong.

  25. For those who didn’t spend the late 20th Century reading Peanuts, I’ll expand on the Snoopy reference.  Snoopy is a beagle with an elaborate imagination, and many a strip would begin with him sitting on top of his doghouse in an airman’s helmet (earflaps).  The opening line was usually “Here’s the World War I flying ace in his trusty Sopwith Camel …”  The last line was often “Curse you, Red Baron!”, referring to Snoopy’s (and the RAF’s) arch-enemy, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the German flying ace.

     

    sopwith camel Snoopy acd @1

     

  26. Oops — meant to erase note to self at the bottom of the post.

    Thank you Paul and bridgesong for an enjoyable morning.

  27. I completed the grid rather than solved the puzzle with HONEY and HIND left unparsed. At the time I wrote “a Marmite puzzle.” I agree with Alex@9 that there are no “rules” in cryptic crosswords and I’ve always been an advocate of new devices. However as I’ve done more crosswords I’ve come to realise that I prefer the craft(personship) of the more Ximinean setters than the art(ifice) of the more liberal ones. I appreciate the ingenuity of Paul, I enjoy the classical approach of other setters. The clues I enjoyed the most here were SOPWITH CAMEL (with thanks to Valentine for the Peanuts back story), BARGE IN, SAMITE (a tilt) and SPONGE. Thanks to Paul, Bridgesong for the blog and explanations and to the editor who’s seemingly relaxed approach means we get to experience a wide range of styles.

  28. It wasn’t until the day after completing the grid that the penny dropped with HIND. I chuckled my way through the rest of that pint.

  29. Paul fully justifying his role as King of the Outrageous Homophone.  I agree with muffin about the need for another indicator in the HONEY clue, but it’s hard to see how to do it convincingly.  I’d never heard of the Tiller girls, so the surface passed over my head.  The clue just seemed a little loose to me.  I’d also forgotten Steve Bell’s depiction of HM, so the HIND one seemed a little unfair on Her Maj.  Talking of Steve Bell and dogs, it reminds me of one of my favorite characters of his – Doberman Dogwaste (was that how it was spelt?).

    Some typically clever clues – PAIN, WALRUSES, WASH YOUR MOUTH OUT.  Interesting idea of bridgesong’s about the use of 0-0 for castles.  The clue could incorporate this and get a very similar surface with something like “Briefly rent castles to host bash for old emperor”.  Chess is such a useful resource for setters!

    Lots of fun.  Thanks, Paul and bridgesong (and Timon!)

  30. I had assumed that HONEY was in some way an outrageous homophone for High Knee – something the Tiller girls demonstrated regularly

  31. I’m not keen on double jumps like the homophonic anagram indicator in 26a, although I did get both homophones. (Some older readers will never forget the Tiller Girls, btw.)

    I was another one who entered HIND tentatively at first, thinking it might be something to do with ‘hinder’, and another one who laughed out loud on finally appreciating the homophone. LOI.

    ‘Wipe bum’ was a nice double def, but not original. In fact, although noted as a (very) ‘good clue’, it was rejected as a contender for the Sunday Times cluing competition recently because, in the words of competition judge Peter Biddlecombe: “it has been done before, and is apparently mentioned in a fairly well-known book about cryptic crosswords.” That also meant it was a write-in for me, as I’d read the competition report (see 1743 at thesundaytimes.co.uk/cluewriting).

    @RobtheBone, that would be a near-perfect anagram for ‘hiney’ (not quite the right stress, but surely good enough for a crossword), something we all hoped the Tiller Girls would show, but never did as far as I recall.

  32. Hind reminded me of Steve Bell’s “If..” cartoons too – (which used to be printed next to the crossword) – and his phonetic spelling of royal accents. I don’t remember if he actually used “hind” in the strip, but do remember Prince Philip always seemed to be having some sort of difficulty with his “trizers”

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