Guardian Prize 27,926 by Crucible

by

Very enjoyable thank you Crucible.

There are various musical references in here to celebrate the Last Night of The Proms.
completed grid
Across
1 EUTERPE She inspires musicians, top pair leaving Blue Peter, sadly (7)
anagram (sadly) of blUE PETER missing first two letters (top pair leaving)
5 PANJABI Malign injection, one in tongue (7)
PAN (malign) JAB (injection) I (one)
10 STAG Special quotation does attract him (4)
S (special) TAG (quotation) – a doe is a female deer
11 ADULTERERS Those playing away read result elsewhere (10)
anagram (elsewhere) of READ RESULT
12 SPARSE Fights are ultimately few and far between (6)
SPARS (fights, boxing) then arE (last letter, ultimately)
13 EAST SIDE English players cross a street somewhere in New York (4,4)
E (English) SIDE (players) contains (cross) A ST (street)
14 ORCHESTRA Box in odd Scottish ensemble (9)
CHEST (box) in ORRA (odd, Scottish)
16 CLANG Big noise making contribution to Gaelic language (5)
found inside gaeliC LANGuage
17 USING American in front of gallery getting on (5)
US (American) IN then Gallery (first letter, front of). I don’t fully understand the definition – on the bus vs using the bus perhaps?  Update: If someone is on heroin then they are using heroin.  That works.  Thanks to muffin for this.
19 UTTERMOST Voice witty remark about second last (9)
UTTER (voice) then MOT (witty remark) contains S (second)
23 CREATION Our start and our finish perhaps, short of money? (8)
CREmATION (our finish perhaps) missing M (money)
24 CHIRPY In good spirits, sending out tweets? (6)
definition/cryptic definition
26 AUDITORIUM Listener writer’s defending superior concert hall (10)
AUDITOR (listener) I’M (writer is) containing (defending)U (superior, in social class)
27 SWAN Lover of poetry dispatches one big flyer (4)
SWAiN (lover, in poetry) missing (dispatches) I (one)
28 ASUNDER A local star embarrassed about being in two pieces (7)
A SUN (local star) then RED (embarrassed) reversed (about)
29 RAINBOW Version of The Trout drops leading section (7)
RAIN (drops) then BOW (leading section, of a ship)
Down
2 UP TO PAR At uni, Jack tackles work at the usual level (2,2,3)
UP (at university) TAR (jack, a sailor) contains (tackles) OP (opus, work)
3 ELGAR Rave about introducing liberal scorer (5)
reversal (about) of RAGE (rave) contains L (Liberal)
4 PLANETS European opens factories making a suite (7)
E (European) inside (opens) PLANTS (factories) – The Planets Suite by Holst
6 ATTEST Lacking source, most plump for evidence (6)
fATTEST (most plump) missing first letter (source) – definition as a verb
7 JERUSALEM First person in Paris, odd, clinches deal for city (9)
JE (I, first person in French) RUM (odd) contains (clinches) SALE (deal)
8 BORODIN Barman‘s old staff filling wine store (7)
O (old) ROD (staff) inside BIN (wine store) – a composer, someone who produces bars of music
9 RULE BRITANNIA Tune librarian ordered for last night’s singalong? (4,9)
anagram (ordered) of TUNE LIBRARIAN – sung on the last night of the Proms
15 HUNGARIAN European suspended heretic (9)
HUNG (suspended) and ARIAN (heretic, of the doctrine of Arius, a heretic)
18 STRAUSS Small supporter welcomes a composer (7)
S (small) TRUSS (supporter) contains (welcomes) A
20 ENCOMIA Accolades come in a burst (7)
anagram (burst) of COME IN A
21 SOPRANO Second number limits disheartened opera singer (7)
S (second) NO (number) contains (limits) OPeRA (dis-heartened)
22 PILOSE Hairy sailor occupies mansion (6)
OS (Ordinary Seaman) inside PILE (mansion)
25 IBSEN Children’s author nearly stood up dramatist (5)
NESBIt (children’s author) reversed (stood up)

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.

35 comments on “Guardian Prize 27,926 by Crucible”

  1. Thanks Crucible and PeeDee

    Very enjoyable – just the right level for a Prize.

    I was baffled by the definition for USING too, though I have seen a suggestion that it’s something to do with drugs – not all that convinced by that either!

  3. Thanks, PeeDee. And thanks to Muffin for the explanation of 17a which I’d got of course but didn’t understand. What innocence!! But I accept that using = on.

  4. Thanks crucible for a great challenge and PeeDee for explaining it so well.

    I dnf, missing out on PANJABI,CREATION &RAINBOW. The latter 2 are class clues imoand both with a nod to the Last Night of Proms/musical theme.Works by Haydn and Schubert being reference d.. maybe sour grapes but didn’t think much of PANJABI.

    Great to see the old CARTHORSE/ORCHESTRA putting in a guest appearance..

    My fav clue was probably the quite simple but subtle STAG — talk about a DOH moment when realised the parsing about 5 mins after writing it in,

    Thanks again Crucible, PeeDee and all the learned contributors to this great blog.

  5. Excellent puzzle Crucible, thanks. Was struggling with the big anagram down until revisited while flicking on the Last Night coverage – doh. Some great surfaces, loved IBSEN and PILOSE for example. The orra for ORCHESTRA and ENCOMIA were new for me.

    Thanks PeeDee for the parsing and the blog.

  6. Very enjoyable. I ticked 10,14, 29, 4, and 8 for making me smile the most . I’d have got 10 more quickly if I hadn’t made the anagram of RAVE & L ( as written in the clue) which in context I could only make ELVAR who is an emerging talent from Iceland. It wasn’t til the penny dropped about does/Does that I realised it should gave been an anagram of RAGE & L. Not sure what happened there. But altogether very enjoyable if over a bit quickly. Thanks Crucible and PeeDee

  7. Thanks PeeDee. Troublefree until the SW where USING seemed too odd for ‘getting on.’ Couldn’t parse CREATION. PILOSE caused head-scratching, even though Crucible had a near-identical clue for it last year.

  8. Thanks for the blog, PeeDee.

    This is Crucible’s fourth puzzle on this theme in five years and I’ve been lucky enough to blog the other three. There are some super clues here, as highlighted by others. I’d go along with all of them but I don’t think Crucible could ever better the one that appeared in 2014, which is in my little book of classics – and I’ve quoted it more than once before: ‘Gosh, isn’t the platform busy tonight! (4,5,2,3,5)’.

    Huge thanks yet again to Crucible – I thoroughly enjoyed it.

  9. Loved cremation minus m and swain minus i, and groaned/grinned at a sun der, Planets and small truss with an a in it, not to mention Rain plus bow, der! Apart from Ibsen being obvious, The Railway Children was a Mrs ginf favourite. Lots to remember and enjoy, thanks C and P

  11. Thank you Crucible and PeeDee.

    I love crosswords with classical music references, especially this one where my favourite composer (Richard) STRAUSS is included. However, I got off to a bad start by entering RAVEL @4d before deciding that was too obvious, so left it blank until I had the crossers. It took a while for the penny to drop with the clue for STAG (!) and I failed to fully parse ORCHESTRA even though ORRA is in my COED.

  13. Thanks PeeDee. A stern but fair test I thought. I didn’t make it easy for myself by confidently entering ‘West Side’ for 10a and still think it is valid enough. I have to confess my LOI was CLANG and can’t believe I was so easily misled.

  17. This all went in pretty smoothly for a Prize, despite the fact that there is absolutely no coverage of the Proms here in the US. Had to use Google to confirm my suspicions from 9d. I imagine any of our colleagues who do not have a UK background would have had a much harder time.
    SWAN went in reluctantly: I had to sleep on it for the other meaning of “of” to hit me, so woke up both happy and a bit embarrassed. (That sounds a bit too much like a description of ones youth!)
    Thanks.

  18. I’d been away for a few weeks, but this was an entertaining puzzle to come back to. The musical theme emerged with Elgar and Borodin, but it was only when I got the Rule Britannia anagram that I realised it must have been the last night of the Proms back in the UK. A few words were new to me – PILOSE, and ORRA, and I’d not been aware of PANJABI as a PUNJABI variant before. I thought CREATION was particularly neat. Thanks to Crucible and to PeeDee.

  19. Eileen, now, I have to try and get my head around this, but I think there is a Jenny Agutter (as eldest daughter) series, and then a Jenny Agutter (as mum) film, with Michael Kitchen as dad. But there might be others!?

  21. PeeDee @20

    25d – The Railway Children was written by E.Nesbit.

    GinF

    I only remember the film, in which Jenny Agutter was the elder daughter (Sally Thomsett the younger?). Bernard Cribbins was in it too, as stationmaster or postman?

  22. I was surprised to read from Eileen‘s comment @8 that this was Crucible’s fourth Proms crossword.
    I only remembered the one from 2014 with that, indeed, wonderful clue.
    But he did two more (in 2015 and 2017), as Eileen told us.
    Did I say two?
    A quick look at Fifteensquared’s archive made clear that there was also one in 2011, blogged by mhl.
    And don’t forget, as Radian he had a similar crossword in The Independent last Saturday.
    So, he must love the occasion (like we love his puzzles).
    After Philistine’s uncompromising nina over a week ago, staunch Brexiteers will have loved 9d!
    Positioned in the middle of the park.
    🙂
    Many thanks to Eileen for the blog & Crucible for the fun.

  23. muffin (& grantinfreo) – thank you muffin.  Please just ignore me, it says Nesbit in the clue.  I lost my marbles there for a moment!

    When they were younger my kids loved the Railway Children so we ended up watching it over and over again.

  25. I guessed BADJABI @ 5a. Wiki says that it is a language used in Gabon and an influence could be bad or malign.
    Can’t find M as an abbreviation for money anywhere and I would expect “short of money” to be a clue for “mone”
    Thanks to Paul and PeeDee.

  26. Hi again, grantinfreo 19 – sorry for the delay: I’ve been out.

    It’s the opposite, I think. The Railway Children directed by Lionel Jeffries was an utterly perfect film adaptation [correct in every respect, muffin] which I’ve watched with children and grandchildren [and by myself] and loved every time. I have never understood why the BBC saw it necessary to try to gild the lily by producing a TV series – and I’m quite intrigued as to how / why that seems to be the one that reached you and sticks in your mind.

    Sil @22 – I obviously didn’t go far enough back in the archive! I was, unfortunately, away for the Radian – the man’s amazing, isn’t he?!

  27. Pino @ 25

    I’ve posted this before, and have no doubt that I’ll post it again

    Not only is M = MONEY in Chambers, it has been used for over fifty years in Economics as an abbreviation for the various forms of money supply; see below:

    M or M.
    abbrev
    […]
    8. Money

    M0 noun
    All notes and coins in current general circulation plus banks’ till money and balances with the Bank of England
    M1 noun
    All notes and coins in current general circulation plus all instantly-withdrawable bank deposits
    M2 noun
    All notes and coins in current general circulation plus non-interest-bearing bank deposits, building society deposits, and National Savings accounts
    M3 noun
    M1 plus all privately-held bank deposits and certificates of deposit
    M3c noun
    M3 plus all foreign currency bank deposits
    M4 noun
    M1 plus most privately-held bank deposits and holdings of money market instruments
    M5 noun
    M4 plus building society deposits

  28. Is it only me? In my print copy of this puzzle, 3d definitely reads: Rave about introducing liberal scorer. So how did you all get Elgar so easily? Or is this an error which only appears in my copy?

  29. Looking back I wrote “far from easy but very tight and gettable”. ENCOMIA was a new word for me and PILOSE rang a very distant bell – and I thought it was from a puzzle not long ago. A search revealed it was from 5th September 2018 so a year ago – amazing I do remember some things! It was another Crucible and the clue was similar “Sailor comes into fortune with HAIR” – hair was a cross-referenced clue and there was a musicals theme. Many thanks to Crucible for another great puzzle and to PeeDee for the excellent blog as always.

  30. I had a problem with the bottom left here, stemming from me inserting AGING for 17 A. On the basis of: Getting on =aging; A GI = American, NG= National Gallery. Not surprisingly then failed to get 18 down.

    I also missed 23 A, CREATION. It’s a clever clue with so many possible routes of approaching, turned out to be too clever for me.

  31. Leadbelly @ 30 – I wrote in AGING first time too.  I decided to cross it out when I realised it wasn’t playing nicely with the other solutions.

    Jaydee @ 28 – it isn’t a misprint, and it isn’t only you who didn’t find it easy.  I confidently wrote in RAVEL as my first attempt, I had to cross that out when I belatedly realised that it didn’t match the crossers.  I was distracted by deciding that “about” was definitely an anagram indicator (it is a reversal indicator).

  32. Thanks PeeDee and Crucible

    Definition of ENCOMIA – that feeling you get when you make up an unlikely looking word as an answer to an anagram, and unexpectedly find it already exists in the dictionary!

  33. Hi Graham @32

    Your ENCOMIA is my JORUM [except it wasn’t an anagram]: if you type it in the Site Search box, you’ll see it appears four times – and I’ve commented every time, since I first blogged it four years ago. I share your joy. 😉

  34. I don’t think Crucible could have known when composing the puzzle, but it was pleasing to see the SOPRANO waving the RAINBOW flag in RULE BRITANNIA instead of the jingoistic Union Flag.

  35. SimonS@27
    Thank you. I should have spotted it in Chambers. Though I’ve seen M1 etc in articles I have to admit that I haven’t been curious enough to wonder what the M stands for so outside my GK.

Comments are closed.