Guardian Prize 27,950 by Paul

by

A cracking puzzle, I enjoyed this a lot. Thank you Paul.

image of grid
ACROSS
1, 5, 10, 13 A RIDDLE WRAPPED UP IN AN ENIGMA An arc, as if tan — um? This is very cryptic! (1,6,7,2,2,2,6)
“an arc as if tan um” can be written as “an arc(a sift)anum”, or in other words A RIDDLE (sift) WRAPPED UP IN (inside) AN ENIGMA (an arcanum) – phew!
5 See 1
10 See 1
11 CRISSCROSS Boy reportedly on bridge — checked (10)
CRISS sounds like (reportedly) “chris” (a boy) then CROSS (bridge)
12 ALDRIN Buzz of social drinking? (6)
found inside sociAL DRINking – Buzz Aldrin, astronaut
13 See 1
14 HEADSCARF Over-the-top material fellow observed by playing charades (9)
F (fellow) following (observed by) anagram (playing) of CHARADES – some material over the top of the head
16 PENNY Copper like a writer? (5)
penny might be like a pen (writer)
17, 19 ALIEN ABDUCTION One eaten by cannibal, due to ordering human takeaway? (5,9)
I (one) inside anagram (ordering) of CANNIBAL DUE TO
19 See 17
23 DRUM ROLL Comic admits funny intro beaten (4,4)
DROLL (comic) contains (admits) RUM (funny)
24 TURING Becoming rotten, though not in the middle — an old cracker? (6)
TURnING (becoming rotten) missing middle letter – Alan Turing, cracker of the Enigma code
26 PLAIN FLOUR Powdered substance in blossom on tree, we hear? (5,5)
sounds like (we hear) “plane flower” (blossom on a plane tree)
27 DO IN Murder: one covered up by Corleone, say? (2,2)
I (one) inside (covered up by) DON (Don Corleone say)
28 LIMEADE Untruth about alcoholic drink — it’s non-alcoholic (7)
LIE (untruth) contains (about) MEAD (alcoholic drink)
29 BY JINGO My house accommodates an unknown knave (2,5)
BINGO (house, numbers game)contains (accommodates) Y (an unknown) J (jack, knave)
DOWN
2 REPULSE Disgust dealing with lentil, say? (7)
RE (regarding, dealing with) PULSE (lentil say)
3 DINAR Currency turning up around capital in Iraq? (5)
RAND (currency) reversed (turning up) contains (around) first letter of (capital in) Iraq – the Dinar is the currency of Iraq
4 LACONIC Brief party outside the Church houses (7)
CON (Conservative, political party) inside (…houses) LAIC (outside the church)
6 RASHER Breakfast item, more premature (6)
double definition
7 PERTINENT Relevant page on internet refreshed (9)
P (page) on anagram (refreshed) of INTERNET
8 EASTMAN Since given time to plug rise of celebrity, film pioneer (7)
AS (since) with T (time) inside (to plug) NAME (celebrity) reversed (rise of) – founder of the Eastman Kodak company
9 HILAIRE BELLOC Lesser eminence not entirely describing perfect maverick in poet (7,6)
HILLOCk (lesser eminence, not entirely) contains (describing) AI (perfect) REBEL (maverick)
15 DREAMLIKE Fantastic wall with inscription of mark in concrete (9)
DIKE (wall) containing (with inscription of, …written inside) M (mark) inside REAL (concrete)
18 LORELEI Femme fatale lovelier, not very hideous (7)
anagram (hideous) of LOvLIER missing V (very) – character from German literature accused of bewitching men
20 UTTERLY Just say before unloading lorry (7)
UTTER then LorrY (unloading, with no contents)
21 OINKING Old writing, sound from pen? (7)
O (old) INKING (writing) – sound from a pig pen
22 DOFFED Cap in deference then certainly lifted — like this? (6)
first letter (cap) of Deference then DEFFO (certainly, slang) reversed (lifted)
25 RADII More than one spoke Russian and Arabic originally: 502? (5)
first letters (originally) of Russian and Arabic then DII (502 in Roman numerals)

 

31 comments on “Guardian Prize 27,950 by Paul”

  2. Thanks PeeDee. It was cracking indeed but I had to spend a lot of time to crack it. Too many good clues to list but I did have my doubts that ‘utterly’=’just’. Not sure of your explanation of 22a, I just thought it was D followed by offed=stolen=lifted.

  3. I loved it but it was certainly tough.

    Strangely enough I parsed the long clue “A RIDDLE …” from a few crossers and the enumeration – I guess that definitely puts me in the “intuitive solvers” camp. I had heard the phrase but didn’t ever parse it – so I really appreciated reading your blog for this one alone, PeeDee.

    Lots of ticks (and tricks!): 12a ALDRIN (what a great hidden!), 16s PENNY (reminded me of a recent contentious clue for “BAKERY), 17,19 ALIEN ABDUCTION, 24a TURING, 26a PLAIN FLOUR, 29a BY JINGO and 25d RADII.

    So lots of “goodies”, and I thought very different in terms of my experience of solving the Paul published during the week. I am never fussed on the “four quadrants” grid but this one was quite satisfying.

    Many thanks to you both, P and P.

  4. Thanks PeeDee.  Like JinA I cracked the top clue early (in my case via 7 and 8D crossing), remembering Winston Churchill’s quote (which had a MYSTERY element in the middle).  However as another intuitive solver I confidently and wrongly entered ‘elder’ ABDUCTION for 17,19.

  5. I thought the same for doffed, Biggles A, but then wondered what the ‘certainly’ was doing. I’ve heard “Oh def!” for certainly, but not deffo, but I believe you Peedee. Can’t remember much about filling this grid except for failing to parse the long one, clever! I’ve got ‘slow’ next to 20d, also clever (That dress is just/utterly devine; works fine). And yes JinA 16ac earned a ‘der!’, like baker y as you say ( and pluck y (brave like a banjo?)). Thanks Peedee and keep ’em coming Paul.

  8. I thought it would all fall into place if I could get 1 etc. and 9d, but the last few took about three days before they clicked. LOI was 29, allowing me to say to myself “By Jingo, I’ve done it!”. Thanks Paul.

  9. Thanks Paul and PeeDee

    I think clues like 1a etc. are just too clever for their own good. It was an easy solve from word pattern and crossers, but the parsing was opaque – despite your best efforts, PeeDee, I still have no idea how it is supposed to work!

  11. Like others, we found this hard.  I salute anyone who successfully parsed 1,5,10,13 – to my mind, this is beyond cryptic – and verging on unfair, despite the warning (this is very cryptic!) given in the clue itself.  The penny eventually dropped, but it’s unsatisfying to have to put an answer in without having the vaguest notion of why it’s right.  To be fair, I rarely find this with Paul, which is why he’s a favourite setter (still, despite this one…)

  12. A super crossword that I will remember mainly for the ‘very cryptic’ phrase.
    It was the bottom right corner that I cracked first, though, where two of my favourite clues were: TURING and BY JINGO.
    I too got the long phrase with a few crossers, including the D of RIDDLE and the E and I of ENIGMA. But I didn’t have the P of UP, and I struggled to think of that word! My problem was that I remembered the original phrase Churchill used to describe Russia: ‘a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma’ and didn’t know of this shortened version. The clue pointed perfectly to the first part of the original: a riddle (sift) wrapped in a mystery (arcanum).
    From many other excellent clues I will just mention CRISSCROSS and HILAIRE BELLOC as two further favourites.
    Many thanks to Paul and PeeDee.

  13. Thanks to those who pointed out the missing J in BY INGO, fixed now.  I am always happy that people take the time to read the explanations and write comments to point out the errors.   I can’t see them myself, no matter how long I look.

  14. Thanks Paul and PeeDee.

     

    A dnf for me on TURING and OINKING. I convinced myself that “pen”  was a swan so OINKING would just about fit that.

  15. This is what I wrote on the Saturday evening on the day of the puzzle:

    I have managed to fill in the grid and quite enjoyed it.  Some clues made me really think.  I liked DRUM ROLL, TURING, BY JINGO, and OINKING.

    But I feel I’m missing something.  I got the long across clue from the crossers but can’t understand the parsing – it’s a misquote from Churchill, but how does that relate to the clue itself?  Or the rest of the puzzle?  I can see a couple of famous names – Turing, Aldrin.  Is there a theme?  Feel a bit ‘empty’ somehow; there’s usually more to a Paul than just this.  Will have to wait till next Saturday ….

    Well clearly I’m out on a limb on this.  I thought the puzzle fairly undemanding and slightly disappointing.

    Nevertheless, thanks to Paul and to PeeDee, specially for the explanation to 1 ac.

  16. Biggles A @2 – I thought of OFFED=lifted too, but it left “certainly” unexplained.  Using vernacular English in his puzzles is something of a trademark with Paul, it seemed to fit his style very well.

    In general this is one of the things I like about Paul’s puzzles, he is not afraid to step outside the dictionary and use words that one may only hear in the street.  There are not many setters that go this far.  I don’t suggest Paul is better than the others or that this is the only correct way to set.  There are dozens of setters that follow an officially documented vocabulary (and I do enjoy these setters too) so it makes a nice change to see someone frequently include vernacular English.

  17. Thanks again PeeDee @ 16. I really didn’t think about it carefully enough and overlooked the significance of ‘certainly’. In my own defence though I have never before heard of DEFFO in any vernacular.

  18. There are various possible themes here. The ENIGMA was what TURING solved, PLAIN FLOUR would be sift in a RIDDLE, BUZZ ALDRIN was said to have claimed to see a UFO, so ALIEN ABDUCTION (he denied he said it). But I cannot see any overriding link. I wonder if HILAIRE BELLOC in the central clue has anything to do with any other solution but if so, I cannot identify it.

  19. Thanks PeeDee and Paul. DEFFO is in Collin’s online dictionary as a variant spelling of DEFO: “British informal – definitely”.

  20. 4d I think this point has been made recently but LAIC doesn’t mean “outside the Church”. It means “outside the clergy”. There are lay brothers and sisters in the Church and even lay vicars.

  22. Pino @20 – I didn’t know that, thanks for pointing it out.  Obvious now I think of it, where would a lay preacher preach if not in a church?  Something else to store away for future reference!

  23. A dnf for me this week. As others did, failed to see how the big clue worked until enlightened by PeeDee’s excellent blog for which many Thanks. I did not know of Hilaire Belloc – should I enlighten myself? -I am also kicking myself at two others that might have come out with crossers from the poet.

    First time I had been defeated by Paul for a while as I normally persevere. Thursdays added To my defeats at his hands though. Thanks for the challenge. I did enjoy quite a few clues as ever of course.

  25. Very enjoyable. I also got ‘the very cryptic one’ from enumeration and crossers, but had the parsing explained to me by a friend upon enquiry. I think I should have got it really, because I was thinking along the right lines. The form in which this adaption of the famous Churchill quote appears is widespread enough to have earned an entry in The Phrase Finder.

    I also parsed DOFFED using ‘deffo’, which, as DuncT @19 says, is in Collins as slang.

    I loved the Uxbridge English Dictionary definition of PENNY and the clue for OINKING.

    Thanks, muffin @24 for the link to Belloc’s Cautionary Tales. Funnily enough, I had BELLOC as the answer in another crossword recently where the clue made reference to them (can’t say where as it’s a live comp).

     

  27. Tony @25
    Thanks for that link to the Phrase Finder, which (as you say) calls the phrase that Paul used a ‘form’ of the original. I was pleased to see a proper citation there of Churchill’s original phrase in its context.
    One has to say, though, that the form we see here must have begun life, if not as a misquotation, as an attempt at a paraphrase. The clue clearly doesn’t point to the original, but nor does it point to any particular alternative form because the wordplay doesn’t construct it for us! One has to know this form of the phrase, guess it like I did or find it somewhere. (Step up Phrase Finder, or ask Google!). Obviously crossers help, as always.
    I enjoyed the clue, I have to say, and I’m happier knowing there is a source for its solution.

  28. Alan, that form of words also has an entry in thefreedictionary.com, definitions.net and yourdictionary.com. If you start to type it into Google’s search box, it will come up as first suggestion before you finish typing.

    It carries the same idea as Churchill’s original more economically, if less grandiloquently. I wonder if Churchill used the word ‘enigma’ knowingly referring to the German cryptographic engine?

  29. This was a slow but steady solve, and ended up being very enjoyable.

    My favourites were REPULSE, TURING, HEADSCARF, ALIEN ABDUCTION, DRUMROLL, LACONIC.

    1/5/10/13 was a new phrase for me whcih I found via google as I had entered ‘enigma’ and guessed that the three short words were ‘up in an’ or ‘up is an’. However, I could not parse this solution.

    Thank you Paul and PeeDee.

  30. Wunderbar, Paul.

    I’d say, you can sit in my goolie zone upside down anytime. (4)

    This man is getting better and better and wittier and cleverer everytime he sets a puzzle.

     

  31. I eventually worked out there must be a word ‘ARCANUM’.

    We gradually worked through this and was surprised when we realised we had completed it.

    I agree with PeeDee @16. It seems to me that Paul is streetwise and it is defo good to see such parlance from time to time.

    Thank you P and PD

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