Guardian Prize 28,069 by Brendan

by

A timely puzzle, thank you Brendan.

It took far too long to catch on to the theme.  Probably because I had no idea what the date was.

image of grid
ACROSS
8, 22 down EIGHTEEN TWELVE Date of historic score, with combinations of sixes (8,6)
two multiples of 6
9 SPRING 10, or part of 24 down (6)
SPRING is part of a year (24 down) – definition is LEAP (10 across)
10, 24 down LEAP YEAR English novel a player pens, for example 1 11 (4,4)
E (English) inside (that…pens) anagram (novel) of A PLAYER
11 See 1 down
12 WEEPER Proverbial loser in 10 24 down regularly scrapped with partners initially (6)
every other letter (regularly scrapped) of lEaP yEaR (10, 24 down) following (with…initially) E and W (partners in Bridge) – finders keepers, losers weepers
14 AMERICAN Issue of Trump, in part, dividing a piece of the US (8)
ERIC (Eric Trump, issue of Donald Trump) inside (dividing) A MAN (chess piece). I’m not sure about “in part”, maybe it indicates “Eric” rather than “Eric Trump”
15 UNKEMPT Like promise broken, broken by male like Boris (7)
UNKEPT (like promise broken) contains (broken by) M (male) – like Boris Johnson’s hair perhaps
17 SENATOR Member of jury in recent trial — treason involved? (7)
anagram (involved) of TREASON – Trump’s recent trial in the Senate
20 KOH-I-NOOR Iron hook smashed large stone (3-1-4)
anagram (smashed) of IRON HOOK -a large diamond
22 TIE-DYE Even you, in old-fashioned way, decorate fabric (3-3)
TIED (even) then YE (you, old fashioned)
23 REDECORATE Left author to judge paper again, for instance (10)
RED (left wing) ECO (Umberto Eco, author) RATE (to judge)
24 YAPS Setter might produce them, ending off this month with a little extra added (4)
februarY (this month, the ending off) with A PS (little extra added) – a setter is a breed of dog
25 GAUCHE Inexperienced cowboy cut end of rope (6)
GAUCHo (cowboy, cut) then ropE (end of)
26 GIVEAWAY Eg clue that’s really simple and good? Brendan’s not without method (8)
G (good) I’VE A WAY (Brendan has a method, is not without)
DOWN
1, 11 NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR Datebook? (8,6-4)
cryptic definition
2 WHIP Party official, one in US government shortly before Trump’s termination (4)
I (one) inside WH (US government, White House abbreviated) then trumP (last letter, termination) – alternatively WHIg (one in US government, shortened)
3 REHEAR Try again in seat occupied by male (6)
REAR (seat) containing (occupied by) HE (a male)
4 ANAGRAM Result of exchanging letters from an Indian city before 1st of March (7)
AN AGRA (Indian city) then March (first letter of)
5 AS IT WERE Sweater I reknit, so to speak (2,2,4)
anagram (reknit) of SWEATER I
6 PROFLIGATE Dissolute scholar, learner I punish at college (10)
PROF (scholar) L (learner) I GATE (punish, at college)
7 PNEUMA Soul of an MP disturbed about what UK’s abandoning (6)
anagram (disturbed) of AN MP contains (about) EU (what UK is abandoning)
13 PRESIDENCY It’s contested quadrennially, bringing power and official place to live (10)
P (power) and RESIDENCY (official place to live)
16 PROPOSER Romantic female role today for model (8)
PRO (for) POSER (model, one who poses) – traditionally girls can make marriage proposals on 29th February
18 OLYMPIAN Dweller on mountain, one seeking gold in 10 24 down (8)
double definition – being held very four years Olympic Games generally coincide with leap years
19 ARRAIGN Impeach, as a restraint, in hearing (7)
ARRAIGN sounds like (in hearing) “a rein” (a restraint)
21 ONE DAY Difference between 2020 and 2019, at some point (3,3)
if the date is 31/12/2019 then one day later it will be 2020 – one might argue that any time interval will have the effect of tipping 2019 into 2020, but in the dates context of the theme either a day or a year interval seems to be the natural choices, and year isn’t four letters 2020 is a leap year, 2019 isn’t
22 See 8
24 See 10

 

35 comments on “Guardian Prize 28,069 by Brendan”

  1. Thanks, PeeDee. On 21dn, especially given the theme, isn’t the difference of ONE DAY due to the fact that 2020 is a leap year?

  2. Thanks PeeDee.I was daunted by this at first but after the theme revealed itself the rest followed readily enough. I admired the construction and many of the surfaces. 2d had to be WHIP of course but WH is not an abbreviation which I have previously encountered. PNEUMA was new to me too and the subtlety of 16d quite escaped me. I thought ‘part’ in 14a just meant that Trump has other children.

  3. Yes, agree with NeilW@1 regarding the extra day.

    Fairly zoomed through this, but got caught up in the end by the bottom row, which required an overnight delay.

    I don’t think GAUCHE means inexperienced, even though there are plenty of people who are both. GIVEAWAY was almost self-descriptive, except I couldn’t justify the first A. Shouldn’t it be in the clue (it would work – “not without a method”) if it’s in the answer?

  4. It’s just as well PeeDee got this one as it’s not one for Eileen with connected clues scattered around. Once 1812 was solved things became easier until I was left in the SW with unparsed “PANCHO/GAUCHO and PROTOCOL – both of which could be wrong” is what I wrote at the time – and so it turned out to be! Of the ones I got right AMERICAN was my favourite. It’s nice to see a variety of setters being given the prize slot. Thanks to Brendan and to PeeDee for putting me straight.

  5. Well constructed with great use of the theme, particularly wrt SPRING.  Once the theme was revealed, the puzzle became quite easy to finish.

    I agree with NeilW re:21.  For 2, I went with WHI(G) + P (although I needed to check there were Whigs in the US government at one time).  I didn’t know, or had forgotten, PNEUMA, but found it quite guessable from the fodder.

    Thanks, Brendan and PeeDee

  6. Not too difficult, although it took me far too long to see that it’s a four-legged setter producing the YAPS. I enjoyed the timely theme and several witty clues, including UNKEMPT and SENATOR. I also parsed 21d as NeilW @1 and 14a as BigglesA @2. And yes, with no disrespect to Paul, it’s good to see other setters in the prize slot, and Brendan is one of my favourites. Thanks to him and PeeDee.

  7. Thanks Brendan and PeeDee.

    8/22, Is it understood that ‘score’ refers to: (Wiki)

    The Year 1812 Solemn Overture by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

    That’s what I found when I Googled.

  8. I also felt ending”off” in 24a, should just be ending “of”.
    “Off” would indicate removal of ‘y’.

  9. I thoroughly enjoyed this and for once got the theme early. Ilippu @7; ‘score’ refers to a music score, so yes, that’s Tchaikovsky’s 1812. Thanks to Brendan and PeeDee

  10. If I’ve ever known that bit of folk lore about Feb 29, I’ve totally forgotten it, so a dnf; thick really, as the wordplay was a gift. The rest was pretty friendly. Raised the same eyebrow as others re gauche, tho no big deal. Gate for ‘punish at college’ is nostalgic of some lit genre, can’t remember which. Enjoyed it, thanks Brendan and PeeDee.

  12. Got 1812 and 1984 straight away, but – possibly because I didn’t start this until March 3rd – took a while to get LEAP YEAR and into the various cross-references. Slowed down in the bottom left corner, where it took me a while, despite noticing the various US references, to think of PRESIDENCY, and REDECORATE took inexplicably long and was last in. I was amused by the senator/treason pair, and by UNKEMPT. Thanks to Brendan and to PeeDee.

  13. I enjoyed the Leap Years theme and the Trump impeachment sub-theme. It seems a while since I did this though it’s only been a week, so I can’t recall the details, but I did appreciate such clues as 1d,11a NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR a great deal. I liked 12a WEEPER much better once I read the blog concerning the old saying about “finders keepers”, so thanks to PeeDee – I only got it from the wordplay and crossers but didn’t “get” the definition. And the WH in WHIP at 2d as previously mentioned by others was also a mystery to me.

    Thanks to Brendan and PeeDee.

  14. Didn’t parse WHIP, as I was basing it on WHIg + P. I vaguely remembered one of the early presidents was a Whig.

  15. I loved this, got the theme – well I was waiting for it really – early and the rest went in OK.  FOI was EIGHTEEN TWELVE.  Favourites were YAPS which reminded me of a fine ex-blogger on this site called Uncle Yap, KOH-I-NOOR and UNKEMPT for the obvious reason.  Thanks Brendan and PeeDee.

  16. Dr. WhatsOn @3; GAUCHE is surely, like sinister, a reference to the “awkwardness” of being left handed, so I rather agree that ‘inexperienced’ is not a perfect definition.  But I imagine no one would have failed to enter it for that reason.

  17. I wrote “excellent” on this after finishing it and I see no reason to revise that view. Leap year and U.S. politics. Brendan is fast becoming my favourite setter.
    Yes there was a WHIG party in the States. Abraham Lincsoln was once a member before jumping ship and joining the Republicans who were the new kids on the block and the good guys. How things change(takes off political anorak!)
    Thanks Brendan.

  18. I rarely see a theme – unless it’s blindingly obvious – but, on this occasion, with EIGHTEEN TWELVE falling fairly early on, I spotted it and it certainly helped.  Like others here, I always enjoy a Brendan; it’s a shame we don’t see more of his work.  Plenty of nice surfaces to enjoy and some real wit.  I did spot the White House reference in 2ac so WHIP parsed.  Like PeeDee, I struggled to understand what ‘in part’ contributed to AMERICAN and it’s my only quibble.

    Favourites were KOH-I-NOOR, ONE DAY, WEEPER and OLYMPIAN with PROPOSER COTD given how nicely it utilised the day of publication.

    Thanks Brendan and PeeDee

  19. Thoroughly enjoyable. Feels like a golden run of themes/special instructions if you like that kind of thing which I emphatically do!

    My LoI was WEEPER/REHEAR both simple once solved yet quite subtle. I’m another WHIG favourer for 2D and also liked ANAGRAM, YAPS and OLYMPIAN a lot.

    Speaking of ANAGRAM from a week or so back there are only 2 ‘straight anagrams’ in this grid (KOHINOOR and SENATOR) I think – does that seem low ?

    Thanks Brendan, see you in 4 years ! and PeeDee for explaining it and as ever salutations to the many learned contributors on this most pleasant corner of the internet.

  20. It’s all been said – an interesting theme and a clever execution. I got into a mess of my own making in the bottom right thinking 26a was GETTABLE, which fits the definition but nothing else, but when that yielded I could enter the correct answers TWELVE and OLYMPIAN going down.
    The clues were excellent.
    Thanks to Brendan and PeeDee.

  21. Thank you Brendan and PeeDee.

    Yes, a timely puzzle – I wonder if the Koh-i-Noor was included since it was re-cut in 1852, a leap year, on Prince Albert’s instructions to enhance its light effects, the legendary 186-carat mughal cut diamond was reduced to a 105-carat oval stellar brilliant…

  22. It was always going to be a Leap Year theme, so 10ac was rather obvious and the rest was fairly easy.

    I also wondered about the function of the words ‘in part’ in 14 ac.

    Not much else to say, except thanks to Brendan and to PeeDee.

  23. ilippu @8 – in 24 I took off to mean “the thing removed from” in the same way that if I call someone “a chip off the old block” then the subject of this is the chip, the thing removed

  24. I solved this fairly steadily at first but found a few quite recalcitrant. Spent quite a while trying to work out how the wordplay for 26a gave GETTABLE, before solving OLYMPIAN and realising it wasn’t the answer. That, in turn, made me realise EIGHTEEN TWENTY (assumed to be the year of some great cricketing feat involving boundaries I just couldn’t track down) wasn’t a good guess.

    I finished in the end, but with ‘yips’ for YAPS in 24a and the thought that “a” wasn’t a very good way of cluing I. (Ie, I’m an idiot).

    In 14a, I think Eric is only part of the “issue of Trump” because that includes his other children, too (as, having written this, I notice Biggles A@2 and others have pointed out).

    In 24a, the underlining ought, really, to extend to “them” as well.

    I agree with Dr. WhatsOn@3 that GAUCHE (25a) doesn’t mean ‘inexperienced’, though it is often a characteristic of such. Could have done with ‘perhaps’ at the beginning, or similar? The wordplay was incontestable though.

    Isn’t “Datebook” (1,11) really a double definition, with the two definitions rolled into a single word? That’s how I thought of it, anyway.

    WH is not in any dictionary as an abbreviation for White House, even Merriam-Webster, so although I thought of WHIP almost straight away, I hesitated to put it in for a long time, finally deciding that WH = White House was what was meant by “US government”. I had considered WHI[g] earlier, but (wrongly, I now learn) dismissed the idea that there were Whigs in the US.

    I didn’t know the word PNEUMA (7d) before, but after constructing it from wordplay, I was confident that it was right by virtue of etymology.

    Illipu@8, ‘off’ is a (British) colloquial way of expressing ‘from’ in this sense, e.g.”that bloke off the telly” =’that man from the television’. I think this is the same usage as Peedee’s “chip off the old block” really.

    I also interpreted ONE DAY (21d) as Peedee did, so thanks to NeilW for pointing out what, in the context of the theme, should have been obvious (though not quite as obvious as A = A!).

    Great puzzle with a well-executed theme.

  25. Thanks to both for an enjoyable ramble. Eventually sorted the theme, which is unusual for me.

    Um, PeeDee, the anagram fodder for 5d should be SWEATER I. The i is necessary.

  26. I think that WHI[G] + P has to be the intended parsing for 2dn, but I don’t know why “US” appears in the clue. You lot had Whigs at one point as well, so while it’s not wrong, it’s seems a bit odd to me to include it in the clue.

  27. I’m pretty sure there are no Whigs in the US government now, and if Brendan had meant that, surely he would have added ‘once’ or similar? Can any of our American commenters say whether WH is a recognized abbreviation for the White House over there? I believe Brendan is a US resident.

  29. It’s gotta be WH (White House) I – P  whatever is in the dictionary, and if Brendan is a US resident, we get his orientation, and with a British definition. We get that too, even from downunder.

    I was chuffed to get the historic score, 1812, not cricket for once, and 1984, great clue, without even knowing it was  a leap year.

  31. paddymelon@29, I agree that’s what it must be. As the crossword is published in Britain, however, Brendan should (and does, I’m sure) endeavour to produce it from a UK perspective. I wondered if, in this case, the abbreviation ‘WH’ was so ubiquitous in the USA where he lives that it didn’t occur to him how unfamiliar it would seem over here.

  32. I enjoyed it on the whole and the theme was excellently done.  Minor moan about clues like 23a where you have to pick a random author out of the ether to get the solution.

  33. MinG, I see your point, but doesn’t it assume a strictly linear approach to solving? I came up with the possibility of RED = left and saw that it went well with “… again, for instance” as a def. Then, thinking about what could be “paper again, for instance”, starting RED-, thought of REDECORATE and immediately saw how ECORATE fit the rest of the wordplay. In general, though, I think I agree with you and ‘Italian author’, say, might have helped with attacking the clue differently.

  34. A clue like 16d is totally useless if you are not doing this crossword on the day it is published.

  35. OD – that is true, but the Guardian is a daily newspaper.  You can hardly blame them for publishing puzzles on a puzzle per day basis.

Comments are closed.