A classic prize puzzle from Paul with some lovely surfaces.
I have commented before on how inventive Paul is. Here he comes up with a fresh way of clueing PINAFORE and finds a connection between LANCASHIRE HOTPOT and PRESTONPANS. I also liked his clues for CHIP SHOP and FORD.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | PINAFORE | If apron loose, tie at the back — that’s it! (8) |
| *(APRON IF) +(ti)E. Now corrected. | ||
| 9 | IMAGO | Adult thing Spike Milligan might have said, on leaving? (5) |
| Spike might have said: “I’m a Go(on)”. It’s defined in Chambers as “the last or perfect stage of an insect’s development”. | ||
| 10 | See 24 down | |
| 11 | PICKPOCKET | Opt for little dip (10) |
| A charade of PICK (opt) and POCKET (little). | ||
| 12 | HANG IT | A thing out of order, for heaven’s sake (4,2) |
| *(A THING). | ||
| 14 | CHIP SHOP | Some meat including joints, where fish served (4,4) |
| HIPS (joints) in CHOP (meat). | ||
| 15, 2 | PRESTONPANS | From which 6 3 might be served for engagement? (11) |
| Cryptic definition: Lancashire hotpot might be served in pans in Preston, although Prestonpans itself is the site of a battle in East Lothian during the Jacobite rebellion. | ||
| 17 | AT FIRST | Fencing off evergreens, spruce trimmed to begin with (2,5) |
| FIRS in (n)ATT(y). | ||
| 20 | STURGEON | Swimmer beginning to tire in theatrical performer? (8) |
| T(ire) in SURGEON (one who performs in a theatre). | ||
| 22 | CREATE | Cook up banger stuffed with last of mince (6) |
| (minc)E in CRATE (a banger). | ||
| 23 | See 25 | |
| 24 | FORD | Pro-Democrat president (4) |
| FOR D(emocrat). Gerald Ford was a Republican, but did become very friendly with Jimmy Carter after they had both left office, so perhaps this is an & lit clue. | ||
| 25, 23 | HUMAN CANNONBALL | Awful stink: party going after an ecclesiastic having pinched intern’s behind — he’s fired (5,10) |
| HUM (awful stink) AN (inter)N in CANON (ecclesiastic) BALL (party). | ||
| 26 | COPULATE | Grab ungulate initially behind hump (8) |
| COP (grab) U(ngulate) LATE (behind). Nicely misleading surface. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DINOSAUR | Conservative racket: Guardian’s nailing it (8) |
| DIN (racket) SA (sex appeal, or IT) in OUR (Guardian’s). | ||
| 2 | See 15 | |
| 3 | See 6 | |
| 4 | PEACOCK | Fashion icon briefly hugged by top fop (7) |
| COC(o) (Chanel) (fashion icon) in PEAK (top). Thanks to Timon for spotting Coco Chanel. | ||
| 5 | MISPRINT | Quick drive from London to Leeds on paper, an error (8). Also now corrected. |
| A charade of M1 SPRINT. | ||
| 6, 3 | LANCASHIRE HOTPOT | Bread covered by another lid, not quite screwed onto hash dish (10,6) |
| CASH (bread) inside *(ANOTHER LI(d)) POT(ty) ( |
||
| 7 | POMELO | Setter inspired by game that’s fruity (6) |
| ME (setter) inside POLO (game). I wasn’t entirely happy with the adjective “fruity” being used to define a fruit, but I suppose the addition of “that’s” turns it into a phrase which can define a noun. | ||
| 13 | GASTRONOMY | Director finally welcomed by Frenchman with love, gracious in appreciation of board? (10) |
| (directo)R in GASTON (Frenchman) O (love) MY (gracious!). | ||
| 16 | ONEONONE | Intimate element going in earlier — case dismissed (3-2-3) |
| NEON (element) in (s)OONE(r) (earlier with its “case” dismissed). A similar device to that used at 17 across. | ||
| 18 | SATURATE | Steep cost at weekends, perhaps, restricts you (8) |
| U (you) in SAT RATE. A nicely misleading surface. | ||
| 19 | INFANCY | I think about name for youth (7) |
| N (ame) in I FANCY. | ||
| 21 | TRASHY | Inferior technique coming up short (6) |
| ART (rev), SHY (which can mean short). | ||
| 22 | CALIPH | Muslim leader has an edge in church (6) |
| A LIP in CH(urch). | ||
| 24, 10 | FULL TOSS | Complain about ludicrous toll for delivery (4,4) |
| *TOLL in FUSS. | ||
Hi bridgesong, 6,3 is (ANOTHER LI[d])* + POT (hash) round CASH.
Slight typo in the fodder for 8 – (APRON IF).
As you say very inventive – I got PRESTONPANS from the crossers before the hotpot.
Thanks for the blog, and thanks Paul.
Thanks to Paul and bridgesong. I made very slow progress on this one with a lot of guesses followed by parsing with much support from Google (e.g, with FULL TOSS). I was stuck on 15.2 until I started experimenting with PRESTON combinations and finally stumbled on the PRESTONPANS battle.
Thanks bridgesong. I agree, classic is the right word for a most enjoyable challenge. With all the crossing letters for 26a in place I felt vaguely ashamed of myself when the correct answer leapt out at me and I tried in vain to find another word before remembering who had set it.
In 6,3 I think HASH=POT and only DISH needs to be underlined. At the risk of pedantry the underlining in 5d should extend to PAPER.
And at the risk of outpedanting a pedant, I suggest the underlining should extend to the ON as well.
An excellent, and in places fiendish, crossword. Thanks to Paul and to Bridgesong – and to Timon (even after I’d decided it was PEACOCK, I still couldn’t figure out where the COC came from).
Quite a testing puzzle which I liked very much. I particularly appreciated 20a STURGEON when I finally saw it – the old operating theatre trick gets me every time! Also a neat use of the slang words “dip” in 11a and “hump” in 26a. My favourite though was 5d MISPRINT. Fortunately I have driven down from Yorkshire via Leeds to London on my very brief visit to the UK in 2010, and so I knew the M1 fodder in the latter. However, I must admit to looking up Lancs towns to get PRESTON to fit the crossers at 15a. I am sad though because now that I look back at my grid I see that I only had _A_S at 2d (I must have had no idea what to put in the blank spaces), so with that oversight I was a DNF on this one – never having heard of PRESTON PANS. I vaguely thought it might be PRESTON WARS because of that sense of “engagement” but clearly I forgot to go back to that one. Thanks for the history lesson, bridgesong. My wounds were salved a little as I actually did see COC(o) Chanel in 4d PEACOCK.
Many thanks to bridgesong and of course Paul. There really were some super clues in this one now that I am reviewing the blog and reliving my “almost” solve.
In addition to the gems mentioned by bridgesong, I liked PICKPOCKET and HUMAN CANNONBALL. All went in slowly but steadily until my loi, PRESTONPANS, which I finally entered as a desperate guess, never having heard of either the battle or the Lancashire town. Happy to have finished it with much enjoyment on the way, so thanks to Paul and also to bridgesong.
[Looking back at that map, we must have taken some other roads – M62 and M621 – to join into the M1 at Leeds. Lovely memories: I wonder if I shall ever go back, or will I just continue to experience the UK virtually via Crosswordland? Not likely to be doing much travel anytime soon by the looks of the COVID-19 chaos.
And apologies to Preston, now that I have found you on a map, I realise you are a city and not a town! An important distinction, as I learned when I finally got to complete the Crucible this week (which was also a classic puzzle!) and catch up with the blog.]
Funny about memory.. was helped in 6,3 by remembering Charlie Barlow in a restaurant scene saying I’ll ‘ave the ‘otpot; lordie, how many decades ago is that? Pot and hash are not the same product, but no big deal. Prestonpans was fresh in mind from watching the Outlander series. Yep, great puzzle from John Paul with lots of wit and a bit of characteristic ribaldry. Stared at imago for a full minute before ‘on going’ clicked, d’oh. Gastronomy took a bit of assembling. All good fun, thanks both.
Another crossword of the usual high standard expected from Paul. No complaints but some very fine clues. I particularly liked IMAGO and PRESTONPANS, particularly for their very fluent surfaces. Also liked ONE-ON-ONE and SATURATE.
Over all too soon.
Thanks to Paul and to bridgesong.
1d particularly applies to The Aussie PM who produced a lump of coal in parliament before being made leader.Good career move?
I think we can accept pot as hash as they both come from (almost?)the same plant. I wonder why I cant remember!
Nice puzzle Thanks paul and bridgesong
Thanks particularly to Gonzo and Biggles A, whose comments have been incorporated in the blog.
To J in A @ 8
I would not have thought Preston was a city, but a check with Master Google confirms that the queen did in fact make Preston a city in 2002. So thanks for putting me straight, Julie.
Cheers Paul for a ‘classic’ with no special instructions or hidden themes.
My favourite and also FOI was PINAFORE — does this fall into &lit ?
Certainly it seems a Pinafore might be a loose fitting apron one ties at the back !
Thanks Bridgesong for explaining it so well, and to the most enjoyable contributions from learned solvers on here which have added a further layer of enjoyment to the solid base of solving pleasure from the original artefact.
Stay safe everyone.
Very enjoyable puzzle from Paul once again, with a very helpful grid. Shoved in IMAGO from the definition but had no idea why until I came here, so many thanks bridgesong. I am certainly of an age to remember the Goons but it just did not click with me, once I saw it, I think it is one of my favourites along with, HUMAN CANNONBALL and COPULATE because well…… it is Paul!
I struggled with the parsing of PEACOCK until at last I saw Coco. I put in PRESTON PALS – a Lancashire company of men apparently who fought at the Somme.
Thanks Paul for an entertaining crossword and bridgesong for a good blog.
Epee Sharkey @14: yes, I think PINAFORE is an & lit clue, which is why I underlined the whole of the clue, indicating that the definition and the wordplay are the same. I do so with some hesitation, because really the definition is the “it” at the end of the clue (which doesn’t form part of the wordplay) but you can’t make sense of it without reference to the components of the wordplay. Perhaps it’s a semi-& lit clue?
I thought this quite difficult but somewhat easier than yesterday’s puzzle. I wasn’t at all sure about ONE ON ONE until I looked it up. I liked PRESTON PANS but I suspect I only knew it as a result of spending a year at college in Dalkeith which is in Midlothian.
Thanks Paul.
Nice puzzle, though there was a lot I couldn’t get without trying various letters with the check button. Did less than half of this last night. But thanks Paul and bridgesong, it was a good stretch.
Haven’t we had dear old SA = IT a lot recently?
Of all the icons in the world I’m supposed to come up with Coco Chanel? That’s a lot of reach.
I’m in general agreement with those who’ve already posted though this was a dnf for me. LANCASHIRE HOTPOT defeated me – which meant I didn’t get PRESTONPANS either. Maybe I’m just being a bit grumpy but I thought the surface for the first of those was particularly ugly – one of the worst I’ve seen for some time – and lost patience with it and put the puzzle aside. Having got that off my chest, I thought there were some smashers elsewhere in the grid and some typical Paulian smut to raise a smile. Favourites include IMAGO, MISPRINT, GASTRONOMY, SATURATE and FULL TOSS. COPULATE was COTD and made me laugh out loud.
Thanks Paul and bridgesong.
After a few of the crossers were in, I thought immediately of PRESTON PARK for 15/2. It’s just up the road from Brighton where Paul I believe is from and will be familiar to all rail commuters using the London/Brighton line. Obviously the enumeration didn’t fit, but it slowed me up enough to make PRESTONPANS my last in. I hadn’t heard of it before, but it obviously fits beautifully with LANCASHIRE HOTPOT. I wrote IMAGO in from the crossers and definition, but forgot to go back and parse it properly, so thanks, bridgesong, for that. Liked PINAFORE, MISPRINT and AT FIRST the most. Ticks also for the well-hidden definitions in COPULATE and SATURATE.
Thanks, Paul and bridegsong.
11a PICKPOCKET. Strictly speaking PICK means opt for, so the latter word is not surplus as in the given parsing.
1d Not sure how helpful it is to point out that ‘sex appeal’ can also be rendered as IT as well as SA — not in this clue!
6,3 As part of the correction, you should also cross out “(ty)” after POT.
grantinfreo@9, ‘pot’ may not mean hash in Freo, but over here it can refer to any form of cannabis. See Collins (English,3)
I thought the GO in 6ac IMAGO had something to do with the Goon’s quip: ‘I say, I say, I say… how do you start a pudding race?’ And secondly: ‘Can a lady with a wooden leg change a pound note?’ , but apparently not (SAGO , but I don’t know the answer to the second one, however)
Dave Ellison @23
The answer is “No – she’s only got half a (k)nicker”.
Yep Tony@23, my Collins agrees: cannabis … as a drug in any form. A matter of, erm, usage I guess.
@22, I meant.
Thank you Paul for another classic. Witty and inventive as ever. I loved 15 and 26 particularly though it’s hard to single them out. And thank you Bridgesong – I got 1 but couldn’t parse the “osaur” part for the life of me. Much cleverer than me (is that a word?). More like this please ?
When I add an emoji does this site show a question mark? And that was meant to be a question mark.
Why. Duh
Jaydee, I believe it is possible to add emojis, but I don’t use them, so I don’t know how. Perhaps others can help?
Jaydee @28
See here for the use of emoticons.
Favourites were ONE ON ONE, AT FIRST.
New for me was LANCASHIRE HOTPOT (it sounds yummy).
I failed to solve 15/2 and was not sure how to parse IMAGO.
Thanks Paul and bridgesong