Guardian Prize 28,243 by Philistine

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More delightful cluemanship on display in this week’s puzzle in what used to be the prize slot.

It’s always a pleasure to see Philistine’s name on a puzzle, and this one didn’t disappoint. With the exception of 13 across, everything dropped into place smoothly and Timon and I polished it off in around 50 minutes, which is fast by our standards. We loved 25 across, and in fact I saw a reference to it on Twitter from the comedian Chris Addison (liked by Susie Dent). We also liked “beastly hotel” for cattery as part of the wordplay in 5 down. Thanks to Philistine for the entertainment.

image of grid
ACROSS
9 LITHUANIA Hindu extremists imprisoned by corrupt Italian state (9)
H(ind)U in *ITALIAN.
10 HINDI Language of North India (5)
Hidden in “North India”. Very nearly an & lit.
11 GOURMET More gut-rot for foodie (7)
*(MORE GUT). “Rot” is the anagrind.
12 BERTHED By the sound of it, had babies and stopped, but not at 7 (7)
Sounds like “birthed”.
13 TOPER Drunk may do this to house plant, if rejected (5)
I can’t explain the wordplay here; it looks like a word for a plant (salsify, thrift??) with IF removed, but I can’t work out which one.  It’s just REPOT reversed: thanks to all who pointed this out.
14 POTPOURRI The Guardian’s probing rip-off after cannabis mix (9)
POT (cannabis), OUR (Guardian’s) in *RIP.
16 EAT BETWEEN MEALS Best lean meat stew includes small snack (3,7,5)
*(BEST LEAN MEAT STEW) less S(mall).  Another error on my part: it’s just an anagram of BEST LEAN MEAT including WEE.
19 SHRUBBERY Quiet, tough yet pliable bushes (9)
SH (quiet) RUBBERY.
21 VISOR Top half of 21 down or its cover (5)
VIS(age) OR.
22 BLENDER Bank may be following its lead appliance (7)
(Bank) LENDER.
23 WEST HAM Club has pop music duo touring east of Calais (4,3)
EST (French for east) inside WHAM (pop music duo).
24 RHONE Nothing gets one out of a river for another (5)
O for I in RHINE.
25 ORANGUTAN Species that’s endangered as a result of a tiny alteration in Trump’s tone (9)
ORANGE TAN (Trump’s skin tone) with U for E (tiny alteration). A lovely clue, even if the wordplay is not completely unambiguous (there’s nothing to tell you that you specifically need to replace the E with a U, and conceivably the answer could be Orangeman).
DOWN
1, 22 FLIGHTLESS BIRD Turkey, perhaps, flags a British deal, but not as planned (10,4)
*(FLAGS A BRITISH DEAL) less AS  omitting the As.  Another careless error by your blogger corrected!
2 STRUMPET Scarlet woman‘s in position, Mr President (8)
TRUMP in SET.
3 MURMUR Whisper from Parisian walls (6)
MUR (French for “wall”) twice.
4, 23 KNITWEAR Garments found in train wreck, oddly strewn (8)
*(TRAIN and odd letters of WrEcK).
5 CAR BATTERY Dodgy bar in beastly hotel needed for starter (3,7)
*BAR in CATTERY (beastly hotel).
6 KHARTOUM In the distance, see author struggling to get capital (8)
*AUTHOR in KM (distance).
7 ANCHOR Fix monarchy by getting rid of outsiders and implementing reform (6)
*(m)ONARCH(y).
8, 15 WIND INSTRUMENT Topless 2 say victory, how not to play it and somehow intend to cover that (4,10)
WIN (victory) STRUM (how not to play it) inside *INTEND. The definition is “topless strumpet” or trumpet.
14 POWDER ROOM Prisoner at 7 or 12 up about redhead ladies (6,4)
POW (prisoner), R(edhead) in MOORED (rev).
15 See 8
17 EMBODIED Centre of Luxembourg was no longer represented (8)
(lux)EMBO(urg) DIED.
18 AESTHETE She got involved with Tate exhib­ition, initially as art lover (8)
*(SHE TATE + E(xhibition)).
20 REEBOK Fine ale served up primarily to make one horny (6)
BEER (rev), OK (fine). A reebok is an antelope, which has horns.
21 VISAGE After 6, guru gives a strange appearance (6)
VI (six) SAGE (guru).  Also an anagram (strange) of GIVES A.
22 See 1
23 See 4

 

50 comments on “Guardian Prize 28,243 by Philistine”

  1. Perhaps my quickest solve of a Prize to date, with no need to look anything up. No really outstanding clues, but several worth mentioning. I liked FLIGHTLESS BIRD once I figured out the anagram fodder, ORANGUTAN for its surface, WIND INSTRUMENT despite the clunky surface, and the interconnected clues at 12a, 7d, and 14d. My only question is regarding the definition of VISAGE. Collins online doesn’t justify the use of ‘strange.’ Perhaps other commenters can provide support from other sources. Anyway, thanks to Philistine and Bridgesong.

    P.S.: Bridgesong, TOPER is a reversal of REPOT, something one might do to a houseplant.

  2. This may not have occupied as much time as recent Saturday puzzles but it was nonetheless enjoyable. Wasn’t sure about MOORED = at ANCHOR or BERTHED, there are differences, but I guess they all refer to boats at rest. I was left with 1d and 25a completed but unexplained and it took rather longer to come to terms with them. 1d is cleverly misleading but I still think 25a is a bit too contrived, even if it is topical.

    Isn’t 13a just repot, something you might do to a house plant if it becomes rootbound say.

  3. I fairly romped through this, until I came to a screeching halt, something that happens a lot. Then the remainder trickled in, but not without some reservations about VISAGE.
    I always seem to fall for the trick of some numbers (6 in this case) referring to themselves, in the company of other numbers in other clues that are clue references. One day I’ll learn. That said, I’m really not sure about the correctness of “strange” in the clue.  (I wrote this before seeing Dave@1) I used OneLook which brought back links to definitions in 28 dictionaries, and I looked at the top 10. They all gave “face” or “appearance” as definitions, no mention of strange or anything like it. However, those that gave usage examples all gave some adjective in front of visage, which probably reflects 99% of the word’s use in practice, hence the subconscious, but erroneous, association, it would seem.

  4. Also liked the CATTERY = beastly hotel !

    Less convinced by ORANGUTAN at 25a Trump’s tone = orange tan? not sure !

    Also the endangered species is ORANG-UTAN or ORAN-OUTANG at least according to Chambers, so the clue should surely be (5-4) rather than (9)

    But quibbles aside this did bring a large smile.

    My LOI for some reason was REEBOK – hardly the most challenging and I’m sure it has appeared before,

    FLIGHTLESS BIRD (turkey !!), WIND INSTRUMENT and EAT BETWEEN MEALS were great longer clues, the last one held out on me for ages, as couldn’t make the leap for snack to be a verb.

    Couple of the clues required you to know some French (mur = wall, est = east) the latter one isn’t hard but ‘mur’ seems a bit of a stretch.

    13A is surely just re-pot ( as in put a plant into a different receptacle ) written backwards.

    Anyway, a good diversion, enjoyed. Thanks Philistine and bridgesong for explaining it all !

  5. Thanks to Philistine and bridgesong. Very enjoyable. I did not have trouble with TOPER-repot bur needed all the crossers for EAT BETWEEN MEALS.

  6. I agree the “strange” in 21d is . . . well, strange. However, I think it may be a reference to Steve Strange who was the lead singer of the band Visage in the early 80s: “strange appearance” = “the band that Mr Strange appeared in” perhaps? (Best known for the song Fade to Grey, which takes me right back to my teenage years.)

    An excellent puzzle from Philistine as always – thanks to him and to bridgesong.

  8. I was thinking this would be tough, having spent some time getting a few answers near the top (FOI HINDI – which seemed like a GK crossie clue… until I saw the inclusion), but making little progress beyond that. Duties called, and I went off to do gardening etc and returned to this in the late afternoon. Suddenly, the long answers (the two going down and one across) sprang into my mind almost simultaneously, and everything else followed quickly. ORANGUTAN was a real gem, and I also liked STRUMPET and MURMUR. Thanks to Paul and bridgesong.

  10. Biggles A, TassieTim – ah, yes. So it’s two separate wordplays, VI + SAGE / *(gives a), with “appearance” as the definition. Maybe the Steve Strange idea is just a coincidence.

  11. Also wondered about strange, and Quirister’s band suggestion is well out of my ken. But, yes, a gently enjoyable trot for a prize, with nothing to raise the eyebrows too much. Liked the two French walls and the powder room, among others. Thanks P, and B and T.

  12. Biggles@7 & TassieTim@9 you’re absolutely right.  It’s a triple (don’t know what else to call it)!  I take back what I said before.

  13. Thanks bridgesong and Philistine. I kept thinking ‘seaweed’ must be in this snack and so the longest answer was my last in. So many excellent clues,a guffaw for the sallow POTUS endangered species, 25A.

  15. Thanks Philistine and bridgesong. Just for the record, while your Christmas dinner most likely never got off the ground in life, the wild turkey is definitely not flightless.

  17. I really enjoyed this, although I didn’t fully understand ORANGUTAN until I came here. A couple of the anagrams were a bit trickier than they first appear. 16a has already been mentioned and 1,22d is an anagram (planned) of FLAGS A BRITISH DEAL with the 3 examples of the letter A removed (not as – A’s)
    Thanks Philistine & Bridgesong

  19. I parsed 16A the same way as jkb_ing and Biggles A. Insertion of WEE  small in anagram of BEST LEAN MEAT.

    Liked the ‘not as’ of FLIGHTLESS BIRD clue. Also liked ORANGUTAN, CAR BATTERY.

    Thanks, B+S

     

  20. For 1D, FLIGHTLESS BIRD, I parsed it as an anagram of FLAGS A BRITISH DEAL less 2xA (A’s or As). It does not work if we remove the word ‘as’. Not sure if I have explained clearly.

  21. Thanks Philistine for a great crossword. I had already ticked VISAGE as a favourite but after reading the comments I should have given it a double (or triple) tick. Other favourites included BLENDER, CAR BATTERY, WIND INSTRUMENT, and EMBODIED. Thanks Bridgesong for the blog.

  25. Thanks to Philistine for a great puzzle. Several goodies already mentioned. I also liked 11a GOURMET which made me laugh out loud. Other ticks were for 14a POTPOURRI, the long one at 16a EAT BETWEEN MEALS (which clearly others liked too), 2d STRUMPET (as did TassieTim@8), 3d MURMUR (probably top favourite -again with TT@8 and gif@11 on this one), 5d CAR BATTERY (cf michelle@19 and Tony@21), 14d POWDER ROOM (again agreeing with grant), 17d EMBODIED (cf Tony) and 20d REEBOK … So lots to like. I find Philistine’s sense of humour very droll and very much on my wavelength. Needed help with the full parse for a couple like 6d KHARTOUM and 8,15d WIND INSTRUMENT, both so obvious now – but grateful to bridgesong for these explanations and indeed for the whole blog. Thanks to fellow travellers on the 15² blog and trusting you all stay well in these scary times.

     

  28. Sometimes I don’t get on with Philistine’s puzzles, but this one was very good. My only slight quibble was in common with PeterO@15. The commercial breeds of turkey raised for maximum meat production are too heavy to fly, or indeed mate naturally, but our pet turkeys (heritage breed) can certainly get off the ground if they want to.

    Thanks Philistine

  30. I can’t find my copy of this puzzle but I know I had lots of ticks and enjoyed it tremendously. I’m sure my favourites have all been covered above.

    I do remember that I burst out laughing when the penny finally dropped re FLIGHTLESS BIRD. I can’t remember how many times I copied out the anagram fodder and ticked off the letters. (There are three As, michelle @20.)

    Many thanks to Philistine for the usual fun and bridgesong (and Timon) for the blog.

  31. As AllThumbsUp @17 says, one has to remove all the a’s in the anagram fodder for 1D. Removing ‘as’ leaves a spurious ‘a’.

    I’m not sure I understand the clue for BLENDER. Is it that the bank might be a lender after ‘its’ lead (B)? It has a strange surface anyway.

    I particularly enjoyed SHRUBBERY and ORANGUTAN.

    Thanks Philistine and bridgesong.

     

  33. Robi @31 and ginf : yes, that’s how I read BLENDER too.

    I loved the whole thing.  The RHINE/RHONE trick was a favourite, partly because it reminded me of a long-ago walk inside the Rhône glacier (“a long and winding ice grotto with glistening blue walls and a leaky ceiling” – see here) which sadly is disappearing before our eyes.  Interestingly the source of the Rhine is not that far away, relatively speaking.  It’s one of the main watersheds of Europe; in theory a raindrop falling on one side has the sunny Med to look forward to, while its less fortunate neighbouring raindrop is bound for the North Sea.

    If Quirister @6 and Ant @27 are right about the Steve Strange allusion being deliberate – and I suspect they are – then VISAGE is not just a triple, but a quadruple:

    1) VI + SAGE

    2) (GIVES A)*

    3) ‘straight definition’ – appearance

    4) the whole clue is an &littish description of the ‘guru’ of the New Romantics.

    Brilliant clue – though I didn’t realise it at the time!

    Thanks to Philistine and bridgesong.

  34. PeterO @15: “…your Christmas dinner most likely never got off the ground in life, the wild turkey is definitely not flightless”, and beaulieu @28: “…our pet turkeys (heritage breed) can certainly get off the ground if they want to”. Isn’t this accounted for in the clue? Philistine has cleverly phrased the wordplay (the anagrist and anagrind) to provide a comment on the situation you describe: ” …not as planned”!

    I agree with bridgesong that this was at the easier end of the spectrum, but I wonder if it would be acceptable to suggest that mention in the blog of comparative solving times can be misinterpreted by some as smacking of self-aggrandisement? I saw some comments on Monday’s Vulcan where the blogger was, I thought unfairly, castigated for stating that he found it easy, and he was subsequently supported by other commenters (it was a Monday, after all). I note that bridgesong habitually solves with a partner (referred to as Timon). My experience, as a lone solver, is that when I do occasionally tackle the crossword with a friend or family member it is always much easier. Two heads are better than one, don’t you know! I hesitate before criticising any of our bloggers, who do a sterling job for little reward apart from our thanks. So thanks, bridgesong, and I hope you don’t mind my minor grouse too much.

    Thanks also to Philistine for a very enjoyable and amusing solve, with many clever devices (I especially approve of B LENDER) and at least one clue with hidden depths, if the analysis of VISAGE by essexboy @33 is correct.

  35. Late to the plate today but did want to record my appreciation of Philistine’s offering last week.  Thanks to everyone for the forensic dissection of VISAGE which not only explains the odd appearance of ‘strange’ but, culminating in essexboy’s post @33, reveals the full glory of the clue.

    Most of my ticks have already been mentioned by others – FLIGHTLESS BIRD (I’m afraid most of the ones I see are definitely flightless and awaiting the carving knife), ORANGUTAN, EAT BETWEEN MEALS, CAR BATTERY.  The linked clues mentioned by DaveinNC @1 were lovely; I wonder if Philistine could have incorporated ‘docked’ somewhere – maybe in a clue to signify a dropped letter.  bridgesong observes that HINDI is nearly an &lit.  Presumably because of the ‘of’.  Would “North Indian language” have done the job?

    I’m of an age, I’m afraid, when I can’t see the word SHRUBBERY without being reminded of this.

    Many thanks Philistine and bridgesong for the blog

  36. A super puzzle. As if Julie’s list (@25) was not long enough, I would like to add VISAGE to my list of favourites – I saw how this worked three ways, but not four!
    Thanks to Philistine and Bridgesong.

  38. Masterful stuff from Philistine as usual. I loved the ORANGUTAN. EMBODIED was also a favourite and WEST HAM for the misdirection.

    KNITWEAR was also very cleverly crafted I thought- devilish because any of train, wreck, oddly, strewn or even ‘found in’ could be an anagram indicator!

  39. Very enjoyable, although – rather like Dr WhatsOn @ 2 – I raced through this at first, then stopped suddenly with maybe a quarter still to go and it was quite a while before one of the missing ones clicked and the rest fell into place. Sometimes it’s like that; in this case the key to getting back in was KNITWEAR which seemed to have hit a blind spot of mine. That’s the sort of thing where having two heads puzzling at once would have helped, which I guess is part of what sheffield hatter @ 34 was saying. In fact, solving crosswords is one endeavour where it really helps to work with someone who thinks completely differently from you. There were some very nice clues in there, as everyone has said. My last in was ORANGUTAN – maybe not the most precise wordplay, but a lovely concept! Thanks Philistine and bridgesong.

  40. I finished this, which I often don’t with a prize.  Enjoyed it, thank you Philistine and bridgesong.

    I wonder if anybody has kept a list of all the species of antelope that appear in Terra Cryptica?  I learned from a google chase after an earlier puzzle that “antelope” is a “wastebasket taxon,” including all the bovids who aren’t cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, or goats.  That idea was a new one on me.

     

  41. Thanks to bridgesong and Philistine

    22a features a Philistine trademark – “word joining”. “May be” must be read as “maybe” so that “bank” can be a dbe for “lender”.

    “Bank” is also required to separately supply the first letter of the solution, so it could be argued that it is doing double duty.

    8,15 also has an unusual feature – a def which has to be derived cryptically.

  42. Sheffield hatter @34: I take your point, but please accept that no element of self-aggrandisement was involved.  Timon and I generally allow ourselves an hour on a Sunday morning to do the puzzle; usually it’s just about enough, but sometimes we need extra time.  So the fact that we were able to finish this in 50 minutes was some justification for the (implied) assertion that this puzzle was relatively easy.  It’s just a reference scale.  But given the number of errors I made in parsing the answers, perhaps we should have taken more time!

  43. Mark@35 – me too (re SHRUBBERY). In our house we have also decided that NI is an acceptable Scrabble word.

    Thanks Philistine for the usual high quality crossword and B&T for the blog.

  44. I was pleased to complete this without resorting to googling any clues. In the blog for 22 BLENDER it should, I think, say B(ank)+LENDER (=bank). That is how I parsed it at any rate. I rather think I did not recognise (S)TRUMPET as the WIND INSTRUMENT. Lots to like but I think everything I particularly enjoyed has been mentioned. Many thanks to Bridgesong (and Timon) for the blog and to Philistine for a very satisfying solve.

  46. Peri1561 @45: I think “wind instrument” encompasses both brass and woodwind. A “wind band” certainly does, though it also includes percussion.

  47. …and a “wind ensemble” can also include a stringed double bass… But now we can argue over how to label saxophones!

  48. I’ve been coming in here for a few weeks now, brushing up my crossword skills from your helpful comments. Thanks all.

    I’m feeling quite proud of myself because I completed this Prize with minimal assistance : ) (OK, I resorted to morewords a few times, and used the check functiona bit!)

    I got ‘West Ham’ but it was my husband who worked out how it worked.

    ‘Toper’ went in unexplained – it’s obvious now!

    20d I had ‘Rhebok’ – google prefers the ‘h’ and defaults to footwear for ‘Reebok’.

    I haven’t tried this weekend’s puzzle yet, hopefully I’ll be back to report I managed that too!

  49. Welcome, Katherine @48; glad you find the site helpful.  This weekend’s puzzle was perhaps a little harder than Philistine’s, but not by very much.  As you can see, even we bloggers sometimes can’t explain how a clue works, TOPER being a case in point.  You will find it helpful to get access to Chambers or Collins (which is available free online) for verification of spellings and meanings, Google being unreliable, as you have discovered.

  50. For once I sailed through a “prize” puzzle. Only hitch was having “vision” at 21d until I saw the crosser wouldn’t work. I’ve seen a few wild turkeys around my town in Pennsylvania: they don’t fly far but they can get off the ground if they need to. Good surfacing, Philistine.

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