Guardian Prize 28,338 by Pan

48 comments on “Guardian Prize 28,338 by Pan”

1. Sorry to split hairs, but I actually had for 1 across. HUNK attractive Y male chromosome, and DR with the Y from lady and O old.

2. Thanks to Pan and bridgesong. Enjoyable. Even as a US solver I finished quickly with the notable exception of 25 across (which I won’t attempt to spell out here). I’m assuming that the level of difficulty associated with a prize puzzle is somehow linked to that set of clues. I resorted to Google.

3. Hunky/dory – (9) or (5-4)?
   All my dictionaries give the latter.

4. Enjoyable puzzle. I found this quite easy apart from the NW corner.
   NEW: MATELOTE, UP HELLY AA (thanks, google), SNOUT = tobacco, COMPO, RUGOSE (loi)
   Thanks Pan and bridgesong

5. Too easy for a “prize” crossword. I was briefly held up by SLAPSTICK, which I needed for the L in COMPILE. Agree that UP HELLY AA was an immediate write-in from the enumeration alone, but I would imagine it was pretty much impossible for anyone who didn’t know it. STORMONT was a clever bit of misdirection which had me thinking further afield then the UK. David Bowie’s HUNKY DORY album (spelt as two words) was released in 1971, and I don’t remember thinking of the phrase even back then as specifically American.

   Thanks Pan and bridgesong.

6. Thanks to Bridgesong and to Pan. Yes, very straightforward for a Saturday puzzle. I was proud to actually remember UP-HELLY-AA, but of course I had to check the spelling !

7. Sil@3 according to Bowie too it was the latter, so that settles it!

   I agree with Bridgesong regarding the difficulty, though I would guess I’m not the only one needing to Google 25a to confirm.

8. This was a crossie of quarters for me: SW, NE, NW and finally the SE. For 22d, which I could see was an anagram of ‘phrase’, I had SERAPH (guiding one to heaven?), which didn’t help for 25a. Indeed, nothing but Wikipedia could help for 25a, given the unknown, really obscure and totally unconstructable answer that it turned out to have. 18d at least could be guessed at from the wordplay and crossers, but also needed Mr G for confirmation. Thanks, Pan and bridgesong.

9. Thanks to Pan for a good (and different) challenge.

   I found that fun and well put together. Maybe a bit easier than some prizes but not that much easier. RUGOSE and MATELOTE were newish which is always good. I could remember the Shetlands festival as UP-HELLY-AY and biffed it in in my usual non-Ximean carelessness. When I looked again at the wordplay I realised I had a Y too many. So I changed it to UP HELLA AY. Only a final look at the wordplay (oh and maybe a DuckDuckGo search) made me realise that the wordplay in fact is exquisitely correct and leads one to the correct spelling.
   STORMONT was the LOI and I actually left blank on the dining table and it was completed by my (non-cruciverbalist) wife and adult offspring. So +1 for outreach.

   Thanks Pan, hopefully first of many, and cheers Bridgesong for the explanation and to all the learned solvers on here!

10. Yes, beaulieu @5, the festival was a nho for this aussie and so a dnf…couldn’t derive it from the wordplay. And, like michelle@4, a couple of others were biff and pray…rugose and matelote, but I did know snout was tobacco. Other than those, yes pretty basic and surprised to see Pan on Saturday. Thanks to him/her and to Bridgesong.

11. It certainly was ‘a crossie of quarters’, which grid selection possibly made this simple puzzle more of a challenge. Being right-on, The Guardian will be sore at missing an opportunity to save on ink by removing ‘(male)’ at 7ac: is it actually necessary?

12. Thanks bridgesong. A pleasant interlude but, like others, I prefer a bit more of a challenge at the weekend. All over rather too quickly and thanks to Ann Cleeves and Jimmy Perez I wasn’t even held up by 25a.

13. I would guess there are quite a few of us who seldom do the crossword other than Saturday. My preference is for a Goldilocks puzzle which is challenging but not unduly so. This was over in about 15 minutes so for me didn’t really fit the bill.

    That said, there were some lovely elegant surfaces. Stormont was very nicely done.

    “A bit of lemon” for “l” seems unsatisfactory even in the context of a gastronomic clue

14. I’ve moaned before about the ‘prize’ crossword being easier than the weekday ones and I won’t repeat it all yet again.
    Are they still witholding the prize due to the corona ‘situation’? You really would have thought that the Guardian would have got its act together by now. Surely it can’t be that difficult to arrange.
    Anyway, the puzzle …..
    Having lived in Shetland and attended the UP-HELLY-AA, it was a write-in and, if I remember correctly, my FOI.
    The only very slight hold-up was MATELOTE, a new word for me, but easily gettable from the crossers and clue.
    Tentative ticks for SKIPPERS and WHOPPING.
    Not a bad puzzle for its level but over so so quickly.
    Thanks nonetheless to Pan and to Bridgesong.

15. Andrew B @13: I recall raising a similar query some time ago regarding, I think, ” a taste of ..” which also indicated an initial letter. The blogger of the day – I think it might have been Eileen – reassured me this was quite normal practice. Setters always need ways of indicating single letters and, as a practice, I can’t pretend it leaves me unduly concerned.

    The festival seems to have been the biggest poser to those outside of the UK which is hardly surprising (Epeesharkey – I had similar experience to you but bunging in AH at the end in the first instance). I think the old defence of “it’s OK in a British publication” has to be brought in. If not in the Guardian, where else could it be used? The Shetland Times doesn’t appear to have a web-accessible crossword page! [But it does have the most glorious illustration accompanying the article headlined “Test and isolate all visitors like we do with livestock, says farming union” https://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2021/01/15/test-and-isolate-all-visitors-like-we-do-with-livestock-says-farming-union Somehow the photo seems vaguely reminiscent of immigration at JFK!]

    Yes, the least difficult of the week by far which doesn’t seem right for a Saturday. I recall being somewhere between Alan B’s 15 and our blogger’s 25 minutes. Nothing particularly stands out for comment beyond those already highlighted by others. I shall head off and start listening to either Life on Mars or Ch – ch – ch – ch – changes.

    Thanks Pan and bridgesong

16. Mostly easy, with one clue – guess which? – that was nearly impossible unless you knew the answer or had access to Google. I’d never heard of it, and I didn’t feel bad about going to Google. I figured that even if I did make an intelligent guess from the wordplay, I’d still end up having to check it on line. So I learned something new, and that’s always a plus. Oh, RUGOSE was also new to me, but that was gettable. Thanks for the learning experience, Pan, and thanks bridgesong.

17. [Biggles A @12: nothing to do with today’s puzzle. I caught up with a business contact this week who shared with me his recent participation in a Spectator literary challenge to write letters addressed to authors that might have been penned by their best known characters. The concept immediately suggested to me Sherlock Holmes writing to ACD but my pal had composed a letter to Capt WE Johns from his creation Biggles! Largely complaining about the stereotyping to which he and his chums were subjected, the political incorrectness and the lack of comprehensive risk assessments. ]

18. PostMark @ 15 et al

    I was never too impressed with the Shetland times when I lived in Yell. I hope that picture doesn’t mean they want to herd the ‘sooth moothers’ together in pens on the quayside !!

    If anyone is interested in hearing some Shetland speech, have a listen to this wonderful poem. I can email a ‘translation’ of the words if anyone’s interested.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuX2_j99MsY

19. Andrew B@13: I can confirm that “a bit of” to indicate the first letter of a word is a well-established crossword convention, approved of even by such Ximenean setters such as Azed.

20. As with most other posters, I found this relatively straightforward. It did, however, have Pan’s usual good surfaces. And yes, a game of four quarters.

    I seemed to have recalled 25A as starting with UP something, so with help from the Web, I eventually put it in. HUNKY-DORY definitely 5-4 to most people.

    Thanks Pan and bridgesong.

21. Like others, I knew it was UP-HELLY something. I rather lazily googled it. I don’t mind Saturday puzzles not being too difficult. All the days merge into one anyway.

22. It was a rare finish for me (after several hours) so I was not surprised to read that it had been finished in 25 minutes.
    I had to google the Shetland thing.
    Also my loi was snout because I had Whoppers at 15dd as it was women not woman.
    Finally I twigged.

23. Some lovely surfaces I thought but would have preferred something that occupied for longer in these lockdown days! I didn’t know the festival and guessed UP-HELLA-AY.

    I agree with Bridgesong on parsing for 7 and others on the enumeration. I wasn’t sure about 9a, this seemed repetitive with COMPO deriving from COMPOSITE?

24. UP HELLY AA was no problem for anyone who was watching John Noakes on Blue Peter back in 1973.

    Thanks to Anna @18 for the lovely poem, to Pan for the puzzle and bridgesong for the blog.

25. I counted 10 clues with a single letter abbreviation in the wordplay which is too many for me as it is one of my less favourite devices.
    9a. I think that the definition is “mixture” on its own. Parsed as you do, bridgesong, “material” is doing double duty. I wasn’t happy with the wordplay as COMPO is very nearly an abbreviation of COMPOSITE. Chambers gives it as an abbreviation of composition, which it gives as an alternative to composite. That’s why “mixture of material made up of different substances” is a definition of both COMPO and COMPOSITE.
    I liked the picture drawn by 15d
    Thanks to Pan and bridgesong.

26. Thanks Pan and bridgesong. Good to have an easier one now and then after a couple of DNFs for me. I agree with Pino@25 about COMPO, but disagree with Ant@1 because hunk is only ever a noun and attractive an adjective.

27. I agree with Pino & Malevole about COMPO – Collins has it as short for composite. I saw the clue as a sort of straight definition written in a slightly cryptic way, in an attempt to mislead the solver into thinking there was something else going on.

28. I am always a week or two behind (hence why my posts are usually the last ones and done days and days after everyone has moved on) so I settled down today with an empty afternoon ahead looking forward to a good few hours of solving. I was therefore disappointed to have a Monday puzzle as the Prize (and I have no problem with easy puzzles per se). Anyway beaulieu at 5, I had never heard of the festival but got it spot on from the clear parsing as I did with the others I did not know, rugose, matelote. As someone who never uses outside sources, I am always grateful to setters whose clues can lead to unknown answers so thank you Pan and thank you to bridgesong too.

29. I share some of the doubts about the soundness of the clue for COMPOSITE. But it’s fair to say that COMPO was originally the short form of COMPOSITION, which does of course come from the same root. I can’t find anything in Chambers to support Pino’s contention that COMPOSITION is an alternative to COMPOSITE.

    So far as HUNK is concerned, I parsed it in the way I did, because it never occurred to me that Pan was referring to the Y chromosome to indicate male. Hunk and hunky are both defined in Chambers as being male, so someone who is hunky is therefore male (and attractive).

30. bridgesong @29. Your argument that COMPO was originally the short form of COMPOSITION is based on Chambers. However, Collins has it as “short for composition, compensation, composite”, according to context. Treating this clue as a charade, as you have it in your blog, makes it (in my opinion) a lot weaker than it would be if following my suggestion @27.

31. Sheffield hatter@30: shall we agree that both parsings are possible; either a charade or a cryptic definition? Unless Pan drops in, we’ll never know which was the true intention.

32. bridgesong@29
    You’re right. Under the heading “composite” my 1988 Chambers has “compositeness” as an alternative to “composition”, not plain “composite”. My apologies.

33. bridgesong – fair enough. Or maybe a charade with extended definition, almost an &lit?

34. PostMark @15
    I’m amazed that you know I completed this in 15 minutes, as I never told anyone!
    I see that Andrew B (@13) equalled my time.

35. Alan B @ 34: oops! Read your post, re-read mine, yes – I’d referred to Andrew B, wondered what you meant, re-read it again and Aha! Thank Goodness there’s no Anthony B here for me to tag as well!

    Which, of course, is cue for Anthony B to turn up as a long established contributor…

36. [PostMark @35: Blunt, Buckeridge, Burgess, Benn, Barber, Booth… all no longer solving (earthly) crosswords… but maybe this feller squeezes in a few clues between rounds?]

37. [essexboy @36: all those capital B’s remind me of something my father enjoyed which would probably amuse some setters:

    “If the BMT put: if the B.”

    It translates as simple instructions for maintaining a decent house fire: If the grate be empty put coal on. If the grate be full stop.

    Not as tight as this community would demand, but it’s cute!]

38. PostMark @35
    Anthony will no doubt turn up later, but meanwhile I’ll just report my own experience of this puzzle. I’d been tipped off that it was too easy, so what I decided to do was to point to any clue, more or less at random, solve it and enter it. This nearly worked all the way through – I had to go elsewhere in just two cases: RUGOSE and UP-HELLY-AA, which I filled in at the end.
    I thought they were a good, clean set of clues – I agree with what the blogger said about them – but they were just too easy.

39. I would not normally comment on a prize being too easy because I understand the need to attract less experienced solvers, but I couldn’t help thinking that this one was written for the Monday or Quiptic slot and ended up as a Saturday puzzle by mistake…

40. beaulieu @5 STORMONT is further afield than the UK. The Republic of Ireland is not in it.

41. Valentine @ 40

    Stormont is the seat of the government of Northern Ireland, so part of UK.

42. Valentine
    Surely Stormont is in the UK.

43. [PM @37: 🙂 Not only is it cute, it has two subjunctives – glory be!]

    [Valentine: it’s also in Ulster… but that’s another can of worms]

44. My LOI was Hunkydory. Or as it is over here, hunky-dory. Or as I thought it was because it’s not a word I see often but remember the Bowie album, Hunky Dory. The latter might explain why it took me so long.

45. I enjoyed it and it was the first time I completed a Saturday puzzle and on the day too. Usually I just take one look and decide to wait for Everyman on Sunday, but the comments on the guardian website said it was easier than usual so I had a go.

    And so I tried today’s too – still got three to go and can’t parse several I have got – but will go back and try again.

    Thanks to Pan and bridgesong

46. Cross with myself for not getting STORMONT which is indeed pretty straightforward though a bit pointed. But of course, as we now have a customs barrier down the Irish Sea, the sort of thing no British PM could ever agree to, Stormont is indeed a “European” parliament…
    I’d never heard of UP HELLY AA and like Epeesharkey @9 was filled in (as it were) by other half whose taste normally tends more to Sudokus.
    But a pleasant enough puzzle; I agree with those who say that most of it was a bit straightforward for a Prize, but then at the moment Covid is saving our favourite newspaper some prize money so “Prize” really only means “Saturday Cryptic and we’re not going to change the layout of the website because we’d only have to change it back later”.
    Thanks to Pan and bridgesong

47. Even though this was on the easy side for a prize I missed STORMONT and needed outside references for MATELOTE and UP HELLY AA, all new to me. Liked TWOSOME and SLAPSTICK. I saw HUNKYDORY in a recent crossword clued along the lines of “fine attractive fish.” I prefer the two word version because that’s how David Bowie taught it to me but all variations seem to be acceptable. Thanks to both.

48. PostMark@17. Thank you, that’s amusing. Guilty as charged on political incorrectness but rather too cowardly to take undue risks. I use a pencil for these crosswords.

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