Another themed puzzle from Paul for the second Saturday in succession.
This is the third puzzle by Paul in the Saturday slot this month, all themed but all different. The first, on 8 May, involved poets; the next, on 22 May, involved minced oaths, and this one has a reference to fruit of one kind or another in every clue. Nobody can have missed the theme, although it was of little help in solving the clues (that’s not a criticism). Solving this with Timon was a very pleasant experience, with the fine weather allowing us to sit in the garden while we plucked the low-hanging fruit (metaphorically) before tackling the more difficult clues. There were a number of hidden clues which were fairly easy to spot and Paul’s characteristic ingenuity (along with one toilet reference) was on display, with none of the references to fruit seeming at all forced or contrived.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | CARROTY |
Orange books in lift (7)
|
| O(ld) T(estament) (“books”) in CARRY (“lift”). | ||
| 8 | DULLARD |
Everything flipping right in lemon fool (7)
|
| ALL (rev.) R in DUD (a lemon can mean a failure, or dud). | ||
| 9 | GALA |
Hybrid melon, one scooped out for party (4)
|
| GAL(i)A. I don’t know why Paul describes a Galia melon as a hybrid: Chambers just defines it as “a small melon with sweet, juicy flesh”. | ||
| 10 | BEETHOVEN |
Maestro placing last bits of crab apple on the new cooker (9)
|
| (cra)B (appl)E *THE OVEN (cooker). | ||
| 12 | SPARE |
Extra strawberries finally cut (5)
|
| (strawberrie)S PARE (cut). | ||
| 13 | HANDSOME |
Large ripe damson that man has picked (8)
|
| *DAMSON inside HE (man). “Ripe” as an anagram indicator is arguably a little unfair; and “large” as a definition seems a bit vague (and is not justified by Chambers, although it may be by other dictionaries). | ||
| 15 | LIME |
Fruit in slippery gunk, initially wiped (4)
|
| (s)LIME. | ||
| 16 | RAMEN |
Japanese food: a little clementine marked ‘From the East’ (5)
|
| Hidden and reversed (“from the East”) in “clementine marked”. | ||
| 17 | BYRD |
Renaissance composer producing sound of kiwi, say? (4)
|
| Sounds like “bird”. | ||
| 18 | REDEEMER |
Cherry always cut by me for saviour (8)
|
| RED (cherry), ME inside E’ER. | ||
| 20 | BEAUT |
Yet to consume each peach (5)
|
| EA(ch) inside BUT (yet). | ||
| 21 | ENTANGLED |
Confused flavour, lychee lacking pulp in conclusion (9)
|
| TANG (flavour), L(yche)E inside END (conclusion). We were predictably misled by the surface into expecting an anagram (“confused”) of FLAVOUR and LE. | ||
| 22 | RUDE |
Some of the durian rejected — like a raspberry? (4)
|
| Hidden and reversed in “the durian”. | ||
| 24 | APRICOT |
A jar containing mostly mellow fruit (7)
|
| RIC(h) (mellow) inside A POT. | ||
| 25 | CHOC ICE |
Sweet plum filled with cream, originally (4,3)
|
| C(ream) inside CHOICE (plum). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PAPA |
Father requiring pair of pears, oddly (4)
|
| Odd letters in PeAr, repeated. You could argue that the odd letters in “pears” are P A S, but I suppose the clue requires you to use the singular form. | ||
| 2 | GREAT APE |
Feast in fruit for large animal (5,3)
|
| EAT (feast) inside GRAPE. | ||
| 3 | STABLE |
Sturdy bill prodding fruit, first of oils extracted (6)
|
| TAB (bill, as in a restaurant bill) inside SL(o)E. | ||
| 4 | BUCHANAN |
US president with endless fruit: a good deal to eat, but no starter (8)
|
| (m)UCH inside BANAN(a). | ||
| 5 | OLIVES |
Nothing is fruit (6)
|
| 0 LIVES (is). | ||
| 6 | IRAN |
Country importing really amazing nectarines, primarily (4)
|
| First letters of Importing Really Amazing Nectarines. | ||
| 11 | EPHEMERAL |
Passing hard prune stone, with Pepe’s bowels opening? (9)
|
| (p)EP(e) (the “bowels of Pepe”) H(ard) EMERAL(d) (stone pruned by removing last letter). A characteristic toilet reference from Paul. | ||
| 12 | SEINE |
Date boxes in European river (5)
|
| IN inside (“boxed in”) SEE (“date”, as in go on a date with someone). | ||
| 14 | MARAT |
David’s subject picking up some fruit, a rambutan (5)
|
| Hidden and reversed in “fruit a rambutan”. This is the painting in question. | ||
| 16 | ROMAN GOD |
Staff pressing fruit for Bacchus, say? (5,3)
|
| MANGO in ROD. | ||
| 17 | BOAT RACE |
Event finding seed in pear, we hear? (4,4)
|
| OAT (a seed) in BRACE (a pair, sounds like “pear”). | ||
| 19 | ENTAIL |
Involve last of fruit in a line, stewed (6)
|
| *((frui)T A LINE). | ||
| 20 | BUDDHA |
Spiritual teacher with friend had nuts (6)
|
| BUD (friend) *HAD. | ||
| 21 | ESPY |
See inexpensive fruits, cheap and nasty, ultimately (4)
|
| Last letters of inexpensivE fruitS cheaP nastY. | ||
| 23 | DUCK |
Dodge mandarin, for example (4)
|
| Double definition. |
Alas, having lately enjoyed and highly-praised several old and new puzzles by Paul (I thought him very unfairly treated in yesterday’s marathon blog), this puzzle failed to hit the spot, and seemed more of a lemon than a peach. I’m a lover of fruit, but only found a consolation APRICOT and LIME among the answers (I dislike OLIVES).
It was certainly a two-session challenge, and I always enjoy more than a fifth of BEETHOVEN, and never can refuse a CHOC ICE (do Walls still make them over there?). But by the time I’d guessed the LOI (BYRD), I was feeling quite a DULLARD. Still, Paul has entertained us all with many a BEAUT in the past, and no doubt will do so in the future.
PS: In fairness and for balance I should add that yesterday I dropped across another superb Paul puzzle from 2004 (#23143) that totally hit the spot (what a pity it was not published in modern times, since it contained the long answer YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE LAWS OF PHYSICS – and (speaking as a physicist) nowadays everybody seems to bend them to personal and group whim without consequence.
Nice and fruity today. I thought BEAUT was a beaut. Got held up for a bit by CARROTY, not because it isn’t a fruit but because, well, who knows.
GALA wasn’t clued as such, but as a bonus is a kind of apple, of course.
I hadn’t heard the term CHOC-ICE since coming to the States aeons ago, unless you count the Monty Python albatross sketch. No minced oaths here.
https://youtu.be/MwfkTd9-JEI
Thanks bridgesong. On first inspection I had to notice that every clue referred to fruit generally or particularly but then found the theme applied more to the clues than the answers which I thought was a clever variation. An enjoyable session with what I thought was about the right mix of challenges though a few of the synonyms seemed to me to be a bit of a stretch. The NW corner, apart from 1d which wasn’t a great deal of help, held me up and LOI was CARROTY for no good reason that I can now see. Wikipedia tells me that gardia is is a type of F1 hybrid melon.
Enjoyed this and managed to finish albeit with a fair amount of help from the aids and parsed them all except RAMEN (although it was one of my FOI) and EPHEMERAL.
Lots to smile at: CARROTY, GALA, BEAUT, CHOC ICE, MARAT, ROMAN GOD
(So different from yesterday’s where I gave up almost instantly)
Thanks to Paul and bridgesong
Thanks to Paul and bridgesong. I needed all the crossers to get BUCHANAN but otherwise found this puzzle easier than anticipated.
Sorry about the typo, garlia of course
Although I preferred last weekend’s offering, this one was, for me, exactly as bridgesong described it – a pleasant solve with nothing contrived about the fruity theme running through all the clues.
Like the contributor ‘.’ @5, I needed all the crossers to get BUCHANAN, which I didn’t even parse properly, but there was nothing wrong with the clue.
Thank you Paul and thank you Bridgesong for the solve. No great challenge, but a lot of fun on the way. I got 1 but didn’t enter it because I too thought that “pears oddly” must be PAS and that didn’t work. No matter, still enjoyable
Aside from failing spectacularly in the NW corner I enjoyed this crossword. I ticked DULLARD, BEETHOVEN, REDEEMER, ENTANGLED, OLIVES, and ROMAN GOD as favourites. Thanks Paul for your prolific output and to bridgesong for the blog.
Was helped by the fruity theme.
Liked DULLARD, SEINE, SPARE (loi).
New: BUCHANAN (but did not parse it).
Did not parse RAMEN, or STABLE apart from the TAB bit.
Surprised to see Byrd as Renaissance, somehow got into my head that he was one of the 19C hymn-spinners. A dnf as I looked at a list to get Buchanan … lazy! Overall quite a fun one from Paul. Could have done without the image of Pepe’s doings, although I’m pretty hard to offend, especially when the surface is clever. Thanks to bridgesong and Paul the Prolific.
Not doing very well am I. galia!
[Well done Biggles A @12, you are after my record as worst typist ]
Thanks for the blog. 13Ac – She made a HANDSOME profit. Good enough I think for use of large.
I took pair of pears oddly to be a whimsical way of saying PEAR PEAR oddly.
Yes, I saw the pears like Hovis @14 – and knowing Paul, the clue (and 17d) must surely have been inspired by yesterday’s WINDSOR. And speaking of yesterday, I wonder if he had Pepe Le Poo in mind at 11d?
Sticking with smelly stuff, I’d never heard of a durian, but now I read that…
The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as rotten onions, turpentine, and raw sewage. The persistence of its odour, which may linger for several days, led certain hotels and public transportation services in Southeast Asia to ban the fruit.
BYRD and LIME in the same line – at least it wasn’t guano.
Now for some breakfast.
Thanks Paul and bridgesong.
I agree with Rodshaw @1 that Paul was treated unfairly yesterday and I do not understand why there is seemingly now a trickle of detractors. However I found this one, remarkably easy for a prize but so be it. CARROTY held out longest.
Ta Paul & bridgesong
I justified the oddly paired pears the same way as Hovis@14, but thought it a bit of a stretch. Other than that, an impressive exhibition of themed clueing – I particularly enjoyed the use of banana in BUCHANAN. Thanks Paul and bridgesong.
Thanks Roz @13. I accept the mantle reluctantly but deservedly. Can’t even blame the spellchecker.
Great fun an deceptively difficult at times. CARROTY was my favourite – probably because it reminded me of this
The clue for PAPA has come in for some stick, and also some support from those who saw the ‘pair of pears’ device as Paul obviously intended. It seems to me to be fair enough to clue a simple word, and a four-letter one at that, with a clue that has a bit more to it than perhaps everyone would like.
I was glad to finally dredge President BUCHANAN from the memory banks. I’d been struggling with the BUSH pair, and a bANANa with both ends missing, but was obviously on the wrong track.
I haven’t read yesterday’s blog – had a busy day on the allotment so haven’t got around to it yet. Pleased to see no spoilers here! (Though the discussion seems to have been a bit tasty.)
Thanks Paul and bridgesong.
I found this splendid. Sated by a little gem. PAPA perfect as PEAR + PEAR. The clue for SEINE flowed especially well. Thanks, Paul.
‘splendid’ as Choldunk says. Needed a second day to get CARROTY
Thanks to Paul: a most enjoyable theme. The blog is also much appreciated, bridgesong.
Good Prize crossword.
I put in PAPA for 1D with a query; thanks to Hovis @14 for the explanation. I liked Pepe’s bowels opening and the deceptively simple BUDDHA.
Thanks Paul and bridgesong.
Very enjoyable. I completed this i(appropriately) in segments. Re Galia = Hybrid “The Galia melon, also known as sarda in Southeast Asia, is a type of F1 hybrid melon originating from a cross between the green-flesh melon cultivar ‘Ha-Ogen’ and the netted-rind melon cultivar ‘Krimka’.”
Thank you bridgesong, I had to cheat to get BUCHANAN from a list (just couldn’t drag my mind away from BUSH—-) and couldn’t explain it even though I had mentally congratulated Paul for setting all these fruity clues without using “bananas” as an anagram indicator. As well as Roz’s bumper profits I thought of handsome=large as in a prize specimen marrow at the village fete where size really is the only thing that counts.
As too much fruit is bad for your tummy (it’s the acid I suppose) I spread this across the week and enjoyed it thoroughly, and coming from pear country I have to give PAPA the blue riband, thank you Paul.
Thanks to Bridgesong and Paul. Agree with all the positives mentioned. We failed to get BYRD instead had a tortuous BARK (homophone for compser, maybe that is thr call of the kiwi bird…). Pleased to see refeference to delightful children’s book ‘Each Peach Pear Plum’ by janet and Allan Ahlberg.
This took two sessions on different days, separated by (appropriately) a visit to Kew Gardens to see the bananas in the Palm House. For some reason half a dozen clues held out, but next day the elusive STABLE finally fell and BEETHOVEN, BUCHANAN, CARROTY, OLIVES and a couple of others followed. This kind of themed-clue puzzle is something Paul does well: very enjoyable, and no quibbles from me.
Gazzh@26, nice example – It was a very handsome specimen – I am typing this with a very straight face.
I realize now how lazy I have been all my life by never having bothered to learn the name of every US president (why would I?) Of course I used a list to get it. I’m puzzled as to how the containment indication works in that clue, which I completely failed to parse, never noticing the banan(a), even after I’d biffed the answer.
I see no one has offered justification for ‘ripe’ as an anagram indicator in 13ac. I wondered myself. I justified “large” in that clue with the phrase “a handsome sum”.
I spent most of the week with the top half mostly undone but a final push last night nearly got me home when the penny finally dropped on the exquisite OLIVES @5d. Sadly, although I saw exactly how 12dn worked, I got stuck on thinking it must be RHINE, despite being unable to understand why rhe = date, the right meaning of the latter never coming to mind. Obviously, I failed on 22ac too.
Tony Collman @30: “eat” is the containment indicator in the clue to BUCHANAN, although the use of the infinitive is of course misleading.
Bridgesong, yes I realized “to eat” was intended to be the containment indicator, but to me “A: B to eat” suggests (even then, rather clumsily) B containing A, not vice versa. ‘A: B to be eaten’ would seem to indicate B in A better and would still work in the surface, even if with slightly less natural phrasing.
Never heard of Galia melons. found them as hybrids.
BUCHANAN is one of our obscurer presidents, can’t remember a thing about him, except that he must be 19th C because the 18th and 20th C ones are familiar to me.
I read a lot of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Tarzan novels as a kid (I don’t recommend them, they’re racist and not all that good besides). Tarzan’s is raised by a species Burroughs called the “great apes,” who (according to the pictures in the Tarzan comics) were slightly larger than humans and smaller than gorillas. I couldn’t understand why texts describing the various primate/ape species never mentioned them, and it wasn’t till I was grown up that it dawned on me that Burroughs made them up. (Years later a friend told me he’d run into the same quandary as a kid.)
Enjoyable puzzle, thanks Paul, a new wrinkle on a theme. Thanks to bridgesong too. Have you been able to get back to playing bridge and singing, bridgesong?
Valentine @33: I’m playing bridge online three times a week (using the RealBridge platform – it’s like a Zoom call, but with added functionality, enabling you to bid and play the cards). Sadly, singing online doesn’t work so well!
Thanks, Paul. I know, as I did with Araucaria, that I am in for a tricky, intelligent, funny, testing, but always fair battle of wits whenever I see that your name as setter. This was no exception. Greatly appreciated.
Late input from me, nothing t to add except to say thanks
To Paul for the fruity fun and to bridgesong for explaining it all. [ni prize for me though. I biffed in CARROTS for 1Ac missing out on CARROTY, which makes perfect sense. ]
I really enjoyed this themed puzzle, beautifully crafted. I intend to comment on good vs not-so-good themed puzzles, by comparing this one to yesterday’s less satisfactory one (purely my opinion, of course), but to avoid the risk of spoilers for those who haven’t yet tackled yesterday’s Paul, I will place my comment on the General Discussion page. (So don’t go there, sheffield hatter, until you’ve done the puzzle.)
Thanks Paul and bridgesong for the fun crossword and excellent blog.
bridgesong — no, online singing hasn’t got a good reputation. I’ve read about some complicated method of producing a choral performance on zoom, but it sounds like a lot of trouble and a lot of tech. I look forward to sharing songs some day.
Actually, I’m part of a zoom song circle that’s an offshoot of a folk club. It’s been going once a month for thirty or forty years, and now with the dearth of other opportunities it’s twice a month. One person at a time sings or leads a song and the rest of us enjoy it. Sing along on the chorus if you like, but you’re on mute and nobody will hear you and you won’t hear anyone else. Better than nothing.
Tony @30 (or it could 130 as my Iphone only shows 2 digits on this blog). Ripe meat would be “off”.
Nice one Paul and thanks Bridgesong
The annotated solution for 1d has a reference to another fruit: Papaya. Was this a changed clue as it’s not obvious there’s any link to me? https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2021/jun/04/annotated-solutions-for-prize-28458 “papa PAPA(ya)”
Edward @41: I see what you mean, and can only conclude that the clue must have been changed at a relatively late stage.
Timmy@40 (not 140)
I’ve never heard of meat being ‘ripe’ and I can’t find dictionary support for it (haven’t looked very hard though). Game is left to hang (so I understand) until it is ‘high’ (has a strong smell) but that is apparently how it’s ideally eaten, so you couldn’t really say it’s ‘off’, which suggests (to me, anyway) ‘no longer fit for consumption’. In any case, even if ‘off’ and ‘ripe’ had the same meaning when applied to meat, it doesn’t mean you can apply them equally to words to suggest something being wrong, does it, especially if the meaning of ripe you are thinking of is mostly connected with smell (as the American section in Collins online might suggest). Would ‘smelly’ work as an anagram indicator by the same token in, your opinion?
I see that no one has provided a justification for ‘ripe’ as anagrind that satisfies the critics. Thinking along the lines of the theme, has no one tried to pick a plum from the tree, that has unexpectedly fallen apart in their hand? I’m thinking specifically of greengages, which can get quite squidgy on the tree, and perhaps extending this to damsons – notoriously hard fruit – is a bit of a stretch. But I can remember walking through the upper valley of the river Kent in Cumbria, approaching the Kentmere reservoir, one late autumn. The road is lined with damson bushes and I was reaching up as I walked, to pluck fairly large, ripe damsons from the branches that overhung the road. Now, I’m not saying this happened to me, but why wouldn’t one of these fruit burst apart when tugged from the twig?
[Forgot to add a link to an article about Kentmere. The damsons are more famously grown (and harvested) a little further south in an area of the Lake District known as the Lyth Valley; those in Kentmere itself are a discovery I made and kept to myself.]
sh/TC/Timmy
How about ripe = drunk?
The Tempest, Act V (shortly after ‘O brave new world, that has such people in’t!’)
Alonso Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler?
Sebastian He is drunk now: where had he wine?
Alonso And Trinculo is reeling ripe: where should they
Find this grand liquor that hath gilded ’em?—
How camest thou in this pickle?
essexboy – I’ve made damson wine a few times when I was lucky enough to get some in the market (the season is very short); in fact I think I bought some in the Lyth Valley one time in the 1980s but they ended up in jam. The wine may have even left me “reeling ripe” on an occasion or two.
Sh@44, not convinced by your (over-)ripe damsons any more than Timmy’s meat.
Essexboy@46 that could work well if Bill got a mention maybe or if the usage had survived to make it to today’s dictionaries. Perhaps Paul is very familiar with The Tempest and has ‘ripe’ in his personal vocabulary as a word for drunk? Although it’s odd to think of a word being drunk, that’s an indicator that seems to be accepted by convention now, along with various synonyms.
I only realized it was indicating an anagram after I’d biffed the answer, having got enough crossers to twig the def (which many didn’t understand, so there was a double whammy in the clue). If course I do sympathise with Paul having to find an indicator that would work with “damson” in the surface. Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on him. I just thought someone might know a really solid reason why it could indicate an anagram.
Actually, the ODE has “reeling ripe” as “rare, archaic, poetic” for “In such a state of intoxication as to be likely to stagger or reel”, but no related meanings under “ripe” itself.
“Handsome” = “large” in the sense of “This position offers a handsome salary.”
Of course, the best place to ask how Paul intended a word in a clue is his Zoom meeting on the day of the puzzle. However, I didn’t even start this puzzle till that meeting was already over and didn’t solve HANDSOME till Friday anyway.
Still, if it’s perfection we seek, look no further than a clue in a puzzle full of fruit which innocently proclaims: “Nothing is fruit”. Brilliant! And all the more satisfying to solve as it broke me into the top half (and have me an extra crosser to help me come up with HANDSOME.
Tony@30 and successive posts thereafter – I think that ripe works as an anagram indicator if you consider a “ripe” Brie or Camembert cheese (and “ripe” is an accepted term for any cheese merchant describing whether this sort of cheese is ready to eat). When ripe, these cheeses are runny, and a really ripe specimen will spread itself all over a plate if given the chance (they are also delicious, and any reputable cheese shop would recommend them in that state). That feels pretty anagram-indicative to me.
Late to the game but I enjoyed this very much – rather easier than usual which was a treat.
Just a note that GALA apples are a hybrid, so perhaps this was a triple clue?