Guardian Saturday Prize Crossword 28,739 by Brendan (23 April 2022)

by

I was a bit slow off the mark with this week’s offering from Brendan…

…but eventually, just like Eliza Dolittle in My Fair Lady…’by George, I think I got it!’, as I twigged the connection with last Saturday’s date.

There are numerous references to various ‘George’s, which I have tried to highlight in the parsings below, but I may have missed more. Culminating in the ‘man of the day’ himself, SAINT GEORGE across the middle row, and the wonderful anagram SEGREGATION forming a ‘cross’ of St George in the middle of the grid.

Add to that some MYTHIC LEGEND of his VARIED EXPLOITS, including a FIERCE DRAGON, to get an overall HOMAGE to St. George on his special day:

 

(Brendan obviously likes his date-themed puzzles, because the last one of his I blogged was Guardian 28,643, on New Year’s Day.)

To sum up – many thanks to Brendan for a relatively gentle Prize workout – quite welcome, after the previous week’s Maskarade special! – and I hope all is clear below.

Across
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/parsing
5A FIERCE Intense expression of outrage by people missing answer (6)

FIE (expression of outrage) + R(A)CE (race, people, missing A – answer)
6A THEISM Religious belief is shown in the mass (6)

THE + IS + M (mass)
9A ORWELL One novelist or another abridged (6)

OR + WELL(S) (another author, HG Wells, abridged)

[George Orwell]
10A EXPLOITS Heroic feats of 4 no longer moving one (8)

4D is ‘pilots’, so those who are no longer pilots are ex-pilots, and moving the I (one) can give EXPLOITS!
11A BEST Prevail over heartless monster (4)

BE(A)ST – monster, losing heart, or middle letter

[George Best]
12A AIRMANSHIP A crazy Irishman with power and skill of 4 (10)

A + IRMANSHI (anag, i.e. crazy, of IRISHMAN) + P (power)

[4D being PILOTS]
13A SAINT GEORGE Red Cross patron? (5,6)

diversionary CD? Saint George is associated with a red cross, although that is nothing to do with the Red Cross organisation!

[The man of the day, so to speak!]
18A WASHINGTON Saw nothing amiss in president, initially (10)

anag, i.e. amiss, of SAW NOTHING

[George Washington]
21A OGRE Monster George has smashed left, right and centre (4)

anag, i.e. smashed, of the left, right and centre letters of GeORgE

[…or left – GEORge, right – geORGE, and centre gEORGe, as per various comments below – take your pick!]
22A LISTEN TO Heed revised note appended to catalogue (6,2)

LIST (catalogue) + EN TO (anag, i.e. revised, of NOTE)
23A LEGEND For example, story of saint, say, presented in advance (6)

L_END (advance) around EG (for example, say)
24A DRAGON Annoyingly, don’t stop fire hazard (6)

double defn. (allowing for punctuation) – if something doesn’t stop, it might DRAG ON; and a DRAGON can be a fire-hazard!
25A HOMAGE Institution having silver lining in this respect (6)

HOM_E (institution) around (lined with) AG (silver)
Down
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/parsing
1D DEMENTIA English people over time dividing charity up — something GR developed (8)

D_IA (aid, or charity, up) around (divided by) EMENT (E – English, MEN – people, T – time)

[GR being George Rex, George III – who suffered all sorts of mental and physical illnesses]
2D SCYLLA Namely, helping fighter upset monster (6)

SC (scilicet, Latin, namely) + YLLA (ALLY, a helping fighter, upset)
3D THE PRADO Hoped art could be curated for European gallery (3,5)

anag, i.e. curated, of HOPED ART
4D PILOTS Test programmes for those made redundant at times, by George (6)

double defn. – a PILOT can be a test programme before a wider rollout; and aeroplane PILOTS are (temporarily) made redundant by their auto-pilots, which are called George, for some reason)

[Either because in WWII RAF pilots nicknamed their planes ‘George‘, as they were technically ‘owned’ by the then king, George VI; or because the inventor of the auto-pilot was called George de Beeson – take your pick!]
5D FARMER So-called king once, in a good way, married queen (6)

FAR (a good way) + M (married) + ER (Elizabeth Regina, the queen)

[George III – the Farmer King]
7D MYTHIC Brendan’s almost impenetrable? That’s not true (6)

MY (Brendan’s) + THIC(K) (almost thick, or impenetrable)
8D SEGREGATION Divisive policy, variation on 13 (11)

anag, i.e. variation, of 13 (SAINT GEORGE)
14D NON-UNION In lower-class part of UK, acting like unorganised workers (3-5)

NON-U (lower class) + NI (Northern Ireland, part of UK) + ON (acting, on-stage)
15D GEORGIAN Like six rules 11 mostly named with Botham (8)

GEORG(E) (11A – George BEST, mostly) + IAN (Ian Botham, English cricketer)

[There have been six ‘rules’ by Georges, as English kings]
16D VARIED I’ve tangled with dragon, up to a point — outcome is mixed (6)

anag, i.e. tangled, of IVE + DRA(GON) (dragon, up to the mid-point)
17D PRINCE In charge, name possible future king (6)

PRI_CE (charge) around N (name)

[Prince George – who will eventually be the seventh?…]
19D HITMAN Knight, say, following success as slayer (6)

HIT (success) + MAN (knight, say – chess piece, or man)
20D NELSON English hero’s effective use of arms in fight (6)

double defn. Horation NELSON was an English hero; and a NELSON – usually half – is a wrestling hold, which involves ‘effective use’ of one’s arms in a fight!

[George ‘Baby-Face’ Nelson?]

49 comments on “Guardian Saturday Prize Crossword 28,739 by Brendan (23 April 2022)”

  1. Well, I enjoyed this even though it is now revealed that the FORMER/FRENZY/AZALIA entries I had in the NE corner was, as I suspected at the time, incorrect. No wonder I couldn’t make them work. At least FORMER was close! All the George references were very entertaining, particularly the George Cross – I had realised that it was St George’s Day, as a close friend has his birthday then and makes a big thing of his relation to the saint. Thanks, Brendan and mc_rapper67.

  2. Thanks mc_rapper 67. The theme emerged quickly and was a help but the NW corner held me up for some time. With …L.A in 3d I’d considered and discarded SCYLLA before FIERCE provided the third crossing letter and I had to think again. It also took me a while to recognise far = a good way in 5d, the ‘in’ distracted me. I was never quite happy with ‘up to a point’ in16d, your explanation of midpoint has to be correct but I still have misgivings.

  5. … lots of other Georgian fellows too: Best, Orwell, Washington … oh and Farmer (I.e. GR III)…

  6. [Perth’s CBD has a London Court arcade, at one end of which is a facade with an ornate clock depicting St George chasing the dragon. When the clock’s bell chimes the hour, the chase activates. I used to watch it with my mum as a toddler]

  8. Looking at my copy of this prize I didn’t tick a single clue as a favourite and I marked five of them as ones I needed a word finder to complete. I guess this just wasn’t my cup of tea. Thanks to both.

  9. I had a slightly different take on OGRE in that it is an anagram of the leftmost 4, centre 4 and rightmost 4 letters of George. I thought that was neat and ranked as my favourite clue.
    I completely failed on FARMER (I had an unparsed Former) so thanks for that mc_rapper67 and Brendan for the entertaining crossword.

  10. Thanks mc etc. Of the Georges I liked BEST best. [Best GB quote: “I spent a lot of money on booze, girls and fast cars – the rest I just squandered”]. Excellent from Brendan with the rest of the theme.

  11. This one just seemed to click with me – I think I picked most of the themed references, including the autopilot, although it’s a long time since I’ve heard that usage. (I didn’t think of the George ‘cross’ though – very neat!) I remembered FARMER George, but it took me a while to see the ‘far’ = ‘a good way’ equivalence. All very enjoyable; thanks both.

  12. This was a great puzzle that I really enjoyed – I loved the references to all the Georges! I didn’t notice the cross in the centre as I am not a very visual learner, so it was a nice surprise to read the blog and learn about that little extra trick that Brendan included. I thought the anagrams were very clever indeed. I had a lot of ticks in my margins. 12a AIRMANSHIP, 2d SCYLLA and 8d SEGREGATION ended up being among the favourites. Though 24a DRAGON proabbly was the one I most liked: I had to smile at the “fire hazard” part of the clue. Many thanks to Brendan whose puzzles are always a real treat for me, and to mc_rapper67 for the detailed and interesting blog.

  14. This was tricky but fun with the Georges. Did not get FARMER

    Loved the clue for DRAGON.

    Also liked NELSON, WASHINGTON, ORWELL, GEORGIAN (and I don’t even have to mutter about the incorrect spelling of IAIN as that is how Botham spells it – incorrectly of course)

    Thanks Brendan and mc_rapper67

  15. Thanks for a great blog and the coloured grid, I got the theme for once but totally missed the cross
    I have only heard The Prado as a museum, not gallery, the linguists may help ?
    It does have an incredible art collection , always the highlight of an Interrail summer.
    Bosch – The Garden of Earthly Delights and Bruegel – The Triumph of Death next to each other, beat that.

  16. Second Brendan in a row where I’ve not got the two answers where 5 across and 5 down meet (NW corner) despite having all the crossers.
    Great puzzle and loved the cross art which I got and which led to an internal debate about whether setters are given a grid to fill or are allowed to request a specific one for occasions such as these.
    Thanks blogger and setter.

  17. Carelessly put in BEAT rather than BEST for 11a which made it hard to make sense of 15d! Also thanks for the explanation of 4d – I’d forgotten about George the autopilot (which always makes me think of Airplane the film, and brings a smirk to my face)

  18. well that was too hard for me. I missed a bunch of clues ans was slow getting the ones I got, despite spotting the theme and the cross early doors.

    Well done Brendan and thanks mc_rapper67

  19. For 21 across OGRE, my first one in, I actually thought Brendan was intending the anagram worked with either the first 4 letters on the left and the middle 4 and the 4 on the right.
    GEORge. gEORGe and geORGE !!

  20. Not too hard a puzzle, and one which beautifully celebrated the day – thanks to Brendan. I too missed that the centre forms the saint’s cross.

    WASHINGTON took me foolishly long to get, as I started listing the presidents from the most recent backwards. I thought ‘initially’ might refer to the George Bushes, GHW and GW, till I grasped that it meant the initial president. Very appropriate – I believe that when Washington organised a lavish inauguration for himself, some Americans complained that they had swapped one King George for another.

    Thank you, mc_rapper, including for clarifying OGRE and PILOTS for me. I think I knew vaguely that the autopilot was called George, but had not recalled it.

  21. Super themed puzzle for me. As with others the top left was the trickiest. I think I had settled for FORMER without really getting it so thanks for the elucidation. Having seen the parsing in your blog, mc_rapper, it is now one of my favourites with the clueing of the FAR élément particularly neat.

    I think there are one or two possibilities for the parsing of OGRE but I liked both the blog suggestion and that if Tim C@9.

    Thanks to both setter and blogger

  22. Loved all of this. Saw the central cross but failed to twig ‘the cross’ and that 2 halves segregated. My appreciation has doubled by George. Thank you Brendan and mc_rapper67

  23. Special thanks to Brendan and mc_rapper 67. Also a great spot by Ant@19. A really interesting confection leading to trips down memory lane. [Had a brief visit to The Prado decades ago when on a job. One painting still haunts me.] Missed some of the George references. How could I forget the auto-pilot? Guess I was …

  25. Very clever from my favourite setter but I found it a struggle, completely failing in the NW corner. I thought of ORWELL but couldn’t make it work — duh!

    What made it so difficult for me was the crossers, which always seemed to be unhelpful letters.

    GEORGIAN was the obvious answer but I couldn’t parse it, and still don’t really get it.

    I loved the clever cross in the middle.

    Thank you to Brendan and mc_rapper67 for explaining all.

  26. Mike @25 we have had six King Georges , their reign would be called Georgian , like Victorian or Edwardian .
    11 is BEST so George ( named ) shortly is GEORG . Botham is IAN .
    Hope this helps.

  27. I was happy to have spotted the George theme in clues and answers, but now see I’d totally missed the other part, that some answers were famous George’s themselves.
    Filled most of the grid with lots of aids but couldn’t parse many answers, so thanks for the explanations mc_rapper67.

    11a I had monster = PE(rsi)ST which seems like a valid fit for the clue even if it’s not as neat as BEST. And I don’t know of a George Pest for the hidden theme of course.

    A bit clunky overall but I don’t mind that to fit a good theme. Thanks Brandon!

  28. This felt like 4 mini puzzles, and I actually spotted the theme for once but onky after I finished solving. I solved NE and SW first, got quite stuck on the other corners.

    Liked ORWELL, DRAGON.

    Did not parse:
    21ac OGRE? gEORGe
    4d which I solved after 10ac.

    Thanks, both.

  29. Thanks for all the comments and feedback so far – much appreciated, as usual.

    Several have pointed out that OGRE can come from GEORGE in multiple ways – take your pick! (The annotated solution seems to suggest it is either from the first or last four letters, but that doesn’t tally with the clue, which mentions the centre as well…)

    Tassie Tim at #1 – sorry to hear you ended up in an FORMERly AZALEA-covered FRENZY-ed side alley in the NW corner!

    Mr Beaver at #17 – yes, I ‘automatically’ thought of the famous Airplane scene, but didn’t get round to mentioning that in the blog…

    Choldunk at #24 – I am living proof that ‘Balding’ is one of the stages of man!

    Mike at #25 – I thought I’d explained it pretty clearly in my parsing, but thanks to Roz at #26 for explicating further. [As an aside, my favourite thing about Ian Botham, apart from the Headingly test, of course) is that on the sub-continent in the early 90s they would pronounce his name phonetically from the constituent parts – EYE-AN BOT-HAM, which often came out as Iron Bottom. I’m sure his team mates would have made him aware of this…]

    Saam at #27 – George Best was probably a bit of a ‘pest’ in his time, but he was largely forgiven because of his genius as a footballer (c.f. Maradonna, Gazza, etc. etc…)

  30. By George that was a good ‘un! Very good intermingling of Georges in clues and answers.

    Good setting to get all the themers in; Forest Fan @16, the Guardian has a library of grids that setters can choose from.

    I particularly enjoyed the anagram of segregation to give SAINT GEORGE.

    Thanks Brendan for the mastery and mc_rapper67 for the unravelling.

  31. Thanks mc_rapper67 as I was another FORMER failure (more Gk for the noggin tho) and hadn’t decided on how OGRE worked, now I agree Ant@19 has hit the nail on the head.
    Had no problem spotting the theme early for once as we were in Benidorm on the “big day” with plenty of folk dressed up as crusaders stumbling around, and it helped confirm one or two.
    I think the “up to A point” in 16d tells us to take the letters of DRAGON up to (and including, to be precise) the A, at least that’s how I decided it had to work to remove ambiguity.
    Thanks also widdersbel for introducing me to George elsewhere recently and of course Brendan for another good’un.

  32. When I saw it was Brendan on 23rd April, I guessed he might exploit either Shakespeare or St George – or both. I would have been very happy with either and I enjoyed this one tremendously.

    It’s all been said, really. My own favourites were AIRMANSHIP, OGRE, which I parsed as TIm C did, SCYLLA and SEGREGATION.

    Many thanks to Brendan for a lot of fun and mc_rapper67 for the blog

  33. mc @29 I agree your explanation was fine, sometimes people on here , me included , have a bit of a blind spot and need something spelled out a bit more. I really do not know how you bloggers explain so many clues so clearly and CONCISELY .
    For GEORGIAN – 11 mostly named – I did toy with the idea that there were 11 GEORGES somewhere throughout the grid but could not find enough. Any offers ?

  35. Thanks mc_rapper67 and everyone. So much nostalgia for me in the comments, George Best v Benfica (1966). Roz @ 15: another work in The Prado is Rubens “St. George and the Dragon”. And yes, the wonderful “Airplane” (“Tell me everything that happened”/ “Well, first there was this really big bang…”).
    My first name is George, as was my father’s, though I have always been called “Brian”.

  38. Biggles A at #2, and Gazzh at #31 – I just took ‘up to a point’ in 16D to mean ‘up to the point where you have enough letters to make the anagram’, in this case the midpoint…but then again I don’t tend to ponder these things too deeply…

  39. Thanks Brendan (George) and mc_rapper67.

    I worked through to a remainder of FARMER and BEST for which I speculated ‘former’ and ‘beat’ (along with others here). But I also parsed PILOTS on the basis of some residual memory of air traffic controllers in the US being sacked by some president or other – so a true dnf. Ah well how bad – it was very enjoyable.

  40. And I didn’t twig that Brian (George) Greer at #35 was Brendan himself – so thanks for popping in… I think a celebratory/nostalgic re-watch of Airplane is called for…

  41. An excellent crossword, with a great variety of clues, themed and non-themed.

    Like some others, I left 5a/5d until last, getting them pretty quickly after leaving the puzzle for a while.

    What a marvellous anagram SEGREGATION was!

    Thanks to Brendan and mc_rapper67.

  42. Loads of fun. I got it done last week except for the infamous NW corner which I filled in this morning with only a little help from the check button — I had “beat,” like some others. Didn’t think of George BEST, though I think now I’ve met him in earlier puzzles. Never heard of
    George the autopilot either.

    There seems also to be a mini-theme of monsters — DRAGON, OGRE, SCYLLA and maybe MYTHIC.

    “For example” seems superfluous in 23a, since “say,” correctly placed, does the job.

    Thanks ever so, Brendan and mc_rapper67. What a magnificent construction, especially the stunning anagram in the middle.

    Roz@26 I think “Georgian” refers to the consecutive reigns of Georges ! – IV. V and VI in a later century were not consecutive, though close, and I don’t think “Georgian” resumed with them.

  43. Valentine@42, you are right that Georgian usually refers to the time of the first four only, though here the clue is stretching it to all six. But the word was also used by a group of poets around 1910-14 (Rupert Brooke et al), at the start of the reign of George V. I don’t think it was ever used to refer to George VI’s time.

  44. [Thanks, mc_rapper67 @29. I was balding even when I saw the Ages of Man painting by Baldung in The Prado in the 1980s. We need a simple name like George to refer to the frequently occurring auto-miscorrect.]

  45. Thanks to Brendan and to mc_rapper67 ! An excellent themed puzzle and kudos to Brendan for working so many “George” references into a normal-sized grid. Although I entered GEORGIAN as the obvious combination of Best and Botham, I didn’t understand the “Rule of six” part until I read this blog, so special thanks to mc_rapper67 for clearing that up. I also missed the “Prince George” inference entirely. But overall no complaints, except that it took me far, far too long to remember “Farmer George” !!

  46. Late to the party as I’ve been out all day, but I did complete this last week, on the Saturday. I enjoyed this, and got all the references and parsing – to make me happy. I read the reference to Saint George as the patron saint with a red cross (because the the others in the UK that make up the Union Jack are both saltires and Wales has a dragon).

    That was entertaining. Thank you to Brendan and mc_rapper67.

  47. Thanks Brendan – thoroughly enjoyable and a real tour de force. Lots of favourites but loved SAINT GEORGE / SEGREGATION. Didn’t try it until today so belated St. George’s Day wishes. Thx also for dropping in @35 along with all the other Brian’s who posted comments.
    Thanks to mc_rapper 67 for the blog.

  48. I missed the fact that the grid contained a lot of famous Georges despite getting the St George theme very early (because of the date). Maybe I’d have got BEST for 11ac quicker if I had. I thought BEAT must be the answer, especially once I had the crossing T and spent too long trying to think of an appropriate monster from which to remove the ‘heart’.

    Never did get FARMER. I could see it must end in MER from the wordplay but never twigged what ‘a good way’ meant. Didn’t help that I’d never heard the soubriquet ‘Farmer King’. Never did cover that period of history at school for some reason.

    Don’t think I noticed the cross of St George at the time either. Nice touch!

    Just spent over an hour, most enjoyably, reading the tvtropes page about Airplane! looking for a ‘George’ joke. I guess it’s the reinflation of the autopilot (which isn’t named George in the film!)?

    Btw, mc, Prince George won’t be the next King George if Charles ascends, as he intends to take that as his ‘king name’. (George VI’s first name was Albert, as in the limerick):

    There was a young monarch named Ed,
    Who took a divorcée to bed.
    As they bounced up down
    “He said, “Bugger the crown!
    Let’s give it to Albert instead”.

  49. Valentine@42, “for example” and “say” are each doing a different job in 23ac and it would be considered poor cluemanship to make one of them do double duty.

    “For example” indicates that the story of a saint is an example of a LEGEND, not the definition of one, while “say” translates directly to the letters EG which are to be inserted.

    Btw, I know you live far away, but to hear someone suggest they have only vaguely heard of George Best seems amusing to any English person over a certain age, since he is someone the word ‘legend’ is often attached to. I recommend you find some clips of him, both on and off the pitch, to see why.

    I think the quote mentioned above, about “squandering” the money he didn’t spend on fast cars, women and booze was in an interview by Michael Parkinson, available on YouTube.

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