An easier than usual prize offering from Brummie this week.
Lots of simple charades and a few obvious anagrams made this puzzle relatively straightforward for us. If there was a theme, I’m afraid it passed us by. But there was much to admire in the brevity of the clues. Many thanks, Brummie.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SANDPIPER |
Smooth musician’s ‘Stranger on the Shore’? Certainly not (9)
|
| Nothing to do with Acker Bilk, this is a simple charade of SAND (smooth) and PIPER (musician). | ||
| 6 |
See 26
|
|
| 8 | EMINENCE |
Distinction of contemporary artist with cash but no power (8)
|
| (Tracey) EMIN (contemporary artist) (p)ENCE (cash). | ||
| 9 | SUBTLE |
Delicate newspaper worker let off (6)
|
| SUB(-editor) *LET. | ||
| 10 | CELTIC |
With leaders of Commons and Lords involved, cite bad language! (6)
|
| *CITE including C(ommons) and L(ords). | ||
| 11 | SHORTAGE |
A lack of quiet song refrain in rock (8)
|
| SH (quiet), TAG (refrain) inside ORE (rock). Thanks to Timon for parsing this one: SHORTAGE had to be the answer but it took us a few moments to work out why. | ||
| 12 | AFLOAT |
Ball held by top class residence on the river? (6)
|
| O (ball) inside A FLAT (top class residence, “A” indicating status). | ||
| 15 | DEDICATE |
Devote time to break useless caddie’s resolve finally (8)
|
| T(ime) inside *CADDIE, (resolv)E. | ||
| 16 | SCABBARD |
Crusty thing, the poet, Holder (8)
|
| A simple charade of SCAB (crusty thing) and BARD (poet). Holder is misleadingly capitalised. | ||
| 19 | RAPIDS |
Turbulent water taking one day to fill pans (6)
|
| I D (one day) inside RAPS (criticises, or pans). | ||
| 21 | BINDWEED |
Truss passed water plant (8)
|
| And another simple charade, with a surface perhaps more appropriate to Brummie’s alter alias, Cyclops in Private Eye: BIND (truss) WEED (passed water). | ||
| 22 | CURATE |
Villain put away minister (6)
|
| CUR (villain) ATE (put away). | ||
| 24 | UNLESS |
If not overcast, going topless (6)
|
| (s)UNLESS. | ||
| 25 | EXPLORER |
Crude oil rep, Rex, one gone for a Burton? (8)
|
| *(OIL REP REX) less I (one gone). The reference is to the 19th century explorer Sir Richard Burton. | ||
| 26, 6 | FLAT ROOF |
Covering that’s unusual for a loft (4,4)
|
| *(FOR A LOFT). I’m not sure if this is true architecturally, but it seems to me that most lofts are under pitched roofs, so I think that this clue qualifies as an & lit. | ||
| 27 | LAST DITCH |
Go on, chuck final! (4-5)
|
| LAST (go on) DITCH (chuck). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SOMME |
River of soup – no hoax! (5)
|
| (con)SOMME. A con can mean a deception or hoax.
|
||
| 2, 4 | NONE TOO PLEASED |
Far from content, at loose end? Open out (4,3,7)
|
| *(AT LOOSE END OPEN). | ||
| 3 | PANIC |
Headgear with fashionable insert, reversed flap (5)
|
| IN (fashionable) inside CAP (all rev). | ||
| 4 |
See 2
|
|
| 5 | RESPONDER |
One attending emergency (small house on Mull) (9)
|
| RES (idence) (small house) PONDER (mull). Another misleading capital. | ||
| 6 | ROBOTIC |
Like K-9 in unstable orbit, circling round and around (7)
|
| O (round) and C (circa, around) inside *ORBIT. I should perhaps explain that K-9 was a robot dog in the Dr Who television series. | ||
| 7 | OBLIGATED |
Bound dictionary includes ‘book with a gilt refinement’ (9)
|
| B(ook) *(A GILT) inside OED (dictionary). | ||
| 13 | FICTIONAL |
In fact, oil production is legendary (9)
|
| *(IN FACT OIL). | ||
| 14 | TRAVERSAL |
Crossing a line in pursuit of farceur (9)
|
| (ben) TRAVERS (author of successful farces in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as in 1975, when he was 89), A L (a line). | ||
| 17 | BAD DEBT |
Criminal goes to bed unusually on time? It’s not worth pursuing (3,4)
|
| BAD (criminal) *BED, T(ime). | ||
| 18 | DODGEMS |
Odd, irregular stone’s fair feature (7)
|
| *ODD, GEMS (stones). | ||
| 20 | PURPORT |
Meaning to climb up, right and left (7)
|
| UP (rev) R(ight) PORT (left). | ||
| 22 | CUPID |
Award I had for Matchmaker role (5)
|
| CUP (award) I’D. | ||
| 23 | TEETH |
Effective power of the disheartened and the deranged (5)
|
| T(h)E *THE. |
Whatever you thought of it, the Woman in Bed thingy sure made her memorable if not eminent. But yes, cruisy for a prize, with some nice surfaces. Isn’t a rap neutral if unqualified; a good or great rap, a bad or bum rap? Maybe just me. All good though, thanks Brum and Bridge.
As soon as I think I am getting good at solving, someone comes along and says the puzzle was easy. Sigh!
I actually do not remember much about this puzzle, except that I found it relative straight forward once I got used to the setter. A few obscure references for me, but I worked around them without drama. No real favourites, I am afraid, even on rereading the clues.
Thanks to Brummie and bridgesong
Thanks Brummie and bridgesong!
An enjoyable puzzle. A crisp and clear blog!
A couple of minor points:
SHORTAGE:
Def should be ‘a lack’ (no ‘of’), I think.
ROBOTIC
O in ORBIT* +C
FLAT ROOF
Not sure it’s an & lit.
grantinfreo@1
RAPIDS
to rap=to criticise (the blog indicates it as a verb)
There’s another dimension to the surface of 26,6 if you interpret the answer FLAT ROOF to be the roof of a flat.
I don’t know how “Smooth musician” in 1a can be anything other than Carlos Santana.
For 13d, I was going to say that legends aren’t necessarily FICTIONAL, but of course some are, so I won’t say anything!
Thanks both
Thanks for the blog, I found it a steady solve when working through the clues but once I put in all I had it collapsed very quickly. It is a friendly grid , many helpful crossing letters and a lot of them consonants which always seem more useful .
Thanks bridgesong. Like others I didn’t find this too demanding but still enjoyed it. I was fixated on ‘sandpaper’ at 1a for quite some time but couldn’t make it work. Not sure about the apostrophe s in 15a, I suppose it has to be there for the surface but I found it misleading. Is Celtic a language or a family of languages? Had to look up Burton and Travers and couldn’t find any reference to a poet named Holder!
Thanks to Brummie and bridgesong. I got very hung up on using variations on Acker Bilk in trying to solve 1a SANDPIPER, but should have realised it wouldn’t be that obvious. I liked 1d SOMME, 2,4d NONE TOO PLEASED and 3d PANIC. I didn’t know the farceur in 14d but worked out the solution TRAVERSAL using the wordplay and crossers. I couldn’t understand how to parse 11a SHORTAGE as the “song refrain in rock” misdirection was clever. All in all, an enjoyable work-out.
KVa @3, as a verb, hmm. Over the knuckles maybe; never heard e.g. The critics will rap the new album. But as I said, maybe just me …
grantinfreo@8
RAPIDS
My understanding:
You rap someone/some entity for something but
You pan an artwork, movie etc.,
I am not sure you can rap an album or pan a singer. Will learn if the words are completely
interchangeable shortly from others.
Thank you bridgesong. I liked FLAT ROOF and agree with you that it probably qualifies as an &lit.
I have the same question as Biggles A@6 as to whether CELTIC is a group of languages, but I imagine that’s why the exclamation mark, although am unclear about the exclamation mark in the clues for LAST DITCH and SOMME, and that apostrophe as mentioned by Biggles..
Liked TEETH for the fun surface, definition, wordplay, concise cluing… the lot.
EXPLORER was amusing, Didn’t know the phrase gone for a Burton. It reminded me of the expression attributed to Lawrence Oates in the Scott Antarctic expedition “I am just going outside and may be some time.” It’s something often said by my contemporaries as a joke in a range of contexts.
Just checking how to parse SANDPAPER which it wasn’t of course!
paddymelon@10
FLAT ROOF
It may be a CAD for the reasons stated in the blog.
The Covering that’s part of the clue doesn’t seem to be utilised in the wordplay.
CELTIC
Waiting to hear someone explain this satisfactorily. I didn’t find anything odd while solving the puzzle. Only now…
LAST DITCH and SOMME
! as the surfaces demand, I guess. No other role visible to me.
TEETH
Oh! Yea! Toothsome!
MaggieCanberra@11
SANDPIPER
It’s no stranger on a beach!
A rare solved prize, so it must have been easier than normal.
Ideal for a flight home after a week skiing in Austria.
Thanks both.
Unlike others I found this harder than usual and DNF.
Liked: EMINENCE, SHORTAGE, ROBOTIC, PURPORT
Thanks brummie and bridgesong
I finished but it wasn’t the quickest solve for me. I don’t immediately think of Burton as an EXPLORER, more an author and translator – he brought us the 1001 (Arabian) Nights and the Kama Sutra, so ended up looking him up to check. I also looked up farceur, and double checked Ben Travers, because I only vaguely remember his 1970s farce. In common with others SANDPIPER was my last in, as the definition was so indirect.
KVa Rap as a noun I think of as a rap over the knuckles or the music form, as a verb: “he rapped her/is going to rap her over the knuckles for her social account” makes sense to me, but not interchangeably. A mild criticism, not on the way to sacking offence.
Thank you to Brummie and bridgesong.
LOI’s Sandpiper and Somme, perhaps the hardest two clues, in a pretty straightforward puzzle. I quite liked the position of FLAT and ROOF in the grid, and also the double use of the THEs for TEETH was sweet, and good to see Tracey has become a crossword staple, I do hope she does crosswords, if not someone needs to let her know.
Biggles A @6: Was Brummie misleading us with a hint to Midlands song writer Neville John Holder ?
I think mentioned before, but there is an extra enjoyment for the Saturday puzzle without the temptations of the cheat buttons.
A special tick for the disheartening and deranging.
Thanks B&B
Pretty vanilla and nothing to complain about – which to be honest is probably for the best in a prize slot
Thanks Brummie and bridgesong
My Google dictionary has a listing for ‘rap’ as ‘criticise severely’ in informal English with the example being ‘certain banks are to be rapped for delaying interest rate cuts’. That’s what I went with last Saturday. Liked ROBOTIC and ‘ponder’ for Mull. Thanks.
Many thanks to Brummie and all for some lovely crossword time. I’m still not sure why ‘tag’ is refrain and also what ‘song’ is doing in the clue. Can anyone illuminate?
Ps that last comment was for 11A
Jess A @20 & 21: I wondered about TAG for a moment. I supposed ‘tag’ for refrain as being semi-colloquial, as in the sense of something attached, something belonging, something adding a bit extra, or even extending to a catchphrase or nickname in some quarters.
CELTIC
This is definitely the name of a family of languages, and a branch of Indo-European.
The (modern) Celtic languages are further divided into Gaelic and Brythonic
The Gaelic languages include Irish, Manx and (in Scotland) Gallic.
The Brythonic languages include Welsh, Breton and Cornish.
Alas, only Welsh is still spoken in anything approaching large numbers.
I have given up going to Ireland, they seem to have little interest in keeping the language going.
Even in the Gaeltachtaí I have been unable to find speakers. The only exception being the Aran Islands.
I’ve said all this before on this site. Sorry to repeat.
Very enjoyable puzzle.
I could not parse 1ac because I wrongly entered SANDPAPER = smooth but that means I forgot about the word ‘musician’ in the clue 🙁
New for me: farceur Ben TRAVERS (for 14d).
Favourite: ROBOTIC.
Thanks, both.
Like wellcidered @17 I got fixated on Noddy Holder but decided even his most ardent fans wouldn’t class him as a poet!
Favourite was TEETH, neat.
CELTIC
Anna@23
Thanks for the info. Worth repeating, I feel, because I didn’t read your earlier posts in the context 🙂
SHORTAGE (attn: Jess Anderson)
song refrain=TAG
tag/refrain is a line/phrase recurring in a song.
Very enjoyable puzzle, apart from CELTIC which as people have already mentioned is not a language, rather a family of languages or an ethnocultural group.
@Anna, is trua nach labhraítear an Ghaeilge go forleathan a thuile, ach is féidir buaileadh le Gaeilgeoirí go fóill! Fiú ar blagiontrálacha faoi crosfhocail..
Anna @23, no apologies needed and thanks for your post. I must be fairly unusual as someone in Australia with friends fluent in Kernewek. Closely related to Welsh. I always think the following Welsh song sounds better than the English version…
Wele’n sefyll rhwng y myrtwydd
Wrthrych teilwng o’m holl fryd:
Er mai o ran yr wy’n adnabod
Ei fod uwchlaw gwrthrychau’r byd:
Henffych fore
Y caf ei weled fel y mae.
Rhosyn Saron yw ei enw,
Gwyn a gwridog, teg o bryd;
Ar ddeng mil y mae’n rhagori
O wrthrychau penna’r byd:
Ffrind pechadur,
Dyma’r llywydd ar y môr.
Beth sydd imi mwy a wnelwyf
Ag eilunod gwael y llawr?
Tystio’r wyf nad yw eu cwmni
I’w gystadlu a’m Iesu mawr:
O! am aros
Yn ei gariad ddyddiau f’oes.
sprig @ 27
Diolch yn fawr ichi, sprig. Wedi dallt y dalltins! Yn anffodus dw i wedi rhoi’r ffidil yn y to wrth ddysgu’r Wyddeleg ac wedi anghofio bron â phopeth a ddysgais yn y brifysgol. Ond mae gen i ffrind yn byw yn Co Clare, mae hi’n siarad yr iaith yn rhugl …
Pob lwc ichi.
Anna-yn-y Ffindir
Tim C @ 28
Hollol yn gutun â chi, Tim. Mae’r peth yn swnio’n well o lawer yn Gymraeg.
Ann Griffiths, argian mawr, dw i’n cofio gorfod darllen ei barddoniaeth yn y brifysgol. Hm ..
Thanks you (Diolch?) Anna @30. I’m not a speaker but Google is my friend. I’m not great at languages but a lot of those songs just sound better to me when sung in Welsh (Cymraeg?).
I’m another one who failed to explain SANDPAPER. Obviously PIPER in retrospect. Otherwise, a pleasantly do-able solve. I don’t need a brain-buster very week.
Thanks KVa@26. Tag for refrain was my last remaining shrug.
Thanks to Brummie and bridgesong too, of course.
Thanks Brummie and bridgesong. I have to confess to not finishing because I also had SANDPAPER instead of SANDPIPER. Grrr!
A good example from Sofamore @19 for RAP, Chambers has a later separate entry ( number 5 ) with RAP as highly commend (Aus) , perhaps Grant@1 was thinking of this.
Great to get a lesson from Anna@ 23 .
14d. I’m not surprised that commenters don’t know Ben Travers. His heyday was between the Wars , though he was also popular later. I first knew of him through the BBC Test Match reports as he was a regular at Lords and a friend of Brian Johnston.
25a. “Gone for a Burton” was RAF slang for being killed or going missing in action but I believe it originally meant that someone had been medically discharged as they would then be given a suit from “Montague Burton, the Tailor of Taste, out at the shoulder and in at the waist”.
Thanks to Brummie and bridgesong.
Well, SANDPIPER certainly sorted the birdwatchers from the DIY experts. Not a tough Prize apart from one or two bits of GK like the farceur TRAVERS, the explorer Burton and the robot dog K9. I liked the river of soup and the neat little TEETH.
[“Gone for a Burton” was a WW2 euphemism for dead or missing. It is often said to have come from an advertisement where someone’s place at table is pictured empty: they have gone to the pub for a Burton ale… The trouble is that no such advertisement has ever been found, and there the matter rests.]
Edit:
I see Pino has a different explanation.
Oh let us never, never doubt
What nobody is sure about!
Both ‘farceur’ and TRAVERS were new to me, but that didn’t cause any problems, and I enjoyed solving this puzzle after a slow start.
Thanks to Brummie and bridgesong.
Fun puzzle, for me rather like Chambers’s famous éclair. Nicely concise clues – I liked all those for the short words.
No quibbles apart from CELTIC, of course.
The EXPLORER Sir Richard Burton is supposed to have spoken 29 languages. I suspect our very own Anna can at least match that!
Thanks to S&B
Pleasant puzzle. I don’t remember solving it now, but taking it down from the kitchen lampshade where it’s been clipped for a week, I see it’s all filled in, not always true for a Prize, so it can’t have been too fiendish.
Thanks, Brummie and bridgesong.
Thanks for a neat puzzle and an interesting blog.
A steady and satisfying solve once I realised it was LAST-DITCH rather than LAST-THROW. SANDPIPER and SANDPAPER are near enough homophones!
The only tenuous suggestion of a theme, I thought, relates to the 1960s movie The Sandpiper, which starred that other Richard Burton (paired with Taylor, of course!). But I decided that was a red herring, which would probably have been of interest only to a real sandpiper…
OK – no theme. As bridgesong says, not the toughest of Brummies.
I wondered about FLAT ROOF – as an &lit slightly dubious, but it’s perfectly OK just to have ‘covering’ as the def. Took me a while.
Lots to like here. I’ve got ticks for SANDPIPER (for some reason ‘sandpaper’ never occurred to me), SCABBARD, UNLESS, BINDWEED, LAST DITCH, SOMME, NONE TOO PLEASED, PANIC, PURPORT and BAD DEBT. But they’re just the ones I’m singling out.
Thanks to Brummie and Bridgesong.
Anna@ various. Thank you very much for your enlightenment.
I remember as a tourist in the 70s walking into a ”corner store” as I’d call it, in Aberystwyth, and not understanding a word that was said by the shopkeepers or the customers. I was very lucky to have picked up a couple of hitchhikers, a teacher of Welsh language and her partner, a history teacher, who accompanied myself and my brother on our trip further north to Scotland. They gave us the best guided tour and history and language lesson one could imagine, as well as telling us about our Irish heritage and where our name came from.