I’m wondering how many complaints there will be this week about a ‘too easy’ Prize puzzle.
It took me a little while to get into this one, from one of my top favourite setters, largely because of the daunting-looking first clue, which loomed in the background for nearly the first half of my solve – the phrase should have sprung more readily to mind but needed a few crossers before the light dawned. Once that was out of the way, the rest followed steadily and satisfyingly, despite much mischievous and witty misdirection, which raised many a smile.
I had a large number of ticks but, rather than list them, I’ve just referred to them in the blog and left you to highlight your own favourites.
Many thanks, as always, to Picaroon for a real Saturday treat.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
5, 1, 15 Environmental process which makes additive addictive? (6,7,3,7)
CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE
A clever cryptic definition: it was pretty obvious what we had to do – add a C (which happens to be the chemical symbol for carbon – ‘environmental’ was a broad hint) to ‘additive’ – just a case of fitting it together
So we take (‘capture’) a C and ‘store’ it in ‘additive’ to get ‘addictive’
9 Measurements of pants, say, worn by Democrat (8)
BREADTHS
BREATHS (pants, say) round (worn by) D (Democrat) – nicely misleading use of the regular definition of ‘pants’
10 Capitalist concerned with career regressing (6)
TRADER
A reversal (regressing) of RE (concerned with) + DART (career)
12 Metal band supports a barrel and tub containing litres (5,7)
BLACK SABBATH
BACKS (supports) + A B (a barrel) + BATH (tub) round L (litres)
There has been a lot of discussion in the past about B as the abbreviation for barrel but it is in Chambers
17 Bits of information on King Ferdinand who was England’s defender (3)
RIO
R (king) + IO – not quite sure where the IO comes from: -‘bits of information’ could be informatIOn – or I[nformation] O[n] – but that would mean double duty for ‘on’ – suggestions welcome! Edit: Many thanks to mrpenney @2 for shedding light
In any case, it’s a brilliant ‘lift and separate’ misdirection towards the last King of Naples / Ferdinand of Aragon, to arrive at this former English footballer
19 Modest Mussorgsky’s finale preceded by silence (3)
SHY
SH (Silence!) + [mussorgsk]Y – and Mussorgsky’s first name is Modest – how brilliant is that?!
Two superb three-letter answers in a row
20 Fiery compiler running into Volkswagen Beetle’s back (10)
PASSIONATE
I (compiler) + ON (running, like a tap) in PASSAT (Volkswagen) + [beetl]E – another great ‘lift and separate’
22 Welcomed by people in party, record cover song (12)
GREENSLEEVES
SLEEVE (record cover) in GREENS (people in party) for the song variously attributed to Henry VIII but see (and listen) here
6 Poisonous substance picked up, creating alarm (6)
TOCSIN
Sounds like (picked up) TOXIN (poisonous substance) – no ambiguity here
27 Get utterly wasted, say, in party I held in public (6,2)
OVERDO IT
DO (party) + I in OVERT (public) – I love ‘wasted’ as one of the scores of words for ‘drunk’
28 Prevent drinking that’s wrong, but far from sinister? (6)
DEXTER
DETER (prevent) round (drinking) X (that’s wrong, in a copy book)
DEXTER and sinister are heraldic terms from Latin for right and left respectively
29 Kudos when cracking the Guardian’s puzzles (7)
SUDOKUS
An anagram (cracking) of KUDOS + US (The Guardian) – lovely clue (and which do we prefer?)
Down
1 Swans around in glamorous Bochum (4)
COBS
A hidden reversal (around) in glamorouS BOChrum – COBS are male swans, as we learned in primary school, in the days of the 11-plus
2 Speaker’s platform for Hague or Cameron, say (4)
PEER
Sounds like (speaker’s) ‘pier’ (platform) – William Hague and David Cameron are both peers – another unequivocal homophone
3 Excessive sandwiches left, as well as filling of pate in roll (8)
UNDULATE
UNDUE (excessive) round (sandwiches) L (left) + ‘filling’ of [p]AT[e]
6 One needing oxygen stood up, admitted to A&E (6)
AEROBE
A reversal (stood up) of BORE (stood) in A (and) E
7 When one has a mop, with tidying up required? (3,4,3)
BAD HAIR DAY
A cryptic definition
8 Where to see Kim Kardashian’s silhouette and rear? Hoot wildly (5,5)
NORTH KOREA
An anagram (wildly) of K[ardashia]N + REAR + HOOT – yet another fine ‘lift and separate’ misdirection
11 Chatter about drug smuggled into American customs (6)
USAGES
A reversal (about) of GAS (chatter) + E (drug) in US (American)
13 Like a prophet doomed to stifle right expression of despair (3-7)
FAR-SIGHTED
FATED (doomed) round (to stifle) R (right) SIGH (expression of despair) – a really lovely surface, which, inevitably, put me in mind of Cassandra – this has to be my top favourite, I think
[I have just read Natalie Haynes’ ‘A thousand ships’ – recommended for any others fascinated by the Trojan War.]
14 Spin around a thousand times, inspiring German car racer (4,6)
EDDY MERCKX
EDDY (spin around) + K (a thousand) + X (times) round (inspiring) MERC (German car) – great wordplay and misdirection for this cycle racer, whose name I’d heard but would never have known how to spell – this could be a mnemonic, supposing I ever needed it again
16 Marry a second time, and that’s no joke (6)
REALLY
RE-ALLY (marry a second time)
18 Take drugs with my boss, looking rather shabby (3-5)
DOG-EARED
DO GEAR (take drugs) + ED[itor] (Picaroon’s boss)
21 Only half decent police siren may do so (6)
ENTICE
Second half of [dec]ENT [pol]ICE – more deft ‘lift and separate’ deception: these Sirens attempted to entice Odysseus and his crew (but, of course, he was too clever) and several other mythological figures
23 The King has energy to replace current and present workforce (5)
ELVES
A week or so ago, ‘The King’ was CR: this time it’s ELV[i]S, with i (current) replaced by E (energy) for Santa’s helpers (lovely definition) – I do like this kind of clue, as discussed the other day
24, 4 Attitude to Labour, with changeable Keir hot and cold (4,5)
WORK ETHIC
W (with) + an anagram (changeable) of KEIR + HOT and C (cold) – great construction and surface
25 Scheduled arrival times for letters from overseas (4)
ETAS
Double definition: Estimated Times of Arrival and Greek letter Es – another great surface to end with
Very enjoyable puzzle as always from James. Hadn’t heard of Greensleeves but otherwise all good. Favourite was North Korea. That made me chuckle.
The IO in RIO is definitely a computer thing, with two possibilities that I couldn’t decide between. It’s either a 1 and a 0, the two possible bits of binary information, or I/O, short for input/output.
I hadn’t heard of DO GEAR for take drugs, so thanks for that explanation. Also thanks in general for the as-ever lively and informative blogging.
Personally I didn’t like 5 across, how the hell could one cold solve that, just clever for the sake of it, and not even a well known phrase. Oh well. North Korea was great though and I’ve heard of Kim!
Liked CARBON C A S, RIO, OVERDO IT (nice misleading surface), BAD HAIR DAY (for the mop, which needs tidying up!) and FAR-SIGHTED.
RIO: Parsed it as mrpenny@2.
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen!
I too took some time to break into this. I too took some time to solve 1A. And I agree with Antonknee@3 that environmental process could be anything and the clue is too clever by half.
I do struggle with Picaroon’s wordiness, and I do not remember enjoying this particularly. But I realised for the first time how many really good clues there were as I was reading the blog. Perhaps I need to take more time to smell the roses as I am solving. A few completely unknown people or words here – some I am sure are obvious to the English. I will name BLACK SABBATH and SHY as my favourites
I also commend Eileen for the accurate and entertaining commentary – fabulous!
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen
What has our culture come to that a Guardian reader hasn’t heard of Greensleeves?
CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE is a common phrase in my world where I’ve got involved in Carbon Literacy – yes, it’s a thing, there’s a charity engaged in teaching people about it.
I enjoyed this and double Picaroon weekend (he also set the FT last Saturday)
Thank you Eileen and Picaroon.
Failed to parse C C A S so thank you Eileen.
Jaydee @6 GREENSLEVES is irrevocably linked in my mind with ice cream as all the vans used that as the approach tune when I was a youngster. Also it’s one of the first tunes you play when learning an instrument, so like you I would have thought most would have heard of it.
Favourite for me was ELVES for the smile inducing “present workforce”.
Shanne@7. I agree CARBON etc is a thing. My point was I felt “environmental process” was not a good definition given there is a plethora of such processes and it is quite a challenging clue.
Great job again on the quick cryptic blog, by the way.
[Sinister dexter sinister dexter always reminds me of Carry On Up The … whatever it was … Collosseum, Forum ..?]
On Saturday I had managed about 6 clues or so, but I went back on Monday and managed to complete it. Plenty of smiles,, so thankyou Picaroon and thanks to Eileen for the blog. I forgot to look at the blogger’s name, but soon recognised the style.
Thank you Eileen. Similar experience with CCAS blocking up my grid and waving at me for some time. Also one of the rare occasions when I solved on a mobile phone, and it didn’t help with 5 and 1 being reversed. I’m with those who say that’s it a bit too clever.
I enjoyed the rocking BLACK SABBATH, the fun ELVES, the deft DEXTER, and the spinner EDDY MERCKX, for the misdirection.
Unfortunately I have the GREENSLEEVES earworm for the rest of the day. If only it were linked to something pleasurable, like real ice-cream, instead of the chemical concoction sold in Mr Whippy vans.
As often is the case, fifteensquared comments go way beyond the crossword at hand. And what a good thing
Mr Whippy playing GREENSLEEVES was part of my childhood too. Thanks to TimC@8, and some online research, I discovered the “ice cream” vans plied the streets of several countries, not just mine.
Always good to learn.
I found this hard to get into. After going through all the across clues all I had written in was SHY, but things improved from there. I needed a lot of crossers to get CCAS, and couldn’t see how the wordplay worked, but it was clearly right and I put the failure to parse out of my mind. Thanks for the explanation, Eileen. Clever. Too much so for me, it seems. Otherwise, I did enjoy this, especially the separable Volkswagen Beetle and Modest Mussorgsky. I didn’t know Rio Ferdinand, but I reckoned computer ‘bits’ are all ones and zeros, as MrP @2 said. I guessed what ‘do gear’ must mean, but that’s a new phrase to me I must move in the wrong circles. Thanks to Picaroon, and again to Eileen.
[pdm @12 Fortunately, the local van was a Robinson’s Farm Ices one and I’m old enough so it was before they went down the Mr Whippy style route]
Hi Eileen, I’m glad 5, 1, 15 was obvious to you!
Being unable to solve that (I have never heard of the answer) rendered attempting this rather pointless.
Thanks both.
Jaydee @6 I’m not sure how many people on here are Guardian readers and how many just visit the website for the Crossword. As an unreconstructed Guardian reading, tofu eating member of the wokerati I don’t alway find the clues or the comments on them reflect my world view.
I’m surprised at the criticism here of the clue for 5,1,15. It went straight in for me and if I were to nitpick, I would say the wordplay was too easy. That phrase appears very frequently in any discussion of achieving net-zero carbon emissions. Suggests some Guardian readers are skipping the excellent coverage of global heating etc.
Very enjoyable and typically clever from Picaroon. I had even heard of Mr. Ferdinand courtesy of an English colleague in Tokyo who used him as a menmonic for remembering the Japanese word for “both”.
I find it odd that I often solve the Prize puzzle faster than the midweek offerings. I think awareness of the absence of Check and Cheat forces me to focus and try harder.
Thanks as always, Eileen.
I’m another who didn’t parse CCAS.
Didn’t finish as I didn’t get GREENSLEEVES and another couple.
Liked: FAR-SIGHTED, PASSIONATE, and the surface of NORTH KOREA
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen (great blog)
Great crossword from Picaroon – one of my favourite setters, and thank you Eileen for a super blog. Parsing of CC&S and Modest was his first name and the links all added to the fun.
2D – was so pleased with myself to get DIAS (Cameron DIAZ), until pride came before a fall.
A super puzzle. Many thanks, Picaroon. Such wit.
The clueing of CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE was excellent. How there can be criticism of this “environmental process” as obscure beggars belief. I was really pleased to see Picaroon structure a crossword around it.
So many neat clues. EDDY MERCKX, ELVES and ENTICE amongst my favourites. TOCSIN was new to me.
Thanks for the brilliant blog Eileen. I was fortunate to get CCAS as my first in due to my career history. The clue is brilliant as are SHY, ELVES and RIO, for the reasons you said. Like mrpenney @2 I thought binary 10 for IO, although his other suggestion (input/output) works just as well. Many thanks to Picaroon.
[I was fortunate to see Black Sabbath the Ballet in Brum last year. A very interesting audience demographic and it worked really well. Extract follows, you have been warned…] https://youtu.be/oM0IaQGsKBI?si=YBiz3yREXhXuMazf
‘Bit’ in the IT sense is an abbreviation of ‘binary digit‘ which can have a value of either 1 or 0, so this rather than I/O for input/output seems the better explanation for RIO wordplay.
I pretty much agree with all Eileen’s comments (as I usually do). I understand but don’t share the objections to CCAS – yes I needed quite a few crossers to solve it, but surely that’s the point of a crossword.
Thanks Picaroon for a very good puzzle and Eileen for a blog to match.
I’m sorry to disappoint Eileen, but I won’t be complaining that the puzzle was too easy. There were a few chewy places. But, never one to give up on a moan, I’ll content myself with saying I do think it was a ‘little’ on the easy side.
Hasn’t North Korea been popping up quite a lot recently?
Reminds me of my (currently) favourite North Korean song. Even I have to smile when I listen to it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu0TurCDC94&list=RDEMxAM2JJGSyTqo-4kTLDEnSw&index=4
Thanks for the blog, with an L this week.
Many thanks to mrpenney @2 for clearing up the ‘bits’ so promptly. (Just as I was dropping off to sleep, I had the sudden idea of computers being involved but I lack the knowledge to understand it. I just knew that neither of my suggestions was something Picaroon would do.)
I’m also grateful for the lack of repetition – I was expecting a deluge of confirmatory posts!
Many thanks, too, to Tim C @15 for the delightfully evocative pictures and to Pauline @22 and Anna @24 for their equally interesting links.
HYD @16 – all I really meant was that it was obvious that we had to insert a C!
Wow. So much to learn from the lovely puzzle, blog and comments.
I`m a big fan of The Cannibal, but can never remember how to spell his name – until now!
[PDM@12 Eddy was much more of a grinder than a spinner, due to the gearing available at his time.]
Thanks to all.
Very tough and I was pleased to complete this puzzle.
I did not understand how to parse 5/1/15 although once I had crossers, it was easy enough to solve / guess the answer. Thanks for explaining how to parse it, Eileen. I never would have worked that out in a million years – it was not obvious to me!
Favourite: ELVES.
New for me: footballer RIO Ferdinand; cyclist racer EDDY MERCKZ; TOCSIN=alarm.
Thanks, both.
I thought this was just right on the difficulty scale, all the bits of UK GK (and a little around-the-world-K) known by this overseas solver (with a big sigh of relief). I saw all of the 4 (I think) interpretations of RIO, but realized it didn’t matter which one was intended, so in it went. Great blog by Eileen as usual too.
I wrote ‘very difficult’ on the top of my printout but it was hugely entertaining.
CCAS seemed to be the obvious answer to 5,1,15 but I couldn’t understand why carbon was being clued as an additive, doh! It was there in plain sight, although I needed Eileen to point it out. I’m rather staggered that some think CCAS is obscure, obviously not environmentalists! I liked the pants in BREADTHS, the record cover in GREENSLEEVES, and OVERDO IT, UNDULATE, and ELVES.
Thanks Picaroon for the challenge and Eileen for the splendid blog.
All you ever needed to know about Greensleeves. (But my local ice cream van used to play Oh, Oh, Antonio.)
I enjoyed that, even if it did ask me to remember RIO Ferdinand and EDDY MERCKX, and even spell him, forsooth! A couple of lovely little clues for RIO and SHY: Picaroon is the master of the lift and separate. No problem with CC&S, though it took me a few crossers to see it: not sure if I’d have solved it cold. My favourite was the “present workforce” in ELVES.
[grantinfreo@10: it was Carry On Cleo]
I did this while staying at my daughter’s place in north Wales – she is learning how to do these cryptics, so we were helping each other. I’d have struggled with this on my own, and she wouldn’t even have started it.
When we finally got the N of CARBON and the penny dropped, I said there’ll be someone on Fifteen Squared who’ll say they got it straight away, so congratulations to KLrunner@18! 🙂 And a silver medal for Pauline in Brum@22.
I thought ETAS was/were rather clunky, as neither is a word that is readily encountered in the plural. And COBS was a bit obvious, but I’m not complaining as they were my only two answers on the first pass through the clues.
Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen as always.
A top quality puzzle, and certainly not easy. I would say Picaroon is a master of the kind of misdirection exemplified by the clue to NORTH KOREA, in which the two words Kim Kardashian are read together in the surface reading. That was, by the way, my favourite clue.
I too had CARBON … AND … until about half way through, when I at last remembered the full phrase that I knew and have seen from time to time. That too was an excellent clue.
Many thanks to Picaroon and Eileen, and others for their comments and links.
gladys @30 – many thanks for the link. That’s one of theirs that I’d forgotten – I used to have several of their records.
Managed to finish this one eventually, very enjoyable. Never heard of tocsin before.
Thanks for the Greensleeves link gladys @30.
Hilarious. How good were they?
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen. I thought 8d was great. And 13d could so nearly have been a much ruder clue.
Thanks for the blog Eileen and the challenge, Picaroon. I am in the band who would not say it was too easy: I had a couple of clues at least – for AEROBE and PASSIONATE – which took me a while to tease out. Having solved them I can’t see why the difficulty (as ever seems to be the case).
Unlike others, I really appreciated the clue for 5 across, CC&S which is familiar enough and crossers made it easier to solve although when I had C——E for the second word I couldn’t get CLIMATE out of my mind.
Big SIGH, Graham @35!
gladys@30. Thank you for the Flanders & Swan link. Not come across that one before. Brilliant as ever.
[My ice cream van played the opening bars of a Mozart piano sonata 16 in C K545 😀]
Crossbar @38 – thanks for that: this will never sound the same again!
Great puzzle, well crafted by Picaroon. No quibbles. All clues do-able, although I needed Eilean’s blog to fully understand some of the logic. I liked quite a lot of the clues, EDDY MERCKX and DEXTER being stand-outs.
[Eileen@39 The ice cream van never got beyond the first few notes of the first scale passage, and then it was only a passing resemblance to your version. I can’t remember whose ice cream it was. 🍦]
[Many tas gladys @30 for that important cultural clarification 😉 ]
Oh c’mon pdm @12, sweetened shaving cream, what’s not to like. And as for those of you who got it with Mozart, well, postcode envy!
gif@43 nothing special about the postcode! And it was close on 60 years ago.
For a long time I was sure the answer to 2d had to be dais, with Cameron being Cameron Diaz. Couldn’t figure out how Ian Hague fitted in. Thanks Eileen and Picaroon.
Shanne @7 It’s the same in my world so the answer to 5,1,15a was my first one in, even though I couldn’t parse it. Needed pen and paper for North Korea and Black Sabbath but failed to get Eddy Merckx. Thanks for an enjoyable puzzle and blog.
Haggis@45. See me@20. Thank you.
Brilliant clueing – clever & amusing. Don’t understand criticisms of 5. I don’t mind having to get the whole thing with sufficient crossers & then seeing the witty parsing afterwards.
I only tried this today so too late to get a prize. I hate to be a party pooper, but I thought 5,1,15 didn’t work. Carbon Capture would be a perfectly acceptable answer but the extra “and storage”, to my mind, is tautological. How can you capture carbon without storage (and what would be the point anyway)? . That said, I did enjoy the crossword and didn’t think it too easy. Thanks Picaroon and Eileen.
Johninterred @49
Welcome, if this is your first visit – and my apologies for not recognising your name if it isn’t.
You perhaps haven’t had time to read all the comments above but a number of them acknowledge the environmental process, which is in Chambers. For further explanation, see here:
https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/energy-explained/what-is-ccs-how-does-it-work
Ah yes Merckx with almost as many unnecessary consonants as Nietzsche.
I have both heard, and heard of, Greensleeves, but with hindsight would probably rather I never had.
Didn’t some ice cream vans just have a few notes ident like cold war short wave radio stations? Am I thinking Walls?
Thanks to setter, blogger, and posters for a good puzzle and read.
Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.
We’d like to define the Lego clue as one in which you get the answer, then assemble multiple amorphous bits of clue to parse it. Examples here included 20A PASSIONATE and 13D FAR-SIGHTED!
Eileen, many thanks for your link in your blog on GREENSLEEVES to the story of its origin, and (not) Henry VIII. Very interesting wide-ranging article.
But I was also fascinated by the link in that link to the Shame Flute, an instrument of torture for musicians whose performances were not well-received. Had never heard of it. Very entertaining Sunday reading waiting for Everyman. 🙂 Thanks again.
I don’t often come back and read comments after I’ve posted mine but I’m glad I did this time.
@Jaydee, I don’t read the Guardian. In fact I don’t read any newspapers. I’m from NZ and I just go there for James’s crosswords. I do the same for the Independent, Financial Times and Telegraph.
@Tim, Regarding Greensleeves, we have the same music for our ice cream trucks but I never knew what the tune was called. Learn something everyday
“′GREENFLEEVES’ … a pretty unlikely title for a Fong!” – Thanks gladys@30 🙂 – [Had to look up ‘tucket without’ – another TTLi]
And thanks Eileen for the informative musical and CC&S links 🙂
Thanks P&E
Thanks both. I put it down and never picked it up again. (This is becoming a habit (And so is this dressing gown…).
Only joking.
ELVES got the no.1 spot for me (even though it was encompassed within my dnf).
FrankieG: Me too wrt ‘tucket’. (‘Tighter than Dronicus…’ made me pfl. Thanks gladys@30.)
25D: an ETA isn’t a scheduled arrival time – though it might occasionally coincide with one. I don’t think that clue works.
New here. Love the answer explainers and the comments are entertaining. I was reminded of “infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in f’me!”. Do we really need all the thank yous though surely it can be taken as read? Can I get a Harrumph?
This Mickey Jupp? – Harrumph! 😉