Guardian Prize 29,512 by Kite

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  • Another outing in the prize slot for Kite.

By coincidence, Kite’s appearance in the prize slot has again coincided with my turn on the blogging rota. Last time the puzzle was thematic, commemorating the 55th anniversary of the first landing on the moon. Timon and I could detect no theme in this puzzle, but I have a lurking doubt that we may have missed one. If so, no doubt someone will point it out.  Update: the outer perimeter represents the initial letters of the numbers on a dart board, starting at the top with Twenty and finishing with a Double and a Treble. Many thanks to Yehudi @16 for pointing out this brilliant achievement!

 

I did have a couple of question marks against the clues, but was able to resolve them all while writing the blog.

 

Many thanks to Kite.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
7 TOMBOLA
Cat disease after scratching the head is a lottery (7)
TOM (cat) (e)BOLA.
8 MATELOT
One’s onboard with friend having piles (7)
MATE (friend) LOT (piles).
9 DART
Short, conventional return for flyer (4)
TRAD (conventional, shortened and reversed).
10 PASHMINAS
Like Charles at home, father’s eating wraps (9)
AS (like) HM (His Majesty, i.e. King Charles) IN (at home) all inside (being eaten by) PA’S.
12 BOARD
Poet consumes ordinary food (5)
O(rdinary) inside BARD (poet).
13 BRASS OFF
Annoy son who’s absorbed by being unsupported maybe (5,3)
S(on) inside BRA’S OFF (unsupported, maybe). Took us a while to see this, in my case because I’m only familiar with this expression as a participle (brassed off) and not as a verb.
15 FRAY
Little Fish getting around a fight (4)
A inside FRY (little fish).
16 SOLID
Well, Littler the beginner’s card indicates: strong (5)
SO (well) L(ittler) ID (card). We thought at first of the teenage darts prodigy Luke Littler and I suspect that is exactly what we were meant to do.
17 COST
It’s near the ribs, a large cut shows injury (4)
COST(al) (near the ribs, with A L(arge) removed). The equivalence of “cost” and “injury” is perhaps a bit of a stretch.
18 THIRD AGE
Tiger had troubled group of mature people (5,3)
*(TIGER HAD). I suspect many readers of The Guardian in the UK will be members of U3A, the University of the Third Age.
20 EARLY
Advanced, like a nobleman? (5)
EARL – Y. This one made us smile.
21 COLD LUNCH
Perhaps ploughman’s ancient clay houses (4,5)
OLD (ancient) inside CLUNCH (a kind of clay).
22 LASS
Young woman gets introduction to lipstick and dope (4)
L(ipstick) ASS (dope).
24 NETTING
Lace, say, is fetching, new for top of garters (7)
GETTING (fetching) with N(ew) for G(arters) at the beginning.
25 WETSUIT
Wife’s case holding special turtleneck, primarily a protection from cold (7)
W(ife), S(pecial) inside ETUI (a case, e.g. for sewing articles), T(urtleneck). At first we thought that “wife’s case” must mean W……E, but that wouldn’t work.
DOWN
1 TOGA
Clobber those opponents grouping arrows in opening stages (4)
Initial letters (“opening stages”) of Those Opponents Grouping Arrows.
2 OBITUARY
Notice 19 person, a Brit you represented (8)
*(A BRIT YOU).   Read as intended, the definition reads “Notice re late person…”
3 ELOPED
Nervous people lacking introduction dated at the beginning, then went on union trip (6)
*((p)EOPLE + D(ated)). I got this immediately from the cryptic definition.
4 FARMYARD
Service set up by motorway unit – where 6 are found (8)
RAF (service, rev) M(otorway) YARD (unit). I originally guessed FARMLAND from the crossers, but Timon soon put me right.
5 TENNIS
In new set nets raised for game (6)
I think that this parses as IN N(ew) inside SET, all reversed, with “nets” being the inclusion indicator.
6 SOWS
Plants thus put before opponents (4)
SO (thus) WS (West and South, opponents at the bridge table).
11 SUBALTERN
Officer in short boat to change direction (9)
SUB (marine, short boat) ALTER (change) N(orth, direction).
12 BERTH
Land bull’s eye initially, the last three in 4th … (5)
B(ull’s) E(ye) (fou)RTH. To berth can mean to moor, or dock a ship, hence to land.
14 FISHY
… and the first two in 5th throw are odd (5)
FI (fth) SHY (throw). The ellipsis indicates that the two clues share something, here a similar device.
16 SEAPLANE
Waterbird perhaps identified by a pal seen swimming (8)
*(A PAL SEEN).
17 CARELESS
Disorganised European inside, lacking transport (8)
E(uropean) inside CARLESS (lacking transport).
19 RELATE
Daughter, say, excludes 4 for report (6)
RELAT(iv)E.
20 ECHOES
Memories of half of toes caught under wobbly oche (6)
*OCHE, (to)ES.
21 CLEF
Staff member, when playing, gets one hundred and fifty, easy for starters (4)
CL (one hundred and fifty in Roman numerals) E(asy) F(or). Another cryptic definition.
23 SKIN
King welcomed by Shanghai banks and finally taken outside (4)
K(ing) inside SI (banks of ShanghaI), (take)N.

50 comments on “Guardian Prize 29,512 by Kite”

  3. Re: BERTH and FISHY. Unlike our blogger, I was a little surprised that the devices on either side of the ellipses were the same – I’ve seen so many occasions in these cryptics where similar-looking devices had deliberately different meanings. Maybe this was a case of double-bluff.

    COST=injury may be a bit of a stretch, but it probably helped with COST=damage yesterday.

  4. Thanks bridgesong. I enjoyed this, just the right balance for me of some lower hanging fruit opening up guidance for those which were more satisfying to solve. I admired, and was misled by, some clever smooth surfaces. I was with you in looking for a word ending in E for 25a and for first plumping for ‘farmland’ in 4d.

  5. Like Dr. WhatsOn @3 I thought of cost=damage as in when buying things asking “what’s the damage?”. Chambers Thesaurus has injury as a synonym with the possible example “The cost/injury to my health as a result of smoking”. That was probably my favourite clue.

  6. There is almost certainly a theme but it eludes me. Kite themselves commented (on the thread of the previous Cryptic):
    Many thanks to all the posters/commenters. There is a bit more to this crossword than most (any?) have seen, but as it’s a Prize my lips are sealed until next Saturday on 225 …

  7. I can see DART BOARD, oche in 20d and bridgesong has noted a player, but that exhausts my knowledge of the game. Nice crossie – thanks, Kite and bridgesong.

  8. I found this difficult and needed several visits. At the end, I threw in COST as a lucky guess, not knowing coastal = ribs or COST = injury. But I could not think of anything else. I also did not know BRASS OFF, and I always imagined BOARD to mean accommodation, given “food and board” is a common expression. Always good to learn. I had the same parsing for TENNIS

    Thanks Kite and bridgesong

  9. Got all over several revisits during the week, except for 25a, where I remained trapped in W..E 🙁
    TA Kite and bridgesong

  12. TT@10 and BA@11. You are absolutely correct. I do not know how I imagined that one up. Thank-you both.

    I just wish you had told me a week ago.

  13. I thought there could be a bit of a nautical theme, boats and fish/ing etc.
    Thanks bridgesong for the explanations and processes of solving. I also had farmland, but not happy with it, as well as Skid instead of Skin and again, not happy with that. Got there with the rest.
    Thanks Kite and bridgesong

  14. Enjoyed this one. Knowing Kite’s fondness for windsurfing, I thought BOARD, WETSUIT and SEA might have been the makings of a theme, but that doesn’t seem quite enough. Curiously, SAIL would fit in 23d which might have clinched it.
    Thanks to Kite and bridgesong

  15. There are a lot of references to DARTs here – with DART BOARD on the grid, Littler, Oche, Bulls eye and other references in the clues: FISH dart, and a big FISH is the biggest check out in darts – but I”m not sure it makes a theme.

    I also spotted some of the windsurfing references, but wasn’t sure of that either.

    Steady solve.

    Thank you to Kite and bridgesong.

  16. Noting that Kite posted his comment (reproduced by Dale@6) after solvers had claimed to have found a theme, I took a closer look at the grid, and saw that the outer letters would be the first letters of the numbers ringing a DART BOARD, starting with T(wenty) in the upper left and finishing with a extra D and T (Doubles & Triples?).
    Someone more familiar with the game will have to point out the other terms which, no doubt, inhabit the grid.
    Thanks to Kite fot the puzzle (and the prompt), and to B & T for the blog

  17. Me@13. Nautical related words – MATELOT, BOARD, FR(a)Y, NETting, WETSUIT, SUBALTERN, BERTH, FISHY, SEAPLANE.
    But maybe the dart theme is more clever.

    Not theme related, I loved the clever clue for OBITUARY, as well as PASHMINAS and COLD LUNCH.

  18. I got there in the end, mostly through sheer persistence, but I’m afraid I found it a struggle. There seemed to be a lot of awkward wordplay involving single letters; more than I felt was usual, although I’ve no way of quantifying that. I’ve actually written ‘contrived’ on my printout, although that seems silly as a criticism of a cryptic! Some very nice clues though; I liked SEAPLANE, ELOPE and CARELESS, and COST is clever in retrospect, although I’d not known ‘costal’ and thought ‘injury’ was a long stretch as a definition. Not having known words like PASHMINAS, of course, is down to me, and having completed the puzzle I can look back and see its strong points. Thanks, both.

  21. I have updated the blog to include the dartboard theme: in addition to the numbers we have DART BOARD in the grid, Luke Littler and oche and bull’s eye and throw in the clues, as has been pointed out above. It’s many years since I last threw a dart so there may be other technical terms that nobody has yet spotted.

  22. Guessed 25 across but never heard of ETUI. Managed to complete with several visits.
    Thanks Bridgesong and Kite, and well done yehudi@16 for spotting the theme.

  23. 23d SKIN – “Shanghai” is a darts game, ‘a Shanghai being throws that hit a triple, a double and single (in any order) of the number that is in play.’

  24. 16d SEAPLANE – “Waterbird“: ‘The Lakes … Waterbird, sometimes known as the Avro Curtiss-type, is remembered as the first consistently successful British seaplane, developed by the Windermere-based Lakes Flying Company, during 1911.’

  25. Thanks for the blog, good set of neat and clever clues , WETSUIT is misleading and our favourite ETUI returns.

    Yehudi@16 a brilliant deduction. I always look at the perimeter of a sticklebrick grid , saw a lot of S F and T but I was clueless.

  28. I failed on the two four letters having failed to fully parse them, although I guessed cost and even linked it to costal. I failed to spot the “and finally” trick.
    Both look fair in retrospect. “What’s the damage” is a common phrase when asking for a bill, and damage could replace injury in the clue but might be too obvious.

  29. I was defeated by FISHY and COST, much to my disgust. Weirdly, although I’m familiar with intercostal muscles I’ve never made the costal-ribs link. I really should have got ‘fishy’ (sigh). I got nowhere near the darts theme, but after PASHMINAS I did notice quite a number of clothing- and fabric-related answers and wonder idly if that was deliberate.

  30. Many thanks to bridgesong for the super blog, and to all the commenters so far, especially yehudi @16 for spotting the perimetric(al) NINA. I thought that maybe I was going to have to give a further hint. This idea seemed naturally to follow my previous crossword using a chess board. It’s interesting that others found partial themes in some of the answers.

    The last D and T in the perimeter were there once the DART BOARD numbers were exhausted. I like bridgesong’s idea of finishing with a Treble and Double. I must confess I hadn’t seen that myself. I learnt when compiling that Little Fish means a treble 20, single 20 and bullseye. There’s always something new to learn every day.

  33. The other thing I spotted when I was looking at themes was that there’s a L or 50 at the bull’s eye position in the centre of the grid.

  34. [ Not a spoiler , no need to discuss the puzzle or any of the clues , just a query .
    Has anyone else raised an eyebrow at the setter’s name for the puzzle today ? Just does not feel right for a Pasquale ]

  36. Sheffieldhatter and I solved this together last Sunday, during his very successful visit to France; as others have said, a mixture of write-ins and puzzlers. Wetsuit our last one in. As per usual for both of us, though we noticed the darts references in passing we completely missed the nina. And by a weird coincidence, the last time we worked on a prize crossword together it was a Kite, the moon landing one, which only came to me when reading bridgesong’s excellent blog.

  37. A thoroughly enjoyable run out with the darts theme pretty obvious to anyone who has played the game, though kudos to yehudi for a brilliant perimeter observation and to FrankieG for the Shanghai reference. The clue for ELOPED alone was worth the effort, though COST defeated me.
    Congrats and thanks to Kite and bridgesong

  38. This mostly flowed for me. It was only CLEF that I couldn’t get. I always forget to look for a theme. I bow to Yehudi@16 for spotting the NINA. With thanks to Kite and bridgesong.

  42. [ Sorry maybe just me , I folded my paper to play guess the setter and was quite surprised at the end , two or three things stood out which I can’t mention . Peter I do not know anything about a special ?? ]

  43. We had it ‘finished’ by Tuesday lunchtime in the sense that we’d bunged in answers for everything but needed your guidance, thank you bridgesong, to parse both SOLID (clear now in retrospect) and WETSUIT (T = turtleneck, seriously??)
    We’re getting better at these Grauniad crosswords I think, and enjoying the challenge. Thanks too to Kite.

  45. Thank you, Kite @44. Of course.
    {I was thinking T for tank-top would have been ok but turtle-neck was quite a stretch}

  48. Nascotwoodfrog@36 reminds me that sharing a puzzle between two often (always?) results in an easier solve than might have been experienced by a solo solver.

    No excuses needed for missing the Nina. I almost never think of looking for them, though I have spotted the occasional Pangakupu effort. This one must qualify as the hardest ever to spot, so kudos to Yehudi@16.

    Thanks to Kite and Bridgesong.

  49. Just to offer belated thanks to Bridgesong and Kite. I found this a real challenge and didn’t spot a theme. As is usually the case, coming here has made me appreciate the skill of the setter even more. Well done to Yehudi and to the other contributers for adding the icing to the cake 🎂.

  50. I award a dnf (COST) along with a gungadin (costal) to Kite and three gungadins (COST, WETSUIT and TENNIS) to our esteemed blogger.

    A grand entertainment engendering an entertaining and expert commentary. Turned out to be worth the effort imho.

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