Guardian Prize 29,524 / Brummie

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I would normally take the Guardian puzzle with me on a train journey but last Saturday the journey was to the S and B at York and it was my blog and so I left it at home until Sunday afternoon, because I wanted to solve and blog all in one go, as usual, without any distractions on the way or discussions with other solvers at the venue.
I had the usual highly enjoyable afternoon at York, meeting lots of old friends and making new ones – huge thanks to John and Jane for their hard work and lovely hosting, as always,

It was a Brummie puzzle, which might or might not feature a theme – you never know with him. By halfway through the solve I’d spotted several recognisable card games and several words which could also be card games: as we often say here, practically any word could turn out to be a band or a font, for instance and I’ve discovered a number of card games through crosswords. After the solve, I didn’t quite resort to googling every word but I did try random ones, like SPEED and EZRA (not in any of my dictionaries) and I’ve left the fun of looking up the rest to you – looking forward to your contributions, with thanks in advance, to avoid repetitions.

I really enjoyed the solve – a nice variety of clue types and topics. In the past, I’ve sometimes been less than complimentary about Brummie’s surfaces but there were some really nice ones here. I had over a dozen ticks but I’ve whittled them down (slightly) to 10ac SORTILEGE, 13ac MALACHI, 15ac EPHESUS, 20ac WILDE, 25ac PYRAMID, 3dn SKITTLES, 6dn EISENHOWER, 14dn CORRIGENDA and 21dn LEMMINGS.

Many thanks to Brummie.

Definitions are underlined in the clues.

 

Across

9 Rod’s rude attention-seeker (5)
POKER 
Double definition – poking someone would be a less polite way of attracting their attention

10 Sally crosses stage, as a form of casting (9)
SORTILEGE 
SORTIE (sally) round LEG (stage) – ‘the practice of foretelling the future from a card or other item drawn at random from a collection’, from Latin sors – sortis – ‘lot’: only half highlighted – I suppose it could be thought of as a card game

11 Heading action needed by the one in possession? (5,4)
TITLE DEED
TITLE (heading – as of a chapter) + DEED (action) – a document that states and proves a person’s legal right to own a piece of land or a building

12 Recruit turned Lone Ranger’s head (5)
ENROL
A reversal (turned) of LONE + R[anger] – Edit: An anagram (turned) of LONE + R

13 African republic imprisons a church prophet (7)
MALACHI
MALI (African republic) round A CH  ( a church)

15 Guardian pursuing lost sheep arrives at old city (7)
EPHESUS
US (The Guardian) after an anagram (lost) of SHEEP – a nice surface for the location of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Wonders of the Ancient World, well worth visiting

17 US city’s on about ‘optical device’ (5)
LASER
LAS (US city’s) + a reversal (about) of RE (on)

18 Briefly against disposing of a machine separating fibre (3)
GIN
Double definition: aGIN (dialect form of ‘against’) minus a – I have fond memories of learning about Eli Whitney’s cotton gin in O Level History

20 Oscar winner’s debut lied about? (5)
WILDE
W[inner] + an anagram (about) of LIED – a deftly misleading surface

22 Right to leave a free-for-all sale (7)
AUCTION
A RUCTION (a free-for-all – noisy fight – such as occurred on my train home from York last Saturday, causing a delay of over an hour at Sheffield and a missed connection at Chesterfield, where I might have been stranded overnight, but for the serendipitous appearance of beery hiker, who had been held up on the later train from York, behind mine, who found me an alternative route home, where I finally arrived at exactly midnight – I owe you a pint or two next year, Hugh 😉 ) – minus r (right)

25 Pressure one’s briefly put at centre of ancient monument (7)
PYRAMID
P (pressure) + YR (your – one’s, briefly) + AMID (at centre)

26 Liverpudlian ejecting college drunkard (5)
SOUSE
SCOUSE (Liverpudlian) minus c (college)

27 Sparkler? Patience! (9)
SOLITAIRE
Double definition

30 Drama about oil spill trapping large protected mammal (9)
ARMADILLO
An anagram (about) of DRAMA + another anagram (spill) of OIL round L (large) – ‘protected’ either because it is the only mammal with a carapace or because it is protected from poaching – or both – see here 

31 Beloved pasta sauce’s back (5)
SUGAR
A reversal (back) of RAGU’S (pasta sauce’s)

 

Down

1 Ends up as Chesil Beach, say (4)
SPIT
A reversal (up, in a down clue) of TIPS (ends) – see here for the spit
A reminder to me of the Ian McEwan book I haven’t read yet

2 Burlesque? Let’s change game (8)
SKITTLES
SKIT (burlesque) + an anagram (change) of LET’S

3 Charge round roof entrance on the house (4)
FREE
FEE (charge) round R[oof]

4 Conducting upbeat intro with female band (8)
USHERING
U[pbeat] + SHE (female) + RING (band_)

5 Join lamb’s rump and hog’s back (6)
BRIDGE
[lam]B + RIDGE (hog’s back)

6 Ex-president one almost wishes would get thrashed in early Republican primaries (10)
EISENHOWER
An anagram (thrashed) of ONE WISHE[s] – almost  + E[arly] R[epublican] – excellent surface

7 Tries to take in top of tight suit (6)
HEARTS
HEARS (tries) round T[ight]

8 Sounds like market in which to spend time (4)
CELL
Sounds like ‘sell’ (market) – time being a prison sentence

13 Spirit associated with a Mediterranean island (5)
MALTA
MALT (whisky, spirit) + A

14 Dynamic recording has a number of errors to be fixed (10)
CORRIGENDA
An anagram (dynamic) of RECORDING + A – as we would write as a heading to our Latin homework corrections (and it’s where the word comes from, of course)

16 Sun made water race (5)
SPEED
S (sun) + PEED (made water)

19 Kip has ball with Trotsky, military commander (8)
NAPOLEON
NAP (kip) + O (ball) + LEON (Trotsky)

21 Doctor mingles with male unthinking followers (8)
LEMMINGS
An anagram (doctor) of MINGLES + M (male)

23 Cold drink? Well, that’s pretty bad (6)
CRUMMY
C (cold) + RUM (drink) + MY (well)

24 Finest leasehold houses to be in sheltered position (6)
NESTLE
Hidden in fiNEST LEasehold

26 I have an exact match for that photo (4)
SNAP
Double definition

28 Silly talk needs to be quiet (4)
TOSH
TO + SH (be quiet)

29 Pound, the last to be deposited in time (4)
EZRA
Z (the last letter) in ERA (time) – the American poet and critic

 

 

 

 

39 comments on “Guardian Prize 29,524 / Brummie”

  1. I made the mistake of putting in Sweed (thinking of Swede as a race which it isn’t and is spelled differently anyway) instead of SPEED. Otherwise all OK.
    Isn’t turned an anagram indicator in ENROL? Otherwise where is the inclusion indicator for the R?

  2. Liked SORTILEGE, AUCTION, PYRAMID, USHERING, EISENHOWER and CELL.

    Thanks Brummie and Eileen.

    MALACHI
    Mali has been under military rule since 2021. As the name of the country is the Republic of Mali, can’t question the clue.

  3. I seem to have themegnosia – I completely missed this one and Qaos’s one on Friday, both so obvious in retrospect. Thank you Eileen for putting me right, and Brummie for a great crossword.

  4. I agree that there were many nice surfaces in the puzzle. I particularly liked LEMMINGS, NAPOLEON, EPHESUS, EISENHOWER

    I remembered SOUSE and SCOUSE
    from my crossword language lessons. I needed Eileen’s help for AUCTION. A couple of NHOs but not excessive numbers. SPIT has me slightly concerned that after intensive study of UK’s rivers and towns I might have to now learn the geography of its beaches.

    Thanks Brummie and Eileen

  5. I think of Moonfleet when I see Chesil Beach – which I read at school – and grey mullet which I’ve seen there (and eaten too) and geography field trips. It’s got different sized pebbles in different areas, so you can tell where you are from the size of pebbles/shingle/sand. Irritatingly I didn’t think of SPIT and had a very reluctant spot in there instead from the parsing. I’ve walked Chesil Beach and it’s joined at both ends, so it didn’t occur to me to call it a SPIT, unlike, say Dungeness Spit.

    I also missed the theme.

    Glad you had fun at York. Thank you for the blog and thanks to Brummie for an entertaining puzzle.

  6. I had the pleasure of solving this in the pub in York before most folk had turned up and what an enjoyable curtain raiser it turned out to be. Like Eileen, I have occasionally been disappointed by some of the surfaces but Brummie was on good form and the theme was well-worked. Unobtrusive though actually quite dense, particularly in the Down clues. I did run out of time to check just which entries were games – SPEED and EZRA, for example, passed me by. All nicely done with EISENHOWER the stand out clue and CORRIGENDA the one I had to check in the dictionary.

    Thanks Brummie and Eileen (and hooray for beery hiker)

  7. Really enjoyed this. Had saddle for 5d which held me up in the NE for ages but once I got the theme I realised it was BRIDGE and was able to finish.

    Liked: SORTILEGE, MALACHI, GIN, EZRA, NAPOLEON

    Thanks Brummie and Eileen

  8. Had to guess TIPS, SORTILEGE & CORRIGENDA from the wordplay but that’s fine by me. Didn’t know many of the card fames but the theme was readily apparent.
    Eileen, I remember you like to keep a book of great clues. I feel that the simple (but never seen by me before) clue in Solomon’s crossword (11ac) yesterday may make the grade.

  9. Thanks to Brummie for the lovely puzzle and to Eileen for the comprehensive blog. I loved the beery hiker tale, pleased to hear you arrived home safely.
    My favourite clue was EISENHOWER for the brilliant surface. I also loved SOLITAIRE for its brevity; SORTILEGE, a new word but gettable; EPHESUS for another great surface and EZRA for misdirecting me for a while.
    I noted the theme after solving the puzzle, but know only some common card games, so it would not have helped me.

  10. Many thanks, Eileen. (At 11a, you have written TILE, which I think should be TITLE.) Thanks also for explaining the theme. I trust you have sent in your claim for repayment from the train company.
    SORTILEGE was new to me, and is worth remembering. I was held back by deciding 8d was jail or gaol, in which to spend time, but I got there in the end.
    As others say, EISENHOWER was excellent, and it is topical, even though taken literally we can all doubtless think of an answer with five letters not ten, and which would continue the playing cards theme.
    Thanks, Brummie.

  12. Nice puzzle, not too hard, except for SORTILEGE which was a word I didn’t know – tried ‘sortisete’ thinking it might be a type of casting of, e.g., bronze – so a dnf. Favourites included WILDE and EZRA (sort-of mirror image definitions), EISENHOWER, and many others. Vaguely thought there seemed to be several references to card games but didn’t see theme.
    I don’t think of Chesil Beach as a SPIT for the same reason as Shanne@5, but in fact the eastern end is joined to the mainland only by an artificial bridge, so it counts.
    [Shanne – it’s not entirely clear which book you read at school, but I assume it was ‘Moonfleet’ by Falkner, and not ‘Chesil Beach’ by McEwan; the latter would have been considered entirely unsuitable when I was at school in the ’60s. I’m not sure whether Eileen will enjoy it if she reads it, but I thought it was awful, its only saving grace being its brevity!]
    Thanks Eileen for the blog, and Brummie for the puzzle.

  13. Thanks Eileen and Brummie. Indeed, EISENHOWER was splendid, especially right now. I spent a long, long, time not getting SORTILEGE until the very end, but that was because of a careless ‘saddle’ for the hog’s back. Once I realised one of my crossers must be wrong I saw what would fit, but I was surprised to find how specific its meaning is. (I only knew it from a Jacques Brel song where I think its meaning is basically spell or charm, and thought it would be the same in English. I guess it’s close.)

  14. I thought this was Brummie on top form. The internet informs me that LEMMINGS is a card game, MALACHI a game designer and EISENHOWER a keen BRIDGE player. [One year I’ll get to one of these events] Thanks

  15. I didn’t notice a theme – tbh I rarely look for themes anymore.

    New for me: Chesil Beach SPIT; hog’s back = RIDGE (for 5d); CORRIGENDA.

    Thanks, both.

  16. Loved this Prize. Threw myself off course by putting CON in before I realised the theme so making USHERING my last one in. Got me musing on our lovely language though. How did GIN get to be so multi-meaning? Three letters yet can be a trap, a drink, an industrial machine and a card game!

  17. Thanks Brummie and Eileen

    The stars aligned for solving this one, saw the theme and used it to my advantage, knew the less usual words, all just feel into place. Loved Eisenhower. I seem to remember liking book Chesil Beach

  18. I’ve checked and there’s confusion as to what to call Chesil Beach –the website calls it a tombolo, as does the Royal Geographical Society resources for schools, BBC Bitesize on GCSE Geography calls it a bar – a spit that has developed to form a bar, Wikipedia defines it as a barrier beach (but mentions that it’s often named a tombolo). There is agreement that it forms the Fleet lagoon behind it. I’m not linking to everything, because that just puts my post into moderation.

    [beaulieu @12 – I did say Moonfleet – by J M Faulkner, and it was the 1970s, before Chesil Beach was written (which I’ve read too, but much more recently) – a smugglers tale of treasure and derring do. ]

  19. Saw the theme about halfway but grateful that Eileen did all the groundwork to identify the card games. Like others, I thought EISENHOWER was the standout. Hadn’t heard of SORTILEGE or CORRIGENDA (crashed and burned in Latin ‘O’ Level) but both fairly clued. I agree with Tim C @1, re the parsing of ENROL and with beaulieu @12 about his assessment of Chesil Beach, which was a big disappointment. Other nice little links like SPIT and SNAP (she’s the spit of her mother) along with SUGAR SNAP and SUGAR FREE. Glad you all enjoyed the York RV, maybe one day…

    Ta Brummie & Eileen.

  20. Got stuck with seven or eight to go, as usual, but finished it off over toast and marmite this morning, with (what to me was) the very tricky CORRIGENDA last one in. Even after spotting the well hidden anagram, I needed convincing that a plural definition worked with no S in the fodder. Doh!

    SORTILEGE was a word I recognised but didn’t know what it meant, but the wordplay was clear enough, and luckily Chambers knew it.

    Thanks to Brummie and Eileen.

  21. Solving Brummie’s wonderful puzzle was like taking a very enjoyable country walk ending with a not too strenuous climb and then looking down to discover beneath the surface the structure of a complex early settlement. The puzzle was not only clever but a magnificent piece of engineering with pretty well every clue contributing to the theme. I particularly liked EISENHOWER, who as Petert said was a keen, indeed expert Bridge player. It was said that he choose his staff on the basis of their ability to play the game. I also enjoyed the specificity of AUCTION BRIDGE, and both PYRAMID and FREE CELL SOLITAIRE. Sneaking in (C)RUMMY) was ingenious and to discover that even EPHESUS, ARMADILLO, SORTILEGE, EISENHOWER etc etc were also games completed a great puzzle. There were two extra bonuses. CHESIL BEACH references a classic modern novel, which if Eileen doesn’t know it I think she will enjoy . And I have a host of new games that I am keen to try out. Thanks to both Eileen and Brummie, and I too will try to make the effort to attend the next S&B

  23. Thanks, everyone, for all the comments, especially finding so many more games.
    I have amended the typo in 11ac and the parsing of 12ac.

  24. After my spectacular failure with last week’s Prize it was nice to be able to enjoy solving this. I think my fave was probably 9ac (POKER), but I also liked the double definition in 27ac (SOLITAIRE). My last one in was 8d, which succeeded in deceiving me every which way ( I was thinking of market as a noun and cell in biological terms, even though I knew I should be looking for a homophone of the latter).

    I had to check that Chesil beach qualified as a spit, but ‘beach’ in the clue was enough to convince me that the solution was SPIT and not SPOT.

  26. I don’t always enjoy the Prize ones, but this was an absolute gem!
    Like Eileen and Martyn @4, I was impressed at there being so many satisfying surfaces, with EISENHOWER and SOUSE as my faves.
    NAPOLEON and EZRA were also little beauties (the clues, not the actual gentlemen).
    The theme sailed way over my head – but then, I’ve never played any card-games (apart from Snap and Happy Families during childhood christmases).
    Many thanks Eileen and Brummie.

  27. I thought at first that the theme was specifically patience-type card games with PYRAMID, FREE CELL, NAPOLEON, SOLITAIRE, POKER and HEARTS – but many patiences are named after
    other games. I only knew SORTILEGE from the French title of a Ravel opera: didn’t know it was an English word.

    I don’t think I parsed PYRAMID. A great surface for EISENHOWER. I’d better steer clear of politics about other ex-Presidents – can’t imagine who Brummie could possibly mean! I know Chesil Beach very well from childhood holidays in Bridport: get the bus along the coast road to Weymouth for some beautiful views of it. So no problems with SPIT, although technically it may not be one.

    Nice to know you got home safely, Eileen.

  28. I know SORTILÈGE from Ravel’s opera L’ Enfant et Les Sortileges, which, unlike his other music, I’m not particularly fond of.

  29. I enjoyed this and would have done so even more if I had spotted the theme.
    Not sure about the “hog’s” in 5d. I assumed that “hog’s back”=”ridge” from the stretch of the A31 near Guildford but my Chambers has “ridge- the back (obs)” as the first meaning and no mention of “hog’s”
    Zoot@28 SNAP
    Thanks to Brummie and Eileen

  30. It took me a while to find this because it is titled as 29542 rather than 29524, so that probably needs sorting out by someone who can.
    Many thanks to Brummie and Eileen. I really enjoyed the theme. Too many great clues to name but SOLITAIRE was my favourite out of them all.

  32. Mostly straightforward, happily, as I was short of time last week. I needed a wordfinder to fill in the missing letters for SORTILEGE. As usual, I missed the theme, possibly because I tend to do a few clues per day over the week.

  33. A rare case where I figured out the theme halfway through and it helped! DNF because of SORTILEGE, I took “crosses” as indicating an insertion the other way and tried to fit RAID in until I gave up and used the wordfinder. Very nice puzzle, thanks Brummie and Eileen, and glad the ruction worked out in the end!

  34. Thanks both and a lovely entertainment (although I proved yet again that I am not a ‘theme’ player).

    I found myself beside Chesil Beach recently in an absolute monsoon. I was way out of my parish and it seemed to me to be a very remote and unfriendly place, perhaps partially because I had never heard of it but mainly because of the awful weather. It was therefore rather spooky to find it turning up in my crossword and identified as a SPIT in the ocean…

    [Eileen, your experience on the way home from York is horrifying. I hope you are fully recovered.]

  37. I do hope, Eileen, that the ruction on your train was not caused by other solvers returning from S&B and fighting about Ludwig.

  38. S&B in York caused us to be out of synch with our morning crossword so we have only just looked at this Brummie.

    Unusually for us we put saddle in for 5 down without being 100% sure. That meant we didn’t get 10 across. We hadn’t seen the theme either, so a double fail for us.

    Thanks Brummie and Eileen.

  39. SPIT is also a card game (at least in the U.S.). I’ll have to remember that Brummie usually has a theme…

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