Guardian Prize 29,595 / Imogen

61 comments on “Guardian Prize 29,595 / Imogen”

1. Person undated would be your ‘ex’, since you are no longer dating…

2. Davey@1: I was going to say a person you no longer dated would be your “undated” ex. Very nice puzzle–not too hard, but requiring some thought. Nice job on the blog, as usual.

3. I managed to complete this without noticing the pangram, and was pleasantly surprised by the use of PROKARYOTE. I agree with Davey that UNDATED=EX because ones ex is someone one no longer dates. Thanks Eileen and Imogen.

4. Thank you very much Eileen. ZIPPER was my LOI too. I agree with your tick list, and not for the first time 😎. I’d add FORM as well because I liked the ‘dedication’. BODEGA was outstanding. My clue of the year so far, but it is still January…

   Thank you Imogen – the perfect Prize puzzle. It took me a few goes to get there and I am pleased that I did.

5. Not sure about the definition for PROKARYOTE. Surely all organisms are cellular. The difference between a prokaryote (bacteria) and an eukaryote (everything else) is that prokaryote cells are vastly simpler than eukaryote ones.

6. Testing!
   More than exasperated at having seemingly failed to respond to correspond to comments so far – I have read them!
   Too tired to try further. Sorry – time for bed now.

7. Thanks Eileen. I enjoyed this after the hard work necessary last week and furthered my education too. 12a was my LOI too – and I got it wrong, I put in ‘ripper’. Could be somebody in a hurry I thought and RIP can be closing words but clearly now not correct.

8. Re 6d

   I can’t ever read (or hear) the word BROADSWORD without thinking of this: https://youtu.be/Bg9fVjhM8Ds?si=ExFGsuZHrP4mECCC

9. Sweet dreams Eileen, see you on the morrow. Nice one Imogen, not too scholarly, a bit of Kant and a bit of biology notwithstanding.

10. What Cineraria@2 said.

11. Saw it was Imogen and thought “no chance” but decided to try and managed to get all but one (25d) albeit with some not parsed.

    Liked: SAVAGERY, CAMPAIGN, CYPRESS, FIX

    Got NIGHTJAR immediately because it was in a (FT?) crossword a few days ago

    Thanks Imogen and Eileen

12. Thanks, Eileen. Indeed, a nicely balanced puzzle. I had no trouble with ZIPPER, but was stuck for an inexplicable time on SAVAGERY – I guessed how the wordplay worked as soon as I read the clue, but couldn’t think of a pair of ‘investor’ and ‘collapse of civilisation’ words that would work. And still hadn’t right at the end. Finally I wrote out _A_A_E_Y and tried all the letters from A onwards as the first letter. I paused briefly at M, trying to make something starting with MAGA.. but moved on and the penny dropped as soon as I reached S. JUROR sounded right for me, but I’ve been one and didn’t feel particularly ‘boxed in’ – that’s the witnesses and possibly the accused. BODEGA was splendid; thanks Imogen.

13. Looking back over, I tell a lie about Im’s scholarliness. Didnt know the Italian poet and had to guess-then-check one of the non-crosaers to get arioso. I feel better now 🙂

14. My faves: EXPOUND, BODEGA, NIGHTJAR and FORM.
    Thanks Imogen and Eileen.

15. If I’d spotted the pangram, I might not have put NIPPER for 12a (one hurrying = closer (pin) + the correct REP, all reversed). Oh well.

16. I had trouble with lots of the parsing here, so was very grateful for the blog. Thank you to Eileen. I enjoyed learning about the SPUD (10a) and also that usage of “disinterested” in PURE REASON (11a). I had to wait until I had solved everything else to work out the anagram using the crossers at 13a, PROKARYOTE, as I’d never heard that word before. I also liked 23a BODEGA, 3d REAPER and 19d NIGHTJAR, and I thought 27a AFTER was quite neat. Didn’t spot the pangram but then I always forget to look for them. Thanks to Imogen for the puzzle.

17. 27a [r]AFTER could have been ever so slightly more difficult with a Playtex: “downriver”. — 6d BROADSWORD: Ditto Admin@8, ever since seeing the film in 1968.

18. Seems I had a similar experience to Eileen. ZIPPER too was my LOI, confirmed by the pangram (and I had the same misgiving as ZIPPER and ZIP can be interchangeable). Realise now I hadn’t parsed AFTER after wondering what AFTE had to do with Thor Heyerdahl, so thanks for that. Nice to learn about the digging tool SPUD as well. Thanks to Imogen and Eileen.

19. Thanks, Imogen and Eileen for the generous blog..
    I get real satisfaction from this pastime when at the first run through it seems impenetrable to me but gradually with perseverance and some aid, I finally crack it. As happened with this. Most enjoyable. I would never consider not attempting it. Much too dogged for that and worth the perseverance.

    Unlike some earlier contributors, ZIPPER went in early and easily but parsing took a bit of work until the penny dropped. And I had SPOT early but took several goes to finally crack SOFT.
    Top picks for me were PURE REASON (Kant is philosopher I have struggle with), SOFT SPOT, ESCARGO (yum), and DUTY OF CARE. Although really it was masterly setting throughout, smooth surfaces, clever constructions. I suspected a pangram but didn’t need its help so forgot to check. Good fun.

20. Thanks Imogen and Eileen
    I think ZIPPER is more US usage – I’ve only heard ZIP here.
    I suppose it could be argued that the elephants in 26d are doing double duty – part of the definition and part of the wordplay – but the surface is so good I’ll forgive them.

21. I didn’t have a problem with ZIPPER to give me the pangram, but found myself looking up both ARIOSO and Ariosto, plus the Solitary REAPER and whether PURE REASON was criticised by Kant, so last Saturday I learned a lot. I knew Thor Heyerdahl and PROKARYOTEs.

    Thank you to Eileen and Imogen

22. Tough and very enjoyable. I solved the NW corner last. As soon as I solved 15d, I wondered if this will be a pangram – which it proved to be.

    Favourites: STEALTH, BEETLE, BODEGA, EXPOUND, SAVAGERY.

    New for me: the poem, The Solitary Reaper by Wordsworth (for 3d); PROKARYOTE (just as well this clue was an anagram!); book Critique of Pure Reason by Kant (for 11ac); CYPRESS = symbol of mourning; SPUD = a small, narrow spade.

23. Annoyingly, I did not spot the pangram forming and plumped for NIPPER, thinking like gladys of closer= PIN and one hurrying being a NIPPER as in one nipping to the shops. Everything else solved and parsed, even the nho unicellular organism. SAVAGERY, UNGODLY, ESCARGOT, CYPRESS, BROADSWORD and BEETLE were my favourite clues though, despite the mistake I made, I found the whole puzzle enjoyable.

    Thanks Imogen and Eileen

24. Two prize pangrams in a row, I too was helped with the missing Z, and the NW corner went in last, with SAVAGERY LOI. A very pleasant solve and a succinct blog, thanks I and E.

25. I found this straightforward for a ‘Prize’, except it was a dnf because I didn’t solve ARIOSO – being ignorant of both the poet and the musical term, all I had was crossers and the fact there was a T in the former’s name; with no clue to other letters it was impossible to complete. No complaints though. Agree that BODEGA was v good; also liked others including PROKARYOTE (I take AiD@5’s point, but all prokaryotes are in ‘a’ cell i.e. unicellular and this together with the wordplay gave a definitive answer).
    Thanks Eileen and Imogen.

26. MUST
    Agree with muffin@20.
    I assumed ‘frenzy’ as the def but now I see that MUST is specific to elephants.

27. That was right at the edge of my capabilities but ground it out and very very satisfied to finish it. My GK was not up to scratch so some googling required, Italian poets for example.

    Funnily enough ZIPPER was my first in and gave me inspiration to do the perspiration to try for a rare prize completion.

    Thank you Eileen and Imogen.

28. Like KeithS @12 I strove to get MAGA into 12ac, in recognition of this week’s events.
    I filled in ESCARGOT without noticing the anagram, when nothing else would fit.
    I enjoyed this one and thank you Eileen for your commentary.

29. Spotted the potential pangram early on but by the time the whole alphabet was accounted for I still had several unsolved so it didn’t help me as much as it might have. My knowledge of Italian poets and operatic pieces is clearly lacking.

    Took me longer than it should have to get ESCARGOT because of the position of ‘in’. “Delicacy in cold storage going off” would work better I think.

30. Thanks Eileen and Imogen, enjoyed this, especially BODEGA and ESCARGOT, but was a DNF for me as I didn’t search hard enough for my Italian poets and hadn’t heard of an arioso!

31. Enjoyed nearly all of this, apart from the dreadful JUROR and a doubt about the parsing of EXPOUND.

32. A lovely puzzle with some write- ins for a handy start, many chewy clues and a couple I didn’t get.
    BODEGA was a write in from the definition (though it took me some time to parse it), as were REAPER, LAG, CYPRESS and MUST (thanks to Orwell’s memorable essay on Shooting an Elephant).
    I admired the cleverness of FORM, SAVAGERY, UNGODLY, BEETLE and AFTER.
    Managed to get PROKARYOTE, which I had never heard of, but missed out on ARIOSO (pure ignorance ) and JUROR (pure stupidity).

    Thanks to Imogen for all of the fun and enjoyment, and, as ever, to eileen.

33. Managed to get it done eventually, after many visits, but as (nearly) always, it was good fun and good also to improve my general knowledge e.g. Arioso.
    Thanks Imogen and Eileen.

34. PROKARYOTE was a jorum, and my knowledge of Italian poets ends at Dante and Petrarch, so some Googling was required to get ARIOSO (which I also didn’t know). Wasted time trying to make the BROADSWORD anagram be some sort of BOW. But I remembered the Critique of Pure Reason and the Solitary Reaper, and the right one of the various things Thor Heyerdahl was famous for. BODEGA was brilliant.

    Oh, and SQUEAK made me laugh.

35. I thought this was not as difficult as some previous ones from this setter, but enjoyable.

    I liked the ‘collapse of civilisation’ for SAVAGERY, the salesman coming closer in ZIPPER, the dog barking in UNGODLY, the turbulent river in CAMPAIGN, and the good anagram for BROADSWORD. For MUST, I think one can read the whole clue as a CAD or semi-&lit, or, if you believe the ODE, it occurs in camels as well as elephants: a condition of heightened aggression and unpredictable behaviour occurring annually in certain male animals, especially elephants and camels.

    Thanks Imogen and Eileen.

36. Robi@35
    MUST
    Your explanation is convincing. CAD it is if we see ‘rearing up’ in the context of ‘aggression’.
    Thanks.

37. Good puzzle, I thought. Easy to get started, but I had to work harder as I progressed. Occupied me on and off for much of the week. Lots of good clues and all quite logical, but I needed a bit of GK help to fill in 7d and 13d. I knew BODEGA and it was the obvious solution, but I didn’t work out the rest of the clever clue until I read Eileen’s helpful blog. I hadn’t heard of a pangram, so it was no help to me.

38. I assume that Imogen knows that in Doonesbury, ZIPPER is a stoner and unlikely to ever be in a hurry, but I solved this one without any trouble. BODEGA was almost my first in, but it took me several more visits until the parsing penny dropped – clever, as JohnJB says!

    I didn’t look up Ariosto (1474-1533) until after I had solved the clue by digging ARIOSO out of the memory banks – fiendish cluing. As is MUST, but not because of elephants being part of the wordplay and also part of the definition, which I see as fair, but because it’s yet another obscurity ambiguously clued.

    Even before I became vegetarian and latterly vegan, the idea of eating snails seemed gross to me, so cluing ESCARGOT as ‘delicacy’ made it very hard to see the answer or how the wordplay worked. I assume this was intentional on Imogen’s part?

    Favourite was the abominable pun JURA being shouted from the mountain tops and somehow being heard as JUROR. I can imagine Imogen thinking, “this’ll stir those blighters up!”

    Very glad to have completed this one without having to notice it was a pangram.

    Thanks to Imogen for the workout, and to Eileen for the workings.

39. I noticed the pangram when I got AJAR. Which is odd, because by then I had already got the other J (as well as every other letter).

    Very enjoyable puzzle! Semi-kudos to Imogen for indicating that only some say “lord” and “laud” the same, and a great surface too! Only semi-kudos because that wiould have helped for JUROR as well. It reminded me of a bit in 30 Rock where Jenna has a prestigious role in a film she is calling “Reu Jeu,” which turns out to be “Rural Juror.”

    Am I the only one to have gotten CYPRESS as a symbol of mourning because of Agatha Christie’s Sad Cypress? Not even the Shakespeare quote it derives from.

    Thanks Imogen and Eileen!

40. Well, I’m mystified by this talk of the pangram which seems to have been so helpful to some solvers! Can someone explain, please?

41. Big Maz @40
    The grid contains at least one example of each letter of the alphabet. Double pangrams are sometimes seen, and I once saw a triple!
    The necessity for a Z to complete the pangram helped with ZIPPER.

42. matt w @39 – I thought Sad Cypress too – and Christie.

    Big Maz @40 – a pangram is a puzzle where every letter of the alphabet is used – so if we suspect a pangram, we start looking for the Z or the Q, or whatever else is missing. ZIPPER is the only occurence of Z, and without it the puzzle isn’t a pangram.

    Gozo had a puzzle in the FT last week that was a multiple pangram (I won’t say how many as that’s a spoiler).

43. Thanks for the quick replies. I hadn’t realised the letters of the alphabet were spread over the whole puzzle. I get it now – but can’t be sure I will ever spot a pangram (or even a multiple one) in future crosswords!

44. I had a very slow start, with only one across clue solved on the first go through, but finished with help from google for 13d PROKARYOTE.

    Like gladys@15 and PM@23 I first thought 12a was NIPPER, but rejected it because the reversal indicator was in the wrong place for it to apply to both PIN & REP. I hadn’t twigged to the pangram.

    muffin@20 referred to elephant doing double duty in 26a MUST, and excused it because the clue was good. Apart from Robi’s analysis @35, I don’t see why double duty requires excusing. If a word is doing double duty, it is adding to the crypticism (my neologism?) and helping to make the clue more concise. I see it as a virtue rather than a flaw.

    Eileen’s blog was wonderful, once again. I love all the links that lead us to new knowledge. And I agree with her that 23a BODEGA is a great clue – one for her book?

    Thanks Imogen for the excellent challenge, and Eileen for answering that challenge so well.

45. I’ve been out all afternoon and left my phone at home and so haven’t seen any comments since this morning.

    matt w @39, if you’re still there, Christie’s ‘Sad Cypress’ was the first to spring to my mind, too, despite having seen the RSC’s ‘Twelfth Night’ at Stratford, just last week. 😉

    Big Maz @40 – I don’t recognise your name, so, if you’re a new commenter, welcome to the site – and my apologies if you’re not. In the dictionaries, pangram is defined as a sentence that contains all the letters of the alphabet but it has a slightly different meaning in Crosswordland.

46. Cellomaniac @44 – I didn’t ‘refresh’ before clicking ‘post’, so missed your comment.

    I tend to agree with you regarding double duty: I’ve often thought some of them rather clever and it was quite a while before I realised that they were rather frowned upon. It was only reading Robi’s comment just now that made me realise that an addendum in my draft blog somehow got omitted in the final post. I’d said something like, ‘It could be said that the elephants are doing double duty – but they’re used to heavy lifting!’, I must have thought better of it a few minutes before midnight, when I was getting tired!

47. Eileen, your elephants used to heavy lifting – I love it.

48. Eileen & Cellomaniac. I’ve nearly always (he hedged carefully) been supportive of “double duty”. Why is it that &lit or cad (clue as definition) are lauded, but double duty is deprecated? Yes, an &lit is difficult to achieve, and so there’ll be strong applause, but also someone saying, “but it’s not a true &lit because ..”.

    So what, says this solver. It’s not so much the difficulty for the setter as the achievement of a distraction for the solver that I appreciate.

    If it’s been a distraction, or a diversion, or has led to an unexpected answer or a fantastic penny drop moment, let’s just applaud it. My criticism of the clue for MUST was that it’s an obscure word (as defined) and I’d rather not be additionally misled when the answer is already an obscurity. It was only when I looked up MUST in Chambers that I appreciated how the clue really worked, and that was a few seconds too late, for me.

49. Thanks for that, sheffield hatter @48 – point taken. 😉

50. I knew SPUD from Beatrix Potter’s Tale of Mr Tod, in which the badger carried “a little spud which he used for digging”. I have such a sharp little tool and still call it my spud.

51. I put in RAJA instead of AJAR for 5d and ended up having to give up on that whole corner of the grid. I still can’t see how the clue indicates which answer is correct.

52. Simonc@51, it’s all in the grammar.

53. A near miss having opted for the Bee-fly for 23 down rather than the much more obvious Beetle. It parses very nicely with Fly being to let loose – think of bows and arrows – except Bee-fly is hyphenated. But hey-ho a fun crossword all the same

54. Grannybee @50
    SPUD was my FOI, probably for the same reason. The Tale of Mr Tod was always my daughter’s favourite – “I shall turn vegetarian and eat my tail”!

55. I enjoyed this one and once I realised it was likely a pangram, it helped me solve AJAR. Didn’t get 7d as I had not ever come across the words arioso or Ariosto, so that clue was not solvable for me. Nevertheless I don’t need to finish to enjoy a puzzle, so many thanks to Imogen, and also to Eileen for the blog.

56. Thanks for the welcome, Eileen. Yes, I’m new to commenting but not to cryptic crosswords which I have done off and on all my life. These days I have a bit more time to spend on them, and I’m enjoying reading all the helpful explanations and comments on this site. Thanks everyone!

57. Good puzzle of appropriate difficulty for the Prize slot. Defeated by the top left as I just couldn’t see CAMPAIGN and that meant I missed SPUD and LAUD too. Fully agree with Eileen on BODEGA, which is a classic, and with her complaint about the popular confusion between frequency and regularity. (“We only meet once a year, we should meet more regularly”. Aaarrrrrgggghhh!)

58. Thanks for responding, Big Maz – I’m always a bit wary of ‘welcoming’ people, only to be told that they’ve been commenting for some time. 😉

    Looking forward to hearing more from you.

    And thanks to you, Mandarin @57 – I thought no one had noticed!

59. Mandarin@57 (and Eileen!). In defence of those misusers of regularly, someone who frequents a pub is often referred to as a regular. 🙂 Also, if we think of the ticking of a clock, we notice that it’s regular because it happens so often, or frequently.

    Meeting once a year could be perceived as irregular because there’s no particlar pattern: it might be March one year, August the next and January the year after. Meeting every three months, for example, would be both more regular and more frequent. And the regularity of the occurances would be more noticeable because of their frequency.

    I’ll get my coat.

60. I enjoyed this, though my GK failed at ARIOStO and I didn’t spot the pangram. BODEGA was my favourite.

    I don’t think the elephants were doing double duty. I regard the clue as “extended definition” – part of the class of clues which include &lit and semi-&lit – with the definition being “frenzy” (if tree can be oak despite not all trees having acorns then frenzy can be must despite not all frenzies involving elephantine reproductive seasons) and the rest of the surface providing plausible context. Extended definitions are clever, and &lits cleverer still, being either “perfect” extended definitions or else irreducible definitions.

    Thanks both.

61. Nearly done in by JUROR, ARIOSO, FORM (my favourite), and AFTER, but persisted. Needed my thesaurus to suggest a candidate for PRAISE that I could then fit to the clue. Pretty hard overall, but satisfying. Thanks, Eileen, Imogen, and commenters.

    Have started regularly doing the Guardian Prize puzzles. Not sure of the pecking order, but I assume it’s the Genius and the Azed on the next rungs up?

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