Guardian Prize 29,643/ Pasquale

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Pasquale pays one of his fairly rare visits to the Prize slot, with a typically well-constructed and meticulously clued puzzle, with a variety of clue types and one or two less familiar (or unknown) words.

My favourites were 1a HEAVENWARDS,for the definition, 11ac STONECHAT and 25ac RECITAL, both of them for construction and surface, 24ac HUNDRED, for the misleading Red Square, which needs to be separated, 1dn HIGH ON THE AGENDA and 3dn EVESHAM, both of them for making me smile, 15dn CELLARET, for an ingenious clue for a less familiar word and 16dn TRASHY, for the misleading ‘shut up inside’.

Thanks to Pasquale for the puzzle.

Definitions are underlined in the clues.

 

Across

1 Physical effort to get any number of hospital components up (11)
HEAVENWARDS
HEAVE (physical effort) + N (an indefinite – so ‘any’ number) + WARDS (hospital components)

9 One no good – assess as ‘thoughtless type’ (7)
INGRATE
I (one) NG (no good) + RATE (assess)

10 Troubled in games and puzzles (7)
ENIGMAS
An anagram (troubled) of IN GAMES

11 Francis, say, individual to enter into conversation with a bird? (9)
STONECHAT
ST (Saint, Francis, say + CHAT (conversation) round (to enter) ONE (individual) – highly allusive surface – see here

12 English officer facing one threat to health (1,4)
E COLl
E (English) + COL(onel) + I (one)

13 Rotten spot – end of holiday (4)
DOTY
DOT (spot) + [holida]Y – Collins: dialect (italics) (of wood) diseased or rotten: given the number of possibilities for D?T?, I can’t help thinking that Pasquale believes he has a reputation to keep up: according to the internet, it’s a South Midlands word, referring to timber – I must be just slightly too far north, as I’ve never heard it – anyone?

14 End of tribulation – I’m at peace, remarkably free (10)
EMANCIPATE
An anagram (remarkably) of [tribulatio]N + I’M AT PEACE

16 Three maybe in that vicinity? (10)
THEREABOUT
THERE is an anagram (maybe /about) of THREE

19 Enemy falling short at old city square (4)
FOUR
FO[e] (enemy, falling short) + UR (the familiar old city)

21 Girl by a lake associated with certain organisms (5)
ALGAL
A L (a lake) + GAL (girl)

22 This writer’s approaching page with story’s completion expected soon (9)
IMPENDING
I’M (this writer’s) + P (page) + ENDING (story’s completion)

24 Dog shooting off round Red Square (7)
HUNDRED
H[o]UND (dog, minus o – round) + RED

25 London, say, shortly to be involved in authentic performance (7)
RECITAL
CIT[y] (London, say, shortly) in REAL (authentic)

26 Ambassador reveals heart with such innocence (11)
ARTLESSNESS
I have struggled and juggled with this all week, on and off. I had all the pieces but just couldn’t see quite how to fit them together. I hoped that, by the time I wrote up the blog, it would have become clear but that hasn’t really happened to my satisfaction
The best I can do is he = His / Her Excellency (Ambassador) = heart, minus art = ARTLESSNESS – perhaps a bit too clever (sour grapes?)

 

Down

1 Unfortunate hedgehog Anna hit to be dealt with shortly? (4,2,3,6)
HIGH ON THE AGENDA
Amusing anagram (unfortunate) of HEDGEHOG ANNA HIT

2 With it, a king is held in wonderment (5)
AWARE
A R (a king) in AWE (wonderment) – which I entered as a write-in: it was only as I wrote the blog that I realised that AWAKE (A K in AWE) is an equally valid solution, in both wordplay and definition: a most unfortunate ambiguity in a Prize puzzle, the solution of which will not be published until Monday – so commiserations to those of you who posted an entry and are now on tenterhooks – it shouldn’t have happened, of course

3 So-called spare rib’s meat offered in town (7)
EVESHAM
EVE’S (‘spare rib’s’ – see here  + HAM (meat) for the explanation – a charming town, tough for non-Brits, where my grandfather had his roots

4 Like some bread wife and husband put away (7)
WHEATEN
W (wife) + H (husband) + EATEN (put away)

5 Water noise being heard? It must be controlled (6,2)
REINED IN
Sounds like (being heard) RAIN (water) + DIN (noise)

6 Master’s upset over boy – an attempt isn’t somehow having extremes of earnestness producing poem (6,9)
SAMSON AGONISTES
A reversal (upset) of MA’S (Master’s) + SON (boy) + A GO (an attempt) + an anagram (somehow) of ISN’T + E[arnestnes]S – an intricate but gettable clue for Milton’s poem, which I knew, having studied it for A Level

7 Report of fog  overlooked (6)
MISSED
Sounds like (report of) ‘mist’

8 A feature of Salisbury cathedral making one yearn (6)
ASPIRE
A SPIRE (feature of Salisbury cathedral – the tallest in England)

15 Wine store with the Spanish litres – there’s a sign of something missing posted outside (8)
CELLARET
CARET (sign of something missing (^)) round EL (the Spanish) + L (litres) – I enjoyed working this one out

16 Cheap and nasty kitchen item that’s shut up inside (6)
TRASHY
TRAY (kitchen item) round SH (shut up) – we need to read ‘that’s’ as ‘that has’

17 Streakily coloured – possibly lined with hint of blonde, right? (7)
BRINDLE
B[londe] + R (right) + an anagram (possibly) of LINED

18 What could make little male rise up? People making judgements not always liked! (7)
UMPIRES
An anagram (what could make) of M (abbreviation for ‘male’) + RISE UP – a long definition, necessary for the surface

20 Entertain soldiers with good booze (6)
REGALE
RE (Royal Engineers – soldiers) G (good) + ALE (booze)

23 Back elected, famous Argentinian in comfortable position (5)
NICHE
A reversal (back) of IN (elected) + CHE (Guevara – famous Argentinian)

56 comments on “Guardian Prize 29,643/ Pasquale”

  1. You can check the answer on the website now, and it says AWARE is right for 2d. I’ll admit I had AWAKE.

    I think your explanation for 26a is correct.

    I thought it was funny that FOUR and HUNDRED were both defined as ‘square’ and wondered briefly if there was anything more to it.

    I noticed Pasquale used the same anagram of ENIGMAS in the Quiptic published the day after this one.

    Thanks, Eileen and Pasquale.

  2. Thanks to the Don for the fun, and to Eileen for adding to it.

    As Eileen says, pity about 2D’s insolubility.

    My fave was 10A, because it recalled a limerick I once wrote, defining Elgar’s Op. 36:

    Seen with Ed, a gamine, just fourteen?
    That’s ‘n image, I ‘magine, obscene.
    Is my mea(n)ing unclear?
    Soldier, join in game here!
    What’s that thing Elgar wrote, GI, mean?

  3. Great blog, as usual Eileen. If I may put us on the same level regarding ARTLESSNESS: great minds think alike!

    I had AWAKE, but I think AWARE is closer to “with it”. As you said, it shouldn’t have happened. The tricky thing with it is that as soon as you have a solution (either one), it seems to fit well enough that you don’t go looking for another (at least, I didn’t).

  5. Took a couple of visits to complete. Many interesting clues gave a lot of joy. I had AWAKE for 2d 🙁 I agree with your parsing of 26a; i had the word but no explanation. Thanks for sorting that out. Thanks to Pasquale for the entertainment and Eileen for the excellent blog.

  6. The credited solution is AWARE, but I think AWAKE is also plausible. (I had AWARE, and did not even think of AWAKE.) I could not parse ARTLESSNESS, but I think your explanation must be correct.

  7. Thanks Eileen. I spent about as much time worrying about 26a as I did on the rest of the puzzle, or so it seems, and I’ve been looking forward to coming here for enlightenment. It’s a consolation that you had the same problem and reached the same conclusion. Otherwise enjoyable and not too difficult.

  8. ARTLESSNESS
    Parsed it as Eileen. Thought there was something odd about the word order. Heart without art reveals HE (ambassador) but the clue has it the other way around. Possibly, someone has a better explanation.

    STONECHAT
    I took ‘enter into conversation’ as CHAT.

    AWARE
    Had AWAKE and like DrWhatsOn says, I was so sure of the solution that I didn’t look beyond it.

    Liked THEREABOUT, FOUR, CELLARET and UMPIRES.
    Thanks Pasquale and Eileen.

  9. [You’ve probably heard the one where God sees that Adam’s lonely, promises him a beautiful companion, saying And she will [… long list of pleasures and services ..]
    Adam: And what will it cost?
    God: An arm and a leg.
    Adam: What can I get for a rib?]

  10. I had AWAKE too – and didn’t think beyond it, so technically a DNF.

    I looked DOTY up as an unknown, thought ARTLESSNESS worked the way described in the blog.

    Thank you to Pasquale and Eileen.

  11. Quite a bit of dnk here, the bird, wood being doty, the cellar + et, and the first bit of the poem — never studied it, but Agonistes was ntl familiar. Otherwise nothing too gnarly from the Don, thanks to him and Eileen. [Speaking of, hope today’s by the dreaded E isn’t as fiendish as his previous]

  12. Thanks Pasquale for a worthy prize. I was another who had ‘awake’ but AWARE is a better answer when I think more about it. The only question I had was the parsing of 26a and I believe Eileen nailed it; I think ‘reveals’ is a bit confusing as it reads in the surface. Thanks Eileen as always.

  13. gif @9.. 🙂 My butcher Dad, raised a Catholic, with a great sense of humour, would have loved that, and probably knew it.

    Eileen, this non-Brit didn’t have any trouble with EVESHAM, even if I didn’t know the town. Pasquale’s cluing took me there. Ditto DOTY. Just had to look it up. You get used to that down here.

  14. Could 400 be a personal milestone for Pasquale? His total for cryptic/prize puzzles is 289, to which we would need to add Quiptics, of which he has set many.

    I’ve seen the issue in 2d described as a “cook” (borrowing the term from chess problems). That is, the possibility of a valid answer which is not the intended one.

    Pasquale has now set the Genius, Prize and Quiptic all in the same month. If he were to also set a mid week cryptic in the coming days, I wonder if that would have been done before?

  15. Another here who was AWAKE and needed to look up the unknown DOTY (and CELLARET, too). SAMSON AGONISTES went in unparsed from the crossers. I enjoyed the unfortunate hedgehog in the anagram for a not particularly well known phrase, and wondered why two different numbers were clued as “square”.

  16. Like grantinfreo@11 and paddymelon@13, I found there were quite a few “unfamiliars” in this puzzle, but that’s okay as the life-long learning continues for me. Yes I went back to ARTLESSNESS several times this week and couldn’t see any more to it than the way Eileen has explained it. Unusual that we all had a bit of trouble with that one, as Pasquale is usually the setter where you “get it” just by following the proper and precise wordplay (as for EVEHAM at 3d, as paddymelon@13 has remarked).
    Thanks to Pasquale and Eileen.

  17. Lovely puzzle

    Liked FOUR, STONECHAT, THEREABOUT, EVESHAM

    I also had AWAKE and couldn’t work out how to parse ARTLESSNESS

    Thanks Pasquale and Eileen

  18. I’m travelling light on a hiking holiday at the moment, with just a phone and no access to a printer, which isn’t my preferred way of doing a crossword, and means I don’t have any scribbled notes to look back on. I was surprised to find the time to finish this – I usually need a lot of time! And now I find I didn’t even get it all right, being another who thought AWAKE was a write-in. Ah well, I enjoyed it anyway. EVESHAM was tricky and I needed the Chambers app on my phone to check DOTY and CELLARET. Oh, and STONECHAT. Thanks to both Pasquale and Eileen.

  19. I could not parse 26 at all, so thanks for all the suggestions. As proposed by KVa@8, I think it should be ‘Ambassador revealed by heart…’ or ‘Heart reveals ambassador…’.
    I went for AWARE, unawake to the ambiguity. On reflection, I think AWARE is the answer better defined by ‘With it’. In Wiktionary, ‘aware’ is the first word in the definition, and ‘awake’ does not feature at all. But I agree with the critical comments.
    Thanks for the blog, Eileen, which helped me understand a couple of others.

  20. I’m another one who had AWAKE rather than AWARE, and couldn’t come up with anything other than Eileen’s parsing for ARTLESSNESS. I could see that heart less HE gave ART, but I just don’t think it really works despite the idea. I’ve also never seen DOTY before. Liked EMANCIPATE and SAMSON AGONISTES. Thanks to Pasquale and Eileen.

  21. Very enjoyable puzzle, with the bottom half more resistant than the top half.

    Jorums for me were DOTY and CELLARET, and I couldn’t parse HEARTLESSNESS either.

    Thank you, Eileen, for the commentary, which was a lovely accompaniment to my morning cup of tea.

  22. ARTLESSNESS was the only one I couldn’t parse satisfactorily and my usual crossword solving chum was also bemused by it, so I was hoping for enlightenment here!

  23. Thank you for all your appreciative comments. I should have been AWARE that AWAKE was an arguable alternative to my intended solution in this my 400th puzzle (your blogger was on to something).

  24. Ah, FOUR and HUNDRED in a FOUR HUNDREDth puzzle.

    And of course 400 is a square number, as are 4 and 100.

  25. Many thanks for being with us, Pasquale @23.

    All much enjoyed. I sought help only for the poem beginning with SAMSON. DOTY and CELLARET also new to me. UMPIRES was my absolute favourite.

  26. Thanks to Pasquale for popping in to graciously admit a slight oversight. Well done. (I was another who saw AWAKE immediately, and thought no further.)

    And thanks to Eileen for some very astute comments, particularly about the Don’s need to maintain a reputation for awkwardness. 😉 There are indeed many words that fit D _ T _, and I amused myself thinking of a clue for one of them: “I’m so stupid!” Given time would be old does.

    Hmm. Maybe stick to solving, this setting lark is harder than I thought.

  29. [Eileen@28 that is indeed a lovely clue!]

    An enjoyable puzzle but alas I had to resort to cheating to get the nho CELLARET, as I’d forgotten that the ^ symbol is called a caret. DOTY was a jorum, I missed the allusiveness of STONECHAT, and I was another who put AWAKE and didn’t give it a second thought. (Thanks to Pasquale for commenting – and congrats on the milestone.)

    For THEREABOUT, rather than “maybe” being a synonym of “about”, I think “three maybe” has a “reverse” cryptic meaning: THREE can be defined by the anagram instruction “there, about”.

    I’m not sure why “not always liked” is needed for UMPIRES; I think the clue works better without it, though maybe I’m missing something. I also couldn’t make sense of ARTLESSNESS despite the machinery being clear; I still can’t really.

    Faves were THEREABOUT and H O T A, ans I enjoyed the two squares.

    Thanks both!

  31. me@29 re THEREABOUT, actually I think that’s exactly what Eileen was saying. “three maybe” = “three is a possible solution to the cryptic (anagram) instruction ‘there about’ “.

  32. AP@31
    THEREABOUT
    Eileen’s blog is fairly clear, but I feel that your explanation adds value and brings further clarity.

  34. DOTY and the ET bit of CELLARET were the new words for me. Fewer than usual in a Pasquale puzzle. On the other hand he normally gives us a few simple clues that would fit in a Quick Cryptic and there seemed to be more of these than usual (10a,12a,7d,8d for example). This isn’t a complaint.
    HE = HEART without ART/ ARTLESS/ in a state of ARTLESSNESS at a push. I’m another who could work out that heart without art reveals ambassador but struggled to make it work the other way round.
    Thanks to Pasquale and Eieen

  35. It’s true that when you see an answer that’s a perfect fit for wordplay and definition you don’t go looking for another. As it happens, I had AWARE first off and luckily didn’t go hunting for an alternative. I say luckily because I do think AWAKE matches the definition ever so slightly better.
    PS I had the same explanation for ARTLESSNESS but wasn’t happy with it.

  36. Didn’t finish this puzzle – I failed to solve 16,24ac as well as 16,17,18d.

    I couldn’t parse 26ac, 15d.

    New for me: DOTY = rotten.

    Thanks, both.

  37. me@8 contd
    STONECHAT
    One dictionary and the Google AI overview say ‘to chat=to engage in an informal conversation’. This I thought was equivalent to ‘to enter into a conversation’. An expert tells me that ‘chat’ as a verb means ‘to converse’ (not ‘to enter into a conversation’). In that case, the clue doesn’t seem to work the way I parsed it.

    The cryptic reading is ‘ST+ONE to enter into CHAT’. Not sure this works.

  38. KVa@37. I thought you had it right first time (see #8), where you took ‘enter into conversation’ as CHAT. If instead ‘enter into’ is taken as an insertion indicator, the pieces are in the wrong order, as you are now saying. (It would have to be ST+CHAT, insert ONE)

    Actually, my head is beginning to spin, which may have also been why Eileen has written her blog of this clue in the way she did. 🙂 Hasn’t the setter used ‘enter into’ to mislead us into thinking there’s an insertion going on, whereas in fact it’s a straightforward lateral charade? ST+ONE+CHAT.

  40. Thanks Eileen and Pasquale – so glad to read that the two squares were significant! Count myself lucky to have put AWARE before realising there was another option. Didn’t know the HE abbreviation so was never going to parse ARTLESSNESS and also reletaively new to the blog so had to go here https://www.fifteensquared.net/faq/ to understand that DOTY was a jorum for me too!

  41. Congratulations Pasquale.
    I’m another one who had awake, and also had a similar struggle with artlessness and had the same logic as Eileen.

  42. Hi Eoink @41 et al

    I can’t see any comment expressing complete satisfaction re 26ac and I’m still not happy. I’m disappointed that Pasquale didn’t enlighten us, since he dropped in early on, so obviously read this blog. I think this may be the first time that I’ve come to the end of a blog without my doubts and confusions having been resolved by this wonderful community of friends – many thanks to you all! 🙂

  44. Hi Eileen, I felt satisfied with 26a last Saturday, and I thought you explained it well in your blog. That is, ambassador, HE, reveals (produces, gives you) HEART without ART (with such, with ARTLESSNESS). I’m not sure I’ve managed to express it very well but it worked ok for me!

    Many thanks to you for the blog, and many many thanks to Pasquale for the puzzle and the previous 399.

  45. Bless you, Lord Jim @44 – many thanks for that: I can usually rely on you! 😉

    (Still not happy: I don’t think it was a great clue: I was expecting more – but relieved to leave it there now. Thanks to everyone.)

  46. Lord Jim@44
    I parsed 26a as you did but, like Eileen, I wasn’t happy with it. I don’t think that HE reveals, produces, or gives you HEART without ART. It just is. As I suggested @ 34 it works the other way round in that HEART without ART reveals, produces, or gives you HE.

  48. Very enjoyable puzzles so thanks and congratulations to Pasquale on reaching his double-double centruy. Thanks also to Eileen for the excellent blog, as ever.

    We did finish this one but with AWAKE not AWARE. Even with Eileen’s explanation we still don’t understand the parsing of 26a ARTLESSNESS. At a pinch He = Heart in a state of ARTLESSNESS but why is Ambassador ‘He’ – it could be ‘Her’ surely? Or have we misunderstood completely?

  49. Benpointer @48: as Eileen says in the blog, HE is an abbreviation for His Excellency or Her Excellency, the formal way of referring to an ambassador.

  50. Thanks Eileen.

    RE parsing 26a- I failed dismally last weekend but looking at it now-

    ARTLESS from “Ambassador reveals heart” as you describe.
    “Such” could refer to the suffix -NESS

  51. Congratulations Pasquale, what an achievement! I really enjoyed this. My favourites have already been identified. Thanks also to you Eileen. If it helps, I took great comfort from the fact that you and others parsed ARTLESSNESS the same way as I did. I was sure I’d missed something, but if I have then I’m in very good company 😎.

  52. Enjoyed the puzzle, but like others couldn’t explain 26ac. Still not entirely convinced by explanations from Eileen and others.

  53. 26a partly hinges on Yoda-speak again for me, as I indicate with the added comma: Ambassador, reveals heart with such innocence.

    Otherwise exactly as the blogger says.

    Cheers all.

  55. Dotty @54 – if you’re still there – I’m sorry, I can’t help you on this. Please see my comment @42.

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