This was a good example of a Guardian prize crossword with a mix of clues that made you think and clues that fell quite quickly.
I found the first few across clues quite intricate with the later across clues seeming to be a little bit easier to crack on first reading. I expect a number of solvers, like me, followed calculus down the mathematical route at 1/15 across before hitting a brick wall.
The children’s game of KICKBALL was new to me, but Chambers defines it clearly as a children’s game, so the definition was correct.
The surfaces of many of the down clues were good and conjured up ideas to help solve them.
I am not very well versed in US novelists but Google found me three with the name CALDWELL. I’m guessing Tramp was thinking of Erskine CALDWELL, but I don’t really know.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1/15 | I’d easily get nth term in integration wrong: I might need to work on calculus (6,9)
DENTAL HYGIENIST (this clue relies on one of the less well-known definitions of calculus [the mixture of plaque and saliva that forms a hard brownish-yellow layer on the teeth, tartar], but a DENTAL HYGIENIST would know it and try to remove it. The use of the word integration in the clue is an excellent piece of misdirection to the mathematical meaning of calculus.) Anagram of (wrong) I’D EASILY GET NTH and N [last letter of [term of] integratioN) DENTAL [HYGIENIST]* |
| 5 | Frank to pull up outside Tom’s after getting lost (8)
POSTMARK (frank [MARK to ensure carriage]) PARK (pull up a car) containing (outside) an anagram of [getting lost] TOM’S P (OSTM*) ARK |
| 9 | Rubbish out of sight behind a bin at the front across street (8)
BACKSTAB (treacherously criticise someone to whom one poses as a friend. An act of criticism that usually occurs without the knowledge of the person being attacked. Rubbish [criticise] out of sight) (BACK [behind] + A + B [first letter of {at the front} Bin]) containing (across) ST (street) BACK (ST) A B |
| 10 | Provide cover for nurse with patient (6)
ENCASE (surround or cover; provide cover for) EN (Enrolled Nurse] + CASE (a term for a patient with a disease) EN CASE |
| 11 | Opening tills when busy is good thing for customers (7,5)
SELLING POINT (something about the product that attracts customers; a good thing for customers) Anagram of (when busy) OPENING TILLS SELLING POINT* |
| 13 | House provides wall for a large circular light (4)
HALO (a ring of light or colour) HO (house) containing (provides wall for) (A + L [large]) H (A L) O |
| 14 | Turning devices and tech off getting overwhelmed by crap (8)
RATCHETS (devices in which a toothed rack or wheel is engaged by a pawl to permit motion in one direction only; turning devices) Anagram of (off) TECH contained in (getting overwhelmed by) RATS (I can’t find a dictionary that gives RATS and CRAP as synonyms of each other, but both words can be used to express irritation about something) RA (TCHE*) TS or RAT (CHET*) S |
| 17 | Children’s game a bit of fun before party (8)
KICKBALL (a game played by children, similar to baseball but using a much larger ball which is kicked not batted) KICK (thrill; bit of fun) + BALL (party) KICK BALL |
| 18 | Joke entertaining northern crowd (4)
GANG (crowd) GAG (joke) containing (entertaining) N (northern) GA (N) G |
| 20 | Tennis shot is good to go past Pat (6,6)
GROUND STROKE (a tennis shot) G (good) + ROUND (verb: to go ROUND; go past) + STROKE (caress; pat) G ROUND STROKE |
| 23 | Fly from gate that’s not opened through cuts (6)
AVIATE (fly mechanically) VIA (through) contained in (cuts) GATE, excluding the first letter (that’s not opened) A (VIA) TE |
| 24 | Genuine tailoring with front cut out needing alteration (8)
ORIGINAL (real; genuine) Anagram of (needing alteration) TAILORING excluding the first letter (with front cut) T ORIGINAL* |
| 25 | Prince shakes and talks nonsense (8)
PRATTLES (talks nonsense) P (prince) + RATTLES (shakes) P RATTLES |
| 26 | Middle of August taking afternoon tea and cake (6)
GATEAU (rich cake) GU (two central letters of [middle of] auGUst) containing (taking) (A [afternoon] + TEA) G (A TEA) U |
| Down | |
| 2 | Letter at back of The Times in the morning paper (4)
EXAM (a paper with questions that test one’s knowledge) E (last letter of [at back of] thE + X (multplication symbol; times) + AM (ante meridiem; in the morning) E X AM |
| 3 | Review what rustler might do? (4,5)
TAKE STOCK (make a general appraisal; review) TAKE STOCK (a rustler may steal [TAKE] cattle [STOCK]) TAKE STOCK |
| 4 | Tense between two cities around this time (6)
LATELY (recently; around this time) T (tense) contained in (between) (LA [Los Angeles, American city] + ELY [English city] giving two cities) LA (T) ELY |
| 5 | Out with family for spin (6,9)
PUBLIC RELATIONS (the business of setting up and maintaining favourable relations; spin is similarly defined as, to present (news or information) in a way that creates a favourable impression) PUBLIC (out in the open) + RELATIONS (family) PUBLIC RELATIONS |
| 6 | Tricks and blues regularly seen during shows (8)
SLEIGHTS (artful tricks) LE (letters 2 and 4 [regularly] of bLuEs) contained in (seen in) SIGHTS (spectacles; shows) S (LE) IGHTS |
| 7 | Mum with the others bedding husband that’s virile (5)
MACHO (agressively male; virile) MA (mum) + (CO [company; others who are with you] containing [bedding] H [husband]) MA C (H) O |
| 8 | Vibrating as ringtone going off (10)
RESONATING (vibrating sympathetically) Anagram of (going off) AS RINGTONE RESONATING* |
| 12 | You shouldn’t have one club covering back for sex worker on street? (4-6)
TAXI-DRIVER (example of a worker on street) (TA [thank you; you shouldn’t have] + I [Roman numeral for one] + DRIVER [golf club]) containing (covering) X (last letter of [back for] seX) TA (X) I DRIVER |
| 15 | See 1 Across [DENTAL] HYGIENIST |
| 16 | US novelist to live in place south of California (8)
CALDWELL (take your pick from Erskine CALDWELL [1903 – 1987], Taylor CALDWELL [1900 – 1985] or Joseph CALDWELL (born 1938), all of whom are American novelists. There may well be others) CAL (California) + DWELL (live) – this being a down entry, the letters DWELL are placed under [south] of the letters CAL CAL DWELL |
| 19 | Surviving as tooth bites leg (6)
COPING (surviving) COG (tooth on a wheel) containing (bites) PIN (leg) CO (PIN) G |
| 21 | Inappropriate of you to sleep with escort, ultimately (5)
UNAPT (inappropriate) U (you in textspeak) + NAP (sleep) + T (last letter of [ultimately] escorT) U NAP T |
| 22 | Drink around villa on vacation (4)
CAVA (white sparkling wine, similar to champagne, produced mainly in the Penedès region of North East Spain) CA (circa; about; around) + VA (letters remaining in VillA when the central letters ILL are removed [on vacation]) CA VA |
Thanks duncanshiell. My experience was much like yours and I enjoyed the mix of clues. Not sure about your last sentence, it doesn’t match up with your reference in 16d.
LOI was 26a, A=afternoon?
Should have said that in 14a I thought RATS was probably an abbreviation for rats..t which is definitely crap.
Erskine CALDWELL is surely the one he had in mind. And KICKBALL brings to mind so many memories of unfortunate PE classes–I wasn’t very sporty as a kid (big surprise there).
I also had a similar experience to duncanshiell – good variety, nice surfaces for the most part and a few mysteries. I had ticks against GANG, TAKE STOCK, and RESONATING.
In addition to the CALDWELL mystery (I read a lot, but he was not known to me), I did not see “provides wall for” as a containment indicator, so thanks for the help with the parsing HALO. One question: where is A used as an abbreviation for afternoon? I cannot recall seeing that before. For a change, I did find it in Chambers
Thanks Tramp and duncanshiell
Yes, I really like clues needing semantic leap, like from maths to dentistry, or from family outing to public relations (although spin > PR is a chestnut by now). Sometimes it’s the little things: more used to inapt, not unapt, which steered away from groUnd stroke at first. All pretty smooth though, ta Tramp and duncan.
My faves: D HYGIENIST (an integral surface with a differential solution), BACKSTAB (great def. No word wasted in the clue–generally the case with almost all clues), GROUND STROKE (the ‘past Pat’ is Cash or Rafter?), and TAXI-DRIVER (Yes. We should have. No bar!)
COPING
Is ‘surviving’ not equivalent to ‘COPING with’?
Thanks Tramp and duncan.
I started this during a very long wait at an airport at the end of our hiking holiday, which had left little time for crosswords, and finished it on the flight back to Australia. It was a thoroughly enjoyable return to the sport; dental hygienists doing calculus, sex workers who drive taxis, etc. I often say ‘rats!’ rather than something stronger when frustrated, but didn’t need to use it this time. Thanks to Tramp and to duncanshiell.
How are you doing?
Coping. Surviving.
I really loved this Prize puzzle, so many thanks to Tramp. I agree with previous contributors who liked both 1a15d DENTAL HYGIENIST and 12d TAXI-DRIVER. I also had to smile when I solved 5a POSTMARK which was a great “tip my hat” by Tramp to one of my favourite posters on this site, as well as the old chestnut 3d TAKE STOCK. Also a very thorough blog from duncanshiell and I was grateful for his explanation of 14a RATCHETS, which I couldn’t quite see but which now makes sense.
BACKSTAB was my LOI, obvious from the crossers, but I was dubious about the definition. Now I’m not sure why. Erskine CALDWELL was the obvious novelist. KICKBALL was unknown to me. I concur with duncanshiell’s estimation of the crossword. A good prize puzzle from Tramp, to whom, as well as the blogger, much thanks
Thanks for the blog , lots of clever clues here , PUBLIC RELATIONS very neat and concise for such a long entry . POSTMARK from here gets a mention plus the name Frank given to him by Penfold .
I also say “rats” in front of the students . STOCK = cattle turning up a lot recently in Saturday puzzles .
Not really a criticism, but one might expect a ‘Prize’ puzzle to be at the harder end of the week’s spectrum, and for me, this one was fairly easy.
Favourite TAXI-DRIVER for the misdirection – not only was there not a sex worker involved, but ‘sex’ was not ‘IT’; the surface is a bit nonsensical but that doesn’t really bother me.
Never heard of KICK-BALL and learned here today that it’s actually a real game – I assumed it referred to a very young child kicking a ball and laughing because they made it move, as seen in parks, on beaches etc.
Thanks both.
This turned out to be much more satisfying and fun than I had originally expected.
I filled in TAKE STOCK at my first glance, but then I really had to wait for the remaining pennies to drop.
Last few in included the excellent POSTMARK and EXAM.
Overall this was one where I ended up adding a few answers in bed each night, and was finished by Wednesday.
A delight to solve 5a this time last week. Made my day.
Of the non-POSTMARK clues, BACKSTAB’s surface felt remarkably current, given Birmingham’s problems right now; SELLING POINT is a splendid anagram spot; I was more than happy with the equivalence of crap and rats in RATCHETS; ORIGINAL has a very credible surface; TAXI DRIVER made me laugh and PUBLIC RELATIONS is simply smooth as butter.
Thanks Tramp and duncan
Tough but slowly doable and ended up being quite enjoyable.
New for me: US novelist Erskine Caldwell (for 16d).
One look at 1/15 at the outset didn’t do much for my confidence in tackling this puzzle but it was Tramp, so I knew it was worth persevering until I had a few crossers (all of them, in fact, as it turned out). When there was only one possible answer to fit, the penny finally dropped, with the inevitable groan / laugh out loud. I don’t know enough about calculus to have been misled by ‘integration’ like Duncan, but I do know that calculus is Latin for a small pebble, like one used as a counter in playing draughts and is also the term applied to gallstones.
Proceeding to the next clue, I confidently entered POSTMARK, sharing some of our fellow-commenter’s delight. My other ticks were for SELLING POINT, GROUNDSTROKE, ORIGINAL, PUBLIC RELATIONS, TAXI DRIVER and the little gem EXAM.
Many thanks to Tramp for a super puzzle and to Duncan for the blog.
Good crossword. I knew it had to be Taxi Driver but couldn’t work out why. Thanks both.
I thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle. I did it with a mathematician friend. His first language is Arabic so he rather put me to shame by knowing the alternative meaning of ‘calcus’ and on one or two other clues as well. We both laughed out loud (is there an acronym for that?) at a few of the clues.
As well as A = afternoon, can someone explain HO = house?
Thank you for the blog. Thank you for the puzzle
I liked POSTMARK for the allusion to our friend and DENTAL HYGIENIST and TAXI DRIVER for the misdirection.
Like others, I loved DENTAL HYGIENIST and TAXI DRIVER for the misdirections, PUBLIC RELATIONS for the economical surface, EXAM for Times=X and my LOI, the neat POSTMARK.
Thanks to Duncan for the informative blog and to Tramp for the fun puzzle.
Roberto @18: HO for ‘house’ comes from maps. If you want to see something that should strike fear into the heart of any solver, here is the list of Ordnance Survey abbreviations!
Biggles A @1
The final sentence had a typo. I meant CALDWELL. Blog corrected now.
My favourite was PUBLIC RELATIONS for such a neat, clever and misleading surface.
TAKE STOCK reminded me of the cowboy who walked into the saloon wearing a brown paper hat, a brown paper shirt, brown paper trousers and brown paper boots. The sheriff naturally arrested him for rustling.
Many thanks Tramp and duncanshiell.
Solid puzzle – I got there slowly but surely. My faves have already been mentioned several times. I hope to never use UNAPT in the real world. Thanks both!
[PostMark@21 thanks for that list. I remember asking the same question about house=HO when I started with these things a few months ago. The only ones in that list which I think we don’t really see in these puzzles but which could be useful are bridge=BR, Club House = CH and Town Hall = TH, and of those only bridge could be disguised reasonably well. So I breathed a sigh of relief!]
Echoing the experience of many above. I was stuck for a while with the non-mathematical mis-direction, but got it in the end, helped by crossers and a wordfinder for HYGIENIST. I got TAXI DRIVER with a question mark for TA, finally resolved this morning by duncanshiell’s blog. I quite liked EXAM and PUBLIC RELATIONS. A worthwhile puzzle.
Couldn’t for the life of me see EXAM but no complaints. An elegant puzzle.
Lord Jim@23. 🙂
thanks duncanshiell and trump. i enjoyed this but didn’t finish as i had inapt for 21 which works just as well, if not better. although i guessed 22 as cava, i’m still not sure of the parsing? maybe i’m being thick.
Erskine Caldwell is the only Caldwell novelist I’ve heard of, so I’d choose him too.
I’ve never heard of a ground stroke. I don’t know whether I’ve heard of KICKBALL or whether it just sounds like a game, so I put it in.
I never would have got SLEIGHTS (LOI) without all the crossers. I’m sure I’ve never said the word, though I’ve probably said “sleight of hand.”
I’m not sure PAT = “stroke.” One is up-and-down motion, one is along. I often stroke my cat and I never pat her,
I was hung up for a bit on GATEAU, which is not a word we use in the US for any cake, no matter how fancy. It’s still a cake.
Thanks, Tramp and duncanshiell.
Thanks Tramp. It’s always a pleasure to see Tramp’s name on a crossword and this prize was certainly enjoyable. I was thinking ‘calculus’ in the excellent DENTAL HYGIENIST might have referred to a kidney stone but that would have been more in tune with a Philistine puzzle. Other favourites were POSTMARK, HALO, AVIATE, EXAM, and COPING. Thanks duncanshiell for the blog.
Thank you Postmark @21. A truly terrifying list
When I came back to this today, I found that the EXAM/BACKSTAB corner was still unfinished, though I can see both of them now: EXAM in particular is tricky. Favourites list much the same as everyone else’s: I wasn’t enough of a mathematician to be misled by the calculus in the clever DENTAL HYGIENIST.
Interesting to see from Postmark’s list that the official Ordnance Survey abbreviation for “railway” is Rly, not the Ry that we are all used to substituting for lines or tracks.
Thanks Tramp, and duncanshiell for the blog (though personally I find all that complicated colour-coding rather confusing).
I join with others in liking the shoutout at 5a to our friend Mr. PostMark.
Tramp can always be relied on for smiles, grins and laughs, and this was no exception. My favourite surface was the ménage at 7d MACHO. And my favourite clue, for the multiple misdirections and the surface was 12d TAXI-DRIVER.
Thanks Tramp for the fun, and duncanshiell for the blog.
Add me to the list of those curious about when A is used to indicate afternoon. I don’t have a problem with the clue, as Chambers apparently lists it, and I’m quite prepared to believe there is such an abbreviation in use somewhere.
I’m an American, and I fancy myself tolerably well up on my country’s major novelists, but CALDWELL was not familiar to me. I think I’ve vaguely heard of Tobacco Road, although I certainly couldn’t have told you who wrote it.
[A story inspired by both of the above comments. Many decades ago, my American mother was studying at the University of Reading (England), back when studying abroad was far less common than it is now. An English student asked one of my mother’s friends what she was studying. The friend replied “American literature”, prompting the other student to respond, “And what do you do in the afternoon?”]
We are away at the moment and so missed the posting of the blog. However we did enjoy the crossword and agree that dental hygienist and taxi-driver were outstanding clues. We did not manage to parse the former since we did not realise that term indicated termination, but it still left a quibble that the clue states ‘term in’ and not ‘term of’, which is how the blogger seems to have interpreted it.
Obviously, it is a very minor point and does not spoil our enjoyment of the puzzle and the blog – thanks be to T and d.