Paul returns to the Prize slot with some characteristically chewy clues.
1 across and 1 down share their definition, both being Nobel Peace Prize winners but Timon and I could not see any other answers along the same lines. The homophone involves reading the phrase “Know Bela Peas Surprise” aloud; it just about works. I had some quibbles with a few of the clues but Paul’s ingenuity in coming up with new ways to mislead us must be applauded.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1, 11 | MOTHER TERESA |
Age of creature coming to light, while nursing bum steer, she was given the 9, 25, 16 across, 21, roughly speaking? (6,6)
|
| MOTH (creature coming to light!) ERA (age) including *STEER. If you read aloug the answers to 9, 25, 16 across and 21, you get something approximating to Nobel Peace Prize. Mother Teresa was awarded the Prize in 1979. | ||
| 4 | JAGUAR |
Last of gateau covered in j-jelly one’s spotted (6)
|
| J, (gatea)U in AGAR (jelly). | ||
| 9 | KNOW |
Be familiar with negative sounds (4)
|
| Sounds like “no”. | ||
| 10 | PETROLHEAD |
Favourite musical’s back, that man inspired by passage in Hamilton, say? (10)
|
| PET (favourite), (musica)L HE (that man) all inside ROAD (passage). | ||
| 11 |
See 1
|
|
| 12 | THRILLER |
Hard feeding budgie, say, that might grip you? (8)
|
| H(ard) in TRILLER (budgie, say). | ||
| 13 | BAY WINDOW |
Howl, howler: howl after undressing what might be dressed? (3,6)
|
| BAY (howl), WIND (howler) (h)OW(l). A superb surface. | ||
| 15 | GRIT |
Backbone, something to do with teeth (4)
|
| You might grit your teeth. | ||
| 16 | PEAS |
Vegetables, pepper not e’er mentioned? (4)
|
| P(e)PP(er); take the letters of “e’er” away from pepper and you’re left with Ps, which sounds like peas. Thanks to Timon for parsing this one. | ||
| 17 | OTHERWISE |
Their woes woeful then (9)
|
| *(THEIR WOES). | ||
| 21 | SURPRISE |
Ambush America after revolution with Republican force (8)
|
| US (America, rev) R(epublican) PRISE (force). | ||
| 22 |
See 25
|
|
| 24 | HAND-BARROW |
School bags including black carrier (4-6)
|
| AND (including) B(lack) inside HARROW (school). | ||
| 25, 22 | BELA BARTOK |
Composer, be reasonable about workshop technique (4,6)
|
| LAB ART (workshop technique) inside BE OK (reasonable). | ||
| 26 | EMPLOY |
Use my pole that’s slippery (6)
|
| *(MY POLE). | ||
| 27 | ODDS ON |
Rare issue more than likely? (4-2)
|
| ODD SON (rare issue). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MANDELA |
Being with interminable wait, he was given the 9, 25, 16 across, 21, roughly speaking? (7)
|
| MAN (being) DELA(y). See the explanation at 1 across; Nelson Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. | ||
| 2 | TAWSE |
Old Scottish striker from Dundee’s watched leaping up (5)
|
| Hidden and reversed in “Dundees watched”. | ||
| 3 | EXPLAIN |
One boring blueprint binned? Sketch out (7)
|
| I (one) in EX-PLAN (a binned blueprint). | ||
| 5 | ABOARD |
Sitting on a pig, difficult at first (6)
|
| A BOAR (pig) D(ifficult). I think that the definition is a little loose. | ||
| 6 | UNHOLY ROW |
Diabolical war of words, now with hourly breaks (6,3)
|
| *(NOW HOURLY). | ||
| 7 | REAGENT |
With first of gates locked up, enter a different compound (7)
|
| G(ates) inside *(ENTER A). | ||
| 8 | STATE OF THE ART |
Advanced, say, generally with courage (5-2-3-3)
|
| STATE (say) OFT (generally) HEART (courage). | ||
| 14 | WRAPPED UP |
Dressed warmly, put to bed (7,2)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 16 | PLUMAGE |
Fruit grow up – and down? (7)
|
| PLUM (fruit) AGE (grow up). | ||
| 18 | ELBOWED |
Pushed when broke ultimately, pound in arrears (7)
|
| (brok)E LB (pound) OWED (in arrears). | ||
| 19 | STOLLEN |
Loaf pinched, morsel of loaf eaten (7)
|
| L (morsel of Loaf) in STOLEN (pinched). | ||
| 20 | VIRAGO |
Maiden has caged a witch (6)
|
| A in VIRGO (maiden). I have a couple of quibbles with this clue. First, I don’t think that virgo equates to maiden, except in the Latin phrase virgo intacta; virgo on its own just means a woman. And a virago is defined in Chambers as a violent or bad-tempered woman, a heroic or manlike woman, or an Amazon, but not as a witch. | ||
| 23 | REBUS |
Problem getting on with greyhound, say (5)
|
| RE BUS (Greyhound Bus). The failure to capitalise Greyhound in the clue makes it non-Ximenean, but of course is perfectly permissible in The Guardian. |
This brilliant Pauline homophone brought to mind an ancient episode of Radio 4’s ‘My Word’ (only Brits of a certain age will know what I’m talking about, apologies everyone else) in which Frank Muir (or was it Denis Norden?) built a sketch out of a shopping expedition where his list/aide memoire ended up reading “Soup, a cauli, fridge, elastic, eggs, pea, halitosis”. Loved the puzzle, thank you Paul, and bridgesong.
I found that the extended homophone worked perfectly if heard in a cod-Italian, ‘Shaddap Ya Face’ accent.
Hadrian @1 I do recall ‘My Word’, but I found those old Radio 4 panel games unbearably smug and tended to switch off.
I was busy during the week, so every day I thought ‘I hope it isn’t Paul today, because I don’t think I have time to deal with him.’ but I didn’t think this puzzle was as hard as some recent weekday Pauls.
I much prefer a ‘rough’ homophone to be formed from a string of answers in the grid than having to think of synonyms of words in a clue. In the end I solved 1a/11a and 1d last, and I was only slightly distracted by remembering that Lech Wałęsa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 and without 1d his surname would fit at 11a.
Witty and inventive, hard to get going, but pleasant enough to finish, BAY WINDOW was good and PEAS.
Thanks B,T and P
Balfour @2 – to be fair to Frank Muir – RIP – he never claimed “I’m always happy, when appropriate, to contribute my very extensive literary knowledge to these threads without feeling, or expressing, any indignation towards those who do not possess it.” 😉
Feels a long time ago now but I remember finding this fun and quite straightforward, definitely easier than yesterday’s. I saw what was going on with the amusingly vague homophone which helped me get SURPRISE as well as the recipients. I looked up Virgo at the time and found maiden/virgin. A VIRAGO is not a witch by definition but I was happy enough that one might refer to one that way in informal conversation if she was your French teacher, for example (not mentioning any names!).
Excellent stuff thanks Paul and bridgesong
This was not easy, taking 3 sittings. A number of clues, e.g. BELA BARTOK and PETROLHEAD especially, I got from the crossers and took a while to reverse-engineer. PETROLHEAD is a not terribly common word to describe a not terribly familiar person – fans will love it but others will think it unfair.
And the long 4-part definition, excruciatingly good and bad at the same time! I’m sure it will get a lot of hate mail, but you have to know what you might be getting into with a Paul puzzle.
I had not hitherto supposed, Hadrian @5, that intended ad hominem put-downs were the business of this forum. If that is the case, however, I will be curtailing my participation and let you get on with it.
Not much to add to DrWO@7, except to say I did not get the homophone until now and I best liked UNHOLY ROW, BAY WINDOW and OTHERWISE
Thanks Paul and bridgesong
Wonder if Paul is/was a My Word and My Music fan, Hadrian @1. Pace Balfour, all those panellists were brilliant (I still dip in via YouTube occasionally).
But yes, Paul too is brilliant, and sometimes diabolical but nothing too gnarly here, although I did forget about the ‘have-some-weight’ pound, as against the shillings-and-pence one. The up-and-down fruit was cute. Enjoyed it all, thx Paul and bridgesong.
I was afraid of the name at first but it turned out to be quite doable (with some help of internet, for me). The “homophone” was fun. Virgo is Latin for “maiden” or “virgin”, and I think is meant as a “young woman” in the name of the constellation. Thanks Paul and bridgesong
Please stick around Balfour. It wouldn’t be the same without you.
I really enjoyed this puzzle and was also reminded of the extended wince-making homophones from Frank Muir and Denis Norden in My Word that they produced as punchlines to their stories.I found them funny and enjoyed the work that went into them, but I don’t think I heard the later series: I hadn’t realised they ran to 1988, I certainly didn’t hear Antonia Fraser in the show. Chattering Radio 4 was one of those things that was the background to my childhood.
[Balfour @8 – I am not sure you saw, because it was late on the thread, but I was chastened enough by your comment to come back and try to explain ionic bonding. One of the people who’d said they hadn’t been taught it did say thank you. (But it was long-winded and one of the reasons for not doing this is not knowing where to start, so it can feel patronising because you don’t have any feedback as to what people already know, so have to guess a starting point.)]
Thank you to Paul and bridgesong.
[Balfour @2
You have reminded me of the headline in a Scottish paper:
Super Caley go ballistic. Celtic are atrocious.
See here for the background.]
DoctorWhatson @7 the “not very familiar “ Hamilton is a 7 times world champion, tied with Michael Schumacher for winning the most world titles in that field and still one of the best F1 drivers around so I think it is reasonable to assume that crossword solvers will have heard of him. Especially if they read any of the newspaper which hosts the crossword.
I think that my point about VIRGO was misconceived and I withdraw that quibble.
I shall be out playing croquet for much of the day so will be unable to respond to further comments until later this afternoon.
Another Frank Muir-ism which has stuck in my mind for no reason:
(after a rambling tale about the difficulty of producing interesting horticulture)
“There are theories at the boredom of our garden”
Thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle and found it much more accessible than yesterday’s Paul. Loved the punning theme, the old Scottish striker, TAWSE, the budgie as triller, the creature coming to light as a moth and many others. Indeed punning was the theme of this delightful challenge. I managed to complete apart from PETROLHEAD, in which Hamilton was only difficult to recognise thanks to a lovely piece of misdirection.
Incidentally, Muir and Norden were wonderful comedy writers and an inspiration for Galton and Simpson, and Clement and La Frenais all of whom provided us with funny and literate comedy which enriched our popular culture for many decades. As an aside, that one funny line in the abysmal Carry On series, the infamy gag, was taken, with Muir and Norden’s permission, from an old Take It from Here script.
When solving 9, 25, 16 across and 21 I thought of the words being spoken by Chico Marx rather than Frank Muir. I was held up for a while by thinking that the first word could have been either KNOW or NOSE, thinking of how dogs are “familiar with” the people and other dogs that they know, and being misled by “sounds” at the end of the clue into thinking it could sound like a number of negatives.
PETROLHEAD was a favourite for me, because I saw the word when I had three or four crossers, and the presence of Lewis Hamilton in the clue made me think it could be right, and then I gradually untangled the wordplay. Super clue!
Thanks to Paul and bridgesong.
(Who set today’s Prize? I don’t think I’m going to prevail.)
Martin @20: it’s Enigmatist
I recall that in the prize before this one, “double entry bookkeeping” by Brendan, the answer HAMILTON used references to both the founding father and the play, so PETROLHEAD was another interesting take.
Martin@20, stick with it, it’s definitely chewy but very good and after all it is a bank holiday weekend. I note also that there is a jumbo puzzle by Maskarade available only in the paper. Hopefully it will be blogged despite not appearing online.
For once I actually enjoyed the ‘homophone’, which had the merit of being a clearly humourous pun rather than the forced non-rhoticism we often have to put up with.
My favourite Muirism, also garden-related: ‘Take care of the ponds and the peonies will take care of themselves’
Chewy and enjoyable.
17a Please can someone give me a sentence in which OTHERWISE = “then”.
16a reminded me of the sign on a bridge over the M25 at around Juncton 16 going North that said “GIVE PEAS A CHANCE”. It made me smile whenever I drove past it.
Thanks to Paul and bridgesong.
Here’s a non-Brit (of a certain age) who remembers My Word, which ran for some time on KALW, the radio station of the San Francisco school system. I particularly recall one (though I can’t quote the punch line) that featured a conversation between two Greek soldiers inside the Trojan Horse. I haven’t heard of any of those other writers who were influenced by Muir or Norden.
But I certainly don’t remember Hamilton or Petrolhead, which I thought must be the name of a rock band. F1 racing is just something that completely escapes me. I’m guessing I’m not alone.
An easier puzzle than many of Paul’s. Thanks to him and to bridgesong.
I struggled for a while, as usual with Paul. Tricky clues and quite a variety of constructions. Also, as usual, my confidence grew as made progress. The homophone was amusing when I finally got it. I am definitely not a PETROLHEAD, but I know the term, and I eventually saw that it fitted the crossers and worked out the tricky clue. I also liked 11ac,13ac, 21ac, 8d (familiar with patent language, possibly hard otherwise). I entered PEAS as the only possible answer, so am grateful to bridgesong and Timon for the explanation. I didn’t know that Bartok’s first name was Bela, and was convinced that 25ac must be BELL which worked for the homophone, so I was 4 letters short of completion. I briefly scanned the long wiki list of composers starting with B, but I was looking for Bell or Bill, and failed to spot him. So, in the end, quite satisfied with the puzzle and my almost success. Just one grouse with 7d. A REAGENT is not necessarily a single compound. Some are mixtures.
For those who enjoy that sort of thing (I do) several of the collections of “My Word stories” are still available. Last week’s example is suitably groan-worthy, and helped to get BELA BARTOK.
I liked the JAGUAR, though according to a favourite souvenir T-shirt of mine, it is the leopard that is “rarely spotted in the wild” (and I have done so). Other favourites the PEAS and the BAY WINDOW, the UNHOLY ROW and the mercifully obsolete old Scottish striker. I was less familiar with lab art and the HAND BARROW, but I got there in the end.
Thanks Paul and bridgesong.
I enjoyed this.
At the time, I thought it might work better to clue Bela and Bartok differently so that Bell would fit 25A and make the homophone smoother but the discussion above has made me see things in a different light.
Thanks both.
MinG@15 I get it, I feel the same way about football and tennis stars who sometimes get the equivalent of blank stares here. [E.g. see today’s prize (not a spoiler).] Just fyi, in the US, where I live, Formula 1 is pretty much a footnote (at least in my circles) – you can find it but you have to go looking.
I’ve just been alerted by comments here that there’s a Prize crossword by Enigmatist today. I could only see the Bank Holiday special by Maskarade in my paper. I’ve looked online and sure enough there’s Prize crossword No 29,781 by Enigmatist with today’s date. Is it hidden away in some part of the paper I haven’t looked at? Or is it just online, and if so why on earth would that be?
Lord Jim @36
I always do the puzzle on a printout, even though I get the paper, so I hadn’t noticed it wasn’t there. That explains the strange “Special instructions” about the answers – they will be available by “Reveal all” next week.
A hoot from Paul. Some clever clues, even if the Nobel gag was corny.
I like the big hints and very apt surfaces/wordplays in MOTHER TERESA (nursing, light etc) and MANDELA (interminable wait). I think their effect was subliminal at the time I did the crossword. Well worth revisiting.
I have nothing, Teddy Clare, but my ginny ‘R’s.
A pair tight combs with heating.
Valentine @26
You may not be familiar with those writers but you might have come across their work eg the radio and TV series of Tony Hancock, the TV series Steptoe and Son (Galton and Simpson), or Porridge and The Likely Lads (Clement and La Frenais). For me the largely unheralded stars of all of those memorable series were their creators, the writers.
paddymelon@34 I hadn’t noticed that – it adds to the fun & ingenuity. Happy with the defn looseness of 5D as the surface is so succinct & conjures up a delightful image.
Valentine @26. I think the Trojan Horse story ended with “Splinter in the arse” for “Splendour in the grass”.
One of my favourites was “Dotty British co-star in a salt-caked smock, stuck”. Also “Gum carefully upon your pointed wah-wah”.
[The most memorable one for me was “We usually get tulips from hamster jam”]
[There was the Burns-inspired one involving an unlikely story of a pond consisting of discarded Irish stout, freezing in winter, and people skating on it – ‘the rink is but the Guinness dump’.]
Me@25
I’m beginning to think that no- one, not even bridgesong, can come up with a sentence in which OTHERWISE = “then”.
Pino@25&41, if you’re still up…I think you’re right, ‘then’ isn’t the definition, rather it refers to consequence. In other words.. for ‘their woes’ (clue) to become ‘otherwise’ (answer) ‘then’ it has to be ‘woeful’ (anagrammated). Does that work? Bridgesong what do you reckon?
(‘Woeful’, not ‘then’, thereby being the synonym for OTHERWISE, as they’re both anagrinds)
Hadrian & Pino, passim: I just can’t see a way of parsing 17 such that “then” is not the definition. I think the most apt sense is that of an entree to further alternatives, i.e. a shortened version of “then again”: On game night you can play bridge. Then there’s canasta and gin rummy.
I agree with Coloradan @44.
Coloradan and bridgesong, I get it, thanks 🙏
Coloradan@44
Golly. Thanks.
[ What a lot of My Word fans there are here. My favourite, because the story was so good, was this Rat Pack tale:
Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. ended up in Hell, where they started up a night club. Dean Martin inexplicably went to Heaven. He wanted to visit his friends, so he got permission for a day pass. On his return St Peter wouldn’t let him back in, because he didn’t have his lyre with him. He explained “I left my harp in Sam and Frank’s disco”. ]
I enjoyed all of this.
Am I really the only one who bunged in GNAW confidently in 15A thinking that bone=penis=wang, so backbone would be something to do with the teeth. I wouldn’t of course have thought along those lines had the compiler been anyone but Paul!
Some of these puns are appauling…