Guardian Prize crossword No 29,781 by Enigmatist

82 comments on “Guardian Prize crossword No 29,781 by Enigmatist”

1. Thanks Cineraria. Less daunting? It was just too hard for me and Google had to help me in getting there. I never did understand some of the abstruse explanations and had never encountered a few of the answers (1, 13, 16, 24). True to form I missed the perimeter reading maybe because I had confidently entered ‘seamer’ for 3d, I’ve only ever heard of BEAMER in the BMW context and I do follow quite a lot of cricket.

2. I divided the clue for BEAMER slightly differently — “It may be ducked by person facing” = cricket ref, and “Scotty” = BEAMER, as in “Beam me up Scotty”. (Scotty does the beaming.)

3. AI overview tells us ““Please can we have our ball back?” refers to a viral social media post and viral meme where the club Barrow AFC humorously requested the return of their ball from Fleetwood Town FC after it was used in a kit launch. The phrase has become popular in sports, such as a recent post by the England Cricket team featuring Joe Root asking the same question in a light-hearted manner.” but surely this phrase has been around as long as there have been footballs and fences? Whatever, I don’t think I could have finished this puzzle without seeing the Nina half way through, so all credit to Enigmatist for providing it, and to the Editor for making it a Prize, its difficulty would have been dispiriting midweek.

4. I’m afraid I gave up half way through this one. I can now see that I’d correctly guessed several answers, but was completely unable to parse them, so didn’t put them in. Begrudgingly I’ll admit that the parsing was fair in retrospect, but just not on my wavelength.
   Also, as Biggles noted, around 5 or 6 clues were unknowns to me, so would never have even occurred to me, even if I’d fathomed the parsing. I mind that less, as one of the reasons I like to do crosswords is to learn new words.

5. Well and truly defeated by the enigmas here, not assisted by entering FORESAIL (= ‘S AWFUL?) for 20A. I should have known that this might have passed muster as a dodgy homophone by Paul, but never by the strict E. Thank you setter and blogger!

6. Sorry to break the incredibly polite forum, but this was ridiculously hard and esoteric, a combination of weird words, unknown words, known words but obtuse definitions, and some crazy cluing, “extended New Testament” for example. I would love to know how many correct entries this one has received.

   Cineraria thanks for working it all out!

7. I wondered if the Nina was a reference to the beginning of the women’s world rugby.

   I did get all but one of these – EVANS, which I couldn’t see at all.

   Thank you to Cineraria and Enigmatist.

8. I thoroughly enjoyed this and agree with Cineraria’s first paragraph. I’m rather surprised by those above who found it “ridiculously hard” etc. since I genuinely believe this, and another recent offering by Enigmatist are more accessible than we might fear!
   Good fun – many thanks both

9. I was busy for much of the weekend so I didn’t even look at this puzzle until Sunday evening, which meant this was a rare non-Saturday solve for me. I didn’t find this as hard as I thought it might be when I saw the setter’s name, but I had to look up ECOCLIMATE, BUHL and THEODICEAN after I had finished.

   My interpretation of 3d was the same as Lord Jim@2, except I wouldn’t use “Beam me up, Scotty” as a example since I know that line doesn’t appear in any Star Trek episode or film. Randomly taking a transcript of The Gamesters Of Triskelion as an example, near the start of the episode Kirk says “Ensign Chekov, Lieutenant Uhura, and I will beam down” and near the end he tells Scotty to “Beam us up”, so maybe BEAMER could work either way.

   Thanks, Enigmatist and Cineraria.

10. Liked AIOLI, BEATNIK, ABSENTEE, LATINISE, BIKINI, CZARITSA and BUNS.

    Thanks Enigmatist and Cineraria.

11. Thanks to Enigmatist, and to Cineraria — particularly for pointing out the nina. I think Lord Jim @2 has the right idea on BEAMER. And, given the specialized meaning of the light at 13, I think “suggesting justice” is a very loose definition. Something like “suggesting divine vindication” would have been fairer imo.

12. I nearly got there. But 13d, 24a and 25a eluded me, despite repeated visits over the week. A puzzle worthy of the Prize slot. Thanks Enigmatist and Cineraria

13. This took me literally all week – I finished 5 minutes before the blog dropped thanks to half-a-dozen last-minute inspired guesses. I though it very difficult and borderline unfair (e.g. why does “extended” in 26a mean spelled-out or sounded-out?) UNTIL I read the blog (thanks Cineraria) and saw the perimeter. Of course I missed it while solving, but that’s on me. I think the help it might have afforded me if I got it half-way through would have balanced the difficulty perfectly. But we’ll never know.

14. Thanks for the blog Cineraria.

    Can someone please explain for the hard of thinking what the ” ‘arry ” is doing in 25ac?

    I puzzled over this for hours, but now I see the explanation, I think I might have worked it out with no arry!

15. Puzzled@14: I am not sure I understand the questions, but: Aspirated, this would read “It’s a surprise to hear from Harry,” “Harry” being a generic person, and “‘Arry” being a generic Cockney. I suppose the clue might have worked OK without “‘Arry” as well.

    Lord Jim@2: Yes, that could work, too. I was thinking about how, as a matter of custom, people always turn to face out toward the control console when they get on the transporter, exactly as people board an elevator (or should I say lift?) in our day and time.

16. No, too hard for this bear in the SW corner. Even after revealing theodician, the Eliot = Evans didn’t click. Hey ho. Congrats to Cineraria and the other bright kids who got it all. And ta to Enigio for stretching us.

17. Some really interesting entries (like LATINISE, ORNAMENT, MULTIMEDIA) but I’ve been completely defeated by the SE corner – only got TSETSE, TURNIP and ABSENTEE there. Had Egads (unparsed) instead of EVANS, who I NHO. Thanks Enigmatist and Cineraria

18. First attempt at a Prize. Result: Mig 11, Enigmatist 17

19. The first time I have been so completely defeated by a crossword in many many years. I had Evans, but none of the other seven in the SW. Rest was fine, but despite coming back to it on numerous occasions I could not break in there.
    Thanks, Enigmatist, for the very stern test, and Cineraria for the blog.

20. To Antonknee @6

    Enigmatist has only recently rejoined the Guardian stable.

    He is regarded by many as being (one of) the toughest out there. It’s worth persevering and remember to read the clues one word at a time.

21. For Enigmatist THEODICEAN suggests justice and of course the etymology supports this. But it has come to mean how God permits evil in the world. Does that suggest justice?

22. Like Dr. WhatsOn @13 this took all week for me, not helped by others this week not being so easy. I was stuck with 8 unsolved around Tuesday and thought 13d was TREADMILLS.
    Went around the houses with ‘Eliot’. GEORGE could fit and was a good contender but could the clue point to T.S. and Harry in The Family Reunion? No!
    ESCHEW unlocked that corner but I still ‘cheated’ for THEODICEAN although I was almost there second time round.
    I also parsed Scotty as the BEAMER.
    I didn’t see the nina, definitely would have helped.
    Thanks for the blog Cineraria

23. Enjoyed this, the Nina was amusing, though I had PLEASE as the first word, not that it matters. I agree that ‘arry isn’t really needed but I think the clue works better with it.

    Thanks to E and C

24. Did anyone else put HAMMER for 3D…. Edward Longshanks and all, Hammer of the Scots. Kind of works, though not as precisely as the cricket/Star Trek answer. I’m always lost on the cricket ones….football too. It was a cause for celebration when my partner and I wrangled out an answer over this long week but found the SW corner dispiritingly tough. Really happy to get that curve BUHL. I do feel smug when I succeed, but also sympathise with Antonknee @6. I guess you have to earn your smugness though.

25. Thanks Cineraria @15 – I was confused because I’m not used to unnecessary words in a clue, especially a name which seems surely significant.

    I’m probably wrong, but it feels like “It’s a surprise to ‘ear from Eliot” would work just as well. I’ll remember to be a bit less literal-minded with this setter!

26. This is the first prize puzzle for quite a while that I simply gave up on (and that includes at least one Enigmatist offering). I got off to a reasonable start, with a few not to tricky solutions (EARN, for example) and then the answers just dried up. Thanks for the explanations, Cineraria – it’s all a learning experience – but I can see why I was having trouble! And thanks, Enigmatist – this wasn’t my week, but I’ll persevere, as Admin@20 says…

27. Not sure about less daunting it certainly seemed on par with other offerings from Enigmatist to me. I spent all week on it and still didn’t finish. I managed the super hard one in the Times yesterday from this setter but he just seems to turn the dial up to 11 for the Guardian.

    Of the ones I got I enjoyed TSETSE and TURNIP

    Thanks Cineraria and Enigmatist

28. Took three days with considerable help from a friend and even then couldn’t parse two clues and got one wrong. Didn’t see the NINA but never do.
    Definitely a challenge but somehow it didn’t seem the huge mountain to climb of the previous offering from the same setter. I thought two words were very obscure and NHO but my dear mother had heard of both so each to their own. Felt like a huge achievement when we did reach the finish line – is this how marathon runners feel?!
    Thanks to Cineraria and Enigmatist

29. It’s slightly puzzling that this puzzle wasn’t printed in the published newspaper; normally the Maskarade jumbo would have been the prize puzzle on a Bank Holiday weekend. There’s no connection between the two puzzles that
    I can see.

30. Thanks Enigmatist and Cineraria
    I wouldn’t have finished this if I hadn’t seen the Nina.
    I agree with molonglo @21 about THEODICEAN, and I would called VECTOR a direction marker rather than position.

31. Re EVANS, my thinking was different. I took the view that ‘Arry was a reference to the former Times editor Harold (popularly known as Harry) Evans, who was well-known enough in his day. Of course in my parsing ‘Arry is superfluous and would be a second definition by example. But, as pointed out above, he is also arguably superfluous in the parsing given here, as we already had ‘to ‘ear’.
    I now accept however that my parsing is unlikely to be that intended by Enigmatist. At least the answer was right!

32. Enigmatist on a Saturday? Whose clever idea was that?

33. Thank goodness for today’s Brummie! Back to normal…..

34. I agree with Antonknee. And ‘Urbanest’ is a superlative adjective so please can we have ‘Most civilised’ as the clue please. Thanks to Cineraria for the heavy lifting.

35. I have an alternative parsing for ORNAMENT.

    NOM is slang for a love of food, or greed, so we have an anagram of A NOM RENT, with for rotating as the indicator.

    I think that the blogger’s is the intended however.

    Thanks all.

36. As someone who does the crossword in Saturday’s newspaper, not online, I didn’t even notice there was a separate prize crossword until yesterday. Spent my week on the Maskarade jumbo instead.

37. Tough but doable, like a Prize should be. Took me a couple of days but everything went in eventually. The Nina helped hugely in the last third or so. If a cryptic crossword is a battle of wits between the setter and the solver that the setter is supposed to lose gracefully, he put up a mighty fight but was ultimately vanquished!

    Many thanks both

38. Further to bridgesong @29 and lundnah @36, I sincerely hope that this is not part of an increasing tendency to have crosswords online only. In particular the main cryptic/prize should be in the actual paper as it always has been.

39. Yeah. I had a busy week so didn’t even look at this. I’m always intrigued and frustrated by Enigmatist so thought I’d have a look at the blog to see what I’d missed.

    I’m not optimistic I’d’ve got very far.

    Excellent blog though, and well done to everyone who attempted this puzzle.

40. How is a vector a position marker? Surely it is a direction and magnitude, so the one thing it doesn’t tell you is position.

41. I was completely defeated by this – only did eight! But I enjoyed coming here for all to be revealed. Thanks, Cineraria. And congrats to anyone who cracked it. Amazing.

42. mononglo@21: THEODICEA is an argument “justifying” God in view of the existence of evil in the world, like a defense speech in court. So it’s about justifying God, or I guess we could say “doing justice” to Him, though not literally about God’s justice per se, that’s how I would explain it

43. Also for BEAMER I wondered if it might be a sailing term for someone sitting across-beam i.e. ‘person facing’ but couldn’t find anything to back this up.

44. Thanks Enigmatist and Cineraria

    I found this very tricky, but my solving of JH puzzles swings all over the place – it’s probably the least consistent of all the setters I tackle.

    PaulS @ 34 the superlative argument has been revisited many times: it is fair to say that if you are the “most urbane” you are “extremely urbane”.

    I think the rubric about “Solution via ‘Reveal All’…“ implies that as the puzzle wasn’t in the paper the solution won’t be either.

45. Puzzled@25: I think 25A could work either as “It’s a surprise to ‘ear Eliot” or as
    “It’s a surprise to ‘Arry Eliot” or even “It’s a surprise to ‘ear from Eliot.” The redundancy (if that’s what it is) in the original version does not hurt the clue, and at first, actually had me going down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out who Harry Eliot might be.

    GTL@40: 12A VECTOR might make more sense parsed as a semi-&lit, with the entire clue as the definition, although I was thinking that maybe a closer solution for “position marker” would be “coordinates.” My nontechnical understanding of a vector is that it describes the dynamic relationship between two points, although I cannot say that I understand the concept well enough to use it intelligibly (which is probably, in part, how I wound up blogging about anagrams instead).

46. I could not finish this in the time I had. Some clues were very tricky, and my poor GK (e.g. BEAMER, EVANS) also let me down. As with a couple of other commenters above, seeing the nina would have helped.

    Thanks to Cineraria for the blog.

47. Failed miserably on this one with six clues unsolved. Am I losing it or is JH just making it too tough?

    At least I got the top half sorted. The ones I missed were ECOCLIMATE (though I guessed E. Coli would be somewhere in it); BUHL (nho); EVANS (I once compiled a puzzle themed on George Eliot, but to me her real name was her married name Mary Anne Cross); THEODICEAN (another nho); CZARITSA (yet another); and BUNS (for me the transpondian derriere is ‘ass’).

    From what’s left after those, do I have any ‘likes’? AIOLI tickled me: I’m rather fond of the stuff spread on toast, much to the dismay of Mrs L who abhors mayonnaise – I keep on telling her it’s not mayonnaise – evidently John thinks differently. Also liked BEATNIK, BIKINI (we’ll overlook the fact that ‘biking’ usually refers to the powered version); IRISH SEA (we often see that misdirection with ‘Man’ – but this was clever surface misdirection). ALMANAC (many years since I was an ‘Ale Maniac’); BEAMER (memories of Charlie Griffith, Wes Hall, and the like back in the ’60s…); ESCHEW.

    Didn’t see the Nina (didn’t have enough letters around the border) – I wonder if this is another allusion to our esteemed fast bowlers.

    Thanks to John H and Cineraria.

48. I seem to be one of few people stumped by 16 down, having finally in exasperation bunged in CLARISSA. With hindsight I should have gone for the only other word to fit the crossers, the ‘z’ in the clue alone giving a big hint. I did spot the nina though, and just hoped Enigmatist hadn’t experienced a radical orchidectomy.

49. Another thought about the Nina: who else remembers that final scene from the iconic 1960s movie Blow-Up – where the protagonist (David Hemmings) returns an imaginary ball to a group of mime-artist-hippies playing an entirely make-believe game of tennis?

50. (PS I’m pleased to see there’s a letter in today’s paper complaining about this being online only.)

51. @40 I think that interpretation of a vector is more of a physics thing. As someone with mathematical training, vector as position marker seems completely fine (e.g. mathematically the point (1,2,1) in 3-dimensional space is a vector).

    First time doing a Enigmatist puzzle and I can see where they get their reputation from! At least I learned a few new words/Britishisms. Favourites were HEADSAIL and BEAMER (despite the cricket).

52. Quite the challenge, as expected! I was pleased to cold-solve (no checkers) a good handful, and then complete the grid only revealing a few in order to keep progressing. (That’s a win for me, when I’m up against this setter – especially as I didn’t even think to look for the nina.)

    Faves were AIOLI, TURNIP and IRISH SEA I think.

    As others have said, there were a few things that made me raise my eyebrows: the ‘Arry, which threw me completely (I think I might have solved that clue if that hadn’t been there, and it’s hard to see how anyone wouldn’t think that its presence was significant); the New Testament thing, which I rather like as a device but can’t really see that’s it’s indicated clearly; the parsing of CZARITSA where I still can’t find a way to make the cryptic reading make sense; and the definition of VECTOR, as others have said.

    Quiblets too about ALMANAC as I don’t think I’d ever regard any old plain yearly publication as being one, and Mayo = AIOLI because a mayonnaise is almost defined by containing egg, and an aioli by not… but I’d already bet my bottom dollar that Mayo was going to be the def, so I was already open-minded.

    On the other hand PaulS@34 the “extremely [adj]” = superlative thing is kind of a Guardian speciality and can be justified as [adjective taken to the extreme].

    Thanks to setter and blogger for the fun.

53. Well, somehow with a bit of cheating I filled the grid but failed to look for a NINA, which might have made things easier. I couldn’t parse two or three of these. I liked MULTIMEDIA, BEATNIK, THEODICEAN, and IRISH SEA.

    Thanks Enigmatist for the torture and Cinearia for sorting it all out.

54. Failed to finish by 5 and a half clues (I had BUNS but couldn’t convince myself to fill it in), all in the SW corner. Missed the Nina of course.

    A vector is not a position marker. Vectors indicate direction and some scalar value such as speed.

55. Poc@54 how about this: A vector is not necessarily a position marker, but can be used as one. In a 12x12x12 room, say, the midpoint is at (6, 6, 6) relative to the one of the corners (much as Cogito@51 said).

56. Dr. WhatsOn@55, sure – but using it as a position marker requires there to be a specified origin. So in some sense, using it to mark position is an application of a vector rather than its inherent property. So I suspect there are going to be a few of us who will continue to grumble about today’s def 😉.
    A co-ordinate is a position marker because the existence of the origin is inherent in its definition.

57. Can someone please explain ‘capitalised misdirection’? I just don’t see how the capitalised letters in the words actualy cause misdirection.
    What am I missing? And please don’t say ‘braincells’ or I will reply very rudely!

58. jennaralissima @57
    “Mayo” in 9a suggests the Irish county, not the dressing.

59. jeneralissima@57: I note “capitalization misdirection” when the clue capitalizes words that are not intended to be read as proper nouns. In 9A, for instance, “mayo” is referring to the culinary substance (rarely, if ever, capitalized within a sentence), and not to a person or place named “Mayo.” According to some sticklers, capitalizing words in this manner does not accord with the Ximenean style, after Afrit’s dictum: “You need not mean what you say, but you must say what you mean.” Thus my shorthand designation of this practice as a “capitalization misdirection.”

60. Surely Mayo, suggests the DJ Simon Mayo, as opposed to the condiment, which mid sentence would not need a capital.

61. I read recently here that it is considered unfair to anagrind a word that you are asking the solver to guess first, rather than providing the word play. How do folks see the clue for ornament in this light? It seems to remove all help of the crossers and struck me as unfair

62. Miracle of miracles, I’ve been able to complete today’s Prize! I haven’t been able to find any information anywhere on how to submit it for the prize draw, though. Can anyone tell me how to do that? I’m in Canada, so if it’s postage only, that probably won’t work

63. Uncle Toby @61: I think that, with ORNAMENT, manipulation of the conjoined synonyms via rotation (cycling) is OK, since the ordering of the letters is maintained. On the other hand, an outright indirect anagram is indeed verboten.

64. Antonknee @60
    Who he (Ed.)?

65. Uncle Toby@61, Coloradan (aka Coloradoh! ?😀)@63: I err towards Uncle Toby’s perspective on these. I think it’s sailing slightly close to the wind when we’re expected to cycle a composite of multiple words that are not given.

66. Mig@62: I use WiseFax. I fax a one-page PDF containing the completed grid along with my contact info. (I know this works because I was actually selected as one of the winners a few weeks back ☺ ). The cost is a single one-dollar token which I purchase thru PayPal. WiseFax allows one-off transmissions — no need for an account or subscription. Here’s the fax number (with prefixed UK country code):
    +441217421313

    Congrats on completing the Prize!

67. Fair enough take, AP@65. (I’m no relation to my Homeric doppelgänger ☺)

68. Coloradan@67 👍👍

69. UncleToby@61, in ORNAMENT there isn’t an anagram – it is two straight synonyms put together AMEN/TORN which are then ‘cycled’ (“for rotation”) as …ORN/AMEN/T… to give the answer.

70. Coloradan@66 Thanks!

71. jennaralissima@57, Antonknee@60 has it, but to be really explicit about what our blogger means by capitalised misdirection, by combining the definition “mayo” with another related word (here Simon, to form the name of an arts personality) and capitalising it to make that formation convincing (forenames and surnames are typically capitalised), it makes it hard for us solvers to then “undo” that formation and identify Mayo (or rather mayo) as the definition as opposed to being an inseparable component of something bigger. Personally I find this device one of the most enjoyable in this game.

    As I think others have mentioned, it’s legitimate to do it this way around because, since the answers in a crossword are conventionally always uppercase, the casing of the definition in the surface is irrelevant.

    However, it’s regarded as bad form to lowercase something that would ordinarily be capitalised or uppercased merely to make it fit the surface. “It cost me one mark” when the cryptic reading requires us to equate mark with some famous person Mark, for example, would be frowned upon. Tricks that a setter uses to dodge that problem include putting the word at the start of a sentence, where capitalization is expected regardless of whether the word is ordinarily capitalised. “Mark my words” hides whether it’s really Mark or mark that the setter means.

72. Coloradan @66,
    Thanks for the WiseFax link. But it beggars the question – why not just allow us to email a pdf to either the editor or another email address? Would save a dollar and a tree or two?

    To Admin, is the Maskarade in-print-only puzzle going to be blogged? I hope this two-prize experiment – one online, one off – by the Guardian is not repeated. There seems no good reason for it to me.

73. That’s a question that crops up on this forum from time to time, phitonelly@72. Google AI offers several rationales. This one seems to me to have the most merit (whether you buy it or not ☺).

    Fraud prevention: Physical entries sent via post or faxes are more difficult to fake or manipulate than email submissions. This system provides a more reliable record and helps prevent a single person from submitting multiple entries.

74. I have said it before and I am saying it again, Enigmatist is an unsolved enigma to me. I solved several clues initially and realized I had hit a wall. I checked the setter, and bingo, didn’t feel that bad after that! Maybe it’s only I who doesn’t get him, but I really wish I hadn’t wasted my time – it is quite likely that I am the problem, of course!

75. This was the first Saturday Prize crossword I have failed to complete for many years. I didn’t manage the lateral thinking required for eg BEAMER or HEAVENS, both clever and perfectly fair clues.

    My failure was probably not entirely down to Enigmatist. It may also have been that, having completed the excellent Maskarade holiday puzzle in fairly quick time, my solving abilities were depleted. I’m sorry not to see that puzzle blogged here, and I hope the Guardian will not repeat the exclusion of holiday puzzles from the normal sequence.

76. I got two clues AIOLI and LATINISE, and the first of those was unparsed. Reading this blog, I can see why. Way above my pay grade.
    Thanks to Cineraria for the education, and to Enigmatist for exposing how far I have to go in this caper.

77. Cogito@51 et al: I’m also a mathematician. What you’re describing is a coordinate, not a vector. A typical use of a vector might be to describe the wind at a specific position on a map. The position is a coordinate, the vector is that plus the windspeed. In my other hat as a computer scientist a vector can be seen as simply a one-dimensional array of values, and if I were an epidemiologist it would mean a carrier of disease, but clearly neither of those is intended here.

78. Me@77: I misspoke. The vector would of course be the wind direction plus the speed.

79. Coloradan@66 et al, I got a reply from the Guardian that the prize contest is only open to UK residents 18+ (as I suspected). My prize will just have to be the satisfaction of completing the puzzle!

80. Ah, that’s a shame Mig@79. I see now that those requirements are listed under Terms and Conditions on the G site. It’s doubly curious then that I did receive a gift by post (“The Language Lover’s Puzzle Book”, by Alex Bellos), as a “winner” of prize crossword 29,739, complete with nice cover letter from the senior managing editor! Maybe, after all, there IS something left of the “special relationship” between the UK and the States ☺

81. Coloradan, ah you’re in the US — maybe there’s hope for me yet!

82. Just me reading ‘Arry as the infamous football manager Mr Redknapp then? Well known cockney and fitted well with the Nina!

    Second ever finish of an Enigmatist for me, but it took days and much dictionary support!

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