Kite makes a rather infrequent return to the Prize slot.
I see that I haven’t blogged one of Kite’s puzzles since January last year. This made me rather apprehensive when I saw the name on this one: Kite’s puzzles always (I think) have a theme and that one of mine had a grid based on the arrangement of a chess board, which, having only vague memories of playing chess in my schooldays, I surprised myself by actually spotting, post-solve. I remember enjoying several puzzles themed on anniversaries (Poppy Day, the RNLI, VE DAY) but I see we’ve also had one featuring a perimeter Nina of the initial letters of the numbers on a dartboard, the structure of DNA and other topics which I would have found rather more daunting.
All things considered, I think I was let down quite lightly here. Following my habit of going through the clues in order, my first two entries were 16ac EPSOM and 17ac ASCOT and I couldn’t believe it was going to be so straightforward but it turned out that we were, indeed, looking for UK horse racing courses – although the clues did become chewier as it went along. I am by no means a race-goer but I was familiar with the names of all the courses included here and so I found it an absorbing and enjoyable solve, which I hope wasn’t too unfriendly for non-UK solvers – I think some of the names should be familiar. (I’ve given links to all the race courses in the blog.)
There were some excellent anagrams, especially the one in the middle column, some intriguing constructions, deft misdirection and generally smooth surfaces throughout. I admired the symmetry of the seven-letter thematic entries in the four corners.
I had ticks for 1ac SANDOWN, 5ac AINTREE, 14ac LEICESTER, 24ac ATTUNE, 7dn TROLLOPES, 8dn EL GRECO, 9dn COMPLETE IDIOT and 16dn STOMACH.
Thanks to Kite for an enjoyable Saturday puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Park sown from this? (7)
SANDOWN
S AND OWN = SOWN
5 Isn’t about English, of course (7)
AINTREE
AIN’T (isn’t) + RE (about) + E (English)
10 Found in caddy or kitchen bowl (4)
YORK
Hidden in caddY OR Kitchen – bowl as in cricket
11 Show up long moving vehicle (10)
SNOWPLOUGH
An anagram (moving) of SHOW UP LONG
12 Web reveals tense affair (6)
TISSUE
T (TENSE) + ISSUE (affair)
13 Similar cultured pearl everyone collected (8)
PARALLEL
An anagram (cultured) of PEARL round ALL (everyone)
14 Decoration 28 lost – hard cheese! (9)
LEICESTER
LEI ( a Hawaiian garland of flowers – decoration) + C[h]ESTER (answer to 28ac) minus h (hard) – one of my favourites: great misleading (lift and separate) construction – and it’s only a bus stop away from me here
16 Salts – keep some supplies (5)
EPSOM
Hidden in keEPS OMe
see here for the salt
17 An English neighbour’s tie (5)
ASCOT
A SCOT (an English neighbour) – here’s the tie, which is something of a crossword staple
My apologies for the earlier omission of this clue – thanks to Tim C for pointing it out
19 City team huddle together around first toilet (9)
NEWCASTLE
NESTLE (huddle together) round WC A (whimsically, first toilet) – reference to Newcastle City football team
23 Speedy festival, gash maybe (8)
GOODWOOD
This was puzzling to begin with: I got the answer by analogy with the construction at 1ac – G (good) + ASH (wood); I knew about ‘Glorious Goodwood’, the annual five-day horse racing event but when I googled to check that it was called a festival I found that Goodwood is also the venue for the Festival of Speed, which I don’t think I’d ever heard of – but, thankfully, it made sense of the first word of the clue (not just an event for fast horses!)
24 A race with one French condition (6)
ATTUNE
A TT (a race – Tourist Trophy + UNE (one French)
26 Picture technique of former PM not dealing with American Jobs (10)
CAMERAWORK
CAMER[on] (former Prime Minister) minus on (not ‘dealing with’) + A (American) WORK (jobs)
The capitalisation of Jobs made me wonder if there was a reference to this
27 Fish, once head is removed, is best (4)
ROUT
[t]ROUT (fish) minus the first letter (head) – rout as a verb
28 Former president shows way to shout about (7)
CHESTER
CHEER (shout) round ST (street – way)
Chester A. Arthur was the 21st US President
29 This makes Ruby appear in market town (7)
NEWBURY
An indirect anagram: ‘NEW BURY’ gives RUBY
Down
2 Puzzle over, is working overtime entertaining? (7)
AGONISE
I’m not absolutely sure of this and would welcome your thoughts: it seems we need to separate over time, then I think it’s IS (from the clue) with ON (working) over it – in a down clue (?) all inside (entertained by) AGE (time)
3 Ones that block terminal keyboard shift keys (5)
DYKES
[keyboar]D + an anagram (shift) of KEYS
4 Scrubbers’ rings (7)
WASHERS
Double definition
6 Rogues’ gallery, content to contribute (6)
IMPART
IMP ART (rogues’ gallery)
7 Authors plot roles to be developed (9)
TROLLOPES
An anagram (to be developed) of PLOT ROLES for two authors:
Anthony TROLLOPE
and his fifth-generation niece Joanna TROLLOPE, writer of so-called ‘Aga sagas’, which sometimes crop up in crosswords
8 Artist and composer cutting a green (2,5)
EL GRECO
ELG[a]R (composer) minus a + ECO (green)
9 Police omitted alteration, a waste of space! (8,5)
COMPLETE IDIOT
An anagram (alteration} of POLICE OMITTED
15 Fine, but lacking a server? (9)
CLOUDLESS
Double definition – computer servers
18 Put up with dashing moustache, but not posh face of emperor (7)
STOMACH
An anagram (dashing) of MO[u]STACH[e] (minus u – posh and e – first letter {face} of emperor)
20 Laugh, eating end of ginger snap (7)
CRACKLE
CACKLE (laugh) round [ginge]R – snap and CRACKLE (and pop) are the words used onomatopoeically for the sound made when milk is added to Kellogg’s Rice Krispies
21 A gun destroyed by soldiers after conclusive metal fatigue (7)
LANGUOR
[meta]L + an anagram (destroyed) of A GUN + (by) OR (Other Ranks – soldiers)
22 Spooner’s refusal of engagement present (6)
DONATE
NO DATE (refusal of engagement) – hurrah for a meaningful Spoonerism
25 Pulse in borscht served up, self-catering failed (5)
THROB
A reversal (served up) of BOR[sc]HT
Parsing of AGONISE looks correct. Good job on the rest, too.
Nice blog, Eileen.
Didn’t see the racing theme until it was too late – for me, that’s par for the course (sorry!).
The similarity in the separating of the parts of sown (SANDOWN) and gash (GOODWOOD) spoiled the second aha moment.
Tried to find Trump in the clue for 9d, but somehow he only showed up in the answer.
Liked LANGOUR.
Thanks Eileen. An enjoyable challenge and for once I managed to recognise the theme before completion but a bit late to be of much help. I agonised over 2d too but reached the same conclusion. Have to confess LOI was 22d, I’d been fixated on accommodating ‘ring’ somehow. I made the same spelling mistake or typo as Dr WhatsOn which held me up for a while too.
Had solved all but 1a, 23a and 2d on Saturday. But they remained unsolved through the week. I cannot suggest a better parsing for 2d. Liked many clues in this great puzzle, but missed the theme.
Thanks Kite and Eileen
Meant to say I agree with Eileen’s parsing of AGONISE. Pretty self-referential, as it turns out.
Thanks Eileen. I too concur with how you’ve parsed AGONISE. I wonder if NEWBURY could be considered an inverse, rather than an indirect, anagram. Kudos to Kite.
Odd cultural mix in this one — race courses sprinkled with a Renaissance artist, a Victorian novelist and the sound of Rice Bubbles! Fun though, and not too hard. Camerawork gave me the most pause (don’t overthink: not Cinemascope, much less chiaroscuro). Enjoyed it, thx Kite and Eileen, now for a large (cafe) latte and today’s.
19a The main football team in Newcastle is called Newcastle United, although they are often just referred to as Newcastle, so you could say it’s two definitions plus word play?
Even as an antipodean and a solver generally blind to themes, I picked this one early, Googled English Racecourses and eureka!
[Note to self: look up whether any of the many great tv adaptations of Trollope — one of my favourites — is streamable; love to see them again …]
Something wrong with NEWCASTLE surely? Its football team is United, not City. I took the definition to be simply ‘city’, but then couldn’t parse the rest.
Even I saw the theme for this one. I managed to solve it all with a list of racecourses by my side, which helped a lot, of course! Not the greatest collection of surfaces, but still good fun
At the risk of flogging a dead horse, I agree that your parsing of 2d is correct Eileen. IS with ON (working) “over” = ONIS, AGE (time) entertaining it, AG[ONIS]E
Thanks Eileen for a great blog, and Kite
Thankyou Eileen for your comprehensive blog.
I knew GOODWOOD as a racing car venue and, being my first one in (I don’t solve in order), that threw me off course a bit.
GASH in the surface did seem a bit odd, which alerted me to the idea that there was something going on. Husband follows motorsports and attempts cryptics. He liked the clue. But we were both off track.I am familiar with some of the race courses. Dont follow the ‘sport’ though.
Count me in on the puns on AGONISE, and also Eileen’s parsing. The clue I found was a bit overwrought.
Thanks, Eileen. For once I not only saw a theme, but saw it in time for it to be useful, giving me GOODWOOD and convincing me that NEWCASTLE must be right (for some reason I missed the use of ‘nestle’ in the wordplay). And thanks to Kite, too, for a very neatly clued puzzle.
I was aware of Joanna Trollope, but the two Trollopes I’ve actually read are Anthony and his mother Frances (Fanny), who wrote Domestic Manners of the Americans (she was a touch negative, I’m afraid) and some 40-odd novels including The Vicar of Wrexhill and The Widow Barnaby. There’s a very good biography by Teresa Ransom, which I read many years ago and found quite inspiring. I think she deserves to be better known – and read.
Thanks Kite and Eileen.
Top faves: NEWCASTLE and GOODWOOD.
AGONISE:
puzzle over=AGONISE or AGONISE over?
Is the def just ‘puzzle’?
(Then we will have another ‘over’ to deal with!!!)
Good point KVa @15. Doesn’t agonise need its own preposition (or whatever it’s called) to be = “puzzle over”?
KVa@15 and gif@16. I agree we need another “over”. But I’m over this clue. Wonder what Kite meant by the QM?
I had no chance at the theme–I haven’t heard of most of these race courses. Horse racing is a sport that is hyper-local, I think–no one in the US (except perhaps obsessives) follows British racing, and I assume vice versa. And I can only name three or four American race courses, which tells you that I’m not an obsessive.
[I happen to be in Louisville at the moment, home of Churchill Downs–one of those three or four.]
Anyway, I failed on both SANDOWN and GOODWOOD, which I hadn’t heard of; I see they both also had the same unconventional wordplay trick, which put them particularly far out of my reach. [For the record, I know of AINTREE and EPSOM, as well as Ascot, from references in other cultural contexts, but that’s the extent of my British horsey knowledge.]
paddymelon@17
AGONISE
The clue is structured as a question.
Is the description for ASCOT at 17 across missing from the blog? I only noticed because of the comment about symmetry for the racecourses in the introduction as I noticed all the thematic entries came close to being symmetric.
My only question mark was against TROLLOPES because I only knew one of them. My ignorance failed me again, but I did notice the theme fairly early for once.
Thanks, all, for your comments on 2d. KVa @15 – it was the possible extra ‘over’ that I was puzzling over. 😉
(I’m actually not happy with the definition, either.)
Tim C @20 – I’ve no idea how 17ac went missing. I’ll restore it now – my apologies.
Thoroughly enjoyable with some good clues and a theme I noticed more quickly than I usually do.
Thank you, Eileen, for the blog.
I didn’t finish this, partly due to my idiocy in misspelling 2 of the answers. I didn’t spot the racing link which meant I didn’t get GOODWOOD or SANDOWN — I would never have been able to get these from the clue alone, although I find these types of clue particularly satisfying to solve.
Thank you Eileen for the explanations and Kite for the tough challenge.
Like Woody@22 I saw the theme much earlier than usual – which is generally not at all! (Brockwell yesterday was fully solved by me without a sniff of a theme, although it apparently involved every clue, a new world record!) I think I had five racecourses solved and this helped me with two or three of the others; no need for Google lists, as I used to work in betting shops, and have attended race meetings at more than half of the 60-odd UK courses – including all bar EPSOM and NEWBURY here.
AGONISE took me the longest, and I also had a blind spot for WCA as ‘first toilet’, having only ever seen this device used for list members like ‘eighth’ =G or ‘twentieth’ =T; ‘first’ is nearly always IST, so I was completely stymied for, well, almost the whole week actually!
14a could have also fit two other courses, Worcester and Towcester, and it took a long time for me to remember the Hawaiian ‘decoration’ LEI. (Worcester is known for apples rather than cheese, while the latter is better known as a homophone for toaster.)
Thanks to Kite and Eileen.
Kva@15 that could work: in a down clue “0ver is working” could yield ONIS which would account for the spare over?
I too raised an eyebrow at the equivalence of agonise and puzzle, but I like the construction of the clue so I’ll give it a pass 🙂
Missed the theme completely – ironic as I have an annoying habit of saying to myself “we’re off to the races” when I get the first clue
Cheers E&K
I’m another habitual theme misser who spotted this one early enough for it to be of considerable help. I actually scoured the grid for possible racecourses. The clue constructions for SANDOWN and GOODWOOD (both of which I’ve attended) are slightly beyond me for a straight solve, but not for a retro parse.
I’ve never been to the Festival of Speed but live close enough to see plenty of motoring exotica heading that way when I’m out on my bike. The FoS and Goodwood Revival events seem to come round at an ever increasing frequency.
Excellent blog Eileen, thank you.
[A bit unlucky that comments closed early on the Guardian site to have a bit of a chat over the weekend about the Prize when fresh , both on Kite and today’s Brendan Prize.]
The theme helped, for once. I grew up by Epsom racecourse, so absorbed a lot of horseracing knowledge.
The fact that I had to agonise over 2D as my LOI meant that I was prepared to accept the vague definition. Agree with your parsing Eileen – thanks for the great blog & to Kite for the helpful theme.
28a I got the answer from the crossers and wordplay then Googled to check that there was a President Chester and was surprised to see that Chester was his first name. Can one of our American friends tell me whether if President appeared in a definition only crossword CHESTER would be an acceptable answer? I can imagine that IKE or THE DONALD might be. MAGGIE and possibly WINSTON would pass here if the clue were PM but I can’t think of any others.
Apropos of comments on yesterday’s puzzle this a rare occasion when I spotted the theme, albeit after filling the grid.
Thanks to Kite and Eileen.
Many thanks to Eileen for a super blog and to all who commented. Most (but not all) of my crosswords do have a theme. For those who AGONISEd over 2D, the definition was ‘puzzle over’ as in: ‘All the way home she agonised about what she would do’ [Oxford Thesaurus]. The wordplay was somewhat convoluted but was as Eileen showed with overtime split, so ‘IS’ with working (ON) over and time (AGE) entertaining (them). I realised that this crossword might be a challenge for overseas solvers but horseracing is a proud tradition in the UK (and I happen to live in Epsom). I do know that the football team is called NEWCASTLE United but NEWCASTLE is a ‘city team’ and omitting team from the clue would have produced a somewhat nonsensical surface.
hatter @24: writing from Worcestershire, I’d suggest our county town is more associated with pears than apples. The coat of arms bears the back Worcester pear and the fruit is the nickname given to the county cricketers.
And Double Worcester cheese is delicious …
Kite@31. Thanks for dtopping in. This overseas solver isn’t bothered about UKGK. That’s to be expected.and adds to the fun. Happy to hear about your Epsom connections. 🙂
[Mark@32. I was going to write “apples and pears” but didn’t want to swerve into a Cockney rhyming slang deviation. I was aware of the county badge, having attended a cricket match in Worcester with my brothers and our grandfather many decades ago, but more recently I have been aware of the early season apple, the Worcester Pearmain, so I went with that.]
Thanks Kite and Eileen and all learned contributors !
I spotted the theme and used a map of British race courses on Wikipedia to jog my memory. I don’t ‘go racing’ since my long ago youth when attendance at the summer festival in Galway city (we lived a ‘stones throw’ from the course) was mandatory.
I knew of the British courses mostly from the ‘betting tips’ section of the Radio 4 Today programme (is that still a thing?) but I’ve not listed to R4 post-pandemic, so the names are gradually fading from memory.
Biffed in HAYDOCK for 1A which held me up a while. I loved 9D, and was intrigued to hear of yet another TROLLOPE from an earlier contributor, having only known of Anthony and Joanna previously.
I had to come here to find out the setter’s name. It isn’t visible anywhere on the guardian android app crossword page. Or am I missing something?
Thanks Eileen for the commentary. I parsed 2d as you suggest. I enjoyed the puzzle perhaps because I saw the theme quickly. It’s a passing interest. Much like Judge @8 I interpreted “city team” as a team of a city, with your interpretation. As paddymelon @27 says it’s a shame that the Graun seem to have started closing Friday’s cryptic comments early. Thanks to Kite, also thanks to Brendan for today’s excellent Prize.
I can’t agree about the closing of Friday’s comments in the G, LJG. I appreciate that the hijacking of the Friday commenting facility to discuss Saturday’s Prize has probably been going on for years; however, I have never been comfortable with it, for the same reason that intrusive references to the current Prize are verboten here on fifteen squared until it is blogged the following week. Just my view.
Pino @30,
I agree about CHESTER, especially as Wikipedia describes him as “one of the least memorable presidents in the history of the United States”.
I did spot the theme for once. Helped to get EPSOM and NEWBURY.
Thanks, Kite & Eileen.
Pino@30, phitonelly@39:
I think I can attest that “former president” alone would be a most unlikely clue for CHESTER in a US-style crossword. Here are two typical cases-in-point:
New York Times, Aug 18, 2018
President between James and Grover
[i.e. Garfield and Cleveland]
Newsday, Jul 7, 2012
Presidential prename
So some pointer to the first name would be expected.
I wonder how many people think (if they think of him at all) that the president’s name is Arthur Chester?
The theme helped with a few guesses, but 1a SANDOWN was my nho/dnf. As a non-Brit, this didn’t bother me a bit.
Thanks Kite for the entertaining puzzle. Favourite was the indirect presidential reference at 9d. And thanks Eileen for the engaging and genial blog, complete with the useful racecourse links.
Pino@30, there’s another PM who is generally referred to by his first name. Well done for managing to forget him.
Many thanks to Kite and Eileen.
Re: CHESTER – as I was already fairly sure that 14a was ___CESTER, this made 28a a bit of a bung-and-shrug, but it did strike me at the time that if cold solving it would be pretty obscure. Given the eventual crossers and the frequency of “cester” in British place names – thanks for all the forts, you Romans! – I don’t think the clue is particularly unfair.
Having been so busy, we did not manage to get round to this crossword until Friday and, after a slow start, we thought that we may be timed out. However a couple of quick entries and, miraculously for us, spotting the theme early, allowed us to finish on time.
Well done Kite and Eileen – we loved the variety and imagination from the off at YORK to the last with DONATE via favourites LEICESTER, GOODWOOD and NEWBURY to the turn with a THROB and a run-in by a short head with CLOUDLESS.
The victory with this was not that I finished it but that I spotted the theme for once and used it to help solve AINTREE, NEWCASTLE and LEICESTER. Great fun. Enjoyed the theme as my grandparents were quite the horse racing fans.
Thanks Kite and Eileen
DuncT@42
🙂
[Balfour@38. It could be coincidence that the G comments closed on Friday two weeks in a row. I looked behind the moderator’s comment and they close a lot of threads down all over the site.
I enjoy the cryptic repartee when the Prize is fresh, and people are usually very mindful of not spoiling, aware that if they/we do the opportunity may be lost. However moderation on the G site has ramped up lately. You can’t even mention moderation in a positive or humorous way, without your comment disappearing into the ether, no record. It’s policy. I’m told it’s driven by AI. AI doesn’t do humour very well..But we shall see. 3 weeks in a row would be convincing.]
I was fearing some flak at Kite over the horseracing theme – not everyone’s sport of choice – but one might equally treat it as English place-names, I think.
For me, it’s skilful setting when a theme doesn’t impair the quality of the clues, or alienate the uninitiated solver. Mission accomplished.
The grid struck me as a potential hurdle: just shy of half of the 29 solutions open with an unchecked square. However, friendly consonants outnumber the less-helpful vowels in crossers, and in key locations, so it’s a nicely balanced challenge for us solvers.
The economy and precision of the clue sentences is impressive, whilst the setter manages this, with some excellent surfaces.
Carrying overweight on the anagrams? 7, or 8 with the reverse anagram at 29(ac). I don’t think so – most are combo-devices, and anyway, I’m not going to baulk at the likes of “cultured pearl”/ “shift keys”/ and “dashing moustache”! Super stuff.
Pick of the paddock, 23(ac), GASH=GOODWOOD,
by a short-head from Spooner’s NO DATE in 22(d).
Thoroughly thoroughbred performances from Kite and Eileen, hats off.
I got stuck for a while with the left side largely incomplete. I was enjoying the puzzle so I stuck at it until today with LEICESTER and GOODWOOD only lightly pencilled in. I had a last look this morning, and the clouds lifted (CLOUDLESS) at last. I then noticed the theme, for me a very rare event, and so managed a speedy finish (like some racehorses) with CHESTER, SANDOWN, then 2d and 3d. Grateful to Eileen for explanations of 19ac and the ‘AND’ in 1ac. I was amused by the theme. I don’t follow racing now, but I used to get the bus out to AINTREE for the Grand National, and would go to the bookies after 6-2 shift at a local factory before starting uni. I went into Liverpool to collect my first passport, but forgot my wallet. I saw a Joe Coral sign and so put all my coins on a horse with good form and good odds. ‘A Country Lane’, was it? Success! Sadly the Passport office had closed when I got there. Dohh!
JohnJB @49 – thanks for the story. 😉
JohnJB@49
Ah, Liverpool back in the day.
The queue outside the passport office, near the docks.
“Never a Quarrel…bet with Joe Coral”.
“Acountrylane”, was an awful horse, ran twice, pulled up twice, about 10 years ago.
I’ll take a punt, it might have been “Highland Wedding “, back in 1969?
ENBoll@51: there is nothing in John B’s story that says it was a horse running in the Grand National. It didn’t even have to be at AINTREE. He had a bet on a horse in a Coral betting shop.
Sorry to be the lone dissenter, but this one didn’t do it for me. Way too many quibbles!
I agree with with KVa@15 et al about AGONISE; the first “over” plays no part. (Sorry Kite@31 but “she puzzled over about” doesn’t make sense….) I found this one needlessly convoluted anyway, and so, unlike for others, it certainly wasn’t a favourite of mine.
I also agree with Pino@30 about CHESTER; forenames of less famous figures, really? Why bother with any specification at all, then… might as well just use “boy” or “girl”. I do take sheffield hatter@43’s point, but the precisely the fact that I had to solve the two clues in reverse order as he describes takes most of the gloss off, for me.
I know muffin will agree with me when I say that EPSOM is not salts. IMO it’d yes to “cross the Atlantic” and “study at Oxford” but no to “sail on the Red” [Sea] and “put the Epsom in the bath”… and in any case it’s Epsom salt not salts (but “bath salts”).
CLOUDLESS wouldn’t be missing a server, it’d be missing a bunch of them, that being the whole point of the cloud.
And allthough I like the underlying idea of “WC A”, it’s taking the idea a bit far I think; it’s not a phrase that I think would ever be employed, even in jest.
And finally, again unlike others it seems, I found DONATE to be a strange synonym of PRESENT; after a brief think, I failed to come up with a convincing substitution.
But thanks anyway for our weekly challenge, and thanks too to our blogger.
[Excuse the typos.
IMO it’d yes -> IMO it’s yes
*although
]
Like epeesharkey (35) i had HAYDOCK for 1ac. Sadly I didn’t suspect it was wrong and therefore ran out of time to solve 4d.
Apart from that, great puzzle thanks Kite.