Perhaps the toughest Prize puzzle that we can remember.
This took us around twice as long as usual to solve, and it wasn’t until I came to write the blog that I fully understood how to parse all the answers. If there was a theme, it eluded us, although we did spot references to three Premier League clubs and one F1 driver. I suspect that your comments will help me understand a couple of clues (e.g. 9 and 10 across) where I don’t completely understand the wordplay, but I trust that everything else is clear. It wasn’t so much the vocabulary that made this puzzle complicated, rather the intricacy of the wordplay in many of the clues. Many thanks to Vlad.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PLECTRA |
Guitar players, partly depleted, played round city (7)
|
| EC (City, as in the postcode for the City of London) inside *PARTL(y) (depleted). “Played” is the anagram indicator. | ||
| 5 | CHUNTER |
Grumble about predatory type (7)
|
| C(irca) (about) HUNTER (predatory type). | ||
| 9 | LANCE |
Stroll round track – crash initially blocking road (5)
|
| C(rash) inside LANE (road): I’m not sure what “round track” adds to the clue; perhaps I’m missing something. Lance Stroll is a Formula 1 driver. | ||
| 10 | DENATURED |
Gripped by Study in Scarlet you completely changed (9)
|
| AT U (by you?) inside DEN (study) and RED (scarlet). Possibly “completely” isn’t part of the definition, but is wordplay denoting the last letter of “you”. | ||
| 11 | CACK-HANDED |
See bachelor leaving like a shot – awkward! (4-6)
|
| C (see) (b)ACKHANDED (a tennis shot). | ||
| 12 | PSST |
I almost forgot the way over here (4)
|
| PS (I almost forgot) ST(reet) (the way). | ||
| 14 | KEIR STARMER |
‘Right, arrest Kemi!’ Unlikely he’d say that (4,7)
|
| *(R(ight) ARREST KEMI). I’m not sure that this is really an & lit clue, but if it’s not then the definition is just “he”. | ||
| 18 | JAM TOMORROW |
Carrot or stick in prospect? (3,8)
|
| JAM (stick) TOMORROW (in prospect). | ||
| 21 |
See 24 Down
|
|
| 22 | NEW ENGLAND |
Patriots here from different country (3,7)
|
| The New England Patriots are an American football team. I suppose this is a cryptic defintion. | ||
| 25 | UNDERFOOT |
On the ground after collapse cycling round junction (9)
|
| FOUNDER (collapse) (cycled, i.e. with the first two letters moved to the end), O (round) T (junction). | ||
| 26 | ISLET |
Scots inch closer to success with the French stopping Italy (5)
|
| (succes)S (closer, or last letter), LE (French for “the”) all inside IT(aly). | ||
| 27 | INDWELT |
Occupied by twisted sequence of hot, lewd nights (7)
|
| Hidden and reversed in “hot lewd nights”. | ||
| 28 | LIGHTER |
Barge smaller son away (7)
|
| (s)LIGHTER (smaller). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PALACE |
China’s one Premier League team (6)
|
| PAL (china, or mate) ACE (one). Crystal Palace (commonly referred to as “Palace”) is the team in question. | ||
| 2 | EUNICE |
Named woman in disagreement with Farage? (6)
|
| EU NICE might be an expression with which Nigel Farage MP would disagree. | ||
| 3 | TIE THE KNOT |
Feeding bats to kitten – what about Wed? (3,3,4)
|
| EH (what, rev) jnside *(TO KITTEN). The capital letter on Wed is misleading, but that is an accepted convention (whereas failing to capitalise something that should be capitalised is not). | ||
| 4 | ARDEN |
Forest of Dean a bit different with Queen visiting (5)
|
| R(egina) inside *DEAN. | ||
| 5 | CONFESSOR |
As Edward and Don, maybe, changing allegiance (9)
|
| proFESSOR (don), substituting CON. | ||
| 6 | UP TO |
Not above United? There’s more on the other side (2,2)
|
| U(nited); PTO (indicates that there is more on the other side of the page). | ||
| 7 | TIRESOME |
Labour ‘Tories’ to Vlad annoying (8)
|
| *TORIES, ME (i.e. Vlad). “Labour” is the anagrind. | ||
| 8 | REDSTART |
Winger from Liverpool sharp (8)
|
| REDS (Liverpool football team) TART (sharp). | ||
| 13 | EARWIGGING |
Not sure about one getting time off for lecture (10)
|
| A (one) inside ER (I’m not sure); (t)WIGGING (getting). | ||
| 15 | IRONED OUT |
The same boring routine after excitement decreased? (6,3)
|
| DO (ditto, the same) inside *ROUTINE; “after excitement” denotes the anagram. I wasn’t entirely happy with the definition: Chambers has “to smooth, clear up”, which isn’t the same as “decrease”. But I suppose if you iron clothes, you literally de-crease them! | ||
| 16 | DJIBOUTI |
During day off sail to island country (8)
|
| JIB (sail) inside D(ay) OUT, I(sland). | ||
| 17 | IMPLODED |
Police breaking in half turned and collapsed (8)
|
| PLOD (slang term for police) inside DEMI (half, rev). I would have liked to see some indication that a slang term was being used. | ||
| 19 | GASLIT |
Young ladies, half rampant? It made one question one’s judgment! (6)
|
| GALS, with half (LS) rampant, i.e. going upwards; IT. | ||
| 20 | EDITOR |
One might cut fish up? Not quite right (6)
|
| IDE (fish, rev) TOR(y) (right). | ||
| 23 | EXTOL |
Old boyfriend gets group coming round (it’s big up!) (5)
|
| EX (old boyfriend) LOT(group, rev). | ||
| 24, 21 | TRUE BILL |
Indictment may follow Spooner’s order when to stop making beer (4,4)
|
| A Spoonerism of “brew till”; the phrase refers to the finding of a grand jury in response to an indictment. |
9A: Lance [whom one might see] [a]round [the] track = definition
10A: U (you) inside (gripped by) DEN (study) + AT (in) + RED (scarlet). In = at is in Chambers, after first semicolon
Thank you Vlad – a real challenge. Alas you defeated me, but thanks for the workout! And thank you Bridgesong for your solutions.
I agree this was very difficult, heavy on complex charades but also very cryptic definitions, some of which still make no sense to me. EXTOL = big up, ISLET = Scot’s inch are two examples. LANCE = stroll also perplexed me, but I now understand (assuming round track has no function).
I ticked CONFESSOR
Thanks Vlad and bridgesong
For NEW ENGLAND, it’s not a cryptic definition; it’s just NEW =different + ENGLAND = country. My only write-in in a very challenging puzzle that I actually abandoned incomplete last Saturday. (As a long-time fan of the Indanapolis Colts, I instinctively loathe the Patriots.) I actually came here, glanced at the blog, remembered I hadn’t finished the puzzle, and went back and finished. Thanks for PLECTRA, which was enough to unblock me in the NW, but I still had to reveal GASLIT.
I found this unusually difficult, so, very good job on the blog. I did not quite understand the clue for EUNICE, but I know about Farage versus EU, so that was the only woman’s name that fit.
For EDITOR, I had: IDE (fish) inverted (up) + TO (not quite) + R (right), with “not quite” in the sense of “towards” or “close against,” as in “filled to the brim”
This took several sessions, and along the way a word-search or two. Some of the constructions were either brilliant fabrications or brilliant finds (not being a setter, I don’t know how big a role luck plays).
Some, like GASLIT, EARWIGGING and especially LANCE, took a while to figure out even after mentally proposing. NEW ENGLAND, however, came easily because I used to live in Boston.
I was not really convinced by the Spoonerish part of TRUE BILL. “Brew till” is not a thing, and anyway to match the clue it would have to be “brew till some time/event”.
PSST was my fave, really well-formed and unexpected. JAM TOMORROW also good.
Thanks bridgesong. Well, I filled in all the squares but had to wait to come here to find out why for too many of them. Can’t say I enjoyed it, it was just too frustrating and abstruse.