Kite is the setter for this week’s Guardian Prize challenge
There is a very clear theme here with many across entries relating to UKRAINE.
I wondered about a pangram given that the President’s name alone uses many of the less common letters of the alphabet, but we seem to be short of a J, a Q and a W.
This puzzle may have been a bit more difficult a few years ago when the Ukrtnian locations were less well known.. Unfortunately nowadays, many of the cities and regions are mentioned in the media daily.
Kite did well to make an anagram out VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY. I liked the clue for DIAL as well as the Spoonerism for SATISFY. It took me longer to work out ENGLISH at 20 down than it should have done.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Finished non-acting job in 5’s city (7)
DONETSK (city in UKRAINE [entry at 5 across]) DONE (finished) + TaSK (job) excluding (not) A (acting) DONE TSK |
| 5 | Country drops language finally – it uses Russian in places (7)
UKRAINE (country acting as the theme for this crossword. Russian is a language used fairly widely in Ukraine, but research indicates that its use has declined [dropped] since the invasion in 2022) UK (United Kingdom; country) + RAIN (drops of water) + E (last letter of [finally] languagE) UK RAIN E |
| 10 | Face becoming possibly relaxed (4)
DIAL (face, of a clock for instance) DIAL could be clued (possibly) as LAID BACK (relaxed) DIAL< |
| 11 | Artist in on designs for move (10)
TRANSITION (a passage from one place to another; a move) Anagram of (designs) ARTIST IN ON TRANSITION* |
| 12 | Graduate puts on masks in European industrial region (6)
DONBAS (an industrial region of Ukraine, most of which is currently occupied by Russian forces; European industrial region) DONS (wears; puts on) containing (masks) BA (Bachelor of Arts; graduate) DON (BA) S |
| 13 | Best, retired clergyman half cut inside but capable of standing up (8)
ERECTILE (capable of standing up) RECtor (clergyman) excluding half of the 6 letters (half-cut) TOR, contained in (inside) ELITE (best) reversed (retired) E (REC) TILE< |
| 14/19 | Every dozy monk slyly working for iconic leader (9,9)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY (iconic leader of Ukraine, born 1978) Anagram of (working) EVERY DOZY MONK SLYLY VOLODYMYR [ZELENSKYY]* |
| 16 | European has too much, drinking first of Andalusian port (5)
ODESA (port region of Ukraine) – possibly better known in English as ODESSA (ODS [overdoses; has too much] containing [drinks] E [European]) + A (initial letter of [first of [Andalusian]) OD (E) S A |
| 17 | Son went to race (5)
SPEED (race) S (son) + PEED (urinated; went) S PEED |
| 19 |
See 14 [VOLODYMYR] ZELENSKYY |
| 23 | Philanthropic doctor coming from pub close to drug-free party (8)
BARNARDO (reference Dr Thomas John BARNARDO [1845 – 1905], an Irish, Christian philanthropist and founder and director of homes for poor and deprived children. His name lives on today in the childrens’ charity Barnardo’s) BAR (pub) + NeAR (close to) excluding (free) E (ecstasy; drug) + DO (party) BAR NAR DO |
| 24 | Try to write letters, almost providing the truth (6)
GOSPEL (informal term for absolute truth) GO (try) + SPELl (write letters) excluding the final letter L (almost) GO SPEL |
| 26 | End of union residence I abandoned (6,4)
DECREE NISI (a provisional decree which will be made absolute in due time unless cause is shown to the contrary, granted especially in divorce cases; end of marriage [union]) Anagram of (abandoned) RESIDENCE I. DECREE NISI* |
| 27 | Natural defender not against organisation (4)
BODY (an organisation) antiBODY (a substance which inactivates a foreign body such as a protein, bacterium, virus or toxin by combining with it; a natural defence acting to prevent disease) excluding (not) ANTI (against) BODY |
| 28 | One in the 12 getting rare metal German kitchen top (7)
LUHANSK (a city in the DONBAS [entry at 12 across] region of Ukraine) LU (chemical symbol for lutetium [a metallic element that is a member of the rare-earth group]) + HANS (a German male name) + K (first letter of [top] Kitchen) LU HANS K |
| 29 | King (and Queen’s descendant?) in 5’s place (7)
KHERSON (a city in UKRAINE [entry at 5 across]) K (King) + HER SON (descendant of a female, possibly the descendant of a Queen) K HER SON |
| Down | |
| 2 | Neocon I routinely hosted upriver (7)
ORINOCO (one of the longest rivers in South America) ORINOCO (reversed [up] hidden word in [hosted] neOCON I ROutinely) ORINOCO< |
| 3 | Small book label provided by former politician (2-3)
EX-LIB (abbreviation for [small] EX-LIBris [a name-label pasted into the front of a book]; book label) EX (former) + LIB (member of the Liberal party of old; politician) EX-LIB |
| 4 | Make content but Spooner’s plump men moan (7)
SATISFY (make content) Reverend Spooner would pronounce SATISFY as FATTIES [plump men] + SIGH [make a sound of dejection; moan] SATISFY |
| 6 | Briefly smack Kite – ultimately tempt fate (6)
KISMET (fate) KISs(smack is a term for a hearty kiss) excluding the final letter S (briefly) + ME (Kite, the setter) + T (last letter of [ultimately] tempT) KIS ME T |
| 7 | You, having sex noisily at first, regularly dress for poses (9)
ATTITUDES (postures; poses) ATTIT (sounds like [noisily] AT IT [having sex]) + U (textspeak for ‘you’) + DES (letters 1, 3 and 5 [regularly] of DrEsS) ATTIT U DES |
| 8 | Silly people make pasta (7)
NOODLES (silly people) NOODLES (a form of pasta) double definition NOODLES |
| 9 | Box type of seats I’d made (6,7)
SAFETY DEPOSIT (type of box) Anagram of (made) TYPE OF SEATS I’D SAFETY DEPOSIT* |
| 15 | Song of the Deep depicting dolphins’ home? (9)
OCEANARIA (a location where dolphins may be found) OCEAN (the deep) + ARIA (song) OCEAN ARIA |
| 18 | Table water follows dish in Paris (7)
PLATEAU (a tableland) PLAT (French [Paris] for dish as in ‘plat de jour’ [dish of the day]) + EAU (French [Paris] for water) PLAT EAU |
| 20 | Cook single hard tongue (7)
ENGLISH (language; tongue) Anagram of (cook) SINGLE + H (hard when referring to pencil lead) ENGLIS H* |
| 21 | Comply with oily diet, not one processed (5,2)
YIELD TO (comply to) Anagram of (processed) OiLY DIET excluding (not) I (Roman numeral for one) – either I could be the one excluded YIELD TO* |
| 22 | Medic that is beginning to suture receives right desiccants (6)
DRIERS (drying agents; desiccants) (DR [doctor; medic] + I.E. [id est; that is] + S [first letter of {beginning to} Suture]) containing (receives) R (right) DR IE (R) S |
| 25 | Serious, thus drink half- heartedly (5)
SOBER (serious) SO (thus) + BEeR (drink) excluding one of the two central Es (half-heartedly) – either E could be the one excluded. SO BER |
Enjoyed this though took me a while.
Favourites included: KISMET, BARNARDO, PLATEAU, SOBER
and loved the long anagram.
Thanks Kite and duncanshiell
10 across, I took to be a play on DALI being an anagram of DIAL if relaxed, and a nod to Dali’s painting of melting/relaxed clock faces, “The Persistence of Memory”.
But agree “Laid back” makes sense too.
Thanks duncanshiell. A welcome change from the uphill battle last week I thought. The theme emerged early on and a lot of answers wrote themselves in but there was still enough left for a workout and some gentle satisfaction. I did like ‘laid back’ though it took me a while to see how it worked. I made BARNARDO more difficult for myself by thinking the first letter was the last letter of ‘pub’. LOI was 29a, the crossing letters had me fixated on ‘Kharkov’ and I spent far too long trying to make sense of it.
Another vote for the anagram fodder for VZ.
The reverse reversal clue DIAL seems to be one of those things that setters like to have a go at. There have been many versions, but I do like Kite’s surface.
KHERSON clever. OCEANARIA a very sad home for dolphins. Good clue though.
I made steady progress over a couple of days, finding the bottom half much easier than top
A tick went to UKRAINE for its clever diversion. Liked DONETSK for its surface and share your like of DIAL. Being a great fan of anagrams I echo the applause for VZ.
OSESA seems backward – it should be drinking too much has European. ORINOCO needs a separation indicator to separate up and river. I wasted so much time on that clue. EX LIB is not a small book label to me – it’s a book label of any size but abbreviated.
Thanks Kite and duncanshiel
Martyn#6. Not having the ”separation indicator” is one of the tools in the setter’s box of tricks, something to look out for. It’s called different things, and I can’t remember what we last agreed on, but misdirection will do.
My faves: UKRAINE, VZ, ODESA, BODY, SATISFY and KISMET.
Thanks Kite and duncan.
Martyn#6. ODESA does look a bit counter-intuitive. I found it helps to ignore the punctuation, and a slight adjustment of the expected grammar, both setters’ tricks.
paddymelon@9
ODESA
Agree wth you.
In the cryptic reading, it becomes
E-OD’S drinking, + A
I like chewy puzzles for the prize slot, as we have so much more time in which to solve them. This one started off looking quite tricky, but after entering the iconic leader it all fell into place rather easily. (And well done Kite for that anagram which couldn’t have been easy.)
All of the locations (bar one) I’d heard/seen mentioned many times in recent news stories, which helped. My LOI was KHERSON, which was new to me. The crossers suggested KHARKOV (the former spelling of Kharkiv), but the wordplay ruled that out.
DIAL was a bit cheeky, and my fave.
Tx both.
Very inventive, though definitely much easier than last week’s. Unfortunately I couldn’t parse DIAL (struggled with “becoming” as a reversal indicator) or BODY, both great clues. Also liked the city names. Thanks Kite and Duncan!
Catching the theme helped me to complete this one. Also sad. 19a who knew ZELENSYKYY’s name is properly spelt with two y’s? I never noticed it before! Even though it was obviously an anagram, it’s still an amazing achievement. 10a DIAL, it took me a while to parse “relaxed” as LAID back, but I eventually got it. Enjoyed 17a SPEED. Former lawyer Mrs Mig helped me with 26a DECREE NICI. 6d KISMET, “tempt fate” was neat. 20d ENGLISH, good surface
Should 15d OCEANARIA be “dolphins’ homes” (plural)?
Thanks Kite, and duncanshiell for the comprehensive blog
The theme here felt familiar and it occurred to me we had something similar in a Prize puzzle by Imogen in May this year.
Enjoyed the puzzle.
Thanks to Kite and Duncan.
Thanks, duncanshiell for the blog, and Kite for the lesson in the proper spelling of both Ukraine’s places and its president. That impressive anagram didn’t seem to work until I Googled Zelensky and discovered that wasn’t really his name after all. I’d taken on board the change from Kiev to Kyiv, but not the move from the Russian Odessa to the Ukrainian Odesa. My last in was BODY, because I somehow missed seeing the ‘anti-BODY’ part and only finally wrote it in because it really couldn’t be anything else.
After sorting out that magnificent anagram I learned how to spell VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, though I doubt if I will remember it for long. Sadly most of the Ukrainian places are all too familiar – I liked the clue for KHERSON, and discovered something I didn’t know about spelling ODESA.
Kite’s clue grammar can be a bit Yoda-like, but I enjoyed DIAL, BODY, BARNARDO, PLATEAU and SAFETY DEPOSIT. I agree with paddymelon@5 that although you may find dolphins in OCEANARIA, it isn’t their home.
I can’t put my finger on why, but I felt (and feel) a little indifferent towards this one. But I liked Kite’s take on DIAL, the anagram for VZ (and enjoyed cold-solving both the general idea and the exact spelling), and BARNARDO.
DECREE NISI was a bung and hope, but I failed on LUHANSK and KHERSON (I was fixated on KHARKOV despite knowing it was wrong because all other themed entries use the new official
spellings as per DrWO@11 and KKeithS@15). I wasn’t motivated to look them up… funny how one can develop an emotional feeling about a crossword, and the surprising “feedback” on yesterday’s puzzle – here on 225 to some extent but especially on the G site -) was a real popcorn experience!
Thanks both
Thanks PM@9 &,KVa@10 re ODESA. I see the reading now. As gladys@16 mentioned, it is a bit Yoda-like but I see it works
PM@7 re separation indicator: I get it that the setter sets and the solver solves what has been set, and I also realise some setters do not indicate when a single word should be split in two. But that does not mean that I can like such a clue.
Layman#12. A ‘reverse’ clue, is where you work backwards, in the sense of going back from the answer to the clue, the other way around from our usual solving process. It’s known as other things, and is confusing in terminology, as commonly a reverse clue is often a reversal. clue. I’ve tried to look up where I could give you a better explanation, as I have linked before, but for some reason am not able to find it now.
Thanks Kite and duncanshiell
I spent more time deciding whether 28a was LUHANSK or LUGANSK (apparently another Ukraine city – how confusing) than on the rest of the puzzle. I eventually saw that “German” had nothing to do with “G”, and was just HANS.
Very entertaining, especially UKRAINE, VZ, ATTITUDES, DIAL, KISMET and SAFETY DEPOSIT. Martyn @6: I took small in EX-LIB to mean abbreviated rather than the actual size, which I think Duncan indicates.
Ta Kite & duncanshiel.
Another setter could have clued DIAL as simply “relaxed face”. In the clue as presented either or both of ‘becoming’ and ‘possibly’ are unnecessary, and seem to serve only as misdirection. Was this Kite’s intention?
Mostly straightforward otherwise, though KHERSON took a while to find in the memory banks.
Thanks to Kite and Duncan.
Layman @12. ”becoming” or ”could be” are often indicators of this clue type.
Very enjoyable with many answers raising a smile.
Despite latching onto the Ukraine theme early on I completely failed at KHERSON and bunged in PHARAOH, solely based on the King part of the definition.
paddymelon@23,19 and Layman@12, I regard DIAL in this puzzle as just a special case of the general type of clue that I’ve started to call an “inversion” clue (to avoid potential confusion of reverse/reversal), in which the entry has to be reinterpreted cryptically to arrive at part or all of the surface. Sometimes the entry provides the entire fodder (we had BEACHHEAD to arrive at the letter “B” in the surface “Landing zone B” a while back, “B” being the “head” of “beach”) and sometimes it’s necessary to think even more laterally, such as in this one for DIAL.
It was “Landing zone B?” in fact, (landing zone being the def and “B?” being the wordplay with the “?” indicating the need for lateral thinking, in this case the need for applying inversion. As paddymelon says, setters will often give indicators for this (which overlap with those used for other devices such as CDs and DBEs), but then as sheffield hatter@22 says, the more devious setters might not even bother, though I think that would meet with some disapproval. “Relaxed face?” would be the most satisfying choice for DIAL, I think.
Good crossword, though as I remember easier than one or two from the preceding week. Unusually for me I saw the theme (which I suppose could hardly be missed) and it did help with the place-name clues.
One or two comments refer to the “correct” spelling of VZ’s name. Since he is Ukrainian it is spelt using the Ukrainian version of the Cyrillic alphabet, and there is no single definitive correct spelling using the Latin alphabet – all that can be done is to try to suggest the approximate pronunciation.
Thanks Kite and duncanshiell.
DIAL
Chambers Crossword Manual by Don Manley
p73
…the answer gives a clue to something part of the actual clue, so I have decided to call this type of clue
an ‘inverse clue’.
AP@25 calls this type an inversion clue! All the same.
beaulieu@27 – I had that thought too when I saw that double Y at the end of VZ; it’s just a pronunciation guide, and is an English speaker going to pronounce Zelensky and Zelenskyy differently? But in this case, the Ukrainian spelling is (I hope pasting this in works!) Зеленський – thanks, Wikipedia, I obviously didn’t know that myself! – so the double-y ending is almost a letter-for-letter transcription, which does seem, well, ‘more’ correct somehow. It’s a grey area.
Thanks Duncan for a super blog and all the posters/commenters. My starting point for this crossword was to see if I could find a way to clue VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY. I must confess that I hadn’t realised the name ended with 2 Y’s before I started! Interesting comments about the possibility of cluing DIAL as ‘relaxed face’. Although that works, I feel it might have been even tougher for solvers.
Thanks Kite and Duncan. I now know how to misspell the president of Ukraine in many more ways.
Surely OCEANARIA is plural, and should have been defined as “dolphins’ homes” ?
I liked DIAL very much, but was held up in my parsing of LUHANSK by using the old spelling with the G.
I’m not sure if the transliteration of Cyrillic spellings has been formalised? For instance, I noted that the French spelt “Yeltsin” as simply “Eltsin”.
Thanks everyone.
Yes, OCEANARIA should have been homes; my mistake.
Seems like a long time ago now… But I remember enjoying this one, so many thanks, Kite, for the entertainment. Sadly, still topical after more than three years. The long and ingenious VZ was the one that snapped in first, after which I had some idea what I was looking for.
Good blog, too – thanks, Duncan.
Our foi happened to be UKRAINE, so with 1, that seemed a clear theme; then bish-bash-bosh, with only BODY unexplained and DIAL not fully appreciated (ta to ds). As usual with Kite, many excellent and inventive clues with our v(er)yy favourite being the blog-buster anagram!
Many thanks to K and ds – how sad that not all problems are as tractable!
I found the theme quite quickly via 16ac, but I didn’t make full use of this knowledge. I studied the anagram on and off as I found the crossers. Eventually Volodymyr came to mind, and then the obvious thematic answer. I should have got that sooner. A monumental anagram. Well done! I also liked 4d and 5d, and finally 10ac courtesy of duncanshiell’s explanation. I entered Kharkov as LOI this morning, despite its lack of fit to the clue, so that was my one mistake.
I appreciated the theme of this puzzle as well as the generous helping of tricky clues. Progress was helped by getting UKRAINE early on, and the iconic leader himself, with that remarkable anagram, followed soon after. DIAL, ODESA and BODY were my last three to go in.
Those with memories that go back two weeks might remember that Qaos, in his Prize puzzle, clued OTTO as ‘German’ in the wordplay of RISOTTOS. Here we have HANS in LUHANSK. (Might the next ‘German’ be ANTON?!)
Thanks to Kite and Duncan.
Thanks AlanC@21 for the comment on EX LIB. I agree small can be taken as abbreviated, but surely not as part of the straight definition?
Paddymelon @19, 23: thanks a lot! I understood from the blog that the clue was reverse-engineered, but I wasn’t aware of common indicators of this type of clue…
Like Jay @14, I solved UKRAINE, was reminded of Imogen’s similarly themed Prize and immediately looked for the theme. I assumed the anagram was VZ but was slightly held up by my ignorance of the doubly unknown finish, YY.
I didn’t fully parse EX LIB or ODESSA. I think think I did the rest. Likes: DIAL, BARNARDO, PLATEAU.
Thanks Kite and duncanshiell for a super clear blog.