A Prize puzzle from Paul, with a theme which could divide opinion
The theme was pretty clearly signposted, with a straightforward charade as a clue at 24,9,18, as (winners of) the EUROVISION SONG CONTEST, which may have been greeted with delight by some solvers, as total anathema to others or with total mystification by many overseas solvers, despite the fairly recent inclusion of Australia and other countries outside Europe – see here for the history, adding to the ludicrousness of the title. I think Paul’s witty definition for the clue makes clear which side of the fence he is on.
It’s a cleverly composed puzzle, incorporating references to EUROVISION SONGs and winners of the Contest in both clues and answers, which I’ve highlighted in the blog.
Apart from the key entry, my favourite clues were 1ac ABBACY, 11ac FOREGO, 12ac CHOOSING, 13ac WORDSMITH, 25 NEEP, 3dn CONFORM, 8dn LIECHTENSTEIN and 16dn LETTUCE.
Thank you to Paul for an interesting puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Brotherhood of Man’s authority voided country’s backing group (6)
ABBACY
C[ountr]Y following (backing) ABBA (group, who won the contest in 1974 with Waterloo – see 27ac) – a clever definition
Brotherhood of Man were the winners for the UK in 1976
4 Error, I hate that being repeated (3-3)
BOO-BOO
BOO (I hate that) repeated
10 Blurry mark I see on siren or horn, say (10)
NOISEMAKER
An anagram (blurry) of MARK I SEE ON
11 In favour of self-sacrifice? (6)
FOREGO
A ‘lift and separate’ (always popular with me) of ‘self-sacrifice’: FOR (in favour of) + EGO (self))
The pedant in me protests that ‘forego’ means ‘to go before’ (and ‘forgo’ ‘to sacrifice’) but both Collins and Chambers give either spelling for each word – and, for the sake of the construction and surface, I do want this clue to work!
12 Half-cut, train and perform Making Your Mind Up (8)
CHOOSING
CHOO [choo] (child’s train, half-cut) + SING (perform)
Bucks Fizz won for the UK – those were the days! – in 1981, with Making Your Mind Up)
13 One who’s articulate and bags gold medal (9)
WORDSMITH
WITH (and) round (bags) OR (gold) + DSM (Distinguished Service Medal)
15, 16 Film 24 9, end, not beginning (2,2,4)
LA-LA LAND
LA LA LA (24,9, Eurovision song, winner for Spain in 1968) + [e]ND, not beginning – italics
17 Present popular ceasefire broken by party from the right (9)
INTRODUCE
IN (popular) + a reversal (from the right) of DO (party) in TRUCE (ceasefire)
21 Holy person just holding a hand (8)
STRAIGHT
ST (saint, holy person) + RIGHT (just) round A – a straight is a hand in poker
22 Raider, leader after Roman figure in muscly pack? (6)
VIKING
KING (leader) after VI (Roman figure – six) : six-pack is the nickname of the rectus abdominis pair of muscles
24, 9, 19 Money, seeing number dodge tax, annual headache for the auditor? (10,4,7)
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
A perfectly formed charade: EURO (money) VISION (seeing) SONG (number) CON (dodge) TEST (tax) – with a witty definition
25 Resident in Irvine, eponymous Swede in Scotland (4)
NEEP
Hidden in irviNE EPonymous – neeps (mashed swedes) and tatties (potatoes) are the traditional accompaniment to haggis, particularly on Burns Night; Irvine is a town in Scotland, hence ‘eponymous’
26 Small raptor, each animal finally within grasp (6)
EAGLET
EA (each) + [anima]L in GET (grasp)
27 A leader in general defined by Waterloo, various things going to pot? (6)
RAGOUT
A from the clue + G[eneral] in ROUT (Waterloo)
Down
1 Loving sherry! (7)
AMOROSO
Double definition
2 Instrument with fluff, unspecified quantity pulled out (5)
BUGLE
BU[n]GLE (fluff) minus n, an indefinite or unspecified number in Maths
3 Charlie doing well, follow (7)
CONFORM
C (Charlie – NATO phonetic alphabet) + ON FORM (doing well)
5 State of repair originally gone awry (6)
OREGON
O[f] R[epair] initially + an anagram (awry) of GONE
6 Northern English outfit in black, underwear’s smooth girdles (5,4)
BRASS BAND
BRAS (underwear) + SAND (smooth) round B (black)
Brass bands are perhaps particularly associated with the North of England, based on collieries and factories: among the best known are the Black Dyke Mills and the Grimethorpe Colliery Bands, the latter featuring in the BAFTA-nominated film ‘Brassed Off’
(Optional link – sheer self-indulgence on my part: one of my favourite clips)
Please see Shanne @comment 11 for a much better link
7 Circle a nice round area in watery region (7)
OCEANIA
O (circle) + an anagram (round) of A NICE + A (area)
8 Artist impressed by European country (13)
LIECHTENSTEIN
E (European) in (Roy LICHTENSTEIN (artist)#
14 Battle inspires a 24 9 (4-1-4)
DING-A-DONG
DING-DONG (battle) round A – the Eurovision song (24 9) Ding-a Dong was the winner for the Netherlands in 1975
16 Conservative in day after period of occupancy leaves (7)
LETTUCE
LET (period of occupancy) + C (Conservative) in TUE(sday) – a witty reference to this story
18 Bird irrelevant in Italian city (7)
RAVENNA
RAVEN (bird) + NA (not applicable – irrelevant)
20 Good egg breaks that is light (6)
IGNITE
G (good) NIT (egg) in I E (id est, that is)
23 Martial art, culmination in killer blow (5)
KENDO
END (culmination) in KO (killer blow)
Thanks to Paul for an interesting puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
(I’m not a golfer like my colleague Prize blogger but like him, often, I shan’t be able to comment after around 9.00am GMT until early evening. I shall be out all day at at our annual Christmas Tree Festival, which always coincides with my monthly Prize blog. There may well be typos, etc in this blog, for which I apologise and plead fatigue from day-long sessions for the last few days, setting up said event. All huge fun and we’re ready for a great weekend!)
Ever since Auracaria’s rhyming alphabeticals, I generally read through the clues before I get started, so the theme was quickly worked out, and a write in. So a relatively easy start to a prize, but still took a while to sort out the rest.
Thank you Eileen, I can’t see any issues with your blog and parsing, well done.
I guess I should have worked out what was going on when I solved EUROVISION SONG CONTEST. It is something I know absolutely nothing about, so I never saw the theme which probably slowed me down. Happily, most of the song clues could be solved without knowing the theme, but I never saw the connection between DING-A-DONG and the competition, nor could I work out why a BRASS BAND was a Northern England outfit. Thanks for explaining, Eileen
I made progress in fits and starts over a couple of days, and found the top more difficult than the bottom
Thanks Paul and Eileen
It felt like a good challenge. I wasn’t familiar with the winner songs, so DING-A-DONG gave me trouble, as did AMOROSO and BUGLE. Couldn’t figure out the parsing of WORDSMITH. NHO NEEP or muscular six-pack and wasn’t sure, either, why a brass band is a Northern English outfit. Liked RAVENNA (plus I like the city itself a lot, especially the famous mosaics), KENDO, FOREGO, BOO-BOO and RAGOUT. Thanks a lot Paul and Eileen!
We went to a Brass Banding Day with Lancs cousins years ago. They are indeed quite a thing — all day and evening, eminent judging panel, lots of bands, lots of pints. The Eurovision theme, otoh, I knew next to nothing about, although it does make the news here since Oz joined. Very democratic, crosswordland, something for everybody. Thanks Paul and Eileen.
It occurred to me that when (in 1974) the ESC was won by ABBA with WATERLOO, it was held in Paul’s home town of Brighton which he likes to make reference to.
Fun puzzle.
Thanks to Paul and to Eileen for an entertaining blog.
Third in a row with just one quadrant (or two) completed (NE for this one) and not much else. It did add up to half the puzzle, though. Licking wounds…
…but now I see why. I was tempted to stop reading the blog and walk away when I saw the theme was EUROVISION SONG CONTEST, but I just had to see if “Bing Tiddle Tiddle Bong” showed up. Sadly I was disappointed. 🙂
With song titles like Bing Tiddle Tiddle Bong and Ding a Dong, it sounds like a wonderful event
I thought this would be easier than it turned out to be.
Got there in the end but couldn’t parse WORDSMITH.
Brass bands are still a massive thing where I am (top end of Greater Manchester).
Thanks to both.
Did anyone else think 21A (STRAIGHT) was a themed answer as well? Eurovision being about the least straight thing on television… [rainbow emoji]
Managed to finish this on the day for once although didn’t parse a couple.
As soon as I saw Brotherhood of Man in the first clue and Waterloo in the last across clue I had an inkling of the theme – but I didn’t know the songs referred to in the clues or answers.
Like Eileen really liked: LETTUCE (made me laugh), FOREGO and CHOOSING.
Thanks Paul and Eileen
I was wondering if we’d get Boom Bang a Bang, Puppet on a String or Congratulations.
There’s a better link to Brassed Off here.
Thank you to Eileen and Paul. Good luck with the tree festival, ours is next week, and we have glitter everywhere as I prepare decorations to for Rainbows to make for their tree on Monday.
Great fun.
I liked NEEP, STRAIGHT and BOO BOO.
Thank you, Shanne @11 – that was the clip I wanted to use but something went wrong when I tried to post it. 🙁
Nice effort. Faves were ABBACY, CHOOSING, STRAIGHT and VIKING. I also liked RAGOUT although it took a while because there was no French indicator. The English word is, simply, “stew” and I can’t see why we’d need to assimilate the French one. (Unlike Italian ragù, which doesn’t really have a direct translation.)
I had to cheat on BUGLE to make progess – I’d got nowhere with very droll E S C and alas didn’t draw together all the nice references in the clues; I very much don’t read the clues in advance – but at least that paid off by giving me the G checker for SONG allowing E S G to fall. LA LA LAND then made me laugh, as I misinterpreted it as Paul’s opinion on what half the songs sound like.
Couldn’t make head nor tail of LIECHTENSTEIN (apologies to the artist). LOI was DING-A-DONG which was a bit of a shrug and anti-climax. Nho the song, obviously; I again assumed it was Paul’s opinion on the music.
Thanks both
We couldn’t understand the “muscly pack” in the clue to VIKING, as the clue seemed to work perfectly well without it. But it was great fun.
Thanks to Shanne for the link to that wonderful scene from Brassed Off.
Many thanks Eileen for dotting the I’s in my parsing. Am doing very few puzzles at the moment. Preoccupied with an irritating/non-irritating anagram of ROSES.
Solving it on the app, I didn’t spot the compiler. Once BRASS BAND was done, I was in no doubt. A glorious puzzle. Many thanks, Paul.
Thanks to all for the smile-generating banter. ESC is very Marmite.
I couldn’t see Liechtenstein even with all the crossers. Nho the artist which didn’t help, and with only a single letter to insert it’s almost a double definition, but that’s a poor excuse.
The use of Waterloo to define a ROUT in 27a is a little inaccurate, isn’t it? I thought that a ROUT was a heavy defeat, whereas that battle was “the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life”, according to the victorious general.
I got all the song references, but struggled to parse WORDSMITH at first. It’s that little word ‘and’ that is the key, as I eventually realised.
Thanks to Paul and Eileen.
Fun altogether but I agree with Sheffield Hatter that Waterloo was never a ‘rout’
I hadn’t heard of AMOROSO. I had OLOROSO which is also a type of sherry, in spite of not being able to parse it. So did not quite finish.
I agree with Sheffield Hatter, I didn’t recognise the characterisation of Waterloo as a rout.
A real challenge. Took me most of the week.
sheffield hatter@18, interesting point. I had always taken it to mean the same, but it seems it’s specifically a description of a disorderly retreat – which in the case of Waterloo happened after an engagement that was fairly equally damaging to both sides.
What I do know is that Waterloo is always rout in crosswordland, just as underwear is always bra…
Just to let everyone know the setter in the FT today is Rosa Klebb AKA Arachne.
Hope Eileen will enjoy that after her hard day at the Christmas tree festival.
Happy Advent everyone
Thanks, Eileen. I didn’t groan until quite late in this puzzle, when I finally saw that EUROVISION would fit the crossers for 24a. Not that I have anything against the event, just that I knew this wasn’t going to play to my strengths. I did get there, but the top left corner held me up at the end. I remember going to bed with one unsolved clue to go, and waking up in the middle of the night not only knowing it was WORDSMITH but also how the parsing worked. I find that strangely worrying! I’m glad Paul fitted ABBA – very cleverly – into one answer, and not surprised that I’d never come across the word. And thanks for the Brassed Off links, Eileen and Shane – it’s a movie I’ve enjoyed several times.
I liked the ambiguous definition for EUROVISION SONG CONTEST, which could refer to the poor quality of the music or the annual controversy about the voting system.
I’m relaxed about Waterloo=rout. The battle itself was close but the consequences were devastating for Napoleon.
Thanks Eileen and Paul.
I am in the negative camp regarding the theme, but overall the puzzle was OK, I suppose. I thought about AMOROSO, but I had never heard of that name for a sherry, and I didn’t investigate enough. I settled on OLOROSO because it had four Os, hence ‘loving’. A reasonable answer, I thought. Sadly, like AdrianG@20, that meant that I couldn’t finish. Ticks for LA LA LAND, STRAIGHT. No ticks for LIECHTENSTEIN. Couldn’t explain it, and no wonder. I’ve never heard of him.
Amusing theme — “annual headache for the auditor”! The film had to be LA LA LAND but I didn’t know the song in question so couldn’t quite explain it.
Interesting comments about Waterloo = rout. ABBA of course got it wrong when they sang “My my, at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender”. He didn’t, he just withdrew from the field (and surrendered himself a few weeks later). And I’ve always thought it a bit odd that in English “Waterloo” is used to mean a major defeat (as in someone met their Waterloo) when for the British it was a major victory!
Many thanks Paul and Eileen.
Failed on ABBACY although I’m now kicking myself as I had the CY but just couldn’t see the rest. Otherwise a fun solve. I got the song contest clue about halfway through and saw the theme so that helped although I am no Eurovision expert or fan! Thanks Paul and Eileen.
I thought this was one of Paul’s better crosswords, despite the theme. I liked ABBACY for the country’s backing group, the WORDSMITH bagging a gold medal, STRAIGHT’s hand holding, EUROVISION SONG CONTEST’s annual headache for the auditor, BRASS BAND’s underwear, and LETTUCE, with shades of Conservative Liz Truss.
Thanks Paul and Eileen
I didn’t get EUROVISION SONG CONTEST in until about half the grid had already been completed, having been indifferent to it since whenever. About the only thing I know about it is that ABBA won it with WATERLOO sometime in the 1870s (I meant to type 1970s, but let it stand…). Even then it was slotted in bit by bit from the back… TEST, then CON, then… Not so much of a PDM as as brick sinking through ooze few hours.
This took some time on Saturday evening and it was enjoyable. Only quibble was with 1a; an abbot has authority over a brotherhood of monks, not over the brotherhood of man, the concept that all mankind is linked.
I doubt if I was alone in trying to fit BOOT (as defined(?) by Wellington into 27a.
Thanks to Paul and Eileen.
… (pressed go accidentally before finishing)… So it was a fairly chewy solve as I was trying to work back to the them me from earlier solves like LA LA LAND.
Lots of “hard but fair”, as expected from Paul, to whom thanks for the fun, and to Eileen for the blog.
WORDSMITH and ABBACY escaped me, but otherwise I enjoyed this puzzle. I share Eileen’s dislike of FOREGO meaning to go without. And my knowledge of Eurovision songs was woeful!
“Who sang Making Your Mind Up in the Eurovision Song Contest?”, I asked; to be met with the reply ‘That’s the key answer!”; and after a PDM extraordinaire, I said “Yes, it’s 10, 4, 7!” This interchange was after a slow start during which we had noted the various musical references. From then, it was a most enjoyable breeze with LOI as IGNITE because we had not even read the clue until required!
Thank you Paul for a great puzzle and Eileen for your usual super blog which just clarified a couple of small issues concerning BRASS BAND and VIKING, but we thoroughly concur with your favourites.
I’m afraid I had never noticed that the artist was spelt differently from the country!
I’m no fan of the ESC though I liked its clue, so a lot of the references passed me by, but with the exception of DING-A-DONG it didn’t matter much. Nice penny drop for the brotherhood of man’s authority; didn’t spot the muscly pack but the clue more or less works with just the Roman figure.
PS: Pino@30: I interpreted it as a monastery being a brotherhood of men: for the sake of a good clue I’m OK with it.
[Just to amplify what Layman writes @3, if you have not been to RAVENNA, put it top of your bucket list. The Byzantine mosaics are breathtaking.]
[Agreed, Balfour. Charlemagne saw San Vitale and wanted it copied. The chapel at Aachen is as close as the builder could get.
On bucket lists, I would add the gardens of the Villa d’Este at Tivoli. One of the few places I have visited that was even better than I had been told it was!]
The EUROVISION SONG CONTEST is becoming a bit better known here these days, thanks to global streaming services. But it’ll never be well-enough known that the average American can say that this puzzle was anything like easy! It took me ages to get the keystone entry. I only knew the names of two Eurovision entries before beginning (“Waterloo” and “Nel blu di tinto a blu” (aka “Volare”–Dean Martin’s cover version, practically the only recording one hears, uses that title)), so I missed nearly all the references in the clues, and had to work out DING-A-DONG from the crossing letters.
Not really expecting many folk still to be around, I’m unwinding / relaxing, though the adrenalin level’s still high, after a tiring but so rewarding day, when we’ve welcomed around a thousand happy adults and children through the doors and entertained them with seventy magical Christmas trees, with a children’s trail and craft activities, along with musical accompaniment from two local choirs and an exuberant jazz band, plus lots of home-made cakes and mince pies, rounded off with mulled wine at going-home time, by going through all the comments posted since I left home this morning. (I think this might be the longest sentence I’ve ever written.)
sheffield hatter @18, croc @ 19, AdrianG @ 20 – I’m rather surprised at Waterloo = rout being so controversial: I didn’t give it a second thought: as AP @21 points out, it’s a crossword staple
Collins: ‘a total or crushing defeat (esp in meet one’s Waterloo)’
Shirley @22 – many thanks for the heads up re Rosa 🙂
Keith S @23 – I’ve had similar experiences at 3.00am – spooky as you say.
Like you, I’ve watched ‘Brassed off’ several times and, to my surprise, thoroughly enjoyed our local Little Theatre’s production of it a few months ago: I couldn’t imagine how they could stage it but, with the help of a local brass band, they made a brilliant job of it.
Pino @24 – I take your point but I interpreted the clue in the same way as gladys @ 35.
(Balfour@27) and muffin @ 38 – I haven’t been to Ravenna but would fully endorse your comment about Villa d’Este, visited 25 years ago.
mrpenney @38 – perhaps you should count yourself lucky. 😉
Many thanks for all your comments.
Great stuff as usual from Paul, and I might have noticed a theme.
(I could never take KENDO seriously as a martial art, because it went most of the way to spelling Ken Dodd…)
Cheers all.
MrPenney@38 – interesting… Although I said in my post that I was a bit hampered in never having had any interest at all in the ERC, I guess enough about it to be of some help must have seeped in by cultural osmosis. To the US solvers, it must have been somewhere on the spectrum between “vaguely heard of but baffling” and “WTF?! “, to a greater extent even than the assumed background knowledge of cricket, Oxbridge, Latin tags, the Anglican church and so on. These crosswords can be tough enough without the degree of cultural immersion often required!
Eileen@39 – Sounds like quite a day! I hope you have a bottle of something agreeable waiting, or maybe already started.
[DTS @41
It was! – and, in answer to your implied question, yes, thank you. 😉
Now looking forward to more of the same tomorrow afternoon, culminating in a carol service among the trees in our beautiful parish church venue. (Last year – our fifth venture -we raised around £6000 for local charities.)]
[It sounds like a hard but satisfying day, Eileen. I hope you enjoyed it!]
Filled in some answers, found it very up hill, but then I’ve tried my best to ignore that appalling “song contest” most of my life. That may have put a complete blank on any hope of solving the key clue 🤷♀️
[Eileen: that sounds like a lovely day. I spent the afternoon helping with kids’ crafts on our church’s stall at the local Switching On Of The Lights – luckily the morning’s miserable grey downpour cleared up in time.]
[Gladys @45 – my responsibilities were mainly on the refreshments side (days of baking beforehand and serving on the day) but I was really impressed and touched by the children’s absorption in and enjoyment of the craft activities – especially considering their extremely low-tech nature! – and their proud and happy faces as they took their projects home – and also, of course, the ingenuity, patience and dedication of the leaders.
Similar wet start here yesterday – but the sun’s shining this morning, ready for our second session this afternoon, when we’re hoping for a record turn-out. We end up at 5.00 with a carol service in church, amid the trees – with more mulled wine!
Thanks again for your comments, which I always enjoy.]
gladys@35, Eileen@39
I thought of your parsing but it didn’t quite work for me. I notice that gladys used “men” in her post which would have fitted the definition a bit better but not fitted the theme. It was only a quibble or even, as some here would put it, a quiblet and didn’t affect my enjoyment of a puzzle with several of Paul’s wiity clues and clever wordplay.
Felt so clever with 1ac knowing that the authority of Man was the House of Keys and then removing the “y” due to voiding the last letter (backing) of country and then coming to a complete standstill with what to do with the remaining KES
SB 48:
I wondered the same as you, but didn’t have your knowledge, so fumbled my way to the correct solution and parsing instead.
Sugarbutties@48 I went as far as to specifically look up the name of the Parliament of the Isle: Tynwald. Which I knew in the past. I knew it again last week when I looked it up. And I know it again today now that I looked it up once more. I suppose one day I may actually remember it… but the odds aren’t looking particularly good so far.
The fun thing was that it didn’t help in the slightest! I enjoyed the PDM moment when it came though.