A rare appearance by Fed in the Prize slot this week.
Fed is perhaps better known as the comedian Dave Gorman. He is now a prolific setter in The Guardian and elsewhere, but I think that this may be his first appearance in the Prize slot and hence is the first time that I have blogged one of his puzzles. Timon and I found much to admire in the variety of clues on offer, with a few tricky parsings, but I think that all is explained below. If there was a theme, it has eluded us, but I did notice that ADIEU appears as a possible Nina in the fourth line. I hope that is just a coincidence.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MALAISE |
Discomfort of man guarding Ladies at intervals (7)
|
| Alternate letters of lAdIeS inside MALE. | ||
| 5 | ISOLATE |
I run down to take old set apart (7)
|
| O(ld) inside I SLATE (I run down). | ||
| 10 | PLAICE |
Caught what might be flat fish (6)
|
| A homophone of “place” (which might be a flat). | ||
| 11 | ACCUSTOM |
Charge when docked before Cruise. It’s what adaptors do? (8)
|
| ACCUS(e) (charge) TOM (Cruise). | ||
| 12 | AND |
Also covered by Ian Dury (3)
|
| Hidden in Ian Dury. | ||
| 13 | ARCHED |
Main journalist is bent (6)
|
| ARCH (main, as in Archbishop) ED(itor). | ||
| 14 | DIATRIBE |
Dreadful people broadcast stream of abuse (8)
|
| Sounds like “dire tribe”. | ||
| 15 | DEBUT |
Spooner’s horse expected to make first appearance (5)
|
| Spoonerism of “bay due”. | ||
| 16 | FIG LEAVES |
Flipping image on computer goes to show what First Lady wore? (3,6)
|
| GIF (rev) (image on computer) LEAVES (goes). | ||
| 19 | APPENDAGE |
Saw boxes open having made over pub’s entrance – need attachment (9)
|
| P(ub) and (o)PEN all inside ADAGE (saw). We weren’t entirely comfortable with “made over” as a deletion indicator for the O of open; perhaps someone has a better parsing? | ||
| 21 | ODEON |
Working next to Lyric Theatre (5)
|
| ODE (lyric) ON (working). | ||
| 24 | GRAFFITO |
Writing on the wall? It’s hard work entertaining female I love (8)
|
| F(emale) I inserted into GRAFT (hard work), O (love). | ||
| 26 | ASTRAY |
Occasionally Lady Astor starts and nothing goes wrong (6)
|
| *(lAdY (occasional letters of lAdY) AST(o)R (nothing goes)). “starts” is the anagram indicator. | ||
| 27 | OWN |
Have to swing regularly (3)
|
| Alternate (regular) letters of tO sWiNg. | ||
| 28 | WINDMILL |
Turner’s Dutch landscape feature? (8)
|
| Cryptic definition and definition. | ||
| 29 | CLINIC |
Bromide he wanted by visiting health centre (6)
|
| IN (by) inside CLIC(he) (he wanted). A cliche could be defined as a bromide. | ||
| 30 | USURPED |
United beaten – starters in Amorim’s side seem lost, displaced (7)
|
| U(nited); SURP(ass)ED (omitting starting letters from Amorim’s Side Seem). This was the last one that we parsed. | ||
| 31 | BLUE JAY |
Judge adult getting into children’s cartoon bird (4,3)
|
| J(udge) A(dult) inside BLUEY (children’s cartoon). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | AT LARGE |
Worried about prisoner crossing river, getting free (2,5)
|
| R(iver) inside LAG (prisoner), all inside ATE (worried). | ||
| 3, 20 | ACID HOUSE PARTIES |
I do supply with Es I purchase at raves (4,5,7)
|
| *(I DO ES I PURCHASE AT). “Supply” is an anagram indicator; it’s an adverb, not a noun or a verb. | ||
| 4 | STEADY |
Succeeded with tea and sympathy ultimately being unwavering (6)
|
| S(ucceeded) TEA anD (sympath)Y. | ||
| 6 | SOCIALLY |
Crafty, ringing round before agents left – in a friendly way (8)
|
| O (round) CIA (agents) L(eft), all inside SLY (crafty). | ||
| 7 | LOSER |
One doesn’t win exciting roles (5)
|
| *ROLES. | ||
| 8, 17 | TROUBLE AND STRIFE |
Dutch fighting berserk Dane first (7,3,6)
|
| TROUBLE (fighting) *(DANE FIRST). Both “Dutch” and “trouble and strife” are slang terms for a wife. | ||
| 9 | PADDLING POOLS |
Angrily pop all sodding inflatables? (8,5)
|
| *(POP ALL SODDING). | ||
| 17 |
See 8
|
|
| 18 | ADDITIVE |
Extra in uplifting musical flexibly did splits (8)
|
| *DID (flexibly) inside (splits) EVITA (musical, rev). | ||
| 20 |
See 3
|
|
| 22 | OCARINA |
Seat for one artiste essentially jamming on a musical instrument (7)
|
| CAR (Seat – the Spanish brand) (art)I(ste) all inside (jamming) ON A. | ||
| 23 | CANCEL |
Tin Church, Laragh’s source for scrap (6)
|
| CAN (tin) CE (Church) L(aragh). | ||
| 25 | FADER |
Group of footballers embarrassed about being dimmer (5)
|
| FA (group of footballers) RED (embarrassed, rev). Dimmer here is a noun. |
19ac you make the O (over) of ‘open’ a P (pub’s entrance), ie ‘open’ becomes ‘ppen’. Enjoyed this, sincerely hope it’s not ADIEU.
Comment #2
Took one sitting, but a rather long one. In the end, entered OCARINA out of desperation, but couldn’t see the word play. For crossing CLINIC, couldn’t see the IN.
Some clues were quite remarkable, in particular ASTRAY, ADDITIVE and GRAFFITO.
Tx.
Is this maybe a tad too contrived in places? A bit “out there”?
Some great clues here. I always miss the trick used in APPENDAGE.
I’m sure I’ll have missed something, but isn’t there an extra “one” in 22D? It seems to work fine without it, just using the I in the middle of artiste?
Hard. I filled in all the squares correctly again but had to wait to come here to understand rather too many for my own self respect. Still not convinced about 19a.
10 does not make a lot of sense. Where is the homophone indicator? “What might be flat” cannot equate to “place” – would love to hear how.
Made OVER (O) pubs entrance (P). It is not deletion, but replacing O with P.
*(lAdY (occasional letters of lAdY) AST(o)R (nothing goes)). “starts” is the anagram indicator.
I believe there is no anagram. Starts just means that ASTOR without O starts, followed by AY from lAdY
29. Is “wanted” really a deletion indicator, and “by” an insertion indicator?
22 what is “seat for one”? How does that become CAR? Even if SEAT is a Spanish car, what happened to “for one”? Is SEAT a single-seater car?
Well! This was a thing of beauty. I continue to be a huge fan of Fed’s puzzles, and although I can understand why some find them contrived, personally I find them cleverly constructed (it’s probably the mathematician in me – and in Fed, I believe). Combine that with concise, witty surfaces and you get something very elegant.
I made speedy progress, and then spent longer on the last two, USURPED and ASTRAY, as on the rest of the puzzle combined. There can’t be many words that fit the checkers for USURPED and yet would one come to me? And even when it did, the parsing was pretty fiendish… one of only two clues I wasn’t taken with (see subsequent comment), but maybe it’s sour grapes!
As for ASTRAY, I parsed it as per the blog and was going to quibble (removing a letter after anagramming is a no-no), but it’s clear that the correct passing is that given by Shafar@9; chapeau for that!
Thanks both
Shafar, as for your queries:
CLINIC: “Bromide he wanted” is CLIC[HE] without the “he”, i.e. “Bromide lacking he”.
OCARINA: “for one” can mean “for example”, so “Seat for one” clues CAR because Seat (properly styled as SEAT so Fed’s been a bit naughty there) is an example of a brand of car. Definitions by example have to be indicated somehow; setters use a variety of devices, including “perhaps” and a “?”. “For one” is quite common too, and here it was beautifully disguised.
PLAICE: “place” for “flat” was the other one I wasn’t much taken with. “Go back to my flat/place” maybe. Perhaps there’s more to this one.
Shafar #11 “Seat for one” as in “I could name several makes of car – Seat for one”.
Another great puzzle from Fed, with great surfaces and wordplay. Chewy enough that it took a few sittings. Favourites 1a MALAISE, 10a PLAICE (flat fish), 21a ODEON (Lyric Theatre), 26a ASTRAY (Lady Astor), 31 BLUE JAY (our beloved Canadian baseball team, which should have won the World Series this year)
19a APPENDAGE is delightfully convoluted after retro-parsing. Anyone solve it directly from the wordplay?
Shafar@7, Do you want to come over to my flat/place? (as AP@13) Homophone indicator is “caught”
APPENDAGE
Agree with Hadrian@1 and Shafar@8.
ASTRAY
Agree with Shafar@9
PLAICE
‘caught’ (in the sense of ‘heard’) is the homophone indicator.
My flat is my place.
CLINIC
@10
‘wanted’ to indicate that CLIChe lacks he.
‘by’ is interchangeable with ‘in’ (I am coming in my car/by my car….someone should have a better example).
by visiting=IN visiting/IN is included in
OCARINA
Seat, for one=Seat, for example/say.
Sorry. I was typing for a long time, and I see that almost all queries of Shafar have already been answered.
Thanks Fed and bridgesong.
Not much to add to AP@12.
Thanks, fed and Bridgesong for a difficult but entertaining puzzle