I was slightly nervous that I might be getting the Grauniad Christmas Special by Maskarade as the Prize puzzle to blog, but it seems the new normal is to have a ‘regular’ Prize puzzle and the Maskarade as a ‘bonus’ on the side…
…either way, I would have been ‘double-blogged’, as Maskarade is also Doc in the Spectator, and I am down to blog his Xmas special, and Brummie is Cyclops in Private Eye, and I am blogging his Xmas special (for the final time (;+<) at the same time as this one…
But back to the puzzle at hand – Brummie must have to rein in his Cyclops-ean instincts when setting for the Grauniad, but we have a FOUR-LETTER WORD at 6D/26D, and I initially put in BOOB at 2D – OB, outside, or live, broadcast, twice in different directions?…
Fortunately for me, after that diversion, I seemed to get on the wavelength of this puzzle fairly quickly and things fell into place in quite good order and timely fashion…
I enjoyed the ‘NHS paragon’ at 8A NONESUCH; I’m not much of a ‘Strictly’ fan, but 14A LENIENCY pulled some nice threads together in that space; the clue for 24A BRIGANTINE was neatly concise.
(Apologies for the brevity, but I am currently in the sunny climes of Barbados celebrating my 25th wedding anniversary, and I have to go out to Oistins for ‘Friday Fish Supper’ – so rushing this out before deadline and I may be in a ‘rum fog’ tomorrow morning, rather than on a foggy golf course…talk amongst yourselves, as usual, and I will chime in when I can!…)
My thanks to Brummie (and his Cyclops alter-ego), and I trust all is clear below…
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 8A | NONESUCH | Doctor on cue: NHS paragon of old (8)
anag, i.e. doctor, of ON CUE NHS |
| 9A | ADOPT | Trouble getting a short drink? Take over! (5)
ADO (trouble) + PT (abbreviation for pint, drink) |
| 10A | STUB | Put out, objections being overturned (4)
BUTS, objections, overturned = STUB |
| 11A | INFILTRATE | Get inside when hot female launches line in fancy attire (10)
IN (trendy, hot) + F (female) + I_TRATE (anag, i.e. fancy, of ATTIRE) around L (line) |
| 12A | PHOBOS | Moon: top-of-the-range feature to be put in position shortly (6)
P_OS (position, shortly) around HOB (feature found on top of a range cooker!) |
| 14A | LENIENCY | Kindness of Mr Goodman: ‘Awfully nice being on the right side of Strictly’ (8)
LEN (Len Goodman) + IENC (anag, i.e. awfully, of NICE) + Y (right-most letter, or right side, of strictlY) |
| 16A | REJOICE | Celebrate on joining innovative writer on radio (7)
RE (on, regarding) + JOICE (homophone, i.e. on radio – James JOYCE, innovative writer, can sound like JOICE) |
| 18A | SPOTLIT | Crack about our tank tops being illuminated (7)
SP_LIT (crack) around OT (top letters of Our Tanks) |
| 21A | DEED POLL | Exploit survey that legitimises using a different name? (4,4)
DEED (feat, exploit) + POLL (survey) |
| 23A | TUREEN | Dish of egged escalope starters stuffed in roll (6)
TUR_N (roll, e.g. of the dice, a turn) around EE (starting letters of Egged Escalope) |
| 24A | BRIGANTINE | Ship set out bearing tin (10)
anag, i.e. set out, of BEARING TIN |
| 26A | WELL | The Guardian’s intending to stream? (4)
punning double defn, ignoring punctuation – WE’LL, we intend to, from the Grauniad’s point of view; WELL – to gush out, well up, or stream |
| 27A | PHLOX | Maybe the perennial sound of groups of birds (5)
homophone, i.e. sound of – PHLOX, a perennial plant, can sound like FLOCKS, groups of birds |
| 28A | LEVERAGE | Bank restricting newspaper’s influence (8)
LEVE_E (river embankment) around (restricting0 RAG (newspaper) |
| Down | ||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 1D | SOFT-SHOE (SHUFFLE) | & 4 Tap-dance footwear stuck under piano? Move around (4-4,7)
SOFT (piano, musical instruction) + SHOE (footwear) + SHUFFLE (move around) |
| 2D | BEEB | Two-way live broadcasts from this (4)
BE (live) + EB (be, the other way) = BEEB (the BBC, broadcasting institution) |
| 3D | QUOITS | Goes to limit ball game (6)
QU_ITE (goes) around (limiting) O (round letter, ball) |
| 4D | SHUFFLE | See 1 (7)
see 1D |
| 5D | BAWL | Bellow’s book – boring thing (4)
B (book) + AWL (boring thing, drill bit!) |
| 6D | FOUR-LETTER (WORD) | & 26 I swear I might well use it! (4-6,4)
CD – someone who swears might use a ‘FOUR-LETTER WORD’! |
| 7D | STATIC | Still, that’s how it appeared to take in rubbish (6)
S_IC (that is how something appeared, usually in print) around taking in) TAT (rubbish) |
| 13D | BOONDOGGLE | Futile project – but benefit to boxer with broken leg? (10)
BOON (benefit) + DOG (boxer, for example) + GLE (anag, i.e. broken, of LEG) |
| 15D | NAP | Drop off vessel that’s capsized (3)
PAN (vessel) capsized = NAP |
| 17D | COO | I say a bird should be tailless! (3)
COO( |
| 19D | IDEOLOGY | Faith’s video log not very funny ultimately (8)
( |
| 20D | PLAINLY | ‘Got horizontal’ in ferry, in an obvious way (7)
P_LY (ferry, transport over a reguar route) around LAIN (got horizontal) |
| 22D | ENRAPT | Focus of eleven rap tunes shows intent (6)
hidden word centrally in, i.e. focus of, ‘elevEN RAP Tunes’ |
| 23D | TWELVE | Lead vocalist starts in cute number (6)
TWE_E (cute) around LV (starts of lead Vocalist) |
| 25D | NEXT | Succeeding vote is in bag (4)
NE_T (bag, catch) around X (vote mark) |
| 26D | WORD | See 6 (4)
see 6D |
Thanks mc-rapper67 for QUOITS confirmation (incidentally I think it should be QU_ITS (goes) , not QU_ITE), the only one I needed in this somewhat benign Prize.
Thanks Brummie, too
24a was my LOI because sometimes I miss the fact that a clue is an anagram 🙁
Thanks mc-rapper67 (I hope that the ‘Friday Fish Supper’ turned out well) and Brummie
Goodman to me means Benny, Len I don’t know, so that was a shrug. And eyes stream after they well up, but not to worry. Otherwise yep, pretty benign from the Brum. Best wishes to him, to rapper and missus in the Caribbean, and to all for the new year.
Approachable and enjoyable
I liked best BRIGANTINE, BOONDOGGLE (a great word), and STATIC
Thanks for help parsing ADOPT. For 17d I confidently entered “I say” = GOD, with godwit as the tailless bird. It took a while to sort out that error. FOUR LETTER WORD was my LOI, and I think I know what Brummie is getting at but that clue still does not quite gel in my head.
Thanks to Brummie for a fun puzzled and to mc_rapper67 for a great blog.