Sorry this is late – rush job to cover this morning
Certain things about this crossword that reminded me I was solving a Paul as I completed it last week. I volunteered to put this together as I remembered having solved, all parsed, barring the one I’ve guessed at as I blogged (and said). Sorry, this is hurled together, so no doubt there will be corrections.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ROUGH DIAMOND |
Brute with good heart mentioning trump card (5,7)
|
| ROUGH (soundalike of “ruff” – to trump in bridge) + CARD (diamond – as in a card suit) – according to the BRB, a ROUGH DIAMOND is “a person, possibly of great worth, but of rough appearance and unpolished manners” The soundalike indicator is “mentioning”. | ||
| 8 | ANDIRON |
Supporter of wood – other golf club too? (7)
|
| charade of AND (too) IRON (golf club) – other golf club because a wood is also a golf club – and the whole referring to this wood support in a fireplace – the sort of word I knew but had to double check was what I thought it might be | ||
| 9 | TALLIED |
First of teams in league scored (7)
|
| Charade of T (first of Teams) + ALLIED (in league) | ||
| 11 | RACECAR |
Monopoly token that’s unchanged when withdrawn? (7)
|
| palindrome (unchanged when withdrawn) – and the only Monopoly token that could be a palindrome is the racing car, expressed as RACECAR (and this was my first in) | ||
| 12 | OVIFORM |
Old pro in spirit resembling Humpty Dumpty? (7)
|
| O (old) + FOR (pro) inserted into VIM (spirit) to give O VI FOR M | ||
| 13 | FILET |
Cut twentieth collection of data? (5)
|
| T is the 20th letter of the alphabet, so the 20th collection of data is FILE T
adding in later – FILET is in my edition of Chambers, marked as (Fr), but as a cut of beef, followed by filet mignon, but from playing American word games, I know FILET is the American spelling of FILLET, see Collins |
||
| 14 | FORTY-FIVE |
Over fifty spins – fewer rpm on this? (5-4)
|
| anagram (spins) of (OVER FIFTY)* and this is a flashback to record players with different speeds for different types of records – 78rpm for the virulently coloured children’s singles we had and earlier records, 45rpm for the singles in the charts and the |
||
| 16 | RESOURCED |
Provided financial support, or rescued when broke (9)
|
| anagram (when broke) of (OR RESCUED)* | ||
| 19 | TIMES |
Half twenty at the outset recalled – as X? (5)
|
| reversal (recalled) of SEMI (half) + T (Twenty at the outset) < | ||
| 21 | CALORIE |
Measure of food in starter of cheese, or filling in a pork pie (7)
|
| C (starter of Cheese) + OR (from the clue) inserted into A LIE (pork pie) to give C A L OR IE – and the pork pie/lie equivalence is Cockney Rhyming Slang originally and gives us porky or porkies for lies. | ||
| 23 | CHENNAI |
Asian painter I observed east of cold Asian city (7)
|
| This is made up of: C (cold) + HENNA (Asian painter, the hand dye) + I – the east of Cold tells the solver to put the C at the front of the rest of the construction | ||
| 24 | SEASIDE |
Holiday destination earmarked, where temperature dropped? (7)
|
| deletion of T (temperature dropped) from SEt ASIDE (earmarked) | ||
| 25 | IDIOTIC |
Concerning hearing given to old dictator, ludicrous (7)
|
| OTIC (concerning hearing) + IDI (Amin – old dictator) – and I suspect the “given to” is an ordering instruction – so IDI OTIC | ||
| 26 | DALE CARNEGIE |
Complex realigned given input of retired expert, self-help guru (4,8)
|
| anagram (complex) of (REALIGNED)* to give DAL RNEGIE around (given input) of ECA (ACE < – retired expert) for the author of “How to Make Friends and Influence People” – more here | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | RADICAL |
Excellent comprehensive (7)
|
| double definition – there is dictionary justification – RADICAL is defined as cool, excellent colloquially and thorough/fundamental | ||
| 2 | UTRECHT |
European city caught in the rain, those umbrellas initially going up (7)
|
| C (caught) inserted into (in) THE (from the clue) + R T U (Rain Those Umbrellas initially) < all reversed (going up) | ||
| 3 | HONORIFIC |
One right to avoid ghastly outlines on title (9)
|
| HORrIFIC (ghastly – minus one R – one right to aviod) around (outlines) ON (from the clue) | ||
| 4 | INTRO |
First of notes in playing of trio – could it be? (5)
|
| the wordplay is N (first of Notes) inserted into (in) anagram of (TRIO)* (playing) – and the whole clue refers to an INTRO – so I’m shrugging at the underlining of the definition, because I don’t think it’s quite a CD/&lit. | ||
| 5 | MOLLIFY |
Soften temper and turn into a Hood’s girl? (7)
|
| This is a whimisical second definition a MOLL (a Hood’s girl) is a gangster’s girlfriend – so whimisically someone who becomes a MOLL, mollifies. | ||
| 6 | NAIROBI |
African city near line worker, we hear? (7)
|
| soundalike (we hear) of “nigh” (near) + “row bee” (line worker) – I hope, I’m always useless at Paul’s soundalikes, not helped by having enough rhoticity in my idiolect to make them challenging. | ||
| 7 | PAIR OF BRACES |
Supporters – four? (4,2,6)
|
| two is a BRACE, so four is a PAIR (two times) OF BRACES | ||
| 10 | DIMMER SWITCH |
Enlightening device in linguistics finally grasped by woman failing spelling test? (6,6)
|
| a woman failing a spelling test is a DIMMER WITCH – the S comes from linguisticS finally, the insertion indication is “grasped” | ||
| 15 | REDACTION |
Change leftist procedure (9)
|
| charade of RED (leftish) + ACTION (procedure) | ||
| 17 | SULTANA |
Tennis organisation in hole after elevating one that’s unseeded (7)
|
| insertion of LTA (tennis organisation) in SUNA (hole – ANUS < after elevating) | ||
| 18 | UPRAISE |
One transported by a super new lift (7)
|
| anagram (new) of (A SUPER) + insertion of I (one transported) | ||
| 19 | TEEMING |
Young sheep stuffed by British artist, full (7)
|
| insertion of EMIN (British artist) into TEG (young sheep) – Tracey Emin is one of the British artists who turns up in crosswords regularly. A TEG is a sheep in its second year, Chambers says it’s obsolete and perhaps Scottish | ||
| 20 | MANATEE |
Sea creature was a part of someone’s diet, ending on plate (7)
|
| charade of MAN ATE (part of someone’s diet) + E (ending on platE) | ||
| 22 | ENEMA |
Ultimate word on efficiency originally drawn up – system clearer? (5)
|
| reversal of (drawn up – in a down clue) of AMEN (ultimate word – the last word in a prayer) + E (Efficiency originally) + the on gives the word order – correcting later: speeding through, I had NAME first – I was just so pleased to be writing up the last clue. |
Number 1 at last .
Thanks, a few I couldn’t parse (NAIROBI, CALORIE). Laughed out loud at SULTANA. I parsed ENEMA as AMEN as the ultimate word.
You’re right TwoLeftHands @2 – I knew I’d get something wrong – corrected (in my defence, I started writing blogs at 6am, so 5 hours later, I’m a bit blogged out)
Thanks for covering the blog , this a good proper crossword with many neat clues . DIMMER SWITCH had clever use of spelling , even the soundalikes were pretty reasonable .
INTRO – I would say the definition is IT , but just an unusual clue that does not fit the normal pattern . First of notes in playing of trio – would be better .
I mostly thought it was a great crossword, but it left me with two clues I found frustrating.
In the end it had to be radical as a double definition but no matter how I tried I couldn’t twist the meanings in my head to make them fit.
I guessed filet early on but couldn’t believe that was a real word either. It just looks to me like a pretentious way to spell fillet.
Ravenrider @5 – FILET is in Chambers as (Fr) cut of beef (and a form of embroidery), but my Chambers is old (1998, 2003 reprint), and I also know it as the American spelling because it turns up in lots of American puzzles.
Many thanks for stepping into the breach and for explaining a few answers where I had question marks. I thought that MOLLIFY was very characteristic of Paul, but I do have doubts about the soundness of the clue to IDIOTIC. Otic means relaxing to the ear, not necessarily to do with hearing.
A calorie is not a measure of food. It is a measure of energy
MOLLIFY made me smile. I enjoy this sort of wordplay (I’ve always liked to think that to ratify something is to make it ratty). I thought of it as a transitive verb (to turn someone into a moll) but it works either way. I also really liked the DIMMER WITCH and the “spelling” test.
Many thanks Paul and Shanne.
Fairly typical Paul crossword. I liked the wood AND IRON, the palindromic RACECAR, the pork pie filling of CALORIE, the four PAIR OF BRACES, and the SULTANA with a hole.
Thanks Paul and Shanne.
Thanks Paul and Shanne
I think of MOLLIFY as an Uxbridge English Dictionary type clue. (Though on checking I find it defines it as “turns into a mole”.)
Roz @1 Top Of The Pops!
and yes Lord Jim @9 Spelling as in a witches spell, makes more sense.
Thanks to Paul I’m not sure I can enjoy a sultana ever again!
Instead of MANATEE, I initially constructed “Menetue” (ET (creature) on Menu plus E) and found that there was a bath resort with such a name in Chile – alas, not a sea. Then I found the sea cow… The previous couple of Paul’s Prize puzzles were scatology-free (in addition to being much fun), that’s why I used to attempt his Prize though not his regular ones. I may think twice going forward (not a criticism, – to each his own). Other than that, I liked the puzzle, especially the references to long-forgotten past such as FORTY-FIVE and DALE CARNEGIE (I could probably add PAIR OF BRACES, – been long since I saw anyone wearing them, – though I guess some still do). Thanks Paul and Shanne
I had trouble matching the two meanings of RADICAL, though I see Shanne has found them. Many thanks for covering the Prize blog.
The PAIR OF BRACES and the AND IRON were fun, but I couldn’t sort out the sound-alike in NAIROBI, and I was surprised to find FILET in English. I suspect it found its way in from French via the menus of upmarket restaurants, and has now come down in the world to being the Filet-o-Fish at MacDonalds.
Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond in Carry On Up The Khyber helped with the parsing of 1a: as a non bridge player I’ve never been too sure what “ruff” means in that context. Crosswordland, of course, assumes that we all play bridge and know all the terminology.
Thanks Paul.
[I’ve been trying to remember where I came across the word “moll” very recently, and it was in “Anselm Gets His Chance” by P G Wodehouse. Anselm Mulliner, who is a curate, is reflecting despondently on the character of his fiancée:
Myrtle, it seemed to him, appeared to have no notion whatsoever of the distinction between right and wrong. And while this would not have mattered, of course, had he been a gunman and she his prospective moll, it made a great deal of difference to one who hoped later on to become a vicar and, in such event, would want his wife to look after the parish funds.]
I generally keep part of the Prize back for Sunday, when the Quiptic does not detain me for long, so I found myself at 4.00 am with everything solved except the final across clue, which I stared at balefully, because the fame of Mr CARNEGIE had entirely failed to reach Balfour Towers. This was a disappointment, because, like Autolycus in The Winter’s Tale, I am a lifelong ‘snapper-up of unconsidered trifles’ for later use in crosswords, quizzes and conversations. However, the ‘retired expert’ had to be ECA, and I just fiddled with the letters of ‘realigned’ until the result looked as if it might be a person. Ho-hum: I shall know you again, CARNEGIE, if there is a next time.
[Meanwhile, I note that other bloggers stood in for Eileen in two recent weekday cryptics, one earlier this week and one last, and now Shanne has cover-blogged this Prize that fell in between those dates. I also do not think I have seen her in recent commenting threads. If she is incapacitated for some reason, I wish her a speedy and full recovery.]
[Balfour @16
I’me fairly sure I’ve seen comments from Eileen in the last couple of days.]
[Me @17
Sorry, that;s wrong. I’ve checked back and the last Guardian post I’ve found from Eileen was on Jan 7th. I hope she’s OK.]
Thoroughly enjoyable puzzle and blog. Thanks both. A 45 would have more spins than an LP, so need to compare to a 78.
J99@19 – I took the comparison to be against the 50 spins in the clue.
Thanks all
Particularly enjoyed this puzzle–thanks Paul and Shanne!
J99@19 – probably – I did say there would be mistakes! You’re right – I do vaguely remember having a lever to switch between 33, 45 and 78 rpm to play different records.
[muffin @17, 18 – Balfour @16 – Eileen planned to be unavailable, there was an email out to bloggers asking for cover, a few weeks ago, I was full of some evil bug and didn’t volunteer at the time. I can’t find it now to check what cover was requested, but I suspect this one was missed. She’s commented on the MHL obituary thread in the last few days.]
[Shanne: it was in fact duncanshiell who was scheduled to blog this puzzle; Eileen is scheduled to do today’s, but I have agreed to cover it on her behalf. I don’t know why she is unavailable and hope she will be back soon]
Thanks Paul and Shanne. Only finished this one this morning with minimal assistance from atlases and google. Otherwise, intermittent progress all week. LOI Dale Carnegie.
I thought CALORIE was worth the entrance fee on its own.
How To Make Friends And Influence People.
If only Trump read books, then maybe someone could recommend it to him.
[I advise the Greenlanders to change the name of their home to Not Jeffrey Epstein Island, then perhaps someone would talk about it less? It’d break the internet anyway.]
Balfour @16 and muffin @17 and 18 (and Shanne @22)
I’m sorry for any confusion. I had not, in fact, planned to be unavailable but was admitted to hospital overnight on Wednesday 7th and had emergency surgery on Thursday 8th and so missed my blogs on Thu 8th and Mon 12th.
Blogging colleagues are standing in for me for the immediate future, including today’s Prize (many thanks, bridgesong @23 for the explanation).
The surgery was successful but progress wil be relatively slow, apparently.
I am grateful for your concern and hope to be back commenting and blogging soon.
[Best wishes for a rapid recovery, Eileen.]
Eileen,
As Muffin said. This site wouldn’t be the same without you.
[Sorry to hear that Eileen. I hope the recovery goes as well as possible.
And apologies for adding to the confusion. I don’t normally cover the prize blogs, so haven’t worked out how the calendar works for them. It’s just at midnight when I looked at the Quick Cryptic, there was no Guardian blog up, and there still wasn’t at 5:45am when I started blogging, nor again at 8:30am when I finished. So I checked with ken if there was a problem, saying I could cover – and he said to get something up – and that chat back and forth took half an hour or so while we checked, so I probably started putting this together around 9am, and realised I had to re-parse everything as I’d not necessarily remembered how I got my answers.]
DuncT @20. Thanks, that makes more sense.
Best wishes Eileen from a mainly silent but appreciative reader.
Get well soon Eileen
Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Eileen. Looking forward to your next blog and many more after!
[Eileen, I do hope you get well soon. You were a very patient guide back in the days (15 years ago or so?) when I was trying to learn British English and British cryptics at the same time, and you’ve guided many others just as patiently.]
On the subject of British English, two-L “fillet” for the cut of meat (or the deboning of it) looks as odd to me as FILET does to our British commenters. And I’m guessing you pronounce the T, too, in the usual pattern of Americans keeping (or making) French loan words Frenchier–see also valet (valAY) and garage (guhROJ).
Yes hope your recovery goes smoothly Eileen. And you are back blogging – we do appreciate your blogs.
Get well soon Eileen. I look forward to enjoying your blogs again soon. Also a big thank you to Shanne and the rest of the Fifteen Squared family who do such a great job, with not just their own posts, but covering for others, sometimes at very short notice.
All the best for your recovery Eileen. While I seldom comment I always read the blog every morning.
I thoroughly enjoyed this crossword – it wasn’t a single sitting but it wasn’t far off. Thanks go to Paul and Shanne.
I had one blank on this one: 26a CHENNAI. I took “Asian painter” to be the definition, and tried to parse it as C + [Asian city] + I. That got me nowhere. So it goes.
Thanks, Shanne, for explaining 1a ROUGH DIAMOND. That was a bung-it-in for me, having forgotten “ruff” as a bridge term.
Eileen @27: Sorry to hear you’ve been unwell. Take care of yourself.
Wishing you a comfortable recovery, Eileen. So sorry to hear this news. You are such an important part of this community where your commitment and interactive approach is so appreciated.
Thanks for stepping in Shanne, and best wished Eileen for a good recovery
Solved all but seven. For 1d I confidently had OVERALL, which borked all the crossers (I’m the only one?). 6d unparsed TRIPOLI was also wrong
11a Didn’t know the Monopoly token was a RACECAR — I thought it was just a CAR, so didn’t consider it
A puzzle with a nice round number. Onward to 30,000!
All good wishes for a speedy recovery, Eileen.
Get well soon, Eileen – the place isn’t the same without you!
Very best wishes, Eileen. Really hope you have a quick and comfortable recovery. And thanks to Shane for filling in on this blog.
As for Paul’s puzzle, it took me surprisingly long to get into it, with just a couple pencilled in on the first pass. But seeing PAIR OF BRACES and ROUGH DIAMOND helped things along no end, and it was a fun solve. I remember playing monopoly with the car and ship and shoe and other pieces, but I’d not realised it was specifically a RACECAR. Along with others, I thought the reference to 45 as one with fewer rpm made some assumptions about the demographic – if people think of them at all nowadays, isn’t it as faster than 33s? At least it wasn’t a reference to American cowboys (although maybe ‘ruff’ might have been). And MOLLIFY was a favourite. Thanks Paul.
take care, Eileen
Eileen, best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Like KeithS above, I also filled in the first few clues early on, but I didn’t really get into the puzzle after that. I hesitated about RADICAL (not common usage) and FILET (odd mix of Fr and US usage), but entered them in the end. I still had 5 or 6 to do yesterday, so I had a late sweep using tools to fill in the blanks. Grateful to Shanne and others for confirmation and explanation of some of the answers. I had heard of DALE C by name, but didn’t ever read his book.
Best wishes to Eileen for a good recovery.
Once again, a bit late to the blog since we have been away for a few days! This puzzle was Paul at his best with a rather avant-garde ‘pauline’ which may forever taint Christmas puddings (as hinted by Antonknee@12.
We went from CALORIE to SEASIDE but had to work hard to parse a few clues such as FILET, UTRECHT, HONORIFIC, DIMMER SWITCH and MANATEE. All with the usual pd moments, as well as chuckles with FORTY-FIVE, NAIROBI, TEEMING, and, of coarse, SULTANA! However, we are not really convinced that henna can be used as ‘painter’.
Many thanks to Paul for such clever and witty clues and, of course, to the admirable Shanne for an excellent blog at short notice.
I, too, wish you an unremarkable recovery, Eileen. Are you by chance a student of Dale Carnegie? I ask as your much-loved blogging style marks you as one who influences people and wins friends.
Mig @40 – that Monopoly token car is the shape of the 1950s/1960s racing cars, so I’ve always known it as a racing car. (Partly because one of the “toys” we played with as children was a wooden quarter scale model of a racing/kit car, pretty much that shape, that worked as something to ride down our very steep drive. Sadly, more than once, upside down, as we overturned us and it, grinding down the curves on concrete. It was built, overengineered, on a decent chassis, to test the aerodynamics in a wind tunnel. Decades later my father was retrospectively annoyed with us as he ended up restoring said model as a piece of history.)
Many thanks to all, not least the convalescent.
You were much needed Shanne. Four solutions I couldn’t quite parse. But a very enjoyable puzzle nevertheless.
Am still wondering at Robi@10’s concept of a fairly typical Paul. I particularly enjoyed TEEMING.
[Very best wishes, Eileen. the doyenne of all the much-appreciated bloggers]
[ Eileen, we were worried when we didn’t see you here for an inordinate time, so thank you for bringing us up to date. We are relieved that your surgery went well, and look forward to your return, at your own speed of course. ]
Re 6d NAIROBI, I parsed ROBI (shout out to #45) as a reference to the Scottish line worker Robbie Burns. An example of the maxim, “it doesn’t matter how you get there, as long as you arrive safely.”
Thanks, S&P for the well-seasoned Saturday Puzzle and blog.