I can’t believe that there was anyone who missed the theme in this week’s Prize puzzle from Brendan.
Almost every clue, along with many of the answers, has a reference to trees or to wood of some kind. There were some easy anagrams and hidden answers to help us get started, but also some quite obscure tree references (e.g. at 18 down) which took a little time to uncover. Timon and I were left with just the one answer (at 20 down) which we weren’t initially able to parse fully; I think that I have now worked it out.
Many thanks to Brendan.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FELLOW |
Hack down willow without determination, mate (6)
|
| FELL (hack down) OW (willOW without determination, i.e. without will). | ||
| 4 | OBOIST |
Player holding old wood from elsewhere beside tee (6)
|
| BOIS (French for wood, so wood from elsewhere) inside O(ld) T(ee). | ||
| 9 | WREN |
Great architect, builder of treehouse (4)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 10 | DOUBLETREE |
Part of horsedrawn vehicle left when European departs 1d or 19 (10)
|
| DOUBLE TREE; which is what you get if you remove the letter E(uropean) from the answers to 1d and 19d (FIR BOX and YEW ASH, respectively). | ||
| 11 | ABJECT |
Miserable sailor caught in plane (6)
|
| AB (able seaman) C(aught) in JET (plane). | ||
| 12 | UNEARTHS |
Discovers last of beech nuts are spoilt (8)
|
| *((beec)H NUTS ARE). | ||
| 13 | EXONERATE |
Clear misuse of axe on tree (9)
|
| *(AXE ON TREE). | ||
| 15 | ELMS |
Key limes oddly deficient as trees (4)
|
| E (musical key) LiMeS (odd letters removed). | ||
| 16 | SAXE |
Small feller’s tool, kind of blue (4)
|
| S(mall) AXE. Saxe blue is a dye colour. | ||
| 17 | RED PLANET |
Mars rose or cherry tree put in ahead of time (3,6)
|
| RED (rose or cherry) PLANE (tree) T(ime). | ||
| 21 | PALOMINO |
Ring in tree I reportedly know, something like chestnut or bay (8)
|
| O (ring) in PALM (tree), I NO (sounds like “I know”). | ||
| 22 | ABELES |
A pollinator’s seen around large poplars (6)
|
| L(arge) in A BEE’S. The abele is the white poplar-tree. | ||
| 24 | BOOK JACKET |
Leaves are bound to be given its protection (4,6)
|
| A cryptic definition; no wordplay as such that we could see. | ||
| 25 | DEAL |
Pine, perhaps, for building agreement (4)
|
| Another double definition. “Deal” describes boards of fir or pine of a standard size. | ||
| 26 | TINDER |
Twigs, say, can turn a bright colour (6)
|
| TIN (can) RED (bright colour, rev). | ||
| 27 | SCORCH |
Quickly move from second section of rustic orchard (6)
|
| S(econd) + hidden in “rustic orchard”. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FIREBOX |
Use gun then use fists in really hot spot (7)
|
| A charade of FIRE (use gun) and BOX (use fists), | ||
| 2 | LANCE |
Cut cedar, initially in way (5)
|
| C(edar) inside LANE. | ||
| 3 | OLDSTER |
American word for elder in Arnold’s terminology (7)
|
| Hidden in “Arnolds terminology”. | ||
| 5 | BALDER |
Black part of forest, comparatively leafless (6)
|
| B(lack) ALDER (a forest tree). | ||
| 6 | INTER ALIA |
Italian tree’s interior destroyed, not in isolation (5,4)
|
| *(ITALIAN (trRE(e)). | ||
| 7 | TEETHES |
Isn’t comfortable around gum trees right away concealing article (7)
|
| THE (article) inside T(r)EES. | ||
| 8 | GUM UP THE WORKS |
Eucalyptus, say, he put out with plant put stop to everything (3,2,3,5)
|
| GUM (eucalyptus, say) *(HE PUT) WORKS (plant, in the factory sense). | ||
| 14 | NEXT OF KIN |
Fox in Kent disturbed those closest in tree? (4,2,3)
|
| *(FOX IN KENT); the tree is the family tree. | ||
| 16 | SEAPORT |
Place such as 25 where bark may be secured (7)
|
| Cryptic definition, using “bark” as the variant spelling of “barque” or ship. Deal is one of the historic Cinque Ports (there are more than five in total). | ||
| 18 | PLASTIC |
Artificial trees one turned over, caught by cop (7)
|
| SAL (rev) (a large N Indian tree), TI (a small Pacific tree) both enclosed in PC (police constable, or cop). This, along with ELDER and VISAGE, was among the last answers we parsed. | ||
| 19 | EYEWASH |
It helps one clearly see nonsense (7)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 20 | VISAGE |
Face what’s hard in 10? Wise man (6)
|
| This was difficult. You have to take the answer to 10 ac (DOUBLETREE) and insert an H(ard) – there’s only one place it can go, giving you DOUBLE THREE. 2 x 3 = 6 = VI (six in Roman numerals) the rest is SAGE (wise man). | ||
| 23 | ELDER |
Source of berries delivered some time before (5)
|
| I think that this is a double definition, referring to the elder tree and its berries, and to older people, who may be said to have been delivered (i.e. born) some time before. |
I think it unlikely that a wren would nest in a tree.
Thanks bridgesong. Never did divine PLASTIC and contented myself by assuming that ‘hard’ in 19d should have been ‘half’.
4. The only way OBOIST makes sense is if “holding” is considered a juxtaposition indicator i.e. O+BOIS next to T. I can’t see it as a container indicator the way the clue is written.
20. Got VISAGE, but agree the logic is a bit too convoluted. I couldn’t explain the VI.
23. Got ELDER but I like your explanation for the second definition (delivered some time before)
DOUBLE T(H)REE is six/VI