Guardian Prize 27,046 by Bogus

by

A new (or is it?) setter with what seems like a contrived name has produced a puzzle to celebrate World Toilet Day.

One regular setter is sometimes accused of toilet humour, but this puzzle is making a serious point about the need for sanitation in the developing world.  The website www.toilettwinning.org is one of the routes to addressing the problem; another is http://www.wateraid.org

The puzzle itself has all the hallmarks of a Paul puzzle, so if Bogus is in fact a new setter, many congratulations.  Almost every clue or solution is connected to the theme.  It was only when writing the blog that I spotted the nina (highlighted on the grid), which is itself another achievement.  A great puzzle in a good cause.  Timon and I greatly enjoyed it.

completed grid
Across
8 LAXATIVE It may help you go and have fun, nursing a back strain (8)
A TAX (rev) in LIVE.  The theme – if there was any doubt – firmly established from the outset.
9 ETHNIC Folk dancing in the capital of China (6)
(IN THE)* C(hina).
10 SEAT 24 across today embodies puzzle’s point (4)
(puzzl)E in SAT(urday).
11 DETHRONING Toppling from toilet back to front, mid-tinkle (10)
THRONE with the E brought to the front in DING.
12 ELAPSE Go in another way, inserting a penny (6)
A P in ELSE.
14 REAGENTS Laboratory chemicals are broken down by WC (8)
*ARE, GENTS.
15 JOHN GAY Playwright wanting smallest room pink? (4,3)
A simple charade, but our last one in.  The playwright is best remembered now for The Beggar’s Opera.
17 NETBALL Left workplace XI one short for return game (7)
L LAB TEN (one short of eleven…) (all rev).  Great story-telling (but completely misleading) surface.
20 WC FIELDS Comedian who played Broadway — or Flushing Meadows? (1,1,6)
A write-in of course from the enumeration, but what a lovely cryptic definition!
22 FIXIVE Forming attachment, as one kiss pierces lover’s heart (6)
I X in FIVE (Roman numeral V).  A new word to us, but the wordplay left little room for doubt, although Timon thought it a little unfair.
23 ENCIRCLING Disposal of loot won’t start without Irish — 150 going round (10)
IR(ish) CL (150) in (f)ENCING.
24 BUTT By using Toilet Twinning, starts to reach target (4)
First letters.  A different meaning of “butt” to that referred to in 10 across.
25 THWART No end to the growth in snooker (6)
TH(e), WART.
26 SANITARY Potty-trains baby, ignoring books on hygiene (8)
*(TRAINS (b)A(b)Y).  I think we’ve seen “potty-train” before (e.g. here).
Down
1 WATERLOO Engagement ring’s broken into two, with real suffering (8)
*(REALOTWO).  Another thematic reference.
2 OAST Pensioner wanting pee on way hops here (4)
OA(P), ST.
3 RIDDLE Leak, as Jimmy’s overlooked sieve (6)
Jimmy Riddle is rhyming slang for piddle, or leak.
4 LECTURE Nearly reclued first of toilet-related anagrams due to reprimand (7)
T(oilet) in *(RECLUE)d.
5 DECREASE Reduce or eliminate wrinkles (8)
A simple but very concise cryptic definition.
6 THUNDERBOX Hollow trough beneath raised seat forming primitive loo (10)
T(roug)H, UNDER, BOX.  An & lit clue, where the definition and the wordplay are the same. The raised seat refers to the (raised) driver’s seat or box in a (horse-drawn) carriage.  The word itself is used to comic effect in the Evelyn Waugh novel Men at Arms.
7 OILNUT Producer of Grease finds motion in UN toilet left by alien (6)
*(UN TOIL), ET having been removed.
13 PONTIFICAL Pompous fiction distributed in China (10)
*FICTION in PAL.
16 ALLOCATE Toilet a collaborator erected, coming within budget (8)
Hidden and reversed in “TOILET A COLLABORATOR”.
18 LAVATORY Sanitation’s essential: leads to life advances, vitally and as of right (8)
First letters of “Life Advances Vitally And” and TORY.
19 ASHIEST Most like what’s scattered around in this sea (7)
*(THIS SEA).
21 CANTHI Eye angles made by bent end of toilet chain (6)
*((TOILE)T CHAIN).  Another unfamiliar word, meaning (in its singular form of CANTHUS) “the angle where upper and lower eyelids meet”.
22 FAG END 24 across following detailed schedule (3,3)
F(ollowing) AGEND(a).  A third meaning of “butt”.
24 BETA Baby’s No 1, when one’s expected No 2? (4)
B(aby) ETA.

*anagram

39 comments on “Guardian Prize 27,046 by Bogus”

  1. Very enjoyable – only one place to sit and solve this one!…Bit of a shame there was no room for ‘T S ELIOT’, given his apposite anagram, or the illustrious THOMAS CRAPPER…(;+>)

  2. BOGUS has, clearly, to be split into BOG and US.
    It suggests a combined effort in a Biggles way.

    While the theme as such doesn’t appeal to me that much [I’m not talking about the charity involved], the cluing was all in all quite majestic.
    A really good crossword indeed in which 20ac was my first one in.

    And the cause?
    Not sure.
    Some people in this world have bombs flying over their heads.
    It’s all about priorities.

    Quite unbelievably, I missed the nina ….
    Thanks bridgesong for the blog.

  3. Thanks to Bogus(?)and bridgesong. Owing to my week-long internet problems, I worked with this puzzle off and on and only finished this morning. CANTHI, FIXIVE, and Jimmy RIDDLE were new to me but gettable from the clues, but the northeast corner took me forever. I did not trust OILNUT as correct and tried various alternatives before seeing LECTURE, but things fell into place finally when I spotted DECREASE AND then DETHRONING. For me a challenge but very enjoyable.

  4. MY only problem was the pink playwright.The rest was all quite Paul-esque although he may have had nothing to do with it.

  5. Thanks bridgesong. I completely missed the nina too. Like others I had my doubts about OILNUT while FIXIVE and CANTHI were new to me. The NE corner held me up too. Thanks for the definition of BOX as a coachman’s seat, I had just accepted it uncritically as a seat that might be higher than usual.

  6. We enjoyed this immensely but put in BOTH for 24d – obviously we didn’t spot the nina 🙁 if we had it might have put us right on that one.

    We guessed the theme from the introductory comments and our first in was 20a which confirmed it. 8a made us think this may be Paul in disguise 🙂

    Re 6a, we though BOX might have referred to the theatre seats.

    Overall, we really enjoyed, it despite our mistake – thanks very much bridgesong and to Bogus, whoever you are!

  7. Thank you Bogus and bridgesong.

    A very good crossword for a worthy cause. I took quite a while to parse BETA, having forgotten “Estimated Time of Arrival”, and I first wanted to enter W C Grace at 20a, cricket is also played at Flushing Meadows.

    Sil has missed one of the main points of this appeal, it is to protect girls and women who have to go out into the fields at night since they have no toilet at home (W C FIELDS), they are very vulnerable and are often raped.

  8. Thought this was quite an achievement on the part of the setter, whoever they are. Too many excellent clues to list individually, but I really appreciated the clever way so many were used to fit the theme.

    Thank you very much indeed for highlighting what I think is a very worthy cause, Bogus. Thanks too to bridgesong for the blog and, especially, for pointing out the nina (missed it as usual!).

  9. Thanks to Bogus and bridgesong for an entertaining puzzle and blog. If you enjoyed it you may be amused by this, seen in a pub Gents many years ago.
    Divine Cloacina, goddess of this place,
    Grant us thy solace, grant us thy grace.
    May all our motions comfortably flow,
    Nor rudely swift, nor incoveniently slow.
    And, great goddess, grant this last boon of all –
    May we not see the writing on the wall.
    (Cloaca is the Latin word for sewer and Cloacina the tutelar deity).

  10. Sorry to strike a discordant note, but I didn’t enjoy this one at all. The odd bit of toilet humour is funny, but a grid full is too much. I lost interest about half way through.

    Crap puzzle.

  11. I at first assumed this was Paul due to the theme. However I agree with the thoughts of Sil re BOG + US which if Biggles would include Paul anyway.

    I enjoyed this.

    Sil, I replied to your post on the Brummie puzzle with my excuses/apology. I agree with your reservations on the intentions of World Toilet Day. (However it does occur to me that many thousands of people probably die due to poor sanitation each day. I guess it’s not so easy to attribute the actual cause of death to sanitation. Obviously in the case of bombs etc there is no doubt!)

  12. Wonderfully clever puzzle – so enjoyable. I only spotted the main nina after completion and it helped me decide 3d’s first letter as I was hovering between the two. In the 9th column is the word ‘henna’ which has laxative properties and the 13th column the first 4 letters spell ‘nina’. Probably a chance occurrence but adds to the mastery construction of the puzzle. Many thanks Bogus and Bridgesong / Timon.

  13. I enjoyed this-well, up to OILNUT- and I did wonder if Paul was the
    setter. Annoyed to have missed the Nina but it’s not as though it’s
    the first time!
    I’m very behind on puzzles this week owing to the continued presence of the
    decorators, who won’t finish until Tuesday, so Brummie and Shed are still on the
    to-do list.
    Thanks Bogus-whoever you are!

  14. Like R_c_a_d I couldn’t be bothered with this, so didn’t really start.

    I have said this before about the essentially one word theme repeated in most clues: it is jarring and off-putting after having read a few.

  15. Quite an entertaining puzzle. I made pretty heavy weather of this but got there in the end.
    Thanks to Bogus and bridgesong

  16. The cluing was brilliant, but the theme was [Quiet! It’s an obscenity! (4)]. I did thoroughly enjoy solving this — only detracted from, for obvious reasons, by the fact that I like to niggle at the crossword over breakfast each morning till it’s solved (if at all). Like Benpointer, I also took BOX to be a reference to theatre seating. The clue for 7d (OILNUT) made me laugh out loud.

    Completely missed the nina(s?), so thanks, Bridgesong (and Larry) for pointing it (them) out and further increasing my considerable admiration for BOGUS’ skill.

    As for Toilettwinning, I have reservations. The western custom they seem to be exporting, of sitting on a raised seat to defecate, is one which tends to aggravate constipation: squatting opens the bowels and aligns the rectum vertically, the better to ease the expulsion of faeces (as I have heard). Furthermore it is sewers which improve sanitation, isn’t it, not so much raised seating and walls? Perhaps there should be a charity to help us replace our “thrones” with the “squatters” which are ubiquitous in other parts of the world.

  19. Cookie @17, 18

    Hmm… it’s hard to tell from the plans in the wateraid download exactly what type of toilet, in terms of mode of use, they depict. The plans refer to a “plinth” (which might suggest the mounting for a bowl? — see, e.g. http://www.akw-ltd.co.uk/products/washroom-products/toilet-plinths/), but do seem to show the traditonal foot placings of a squatter.

    Although it says, at the Toilettwinning link you gave, “…our partners spend time talking with communities to help them choose the right design for their context” (and one wonders whether the aid recipients might be tempted to ape the style of the “advanced civilisation” offering the aid), the design descriptions only talk about the “business end” of the toilets, without mention of the mode of use. However, the embedded video at http://www.toilettwinning.org/what-is-toilet-twinning/ seems(?) to show, @23″ff, a rudimentary seat (doesn’t it?). It is rather obscured by a promotional caption, so I am not entirely sure that’s what I am seeing.

    An amusing article at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2570828/Warehouse-installs-European-style-squat-toilet-foreign-workers-kept-breaking-loo-standing-it.html on the “throne vs squatter” issue, btw.

    On a completely different topic, I made a clue inspired by today’s news:

    True leader (replacing execrable one) rose — and CIA fled in disarray (5,6)

  20. Thanks to all for the numerous clarifications. This one has been hanging around all week about half-solved, but I managed to finish most of it today with some calm thinking.

    However, I don’t understand BETA at 24d. Could anyone expand the logic.

  22. Tony @16, 19, you are missing the main technical problem which is dealing with waste hygienically and ecologically, often without the help of water – thrones are out of the question where water is scarce, and whether people sit or squat is of minor importance – for much of my life I have lived in Uganda and Egypt, and now we have close ties with Morocco, and I agree with you about squatting.

    Here is what they mean by a toilet plinth https://www.flickr.com/photos/waterfortheages/3997846184

  23. Thanks to bridgesong for the blog, and to others for your comments.

    For those wondering about the identity of Bogus, the setter of last week’s Prize puzzle for World Toilet Day, I can confirm that the puzzle was indeed a collaborative (Bog/us) effort.

    However Paul was not involved, and neither were the other remaining members of Biggles.

    The three collaborators on this occasion were Arachne, Nutmeg and myself.

    Toilet Twinning easily exceeded their targets for both World Toilet Day and last weekend as a whole, and let us know that they were thrilled to have had the extra interest generated by our puzzle, which apparently led to a good number of toilets being twinned by Guardian readers/solvers.

    Puck

  24. Cookie @22

    Thanks for the clarification. I guess the point I made is relatively, even if not totally, insignificant. Funnily enough, I lived in Egypt for a few years, too (’78 – ’80). It was thinking about how popular nylon and rayon clothing was there — where some of the best cotton in the world came from, and not, I think, because it was cheaper (I doubt it was, but maybe I’m wrong again), but because it was “modern” — that prompted the “advanced civilisation” remark. Actually, though, all the toilets I remember using there were thrones, but with a water spout you used instead of paper to clean your arse. That always seemed a better system than clogging up the sewers with dead tree (but only where water is relatively plentiful, obviously).

    Puck @23

    Thanks to you and your colleagues for a superb crossword, and congratulations on such a successful promotion of your cause. I had no idea Biggles was a team (who are they?), or that setters even work together like that. Btw, were the unchecked columns ninas too, as Larry@12 suggested they might be, or was that coincidence?

  25. Thank you Puck for clarifying the collaborative effort, which I thought was superb, and treated a serious subject with a very enjoyable and humorous lightness of touch.

    Tony @ 24: the Biggles stories were written by W E Johns, and the collaborative Biggles setter was “we Johns”: John Graham [Araucaria], John Henderson [Enigmatist], John Halpern [Paul] and John Young [Shed}. Appropriately enough there is a pciture of them posing by the town sign for Biggleswade.

  26. It was quite an achievement to fit in so many themed clues and still mostly avoid obscurities, as well as producing an entertaining puzzle. I missed the nina, as usual. FIXIVE was new to me, and although I spotted the IX quickly and guessed the rest from the crossers, it took me quite a while to realise that FIVE came from the Roman V in “lover”. For THUNDERBOX (which I knew from Waugh), I too took BOX as referring to boxes in the theatre and at sporting events, which are often raised.

    Thanks, the Bogus collective and bridgesong.

  27. [Tony @24, I had to go out unexpectedly this afternoon, so did not have time to reply fully to your post @19. If you were in a town in Egypt with a main drainage system, the problem with squatty toilets was that rats could easily come up through them (however, cockroaches could come up through thrones, and through washbasins and the kitchen sink – my husband would lift the main drain cover and spray with B….n every three months or so and we would have no problem).]

  28. [PS Tony @24, I think the “modern” fabrics were easier to iron, or could be drip-dried, so it was not necessary to send them out the the makwagi.]

  29. Simon S @25

    Thanks very much for the Biggles information. “We Johns”! Haha! Where can I see the Biggleswade photo?

    I don’t know much about the people behind the pseudonyms, except a bit about John Graham. Araucaria was my absolute favourite for years, and Paul is a favourite these days. I’ve enjoyed doing many puzzles by all of those individual setters over the years. Not sure I’ve seen Shed lately. Is he still setting? The Guardian Prize is the only crossword I do, usually (sometimes I get Monday’s for Rufus, but not lately).

    As for the eponymous Biggles of 266 Squadron, I read every one I think, as a kid — and still have some of them.

  30. Cookie@27,28

    Yes, I was mostly in Caio. Perhaps I used squatters when visiting smaller communities. I went once to a small village near Zaqaziq (difficult word to clue, that!). I can’t remember what we used there, but I don’t *think* we used the field, although that wasn’t far to go. I wasn’t taking notes on that (sadly, it transpires).

    If I turned on the light in my kitchen, I’d wait half a second while all the roaches scuttled under the cooker before entering. B*****n? Botulin?

    Not sure the people I’m thinking of used makwagiin (makawag?), but I know I did. Bit of spit never hurt, did it? Did it?

  31. I too enjoyed the Bogus puzzle. A really good cause, as well.
    Congrats to Puck, Arachne and Nutmeg.

    Tony@25. Shed was as recently as the 25th in the Guardian.

  32. Tony @29: if you click on the setters tab at the top of this page, you will find a link to the “best for crosswords” page, and under B on that site is an entry for Biggles, complete with photo.

  34. Thanks for all your comments, and special thanks to those of you who spent a penny or two with us.

    Tony@24 & 29 (and Larry@12)

    I can confirm that the only intended Nina was along the top and bottom of the grid. Re HENNA – I think there’s confusion here between henna, which is a hair colouring, with senna, which is indeed an 8ac.

    There’s a picture of Biggles at https://tilsit.org/galleries/people/biggles/ though I don’t know whether it’s was taken at Biggleswade. I’ve certainly seen another that was – somewhere…. Googling didn’t bring it to light

  37. [Tony @30, the insecticide was Baygon , before its use in the outside drain the kitchen floor would be found covered like a carpet with roaches on turning the light on – we never used insecticides in our house in Alexandria because of the children. As regards rats, these would not be a problem with squatty toilets in the countryside. (That spray method for damping the linen never bothered me either.)]

  38. I enjoyed this once I realised the theme. Far from bog standard. Sorry couldn’t resist the comment. Thanks to Bridge song and setters.

  39. Apologies for late replies (if anyone is still reading this page) as I was away from my internet connection all yesterday.

    paddymelon@31
    Ok, thanks, that’s good to know. As I say, I only get the Saturday edition these days. It’s occured to me that the reason I don’t get Monday’s occasionally now (so missing the delightful Rufus) is that I don’t need it to get the unsolved solutions to the Prize any more since finding this blog!

    Speaking of Rufus, I once attended a comedy gig in Balham, where I lived at the time. I was on my own and was doing the crossword in the interval, when the then-relatively-unknown Phill Jupitus, who was performing that night, came over to have a look. He told me that Rufus was his favourite and added the juicy tidbit that Rufus was “in fact a life-prisoner of HMG”. I totally believed him and have repeated it to many people before finding out very recently that he was talking complete [this week’s theme, more or less]!

    bridgesong@32,33
    Thanks bridgesong. Actually it should have been “click ‘Setters’, then ‘Crossword Who’s Who’ [which links a page headed ‘Best for Puzzles’]”, but I found it anyway. Nice photo, but I was expecting to see them standing in front of a BIGGLESWADE sign, obscuring the WADE. Too late now!

    Nutmeg@34
    Thanks Nutmeg. I thought I hadn’t heard of henna as a laxative, so I haven’t learnt something new there after all. Thanks also for the picture link, which isn’t the Biggleswade one, but an excellent picture nevertheless (and I now have the link for Dave Tilley’s blog, thanks).

    [Cookie@37
    Yes, same as (but I never thought of treating the drain, just took it as a fact of life in a hot country). Amazing how quickly that living “carpet” would vanish, eh? Yuk!]

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