An easier than usual puzzle from Paul for this week’s Prize.
This puzzle was characterised by a surprisingly large number of phrases and compound words, which are often easier to solve than single words of equivalent length. There were also more double definitions than usual. As a result Timon and I got through this fairly quickly for a Paul puzzle and we had no need for reference works (except to verify that Cayenne is indeed a capital). As ever, there are some nicely misleading clues : thanks, Paul.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SPINNER | Bait cricketer (7) |
| Double definition. A spinner can be a name for an artificial fly used by anglers. | ||
| 5 | POT SHOT | Casual attempt to secure image (3,4) |
| A simple charade; to pot can mean to secure (e.g. by shooting prey). | ||
| 9 | HOP IT | Get out good fashionable clothes (3,2) |
| PI in HOT (fashionable). “Clothes” here is a verb. | ||
| 10 | ON PURPOSE | Spooner up for distortion by design (2,7) |
| *(SPOONER UP). | ||
| 11 | REASONABLY | Pretty boy playing with Arsenal (10) |
| *(BOY ARSENAL). The surface reading cleverly disguises the sense in which “pretty” is used here. | ||
| 12 | WEED | Wet grass (4) |
| Another double definition, with “wet” being the past participle. | ||
| 14 | MUD IN YOUR EYE | Good health looking problematic then? (3,2,4,3) |
| A slightly loose cryptic definition, but the enumeration made it relatively easy to get. | ||
| 18 | QUENTIN CRISP | European enquiry given testament in sharp, English wit (7,5) |
| QUE (Spanish for “what?”), NT (Testament) IN CRISP. Quentin Crisp, memorably portrayed by John Hurt in The Naked Civil Servant, was indeed an English wit. |
||
| 21 | ARCH | Machiavellian shackling Catholic, I see! (4) |
| RC in AH (I see!). | ||
| 22 | OPTICAL ART | Train to capital crossing river, its effect disorienting (7,3) |
| R in *(TO CAPITAL). More commonly referred to as “op art”. | ||
| 25 | EMANATION | Setter reversed a state that’s flow (9) |
| ME (rev) A NATION. Not the most elegant of surfaces. | ||
| 26, 17 | SPEED MERCHANT | Drug dealer, one often over the limit? (5,8) |
| A cryptic definition, reminiscent of this clue for DRUG PEDDLERS from Rufus in Puzzle No 27,365: Speed merchants? | ||
| 27, 19 | PUT ONES FACE ON | Make up accent, funny case of boring joke (3,4,4,2) |
| TONE, *(CASE OF) in PUN. | ||
| 28 | CAYENNE | Rock garden ends, we hear, in South American capital (7) |
| Sounds like K and N (the last letters of rock and garden). It’s the capital of French Guiana. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SPHERE | Field ball (6) |
| Another double definition. | ||
| 2 | IN PLAY | Active as an actor? (2,4) |
| And another double definition, which nearly works as an & lit. | ||
| 3 | NOT SO DUSTY | Decent result of spring-cleaning? (3,2,5) |
| Another cryptic definition. | ||
| 4 | RIOJA | Drink draught up, guzzling juice (5) |
| OJ (Orange Juice) in AIR (rev). | ||
| 5 | PIPE LAYER | Underground worker, Dickens character ending on burdensome early shifts (4-5) |
| PIP (Dickens character) (burdensom)E *EARLY. | ||
| 6 | TERM | Initials of tiresome egotist revealing my name (4) |
| First letters of Tiresome Egotist Revealing My. | ||
| 7 | HOOVERED | Trotters cut, evidently bleeding, cleaned (8) |
| HOOVE(s) RED. | ||
| 8 | TRENDIER | Judge accepts bound to be more happening? (8) |
| END in TRIER (a judge tries cases). And the end is what is bound to be, I suppose. | ||
| 13 | RUSSIAN SPY | Operative in USSR, possibly peripherally as foreign agent (7,3) |
| *(IN USSR AS) P(ossibl)Y. “Operative” is the anagrind. Another clue which comes close to being an & lit. | ||
| 15 | IN NAPPIES | A pinhead introduced to pub grub as a toddler? (2,7) |
| A P(inhead) in INN PIES. | ||
| 16 | SQUARE UP | Just winning, prepare for a fight (6,2) |
| A charade of SQUARE and UP. | ||
| 17 | See 26 | |
| 19 | See 27 | |
| 20 | STODGE | Some turkey heads and old goose wings filling dish (6) |
| S(ome) T(urkey) O(l)D G(oos)E. | ||
| 23 | IONIC | Charged I note, first sent off (5) |
| I (T)ONIC. | ||
| 24 | FAWN | A shade flatter (4) |
| And another double definition. | ||
*anagram
This was fun. Many clues with enjoyable PDMs. My top favorites were PIPE-LAYER and WEED, but I had tick marks beside several others, including ON PURPOSE (nice misdirection of mentioning Spooner), MUD IN YOUR EYE, SPEED MERCHANT, IN NAPPIES, and STODGE.
I parsed bound = END in 8d as bound meaning a limiting line (e.g., this crosses the bounds of reason”).
Many thanks to Paul and bridgesong. I am uncharacteristically commenting on a Prize puzzle and even more uncharacteristically posting early, rather than late, to a 15^2 blog, so I will thank the other commenters in advance of seeing most of their comments. Have a nice weekend all.
Thanks Paul and bridgesong
As you say, an easier Prize than often. Given the setter, you are probably right about 12A WEED, with ‘wet’ as a past participle; but it could be a noun, in the sense of an ineffectual person. Likewise, in 8D TRENDIER, END could be just ‘bound’ as a limit.
Thanks bridgesong. I actually thought it was harder than usual from Paul and spent quite a lot more time on it than I do most weekends. I needed help with Quentin Crisp and doubtfully entered REED for 12a so am grateful for elucidation. Not sure what you mean by ‘And the end is what is bound to be, I suppose.’ Aren’t the terms roughly synonymous?
I still don’t follow 23d, it could only be IONIC but I can see no relationship between NOTE and TONIC.
Well – different folks, as they say. When I first read this through I was wholly baffled with the exception of 26. I did solve it in the end but, perhaps not being the brightest light in the puzzle, it did give me considerable trouble. loved 12, failed to parse 28 though it was clearly correct. Thanks again Paul for a fun time. Still my favourite.
I thought this was Paul at his best. I’m not a fan when he constructs what I see as convoluted clues with each element of the solution dissected and the surface suffers. Here I loved the concise simplicity of SPINNER and SPHERE which were my last 2 but 2 in which meant I got HOP IT and IN PLAY. I liked MUD IN YOUR EYE and SPEED MERCHANTS as phrases; I’d never heard of OPTICAL ART (always OP ART); I didn’t parse CAYENNE and was amused by IN NAPPIES. Not the hardest prize but a very enjoyable one – many thanks to Paul and bridgesong.
Oooops – I don’t know how I managed to post as Andy rather than White King – my cover is blown! Mrs W is still very much part of the solving, if not posting, team.
I have never encountered “wet” as a past participle of WEED 12a. Like Biggles A@3, I also wrongly guessed REED. Thus technically a DNF. I still don’t really get why Wet grass = WEED as grass is not a weed. Maybe I am just being a bit thick this morning.
I liked the rest of it a lot though, and agree that 14a MUD IN YOUR EYE and 26a17d SPEED MERCHANT were fun. I also really enjoyed solving 27a19d PUT ONES FACE ON. [I once taught with a woman who told me she took a full hour to apply her make-up before she came to school. I never saw her without pancake thick make-up and huge amounts of black around her eyes. I used to think she had to put her “game face on” prior to coming under the scrutiny of critical adolescents!]
Thanks to Paul, bridgesong and posters.
[Sorry “Andy King” @5 aka WhiteKing @6! We crossed, or I would have remarked on your comments on the puzzle and shared a smile at your revelation of your true identity. Reminded me of how I could never understand when I was younger how no one ever saw that Clark Kent was Superman or Bruce Wayne was Batman…]
This was not Paul at his hardest, but I didn’t find it entirely straightforward.
I’m another who didn’t know what 0P ART was short for.
Given Paul’s well-known interest in bodily functions, I’m not surprised that WEED as a past participle came to mind, but I really think that the meaning of ‘wet’ as a wimpish person (eg as in the ministers who resisted, or failed to resist, the doctrines of Thatcherism) is a more natural reading.
Thanks to Paul and bridgesong.
JinC @7 – we crossed. I’m glad we are on the same lines about WEED. But as for grass not being a weed, I would say that it is if it’s in the wrong place!
Thanks bridgesong. The last three were crackers: the Guyane capital, the charged note and the disorienting 22A with its excellent surface and anagrind. Struggled earlier with the English wit; HOP IT too was tricky. I don’t understand this “past participle” business: it’s obviously a pant-wetting phenomenon with weed/wet as synonyms. Anyway, great stuff Paul.
grass= weed= marijuana surely.
Oh I should have seen that, Biggles A@12, especially as grass/POT is used so often in our crosswords too! Now I am embarrassed! And why didn’t I think of “I wet my pants”/”I weed my pants” as explained so eloquently by molonglo@11. At least this hobby teaches me to remain humble! That is now my favourite clue of the whole puzzle!
Thanks Paul and bridgesong.
I originally parsed WEED as bridgesong did, but thanks to PeterO, Biggles A and others, I now see just what a clever clue it is – a quadruple definition, with each of the two words in the clue having two meanings.
Not the hardest Paul prize puzzle, but none the worse for that. A lot of rather English phrases I’d not heard used for a while, and my LOI was HOP IT. I did grin at WEED, but along with others I’ve only just realised how neat it really was. Nice one, Paul, and thanks, bridgesong.
Thanks all, I agree that WEED could also refer to a “wet” in the way g larsen @9 suggests. The Wikipedia article for the Molesworth books refers to Basil Fotherington-Tomas as “a wet and a weed”.
BigglesA @3; I am no musician but one of the definitions of “tonic” is “of or being the first note of a scale” so that must be the sense referred to here.
Thanks Paul and bridgesong
Favourite was the non-Spooner ON PURPOSE!
I had the Fotherington-Thomas/marijuana parsing for WEED too.
Found this the hardest Prize for some weeks, and didn’t complete more than NW corner. And sorry, Bridgesong, but we didn’t find some of the explanations enlightening. What’s meant by saying a clue is a “cryptic definition”? My reaction is to think, of course it is!, but that doesn’t explain how it works. Also, while I’m asking, what’s meant by “an & lit”?
To all thinking about WEED, I took it as the past participle of WEE, as in to urinate – so for example, if you happen to be the kind of person who pees on the lowers to make them grow better, you’ve WEED on them, i.e wet them. Apols if I misread others’ comments as mentioning this already.
Thanks as always to Paul and Bridgesong.
bridgesong @13. Thank you, I’m sure you are right.
Gentler than some during the week I thought and lots of fun. Weed=wet or wimpy or pot=grass is the essential Paul. I took bound as in (dimly remembered) maths, as in upper and lower bound. Not too dusty was a new variation; none too shabby is the one I’m used to.
Thanks to Paul and Bridgesong.
PS started pecking at the prize: quel horreur, I’ve only read one of her books!
richardonyabe@18: I’m very sorry that my explanations failed in their purpose. A cryptic definition is a clue that is both a definition (in a way) but also has a misleading surface. A classic example is “A wicked thing” for CANDLE. An “and lit” clue is one where every word is both the wordplay and the definition. Don Manley in his Chambers Crossword Manual gives this example: “I’m one involved with cost”. This is both an anagram and a definition of ECONOMIST.
Our first post on this site but we have been lurking for about a year after a friend told us about it.
First, can we just say thanks very much to all the bloggers and contributors for their explanations.
We found this more difficult than usual for Paul and was DNF. The specific reason for this post is to ask someone to explain why PI substitutes for good in 9ac, we’re baffled here.
Welcome Doodlers
It’s short for “pious”. A rather dated usage, but still common in crosswords!
Hi and welcome Doodlers @23. Pi, defined as obtrusively religious, sanctimonious in Chambers and is short for pious.
Sorry muffin @24 – crossed
Hop it; mud in your eye; not so dusty: out of use slang or at least informalities seemed to be a theme here.
Pi for good is recognised by those who do lots of cryptics but I suspect only by them. Well past its retirement date.
Ok as a puzzle, but why we have Paul on a Saturday on an almost fortnightly basis is beyond me. Does he have Kompromat material on the editor?
Thanks bridgesong @ 22. But then a gentle suggestion, or a plea, that if there’s a “cryptic definition” with a “misleading surface”, then a little bit of explanation would be helpful? Even if just a few words to nudge the baffled reader towards the less obvious reading? But anyway, many thanks to you and other bloggers.
A warm welcome to Doodlers@23. I hope you find that this forum enhances your solve. I certainly feel expanded by reading the bloggers’ solutions and remarks, and the subsequent discussions here. We are an international community which adds to the interest, and while we don’t always agree, we are united in our desire to see different perspectives on what could otherwise be a solitary kind of hobby. And of course we are connected by our love of cryptic crosswords!
It’s funny that ‘pi’ is outdated because I’d never met it before doing the grauniad so thought it must be ‘in’; ditto ‘pants’ for ‘rubbish’ (how long ago did that originate?)
Thanks to muffin@24 and Crossbar@25 for the illunination. Somewhat embarrassed that we did not think to look it up, never occurred that it might be a real word.
Thank you Paul and bridgesong.
A very enjoyable Prize. Having “Back in the Jug Agane” and “Down with Skool” beside me when on the computer, I had no trouble with Wet and WEED (the COED gives for wet as a noun, “Brit. colloq. a feeble or inept person.”).
Doodlers@31 I’m not sure it is a real word anymore! 🙂
I had mead for 12a. Silly me. As for the PI in hop it, was none the wiser till down to the last few of these comments.
Another lurker. We check in every week to find out missing answers or for understanding answers we had correctly guessed at. Thanks for explanation of PI and Birdsong for blog. We had hop it but didnt know why. We are improving slowly with the help of this site. Musing on differences between commentors on what we each find easy and puzzling. Perhaps a reflection on our misspent youth that we got weed straight away! Also got Trendier but thought the ‘judge’ was RINDER and TE the outside (bound) letters of to be:) Just shows what you convince yourself of when desperate to complete. When we put it in we remarked that there might be some on 15 squared complaining about konwledge of rubbish daytime TV being required …
I knew ‘pi’ as short for ‘pious’, a long time ago, from a friend who became a Church of England vicar, at the rather high Anglican end of the spectrum. He used ‘pi’ quite often to refer to others in his line of work.
Joleroi @35: welcome, and I’m glad you find the site useful. The problem with your suggested parsing of TRENDIER is not so much that it would require knowledge of daytime TV, rather that it would be an indirect anagram (and without an anagram indicator).
Very enjoyable. I read “wet” as in the Molesworth sense. I got PUT ONES FACE ON from def and crossers fairly early, but never fully parsed it (thanks, Bridgesong).
Favourites were 9a HOP IT; 8d, TRENDIER and 28a CAYENNE. Also liked the misdirection of “Spooner”.
@Bridgesong, re 28a, flow is a psychological state, aka being “in the zone” and is that state which a good crossword puzzle induces in the solver:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)
Like it any better now?
Thanks again Bridgesong @37. In keeping with puzzle it would have been very appropriate to end your explanation to me with ‘as any fule kno’!