Guardian Prize 27,710 by Tramp

30 comments on “Guardian Prize 27,710 by Tramp”

1. Thanks PeeDee. This required some thought and made a good challenge. For me, it was marred by rather too many dubious synonyms: knockback=down, light=fine, important date=era, key=legend, thick=heavy, strike=come to, stick=sellotape. I know a certain amount of latitude is quite customary but hardly as much as this.   I like it when there is no uncertainty about an answer and prefer not to have to wonder if I’ve missed something. Are 9and 22a &lit?

2. I expect it was something I ate but I only got nine of these before I got bored. Once I had the answer I got most of the parsing but some still baffle me. Sigh. Thanks, I suppose.

3. Biggles @1, 22ac surely is [and reminded me of something that happened two and a half year ago]. But 9ac is not because ‘piece of glass’ isn’t part of the wordplay.

   We liked it last Saturday and – always on the lookout for something in a Tramp puzzle – we didn’t spot anything more than what we had in front of us.

   BTW, ‘to knock back’ can mean ‘to down’ (in the sense of ‘to drink’). ‘Key’ = ‘Legend’ made me think of explanations on an OS map. And I think, ‘sellotape’ should be seen as a verb.

   Particular favourites were 27ac and the simple but very effective ERECT (23d).

   Nice to see Tramp having received a couple of clues from Hoskins (1d, 8d) ….. 🙂

   Thanks PeeDee & Tramp.

4. Sil @3. Thanks, I see what you mean. I had found this definition. ‘a small, thin piece of glass used to cover and protect a specimen on a microscope slide.’

5. Thanks to Tramp and PeeDee. Too tough for me. I did not get COVERSLIP or HACKAMORE and did not parse BLOKES and EGGNOG..

6. BigglesA @ 1 – I don’t think they are ‘dubious synonyms’ – merely ones that are well down the list of possible meanings of the word in question. I remember thinking, when I finally realised the definitions of LEGEND and STRIKE, that Tramp has a gift for picking out meanings that are obscure but entirely legitimate. Very productive of lightbulb moments when you do get them.

   The puzzle was quite a challenge, but I got there in the end. Both HACKAMORE and COVERSLIP are lovely and rather improbable words which I hadn’t come across before.

   Thanks to Tramp and PeeDee.

7. Was unsatisfied staring at a full grid, but not being able to parse around 10 of the clues. Thanks for shedding some light. Hoping for a more enjoyable one from Paul today …

8. g larsen @ 6. By the same token perhaps ‘dubious’ and ‘well down the list of possible meanings’ may be synonymous enough.

9. Unusually I had little difficulty solving and parsing this one and enjoyed it more than many recent puzzles as well. To amplify g larsen’s response to Biggles A@1, I found all of your “dubious” synonyms came to me quickly and easily – date and era both refer to an historical period, the key/legend on a pie chart, a thick/heavy line, strike/come to an agreement, stick/sellotape together. I doubt very much if Tramp and I have much in common but his selection of synonyms were much simpler to solve than in a typical Guardian crossword, for me. Solving and the associated difficulty and/or enjoyment always has a strong personal element.

10. I think it’s just a matter of luck whether the less-obvious synonym comes to your mind “quickly and easily” or not – I find that I can guess some setters’ choices much more readily than others, whether or not they are generally supposed to be easy.

    I failed to see the wordplay for COVERSLIP, having found the same definition as Biggles A. Obviously it couldn’t just be a straight definition of an unusual word, but it looks like one.

    I struggled with this and had 21d wrong, so a shameful DNF for me.

11. I suppose there’s a distinction between ‘dubious’ and ‘unusual’. When you finally get the answer, do you think ‘Oh, it’s THAT meaning of…” or do you think, “Oh, come on, that REALLY doesn’t mean THAT…” I certainly felt I wasn’t on Tramp’s wavelength at times. but I think most of them were the former case rather than the latter. I found this one tricky, and at one point had a completed right hand side of the puzzle and nothing whatsoever on the left hand side. (I can’t believe I took so long to see ROVER.) I see I noted that I couldn’t see KNOCK BACK as ‘down’, but when I came here I realised I’d not been thinking of beer! (Now that’s unusual.) Thanks PeeDee for setting me right. And my LOI was SHEATHE, where I didn’t know about ‘Heat’ the magazine, and had ended up trying to see it as some sort of gun reference – carrying heat, carrying something with a magazine..  Now that really would have been dubious.

    Thanks, Tramp, for some very nice clues, even more so in retrospect.

12. This puzzle took me a couple of days to finish .  A couple of new things – I didn’t know the expression ‘kiss off’.  I don’t have any problems with the ‘dubious definitions’ – they were all fair and gettable, with the possible exception of STRIKE.

    Like others, I failed to find any wordplay in COVERSLIP.

    There was plenty to like.  4,15,19 ac and 4,19,23 and 25 dn all had ticks.

    Having failed to finish the puzzle yesterday, am hoping for more success today …

    Thanks to Tramp and PeeDee.

13. Only managed about half of this after several days, so thanks for the explanations, many of which I thought a bit of a stretch.  Either that or dementia’s setting in….

14. Thanks for the blog PeeDee and the kind words.

    Thanks to others for the comments. The clue for COVERSLIP was meant to be an &lit. If you look in Chambers under ERA it says “an
    Important date”. I’ve used that before. I won’t bother justifying all the other dubious definitions.

    Neil

15. Not easy but easier than yesterday’s Boatman. I managed all of them but it took me quite some time to see SELLOTAPE (LOI) even with all the crossers in place
    Still,more to like than not.
    Thanks Tramp.

16. Thanks to Tramp and PeeDee. I found this a mixed bag and I am another in the DNF club. Bottom half went in relatively steadily, but I reall struggled with the top half with half a dozen clues left unsolved (including coverslip). I just think it was one of those days and with the lack of crossers I had at the top it even made guessing and then parsing very difficult. That said still an enjoyable challenge and I liked hackamore and billet. Thanks again to Tramp and PeeDee.

17. I’m with Biggles, Beaver and JayDee. I probably got less than they did before giving up and watching some recorded TV stuff.

    I take my hat off to PeeDee for fathoming this (and anyone else who persevered and finished it).

     

18. I’d add shift =  sell to the dubioius definitions.  I haven’t seen that before.

19. Dubious, I meant.

20. I remember finding this very hard at the time, but I’m not sure why now, because they all seem fairly straightforward.

    I loved the extended definition clue for COVERSLIP.  For some reason, I completely missed the &lit nature of CLOSE-CALL.  I got in trouble with 19a after correctly guessing the definition as “potty” and incorrectly guessing the answer as BANANAS, which made HACKAMORE much harder to spot.  I particularly liked SELLOTAPE with its combination of American surface (stick shift being an US term for a manual transmission) and British answer.

    Lots of fine surfaces in general.  I thought there was going to be a football theme developing with FOREST in 1a and ROVERS in 2 + start of 14.  I happily went searching for CITY, ALBION, ARGYLE etc but to no avail.  Ah well, another time.

    Thanks, PeeDee and Tramp.  Always good to see setters drop in.

21. Great puzzle; I just don’t understand the complaints about definitions.  They’re all carefully precise, IMO, and it’s supposed to be cryptic, not spoon-feeding.

    I liked COVER-SLIP and CLOSE-CALL, also PEKOE.

    Thanks Tramp, PeeDee

22. I also took several visits to complete this, with the SW corner in last, and was another one who just read the clue for COVERSLIP as a definition. I thought Tramp was just being clever making it look like there was wordplay to solve. I remembered COVERSLIP from school as the little circle of glass you put over a specimen on a microscope slide, but Chambers (7th ed.) didn’t seem to have that. It fitted, though.

    I also thought BANANAS for 19a (@Phitonelly) at first and although I found “visit” (=’come to’?) as a (lower-down) meaning for STRIKE, I didn’t recognise it. STRIKE/come to an agreement works very well though (@KLColin).

    Loved 23d, and 22a was a laugh.

23. Not easy but a very good puzzle with always meaningful surfaces. Thought CLOSE CALL was excellent.

24. Tramp @ 14. Thank you for your consideration. My apologies if I am prolonging the debate unnecessarily but I have looked in Chambers and the definition is ‘a distinct period in history marked by or beginning at an important event.’ Not quite the same thing.

     

25. All my copies of Chambers define ERA thus: a series of years reckoned from a particular point, or that point itself; an important date; an age; a main division of geological time.

    Admittedly the free online 21st Century Dictionary doesn’t have the relevant definition, but that’s the slimline version.

26. I can’t remember all my thinking processes now but I know I found this difficult and it took some time. Echoing a few others’ comments above with HACKAMORE at 6d an unfamiliar word, and needing help with parsing of several clues including 13a DISMISS, 28a SHEATHE, 8d BLOKES and 14d SELLOTAPE. I very much liked 16d GINORMOUS once I saw it, and there were several other PDMs that I do remember enjoying. Thanks to Tramp and PeeDee.

27. Thanks to Tramp for the puzzle and for stopping by. Thanks to PeeDee for a couple I didn’t get – PEKOE and COVERSLIP were the fails. Also didn’t fully parse 22 but now I think it’s quite brilliant.

    My thoughts on the definitions are similar to James above. Having those that aren’t the most obvious makes for a greater challenge which is good in my book. Also leads to some satisfying misdirection and surfaces and there was nothing that I would go so far as to call dubious

28. Difficult but I loved it. One of Tramp’s great strengths is that he winkles out less common definitions, and then provides well-written clues that allow the solver to try in turn to chisel out his logic. He’s a favourite setter, and power to his elbow.

29. Completed it but didn’t really enjoy it. The definitions were very ‘wide’ and I’m with those were unenthusiastic about the synonyms. Kept us occupied, but grumbling.

30. Late, but in case Tramp might still see this, wanted to make it clear that I’m another who had no quibbles at all with synonyms none of which was “dubious” to me but added to the fun. (cf. James, nobby and SimonS above). Particularly liked ICE HOCKEY and thought CLOSE CALL was a wonderful &lit. (Incidentally, I agree with Sil that COVERSLIP is not an &lit for reason he gives.)
    Maybe not Tramp’s best ever but still an enjoyable solve.
    Many thanks, both and all.

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