It’s always a pleasure to blog about one of Paul’s crosswords, because they’re always fair and very entertaining – this one was no exception. One thing I particularly liked here is Paul not being afraid to use more modern references than other crossword setters, e.g. in 9, 24 down and 17.
Across
8. Sweet thing, a magnificent sea reflection? (8)
DEMERARA
A RARE = “a magnificent” + MED = “sea” all reversed
Definition: “Sweet thing”
9, 24 down. Fine muscular swimmer (5-4)
HUNKY-DORY
I loved this clue: HUNKY = “muscular” + DORY = “swimmer” (referring to Dory from the wonderful “Finding Nemo” and “Finding Dory”, I’m assuming, rather than half of John Dory)
Definition: “Fine”
10. Stretch of road I took, underground passage (4)
ADIT
Hidden in “[ro]AD I T[ook]”
Definition: “underground passage”
11. Act entitled to be amended — where to ratify it? (6,4)
DOTTED LINE
DO = “Act” + (ENTITLED)*
Definition: “where to ratify it?”
14. Business heading west in report, move premises (8)
RELOCATE
CO = “Business” reversed (“heading west”) in RELATE = “report”
Definition: “move premises”
15, 25. Driven thing with little power, sadly Blair not in control (7,5)
RELIANT ROBIN
(BLAIR NOT)* in REIN = “control” (as in “free rein”, say)
Definition: “Driven thing with little power”
17. Troll, rather ugly, immediately starts texting platitudes (7)
TRUISMS
TRUI = first letters of “Troll, rather ugly immediately” + SMS = “texting” – I do like it that modern abbreviations like this are used in the Guardian crossword
Definition: “platitudes”
20. Where it may get windy, paper in government department secured by device that grips (5,3)
CLIFF TOP
FT = “paper” in FO (Foreign Office) = “government department”, in CLIP = “device that grips”
Definition: “Where it may get windy”
22. Introduction of cog with a square tooth (6)
CANINE
C[og] = “Introduction of cog” + A + NINE = “square” (9 is the square of 3)
Definition: “tooth”
23. Grounded supporters don’t allow scoundrels to follow Colchester United, initially (5,5)
CUBAN HEELS
BAN = “don’t allow” + HEELS = “scoundrels” after C[olchester] U[nited] = “Colchester United initially”
Definition: “Grounded supporters”
26. Lad needing a rise, struggling in paid work (8)
SALARIED
(LAD A RISE)*
Definition: “in paid work”
Down
1. Speaking budgie, oddly, gets hostile attention? (5,3)
BEADY EYE
The odd letters of “budgie” are BDI, which sounds like (“Speaking”) BEADY EYE
Definition: “hostile attention?”
2, 24 across. Very close hybrid of rodent and ox (4,4)
NEXT DOOR
(RODENT OX)*
Definition: “Very close”
3. Animals with long faces sleep upside down (6)
PANDAS
SAD = “with long faces” + NAP = “sleep” all reversed
Definition: “Animals”
4. Attack row of cages (7)
BATTERY
Double definition: “Attack” and “row of cages”
5. One coaxing Turner to capture daughter (8)
WHEEDLER
WHEELER = “Turner” around D = “daughter”
Definition: “One coaxing”
6. Change of tone, when fifty overwhelmed by disease (10)
INFLECTION
L = “fifty” in INFECTION = “disease”
Definition: “Change of tone”
7. Seal discussed, little one owned by the Crown, perhaps? (6)
CYGNET
CYGNET sounds like “signet”, as in a “signet ring” which is a seal for making an impression in wax, so “Seal discussed”
Definition: “little one owned by the Crown, perhaps?” – unmarked mute swans on the Thames are regarded as belonging to the Queen
13. Fabric he altered with large cut for religious leader (5,5)
CHIEF RABBI
(FABRIC HE)* + BI[g] = “large cut”
Definition: “religious leader”
16. Producing a score, composer at first in love (8)
NOTCHING
C[omposer] in NOTHING = “love” (as in tennis)
Definition: “Producing a score”
18, 12. Make up scene with demons dancing around marshland (4,4,6)
MEND ONE’S FENCES
(SCENE DEMONS)* around FEN = “marshland”
Definition: “Make up”
19. Calm down, feeding vegetables to animal (7)
APPEASE
PEAS = “vegetables” in APE = “animal”
Definition: “Calm down”
21. Slat by tradition letting some rays through? (6)
LOUVRE
LORE = “tradition” around UV = “some rays”
Definition: “Slat”
22. Total outsiders accommodated by patient man (6)
CASTLE
T[ota]L = “Total outsiders” in CASE = “patient”
Definition: “man” (as in a chess piece – I’ve seen this so many times, and it still always takes me ages to think “chess” when I see “man”)
Thanks to Paul and mhl. I did this puzzle over several days and needed reassurance from Google for CUBAN HEELS, RELIANT ROBIN, and BATTERY as a row of cages. DEMERARA took me forever given that all the crossers were vowels.
Terrific surfaces, always fun to deconstruct them into answers. Had written down for ages nap, staring me in the face, until I twigged sad for long face and found panda! Reliant Robin (or Robin Reliant?) seen not so long ago, but this time seasoned with some silly youtube videos. Have to wonder how it ever was approved to go on the roads.
Cuban heels new, and shows how a good clue gives an unknown answer that can then be validated. But 7d being owned by the crown requires a little more GK that would be difficult to obtain from Dr Google.
Thanks mhl. Yes, these puzzles are usually skewed to an elderly demographic (mine) so good on Paul. His BDI was very nice. 15,25 had a super surface but dredging up the name of the tinpot vehicle took most of the solving time – along with 18,12, with another slick surface.
Thanks mhl. Another good test with quite a range of difficulty but all entirely fair. I needed to check on attack = battery and my LOI was Reliant Robin. where again I tried to read more into the clue than was there. I had forgotten just how numerous the things once were.
This is more a question than a quibble, because I really don’t know. Does DEMERARA mean “sweet thing” without it modifying “sugar”? I looked in several dictionaries, and they all gave the bare word an exclusively geographic meaning. In context of course you can say “please pass the demerara”, just as when you have several wines you can ask for the French, but that doesn’t mean it has that meaning per se.
Thanks in retrospect and in advance.
Thank you to Paul and mhl.
My favourites were BEADY EYE, PANDAS (loi).
New for me were ADIT, RELIANT ROBIN.
Was in the dark about 7d CYGNET’s connection to the Queen – thanks for the explanation.
Knew about the royal swans from Mrs ginf’s vast historic romance library (like eating rice bubbles, but fun), but not about the car; we had a few three-wheelers here but no name came up. Enjoyed this, not too hard. Couldn’t quite substitute salaried for paid work or in paid work, probably me being dim. Slow to get UV in lore, nice clue, among lots of others, eg c in nothing, easy but neat. Thanks Paul and Mhl.
Enjoyed this as ever with Paul. I think Demerara is quite fair – you might want some with a cup of Darjeeling 😉
Dr WhatsOn
You must look in some strange dictionaries
Chambers, OED and Collins all define demerara as a sugar. (the OED even had its definition with a capital first letter!) In fact, as I expected only Collins also has a reference to the geographical place.
Thanks Paul and mhl.
I generally find Paul’s Prize puzzles less challenging (but not less fun) than his weekday ones, and this was no exception. My favourite was BEADY EYE. I don’t remember the DORY cartoon character, but knew a dory is the name of several fishes of which the John Dory is one.
Dr WhatsOn @5, if my partner gave me a shopping list with ‘French’ on it, I’d be puzzled; if it had DEMERARA, I’d head for the sugar section without hesitation.
Great prize crossword from Paul as always and thanks to MHL for the blog as I could not parsed 16dn and 21dn. I can not seem to find today’s Prize anywhere online? It’s not in the iPad app or on the website?
I was glad this was a Saturday puzzle as I found it quite difficult to start. Thankfully I could put it aside and come back later. In the end, it was CHIEF RABBI that got me going and thereafter it was a slow but steady solve.
An excellent puzzle. Full of good cluing both in the word-play and the surfaces. CUBAN HEELS a new word to me, but obvious from the crossers.
Too many fine clues to mention them all, but my favourites were HUNKY-DORY, BEADY EYE and NOTCHING.
Thanks to Paul and mhl.
Loved it, as I usually do Paul’s crosswords. Favourites 9,24 and 1 down. Both typically brilliant Paulian, laugh out loud clues
SimonBxl @11, here, hopefully, is the Easter special crossword,
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2019/apr/20/cryptic-crossword-easter-special
To Simon B @11
It’s on the website now, I’ve just printed it off.
Special Maskarade cryptic, has its own ‘cartouche’ to click on.
Thanks to Cookie @14 and Anna @15 for the links. I was looking in the Prize section of the website but it’s been posted in the Cryptic section!!
Liked this although the SW held out for quite a long time. CHIEF RABBI finally opened it up so my experience was somewhat similar to Anna’s. Liked CYGNET which went in very quickly.
Thanks Paul.
I found this moderately tough. RELIANT ROBIN was clever, with a well disguised definition. I liked CANINE for its surface. CUBAN HEELS was also new to me. I was not sure that NOTCHING is really the same as scoring. One’s making small repeated cuts; the other’s making a line, is it not. Minor quibble, certainly.
There’s a little hat tip to David Bowie with HUNKY DORY as an answer and Sweet Thing (a song of his) in the DEMERARA clue, but I don’t see any other references.
Thanks as always, Paul and mhl. I concur with you about the introduction of more modern stuff. e.g. SMS. Make the puzzles a little fresher.
Chinoz @2. Definitely not Robin Reliant. A surprisingly large number of brains engage reverse gear when they go down this road.
Thanks Paul, mhl and all learned contributors here.
I’m a bit late commenting, so will only add I thoroughly enjoyed this. Hunky Dory was LOI, I spent ages thinking fine muscular was the wordplay and swimmer the definition and was looking for various types of dory. Doh!
Am all in favour of more modern terminology and references in crosswords but SMS for text message in 17A TRUISMS (neat clue I thought) – hardly ultra-modern.
SMS = Short Message Service and was introduced by the GSM standard for digital mobile telephony in the early-mid 1990s, so is a good quarter of century old. In my head, SMS got overtaken by ‘text message’ or ‘text’ pretty quickly. Maybe as an experiment I will ask my late teenaged kids, suspect will get some blank looks.
But again, a splendid crossword, thanks to all concerned.
Those whose knowledge of cars started and almost ended in the 70s may remember that Reliant also made the Scimitar, a much more normal car…
Not as tough as most recent Paul prizes, and consequently more fun.
I normally enjoy Paul’s crosswords more than this. Less cunning and wit, I thought, and 5,6 and 16d are my least favourite type of clue. SMS may be a newish set of initials to some but there hasn’t been a government department with the initials FO since 1968 when the Foreign and Commonwealth Office merged to form the FCO. People still refer to the Foreign Office but not, to the best of my knowledge, to the FO.Thanks to Paul and mhl
Took me some time to get RELIANT ROBIN. Never heard of it. But then I watched this video of the car’s amazing performance. It’s the funniest thing I have seen in a long time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQh56geU0X8
Oh Pino, you were a “grumpy old Hector” yesterday.
Regarding “FO”, you should inform the Oxford English Dictionary, Chambers, Collins and I would guess at least 30 million English speakers that “FO” no longer stands for “Foreign Office” 😉
Quite tough but an enjoyable solve. I liked LOUVRE, which I got from the whole clue then spent some time working out the word play for.
Reliant Robins were widely known as Robin Reliants for some reason. As they were three-wheelers, you didn’t need a full driving license to drive them, just a motorbike license, which you could get at age 16 rather than 17. The first person I knew who owned one was a sixteen-year-old classmate who drove one to school.
phitonelly@18 : I thought of the historic way of recording a score by notching a tally-stick, so a cricketer has some been described as ‘notching up runs’.
sometimes, not some
Alex @ 24. FO may stand for Foreign Office but it hasn’t been a government department since 1968. OK, I admit that I was feeling a bit grumpy about the crossword in general – unusually for a Paul.
I had to look up your Grumpy Old Hector ref. The programme started way after my TV less childhood and ended before my own boys began watching.Glad it wasn’t in a clue.