Guardian Prize 28,123 by Paul

by

Unusually, Paul has given us a themed puzzle for this week’s Saturday crossword. (“Prize” in the title should be read metaphorically).

I can’t remember the last time that Paul gave us a themed puzzle, but in this one there are several astronomical references, both in the clues and the answers. I’m struggling with the parsing of 10 across, but otherwise have no complaints and Timon and I both enjoyed solving this one (which we did, together, via Zoom).

It may be worth adding that I blog the Saturday (formerly the Prize) crossword in The Guardian every four weeks.  This is the fifth blogpost in a row that has featured Paul, so frequently does he appear in this slot at the moment.  Having said that, none of the previous five blogposts featured him at all and I suspect that over a year it all balances out, although Paul must still be the setter who appears most often in this slot.

image of grid
ACROSS
1 HELIOS Earth, what goes around the sun (6)
SOIL (earth) EH (what) (both reversed – goes around). This was our last one, partly because Helios (Greek for the sun) doesn’t appear as a word in Chambers, although it is there as the derivation of all those helio- words.
4 SNAP UP Quickly get ahead after game (4,2)
SNAP (game) UP (ahead). Nicely misleading surface; the temptation is to read “get ahead” instead of “quickly get”.
9 IRAN What one might say after fleeing country (4)
Cryptic definition. As Timon said, there aren’t many countries with only four letters in their names. I suppose there might be a case for Oman….
10 TAILBOARDS Platforms attached to lorries, those managing to go in reverse (10)
BOARDS (those managing) TAIL (in reverse). I’m not satisfied with that parsing, which I can barely justify by reference to the fact that “reverse” can mean “back” (e.g. of a coin) and therefore just about equates to TAIL. Has anyone a better solution? I think the answer must be right.
11 JOVIAN Juice knocked back with endless food from another planet (6)
OJ (rev) (orange juice) VIAN(d). One of several astronomical references.
12 HELLENIC Greek woman in Paris punches chin furiously (8)
ELLE (French for woman) in *CHIN.
13 PRECISING Abstract making leverage to impress European Commission leaders (9)
EC in PRISING (leverage). It’s an ugly word, but Chambers confirms that précis can be a verb.
15 TANG Smack fly on the rebound (4)
GNAT (rev).
16 SINK Flag adopted by Bantus in Kenya (4)
Hidden in “Bantus in Kenya”.
17 STARRY SKY Old cop, having secured lighter and ciggy in the end, lights up on a clear night (6,3)
(lighte)R (cigg)Y in STARSKY (old cop). Younger readers may need reminding that Starsky and Hutch was a television cop drama in the 1970s.
21 GALACTIC Extremely big girl, very cold having left boozer finally (8)
GAL (girl) A(r – final letter of boozer) CTIC.
22 MOROSE Saturnine flash on Venus, for example (6)
MO (flash) ROSE (Venus, for example). Another thematic reference.
24 UNTROUBLED Drained after tight run-out, remaining calm (10)
*RUNOUT, BLED. “Tight”, as in “drunk” is the anagram indicator.
25 DIME Dark energy ready for NASA? (4)
Cryptic definition: “ready” as in “ready money”. DIM E.
26 SYSTEM Stop following characters central to sissyish arrangement (6)
sisSYish STEM (stop).
27 ENDEAR Draw in boundary, one cut off by post-impressionist (6)
END (boundary) EAR (cut off by Van Gogh!).
DOWN
1 HARBOUR Cups turning up in time for port (7)
BRA (cups) in HOUR.
2 LUNGI All finally on reel, you mean, filming Bambi — it’s a wrap! (5)
Final letters of “reeL yoU meaN filminG BambI”.
3 OUTINGS Stumbling into us, head of gov­ernment having entered, trips (7)
G(overnment) in *(INTO US).
5 See 6
6, 5 PLANETARY NEBULA Neptune: a ball in pieces circling a remarkably hollow luminous cloud (9,6)
A in *(NEPTUNE A BALL R(emarkabl)Y). And another astronomical reference.
7 PADDING Extra fat bear has lost weight (7)
PADDING(ton).
8 FISHING TACKLE Spun thing, as gripped by mercurial spinners, say? (7,6)
*(THING AS) in FICKLE (mercurial). One of the definitions of “spinner” in Chambers is: An artificial fly that revolves in the water (angling).
14 CENTAURUS Constellation where Uranus etc misplaced (9)
*(URANUS ETC).
16 STAINES Mars visited by leader from Epsom, a town in Surrey (7)
E(psom) in STAINS (mars). I always thought that Staines was in Middlesex, but Wikipedia tells me that it was transferred to Surrey in 1965.
18 RAMADAN Beastly male duck, flipping fast (7)
RAM (beastly male) NADA (nothing, so a duck) (rev).
19 KASHMIR By the sound of it, money only for a subcontinental area (7)
Sounds like “cash mere”.
20 ATTUNE Tailor finished off dressing butt (6)
TUN (butt) in ATE (finished off).
23 RIDGE Top, top game (5)
(b)RIDGE.

 

68 comments on “Guardian Prize 28,123 by Paul”

  1. This was worth doing for the brilliant misdirection of “one cut off” in the clue for ENDEAR alone. HELIOS, TANG, PADDING, FISHING TACKLE, and RAMADAN were also tick-worthy, and HARBOUR was a trademark Paul clue. I did question whether prising and leverage were really interchangeable in 13a, but that was a minor quibble. Couldn’t make TAILBOARDS parse completely to my satisfaction, so at least I’m glad to see that I wasn’t alone. Anyway thanks to Bridgesong for the blog, and thanks to Paul for another fine offering.

  2. I think you’re nearly there in 10a, but it’s BOARD (those managing) in TAILS (reverse of a coin). Thanks Psul for another fine crossword and bridgesong for the blog.

  3. Pretty big DNF as the SE corner beyond my Ken. Missed out RAMADAN, RIDGE ENDEAR and DIME and MOROSE.

    I saw MOROSE and DINE but utterly fail to parse them. How is MO =flash and what is “for NASA” in DIME ? No queries about the other ones — just too good for me.

    Enjoyed the puzzle nonetheless and the theme was pleasantly done.

    Thanks Paul and bridgesong and in advance all the other learned contributors.

  4. Sorry, meant Paul of course – it’s too late in the day for reliable typing / eyesight.

  5. Thanks to Paul and bridgesong. I fared well with most of this puzzle but took forever to get NEBULA to go with PLANETARY and TAILBOARDS.

  6. A very enjoyable tussle, but a tussle it certainly was.

    Congratulations to Paul on including all eight (currently recognised) planets in the clues/solutions, as well as a host of farther-flung objects.

    It may be coincidence, but MIR is in there too, and so is RAMA.  The first sci-fi which really gripped me as a boy was Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama, serialised on Radio 4 in the 70s.

    Speaking of sci-fi I enjoyed the ‘War of the Worlds’ allusions at 16d (at least I assume that was intentional – I loved the idea of a return visit to Mars by a council leader from Surrey – only right to pay them the courtesy after all these years, maybe the twinning committee should get involved?)

    My favourite was HELIOS, which took me ages.  I was frustrated at having found SYSTEM, but no sign of ‘solar’ – and then there it was!

    The surface of 6/5d was ingenious, and I think it nearly works as a description of Neptune [perhaps the physicists here can shed light?]  ‘A ball in pieces circling’ could be the ring system, formed through fragmentation of a former moon, although ‘hollow’ doesn’t quite match with the planet’s rocky core.

    At an earthier level, the upturned cups in HARBOUR reminded me of an Essex-themed puzzle from a long time ago (not sure if it was a Paul) which included the clue ‘Nesting cups? (9)’ for one location in that county.

    Live long and prosper, Paul and bridgesong

  7. Thanks bridgesong. Echoing DinC @1, a fine offering indeed and one that took quite a lot of time but was ultimately rewarding. I agree that ENDEAR was particularly adept, I wasted time trying to find the name of an artist that would fit. I also toyed with Oman. I’m sure you are right about 10a, it is uncharacteristically a poor clue but I can see no other explanation. And ‘ugly’ is the right description for 13a.

  8. Thanks both.

    Epee sharkey @3: Mo is short for moment as in “just a mo” so “done in a flash” = “done in a moment”, well, sort of anyway… Given the astronomical theme, NASA just indicates that the “ready” is American.

  10. Thanks bridgesong.  Agree entirely with Dave in NC#1: Worth it on its own for last-in 27A: delayed by my thinking Derain was somehow relevant. The other VG clue, 17A, was also v.g. Thanks Paul.

  11. Quite chewy, I found, but got there in the end. The wordplay for 21a, GALACTIC a bit yoda-ish was, wasn’t it? (“having left bar finally”).

    8d, FISHING TACKLE was clever and I liked the homophone of 19d KASHMIR.

  13. Don’t know if two clues constitute a micro-theme (unless you spell it C-O-I-N-C-I-D-E-N-C-E) but both 27a and 17a are Van Gogh related.

  14. I could not get GIGANTIC out of my ming for 21a – G for girl (or was it Gigi?), but I struggled to see how ANTIC came from arctic. And I had already twigged the astronomical theme. Kicked myself when the penny dropped. All this didn’t help with STAINES either.

  15. Funny how things stick…damn sure I never saw a single ep of that cop show, but Starsky was there in the neural soup, phonetically catchy perhaps. I too had erk! next to 13 after entering it reluctantly, and next to 27 is ‘ugghh, but great surface’. Poor Vincent, tormented soul. There were some familiar tricks–eh for what, tang for smack and ready for cash, and dear old Padding(ton)–which always help one getting started. Top, top game for [b]ridge was neat, as was at(tun)e. Thanks Paul and well done with the heavenly aspects, and thanks Bridgesong.

  16. Couldn’t actually find a Venus Rose, but a rose is one of the goddess’s symbols apparently. Thank Paul and bridgesong.

  17. I enjoyed this, and the theme was playing to what should be one of my strengths, but I took a while to finish, having some sort of block with the combination of ENDEAR, DIME, and RIDGE. I saw DIME as a possibility, but felt it ought to be a NASA mission and I was pretty sure it wasn’t. Eventually, I fell back on Google, and DIME is in fact a NASA experiment (Dropping In a Microgravity Environment – yes, really). With that, and a final realisation of where the post impressionist’s ear came in, I finally got there. Of course, maybe the NASA reference is just an ‘American’ hint…

  18. Very enjoyable and I liked the theme. I was another fan of 1d HARBOUR and 7d PADDING. Had “Vincent” by Don McLean as an earworm for the rest of the day after solving 17a STARRY SKY and 27a ENDEAR. Couldn’t get a full parse of 11a JOVIAN, 25a DIME, 18d RAMADAN and 20d ATTUNE, so I really appreciated the blog today. Thank you to Paul, bridgesong and all contributors.

  19. I found this puzzle quite difficult to get into and it was Monday before I had it finished.  This, to me, is the sign of a Good Crossword.

    Some excellent wordplay, as we would expect from Paul.  I particularly liked HELIOS and RIDGE.  And the misdirection given by Mars in 16dn.

    Can’t see any problem with TAILBOARDS – obverse and reverse are apparently the words used by numismatists for the ‘heads’ and ‘tails’ sides of coins.

    It was just a pity that some of the surfaces weren’t so good; I liked the wordplay in 12ac a lot, for example.

    I’m not sure why OJ should be juice in 11ac apart from being the initial letters of orange juice, of course.

    Overall, a very pleasing puzzle.

    Thanks to Paul and to bridgesong.

  20. Thanks Paul and bridgesong

    OJ reminded me os Simpson, of course, but also of the much repeated film Trading Places.

  21. Thanks NeilW @8.

    The MOment one makes sense. The NASA = US one makes less sense but I get it. KeithS also saw the Dropping in Microgravity Experiment but I guess that is just a coincidence.

  22. Last Saturday, May 2nd, was International Astronomy Day, which probably explains the theme.  Fairly straightforward but enjoyable with a couple of very good clues. Thanks to Paul and bridge song, plus Quirister@2 for clearing up that TAILBOARDS parsing.

  23. I failed to parse 27a ENDEAR and 10a TAILBOARDS.

    Thanks, Paul and bridgesong, and Quirister @2

  24. I recall being somewhat critical of Paul’s output a couple of months ago.  I guess, when you are one of the most prolific setters, not only is it a challenge to maintain the standards but you subject yourself more regularly to the critical gaze of your audience.  And I felt he had lost some of his touch.  Well, he has regained it in spades with a run of challenging and enjoyable puzzles and this was no exception.  I thoroughly enjoyed last Saturday’s test: one of those where I steadily followed instructions, identified possible solutions – many of them left field, pennies dropped and I found myself delighted with both solution and parse.

    Like others here, I worried away at TAILBOARDS which it had to be, until realising, as Quirister has pointed out, that a ‘board’ is a collective noun so written in the singular.  JOVIAN made me smile with its use of the juice abbreviation (Anna @19 I think it’s used often enough to be recognisable and I’m not aware of any other juice that captures the ‘J’ in its diminutive.)  The pleasure of realisation when ‘Starsky’ appeared once the device in 17a became clear. Loved FISHING TACKLE, PADDING, KASHMIR and RAMADAN for its misdirection, albeit not the smoothest surface here.  ENDEAR, of course, earns COTD.

    With regard to PRECISING, I found myself staring at it for ages thinking it can’t be a word but it resulted so obviously from the clue.  Then realised my problem was mentally pronouncing the S and getting ‘precise-ing’.  Once I got over that and simply pronounced ‘ing’ following on from ‘precis’ it worked!  I recall a similar mental glitch when our local authority sought to encourage us to avoid putting broken glass into bins with the label ‘dustbin dangers’ spelled out on the side of the truck.  Due to the spacing of the panels on which it was stencilled it read ‘dust bin dan gers’.  My mind read the last syllable with a hard ‘g’ giving me a phrase rhyming with ‘clangers’ which I repeated and repeated to myself before the penny dropped.

    Thanks to Paul – splendid effort and theme (though I do feel sorry for Pluto who was been downgraded – for fair reasons – 75 years after discovery) – and bridgesong for helping me parse ‘morose’, my LOI

  25. Thanks, Paul and bridgesong, an interesting one, taking me till late Sunday to finish.

    Like Anna@19, I cannot see why OJ is recognised to mean (orange) juice.  And I also do not know how VENUS = rose.  I could not a reference to either of these.  Any explanations?

    As to STAINES, it transferred county when Greater London (GLC) was formed in 1965, taking over all of the London County (LCC) and almost all Middlesex, but left a solitary district isolated in the north of Middx and, after some considerable debate, Staines and Sunbury in the S-W.  This was not a viable county, so the N part transferred to Hertfordshire, and the S-W districts went to Surrey.

     

  26. self @24 “…Pluto who was downgraded…” or …Pluto who has been downgraded…”  Make your mind up, Mark!

  27. To Mark @24

    OJ – I’m pleased you think it’s used so much.  I have never heard of it. Is it a particularly British thing.  (I live in Finland)

    Also, I did point out that obverse and reverse are the usual terms in nusimatics for describing the two sides of a coin.  I really can’t see all the fuss about 10ac.

    But then again, I usually get the impression that I live on a different planet to most people.

  28. [For those who aren’t familiar with Trading Places, the denoument involves trading in frozen OJ futures (orange juice), so the abbreviation is valid.]

  31. And thanks from me too, Muffin @28 and @30.

    But I am still interested to know about VENUS rose – I can only find it as a specialised trade name.

  33. Thanks Paul and bridgesong. A classic Paul offering – some write-ins to get you started and lull you into a false sense of security, but a sting in the tail with four or five clues which I had to keep going back to before I solved.

    The great thing about Paul is that you know the solution will always be fair and solvable – no lazy, obscure foreign words chosen simply to fit the grid, or GK solutions that require a masters degree level in thermodynamics. Good, honest clues……and that’s why I never give up on them……..

    And I always look out for the Paulisms….in today’s offering it was cups/bras.

  34. Thanks for all your comments, particularly Quirister @2 for clarifying TAILBOARDS.  I suppose that if you toss a coin, you still say “heads or tails” thus validating the plural TAILS to mean “reverse”.  As for how Venus can be equated to rose, I can only suppose that both are conventional representations of (female) beauty.  OJ for orange juice isn’t in Chambers, but is in the Oxford Dictionary of English.

  37. Ian @35 I was wondering whether your query was a tongue in cheek double negative – or possibly tautology.  “I still don’t get nada”.  Made me smile.  I would have taken you at face value and responded but bridgesong has done the honours.

  38. I’m a little surprised that so many people have forgotten that OJ Simpson’s nickname was “The Juice”. Maybe it stuck with me because I was/am into American football.

     

  39. “The Venus rose is a pattern made by drawing a line a between venus and earth as they orbit around the sun, it is a result of the fact that venus makes 13 orbits in the time it takes earth to make 8 orbits.” See this YouTube clip for the process. And, no – I didn’t know this when solving the clue: I was thinking of the birth of Venus, when she “rose” from the sea.

  41. Thanks Paul and Bridgesong. As others have said a very enjoyable themed puzzle. Mr K and I have enjoyed reading the additional astromical titbits in clues we missed plus parsings we were a bit cabalier with. We sloppily took Mo in Morose to be a reference to the fast long distance runner! Although like others assumed Venus is a famous example of a beauty (rose). Thanks to Anna for illuminating obverse and reverse in coinage.Just a gentle reminder that Ramadam is the 9th month of the Islamic lunar calender dring which fasting occurs, not the name of the fasting activity. Satisfying clue though and perhaps another that references the theme?

  43. sheffield hatter @39  I echo muffin’s thanks for highlighting that.  Beautiful indeed.  Reminds me of spirograph – it’s essentially the same process.  The teenage me once spent an enjoyable evening over supper at a Lake District Youth Hostel with Denys Fisher, the English engineer generally credited with inventing the spirograph and founding the Fisher Toys company.  Pure chance encounter with a man who certainly thought outside the box.

  44. Chambers doesn’t often do proper nouns, but HELIOS is in the Chambers Thesaurus list of gods as ‘sun’.

    I, too, queried reverse = ‘tails,’ but Quriister @2 sorted that.

    Good Paulian crossword with the addition of a theme, which even I noticed. Nice to see Epsom getting a name-check; the Derby course is looking great in the sunshine.

    Thanks Paul and bridgesong.

  45. I really enjoyed this – I thought the cluing was varied and challenging in places and the theme woven through both clues and solutions very neatly. I especially enjoyed things like “for NASA” just being a themed way of saying “in the USA” once the (Lincoln) penny dropped.

    Alas one “error” – there is no such town as Staines anymore. It is Staines-Upon-Thames and has been for a few years now. Not that the locals are especially bothered and I suppose we happily refer to Kingston and other such places without their hyphenated extensions.

    Many thanks Paul – a good fun puzzle.

  46. Like many others I had to have two gos at this after only managing about half a dozen answers the first try. Was really pleased to finish it at midnight on Tuesday.
    Thanks for parsing attune and dime which I didn’t see. Also the explanation of OJ which I didn’t know referred to OJ Simpson as Juice.
    Loved the cups reference in Harbour which made me giggle when I saw it.
    Thanks to Paul and all.

  47. OK (as opposed to OJ), now I’m intrigued about this whole juice thing. Are we saying OJ refers us to the sportsman, who’s nickname was Juice and therefore we get juice? I’d always assumed – without checking – that his initials formed a happy and obvious coincidence leading to the nickname. Which suggests the diminutive for the juice came first. OJ seems a pretty straightforward abbreviation to me, in the spirit of Tommy k for tomato ketchup. It has an American, rather than British, feel to it.

  48. Wouldn’t it be lovely if there was a sportsman with the initials TK who was known as Ketchup.

  49. The Birth of Venus was depicted by the Ancient Greeks as Aphrodite (Venus) Anadyomene (rising) but Venus=Rose is still a bit of a stretch. Parsed 18d but duck=NADA is either too remote a synonym or brilliant, can’t make up my mind.
    Apart from that, another good one from Paul. Thanks to him and bridgesong.

  50. As sheffield hatter @39 points out, O.J. Simpson’s nickname was The Juice, but I doubt that Paul had that in mind when he wrote the clue. OJ for orange juice was in common American usage long before Simpson and continues to be so today.

  51. Sorry, Mark @47, didn’t see your post before typing mine above. You have it right.

  52. Thanks all. The discussion on OJ for orange juice is quite bemusing. As several have pointed out it’s in common usage, and it’s the first definition that comes up in Collins online.

  53. True, but the definition is ‘orange juice’ whereas the clue just says ‘juice’, so a small liberty has been taken.

  54. Never heard of OJ as orange juice but then I’ve always drunk Rose’s lime! I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it isn’t the OJ Simpson reference Paulm often does sports related clues.

  55. I found this one tricky to finish off in the SE corner, being stuck on MOROSE, RAMADAN and KASHMIR for a while.  The PLANETARY NEBULA clue was brilliant, although I spent too long trying to make HORSEHEAD NEBULA work.  I saw the parsing as *(NEPTUNE A BALL) around A + RY.

    sjshart and others, I found a variety of miniature rose called Venus (no 7 here), so I think the clue is fine.

    I agree with Jenny@54 and others that “Juice” probably is a reference to OJ Simpson rather than just orange juice.

    Fun puzzle. Thanks, Paul and bridgesong.

  57. The RHS lists 25418 roses but not Venus.
    I objected a bit to Man=Eric in yesterday’s Nutmeg given that there are so many men’s names to choose from but this is too far. I suspect, as has already been said, that Paul was equating two examples of beauty.If he is expecting us to be aware of the “Venus rose” pointed out by sheffieldhatter@39 it is too much.

  58. Pino @57

    The semi-plausible “Venus rising from the waves” sort of justifies it, but sheffield hatter’s Venus Rose is too beautiful to be wrong! Paul sometimes drops in – I hope that he can clarify this…

  59. I’d forgotten to come here today because I got too engrossed in today’s “prize”. Finished it now!
    Anyway,the Paul was a toughie and took,oh. quite a long time. Worth the price of admission for FISHING TACKLE alone and,as I spotted the theme, I was well pleased!
    Thanks Paul.

  60. Mark @24 Paul is prolific, esp. when you consider the number of crosswords he sets for the FT under the name Mudd. In fact, today’s FT features a Mudd puzzle — it’s not as challenging as this one but it’s cleverly amusing nonetheless.

  61. Look people OJ is a very common abbr. for Orange Juice, esp in the states, I’m not from the states and I know this, its been around longer than Mr Simpson, which has nothing to do with this clue!

     

  62. Ant @ 61. OJ for orange juice is not at all common in the UK, and in my mind I connect it to N American usage because of OJ Simpson’s nickname. More to the point, in the clue it is just “juice”, with OJ being the letters to be reversed in the answer. Saying OJ Simpson has nothing to do with the clue remains a matter of opinion, until Paul himself appears!

  64. Anyone any idea why the posts for today, 11/05/2020, for the Quiptic and the Cryptic have not appeared? Do I have a problem or is it the site?

  67. Sheffield hatter @ 10 – I beg to differ. I’ve lived in the UK all my life and I would bet that all of my friends and acquaintances know OJ for orange juice (and I’m pushing 50). I’m genuinely surprised that this is even a question. It’s definitely American in origin, but has featured so often in popular culture (the oft-mentioned Trading Places being a key one) that for me it’s not just familiar but second-nature. I work as an online shopper – I automatically *think* “OJ” when I have to pick cartons of the stuff for customers – it’s so deeply ingrained. My seventy-something year old parents know it. If mentioning the stuff to a stranger it would not occur to me that “OJ” would not be understood.

    And whilst I’m perfectly aware of OJ Simpson, I didn’t remember that his nickname was “Juice”, so that seems unlikely to me.

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