Guardian Prize 28,410 by Maskarade

54 comments on “Guardian Prize 28,410 by Maskarade”

1. OON = 0 ON = zero on = no clothing = nude

2. I knew what kind of device to expect from previous holiday specials by Maskarade, and this puzzle didn’t disappoint. CAR and VAN were the first theme words to reveal themselves, followed soon after by BUS.
   I enjoyed this more than two previous puzzles of the same type. I really liked the way that the setter took full advantage of the ‘reduced’ wordplay to write neat, economical clues, of which there are countless examples: “fresh sea air” for CARAVANSERAI is one and “crazed commander’s” for MADAGASCAR is another. (And I note your comment, bridgesong, about this setter’s concise clueing style.) I completed the puzzle in one long session, except for AKABUSI, which cam to me the following day.
   With so many long answers, the gridfill was very impressive, as was the total number (38) of theme words incorporated.
   Thanks to Maskarade and bridgesong.

3. Thanks bridgesong. “As crafty as a cartload of monkeys” is apparently a saying (Collins has a mention).
   The grid will have raised eyebrows, with its double-uncheckeds, and I thought some clues a bit of a stretch to accomodate the theme.
   Thanks to Maskarade for a workout.

4. Thanks bridgesong. Just to add to Jenna’s comment, “nothing on” is the way I read 12a.

5. A lot of these clues I really did not like, and that goes equally for many Guardian setters. One thing I am really tired of is all the gushing praise for mediocre clueing that I read on this site. And I particularly hate comments like “A quick solve…”: Well, aren’t you so much cleverer than everybody else!

6. Another nice Bank Holiday puzzle, and many thanks to Maskarade and to Bridgesong for the blog. Enjoyed the vast majority of this, but had to give up and cheat the last few on the second evening because I felt I’d spent enough time on the puzzle. So a DNF, but no complaints.

7. First time I have attempted one of these – like others I found the three transports of delight quite early and had nearly as much fun fitting them into the clues as Maskarade must have done setting them. I had to look up VAN DER HUM and the AKAI keyboard, CARRYING UP,
   TUSCARORA, REESTED, and the CEBUS (shades of the notorious “monkey puzzle:” it isn’t in some online dictionaries). Just about remembered that the NAIRA was someone’s currency. Apart from the themed clues, I liked the CDs for BRIDESMAID and INSOMNIACS. I won’t upset Jenna by having found it easy or finished quickly (three sessions) but I will try another one in future.

8. Enjoyed this, the fun not spoiled by the handful of unknowns: caracal, van der hum, akabusi, acari, Fovant, nairas, tuscanora and reests…nearly two handfuls in fact. Most were gettable.. I think I looked up van der, which was lazy as smell/hum is a chestnut. Reests was a “Really?”, but yes there it was in my old Collins. And I can’t remember the last time I saw an Akai anything (it died in ’02, says wiki). Usually find jumbos a bit of a slog, but glad I had a crack at this one. Thanks Maskarade, bridgesong and Timon.

9. I worked at this throughout the week and was delighted to finish it.
   Only minor quibble was with 17a, because Vana can also be a name, albeit a much less common one.
   I agree with others about 0ON, that’s the way I read it.

10. These larger formats don’t usually suit my solving style, but after a quick scan I thought I would give a try to the ‘pick-up-over-several-days’ rout. Day one, very little achieved. Day two, got the three vehicles, and made much progress. Day four, in top gear, sped to the end – and by then almost wished it would go on for ever. Never did quite reconcile the number of embedded vehicles, but at that stage, who cared. Really enjoyable puzzle, thanks setter.

11. As always, I marvel at Maskarade’s ability to shoehorn so many thematic words into one of these specials. But having only three of them made it a rather easier solve than previous examples.
    Only a few real obscurities. A lifetime poring over maps paid off with FOVANT, though it was easy to get from the clueing even if you’d never heard of it.
    All hugely enjoyable – but surely Maskarade missed a trick in not including ArauCARia?

12. Jenna @1 and others: thanks for explaining PICAROON – I’ve amended the blog.

    Gonzo @3: I hadn’t spotted the double unches at all, and to be fair I don’t think any of the six clues (all in the downs – unless I’ve missed some) caused us any particular difficulties as a result. For the uninitiated, an unch, or unchecked cell is not normally adjacent to another unch in most grids used by The Guardian and other daily newspapers. Having two unches together does of course make it harder to deduce the answer.

13. This was very nice, and a great relief to have a holiday special that doesn’t involve fitting solutions into an unnumbered grid!

14. Thank you for the blog, not a labour of love I imagine.
    I do not wish to be unkind and it is a thankless task to follow Araucaria but surely it is time to let someone else have a go.

15. … Coupla other bits of unknown gk were John Nott and the rather curious ‘end’ = cottage room…

16. Disappointingly easy for a holiday special, but all quite enjoyable.

    Thanks to Maskarade and bridgesong

17. I enjoyed that, although the theme did drop out almost immediately, and, as has been said, having only three theme words combined with relatively easy clueing from Maskarade did make this easier than most of his holiday extravaganzas. There were quite a lot of words that were new to me, but clearly clued (looking at you, in particular, REESTED), and some – Fovant and Focart seemed equally plausible – just had to be looked up. I once owned an Akai cassette deck, but never associated them with keyboards, and knew nothing of UK sprinters, so was forced to Google for that one. Thanks both Maskarade and bridgesong for the marathon effort..

18. CARAVANSERAI was my first one in and gave me CAR and VAN straight away. BUS took much longer.

    Thanks Maskerade and bridgesong (and Timon – does he participate in the blog, too?)

19. Akabusi was actually a 400m hurdler but I think I had lost the will to live by then.

20. I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle and was impressed with the sheer volume of thematic clues. My “in” to the theme was the clue for MAIDSERVANT. I feel that the level of this for a prize was just about spot on and, unlike Jenna@5, I don’t have anything negative to say about the hard work put in by both setter and blogger.

    Maskarade has put together an excellent crossword whose clues required very little inaccessible general knowledge. NOTT and AKABUSI, for example, were right in my GK sweet spot. Here, I disagree with bridgesong about FOVANT which was very fairly clued despite being niche. The theme words required no complicated looking up, so it was a pleasant solve rather than a reference book slog to complete.

    I would also like to defend bridgesong in reference again to Jenna@5 comment (really why say anything at all if you only want to snipe ?) against referring to solving times. In the blog you clearly state that you are solving with a friend so that is not saying how clever you are. I do normally object to people telling us how quickly they’ve solved a given crossword, because it can be offputting to other solvers – especially newbies – but in this instance it was justified and did not come across as a big brag.

    Thanks to bridgesong and to Maskarade.

21. [Travellers on the A30 across Salisbury Plain will know the FOVANT Badges: soldiers stationed nearby for training during the First World War cut their regimental badges into the chalk hillside before leaving for France, and those that remain are regularly re-cut as a memorial to the men who never returned. I hope I can manage to get the link to work: if not Google Covent Badges…
    

22. Bridgesong @ 12 before someone else corrects it, I think you missed a couple more unches in 30 & 35 across. I agree FOVANT could have been better despite glarson@11 making a fair point. Thanks for the blog (and for doing the lion’s share of the solve!).

23. [Bloody autocorrect: Fovant badges of course. How do I get links to work? I copy the URL as requested and it just comes up blank. ]

24. I don’t usually enjoy Maskarade’s holiday puzzles, I have to say, but worked my way through this. Actually I’d prefer just a normal weekday puzzle (or two) instead!

25. The “rules” specify that you should have (in a cryptic) no more than 50% unches overall. I didn’t do the math, but this did feel like he was skating the line rather. (In an American-style crossword, the rule is zero unches.)

    I had not heard of either Akai or Akabusi, and as such that one felt rather unfair. The rest I all got, with the generous assistance of Señor Google. I didn’t mind Fovant so much, since he at least told us what part of the map to troll.

    Here in America monkeys come by the barrel, not the cartload.

    I would quibble that they have savannas in places other than Africa. Savannah, Georgia, ain’t called that for nothin’, y’know.

26. Gladys @23 I’d not heard of the Fovant badges ~ thank you for the tip. Here is a link (possibly):

27. No, no link, just try with plain text:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fovant_Badges

28. gladys @21 & 23 Fovant Badges

29. Apart from that interesting diversion, I enjoyed this.

    There is a lot to be said for a theme which is a) easy to find and b) doesn’t require any special knowledge. It lead to some fun and challenging clues. I especially liked MADAGASCAR,CARAVANSERAI,BUSTER KEATON, SULLIVAN. Of the non-themed ones, BRIDESMAID, AUDITS SUI GENERIS all hit the spot.

    SCARING AWAY isn’t a great clue, but raised a nostalgic smile, since I am (more or less) a native of the said illiberal city of Galway. Not sure if Maskarade is trying for layers of irony or not, but if you ranked the cities of Ireland by the ‘Liberality’ then Galway would be probably the least illiberal.

    Cannot rem if anyone already pointed out that SHED AND PICAROON are both in the top part – at one point I thought setters might be a theme or sub-theme, but found none other 56A did get me interested in whether ARAUCARIA might put in an appearance….

    Thanks Maskarade, bridgesong, Timon and all other learned contributors on here – fascinating to see the range of opinions!

30. My grandmother used to say my grandfather was “as artful as a wagonload of monkeys” – near enough for 44 to be familiar.
    Thoroughly enjoyable.
    Thanks to Maskerade and bridgesong/Timon.

31. mrpenney @25
    I agree that AKABUSI was rather unfair. As well as the double unch, it was also a ‘double obscurity’ kind of clue, where both the answer and one part of the wordplay (in this case the only part) are ‘obscure’, by which I mean unfamiliar to many or most solvers. I got it only when I thought of putting CAR, VAN or BUS in the answer and seeing if I recognised a sprinter’s name. (I did!)

32. Thanks gladys and co for the Fovant badges. The rising sun one is, I think, the one on the WWI Oz diggers’ hats. [If so, it’s the reason I’m here. When our boys marched down the main street of Safed in 1918, my grandmother, with tears of gratitude at being freed from the Turk, said to Granddad “Jossel, that’s where we are going.” When she told the story, it was all about the blokes in slouch hats with that badge. So it goes]

33. That was my first Jumbo and I almost finished it, albeit with a bit of help. It took me much longer to get over the hurdles than Kriss Akabusi.
    Referring to other setters seems to be a theme of the week.

34. I gave up after 2 hours with only 4 solved. Got CAR and VAN but just couldn’t get any momentum going.

35. Thanks, bridgesong.

    The spelling ‘Guiana’ was the former one for the British and Dutch colonies, now Guyana and Surinam, while the French département is spelt Guyane. But Wiki states that the entire region can still be called ‘the Guianas’. But it was an easy giveaway to produce NICARAGUAN as the first one to enter. (BTW, does anybody else start with the down clues, as I do, before trying those across? Many years ago I read that down clues tend to be easier to start solving.)

    I worked out PICAROON all right, but I thought it was a bit unfair to define it as ‘setter’. In our blogosphere, we know who Picaroon is, but casual crossworders picking up the puzzle cannot be expected to know the names of others who set puzzles, can they?

    I got CARTLOAD, though am more familiar with ‘wagonload of monkeys’ (they have grown up and left home now).

    All in all, just the right level for me at Easter, with a theme fairly straightforward to identify, and a few, not too many, which needed checking. My thanks to Maskarade.

36. I must admit that I don’t always have the patience to persevere with a Maskarade special, but this was a pleasant and steady solve over 2 or 3 sessions. Enjoyable and entertaining.

    Many thanks Maskarade and bridgesong.

37. Thank you to setter and blogger. And others for the always interesting additions to general knowledge and slices of life. [Our write in bizarrely was CARAVANSERAI because of the Santana album] Had a similar experience to many; don’t usually attempt the holiday bumper cryptic under the ‘losing the will’ column but as others note it was fun fitting in one of just three options. Finished Thursday evening with just three look-ups (a good ratio of helping hands v. Volume of clues for Mr K and I)

38. Having miscounted the clues with a CAR, VAN or BUS I was looking for a last one in 40d, so didn’t spot the cryptic definition and couldn’t get SEMI either (I prefer red wines, so Semillon never occurred to me). I had to check my road atlas for FOVANT (the alternative Focart seemed unlikely) and I had a list of half a dozen other words to look up in Chambers when I finally called it a day, but that’s a bit better than expected for a Bank Holiday special. Didn’t bother looking up the South African drink, because HUM is standard crosswordese, as our blogger said, and I thought there was a play on R(H)UM there – do South Africans have a sense of humour?

    I get Bridgesong’s point about an adverb being used to clue a gerund, but it seems to me that the words are substitutable in a sentence: “He said, disparagingly/sniffing” (sorry, SNORTING – that must have been very frustrating 🙂 ).

    Thanks to Maskarade for a mostly enjoyable solve (even though I didn’t complete) and to Bridgesong for the blog. I join with Ed The Ball @20 in clearing you from Jenna’s charge of boasting about your finishing time – I thought you had very carefully mentioned it only as a comparison with a normal “prize” crossword.

39. Since no-one else has queried it – how is CEBUS = bus in church? (Got the CE and BUS bit but cant see why one is in the other).

    I found this quite amenable for a Mask despite the expected handful of never-heard-of-obscure-words. Enjoyed working through this during the week and pleased to only having the isolated centre section blank by Friday

40. Proud to say it took me all week to finish and I only had to start cheating on Friday!
    Thanks Maskarade and Bridgesong

41. I usually look forward to the Maskarade holiday offerings, but this was a bit of a let down if only because the mystery guests were so easy to figure out. Having CARAVANSERAI as one of the first ones in attack order certainly helped.

    These Jumbos usually turn into a 2-phase affair for me and this was no exception: first, treat it like a closed-book exam and get the theme elements and as many clues as possible with no help, then shrug and treat it as a no-holds-barred race to the finish, reference sources allowed. As it happened, there were very few stragglers this time waiting for phase 2 – just AKABUSI and REESTED and 1 or 2 others.

42. Pedro @ 39: in parsing CEBUS, you ignore the thematic BUS, so all that’s left is C(hurch) (of) E(ngland). “Monkeys “ is the definition, and “in” is a linking word.

43. Imaginative use of the theme words – but as usual with these, lots of obscure words. This seemed to require even more lookups than usual – so a bit of a slog on & off over the week. Akabusi remembered from a song lyric that’s stuck in my head – but can’t recall the band.

44. Very much enjoyed. Took several sessions … but that’s fine. The more concise the clueing, the greater the attraction! Had wobbles wanting THICKO rather than TWILIT and AvanTI rather than AUDITS. [Both Studebaker and Ford had Avantis in the early 1960s.] The count of 38 themed clues helped at end. Had the very centre to finish and this proved vehicle-rich. Many thanks, Maskarade.

45. Roz @14

    As with all of Maskerade’s crosswords one can only congratulate him on his skill at filling the grid with theme words and on the conciseness of his clueing. But solving a crossword should be about much more than filling in the answers – where was the fun in this one? Where were the laugh out loud moments when you realised that the setter had led you up the garden path? Admittedly we were spoiled by having the peerless Araucaria for so many years but any number of the Guardian’s regular setters more than capable of setting a challenging crossword that is also fun and I wholeheartedly agree that it is time to let someone else have a go

46. David @ 45, I am not blaming Maskarade, I cannot even think up one clue for the monthly Azed prizes.
    Setters must run out of ideas for special crosswords. If they were shared out, even between three, then each setter would have a whole year to work on an idea. I think only Araucaria had the imagination to keep producing three specials year after year.

47. Thanks bridgesong @42 for clarification. However I’m not conviced of the legitimacy of the clue. If there must be a linking word, why not ‘Monkeys at church’.

48. Yes, I agree with Pedro @ 47. If the one word “in” is just there for the surface, why not allow several words for the surface (or the linking): Monkeys are found in church. I am sure there would be objections to that.

49. Like other contributors I found this puzzle a bit of a slog, and only managed to finish it with copious use of the check button. Being an online solver, I don’t normally do these extra-large special puzzles as I think the format didn’t work online until recently, and I’m guessing they must be more satisfying to solve on paper over several days.

    sheffield hatter @ 38 and bridge song: I solved 26a SNORTING as a CD, not a DD: isn’t the adverb ‘disparagingly’ referring to the verb ‘taking’ -?

50. AllyGally @49: yes, you may be right, although the surface doesn’t then make a lot of sense. I may have been misled by confusion with SNIFFING, which perhaps has a sense of disapprobation that SNORTING lacks.

51. bridgesong @50 & AllyGally @49: I don’t want to find myself getting dragged into inadvertently defending the clue, but I can’t see how it could work as a cryptic definition. I think sniffing is a better answer if we concentrate on ‘disparagingly’ (for which SNORTING has no support in Chambers) , and either answer works equally well if we look at ‘taking cocaine’. Maybe the setter has found some justification elsewhere, but I’m not sufficiently motivated to look for it. 😉

52. Collins on-line dictionary suggests the clue for SNORTING is just fine (TWO MEANINGS).

53. The same three words figured in Sam Buttrey’s recent puzzle for Significance magazine, published by the Royal Statistical Society.

54. Great puzzle, much word-learning, and good that it was perhaps slightly dialled down from some Maskarades, as we managed to almost finish it, beaten by the humming liqueur and the oon explaining Picaroon…

Comments are closed.