Guardian Saturday Prize Crossword 28,835 by Paul (13 Aug 2022)

50 comments on “Guardian Saturday Prize Crossword 28,835 by Paul (13 Aug 2022)”

1. Another master-puzzle from my favorite setter. Usually I groan when seeing themes relying on the solution of a single clue, but I waded in and soon solved MEISSEN (fab clue) which enabled PORCELAIN. From then I was like a raging bull in a you-know-what, and the china came crashing down in all directions.
   Fine china has always fascinated me, since the old abandoned Rockingham pottery site was my local childhood playground, and it was still possible to drop across shards. So I was disappointed not to find it making an appearance here, but that was my personal problem, and at least I have a single specimen in my personal collection..
   Last two in were IMARI – which I knew – and SATSUMA – which I didn’t know, but bunged it in hoping that it was more than just a juicy fruit, and Mr G confirmed.
   Not an easy puzzle, took well over the hour, but much solving satisfaction along the way, and I was left wishing it would go on much longer.
   Thank you Paul, currently I’ve also been working through several of your puzzles from 2008, and am impressed by the consistency of your standards over the years.

2. I didn’t know IMARI but laughed at MEISSEN.
   Took me a while to get PORCELAIN actually but then very pleasant. As an aside I also found out about Liverpool Ware which was a bonus. William Brown Street was a hub of pottery industry in 18th century.
   Thanks Paul and blogger

3. Thanks for the blog! I almost always love a Paul puzzle, but this was a rare exception where the theme was too obscure for me. Did crack the theme but then having to look up porcelains was a bit of a chore tbh.

4. Guessed NELSON MANDELA straight away – and then parsed it. Next got SUSPENSE followed by SPODE and that helped me get the key word PORCELAIN. Made steady, slow progress through the rest but didn’t know ESTIVAL and never heard of a porcelain called CANTON.

   Liked CHINCHILLA, NEMESIS, BADMINTON, CUBISM

   Thanks Paul and mc_rapper67

5. Thanks mc_rapper67. Once again I spent just about as much time on the last two as the rest put together, ESTAVIL and IMARI in this case. Talking of cases it took some time to discover the theme but my way in was SPODE. (BAD)MINTON, WEDGWOOD and MEISSEN followed shortly afterwards and the others more slowly but I’d never heard of IMARI and had to seek Google assistance. Not too sure about HALF-BAKED as an anagrind. I did finish with a sense of accomplishment which doesn’t always happen.

6. I got all the PORCELAIN without troubling any search engines – which is just as well, considering the number of potters in my extended family – but I tripped myself up by plumping for ROBIN (Day) in 21d and forgetting to go back and check if OROBINE was a word. So a faller at the last hurdle for me.

   ‘Blairite having prioritised issue’ was very clever, and justified the inclusion of the (irrelevant to the theme) former leader of the ANC. I was pleased to have remembered NATES (though now I have to try to forget the image of our appropriately named blogger resting his on some fine Armitage Shanks).

   Thanks to Paul and mc.

7. Thank you mc_rapper67 for your blog and highlighted grid.
   Maybe, the ‘significance of NELSON (MANDELA) in that central column’, is just that, a central column?
   But I did find Lord Nelson Pottery which UK solvers may know, been around for a while.

8. While, as always, the parsing of the gateway clue was clear in hindsight, I did not get it without 3 crossers, and was quite relieved when that happened. It was maybe not an obvious choice for a theme, so kudos to Paul for choosing it and making what I thought was a great puzzle out of it.

   After getting PORCELAIN, progress speeded up quite a bit, and then slowed down until I saw that malignant should be MALIGNING – dumb! I really liked TWIG, for the non-obvious definition(s).

9. I’ve no interest in and sparse knowledge about the theme but I found this puzzle great fun. Thanks Paul and mc_rapper67.

10. Thanks for a great blog, mc_rapper67.
    This was a tough puzzle but in a similar experience to the blogger and some other contributors above, I did enjoy it more once I got the key clue at 7d PORCELAIN, and started to spot some of the theme words especially those “hidden” in other solutions like 14a MALIGNING and 26a CHINCHILLA. My particular favourite was MEISSEN at 28a for the reference to one of my favourite Steinbeck novels. I had never heard of the word “bloomer” for a loaf of bread but still managed to guess 11a BREADCRUMB. The pollies who featured in that long clue at 9d were unfamiliar to me, so I got NELSON MANDELA from the definition, the enumeration and the crossers. I really appreciated seeing how the clue worked when I read the blog. I have to say that I am rather taken by your suggestion about Nelson’s Column, paddymelon@7.
    Many thanks for a testing puzzle, Paul. This one was a big challenge.

11. IMARI was the only PORCELAIN I wasn’t familiar with. All the viewings of Antiques Roadshow must have paid off.
    I did like MEISSEN for the lovely ‘sound like’, SO WHAT for the clever juxtaposition of porker and pork pie, and the nicely crafted &lit NATES.

12. NATES utterly defeated me. I wonder if CANTON is a geographical reference to the anglicised name of a province in China.

13. The NW corner was the last to go as Mrs td spotted CUBISM for me, making SATSUMA obvious for 2d (with a Google check to confirm it was indeed a type of porcelain as well as the fruit). Once I got the key I really enjoyed the puzzle and the usual groan and laugh for Paul coming from MEISSEN. Thanks to setter and blogger

14. An esoteric theme but interesting to see several of us already able to claim some degree of personal connection; I grew up not that far from Royal Worcester which, of course, latterly embraced Spode. The key word fell early for me: Paul kindly clued PROPANE with reference to a cooker which made the solution leap off the page – so I had the first letter – and 3d linked that critical 7d to ‘glazes’ which I always associate with pottery rather than glass. Then it was a matter of spotting the themesters. I was unaware of SATSUMA and CANTON both – and I loved the hiding of MINTON in the sport and the outrageous homophone for MEISSEN. All very satisfying. MACRAME and TWIG were my favourites of the non-themers.

    Thanks Paul and mc

15. Finally all that daytime viewing of antiques programmes has come in handy. 🙂 I enjoyed the puzzle particularly NELSON MANDELA, MEIISSEN/NEMESIS, TWIG and most of all SPODE because that always brings the P.G.Wodehouse character to mind. I was a bit slow actually getting PORCELAIN and needed crossers.

    Thanks Paul, and mc_rapper67 for the blog and animated grid.

16. Thanks for the blog and the grid looks brilliant, a theme right up my street for once. I got SPODE and MEISSEN early so I was waiting for 7 to be linked to pottery.
    MEISSEN, IMARI and NELSON MANDELA my favourites , the last even more so after PDM@7 .
    CANTON is pretty early ware and probably beat known for inspiring the willowpattern ware of SPODE and MINTON.
    The IMARI clue is doubly clever, most people prefer early Imari with a single blue underglaze, the later pieces with highly coloured overglaze go a git too far.

17. Thanks, mc_rapper67. I think I was quite lucky to get into this one at all. My first pass through yielded discouragingly few answers, but I wasn’t at peak form, having had my fourth Covid booster the day before and being rather knocked about by it. (I actually guessed at FARSI from the reversed ‘is’, but was too addled to see the RAF connection and left it un-entered, which gives you some idea…). I did get PIE SHOP though, and SPODE from that, but got no further. Coming back the next day feeling much better, I decided the theme must be ‘potteries’, and, with no idea how that fitted the clue, pencilled it in for 7d. Quite by chance, that leading ‘P’ was correct, and gave me PROPANE and things improved from there on. Eventually I TWIGged this was really about PORCELAIN, and the rest went quite quickly, despite not knowing IMARI or SATSUMA as porcelain. But there was a very long extended pause at the end while I struggled with ESTIVAL and BREADCRUMBS. The former eventually fell into place, and while I didn’t get the ‘bloomer’ reference to the latter, it seemed to be all that would fit. (After the event, I even used a word finder to confirm no other word did fit.) So, luck rather than judgement, but I did enjoy the exercise.

    (I looked up IMARI, afterwards, and I know little of porcelain, but it looks as if the use of two glazes is significant, so that looks like a very clever clue indeed. I also particularly liked PROPANE, but that may be because it helped me so much.)

    Thanks, Paul.

18. [ MrPostMark@14, I was born and raised in Florence, educated in Dresden and Etruria, my mother painted horses for Beswick , my great-grandmother painted Clarice Cliff pieces for Shorter Brothers, you could say I have some personal connection to this theme ]

19. I enjoyed this one, again not getting the theme word until I’d solved various other clues based on the theme.

    Thanks to Paul and mc_rapper667 for the amusing blog.

20. I nearly finished this last Saturday and didn’t go back to it til this morning to see that I was defeated by TWIG and MEISSEN, mainly because I had put in NESTA for NATES! There is a porcelain-maker called Nesta, and in my haste to solve the anagram I popped that straight in, neglecting to notice that the clue hadn’t mentioned PORCELAIN at all!

    Anyway, my inability to read aside, that was an OK solve. I needed help from Mr Google to check quite a lot of the theme clues, as it’s not my area of expertise. Barring my silly mistake I reckon I should have been able to get to the end. And it’s one of those puzzles where I came away feeling educated!

21. As usual with Paul I was flummoxed on a first pass. Gradually progressed and when I realised the porcelain theme I almost resigned. I got SPODE before PORCELAIN and that was my way in. Got there in the end minus two: NATES and TWIG. Feeling dumb now, but did not know NATES was a word. Why didn’t I just reach for that dictionary?!

    Thanks to Paul and mc_rapper67.

22. I don’t think the theme would have been too obscure to any regular viewer of Antiques Roadshow!

23. I reached the theme by recognising Wedgwood from its crossers, and then enjoyed entering several other answers. In 13a, I had thought Stoke was a strange choice to provide s…e in the answer, but then realised its was a clever reference to Stoke-on-Trent, centre of the Potteries in England, the home of Wedgwood, Spode et al.
    I am not convinced, however, by SUSPENSE=doubt. Any views?
    Like others, I was unsure about Canton porcelain, but found it in Wiki eventually. Altogether an enjoyable puzzle, thanks, Paul and mc_r.

24. Guessed 7d after solving IMARI. Top half was easier for me from then on.

    Did not parse 7d, 9d.

    New SATSUMA ware/porcelain; MINTON ceramics (19d); ODORISE.

    Liked MACRAME, TWIG (loi), MEISSEN.

    Thanks, both.

25. Re 15 down: ‘index’ has 2 plurals. When the meaning is ‘list’, the plural is ‘indexes’ not ‘indices’.

26. And no solutions across multiple clues! Well done Paul – didn’t think you could do it!

27. An almost unique experience for me – a quite brilliant and enthralling puzzle, which kept me engaged and entertained for hours upon a theme in which I have little interest.
    Pretty well every surface was clever, funny or appropriate. NELSON MANDELA, SUSPENSE, and MACRAME were mini- narratives in their own right, APLENTY a telling comment on the current plight of the NHS, whilst PIE SHOP conjured up a moving image of a struggling small business doing its best in the current crisis. The only clue I failed on was for BADMINTON which just wouldn’t drop.
    This has been a vintage week in the Guardian with two cracking contributions from Paul and yesterday’s from Brendan. Beacons of intelligence, elegance, wit and civilisation in a world that is crumbling around us. Many thanks from a grateful octogenarian.

28. Sh@6 I wondered about OROBINE, too. Maybe it was the proximity of Peter Mandelson that made us think of the wrong Day? I liked MEISSEN, NELSON MANDELA (perhaps there to provide political balance to Sir Roderick SPODE?) and BADMINTON. I failed on ESTIVAL, despite getting a very similarlt clued AESTIVAL in a recent Knut puzzle.

29. MALIGNING … not MALIGNANT. Doh. No wonder I couldn’t find any reference to mant china. [Although it did happily remind me of Mant! (Half man. Half ant. All terror!) https://youtu.be/EVEjdGQSzc8 ]

30. Thanks Paul and mc. Eventually I had to do a search on 1a ESTIVAL but then I was able to finish the rest of the NW corner without further cheating.

31. Roz @16 … “the later pieces with highly coloured overglaze go a git too far”… I always thought that I was a git too far.

    sjshart @23 I didn’t give SUSPENSE=doubt a second thought… I won’t keep you in suspense as to my reasons for that.

32. Didn’t enjoy this one. Some nice clues, but too much rummaging about for types of porcelain. Fun for pottery enthusiasts, but not my week. I got most of it, but was unconvinced about the logic of some answers, one of them (Malignant) because it was so wrong (HaHa Stokey Steve above). Guardian online annotated solutions at this moment has a completely wrong answer (Orbison) for 4d and repeats my own unsatisfactory explanation for 6d which I have now rejected in favour of mc_rapper67’s explanation above.

33. I very much enjoyed this. My way in to 7D was via IMARI.
    Like others here, I have some personal connections to places linked with porcelain: worked in Worcester and now live not too far from the Potteries.
    An interesting and informative television programme helped me too…
    No, not The Antiques Roadshow but Only Fools and Horses ?
    I remembered from way back (or maybe my grandmother told me…) an episode called “Of Meissen and Men” which tickled me.
    NATES was also no trouble as it’s Mr SR’s nickname for our cat who – like many pet cats – seems to delight in displaying hers.

    Many thanks, Paul, for the excellent entertainment and mc for the humourous and well explained blog; not a bum note anywhere.

34. 17a eventually led me to 7d and the rest followed quite smoothly.
    Parsing 6d was delayed by my brain’s continued unwillingness to accept “back in” when “back of” is the norm. I still don’t like it.
    9d Definitely one for us oldies.
    29a I liked the homophone and the indicator which was new to me.
    Thanks to Paul, though I prefer his non-themed puzzles, and mc_rapper67

35. TILT Bloomer for bread. Why?
    Nho Peter Mandelson the Blairite. I had heard of Ken Livingstone but that didn’t help, I couldn’t get farther than “… I presume?”

    ESTIVAL is also the French spelling. When I was living in Paris in the 80’s there was a “Festival Estival,” which as I recall featured music and was wonderful.

    PORCELAIN came in very late, but SPODE early on being a 7(theme word) led me to think that the theme was china, or some synonym for it.

    Thanks to Paul and mc for the entertainment.

36. @Me 33

    Oops! Forgot emojis don’t translate here. The ? should have been a picture of a blushing yellow face.

37. The were some great clues here but I didn’t really enjoy the theme. I don’t watch Antiques Road Show (or any other TV, in fact) and as far as I know, my hometown of Stevenage has no connection whatsoever with fine pottery. I cracked the theme through the jorum of SPODE, though, and managed to make a little progress with some types of PORCELAIN I had heard of but decided it was all to much of a slog and abandoned it. I picked it up again later, though, and with a correct guess at SATSUMA and the further jorum of IMARI, made enough progress to battle my way through to completion. I’m glad I did, because in the end I got the joy of solving BREADCRUMB, NATES and (especially) TWIG.

38. I see a few people are not familiar with the style of bread loaf known as a bloomer. It’s perhaps unfortunate that even though that meaning is the first in the list given at Wikipedia’s disambiguation page for that word, the link to the page has been lost.

    It is a loaf which rises during baking unconstrained by a tin, and so appears to ‘bloom’. The end product is a rounded loaf with a flat base.

    https://lewisbakery.co.uk/bloomer-bread/

39. Thanks mc_rapper, for a nicely highlighted animation, and Roz and others for adding to my limited (AR and maybe Lovejoy) knowledge of the theme. With themes outside my comfort zone I always worry a little that “false Jorum” may be struck but either I got lucky or Paul took care that there were no obvious false trails. Either way it was a lot of fun so thanks Paul.

40. Needed help here for CANTON. GregfromOz@12 has a reasonable explanation. Canton/China for the porcelain.
    I was tickled to get SATSUMI and IMARI from wordplay. Roz’s explanation of glazes @16 embellished the clue.

41. PDM@40 this theme was a gift for me, the Florence, Dresden and Etruria I mentioned are all regions within Stoke-on-Trent or we prefer the term the Potteries, it still produces the best bone china in the world.
    Imari, Satsuma and Canton usually have the word “ware” added , Satsumaware for example. People more likely to have heard of them in this form.
    Cantonware is from China ( very different spelling there ).

42. Tim@31 surely not ? Although there may be other suspects.
    I did write BIT too far, somebody must have swapped the keys on this Chromebook.

43. [Oh, Roz@41, had no idea of the Stoke-on-Trent regions. Thank you for enlightening me. I was wondering how you got from your origins to astrophysics.]

44. Etruria was basically built, and named , by Josiah Wedgwood for his fourth factory.
    The pottery districts of Dresden and Florence were probably named after the European cities famous for Meissen and Majolica respectively.

45. I got there in the end after a second effort on Sunday, although the types of porcelain wound up being a massive Googlathon. The NELSON MANDELA clue was a bit unfair on those of us from abroad–hadn’t heard of either politician. I’d wager that for just about exactly all of us who speak English without a British accent, it was a BIFD. (Valentine, Julie in Australia, and I make it 3 for 3 so far, I see.)

46. Greatly enjoyed: both puzzle and blog. Such a wonderfully worked theme. Managed to miss the delicious Meissen pun: deciding the novel “Ice” must somehow be involved.

    Loved the blog. Had this vision of mc_rapper67 sitting in the relevant location practising his macrame! Thanks, all.

47. [Oops. Got macramé muddled with origami there.]

    While never easy, Paul’s puzzle seemed perfect. So many great clues that I couldn’t begin to choose favourite.

    Early on, I’d twigged 18D (PIE SHOP) but somehow entered this in 8D by mistake. Maybe the heat then prevailing? Once the theme began to emerge it was smiles and perspiration all the way. Many thanks, Paul.

48. This was beyond me. By the time I got 7 down I realised that my knowledge of porcelain was zilch.

49. I was unfamiliar with Satsuma, Imari, Spode, Minton, Canton, Meissen as forms of pottery, but the careful subsidiary cluing helped me find the right words to Google or Chambers for verification. (May I use “Chambers” as a verb?)

    I appreciated the extra help with Meissen provided by 5d. I expected that answer to be Nemesis but refrained from writing it in until I had found an anagram that passed the G/C porcelain test.

50. Girabra

    “extra help with Meissen provided by 5d”

    There was no such clue in this puzzle.

    Btw, I forgot to mention that ‘of MEISSEN men’ was a genuine LOL.

    (You may use Chambers as a verb, but I bet you won’t find that usage in Chambers … ironically.)

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