A themed puzzle for this week’s Prize.
The theme was savoury snacks, mostly defined as “cousins” to the (potato) crisp (16 ac). A few were to be found in the clues, where they were capitalised. Timon and I found this challenging, especially as we had never heard of Nik Naks. I have a couple of minor quibbles (is that a brand of a savoury snack as well, I wonder?) but nothing major. The puzzle displays all the ingenuity we have come to expect. Many thanks to Paul.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | IMAMATE |
Your tormentor is a crony in religious office (7)
|
| A charade of I’M A MATE. | ||
| 5 | THROATY |
Gruff personnel fitted in perfectly, surly ultimately (7)
|
| HR (personnel) in TO A T (perfectly) (surel)Y. | ||
| 10 | IN ON |
Aware of chain, one’s shackled (2,2)
|
| Hidden in “chain one’s”. | ||
| 11 | MARY PETERS |
Old Olympian back on sherry, safe inside bar (4,6)
|
| (sherr)Y PETER (old term for a safe), all inside MARS (as in Mars Bar). Mary Peters won gold in the 1972 Olympics. | ||
| 12 | ETCHER |
Scorer, one recovering having missed header? (6)
|
| (f)ETCHER. We were looking for a composer, not an artist. | ||
| 13 | TREFOILS |
Whistler paintings observed after artist finally leaves (8)
|
| (artis)T REF (whistler) OILS (paintings). Note the placement of Whistler at the beginning of the clue: the capitalisation is perfectly justifiable and wholly misleading. | ||
| 14 | ORCHESTRA |
Design of short race that’s divided into sections (9)
|
| *(SHORT RACE). Could of course have equally well been CARTHORSE, but that wouldn’t have worked (and isn’t normally divisible into sections). It’s a pretty vague definition, but the anagram is so well-known, that I think we can forgive it. | ||
| 16 | CRISP |
Saint has dropped in, sharp! (5)
|
| (St) CRISP(in). The thematic key to the puzzle. | ||
| 17 | SWELL |
Terrific increase (5)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 19 | MAY QUEENS |
Borough after female leader, young ladies on parade (3,6)
|
| QUEENS (New York borough) after MAY (female). I’m not sure about “leader” – it doesn’t seem to be wholly necessary, but perhaps I’m missing something. | ||
| 23 | ITCHIEST |
Blithering ethicist, most irritating (8)
|
| *ETHICIST. | ||
| 24 | EUREKA |
English flower and Egyptian spirit discovering expression? (6)
|
| E URE (river) KA (Egyptian spirit). | ||
| 26 | MISOGAMIST |
Given hindsight, adults in haze, one hating marriage (10)
|
| IMAGOS (adults – it refers to insect development) (rev) inside MIST. | ||
| 27 | FEAT |
Great coup from Walkers, did you say? (4)
|
| Sounds like “feet”; here the capitalisation is a nod to the theme. | ||
| 28 | AS USUAL |
Chance initially blown, America stepping in, typically (2,5)
|
| US in (c)ASUAL. “Chance” can be an adjective, so it’s reasonable to use it as a synonym for “casual”. | ||
| 29 | INVERSE |
Opposite written by poet? (7)
|
| IN VERSE. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2,3 | MONSTER MUNCH |
Tremendous artist, 16’s cousin (7,5)
|
| A simple charade, with MUNCH referring to Edvard Munch, the Norwegian artist famous for “The Scream”. “Cousin” in this clue and others is used somewhat loosely to refer to brands of savoury snacks. | ||
| 4 | TIMBRES |
Qualities we hear in Frazzles poked by doctor (7)
|
| MB (doctor) in TIRES (frazzles, or wears out). | ||
| 6 | HOPPER |
Frog artist? (6)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 7 | OUTSOURCE |
Courteous cooks give work to others (9)
|
| *COURTEOUS. | ||
| 8 | THRILLS |
Excitement when Quavers passed round hotel (7)
|
| H(otel) in TRILLS (quavers). | ||
| 9 | FRATERNAL TWIN |
Vermin that’s infernal, heart of Satan, get — different child? (9,4)
|
| RAT (vermin) inside FERNAL (in fernal) (sa)T(an) WIN (get). | ||
| 15 | HULA HOOPS |
16’s cousin in dance bands (4,5)
|
| A charade of HULA and HOOPS. | ||
| 18 | WOTSITS |
Which models for 16’s cousin? (7)
|
| Sounds like “what sits”! | ||
| 20 | QUENTIN |
16, one of 5 divided by 10, possibly? (7)
|
| *TEN inside QUIN (one of five). This is the artist’s model and wit. | ||
| 21 | NIK NAKS |
Dancin’ to reggae for flippin’ 16’s cousin! (3,4)
|
| SKA (reggae) ‘N’ KIN (all reversed). I’m not sure how “kin” equates to dancin’ but no doubt someone will explain. The snack was formerly known as Curly Wotsits. | ||
| 22 | NEVADA |
State of Virginia invading Middle Eastern port from the south (6)
|
| VA (Virginia) inside ADEN (rev). | ||
| 25 | RIFLE |
Common to bandage left arm (5)
|
| L in RIFE (common). |
I enjoyed this – not as complicated as some of Paul’s puzzles. No jumping around with long clues.
Favourites included: QUENTIN (loved this) FRATERNAL TWIN, TREFOILS, THRILLS, MISOGAMIST
Got the mini theme. Knew 16a had to be a saint with in taken off but didn’t get it until I got the crosses and am not sure I think that crisp = sharp. Got WOTSITS and HULAHOOPS before I got CRISP. Never heard of NIK NAKS.
Thanks Paul and bridgesong
21d SKANKIN’ is dancing to reggae.
A tasty puzzle.
Thankd both.
Thanks bridgesong. Well, I got there in the end but only after too much assistance from Google. It’s not a complaint and only an observation but I guess other non-residents would have had similar problems. My entry came when I had constructed NIKNAKS from the crossers, I’d never heard of it and sought confirmation from Google. The page obligingly provided several of the other ‘cousins’ but even so the key 16a, a lovely clue, was one of my LOIs. Not sure if Mary would take kindly to being called old, she’s only a youngster! Can’t say I enjoyed it much.
19ac – the leader is surely Theresa May.
Very enjoyable puzzle – indeed, more so than most of the snacks mentioned. Never come across Monster Munch, fortunately.
Thanks to Paul and bridgesong.
I’m presuming it’s MAY as in Theresa May, hence “female leader”, and yes it’s simply SKANKING, without the final G, as indicated by DANCIN’ all reversed. I thought this to be a pretty tough puzzle.
Quentin the Courageous was the only crisp I knew, but the others emerged ok from reading the packets. Isn’t Wotsits a cute name for a snack! The not-old-but-former Olympian, too, was a dnk, but safely gettable. Frazzles looks a bit like a brand name but isn’t, and if it was it wouldn’t be poked by a doctor 🙂 . Thanks both, now for today’s, in between Aussies v Saffers at the Gabba.
Thank you bridgesong. Only on reading the blog today and seeing the capitalisation of Frazzles and Walkers did I realise that there was more to the theme.
My lack of GK was a hindrance, especially as I got WOTSITS early and CRISP late. I was thinking about thingamabobs and suchlike. Learned a lot about ”’placeholders” as these words are called.
TIMBRES favourite for the possible misdirection as homophone with ‘we hear’. How do you homophonise that anyway? Most people I know say it slightly Frenchly.
Thanks bridgesong. This consumed a chunk of Saturday arvo, the first half trying to get the theme, with only QUENTIN to go on. The potato snacks are not called here by his surname, but ‘chips’. So like Biggles#3 it took a weird word then Google – from then it was more such searching and easy going. Ticks for the tormentor, and the last-in Whistler/leaves.
Doesn’t the MAY QUEEN lead the procession? Well at least the leading figure in the procession. Is that just RC? But the PM works too.
NIK NAKS? for me too.
Very enjoyable
Thanks both
Thanks, bridgesong. I did complete this, but it would be stretching things to claim I solved it. More accurate, I’m afraid, to say I just looked up the themed answers. In hindsight, I feel I should have got CRISP (after all, there’s the St Crispin’s Day speech) but after a slow start I decided Frazzles and Quavers must be connected with the theme – sweets, perhaps? – and Googled them. That made things much clearer, especially with a link to Walkers’ web site. IMAMATE was new to me (nice clue, tormentor!) so I’d not have got MONSTER MUNCH without help. But theme aside, and I don’t really think I needed to learn so much about British snacks, there were some imaginative clues and I enjoyed finishing it off. I liked the misleading Whistler, ‘to a t’, and the sectioned orchestra. Thanks, Paul.
I got the theme fairly early and as an expat knew quite a few of the themed entries. NIK NAKS was an exception, and at one point before I worked out the skankin’ wordplay, I nearly bunged in the name of a biscuit which has become a less acceptable word.
Even MARY PETERS was lurking somewhere deep in the memory banks.
Favourite has to be QUENTIN.
Got CRISP ok, thanks to Laurence Olivier and Shakespeare, but had no idea that the cousins were savoury snacks, so gave up.
Thanks both.
Thanks for the blog , as a world expert on rubbish 70s/80s crisp-like snacks this was right up my street. NikNaks are a bit like Wotsits ( without the radioactive orange ) but long and thin, shaped like a Twiglet but soft . I think Skips was the only major omission.
I agree that Whistler was very neat , deceptive capital at the start , I liked EUREKA for the “discovering expression” and FRATERNAL TWIN for the Omen reference.
I think only Quentin required a Paddington stare , great definition spoiled by the indirect anagram.
Grant@6 Frazzles is definitely a brand name, they were meant to look and taste?? like bacon rashers. The supermarkets had their own rip-off version called Rashers.
Oh right, ta for the culinary knowledge Roz.
Much enjoyed though had bunged in tiMOres rather than tiMBres and never checked.
Fiona Anne @1. SHARP frosts here (Central S England) at the moment. Perhaps the synonym CRISP comes from the sound?
Had expected Boris Karloff … distant cousin of Quentin Crisp … to appear until I sussed the theme. Many thanks Paul and bridgesong.
Paul obviously has a thing about Hopper at the moment. He used the same artist yesterday. Thanks P and B
Many thanks P & b, at least we had a Mars bar to balance out the savoury. There’s no homophone indicator for WOTSITS, so I think it’s just wot (eye dialect spelling of what, meaning which) + sits, with a question mark to alert us to the non-standardism.
Crispy @17: your kinda puzzle, surely!!!
To my shame, I did recognise all the snacks, if not the religious office though it was clear enough for a bung in. Favourites were CRISP itself and QUENTIN.
Roz @14: Frazzles had a taste, for sure, by quite what that was intended to be, I have no idea. MSG mostly, I guess.
Thanks Paul and bridgesong
Having eaten all of the snacks at least once, and often only once, I found my way into this from HULA HOOPS on my first pass. I’ve also temped for Smiths Crisps back when they were independent, putting orders together, which helped with MONSTER MUNCH. (Roz @13, Quavers is missing and the midweek also had Zodiacs). Anyone else eaten the fish flavoured NIK NAKS? The shop next to one of the factories I worked in sold them.
I also thought Teresa May for the female leader, as looking good, or at least having some ethics, in comparison.
Thank you to Paul and bridgesong.
MrPostMark looking back I think all of these were just reconstituted potato starch , corn etc and just coated in additives . Pickled onion Monster Munch probably the best/worst. I could not eat them now.
Shanne @20 Quavers are in 8D, I do not recall Zodiacs? I saw the clue yesterday , it was awful.
Monster Munch are on the list of only eaten once, along with Frazzles. Plain Hula Hoops aren’t too bad.
Thanks to Gonzo for explaining NIK NAKS: “skank” is in Chambers, so I should have got it. And fancy forgetting Theresa May: I know we’re on our third Prime Minister since she stepped down, but that was only two and a half years ago!
Yes, my bad, Quavers are in. Zodiacs were another snack made by Smiths, along with Fangs, Bats and Bones and others – some of which I’ve tried once.
[ I remember Fangs etc , little packet , green and black , very cheap . Only had them when short of pennies , starch and additives .]
IMAMATE made me laugh. HOPPER appears in two successive Paul puzzles. Is he copying the Everyman linked clue?
Roz @13… are you saying that “10” for “ten” makes the anagram indirect?
essexboy @18 is “eye dialect” the same as facetious? Chambers has “wot 2 a facetious spelling of what“
I had a WOTSITS & NIK NAKS before the penny dropped with CRISP. Last in was QUENTIN & reckon that was my favourite. Enjoyed the puzzle very much. Didn’t fully parse MARY PETERS as missed the Mars Bar but that was the only blemish.
Thanks all.
Once I got past the slightly left-field concept of industrially-produced savoury snacks being “cousins” of the humble crisp, this was relatively straightforward for a Paul Prize, I thought. I recall having completed it on the day rather than having gaps to fill during the week. The theme helped for once, as I had a mental list of snacks to find suitable places for. Theme maybe not great for non-UK solvers though.
By the way, lemon and scampi NIK NAKS were my favourites.
That’s two consecutive Pauls that I’ve found more accessible than usual – either he’s mellowing or I’ve found his wavelength!
Thanks both.
Postmark @19. Bit slow this morning – only just understood the relevance of your comment.
Ex-colleague of mine decided to eat one of those little bits of polystyrene foam that look like Wotsits to see if they taste like them too. They don’t, apparently.
Thanks, Paul and bridgesong. Tricky one but getting HULA HOOPS helped me crack 16a, which was in turn useful for the other themed solutions – all of which are familiar to me. Having enjoyed both Nik Naks and skanking in my youth (not necessarily at the same time), I was disappointed with myself for taking so long to get 21d, but it got a big laugh when the penny dropped.
Roz @13 – as well as Skips, I can think of a few others that I would count as significant omissions, eg Discos (which Qaos used in a clue last year, much to the consternation of several commenters at the time), Ringos, Chipsticks, Space Raiders…
Rob T @30 – I found this one considerably harder than yesterday’s.
Tim@ 28 T and E and N are not in the clue, 1 0 can be a multitude of things , I counted at least ten.
This provoked resistance (8,7) .
Good list Widdersbel @32, good list , Ringos were a favourite.
A lovely puzzle. Who knew you could get so much pleasure from such rubbish? Loved QUENTIN, TREFOILS, FEAT, FRATERNAL TWIN, MONSTER MUNCH and many more. Did not complete thanks to AMIMATE, which I did not know, and am still puzzled by the inclusion of ‘Your tormentor’. Thanks to Paul, as ever ,and to bridgesong for the excellent blog.
Needed online help for the GK in this puzzle. Not familiar with UK junk foods.
Liked FRATERNAL TWIN, QUENTIN (which was my immediate association to the theme word CRISP).
New Mary Peters (athlete); IMAMATE; MISOGAMIST; NIK NAKS.
I could not parse 5ac, 26ac, 15d, 21d.
Thanks, both.
19ac I agree re female leader = Theresa May.
lenmasterman @34: it’s IMAMATE (the state of being an imam, or the collective body thereof), not AMIMATE. Your tormentor is Paul, the setter of the puzzle (a nod to the classic tradition of using the names of historical inquisitors and torturers such as Torquemeda and Ximenes); here “your tormentor” just means “I’m”.
Photographers will often describe a nicely-focused image as being “CRISP” or “sharp” so I’m happy to accept them as near enough synonyms. I took MAY the female leader to be Teresa. I recognised all the snacks, though for some my first taste was also my last, as I preferred the plainer tastes like HULA HOOPS (my first “cousin” after being alerted by the presence of Frazzles and Quavers in the clues).
Liked QUENTIN and TREFOILS: IN VERSE made me smile.
Also crisp/sharp creases in one’s trousers?
Did anyone else have to correct MISOGYNIST at some stage?
bridgesong @36 Thanks. Makes perfect sense, and I hadn’t twigged it at all.
Tim C @28 – yes, ‘facetious’ covers a lot of what eye dialect is used for, certainly Ernie Wise’s “play wot I wrote” would fall into that category. But the latter term is a bit wider, it covers all uses of deliberately non-standard spelling for standard pronunciation.
(eg wot for what, woz for was, sed for said, wun for one)
Dickens did it, Terry Pratchett did it, and a host of writers in between. George Philip Krapp, who coined the term in the 1920s, put a positive spin on it – “the spelling is merely a friendly nudge to the reader, a knowing look which establishes a sympathetic sense of superiority between the author and reader”.
Others argue it should be avoided, eg Denis Preston in ‘The Li’l Abner Syndrome’, since it serves mainly to “denigrate the speaker by making him or her appear boorish, uneducated, rustic, gangsterish, and so on”.
Roz @33, it was only six months ago, but it still had me scratching my head 🙂
Choldunk @ 16 and Gladys @ 38
Thanks but still not wholly convinced by sharp = crisp
Yes I thought of misogynist at first but couldn’t think how to parse it and then I got NEVADA so had to rethink. Don’t think I’d heard of MISOGAMIST before.
Loved reading the posts from the start and spotting when the UK posters were waking up and the crisp knowledge increasing
Of course, the original meaning of crisp was curly (Latin crispus), which is where the erstwhile Guardian setter Crispa got her name.
Potato crisps get their name from the brittle sense of crisp, which has evolved into the figurative sense (per OED) of “Short, sharp, brisk, decided in manner. (Cf. an analogous use of ‘flabby’ as the opposite.) Also, clean, neat; clearly defined.”
Essexboy (passim). Dickens et al notwithstanding, i hope im not the only one to be reminded of the wonderfully imaginative speling of Geoffrey Willans in his Molesworth kwartet (perfectly complemented by Ronald Searl’s artwork). I believe that Willy Rushton, stalwart of Lord Gnome’s empire, penned a sequel based on the adult Molesworth, so perhaps “Nigelese” would be a beter attribution than “Eye dialect”. Chiz.
Thanks to Bridgesong for the blog (and grub) and to Paul for his inspired work.
Widdersbel @ 43
Ok I’m convinced.
Very UK-centric puzzle (all those trade names and even the keyword CRISP = ‘chip’ across the pond) which was fun to solve but left an unpleasant taste in the mouth 🙂
My favourites here were not the snacks: IMAMATE, ETCHER, TREFOILS, MISOGAMIST, QUENTIN.
I never really enjoyed any of these industrial products but I did have an irrational fondness for cheese footballs…
Thanks to S&B
I learned a lot about British snack foods along the way. Thanks to Paul and bridgesong.
I had forgotten that I’d left this unfinished last weekend and had to dig it out of the recycling pile late last night. CRISP had been one of my first in, followed by QUENTIN (excellent use of the indirect anagram, Paul. Nice one!) and then QUEENS, but I got stuck on the first part of 19a. Still couldn’t make any headway with about 40% unsolved, and my mind went numb every time I tried to think of those ghastly snacks that my daughters used to eat before they grew up. Perhaps it was the monosodium glutamate.
Then suddenly I saw IMAMATE which gave me MONSTER MUNCH (very good clue, not so sure about the pickled onion flavouring) and finally realised who the ‘female leader’ was. And then those snack names – and the reggae dancing – came swimming up from the memory banks! Of course, I could have Googled the snacks – or just given up and done something else – but there was a real sense of satisfaction when I completed. However belatedly.
Thanks Paul and bridgesong.
I notice all the branded “cousins” of CRISP are in the down columns, but can’t come up with a satisfactory tie-in (“Git ‘em down ye!”?). There are only 4 answers (in 5 down lights) so it may be just coincidental, but I’ve learnt not to make that assumption of our tormentors.
Pleased to learn “eye-dialect,” cheers, eb
Thanks to bridgesong and Timon, and Paul, of course.
(check spelling of QUENTIN in your grid, bs)
Yehudi @49: well spotted! I won’t go to the trouble now of amending the grid but do acknowledge the error.
[ MrEssexboy@40 I strongly believe in recycling , especially as I have only ever made up one good clue, although it is blatantly unfair ]
[Eye dialect is much used in American brand names, as any fule know (re Timon @44) – a Krispy Kreme donut, anyone?]
Never heard of any of these snacks. Some emerged from the wordplay (Wotsits) and some I had to just try different letters and the check button until something didn’t disappear. On the other hand, I’m surprised that non-Americans know the boroughs of New York City.
Thanks, Paul and bridgesong.
Valentine
And now they awake across the pond and the confusion returns
[Valentine @53: A lot of Americana is familiar over here from the cinema and television – think of all those New York based movies and cop shows. UK exports to the U.S. are dominated by period dramas, which don’t give a very accurate picture of contemporary culture! Also, I think a larger proportion of Limeys have visited the US than vice versa]
Gervase@52: as any fule KNO. Molesworthian speling is tuough (tho any fule on Facebook seem to manage it chiz chiz).
gladys @56: Exactly so – what I wrote was autocorrected and I should have checked before sending!
TimC @11 I, too, was relieved to find that 21d had nothing to do with “no Gs”. I had to wordsearch 1a (my LOI) but don’t feel too bad about that, because I would never have got it otherwise. Thanks Paul and Bridgesong.
Not a theme dear to my heart as I wouldn’t touch any of these industrial products, although I’d more or less vaguely heard of most, if not all of them. Got in via HULA HOOPS. Since most of the brand names are plurals, wouldn’t CRISPS have served better as the key?
11ac, MARY PETERS: didn’t remember her but guessed the name from the crossers. “Old”, here, means ‘former’, not ‘aged’, Biggles A@3. Btw, bridgesong, I think PETER is not so much an old word for a safe as one probably still current in criminal slang (cf peterman, a safe-blower). It’s also used to refer to a prison cell.
6dn HOPPER: I did pencil in FRENCH, not because I’d heard of Jared FRENCH, which seemed to confirm the answer but, initially, because I knew a Colin FRENCH who was an artist who died recently without ever achieving fame. RIP, Colin. However, I thought it unlikely Paul would use an insulting demonym in a clue and was pleased to drag HOPPER out of some dark recess of my memory.
18dn “Which” for WOT without a homophone indicator was cheeky. Luckily, I was into the theme by then. (Thanks to eb@18 for the term ‘eye dialect’).
21 NIK NAKS seem to be the only featured “cousin” not manufactured by Walkers.
Roz@33: I’m guessing the answer to “This provoked resistance (8,7)” is INDIRECT ANAGRAM and a further guess would be that it is itself such a clue. Can you explain, please?
Gervase@52, surely ‘donut’ is itself eye-dialect for doughnut? Or was that part of your point?
TC @59: It was! 😉
Valentine@53
I’m OK with most of the US GK that we need as solvers here but remember coughing a bit over Hoosier for someone from Indiana and a puzzle in which the theme was VEEPS, some 19C. All were gettable from the wordplay, thankfully.
Tony @ 59. Sure, but she might not see it that way!
[Roz@33 and Tony and eb, or anyone still there, is Roz’s indirect anagram clue:
This provoked resistance (8,7) MAGNETIC CIRCUIT?
As Roz knows, I’m science-challenged but I just had a little think and a google. Could that be it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_reluctance ]
If it’s right, both Roz and I are champions! 🙂
[And this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_circuit
It’s been a slow day here, another duvet day in December when it’s normally a heat wave and bushfires burning, but I’m loving it.]
Tony and PDM – provoked= INCITED , resistance=R so we have INCITEDR an anagram of INDIRECT. This gives INDIRECT ANAGRAM , using a very indirect anagram leading to frowns , a most severe Paddington stare and even tut, tut.
The challenge, in June on Everyman blog from Paul T , was to clue indirect anagram using an indirect anagram .
PDM for the magnetism it would be called INDUCED resistance or reluctance,
Pino @61 , I remember the HOOSIER , it was in a Maskarade special. I did know it from reading Kurt Vonnegut who uses the term a lot , particularly Cat’s Cradle.
To answer Valentine@53, there is an awful lot of US literature for us to read.
[Oh, that ‘s good Roz@66. I’m bedevilled by science again. 🙂 ]
Roz @67 – as any fule kno, Hoosier is a granfalloon (or false karass). Chiz.
If you wish to study a granfalloon,
Just prick the skin of a child’s balloon .
The sense is right but probably not word for word correct.
He skipped the Skips. Genius 🙂
[Roz@70, Wikipedia gives the actual quote as:
If you wish to examine a granfalloon, just remove the skin of a toy balloon.]
Close enough and the same meaning. and the Books of Bokonon are solely based on lies.
As soon as I worked out what the theme of this puzzle would be, I gave up in disgust. I truly detest puzzles where you really need to be a Brit to solve them. It’s been years now; UK setters have to start taking account of the fact that their puzzles are published all over the globe to an international audience.
Got to disagree with GregfromOz@74 that UK setters cannot set a UK-themed puzzle. I started buying this newspaper in the 1970s and doing the puzzles on and off since then (with a gap during child rearing years). It is a UK puzzle in a UK paper. I would get short shrift if I complained about an Australian themed puzzle in The Age. That said, I did not enjoy this puzzle. The theme was a bit naff, I thought, even though I have heard of all the snacks and have eaten many of them once. I do eat too many crisps though.
[Btw, @Roz, thanks for the parsing for your clue. Definitely could have done with a question mark :-)]
Sorry JohnJB, have to disagree with you. “It is a UK puzzle in a UK paper” is no longer true, and has not been true for many years. That is the whole point. Setters have an international audience now. In my professional life, if I had failed to take that into account, I would not have been doing my job properly. Same goes here.
Thanks JohnJB@75. I think it’s great that fine cryptic crosswords in papers such as the Guardian attract interest from English speakers elsewhere. But GregfromOz’s suggestion @74 and 77 that setters ought somehow to strive for internationalism seems bizarre. The rich fodder of compositions by Paul and others are a delight in part because they avoid blandness. Some are more to my taste than other puzzles are. Surely that is as it should be.
A little late but many thanks bridgesong and Paul. I in fact managed to complete this one, faxed my solution and was pleasantly surprised to read my name among the prize winners yesterday, all the more so as it was my birthday.
[ Tony @76 the clue is a statement not a question although it is (deliberately) very unfair. ]
Well done Martin , nice birthday treat . The fax seems to be working for people these days, perhaps because the postal service is so poor.
[Roz@80, as far as the surface goes, any statement spoken in a querying tone can be written with a question mark. As for its cryptic meaning, it’s common practice, as I would have thought you would know, to add a question mark to a clue when something about it is questionable, e.g., a whimsical definition or a dodgy homophone. In fact, your clue could do with more than one!]
[Congratulations, Martin@79 (and happy birthday!). What’s your prize going to be (they don’t mention it on the web version)?]
Tony Collman@83: Thanks very much. I’m 83 now too! The prize is typically some sort of puzzles book, but I can’t find the right page of the Dec10 edition now to check that. Happy Christmas to you and all other solving addicts.
Tony Collman @59: Yes, it’s currently the case that most of these snacks are manufactured by Walkers, but this is a result of acquisitions and consolidations over the years. Every so often, I entertain and confuse myself by reading the Wikipedia article for some snack or confection that I remember fondly from childhood.
GregfromOz @74,77: While I understand your dislike of these UK-parochial themes, I would not wish them ruled out permanently. This particular one was a charming nostalgic delight for me, and perhaps for many other solvers. Almost all Guardian cryptics are suitable for international solvers, with the blanket understanding that spellings, rivers, politicians etc will mostly be British. Only very few are as specialised as this one. I think it’s quite fair to have such crosswords at a rare frequency.
Girabra, good point. I came to the idea because I found a page with a list of ‘Walkers’ snacks and referred to that when solving. Then I found one was missing, but I still got it somehow. You’re making me want to look up Wagon Wheels … but I can resist.