Guardian Prize 29,033 by Soup

67 comments on “Guardian Prize 29,033 by Soup”

1. I thought this was the perfect level for the prize spot: some unusual vocabulary and some tricky parsings (which as usual looked perfectly obvious after the fact). I would have had an easier time if I had noticed the Special Instructions before getting to the last clue. I did have a few head-scratching moments:

   I’m not 100% convinced that HAIRDO is equivalent to hair, at least as far as the Cockney usage of Barnet (where I grew up) is concerned. But then I didn’t grow up in the East End.

   If Thumps is a verb in the definition, doesn’t it need an “it”, or else shouldn’t the answer be plural?

   I had a couple of questions about TOP SPOT: is First a natural 1-for-1 substitution, and what is the added value of clay?

   Thanks S&B

2. Thanks both,
   Awestruck by the feat of setting the palindromes.

3. Ref 1a, Starsailor is the name of an indie rock band which I assume was to help the overall surface.

4. Excellent puzzle from Soup and fun to solve. My FOI was TENET and the penny dropped straight away about the palindromes. Thanks to Bridgesong and to Soup

5. For once I found the special instructions helpful after, like birdgesong, I realised I was not looking for some answers to enter backwards. There were several clues I got by trying to see if they were palindromes.

   My favourites were NOON, RACE CAR (after I too realised it was not the musical being referred to), ROTAVATOR, MALAYALAM, CARESSES

   Thanks Soup and bridgesong

6. 2d there’s an anagram too, guts more = GOURMETS. Other than the heart sink moment when I read the instructions I got a couple of clues and realised we were solving palindromes, then enjoyed this.

   Salt lamb, which feeds on the salt marshes on the coasts, may eat marram grass, which is part of that ecology, along with other seaweeds and sea herbs.

   Thank you to Soup and bridgesong.

7. 12a seemed straightforward to me but I didn’t parse AUDITORS …well the u bit. The palindromes made this too easy I thought.
   Thanks Soup and bridgesong

8. Thanks Soup for an amazing feat. I thoroughly enjoyed this crossword with my top choices being SIDEREAL, ENROBE, GOURMETS (great surface), OBEDIENT, and REDDER. Too bad there wasn’t room for “senile felines” one of my favourite palindromes. Thanks bridgesong for the blog.

9. Defeated by MALAYALAM – all those As. Twigged to the special instruction meaning palindromes fairly early, which helped. I did have RATS hidden in ‘mustard’ (backwards) for a while. NHO Barnet = hair, and I agree with DrWO @1 that it is even then a stretch to HAIRDO, which I got solely fro the wordplay and crossers. Otherwise a reasonable solve, I thought. Thanks, Soup and bridgesong.

10. Thank you bridgesong and timon. I think Roz would describe the Starsailor wordplay in SOLOS as ‘gossard’.

    My ‘in’ to the palindrome trick was MARRAM, my first clue in, which I got from wordplay and looking up the Portuguese for sea. I’d never heard of MARRAM, and now it’s popped up again in yesterday’s Paul.

    Prompted by bridgesong’s question as to whether or not sheep eat it, I looked up MARRAM and found it’s been used in Tasmania and New Zealand to stabilise coastal sand dunes , but as with many exotic forms of life imported to address local issues, it’s turned out to be counter-productive to erosion and harmful to indigenous flora and fauna. (I don’t think Soup thought sheep eat this grass, as indicated by the question mark.)

11. Thanks bridgesong. The unusual special instruction also initially made me reluctant to enter the more straightforward answers because I wasn’t sure which way they should go in but that was resolved soon enough in the SE corner and the palindromic theme became apparent. It was helpful in resolving some of the other answers too (8 and 19). Not sure if anyone has ever tried to eat marram grass, even sheep. It might have been better if ‘grass’ had been substituted for ‘food’. I agree that Jaguar might have been a better choice than Chevrolet but Google tells me there was a Chevrolet SS model.

12. Also started writing the answers next to the clues which totalled 7 before I twigged what was going on. BASSIST just looked like a quick clue so thanks for the cryptic aural wordplay bridgesong. Favourites were MALAYALAM and RACE CAR for the deceptive Hamilton.

13. Slightly confused that no-one appears to have picked up that a ram is a sheep, so food (MARRAM) and RAM next to MAR.

14. [I missed your comment Shanne@6 about salt lamb. Another TILT. Never heard of it, and I’m a butcher’s daughter, but from the inland, not the coast. Sounds delicious and very healthy. Iodine-rich succulent lamb, the best of all worlds. Our family suffered from goitre due to iodine-poor inland soil.]

15. Yep, that’s how I read it Andy Luke@13. Maybe that’s why the RAM bit hasn’t been mentioned as it was the simplest part of the clue. Just had to get the MAR and what was next to what. Good clue.

16. Thanks for the blog , I thought this was ideal for a Prize , excellent clues and a very nice twist , I would like to see Soup on the menu more often in the Guardian.
    I agree with Shanne@6 for GOURMETS , super clue , and yes “salt marsh lamb” is common in West Wales.
    PDM@10 I would call it Playtex , Gossard is when you push words together before solving. Starsailor turned up the day after .
    I found MALAYALAM the trickiest , I wanted to put in Malagasay but the word play would not work, eventually I used the theme to make it work and learnt something new.
    TOP SPOT = First is widely used in leagues for various sports .

17. Thanks B,
    Soup April fooled me into starting out with a copied grid, so I could check for the possible reversed answers. Then I spotted ROTAVATOR and felt the whack of the tea tray.
    After that, I was on the lookout for men with plans for canals, but sadly none appeared. Not even a SEEDLESS “PEA”.

18. Shanne @6: yes, of course the anagram is there, that’s how we solved the clue, but for some reason I completely forgot to mention it in the blog!

19. Andy Luke @13 and others: yes, a ram is a sheep – I thought that was so obvious that I didn’t bother to explain it.

20. I somehow managed not to see the ‘special instructions’ until I had filled in half the grid, and then had a good laugh at what I thought must be a Dad’s crossword setters joke!!

    I thought 3D BASSIST was simply a guitar player and the lowest singing voice type available, and missed the low as in base sound’a’like.

    I really enjoyed Soup’s wordplays and misdirections, “please sir, I want some more”.

21. The palindromes made this on the more straightforward end of the Prize spectrum, I thought, although I was still defeated by a couple of them (TOP SPOT and ROTAVATOR). The latter I should have worked out if I’d have been patient enough; the former I’m not sure I’d have ever got the parsing without the notes.

    Thanks Soup and bridgesong.

22. Disagree with the explanation of 13ac as NO, ON. I think it’s just NO ON – i.e. if there’s no on that’s equivalent to off totally, kind of (hence the question mark).

23. I. too, was momentarily fooled into thinking we were going to get a Victoria Wood inspires Two Soups. The palindromes definitely helped in the end, though. I liked GOURMETS and SIDEREAL.

24. Agree with Mike@22 and ashamed to say I thought of cricket , off totally for the field would mean no on fielders. People who like to annoy me about cricket informed me that it happened once for someone called Denis Lilley ( I think ) .

25. Morning, all. Thank you for the blog, Bridgesong, and the comments, others. I’ve always loved jokes in puzzles so I asked if I could have the April 1 slot when I thought up the palindrome idea. I’d wanted to put ‘must’ rather than ‘may’ in the instructions but that was felt to be too much of a misdirection… I’m not convinced, but it seems like I fooled people even with ‘may’.

    The Coastal Restoration Trust say sheep eat MARRAM ‘only when other fodder is unavailable’. Can’t say I blame them.

    I’d intended ‘off in its entirety’ to be ‘no on’, as Mike@22 says.

    Dr@1, Chambers says ‘Barnet’ is ‘hair, hairstyle’ so I think it’s ok.

    Decades@3, I was indeed referencing the band – I like them 🙂

    Thanks for the friendly comments and encouragement – I hope to be back before too long, and I have another Genius on the brew as well. Just need to find more time for setting.

26. Hamish, thanks very much for dropping in: it’s always appreciated when a setter takes the trouble to do that. Look forward to your next puzzle!

27. Tough puzzle.

    I did not parse 13ac NOON; 22ac AUDITORS; 14d HEARTBEAT.

    New for me: ROTAVATOR.

    Thanks, both.

28. Oh, and Dr@1: I’d intended ‘Thumps’ to be a noun, and I’ve always thought of a heartbeat as either singular or plural. I asked my wife, who worked at Papworth, who said that they wouldn’t really ever talk about ‘a person’s heartbeats’. Maybe it’s a touch iffy… I think it’s probably fine, though. On balance!

29. Please can someone explain 26A to me? I end up with ENSROBE or ENROBSE. How does nurse’s become EN and not EN(‘)S??
    I struggled to parse a few but this one particularly frustrated me.

30. Eric@29: some setters will use ‘s to mean ‘has’ as a catch all for ‘next to’, sometimes also ‘containing’ and various others. However I’m not one of those. I think the ‘s appeared during editing – it’s not in my original clue. However, my name on the puzzle so my responsibility – I think this is just wrong, sorry!

31. bridgesong@19 I think, therefore, that it is not &lit, just a simple definition: “food”. Wikipedia tells me: “The roots of marram grass are edible, although rather thin and fibrous.” Not sure that Soup@25 – as you say, it is always great to hear from the actual setter – has cleared things up completely, but whatever.
    Thanks to both bridgesong and Soup, of course.

32. Eric @29 because you ignore the S in that case. Apostrophe Ss are one of those minefields where they are sometimes part of the answer and sometimes not. This time there wasn’t a workable solution using the S, so we ignored it.

    MALAYALAM I knew about, as a friend retired to Kerala and that’s one of the local languages. I’ve even knowingly heard it, during the International season at the Globe a few years back, when there was a performance of the Tempest by Footsbarn, in English, French, Malayalam and Sanskrit (for the spells). One of the songs was a native folk song that had some of the audience singing along.

    I’m sure sheep don’t willingly eat marram, but in this country it is used to stabilise sand dunes and the coast line, naturally and in conservation as a native species, so it’s common.

33. This was great fun. I was initially rather taken aback by the special instructions! But the penny soon dropped.

    Soup @28: I think it’s definitely fine. You can say either “In the space of a heartbeat” (meaning one thump) or “He had a regular heartbeat” (meaning more than one thump).

    bridgesong, I think you meant to say M = married in 28a.

    Many thanks both.

34. Lovely crossword! We don’t do the prize till the following Saturday so we get the comments while we can still remember the clues! So we rather missed the April Fool aspect.
    However we enjoyed the humour of the instructions and the superb clueing. Thanks to Soup, and bridgesong

35. Lord Jim @33: you’re absolutely right! Well spotted.

36. Soup@25,28 Thanks for the education!

37. bridgesong@35 re your blog on 28A, one of the other best known must surely be Napoleon’s “Able was I ere I saw Elba”….

38. For HEARTBEAT Collins gives:’
    a. one pulsation, or full contraction and dilation, of the heart
    b. the continuous series of such pulsations constituting the rhythmic beating of the heart’

39. ….I’d choose option b. in a heartbeat.

40. Enjoyable puzzle. I saw mention of ‘Palindrome’ in 4d and twigged the theme, making some clues a bit easier. I needed to do a word filler search for the obscure language in 8a. Otherwise, no big difficulties, just a couple of answers which I didn’t fully understand until reading the official solution and this blog. I now tick favourite clues so that I remember them on Saturday. This week it was NOON/ NO ON and RACE CAR ARC+ARC+E. Ha Ha to both.

41. I misread the instructions, as Soup intended, and decided not to bother with this, then found I had more time on Saturday than I expected. It wasn’t until the last 3 down clues which were also among my FOI that the penny dropped and the instructions helped a bit.
    I solved 8a in an unstisfactory way as it cropped up while I was checking something very similar. It’s happened before and is why I try to avoid using Google. It didn’t help that I tried to treat “pain” as a lift and separate – PA in the answer somewhere- and thought that the tip of “my” was more likely to be “y” than “m” as I had heard of a language ending in “ay” but none ending in “am”.
    I’m with Andy Luke @31 in thinking that the wordplay reads as though “food” is the definition and very loose as even sheep only eat marram grass when there’s nothing else. I doubt whether it’s eaten by the West Welsh lambs (Roz@16) or those in Brittany who are also noted for their salty taste.
    I’m also with Andy in thinking “but whatever”. There was a lot to like.
    Thanks to Soup and bridgesong.

42. Hamish/Soup @30 – thanks for the insight. I’m not a fan of this use of the apostrophe-s either, but the editor’s decision is always final. And thanks for a very enjoyable puzzle – I thought I was going to be in for a much harder time when I read the special instructions, but had to laugh when I twigged what they meant.

    Thanks, bridgesong, for the blog.

    Earworm corner: the word MALAYALAM always brings to mind this classic clip from the Muppets, which never fails to make me laugh.

43. I didn’t come anywhere near MALAYALAM, a total obscurity to me, and obscurely clued. MAL for pain? I haven’t checked the dictionary, but I’ve only come across mal in the context of epilepsy, when it’s surely rather more than just a pain! If I’d known the language, I’d have been able to parse the clue, but as it was I only knew that it was likely to be a palindrome…

    Otherwise I enjoyed the challenge and the solve.

    Thanks to Soup and bridgesong.

44. Thanks to Soup and bridgesong. It was an enjoyable puzzle. I solved MARRAM, and looking back at it a few clues later, caught on to the joke. Happy spaghetti harvest, everyone!

45. (I thought everyone knew the word MALAYALAM – joint longest single word palindrome in Chambers!)

46. Soup @45. By the same token, we should also all know the other joint longest single word palindrome. Are you keeping that one back for another crossword? 🙂

47. I refer my learned colleague to 1d…

48. It’s a fair cop, gov.

49. I always forget to read instructions so missed the clever theme. Got your Soup on the menu quip Roz @16. I’m also a Starsailor fan so this was my ear-worm throughout Saturday
    https://youtu.be/YEASmuRdYFs

    Ta Soup & bridgesong.

50. Remember being young and shiny? My first car was a Chevrolet Chevelle SS (Super Sport) convertible, so thanks for the memories! Other models also had SS editions, though the Camaro used the RS (Rally Sport) designation.

    Re yesterday’s Paul, I just learned that the week of April 4, 1964 was the week that Beatles songs occupied the top 5(!) spots on the Billboard 100 chart, an unparalleled feat! I doubt the timing of Paul’s puzzle is a coincidence.

51. [ Thank you AlanC @48 , the Paul yesterday had a theme in your honour. I am sorry to inform you that the score is now 18-6 , I have reached Number 1 twice in the last week. Perhaps you need a new manager , preferably one who can find his way to the barbers. ]

52. I had a vague recollection of Malayalam appearing in another crossword quite recently. On checking the archive, it must be Independent 11,323 by Wiglaf (from January) that I’m thinking of, which included this lovely clue:

    Linda Ronstadt’s first poem translated into Malayalam? (10)

53. [ Roz @51: 🙂 🙂 ]

54. [ Perhaps the KPR fans should start singing Delilah ? ]

55. Having blanched somewhat at the instructions (I thought along the lines of trams/smart accompanied by mental dosydoses) I immediately found MALAYALAM which was a recent tilt from (surely?) this parish and off I went on a very enjoyable tour. Thanks both.

56. Thanks bridgesong and everyone who opined on NOON as possible deeper meanings sailed over my head, on reflection I like Roz’s cricket idea even if it’s not the official answer. Thanks Soup for a brilliant puzzle and for pre-empting my question on why the special instructions were less cryptic than they could have been. Anyone interested in palindromes should consult the archive here for links to some remarkable efforts including, iirc, a puzzle clued in palindromes, by the mighty Rod Shaw. Widdersbel@52 thanks for that, a fine clue indeed.

57. The special instructions were very helpful if not vital, I found. The anagram at 2d was foi and the NE was tricky as Nho the rhyming slang in 5d. Great fun!

58. Enormously enjoyable.
    I arrived at 7 by reading “starsailor” = astronaut = “Solo” as in the Star Wars character, and couldn’t work out where the other s came from. Thanks for clearing that up!
    Also had 9d as “Does” (female deer plural as a homonym for “does” as in “meets requirements” ie “cuts the mustard) for ages which didn’t help.

59. A top quality puzzle with an interesting and well-implemented technical theme. My favourite clues were MALAYALAM, CARESSES, TOP SPOT, REPAPER, PERENNIAL, ROTAVATOR and REDDER. It was impressive to see so many palindromic answers in the grid.

    Thanks Soup and bridgesong.

60. I’m surprised that any British solvers liked “race car”, a term I’ve never heard used in this country: as Lewis
    Hamilton is British, I would assume he drives a racing car!

61. Vicktim @60: you’re absolutely right and this was one of the last clues I parsed, for precisely that reason.

62. vicktim @ 60 & bridgesong @ 61: back in the day, teams used to bring different cars for practice and race, so the driver would have a qualifying car and a race car, so the term is valid even if outdated.

63. I missed out on completing this one and only got back to it today (Easter Monday). A long time after the event but just wanted to acknowledge Soup (Hamish) as I really enjoyed the palindromes in this puzzle, so many thanks to the clever setter, and I also wanted to thank bridgesong for the blog.

64. I was nearly put off by the instructions, thinking it sounded more like a Genius puzzle and I wouldn’t have time for it. (Never even noticed the date.) However, I thought I’d have a little look and (after confirming mar is Portugese for sea) built MARRAM, which I’d never heard of but which made me realise the instructions might be indicating palindromes. However, when I looked the word up, food seemed a very poor definition, so I was thrown into doubt again. It was only knowing how good Soup’s puzzles usually are that made me press on, armed with the palindrome possiblity (soon confirmed).

    I thought barnet for HAIRDO was a mistake, but if Soup says it’s in Chambers, fair enough — it’s just the all people using it wrongly to get it in the dictionary who are to blame.

65. …so do most people just use it for ‘hair’ (therefore saying something like ‘I must get my Barnet permed’ or ‘my Barnet was flying all over the place’)? I’ve only ever heard it as meaning ‘hairdo’ – ‘nice Barnet’ etc. Curious.

    As for MARRAM I wasn’t intending the def to be ‘food’, more that an occasionally maritime sheep might scoff it…

    As for RACE CAR, yes, not quite British, but FERRARI wasn’t a palindrome 😉

66. Hamish/Soup@65
    The full rhyming slang expression is “Barnet Fair” which rhymes with “hair” not “hairdo”. I suppose the expression “nice hair” could mean “nice hairdo” if you insist.
    If the definition @10a is “food for sheep next to the sea” then using “sheep” to clue “ram” involves using sheep twice. I’m never quite sure what “& lit” means but I didn’t think it applied to clues like this but let it pass.

67. I’d agree with what Pino@66 says about barnet.

    Regarding MARRAM, if ‘food’ did unequivocally describe it and it was, in particular something sheep ate (although, isn’t animals’ food called fodder?) and was found on the coast of Portugal (which I think it is), then I’d have no hesitation in describing the clue as an excellent semi&lit. Even though I think the definition is weak, the palindromic theme was very confirmatory for MARRAM, so one didn’t doubt the answer in the end.

    Same for the American RACE CAR (although the definition here was excellent). I would have liked to have seen ‘in America’ tagged on. I think I was particularly quickly on to which Hamilton was meant as I’m a native and resident of his home town of Stevenage.

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