Guardian Prize 29,249 by Brockwell

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Brockwell’s sixth Guardian cryptic and his third in the Prize slot.

All previous Brockwell (aka Grecian)puzzles have had a theme, but I’m not sure if I’ve spotted it in this puzzle. In fact the theme was elementary, as Grecian points out in the comments below.  I will post a revised grid with appropriate highlighting later today.  Certainly nothing occurred to Timon and I during the solving process (conducted over Zoom this week, because of suspected Covid on Timon’s part). There is the Nabokov/Lolita link, although that’s not enough on its own to constitute a theme. Then there is the nina of Kiev, which I have highlighted in the grid, along perhaps with the references to FELON, CONDEMNED, CHECHNYA and, perhaps, DETHRONES. But I can’t see Putin anywhere, if indeed he is the subject of those remarks. Any suggestions?

We particularly enjoyed the clues to FELON and CRACK, but I have some lingering doubts about a couple of others, which I have set out in the blog. My doubts have now mostly been resolved and I have amended the blog accordingly.  Many thanks to Brockwell.

picture of the completed grid

Here’s the grid showing the first 27 elements in each numbered clue (the A where anAlysis and nAil cross should be in both colours but that was beyond me so I  have opted to highlight a different one):

ACROSS
7 DETHRONES
Topples in shortened pants (9)
*SHORTENED.
8 FELON
Criminal following X-Man? (5)
F(ollowing) ELON (Musk). I was worried that this might be a reference to the X-Men franchise, about which I know little, but the actual answer was a very topical and clever reference to the owner of X (formerly Twitter) and SpaceX.
9 FUNCTIONS
Works in ointment to stop case of fleas (9)
UNCTION (ointment) inside F(lea)S.
10 TUNER
Radio Four’s back on air (5)
TUNE (air) (Fou)R. A lovely surface, with a misleading suggestion of a homophone.
12 MGANGA
Witch doctor in Guinea exhausted after migraine oddly (6)
MiGrAiNe G(uine)A. We’d never heard of this word, but the wordplay is wholly accurate.
13 ANALYSIS
Obsessive sibling welcoming year in therapy (8)
ANAL (obsessive) Y(ear) SIS (sibling).
14 APHASIC
Isaac Hayes initially confused about piano mute? (7)
*(ISAAC + H(ayes) P(iano)).
17 CLEAVER
King touring desert in chopper (7)
LEAVE (desert) inside CR.
20 CAPONATA
Relish chicken pad thai regularly (8)
CAPON (a castrated cockerel) pAd ThAi.
22 TIGGER
Bouncer in row about horse? (6)
GG (horse) in TIER (row), referring to the bouncy toy tiger in the Christopher Robin stories.
24 CRACK
Try first-rate drug (5)
Triple definition.
25 CONDEMNED
Tory ended up admitting motorway declared dangerous (9)
CON (Tory), M(otorway) inside *ENDED.
26 FERRY
Bryan Singer‘s boat (5)
A double definition, I suppose, referring to Bryan Ferry.
27 COME UNDER
Be subjected to terrible Mud encore (4,5)
*(MUD ENCORE).
DOWN
1 REHUNG
Crossbar broken by headers from Erling Haaland is put up again (6)
E(rling) H(aaland) inside RUNG.
2 CHECHNYA
Revolutionary Chinese New Year for each part of Russian Federation (8)
CH(inese), N(ew) Y(ear) inside *EACH.  A better parsing, as suggested by Antonknee and Kva, is CHE (revolutionary) CH(inese) N(ew) Y(ear) A (for each.
3 LOLITA
Stallion stripped off for girl of 19 (6)
*s(TALLIO)n. The eponymous heroine of Nabokov’s famous novel.
4 BEANBAG
Green is one with secure seat (7)
BEAN (a kind of green, I suppose), BAG (secure).
5 BEAUTY
Grace Kelly ultimately supporting lover with tango (6)
BEAU (lover) T(ango) (kell)Y.
6 COHESIVE
Worried voices about the heart of Manchester United (8)
(manc)HE(ster) inside *VOICES. Given the state of United’s defence in the home game against Bournemouth on the day this puzzle appeared, this could be said to be very topical indeed.
11 NAIL
Nick Drake essentially in love (4)
(dr)A(ke) inside NIL (love). I’m not entirely convinced that “nick” can equate to “nail” but I can’t see anything else that fits that works any better.
15 PEAGREEN
Writer covering match in the shade (3-5)
AGREE (match) inside PEN (writer).
16 ISAS
Tax-free vehicles concealed by Lisa Stansfield (4)
Hidden in “Lisa Stansfield”.
18 ARGUMENT
Barney Rubble’s opening a Nutmeg cryptic (8)
R(ubble) inside *(A NUTMEG).
19 NABOKOV
Author served up very fine port (7)
V OK (very fine), OBAN (port), all reversed. Our last one in.
21 OSCARS
24 across getting awards (6)
Not sure how to parse this; “crack” getting awards? Given that awards are (mostly) only presented to high-achievers, it’s not saying very much. But nothing else fits that makes any better sense.  Thanks to JK and others for pointing out that “crack” is the anagrind, Oscars being an anagram of across.
22 TIDIED
Ordered secure document for auditor (6)
Homophone of “tied” (secure) followed by ID (document). “Auditor”, indicating the homophone, only really applies to the first element of the clue, unless I’ve missed something.  Again, thanks to those who pointed out that there is an alternative parsing which does work: a homophone of “tie” (secure) followed by “deed” (document).
23 ELEVEN
Heart of Mexico’s team (6)
Hidden in “Mexico”. I saw this clue posted on Twitter (sorry, X) before tackling the puzzle and got it immediately.

92 comments on “Guardian Prize 29,249 by Brockwell”

  2. Found this touch and had to come back to it a couple of times and still didn’t get 10ac or 22d (still don’t get the latter)

    Loved FELON though it took me ages to get.

    Also liked NABOKOV, CLEAVER, TIGGER, NAIL

    Thanks Brockman and bridgesong

  4. I think TIDIED can be parsed as a homophone of ‘tie’ (secure as a verb) ‘deed’ (document). I was also a bit puzzled about OSCARS’ connection to CRACK.
    Thanks Brockwell and bridgesong.

  7. Yes, agreed TIE DEED as the homophone, and CRACK is the anagram indicator for ACROSS to become OSCARS, also I wondered if CHECHNYA was CHE (Guevara) a Revolutionary CH inese N ew Y ear with For Each giving the final A?

  8. CHECHNYA
    I parsed it as Antonknee@7 did.
    TIDIED
    I took it as a homophone of TIE DEED.
    NAIL
    nick=NAIL in the sense of catch/arrest (a lawbreaker). Right?

  9. Thanks bridgesong. I was slow getting on to a new wavelength for me here and found myself overthinking some of the clues. The first pass yielded very little but I lucked in with Lolita and her author early on and this helped me with the SE corner. The SW was the last; APHASIC and CAPONATA were new to me but logical enough, the triple definition at 24 eluded me and I’d never heard of Brian Ferry. I too still have to wonder about nick = nail but I did admire ELEVEN.

  10. [Nowhere else to post this, but the cryptic blog on the Guardian site was shut down early and there’s nowhere to have a very discreet chat about the Prize and Everyman this weekend, or even for late posters to the Vlad Friday cryptic. I hope it’s for a good reason, like someone needed time off and there was no way to cover them. I hope it’s not a new policy from the new crosswords editor of the Guardian, Alan Connor/Everyman. Gonna be a long, unfun weekend.]

  11. I had a few question marks, all now resolved.
    I parsed CHECHNYA as per bridgesong but wasn’t really satisfied with it because revolutionary as an angrind is too far away from each and for is redundant. Antonknee @7 is a much better parsing.
    I’m not convinced about the use of “up” as an anagrind in CONDEMNED (it’s not in CCD).
    Favourites were CAPONATA, NABOKOV and OSCARS for the deceptive use of across (I parsed it as Jk @1).

  12. A lot of clever stuff here, particularly OSCARS, I thought. I liked the triple CRACK too.

    I agree with KVa@8 re: nick=NAIL, Antonknee@7 re: CHECHNYA and our blogger re: FERRY – not sure why the doubt.

    I’m usually fairly liberal regarding homophones: the test here is if someone says: “It was a mess, so I TIE DEED the room”, would anyone think “Huh?” You decide.

    TUNER was great because the surface was something someone might actually say!

  13. Thank you bridgesong and timon for going the extra miles on zoom to blog Brockwell. Hope timon is recovering well.
    I thoroughly enjoyed this. As often is the case, agree with KVa’s comments @8, and of course Anton’s@7, the old cryptic trick of a for for each in CHECHNYA. Good clue. And like Fiona@2 I also had a big tick for FELON.
    The triple def in CRACK another fav, as was the associated OSCARS.
    We had another hidden team XI recently, in ELEVEN so was a wake-up to that.
    Appreciated that I didn’t have to have any appreciation of the fine art of football to get REHUNG.

  15. Thanks Brockwell and bridgesong.
    I parsed 2D CHECHNYA as Antonknee @7. As for a theme, I did not look beyond the one hidden in plain sight: all the people named in the clues which weren’t (and perhaps Manchester United, although not a person).

  16. bridgesong, I don’t know if I can add to a possible theme, but NABOKOV’s first name is Vladimir, as is Putin’s, and LOLITA was a book about secret, psychopathology. ANALYSIS maybe another connection.

  17. PeterO@15. We crossed, but could you elaborate? all the people named in the clues which weren’t (and perhaps Manchester United, although not a person).

  18. Thanks bridgesong and Brockwell.
    I liked this puzzle, and recall saying* that it was more Grecian, which is welcome.

    OSCARS, FELON, CRACK were among my likes.

    * in last Friday comments:
    Echo paddymelon@10, re shutting down Friday comments at Gdn site. Folks like me who live in time-zones not helpful to reach 225 blogs the next day (unless posted within hours of publication of the puzzle itself) found that forum useful over the weekend….yes, there were complaints of spoilers – very very rare; that some times happens on week days too. Almost all of us were mindful of what we said there.

    Hope it gets restored. It’d be nice to be treated like adults.

  19. There were a couple of clues here (ELEVEN and OSCARS) where I didn’t appreciate how clever they were until I thought again about the parsing, well after I’d unenthusiastically bunged in what must have been the answer. Which is a pity., but hardly Brockwell’s fault! I do think it makes the solve that much harder when linked clues like CRACK and OSCARS intersect in the grid, but then it is a prize. FELON was a splendid bit of misdirection, helped by the fact that Bryan Singer directed X-Men (something I only found out from Google). A ‘green bean’ is a bean, but I thought ‘green is a bean’ was a stretch. Other than that this was a really good puzzle I didn’t appreciate enough at the time. Thanks, Brockwell and bridgesong, and best wishes to Timon.

  20. I thought that I had 8a as my FOI (‘ROGUE’, a criminal as well as one of the X-Men, although I couldn’t parse ‘following’) but had to correct it as I filled in the NE corner.

  21. RE. 4 down, I think it is that green is a kind of bean (as distinct from butter, broad, kidney, lima etc) rather than bean being a kind of green.

  23. Kva@24: That was my parsing, runners and french beans are both called green beans.
    I am pretty sure that I parsed everything in this, which is a bit of an achievement for me. I have failed this week.
    Thanks both for enjoyable puzzle and blog.

  25. Thanks for the blog, good set of clues, CRACK a very nice triple of completely different definitions and then a fourth to use in the anagram for OSCARS. MGANGA is pretty obscure but the clue was very fair. BEANBAG was neat and effective.

  27. Thanks to all for your comments, some of which I have used to improve the blog.

    Paddymelon @10 and 16: thank you for alerting me to the news of Hugh Stephenson’s retirement and Alan Connor’s (somewhat cryptic) announcement of his appointment as Hugh’s successor. I was unaware of the closing down of the Guardian’s comments on Friday and can only speculate that this is part of a housekeeping exercise by the new editor.

    As to the theme, your suggestion of the Vladimir link seems persuasive; nobody else so far has commented on this at all.

  28. FERRY at 26a was my favourite – thanks for the extra info re Bryan Singer and 8a that made that one even better, KeithS@19. Thanks Brockwell for this puzzle – enjoyable with or without a theme. Thanks to contributors for some informative posts and of course to bridgesong and Timon for the helpful explanations in the blog.

  31. Kva @30: Grecian is Brockwell, so this is just the setter drawing attention to a theme that so far nobody seems to have noticed. I’m afraid that I still can’t see it and would be grateful to have it spelled out. I’m happy to post an amended grid highlighted appropriately, but it may take a little time.

  33. Oh, Grecian/Brockwell@29. (That’s copper on the periodic table.)Thanks for putting us all out of our misery,

  34. The first two letters of almost every solution represent an element in the periodic table.
    Am I on the right track?

  38. Grecian, thank you. The penny is beginning to drop. As you say, the answer to clue number 12 starts with the symbol for element number 12 on the periodic table, and there are doubtless other examples (I haven’t had time to check them all). I shall be having words with Timon (who has a physics qualification) about his egregious failure to spot the connection!

  39. You’re welcome KVa @37! Many thanks to Bridgesong and Timon for the great blog and to all of the commenters for the kind words. My lovely new editor did suggest calling this “an elementary puzzle”. Memo to self to listen to him in future 😉

  41. Thanks, Grecian.

    I will post an updated grid in due course, but it will have to wait until I have completed some domestic chores.

  42. Thanks Brockwell and bridgesong
    KVa @14
    “Almost every” is rather overstating it.
    I saw elsewhere someone had found a not very well known activist called JIL LOVE, justifying JAIL for 11d.

  43. Bridgesong, don’t give Timon any grief at the moment, when not well.
    KVa my comment about Grecian@29 didn’t mean anything except for 29 being copper on the periodic table.
    Grecian/Brockwell. If you’d listened to your lovely new editor, as good as his advice was, we wouldn’t be having this fun now in discovery.

  44. muffin@42
    I didn’t get the theme properly even with the first hint from Grecian. Only after the second hint (well. He gave away the theme) I understood the theme.
    paddymelon@43
    Got it.

  45. And the funniest thing is why some of us struggled with MG at 12. Brilliant. That should have hit us over the head. Brockwell no doubt trying to give us a big kick in the right direction.

  46. It would be more of a challenge to write a puzzle where the solutions didn’t contain any symbols of elements! B. C, F, H. I, K, N, O, P, S, U, V, and W would have to be 3schewed…

  47. That’s impressive Brockwell/Grecian. As usual these things often pass me by, but I’m always impressed when such ingenuity is revealed (I’m an ex-engineer which shares some etymology with “ingenuity”). This puts me in mind of the Endeavour (Morse) episode where the name of the murderer is revealed by the numbers on the hymn board corresponding to the atomic numbers of the elements.

  48. muffin@46. Is that because there wouldn’t be 74 clues for Wolfram/Tungsten to get a place on the 15X15 table.?

  50. Every element 1-27 in its correct clue. Amazing work. Thanks Setter and Blogger. I am ashamed I missed the hidden theme

  51. A clever puzzle, which I appreciated even more afterwards, with the help of the revelations on this page, than I did while solving it. I missed the theme (no surprise there) and did not fully understand TUNER or BEANBAG, but all is clear now.

    Thanks to Brockwell and bridgesong.

  53. Enjoyable puzzle.

    New for me: MGANGA, APHASIC, ISAS.

    Thanks, both.

    I did not see the theme and never would have seen it in a million years! Way above my pay grade 😉

  58. I’m afraid that I didn’t spot the theme but as MN @50 pointed out, this is amazing setting getting all the first 27 elements in their respective clue numbers; well done Brockwell!

    I ticked TUNER for Radio Four (and not being IV), the king touring desert in CLEAVER, the dangerous motorway in CONDEMNED, Manchester United in COHESIVE, the very fine port in NABOKOV, and the neat anagram of across to give OSCARS.

    Thanks Brockwell and bridgesong.

  61. Thanks bridgesong and Brockwell and Grecian. Missed the theme. Had to cheat CAPONATA in order to complete the SW corner.

  62. It’s a good job I didn’t have to spot the theme to solve the puzzle!
    17a CR has been our king for over a year now but this is only the second time he has appeared in a
    Guardian cryptic as far as I can remember. His mother is too useful to setters to be dropped. Similarly CHE in 2d. Guevara died in 1967 but soldiers on in crosswordland.
    I got 19d from 3d and crossers. It would have been a long time before OBAN came to mind as a port.
    Someons is bound to say that they don’t pronounce the DIED in 22d as “deed” so it might as well be me.
    Thanks to Brockwell and bridgesong

  64. Bit late to the blog – household still Covid +ve, but recovering thank heavens (well Pfizer, actually).
    Nice one Grecian, sorry I missed the elements and you had to drop the hint @30. Feeble defence to Bridgesong@38: its chemistry not physics, but anyone with a scientific bent could/should have spotted it ( or any quizzer come to that). Very neatly hidden, though and I shall enjoy going over the puzzle again.
    All credit for the blog goes to Bridgesong (especially the technical feat of all that highlighting), I just share in the solving and parsing bit.
    Thanks to him and to Grecian for a really memorable puzzle.

  65. I learnt, and still remember, a Mnemonic for the first 20 elements from nigh on 60 years ago.
    Hydrogen Here Lies Beery Bill Caught Napping On Friday Need Nameless Mugs All Simultaneously Propose Salary Claims Arr Kit Cat

  67. In case it may be helpful to any others, I memorised at school the first couple of rows of the periodic table thus, just say the bold out loud. (= means “Rhymes with”):
    Unfortunately, it did omit the noble gases (a.k.a. inert elements?) , but easy to make up your own, eg “He (is) near Krypton”.

    H (aitch) Li (lee) BeB (= bed), C N O F (” ‘K’n’off expletive)
    Na Mg ( ‘NamGee (viet)nam + US exclamation), Al (as in Alan), Si P S (sips), Cl (Chlorine – not advisable!)

    [That’s enough; Ed]
    Surely something better out there by now…

  68. Oops, BeB should read (beb =”bed”)
    Apols to FRankieG@65 and Simon S@66, for missing their offerings re: mnemonics, I was typing laboriously. (and I’m not well…)

  72. Love the coloured grid, but could you make it a bit bigger? The numbers aren’t legible when I zoom in.
    You could colour “the A where anAlysis and nAil cross” orange, maybe.
    And the Carbon in 6d COHESIVE with the Oxygen in 8a FELON look like another Cobalt. Or maybe that’s deliberate and it’s Carbon Monoxide?
    Thanks B/G & B&T

  73. FrankieG @72: grid enlarged as requested! I don’t know why it was so small originally.

    I don’t know if anyone has noticed but the colours I chose are (approximately) those used by Wikipedia in its page on the periodic table. I don’t know if there is in fact a standard colour scheme.

  78. Thanks bridgesong@73 – very quick service! 🙂
    …Continued from @70 (= Ytterbium) The double 22 Titanium makes a pair of Tights.
    Ytterby – a Swedish village with a name that translates to “outer village” has four elements named after it.
    Yttrium , Terbium, Erbium, and Ytterbium
    They could anagram the last one and rename it after Betty Rubble – BettyRium – wife of Barney, who’s getting lifted and separated in 18d ARGUMENT.

  79. I used to set “which place has the most elements named after it?” as a research homework for young chemistry students. Another was “what’s the only place in Britain with an element named after it?”. (I’ve not kept up to date with the ones after110, so this may no longer be true!(

  80. Thanks both – I’m not sure I finished this (I’ve mislaid it somewhere (well obviously ‘somewhere’ (but where?))).

    But I did enjoy it (insofar as I went) and recall, bridling somewhat at CONDEMNED thinking “that is a strange word with its silent ‘N'”, that I anticipated a plethora of philological offerings; but no linguistic significance beyond manganese (not a language). I thought I smelt a rat but it turned out not to be so much an elephant as an element in the room.

  84. Re: 4d (which is the one clue in this lovely puzzle I wasn’t able to solve on my own – so close!), I think the proper parsing is that “green” is a type of bean (along with kidney beans and all the others), not that beans are a type of greens.

  86. Wrote a longish comment and lost it. Cba to redo.

    4, BEANBAG: green is a type of bean, not the other way round.

  88. Paddymelon@10, I don’t think any discussion whatsoever of ongoing Prize puzzles is allowed, no matter how discreet. The closure is probably a new broom sweeping clean.

  92. 26a – FERRY – “Bryan Singer‘s boat (5)”
    Noticed (as KeithS@19 has discovered) that Bryan Singer, now disgraced director/producer behind some X-Men films had to be lift-and-separated
    for a different Bryan, who made his debut as a solo Singer, with These Foolish Things(1973) – a 50-year-old album celebrating its golden anniversary.
    Thanks B&B

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