I cannot recall seeing Carpathian in the Prize slot before, although she is a familiar presence in the Quiptic. Apart from a couple of less familiar terms, this offering struck me as relatively straightforward.
I count at least 12 solutions with a possible “green” connection–13 if you extend to [cu]cumber. If there is more to this theme, it eludes me.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | IMMATURE |
Shut up about a tenor being childish (8)
|
| IMMURE (shut up) around (about) {A + T (tenor)} | ||
| 9 | URCHIN |
Greek letter hidden in vase for waif (6)
|
| CHI (Greek letter) inside (hidden in) URN (vase) | ||
| 10 | LAND |
Left with real estate (4)
|
| L (left) + AND (with) | ||
| 11 | BOTTOM LINE |
Bachelor saying revolutionary verse for profit? (6,4)
|
| B (bachelor) + MOTTO (saying) reversed (revolutionary) + LINE (verse) | ||
| 12 | GROCER |
Shopkeeper is coarser in speech (6)
|
| Homophone of (in speech) GROSSER (coarser) | ||
| 14 | RELEGATE |
Demote, say, during report (8)
|
| E.G. (say) inside (during) RELATE (report) | ||
| 15 | ADVANCE |
Notice vehicle by church making progress (7)
|
| AD (notice) + VAN (vehicle) + CE (church) | ||
| 17 | AVOCADO |
A very old rogue having nothing green (7)
|
| A + V (very) + O (old) + CAD (rogue) + O (nothing) | ||
| 20 | EMOTIONS |
Passions of European movements (8)
|
| E (European) + MOTIONS (movements) | ||
| 22 | BELT UP |
Be quiet as English lieutenant enters bar backwards (4,2)
|
| {E (English) + LT (lieutenant)} inside (enters) PUB (bar) reversed (backwards) | ||
| 23 | UNDERSHOOT |
French and German articles by Bud fall short (10)
|
| UN (French [article]) + DER (German [article]) + SHOOT (bud) | ||
| 24 | SALE |
Regularly assaulted somewhere in Greater Manchester (4)
|
| Alternate letters of (regularly) [A]S[S]A[U]L[T]E[D]. A Scott & Bailey plotline? | ||
| 25 | GRASSY |
Verbose about river being green (6)
|
| GASSY (verbose) around (about) R (river) | ||
| 26 | TOLLGATE |
Chime by entrance for payment collection building (8)
|
| TOLL (chime) + GATE (entrance) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | IMPAIRED |
Diminished quality of broadcast by one politician (8)
|
| I (one) + MP (politician) + AIRED (broadcast) | ||
| 2 | CARD |
Roadside assistance provider rejected driver’s first method of payment (4)
|
| RAC (roadside assistance provider) inverted (rejected) + first [letter of] D[RIVER] | ||
| 3 | CUMBER |
Get in way of copper gong reverberating initially (6)
|
| CU (copper) + MBE (gong) + first letter of (initially) R[EVERBERATING] | ||
| 4 | FEATURE |
Show daring act on river (7)
|
| FEAT (daring act) + URE (river). I think GESTURE might also plausibly work here, although “gest” is listed in Chambers as “obsolete.” | ||
| 5 | YUGOSLAV |
Former Southeastern European, Victor and some other bloke getting upset (8)
|
| V (Victor) + ALSO (and) + GUY (some other bloke) all inverted (getting upset) | ||
| 6 | ECOLOGICAL |
Green material put up around old piece of wood I note (10)
|
| LACE (material) inverted (put up) and around {O (old) + LOG (piece of wood) + I + C (note)} | ||
| 7 | LINNET |
Bird allowed around pub (6)
|
| LET (allowed) around INN (pub) | ||
| 13 | CHARTREUSE |
Church treasure turned into alcohol (10)
|
| CH (church) + anagram of (turned) TREASURE | ||
| 16 | CROSS-EYE |
Coy seer’s unfortunate squint (5-3)
|
| Anagram of (unfortunate) COY SEER’S | ||
| 18 | DOUBLETS |
Concerns about the French jackets (8)
|
| DOUBTS (concerns) around (about) LE (the [in] French) | ||
| 19 | ESCORTS |
Companions of key soldiers with time succeeded (7)
|
| ESC (key) + OR (soldiers) + T (time) + S (succeeded) | ||
| 21 | MANURE |
Initially made awful noise upending really expensive fertilizer (6)
|
| First letters of (initially) M[ADE] A[WFUL] N[OISE] U[PENDING] R[EALLY] E[XPENSIVE] | ||
| 22 | BOTTLE |
Returned partly misspelt tobacco container (6)
|
| Hidden in (partly) [MISSP]ELT TOB[ACCO] inverted (returned) | ||
| 24 | SAGE |
Son with time becomes wise (4)
|
| S (son) + AGE (time) |
I found this quicker to solve than most of the usual Cryptics and also noticed the preponderance of green.
An enjoyable solve, thank you to Carpathian and Cineraria.
I also found this was straightforward and did not encounter any problems along the way. I must confess, I did not think many clues stood out and, if pushed, I would nominate favourites as MANURE for being clever and CHARTREUSE for its surface (plus I once had a soft spot for the drink).
My wife accuses me of focussing too much on the result and not enough on the journey. She has a point and that may be why I rarely pick up crossword themes. Green, eh? Thanks for that.
Thanks Carpathian for a solid puzzle and Cineraria for a great blog
Thanks Carpathian for a gentle and enjoyable crossword. I did not think to look for a theme but now I see all the ‘green’ references including TEA, hidden in the 9th column. My favourites included LAND, BOTTOM LINE, GROCER, and CHARTREUSE. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.
Liked BOTTOM LINE and GROCER.
Thanks Carpathian for a nice puzzle and Cineraria for an excellent blog!
Thankyou both. I too liked GROCER. Maybe she is a greenGROCER.
Yes. I ECO your view.
Ha ha, nicbach@5 and KVa@6.
I remember finding this one a pleasant solve but didn’t see the green theme, but then it’s often a case of not seeing the wood for the trees for me! I ticked 17a AVOCADO as my favourite.
I really like Carpathian’s setting style here at the Guardian, as Vigo in the Indy and also when I come across her 3D Puzzles in the Calendar (she set the March one, for instance).
Thank you to her and to Cineraria.
Victor and the other bloke was cute, but yes very cruisy for a Saturday, thanks C&C.
[Best of luck to anyone with money on at Aintree today!]
LOL nicbach@5, KVa@6 and JiA@7.
And as well as the references to green things on LAND, ,sea cuCUMBERs and sea URCHINs both belong to the same animal group called echinoderms, growing in the blue-green sea. Sea cucumbers are endangered due to overfishing, being a delicacy in some parts of the world, but they are vital ECOLOGICALly to marine systems, including, the survival of the Great Barrier Reef, and many other parts of the world who rely on fishing for food.
padm@9
Thanks for the info. Trawling is a deeper problem.
SAGE green must be visible to all. SAAG ( we spell it SAG at times (not sure if it’s authentic) could also be read into it?
David Prowse
Thanks for the blog, good set of neat clues, BOTTOM LINE flowed very nicely and YUGOSLAV was clever plus a good spot for an awkward place in the grid.
Not really suitable for a Saturday but the setters have no say in this.
Carpathian would be an excellent Monday setter alternating with Vulcan, in some ways the Monday puzzle is the most important if we are going to attract newer solvers.
[KVa@10. Sea cucumbers have the best, or worst, of both worlds. “Sea cucumbers are benthic, meaning they live on the ocean floor. However, their larvae are planktonic, meaning they float in the ocean with the currents.”
FrankieG@11. I only learned about Green Cross recently from a cryptic crossword. No equivalent here. With the decline in free-to-air public safety campaigns I don’t know where the messaging comes from now. It needs to be directed at the parents who just walk or jog across, no eye contact, wired for sound, looking at their devices, with the kids roaming free. “Temporary Australians”, as my father used to call motorcycle riders. ]
Had I been in a hurry or a beginner this would have been ideal
Cheers C&C
The BOTTOM LINE is EEESEES. They were for a Saturday – and no harm in that.
Thanks CnC
On the easy side for a Prize puzzle but very enjoyable nonetheless.
New for me: SALE = a town in Trafford, Greater Manchester.
I got 4d wrong because I entered VENTURE = show daring
Show daring act on river (7)
I was thinking VENT = act as in give expression to + river URE.
Thanks, both.
Yes, a gentle solve. Very welcome to this puzzler after the great challenge of the Easter prize.
Yes, it had a “green” theme lurking under. Also very welcome.
Great to see Sale appear. My super dad (long gone) was born in Sale in 1919. He was very much a Mancunian but it was nice he could refer to Sale (then in Cheshire) when Yorkshire were trouncing Lancashire in one cricketing era.
To this hydrologist, a defining feature of Sale is just how low-lying the area is alongside the Mersey. There are alternative explanations for how the floodplain area Sale Ees got its name. Did the Mersey ease itself there? As Wellcidered@15 notes, lots of Es on the bottom row.
Many thanks, Carpathian
Pdm@11: I am a 75 yo motorcyclist, though I mostly ride a push bike these days, and I agree with you and your dad to a degree. Staying alive on a bike requires reading the road and conditions and choosing right lines allowing alterations of course, as well as a little luck. Pedestrians need to do this too and teach Thier children as well. Car drivers need a little luck too, although they’re more likely to kill someone else.
I always enjoy this setter’s Quiptics for the lovely surfaces and this was no exception. I had the same ticks as Roz @12. The theme was hard to miss, with green being mentioned explicitly in three clues.
Ta Carpathian & Cineraria (I don’t think I’ve seen your name before).
Cineraria has done only a few Guardian puzzle blogs but has done a lot many Azed and FT puzzles.
Ta KVa.
Thanks C and C. I spotted a couple of green things but missed the wider references. Oh well. Very enjoyable. Ta.
[nicbach@18. My father also used to ride a motorcycle, an Indian. He still had it when he got our first car, a decommissioned ambulance. Some irony there. However, he lived to nearly 90. 🙂 ]
Thank you Cineraria for the blog & Carpathian for a most enjoyable prize with a verdant grid:
IMMATURE, GreenLAND, Green LINE (as demarcation?), GreenGROCER, ADVANCE (with green light?), green BELT, green SHOOTs, GRASS, Green GATE (in Gdansk?), Green CARD, ECOLOGICAL, Green LINNET, Green CROSS Code (or green-EYEd?), DOUBLETS (as gems can be green?), AVOCADO, CHARTREUSE, BOTTLE & SAGE greens.
And, as mentioned by Tony Santucci @3, TEA hiding centrally.
Kva @6 😀 Umberto again
Very impressive Wynsum , green LINE is fine , used to be the bus running from Oxford to London and there must be others and there are certainly emerald DOUBLETS.
5d Victor Hugo led me to the answer. Then I parsed it properly.
Thanks to Carpathian and Cineraria
[pdm @23, dju see Anthony Hopkins in The World’s Fastest Indian? Interesting little NZ story, and true too. My fave scene is him racing the bikers on the beach]
[No I didn’t gif@27, but I wish I had and could have seen it with my father. Great story, thank you. Interesting coincidence. Burt Munro was 68 and riding a 47-year-old machine when he set his last record, and Anthony Hopkins was 68 when he made the movie. Funny where cryptics lead you. I’d better stop now or Ken Mac might tell me to get on my bike. ]
[… as in On yer bike, Sunshine, or I’ll … No, that’s another story 🙂 ]