This week’s Prize puzzle has been set by Tramp, who is a setter I know best from the Inquisitor series of barred crosswords in the i newspaper where he sets puzzles with challenging clues and interesting end games. [Oops! – got that wrong, Tramp hasn’t set Inquisitors as someone has kindly pointed out to me privately. I must have been thinking about another Inquisitor setter and didn’t bother to check. Apologies to Tramp]
I found this puzzle quite difficult and it took me a while to solve it. I think I got just three across clues and three down clues on the first pass, and then slowly picked off the remainder one by one.
There were quite a few well hidden definitions that weren’t just lifted from the dictionary. Examples were ‘might get picked up’, ‘flash with these’ ‘it might remove business’ and ‘greatest hit-maker’. There were also some well hidden one-word definitions such as ‘dope’, ‘duck and ‘thing’.
I liked the ‘two forms of pop’ in the wordplay for PINA COLADA.
There a few musical references in both the clues and the grid with the greatest prominence given to SARAH HARDING, highlighted in the grid below in the top and bottom rows. HARDING, who passed away from cancer in September 2021 at the young age of 39 was a member of GIRLS ALOUD, highlighted in rows seven and nine of the grid and mentioned in the clue for NILGAI at 23 down.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 8 | Silent call that might get picked up (8)
DUMBBELL (double-headed weight swung in the hands to develop the muscles; something that might get picked up for exercise. DUMBBELL is one word in Collins, but hyphenated in Chambers) DUMB (silent) + BELL (slang for telephone call, as in ‘I will give you a BELL‘) DUMB BELL |
| 9 | Dry air essentially in air- conditioned room (5)
ATTIC (a room) (TT [teetotal; dry] + I [middle letter of [essentially] AIR]) contained in (in) AC (air-conditioned]) A (TT I) C |
| 10 | Issue of magazine looking back (4)
EMIT (issue) TIME (title of a news magazine) reversed (looking back) EMIT< |
| 11 | Fixed ideas round band’s leader with periods in studio (10)
OBSESSIONS (persistent or fixed ideas) O (a round shape) + B (first letter of [leader] BAND) + SESSIONS (periods of time spent in a recording studio) O B SESSIONS |
| 12 | One holding camera to mostly hear music player (6)
TRIPOD (a stand for a camera; one holding camera) TRY (hear, as in hear or try a court case) excluding the final letter (mostly) + IPOD (an old music player marketed by Apple) TR IPOD |
| 14 | Became excited after joining in for feeling (8)
AMBIENCE (feeling) Anagram of (excited) BECAME and [joining] IN AMBIENCE* |
| 16 | Rest on this: take pulse first (7)
BEANBAG (large cushion filled with chips or balls of plastic foam, used as seating; rest on this) BEAN (a pulse) + BAG (capture; take) BEAN BAG |
| 18 | Flash with these skirts in sexiest costumes (7)
STROBES (lights that flash on and off; flash with these) ST (outer letters of [skirts in] SEXIEST) + ROBES (costumes) ST ROBES |
| 21 | Learning without advanced development (8)
EDUCTION (development) EDUCATION (learning) excluding (without) A (advanced) EDUCTION |
| 23 | Early lousy form? Briefly possessing dope (6)
NITWIT (fool; idiot; dope) NIT (an early form in the development of a louse wingless parasitic insect]) + WITH (possessing) excluding the final letter (briefly) H NIT WIT |
| 24 | It might remove business title at work retaining old list (6,4)
TOILET ROLL (paper for cleaning and removing faeces; it might remove business [euphemistic term for defecation]) (Anagram of [at work] TITLE containing [retaining] O [old]) + ROLL (official list or register) T (O) ILET* ROLL |
| 26 | Fish in light streams (4)
RAYS (fish) RAYS (streams of light) double definition RAYS |
| 27 | Go off drink over two days (5)
ADDLE (rot; go off) ALE (drink) containing (to go over) (D [day] + D [day] – two days) A (D D) LE |
| 28 | Once more lines up a single for release after end of tour (8)
REALIGNS (lines up again) R (last letter of [end of] TOUR) + an anagram of (for release) A SINGLE R EALIGNS* |
| Down | |
| 1 | Duck swimming at the bottom in lake by reserve (8)
SUBMERGE (duck [to SUBMERGE or plunge suddenly and often briefly under water]) SUB (SUBstitute [reserve; descriptive of a football player, for example, sitting on the bench] + (G [last letter of [bottom] SWIMMING contained in [in] MERE [lake]) SUB MER (G) E |
| 2 | Join American next to bar (4)
ABUT (join) A (American) + BUT (except; save; bar) A BUT |
| 3 | Chart single? (6)
RECORD (chart [A sheet giving graphical, tabular, or diagrammatical information; a RECORD of data]) RECORD (a single is a musical record) double definition RECORD |
| 4 | Famous horrible person stripped snorting lines (3-4)
ALL-STAR (highly rated; famous) BASTARD (horrible person) excluding the outer letters (stripped) B and D, containing (snorting) LL [lines]) A (LL) STAR |
| 5 | Overplays clear hits across both sides of album (4)
HAMS (overacts; overplays) HS (letters remaining in HATS when the central letters are removed [clear]) containing (across) (AM (outer letters of [both sides of] ALBUM) H (AM) S |
| 6 | Come to show’s opening with known hits (7,3)
STRIKES OUT (hits) STRIKE (come upon; come to) + S (first letter of [opening] SHOW) + OUT (made public; known) STRIKE S OUT |
| 7 | Celebrated: eat out with no starter when entertaining over (6)
ICONIC (descriptive of a person or thing regarded as a symbol of a belief, nation, community, or cultural movement; celebrated) PICNIC (as a verb, eat out in the open) excluding the first letter (with no starter) P containing (when entertaining|) O (over, in cricket scoring notation) IC (O) NIC |
| 13 | Drink a shot over two forms of pop (4,6)
PINA COLADA (drink made from pineapple juice, rum and coconut) (A + NIP [shot, of whisky for example]) all reversed (over) + COLA (fizzy drink; pop) + DA (dialect form of dad; father; pop) (PIN A)< COLA DA |
| 15 | Finally succumb, call dentist: one’s called initially after the filling? (3)
BLT (common name for a type of sandwich derived form the initials of its filling – Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato) BLT (last letters of [finally] each of SUCCUMB, CALL and DENTIST BLT |
| 17 | Musical instrument’s part for greatest hit-maker? (3)
ALI (reference the heavyweight boxer [hit-maker] Muhammad ALI [1942 – 2016], known as ‘The Greatest’) ALI (hidden word in [part] MUSICAL INSTRUMENT) ALI |
| 19 | Broadening the mind with tablet: I find heartless guy when drunk (8)
EDIFYING (improving or broadening the mind) E ([ecstasy] tablet) + an anagram of (when drunk) (I and FIND and GY [GUY excluding the central letter [heartless] U]) E DIFYING* |
| 20 | Travelling in Britain? Hit road after playing (2,5)
ON BOARD (travelling by bus, train or ship, for example) ON (happening; playing] + [after] (B [Britain] + an anagram of [hit] ROAD) – I’m not sure about this parsing but it’s the only way I get ON into the wordplay. For me, ‘hit’ as an anagram indicator is a bit vague) ON B OARD* |
| 22 | Make love on date: I like that thing (6)
DOODAH (small ornament or trinket; a gadget; thing) DO (make) + O (character representing zero [love score in tennis]) + D (date) + AH (exclamation expressing pleasure; I like that!) DO O D AH |
| 23 | Horny being in Girls Aloud: idol primarily after love (6)
NILGAI (large Indian antelope; animal with horns; horny being) NIL (nothing; zero; love score in tennis) + GAI (first letters [initially] of each of GIRLS, ALOUD and IDOL) NIL GAI |
| 25 | Stage rotating on it (4)
TIER (row, level, stage) (RE [with reference to; about; on] + IT) all reversed (rotating) (TI ER)< |
| 26 | 28 occasionally come down (4)
RAIN (come down [like water from the sky]) RAIN (letters, 1 3, 5 and 7 [occasionally] of REALIGNS [entry at 28 across]) RAIN |
I agree that this was difficult. For me, the SE corner seemed to take for ever to solve. Could this be another case of a setter tying himself and the puzzle in knots in pursuit of a theme?
I, too, liked the double definitions, RECORD in particular. ADDLE, and PINA COLADA were also favourites. I had the same parsing for ON BOARD.
In the end, I am afraid this is not the sort of puzzle I enjoy much – too many wordy clues and too many complicated charades for my taste.
Thanks Tramp and duncanshiell
Thanks duncanshiell. Like you I had to work on this and it took me some time. There were more than the usual number of answers that were unmistakable enough but which required some lateral thinking to explain. I share your doubt about ‘hit’ as an anagrind. I’m a bit ashamed to admit LOI was BLT, just couldn’t make it work with any vowel as the second letter. Unusually I did see the nina but couldn’t reconcile it, same problem as I had a couple of weeks ago.
I don’t remember the last time Tramp was in the prize slot, but he should do more of them because I thought this was just the right level of difficulty. This is despite not seeing the Ninas, and I wouldn’t have recognized them if I did (wrong generation, by far!)
DOODAH, REALIGNS great surfaces; liked horny being. 3-letter answers usually have mediocre clues (imo), but not so for BLT and ALI.
[Early on in the solving, my available crossers were the likes of P, B, C etc. and I thought Tramp was being unusually helpful. However after a spate of Ts, Ns and vowels, the total entropy reverted to his mean (which is slightly to the unhelpful side of Guardian average, FWIW). But no matter, a fun solving experience.]
Thanks both.
I thought that the Prize Puzzle had been getting easier the last few weeks but I struggled with, and failed to finish this one. Probably not helped by never having heard of Sarah Harding and knowing nothing about Girls Aloud.
Liked many. Top faves: TOILET ROLL, SUBMERGE, STRIKES OUT and PINA COLADA.
ON BOARD
Parsed it as duncan and I don’t see any issue with it.
Thanks duncanshiell and Tramp!
After initial hiccups, I had a smooth run with one error. I felt very proud of reaching there, due to the right amount of challenge in the clues. 23a is my pick amongst several lovely clues.
Thanks Tramp and Duncansheill
I found this quite tough. I hadn’t been able to parse ALL STAR and was unsure about come to = strike, but bunged them in anyway. Didn’t know the band but appreciated the tribute.
So many lovely clues. My favourite was the horny being, NILGAI. I also liked SUBMERGE, ICONIC, ADDLE, PINA COLADA, DUMBBELL.
Thanks Tramp and Duncanshiell
Thanks Tramp for the challenge. This took awhile and I used outside sources to get the clever NITWIT and the nho NILGAI. My favourites were ATTIC, REALIGNS, SUBMERGE, ALL-STAR, and HAMS. I saw the name SARAH HARDING in the grid but the significance escaped me as I never heard of Girls Aloud despite their appearance in 23d. Thanks duncanshiell for explaining.
Nicely misleading surface for STRIKES OUT which of course means the batter doesn’t hit on the left side of the pond. Thanks Tramp and D
This was my first DNF for ages – but it’s been a busy week and I haven’t had the time to keep coming back to the crossword (If I haven’t solved the Prize on a Saturday, I normally come back on a Sunday, but I blogged two other crosswords last Sunday and then was out and about.)
I did know about Sarah Harding and Girls Aloud, which would have helped if I’d got more in .
Thanks for the blog, really good set of clues and for once the editor picked the hardest puzzle of the week for Saturday. ICONIC is very neat and PINA COLADA very devious , I could name many more.
Thank you, Duncan, for the very impressive blog.
I wrote most of this puzzle in Sept 2021 following the tragic death of Sarah Harding after her struggle with breast cancer. I gave up with the puzzle because I thought a lot of the clues were weak and the Nina wasn’t great; it would have been better if I’d have written something symmetric but I couldn’t think how to balance SARAH with HARDING. Anyway, it stayed on my PC partially completed. I was driving home from work a few months ago and Girls Aloud were on the radio saying that they were going on tour to celebrate Sarah’s life. So, I dusted off the puzzle and completed it. I improved several clues and sent it to Alan for consideration. He agreed to publish it to coincide with the end of the tour. I donated £100 to the Sarah Harding Breast Cancer appeal at Christie’s. I would have liked to have taken my daughters to a concert but all the shows I could have made coincided with my eldest’s GCSE period.
I let the band’s management company know my plans to publish the puzzle. They were honoured and passed on the news to the band; they even sent me some signed stuff following their shows at the O2. I’m so glad I finished the puzzle.
The original clue for BLT used the simple definition of “filling”, but, on reflection, after Alan’s comments, we decided that the BLT is more the sandwich than the filling, so, I somewhat clumsily augmented the definition to be “one’s called initially after the filling”.
Neil
My solving experience with this was similar to yours in the blog duncansheill, and that is what makes it just right for a Prize slot, wel done to Tramp and editor for selecting so well. My face tends to light up when I see Tramp’s name on the crossword these days with a lovely style to clues and rarely with obscure solutions.
Thanks for the excellent blog which revealed – for me anyway – the tribute aspect to the crossword. Sarah Harding’s story was a public sad one which I think helps to highlight sadness and make the grieving of people in similar circumstances that little bit easier. Nice touch, Tramp.
My favourite clues were ICONIC,SUBMERGE and LOI BEANBAG which I thought was ace.
Tramp @12 popped in while
I was typing, thanks for the added history which seems really fitting. I think that edit you made on BLT was excellent too: I admired it when solving, the change having mystified the clue to just the right level. 🙂
Yes I too found this one challenging but along the way I did enjoy some of the clever clues Tramp composed like 11a OBSESSIONS, 14a AMBIENCE, 16a BEANBAG, 18a STROBES, 24a TOILET ROLL and 13d PINA COLADA, a couple of which have already been mentioned in dispatches. But I needed to come here for full parses of 12a TRIPOD, 4d ALL-STAR, 6d STRIKES OUT, 7d ICONIC and 25d TIER. So my solving experience was a bit of a mixed bag.
It was very heart-warming to visit this blog today and to learn that Tramp created this Prize offering as a tribute to Sarah Harding; unfortunately I had not heard previously about this talented young woman and her courage but now I am glad I have. Tramp’s post giving the back story to how he started and later finished the grid added a new level of appreciation for me.
Thanks to Tramp for the worthy puzzle and to duncanshiell for the helpful blog.
Missed the Nina but then I’m usually pleased/relieved to have finished a grid that I never remember to look for such things. This is a huge of shame on my part as I missed the heartfelt and worthy tribute – no disrespect intended.
Like other commentators, I thought this was an excellent Prize challenge that took most of the weekend to solve. Nilgai new to me as was eduction; I smiled at addle and doodah and think nitwit needed outside help. Having remembered to keep the puzzle for a week in order to comment, I must now remember to annotate it with my comments so I don’t have to wrack the brains so much.
Thank you Tramp and duncanshiell.
A very satisfying solve, as I often find with Tramp. Although it was difficult I was encouraged to persevere because his clues are always (eventually) solvable. Though I had to wait for the blog for the parsing of TRIPOD (never heard of the ‘music player’, or had long forgotten it) and STRIKES OUT (again, it had to be but I couldn’t see ‘come to’ for STRIKE). I saw the parsing of ON BOARD in the same way as our blogger, with ‘hit’ a rather strange anagrind.
I was pleased with myself for remembering the NILGAI from previous puzzles. I echo our blogger’s praise for the definitions that were inventive or well disguised, leading to several very pleasing penny drop moments.
Thanks to Tramp for dropping in. I agree with Julie@15 that the story of the origins of this puzzle are touching and the outcome heartwarming. I like EdTheBall’s comment that the change to BLT “mystified the clue to just the right level”. 🙂
Pianoman@16 I always cut out the puzzle with the clues and I annotate as I solve , much easier to comment a week later .
[Five years ago M&S stuck some Guacamole in a BLT and anagrammed it to make an LGBT sandwich in rainbow packaging.]
Yes, challenging！So much so that I ended up with it unfinished, with blanks where TOILET ROLL and TIER should have been (I do feel I should have seen TIER) , and a few others in but unparsed, like ON BOARD, which I was never even convinced was right. I occasionally feel I have a wavelength mismatch with Tramp, but there were clever clues there and I did enjoy the challenge, and i really appreciated Tramp’s comments on the story of the puzzle. And thanks duncanshiel for the explanations, which I really needed this week.
FG @19 I guess they could update the M&S sarnie with some Quince
Perfect prize for me. Never quite parsed STRIKES OUT so a points victory for Tramp
Cheers D&T
I solved 4 clues and gave up. Same again this week – gave up after solving 4 clues. I must be getting dumber!
I wrote ‘difficult’ on this one, so I am relieved that some others also struggled. I enjoyed it nevertheless and am impressed with the NINAs and Tramp @12’s comments.
I liked the rather Paulian TOILET ROLL, the two forms of pop in PINA COLADA and the DOODAH thing.
Thanks ds and Tramp.
I learned again that being 99% sure of an answer isn’t always enough. Given I had the last two crossers I was certain 23a was GOTHIC. Briefly possessing dope was obviously GOT HIC(k). And of course GOTHIC is an early form (of architecture etc). True, I had a ‘lousy’ left over as part of the definition – but maybe there was a famous quote about Gothic literature being lousy.
A great puzzle, I got about 75%, very hard but all the clues were fair. Thanks to duncansheill and Tramp.
This is great stuff.
I needed the extra days to solve this, and (almost) got there in the end. Hadn’t heard of “DOODAH” for thin . Here in the US (I think) more common version is DOODAD, which I put in but couldn’t parse.
6dn come to/strike – “If you keep on this path you’ll strike (come to) the main road.”
The idea struck/came to me
If you are stuck on a clue , leave it for a bit and inspiration may strike/come to you .
duncanshiell in 5d I think you meant “hits” rather than”hats.”
I had to use a lot of electronic help for this one.
Thanks, Tramp and duncanshiell.
Roz@18 I don’t buy the paper (shocking I know!) so print puzzle on A4. That said adding annotations as I go is an obvious but brilliant suggestion (like the cat flap according to Dirk Gently) and I used it today. Thank you!
Duncan
I have set two Inquisitors (as Jambazi) and a Listener (as Tramp). I’m sure you blogged at least one IQ. I’ve also appeared in all the papers: Jambazi (Indy, i), FT (Skitnica), anon (Times) and Vagabundo (Telegraph).
Pianoman@31 a printed page is just as good, I mainly circle (good) or cross ( bad) clue numbers . I underline bits of interest or problems and occasionally write a brief comment.
Thanks for the suggestions for STRIKE/’come to’ @27ff. None of those struck me while solving, obviously. 🤔
Or even subsequently.
I still hold out hope of another jambazi inquisitor…
I found this challenging but very fair. Many thanks to Tramp and duncanshiell. My particular favourites were ICONIC, PINA COLADA and TOILET ROLL. Tramp’s explanation of the theme was lovely and very heartwarming.
Great puzzle. Defeated by doodah and couldn’t parse strikes out, but otherwise managed to struggle through. Very rewarding, thanks.
Kippax
One day, when I’m retired, I hope to write more crosswords. Currently, I struggle to write one per month.
Thanks Tramp, we are grateful for the ones that you do 🙂
(and I shall continue to cross my fingers for a further IQ some day. Your first one remains special to me – it was the first ever IQ that I managed to solve)
What a lovely weekend diversion. Thoroughly enjoyable. Bless you, Tramp, as ever – and for popping by; roll on your retirement!
And thanks to duncanshiell for a magnificent blog
Victoria Wood (1989, a 45th (Sapphire) anniversary) : “Mens Sana in Thingummy DOODAH”
Thanks T&D