Guardian prize crossword No 29,727 by Paul

58 comments on “Guardian prize crossword No 29,727 by Paul”

1. Thanks bridgesong. Put me down as one of those non-UK solvers who found this harder than usual. I don’t often mind having to seek assistance from Google in the interests of furthering my education but this time the theme was just too esoteric and uninteresting for me. I never did come to terms with the derivation of PIRATE or with that of INITIAL ( i=newspaper?) so thanks for those. Can’t say I enjoyed it.

2. I had an alternative of COLLIER for 17 which gave me ENGINEER (Engine here) for 18 although I had dearly wanted to put BALLPOINTS in for 2,22.

3. “This puzzle might be harder than usual for non-UK solvers”. Er, yep, in spades. On the plus side, now I’m on nodding terms with a slew of Guardian and other British luminaries. Thanks for the education, Paul, and the elucidation, Bridgesong.

4. How does ‘The Beckham’ define BROOKLYN? Or is it ‘The Beckham US bridge’ (after uncovering Alan Rusbridger)? Either way, it was totally beyond me. I also failed on two that I perhaps should have got if my brain had not frozen: SPADIX (‘over deliveries’ was just too much, somehow) and INITIAL (definitely too much). I guessed at POLLARD and Google found me a couple of people called Ed Pollard. Eve? Never heard of her. Or should that be ‘never uncovered’?

   I got SCOTT-ISH without any trouble as I’m a Guardian man from an early age, and I thought P(R)ESTON was well executed, though both names will have escaped many solvers, I would guess. Unbelievably, I remembered not just MA(n)X Hastings but I also saw his father Mac on TV in the early 1960s, on the BBC’s Tonight programme.

   Good to see one of our Saturday bloggers get a name check in 8a, though I believe his given name is Mike rather than John.

   Thanks to Paul and Bridgesong.

5. As a “non-UK solver,” I resist making the tedious observation that some puzzles are more insular than others (after all, I am participating voluntarily), and if I had been a novice, this would probably have been well nigh unsolvable, but I would agree that the UK GK did slow me down a bit on this one–all readily susceptible to Google, fortunately, and witty fun, in the end.

   For 14A, I had OVER (more than) + LORD (noble).

6. I liked SCOTTISH, I didn’t think it was loose, -ial and -ish are synonymous as suffixes here, and it makes for a great themed surface. Excellent composition as ever, so much more than just a set of clues, thank you Paul and Bridgesong

7. Sheffield hatter@4, ‘the Beckham’ means the member of the Beckham family who fits the clue, and Brooklyn Beckham, the oldest son of Sir David and Lady Beckham, fits the definition of a famous US bridge, so named for the reason bridgesong explains. With eight letters, it had to be either him or his mother Victoria, and I felt the clue was very clever.

   Thanks, bridgesong and Paul, though I agree the theme was very esoteric, and I DNF, failing on BALLPOINTS and RETINUES. I guessed POLLARD, and on checking found it could be Eve, or also Stephen, once editor of the Jewish Chronicle, who has sometimes written for The Guardian.

8. Another non-UK solver that struggled with all the proper names. But persistence and Google helped to complete the puzzle. I found the clues to be a mixed bag- some were quite easy, which helped in solving the harder/ more obscure ones.

   Thanks Paul and Bridgesong.

9. (As a non-UK resident) This was not easy, especially as some of the Eds were not household names. BALL…S was familiar enough to me, though, and I was looking out for him/it.

   Complaining might seem like sour grapes, but I did think 4d was borderline unfair, since the cryptic part was minimal and the rest required knowing two unfamiliar names. The other clues not so, because you could hypothesize and check.

   I did like BROOKLYN (probably because I was familiar with all the elements).

10. Liked TIPPEX, EQUAL, BROOKLYN, SPADIX and RETINUES.

    OVERLORD
    Parsed it as Cineraria@5.
    JALAPENO
    Agree with the blogger on J for joker. Couldn’t find
    this abbreviation in any of the dictionaries I referred to.

    Thanks Paul and Bridgesong..

11. Given the “Ed” theme with Paul as setter, I was shocked at the absence of clues related to…shall we say, Viagra.

12. Obviously I have to comment on an Ed-themed puzzle! I kind of enjoyed this one but have to empathise with Biggles A@1 and others in the theme being somewhat parochial so expect a few more of the non-UK based and/or younger solvers to have had to dig a bit deeper to get all the Editors mentioned. My favourite of these clues was the neat one for POLLARD although I thought I’d missed something as I didn’t realise it was EVE being alluded to : were all the other Editors from the Guardian? I didn’t actually count. Anyway, I skimmed a good few articles about various Ed Pollards last weekend who could have been there reference for that clue.

    I agree with Sheffield Hatter that “The”Beckham is hardly a direct definition to Brooklyn and the fission element to the other part of that clue USBRIDGE—>US BRIDGE was an extra complexity. With the crossers and the fact that this was the Prize, though, I suppose it was fair enough.

    Thanks for the excellent blog, bridgesong.

13. My first themer in was ballpoints, so I thought maybe Ed = balls, dances, oos, nonsense. Not to be, so it was a patience game — fill in all you can and see what to make of the unknowns. In the end, even the least known — Scott, Peston — weren’t prohibitive. Overall, not actually a great joy, but thanks Paul and bridgesong.

14. what Cineraria@5 and others said

    Thanks Paul and bridgesong

15. me@12, of course you answered my question in the blog, bridgesong. It’s the middle of the night so I’m rambling….

16. Of the newspaper editors, Viner (current), Scott, Preston and Rusbridger are all Guardian, Hastings the Telegraph and Evening Standard, Pollard the Mirror and Express, Morgan (Piers) News of the World, Harding the Times and now Tortoise media (Observer). Then there’s “Son John” which if translated to “Johnson” (Boris) yields the Spectator. Organs aplenty.

    I also noted that “over deliveries” though commonly six, is not always six, and even Chambers says “usually six”.

    Thanks to Paul and bridgesong.

17. You can put me down as a ex-UK solver who took one look and gave up in disgust. I’m not at a level where I have any expectations of being able to complete the Prize (especially when it’s Paul) however having realised very early what the expected “GK” was for this I hadn’t a hope. For the record I had NHO of any of the editors other than Rusbridger & Hastings, nor would I have a clue as to Ed Balls. Sorry, but this tipped over the border from clever into self-indulgent for mine.
    Thanks anyway Paul. And especially thanks to Bridgesong & Timon for the unravelling.

18. Certainly challenging for this Australian ex-pom. It occupied me for an entire flight from Europe to Oz, including some time on a train before the flight (I did watch four movies on the flight, ate five meals and managed to sleep a bit, so it wasn’t just frustrated solving). Having got VAINER, I’d guessed (incorrectly) that all the ‘Ed’s would be Guardian editors and Googled a list before take-off. I also looked up David Beckham’s family, having no idea of his children’s names. Without further on-line access it was a struggle, especially as it became clear not all Eds were Guardian related. I knew Max Hastings from Falkland war reporting, not as an editor of anything. I’d never heard of Peter Peston, so couldn’t parse PRESTON – I wondered if a journalist was a ‘pest’, but couldn’t justify the ‘on’. POLLARD was my LOI; I’d thought it was a name that might fit, but the only famous ones I could think of were Su and Michael J.; but it did mean prune. Googling on landing didn’t find any plausible Ed Pollards, but surely it had to be right. So, thanks for filling in the many gaps, Bridgesong, and thanks to Paul for providing the occupation, arguably over-esoteric though it may have been.

19. I’m in the UK but had to do my research on this one.
    I see that as a positive as I know more about Guardian editors than I did this time last week.
    I was epecting Balls to pop up.
    Pollard and Sheeran I had heard of.
    The US bridge one was my favourite.
    Thank you to all involved.

20. I’ve amended the blog entry for OVERLORD: I agree with Cineraria’s parsing @5. Don’t know why I said it was a cryptic definition.

    And I’d overlooked Stephen Pollard, suggested by sjhart @7, but perhaps Eve has the stronger claim.

21. Thanks for the blog , I read the Guardian every day and listen to Radio 4 so the names were fine for me but I do sympathise with non-UK solvers or even many UK solvers , a lot of these names are simply not famous enough . PRESTON in particular , great editor and the wordplay uses a fine journalist but both pretty obscure .
    As an avid card player I have never seen J=Joker , all the decks I have show joker written in the corners , not J because of the jack .
    If we must have the busking furby in a puzzle can we please be warned at the top – this crossword contains a name to strike fear into the hearts of anyone with taste .

22. I am a UK solver but I found this really tough. Too many obscure (to me) Eds . Kicking myself for not getting the anagram at 23. Thanks both.

23. Wot, no Mr. Ed, the talking horse?

24. Like the idea, but most of the names were far too obscure for me. Once I got a few from googling and realised how obscure the standard was I just packed it in as too hard not fun.

25. I parsed 22d as an anagram (drivel) of a partial version of “one partial” ie the first two and last two letters removed, to make PIRATE. This explains the word partial in the clue which is working as both fodder and indicator.

26. I’m UK and did solve this, although some of my parsings were wobbly, but I did know Robert Peston, have seen him recording shows various live, and vaguely remember Peter PRESTON as the Guardian editor, and having spotted the ED theme was expecting SHEERAN. Eve POLLARD is almost better known as the mother of Claudia Winkleman these days.

    Thank you to bridgesong and Paul.

27. Thanks, all. Not least Paul and bridgesong. Many thanks Jay@16 for the amplification.

    For SCRAPPER, I thought that john was more the Americanism than Crapper. Maybe both?

    Lots of learning throughout. Yes, very tough on non-uk solvers … so that kept me humoured as I struggled to complete.

    Great comment, geeker@11. Discovered recently when reviewing my Morra gambit (chess) games that the guy who introduced me to it … almost 60 years ago … became an expert on erectile dysfunction. Yes, Paul was being very well behaved to avoid the reference to this ED.

28. sheffield hatter at #4 – yes, I enjoyed 8A!…

    Tough puzzle with some specific GK – I learned some things in finishing it, and I have learned some new things in the comments above – Eve Pollard as Claudia Winkleman’s mother?! Ed Sheeran as a busking furby?!

    Choldunk at #27 – my understanding is that American servicemen based in the UK during the war used Thomas Crapper toilets and it entered the vernacular on their return home…

29. I enjoyed this puzzle. Somewhat introspective theme, but well flagged up, so not a time-wasting trap for visitors. Nothing wrong in a theme partly referencing its own home in a British newspaper, which I have been reading for a very long time. I found an alternative explanation for 20ac via Google and a right-wing website – based on allegations of nepotism relating to the Beckhams and Alan Rusbridger.

30. I always relish a Paul prize, so I persevered with this in spite of early solver’s block.

    Once the Eds/editors theme had sunk in I found this an enjoyable solve.

    I had heard of all the Eds/editors and other people referred to but agree that some names would surely have been unknown outside the UK.

31. Having found ‘sheeran’ and ‘balls’, I missed the editors theme. I thought that all the ‘eds’ were going to be ‘Edwards’. It meant that I did not finish. I tried sticking ‘sheeran’ in where ‘Pollard’ should be as a groan worthy homophone of ‘shearing’. I was soon disabused. This was not helped by failing on RETINUES.

    I really liked PICCALLILI, JALAPENO (although point taken re ‘joker’), BROOKLYN and INITIAL. The pick being the Rusbridger connection. They took some solving but eventually I could parse the clues and they did not feel convoluted in the way that more involved clues can.

32. I think a theme should be interesting or within general knowledge. This was neither, just a tedious stretch of googling.

33. Am still a bit vague about the parsing of SCOTTISH. Is it relevant that the great CP Scott was succeeded as editor by his son Edward?

34. Choldunk@33 it is just editor ial means like an editor and Scott ish means like Scott . All a bit Paul ish .

35. Non-British, and a DNF for me.

36. Too obscure in the references, especially 5 down. A letter inside an industry name giving you another industry name. Too media focused for anyone outside the industry.

37. Thanks Paul for a lovely puzzle that was right up my street. Mind you I’m an 85 year old lifelong Guardian reader. But what’s wrong with that? I spend my life ignoring 99% of mainstream and all of social media which seems to be produced by, and reflects the interests of, under-30s. So I am a bit short of sympathy for those who complain about something that at long last reflects my interests. Were I faced with a cryptic themed around mechanical engineering or girl groups (though I remember doing one such many years ago because I could never resist an Araucaria), then I would just do something else.
    So I enjoyed both the theme and the typical ingenuity of the puzzle. Couldn’t see a problem with ‘The Beckham’ and loved the Morgan clue without solving it. Similar difficulties with RETINUES, INITIAL and EQUAL., but none with any of the Eds. Thanks Paul, greatly appreciated it.

38. Phew, that was tough! Got there eventually after several revisits over several days and much internet trawling. Since MANX was one of my FIOs, and I knew he had been editor of the Telegraph, it never occurred to me to restrict my ‘Ed’ search to just Guardian editors, nor even just newspaper editors – I also looked up film editors, book editors and even computer text editor applications. Favourite clue when I finally cracked it (and it was one of my last) was ‘the Beckham’.

39. Extremely DNF despite being a UK solver. The theme was pretty clear, but having to remember a slew of newspaper editors is not my idea of fun, even when I did know some of them. I couldn’t even be bothered persisting.

    A gripe, and not Paul’s fault: multi-light clues (e.g. 2, 22) no longer indicate a or d as they once did. One could assume that if not indicated then the two components were both a (or both d), but in this case that doesn’t apply. Yes, you can check what is meant fairly easily, but that may not always be the case. I fail to see how this is an improvement.

40. I’m a UK solver and especially keen on completing the Saturday Prize, but on reading through the clues and references (and seeing that Paul had used one of The Guardian’s super-crappo grids) I decided not to bother last weekend. Sorry Paul, but this one was a bit too much of a Radiohead moment for me.

    Talking of grids, I recall that The Guardian used to have one which had no black squares at all in the outermost rows or columns. I haven’t seen that one for several years now though – anyone else ??

41. poc@39. My paper copy of the clues from last weekend shows 2/22A as per convention. Was the online version different?

42. Erik@36. The “industry” that you refer to as being too obscure to have much recognition among crossword enthusiasts and which you correctly identify as “media” must be failing pretty badly, since communication of information is its primary function.

43. In my trawl for editor names, I discovered that Katy Balls (no relation) is the Washington editor for the Times, so that should have worked for American solvers who have never heard of Ed Balls. I also discovered that John Scott was the editor of various liberal publications in the early 19th century, including ‘The Statesman’ and the ‘London Magazine’. I took that as being the answer to 1d

44. I’m with @32 and @40. As soon as I understood the theme I quit. Over the years I’ve managed to force myself to find interest in obscure composers and other bizarre themes, but newspaper editors? Aren’t their egos big enough already?

45. Another American who found the GK (Guardian knowledge) a bit hairy. Andy in Durham @43, Ed Balls was one of the ones I’ve heard of! The Washington correspondent for the Times of London isn’t someone I’d ever heard of, and even if I didn’t follow UK politics a bit, Ed Balls is internationally renowned for his “Ed Balls” tweet, as well as being named Ed Balls. [I guess Katy’s UK equivalent, as the local correspondent for a Murdoch-owned paper, would be the New York Post‘s UK editor Nika Shakhnazarova.] Early on I thought 7d had to be VAINER and looked around for Ed Viners, then left that blank till I did a search for “editor.” After that, there was copious use of the Saturday reveal button (those websites that print individual answers).

    20ac was particularly fiendish because, with the L and N in, I looked up Rusbridger and kept trying to figure how this might work with —-ALAN. Once all the parsers were in and I learned about Beckham Jr., the penny dropped for the parsing.

    Thanks to bridgesong and Paul!

46. Me @23
    Does no-one else remember Mr. Ed?

47. Muffin @46 – Sure do, Willburrr. Haven’t seen it in decades, though.

    Another non-UK solver here who failed abjectly on this puzzle. I can normally finish, or get within a couple of answers of finishing, but after a week of staring I still only had 5 answers in the whole thing. Now that I’ve seen the completed puzzle, I wouldn’t have parsed most of those in a month of Sundays. I just shrug and put this one in the category of “not intended for me” (like names of historic cricketers or football club nicknames). On to the next one. Thanks to bridgesong and Paul.

48. Nope nope. Gave up and revealed all after getting what I could that wasn’t ed related, read this blog and thought nope. I am becoming less and less keen on Paul puzzles and starting to skip them.

49. I’m another non-UK person who found this puzzle impossible and, on reading this blog, uninteresting. A puzzle designed for older solvers who have been Guardian readers for decades (and can remember the editors) is perfectly OK, just not for me. As others have said, this is not a problem; I admire Paul’s inscrutable ingenuity and move on to the next one.

    Thanks bridgesong for the super blog.

50. muffin@46, of course I remember Mr Ed, sadly Paul didn’t find room for him though

51. Sh@41: Yes, the online version has been omitting these indicators for some time now. It’s a constant irritation.

52. Muffin@46 Ed@50, I’ve not heard of Mr Ed but was personally disappointed Ed the Duck didn’t get a mention, I mean he became Edd but was originally Ed…

53. Roz@34 Paul ine ?

54. (To this disciple at least)

55. I wonder whether Paul got added points from the editor for this suck up or lost points due reader complaints

56. We finished it, with a lot of difficulty, without ever realising that the Eds theme, other than Balls and Sheeran, referred to newspaper editors. We have been waiting with interest to find out who the famous Ed Pollard and Ed Preston were (Ed Viner sounded like a famous person :)! Feeling a bit foolish to find that it was mainly about newspaper editors. Appreciate the difficulty for non-UK solvers, but on the other hand it seems reasonable for a Guardian puzzle to make reference to (mainly) Guardian editors. All quite ingenious, with our favourite clue being the Beckham one.

57. UK solver – spent about an hour solving a handful of clues. Having worked out where the theme was going, I gave up after realising how much time I would have to spend googling newspaper editors and trying to get them to fit into the clues. This was Paul at his most esoteric and least fun, but thanks for the blog!

58. I think the parsing for Piccalilli is reverse of l lilac inside Pic i

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