Guardian Prize 29,835 / Imogen

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Imogen makes one of his fairly infrequent visits to the Prize slot – only the third this year, I think and I blogged the first one.

I’m finding myself with much the same things to say as before: a nice combination of clue types, generally meticulous cluing, ingenious constructions, clever anagrams, an interesting and (for me) evocative spread of GK, some neat misdirection and, this time, just one unfamiliar word, which was the bird.

I had about a dozen ticks and found it impossible to whittle them down but I’m sure you’ll include them all in your favourites  –  and I’ve commented on some of them in the blog.

Many thanks to Imogen for a very enjoyable puzzle.

Definitions are underlined in the clues.

 

Across

1 Saint brings to church cat and a bear (7)
STOMACH
S (saint) + CH (church) round TOM (cat) + A from the clue

5 Small stroke that’s hard to interpret (6)
SCRAWL
S (SMALL) + CRAWL (swimming stroke)

9 Facing work, adopt an attitude about it (8)
OPPOSITE
OP (work) + POSE (adopt an attitude) round IT

10 Address of house I left Imogen’s taken over (6)
HOMILY
HO (house) + MY (Imogen’s) round I L (I left)

12 Hinting madam wasted all her strength (5,3,4)
MIGHT AND MAIN
An anagram (wasted – slang for drunk) of HINTING MADAM: a classic example of hendiadys ,
‘main’ being an old word for great strength, now only usually found in this expression – great surface

15 Welcoming people came down with a roly-poly empty of nourishment (10)
ALIMENTARY
ALIT (came down) round (welcoming) MEN (people) + A R[oly-pol]Y – I liked the wordplay and the well-disguised definition

17 Attack is in good shape (3)
FIT
Double definition

19 Sink vessel, a trophy (3)
POT
Triple definition – sink and POT are both snooker terms for getting the ball into the pocket and a POT is a vessel and a trophy

20 Underrate Victor, wild daredevil (10)
ADVENTURER
An anagram (wild) of UNDERRATE V (Victor – NATO phonetic alphabet) – another fine surface

22 Alter accounts of consigning literature to the flames? (4,3,5)
COOK THE BOOKS
Cryptic definition, plus literal interpretation, ‘cooking the books’ indicating financial chicanery

26 Leaderless priest from America who took the plunge (6)
ICARUS
[v]ICAR (priest) + US (American = from America) – Icarus flew too close to the sun, thus melting the wax securing the wings fashioned by his father Daedalus as a means to escape from the Cretan Labyrinth and fell into the sea

27 US singer died, over in a flash (8)
BOBOLINK
OB (abbreviation of Latin obiit – died, in genealogical records) + O (over) in BLINK (flash – blink of an eye) – here’s the US singer – a neat construction and a lovely word

28 Melon cut with axes: that’s inspired (6)
OXYGEN
X Y (axes) in OGEN (a type of melon) – I always enjoy ‘axes’ used this way

29 Step on to platform and run into arrest (7)
DETRAIN
R (run) in DETAIN (arrest) – one of my least favourite types of word

 

Down

1 Without poles, climbing in high altitude conditions (4)
SNOW
A reversal (climbing, in a down clue) of W/O (abbreviation of without) + N S (poles)

2 Bends down, dropping stone: my mistake (4)
OOPS!
[st]OOPS (bends down) minus st (stone) – amusing surface

3 Patronage gives first-class benefits still to be received (8)
AUSPICES
A (first class) + USES (benefits) round PIC (still picture)

4 Once has to employ canine to break egg (5)
HATCH
HATH (old form – once – of ‘has’) round C (abbreviation for canine, in dentistry)

6 Concert at first at high volume, finally very dull (6)
CLOUDY
C[oncert] + LOUD (at high volume) + [ver]Y

7 Satire’s main failing: fear to introduce female (6,4)
ANIMAL FARM
An anagram (failing) of MAIN + F (female) in ALARM (fear) – reference to George Orwell’s satirical novella – another fine surface

8 Rewriting a storyline was to be expected (3,2,5)
LAY IN STORE
An anagram (rewriting) of A STORYLINE – a neat anagram and a smooth surface

11 Unreal, being first to fly over a lake (6)
FAERIE
F[ly] + A ERIE (a lake) – lovely word, with distant echoes of two of my A Level set texts: Spenser’s ‘The Faerie Queene’ and Keats’ ‘faerie lands forlorn’ (‘Ode to a Nightingale’, one of my favourite poems)

13 Gangster welcomes man of note, not one for a hot drink (10)
CAPPUCCINO
CAPO (gangster) round PUCCIN[i] (man of note – a change from ‘scorer’ or ‘barman’ – though I always like both of  them) minus i (one) – I enjoyed the construction and surface

14 Look up here, wandering in City Road (10)
DICTIONARY
An anagram (wandering) of IN CITY ROAD – I smiled at the definition and the picture of any of us wending our way along Charing Cross Road, consulting Collins and/or the Big Red Book

16 Arranged to pick up computer business and failed (6)
TIDIED
A reversal (to pick up, in a down clue) of IT (computer business) + DIED (failed) – I liked the fact that ‘arranged’ was not an anagram indicator and ‘to pick up’ not a soundalike

18 Do surveillance on second date (5,3)
STAKE OUT
S (second) + TAKE OUT (date)

21 A thousand buried – let us change physician (2,4)
ST LUKE
K (a thousand) buried in an anagram (change) of LET US: St Luke, writer of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, is known as ‘the beloved physician’ and is the patron saint of physicians and artists – an amusing, rather gruesome surface

23 For a long time congregation understood nothing (2,3)
OF OLD
It seems that we need the Shakespearean meaning (‘stand under’) of ‘understand’ here, so I think it’s FOLD (metaphorical congregation) under (in a down clue) O (old)

24 Examination of insurance company that sacked head (4)
VIVA
[a]VIVA (insurance company) minus its initial letter
An abbreviation of Latin VIVA voce – ‘with the living voice’ – so an oral examination – see here
Other university websites are available 😉

25 Like creating, ignoring the boundaries (4)
AKIN
[m]AKIN[g] (creating)

44 comments on “Guardian Prize 29,835 / Imogen”

  2. This seemed very hard until about halfway through, and then I started to get the hang of it. Nice puzzle, and good job on the blog.

  3. Thankyou Eileen. Agree with your preamble and, thanks to your informative blog, I’ve learned more now, especially hendiadys in MIGHT AND MAIN. Not being well-schooled in Shakespeare the term was new to me. I see from your link that alternatives are figure of twins and pseudo coordination. They sound quite pathological, but then apparently so was Shakespeare in his use of the device, at least obsessive.

    I parsed OF OLD, as did you, although again not knowing the Shakespearean language reference, I just thought it was Imogen being clever.

    My favourite ALIMENTARY, also for the wordplay and definition.

    BOBOLINK last one in. Thanks for the pic. And here’s a 30sec clip of its call.

  4. Oh, I didn’t scroll down far enough. I see Eileen’s link for BOBOLINK had several recordings of its call.

  5. I had the opposite experience to Cineraria@2. I found this a mix of very easy and very difficult clues so I made quick progress at first then slowed considerably. I finished in one sitting, but it took quite a while.

    I ticked 2 clues: TIDIED and OOPS

    I was not overly bothered by the GK that Eileen mentioned. I did wonder how many solvers know ogen melon, and I do not share a vast vocabulary of terms for criminals and gaols with the English, so I did not know capo in 13d. So saying, BOBOLINK & MIGHT AND MAIN were jorums.

    I solved but could not parse SNOW, HATCH and AUSPICES. Thanks for the steers, Eileen..

    Thanks Imogen and Eileen

  6. I very rarely do the prize but I spent an unlikely sunny Saturday morning on Hove seafront completing this, and enjoyed the lovely surfaces and different devices. Thought there might be a theme with STOMACH, POT and ALIMENTARY lurking but that was it. Lots of ticks as well but my favourites were ANIMAL FARM, COOK THE BOOKS, SNOW, AUSPICES, CAPPUCCINO and DICTIONARY. My first text at uni was The Faerie Queene, which I thought was wonderful. Thanks for flagging up hendiadys, what a fabulous word.

    Ta Imogen & Eileen for the super blog.

  7. (And Eileen, and Martyn@ 5. Did you see that Filbert clued JORUM as Task getting bottom off strange drinking bowl in Independent 12185 just this week? Wouldn’t have known it except for 15sq)

  8. Antonknee@1, a nice one 🙂

    After last Saturday, I had three left, which I’ve only done a few days later; one was the insurance company I recalled, then I constructed the bird remembering OB for “obiit”, and POT was missing due to my incorrect spelling of CAPPUCCINO. Many favourites, including OOPS, SNOW, FAERIE, ANIMAL FARM, OF OLD. Thanks a lot Imogen and Eileen!

  9. 4D HATCH also reminded me about the egg tooth many fledglings use to hatch out, so I read this as a CAD or &lit.

    I thought this would be a challenge as Imogen can be, but sailed through this puzzle – just on the right wavelength, I guess.

    Thank you to Imogen and Eileen.

  10. Nice to see a full strength Imogen. I was enjoying this, but came back to it this morning to find three still unsolved: TIDIED, ALIMENTARY (couldn’t find that definition – I was looking for some “welcoming people”) and AUSPICES (a definition I could find, but didn’t know). I liked BOBOLINK (both clue and songbird) and STOMACH; did not like DETRAIN, though it’s a legitimate word.

  11. I agree with you Eileen that this was a really nicely balanced puzzle. Great set of clues, from which I couldn’t select favourites either! Good surfaces, misdirections, and challenges. I just fell two short — 1d SNOW and 3d AUSPICES, neither of which I could even parse when revealed. Though solved correctly, I also couldn’t parse 4d HATCH, and 27a “died over” for OBO in BOBOLINK. Thank you for clearing those up for me, and for a wonderful annotated blog!

    19a POT I initially had CUP, and wonder if anyone else did

  13. I got 1d SNOW from the wordplay, but like Mig@11 I had difficulty persuading myself it was correct. Here in Ottawa we are at a low altitude and we get plenty of snow. Mexico has lots of snow-free zones at high. So I associate snow with latitude rather than altitude. Does my attitude need changing?

    The one I didn’t get was 3d AUSPICES, for which I have no excuse. It was an excellent clue with a meaningful and deceptive surface.

    Thanks Imogen for the excellent puzzle, and Eileen for the typically informative and congenial blog, full of wit and wisdom – am I being hendiadic?

  14. Sorry to say I was defeated by BOBOLINK, finally giving up and resorting to a word finder. As often in such cases, having done so I felt I should have got it had I persevered, but I’d tried for a while and I really wondered what the answer was. I got AUSPICES but completely missed the ‘still’ = ‘pic’ part, and it took me some long time to see how SNOW worked. And, yes, Mig@11, I had CUP, and that ‘P’ resulted in my entering CAPPUCCINO where DICTIONARY should have gone – it fitted so nicely! – and that got in my way too. So, a mixed and incomplete solve for me, but some very nice clues too – I particularly liked ALIMENTARY, the simplicity of STAKE OUT, and the old English of HATCH. Thanks both.

  15. I also entered cup at first, rather than POT.

    And PM@7: thanks for passing on the jorum clue. I confess I can readily parse it knowing the answer, but I doubt I could have solved it without a couple of crossers.

  16. [Yes, pdm @7, and it got the aging brain into an amusing dither, as in Oh yes that’s right it actually is a thing … er, well, der, of course it’s a thing, that’s the whole point, that it turns out to be an actual thing. Talk about daft …]

  17. Failed to finish, missing 27a BOBOLINK, 23d OF OLD and 25d AKIN, even though I spent ages trying to see them. Never mind, I agree there were some fun clues here, with quite a few ticks along the way. Thanks to Imogen, and of course to Eileen for a great explanatory blog which tidied up those loose ends.

  18. gif@16. 🙂 Eileen’s got a claim to fame with jorum . Hope she had a chuckle too. BOBOLINK came close for me.

  19. P.S. Hadn’t heard of Ogen (melon) in 28a OXYGEN nor Aviva (insurance company) for 24d VIVA.
    Just to reiterate, I did like a lot of it though including 26a ICARUS.
    And yes, Jorums always make me smile when they come up, PM and GIF!

  20. Didn’t finish as didn’t get 1d SNOW and thought 21d could be ST LUKE or St Jude but couldn’t see why

    Liked: SCRAWL, HOMILY, ICARUS, OOPS, ANIMAL FARM, OXYGEN

    Thanks Imogen and Eileen

  21. I only do the Saturday crossword as I don’t get round to it during the week. I have enjoyed all the recent prizes but this one was the best challenge for some time.

    It felt like a sophisticated and carefully clued construction that, if given patience and thought, would reward you for your efforts.

    NHO the bird and had to look it up but otherwise I felt pleased to have been (almost) equal to this challenge.
    Thank you, Eileen, for the blog.

  22. I really enjoyed this, and learnt a couple of things along the way (in addition to hendiadys – thanks Eileen!): MIGHT AND MAIN, OGEM and BOBOLINK. I resorted to a word finder for the latter, since I’d never heard of OB for died; also for AUSPICES which I was annoyed not to have teased out myself, especially since it was a great clue. I never did parse HATCH – but upon reading the blog I thought the same thing as Shanne@9. Another good clue.

    OF OLD held out for an absurdly long time because I was fixated upon (years) ON END. And I was simultaneously held up in the same quadrant by entering the perfectly valid Oral for VIVA (via the Coral insurance company) but of course the checkers eventually put me right, and it all worked out in the end.

    Too many faves to list, so just a nod to AntonKnee@1 and a thank you to setter and blogger.

  24. Mostly good fun but 23dn is poor: Of Old just means in in the past – you need From of old to be For a long time. And a congregation may be a flock, but if it is the church is the fold.

  26. A Goldilocks zone puzzle for me. Eileen has said it all – too many great clues to list and other posters have already highlighted most of them.

    I suppose MIGHT AND MAIN is a hendiadys, although both nouns mean ‘strength’, so it is an unusual one. The commonest in modern English are expressions of the form ‘nice and …..’. ‘Nice and warm’ means ‘nicely warm’ – the niceness and the warmth are not separate qualities.

    Thanks to Imogen and Eileen

  27. BOBOLINK rang a faint bell and a site search shows AZED used a very similar clue in September last year: “Songbird died, old, in a flash.”

    I really enjoyed this puzzle, so thanks to Imogen and also to Eileen for, as always, enhancing the pleasure.

  28. An enjoyable puzzle. I really liked DETRAIN with its story-telling surface. And I’m not sure why people don’t like the word — it’s not particularly recent, the SOED giving it as 1881.

    It was nice to see “gangster” not being AL in CAPPUCCINO 🙂 .

    Many thanks Imogen and Eileen.

  29. I thought this was not as difficult as Imogen can be sometimes.

    I liked the ‘ALIT’ in ALIMENTARY, AUSPICES, where I originally thought first-class was A1, which led me a merry dance, the CAPO gangster in CAPPUCCINO, ‘look up here’ in DICTIONARY [Don’t Look Up is a great film, if you haven’t seen it], and the ‘understood’ in OF OLD.

    Thanks Imogen and Eileen.

  30. I never detrain. I always get off! Also, I might say “alighted” but never “alit”, and I would say “lit a candle” but never “lighted a candle”. How weird!
    Thanks Imogen and Eileen.

  31. Bobolink brought fond reminders of last June watching them in the hayfield behind our house. There is a charity that pays farmers not to hay too early for them.
    Thanks Imogen and Eileen

  32. Well, I completed it, no errors. I enjoyed it until about half-way, but it was a bit of a slog to finish. LOI was SNOW with a big question mark that should have been in the clue (as noted @13 and @23). Relieved that the obscure BOBOLINK showed up from crossers in a wordfinder, so I didn’t waste too much time on it. I needed Eileen’s explanations for AUSPICES (an awkward construction, I thought), OXYGEN (clever) and CAPPUCCINO (nice/ clever). I had early ticks for SCRAWL, POT and two ticks for LAY IN STORE.

  33. I attempted this one having learned from the Quick Cryptics and Shanne’s blog. It took me till Thursday before I gave up. But ….. I had all but two clues answered! A major personal best 🙂 Oddly, my blanks were SCRAWL & CLOUDY. I think it was fatigued by then, but it was great to read today that I was on the right lines. ANIMAL FARM was my favourite. Thanks for the explanations.

  34. paddymelon@16, grantinfreo@25
    I know that Eileen is tired of pointing out that she wasn’t the original user of JORUM in this sense so I thought I would save her the trouble. Marienkaefer, once a frequent commenter here,, used it first.
    Lots to like in the puzzle and blog so thanks to Imogen and Eileen.

  35. Tim @33

    That’s quite a leap from the Quick Cryptic – congratulations!

    Pino @34

    Huge thanks – you were quite right!
    To make it absolutely clear (for the last time, I promise 😉 )

    From FAQ under Info at the top of this page:
    “What is meant by Jorum?
    A Jorum, in this context, is a word that a solver works out from the clue and despite never having heard of it before, it turns out to be a real word.
    This term came about on this site when a blogger described the above situation regarding the word “JORUM”. A commenter replied to the effect that he or she had often wondered if there was term for such a situation and announced that he or she would think of them as JORUMs from now on.”

    I was the blogger (it was in an Araucaria alphabetical jigsaw puzzle) and responded that I would always use that term in future and was delighted when others followed suit!

  36. Eileen @35. Yes! I’m going to dine out on it for weeks. I bent my mind for 6 days, but I always used to watch my father do the Telegraph cryptic and have thought for decades that if he could then I should be able to as well. It’s likely to be all downhill for me now of course! But I’ll see what I can do with today’s Qaos.
    Still on a high.

  37. I originally thought that 11 was FABLED, not FAERIE. It works just as well!
    I had to smile at ALIMENTARY – it made me think of the Sherlock Holmes skit from the 1970s: Watson (Frank Windsor) is struggling with a crossword, “Holmes, what’s the word for a something canal, part of the digestive system?”
    Holmes (John Cleese): “Alimentary my dear Watson”

  38. Tamarix @37
    Good point about FABLED, though ERIE is probably better known than Lake Bled (although I’ve been to the latter but not the former!)

  39. I had everything except AUSPICES, which I should have been able to piece together, but completely forgot about ‘still’=PIC. Doh! But I successfully discovered the hitherto unheard of BOBOLINK (a close relative of the jorum, I believe) by putting together scraps of wordplay; so much more satisfying than using a wordfinder. (Actually, I don’t know how to do a wordfinder search and don’t wish to be told, thank you.)

    Favourites for me were SNOW and HATCH, but so much of this was enjoyable as well as challenging. I seem to have misplaced my curmudgeonliness. No doubt it will turn up when I least expect it.

    Thanks to Imogen and Eileen.

  41. Sheffield Hatter @39. I agree that it is always more satisfying to solve obscure words directly, but some clue-setters make this impossible. Decades ago, I used to find obscure words the long way by going through my SOED with possible combinations of letters. This didn’t always work, and I have got better things to do with my time, so nowadays if I cannot work out the word from the clue and the crossers, then eventually as a last resort I go through the dictionary using a computer tool, the wordfinder. Chapeau for your purity.

  42. Tamarix @ 37. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to put FABLED first. I only realised it was “wrong” when I got 20a, which had to be ADVENTURER.

  43. Well written and most enjoyable. I had ORAL for the exam too until crossers went in. Hadn’t heard of Aviva.
    I did this Sunday morning and liked BOBOLINK so much I was inspired to go and look for one on my afternoon walk. Didn’t see a bobolink unfortunately, but I did see a bald eagle – in suburban PA nonetheless!! Apparently some chicks were fledged here last summer. Made my day.
    Thanks, Imogen and Eileen.

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