This week’s Guardian prize puzzle is set by Boatman, so we can be assured of some quirky clues.
There is a clear theme running through the grid and also a few of the clues. The grid below highlights eleven types of saws or cutting tools:
RIPsaw, BENCH saw, BAND-saw, COPING saw, CIRCULAR saw, WHIPsaw, CHAINsaw, CUTTER, HACKsaw, FRETsaw and HANDsaw. In the clues, tjhe word SAW occurs three times and there is a CUT and a CUTTING.
I liked the wordplay for CIRCULAR using just the outer letters [dis-contented] of four words in the clue.
The clue for NORMA struck me as one where the answer could be either MANOR or NORMA depending on how you read the clue. For this puzzle, the crossing letters forced the answer to NORMA.
I wondered whether TRICE in the wordplay for COCKATRICE was too short for a ‘minute’ as the dictionaries say ‘moment’, but it was very clear what was required to complete the COCKA.…. part of the entry.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 9 | One cool about cut-down tree to show regret (9)
APOLOGISE (show regret) A (one) + (POISE [cool – Bradfords gives POISE as a synonym for cool and Chambers Thesaurus has POISE as a colloquial term for cool] containing [about] LOG [piece of wood derived from a cut-down or fallen tree]) A PO (LOG) ISE |
| 10 | Forger correcting mismatch without using Mac? (5)
SMITH (person who forges metal; forger) Anagram of (correcting) mISMaTcH excluding (without using) MAC SMITH* |
| 11 | At last melted ice to make liquid (5)
DRINK (a liquid) D (final letter of [at last] melteD + RINK (ice as in skating or curling RINK) D RINK |
| 12 | Clue to depth: symbolically, the mark of a fool (6,3)
DUNCE’S CAP (a tall conical hat, formerly worn at school to indicate stupidity; the mark of a fool) DUNCE’S CAP (could be a clue to the letter D, an abbreviation for depth, where D is the first letter (cap) of Dunce’s) DUNCE’S CAP |
| 13 | Saw rowing crews swapping sides before end of pond (7)
SIGHTED (spied; saw) EIGHTS (rowing crews) with the outer letters E and S swapped to form SIGHTE + D (last letter of [end of] ponD SIGHTE D |
| 14 | Heavenly confection of glacé nuts and ices, principally (7)
ANGELIC (heavenly) Anagram of (confection of) GLACE and NI (first letters of [principally] each of Nuts and Ices) ANGELIC* |
| 17 | It tastes distinctively yummy, even with a half of mild (5)
UMAMI (a savoury, satisfying taste; it tastes distinctively) UM (letters 2 and 4 [even] of yUmMy) + A + MI (first two of 4 letters [half] of MIld) UM A MI |
| 19 | Tear often expressed in epitaph (3)
RIP (slash or tear) RIP (Rest in Peace, a sentiment often expressed in an epitaph) double definition RIP |
| 20 | Girl cycling round country house (5)
NORMA (name of a girl) MANOR (country house) with the letters cycled two places to the left and first going to last each time, to form NORMA NORMA |
| 21 | Primarily, anyone trying hurdles, lifting, endurance training etc (7)
ATHLETE (a person most likely to [primarily] try hurdles, lifting endurance …) ATHLETE (first letters [primarily] of each of Anyone, Trying, Hurdles, Lifting, Endurance, Training, Etc) A T H L E T E |
| 22 | Drop price of bundle, cutting $0.0075 (7)
CHEAPEN (drop price of) HEAP (bundle) contained in (cutting) CEN (three of the four letters of [75%] of CENt [one hundredth of a dollar, $0.01] – interpreted as $0.0075) C (HEAP) EN |
| 24 | Tough interviewer of disgraced president could show what’s generally evident in Greenland (4,5)
HARD FROST (a severe freezing event, frequently seen [generally evident] in Greenland) HARD (tough) + FROST (reference David FROST [1939 – 2013], English television host and journalist who interviewed disgraced US President Richard Nixon [1913 – 1994] in March and April 1977. The most-remembered part of the interview about the Watergate scandal was broadcast on 5th May 1977) HARD FROST |
| 26 | Maybe settle in Switzerland, behind a mountain (5)
BENCH (a settle is a long high-backed BENCH) BEN (mountain peak) + CH (International Vehicle Registration for Switzerland) BEN CH |
| 28 | Class division: a problem to be investigated, taking time (5)
CASTE (social class; class division) CASE (a problem to be investigated) containing (taking) T (time) CAS (T) E |
| 29 | Laa-Laa etc skipping every repeat (9)
ITERATION (a repeat) allITERATION (Laa-Laa is an example of allIiteration [occurrence of the same initial sound]) excluding (skipping) ALL (every) ITERATION |
| Down | |
| 1 | Leader of Beatles and Wings? (4)
BAND (Wings, British rock band active between 1971 and 1981) B (first letter of [leader of] Beatles) + AND B AND |
| 2 | Managing to set peg in gearwheel (6)
COPING (managing) PIN (peg) contained in (set in) COG (gearwheel) CO (PIN) G |
| 3 | It stops water: a minute monster (10)
COCKATRICE (a fabulous monster, a serpent with the wings of a bird and the head of a cock) COCK (tap, a device that can be turned to stop water) + A + TRICE (a moment, a minute) COCK A TRICE |
| 4 | Halfway to catching bad end, paid attention (6)
MINDED (paid attention) MID (middle; halfway to) containing (catching) an anagram of (bad) END MI (NDE*) D |
| 5 | Red light flickering on panel across motorway (4,4)
NEON LAMP (an electric discharge LAMP containing NEON, giving a red glow) Anagram of (flickering) ON PANEL containing (across) M (motorway) – the clue could also be read as an &Lit as NEON LAMPs have been used as motorway information signs) NEON LA (M) P |
| 6 | Boatman will, you say, be here, surrounded by the sea (4)
ISLE (area of land surrounded by the sea) ISLE (sounds like [you say] I [Boatman, the setter] WILL) ISLE |
| 7 | Confetti: romantic, unusual after discontented multitudes contacted this way (8)
CIRCULAR (form of communication that can be delivered to many people [multitudes]) CI (letters remaining in ConfettI after the central letters onfett have been removed [dis-contented) + RC (similar treatment for RomantiC) + UL (similar treatment for UnusuaL) + AR (similar treatment for AfteR) CI RC UL AR |
| 8 | Thong placing little weight on top of thigh (4)
WHIP (a thong can be defined as the lash of a WHIP) W (abbreviation for [little] weight) + HIP (thigh) – as this is a down entry, the letter W is placed ‘on top’ of the letters HIP W HIP |
| 13 | Animals moving to sierra from top of forest where it’s hot (5)
SAUNA (Finnish form of steam bath; where it’s hot) fAUNA (animals) with S (Sierra is the international radio communication code for the letter S) replacing (moving to .. from) F (first letter of [top of] Forest) to form SAUNA SAUNA |
| 15 | Seeing prejudice toward men’s side, anger erupts around Britain (6,4)
GENDER BIAS (prejudice based on the state of being male or female) Anagram of (erupts) SIDE and ANGER containing (around) B (Britain) GENDER (B) IAS* |
| 16 | Part of dance, popular for group (5)
CHAIN (group, as in a supermarket CHAIN) CHA (first or second half of [part of] CHA-CHA [dance]) + IN (popular) CHA IN |
| 18 | Saw crash or mishap (8)
APHORISM (adage; saw) Anagram of (crash) OR MISHAP APHORISM* |
| 19 | Part of trivium occultum in myrrh et orichalco? (8)
RHETORIC (speech or discourse that pretends to significance but lacks true meaning. The Latin in the clue translates as ‘the hidden path of myrrh and gold’,which sounds good but is fairly meaningless) RHETORIC (hidden word in [part of] …..myrRH ET ORICalcho) RHETORIC |
| 22 | Perhaps saw Boatman’s craft (6)
CUTTER (a saw is a type of CUTTER) CUTTER (seafaring craft; boatman’s craft) double definition CUTTER |
| 23 | Controversially doping chimp? (6)
PONGID (a monkey; chimp) Anagram of (controversially) DOPING PONGID* |
| 24 | Journalist’s unauthorised access (4)
HACK (a mediocre journalist) HACK (an unauthorised access to a computer system) double definition HACK |
| 25 | Worry reflecting one taking part in the culture wars (4)
FRET (worry) TERF (a derogatory term for a person whose views on gender identity are considered hostile to transgender people, or who opposes social and political policies designed to be inclusive of transgender people; one taking part in culture wars. The acronym TERF represents Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist) reversed (rejecting) FRET< |
| 27 | Help remove packaging from fizzy beverage (4)
HAND (assistance; help) sHANDy (fizzy beverage of beer and lemonade) excluding the outer letters S and Y (remove packaging from) HAND |
Thanks duncanshiell. I enjoyed this, it was one of those where you come to a grinding halt, walk away and come back a bit later to find a number just write themselves in. I could see there was a theme of cutting but failed to identify many of the associations with ‘saw’. Not too sure about ‘Red’ in 5d, a neon light can be any colour surely.
The clue for 19d is a bit deeper than that. The trivium is the lower division of the seven liberal arts and comprises grammar, logic, and rhetoric.
Hi Duncanshiell, you have underlined the wrong part of 7D; the definition is “multitudes contacted this way”.
And, as noted by mac089@3, in 19D I think the definition is just “part of trivium”, with “occultum” (Latin for secret, hidden) as the indicator of the hidden word.
Thanks for the blog.
[Jerry@2 in the UK pi day is not until July (22/7).]
Lots to like here; I missed the theme even though I noted (and liked) the three different meanings of “saw” in the clues. Had to google DUNCE’S CAP; while it may be a clue to D, it can hardly be a clue to the word “depth” I think. Agree with Mac@3 and Graham@4 on RHETORIC.
My favourites were ITERATION, BAND, HARD FROST, SIGHTED, CUTTER and CHEAPEN. Thanks Boatman and Duncan!
Fun puzzle, particularly liked BAND.
To BigglesA@1: my understanding is that a neon sign is red if it has neon gas in it, but other colours if it has other gases or phosphors (but it still may be called a neon sign/lamp).
Coupla newies in this — pretty sure I’ve never seen pongid (weird sort of word). And terf meaning anti-woke is new too. All part of the fun, thx Boaty and duncan.
My grinding halt came with just one unsolved, and that was PONGID. For some reason I failed in basic letter counting and anagrind spotting. Two days later I tried again and finally got it. In my defence, it was, as grantinfreo@8 says, a ‘weird’ word. Other than that, another unspotted theme, but some very nice clues – in particular, CHEAPEN, once I did the maths, and BAND, and RHETORIC, just for being so much easier than it looked! (Although having re-read blog and comments, I realise I simply saw ‘Part of’, looked for a hidden word, and missed the role played by ‘occultum’ – OK, also more subtle than it looked…) Thanks Boatman and Duncan
Catching the theme midway through the solve helped with some of the solutions. If it’s a saw, it’s right. Could 13d SAUNA be added as a soundalike? I was wondering about “BENCH saw” — the references seem vague. Is it an Australian thing?
As described by duncanshiell, 20a NORMA held me up for a while as I confidently entered MANOR. Last three in the NW took a while, but finally ceded. LOI 4d MINDED finally fell when I figured out that “bad end” didn’t stand for D but NDE.
Very enjoyable puzzle. Favourites 11a DRINK (“ice” = RINK), 22a CHEAPEN ($0.0075 = CEN — diabolical!), 26a BENCH (surface), 1d BAND (good one, Boatman!), and others. NHO 23d PONGID, “Terf” in 25d FRET
Mostly tricky but solvable. Last one in was CIRCULAR, which I failed to parse, but was obvious after explanation. Not so DUNCE’S CAP which doesn’t really seem to be a ‘clue to depth”. Is there a better explanation? Remembered pongid (pongidae – the great apes) from Pongo, the genus of Orang Utans. Thanks for the puzzle and blog.
My faves: DUNCES CAP, CHEAPEN, ITERATION, NEON LAMP, CIRCULAR and HAND.
WHIP
Took ‘top of thigh’ as HIP. W on HIP.
GENDER BIAS
Is ‘seeing’ a link? Doesn’t seem to contribute to the def.
Thanks Boatman and Duncan.
Layman @6 and SZJoe @11, I took DUNCES CAP to not be a clue to “depth” but to “depth: symbolically”, i.e. D. That would mean the definition would be just “the mark of a fool”.
DUNCES CAP
I think it works better if we read the clue as follows:
Clue to depth, symbolically (as in O is the symbol for Oxygen).
The mark of a fool.
TimC@13 has beaten me to it.
SZJoe #11. I’ll give DUNCE’S CAP a bash. It’s a kind of a reverse clue, which is often indicated by the words ”clue for” , plus the definition. D is the symbol for Depth, ( symbolically ). Originally I wasn’t sure if symbolically was doing double duty, as a dunce’s cap is also the mark of a fool. But I don’t think so.
(Edit: With Tim C and KVA on that, I think.)
Duncanshiell’s explanations are very elucidating, but unfortunately the layout and underlining is interrupted by the punctuation, and it’s not clear here what bit goes with what.
Tim C @13, KVa @14: ah, that – thanks, totally makes sense
Thanks for the blog , very good seat of neat clues and I like to see the classic double Boatman for ISLE and CUTTER .
Agree with SZJoe@11 for Pongo , Pan is the genus for Chimps . PONGID is very out of date but so are the dictionaries so the setter has full cover .
Dr.WhatsOn@7 is right for NEON LAMP , they are red and other Noble gases give other colours but everyone seems to call them all neon signs , especially in songs – My eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light .
Thanks for the blog , very good seat of neat clues and I like to see the classic double Boatman for ISLE and CUTTER .
Agree with SZJoe@11 for Pongo , Pan is the genus for Chimps . PONGID is very out of date but so are the dictionaries so the setter has full cover .
Dr.WhatsOn@7 is right for NEON LAMP , they are red and other Noble gases give other colours but everyone seems to call them all neon signs , especially in songs – When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light .
KVa #12. “Seeing” could be a seen as a link word, like ”in” sometimes occurs at the beginning, but it more commonly appears in the second part of a clue. I don’t have a problem with that but I also had a problem with the definition. As Duncanshiell says, it can be a bias in either direction. Why against men?
Happy Pi day Jerry@2 . Graham@5 , July 22nd is too late , it is actually late in the day on the 21st .
Thanks for the blog , very good seat of neat clues and I like to see the classic double Boatman for ISLE and CUTTER .
Agree with SZJoe@11 for Pongo , Pan is the genus for Chimps . PONGID is very out of date but so are the dictionaries so the setter has full cover .
Dr.WhatsOn@7 is right for NEON LAMP , they are red and other Noble gases give other colours but everyone seems to call them all neon signs , especially in songs – When my eyes were ……… by the flash of a neon light .
Thanks for the explanations. I am happier with the Dunce’s Cap being a clue for Depth, symbolically.
I think there’s something I’m missing about GENDER BIAS. I’ve written it out several times, crossed out all the letters. I don’t understand Duncanshiell’s colour coding of the anagrist which nevertheless has to be right. Initially I was going for wordplay with MEN’S SIDE which was either going to be N or S, but not to be.
Is this a Boatman/Arachne type clue? It’s not indicated that GENDER BIAS is against men. I’m puzzled.
PDM@23 the anagram in the blog is right . (sideanger) around B .
I took it as – prejudice toward men – meaning being in their favour .
Thanks, I get DUNCES CAP now…
I was mystified by 12a DUNCES CAP even after I’d put it in. After some research I found reference to Scottish philosopher John Duns Scotus which said originally his followers wore conical hats and they were a sign of learning. But when their beliefs fell out of fashion the dunces cap became an indicator or stupidity. So I read the clue as a symbol that moved from a show of depth (as in learning) to a fool. Perhaps I’m overthinking this one 🤔
Thanks Hastings Honey #26 for your scholarly explanation of DUNCE. Fascinating. A thing I learned today.
Thanks, duncan, for the excellently presented analysis as usual – and for pointing out the theme, which I missed, and the explanations of DUNCES CAP and FRET (‘terf’ is unknown to me or my spellchecker).
20a might be ambiguous, but I certainly expected ‘Girl’ to be the definition, and the A in CHAIN was one of my first ones – the problem is, so many girls’ names end with it.
Mig@10, SAUNA may or may not have been meant as a soundalike, but I think the Finnish word is really pronounced more like ‘sounder’ without the D, rather than a ‘fauna’ rhyme.
As @2 is deleted, I am unsure how Pi Day came into discussion, but GrahamH@4, we could go to the Malvern Festival of Ideas today, for a talk ‘Who ate all the Pi’. According to Wikipedia (so not always right), 22/7 is Pi Approximation Day, while Pi Day is today, 3/14 in the US (when ‘happy birthday’ can be sung to Einstein).
Thanks for the puzzle, Boatman
What a pity that there is no 31st April!
Thanks, Duncan and all. I’m glad you enjoyed this one and that almost all of you spotted the theme – it’s hard to be sure that you’ve included enough hints to give everyone a fair chance.
MAC089@3 and GrahamH@4 – Yes, you’ve got that right: “part of trivium” is the def. I wouldn’t want too many of my clues to be built around cod Latin, but one per decade seems about right.
Mig@10 – Very good! If I’d thought of that, I’d have tried very hard to use it!
Hastings@26 – I’m fond of a bit of overthinking, myself. Duncan’s parsing of the clue is what I had in mind, but I very much like your inference of deeper forces at work here!
Just a small observation regarding 3d COCKATRICE. I think ‘minute’ was used for TRICE rather than say ‘moment’ because it gives a better surface. The context makes it look like minute (pronounced ‘my newt’) meaning very small in size. In fact that’s how I first read it which cleverly disguised the definition.
This was one where I got half way and had to leave a gap of a few days before having another go.
CIRCULAR (great clue) and COCKATRICE (NHO) held me up, but overall satisfying and fun.
I failed to parse DUNCES CAP. Seems obvious when explained…
Brilliant range of clues. For me, challenging but doable. I’m kicking myself for missing the theme though. Now know about pongid, pongo & trivium.
A very enjoyable puzzle, thanks Boatman.
For some reason my first three solves were Aphorism, Athlete and Rhetoric. Yippee! I thought, a classical theme. But that soon fell by the wayside.
Favourites were Sighted, Cheapen, Bench, Band and Circular.
Thanks Boatman and Duncan. I bow my head in respect. How did you jig all this together? And why did it take me so long (LOI) to spot that I needed an anagram of DOPING?
Well done GrahamC@37 re “jig”! That’s one saw that’s missing!
Enjoyable but difficult solve for me. I do like reverse clues and I thought DUNCE’S CAP was great. I also liked the CHEAPENed bundle, the motorway NEON LAMP, the thong/WHIP with little weight, and the GENDER BIAS toward men.
Thanks Boatman and ds.
My FOI was either ISLE or MINDED. My second was DUNCES CAP. Maybe that got me overconfident as I entered 3 wrong answers and it took ages to sort out. One of them was GOAD (a in dog reversed). On reflection, it doesn’t even fit the verb ending. What a mess. I guess I earnt my headgear, although I saw the $0.0075 thing straight away.
Anyway, all good. I enjoyed it. Thanks Boatman and duncanshiell
I spotted SAW early on in 18d and 22d, but forgot, as usual, to look for others when I was completing the rest of the puzzle, so thanks to Duncan for thoroughness. Happy enough with the puzzle. I didn’t fully interpret DUNCES CAP, so thanks to all for the discussion. I liked UMAMI and CIRCULAR amongst others. I didn’t really like POISE for cool, but figured it out anyway. I also figured out PONGID, but used a wordfiller for COCKATRICE, both new words for me. Also TERF, but FRET seemed to be the answer, so I googled TERF. Wonder why so many comments are deleted?
Thanks Boatman for a nicely themed prize with my favourites being HARD FROST, BAND, COPING, GENDER BIAS, and HACK. My only stumble was COCKATRICE, an unfamiliar word to me. Thanks duncanshiell for the blog.
Sorry , I was mainly to blame for comments deleted , the same comment slightly edited three times but none got through , no idea why .
Jerry@2 was there when I read the comments and has now been blocked , I cannot see why .
PONGID is very out of date now but Chambers gives cover for the setter . As SZJoe@11 mentioned , Pongo the genus for orang-utans but chimps is Pan .
Classic double Boatman for ISLE and CUTTER .
Failed to finish as DRINK for ‘liquid’ somehow failed to come to mind, and without the K there was no chance of getting 3d. It took me ages to work out APOLOGISE as I had erroneously put HEEDED at 4d, giving me the wrong crosser.
Lots to like about this puzzle – especially ‘$00.0075’, the ‘discontented multitudes’ and the dog Latin of RHETORIC – but I didn’t get ‘depth – symbolically’, though the answer was clear enough. (Thanks Hastings@26 for Duns Scotus!) And apparently there was a theme, too. 🙂
Thanks Boatman and Duncan.
Never heard of COCKATRICE or the acronym TERF, but apart from that, relatively smooth sailing for Boatman.
I liked the theme using three different saws: cutters, adage and participle. Faves were SAUNA, CIRCULAR and UMAMI.
The blog doesn’t specifically say it, but I saw AISLE as a homophone of I Will in the contracted form: I’ll.
A fine puzzle. Thanks, Boatman and duncanshiell.
Roz, 20
Wouldn’t that make it pi moment, rather than pi day?
Etu @46 – Pi Day is the day that contains the exact value of pi . The Dedekind Cut is on July 21st . 22/7 = 3.14285714…… so is far too late .
Much too late for anyone to care, but “sierra” in 33d is the Spanish word for “saw”, or by extension, “mountain range.”