Guardian Saturday Prize Crossword 29,960 by Fed (21 March 2026)

A quick trawl through my posts confirms this is the first time I have blogged a Fed puzzle…a.k.a. Bluth in the Indy and the comedian Dave Gorman in real life (not that crossword-setting isn’t real life!…)

And a rare Fed solve as well – given that I only usually solve the Saturday Prize Puzzles, and it seems this only his 2nd or 3rd outing in the slot.

Anyway, back to the puzzle in hand, or on the iPad in the hand…I seemed to get on Fed’s wavelength reasonably quickly, with the first four Across solutions going in one after the other, before I started my usual flitting around.

The two sets of entries down the left- and right-hand columns had me wondering about a theme-ette/Nina, but all I was left with was a Cyndi Lauper ‘Time after time‘ earworm, which lasted several days…and has just been triggered again while writing up the blog!

There were some nice surface reads – several potential newspaper headlines:

Eco-friendly facts about drilling (12A)
Bird’s thigh bone discovered (18A)
Group left in trouble in retirement (3D)

…and 9A struck a melancholy chord, as my golfing scorecards never seem to feature ‘regular birdies’ or, even less likely, ‘occasional eagles’ (;+<)

I enjoyed the Spoonerism for YOLK SAC/SOAK YAK, and also the ‘powerless’ monkey leading to a circus lion TAMER.

All in all, a fairly gentle Prize puzzle I thought, but no less enjoyable for that – and my thanks to Fed for a pleasant diversion. And if I have missed anything more subtle in terms of theme/Nina, I am sure it will be expounded upon below.

(Actually, a further check of the archives reminds me that I did blog a couple of Bluths in 2022, when I was on the Indy Saturday roster – and revisiting those suggests that Bluths may generally be a bit harder than Feds, but maybe I am looking at too small a sample to be representative…)

[I will be out on my usual Saturday morning less than 9A IDEAL hack around the golf course tomorrow – will keep a watching brief on any comments, but may not be able to respond to anything until later in the day…feel free to talk amongst yourselves in the meantime!…]

Across
Clue No	Solution	*Clue (definition underlined)* Logic/parsing
9A	IDEAL	Regularly birdie and occasionally eagle – perfect (5) IDE (regular letters from bIrDiE) + Al (occasional letters from eAgLe) [if only my golf scorecard was like that!]
10A	INDOLENCE	Laziness in Céline Dion cast – one is dropped (9) subtractive anagram, i.e. cast, of CELINE D(I)ON, dropping one I (one)
11A	ESPERANTO	Language from mum, say, when A&E switch over tablets at the outset (9) ES (Es, ecstasy tablets) + PERANT (parent, or mum, say, switching A and E) + O (over)
12A	GREEN	Eco-friendly facts about drilling (5) G_EN (information, facts) around (drilled into by) RE (about, regarding)
13A	ARCHAIC	Antique sabre – every now and then American cuts with it (7) AR (alternate letters, so every now and then, from sAbRe) + CH_IC (with it, stylish) around (cut by) A (American)
15A	YOLK SAC	Spooner’s drunk talk – it could confirm pregnancy (4,3) the Rev. Spooner might have said SOAK (drunk) + YAK (talk) instead of YOLK SAC
17A	TASTE	Liking a street in middle of Cheltenham (5) T_E (the middle two letters of chelTEnham) around A + ST (street)
18A	EMU	Bird’s thigh bone discovered (3) (F)EMU(R) – thigh bone, with outer letters, or cover, removed, so dis-covered!
20A	ADD TO	Trouble with Daily Telegraph’s leaders stopping supplement (3,2) AD_O (trouble) around (stopped by) D_T (leading letters of Daily Telegraph)
22A	RESCIND	Cancel theatre’s Cinderella following cuts (7) hidden word in, or outer letters cut from, ‘theatRES CINDerella’
25A	SCENTED	Tense during drama initially directed like some soaps? (7) SCEN_E (drama) around T (tense), plus D (initial letter of Directed)
26A	TAMER	Powerless monkey – one seen in a circus? (5) TAM(P)ER, monkey with, less P – powerless!
27A	ADULATION	Modern day translation of Latin essentially Your Worship (9) AD (Anno Domini, modern day) + ULATION (anag, i.e. translation, of LATIN + (Y)OU(R) (the centre, or essence, of yOUr)
30A	MILK TOOTH	Kind to insect assuming one might be found under a pillow? (4,5) M_OTH (insect) around (assuming, taking in) ILK (kind) + TO
31A	MOURN	Keen – having second go after wasting first (5) MO (moment, second) + (T)URN (go, wasting first letter)
Down
Clue No	Solution	*Clue (definition underlined)* Logic/parsing
1D	TIME (AFTER TIME)	/13/26 Repeatedly stretch point? (4,5,4) a point (in TIME) AFTER a stretch (prison sentence, TIME) ?!
2D	RESPECTS	When empty, rule 1 is to fill glasses for salutations (8) RE (RulE, when empty of its inner letters) + SPEC_S (glasses) filled by T (time, answer to 1D)
3D	BLUR	Group left in trouble in retirement (4) RU_B (difficulty, trouble) around L (left), all retired to give BLUR
4D	PINNACLE	News account breaking down summit (8) PI_LE (fine hair, down) around (broken by) NN (new, plural) + AC (account)
5D	IDIOCY	Folly of international firm returning self-assembly boxes (6) I (international) + DI_Y (self-assembly) around (boxing) OC (co, company, firm, returning)
6D	FLAGELLATE	Thrash a legal case for trial out – it’s iron-clad (10) F_E (Fe, iron) around (cladding) LAGELLAT (anag, i.e. out, of A LEGAL + TL – case, or outer letters, of TriaL)
7D	UNLESS	If not, French articles succeeded (6) UN + LES (a and the, French, indefinite and definite articles) + S (succeeded – in genealogy?)
8D	BE ON (CLOUD NINE)	/16/29 Model bounced online to experience ecstasy (2,2,5,4) anag, i.e. model, of BOUNCED ONLINE
13D	AFTER	See 1 (5) see 1D
14D	AMELIORATE	Better speak with a married priest first (10) A + M (married, genealogy, again) + ELI (priest) + ORATE (speak)
16D	CLOUD	See 8 (5) see 8D
19D	UNSOUGHT	Shout with gun going off – it’s not called for (8) anag, i.e. going off, of SHOUT with GUN
21D	DETRITUS	Remains when Oscar leaves largest city in Michigan, America (8) DETR(O)IT (largest city in Michigan, losing O – Oscar) + US (America)
23D	SAMPLE	Enough to support son, 17 (6) S (son, genealogy again) supported by, in a Down clue, AMPLE (enough) [17A being TASTE]
24D	DRAGON	Perhaps Deborah Meaden’s doctor detailed extreme suffering (6) DR (doctor) + AGON(Y) (extreme suffering, de-tailed!) [referring to Deborah Meaden in her role on TV’s ‘Dragons’ Den’ – I’m sure she is perfectly nice in real life…]
26D	TIME	See 1 (4) see 1D
28D	ALMS	Distributing small – not large – handouts (4) subtractive anagram, i.e. distributing, of SMAL(L), without one L – large
29D	NINE	See 8 (4) see 8D

15 comments on “Guardian Saturday Prize Crossword 29,960 by Fed (21 March 2026)”

Fiona

#1 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 00:02

Got MILK TOOTH straight away from looking at the clue – but couldn’t parse it.

Favourites: ARCHAIC, SCENTED, PINNACLE, FLAGELLATE, UNLESS, DETRITUS

Thanks Fed and mc_rapper67

SZ Joe

#2 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 01:06

Nice and straightforward for a prize puzzle. Only TIME AFTER TIME is puzzling me how it quite parses. Repeatedly could be the definition, but a repeated stretch could be wordplay for TIME AFTER TIME. I can’ t see the point of the ‘point’. Any enlightenment?
Thanks for the challenge and the explanation.

Biggles A

#3 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 01:10

Thanks mc_rapper67. Pleasant and enjoyable, yes, but I had to work at it and I wouldn’t call it fairly gentle. Never heard of the Blur group so that held me up and still not sure about ‘point’ in 1d unless it has something to do with pub closing hour!

Jaydee

#4 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 02:03

I really enjoyed this. Favourites were 13ac 30ac and 4dn. They made me smile. Thank you Fed and thank you MC

Tony Santucci

#5 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 02:19

Thanks Fed for a most satisfying prize with many favourites including GREEN, EMU, RESCIND, TAMER, MOURN, PINNACLE, IDIOCY, SAMPLE, and ALMS. In parsing TIME AFTER TIME, I simply saw ‘stretch’ and ‘point’ as two examples of time with the question mark indicating DBE. Thanks mc_rapper 67 for the blog.

Mig

#6 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 02:35

Fed one of my favourite setters. I love his attention to meaningful, clever, funny surfaces (Thanks mc_rapper67, happy to have the surfaces highlighted in the blog!). Some favourites among many, 9a IDEAL (clever use of “birdie” and “eagle” golf terms — hope it inspires our esteemed blogger), 10a INDOLENCE (Canadian singer Céline Dion very useful for anagrams!), 12a GREEN (surface), 22a RESCIND (no, don’t cancel Cinderella!), 8/16/29 BE ON CLOUD NINE (great surface and anagram), 14d AMELIORATE (had to remember “priest” = ELI — haven’t seen that for a long time), 28d ALMS (“small – not large”)

I didn’t parse 1/13/26 TIME AFTER TIME — looks good in the blog — “stretch point” = TIME (point) AFTER TIME (stretch). For “point” Chambers includes “a moment of time” (As Tony Santucci @5)

Thank you both

KeithS

#7 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 03:18

Thanks, mc. You came to mind as soon as I saw the clue for IDEAL, so I’m glad you got to blog this. Very enjoyable, with no real stumbling blocks, although I’d not heard of Deborah Meaden and needed Google to help out there, and I failed to see where the ‘T’ came from in RESPECTS. But I liked MILK TOOTH (I had an unparsed ‘Baby Tooth’ holding me up for a while) and PINNACLE and TIME AFTER TIME and a number of others. Thanks, Fed.

KVa

#8 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 03:34

Liked YOLK SAC (thought of ‘drunk’ as a verb first and couldn’t justify SOAK. Realised later that ‘drunk’ can be a ‘drunkard’ and so can SOAK be), MILK TOOTH, PINNACLE and DRAGON.

T A TIME
I agree with the blogger’s parsing.

Thanks Fed and mc.

paddymelon

#9 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 05:52

Isn’t Repeatedly stretch point TIME AFTER TIME a stretch (prison sentence repeated) and point (in time) repeated. In other words, repeatedly applies to them both.

Roz

#10 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 06:13

Thanks for the blog , very neat and concise clues , none at all on four lines or even three , I also appreciate the split entries being in clue order and continuous in the grid . Clever wordplay throughout , ESPERANTO a neat switch of letters , IDIOCY flows so naturally , many more ….
I agree with Tony@5 amd Mig@6 for T after T , we simply have – Definition time time – and not a wasted word .

Etu

#11 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 07:22

I’m finding Fed a reliably enjoyable and satisfying setter these days.

I agree with all the positive comments.

There are so many to commend, but EMU had something simple-but-special for me.

Cheers one and all.

Woody

#12 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 07:23

Some original and precise clues here, presented with wry humour.

Very enjoyable.

NoryN

#13 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 08:25

Thanks, Fed and mc_rapper67. Favourites were ESPERANTO and TAMER. My least favourite was MOURN, as keen is not quite the same thing. (Am I being too pedantic?) A fun crossword, however.

1961Blanchflower

#14 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 08:39

I enjoyed solving this last week: everything went in smoothly but with frequent smiles of appreciation. I do enjoy a well hidden answer in a plausible surface, so RESCIND was probably my favourite, with plaudits also for finding IDEAL in every other letter of the two golf shots. I was initially puzzled by TIME AFTER TIME, as I could see TIME times two, but not AFTER, until I realised it was there by implication – forehead duly smacked.

Nice work Fed, and thanks mc.

sheffield hatter

#15 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 09:01

I’ve never heard of Deborah Meaden and I consider Googling that sort of thing a dnf, but fortunately the word play and crossers made it an easy solve.

I misled myself by thinking of the tamarind monkey, an obviously blind alley, rather than monkey as a verb, so never did parse TAMER.

A surprisingly easy puzzle from this setter, who I usually find much chewier. Thanks to Fed and mc.

Fiona

#1 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 00:02

Got MILK TOOTH straight away from looking at the clue – but couldn’t parse it.

Favourites: ARCHAIC, SCENTED, PINNACLE, FLAGELLATE, UNLESS, DETRITUS

Thanks Fed and mc_rapper67
SZ Joe

#2 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 01:06

Nice and straightforward for a prize puzzle. Only TIME AFTER TIME is puzzling me how it quite parses. Repeatedly could be the definition, but a repeated stretch could be wordplay for TIME AFTER TIME. I can’ t see the point of the ‘point’. Any enlightenment?
Thanks for the challenge and the explanation.
Biggles A

#3 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 01:10

Thanks mc_rapper67. Pleasant and enjoyable, yes, but I had to work at it and I wouldn’t call it fairly gentle. Never heard of the Blur group so that held me up and still not sure about ‘point’ in 1d unless it has something to do with pub closing hour!
Jaydee

#4 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 02:03

I really enjoyed this. Favourites were 13ac 30ac and 4dn. They made me smile. Thank you Fed and thank you MC
Tony Santucci

#5 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 02:19

Thanks Fed for a most satisfying prize with many favourites including GREEN, EMU, RESCIND, TAMER, MOURN, PINNACLE, IDIOCY, SAMPLE, and ALMS. In parsing TIME AFTER TIME, I simply saw ‘stretch’ and ‘point’ as two examples of time with the question mark indicating DBE. Thanks mc_rapper 67 for the blog.
Mig

#6 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 02:35

Fed one of my favourite setters. I love his attention to meaningful, clever, funny surfaces (Thanks mc_rapper67, happy to have the surfaces highlighted in the blog!). Some favourites among many, 9a IDEAL (clever use of “birdie” and “eagle” golf terms — hope it inspires our esteemed blogger), 10a INDOLENCE (Canadian singer Céline Dion very useful for anagrams!), 12a GREEN (surface), 22a RESCIND (no, don’t cancel Cinderella!), 8/16/29 BE ON CLOUD NINE (great surface and anagram), 14d AMELIORATE (had to remember “priest” = ELI — haven’t seen that for a long time), 28d ALMS (“small – not large”)

I didn’t parse 1/13/26 TIME AFTER TIME — looks good in the blog — “stretch point” = TIME (point) AFTER TIME (stretch). For “point” Chambers includes “a moment of time” (As Tony Santucci @5)

Thank you both
KeithS

#7 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 03:18

Thanks, mc. You came to mind as soon as I saw the clue for IDEAL, so I’m glad you got to blog this. Very enjoyable, with no real stumbling blocks, although I’d not heard of Deborah Meaden and needed Google to help out there, and I failed to see where the ‘T’ came from in RESPECTS. But I liked MILK TOOTH (I had an unparsed ‘Baby Tooth’ holding me up for a while) and PINNACLE and TIME AFTER TIME and a number of others. Thanks, Fed.
KVa

#8 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 03:34

Liked YOLK SAC (thought of ‘drunk’ as a verb first and couldn’t justify SOAK. Realised later that ‘drunk’ can be a ‘drunkard’ and so can SOAK be), MILK TOOTH, PINNACLE and DRAGON.

T A TIME
I agree with the blogger’s parsing.

Thanks Fed and mc.
paddymelon

#9 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 05:52

Isn’t Repeatedly stretch point TIME AFTER TIME a stretch (prison sentence repeated) and point (in time) repeated. In other words, repeatedly applies to them both.
Roz

#10 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 06:13

Thanks for the blog , very neat and concise clues , none at all on four lines or even three , I also appreciate the split entries being in clue order and continuous in the grid . Clever wordplay throughout , ESPERANTO a neat switch of letters , IDIOCY flows so naturally , many more ….
I agree with Tony@5 amd Mig@6 for T after T , we simply have – Definition time time – and not a wasted word .
Etu

#11 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 07:22

I’m finding Fed a reliably enjoyable and satisfying setter these days.

I agree with all the positive comments.

There are so many to commend, but EMU had something simple-but-special for me.

Cheers one and all.
Woody

#12 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 07:23

Some original and precise clues here, presented with wry humour.

Very enjoyable.
NoryN

#13 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 08:25

Thanks, Fed and mc_rapper67. Favourites were ESPERANTO and TAMER. My least favourite was MOURN, as keen is not quite the same thing. (Am I being too pedantic?) A fun crossword, however.
1961Blanchflower

#14 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 08:39

I enjoyed solving this last week: everything went in smoothly but with frequent smiles of appreciation. I do enjoy a well hidden answer in a plausible surface, so RESCIND was probably my favourite, with plaudits also for finding IDEAL in every other letter of the two golf shots. I was initially puzzled by TIME AFTER TIME, as I could see TIME times two, but not AFTER, until I realised it was there by implication – forehead duly smacked.

Nice work Fed, and thanks mc.
sheffield hatter

#15 - Sat 28th Mar 26, 09:01

I’ve never heard of Deborah Meaden and I consider Googling that sort of thing a dnf, but fortunately the word play and crossers made it an easy solve.

I misled myself by thinking of the tamarind monkey, an obviously blind alley, rather than monkey as a verb, so never did parse TAMER.

A surprisingly easy puzzle from this setter, who I usually find much chewier. Thanks to Fed and mc.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

15 comments on “Guardian Saturday Prize Crossword 29,960 by Fed (21 March 2026)”

Leave a comment