What’s this? A compiler I’ve not seen before in the Prize slot.
What’s that! Setting the Inquisitor on the same day! This is probably going to be a tough challenge.
I got only a few on the first pass I which indicated it was quite hard. At least I got some. Then answers began to slot in, but only on the bottom half. After a while I found the reason for that. The first answer I got (the first!) was 12A: a clear anagram. Quickly I found (PINT MEAGRE)* gave PERMEATING. I did half wonder about the incorrect voice of the defining verb but not for long – soon I “confirmed” that answer with 5D TORPEDO. Thus I didn’t realise that was why I was having trouble in the top half. It was 3D SEA MILE that put me right – there had to be ÎLE in there somehow, so that P had to go.
There were a few clues that had some interesting wordplay. Of these I nominate 1D INACTIVE as my favourite, one of the last that I solved. “ACT 1” as exposition gave the best PDM of the piece. For that matter 1A IMPISH with its 1 MPH gives it a run for its money, though I have seen that device before. Another worth mentioning in dispatches is 15D with ALICE as an adventurous girl.
No themes or Ninas (that’s being typed with my fingers crossed), but a crossword with solid clues containing understandable wordplay and clear definitions.
I see eXternal has done previous – on the daily Indy I mean (8319 Thurs June 13th) – but I must have missed that one, and I haven’t attempted the Inquisitor – that’s always too much for me . I can only believe the coincidence of Prize and Inquisitor on the same day was a just that, a coincidence – or maybe not so random when you consider that this mystery setter must’ve impressed both editors to get these selected.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | IMPISH | Not so fast to admit one’s saucy (6) 1 MPH (not so fast) around (to admit) I’S (one’s) |
| 4 | ATROPHY | Degenerate in pub arrested in a city long ago (7) PH (pub) inside (arrested) A TROY (a city long ago) |
| 8 | MAHARAJA | Eminent Indian rejected a beer and a piece of pork (8) (A JAR A HAM)< An ale and an oink reversed |
| 10 | RAGTAG | Mob renegade hides good silver (6) RAT (renegade) around (hides) G[ood], then AG (silver) Had to decide between RAGBAG and RAGTAG |
| 11 | STAY | Supporter‘s awfully gutted after post denies Pompey’s pair up front (4) A[wfull]Y after [po]ST |
| 12 | IMPREGNATE | Infuse pint with meagre liquid (10) (PINT MEAGRE)* AInd: liquid. First answer entered – wrong. |
| 13 | OVERGENEROUS | Demanding to guard border is extremely charitable (12) VERGE (border) in ONEROUS (demanding) |
| 16 | FAMILY CIRCLE | Collectively, those sharing blood group O (6,6) Quirky CD |
| 20 | GUNSLINGER | Fighter nursing leg wound (10) (NURSING LEG)* AInd: wound. First correct answer entered. Nice solid anagram to get the bottom half going. |
| 21 | TUCK | Position for diving fast, shunned by beginner (4) [s]TUCK |
| 22 | THRIFT | Economy drive provided for us (6) THRUST (drive) swap IF (provided) for US |
| 23 | THINKING | Take slim man on board (8) THIN (slim) KING (man on [a chess] board). ‘Take’ as in what’s your take on the matter |
| 24 | IRONING | Items to decrease in goodness, originally robust beforehand (7) de-crease when I got it: IRON (robust) IN G[oodness]. Misled by the def. using the collective noun rather than the verb |
| 25 | GLANCE | Flash new sugared drinks (6) N[ew] inside GLACE (sugared) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | INACTIVE | Lifeless in exposition on outskirts of Venice (8) IN Act 1 (exposition) V[enic]E |
| 2 | PEAKY | Vegetable jelly’s sickly (5) PEA (vegetable) KY (jelly) |
| 3 | SEA MILE | Junction on French island gets length of tar (3,4) SEAM (junction) ÎLE (island in French) |
| 5 | TORPEDO | Weapon regularly upheld, carried by beastly Spanish fighter (7) PED (regular letters from uPhElD) inside TORO |
| 6 | ORGANISER | One arranging passage of émigrés in a group going west (9) Hidden Reversed in émigRÉS NI A GROup |
| 7 | HEARTY | Like particular flush shipmate? (6) Double Def: “Oo! Aar! M’hearties” as a pirate might say to his shipmate, and, a bit tongue in cheek, in cards a flush of Hearts would be, err, Hearty |
| 9 | APPLE BLIGHT | Growing pain has little person in a state (5,6) PLEB (little person) inside A PLIGHT (a state). I had trouble understanding this |
| 14 | REFASHION | Transform ground of a shrine (9) (OF A SHRINE)* AInd: ground |
| 15 | ALICANTE | Adventurous girl gets tan developed in European resort (8) TAN* AInd: developed, inside ALICE the adventurous wonderland girl |
| 17 | MOISTEN | Water tick, one climbing fishing tackle (7) MOSI with the I climbing a position, NET< Mosi short for mosquito (tick) Edit: See first few comments. The above analysis is rubbish. The tick is a moment thus MO, then I (one), NETS< (climbing = reversal indicator) |
| 18 | CORDIAL | 7 carat gold disc (7) Def. is the answer for 7: Hearty. C[arat] OR (gold) DIAL (disc) |
| 19 | AUTHOR | Generator in Khartoum exploded, thousands evacuated (6) (KHARTOUM – K – M)* AInd: exploded. The two different letters that can mean a thousand are removed. |
| 21 | TOKEN | Nominal amount should cover all right (5) OK (alright) inside TEN (an amount) |
I found this quite tough, and only managed to finish it with the help of the “check” button. I particularly liked 2d, 9d, 1d, 13a, 6d & 25a and my favourites were 1a IMPISH & 18d CORDIAL.
I could not parse 22a (oh, very clever!) & 17d (in Australia, we spell it as “mozzie” or “mossie” rather than “mosi”, and can someone explain to me why ‘fishing tackle’ = NET is reversed?).
Thanks for the blog, beermagnet.
Thanks for the blog beermagnet. I stared at this one for some time before inspiration struck. Favourite clues were 1a (impish), 24a (ironing), 1d (inactive) and 3d (sea mile)
Apple blight was my last in. A new term for me
I parsed moisten as Mo (tick as in ‘moment’, I=one, climbing fishing tackle =sten) mo I sten
Michelle @1 -I thought that prize puzzles didn’t have the reveal buttons enabled? Was it a one off glitch or is there a way round it?
I had a total brain failure with 25ac. I thought of “glance” and dismissed it as I couldn’t see why. Of course, I knew of glacé as in cherries, but I kept on thinking of it meaning cold, not iced with sugar!
I parsed 17dn as Phil@2 and Michelle, nets are fishing tackle e.g. on a fishing boat.
Bamberger@3: it appears the prize crossword appears on the Indie web page after the competition is closed, and a quick check last week’s puzzle is now there as the current one, and the reveal button works.
Phil: Your parsing for 17D MOISTEN (MO I NETS<) is clearly correct and what I put in the blog is rubbish, I had climbing doing double duty to get the I in the correct place as well as being a reversal indicator for the NET. Not to mention the silly spelling of mozzie.
Michelle: I too would spell the little blighter mozzie (currently suffering several bites around the ankles due to the recent spell of non-English English summer heatwave), but thought mosi might be an alternative as the whole word only has one S.
Bamberger: The Prize puzzles appear 1 week later on the website, so this one from last saturday is now available on the this link – http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/puzzles/crosswords/cryptic/
The mechanism is the same, Check and Reveal buttons enabled.
It is the Guardian that puts Prize crossword up in a different form to the daily, with Check and Cheat button missing.
A tough puzzle with some crafty definitions, but all very fair. I needed aids at the end for my LOI, IRONING, because I couldn’t make sense of the wordplay or see the definition. Once I saw the available words that would work with the checkers the penny dropped. I usually see the “decrease” trick and have no idea why it didn’t occur to me this morning.
Phil@2, thanks for the parsing of MOISTEN – I get it now.
Bamberger@3
I do the Indy prize puzzles online on Saturday mornings as I do not have easy/instant access to the hard-copy of the newspaper.
beermagnet@5
sorry to hear you are being attacked by mozzies, and I hope that the Aussies can win the third Test match.
Some really nice, misleading defs in a really nice, misleading puzzle.
This was splendid. If I manage to finish a tough one like this I imagine my chances of winning a prize are quite good but my entry has yet to be pulled out of the hat….
PJ@9: if your experience is anything like mine, on the rare occasions when I send in my entry I find that all or most of the prizes have gone to the usual suspects whose names come up again and again among the winners… Not that I’m bitter, you understand – I get a lot of fun from just doing the puzzles.
Thought this was written in Serbo-Croat at first but it did eventually yield. A tough challenge and a very satisfying solve.
As others have said, some deceptive defs and some lovely touches. I particularly enjoyed the ‘not so fast’ in 1a, the ‘length of tar’ in 3d and the ‘provided for us’ in 22a. The ‘adventurous girl’ in 15d was nice too.
Last in was 24a. The ‘items to decrease’ made me laugh out loud.
Well worth the hour’s walk across the fields to the nearest shop to get a copy (their last) of the paper.
Forgetting my manners.
Thanks to beermagnet for the blog.
Oh blow – the one day we couldn’t buy a paper when on holiday, and it’s a new (to me) compiler. I’ll watch out for eXternal again