An entertaining puzzle which took me a while to figure out what was going on.
In retrospect it was pretty obvious to see what 9 25 meant and what to do, but at the time it did not seem nearly so clear. I spent a long while wrestling with a mostly empty grid, and then once I finally got going finished off pretty smartly. As well as the cross-reference clues there were quite a few other ingenious devices in here too. Thanks Philistine, good stuff!
| Across | ||
| 8 | PORTHOLE | Swerve to avoid this 9 25 window? (8) |
| POTHOLE (swerve to avoid this) about (9) R (right, 25) | ||
| 9 | ABOUT | Rounds around (5) |
| A BOUT (rounds, boxing) – definition is ‘around’ | ||
| 10 | See 25 | |
| 11 | FLIRTATION | Blanditia in amore might be Latin for it (10) |
| (LATIN FOR IT)* anagram=might be – from what I can figure ‘blanditia in amore’ seems to mean something along the lines of ‘to coax into love’. Perhaps someone with a knowledge of Latin can explain? | ||
| 12 | STABLE | In the Middle East, a bleeding Arab here (6) |
| found in the middle of eaST A BLEeding – an Arab is a breed of horse | ||
| 14 | WRINKLES | Lines in seafood 9 25 (8) |
| WINKLES (seafood) about (9) R (right, 25) | ||
| 15 | BREASTS | Animal’s 9 25 or bust (7) |
| BEASTS about (9) R (right, 25) | ||
| 17 | OSTRICH | East German wealthy person not facing reality (7) |
| OST (East, German) RICH (wealthy) – definition is ‘person not facing reality’ | ||
| 20 | FRICTION | Romance 9 25 leads to chafing (8) |
| FICTION about (9) R (right, 25) | ||
| 22 | DEARTH | Want the end 9 25 (6) |
| DEATH (the end) about (9) R (right, 25) – definition is ‘want’ | ||
| 23 | STRATEGIST | From artists, I get art sent back — I plan ahead (10) |
| found inside (from) artisTS I GET ART Sent reversed (back) | ||
| 24,24down | BORA BORA | Twice stole 9 25 to get resort (4,4) |
| BOA (stole, neckwear) about (9) R (right, 25) repeated (twice) – island and tourist resort in the Pacific | ||
| 25,10 | RIGHT AWAY | Rabbi bordering on homosexual — what’s wrong in that, now? (5,4) |
| RabbI (borders, first and last letters of) on GAY (homosexual) with WHAT* anagram=wrong inside (in that) – definition is ‘now’ | ||
| 26 | CONTRACT | Shrink from touch 9 25 (8) |
| CONTACT (touch) about (9) R (right, 25) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HOT WATER | Trouble on tap? (3,5) |
| double/cryptic definition | ||
| 2 | STAY | Keep still or wander 25 10 (4) |
| STrAY (wander) with right taken away (25 10) – definition is ‘keep still’ | ||
| 3 | TOFFEE | Feet of jelly can be sticky (6) |
| (FEET OF)* anagram=jelly | ||
| 4 | REVIEWS | Critiques on the subject of desperate wives (7) |
| RE (on the subject of) WIVES* anagram=desperate | ||
| 5 | PANTRIES | Stores for knickers 9 25 (8) |
| PANTIES (knickers) about (9) R (right, 25) | ||
| 6 | NORTH KOREA | Knock out 25 in another dodgy state (5,5) |
| anagram (dodgy) of KO (knock out) R (right, 25) and ANOTHER – definition is ‘state’ | ||
| 7 | STROVE | Tried range 9 25 (6) |
| STOVE (range) about (9) R (right, 25) | ||
| 13 | BLANCMANGE | Raymond prend le dessert (10) |
| BLANC (Raymond, chef) MANGE (eats, prend=takes) – definition is ‘le dessert’. This clue is written and solved in French. Nice one Philistine, but better not do it too often or people will get upset 😉 | ||
| 16 | TRIDENTS | Free camping with forks? (8) |
| RID in TENTS (free has gone camping) – definition is ‘forks’. A well used trick but I still like it. | ||
| 18 | CATARACT | Downpour makes it hard to see (8) |
| double definition | ||
| 19 | ANTIOCH | China to build historic city (7) |
| (CHINA TO)* anagram=build – ancient city now ruined, located in present day Turkey | ||
| 21 | RETARD | Delay 25, firework softly dropped (6) |
| R (right) pETARD (a bomb, firework) missing P (piano, softly) | ||
| 22 | DATING | An item rushing 25 10 (6) |
| DArTING (rushing) with R (right, 25) missing (away, 10) – definition is ‘an item’ | ||
| 24 | See 24 across | |
*anagram
Thanks, PeeDee. 11A =coaxing or cajoling into love or flirting. From “blanditia” we get the English “blandishment” -coaxing or persuading through flattery”. A most pleasant solve, Philistine.
Thanks PeeDee. I enjoyed it too but I have to confess I had filled in about three quarters of the grid before the theme dawned on me. I had figured RIGHT must feature somehow but it took a long time for the penny to drop. At first sight I thought it was one of those where the theme was dominant but of course it was much more subtle than that. Very cleverly constructed.
I managed this one fairly easily (for a change) once I had got 25ac and 10ac. Favourite ‘groaner’ was 13d.
Thanks all
In spite of my general dislike of themes I was grateful this was not a GK list but a much more ingenious use of three common clues.
Since I solved 9 (about) first this should have been a much quicker finish except I was convinced that the ‘R’ was going to indicate ‘rivers’ and that 20 ac included ‘cam’!
Enjoyable and suitably tricky for Philistine’s second prize.
This looked pretty daunting at first due to the shear number of cross references. But ABOUT and RIGHT AWAY were my first 2 in and then it seemed like mostly double definitions differing by a single R.
I remember another puzzle which used a similar device but had SIDE meaning L or R. I thought that one was more interesting. Was it the same setter?
Anyway thanks PeeDee. You are right, I didn’t care for the French clue at all.
This was another disappointing prize puzzle.
The problem with “keyword” puzzles is that if they are not carefully constructed they collapse as soon as the conceit is revealed. Unfortunately that was the case with this!
25,10 was fairly simple which gave the “RIGHT” in the keyword “9,25”. So this was the clue that “R” was involved in a charade. Very soon after this 15A was obvious and gave the game away leading to a quick solve of 9A.
From then nearly all the key word clues were a write in. Only a brief delay with 8A and 24A,24D.
All done and dusted in well under the hour. Hopefully the new “Genius” will appear today or I’ll be forced to tackle the AZED early! (normal reserved for the Rufus lacuna)
Thanks to PeeDee and Philistine
Not too tricky, but great fun. Particularly enjoyed the French and Latin clues
Hi Brendan (nto) @6
Your comment about the Genius intrigued me as I had finished it before breakfast last Monday. I see now that the closing date for entries has been corrected (it was initially shown as 5th April, two days before the puzzle was published!) but the print version has disappeared. You will have mail shortly so that you can save Azed for Monday.
Thanks PeeDee and Philistine. Like you all, I quailed at the first glance with all the cross-references. But a feeling about 20A, a hunch that RI were the first letters of 25 and an inspired guess on BLANCMANGE really quite quickly showed the key. It took a bit longer to crack Blanditia in amore. I agree with r_c_a_d that there was another puzzle not too long ago with a similar RL switch.
I don’t understand how anyone can be ‘disappointed’ about the level of difficulty of a prize puzzle. It’s open to all, not just aficionados (which, by definition, commenters here all are). I imagine the Saturday puzzle is the only one many ‘lay’ solvers do.
I mean, just look at to whom the prizes are pitched; we ‘experts’ are hardly being deprived of the opportunity for our years of hard and globally-relevant study to be recognised by something of much use or value to us, are we?
Many of those lay solvers might take days to work out all the answers (we get a week, after all) and each week five of them will be chuffed as goolies to see their names in print and win a prize that might encourage them to develop their hobby (for that us what it is).
I am reminded of a time-served bassist in the world of Traditional Jazz that I inhabit; “our (sic) music is a village; we don’t want any outsiders”. That way dying out lies…
…for that *is* what it is…
Brendan @9, I know just what you mean about the ‘collapse’ that can happen when a theme is uncovered. This time I was just lucky(?) to have been too dim to catch on straight away 🙁
Tim, why can’t some people find a puzzle easy and others find it hard? Is this not the norm for every puzzle? What is the problem in that?
PeeDee13
That’s exactly what I am saying, isn’t it? I just don’t understand why anybody would be ‘disappointed’ to find it easy. It’s a free-to-enter hobby, not a league-table competition.
I solved the key clues pretty quickly and once the theme became obvious it was a relatively straightforward solve. Because of the nature of the theme there didn’t seem to be as much variation in the clue types as one would normally expect to see, but I enjoyed the puzzle nonetheless.
Hi Tim, I don’t think the Saturday Guardian really is a crossword competition, the winner is not the ‘best’ solver in any way. It is just a raffle, lots of people enter and someone gets picked at random. A bit of fun for the participants and an opportunity for the Guardian to collect some free marketing information.
There are people who hope for a difficult puzzle at the weekend because they have a whole weekend in which to solve it. For them a quick solve leads to a ‘disappointment’.
PeeDee16
Totally agree with para 1.
I suppose I just think it’s a bit rude to the setter to describe his or her hard work – for which we pay little or nothing – as ‘disappointing’.
Good puzzle – quite enjoyed the theme so thanks to Phillistine.
What is disappointing (and I’m aware I am compounding the problem!) is once again the comments are dominated by a boring argument.
I had ‘boring’ written against this one, so I hope no one finds that to disappointing.
I thought this was quite fun.
Thanks PeeDee; BTW how do you do the grid with the words inserted? Is it software or a scan?
Robi, the grid is added automatically by software, part of a program I wrote to help me write the blog entries.
Thanks, PeeDee, for the blog.
The ‘Changing sides’ puzzle was, indeed, by the same setter – in fact, it was Philistine’s first Prize puzzle, which I remembered particularly as I blogged it, here: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2014/02/08/guardian-prize-26172-philistine/
I thought this one was equally entertaining and really enjoyed solving it. I loved the Raymond Blanc clue and, of course, the lovely Latin &lit – very clever. And, like PeeDee, I’m a fan of clues like the TRIDENTS one.
Many thanks to Philistine for another excellent puzzle.
Thanks, PeeDee.
Like Eileen, I really enjoyed this. Yes, I can see that perhaps my enjoyment was hightened by not seeing the key clue early on – sometimes, the brain just doesn’t click – but, even so, I thought this puzzle had something for everyone, experienced or not.
Just a short “afterword”.
As this is a messageboard I assume it is a forum for people to air their views. I merely make comments on the puzzles based on my own personal experience as I guess others do.
For me this puzzle was disappointing as it was solved so quickly and I hope for a bigger challenge at the weekend. However I do realise that the skill/experience levels of all solvers is very varied and that one man’s meat etc.
I am not demanding that prize puzzles should match only my needs but merely expressing my personal view. Hopefully this may resonate with some readers and “get on the tits” of many others. It was ever thus 😉
I enjoyed this puzzle a lot, although I solved it fairly quickly as a result of spotting the theme early on. As others here, I loved the French and Latin clues, esp 13D.
Easy doesn’t equate to boring or disappointing, to me. Indeed, too difficult can be boring.
Brendan (not that one) thinks anything under an hour is FAST??? If you struggle that much with a normal cryptic don’t go online to pretend you found it easy.
Since I’m late to this again thanks to yesterday’s long walk, just a few thoughts. I agree that once the theme was in place this was fairly straightforward – I think BORA BORA was last in mainly because I wasn’t familiar with the place. I got most of the unthemed entries fairly quickly, but then took far longer than it should have to see how the linked entries worked, after which the rest fell into place fairly easily. So for me it took longer than most of the recent prizes (certainly longer than yesterday’s) and there’s no way I found in disappointing…
Thanks to PeeDee and Philistine
@26 Everyone
What’s a “normal” cryptic?
Thanks Philistine and PeeDee
Started this midweek and only had ANTIOCH and a few others in … didn’t get to it again until Sunday where I twigged to what was going on with the R’s and it fell out quite quickly. Strangely enough, ABOUT was my last one in.
Found the ‘foreign language’ clues an interesting variation – think I remember Boatman doing something similar last year.
Everyone @26
A very “well considered” post.Thank you.
By the way I never mentioned or shouted “FAST”. I only expressed my disappointment that a prize was completed in under the hour! As there is no Guardian puzzle on a Sunday it is nice if the prize can offer some entertainment over the 2 days.
By the way I would consider fast as under 10 minutes which luckily only occurs on the odd Rufus write in! What would your personal, and obviously expert, view on FAST be? No “pretending” please. 😉
@Brendan(not that one): I am reminded of how Galton and Simpson got around the problem of not being able to say “getting on my tits” on prime-time BBC1. Harold said to Albert “If I ‘ad ’em, you’d be getting on ’em.” I thought that was rather an elegant solution.
Brendan @30
On Sunday, the Guardian site gives you access to the Everyman, which (in reply to Martin@28) I’d regard as an exemplar of a ‘normal’ cryptic.
Thanks PeterM @32
I am familiar with the Everyman from days gone by.
However I am not the one who mentioned “normal cryptic” puzzles as I’m not sure there’s such a thing.
Everyone @26 is the culprit for the introduction of this concept!