It’s been a while since we saw Puck on a weekday, though he has done a couple of prize puzzles since. This was a welcome return, with a fairly tricky puzzle that kept me thinking right up to the end, so thanks to Puck for the entertainment.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1. | SOFTIES | Primarily, sort of relationships for sentimental people (7) S[ort] + OF + TIES |
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| 5. | CAMELOT | A setter takes fool round a castle … (7) A ME in CLOT |
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| 9. | LEEDS | … and another somewhere in West Yorks (5) Double definition – confusingly, Leeds Castle is in Kent, near Maidstone |
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| 10. | DANCE HALL | Not half bad candelabra prince left in ballroom? (5,4) Anagram of CANDE[labra] + HAL (prince) + L |
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| 11. | EXTRAMURAL | Former cargo ship docked by Russian river outside city walls (10) EX TRAM[p] + URAL |
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| 14. | GUARDIANISTA | We suspect it’s a reputed 21-12er in 26 and 20s … (12) GUARDIAN (we) + (IT’S A) – a Guardianista is the stereotypical Guardian reader, so using “we” to clue the “Guardian” part of this is a bit weak |
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| 18. | IT COULD BE YOU | … so 5 across suggests betting I clued “booty” crudely, for all to see (2,5,2,3) (I CLUED BOOTY)* + U (for all to see, in film classification) – the former slogan of the UK national lottery, run by Camelot |
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| 21,12. | LEFT WING | English newspaper has women in underwear? Er … that is taken as read, we hear (4-4) E + FT (Financial Times) + W in LINGERIE less ER I.E. , with a homophonic definition – “read, we hear” = red |
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| 22. | SOUTH KOREA | State of repair of small Oklahoma art house (5,5) (OK ART HOUSE)* |
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| 25. | BELLICOSE | Inclined to fight nasty libel case? Ring for answer (9) (LIBEL CASE)* with A[nswer] replaced by O (ring) |
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| 26. | BEARD | Role finally penned by Shakespeare for Vandyke? (5) [rol]E in BARD – a Vandyke is a type of beard |
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| 27. | LADY DAY | Musical, as Sir Robin’s wife might have been (4,3) Double definition – title of a musical based on the life and music of Billie Holiday (whose nickname was Lady Day); and what Sir Robin Day‘s wife might have been called (was called, surely?) |
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| 28. | PREVAIL | Win through spin at a live game (7) PR (public relations, spin) + (A LIVE)* |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1. | SOLVER | Over 50s dancing? 18! (6) (OVER LS)* |
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| 2. | FIESTA | Holiday at sea curtailed, if overturned (6) Reverse of AT SE[A] IF |
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| 3. | IN STATU QUO | Where Francis Rossi plays with only one son, just as before (2,5,3) IN STATUS QUO (co-founded by Rossi) less its second S |
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| 4. | SADHU | Religious leader had us fooled (5) (HAD US)* – a Sadhu (also sometimes spelt SADDHU) is a “holy person” or ascetic in Hinduism, perhaps not exactly a “leader” |
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| 5. | CANTABILE | In singing style of Cambridge priest doing a turn (9) CANTAB (abbreviation of Cantabrigiensis, “of Cambridge”, e.g. as shown after names of degrees) + ELI< |
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| 6. | MEEK | Like a mouse beginning to make fearful sound (4) M[ake] + EEK |
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| 7. | LEAFIEST | Stole a 2, interior part of which is offering best shade of green? (8) Hidden in stoLE A FIESTa |
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| 8. | TELEGRAM | Message left in note, eg “Castle in the morning” (8) L in (TE EG) + R (rook – castle in chess) + AM |
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| 13. | UNWORKABLE | Nancy’s article about Blake contains argument rejected as impractical (10) ROW< in UN (French indefinite article, as used in e.g. Nancy) + BLAKE* |
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| 15. | RADIOLOGY | Set record unknown to medical science (9) RADIO (set) + LOG + Y (unknown) |
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| 16. | MISLABEL | Female, about 50, under maiden name in error (8) M + L in ISABEL – a nicely concealed definition |
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| 17. | SCUFFLED | Fought with second copper, getting fine — then ran away (8) S + CU + F + FLED |
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| 19. | ARMADA | Fleet Street’s third magazine to provide content for adults (6) Third letter of stReet + MAD (magazine) in A A (two adults) |
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| 20. | SANDAL | You might have set foot in this bit of West Yorks (and, also, its castle) (6) Triple definition (well, almost, the place – a suburb of Wakefield – and the castle being the same name) As Gaufrid points out, it’s also hidden in yorkS AND ALso, so the middle definition probably doesn’t apply, but the clue is an &lit – very clever |
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| 23. | TWERP | Silly chap with awfully wet way of speaking (5) WET* + R[eceived] P[ronunciation] |
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| 24. | MILD | Warm beer (4) Double definition |
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Thanks Andrew
For 20ac I had def. (you might have set foot in this) plus wordplay plus second def. (its castle). The wordplay ‘bit of West Yorks (and, also’ gives the hidden ‘yorkS AND ALso’.
Thanks for a great blog, Andrew.
And what a super puzzle! One of those you just don’t want to end – in fact, there’s so much interweaving of clues [without too much tiresome cross-referencing] that I was actually surprised to realise I had finished it.
As so often, there are too many excellent clues to pick out favourites. Lots of tricky misdirection – but the biggest ‘aha’ for me was in 21,12: I solved it from the wordplay, taking ‘taken as read’ as the indicator to take out ER IE – and then the pdm when I realised that that was the definition. Brilliant stuff!
Huge thanks, as ever, to Puck, for getting the day off to such a great start.
Thanks Andrew. Tasty fish, this, with bones. I knew nothing about 14, 18 and 27A, or Mr Rossi. But Google only needed to extract 20D. Finished happily; really liked ARMADA. Thanks Puck.
Once again all I have to type is ‘what Eileen said’
Its very ungracious to query anything in a great blog of a great puzzle, but in 8 surely ’em’ should read ‘am’? And I just cant see how T in LE gives TEL. Help!
Harhop – you’re right, EM is a typo for AM, which I will correct.
It’s L in (TE + EG), not L in TE (as I presume you meant to write) – hope that helps! (I’ve also edited the blog to make this clearer.)
Thanks Puck and Andrew
A lovely puzzle and very helpful blog.
I had to Google quite often. Can remember the Premium Bonds, but had never heard of Camelot.
1d had me smiling, as for favourites, so many…
There is a typo in 8d, AM not EM
Thanks, Andrew @6, I was a little confused about the TE too.
Disagree about Guardianista being a week clue-the wordplay is simple but the answer is not that common a term and it fits in so well with sandals and beard as a perjorative view of Grauniad readers.I thought the whole thing was first class.
Thanks, Andrew.
Very rewarding puzzle, which I found quite tricky – it was one of those cases where a lot of the clues seemed obvious once I had solved them, but misdirections of various types abound here.
Some of the traps I fell into: thinking 1d contained two Ls; thinking S (‘small’) was part of the anagram fodder in 22a; thinking ‘Nancy’s article’ had to be definite and that ‘Blake’ was a lift-and-separate for B L in 13d.
Favourites were GUARDIANISTA, LEFT WING, RADIOLOGY, ARMADA – all well-constructed, with great surfaces.
Bravo to the púka.
Thanks, Andrew. I echo the appreciation above. It was only at the end that I went back and realised that my problem in parsing 16 was that I had been playing with Mabel when all along I should have been seeing Isabel!
copmus @9 left wing and extramural also fit in with that image.
NeilW @11, I had a problem with 16, for female put MS, then L for 50 then LIABLE for maiden, using liable in the sense of OCED 4 (foll by to) exposed or open to (something undesirable). M for female just does not seem right to me.
Very enjoyable puzzle – very Puckish indeed. I got through it fairly briskly. Must be on the same wavelength – that’s a bit scary.
14a I read wrongly though – I thought “we” was the def and wondered about the cardinality. Your reading is definitely the right one – but that makes it a bit same-on-both-sides – which I imagine is your complaint.
Where do sandals come into it? I imagine the presence or absence of socks must be a critical part of the image.
Thanks for the blog Andrew.
@13, I still have a problem with 16, too many Ls, something seems wrong with this clue, how can M mean female, there is MISs but how can the extra s be got rid of. Ah! does the M come from Maiden? Yes, silly me. It is a nicely concealed definition.
Thanks Andrew @6 and apologies for my own typo.
@13, 15. See now the M comes from Maiden over. Don’t think ISABEL, being about 50, is in much danger.
Thanks Puck for lots of fun, and to Andrew for a good blog and sorting out the women in underwear.
Many super clues but I thought the one for LEEDS was pretty weak. Yes, Leeds Castle in Kent is certainly worth a visit.
JS @14;this might be of some use.
This was definitely in my Goldilocks zone – plenty to think about without ever seeming impossible, and it all gave way at a satisfying rate, especially after seeing IT COULD BE YOU and CAMELOT – in fact it would have made a fine prize puzzle. Last in was ARMADA. Agree with Andrew’s quibble over SADHU. Liked IN STATU QUO (despite being unfamiliar with the phrase), GUARDIANISTA, SOLVER and SANDAL.
Thanks to Puck and Andrew
Thanks to Puck, and to Andrew, particularly for explaining 3d. The wordplay was wasted on me as I’d never heard of Francis Rossi.
I did not care for 19d. The wordplay is clever (and I do know Mad magazine) but I thought it another of those clues where the setter has forgotten that the 1d doesn’t have the answer yet.
For those of us who went to school in Beeston (and that’s Beeston Notts not Beeston Leeds), it’s not just Leeds Castle that is confusing, there’s that castle in Cheshire too…
ARMADA was my last one in, having sons, Mad magazine occasionally came to the house in the past.
I sailed with one of my sons on the Armada chart frigate Tofino during the Regatta for the Cutty Sark Tall Ships’ 2000 Race, we had to lead the Juan Sebastian de Elcano out of the harbour at Cadiz.
Lots of good stuff, but I’m not keen on indirect hiddens of the 7-down type and Sandal is rather too obscure a place to make the clue as good as it might otherwise have been. That said, I chuckled at 14a, even if – at first glance, at any rate – it excluded the distaff side of the readership.
Great puzzle – thanks to Puck and Andrew. Just the right level for me – neither impossible nor a write-in. Loved GUARDIANISTA and related clues.
Reading the clue-set was almost as much fun as solving the puzzle, with so much interweaving going on. The solve itself proceeded fairy smoothly, helped a bit by SANDAL being a write-in after first BEARD then GUARDIANISTA were sorted, until I was left with 16 and 19 – eventually, only one word fitted the former, but there were multiple possibilities for 19. ARCANA? Hum. ORGANA? That sounded like something to do with adults (disabused by dictionary). Cue, belatedly, sound of penny dropping, though the clue is perhaps a bit too clever for its own good (is Mad still published?)
ulaca @23, Shakespeare’s play Henry VI, Part 3 (Act1, Scene 2) is set in Sandal Castle.
I get shot when I don’t like Guardian puzzles, and I don’t always like Puck (who can be ‘bitty’ and grammatically awkward), but I do like this one.
I,too, enjoyed this,particularly LEFT WING,BEARD,SANDALS and GUARDIANISTA. I got a little bogged down in the NW corner but generally most enjoyable.
Thanks Puck.
Thanks, Andrew.
There’s nothing wrong with the clue at 27a. Just as Robin Day would have been addressed as “Sir Robin” and not “Sir Day”, so would his wife normally have been addressed as “Lady + first name”, and not as “Lady Day”.
crosser @29 Robin Day’s wife, being the wife of a Knight, would have been addressed as Lady Day.
Thanks all
I enjoyed this but shamefacedly failed to get 14across.
Lovely puzzle! TM@25 I also wondered whether Mad magazine could possibly still be published, but apparently it is. As a young feller I was known to friends as Alfred because of my alleged similarity to Alfred E Neumann. My beatific smile, I suppose!
Wow, this was glorious. I too agree with Eileen that you just didn’t ever want it to end.
The only one I didn’t parse was the LINGERIE, so thanks for that.
Loved the two Hidden Word clues.
To paraphrase a certain 70s radio show: “More Puck, more Quo”.
Never heard of Sandal Castle, which didn’t help, and the Lady Day musical was news to me. But the one that wasted the most time, in spite of knowing all about Status Quo, was trying to make an anagram (“plays” ) of FRANCIS ROI (Francis Rossi with only one Son). As I’m sure Puck meant me to do. Grrrrr!
Don’t think I’m really on Puck’s wavelength – and I really hate those think-of-a-word-and-chop-the-end-off clues. But I enjoyed arriving triumphantly at GUARDIANISTA.
A great puzzle one of Puck’s best.
Everything’s been said so …
Thanks to Andrew and Puck
Would some explain the connection between answer and definition for 1D for me. I could get the answer from the wordplay but don’t understand what 18 has to do with solver. Thanks!
@CC – 18 refers to 18a – ie its answer – there’s no 18d so the “a” was dropped.
Cookie, Henry VI!…Part 3! I think that says it all.
Thank you Jollyswagman!
ulaca @38, a bit like “Queen Elizabeth slept here”.
This was wonderful. Pitched perfectly by a setter who clearly concerns himself with the solver’s enjoyment…..
What was there not to like?
Thanks for your work Andrew.
And Puck – truly a Goodfellow! Enormous thanks.
Thanks Puck and Andrew
Was very late to get to this, but what a delightful puzzle with the ghost theme of Guardian readership and the thing going on with castles in the clues! It was well worth the wait.
Most has been said by now, but the wit and originality of clues like SOLVER and LEAFIEST are what keep bringing me back to do more.
My only slight negative was with SADHU (being a leader – from what I understand they are probably the antithesis of one), but totally gettable anyway – and totally forgivable in an otherwise brilliant crossword.