Guardian Prize 26,579 / Picaroon

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It’s always a delight for me to see Picaroon’s name on a puzzle and, once again, I was not disappointed.

With Picaroon, we can often expect a theme – and here it became immediately clear, from all the references to 29 – plus some inventive cluing and witty surfaces. And we got them, too.

29, however, proved to be only part of the solution. My way in was the relatively straightforward 23dn, which immediately gave 29 – 16 took a little longer to dawn. And then two literary themes [one of them mini] emerged, at 25ac, 26dn, 29dn, 10ac & 24dn and 17, 31ac, along with some more playing around with 1 and 29dn – all very ingeniously interwoven and interesting to unravel.

I really enjoyed the variety – of both content and clue type – in this puzzle. Favourite clues: 11, 12, 17ac and 5, 6, 13, 14, 21dn.

Many thanks to Picaroon.

Across

9 Cause of infection left one green, at first (1,4)
E COLI
L [left] + I [one] with ECO [green] first

10 Time to pull back, worse off in part of 29s epic (3,6)
TWO TOWERS
T [time] + a reversal [back] of TOW [pull] + an anagram [off] of WORSE – ‘The Two Towers’ is the second novel in the 26dn of the 29s trilogy

11 Can goddess dishearten Kylie’s 29er? (9)
LOOKALIKE
LOO [can] + KALI [goddess] + K[yli]E

12 This regularly cuts Iron Duke’s rank (5)
FETID
T[h]I[s] [this regularly] in [cuts] FE [iron] D [duke]

13 Type of 29 or of 1s (7)
WEDDING
Double definition

15 Outside of safe building with part for musician (7)
SECONDO
S[af]E + CONDO [building] – for the lower part in a duet

17 For cockney existentialist, other people will follow this literary 1 (5)
ELLIS
If existentialist Sartre had been a cockney, he might have said, ” ‘ELL IS other people”: as it was, he said,  “L’enfer, c’est les autres”. The literary 1 is Ellis Bell, the pseudonym of Emily Brontë – this is a clue to treasure

18 Traffic in hurry (3)
RUN
Double definition

20 Organs require tuning, not all over (5)
UTERI
Hidden reversal [over] in requIRE TUning

22 Films about women’s bar (7)
LAWYERS
LAYERS [films] round W [women]

25 Like novel that’s in fashion, or its creator? (7)
TOLKIEN
Anagram [novel] of LIKE in TON [fashion]

26 Kindle that could be portable (5)
LIGHT
Double definition

27 Not in a Parisian university in wood (9)
UNPOPULAR
UN [a Parisian] + U [university] in POPLAR [wood]

30 Part of 29 — it keeps man venerable (9)
RHEINGOLD
RING [‘it’ – 29] round HE [man] + OLD [venerable] – ‘Das Rheingold’ is the first of the ‘Ring’ operas

31 Literary 1 to keep performing (5)
ACTON
ACT ON [keep performing]: the pseudonym of Emily’s sister, Anne – [Charlotte {Currer} – doesn’t get a mention]

Down

1 You might 29 this attractive woman, we’re told (4)
BELL
Sounds like [we’re told] ‘belle’ – attractive woman

2 Criminal raid with tool shaped like a 29 (8)
TOROIDAL
Anagram [criminal] of RAID and TOOL

3 Singer keen to give a twirl (4)
DIVA
Reversal [to give a twirl] of AVID [keen]

4 At sea, rig stern brace (8)
STRINGER
Anagram [at sea] of RIG STERN – a  new word for me: Collins 2: ‘naut – a longitudinal structural brace for strengthening the hull of a vessel’ – so it could be &lit?

5 South Africans embracing wrong men in the 29 (6)
BOXERS
BOERS [South Africans] round X [indicating a wrong answer when I was a teacher in the olden days – I’m not sure you’re allowed to do this now. Have you seen the latest about erasers?]

6 It’s acceptable to block racists, true or false? (10)
NONFACTUAL
ON [acceptable] in [to block] NF [National Front – racists] + ACTUAL [true]

7 Maybe male’s put on weight — he may 29 a 1 (6)
SEXTON
SEX [maybe male] + TON [weight] – another literary allusion, perhaps: the closing lines of Thomas Hood’s ‘Faithless Sally Brown’:

“His death which happened in his berth,
At forty-odd befell:
They went and told the sexton, and
The sexton toll’d the bell.”

8 Compilers the boss exploited (4)
USED
US [compilers] + ED [editor – the boss] – is this a cry from the heart?

13 Turner‘s cry of excitement, reaching heart of gallery (5)
WHEEL
WHEE [cry of excitement + [gal]L[ery]

14 Doctor isn’t nice, with GP doing an examination (10)
INSPECTING
Anagram [doctor] of ISN’T NICE + GP

16,29 One stops running twice to call for food (5,4)
ONION RING
I [one] in [stops] ON [running – like a tap] twice + RING [call]

19 Writers’ materials in no way record publicity (8)
NOTEPADS
NOT [in no way] + EP [record] + ADS [publicity]

21 Make weaker tea to lie in one’s cups (8)
ETIOLATE
Angram [in one’s cups – or drunk] of TEA TO LIE – ingenious indicator, making a great surface

23 Speculate about name for author of 29 (6)
WAGNER
WAGER [speculate] round N [name]

24 Statue in odd places and not raised for 26 down seeking 29 (6)
SAURON
Odd letters of StAtUe + a reversal [raised] of NOR [and not] for The Lord of the Rings

26 Which of land’s borders is for ruler? (4)
LORD
L OR D [land’s ‘borders’]

28 Request to drop large 29 (4)
PEAL
PLEA [request] with the L [large] dropped in position

41 comments on “Guardian Prize 26,579 / Picaroon”

  1. Thanks Eileen, and to Picaroon for an enjoyable challenge. No doubt it will dawn on me the moment I press ‘submit’ but I’m still unable fully to parse 25, as I can’t see why ‘TON’ = fashion.

  2. Thanks to Eileen for the blog. You explained a couple of cases where I had the answer but not the parsing.

    Bullhassocks: the world of fashionable people is sometimes referred to as the world of ton. I suspect it is as much about their clothes as anything else.

  3. Bullhassocks @1

    Look up TON – and maybe remember it, as setters use it now and then (when the weight does not suit their purpose). Thanks Eileen, and Picaroon, for a puzzle with themes coming out of its ears – Wagner, Tolkien, the Brontës no less. I was also put in mind of “the sexton tolled the bell”, but I did not know its origin.

  4. Superb blog, Eileen. Got the theme(s) and answers but your blog makes the puzzle more beautiful! Thanks, and thanks to Picaroon who made it possible.

  5. Thanks to Picaroon for a labyrinthine but intriguing theme, and to Eileen for the great blog – I needed assistance for 11d (KALI) and 6d (NF).

    And here I thought that the SEXTON was the person who rang the bell in some churches (hence ‘may’ in the clue).

  6. A fantastic puzzle which unravelled in a very pleasing way. Thank you for the blog, Eileen.

  7. Thanks Picaroon and Eileen
    Picaroon has achieved the rare feat of producing an extremely clever crossword that is also very entertaining. I do hope HH liked it.

  8. Great puzzle, loved it! Is Picaroon always this good? I might have to go back through the Guardian website and print off some of his earlier ones!

  9. When I got RING and WAGNER early on my heart sank at the thought of yet another opera theme. So it was a pleasant surprise to see the theme expand along several different dimensions.

    Last in was 7d where I put NEWTON without much thought …

  10. A beautiful puzzle from The Pirate and worthy of a “Prize”.

    I too was looking for a place to enter CURRER but alas Charlotte was snubbed. 🙂

    Lots of fun and I enjoyed the moving theme.

    Good blog from Eileen too. (Yes I did read it today 🙂 )

    I only parsed 7D as a straight definition. The SOED has

    sexton ?s?kst(?)n ? noun. ME.
    A person responsible for looking after a church, its contents, and the churchyard, freq. acting as bell-ringer and gravedigger.

    However Eileen may be have identified the source of the clue as she and Picaroon are obviously better informed on literary matters. than I. (I’ve never heard of ‘Faithless Sally Brown’ although Thomas Hood is known to me.)

    More “Prize”s like this please.

    Thanks to Eileen and Picaroon

  11. Brendan @10

    Yes, of course it’s a straight definition: I did say ‘perhaps’ and I only mentioned the poem because the clue – er – rang a bell. I had to look it up because I only know those lines, which have always amused me.

    Cornick @8

    I think your search would be worthwhile.

  12. Thanks Eileen,

    A superb puzzle from Picaroon which was a joy to solve. Best prize puzzle for a long time, I would suggest.
    A little literary and musical knowledge was required although I put RHEINGOLD without having heard of it (heresy?)
    because it sounded Wagnerian and obviously fitted the excellent clue. Favourite clue was LOOKALIKE which amused me. A googol thanks to Picaroon.

    Quasimodo – that name rings a bell.

  13. Picaroon and Eileen, thank you for a great puzzle and blog.

    TOROIDAL was a new word, as was STRINGER. LOOKALIKE, ETIOLATE and ELLIS made me smile (Eileen, Anne was ACTON BELL, Emily was just ELLIS; I also looked for a reference to Charlotte).

    16,29 I assume ‘call’ gives RING ?

  14. Excellent puzzle and blog. Almost artistic in the creation of something beautiful (Tolkien, Wagner, Btontes & more) from the mundane (onion ring!) My one quibble is that nonfactual is not in my Chambers.

  15. Good to see STRINGER BELL implied, for those who like 21st century cultural references in our crosswords… 🙂

  16. What to say? I thought this one of the best puzzles we’ve had and one which was at just the right level of difficulty for me. I too was a little disappointed when I got WAGNER and feared another operafest but it was so much better than that. ELLIS was my LOI which made me laugh out loud once I twigged it. I confess to have forgotten about ELLIS BELL which I had to look up. And it kept me out of the garden! What’s not to like?
    Thanks Picaroon

  17. Cookie @13

    “16,29 I assume ‘call’ gives RING?”

    Oops, yes, of course. Because I solved ONION a while after RING, I forgot about the other part when I wrote the blog. I’ll fix it now.

    I’m afraid I don’t understand your comment about ACTON and ELLIS.

  18. Eileen, Peter Asplnwall looked up ELLIS BELL, and now I have checked. On the Wiki page for Emily is says she wrote under the name ELLIS BELL whereas the page for the Brontë sisters only mentions Anne using the name BELL, i.e. ACTON BELL, so I assume they both used the name BELL, and did Currer too? The page is not clear.

  19. Cookie @18
    The Brontes, rightly or wrongly, thought that there would be a prejudice against women writers, so too the pseudonyms Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell (Anne, Charlotte and Emily respectively).

  20. Cookie, the Wiki page has “They originally published their poems and novels under the male pseudonyms Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, much like many contemporary female writers.” ‘Bell’ applies to all three. The clues in the crossword refer to ‘literary 1s’. [They chose pseudonyms with their own real initials.]

  21. “took”, not “too”.

    (Of course there is a school of thought that all the books were written by their brother, Branwell.)

  23. [btw I wonder what had changed. Earlier women writers didn’t feel it necessary to use male pseudonyms. For instance, Jane Austen’s earlier novels were published anonymously, but the later ones were under her own name.]

  24. I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. BOXERS was my LOI after I finally realised what sort of RING was being referred to. However, when I clicked on “check all” this morning a week after I solved it I found that I had one wrong. At 2dn I’d entered “rotoidal” from the anagram fodder without giving it too much thought, assuming it was derived from rotor/rotary. As soon as the blanks appeared I realised what I had done, and I’m annoyed with myself because I know “torus”.

  25. Thanks, Eileen. I did the crossword last Saturday (what I could of it!), so was rather confused today. I always considered they took that name from BranwELL, but see now it may have been from one of their father’s curates…

  26. I very much enjoyed this puzzle (though it didn’t keep me out of the garden – I had to leave the puzzle until it was too dark to work outside). I usually don’t like puzzles with so many cross references to another solution and, in this case, also to one which itself was dependent on that one, but I loved the clever use of the multiple Ring/Bell themes once I cracked them.

    It is difficult to pick favourites when there are so many good clues. I agree with Eileen about ELLIS. WHEEL and USED made me smile. I liked the &lit aspects of E COLI (which does leave one green, at least figuratively) and STRINGER.

    Eileen

    I parsed 6d slightly differently, with NO NF = “say No to the NF” = “block racists”. I think both parsings work.

    Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

  27. Hi jennyk

    I like your suggestion for 6dn – but it leaves ‘It’s acceptable’ doing nothing.

  29. I agree this was a cracking puzzle, beautifully blogged. Thanks.

    I liked the linked themes, even though I’m someone who would not object to a whole grid with an operatic theme.

    Following on from Davy @12 – Quasimodo goes into a bar after a hard day’s work at Notre Dame. He asks for a double Scotch. “Bell’s all right?” asks le patron. Quasimodo: “Mind your own bloody business”. Sorry.

  30. Thanks to Picaroon for a romp through Tolkien, Wagner, and Bronte and to Eileen for a wonderful blog. I could not parse NONFACTUAL (largely because I missed NF) and got LORD from the theme though missing the “or.” I got ELLIS BELL without spotting “Hell is other people” from No Exit (even though I was familiar with the quote) so a case of 20/20 hindsight. Great fun.

  31. I can’t add much more except to add another voice to the chorus of praise. Loved the mixture of themes, and it was very enjoyable to do it unaided on the train.

    Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

  32. Thanks all
    I often fail to finish picaroon but this one slipped by easily in spite of my meagre knowledge of Wagner.

  33. I was one who was excited when I saw Wagner in the grid! The Rheingpld clue followed straight away. I had to look up the Ellis and Acton connection to the Brontes though–new for me.

    The ‘ell is other people had me almost laughing out loud. Great fun, start to finish. Thanks to Picaroon for a wonderful romp and Eileen, as always, elucidating so thoroughly.

  35. Thanks Picaroon and Eileen

    This was an exceptional work of an artist in his own right – to integrate several themes from RING and BELL was masterly !!!

    Agree that the blog enhanced the experience -as well as filling in quite a few holes in my own work. Needed help with LOOKALIKE (missed the godess, KALI), didn’t know the phrase ‘Hell is other people’ for ELLIS, didn’t get the NF in NONFACTUAL, couldn’t work out the NOT EP part of NOTEPADS and was stuck on trying to make something out of ‘appeal’ rather than ‘plea’ to derive PEAL.

    This was the epitome of what a Prize puzzle should be.

  36. Biggles A @34

    I suspect that the names Alf, Charlie and Ernie probably weren’t considered good old English names in the early 19th century. In fact Acton and Currer really are “Old English” names whereas Ellis is from Hebrew.

    Charlotte Bronte herself said that the sisters chose the name Acton, Currer and Ellis particularly because they sounded masculine. This does suggest that at the time they actually were “good old English men’s names”.

    Read her thoughts here .

  37. Bnto.

    Many thanks, I hadn’t seen that before and found it most revealing. As I’m sure you understand, my tongue was close to my cheek but Wikipedia does say ‘these were very uncommon forenames’.

  38. Further to the debate on Currer, Acton and Ellis, it was quite common in 19th century West Yorkshire for forenames to be chosen from related family surnames, often without being accompanied by a conventional forename. So although the pseudonyms look strange to a modern eye, they might not have been seemed unusual at the time.

  39. One of the best prize crosswords for a while. I routinely spend all week working on the Saturday puzzle and again this one took me until this morning to complete – with the thought of Eileen’s erudite blog to come as an added incentive to finish it off. An inadvertent ‘Heston’ at 7 down had me thinking we were back in celebrity chef territory (supported by the food reference in 16 29 and ‘tart’ or ‘dish’ at 1 down). Then 28 down gave me ‘ring’ and I was back at 5040 for a moment but I’m so glad I persevered! Such great cluing and diverse themes -a very rewarding experience. Thank you, Picaroon!

  40. Yes Biggles A I did realise that your post wasn’t to be taken at face value.

    However my reply does seem a little “schoolmasterish” now that I actually read it again. Sorry, this wasn’t intended.

    I am a bit of a Bronte fan and for a short time lived about 100 yards from the Bronte Parsonage. This gave me ample opportunity to visit and browse the books in the museum shop.

    Your original post prompted me to find the same type of comments on the net about Acton, Currer and Ellis. (i.e. that they weren’t common names in the 19th century.)

    I suppose that my post was trying to convince myself that the sisters wouldn’t have chosen obscure names if the sole purpose of the pseudonyms was to hide their sex. It did occur to me that perhaps they chose names whose gender was ambivalent but the fact that Charlotte refers to them as “positively masculine” probably means that they at least didn’t think they were obscure.

    If they’d Googled them they would have discovered their mistake. 😉

  41. Bnto,

    Thanks again, I understand. If I may air a little of the knowledge I have gained since following up on your advice I hope the water supply in the region of the parsonage is more hygienic than it was in the Bronte times. I see it was probably a cause of all those early deaths.

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