A witty and topical Prize puzzle from Shed, whose name I was pleased to see for my first Prize blog of the new year.
[The puzzle was published on the day that the increase in rail fares was announced.]
After the teasing special instructions in the Imogen puzzle the previous week, we had another set:
‘Solutions to 1,2 and 6 are [perhaps apocryphally] 7 0f a kind. None of the four is further defined’,
which looked puzzling to begin with but, once the penny dropped that ‘7’ meant the clue number, they became perfectly clear. I guess there may be some non-UK residents who were baffled by the theme. 1, 2 and 6dn are reasons which have [allegedly] been given by the rail network for train delays. I have provided links in the blog for those in the puzzle and if you google ‘excuses for train delays’, you will find plenty more.
These four long answers did fill rather a lot of the grid and I was disappointed to find I’d finished when I was enjoying it so much. There were plenty more clues – with great surfaces, as always from this setter – to smile at and admire along the way, though.
Many thanks, as ever, to Shed for the entertainment.
Across
8 Fragments tire 5 out (8)
DETRITUS
Anagram [out] of TIRE + STUD [5dn]: I did attempt an anagram of TIRE FIVE first, because I boringly go through the clues in order – anyone else?
9 Hallucinatory endeavour to keep one very quiet (6)
TRIPPY
TRY [endeavour] round I [one] PP [very quiet]
10 A Roman character embracing Greek one in street (6)
AVENUE
A VEE [a Roman character – ‘five’ again!] round NU [a Greek character]
11 Dependable left-wing sort of university? (8)
REDBRICK
RED [left-wing] + BRICK [dependable sort]: Collins [my favourite] has this as one word, Chambers two
12 Take notice of shop’s stocktaking (4)
PSST!
Hidden in shoP’S STocktaking
13 Pig gobbling wood and brass, maybe, from adjustable aperture (4,6)
SASH WINDOW
SOW [pig] round ASH [wood] + WIND [brass, maybe]
15 Photographer of fish (7)
SNAPPER
Double definition
16 Artist‘s little image: Fool With Nothing On (7)
PICASSO
PIC [little image] + ASS [fool] + O [nothing]
18 Returns south in reversion to type (6,4)
THROWS BACK
S [south] in THROWBACK [reversion to type]
19 Send message that’s offensive about 10 (4)
TEXT
TET [offensive in Vietnam war] round X [ten]
20 One pound return on ship with energy-free fuel — that’s heavenly! (8)
BLISSFUL
Reversal [return] of I LB [one pound] + SS [ship] + FU[e]L
22 Kindness to a 5 in 4 (6)
FAVOUR
A V [a five – this is becoming a mini-theme!] in FOUR
23 Jar containing new unpleasant smell that’s yet to come (6)
UNBORN
URN [jar] round N [new] BO [unpleasant smell]
24 Garlanded United, nursing broken heart (8)
WREATHED
WED [united] round an anagram [broken] of HEART
Down
1 Folios under threat? (6,2,3,4)
LEAVES ON THE LINE
LEAVES [folios] ON THE LINE [under threat]: see here [I’m sorry, this link has changed since I added it yesterday: googling ‘leaves on the line’ will give you several alternatives.]
2 Not starting 20 spoof? (5,4,2,4)
WRONG TYPE OF SNOW
A reverse anagram [WRONG] of [t]WENTY SPOOF: see here
3 Skinhead, as one leaves the hairdresser’s, lacking emphasis (10)
STRESSLESS
S [first letter – head – of skin] + TRESSLESS [as one leaves the hairdresser’s – it depends what one goes for, I suppose]
4 Garments adopted by dry emperor’s champion (7)
TSARIST
SARIS [garments] in TT [dry]
5 Virile character‘s incomplete investigation (4)
STUD
STUD[y] [investigation]
6 Rang Tim? (7,8)
MIGRANT ACTIVITY
Another reverse anagram [ACTIVITY] of RANG TIM – a reminder of ringing TIM the speaking clock – and an excuse which, sadly, is not so specious: see here
7 One having nooky with copper in river, all wearing glasses (8,7)
SPECIOUS EXCUSES
I [one] + SEX [nooky] and CU [copper] inside OUSE [river] all inside [wearing] SPECS: impeccably parsable and one of the most hilarious surfaces I’ve seen for a long time – a real classic!
14 Supposing setter enters beaten and boozy? (10)
WHISKIFIED
IF [supposing] + I [setter] in WHISKED [beaten] – I didn’t know this word existed, or I could sometimes have applied it to my malt-loving late husband 😉
17 Chicks holding down place of execution (7)
GALLOWS
GALS [chicks] round LOW [down]
21 Typeface in which to acquire a name? (4)
FONT
Double / cryptic definition: the function of baptism is not to confer a name, of course – hence the question mark – but it’s a common notion and a great surface
Thanks Eileen, especially for parsing 7D, which got sticky for me though the fun was there. The 1,2,6 answers were novel and droll and gettable even for a foreigner (Google revealed all afterwards) – and a tick especially for the last of those.
and excellent work, Shed
Thanks Eileen. As a non resident I did need some help from Google and 2 was my LOI. I had heard of ‘leaves on the line’ and ‘migrant activity’ yielded readily enough but even with all the crossing letters I had to work hard on ‘wrong type of snow’. Otherwise an enjoyable interlude with a mixture of solutions that wrote themselves in and those that needed rather more thought. Put me down as another who tried the TIRE FIVE anagram first off.
Thanks to Shed and Eileen. I worked on this puzzle on and off throughout the week and finally got through Friday morning. I got SPECIOUS EXCUSES early on but did not make the connection with trains (e.g., Tim was unknown to me). I was held up because I was pushing “whipped” rather than “whisked” but “whippified” made no sense. When I finally discarded several of my false steps, I got THROWS BACK and then LEAVES ON THE LINE (in one of my occasional UK stays I lost half a day on a trip from London to Oxford owing to that excuse) and MIGRANT ACTIVITY though, because I missed the train connection (and because of “spoof”), I ended up with WRONG KIND OF SHOW, not SNOW. A challenge, but well worth the effort.
It’s always good to see Shed’s name on a puzzle and this was no exception. A generous helping of easy clues made it fairly straightforward, but it did take me a while to see any of the themed ones, and MIGRANT ACTIVITY was last and best, though less familiar than the other two.
Thanks to Shed and Eileen
A lovely crossword – thanks to Shed (and to Eileen for the immaculate blog).
But the excuses are not ‘specious’, which would mean that they were false. As an example, I was turned off a train at Haslemere after fairly light snow had fallen. The snow had penetrated the train’s horn mechanism and it was deemed that the train could not proceed without a working horn! Poor design, certainly, over -zealous application of elf ‘n safety possibly, but it was indeed the wrong kind of snow that stopped the train.
Yet again we have a setter giving us a Prize Puzzle which is easier than his weekday offerings. (Very odd)
A pleasant enough puzzle from Shed but pretty straightforward.
As I solved 7D almost instantly it became obvious what I was looking for. The plethora of very easy across clues meant that 1D was soon solved also. It still wasn’t certain that the other two “special” clues were of the railway variety but the “of a kind” made it very likely.
2D soon confirmed the above. The only hold up was what type of ACTIVITY was the third excuse. I’d never heard of MIGRANT ACTIVITY in this sense but it was very plausible.
The only other small delay was WHISKIFIED which I’d never heard of but the wordplay soon offered it up.
I’m still wondering why the Prize puzzles have no “Anagram helper” or “Clear this” buttons? It appears to be an obvious error but don’t hold your breath. I wouldn’t expect our illustrious ed to even notice this.
Thanks to Eileen and Shed.
Yes, this was enjoyable. I got 1 and 2 down almost immediately so I was halfway there . I got delayed later when I put in SPURIOUS for 7dn so I couldn’t get REDBRICK until the penny dropped.
Loved MIGRANT ACTIVITY and PSST.
Very enjoyable.
Thanks Shed.
It took me a while to get 7d, so I got off to a bad start, especially as 1d was looking rather like “slaves of the lamp” and I was diverted into the land of Kipling’s “Stalky”.
I’m another who tends to go through the clues in order (once I’ve cherry picked the obvious anagrams): there has to be *some* method of deciding what to tackle next, after all.
I interpreted the “one” in 3d as a skinhead rather than simply a person, after which tressless made perfect sense.
Whiskified was new to me as well. A lovely word to add to my vocabulary!
Thanks to Shed for a fun crossword with many “Aha!” moments, and to Eileen for the blog.
Thanks to Shed and Eileen. Don’t know if whiskified is a word, but quite appropriate for the time of year.
Thanks Shed an Eileen.
I was suspicious when I had nearly finished this. I had LEAVES ON THE LAWN, THE WRONG TYPE OF SHOW and VIBRANT ACTIVITY…so I googled “Leaves on the ” and ” line” came up, then I realised it must be to do with trains, googled further and managed to find the “snow” excuse, but could do no better with Tim, so just assumed something had gone wrong with the Speaking Clock!
So many good clues, FONT and TSARIST in particular stood out for me.
Bnto@7 – “clear this” and “anagram helper” appear on today’s prize.
We got SPECIOUS EXCUSES early on, but it took a while to figure out these related to trains – I spent a while looking for places to put ‘The dog ate my homework’ or something along similar lines!
Good fun, though. The reverse anagrams are a bit underhand – very satisfying when you get them, but almost impenetrable from scratch.
This was far too easy. In fact the grid was so obvious, that I wrote in all the answers without even reading the clues. All over in two minutes.
Seriously though, I didn’t find this easy at all and it took me a long time to get into. I did enjoy it very much though and did finally finish it on Thursday evening. Like ACD, I work on the puzzle in short bursts during the week and usually get two or three before going to bed. I sometimes don’t even look at it till Monday. No explanations needed today and I think my last one in was TSARIST which had a great clue.
Many thanks to Eileen and Shed.
I enjoyed this. THROWS BACK was my LOI. I was thinking of “shoots back” for a while, which I could almost justify. WHISKIFIED was new to me. Leaving a hairdresser with LESS (fewer, surely?) TRESSES would often be desirable, but personally if I was TRESS-LESS (no tresses at all) when I left, I would consider suing!
Favourites were PSST, DETRITUS, WRONG TYPE OF SNOW, MIGRANT ACTIVITY and SPECIOUS EXCUSES. I liked the varied use of 5 in the clues.
Thanks to Shed and Eileen.
B(NTO) @7 and DuncT @12
I wrote to the crossword editor before Christmas about the lack of those two buttons. It’s good to see that if enough of us complain something may eventually be done. Time to praise the editor for a change, perhaps?
I don’t understand 7A. Where is the definition ?
I mean 7D of course.
salsaman @17
“Solutions to 1,2 and 6 are [perhaps apocryphally] 7 of a kind. None of the four is further defined“
I was one of the early contributors because Eileen posted her (as always very informative) explanations shortly after midnight UK time whereas I could respond c. 9 PM US East Coast time. In recent days there has been a lot of discussion on this blog of the levels of difficulty provided by various setters and the effect on solvers – and this puzzle may add to that exchange. I just want to note that 1) as a US participant in this process I was at a disadvantage with the four long down clues (though I did know enough to catch on if I had been more astute – and I did come within one letter of a correct solution) but 2) I have no complaints. Yes, at times being on the outside looking in can be frustrating, but, as a non-native speaker, that is to be expected and is a small price to pay for all the fun.
Like many other solvers including Eileen and the legendary Roy Dean I start by attempting the clues in the order on the page, attempting all the As before the Ds. This proved fortunate in this case as Shed had deliberately, I guess, made the As easier than usual. Otherwise I would have had little chance with 1, 2, 6, and 7. Cleverly contrived as it is my quibble with 7D is that I don’t recognise it as a phrase in common use. As an illustration, to me BAKED BEANS would be acceptable but BOILED PARSNIPS wouldn’t (in the grid or on the plate). Similarly, I don’t remember coming across clues like 2D and 6D, where the an anagrind is part of the answer, before. Definitely the sort of clue where you have to know the answer before you begin parsing it. On their own I wouldn’t have guessed them any more than I would have solved “No start to teapots” as MASHED POTATOES without a lot of help from the surroundings. For me LOI was 6D – I could only fit ACTIVITY as the second word and 2D indicated that it might be an an anagrind so RANG TIM had to be MIGRANT, though, unlike 1 and 2D, it wasn’t a phrase I had heard before. I too was sidetracked, as Shed no doubt intended, by thinking of TIM as the speaking clock.
A question for all, triggered by Pino @21:
Could both 2d and 6d be thought of as definitions by example, as well as reverse anagrams? In both cases, the question mark would be the D-by-E indicator.
My apologies. I somehow managed to delete my thanks to Shed for an entertaining puzzle and to Eileen before ticking the Publish box.
Pino @21
Unlike LEAVES ON THE LINE and WRING TYPE OF SNOW, MIGRANT ACTIVITY is a very recent phenomenon and so less familiar. If you google it, you will find a number of entries, all in inverted commas, suggesting that this is the accepted phrase.
I take your point about reverse anagrams but SPECIOUS EXCUSES was meticulously clued and, together with the crossers, seems to have put people on the right track [sorry, that was unintentional!] as to what we were looking for.
G Larsen @6: re SPECIOUS [Chambers: ‘plausible but wrong or inaccurate in reality’] – being seemingly completely implausible, these are actually the exact opposite, aren’t they? But I see what Shed meant. 😉
jennyk @22
I hadn’t seen your comment when I posted mine. You’re right – in fact, that’s what the special instructions say they are!
Thanks, Eileen (@25). I still get confused by some of these clue types.
[apropos, The Guardian Weekly has just arrived – apparently UK rail commuters spend a greater proportion of their earnings than their European counterparts. For instance, the £358 monthly season ticket between London and Chelmsford would cost just £37 in Rome, £56 in Barcelona and £95 in Berlin. Even the £234 paid in Paris, the second costliest in Europe, is 30% less than the UK season ticket.]
Hi jennyk @26
I went out immediately after posting my comment and I have only just seen yours.
I realise now that mine might have sounded sarcastic – if so, I’m really sorry: that was certainly not the intention. Your comment made me go back and read the clues again, noting the question marks that you pointed out, and then the special instructions – and I was amused to find that it was all there! 😉
Cookie @27 – I knew that our fares were expensive but I didn’t realise we were so far ahead!
jennyk @16
Out of interest, when you wrote to the crossword editor did you write to her/him by name or just by title?
The reason I ask is that I too wrote to the crossword editor on 30 December about the general problem of the frequent errors. (And we’ve had more since!) Not knowing the person’s name I just wrote to The Crossword Editor. Do you know her/his name?
jennyk @ 16, B(NTO) @7 and DuncT @12. As one who prints these puzzles out I was delighted to find today that the previous format of a decent sized grid and the flexibility of a print preview facility has been restored. I had asked the editor if this could be done soon after the new website was introduced and was told then it would be put on the list of things to do. Having heard such promises before I had no great expectations but would now like to express my appreciation and apologise for my doubts.
jennyk
(Actually, it wasn’t just the frequent errors – see 29. It was really the wider problem of the apparent lack of editing. Errors are included in that.)
Alan Browne @29 and anyone else interested:
The Crossword Editor is Hugh Stephenson. He posts regularly to the Guardian website here. Yes, I did address him by name.
I find that the Guardian crossword blog is often worth reading. It includes contributions from Alan Connor (and perhaps others) as well as the editor.
Thanks jennyk @32.
I so rarely tune into any other than the Guardian’s news pages that I forgot I could find out this way. (Oh, and I sometimes go directly to the day’s crossword in case I need to see it or print it out.)
Alan Browne @33
I get the Guardian Today daily email and use that to get to the news pages and other parts of the site which might interest me, but I also have the main Cryptic index page bookmarked and go to that directly, as well as coming to this site. I need my morning crossword fix. 🙂
jennyk, you’re well organised – I could learn from that.
I actually buy the paper more days than not. I also feel the need for brain therapy, although I usually miss Saturdays because I’m too busy.
Thanks to Eileen and all who commented. ‘Migrant activity’ was until recently a new one on me too, but when I first heard it mentioned on the news as an explanation for a delay in the Channel Tunnel I did what I usually do when confronted with an expression that horrifies and disgusts me, which is try to think of a clue for it. Then it dawned on me that the better-known ones (on this side of the pond, anyway) were also both 15 letters long, and off I went. Eileen @24 has (characteristically) read me right, though I accept that ‘specious’ is perhaps not really correct: there really have been leaves, snow and migrants on the tracks causing delays. But they are pretty threadbare excuses.
That this puzzle coincided with the increase in UK train fares was just a fluke, and the question of whether something gets to be a prize puzzle is entirely down to the editor.
Many thanks, Shed.
I hadn’t actually registered MIGRANT ACTIVITY before and had to research it. It now joins ‘Friendly fire’ [much worse, of course] in my list of abhorrent phrases.
Late, but great. Thans Shed.
Oops. Thanks not thans.
“Migrant activity” is not an Australian excuse, at last not for late trains. but the wordplay was (for me, eventually) sufficient to solve the clue.
In the course of my Google searches I found a book, part of which was made available online, called “Pull the Other One” by Richard De’ath which contained a collection of excuses of doubtful merit. Worth a look, I thought. The late running of one train was explained to be because “we were following a train in front of us”.
I have come late to this – wrong type of snow was used very specifically some 20 or so years ago when dry powdery snow (unusual for the UK) got sucked into the high speed train air intakes and stopped the engines Something similar happened to the Eitostar a few years ago. Leaves on the line when wet and massed can be a very real problem – slippery as they are on a pavement.
Thanks She’d and Eileen – great puzzle.
Eurostar sorry.
[Today passengers on Southeastern (which provides rail services to the south of London) were told that their trans were being delayed due to the wrong kind of sun. “We had severe congestion through Lewisham due to dispatching issues as a result of strong sunlight.” The firm added: “The low winter sun has been hitting the dispatch monitor which prevents the driver from being able to see.”]
My flabber has never been so gasted, jennyk @43!
Excellent puzzle and blog. Thanks Shed and Eileen
Thanks Eileen and Shed.
Excellent, fun, precisely clued – the right type of puzzle for me.
I sailed through this – getting the theme about half way through the across clues / but none the worse for that.
And I was reminded of a similar one which used to be oft heard at Waterloo – DISPLACED TRAIN CREW – which always presented an image to me of commuters crowding in and the guard popping out the other side.
Thanks Shed and Eileen
Good to be catching up on some of these old puzzles. Actually found this one quite challenging, taking quite some time to get 7d. Train delays was nowhere near top of mind then … and even after 6d presented, was still none the wiser.
Finally had enough to google “LEAVES ON THE LINE” (guessing that ‘on the line’ meant a threat) and EXCUSES to find 2d. Then googled train delay excuses to find the last one … don’t think that any of these have ever been used down here !!!
Funny … had no problem with the reverse anagram at 6d but needed to come here to parse 2d for the same trick :-/.
Lots of nice clues throughout to make it a really enjoyable solve.