Guardian Prize 26,818 / Paul

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It’s Paul playing tricksy games with us, in a puzzle that I found quite a challenge but a really satisfying one to complete. I enjoyed it more than any Paul puzzle for quite a while.

The games were all familiar, except the one at 8ac, but I enjoyed most the curveballs that Paul threw in at 15,4 and 26ac and 6dn, just when I was in the groove of looking for games – real penny-dropping moments. 20ac and 18dn were other favourite clues.

Many thanks to Paul for the fun and games.

Across

8 Army building plastic toy to entertain wife in Texas game (5-3)
FORTY-TWO
FORT [army building] + an anagram [plastic] of TOY round [entertaining] W [wife] – I thought Texas was going to be part of the wordplay but found that Forty-two is also known as Texas 42

9 Revulsion has a benefit in North America (6)
NAUSEA
A USE [a benefit] in NA [North America]

10 Tree, redhead behind one (4)
ACER
ACE [one] + R[ed]

11 Commemorative elegy finally written after actor died, sadly (10)
DEDICATORY
Anagram [sadly] of ACTOR DIED + [eleg]Y: I spent a minute or two trying to find an anagram of ACTOR DIED + [writte]N – but I suppose that was the intention

12 Archer’s game (6)
BRIDGE
Double definition

14 Balderdash, feature defining itself, nothing less, with name (8)
NONSENSE
I think this is NOSE N[o]SE [feature defining itself] minus o [nothing less] with N [name] inserted in first  NO[N]SE – I think

15,4 I shine brightly in game as author (7,7)
WILLIAM GOLDING
I AM GOLD [I shine brightly] in WILLING [game]

17 That woman’s order to collect is for valour (7)
HEROISM
HER [that woman’s] OM [Order of Merit] round [to collect] IS [the inscription on the Victoria Cross is ‘For Valour’ – I rather liked that]

20 At lunchtime, change clothes for game (8)
PATIENCE
PENCE [change] round [clothes] AT I [at lunchtime] – great surface!

22 2s in the Church heading off commoners (6)
CELEBS
CE [the Church of England] + [p]LEBS [commoners]

23 Rotten melons once dropping off in such a state (10)
SOMNOLENCE
Anagram [rotten] of MELONS ONCE

24 Card in 7, perhaps? (4)
CLUB
Double definition – HEARTS [7dn] is a football club

25 Like 8 on board game (6)
SEVENS
EVEN [like 8  – or like 42, the answer to 8ac] in SS [the familiar crossword ‘on board’

26 Game in Cluedo set straight (8)
UNCOILED
Anagram [game, as in game leg – very neat!] of IN CLUEDO

Down

1 Bruckner’s Fourth, then moving to nicer orchestral works (8)
CONCERTI
bruCkner + an anagram [moving] of TO NICER

2 Leading traitors promoted (4)
STAR
Reversal [promoted] of RATS [traitors]

3 Heavy food, say … brought up (6)
STODGE
Reversal [brought up] of EG [say] + DOTS – a typical Paul device and another nice [or not] surface

5 Hide in 25 concealed (8)
ENSCONCE
Hidden in sevENS*CONCEaled [*answer to 25] – I was rather surprised at the definition but it’s in all my dictionaries

6 Game, passing over to boxing judge, leaves at the count of four? (10)
QUATREFOIL
QUAIL [game] round [passing over] TO round [boxing] REF [judge] -for definition, see here

7 Scottish team game (6)
HEARTS
Double definition

13 Ultimately short-lived relationships? (10)
DALLIANCES
short-liveD + ALLIANCES – &lit, I think

16 Chronicler writing article on Stalin inaccurately (8)
ANNALIST
AN [article] + an anagram [inaccurately] of STALIN

18 Scottish island in very cold game (8)
BUTE [Scottish island] in SUB O [sub zero – very cold]
SUBBUTEO
Top favourite of my teenage sons, decades ago: intriguing name – see Wiki: ‘The “Subbuteo” name is derived from the neo-Latin scientific name Falco subbuteo (a bird of prey commonly known as the Eurasian hobby), after a trademark was not granted to its creator Peter Adolph (1916–1994) to call the game “Hobby”.[1]’

19 Man I mind, as hateful (7)
HEINOUS
HE [man] I NOUS [mind]

21 God swallows up Australian island group (6)
AZORES
ARES [god] round a reversal [up] of OZ [Australian]

22 Grip top fish under edges in creel (6)
CLENCH
[t]ENCH [fish, ‘topped’] under C[ree]L

24 Cheat in game (4)
CRIB
Double definition

25 comments on “Guardian Prize 26,818 / Paul”

  2. Yes, an enjoyable challenge, from wha I remember quite a lot less difficult than today’s but entertaining nonetheless. FORTY TWO was unfamiliar but quite guessable once the crossers were in place. Liked WILLIAM GOLDING.

    Thanks to Paul and Eileen

  3. Lovely puzzle and one I found very much easier than yesterday’s by the same setter. Far too many goodies to list but I was rather taken by CELEBS and SUBBUTEO which were my last ones in.
    Thanks Paul.

  4. Yesterday’s?
    I am afraid it is still Friday …. [oops]
    But, Peter, I agree – good puzzle and also much easier.

  5. Thanks Eileen. Had to look up SUBBUTEO at the very end, and there were a couple of others (8A and 6D) that were clearly right but needed verifying then. 25A remained a puzzle, until now. The games theme was nicely played by Paul to whom thanks: special praise for its ‘willing’ meaning in 15,4.

  6. Thanks Eileen

    I agree with Peter Asplnwall @3 that Friday’s Paul was unusually hard, and this one less so. For what it’s worth, I had a slightly different take on 14A NONSENSE: I took ‘defining’ as an envelope indicator, so that the wordplay read as N[o]SE plus N in NOSE.

  7. Thanks Eileen and Paul.

    I couldn’t parse 3d; now that I see the dots for what they are,
    I’m not sure I like the clue much. Clever though.

  8. Thanks to Paul and Eileen. I took all week figuring out SUBBUTEO – I finally parsed it as Bute surrounded by Sub-0 (zero), but, given my limited knowledge of games, I failed to get CLUB and CRIB (my final stab was FOUR and FOIL). The gamesmanship was fun but a bit too much for me.

  9. Thanks Eileen. It took me a while to realise that ‘game’ took on several meanings here but they were all clever.

    I’m still not sure about the double definition in 12a. The closest association I could find was that Bridge Farm was the home of The Archers. Arches could be a bridge of course but there is no indication of a homophone.

  11. Thanks Paul and Eileen

    Another good quality Prize Puzzle that I found quite a tough assignment over a number of hours this afternoon after the regular SUP session this morning. Now I better get to the real weekend chores!

    The only one needing help with the parsing was the dual nose NONSENSE.

    Thought that the “Game theme’ was brilliantly executed with a mix of real games and some very cleverly misdirected alternative meanings of the word.

    Finished down in the SE corner with SUBBUTEO, CLUB and CRIB after a very enjoyable and challenging contest with Paul.

  12. A pretty standard challenge from Paul with his usual variations on a theme.

    Nonetheless a pleasant solve if a briefish one for the weekend.

    BigglesA @9

    I think “Archer” is newish crossword speak for a bridge. (It arches over a banker (also newish for river ) sometimes 😉 )

    Thanks to Eileen and Paul

  13. Biggles A @9. The conceit is that ARCHER could be understood as something that forms an arch eg a bridge.
    I think we’ve had this often before.

    1dn CONCERTI is just OK, though the usual plural is CONCERTOS. Oddly, it’s always CONCERTI GROSSI.
    Thanks Eileen for the blog and Paul for a great puzzle.

  14. Thanks Paul,

    I worked hard at this, and came up with NOUMENON at 14a, “a feature defining itself”, this led to ENACTURE at 5d and TETRAO, the Scottish game birds Black Grouse and Capercaillie (both now protected I believe), at 7d.
    At 24a I managed to parse CLUB since the Suit of Clubs corresponds with the Suit of Batons in Tarot (TETRAO*) cards.

    Thanks Eileen for setting me straight at 14a with NONSENSE! Also for the brilliant parsing of several other clues, STODGE in particular.

    captcha nine – ? = 0

  15. Thanks all
    LikecBiggles @9 I too found the “new” definition of a bridge rather unsatisfactory.
    Rivers always have banks but only a diminishing minority of bridges have arches.

  16. I found parts of this very tough, particularly a few intersecting clues in the lower right, but a Prize cryptic should be.

    Like Eileen, I hadn’t heard of FORTY TWO as a game, but it had to be that so I checked it online. I tentatively had NONSENSE “defining itself” as “NO SENSE” around Name, but that didn’t account for the “feature” or “nothing less”. I too wasn’t convinced by BRIDGE = “archer”. For CELEBS, I tried for a long time to fin beheaded commoners who would fit “in” CE or CH. The parsing of ENSCONCE escaped me completely.

    Favourites were PATIENCE and STODGE (for the cunning use of the dots, well disguised by the surface).

    Thanks, Paul and Eileen.

  17. RCW @15

    Although I am not particularly happy with the new “banker” for river and “archer” for bridge I do feel that you statement

    Rivers always have banks but only a diminishing minority of bridges have arches.

    is almost certainly seriously flawed. 😉

    Drive along almost any road in the UK and, perhaps unknowingly, one will cross hundreds of small arched bridges.

  18. Enjoyed this – good to be reminded of days spent trying to slide the players as far asone could get away with over the felt, and PATIENCE was very good.

    I think PeterO @6 has nailed NONSENSE, with defining used in its “fix the limits of” sense. So, not balderdash, after all! As if…

  20. How is it that this blog could appear on a Friday, but the puzzle itself on the Guardian site still has no check or reveal button on Sunday?

  22. Hi Valentine @20

    Sorry for the delay – I’ve been out all day, being pampered on Mothering Sunday [sic] by my daughter and granddaughter.

    This site has nothing to do with the Guardian website and so I have no idea why there is still no check or reveal button. We bloggers reckon to schedule blogs for Prize puzzles at approx. 00.01 on the appropriate day. On Friday evening, I accidentally pressed the wrong button and so the blog appeared slightly early.

  23. Mothering Sunday [sic] I gather is celebrated just as we celebrate Mother’s Day, the first Sunday in May, but had a churchier origin, having been the Sunday when you were supposed to go to a service at your mother church, where you had been baptised. Mother’s Day was started in the US by Anna Jarvis, who wanted to honor her own mother. a worker for peace. She was outraged later on when the holiday became a vehicle for commercialization — cards and carnations.

  24. Thanks Eileen and Paul.

    I did this straight after doing the Mudd of the same day in the FT. So I should have been in the zone – but gosh I wasn’t.

    A very different character this and it took a while to get going. But I did and in the end it was an enjoyable and rewarding experience.

    I held myself up finishing by putting SUIT confidently at 24ac. Made sense at the time but can’t believe how dumb I was on reflection.

    But got there in the end.

    Favourite was 3dn.

  25. Valentine @20 – the last few closed prizes have not been updated to enable solution checking – I’m not sure whether this is a deliberate change or a mistake but it has been the case for at least a month (so I’ve been depending on this site to keep my solutions list up to date).

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