Guardian Prize26,866 / Puck

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When I entered my blogging dates into my new 2016 diary and saw that I was down to blog the Prize puzzle on 23rd April – the Shakespeare Quatercentenary and St George’s Day – my first reaction was a pang that it wouldn’t be Araucaria setting the puzzle – closely followed by a wild hope that it might possibly fall to Puck, who is, for me, for several reasons, a natural successor to the beloved Rev. When I opened my paper, I could hardly believe my luck.

And I was certainly not disappointed in the puzzle. I can’t understand how it happened but my last three entries were the 27ac connections, which I actually cracked via 2dn, although I knew the unit in 27ac from crosswords – and  how could I have missed the hidden answer in 29? I’m really glad it happened that way, though, because it meant that I had reached the end before seeing the ‘quoted elsewhere’ – a glorious PDM – at 15dn, 14dn, 16dn, 8ac, 4dn, 17dn, 10,25ac. See here for Sir Larry’s famous rendition.

This followed a most enjoyable and absorbing solve, involving a variety of cleverly constructed and interlinked clues, some witty misdirection and great surfaces throughout.

By the happiest of coincidences, the cherry on top of the icing on the cake is that this is Puck’s 100th Guardian puzzle, not counting Genius ones. Many congratulations  [here’s to the next hundred!] and huge thanks to Puck – I loved every minute of it.

Across

7 One way to get 30 American instead of English cows (9)
THREATENS
THREe TENS [one way to get 30] with the e [English] changed to A [American]

8 Pester 25 across’s uncle (6]
HARRY
Double definition: Prince Harry is Prince George’s uncle

9 Awfully sad deed? King Lear’s first to beat it (9)
SKEDADDLE
Anagram [awfully] of SAD DEED + K [king, chess notation] L[ear] – a lovely word and my first one in, which put a smile on my face from the start

10,25 No posh car for Ringo Starr? Gee, bad day for him today (5,6)
SAINT GEORGE
Anagram [bad] of RINGO STA[rr] minus R[olls] R[oyce] – posh car –  and GEE

12 Topless females on tail of 30’s killer? They tremble and quiver (6)
ASPENS
[h]ENS [topless females]  after ASP [killer of Cleopatra – 30ac]

13 Wrongly coin “leg-over” as a new word (8)
NEOLOGIC
Anagram [wrongly] of COIN LEG + O  [over, in cricket]

16 Sudden outburst from EU, after right is in panic (5-2)
FLARE-UP
EU after R [right] in FLAP [panic]

19 Sounding tired? Yes, when collecting for charity (4,3)
FLAG DAY
FLAGD [sounds like flagged – tired]  + AY [yes] –  St George’s flags are flying everywhere on 23rd April

22 Changing gender is a new plan (8)
REDESIGN
Anagram [changing] of GENDER IS

27 Unit 3, nervy? Oddly not (5)
HENRY
Even letters of tHrEe NeRvY for the SI unit of inductance

28,30 Play opposite male, missing a knight finally captured by queen (6,3,9)
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
ANTONY[m] [opposite, with m {male} missing] + A N [knight, chess notation] + [capture]D + CLEOPATRA [queen]

29 Some relief, if thinking 27 quoted elsewhere (5)
FIFTH
Hidden in relieF IF Thinking – see preamble for HENRY FIFTH’s ‘Once more unto the breach’ speech, ‘quoted elsewhere’

Down

1 One now remembered going, having heard fellow go for drinks (6)
SHAKES
SHAKESpeare [one now remembered going] minus peare – sounds like [heard] peer [fellow] – a neat way to introduce the theme

2 27 agreed about carrying a hat? (8)
HEADGEAR
H [abbreviation for Henry [27] + an anagram [about] of AGREED round [carrying] A

3 A Fleet Street barber’s out of step (2,4)
AT ODDS
A [Sweeney] TODD’S [A Fleet Street barber’s]

4 Country with good local network, finally? (7)
ENGLAND
G [good] + LAN [local area network] in {the} END [finally]

5 Much Ado About Nothing, including 2 from the beginning (2,4)
DA CAPO
Reversal [about] of much of AD[o] + O [nothing] round CAP [2dn]

6 Bard regularly worked in EU country (6)
BRUNEI
B[a]R[d] + an anagram [worked] of IN EU

11 Touchstone, say, with length under 9 inches? (4)
FOOL
L [length] under FOO [three quarters of FOO[t] = 9 inches – Touchstone is the fool in ‘As you like it’

14 Follow up what’s said in shock (3)
GOD
Reversal  [up] of DOG [follow]

15 Lament, if only about 43% like this crossword (3)
CRY
CRY is 3/7 [about 43%] of CRY[ptic] [like this crossword]: what a lovely surface – but no danger, surely?

16 Pro golfer’s last by start of final hole (3)
FOR
F[inal] + O [hole] + [golfe]R

17 Joiner from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, initially not primarily mechanical (3)
AND
A[m]ND [abbreviation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream] minus m[echanical] – a trademark Puck clue, with a lovely misleading surface

18 One you texted before 11 (4)
UNIT
U [you texted] + NIT [fool – 11dn]

20 Rubber users, making love during day, go red when almost found out (8)
GOODYEAR
O [love] in an anagram [found out] of DAY GO RE[d] – cheeky!

21 One child’s granny goes to see how 11s act (7)
INANELY
I [one] + NAN [child’s granny] + ELY [the familiar crossword see]

23 It’ll make you bring up quote Puck brought up (6)
EMETIC
Reversal [brought up] of CITE [quote] ME [Puck]
[I [shall] never tire of reminding you of Puck’s classic &lit anagram Puck quote in 25,704: ‘“As I said in 15,27,4,23 [A Midsummer Night’s Dream ]: “Funny farm? The whole lot are dolts, boss!” (4,4,5,5,7,2)’]

24 Having drunk eight pints, negotiated River Tees in waders (6)
EGRETS
Anagram [negotiated] of R TEES round [having drunk] G [a gallon = eight pints] – great surface and one of my favourites

25 Huge number shot in East Yorks town after docking (6)
GOOGOL
Go [shot] in GOOL[e] [East Yorks town minus its final letter – after docking] – another great surface, Goole being an inland port

26 Eldest daughter’s missing Israel — they’ve left for good (6)
GONERS
GONER[il]’S – King Lear’s eldest daughter minus il [Israel – international vehicle registration]

35 comments on “Guardian Prize26,866 / Puck”

  1. Thanks Eileen, and Puck for a great challenge. ‘G’ for eight pints eluded me but otherwise enjoyable.

  2. Thanks Eileen. I expected more bard stuff and soon got what there was. Otherwise I had numerous ??? against obviously right answers, including 4, 14, 15, and 16D. 1D made no sense to me, and I needed help with GOOGOL.

  3. Thanks Eileen. I found this quite hard; well, not to complete the grid but to explain several of the answers. I stared at 28, 30 for a long time before enlightenment. I’m ashamed to have to admit I completely missed the significance of ‘quoted elsewhere’. What a gem!

  4. Thanks Eileen and Puck.

    This was hard and in spite of multiple attempts NW corner remained empty.

    Guessing ‘threatens’, that ‘todd’ is involved and saddeedkl fodder etc. somehow did not help as I was reluctant to enter anything without parsing. Saw FIFTH but HENRY escaped as I was sitting with e and v from nervy alone 🙁

    Nevertheless enjoyed the rest of it!

    As usual, great blog and thanks for the many explanations!

  5. Thanks to Puck and Eileen. I did not know HENRY as a unit, initially misspelled SKEDADDLE; had trouble parsing GOOGOL and CRY; and finally remembered FLAG DAY from a previous puzzle – but I did get through and much enjoyed the process.

  7. Many thanks to Puck and to Eileen for the explanations.

    I actually found (most) of this quite easy, and very enjoyable.

    But I completely missed seeing the ‘PDM’ (not seen that term before), so some of the subtler clueing now makes sense !

    Also I never got 5Dn which would have been my LOI by a mile. I’ve never heard of ‘da capo’ nor can I find in Chambers (either the regular part or the foreign words and phrases part).

    1Dn is a splendidly indirect way to introduce the theme, I’m sure the Bard himself would have approved of the punning wodplay.

  8. Hi Eoin @7

    Apologies for not explaining DA CAPO. It’s a musical term I know from singing in choirs. It’s in my [12th edition] Chambers and Collins, too.

  9. This was good fun. I enjoyed the misdirections and deft definitions, there were many surfaces to admire, and I appreciated the theme. My last in was 2A (THREATENS) – fortunately it didn’t take me long to suss that ’30’ meant just that and not ‘Cleopatra’ (at 30 across). I also managed to get 15D (CRY) early on because I recognise 43% as being a close approximation to 3/7 – the answer having 3 letters. (I often struggle on short words based on a subtraction.)

    I thought five of the clues were a bit clunky, but it was possible to work them out – I was pleased that I didn’t have to rely too much on pure guesswork like I had to do on the previous day (in a puzzle by Enigmatist).

    I recently described the grid used for this puzzle as ‘weak’ because it has as many as 10 answers with fewer than half of their letters crossing others. I must say, though, that in this crossword the setter succeeded in creating something that was neither too easy nor too difficult.

    I saw SAINT GEORGE and ENGLAND together in the same grid but not the full quote from the play! Even after being referred to 27A (HENRY) in the clue for 29A (FIFTH) I failed to make sense at the time of the ‘quoted elsewhere’ and forgot to go back to it.

    Thanks very much to Puck and Eileen.

  10. An excellent puzzle from Puck that I only finished this morning. I broke the back of it on Wednesday then forgot about it. In fact I forget everything these days, even what day it is. I found the puzzle very difficult and got the Touchstone clue wrong. I entered POLL without really thinking and I didn’t know the character. Also the quote completely passed me by. I nearly put vodkas for 1d before getting THREATENS which was my second last in.

    I loved the superb surface of the clue leading to EGRETS. For those old enough to remember, DA CAPO was an album by the American group Love back in my favourite decade.

    Many thanks to Eileen and especially Puck.

  11. This was a great puzzle for the double anniversary. Having answers like FOR and AND was a big hint that there was a quote involved! I particularly liked the clue for AND.

    Thank you Eileen for an excellent blog. Just a minor point: I think the definition in 2D is “hat?” rather than “a hat?”. The “a” is needed in the subsidiary part, as you make clear in your analysis.

  13. Thank you Puck and Eileen.

    A fantastic puzzle. I only had to check GOOGOL, but the quotation passed me by, well spotted Eileen. I was sidetracked by Sweeney TODD since he came up in a crossword elsewhere on the same day, so googled “meat pie” and came up with Titus Andronicus – I now understand why neither I, my children nor my grandchildren studied it at school!

  14. I found this admirable but extremely hard. My real problem was with the SW corner FIFTH and HENRY- especially the latter. Indeed I needed the parsing explained before I could get it consoling myself that this was really obscure. Trouble was, when I looked it up, I discovered that it wasn’t obscure at all and the fault was mine. Still, I’ve learned something.
    Nice puzzle and,yes,I missed the quotation.
    Thanks Puck.

  15. My only comment is that it was a double-theme with some clues fulfilling both but not HENRY FIFTH ANTONY &CLEOPATRA etc.
    But no complaints whatsoever/

  16. Thanks Puck & Eileen.

    Enjoyable crossword even if my penny didn’t drop with the quote. My only reservation was with 26 where ‘eldest daughter’ seems very vague. I know that King Lear was quoted in 9A but it was difficult to make the connection. I thought this must be ‘gentry’ although I couldn’t parse it. Maybe something like ‘King’s offspring missing Israel’ might have been fairer.

  17. I can’t add much to what has already been said, but this was a top class puzzle – here’s to the next 100

  18. A very enjoyable challenge. LOI was THREATENS, a PDM for me. My favourite was AND (small, but perfectly formed), but I also very much liked ASPENS, GOODYEAR and EGRETS.

    Thanks, Puck and Eileen.

  19. Incidentally this is the first time that either AND or FOR has been clued on its own in the Guardian archive! Should also have mentioned that I found it possible to complete this without looking anything up, but not without a bit of head scratching.

  22. PDM simply means that the blogger is ever so clever and likes to prove it, as often as possible. Other than that I have no idea.

  24. Meg
    Re PDM: I was going to ask the same thing, as I live in a backwater, and if it was something rude to suggest it could be bowdlerised. I’m good at working things out and thought it might be ‘p— d— moment’ – it’s my street knowledge that’s sadly lacking.
    Thanks Eileen for the LBM [light bulb moment].

  25. I’m sorry for the confusion: I don’t know who coined the abbreviation but it’s been around on this site for as long as I have, I think. Perhaps it hasn’t been used lately, so we should update from time to time.

  26. Much of what I’d like to say has already been said. Suffice it to say that I really enjoyed the puzzle: some lovely surfaces & enough misdirection to give a great sense of achievement when I completed it.

    Many thanks to Puck & Eileen.

  27. Great puzzle, missed the quotation (one of life’s certainties)! Lots of lovely clues, such as THREATENS, GOODYEAR, INANELY, EGRETS . . . Many thanks to Puck and Eileen.

  28. Oddly enough we just watched an old recorded episode of Dad’s Army, the one where Captain Mainwaring dresses up as St George, and guess what he kept shouting. Yes, the very quotation I failed to notice in this crossword. If only we’d watched it last Saturday it would have been a much easier solve. Or probably I still wouldn’t have twigged. (Rueful face!).

  29. Thanks to Eileen for the excellent (as usual) blog, and to others for your comments.

    I had the idea to use the Henry V quote for this puzzle some time ago, but it was an unexpected coincidence that it would be my 100th puzzle that marked a 400th anniversary.

    One extra little twist that nobody seems to have spotted is that you can spell out SHAKESPEARE in the completed grid by starting with SHAKES at 1dn and then snaking around a bit. Not that I really expected anyone to see that, as there was no indication to look for it.

  30. Puck

    Congratulations – keep them coming.

    I appreciated the main theme in the crossword very much, but I was too dim to spot the quotation (I only saw England to go with Saint George).

    As for ‘Shakespeare’ – now it’s been pointed out to me I think it’s very neat.

    If you want to, you can also trace CENTURY with chess King moves starting with the ‘C’ of CRY and going sort of upwards, ending with the ‘Y’ of HARRY.

  31. I’ve been out – watching the Leicester match, of course 😉 .

    Many thanks, Puck, for dropping in. So my Nemesis, from four years ago, the dreaded armadillo, raises its head again! But at least no one else spotted it – well done!

  32. Thanks again Puck – I noticed the SHAKESPEARE continuation, since I was on the alert after something similar elsewhere, but forgot to make a note of it – too distracted by the “meat pies”.

  33. Thanks Eileen and Puck. And congratulations Puck on your 100th Guardian puzzle.

    This was beautifully crafted.

    Not too difficult, but challenging to complete (the A4 printed page is covered with scribblings to show how much reconstruction I needed to do).

    I particularly liked the constructions of 7ac, 27ac and 4dn.

    Is there something extra going on with 3s and 7s that Puck hasn’t told us about? In 7ac we have “three tens” in the make-up; 15dn is 3/7ths; in 27 we have “three nervy” and 3dn is AT ODDS.

  35. Thanks Puck and Eileen

    Found this all done at the bottom of the pile – and finally checked it off tonight. According to my notes, it looked like it took all of the elapsed day to complete on the following Saturday after it was published – so would have been intermingled with whatever was going on on the day.

    It was certainly a fitting prize puzzle with a very appropriate theme with both Shakespeare and Saint George having the 23rd April as a significant date. Although the grid was filled completely, there were a couple of clues that I missed parsing properly – PRINCE HARRY / PRINCE GEORGE and the derivation of SHAKES. Not being good at remembering Shakespearean quotes, the cleverly placed segment of King HENRY’s speech went straight passed me.

    Finished in the NW corner with ASPENS, the very clever THREATENS and the unparsed SHAKES as the last in.

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