A mini-theme involving canines, and lots of double definitions in this week’s Prize Puzzle from Paul.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Paul in the Prize slot, and this puzzle showed all his trademark ingenuity. Timon and I found this to be a significant challenge but we got there in the end. We particularly liked the clue to ELDERLY, which we thought was typical of Paul, but we raised our eyebrows at the dubious homophone for ENAMOUR.
Many thanks to Paul.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | JACKDAW |
Jewel thief raised feeling of dread, did you say? (7)
|
| Sounds like “jacked awe” (raised feeling of dread). I think that magpies are more associated with theft of jewels than jackdaws, which meant that we couldn’t solve this clue until we got the initial “j” from the crossing down answer. | ||
| 5 | STUFFED |
Taken to the cleaners, as are duvets and mattresses (7)
|
| Double definition, the first being pretty idiomatic. | ||
| 9 | REINSTATE |
Take back control, say (9)
|
| A charade of REIN (control) and STATE (say). The definition is a little misleading: “put back” might be more accurate. | ||
| 10 | DROID |
Robot managed corners by contrast in reverse (5)
|
| OR (reversed) (by contrast) inside (cornered by) DID (managed). | ||
| 11 | YANG |
Force of a male sovereign a youth repelled to some extent (4)
|
| Hidden and reversed in “sovereign a youth”. | ||
| 12 | ESPADRILLE |
Primate in Renault kicking out first of churchgoers, one of those going on foot (10)
|
| DRILL (a kind of baboon, a primate) inside (Renault) Espa(c)e. | ||
| 14 | VIRAGO |
Maiden visited by a dragon (6)
|
| A inside (visited by) VIRGO (maiden). | ||
| 15 | LEANT ON |
Modest weight needed for support (5,2)
|
| LEAN TON (modest weight). | ||
| 16 | POINTER |
Clue for dog (7)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 18 | SETTER |
Writer of clue for dog (6)
|
| And another. | ||
| 20 | BLOODHOUND |
Solver of clue for dog (10)
|
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 21 | PAWN |
Poodle, smut by one’s ears? (4)
|
| Sounds like “porn” (smut). | ||
| 24 | IAMBI |
What giant might say, though shorter – a few feet? (5)
|
| I AM BI(g). | ||
| 25 | SEDITIOUS |
Rabble-rousing idiots use bombs (9)
|
| *(IDIOTS USE). | ||
| 26 | HONITON |
On passing through, come across Devon town (7)
|
| ON in HIT ON (come across). | ||
| 27 | ELDERLY |
Wrinkled – in the manner of a tree? (7)
|
| Like an elder tree, perhaps. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | JERKY |
Marked by convulsions, that must be cured (5)
|
| Another double definition. | ||
| 2 | CHIANTI |
True self critical of drink (7)
|
| CHI (true self in Chinese philosophy) ANTI (critical of). | ||
| 3 | DASH |
Shatter bolt (4)
|
| Yet another double definition, although it could be argued that “shatter” is what happens to an object when it has been dashed, e.g. to the ground. | ||
| 4 | WHAT’S YOUR POISON |
How would you like to go – for a drink? (5,4,6)
|
| A cryptic definition of a slang phrase (perhaps now a little dated) meaning “what would you like to drink”. | ||
| 5 | SEE NAPLES AND DIE |
If it’s the last thing you do, visit the home of pizza: need pasta in Leeds? No time for it, unfortunately (3,6,3,3)
|
| *(NEED PAS(t)A IN LEEDS). The expression can apparently be traced back to a letter by Goethe in the late 18th century, but may be even older. | ||
| 6 | UNDERPARTS |
Errant spud festering in lunchbox, say? (10)
|
| *(ERRANT SPUD). The use of “lunchbox” to mean a man’s genitalia is attested by Chambers; I daresay that other dictionaries will verify the use of “underparts” as having the same meaning. | ||
| 7 | FROGLET |
Small jumper back on top of littl’un, purchase jackets (7)
|
| FRO (back, as in to and fro) L(ittl’un) in GET (purchase). “Jackets” is the inclusion indicator. This clue took us longer than any other to parse, to the extent that we doubted its accuracy for some time. | ||
| 8 | DUDGEON |
Resentment in chap on bottling up grievances, initially (7)
|
| G(rievances) inside DUDE (chap), ON. | ||
| 13 | CAST ADRIFT |
Said craft at sea, lost ultimately – like that? (4,6)
|
| *(SAID CRAFT (los)T). An & lit clue, I think, where the whole clue is both the definition and the wordplay. | ||
| 16 | PUBLISH |
Print error not quite covered up by press (7)
|
| BLI(p) (error) inside PUSH (press). | ||
| 17 | IRON MAN |
Female film? (4,3)
|
| Cryptic definition; might a film about a man doing his ironing be attractive to women? | ||
| 19 | ENAMOUR |
Cast a spell on an item of ‘ardware, we ‘ear? (7)
|
| Sounds (slightly!) like “an ‘ammer”. | ||
| 22 | NASTY |
Vile family missing daddy on vacation at first (5)
|
| (dy)NASTY. “Daddy on vacation” means take out the letters in the middle of “daddy”, leaving DY, and then remove those letters from a word meaning family, | ||
| 23 | STUD |
Beefcake learning to wipe bottom (4)
|
| STUD(y) (learning). |
I found this really tough – and did not manage to parse FROGLET and some others. Still don’t get IRON MAN.
Liked: ESPADRILLE, HONITON, DUDGEON
Thanks Paul and bridgesong
My note on this was “very hard!” Good blog.
IRON MAN is IRON (Fe) + MAN (male). The word must be divided in the wordplay.
AHA – thanks Cineraria
On first pass, I thought this puzzle was rather 22d, but it improved with time.
Fave was IRON MAN for its succinctness. I construed it as Fe (Iron) + male (as Cineraria@2 and elsewhere recently).
Thanks bridgesong. A very good workout, LOI was 17d, to explain it that is, which has my vote as best of quite a selection. I think 1a refers to a poem by Ingoldsby, ‘The Jackdaw of Rheims’, or so Google tells me. I had YANK for 11a, which I think can be argued by male sovereign=K and ‘to some extent’.
Written at time of solve.
It was very sketchy to start off with. I wasn’t confident about some answers but they slowly went from pencil to pen (crossers to full words in my case) in the South East. The two big downs came as flashes of inspiration, although the city in question escaped me for a while. I delighted myself by getting ESPADRILLE purely from the clue and actually laughed at IAMBI, partly from relief of it not being fee-fi-fo-fum related, but mostly because “I am big” would be such a lacklustre statement. FROGLET (not flea related!), DUDGEON and DROID were my last ones in. Everything parsed.
PS. I think this was second in The Guardian’s recent trilogy of Iron Man clues. Beautifully smooth but becoming rusty.
Thanks Paul and bridgesong
This is probably the fastest I’ve ever finished a Paul. I can’t say I was overly thrilled with the puzzle though. No favourites to mention and I felt the homophone for jackdaw was poor.
The Rosa Klebb jumbo was a masterpiece though.
Unlike Rats@7, this was a tough challenge for me that took literally all week. Just before posting, I took one more look, and was able to solve the three holdouts in the NW! Completions have been hard to come by lately, so this was a confidence booster
Couldn’t parse 10a DROID, 12a ESPADRILLE (both “Primate” and “Renault” out of reach), so thank you bridgesong
I enjoyed the related dog clues at 16, 18, 20, and the two long mortal downs. Other favourites, 25a SEDITIOUS (good surface), 19d ENAMOUR (This one was fun. Eyebrow raised at a different dodgy homophone), 23d STUD (ouch!)
3d DASH brings to mind the joke, We bought a dog from a blacksmith, and as soon as we got it home, it made a bolt for the door
17d IRON MAN, as has been noted, we’ve had a lot of “fe-male”s lately, but it’s a really clever device, worth repeating
Thanks both