The Guardian Prize puzzle for this week is set by Brendan.
There is a clear theme in the puzzle with features of the head being prevalent throughout the grid as highlighted in the graphic below.
We have
BROW
TEMPLES
EYE EYE (twice)
EAR EAR (twice)
CHEEK LIP [cheek] – giving two cheeks
NOSE
TRAP [mouth]
LIPS
TEETH
CHIN
SKIN and
FACE.
This gives us all the visible features of a head, although I suppose you could say we are lacking hair, but I suspect many solvers are like me and have very little of it anyway. You can make one EYEBROW from one of the EYEs and BROW.
It wasn’t necessary to be aware of the theme to solve the puzzle. Indeed, I didn’t spot the theme until I created the grid online and started to write the blog.
I liked the clue with HE being inserted in three different places [repeatedly] into an anagram of other words in the clue.
It took me a while to understand what was going on in the clue for UNWEARABLE where I thought the definition of ‘assume’ was being pushed to the limits. The definition for the abbreviation UP, (Uttar Pradesh, a State in India), used in the wordplay for THEREUPON, can be found in Collins Dictionary.
I have seen clues using ellipsis … before and tend to study them closely whenever I see the three dots.
Thanks to Brendan for the challenge.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Scene of confusion, hearing organ accompanied by piano in piece (4,3)
BEAR PIT (a place, such as parliament or the stock market, where there are a lot of aggressive, argumentative and competitive people: scene of confusion) (EAR [hearing organ] + P [piano]) contained in (in) BIT (a piece) B (EAR P) IT |
| 5, | He repeatedly breaks into truck to rent out – don’t retaliate (4,3,5,5)
TURN THE OTHER CHEEK (accept harm, violence, etc without defending oneself; don’t retaliate) (HE, HE and HE [HE repeatedly]) contained in (breaks into) an anagram of (out) TRUCK TO RENT TURN T (HE) [OT (HE) R C (HE) EK*] |
| 9 | Fabric, only some of which I notice (5)
CHINO (a strong cloth of twilled cotton; fabric) CHINO (hidden word in [some of] whiCH I NOtice) CHINO |
| 10 | Basic conclusions of article reveal state of mind (9)
ELEMENTAL (basic) ELE (last letters of [conclusions of] each of articlE, reveaL and statE) + MENTAL (of or relating to the mind) E L E MENTAL |
| 11 | See 5
[TURN THE] OTHER CHEEK |
| 12 | Speaker’s role reversal? (4)
TRAP (slang term for the mouth; speaker) PART (role in a play) reversed (reversal) TRAP< |
| 14 | Damage finish installed by inferior furniture designer (11)
CHIPPENDALE (reference Thomas CHIPPENDALE, [17178- 1779], an 18th century cabinetmaker and furniture designer) CHIP (break small pieces of the surface; damage) + (END [finish] contained in [installed by] PALE [feeble; less impressive; inferior]) CHIP P (END) ALE |
| 18 | Second Coming? It’s concerning, church embracing person writing in odd genre (2-9)
RE-EMERGENCE (renewed appearance; second coming?) (RE [with reference to; concerning]+ CE [Church of England]) containing (embracing) (ME [the person writing] contained in [in] an anagram of [odd] GENRE) RE (E (ME) RGEN*) CE |
| 21 | Coverage for everyone in small family (4)
SKIN (the natural outer covering of tissue of a person or an animal; covering for everyone) S (small) + KIN (one’s relatives; family) double definition S KIN |
| 22 | A fury I once fomented, impossible to ignore (2-4-4)
IN YOUR FACE (direct and provocative; impossible to ignore) Anagram of (fomented) A FURY I ONCE IN YOUR FACE* |
| 25 | Option for better location for spectacles (2,3,4)
ON THE NOSE (in horse-race betting, to win only, not to come second or third; an option for [a] better) ON THE NOSE (where a pair of spectacles sit) double definition ON THE NOSE |
| 26 | Toast former PM (5)
BROWN (to toast) BROWN (reference Gordon BROWN [born 1951], former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) double definition BROWN |
| 27 | Flat parts below domes in places of worship (7)
TEMPLES (the flat portions of each side of the head just below the skull [dome] and above the cheekbones) TEMPLES (places of worship) double definition TEMPLES |
| 28 |
Holes in European agreement about permit (7) EYELETS (small holes to receive a lace or cord, as in garments) E (European) + (YES [agreement] containing [about] LET [permit]) E YE (LET) S |
| Down | |
| 1 | Consider taking bishop instead of rook in attempt to draw (6)
BECKON (to nod or now usually make a summoning sign in an attempt to draw someone close) rECKON (consider) with B (bishop) replacing (instead of) R (rook) BECKON |
| 2 | Stop training or being coached, say, for a match? (6)
ALIGHT (get off the train or step out of the coach; cryptically, ‘stop training’ or ‘stop being coached’) A + LIGHT (something from which it [light] originates, e.g. a match) A LIGHT |
| 3 | Long for pamphlet on education cut (10)
PROTRACTED (drawn out in time; long) PRO (in favour of; for) + TRACT (pamphlet) + ED (short form of [cut] EDucation) PRO TRACT ED |
| 4 | Effective power used by moderate ethically (5)
TEETH (effective power) TEETH (hidden word in [used by] moderaTE ETHically) TEETH |
| 5 |
Article about state of India occurring immediately after that (9) THEREUPON (immediately [after that]) THE (the definite article) + RE (with reference to; about) + UP (Uttar Pradesh, a State in India — the abbreviation is in Collins Dictionary) + ON (in progress; occurring) THE RE UP ON |
| 6 | Part of sail that mariners steer clear of (4)
REEF (a portion of a sail that may be rolled or folded up) REEF (a chain of rocks at or near the surface of water; a feature that mariners steer clear of) double definition REEF |
| 7 | University closed in case this class has few students (8)
TUTORIAL (A period of intensive tuition given by a tutor to an individual student or to a small group of students; a class that has few students) (U [University] + TO [if a door is ‘to’, it is closed]) contained in (in) TRIAL (a court case) T (U TO) RIAL |
| 8 | Orbits … more than once (8)
ELLIPSES (the shapes of orbits) ELLIPSES (more than one occurrence of the mark […] indicating ellipsis [an omission in text]) ELLIPSES |
| 13 | Wrong to assume it’s hard to accept when chess player yields to opponent (10)
UNWEARABLE (wrong to assume [to put on; to adopt; to wear]) – perhaps pushing the definition of ‘assume’ a bit far UNBEARABLE (hard to accept) with the B (black) being replaced by (yields to) W (white) where black and white are terms for the players in a game of chess UNWEARABLE |
| 15 | Present information, evidence of problems with money originally gifted (9)
INGENIOUS (talented; gifted) IN (inside; resent) + GEN (information) + IOUS (signed slips of paper or other documents acknowledging a debt of money; evidence of problems with money) IN GEN IOUS |
| 16 | Aggrieved, having downed tools for strike (5,3)
CROSS OUT (strike) CROSS (annoyed; aggrieved) + OUT (on strike having downed tools) CROSS OUT |
| 17 | A nameless minister demolished, point by point (8)
SERIATIM (one after another, one by one; point by point) Anagram of (demolished) A and MInISTER excluding (-less) N (name) SERIATIM* |
| 19 | A character under pressure, temporarily free (6)
PAROLE (conditional release of a prisoner; temporarily released) P (pressure) + A + ROLE (character in a play) – as this is a down entry, the letters A ROLE are positioned under the letter P in the grid. P A ROLE |
| 20 | Succeeded, caught up in court action? (6)
TENNIS (a sport where the action takes place on a court) (S [succeeded] + IN NET [caught]) reversed (up; down entry) (TEN NI S)< |
| 23 | Love letter specifying location I announced for plant (5)
OXEYE (wild chrysanthemum; plant) O (character representing zero [love score in tennis]) + X (a letter indicating a location, as in ‘X marks the spot’) + EYE (sounds like [announced] I) O X EYE |
| 24 | Screen features as live broadcast (4)
VEIL (cover up; screen) Anagram of (broadcast) LIVE VEIL* |
Thanks duncanshiell for such a comprehensive analysis. I worked my way through this steadily enough and enjoyed the experience. Can’t quite remember if I completely identified the theme and all its examples but the relationship did register at least to some extent. One thing I did notice was the proliferation of that most unhelpful of crossing letters, E, 14 instances by my count.
Good blog on rather a hard solve. Would UNWEARABLE even be guessable without the crossers? Based upon the theme, I figured that an EAR was in there, but the clue is exceedingly cryptic, both in the definition and in the wordplay, IMHO.
Great puzzle, a lot of smooth surfaces here. Like our blogger, thought TURN THE OTHER CHEEK was particularly clever.
Not sure I’d heard of SERIATIM before, but got the ending as a Latin adverbial suffix (see verbatim), and the rest followed.
Tx.
Very clever. I did eventually see the theme, but it took a while staring at the completed grid for me. All parsed as above. UNWEARABLE was indeed tricky to spot but I reaaly enjoyed the definition in the end. I think originally in the 15d clue is there to indicate that INGENIOUS meaning talented or gifted is now described as obsolete in Collins. Otherwise it appears to serve no purpose.
Great fun to solve and a worthy Prize puzzle.
Thanks, Brendan and duncanshiell.
My faves: TURN THE OTHER CHEEK, THEREUPON, ALIGHT, ELLIPSES and UNWEARABLE.
ALIGHT
I think ‘say’ goes with the first part.
a+match?=LIGHT
(Do you have a light?)
INGENIOUS
Agree with phitonelly@4 that the def is ‘originally gifted’.
Thanks Brendan and duncanshiell.
I seem to remember finding the IN YOUR FACE theme pretty early on, which helped with other answers. I agree with duncanshiell that the triple ‘HE’ clue was wonderful – thanks for the blog. And thanks to Brendan for a lot of fun.
Thanks for the blog , agree with the praise for TURN TOC , I also thought UNWEARABLE was excellent . SERIATIM is new to me but the clue was very fair .
VEIL , I took the definition as – Screen features – so a small contribution to the theme .
Ah well, I missed by one letter! I ended up with a filled grid except for a _N_E_R_B_E at 13d, and was torn between an unparsed Unwearable and an unparsed Unbearable. I did consider the possibility that ‘wrong to assume’ might mean unwearable, but not having spotted how the wordplay worked, that didn’t seem any more plausible than simply that ‘wrong’ might mean unbearable. I also played around with ‘infer’ at the start, but couldn’t make that work. So in the end, I went with unbearable and I was wrong. I’ll try to bear it.
Other than that, I enjoyed both puzzle and blog, so thanks both.
OK, I’m the second one who jumped the wrong way on UNWEARABLE. I knew what was going on but got in a bit of a tis overthinking it. I really liked the three hes.
Excellent blog Duncan. Thanks Brendan.
Keith@8 and Martin@9 you will just have to grin and wear it .
Three letters short of completion. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out 16d _R_S_ OUT?? Otherwise all manageable and fun.
I, too, liked the “he” device in 5a TTOC. Also 1a BEAR PIT (musical clue), 26a BROWN (succinct, good surface), 1d BECKON (misdirecting chess surface), 17d SERIATIM (new word)
Thank you Brendan and duncanshiell, and well done catching the theme!
The enumeration gave me TTOC quickly, which made for good progress.
UNWEARABLE was my last in, but a saliently satisfying clue on which to finish. I was satisfied that the definition was at the start, rather than a vague somewhere else, but can understand others’ deliberations on this.
I enjoyed seeing Brendan’s name and the opportunity to solve yet another of his greatly worked themes. Some non-standard tricks here, which I always welcome, but I felt this wasn’t too difficult, especially as the theme was clear early on. My LOI was CROSS OUT, which I struggled with right till today (and only put it in as a guess) as, though it fit the definition perfectly, I couldn’t make sense of the clue thinking that “downed” was an insertion indicator. As it is, “having downed tools” and “strike” mean the same thing, which is a bit disappointing. This is not to take away from the ingenuity of the whole puzzle of course. Thanks a lot Brendan and Duncanshiell!
A lovely puzzle. Tough but yielded over time. Some very clever clues.
I failed to spot the theme as usual but that didn’t slow me up much.
Jumped the right way on UNWEARABLE.
Many thanks to Brendan and to duncanshiell for the excellent and comprehensive blog.
I solved this in small chunks through the week. The setter is rather prolix, isn’t he? I ticked BROWN, and PAROLE best
I could not parse TENNIS and needed all the crossers and time and to get the very remote UNWEARABLE.
Thanks Brendan and duncanshiell.
Thank you, Roz @ 10…
I got the theme straight away, the cheek and nose clues being my first ones in.
What I really liked was finding some of the less obvious facial features, like chin, as the clues went in.
I found it on the easier side for a Brendan.
It was a lovely way to spend a football-free Saturday afternoon.
Thanks both.
I thought this was tough and did not get CROSS OUT although of course it now seems obvious. Also didn’t notice the theme.
Like others loved TURN THE OTHER CHEEK with the insertion of HE three times
Also liked: BEAR PIT, OXEYE, RE-EMERGENCE, PROTRACTED INGENIOUS
Thanks Brendan and duncanshiell (great blog)
Thanks Brendan and ds. Another fine crossword from Brendan! Of course two ears and two eyes (for most of us), but I can only see one cheek, Duncan.
I wondered if the MENTAL part of 10a was part of the theme. While I was thinking of UNWEARABLE as wrong to wear in a physical sense @13d I didn’t think it worked; if you can’t wear something because it’s too small it’s not the same as wrong. Then I thought of it in a fashion sense and it works as it does if something is unwearable as a a matter of protocol. I can’t send links but an example can be found by Googling “Brahn boots, I ask yer” to listen to Stanley Holloway.
Thanks to Brendan and duncanshiell. I sometimes think that Brendan’s themes make his clueing rather forced but not here.
GrahamC @ 19
I agree there isn’t a second CHEEK spelt out as such, but I claimed my second cheek from the LIP (insolence; cheek) of LIPS.
For everyone, I also meant to indicate in the introduction that HIP in cHIPpendale is body part that isn’t part of the face. I reckon it’s just coincidence that HIP appeared in the grid at all.
I enjoyed about half of it, but found the rest a bit of a grind. I gave up at the bottom left corner this morning. I have never heard of the latin word SERIATIM. It may be common in legalese but not in normal language. The wrong entry of unparsed (also latin) VERBATIM prevented me from writing in CROSS OUT because S_B_ led nowhere. Shame that I didn’t get the easy clue SKIN first. Like others, I jumped wrongly between b and w in 13d, but have since given it a retrospective tick following Duncan’s explanation. I usually forget to look for themes, especially when I have not completed the puzzle.
In INGENIOUS can’t ‘originally’ be taken to refer to the fact that ‘IOU’s is pretty much an acronym? Don’t think the senses of the word are tightly enough compartmentalised to exclude the present day senses altogether. ‘An ingenious construction’ could be one put together with talent for instance.
Anyway I too took ages over UNWEARABLE (though I don’t see how you can legitimately jump the other way). Liked TENNIS and ELLIPSES which I took ages to justify before realising that the punctuation could be part of the clue.
Completely missed the now blindingly obvious theme (as usual).
duncanshiell @21- perhaps Brendan thought that TURN THE OTHER CHEEK was sufficient indication that there were two of them.
Yup – got it all … except the theme!! I intended to look post-solve as Brendan usually (always?) invokes one. But forgot!!
It was, as ever with this compiler, lovely stuff
Many thanks, both
Very enjoyable. I liked ELLIPSES AND OXEYE. Only missed UNWEARABLE, (though I lazily put REEL instead of VEIL – must pay attention!). Thanks, Brendan and duncanshiell.
Failed on the very clever UNWEARABLE but my pain was eased by Roz@10
I see what you mean, ds@21. Very 15d. There is also a coincidental (arm)PIT, at a stretch too far.
Another UNBEARABLE here – since I couldn’t parse either alternative. Yes, I made VEIL=”screen features”, and I thought it was fun to see that Brendan had equipped his thematic face with two EYEs and two EARs.
Totally missed the theme, as I almost always do..
The red print is very hard to read. Could we have a darker shade instead?
How does IN = “resent??
This is our national holiday, and there are all sorts of 1776-related events that it’s too hot to go to. I’m cowering under the ceiling fan, having no air conditioning. This is the hottest I’ve ever been in Connecticut.
Thanks for the puzzle, Brendan, and for the good blog, duncanshiell.
Good catch Valentine@30. At 15d IN = “Present” (“resent” is a typo)
Happy 4th!
Re 13d, I still think that both answers (B/W) are parsable, so I too shall just have to grin and wear it.
This was Brendan at his best – great wordplay with superb storytelling. I needed much parsing help, and duncanshiell came through with flying colours.
[ Valentine@30, I used to be happy to celebrate July 4 with my American friends, but sadly not this year, with the way the US government is treating their northern neighbours. It is hard to celebrate with a nation that seems to consider Canada as a threat, even an enemy. Hopefully this is temporary, and we can resume our traditional amity soon. I fondly remember attending a 4-game Expos – Red Sox series at Fenway, covering both our national holidays from July 1 to 4, even though as Expos fans we experienced a re-enactment of the Boston massacre. ]