It’s the Don’s turn to challenge us this week in the Prize slot.
Although initially daunting, Timon and I soon got on Pasquale’s wavelength and were able to polish this off in good time. There were some excellent surfaces and a couple of clues which came close to & lit status: PRISONER and ESOTERICA, for example. We’re not quite sure why Don Carlos is described as a pretender, but perhaps some opera or history buff can explain that. We had to look up CONKY (to get CONKIER), and LACHESIS also needed to be checked, although completely gettable from the wordplay. There was no theme that we could discern, but there were the characteristic references to religion and the Bible (e.g. OT and Adam) that we’ve come to expect from Pasquale.
Many thanks to Pasquale for the challenge and the entertainment.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SPOTLIT |
Specially illuminated set of old books torn on the outside (7)
|
| OT (Old Testament – old books) inside SPLIT. | ||
| 5 | HAYCOCK |
Wine that’s drunk always cold makes a pile for the country dweller (7)
|
| AY (always) C(old) inside HOCK (wine). | ||
| 10 | SNOW |
Coke spells out end of dryness for the moment (4)
|
| (drynes)S NOW (for the moment). Both coke and snow are slang terms for cocaine. | ||
| 11 | CLAMBERING |
Moving awkwardly using clutch when straddling warning sign (10)
|
| AMBER (warning signal) inside CLING (clutch). | ||
| 12 | CARLOS |
Old rustics admitting love for pretender Don (6)
|
| 0 (love) inside CARLS (old rustics). Don Carlos is an opera by Verdi. | ||
| 13 | LACHESIS |
Fate is pursuing learner with pains (8)
|
| L(earner) ACHES (pains) IS. One of the Greek Fates. | ||
| 14 | FLOWERING |
Blooming fellow needs taking down (9)
|
| F(ellow) LOWERING (taking down). | ||
| 16 |
See 17
|
|
| 17, 16 | FALSE START |
A useless beginning – what’s after lasts, possibly (5,5)
|
| *(AFTER LASTS). | ||
| 19 | ESOTERICA |
A coterie’s unusual mysteries? (9)
|
| *(A COTERIE’S). | ||
| 23 | PRISONER |
Punished rogue primarily, one is in stir, right? (8)
|
| PR (first letters of Punished Rogue) IS ONE R(ight). “stir” indicates the transposition of ONE and IS, as well as being part of the definition. Almost an & lit. | ||
| 24 | LOG OUT |
See problem with drinking too much port? Switch off (3,3)
|
| LO (see) GOUT (problem with drinking too much port, supposedly). | ||
| 26 | ABRASIVELY |
Leader of America having courageous style? Is twisted inside, showing bluntness (10)
|
| A(merica), IS (rev) inside BRAVELY (having courageous style). | ||
| 27 | MAUD |
Muck covering a woman lured into the garden? (4)
|
| A in MUD (muck); a reference to the Tennyson poem. | ||
| 28 | ACADEMY |
Little woman grabbing baddy, head of English in school (7)
|
| CAD (baddy) E(nglish) all inside AMY (one of the Little Women in the Louisa Alcott novel). | ||
| 29 | COVERED |
What Adam became after realisation of nudity? Fellow looking embarrassed (7)
|
| COVE (fellow) RED (embarrassed). The story of how Adam (and Eve) became aware of their nudity is to be found in Genesis, Chapter 3. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | PINTAIL |
Bird, one on lake after daily drink? (7)
|
| PINTA (daily drink) 1 L(ake). | ||
| 3 | TOWEL |
The royal I found in upsetting fate – it’s absorbing? (5)
|
| WE (the “royal we”) inside LOT (fate, rev). | ||
| 4 | INCISOR |
One bit of nut is stuck in my tooth (7)
|
| 1 N(ut), IS inside COR (my!). | ||
| 6 | ABBACY |
A bishop must get by, having welcomed a Catholic in ecclesiastical office (6)
|
| A B(ishop) BY, including A C(atholic). | ||
| 7 | CORRECTOR |
Conservative minister entertaining those from the ranks – someone putting the record straight? (9)
|
| OR (other ranks) inside C(onservative) RECTOR (minister). | ||
| 8 | CONKIER |
Like tree worse affected by fungus – one penetrating horse chestnut (7)
|
| I in CONKER (fruit of the horse chestnut). Conky is an adjective describing the effects of a parasitic fungus. | ||
| 9 | WATLING STREET |
The old way engineer catches fish with something wooden (7,6)
|
| LINGS (fish) TREE (something wooden) inside (James) WATT (engineer). It’s an old Roman road, nowadays comprising much of the A2 between London and Dover and the A5 between London and Shropshire. | ||
| 15 | WASHSTAND |
Rod collects wood and stone to make item of furniture (9)
|
| ASH (wood) ST(one) in WAND (rod). | ||
| 18 | AEROBIC |
Beginning of intensive care organised to save old boy reliant on oxygen (7)
|
| *(I(ntensive) CARE OB (old boy)). | ||
| 20 | TALLY-HO |
Cry in the country – gentry ultimately trapped in multi-storey house? (5-2)
|
| (gentr)Y inside TALL (multi-storey) HO(use). | ||
| 21 | COUTURE |
Stylish dressmaking not in fashion – external remedy needed (7)
|
| OUT (not in fashion) inside CURE (external remedy). | ||
| 22 | INFIRM |
Trendy business not enjoying healthy state (6)
|
| IN (trendy) FIRM (business). | ||
| 25 | GIMME |
Let me have a piece of string immediately (5)
|
| Hidden in “string immediately”. |
Good blog and puzzle. My only ? was the function of “spells out” in 10A? Just to make the surface more readable?
Thanks bridgesong. A pleasant and not too taxing interlude which I enjoyed. I wasn’t too sure about the plural of ling but found lings could be used in the context of sub species of the fish.
Thanks both – a fine entertainment.
The Don Carlos in question was a pretender to the Spanish throne in answer to the succession of his niece. All very complicated but at the time there was a certain resistance to the idea of a female monarch.
Thanks bridgesong for the comprehensive blog. I do think that in 12A the setter may be thinking of the 19th century Pretender to the Spanish throne, rather than Verdi’s protagonist who, I believe, was a legitimate heir. Many thanks to our Don.
Enjoyed this last Saturday but just couldn’t get the last two in the NE. Left it a day and got them: HAYCOCK (which I liked) and CONKIER – never heard of Conky meaning tree fungus before.
Liked: MAUD (made me laugh), CLAMBERING, CARLOS, LOG OUT, COVERED, COUTURE, PINTAIL
Thanks Pasquale and bridgesong
HAYCOCK and CONKIER required more time for me, too. Enjoyable as always with Pasquale, with plenty of cultural references. My favourites LACHESIS and TOWEL. Thanks Don and bridgesong!
Very satisfying challenge that took a few days. Several nho’s were gettable through clear clueing. 1a SPOTLIT was delayed by trying to make BACKLIT (“old books”) work, so NW took longest. Couldn’t parse 17/16 FALSE START (duh!) or 23a PRISONER (hmmm)
Favourites 4d INCISOR (excellent surface), 15d WASHSTAND (“Rod” = WAND, surface), 25d GIMME (good surface, well hidden — took a while to parse after solving)
Thanks all
Not too bad of a struggle for a Prize. Had to verify the rustic meaning of CARL, but otherwise quite straightforward, single sitting.
In COVERED, not sure why specifically Adam: wouldn’t most people try to cover up if exposed in public?
For some reason, I have never liked “wanting” or “needing” as link word between definition and wordplay (e.g. FLOWERING). It would seem a link has to have the semantics of “is” or “produces”, but you see wanting/needing quite often, so what do I know?
Knew LACHESIS from ELP’s first.
INCISOR is cleverly done.
A lovely Prize and an enjoyable challenge. The last few took a couple of days to get.
A few I needed to look up or check along the way – LACHESIS, CARLS for countrymen, all about Don CARLOS, CONKY for the fungus and being non UK, WATLING STREET, which I had heard of but forgotten. All fair and useful education.
Is CARLOS to become another nom de plume for the Don?
I liked WATLING STREET for misdirection, ACADEMY for Little Women, ABRASIVELY and LOG OUT for surfaces, and TALLY-HO and MAUD, both of which made me laugh.
Interesting that Little Women featured in another crossword this week.
Thanks for the blog, bridgesong and a great puzzle, Pasquale.
Thanks bridgesong. Relatively straightforward, with some neat clues and some checking after the event required (although I didn’t fully parse INCISOR, so thanks for the explanation). Somewhere back in my childhood I think I must have heard that WATLING STREET was the old Roman name for what became the Great North Road. It’s something I never had a reason to make use of (until now) and never had a reason to check (also until now, when I find that isn’t quite right and Watling Street didn’t just head North and keep going until it reached Scotland). It made me wonder how many other things I thought I knew aren’t actually quite right. So thanks to Pasquale; I usually learn something from doing his puzzles, but it’s usually my vocabulary rather than my geography that improves.
Thanks for the blog , WATLING STREET is a neat construction , I liked the reference to MAUD which even made it into Smiley’s People , GIMME is well hidden in the paper as it is split across two lines .
I never thought I’d be saying this but I thought this was a bit easy. I’d finished it on Saturday morning whereas usually I manage by Sunday night.
Anyway it was a good crossword but without any standout clues in my opinion. Nho Lachesis, carls, or conky but all easily gettable from the clear clueing. I also couldn’t see why Don Carlos was a pretender – he was legitimate as far as I knew – but thanks to Alphapha@3 and Coloradan@4 for an explanation and the link.
Favourites: HAYCOCK, PRISONER, WASHSTAND.
Thanks to Pasquale and bridgesong
WATLING STREET is the Anglo-Saxon name for what had been a Roman road. We don’t know it’s Roman name, in fact we don’t even know if the Romans gave it a name.
I liked this and completed it in “airplane mode” on a European flight. I liked WATLING STREET and ABRASIVELY. I only knew MAUD because Walter the Softie was playing the song on a record player when Dennis the Menace turned up in a Beano edition some time around 1980.
Thanks Pasquale, bridgesong and Timon.
@8 Dr. WhatsOn most people would try, but the clue is what Adam became, not tried to become, and surely Adam and Eve would be the prime example of aversion to nudity?
A most enjoyable puzzle, and thanks bridgesong for the blog.
An enjoyable puzzle although I did get unnecessarily bogged down thinking about the Book of Kells for 1a and then in a loop with conker and canker for 8d. WATLING STREET jumped out as I had just been watching YouTube videos on Roman Roads and why they are not always straight and PINTA made me smile – reminded me of Tony Hancock.
@14 Martin – ha! The Beano was also my reference to MAUD rather than the Tennyson poem!
Thanks, bridgesong and Pasquale.
A fairly quick one to complete, I found. I treated 18d as I(ntensive) (CARE)* around (save) OB, but it results in the same thing. At 2d, I was put in mind of the 1950s marketing campaign for milk, ‘Drinka pinta milka day’. Shows my age.
KeithS@10, the Roman roads northwards were given the names Ermine Street (London to York) and Dere Street (further north). Watling Street goes north west towards Wales 🏴, ending in Shropshire.
sjshart@18: Rather confusingly, in the past Dere Street was also sometimes called Watling Street. Part of it’s course through Bishop Auckland (Co. Durham) is still officially named ‘Watling Road’ today.
PRISONER
Took it as an &lit. The whole clue participates in WP. Also, it’s a CAD.
ESOTERICA
It’s a CAD, but WP doesn’t need “mysteries” (as the blogger says, this came to
&lit status.).
Thanks bridgesong and Pasquale.
I knew MAUD straight away because it was my dear departed Dad’s favourite song https://www.google.com/search?q=come+into+the+garden+maud&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:aeeb9e48,vid:0-rv4YiTg8U,st:0
[Thanks for sharing Flash @17. I’m amazed!]
I thought of conkier but it seemed so unlikely I didn’t look it up. I also failed on Carlos because I’ve never heard of Don Carlos and it wouldn’t have thought of a carl as a rustic. The only association it brings to mind is house carls in king Harold’s army.
I parsed PRISONER as PR ONE with IS ‘in’ + stiR (right as last letter indicator).
Did this one last weekend during a very painful gout attack, so 24a went in quickly. Haven’t touched port for years…
I came across the word conk recently in reporting a diseased tree to the Council.
I found this hard, approaching pork scratchings on the PSRHS (Pub Snack-Related Hardness Scale), but therefore satisfying, and hadn’t come across carls as another term for rustics.
Thanks one and all.
Very enjoyable, as usual from the Don. And (again as usual) I had to look up LACHESIS to make sure.
BH@25 I’m another gout sufferer who hardly ever drinks port. My doctor told me it’s thought of these days as an autoimmune condition. I’m on allopurinol which takes care of it.
I think CARLS started out as fighting men but maybe a grant of land made them smallholders or peasants and they became downgraded to ‘rustics’. I haven’t checked this so I have probably got it wrong.
Thanks to setter and blogger as always.
CARL has been in Azed , Chambers93 has CARL = husbandman (obs) meaning a farmer , which would do . Also CARL=churl (archaic) , one meaning of this is rustic so even better .
CARL is also a Scottish miser , no comment .
To my shame I only knew of the song ‘Come into the Garden, Maud’ and had no idea it was based on a poem by Tennyson. You live and learn …
19a I thought “mysteries” was the definition and “unusual” was the anagrind.
8d My LOI because I knew that “canker” is a fungus affecting trees but hadn’t heard of “conky”. Eventually forced myself out of my chair and looked in Chambers.
Thanks to Pasquale and bridgesong.
Another one who got Maud via the old song…. Overall quite tough and 12A CARLOS was my LOI by a mile. 25d GIMME was also a challenge as the clue was split over 2 lines in the App as well.
Pleasant puzzle, but took me a while. Bridgesong and others above have mentioned some uncommon words which did slow me up, but they were all gettable from the constructions.
Riz@29. My memory of the word would have been influenced by “housecarls”, but I think Carl is also the origin of place names such as Carleton. “The name usually means “farmstead or estate of the freemen or peasants”, derived from the Old Scandinavian word karl and the Old English word tūn.” (Wikipedia).
Apologies to Roz for Riz. I didn’t spot my typo until long after the edit function had expired! 😢
I believe CARL has the same origins as ‘churl’ – which still survives in the word ‘churlish.’
Thanks to Roz@29, sheffield hatter@34 and BigMaz@36, as I have learnt something new today.
sjshart@18…Picked up in the english translation of Asterix the Gladiator as “Drinka Jara Wina Day”. I never knew the origin of that joke, so thank you!
[I had a memory that Drinka Pinta Milka Day was coined by Dorothy Sayers while she was working in advertising. This seems to be incorrect, though she did coin “Guiness is good for you”.]
[regarding me@4: Just after posting I saw that I had crossed with Alphalpha@3 (even had the identical link!), so deleted mine. Now I see mine’s reappeared. No complaints, just curious.]
Sheffield Hatter @35 , typing errors are always forgiven , I am the worst culprit .
Quoting from Wikipedia is never forgiven , you need to draw some animals and colour them in .
Perfect timing yet again , five in a row for the bright yellow squares .
Coloradan @40: I am responsible for your deleted post reappearing. I saw that it apparently needed moderating, checked it out and determined that it wasn’t spam, and reinstated it in the mistaken belief that it had wrongly been classified as spam.
[Muffin @39: you may be thinking of Fay Weldon, who is believed to have coined the slogan “Go to work on an egg”.]
Ah, I see, thanks bridgesong@43!
muffin#39
The Milk Marketing Board was never a client of SH Benson where Sayers worked but left well before 1958 when the campaign started. RJ Yeatman of 1066 and All That was also a copywriter there but left in 1962, 2 years before I joined.
Thanks Pasquale and bridgesong. LOI were CARLOS and LACHESIS, both needing a little bit of dictionary work to double check.
After last week’s Prize I was prepared for quite a struggle, but made pretty steady progress this time—by no means a walk in the park, but I found it only moderately difficult. The NE corner was mostly empty until the end, even though I’d got 13a early on; it didn’t help that I’d NHO “conky”.
I’m another, who remembers “Come into the garden Maud” as the go-to song for any Beano character singing – prissily – to themselves.
Great. Just what newbies need – pasqale and yesterday paul. That’s sure to get them going. Mmm
Alan@50. There have been “prize puzzles” at the easier end of the spectrum. But surely most puzzles whose solvers are going to get a prize should be fairly chewy? And when I was a newbie I used to appreciate the occasional difficult puzzle, even if I only completed half a dozen clues – at least I could aim to get better next time.
Enjoyable challenge. Tricky in parts but I could parse all my answers 🙂
New for me: poem ‘Come into the garden, Maud’ by Tennyson; PINTAIL; CARL = peasant (for 12ac) – and also Don Carlos = Infante Carlos María Isidro de Borbón (1788–1855), the first and most famous Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne (also for 12ac); ABBACY; LACHESIS; CONKY/conkier = used to describe a tree affected by a fungus that causes wood to decay (for 8d).