It’s Imogen in the Prize slot
I enjoyed this puzzle – a typical Imogen offering, with a variety of clue types, meticulous cluing, ingenious constructions, an interesting spread of GK (geographical, historical, Biblical, Classical, cricket, music) and characteristic neat misdirection, beginning with the very first clue – and one device that might set the cat among the pigeons.
I had ticks for 10ac MAINE, 14ac MEALTIMES, 16ac RUSSIAN ROULETTE, 21ac HEROD, 22ac NEONATE, 24ac CORFU, 25ac SOPHOCLES and 6dn IMMORTAL.
Thanks to Imogen for the puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
9 One of perhaps 16 having short nap – couldn’t be shorter (9)
TEENSIEST
This seemed to be indicating that there might be a theme, centred on 16ac and so, working through the clues in order, as usual, I left it untiI I reached said clue, which proved to have no significance: it’s TEEN (a 16-year old – ‘one of perhaps 16’) + SIEST[a] (short nap)
10 Here’s Augusta: important, second in Georgia (5)
MAINE
MAIN (important) + gEorgia: there are, I discovered, about twenty towns / cities in the US named Augusta, the one in Georgia, which annually hosts the Masters Golf Tournament, being the most populous, while the one referred to here is the state capital of Maine – clever
11 Behind sailors touring a palace (7)
LATERAN
LATER (behind) + RN (Royal Navy) (sailors) round (touring) A
My apologies for the earlier garbling of the clue – my thanks to Rats @2 and Judge @3
12 (7)
NOONDAY
No real clue/wordplay here: the number of the clue (12.00) is the definition; I think this may prove to be a marmite clue: I’ll say no more for now
13 Anxious, not at first very worried (5)
NERVY
N[ot] + an anagram (worried) of VERY
14 Imogen has key to get back home for these regular occasions (9)
MEALTIMES
ME (Imogen) + ALT (key) + a reversal (back) of SEMI (home)
16 Bad service aboard Trans-Siberian railway, say, a perilous enterprise (7,8)
RUSSIAN ROULETTE
LET (bad service in tennis) in RUSSIAN ROUTE (Trans-Siberian Railway, say)
19 Large quantity of drink: declare it bubbly (9)
DECALITRE
An anagram (bubbly) of DECLARE IT
21 Murderous monarch, one idolised by daughter (5)
HEROD
HERO (one idolised) + D (daughter)
22 Sort of light worried baby (7)
NEONATE
NEON (sort of light) + ATE (worried)
23 Want to catch falcon regularly returning ravenous (7)
WOLFISH
WISH (want) + a reversal (returning) of the alternate letters of FaLcOn
24 Island shivering in 4C? (5)
CORFU
An anagram (shivering) of FOUR C
25 Dramatist’s concession, filling gaps with a bit of comedy (9)
SOPHOCLES
SOP (concession) + C[omedy] in HOLES (gaps) – best known (and my favourite) of the three ancient Greek tragedians: I smiled at the irony of the surface
Down
1 Last mad daring involved in horrendous battle (10)
STALINGRAD
An anagram (mad) of LAST + an anagram (involved) of DARING
2 Exploit you reserve for films (8)
FEATURES
FEAT (exploit) + U (you) + RES (reserve)
3 A second attempt to fix a wrong (6)
ASTRAY
A S (a second) + TRY (attempt) round A
4 Plant conifer, not houses (4)
FERN
Hidden in (houses) coniFER Not
5 Time to wear first shoe? Capable of operating independently (10)
STANDALONE
T (time) in SANDAL ONE (first shoe?)
6 Troy protected by unscrupulous Olympian (8)
IMMORTAL
T (Troy – a system of weights used for precious metals and gemstones) in IMMORAL (unscrupulous)
Capitalised Troy neatly placed at the beginning, to give a misleading surface
7 Good advice in most of cricket book, offering much for openers (6)
WISDOM
WISD[en] (most of cricket book) + initial letters of Much Offering
8 Turning up, agreed to accept kiss: so exciting (4)
SEXY
A reversal (turning up) of YES (agreed) round X (kiss)
14 Old art of singing in church, energy dropping, intermittently lusty (10)
MINSTRELSY
MINSTER (church) with the E (energy) dropped one space, in a down clue + alternate letters of LuStY
15 Talk about date followed by letter, quick way to seek a mate (5,5)
SPEED CHESS
SPEECH (talk) round D (date) + ESS (letter)
17 Working together, fit to join lineout (2,6)
IN LEAGUE
AGUE (fit) joining an anagram (out) of LINE – a neat ‘lift and separate’
18 Barrel carried by dog finally dropped? Shocking (8)
TERRIBLE
BL (barrel) in TERRIE[r] (dog) minus its final letter
20 Rich, so getting replacement for several groups of singers (6)
CHOIRS
An anagram (getting replacement) of RICH SO
21 Greeting wife, giving reverence (6)
HALLOW
HALLO (greeting) + W (wife) – reverence as a verb
22 Kiss cheek (4)
NECK
Double definition
23 Showed sorrow as all of us part (4)
WEPT
WE (all of us) + PT (part)
Good job on the blog. My note on the puzzle was simply “hard,” but it certainly displayed some ingenuity. I was confused by 12A at first, but finally settled on the notion that the clue number itself was the clue. I am not sure that quite works, but OK.
Appears to be an issue with your explanation for 11ac. Should be:
Behind sailors touring a palace (7)
Behind = Late and RN around A for the next part.
Hi Eileen, you’ve missed part of the clue for 11a, which should be parsed LATE + R(A)N.
I loved the crossword and the blog!
Comment #4
Friendly I thought for Imogen and superb as always whether as Imogen or Vulcan. I like the smoothness and the brevity of their clues and the humour of which 9a and 24a are perfect examples along with ‘sandal one’ for ‘first shoe’ in 5d. Chuckle, chuckle. Thanks.
Hallow as noun? I’m sure it appears in literature somewhere. Lateran too was a newy. Smooth puzzle tho, I do enjoy Imogen, and Eileen too 😉
Thanks Eileen – a splendid blog. I found this tricky; my first pass left me with a complete blank on the across clues and I reached 7d before penciling in WISDOM. After that things improved slowly, and it proved to be an interesting challenge. With CORFU, which I assumed must be an anagram of C plus the answer to 4d, I got NECK early on, and at first that led me to think the island might be Capri or Crete, and so I entered ‘Crete’ and ‘Tree’ – obviously a plant – for 4d. I couldn’t see how ‘Tree’ worked with the 4d clue, but it went together so neatly. Looking back, Imogen had three clues that were clever with numbers, TEENSIEST where 16 had nothing to do with clue 16, CORFU where 4 had nothing to do with clue 4, and NOONDAY (my LOI) where the clue number turned out to be the whole clue. NOONDAY was the only word that seemed to fit, and eventually I saw the 12:00 = ‘noon’ part, but the ‘day’ was puzzling, until I remembered the opening of High Noon, and Tex Ritter singing:
The noonday train will bring Frank Miller,
If I’m a man I must be brave…
Personally, I like neither Marmite nor Vegemite, but I don’t have a real problem with the clue, although the long space confuses things slightly. And ‘noonday’ for ‘noon’ isn’t something I think I’ve seen outside the movies.
Also – sorry this has been a long comment – it’s a long time since I played chess at all seriously, but the term I remember was ‘lightning chess’ (which I was dreadful at). I see SPEED CHESS seems to be used now, but it was new to me. Thanks to Imogen for what I found quite a challenge.
Rats @2 and Judge @3 – many thanks: I’ve no idea what happened there – sorted now.
(I’m going back to bed now. 😉 I’ll respond to any more errors, queries, typos etc. after 8.00 BST.
I found this very easy to begin, then I encountered more and more clues that needed several visits before the answer emerged. My list of favourites were covered by Eileen, and thanks for the full parsing of SOPHOCLES and STAND ALONE. I thought 12 must be a printing area at first, and only got it when I saw the crossers. Tell me, why does cheek = NECK?
Thanks Imogen and Eileen
Comment #10
IMMORTAL as the definition of ‘Olympian’ irresistibly brought to mind the final paragraph of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, where Hardy writes that ‘“Justice” was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Æschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess.’
[This is a partial rewriting of my deleted comment @10, which I ditched because the italicisation function had gone bananas and could not be rectified in Edit.]
#9 ‘cheek’ and ‘neck’ are synonymous with audacity, impertinence, impudence etc as in “he had the neck to ask for more money” or to have a ‘brass neck’
For NOONDAY outside the movies, KeithS @7, there is, for example, the Hoagy Carmichael / Johnny Mercer song, ‘Lazybones’:
Lazybones, sleeping in the sun,
How you ‘spect to get your day’s work done?
You’ll never get your day’s work done
Sleeping in the noonday sun.
Didn’t get too far with this one — tough. Solved most of the S, but not much in the N. Felt like less than half, but when I actually count, it’s more like 2/3 solved
Martyn@9 for NECK Chambers includes “impudence, audacity” = “cheek” (crossed with sofamore@12)
Thanks Imogen (I’ll get you next time!) and Eileen
Thanks Eileen, I enjoyed this particularly for the misdirections most of which I followed obediently. I made a pencil note that I had overthought too many of the clues. With all the crossers in place I was fixated on ‘westerns’ for 2d but couldn’t make it work.
Thanks for the blog , very good set of clues and pretty tough overall . MINSTRELSY very neat use of church , clever use of fission for IN LEAGUE . I suppose the large space for NOONDAY is just to mislead us , unclued came to mind , without the space it would be obvious that 12 was the clue . Chopper SOPHOCLES one for the football fans . A severe Paddington stare for CORFU .
In ” Mad Dogs and Englishmen ” they fire a NOONDAY gun .
Not that hard and not my favourite either. I finished this quite quickly apart from 2d. I initially had WESTERNS before I realised the parsing was impossible. That’s the thing about the prize crossword – you’ve got plenty of time for second thoughts.
Nho LATERAN but clearly clued.
Not sure about TEENSIEST being very short, but just about OK.
I didn’t like the clue for NOONDAY, say no more, but the crossers made it the only possibility.
Favourites MAINE (should have remembered that Augusta is the state capital), CORFU and SOPHOCLES.
Thanks Imogen and Eileen.
Thanks sofamore@12 and Mig@14 for neck to mean impudence. It is probably a British use that I had not encountered before
I found a third of this easy, a third less so, and a third which required some revisiting – which I guess is a pretty satisfying setup for a Prize. Overall just slightly easier than usual for this setter? I remember little of the solve now (which is why I try to resist being pulled in to it too early in the solving week) but I recall enjoying it, and scratching my head for a while for my loi NOONDAY.
I quite enjoy these tricks in general, but the effect was rather spoilt here by the existence of a space between the clue number and the enumeration, as Roz has noted. So I wasted some thinking time on that. But then the problem was worsened by the fact that when solving online by the website, the clue whose lights you’re currently highlighting is shown as “12 Across (7)” and so the ploy simply doesn’t work there. (The website does also show the full conventional clue list, just as in the paper version, but I never look at that because there’s simply no need to.) It’s tempting to also argue that logically you can’t suddenly choose to make the clue number part of the cryptic reading reading in a one-off case when you don’t use the clue number in the cryptic reading of any other clue; but perhaps the clue number should be regarded in the same way as punctuation – it’s simply may or may not be relevant.
Anyhow, all good fun. Thanks both!
Thanks Imogen and Eileen
Very good puzzle. I’d be interested to hear what our transatlantic solvers made of 19a, though – don’t they spell “litre” LITER?
Thanks Imogen for an entertaining as well as thought provoking puzzle. I particularly liked and had a chuckle over CORFU, STANDALONE, NOONDAY, SOPHOCLES and MEALTIMES (struggled with this one as I don’t use a computer anymore and ALT took some thinking). Put in RUSSIAN ROULETTE with no understanding why so thanks to Eileen for clearing that up.
After many years doing Everyman cryptic puzzles in the Observer – prior to switching to the Saturday Guardian – not always knowing why I got things wrong it is great to have somewhere to check and learn thanks to bloggers and comments from fellow solvers.
Many thanks for a comprehensive (and considerate) set of comments – no need to apologise for longer comments if they’re interesting and add to the debate (that’s what we’re here for). I was grateful, too, for no posts that simply expressed agreement with corrections or explanations and for the deletions of repetitions (which seems to have worked).
I’ll come back to 12ac after breakfast – and, perhaps, more comments from you.
Hastingshoney@22 I’ve also only recently switched from Everyman and this blog has been brilliant. I also guessed Russian Roulette without really understanding why. And was unsure about neck for cheek. So thank you everyone!
Tough stuff. Took a few sessions to complete which seems right for the prize
I think the space in 12a crossed the line between misleading and misdirection. That said, my rule of thumb is always ignore punctuation, capitals, fonts etc so I’ll add spaces to that list 🙂
Cheers E&V
Re 12ac:
I won’t say that this clue spoiled the puzzle for me but, as the last one in by a long way, it was certainly my least favourite. I usually enjoy the tricks that setters get up to with letters (helipad or rugby posts for H, the first time I saw them), punctuation marks (comma as a butterfly, colon with several interpretations), numbers, in various ways – and many others. My criterion is that the grin should outweigh the groan when the penny drops and that didn’t happen here – just a thud and a shrug, I’m afraid.
I’d met NOONDAY, of course but I’d never use it, when noon has the same meaning and would have fitted the clue.
It hasn’t raised the discussion that I expected and I’m prepared to leave it there: perhaps I’ve made too much of it – which was the opposite of my intention!
Now I must do other things …
I think my real gripe with NOONDAY was that without any crossers it could have been so many things, especially with the number of spaces: VACANCY and NOTHING came to mind as possibilities. So I left it until last, when NOONDAY was the only remaining choice.
But the rest, though hard, was nicely clued (though Augusta, MAINE had to be checked with Google). I liked the Russian route and the quick way to seek a mate.
Re noonday I remember the same set up in the Guardian decades ago where the answer was the very neat and tidy CLUELESS.
Kapaikiwi@28, and that’s a far better clue IMO (indeed a classic, along with HAVEN’T GOT A CLUE). But the trouble is that there’s only so much originality to be eked out with this kind of thing!
Enjoyable puzzle overall. Lasted me the week, on and off. Like AP@20, I started smoothly, but the last few required several visits. I got some by staring at the gaps and crossers until a word sprang to mind, then worked backward to match the clue. I used a word fitter for 14d with all but one of the crossers plus LSY. The answer was an unfamiliar word. I got NOONDAY but couldn’t explain it until Eileen released me from my exasperation.