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? See the better explanation from Cineraria @2 below. | ||
| 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
Liked ELDERLY, SEE N A DIE, FROGLET and PUBLISH.
WHAT’S YOUR POISON
Is there more to it? Like ‘go’ in the sense of ‘die’..??
REINSTATE
Agree with the blogger’s comment on the def. Someone may
have the justification for ‘take back’.
CAST ADRIFT
It’s a CAD. falling slightly short of an &lit.
‘like that?’ is not part of the WP.
ENAMOUR
I was googling to see if there was a hen hammer.
Apart from the blogger’s comment, I have a query.
Why do we need ‘ear instead of hear
(while an instruction to drop the h is given already with ‘ardware)?
Thanks Paul and bridgesong.
Thanks bridgesong. I keep feeling Paul is just getting harder, although getting the two long phrases, mainly from the enumeration, did help a lot. I got JACKDAW from the D-W at the end, and then groaned when I saw how the clue worked. I liked IRON MAN for the use of Fe, and ESPADRILLE because I was quite chuffed to remember the word and (eventually!) see it from the crossers. And having got that I could guess FROGLET, but I needed to come here for the parsing. I still don’t feel quite happy with ‘fro’ as ‘back’, but that’s probably only because I didn’t see it for myself. Thanks Paul.
Another of those Paul crosswords where I could only solve one clue.
Thanks both.
Thanks for the blog , a good solid , tough Prize puzzle . Mig@8 I would often keep the Prize all week when I was a novice and having a break often works .
The FE MALE idea was very neat but as Martin@6 says it is a trilogy starting with Moo in the FT last Tuesday . I like your idea of a film for women to watch of a man ironing . A comedy , the phone rings and he burns his ear .
Puzzle of just moderate difficulty for me. I agree with BigglesA@5 that the reference is to the best known of the Ingoldsby Legends – the Cardinal’s ring is stolen, he curses whoever the thief is, and when the jackdaw wastes away, ‘heedless of grammar they all cried “that’s him”’.
For 3d, see psalm 2: ‘thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel’ – I was happy with ‘shatter’.
Thanks, Paul and bridgesong.
Re shatter. I read DASH as something like “I don’t want to dash / shatter your hopes “
Like KVa@9, I was looking for an ‘en ‘ammer. This one is dodgy even by Paul’s standards: En just isn’t An (or is it for anybody?) I liked the JACKDAW (yes, of Rheims) though. I expect the rhotic police will come out for PAWN, which works for me but not for them.
Tough but fun, and it took me most of Saturday, on and off. I enjoyed the dogs and the two long ones, the maiden and the dragon and the IRON MAN (again). Also the three extra dwarfs ELDERLY, NASTY and JERKY… I got, but failed to parse, ESPADRILLE and FROGLET, so thanks to bridgesong for sorting those out. (I agree about “take back”.)
This was right up my street with enough tricks and “dodgy” bits to keep me smiling. Just the job to bring cheer.
Usually with a Paul prize puzzle, I tend to wrestle until every clue is parsed: often a very long process. Perhaps because of the heatwave with me (South Oxfordshire) I was content to ease off. So I sought help to get ESPADRILLE and missed diagnosing (DY)NASTY. Lots of smiles nevertheless inc. LEAN TON, STUD(Y) and ELDERLY.
Paul’s typically compact clues always appeal. The dog ones were fine with nothing too obscure. Nice to have the trademark smut of PAWN involving a poodle.
Guess it helped a lot that I got the central phrases quickly. WHAT’S YOUR POISON may be thoroughly out of date but alcoholism still devastates and costs.
ENAMOUR was of course my clue of the day. Great thanks, Paul, for the workout and the cheer. Thanks, bridgesong, for parsing PUBLISH and FROGLET for me.
An issue with IRON MAN/female reappearing is the third appearance was in the Guardian while the prize puzzle was ‘live’, a time you’d think the editor would make sure variants on clues and answers don’t appear.
I found the number of cryptic/oblique definitions tricky at first.
1 across doesn’t really work. The D in jackdaw sounds like the D in din, but the D in ‘jacked awe’ sounds like the T in tin.
I don’t see the problem with ENAMOUR. Imagine a builder saying “Pass me an ‘ammer, mate!” Sounds like enough to me. I think the “we ‘ear” just gives an extra hint (‘int?) that it works in a particular accent.
Thanks for the explanation of FROGLET – our LOI too, due to an inability to parse it.
Mig’s blacksmith joke was a gem and one I will be using!
Crispy@14
DASH
Had the same understanding.
After last week’s Pangakupu it was a relief to get a Prize from one of my favourite setters and, helped by a few lucky guesses, to almost complete this in pretty quick time. Naples and Dye were two spurious researchers cited by mischievous academics in the 70s (“For a fuller analysis see Naples and Dye”). That major vertical went straight in as did LEAN TO and SETTER. My progress thereafter was similar to Martin’s @7. ESPADRILLE was a lucky guess since I was unfamiliar with both the primate and the Renault, I flirted with fee-fi-fo-fum before twigging the excellent IAMBI, and couldn’t get rid of the thought of flea as the small jumper. So I missed out on FROGLET and DROID as well as plumping for YANK. Thanks to Paul for the fun and laughs and to bridgesong for the many parsings that eluded me
If an employer REINSTATEs an employee, they take them back. ENAMOUR was fun and I liked NASTY.
I loved this.
Had yank for yang due to sunshine-induced laziness.
I just drift through the week with the harder puzzles and eventually it all just falls into place like Iron Man did.
Thanks both.
can someone explain to me precisely how bloodhound works? I managed to guess it while solving in but cannot parse it
mynolla@25. A detective can be referred to as a bloodhound, though a little dated. Strangely sleuthhound but not bloodhound is in my online thesaurus.
I really struggled in the NE, with STUFFED taking ages to click, and being unable to parse ESPADRILLE and FROGLET to the extent that I started thinking that the former must be wrong, and I never got around to writing the latter in! I had an unparsed DRONE where it should have been DROID, a word I have never used and hardly ever seen, so it was a rather messy dnf for me.
Apart from that this was most enjoyable. Or as someone commented, moderately difficult. 🤔😂
Thanks to Paul and Bridgesong.
thanks choldhunk
of course!
was more familiar with sleuth too…
I was thinking of hound as the word for detective/solver I thought there was some other inside joke for blood i was missing 🙂
Sheffield Hatter @27 , I have tried to avoid Star Wars as much as possible but difficult at times when sprogs are certain ages , I think DROID is used quite a lot .
Thanks to Paul and bridgesong.
Enjoyed the puzzle, but needed help from bridgesong and cineraria to understand a few answers (10ac, 17d). Liked the big clues and IRON MAN.
Difficult but as a Prize Puzzle should be. I liked the giant saying I AM BI(g), the dd WHAT’S YOUR POISON, and the CAD CAST ADRIFT. Like some others, I failed to parse FROGLET.
Thanks Paul and bridgesong.
Biggles A#5
Amplifying sjshart#12 Richard Harris Barham wrote the Ingoldsby Legends.
I was another who couldn’t parse 7d, not helped with difficulty over 10a (OR= by contrast?frequently the opposite).
20a I queried this because the dog doesn’t solve clues but now accept that human bloodhounds do.
5d could have stopped at “pizza” but the anagram was fun and as a Loyner I appreciated the ref to my place of birth.
Thanks to Paul and bridgesong.
1ac: See The Jackdaw of Rheims, 1840s poem by RH Barham in which a jackdaw steals a cardinal’s turquoise ring at a feast. I don’t think it’s as well-known as it used to be,
I think all corvids have a predilection for shiny things.
Thanks Paul and bridgesong. Finished the NW corner on Thursday. Enjoyed every clue.
Rox@12 I’m much less inclined to give up on a puzzle thanks to similar comments you’ve made in the past. It’s helped me to improve a lot, so thank you! Still working on Friday’s puzzle!
@29 The first three DROID-filled Star Wars movies are outstanding entertainment (in order, A, A+, A-). The rest is profit-taking
Thanks, Roz@28. I’m the only person in the world who has never seen any of the Star Wars films.
[Pino@32. As a one time – 12 years – resident of Leeds and a continuing Rhinos season ticket holder, I also appreciated the appearance of that fine city in the fodder for 5d. But I thought that we were called Loiners?]
sheffield hatter#37
You’re not.
#38 You may well be right as I think it’s probably derived from Leodiensians. I haven’t lived there since 1962 and haven’t visited since around 1988.
Meaty but steady I found this, and isn’t the whole point of Paul’s “homophones” to make one wince and exclaim?
I’ve only ever been a Passive Viewer of bits of Star Wars films – when I’ve been in and out of a room where someone was watching one.
Only being weekend Guardian solvers, we were pleased to see Paul back with this tricky number. We had a good start with LEANT ON and the ‘doggy’ clues, but then our progress was rather ‘jerky’ with seven incomplete explanations, including not being ‘enamoured’ and wrongly thinking that Paul had made an error with his anagram, confusing ‘underpants’ and ‘underparts’!
Eventually finished with several late parsings among our picks which include DROID, NASTY, VIRAGO, ESPADRILLE, FROGLET, DUDGEON, IRON MAN and SNAD (for short). We thought of ‘dog’ for a theme, but felt that it was insufficient.
Thanks to P and, of course, b together with all the other interesting comments, many of which we echo.
KVA@9
REINSTATE = TAKE BACK in the sentence ‘My boss agreed to reinstate me in my job even though I’d resigned the previous week.’
Me@42 – sorry, PeterT @23 was ahead of me.
This is the kind of puzzle I find very satisfying. I only got 4 answers on my first attempt, but then it all came together very gradually, so each clue was pleasing to solve.
Re 19d ENAMOUR and the other “homophones” (note, not Paul’s word for the clues), I agree with Etu#40 – the more outrageous the aural wordplay the funnier the clue, and Paul is a master of outrageous.
Like others, my clue of the day was 17d IRON MAN, and it is certainly worth repeating.
Thanks Paul for the challenging fun, and bridgesong for the much-needed parsing help.
[Good to see you Cellomaniac! I think you’ve been away for a while? The Canadian content has definitely diminished without you!] 🙂
I still don’t get why “littl’un” equals L in Froglet. Can somebody explain please?
Parky1@46, “top of littl’un” = L. Make sense?
Thanks Mig, it does now. I think I was looking for something more complicated, as would be fitting for this puzzle.
Mig@36 , I always think that being stubborn is the best attribute for a solver . Our sprog3 was just the age to want to go to the cinema for Star Wars films , this was for the “second” trilogy . I think “Attack of the Clones” is THE worst film I have ever seen .
I second your comment @45 , great to see Cellomaniac return , lowering the average age and raising the average IQ . I suspect he has just served out a ban for bad behaviour .
[ Totally off topic sorry , I see the special Genius blog has arrived . Someone brought the puzzle to me at work for a bit of help , I was just wondering if there was a female version online as well ? ]
I’m always wary of littl’uns. A workmate once said of a manager “Give a small (metaphorically speaking, of course) man power, and he’ll show you just how small he is”. I’ve an open mind on whether that’s a fair generalisation of not…