Guardian Prize Puzzle 26,089 by Biggles

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This is the first puzzle by Biggles for over two years,  if the search facility on fifteen squared is to be trusted (and I do trust it).   As many may know, Biggles is not one compiler but four, namely Araucaria, Enigmatist, Paul and Shed, all of whom are called John.  W.E. Johns was the author of the Biggles stories, so the name pays tribute to him.  By coincidence, John Henderson (Enigmatist) was celebrating his own golden anniversary on the day the puzzle appeared.  I don’t know how the work of setting this particular puzzle was apportioned, but great praise is due to whoever filled the grid, so as to allow the special treatments of 19 across and 4 down.

The (announced) theme was “to mark a golden wedding anniversary” and there were a few hints in the clues which led me fairly quickly to the answer.  Timothy West and Prunella Scales were married in 1963 and are both known as crossword lovers.  I hope that they enjoyed solving the puzzle as much as I did.  I was defeated in the end only by 14 down.

Across
1 SPICAS Short film screened by badass for those with a supporting role (6)
PIC in *ASS.  The word itself was entirely new to me, but once I had the crossing letters, the wordplay meant that nothing else would fit.  I’m not entirely happy about “bad” as an anagram indicator, though.
5 LIPSTICK Apply tongue — swallow — spit out bit of war paint (8)
*SPIT in LICK.  “War paint” is a nice definition.
9 MASALA They are ruined by gin, just like curry! (6)
MAS A LA.  A reference to gin as “mother’s ruin”.
10 LUMINARY Star of the road in 354 days, briefly (8)
M1 in LUNAR Y(ear).  Took me a long time to realise that the lunar year has 354 days.  Because 354 is 11 days fewer than 365 I was misled by memories of the call “Give us our 11 days” from when the calendar changed in 1752.
11 FLEA CIRCUSES Some big tops with little jumpers? (4,8)
Cryptic definition.
13 APSE Imitate cradling Sybil’s head in recess (4)
S(ybil) in APE.  A reference to Prunella Scales’s most famous character, Sybil Fawlty.
15 ACCOUTRED Cued actor, funnily dressed (9)
*(CUED ACTOR).
18 TOURNEDOS Got very large eating duck steak (9)
0 in TURNED, O(ut)S(ize).
19 WEST He’s celebrating gold this weekend: he goes ___ in the row above (4)
And in the row above is the word Timothy, written from right to left or westwards.
21 See 24
25 UNDERAGE Young Parisian, one of fashion (8)
UN DE RAGE.
26 EARTHY This corny Shakespearean solver’s coarse (6)
EAR THY.  Is an ear “corny”?
27 I SUSPECT It’s shambolic when American with muscle checks in (it’s my view) (1,7)
 US PEC in *ITS.
28 PESETA Money once placed in green shade (6)
SET in PEA.
Down
2 PLAY Pru’s first amateur theatrical production (4)
P(ru), LAY.  Another nudge towards the theme.
3 CHAFF Make fun of rubbish (5)
Double definition.  I didn’t help myself by wrongly entering SCOFF.
4 SCALES She’s celebrating gold this weekend: she ___ the previous column (6)
And, reading upwards,  you will find PRUNELLA in the column immediately to the left.
5 LILAC Maybe Cilla White — or Purple? (5)
*CILLA.  (Pris)cilla White is better known as Cilla Black.
6 PUMP ROOM Question Othello brought up in drinking chamber (4,4)
PUMP(question), MOOR(rev).  I’d heard of the Pump Rooms, but didn’t make the connection at once.  It’s where the mineral waters from the spa were drunk.
7 TONGUE TIE Difficulty with speech as English, say, marry (6,3)
TONGUE, TIE.
8 CORSELETTE Irish heading off to penetrate French novelist’s old protective garb (10)
(e)RSE in COLETTE.
12 LAY ON HANDS Attempt spiritual healing with poem about workers (3,2,5)
Cryptic definition.
14 SHRUBLESS Quiet Muscovite ready to survey surface of steppe? It may be this barren (9)
SH, RUBLE SS.  I confess to not being able to parse this to my satisfaction.  I don’t like Muscovite for ruble, and I don’t understand “ready to survey”, nor do I understand how surface of steppe = SS.  Help please! . SH RUBLES S with Muscovite ready meaning the Russian currency.  Thanks to grand puzzler and others.
16 COO Bill’s partner when behaving amorously? (3)
As in “bill and coo”.
17 TEST CASE Precedent for heartless 3 holding book up (4,4)
ACTS(rev) in TE(a)SE.  Despite being a lawyer, this took me a long time, and it was only when drafting the blog that I understood the clue fully.  I was looking for something like T(hre)E, but that left the E and S unaccounted for.
20 ASLEEP Ridiculous sale, epic — 50% off! (6)
*SALE, EP(ic).
22 EVENT Golden wedding celebration, for example — partial to platinum anniversary? (5)
Contained in (s)EVENT(ieth).
23 WORDS Dispute using weapon, first to last (5)
SWORDS with the first letter moved to the end.
24,21 WHAT THE BUTLER SAW Play that we blush at, right? We both did it on TV (4,3,6,3)
*(THAT WE BLUSH AT R(ight) WE).  Timothy West and Prunella Scales starred in a production of this Joe Orton farce shown on BBC 2 in 1987.

*anagram

21 comments on “Guardian Prize Puzzle 26,089 by Biggles”

  1. Thanks Biggles and bridgesong. Re 14d, according to Chambers, ready refers to ready money, which would be a ruble to a Muscovite. New word for me was MASALA. Enjoyed the workout.

    Cheers…

  2. Thanks bridgesong. I think in 14 that Muscovite ready (money) = rubles and surface of steppe = inital letter = s.

  3. Thanks bridgesong. I was defeated by 4d – guessing ‘shares’ from the grammar but not being able to parse it – and also by 9a, so thanks for the illumination. I got 17d, but only see now the 3d te(a)se. Like Biggles A, I had ready/rubles.

  4. Many thanks Bridgesong & Biggles.

    It was great to see the four setters back together again.

    This was a truly wonderful puzzle and it took me ages to spot the names of the Golden Couple. Very clever!

    Also, many thanks for explaining LUMINARY … I did get it but without fully understanding the clue.

  6. Thanks so much for this blog. That was a fiendishly difficult puzzle. I stand in awe at the ability of this compiler.

  7. Very enjoyable prize crossword from this group. It actually took me three sittings. Until on Monday I finallu saw Timothy and Prunella.

    Nice to have a “prize” with a bit of meat to feed us through the weekend. More please.

    Thanks to Bridgesong and Biggles

  9. I don’t remember this taking me much longer than my usual prize puzzle solve on a Monday evening.

    The golden anniversary couple were my last ones in because I had no idea who had been celebrating one. It was only when I finally understood what the clues were telling me and I saw their first names hidden where the clues said they were that I thought “oh, yes, they’re married aren’t they” and entered the surnames.

  10. Thanks, bridgesong.

    WEST and SCALES came very late in the day to me – I still hadn’t seen TIMOTHY and PRUNELLA till I read your blog. I was treating the row above as the one with the answers in, not the individual letters – doh!

    Today’s paper has a bit missing, as it says on the on-line version:

    “Five 12s are not further defined in their clues. (Note added 2 November 2013: this standfirst was missing from the originally published version.)”

    Despite that, I did manage to find four of them so far.

  11. Thanks bridgesong and Biggles

    I guessed Scales and then got West later having decided that it must be a friend of all three setters. I missed the hidden forenames (very nicely done). Tournedos was my last in.

    An excellent puzzle as one might expect.

  12. Thanks to Biggles and to bridgesong. Very good indeed and took a few sittings to get to the bottom of everything. I wish all prize puzzles were like this.

  13. Good solve; once I saw Pru and Sybil in the clues the penny dropped.

    Thanks bridgesong; I can’t see the problem with bad as an anagrind. I thought it was a bit light on themed words until I saw the blog with the hidden TIMOTHY and PRUNELLA – very clever!

  14. Heartfelt thanks to Dave Ellison @10. That information wasn’t there when I printed it out this morning and it makes all the difference!

  15. Very entertaining. I got the happy couple almost straight away,but there were still difficulties, particularly in the NE corner: I too had SCOFF for 3dn, SPICAS was unconvincing even when it became clear there was no other possibility, and MASALA was a great clue which I couldn’t parse.

    Thanks to all four Biggles, and to bridgesong, especially for pointing out that Cilla is White as well as Black – I’d thought the reference was only to different shades of the flower – I believe white lilac does exist, as well as purple.

  16. I got Scales and West pretty quickly. But please, will somebody explain to me in words of one syllable where Prunella and Timothy are. Thank you.

  20. First one I haven’t finished for ages. Can’t find spica/s in any of my 3 dictionaries and masala is in only one!
    I did not interpret rows & columns properly but assumed West & Scales anyway. Thanks Gaufrid.

    Thanks to Dave Ellison for telling us about the missing info in this week’s crossword.

    Why do we have to do the calculation in the Preview Comment?

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