A satisfying prize puzzle from Philistine, with a nice theme that I won’t reveal until the next paragraph …
The theme was “palaces” – the rubric read:
Five 12s are not further defined in their clues
… with a note that this text was omitted from the originally published version, which might have created problems for some solvers. 12 turned out to be PALACE. I’ve put a * before each of the palaces below, and linked to their Wikipedia page.
Across
1. Insure junk is standing (7)
STATURE
You need to split “Insure” (a somewhat controversial device) to give TAT = “junk” in SURE
Definition: “standing”
5. Fruit of wasting the end of the month attached to bed (7)
APRICOT
APRI[l] = “wasting end of the month” + COT = “bed”
Definition: “Fruit”
10,27. Brisk punishment (8)
SPANKING
Double definition: “Brisk” and “punishment”. I was a bit unsure about the former, but Chambers gives one definition of SPANKING as “(of a wind) fresh and brisk”
11. Poor A levels, sir (10)
* VERSAILLES
This was our way into the theme, with a clearly signalled anagam without a definition: (A LEVELS SIR)*
Definition: [PALACE]
12. 27’s house is regularly clean, kept in step (6)
PALACE
[c]L[e]A[n] in PACE = “step”
Definition: “[KING]’s house”
13. Abraham Lincoln’s first amendment (8)
* ALHAMBRA
(ABRAHAM L)*
Definition: [PALACE]
14. Leaving it to be dealt with properly is not his style (9)
VIGILANTE
(LEAVING IT)*
Definition: “The whole clue”
16. Waistline finally slim and dark … (5)
EBONE
[waistlin]E = “Waistline finally” + BONY = “slim”
Definition: “dark”
17. … having skimmed the fat, say (5)
UTTER
[b]UTTER = “skimmed the fat”
Definition: “say”
19. Record about spots compiler has to drop fast (5-4)
CRASH-DIVE
CD = “record” around RASH = “spots” followed by I’VE = “compiler has”
Definition: “to drop fast”
23. Oh no! Swinging sixties pop star appears in Hawaii (8)
HONOLULU
(OH NO)* + LULU = “sixties pop star”
Definition: “appears in Hawaii”
24. Sees (6)
* ELYSEE
ELY = “see” (the seat of a bishop) + SEE
Definition: [PALACE]
26. Sponge soaks up tea, including 27 (10)
* BUCKINGHAM
BUM = “Sponge” around CHA = “tea” around KING
Definition: [PALACE]
28. 25 offering some resistance with limits to young and old alike (2,2,3)
OH MY GOD
OHM = “some resistance” + Y[oun]G O[l]D = “limits to young and old alike”
Definition: “[YIKES]”
29. One smoker can be irritating (7)
IRKSOME
(I SMOKER)*
Definition: “irritating”
Down
2. With her fashionable pork-pie hat (7)
* TOPKAPI
Compound anagram: (HER TOPKAPI)* = “pork-pie hat”
Definition: [PALACE]
3. Washington gallery exhibits a friendly place (5)
TONGA
Hidden in [washing]TON GA[llery]
Definition: “a friendly place” – Wikipedia says: “Tonga also became known as the Friendly Islands because of the congenial reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit there in 1773.”
4. Nice location a compiler spotted in Jordan first, perhaps (7)
RIVIERA
A with I = “compiler” in RIVER = “Jordan [..] perhaps” put “first”. (Personally, I think the cryptic reading is a bit broken here – it should really be “in Jordan, perhaps, first”, even though that makes for a less good surface reading.)
Definition: “Nice location” (the city of Nice is on the French Riviera)
6. Dandy finds exercise painful (6)
PEACHY
PE = “exercise” + ACHY = “painful”
Definition: “Dandy”
7. Setter criticises a poor city (9)
I SLAM = “Setter criticises” + A + BAD = “poor”
Definition: “city”
8. 18 production of cricket terms (7)
OVERRUN
OVER and RUN are both “cricket terms”
Definition: “[TOO MUCH] production”
9. Finds the ark built right with branches outside (13)
BREAKTHROUGHS
(THE ARK)* + R in BOUGHS = “branches”
Definition: “Finds”
15. Correct choice essential in sport (3,6)
ICE HOCKEY
(CHOICE)* + KEY = “essential”
Definition: “sport”
18. Occasionally, military leaders get in touch more than necessary (3,4)
TOO MUCH
O[ccasionally] M[ilitary] = “Occasionally, military leaders” in TOUCH
Definition: “more than necessary”
20. Found in haste, a merchant ship (7)
STEAMER
Hidden in “[ha]STE A MER[chant]”
Definition: “ship”
21. Mount with vigour outside in a state (7)
VIETNAM
ETNA = “Mount” in VIM = “vigour”
Definition: “a state”
22. Leave half the quantity first in the body (6)
QUANGO
GO = “Leave” with QUAN[tity] = “Leave half the quantity” put “first”
Definition: “body” (as in a public body)
25. My key is lost (5)
YIKES
(KEY IS)*
Definition: “My”
A pretty satisfying solve I thought.
I had reservations about SPANKING too for the same reason, and I thought of another which would fit the crosses and work (which I’ve now forgotten).
I came to the theme working backwards from ELYSEE which was a gift.
Thanks Philistine and mhl.
Thanks, mhl. Since I do these puzzles soon after publication online, I was surprised to see there were no “special instructions”! Luckily ALHAMBRA couldn’t really be anything else and it was very conveniently situated next to PALACE so I twigged what was going on pretty quickly.
“A SPANKING pace” seemed a familiar enough phrase to me.
It was a stinker. I didn’t answer a single clue.
I stared at this for a long time too Jon, and found most surfaces quite impenetrable at first sight, e.g. 1a as one of the more notable.
Had I not got my foot in the door, with stumbling on the theme, I’d have really struggled I think.
I found this one easier than most Guardian prize puzzles, even without the rubric; just got on the right wavelength, I suppose. Versailles was my way in, then Alhambra and the rest.
Thanks mhl. Like others, I managed this at a fair pace without any special instructions, getting all the palaces before 12A. I was looking for TOPKAPI, but the clue to 2d didn’t help. The elision in 17a was iffy, too. It took more than a lunch-hour, but it was a prize puzzle after all, and a good one. Thanks Philistine.
Many thanks mhl & Philistine for your efforts.
Also, very many thanks to Dave Ellison who reported the arrival of the previously missing intro to us Fifteensquared users at 9:37 am in last week’s blog.
See Comment 10.
I don’t know what we’d do without Fifteensquared.
failed on 1a, 2d and 17. I often fail to see things like “insure” might mean “in sure”.
The only words I could find for 2d,1a was soprani and then esotary but obviously could not construct them.
I still do not understand how 2d works.
The note about 5 clues was missing from my paper so I wondered what was going on.
I don’t remember this being particularly difficult at the time, although I do remember not seeing the wordplay for TOPKAPI so thanks for the compound anagram explanation.
Possibly my slow start was due to the lack of instructions for this puzzle in the newspaper, or my trying to solve on various train journeys, while my mind was for much of the time elsewhere. I did not understand why there was no definition for Alhambra until I had access to WiFi and read comments in the Guardian online on the Sunday afternoon and then quickly worked out what I was looking for and finished the whole thing, with the help of my Mum, by early evening.
The parsing of ELYSEE and TOPKAPI took an age and then of course afterwards I wondered why they had taken me so long.
Thanks Philistine for an interesting puzzle and to mhi for the blog. By the way 16ac should be EBONY. I had thought 17ac might be IVORY!
I’d like to add my thanks to Dave Ellison for the tip off about the missing instructions.
I had the version in the paper and only limited wifi access last week; so I was lucky to read fifteensquared before getting too puzzled by the missing definitions.
Thanks all
I enjoyed this and found it a very suitable challenge for a Saturday. I suspect that it would have been less enjoyable if the palaces had been advertised.
I thought elysee was clever and was my first hint of the theme.
I did enter crash-down for 19ac which delayed solving ‘Vietnam’.
Thought this was going to be a cracker at first with lots of cross referencing keywords. However I got 12 across almost instantly and then the palaces flew in.
It was 90% complete in about 30 minutes. Only held up briefly by a bit of the NW corner and 17ac. But this succumbed after another 20 minutes.
17ac was last in and 14ac is a lovely &lit but otherwise pretty standard fare.
Perhaps I was lucky but I found this a little disappointing for a Prize in the end.
Thanks to mhl and Philistine.
I found this a pleasant solve. Like a couple of others, ELYSEE gave me the theme. Jotted down a few that came to mind, and was lucky to find places for BUCKINGHAM and TOPKAPI, but Schonbrunn and Iolani didn’t appear (though the location of the latter, the only 12ac in the U.S., appears in 23ac).
Thanks, mhl, for explaining why Tonga is a “friendly place.” I had wondered about that. And thanks Philistine.
Thanks, mhl.
I did the puzzle from the paper; like NeilW I spotted the theme from the neighbouring PALACE and ALHAMBRA and realised that there was a missing rubric. I was rather disappointed that there were only 5 palaces. Earlier in the week we had a puzzle containing roughly twice that number of related clues, which some posters described as a ‘mini-theme’. By that logic, this would be a micro-theme!
Not Philistine’s best, IMHO, but enjoyable, with some very good clues scattered throughout. ALHAMBRA is a splendid one, the surface of which would be spoilt by having to add a definition. I also liked VIGILANTE, PEACHY and ICE HOCKEY.
I don’t have a problem with the grammar of 4d.