Guardian Prize 26,125 / Brummie

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I found this generally pretty straightforward for a Prize puzzle, the only problems arising through my own stupid obstinacy. There are quite a lot of anagrams and easy charades, the easiest of all being 20 etc, my last one in, owing to my stubbornness in clinging too long to possibilities that were quite clearly wrong.

Brummie’s puzzles quite often have a theme but there doesn’t appear to be one here. I could, of course, be wrong – again.

Across

9 Put formally, tennis great with appropriate round decoration (9)
SGRAFFITO
S GRAF, as Steffi, the tennis great, would be, put formally + FIT [appropriate] + O [round]

10 Large island reduced by a gas (5)
OZONE
OZ [large island, reduced, or abbreviated] + ONE [a]
This had to be the answer but it was my penultimate entry, because it took me so long to justify it. I wasted far too much time trying to find a large island from which to take an ‘a’.

11 Hot on the heels of swinging single people (7)
ENGLISH
Anagram [swinging] of SINGLE + H [hot]

12 State tennis legend’s song and dance (7)
PALAVER
PA  [Pennsylvania – state] + LAVER [Rod, another tennis great]

13 Desirable girls generally try to put out — time for resistance? (5)
TOTTY
Anagram [put out] of TRY TO, with T [time] in place of r [resistance]

14 Made acceptable, the thing breathes in windy Andes (9)
SANITISED
IT [the thing] + IS [breathes] in anagram [windy] of ANDES

16 Blowing the whistle on football team’s once popular number (7,3,5)
SINGING THE BLUES
SINGING [blowing the whistle] + THE BLUES [football team – Chelsea, I believe]
– and I’m afraid I actually remember this once popular number.

19 Battle location having small advantage: opportunity to retreat (9)
SEDGEMOOR
S [small] + EDGE [advantage] + reversal [to retreat] of ROOM [opportunity] for the 1685 final battle of Monmouth’s rebellion

21 Down with … what did you say about holy man? (5
SADHU
SAD [down] + reversal [about] of UH [what did you say?]

22 Ostentatious flâneur one’s seen off on this occasion (7)
FUNERAL
Anagram [ostentatious?] of FLÂNEUR

23 Vast area ripe for development — look into it (7)
PRAIRIE
AIR [look] in an anagram [for development] of RIPE

24,23down Rock band gets job making important roof timber (5,4)
QUEEN POST
QUEEN [rock band] + POST [job]
I’d never heard of this but it was very easy wordplay.

25 Female, put coarsely, eg “sheila” or “bird” (4,5)
FISH EAGLE
F [female] + an anagram [put coarsely] of EG SHEILA

Down

1 Disease, when linked to top quality outstanding, lives (10)
ASBESTOSIS
AS [when] + BEST [top quality] + OS [outstanding] + IS [lives]
I can’t see OS = outstanding in Collins or Chambers but I did find it online, with regard to insurance claims.

2 Get lighter energy for nothing in English resort (8)
BRIGHTEN
E [energy] substituted for ‘o’  in BRIGHTON [English resort]

3 Guy from Fife turning guy inside out (6)
EFFIGY
Anagram [turning] of FIFE + G[u]Y

5 Western character Daisy’s smitten by? (10)
COWPUNCHER
Cryptic definition, referring to the fact that cows are traditionally called Daisy [or Buttercup]

6 Support for camera, yet turned up as old clothes washer (5,3)
DOLLY TUB
DOLLY [support for camera] + reversal [turned up] of BUT [yet]
My grandma had one of these to do her washing : I’d love to see her face if she could see the price they apparently fetch now as ‘perfect planters’!

8,21 As the hourglass figure went (and so the modelling career)? (4-6)
PEAR-SHAPED
Double / cryptic definition

14 Movement, if impaired with sloe gin, embracing fellow? (4,2,4)
SIGN OF LIFE
Anagram [impaired] of IF and SLOE GIN round [embracing] F [fellow]

15 Sequined, it’s designed to be unsettling (10)
DISQUIETEN
Anagram [designed] of SEQUINED IT

17 Milliner ran two houses free from error (8)
INERRANT
Hidden in [houses] millINER RAN Two – a weak clue, I think, as INERRANT and ‘error’ have the same root.

18 Swimming nude over foam, so not allowed alcoholic drink? (5,3)
UNDER AGE
Anagram [swimming] of NUDE over RAGE [foam]

20,4,7 The big picture shows balls in the possession of football side (6,4,6)
DANCES WITH WOLVES
DANCES [balls] + WITH [in the possession of] + WOLVES [football side – Wolverhampton Wanderers this time]
With D?N?E? as the first word, I got DUNDEE as the football team firmly in my head and it took ages to shift. Then, the second word being established as WITH, I tried very hard to find a film entitled DINNER WITH ……. It all seems very silly now but I’m sure some of you will recognise the tenacity of some misconceptions. I couldn’t believe what an easy answer it was when light finally dawned.

22 Musical note (quarter-second) often posed by web site visitors (4)
FAQS
FA [musical note] + Q [quarter] + S [second]
[The favourite one on this site is ‘What’s a Nina?’]

29 comments on “Guardian Prize 26,125 / Brummie”

  1. Thanks to Brummie and Eileen. Enjoyed the workout. Didn’t have the same experience with
    DANCES WITH WOLVES but I did spend some trying to find a six-letter island from which I could
    subtract an a. New terms for me were TOTTY, DOLLY TUB and QUEEN POST.

    Cheers…

  2. I quite liked this puzzle, but I would have preferred ‘added to’ to ‘reduced by’ in 10A

    Why does ‘air’ equate to ‘look’ in 23A?

    Phil

  4. Thanks Eileen. I kept frowning over this one, eg over “Put formally” in 1a, last in, and “Put coarsely” in 25a . The answer to 10a jumped out, but I had your trouble with the clueing, the “by” especially. I liked 22a, except for the anagrind. Felt nitpicky also over the first four words of 20,4,7. Despite that, it pleasantly filled a Saturday lunch hour.

  5. Many thanks Eileen & Brummie. Very enjoyable!

    My mother used a Dolly Tub before our house got electricity in the mid ’30’s. She then got a Hotpoint Washer which transformed her routine.

    It was also nice to say Goodbye to the Gas Lamps.

    Old enough to remember!

  6. Old memories might differ from country to country, perhaps.

    I recall the ‘washing stone’ from our old one-storey bungalow in a large compound. The house belonged to my grandfather.

    This was usually a solid granite stone about one-and-a-half feet in width, two feet in length and two feet in height (at the end where the washer stood). The stone sloped down from the washer’s end.

    Usually this stone was planted near the well. One drew water from the well and soaped and beat the clothes on the stone by standing near it.

    In Madras these stones disappeared when palatial buildings gave room to multi-floor apartment buildings.

  8. Thanks, Eileen, very enjoyable puzzle. I was relieved to see that even bloggers can be temporarily blinded by obstinacy: this happened to me in 9a where I was determined to fit RAFA in, in spite of the “Put formally”!
    Bryan @5 & Rishi @6, I can remember when my mother bought a twin-tub washing machine – that really was modernity!

  9. I forgot to thank you, Eileen, for the youtube clip, which I too am old enough to remember, though the version of Singing the Blues that I remember was by Tommy Steele.

  10. Hi crosser @9 – just for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N89x3IxKdEc. I remember that one, too, but, as with Blueberry Hill yesterday, Google came up with the other one first.

    [As for ‘even’ bloggers @8, I have tried, ever since I started blogging, to refute the idea that bloggers are an infallible race apart – we’re just the ones who were prepared to stick our necks out – and I think I manage to demonstrate it on a fairly regular basis. 😉 Fortunately, most commenters here are not afraid to suggest alternative interpretations or point out glaring mistakes. That’s what makes it such fun!]

  11. That was badly put: I meant, of course, that I demonstrate fairly regularly that this blogger, at least, is *not* infallible!

  12. A nice workout from Brummie.

    Although not a real “stinker” it was a nice change after the last 2 weeks to have something that was at least a small challenge for the weekend.

    I enjoyed it.

    Thanks to Eileen and Brummie

  13. I agree that this was relatively straightforward for a prize puzzle, and the only answer I had to check post-solve was SGRAFFITO even though it was clear enough from the wordplay. It was good to see that the BRIGHTEN/Brighton clue was clearly enough clued for there to have been no ambiguity whatsoever about which of them was the answer.

    Sorry Eileen, but DUNDEE would probably never be my first thought for a football team in a multi-word answer even with D?N?E? in place.

  15. Hi Andy B @13 – but you didn’t have a Dundonian husband [although mine did support United].

    [These multiplications are getting harder!]

  19. muffin @16: I had never heard the word “totty” over on this side of the pond, so I’ll take your word for its connotations. Perhaps Brummie let a bit of his Cyclops alter ego slip through…

  20. Thanks Brummie and Eileen. I’m ashamed to say that ‘Dundee’ never crossed my mind – and I supported the one that isn’t United for a couple of decades before moving south.

    Also couldn’t get ‘quoin post’ out of my head. Given the existence of Status Quo, it sort of partially works!

    Hunting tennis stars added to the fun: liked this one a lot.

  21. Thanks, Eileen and Brummie.

    Living just two miles across the water from Dundee, my chain of thoughts for 20, 4, 7 we exactly the same as yours! (I did come across My Dinner with Andre, a Loise Malle film).

    I can remember my mother using a dolly tub in the 50s along with dolly blue, and a posser and mangle.

  23. Thanks Eileen and Brummie

    An enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Eileen for the YouTube for 16a which I too remember.

    My COD was 22a and I also particularly liked 3d.

  24. Muffin @16

    I wasn’t happy to see the derogatory and sexist remarks against the use of the perfectly acceptable word “totty” in Fifteensquared.

    Please enlighten us as to what is “derogatory and sexist” about being described as sexually attractive.

    I personally would be delighted to be described as “top totty” and I’m a man. 😉

  25. Hi brendan
    If your interpretation of the meaning as “sexually attractive” were the common usage, I might agree. However a more common shade of meaning is “sexually available”.

    I note that the “Urban dictionary” says that the term could be applied to young people of either sex, but I think that is a very recent development.

  26. Well the Urban dictionary doesn’t have any mention of available.

    My wife often uses the words “Top totty” when drawing my attention to women in public, often when they are “over-dressed” in a sexy way but not always. I always assume that she is alerting me that they are trying to attract my attention ( I wish) as my mind is usually on things more cerebral. 😉

    I will severely castigate her the next time this happens.

  28. I first heard the word “totty” when I moved to Manchester in 1982. I thought it was a bit silly, mainly because it seemed unnecessary, and described little.

    On the sexist point, it did seem to be used equally by both sexes, usually to mean a gathering of several superficially attractive members of the other.

    Thanks everyone.

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