Guardian Prize No 26,495 by Paul

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An alphabetical jigsaw – with rhyming couplets, no less! – to celebrate what would have been Araucaria’s 94th birthday on Monday of this week.

The special instructions mentioned that Paul will be running the London Marathon in memory of A, which in hindsight was a very clear hint, although I have to confess that it completely escaped me at the time I solved the puzzle. For those that haven’t tackled this type of puzzle before, it isn’t as difficult as it looks. The answers begin with the initial letter given at the start of the clue. The grid will always feature one or two places where the same letter begins both across and down words (in this case C and F), which are clearly shown in the clues as relating to two words, so that gives you a start. This particular grid also featured only one 13 letter word (in the central column) which was a write-in (how many five letter words beginning with Z are there, especially ones having a connection with moving cars?) so that helped place the word beginning with R (also a very easy clue). It helps to use a pencil, as there may be some ambiguity about where to place an answer before you have all the crossing letters.

My occasional solving colleague Timon always approaches this type of puzzle methodically, noting exactly how many there are of each word length. Had I had the foresight to do so, I might not have run into the problem I did towards the end of the puzzle, when it seemed that the number of four and ten letter words did not match the number of clues. The answer to the mystery lay at L, where there were in fact two separate answers, both across clues, but enumerated as though they were one answer. I don’t think that I ‘ve seen this done in an alphabetical jigsaw before, but it seems fair enough, especially as the answer is in fact a hyphenated word.

Congratulations to Paul on fitting it all into the grid, and good luck in the Marathon! And thanks to PeeDee for his patience in resolving my queries about how to use his program to create a blog for a puzzle which has no clue numbers (and doesn’t feature “across” or “down” clues).

wpid-special2060grid.png
A ARAUCARIA Hed bend to steal my heart with song, all our lives enhancing … (9)

(P)AU(L) in ARC, ARIA. I think that we can forgive the “he” in the circumstances.
B BOOGIEING … being with love, I go off dancing … (9)

*(BEING O I GO).
C CAVITY Gap: around it, rodent to spot? (6)

IT in CAVY.
C COMMODE On which to go with naval officer, or not? (7)

COMMOD(OR)E. A characteristic clue from Paul.
D DECADENCE Perversion needed a cold, cold sore (9)

*(NEEDED A C C). “sore” as an anagram indicator seems to have been forced on Paul in his search for a rhyme.
E EVIL To be back is bad, Im sure (4)

LIVE (rev).
F FEAT An accomplishment having foul starter to guzzle (4)

F(oul) EAT.
F FLUMMOX Good Lord, almost finished filling in crafty types puzzle! (7)

LUMM(e) in FOX. As flummox can only be a verb, the clue’s grammar doesn’t really work, but the answer is clear enough.
G GRUYERE Produce from France or Switzerland sounding expanded, yes? (7)

Sounds like “grew, yeah”. The question mark seems well justified.
H HABITS Items in a convents laundry may be filthy, I confess! (6)

Cryptic definition.
I IMPRUDENCE Fingers ending in sauce, showing lack of care (10)

(finge)R in IMPUDENCE.
J JOURNO Briefly run to welcome the Guardians new reporter there? (6)

OUR N in JO(g).
K KINDLE Light a fire, no need for books? (6)

Cryptic definition.
L LOSS-LEADER Something cheap containing duck, sad seller cooks (4,6)

*(O SAD SELLER). As mentioned above, this caused me some difficulty as I couldn’t fit another 10 letter word into the grid.
M MOTOR HOME Moving house, second room the flaw? (5,4)

MO *(ROOM THE). I loved the misleading definition.
N NEEDIER Born to stop, right, wanting more (7)

NE DIE R.
O OMIT Order: put it on, then leave it out (4)

OM (Order of Merit) IT.
P PRESBYTERY Church court where types err by messing about (10)

*(TYPES ERR BY).
Q QUICKIES Hurried drinks from those like Fiery Fred? (8)

Cryptic definition. The reference is to the former Yorkshire and England fast bowler Fred Trueman, who was known as “Fiery Fred”.
R RETIRING Leaving work and going to bed (8)

Double definition.
S STEED With kids around, theres little time for horse (5)

T in SEED.
T TOP HOLE Splendid drink encapsulating vacation, of course (3,4)

HOL in TOPE.
U UNSEEN Popping Es, naughty nuns not viewed with specs? (6)

*(E E NUNS).
V VOTER So shortly filing books, ones marked X? (5)

OT(Old Testament) in VER(y).
W WHAMMY Question about endless slugs appearing a jinx (6)

AMM(o) in WHY.
X X-RATED XMASESThe other outstanding boy returns for festivals, methinks? (6)

I’m afraid that I can’t explain this one at all, to the extent that I can’t even find a satisfactory definition. It could just as well be X-RAYED, but that seems even less connected to the wording of the clue. In either case the enumeration is wrong to omit the hyphen. Suggestions, please. Thanks, Don @1, for putting me right. SAM in SEX (all rev).

Y Y-FRONTS Pants, frosty pants around frozen pole, I fear? (1-6)

N(orth) in *FROSTY. No problems about definition or enumeration here.
Z ZEBRA CROSSING Dash round moving cars or be safe, primarily here? (5,8)

*(CARS OR BE S(afe)) in ZING. There isn’t really a definition, but I don’t think it quite qualifies as an & lit: a semi & lit, perhaps?

35 comments on “Guardian Prize No 26,495 by Paul”

  2. Thanks to bridgesong for the blog. Sadly you failed at the same place where I fell down i.e. the X word. I thought of XRATED and XRAYED but could not make either one fit the clue. I come here and see that don has supplied the answer and made it fit the clue! Thanks to don.

    On F(7) I was happy with puzzle as a verb, the same as FLUMMOX.

    I did not see the rhyming couplets. 🙁

    This grid made it easy to fit the answers in given C, F and Z.
    When A set one of these he sometimes used a totally symmetrical grid and his instructions included some hint about the proper way to do things. On one occasion I found the final letters of words on the right hand side of the grid spelled out the word BOTTOM. Oops I have got it the wrong way round!

  3. Thanks to Paul and bridgesong. Also thanks to Don. I couldn’t come up with an X entry that
    made sense. So the definition is festivals? How does methinks figure in?

    Cheers…

  5. Thanks Paul and bridgesong

    This was made a bit harder with the ‘print version’ repeating the L, M and N clues and omitting the Y and Z clues – still got about half way through … then had a check of the PDF version … and voila … the missing links to be able to complete it !!

    I think that this is the first alphabetical that I’ve seen set by Paul – if so, well done ! Did not see the rhyming couplets.

    The breakup of LOSS LEADER wasn’t such a problem – because I was thinking without the Z clue that two separate clues must make up the 13-letter one.

    I had KINDLE as a double definition – to light a fire and the Amazon e-book reader.

    Needed your help to parse ARAUCARIA – could only see the ARIA bit, but not the rest.

  6. This was a lovely surprise – a little easier than many of Araucaria’s jigsaws – the only complication being finding the most likely 10-letter one to split, and the jigsaw part fell into place very easily. Thought of Araucaria straight away, so A was first in. Think BOOGIEING may have been last.

    Thanks to bridgesong and Paul, and good luck to Paul with the marathon and fundraising.

  8. Lovely puzzle, but all over a bit too quickly. I think the rhyming couplets lacked a little of the panache of Araucaria’s style, but that’s no criticism of Paul; anyone else’s would also remind us of what we miss.

    Thanks to all.

  9. Nice to see the return of the alphabetic jigsaw. Very apt that it was from Paul, a good friend of the the sadly missed Araucaria.

    Unfortunately I feel that Paul got a bit carried away with the moment of the occasion so some of the cluing was a little awry.

    The A clue for ARAUCARIA doesnt seem to have a definition except for all our lives enhancing which even the great man himself would have considered inadequate.

    I also dont understand the extraneous I confess in H, with specs in U and methinks in X.

    Despite this it was not too difficult (perhaps even too easy).

    I was misled by the L clue for a while until I realised there were only 2 10 letter entries in the grid but 3 clues! The fact that LOSS LEADER had 2 words beginning with L made it OK that they went in different lights (I think). Is this a first for an Alphabetic Jigsaw or had Araucaria already done something similar? I certainly dont remember it.

    Overall I enjoyed this but found it somehow unsatisfying.

    Thanks to bridgesong and Paul

  10. I also struggled with X. I eventually got it but it took longer than the rest of the puzzle combined.

    I absolutely loved this! My first introduction to solving cryptic clues was helping my mum with the monthly alphabetical in her Puzzler. As I recall, each individual clue in that was a rhyming couplet. It made them generally quite flabby with surface filler, but that was understandable given the format.

    So I think it’s remarkable Paul managed to keep this puzzle so tight whilst still coming up with rhyming couplets albeit across clue pairs. What few bits of filler there were C1, “to spot”; E, “I’m sure”; H, “I confess”, J, “there”; T, “of course”; U, “with specs”; X, “methinks”; and Y, “I fear” made it obvious this was rhyming couplets, so I’m rather surprised some people apparently didn’t spot that.

    Thanks bridgesong and Paul.

  11. P.S. Of course I didn’t spot the rhyming couplets. Very difficult to do this when you’re solving online as one never sees all the clues together. (It’s not necessary to scroll down). This was not a great loss.

    Grumpily I think that if you’re going to attempt to produce rhymes then it’s not valid to add superfluous words at the end of various clues to achieve this.

  12. BNTO @11 and others – I missed the couplets aspect but now I see it, any criticism actually melts away. As soon as you realise the language is poetic, you have to think poetically for which read ‘elastically’.

    To my great shame, A was my LOI and even needed electronic assistance but now I see the poetry of the clue I realise it’s rather beautiful. We are in reverential (sic) territory (‘He’ with a capital H being apposite) and as with a lot of poetry, words and word-order are sometimes contrived to fit the rhyme ant metre.

    As a professional philistine I dont ‘get’ poetry but, as with Hedgehoggy, I have to accept it exists; so I know I have to live with it and if necessary let it wash over me if I am to get positive enjoyment out of crosswords. And life.

    Which I do.

    Well done, Paul. A fitting tribute and a feather in your own cap. All best wishes for the marathon.

    Thanks to bridgesong; strictly speaking I didn’t need you because the only one I didn’t get was X, and neither did you! But I enjoyed and appreciated your preamble. Perhaps a reminder to many that crosswords are a pastime for enjoyment, not an academic exercise for marking.

  15. A fine tribute puzzle. I thought the majority of it was a little easier than some of Araucaria’s alphabetical puzzles, especially as the grid was a little more helpful, but I’m glad to see I wasn’t the only one who struggled to see XMASES. I needed aids to get it and I could have kicked myself when the penny dropped, although the unneccesary “methinks” did put me off a bit.

  17. I didn’t see the rhyming couplets either but I found this much easier than the Araucarian alphabetical which is not to denigrate this puzzle which I enjoyed a lot. The puzzle didn’t appear on the Kindle version so I was back to pencil and paper-and I always use pencil for crosswords!
    I got stuck on the NW corner because I stupidly entered FEAT twice which was, annoyingly, pointed out by my lady wife, so COMMODE was my LOI The parsing was pretty easy- even XMASES although that was parsed retrospectively.
    Thanks Paul and good luck!

  18. Thanks Paul and bridgesong.

    That was a real experience. At first thought I would get nowhere, but words slowly fell into place. Last in was BOOGIEING. I did like MOTOR HOME and KINDLE with its ‘no need for books’.

    Best of luck, Paul, with the fundraising and marathon.

  21. It was lovely to see the alphabetical and tribute to Araucaria from Paul, and I hope he will continue to keep the format alive. He might do well, though, to emulate A in making his alphabeticals a bit trickier. In an A alphabetical, I would seldom get more than half the answers from the clues alone before having to attempt to slot them in and work from there. In this one, though, only two or three anwsers (GRUYERE and XMASES) were not immediately obvious from the clues alone, and with the first five clues containing three of the four nine-letter answers, this was pretty much a write-in that took less time than an average daily.

    Thanks in any event to Paul and Bridgesong.

  22. Apologies for the fact that the grid still includes XRATED instead of XMASES; there’s no intention to mislead, it’s simply too much bother to have to create a new and correct grid and then substitute it for the incorrect one.

  23. Thanks Paul and bridgesong.

    As others have ommented, it was good to get an alphabetical, it makes a pleasant change. Reading the comments makes me realise how we must all approach these puzzles with our individual style: for me, XMASES and GRUYERE didn’t need a second thought either to solve or parse. And my last entry was BOOGIEING too.

  24. Actually, gruyere occurred to me on the first pass, but I couldn’t see (or hear) a homophone in “gwee air” and “grew yeah.” Still don’t.

  25. PS Kudos to Paul for running in memory of The Rev. I’m delighted to see that he’s reached over 4000 against a target of 2000, and also to see some familiar names or pseudonyms among the contributors. The man meant a lot to us, didn’t he!

  27. @24
    It is the English pronunciation of gruyere that is relevant. My old Chambers gives “groo-yer”. For me the second syllable is like the (rather lengthened) “yeah” in “She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah”. This accords with the ODE’s phonetic spelling. I assume “gwee air” is how you think the French say it. I’d just point at the menu if I were you.

  28. I’ve never heard anyone pronounce it “groo-yer” in English, though I daresay it must happen, along with “lawn-ge-ray” and “ange nu.” Mind you, the French mangling of borrowed English words is no better.

  29. Thank you Paul for a really fitting tribute I really was delighted when I opened the paper last Saturday. Thank you also to bridgesong – nice blog. And thank you to my wife who got xmases LOI.

  30. Thanks Paul for an excellent puzzle and fitting tribute.

    Thanks bridgesong, I had no trouble parsing XMASES but couldn’t fathom the parsing of ARAUCARIA – apart from the song, that is.

    It’s difficult enough to make an alphabetical without having to slide in one or two obscure words, and the requirement for rhyming couplets makes it even more difficult. Personally, although very clever, I do not think having the couplets improves an alphabetical as it sometime leads to somewhat strained clues.

    Anyway, bravo Paul for a lovely reminder of the great man.

  31. Dear friends,

    Thank you so much for your lovely comments, as ever. A tricky thing indeed to produce anything that could in some small way honour our great friend.

    Still time to donate! I’m running a half marathon in Brighton tomorrow morning. Just a mara, in honour of another of my pseudonyms! Only just realised this ‘joke’ as I write!

    If you can spare 5 minutes and 5 pounds (or so?) for a fab charity, it’s at:

    http://www.justgiving.com/guardiancrossword/

    And thank you SO VERY MUCH to those who have already contributed, or who are still planning to do so.

    Much love,

    John (Paul)

  32. For ‘A’, couldn’t the ‘He’ be an additional definition? Definition – wordplay – definition? Seems fine to me!

    Xmases one of my first ones in, as it happen . And personally, was glad to have an alphabetical puzzle a bit easier than the Great A’s, with which I usually struggled, and indeed continue to struggle, as I work my way slowly through his books.

  33. Like Bridgesong, I was mislead by the “X” word. I sort of parsed the clue as “sexrex” reversed, Rex being my idea of an outstanding boy. This gave Xerxes and I was so pleased that I’d found a six letter word beginning with X that I didn’t see thatRex is in fact, a dog and I just banged it in. It was not until I realised that A was Araucaria (what else could it be) that I sorted myself out and did X properly.

    When the old hands are both misdirected and baffled, I, speaking as a junior plodder in this game, see that these is still hope for me.

  34. As others have said, lovely to have an alphabetical – and especially so when I spotted the rhymes. My only niggle is that the 13 letter Z clue (plus immediately realising what A was) made it slightly too easy with the two 10s going in straight away. I got Xmases, probably because my one venture in setting is for the summer and winter fairs in our local church, and I try and fit in some relevant festive words.

  35. Is there a danger in carrying to far this attempt to emulate the real master. Including his name just in case we did not notice does not help especially when the standard is so much different.

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