Prize Puzzle – 046 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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Prize Puzzle – 046

Monthly Prize Puzzle (March 2016)

A Puzzle by Prolixic

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Why not have a go at our latest Monthly Prize Puzzle?

The winner will receive their choice of any of the Telegraph Crossword Books published by Hamlyn.

Please note that, due to punitive postal charges, while the competition is open to all, the prize is only available to UK solvers.

A review will follow after the closing date (19th March 2016).

The competition is now closed

The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.

I’ve left this post open for comments, but if you don’t want your comment to be deleted then avoid asking for or giving help with the clues.


18 comments on “Prize Puzzle – 046

  1. All done, good fun. Plenty to keep me smiling and chuckling.
    Thanks Prolixic.

  2. Thanks prolixic, all done, it was a lot of fun watching the song title reveal itself.
    I really liked “conscious thought” 7d
    Would not half-hearted prince (5d) work better if the prince had an even number of letters? and would it not be more accurate to have where rather than how in 28a, and helped/worked rather than was in 4d? A few more boundary-pushes I thought with national, crush, question, port, but a very enjoyable puzzle, Many thanks.

      1. Got 23d now, I had entered the **** at first – you can read the clue ambiguously

  3. Superb stuff, I enjoyed it very much indeed.

    The bottom half was harder than the top I thought, even when having an idea what to look for.

    So many excellent clues, I’ll nominate 23a as my favourite as it held me up longer than any of the others.

    Great entertainment, thanks a lot Prolixic.

  4. Lots of fun. I spotted the pun immediately then thoroughly enjoyed each part revealing itself. 18A is my favorite because it took me a while to parse the second half, but I also liked 4D a lot. Thanks Prolixic!

  5. Oh goody – a Prolixic puzzle! Just managed to print it off – can only access the site through a proxy server at the moment. Hopefully all will be resolved ‘ere long.

    Sounds as though everyone’s enjoying this one – I’m looking forward to it.

    1. Jane (and anyone else who still has access problems), If you’re on Facebook, try getting in through Big Dave’s page when he posts the puzzles. I was having issues before the new server and I found that I could get in that way. Thankfully, everything is good now.

  6. Loved this.

    Saw the ‘answer’ early on but it was really fun wondering what would come next. So clever. Took me ages to figure out 13a, 18a and 21d.

    Favourite is the wonderful 4d.

    Many thanks to Prolixic and to whoever blogs this.

    For some reason I can’t send my answer in…CAPTCHA not working maybe.

  7. Maybe a little more tricky than your last one, Prolixic? The Quickie pun is extremely (and laughably) cringe-worthy!
    As is invariably the case, it was some of the more straightforward ones that got ticks from me – 4,15,26&28a plus 1d. 8d came up to join them once I’d remembered ‘those’ keys, but the rosette goes to 23d – clever on so many levels.

    Many thanks and nice to see you back on the ‘other’ side of a puzzle.

    1. Glad you parsed 23d as I am still tearing my few remaining hairs out but have come to the conclusion that I am going have to wait for answers. to explain my stupidity. :cry:

  8. All done with lot of fun. Enjoyed all throughout. Thanks to Prolixic. My favourites were 18a, 27a, 4d and 14d.

  9. That is one awful homophone! spotted theme straight away but it didn’t help much. Lots of lovely clues and i will pick 17d and 22d as my favourites.

  10. Phew, after a very dodgy evening spent crawling on my hands and knees to some sort of a conclusion because I was determined I was not going to be beaten I have darkened all the lights. Only time will tell if I am correct, this morning a few more things have dropped into place and I can see why I put what I did. Will bide my time before submitting answers in case I have further inspiration. Lovely day here, Happy Mother’s Day to all to Mums everywhere and congratulations to those who made it so. :phew:

  11. Do take that chewing gum out of your mouth before you speak Prolixic.
    But what fun.
    Loved the “graduate leaves pudding” in 26a, the ” light infantry” in 6d and the “American reviewed a” in 1a.
    My only quibble is the magazine in 17d.
    Time to enter the non draw.
    Thanks to Prolixic.

    1. The same quibble at 17d held me up for a while, but eventually all things seemed to point to it. (xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.)
      Best clues for me, 4d, 14d.
      The pun is {edited because it gives too much, if incorrect, information] but great going to accommodate it in such a good puzzle.
      Must look up the meaning of 27a – lots of people say I have it. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

  12. I hope my answer got sent successfully. It said it did but the gremlins ate the usual confirmation email. I do hope they found it tasty.

    Anyway, the puzzle. I enjoyed it and found it towards the gentler end of Prolixic’s spectrum, though a few clues took a bit of unravelling. All very nice. I would struggle to elevate a single clue to favourite status so I won’t. Thanks to Prolixic for the fun.

    :good:

    1. Ah, the gremlins didn’t eat the confirmation but merely tossed it into my spam folder.

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