I agree with Eileen re the proverb; it held me up for a long time because I couldn’t believe it could be so distorted – I was wrong.

Good blog PeeDee. I was convinced originally that the Spoonerism was going to have NIT as the second word. I loved WASHER and the picture of Mahler’s head being squeezed between buttocks.

Excellent crossword.

OK not too difficult but some superlative surfaces from the master.

Terrific Spoonerism whilst 6dn and 19dn were admirable.

Good fun, with some excellent surface readings – 7d and 18a stood out for me. 19d is a very Araucarian clue.

MANTRA was my last entry – like Davy, I wouldn’t really consider this a ‘sacred text’, which flummoxed me.

24, 3 took me a while; like Eileen, I baulked at the mangled proverb (and when I got the answer I didn’t even bother to parse the clue to check it). Perhaps this corruption happens because ‘prove’ has come to mean ‘verify’, whereas in the proverbs ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’ and ‘the exception that proves the rule’, as well as the expression ‘proof spirit’ which is used cleverly in 6d, ‘prove’ means ‘test’ (as ‘provare’ still does in Italian, for example). As it is impossible to verify a pudding, and completely illogical for an exception to verify a rule (rather than to test its limits), these expressions have lost their original force and are therefore prone to misquotation.

JH seems to have an obsession with baked beans at the moment. As ‘Paul’ he served them up here in 7d, and as ‘Mudd’ in the Indy yesterday, we got BEANS ON TOAST.

Bryan@6 – no, I didn’t like the sexist clueing of ‘MANEATER’, though I had resolved not to mention it until I read your comment! In relation to ‘Politically Correct’ I would refer you to Brendan’s comment (@32) in this forum about his own puzzle on Wenesday this week. I rest my case.

I always find Paul’s puzzles impenetrable initially but slowly the light filters through. I put TANTRA instead of MANTRA as mantra didn’t seem to fit the definition of sacred text. I interpreted the clue as ‘Staff facility’ both turned over so before turning you get NATART. Didn’t there used to be an organisation called NAT (national association of teachers = staff). I’m sure Eileen could put me right !.

A very enjoyable puzzle from Paul and particular favourites were CARDIGAN (very smooth), CANOEIST (smooth again), ABSENCE, DETROIT and SLASHER. Thanks Paul.

Thanks Eileen for your ‘crossing comment’ re pudding.

I completed this but needed help from my wife for tipsy cake. I did not have a dictionary to hand and had to assume ‘nates’ meant buttocks.

A fairly quiet puzzle fo Paul but enjoyable.

The main anagram puzzled me. I have always thought that the saying is ‘The proof of the pudding is in the eating’ and did not recall this version.

The extension to 6d was ‘delicious’.

I liked the spoonerism, Nicosia, gyrate,Cardigan and several others.

This was a very enjoyable puzzle, with some amusing clues, especially, perhaps, 6dn, the only problem being that it depended on 24,3, the all-too-common nonsensical misquotation of the saying ‘The proof of the pudding is in the eating’. It took me a long time to enter that solution, because I couldn’t quite believe that Paul would do it! [It was a good anagram, though – and, Biggles A, Chambers gives ‘to beat’ as one definition of ‘thud’.

26ac was really obvious once you saw it but ‘Tap’s partner’ kept evoking Fred and Ginger – and I had a T in it for a few minutes, while trying to justify MANET / MONET at 23dn.