Comments on: Guardian 25,336 – Paul

By: sheffield hatter

sheffield hatter — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 20:59:03 +0000

Came to this rather late but finished quite quickly and without aids – must know Essex better than I thought!

No one seems to have mentioned the helpful reference to Basildon Bond (= marriage)in 21ac.

I’m glad that Luton, or at least its airport, has been restored to Bedfordshire.

By: Davy

Davy — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 11:24:03 +0000

Thanks UY,

This was great fun which I finished off this morning. Like skg I completed this without aids mainly due to my computer being knacked. The last one in was PLACATION which was very devious. Paul certainly kick-starts the old brainbox or what’s left of it. I’m typing this on my wife’s MAC so I’m learning here as well. The MAC is much faster than my Windows 7 box which is pretty flaky.
Many thanks to Paul as ever.

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 07:47:18 +0000

“Favourite of 5′s … ” in 23d contains a double genitive which put me off my stroke for a while.

By: MikefromBath

MikefromBath — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 01:25:01 +0000

Ford still has a production facility in Dagenham that produces engines.

By: Robi

Robi — Tue, 31 May 2011 23:04:58 +0000

Carrots @35; Lorraine Kelly is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorraine_Kelly

By: Carrots

Carrots — Tue, 31 May 2011 22:11:19 +0000

RCWhiting@25: Do you know, I think you are right. I think I`ve introduced the “Bleedin” as a chav embellishment. Thanks for pointing out where I might find some more…but don`t these rags have a lot of ferkin` footballers pictures in?

Sil@31: your admission about having sex whilst cluing has just won you highest acclaim in my own Cruciverbalist Hall of Fame. With minor adaption, it could be developed into a very rude joke about Essex Girls…which makes it doubly accomplished!

Robi@23: Yes, of course! Lorraine Chase. Wherever have I got this “Kelly” from? Machine-Gun?? Gene??? Grace????

By: otter

otter — Tue, 31 May 2011 21:44:40 +0000

Just finished this one. Quite a struggle, in parts, but a very enjoyable one. Thanks, Paul.

By: Martin H

Martin H — Tue, 31 May 2011 21:36:52 +0000

A list of Essex towns, a couple of pretty feeble laddish jokes, ‘cat’ for jazz player – what I don’t understand is why I bothered to finish it.

By: stiofain

stiofain — Tue, 31 May 2011 20:51:51 +0000

I think they are whisky/whiskey men morpheus.
Another classic Paul but instead of adding gimmicks like the twitter feed the “lovely” web team should sort out the problem of clues with multiple lights like todays 6,22 across overwriting the first words of the clues. Sort out your .css file the fact it works on macs and firefox isnt good enough.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Tue, 31 May 2011 20:50:07 +0000

After yesterday’s Treat another Corker today.
We thought this was Paul on top form.

Yes, for many 1ac (BRAINTREE) might be the obvious choice for Clue of the Day, but, although it raised somewhat more than a smile, clues like this are more an exponent of the laddish Paul than just really good. From who else does one expect things like 8ac and 25ac (or 23d, even though equaling ‘sex’ to ‘jolly good fun’, mwah …. ).

But, let’s make no mistake, while having jolly good fun, there was cluing of the highest order – precise and clever.
Lots of imagery (the unfortunate antelope in 15ac, the scene culinaire at 14d and 6d,22′s Kelly in higher spheres, for example) and talking about the latter (6d,22), that is such a good clue. The whole thing as a reversal, meanwhile creating a splendid surface.

ELIZABETH (5d) has been clued many times before (I guess), but this one was surely excellent.
As was 13d (PLACATION), another brilliant surface.
And 10ac (MELODY) is very well written with the oxygen/dry air connection.

After we found GRIMIEST (our first, 25ac) and the easy RALLIES (20d), the 6 of 96 was quickly discovered – and so it hád to be ESSEX. “Essex’s” for just a place in Essex may not be everyone’s cup of tea (Andrew?), but it was immediately clear what was going on. Where London tube stations were just over the edge for us, these towns might have been one step too far for others.
We live around the corner (and I can recommend Saffron Walden and Epping (well, the forest, that is)), so no problem here today.

Splendid crossword.
And Paul, good to see you dropping by.
Don’t hesitate to do that more often, especially in case we are uncertain about the parsing of one or two clues.
Much appreciated.

As was the Crossword – capital C!!