Guardian, 24486/Paul

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As ever, a very enjoyable crossword from Paul, with lots of animals (mostly pigs and cows), a few communists and a couple of computer references.

Across
8 LANDRACE: LAND (as in fishing) + RACE; a type of pig. (Apparently this is a more general term for certain breeds of domesticated animal.)
9 HELIOS: SOIL “Eh?” reversed
11 GOOSEBUMPS: A “sensational feeling”, made up from “Rider” = PS (postscript) after “something sticky” = GOO and “oily secretion” = SEBUM
12 JERSEY: Another cow and “top” in the clothing sense
14 IN THEORY: “on paper” is the excellent definition; THE in (NO after I) followed by RY
15 ANODYNE: A NOD followed by E NY reversed
17 INSTALL: STALIN* + L. The rest took me quite a while to get with this one: “Putin taken apart” is “put in”
20 SKELETAL: A reversal of LATE = “dead” and initial letters to get LEKS
22 MERINO: Hidden answer; the ovine surface is very nice 🙂
23 WEB BROWSER: BROWSER as in “one that grazes”
24 LONGHORN: LONG = “hunger” + (T)HORN(BUSH) [Update: Oops, I left this out by mistake rather than policy.]
25 RESCUE: ESC = “key” (in the top left position on your keyboard :)) in RUE = “regret”
26 ORGANIST: ROASTING*
 
Down
1 NAPOLEON: An old French coin and the pig in Animal Farm, giving a nice link to 17a and 18d
2 ADEN: A DEN
3 GANGLY: GANG + extremes of LunacY
4 BEGONIA: BEG ON = “Continue asking” + I + A
5 THREATEN: The verb sense of “cow” this time; T + HR + EATEN = “processed as food”
6 GLOUCESTER OLD SPOT: (CESSPOOL DOG TURTLE)*
7 COPPER: “pig” being a derogatory term for a policeman
13 SADDLEBACK: “rebmucne?” is “encumber” reversed, or SADDLE BACK. I was hoping to link to Paul’s crossword from last year (?) that had many of this type of clue, but I can’t seem to find it right now.
16 NITROGEN: IE (“that is”) keeping TROG (“caveman” or troglodyte) in N N (“news”)
18 LENINIST: (TINSEL IN)*
21 KEEPER: The “kings” are K and R, and the weapon is an épée
22 MIRAGE: MI RAGE, so “is the M1 all the rage?” I suppose
24 LYNX: Homophone of “links”

11 comments on “Guardian, 24486/Paul”

  2. Some super clues here – too many to give examples. I had INSTALL for a while before I worked out the Putin bit [brilliant!] and 5dn was the last one I got, having looked up every imaginable breed of cow.

  3. Eileen: absolutely! I should really order the Guardian’s book of Paul crosswords to catch up on all those I’ve missed…

  4. I enjoyed this, but had trouble with some of the domestic creatures. I guessed LANDRACE but had never heard of the word, and didn’t get NAPOLEON, assuming it was another obscure porcine breed. I also invented (until GOOSEBUMPS put me right) a new breed of cow called a CHOURTAN for 5dn, which seemed to work quite well as a Pauline clue – HOUR+T in CAN, i.e. ‘time and time again’, ‘processed as food’ by being put in a can.
    I liked ‘Putin taken apart’ for ‘put in’, but I’m not that keen on the ‘rebmucne’ kind of clue when the word in question is not remotely like a real one.

  5. Listening to The Archers is often helpful for all sorts of things. My first thought when I got onto the pigs thing was ‘Pity he can’t include Gloucester old spot.’ I might have known that Paul would – and with such a very clever anagram!

  6. Guessed Landrace (Could of been Landhare but Landrace seemed the liklier of the two)

    Napoleon..Animal Farm, George Orwell

  7. Mick H: I see what you mean about about 13dn but it was such an impossibly long wrong word that you had to look at it backwards and then it so beautifully fitted in with the theme that surely it’s forgivable?

    This kind of clue is always controversial but one of my favourite clues of all time [from at least 7 years ago!] is one that I referred to a while back: ‘ONU: 12, 14’ [Ans: since no-one responded the first time: ‘diminished responsibility’. I think that this, too, was Paul.

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