A fun start to an otherwise cold, bleak Saturday morning with snow falling and a near gale force wind blowing. I was fortunate that, as I often do, I tackled the clues in reverse order which meant that I quickly came across, and solved, 14dn.
This certainly helped with 9ac, 1,21 and 2dn though I needed a lot of the checked letters before I could work out the palindromes. 1,21 was my last entry and even then it took a little time to work it out as all the checked letters were vowels. I started at each end and gradually worked towards the middle when the relevance of ‘did I perceive something of the others’ became clear, the CAR OR CAT fell into place and the grid was complete.
Across
8 Abundance of crystals treating ailments (4,4)
SALT MINE – anagram (treating) of AILMENTS
9,4 14 for weak old lions, perhaps? (6,7)
SENILE FELINES – palindrome (14dn)
10 Mother leaves African country via an African native (6)
LIBYAN – [ma]LI (mother leaves African country) BY (via) AN
11 Urgent: couple of Latins getting frisky in clandestine love affair (8)
INTRIGUE – anagram (getting frisky) of URGENT LA[tins] II (couple of Latins) – Edit: see comments 1, 2 & 8.
13 Recall wee teddy’s head cuddled by minor, producing comforting words (5,5)
SLEEP TIGHT – PEE (wee) reversed (recall) T[eddy’s] in (cuddled by) SLIGHT (minor)
15 Ride through change in Oxford or Cambridge, possibly? (7)
VARSITY – SIT (ride) in (through) VARY (change)
16 Describing lung membranes, soft with questionable allure (7)
PLEURAL – P (soft) anagram (questionable) of ALLURE
18 Strain, say, behind party rivalry (10)
CONTENTION – CON (party) homophone (say) of ‘tension’ (strain)
19,12 Start lap dancing, showing tail? (4,4)
LAST PART – anagram (dancing) of START LAP
20 Elegant, idly swimming in water (8)
LADYLIKE – anagram (swimming) of IDLY in LAKE (water)
22 Deliver key to open road in Paris (6)
RESCUE – ESC (key) in (to open) RUE (road in Paris)
23 Endless siren in sacred chant (6)
MANTRA – MANTRA[p] (endless siren)
24 A fish going backwards around little island in the Caribbean (8)
DOMINICA – A COD (a fish) reversed (going backwards) around MINI (little)
Down
1,21 It’s one of my 14s, but did I perceive something of the others? (3,2,1,3,2,1,3,1,3)
WAS IT A CAR OR A CAT I SAW – palindrome (14dn)
2 14 — Japanese model is what it is? (1,7,1,6)
A TOYOTA’S A TOYOTA – palindrome (14dn)
3 Saint Paul’s man, perhaps, finding one with Saint Martin extremely unreliable (10)
MINNESOTAN – anagram (unreliable) of ONE SAINT M[arti]N
5 Two articles taken from a Volkswagen, over here! (4)
PSST – P[a]SS[a]T (two articles taken from a Volkswagen)
6 One of two is introduced to popular water sport, making one distinctive (15)
INDIVIDUALISING – DUAL (one of two) I (one) DUAL (of two) IS in (is introduced to) IN (popular) DIVING (water sport) – Edited, thanks R_c_a_d @11.
7 Drink containing Irish water servant’s left for traditional food (10,5)
PLOUGHMAN’S LUNCH – PUNCH (drink) around (containing) LOUGH (Irish water) MAN’S (servants) L (left)
14 One is drawn onward (10)
PALINDROME – ‘drawn onward’ is a palindrome
17 Fib about alcoholic drink being one that’s non-alcoholic? (7)
LIMEADE – LIE (fib) around (about) MEAD (alcoholic drink)
We thought this was excellent, thank-you Paul and Gaufrid.
For 11, the fodder is ‘urgent’ and II (‘couple’ of Latins?)
This was a fabulous puzzle by Paul and I am extremely pleased that I successfully solved it, even though it took me two sittings. Last Sunday I only managed to solve about 6 clues (none of which were 14d), but on my second attempt mid-week I finished the puzzle.
It took me a while to solve 14d but after that, things went more smoothly and I enjoyed all of the clues containing palindromes. Regarding 1/21 I immediately inserted I SAW in 21 as it seemed to make sense for ‘I perceive’. I toyed with bar/bat for a while but couldn’t parse it and finally the penny dropped regarding CAR/CAT as those words tied in with the other palindromes.
As well as the palindromes, my favourites were SLEEP TIGHT, PLOUGHMANS LUNCH, PSST, LADYLIKE & MINNESOTAN (last in)
I solved but could not parse 10a, 15a.
Thanks for the blog, Gaufrid. I parsed 11a INTRIGUE differently from you. I parsed it as an anagram of URGENT I I (two Italians = two Latins).
ToniL@1
Sorry, I took too long to write my post so I doubled up on your comment regarding 11a, and I think your parsing is better than mine.
Many thanks Gaufrid & Paul.
This was certainly very different but, after getting PALINDROME, everything eventually fell into place.
SENILE FELINES were my last entries.
Thank you Paul and Gaufrid.
Has anyone seen today’s prize?
You can find today’s prize puzzle via the archive search function. It’s number 25909. Unfortunately, I’ve already given up on it after reading the instructions!
Oh dear, I’d forgotten we’d been promised an Araucaria special for Easter!
But thanks, paulg, I love Araucaria so I’ll have a go.
Thanks ToniL @1 & Michelle @2
I don’t know what made me write what I did for 11ac. When solving the puzzle I took ‘a couple of Latins’ to be the Roman numeral II. I didn’t know I was going to be blogging this puzzle until a day or so later by which time I had forgotten the detail. That is still no excuse for including letters in the anagram fodder that don’t appear in the answer. Sorry.
Took ages but finished eventually after several Changs! Thanks a lot all.
Thank you Gaufrid for the excellent blog and to Paul for much of the puzzle. However, I suspect I am going to be in a minority of one in finding the palindromic answers unsatisfying. 1,21d is just made-up doggerel, and 2d not much better. IMHO the answer to a multi-word clue should be in everyday use. However, the rest of the puzzle was fun and 23a, 3d, and 5d were my favourites.
Thanks for the blog.
I think you have missed an “I” in 6d. “One of two” must be I+DUAL
Good puzzle; I’ll repeat what I said on 14th March for Paul’s MADAM I’M ADAM crossword:
If you want more of the MADAM I’M ADAM, you’ll enjoy Weird “Al” Yankovic singing ‘Bob.’
All of the anagrams (and more) are there. So, once I had got PALINDROME I could fill in the others quite easily.
I particularly liked the surface of the clue for SLEEP TIGHT – seems appropriate for Paul with his domestic situation, I believe.
Thanks Guafrid and Paul
A clever and entertaining puzzle. Once 14d was sorted the knowledge that an answer was a palindrome helped by providing extra letters towards the solution.
I ticked lots of clues – 10a, 13a, 16a, 20a, 6d and all the palindrome.
Thanks Paul and Gaufrid
Enjoyed the puzzle and also took a couple of sessions to finally get it out. Had 14d quite early which helped a lot … still took some work for LIBYAN, MINNESOTAN (ages to twig that St Paul was a city not an apostle!) and VARSITY (last in and when I got it – didn’t understand why it took so long).
A lot of clues to like and do like the challenge of parsing Paul’s long ‘uns.
Thanks ladies and gents. The inspiration was Weird Al Yankovic’s Bob, as you’ve probably guessed!
Enjoy your weekend all,
John (Paul)
Robi@12 and John(paul)@15
thanks for the link. It was great and yes, I saw/heard all of the palindromes in that film clip – very clever!
crosser@5
Yes, I’ve seen today’s Prize. I’m about halfway through it now. I think it might be the most difficult puzzle I ever attempted.
How are you doing with it? If anyone says this is an “easy puzzle”, I might be speechless…..
Fabulous thanks Paul, and Gaufrid too. I think SENILE FELINES is my favourite palindrome although I did like the ‘is it a car or cat’ one too.
Took me b—- ages to get WAS IN A MAN ON A MAN I SAW – and I wondered what it was meant to mean. Now that I know the real solution I find I can repeat the question.
I too was quite pleased to finish this.
btw the “Ploughman’s lunch” is not all that traditional – it was introduced by the “Cheese Board” (?!) in the 1950s – see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ploughman's_lunch
michelle @ 17 I’ve given up, to my shame!
Thanks Gaufrid. I got hooked on (Times) crosswords at school, lured partly by the unforgettable clue ‘Mum is, and Dad is, too’ – the answer of course being PALINDROME. Recognising it here from two cross-letters opened the theme early: then it was a matter of filling bits in both directions. Pity in a way we had St Pauls/Minnesota in 25,900 just three days before.
was it a man on a mat i saw
that is the third solution. so which is correct? and why?
Sorry, ignore my last, the penny just dropped. “something of the others” cars and cats. Doh!
A little clunky, especially the palindromes.
One or two nice clues but not the usual standard for a Paul prize offering.
Regarding prolems obtaining or printing this week’s prize.
Alternatively click on “All Prize crosswords” link in Prize Crossword section and this week’s puzzle is No 1 in the list.
I had problems printing it from online display as it doesn’t fit on page and tries to print Portrait.
Solution for me was to “Download” or “Save” it as a PDF doc and then print it from Adobe Reader. Works like a dream then!
Have fun.
Thanks to Gaufrid & Paul
Funny how you think you’ve finished … but snigger@24’s doh moment generates an even bigger doh for me … and a greater appreciation of the clever link between the palindromes – like a week on!!
An appalling waste of time for me. As I didn’t get 14, I only managed to get three clues in total, and stared at it for a week feeling stupid.
This is the last Paul I’ll ever attempt. I just don’t ‘get’ him, and solving his puzzles consistently affords me no pleasure.