Guardian 26,152 / Paul

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A fairly typical Paul puzzle, with some of his trademark schoolboy humour and a mixture of quite straightforward charades and double definitions, together with some more complicated and misleading constructions. An enjoyable solve – thank you, Paul.

Across

1,27 One’s taken to court to crush illegal activity (6,6)
SQUASH RACKET
SQUASH [crush] + RACKET [illegal activity]

4 One of two circles, one left to turn around (6)
TROPIC
Reversal [to turn] of I PORT [one left] + C [around]

9,25 Totally reliable friend endlessly quaffing drink (4-4)
CAST IRON
CRON[y] [friend endlessly] round [quaffing] ASTI [drink]

10 Aubrey’s work as it happens in underpants (5,5)
BRIEF LIVES
LIVE [as it happens] in BRIEFS [underpants]
John Aubrey [1626-97] wrote ‘Brief Lives’, short biographies of Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, Sir Walter Raleigh, Edmund Halley, Ben Jonson, Thomas Hobbes and William Shakespeare, among others.

11 Stab with tip of dagger in weapon (6)
PIERCE
R [last letter – tip – of daggeR] in PIECE [weapon]

12 A parting pursuit involving death that’s memorable (8)
HAUNTING
A in [parting] HUNTING [pursuit involving death]

13 Wearing cooler hat, not so sophisticated (9)
INFANTILE
IN [wearing] +  FAN [cooler] + TILE [hat]

15 Pot plant planted initially on border (4)
HEMP
HEM [border] + P[lanted] – nice definition!

16 Just OK (4)
FAIR
Double definition

17 Cross waves in secret to defect, ultimately (9)
INTERSECT
Anagram [waves] of IN SECRET + [defec]T

21 Sailor out of tune, that’s plain (4,4)
SALT FLAT
SALT [sailor] + FLAT [out of tune]

22 Raise the dead with word of hesitation in old man (6)
EXHUME
UM [word of hesitation] in EX [old] HE [man]

24 Disease caught by pair, lots scattered in terror (6,4)
SPOILT BRAT
TB [disease] in anagram [scattered] of PAIR LOTS – my favourite clue, I think, for its misdirection

26 Dissolute king half consumed by evidence of herpes? (6)
RAKISH
KI[ng] in [consumed by] RASH [evidence of herpes]

Down

2 Blurt out rank (5)
UTTER
Double definition

3 Matter caught between modes of transport (7)
SUBJECT
C [caught] in SUB JET [two modes of transport]

5 Red setter, did you say? (6)
RUFOUS
Sounds like [did you say?] our usual Monday setter, Rufus, which is also Latin for red

6 It’s not worth doing, to be blunt (9)
POINTLESS
Double definition

7 Inclination to enter competition to make a great profit (5,2)
CLEAN UP
LEAN [inclination] in CUP [competition]

8 Alchemists in cooking about right — to earn these? (8,5)
MICHELIN STARS
Anagram [cooking] of ALCHEMISTS IN round R [right] – a neat &littish clue

14 Not quite clever enough — or too much? (1,3,5)
A BIT THICK
Double definition

16 Party girl, a bird? (7)
FLAPPER
Double definition – Chambers:  a flighty young woman, esp one ostentatiously unconventional in dress or behaviour; a young wild duck or partridge

18 Avenger waiting to serve God (7)
ELECTRA
ELECT [waiting to serve, as in President Elect] + RA [god] for the Greek tragic heroine who, with her brother, Orestes, avenged her father Agamemnon’s murder by killing her mother, Clytemnestra

19,1 In America, where one goes to monitor facts after a review (7,7)
COMFORT STATION
Anagram [after a review] of TO MONITOR FACTS – amusing definition: where one ‘goes’!

20 Gas faults in need of repair (6)
FLATUS
Anagram [in need of repair] of FAULTS

23 Raise yokel to strangle duck (5)
HOICK
HICK [yokel] round [to strangle] O [duck]

31 comments on “Guardian 26,152 / Paul”

  1. Slightly harder than an average Paul but most enjoyable, with HAUNTING the standout for me. On the other hand, I thought the two 16s rather weak (especially 16d), and so long as I solve the Guardian puzzles I don’t think I will ever enjoy the self-referential clues or their sad cousins, the references to other setters. It’s the cruciverbal equivalent of a 60 Minutes programme devoted to singing the praises of a journalist. Ineffable.

  4. Thanks Eileen. Another good one, from Paul, especially 19,1 which went in very early and 24a which went in very late: the answer had to be a disease. HAUNTING was fine, but ‘parting’ seemed superfluous.

  5. molonglo @ 4 – I see what you mean; it would be a lean double definition without the ‘parting’.

    rhotician @ 3 – I just prefer anonymity, I suppose…

    I meant to add that the schoolboy in me much enjoyed ‘comfort station’.

  6. monoglot @ 4. Without the ‘parting’, the clue would imply that a word for death would have to.be inserted in ‘hunting’ wouldn’t it?

  7. Thanks Paul; difficult for me to get into.

    Thanks also Eileen – I kept trying to put a ‘d’ in 12, but to no avail. 🙁 Very nice misleading clue. Other favourites were SPOILT BRAT and COMFORT STATION.

  8. Unfortunately, 13a already spoiled in puzzle comments, even more unfortunately, I find myself in very reluctant agreement with the particular word selected. I greatly admire and enjoy Paul’s puzzles, making it all the more difficult to say this, but ’tile’ as ‘hat’?!?

  9. Hi umpire46
    “… but ’tile’ as ‘hat’?!?”

    This synonym is met quite frequently in cryptic puzzles. Under ’tile’:-

    Chambers: a hat (slang); a top hat (Scot)
    Collins: (British, old-fashioned, slang) a hat

  10. Thanks, Eileen

    Fun puzzle, which I found rather tricky in parts – 24a and 18d eluded me completely (great clues, though).

    I do wish I could remember ‘cooler’ = FAN; I seem to have to rediscover it every time.

    Favourites were MICHELIN STARS and COMFORT STATION.

  13. Thanks Paul and Eileen, especially for parsing CAST IRON, which I hadn’t seen.
    Generally enjoyable, with the bottom half going in before the top.
    For SUBJECT I was expecting to see the C “between” the modes of transport (i.e. the non-word “subcjet”) – I don’t think putting it within the second transport is what the clue indicates.

  14. Two examples here of why I struggle with these things. The first is when I see “Cross waves” I immediately think of “transverse”, which fits an empty grid, but sadly screws the word play. (Makes your eyes go funny illustration here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tranverse_waves ) The second is Avenger, which to me should relate to John Steed et al.

    More generally we also have an example of just how stupid common usages are, if cast iron was “Totally reliable” we wouldn’t have needed to invent steel.

  15. I know that ‘racket’ is a widely accepted alternative to ‘racquet’ but I just can’t bring myself to use it. Sorry. It just looks wrong. Is it me? Probably. Shh.

  16. This took longer than some of Paul’s recent ones but was entertaining and rewarding. Last in was SPOILT BRAT – like molonglo @4 I spent too long thinking of diseases but once all the crossers in place TB became obvious. So I enjoyed that, BRIEF LIVES and MICHELIN STARS. I for one have no problem with references to other Guardian setters but that may be because I don’t often have time to try the other dailys. muffin @13 – I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who failed to parse CAST IRON – I forgot to check that since the definition and crossers meant it had to be right.

    Thanks to Paul and Eileen

  17. Re tile as hat (8-12 above)
    I remember a Cinephile (ie Araucaria in the FT) puzzle 2 or 3 years ago all about “cloth hats” – which we had to translate to “rep-tile” to solve all the thematic clues. It seems odd to complain about this usage when, in crosswords at least, it’s so common – or is that what umpire46 means, that it’s a cliche?

  18. I got there in the end but it took me longer than some of Paul’s puzzles. Part of the problem was an inexplicable blind spot regarding TROPIC, and it was only once I’d finally got it that I was able to solve my LOI, RUFOUS. Thankfully there was no “x” in the anagram fodder for 8dn because otherwise I might have entered a stupid “Boxer Lives” at 10ac from the wordplay, and that would have held me up even more.

  20. [Totally off-topic message for molonglo:

    I saw your pseudonym on this evening’s 6dn – what a coincidence! I’m ashamed to say that it had previously meant nothing to me but, if you live where I now suspect you do, POINTLESS http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03pmnfv/Pointless_Series_10_Episode_35/ will mean nothing to you, either!

    I did smile at George Clements’ version of your pseudonym @6: I’ve read enough of your comments here to be sure that you’re not a monoglot – but I agreed with his comment re HAUNTING. 😉 ]

  21. I cant agree with any of the negative comments about this puzzle.

    It was a little harder than the normal Paul for me which is very welcome. However I found it flawlessly clued with some superb misdirection.

    MartinD @15

    I think it is you. Surely racquet is a rarely used alternative to racket rather than the way you would have it. Even the SOED lists it as an alternative to racket. Are you extremely old? Or French? 😉

    Thanks to Eileen and Paul

  23. Apologies to molonglo, I’m afraid I have fallen foul of the dreaded iPad auto’correction’ once more, and failed to notice it.
    I should be grateful if someone could tell me how to turn it off, and also how to stop the pop-up that keeps trying to get me to instal an app. for Jellysomething. or other.
    Re. Brendan nto @21, I’m with MartinD, and, yes, I am extremely old

  24. Gaufrid & Gervase – Many thanks for setting me straight. Never seen it or heard it before, now I have it filed away.

  25. Well George and Martin, that’s me put in my place. I am myself approaching “ancient” but honestly don’t remember “racquet” being in current usage. (Perhaps it’s my age!)

    I do get angry about the apparent risk of extinction of the adverb “well” and the fact that everybody below 40 seems to make all their sentences into questions. So, perhaps there is still hope!

  26. Hello Brendan (nto) @25. Why should we need an adverb “well” when we can have elegant expressions such as ‘the boy done good, innit” ? (Sentence is a question from an over 40).

  27. Yes George, a most eloquent piece of prose. I only wish I could rise to such heights.

    By the way to prove to myself I was not finally totally senile I searched all provincial newspapers using http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk for the word “racquet”.

    If one searches up to 1950 there are hundreds of occurrences. However the last appearances after that seem to be in 1954 with none later than that!

    1954 was the year I was born so perhaps that explains my not reading the word so often. 😉

  28. Thanks Paul and Eileen

    Late to the party with this one … and like others found this quite tough. Wasn’t helped by entering a couple of wrong answers:
    ARCTIC as the one of two circles – it took a while to actually parse TROPIC after settling on that!
    SALT FREE although free for ‘out of tune’ was rather tenuous.

    FLATUS and RUFOUS (which took much longer than it should of with the clever misdirection) were the last two in.

    Thought that SPOILT BRAT was very good after trying to find a disease and a 2-letter word for terror for a long time.

    A very good work out.

  29. After doing these for a few years, I still find Paul all but impenetrable — 16 was the first one in, then 1, 27. Goggling (John) Aubrey gave me 10, and then I slowed to a crawl. Finally I resorted to doing it online to finish.

    As a Guardian Weekly subscriber, I don’t get to see this till more than a week later. (I could do it online but to me, the check button is too tempting. Pencil and paper is the true challenge.)

    Ones I never would have gotten without the ability to guess letters: CAST IRON, HOICK, ELECTRA. Thought “by” was part of the anagram in 24, so tried SPOILT ARBY and SPOILT BRAY before SPOILT BRAT became obvious. Though a lifelong American, I have come across the phrase “COMFORT STATION” only once, but figured 1d had to be STATION, then tried working the anagram of “monitor facts.’

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