Guardian Prize 26,148 / Paul

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[Two blogs of Paul puzzles from me in as many days – but the following was actually written first, being last Saturday’s Prize crossword. It has none of the Pauline schoolboy humour that I commented on on Thursday, which will please some more than others, but that’s one of the things I like about Paul – the way he can mix them up.]

I rather like puzzles with several long answers: they’re often clever and / or witty, and, if I can get one or two in early, they give a good start and put me in a good mood. 7dn was the first one to fall here, followed by 8dn and 1dn. 2dn was the last one but well worth the wait. The rest of the clues were quite varied, from straightforward charades, anagrams and double definitions to more complicated constructions, like 20ac and 6dn. Nothing too taxing but a very enjoyable puzzle – many thanks, Paul.

Across

8 Working hours critical for one of those depressed in the office? (5,3)
SHIFT KEY
SHIFT [working hours] + KEY [critical]
Luckily, I had solved and blogged Brummie’s KEYS = ‘depressed things’ only a couple of days earlier, so I was on the right wavelength here. Nice surface.

9 Lines shot past author (6)
POETRY
TRY [shot] after [past] POE [author]

10 Hot hole, painting walls (6)
ARDENT
ART [painting] round [walls] DEN [hole]

11 Capital city finally being rebuilt, unlike others (8)
ATYPICAL
Anagram [rebuilt] of CAPITAL [cit]Y

12 He wrote for the keyboard, by the way (4)
BYRD [William]
BY + RD [way] – I hesitate to say this but this could be &lit, as he also wrote other things.

13 Top gun, one nodding furiously? (10)
HEADBANGER
HEAD [top] + BANGER [gun]

15 Index finger in dog (7)
POINTER
Double definition

16 Bound to accommodate a lodger (7)
BOARDER
BORDER [bound] round [to accommodate] A
Coincidentally, we had bound = border, causing some discussion, the other day.

18 Moving flat? (10)
PEDESTRIAN
Amusing double definition

19 Tease the fool (4)
TWIT
Double definition – but they seem rather close

20 Organisation where one gains notoriety moving towards the sinister? That just about encapsulates it (3,5)
THE MAFIA
Reversal [moving towards the sinister – left] of I [one] + FAME [notoriety] inside [encapsulated by] THA[t] [that just about] – nice &littish surface

22 Tabour playing with a flexible tempo (6)
RUBATO
Anagram [playing] of TABOUR

23 Bird from the East concealing no alias (6)
ANONYM
Reversal [from the East, this time] of MYNA [bird] round [concealing] NO [either way round]

24 State finally cutting parental counselling service? That’s the limit! (8)
DEADLINE
[stat]E in [cutting] DADLINE [‘parental counselling service?’ – analogous to Childline] – another nice surface

Down

1 In theory this might, oddly, upset a youngish adult (6-9)
THIRTY-SOMETHING
Anagram [upset] of IN THEORY THIS and odd letters of MiGhT

2 Positionally, 22 characters are private and virgin is sweet (5-6,4)
AFTER DINNER MINT
AFTER D [as are 22 letters of the alphabet [characters] positionally + INNER [secret] + MINT [virgin]
Paul has been doing quite a bit of product placement lately but here we have the generic term!

3 Sailing boat passing through the rest of the Balearics dropping stern, as most rough (10)
SKETCHIEST
KETCH [sailing boat] in SIEST[a] [Spanish rest, minus its final letter – dropping stern]

4 Riser rising around end of day, then trouble set for the night? (7)
PYJAMAS
Reversal [rising] of SAP [riser] round [da]Y then JAM [trouble] – my favourite clue, I think

5 Fix top of shin, then foot (4)
SPAY
S[hin] + PAY – as in ‘foot the bill’ – nice definition!

6 Rough stuff faced, jagged edges in the way among remnants of building (8,7)
DESIGNER STUBBLE
Anagram [jagged] of EDGES IN + ST [way] in [among] RUBBLE [remnants of building]

7 Since tears twice patched up, clothes so low maintenance? (6-9)
CREASE-RESISTANT
Anagram [patched up] of SINCE TEARS TEARS

14 Stiff source of fibre (5,5)
BROWN BREAD
Double definition: brown bread’ is Cockney rhyming slang for dead [‘stiff’] – I only know that because I’ve been in ‘Me and my girl’.

17 Satellite with a moon (7)
MIRANDA
MIR  [satellite] + AND [with] + A
I held myself up a bit trying to shoehorn TITANIA in here, but couldn’t account for the ‘i’.

21 For starters flipping unnecessary, muttering expletives in rage (4)
FUME
First letters [starters] of Flipping Unnecessary Muttering Expletives

21 comments on “Guardian Prize 26,148 / Paul”

  1. Thanks Paul and Eileen

    Also enjoyed this … and like Eileen had written Titania confidently in – Titan 1 was the US’ first ICBM that was launched … so it all made perfect sense ! Or not.

    Didn’t know the Cockney version of BROWN BREAD and still don’t get the SAP=RISER connection.

  2. Thanks Eileen – I agree with all you say. These long ones weren’t lesser-known quotes or otherwise elusive, and they went in reasonably early which was nice. Had to guess then check on MIRANDA,and like Bruce above, didn’t know the slang. Sap rises, and there are expressions relating to that. Marvellous, Paul.

  4. A propos of nothing in particular, I’d just like to express a warm ‘thank you’ to this site, both to you who host it and to everyone for their patient explanations of the devices I’ve either forgotten or not previously encountered since my recent return to crosswords after too many years away. Started with The News Chronicle (who remembers that?) in the 1950s, carried on through The Telegraph, The Times (not very successfully, too many Classics references in those days), settled on The Guardian in the 80s before lapsing in the early years of this century – stopped commuting. Now, it’s great to be back.
    Time to shut up, I’m taking up valuable comment space – thanks again.

  5. It was a week ago but I don’t remember having many problems with this, and Paul is always entertaining. I felt that the two definitions of TWIT, though related, were distinct – I’d never come across the “tease” sense before. ANONYM was also new to me but was obviously right.
    brucew @1 – I think sap is just an example of something which rises…

    Thanks Eileen and Paul

  6. Thanks beery hiker

    My sheltered upbringing must have hindered my knowledge of the phrase ‘the sap is rising’ which fits into the format of Paul’s sense of humour ! 🙂

    Thanks to molongo’s prompt, I was able to track it down.

  7. As I worked on this in a Brighton café one day last week, a man introduced himself to me as Paul. To my shame, at that point I had only solved a few clues. He told me, to my surprise, that he rarely sees people working on his puzzles in public

  8. Good Saturday puzzle with humour and not too many obscurities.

    Thanks Eileen; I think in 20 your [one] is an I. Like you, I thought PYJAMAS had the stand-out clue. I also liked the simple ARDENT although the surface is a bit weird and SHIFT-KEY.

  9. I struggled with this one a lot more than most of Paul’s puzzles. Count me as another who thought long and hard about “Titania” before I saw the correct answer. I had the most trouble on the LHS because it took what seemed like an age to solve 1dn and 2dn.

  10. I liked this. Well clued and lots of ah-ha moments.

    A good level for a Prize. Nothing too difficult but definitely not a walkover.

    Thanks to Eileen and Paul

  13. Thanks, Eileen and Paul. I thought there was a longish anagram in this with what seemed to be a spare letter by my reckoning, but a week is far too long for me to remember anything. Might have been another crossword altogether.

  14. I enjoyed this, and it helped me recover my solver’s equilibrium after some puzzles over the festive period.

    The absence of burlesque made for a different frame of mind while solving, which I savoured.

    No nits to pick: just sound clueing thoughout, I thought.

    Thanks one and all.

  16. Another splendid puzzle, 24A my favourite as it got me chuckling for some reason. Thanks Paul & Eileen for another labour of love.

  17. Thanks, Eileen

    I liked this one a lot (and found it easier than Paul’s offering during the week), though I did miss the smut a bit!

    I also tried at first to make 17d into TITANIA. There was a clue in a Times puzzle a few weeks ago along similar lines, where one satellite (TITAN) was inside another.

    My favourite clue was 3d for its clever construction and surface.

  18. Found this puzzle hard to get into, and…. kept going! There’s sure to be some good stuff from this groovy compiler, and as Gervase says, 3d was a treat.

    Posting at all times of the night due to jet lag, and I’m just starting to feel ridiculously tired, so I hope this makes sense. Off up thos wooden stairs to Beddington, as my British nanny would say.

    Cheers all.

  19. Add me to the list of those who tried to make TITANIA work for 17d. I was all set to point out that Titan I was a rocket, not a satellite (though it was used to put satellites into orbit), until I solved 24a and realized it had to be MIRANDA. At that point, it became one of my favorite clues, primarily for its precision and economy.

    Fun stuff. Thanks, Paul & Eileen.

  20. I also found this quite hard. As well as TITANIA I also tried to force in WHOLE GRAIN which held me up for a long time. Both were acts of desperation as I just seemed to be on completely the wrong wavelength. All became clear in time.

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