I haven’t been able to detect any encrypted references to the D-day landings but, as ever, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. Here is Paul in Mr Clean mode, with a puzzle that I found very entertaining and enjoyable. Many thanks to him.
[Definitions are underlined and italicised.]
Across
1 Jerk chicken starter? Bound to get a cut of meat (5,4)
CHUMP CHOP
CHUMP [jerk] + C[hicken] + HOP [bound]
6 Fast writer (5)
SWIFT
Double definition, the writer being Dean Jonathan
9 One having cooler experience after leaving the Tory Party? (2-3)
EX-CON
Double / cryptic definition, ‘cooler’ being slang for prison and ‘con’ for prisoner
10 Father Christmas say, genuine, about to adopt the fourth strategy? (9)
LAPLANDER
Reversal [about] of REAL [genuine] round PLAN D, as the fourth strategy might be called
11 Flipping, flipping short clergyman (3)
REV
Reversal [flipping] of VER[y] [flipping]
12 Ticket back for returning Frenchwoman, fare from Italy (11)
TAGLIATELLE
TAG [ticket] + a reversal [for returning] of TAIL [back] + ELLE [Frenchwoman]
14 Be relevant to smart heads of academies in Norfolk (7)
PERTAIN
PERT [smart] + initial letters [heads] of Academies In Norfolk
15 Freezing cold for unknown character among obscure characters in a storm (7)
SUBZERO
Z [unknown character] replaces C [cold] in an anagram [in a storm] of OBS[c]URE [Edit – or, rather, the other way round: see comments 1 and 5] – rather intricate wordplay in an &littish clue
16 Was she forced by you to speak for the country? (7)
JAMAICA
Is there anyone who doesn’t know this joke?
“‘My wife’s gone to the West Indies.’
‘Jamaica?’
‘No, she went of her own accord.'”
If you like that sort of thing, there’s lots more in the same vein here
19 Days of the war originally meant for the country (7)
VIETNAM
I think this is VI [days of the war, referring to the Six-Day / Arab-Israeli War of 1967] + an anagram [originally] of MEANT
22 Neat acts up, dancing round back of shed, assembled from various places (3-3-5)
CUT-AND-PASTE
Anagram [dancing] of NEAT ACTS UP round [she]D
23 Bow to wear, twisted (3)
NOD
Reversal [twisted] of DON wear]
24 Crush repulsive freaks (9)
PULVERISE
Anagram [freaks] of REPULSIVE
26 Feature entertaining one row (5)
NOISE
NOSE [feature] round I [one]
27 Result of plucking turkeys with axes — nasty gashed heads (5)
TWANG
Initial letters [heads – again!] of Turkeys With Axes Nasty Gashed
28 Ram and goat etc exciting ratings aboard ship (4,5)
STAR SIGNS
Anagram [exciting] of RATINGS in SS [aboard ship]
[‘Ram’ and ‘goat’ in crosswords often have references to butter, but not this time]
Down
1 Explain Shakespearean entering competition (5,2)
CLEAR UP
LEAR [Shakespearean] in CUP [competition]
2 Each one opening, under no circumstances remaining open (7)
UNCOVER
Yet another initial letter clue: Under No Circumstances + OVER [remaining]
3 Marks in script where hoodlum has to eat Chinese, we hear? (11)
PUNCTUATION
Sounds like [we hear] punk [hoodlum – and Paul’s Indy persona] + chew [eat] + asian [Chinese?] – oh dear!
4 Facts supporting light overhead, an element of lamps? (7)
HALOGEN
GEN [facts] after [supporting, in a down clue] HALO [light over head]
5 Source for drugs pious among Pius etc (7)
POPPIES
PI [short for pious] in POPES [Pius etc]
6 Character in sound waves here (3)
SEA
Sounds like ‘c’ [character]
7 Eluding exercise, just gratify yourself! (7)
INDULGE
Anagram [exercise] of ELUDING
8 Missile dropper drops odd bits amid confusion (7)
TORPEDO
Even letters [dropping odd bits] of dRoPpEr in TO-DO [confusion]
13 Sport for a drug-taking Olympic gold medallist? (5,6)
TABLE TENNIS
TABLET [drug] + [taking] [Jessica] ENNIS, the face of London 2012
16 Lift large belly for the prize (7)
JACKPOT
Simple charade of JACK [lift] + POT [large belly]
17 Warm embraces attending a musical for children (7)
MATILDA
MILD [wrm] round [embraces] AT [attending] + A for the Roald Dahl musical
18 Iodine in fruit is suitable (7)
APPLIES
I [iodine] in APPLES [fruit]
19 Design varies to include a hundred internal parts (7)
VISCERA
Anagram [design] of VARIES round C [a hundred]
20 Eastern port making grandad queen then? (7)
NANKING
One of Paul’s trademark analogous clues: if grandad is queen, NAN [grandma] might be KING
21 Chaos and chaotic in “disorder” (7)
MADNESS
Anagram [chaotic] of AND in MESS [disorder]
25 Start of life the big bang, all conclude
EGG
Last letters [all conclude] of thE biG banG
Thanks Paul and Eileen
On the easy side for a Paul, but still very enjoyable. I particularly liked LAPLANDER, POPPIES and NANKING (I didn’t know whether to chuckle or groan about PUNKCHEWASIAN!)
I think 15a the letter substitution is more clearly indicated in the wrong direction – C substituted FOR an unknown, rather than vice versa.
Is APPLIES close enough to “is suitable”?
Thanks Eileen. A 6D completion with only the conundrum of why a Pauline ‘penetration’ was no good for 3D or ‘lipreader’ for 10A – the latter required revising my Rider Haggard character in waveSHEre to the neat right answer. Ought to slow down.
6A
Thanks for this!
All done and dusted (not literally!) by 12.30am. Very straightforward really. Loved NANKING. That was how I parsed VIETNAM, Eileen – eventually!
Thanks, Eileen.
Entertaining puzzle, albeit much more straightforward than the previous three this week.
A (pleasant) groan for 16a and 3d, but a big smile for 13d. I also liked the combination of ‘ticket’ and ‘fare’ in 11a, and the PLAN D in 10a.
LOI was LAPLANDER, as I had originally put SHE for 6d (as in Rider Haggard ‘character’, and hidden in ‘waveS HEre’).
I agree with muffin @1 that 15a reads more as “C replaces Z in the anagram fodder”, though it didn’t register at the time. ‘Is suitable’ = APPLIES works for me: if a rule applies, it is suitable, though the nuance is slightly different.
molonglo @2: snap!
1 x two = ? These sums are so tricky at this time of day.
Thanks for the blog, Eileen. I enjoyed this, although it took me a while to get started.
I wonder whether ‘short’ is doing double duty at 11ac. ‘Short clergyman’ might refer to Adam Smallbone, the vicar in Rev, played by the short actor Tom Hollander.
Hi liz
“‘Short clergyman’ might refer to Adam Smallbone, the vicar in Rev, played by the short actor Tom Hollander.”
That thought occurred to me, too. 😉 Triple duty, in fact, as REV itself is an abbreviation.
I also had SHE for 6d for a while – and I had the source word in 11a as (flipping) OVER rather than VERY.
Nice to see 5d in the D-Day crossword.
Thanks – The parsing of VIETNAM completely escaped me.
Once I cracked STAR SIGNS, I was bit surprised at Paul’s restraint – I would have expected something involving a virgin and some twins, perhaps…
After the last three I think we were due something gentler, which Paul has duly delivered – clearly on his best behaviour today, all fairly straightforward but entertaining. Last in was NOISE. Liked PUNCTUATION, POPPIES, TABLET ENNIS and MADNESS. Nice to see iodine and halogen again after the discussion the other day.
Thanks to Eileen and Paul
Thank you, Eileen. All reasonably straightforward and smut-free today; but none the worse for that. Some trademark Paul clues, as others have said. NANKING was good and I’m still to make my mind up about PUNCTUATION.
For 6d, I had ESH as a hidden answer. It works, since it’s a ‘character’ in Latin script. Or it did work, until I saw that Santa had to be a LAPLANDER.
Good stuff from Mr H.
After some time away, I was delighted to see Paul’s name for a long train journey south. Not absolutely his best ever, but some nice misdirections as ever: I had the plausible CHAIN at 26 mucking up my SE corner for a while.
Since when has ‘halogen’ been an element though?
After some time away, I was delighted to see Paul’s name for a long train journey south. Not absolutely his best ever, but some nice misdirections as ever: I had the plausible CHAIN at 26 mucking up my SE corner for a while.
Since when has ‘halogen’ been an element though? A group thereof surely?
Sorry about the double post, a problem of railway wi-fi.
My reading of HALOGEN as an element of lamps is that the element is the incandescent bit, as in old electric fires which used to have coils called elements or old-fashioned bulbs where a (?tungsten) wire was the element.
Thanks Paul and Eileen. Somewhat to my surprise I romped though it, and was secretly hoping everyone would say how difficult it was. Getting 1a and 1d straight away gives a real psychological boost.
Glad to see tagliatelle added to the Italian foods you can eat at a crossword dinner party: lasagne/a and spaghetti were getting a bit dull.
With permission Eileen can I go off piste and say that a) Henry IV Pt I was magnificent. At one point a phone went off in the audience. The culprit received a prolonged stare from Henry whose next line was “No!”, thus bringing the house down: and b) 11a produced one of the most surprising and moving scenes in a sitcom when Adam met Christ in the form of Liam Neeson: right up there with the 5d in the last ever Blackadder.
Simon S @16
Unfortunately the halogen – generally iodine – in a bulb is in the gas filling, not the bit that gets hot (which must be made of metal in order to conduct – still usually tungsten).
However I am quite happy that “a halogen” refers to an element – one of the five, unspecified.
Here is the amateur view…
Took a little time but SW corner was starter. Then SE. Failed on LAPLANDER (plan D?) and SEA – thought it was SHE and POPPIES..was down a Pontius route for some reason. JAMAICA reminded of led zeppelin song. After yesterday nightmare this was fairer for middle of roaders
[Hi Marienkaefer
a) Glad you enjoyed Henry. Ten minutes or so after we saw him in his coronation procession at the end of Part 2 a couple of weeks ago, he passed us, in his jeans and on his mobile phone, as we stood in the Park and Ride bus queue. No one else seemed to notice.
b) I agree: it’s here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yo-UYCoZ9o ]
Does anyone here actually only start the crossword at like 7pm after getting home from work? This is what I do and apart from today when half day my evenings get lost in this thing
Also ‘an element of lamps’ could just relate to a part that makes up a lamp, not necessarily a specific chemical element.
Jfm777 @21 – don’t think I’ve seen your name before, so welcome. I used to, but I take the Guardian with me to work, and I usually have 15 minutes on the way into work and up to 45 minutes at lunchtime (and on a difficult day another 20 minutes on the way home). More often than not I don’t start reading the news until the crossword is finished. I think Brendan (NTO) is a late starter who posts more often than not in the evening, so you’re definitely not alone…
@Jfm777 21
Not having to get up for work, I now find myself waiting for midnight to get the new one and then force my eyes to focus. I promise myself that I will just read through once and fill in the easy ones, but often can’t resist carrying on. This morning (or last night) I actually finished this and got up and printed off the FT one and did that one too.
Then I hated myself for not having one to do with my breakfast, so now I’ve managed to suss out how to get the Independent one!
It’s all the fault of this forum, really, which I enjoy so much as a shared pleasure.
Either way round 15 ac doesn’t work for me. Could someone please parse it?
Swap c (cold) for z(unknown as in algebra) in ‘obscure’ and then form an anagram (in a storm) that means ‘freezing’. Obszure = subzero
Mr. Clean mode? Ya missed one!
I missed about four clues. Damn. But then Paul has never been a guaranteed solve for the class dummy.
Derek L @ 27
I assume that you are referring to 25d?
Another one! 7d actually!
Thanks Paul and Eileen
Don’t know if I found this all that easy – went down the SHE path until the home of Santa light went on. Took a while to get the last few in – 20d, 19a and finally 17d. It was certainly not as hard as the previous couple though!
Liked the outrageous homophone of PUNCTUATION and the reverse logic of SUBZERO and NANKING. PLAN D for the fourth strategy was priceless.
Another enjoyable Paul puzzle. Like Trailman@13&14 I messed up the SE quadrant for a while by confidently entering “chain” at 26ac, and it was only after I realised that it made the crossing clues unsolvable that I revisited it. SUBZERO was my LOI.
I wasn’t entirely convinced by the tenses in 9ac and 22ac, because “one having cooler experience” suggests someone who is still in jail rather than an EX-CON (wouldn’t correct English be “one having had cooler experience”?), and “assembled from various pieces” would suggest “cut-and-pasted”.
On weekdays, apart from Mondays, I do that day’s Guardian puzzle while I’m eating my evening meal. On Monday evenings I do the Saturday Prize puzzle, having done the Cryptic and Quiptic puzzles earlier in the day.
Andy B @ 31
I think it’s valid to say “I have experience of…” when you ar etalking about something that’s in the past. At job interviews you can use the phrase without it implying you’re doing it at the time.
Cut-and-paste is more arguable, though personally I think it’s OK – after all the last government’s dodgy dossier on Iraq was described as a cut-and-paste job after it was issued and discovered to have been in large part harvested from public domain sources.
Hi Andy B
Simon S posted as I was composing my response.
For me, ‘having experience of’ immediately implies past tense: ‘experiencing’ would be rather different.
And ‘cut-and-paste’: again, I was going to say that if you apply it or ‘assembled-from-various-places’ to ‘job’, there’s no problem.
[Reading these comments on when one does the puzzles makes me so much more grateful that I didn’t discover 15² when I was still teaching, when there was no opportunity to visit during the day!]
I really enjoyed this more to the point! -there was no smut. Even more so there are comments here that note this, I hope approvingly.
It is beneath a skilled setter to rely on the stuff that Paul (amongst others, more than others) dabbles in.
It is difficult to note this without sounding pious. Ah well.
Re my comment @33
Actually, there was no 15² when I was still teaching, all those years ago!
In the far-off days when we actually had a shared lunch break, a group of us in the staff room would do the Guardian crossword together and, when I got home, I would compare notes with my husband, who had taken our paper to work, to do the puzzle in his lunch break.
After he died, solving was a rather lonely occupation, which is why I’m eternally grateful for my serendipitous discovery of 15² – and I’m currently sharing almw3’s delight in having found us. One of my stock questions at our Derby Days is, ‘So how did you stumble upon 15²?’ I think we could write a book on our various experiences.
A nice pleasant puzzle from Paul. It was one of his easier ones which compared to the previous three this week seemed trivial.
Lots of fun though and some nice cluing.
Welcome Jfm777. I usually start the crossword at about 7:00 p.m. too. Although I am supposedly semi-retired I never have time during the day to relax. So my wife retires to another part of the house to watch soaps or indulge in something more highbrow as the mood takes her I settle down in front of the TV come PC Monitor. Guardian crossword and a Spotify classical music radio station. Heaven!
Celia Hart @34 I guess for evry person that applauds a “smutless” Paul there’s at least one, like myself, who is disappointed. It’s only a bit of fun! Which reminds me, tomorrow I am looking forward to reading the comments on Paul’s prize offering last week 😉
One last comment re 15A. “Cold for unknown …” is normally taken to imply “Cold in for” but can equally be taken as “Cold out for”.
Thanks to Eileen and Paul
Oh, one last thing I meant to mention. I took the Cut-And-Paste in 22A to refer to decoupage. Nice misdirection with the more modern computing term IMO.
Decoupage comes from the French for “cut out” and of course there is some consequent pasting involved.
So sorry for your loss, Eileen – your presence here is a boon to all of us.
I typically do the Guardian crossword online during some portion of my workday (and, er, not always during lunch). Since I am in the Pacific time zone, this often means that I am just finishing up today’s puzzle when “tomorrow”‘s is posted – and when I discovered that, I had to exercise a great deal of restraint to force myself to save “tomorrow”‘s puzzle for tomorrow!
My sympathies too, Eileen – how long ago was that?
Our common room would only consider the Times crossword – I never understood why.
Hi dgnabit and muffin
Thanks so much for your kind thoughts. It’s actually, unbelievably, thirteen years! 15² really has been one of the best discoveries I’ve made.
How did I stumble on FifteenSquared? It’s only just over four years, but I can’t remember, a lucky internet search I guess.
As for blogging well I just asked Gaufrid if he needed any reserves and the rest…
quite enjoyable today after yesterdays bruising.
Thanks Eileen fortunately didn’t need you for the solution but a good read.
Thanks Eileen – I needed your help for VIETNAM. Loads of good stuff in here, but my favourite has to be: “Sport for a drug-taking Olympic gold medallist?” TABLET ENNIS. Brilliant!
While we’re on this “how did I discovered 225” topic – I can remember exactly – I was using Google to try to remember Paul’s “DRENCHING MY OWN MISSIS” anagram for “SYNCHRONISED SWIMMING” (25194 15 Dec 2010) – and having just looked it up to check the number I see that Eileen blogged that one too. It took me several years after that to dare to comment on anything…
There must be something quite right at the Guardian crossword offices nowadays when a Paul puzzle feels like a relief after three corkers, of all which possibly outshone the much admired Leader of the Pack.
Enjoyable puzzle, not as good as the one that will be blogged tomorrow though (which was terrific).
I would like to forget about both homophone clues while on the other hand 13d (TABLE TENNIS) deserves Olympic gold today.
Much has been said about 15ac (SUBZERO) but I can’t help feeling that this an unusually clumsy clue.
Paul must have been blinded by the tempting “freezing/cold” combination.
“cold for unknown character among obscure characters in a storm” is plain wrong because there is no Z in “obscure”.
The only way to make it (perhaps) work is to start with the solution (SUBZERO) in which C should replace Z to then get (OBSCURE)*. However, the clue doesn’t really tell me that and in that case the word “among” doesn’t feel right.
Paul hardly makes mistakes but I tend to see this as one.
I think this is a better answer to jeceris’ post @25 than the the one @26. I also think that Brendan’s thoughts about it (@36) are too much of a stretch.
It was, once again, a great Guardian week with yesterday’s Imogen as a clear winner.
Celia Hart – oh yes, how I do agree! I just squirm inside when Paul is smutty. And it may sound pi, but “it’s not big, not clever and not funny”. On a lighter note, living in rural Norfolk I always do the previous day’s puzzle on paper over breakfast, so if I comment I’m usually the last one.
Thanks to Simon S@32 and Eileen@33. In 9ac I was getting too hung up over “having” rather than looking at possible meanings of “experience”, and Eileen’s “job” example for 22ac makes sense. Like I said, I wasn’t “entirely convinced” rather than flat out saying they were wrong, and now I’m convinced.
thanks for the comments!
John McCartney @ 45. I am not wanting to make this into a lengthy debate but -I was so relieved to read your comment, I thought I would be deluged with the, “Just a bit of fun”, (I only see one @ 36). You struck just the right note.
You remind me of a disorientating time of my life. I moved to live in Norwich, briefly. I was worried, as the train turned east (I was coming from the north), there were no hills, at all. The land just went on and on. It doesn’t seem right.
Got hills round here. You should try riding a pushbike the four miles to our nearest shop! And I ought to say – in case Paul ever looks at this – I really enjoyed this puzzle.
Oh Eileen. Again thank you so much. I don’t know how you do it – it seems you often manage to slip in enjoyable links and the blog itself always superb. I spent more time with the blog than actually completing the puzzle. I’m always late – I often photocopy Guardian and Indy (and the odd Times) crosswords at library to enjoy a pile at the weekend. I only visited as I was unsure about the Vietnam clue (like you, I thought VI day war but wasn’t convinced). So glad I did – I now get a warm feeling when I see your name. That’s it really – just wanted to convey my gratitude (and best wishes)
While here (and in case Paul should read this) must say how grateful I am for his many wonderful puzzles and the entertainment I’ve enjoyed over many years. Though I’m delightfully correct in most things, I love the odd bit of Paul smut! On homophones, I thought “punctuation” was wonderful. They are a destination on the lateral thinking map that must not disappear – the odd groan a price worth paying.