Guardian Prize Puzzle 26,274 by Paul

by

This was a treat to solve and blog.

I always enjoy solving puzzles by Paul.  He manages to be creative in his clueing whilst making it seem effortless in the process.  He is not the trickiest setter in the Guardian, but he manages to walk the line between too traditional (and becoming hackneyed) and being too radical (and so appearing gimmicky) very well indeed.

Very few puzzles from Paul come without at least some schoolboy toilet humour.  Normally I find this a bit tiresome but today, with MASTURBATION placed boldly across the middle of the grid, I rather enjoyed it all.

Thank you Paul.

completed grid

Across
1 WHAT FOR A scolding? Please explain (4,3)
double definition – “I’ll give you what for!”
5 BUGLOSS Effect of insecticide for plant? (7)
cryptic/double definiion – bugloss is a plant
9 TUDOR House party into the groove, looking back (5)
DO (party) in RUT (the grove) reversed (looking back) – definition is ‘house’, royal one
10 WHITEBAIT Fish a bit strange ultimately, a bit odd (9)
WHIT (a bit) strangE (ultimate letter of) with (A BIT)* anagram=odd
11 ITALIANATE One climbing plant in gallery — Romanesque, say? (10)
I (one) then LIANA (climbing plant) in TATE (gallery)
12 OWL Hooter’s ’oot (3)
hOWL (hoot, missing leading letter) – definition is ‘hooter’
14 MASTURBATION I run batsman out, playing a blinder (12)
anagram (playing) of I RUN BATSMAN and OUT – proverbially it makes you blind.  Great stuff!
18 NATIONAL DEBT A lot behind, hard to forget unfortunately, after retirement of Brown — this much still left behind (8,4)
(A LOT BEhIND)* missing H=hard (anagram=unfortunately) following TAN (brown) reversed (retirement of)
21 ERA Time to get some therapy (3)
found in (some) thERApy
22 STAGGERING Looking to catch egg running backwards — extraordinary! (10)
STARING (looking) conatins (to catch) EGG reversed (looking backwards)
25 SLIMEBALL Creep silently at first, then hop past tree (9)
Silently (first letter of) then BALL (hop, dance) following (past) LIME (tree)
26 OCHRE Pigment taps into mineral deposit (5)
C H (hot and cold taps) in ORE (mineral deposit)
27 DERRICK Well-placed construction boy reported (7)
sounds like (reported) Derek (boy) – a construction found on an oil well
28 DILATED Spread out, saw around centre of pile (7)
DATED (saw) containing (around) pILe (centre of)
Down
1 WITH IT In as gin can be? (4,2)
could be Gin WITH IT (gin and Italian vermouth) – definition is ‘in’, trendy
2 ANDEAN An Anglican clergyman peaking in South America? (6)
AN then DEAN (Anglican clergyman)
3 FORNICATOR One sinning in fact, or doubly wicked (10)
anagram (wicked) of In FACT and OR OR (or twice, doubly)
4 ROWAN Two yews, say, in bay tree (5)
W (double U, said) in ROAN (bay)
5 BLISTERED Surgical pioneer pokes bottom that’s covered in sores (9)
LISTER (surgical pioneer) in (pokes) BED (bottom)
6 GOER Sexy woman found in a state in India, say? (4)
sounds like (say) Goa (state in India)
7 ORATORIO Needing no introduction, sexist Kazakh loves to adopt religious teachings as The Messiah, perhaps? (8)
bORAT (sexist Kazakh, Baron-Cohen character) then O O (love, tennis score, twice) containing (to adopt) RI (religious instruction)
8 SETTLING Making one’s home, landlord’s first to enter the scene (8)
Landlord (first letter of) in SETTING (scene)
13 BARBIE DOLL Toy with Ken Livingstone’s last bill, bad or otherwise (6,4)
anagram (otherwise) of livingstonE (last letter of) and BILL BAD OR – the plastic girlfriend of Ken
15 TOAST RACK Spooner’s cooked nail, metal item at breakfast? (5,4)
Spoonerism of “roast tack” (cooked nail)
16 INCENSED Furious as a thurible? (8)
double/cryptic definition – a thurible is an incense burner on a chain waved about in chuch services
17 STEAMIER After a storm, Emirates hotter (8)
EMIRATES* anagram=after a storm
19 TIN HAT Headgear other than this keeps fashionable (3,3)
THAT (other than this) contains (keeps) IN (fashionable)
20 AGREED Granted, old houses are roofless (6)
AGED (old) contains (houses) aRE (roofless, no top)
23 GELID Very cold bottoms on freezing ice cap (5)
freezinG icE (bottoms on, last letters of) then LID (cap) – definition is ‘very cold’
24 KEPI Heads of King Edward’s people in military headgear (4)
King Edwards People In (heads, first letters, of) – military cap with peak, typically a French style

*anagram

23 comments on “Guardian Prize Puzzle 26,274 by Paul”

  1. Best Paul for ages.
    Once more not hard but really, really enjoyable.
    Just like you, PeeDee, I find his laddish humour often tiresome but, here, his trademarks were all there and somehow it was OK.

    Masturbation, Slimeball, Fornicator.
    Don’t know why I liked it ‘today’.
    Must have been a very good puzzle.
    It was.

  2. Thanks PeeDee. Not afraid to raise eyebrows, our Paul. Last in 6D could instead have been anyone on the move. For 14A even with all the crossing letters I was still thinking of something seriously optical. Otherwise no problems whatever.

  3. Many thanks PeeDee & Paul.

    This was very enjoyable even though Paul was tactless enough to mention NATIONAL DEBT.

    What next?

  5. Thanks all
    Just before tackling today’s a quick comment: rather straightforward for a Peize! But I enjoyed it and find myself mature enough to treat all words as words rather than some moralistic social comment!

  7. For a while the jury was out as this seemed to be another untypically easy Paul at the weekend.

    However the second half of the solve revealed Paul back on form with some wonderful surfaces and great cluing. Also the welcome return of Paul smut 😉 I’m already awaiting the outcry about 14A with anticipation.

    Favourites were 7D, 10A, 25A and the wonderful 14A. Great misdirection and Victorian moral improvement thrown in for free.

    Thanks to PeeDee and Paul

  8. Many thanks. Yes, great fun as ever from Paul.
    A couple of points: The anagram for 14A is I R(un) BATSMAN OUT, not I RUN BATSMAN and O (out).
    And being pedantic, there should be no definite article in 7D!

  10. Thanks PeeDee,

    This was Paul at his very best. There’s just no-one like him and to me it doesn’t matter
    whether the puzzle is easy or difficult, it’s the entertainment value. I think MASTURBATION
    could be the clue of the year so far and it certainly made me laugh considerably. Also, liked
    WHITEBAIT, SLIMEBALL, FORNICATOR, TIN HAT and AGREED. Thanks a lot Paul for so much fun.

    Just an afterthought : did anyone else put BUGLESS for 5a ?. This threw me for a long while as
    7d (the longest clue) became unsolvable.

  11. Thanks Yves and jkb_ing, I must have had 19dn stuck in my head when writing up 23dn.

    Davy – yes, I put BUGLESS in too, it sounded just like the name of a plant that I thought I remembered!

  14. Thanks Paul & PeeDee.

    I thought 5a was BUGBANE for a long time until the crossers came to the rescue.

    Spooner’s are always better when the Spoonerism is a proper phrase – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a roast tack.

    I liked the ‘very cold bottoms.’ There usually has to be at least one bottom in every Paul puzzle.

  15. Having done the Anax in the Indy earlier in the morning, this seemed fairly straightforward and I don’t remember much about it except that the York to Scarborough train journey was long enough to finish it unaided, and that I enjoyed it.

    Thanks to PeeDee and Paul

  16. I too wrote “bugless” is bug loss [2 1 words} an effect? Sorry, I do not have time to moralize in a crossword puzzle.

  17. Bugloss (1 word) is a plant

    a a Eurasian weed of arable land, Anchusa arvensis, bearing blue flowers;

    Bug loss (2 words) is the effect of insecticide.

  19. PeeDee, does this help?


    The prudishness of Victorians and the veil of silence they cast over sexuality is well known, but what is not so well know is their preoccupation with masturbation. Little attention had been given to masturbation until late in the 18th Century, and it was not until the second half of the 19th Century that masturbation became of general concern. It first came to public attention through the efforts of a few moralists, but it was not until the medical profession, seeking to bolster its status in society, transformed the moral question of masturbation into a medical condition that it became a significant issue.


    CLITORIDECTOMY:
    A NINETEENTH CENTURY ANSWER
    TO MASTURBATION
    John Duffy, Ph.D.

  20. Nice one Brendan (NTO), though I didn’t see anybody on this post complaining about the masturbation clue. Everyone seems to like it.

    Personally I just wish Paul would get over the endless clues with surface readings about bums and bottoms (thankfully thin on the ground here). For the first few times it was funny, but month after month, year after year it wears a bit thin. Neither prudishness nor morals really, just endless repetition.

  21. Interesting puzzle, as usual from Paul. What’s wrong with bottoms? We all have them, just like fingers etc.

    I at first had OLD HAT rather than TIN HAT

  22. Hi Phil, quite so, nothing wrong with bottoms – we do all have them just like fingers. Unfortunately society sees it otherwise, should you expose your bottom in public you will be arrested, with persistent offenders sent to prison. Bizzare? Irrational? Of course. Paul’s bum/bottom humour works on this contradiction.

    Either it really is not funny, in which case why keep doing it? Or else it is funny, and so good. But if someone keeps telling the same joke over and over again it eventually stops being funny and starts getting tiresome.

    Personally I really don’t care either way. I just wish Paul would stop repeating the same joke about bums all the time and come up with a new one. One of the things I really liked about today’s puzzle was that he did just that. New and funny clues that made me laugh.

  23. Oh I so loved this puzzle! It seems, yet again that I echo Sil@1.
    When I looked back at my completed grid I noticed that I’d written in 14ac more faintly than the rest. I’m not sure if that’s because I quailed a little; more likely it was disbelief (I had only two crossers – they are not faint) that such a word would be in a prize crossword. But I’m glad it was. Along with Spiro Agnew, it’s a great cheeky anagram to add to the list. Yes indeed, a brilliantly entertaining puzzle. Thanks Paul.
    And thanks to PeeDee for great blog. I’ve noted your later comment about masturbation – that “everyone seems to like it”!!

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