Guardian 26,292 / Paul

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There was a lot of fun to be had in this puzzle – a mixture of pretty straightforward clues  [eg 12ac, 27ac, 1dn, 17dn], together with a number of anagrams to help things along and then some characteristically playful and ingenious devices at 19dn, 14ac and 6dn. I thoroughly enjoyed it – many thanks to Paul.

[By the time this blog is published, I shall be away for the weekend, with probably no internet access, so may not be able to respond to any queries, corrections or complaints until Monday.]

Definitions are underline and italicised.

Across

1 Lovely lady,   one hot and smothered with butter? (7)
CRUMPET
I think I’ll just call this a double definition and leave it at that  😉

5 Large wraps just irresistible for starters as Tex-Mex food (7)
FAJITAS
FAT [large] round [wraps] J[ust] I[rresistible] + AS

9 Two rivers drier (5)
AIRER
AIRE, the Yorkshire river, + R [any old river]

10 Bottom trapping bubbles was full of hot air (9)
BLATHERED
BED [bottom] round [trapping] LATHER [bubbles]
[Just for interest, I think I would say ‘blethered’ – according to my dictionaries, it’s another dialect thing.]

11 Colonists after top with tear, as garment (5,5)
CAPRI PANTS
ANTS [insects who live in a colony] after CAP [top] + RIP [tear]

12 Someone singing   scales on this (4)
BASS
Double definition

14 19 24, say? (6,6)
NUMBER PUZZLE
The answer to 19 is PSEUDO and 24 is COUP, giving PSEUDO COUP, which could be said to sound like SUDOKU – which, of course, is a number puzzle – QED! [Clever cluing:  ‘say’ = ‘sounds like’ and ? indicates definition by example.]

18 A newspaper has absurd revamped covers, so stupid (4,2,1,5)
DAFT AS A BRUSH
An anagram [revamped] of HAS ABSURD round [covers] A FT [a Financial Times – a newspaper]
I’ve always liked this expression and doing the blog prompted me to look up its origin: as often, it’s obscure – here are some Guardian readers’ suggestions
[ thought it was amusing that, on the same day as this puzzle was published, a clue in the FT puzzle by Paul’s alter ego, Mudd, was: ‘I’m back to run a feature in the Grauniad? (8)’.  [Answer, if you need it, on the blog on Thursday.]

21 Neat curio, odd bits removed in case of sharp objects (4)
ETUI
Even letters of nEaT cUrIo
This word immediately sprang to my mind in our discussions of ECRU the other day. This is one I definitely learned from a crossword and have seen many times since.

22 The place to be with teaser after messing around (5,3,2)
WHERE IT’S AT
Anagram [after messing around] of WITH TEASER

25 Start with four cracks in synthetic blades (9)
ASTROTURF
Anagram [cracks] of START and FOUR – I liked the definition

26 Judge silverback ’umongous? (5)
GAUGE
Reversal [back] of AG [silver] + [h]UGE – [h]umongous

27 Particle that is showing disease in sheep (7)
SCRAPIE
SCRAP [particle] + IE [that is]
[I’ve known this for so many years that I don’t know whether it’s from crosswords or The Archers.  😉 ]

28 All those who came go away (7)
TURNOUT
I’m not very happy about this one: it appears to be TURN OUT = go away but I’ve never met this use and I can find no evidence for it.

Down

1 Space for the clergy not entirely accidental (6)
CHANCE
CHANCE[l]  [space for the clergy] – with ‘chance’ as an adjective

2 Mint in pure green (6)
UNRIPE
An anagram [mint] of IN PURE

3 Nice fact (10)
PARTICULAR
Double definition
I admit to pondering French words for ‘fact’: for me, at least, this was a double bluff

4 Part of one’s leg slightly raised, one pinned (5)
TIBIA
I [one] in [pinned] a reversal of A BIT [slightly]

5 Fawner primarily, the second of two queens is a bootlicker (9)
FLATTERER
F[awner] + LATTER ER [second of two queens]

6 Looking? (4)
JOHN
This came fairly quickly after spotting [eventually] the ‘gi ant’ device in Puck’s puzzle a couple of days before. We have to separate the word [LOO KING] to give a double definition

7 A devil endlessly covering centre of piazzas in mosaic paving (8)
TERRAZZO
TERRO[r] [a devil] round [pi]AZZ[as]

8 Avoid seconds, despite being unsure (8)
SIDESTEP
S [seconds] + an anagram [being unsure] of DESPITE

13 Shooter nursing leg when shot (10)
GUNSLINGER
An anagram [when shot] of NURSING LEG

15 Nothing in lesser and greater bodies of water for building on water (9)
BOATHOUSE
O [nothing] in BATH [lesser body of water] + OUSE [greater body of water] – a reference, I think, to the rivers Little and Great Ouse

16 Doctor beginning with endoscopy in treatment of nasal glands (8)
ADRENALS
DR [doctor] + E[ndoscopy] in an anagram [treatlment] of NASAL – a nice surface but I don’t like the ‘with’

17 In a state of anxiety, having a bet (8)
AFLUTTER
A FLUTTER [a bet]

19 Say the material for Sitting Bull’s bloomers is fake? (6)
PSEUDO
Sounds like [say] ‘Sioux dough’, the material for Chief Sitting Bull’s bloomers [loaves] – I don’t pronounce the first syllable of PSEUDO like that but it’s so ingenious, together with the development in ‘Sudoku’, that I’m not complaining at all

20 The way Christmas tree tinsel is partially visible (6)
STREET
Hidden in christmaS TREE Tinsel

23 Judge it ready again (5)
REFIT
REF [judge] + IT – ‘ready’ as a verb

24 Successful manoeuvre sees military leader winning (4)
COUP
CO [military leader] + UP [winning] – nice &littish surface

20 comments on “Guardian 26,292 / Paul”

  1. Thanks Eileen and Paul

    I think on 28, TURN=GO as in “whose turn is it?” in a game, and OUT=AWAY

  2. Thanks to Paul and Eileen. Enjoyed the puzzle especially JOHN. Slowed down by trying to
    start 18ac with DUMB. Scrapie was new to me. Sounds like I should have tuned into Archers.

    Cheers…

  3. Thanks Eileen. I didn’t have a problem with 28; one of Collins’ definitions is ‘to dismiss, discharge, or expel: the family had been turned out of their home’ which seems to me to be close enough to ‘go away’.

  4. Thanks, Eileen. Sorry we have to discuss in your absence but have a good weekend…

    Yes, TURN OUT was the only slightly discordant clue in an otherwise typically slick Paul puzzle.

    Excellent try, Bullhassocks @1 but I see that the annotated solution agrees with Eileen: double definition. My own take was: if I turn in to your driveway, I arrive but if I TURN OUT of it, I go away… Well, that’s the best I could come up with and I agree, it’s not great! 🙂

  5. The fact that the clue about a disease of sheep actually WAS a disease of sheep (the classic type of obscure word) was almost a double bluff in itself! Very enjoyable.

  6. Thanks Paul and Eileen

    Remember enjoying this one a lot, with Paul in top form. Eileen, you do have one minor error where you’ve written SIDETRACK instead of SIDESTEP for 8d.

    I’d parsed 28a the same as Bullhassocks. 14a was a laugh out loud clue. In 19d, I had DOE as the homophone – thinking that his bloomers may have been made from doeskin 🙂

    Maybe 1a could be trending toward the ‘cheapening epithets’ from Thursday’s blog.

    Typical good fun

  7. I found this an enjoyable and inventive crossword as well. I interpreted 28A TURNOUT as Bullhassocks @1. I suppose that you could argue for a double definition in that to turn someone out is to command that person to go away, but I am prepared to declare Paul wrong, and stick with my parsing.
    I think I came across scrapie first in a Scientific American piece, but it came to more general attention for its similarity and possible relationship to BSE – mad cow disease.

  8. I enjoyed the puzzle too, and I also understood 28A as did Bullhassocks. PeterO is correct about scrapie and its similarity to BSE in cattle. It is/was endemic in older sheep in the UK. Infected animals tend to rub (scrape) their bodies causing the fleece to wear away, hence the name. I must have lived in the country for too long!

    Never heard of Capri pants though.

    Pleased to see a Paul trademark bottom, too.

  9. Many thanks Eileen & Paul, this was very enjoyable.

    However, the Mudd puzzle you mention in 18a was actually published in the FT on 21 June and not ‘the same day’. It’s Number 14,654.

    I’m intrigued that you have gone somewhere where there’s no WI-FI or have you left your iPad at home?

  10. A tricky crossword but I got all but one. I didn’t see ‘Looking’ as a double definition. I thought at first it may be ‘Just’ as the clue was just ‘looking’ but getting ‘blathered’ spoiled that.

  11. Another enjoyable Paul puzzle. PSEUDO was my LOI because I didn’t see the “Sioux dough” homophone for ages. The fact that it is the US rather than the UK pronunciation of the word and a US reference was used in the wordplay makes it fine, IMHO.

  12. Thanks for the blog Eileen. I completely missed SUDOKU, thinking that it was a clever red herring with 19 and 24 just being a NUMBER PUZZLE. Hey ho, too clever for me. It didn’t help with 19 being the last one in and unparsed.

    Lots of good stuff here. Enjoyed it a lot.

  13. Thanks all. Like Steve Bevan I initially had ‘just’ for 6dn, and
    like Eileen I’d blether rather than blather. so NE corner took a
    little sorting out.

  14. Agree with Bullhassocks about TURNOUT. Enjoyed ‘Looking’ very much much but completely missed ‘sudoku’ – very clever!

    Thanks all!

  15. Another enjoyable Paul, and this time I found it a little tricky in places. I think the NE corner gave me most trouble, and I couldn’t parse NUMBER PUZZLE.

    Thanks to Paul and Eileen.

  18. Thanks, eileen.

    I am surprised no one has mentioned ken platt the comedian who used to be as daft as a brush. In the fifties, I took part in a fancy dress competition dressed as daft as a brush, with lots of them dangling from me.

    Ken seems to have popularised the phrase.

  19. If anyone’s still there, thanks to Bullhassocks et al for 28ac – a case of not seeing the wood for the trees. I’m sure you’re right, despite the annotated solution, which I couldn’t have seen, having posted the blog on Thursday.

    Thanks, too, to bruceW @6 for the correction – amended now, for the sake of the archive.

    Bryan @9 – I don’t understand your comment: both puzzles were published on 21st June – I solved them straight after each other.

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