Guardian Prize 26,412 / Paul

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For a while now we’ve been having a Paul Prize puzzle every other week, apart from the last two weeks. Nevertheless, it was a bit of a surprise to see one today, as we’d had one earlier in the week. No complaints from me, though: I found this very entertaining and enjoyable, with a good variety of clue styles and a few smiles and aha moments to keep the interest going – and just one touch of the characteristic Pauline ribaldry.

Across

1 Most cherished US state, where gun crime and drug trafficking are rife (6)
FAVELA
FAVE [most cherished] + LA [Louisiana] – not, for a change, Los Angeles
A new word for me – a shanty town in Brazil

4 County takes on workers (6)
STAFFS
Double definition

9 Song her partner picked up (4)
HYMN
Sounds like [picked up] ‘him’

10 Don’t tell me! A modern composer in an old bowler? (5,5)
SHANE WARNE
SH [Don’t tell me!] + A NEW [a modern] + ARNE [Thomas, composer]
[I’d actually heard of him – ‘old’ as in ‘former’, I think.]

11 Rubber tree nearer India, across the river by all conclusions (6)
ERASER
Last letters [by all conclusions] of treE neaR indiA acrosS thE riveR

13 Herb used to bandage limb, iodine then applied (9)
SPEARMINT
SPENT [used] round ARM [limb] + I [iodine]

15 Inscription in novella, no name? (4)
ANON
Hidden in novellA NO Name – &lit, I think

16 Early man, firm and hard (4)
SETH
SET [firm] + H [hard]
Seth was Adam and Eve’s third son

17 Slimy scum in blaze, taking ages to put out (9)
SLEAZEBAG
Anagram [to put out] of BLAZE and AGES

21 Confounded book imminent (8)
BLOOMING
B [book] + LOOMING [imminent]
I’m not sure how widely known these terms are: BLOOMING is a euphemism for ‘ bloody’ and Chambers gives, for ‘confounded’, ‘damned, blasted [a term of disapproval]’

22 Take great pleasure in routine (6)
GROOVE
Double definition

24 Country garden ultimately covered in flowers — strong features? (5,5)
ROMAN NOSES
OMAN [country] + [garde]N in ROSES [flowers]

25 Yellow food, cheesy stuff (4)
CORN
Double definition

26 Vacillate, toying with third and fourth of December (6)
DITHER
Anagram [toying with] THIRD and [dec]E[mber]

27 Scottish author railing endlessly (6)
BARRIE
[J.M. – author of  ‘Peter Pan] BARRIE[r] [railing]
I had RANKIN, initially [Yes, I know it doen’t parse properly – but I was sure it must end in ‘in’!] which held me up for a while – nice one, Paul!

Down

2,1 Plant, a vision on the web? (5,7)
VENUS FLYTRAP
VENUS [beauty – vision] + FLYTRAP [web]
I’m afraid I was immediately reminded of this song – and then couldn’t get it out of my head, so I’ll pass it on to you

3 Combine passion and spirit for a number of years (7)
LUSTRUM
LUST [passion] + RUM [spirit]
The five-year period in ancient Rome between the ceremonial purification of the Roman people after the census had been taken

5 Figure in time passed slowly in the end (6)
TWENTY
T [time] + WENT [passed] + [slowl]Y

6 Nice location to get over torment — Cologne? (9)
FRAGRANCE
FRANCE [location of Nice] round RAG [torment]

7 Organ whose top is red and blue, at the end of the day (7)
SUNDOWN
SUN [red-top organ] + DOWN [blue]
[Again, I don’t know how much to explain for non-UK solvers: as Chambers has it, ‘red-top’ is ‘any tabloid newspaper whose masthead is printed in red’, as is the SUN here]]  – I think Paul had fun with this clue!
[PS: since I wrote this blog, on the day the puzzle was published, the Sun has appeared in both Pasquale and Tramp puzzles this week,so should be well known by now, anyway]

8 Plot coming as a surprise in For Whom The Bell Tolls (13)
CAMPANOLOGIST
Really neat anagram [surprise] of PLOT COMING AS A

14 Moving to Saturn, a space traveller (9)
ASTRONAUT
And another [moving] of TO SATURN A

16 Politician in Scottish leader, a nut? (7)
SALMOND
S[cottish] + ALMOND [a nut] for Alex Salmond, who, when this puzzle was published, was Leader of the Scottish National Party, due to resign at the Annual Conference this weekend – I wouldn’t dare to sugget this as &lit 😉

18 Noble gas unlimited in US city (7)
AUGUSTA
AUGUST [noble] + [g[A[s]

19 Unfortunate jingle, perhaps? (7)
ADVERSE
AD VERSE

20 Intended result of ex­tracting first of needles from back (6)
FIANCÉ
FI[n]ANCE [back] minus first letter of ‘needles’

23,12 Nothing matters, might you say, in issue for old musician (5,8)
OSCAR PETERSON
O [nothing] + CARPETERS [‘matters’, you might say!] in SON [issue]
This took a while to see, as I was taking ‘in’ as a linking word, rather than a containment indicator, so struggling to make sense of SCARPETER – a big doh moment when light dawned!

30 comments on “Guardian Prize 26,412 / Paul”

  1. Paul is Paul – a prolific setter, yes.
    Also someone who still manages to tickle us despite his enormous output in all the broadsheets – smut or no smut.

    Here we had “Nothing matters” as part of the OSCAR PETERSON clue.
    How brilliant is that? Very, I think.

    Meanwhile, The Sun seems indeed to be very popular (as it always was, to some (read: many, read: too many), not me).
    Yesterday, Wanderer (in the FT) had the red-top even as a solution, making it four.

    Thanks Eileen.

  2. Thanks Eileen. Like you, I dallied with Rankin for a while and took some more time to persuade myself 25 was not ‘curd’. As a non UK solver 7 was the last I had to explain to myself until I found the website you reference.

  4. Thanks Eileen, especially for the hitherto baffling 23,2, which had early on jumped out and thumbed its nose. Glad to see Paul back in the groove, after/before yesterday’s. FAVELA got a lot of media coverage at the time of the Rio World Cup.

  5. Thank you Eileen, especially for 23,12. I am annoyed that I didn’t try harder, the effort would have been worth it. And also for the explanations for those who have never seen The Sun. But you missed one – 4 ac, I couldn’t make sense of my guess until I googled it.

    I am another who had CURD at 25ac. I wasn’t happy with it but Wikipedia mentions the multiple uses of the word (in India curd = yoghurt) and has a picture of “cheese curds” which are decidedly yellow. Good enough for me. CORN is better though.

  6. Many thanks Paul & Eileen. Very enjoyable!

    However, I also had CURD and in the event that us Curdists should outnumber the CORNIER folk then we should demand a recount.

  8. Morning all.

    Rather late surfacing this morning – internet access crisis meant the blog only just squeezed in under the wire, so late to bed.

    Re 25ac: CURD never occurred [sorry, that was quite unintentional] to me but, if it had, I’d probably have stuck it in with the same amount of conviction as I did CORN, which I wasn’t happy with. As you know, I usually forget there’s an annotated solution, as I like to solve and blog the puzzle when it comes out. I’ve just looked and CORN is the solution given. But I think, on balance, I’m with you lot. 😉 Not one of Paul’s best clues, I think.

  9. HKColin @5

    I did wonder whether to explain STAFFS [abbreviation for Staffordshire]. It’s just commonplace here but, as I said, it’s so difficult to judge what to take for granted. My apologies. 😉

  10. I didn’t write a comment on this last Sat as I found it enjoyable but pretty straightforward (except for the parsing of Oscar P). So I had nothing of interest to say (Do I ever? 😉 )

    However, although CURD never occurred to me, I’m sure I would have discounted it as not being cryptic. (OK for Rufus perhaps but never for Paul)

    Thanks to Eileen and Paul

  12. Thanks Eileen
    CURD too, but I agree that CORN is better.

    Real Doh! moment when I realised that “matters” = “carpeters”.

  13. Corn is better but curd does work too, with two separate defs. – yellow food (lemon curd) and also cheesy stuff (as in curds and whey). No need to feel bad about it… I agree with Muffet, sorry muffin, that matters was a powerful “doh” moment – very good.

  15. Thanks Paul and Eileen

    Found this crossword hard going, so Eileen’s blog was most helpful.

    Liked 27a, of interest, J.M. BARRIE gave the rights to his ‘Peter Pan’ works to the Great Ormond Street Hospital which continues to benefit from them.

  16. Snap for CURD. I suppose CORN is better but-. I got OSCAR PETERSON without finishing reading the clue presumably by a sort of jazzer’s osmosis. Incidentally I believe that GROOVE now means the precise opposite from in my day i.e. a piece of music described as “groovy” is now unbelievably old fashioned.
    I loved SALMOND.
    Thanks Paul

  17. Thanks, Eileen. Late post for me but I’m so ridiculously busy nowadays. 🙁

    This was a great puzzle for a Saturday, with something for everyone: except for CORN. Chambers gives: “curd: 2. The cheese part of milk…” and I loved lemon curd as a child. I do agree though [unusually 😉 ] with BNTO @10 that CORN is more cheesy for Paul!

  19. Thanks Paul and Eileen

    Another CURD vote from me.

    I was thinking YELLOW=CUR and trying to work out why FOOD=D

    Disappointed with the actual dd.

  20. Well I was a CORNer !

    Eileen – Speaking of seeing a Paul prize every other week, do you remember when Araucaria and Custos used to alternate every Saturday?

  21. David, I don’t think I remember such regularity – but it was certainly a joy to see either name below a Prize puzzle.

  22. Thanks Eileen. Couldn’t get SLEAZEBAG (Shades of Dr Hook) but I can’t see why I failed since it seems obvious now. That enabled me to finish the BR corner just now: I did have tentative GROOVE (not convincing) and CURD, like so many others. Given this was a prize puzzle, better editorial control is surely called for?

  23. CURD certainly occurred ( 🙂 ) to me, but I discounted it on the grounds that curd is white (fortunately I didn’t think of googling it). Mrs Beaver eventually came good with CORN

  24. Unusually for me, I was unable to get a Guardian last Saturday, so had to do this online in midweek. I’m not sure whether that contributed to it seeming a bit more difficult than most recent Paul prizes, but in the end it all dropped out, and as always with Paul there was plenty of entertainment. Took me a while to see SHANE WARNE as an old bowler – I was looking for much older ones to start with. Have to admit that CURD never occurred to me, so no problems with CORN.

    Thanks to Eileen and Paul

  25. Thanks Paul and Eileen

    Found the LHS of this particularly tough to get started … not helped at all by having written RANKIN in at 27a. Eventually focused on finding another … and thankfully J M BARRIE surfaced. Had to Google the musician Oscar P (whom I didn’t know) after which the whole last bit fell.

    Originally was thinking ‘curd’ at 25a, but wasn’t convinced – did a check for other C-R- words and saw CORN which fitted much better (as per BNTO).

  28. Kevin @27 – I don’t agree, but would accept that carpeter is not a common word. For -at endings the double t affects the pronunciation (and mater is clearly something entirely different), but there is no equivalent rule for -et endings. To me, carpeting and trumpeter seem like obvious comparisons, and neither of those would normally be spelled with a double t…

  30. As I recall there is a rule, dependent on pronunciation – something like the consonant is doubled after a short vowel only if the stress falls on the last syllable of the infinitive (or there is only one syllable) – compare target/targeting with forget/forgetting. Is that clear? Must check Fowler. So, matter but carpeter. I bet there are many exceptions though.

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