Guardian 26,539 – Paul

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Good fun as always from Paul, with a mini-theme around the two long answers. I got both of these early on, from the enumerations and a few crossing letters, and the rest didn’t cause too many problems. Thanks to Paul

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
5. JOYSTICK Girl’s a sucker for the director (8)
JOY + STICK – I’m not sure about stick=sucker – perhaps from the botanical meaning of sucker: “a shoot rising from an underground stem”, which makes a kind of stick.. Thanks to Jason and Shirley: it’s actually JOY’S TICK
10. ALIENS 13 9 beings oddly covered up? (6)
A[rea] LI (51 in Roman numerals) + [b]E[i]N[g]S, &lit, from the Area 51 conspiracy theories
11,26,1. UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT Mysterious affair seen briefly coming over in profundity? (12,6,6)
UFO is hidden in the reverse of prOFUndity – I’m not keen on this type of clue, where the wordplay isn’t much help until you’ve found the answer: fortunately I guessed this one early on, largely from the B of OBJECT
13,9. AREA FIFTY-ONE Mysterious affair, yeti? Mysterious place (4,5-3)
(AFFAIR YETI)* gives AREA FIFTY, with an I left over for the ONE – usually written Area 51, this is a US Air Force secret facility, linked with a number of conspiracy theories about UFOs, particularly the so-called Roswell Incident
14. SCENARIO Border dropped in scheme before old country backs plot (8)
SCHEME less HEM + reverse of O IRAN
17. SCREAMER Baby an attention grabber in the newspapers? (8)
Double definition – the newspaper meaning is a sensational headline
18. TOAD Loathsome thing being transported like a caravan, did you say? (4)
Homophone of “towed” – rather unfair on toads, but the word has been used to describe a loathsome thing or person since at least the 16th century
20. FLY ON THE WALL Observer who’s not seen to turn left, left and left again, anyhow (3,2,3,4)
Anagram of LEFT L L ANYHOW
23. BYPLAY Secondary action attributed to freedom of movement (6)
BY (attributed to) + PLAY (freedom of movement)
24. EASTERLY Wind describing a festival? (8)
“Easter-ly” describes the festival, and an easterly is a wind from the east
25. CRUDITES Raw food cursed, it needing to be cooked (8)
(CURSED IT)* – rather an awkward surface reading: “it needs…” might have been better
Down
2. BRIG Titanic accepting disaster finally, as ship (4)
[disaste]R in BIG
3. ENTOURAGE Following doctor out, incense passed round (9)
OUT* in ENRAGE
4. TROPIC Harbour on Guernsey, perhaps, set up for a global line (6)
Reverse of CI (Channel Islands) PORT
5. JEEPERS CREEPERS Going under vehicle, the Queen’s an original American character — that’s not on! Good Lord! (7,8)
JEEP + ER’S + CREE (native American) + PERS[on]
6. YEASTIER Easy to mix part of a cake that’s more frothy (8)
EASY* + TIER (e.g. part of a wedding cake)
7. THIEF For example, dip one in the fire, primarily (5)
I in THE F[ire]. “Dip” is slang for a pickpocket
8. CONGENITAL Deformity in giant clone is innate (10)
(GIANT CLONE)*
12. BRICKLAYER Agreeable chap put on coat for builder (10)
BRICK + LAYER (coat of paint)
15. ARTILLERY Vital channel confiscates evil weapons (9)
ILL in ARTERY
16. AMETHYST That’s my emerald, originally shaped as a gem (8)
(THATS MY E[merald])*
19. MASSIF Service industry finally heads for the hills? (6)
MASS + I[ndustry] F[inally]
21. OILED Drunk not making a squeak? (5)
Double definition
22. FLAN Slice of meat cut for pastry dish (4)
FLAN[k]

38 comments on “Guardian 26,539 – Paul”

  2. Andrew – 5A is Joy’s Tick. A tick is an insect that sucks your blood.
    We were more confused by the fact that Paul defined a joystick as a director – I suppose it directs an aircraft in flight?

  3. Thank you Paul for setting a terrific puzzle that made me nostalgic for The X-Files, which ended in 2002 but is coming back for a special six-episode run 😀

    (This would have been even better if you had somehow included a “The Truth Is Out There” or “Trust No One” nina 😉 )

  4. Thanks Paul and Andrew
    Paul out of form here, I thought. I don’t remember a crossword with so many poor or downright nonsensical surfaces. I raised an eyebrow at “sucker” too, and also “slice” in 22d (flank is a cut, not a slice – or if it is a slice, it’s much too big to appear on a plate).
    I read 13,9 as (affair yet)* with the i for one – a new trick for me, and not a very fair one, I think.
    I did like SCREAMER and TROPIC. TOAD may also be referring to the “canary=yellow caravan” in “Wind in the Willows”?

  6. [btw Andrew, there’s something wrong with your link to “Roswell incident” – though the link toe “Area 51” works fine.]

  7. [Cookie – odd coincidence that scchua referenced “Area 51” in the picture quiz yesterday.]

  9. Thanks Paul and Andrew

    I think you can make 22D work if you read the clue as “Slice of ‘meat cut’ “, but I agree it’s not great.

  11. Aha..yes, Simon S, that makes sense (the ‘cut’ being the FLANK and the ‘slice’ being the removal ind). Except that the ‘slice’ would be the ‘k’ you sliced off, not the remaining FLAN!   : )

    I have to say I found this whole thing pretty clunky and dull – but maybe I’m missing something, because I rarely understand what excites everyone so much about Paul’s crosswords.

    (Sorry to be negative – I know I’m in the minority, so I’m sure the fault is mine!)

  12. Thanks Paul and Andrew.

    The thing that struck me about the puzzle was all the Y’s, I counted 11, perhaps nothing unusual, ~5.5%.
    I first heard of AREA FIFTY-ONE yesterday, so was prepared, and B at 1a, as for Andrew, gave me UFO. THIEF I did not understand, another game of ‘lucky dip’!

  13. I enjoyed this puzzle, although it took me a while to get on Paul’s wavelength today. I thought the clue for AREA FIFTY-ONE was fine, especially as i=one in Roman numerals.

  18. NNI @17
    I didn’t like the clue, but I think i is OK – lower case often used in numbering book pages that aren’t part of the main text (prologue or appendix for example)

  19. 12dn nitpick: a brick is surely someone, male or female, who is RELIABLE rather than agreeable?

  20. Enjoyable and fairly easy to complete, but there were some tricky parsings here, and I must admit that a few of the longer ones went in from enumerations, definitions and crossers. Last in was THIEF (struggled with the DIP). Favourite (once I finally parsed it) was ALIENS.

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

  21. An excellent puzzle except for the awful Area 51 clue. ‘Area 51’ is correct, ‘Area Fifty-one’ some could perhaps put up with, but surely never ‘Area Fifty-1’.

    I think FLY-ON-THE-WALL is my favourite today.

  22. Liked this…LOI was BYPLAY…although Chambers has it with a hyphen – if it was 2,4 we might have got it sooner (I was looking up byflay in my dictionary, lol!!!)

  24. Careful Andrew! I quite agree with your criticism of 11,26,1 but last time I made a comment like that I was roundly denounced for it!

    Thank you for explaining the wordplay here, and for 10, 5, and 22. (And also for explaining the solution to 13,9.)

  25. A bit more of a struggle with Paul today than is normal for me, partly because the two long answers took ages to come, partly because early on I had MANUFACTOR at 12d; not entirely implausible, or so it seemed to me. I wondered what else could be on the wall that wasn’t a fly, for a while.

    Last in SCENARIO, once I’d decided to take a hem out rather than put one in.

  26. Thanks to Paul and Andrew for the parsing. I missed the “ofu” coming over in “profundity” but, as a dog owner with lots of experience in tick-infested areas, had no trouble with “joysticks.” My major hurdle was starting with “replay” rather than “byplay” so that “bricklayer” was the last item in. This was my first attempt at solving on-line (I’ve normally printed puzzles out and done them when time permitted), so that I’m still learning the ropes. Query: was “jeepers creepers” part of Mulder’s vocabulary in X-Files?

  27. I’m surprised that no-one (except possibly limeni) agreed with me about the surfaces. To me, the clues for 11 (etc.), 13 (etc.) 20, 2, 3, 5, 15, 16 and 19 really don’t make any sense (remember, it’s the surface, not the definition or word play that I’m commenting on).

  28. muffin I agree entirely. Paul usually has some clunky ones, but they were in excess today.

  30. I couldn’t get on with this at all. I am a fan of Paul but this took me ages. Indeed I came close to abandoning it. However the answers started to come slowly and laboriously. JEEPERS CREEPERS-which I,grudgingly, thought rather a good clue- unblocked the puzzle but I can’t say the balance was easy. I didn’t know AREA FIFTY ONE and didn’t find it easy to parse. By no means vintage Paul but perhaps I’m having a bad day!

  31. Yes (muffin @27) you can definitely include me as agreeing with you with the examples you give. All of those surface meanings seem like utter nonsense to me. And it is this clumsiness that leaves me scratching my head when so many eulogise Paul’s crosswords.

    But it’s great that we have a wide range of styles, and clearly different people respond to different approaches.

    (Of course I write this as a solver – obviously I dream of setting a crossword half as good as this one!)

  33. If consistently excellent surfaces are what you are looking for then do the Times puzzle. There is not the same emphasis put on surface readings in the Guardian even though some of them are very good.

  36. muffin @27, Limeni @31 – I agree with the gist of your criticism, but in Paul’s defence he does produce a lot of puzzles, which must limit the time available for polishing the surfaces. He is also consistently entertaining.

  37. I agree about the surfaces. They are much better in The Times, generally. I’ve always assumed it is the job of the setters to get a good surface, but obviously in The Guardian there is a tradition of allowing nonsense. I don’t mind it, but it provides an excuse for laziness I would say.

  38. Thanks Paul and Andrew

    Only got to this one this morning and the first half of train trip was not all that productive – thankfully by the end of the ride, most of it was done !! Took a long time to crack the mini-theme clues which was one of the biggest holdups – certainly up in the top half.

    Was also an initial REPLAY entry … following a correction of TIGHT at 21d.

    Needed the blog to parse both JOYSTICK (properly) and ALIENS (at all) !

    SCENARIO was the last in.

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