I find Paul’s crosswords more varied than most of his contemporaries, one is never sure what one is going to get. It might be an easy-peasy puzzle or it might be a stinker; it could be serious or it could be puerile and frivolous. Today Paul is in fairly subdued mood, nothing outrageous but not completely serious either. Thanks Paul, please keep them coming.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SNOW LEOPARDS | Pound loss with a new drop in ounces (4,8) |
| anagram (pound, beat up) of LOSS with A NEW DROP | ||
| 9 | ACUTE | Article, pretty sharp (5) |
| A (indefinite article) and CUTE (pretty) | ||
| 10 | CREAM SODA | Drinking loads, fish has a drink (5,4) |
| REAMS (loads, lots of something) inside (drunk by) COD has A | ||
| 11 | ETRURIA | University central to artier Bohemian region of old Italy (7) |
| U (university) in the middle of (central to) an anagram (bohemian, unconventional) of ARTIER* | ||
| 12 | WHEREAS | Is in the past defining present, however? (7) |
| WAS (is in the past) contains (defining) HERE (present) – “defining” can mean “to set the bounds or limits of” | ||
| 13 | SALOPETTES | Skiing gear for Shropshire dance troupe? (10) |
| SALOP is an old name for Shropshire, so “The Salopettes” could be a whimsical dance group from Shropshire, or from Shrewsbury School perhaps | ||
| 15 | OVER | Test period complete (4) |
| an over is period (six deliveries) in a Test Match | ||
| 18 | ORGY | Feeling party heading for government, politician not beginning to embrace it (4) |
| Government (heading for, first letter) inside (embraced by) tORY (politician, not beginning) | ||
| 19 | CRIMEAN WAR | Old actions right after western in American broadcast (7,3) |
| R (right) follows W (western) inside AMERICAN* anagram=broadcast | ||
| 22 | FARRAGO | Confused mixture coming from newspaper published in the Algarve? (7) |
| RAG (newspaper) inside (published in) FARO (somewhere in the Algarve) | ||
| 24 | MOTTLED | Double agent finally caught by spy, then daughter spotted (7) |
| T T (agenT finally, doubled) inside (caught by) MOLE (spy) then D (daughter) | ||
| 25 | SKINFLINT | Scrooge broke banks in US state (9) |
| SKINT (broke) contains (banks) IN FL (US state) | ||
| 26 | STERN | Firm rear (5) |
| double definition – nicely understated by Paul | ||
| 27 | BORED TO TEARS | Large mammals eating duck, bloody little one, less than excited (5,2,5) |
| BEARS (large mammals) contain (eating) O (duck) RED (Bloody) TOT (little one) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SQUARE LEG | Position dinosaur’s taken on stage (6,3) |
| SQUARE (dinosaur, someone old-fashioned) on LEG (stage) – cricket fielding position | ||
| 2 | OVERRIPE | I reprove wrinkly, as going to seed (8) |
| anagram (wrinkly) of I REPROVE | ||
| 3 | LYCRA | Material heading for comet in small constellation (5) |
| Comet (heading for, first letter) in LYRA (small constellation) | ||
| 4 | OVERWHELM | However unlikely, lame odds for defeat (9) |
| anagram (unlikely) of HOWEVER on LaMe (odd letters of) | ||
| 5 | ARMIES | After uprising, I’m inspired by belligerent god, fighting multitudes (6) |
| I’M reversed (after uprising) inside (inspired by) ARES (belligerent god, Greek god of war) | ||
| 6 | DRONE | Queen’s partner cooked outstanding royal starter (5) |
| DONE (cooked) contains (outstanding) Royal (starter, first letter of) – partner of a queen bee | ||
| 7 | CARESS | Light touch for a lady driver? (6) |
| definition and cryptic definition | ||
| 8 | NASSER | Egyptian leader participating in revolution, as serene (6) |
| found inside (participating in) revolutioN AS SERene | ||
| 14 | TERRORIST | Sin is in midst of battle, as enemy of freedom? (9) |
| ERROR IS in baTTle (midst, middle letters of) | ||
| 16 | VOWELLESS | Myth is so very old, old actor beginning to slumber (9) |
| V (very) O (old) WELLES (Orson Welles, old actor) and Slumber (beginning letter of) | ||
| 17 | FANTASIA | Wonderful work ending for magician in land of huge, huge proportions? (8) |
| magiciaN (ending for) in FAT ASIA (land of huge, huge proportions). My take is that AISA is a land of huge proportions, so FAT ASIA would be a huge land of huge proportions. Sort of works, but not quite? | ||
| 18 | OAFISH | Stupid remark after online discovery? (6) |
| “Oh a fish!” – what one might say after discovering a fish on the end of one’s line. I was sidetracked for a while into looking for fishplates on railway lines, but then realised the error of my ways. | ||
| 20 | RIDING | Unpleasant noise breaking gear on a bike (6) |
| DIN (unpleasant noise) inside (breaking) RIG (gear) | ||
| 21 | BAFFLE | Spirit phenomenal, when up for puzzle (6) |
| ELF (spirit) and FAB (phenomenal) both reversed (when up) | ||
| 23 | RHINO | Greek character welcoming home a pachyderm (5) |
| RHO (Greek character) contains (welcoming) IN (home) | ||
| 24 | MOTET | Ultimate in excitement in bubbly composition (5) |
| excitemenT (ultimate, last letter of) in MOET (bubbly) | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
Thanks PeeDee. Somewhere between easy peasy and a stinker I agree but enjoyable as always. Having had to look up SALOPETTES I find Paul has used it before in 24113. My take on 17d is the same as yours.
Another nice puzzle from my favorite setter. Very much easier than Friday’s puzzle I thought, with only CARESS giving me any trouble. I enjoyed SNOW LEOPARD. For some reason I remember “ounce” in the animal sense, from my childhood having stumbled upon it in an encyclopedia. It has served me well in crosswords ever since.
Thanks Paul.
Thanks to Paul and PeeDee. I did well with most of this puzzle, but the NW corner defeated me. Again, my lack of cricket knowledge was a factor, for I guessed at the square in SQUARE LEG but did not get the rest and was baffled by SALOPETTES (Salop-Shropshire was far beyond me) so as a result I failed to get ORGY and CARESS. An enjoyable challenge but a bit beyond me.
I found this tough but fair and was pleased to complete it when I finally stopped trying to put the blasted D. of E. into 6 down!
Thanks PeeDee. OVER popped up early for me in 2 and 4D: in 15A I could see it but not fathom it until very late, and that made the splendid VOWELLESS my last in. Many droll and likeable clues. Good on you Paul, as yesterday.
Had more success with Paul’s Prize than yesterday’s weekly puzzle, but still none of the satisfaction of a full solve.
Missed SNOW LEOPARDS 1a which I still don’t understand, and 13a SALOPETTES, where in vain I tried SALTPETRES!
I just loved 18a ORGY!
Thanks to Paul and PeeDee.
Julie in Aus – Ounce is an old word for a leopard or large cat, related to Lynx. See here…
Thanks, PeeDee. Always learning new things. BTW; enjoyed your blog a lot.
Thank you Paul and PeeDee.
Coming up with DUNE SCORPION as an anagram for “drop in ounces” got me off to a bad start, but the down clues made me suspicious, then the ounce / LEOPARD connection was remembered.
FARRAGO was a new word. Luckily SALOP = Shropshire came from the depths of my mind from over 50 years ago, but perhaps it is mentioned in one of the poems in “A Shropshire Lad” or some other book I reread from time to time.
ORGY, DRONE and OAFISH made me laugh
Thanks Paul and PeeDee.
Paul seems to be on top form at the moment. It would be churlish of me to object to VOWELLESS/MYTH as obviously Y acts as the vowel here (and think of all those Welsh words,..), so I won’t.
Cookie: just don’t try to pronounce SALOP as though it were a French word!
chloecyst@10: “Les Salopettes” – they sound a much more interesting dance troupe than my Shrewsbury School children!
An interesting puzzle and in places amusing, as usual from Paul.
Thanks, Paul and PeeDee.
Thanks Paul and PeeDee
Another enjoyable romp with this consistently good setter – on a wet wintry evening in Melbourne. Agree that this was a middle of the road difficulty rating for him with his usual sense of humour. Was really great to see the roles of ‘ounce’ – SNOW LEOPARDS reversed for a change and it did take a while to see it!
Wasn’t expecting that answer at 18a … and it brought a grin as I wrote it in.
Finished down in the SW corner with FARRAGO (which was as equally hard to find the definition as it was to parse – didn’t know FARO as the Portuguese city), SKINFLINT (not sure what it made it as hard to get as it did), the tricky BAFFLE that looked very easy in retrospect and OAFISH which brought this entertaining journey to an end with a laugh !!!
This one split into two halves. No problems with the top half, but most of the bottom half was blank for ages. BORED TO TEARS unlocked it, but the rest still too a bit of thought. All entertaining enough.
Thanks to Paul and PeeDee
Thanks Paul and PeeDee.
Thoroughly enjoyable as ever from Paul. He’s so creative!
ORGY, VOWELLESS and the laugh-out-loud OAFISH were favourites in a top quality puzzle.
Great fun.
This one enticed the teenager to try to parse “Bored to tears”. Ironic or what.
Thanks Paul. Thanks PeeDee