Guardian Prize 26,986 / Paul

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Well, I pretty well knew what to expect, after two consecutive Saturdays [unusually] without a Prize Paul and no puzzle from him during the week.

So, a Paul puzzle – and, as it soon turned out, on the theme of astronauts / cosmonauts , which  I enjoyed rather more than I might have expected to, as, apart from the theme, there were some nice clues, including smiles at 17 and 19ac. I know that some solvers might have been put off by such a theme, which could lead to a solve which was simply a trawl through Wikipedia and I have to admit to having had to resort thereto for a couple of answers. I have provided links – just click on the name. When I looked up the links, I found that every one of the adventurers had a space ‘first’ to his / her name, which, I thought, was very impressive and added value to the solve.

Thanks, Paul, for the puzzle.

[By the time this blog is published, I shall be on a walking holiday in Menorca and so I apologise in the meantime for any typos or other errors. See you next Saturday! ;-)]

Across

1 Cheers beginning in Pennsylvania, America saw British in retreat (7,2)
BOTTOMS UP
A reversal [in retreat] of P[ennsylvania] US [America] MOTTO [saw] B [British]

6 Land between mountains with northern adventurer (5)
GLENN
GLEN [land between mountains] + N [northern]  – an easy entry, from both definition and wordplay, into the theme

9 Potential Mount Everest, primarily for adventurer (5)
FOALE
FOAL [potential mount] + E[verest]
My first thought, having the A and E, was the more topical  [Tim] PEAKE, which almost parses, though doesn’t account for the ‘potential’ and, anyway, 1dn put paid to that –  I still think it might be deliberate misdirection

10 Adventurer who packs a punch? (9)
ARMSTRONG
Cryptic definition

11 Spooner’s dance with 10, rational figure (4,6)
REAL NUMBER
My heart always sinks when I  see Spooner’s name in a clue – perhaps especially in a Paul puzzle – and I really objected to this one, as I initially [stupidly] read it as ‘reel’ [dance] + 10 [number]  –  a homophone, not a Spoonerism! [and a rather poor clue!].  An indignant appeal to Gaufrid led to a gentle nudge towards ’10 across’  [ARMSTRONG –  ie Neil] + rumba [dance] : egg on my face –  but I still don’t have to like it – sorry, Paul 😉

12 Note success after first from Cambridge (4)
CHIT
C[ambridge] + HIT [success]

14 In spirit, the stuff feeding culture for an adventurer (7)
GAGARIN
AGAR [the stuff feeding culture – a jelly used in bacteria-culture] in GIN [spirit]

15 Fizzy diet drinks cold, each a cold drink (4,3)
ICED TEA
Anagram [fizzy] of DIET round [drinks] C [cold] + EA [each]

17 Possible source of wind resistance in jets (7)
SPROUTS
R [resistance] in SPOUTS [jets]

19 Change round Lithuanian and Latvian capitals, as adventurer (7)
COLLINS
COINS [change] round L[ithuanian] L[atvian]

20 Travel adventurer
RIDE
Double definition

22 Adventurer here, OK with vast ground (10)
TERESHKOVA
Anagram [ground] of HERE OK and VAST

25 A 20 needing no cab? (9)
PIGGYBACK
An indirect clue: 20ac is ‘ride’ and you need to reverse [BACK] ‘no cab’ to produce ‘bacon’ [PIGGY]

26 Not moving yet (5)
STILL
Double definition

27 Two prepare for impact (5)
BRACE
Double definition – I hope I haven’t had to do this by the time you read this!

28 Writer indeed struggling with books, financially needing others (9)
DEPENDENT
PEN [writer] in an anagram [struggling] of DEED + NT [books] – not everyone likes this ‘indeed’ device but I have no objection

Down

1 Very much cake, case of forty or fifty eaten up (2,3)
BY FAR
FY [outside letters – ‘case’ – of FortY or FiftY] reversed in [eaten up by] BAR [cake – eg of soap – which inevitably calls to mind Rufus’ classic clue  ‘bar of soap’  for ROVER’S RETURN]

2 Sailor welcomes artillery and flag waving in battle (9)
TRAFALGAR
TAR [sailor] round RA [Royal Artillery] + an anagram [waving] of FLAG

3 Our cinema’s about to screen a display of marine life (10)
OCEANARIUM
Anagram [about] of OUR CINEMA round [to screen] A

4 Priest about right as adventurer (7)
SHARMAN
SHAMAN [priest] round R [right]

5 Couple after Macedonian leader in Alexander, say, finding buried treasure in Italy? (7)
POMPEII
II [couple] after M[acedonian] in POPE [Alexander, say – either the poet or one of the popes named Alexander]

6 Sound way to walk in door (4)
GATE
Sounds like gait – way to walk

7 Biblical character, one turning on the house of God (5)
ENOCH
reversal [turning] of ONE + CH [church – the house of God]

8 Bedtime drinks for birds (9)
NIGHTJARS
Cryptic definition

13 Spring chicken’s top and stockings new, carefully selected (4-6)
WELL-CHOSEN
WELL [spring] + C[hicken] + HOSE [stockings] + N [new]

14 Eatery, however briefly, left sink upside down (9)
GASTROPUB
Reversal [upside down] of BU[t] [however, briefly] + PORT [left] + SAG [sink]

16 Ingesting tail of pterodactyl, three taste a fossilised arthropod (9)
TRILOBITE
TRIO [three] round [ingesting] [pterodacty]L + BITE [taste]

18 Normal to jettison sandwiches as adventurer (7)
SHEPARD
SHED [jettison] round [sandwiches] PAR [normal]

19 Reportedly, European happy to provide dental appointment (5-2)
CHECK-UP
Sounds like [reportedly] Czech [European] + UP [happy]

21 Belief in female setter, perhaps? (5)
DOGMA
DOG MA [female setter, perhaps]

23 Very much to say is set aside (5)
ALLOT
Sounds like [to say] A LOT [very much]

24 Pumped-up Lebanese port? (4)
TYRE
Cryptic definition – and I can’t not refer to my treasured  Rufus clue – from eight years ago, I find! – for me, his best ever, I think: ‘Gluttons may have one; Alexander the Great didn’t (5,4)’

25 comments on “Guardian Prize 26,986 / Paul”

  1. Thanks Eileen. After Glenn and Armstrong emerged I did need to resort to a trawl through Wikipedia but I don’t really mind that as it all adds to the educative process. The SW corner held me up at the last and I had serious doubts about BRACE because I couldn’t think of a long word ending in B but 17a made the difference. I did like that and 25a too. I went through the same process with 11a as you did.

  2. Thanks to Paul and Eileen. I managed to get though most of this puzzle but FOALE and TERESHKOVA defeated me (and it didn’t help that I kept trying to squeeze in PEAKE for the former). Apparently, my knowledge of astronauts/cosmonauts is weak.

  3. Thanks Paul, and Eileen. A relatively quick and, as always with Paul, entertaining solve for me. Kudos too to the setter for including a fair selection of female adventurers.

  4. Like Biggles @1, my knowledge of astronauts was very quickly exhausted – would have had to give up in the days before Google! However, the rest of the puzzle more than made up for my lack of knowledge; some lovely clues, notably 17ac.

    Thank you Paul. Thanks too to Eileen – hoped you enjoyed your break.

  5. We found we knew nearly all of the space adventurers, so we enjoyed this.

    I didn’t object to the Spoonerism in 11a, but I didn’t like ‘rational figure’ as a definition for REAL NUMBER. As any schoolchild mathematician will tell you, the rational numbers are but a tiny subset of the real numbers, so this doesn’t REALly work…

  6. Thanks for these. I did pretty well but went for PEAKE in 9 across and subsequently struggled for days with with 1 D before I gave up on this “last one”. Unfortunately I didn’t twig that PEAKE was erroneous.

  7. Thank you Paul for an enjoyable crossword, and Eileen for a super blog – hope you are enjoying your walking holiday in Menorca.

    I had to look up several of the astronauts/cosmonauts, but found the research interesting. It being Paul, Bronx first came to mind at 1a. SPROUTS, PIGGYBACK and BY FAR were fun!

  9. Thanks to Paul and Eileen.

    Enjoyed this, although as others have said, I too had to revert to google after I got COLLINS, ARMSTRONG, GLENN and GAGARIN, which then had exhausted my knowledge of astronauts.

    My experience of Peake versus FOALE exactly mirrored that of PeterB@6, so even though I bunged in “be par” for 1d, thinking I may have missed a golfing reference, I didn’t get back to reconsider the clue.

    My eyes were on the prize but I stumbled at the last!

    Well done to those who completed this one.

    Despite my stumble I had a lot of fun.

  10. Thanks Eileen. I managed this without having to look up any of the names, but that meant I didn’t find the firsts associated with each one until I read the blog.

    As Mr Beaver@5 has pointed out, the definition in 11 is very shaky. The clue would have been no better or worse if it had said “irrational” instead of “rational”.

  11. I really rattled through this (by my rather plodding standards) and I remember thinking at one point that this was remarkably easy for a Paul. It did help that I remember being enthralled by the early moon landings and space flight in general, which meant I knew every adventurer bar one. And then I was held up for quite a while in the SW corner – Gastropub is not a word that leaps to my mind, and it took me far too long to see Dogma. But I had to resort to Google to find out who Foale was – clearly I’ve not followed space flight so closely recently; somehow it seems less of an adventure when only robotic craft go further than earth orbit, exciting though the scientific results can be. Maybe I should watch ‘Gravity’ again!

    Thanks, Paul and Eileen.

  12. I found this on the easy side for a Paul but this may be because I found
    I knew most of the space people. I didn’t know FOALE however although it
    was well clued, and TERESHKOVA had to wait until I got the crossers. I didn’t
    know most of the “firsts” so I will have to Google anyway. The rest of this yielded rather quickly and I completed the puzzle more rapidly than yesterday’s Paul. I did enjoy it though!
    Thanks Paul.

  14. I didn’t get to start this until today, and I completed it while watching Great Britain struggle in the Davis Cup doubles. I thought I was going to be in for a real tussle myself, as I originally expected the “adventurers” to be earth-based explorers. However, once I got TERESHKOVA (from crossers and word play), the real theme was obvious. Thanks to knowledge which has rubbed off on me from my space-geek DH, I didn’t need to resort to the internet for the names, but I did almost do so for the Lebanese port before that penny dropped.

    Thanks, Paul and Eileen. I hope your walking holiday is going well.

  15. Thanks Paul and Eileen. Growing up in the 60s many of these astro/cosmonauts were familiar to me.

    Does anyone now ever say “bottoms up”, or is this another of these expressions only used in setterland?

  16. Marienkaefer @ 15. I live in southern Spain and I teach all my Spanish friends to say this when we toast – I don’t own a setter. They have taught me a Catalan phrase, but it has a delicious double meaning which I better not mention here!!

    Great puzzle and great blog, and the discussion has said most of what I want to say!! I would only add, again, that the Prize puzzles seem to be getting easier!!
    Thanks Paul and Eileen!!

  19. A fun solve. We had to look up a few astronauts. But we met the early ones when Harold Wilson invited us to a drinks party at No 10 when most of the original moon landers were there. I remember Armstrong and Aldrin. It must have been in the late 60s, when we had recently moved to Liverpool Uni and my husband was the youngest professor in the country. Happy memories brought back by Paul.

  20. S Panza @16 – it could be said “Bottoms Up” has a double meaning too, I don’t know how it compares for deliciousness with the Catalan phrase 🙂

  21. Mr Beaver @ 20. Let me try, without getting myself banned forever from this excellent site, to give you a flavour. As you clink glasses here, you might utter the phrase, “salut i força al canut”. Literally “health and power to your purse”. A canut is a tube shaped sack often made from certain parts of a bull, which was traditionally used as a money purse: it was hung around the waste. Apparently the shape and size of the purse gives rise to the double meaning!! And the innuendo of ‘bottoms-up’ is not lost on my Spanish friends either!! Of course in Andalucia we do not speak Catalan, but it is kind of National now like ‘slangevar’ in Britain!! Isn’t it interesting where a discussion of a crossword might take you?

  23. All entertaining as ever from Paul – I was quite surprised that all of the astronauts were familiar

    Thanks to Paul and Eileen

  24. Another enjoyable Paul puzzle, although it took a friend to tip me off on the theme, and some we had to guess from wordplay being unfamiliar with the names.

    I wonder whether gASTROpub at 14d is a deliberate nod to the theme or coincidence?

  25. Thanks Paul and Eileen

    Really enjoyable crossword that took three sittings to work it through. COLLINS was the first of the theme words to come out which didn’t uncover too much. However when GLENN and then ARMSTRONG arrived, all became clearer although not sorted – had to use quite a bit of looking to check the others – the wordplay being so fair did mean that most of the research was just checking to see that a FOALE or a RIDE were also an astronaut.

    Didn’t spot that COINS was ‘change’ – headslap when I read it here. Also didn’t see ‘bacon’ backwards to generate the PIGGYBACK.

    RIDE and PIGGYBACK were my last couple in.

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