Guardian 27,002 – Paul

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Good inventive fun as always from Paul, with an outstandingly appropriate anagram at 18,11, though needing a couple of bits of general knowledge that were only just in the category of “stuff I vaguely know”. Thanks to Paul.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
5. AMPLEST Most adequate unit of current, just in case (7)
AMP (unit of electric current) + LEST (just in case)
9. ROOST Base including second home (5)
S in ROOT
10. OUTERWEAR True to form, runner put on old coat, perhaps? (9)
O + TRUE* + WEAR (river, runner)
14. A LA CASSEROLE A flavour eating donkey, part braised (1,2,9)
A + ASS in LACE (flavour, as in to lace a drink) + ROLE
18,11. TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY 8 unmasking red, risky operation still (6,6,7,3)
(RED RISKY OPERATION STILL)* – very appropriately describing the plot of John le Carré’s thriller
21. HEEL One’s despicable list (4)
Double definition
22. MY GOODNESS Well, what might have me beatified? (2,8)
Double definition
25. CONSONANT One isn’t a worker behind party issue (9)
CON[servative] + SON (issue) + ANT (worker). The definition has to be read as “One [example of a consonant] isn’t A”
26. ALAMO Mission accomplished, like another military operation on all fronts (5)
First letters of Accomplished Like Another Military Operation. The site of the famous battle was a Catholic mission
27. OUTBACK Both journeys on a return ticket to remote location (7)
When you have a return ticket you go OUT and BACK
28. ELEMENT Factor when last in race, fast catching me (7)
[rac]E + ME in LENT (fast)
Down
1. JURIST Barely covering the fundamentals of rules, insufficient for legal expert (6)
R[ules] I[nsufficient] in JUST
2. NOODLE Nut pasta (6)
Double definition
3. OUTFIELDER Baseball player shot due to rifle (10)
(DUE TO RIFLE)*
4. SPOOR Bottom of charts, not very good track (5)
[chart]S + POOR
5. ANTIPASTI For the future then? Yours truly, for starters (9)
If you’re for the future you might be ANTI-PAST, plus I for “yours truly”
7. EXECUTOR Will official survive in the end, after old court restructured? (8)
EX (old) + [surviv]E + COURT*
8. THRILLER Tail of nuthatch in bird book (8)
[nuthatc]H in TRILLER
13. SECOND-RATE Flash speed not good enough (6-4)
SECOND (flash, short time) + RATE (speed)
15. CUTTY SARK Old vessel, ship under contract, originally transporting yarn swiftly (5,4)
CUT (to contract) + T[ransporting] Y[arn] S[wiftly] + ARK
16,6. ITCHYCOO PARK Irritating devil, perhaps, penning average score for 1960s’ song (8,4)
ITCHY + PAR in COOK (devilling is a way of cooking) – a 1967 song by the Small Faces
17. INTERNET Source of information in the Times about bird (8)
IN + ERNE (bird) in T T
19,23,12. BEWARE OF THE BULL Be brave at first in bending the rule of law in advance notice of possible charges? (6,2,3,4)
BE + B[rave] in (THE RULE OF LAW)* – it’s a pity that OF and THE appear in both the anagram fodder and the answer
20. ESCORT Lead key or bolt, ultimately (6)
ESC[ape] + OR [bol]T
24,1 across. BOCA JUNIORS Soccer team from Louisiana, one beset by yobs (4,7)
CAJUN (from Louisiana) + I in BOORS – it’s an Argentinian football team

29 comments on “Guardian 27,002 – Paul”

  1. Thank you, Andrew and thank you, Paul for a really enjoyable puzzle. Clue of the day for me, possibly clue of the week was MY GOODNESS.

    I agree that a bit of general knowledge was required – I needed google’s help for ITCHYCOO PARK and I only managed BOCA JUNIORS thanks to the J in JURIST and vague memories of Diego Maradona. Both clues were good fun though.

    For THRILLER, I parsed it as a lift and separate with T (tail of nut) followed by RILL (hatch) inside HER (bird). Quite neat, I thought at the time. But of course rill doesn’t mean hatch, as I now realise!

    I do have a question. What is “One’s” doing in the clue for HEEL? Wouldn’t “Despicable list” work better?

  2. (Public service announcement). The comments mechanism on the Guardian’s crossword page currently appears to be broken. To see all the comments, click on the blue “Comments” link that appears above the list of clues.
    And thanks to Paul and Andrew, especially for the link to one of the favourite songs of my youth.

  3. I enjoyed this, but had to spend ages searching through Google for the soccer team! Thought the long anagrams were particularly good. I see no problem with 21ac matrixmania @1 – “heel” is a noun in the case of “one’s despicable” and a verb in “list”.

    Thank you, Paul & Andrew.

  4. I’m with you, blaise@2; ITCHYCOO PARK was one of the great songs of my youth, with the “live in the moment” theme of truancy, drug-taking and free love holding a lot of appeal to the inner rebel in the diligent and conformist schoolgirl I actually was. The Small Faces was such a great band!

    I agree matrixmania@1; MY GOODNESS 22a was up there with the best.

    A major PDM for me came about halfway through, when I spotted the title of the novel @ 18a and 11a, TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY, which I got mostly from the crossers (and I actually solved before I got 8d, THRILLER). I concur, Andrew, it was a fabulous anagram ,which I only saw after I solved it! I think that’s the intuitive solver rather than the decoder in me.

    That being said, I only got 24d 1a, BOCA JUNIORS, by decoding, as I had never heard of the soccer team. I always associate CAJUN with Louisiana, for some reason, and with several crossers especially the J from 1d JURIST, I guessed the BOORS part too, then googled to check that it was indeed a soccer team.

    My other favourites were 19d 12a, BEWARE OF THE BULL, my second last one in, though my answer started out as “beware of the BILL”. Of course “bill” is a synonym for “law”, I thought, and the “charges” are summarised on the “bill”. But when 7d wouldn’t yield, I thought, this is a Paul, and he loves his little jokes, and realised that he was talking about a bull charging!!!! That gave me (finally!) EXECUTOR at 7d, my LOI, and a terrific clue too!!!!!

    A hard slog, but immensely satisfying. Many thanks to Paul and Andrew.

  5. Thanks Paul and Andrew

    A good example of why I generally don’t like Paul’s puzzles. When ITCHYCOO PARK was 3rd in (the second word being PAR?) I nearly threw the crossword away. Yes, I remember the song, but it’s a riduculous amount of general knowledge required to solve a crossword clue – likewise BOCA JUNIORS (which I also knew, in fact).

    THRILLER was actually LOI, so obviously I got 18 from the letter pattern – another typical Paul problem.

    I do agree about MY GOODNESS – great clue!

  6. Thanks Andrew

    Re ITCHYCOO PARK I’m sure Paul did intend ‘devil’ to indicate ‘cook’. However if it were 1967 I’d have concluded that it referred to Peter Cook who played George Spiggott (aka the devil) in Bedazzled.

  8. Thank you Paul and Andrew.

    I parsed 9a as Rullytully @7 did. Never heard of the BOCA JUNIORS or the song ITCHYCOO PARK…

    The clue for MY GOODNESS was great!

  9. Thanks for parsing of Boca Juniors. Also I had “hate” first instead of Heel. Then remembered its hate mail and not hate listHate had led me to instinct (as in a little bird told me) which I couldnt parse-so plan B.Loved seeing Itchycoo Park.Good fun all round.

  10. Thanks to Paul and Andrew. I vaguely remembered BOCA JUNIORS but did not know ITCHYCOO PARK and missed the “lace” = “flavor” in A LA CASSEROLE. Last in was BEWARE OF THE BULL where I needed all the crossers and still had to guess. A good challenge.

  11. Thank you so much Paul and Peter. Loved this today. Small Faces also one of my favourite groups and Itchycoo Park one of their best songs.Saw them live in the good old days. My favourites were My Goodness and Beware of the Bull. I’m a huge football fan so Boca Juniors was an easy one for me.

  12. Like ulyanova @6, I had (Peter) Cook as the devil, but I’ve just twigged the culinary technique. I had a few crossers for what became BOCA JUNIORS but it was one of those that I had to write out in one horizontal line before the answer leapt out. It led straight to TINKER etc and hence completion.

    Though I’ve not been able to post since Monday, I just wanted to say that Picaroon, Arachne and Paul on consecutive days has been about as good as it can get. A week of rare privilege.

  14. Thought this looked pretty tough at first, but it gave way at quite a satisfying rate without any major hold ups. No problems with the general knowledge. Liked THRILLER, BEWARE OF THE BULL and BOCA JUNIORS. OUTERWEAR was last in.

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

  15. Incredibly, I knew BOCA JUNIORS but not ITCHYCOO PARK. Is BEWARE OF THE BULL really a pat phrase?

    I quite liked the BOCA JUNIORS clue, actually. As ever, the appearance of a U.S. state had me defaulting to two-letter abbreviations. LA for Louisiana. But then seeing a word as unusual as Cajun in there was really kind of neat.

    (Incidentally, I have the ingredients for a Cajun jambalaya in the pantry; I keep meaning to make it but never quite get around to it.)

  16. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time for this one, and took shortcuts (17D INTERNET) to find the two I did not know, 16D/6D ITCHYCOO PARK and 24D/1A BOCA JUNIORS. On 17D, I wonder how many people got the answer by taking TERN as the bird, and then finding it did not quite parse? I like ulyanova @16’s version of COOK, although I followed Andrew’s route. I think 9A ROOST works either way, but I went with Rullytully @7.

    ezzie @11
    If you are crediting me with this blog, you have got the wrong fellow – and it is just as well that it was not my day, or the blog would only be appearing about now!

    Andrew
    I agree that 18A/11A TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY is a splendid anagram, but the information should not appear on the home page.

  17. Loved this one, like most of Paul ‘ puzzles. Fortunately for me,(?),I’m old enough to have had no trouble with the Small Faces and the general knowledge required is what makes these puzzles so enjoyable for us both. Thanks Andrew and Paul.

  18. Quite fun but occasionally a bit irksome. I’m not sure that TTSS really fits into the ‘thriller’ genre. Smiley is hardly Jason Bourne! And is devil(l)ing really ‘cooking’ – I always had it to be a preparation prior to cooking. A bit like marinading. As for the footie team…

  19. Thanks Paul and Andrew; this took me a long time.

    I was totally flummoxed by BOCA JUNIORS. If the internet is to be believed, there is a BOCA RATON in Louisiana as well as in Florida. I wondered whether the yobs could have been a Grauniad version of boys!

    Lots of parsing problems, I thought the average score was 0-0; maybe it’s just a bad day.

    I liked the charges in BEWARE OF THE BULL, my LOI.

  20. [mrpenney @15, BEWARE OF THE BULL is sometimes put up on a farm fence, as “Beware of the dog” is on a garden fence – I once saved the elderly farmer on whose land we live by shouting and waving a sheet out of the bedroom window when the bull had him trapped running around a tree trunk, but several years later the bull got him, tossing him onto the cobbles in the courtyard.]

  21. Unfortunately I had SECOND BEST in 13dn which delayed me no end,or,at least until I got ALAMO,although BEWARE OF THE BULL was my LOI. BOCA JUNIORS was completely unknown to me and I had to have electronic aid. Not so,ITCHYCOO PARK,to which the younger PA has been known to tap a foot. Mind you, I can’t get the bloody thing out of my head since I solved it!
    Liked MY GOODNESS and quite a lot more. Paul is so unpredictable which is perhaps why I enjoy his puzzles so much.
    Thanks Paul.

  22. Having made time to do this puzzle today I was looking forward to it, but after a very pleasant half hour on a park bench solving many delightful clues – some of them challenging, some more straightforward – I had to return to the bits where specialist knowledge was required and was a bit disappointed. I can empathise with muffin @4 today!

    I had ––E– for 21a HEEL, and was lucky to get it without the other crosser (I’m not usually good at that type of clue), and I then forced out the very unlikely name ITCHYCOO PARK at 16d/6d with all its crossers.

    24d/1a BOCA JUNIORS was more difficult as I wasn’t sure of 1d (JURIST) and there wasn’t enough for me to go on to resolve the wordplay for this unknown soccer team (well, not unknown, exactly, but for me unguessable).

    Despite these two little difficulties I can look back on some excellent clues, and I agree with your remark, Andrew, about the great anagram at 18a/11a.

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew.

  23. Was it just me who parsed 1down as trifle? I took the ‘the’ to mean T and then the first letters of ‘rules insufficient for legal expert’. My first answer in too and it stymied me for ages until I thought of Boca Juniors.

  24. Another entertaining puzzle from Paul, though I agree with muffin @4 that the 70s song and the football team were both rather obscure for a cryptic. Luckily, I knew the song and I vaguely remembered hearing of a football team called BOCA so that was easy to confirm through Google, which gave me JUNIORS too. Like Julie @4, I got THRILLER from the clever 18a, not the other way around. Like PeterO @16,I initially got INTERNET via “tern” before realising that the bird was actual ERNE.

    Favourites include OUTBACK, EXECUTOR and the two long anagrams.

    Thanks, Paul and Andrew.

  25. Ironic aside for fans of trivial knowledge. Wearing nifty royal blue t-shirt with yellow hoop whilst doing crossword. LOI – 24, 1a. LOL

  26. Sorry to add a discordant note, but…

    Normally I really enjoy Paul’s puzzles, the balance between cleverness of construction and challenge to solvability is usually just right for my level.

    But for me this was frankly impossible, and I had to give in after only getting about half a dozen clues in over an hour of trying, and that happens, well, almost never…

    Just in case anybody else had the same experience: you were not alone…

    Many thanks for puzzle but especially the blog, so much ohhhh, that was what I missed (and given an infinite amount of time, I would never have got that…)

  27. I ran out of time with this one and left 10 clues unsolved. I usually have better luck with Paul’s puzzles, but I was too slow with this one.

    Thanks Paul and blogger

  28. Van Winkle @25
    We might as well be lighthearted about it. I couldn’t even guess 24d/1a – nor did I have Google with me.
    Since solving the puzzle, and since posting my comment on it, I looked up Boca Juniors, only to find that they are famous in the football world and famous in Argentina. So it wasn’t really fair of me to question its inclusion in a crossword (as I did lightheartedly @22). My other handicap with that one was that I thought Cajun meant ‘from Acadia’ (which it does), but when I looked that up I found that this cooking style was ‘imported’ into Louisiana by the British from Acadia in Canada.
    Anyway, I enjoyed the puzzle, and I hope you did too.

  29. I found this more difficult than his prize last week and only got Boca Juniors with my husband’s help though couldnt parse it. Thank you Andrew. My favourite was My goodness. Wonderful witty clue as are many others

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