Guardian 27,236 – Paul

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Great fun from Paul – favourites were 17/12ac, 5dn and 18dn. A question mark over the parsing of 26/24

 

Across
8 KOH-I-NOOR Piece turned to compress two gases in forming diamond (3-1-4)
Part of the Crown Jewels [wiki]
ROOK=chess “piece” reversed/”turned”, and around all of: O[xygen] and H[ydrogen]=”two gases”, plus IN
9 IONIAN One occupying island with name Odysseus, perhaps? (6)
Odysseus was king of Ithaca in the IONIAN sea
I=”One”, inside IONA=”island” in Scotland, plus N[ame]
10, 24dn PUSH BIKE One’s saddled with Spooner’s fish in the outback? (8)
Spoonerism of BUSH PIKE=”fish in the outback”
11 SWIMMINGLY How well a gala might have gone? (10) 
cryptic definition, referring to swimming galas
12 See 17
14 LAS VEGAS Female boxing star in US city (3,5)
LASS=”Female” around VEGA=”star” in the constellation of Lyra
15 See 23
17,12 GOOD COP BAD COP Wicked work by council leader repeatedly questioning technique that’s in force? (4,3,3,3)
definition refers to the police “force”
“repeatedly” means that “Wicked work by council leader” is to be used twice: GOOD=”Wicked”, plus C[ouncil] plus OP[us]=”work”; and BAD=”Wicked” plus C[ouncil] plus OP[us]
20,4 DEFINITE ARTICLE The idiot in life reacted and I adapted (8,7)
NIT=”idiot” in (life reacted I)*
22 BADGER A mammalian plague (7)
double definition: an animal; or to pester
23,15 DRY-ROASTED PEANUTS Local favourite criticised, wearing unimaginative strip (3-7,7)
“Local” meaning pub
ROASTED=”criticised”, inside DRY=”unimaginative” and PEANUTS the comic “strip”
25 TUNDRA Plain fish to catch way back (6)
“Plain” as in a stretch of land
TUNA=”fish” around: R[oa]D=”way” reversed/”back”
26,24 WRECKING BALL Laid-back team leader joining party that should bring the house down (8,4)
Anagram? of CREW=”team”, plus KING=”leader”, plus BALL=”party”
I initially thought that “Laid-back” indicated a reversal of CREW, but that doesn’t work.
Down
1 POPULACE Father sat on spike to entertain posh people (8)
POP=”Father” plus LACE=”spike” as in ‘lacing’/’spiking’ drinks with drugs, around U=”posh”
2 DISH One’s served beefcake (4)
double definition – food, or an attractive man
3 TOSS-UP Where neither is more likely to lift alcoholic drink (4-2)
reversal/”lift” of SOT=”alcoholic”, plus SUP=”drink”
4 See 20
5 PIU MOSSO Stir miso soup faster (3,5)
=a musical instruction
(miso soup)*
6 UNINTENDED Accidental breakdown ultimately contained by body of soldiers, having come to a halt (10)
[breakdow]N inside UNIT=”body of soldiers” plus ENDED=”having come to a halt”
7 PAELLA Meat finally picked from bone in Spanish food (6)
[Mea]T removed from PATELLA=”bone”
13 CENTIGRADE Cook creating delicious and enticing starters in a hundred steps (10)
a temperature scale with 100 degrees between water freezing and boiling
(creating d[elicious] e[nticing])*
16 TRIMARAN Clip of Irish islands showing boat (8)
TRIM=”Clip” plus ARAN=”Irish islands” [wiki]
18 OVERLAND At least 51 also across the terrain (8)
OVER L=over 50 in Roman numerals=”At least 51″, plus AND=”also”
19 NEW TOWN Force unit to seal off West Crawley, perhaps (3,4)
see [wiki]
NEWTON=unit of force, around W[est]
21 EARFUL Maximum amount of wax, perhaps, for carpeting? (6)
carpet=to rebuke, or give someone an EARFUL
22 BUDGET Begin to understand financial plan (6)
BUD=”Begin” plus GET=”understand”
24 See 10

25 comments on “Guardian 27,236 – Paul”

  1. Great puzzle-I thought the same over 26/24 but I gave Paul the benefit of the doubt .The answer was obvious so a but of subterfuge didnt hurt.

  2. My carelsss mistake – many apologies. Hope you enjoy the rest, despite that.

    Have a great day.

    John (Paul)

  3. A lot of fun. Thanks, Paul.

    I didn’t even notice the error in 26/24a; when the answer fitted, I didn’t bother to check the parsing. Had not heard of 5d PIU MOSSO, but that was the only anagram that fitted the crossers.

    Like you, manehi, I really liked 17/12a GOOD COP, BAD COP. All your explanations were much appreciated.

  4. Just about the puzzle of the month for me with great clues everywhere. I couldn’t get the parsing of WRECKING but wasn’t too fussed and it was very good of you Paul to pop in and admit you had made a mistake – saved me ages looking for some devious significance that was clearly UNINTENDED. Seems unfair to pick just one clue out of so many gems, but for me the ‘Local favourite…’ was the best of a very good lot.

    Thanks to Paul and manehi.

  5. Thanks Paul and manehi
    When I went to print off the crossword I noted the “special instruction” that the clue to 26,24 had been changed, so I was puzzled when the wording on the printout was the same as in my paper! However the interactive version has changed “laid-back” to “ground”.

    Straightforward apart from piu mosso, for which I needed electronic help. Favourites were LAS VEGAS and PAELLA.

    I’ve tried to find evidence that “mammalian” can be used as a noun, but all the sources I’ve seen have it as just an adjective, so “A mammalian animal plague” would have been better for 22a.

  6. Paul entertaining as always. So much to enjoy: PUSH BIKE, SWIMMINGLY, GOOD COP BAD COP, DEFINITE ARTICLE, EARFUL, …
    I was defeated by PIU MOSSO (“defeated” as in having to resort to looking up the possibilities until I found it).

    Thanks, Paul and manehi.

  7. muffin @5 – whilst not an ideal source, dictionary.com (I’m at work so no other sources are handy) does list mammalian as a noun and I’m convinced I’ve seen it used as such before so I’m giving that a pass (which I’m sure is of great relief to Paul!).

    Thoroughly enjoyable puzzle, thanks Paul and manehi as always.

  8. Fair enough, Fieldsman. I thought I had heard the phrase “a mammalian”, so was a bit surprised not to find it as a possible noun in Chambers, Collins or the Google definition.

  10. Couldn’t finish this but found it very entertaining. Had to look up “carpet” to confirm that it can mean “reprimand” and therefore “getting an earful”, which often happened in p.e. at my secondary school, especially with less athletic boys, including me. Happy days.

    Many thanks Paul and manehi.

    Martin

  11. Thank you Paul for a very entertaining puzzle and manehi for a helpful blog.

    Too many good clues to single out a favourite, but DRY-ROASTED PEANUTS and PAELLA made me smile.

    mammalian is given as an adjective and noun by the COED.

  12. Thanks to Paul and manehi. Great fun. I too did not know PIU MOSSE and could not parse WRECKING BALL (I did see the possible “crew” anagram), and did not connect “gala” with swimming.

  13. A lovely puzzle, though probably easier than usual from this setter – maybe Paul has been been affected by the recent correspondence in the Guardian! In any case there was much to appreciate and smile about. Thanks to Paul and manehi for a comprehensive blog.

  14. Found this one pretty tough for a Paul, so there must have been some pretty devious misdirection. GOOD COP BAD COP was last in and needed all of the crossers.

    Thanks to Paul and manehi

  15. Thanks Paul, great puzzle as always. (was gonna point out the ‘crew/cerw’ but saw you’d acknowledged it).

  16. I was struggling in the SE – never liked Spoonerisms, and 26/24 wasn’t making sense, so went online for a quick bit of checking and I find a new and improved clue! The answer went in like a flash and the Spoonerism thus had to be a type of BIKE …

    I did like the DRY-ROASTED PEANUTS, at least in their metaphoric form, as I’m one for ready salted myself (or even better, cashews).

  17. Loved this one. Blank faces for some minutes then 8a and 14a went in and off we went, dancing to Paul’s merry tune. Thanks for explaining the error in 26a but we didn’t actually spot it until we read the blog. Thanks to everyone

  18. You know – after cracking 26,24, I tried googling the words. I seemed to get an awful lot of pictures of a naked lady…… Am I missing something? Probably I need to get out more! 😉

  19. Firmlydirac@18 I imagine you’ve discovered the “joys” of Miley Cirus and her WRECKING BALL video.
    As usual, I’m in the same camp as BH@ 14 in that I found this extremely difficult. I was not helped by the misclue in the paper version which I couldn’t make head nor tail of. Once I’d seen the interactive version, the answer went straight in – and this seemed to unlock the rest of it.
    I did like DRY ROASTED PEANUTS even though it was my LOI.
    Thanks Paul.

  20. Ref 26,24 I suggest that Paul meant to use Dial (laid back) as in ‘twist’ as an anagrind, he’s only pretending to have made a mistake either to flatter our parsing abilities or to avoid being put on the naughty step with Boatman!

  22. One would assume it is the job of the crossword editor to deal with such issues as ‘crew/cerw’. So again the question arises: when will the Guardian get itself a proper crossword editor?

    Thanks to both setter and blogger for this one.

  23. If Paul had wanted to, he could reasonably have justified “laid-back” (relaxed) as an indicator of an indirect anagram, deviously misleading solvers to expect a reversal. So the clue is not incorrect, even though it doesn’t do what the setter intended it to, and thus no reason why the editor shouldn’t have let it through.

  24. This is absurdly late, but I wanted to record my appreciation of one of the best Guardian crosswords I have ever solved. It was neither too easy nor too difficult, and many of the clues were a joy to solve.

    17/12a GOOD COP BAD COP is probably the sort of clue you get either early or late, and I was lucky enough for it to be my first in. That was possible because COP being C+OP was a promising start, and ‘blank COP blank COP’ quickly yielded the full answer. The double use of ‘wicked’ for GOOD and BAD was brilliant.

    I was lucky also with 25a TUNDRA, coming up with TUNA for the fish for no particular reason that I can recall. I needed that to break the SW corner.

    I think the definition of CENTIGRADE is ‘in a hundred steps’.

    ‘Mammalian’ is given as either an adjective or a noun in my Collins sixth edition (muffin @5 and Cookie @11).

    I assumed there was a minor error in 26/24a WRECKING BALL, and I’m grateful for the comments by Paul @2 and muffin @5.

    I forgot to go back to change POPULATE to POPULACE at 1d (both mean ‘people’ but only the latter matches the clue), so my final entry also had a minor error!

    A list of my favourite clues would add too much bulk to a bulky comment, so I’ll stop and say many thanks to Paul, and of course to manehi for the blog.

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