Guardian Prize 27,752 / Paul

48 comments on “Guardian Prize 27,752 / Paul”

1. A subtlety which caught my eye, probably not intended but who knows, was the number of different uses of “in”. A couple of containers, as you might expect, but some others uses missable on first reading in 13d and 20d, and especially 3d.

2. Thanks Eileen.  A devotee of Paul’s I didn’t like this much.  Had to Google Nick the author: got him quickly, and annoyingly his oeuvres.  Agree with you on the surfaces here.  Biffed several incl ALL THE RAGE: not a great clue.

3. Thanks Eileen. I thought this was the best Paul for ages with lots of inventiveness and no long convoluted clues, and the surfaces seemed ok to me. Like you 25a was my way in to the mini-theme and I wasn’t familiar with 18a either. I hadn’t parsed the BY bit of 18, nor ALL THE RAGE – very clever. I particularly liked HARDBACK and DOGSBODY, along with SPINACH, KEYHOLE, BUTTER DISH and TRYST. Many thanks to Paul for a most enjoyable prize puzzle and to Eileen for the parsing and the blog.

4. Interesting to read molongo@2’s comment as a devotee which contrasts with mine as someone who finds him too inconsistent to have him as a favourite setter. Just as well we’re all different.

5. Thanks Eileen. As a proud poodle owner and the owner of a proud poodle I take exception to the connotation of drudgery placed on the breed as a whole. If anyone is the drudge here when it comes to pandering to the dog it is me. That is not entirely tongue in cheek, I can’t find such a definition in any of the usual authorities and, yes, I do know about poodlefaking.

   And at the risk of betraying my own ignorance I don’t understand 16d; it’s not an expression I’ve encountered before, you could equally well say that it is hard going there but easy coming back.

6. I enjoyed this prize for its many imaginative parsings and the added bonus of a mini-theme featuring one of my favourite authors.  Like Eileen, I also went in search of his other titles.  The one I thought might be most suitable for a crossword was Juliet, Naked, which is crying out for a reverse-engineering type of clue.

   Among the many favourites were CHAPATI, A LONG WAY DOWN, ALL THE RAGE (surprised you didn’t like it, molonglo) and BUTTER DISH.  OTTO, however, I didn’t like much.  Seen this style of suggesting a palindrome too often.

   Thanks, Paul and Eileen.

7. Thanks Eileen and Paul. I think 3d ALL THE RAGE must hold some kind of record – I was convinced of the answer from the crossers long before I saw that it bore the slightest relationship with the clue. Also, I did not help myself by putting AT LAST for 2D, (ATLAS T, geddit?) which comes close to working.

8. Whiteking@4, re molonglo@2 and Whiteking@3: A great lesson to us all that whatever passing craze happens to be ‘all the rage’, it will never turn out to be everybody’s ‘cup of tea’. (I’ve just come from reading the btl comments to Suzanne Moore’s piece in today’s Guardian, where this phenomenon is played out to far more depressing effect.)

9. Thanks to Paul and Eileen. As usual I did this puzzle in pieces over several days. I took a while spotting NICK HORNBY so that getting the two titles helped and at last I learned to  supply aga=cooker, but DOGSBODY and HARDBACK took me forever.

10. Enjoyed this. Thanks to Paul and Eileen. Tiny quibble about your parsing of REDEEM – there’s no indication, nor need for it, that E is “in” EM, I think.

11. I enjoyed this – I always enjoy a Paul puzzle – but this time I found myself unable to parse, or with quibbles about more clues, than usual. I’ve learned that this often means I’ve mis-solved at least one, and in this case it was KEYHOLE, where I had KEYNOTE (usually the opening talk at a conference, although I really couldn’t justify the ‘note’ part, other than a feeling that ‘note perfect’ might be involved somehow). But I really couldn’t see ALL THE RAGE, although I realised it was ‘in’, thought DOGSBODY was really clever but also thought it didn’t really work (surely a poodle is a dog, not its body?) and wasn’t entirely happy about equivalencing diagram and table, but that may come from having had to write too many technical papers. Quibbles and embarrassment at a wrong answer aside, though, there were some very neat clues in here – CHAPATI and S(alad)in, amongst many others.

    Thanks Paul, and thanks for the explanations, Eileen.

12. Can’t find my copy, buried or tidied up by Mrs ginf, but I remember working out the author, tho a dnk, looking him up and, like molonglo@2, seeing the titles, so a dnf; might have guessed them once all crossers in, but too late. Took an age, too, to spin ach and turn ip, and never did parse all the rage, clever. Quite fun, thanks Eileen and Paul.

13. Also went hmmm? at diagram/table, like KeithS; distinctly different things.

14. Really enjoyed this. I didn’t have a problem with 15d (a little stretchy but many cryptic clues have similar latitude) or 17d which I thought was fun. Stand-out clue for me was 1a which I thought was up there with the very best. Having got the Nick Hornby clues early, this was unlikely to be a long solve, but it was thoroughly enjoyable. Thanks also to Eileen for the blog.

15. Enjoyed this which seemed to have just the right level of challenge for us.
    Had Galway as the second county…not sure where the ON was going though.
    Thanks

16. Thanks Paul and Eileen

    I too got NICK HORNBY indirectly, but from A LONG WAY DOWN in my case.

    I loved DOGSBODY!

    I agree that tables and diagrams are different – both ways of displaying data, but the first is text only, so not a diagram.

17. I didn’t enjoy this as much as the usual Paul offerings.

    One or two niggles.

    Never heard of Nick Hornby’s “A Long Way Down” still can’t parse it satisfactorily. Galway being in the solution doesn’t help matters.

    Not sure 17D works. Why the “or” and the “?” ?

    Seemed to me a work in progress. Perhaps the Ed should have helped out. 😉

18. Thanks Paul and Eileen.
    I’m with FoHaN @14 and others, in having no real problems with any of the clues, and in liking CHAPATI, along with ALL THE RAGE and several others, including DOGSBODY. Regarding the last-mentioned, I’d suggest those who didn’t like the defintion should Google ‘Blair Bush poodle’ for examples of poodle meaning someone who does as he’s told, i.e. a dogsbody.

19. I thought this was terrific Paul, especially 1ac CHAPATI and 17d DOGSBODY.

    And I liked the way that Paul not only constructed a clue as edgy as 1ac but also used the surface of 27a to draw attention to it.

    Thanks Paul and Eileen.

20. Agree that it was difficult to get going on this one.  I was stumped rather by not knowing NICK  HORNBY or his works.  Google eventually helped.

    I had problems parsing several answers, notably CHAPATI.  And I didn’t know that a group could be  REM.

    Totally agree that the surfaces could read better.  15 dn, for example, is nonsense.

    Having said that, there were several very good clues – NOT AGAIN, HARDBACK, DOGSBODY,, BUTTER DISH, CHAPATI and ABOUT A BOY (now that I uderstand them!) are all worthy of praise.

    Thanks to Paul and to Eileen.

21. Thanks to Paul and Eileen. I am in the camp of those who enjoyed this puzzle. A typical Paul solve for me, slow to get going, but gradually it all began to unpack. Last in was the NW with at once, spool and cosine. I did like dogsbody, traceable and tin whistle, and not again made me smile. Thanks again to Paul and Eileen.

22. I saw DOGSBODY as a definition by example – OODL being an example of the body of a dog – POODLE in this case. I didn’t see the Bush Blair connotation until coming here again. This makes it an even more outstanding clue. Paul on top form.

23. I happily take back what I said about DOGSBODY I’d not thought of the Blair Bush context either. Thanks beaulieu; sorry, Paul.

24. I remember there were some clever crossword clues on the Blair Bush poodle theme but I can’t remember what any of them were! It seems a long time ago.

    Biggles A @5 – I do remember it being said that calling Blair Bush’s poodle was an insult to poodles. Re 16dn: I wasn’t meaning to imply that ‘it may be easy [going] there but hard [coming] back’ was a common expression – just illustrating the ‘if one thing then the opposite’ device that Paul uses quite often.

    Andy Luke @10 – you’re quite right: I don’t know what happened there – I’ll amend the blog now.

25. My experience was similar to Eileen’s except that, having worked out the answer from the clever wordplay at 25a, I had to Google the author. I didn’t know that he wrote 18a but it couldn’t be anything else. I felt pleased with myself when I spotted the definition at 3d having spent too long trying to find an indicator to take the F off FALL. I thought that the surfaces were smoother than usual for Paul. Has he ever used so many one line clues?
    Favurites were 1a, 16 and 17d.
    Thanks to Paul and Eileen

26. I think poodle=DOGSBODY is more general than Bush/Blair – in fact they didn’t occur to me!

27. Similar to Pethay, I enjoyed this and as is often my experience with Paul the clues unravelled slowly and steadily – very satisfying. I thought there was lots of creativity and variety in the clues.

    I got the author first and couldn’t parse the wordplay for 25. I think i’m being dim but i still can’t work out how ‘11’s’ works as a definition – ‘Nick Hornby’s’ = ‘book by Nick Hornby’/‘Nick Hornby’s work’…?

28. Hi nobby @27

    ‘Nick Hornby’s’ = ‘book by Nick Hornby’/‘Nick Hornby’s work’…? – yes, that’s how I see it.

29. Eileen – I’m sorry I didn’t mean to repeat what you’d said in the blog as though mine was an original thought – I didn’t read the blog again this morning when I posted.

30. Me@22 that is

31. As an oldie I cannot approve of the “make up your own rules” attitude to typography exemplified in 1 ac though it did give me a giggle along with the groan. . Spin “ach” is not spinach, nor is turn “ip” turnip. Still it was fun and most clues fair. 25 ac was really elegant. Sad that not everyone knew Nick Hornby. Amongst his most recent work was a share in the TV adaptation of “Love Nina” a delight.

    Looking forward to tomorrow’s competition Azed.

32. No problem at all, Whiteking @29 – I’ve been out.

33. I found this tough but enjoyable. There were quite a few where I had the answer but took a while to get the parsing, eg 7d, NOT AGAIN.

    I wasn’t familiar with Nick Hornsby, though I worked out it was an author Nick somebody. I had heard of 25a, ABOUT A BOY, though, which I got from crossers, then worked back to Hornsby and A LONG WAY DOWN from Wikipedia. Still took me a while to parse 25a and to realise why “a long way” was “distance to Irish County”.

    I think ‘poodle’, defined as “lackey” in my old Chambers, comes from the dog being thought of as particularly obedient (but maybe not BigglesA’s pet!). Another meaning I was considering, which I didn’t find in Chambers, was as a verb ‘to move (esp drive) slowly’. My dad was always complaining about other drivers “poodling along”.

    I think 6d, ORGY, is defined by the whole clue (semi &lit). It is surely a type of social occasion, even if those are not the words used in a dictionary def?

34. Tony @33

    Nick Hornby has, in my opinion, been well-served by the cinema industry, as I think at least two of his books have been made into better films – High Fidelity and About a boy (discuss!).

    My father used to say “poddling” rather than “poodling” in that context…

35. Muffin@34,

    Ah yes, your dad’s word is in the dictionary:

    https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/poddle

    Either I didn’t wash ny ears enough, or my dad was using a malapropism, I think.

36. Tony @33 – I’m sure you realised that my comment on 6dn was tongue-in-cheek. And it must be that you’re just not old enough to know ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’. 😉

    Perhaps you misheard your father: the verb I know [and like and use quite often] is ‘pootle’ and it is in Chambers: ‘to move casually, idly, or at a leisurely pace’.

37. Sorry – I was too busy researching [and too slow typing] and missed muffin’s comment.

38. Sorry again – I meant Tony’s response to muffin’s comment, of course. I’m going to bed now!

39. About Bush/Blair/poodle — I vaguely remember somebody referring (though I can’t think why) to Mrs. Thatcher as Bush’s poodle, followed by somebody else coming up with “iron poodle.”

40. Eileen, interestingly, Collins gives under ‘pootle’:

    Word origin of ‘pootle’
    C20: from p(oodle) to travel + (t)ootle2

    However, it doesn’t have ‘to travel’ as a meaning under ‘poodle’.

    My old (7th ed, 1986) Chambers doesn’t have ‘pootle’ or ‘poddle’ though. Maybe they are all variants, including ‘poodle’? OED, anyone?

    I did (of course) know ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’ and understood the clue finally (and all the others) before putting down the puzzle.

41. Also, Wordnik has, under ‘pootle’:

    “Apparently an alteration of poodle, from Pudel, from the onomatopoeic term pudeln (“to splash about”).”

42. Furthermore, Oxford Dictionaries has, under ‘poodle’:

    “Move or travel in a leisurely manner.
    ‘the chap who just wants to poodle along the road at 50 mph’”

    Not only that, but it also gives ‘pootle’ as deriving from ‘poodle’ and ‘tootle’ and originating in the 1970s.

43. Tony @ 40. OED has pootle = ‘to move or travel in a leisurely manner’, poddle = ‘to walk with slow, short, or unsteady steps; to proceed in a dawdling or uncoordinated manner; to waddle, toddle, potter’ and poodle (2) = ‘to move or travel in a leisurely, indirect, or aimless manner; to potter’. So it looks as if they all mean much the same thing.

    Thank you Eileen @ 24. I must have been trying to read more into the clue than was actually there.

44. Thanks, BigglesA.

    It seems the origin of all these words is the (obselete?) German, pudel, puddle. The name of the breed of dog originated as pudelhund, ‘puddle dog’, from its use as a retriever of water fowl.

    There was(is?) also the verb pudeln, splash about. I would guess that ‘poodling’ originally referred to moving aimlessly in water and this was extended to other media. ‘Poddle’ and ‘pootle’ seem to be derived from ‘poodle’, influenced by ‘toddle’ and ‘tootle’ respectively (the latter surprisingly recently).

    Very happy to see my dad vindicated!

45. Thank you to Eileen and Paul. To join in the diagram v. Table debate Mr K and I (both with v. Distant science degrees) both feel table fits into the family of Fig. 1 Fig 2 etc found in textbooks. Realise this the second week I have commented on tables.

46. I too am a big fan of Paul’s but, apart from the write-in at 2dn, this was just too clever by half for me. Hey, ho. Nothing like being humbled on a Saturday morning.

47. As with others, way in to this was 25ac – knew of film, googled to find author, which than provided other title. (Knew of him as an author, but not of those works.)

48. Very late, I know. How does “satnav” = IN-CAR? Seems a huge stretch to me. Like saying “indicator” = IN-CAR, or “radio” = IN-CAR.

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