Guardian 28,762 / Paul

91 comments on “Guardian 28,762 / Paul”

1. A very slow start for me. I spent a lot of time thinking 21 etc was an anagram of “low bedroom ceilings those are” before I finally got enough crossers to guess “things” and the penny dropped.
   The unfortunate business with the online version was rather distracting and eventually I gave up on 1,13 and clues around it.
   Thanks Paul and Eileen

2. I spent about 2 minutes trying to construct an anagram for TTGBITN from “headsbangingonlowbthoseare” which would have been awesome, but then concluded as you did, Eileen, that it was just a cryptic definition (and not the best I’ve seen). That went in early and gave me lots of crossers.
   I did like PIANO STOOL for the Theolonius reference, CIGAR BOX for the construction and KIRK (just because both my children were born on Star Wars day).
   My favourite was EYELID for the deceptive definition.

3. Oh dear. Vaulting ambition and all that … Between the multi word, multi light clues and the errors in the grid, this turned into rather a slog this morning. And I do wonder if it was all worth it: 21d (etc) was a write in from the def, enumeration and the ‘bang’ > bump connection. I didn’t bother to work out the parsing, I’m afraid. Yesterday, I was familiar with LAMP when (almost) everyone else thought it was LAM; today I am more used to HANDBAGS AT DAWN than I am to the same weaponry at TEN PACES; PENALTY KICK was too obscure a cryptic def for this little brain and went in from crossers in the end, English trebles didn’t signal to me what it should have done and, out of all the various things that ‘old player’ might have suggested, GARBO wasn’t one. And maybe I should have guessed that I was to ignore the alternate black squares in 24d and put in a word but I had rather lost patience by then. Sorry, Paul. Generally enjoy yours but today didn’t work for me. Not the big bad wolf that Roz was hoping for – at least not disguised like this.

   Thanks Paul and Eileen for soldiering through

4. Found this online (didn’t know the expression):
   “Things that go bump in the night,” which refers to ghosts or other supernatural beings that are believed to be the source of frightening, unexplainable noises heard at night (that often sound like something being struck or bumped).

   The other part of the clue with a ? seems to be a decent wordplay.

5. PENALTY KICK: I parsed it the same way (the penalty spot). Can’t think of anything better.

6. Daunting at first sight for the reasons Eileen has mentioned. I do find it tedious to keep leaping around the grid in this way.

   Can someone kindly help me out with EID = feast, please?

7. I am another who enjoyed PIANO STOOL, but I didn’t think PENALTY KICK worked – it’s not really a punishment, is it? I think if you are going to devote 4 light to a solution like THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT it needs to be a very good clue and I am not sure it was.

8. William @6: Eid is a Muslim religious festival which marks the end of the fasting period of Ramadan so feasts tend to be a feature.

9. [Btw, for once this is not a PostMark plug for a PostMark crossword but I have made a recommendation for a splendidly constructed puzzle over on GD.]

10. Eid is one of two annual Muslim feast days.

11. Thank you Paul and Eileen.
    I quite enjoyed this romp, the misdirection in PIANO STOOL, the ‘batter’ and the ‘bluff’.
    No idea re wordplay TTGBITN.
    But good to see ‘Sir GAWAIN and THE green kNIGHT’

12. The pdf version had correct grid and enumeration, which I used to sort out the on-line version.

    Thanks Eileen and Paul

13. Thanks Eileen
    After three passes I still only had KIBOSH, and, with the split clues and errors in the grid, I decided not to bother.

14. ‘things that go bump in the night’ was my first one in – I knew the expression (maybe its my age) – I do the paper version, so didn’t suffer from the problems with the online – so I found it an enjoyable crossword with a few smiles (or ahas) as I got the answers too

15. I would gently disagree with you Petert@7, a penalty kick is the punishment for committing a foul, is it not?
    Yes the grid errors were distracting but not difficult to solve and yes, speed of completion was almost certainly dependent on how quickly you solved the multipart clues. But I enjoyed it and thought it was a good end to the (working) week. Thanks to Paul and Eileen.

16. Thanks Eileen, especially today as you have explained GARBO (I had OB for the player and no idea about RAG), and the middle of 18d, and once again I forgot that sense of PI, and had no idea about the last 75% of 5D and now think treble singular would be better – trebles plural implies more than one set of three surely? I didn’t know that meaning of BOSH (tosh, on the other hand…) but desperately needed a start somewhere and what else could come after KI so bunged it in and got lucky as I did on those others – and whatever the merits of THINGS… it went in 2nd from enumeration and gave me the encouragement (and crossers) to go on. I especially liked 9a, 1d etc and 11a, thanks Paul.

17. Gazzh@16 I had BRAG for player but it didn’t really make sense.
    ‘Trebles’ could be the verb?

18. Well after two passes I had to reveal the long 21 to get started. Unlike others above I thought this was an excellent CD/DD. Still needed further help along the way, but lots of fun nonetheless. My favourites were EYELIDS and PIANO STOOL, though I’m not familiar with the sitter. Thanks Eileen & Paul.

19. I would love to blame the grid errors but honestly, a wavelength mismatch for me today… had to give up about 60% through. Came here to see what I’d missed but also to decipher PINA COLADA, which I had correctly guessed from the numeration, but couldn’t parse for the life of me. PI for ‘good’ is a new one on me. Numeration also got me the TTGBITN epic and I was grateful for the crossers that provided.

    Frustration gave way to a mix of groans and admiration when I realised the twistiness of some of the clues, especially EYELID, CIGAR BOX, PIANO STOOL and ASHTRAY.

20. I actually enjoyed this for a change, and the paper version was entirely correct. Am I almost the only person who gets it delivered daily before 8 am GMT?
    But I needed help with parsing especially the wonderful 24a. Thanks Paul and Eileen.

21. Still confused … are there two versions of this mishmash going around? 24a is the second part of 4d (KICK) – the clue Eileen gives above isn’t in the online version. Thanks for the parsing of 23 which is well above my level!

22. Thanks wynsum@17 that does make sense now.

23. I absolutely loved this! As I solve the paper version, I was oblivious to any issues mentioned.

    As is normal with Paul, it all starts out daunting but piece by piece it all falls into place with his trademark ingenuity.

    I started with 21a, which is not his finest hour, so that helped immensely.

    My favourites were EYELID, PIANO STOOL, LATITUDE and ANACONDA.

    Thanks Paul and Eileen

24. PS my paper gets delivered 6am on the dot SinCam@20

25. I am rarely on this setter’s wavelength lately. Solved three clues on first pass and was tempted to give up / walk away as I do not enjoy reading Paul’s convoluted clue surfaces. The messed-up grid did not help for 21/22[24]/3/14. Finally solved it but did not parse it.

    I feel just like William @6 in that ‘I do find it tedious to keep leaping around the grid in this way.’

    Guessed 23ac, did not parse it apart from COLA = drink.

    Also did not parse 4d or 18d apart from PANC in hour* ?

    New: HANDBAGS AT TEN PACES (and did not parse it).

    Thanks, both.

26. Garbo finally clicked, of course, but for a long time I wondered if Mr Brag wasn’t a cricketer as famous to everyone except me as WG Grace.

27. THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT I’m thinking is one of Paul’s suggestive clues. Heads banging on low bedroom ceilings? ( Or have I caught Paul’s predilections?)

28. Pat Morrissey @21 – I don’t understand your comment: I copied and pasted the clues for the blog from the online print version. (I delete all the annoying ‘Sees’ in the blog, which may have confused you.)

    Ark Lark @23 – on a non-blogging day, I’d have been as blissfully oblivious as you. 😉

29. For those not familiar with the sitter Monk at 11 across try this

30. Today I shall take the advice of Thumper’s father.

    Sorry.

    Thanks for the blog, Eileen.

31. Tim C @29 – thanks for that. I’ve just realised I’ve been misreading the spelling of his name for years: blog amended now.

32. I too shuddered at all the multiples, but they went in fairly easily meaning there were a lot of crossers to help with the others. Started slow but ended up being one of the more comfortable Friday puzzles in a while, even though my brain would just not give me EYELID so was a DNF.

    Eileen, (unimportant) error in the blog at 19d – Venice rather than Vietnam in the parsing.

    Thanks Paul and Eileen!

33. Eileen @31… I hadn’t even noticed the spelling. Like you, I must have been misspelling it for years. He certainly has an unusual name. His second name was Sphere (love it).

34. Eileen @28 I think the previous poster is referring to the fact your blog reads there was an error in 22ac/dn which, if that’s the case, had been corrected by the time I came to it. 24dn had also been included by then. But the linking of 4 and 24ac was still not done when others had been corrected. It has now.

35. Thanks, Lovable Jim @32 – I’ve no idea how that happened! I’ll correct it now.

    And thanks, Deegee @34 – I hope all is clear now.

36. Shame we will not be troubling the McWhirters. And that the Grauniad has cocked it up two days running. Not the greatest puzzle to me either, though Paul’s normally are very good.

37. No wonder i couldnt parse VERONESE (Shakespeare on the brain)Completely forgot the boat builders
    I soon saw the mistake in the grid and immediately got THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT
    but took ages twigging HANDBAGS. I liked BATTER for EYELID with half a lemon being YEL(LOW)
    and always nice to see Thelonious in a puzzle-Monk to me is like Bach after smoking some exotic subtstance(you could say the same of Debussy and Bill Evans

    Early bloggers pointed out that the pdf was fine so hope paul didnt get the blame as this was one of his better ones
    Thanks Eileen and Paul

38. There were some very good clues but the multiple clues are not really my cup of tea.

    I did like EYELID for the batter, PIANO STOOL for T. Monk, IDLE THREAT for the surface, CIGAR BOX for the remembrance of Churchill (I thought maybe when I had ?O? it might have been the dog!), and GENOVESE for the English trebles (where I slapped in VERONESE at the beginning). Paul talks in his video invitation about a phrase not found in standard dictionaries. If that’s HANDBAGS AT TEN PACES, it can be found in the OED!

    Thanks Paul and Eileen for a comprehensive blog.

39. Thanks Eileen. I can well imagine your heart sinking when you first looked at this one… it was unsolvable on the Guardian Puzzles app, but I managed to resolve the grid issues by referring to the Guardian website, where at least the clues were listed with the correct numbers and enumerations. (And the correct grid has now been put up there, for anyone still troubled.)

    That aside, THINGS… was rather Rufus-esque, wasn’t it? But that’s OK – I was always a fan of Rufus. Much else to enjoy here, I thought – ASHTRAY, BELGIUM, EYELID, PIANO STOOL, CIGAR BOX, among others. One or two raised eyebrows and groans along the way, but all good fun.

    Re 4,24 – in [association] football, a PENALTY KICK is sometimes referred to informally as a “spot kick”, and commentators talk of players “spotting” the ball (ie placing it on the penalty spot), so that one works for me. (PeterT @7 – a PENALTY KICK is awarded against a player who commits an offence [against the laws of the game], which seems to me to be the very definition of a punishment, so I really don’t understand your objection.)

    PM @8 – I think “feast” here is just another word for “festival”, rather than implying the involvement of excessive food consumption.

    Gazzh @16 – I read “trebles” as a verb (as per wynsum @17), but the grammar is slightly askew – it ought to be “trebled” if we’re being really picky.

    TimC @29 – Wow! That’s stunning. Mesmerising. I can’t begin to imagine how his brain must work to be able to play like that. Almost enough to convert me into a jazz fan… 🙂

40. Thanks Eileen and Paul.
    For the record, I would describe 21/22.3.14 as a definition and literal interpretation, with the “definition” (as underlined) referring to what the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations lists as Anonymous, Cornish:

    From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties,
    And things that go bump in the night,
    Good Lord deliver us.

41. As usual, I was doing the paper version, so no errors to contend with.
    I found this quite hard and it took me a long time, but I got there in the end, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I rather like those long solutions that dart around the whole grid. They get scribbled all around the margins in various states of completion.
    I only couldn’t understand the parsing of UP-ANCHOR, having forgotten C=cape, and also thought that the definition was “prepare to sail vessel” d’oh.
    There were many smiles along the way.

    So many thanks, Paul, and Eileen for setting me straight.

42. widders @39: completely agree re feast/festival. Of course, feasting in the sense of celebratory and joyful eating is a significant accompaniment to the religious side of the occasion

43. I hate to take issue with Eileen, who i regard as a fount of good sense and good manners (although I have far less of a problem with taking issue with some of the more assertive and dogmatic members of our community), BUT….
    [AND I understand that as solvers we all have our own personal foibles and preferences in the way we go about tackling various puzzles and we all have our own favourite setters etc etc.] BUT….
    Surely every puzzle has to be tackled on its own terms, not on ours? To my mind it should not be a cause of annoyance to have to “leap all over the grid” (a matter of a few centimetres at most), even if you do happen to prefer to start from the bottom, or from the left, or with odd-numbered clues or whatever else has become your fancy and your habit. The setter has set it and the challenge for us is to solve it however we can – which may or may not involve consulting the BRB or Herr Doktor Google or our Significant Other if we care to do so, according to our own personal rules of engagement.. Some clues may (will!) please us more than others, but if you find you’re not enjoying it, then my suggestion would be to find another setter or perhaps another way to occupy your time.
    Apologies to Gaufrid and everyone on here for this rantishness – perhaps this should be posted on the General Forum. I have no desire to be provocative, but I often feel inclined to express similar sentiments, and especially, I’ve noticed, when people are commenting on a puzzle by Paul.

44. Eileen@28 – sorry! In my original online version there was no 24d (so I mis-read your 24d for 24 a) – but it seems to have been corrected since. Like I said, was confused and slightly dazed 🙂 Thanks again for all the work you and others put into the blog – it’s invaluable.

45. I thought the-long-one was a fine CD+DD as PaulT@18 said.

    I wasn’t too bothered by the typesetting error – so now we have a cryptic grid too. It is the Guardian after all. These things would be largely avoided if the editor or an accomplice did a test solve daily.

    Eileen – Red in 6d needs underlining. Thanks.

46. Terrific puzzle despite the much-mentioned stuff-up in the SE in the online version, which I managed to unravel without too much binding in the marsh once I saw the numbering error. Thanks to Paul and Eileen. Faves already canvassed in the preceding.

47. In football a penalty kick is often referred to simply as a penalty whereas a free kick is never referred to as simply a free. However in its abbreviated form penalty becomes potentially confusing. “Liverpool have been given a penalty” suggests that they are the transgressing team when the opposite is true.

48. Thanks, Dr. WhatsOn @45 – fixed now.

    Gert Bycee @43 – I have to go out very shortly and I didn’t want you to think that I was ignoring your comment.
    Suffice it to say just now that, when I’m not blogging, I generally follow the same advice as Gervase @30.

49. [Tend to agree with you, Gert Bycee@43. I try to take each day as a new day and each challenge as a new one. And I tend to look for the good in each puzzle. Sometimes I need to go silent on this forum when I feel contributors are becoming egocentric and/or arrogant when they promote their “personal preferences”. Just saying.]

50. GB @43 Thank you for expressing your “personal foibles and preferences”. I’d like to think this is a forum where we all have that privilege. I’d also like to think we’re free to disagree politely and constructively without making anyone feel uncomfortable or unwelcome

51. Widdersbel and JerryG I concede on the PENALTY KICK. I suppose I think of the penalty as the sanction and the kick as what the taker does. It’s always “The ref has given a penalty”, but I am clearly wrong.

52. [Eileen, we crossed because I considered and then re-considered whether I really wanted to sound critical of other contributors in that way. However I was struck by Gert Bycee’s phrase “our own personal rules of engagement”. I think it is tempting to sometimes “have a go” at setters because of our own preferences for more difficult/less difficult/more precise surfaces/less wordy clues etc etc. The puzzle of the day is the challenge. Let’s just enjoy it, share some thoughts, but not get too hung up on how we personally experienced it.]

53. Pedantic point: handbags at ten paces is not so much “not much of a fight”, it’s no fight at all. Ten paces is about 25 feet. What are they going to do, throw the handbags at each other? I thought things that go bump in the night was a double def. One was actual meaning, something frightful. The other was a slightly more tongue in cheek interpretation. Enjoyed the solve. Thanks Paul and Eileen

54. Nice to see a reference to Thelonius: never seen him in any crossword. Thought it was a tough one today but gettable with patience. Thanks Mr H who has his zoom tonight and Eileen for the blog

55. This was such a slog that I gave up and used a crossword dictionary for 9a and 17a, suspecting (correctly) that they would involve obscurities, and I’d had enough.

56. [Cedric @54: Tees did one a couple of years ago – Live dance music from Monk or Bird (5). You might want to look up a previous Paul, if Thelonious is your kind of thing: Prize 27,608]

57. I got THINGS etc straight away, soon followed by the cocktail, but then ground to a halt. I never did spot GARBO, though the answer became clear enough. EYELID was my last one in, with one of Paul’s trademark off-kilter definitions deceiving me once again. I’m surprised that maarvarq @ 55 finds EID and ELGI(n) obscure – my problem with 17a was BUM for ‘poor’!

    [I agree largely with Gert Bycee @46 & Julie in Australia @49. The crossword is there to solve, and I prefer to see comments about things that solvers failed to see/get/understand/whatever, or what others found amusing. If we choose not to attempt a particular setter, well that’s fine – but I don’t see the point in complaining about the crosswords being too difficult or too easy. Or too many split answers 🙂 , too much metonymy 🙂 , homophones 🙁 , etc. I may have mentioned that Spoonerisms are my bête noire, but I keep on trying to solve them, and have been amused by some setters using the name Spooner as a different part of wordplay. This is supposed to be fun!]

    Thanks Paul and Eileen.

58. An enjoyable solve with no problems. I even managed to parse everything for once. So thanks, Paul (and Eileen, even though redundant today, as far as I was concerned!)

59. This was a DNF partly because I had BARK (bishop + ark) instead of KIRK so failed to find PENALTY KICK. Which, I think, is properly regarded as a punishment. And failed to find EYELID. It’s very clever, but having to find “something that means YELLOW” and then halve that doesn’t seem to me to be much fairer than the dreaded indirect anagram.
    I found the clue for THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT pleasantly whimsical, and particularly liked LATITUDE, PIANO STOOL, PINA COLADA and LEFT WINGER. And was amused by the fact that the nearest thing to a trademark Paul-ism was BUM for poor.
    Yes, the SE corner was a mess, but this is the Grauniad we’re talking about, chaps…
    Thanks as ever to one of my favourite setters and one of my favourite bloggers.

60. “Something that means LEMON” of course. An edit function on this site would save the blushes of those of us who are prone to senior moments…

61. Took me hours but I really enjoyed every minute. Favourites were PINA COLADA and PIANO STOOL. Many thanks to Paul and Eileen. Loved the link to the origins of handbags etc… Endorse the view that you have to engage with the setter and not the reverse.

62. Superb crossword, that took some serious brain work, lucky I had the afternoon off.
    The second completed Paul crossword on the trot, albeit with a bit of help from the check button. I must be a shoe-in for the monthly medal on this form.
    A couple of parsings to check…
    Thanks both.

63. A thumbs up from me for both setter and blogger (quite a few parsings).

    I strongly agree with NeilH@59 about getting from ‘lemon’ to ‘yellow’ to -YEL–. There is an imbalance in play here (as implied by the reference to the indirect anagram): it is very easy for the setter to conjure this clue-within-a-clue device and very difficult for the solver to unpick it. Down with this type of thing say I.

64. Widdersbel @39 on a point of order…as a county referee, there is nothing on the field of play called the penalty ‘spot’ it is a penalty ‘mark’.

65. Thanks for the parsing and the blog, Eileen. Respect for unravelling it all.
    9a – EID was new.
    23a – NADA was new.
    18d – C = CAPE? Why?
    Like others, I thought TTGBITN was a bit weak for Paul.

66. A penalty kick is often referred to as a spot kick.
    Groan of the day -BATTER.
    Thanks for the blog Eileen -helped with several especially GARBO.
    And thanks Paul. All the jumping about forgiven – again.

67. HIYD @65. C for CAPE is a standard abbreviation. I haven’t got Chambers with me – I’m on the train – but you’ll see it used in any atlas.

68. Thanks for the blog, not a big bad wolf but at least not another baa-lamb, perhaps a shearling. I think THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT may partly refer to student rooms but I will say no more.
    It was an episode title for Dad’s Army and Rising Damp, it was also the inspiration for a Caravan album.

    HYD @ 62 your medal is well deserved for perseverance, a few weeks ago you were saying you could never complete a Paul puzzle. Millwall 2 Brighton 0 .

69. [MrPostMak @ 9 thanks for your tip, I have found the link on GD and I will brave the IT office on Monday, I will take my Paddington Bear with me }

70. [Me @43 and responders and respondees: Having just woken up in the middle of the night, as one increasingly tends to do nowadays, I thought I might check on whatever responses there may have been to my post as of now (03:21 AEDT):
    So thanks to all who have responded graciously and without rancour, whether or not you happened to agree with the main thrust of my argument.]
    Sheffield Hatter@57: I too wondered at first about BUM, but decided that the phrase “a bum steer” let Paul off the hook. I suspect he might have been trying to surprise us by eschewing any expectations on our part of yet more “trademark” smut.
    [And I often find myself in agreement with you, SH, incidentally – despite being Watford born and bred!]
    [And so, back to bed…]

71. We’re always late starters (not before 6pm or the day’s business doesn’t get done!) and we always enjoy the conversation around fairness or otherwise of clues. Suffice it to say, we’re getting better as we learn the language, we have no qualms about asking the web page to reveal when we really can’t get it, and very grateful for all the parsing done by better brains than ours!

72. sheffield hatter @67 – yes, there it is, in Chambers.
    Thanks, one to remember…

73. Scotblok @71 – I don’t recognise the name, so a warm welcome if this is your first post and my apologies if it isn’t. Hope to hear from you again.

74. I have never thought of a bluff as an idle threat.

75. But surely an idle threat can be a bluff?

76. @2 Tim C: happy birthday to your children. May the Fourth be with them. Unfortunately, however, KIRK was Trek not Wars.

77. Since I refuse to repair to the interwebs for any help, this one took me a while. But I got it all, including the parsings. I may be catching on.

78. Gert Bycee @70. I didn’t mean to imply that ‘poor’=BUM was wrong, I was just slow twigging.

    [I’ll forgive you for your place of birth. Hope you will have slept well by the time you read this.]

79. Hard work today. PIANO STOOL and CIGAR BOX were my favourites. Couldn’t figure out the parsings for ASHTRAY or PINA COLADA, so thanks to Eileen for the enlightenment. I’ll add Pi for Pious to my list of gripes about using first letters from words (I sighed at Cape in UP ANCHOR but forgave Conservatives in CIGAR BOX because I liked the rest of the clue so much). Thanks Paul for the work-out.

80. A wonderful puzzle, Paul, which I didn’t begin until this evening and have just completed. Made for me by the Monk reference, since I was privileged to have a sort of conversation with the great and famously taciturn man in the early 60s. Although it wasn’t part of the definition, Monk was quite incapable of sitting on any piano stool quietly.
    One of the best from my favourite setter.

81. Paul @ 79

    I don’t understand your gripes about established usage.

    C = Cape is a standard cartographic abbreviation, in the same way as C = Conservative is a standard political one.

    And according to my venerable SOED, Pi = Pious has been around since 1870.

82. William@6, PostMark@8 and Neill97@10 EID means “feast” and is analogous to various Christian holidays called “the feast of …”. You wouldn’t say, “when is that Christian holiday called ‘feast?’ would you?”

    I found this very hard. Got not quite half of it last night, had to fill in the other half this morning with periodic nudges from the Check button. But I enjoyed it, especially the Things. Thanks Paul and Eileen.

83. Paul at his best. It surely cannot be a coincidence that it is always Paul’s puzzles that gey tangled up digitally.

84. Terrific puzzle, thoroughly enjoyed it, and I for one really like the multi-word answers and have no problem at all with the cryptic definition of TTGBINT, which was, as it happens, my first one in.

85. I enjoyed this and have no problem at all with leaping all over the grid. It makes a nice change from yet another 7-worder. On my first run through this I thought I wasn’t going to get a single one, which is not unusual for a Paul it seems.

86. Very late again – waited until this morning to see if 17a would come out for me. It didn’t, but as soon as I saw the answer, I knew it should have. Doh!

    I got E-YEL-ID from the crossers and the parsing, and was just about to look it up to see if it was an obscure batsman. But as soon as I wrote it down I realised it was 2, not 3 syllables. Doh again!

    I also could not parse CIGAR BOX fully. I assumed the O was Old, then was looking for a player called Brag. So thank you Eileen for Garbo.

    Another very enjoyable Paul crossword for me. After the first pass I had only two solutions. Needed a lot of head-scratching and returning to have another look before I almost finished it. Those are my favourite types (except I prefer to finish!)

87. Isn’t an EYELID a battee rather than a batter? Its owner does the batting, while it is itself merely batted.

88. Had to leave it yesterday and return this morning, but after a slow start the rest flew in. Excellent work from Paul – I really enjoy his puzzles. Unlike some, I have no problem with multi-word answers or the order in which they appear. Not many setters use them so it is a welcome variation and an additional challenge. Please keep up the good work. Thanks also to Eileen for helping parsing a couple I had to guess.

89. [Late to the table, as usual]
    I was a little put off by Roz’s comment on the last puzzle — if Roz thinks it’s hard, I’d be lucky to get anywhere). But, nothing ventured, nothing gained…

    First attempt, the only one I got was ADVANCE, then “pencilled in” VE at 5d (briefly tried to make it VEVEVE…, but that got me nowhere) and KI at 7d.
    This morning, managed to work out a few more, then a few reveals to get some more.
    1d phrase was new to me, but I did get the 21 phrase after getting THINGS from the crossers. For 15, as I didn’t see nursing as an inclusion indicator, and with after the crossers there was no place for “NH”!

    Thanks, Eileen for all the parsings and explanations.
    And to Paul for another challenging brain-twister!

90. Thanks both ,
    Just for the record, I didn’t see any reference above to the Cornish Litany ‘from ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night, Dear Lord preserve us’.

91. Thanks Paul and Eileen – for your hard work.

    Yet another really enjoyable puzzle from Paul. I loved Eyelid and Penalty Kick.

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