Guardian 29,044 – Paul

by

I found this very hard, and was looking at an almost blank grid for what felt like ages. As often happens in such cases, almost everything seems reasonably straightforward in retrospect. Thanks to Paul.

Fruits are mentioned in three clues, but that hardly seems enough to constitute even a mini-theme.

 
Across
1 TOMATO Drum almost filled with a fruit (6)
A in TOM-TO[m]. “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad” (Miles Kington)
9 UNNATURAL Odd tuna swimming round northern river in Russia (9)
N in TUNA* + URAL
10 VENUS Beauty pageants uneventful, though some tripping over (5)
Hidden in reverse of pageantS UNEVentful
12 SINISTRAL Left-leaning Stalinist not quite right after revolution (9)
Anagram of STALINIS[t] + R
13 DIE DOWN Shrink once had nurses excited at the outset (3,4)
E[xcited] in DID OWN (once had)
15 ORMOLU Blue essentially follows decoration of room in gold (6)
ROOM* + [b]LU[e]
17 REVERB Echoing note resounding initially — with this? (6)
Reverse of BREVE (note) + R[esounding]
19 WAZZOCK Ultimately, buttock and lower back prodded by a couple of unknowns — one’s an idiot (7)
A + Z Z (mathematical unknowns) in reverse of COW (one that lows) + [buttoc]K
22 TROWELLED River having dried up on the banks, used a digger (9)
R in TOWELLED
24 ROGUE Grand nicked by one scoundrel — or another? (5)
G in ROUÉ
26 LATER Future time in firm reviewed (5)
T in reverse of REAL (firm)
27 OILFIELDS Fidelio’s Léonore, originally in disguise here: well, well, well! (9)
Anagram of FIDELIO’S + L[éonore]. Leonore does indeed disguise herself as Fidelio at the start of Beethoven’s opera: I’m not sure why Paul has used the French form of her name here
28 SYNERGY Collaboration with offender and my Lord on the radio? (7)
Homophone of “sinner, gee!”
29 INTACT Whole testament, account in it (6)
NT + AC in IT
Down
1 THUMBED Dull sound when round gong that’s fingered (7)
MBE (medal, gong) in THUD
2 MANGO Get out having escaped pea: try fruit (5)
MANGE TOUT less GET OUT + GO (try)
3 TOTEM POLE Carving on reservation, painted plate needing time for inscription (5,4)
TEMPO (time) in TOLE (“painted, lacquered or Japanned tinware”) This explanation was accidentally omitted in the original version of the blog
4 ORLANDO BLOOM Actor putting the flora in Florida? (7,5)
Double/cryptic definition
5 FIVES …s game (5)
FIVE from the clue number + S
6 CONTRALTO Part sung in key, another key briefly eclipsing it (9)
ALT (key on a computer keyboard) in CONTRO[L] (another key)
7 RUSTLE Take stock when philosopher overheard? (6)
Homophome of (Bertrand] Russell, with the “stock” being cattle
8 PRISON OFFICER Inside job? (6,7)
Cryptic definition
14 EYES OUT ON STALKS Looking surprised — as a snail? (4,3,2,6)
Double efinition
16 MOZARTIAN Brilliant at music, strange being on tour of Australia (9)
OZ in MARTIAN (strange being)
18 BALCONY Platform where meaty sandwiches left (7)
L in BACON-Y
19 WIDELY Bottomless den concealed by foxy to a great extent (6)
DE[n] in WILY
20 KNESSET Youth and king upset about fascist force in parliament (7)
SS (Nazi force) in reverse of TEEN + K
23 ERROR Miss little monster having sliced off head (5)
[t]ERROR
25 GALIA Type of fruit, one in apple (5)
I in GALA (variety of apple) – it’s a type of melon

73 comments on “Guardian 29,044 – Paul”

  1. Thanks, Paul and Andrew!

    TOTEM POLE
    TOLE painted plate
    TEMPO-Time? (normally beats/minute)
    TOLE needing TEMPO for inscription.
    Carving on reservation: The def

  3. REVERB
    Is it a semi&lit?
    Echoing (reversing) BREVE (note)+R (Resounding start)….only ‘with this?’ is not used for the wordplay.
    (The wordplay is explained by the blogger Andrew).
    The whole clue can be taken to mean ‘REVERB’?

  4. Thanks Paul, Andrew and KVa. Just about finished with several unparsed. I await comments on wazzock!

  5. I had to laugh at the Bacon-y in BALCONY. It took a while to parse WAZZOCK which was an impressive use of “lower back”, but what a lovely word it is. Favourite was MANGO for the genius “get out”.

  6. Absolutely brilliant and thanks for parsing TOTEM POLE, KVa @1, my only head-scratch. I’m not sure how MOZARTIAN means brilliant at music as I presumed it related to his music. I thought CONTRALTO, ORLANDO BLOOM, OILFIELDS and REVERB were superb.

    Ta Paul & Andrew.

  7. That was tough. Although I completed the grid, I had to come here for the parsing. Nho GALIA. The surface of 2d would make sense only to a maggot!
    Thanks Paul, Andrew and KVa@1.

  10. Thanks Paul and Andrew
    Yes, difficult. I stared at MANGO and DIE DOWN for ages without seeing the parsings. Favourite was RUSTLE.

  11. ORLANDO BLOOM:
    An additional line won’t hurt, I guess. Orlando is a city in Florida and Bloom (a flower) is part of the flora.

  13. The Leonore Overture is a great bit of Ludwig van. Bloom the actor needed all crossers, most of his oeuvre being not up my street; good looking bloke though. Sinner gee got a chuckle. Quite fun for a Froidy, ta AnP.

  14. KVa @8, I didn’t have a problem parsing tempo as time in TOTEM POLE. Chambers has “tempo (music) n time, speed, rate”

  19. Vaguely knew the word at 19a but not the spelling and opted for the wrong first vowel. Various others unparsed, but I lost interest.

  20. Paul is an interesting bunch of setters, and you never know which one you’re going to get. Today it was the tough one. A long, long list of answers I couldn’t parse: DIE DOWN, WAZZOCK, REVERB, TOTEM POLE, MANGO, CONTRALTO. On the other hand, I enjoyed EYES OUT ON STALKS, ORLANDO BLOOM, RUSTLE, the inside job and the bacon-y sandwiches.

  21. Really hard to get started: nothing the first time through, and just ROGUE and THUMBED the second time. Came back to it this morning and all (except for a few parsings) flowed well.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew.

  22. I wish I had seen mangetout. Auriga@7 I think you can read the surface of 2d as someone keen to get their five a day, but not fond of vegetables. I was half expecting someone more knowledgeable than me to see a music/fruit connection.

  23. A bit of a mixed bag for me today.

    From the start at 1ac, (most of) the answers went in surprisingly easily, almost intuitively, with some smiles along the way: seeing the tomato / fruit combination always reminds me of the still much-missed Miles Kington – I bought one of his books at a church coffee morning just the other day – and I, too, was amused by the construction of DIE DOWN and BALCONY – but the parsing was an entirely different matter and I was very thankful I was not blogging the puzzle. I failed woefully on REVERB, MANGO (grrh!), TOTEM POLE, CONTRALTO (I thought I had ‘keys’ sussed by now) and WAZZOCK. (Now that I’ve ‘refreshed’, I see I had a very similar list to gladys 20.

    Other ticks went for UNNATURAL, SINISTRAL, OILWELLS, RUSTLE, MOZARTIAN and KNESSET.

    Thanks to Paul for an interesting and enjoyable puzzle and to Andrew for a great blog.

  24. I was not on Paul’s wavenlength so this was a struggle for me. I did not parse 13ac, 17ac, 19ac, 29ac, 2d, 3d – how to parse this one? Thanks KVa.

    New for me: GALIA melon; WAZZOCK.

    Thanks, both.

  25. Dave Ellison @21
    My FOI was actually ORMOLU. It used to come up quite often on the original antiques programme Going for a song (anyone else remember Arthur Negus?)

  26. [btw cherry tomato and water melon makes a lovely salad, though I’m not sure if you would call it a “fruit” one.]

  27. Living in France actually hindered me in the parsing of MANget outGO. In supermarkets over here they’re usually labelled pois gourmands, while you quite often (in season) see haricots mange-tout. Maybe I should remember to check my pulse more often…

  28. Lovely puzzle. I knew WAZZOCK, being a northerner and will start by commenting upon it, but only via research as I knew the word but not its derivation. This research :

    This word was fairly common in the north, in Lancashire and Yorkshire. According to Mike Harding, it takes its name from the habit of medieval kings to “take a crap on a shovel”. The royal turd would be “wazzed” out of the window and the wazzock was the tool for performing this operation. ( Mike Harding, who was known as “The Rochdale Cowboy” used to have a regular slot on TV in the 60’s when I was a teenager ).

    First learned the word roué, also as a teenager, from the lyrics of “I am sixteen, going on seventeen” from “The Sound of Music”.

    Absolutely loved BALCONY.

    Thank you Paul and Andrew.

  29. Another absolute belter from Paul. As usual with his best efforts, I look at the grid for a while with a sense of hopelessness and then once in, everything gradually unfolds. WAZZOCK was, weirdly, almost my first in and a useful point of entry. Also one of my favourite clues here, and one of the most Paulian.
    Pretty much spot on in terms of difficulty for me, tough enough to demand full concentration but not impenetrable. Loved it.

  30. I wouldn’t say that was a breeze exactly (it’s all relative) but I found that OK for a Friday Paul, so I guess I must have tuned into his wavelength. A little e-help was needed towards the end, and there were a couple of NHO words, though clued cleanly enough for me to get them eventually (ORMOLU, KNESSET).

    I loved the cheeky misdirections of ‘take stock’ in RUSTLE, and ‘flora/Florida’ in ORLANDO BLOOM.

    Great stuff, thanks both.

  31. Phew – that was a tussle – could have been a prize?

    I knew WAZZOCK from “You gret useless spawny-eyed parrot-faced wazzock” in this Tony Capstick monologue – be warned it’s very much of its time and not remotely PC by today’s standards!

    Loved the outrageous homophone(y) for SYNERGY and guffawed when the BACONY penny dropped as I’d just polished off a sandwich with that filling 🙂

    Cheers P&A

  32. I loved this one. He foxed me on WAZZOCK though I got the solution – should realise by now what ‘lower back’ can mean – but everything else I managed to solve and parse, though exactly as Andrew describes it in his prologue: stare for ages, eventually wonder ‘what would happen if I assumed that‘ and got three or four; process repeated. Lots of the Halpern humour which I really enjoy. Occurs to me: I wonder if ‘tole’ is a well-known word in English? I only knew it as tôle in French. Rural Slovak roofs tend to be made of it, which is the only blot on a lovely landscape.

  33. This didn’t seem quite as mischievous as Paul’s normal fare. Though slight raised eyebrows at the definition of TROWELLED and THUMBED. Stuck for a while with 19ac’s idiot – can’t say I’ve ever called someone that. Once that was in place it had to be MOZARTIAN, and finally ORMOLU…

  34. Looks like I’m in line with many in finding this tough but ultimately rewarding. First pass through revealed worryingly little and then, slowly, things fell into place and I could almost feel my own mind adjusting to Paul-world. By the time I was parsing BALCONY, I was so into the flow, it was a matter of ‘Oh that’ll be L in BACONY, then, and on to the next’. I love the way Paul spots some of those whimsical opportunities.

    WAZZOCK actually occurred much sooner than I’d have expected – but it took a while for the parsing penny to drop. Very neatly done. The other two on my podium were OILFIELDS for the delightful definition and TROWELLED for the splendid surface and, oh so smooth, container.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew

  35. …painful memories of games of (Rugby) FIVES at school, especially if the glove you were whacking the ball with was beginning to lose its padding…

  37. I’m relieved that it wasn’t just me finding this incredibly opaque first time through, but then finding that it all fell into place.
    Particular favourites were SINISTRAL, WAZZOCK, OILFIELDS, KNESSET (a sadly topical surface, alas).
    Slightly annoyed with myself for not parsing CONTRALTO (though with the crossers and the definition it couldn’t be anything else); TOLE was new to me (but again, with the crossers and the definition the clue was clear).
    Thanks to Paul and Andrew.

  38. Flea @28…. I think Mike Harding was having a bit of a laugh with that etymology. Chambers suspects that it’s more to do with having a wazz (piss) than having a “pony and trap”. I can remember using whiz and wazz in my earlier days oop north o’ England.
    Anyway, your post gives me an excellent excuse to post Mike Harding’s tale of The Viking’s Helmet

  39. Like you, Andrew, I spent ages looking at a blank grid which I put down to a very nice bottle of appassimento last night. Nice to see others had some difficulty starting as well. TBH came here for totem pole only to find you missed that out! Maybe it was a better bottle than I thought and I’ve forgotten I’m Andrew….

    But another really good Paul offering once I got into my stride. Rustle prob my fave.

  40. KVa @16. As you say, well clued. Reading comments, seems more people are familiar with the word than I thought.

  41. I totally agree with Andrew, stared for ages and got nothing, then slowly things started to click and by the end I was wondering why I hadn’t thought of them earlier. Some really wonderful clues. PRISON OFFICER, ORLANDO BLOOM, OILFIELDS, CONTRALTO, I could go on. Thank you Paul and Andrew (presumably in a hurry after the slow start!)

  42. The four-in-one grid; I solved three-quarters and then got stuck in the SW. Tricky but fun to solve and ultimately rewarding.

    TILT was GALIA and TOLE. I liked RUSTLE for ‘take stock’, UNNATURAL for the surface, VENUS being well-hidden, and the wordplay in DIE DOWN.

    Thanks Paul for the challenge and Andrew for sorting it all out.

  43. I’m glad I was not alone in finding this almost impenetrable at first. I was beginning to think I’d woken up and magically lost any ability to do cryptic crosswords. But with a bit of guessing and checking I eventually started to find a way in. Favourite was the excellent BALCONY.

    7d brings to mind the occasion when a hush fell over a western saloon as a cowboy walked in wearing a brown paper hat, brown paper shirt, brown paper trousers and brown paper boots. The sheriff of course arrested him for rustling.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew.

  44. Another great Paul puzzle! I’m always pleased when his name appears.

    Some tough parsing here – I didn’t see how to get MANGO so very grateful for the blog.

    So many great clues though, MOZARTIAN, ORLANDO BLOOM, KNESSET, OILFIELDS and BALCONY all superb.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew

  45. Was thinking of myself as a complete WAZZOCK getting so few af first, even though that one was FOI with great letters.

    Went off to read the synopsis of Fidelio at one point – it didn’t help with that clue, of course, but learned that PRISON (OFFICER) was the answer to 27 across raken literally. Coincidence?

    In retrospect I did enjoy this one, but it was more of a struggle than I’d hoped.

  46. I assumed for years that WAZZOCK was a word my late husband had invented, until I heard someone else use it. It’s a wonderful expression of one’s irritation at another’s stupidity, so I find I use it a lot when listening to the news these days.

  47. Thanks for the blog, a bit tricky when I was cold solving but collapsed very quickly once I put the Downs in. Very friendly grid, nearly every answer has the first letter crossing.
    Some great clues, MANGO very neat , OILFIELDS is a delight , a nice touch with the strange being for MOZARTIAN .
    TOLEware was originally Welsh and for trays , but it has travelled widely and diverged into different styles.
    WAZZOCk is still used in Lancashire.

  48. Like many I found this very difficult at first. Unlike many it didn’t get any easier. Most of the NW corner went unsolved, several others unparsed.

    I did find 27A delightful.

  49. Andrew, I love the tomato reference (and very good definition of wisdom). I have heard or seen it attributed to more than one Hollywood actor also – I wonder who said it first? Your culinary Filipino/a however finds no problem putting cheese in a fruit salad.

  50. Failed on the unknown WAZZOCK. Clearly it was “some slang word similar to PILLOCK that I can’t be bothered trying to work out”.

    Couldn’t parse TOTEM POLE but liked ORLANDO BLOOM and TOMATO among others, and no dubious homophones this time so grateful for small mercies.

  51. ORMOLU would be familiar to fans of ‘Under Milk Wood’.
    I didn’t get FIVES, not being a grammar school boy.
    Keys, yes, I keep forgetting that, even though I am on a keyboard.
    And DIE DOWN was lost on me.

  52. 4 grid-fills this week so far, but this was a total mystery. Just 1 clue solved.
    I think that’s it for me with Paul puzzles.
    Thanks both.

  53. My usual experience of Paul – the answers fly in quickly but I need a lot of help to get the full parsings. I can’t think of another setter who supplies this kind of puzzle. Thanks Andrew for doing all the figuring out – some of which was pretty convoluted! – and thanks Paul for the fun – especially liked OILFIELDS and FIVES.

  54. Couple I couldn’t parse and TOLE was new. What with all the strange punctuation symbols above?
    Thanks Andrew and Paul

  57. HoofItYouDonkey@52: Don’t despair – it’s always worth doing a Paul (online) even if (like me today) you (eventually) just reveal and ponder: there is always some witty entertainment to be had. And you may end up with a filled grid now and again – but this was a difficult offering. If they were all like this I wouldn’t bother either.

  58. How weird. Everyone saying this was really hard and I have been having lots of dnfs lately and romped through this one this evening (albeit did not parse mango or totem pole). Must have just been on Paul’s wavelength. Eyes out on stalks and Venus gave me a good start. Thanks Paul and Andrew.

  59. I found this harder than I usually find Paul. I normally whip through his crosswords, not that they’re easy, I’m just in sync with how he thinks. It came in fits and starts where I’d get stuck, find one answer then 3 or 4 straight away. Good crossword. Thanks.

  60. Not being able to parse DIE DOWN, yet having all the crossers, I spent a long time wondering how “at the outset” could become DUE SOON

  61. I enjoyed this but failed to parse quite a few. Could a helpful soul please post a link to a description of the dots in 5d. I realised the answer must be fours or fives but even knowing it’s a ‘cue number’ and guessing billiards or snooker I still can’t find a helpful page. So I don’t get caught out next time!

  62. Hi CanberraGirl
    It’s a bit like squash, but you used gloved hands rather than a racquet. See here There’s another variant called Eton Fives that has a step in the court, I think – hazardous!

  63. What the heck is this?

    Zero clues solved. Zero clue for any clue. Total gibberish to me.

    I have deliberately not looked at the answers/help yet.

    Is this fiendishly tricky?

  64. Questions….

    UNNATURAL – what indicates an anagram?

    VENUS – how do you know to look for a reverse answer?

    In fact I have queries about every single clue.

  66. Steffen @64
    1. The anagram indicator is “swimming” and applies to TUNA. Andrew uses the * in the blog as shorthand for anagram.
    2. It’s “some” of pageantS UNEVentful, turning over.

  67. Well, I finished it but needed quite a bit of help from Andrew with the parsing. Before I had any crossers I was trying to work out how to parse FLORESTAN (Leonora’s husband) at 27a. F(idelio) L(eonore) originally started me off on this track.
    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

  68. For a while I thought this would be dnf, 3 answers on the first pass and they took some thinking about, alothough TOTEM POLE went in early, I could not parse it. OILFIELDS was one of those anagrams that took forever. Somewhere in the swirling mists of my brain the word TOLE exists, but I had forgotten what it means, if I ever really knew. Still, I got there in the end , several unparsed,
    Thanks both

  69. Finally got around to this while supping a whisky to counteract the espresso.
    Another typical Paul: many smiles.
    40 minutes to complete. Whisky not finished ( it was a large one)
    Came here for help to parse 2d & 3d, otherwise definitely on Paul’s wavelength.

  70. A masterclass. Needed more than a day.
    Hands up how many of us were misled into improving our GK on LVB`s sole opera. Collateral beneficience?

  71. An almighty struggle that took us into a second day, but well worth persevering, particularly for bacon-y. Our only problem with “wazzock” was whether it was wazzock or wassock, as we’ve heard (used) it a lot but seldom seen it written down – Collins has both variations online. I was expecting some objections to the homophone in sinner-gee. Thanks to Andrew for help with the parsing and to Paul for the fun and challenge

  72. Held up in the SW as I had only remembered previously seeing EYES ON STALKS and struggled for ages to get the missing word. And didn’t even write in STALKS as I was stuck on either EXCAVATED or SHOVELLED before finally seeing TROWELLED.

    26A was last in for me, as both synonyms (‘firm’ for REAL and ‘future’ for LATER) were obscure, to me anyway.

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew.

Comments are closed.