Thanks to Paul for a challenging puzzle – my favourites were 5ac, 24ac, 25ac, 5dn, and 16dn.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | LAMBDA |
Ultimately penned by innocent child, a letter on papyrus, perhaps? (6)
|
| definition: LAMBDA is a Greek letter, that would have been written on papyrus in ancient times
ultimate letter of [penne]-D, after LAMB=”innocent child”; plus A (from surface) |
||
| 5 | CELIBACY |
A parting bicycle travelling, getting away from relations (8)
|
| A (from surface) going into/”parting” an anagram/”travelling” of (bicycle)* | ||
| 9 | MISTAKEN |
Ill-conceived, a plastic boyfriend on film (8)
|
| A (from surface) + KEN (“boyfriend” of Barbie the plastic doll); both after MIST=”film” | ||
| 10 | VERTEX |
Partner once put on green top (6)
|
| EX=”Partner once”; after VERT=”green” in heraldry | ||
| 11 | WEDDING DRESS |
Train carriage required with this? (7,5)
|
| cryptic definition, referring to the ‘train’ or extra fabric extending from the back of a wedding gown | ||
| 13 | ACID TEST |
See 2 Down
|
| 14 | RAMSGATE |
Megastar at sea port (8)
|
| anagram/”at sea” of (Megastar)* | ||
| 17 | REARWARD |
Bounty boarded by a mutineer finally, astern (8)
|
| REWARD=”Bounty”; with both A (from surface) and the final letter of [mutinee]-R boarding inside | ||
| 18 | NINE |
Baseball team certainly not heard of in Europe? (4)
|
| sounds like (“heard of”): ‘nein’ = ‘no’ in German = “certainly not… in Europe” | ||
| 20 | ROSETTA STONE |
Villa’s place secured in prize museum piece (7,5)
|
| ASTON (the football team Aston Villa, often known as ‘Villa’, are based in Aston); inside ROSETTE=”prize” | ||
| 23 | AVATAR |
Vishnu, leader lost in war following attacks, reportedly? (6)
|
| definition: in Hinduism, the god Vishnu will take the form of avatars
not certain on the wordplay… [w]-AR with its leading letter lost; edit thanks to AlanC and Hovis in comments: A VAT (a value-added tax) is ‘a tax’, which sounds like ‘attacks’ |
||
| 24 | ALCATRAZ |
Prison, where racketeer has time inside (8)
|
| Carlos ALCARAZ is a tennis player (“racketeer” as in a tennis racket); with T (time) inside | ||
| 25 | USERNAME |
Sequence logged by gentleman, resubmitted when typed the wrong way? (8)
|
| reversed (typed the wrong way) and hidden in (a sequence logged inside): [gentl]-EMAN RESU-[bmitted] | ||
| 26 | ALMOND |
A loch, out of which pulled the first old nut (6)
|
| A (from surface) + Loch L-[O]-MOND with the first O (old) pulled out | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2, 13 | ACID TEST |
Critical evaluation, turning of tides indeed? (4,4)
|
| anagram/”turning” of (tides); in ACT=”deed” (with “indeed” split into ‘in / deed’) | ||
| 3 | BATHWATER |
Someone loathing vampire, point driven through heart – might this cover the body? (9)
|
| BAT HATER=”Someone loathing vampire”, with W (west, “point” of the compass) put into the centre (“driven through heart”) | ||
| 4 | AIKIDO |
Duck under perfect child in martial art (6)
|
| O (a score of 0 in cricket is a “Duck”); after AI (A1, top quality, “perfect”) + KID=”child” | ||
| 5 | CENTIGRADE SCALE |
On which it’s cold and bitter after temperature in liquid decreasing? (10,5)
|
| C (cold) and ALE (“bitter” as in a type of beer); after T (temperature) inside anagram/”liquid” of (decreasing)* | ||
| 6 | LOVE GAME |
Feeling ready for tennis achievement (4,4)
|
| definition: in tennis, to win a game to love is to win without the opponent scoring any points
LOVE=”Feeling” + GAME=”ready” (as in ‘game for a challenge’) |
||
| 7 | BORER |
Drill, tedious thing? (5)
|
| double definition | ||
| 8 | CREOSOTING |
Preserving wood, one going in strong, ecofreak? (10)
|
| definition: creosote is used as a wood preservative
I=”one” going inside anagram/”freak” of (strong eco)*, with “ecofreak” split into ‘eco / freak’ |
||
| 12 | WEREWOLVES |
Monsters had been identified as footballers (10)
|
| WERE WOLVES=”had been identified as footballers”, referring to Wolves=the football team Wolverhampton Wanderers=”footballers” | ||
| 15 | GINGER TOM |
Cat still gripping tail of dog, another cat upset about that (6,3)
|
| INERT=”still”, gripping around the last letter/”tail” of [do]-G; with MOG=”another [word for] cat” reversed/”upset” around it | ||
| 16 | BACTERIA |
Bugs Bunny’s first song about carrot extremely emotional at first (8)
|
| first letter of B-[unny]; plus ARIA=”song”, around: extreme/outer letters of C-[arro]-T and the first letter of E-[motional] | ||
| 19 | GOTCHA |
Caught in German town, you’ve been captured! (6)
|
| C (caught, cricket scoring abbreviation), inside GOTHA=”German town” | ||
| 21 | ENTER |
Key tenant initially lost? (5)
|
| definition: the ENTER key on a keyboard
[r]-ENTER=”tenant” with the initial letter lost |
||
| 22 | YARN |
Embroidered anecdote? (4)
|
| double definition: yarn as in spun thread can be embroidered; or a yarn can be a story/anecdote |
AVATAR is A VAT, sounds like a tax/attacks. This was a staggeringly brilliant puzzle with so many superb clues. CELIBACY and CENTIGRADE SCALE were just delightful and I liked the two intersecting football clues of fierce West Midlands rivals. Ticks also for MISTAKEN, RAMSGATE, AVATAR, USERNAME, BATHWATER and GOTCHA but I could list others. This puzzle didn’t need any risqué clues, bad homophones or split clues, just a setter at the top of his game. Wonderful stuff.
Ta Paul & manehi.
(Written at time of solving.) A straightforward but entertaining week continues. This was magnificent from Paul, with an array of witty clues. The only thing I Googled to check was the German Town, and I admit to parsing CENTIGRADE SCALE after the event as it was almost a CD anyway.
There were lots of great clues, including favourites CELIBACY, ALCATRAZ, BATHWATER and MISTAKEN (I wouldn’t have had mist and film as synonyms; Chambers gets as close as “a mistiness”.)
Thanks again Paul and thanks to manehi for the blog, which I will read now.
A VAT is a tax (“attacks”). Alan beat me to it.
Great puzzle! Favourite was ALCATRAZ. This was Paul on top form.
Thanks Paul and manehi
So good, WERE WOLVES and USERNAME last ones in, taxing but flowing all the way to the end.
Thanks Both
Bravo AlanC and Paul, attacks = a tax = a VAT, very sly! Yes another good ‘un from Paul the Perennial, thx him, and manehi too.
Thanks manehi. I was looking for something more obscure than ‘Aston’ for Villa’s place in ROSETTA STONE, which left that unparsed for me. Quite a few other sporting references, which I usually dislike. But even I was able to get them – including the cricket one for once!
My heart sank when I saw Paul was the setter as I usually make no headway at all. However today I found the puzzle hard but accessible. I finished it with extensive use of word finder and the Check Word button as I often fail to parse Paul’s clues. And actually I enjoyed it very much. Progress!
Favourites: WEREWOLVES (maybe a bit painful for Wolves supporters this season!), MISTAKEN, BATHWATER, GINGER TOM, BACTERIA.
I never knew avatar could be Vishnu, and failed totally to parse USERNAME and ROSETTA STONE (in retrospect don’t know why).
Thanks to Paul and manehi
Martin @2, a mist makes a film on your windshield I suppose, so …?
ALCATRAZ the best among some excellent clues, and to echo AlanC@1, none of the usual gripes. 5d was very clever, but I can’t help feeling there’s something not quite right about it that I can’t quite put my finger on. A temperature scale is a range of numbers, but ‘cold and bitter’ are interpretations, not the scale itself.
I was genuinely surprised to see this described as ‘challenging’: I’m not saying it was easy (except by comparison with his more usual fare), but for me it was one of those more straightforward Paul puzzles. I was four short of completion which is good going with this setter.
Enjoyable, regardless – and as is often the case, if I’d left it alone and come back to those last four, I’m sure I would have got at least a couple of them.
Liked WEDDING DRESS, AVATAR, BATHWATER, C SCALE and GINGER TOM.
Thanks Paul and manehi.
I was very pleased with my attempt at this one. I don’t generally get far with Paul’s cryptics but I agree with PhilB@8 that today’s was more accessible and enjoyable than usual. I couldn’t figure out the parsing for NINE (didn’t know the number of players in a baseball team), AVATAR, GINGERTOM, BATHWATER or ALCATRAZ though the latter had a brilliant and economical clue. I was convinced that it was something to do with Al Capone so I didn’t consider what else ‘racketeer’ could refer to. Clever.
Took a long while for the penny to drop on the parsing of AVATAR, ALCATRAZ and VERTEX, but figured them all out in the end. Enjoyed a lot of these clever clues. Thanks to Paul and Manehi
Quite enjoyed this one, but I’m struggling a bit with CENTIGRADE SCALE. I can see how the answer is constructed, but is it really a DBE? ‘It’ might be cold on the centigrade scale, but what is ‘it’? The only thing I can think of is the 5 (in which case the clue wouldn’t have worked if it had been, say, 16 – not cold in Hampshire; but maybe in tropical Queensland – or 26 – definitely warm around these parts). Am I missing something?
I found this easier than most of Paul’s, with fewer connected clues, but definitely needed parsing help. I tend to think of USER NAME as two words, but I got there in the end. Like BigNorm @15, not sold on CENTIGRADE. Thanks Manehi and Paul.
BigNorm I think the idea is that it’s cold and bitter when the liquid in the thermometer goes down. It reminds me of the poem about the boy who eats a thermometer. “Twas a chilly day for Willy when the mercury went down.”
I usually struggle mightily with Paul (and often lose), but this seemed friendlier than usual. Not heard of the tennis player, but got to Alcatraz anyway. LAMBDA took me an unreasonably long time as I was fixated in Egyptian hieroglyphs.
I parsed AVATAR the same way as you initially did, manehi. I can see the “a tax” parsing but it depends mightily on how pronounces “a”.
Thanks Paul and manehi.
Thanks manehi for the comprehensive blog. I will say that 22 looks more like a CD than DD to me; just find it hard to buy “embroidered” as a stand-alone def for YARN. Great stuff from Paul as always.
I agree with Coloradan @19 about YARN.
Yes Grantinfreo @9, good try!
I wholeheartedly agree with the A VAT parsing of AVATAR.
I’m relieved to see the richly deserved positive feedback for Paul today.
NHO the tennis player, and I couldn’t parse 5dn, but otherwise just slow-going.
I agree with others that this was Paul at his best. Slow start but sped up once a few were in and finished quicker than usual for a Paul.
Lot to like in here CENTIGRADE SCALE (which alongside AVATAR I didn’t fully unravel, WEREWOLVES, BATHWATER, ROSETTA STONE and probably many more.
Thought we maybe getting a Midlands football club theme but my own team of Birmingham City never got a mention.
Thanks Paul and Manehi.
Enjoyed this, struggled with a couple. YARN = “embroidered” maybe a stretch. I am so ignorant of sport that I hadn’t heard of Alcaraz. (I think the last time I watched a tennis match, Jimmy Connors was playing.) Didn’t know racquet/racket were interchangeable spellings.
Greatly enjoyed this one but I’d probably not comment unless I had quibbles. So, naturally, to quibble away:
1A – penned seems to have to do double lifting (as the envelope indicator and fodder for “d”)
5A – does “parting” add anything but misdirection?
9A and 10A – does ON work for across clues to give the answer order? Seemed to me these would have worked better as down clues?
Those gave me trouble accordingly, as did 5D (I initially hazarded “SCALE” from the crossers, guessed “PENTATONIC” which fit and rationalised the TONIC for “liquid”) but thoroughly enjoyed this one nonetheless.
As usual Paul’s clueing is way above my pay grade. I needed a heap of brute force use of check to complete this grid, most were parsed in retrospect but some needed the blog as well to understand them. Nothing unfair or particularly obscure but I just can’t seem to get my head around how his clues are constructed. I’ve got a long way to go…
Thanks to Paul for the reality check and manehi (+AlanC) for the required explanations.
Naive_springwater @24 – I think “on” works for after as well as on top of. “On hearing the news, he fled the country.”
Lots of imaginative constructions. I particularly liked CELIBACY, VERTEX, BATHWATER and BACTERIA because they were not only cleverly assembled, but the surfaces made sense 🙂
ALCATRAZ didn’t make the list for me as it was a write-in. It’s such an obvious construction that I’ve been expecting this clue ever since the Carlitos burst on to the courts a few years ago (Calling Alcaraz just ‘a tennis player’ hardly gives credit to this phenomenal sportsman). Nothing at all wrong with the clue, but it’s only clever if you don’t know anything about tennis.
Thanks to Paul and manehi
Thanks Paul, Another fine puzzle – gettable for me, but with my usual missing parses – for which eternally grateful to Manehi (with help from Martin). Always reassuring when the expert blogger missies one of the same parses as me – (AVATAR). Also couldn’t see CENTIGRADE SCALE or GINGER TOM without help! Embarrassingly long time to get the relatively straightforward anagram CREOSOTING. Thanks again to all participants.
PS Martin and Coloradan (or anybody who can interpret) – What are CD and DD?
Protase@27 I do know something about tennis in that I watch Wimbledon on and off and I’m well aware of Alcaraz but I still didn’t pick up that ‘racketeer’ referred to tennis not crime. Maybe it’s not that Paul is clever just that I am slow . ..
Naive Springwater @24. You know that manehi, whose page we are on, has written a whole blog of explanations which elegantly covers your first two quibbles?
On the third one, I think you are strictly correct (although others will reply with greater authority) but we all understand the construction.
I’m glad you enjoyed the puzzle.
The use of ‘on’ in clues (my observation):
Some setters have used ‘on’ to mean ‘before/after’ and most setters use ‘on’ to mean ‘after’ in the across clues.
Some setters have used ‘on’ to mean ‘below/above’ and most setters use ‘on’ to mean ‘above’ in the down clues.
PeterB@28
CD is Cryptic Definition
DD Double Definition
31 comments. Incredibly difficult. Was Paul always this hard?
Petert @17 It seems quite a stretch to me, but maybe you have it.
A yarn can mean an exaggerated or embroidered story.
Tough but gettable and fair, with some brilliant clues; my favourites included LAMBDA, CELIBACY, ROSETTA STONE, ALCATRAZ, USERNAME, CREOSOTING and GINGER TOM.
Paul at his best, in a remarkably unsmutty way.
Thanks, both.
PS Staticman @22 – You have my profound sympathy. UTV 😉
Very enjoyable. Stared blankly at almost all the across clues before getting one, but once you’re in, you’re in. As is often the case with Paul.
Very enjoyable…
Failed just on GOTCHA (NHO the German town) and USERNAME which was very cleverly hidden.
As ever with Paul too many unparsed, so good to get the heads up.
Thanks both…
Entertaining as usual from Paul.
Slight quibble about CENTIGRADE SCALE which is just a generic term for any scale of measurment based on 100 gradations – not necessarily anything to do with temperature. Most thermometers outside USA are based on Celsius which is indeed a centigrade scale, but not the only one. So I thought the clue was a bit inelegant.
Many favourites, all of which have already been mentioned.
Thanks Paul and manehi.
My first ever fully completed Paul!
What fun – a fantastic puzzle from Paul. Favourites are BATHWATER and WEREWOLVES. Thanks Paul and Manehi
Joffee@39: Congrats. Despite what others say here there is no such thing as an easy Paul so you should feel suitably smug. I know I do when I achieve a filled Paul grid (not today (revealed ‘backward’ to find REARWARD (‘Thinks: “but I can invent words too-ly”‘) and ‘essence’ (so many reasons why not) to get an entirely apposite GOTCHA!) but a Paul will always involve an amount of pencil-chewing – which adds to the savour – and he is inevitably (quirky but) fair (but quirky).
I agree this was a great puzzle. Most of the LS went in pretty quickly (starting with solving 1a LAMBDA right away, to my surprise), the RS took longer. I felt I was on Paul’s wavelength with this one, so a pleasant solve. Favourites 11a WEDDING DRESS (“Train carriage required”), 14a RAMSGATE (triple threat: fun anagram, readable surface, concise), 18a NINE (surface probably true!), 3d BATHWATER (BAT HATER), 16d BACTERIA (cracking surface)
15d GINGER TOM, my moniker is from a childhood nickname, the full version of which is “Mig the Mog”, so this is sort of a name check!
Re ON: The usual example is “The fly is on the wall/floor/ceiling” — good for any direction