Engaging and fun to solve. I am very impressed how Paul keeps churning out puzzles without becoming predictable and repetitive. How does he do it?Thanks Paul, keep it up!
A bit of an eggy flavour to this one.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PROMPT | Quick easy victory, something precious about it (6) |
| ROMP (easy victory) inside PT (platinum, something precious) | ||
| 4 | EDISON | Creative mind taking an age to orbit Pluto (6) |
| EON (an age) containing (to orbit) DIS (Pluto, hell) | ||
| 9 | See 3 | |
| 10 | AURIFEROUS | Golden fur is a euro — that’s fake? (10) |
| anagram (fake) of FUR IS A EURO | ||
| 11 | WRETCH | Bum soaked, last of water going in with both taps (6) |
| WET (soaked) contains wateR (last letter of) with C and H (hot and cold, both taps) | ||
| 12 | SYCAMORE | Growth of many branches as US retailer backs Scandinavian currency (8) |
| MACY’S (US retailer) reversed (backs) then ORE (Scandinavian currency) | ||
| 13 | UNSADDLED | Threw good 9s like this? Some initially getting caught (9) |
| UN-ADDLED (like good eggs) containing Some (initial letter of) – I think Paul meant to write good 9 rather than good 9s | ||
| 15 | FLAN | Pastry dish for lunch about noon, originally (4) |
| first letters (originally) of For Lunch About Noon | ||
| 16 | SHED | Where tools may be dropped (4) |
| double definition – excellent! | ||
| 17 | STONE DEAF | Hearing nothing, notes fade badly (5,4) |
| anagram (badly) of NOTES FADE | ||
| 21 | TOMAHAWK | Weapon — but isn’t Jerry a pacifist? (8) |
| in Tom and Jerry cartoons if TOM A HAWK then Jerry a pacfist – it seemed they each gave as good as they got to me. | ||
| 22 | VESTAL | Pure way to cut meat (6) |
| ST (street, way) inside (to cut) VEAL (meat) | ||
| 24 | HARD-BOILED | Cold as 9? (4-6) |
| double/cryptic definition | ||
| 25 | RICH | Deep fried successor for Nietzsche? (4) |
| as a successor to fried we get friedRICH (Nietzsche) – bravo! | ||
| 26 | HARASS | Not entirely leporine animal, an equine badger! (6) |
| HARe ( a leporine animal, not entirely) and ASS (an equine) | ||
| 27 | SNAPPY | Smart putting waste collector behind skip for a start (6) |
| NAPPY (baby waste collector) following Skip (starting letter of) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PIG IRON | Secure banking payment, crude stuff (3,4) |
| PIN (secure) contins (banking) GIRO (payment) | ||
| 2 | ONSET | Start acting? (5) |
| ON SET (acting) | ||
| 3, 9 | POACHED EGGS | Slovakia and Jamaica (via Romania) both have breakfast (7,4) |
| “slOVAkia” and “jamaiCA VIA Romania” both contain (have poached) eggs
See egg smugglers and comments below for some topical info on this clue |
||
| 5 | DEFACE | Bored, it’s suggested, with one in ruin (6) |
| DEF is “fed up” with ACE (one) | ||
| 6 | SCRAMBLED | Run off and drained like 9? (9) |
| SCRAM (run off) and BLED (drained) – like eggs | ||
| 7 | NEUTRON | News about diversion of route — no charge for it (7) |
| N and N (news, N=new plural) contains (about) anagram (diversion) of ROUTE | ||
| 8 | DRESSED TO KILL | Smart as a cyanide-laced salad? (7,2,4) |
| double/cryptic definition – I wasted a lot of time trying to find ananagram of A CYANIDE-LACED | ||
| 14 | ALEXANDER | A law together with sovereign pontiff (9) |
| A LEX (law) AND (together with) ER (Elizabeth Regina, sovereign) – definition is one of the various Pope Alexanders or perhaps Alexander Pope? | ||
| 16 | STOMACH | Bear most upset over a chimp, no little monkey (7) |
| anagram (upset) of MOST then A CHimp missing IMP (little monkey) | ||
| 18 | NEVADAN | Nothing very exciting nearby, both heading northward from Reno, say? (7) |
| NADA and V (very) with Exciting Nearby (heading letters of both) reversed (northward) | ||
| 19 | ANARCHY | Some boxing leading to riot (7) |
| ANY (some) contains (boxing) ARCH (leading) | ||
| 20 | FAMOUS | Little time in short tragedy, it’s noted (6) |
| MO (litttle time) in FAUSt (tragedy, short) | ||
| 23 | STRAP | Bind bits up (5) |
| PARTS (bits) reversed (up) | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
Thanks PeeDee. This was fun I agree and could be romped through in rather less time than it took for Paul two weeks ago. I had to look up leporine and once again it was the NE corner that held out the longest. I don’t quite see what is wrong with the plural 9 in 13a. SOME wouldn’t work as well with the singular.
3,9 There is a news item about Slovakian nationals having smuggled parrot eggs from Jamaica to Vienna zoo. I parsed it that way.
Thanks to Paul and PeeDee. I struggled with this puzzle for several days off and on. I could not parse POACHED EGGS (I saw the OVA but missed the CAVIAR) and AURIFEROUS was new to me. Last in were RICH and FAMOUS and UNSADDLED. I found the process tough going but definitely enjoyable.
It seems this took me a lot longer than you, Biggles A@1; certainly not a 1a “PROMPT romp” for me.
But quite good fun nevertheless.
ACD@3, did you see the neat pair RICH and FAMOUS (25a and 20d) in your post?
In fact FriedRICH at 25a was one of my favourites, with a little play on fried 9a EGGS as well as those of the 3d POACHED and 24a HARD-BOILED variety. Spent far too long on POACHED EGGS actually, and was the opposite of ACD@3: I saw the CAVIAR but not the OVA!
Charlotte@2, is that true about the news story????
I think my top favourite was 8d, DRESSED TO KILL.
I found this a much happier experience than Thursday’s Paul, where a couple of obscure answers eluded me, but as you say, PeeDee, Paul keeps churning out good puzzles that maintain my interest and really engage me mentally.
BTW Paul’s sense of humour was again evident in 23d SNAPPY, which I found very funny!
Julie, it is as true as anything on google, but it was quoting the Sydney Morning Herald!! Paul must have been referring to it. A fabulous puzzle.
Julie and Charlotte
A quick google search reveals:
http://spectator.sme.sk/c/20039805/police-intervene-to-stop-smuggling-of-rare-parrots-eggs.html
[26 reminds me of what was said about Bill Clinton after the ML incident. “He thinks HARASS is two words.”]
Thanks Paul and PeeDee
I had several egg-related answers, so tentatively wrote in EGGS for 9a. Even then, POACHED was just about my last answer, and I was baffled by the clue. Even if I had seen the OVA and CAVIAR, I don’t think that would have suggested “poached” to me.
Thanks Paul and PeeDee.
My experience was as muffin’s.
Being a Paul, I put in CROTCH for 11ac.
Since the setter is Paul I was initially distracted in 1ac by an envelope (‘about’) of IT in COAL (‘something precious’) giving an adjective that might describe a ‘Quick easy victory’!
Muffin @ 9. That’s almost exactly what I was about to say! I really thought I wasn’t gong to finish this one, and even at the end I couldn’t see what those three countries had to do with poached eggs. I got it all done eventually, but only with a lot of help. Had I known about the smuggling story, that might have made quite a difference; in hindsight, it’s very clever, as was the rest of the puzzle, but unlike Biggles A @ 1 I found it way way harder than the Paul from two weeks ago. It just shows how personal these things can be.
Thanks to Paul, even though he put me through it this week, and to PeeDee for explaining how he did it!
Interesting to read in the letters page of the Guardian paper today all the eleven responses to Jean Jackson’s plea on 23rd August that the cryptic crossword is becoming too damn difficult. Had noticed this trend myself, but, as one or two people noted themselves, I just thought perhaps my grey matter was just getting past it. Setters Paul and Rufus, I agree, are beyond this criticism.
Biggles A @ 1 – the solution to 9 is EGGS, so 9s would be EGGSS. Compare this to 24 across where Paul omits the s.
Thank you Paul and PeeDee.
Hard going for me but great fun, especially RICH, SHED and POACHED EGGS!
Enjoyable puzzle that lasted for a few days through the week. Eggs in all forms are very important to Charles so we did spend a bit of time looking for coddled.
Thank you Paul and PeeDee.
P.S. PeeDee I agree about the extraneous s in 13a.
J&C – I dearly wanted to find coddled in there too. Coddled as a cooking term seems to have been subsumed into poached these days. I think most egg poachers you can buy in the shops are really egg coddlers.
At last. the poached eggs have been keeping me awake all week. Still not 100% happy with the poached aspect, news story notwithstanding.
And yes, extraneous s in 13.
I understood “poached” to be a containment indicator in the sense of “taken”, as a poacher may take something; these words have taken eggs from somewhere. It is a bit strained, but no worse a strain on the imagination than many other containment indicators one sees day in and day out in cryptic puzzles.
Hi PeeDee, sorry, I came across a bit crotchety there, didn’t I? It’s not Paul, it’s me. Thanks so much for the enlightening post, much appreciated. (Ashamed to say I never parsed Pig Iron either).
Splendid puzzle. One of Paul’s best. It’s one of those puzzles with which you grapple but is a joy to solve. I agree with PEEDEE about POACHED EGGS. I’d certainly not heard of the news item that has been mentioned. Lovely stuff.
Thanks Paul.
Ronald @12
Prompted by your post I have read the Guardian letters regarding crosswords. ( I never actually read the paper now as I consider it to be almost completely full of PC pseudo-socialist puerile claptrap. Pure clickbait.)
It is worrying that the paper almost exclusively chose to publish letters in support of the original claim.
Surprisingly there was no mention of Hugh Stephenson. (Does he actually still exist?)
Perhaps the bias of the letters suggests that we are to be honoured with a new Crossword Ed. Let’s hope we don’t end up with a diet largely consisting of Rufus and “easy Paul” looky likies!
If this were to happen perhaps the ousted ostracised “unsolvable” setters could get together and produce a subscriber website. (Come on guys it’s easy!) Otherwise where would we satisfy our addiction.
P.S. I found this puzzle quite enjoyable and of medium diffilculty. Yet again the “theme” gave away a lot. I didn’t manage/bother to parse the “POACHED” as it was so obviously correct.
P.P.S. The letter complaining complaining about the unsolvable “England World Cup football team” puzzle was astonishing as I personally found that the “Special Instructions” made the puzzle a write-in! It seems that recent generations require everything done for them. (Even solving puzzles it would appear). It would appear that “Generation Snowflake” has its origins much further back than the Millenium!
I’m a beginner….. so can someone please explain why TOMAHAWK 21a is acceptable as a clue please?
Hello Ant, you do well to query 21 across.
I would describe this (euphemistically) as a “loose” construction.
To unpack the construction the thinking goes something like this:
1) work backwards from the solution “TOMAHAWK”
2) Split it into pieces “TOM A HAWK”
3) add in some implied words to give it its full expression “TOM is A HAWK”
4) add on the rest of the clue to get a sentence “TOM is A HAWK – isn’t Jerry a pacifist?” which makes some sort of sense.
You may well ask: what are the rules that say Paul can do this and call it a clue? Sadly (or happily) there is no rule book and Paul and the editor between them can write whatever they like. You either get it or you don’t. Having got it you either like it or you don’t. It up to your own personal preference whether this clue is acceptable.
I realise that this explanation may not be of much comfort to you, but I’m afraid that is just how it is. I hope this helps somewhat.
I agree with the general sentiment about the consistent quality of Paul’s output but would like to see him getting slightly fewer prizes, if only because there are very fine setters that don’t get them often enough (though it was good to see Vlad last week). For example I would love to see Nutmeg get one. As you may have gathered, I don’t remember enough about this one to say more about the puzzle itself – not as hard as some of his recent ones but as always plenty to enjoy.
Thanks to Paul and PeeDee
Thanks PeeDee,
I do understand, as you say when working backwards from the answer, but still am pretty sure most would not have a chance if this was the only clue in the whole crossword and you had no other letters to help you think of a word? Surely only a handful would be on Paul’s wavelength. I will persevere.
Hi Ant – getting on the setter’s wavelength is what it’s all about 🙂
Actually, when I said it wasn’t one of his most difficult, I’d forgotten that I never got UNSADDLED so I didn’t actually finish it. The POACHED EGGS clue was brilliant but tricky to parse…
Thanks PeeDee and Paul.
I found this tough. Was unable to parse either DEFACE or SYCAMORE – easy when you know how so thanks for your lucid explanation – and I was beaten by 25ac where I entered ROCK (as in rock salmon or gurnard) from some recollection about Nietzsche’s work – the rock at the centre of self belief.
Hey ho! Must try not to read too much into the clues.
There was a time not long ago when I could just about finish a guardian prize crossword in a leisurely week without cheating. The puzzles were hard but at least gave you a chance. These days I have no chance. The parsing rules are now so arbitrary as to make it a chore rather than a delight. I fear the editor’s target audience is now an ever diminishing hard core guardian puzzlers who crave more and more difficulty. I started doing the puzzles with my father when I was 15. Sadly you’ve left me behind. Even the non prize puzzles are getting too hard. Come on Guardian please meet the needs of the majority of your readership rather than a few experts
Gordon, out of interest – how do you know you are in the majority?
Thanks Paul and PeeDee
Like quite a few others, I found this a bit of a challenge, as I had with most of the previous week’s puzzles – but none the worse for that though. I also finished in the NE corner with EDISON (so simple in hindsight), SYCAMORE (which took an absolute age to parse) and DEFACE (in which i had it as ‘deaf’ = bored -> DEF and ACE=one) but now see the much better proper parsing.
Didn’t see the EN part of NEVADAN until coming here either.
Thought that RICH was very clever as well as POACHED EGGS (when the penny dropped – taking some time to see the OVA inclusion). DRESSED TO KILL and SNAPPY were typical Paul clues and very witty.