Guardian Prize 27,130 / Paul

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A fruitful offering from Paul, with some nice clues – I have to say, though, that I was quite surprised when I suddenly found I had finished it .

Paul is not among my top favourites for surfaces but there’s usually something to smile at in his wordplay.  My favourites this time were the solid baby, longest bananas, Mars bar, sweet plum and fruit salad.

Thanks to Paul for an enjoyable solve.

Across

1 Policeman permitted to secrete leader of mafia, as in collusion (9)
COMPLICIT
M[afia] in COP [policeman] + LICIT [permitted]

6 Solid baby with backside on table (4)
CUBE
CUB [baby] + [tabl]E

8 Gatecrashing two parties, artist with lead on rescue dog (8)
LABRADOR
RA [artist] in [gatecrashing] LAB and DO [two parties] + R[escue]

9 Soup ingredient daughter put in without Spanish approval? (6)
NOODLE
D [daughter] in NO OLÉ – without Spanish approval

10 Flight of fruit from the East End? (6)
STAIRS
Ceyptic definition – cockney rhyming slang: ‘apples and pears’ = ‘stairs’

11 In departure, line in film unambiguous (8)
EXPLICIT
L[line] in PIC [film] in EXIT [departure] – interesting to see COMPLICIT and EXPLICIT in the same puzzle, with quite different wordplay

12 In fruit, fruit’s skin almost going off (6)
FIRING
In FIG [fruit] RIN[d] [fruit’s skin, almost]

15 Longest bananas covering a fruit (8)
TANGELOS
Anagram [bananas] of LONGEST round A

16 Individual into fruit, he eats a lot (8)
GOURMAND
MAN [individual] in GOURD [fruit]

19 Car wheel? (6)
ROLLER
Double definition

21 Not forgiving a pack of lies, scratching head (8)
RUTHLESS
[t]RUTHLESS [a pack of lies]

22 This writer inspired by Bill of the Wild West Show (6)
COMEDY
ME [this writer] in [William] CODY [Buffalo Bill of the Wild West Show] – my first thought was Wild Bill Hickok [which  I always thought was Hicock but, of course, it didn’t parse, anyway]

24 Southern Britain introduced to boxer dog (6)
SALUKI
S [Southern] + UK [Britain] in ALI [boxer]

25 For example, Mars bar filled with fruit (5,3)
ROMAN GOD
ROD [bar] filled with MANGO [fruit]

26 Dry date about right (4)
SERE
SEE [date] round R [right] –  the only place I have met this [apart from crosswords] is in [O Level] Macbeth:
‘I have liv’d long enough; my way of life
Is fall’n into the sere, the yellow leaf…’

27 Woman voting in recess let off (9)
ELECTRESS
Anagram [off] of RECESS LET

Down

1 For example, pottery vessel (5)
CRAFT
Double definition

2 Drink, bird having one (7)
MARTINI
MARTIN [bird] + I [one] – a very old favourite

3 Solid rocks in pools (5)
LIDOS
Anagram [rocks] of SOLID

4 Sounds like fruit is up to date (7)
CURRENT
Sounds like ‘currant’ [fruit]

5 In accessing drink, one removing lid, right, as kitchen device? (3-6)
TIN-OPENER
IN in TOPE [drink] + [o]NE [removing first letter – ‘lid’] + R [right]

6 Sweet plum keeps cold (4,3)
CHOC ICE
CHOICE [plum] round C [cold]

7 Likely to be wielding weapon, one function to split peach (9)
BELLICOSE
I COS [one function] in BELLE [peach]

13 Inject iodine, then clean out wound (9)
INOCULATE
I [iodine] + an anagram [wound] of CLEAN OUT

14 Good exercise to fill gaping hole, where information passes (9)
GRAPEVINE
G [good] + PE [exercise] in RAVINE [gaping hole]

17 Find new accommodation for that woman up over the river (7)
REHOUSE
A reversal [up] of HER [that woman] + OUSE [river]

18 Sowing of seed before wild party without a merit (7)
DESERVE
Anagram [sowing] of SEED before R[a]VE [wild party without a]

20 Fruit salad recipe ends in the paper (2,5)
LE MONDE
LEMON + [sala]D [recip]E

22 Police after fellow streaker? (5)
COMET
MET [police] after CO [fellow, as in co-star]

23 Refuse a little kiss, or disaster arises! (5)
DROSS
Reverse [arises] hidden in kiSS OR Disaster

28 comments on “Guardian Prize 27,130 / Paul”

  1. Thanks Paul and Eileen
    I needed the blog for the parsing of TIN-OPENER; otherwise I thought it was surprisingly easy, both for a Prize and a Paul.

  3. Thanks Paul and Eileen.

    muffin – I agree: this was pretty easy. I was going to say Prize puzzles seem to be getting easier – until I saw today’s!

  4. I found this quite hard. But got there in the end.

    Never heard of TANGELOS and was surprised that ELECTRESS was actually a word.

    Favourite was ROMAN GOD.

  5. cholecyst @3 is there a mistake in today’s grid online?

    The rubric says it’s a kind of araubetical, but the grid and clues have numbers… and the clues are in alphabetical order.

    Confused.

    (I hope it is OK to discuss this here as I’m talking about the printing of the grid not the content of the clues or solutions. If not, then apologies)

  6. Thanks Eileen. Like you I was surprised when I’d finished it so quickly and with muffin that it was a Paul and Prize as well.
    I sometimes find Paul’s clueing contrived and I was interested by you differentiating between surface and word play – I’ve never thought about this before. Please can you say more about how you see these as distinct elements of a clue?
    Thank you, and to Paul – no doubt there will be a fiendish one from him soon.

  7. r_c_a_d – yes, I’m similarly confused and am assuming that the clue number is irrelevant and unconnected to the clue that follows it – but others may know better.

  9. I agree with others above that this was not much of a challenge. My habit is to print off the prize puzzle and stick it in my pocket to use as instant entertainment, often in circumstances where others are playing inane games on their mobile phones. It usually lasts several days but I’d completed the top half of this before I’d even found a pen, and the rest followed as quickly, to the last across clue which like R-c-a-d @4 I don’t believe is a word. But it sounds like I won’t have any similar complaints next week.

  12. R_c_a_d @4

    “Never heard of TANGELOS …”

    I haven’t watched Countdown for years but, when I did, TANGELO came up so many times [along with ‘leotard’] that it was a bit of a joke – I don’t think I would have known it otherwise. It was so familiar that I didn’t think to comment – it’s a cross between a tangerine and a pomelo.

    “… and was surprised to see that ELECTRESS was actually a word” – so was I.

  13. Thanks Eileen. I was a bit slow getting into this one but after a few answers went in the rest followed quite readily. ELECTRESS was my FOI and I dredged from my memories of history lessons that Sophia was the Electress of Hanover and the mother of George I.

  14. Whiteking @6

    You’ve brought up one of my favourite crossword topics, so you’ve earned a slot to yourself. 😉

    I can’t do better than to direct you to suchi’s excellent site for an explanation – see here:
    http://www.crosswordunclued.com/2009/06/surface-reading-cryptic-reading.html

    Some solvers here [and some setters] don’t see surface readings as particularly important. For me, they can add a huge amount of enjoyment to the solve and from time to time, I beg people here [as I did on Thursday, on the blog of the Arachne puzzle – she’s a surface star!] to go back after solving to savour the [misleading] story-telling surfaces.

    I hope that makes sense.

  15. SimonBxl @10

    Thanks and apologies: I don’t know how that happened – sorted now.

    Quite right, Biggles A @13: I remembered that – eventually!

  16. Thank you Paul and Eileen.

    An enjoyable Prize for me since I am a slow solver. I was surprised at ELECTRESS too, but decided she must be the wife of a German elector, a prince eligible to vote for a new emperor in the past, ‘Elector Palatine’ coming to my mind. SERE was no problem, a term often applied to vegetation at the edge of a desert. I hesitated to enter LE MONDE since it is a French newspaper but BELLICOSE was my last in…

  17. Hi [again] Whiteking @6

    I’ve realised that I’ve probably not answered the question you were asking. What [I think] I meant in my preamble was that, while the surface reading of the whole clues was not particularly smooth, I did like the juxtaposition of the words in the examples I gave.

  18. Thanks Eileen @14 & 17 -|I’ve been out on my bike ride on a lovely sunny morning on Oxfordshire hence the delay in responding. And also needing to crank the pc up to be able to type on a keyboard rather than phone. I completely agree with you in @14 (thanks for the link) and your elaboration @17 is what I was getting at. Both of these indicate why your blogs are so well received by solvers and setters alike – you always find things to appreciate. I believe we all thrive when we are affirmed rather than criticised, and that even when criticism is necessary it can be done in a way which affirms the person whilst challenging their behaviour or action.
    That’s enough philosophy, back to the surface of a clue. I assume that compiling software has made the construction of the word grid so much quicker that the setters now devote a greater proportion of the time in setting a puzzle to the creation of the clue (the art) rather than finding words to fit (the craft), and that this has led to the development of the genre. Yesterday’s Nutmeg had a great example for me where the surface of 20d made so much sense that even the presence of an obvious container indicator (holding up) didn’t lead me to see the hidden word until all the crossers were in. It is lovely to be able to use our brains and language in such diverse ways.
    With apologies to all for the length of this post – and I could have gone on.

  19. Thanks to Paul and Eileen. Like others I was surprised how quickly I finished this puzzle (with a prize I often take most or all of the week), but I much enjoyed it. I did get STAIRS (I normally have much trouble with rhyming slang) and was only slowed down by SALUKI (my LOI) and CHOC ICE (new to me).

  20. Whiteking @18

    I know Eileen has responded to you in full, but you might like to compare the following clues (which I had ready made because this subject has come up before):

    Doctor and nurse go out (7)
    Doctor and vet coming (6)
    Doctor and primate hang (5)

    The surface readings of these short (but fully formed!) clues are similar, albeit describing three different scenes for you to visualise, but you have to deconstruct the wordplay in three different ways to get the answers.

    Good setters strive to achieve ‘smooth’ surfaces to their clues while disguising the wordplay if they can, and the best setters are very good at it. I have learned from Eileen to pay attention to surfaces as well as everything else, and I try to do so in crosswords that I compile from to time.

    The solutions to the clues are, respectively, SURGEON, ADVENT and DRAPE.

  21. Gentler than most of Paul’s recent offerings, but all quite entertaining.

    Thanks to Paul and Eileen

  22. As I think I have mentioned here before, my own habit is to read through the clues to savour the surfaces before attempting to solve (though one or two write-ins might get done during this pass). The disadvantage of this approach is that it tends to set the misleading surface meanings in the mind, so perhaps Eileen’s idea of doing the savouring afterwards would make for quicker solving.

    This was quite easy for a Prize, but still very enjoyable, and I did get stuck on the apples and pears for quite a while after settling on “East End” as cryptic for ST, having guessed STAIRS for “flight” very early on. Surprising lack of the usual Pauline spattering of smut. Has he decided/been told to clean up, I wonder?

  23. A gentle solve with much to like; I enjoyed 22 & 25ac particularly. As to “sere”, Chambers lists it as “poetic” when used as an adjective, hence its apparent obscurity.

    Have enjoyed the surfaces/wordplay discussion. I’m with Eileen in loving a clue which tells a good story – indeed, I feel short-changed without good surfaces! I think Paul had the balance just right with this puzzle.

    Many thanks to Paul & Eileen.

  24. Just had another look at the grid and now notice there are apparently ninas at the beginniñg of row 12 and the end of col 13. Does Paul in fact love the legs of someone he knows as “Fruity”, perhaps?

  25. Through the week I managed most of the puzzle, but couldn’t get CRAFT, LIDOS or STAIRS in the NW corner. I’ve never heard of Lidos as a kind of pool, if that is what they are, but have no excuse for the others.

    A while ago I tried reading the puzzle first through for just the surfaces, but couln’t keep my brain from trying to snatch at solutions, so I’ve found that Eileen’s approach works better. Once I’ve got at least most of the solutions I can relax into the surfaces.

  26. I didn’t get to start this until today. After a slowish start, delayed in the NW corner by initially putting “apples” instead of STAIRS, the rest came together quite quickly, helped by the theme. I found it very enjoyable and, as so often with Paul, it prompted many smiles.

    Many thanks, Paul and Eileen.

  27. @Valentine

    “couln’t keep my brain from trying to snatch at solutions”

    Yes, that happens to me, too; that’s why I sometimes get write-ins on, say, an easy anagram.

  28. Thanks for the excellent illustrations AlanB @20 (I think – no entry numbers on the mobile version). Whilst you’ve had the discussion before I hope it will be new for some others like me and that those who are familiar with it enjoyed the refresher. it was good to be in conversation with fellow 225ers.

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