Guardian 27,186 / Paul

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I was surprised to see Paul’s name again this morning, so early in the week, after two Saturday Prize puzzles in a row.

However, after 1,26 fell out early on, it became obvious why Paul had been granted today’s slot. Some neatly constructed clues, laced with Paul’s customary wit, to produce a puzzle which should please those who have been disappointed that Paul has cleaned up his act lately.

Thanks, Paul.

[Definitiions are underlined in the clues.]

Across

1,26 May the second (6,7,5,8)
FEMALE BRITISH PRIME MINISTER
Cryptic definition, referring to Theresa May, who, together with the POTUS, is providing rich pickings for crossword setters: I suppose this has to be Clue of the Day?

10 Superb swimmer ain’t swimming (9)
BRILLIANT
BRILL [fish – swimmer] + an anagram [swimming] of AINT – this and 13ac seem to be left-overs from Paul’s fishy Prize puzzle that I blogged last week

11 F is just for “fix” (5)
PASTE
F is just PAST E in the alphabet

12 Youth with a dash of yellow  wee (5)
TEENY
TEEN [youth] + Y[ellow]

13 Fish in sea that’s oily and fatty (9)
MARGARINE
GAR fish] in MARINE [sea – as an adjective]

14 On the backhand, seed is great rival (7)
NEMESIS
A reversal [on the backhand] of SEMEN [seed] + IS – I know it’s in Chambers but I don’t like this figurative definition

16 Cocky image impressing chamber (7)
PHALLIC
PIC [image] round HALL [chamber]

18 Partially and totally do this for a carrier (7)
HOLDALL
partiALLy and totALLy both hold ALL

20 Guts of Octavius robed in underwear and fleece — that’s recklessly courageous (7)
BRAVADO
[oct]AV[ius] in BRA [underwear] DO [fleece] – all my dictionaries have BRAVADO as a noun, but I think including ‘that’s’ in the definition makes it work [Paul has used this device a number of times today]

21 Appropriate investigation held by prophet (9)
SEQUESTER
QUEST [investigation] in SEER [prophet]

23 Those people pass through taking a test — not entirely (5)
GATES
Hidden in takinG A TESt

24 Animals eating dirt ultimately put off (5)
DETER
DEER [animals] round [dir]T

25 Coming round again, I rotate in circles (9)
ITERATION
Anagram [circles] of I ROTATE IN

Down

2 Record lard: me, I could be skinny? (9)
EPIDERMAL
EP [record] + an anagram [could be] of LARD ME I

3 Partner stealing a cushion (5)
ALLAY
ALLY [partner] round A – cushion as a verb

4 Humanist answer to “what are problems arising”? (7)
ERASMUS
A reversal [arising] of SUMS [problems] ARE

5 Piece sailor set up that catches ship’s deserters (3,4)
RAT TRAP
Another reversal [set up] of PART [piece] TAR [sailor] – reference to rats deserting a sinking ship

6 Leader having to lead a fool (3,6)
TOP BANANA
TOP [lead] BANANA [fool?] – we’re used to ‘bananas’ [crazy] as an anagram indicator but I can’t find it in the singular in this sense [Edit: Sorry, I had a real blind spot here: please see comments 1 and 2]

7 Dixie’s joint cut for Japanese food (5)
SUSHI
SUS [Southern United States – Dixie] + HI[p] [joint, cut]

8 Source of illicit fun — some here? (1,3,2,3,4)
A BIT ON THE SIDE
Cryptic [?] clue – the answer is at the side of the puzzle

9 Author collecting gripping material for transport regulator (5,8)
LEVEL CROSSING
[Doris] LESSING [author] round VELCRO [gripping material] – my favourite clue

15 Outsiders in stallion and a racehorse that’s beaten (5,4)
SNARE DRUM
S[tallio]N + A RED RUM [a racehorse]

17 Most brainless, at any rate (9)
LEASTWISE
LEAST WISE

19 Element on fire, buzz round one (7)
LITHIUM
LIT [on fire] + HUM [buzz] round I [one]

20 Swell getting starter of boiled egg on (7)
BURGEON
B[oiled] URGE ON [egg on] – a pity about the repeated ‘on’

22 World Cup hosts in question a focus of attack? Get away! (5)
QATAR
Q [question] + A TAR[get] [focus of attack] – Qatar is scheduled to host the FIFA 2022 World Cup

23 Tell the sod! (5)
GRASS
Double definition

52 comments on “Guardian 27,186 / Paul”

  1. re 6d: lead as in the element, so ‘to’, pb, and then a synonym for a fool. Super clue I thought!

  3. Easier than normal for Paul, and one of those that got easier once a few crossers were in place. My favourite was PASTE.

    Thanks to Paul and Eileen

  5. And thanks very much to Paul for a lovely puzzle and Eileen for parsing of 11a and 18a, which I ‘solved’ without parsing.

  6. I don’t really understand 1, 26. Why ‘the second’, apart from the date? Favourites were LEVEL CROSSING, A BIT ON THE SIDE and BRAVADO. Thanks to Paul and Eileen.

  7. Oh, now I see that 6d is very clever TO PB A NANA!

    I failed to solve 11a (very clever!) and the first word of 9d – I had guessed CROSSING but could not solve the first bit or parse it. Was thinking of railway crossing but LEVEL did not come to mind 🙁

    My favourites were LEASTWISE, ERASMUS, PHALLIC.

    Thanks Eileen and Paul

  8. Thanks, Lucy and Gillian. I’m pushed for time this morning so will amend the blog later.

    drofle @6 -Margaret Thatcher was the first.

  11. I was delighted to see yet another Paul today.
    It took me ages to see the 1a part of the answer to 1a/26a, even though I had PRIME MINISTER reasonably early.
    Like Gillian@3 I failed to parse 11a PASTE and 18a HOLDALL, so many thanks to Eileen, and to Gillian herself @2, crossing with Lucy@1, for finding such a clever rationale for 6d TOP BANANA.
    More copy-catting, but I was with you, michelle@7, in terms of those three favourites you mentioned.
    Yes Eileen, I did enjoy the return of the cheeky trademark Paulisms, with the yellow wee as fodder for 12a TEENY, the PHALLIC image in 16a, and the robing in underwear in 20a BRAVADO. As well as, of course, A BIT ON THE SIDE at 8d.

  12. Thank you Paul and Eileen.

    Another enjoyable Paul crossword. I rushed in with DEFER at 24a, but it had to be QATAR at 22d, then parsed the clue correctly. However, I was another to fail to parse PASTE and HOLDALL, now my favourites.

  13. Thanks Paul, back on top form, I thought – and yes, it is May 2nd, so they tell me.

    Thanks to Eileen for a great blog and explaining the parsing of PASTE and HOLDALL. With these two, I rated TOP BANANA and LEASTWISE as tops.

  14. I didn’t get 1, 26 until this morning when I tried different vowels in __R__M__ at the bottom. The I gave PRIME MINISTER and the rest followed shortly.

    I join those who couldn’t parse PASTE or HOLDALL. Though 7d might be either SUSHI or RAMEN, had to wait for some crossers to decide.

    I foolishly had BRAVURA at 20a, which held me up some. Basically, I filled in the whole left side last night but had lost of gaps on the right.

    Thank you, Paul and Eileen, for an enjoyable puzzle.

    16 impressing meaning taking in

  15. Wow, Tuesday and a Paul. Despite Prime Minister going in very quickly, I was made to work hard on this and missed a number of parsings that Eileen has thankfully clarified, 18a, 6d & 7d. I had Passe for 11a but couldn’t reconcile with clue; but worst of all, I had in mind that Paul was having a play with “Ides of March” so entered “Beware British”… given the current political climate.

    Many thanks to Eileen and Paul.

  17. 9d LEVEL CROSSING was a neat clue, and my memory might have played a part in getting it without having to think about it for very long. On 4 Feb 2016 Crucible clued this phrase in the same way – just with different words:

    “Novelist tackles gripping stuff in Dangerous Junction (5,8)”

    I thought the long phrase at 1,26a was going to be UNITED KINGDOM PRIME MINISTER – but of course ‘second’ doesn’t compute. When the real answer revealed itself (first with BRITISH, then FEMALE) I was a bit disappointed because I didn’t think it was a recognised phrase. I say that no doubt because I may not have dared, like Paul, to put this phrase in a crossword in the first place!

    It was great to enjoy yet another Paul in not that many days. The clues were generally excellent and the puzzle as a whole great fun. If I had spent time on PASTE and HOLDALL I might eventually have seen the wordplay. Apart from those two and 16a PHALLIC, where ‘impressing’ is supposed to mean ‘taking in’, this puzzle was a joy to solve.

    Thanks to Paul for the puzzle and to Eileen for the blog and for parsing PASTE and HOLDALL for me (and others evidently).

  18. Thanks Paul and Eileen

    Alan B @ 17: you can impress someone in the sense of pressgang, which certainly means taking them in, albeit involuntarily.

  19. Simon S @18
    Valentine @14 must also have meant that. I knew the sense of pressgang but just didn’t see any further, but it is clearer now.
    Thanks

  20. Thanks both,
    This was tough going for a while, but then mostly fell into place. At on point I thought, ‘This is a Paul’ and confidently entered ‘priapic’ for 16 without pondering the parsing. That held me up a bit.

  21. I once, in grief at the loss of Araucaria, rather high-handedly berated Paul for his lack of wit.
    Mea culpa.
    Such fun.

  22. Thanks to Paul and Eileen

    Enjoyable and not too tough, especially once 1,26 went in.

    I liked the clue for “top banana” but do wonder if this is one of those phrases only ever used in crosswordland.

  23. I have been out since my last post, or I would have come clean earlier. I’m actually glad to see that others had problems with PASTE and HOLDALL. I stared at both for ages and at last, in desperation, used phone-a-friend [Gaufrid] for ‘a tiny hint’. He didn’t exactly give me the answers but gave me enough encouragement in the right direction, so many thanks to him.

  24. Thanks to Paul and Eileen. I had the same trouble as others parsing PASTE, HOLDALL, and TOP BANANA and did not know the horse
    Red Rum, but still much enjoyed this puzzle.

  25. Very clever and witty. Not one of his hardest but we had a good laugh. We got 26a with the crossers and then 1a couldn’t be anything else. Nice timing by the crossword editor,too! Thanks to everyone.

  26. I doubt anybody uses “top banana” nowadays, but I first encountered it hearing I think Milton Berle sing “If you wanna be the top banana You gotta start at the bottom of the bunch.” Google now tells me it is from a 1950’s musical about burlesque, if anybody remembers what that was. The top banana was the star comedian, the second banana was the straight man who fed him (it apparently always was a him) the set-up lines. I’ve just found an article about a famous second banana here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/23/AR2009062303525.html.

    (I don’t know why the print didn’t turn blue, but you might have to copy and paste the link instead of clicking it.)

  27. Hi all
    Thanks to Paul and Eileen

    13a 20a and 21a went in quickly. The parsing of 11a followed before too long,

    A few clues held me up for a while. However, I suspect a few solvers are not happy about Paul “cleaning up his act” 12a and 14a might keep them happy.

    While I solved 1,26 reasonably easily, I would like a UK-based person to clarify the following. I understand the difference between GB (England, Scotland and Wales) and the UK (GB plus NI). However, the British Isles I take to be GB plus all of Ireland. So a British prime Minister governs (choose one of) a)the British Isles b)GB c)UK? It is all very confusing for a bear of little brain.

  30. Well,I hope she’ll soon be the second female ex PM!
    Back to the plot: a very pleasant offering from Paul, with just a soupcon of added smut. I’m ashamed to say that PASTE was my LOI- I just couldn’t see it. Too many goodies to list.
    Thanks Paul

  31. Peter A @30
    I hope you are not hoping she’ll be the second female deceased PM.

    Although, EVENTUALLY, she probably will be.

  32. A bit slow in the NE corner owing to my insistence that 11a had to start with an F. Compilers eh, they set these traps, then we blunder right into them…

  33. I didn’t really like 8 much. Plus I feel it should have been a good opportunity for Paul to do a ‘naughty’ on it.

  34. Thanks Paul and Eileen

    I managed to parse TOP BANANA and PASTE but failed on HOLDALL and SUSHI – I’m still not convinced by ‘Dixie’ = SUS, as for one thing that’s not a known acronym as far as I’m aware, and for another, Dixie is mostly just the south east, isn’t it?

    But apart from that Dixie gripe I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle and you can count me in as one of those pleased to see Paul’s return to irreverence.

  35. Kevin @27, as far as I am concerned there is no longer a Great Britain, let alone a United Kingdom, the answer should have been LITTLE ENGLAND PRIME MINISTER (it fits).

  36. Interesting that there are various interpretations of “impressing” – I was thinking of the way a seal “impresses” the sealing wax, though in that sense doesn’t the chamber impress the image, rather than the other way round? I didn’t particularly like that clue, because it was a fairly tortuous route to make it work, whichever route you chose.

    But there was enough to raise a smile or two. 1,26 and the cheeky pair of 12 and 14, for example.

    Thanks, Paul, and Eileen for parsing the difficult-to-parse…

  38. Thanks Paul and Eileen. I had 6dn parsed as Eileen originally had it but wasn’t happy with it, but it took me a while to remember the only other time I have heard “nana” for fool to appreciate how much better Lucy and Gillian’s version is. 50 years ago, courtesy of Lonnie Donegan in My Old Man’s a Dustman.

  39. Kevin@31. I wouldn’t wish premature death on anyone;my only wish for Mrs May is political oblivion!

  41. Cookie @40
    I appreciated your perceptive comment likening May to Gladstone, and I can now see for myself (albeit only after reading part of the Wikipedia article on Little Englander) that Little England Prime Minister is as good a solution as Paul’s to the clue ‘May the second’. That and the crossword have made my day.

  42. I came to this late but spent an enjoyable hour solving it. 1 & 26 AC thwarted me for some time despite plenty of lateral thinking but the penny finally dropped. PHALLIC, BURGEON and LEVEL CROSSING were my favourites. Thanks to Paul and Eileen

  44. Level Crossing is one of those that takes a special kind of brain to spot and clue. Superb.

  45. umpire46 @43 – sorry if it wasn’t clear: the definition is ‘fix’ [underlined] and the wordplay is ‘F is just’. ‘For’ is simply a linking word and can be disregarded.

    So, as in the blog, F is just PAST E in the alphabet, giving the answer PASTE.

  46. Thanks Eileen and Paul – I am pleased you didn’t compose this one on the run.

    Very enjoyable.

    Valentine @ 26. “top banana” is still used today, though down by about 40% since 1980. I was curious why its initial usage was “To Banana”, but your link explains that (Your link did turn blue for me).

    umpire @ 43: The letter F is just past the letter E in the alphabet; this gives PAST E for a word meaning to fix (glue something)

  48. The easy long clues made this crossword easy. I’ve seen 8dn a number of times over the years and it was a write in for me.

  49. Been some good puzzles in the Guardian over the last few weeks – but I thought this one was really excellent – not just for the inventiveness and humour, as many have posted above, but also Paul’s self-denial: no obscure words in the grid, no dodgy or hackneyed single letter abbreviations (no t=time etc)…

    Also a nice range of easy and difficult. I needed Eileen’s help to parse HOLDALL, but it works so no complaints, just thanks to Eileen – and of course also to Paul.

  50. [Kevin, it occurred to me while cooking dinner, with the help of a glass of wine, or two, that history is repeating itself, the Little England Movement started with people in the ‘UK’, in Gladstone’s time, objecting to have to pay taxes to support Canada.]

  51. Thanks to Paul for an entertaing puzzle and to Eileen for the blog, especially for parsing 18a. Favourite was 11a, ahead of 9d where I got VELCRO from the C and O. There are must be hundreds of 7 letter novelists so LESSING was definitely solve first, parse later. The clueing for 2d was very clunky – “Record lard” is a term that I doubt if anyone has ever used.

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