For me, this was the most enjoyable Paul puzzle in a long time.
On the first run through, I got none of the across clues and so it seemed it was going to be a challenge, which I always enjoy, especially in a Prize puzzle. Once I got started, thanks to the very old favourite at 3dn, followed by the straightforward 4dn, it began to unravel at a very satisfying rate: I was never completely stuck – but the parsing of 10dn came rather later than the complete solve – with a satisfying/satisfied ‘doh’.
Many thanks, Paul.
[P.S. Friday: I wrote this blog last weekend – I haven’t really blogged a Paul puzzle two days running! – so the first sentence above was written before solving today’s very enjoyable puzzle.]
Across
1 Worldly ways taken to heart by Orwell and Jonson? (8,6)
CARDINAL POINTS
The central letters [heart] of orwWEll and JoNSon are the main points on the compass
8 Nothing left for racketeer, might you say? (5)
NADAL
NADA [Spanish ‘nothing’ – appropriate, as tennis player [Rafael] Nadal, who is cryptically defined as a racketeer, is Spanish] + L [left] – beautifully simple and one of my favourite clues
9 Play with regal family taking precedence? (4,4)
KING LEAR
KIN [family] taking precedence over an anagram [I’m struggling to find an indicator – unless ‘play’ is doing double duty – and I’ve usually no problem with that] of REGAL
11 Whitewash thicker walls a little bit (7)
TROUNCE
T[hicke]R [‘walls’ – outside letters of ] + OUNCE [little bit]
Although I’m not a follower, I’ve been aware of this term being used in news bulletins referring to Test cricket series, for instance; Collins: ‘whitewash – to defeat [an opponent or opposing team] by winning every match in a series
12 Endless burden carrying cross around, one kept under pressure (7)
AEROSOL
Reversal [around] of LOA[d] – endless burden] round SORE [cross]
13 Arouse in pronounced climax (5)
PIQUE
Sounds like [pronounced] ‘peak’ [climax]
15 Pirate on film, miser (9)
SKINFLINT
SKIN [film] + FLINT [Pirate Captain in ‘Treasure Island’]
17 Criminal arrested smuggling uranium, valued highly (9)
TREASURED
Anagram [criminal] of ARRESTED + U [uranium]
20 Wrestle so with the character (5)
ETHOS
Anagram [wrestled] of SO and THE
21 Demanding figure, ours miscalculated (7)
ONEROUS
ONE figure] + an anagram [miscalculated] of OURS
23 Masses round Mogadishu’s capital, like a city in Kenya (7)
MOMBASA
MOB [masses] round M[ogadishu] + AS [like] + A
25 African educational establishment is back in the shade (8)
TUNISIAN
UNI[versity] [educational establishment] + reversal of IS in TAN [shade]
26 Total cut (5)
SCORE
Double definition
27 Article by writer in amendment of correction exposed performance? (4-3,7)
OPEN-AIR CONCERT
A [article] after PEN [writer] in an anagram [amendment] of CORRECTION, with a cryptic definition
Down
1 Fiddle and individual piano parts stop painfully slow movement (12)
CONSTIPATION
CON [fiddle] + I [individual] P [piano] in [parts] STATION [stop]
2 Rienzi overture so long, cut for broadcaster (5)
RADIO
R[ienzi] + ADIO[s] [so long, cut]
3 One defames the Maltese, say (9)
ISLANDERS
I [one] SLANDERS [defames] – one of those classic clues worth repeating for newer solvers
4 Leg chains buckled as knelt (7)
ANKLETS
Anagram [buckled] of AS KNELT
5 Punch absorbed by Carthaginian cut tongue (7)
PUNJABI
JAB [punch] in PUNI[c] [Carthaginian, cut ]
6 Apathetic sort, jockey dropping lead hurdling last in National (5)
IDLER
[r]IDER [jockey, dropping first letter – lead] round [nationa]L
7 Bottoms of Degas, Vermeer and Modigliani covered in hair — look who’s talking! (5,4)
THAT’S RICH!
Last letters – bottoms – of [dega]S [vermee]R [modiglian]I in THATCH [hair]
10 Numbers in this sub-zero temperature expanded? (3,9)
OLD TESTAMENT
T [temperature] under [sub – in a down clue] O [zero] which [OT- ‘expanded’] gives OLD TESTAMENT, so often seen abbreviated in crosswords to OT and usually clued as ‘books’ – and Numbers is the fourth book of the OT – phew!
14 Rudely push in character for audition, then start (5-4)
QUEUE JUMP
QUEUE sounds like [in audition] Q [character] + JUMP [start]
16 Identical somersaults nailed by cooler member of brotherhood (9)
FREEMASON
This appeared to be a reversal [somersaults] of SAME [identical] in FREON – which seemed very unlikely, so I was chuffed to find in Collins ‘any of a group of chemically unreactive gaseous or liquid derivatives of methane in which hydrogen atoms have been replaced by chlorine and fluorine atoms: used as aerosol propellants, refrigerants and solvents’ – but you probably knew that
Piece of Borodin is so Russian, revolutionary composer (7)
ROSSINI
Hidden reversal [revolutionary] in borodIN IS SO Revolutionary
19 Far from holy day I found near Christmas? (7)
DEMONIC
MON [day ] + I ‘in DEC[ember’] [near Christmas]
22 One having broken legs, that might make you cry? (5)
ONION
I in [having broken] ON ON [legs – in cricket]
24 Make reparation around lunchtime? (5)
ATONE
AT ONE [around lunchtime] – another old favourite
I found this one quite tricky but there were lots of good ideas. I liked the hidden CARDINAL POINTS and the OLD TESTAMENT clue but my favourite was KING LEAR. I saw the latter as a rather clever &lit.
Looking back, the only strange clue was 23 since Mogadishu is a capital, rather than a country. I wondered why Paul didn’t use Mozambique, say.
Anyhow, lots of fun.
Thanks, Paul and Eileen.
Thanks to Paul and Eileen. For the second week in a row I got through the prize puzzle far more quickly than several during the previous week. I did need help parsing several items (e.g., THAT’S RICH, OLD TESTAMENT, FREEMASON) and the term QUEUE JUMP was new to me (though certainly not obscure). Very enjoyable.
“Play with regal family” also works as the definition of 9A, which was my favourite clue here.
Yes, the King Lear clue is an &lit – ‘play with regal family taking precedence’ is a description of what happens in King Lear, and also a cryptic clue for it.
As for Freon, it was banned in the 1987 Montreal Protocol because of the ozone hole, so it should be somewhat familiar.
I was somewhat relieved to get a straight Paul price puzzle with no elaborate themes or cross-references.
I enjoyed this puzzle and was really pleased that I could finish it.
My favourites were PUNJABI, THAT’S RICH and DEMONIC.
I solved but could not parse 1d, 22d, 10d, 1a.
Thanks Paul and Eileen.
Thanks for the blog. Lots of nice clues here; some were very tricky to parse and I didn’t get them all.
I wrote in OPEN-MIC CONTEST for 27a … doh.
Thank you again Paul and Eileen.
I struggled with this one, CARDINAL POINTS took me an age to see and I had to google ‘whitewash’ to confirm TROUNCE. I failed to fully parse PUNJABI and had forgotten the FREON part of FREE MASON.
As usual, for me, these were the answers to my favourite clues.
Not much to add. I agree with Cookie about CARDINAL POINTS. The answer was obvious but I didn’t parse it until the following day!
Annoying since the parsing proved to be so easy. Ah well!
Nice puzzle.
Thanks Paul.
Thanks to Paul and Eileen.
I enjoyed this, but as some others have similarly admitted, while I may have solved the puzzle, I did not parse every answer. (I may have won the battle, but lost the war.)
As an intuitive solver rather than a code breaker, I am left with a sense of dissatisfaction with a complete solve when the reasoning behind several of the clues eludes me. So I do appreciate reading the blog and the forum for the explanations.
I did appreciate a lot of the clues others have mentioned, especially 9a KING LEAR. But I did also like CONSTIPATION, 10d OLD TESTAMENT and 24d ATONE.
Nicely entertaining. Thanks, Paul, and Eileen.
I smiled at CONSTIPATION, and really liked KING LEAR, who did give his family precedence but really shouldn’t have. I managed to parse most answers, some only a while after the event, but OLD TESTAMENT eluded me until I came here. Did anyone else think it inelegant that the clue for PUNJAB started with ‘Pun’? – but that’s a quibble, with so much to enjoy.
Yes, very enjoyable and not too difficult in the end. I too failed to parse 1a, CARDINAL POINTS, though “wordly ways” was a great definition. So, too, “numbers in this” from which, with the crossers, I got 10d, OLD TESTAMENT, only parsing it later.
I agree with Phitonelly and others that 9a, KING LEAR was an &lit, but I was interested in Eileen’s remark that she has no beef about double duty. When I used to do crosswords in a bubble, with no one to discuss them with, I would occasionally come across clues which used a word as part of both the wordplay and definition and think that was rather a clever device. It was only once I started reading this blog and others that I learned that the practice was the subject of widespread condemnation.
I also agree with Phitonelly’s point about Mogadishu: a slight aberration on Paul’s part, I feel.
I’m also driven to question “legs” for ONS in 22d, ONION. “On” as a cricketing term is an adjective, so can’t really be plural. It took me a while to parse this, even though I guessed the answer from the definition early on. This is similar to my query last week about “horses”.
Btw, @Eileen, there’s a minor typo in 19d, DEMONIC: “day” isn’t part of the definition, is it?
I haven’t enjoyed Paul’s puzzles so much as others apparently have recently, it seems. Whilst there were some gems in this one, I had trouble solving several clues.
DEMONIC I couldn’t fathom, but I take it you mean “in DEC” is near Christmas, so put MON I in DEC?
Thanks Eileen and Paul.
Dave Ellison (1 above)
‘I take it you mean “in DEC” is near Christmas, so put MON I in DEC?’
That’s how I read it.
Dave Ellison and tony – that is what I meant.
tony [and Phitonelly] I hadn’t spotted the Mogadishu oddity: I just took ‘Mogadishu’s capital’ as M at face value and didn’t think carefully enough.
I see what you mean about the legs but I think it works for me: would ‘One breaking leg twice’ be any better?
Thanks for pointing out the typo – amended now.
Tony – my apologies for decapitalising you!
We found this, and not as much fun as usual for Paul to be honest, though no complaints about the clues. And 1d was very much his style…
We were held up by confidently putting in AMEND (end of the morning, ie lunchtime, albeit rather early?) for 24d. Doh!
Typo: we found this hard
Mr Beaver @16 = me too for AMEND which made the 2 crossers rather harder for a while.
And hands-up, got CARDINAL POINTS handily enough but needed Eileen’s blog to see why.
Thanks Paul & Eileen
I had a little trouble parsing one or two of these, but my main hold-up was putting “amend” in at 24dn quite early on, which threw me out for 26 & 27ac. Duh! “Atone” which l finally got fits the definition even better, but, either way I did like the clue
Eileen
Like you, I hadn’t actually noticed the “Mogadishu issue” till Phitonelly pointed it out.
Yes, I think “breaking leg twice” works fine, and avoids the problem.
I think it’s probably the placing of the inverted commas that’s confused Dave Ellison in 19d, DEMONIC. Should be: “MON [day ] + I ‘in DEC[ember]’ [near Christmas]”, shouldn’t it?
Caps: np
Perhaps Tom had problem said to be common in Somalia (9)
Tony @20
Yes, of course it should – fixed now.