Guardian Prize 27,352 by Paul

by

Paul is on top form this weekend – the characteristic invention, wit and bottom references are present in abundance.  Thank you Paul.

completed grid
Across
9 HEAD LOUSE Parasite was a parliamentary leader, said Spooner? (4,5)
Spoonerism of “”lead house” (was a parliamentary leader)
10 RECTO Minister detailed one side of the story? (5)
RECTOr (minister, detailed) – the front side of a printed page, of a story in a book perhaps
11 POTHERB Trouble brewing at first, plant in a stew perhaps? (7)
POTHER (trouble) then Brewing (first letter of)
12 IN SHORT Point covered by this or otherwise, to be concise (2,5)
N (north, point of the compass)in anagram (otherwise) of THIS OR
13 NOEL Season as seasona, it’s reported? (4)
seasona is seasonal with NO EL – el is the name of the letter L.  I’m not sure why “it’s reported” needs to be there.
14 CINDERELLA Poor character recalled in rogue (10)
anagram (rogue) of RECALLED IN
16 YANKING Trying jerks in family – something positive about it? (7)
KIN (family) inside (with…about it) YANG (something positive)
17, 7 PRIVATE SCHOOL  Where one may be taught a lesson with ice down jockstrap, might you say? (7,6)
PRIVATES COOL (with ice down jockstrap perhaps)
19 RUBBER DUCK Plaything Aladdin, perhaps, has to avoid (6,4)
RUBBER (Aladdin perhaps, rubbed his lamp) and DUCK (avoid)
22, 15 SOME LIKE IT HOT  Film Keith clued cryptically? (4,4,2,3)
Some Like it Hot is cryptically KEITH – found inside (some) liKE IT Hot
24 PALETTE Whitish gallery hasn’t a range of colours (7)
PALE (whitish) and TaTE (gallery) missing A
25 DIORAMA Model I love in performance (7)
I O (love, tennis score) in DRAMA (performance)
26 ERATO Muse of Homer, a touch inspiring? (5)
found inside (inspired by) monER A TOuch
27 ARRESTING Impressive responsibility of the police (9)
double definition
Down
1 THE PENNY DROPPED It became apparent, then it became a mother or a father? (3,5,7)
if one takes the definition IT BECAME APPARENT and drops the first P (a penny) it becomes IT BECAME A PARENT (a mother or a father)
2 PANTHEON Pub’s opening, soon to host the nation’s heroes (8)
Pb (opening letter of) ANON (soon) contains (to host) THE
3   See 23
4 BUMBLING Awkward adding jewels to one’s booty (8)
BUM BLING would be jewels for one’s booty (bum).  Hee hee.
5 BEHIND Losing seat (6)
double definition
6 GROSGRAIN Padding delicate area, knotted rags – ribbed fabric (9)
GROIN (delicate area) containing (with…padding) anagram (knotted) of RAGS
7   See 17 across
8 DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH In money, pound taken to entertain maiden fair? Absolutely not! (4,4,2,5)
DOUGH containing (with…in) anagram (pound) of TAKEN containing (to entertain) M (maiden) then MELA (fair, in India)
15   See 22
17 PICADORS Best honours, we hear, for Spanish fighters (8)
PIC ADORS sounds like “pick” (best) “adores” (honours)
18 AROMATIC Perfumed lorry carrying odorous muck around, initially (8)
ARTIC (articulated lorry) contains first letters (initially) of Odorous Muck Around
20 BALLAD Note in plain song (6)
LA (note, of the scale) in BALD (plain)
21 DEEJAY Track player, runner and winger (6)
DEE (river, something that runs) and JAY (winger)
23, 3 HORSEFLIES Swimming fish, or else biting insects (10)
anagram (swimming) of FISH OR ELSE

definitions are underlined

I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords.  If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.

31 comments on “Guardian Prize 27,352 by Paul”

  1. Thank you Paul for a wonderful crossword and PeeDee for an easily assimilated blog, which helped me either understand of reinforce several parsings. Favourites were HEAD LOUSE (sorry muffin but I love them), BEHIND and RUBBER DUCK. But I could have mentioned many more. SOME LIKE IT HOT was clever but surely there is no real way of getting there, except from the crossers and enumeration. Once you see it, it makes you chuckle but, for instance, if you had never heard of the film you would be hard pressed to work it out. I got DEEJAY early on from the definition track player (PeeDee you might want to extend your underlining to include player) but although I saw the winger I could not convince myself that DEE = runner; I was used to flower but forgot completely about the old chestnut runner Doh!! Off to do this weeks Prize I hope it is as good as this one was.

  2. Thanks to Paul and PeeDee. I finally got to the finish line but only after some false starts, especially with NOEL, so that the northwest corner remained open for a while. I too got SOME LIKE IT HOT from the crossers and needed help parsing THE PENNY DROPPED. A challenge but worth the effort.

  3. Thanks PeeDee. There were several 1Down moments, although that clue’s parenthood aspect eluded me until now, as did the parsing in the other two long clues. Familiarity with this setter shone a leery light on 19Down: Google brightly confirmed Aladdin was not a brand name. In 2013,for the same answer, Paul clued “One causing friction with sweetheart, finds plaything all soaped up?” All great stuff, as ever.

  4. Thanks PeeDee for another insightful blog of a testing puzzle. Like ACD I got there in the end but made it hard for myself by putting ‘primary school’ in for 17,7. Once that was corrected I knew what 22,15 had to be and could see the hidden KEITH but couldn’t explain it completely until now.

    I must have had a sheltered upbringing because I’ve never before heard of ‘booty’ as a synonym for that region.

  7. Thanks peeped and Paul.. I had told myself I had just “lost interest” in failing on about 3 clues in theNE region..
    But looking at the blog I can see the truth is I was defeated by some pretty tough clues. The parsing for Don’t Make Me Laugh is incredible !

    The clue for the movie (Some Like it Hot) is my favourite I think amongst several.
    Thanks again

  8. s.panza again
    Thinking it over, I think I particularly object when the phrase “Spoonerised” doesn’t make sense, as in the one I was criticising yesterday. “Led House” is a perfectly valid construction.

  9. Top notch stuff from Paul. I thought there was an even greater range of cluing than usual here, and I was delighted to find my own name clued, and so nicely, and such a good film as well! (I was determined to get that early on, so I racked my brain and I think I got it from the enumeration and the O from ERATO, once I realised how the clue must work.) There were a number where it was worth waiting for the penny to drop, and I remember letting out an admiring groan when i got PRIVATE SCHOOL A very slow finish in the northwest for me too, made slower by a feeling that “it’s reported” might be NEWS. I saw NOEL in the end, but did feel that as a surface it was weakened by being based on a word, seasona, that I’m pretty sure doesn’t exist. That quibble aside, very enjoyable, loved the KEITH clue, and a few new words learnt (GROSGRAIN, MELA..), so thanks Paul, and thanks PeeDee.

  10. The penny dropped late for me. Twice in fact: Once when I solved it and again when I parsed it. Nice clue.

  11. Thanks to Biggles A@4 for writing my entry for me – I had exactly the same experience. I thought this was Paul at his witty and inventive best. Thanks also to PeeDee for the excellent blog.

  12. Nice puzzle with Paul on top form. Annoyingly enough NOEL was my LOI and that was the most Pauline clue of the lot!.
    Thanks Paul.

  13. I don’t object when prize puzzles are relatively easy if they are as well-clued as this one. Thanks to Paul and PeeDee. 1D was a favourite. I was pleased to solve it as it saved me from an embarrassing mistake at 16A.

  14. Hadn’t heard of GROSGRAIN before, but got it from letter-matching the crossers.

    I actually parsed PICADORS as “peak” etc, but “pick” is more homophonic (in English).

    Absolutely loved THE PENNY DROPPED, which it did twice: once when I got the answer, and once when I then worked out the parsing.

    DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH: reading the blog, I remember I didn’t bother to fully parse this, just bunged it in when I realised what it was. Not sure I would have understood mela=fair, though I have heard of melas (in particular, Kumbh Mela).

    @BIGGLES A, I think “booty” is modern, part of the slang of rap, as in something to be shaken. Similar vintage to “bling”, in fact, if I’m not mistaken. If you haven’t heard of “booty”, you probably don’t know the delightful portmanteau “bootilicious” either. You do now, anyway.

    @Peedee, “I’m not sure why ‘it’s reported’ needs to be there” (NOEL). Maybe because, strictly, there’s a dieresis over the O?

  18. Maybe muffin, but I am wondering if the majority of posters are like myself and dare I say it, yourself, in that we are retired. Therefore, we have more to do – seeing family, looking after grandchildren etc – at the weekends and therefore less time for the ‘frivolities’ of posting on a crossword blog. During the week where once work ruled we have ironically more time for our pastimes. However, I live the winter in the Caribbean and the summer in Spain, so I can by and large do exactly as I like, when I like, so can, if moved, post anytime.
    As for the Reverend Spooner, I have always felt an affinity for him, at times going around asking my wife if she would like a tup of key or a balk to the weech. She gets very mad very quickly, as I guess would you.

  20. Tony @14 – OED has the earliest reference to booty meaning buttocks as 1959, so earlier than rap. Meaning a woman in general (in a sexual context) it dates back to 1926.

    1959 F. L. Brown Trumbull Park 363 Getting kicked in the booty would be mighty discouraging too.
    1960 N. Florence in P. Oliver Blues fell this Morning vii. 189 I can strut my boody, make my sweet pigmeat.
    1980 Washington Post (Nexis) 4 July c8 ‘You’re cute up there,’ she told singer Esther Williams. ‘You should shake your booty a little. You have a nice booty. Shake it a little.’
    1999 N.Y. Times 12 Dec. ix. 4/3 This is a woman’s best part… A skirt has to scoop under the booty.

  21. s.panza @18, not only fewer comments, but all(?) male ones – I think most of us females, especially those who are grandmothers, are very busy at the weekend – I used to have the time on Saturday for the prize, but no longer do.

  23. Cookie @21, your point was more or less what I was hinting at to muffin. The gender of posters is not always obvious nor is that of the setters – I wrongly assumed that Imogen was female – and as I do not live in the UK and can’t attend any of the Setter and Bloggers meetings I have no chance to get to know any of the personalities. I am by no means a constant on 225, but I do enjoy putting my pennyworth in from time to time, especially to defend setters, who I feel from time to time get unfair treatment.

  26. 19A
    In the days when films were taken to a shop to be developed and printed the tedium of getting stuck behind a London bus at this time of year was somewhat alleviated by a poster on the back that said “A lad in our darkroom will make your prints charming”.

  27. Biggles A, I look forward to having the drop when it appears in one of your crosswords (though I’m not sure which of you Johns you are, as John Graham is usually named first).

    Peedee, none taken: I wasn’t being sarcastic; I really meant it. Thank you.

  28. Pino, similarly there’s the lament of one irked by the slow turnaround in photo-processing: “Someday my prints will come”.

  29. Thanks to both for a marvellous way to spend some of my retirement time in the antipodes. That answers a couple of questions somewhere along the way.

    13 – the “reported” needs to be there because what is missing is the letter L, so the way of saying it is “no el”.

    I always enjoy Paul crosswords but it did take me some time to get into this one, seeing it started with one of those other contentious things – a spoonerism – and I do struggle with them.

  30. My first thought for 22,15 was THE KING AND I (Keith being an anagram of THE K & I), so had to think again when I found it didn’t fit.

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