Guardian 27,691 – Paul

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I found this a bit of a curate’s egg, somehow lacking the Paul trademark wit; I wondered whether it might be (like another puzzle a few weeks ago) the result of one of Paul’s masterclasses, with clues from multiple contributors. The SE corner was a bit troublesome, with an obscure (though easily-clued) word intersecting the answer to a clue with a wrong enumeration (on past form this may be corrected later in the day). Thanks to Paul

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. DISTURB Ultimately joyless sex in retirement, tender embraces from behind prove unsettling (7)
Reverse of [joyles]S RUT (sex) in reverse of BID (a tender)
10. SINGAPORE Country music performer pitiful to hear? (9)
Homophone of “singer” + “poor” – slightly iffy, at least to me, as I don’t sound the G in “singer” but do in “Singapore”. Other accents are available, of course
11. AFTERSHAVE Sweet to eat something fragrant (10)
AFTERS (sweet, pudding) + HAVE (to eat)
12. BANG Fringe cut straight, precisely (4)
Not sure about this: I it could be a truncated BANG[S] (a fringe), with two rather similar definitions, the second as in “bang on”; or is it singular BANG as a “fringe cut straight”? Chambers gives “a fringe, hair cut straight across the brow (often in pl[ural])”, so I suppose this is more likely
14,5,9. OUTSTANDING IN THEIR FIELD Where scarecrows are doing a great job? (11,2,5,5)
Double definition
18. TRADE SECRET Setter cared to mess around? That’s none of your business! (5,6)
(SETTER CARED)*
22. ADAM’S APPLE Lump in throat, as computer giant in the hands of sinner? (5,5)
ADAM is the sinner and APPLE the computer giant
25,21. SOMETHING ELSE Not that great (9,4)
Double definition
26,6. HONEYTRAP Alluring lure, perfect individual served up (9)
HONE (to perfect) + reverse of PARTY (individual, as in legal documents), though only half the answer is a down, so “served up” is imprecise; a shame, as it’s otherwise a nice clue that took me a while to parse
27. DECIMAL There’s a point to this medical treatment (7)
MEDICAL*
28. LADRONE Back to steal a pilotless craft, old thief (7)
[stea]L + A DRONE – ladrone is an old Spanish word for a pirate or robber
Down
1. DEFEAT Skilful wrapping each in foil (6)
EA in DEFT
2. SWEATY Hot and moist, place cakes wearily at first on base of tray (6)
W[earily] in (“caked by”) SEAT (place) + [tra]Y
3. UNDERCOVER Hidden uranium has affected nerve cord (10)
U + (NERVE CORD)*
4. BOSCH A hundred bunk beds for artist (5)
C (100) in BOSH (rubbish, bunk) – the artist is Hieronymus Bosch
5. INNOVATOR Creative thinker in rock star’s overcome (9)
NOVA (star) in (overcome by) IN TOR
7. EGOMANIA Asian in time standing for self-centredness (8)
OMANI in reverse of AGE
8. RE-ENGAGE Link again on chains even, funny (2-6)
E’EN GAG (a joke, a funny) in (chained by) RE (on)
13. UNATTACHED Novelty act had tune for single (10)
(ACT HAD TUNE)*
15. TREADMILL Routine quavering made in warble (9)
MADE* in TRILL
16. STRESSED Last of rabbits with hare, say, in a stew (8)
[rabbit]S + TRESSED (with hair)
17. BALSAMIC Wood and silicate not entirely vinegary? (8)
BALSA + MIC[A]
19. OPEN TO Prepared to embrace poet, no alternative (6)
(POET NO)* – an easy clue made hard by the wrong enumeration: (6) instead of (4,2)
20. RETYPE Key once more accessing sleepy terrace from the basement? (6)
Hidden in reverse of sleEPY TERrace
23. MOGUL Big cheese mound (5)
Double definition – an important person and a mound of snow, as in mogul skiing
24. ATOM Basic unit 1-13 of 26? (4)
A TO M – items 1 to 13 of the 26 letters of the alphabet

40 comments on “Guardian 27,691 – Paul”

  1. Seeing as J Halpern sets so many puzzles and is mainly consistent, one of them has to drop in quality. He’s not as good` as Man City and even they dropped 3 points last weekend.C’est la vie.

  2. Thanks to Andrew and Paul

    I had no reservations with 26,6 as, from the “Y” of “honey” up through “TRAP” the “individual” element is  “served up”.

     

     

  4. Chugged through this without much grumble, albeit with a lazy biff and dnk or two. 1 and 10a were groans (here, hard g in neither, so the homophone works) and bang was a ?. Ladrone was new, tho a bit of street Italian helped (Sono tutti ladri, questi ….[insert target ‘other’]). Wondered whether opento had become a neologism while I wasn’t looking, but no, just an error. Meanwhile didn’t know mogul the ski mound, forgot the old a-to-m trick, and missed hone=perfect, so honeytrap was a biff.

    All correct, but far from a tour de force of solving. Not to worry, quite fun anyway. Thanks Paul and Andrew.

  5. The definition of a successful farmer as a man outstanding in his field is an old chestnut so it wasn’t a long walk to the scarecrows.

  6. I enjoyed this from Paul, and found it fairly straightforward.  It started slowly but once I saw the answer to the long Scarecrow clue – which I thought was very good by the way – the rest went in quite easily until I hit 19d.  I entered OPENTO imagining it had some obscure meaning.  It was not until I came here that I learned of the incorrect enumeration, after all an error in the Guardian, unthinkable………….. no?   So a, question was this a DNF for me?

    I thought RETYPE was very well hidden.

    Many thanks to Paul and Andrew!!

  8. The second meaning of BANG is probably its adverbial sense, as in “bang in the middle”.

    There were a number of answers which I found only gettable from the definition part and crossers, and on eventually understanding the operator in the cryptic part my reaction was “Really?”. The problem is either the word itself (cakes in 2d, chains in 8d) or its position relative to the operands (beds in 4d, overcome in 5d). On the other hand, I thought ATOM was brilliant because I for one am so trained to interpret small numbers in clues as cross-references. Thanks P&A.

  9. Well after yesterday’s struggle this went in smoothly – apart from the OPENTO neologism – I like that idea ginf@4. I’ve not come across the scarecrow gag before and loved the clue with its pdm. I also thought DECIMAL was neat – although it’s probably been used many times before. The parsing of RE-ENGAGE was beyond me, and the definition of ADAM’S APPLE seemed implausibly weak for a Paul clue.
    Thanks to him and Andrew – no more excuses for not getting on with things today.

  11. Also found this a mixed bag. Some, like 1ac, 5dn and 8dn just seemed too convoluted for their own good but the hidden reversal in retype was clever enough for it to be my LOI. Ladrone was a good example of cluing an unfamiliar (to me) word so it had to be that and a check on google afterwards meant I learned something today. 14,5,9 was also a write-in and FOI. It wasn’t in a christmas cracker but In Our Time this morning on Gawain and the Green Knight described his situation as a honeytrap. I’d already solved 26,6 by then so no credit to Melvyn Bragg for his help with that one. Lots to enjoy here, though, in spite of the error on 19dn and the ambiguous (amtriguous?) bang…I enjoyed trade secret, something else, defeat, treadmill, mogul – lots of good surfaces but a few that just read like crossword clues.

     

  12. Thank you, Andrew, needed your parsing of DISTURB.

    Sorry to say Mr Halpern has been removed from my list of favourite setters.  His style has become to strained for me.  I’m referring to inclusion indicators such as “caked”  in 2d; “chains” in 8d; and “overcome” in 5d.

    I thought the scarecrow gag is terribly passé, but enjoyed SOMETHING ELSE.

    I parsed the second BANG def as Dr Whatson @8.

    Thank you, Paul, but preferred your older wit.

    Nice week, all.

  13. Did anyone else use a word finder and discover SPINTO as the only solution to 19d as a 6 letter word? It’s the dramatic quality of a soprano voice – and I’m now waiting for it to appear in its own right.

  14. I was totally not on Paul’s wavelength for this one. I solved maybe 10 clues then gave up as I did not have enough time to spend on this today.

    I was surprised because he used to be one of my favourite setters.

    I agree that 19d should have bee 4,2

    Of the ones I solved I liked 14/5/9.

  15. WhiteKing @13: yes, after the event, looking to see what I must have missed.  It meant nothing to me, although my wife who has a beautiful voice must have it in spades!!

  17. Previous comments probably explain why I managed to finish this! I usually fail miserably, and feel as if I’ve been tumble dried. Happy days!

  18. Thanks Paul; I BIFD quite a few and thought this wasn’t one of Paul’s best.

    Thanks Andrew; I failed to spot the parsing of ATOM, doh, nice clue though. I wasn’t too impressed with E’EN GAG.

  19. Got up to the honeytrap line, thezed@11, then wanted to replay it but gave up as it returned to the start. Never mind, thanks for the pointer, Melvyn B always great value.

  21. Loved this. Lots of entertaining surfaces and witty word-play. 25ac really was something else and 14 5 9 outstanding. Ladrone new on me. Thanks Paul and Andrew.

  22. Thanks to Paul and Andrew. I am another who found this a it of a mixed bag, not helped by the problem in 19d. Rattled brought about half of it but then came to a grinding halt in the South. Ladrone and that sense of mogul were new to me and those two along with open to (correctly convinced myself it had to be a enumeration error) were last in. However, got there in the end and I liked balsamic and stressed even though they took me an age to get. Overall still an enjoyable challenge and thanks again to Paul and Andrew.

  23. I enjoyed this, even if I wouldn’t include it on the short list of Paul’s very best.  The mis-numeration of 19dn was an obstacle for me also.  I liked the wordplay in UNDERCOVER and UNATTACHED, got a laugh-out-loud PDM with SINGAPORE, and enjoyed the long scarecrow clue even though it is an old joke.  My two top favorites were SOMETHING ELSE and ATOM.

    Many thanks to Paul and Andrew and the other commenters.  This has been a 14ac week of puzzles so far — hoping for a great Friday finish!

  24. Thanks to Paul and Andrew. I took for granted that the enumeration was wrong so did not pause there, but like others I had trouble with LADRONE, BANG, and the second meaning of MOGUL and did not parse RE-ENGAGE.

  27. Got all bar 19d and28a(wrote SPINET and LADETTE) due to that enumeration error, bah! FOI DECIMAL, LOI STRESSED.

  28. Not a vintage Paul and 19dn was a pain. I didn’t consult the on line version until I was left with OPEN TO undone and once I had the answer was obvious. I enjoyed most of the rest but groaned at 20dn which took me far too long to see.
    SOMETHING ELSE which reminded me of one of the late Eddie Cochran’s finest moments.
    Thanks Paul.

  29. As I’m sure you know BillyK @ 26 you need an accent over the ‘o’ in ladrón, called an  ‘Acento ortográfico’ in Spanish.

  30. Thanks for the blog, Andrew, but now I’m really puzzled about what advent you have where you don’t pronounce the g in singer!

    (In mine, poor and pore sound very little like each other

  32. If only to provide some balance, and to recall why Paul is liked by a range of ‘solvers’ (or non-solvers!)…for those of us who aren’t experts, he includes some ‘full’ anagrams (18,27, 13,19) and cryptic/gettable semi cryptic DDs (14+, 22, 25+) to get us engaged and give us some crossers for the obscurer stuff…Unlike the tough guys who have a grid nearly entirely full of words made up of 4 component parts (often including a dubious abbreviation)…keep it up Paul !

  33. Andrew @1a It’s joylesS plus reverse of RUT, not SRUT all reversed, or it would be DITURSB.

    I don’t sound the G in either SINGER (in the US, pronouncing it marks you as coming from New York City, I thought nobody else did until I read Mike @30) or SINGAPORE, but I also pronounce “pore” and “poor” differently.  I thought everyone did.

    Outstanding in their field is a chestnut, though not a crossword one that I know of.  To me it’s a tired old joke.

    “That’s something else!” to me is a statement that it’s something unusual, and possibly great.  It’s not so-so in my dialect.  Apparently it is in the UK?

    I liked ATOM.  The puzzle came together slowly, but I got most of it in the end.

  34. Thanks Andrew and Paul.
    I had BANG as ‘bang on’ cut , where both ‘straight’ and ‘precisely’ are synonyms for ‘bang on’.
    Btw, Andrew, do you mean you pronounce ‘singer’ as “sin’er” ?

  35. Valentine@ 9.41….’something else’  has alternative meanings of ‘not that’  (but something else) and also of ‘great’ . I liked that one.

  36. Thanks both,

    It’s been a long day, so it wasn’t until the tumult and the shouting had gone to bed that I was able to engage with this fully. As others have noted this didn’t have the usual Paul feel to it, so some of it was a bit of struggle. Nevertheless, I got there in the end. Life would be a little bit poorer without the occasional Paul to solve.

  37. Well I loved it and found it full of wit. Loved the scarecrow clue and enjoyed trade secret and something else and singapore, to name a few. Couldnt parse 6 down, and still not convinced by Andrew’s explanation. A gag is funny but surely isnt a synonym for funny? Like everyone confused by open to, deciding it had to be an error.

  39. Singapore, home to our blogger, scchua seems to be in season. In addition to 10A above, yesterday, Wanderer in FT16,039 had 19A State in “wrong” sort of Europe, not EU country (9). Cannot help mentioning my effort as Sayang in FT14,668 17D Island where no pigs are reared (9)

     

     

     

  40. I too cannot understand how it is possible to pronounce singer or Singapore without the “g”. Can someone explain how you do it ?

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