Harder than the average Paul today – or maybe my brain is slow in sympathy with this BT Broadband connection.
ACROSS
8 THERE ARE NO FLIES ON HIM – tracksuit bottoms rarely come with zippers (“flies”)
10 D(RUM)ROLL
11 Y(AR)BO-ROUGH : i.e (BOY)* with A R(ight) inside plus “ROUGH”. A Yarborough is a bridge hand with no “points” i.e only the cards between 2 and 9. The eponymous Earl used to offer 1,000 to 1 odds on it happening. He was no fool ; the real odds are almost twice that and he never (reportedly) paid out.
12 D(AMP)EN – “Watt” is the unit of power, but if electricity is “power” then the “Amp” is one of the units of “power”. Moan, moan, whinge.
14 Omitted on purpose – anagram
15 ??? – I didn’t get this yet. Help welcome.
17 A(LSO)RAN
20 MAR-CELLO
23 CHILD’S PLAY
24 RARE : as in meat cooked that way being red. A blue moon is very rare. Is Paul also playing on the fact the French describe very rare meat as “bleu” (blue) ?
25 MUDDY WATERS
26 E-QUALISE – (I SQUEAL E)
DOWN
1 CHORDATA : (ACTORHAD)* – spent too long looking for a British geographical reference, but it is in fact the group of animals to which we human belongs – reference to our (spinal) chord, I suppose.
2 B-RIM
3 C(ANY)ON
4 H(EARS)AY : “ears” as “word processors” is a real stretch, but the answer is unmistakable when you see it, which is the way I assess clues for fairness.
5 CO(LOSS)AL : Reference to Margaret Thatcher’s problems with the miners in the 1980s. “Noire” is a particularly pleasing touch, as coal is in fact black.
6 T(H)ROUGH-OUT
7 E(MIG)RE
13 P-IN-A-COLA-(so)DA : A trademark piece of Paulism. I spent way too long looking for “LIME something” thanks to the SODA reference.
16 BULLS EYE
18 A(I)RB-RUSH : (BRA) reversed (strange image!) with “I” in it plus RUSH
21 AT HO(s)-ME : ATHOS was one of the Three Musketeers
22 WA(YOU)T : So soon after Tuesday’s “ANGKOR WAT” we have another WAT today. I’m not wise in the ways of Buddhism – I just know the word from playing too much “Tomb Raider” on the Playstation.
14ac WAN(NAB)E – a wannabe is a hopeful
Sorry, that should have been 15ac (eyesight failing)
Stan
15 ac. wannabe, nab (catch) in wane (fall)
I thought this was pretty tough today as well, although the answers were all very satisfying (bar 11ac). Thanks for the explanation (and story) of “yarborough” 🙂
Some cracking clues here. Nice &lit (though very easy) for 2dn, and clever misdirection in 21dn. And the surface of 13dn raised a good schoolboy snigger from me.
Chordata and wannabe (with 4/7 unches) held out for a while, but I enjoyed this a lot. I thought ‘word processors’ for ears was great, I like little CDs buried in wordplay like that. And 16d was lovely.
I must have a totally different mind to normal people, as I usually find Paul tough, and this one was much easier for me. But I am an Araucaria lass, so my mind is already twisted beyond recognition. Strangely enough, 18d gave me the most trouble – it was the last one I got.
Enjoyable puzzle – I’m becoming a bit of a fan of Paul at last.