Guardian 26,091 – Paul

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After my embarrassing failure to recognise the signifiance of “missionary” in a clue last week, this time the cheeky 3d leapt straight out at me, so to speak, and gave me a nice long one to put in first. I was a little slow to get started on the rest, but made steady progress towards a satisfying completion. Thanks to Paul for the entertainment.

 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. FIST FIGHT Ray, perhaps, not entirely mean to eat morsel of food, a scrap (4,5)
FIS[h] (a ray is a fish) + F[ood] in TIGHT (mean, stingy), and a scrap is a fight
6. SCAM Fraud no PCs will back (4)
Reverse of [Apple] MACS, which are not PCs (though of course they are Personal Computers, but Apple’s own advertising makes the distinction)
10. OLDEN Ancient, somewhat wizened looking from the rear (5)
Hidden in reverse of wizeNED LOoking
11. LIABILITY Debt of £1 on gift (9)
L1 + ABILITY (gift, talent)
12. ROMANIA God welcoming national state (7)
OMANI in RA (Egyptian sun god – a crossword regular, though I don’t remember seeing him much lately)
13. EXTRUDE Force out old terrorist leader, boorish (7)
EX (old, former) + T[errorist] + RUDE
14. STRAIGHT FLUSH Fair to wash hand (8,5)
STRAIGHT (fair) + FLUSH (wash) to give the poker hand
17. MILK CHOCOLATE Drink in hemlock, it’s poisonous as sweet (4,9)
COLA (drink) in (HEMLOCK IT)*
21. CANDIDA Frank, a cause of irritation (7)
CANDID (frank) + A. Candida is a genus of yeast like fungi that cause skin infections
22. DROPPER Cap removed from element by GP, one releases medicine (7)
DR (GP ) + [C]OPPER
24. SLOVENIAN Reversible fasteners pinning baker, European (9)
OVEN (baker) in reverse of NAILS
25. DRUID Priest managed to screen scrummy entertainment? (5)
RU (Rugby Union, which involves scrums) in DID
26. PEEK Look to get sound from woofer (4)
Homophone of “Peke” (dog)
27. TOLERABLE List including unlimited dance music, OK (9)
[B]OLER[O] in TABLE
Down
1. FLOURISH Succeed, like something powdery? (8)
Double definition
2. SODOM Biblical city like this, with kind of effect half erased (5)
SO (like this) + DOM[ino], from the “domino effect”
3. FINANCIAL TIMES Pink organ inelastic, if man excited (9,5)
(INELASTIC IF MAN)* – marvellous! (For those who don’t know, the Financial Times is printed on pink paper.)
4. GOLIATH Climbing back into pig monster (7)
Reverse of TAIL (back) in HOG
5. TEA LEAF Tiny thing bagged for a nicker? (3,4)
Double definition – a tea leaf is tiny, and found in a tea bag, and it’s also cockney rhyming slang for “thief”
7. CHIHUAHUA Vital force left out of dance, doubly for ankle-biter (9)
CHI (life-force, in Chinese medicine) + HU[L]A, twice. “Ankle-biter” is slang for a child, but I suppose it could equally well apply to a small dog
8. MAYHEM Chaos, with one of twelve on the brink (6)
MAY (on of twelve months) + HEM (edge, brink)
9. LIFT OUT OF ORDER Flit suggested — so take flight, then? (4,3,2,5)
“Lift out of order” could be a clue for FLIT, or an instruction to take the stairs
15. ROMAN NOSE Bad manners with old twins a prominent feature (5,4)
(MANNERS O O)*
16. BEGRUDGE Ask Dickensian to feel resentment (8)
BEG [Barnaby] RUDGE
18. CHARIOT Vehicle in which cups and saucers might be thrown around? (7)
Cha=tea, so the cups and saucers might be thrown around at a CHA RIOT
19. ORDINAL Maybe second test outlines racket? (7)
DIN (racket) in ORAL (test, exam)
20. ACTS UP Wildcat taking drink is naughty (4,2)
CAT* + SUP
23. PLUMB Second fruit? Exactly (5)
The first fruit could be plum A, the second PLUM B

18 comments on “Guardian 26,091 – Paul”

  1. Reading Andrew’s preamble leads me to think that he has been listening too much to ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue’. A typical Paul puzzle I thought, and I learnt a meaning of ‘candida’ new to me. Without wishing to join in the innuendo, the stand out clue for me was 17a.

  2. Thanks, Andrew. Paul gets more and more like Araucaria, not for the innuendo of course, but because you know you’ll get there in the end, even when he’s being devious.

    Some really excellent clues which I progressed through steadily, apart from an early hold up on 25ac, where I was trying to find a way of making DA “managed” so as to screen Eli and thus produce Delia!

  3. Thanks Andrew. Half an hour for this, all champagne stuff, beginning with the outrageous 3d. Hardest for me and LOI was 1 across. So much tol like, including the CHA RIOT.

  4. Managed this with some checking, but no cheating. Strange to say Molongo @3 that when I read 1ac as the first clue I immediately guessed FIST FIGHT, which I then could not see how to parse. Thanks Andrew for enlightening me.
    I was held up for quite a while by the bottom half, particularly the SE corner. It was a very enjoyable tussle,with my favourites being LIFT OUT OF ORDER, CHIHUAHUA and of course the wonderfully clued FT. Thanks Paul!

  5. Thanks, Andrew, for the blog.

    Great entertainment! Favourites: MILK CHOCOLATE, FINANCIAL TIMES, TEA LEAF, LIFT OUT OF ORDER and CHARIOT.

    Many thanks to Paul – most enjoyable.

  7. Thanks, Andrew. I was slow to get started with this, but made steady progress after that. The FT clue was priceless! CHARIOT and LIFT OUT OF ORDER also made me smile.

  8. Great entertainment. Many thanks both.

    3d – I know it’s an old joke but OMG – how does he get away with it.

  9. @NeilW #2 – I too tried for ages to squeeze ELI into DELIA (as it were) with no joy – fully expecting to later discover why DA meant managed – maybe some new managementspeak acronym coined since I left the world of work.

  10. Thanks, Andrew – you had a lucky draw today.

    Enormous fun, though fleeting, as I raced through it. My favourites were exactly as Eileen has listed @5.

    As NeilW says @2, Paul gets more and more like Araucaria, both in the ingenuity and variety of his clueing and the surreal surfaces; he isn’t one of those setters who try hard to ensure that all the surface readings make perfect sense. Although I value good surface readings, Paul’s crosswords provide so many smiles (and quite a few sniggers) that it doesn’t seem to matter.

  12. Not too difficult for Paul – I got fist fight without understanding why, and like others rejoiced in the pink un. And the flit.

    You comment that Ra has not appeared much lately. However, cha does all the time. Does anyone actually use cha for tea (I know there is chai, but that is different surely)?

  13. Thanks Andrew and Paul

    Very entertaining with lots of clever cluing and an admirably light touch.

    Favourites at point of solving were 1d, 3d, 7d, 9d, and 18d but I agree that others’ chooices were also very good.

  14. Thanks Paul, entertaining as ever.

    Thanks Andrew; I was going to complain about the ‘B’ in PLUMB being out of order, like the lift 😉 until I saw your parsing.

    The LIFT, FT and CHARIOT were also my favourites.

  17. I think that this is another Paul puzzle that isn’t too difficult but is still good fun.

    I had the most trouble in the NW. For a while at 1ac I was thinking that the “ray” in the clue was referring to “light” rather than the more obvious “fish” so I was trying to think of a “l??? fight”. Once I solved the SODOM clue I saw the answer to 1ac at last, which then gave me enough checkers to be able to get the excellent FLOURISH. OLDEN was my LOI, which is always the sign of a good hidden clue, reversed or otherwise.

  18. Slow start but then got exponentially quicker.

    Lots to like as ever with Paul. I must be developing an immunity to Paul as I failed to see the innuendo in 3d!

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

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