Guardian 26,313 by Paul

by

Well its Paul so we expect a bit of rudeness and lots of playful word play.

And that’s what we’ve got, there seemed to be an awful lot of initial and last letter stuff when I was writing this up.

Thanks Paul, there were a few to ponder over here.

Definitions underlined where appropriate.

completed grid

Across

1 Those spotted behind bushes, office heads in women’s clothing (6)
BODICE
B(ushes) O(ffice) & DICE (spotted things)

4 An icon of literary espionage? (6)
SMILEY
Double cum cryptic def, ref. George Smiley and one of these 🙂

9 Fifth off 2 or 3 perhaps, to be formal (4)
PRIM
2 and 3 are prime numbers so PRIM(e) losing its fifth letter

10,17 Not one to criticise, deviant threw shoe — some joke! (5,5,4,5)
KNOCK KNOCK WHOS THERE
KNOCK – in crib and other games it indicates one can’t go i.e. have no cards suitable so “Not one”, KNOCK criticise & [THREW SHOE]* deviant

11 Bird thrashing about (6)
LINNET
TEN – NIL reversed which is a thrashing in some sports.

12 Captivated by yeti, many drooled over potential killer (8)
DYNAMITE
hidden reversed in yETI MANY Drooled

13 Oddly sexy, innit? (5-4)
SIXTY-NINE
Well, it is a Paul crossword. [SEXY INNIT]* oddly making it an &LIT

15 Relative in rocking chair, drama queen, all conclude (4)
GRAN
last letters of rockinG chaiR dramA queeN

16 See 2
SEE 2
See 2

17 See 10
SEE 10
See 10

21 Reprimand a little bit hasty (8)
SLAPDASH
SLAP reprimand & DASH a little bit

22 Fill vessel among others containing yummy starters (6)
OCCUPY
CUP in O(thers) C(ontaining) Y(ummy)

24 Pet notes for fliers (10)
SPOONBILLS
SPOON pet as in kiss and cuddle & BILLS (American notes)

25,23 No excuse carving initials in yellow snow (4,5)
NOSE CANDY
NO & E(xcuse) C(arving) in SANDY (yellow), snow as a drug reference

26 Newly-delivered cargo brought over, including last of money and diamonds (3-3)
DAY-OLD
last of moneY in LOAD reversed & D(iamonds)

27 See good artist turning over knitting pattern (6)
ARGYLE
ELY (a see) & G(ood) & R.A. all reversed

Down

1 Italian artist — sculptor finally embraced by country, Italy (7)
BERNINI

(sculpto)R in BENIN & I(taly)

2,16across Person wandering up mountain, once a fast driver (5,4)
DAMON HILL
NOMAD reversed & HILL (mountain well ish), I expect he’s still quite a quick driver.

3 Cook emptied tea out in kitchen container (4,3)
CAKE TIN
[C(oo)K ATE]* & IN

5 End of battle among soldiers on surface of great Chinese river (6)
MEKONG
Knock Out (end of battle) in MEN (soldiers) & G(reat)

6 Chinese retreat, 32 days? (4,5)
LONG MARCH
32 days would make a rather longer than usual March. Another Chinese, was Paul a bit hungry when setting this and dreaming of a takeaway? 🙂

7 Did you hear, I’m repulsed by the sight of a sunbather in Mexican state? (7)
YUCATAN
Bad pun time, sounds like YUCK, A TAN

8 Force man into the loo, a drunk this battered? (4-2-3-4)
TOAD-IN-THE-HOLE
DINT (force) & HE (man) in [THE LOO A]* drunk

14 System in which one calls plastic polythene (9)
TELEPHONY
[POLYTHENE]* is “plastic”

16 Nerve required to enter place housing choppers? That’s here (7)
HELIPAD
LIP (nerve, cheek) in HEAD place for teeth – choppers giving a place for helicopters – choppers

18 Carrying poles, trail back (7)
SPONSOR
N & S poles in SPOOR trail

19 Majority to ditch leader in mature response (7)
RIPOSTE
(m)OST majority in RIPE mature

20 Fish finds river in scene of chaos (6)
BARBEL
R(iver) in BABEL where the Tower of Babel comes from [Edit: definition underlining corrected]

23 See 25
SEE 25
See 25

*anagram

29 comments on “Guardian 26,313 by Paul”

  2. Much obliged flashling. For the life of me, I couldn’t parse 25,23.
    Very jolly puzzle I thought

  3. Many thanks for the excellent blog flashling. I am a great fan of Paul’s puzzles (and this didn’t disappoint – thanks Paul!) but there were a couple where I struggled a bit with the parsing.

    One minor comment. With regards to 10, 17, I took “Knock” meaning to criticize (as you did) and then “Not one” meaning that there were two instances of it. Your reading may well be what Paul intended however.

  4. Thanks for the blog.

    For 10/17, I took it to be ‘knock’ = criticise, and ‘not one [but two]’ of them.

    On 13, I was convinced at first that the answer was ‘Essex Talk’ being the odd letters of ‘Sexy’ ie. ‘S’ and ‘X’.

  5. Thanks for the blog, flashling [especially for 25,23] and Paul for a fairly tough challenge, I thought.

    I took 10,17 as Rick and Aoxomoxoa did, though your reading makes equally good sense – but it’s dominoes rather than card games, I think. I got this one early on, so thought it might be intoducing a theme.

  6. @Eileen I’d come across KNOCK in cribbage and dominoes but it could quite easily have been “more than one” as suggested.

  7. HI flashling

    Yes, on reflection, I think you’re right – I used to play both games with my grandpa. 😉

  8. Thanks flashling. This was excellent, not least for the tricky little end definitions like snow in 25,23 and back in 18D. So much to like, eg the ten-nil thrashing, and last in SMILEY (preceded by MEKONG, also very nice. Thanks Paul.

  9. I agreed with the two ‘criticises’ at 10,17 – my favourite clue.

    Shall say nothing about E for excuse and C for carving!!! In my LOI!!!

    A little tougher than previous days but that made it all the more enjoyable.

    I got 5d as E in MK ( soldiers in Africa somewhere) + ON + G but that might be complicating things!

    Thanks both

  10. Sorry, I have just got the E and C bit – initials!! How stupid of me not to see that. I retract my previous non-comment!,

  11. Thanks Paul for an enjoyable solve.

    Silly pun time: KNOCK KNOCK? WHO’S THERE? Paul! Paul who? Paul up a chair and I’ll tell you! 😀
    YUCK A TAN indeed.

    Thanks flashling; I couldn’t make the anagram of ‘yeti many’ make dynamite however I tried. I just assumed it was an error. 🙁

    I particularly liked LINNET and LONG MARCH. I was another KNOCK KNOCK being not one of them but two.

  12. P.S. KNOCK KNOCK? WHO’S THERE? Paul! Paul who? Paul hard, the door’s stuck again! 😀

    I’ll get me coat!

  14. I think Sam and Janet evening is the best of its kind.

    Then there’s Butcher left leg in. And from the dear dead days beyond recall –

    Chester song at twilight,
    Wendy lights are low,
    Andy flick’ring shadows
    Sophie come and go.

  15. Finished, after a grim struggle, and with no understanding of 10,17a, 5d, 7d, and 8d. Thank you flashling for the explanations.

  16. Thanks Paul and flashling

    Started off easily enough with GRAN … but there certainly was some work to get to NOSE CANDY at the end.

    NOSE CANDY was probably my favourite – it took an age to actually get … and nearly as long again to understand how to derive it from the cryptic part. LONG MARCH was a close second … and the smutty SIXTY-NINE not far behind them.

  18. Well NOSE CANDY took a bit of getting and I got DAY OLD by guess work rather than by understanding the clue. Still, rather a good puzzle I thought.

  19. Thanks Paul and flashling
    Several great clues, but I gave up on NOSE CANDY (not helped by there being a letter in common). LINNET was my favourite.
    I’m not a fan of “country” for “Benin”. There are an awful lot of countries to choose from, so this was a clue that could only be solved “backwards” – i.e. guess the answer, then parse.

  20. Enjoyed this entertaining workout a lot, but failed to complete the last two (NOSE CANDY and LINNET) at lunchtime so they had to wait for the journey home. Liked LINNET – thought of it quite early but it took me ages to see why ten nil worked – a real doh moment to finish on.

    Thanks to flashling and Paul

  21. Excellent puzzle as always from my favourite setter. Thanks for the blog, flashing. Thanks so much, Paul. Yucatan @7D is for me the COTY !

  22. At first I thought I was going to struggle with this one, but after a couple of answers went in the rest of it fell into place reasonably quickly. NOSE CANDY was my LOI, and I agree that it wasn’t an obvious spot because of the common checker.

    As soon as I saw SIXTY-NINE I thought “that’ll be a ‘Completed’ from George Clements then”. Each to their own, and I thought it was extremely amusing.

  23. Thanks, Paul and Flashling for a tough solve. In your completed grid, Flashling, you have a ‘Demon’ typo at 2d.

  25. Here I am late as ever.

    I found this one of the hardest puzzles I’ve done for a while but excellent for its surfaces e.g. 14d and jollity.

    I didn’t parse LINNET but that was a corker too.

    TBH I had to get a few with crossings checkers and then work out what worked.

    Many thanks all.

  26. My favourite setter, really does make me laugh out loud.LINNET & innit were especially good. Thanks Paul

  27. Er…not completed! Bottom left caused major problems. For linnet had signet ; emblem for smiley ; failed on nose candy, and lots in BL. After yesterday 2 bad days.

  29. Thanks all
    Very tough I thought and nose candy defeated me but there were some delights including 13 ac.

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