Guardian Prize 26,854 by Paul

by

A theme of occupations, often very amusingly defined, characterised this puzzle.

As always with Paul, much wit and amusing surfaces made this a very enjoyable solve.  No real problems, although ROOMETTE was new to me.  I enjoyed the various occupational definitions.

completed grid
Across
8 CANON LAW Long nail securing unsigned church regulations (5,3)
ANON in CLAW.
9 ORISON Prayer shawl initially bagged by hunter (6)
S(hawl) in ORION.
10   See 24
11 SPERM WHALE Huge creature in pram, wheels buckling (5,5)
*(PRAM WHEELS).
12 ABIDED Papers in a sack, remained (6)
ID in A BED.
14 EXTRACTS Scatter around about ten cuttings (8)
X in *SCATTER.
15 GYMNAST Flexible performer gave voice about my flips and tumbles, primarily (7)
MY in SANG (all rev), T(umbles).
17 PERHAPS Extra soft back, hard in the middle, possibly? (7)
H in (SPARE  P) (rev).
20 BASEBALL Wretched party game (8)
A simple charade of BASE and BALL.
22 BARMAN Block housing administrative subdivision for beverage dissemination officer (6)
ARM in BAN.  Our first themed clue.
23 WHOLEGRAIN Description of some bread, how else, in large fragments (10)
*HOW, *(IN LARGE).
24, 10 JUMP LEAD Bound to need clue, one of a pair for a start? (4,4)
A charade of JUMP and LEAD.
25 GANDER Flier placed in mailbag — and erroneously (6)
Hidden in “mailbag and erroneously”.
26 EMACIATE Make thin mice eat a soup (8)
*(MICE EAT A).
Down
1 PAPER BOY Media distribution officer gets money for each item afloat, it’s reported? (5,3)
Homophone of “Pay per buoy”.
2, 4 ROAD SWEEPER  Highway environmental hygienist, one howling on a Greek island, did you say? (4,7)
Homophone of “Rhodes weeper”.
3 CLOSED Fail to break record that’s exclusive (6)
LOSE in CD.
4   See 2
5 ROOMETTE Australian native came across the empty sleeping car in America (8)
ROO (Aussie native) MET T(h)E.
6 DISH WASHER Stuffing reindeer, I demonstrate less love, as gastronomical hygiene helper (4,6)
I SH(o)W in DASHER.
7, 19 TOILET CLEANER Work, blah blah blah, less abundant for sanit­ation consultant (6,7)
TOIL ETC LEANER.
13 DINNER LADY Private school ultimately feeding parent, though not one daughter, as education centre nourishment technician (6,4)
INNER (private) (schoo)L in DAD(d)Y.
16 STAGGERS Condition of livestock causes amazement (8)
Double definition.
18 PLAYMATE Colleague in amateur team finally welcomed by head (8)
LAY (amateur) (tea)M in PATE.
19   See 7
21 ASHRAM Retreat a mockery —that’s about right (6)
R in A SHAM.
22 BIN MAN Male embraced by senior citizen who loves men and women, as recycling operative (3,3)
M in BI NAN.
24 JAIN European agreement in ancient Hindu follower (4)
JA IN.

*anagram

23 comments on “Guardian Prize 26,854 by Paul”

  1. Thanks to bridgesong for the blog.

    I find myself somewhat puzzled by Paul. He seems to me like Jekyll and Hyde. Sometimes I find his puzzles impossibly difficult: other times he is just a hard workout. Maybe it’s me being greatly variable in my solving ability on different days?

    Today I am baffled by the parsing of 22d. I got the answer by having all the crossers and guessing who could fit ‘recycling operative’. Where does ‘senior citizen fit in?

  2. Forget my previous comment.
    I have looked again and I see that Nan is a senior citizen and Bi means loves men and women. When I was younger the phrase ‘swings both ways’ fitted this senior citizen.

  3. chas @1 – a senior citizen who loves men and women could be described as a bi-nan, i.e. bisexual grandmother.

    Thanks to bridgesong for the blog and Paul. Sadly, I was a little disappointed by this puzzle. The job descriptions were amusing but, by and large, it meant that those clues – and many others – were solved from definition alone. A rarity for a Paul puzzle. He got his revenge on me in the week as I failed on his puzzle from a few days ago.

  4. Nice puzzle for the most part but I thought BARMAN and BINMAN Being so close together was a bit sloppy. Still a lot of others to like and Paul never does a bad puzzle. This was one of his easier ones but enjoyable nonetheless.
    Thanks Paul.

  6. Thanks bridgesong. Good as ever, but it fell into place a bit easily. Couldn’t parse DINNER LADY, and, misled by ‘consultant’ in 7,19, for a while had ‘toilet trainer’ which held up 20A as last in. Used a pair of 24, 10s an hour before doing this puzzle.

  7. I loved the informal theme of operatives with their highfalutin definitions (“education centre nourishment technician” for DINNER LADY and 6 others). It’s good when a crossword of this quality is fun as well.

    I got stuck, but fortunately not for long, on 24/10A (JUMP LEAD), which I needed to solve before I could tackle 24D, because I needed the first letter J. I wouldn’t be surprised if others found themselves in the same situation.

    My favourites in a very good set of clues were 15A (GYMNAST), 17A (PERHAPS) and 7/19D (TOILET CLEANER).

    Thanks very much to Paul and bridgesong.

  8. Thanks to Paul and bridgesong. JAIN was new to me, and I was slowed down initially by slight differences between UK and US terms (e.g., JUMP LEAD as opposed to jumper cable, DINNER LADY as opposed to lunch lady, and BIN MAN), but everything was solvable in the long run. Great fun.

  9. Thank you Paul and Bridgesong for a great puzzle and blog respectively. Was I the only Muppet who toyed with BIOMAP for 22d. It fits the wordplay OK, but after that it is hopeless!! Favourites were PAPER BOY and TOILET CLEANER. But, all great fun!!

  10. Thanks Paul and bridgesong.

    An enjoyable puzzle. ORISON was a new, or forgotten, word, but it was in the blog by PeeDee for Brendan’s prize puzzle last Saturday at the end of Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be” speech.

    I, like Alan Browne, took a while to get JUMP LEAD!

  11. Thanks to Paul and bridgesong . Like others I enjoyed the occupations, but as soon as I got the first one the rest were write ins.

    Went to the RSC Hamlet last Saturday – excellent.

  12. Thanks to both Paul and bridgesong.

    I got BARMAN straight away but couldn’t put it in because it wouldn’t parse on the basis of block=bar; so there it sat until PLAYMATE insisted. Thanks to bridgesong for the parse and the teatray moment – in this case a multiple.

    Enjoyed CANON LAW and GYMNAST – but not ROOMETTE which was a new one on me, and a strangely ugly word.

  13. Thanks Paul & bridgesong.

    Good fun and not too difficult for a prize puzzle. I didn’t know JAIN, which as above needed JUMP LEAD before solving.

    I liked the PLAYMATE among others.

  14. The least taxing prize puzzle I’ve tried for a while, but it was fun, and that’s the point, isn’t it? I enjoyed the bureaucratic job descriptions, and I learned one new word (no prizes for guessing it was roomette). Which led me to the Wikipedia entry on sleeping cars and the discussion of the economics of saving on a hotel room by taking a overnight train – I’ve always been a fan of sleepers in Europe, but have clearly never taken one in the US. Thanks to both Paul and bridgesong.

  15. Thanks Paul and bridgesong

    Did this one tonight whilst listening to the football here. Was another who found it a comparatively easier solve than normal for this setter. Funny how we are all the same but different. I thoroughly enjoyed the Newspeak descriptions of the very mundane jobs.

    I am familiar with JAINism as a religion and 24d was my second in and almost a write-in at that.

    No real holdups along the way, finishing in the SW corner with WHOLEGRAIN, STAGGERS (which was only vaguely familiar) and ASHRAM the last few in.

  16. I found this tough in places but enjoyable and amusing. Even I spotted the theme this time. ROOMETTE was new to me too, but very gettable.

    Thanks, Paul and bridgesong.

  17. Very enjoyable – LOI was ROOMETTE, as DORMETTE was a trade-name for a sleeping car in Canada apparently, and I spent a while trying to work out what DOR had to do with Australia. In the end I only got it by cheating with wildcard matching on an online dictionary.
    Thanks Paul and bridgesong.

  18. Thanks all, for your comments. I agree with those that found this on the easy side for a Prize puzzle (but that’s not a criticism). Other than that, there really was very little to say about it, which is why the blog is perhaps a little on the terse side. Given the busy week I’ve had at work, I was just grateful that I was able to get the puzzle solved and the blog drafted by tea time on Saturday.

    As Cookie @10 mentions, ORISON (or rather ORISONS) can be found at the end of Hamlet’s soliloquy, so there was a link to the previous week’s puzzle. It was remembering the word from that speech that helped me solve that clue.

  19. Thanks Bridgesong, especially for explaining roomette. Very enjoyable puzzle though, as others have said, on the easy side for a prize but it did mean I got through nearly all of it at one sitting.

  21. Surely as equally well known as Hamlet’s orison is Wilfred Owen’s:


    What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
    Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
    Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
    Can patter out their hasty orisons.

  23. Thanks Paul and Bridgesong.

    I enjoyed this, not too taxing but fun.

    I had to look up STAGGERS as a disease and ROOMETTE as a sleeping cabin but both were fairly clued.

    The Newspeak job names were all witty.

    24dn reminded me of a crack in a Paul Theroux novel – when encountering an Indian business colleague who announced “I am Jain”, the central character replied “and I am Tarzan. Now let’s get down to business.”

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