From Guardian Prize Crossword Saturday 12 July 2008
Common abbreviations used
dd = double definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram

Not a very challenging puzzle from Paul, compared with his horrendous July Genius (which I am still struggling with at the time of writing this blog). This one is more of a weekday puzzle that one can solve on the commuter train.

Post Script : It wasn’t until I read the comments to this blog that I took out my finished grid and read around the perimeter and there was a message - HAPPY EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY, MOTHER. What a thoughtful and filial son.

Across
8 RUSH HOUR Cha of RUSH (grass) H (heroin) OUR (the Guardian’s)
9 OWNING Ins of N (opening for neck) in OWING (in the red) - clothes is the insertion indicator
10 EASY ha
11 LITHOGRAPH Cha of LIT (sparked off) + replacement of (art) with RAP (criticism) in William HOGARTH (English artist 1697–1764)
12 HUSSAR Cha of huss (fish) A R (a river)
14 SEAMOUNT SE (south-east or Kentish) amount (aggregate)
15 TAPIOCA Cha of TAP (on tap is readily available) I O (I love) CA (half of cake) Contrary to the equation of pudding with tapioca, I have never been served tapioca pudding once in all my six years in the UK
17 MAESTRI MA (mother) ESTRI *(tries) plural of maestro
20 OCCASION OC (rev of CO) Casio (famous Japanese manufacturer of calculators) N (letter left after taking ‘ever’ from ‘never’)
22 ANYONE A + ins of Y (last letter of rally) in NONE (love)
23 MINCED MEAT One of those reversed anagram clue whereby the answer could well be an anagram clue for ‘team’
24 HEAT dd
25 YEARNS Ins of E (last letter of imaginative) in YARNS (stories)
26 POOH-POOH rev of Hoop X 2

Down
1 HULA-HULA Hula hoop
2 AHOY Hoy is a Scottish island
3 POPLAR Removal of U from POPULAR
4 PROTEST Ins of ROT (bull) in pest (pain in the neck)
5 YOKOHAMA YOKO (Ono, the widow of John Lennon, creator of the song ‘Imagine’) HAM (meat) A to give the Japanese port
6 ENORMOUSLY Ins of US in *(only more)
7 INSPAN Removal of ‘I’ from IN SPAIN (Costa del Sol)
13 SPINAL CORD *(island crop)
16 CHILDISH Chil (e) dish (beauty)
18 RENT-A-MOB Lovely &lit anagram clue *(team born)
19 UNKEMPT Bunk empty (bed lacking occupant) Now take away the first and last letter
21 CRIMEA Crime + A
22 AUTHOR Au (gild) Thor (Thunder God) which Jonathan was (Gulliver’s Travels)
24 HOPI Simple cha for a member of a Pueblo people living chiefly in NE Arizona