Thanks to Paul for the puzzle – I especially liked 12ac, 25,24 and 26,20…
…and groaned when I recognised the pun for 15ac. JAMAICA is also the theme, referenced in many of the other clues and surfaces.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | KINGSTON |
More than one man mountain somewhere in 15 (8)
|
| definition: capital city of JAMAICA (15ac)
KINGS (more than one ‘man’=chess piece=king) + TON=a very large quantity=”mountain” |
||
| 9, 10 | OPERA STAR |
Love and prayer in 15 breaks through for Willard White, perhaps (5,4)
|
| definition + theme link: Willard White O (zero, “Love” in tennis); plus RASTA (Jamaican religion, “prayer in 15″) breaking into PER=”through” |
||
| 10 | OPERA STAR |
See 9
|
| 11 | MONTEGO BAY |
Python catches boa wandering by say, somewhere in 15 (7,3)
|
| definition: a city in JAMAICA (15ac)
MONTY (reference to Monty Python [wiki]), around both of: anagram/”wandering” of (boa)* after EG (e.g. = “say”) |
||
| 12 | TROPHY |
Hard left turns approaching end of rally – something for the winner? (6)
|
| reversal/”turns” of both: H (Hard) + PORT (left); plus end of [rall]-Y | ||
| 14 | WELL DONE |
Hats off, supply a wrap (4,4)
|
| WELL=”supply” as a noun, plus DONE (‘that’s done’ = ‘that’s a wrap’) | ||
| 15 | JAMAICA |
Was she not given a choice to speak for country? (7)
|
| sounds like (‘to speak’): ‘d’ya make her?’ = ‘did you make her?’ = “Was she not given a choice…?” | ||
| 17 | STREWTH |
Oath’s not a pretence, would Aussie say? (7)
|
| sounds, with an Australian accent (“would Aussie say”), like: ‘s truth = is truth =”not a pretence” | ||
| 20 | ACKEE AND SALTFISH |
See 26
|
| 22 | PATOIS |
Old man’s taken to island, 15 by the sound of it? (6)
|
| definition: reference to Jamaican PATOIS, which can be heard in 15ac JAMAICA
PA (father, “Old man”) + TO (from surface) + IS (island) |
||
| 23 | MATCHMAKER |
One struck by god, Cupid (10)
|
| MATCH (“One struck” as in striking a match to create a flame) + MAKER (“god” e.g. as in ‘meet your maker’) | ||
| 24 | USAIN BOLT |
See 25
|
| 25, 24 | USAIN BOLT |
Favourite from 15 in sprint past team featuring Gatlin, Gay etc? (5,4)
|
| definition: USAIN BOLT the sprinter from 15ac JAMAICA
IN (from surface) + BOLT=”sprint”, both after USA Gatlin and Gay were members of the USA sprint team, and often competed against Usain Bolt |
||
| 26, 20 | ACKEE AND SALTFISH |
A fantastic island chef takes dish from 15 (5,3,8)
|
| A (from surface) + anagram/”fantastic” of (island chef takes)* | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | LISTERIA |
Bacterium in rum real, is it? (8)
|
| “rum” as in ‘strange’ to indicate anagram of (real is it)* | ||
| 2 | AGAR |
Setter in a dress that’s short (4)
|
| definition: AGAR is used as a setting/gelling agent in cooking
A (from surface) + GAR-[b]=”dress” cut short |
||
| 3 | STUMPY |
Belly squeezed by fifth columnist in squat (6)
|
| TUM=”Belly” squeezed inside SPY=”fifth columnist” | ||
| 4 | UNKNOWN |
Nobody drunk now nobody drinks! (7)
|
| definition as in e.g. ‘a nobody’ = ‘an unknown’
“drinks”=’takes in’ to indicate UNKNOWN hidden inside [dr]-UNK NOW N-[obody] |
||
| 5 | COVERLET |
Activation of lever in bed to get warmer at night? (8)
|
| definition: “warmer” as a noun, something that makes you warm
anagram/”Activation” of (lever)*, in COT=”bed” |
||
| 6 | SECOND-BEST |
Inferior boss, decent after training (6-4)
|
| anagram/”after training” of (boss decent)* | ||
| 7 | GAWAIN |
Knight guzzling absinthe, originally on the wagon (6)
|
| definition: the name of a knight in Arthurian legend
original/first letters of G-[uzzling] A-[bsinthe]; plus WAIN=”wagon” |
||
| 13 | PLASTIC BAG |
Thing concluding film featuring final lightweight item (7,3)
|
| BAG=”Thing” (e.g. ‘that’s not my bag’ = ‘that’s not my thing’); after PIC (picture, “film”) around LAST=”final” | ||
| 16 | CHIPMUNK |
Rodent taking wodge around lunchtime? (8)
|
| CHUNK=”wodge”, around I PM = 1 P.M. = “lunchtime?” | ||
| 18 | TRIFLING |
Frivolous throw, cast and pitch? (8)
|
| “throw”, “catch”, and “pitch” are three words for ‘fling’, so TRI (prefix indicating three) + FLING | ||
| 19 | CHUKKAS |
Periods on horseback where British king into himself? (7)
|
| definition: periods of play in polo, played on horseback
UK=”British” + K (King); into CHAS (informal for ‘Charles’, name of the current king) |
||
| 21 | ABACUS |
Counter when a god denied church (6)
|
| A (from surface); plus BAC-[CH]-US=”god” minus CH for “church” | ||
| 22 | PERUKE |
Ralph snatches ‘er wig (6)
|
| “Ralph”=to vomit=PUKE, around ER (from surface) | ||
| 24 | BEEF |
Bellyache – something in 15’s patty? (4)
|
| definition: a ‘beef’ or ‘bellyache’ as in an argument or quarrel
second definition/reference to Jamaican BEEF patties |
Well, I actually finished a Paul and enjoyed it. Time to retire?
“I say, I say I say, my wife is off to the West Indies”
“Jamaica”?
“No, she went of her own accord”
Boom-boom.
Montego Bay by Bobby Bloom now likely to be today’s earworm.
Thanks to S&B
Although I have heard the “My wife went to the West Indies …… No she went of her own accord” joke many times, it took me a while to get the theme word. USAIN BOLT my favourite.
Great puzzle though my brain couldn’t quite deal with 18DN.
Thanks both. Re 17, I thought strewth derived from God’s Truth, adopted like many of these as an exclamation of surprise/vague swear word. I do recall strewth being prevalent on Neighbours so perhaps is a partiucuarly Aussie used word. Not sure I quite buy the Aussie way of saying it’s the truth.
This puzzle felt quite easy in the context of a Paul, but looking back through for a parsing check, it didn’t seem so straightforward. I did parse them all except being a bit hazy on the PLASTIC BAG. It was enjoyable too and I’m glad you agree Billy @1.
JAMAICA was an easy starter; a joke so dusty, I assume it’s approaching its quatercentenary; England (pre 1707) renamed the island in 1655.
In my cultural frame of reference, Willard Whyte, with a Y, is the beleaguered billionaire in Diamonds are Forever. It’s a high-brow/low-brow thing.
I liked CHIPMUNK, PERUKE, TRIFLING, MATCHMAKER and ABACUS among many others. It’s good to see Aussies on the website appreciating STREWTH.
Thanks Paul and manehi.
Absolutely loved this and could blether on about it for ages. But won’t. Will just say that Bolt’s Jamaican 100m relay team beat the US team with Gay and Gatlin into 2nd place to obtain a WR in 2012. So the clue is athletically precise!
I think anyone playing Roz’s “guess the setter” game would have made short work of this 🙂
In checking whether Ralph was in Chambers I found it’s the name of a mischievous imp that plagues print houses – another school day. To me it’s always Ralph and Huey but I managed to bring up the answer from somewhere
I was feeling smug about getting ACKEE AND FISHTAIL until I realised a) it doesn’t exist and b) it doesn’t parse
Cheers P&M
Thanks Paul and manehi
Completed through sheer bloody-mindedness, but didn’t enjoy much – I liked MATCHMAKER, TROPHY, and PATOIS. Lots unparsed.
Posting to elaborate on PERUKE. RALPH is vomit as in “call for Hughey and Ralph on the big white telephone”, one of the euphemisms for vomiting introduced to Britain by Australians, such as Barry Humphries, writing as Bazza McKenzie in Private Eye. Others include “technicolour yawn” and “chunder on the wall-to-wall”.
My faves: JAMAICA (Whatever the homophonofussyists say), USAIN BOLT, PLASTIC BAG, WELL DONE,
STREWTH and TRIFLING.
I thought USAIN BOLT was a CAD (I think Fuddleduddy@7 says the same thing in other words).
Thanks Paul and manehi.
In the Scaffold album, Fresh Liver, they say
“I say, I say, I say. My wife’s gone to the West Indies.”
“Jamaica?”
“No, West Trinidad.”
Followed by laughter. Often wondered how many listeners missed the joke.
Djakarta?
No, she went by train.
The late Simon Hoggart gave us : My wife’s gone to the East Indies. Jakarta? No, she went by plane.
I actually spelt it STREUTH as that’s the way I remember seeing it, though it doesn’t make any difference in the grid of course. MONTEGO BAY was my way into the theme and then I recognised the old schoolboy joke. I confess I didn’t enjoy this as much as I usually enjoy Paul’s puzzles; the humour seemed less evident, but that could just be me. Needed google for ACKEE AND SALTFISH. Still not convinced by the definition of PATOIS, though the wordplay make the answer obvious. Did like CHUKKAS. Thanks to manehi and Paul.
“I say, I say I say, my wife is off to the East Indies”
“Jakarta”?
“No, she took the plane”
[“Willard White was an opera singer born in Jamaica” – Sir Willard is still alive.]
I enjoyed this, though it took me far longer than it should have done to see the hidden UNKNOWN. Fortunately I got Jamaica early on (with a pleased groan) after seeing ‘patty’, and everything went in reasonably steadily after that, though it also took a long time to remember that ‘ralph’ can mean vomit – I’ve only seen it once before in a crossword, I think, and never come across it otherwise. I particularly liked OPERA STAR, especially because I saw the great Willard White in Trevor Nunn’s brilliant production of Othello at the Young Vic – still the best production I’ve seen of the play.
Worth it for the wonderful USAIN BOLT alone. I managed to get the old joke early and all the clues referencing JAMAICA were fair, although I had to work out ACKEE AND SALTFISH from the fodder. I wonder if Paul was still thinking of the homophonic chuckers of vomit when he clued CHUKKAS. Most enjoyable.
Ta Paul & manehi.
I enjoyed this a lot, so thanks, Paul and manehi. I live in an area with a fairly large Jamaican community. Willard White used to be (and maybe still is) a local so OPERA STAR went in very quickly. ACKEE AND SALTFISH is fantastic, if you ever get the chance to try it, and all praise to Jamaica for turning something as bland and stodgy as a Cornish pastie into the spicy and delightful patty. [Barricades house against Truro-based mob.]
I had that slightly nervy couple of minutes where I couldn’t see a way in at all, and then 26/20 occurred to me out of nowhere, which meant everything was, if you’ll forgive me, irie. Enjoyed this one a lot.
It’s nice to solve a Paul where I got the linking word before any of the connected clues. Well it was an old schoolboy joke so my area of specialist knowledge.
Rather counterintuitively I think I was helped by not knowing much about JAMAICA as I had already thought about most the related answers which were, other than Willard White, even in my limited knowledge.
Thanks Paul and
Liked USAIN BOLT, UNKNOWN and CHUKKAHS
Thanks Paul and Manehi
Getting JAMAICA straight away really helped throughout the solve. I perhaps wouldn’t have got the anagram at 26,20 otherwise. Couldn’t quite parse the Bag part of PLASTIC BAG so many thanks for the clarity on that one, Manehi. The Arthurian knight was the last one to the (round) table today. Really enjoyed the Caribbean sunshine of Paul’s puzzle this morning…
Jamaican Independence Day 6 August, says my friend Ken
Bit of a mixed bag. BOLT and ACKEE very nice to lead to the theme, but NHO a PERUKE or Willard White. CHUKKAS, LISTERIA and CHIPMUNK all very good, but felt like there was too much eye-rolling elsewhere for my money.
Now we’ve all managed to stop laughing about Jamaica and Jakarta, two quibbles: can you really just write Python in a clue to mean Monty? We’re not talking about Tom Cruise here, there is no Monty in the group. It’d be like just putting ‘zeppelin’ in the clue to give ‘led’ or ‘house’ to prompt ‘bleak’. You can’t just put one half of a noun phrase in the clue to trigger the other half in the solution.
And for PATOIS doesn’t it need to be ‘of 15’ or ‘from 15’? You’d say Jamaican patois, not Jamaica patois, surely?
Some fun this morning with this. Loved USAIN BOLT and thought CHUKKAS was nicely constructed. Thanks to Paul and manehi.
“I say, I say, I say, my wife’s off to Malawi.”
“Lilongwe?”
“I’ll say – it’s about 5,000 miles.”
Boom boom.
Sorry, Tachi @24, I’ll get me coat.
Thanks for the blog , TRIFLING was very neat and a good anagram for the dish .
I think this confirms that the Paul household got their Christmas crackers very early this year .
Bodycheetah@8 , not playing this week but most regular setters are pretty easy to spot . An Azed clue for you , part of a double so will give both .
Mischievous spirit in river , sacred one , . . . (5)
. . . Which with us leaving river may create such a fiasco (6)
{ Azed ignores hyphens . }
At times this felt more like a GK puzzle and skip the parsing.
And @KVa #10, no homophonofussyists could be annoyed by that old chestnut.
Paul sets as MUDD for the FT , very different style and totally suitable for newer solvers if anybody wants to look today .
“My wife went to Italy”
“Genoa?”
“Of course I do, we’ve been married 30 years…”
Tachi@25: I think the definition for “patois” in 22 is just a little tangential, as it reads “Jamaica, by the sound of it”. You might argue that the very characteristic patois is the “sound of Jamaica”. Talking of tangential, while your point about “monty” and “python” is quite right I think that Paul does not play by the rules (which is why you love him or hate him). Or, perhaps, his rule is more “if I can set it so you can get it, that’s fair and Ximenes be damned”
I saw the first few clues referencing 15 and almost revealed all, as that kind of Paul I usually find impenetrable and unenjoyable.
But I decided to persevere, got Montego Bay then Jamaica, and finally prevailed, and really enjoyed it! Very happy to spot ACKEE AND SALTFISH straight away, a dish I cooked for a Caribbean themed Chri a few years back.
Couldn’t parse PLASTIC BAG and needed wordsearch for CHUKKAS but those are minor complaints.
Thanks Paul and Manehi
I have been away for a few weeks and this is my first Thursday puzzle after the break (Thursdays being the only weekday I can do the puzzle in the morning). I failed due to my lack of general knowledge. I did not know the Jamaica joke, and even when I had the solution and guessed it was a homophone, I still didn’t get it (and I don’t like it that much). I also still do not get the Jakarta joke. I did not know ralph=puke, chukka, streuth and how Aussies pronounce “is truth”, the sprinters Gatlin and Gay (I had heard of Usain Bolt), ackee and saltfish (would not be something I eat), bag=thing, etc. I only finished the puzzle with loads of help from google and by checking random letters. I liked chipmunk. Though I do not have anything against Paul, this was for me not a good first puzzle after a break….
My wife went to the Welsh borders.
Wye?
Search me.
I say, I say I say, my wife is off to the West Indies”
“Jamaica”?
“No, LEEWARD”
Thanks again Paul and Manehi. The usual head-scratching and slow start with a Paul and then the smiles as the solutions fell into place, together with some added knowledge. Thanks Manehi for the full parse of USAIN BOLT. Not familiar with Willard White or PERUKE as a word – although know the French. Hung-up on PLASTIC MAC/BAG for a while till the penny dropped.
#32 DUTCHGIRL – If you are indeed Dutch – congratulations on even attempting the strange ritual of English cryptic crosswords – let alone the Guardian and Paul in particular. This one, I felt, had marginally fewer and mostly less obscure references than his usual!
A pretty similar experience to Sarah@17: took forever to spot the well hidden UNKNOWN and I only know of the whole Ralph/Huey business from crosswords – I guess it’s mainly a lad thing?
KINGSTON was my way into an enjoyable theme (though there are Kingstons all over the world – the one upon Thames, where Saxon kings were once crowned on the King’s Stone, is nearest to me). Certainly easier than some of Paul’s previous geographical efforts, though I needed some assistance from Google with the members of the USA team. I missed bag=thing, so my tentative guess that the lightweight item might be an old-style PLASTIC MAC was wrong.
Thanks Paul and manehi.
Paul used RALPH for vomit in February last year. I was familiar with the term, but had never previously heard it outside of my small corner of Sussex.
Re. OPERA STAR
I think ‘prayer’ in the clue is best read as ‘one who prays’, since RASTA more usually refers to an adherent of the rastafarian religion, rather than the religion itself.
Thanks to Paul for the fun and groans, and to manehi.
Aye-aye@38
OPERA STAR
Agree with you on ‘prayer’.