The puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hi everybody. While scchua is away I get to play with a Paul. It wasn’t a clean solve for me as I overslept and started to worry about getting the blog finished before work. So I took a few shortcuts, which obviously dented my enjoyment somewhat. It also means that I don’t have a clear idea of difficulty. I will be interested to hear how you all found it.
I enjoyed the offbeat humour on display, especially in some of the definitions. I think my favourite is the unfortunate gambler in 1d, just edging out the 20a Kipling character. My last to parse was the piece in 2d, so I was happy when I spotted her. Thanks Paul!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a/ 22d |
Examiner made redundant it seems, unconditionally (2,9,5) |
| NO QUESTIONS ASKED — Two definitions, the first whimsical | |
| 9a | Nice place, one captured by painter (7) |
| RIVIERA — I (one) inside (captured by) RIVERA (painter – I think this is the Mexican painter Diego Rivera). Nice being Nice in France, of course | |
| 10a | Design cut out, street artist’s tool blunted? (7) |
| STENCIL — ST (street) + pENCIL (artist’s tool) missing its first letter, or tip (blunted?) | |
| 11a | Soldier on with alder sculpting ornament with branches (9) |
| GIRANDOLE — GI (soldier) + an anagram of (… sculpting) ON with ALDER. A branched candle holder | |
| 12a | Bloomer, very big one breaking heart in metropolis (5) |
| OXLIP — XL (very big) and I (one) going into (breaking) the central letters of (heart in) metrOPolis | |
| 13a | Peak with unidentified primate? (4) |
| APEX — APE X (unidentified primate?) | |
| 14a | Sheets say on end of bed in illusionary realm (5,5) |
| DREAM STATE — REAM (sheets) plus STATE (say) by (on) the last letter of (end of) beD | |
| 16a | Short distance when knocked over caught by punch – as far as possible (2,3,5) |
| TO THE LIMIT — TOT (short) + reversed (… when knocked over) MILE (distance) inside (caught by) HIT (punch) | |
| 19a | Bedtime companion who’s stuffed, head ripped off in vortex (4) |
| EDDY — [t]EDDY (bedtime companion who’s stuffed) with its first letter removed (head ripped off) | |
| 20a | Character of Mr. Kipling’s cake, layered jams (5) |
| AKELA — Our answer is inside (jams) cAKE, Layered. The wolf in The Jungle Book | |
| 21a | Payment admissible, experience nausea? (4,5) |
| FEEL AWFUL — FEE (payment) + LAWFUL (admissible) | |
| 23a | Drunk son has too much, and I don’t say a word! (7) |
| SOTTISH — S (son) + OTT (too much) + I + SH (don’t say a word!) | |
| 24a | Adopted sheep assimilating a range of knowledge (5,2) |
| TAKEN UP — TUP (sheep) taking in (assimilating) A and KEN (range of knowledge) | |
| 25a | Brilliant autumn entertainer with line in book (5,6) |
| ROMAN CANDLE — AND (with) and L (line) in ROMANCE (book) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Gambler who hasn’t been handled very well? (5,4,6) |
| NEVER FELT BETTER — More whimsy: a NEVER–FELT BETTER could be a gambler who hasn’t been touched | |
| 2d | Piece found in here, for example? (5) |
| QUEEN — There is a QUEEN, specifically ER, found in hERe | |
| 3d | Charm of European road crossing country after taking a spin (7) |
| ENAMOUR — On reversal (… after taking a spin), RUE (European road) spanning (crossing) OMAN (country) | |
| 4d | Tile, useful thing that’s pressed on towards the ceiling (7) |
| TESSERA — ASSET (useful thing) which is surrounding (that’s pressed) RE (on), all going upwards in the grid (towards the ceiling) | |
| 5d | Running desperate here, so piddling (3-5) |
| ONE-HORSE — ON (running) + an anagram of (desperate) HERE, SO | |
| 6d | Opening letters from CID, a line is infuriating criminal (8,7) |
| SICILIAN DEFENCE — An anagram of (… infuriating) the letters from CID, A LINE IS + FENCE (criminal). A chess opening | |
| 7d | Significant moment, dad carrying baby before adoption (8,5) |
| PREGNANT PAUSE — PREGNANT PA (dad carrying baby) before USE (adoption) | |
| 8d | Noises from Centaurs, for example, where sauce and honey fed to Polyphemus? (8-5) |
| CLIPPETY-CLOPS — LIP (sauce) and PET (honey) inserted in (fed to) CYCLOPS (Polyphemus?) | |
| 15d | Butcher saving me – from this? (8) |
| VEGANISM — Make an anagram of (butcher) SAVING ME | |
| 17d | Could supporter be on tour of a hot city in Iran (7) |
| ISFAHAN — IS FAN (could supporter be) going around (on tour of) A and H (hot) | |
| 18d | Cocktail of deceit with a drink (4,3) |
| ICED TEA — An anagram of (cocktail of) DECEIT with A | |
| 22d | See 1 Across |
Thanks Paul and Kitty
A couple of slips, Kitty – it’s just REAM for the sheets in DREAM STATE (or you would have an extra S), and with=AND is missing from ROMAN CANDLE.
Favourite AKELA.
Thanks Paul and Kitty
A DNF for me as I had Never Went Better. As in a Never Went Better is a “Gambler who hadnt been” (to the loo) & “handled very well” -> (it) never went better.
Liked everything else.
Clue of the day definitely CLIPPETY-CLOPS – brilliant. Also NEVER FELT BETTER was good. I found this of average difficulty for a Paul, but really enjoyable as always. Thanks to P & K
A fun solve and I think slightly easier than as usual Paul, for me anyway. Loved NEVER FELT BETTER and VEGANISM. I reckon Paul may be in a minority of setters who would dare to put as silly a word as CLIPPETY-CLOPS in a puzzle!
Thank you, Kitty, I never envy the blogger’s job. I can imagine how you felt after sleeping in. So grateful to you for parsing 2d. How silly of me to miss that. I have spent long minutes trying hard to find a chess theme (prompted by 6d) or a certain play (prompted by 14a). Found today’s crossword wonderful and wonderfully funny in places – especially 1d, 8d and 15d.
We put in SLIPPERY SLOPE for 8d, purely because it fitted the crossing letters. The right answer makes far more sense.
Muffin@1 – Thank you! I had posted before proofreading. I’ve corrected the blog now.
Lovely Paul crossword today, a nice mixture of not so hard and a bit of thinking.
Clipping clops a brilliant clue. I also had SLIPPERY SLOPE initially, but the penny then dropped and put a smile on my face.
Best puzzle of the week by some margin, for me. NEVER FELT BETTER, VEGANISM, CLIPPETY-CLOPS among many favourites. I did have to remind myself who Polyphemus was, and learned a new word in GIRANDOLE.
Annoyed with myself as I had DREAM SCAPE which fits the definition and crossers but doesn’t parse fully and would normally be spelt as a single word.
Thanks to Paul and to Kitty.
Well, I did so enjoy Paul’s puzzle this morning…from the very first clue solved in AKELA which had me dyb dyb dobbing away with my woggle on, to the CLIPPETY CLOPS, this was a fun ride. And even at the very last when I stared at loi VEGANISM and wondered why. Until the teatray moment had me awarding this as my clue of the day. Several of these had definitions that almost screamed out their place in the grid before I undertook the slightly more difficult task of parsing them. But Bravo Paul, I say today…
Just to add – I took the painter in RIVIERA to be Diego Rivera – I’d never heard of Arturo.
Beaulieu @11 – That’s strange, I’m sure it was Diego who I found first. But when I went to get a link for the blog, a different Rivera crept in! I will update the blog, thanks.
I agree with beaulieu @11 that Diego was most likely to be the painter Paul had in mind. And I agree with everyone who found this puzzle fun. I was very slow to get VEGANISM by not recognising ‘butcher’ as an anagrind, so wasted a lot of time thinking of famous murderers, no doubt as Paul intended. All my favourites have already been mentioned but CLIPPETY-CLOPS was brilliant (though I confess I guessed the answer from the crossers and then parsed it). Thanks to Paul and Kitty.
Simonc @6 – I made the same mistake
Thanks for the blog. It vexed me all day that I hadn’t been able to parse TESSERA – and couldn’t account for the ‘tot’ in TO THE LIMIT (I’d still like someone to explain this sense of ‘tot’ for me). CLIPPETY CLOPS was a highlight – I’m one of those who spent a while trying to make ‘slippery slope’ fit.
@beaulieu 11 I also had Diego in mind for 9A.
Plenty of smiles and groans as usual from Paul. Where would crossword setters be without Oman?
I was going to point out Diego Rivera but beaten to it.
In our house the former Liverpool football manager is called Klippety, so 8D sprang to mind easily.
Many thanks to Kitty too.
As often with a Paul puzzle, I find the parsing and wordplay to be tortured or bizarre, so I arrived at most of the solutions straight from the definition, with the aid of the enumeration (for the many phrases) plus any crossers. Then, for each, I spend a little time musing over how it could be possible to obtain that solution from the clue.
Menander @15 I made sense of TOT=short by thinking of alcoholic drinks. A TOT of rum. whisky etc means a small measure of that beverage, and a ‘short’ also refers to a small measure of spirits. Other solutions may be available.
Menander @15 a tot of whisky is a short drink, which can also be referred to simply as a short. Balfour beat me to it.
I liked this puzzle and the obvious standout clues. I note that GIRANDOLE is often spelt GIRONDALE by antique dealers. I chose the correct one, which was corroborated by ENAMOUR.
That is a lovely clear blog Kitty, thanks for the pasring of QUEEN; LOI for you and didn’t get around to for me.
Menander@15: alcoholic spirits are measured out as ‘tots’ (e.g. “a tot of rum”) and are also commonly spoken of as “shorts” (because they are only 50ml of liquid and so are “short” drinks compared with a pint of ale or a half of lager).
GIRANDOLE was new, and I didn’t know the painter Rivera, but this was good fun: favourites VEGANISM, the craftily hidden def for AKELA, the poor gambler and the unidentified primate. I held myself up by putting in an unparsed DREAM WORLD.
[7 seconds to correct my typo @19 – failed!]
Hey, I finished one of Paul’s! A very rare event. So rare that unless I’m feeling particularly brave I usually avoid them. But this was good fun.
SICILIAN DEFENCE was the only one I failed to parse. SOTTISH, GIRANDOLE, AKELA & TESSERA were new to me.
I don’t always enjoy this setter, but I’m glad I persevered with this one. Full of wit and aha moments.
Thank you, Kitty, for parsing QUEEN & the TOT party of TO THE LIMIT.
Many thanks, both.
Thank you @Balfour, @Martin and @pserve_p2 – not a drinker so hadn’t heard ‘short’ used that way as a noun; though suspected it might have to do with those tots, rather than the (short) human variety.
NEVER FELT BETTER made me smile. I enjoyed piecing together SICILIAN DEFENCE, too. Kicking myself for not seeing the TOT in TO THE LIMIT.
Triple-ticks for CLIPPETY-CLOPS, NEVER FELT BETTER and QUEEN
By pure cruciverbal coincidence I was singing (badly) Take it TO THE LIMIT just before starting this
Cheers K&P
Great stuff from Paul.
CLIPPETY CLOPS is just a brilliant clue amongst many others in this including VEGANISM and PREGANT PAUSE.
Thanks Paul and Kitty
With QUEEN and SICILIAN DEFENCE I was lured into looking for a chess theme that wasn’t there, but I got there in the end.
Lovely stuff from Paul. I felt that PREGNANT PA, without a question mark to indicate something fishy was going on, was a little mean, and I don’t quite see ‘is’ for ‘could … be’ in ISFAHAN, but I can’t complain about much else — even though there were several clues where I had to parse after I put the answer in. CLIPPETY-CLOPS obviously a standout, but I loved NO QUESTIONS ASKED, ROMAN CANDLE, NEVER FELT BETTER, and VEGANISM almost as much.
I second William’s first paragraph @24 and bodycheetah’s selection @27, but I’d add VEGANISM and FEEL AWFUL to the list.
Only one split entry and mercifully lacking multiple cross-references and dubious sound-alikes. More like this one, please!
Thanks to Paul and Kitty
Just brilliant as ever. Briefly went tulip for oxlip, but actually applauded ‘clipperty clops’. So good. Great way to end the week.
I retract my complaint (@30) about ‘could … be’ -> ‘is’, and it seems quite obvious in hindsight. Just in case anyone else couldn’t see it, an example: ‘could supporter be overzealous?’ -> ‘is supporter overzealous?’
Open to debate, of course, about whether the fact that this only works in questions means that the clue needs a question mark at the end!
I liked 10a STENCIL because Banksy famously uses stencils as tools for his street art. I had to look up Polyphemus to avoid the slippery slope, but it’s always good to learn something new. LOI the well disguised QUEEN.
Thanks Paul and Kitty
I passed 7d as “dad, carrying baby before, adoption”, so PA with PREGNSNT before, then USE. Many clues that made me smile or laugh today, especially CLIPPETY-CLOPS, NO QUESTIONS ASKED, FEEL AWFUL, and NEVER FELT BETTER (I like your parsing as well, Matthew @2!)
Thanks for parsing QUEEN, Kitty, and thanks to Paul for a very fun puzzle!
Yes great stuff from Paul again. Everything has been said I feel. Tx for parsing TO THE LIMIT Kitty. Inexplicably failed on OXLIP having put in that well-known flower the ‘ovlip’. But too much to enjoy to feel sour-grapesy.
I usually struggle with Paul, but today it was in a good way. Lots to like and already mentioned, of which CLIPPETY-CLOPS my favorite.
QUEEN was my LOI, along with a puzzled “surely it can’t be just hERe?”
CLIPPETY-CLOPS my favourite too, a very subtle misdirection from Polyphemus the Argonaut, who fought Centaurs, to Polyphemus the Cyclops?
All you need to know about Diego Rivera right here 🙂
(bleeped version)
A girandole is also “a rotating firework” (Chambers).
All my favourites mentioned already, so I will just endorse the glowing comments from others. Fabulous end to the weekdays.
Ta Paul & Kitty.
ysc@35 I’m very well-disposed to this puzzle and so I’m going to accept that and move on with my life! Thanks a lot 🙂
First ever Paul, so nothing to compare with, but thoroughly enjoyed this romp. Clippety-clops was audacious fun and veganism was inspired. Thanks to Paul, and looking forward to the next one, and thanks to Kitty, especially for 2d which I, like others, didn’t parse.
Thanks for stepping in with the blog , occasionally Paul remembers that he used to be a really good setter . No Prep-schoolboy sniggering , no jumping around the grid and no baiting solvers with stupid soundalikes . Top quality clues throughout so I will just second/third the favourites mentioned .
PREGNANT PAUSE – I had slightly different , not that it matters .
dad=PA , carrying baby = PREGNANT ( before ) then adoption=USE at the end .
I see that Ysc@35 has beaten me to it .
Very good crossword. Put in 1d, then 5 or 6 answers v. quickly then came to a halt for a while! Got back on track with 1d, 6d, 7d and 8d, then finished it off pretty sharpish. Some great clues, as usual for Paul. (NHO Isfahan but worked out it must be that). Thanks.
This was Paul at his best in my opinion. Lots of tricky parsings and aha moments. Only failed completely to parse VEGANISM. Too many favourites to list, but not a single dud clue in there. My GK expanded by GIRANDOLE and the fact that Polyphemus was not just a giant but a cyclops. So clever that clue.
Many thanks to Paul and Kitty.
Welcome, Kitty! Hope you come back, whether or not scchua is available.
Midas@40 I found girandola too and thought that with ROMAN CANDLE we might have a fireworks theme. Nope. (Didn’t think of “romance” as a book either.)
No hope for ENAMOUR, thanks Kitty. And thanks for hERe!
I join in the nomination of CLIPPETY-CLOP for favorite. Using CYCLOPS as a hidden answer is genius!
Thanks Paul and Kitty.
Thanks again Paul – as usual a great puzzle – some great clues and no groans at all! Thanks Kitty for the parse of 2 down! In hindsight – a surprisingly slow solve – took much too long to get the long solutions!
As an aside, I completed yesterday’s online for the first time, – on my phone. I’d left my print Guardian at home. I’m glad I don’t have to do this regularly. I find it really hard when I can’t see the whole puzzle all the time. Also, I didn’t overcome the temptation to check a couple of solutions rather than spend time to parse. This definitely lessened the satisfaction, but I will probably do it on my laptop on holiday.
PS Martin@19 – I’ve never come across an Antique Dealer who misspells GIRANDOLE, but he is probably related to the greengrocers who have trouble with apostrophes
Took me an age to do any clues at all this morning so finally cheated by anagram – solving ‘saving me‘ and looking up a list of Iranian cities. Really started to enjoy it when I got CLIPPETY-CLOP and thought as others here – only Paul! He does so frequently find amusing everyday words and phrases we use all the time and never stop to think about. Thought Kitty’s blog was excellent and my heart went out to her in that predicament! Agreed with Roz @ 44 on PREGNANT PAUSE but not much else as I love Paul’s stupid sound-alikes and his humour generally – not sure what was meant by ‘prep schoolboy sniggering’ other than it was an insult! Why?
Many thanks to the inimitable Paul and redoubtable Kitty.
Comment #50
I struggled a bit, which is par for the course for me with Paul’s puzzles. I did enjoy the AKELA with Kipling’s cake, the Roman Candle brilliant entertainer, the ENAMOUR of European roads, and the dad with a PREGNANT PAUSE. I missed the (h)ER(e) definition.
Thanks Paul and Kitty.
Second puzzle in a row where I only had a couple of entries after scanning the down clues, but was rescued by the relatively benign across ones.
Some real pearlers here. VEGANISM was the highlight for me – a beautiful anagram and surface, and so succinct. The SICILIAN DEFENCE definition was craftily hidden. Ditto the untouched gambler’s one. I thought the TESSERA parse would defeat me, but I got there in the end.
Paul as ingenious as ever. Thanks to him and to Kitty for standing in.
Regarding AKELA, non-British solvers may not be aware that as well as Kipling writing The Jungle Book, “Mr Kipling” (not the same person!) is the largest-selling brand of packaged cakes in the UK.
ISFAHAN by Billy Strayhorn is one of the movements from Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite. Today is apparently World Saxophone Day. I can think of no better way of celebrating it than by listening to Johnny Hodges’ superlative performance of it. Unfortunately I don’t know how to link it.
Zoot @54
Here it is.
muffin @55 Thank you.
“Polyphemus,” I thought -” Cyclops, one eye – ah, I bet it’s something where you have to get rid of all but one ‘i’ from the wordplay, theres no way you’d ever get ‘cyclops’ to fit into an English word…”
Splendid. Paul is ideally positioned on a Friday for me as I now have all day to dredge-up solutions rather than tackling the crossword after a day’s work. Like Gladys@21 I held myself up by hastily bunging in DREAM WORLD having parsed the first word but not the 2nd of course. Took an age to believe it was CLIPPETY-CLOPS, I finally realised it was with just one crosser missing. Once I filled it in the parsing leapt out at me & I marvelled at just how clever a clue it was.
I also parsed PREGNANT PAUSE as ysc@35 & Roz@44
Loi GIRANDOLE was a Jorum which I was pleased to discover I had got right upon googling the word. The clue had me thinking along the right lines however MENORAH didn’t fit.
Only TESSERA remained unparsed before coming here.
Thanks K&P
Brilliant from Paul! Many thanks for the fun