Guardian Prize 26,519 by Paul

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A plain, unthemed (unless I’ve missed something) prize puzzle from Paul this week.

completed grid
I found it harder than some recent puzzles from Paul, with some subtle wordplay and definitions.  In fact, I nearly put it aside unfinished, before realising that it was my turn to blog.  In the end there were plenty of ticks on my copy of the paper, particularly (for some reason) among the across clues.
Across
1 CHARLIE
Dope — or another drug? (7)

Double definition, I think; a Charlie (or Charley) as in the phrase “a proper Charlie” and also (only as Charlie) as slang for cocaine.
5 ENGAGED
Busy valley recalled, funny cutting through it (7)

GAG in DENE(rev).  I wasted a lot of time looking for something that would go inside DALE.
9 NAHUM
Minor prophet seen by a drone on the far side of Afghanistan (5)

(Afghanista)N A HUM.  A simple charade, with “the far side” being used to denote not just that N is the last letter of Afghanistan but also that the rest of the answer follows it.
10 EXCHEQUER
Retired proofreader on the phone in the Treasury (9)

Sounds like “ex-checker”.
11 READERSHIP
Those studying a particular book praised her novel (10)

*(PRAISED HER).
12 ETON
Public school stomached, by the sound of it? (4)

Sounds like “eaten”.
14 CYBER ATHLETE
Competitive computer gamer in battle with cheery misfits? (5,7)

*(BATTLE CHEERY).  A phrase that has yet to appear in Chambers, but it’s clearly well-established.
18 EXTERMINATOR
Stealing kiss, mean rotter, I suspect, a Dalek? (12)

X in *(MEAN ROTTER I).  Those not familiar with the BBC TV series Dr Who may not know that, traditionally, the Daleks (mechanical monsters) issue orders to kill their victims in this way: EXTERMINATE!
21,20 CHIP AND PIN
Two terms on course for payment method (4,3,3)

Cryptic definition, referring to a golf course, where the terms have a rather different meaning.
22 STRING BEAN
A number of horses head for vegetable (6,4)

A simple charade, although “bean” for “head” now seems rather dated slang.
25 BAR MAGNET
Member in container with catch in drawer (3,6)

ARM in BAG, NET.  I very much liked “drawer” as a definition, allowing a subtly misleading surface reading.
26 PLUMP
Round fruit, first to peel (5)

PLUM P(eel).
27 ENDORSE
Back edge, or middle of itself (7)

END OR (it)SE(lf).
28 ENTRAIN
Carry along retrospective pictures in a square (7)

ART in NINE (all rev).  I didn’t read “retrospective” as referring both to the contents and the envelope, which held me up a bit.  This is the second meaning of “entrain” in Chambers.
Down
1 CANARD
Club, perhaps, filing an inaccurate report (6)

AN in CARD.
2 ASHRAM
A fake about right for secluded building (6)

R in A SHAM.  As an ashram can be a community, I wasn’t sure that the definition here was particularly precise, but the wordplay left no room for doubt.
3 LUMBERYARD
Trudge over a distance to find boarding house in America? (10)

A clever charade of LUMBER YARD.  I was surprised to discover that LUMBER has no fewer than 4 separate meaning; “trudge” seems to be the second, in Chambers anyway.  And the definition refers to the first meaning which, when used to refer to sawn timber, is American.
4 EVENS
Decent chance in game to wipe out lead (5)

(s)EVENS.
5 ENCHILADA
Top fish ending in blini, Russian wheels in filled pancake (9)

(t)ENCH, (blin)I, LADA.  I loved “Russian wheels” for LADA.
6 GHEE
Butter added to pudding he eats (4)

Hidden in “pudding he eats”.  Took me a long time to see this.
7 GRUNTLED
Pacified sound from farmyard went first (8)

GRUNT LED.  Chambers defines it as “happy, pleased, in good humour” so “pacified” is a little loose, perhaps.  It’s a back formation from disgruntled, whose original derivation is grunt, so we do go back to the farmyard.
8 DERANGED
Like a madman called into action (8)

RANG in DEED.
13 THROUGHPUT
Place under 50% of this with approximate amount of processed data (10)

TH(is) ROUGH PUT.
15 EXISTENCE
Sixteen converts to join the Church for life (9)

*SIXTEEN CE.
16 PECCABLE
Muscle on transmitter liable to error (8)

PEC CABLE.
17 STAIR ROD
Feature on a flight as torrid when turbulent? (5,3)

*(AS TORRID).  Nice surface reading, I thought.
19 BELUGA
Drag in a little princess, a whale (6)

LUG in BEA.  Good to have a princess other than Di; this one (for those not familiar with the British Royal Family) is described here.
20  
See 21
23 ISTLE
Man, perhaps, binding last of resilient fibre (5)

(resilien)T in ISLE.  No false capitalisation here; so misleading in a perfectly fair way, and the definition by example (part of the wordplay, not the overall definition) is indicated by the “perhaps”.  Is Paul becoming Ximenean?
24 PARR
Salmon pink roof on a posh car (4)

P(ink) A R(olls) R(oyce).
*anagram

18 comments on “Guardian Prize 26,519 by Paul”

  1. Thanks to bridgesong for the blog.

    I must be a proper Charlie: I totally missed 1a. In the back of my mind I knew there was a slang name for one of the well-known drugs but I just could not remember it. The other meaning passed me by as well. ğŸ™

  2. Thanks bridgesong. Total novelties were CYBER ATHLETE (gettable as anagram from crossers) and CHIP AND PIN (guessable) Last in ENTRAIN, which was clever. No worries here, or smut or laughs: pity really.

  3. Thanks bridgesong. I’m still not sure about ‘stealing’ in 18 though. What purpose does it serve?

  5. @3 and @4 – I agree with LV Ed’s comment, and while I sympathise with Biggles A’s comment in as much as the “stealing” isn’t strictly necessary because the “kiss” could be included as part of the anagram fodder (in an indirect fashion) the surface reading is much better with “stealing” at the front. Another enjoyable if smut-free Paul puzzle, IMHO.

  6. Nothing too exciting here.

    Another workmanlike puzzle from Paul.

    I did struggle for a while with 4 clues in the NW corner but once CHARLIE went in it was all over.

    Quite an enjoyable solve but not much of the usual Paul humour.

    Thanks to bridgesong and Paul

  7. Thanks Paul and bridgesong.

    This puzzle was an eye opener for me, it was only on doing it that I, a New Zealander, realised why my English is so different even after spending my youth from 13 to 22 in England; I spent all my holidays between my parents and the New Zealand family of my father’s close associate and friend.

    5a, I tried for ages too trying to fit something funny into dale.
    22a, ‘make a BEAN for it’, meaning to rush towards something.
    3d, after LUMBERYARD went in I wondered why I could not find it in the OCED; it was this that led to the illumination above.

    NAHUM, ISTLE and PARR were new words.

    I did like BAR MAGNET, ENTRAIN, ENCHILADA, GHEE and STAIR ROD.

  8. The week leading up to this was “butter” week. It was appropriate that finally “butter” meant …………..”butter”!

  10. Thanks all
    Nothing of much note here .Very straightforward although I was slightly delayed by the NE and assumed “goat” at 6 down for too long!

  12. The only problem I had with this was CYBER ATHLETE. I discovered that there is a game called HYPER ATHLETE so I thought it must be that as I had all the crossers. Only when I twigged it was an anagram did I complete the puzzle. I thought there was less fun than Paul puzzles usually contain. I wonder if marathon training is sapping his energy!
    Thanks Paul

  14. [Cookie @9
    I meant that in crosswords that week we had three (I think) “butters” meaning “goat” or “ram”.]

  16. Thanks Paul and bridgesong

    Another who finished in the NW corner which only fell when I got LUMBERYARD and ASHRAM. NAHUM, CHARLIE and the new word for me, CANARD, were the last in.

    A lot of interesting and varied clueing as we’ve come to expect from Paul – ENCHILADA was my favourite.

  17. Can’t remember too much about this except that ISTLE was last in and unfamiliar (it’s always nice to have guesses confirmed by the dictionary), as was the definition of LUMBERYARD. All pleasant enough.

    Thanks to Paul and bridgesong

  18. I misread the enumeration for 14ac, and (clocking that it was probably an anagram of ‘battle’ and ‘cheery’) confidently entered ‘BATTERY LEECH’ as what seemed to be a likely euphemism for competitive computer gamers. Oh, how smug I felt in that moment.
    Oh, how foolish I feel now.

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