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I'm in a hurry this evening (US east coast), so will steal Brendan's thunder, apologies.
Thanks to Paul, who's one of my favorites, though opinions on the forum may vary. Heavily themed puzzle, whose theme made it difficult on my side of the pond. Still having trouble parsing 9. 20 was FOI (first one in), 22d L(ast)OI. Many fine clues IMO: 7, 23 (co-clues of the day), 26, 13,14, 5, 22d. Didn't see any trademark (Pauline) clues, though; he seems to be including fewer in recent Prizes.

Just managed to parse 9, another good one.

No problem Geeker, i had a very late start so am still working my way through this one.

I thought this was fun, though tested my knowledge of the subject.
Liked the sneaky inclusion of the theme in 24d. The penny hasn't totally dropped for 26a yet.

Inevitably, just got 26a.

Finally finished .What a cracker.

Morning all,
Enjoyed that! Went quite quickly to begin with but I came a bit unstuck with the trio of connected clues.
I count 10 theme references (possibly an 11th?).

I spent too long trying to work the wrong duck into 14a!

I enjoyed this a lot more than most Pauls. Some very clever clues - 9a, 25/26a, 7d for example. Favourite the more straightforward 16d.

Indeed, morning all. All went in quite quickly apart from two that I'm stuck on - 9a and 7d. HInts (not answers please) would be much appreciated so that I can get on with other jobs before the Liverpool derby at 12.30. Thanks.

My last two as well, simon. For 9 you need to take a rather obscure word for soak (in water) out of some biscuits. 7 is included inside a biscuit, referred to elsewhere in the clues.