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This week's puzzle by Paul, in addition to being rather difficult, is also themed.

FOI was 29a followed by 21d.

First themed answer was 27a followed by 24a.

As I said, I thought this was quite difficult but found the SE corner the best way in plus it also contains a couple of themed answers. Don't make the same mistake as me, though, and assume a connection between themed answers is necessarily a rule.

If you do get stuck, there is at least one long anagram and a hidden in the downs.

11a is the only answer I can't fully parse, in particular, the "vale" part but I'm sure of my answer.

COD (Clue Of the Day) - I really liked 9d but my favourite themed clue was the Paulinesque 24a Cheeky character (6) 😀

Thanks to Paul for a very challenging but fun crossword.

It was great to see more first-time posters joining our friendly Prize blog last week so welcome to Culmer, Pauly and RedPete and, as always, if you get stuck - don't hesitate to ask for a hint, there are always people on here willing to help.

Stay safe:-)

Hi Brendan,

Thanks to Paul for a good but difficult Prize, even though I noticed the theme within the first few clues...
FOI 10, stuck on 28 which will be LOI if I get it.
Many good clues, particularly liked 13=COD, 14 and 6.
I guessed 11 almost immediately but it took ages to parse. Think of vale in Latin.

Hi Geeker,

11a - Thanks for that - I would love to say that's the first time I've been caught out by the Latin "vale" but, well ..... 😥

28a - I promise you will kick yourself 😂

Yes, difficult to give a hint for 28a without giving the game away!
Great crossword, and very satisfying to solve it without online aids.

Thanks, I just got 28 and duly kicked myself.
I had briefly considered that definition, but saw no wordplay and got carried away with thematic speculations that got nowhere!

Thanks again to Paul. My knowledge of the theme is moderate at best, but the thematic clues were fairly tractable. His trademark complex wordplay was the big challenge.

Hopefully finished. Liked the theme - realising it from FOI 13a.
Not sure about 28ac.
Is the defn the 1 or 2?
COD 26ac

I think 26a also deserves a special mention - a nice *Pauline clue 😂

* Pauline clues are those by the setter Paul that could be considered a bit racy, bawdy or blue.

Hi Johnson,

28a - Yes, definition is "1 or 2".

Slightly off-topic, and it appeared 11 days ago, but the Guardian site has a really good "Meet the Setter" interview with Serpent.

https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2022/jan/17/meet-the-crossword-setter-professor-serpent-theres-no-point-in-making-it-too-hard-or-too-easy

Thanks Geeker, that looks interesting.

I don't know if you ever do the IQ barred puzzles in "The i" but the one voted puzzle of the year 2021 was by 'eXtent' - a collaboration between eXternal and Serpent.