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Thanks to Paul for a challenging but entertaining Prize. Solidly above median difficulty IMO.
Struggled for a while, mainly due to the many linked clues (a Paul trademark), but gradually made progress.
There are a couple of long anagrams, but the anagrists thereof are not obvious (another Paul trademark).
FOI 4, LOI 21.
COD definitely 9 considering the setter! 5 and 8 close behind; 20, 12, 11, (17,27) and 4 complete the long list of contenders.
After Picaroon's tour de force last week, I didn't immediately see a theme or special feature, but I often miss them.
A few less than inspired clues IMO, e.g. 23, 29 and 16, but they didn't alter my favorable impression of the puzzle.
Not certain of 19's parsing (newspaper?), but confident in the solution.
Good luck, should be ample fodder for questions this week!

Hi Geeker,

I found this week's puzzle by Paul to be pretty trick in places but enjoyable, nonetheless.

FOI was 16a followed by 3d.

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

The only clues I can't fully parse are 15d and the ultra long (23 letters!) 7,25,14 but the answers are clear and I have most of the wordplay sorted so, hopefully, I'll have a PDM before long.

Also, in 8d, I was not aware of that definition but Chambers confirms it - you live and learn:-)

Being a Paul crossword I was expecting the odd Pauline clue (clues that are a bit bawdy or naughty) but the only one I noticed was 9d ....

.... which I'm making my COD.

Thanks to Paul for an enjoyable puzzle:-)

Please feel free to leave a comment and/or ask for a hint if you get stuck.

Stay safe:-)

PS The newspaper is a single letter.

Thanks, Brendan. Hadn't heard of the newspaper, but Messrs. Google enlightened me.

.... and, of course, I immediately see the parsing of 7,25,14:-)

.... and 15d:-)

Enjoyed that without there being any particular stand out moments. A mix of write-ins and some more tricky and I still need to go back and figure precisely how the long anagrams come together. If you’ve been following a discussion on another thread you’ll have noted 22d is another one for the list ;-)

Ahh, 7,25,14 much cleverer than I thought!

Does the last letter of 9d come from the word that is also the definition? That seems strange if so

Good morning all,

this was a slow solve for me though I failed to get 5A and 9D.

Geeker said that they didn't see any special features, but for 11A and 7D the anagrind was in the answer - is there a name for that type of clue?

minty

Minty, I’ve seen them referred to as “wordplay in answer” or “reverse clue”