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Is there a Prize crossword this weekend? They have usually appeared by 7pm EST, and that is two hours ago. Still nothing.

Happens from time to time in Grauniad land.
There's generally a .pdf back door, which I just copped from another (AB) forum:

https://crosswords-static.guim.co.uk/gdn.cryptic.20220903.pdf

Well played Geeker ..

I shall return:-)

Brendan, this was a beast of a Prize, as difficult as any in recent memory. I just now managed to finish, after mind-twisting effort. There are some extremely difficult clues, and several requiring esoteric GK (particularly the theme or mini-theme).
Thanks to Paul for a challenging workout.
FOI 24d, LOI 5.
My brain hurts too much to say more right now...🤕

I'm of those who normally struggle with Paul, but managed to get a long way through this one before needing some help. Last one without help was 22A, but needed this site to get 18D which then made 24A easy.

Maybe I was lucky that my GK overlapped well with the answers today but I'm not an expert on the theme. Knowledge of the origin of the name of an English football club ground certainly helped with one answer.

minty

Correction: I got the .pdf link from the Guardian site (comments on yesterday's puzzle), not the AB forum.

Wow! What an absolute beast of a puzzle by Paul.

In addition to there being a theme, there is, as Geeker says, a large amount of of GK required or, in my case, several trips to Google!

If you have trouble honing in on the theme, I recommend 12a as a possible way in and that should also help you get 26a.

FOI was 8a but it was at least 15 mins before I got another one.

If you do get stuck, there is a long anagram in the downs but it's not in Chambers or Collins.

I still haven't parsed 1d and am not at all sure I have 5d correct but, like Geeker, my head hurts so I'll revisit them tomorrow with fresh eyes.

With the possible exception of 25a I didn't notice any Pauline clues but, in truth, I wasn't really looking.

COD - A possible side effect of themed puzzles is that answers sometimes have to be crowbarred in and that can adversely affect the wordplay which, I think, is the case here but, that said, I'll go with 23a.

Thanks to Paul for a very challenging puzzle.

Please feel free to leave a comment and, as always, if you get stuck - don't hesitate to ask for a hint.

Stay safe:-)

Brendan, as difficult as I found the puzzle, I consider myself fortunate for having twigged (half of) the theme relatively early, in the first handful of answers I managed to fill in. 🤣 Otherwise I'd still be struggling and would likely have abandoned it until tomorrow.

I'll go with (17,19) as COD, with 22a (slightly Pauline) and 23 as runners-up.

Hi Geeker,

I should have got the theme a lot quicker than I did, especially having got 12a early on.

PS I've asked Norah to change the title of this thread to the usual GP & No.

PPS Still not convinced I understand 5d despite having all the crossers.