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Thanks to Paul for this week's offering.
Clearly themed, but some thematics took effort to figure out. I found the theme tiresome at first, but warmed up to it.

Started slowly, feared DNF but wound up just under median solving time. Tale of two puzzles: right side was easy but left side frustrating.

FOI 5.
LOI (= COD as often happens) 9. 10 was very nearly COD; also enjoyed 22d and 27.

One solution was a totally unfamiliar word which took forever to deduce from parsing and required Google to confirm. It was next to LOI.

Suspected a pangram, but not to be. No Pauline clues stood out.

Spent way too long looking for a pangram. The NW section of the crossword was a torture but got through it in the end.

Tough grid and a lot of definitions with question marks to worry about. Right difficulty level for a Prize puzzle. 26a was LOI, largely because of my dim brain not picking up the obvious.

Agreed, mogwai. The NW quadrant was a beast.

Similar experience for me, geeker. The across (theme) clues proved difficult without crossers, so my initial inroads were through the down clues. Once I had some of those, everything fell into place, with a few bumps in the road. Unusual for me facing a Paul puzzle. No gripes this time; I think the theme ultimately proved helpful. Initially had the first word of 13 wrong. 17 was tough for me; I’m assuming it’s cricket related. Also tough was 14 - another of those homophones that I just don’t get. Of course, both of these related to me being American, but I wonder how many of the Brits pronounce the synonym of weak like that. My LOI was 26. I have 9 as a COD candidate as well, particularly because I really liked the sneaky “prayer.” I wonder if Jono has it on his list.

The anagrind in 15 is unusual (IMO), so that clue had me 17 (yes, cricket) for quite a while.

Morning all, this must be my quickest ever Paul. FOI 8a. 22a is new on me, COD 17a.

I looked at "Paul" and "puzzle" appearing in all the across clues and wondered whether to bother. I then wrote in16d. I used an anagram solver for 2d, and then decided to throw it away - never heard of it, and no foreign language indicator.

Similar experience to others though it was the SW corner that went in last. @Darla, no, but it is now.

Looking at xteddy, with this Prize puzzle Paul draws equal to Araucaria’s record of 317 for total Prize puzzles set.

Paul still has a way to go to match Rufus’ record of 766 for total cryptic puzzles set. Araucaria set 765, so 766 was significant for Rufus!

Yes Darla, some of us Brits do pronounce it that way. I'm struggling with this so far but will return after golf.

Whether you like Paul or not this is worth it for 23d. About half complete just now. I must have the right answer but I can't see how we get the answer to 9a.