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Thanks to Prize regular Paul for an interesting but challenging composition this week. I struggled and despaired of finishing before some late but gratifying PDMs.

No Pauline double entendres I could discern, but plenty of his signature complex clues. I often groan when confronted with Paul's trademark multiword answers (such as (16,10), (14, 8, 22a), etc.) but wind up enjoying them after some hard work.

FOI 5. LOI (16,10) which completely baffled me and took ages for the P to D.

COD 17 narrowly over 3, with 25, 9 and (16,10) rounding out the "elite" tier of clues. Also liked (13,16a), (24,22d), 1a and 15.

Interested in others' reactions. I usually get on Paul's wavelength fairly quickly, but not this week.

Well, I was all over the place on this, with some of the answers being write-ins and some that really, I mean really, weren't!

Let's start at the beginning - This week's Prize is by Paul who can always be relied upon to stir thing up a bit - clue wise 😉😉

As you can probably gather, I found some of this quite tricky and, at time of going to post, I'm still not sure of the parsing for 12a and 16,10.

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

Oh, and I learnt a new word in 15a 😲😀

COD - Some absolute belters this week with the "edgy" part of 14,8,22 and the cunningly deceptive 17d, but my favourite is the "icon" with their "document allowing entry to Spain" - brilliant:-)

Thanks to Paul for a real challenge and some great fun:-)

Let us know how you got on and ... and I know I say this every week .... but if you do get stuck, don't suffer in silence, just post your query on here and someone will help.

Stay safe:-)

Hi Geeker,

I see we both picked the same top two for our COD but in reverse order.

Lots to discuss with Niemann, but I think we should add our comments on the thread with yours and PH's name?

Ah! Finally see the wordplay in 9a:-)

Thanks, Brendan. Let's keep chess in that special-purpose thread. I can't say more until I play through the round 3 game.
12 is actually simple, though I didn't catch on quickly...look at the clue backwards.
Ditto with (16,10), which almost caused me to tear out my remaining hair...it's a dd.

Agreed the "edgy" clue was ingenious. Fortunately I've read articles about the solution, and my brother recently took a relevant vacation. 😊

Thanks Geeker, I actually meant 9a not 12a but I've twigged it now anyway - I'd convinced myself that the "revolutionary" was a certain Argentine but, once I'd rid myself of that, it fell into place.

Did your brother enjoy his visit to 14,8,22 - I'm sure he must have:-)

My younger brother lives there but I don't think I've ever visited him at the right time, so haven't been myself.

My brother didn't exactly visit 14, 8, 22 - just the geographical location (among other sites in the relevant country).
I also wasted time down the Argentine rabbit hole with 9!

... and thanks for 16,10 wordplay - I thought it was a DD but was thrown by "in the" 🤬

Grrrrrrrrrr.......

No prize crossword in the Android app again today. I don't know why the Guardian keeps doing this. Will have to resort to plan B later in the day.

Hi Rocky,

It's on my Android phone app, I even got the tick:-)