Quite a hard puzzle as one expects from Tyrus, with a theme exemplified by 8 down (an answer I worked out only quite late on) and some other entries and wording used in clues. Solving time, 58 mins, some quite tough clues. Some quite amusing clues too. I found the clues in this puzzle were of the very highest standard.
*= anagram
ACROSS
1 LOCUST alternate letters of tOuCh in LUST Stripper in the sense of being destructive of vegetation in the definition, so nicely misleading in the surface reading.
5 DEB ATE
9 IDLE Hidden reversal in … fiELD In
10 ANARCHICAL ANA(gossip) R CHIC (smart) AL
11 LAP DANCE A PD (paid) in (clean)* with an amusing surface.
12 MOONS ON in MO’S Nice use of ‘cheeky’
13 STASIS STASI – police in the former GDR, first letter of Suspect
15 HERETICS HER and ETHICS less H
17 CROSSTIE (cot rises)* A fairly obvious anagram which took me quite a while to work out, nonetheless
19 NEWARK NEW ARK
21 NIXON NIX (nothing) ON Absolutely top quality, this, for those who remember Watergate.
22 GET A ROOM G = good (TO AMORE)*
24 UNCENSORED Tricky, this, I found Nurse’s = EN’S in COR all in (NUDE)*
25 ALAS A LAS(s)
28 PHOTOS Another very tricky one with a seamless join at erotic/pictures. HOT in POS(t) with ‘sent through’ as containment indicator.
27 YATTER Another one I found tricky (Tarty e)* Final letter of piecE
DOWN
2 OLD MASTER MAST (nuts, in the sense of food for pigs etc) in COLDER less C ie topless
3 UREIDES (I’d reuse)* Obscure word helpfully clued with an obvious anagram
4 TRAIN RA (Gunners) in NIT (reversed) Misleading surface suggesting Arsenal FC and Arsene Wenger
5 DECAMERON by Boccaccio from C14. DE (of in French) CAMERON carefully clued as a politician to be general in case the surface might suggest something untoward about an individual, I guess
6 BAIL OUT AIL in BOUT
7 TEATS (taste)*
8 PAGE THREE GIRL (l here, get a grip)* the L from luck. For anyone from outside the UK, this is best-known feature of the UK’s best-selling daily newspaper, the Sun.
14 SATANISTS Nick = the Devil SAT (Saturday) AN (one) IS TS (first and last letters of tedious)
16 CORPORATE (poor react)*
18 SEXPERT Another good clue SEX (possibly female) PERT (saucy)
20 WARRANT W (wife) ARRANT (perfect)
21 NINTH Hidden, a musical interval
23 TOD AY Former newspaper TOD (fox) AY (always)
I imagine Tyrus was looking forward to the summer weather
Never got going, particularly in the SW corner. Couldn’t suss out UNCENSORED or PHOTOS. Failed on YATTER and SEXPERT. And I’d started out so well….
I usually my colleague Tyrus very hard, but I romped through this in a few minutes. For me, one Private-Eye-style puzzle is enough and I tire of the juvenile male adolescent humour that increasingly invades some of the daily puzzles. It’s not that I don’t like the odd bit of risque humour, but this in-your-face stuff is a trifle wearisome methinks!
A rather brilliant puzzle today – I liked the theme.
I ran through this rather quickly, I did however get stuck on 5dn and 10ac. So thanks for clearing that up!
Cheers Tyrus – A great battle!
Pasquale -I agree, I don’t bother with the PE. It could be more varied.
On the other hand a like the Viz crossword, but one would expect such vulgar, although even that varies in difficulty and humour.
Good god, what a struggle, got there eventually, did think for a while I was doing a private eye though… enjoyable nonetheless
I thought this was tough, but fun. I don’t think it was anything like the Private Eye puzzle. I though this was more of a saucy seaside postcard or a Carry-On. Ooh, matron!
thought, even
Pasquale meant to be Quixote before on this thread! Yeah, Mike — but some of that Carry On stuff looks awfully dated now. We’ve been through feminism since then, but even in a supposedly post-feminist age saucy postcards (along with Sex and the City evidently)have lost a bit of their allure (haven’t they? — come on girls, speak up!).
Found this very tough, but with no Internet in the office, conditions were conducive to ploughing on unaided. Eventually got going and found the whole thing enjoyable and satisfying, albeit without spotting the theme.
I found this a bit of a struggle. Spotting the two containment indicators in 24 was very difficult and I was convinced the word must be un???sened. Also, got completely convinced that 8 down must start with either make (=model) or take (t=model + something else).
Haven’t tried the Indie for ages and what a day to pick!
5a Girl coming out =deb but where does “ate” come from?
10a Ana = gossip -never heard of that
3d An anagram is also “residue” which seemed plausible if not perfect
5d Decameron -never heard of but politician =cameron wasn’t exactly helpful.
21d Ok if you know that a ninth is a musical interval -which I didn’t.
I thought the Times was hard today but this was -well more obscure.
ATE = upset, bamberger. ANA perhaps a little unusual for a daily puzzle but it’s in all the dicts. I think RESIDUE = compounds esp with the plural definition would not really match.
I thought ANA was a bit obscure for a daily, but otherwise loved this. GET A ROOM was a gem.
Thanks nms.
I liked this a lot.
The clueing was fair,even though I had to look up some parts before understanding fully(ana for instance).
Didn’t know ‘ureides’ or ‘yatter’ but both were quite gettable once a few check letters were in place.
21 down was very good for an embedded answer,which are usually the easiest part of a puzzle.
1 across was an excellent clue and I couldn’t help comparing 5 down with 17 across from Paul’s puzzle in today’s Guardian! 🙂
Nice work’Rusty’.
Yes, nice one, Rusty! Entertaining and a bit of a struggle.
Many thanks for the blog and comments.
I ran through this like a mouse through treacle.Too difficult for me by far.However did get a few including 22a and 8d.Mast= Pig food??? 5d never heard of it. A crossword for the elite solvers
Quixote, dear man, Matthew 7:1. Judge not, that ye be not judged.
Tyrus, I loved it!