A very welcome appearance from Tees with a very enjoyable puzzle, much of it centred around 21A. There are some excellent clues in here, the political-themed anagram at 11/9 being a particular highlight. Tough going in places, but a cracking solve all round.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 8 | REEFER -[-on]E in REFER |
| 10 | OTIC – O.T + I C (I see) |
| 11/9 | AUSTERITY MEASURES – (A[-ntagonise] U[-nionist) + IT + TREASURY + SEEMS)* |
| 13 | IBIS – 1 + BIS. |
| 14 | SCRABBLING – Struggling with this one – “Wartime diver swung weapon round in frantic struggle”..? |
| 18 | SAW – S.A + W(icket) |
| 19 | MAKO – K(ilos) in MAO |
| 20 | OZONE – OZ (where wizard seen) + ONE (the same) |
| 23 | AXE – X (by) in A (and) E |
| 24 | SUBSIDISED – (BIDS ISSUED)* |
| 27 | ROOD – “Rude” |
| 28 | WHIPPER-IN – HIPPER in WIN |
| 32 | TASK – T[-en] + ASK |
| 33 | INVASION – IN (working) + V (against) + A(bsolute) + SION (Hebrew nation) |
| 34 | FROWNS – F (loudly) + ROW (argue) + NS (points opposed) |
| Down | |
| 1/22/21 | DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS – (BUT CASH DUE TODAY AT NHS)* |
| 3 | BROADSWORD – BROADS (Anglian Water) WORD (promise) |
| 4 | XMAS – X (kiss) + M (Frenchman) + AS (when) |
| 5 | SAVE – S(ecretary) on AVE. |
| 6 | FUJI – Initial letters of Falls Under Jovian Influence |
| 7 | KENYAN – KEN + YAN[-g] |
| 12 | TEA – T.E (Lawrence) + A |
| 15 | RIOTS – [pat]RIOTS |
| 16 | BREAD KNIFE – I think this is a cryptic def., though not sure how staff = bread |
| 17 | LACERATION – LACE (add poison to) + RATION (some food) |
| 25 | UNWIN – (Stanley) UNWIN + D(aughter) |
| 26 | ICE – Hidden in domestIC Economy |
| 29 | IRAQ – I.R.A above Q(ueen) |
| 30/2 | PAIR OF SCISSORS – (CRISIS FOR SOAP)* |
| 31 | RENT – Double def. |
Thanks Ali and Tees, I agree that this was excellent. I read SCRABBLING as Lionel Crabb (as here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Crabb ) with sling being the weapon which goes around him.
Many thanks, Ali.
14ac is CRABB [wartime diver]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Crabb
in SLING [swung weapon]
16ac: bread is known as ‘the staff of life’.
This was a super puzzle. I was particularly impressed by the cluing of the many three- and four- letter words, eg AXE. I’ve been thinking lately that Tees had gone rather soft on us. Not today: this was a cracking solve, as you say.
Snap, Wanderer! 🙂
Good to know I’m on the same wavelength as you, Eileen! I failed on FUJI. Never spotted the initial letter indication. Ho hum.
Hi Wanderer
That device is getting increasingly common. I have to admit that, before getting 11/9, my instinct had been for the much more familiar Etna!
Ali, I don’t understand your solution at 5dn. I have PARE – just confirmed by the ‘reveal’ facility: PA [secretary] + RE [on].
And a pangram to boot. Great stuff from the man with the sticks, tough but satisfying from A to Z.
SCRABBLING was the only one I entered without getting the wordplay first, but never any harm in a gentle bit of GK to spice things up.
Thank you, Ali.
Most enjoyable puzzle. I normally find Tees on the hard side, but apart from the last few, this was reasonably accessible. It was helped by getting the long answer straight off – super anagram, which gave CUTS to get to the themed answers.
AUSTERITY MEASURES was very topical: we’ve had lots of references to the coalition government, its members (where would we be without Mr Cable?), and other political shenanigans recently. Good to see that setters are keeping us up to date. BROADSWORD and PAIR OF SCISSORS were also very good.
I thought we’d outlawed PAT and MICK as definitions for ‘Irishman’?
I think 5dn is PARE (in fact I know it’s PARE, because I did this online) – but beyond PA for secretary, I can’t see it.
Many thanks, Tees. I seem to have bigged you up here, but as a Saints fan, you probably can use it …
Thanks Ali for the blog, and Tees for a puzzle that was enjoyable on the whole, with the reservation that a lot depended on getting that single light.
Must confess, I knew where the anagram fodder was, and got as far as DEATH BY A before regrettably succumbing to the lazy way out to get 1D,22D,21A via referencing instead of sorting the remaining letters. After that it was easy to get all the related clues. Favourites were the nice &lit 11A,9A AUSTERITY MEASURES, the wordplay in 28A WHIPPER IN, and the seldom seen YANG =“positive force” in 7D KENYAN.
Hi K’s D
Re PARE: see my comment 5: the definition is ‘way to make cuts’.
@7, to quote myself from a recent blog:
Chambers is a good guide here, listing Mick as offensive, Paddy as often derogatory and Pat as simply a nickname. Collins has similar definitions. As a Michael of Irish descent I would object very much to being called a Mick … I certainly wouldn’t let it appear in the Indy.
Thanks, Eileen, I see that now.
5D SAVE Like Ali, I too saw it as S(ecretary) “on” AVE(nue) (=”way”), with the definition being “to make 21 (ie. cuts)”. (Never bother to check the online version for answers – instead I depend on the blogs.)
Sorry, Ali [and scchua]. Believe it or not, I just couldn’t see AVE = ‘way’ – too hung up on ST and RD and I could only see AVE = ‘Hail’! 🙂
SAVE does make sense, too, then, so long as Secretary can be S – but I can’t find it.
I cannot find it either. But then I had the right answer anyway!! An excellent puzzle by Tees, really good stuff as other have said. Lots of good clues, but 1 22 21 seemed to jump out as great.
I also fell into the save camp and I don’t have the online version available to check. With the political cuts theme, save seemed a more appropriate answer. I had a bit of a struggle to get “whipper in” – never having heard the expression, the hounds theme lead me to thinking of things like whippet on. I think Crabb is possibly a bit obscure now, although I daresay he was well-known at the time. The “swung” made it even harder, because I thought that was a reversal indicator. I liked the “Anglian Water” in 3 down.
Hmm was going to post when there were no comments about my Crabb thoughts but was otherwise engaged. Fantastic puzzle Tees, tricky to get going with all the 21 references but some outstanding anagrams, pangram and a kick at the government in one go. Did wonder about the Tarzan actor Buster Crabbe for a while.
Thanks to Ali for a great blog, and to everyone else for the nice comments.
Just to confirm, the SLING was indeed clued as ‘(a) swung weapon’. And thanks to Anax for spotting the pangram.
Thanks too for the Buster Crabb link – I just love that image of him ‘avin’ a fag before his next dive, just to give those British Naval lungs a bit of a pre-warm. Who needs air anyway? He’s alleged to have died in an underwater fight with a Russian frogman after being caught attaching mines to the underside of the Ordzhonikidze, a cruiser that had brought Khrushchev and one Nikolai Bulganin over for a round of ‘diplomatic’ talks. Unlucky, old man.
Last but not least, a word of sympathy for our 225 friends down under, who appear to be having a spot of weather. Hope you all get through it okay.
Cheers
PB