I’m not sure but I think this is his first grid in the Saturday Prize slot. I certainly found it tougher than usual for a Morph, (only 4 answers entered on first pass and only 9 after the first pint) and had to rely on slogging out the long anagrams to make progress, and that’s only right for a Prize Crossword.
Morph appears about once a month and usually (always?) has some kind of theme, often political. In this puzzle he is bang up-to-date and celebrates the “Arab Spring” with material alluding to recent uprisings against various totalitarian regimes (plus a few other political references). While I saw the scattering of references in the clues, the true beauty of the whole was not apparent till I finally got 1 Across, as an appropriate last answer. Great stuff.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | LIBERTY | Right integral to turmoil affecting leadership of six countries here? (7) Last answer entered and even then it took a while to fathom the wordplay. This 1 Across, both clue and in particular answer, is central to the theme. Anagram (turmoil) of R[ight] and L I B E T Y from the “leadership” of the six arab countries mentioned throughout the clues: Libya Iran Bahrain Egypt Tunisia Yemen |
| 5 | COUGARS | US cargo transported in Pumas (7) (US CARGO)* AInd: transported. First answer I entered |
| 9 | MARXIST-LENINIST | Revolutionary form of existentialism, rejecting originator and embracing our own ends (7-8) (EXISTENTIALISM – E + [ou]R + [ow]N)* AInd: form of. Def: Revolutionary. A long-slog-anag with the twist of having to deduce where the other odd letters come from. |
| 10 | SHABBY | Dirty books discovered in carriage (6) BB (books) inside SHAY (carriage) One-horse_shay |
| 11 | PARANOIA | Fear a Hebridean hip-hop comeback? (8) Reverse of A IONA (Hebridean) RAP (hip-hop) Def: Fear. Remember, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. I expect some people might point out that rap is not really the same as hip-hop – anyway it gives me a chance to stick in a link to MC NxtGen’s excellent Rap on the subject of the NHS reforms |
| 12 | SANDWICHES | Puts the squeeze on smooth West Indies before game is cut short (10) SAND (smooth) W[est] I[ndies] CHES[s] Def: Puts the squeeze on |
| 14 | KEPI | Stupid Boy’s cycling cap (4) PIKE “cycled” around (e.g. via IKEP) to make KEPI (cap). Pike is the youngster in Dad’s Army known to Captain Mainwaring as That Stupid Boy. |
| 16 | ARCH | A wealthy investor’s principally going to be shrewd (4) A R[i]CH Def: Shrewd. RICH=Wealthy I=investor’s principally |
| 18 | STONEMASON | Same, not different progeny for one producing a chip off the old block? (10) (SAME NOT)* AInd: different. SON (progeny) |
| 21 | INEDIBLE | Lie in bed, tossing and turning after such food? (8) (LIE IN BED)* AInd: tossing and turning. Rather nice &Lit though simple enough to be one of the few I got early |
| 22 | ATHENE | Goddess explaining how to begin aerobics? (6) The word AEROBICS begins with AE, that’s A then E. I have this kind of device before, but this one took me ages to see and resulted in the biggest PDM groan. |
| 25 | INVITED AUDIENCE | A divine duet – nice arrangement, select crowd (7,8) (A DIVINE DUET NICE)* AInd: arrangement. One of the long-slog-anags |
| 26 | YARDMAN | Farm employee reversing cart succeeds, not taking ages (7) (DRAY)< MAN[ages] (succeeds – ages) Def: Farm employee. I had this ready to put in from the Def and DRAY< but couldn’t see how MAN was formed. Put it in when crossing letters confirmed it, but only really understood when doing this blog |
| 27 | TIGHTLY | Idiot twisting with passion has nothing to lose in “Strictly” (7) (GIT)< (idiot twisting) H[o]TLY (passion nothing to lose) Def: “Strictly” |
| Down | ||
| 1 | LUMPS | Puts up with recession being dealt with in a top-down way (5) SLUMP (recession) the S moving to the bottom. Def: Puts up with, as in “Like it or lump it”. |
| 2/24 | BARGAIN HUNT | Bahrain government in trouble, world body taking interest finally in what goes on in souk? (7,4) (BAHRAIN G[overnment])* AInd: in trouble. UN (world body) [interes]T. For a long time I had PERSIAN GULF on my mind simply from the letter count and ref. to Bahrain. Then I got the checking U, and then the R, and then the N, and then spent ages trying to justify it… Shabby finally got me out of that dead end |
| 3 | RAINBOWS | Movement in Iran gives way under pressure – but there are signs of a brighter future (8) (IRAN)* AInd: Movement in, BOWS (gives way under pressure) Def: Signs of a brighter future |
| 4 | YETI | Until now, one’s not proven to exist (4) YET (until now) I (one) Another nice little &Lit. This one took me much longer |
| 5 | CAESAREAN | Originally Roman section of southern district in French city (9) S[outhern] AREA (district) inside CAEN (French city) Another where I went down a dead end. With C—A—N in place I fixated on Carcasson thinking it might be an acceptable spelling of this French city which undoubtedly dates back to Roman times |
| 6 | URINAL | Women can’t stand going there (6) Does this CD work these days? See Go-Girl.com |
| 7 | ADIPOSE | Perhaps a bowl of hummus with poultry’s no-go, containing fat (7) A DIP (a bowl of hummus) [go]OSE (poultry no go) Def: containing fat. One for the Dr Who fans: Tardis Wiki – Adipose |
| 8 | SITUATION | Change to Tunisia’s state (9) (TO TUNISIA)* AInd: Change. Another early answer. A nod to the SI Situationist International? |
| 12 | STABILITY | It’s time Libya shifted balance (9) (ITS T[ime] LIBYA)* AInd: shifted. I spent too long failing to get an anagram of (TIME LIBYA) before realising. |
| 13 | COTYLEDON | Putting bed on north side of yard encouraged embryonic leaf (9) COT (bed) Y[ard] LED ON (encouraged) Very clear def: embryonic leaf. A word that you come across if you listen to Gardeners’ Question Time. |
| 15 | EMPTYING | Egypt minister thrown out in vacation (8) (EGYPT MIN[ister])* AInd: thrown out |
| 17 | CLEAVER | Conservative splitter – and another (7) C[onservative] LEAVER (splitter) Does he mean conservative or the PFJ? Excuse to link to well known Monty Python Life of Brian clip |
| 19 | SHEA NUT | Fish – what’s turned up as raw material for soap (4,3) (TUNA EHS)< TUNA (fish) EHS (Eh? as in What? so Ehs = Whats) |
| 20 | VICTIM | Foil for Reeves and Minchin (6) Def: Foil. Charade from VIC Reeves and TIM Minchin. Most of you have heard of Vic Reeves, but if you haven’t seen much of Tim Minchin there’s plenty worth having a look at here Tim Minchin videos Late news: The schedule has just been published and I find he is headlining the first ever Comedy Prom. |
| 23 | ENEMY | Opponent of reform in Yemen (5) (YEMEN)* AInd: reform |
No specific comments (it’s difficult to remember a week after solving); just saying I really enjoyed this challenging and topical puzzle. Thanks, Morph; and to Beermagnet for the meticulous blog.
Yes, this was a magnificent puzzle, one of my favourite Indy puzzles of the year so far. Such a well-constructed theme as you say and wonderful clues all thro of which my particular favourites were ARCH, STONEMASON and CAESAREAN. Right for a Saturday too as quite tough. Thanks Morph and beermagnet.
How heartening to read that the superbrains found this a challenging puzzle: for me it was pretty straightforward, especially when compared with recent Saturday crosswords. (I’m still barely halfway through the 19 March Nimrod, but then I do have a life, and I realize I’m not your typical solver…) Thanks, Morph, for restoring my self-confidence, and Beermagnet for the excellent blog. I didn’t get the wordplay for 27 ac but the rest was beautifully clear.
Thanks beermagnet for the blog, and Morph whose puzzles have been tough but do-able (given time), and this one was v. satisfying.
Last one in was 1A LIBERTY – was trying to fit “VI”, or “SCH” or even “SC” when all the required letters were there before my very eyes! Favourites were 9A MARXIST-LENINIST, which was cracked after having M_R_I_T; 18A STONEMASON – liked the defn. and 4D CAESAREAN – another nice defn.
Nice one, Morph! Liked KEPI, which was my first one in. And thanks, beermagnet, for the blog, particularly the explanantion of 11a, which I got without fully understanding the clue.
I was ‘defeated’ by KEPI and had to come here for the explanation. Thanks Beermagnet and Morph for a wonderful solve, altho’ a little late