It’s Thursday so we expected a tricky solve…….
There was some really good clueing which was not surprising, given that the setter was Nestor. However we were and still are, completely stumped by 24ac. We are hoping that someone else can sort it out for us!
Added 26th July – If you scroll down to Nestor’s comments you will see that there is a lot more to the puzzle than meets the eye! Many thanks to him for dropping by and adding the link.
| Across | ||
| 1 | Lives with husband born in Turkey, perhaps where there’s no privacy | |
| FISH BOWL | IS (lives) + H (husband) + B (born) inside FOWL (turkey perhaps) | |
| 5 | Group keeping most of company away from scrutiny | |
| SECRET | ||
| 10 | Internet giant (giant without borders) associated with large-scale streaming | |
| AMAZONIAN | AMAZON (internet giant) + |
|
| 11 | One shouldn’t initially prosecute publication | |
| ISSUE | I + S (initial letter of Shouldn’t) + SUE (prosecute) | |
| 12 | Politician protecting gentleman over something that colours views? | |
| PRISM | MP (politician) around or ‘protecting’ SIR (gentleman) reversed or ‘over’ | |
| 13 | Certainly breaking step that is thought highly of | |
| TREASURED | SURE (certainly) inside or ‘breaking’ TREAD (step) | |
| 14 | He may hear private confessions, new Pope’s averred | |
| EAVESDROPPER | Anagram of POPE’S AVERRED (anagrind is ‘new’) | |
| 18 | What’s done by “cruel, evil,” NSA? | |
| SURVEILLANCE | A play on the fact that a CRUEL EVIL NSA may be involved with this, plus an anagram of CRUEL EVIL NSA (NSA stands for the National Security Agency) | |
| 21 | Vacant part of Libya was eliminated in revolution | |
| MILES AWAY | Hidden and reversed or ‘in revolution’ in the clue LibYA WAS ELIMinated | |
| 23 | After breathing space, English foil attack? | |
| LUNGE | LUNG (breathing space) + E (English) | |
| 24 | Heard it from Navajo nomad? Almost conclusively it comes from grapevine | |
| RIOJA | PLEASE HELP! I don’t think we have been so totally stumped in the parsing of a clue! Many thanks to Gaufrid @1 who managed to help us out very quickly with this one! | |
| 25 | Return of fascist groups means Zion must adapt | |
| NEO NAZISM | Anagram of MEANS ZION | |
| 26 | Trust councillor to prepare for broadcast | |
| CREDIT | CR (Councillor) + EDIT (prepare for publication) | |
| 27 | Dissident soldiers behind old boy caught aboard plane | |
| OBJECTOR | OR (soldiers) behind OB (old boy) + C (caught) inside or ‘aboard’ JET (plane) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Boundless packaging started with fine slushy drink | |
| FRAPPE | F (fine) + |
|
| 2 | Informant primarily involved in break-up of a rash legal system | |
| SHARIA | I (first letter of Informant or ‘primarily’) inside or ‘involved in’ an anagram of A RASH (anagrind is ‘break-up) | |
| 3 | Standard heath rises, choked by live parasitic plant | |
| BROOMRAPE | PAR (standard) + MOOR (heath) reversed or ‘rising’ inside or ‘choked by’ BE (live) | |
| 4 | With the man’s waistband raised, see fly’s irregular exposure | |
| WHISTLE BLOWING | W (with) + HIS (man’s) + BELT (waistband) reversed or ‘raised’ + LO (see) WING (fly). Thanks to K’s D for pointing out the missing LO and apologies for it taking me so long to make the changes and say thank you! | |
| 6 | Keeping head down, conceals immoral actions | |
| EVILS | VEILS (conceals) with V (head of veils) being moved down | |
| 7 | Assign new lines to escape rent in radio-telephony | |
| RESCRIPT | ESC (escape) + RIP (rent) inside or ‘in’ RT (radio-telephony) | |
| 8 | Stink in US accepted by second person once ex-president was named thus | |
| THEODORE | ODOR (stink in USA) inside or ‘accepted by THEE (used to be used to describe second person) | |
| 9 | Inflammatory item from civil engineer in local journal bundle? | |
| INCENDIARY BOMB | CE (Civil Engineer) inside INN (local) + DIARY (journal) + BOMB (bundle) | |
| 15 | Old special constable having a third go, embarrassed to change sides | |
| OSCILLATE | O (old) + SC (special constable) + ILL AT E |
|
| 16 | Inland Revenue catching several in charge with elements in another arrangement | |
| ISOMERIC | IR (Inland Revenue) around or ‘catching’ SOME + IC (in charge) | |
| 17 | Online provocateur, endlessly forthright writer | |
| TROLLOPE | TROLL (online provocateur) + OPE |
|
| 19 | Accuse an element of vindictiveness | |
| INDICT | Hidden within the clue vINDICTveness | |
| 20 | Sport brings in one million for German city | |
| WEIMAR | WEAR (sport) around or ‘bringing in’ I (one) + M (million) | |
| 22 | Former security force curtailed equilibrium | |
| STASI | STASI |
|
Thanks Bertandjoyce
24ac was a little tricky! The ‘almost conclusively’ indicates the penultimate letters in [hea]R[d] I[t] [fr]O[m] [nava]J[o] [nom]A[d].
Thanks Gaufrid! We looked up information on the Navajo and found a link to the Rio Grande but couldn’t sort out what nomad had to do with it!
A theme here, with “secret”, “eavesdropping”, “surveillance” and “neo-nazism” in the A answers and “sharia”, whistleblowing”, “evils”, “incendiary bomb”, “Weimar” and “Stasi” in the D answers. My inclusion of “sharia” may elicit some PC indignation. Nice intersection of “Weimar” and “neo-nazism”.
I too could not parse “rioja”. Liked “whistleblowing”, also “Trollope”, as am a big fan of Anthony’s (have only read one book by his great-great-(?)niece).
I parsed 5A “secret” as SET around CRE[W], which works perfectly well, but I guess the “away from scrutiny” makes it an &lit clue and better than my initial idea.
Thanks to Nestor and Bertandjoyce.
Thanks, both.
I was expecting a bit of a beast after three comparatively easy puzzles so far this week, but this wasn’t too tricky (although I would never have parsed RIOJA, so well done to Gaufrid).
MILES AWAY was cleverly hidden and was my favourite this morning. Two things: how does BOMB = ‘bundle’ in 9dn? And I think you have missed out LO! for ‘see’ in your parsing of WHISTLEBLOWER.
Fine puzzle, thank you to Nestor.
WHISTLEBLOWING, even.
I think GWEP has overlooked PRISM the American NSA’s snooping programme as well. RIOJA beat me too. Ta B&J and Nestor.
Hi K’s D @4
“how does BOMB = ‘bundle’ in 9dn?”
From Chambers: ‘bomb’ – “a great deal of money”, ‘bundle’ – “a lot of money”.
Thanks, Gaufrid, that makes sense.
Thanks flashling @6. Hadn’t heard of that one. Perhaps there are one or two more in the puzzle so secret that only Nestor knows about them.
I finished this quicker than some Thursday puzzles but there was a lot of clever cluing here. Count me as another who couldn’t parse RIOJA so thanks Gaufrid, and I also managed to miss the theme.
I think ‘Broomrape’ may have something to do with the theme if we extend it to mistreatment of prisoners. Or is that just my sick mind?
Hi everyone. We have just returned so thanks to Gaufrid for explaining bundle which Joyce should perhaps have added more information to.
We spent so long trying to parse RIOJA that we missed the theme completely so congratulations to GWEP for noticing it.
When Bert checked the blog he puzzled over SECRET as he had parsed it the same way as GWEP but agreed that it could work either way so we left it as it was!
I enjoyed this puzzle with its mini-theme of the Edward Snowden/NSA story. I liked 1a, 20d, 27a, 10a & 21a and my favourites were 4d WHISTLEBLOWING, 18a SURVEILLANCE & 1d FRAPPE.
New words for me were BROOMRAPE, ISOMERIC.
I couldn’t parse 15d, 6d, 24a. And I realise that I had forgotten to parse BOMB = bundle (thanks Gaufrid@7)
Thanks for the blog, Bertandjoyce. Like GWEP@3 (and Bert as it turns out), I also parsed 5a as SET around CRE(w).
Good to cpmopare this ‘subtle magick’ with Guardian today, I say. True artistry here! 18 & RIOJA my faves for today.
Rowly.
RIOJA seems to be getting a sustained run lately. Is there a competition between setters to find as many ways as possible of cluing it?
My guess is that CRE(w) in SET is what was intended.
I needed help to parse 24a and 15d, so thanks for those.
I might add “Objector” to the theme, as someone who is likely to be subjected to 18a – or am I being paranoid?
My favourite was probably 4d, but too many contenders for a clear win.
I too parsed 5ac as CRE(w) in SET and it occurred to me that “most of” might be redundant in the clue as CRE might be a company. However, on checking I found that CRE stands for Corps (not Company) of Royal Engineers and there is a difference – a corps can consist of several companies.
The SW corner gave me the most trouble, RIOJA included. But having got there and seen the parsing, RIOJA ties with MILES AWAY for my CoD.
Thanks, Nestor and B&J.
Great puzzle, this. Had no problems with most of it but was grateful to the blog for parsing of 15d, and for th answer to 6d which frustratingly defeated me after I’d stared at it impatiently for a while.
Lots of terrific clues; my personal favourites were 10a, 21a, 4d and 9d.
Thanks for all the comments. As well as the grid entries, there are several (mainly oblique) references in the clues to topical events and concerns, plus Boundless Informant starting the Down clues.
For the record:
5ac: I did intend CRE(w) in SET.
23ac: The definition is “foil attack?”, ie, an attack with a foil.
7dn: The definition is “Assign new lines to” (a transitive verb).
Thanks Nestor! Joyce apologises for her errors and will now correct the blog!!
We’d never heard of Boundless Informant so many thanks for the link.