Well over half this puzzle was filled-in by the end of the first pass. I got going again with DISGRACED at 10 which I considered earlier but couldn’t see where the S came from, but with the crossing letters it had to be.
The others followed at a reasonable pace right up till the last one in, the lovely COMMA at 26 which needed all the crossing letters to see what was going on. So a nice solid puzzle this issue.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BRANDISH | Show off like Russell? (8) Def. refers to Russell Brand. With his particularly recognisable looks, manner and campaigning stance I’ve previously thought his name suits him well. And made this a write-in for me – first one in. |
| 10 | DISGRACED | Royal, no longer grand, charged and shamed (9) DIS (Royal, no longer – ref. Princess Di) G[rand] RACED (charged). Wondering where the S comes from – maybe to clue was intended to be “Royals” – or is this a nod to Di Spencer? If so it would be twice in one puzzle (see 3D) |
| 12 | SUNBEAM | Redtop support for Ray (7) SUN (redtop) BEAM (support) |
| 13 | VEHICLE | Transport Cameron’s right wing – Chile, maybe? (7) [da]VE, CHILE* AInd: maybe |
| 14 | DIGESTION | After-dinner activity when one gets off in pop singer’s embrace (9) (I GETS)* AInd: off, inside DION (pop singer) |
| 17/5/9 | BLACK SPIDER MEMOS | Perhaps the deadly widow notes meddlesome royal’s missives (5,6,5) BLACK SPIDER (Perhaps the deadly widow) Ref. Black Widow spider, MEMOS (notes). Brian (why do I want to call him Horace?) writes to various Government Ministers to air his views and influence policy, and has done for years. When the Freedom of Information legislation arrived the Guardian put in a FOI request to see them. This was resisted – for 10 years. Resisted right up until the time that the law was subtly changed such that they don’t come under the FOI remit anymore. The original requests – which were always speculative – were finally satisfied and didn’t tell us much. The rest we will never know. Great to live in a democracy innit. As for Black Spider: HRH’s handwriting is probably better than mine. Link |
| 18 | MANOR | Police operational area: island associated with Orange Order’s extremes (5) MAN (island) O[range orde]R Tichy (tongue in cheek) Def. “Manor” is more associated with Arthur Daley and other Sweeney-style 70s villains than the officers trying to track them down. They work within Districts |
| 19 | SCHOLARLY | Learned of Archer ditching Brenda and tangling with Olly Murs finally (9) (ARCH[er] OLLY [mur]S )* AInd: tangling. I made a note against this one. It says: TOP CLUE |
| 21 | NOTABLE | Screwing on level surface? That’s worth remembering (7) ON “screwed” around (anagrammed or reversed – take your pick) TABLE (level surface) |
| 23 | FLYOVER | Superior way female partner grabs end of willy (7) [will]Y inside F[emale] LOVER (partner) |
| 25 | ROLE MODEL | One to emulate vociferous shag with Kate Moss? (4,5) ROLE homophone “Roll” (Shag) HInd: vociferous, MODEL (Kate M) |
| 26 | COMMA | Conservative “slugs” etc. making comeback, mark (5) C[onservative] AMMO< (“slugs” etc) reversed by “making comeback”. My LOI due to terse def but nice solid wordplay once it was seen |
| 28 | MOMENTUM | Miliband’s first bad sign? Gut impulse (8) M[iliband] OMEN (bad sign) TUM (gut) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | BEMUSED | Stupefied on getting a goddess in the sack (7) MUSE (goddess) in BED (in the sack) |
| 2 | ADMIN | Evil leader’s caught dead short – that’s management for you (5) D[ead] in AMIN (evil leader) |
| 3 | DISPENSER | Princess-to-be stocks sulphur instead of carbon for pharmacist (9) Di Spencer (as she was known prior to becoming Princess Di) swap C for S (Carbon for Sulphur) |
| 4 | SODOM | Depraved city‘s very unfinished millennium project (5) SO (very) DOM[e] |
| 6 | PERCH | Seat for every Conservative – very little hope! (5) PER (for every) C[onservative] H[ope] |
| 7 | DECK CHAIR | Is it intended for beach bums to adorn tip of pubic hair? (4,5) DECK (to adorn) [pubi]C HAIR |
| 8 | REDNECK | Ignorant, intolerant white person is Sun-stricken? (7) Double Def. If you are caught out in the sun and don’t have flowing locks to cover your embarrassment you will end up with a red neck |
| 11/27 | SEVENTH HEAVEN | After second occasion, start to hawk the blue Ecstasy (7,6) S[econd] EVENT (occasion) H[awk] HEAVEN (the blue) |
| 15 | GENITALIA | Certain members, etc. getting info on foreigners (not Poles) (9) GEN (info) ITALIA[ns] |
| 16 | INSTEAD | Putin’s tea dance houses as a substitute (7) Hidden in putIN’S TEA Dance. All crossers needed |
| 17 | BELLYACHE | Complaint: pot, top grade is connected with poster icon (9) BELLY (pot) A (topgrade) CHE (poster icon) |
| 18 | MONARCH | Brenda working to break demo? (7) ON (working) inside MARCH (demo) |
| 20 | YARDARM | A bit of craft has the Met cosying up to member (7) YARD (the Met – Scotland Yard) ARM (member). a yardarm is a spar on a mast where sails are hung |
| 22 | BOMBE | Utter fiasco, Jamie’s ‘ultimate’ dessert (5) BOMB (Utter fiasco) [jami]E |
| 23 | FOLIO | Papers getting backing of oil complex (5) OF< (backing of) OIL* AInd: complex |
| 24 | VOMIT | Sick of victory? Leave it out! (5) V[ictory] OMIT (Leave it out) |
With the wonderful images of Pluto from the speedy New Horizons spacecraft in the news here is more evidence that Pluto should be considered the 9th planet. From Lee Sallows, recreational mathemetician.
Assign the 17 letters JHMLCNVTURISEYAPO to integers from -8 to 8. You get
| S+U+N | = 3+0-3 | = 0 |
| M+E+R+C+U+R+Y | = -6+4+1-4+0+1+5 | = 1 |
| V+E+N+U+S | = -2+4-3+0+3 | = 2 |
| E+A+R+T+H | = 4+6+1-1-7 | = 3 |
| M+A+R+S | = -6+6+1+3 | = 4 |
| J+U+P+I+T+E+R | = -8+0+7+2-1+4+1 | = 5 |
| S+A+T+U+R+N | = 3+6-1+0+1-3 | = 6 |
| U+R+A+N+U+S | = 0+1+6-3+0+3 | = 7 |
| N+E+P+T+U+N+E | = -3+4+7-1+0-3+4 | = 8 |
| P+L+U+T+O | = 7-5+0-1+8 | = 9 |
| and we also find | ||
| E+R+I+S | = 4+2+1+3 | = 10 |
Thanks beermagnet. Re MANOR, even George Dixon referred to his area of responsibility as his manor, so not just villains.
Sidey: I think you’ll find George Dixon was the biggest villain of the lot!
Hiding behind that folksy “local copper on the beat” front, he controlled a vast web of ne’er-do-wells.
Good grief – in 1950 he faked his own death – but when he reappeared no-one mentioned it.
Why do you think he was still in that job about 20 years after a normal copper would’ve been forcably retired – he had all the Superintendents and Chief Constables’ blackmailed somehow. Only slowly will the truth come out.
Walter White could’ve learnt a lot from him.
I had a good run on this too. Got stuck on ‘flyover’ because I had solved bellyache as ballsache….being led on by Cyclops’s usual rude behaviour!!!!
Cheers beermagnet.
I got the BLACK SPIDER MEMOS answer, but only because I got all the inter-sectioned letters. I had no idea what the clue was on about