For some reason I didn’t really enjoy this a lot, although I can’t explain why: it is all reasonably sound and there are some quite good clues. It just seems a little clunky: few of the surfaces read very well; indeed, it is hard to think what some of them mean. And the clues are on the long side.
Perhaps it was just that it was rather difficult.
Apologies for the delay: as you may be aware, the site was inaccessible earlier this morning.
Definitions underlined and in maroon. (Something seems to have gone wrong: that was the intention, but in fact the definitions are in black and the answers are in maroon.)
The theme is the June 23 referendum and all that has gone on round that event. Hob has been clever to get so many references in. It is no doubt difficult to set a crossword when as many of the clues as possible have to be related to the theme, and if one simply looks at the ability of Hob to do so then he has done well.
| Across | ||
| 1/12 | MICHAEL GOVE | Over 50% chose Leave – I’m first to get mad with backstabber as a result (7,4) |
| (cho{se} Leave I’m m{ad})* | ||
| 5 | TSARDOM | Party involved in smart changes in leadership (7) |
| do in (smart)* | ||
| 9 | YEARS | Age of maturity finally acquired by organs (5) |
| {maturit}y ears — ‘acquired’ here means ‘next to’ rather than being what one might expect, a containment indicator | ||
| 10 | THERMOSES | Those keeping things warm with the right leader (9) |
| the r Moses — I wasn’t really sure that this was a word; Chambers doesn’t give a plural, so I suppose this is it rather than what I would have expected, evidently incorrectly, the double s | ||
| 11 | REGREXITER | E.g. Boris the Boy King, one at time of pregnancy getting end away (10) |
| Reg rex 1 ter{m} — I couldn’t do this one, never having heard the word, a portmanteau of regret and exit I suppose, but it seems to be in widespread use now, although some favour ‘regrexiteer’. Google gives the double e favour, 202,000 to 156,000. | ||
| 12 | See 1 | |
| 14 | AGGLOMERATE | A concert I left early? On the contrary, taking in more unusual mass together (11) |
| a g{i}g late containing (more)*, late being ‘early? On the contrary’ | ||
| 18 | ANGELA EAGLE | Extremely nice pair of legs flirting with a three times potential leader, briefly (6,5) |
| (n{ic}e leg leg a a a)*, the anagram indicator ‘flirting’ | ||
| 21 | MEME | Rapidly spread online content displaying 17? (4) |
| If you are displaying 17 you are displaying egomania and possibly saying “Me, me” — I wasn’t sure about the ‘rapidly’ but if it’s online then probably it’s rapid | ||
| 22 | UNGOVERNED | Not led by 12 after nastiness kicks off in Underground (10) |
| (Gove n{astiness}) in (Under)* — some don’t like Under ground = Underground — you’d never see it in the Times, you might well see it in The Guardian; The Independent seems to stand somewhere between the two | ||
| 25 | RANCOROUS | Controlled by Conservative men fighting, starts to order usual strong bitter (9) |
| ran C OR o{rder} u{sual} s{trong} | ||
| 26 | DERMA | Layer of skin in older man (5) |
| Hidden in olDER MAn | ||
| 27 | LEADSOM | Very briefly, a potential leader males do fancy (7) |
| (males do)* — ref Andrea Leadsom, briefly a candidate for the Conservative leadership | ||
| 28 | TIMBALE | Story about one Liam Fox possibly being a dish (7) |
| t(1 MB)ale — Liam Fox, being a medical doctor, is an example of an MB | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MAYORS | Those such as Boris, once PM has stalking horse unmasked (6) |
| May {h}ors{e} — I’m not sure about having ‘has’ and ‘stalking’ together; alone they each do the job of juxtaposition, but together? | ||
| 2 | CHARGE | On vacation, 12 is under daily attack (6) |
| 12 being GOVE, this is char G{ov}e | ||
| 3 | ANSWERABLE | Like most PMQs presumably treated as new by half-hearted mob (10) |
| (as new)* rab{b}le — Prime Minister’s Questions | ||
| 4 | LATHI | Weapon used by police in control at Hibs (5) |
| Hidden in controL AT HIbs | ||
| 5 | THEME SONG | Suicide is Painless? No – gets me upset outside hospital (5,4) |
| (No gets me)* round H — this was the M*A*S*H theme song | ||
| 6 | ARMY | Run into a female host (4) |
| A(r)my | ||
| 7 | DISLOYAL | Backstabbing ally with one “Sod off!” (8) |
| (ally 1 Sod)* | ||
| 8 | MASTERED | Gained control of a younger Miliband? (8) |
| A younger Miliband might be called ‘Master Ed’ | ||
| 13 | REFERENDUM | Right femur reset – with need for it to be repeated, some argue (10) |
| (r femur need)* — but is this the definition? It certainly looks like it, but if so then what is ‘need’ doing? Double duty? | ||
| 15 | GREENROOM | Stag party member has never thrown up inside backstage area (9) |
| g(reen)room, the reen being (ne’er)rev. — quite why a groom is a stag party member I can’t see; perhaps this is a reference to Cameron and Johnson’s Bullingdon antics | ||
| 16 | BALMORAL | Alternatively, Article 50 supports something comforting for Scottish home (8) |
| (or a L) under balm — a = article | ||
| 17 | EGOMANIA | Excessive self-interest from, say, female that’s no leader, one assumed initially (8) |
| eg {w}oman 1 a{ssumed} | ||
| 19 | ANDREA | What’s read out after Article 27? (6) |
| (read)* after an — 27 being (Andrea) Leadsom | ||
| 20 | ADWARE | Content to plug away online, knowing about 27’s innermost character (6) |
| aware round {Lea}d{som} | ||
| 23 | ONSET | Working group needed for a start (5) |
| on [= working] set [= group] | ||
| 24 | CONS | Reasons for voting against 12 & 27? (4) |
| 12 & 27, being Gove and Leadsom, are Conservatives | ||
*anagram
Yet another neologism which will not be trawled in any word wizard or dictionary.
Must be time for an Olympic theme (or maybe NO theme)
I enjoyed this very much, thanks to Hob and John. I think a REGREXITER is not the same as a BREXITEER (although I’d never heard of the former).
I too was a bit surprised to see “underground” used like this in the Indy!
Why wouldn’t the groom go to his stag night?
Thanks, John.
I, too, enjoyed this very much. REGREXITER [certainly not the same as a BREXITEER] should enter the dictionaries without delay.
I agree that [understandably, I think] not all the surfaces are quite so silky-smooth as we expect from this setter but some are just brilliant in their story-telling e.g. 1/12 [we need the G from ‘got’ in the anagram fodder], 27ac [really?] 28ac [really again?] and 7dn. I have no objection to ‘has stalking horse’ in 1dn – another good one. 18ac made me smile, too.
Many thanks to Hob for a tough but entertaining challenge.
Thanks John, and salaam to Hob for another tour de force.
What Eileen said (of course).
As it happens 11 across went in quite easily because I met the basis of word for the first time only yesterday in an article by Jonathan Freedland in the New York Review of Books.
‘Polling shows that most Leavers assumed their side would lose, seeing their vote as no more than a harmless protest. Once the result was known, many told reporters or radio call-in shows that they were suffering a dreadful case of buyer’s remorse, a syndrome rapidly identified as Regrexit.’
Failed to finish this without cheating – stuck on 11ac (hadn’t come across the term) and 5dn where I was wrong-footed by putting STARDOM instead of TSARDOM for 5ac. But once I had got into the theme the rest was relatively easy. Not sure how non-UK solvers would have fared, though.
Favourite today was 16dn.
Thanks, Hob and John
Non-UK solver, but subscriber to London Review of Books, so worked it all out apart from 11A, never heard of this one (perhaps it’ll appear in the next LRB issue). Agree about some clunky wordplay, though also liked 18A.
1/12 I think parsing is (cho{se} Leave I’m g{et}) with “mad” as the anagram indicator.
Thanks to Hob and John.
As a non-UK solver, I was eventually able to finish this, including the previously unheard of 11a, though it took a few hours of my life that I’ll never get back and I missed out on Liam Fox, who I thought was an MP rather than an MB. The Guardian puzzle today helped with 1/12 and a few other names I could vaguely recall from snippets of the news heard over the last few weeks. My favourite was THERMOSES.
Thanks to Hob and John.
I agree John, not much fun to be had with this, in my opinion of course- other views are perfectly valid, just wrong.
Just to add to the confusion of made up words and odious politicians, the crossword on the app says it’s by Crosophile. This may be another spelling mistake of course, the Independent specialises in those nowadays. Or maybe Hob and Crosophile are indeed the same person. It’s more likely that the four year old who edits the paper has struck again. It is also number 9311, not 9304. All these numbers, it’s so hard to keep track, where’s my mummy?
Not impressed, but the blog was fine. Many thanks.
@ GG: In fairness it’s not the online paper’s editor (and certainly not the crossword editor) who’s responsible for the daily hassles with the crossword pages. AFAIK the software is produced by a separate company and they’re the ones who create this shambles during break time at kindergarten. That’s probably what you meant but I wouldn’t want to see the wrong people getting blamed.
I found the puzzle rather a struggle but got there in the end. I had never heard of “Suicide is Painless” even though I used to watch M*A*S*H regularly! I did know REGREXITER but it took ages to come, not helped my me assuming “the Boy King” was a real person rather than jus a boy’s name + REX. Durh.
@ Copmus: No, not an Olympic theme PLEASE!
Another one defeated by 11a here. In retrospect, I think I had all the elements of the word play, put the all togehter and rejected the result as I was sure that couldn’t be a word.
We started this very late but when we saw it was by Hob we knew we’d enjoy it. We were not disappointed.
Some excellent topical references – 22ac was our favourite, partly because we don’t like 1/12.
Thanks Hob and John.
I struggled with REGREXITER, which I’d never heard of, and felt cheated when I, er, cheated to get the answer. Surely Boris of all people does not fit this definition?
Different strokes for different folks I suppose – I thought this was outstandingly good. There have been quite a few extremely good topically themed puzzles recently all (bar one) showing great skill and originality; for me this easily matched the better ones.
But is Boris really a REGREXITER? – that was my LOI and it held me up for a good while – obviously we suspect he might be, but we can’t really be sure yet.
‘Few of the surfaces read well’ – that’s a good remark and I go with the blogger for sure. REGREXITER’s out of court too.
Regarding themed puzles, I sure that only a very limited number AREN’T.