Neo takes us to the polls today.
Nice puzzle, with an obvious theme thrown in for
fun. I might also remark on the refreshing paucity of anagrams, usually the default wordplay in the Tuesday crossword. Thanks, Neo.
| Across | ||
| 1 | RECOMBINE | Again join sappers company beginning to bore in excavation (9) |
| RE (Royal Engineers or ‘sappers’), CO (for ‘company’), then B in MINE. | ||
| 6 | TRUMP | Contender’s not entirely genuine politician (5) |
| TRU (not quite ‘true’) + MP. Our first thematic clue. | ||
| 9 | BUILD-UP | To construct at higher level requires publicity (5-2) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 10 | TREACLE | For syrup say maple contains a centilitre (7) |
| TREE (‘maple’, e.g.) containing A CL. | ||
| 11 | TUTTI | Played by whole orchestra? Express annoyance about it! (5) |
| TUT (the tongue-click of annoyance) + IT, reversed. | ||
| 12 | RAS TAFARI | Selassie’s artist getting time to stop hunting expedition (3,6) |
| RA (artist) + T (time) in SAFARI. The holy name for Haile Selassie, late emperor of Ethiopia, revered by his followers as God incarnate. | ||
| 14 | TUN | Tail removed from fish in barrel (3) |
| TUNA without its ‘A’. | ||
| 15 | EVANESCENCE | Welshman with English, caught in row, makes slow disappearance (11) |
| EVAN is your Welshman, then E (English) then C (‘caught’) in SCENE (a ‘row’). | ||
| 17 | ON THE FIDDLE | Engaged in fraud as was Nero while Rome burned? (2,3,6) |
| Nero did not ‘fiddle’ of course (the violin was yet to be invented) but those of a certain age may remember Peter Ustinov in a loose toga, toying with a lyre. | ||
| 19 | EFT | Small creature takes Echo – newspaper we prefer! (3) |
| E (‘echo’ in radio code) and FT for this pink organ. | ||
| 20 | STOPWATCH | One clocks second best whisky at church (9) |
| S (‘second’) TOP (‘best’) W (‘whisky’ in radio code, again) then AT + CH | ||
| 22 | KABUL | Capital letters written in ink – a bulletin (5) |
| Inclusion in inK – A BULletin, for the capital of Afghanistan. | ||
| 24 | AMERICA | US Minuteman bisects two areas (7) |
| M (for ‘minute’) and ERIC (a man) inside A A (for area, twice). Thematic: the US goes to the polls today. Choose wisely, guys. | ||
| 26 | IMAGOES | Old woman on island plumps for insects (7) |
| 1 + MA + GOES. An unfamiliar word, and my last in. Had to look it up – it means the last, mature phase of an insect’s development. I am none the wiser but better informed. | ||
| 27 | See 21 | |
| 28 | ART DEALER | Oil trader? (3,6) |
| A picture-seller may be said to trade in oils. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ROBOT | Book covered by radical automaton (5) |
| This detained me longer than it should have. I took the ‘book’ to be the Old Testament and desperately thought of ways to make ROB mean ‘radical’ until the combination numbers tumbled into place; it’s B (for book’) inside ROOT (for ‘radical’). Ah. | ||
| 2 | CLINTON | Contender’s criminal entertaining bits of fluff (7) |
| CON (a ‘criminal’) contains LINT. Go, Hillary, if I may express a preference here. Anybody but 6 Across. Please. | ||
| 3 | MADRILENE | Angry Rene drowns one with litres in soup (9) |
| MAD + RENE ‘drown’ 1 + L, to give a cold consomme flavoured with tomato. What a lot we’re learning today. | ||
| 4 | IMPERIALIST | Little devil has timetable to imprison current despot (11) |
| IMP then – slightly tricksy, this – we have to split ‘timetable’ to give ERA (‘time’) and LIST (‘table’), surrounding ‘I’, the symbol for electrical current. | ||
| 5 | EAT | Cheers up, supporting introduction to Edvard Munch (3) |
| TA (‘Cheers!), reversed below ‘E’ (start of ‘Edvard’). Nice clue. | ||
| 6 | THETA | In Sanskrit, he takes letter from Greek (5) |
| Inclusion in sanskriT HE TAkes. | ||
| 7 | UNCHAIN | UN and China disposed to grant release (7) |
| Anagram (‘disposed’) – our first today – of UK + CHINA. ‘Grant’ seems somewhat redundant, a phrase oft repeated in this house. | ||
| 8 | PRESIDENT | Leader here embraces Independence Day for starters (9) |
| Another themed clue. PRESENT (‘here’) contains ID. | ||
| 13 | SPENDTHRIFT | Extravagant NHS dept aggravated break in relations (11) |
| Anagram of NHS DEPT + RIFT. | ||
| 14 | TAOISEACH | Chinese way is taken by every single Irish leader (9) |
| The ‘way’ of TAO + IS + EACH (every single). I was determined to solve this without looking up the spelling. Didn’t happen. | ||
| 16 | CHECKMATE | Utter defeat to confirm with ship’s officer (9) |
| CHECK with MATE. | ||
| 18 | THOREAU | US writer’s thunderous god over water in France (7) |
| THOR + EAU. | ||
| 19 | EMBROIL | Implicate brother in climbing tree (7) |
| BRO in LIME, reversed. Not quite sure about the definition here: I think ’embroil’ means to ‘involve’ rather than to cast aspersions. So does Chambers | ||
| 21, 27 | WHITE HOUSE | Welcome here for victor with excited eastern audience (5,5) |
| Thematic, of course. Anagram (‘excited’) of WITH, then E + HOUSE for ‘audience’ (as in ‘a packed house’). | ||
| 23 | LOSER | Failed contender more relaxed after relinquishing an Oscar (5) |
| LOOSER lacking one ‘O’ (‘Oscar’ in radio code, third today). | ||
| 25 | AGA | Some drivers together around golf range (3) |
| AA (Automobile Association, i.e. ‘some drivers’) surround G (for Golf, does Neo have the radio codes up on his wall, I wonder?). Nonetheles a nice, hardworking clue for a 3-letter word. | ||
*anagram
I liked this, which I found a bit easier than the usual Tuesday FT, and the Presidential election (next week BTW) theme was a bonus. There were also a few other leaders scattered around eg AGA. Both the ‘contender’ clues were good, especially the one for TRUMP which was my favourite for the day. I missed the parsing of 1d and was thankful for the clear wordplay of 14d, as I can never remember the correct spelling. I’d come across IMAGOES before (thanks cryptic crosswords) but MADRILENE was new – not a taste sensation I’m in any rush to try. Sorry to be picky, but ‘slow disappearance’ hasn’t been underlined as the def for 15.
Thanks to Grant and Neo.
Thanks Neo and Grant
17ac: I think the question mark on the end is a sufficiently clear acknowledgement that Nero did not actually play a fiddle.
19dn: Yes, embroil just means involve, but so does implicate (first definition in Chambers 2008, anyway).
Many thanks Grant, WordPlodder and Pelham.
I think that Nero was probably playing with his willy whilst Rome burned.
Cheers
Neo.
Thanks Neo and Grant
A rather gentle side dish with breakfast this morning and a theme that is now retrospective … and the false hopes that were still being held back then !!! No real holdups, although I didn’t get back to that tricky ROBOT before coming here, so thanks Grant for saving me the time to discover it.
Thought that the surface readings for both ‘contenders’ were quite humorous.
Also ended up with IMAGOES as my last one in – was aware of the IMAGO as the adult stage of an insect, but the plural made it a little harder to get. Needed to get SPENDTRIFT and RAS TAFARI prior to that to complete the crossers.