With plenty of time between solving this puzzle and the target Monday for publishing this blog, I nevertheless yet again find myself writing this up on a Sunday evening, creaking after doing too much unaccustomed gardening (mowing and hedge trimming) followed by watching the boat races with my aged mother while eating far too many toasted hot cross buns. It’s a hard life sometimes.
When solving I made a bit of a meal of this. Looking at the finished grid in retrospect there is nothing more difficult than usual, and the wordplay in all the clues is clear. So why did it take me so long to get into this puzzle?
I started it on an evening when I thought I had plenty of time, not only to solve but also to make notes for this blog. On the first pass of the clues I had 10 answered, but I had taken some time over this, definitely more than a half hour, and only gave it another half hour before calling it a night – with about 12 clues unanswered. The next day I finished the rest without too much trouble. I guess I hadn’t been on form the previous evening – I cannot think why.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 7 | ROCKY | York unexpectedly Conservative at heart, such is Labour’s position? (5) C[onservative] inside (YORK)* AInd: unexpectedly. First One In. (But not the first attempted – I looking at 1d and 25d first of course) |
| 9 | NOTORIOUS | With Balls back in, ‘negative debts’ shameful (9) ROT< (Balls, back) inside NO (negative) I.O.U.S (debts) |
| 11 | VULGARITY | Victory by Trump – no politician – gaily dispensing coarseness (9) (V[ictory] TRU[mp] GAILY )* AInd: gaily |
| 12 | GULAG | In which Labour was forced to have grand unbending leader to get behind (5) G[rand] U[nbending] LAG (to get behind) |
| 13 | LIAISON | Connection: one is shafting courageous type (7) A (one) IS inside LION (courageous type) |
| 14 | TENURE | Figure unblemished start is lacking for May’s term in office? (6) TEN (figure) [p]URE (unblemished, start is lacking). I didn’t see that last bit of wordplay till writing this blog. |
| 17 | ATHENS | City, since recruiting tense women only (6) T[ense] HEN (women only) inside (recruiting) AS (since) |
| 19 | CLOSET | Cabinet to be defeated in court – extremely (6) LOSE (to be defeated) inside C[our]T. No need for the final extremely, CT is a valid abbreviation |
| 22 | ONE-WAY | Joined Washington with yes, a type of travel restriction (3-3) ONE (joined) WA (Washington, state abbreviation) Y[es] |
| 23 | CONQUER | Defeat party politician with challenge to get end away (7) CON (party politician) QUER[y] (Challenge, with end away). A query is a challenge in a mild sense |
| 26 | LEGIT | The French bastard is within the law (5) Le GIT ! |
| 28 | PLENTIFUL | Liberal jerks fell with Putin (9) (FELL PUTIN)* AInd: jerks |
| 29 | VENTRICLE | Lower chamber : “Express useless relic” (9) VENT (express) RELIC* AInd: useless |
| 30 | CLEAN | Country’s top bank is spotless? (5) C[ountry] LEAN (bank, like a cyclist taking a corner) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | TRAVEL BAN | Censor, after Trump’s opening “get knotted!” – “a rash action on his part” (6,3) T[rump] RAVEL (get knotted) BAN (censor) |
| 2 | BY-PASS | A bloody alternative route? (2-4) Cryptic Def. in the sense of a heart op. |
| 3 | INDIANA | State elected idolised person (7) IN (elected) DIANA (idolised person) |
| 4 | ORIGINAL | Novel sort of sex, interrupted by one drink (8) I (one) GIN (drink) inside ORAL (sort of sex) |
| 6 | V-SIGN | Get stuffed digitally (1-4) Cryptic Def. |
| 8 | CALLAGHAN | “In prison, everyone needs a lot of money” – hard Labour leader (9) ALL (everyone), A G[rand] (a lot of money), H[ard] all inside CAN (prison) |
| 10 | TOYOTA | Exciting to a Tory leader finally leaving a big company (6) (TO A TORY – R (from [leade]R) )* AInd: exciting |
| 15 | RESHUFFLE | ER? One of many Corbyn’s been forced to make (9) Reverse clue: RE Shuffled to make ER. Obvious when you finally see it |
| 16 | STORYLINE | Second May & co’s policy? How the plot thickens! (9) S[econd] TORY (May & Co) LINE (policy) |
| 18 | NEW START | What Trump thinks he’s giving America – “Press whore!” (3,5) NEWS (press) TART (whore) |
| 20 | MYOPIC | Not having the best view of vague PM, coy to embrace independence (6) (PM COY I[ndependence])* AInd: vague |
| 21 | SCHEMER | Wheeler-dealer element of Porsche merchant (7) Hidden inside PorSCHE MERchant |
| 24 | NOTICE | Bill‘s rather obvious comment on getting into hot water? (6) It’s NOT ICE so it is “obvious”. Last One In. I wish I could understand why I could see this till I had all the crossing letters |
| 25 | GLOVE | A lot of money, then nothing – who’s got a hand in it? (5) G[rand] LOVE (nothing) |
| 27/5 | GENE POOL | The stock of a sexually-active population playing with Lego? Nope (4,4) (LEGO NOPE)* AInd: playing with |
Just heard one from Henry Normal that made me chuckle:
Apparently the Flat-Earth Society now claim they have members all round the world
I balked for some time on storyline and conquer. Something of a blind spot. Got tenure but read it as ten + U + re but couldn’t bring the ‘re’ into any sense at all. Now all is clear.
Thank very much for the blog. enlightening, as usual!!!!
Yes Winsor. For TENURE the U[nblemished] from ‘unblemished start’ was very misleading and that was the same reason I hadn’t got that wordplay till looking at it another day.
OK! So, I’m happy to be in good company then. Almost worthwhile getting it wrong to start.
I’ll bite, which dictionary says BYPASS is hyphenated? Not Chambers, or any American tome.
Two American dictionaries are cited here:
http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/bypass-vs-by-pass.170455/
I would always consider it hyphenated….. it’s not a by and it’s not a pass. Therefore hyphenate!
From a quick look in the British Newspaper Archive: by-pass is almost universal as a noun from the 1920s to the 50s, with bypass occasionally as a verb. The usual dropping of the hyphen was noticeable in the 60s, and was probably predominant in the 80s. I think I still might use the hyphen, but that’s what I grew up with. Or maybe not. I’m just wondering which Douglas Adams used in HHGTTG (1979).
He might well have (should have?) used a hyphen and then it would be HGTTG!!!!!
But it is definitely an age thing!!!
The OED has no option for a hyphen and that’s good enough for me.
On the topic of the ‘age thing’, there was a Metro crossword a few days ago that used ‘network’ to supply the missing letters in the word tim??e. I imagine the number of millenials who had never heard of BR was more than balanced by all the oldies wondering how long ago that crosword was first published.