Several clues in this puzzle where I had an inkling of the answwer but could not justify it until understanding some surprisingly convoluted wordplay.
For example 5A, which I tackled early on, POSTURE seemed possible but I wasn’t sure. Assuming it might be helped me get the crossing Down lights 6/23, 7 and 8 with no trouble – all from their definition plus first letter. Then I had to deduce that 5A wordplay.
In fact, that’s the kind of puzzle I enjoy.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ECSTASY | Transport stimulant (7) Double Def |
| 5 | POSTURE | Trump’s odd love for masculine energy? Attitude that’s just for effect (7) (TRUMPS -M +O)* AInd: odd, E[nergy] |
| 10 | UNSACKABLE | Powerless to grab woman’s dress, like Boris? (10) SACK (woman’s dress) inside UNABLE (powerless) |
| 13 | TERRITORY | Preserve time to sin with independent politician (9) T[ime] ERR (sin) I[ndependent] TORY (politician) |
| 14 | ADDRESS | A day shift, one of Donald’s regular ones? (7) A D[ay] DRESS (shift) |
| 16 | AGELESS | Twit collars retired member at end of debate – classic! (7) LEG< (member, retired) [debat]E all inside ASS (twit) |
| 18 | PROFUSE | Liberal in favour of Unite (7) PRO (in favour of) FUSE (unite). Last one in correctly. |
| 20 | OBADIAH | “Love aid? Bah!” snapped the prophet (7) (O (love) AID BAH)* AInd: snapped |
| 22 | FREIGHTER | Craft shown by Brenda after Ecstasy-swallowing scare (9) ER (Brenda) after E (ecstasy) inside (swallowing) FRIGHT (scare) |
| 24/25/11/12 | MAKE BOTH ENDS MEET | Avoid getting into debt when effecting a get-together of a couple of arses? (4,4,4,4) BOTH ENDS (a couple of arses) MAKE … MEET (effecting a get together) |
| 26 | SIMPLISTIC | Naive, off limits pics? (10) (LIMIT PICS)* AInd: off |
| 27 | ENCRYPT | Shout “Pence is in hospital” and scramble (7) CRY (shout) P[ence] inside ENT (hospital) |
| 28 | IRON AGE | Press: “A grand English bygone time” (4,3) IRON (press) A G[rand] E[nglish] |
| Down | ||
| 2 | CONTENDER | Opponent making Tory an offer (9) CON (Tory) TENDER (offer) |
| 3 | TRACT | Plot involving two Tory heads holding back interest rate (5) CAR< (interest rate, back) inside T[ory] and T[ory] Can someone tell me what C.A.R. stands for? Edit: It is “Compound Annual Rate” see comment #3 |
| 4 | ST KITTS | Island star turn, Katie starts getting tits out (2,5) (S[tar] T[urn] K[atie] TITS)* AInd: out |
| 6/23 | OPENING TIME | Potty item placed under orifice for start of booze session? (7,4) (ITEM)* AInd: potty, underneath OPENING (orifice) |
| 7 | TREFOILED | Clover-like, shambolic Tories almost fled (9) (TORIE[s] FLED)* AInd: shambolic |
| 8 | RUDDY | Filthy Conservative is ditched, looking rather red (5) CRUDDY (filthy) – C[onservative]. First one in. First I was absolutely sure about. |
| 9 | UBER | Exuberant former TV presenter knocked off gig economy company? (4) [ex]UBER[ant] EX- (former) ANT (TV presenter) |
| 15 | REFRESHER | Jogger getting on new student (9) RE (on) FRESHER (new student) |
| 17 | SPARKLING | Glitter-like, with line in flashing (9) L[ine] in SPARKING (flashing) |
| 19 | SIGNS UP | Recruits go on the piss, led by Mark (5,2) SIGN (mark) SUP (go on the piss) |
| 21 | BURGLAR | House likely to be discontented by this type of crook (7) Cryptic Def |
| 22 | FROWN | Look serious and admit following French (5) FR[ench] then OWN (admit) |
| 24 | MASON | Brenda and Brian, say, joined secretive member (5) MA and SON for instance Brenda and Brian (a.k.a. HMQ and CPAG Windsor) |
Why was six scared of seven?
Because seven “ate” nine.
Thanks beermagnet, I,too, enjoyed this taxing puzzle. Too late to submit solution. Struggled parsing 1/5/13 across. Hope cyclops keeps drinking whatever he had when he set this grid.
This was a cracker. I rattles through much of it and then spent three days on ‘address’ since I had ‘contester’ and not ‘contender’. There are only two words for 14A, with the fit for my original version: startsy and starost!!! And there was no way of making them fit the clue. I still finished in time to enter but the internet in Botswana collapsed and my entry was foiled.
The C.A.R. in 3 down is compound annual rate. I know this how?
http://web.archive.org/web/20070613055540/http://www.btinternet.com:80/~ed.xword/AbbrevA_C.html
If I had been headlining this blog entry I think I would have gone for ‘Unsackable arses’.
Winsor: I too wrote one in wrong early on – I put in Promise instead of Profuse and didn’t discover until being stumped for the crosser which turned out to be Refresher. I don’t know what I was thinking of – Promise from Unite via marriage I think, but GOK why.
John E: Thanks for finding an acronym that fits – I tried using “Acronym Finder” ( https://www.acronymfinder.com/CAR.html ) which has 156 defs for CAR but none that fit. Strange that one isn’t there.
Also – “Unsackable Arses” – much better, I think I will
(Usually I limit myself to words in the grid but I’m all for breaking rules)
Every good caption deserves a picture:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2017/nov/13/steve-bell-michael-gove-boris-johnson-cartoon
BOTH UNSACKABLE?
(She has to keep them both at the cabinet table with their hands in view…’keep your friends close, and your enemies closer’…)
A harder-than-usual Cyclops, thanks to setter and blogger. (This blogger is quaking a little in his boots, with the Xmas special coming up soon on my watch!…)
I liked 21d – Burglar – suspect a lot of solvers got this early on, but I needed a few crossing letters and then had a little chuckle. I also demonstrated bad posture in (5a) by assuming that Trump’s odd represented alternate letters. Still slotted in posture though and put my fingers in my ears as I couldn’t fully parse it. Thanks beermagnet