A tour de force offering from Hob today which really had our brain cells in overdrive.
A number of the clues had really good surfaces – 3d deserves a mention but 27 across was Joyce’s favourite and it’s her turn to write up the blog today.
The linking between the clues had us really flummoxed for a while. We’d solved 1d but could not work out where the I came from apart from the fact that it was possibly linked to 10d. At this stage, Bert had written in KIER HARDIE and Joyce had no idea that he had entered it incorrectly. It wasn’t until quite late on that the error was corrected and the theme began to reveal itself.
Thankfully Bert had heard of Cleveland but was not aware that he was the 22nd AND 24th president. I wonder whether Trump will be voted in again?
Lots to enjoy throughout although we think some solvers may not appreciate the cryptic definition for the blood types in 13 across.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | Go home and go to bed (4,2) | |
| TURN IN | TURN (go) IN (home) | |
| 4 | Informal chat, as 21 initially formed at 8 15 (6) | |
| CONFAB | CON (party (21) – Conservative) F A B (initial letters of Formed At Bradford (8 15) ) | |
| 8/15 | City supporter, in favour of entering cups (8) | |
| BRADFORD | BRA (supporter) + FOR (in favour of) inside DD (cups as in the bra size). Not just any city but one linked to other clues in the grid. See 22 | |
| 9 | Man with unkempt red hair that is 27 21 leader (4,6) | |
| KEIR HARDIE | K (short for King – ‘man’ in chess) + an anagram of RED HAIR – anagrind is ‘unkempt’ + IE (that is) | |
| 11 | Backing of non-professionals by very large 21 (6) | |
| SOCIAL | A reversal or ‘backing’ of LAIC (non-professional) OS (very large or outsize) | |
| 12 | Protest by artist in court in Cleveland? (8) | |
| DEMOCRAT | DEMO (protest) + RA (artist) in CT (court). Cleveland refers to THIS man who was a Democrat and the 22nd and 24th president of the USA | |
| 13 | Work by old poet, such as Auden or Betjeman for starters (5,4) | |
| BLOOD TYPE | An anagram of BY OLD POET – anagrind is ‘work’. The ‘starters’ or initial letters of Auden and Betjeman are A and B which are both BLOOD TYPES | |
| 15 | See 8 | |
| 16 | With red pants, wife was attractive (4) | |
| DREW | An anagram of RED – anagrind is ‘pants’ + W (wife) | |
| 17 | 10 peacekeepers before one fool retired? (9) | |
| UNBIASSED | UN (peacekeepers) + I (one) ASS (fool) inside BED. You have to imagine that I and ASS are in bed so that they have retired! | |
| 20 | Gall shown by Greek character, cycling during rock band’s comeback (3,5) | |
| OAK APPLE | KAPPA (Greek character) with the last letter at the front or ‘cycling’ inside a reversal or ‘comeback’ of ELO (band as in Electric Light Orchestra). We started parsing this as ELP reversed for Emerson Lake and Palmer until the penny dropped. Bert reminded Joyce that she used to put THIS track on really loud before going out to a party! | |
| 22 | Great 25, one joining 10 27 21? (6) | |
| FABIAN | FAB (great) IAN (Scot). Kier Hardie (9ac) became the first chairman at the foundation conference of the ILP in Bradford (8/15) when 11 local Fabian Societies joined 91 branches of the Independent Labour Party (10 27 21) together with 4 branches of the Social Democratic Federation (almost 11 12!). | |
| 24 | Something small and negative, demanding a new clue – or not, perhaps (10) | |
| ANTIPROTON | A N (new) TIP (clue) + an anagram of OR NOT – anagrind is ‘perhaps’ | |
| 25 | 9, say, a good person holding firm (4) | |
| SCOT | ST (good person as in saint) around or ‘holding’ CO (firm) | |
| 26 | Drawn to the old method of patterning textiles (3-3) | |
| TIE-DYE | TIED (drawn) YE (old word for ‘the’) | |
| 27 | End of term 21? (6) | |
| LABOUR | Joyce’s favourite clue – End of term relates to the end of pregnancy when LABOUR (party – 21d) starts | |
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | Disquiet around 10 involved rum lot (7) | |
| TURMOIL | An anagram of RUM LOT – anagrind is ‘involved’ around I (independent – 10d) | |
| 2 | More than one spoke in excellent 11 (5) | |
| RADII | RAD (urban slang for ‘excellent’) I I | |
| 3 | Bonk till briefly convulsing, producing a meaningful stain? (7) | |
| INKBLOT | An anagram of BONK TIL |
|
| 5 | Over an hour in school to write the alphabet once (5) | |
| OGHAM | O (over) + H (hour) inside GAM (school of whales) | |
| 6 | Intense dissonance amongst four voices? Not initially (9) | |
| FEROCIOUS | An anagram of FOUR |
|
| 7 | Gang member in 21 dress (7) | |
| BRIGAND | RIG (dress) inside BAND (party – 21d) | |
| 10 | Outside 21s for us (11) | |
| INDEPENDENT | If you are not in a party (21d) you could be INDEPENDENT. Thus ‘US’ refers obviously to the newspaper which features today’s puzzle | |
| 14 | Musical theatre round-up for agent (9) | |
| OPERATIVE | You have to lift and separate here – it’s a reversal or ‘up’ (as it’s a down clue) of EVITA (musical) REP (agent) O (round) | |
| 16 | Rang Ted about police search? (7) | |
| DRAGNET | An anagram of RANG TED – anagrind is ‘about’ | |
| 18 | Fashionable soft drink for king’s daughter (7) | |
| INFANTA | IN (fashionable) FANTA (soft drink) | |
| 19 | Nancy’s in love with roué – man out to charm (7) | |
| ENAMOUR | Two lots of parsing here – EN AMOUR (French, as in Nancy, for ‘in love’) or an anagram of ROUE MAN – anagrind is ‘out’ | |
| 21 | Split variable in function (5) | |
| PARTY | PART (split) Y (variable as used in Maths) | |
| 23 | Bossa nova singer (5) | |
| BASSO | An anagram of BOSSA – anagrind is ‘nova’ (new in a number of languages) | |
Quite educational this puzzle and all the better for it.Thanks for GAM as school of whales-I knew there had to be a reason for that.
Very enjoyable, Thanks B&J and Hob.
I tackled this after Imogen in The Guardian, hoping for something a bit easier, but no such luck! Despite the help from those clues which included the theme I still found this tough going. “I” before “E” or vice versa for 9a held me up too and it took a while for 10d to reveal itself.
Lots of good clues. I liked the double wordplay for ENAMOUR and the naughty surface for INKBLOT. GAM came in useful from previous cryptics.
Admittedly it was my last in, but I thought BLOOD TYPE was fair enough. I think the ‘starters’ refers to the word ‘or’ as well, making up the full hand of A B O types.
Thank you to Hob and to B&J.
Quite a tough mental workout; we needed help in the NE corner to finish. We wondered at one stage if 4ac could be ‘coffee’ referring to the party of that name (in opposition to the Tea Party) in the USA, but couldn’t link it with Bradford. We also wondered if 7dn referred in some obscure way to one of the ‘Gang of Four’ who founded the SDP, but were eventually put right when a wordfinder came up with BRIGAND at 7dn. Incidentally, there’s a second layer of meaning to 4ac since the ILP, as you point out at 22ac, was formed in Bradford.
ENAMOUR was good. We worked out it was an anagram of ‘roué man’ but then wondered what Nancy had to do with it – until the penny (or maybe the centime) dropped. Our favourite, though was BLOOD TYPE for its superb misdirection. We also liked ANTIPROTON.
Thanks, Hob and B&J
I wonder why Tuesday has become the new ‘harder’ day – this one gave me quite a work out but I’m glad I persevered
Thanks to Hob and B&J
Oops! “… founded the SDP, but were eventually put right …” In case anyone’s wondering it was we who were put right, not the gang!
Yes, a Tuesday Toughie indeed. It took a while to sort through all the linkages. I got much further than I expected to before using a dictionary for the last couple. Very enjoyable though – thanks to Hob and Bertandjoyce for the good work.
I’m usually not a great fan of cross-referenced puzzles, themed or not. But this one was truly excellent.
Of course, I had to google a bit but that didn’t spoil the fun.
I hesitated about 17ac as I thought the solution should only have one S.
Since nobody really mentioned it so far, it’s actually a sort of anniversary today. The ILP was launched on 16 January 1893, at the end of a three-day conference in Bradford. Exactly 125 years ago today!
Many thanks to Hob & Bertandjoyce.
End of term party? = very good.
An enjoyable puzzle indeed.
Thank Hob and Joyce.
Thanks, BandJ.
I could echo exactly what Sil said @7 in his first two sentences. I said only the other day how I’m usually irritated by clues that have me chasing all over the grid but this had me totally enthralled and I really enjoyed following up all the cross-references. [Well spotted, Sil, re the hidden theme.]
I would spell 17ac with only one S, too – but that’s not even a quibble, because I know that either spelling is possible.
Joyce, 27ac is my favourite, too. It’s already in my Little Book of Classic Clues, from a Philistine puzzle I blogged some time ago. I’m not hinting at plagiarism here: I always say that it would be surprising if the really good setters [and both of these are among my top favourites] didn’t come up with the same clues from time to time – and here it was fitted so niftily into the theme. I really liked BLOOD TYPE, too.
A beautifully crafted puzzle, which I enjoyed immensely – many thanks, Hob.
I almost gave up on this due to the number of linked clues, but once I got 21d it started to come together. I still found it a bit of a slog, but got there withouts aids eventually with all the parsing understood. Clever theme, but having just cut and fitted a new custom sized bath panel after Saturday’s leak, I was too tired to really enjoy it. Linked clues are not my favourites. Thanks Hob and B&J
Two really good crosswords in the Guardian and the Indy today.
Enjoyed this one, but didn’t quite finish it due to time pressures. I don’t think I have come across that spelling of UNBIASSED before.
Thanks to Hob, B & J