A tougher crossword this time – that’s what it seemed to me.
Solving began with a bang when 1A flew in and way over half the grid was filled on the first pass. Then there was a marked slow-down till I found myself essentially stuck with 3 unsolved in the top right corner, un-stuck when I found “The Ready”. Just like real-life really.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ANTI-SEMITISM | Narrow-minded feature of Corbyn’s party intimates, hopelesss, drained of energy around the House (4-8) (INTIMATES – E)* AInd: hopeless, giving ANTITISM, around SEMI (house). Slightly confused by the triple s in hopelesss but it looks like that is simply a typo. First one in. I’m afraid this was a virtual write-in for me from the very clear definition of a news-line that’s been relentlessly pushed over the last few weeks. |
| 9 | GROWTH | Zuckerberg finally worth shaking up – progress! (6) [zuckerber]G WORTH* AInd: shaking up, |
| 10 | NOVELIST | Could be Murdoch‘s Sun is beset by violent change (8) S[un] inside (VIOLENT)* AInd: change. Ref. Iris not Rupert |
| 11 | ON COURSE | President Trump much in evidence here – “all according to plan” (2,6) Double Def. |
| 12 | GEEZER | Bloke‘s Spring broadcast (6) Homophone: “geyser” Last one in, unsurprisingly a homophone. Geezer comes from guiser, someone who went around in disguise, whereas Geyser is from a particular spring, Geysir, in Iceland. |
| 13 | PHUKET | SE Asian city‘s power crushed the UK (6) P[ower] (THE UK)* AInd: crushed. I wonder why Cyclops didn’t go for a homophone here |
| 14 | THE READY | Study into the ones getting money (3,5) READ (study) inside THEY (the ones). This one gave me the most trouble in this grid. I returned to it time after time with no success. In the end it was solved from the definition and crossing letters, and I then struggled again to understand the wordplay |
| 16 | SMART SET | Rich and fashionable people feel the pain before being put in place (5,3) SMART (feel the pain) SET (being put in place) |
| 19 | SMELLY | Taking May’s lead, yells out “Foul!” (6) M[ay] inside (YELLS)* AInd: out |
| 21 | PREFIX | Before injected drug, such as ‘Anti’ (6) PRE (before) FIX (injected drug). |
| 23 | GRAFFITI | Affair with git is done for (not one for writing) (8) (AFFAIR GIT – I)* AInd: is done for |
| 24 | ROUND OFF | Conclude drinks order cancelled (5,3) ROUND (drinks order) OFF (cancelled) |
| 26 | ILLIBERALITY | Cyclops brightened up having yen to crush old politician’s intolerance (12) I LIT (Cyclops brightened up) and Y[en], around LIBERAL (old politician). I had to remind myself that the “Liberals” of now headed by Vince Cable are officially still called “Liberal Democrats” (since 1988/9) |
| Down | ||
| 2 | NEW YORKER | For instance, Trump‘s work is involved with er, yen for destabilisation (3,6) (WORK ER YEN)* AInd: destabilisation |
| 3 | INHERIT | Be left wriggling it in her (7) (IT IN HER)* AInd: wriggling |
| 4 | ERNIE | Maybe Bevin‘s still a means of drawing large numbers? (5) Double Def. Ref: Ernest Bevin and Premium Bonds mechanism |
| 5 | IN VOGUE | Where a supermodel might well be on show with it (2,5) Double Def. |
| 6/25 | I’LL BE BLOWED | Ejaculation from bloke expecting oral sex, being taken by surprise? (3,2,6) Double Def. |
| 7 | MISLEAD | Act like an incompetent May or Trump etc. and pull the wool over people’s eyes? (7) MIS-LEAD. Wordplay here is some kind of semi cryptic definition. I didn’t commit to this answer till it was the penultimate answer solved, so it succeeded in misleading me. |
| 8/20 | FRENCH LETTER | Resulting in no conception of Le Pen-style communication? (6,6) Double Def. |
| 14 | TIT | Nerd taking temperature before sex (3) T[emperature] IT (sex) |
| 15 | EYES FRONT | “Organ’s bust!”, as the sergeant-major screamed out? (4,5) EYES (organs) FRONT (bust) |
| 17 | MARCONI | Macron sacked independent, inventive type (7) (MACRON)* AInd: sacked, I[ndependent] |
| 18 | SEX BOMB | Seductive southern old flame, sweet, getting end away (3,4) S[outhern] EX (old flame) BOMB[e] (sweet, end away) |
| 19 | SPAG BOL | Casual foreign dish – gasp “dreadful!” and throw up (4,3) GASP* AInd: dreadful, LOB< |
| 22 | FINAL | Decisive frisson in naughty adult lingerie tops (5) 1st letters: F[risson] I[n] N[aughty] A[dult] L[ingerie] |
| 23 | GOFER | Flunkey turned back blanket covering Brenda (5) FOG< ER |
Lovely Bank Holiday weather while I write this.
But remember: Please don’t look at the Sun.
It’s bad for you even if you briefly look at it.
The same goes for the Mail and the Express.
I NEVER got ‘The Ready; and have waited impatiently for this blog. Now, I see the parsing but don’t hugely like the clue….I see ‘the readies’ as money and it is a bit of a jump for me. Maybe a bridge too far. I, too, found this puzzle tougher than the most recent ones. Got to say, I adored 6/25!!! Must be my mind getting dirtier wit age!!!!
I think the clue for 14ac would work better as ‘Study into the ones getting cash’ or ‘Study into the ones getting cash in hand’. (‘The ready’ is short for ‘ready money’, so the word money doesn’t really belong in the clue.) However, this is a minor quibble about a crossword that was otherwise firm but fair.
Top-right corner were my last couple in too (I was rather stupidly thrown by thinking that ‘the’ in the clue for 14ac meant it wouldn’t appear in the answer). Thanks for the parsing of 1ac. I wrote it in pretty early from the definition but couldn’t figure out the wordplay; I fumbled around with Cyclops’s INTIMATES for ages but never managed to get a handle on his SEMI.
13 ac answer pronounced poo-ket, so homophone not possible.