Independent 10,312 / Tyrus

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Tyrus has certainly put me through my paces this Thursday morning.

And he has most definitely had the last laugh. I have completed the grid – correctly, I hope – but I still require quite a lot of help with the parsing: at 9, to identify the player; at 21, to identify the definition; and at 25, to understand the wordplay. I’ll come back later to update the blog, once I have heard from others.

It is clear that Tyrus has dedicated this to the post-truth era characterised by the Trump administration and his spokespersons, and he has managed to incorporate an impressive amount of themed material into the puzzle, in grid entries and clues alike. I was somewhat hampered by the fact I couldn’t remember the name at 17 or the non-event at 7/28/3, even though I vaguely remembered what Tyrus was alluding to. I arrived at both answers with the help of both the anagrams and Google searches.

My favourite clues today are the aforementioned 7/28/3, 17 and also 10/30, for conveying in their wording the sobering reality of this post-truth era. On a more heartening note, I enjoyed the surface readings at 4 and 5, and the clever division between definition and wordplay in Conrad // Black in the clue at 29.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across    
     
07/28/3D BOWLING GREEN MASSACRE Terrible crime? Wrong – a blag! In the end was seen to be a non-event

*(CRIME WRONG A BLAG + <wa>S SEEN); “in the end” means last only to be used in anagram, indicated by “terrible”; the reference is to an event quoted by Kellyanne Conway (=entry at 17) to justify a tightening of US immigration policy but which had never actually taken place
     
09 ALLISON Knackered crossing like this Liverpool footballer

SO (=like this) in ALL-IN (=knackered, spent); given the spelling of the name, I am not sure which footballer is being referred to here, since the Brazilian Alisson Becker is spelt differently
     
10/30 SARAH SANDERS Spokesperson struggling hard as answers lacking weight

*(HARD AS ANS<w>ERS); “lacking weight (=W)” means letter “w” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “struggling”; the reference is to former White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders, in office from 2017 to 2019
     
11 POST-TRUTH Stop it! Ultimately ridiculous woman’s ignoring the facts

*(STOP <i>T) + RUTH (=woman); “ultimately” means last letter only needed in anagram, indicated by “ridiculous”
     
12 TIE Draw flag – that’s not right

TI<r>E (=flag, grow weary); “not right (=R)” means letter “r” is dropped; a draw is a tie in sport
     
13 ENVOI I’ve no other words to end with

*(I’VE NO); “other” is anagram indicator; the envoi is the last words of a poem or book
     
15 DECEIVERS Washington letters read out with lines cut – don’t believe them

Homophone of D C (=Washington letters, i.e. District of Columbia) + VERS<e> (=lines, “cut” means last letters are dropped)
     
17 KELLYANNE CONWAY Spokesperson‘s crap can annoy weekly, liberal admitted

L (=liberal) in *(CAN ANNOY WEEKLY); “crap” is anagram indicator; Kellyanne Conway was an adviser to President Trump, having successful run his election campaign in 2016
     
21 SHAMELESS Show fake news regularly, including lies one’s forgotten

SHAM (=fake) + [L<i>ES (“one (=1)”s forgotten means letter “i” is dropped) in <n>E<w>S (“regularly” means alternate letters only are used)]; I am not sure what the definition is here – & lit.?
     
24 LINGO Language that’s somewhat lyrical (in goobledygook)

Hidden (“that’s somewhat”) in “lyricaL IN GObbledygook”
     
25 UZI Shooter‘s identity commonly in question, we hear

An Uzi is an Israeli submachine-gun; wordplay??
     
26 NO PROBLEM Splendid hosts for Mike, all right?

[PRO (=for, in favour of) in NOBLE (=splendid)] + M (=Mike, in radio telecommunications)
     
31 CONDONE Excuse deception perpetrated

CON (=deception, hoax) + DONE (=perpetrated)
     
Down    
     
01 EWER Two different ways Brewers may reveal pitcher

The word “ewer” can be found twice in Brewers, once read forwards and once read backwards, hence “two different ways”
     
02 MIGHTILY Could I get lucky? On the surface a great deal

MIGHT (=could) + I + L<uck>Y (“on the surface” means outer letters only)
     
04 GLUTEI Tearful at first getting stick about one’s muscles

T<earful> (“at first” means first letter only) in GLUE (=stick) + I (=one); the glutei are muscles in the buttock and hip
     
05 ESAU Hairy bloke seen in the sauna

Hidden (“seen”) in “thE SAUna”; the reference is to the story of Jacob and Esau in the Old Testament
     
06 INCHES Pulls up with wife going, “It’s not very far”

<w>INCHES (=pulls up, hoists); “wife (=W) going” means letter “w” is dropped
     
07 BESPEAK Suggest Bill possesses a sixth sense

ESP (=a sixth sense, i.e. Extrasensory perception) in BEAK (=bill, of bird); to “bespeak” seems to mean “suggest” in the sense of betoken, be evidence for
     
08 GAPED Looked surprised government’s getting mocked

G (=government) + APED (=mocked)
     
14 VILLA House with a bad character? Not half!

VILLA<inous> (=with a bad character); “not half” means 5 of 10 letters are dropped
     
16 EDWIN Fellow journalist’s triumph

ED (=journalist, i.e. editor) + WIN (=triumph)
     
18 NEEDLESS Annoys Sweden to no purpose

NEEDLES (=annoys) + S (=Sweden, in IVR)
     
19 OBLIGING Doing as one’s asked – endless bilge going out

*(BILG<e> GOIN<g>); “endless” means last letters are dropped from anagram, indicated by “going out”
     
20 YAOUNDÉ Short of money, shafted you and me for capital

*(YOU AND <m>E); “short of money (=M)” means letter “m” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “shafted”; Youandé is the capital city of Cameroon
     
21 SANEST Poor Sean’s finally left (extremely sensible)

*(SEANS) + <lef>T (“finally” means last letter only); one wonders if the reference is to former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who resigned in July 2017
     
22 EMOTES No director puts down what thespian does

<d>EMOTES (=puts down, relegates); “no director (=D)” means letter “d” is dropped
     
23 SUMAC Tree French writer climbs

(Albert) CAMUS (=French writer); “climbs” indicates vertical reversal; a sumac is one of the plants of the Rhus genus that grow in subtropical and temperate regions of the world
     
27 PANE Speech’s trouble – you can see through it

Homophone (“speech’s”) of “pain (=trouble)”; you can see through a pane of glass
     
29 EBON Honour contrarily, the third for Conrad Black

EBO (OBE=honour; “contrarily” indicates reversal) + <co>N<rad> (“third for” means third letter only); ebon is a poetic variant of ebony
     

 

14 comments on “Independent 10,312 / Tyrus”

  1. The Liverpool footballer is the late Malcolm Allison (1927-2010).  Shameless is/was a TV show – the definition is ‘show’.

    We found this tough, too, but did complete with lots of help from Google and a wordfinder.

    Thanks, Tyrus and RatkojaRiku

     

  4. Not knowing either of the ‘Spokesperson(s)’, the ‘non-event’, the ‘Liverpool footballer’ and only vaguely remembering the ‘capital’, I found this really tough going, though eventually managed to finish with all more or less parsed (and guessed!). It was so hard I missed the theme – my excuse anyway.

    I agree with Andrew@2 – the parsing for UZI is a homophone of ‘Who’s he?’ or ‘commonly’ = ‘oo’s ‘e?’

    Thanks to Tyrus and RR

     

  5. I’m afraid Malcolm Allison played his whole career down south, mainly for West Ham, so it looks like a misspelt goalie to me. Struggled with remembering the string of fly-by-night characters in the Donald’s set-up, and failed to finish because the phone app I use wouldn’t let me enter 3d without crashing. Always messes up on across/down combinations. A good hard Thursday slog though.
    Thanks Tyrus and RR.

  6. Big thumbs down from me. Way too much specialised knowledge. Gave up with the top right largely unfinished. Didn’t enjoy this at all.

  7. Thanks to RatkojaRikuo and Tyrus

    Very tough. I think the Liverpool keeper “Alisson” is probably the intended footballer – his name is often misspelt, even in national newspapers.

  8. I thought this was a great puzzle, although I suspect Tyrus indeed means the current Liverpool goalie.

    Many thanks to S&B

  10. Wow, what a puzzle!

    I get a bit miserable when themes involve pop music, sport, films or television (alternative specialist knowledge?), so it was wonderful to get one that is right up my street.

    My growing shelf of Trump related books could well be seen as a sort of masochism. 🙂  OTOH I read The New York Review of Books to remind me that there remain good and civilised people over there.

    Jim/Tyrus I raise a glass of Glenmorangie to you in gratitude.

     

    Thanks RatkojaRiku for the blog.

  11. When I went to print this off this morning, clue 1d was at the top of the screen.  I had just been checking the results of last night’s World Series final game, so the baseball reference was timely.  As it happens, the Milwaukee Brewers were knocked out in the wild card game some weeks ago.  The team that knocked them out was the Washington Nationals, and it was the Nats who won last night.

    That said, I then went out for the day and had no internet access.  I managed a lot of this on the train and managed to work out 7/8/23, 10/30 and 17 despite only knowing the last one.  I still had a few to get when I got home and I needed a word search for 20dn

  12. Failed only on 21a, got some of the parsing, but hadn’t heard of the Show. Didn’t know the 2 spokespersons, or the non-event.
    Does my 32-3 win in a bowls triples match at Mayfield a few months ago count as a 7/28/3?

  13. Thanks to RR for a nice blog and to others who commented. The people mentioned are a pretty shameless bunch apart from Mr Alisson, for which which apologies.

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