My anagramming ability was lacking when starting this puzzle.
I fiddled about with the anagram fodder for 1d for a while but did not see the answer before moving on to find easier inroads. 9a also fooled me on first try, although in retrospect that looks like an obvious and easy anagram. I didn’t get a foothold till 12a, then the top right corner and most of the right hand side was filled-in reasonably quickly.
After the slow start there was no real chance of a quick or single pass solve. At the end of the first pass (last clue attempted) I had 8 to fill in all in the left hand side.
I should mention 17a: I might have had trouble with this myself had I not witnessed people, including close family members, going crazy for a hairdresser. I have seen this phrase mentioned in various places and relate to its meaning so remembered it.
18d was my favourite clue for the well disguised anagram fodder and the fact that it was my break in to the final corner. Mind you the last clue solved 29a runs it close. I could not see what that was heading to at all until I got that leading C.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 7 | RETIRE | Feel knackered again, so withdraw (6) RE-TIRE (feel knackered, again) |
| 9 | CHASTISE | “He is cast out!” – whip (8) (HE IS CAST)* AInd: out |
| 11 | TRANSPORT | Ecstasy time at organised games (9) T[ime] RAN (organised) SPORT (games) |
| 12 | SMART | Backing vehicles for Sting (5) TRAMS< (vehicles, backing) First one in. |
| 13 | CONTROL | Restraint is quite OK when suppressing noisy Trump rebel leaders (7) COOL (quite OK) around N[oisy] T[rump] R[ebel] |
| 15 | PILATES | One time to get into pain-in-the-arse exercises (7) A (one) T[ime] inside PILES (pain-in-the-arse) |
| 17 | LOCKDOWN HAIRCUT | Top disaster as a result of Coronavirus restrictions? (8,7) Definition plus cryptic def. to a recent phenomenon |
| 21 | BEDROOM | Balls crushed by Bush in chamber (7) ED (Balls) in BROOM (bush) |
| 23 | ABSCOND | Bonds a/c dodgy – scarper (7) (BONDS A/C )* AInd: dodgy |
| 25 | ELBOW | Bender results in bowel movement (5) (BOWEL)* AInd: movement |
| 27 | DESPOTISM | Perhaps Trump’s attempted presidential role is embodied in “Nationwide spot is mine!” (9) Hidden inside nationwiDE SPOT IS Mine |
| 29 | COURTESY | Brenda’s lot, quite comfortable lacking a quality of civility (8) COURT (Brenda’s lot) E[a]SY (comfortable, – A) Last one in. |
| 30 | TENNER | “Money!” the vocalist shouted (6) Homophone “Tenor”. HInd: shouted |
| Down | ||
| 1 | PROTOCOL | Right way of going about beating up poor clot (8) (POOR CLOT)* AInd: beating up. One of those “should have got it earlier” answers |
| 3 | CHAT UP | Try to get off with Trilby, say, gaining access to part of bra (4,2) HAT (trilby, say) in CUP (part of bra) |
| 4 | ASPS | Snakes getting Dick to ensnare party leader (4) P[arty] in ASS (dick) |
| 5 | GIGANTIC | Massive entertainer’s work stunt (8) GIG (entertainer’s work) ANTIC (stunt) |
| 6 | TESTES | Balls examinations restricting energy (6) E[nergy] inside TESTS (examinations) |
| 8 | TRAIN | Start of Tories’ downfall sequence (5) T[ories] RAIN (downfall) |
| 10 | MOB LAW | Press line on Washington upheaval, as exemplified by the storming of the Capitol (3,3) MOB (press) L[ine] WA< (Washington, upheaval) |
| 14 | RADIO | One squeezed into Dior creation (medium) (5) (A inside DIOR)* AInd: creation |
| 16 | LOINS | Genital area oil spread over two opposite directions (5) (OIL)* AInd: spread, NS (two opposite directions) |
| 18 | CODE BLUE | Could be messing with drug causes medical emergency (4,4) (COULD BE)* AInd: messing, E (drug). Favourite clue for well disguised anagram. |
| 19 | HEARSE | It’s designed to move a stiff male behind (6) HE (male) ARSE (behind) |
| 20 | TIDEMARK | Grubby residue, result of poor diet, note (8) (DIET)* AInd: poor, MARK (note) |
| 21 | BREACH | Infringement of Boris’s first contact (6) B[oris] REACH (contact). Another one of those “should have got it earlier” answers |
| 22 | MEDUSA | Jellyfish capable of making men rock hard? (6) Double Def.  and |
| 24 | ORION | Oxygen/iron treatment for a group of stars (5) O[xygen] (IRON)* AInd: treatment |
| 26/28/2 | WITH OPEN ARMS | Enthusiastically accompanied by Frank and members (4,4,4) WITH (by) OPEN (frank) ARMS (members) |
You all now need to sit back, relax, and spend a half-hour listening to the “Night Crew” podcast (SF, sitcom)
Liked ‘Testes’! Wasted ages trying to work ‘Ed’ into a solution …
Thanks beermagnet and Cyclops. Re 18a – I remember arriving at Code Blue and then had to google it to confirm what it was It must have been buried in my subconscious somehow. It is a good one. I had a few chuckles over19d and 25a. Thanks for the Night Crew link, I’ve not heard about this one.
I enjoyed ‘elbow’ best but didn’t really like ‘tenner’. It’s acceptable…..but I didn’t like it!!! I had a very slow start with only 9 done on a cold pass. Got up tom 23 done with crossers but it took a night’s sleep and a fresh eye to finish off the rest…….all on the left side of the grid. Betty’s clue had me baffled for quite some time. I toyed with Windsors and Royalists for too long…..and even the C start had me looking at ‘count’ for too long before the penny dropped.
I think this foxed me a bit more than usual. I didn’t know the phrase CODE BLUE and, as mentioned, the anagram was well hidden. I hadn’t heard the expression LOCKDOWN HAIRCUT, but I was familiar with the phenomenon, so it clicked eventually. Great clue for ELBOW. COURTESY was quite tricky, but the penny dropped eventually.
Cyclops is usually generous with anagrams, which tends to make the puzzle easier than it might be otherwise. Times setters are only allowed to use five anagrams in a puzzle.
“He is cast out!” is the exact formal wording demanded by PROTOCOL when the Whip is withdrawn from party members, isn’t it?
@Beermagnet, in the three-parter (26/28/2), I think the definition is just “enthusiastically” and “accompanied by” is the synonym for WITH. (He welcomed them enthusiastically/with open arms.)
Thanks Beermagnet, relieved to see TRANSPORT as the definition wasn’t that straightforward for me and I flirted with TEAMSPORT for a long time despite that being two words and not fitting any discernible wordplay.
My observations chime with the gang (standard Grade 0 lockdown haircut no problem for me with my clippers but my wife and her friends certainly suffered – not at my hands I hasten to add) and agree with Tony Collman@4 re usual quantity of anagrams, I think this is what made the Eye a good starting point in my solving life – maybe offset by some of the specialist knowledge/slang required.
[Interesting point re the Times limit and that is probably why it once took me about a month to solve a Times crossword that I had photocopied at the library when i fancied a change! ]
COURTESY my favourite this month but ELBOW and RADIO ran it close.