Well – this was a toughie.
We had to put this down at one point as we were really stuck and could not see a way forward. The bottom half was complete but there were quite a few gaps in the top half. It was only when we spotted the NINA around the outside that we were able to fill in the gaps. Quite why the Conservative MP for South Staffordshire, who has been sacked twice from two of his ministerial posts is featured, remains a mystery. Also, why was he knighted – another mystery? Clearly a mystery to Tyrus too, as we’re sure he is expressing his amazement at 5ac/14ac and 19ac/21ac.
12 across with its two cryptic definitions was a difficult one to crack as we hadn’t spotted the author at 20ac until we had the final letter of his name. We should have seen BRANDO more quickly too but we were also stumped on 9D despite being keen on watching cycling races.
We’ll be interested to see what others think.
An anagram (‘slammed’) of BOOS IN COURT UNEASY and E (the last or ‘ultimate’ letter of judge). A reference to John McEnroe’s outburst at Wimbledon in 1981, which has since become a classic phrase. We’re sure it also refers to the knighthood of the character in the Nina!
AMIS (writer) with middle two (‘essential’) letters swapped around or ‘twisted’
LINE (work) ALLY (colleague)
BRAND (make) O (love)
mISLEd (seduced) without first and last letter or ‘removing clothes’. 20ac sounds like MAN – in other words the Isle of Man. Two cryptic parts here rather than a straight definition which took us a while to solve until we saw the Nina.
W (weak – as used in Physics) fUSS (commotion) missing first letter or ‘ignoring leader’
A cryptic definition – an anagram (‘suspicious’) of INVITED TO BE round LIE (story) – you wouldn’t necessarily believe a suspicious story. Another expression of surprise at the knighthood conferred on the character in the Nina?
MAN (piece) with final letter repeated to make MANN – Thomas Mann, a German novelist
Hidden or ‘shown’ in ministeR AT Sea
A (one) USE (benefit) in N (North) A (America)
An anagram (‘surprisingly’) of ROME AT IT
IDA (as in Mount Ida in Greek Mythology) around or ‘getting over’ E (last letter of fence or ‘at the rear’). We should have looked up Mount Ida earlier in Google – it took us far too long to work out the parsing.
AG (silver) within or ‘during’ DEMO (protest) with half of tonGUE
A reversal or ‘taking up’ of CI (hundred and one) RY (railway – ‘lines’) L (fifty) followed by S (soprano)
InjURE (damage) without or ‘ruling out’ N (new) J (judge) – a Latin word we had to check
C (see) off cANDY (sweet) – the ‘royal’ reference being to the disgraced Prince Andrew
A (American) GAM (school) reversed or ‘put up’ – the awful Trump slogan ‘Make America Great Again’
A reversal (‘somersault’) of BID (try) A around L (lake)
An anagram (‘chewed’) of BET A RAT – a new word for Bert
DI (Detective Inspector – ‘copper’) inside or ‘stopping’ MASON (‘lodger’ – a reference to Masonic lodges)
EEL (slippery character) around or ‘arresting’ AS (when)
SHOE (pump possibly) around or ‘captivating’ V (victor). According to Chambers ‘pumps’ are light shoes without fastenings used mainly for dancing, but we have always thought of them as trainers or plimsolls – in Bristol, where we originally came from plimsolls were referred to as ‘daps’ – maybe they still are!
fORMER (old) without or ‘avoiding’ F (fellow)
An anagram (‘violent’) of PUB RAID (attack)
ALEC (‘smart boy’ as in smart Alec) reversed or ‘turned up’ in IND (India)
A reversal (‘about’) of G (Government) NOT around or ‘capturing’ H (hearts). The definition raised a smile.
HE (male) after TET (‘offensive’ as in the Vietnam War) followed by R (right)
LAV (John – toilet) underneath or ‘supporting’ S (Southern)
hALMA (board game) without H (hard)
A reversal or ‘to north’ of IE (that is) + GoinG without the middle letters or ‘unoccupied’
Right up my alley
Something old and something new.
His Tyrus puzzles usually have something going on around the perimeter and when i saw SIR GAVIN W emerging I hit google (remember I now live in tropical North QLD) and got the lowdown which was a help
Then I googled up Johhny Mac for a trip down Memory lane But he was right-it touched the line
Thats what i call a fun puzzle-had me grinning most of the day
Thanks JT and B&J (lucky blogging this)
Many good ones!
YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS: a nice topical clue.
ISLE: It’s not often we come across this type…with only wordplay and no obvious def.
Liked MAGA and THONG ( a mischievous def) as well!
ANDY: Though I parsed it as B&J did, I was thinking about ‘RANDY (man) less R (royal)’ as an additional wordplay component. Then Andy had to be considered as ‘one presumably’ (implying ‘a royal presumably’). Tyrus didn’t mean it that way, I felt. So…
Where is everybody? This deserves serious applause!
Yes, copmus @3, it does, but if they’re like me, it’s because we’re a bit shell-shocked! No hope in the NW where I couldn’t get the unheard of LINEALLY and IURE. I’d also never heard of (H)ALMA as a ‘board game’, had to dig deep for ORMER and TABARET and to top it off, missed the Nina.
Very appropriate to have the John McEnroe outburst to start off. I only hope Nick Kyrgios doesn’t come up with a similarly memorable quote tomorrow!
Thanks to Tyrus and B&J
copmus @3 – it may well deserve applause but I found it far too difficult to be really enjoyable. I’m sure that’s down to my deficiencies as a solver. Quite a lot of guess-and-check involved. Most of them I could back-parse from the solution but I was still scratching my head over a few until I came here.
Thanks B&J – blog very much appreciated!
And thanks Tyrus for the challenge. I live to fight another day…
I always find Tyrus’s puzzles to be absolutely top-class and I thought this was a top-class Tyrus puzzle. The idea of introducing the McEnroe quotes to the topic of Sir Gav is brilliant. Speaking of tennis, I think the ANDY (sweet) referred to is the Murraymint.
Quite apart from the idea generation, I think one also has to admire the clue for Brando(among others)
Many thanks to Tyrus, B&J
I’m with Wordplodder @4. We did spot the Nina, though can’t see why that’s topical now. But had never heard of all the words mentioned @4, with Kure particularly unguessable.
Or even iure!
Yes this was a great puzzle. I noticed A HERO across the centre under YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS and I DON’T BELIEVE IT. According to the internet the nina subject is regarded as such in Somalia!
missed out ‘above’ before I don’t believe it
Well, we managed to get it all, much to our surprise. Helped by 5/14 and 19/21 where the enumeration made the answers pretty obvious, and by the nina which helped with the 4-letter entries. IURE was new to us but as there are few words beginning iu.. we soon found it in Chambers. We weren’t too happy with ‘wimp’ as a definition of WUSS – Chambers says its a dialect word in South Wales for a mate or friend. As for MAGA, when does an abbreviation, enumerated as, say, (1,1,1,1), become an acronym, enumerated as, say, (4)? Something maybe for the general discussion page.
The rest was pretty straightforward – we just needed to check ORMER and TABARET in Chambers.
Thanks, Tyrus and B&J.
Well it was tough as old boots but saw the perimeter and Tyrus’s comment of You Cannot etc and laughed. Cheers JT B&J although Tyrus hasn’t exactly been kind to BJ recently…
Thanks to B&J for a nice blog and to others for their comments.
Sir Gav wasn’t too clever as Education Secretary admittedly but, before entering politics, he did win the
prestigious Fireplace Salesman of the Year award. Think he’s also won the Frank Spencer Impersonator award a couple of times but I can’t find the link.
I was defeated with 6 left . Just to say plimsolls are daps in South Wales too
Thoroughly enjoyed it but due to too much happening over weekend only finished it Monday morning…
Were we the only ones looking for Victor Meldrew references?