We need an Emergency Turnip to enter the race to be new PM – bound to do a better job than whoever we’re going to get.
I made the silly mistake of trying to solve this puzzle in the hour or so before the Women’s Euro Footie Final. I thought I had plenty of time to do that and make a few notes with a little window in the bottom right of my computer screen showing iPlayer leading up to the actual start of the match. I didn’t realise that warm-up program was going to be so good and totally distracted me till I abandoned the puzzle at about half way and turned the sound on the TV coverage for at least 40 mins before the start of the match – it was very engaging content. Suffice it to say after the match I was in no fit state to finish the puzzle. That was done a few days later. As a result I have no idea how long this took but I have an overriding impression it was not too tricky.
On the restart, I hugely guffawed over the first one solved: 21D. This remains my favourite clue for its appalling surface reading
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SNIDE | Balls inverted after bottom of pants turned in – nasty (5) ED< (Ref. Ed Balls, inverted) after [pant]S and IN< (IN, turned) |
| 4 | PUBLICITY | Promotion of lousy independent leaders secured by local financial centre (9) L[ousy] I[ndependent] inside PUB (local) and CITY (financial centre) |
| 10 | SCARRED | Branded second vehicle, loud colour (7) S[econd] CAR (vehicle) RED (loud colour) |
| 11 | TURNIP | Putin’s about to imprison dissenter, finally – idiot! (6) (PUTIN)* AInd: about, around (to imprison) [dissente]R First answered, from the wordplay after failing to cold solve those first 3 across clues |
| 12 | PENANG | Write article on no good state of Malaysia (6) PEN (write) A (article) NG (no good) |
| 13 | REGULATE | To control urge, let cycling absorb one (8) (URGE LET)* AInd: cycling, around A (one) Last one in. I found this a bit hard |
| 14 | STRIDENT | US’s last missile? That’s harsh (8) [U]S TRIDENT (missile) |
| 16 | TABLET | Knock over Grant: it might make you feel better (6) BAT< (knock, over) LET (grant) |
| 18 | CHEESE | See about stuffing a revolutionary, to follow dessert? (6) SEE< (See, about) inside (stuffing) CHE (a revolutionary) |
| 20 | SURMOUNT | Overcome knight said to assume bonking position (8) SUR homophone “Sir” (knight) HInd: said, MOUNT (bonking position) |
| 22 | INTRIGUE | One has drunk gin with true artifice (8) (I GIN TRUE)* AInd: drunk. |
| 24 | RADISH | Plant Cyclops had twisted round in hives? (6) I’D< (Cyclops had, twisted) inside RASH (hives) |
| 25 | POLLEN | Ballot measurement that can be irritating (6) POLL (ballot) EN (measurement) |
| 26 | SECULAR | Non-religious clause removed by Republican (7) (CLAUSE)* AInd: removed, R[epublican] |
| 27 | STICKY END | Unpleasant climax with sweaty bum (6,3) STICKY (sweaty) END (bum) |
| 28 | STALE | Hackneyed introduction to Sun story (5) S[un] TALE (story) |
| Down | ||
| 2 | NO SWEAT | About to turn against Labour? That won’t be a problem (2,5) ON< (about, to turn) SWEAT (labour) |
| 3/5 | DRAW A LINE UNDER IT | How to stress something Boris & co wanted us to do about Partygate (4,1,4,5,2) Double Def. |
| 6 | LITIGATOR | Robert Maxwell type in the limelight? “One little reptile!” (9) LIT (in the limelight) I (one) GATOR (little reptile, shortened form of alligator) Wiki (Robert_Maxwell) for anyone who doesn’t know about the “Bouncing Czech” |
| 7 | CORAL | Wow – a LibDem leader that’s endangered in the main! (5) COR (wow) A L[ibdem] |
| 8 | THISTLE | Emblem of a nation‘s awful shit time, dogged by the French (7) (SHIT)* AInd: awful, T[ime] LE (the, in French) |
| 9/24 | PROG ROCK | Music genre expert finally getting pitch (4,4) PRO (expert) [gettin]G ROCK (pitch) |
| 15 | EMERGENCY | Issue with new city limits – crisis! (9) EMERGE (issue) N[ew] C[it]Y |
| 17 | BLOOD CLOT | Gore’s against Conservative crowd: not good for circulation (5,4) BLOOD (gore) C[onservative] LOT (crowd) |
| 19 | HANG OUT | What those in low-cut dresses might do to relax (4,3) |
| 20 | STETSON | Rolling Stones taking temperature, as protection from the Texas sun? (7) (STONES + T[emperature])* AInd: rolling. |
| 21 | NOSTRIL | Sort to fiddle around in sweet Fanny Adams’s orifice (7) (SORT)* AInd: to fiddle around, inside NIL (sweet FA) |
| 23 | RELIC | Something from the past brought up by some imbecile reactionary (5) Hidden reversed inside imbeCILE Reactionary |
Shameless plug.
Rather than a final joke, I invite you to try beermagnet’s first “What is this?” quiz on Twitter.
If this works I will do more
beermagnet's "What is this" quiz 1
Further clues will follow. pic.twitter.com/K3aUlXM8dG
— Tony Roberts #FBPE (@beermagnetxword) August 7, 2022
Thanks for the blog , not so political this one, perhaps Cyclops thinks things were changing too quickly. Truss is surely a gift for crossword setters. I liked SURMOUNT and shows that Cyclops is as out of date as me with his slang, RADISH was very deceptive.
For HANG OUT I had a double definition , the second being – to relax.
Is it a banana or aubergine using an infra-red filter?
The only good things to say about the football are it does not last for five days and does invade Radio 4 longwave.
Roz: You are right about HANG OUT I will change that.
Radish was a bit tricky – it’s the Hives=Rash part that is a leap. I think I’ve seen that before, probably by Cyclops or Brummie.
I’m afraid you are way out with your picture quiz guess. I have added some more clues in that Twitter thread.
(I didn’t mean to invite answers here, just drum up a bit of activity on that thread to see if the idea of a guessing game like that has legs.)
Thanks beermagnet and Cyclops. I also had a chuckle over 21d and starred that together with 27a as my favourites. I think Hives = Rash is ok, it’s always struck me as a bit of an antequated word but my medical knowledge is limited to putting the occasional band-aid on.
I agree Franko@3 Chambers gives Hives as nettlerash, it just took me a long time to think of this for the clue.
Thanks beermagnet, I also found REGULATE tricky because I first thought of cycling in the stricter sense ( preserving the order of letters if written in a circle). Luckily I didn’t have the same problem making an anagram of PUTIN despite “about” more strictly meaning “the other way around” though! RADISH is made has quite a vague definition on top of the unusual wordplay, but I liked the clue, and plenty more.
[Re: the pic – I had the same guess as your first Twitter correspondent and then shifted to one of those sandbank islands off Australia. I now see you have added a cryptic clue so will have a go at that!]
[PS – got it but only thanks to google+wikipedia – nice “riddle of the sands”! I will forgive the vanishing umlauts…]
Oh Well done Gazzh.
I was going to post the answer this afternoon (Name and its Wikipedia Page) but please feel free to do the honours as first solver either on Twitter or here, or both.
I zoomed in when I saw this little “tick” on Google Maps and when I switched to satellite view I thought it looked like some kind of microscopic plasmodium on a slide and would make an interesting puzzle – especially after reading about how it moves and shrinks over time
(Bit tricky to make anagrams with both ü and ö )
Oh. I will put that clue here for those not on Twitter:
Cryptic crossword type clue to its name/the sea it is in:
John Turner loathes mucking up island (5,4)/(5,3)
Roz @4 for some reason I remembered a friend (during my childhood) saying they had got hives during their holiday. It’s funny how these random inconsequential conversations stick in the memory.
Well done gazzh @5. I’ve got to admit I’m still stumped.
Answer to the picture quiz is
Lütje Hörn
in the East Frisian Islands in the
North Sea
It is part of Germany
Wikipedia has some info: Link
GoogleMaps of what intrigued me: Link
You will have to zoom out from there quite a bit to get your bearings
Well done Gazzh@6 and thanks Beermagnet , I got North Sea from your clue and umlaut discussion but no chance with the island.
Franko@8 , good point about memory, next time I see HIVES in a crossword I will pounce on it.
20ac SURMOUNT: mount = to assume bonking position, surely?
3dn/5 DRAW A LINE UNDER IT: Strictly speaking, “something” is doing double duty as part of both definitions, isn’t it?
6dn LITIGATOR: there are so many epithets that could apply to the late sleazeball … which made it a little difficult to come up with the right one
I feel robbed of a joke! Don’t do Twitter and can’t see that your clue defines North Sea, anyway. I think a good puzzle makes the solver say ‘Of course!’ when they work out/are fed the answer, not ‘eh?’. Please stick to the jokes!
I think many were baffled by the old Etonian’s use of the American slang “them’s the breaks” at the end of his resignation speech and some will have had to have it explained to them that the metaphor refers to the ‘break’ in a game of pool. Taken together with this image, one begins to suspect that playing pool is an important part of being British Premier. I suppose it help pass the time while the Americans make all the important decisions. Maybe best of three frames to decide the leadership contest?
Right, well I know where to come next time I’m in need of some irreverence. First time I’ve tried one of these and I’m still agape at 21d and the revolting 27a (favourites both!)
RA[DI]SH was fine as, like Gazzh, I remembered my Gran mentioning this and had a strange mental image.
It was PROG ROCK which held me up for a while, wondering if there was some music genre named FROG FACE.
Very good fun.
Thanks Beermagnet and Cyclops