A brief intro today as I have a lot on at the moment, both figuratively and literally – after all, now it’s gone October 1st I can’t afford to put the heating on so woollies it is – till I can’t stand it anymore.
Besides trying to work out some questions for the village quiz (tricky making them easy enough, but not too easy), I’m also helping prepare for the celebration for the local library’s diamond jubilee, but some twit asked the local MP, and he says he’s coming!
This is going to put a downer on the event as far as I’m concerned. That’s what you get if you live in Surrey. How can a representative of a party that’s closed 20% of UK libraries (almost 800) in its period in power dare to show his face! Five times in the last 20 years we’ve had to campaign bitterly to keep our little well-loved library open. So if you see a news report about Dominic Raaab being duffed up by an old codger with a copy of the Communist Manifesto you might know why. I mention the CM because I have just given a copy to one of my younger children, along with a Che Guevara beret – to celebrate his first pay rise after being in his first proper job for less than a year. Mind you, you’d have to go some to cause any damage with that book – even with all prefaces from all the previous versions plus a new intro by Yanis Varoufakis it is a tiny little book. I’ll seek out a copy of Das Kapital.
That must be enough irrelevance to avoid giving anything away on the homepage. Let’s talk about the puzzle.
It’s Tees, so you know it’s going to be a bit of fun, but I thought he was a bit restrained today. No theme this time that I can spot (as usual, I half-expect to be proved wrong, and would welcome it).
Solving started swiftly when I cracked the STAY IN SACK/KANSAS CITY anagram at 1d pretty quickly after spotting CITY in the fodder. Then 1a, 10 and 12 also fell in short order. Another anagram at 3d delivered more crossing letters and I had most of the top left in place. Things slowed after that. Markedly. I got 23a and the Florida mansion to help complete the bottom left too, but the right hand side looked very empty. Left-wing astrophysics came to my aid by getting Red Giants at 16d and I was up and running in the bottom right corner. In the end the top right needed a Wiki check to ensure the sausage at 5d existed, and the final triumvirate were SMUT, MODE and TODD. They all had wordplay that fooled me for too long but now, as usual, I wonder why I had such trouble.
Explanation lacking for 16A which I just BIFD in from the crossers, so please help with that – I’m likely missing football knowledge – and of course I may have others wrong.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | KRYPTONITE | LA gang member this evening reported threat to hero (10) Homophones of “Crip” (LA gang member, from the gang called the Crips) and “Tonight” (this evening) giving the non-existent mineral that weirdly removes Superman’s powers. |
| 6 | SMUT | Suggestive banter from Greek character in street (4) MU (Greek character, the Greek letter itself won’t show up so this is a Wiki link ) in ST[reet] |
| 10 | NIRVANA | Spiritual liberation Irish see, taken in by simpleton (7) IR[ish] V (see, vidi) inside NANA (simpleton) |
| 11 | UNAIDED | One French assistant died alone (7) UN (One, in French) AIDE (assistant) D[ied] |
| 12 | ADMONISHING | Delivering reprimand, bashed him in gonads (11) (HIM IN GONADS)* AInd: bashed. |
| 15 | COSTS | Goes for son in bed with temptress at last (5) S[on] inside COT (bed) then [temptres]S |
| 16 | RIGHT BACK | Say Neil’s defensive position? (5,4) Can someone please explain the wordplay for this, I can’t. Googling finds several footballers called Neil who have played at right back. |
| 17 | THERMIDOR | Seafood so cooked, I had men joining the Marines (9) THE RM (The Marines) I’D (I had) OR (men, Other Ranks). Definition referring to a way of [mis]treating lobster etc. |
| 18 | REIGN | Good to be in control for time as ruler (5) G[ood] inside REIN (control). This wordplay and answer has become a crossword staple. I presume setters are often left with R?I?N to fill |
| 19 | ARISTOCRACY | Heartless character is given to Conservative Blue Elite (11) A[i]R (character, heartless) IS TO C[onservative] RACY (blue) |
| 23 | AGA KHAN | Silver brought to a king by Chinese leader (3,4) AG (Silver) A K[ing] HAN (Chinese) |
| 24 | TBILISI | City built is fantastic one displacing upper-class (7) (BUILT IS – U +I)* AInd: fantastic. |
| 25 | ATOM | Alpha male causing scrap (4) A[lpha] TOM (male) |
| 26 | USHERETTES | Female guides American canine back to welcome ambassador (10) HE (ambassador, His/Her Excellency) inside US (American) SETTER< (canine, back) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | KANSAS CITY | Bananas stay in sack in stateside location (6,4) (STAY IN SACK)* AInd: Bananas. First one in. Chuffed to cold solve that anagram |
| 2 | YARDMASTER | Met leader for job as American rail coordinator (10) YARD MASTER as if the Met (Metropolitan Police, based at New Scotland Yard) had a leader called a Master |
| 3 | TEA AND SYMPATHY | Compassion that made Pansy barmy over years (3,3,8) (THAT MADE PANSY)* AInd: barmy, then Y[ears] |
| 4 | NEARS | Homes in northeast are mostly small (5) NE (northeast) AR[e] S[mall] |
| 5 | THURINGER | Sausage variety, one almost identical to another, needed by Thursday (9) THU[rsday] RINGER (one almost identical to another) |
| 7 | MODE | Current in which British sailors lost way (4) MODERN (Current) – RN (Royal Navy, British Sailors) |
| 8 | TODD | Ultimately unpleasant eccentric in Sweeney? (4) [unpleasan]T ODD (eccentric) Ref. Sweeney Todd |
| 9 | TARGET PRACTICE | Drill to assist one attempting to strike gold? (6,8) Cryptic definition misleading us to think about gold prospecting, where the answer is practicing at archery where the centre of the target is gold (yellow anyway) |
| 13 | CAPITALIST | I put on stone? Some would some call me bloated! (10) CAPITAL I (I, is a capital i) ST[one]. The version of the puzzle I solved seems to have a rogue “some” in the clue as above |
| 14 | SKINNY-DIPS | Barely crawls, but dances round pub yard? (6-4) INN (pub) Y[ar]D inside SKIPS (dances). I liked this cryptic definition for swimming a la nature |
| 16 | RED GIANTS | Were Marx and Engels such huge stars? (3,6) Double Definition |
| 20 | TITLE | Section in Beckett: it lends play’s name (5) Hidden in BecketT IT LEnds |
| 21/22 | MAR-A-LAGO | Old festival crowd put up in Floridian mansion (3-1-4) O[ld] GALA (festival) RAM (crowd) all reversed. Mansion occupants to remain unmentioned and unmentionable. |
16a. NEIL is LIEN backwards.
By the way, the definition in 4d is HOMES IN not just HOMES.
A question related to 12a. Gonads are often taken to mean ‘testes’ but my understanding was that they are prenatal and develop into the testes. Anybody know?
And just to complicate things, there was in rugby union one Neil BACK who was strong in the defensive department. Extra confusion for PostMark! KRYPTONITE, ADMONISHING, THERMIDOR, ARISTOCRACY, CAPITALIST, SKINNY DIPS and MAR A LAGO were my favourites today amongst considerable competition.
Thanks Tees and beermagnet (hope it gets warmer as the day goes on)
I always wondered why THERMIDOR was named after the hottest month of the revolutionary calendar when shellfish is at its riskiest, even though it has an r in it. Apparently it’s in honour of a play. A nice puzzle. Thanks Tees and beermagnet and give Raab one from me.
Very enjoyable indeed. Quality throughout the grid, I particularly liked 13,14&21/22d.
Many thanks indeed to Tees and beermagnet for the review, though I do think these things are better without the political sniping.
Well that was some some crossword. Unfortunately that’s my fault as the duplication was in the original submission. Tricky to spot something like that, as proofreaders everywhere will will know.
Thanks beermagnet and all, as we embark this winter on yet more government-inspired hardship.
Thanks Hovis at Comment #1 for sorting out Right Back. I would never have seen that and you’re right of course.
Also – corrected definition underlining at 4d.
I thought Gonads was just another word covering the sexually dissimilar organs, Testes and Ovaries both. So I suppose it is used when differentiation has not yet occurred as there is no other word then. If it was only intended to be used in those very early stages of development I fear its time has passed – colloquial usage certainly means it is used interchangeable, mostly with Testes – presumably because they are the most obvious, and funny.
Thanks both. Needed help with LOI CAPITALIST whereby I was beaten by the not entirely convincing definition and the tricky and nearly impossible to detect ‘Capital I’ device
Thanks, Tees, for the puzzle; and thanks, beermagnet, for the “brief intro”
Update: Local library’s 60th birthday party was a great success yesterday. Nice day, lots of kids aged from 8 to 88+ trying the “treasure hunt”, massive cake, and too many other cakes, bit of a sing-song, prizes handed out etc. It was 2-5 p.m. and Raab turned up about 2, apparently, but thankfully didn’t stay long. So was long gone before I turned up. I only snuck off work for an hour or so to help with the influx of mums & kids that happen after schools out at 3:30/4:00, and to see the cake cutting etc. Library manager very happy with the numbers on the ticker machine that measures footfall – that’s how libraries are assessed these days. Do something similar in 10 years I hope.