Last issue’s puzzle was said to be a touch morose. At least this one didn’t invoke the ghost of Trump or Johnson. However it did include some more minor sprites like Penny Mordaunt and Mike Pence (yet again) and a mention of the matriarch of punk, Dame Viviane Westwood.
I would guess this crossword was set before her death, but it is poignant that she appears in the clue for Survive.
Most senior figures are there only to provide the occasional letter or two, Putin a P, Sunak a U, King Brian a CR etc. I’m trying to ignore Hancock in the forlorn hope he will finally go away.
Solving time ended up about average for me although for a while at the start I thought I might be on for a record as I whipped through 1/13 1d 2 3 12 14 15 19 and so on. I was badly held up by 30 across with its definition by example, and stopped to admire the beauty of the clue at 10 across when I realised the answer, but mostly by the top right hand corner where I finally had to face the MUSIC at 11.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1/13 | SECOND AMENDMENT | US gun lobby pushes its own interpretation of this support net, working with mad men (6,9) SECOND (support) (NET … MAD MEN)* AInd: working. First one in and off to a flying start after seeing “AMENDMENT” from the anagramming at the end of the clue |
| 4 | IRONICAL | Press gets independent state mocking (8) IRON (Press) I[ndependent] CAL (state, California) |
| 10 | SQUARE PEG | Once uncool, Margaret’s not one to fit in? (6,3) SQUARE (Once uncool) PEG (Margaret, shortened form) Definition references the accurate adage “you can’t put a square peg in a round hole”. Beautiful clue for both the construction and the surface reading. |
| 11 | MUSIC | House? Elon all but in command (5) MUS[k] I C (In Command) Last one in. Fooled by the definition by example. I was stuck thinking of alternatives to “house” in the sense of manor, mansion, menage, and of course parliament, even though that MUS[k] part was clear |
| 12 | EXTRA | More from one-time model getting arse reduced (5) EX-T (One time model) RA[t] (arse, reduced) |
| 14 | SURVIVE | Persist in hiding little Ms Westwood in safe (7) VIV (Dame Viviane Westwood, as a short name, from little) in SURE (safe) Unfortunately she is recently departed, but her fashion sense survives and will be remembered |
| 16 | SIENNA | Brown‘s insane to rebel (6) (INSANE)* AInd: to rebel. One of the last five. For such a pithy clue this gave me much trouble. I needed the leading S to get it. Probably my favourite clue |
| 19 | EFFECT | Swear, etc about result (6) EFF (Swear, as in Effing & Blinding) (ETC)* AInd: about. |
| 21 | INERTIA | Popular old monarch having it off with a sloth (7) IN (Popular) ER (old monarch) (TI)* AInd: off. A (with A) I debated whether to include the “A” in the anagram fodder for that wordplay explanation. You can now take your pick of which old “ER” monarch to use. |
| 23 | TIREDNESS | Dissenter suffering fatigue (9) (DISSENTER)* AInd: suffering. |
| 25 | TASTE | Art venue welcomes opening of sex experience (5) S[ex] inside TATE (art venue) |
| 27 | PENNY | Mordaunt, a singular version of former Trump colleague? (5) DD/CD Referencing the current Leader of the House (Liz Truss Voice: “I know!”) and Mike PENCE, trump’s Vice-P (as if pence is always plural) |
| 28 | ENTER INTO | Be a part of internet abuse, having nothing on (5,4) (INTERNET)* AInd: abuse. then O (nothing) |
| 29 | ETERNITY | Mandelson, having lost power, needs tiny jolt – there’s no end to it (8) [p]ETER (TINY)* AInd: jolt. Peter Mandelson, aka the Lord of Darkness, is still lurking in the wings of the corridors of power and thus also the clues of the Eye crossword. No doubt he’ll last as long as Heseltine. |
| 30 | FLOWER | Iris turns on a predatory male? (6) RE (on) WOLF (predatory male) all Reversed (turns). Another very misleading def. by example |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SUSPENSE | Hanging state has American president in sight, perhaps (8) US (American) P[resident] in SENSE (sight, perhaps) Sight used as an example of a sense. I solved a screamingly similar clue earlier in the day so this fell into my lap. |
| 2 | COURT | Maybe King Brian’s entourage amounts to sod all in short (5) O (sod all) in CURT (short) |
| 3 | NARRATIVE | Republican sneak dipped into Green’s account (9) R[epublican] RAT (sneak) in NAIVE (green). Capitalising Green to make us think of “Michael Green” (who he?) or possibly the Green Party. |
| 5 | REGRETS | Apparently Hancock doesn’t have them, right, with waders (7) R[ight] EGRETS (waders) The answer is one of the many things Matt Hancock doesn’t have, including morals, honesty, integrity, loyalty, self-awareness, a conscience etc. |
| 6 | NAMED | Called in Braverman (a meddler) (5) Hidden in bravermaN A MEDdler |
| 7 | CASHEW NUT | Money went out round university for possible snack item (6,3) CASH (money) (WENT)* AInd: out. around U[niversity] |
| 8 | LOCATE | Place ball and chain (just the top) in behind (6) O (ball) C[hain] in LATE (behind) |
| 9 | UPDATE | Finished with engagement? Change to a later model (6) UP (finished) DATE (engagement) |
| 15 | REFERENCE | Allude to arbiter shafted by the state (9) NC (North Carolina) inside REFEREE (arbiter) |
| 17 | ELECTORAL | Poll-related, preferred sort of sex (9) ELECT (preferred) ORAL (sort of sex) |
| 18 | RACEGOER | Meeting attendee using Zoom – randy type (8) RACE (zoom) GOER (randy type) |
| 20 | THE BEST | Try grabbing ambassador by balls initially – nothing better (3,4) TEST (try) around (grabbing) H.E. (ambassador, HE = His Excellency) B[alls] |
| 21 | IN SITU | Elected, take your place in the House next to Sunak’s no.2, occupying the natural position (2,4) IN (Elected), SIT (take your place in the House), U from [s]U[nak] |
| 22 | STAPLE | Fix hackneyed coverage of Putin’s entrance (6) P[utin] in STALE (hackneyed) There are many other ways of fixing things beside stapling them – indeed, sometimes that is definitely not recommended |
| 24 | DOYEN | Senior member wants to make money (5) DO (make) YEN (money) |
| 26 | SINEW | Tissue is wrong: Cyclops and his ilk upset (5) SIN (wrong) WE< (Cyclops et al., reversed/upset) |
The clue mentioning Viviane Westwood reminds me of the early 1970s, and having a new young form teacher who only lasted 2 terms. I suspect being spotted one February afternoon dancing on the sports pitch as it snowed looking absolutely stoned didn’t help his teaching career. A few friends helped him tidy up the form room on his last day and he wanted to thank us somehow. So he invited us back to his place for tea. 3 or 4 of us crammed into his “school master special” open top Triumph Herald. Turned out he lived in a flat above “Granny Takes a Trip” on the Kings Road opposite the Worlds End pub, where we inevitaly ended up. Back then it is all separate bars and an old boy banging out tunes on the piano. “Blue is the Colour” being sung at least once an hour. Annoyingly, I can only remember his surname, everyone was called by their surnames at that school. He was very gentle man.
Sorry. No final joke today, just a vague reminiscence.
Anyway I’m particularly proud of the “meta” title to this blog which is surely a masterpiece of self-satirisation in its own lunchtime.
Thanks for the puzzle and the blog to Cyclops and Beermagnet. A lovely story too……..would such a teacher last these days at all. Stoned and then taking students home and to the pub!!!
As for the puzzle, I had a very slow start then flashed through most of the lower half save 30A. This was almost the LOI since I had SINUS and not SINEW (it also works nearly!) ….but it made FLOWER a real struggle till I finally rejected my mistake. Unlike yourself, I took absolutely ages to get SECOND AMENDMENT.
Query: should RACEGOER have a hyphen or not?
Another query: Why is Peg short for Margaret? I knew it but it started me thinking why? We have a desk at home that was give to Aunty Polly when she retired as a teacher in 1933. The brass tag on it also refers “Margaret”. Any help possible?
By the way, King Charles only give us the C!!!!
Names get shortened and the first letters sometimes shift too.
Margaret evolves to Peg through Maggie/Maggy, Mags, Mag, Meg, then Peg/Peggy.
It is also known to evolve through Molly to Polly.
I don’t know how this happens or who starts the ball rolling.
At least there is some semblance of the original name to grasp hold of. Many friends of my parents generation seemed to have names that were really nicknames, not their real name, although some used a middle name.
The man I knew as Uncle John turned out to be really named Clifford, and when I went to the funeral service of one of my mother’s old friends I knew as Vi, I thought I had turned up on the wrong day when I couldn’t see any name I recognised on the list posted on the crem. chapel door.
RACEGOER: I’m happy enough with that as an un-hyphenated single word.
You are right the King was mentioned in this puzzle but not to bestow a couple of letters – that was in an earlier recent puzzle.
Thanks for a great blog , a lot of very good clues here. The singular Pence is very neat and a clever use of Zoom for racegoer, I read somewhere that hyphens usually die out and it is happening at a much faster rate.
I did know 1/13 , the first, second and fifth amendments seem to be well known . I have no idea about any other or even how many.
Struggled to get started on this one until got to the bottom half which seemed to fill in reasonably quickly. Couldn’t get the top half without some assistance. I’m blaming it on a lot of international travel recently and the rarefied air up there in the upper troposphere. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
Shortened names are strange, Bob being short for Robert I can sort of get, but William turning to Will then Bill is a weird one. On a related note, my paternal Grandma used to call my dad by his middle name, and she was also known by her middle name not her first name.
Thanks for the blog, beermagnet. Is rat in the parsing of 12a as a synonym for arse just in the sense of “a bit of a rotter” as a vague synonym? If so, seems a little tenuous but the answer was obvious.
Nice puzzle with REGRETS my favourite clue, cheers Cyclops
Ed at #6
Both an arse and a rat are “a bit of a rotter” so I think it works, though of course rat-arsed is something completely different.
In truth I couldn’t think what else could be RA? or maybe RA?? that was synonym like arse. As you say, for that one the answer was obvious.
I agree Beermagnet but only for Cyclops really , the setter has a bit more leeway by tradition.
Thanks for your answer, beermagnet@7 and Roz too, fair comments. Cyclops puzzles enjoyable but with an extra layer of freedom allowed 🙂
Thanks for your answer, beermagnet@7 and Roz too, fair comments. Cyclops puzzles enjoyable but with an extra layer of freedom allowed
“I’m trying to ignore Hancock in the forlorn hope he will finally go away.”
That didn’t work out very well, did it?