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We have a Tees to entertain us today.
Tuesday is usually theme day in the Indy, but Tees is not renowned for themed puzzles…. However, it quickly became apparent that there is a well-configured theme based on the scandalous revelations in the ITV series “22d 26ac versus the 3d”. As well as the inclusion of the infamous computer system at 14ac and the former 3d CEO at 10ac 1d, her replacement gets a mention at 25d. As a bonus, aspects of the scandal appear in the clues for 12ac, 18ac, 21ac, 24ac, 17d and 18d.
A homophone (‘for broadcast’) of YOU PHONEY (fake) + UM (‘I’m not sure’)
An anagram (‘dodgy’) of L (last letter of ‘remorseful’) ANNUL PLEASE and V (very)
ONE (joke – as in ‘the one about’) in NT (New Testament)
POLO (game) in AGES (long time) round or ‘stopped by’ I (one)
STFU (shut the f**k up – ‘quiet’) in LULl (calm) missing the last letter or ‘endless’
Double definition
S (son) US HI (greeting)
First letters or ‘starters’ of Problems In Electronics
E (English) RY (railway – ‘track’) in N and S (north and south ‘poles’)
GLAD (cheery) EYE (‘Private Eye’ – magazine exposing the PO scandal)
A reversal (‘backing’) of pORT (left at sea) missing the ‘p’ (piano) SEAM (band)
I (one) in MISTRAL (wind) + S (singular)
INFeR (conclude) missing or ‘lacking’ ‘e’ (energy) + A (article)
A reversal (‘backing’ – again!) of EVITA (musical) RE (about) PO (Post Office – 3d)
2. Penny coming in dispatches fritters? (6)
SPENDS
P (penny) in SENDS (dispatches)
An anagram (‘criminal’) of SCOPE OF IT round or ‘carrying’ F (force)
LIMA (Peruvian city) H (heel) L (lake) – we had to check this one!
M (male) in SOOTH (obsolete word for ‘truth’) IE (that is)
PO (Post Office – 3d) reversed and forwards – ‘in both directions’
A homophone (‘sound’) of PULL (Yank) IT’S A
Cryptic definition – referring to Delilah (‘treacherous woman’) cutting SAMSON’s hair or ‘dis-tressing’ him
RUNNER (athlete) BEN (mountain) round or ‘eating’ A
O (old) F F (first letter or ‘leader’ of Fujitsu, repeated) after an anagram (‘shattered’) of GLASS
An anagram (duplicitous’) of PO and TRADER
COT (hammock) in SS MEN (ship men or ‘crew’)
GAMe (willing) missing the last letter or ‘finishing early’ + BIT (scrap)
MIST (film) + an anagram (‘happily’) of SAT and BEER
TIT (bird) BIT (‘closed beak on’)
READ (‘have novel experience’ – as in reading a book) – a reference to Nick Read, the new PO CEO
Thanks Tees and B&J!
Top faves today:
EUPHONIUM, MAESTRO, PULITZER and GAMBIT.
Oddly enough, I was geared up for this by comments on the Guardian’s own page talking of a Britishism filled puzzle in the Indy. My first encounter with 3d was unsuccessful and similarly so with the ex CEO. Then I got HORIZON, at which point everything else fell rapidly into place. Well done, provided one could remember the names of the key players, and a clever – if rather miserable – reminder of how we can screw things up.
I have to say, in connection with a non-theme clue – ‘crew’ = SS MEN is a remarkable step. I worked out what it had to be and, I guess, if we are familiar with the ‘on board’ device, it is not beyond the pale. It’s at the tough end, though.
I am embarrassed to admit I did vaguely recognise the name of the Kajagoogoo singer – but ‘stfu’ is NHO and went right over my head so LUSTFUL remained unparsed.
Thanks Tees & B&J
Oh, that’s what stfu means. LUSTFUL is my top clue now. There are other useful points in the blog for me as well so thanks. Wikipedia helped with the theme. Thanks Tees.
Bert solved LUSTFUL and I hadn’t looked at the parsing until I checked the blog. Needless to say it is not in Chambers – an on-line search was needed.
Nicely done, Tees, 10/1 is very well clued. I couldn’t work out how USTF meant quiet… should have spotted STFU, which I am familiar with. Thanks, B&J.
Another joyous Indy themed puzzle. There have been some crackers of a Tuesday.
STFU a masterstroke, I think, but laurels to 3 down, with criminal scope of it getting right to the point of this egregious miscarriage of justice.
Despite the obvious fact that the PO scandal has for sure ‘gone international’, I had a look at the Grauniad solvers’ comments relating to Britishisms. However, a theme is a theme about something specific happening somewhere specific, quite often, which tends to narrow things down. It could be about a book someone on The Guardian’s site has never read for example, if indeed they’ve ever read any.
The sentiment is not exactly new to these pages, but cryptic crosswords are, really and truly, a British thing, and solvers should try to accept that. If it’s just totally unacceptable to some people, there’s always The Times’s Latin puzzle, which appears occasionally.
I am one of those innocents who didn’t now “STFU”, so couldn’t parse 13A – thanks for the enlightenment! Excellent, so thanks Tees and B&J.
Add me to the list of people who didn’t know STFU in another great themed crossword from Tees. I do hope someone tells 22/26 about it
Many thanks to Tees and B&J
Very ashamed at how long it took me to remember that old chestnuts for Samson
Great scandal theme, like this one, also from Tees, 11 months ago: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2023/03/09/independent-11359-tees/
Especially liked LUSTFUL – it used to be on the pillars in Camden’s Jazz Café, even before text messaging was a thing. loi SAMSON – 🙂 – no shame at all.
Thanks T & B&J
Oops – wrong setter, time, and link – should have been Tyrus, just over a year ago: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2023/01/21/independent-11319-by-tyrus/
Took al long time for me to get the theme, so I struggled around it until I twigged HORIZON and that opened things up considerably. To contribute to the British debate, as a Brit I heard and read a modest amount of stuff about the debacle and knew of but had not seen the ITV drama; I needed to Google to get the names of the executives. Some stonking clues, almost Cyclops-like in their pointedness; all fair game in my book.Thank you to Tees and to B&J.
p.s.loved LUSTFUL too, but needed to get all the crossers first!
Ui Imair @6, I’m sure I recall Tees expressing very similar opinions whenever that question is mentioned. I thought 5d was funny.
I’d vaguely heard of 10/1, but no enough to bother retaining the last name in my memory banks.
I also couldn’t parse 13a, not helped by looking for a meaning for ustf. Prefer to use the phrase in full myself, not that my cats take any notice.
Thanks Tees and B&J.
Afternoon all. Many thanks for the comments, with esp thanks to B&J for the blog. And good luck to all the sub-postmasters too: I hope you get the enormous compensation you deserve.
Ah the Britishness debate!
If we’ve got as far as India, where Indian setters, e.g. Gridman, Incognito & Hypatia, are composing puzzles for an Indian audience, then we’ve got at least that far. Or actually, they have. Because I note that the THC puzzles are written with Indian flavourings: possibly in some ways this is like the Japanese with cars, as far as successful post-Brexit exporting goes. I think Americans have been doing cryptics for years too, with American things and concepts as answers, whilst here in UK we may have been too swamped by our own marvellously creative output to notice.
So there we go. Hurrah for India and USA. Still writing in English, though that could change, even where people think that English is better suited to having its words molested than other languages (is it?). Where I do agree with the above is that I think it fair to ask our syndicated consumers to put up with our isms, insofar as this is still allowed, as a neutral position on this has been adopted by some of the flagship crossword editors for a while now.
Love to all
Tees
Greater London
England
Too late to add anything but praise. Is there an equivalent of Jorum for something you had completely forgotten until led to it by the wordplay? If not, I shall think of it as a Limahl from now on.
For the record, so to speak, Limahl is an anagram of the singer’s surname, created presumably by himself. For he is Christopher Hamill, no less. Their bassist, Nick Beggs, has become a person of my sometime acquaintance, thrillingly. For him of course 😀
As a Yank who has taken to enjoying his daily cryptic, I accept that some of them are more British-focused than others, and on those days I recognize that it’s not on my wavelength, use it as a learning opportunity, and await the next day’s offering. Today the wordplay was such that I twigged quite early that there must be something called the “Post Office Scandal”, and Google led me to the excellent wikipedia page that gave me enough information to get most of the themed clues. And as someone who has been in the “enterprise software” world for decades, I can totally see how this could happen…it’s a cautionary tale that is worth knowing!