They’re fighting on the streets …
… and there are enough subversive extremist factions in this puzzle stirring up trouble. Any despotic ruler in the territory is probably loving it, always best for anti-democratic forces when there’s chaos to exploit. Will the voters win. We’ll find out later today when the local council election results finally get counted.
I had a struggle to get started on this one. Scanning the clues all the way down to 28 across before I found one where I was sure enough to put it in the grid. Then picking out answers here and there in the bottom half of the grid without making inroads into the top half at all until I had most of the bottom done except, significantly 17 and 6/30. In fact the top row and leftmost column remained unsolved until the last handful. So I never had many given first letters to work with. Thankfully, I managed to cold solve 4 down to get a start in the top and the rest gradually fell out. LOI 2 down which seems ridiculous now, surely that is a straightforward clue when it is properly read – I cannot remember what I was thinking when struggling with it before – almost certainly an anagram (part) involving RAAB.
Solving time: Dismal.
Favourite Clue: 23 down, for the surface reading (and slight smuttiness)
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SUBVERSIVE | Newspaper worker revives fabrication – troublemaker! (10) SUB (Newspaper worker, subeditor) (REVIVES)* And: fabrication. |
| 6/30 | USED CARS | They’ve been driven more than once to break addicts with drug control agency initiatives (4,4) D[rug] C[ontrol] A[gency] inside USERS (addicts) |
| 10 | DEADPAN | Expressionless and insensitive, taking pot (7) DEAD (insensitive) PAN (pot) |
| 11 | TIME LAG | What jailbird does to ‘bring up rear’ in interval (4,3) TIME (What jailbird does) LAG (to ‘bring up rear’) |
| 12 | TANGO | Argentinian export makes Brown quit (5) TAN (Brown) GO (quit) |
| 13 | TERRITORY | Dependency of “dismal trier” politician (9) (TRIER)* AInd: dismal, TORY (politician) |
| 14 | FACTION | Splinter group subdivision chucks out Labour’s right wing (7) F[r]ACTION ; FRACTION (subdivision) – [labou]R |
| 15 | PHOBIA | “Dread pub, old boy,” I start to admit (6) PH (pub, Public House as on Ordnance Survey maps) OB (old boy) I A[dmit] |
| 19 | EMERGE | Issue of Farage finally getting team together (6) [farag]E MERGE (getting team together) |
| 21 | PROBATE | Will confirmed as authentic degenerate on quitting (7) [re]PROBATE ; REPROBATE (degenerate) – RE (on) |
| 25 | PARTIALLY | Somewhat crappy play about rigged trial (9) (PLAY)* AInd: crappy, making PA…LY, around (TRIAL)* AInd: rigged, making RTIAL |
| 27 | RULER | Straight strip, guv? (5) Double Def. |
| 28 | TAKE AIM | Be prepared to fire Mike at a review (4,3) (MIKE AT A)* AInd: review. First one in |
| 29 | AUDIBLE | Baldie beaten up outside university, likely to be picked up by ears (7) (BALDIE)* AInd: beaten up, around U[niversity] |
| 31 | EXTREMISTS | Test REM with six free radicals (10) (TEST REM SIX)* AInd: free. |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SEDATE | Drugs up escort to relax (6) ES< (drugs, Es, up=Rev. Ind) DATE (escort) |
| 2 | BRAINWAVE | Raab’s ultimate downfall? Gesture “Excellent idea!” (9) [raa]B RAIN (downfall) WAVE (gesture). Last one in. |
| 3 | EXPLOIT | Capitalise on trumped-up top lie about vote (7) (TOP LIE)* AInd: trumped-up, around X (vote) |
| 4 | SANCTION | Endorsement: ‘Contains nuts’ (8) (CONTAINS)* AInd: nuts. |
| 5 | VOTERS | Electorate very sore about Tory leader getting in (6) V[ery], (SORE)* AInd: about, with T[ory] put in |
| 7 | SALVO | Girl’s brief victory against love – round of applause! (5) SAL (Girl) V[ictory] O (love) |
| 8 | DOGGY BAG | Leftover chow for a chow? (5,3) Double Def. |
| 9 | IMPISH | One member Rishi edges out – “disrespectful!” (6) I MP (One member) [r]ISH[i] |
| 16 | BATTLE BUS | Barney boobs – virtually a feature of the campaign trail (6,3) BATTLE (Barney) BUS[t] (Boobs, virtually) |
| 17 | DESPOTIC | After lost deposit, Conservative becomes Trump-like? (8) (DEPOSIT)* AInd: lost, C[onservative] |
| 18 | GREY HAIR | Ex-PM takes hard look: result of stress and worry? (4,4) GREY (ex-PM, Ref. Earl Grey) H[ard] AIR (look) |
| 20 | GUITAR | Sex inside a rug, possibly a rock star’s thing? (6) IT (sex) inside (A RUG)* AInd: possibly. |
| 22 | BOREDOM | Puncture Cummings’ weariness? (7) BORE (puncture, as in make a hole) DOM (Cummings, ref. Dominic C) |
| 23 | CLIMAX | Aborted ascent on an unknown peak (6) CLIM[b] (ascent, aborted) A X (an unknown) |
| 24 | BRIEFS | Lawyers? They’re pants! (6) Double Def. |
| 26 | RAKER | Who will scrape up the mess of profligate Republican? (5) RAKE (profligate) R[epublican] |
Variations on Wordle©®™ are still being invented.
Here’s one that I’m beginning to like:
Brailliance
Now I’ve given it a few weeks I’m getting the “feel” for it.
(Trying to kid myself it might help learn Braille.)
Thanks beermagnet. It was a bit stiff to start but came ok in the end. Liked 24d for the chuckle.
My faves:
USED CARS, PHOBIA (simple but elegant), DOGGY BAG (for the double chow def) and CLIMAX (for the reasons mentioned by beermagnet. It reads somewhat like an extended def).
Thanks beermagnet for the excellent blog!
Thanks for the blog, did not get so many cold solving but once I put in the Downs I had it collapsed very quickly. I think it is a very friendly grid with lots of first letters checked and I always find these the most helpful. Good set of clues but a bit light on the politics and the smut.
I too liked the briefs at 24d.
I also had trouble getting started but everything worked out eventually.
My question mark is alongside 16D. To me, a barney is a minor infraction whereas a battle is a major event. That was before I found a football player named Barney Battle who has his own Wikipedia entry. Never heard of the guy, but I live on the other side of the world where an oval ball is more common.
Thanks for the blog, beermagnet. A slow start for me also, but got there in the end – so I guess it’s a well pitched puzzle.
Some very good surfaces in this that made me chuckle – 24D, 29A and 15A, for example.
I put ‘bravo’ in for 7D cold which through me off a little! I remember thinking that calling a bra a ‘brief’ didn’t seem accurate. And that ‘bravo’ doesn’t have anything to do directly with applause. OK, come to think of it I really should’ve realised it wasn’t the right answer.
But as a result I spent a stupid amount of time trying to make 6A ‘uber’.
BRAVO at 7D: I could easily have fallen into that trap myself. Though Cyclops, being Cyclops, is more likely to clue BRA using something like “Supporter”.
I found this one much easier than usual. This is my first ever solve in one sitting.
One nitpick: ‘leftover chow for a chow’ isn’t a double def is it? What are the two definitions? Appears to be a single cryptic def to me.
DOGGY BAG. I can see your point.
I was looking at “Leftover” as one Def. and “chow for a chow?” as the other.
Perhaps Doggy Bag is more properly “Leftovers”, i.e. pluralised
And for the second Def. “chow for a chow?” which is certainly a cryptic / sideways definition, as indicated by the “?”
I believe either part can work as a Def., or both as a CD.
I suggest there are many clues that can be parsed in alternate ways like this.
Perhaps the only way to resolve the issue is if Cyclops tell us what was intended, but it doesn’t really matter.
Thanks beermagnet. Thinking more on this (yeah I know…) could we even be more picky and say that DOGGY BAG doesn’t refer to the food at all, but rather the ad-hoc, usually takeaway style container that it is scraped into? 😂😂😂
Treating ‘Leftover chow’ as the definition, doesn’t DOGGY BAG then seem quite reasonable?
… quite reasonable, that is, as a likely possible solution. So what of the rest of the clue? It’s clearly not a definition, but it does, with its possibly doggy reference, go to confirm it, and without suggesting any alternative. So I agree with Tony @9.