Roses are red tories are blue…
There’s no politics here, perhaps one or two.
Across
1 Weapon of antiquity put on battlefield (10)
ARMAGEDDON
ARM – weapon & AGED (old) & DON (put on)
7 Nobleman from Balmoral or Dinnet? (4)
LORD
Disturbingly easy one to get first, hidden in balmoraL OR Dinnet
9 Man being one in passageway losing head (4)
ISLE
A decapitated (a)ISLE
10 Rhetoric WS implies? (5,5)
EMPTY WORDS
Well if you empty W(ord)S …..
11 Scattered right around in all directions (6)
STREWN
R(igh)T in SEWN which are all the compass points
12 Response from corps joining battle (8)
REACTION
R(oyal) E(ngineers) – corps & ACTION (battle). Can’t believe this hasn’t been done once or twice
13 Corbynites value Greek character making return (8)
MOMENTUM
MOMENT for value & MU – greek letter reversed. The validity of moment=value I’ll leave for discussion, indeed that Momentum are actually corbyn supporters anymore
15 Con leading lady with answer that’s illusion (4)
MAYA
“Leading” Tory MAY & A(nswer) def means illusions
17 Giant blunder on field disheartened Robespierre (4)
OGRE
O(wn) G(oal) & a disheartened R(obespierr)E. Not really convinced by the surface here, nothing really fits together
19 Fruitcake taken by PM recently shows dark colour (3-5)
NUT-BROWN
NUT – I guess this is a madman hence fruitcake & (gordon) BROWN)
22 Blairites‘ voting system used by female 17 (8)
PROGRESS
PROGRESS are the backers of Tony Blair so it’s P(roportional) R(epresentation) & a female 17 OGRESS
23 Get to the point (6)
NEEDLE
Double def come single def
25 Dirty work identifies party faction (4,6)
BLUE LABOUR
See 8 dn BLUE for sex hence dirty & work = LABOUR. Tees getting at the party members who really shouln’t be in the labour party. Obviously the Indy doesn’t do politics
26 Sextet look round for something to play (4)
VIOL
VI (six) & LO reversed
27 Man on board gets wife into god (4)
PAWN
Well usually the God gets into the wife in classical lit however, so it’s the chess piece, with W for Wife in the earthly god PAN
28 Rook going after second ball in tree finds intruder (10)
TRESPASSER
S(econd) & PASS for ball in the sense of assinf it to someonw inside TREE & the R(ook)
Down
2 Dish, very dry, needs dipping in port (7)
RISOTTO
SO (very) & TT (dry, no alcohol) dipped into RIO (a port)
3 Singer‘s built stage without wings (5)
ADELE
The answer was obvious but the parsing took a second or three. it a wingless (m)ADE LE(g)
4 Aquatic bird — it nested in estuary’s banks for aeons (8)
ETERNITY
TERN ( the bird) & IT all in the banks of E(stuar)Y
5 Leave, then enter most unmanageable shop (10,5)
DEPARTMENT STORE
DEPART (leave) & [ENTER MOST]* unmanaged
6 French Marshal comes to harm getting Brazilian forward (6)
NEYMAR
He of the £200m transfer, bad haircut and debatable morals. NEY ( french marshall) & MAR (harm)
7 Oriental naughtily squeezing married circus performer (4-5)
LION-TAMER
M(arried) in a naughty ORIENTAL*
8 Bloody judge imprisoning old Nick Timothy? (3,4)
RED TORY
Well Nick Timothy was one of the “advisers” who told Theresa May to call the general election, he got nick named a red tory for nicking some of corbyn’s ideas. It may come as a shock he was sacked efter the last election. Anyway it’s RED for bloody and O(ld) in TRY for judge. Nowt to do with hanging judges alas
14 Laurel perhaps remaining fresh and vital (9)
EVERGREEN
EVER (remaining) & GREEN
16 Hairstyle and coronet adjusted by page (4,4)
ETON CROP
A rather tame clue for Tees, the current Eton crop in government couldn’t be seperated from the chaff. CORONET* adjusted & P(age)
18 Brutal sort heading for real trouble enters Indian province (7)
GORILLA
Heading for R(eal) & ILL for trouble inside GOA
20 British statesman getting stick after defence cut (7)
WALPOLE
WAL(l) – defence cut & a POLE (stick)
21 Secretary invites others round for meal (6)
REPAST
P.A. inside REST
24 One in swivel to have women going nuts? (5)
ELVIS
W(omen) leaving S(w)IVEL* nuts . If this ain’t an &LIT it’s a damn good try
A clever idea but not totally convincing or satisfying. Several clues failed to impress:
ADELE – OK, ‘made leg’ can mean ‘built stage’ but it’s not something that comes to mind easily.
OGRE – quite agree that the surface doesn’t really hang together. Presumably Tees couldn’t find the name of a footballer beginning with R and ending in E, but a cricketer might have done just as well if not better by misdirection to a different field. How about Richard Hadlee? And is an ogre the same as a giant, anyway? Not according to Shrek!
GORILLA – well, in that ‘brute’ in its original sense just means an animal I suppose it’s OK, but calling a brutal person a gorilla is a libel on gorillas, as anyone who remembers David Attenborough’s famous sequence in Life on Earth will know.
But on the other hand there were some great clues. We particularly liked EMPTY WORDS, STREWN and VIOL.
Thanks, Tees and Flashling
I enjoyed the political theme very much and thought that the clue for NEEDLE was fantastic, just brilliant.
Bunged in ADELE expecting to come here and discover that a “Madeley” is some sort of prefab tribune thingy but apparently not…rum clue, that.
Thanks to Tees and flashling
Don’t have a prob with ‘field’ in OGRE. I just took it to mean ‘field of battle’ (as in Flanders’ field &c), Robespierre being the nearest Tees could find to a General, so fair enough.
However, for a serious (if not terribly good) chess-player, ‘man’, for ‘pawn’ rather grates. All chess pieces from pawn to king are just that, pieces, but conventionally the ‘men’ are the the knights, bishops and rooks, roughly equal in value above the pawns but below the queens and kings. ‘S why, in crosswords, I don’t like ‘man’ for ‘queen’ much either, fun as it can sometimes be.
Quibbles. It was a good puzzle. Thanks to Tees & Flashy.
I really enjoyed what I could do, but have to admit that in the end I enlisted quite a bit of help. In some cases that was me with obvious brain-wilt in the heat, but others I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have got unaided.
Lots on the likes list, including NEEDLE, VIOL, ETERNITY and LION TAMER.
Less keen on ADELE …
Thanks to Tees and Flashling.
@Grant
the “blunder on field” = own goal = og is a football expression; battle can’t come into it, I think. Allan’s point at 1 can’t work either, since an own goal isn’t possible at cricket.
Perhaps, unbeknownst to us, Sunderland have signed a dodgy centre half called Robespierre before the window closes?
Rochdale might have done the job.
baerchen@5: Granted that an own goal isn’t possible at cricket (hit wicket the nearest equivalent?) my point was that naming a cricketer would be a nice misdirection to a different field. But thinking about it a bit more, isn’t it more usual to refer to the pitch rather than the field when discussing football? In which case it ought to be “blunder on pitch” and where does that leave the clue? I’ll get my coat …
Apologies for the rather garbled 28a not sure what I meant. I even managed to post it on the wrong day. Thanks Gaufrid for spotting that. Don’t actually know if Adele clue solution is what Tees intended. Suspect the Tease was going for the deliberate misdirect re Robespierre which has gone whoosh over our heads.
@Grant flash or flashy is almost fine. Flasher is almost time for the lawyers ?
Blue Labour is very much a force to be reckoned with (so perhaps the ‘blue’ bit should have been highlighted?) See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Labour
Good idea Conrad, updated
Nick Timothy nicknamed a RED TORY (8d)?
Over a year ago, in the aftermath of the referendum, I read a profile (+ interview) of (+ with) the man in a Dutch newspaper.
I clearly remember me thinking ‘what a creep’.
There’s nothing red about Nick Timothy, other than his roots.
And so it proved to be.
Not a fan of Elvis either but, yes, 24d was awesome!
And NEEDLE (23ac), too.
Belated thumbs up for Tees.