Don’t let your pencil get too frenzied! Make sure your X is fully within the appropriate box when you vote on Thursday. Do not make it into an hourglass and surround it with a circle or glue yourself to the polling booth – your vote might be considered “spoiled” .
Anyway, this was one of those times when I had mostly solved the puzzle soon after the mag dropped through the letterbox …
… and then most of the family arrived for Easter.
After which, the 5 days work (squeezed into a 4-day week) so when I come to do the blog it seems like an age since I solved it.
I noted that I was straight in there and very happy with 1a DEARTH, and wrote it in, but was perturbed when I tried 1d which then needed a 2-letter word beginning D – sometime later I had a “Doh” moment when I twigged “party”=”do”
After the Easter festivities I returned to find only 8 clues to go and they were solved without much ado.
A couple of queries remain:
In 3d how is “force” a definition for TEETH?
and in 2d the hidden word has an extra letter – is this a mistake or am I missing a (tautologous) subtle nuance?
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | DEARTH | Love and the endless need (6) DEAR (love) TH[e] First one in |
| 4 | SHADOWY | Dim as Corbyn and his team (7) Double Def. with one being a Cryptic Def. referring to the fact that J Corbyn Esq. heads up the gang they call the Shadow Cabinet – which is like a cross between the Magic Circle and a Netflix series |
| 8 | THE JET SET | Loaded travellers‘ definitive black plonk (3,3,3) THE (definitive) JET (black) SET (plonk – as in set down) – penultimate solved – need both S and T of SET before the denarius descended |
| 10/15 | ANAL RETENTIVE | One’s who obsessed – with not passing motions? (4,9) Double Def. – one literal |
| 11/22 | SMOOTH OVER | Press finished? Make the troubles go away! (6,4) SMOOTH (press) OVER (finished) |
| 12 | CLOTHING | Plonker husband in grand dress (8) CLOT (plonker) H[usband] IN G[rand] |
| 13 | DAFT AS A BRUSH | A foreign leader surrounded by useless bastards, uh? That would be stupid! (4,2,1,5) A F[oreign] inside (BASTARDS UH)* AInd: useless. |
| 17 | SMALL COMFORT | Frantic calls from Tom: “Tory party is also torn apart – what’s that to Jeremy?” (5,7) (CALLS FROM TOM)* AInd: frantic. |
| 19 | FRENZIED | Executed in USA over Zen activity – utterly mad (8) FRIED (executed in USA) around (over) (ZEN)* AInd. activity |
| 21 | PENCIL | Sketch showing Trump colleague almost inadvertently leaking sources (6) [Mike] PENC[e] (Trump colleague, almost) I[nadvertently] L[eaking] |
| 23 | NEAR THING | Organ has zero protection when love goes “Close shave?” (4,5) EAR (organ) replacing O (love) in NOTHING (zero) |
| 24 | WRESTLE | Fight contrived by western leader: “all others against the French!” (7) W[estern] REST (all others) LE (the, French) |
| 25 | POSEUR | One who’s affected when Europe’s broken up, with no end of trouble (6) (EUROPE’S – [troubl]E)* AInd: broken up |
| Down | ||
| 1 | DO TIME | Party stalemate, without May’s lead, is to be confined (2,4) DO (party), M[ay] inside TIE (stalemate) |
| 2 | ADENOIDAL | As Kenneth Williams bade Eno (I’d allow, to some extent) (9) Hidden-ish in bADe ENO I’D ALlow – not sure why we have two Es in the clue(?) |
| 3 | TEETH | Force alien into the ‘camp’ (5) ET (alien) inside (THE)* AInd: ‘camp’. Last one in – I still cannot square the definition Force = Teeth ? |
| 5 | HOT POTATO | It’s very controversial, Lancashire offering a Tory 50% off (3,6) HOT POT (Lancashire offering) A TO[ry] |
| 7 | WEAKNESS | Wake in an excited state, wanting head – and failing (8) (WAKE)* AInd: in an excited state, NESS (head) |
| 9 | SOCIAL MEDIA | Party aimed to reform – giving a collective voice for right-wing bigots? (6,5) SOCIAL (party) (AIMED)* AInd: to reform |
| 14 | FICTIONAL | Court with independent, outspoken heads crushed by ultimate in fake news description (9) CT (Court) I[ndependent] O[utspoken] inside (crushed by) FINAL (ultimate) |
| 16 | IMPROVER | Apprentice politician in Ireland ‘terminated’ (8) MP inside IR (politician, in Ireland), then OVER (terminated) – I was trying to get TD (Teachta Dála) in there for ages. Also, a bit naff having OVER crossing OVER |
| 18 | LINGER | Underwear that is to be removed – don’t rush (6) LINGER[ie] |
| 20 | NERDS | Prats getting Blair finally to appear in Loose Ends (5) [blai]R inside (ENDS)* AInd: loose – objectionable clue – nerds will save the world! |
| 21/6 | PUT TO DEATH | Wasted, stupid pot head – tut! (3,2,5) (POT HEAD TUT)* AInd: Stupid. I initially made “Out at Depth” from the fodder and wonder how it meant (the different form of) wasted |
My friend is annoyed because seagulls attack him and not me.
He’s just got a chip on his shoulder.
The 3d query: action to encourage food businesses to cut down on sugar or whatever can be advisory, i.e. ineffective, or can “have TEETH”, i.e. legal FORCE. That is how I read it anyway. But you are surely right on 2d. And in the first two lines of the preamble, advice much appreciated.
The double e I took as being dropped due to ‘some extent’.
As for teeth, I too was flummoxed but looked upon it as being like the teeth of a gale. Last one in (after jet set) and not hugely convincing, I feel.
I liked hot potato best though!!!
Winsor @2 — ‘to some extent’ is the indicator for hidden within. Can it really be re-used to eliminate a surplus ‘e’? I am inclined to see a mistake rather than a subtle nuance here.
I thought that teeth for (e.g. legal) force was fine. On the other hand, I thought improver for apprentice was a bit weak, and I agree with beermagnet about the naffness of crossing it with ‘over’.
I also struggled with TEETH, so to speak. I remember looking up both force and teeth in Chambers Crossword dictionary and there was no reference linking the two. The dictionary revealed all in the end and of course queenbarrow @1 is quite correct.
Re 11/22, did anyone else get diverted with a solution PAPERS OVER?. This seems to work and it took me a while to see the alternative until crossing letters forced (teethed) me to find it.
Ref. Teeth. Look up tooth in Chambers, it’s the 5th def.
franko @4 — I don’t think papers does work, because you need a verb that can replace ‘make’.
John E @6 yes, I think you are right, but strictly papers is being used as a verb and noun a sort of double definition I suppose. Quite a fine line but presumably it only works if clue was makes the troubles go away.
Nick @5 yes I found it in the dictionary (OED in my case) but it wasn’t in The Chambers Crossword Dictionary (I only mentioned as a point of information).
My point was that ‘papers over’ is not the same ‘paper over’, which is what you would need to make it fit.
I didn’t notice the extra E in the clue for ADENOIDAL. I wonder if it started out as ‘bad’ (which is how it’s pronounced) and got ‘corrected’ in the edit?
But Kenny’s adenoids are intact, hidden in plain sight. 😉
I found the Across Lite version available for download on Thursday the 11th, where it seems already to have been since the 8th. I could probably have thrown away my chances by submitting it before the deadline for the one before. Never seen it that early before.
Ha, the egg is on my face. Overhasty half-reading and even hastier rush to write. Apologies.
@lemming: I suspect the puzzle was meant to be loaded to launch on the 18th, but like the adeenoidal, mistakes happen.