Tyrus fills the Thursday slot this week with a surprisingly political puzzle.
We found it to be something of a Curate’s Egg of a puzzle – some clues were write-ins, but others seemed to be very convoluted. Perhaps Tyrus was deliberately reflecting the divisions caused by the current very confused political situation referred to in several of the clues and solutions.
There can be no doubt that Tyrus is not a supporter of the current government – we wonder whether there is anyone out there who is!
We have our doubts about the construction of the clue for 6d but we applaud Tyrus for managing to get so many relevant references into the surfaces and solutions.
Can we call this a theme? It’s perhaps a bit too diverse – ranging from the amazingly inappropriate slogan at 18ac, through various individuals in government, to the B-word. Despite reminding us of the political chaos the country is suffering, we enjoyed it as a Thursday brain-teaser.
Across
8 See 9
9/8 Go crazy, ha, at 5 as word spread (4,1,3)
HAVE A FIT
An anagram of HA AT FIVE (‘5 as word’) – anagrind is ‘spread’
10 Two people back on tail of big cheese (5)
GOUDA
A DUO (two people) reversed or ‘back’ after G (last letter or ‘tail’ of ‘big’)
12/28 Odd service reactionary dismissed (3-3)
FAR-OUT
RAF (Royal Air Force – ‘service’) reversed or ‘reactionary’ + OUT (dismissed)
13 Obvious that female egghead’s not far away (4,5)
OVER THERE
OVERT (obvious) HER (that female) E (first letter or ‘head’ of ‘egg’)
14 English concern losing millions even (5)
EQUAL
E (English) QUALm (concern) without or ‘losing’ m (millions)
15 Ben’s holding back idiot horsemen (7)
HUSSARS
HUR’S (as in Ben Hur) round or ‘holding’ ASS (idiot) reversed or ‘back’
17 Drug, say, affected raven and another flier (7)
EASYJET
E (drug) + an anagram of SAY (anagrind is ‘affected’) + JET (‘raven’ – black)
18 Way a strange blond misbehaved in government, as was claimed (6,3,6)
STRONG AND STABLE
ST (street – ‘way’) + an anagram of A STRANGE BLOND – anagrind is ‘misbehaved’
21 Sketches I meticulously reviewed showing detail (7)
ITEMISE
Hidden (‘showing’) and reversed (‘reviewed’) in sketchES I METIculously
23 “PM ashen,” said policeman (7)
MAIGRET
A homophone (‘said’) of MAY (PM) GREY (ashen)
25 Member has a row about those running the show (5)
ADMIN
M (member) with A DIN (row) outside
26 ‘Great leader‘ needing help virtually at end – blooming right! (9)
ALEXANDER
ALEXA (‘virtual helper’) + an anagram of END (anagrind is ‘blooming’) + R (right)
28 See 12
29 The French taking German drink (5)
LAGER
LA (French for ‘the’) GER (German)
30 Turned against, being taken in by fib – heinous (4)
EVIL
V (versus – ‘against’) ‘taken’ in by LIE (fib) and reversed or ‘turned’
31 At sea – isn’t following straightforward course taking back control (or why talking was difficult) (4)
YAWS
Two sets of wordplay here – 1) SWAY (control) reversed or ‘taken back’ and 2) an anagram of Y (homophone – ‘talking’ – of ‘why’) and WAS – anagrind is ‘difficult’
Down
1 So we’re hurting ourselves with May still in charge (briefly) – chaos developing (15)
MASOCHISTICALLY
An anagram of MAY STILL, I C (in charge ‘briefly’) and CHAOS – anagrind is ‘developing’
2 Various footballers cheating (6)
DIVERS
Double definition
3 Largely avoid turning over channel (4)
DAVE
EVADe (avoid) without the last letter or ‘largely’ reversed or ‘turned over’
4 Official split stops union getting money? Blame 3 for it (10)
REFERENDUM
REF (official) + REND (split) in or ‘stopping’ EU (union) + M (money) – a reference to David (3d) Cameron
5 Gross incompetence ultimately damaged ‘bloody difficult woman‘ … ? (6)
OGRESS
An anagram of GROSS and E (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of ‘incompetence’) – anagrind is ‘damaged’
6 … revealing endlessly opportunistic politician is sham! (3-2,3)
PUT-UP JOB
Tricky one, this….we think it must be PUT UP (revealing) + BOJo (Boris Johnson – ‘opportunist politician’) without the last letter or ‘endlessly’ reversed or ‘put up’, but we’re not convinced that the …. at the beginning of the clue is enough to suggest that the reversal indicator is also part of the solution If you reverse BOJo (Boris Johnson – ‘opportunist politician’) without the last letter or ‘endlessly’, you would PUT UP JOB – thanks to Hovis @1 for putting us straight!
7 Law letters bit of a clue, maybe, to start of depression (4,6,5)
WALL STREET CRASH
A reverse anagram of LAW LETTERS and C (‘bit of a clue’) – anagrind is RASH – thanks again to Hovis @1 for the correction anagrind is CRASH – ‘bit of a clue, maybe’ suggests that the anagrind is part of the solution
11 Pressure on Transport Secretary at first (6)
STRAIN
TRAIN (transport) after or ‘on’ S (first letter of ‘secretary’) – don’t get us started on Grayling….
16 Negotiating teams finally suggest deal but unable to make progress (10)
STALEMATED
An anagram of TEAMS, T (last or ‘final’ letter of ‘suggest’) and DEAL – anagrind is ‘negotiating’
19 With old PM initially get a little ratty over government relic (4-4)
REES-MOGG
GOM (Grand Old Man – a reference to Gladstone – ‘old PM’ – a new one for us) SEE (get) R (first letter or ‘a little’ of ‘ratty’) all reversed or ‘over’ + G (government)
20 State “I want a break” (6)
TAIWAN
An anagram of I WANT A – anagrind is ‘break’
22 Disregard region’s suffering (6)
IGNORE
An anagram of REGION – anagrind is ‘suffering’
24 Change prison guard over (6)
REDRAW
WARDER (prison guard) reversed or ‘over’
27 Leaving upsetting – wrong to sever relationship (4)
EXIT
X (wrong, as in marking exam papers) in or ‘severing’ TIE (relationship) reversed or ‘upset’
Thanks for parsing 19d. Answer was clear but I couldn’t see why.
Had different parsings for 6d and 7d. Saw 6d as PUT-UP JOB give BOJo (endless etc) hence revealing the answer (so didn’t take put-up=revealing). Similarly for 7d, I saw this as a reverse anagram with “rash” as the indicator. Anagram of LAW LETTERS + C (bit of a clue).
Liked this for the most part. Not keen on definitions for 13a or 1d. To me, “over there” could be any distance away. Also “masochism” tends to relate to wanting pain induced by others, as opposed to “sadomasochism”.
Thanks to Tyrus and Bertandjoyce.
Hi Hovis – actually Joyce has the same parsings as you but didn’t notice it when she was checking the blog for typos. Will amend later when we are home and after voting!
Fantastic!
What copmus said. Huge thanks to all three.
A veritable masterpiece. I envy B&J blogging this, and make a thousand prostrations to Tyrus, a true great.
Tyrus and Picaroon. Wahay!
Thanks to T, B&J (although I’m curious as to why you say a “surprisingly political” puzzle in your intro…Jim’s got more form than Norman Stanley Fletcher)
baerchen@6 Jim and James in the same day. Wow!
Whilst we can only wring our hands in despair at the tragic farce of the political situation we can at least derive some amusement from this great offering from Tyrus. One or two we couldn’t parse but we got it all, with some chuckles along the way, particularly at ‘relic’ as the definition in 19dn.
Thanks, Tyrus and B&J.
Thanks Tyrus and BJ.
It’s all there from our STRONG AND STABLE leader and the Tories look like they’re going to get a pasting today.
26 across: ‘blooming” as an anagrind seems stretching it a bit to me – or am I missing something? As a more general comment, I come to cryptic crosswords to get away from the ubiquitous Brexit/May..
Maybe we should form a “Cruciverbalists for Remain” group.
@Geoff Wilkins (10)
This isn’t the first time you’ve made this comment about Trump/Brexit.
I’ve been solving Wagner-themed puzzles for forty years…suck it up!
Such a difficult puzzle to solve, but I did, thought without parsing several, so am giving myself a gold star; but many more to Tyrus for some amazing clueing.
Emigrated over 50 years ago, but still keep track of UK scene and particularly political machinations. Hope it all works out.
Thanks also to Bertandjoyce.
We’re back from voting and have amended the parsings of 6d and 7d with thanks to Hovis @1.
We should have mentioned that we tried to get WEAK AND WOBBLY to fit for 18ac, but somehow couldn’t parse it.
We’re up for ‘Cruciverbalists for Remain’ – should we all celebrate with straight banana milkshakes?
Thanks to Bertandjoyce and Tyrus
Mostly very good.
I can’t join the new club, I’m already in the “If you were so out of touch you couldn’t see that answer coming you shouldn’t have asked the question” club.
Many thanks to B&J for the blog and to others who commented.