As the football chant goes, Are You Cyclops in Disguise?
Brunel has a puzzle sprinkled with political references this morning, which made me think I was tackling Cyclops in Private Eye (except without anagrinds like ‘piss-poor’). I liked it lots: there were serious politicians like Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, less serious ones like Nigel Farage and the Donald, and one from a previous generation, Red Ken. Plus a whole lot of other good clues as well.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Swimmer entering decider or qualifier
RORQUAL
Hidden in decideR OR QUALifier.
5 Young guy to cover vehicle after parking notice
PLACARD
A charade of P and CAR inserted into LAD. The insertion indicator is ‘to cover’.
9 Drink up – that should stop a policeman coming back
CUPPA
An insertion of UP into A PC reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘that should stop’.
10 Throw away photograph
GET SHOT OF
A dd.
11 Exit crone with a fearful curse
EXECRATION
(EXIT CRONE A)* with ‘fearful’ as the anagrind. Well, if you’re fearful, you’re shaking, I guess …
12 Consume no end of acid drops
RAIN
[D]RAIN
14 Feeling Stormy should suppress a newspaper revealing another Trump buddy?
NIGEL FARAGE
An insertion of A RAG in (FEELING)* The insertion indicator is ‘should suppress’ and the anagrind is ‘stormy’. Stormy is Stormy Daniels, the porn star with whom Trump never had sex, but paid her $130,000 in hush money just in case he did. Allegedly. Nigel Farage is the next Prime Minister. Allegedly.
18 Buried in loosely scattered religious teaching, what’s known only unto Maker?
TRADE SECRET
An insertion of RE for ‘religious teaching’ in (SCATTERED)* The insertion indicator is ‘buried in’ and the anagrind is ‘loosely’.
21 Flyer lags behind, wings clipped
RAIL
[T]RAIL[S] and the chance for the Obligatory Pierre Bird Link. Rails are a large and widely distributed family of birds, whose members include the familiar coot and moorhen found on UK ponds and rivers. I’ve gone for Rouget’s Rail, which is endemic to Ethiopia and Eritrea.
22 Shakes tail to detach from one shelled seafood item
ROCK SALMON
A charade of ROCKS and ALMON[D].
25 Copy ‘MAXIMUM ALLOWANCE’ without caps
IMITATION
[L]IMIT [R]ATION, with ‘caps’ referring to the initial letters.
26 100 retro books featuring Wild West hero
TONTO
A charade of TON and OT for Old Testament reversed. ‘Yes, Kemohsahbee’, ‘High-ho, Silver! Away!’ and all that.
27 Bring home round article made of clay
EARTHEN
An insertion of the definite article THE in EARN. The insertion indicator is ’round’.
28 Maybe eldest son reportedly switching positions to get high post?
AIRMAIL
Aural wordplay (‘reportedly’) of MALE HEIR, reversed.
Down
1 Chancellor‘s longing for acceptance by both sides?
RACHEL
An insertion of ACHE in R and L. The insertion indicator is ‘for acceptance by’. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, makes an appearance …
2 1D takes a consonant – not D! – in TV series
RIPLEY
… and her namesake Rachel Riley, of Countdown fame, features in this clue. Brunel is inviting you to insert a consonant, P (which is not a D, which would give you another series, Ridley) in her surname to give you the series Ripley, which is showing on Netflix. Is Netflix TV? Discuss.
3 Heard you hurried over and called my boss impromptu
UNARRANGED
A charade of U for ‘you’ phonetically, RAN reversed, RANG and ED, who is Brunel’s ‘boss’ as crossword editor.
4 Land of fire
LIGHT
A dd.
5 Pulpy novel‘s plot I bore exasperatedly
POT BOILER
(PLOT I BORE)* with ‘exasperatedly’ as the anagrind.
6 American woman, Wimbledon winner
ASHE
A charade of A and SHE, referencing Arthur ASHE, the tennis player.
7 Agar, with salt, needing mixing and moulding
ASTRAGAL
(AGAR SALT)* with ‘needing mixing’ as the anagrind. Not a word I had heard of, but the obvious anagram and crossers made it gettable.
8 Kept out great over
DEFENDED
A charade of DEF and ENDED. DEF is youthspeak for ‘fantastic’ or ‘great’. Or it was a year or so ago.
13 Expert in sound okayed original recording
PAST MASTER
A charade of PAST, aural wordplay (‘in sound’) for PASSED or ‘okayed’ and MASTER.
15 In sort of chant, Roger, backing Scotsman, follows Geoff’s lead
GREGORIAN
A charade of G for the initial letter of ‘Geoff’, ROGER reversed and IAN, the crossword setters’ fave Scotsman.
16 Keir’s tangling with a discontented Left – as per The Sun?
STARLIKE
(KIERS A L[EF]T)* with ‘tangling’ as the anagrind. Now the PM’s making an appearance.
17 Well-worn section of trail I’m afterwards to climb
FAMILIAR
Hidden reversed in tRAIL IM AFterwards.
19 Girl hugging guy and girl
AMANDA
An insertion of MAN in ADA. The insertion indicator is ‘hugging’.
20 Uniform only displayed intermittently, catching officer out
UNCOOL
An insertion of NCO in U and OnLy. U for ‘uniform’ is from the phonetic alphabet and the insertion indicator is ‘catching’.
23 Livingstone always turned up in an African country
KENYA
A charade of KEN and AY reversed (‘turned up’ works because it’s a down clue). More politicians, but from a different era: Ken Livingstone was MP for Brent and also Mayor of London in the noughties. Dr Livingstone (I presume) was the African explorer.
24 Ugh! About time to wash
BATH
An insertion of T in BAH. The insertion indicator is ‘about’.
Many thanks to Brunel for the start to the crosswording week in the Independent.
Liked TONTO. The Indians are usually forgotten. Nice to see a puzzle from Brunel. Thanks to him and the blog.
Anyone remember the lyrics:
Maybe masked man he a pooftah
Try it on with surly Tonto
Let me say to mister lawman
Tonto doesn’t mind
Not exactly pc you might say.
Brutal, and almost a bridge too far, for me.
Rachel= Riley= Ridley= Ripley= netflix= TV series?
Girl = girl, Ada to Amanda.
Fine blog by Pierre, who liked the puzzle, but I’m afraid, I didn’t.
Rorqual, although a nho, reminded me of narwhal, and indeed they are Norse-ish linguistically and are whales, though of different families. Coupla other nho bits, like all three versions of Rachel — the Minister, the Rip and the Rid — and astragal the moulding. Otherwise, all pretty cruisy, ta Brunel and Pierre.
Completely beaten by RIPLEY having heard of neither the Countdown presenter nor the Netflix programme. I’m not entirely sure how comfortable I am with Chancellor = RACHEL. Reasonably rare for us to refer to any other politician by the first name alone, perhaps with the exception of some PM’s (Boris, Rishi and Maggie come to mind).
Otherwise, a solid puzzle for which my thanks to setter and blogger.
Some nice clues and some interesting steps to accommodate the solver. Both RAIL and IMITATION looked at first glance like they could be tricky with multiple deletions, but went in rapidly. I also appreciated the generous clues for RORQUAL and ASTRAGAL, both nho, and thought RIPLEY used an interesting way of skirting any ambiguity. I loved the surfaces for KENYA and BATH in particular.
Thanks Brunel and Pierre.
Not a fanof the Ripley clue even though it did point towards Countdown in its construction. Also not sure why all of maximum allowance was capitalised in that clue as it would have made more sense (to me at least) if only the initial letters had been.
thanks to Brunel and Pierre
Thanks both. I am another for whom the RIPLEY clue found me wanting on all counts – very few if any politicians deserve single-name status, and surely the first-referenced RACHEL isn’t one of the though I can see the setter evidently wished it to be a gateway, which might have been easier for me had I spotted the unlikely named RORQUAL; like TV presenters, if you don’t get one fish, there are plenty more in the sea (or stream for Netflix)
Thanks Brunel. This was a mixed bag for me, loving clues like RAIL, AIRMAIL, UNARRANGED, ASHE, AMANDA, and STARLIKE (COTD), but needing to reveal the nho RORQUAL, RIPLEY, RACHEL, & ASTRAGAL. Win some, lose some I guess. Thanks Pierre for the blog.