The regular cruciverbal round-up of the month’s events. Find it to solve online or download and print at ft.com/crossword
The second outing for Jason in the News slot and I’m not sure I’ve entirely done the puzzle justice – which I’m putting down to being tired after a long week at work. I’m not 100% convinced of my parsing of a few clues (corrections welcome in comments below) and I’m probably missing some of the news stories referenced. But I enjoyed the tussle nonetheless.
Thanks, Jason!
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | TEST MATCHES |
With one Australian out, poor stats teach me we’ve lost ____ (4,7)
|
| Anagram (poor) of STATS TEACH ME, less one A (Australian)
England lost the recent Ashes series in Australia in record time |
||
| 7 | TOM |
Eg, Tugendhat’s brass jewellery (3)
|
| Three definitions – Tom Tugendhat is a Tory MP, tom and brass are old-fashioned synonyms for a sex worker, and tomfoolery, shortened to tom, is apparently rhyming slang for jewellery (new to me!)
I’m not aware of Tom Tugendhat being in the news recently, though I expect that being an ex-military man who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, he has strong thoughts about Trump’s recent drivel on the role of Nato forces in US-led conflicts |
||
| 9 | LOSER |
More mean to drop leader that’s a flop… (5)
|
| [c]LOSER (more mean) dropping the first letter (leader)
Oblique reference to ongoing chatter about plans among some Labour members to get rid of Keir Starmer |
||
| 10 | PLASTERED |
…and rendered mortal (9)
|
| Two definitions – the second being a synonym for drunk | ||
| 11 | GREENLAND |
Country’s fresh fields? (9)
|
| GREEN (fresh) + LAND (fields)
The object of Trump’s latest power fetish |
||
| 12 | STEER |
Direct form of reset (5)
|
| Anagram (form) of RESET | ||
| 13 | ANSWERS |
Knight pledges to shift article to the front to get results? (7)
|
| N (knight in chess notation) + SWEARS (pledges) shifting the A (article) to the front
Suspect there’s a topical reference here that I’m missing |
||
| 15 | RAIN |
Iran’s struggling with this shower (4)
|
| Anagram (struggling) of IRAN
Many thousands took to the streets in Iran recently to protest against the despotic regime, who promptly proved their despotism by killing several thousand of them |
||
| 18 | REAL |
Somehow relax with X on hold for certain (4)
|
| Anagram (somehow) of RELAX with the X “on hold”
There has been much talk lately of banning the benighted social media platform |
||
| 20 | CADUCEI |
Medical symbols? Constant by a leader of Italy, close to Meloni (7)
|
| C (constant representing the speed of light) + A + DUCE (Mussolini, former leader of Italy) + last letter of (close to) melonI
Plural of caduceus, a symbol used in medicine, based on the Rod of Hermes |
||
| 23 | OTHER |
Different trouble as head escapes (5)
|
| [b]OTHER (trouble) less the first letter (head) | ||
| 24 | GUILDFORD |
Ex-police chief’s association in favour of Democrat (9)
|
| GUILD (association) + FOR (in favour of) + D (Democrat)
Craig Guildford, former head of West Midlands Police, took a strategic early retirement after it was revealed that the decision to ban Israeli football fans from attending a match against Aston Villa was based on spurious AI-generated evidence |
||
| 26 | TIGHTROPE |
Nearly neat metaphor for way between Scylla and Charybdis? (9)
|
| TIGH[t] (neat, nearly) + TROPE (metaphor)
The whole clue is an extended definition – a tightrope is metaphorically a narrow path between two hazards, similar to the route Odysseus had to take through the Straits of Messina between the sea monster Scylla and deadly whirlpool Charybdis |
||
| 27 | MANDY |
Casually noble chap borders on duplicity (5)
|
| MAN (chap) + first and last letters (borders) of DuplicitY
Mandy is a popular nickname in the media (also the name of an unauthorised biography by political journalist Paul Routledge) for disgraced peer Lord Mandelson who has been less than entirely honest about his friendship with Epstein |
||
| 28 | WES |
Minister heads to Whitehall expecting sympathy (3)
|
| First letters (heads) of Whitehall Expecting Sympathy
Health Secretary Wes Streeting is the subject of ongoing rumours about a bid to replace Keir Starmer as Labour leader |
||
| 29 | DISFAVOURED |
Unpopular four advised to be replaced (11)
|
| Anagram (replaced) of FOUR ADVISED | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TELEGRAM |
Message group of people about member close to Starmer (8)
|
| TEAM (group of people) containing (about) LEG (member) + last letter of starmeR | ||
| 2 | SUSPENSE |
Figure out American jails European for doubt (8)
|
| SUS (figure out) + PENS (American jails) + E (European) | ||
| 3 | MORON |
A fool is to dream about runs on the scoreboard? (5)
|
| MOON (dream) containing (about) R (runs on the [cricket] scoreboard) | ||
| 4 | TOP HATS |
ICE has tons detained showing tall covers? (3,4)
|
| TOP (ice = slang for kill) + HAS with T (tons) inserted (detained)
Reference to the ongoing indiscriminate anti-immigration campaign by Trump’s thug militia |
||
| 5 | HOARDER |
Henry, one staying at public school, not born to be a saver (7)
|
| H (Henry = SI unit of inductance) + [b]OARDER (one staying at public school) less B (born) | ||
| 6 | SATISFIED |
What parliament did is kicked out, right to leave smug (9)
|
| SAT (what parliament did) + IS + FI[r]ED (kicked out) less R (right) | ||
| 7 | TARGET |
Tool doing a U-turn with clear aim (6)
|
| RAT (tool – synonyms for a despicable person) reversed (doing a U-turn) + GET (clear) | ||
| 8 | MADURO |
Former head of state’s crazy and unbounded anger (6)
|
| MAD (crazy) + [f]URO[r} (anger) with first and last letters removed (unbounded)
Despite having been kidnapped and incarcerated in the US a few weeks ago, Nicolas Maduro is arguably still Venezuela’s head of state – his deputy appears to believe so |
||
| 14 | EXECRATED |
Hated executive is judged (9)
|
| EXEC + RATED (judged)
Take your pick from any one of the attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos… |
||
| 16 | SCHOONER |
Place to learn being cut by mostly inept fool — one’s at sea (8)
|
| SCHOO[L] (place to learn, being cut) + NER[d] (inept fool, mostly) | ||
| 17 | WILD-EYED |
Ill-conceived change yielded women on top (4-4)
|
| Anagram (change) of YIELDED with W (women) first (on top) | ||
| 19 | LAGOONS |
Los Angeles pressing thugs in swamps (7)
|
| LA + GOONS (thugs) | ||
| 20 | CHIMERA |
Monstrous delusion to resound over every other bit of trial (7)
|
| CHIME (resound) + alternate letters of tRiAl | ||
| 21 | KOWTOW |
Toady is a bully, reportedly, to west (6)
|
| Sounds like (reportedly) “COW” (bully) + TO + W (west) | ||
| 22 | CHAGOS |
Government in the grip of disarray for islands (6)
|
| G (government) inserted in (in the grip of) CHAOS (disarray)
Plans for the British government to return the Chagos islands to native rule are in chaos following intervention by Trump (related to the US military base at Diego Garcia), despite him having previously approved the plans |
||
| 25 | DUMBO |
Midwit upset old boy with slander, say (5)
|
| Reversal (upset) of OB (old boy) + MUD (slander) |
I enjoyed this, and felt your slightly nagging feeling that there are things that I was missing.
TOM – Tugendhat was outspoken on Iran in the House this month, apparently Russian weapons are going in and regime gold is leaving. Also an interview on Times Radio saying Britain isn’t being taken seriously. apparently because we don’t take our defence spending seriously. There was a lot of YouTube / Facebook coverage, but not much in the mainstream press (other than CBBC on NATO). I googled to check, but I remember him being in the news this month.
LOSER – Starmer is now having to decide whether to allow Andy Burnham to stand as an MP. Having seen Burnham live on BBC Any Questions (pretty close, I was in the front row with a question), my impression was that he’d say whatever made him look best, unlike the other Labour Party leadership candidates at the time, (Corbyn, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall) who at least had some convictions. (I was in the live audience for Corbyn and, iirc, Kendall – the friend I went with was on the front row for one of them).
I wondered what I was missing with ANSWERS, OTHER, DISFAVOURED (that one I wondered about football, but it could be to do with Davos too) and HOARDER.
SATISFIED – I suspect this is about Government U-turns on various issues, which Reform is emphasising. The plan to remove the pandemic relief for pubs is the latest, but we’ve had u-turns on inheritance tax for farmers, pensioners’ winter fuel and benefit reforms (although the PIP reform has gone through).
TARGET – are being asked to stand up against ICE raids on their stores and to support the situation in Minneapolis. There has been a boycott since 8th January apparently, when ICE forcibly restrained some workers in one of the stores. the day after the death of Rene Good. There have been protests and sit ins in the last few days.
SCHOONER – I’m not sure, but this one made me think of Operation Southern Spear – the US anti-drugs campaign that is hitting boats in the Caribbean with air strikes. There were a number of hits on 30 and 31 December.
KOWTOW – I can’t find it now, but there was a cartoon of all the EU leaders kneeling under a carpet, with Trump walking down it trailing his overlong red tie, clutching a comfort blanket and a Greenland agreement, drinking from a baby bottle – and a caption of “So the comfort blanket and bottle worked – who’s supposed to be toddler taming?”
Thank you to Jason and Widdersbel.
Thanks Jason and Widdersbel (and Shanne).
TARGET
I don’t see anything wrong with the blogger’s parsing. At least, that’s how I parsed it.
clear=GET: I was not sure about. However, Chambers has ‘To clear out’ (informal) under ‘get’.