The usual smooth sailing from Boatman . . .
. . . with most of the clues and some of the solutions (e.g., REGIME CHANGE, SUPER POWER, DIPLOMACY, SURGE, LOGORRHEA) obliquely (or not so obliquely) thematically commenting on the current “military conflict” with Iran.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | AGREE |
Comply with one hooked on avarice without end? (5)
|
| A (one) + GREE[D] (avarice) minus last letter (without end) | ||
| 10 | ATONEMENT |
Reparation that one mentioned in passing (9)
|
| Hidden in (in passing) [TH]AT ONE MENT[IONED] | ||
| 11 | HIGHLIGHT |
Hair colour of intoxicated bully at core ‘not starting conflict’ (9)
|
| HIGH (intoxicated) + middle letter of (at core) [BU]L[LY] + [F]IGHT (conflict) minus first letter (not starting) | ||
| 12 | PAINS |
Displacing the leader of a country causes agonies (5)
|
| SPAIN (a country) moving the first letter to the end (displacing the leader) | ||
| 13 | STARE AT |
Boatman in base for watch (5,2)
|
| TAR (boatman) inside (in) SEAT (base) | ||
| 15 | ABUSERS |
Aggressors led out of rules-based order in chaos (7)
|
| Anagram of (order in chaos) {RU[LE]S BASE[D]} minus (out) LED | ||
| 17 | PUT-UP |
Falsely planned from both sides (3-2)
|
| Cryptic definition, “from both sides” indicating a palindrome | ||
| 18 | RAN |
Stood by elimination of a country’s leader (3)
|
| [I]RAN (a country) minus first letter (elimination of . . . leader), in the sense of standing for election | ||
| 20 | POWER |
Might is right? Captive enemy’s leader taken at the front (5)
|
| POW (captive enemy) + first letter of (leader [of]) E[NEMY] + R (right), with “at the front” indicating the order of the wordplay | ||
| 22 | RECKONS |
Playing conkers with judges (7)
|
| Anagram of (playing) CONKERS | ||
| 25 | WREATHE |
Honour as peace finally follows devastation of the war (7)
|
| Anagram of (devastation of) {THE WAR} + last letter of (finally) [PEAC]E, with “follows” indicating the order of the wordplay | ||
| 26 | MEANT |
Signified Boatman by symbol of industry (5)
|
| ME (Boatman) + ANT (symbol of industry) | ||
| 27 | DIPLOMACY |
Order: comply with aid talks (9)
|
| Anagram of (order) {COMPLY + AID} | ||
| 30 | LOGORRHEA |
Content of blogs: sorry, cheap, using too many words (9)
|
| Hidden in the middle sections of (content of) [B]LOG[S] + [S]ORR[Y] + [C]HEA[P] | ||
| 31 | SONAR |
Cycling round raising fire as a defence against submarines (5)
|
| ARSON (raising fire) with the first two letters “cycling round” to the end | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | RASH |
Ill-considered result of conflagration after 7th of October (4)
|
| 7th [letter] of [OCTOBE]R + ASH (result of conflagration), with “after” indicating the order of the wordplay | ||
| 2 | PREGNANT |
Expecting quiet fury to rise over holy books (8)
|
| P (quiet) + ANGER (fury) inverted (to rise) + NT (holy books) | ||
| 3 | HEEL |
With the end of truth, he’s evasive: a despicable type (4)
|
| Last letter of (end of) [TRUT]H + EEL (he’s evasive) | ||
| 4 | LAUGHTER |
Paroxysm of pointless killing? (8)
|
| [S]LAUGHTER (killing) minus S (south) (“pointless”) | ||
| 5 | PORTIA |
Apparently a lawyer, she is one that moves quickly in hearing (6)
|
| Homophone of (in hearing) PORSCHE (she is one that moves quickly), referring to a character in The Merchant of Venice who impersonates a lawyer, Balthazar | ||
| 6 | DEEP PURPLE |
Band initially denied piss-up over unmixed disc set up inside (4,6)
|
| First letter of (initially) D[ENIED] + PEE (piss) inverted (up) + {LP (disc) inverted (set up) and inside PURE (unmixed)} | ||
| 7, 23 | REGIME CHANGE |
Clue for emigré in coup (6,6)
|
| Reverse anagram, REGIME being an anagram of (change) EMIGRÉ | ||
| 8 | OTIS |
Toti Soler covers King of Soul (4)
|
| Hidden in (covers) [T]OTI S[OLER], referring to Otis Redding | ||
| 13 | SUPER |
Society to raise former ruler to be glorious (5)
|
| S (society) + UP (raise) + ER (former ruler) | ||
| 14 | EXPLOITERS |
Assembly of Experts with grip on oil wrongly supply profiteers (10)
|
| Anagram of (assembly of) EXPERTS around (with grip on) anagram of (wrongly) OIL | ||
| 16 | SURGE |
Powerful movement, certain to embrace an end to fighting (5)
|
| SURE (certain) around (to embrace) last letter of (an end to) [FIGHTIN]G | ||
| 19 | NEWSPEAK |
Fox etc an extreme instance of Orwellian communication (8)
|
| NEWS (Fox etc) + PEAK (an extreme instance), referring to the language spoken in George Orwell’s 1984 | ||
| 21 | WET PAINT |
Where Trump, lacking guts, is not to touch this: would be unwise (3,5)
|
| Outside letters of (lacking guts) {W[HER]E + T[RUM]P} + AIN’T (is not), with a bit of deceptive punctuation | ||
| 23 |
See 7
|
|
| 24 | SADDHU |
Strictly austere, doubly devout Hindu, unshod primarily (6)
|
| &lit and first letters of (primarily) S[TRICTLY] A[USTERE] D[OUBLY] D[EVOUT] H[INDU] U[NSHOD] | ||
| 26 | MALE |
Man using computer virus etc: battle is lost (4)
|
| MAL[WAR]E (computer virus, etc) minus (is lost) WAR (battle) | ||
| 28 | OUST |
Depose leader missing in combat (4)
|
| [J]OUST (combat) minus first letter (leader missing) | ||
| 29 | YARD |
Where to hang sheets in back garden (4)
|
| Double definition, the first in the nautical sense |
Took a while
Liked: HIGHLIGHT, SPAIN, PREGNANT, REGIME CHANGE (which took me a lot longer to get than it should have as I put regime as the second word…..)
Thanks Boatman and Cineraria
Thanks Cineraria. Smooth sailing indeed, most of it went in readily enough, I had to look up Portia (The quality of mercy) but LOIs were RECKONS and SONAR which both should have been write ins. I enjoyed it.
After a few sittings, all completed and parsed, though some of the parsings were tricky and convoluted. Two favourites: 22a RECKONS (concise, with an amusing surface), and 29d YARD (“Where to hang sheets” misdirection)
15a ABUSERS, “order in chaos” an odd, wordy anagrind. Took me a while to put those together into one instruction
Cineraria, now that you’ve drawn my attention to the theme, in both clues and solutions, I see it’s pretty powerful, and sad
Thanks Boatman for the challenge, and Cineraria for a great blog
LOI Abusers, really struggled with this one, don’t know why now! ATONEMENT was nicely hidden as well.
Thanks Both
Thanks Boatman. Despite the unpleasant theme I enjoyed this prize because so many clues were so well written. My favourites included ATONEMENT, LOGORRGEA, PREGNANT, LAUGHTER, PORTIA, and SURGE. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.
It didn’t take me long to twig to the theme. Many of the clues were an absolute delight in the way they so cleverly managed to both make pointed comments about the present madness and yet clearly and accurately lead to the answer. Add in excellent thematic answers such as those Cineraria highlights in the introduction, and I have to say this was one of the cleverest and most enjoyable crossie I have done in a long time (which is, of course, not to say that its subject is in any way pleasant). Thanks heaps, Boatman and Cineraria.