How did I end up on a Sunday night an hour from the usual midnight deadline scrubbling together a blog for a puzzle I solved, and made notes for(!), over a week ago.
Partly it’s having children of an age where their any waking hour is spent playing MMO computer games whilst simultaneously Skyping several friends. Thus access to a computer here is now massively curtailed unless the “get to bed” voice is brought to bear.
Partly it is pressure of work. I’m doing this blog after rising at 5 a.m. to do essential “out of hours” work. It went very well (this time) but still took about 16 hours. (Eric Liddel would not approve.)
And of course partly it is the weather – any spare time lately has been (literally) soaked up by cooling my beard in a pint of real beer – of course.
Am I looking for sympathy? – of course I am!
I mean, good grief, I studied chemistry and all I want is to get a job in the same place as my favourite dog:
A chocolate lab.
Anyway, back to the matter in hand: Referring to my notes I find that I had trouble getting a start into this puzzle. First answer entered was 18A OBLIGED (for which I was at the time) and that’s not because I read that clue first. I’d failed to solve the leftmost column downs and all the acrosses up to that point.
Looking at my solving order ( I noted 18 19 24 6 9 7 12/2/25 15 29 20 3 8 4 5 11 10 17 16 27 then a break, before finishing off with 21 22 26 23 14 21 28 13 1) I find the lights needed one or two crossing letters in place before the answers came to me.
Still need an explanation for 1D that is better than I can contrive.
Oh! Next issue’s puzzle will be the big D. I wonder if it will be something special…
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 8 | IN A FLASH | Before you know it, the clubbing celeb’s so taken by a paparazzo? (2,1,5) Double Def. |
| 9 | DOLLAR | Obama’s ‘tender’ party will, shortly, with God’s backing (6) DO (party) ‘LL (will, shortly) RA< |
| 11 | EUROSCEPTIC | Putting it mildly, Nigel Farage needs dodgy money to take naughty pics, etc. (11) EURO (dodgy money) (PICS ETC)* AInd: naughty. Are Euros really “dodgy”? No more so than, say, Bitcoin surely. |
| 12/2/25 | BAD HAIR DAY | When everything goes wrong, crap and shock Doris? (3,4,3) BAD (crap) HAIR (shock) DAY (Doris) |
| 13 | SWAMP | Soak was screwed up, overthrown leader (5) WAS* AInd: screwed up; then PM< (overthrown leader) |
| 15 | TIGHT-KNIT | Pissed knight, tosser, is well-connected (5-4) TIGHT (pissed) K[night] NIT (tosser) |
| 16 | PLOTTER | Guy Fawkes‘ place before extravagant monarch? (7) PL[ace] OTT (extravagant) ER (monarch) |
| 18 | OBLIGED | Grateful LibDems, dumping script, go berserk (7) (LIBDEMS – MS (script) + GO)* AInd: berserk |
| 21 | ALARM-BELL | Warning: there’s one large member on Thatcher advisor (5-4) A (one) L[arge] ARM (member) BELL Ref. Lord (Tim) Bell – Thatcher advisor of Bell-Pottinger PR company – invented “Labour isn’t Working” for the 1979 election |
| 24 | TITAN | God knocker has one (5) TIT (knocker) AN (one) |
| 26 | WRONGFOOTED | Michael, not Paul as intended? Hack’s caught off guard (5-6) Wrong Foot (Michael, not Paul as intended) ED (hack) |
| 28 | CASTRO | Enduring political leader‘s pure voice – no top grade leader of Tories (6) CASTR[A,T]O |
| 29 | IN A SWOON | Not conscious of being elected, was rat-arsed with nothing on (2,1,5) IN (elected) WAS* AInd: rat-arsed then O ON |
| Down | ||
| 1 | TIME IS UP | Nick’s term therefore, is an unpleasant experience of the past? (4,2,2) Time as in prison (The Nick) I suppose this is a CD: When your “Time is up” it is the end of something so that thing is now in the past, and a spell in the nick is presumably unpleasant. Last answer entered, because I (still) don’t fully understand it. I thought the “therefore” in the clue would lead to SO or ERGO. |
| 3 | FLESHPOT | Sex available here around top shelf (8) (TOP SHELF)* AInd: around |
| 4 | ASSENT | Thumbs up Schwarzenegger’s arse? Amusement curtailed (6) ASS (American for arse – as spoken by Arnie) ENT[ertainment] |
| 5 | Pussy after pussy (6) You can bob for apples and I suppose that is trying to get them. So if you bob for cats you are after cats (and completely barmy), and a bobcat is a cat. <Edit> I was wrong: It’s Tomcat. See comments for details |
|
| 6 | FLY-BY-NIGHT | Trouser-opening youth: “nothing’s popped out – thing’s crap and unreliable” (3-2-5) FLY (Trouser-opening) B[o]Y THING* AInd: crap |
| 7 | CREDIT | Direct pisspoor item shown at film’s end? (6) DIRECT* AInd: pisspoor |
| 10 | STAG DO | Horny beast gets stuff for pre-marital affair? (4,2) STAG (Horny beast) DO (stuff) |
| 14 | APOCALYPSE | Palace spy’s boxing ring’s awful climax (10) (PALACE SPY + O (ring))* AInd: awful |
| 17 | REEBOK | Brand gives piss up thumbs up (6) BEER< OK Thought Brand might be a reference to Russell B |
| 19 | LET LOOSE | In no time at all, Huhne was privy to cut steel production (3,5) LOO (privy) inside (to cut) (STEEL)* AInd: production. |
| 20 | DING DONG | The start of the controversial anti-Thatcher ditty row (4-4) Double Def. Referring to the “Witch is dead” song. |
| 21 | ADDICT | A feat to conceal double-D with one fan (6) DD and I (one) inside ACT (feat) |
| 22 | MY WORD | Bloody hell! A promise from Cyclops! (2,4) Double Def. with My word used as an exclamation, and as a synonym of a promise |
| 23 | LEGEND | Foot’s a venerated famous person (6) LEG END = foot (groan) |
| 27 | TOOL | Member Rob’s erection (4) LOOT< Rob reversed |
Mel Smith’s death was reported on CNN, Channel 4 News, Channel 5 News, Sky News, BBC News and News at Ten.
But Not the Nine O’Clock News.
I had TOMCAT rather than BOBCAT for 5d, seeing it as a cryptic definition.
1dn: you can take the “term” as a terminating point, as in this sense from Chambers 21st online: “the end of a particular time, especially the end of pregnancy when the baby is about to be born”. And “unpleasant experience of the past” in the second part of the clue could be that moment when you realise that your mortal time is up and your past is now definitively crystallised.
Agree with TOMCAT, pursuing lady cats being the chief occupation of the unneutered male.
1d is really not very good. I can’t improve your explanation.
I got TOMCAT: pussy = TOM, pussy = CAT, pussy after pussy = TOMCAT.
I also parsed 15a slightly differently, as KNIGHT TIT (tosser) * AInd PISSED – not sure whether my reasoning stands.
As for 1d, no idea!
TOMCAT: I never even considered that. I expect you folks are right.
Edmond, you’re 15A wordplay looks OK to me – a “tosser” is a relatively strong insult compared to “nit”, so “tit” would fit better.
@Edmond unlikely for 15a as this comes under indirect anagrams which are frowned upon by the crossword gods.
Can’t help with 1d, thanks BM
Well, I can hardly go home from the Maths department tonight without pointing out that 499 = CDXCIX since the Romans (what have they ever done for us?) performed subtraction on only numbers within a “decade” of each other. That is, they would not have written 499 = 500 – 1, but rather 499 = 500 + (100 – 100) + (10 – 10) – 1 = (500 – 100) + (100 – 10) + (10 – 1) = 400 + 90 + 9, the last of which yields CD + XC + IX. A case of mistaken ID, methinks! In the same vein, a Times clue recently (tsk, tsk) required 99 = IC in the wordplay.
Oh good grief! Well spotted Monk.
Although I have an inkling that all the subtractive stuff is a very late addition(!) so it should be CCCCLXXXXVIIII. No wonder the Empire didn’t last!
Sorry Monk, I couldn’t resist using ID when I saw it was number 499, and 1 Down was my bugbear clue.
I knew that would wind up somebody.
I agree, TOMCAT is surely an &lit.
I had the same as Edmond for 15a. What is an indirect anagram which the crossword gods frown upon, please?
Sorry! No criticism intended, beermagnet. Actually, mine was a stupidly long-winded version of something put much more simply on the internet: just keep units, tens, hundreds etc. separate, so that 499 = 400 + 90 + 9. D’oh! 🙂 On which note, do any other readers over a certain age remember writing HTU above columns in primary-school subtraction?
HTU above subtraction sums – and addition I think. Or am I remembering the £sd above columns in lengthy addition sums?
All mathematics was called sums back then.
I have finally got a copy of the next issue so can confirm TOMCAT for 5D.
> Next issue’s puzzle will be the big D. I wonder if
> it will be something special…
Ten cases of Galloping Decoder Flu, but I the infection is now well under control.