If this post is a little on the late side, I’m fairly sure anyone who has tried to solve the puzzle will forgive me.
This was what one can only describe as hopelessly difficult, even for a reasonably seasoned solver. After a week of staring at a largely empty grid, the only way there’s going to be a post at all today is if I brew some strong coffee, fire up PeeDee’s excellent tool and hope for the best.
Needless to say, a handful have evaded my explanations.
| Across | ||
| 9 | PRONE | Given backing on Tyneside (5) |
| PRO + North East. Think “given to” or “prone to” in the sense of having a tendency to behave in a particular way | ||
| 10 | ILL NATURE | True in all weathers (though it’s never sunny) (3,6) |
| (TRUE IN ALL)* with “weathers” as the anagrind, which is new to me but makes for a nice surface reading | ||
| 11 | EXMOUTH | Old feature of English resort (7) |
| EX MOUTH, in Devon. Your blogger was born in Devon but left at such a young age that I only know of Exmouth from family trips several years later | ||
| 12 | ANTHOID | Design I had not like a flower (7) |
| (I HAD NOT)* | ||
| 13 | SANSERIF | Idiot leaving church rinses face in font (8) |
| (RINSES FA[ce])*. Interesting. It looks like “idiot” is serving as an anagrind, while “leaving church” means to remove the C and the E, and SANSERIF is considered to be a font, which I’m not entirely sure about since it’s more of a broad style of fonts. The church/font misdirection is very nice though | ||
| 15 | CLUEDO | Black Death at its outset (6) |
| Absolutely stumped here. I’m sensing an &lit though | ||
| 17 | ALBAN | Recycling stock, this martyr (5) |
| Stumped again. Obviously a reference to St. Alban | ||
| 20 | KIM | Pointless to just glance through novel (3) |
| [s]KIM, a novel by Kipling I believe | ||
| 21 | OONTS | Camels ugly? Not so (5) |
| (OONTS)*. A fairly obscure word, but with four checked letters out of five one need not complain | ||
| 23 | OSWALD | Killer revolutionary breaking party rules (6) |
| (LAWS in DO)<. Reference to Lee Harvey Oswald | ||
| 24 | HEIMLICH | Force to abandon mile-high bonking – caught interrupting so-called emergency procedure (8) |
| Caught in (MILE HI[g]H*). No way did I get this, but I like it. “Bonking” as an anagrind, force as in G force, and what sounds like a bit of a Carry On moment on board a 747 | ||
| 29 | TYPEBAR | Swapping party – be back in for key attachment (7) |
| TYPEBAR*. “Swapping” as an anagrind this time, and an unfamiliar word for me at least | ||
| 30 | SIMPSON | Flipping Cameron is disciple of Maggie? Possibly (7) |
| No idea. Reference to Maggie Simpson | ||
| 31 | EPICUREAN | Menu defaced, I start to eat crap? Unlikely! (9) |
| ([m]ENU + I + E[at] + CRAP)* | ||
| 32 | NANCY | No Man City in Europe (5) |
| double definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | UPSETS | Leading TV star’s initial troubles (6) |
| UP + SET + S[tar] | ||
| 2 | NORMAN | Invader right to occupy island, said writer (6) |
| Right in NO MAN. Reference to John Donne’s famous claim that “No man is an island”. Donne obviously wasn’t taken to Port Erin on a school trip at an early age, unlike your blogger | ||
| 3 | TENURE | Enter uni after working for a time in office (6) |
| This seems to be (ENTER Uni)* | ||
| 4 | HIGH JINKS | Boisterous behaviour from eminent judge with tattoos (4,5) |
| HIGH (eminent) + Judge + INKS (tattoos, as a verb) | ||
| 5 | ELGAR | Glare irritated composer (5) |
| GLARE* | ||
| 6 | MARTELLO | Harm old count locked in tower (8) |
| MAR + TELLO, the whole being a type of tower. A brief google suggests that a Count Tello may have existed at some point | ||
| 7 | EUROPEAN | Anti-UKIP – clear about a way for Brussels to get back on top (8) |
| RUE< + (A in OPEN) | ||
| 8 | DEAD LOSS | Lad does wrong section – he’s useless (4,4) |
| (LAD DOES)* + Section | ||
| 14 | SEA | In use around North, say (3) |
| Reference to the North Sea, but the wordplay escapes me | ||
| 16 | AMPERSAND | Parent upset by a smooth character (sharing with 7) (9) |
| MA< + PER (“a”) + SAND. I don’t fully understand why SAND is a “smooth character” shared with EUROPEAN. Or even partially | ||
| 17 | APOSTLES | Evangelists have drinks outside station (8) |
| POST in ALES | ||
| 18 | BOWSPRIT | Respectful acknowledgement to courage I needed to spar (8) |
| BOW + SP[i]RIT | ||
| 19 | NILE BLUE | Earl’s nothing on, looking cold in shade (4,4) |
| NIL + Earl + BLUE. Apparently an actual colour (“shade”) | ||
| 22 | OIL | Zip up top – had contracted not to show a valuable commodity (3) |
| Nope. 0 = “zip” maybe | ||
| 25 | MOMENT | Doctor’s intended not one to be flash (6) |
| Medical Officer + ME[a]NT | ||
| 26 | INSANE | Annoying Annie’s not a good idea (6) |
| ANNIES* | ||
| 27 | HONEYS | Girls endearingly ‘hot’ – payments upfront not required (6) |
| Pass | ||
| 28 | TRIED | Heard acting editor’s dropping round (5) |
| EDIT[o]R*, with “acting” as the last of many anagrinds which I would never have spotted | ||
* = anagram; [] = removed; < = removed
Simon, you have my sympathy for getting the short straw with this one. I have just finished it online without aids but it was a struggle.
The clue for CLUEDO refers to the fact that it is Dr Black who has been killed in the game.
ALBAN is BANAL with the last two letters “cycled” to the front.
SIMPSON is PM and IS reversed with SON=disciple.
SEA is just a hidden word, but in all fairness it is well-disguised.
MARTELLO is MAR (ham) + TELL (count) + O (old) with “locked in” as the containment indicator.
AMPERSAND – “character” is the definition, although I’m not sure why “(sharing with 7)” is in the clue because it works without it.
OIL – I also had zip=O, with (A)IL (if you contract flu you ail).
HI Simon
27dn: H(ot) + (m)ONEYS
Andy B @1 re AMPERSAND: presumably a reference to the fact that & and 7 share a key on a standard computer keyboard.
(It is, of course, much easier to fill in gaps when looking with a fresh eye than it is to solve a puzzle and write a full blog.)
Thank you Simon. I’d never have finished this.
OIL is 0(zip) + LI[d]< the 'd' removal is had contracted not to show
There is something more in this puzzle.
I was not really on Tyrus’s wavelength for this puzzle. I failed to solve 9a & 28d, and I could not parse 2d, 16d, 1d, 13a, 22d.
I did see the nina UNTHEMED in Row 1, but only at the end.
New words for me were ANTHOID, UKIP, OONTS Maggie SIMPSON, TYPEBAR.
I liked 32a, 15a, 17a, 29a, 23a and my favourite was 4d HIGH JINKS.
Thanks for the blog, Simon. I parsed CLUEDO, ALBAN, SIMPSON, SEA, MARTELLO as Andy B @1, and HONEYS as Pelham Barton@2.
Pelham Barton@2, thanks for the parsing of AMPERSAND.
Sidey@3 – thanks for the parsing of OIL.
I parsed 29a as def = key attachment. Insertion of BE reversed in *PARTY.
UNTHEMED has to be interpreted in a special way.
This was the toughest Tyrus that I have tackled but I found it very enjoyable. I was on holiday so had time to chip away at it. SIMPSON and AMPERSAND were my favourite clues — the latter has a cleverly disguised definition: ‘smooth’ is a verb and ‘character (sharing with 7)’ is the definition, using the layout of a keyboard. I don’t know much about UN but I did spot the UN-THEMED, BAN KI MOON and ANNAN Ninas — I suspect there are others.
Thanks Tyrus for the challenge and Simon for the blog.
As far as the nina is concerned I can also see U THANT and WALDHEIM. I can’t find a UN connection for O’NEILL, apart from the UK Ambassador to Qatar who once served in the UK mission to the UN, but that seems a little obscure as the others were/are UN Secretary-Generals.
As far as OIL is concerned, sidey@3’s parsing gets rid of the tense problem that mine has (contracted is past, ail is present), but “had contracted not to show” as an instruction to delete the last letter is very convoluted, and “had contracted” would have done exactly the same thing and not affected the surface.
When I posted my earlier comment I hadn’t spotted that HONEYS hadn’t been parsed in the blog. I didn’t have a problem with it even though I am much more used to seeing the plural of money as monies. I have just checked OneLook and it has 10 entries for moneys and 16 for monies, so both seem to be in common use.
sidey@3 and Andy B@8:
‘had contracted’ = D (as in “I’d”, “he’d” etc) so “top — had contracted not to show” = LI(D)
Initial letters of down clues are worth looking at – for completeness.
Tramp@9 = thanks for that. I get it now, and I suspect that was probably what sidey@3 meant.
nmsindy@10 – apart from the previously mentioned UNTHEMED across the top row I can’t make anything out of the other down clue initial letters. What am I missing?
Down CLUE initial letters, not down ANSWER initial letters.
Tramp, nmsindy, Andy B above – thanks for that – I can see all of the themed references you mention now including GHALI & PEREZ.
Tyrus – thanks a lot for this “UNTHEMED” puzzle.
nmsindy@12 – d’oh! Thanks. You’d think that being a fan of cryptic crosswords I’d know what “clues” means …………………
Some amazing clueing, saw UNTHEMED late in the day, but missed its cunning meaning and so all the other relevant parts of the Nina.
I parsed 27D as [P]HONEYS – with hot meaning phoney (fictitious, fraudulent in my Dict and so “hot”) with P for payments up front not required. Didn’t think twice about this at the time, but I guess I’m wrong.
Also, I must be the only one who initially entered, then had to delete as it didn’t fit with crossing words, ENG for 14D. Eng is an accepted abbreviation for engaged (in use, in the case of a loo for instance) and I parsed it as EG (say) around N (north).
Obviously the deviousness of the clueing in this puzzle overstimulated my imagination.
Thanks to Tyrus and Simon Harris.
Thanks to Simon for the blog and to others for their comments and explanations. All eight of the Secretaries-General are there.
Sorry if some solvers found this difficult. If it’s any consolation, it wasn’t that easy setting it either.