Independent 8,407 / Tyrus – Fifteensquared

Tuesday is one of the slots that rotate among a group of setters, and today it falls to Tyrus to occupy it.

Last time I blogged a Tyrus I decidedly underperformed as a solver, so I was determined not to let that happen again.

I enjoyed this puzzle immensely, it reminding me of Tyrus’ earlier offering themed around The Apprentice. As soon as I solved 12, essentially thanks to the letters already in the grid, I realised what the theme was and this helped me immediately with 23/22/1 and later with 18/10. Reading across the grid, 19 and 21 serve to confirm the theme. There are no doubt other references hidden away here that I just haven’t spotted. My only doubt is at 3, over the connection with Minder; incidentally, I remember S<teve> CRAM from the last Tyrus I blogged, which helped me with the actress at 3 – we live and learn!

My favourite clues were 19 and 28 for their smooth surfaces; I also appreciated the misleading Murdoch reference at 18.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues

Across

07	CHAOS	A total shambles – Dave’s mate Osborne initially involved O<sborne> (“initially” means first letter only) in CHAS (=Dave’s mate, i.e. the pop rock duo Chas & Dave)

08	HEART	Try a 22 from that bottle HEAR (=try, i.e. a case in court) + T<hat> (“a little (=entry at 22) from” means first letter only)

09	MOI	Pollsters not right – it’s the writer being facetious MO<r>I (=pollsters; “not right (=R)” means letter “r” is dropped); definition – cf. “Pretentious, moi?”

11	NUN	Nobody heard pigeon Homophone (“heard”) of “none” (=nobody); a nun is a kind of pigeon with feathers on its head like a nun’s hood

12	ARTHUR DALEY	Minded businessman (cunning old Tory) cycling round university ART (=cunning, as a noun) + HURD (=old Tory, i.e. former Home Secretary Douglas Hurd) + ALE-Y (YALE=university; “cycling round” suggests that e.g. first letter becomes the last, etc); Arthur Daley was the used-car salesman played by George Cole in the TV series Minder, hence “minded businessman”

13	SURE	Sudden growth government destroyed, of course SUR<g>E (=sudden growth); “government (=G) destroyed” means letter “g” is dropped

14	SHAME ON YOU	Not really a long time, solvers – bad show! SHAM EON (cryptically, not really a long time) + YOU (=solvers, from setter’s perspective)

16	OFTENER	Not free to go out more regularly *(NOT FREE); “to go out” is anagram indicator

18	THE BELL	Police: end of line for current Murdoch publication THE B<E for I>LL (=police); “end of line (E, i.e. last letter) for current (=I, in physics)” means letter “e” replaces “I”; The Bell is a 1958 novel by Iris Murdoch

19	WINCHESTER	Pull up trees around city WINCH (=pull up) + *(TREES); “around” is anagram indicator

21	CLUB	Stick with this short book CLU<e> (=this, i.e. 21 in this puzzle; “short” means last letter dropped) + B (=book); the Winchester Club – 19 + 21 – was the preferred watering hole of Arthur Daley

24	THISTLEDOWN	Seeds, not that old, went off THIS (=not that) + *(OLD WENT); “off” is anagram indicator

25	TUT	King exhumed – in short I don’t like that! TUT<ankhamun> (=king exhumed, i.e. Egyptian pharaoh whose tomb was excavated); “in short” indicates abbreviation

26	RUN	Could be an extra // series Extras are runs in cricket

27	WHIRL	Spin bowler’s last in when side’s dismissed <bowle>R (“last” means last letter only) in WHIL<e> (=when; when side’s dismissed” means either first or last, here last, letter is dropped)

28	COLOR	Tesco lorries loaded with Californian red? Hidden (“loaded with”) in “TesCO LORries”; “red” is a colour, or color in US spelling, hence “Californian”

Down

02	ESSAY	Try to catch Nazi group Homophone (“to catch”) of SA (=Nazi group, i.e. Sturmabteilung)

03	THATCHER	US actress/politician admired by 12 The reference is to US actress T<eri> Hatcher and British PM Margaret Thatcher, who was admired by Arthur Daley (=entry at 12), perhaps for her support of entrepreneurship??

04	VACUUM	Clean break by woman originally reported married VAC (=break, i.e. vacation) + UU (homophone – “reported” – of W<omen> – “originally” means first letter only, i.e. “double-u”) + M (=married)

05	STUD POKER	Boss at a gathering fair game STUD (=boss, e.g. on shield) + [OK (=fair) in PER (=a, i.e. each)]

06	EMPLOYEE	Mope around outside, left eye bruised and hand [L (=left) in (MOPE)] + (EYE); “around” and “bruised” are anagram indicators

07	CONISTON WATER	Two containers hidden in lake *(TWO CONTAINERS); “hidden” is anagram indicator

15	ON THE TOWN	Solve – he won’t, not seeking amusement *(HE WON’T NOT); “solve” is anagram indicator

17	TENSIONS	Before splitting, claims stresses in relationships <pre>TENSIONS (=claims); “before (=PRE) splitting” means that letters “pre” are dropped

18/10	THE WORLD IS YOUR LOBSTER	Careless double error – why it’s lost opportunity presented 12-style *(DOUBLE ERROR WHY IT’S LOST); “careless” is anagram indicator; this is a vintage Arthur Daley (=entry at 12) quote

20	SCENIC	Pretty deep cut to the ear Homophone (“to the ear”) of “sea (=(the)deep) + nick (=cut)”

23/22/01	A NICE LITTLE EARNER	Wise keeping one at a foreign resort? I’m not sure it’s profitable [A + NICE (=foreign resort)] + [A in LITTLE ERN (=Wise, i.e. Ernie Wise of the comedy duo Morecambe and Wise) + ER (=I’m not sure); this was Arthur Daley’s catchphrase

17 comments on “Independent 8,407 / Tyrus”

Thanks RatkojaRiku and chapeau to Tyrus.

The Winchester Club was a drinking hole in the series.

Another difficult Tyrus puzzle, and some of the answers were put in without full parsing, such as VACUUM, TENSIONS, SHAME ON YOU and ARTHUR DALEY, so thanks for the parsing of them RR.

I thought I had managed to complete it without aids, but after I entered TENSIONS, which I thought was my LOI, I didn’t get the “congratulations” message. When I clicked on the check button I found out that I was one letter wrong; I had carelessly entered “assay” at 2dn from the definition instead of ESSAY which fits the homophone alluded to in the wordplay.

Like Andy, I put in a good number of the solutions without the slightest clue of how they worked – generally an indication that a puzzle is beyond me. Not helped by the fact that I never watched Minder, although you can’t say it wasn’t popular. Didn’t help myself by thinking that it was Only Fools and Horses. Must acquaint myself more closely with popular culture one of these days.

Nice misdirection for the ‘Murdoch publication’.

Tks to S&B.

Lovely puzzle and a great blog – I’m grateful as I couldn’t parse TENSIONS though the rest was manageable and tricky enough to feel very rewarding to have matched.

Loved 4D, 19A and 24A in particular.

FWIW K’s D @3 I’ve never watched it either. If I had a television I might have done, but IMHO life is too short.

We solved this last night just after the crossword was published on line in the UK. We cannot remember when we have used the check button so often. Mind you, when you are solving using the dead-tree version which is our usual modus operandi, you don’t have that option!

Once we knew we had the correct answer we managed to parse all the clues apart from TENSIONS. We are not sure that we would have sorted that one out with a clear head after a good night’s sleep either.

Definitely a good work out, so thanks to Tyrus. Also thanks to RR, without the blog we would still be puzzling!

What about ‘er indoors?

Has anyone managed to parse 23/22/1 fully yet? Not sure if RichardCV22’s comment was a suggestion for that, but I can’t see where it would fit in if it is.

I finished this but found it hard going. There were several clues where I had no idea at all how the parsing worked (e.g. 4,17) and a number like 23/22/1 and 12 where I could see the bits but couldn’t quite put it together. I thought T Hatcher for the actress was a tad unfair without some indication that was what we were looking for and UU for an (indirect) W was outrageous.

Thanks to RR for an excellent blog and to others who took the trouble to comment.

Is 23/22/1 not already fully parsed, NealH? Perhaps I am missing something …

Oh, sorry, I misunderstood your comment – I thought “ER (=I’m not sure)” meant you didn’t know the parsing. I see now what you mean, although I’m not exactly convinced by it. Er represents a pause – I don’t think it necessarily indicates uncertainty.

Took a long time to get started and it was slow going. Gave up several times (I’m reading an interesting book at the moment, and that kept drawing me away from the puzzle). In the end, I filled in a number of clues by guesswork and guessed 27ac was WHEEL, so couldn’t even guess for 20dn. To difficult for me for it to be enjoyable.

NealH@11.

Not necessarily, it’s true, but it can do. And isn’t that the case with crossword definitions generally? One word can have a variety of different meanings, any one of which can be legitimately used.