We enjoyed this challenging puzzle from Tyrus – some very good clues and plenty of crafty misdirection.
Was Tyrus anticipating the outcome in Brazil when he wrote the clue for 15ac? 4/25! Let’s hope the women’s team can put the overpaid schoolboys to shame next year!!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Sex twice with a spot of supper thrown in? Come round! | |
| VISIT | VI (Sex in Latin is 6) + IT (sex) with S the first letter or ‘a bit of’ Supper ‘thrown in’ | |
| 4/25 | A little old but when aroused …. gee! (I’ll say no more) | |
| THAT WOULD BE TELLING | An anagram of A LITTLE BIT OLD BUT WHEN (anagrind is ‘aroused’) + G (gee). Thanks Billyk | |
| 9 | Characteristic of pride – 11 causing row | |
| LEONINE | If you ‘take EON (time) out’ (11ac) of LEONINE (characteristic of pride, as in a group of lions) you get LINE (row) – a slightly convoluted ‘reverse’ clue – but not as convoluted as 11ac itself! | |
| 10 | To be inconspicuous stop wearing a lot of flashy jewellery | |
| BLEND IN | END (stop) inside or ‘wearing’ BLIN |
|
| 11 | Cryptic’s there not filled in – Mike at rest | |
| TAKE TIME OUT | A play on the fact that TherE (first and last letters only or ‘not filled in’) + MIKE + AT is an anagram of TAKE TIME with ‘OUT’ being the anagrind! It took us a while to sort this one – we needed quite a few checking letters before the penny dropped! | |
| 12 | Look over valley | |
| RIA | A reversal (‘over’) of AIR (look) | |
| 13 | One day may come together like Mandela and de Klerk | |
| AFRICAN | A (one) + FRI (day) + CAN (may) | |
| 15 | This describes match – “The English crash out” | |
| EPITHET | PIT (match) with an anagram of THE E (English) around or ‘out’ – the anagrind is ‘crash’. | |
| 16 | Bases discourse on a table (11 x 2) | |
| ALKALIS | ||
| 18 | Women – mature and inexperienced – about to fight | |
| WAGE WAR | W (women) + AGE (mature) + RAW (inexperienced) reversed or ‘about’ | |
| 19 | Row over heading off to pub | |
| OAR | O (over) + |
|
| 20 | Wasn’t careless with greasy old jug | |
| STRANGEWAYS | An anagram of WASN’T and GREASY (anagrind is ‘careless’). The ‘jug’ refers to the prison – Strangeways the former name of Manchester Prison. | |
| 23 | Small amount of people set to turn out | |
| ELEMENT | MEN (people) with TELE (set, as in TV) reversed or ‘turned’ around or ‘out’ | |
| 24 | Book hotel after coming over? Nonsense! | |
| BLATHER | B (book) + H (hotel) with LATER (after) around or ‘coming over’ | |
| 25 | See 4ac | See 4ac |
| 26 | Go round Italy’s regional capital | |
| TURIN | TURN (go) round I (Italy) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Parking attendant ignoring rule – old rascal | |
| VALET | VA |
|
| 2 | Posh residential area between common and river ruined by smack | |
| STOCKBROKER BELT | STOCK (common) R (river) with BROKE (ruined) between + BELT (smack) | |
| 3 | Blemish – it isn’t common | |
| TAINT | A common way of saying ‘it isn’t’ is T’AINT | |
| 4 | Horror on screen – ladies’ collective hasn’t won | |
| THE OMEN | THE |
|
| 5 | Boy appeared to grab doctor | |
| AMBROSE | AROSE (appeared) around or ‘embracing’ MB (doctor) | |
| 6 | Struggling with being out of work, lecturer’s inside | |
| WRESTLING | W (with) + RESTING (being out of work – a phrase used primarily by actors between plays) with L (lecturer) inside | |
| 7 | Could be true – he wanted her bad | |
| UNDER THE WEATHER | An anagram of TRUE HE WANTED HER – anagrind is ‘could be’ – this one took a while to sort out as we were convinced that the anagrind was ‘bad’! | |
| 8 | Start of Royal Ascot – end up in different venue | |
| DONCASTER | An anagram of R (‘start’ of Royal) + ASCOT END – anagrind is ‘up’ | |
| 13 | Depressed – cheers up having a fling (loosely) over the internet | |
| AT A LOW EBB | TA (cheers) reversed or ‘up’ + A LOB (fling) around or ‘over’ WEB (the internet) – we’re not really sure why ‘loosely’ appears here – a lob is not necessarily a ‘loose’ shot – and the clue would read just as well, if not better, without it | |
| 14 | Boxing outdated – select fighting weapons like knives etc | |
| COLD STEEL | OLD (outdated) in or ‘boxed by’ an anagram of SELECT – anagrind is ‘fighting’ | |
| 17 | Cook tries to keep off the drink in passages of play | |
| STRETTI | An anagram of TRIES (anagrind is ‘cook’) around or ‘keeping’ TT (off the drink) | |
| 18 | Get remarkably bad government exponent of 24 | |
| WINDBAG | WIN (get) + an anagram of BAD (anagrind is ‘remarkably’) + G (government) | |
| 21 | Old part of play’s spot-on | |
| EXACT | EX (old) + ACT (part of play) | |
| 22 | Femme fatale (stunner) – isn’t showing up | |
| SIREN | Hidden and reversed (‘showing up’) in stuNER IS n’t | |
Thanks B&J.
Re 4/25, the anagram is A LITTLE OLD BUT WHEN + G
I didn’t enjoy this one as much as some other Tyrus puzzles. Although a lot of the cluing was very clever some of it was a little too elaborate for my taste, and several answers went in from definition and checkers alone. I could probably have worked them out but I didn’t on the basis that “life’s too short”. 4/25, 9ac, 11ac, 16ac, 2dn and 7dn all fell into that category. Having said that, it was a prize puzzle after all.
For me the downside of life’s brevity is that one day I won’t be here to enjoy another Tyrus.
In the meantime, thanks B&J and nice one Jim. Keep them coming.
Really enjoyed this sitting in the sun last week with the PDM of 11 being reverse solved as it were.
Thanks Tyrus that was a good one.
Took more than one visit to get this out, but a great pleasure. Excellent, inventive clueing. I stopped to admire the wordplay after solving quite a number of clues – 16, 4/25, 15 among others.
13D, I think the word “lob” does connote that a ball “lobbed up” in the air is hit gently or slowly, so “loosely”, rather than with vigour; and the long lost art of lob bowling was invariably slow and performed with a “loose” underarm action.
Thanks to Tyrus (let’s have more) and Bertandjoyce.
Really enjoyed this. Superb longish anagrams which Tyrus is brilliant at and some wonderful surfaces. I couldn’t fathom ALKALIS but I now see that it is very clever. Thanks to setter and blogger.
Thanks to all for blog and comments.
Re 13d, I think ‘fling’, strictly speaking, suggests quite a forceful throw unlike a lob which is normally more gentle. In casual speech we might use the two interchangeably eg ‘Fling/lob it over here!’