Enjoyable – and topical? – fare from Morph for this week’s Prize puzzle…
At the end of a 9A TUMULT-uous week in British politics, there seemed to be subliminal references all over this. There was 11A BARONESS Thatcher looking down on a Conservative PM (1A CHAP 4A EMBOLDENED?) remaining 20A IN SITU, a fact presumably welcomed by the 4D ENTREPRENEURIAL, the 13A USURERS and the 3D PLUTOCRATS (fat cats). The Greens (8D ECOLOGIST) get a mention, as maybe does the 25A IDIOCY of the usual election fringe lunatics – Monster Raving Loonies, UKIP, etc. But 6D LABOUR (in) INTENSIVE (care) found their leader a bit of a 16D LIABILITY and will have to 10A EMBARK ON a period of navel-gazing and tribal in-fighting to try and make themselves 17A DISTINCT again. As for the Lib-Dems, they were just 19A TOAST(y)!
Or maybe I just stayed up a bit too long watching it all happen on Thursday night, and was still hallucinating when I solved this…
Anyway, some clever clueing, and just about the right (cue much discussion!) level of difficulty for a Prize crossword.
Favourite was probably 14D SKINNY-DIP. And LOI was 20A IN SITU – it had to be that from crossing letters and the definition, but it took a while to parse/justify.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | CHAP | Fellow shortened section of book (4) | Fellow / CHAP = shortened chapter, section of a book (could almost be a double defn?) |
|
| 4A | EMBOLDENED | Put in heavy type to work with military unit besieging oriental extremists’ hideout (10) | Put in heavy type / EMB_ED (to work with military unit) around (besieging) OL (extreme letters of OrientaL) + DEN (hideout) |
|
| 9A | TUMULT | Riot suppressed by repeated ultimatum? (6) | Riot / hidden word (i.e. suppressed by) repetition of ‘ultimaTUM ULTimatum’ |
|
| 10A | EMBARK ON | Start overhauling Rome bank (6,2) | Start / anag (i.e. overhauling) of ROME BANK |
|
| 11A | BARONESS | E.g. Thatcher’s veto of letter (8) | e.g. (Margaret) Thatcher / if the letter ‘S’ was banned/vetoed, there might be a BAR ON ESS |
|
| 12A | UPSHOT | Result of lob (6) | Result of / a lob is a hit, or shot, upwards, so an UP SHOT. (Again, could almost be a double defn?) |
|
| 13A | USURER | You say you are inwardly certain he’s taking too much interest? (6) | he’s taking too much interest (in the financial sense) / U_R (homophone, sounds like ‘you’ and ‘are’), with SURE (certain) inside (inwardly) |
|
| 15A | DRILL BIT | Training started to work for one with speed on the turn (5,3) | one with speed on the turn / DRILL (training) + BIT (started to work) |
|
| 17A | DISTINCT | Different ending for ‘Red is the Colour’ (8) | Different / D (last letter of reD) + IS + TINCT (colour, tint, dye) |
|
| 19A | TOASTY | Duck inside, nice and warm (6) | warm / T_ASTY (nice) around O (duck, zero) |
|
| 20A | IN SITU | Does logical thing with pin-up after cutting margins to get correctly positioned (2,4) | correctly positioned / If one has a pin-up, the logical thing to do is that one ‘pINS IT Up’ – cutting the ‘marginal’ letters off leaves IN SITU |
|
| 22A | BANDITRY | Piracy from group I hear (8) | Piracy / BAND (group) + I + TRY (hear, in the legal sense) |
|
| 24A | ADHESIVE | Bond poster that man has – and I have – made more concise (8) | Bond / AD (poster) + HE’S (that man, or he, has) + I’VE (I have) – both made more concise |
|
| 25A | IDIOCY | I regularly overlook porch during home improvements, showing stupidity (6) | stupidity / I + DI_Y (home improvements) around OC (pOrCh, regularly overlooked) |
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| 26A | APICULTURE | A university lecturer interrupting film, having hives? (10) | having (bee) hives / A + PIC_TURE (film), interrupted by U (university) + L (lecturer) |
|
| 27A | YURT | Second person’s lost no time getting tent (4) | (Mongolian) tent / Y(O)UR (your, second person’s, without O – zero, no), plus T (time) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 2D | HAUSA | I’m surprised to come across Australian language in Nigeria (5) | language in Nigeria / H_A (expression of surprise) around AUS (Australian) |
|
| 3D | PLUTOCRAT | Animated dog caught rodent and fat cat (9) | fat cat (in the financial sense) / PLUTO (cartoon, or animated, dog) + C (caught, in cricket) + RAT (rodent) |
|
| 4A | ENTREPRENEURIAL | Risk-taking hospital department’s theatre, mainly dealing with organs with European Union and Gulf money (15) | Risk-taking / ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat, hospital department) + REP (repertory theatre) + REN (most of RENI-, prefix related to kidneys, or organs) + EU (European Union) + RIAL (unit of currency in some Gulf countries) |
|
| 5D | BLESSED | In the sack, not so fortunate (7) | fortunate / B_ED (the sack) around LESS (not so) |
|
| 6D | LABOUR-INTENSIVE | Restructuring in store unviable, being this? (6-9) | &lit-ish? / ‘this’ / anag (i.e. restructuring) of IN STORE UNVIABLE |
|
| 7A | EARNS | Makes listeners take note (5) | makes (in the financial sense) / EAR_S (listeners) around (taking) N (note) |
|
| 8A | ECOLOGIST | Green company record is captured by film (9) | Green / E_T (film, ET the Extra Terrestrial) around (capturing) CO (company) + LOG (record) + IS |
|
| 14D | SKINNY-DIP | No dressing required with this low-fat hummus? (6-3) | &lit-ish double defn?! / no clothes are required to skinny-dip (in water); a ‘skinny’ (low calorie) dip could be hummus |
|
| 16D | LIABILITY | After raising surety, I settled with unknown troublemaker (9) | troublemaker / LIAB (bail, or surety, raised) + I + LIT (settled) + Y (unknown, in the mathematical sense) |
|
| 18D | TABLEAU | Picture banned after school governors intervene (7) | Picture / TAB_U (banned) with LEA (Local Education Authority, or school governors, in UK) intervening | |
| 21D | ILEAC | Iodine percolating halfway in gut (5) | in (the) gut / I (iodine, chemical symbol) + LEAC(hing) (half of leaching, or percolating) |
|
| 23D | RECUR | Canine? Come again! (5) | come again / If the setter asks a question about a dog (‘canine?’), it might be RE (about) CUR (canine) |
|
Another fine blending of fun and topicality from Morph. Thanks to him and mc_rapper.
mc_rapper67 – I like your interpretation of the theme. I got through most of this relatively quickly but I was stuck for a while at the end until I finally saw the DRILL BIT/LIABILITY crossers. A good puzzle.
A good puzzle – thanks Morph.
And a super blog – thanks mc_rapper!