Solving kicked of quickly with 1A proving to be a write-in for me.
The rest of the puzzle wasn’t so easy, only a couple of others cold solved, most others gettable with 1 or 2 crossing letters.
So within the half hour I had it all filled in bar two. 14A had me scratching my head for a while. And 4A had me groaning from the stretched homophone.
It was all a bit of fun.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BROWSE | We lost with Boris – one should go and just look around (6) (WE + BOR[i]S)* AInd: lost. First one in (First read/ first solved!) |
| 4 | PORSCHE | Brenda’s more swanky upmarket transport? (7) “posher” supposedly as pronounced by Her Majesty (Brenda) – something like “Poorsher”. Last one in. I generally have trouble with homophones, and this one has a largely implied homophone indicator, and I’ll leave you to judge how close the homophone is. |
| 8 | FART AROUND | Waste time with a daft run or jogging (4,6) (A DAFT RUN OR )* AInd: jogging |
| 10/24 | COLD BATH | Possible cure for randy types: getting around ancient spa town (4,4) C (around, circa) OLD (ancient) BATH (spa town). More usually cold shower, no? (or a sharp rap with a ruler) |
| 11 | ANTRIM | County TV presenter on edge (6) ANT (TV presenter) RIM (edge) |
| 12 | EARRINGS | Only half of arse covered by naff singer’s ornaments (8) AR[se] inside (SINGER)* AInd: naff |
| 13 | DOLLOP | Figure at work, making a stinking pile? (6) DOLL (figure) OP (work) |
| 14 | GUNMAN | Gangster‘s $1000 to perform a castration? (6) G (1000 dollars) UN-MAN (to perform a castration). I give this my ‘clue of the puzzle award’ for fooling me for so long |
| 16 | MUTTER | Drone‘s mechanism finally complete (6) [mechanis]M UTTER (complete) |
| 18 | AFFECT | Sources of “frank exchange”, in fact, laughably fake (6) F[rank] E[xchange] inside (FACT)* AInd: laughably Arguably, laughably could double-up as part of the definition |
| 21 | ASSASSIN | Pair of tits: one with name ‘Killer‘ (8) ASS ASS (pair of tits) I (one) N[ame] |
| 23 | HORNET | Stinger has Randy getting end away – “earth trembled, initially” (6) HORN[y] (randy, end away) E[arth] T[rembled] |
| 25 | UNDER SIEGE | Beleaguered EU resigned to reform (5,5) (EU RESIGNED)* AInd: to reform |
| 26 | HEADING | Gin drunk after sex direction? (7) HEAD (sex) (GIN)* AInd: drunk |
| Down | ||
| 1 | BRAINY | Boris source, describing downfall – “brilliant!” (6) B[oris] RAINY (description of downfall) |
| 2 | ONTARIO | Provincial place finding Iran too ‘other’? (7) (IRAN TOO)* AInd: other |
| 3 | SCRAMBLER | Could it really make Trump any less intelligible on the phone? (9) Cryptic Definition (or statement of fact?) |
| 6 | SECTION | Party independent leader has no back passage (7) SECT (party) I[ndependent] NO< |
| 7 | HOLOGRAM | Zero weight gained after short vacation? A deceptive image (8) HOL[iday] (vacation, short) O (zero) GRAM (weight) |
| 9/27/5 | UNEXPLAINED WEALTH ORDER | Crazy expenditure, Andrew! Hallo – might this reveal how you got the money? (11,6,5) (EXPENDITURE ANDREW HALLO)* AInd crazy. Hurray. They are beginning to be used <link> How to do the same for other sources of funding? I know – release the Russia Report! (Still waiting) |
| 14 | GIFT HORSE | Talent associated with hack (maybe you should avoid oral examination) (4,5) GIFT (talent) HORSE (associated with hack) plus a jokey definition based on the adage “Do not look a gift horse in the mouth” |
| 15 | SUNSHADE | Tabloid hell: back to front cover-up (8) SUN (tabloid) HADES (hell) with the S moved to the front |
| 17 | TRASHED | Drunk‘s hotel room state? (7) Double Definition. Referring to the antics of crazy people like Keith Moon |
| 19 | CORDIAL | Drink, I say, before getting laid ineptly (7) COR (“I say”) (LAID)* AInd: ineptly |
| 20 | LENGTH | Grand being in fast hospital for the duration (6) G[rand] in LENT (fast) H[ospital] |
| 22 | SPURN | Was a PR person about right to deliver a contemptuous rejection? (5) R[ight] inside SPUN (was a PR person) |
Yet again this spring I have just made another attempt at stopping an invasion. Several hundred thousand ants found yet another way through to our fridge. First, they were coming through the edge of the back door – that’s all now blocked. Then they found a way under the floor and came in at the edge of the tiles at first near the door – blocked. Today they came in right by the fridge – that’s about 3 metres from the outside wall. There must be the most enormous colony under our house.
Anyway, while blocking the tiny gap they were pouring through I wondered:
Do religious ants worship the Anty-Christ?
I also agonized over this one although most of the wordplay became clear in the end, apart from 3d. A scrambler makes anyone less intelligble on the phone. Why is trump specifically mentioned in this clue?
This was tough by my reckoning, especially at the start but then I got going somehow. However, I am seriously dumbfounded when you say it was ‘not so easy’ but then follow it by saying all but two were sorted after half an hour!!!! ‘Sunshade’ was my last in and also my cleverest, I think.
@Tony…..the Trump reference surely makes the clue more apposite and the use of the ‘less’ also demands him….most people would be intelligible without the use of a scrambler. Bless him, I wonder whether a Trump/Blojo chat would need a scrambler!!!
PORSCHE is very PI.
Interesting about the fridge -shocking punch line!
Bee careful in future!
(Sorry I’m a bit maggoted)
Thanks for your explanations beermagnet, I took a while longer than usual over this and thought a few of my answers were a bit of a stretch so am relieved that they seem to be correct eg PORSCHE, MUTTER, SCRAMBLER. Like Winsor I also enjoyed SUNSHADE and thought 9/27/5 was a great clue – like you would be keen to see them applied more often! It doesn’t seem traditional to express gratitude to Cyclops on these blogs but thanks anyway.
Thanks beermagnet and in the same spirit as Gazzh @ 4 many thanks to Cyclops also. I had starred 4A as one that made me chuckle. Don’t know if it’s really Brenda style prononciation exactly but if I ever bump into her I’ll ask. Re 13A – on reflection, is ‘stinking’ an appropriate adjective for DOLLOP? I usually associate it with school dinner mashed potatoes. Mind you if I trod in a dollop type thing in a field I might think otherwise.
By coincidence, MUTTER had been set as the target of the Sunday Times cluewriting competition the weekend before this came out.
Tony@1: This just in from @realDonaldTrump:
FAKE CLUES! So unintelligentible! – very poor setter. Very poor.
I thought GUNMAN and SUNSHADE were the best clues.
@Tony Collman…you missed out ‘failing!’ I’m sure he must have said that!!!!
Just to give credit where it’s due for 15d SUNSHADE. I had slotted this in at the time thinking that ‘back to front’ was a clumsy anagram indicator. It’s only after seeing the praise here and reading your explanation that I realise what a neat clue it is.
Franko, that would have meant Cyclops was indicating an indirect anagram, which is unlikely. It’s a lot easier to find a synonym for ‘hell’ where you have to shift one letter to get the desired sequence than one where the letters could be rearranged in any order. That’s why the latter is generally considered unfair unless there is a only one, obvious candidate synonym
Tony @ 9 thanks. I wasn’t aware of the convention but your explanation makes perfect sense. In any case it was a ‘hell’ of a clue.
Franko, yes, “back to front” is a neat bit of wordplay, isn’t it. ‘Top to bottom’ can be used in a similar but opposite way … and ‘cycling’ gets used for both of what of what those two do.