Cyclops 683 – Appraisal Stinko

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Obviously this puzzle would have been set and commissioned well before the recent exams fiascos, but there are some prescient coincidences…

There was a STINKO over the APPRAISAL system, as DEBATEABLE results were RESTYLED to be FAIRER after the threat of a WRIT (LARGE) … GA(V)IN Williamson tried to SIT TIGHT, but in the end showed lack of VERTEBRA, in the face of a Tory-shire SCHISM. Will HEADS ROLL, will he be a CASUALTY and get his just DESSERTS? All in all, a HORRID week or two…

I enjoyed the Trump/tan/transplant juxtaposition at 13D – will his rug eventually get to write a kiss-and-tell memoir?

3D was a strange/disturbing surface read; 14A’s reference to a ‘knackered’ Boris chimes well – he does look a bit knackered these days…maybe he will have been refreshed by a week’s glamping while Rome burned…

 

Lots of fun, but with a fun-dampening warning of the SECOND Covid WAVE at 11A…fingers crossed!…

Thanks to Cyclops, and hope all is present and correct below…

 

Across
Clue No Solution Clue Definition (with occasional embellishments) /
Logic/parsing
6A RESTYLED After recess, Tory right-wingers were at the helm (given a makeover) (8) given a makeover /
REST (recess) + Y (right-most letter of Tory, so ‘right-winger’ – singular rather than plural?) + LED (were at the helm)
8A HORRID Terrible Thor rides! Prepare to back off! (6) terrible /
(T)HOR RID(ES) with TES (set, or prepare, reversed, or ‘to back’) off!
9A GAIN Once more tossing away a good poll victory (4) good poll victory /
(A)GAIN – once more, losing (tossing away) A
10A APPRAISAL Almost achieve an erection during shock examination (9) examination /
APP_AL (shock) around RAIS(E) (achieve an erection, almost)
11A SECOND & 23dn. Worry associated with covid-19 – another indication that you’re on your way out? (6,4) worry associated with Covid-19 /
if you were on your way out of somewhere, someone might wave ‘goodbye’ at you. If they do it a second time it would be the SECOND WAVE!
12A CASUALTY TV series causes part-time politician to lose heart (8) TV series /
CASUAL (part time) + T(OR)Y (politician, losing heart…do they have hearts?!)
14A BISTRO Time to stick knackered Boris’s establishment (6) (food) establishment /
BIS_RO (anag, i.e. knackered, of BORIS) around (stuck into by) T (time)
16A ODESSA Administered doses before a port (6) (Ukranian) port /
ODESS (anag, i.e. administered, of DOSES) + A
19A VERTEBRA Contribution to a column: “Evert played with support” (8) contribution to a (spinal) column /
VERTE (anag, i.e. played, of EVERT) + BRA (support)
21A SCHISM Coy at first, the bloke’s into S & M, causing rupture (6) rupture /
S_M (S&M) around C (first letter of Coy) + HIS (the bloke’s)
23A WRIT LARGE Legal injunction, substantial, presented THUS? (4,5) presented THUS (in large letters!) /
WRIT (legal injunction) + LARGE (substantial)
24A ROLL See 8dn. (4) see 8D /
see 8D
25A TV SHOW Maybe Panorama sets WHO off (2,4) maybe Panorama /
TV S (sets) + HOW (anag, i.e. off, of WHO)
26A RATTLING Speaking of Labour leader being into hunting out pests (8) speaking /
RATT_ING (hunting out pests) around L (leading letter of Labour)
Down
Clue No Solution Clue Definition (with occasional embellishments) /
Logic/parsing
1D DEBATEABLE Contentious posh girl gobbled pathetic Bale (10) contentious /
DEB (debutante, posh girl) + ATE (gobbled) + ABLE (anag, i.e. pathetic, of BALE)
2D STINKO All right, idiots turning up pissed? (6) pissed /
OK (all right) + NITS (idiots) all ‘turning up’ = STINKO!
3D OLEANDER Plant inside arsehole — and erection! (8) plant /
hidden word, i.e. inside, in ‘arsehOLE AND ERection’
4D TRESPASS Old man’s appearing in Hair – it’s a sin! (8) it’s a sin! /
TRES_S (hair) around PAS (Pa’s, old man’s)
5D WILL See 8dn. (4) see 8D /
see 8D
7D DEPICT Balls-up by holy court, producing show (6) show /
DE (Ed up, Ed Balls) + PI (holy, sanctimonious) + CT (court)
8D HEADS & 5 & 24 Principals are going to be revolutionary? Expect sackings! (5,4,4) expect sackings /
HEADS (principals) + WILL ROLL (are going to be revolutionary)
13D TRANSPLANT Crushed Trump’s losing, um, tan – network brought in, which could go to his head? (10) (something) which could go (or probably already has?) to his (Trump’s) head /
TRANSP_T (anag, i.e. crushed, of TR(UM)PS TAN, losing UM) around (bringing in) LAN (Local Area Network, computing)
15D SIT TIGHT Be an MP and mean to stay put! (3,5) stay put /
SIT (be an MP) + TIGHT (mean, stingy)
17D DESSERTS Being stressed out, crumbles? (8) (e.g. rhubarb) crumbles /
anag, i.e. being out, (or just reversed?!) of STRESSED
18D FAIRER Lighter, just going round about (6) lighter (of weather or hair?) /
FAI_R (just) around RE (about, with reference to)
20D BELOW Cry “LibDem’s leader’s gone down!” (5) down /
BEL(L)OW (cry, with one L – leading letter of Liberal – gone)
22D HAROLD Who had an eyeful of almost erect veteran? (6) (someone) who had an eyeful (of an arrow!) /
HAR(D) (almost erect) + OLD (veteran)
23D WAVE See 11ac. (4) see 11A /
see 11A

  1. Thanks mc_rapper67, I thought this one needed a little more thought/experience than usual to fully follow the wordplay in places, eg 8A with its reverse subtraction, the PI in 7D. 3D was my LOI as I was completely befuddled by the wordplay (trying to come up with names of plants, even tried Robert for a while, to go inside synonyms for erections of various kinds!), and only at the last gasp with all crossers there spotting that OLEANDER was a vaguely recollected word that maybe was a type of plant. 14A was my favourite but 13D and 19A ran it close: overall one of the better recent Cyclops I think – my eyebrow twitched at down = below but only mildly.

  2. Thanks mc-rapper67 and Cyclops I found this a challenge but very enjoyable. I re-read Gazzh’s favourites and agree they are all neat. I had ‘starred’ 23a, 4d, 15d and 18d. I went a bit astray with 7d for a while by going for DIRECT (ironically a clever misdirection by Cyclops? Dire-CT). When I was typing my solutions e-mail Mr Spell-Check didn’t like debateable. So I found my Oxford Dictionary has DEBATABLE as the correct spelling. There is a reference with the added E in Chambers crossword dictionary but only under CONTENTIOUS. Debatable debateable!

  3. Franko you have reminded me that I mentally queried that spelling (although the required answer was clear from wordplay and letter count), assuming that I was either wrong or that there was more than one acceptable form. Thanks for bothering to check! (I don’t have a paper dictionary and didn’t do this one anywhere near the internet so didn’t have the option even if I had had the inclination.)

  4. Of the two paper dictionaries I habitually use, Collins gives a straight alternative (“debatable or debateable”), while Chambers distinguishes the norm from the variant thus: “debatable, also debateable”.

  5. I thought DEBATEABLE seemed wrong, so I checked in Collins online. Before I’d finished entering it in the search box, it came up as a suggestion of what I wanted, so I just accepted that was the ‘right’ spelling. If I’d finished what I’d started I would have found that the head on the entry that would have taken me to was in fact DEBATABLE, with the note “also debateable”.  Writing this comment, however, I see there is a squiggly red line under both instances of the contentious spelling.

    I don’t much like the wordplay in 8A. “SET to back” doesn’t really mean “SET written backwards”, does it?

  6. Hmm… should have checked the dictionary before writing. Chamber has, under ‘back’ v.i. to move or go backwards. Apologies to Cyclops …

  8. Thanks for the various comments/feedback – I should have mentioned that I would be away all week, with minimal access to t’internet…

    Carey at #7 – ‘PI’ is given by Chambers as ‘obtrusively religious or sanctimonious’, so ‘holier-than-thou’…if that helps?

    Everyone! at #everywhere – I did raise an eyebrow at ‘debat(e)able’, but my Chambers apps (Android and PC) both give them as equivalent, with no ‘US’ or ‘archaic’ or ‘dialect’ caveats; so I un-shrugged my eyebrow and carried on, forgetting to mention it in the blog. (Interesting that John E’s Chambers distinguishes them with an ‘also’.)

    (Around the same time I had been having a discussion with someone at work as to whether a financial instrument was ‘tradeable’ (how I would have put it) or ‘tradable’ (how they had put it), and Chambers give both equal billing as well…grrrr…)

    Tony Collman at #5 – my parsing at 8A could have used the ‘to’ with prepare, as in prepare to do something, set oneself to do something…then the ‘back’ is just a directional indication?

     

     

  10. mc @8, If “prepare to” is to stand for ‘set to’ and back is just a directional indication, then surely “prepare to back off” would be an instruction to remove OTTES?

  11. Tony Collman at #10 – fair enough – I’m going to stick with ‘to back’ as ‘backwards’, rather than as a verb …prepare (set) to back (tes) off… It is a ‘HORRID’ clue, after all!

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