A fun workout as ever, again in my personal goldilocks zone.
I completed this in one enjoyable (but not brief) session. As with the best puzzles, it took a while to get a foothold, after which many solutions arrived more quickly, and with more crossers the remainder eventually yielded. As a data-based professional I wonder if there’s something of a bell curve pattern there.
Some of the parsings eluded me for a while and required a second look (at least), and as ever, with the benefit of hindsight I can’t see what all the fuss was about.
Thanks as ever to Cyclops for the puzzle.
On the Saturday when this blog is published I shall be indulging in another of my masochistic hobbies, running up and down hills at an event in Dorset, so I will not be able to promptly respond in the likely event of any errors, omissions or other such balls-ups.
Across
| 7 | RANSOM | Price to be paid having managed to get a bit (getting end away) (6)
A charade of RAN (managed) + SOM[e] (‘a bit’ with the end missing/away). |
| 8 | ATLANTIC | A trivial, empty prank that divides Trump and Burnham (8) A (from surface) + T[rivia]L (empty) + ANTIC (prank). An ocean seems like a good metaphor for the stated divide. |
| 10/15 | POLITICAL DONATIONS | Conservative in skewed national poll – idiot’s left out millions in Reform’s case (9,9)
An anagram (skewed) of C[onservative] in NATIONAL POL[L] IDIOTS (one L for left removed/out). |
| 12 | TUTOR | Guardian – dearie me – has outright rubbish leaders (5) TUT (dearie me) + O[utright] + R[ubbish]. |
| 13 | CIRCA | About to have leader of Costa Rica removed (5) C (leader/first letter of Costa) + IRCA, an anagram (removed) of Rica. |
| 15 | See 10ac. | |
| 17 | MALPRACTICE | Publicity operation mired in hostility amounts to misconduct (11) An envelope (mired in) of PR ACT (publicity operation) inside MALICE (hostility). |
| 21 | ENDOWMENT | Grant‘s large penis? (9) A cryptic definition referring to the euphemistic description of some as ‘well endowed’. |
| 23 | KEY IN | Enter: “Kinky elasticated tops, one Scottish” (3,2) K[inky] + E[lasticated] (their tops) + YIN, a dialectical Scottish word for ‘one’.Definition as on a keyboard or number pad. |
| 24 | TALKS | Discussions utter shit – knock off (5) TALK (utter) + S – (Shit minus ‘hit’ i.e. knock, off). |
| 26 | PARALEGAL | Start to admit having large bollocks squeezed by mate is a help to lawyers (9) An envelope of ARALEG, an anagram (bollocks) of A[dmit] + LARGE, inside P_AL (mate).Originally I was trying to parse this as L + GEAR (apparently an obsolete British dialect word for nonsense) – bollocks! |
| 28 | CHEQUERS | Burnham’s house inspectors caught (8) Sounds like (caught) checkers, i.e. inspectors. |
| 29 | SUNTAN | Tabloid’s onto Brown’s memento of a Caribbean visit? (6) SUN (tabloid) + TAN (brown). |
Down
| 1 | TROPICS | Cyclops caught in embrace of bad sport in steamy location? (7) An envelope (in embrace of) of I (Cyclops) + C[aught] (cricket scoring) inside TROPS, an anagram (bad) of SPORT.This took me a while to see, even with the geographic hint from the previous clue. |
| 2 | ANAL | Melania (“not me, not I!”) turns up, arse-like (4) A reversal (turns up) of LANA, which is MELANIA minus (not) ME minus (not) I). |
| 3 | CONTRAFLOW | Stupid or daft clown dropping Democrat’s traffic management scheme (10) An anagram (stupid) of OR [D]AFT CLOWN, dropping D[emocrat]. |
| 4 | STOLEN | Hot woman’s wear (Northern) (6) STOLE (woman’s wear – a type of shawl) + N[orthern]. Definition as in hot/stolen goods. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen or hear stole in this sense outside of crossword. |
| 5 | PACT | Alliance prepared for a holiday broadcast? (4) Sounds like (broadcast) ‘prepared for a holiday’. |
| 6 | STATIONERY | Burst into tears about bloody missing family’s forms (10) An anagramy (burst) of INTO TEARS + [blood]Y (missing blood i.e. family). My LOI. It had to be that, but it took (bloody) ages to see the parsing! |
| 9 | CARESS | Prudence, the Nazi organisation’s soft touch (6) CARE (prudence) + SS (Schutzstaffel, Nazi organisation). |
| 11 | CIDER | Cops on about booze (5) CID (cops) + ER, which is RE (on) reversed (about). |
| 14 | REMODELLED | Being sadly older led me to get cast in a new way (10) An anagram (sadly) of OLDER LED ME. |
| 16 | THINK ALOUD | Say what’s on your mind! (5,5) Cryptic definition. |
| 18 | CATER | Provide the decentralised cutting of Conservative and Reform leads (5) An envelope of TE (the ‘decentralised’) inside (cutting) C[onservative] A[nd] R[eform]. Another that took me while to be sure about/properly parse, having not noticed the A from and could be used/understood the decentralisation device. |
| 19 | HECTIC | That bloke Trump, militarily speaking, tense inside, is chaotic (6) HE (that bloke) + T[ense] + C[ommander] I[n] C[hief] (Trump, militarily speaking). Since we apparently have to see him in Eye puzzles, it’s nice to have an apt, if sobering surface. |
| 20 | ENGLAND | Nigel turns one off with “Nation!” (7) ENGL, an anagram (turns) of NGEL (Nigel, one i.e. I, off) + AND (with). |
| 22 | EXPERT | Ending of the Times by bold old hand (6) [th]E (ending of the) + X (times) + PERT (bold). |
| 25 | SMUT | Filth produced by corporations on the rise (4) A reversal (on the rise, in a down clue) of TUMS (corporations). |
| 27 | GOTH | Old warlike type became hard (4) GOT (became) + H[ard]. |
Thanks Simonbyc and Cyclops. I found this tough and also had difficulties with parsing a few clues. It looks like the same ones as yourself. I marked 21a and 2d as favourites which were a Cyclopsian combination of cheekiness and cleverness.
For 5d, you missed typing PACKED. Good luck on the running.
Thanks for the blog and good luck with the running . I agree that this was tougher than normal but many good clues . Not sure that “about” is needed for STATIONERY but does not spoil the clue .
Am I alone in finding “ Guardian” and “ tutor” a bit of a stretch ?