The news in clues
As Rio braces itself for life after the games, where were the Olympic puzzles?
Nutmeg teased us with a puzzle in the Telegraph’s tricky Enigmatic Variations series titled Record Holders, but the record holders she had in mind were diarists both fictional (Adrian Mole; Charles Pooter) and factual (Anne Frank; Tony Benn). Ingenious setting, but no citius, altius or fortius.
And the only other references that I’ve noticed – let me know if I’ve missed some podium-worthy themed puzzles and we’ll list and link in the comments – are also in the Telegraph. One of the unnamed Saturday setters used an athlete whose name is a regular word …
26ac Bolt maybe second office machine needed (8)
[ abbrev. for ‘second’ + piece of office machinery ]
[ S + PRINTER ]
... to clue SPRINTER, while Osmosis harked further back in a Toughie ...
24ac Ex-Olympic hurdler working classes at track maintains keen edge (5,6)
[ demographic grades for ‘working classes’ + abbrev. for railway ‘track’, both surrounding synonym for ‘keen’ + synonym for ‘edge’ ]
[ D,E + RY, both surrounding AVID + HEM ]
... all the way back, in fact, to Mexico 1968’s DAVID HEMERY. But that seemed to be about it. Did setters presume that other setters would have bagsied the theme? Did exhaustion follow our having hosted the previous Olympiad? Was there a boycott of the charming people at the IoC?
Latter patter
In the last roundup, I suggested the setters were likewise taking a break from topical crosswords based on this year’s tumult. As if to gently upbraid me, we have had at least two more corking political puzzles. If you haven’t yet tackled Julius’s witty FT puzzle, you should do so now.
And in the Independent, Hob featured the main players in our current geopolitical drama, along with a nonce word ...
11ac E.g. Boris the Boy King, one at time of pregnancy getting end away (10)
[ short version of a male name (as might be assigned to a boy) + Latin for ‘king’ + Roman numeral for ‘one’ + term for a period of pregnancy missing its final letter (‘getting end away’) ]
[ REG + REX + I + TERM missing final letter ]
[ REG + REX + I + TER ]
... one which I wager is unlikely to stick around for long because it’s just a little too sly: REGREXITER. In the US, too, a rumbustious year has gifted the language with new words: some hopefully ephemeral (the vile ANCHOR BABY); some fun (Trump’s BIGLY) ...
... and a new and seemingly versatile buzzword. Rivalling GATE as a way of indicating a scandal, BRIDGEGHAZI, EMAILGHAZI and, outside of politics, BALLGHAZI suggest a bright future for the subject of our next challenge. Reader, how would you clue GHAZI?
Clueing competition
Thanks for your clues for LORRA. I enjoyed the salacious (HipsterPriest’s “Bachelor ratbag had many on blind date”; Alberyalbery’s “Loads of oral with right mess”), the scurrilous (Poorsub’s “Loads in Liverpool off the back of a lorry – dubiously”) and the evocative (Brigster’s “Ample scouse bishop blocking leave of absence”).
The runners-up are Magumboots’ terse “Masses held in Heswall or Raby” and Bingybing’s match report “Good grief, Gunners get a hatful at Anfield”; the winner is Schroduck cryptic recipe “Scouse: plenty of lamb and onions first, then peeled carrot and potato going to pot”.
Kludos to ’duck; please leave this fortnight’s entries and your pick of the broadsheet cryptics below
Clue of the week
For those who might get their twenty-a-day and their five-a-day mixed up, some advice from Monk in the Independent:
5d Beer and cigs, bad examples of healthy food (8)
[ anagram (‘bad’) of BEER and CIGS ]
[ anagram of BEERCIGS ]
Yes, find your way to the lettuce racks and buy yourself some ICEBERGS. Crunch crunch.
Crossword blog will return on 12 September. In the meantime, happy solving!
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