Spectator 2045

[Ironie]

With best New Year's wishes to all Speccie fans: http://www.spectator....7546048/crossword.pdf

[roslyn251254]

Helveticus - riel is the monatary unit of cambodia (sugar?)

[roslyn251254]

3d teston - Totnes?

[Ironie]

The only explanation for the title that I can see is, I admit, rather lame, i.e. the eight unclued lights are all (UK) towns, albeit 'shanty towns' in the sense that they are 'ramshackle' and have to be 'rebuilt'. Anything else the eight have in common I fail to see. This explanation is also compatible with the diagonal town being simply the biggest town (in the UK). Or do they really have something else in common?

[Helveticus]

@roslyn251254: Many thanks for the explanation of 2d and for 3d (before I solved 16a I desperately wanted 3d to be tester => Street)!

I had never heard of the town anagrammed in 19d, for which I would like to apologise to each of its ca. 4900 inhabitants.

By the way, is there anyone else out there who misses the circular puzzles which used to appear occasionally in the Speccie?

[slaney]

That's the only explanation I could come up with Ironie...

[haggis58]

Have now finished the grid and highlighted 'the largest example'. But what a slog of a crossword with so many ambiguities. Dumpynose get your act together! Still fail to see what Brazilian shanty towns has got to do with places in England - lived in England-shire for many years, has it changed since I moved back to Scotland?

[Farrnorth]

Thanks roslyn, ironie and helveticus. You've almost shoved be through this one! I can't get 15d though which looks like it must be either warned or warner neither of which work for towns. Can you help?

[haggis58]

Farrnorth

Darwen (lancashire)

[Farrnorth]

Thanks haggis

[oldenburg]

Can anyone help with a hint for 36A please? I have all the letters & have identified just five words that will fit but can't make an appropriate anagram out of any of them!

[roslyn251254]

oldenburg - 36a synonym for "to wash" (clothes)
The Universal Anagram solver found all the towns for me

[oldenburg]

Bless you roslyn251254

[Crackabilly]

Started this one late.
Stuck on last clued light.
8d Stout cane mistaken for parasol (9, three words).
I have ??TO???A?.
Initially, I thought it was an anagram of Stout cane but can't see it.
Is it an English phrase?

[whatsthat]

crackabilly, c'est français, but in Chambers.

[Lubumbashi]

Helveticus, Even with your population hint I can't get 19d - I am stuck in the bottom right-hand corner 30, 32, 33, 37. But I don't miss the round Speccy puzzles - I always find them a bit unrewarding.

[Helveticus]

@Lubumbashi:
30 "Climax" is the definition.
32 One sense of "dip" as a verb is the definition. "Struggle" is a verb here, "cycling" means move the first letter to the end.
33 Girl's name, also a musical instrument
37 "Crock" ist the definition