Cyclops 488: Beware supporter wilt! (see 3/22)
Posted by jetdoc on February 18th, 2013
I think there was some fairly tricky wordplay in this Cyclops — it took me a bit longer than usual. Was that just me, or do others agree?
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SCISSORS | State is holding radio prankster over cutting things SC = South Carolina; IS; containing [Jonathan] ROSS, reversed (‘over’, which I’d prefer as a reversal indicator in a Down clue) |
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| 6 | BRASSY | Underwear’s sexy without once being shameless BRA = Underwear; S[ex]Y (without EX = once) |
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| 9 | CREOLE | Cameron’s main function to keep in check Clegg’s core, vernacular language C = Cameron’s main (‘main’ to indicate first letter? Hmm…); ROLE = function; containing E = Clegg’s core. Creole |
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| 10 | ARBITER | Archer extremely resentful: “time lost, judge” AR = Archer extremely (peripheral letters); BIT[t]ER = resentful, minus T |
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| 11 | LOOKALIKES | Our feature of features doubled Reference to the Private Eye feature Lookalikes pointing out apparent similarities between two unrelated people (or cartoon characters) |
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| 12/23 | PIPE ORGAN | Seed expelled initially by penis, which gets the hymn-singers going? PIP = Seed; E = expelled initially; ORGAN = penis Musical instrument commonly used in churches or cathedrals, that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called wind) through pipes selected via a keyboard |
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| 13 | BACKUPS | They stand by bets, swallowing hard BACKS = bets (not quite valid, because ‘backs’ is transitive, whereas ‘bets’ needs ‘on’ or ‘against’); swallowing UP = hard (erect) |
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| 17 | DECAMPS | Dave’s top “expert“, arse-over-tip politician with singular flies D = Dave’s top; ACE = “expert“, reversed (arse-over-tip); MP = politician; S = singular. Definition: flies |
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| 19 | RECYCLE | Brenda overturned by revolution — don’t waste it! ER = the Queen (Brenda, in Private Eye), reversed (‘overturned’, another reversal indicator which really belongs in a Down clue); CYCLE = revolution |
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| 24 | FRENCH KISS | Nick’s fresh balls-up which has tongues wagging *(Nick’s fresh) |
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| 26 | GARMENT | General habit of bloke: squeezing member GENT = bloke; ARM = member. Definition: general habit, i.e. a general-purpose term for an item of clothing |
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| 27 | ACTIVE | “Performing” Bill approved? Cyclops has ACT = what a bill may become once approved by Parliament; IVE = Cyclops has |
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| 28/15 | ONE DAY AT A TIME | How to get through a dry period by avoiding seeing two or more ex-political broadcasters together? Double definition: reference to the philosophy of Alcoholics Anonymous; Sir Robin Day, former political broadcaster |
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| 29 | PRETENCE | Posturing after tax returns concealed by crooked creep NET = after tax, reversed; in *(creep), with ‘crooked’ as the anagram indicator |
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| Down | |||
| 2 | CORPORATE | Round figure accepted by stupid prat in key part of a big company O = round figure; *(prat); in CORE = key part |
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| 3/22a | SHOCK JOCK | Balls’ protector, mass of hair on top, who’s out to wind up listeners JOCK strap, ‘an undergarment originally designed for supporting the male genitalia (with which the Shadow Chancellor shares a name) during sports or other vigorous physical activity’ (and don’t forget, chaps, supporter wilt is dangerous!); with SHOCK = mass of hair, on top |
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| 4 | OVERLAP | Extension where beer belly hangs out Double definition |
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| 5 | SWANKY | Posh, extremely shitty, concealing self-abuse? SY = extremely shitty (peripheral letters); WANK = self-abuse |
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| 6 | BABYSIT | Nappy contents not hot? Mind the mites BABY S[h]IT = nappy contents, minus H (hot) |
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| 7 | ANTIPATHY | Elastic panty hose inverted tops at “Animus” *(panty H I at), H I being the tops of ‘hose inverted’, and ‘elastic’ the anagram indicator. Definition: animus |
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| 8 | SCRAP | A bit of southern codswallop S = southern; CRAP = codswallop |
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| 14 | KNACKERED | Worn out having a ball or two? Double definition: very tired; endowed with male genitalia |
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| 16 | MILOSEVIC | Live comics about to go off atrocious leader *(live comis), i.e. minus C = about. Slobodan Milosevic, President of Serbia (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia) from 1989 to 1997 and President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000. |
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| 18 | PUFFERY | Smoker with yen for dodgy advertising PUFFER = Smoker; Y = yen |
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| 20 | ENCLAVE | Conservative Neal’s outburst (very English): “Country surrounded by bloody foreigners“! *(C Neal VE). A piece of territory entirely enclosed within foreign territory |
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| 21 | RED TOP | Sun’s far right wing boss with elevated beer belly? I’m not quite sure about the wordplay for RED; POT = beer belly, reversed (elevated). Term for a tabloid newspaper. See Neil’s comment — I’m OK about R being the right wing of ‘far’, but I still don’t really get ‘boss’. Oh, OK, the ‘boss’ of a newspaper… though I’d have said Rupert Murdoch and whiever memebrs of his family he can still trust, in this case. |
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| 25 | KATIE | Price of the ultimate in shit in IKEA — horrendous? T = the ultimate in shit; in *(IKEA), with ‘horrendous’ as the anagram indicator. Katie PRICE, formerly known as Jordan |
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A Top Tip for you: CONVINCE people you have Tourette’s, by naming your dog Fuckwank.
If, like me, you are really bored of horsemeat jokes, it’s been a rather bare couple of weeks for witticisms. But it’s always worth checking out the wonderful Twitmericks for topical gems like this:
A slug of the nudibranch genus
Is able to cast off its penis
Then grow one at will
A wonderful skill
That makes up for said organ’s weeness.
February 18th, 2013 at 12:47 am
Thanks, jetdoc. I completely agree with you about the difficulty level – I don’t time myself on puzzles, preferring to take my time and enjoy them but, using Across Lite, there’s the built-in timer so no choice. I’m surprised to see that my times for Cyclops’ puzzles are usually very consistent but this one took 30% longer.
My take on RED TOP: R (right hand letter of far) ED (boss which, in the clue’s context, seems fair enough.) TOP as you say.
February 18th, 2013 at 11:02 am
ED as in the boss of the newspaper, the editor, jetdoc.
February 18th, 2013 at 11:44 am
You think the editor is the boss of a Murdoch newspaper in these post-Rebekah times, Neil?
Oh, and DUH!
February 18th, 2013 at 1:34 pm
Glad it wasn’t just me. First time I’ve failed to finish for quite a while.
February 18th, 2013 at 3:06 pm
Minor pedantry – in your addendum to 21 “who’s” should be “whose”.
(Well, this is a “literary” site!)
February 18th, 2013 at 3:39 pm
Oops, mea culpa! Well, it was early in the morning…
February 18th, 2013 at 7:40 pm
I found this a toughie also. Regarding 13 across -is the UP bit a naughty reference to hard? Apologies, if I’m missing a completely innocuous explanation.
February 19th, 2013 at 7:49 am
Yes, Franko. Sorry I forgot to explain — it’s such standard Cyclops-speak that it almost goes without saying once you’re used to his style. I leave it to you as to whether it’s innocuous or not.
February 19th, 2013 at 6:05 pm
I suspect that the “stupid prat” at 2d was supposed to be a “stupid person” to cue PRAT. Otherwise, the “stupid” is … well, stupid. Or at least, unnecessary.
February 19th, 2013 at 6:10 pm
True, it’s not an anagram.
February 19th, 2013 at 8:33 pm
Thanks jetdoc – I take your point on consistency with his style. Incidentally, I did have a bit of a chuckle on 6 down ‘babysit’ which illustrates my level of humour I suppose.
February 22nd, 2013 at 3:16 pm
Glad to see you saying “supporter” rather than “protector”, which reminded me only of a box.