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An entertaining puzzle in more than one sense – I enjoyed it – and there are clues using “entertained by” as “container and contents” indicator more than once, but I only point this out because I noticed it, they are both very good clues. (I’m sure no-one notices these things unless e.g. doing a blog.)
Not as easy as last time, but nothing dreadfully hard.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1/4 | ROBERT MUGABE CD Unfortunately the “secondary” meaning is probably more true than the surface reading |
| 8 | STRIPTEASE STRIP (band) TEA (drink) S (speed) E (ecstasy) |
| 9 | NERO [labou]R inside NEO (new) |
| 10 | PLANCK PLAN (method) C[oc]K (emptied penis) (Note to self: Include wry comment about his tiny constant h or his “difficult” relation E=hv) No doubt he, like many old-timey quantum physicists would have liked to have been around for big bang day 10-Sep-2008. |
| 11 | STERLING ER (Brenda) L (line) inside (entertained by) STING (rock star) Favourite clue award goes to this: Entertained by rock star, Brenda’s given “line” – “Top-notch!” (8) |
| 12 | TRUE BLUE TRUE (right) BLUE (depressed) |
| 15 | CAMPLY C[amilla] AMPLY (in a big way) |
| 17 | TRIANGLE (ALTERING)* Anagrind: nuts |
| 19 | EMBEZZLE B[rown] and ZZ (sounds of sleep) inside (MELEE)* Anagrind: broadcast. It is a shame that the clue surface wasn’t very smooth, I don’t like these anagram indicators in brackets – they seem too much like they have been tacked on as an afterthought. |
| 21 | EXPECT I think this is probably a CD referring to pregnancy, i.e. “expecting”. What does the team think? Full clue: Labour not necessarily a welcome prospect for those who do (6) |
| 23/14 | ANTI-SEMITE AN (article) (IT)< (it’s backed) (TIMES)< (regressive newspaper) E[ditor] |
| 24 | BOTTOM LINE BOTTOM (arse) LINE (row) |
| 25 | CRIMEA Homophone “Cry Mia” The homophone indicator is “vociferously” rather than “sing” which is part of the the secondary clue. Full clue: Sing out “Mia” vociferously – it’s a war scene (6) |
| 26 | EFFETE E and F (two large bra sizes) FETE (fundraiser) |
| Down | |
| 1 | RATTLER (ARSE LET)* Anagrind: out No! It is RAT (arse) (LET)* [trouse]R Thanks Rich |
| 2 | BRIAN I (one) inside (captivated) BRAN (bit of rough at breakfast) |
| 3 | RUTH KELLY (HURLEY KIT use L instead of I)* Anagrind: off. I liked this clue providing, as it does, an image of an archetypal Daily Hurleygraph front page: Hurley with kit off, left for one minister (4,5) |
| 4 | MY EYE MY (Cyclops’s) EYE (organ) |
| 5 | GENTLEMEN GENTLE (soft) MEN (soldiers) |
| 6 | BARONET (NEAT BORIS minus IS)* Anagrind: rocking |
| 7 | HASSLE ASS (twit) L[ondon] inside (entertained by) HE (diplomat: His Excellency) |
| 13 | EUPHEMISM (E HUMP ME IS)* Anagrind: rewritten |
| 14 | SKIVES OFF V[ictoria] inside SKIES then OFF – maybe – I’m not sure about this besides the definition. Full clue: Evades responsibility, heaves up over Victoria’s top – infra dig (6,3) |
| 16 | ALMONER [s]ALMON (party leader extremely lacking, Ref Alex S of the SNP) ER (Brenda) |
| 17 | TREATY EAT (stuff) inside TRY (tax) |
| 18 | LICENCE ENC[losure] inside LICE (lousy types) |
| 20 | ZEBRA [o]Z (half of Australia) E[lectronic] BRA (underwear) |
| 22 | PULSE (PLUS)* E[rection] Anagrind: smashing |
Hi Beermagnet,
I made the same mistake with 1A initially there is no second ‘T’ in ARSE LET
could it be RAT (arse) TEL (let*) (trouse)R?
I prefered the letters RA…ER for arse but that left TTL which I couldn’t make work
any ideas?
Rich, you’re right with your “RAT” analysis. Cheers.
1d I also had it as RAT *(LET) [trouse]R
Think you’re spot on with 21ac, the “labour” being of the pregnancy type.
Also agree on 14dn, although I felt that “off” for “infra dig” wasn’t all that good.
Enjoyable stuff, but I thought it was pretty weak that 1ac was the same joke as was used on the previous edition’s front cover. I wonder who thought of it first, Cyclops or an Eye sub?
Does anyone else get cruciverbal performance anxiety? I got absolutely nowhere with this one. I started on it in over a coffee in Clapham Junction on the first day of issue (fnar fnar) and got distracted by delayed train anouncements… concentration went to pot and couldn’t get a single clue. But then, everytime I looked at it afterwards I was stuck with the same block. Maybe it’s just me…
My first self-completed Eye! Well I am a beginner.
Got stuck on 15a and 24a didn’t make too much sense in my mind. Also I was ure that LEVY was the fundraiser in 26a which slowed me down immensely.
Oh and ‘infra dig’? Far too nasty a phrase.
*Completed todays crossword in 2hrs! Get me!