I found this Eye much harder than usual. It took till 20A Niggle to find a clue I could cold solve, and only had a handful in place after the first pass. The clue surfaces this time were outstanding and misled me in several places.
I couldn’t resist using “Bad Eye” for the title when I saw it written in the LHS and RHS unches.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 8 | PRAGUE | City gets publicity: “Tory minister goes topless!” (6) PR (publicity) [h]AGUE I needed a crossing letter to prompt the City in question before unravelling the wordplay. |
| 9 | ANECDOTE | Be excessively fond of (after one ‘E’ and cocaine) a story (8) DOTE (excessively fond) after AN E C (one ‘E’ and cocaine) |
| 10/15 | STRICTLY COME DANCING | Coupling on TV: after dominatrix-fashion orgasm, political party enters sound as a bell (8,4,7) STRICTLY (dominatrix-fashion) COME (orgasm) ANC (political party) inside DING (sound as a bell) Def: Coupling on TV. |
| 11 | UPPITY | Having got an erection – shame – difficult to control (6) UP (Having got an erection) PITY (shame) |
| 12 | DRY ROT | Conservative way rejected – it could damage cabinet (3,3) TORY (Conservative) RD (way) all reversed. Excellent surface |
| 14 | GULLIBLE | Dicky’s back covered in horrible bulge that’s green (8) ILL< inside (BULGE)* AInd: horrible Def: green |
| 19 | BLACK ROD | Parliamentary knocker is deeply depressed at bar (5,3) BLACK (deeply depressed) ROD (bar) |
| 20 | NIGGLE | Elected flipping pisspoor “non-Conservative” Clegg – bother! (6) IN< (elected flipping) ([c]LEGG)* AInd: pisspoor. First in. |
| 22 | ASYLUM | Last pair of Gurkhas and Lumley dancing without lingerie elasticated tops – bedlam (6) [gurkh]AS (LUMLEY – L E)* AInd: dancing |
| 23 | LABOUR MP | Ed Miliband? Lost: “there’s nothing in stupid bum rap!” (6,2) L[ost] O (nothing) inside (BUM RAP)* AInd: stupid. Def: Ed M. A def by example as indicated by the “?” No.1 brother in both senses. Preened myself for spotting the 2-letter word that isn’t really a word, that has misled me in the past. |
| 25 | DELTOIDS | “I, Ed Balls, finally told off arm-raisers” (8) (I ED [ball]S TOLD)* AInd: off. Def: arm-raisers. Last answer in. I was nicely misdirected into thinking about Nazis. I had to check to find that a deltoid is a muscle. I knew about the mathematical curve and when I found it could only be Deltoids from the anagram I wondered how that could possibly related to the definition. Mind you, they look like useful muscles for raising pints to lips. |
| Down | ||
| 1 | ORATORY | Sod all right with a political follower’s flowery speech (7) O (sod all) R[ight] A TORY (a political follower) |
| 2 | UGLIER | Fruity thing, Brenda? More like the Beast! (6) UGLI (Fruity thing) ER (Brenda). The ugli must be Cyclops’s favourite fruit |
| 3/26 | BENT COPPER | A super crook? (4,6) CD or interesting allusion? A “Super” is a policeman (Superintendent) thus Copper. A crook is Bent in both senses, criminal or bishop’s crook. One of those where the answer is solid once seen, but I was trying to justify Lord Copper for a while. |
| 4/14 | BABY GRAND | Gaby’s bust, grabbed by Jo – gets a lot of fingering (4,5) (GABY)* AInd: bust, inside BRAND (Ref: Jo Brand producing excellent work such as Getting On). Cyclopean definition of a piano. |
| 5 | REPUBLICAN | Politician, er, about to get a booze dispenser (10) ER< PUBLICAN (a booze dispenser). |
| 6 | ADOPTION | A large bra size alternative – candidate’s up for it! (8) A D (A large bra size) OPTION (alternative) Def. referring to the party political process of being adopted by a constituency party before being put in front of the masses. |
| 7 | STATELY | Exhibiting your majesty in gallery being gobbled by Stallone? (7) TATE (Gallery) inside SLY (Stallone) |
| 13 | THE KREMLIN | “Hitler Ken” moving to seize Mayor’s main seat of power (3,7) (HITLER KEN)* AInd: moving, plus M[ayor]. Def: seat of power. Am I misremembering that County Hall was nicknamed The Lubyanka back when Ken was in charge of the GLC? |
| 16 | OSCULATE | Kiss unusually large copper on behind (8) OS (unusually large) CU (copper) LATE (behind). Def: Kiss |
| 17 | FLASHER | He outs member publicly as tawdry queen (7) FLASH (tawdry) ER (queen) |
| 18 | SLAMMER | Realm riddled with S and M, causing stir (7) (REALM S M)* AInd: riddled. Def: stir – as in prison. Another one thankfully cold solved. |
| 21 | GRUMPY | Gutless bloke penetrated by arse’s cross (6) RUMP (arse) inside G[u]Y (Gutless bloke) |
| 24/23 | BACKLASH | Retreat before whip’s retaliation (8) BACK (Retreat) LASH (whip) |
Chris Patten was once bag carrier for Norman St John Stevas. When Thatcher got fed up with his constant name dropping she asked Patten to tell him to tone it down.
Yes I should, said NSJS, that’s just what the Queen Mother told me yesterday.
Deltoids also last in for me and had to look it up to see if it really was a word.
I couldn’t explain bent copper -thanks for clarifying.
I solved this on and off while watching Thursday afternoon’s Cheltenham on the box. Done within 3 hours but how much of that was actually spend solving I know not. One of the harder ones I would say.