Some excellent surface readings in this issue’s crossword. I marked no fewer than 8 as worthy of consideration for top clue, but that honour has to go to Home Sweet Home for the insinuation of the influence of our now remarkably invisible ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer.
I had all but 6 answers in place after the first pass, but that wasn’t particularly quick as I took my time to appreciate the clues and was surprised to have so little left to reappraise. Nevertheless, I probably must class this as a “more accessible” Eye crossword.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | CHOPPER | Opening of Chancellor’s jumper good for cleavage (7) C[hancellor] HOPPER (jumper) Def: Good for cleavage. The def. was nicely misleading.Mind you, a chopper means more than an axe in some parts … Heartwarming short animation |
| 5 | CHICAGO | City trendy gets top grade? Piss off! (7) CHIC (trendy) A (top grade) GO (piss off) |
| 10 | FLESH POT | Strip club possibly offering top shelf screwing (5,3) (TOP SHELF)* AInd: screwing. Have I seen the “Flesh pot/Top shelf” anagram before? Yes! It was in a Scorpion a while back Link Well it’s an excellent pairing. |
| 11 | BOTTLE | Arse half let out – courage! (6) BOT[tom] (LET)* AInd: out. We see Courage/bottle quite often |
| 12/13/14 | HOME SWEET HOME | Two Houses divided by Darling? There’s nothing like it (4,5,4) HOME … HOME (Two houses) SWEET (Darling) Friends of Dorothy would have no trouble with this one: “There’s no place like home” is the last line of the 1822 song “Home! Sweet Home!”, words by John Howard Payne and music by Sir Henry Bishop |
| 15 | HOLD IT | Stay in that position, as the male flasher might demand? (4,2) Double Def. One that you don’t want to think about for long. |
| 16/25 | TAKING SIDES | Grabbing love handles, say, being partial? (6,5) Ditto (Damn, that made me think of Beth Ditto) |
| 19 | CLIFFS | Baby-faced singer’s craggy features? (6) Another Double Def with one referring to the living doll himself, Sir Cliff of Richardsworth. Blimey He’s 70 – not many crags in that facade! |
| 21 | FACETS | Features Vince finally getting out of the shit (about time) (6) T[ime] inside FA[e]CES (removed E from vincE finally). Def: features |
| 26 | HO-HUM | House associated with stink – tell me something I don’t know! (2-3) HO[use] HUM (stink) |
| 27/24 | FOUR-EYES | One who has troubled vision of two months’ worth of Cyclops, etc.? (4-4) Derogatory appellation for a spectacle-wearer, particularly when used as an adjective combined with “git”. Double Def given that 2 months of the Eye amounts to 4 Cyclops – thus 4 one-eyed offerings. |
| 28 | SADDAM | Toppled leader in need of a life gets nuts switched round (6) SAD (in need of a life) MAD< (nuts switched around) |
| 29 | MILKY WAY | Dense lot of stars exploit the backside off celebrity fashion (5,3) MILK (exploit) [celebrit]Y WAY (fashion) Def. Dense lot of stars. Perculiarly, given my scientific interests, this was the last answer to fall. Completely fooled into consideration of fame rather than firmament. Some may not think of the galaxy as a “dense” object – but it’s a damn site more dense than the estimated 1 proton per cubic metre average of the stuff in between the galaxies! |
| 30 | CLOSURE | Filthy cluer has nothing on Cyclops ultimately which is ultimately a relief (7) (CLUER O [cyclop]S)* AInd: Filthy |
| 31 | STIR-FRY | Dish gets to arouse Stephen? (4-3) STIR (to arouse) FRY (Stephen – ref Stephen Fry) |
| Down | ||
| 2 | HOLLOW | Depression makes you shout “Brenda’s got to go – what a pain!” (6) HOLL[er] (shout, Brenda (ER) not to go) OW! (what a pain) |
| 3 | PISSED OFF | Wee Dicky, shafted by Rebekah, for one, is far from happy (6,3) ED (Rebekah) inside (shafted by) PISS (Wee) and OFF (Dicky). Def: Far from happy. Rebekah is ref R Wade ex-Editor of the Sun, now even higher up the kleptocracy that is the Empire of the Dark Lord. |
| 4 | EXPOSED | Once popped the question starkers? (7) EX (once – as in ago) POSED (popped the question) |
| 6 | HABITAT | Store time: Al-Fayed’s head’s stuck into dress (7) T[ime] A[l-Fayed] inside HABIT (dress) Def: Store. Terence Conran’s outlet selling trendy stuff (for the 70s) |
| 7 | CATCH | Cop starts to contract herpes after pussy (5) C[atch] H[erpes] after CAT (Pussy) Def: Cop |
| 8 | GOLD MINE | Archer’s goal tops Cyclops’s as a source of profit (4,4) GOLD (Archer’s goal – the “bull” in the centre of an archery target is gold) MINE (Cyclops’s) Def: A source of profit |
| 9 | STREET OF SHAME | The scandalous way in which we reveal press hypocrisy (6,2,5) This answer is the name of one of the Eye’s longest running columns derived from a nickname for Fleet Street |
| 17 | KITE-FLYER | End of Nick: eerily involved with FT, tester of public opinion (4-5) ([nic]K EERILY FT)* AInd: Involved. This took a while to wheedle out – I thought the Y would be at the end of a word. |
| 18 | PLAY BALL | Shag and dance after pressure to join in (4,4) P[ressure] LAY (shag) BALL (dance) |
| 20 | SCHEMER | Sex with age-battling singer entertaining Cyclops, intriguing type (7) S[ex], then ME (Cyclops) inside CHER (age-battling singer) Hang on – is S for Sex acceptable? |
| 22 | CAMELOT | Musical reached climax by chance (7) CAME (reached climax) LOT (chance) |
| 23 | AU PAIR | A bust with uranium implant is help with housework, etc. (2,4) U[ranium] inside A PAIR (a bust) |
Apparently the Yankees dressed Bin Laden in a West Ham shirt before dropping him in the briny. Just to help him sink to the bottom faster like.
Thanks for the excellent blog. Can you help me out a bit further with 3D, I still don’t understand it fully?
Craig, that’s probably because I didn’t type in half the explanation of the wordplay – I have updated it so I hope it makes more sense now.
Aha, that makes sense now… there was me wondering how ISS could equal WEE – thought it was some obscure Scottish crossword reference! [insert embarrassed smiley here]
Just to show that it is a difference of opinion that makes a horse race, I found this one of the hardest Eyes for quite some time. It took me several passes to get even one and then I spent a long time between clues . Finally got home without aids but it must have been three times my usual time. Can’t really lay my finger on why, but that’s just the way it was.