There was no obvious Jubilee theme from Cyclops – I assume he compiled it whilst wearing his union jack bowtie.
Solving initially seemed a little slow, but once a few answers delivered some crossing letters the grid was steadily filled.
I wonder if this “Diamond Jubilee” edition of the Eye will be its last – Judging by what I saw on TV I reckon they must’ve sold about 200,000 units of their “Flag-o-wave” device from the “Diamond Julibee Gnomemart”. That kind of profit might mean they could all retire.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SHYSTER | Chuck, way before Brenda’s devious counsel (7) SHY (Chuck) ST (way – Street) Er (Brenda) |
| 5 | BUGGER | Professional with means of spying anal sex exponent? (6) Double Def. in usual Eye style. An expontent of phone-tapping dark arts coupled with someone more used to rearguard action |
| 10/9/19 | HEADS WILL ROLL | Kitchen waste stuffed inside loaf, bun – bastards responsible are going to suffer! (5,4,4) SWILL (Kitchen waste) inside HEAD ROLL (loaf bun). |
| 11 | DAILY MAIL | Cleaner gets outspoken bloke’s rag (5,4) DAILY (Cleaner) MAIL (homophone “male” -bloke) aka the Daily Heil |
| 12 | ABSTAIN | Muscles ain’t working, so lay off the sex? (7) ABS (Muscles) AINT* AInd: working |
| 13 | LAUNDRY |
The one French doctor getting to bottom of Sarkozy’s dirty washing (7)
LA UN (“The one” in French – sort of) DR (doctor) [sarkoz]Y. First clue answered. That “LA UN” device plus the def. was a give away
|
| 14/22 | PARTY RANK AND FILE | Cabinet ministers quite aloof from this sort of reception (odious with one initially divisive row) ? (5,4,3,4) PARTY (sort of reception) RANK (odious) AN (one) D[ivisive] FILE (row). Last answer entered. Not sure what in the clue misled me. |
| 17/28 | SIDE ISSUE | There’s a bigger problem than this party copy of Private Eye? (4,5) SIDE (party) ISSUE (copy …) |
| 21 | TOM SAWYER | The cat regarded you coarsely as an ‘adventurous character’ (3,6) TOM (The cat) SAW (regarded) YER (You as pronounced by e.g. Yobs – see strip under crossword in magazine). Young Tom was adventurous, the book says so: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
| 23 | FLEA-BAG | “Try to escape the sack,” said a lousy type (4-3) Homophone “Flee bag” |
| 25 | LADYBUG | Spotty thing (American) gives female infection (7) LADY (female) BUG (infection) I like to tink I’m reasonably tolerant of Americanisms, and probably use many without realising, but this is one I utterly detest. [Along with “cup cakes” – they’re Fairy Cakes, FAIRY CAKES! – what have they got against fairies? (don’t answer that)] |
| 27 | OVER TO YOU | Public office first and foremost, dear solver, so speak now (4,2,3) OVERT (Public) O[ffice] YOU (dear solver) |
| 29 | ROTARY | Kind of club that would make Balls a Tory (right wing, anyway) (6) ROT (Balls) A [to]RY. I thought this was a well constructed clue, with an excellent near &Lit surface |
| 30 | GEE-GEES | Pop group wants new lead on which shirt might be put? (3-4) Bee-Gees starting with a different letter |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SCHNAPPS | Drink breaks as announced by one who’s pissed? (8) Drunken slur version of “Snaps” |
| 2 | YEARS | Y-fronts extremely constricting of organ, producing periods (5) Y[frnt]S around EAR (organ) |
| 3 | TUSCANY | The Eye is able to enter the boundaries of Tony’s holiday place (7) US (The Eye) CAN (is able) inside T[on]Y |
| 4 | REDUNDANT | And, as Merkels said (after Balls in an outburst), “Not necessary” (9) ED (Balls) UND (and – German version) all inside RANT (outburst) |
| 6 | UP YOURS | Increase what you have and get stuffed (2,5) UP (increase) YOURS (what you have) |
| 7 | GUARDEDLY | Dread getting screwed in ugly squalor, having taken precautions (9) DREAD* AInd: screwed, inside UGLY* AInd: squalor |
| 8 | RALLY | Party gathering truly doesn’t have Clegg’s heart in it (5) R[e]ALLY E from [cl]E[gg] |
| 15 | ROOSEVELT | President putting short jumpers on First Lady (large tits opening) (9) ROOS (short jumpers) EVE (first lady) L[arge] T[its] |
| 16 | KIM IL SUNG | “Milking us rotten,” the people cried when he passed (3,2,4) (MILKING US)* AInd: rotten. Super anagram+ind |
| 18 | PROGRESS | Pervy groper’s reached far side of anus passage (8) GROPERS* AInd: pervy [anu]S |
| 20 | LOBSTER | Chuck needs rest, badly, being one getting stuck into pot? (7) LOB (Chuck) REST* AInd: badly |
| 23 | FLOOR | Stage girl with nothing on meets Queen? (5) FLO (girl) 0 (nothing) R[egina] |
| 24 | GOYA | Artist quit before “yes” from Fergie (4) GO (quit) YA (posh version of Yer) |
| 26 | BASTE | Being right out of underwear set, sadly, ensure flesh stays succulent (5) B[r]A SET* AInd: sadly |
Kind Hearted.
My girlfriend and I walked past an incredibly expensive swanky restaurant.
“Did you smell that food?” she asked. “Incredible!”
Being the kind hearted soul I am, I thought: What the hell, I’ll treat her.
So we walked past it again.
Thank you. A nice Cyclopean mix. Has anyone ever tried writing clues in his style?
Re: 8ac: “The one French …” -> LA UN (“The one” in French – sort of)
I suppose an alternative parsing might be (The one) French, where “French” is applied in turn to each of the members of the list in brackets, rather than to the two words as a phrase. Not so different from the “large tits opening” -> LT in 15dn.