An entertaining puzzle from Cyclops that brightened up a dull Thursday morning commute …
… stuck in traffic on the M25 (it never stays stationary quite long enough for a proper snooze).
There was some clever wordplay. Waterworks made me laugh.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ATTEMPT | “Teat tweaked by politician getting tense” crack (7) TEAT* AInd: tweaked. MP (politician) T[ense] |
| 5 | SCRUMPY | Rough drink gets Conservative arse stuck in outskirts of Stepney (7) C[onservative] RUMP (arse) inside S[tepne]Y |
| 10 | RICHARD III | Royal turfed out of long-term car park space (7,3) CD referring to the recent discovery of the bod of the the beaten Bosworth bankrupt (aka the Leicester lingerer) following brilliant archaeological detective work. I was fooled by this until both the Is of III were supplied from the crossing answers and the light dawned |
| 11/4 | TORY PARTY | Harry’s not begun to get involved with potty Boris’s lot (4,5) ([h]ARRY + POTTY)* AInd: get involved |
| 12/13 | THE ROYAL FAMILY | Fairytale ending missing, sadly, with homely Brenda’s lot? (3,5,6) (FAIRYTAL[e] + HOMELY)* AInd: sadly |
| 14 | CRISIS | Conservative Right lives and breathes for a turning point (6) C[onservative] R[ight] IS (lives) IS (and breathes) |
| 17 | WEAR OUT | Private Eye ‘A’ tour managed to get one knackered (4,3) WE (Private Eye) ‘A’ TOUR* AInd: managed |
| 18 | SWORN IN | As a new US president used to be squeezed by Vice? (5,2) WORN (used) inside (squeezed) SIN (vice) |
| 21 | NOVICE | Hardly an expert, on reflection, our pointless Business Secretary (6) ON< VI[n]CE Ref. Vince Cable, Business Secretary. I’ve seen him on that dancing thing but not on Pointless Celebrities |
| 23 | FRUGAL | German woman, common female, dismissing, at the outset, Angela Merkel’s sort of economic approach? (6) FRAU (German woman) GAL (common female) – first A (from A[t] or maybe A[ngela]) |
| 24 | DEFECATE | Feed off the film actress’s shit (8) FEED* AInd: off, CATE (film actress) Ref. Ms Blanchett |
| 28 | WATERWORKS | Wow! Almost starkers – unusual, laughable means of taking piss out of the system (10) (WOW STARKER[s])* AInd: unusual. Nursery word for the parts of the human bod from the bladder and on. Favourite clue for the superior anagram and the nod towards satirical political humour |
| 29 | PROCURE | Get rough rope wrapped round arsehole (7) ROPE* AInd: rough, around CUR (arsehole) |
| 30 | DENYING | Labour leader’s back, extremely narky with elected ‘grand’ doing what accused politicians invariably do? (7) ED< N[ark]Y IN (elected) G[rand] |
| Down | ||
| 2 | THIGH | Near-genital area temperature raised (5) T[emperature] HIGH (raised) |
| 3 | EXHORTS | House right to cut kinky sex urges? (7) HO. (house) RT (right) inside (to cut) SEX* AInd: kinky |
| 6 | CHIEFTAIN | Type of tank top of English female, covered in Chianti, getting pissed (9) (E[nglish] F[emale] CHIANTI)* AInd: pissed |
| 7 | UPTEMPO | Out of bed, casual with love, played fast and possibly loose? (7) UP (Out of bed) TEMP (casual – as in employment) O (love) |
| 8 | PARALYTIC | Pissed off CIA partly (9) (CIA PARTLY)* AInd: off |
| 9 | LIE-LOW | To do an Archer, sound like Daisy and keep your head down (3,3) LIE (To do an Archer – i.e. Jeffrey of that ilk) LOW (sound like Daisy – i.e. a cow) |
| 15 | RESERVOIR | Bank punished over rise given to tosser, ultimately (9) (OVER RISE)* AInd: punished [tosse]R |
| 16 | SUNFLOWER | Blooming oil-producer makes tabloid loud and even more shallow (9) SUN (tabloid) F (loud) LOWER (even more shallow) |
| 19 | ORGANIC | Newspaper possibly want’s Nick’s guts – it’s only natural (7) ORGAN (Newspaper possibly) [n]IC[k] |
| 20 | NUDITY | Untidy constitution exposed state (6) UNTIDY* AInd: constitution. Offbeat anagram indicator meant this resisted solving far longer than the minimal anagramming requirement required |
| 22 | VICTORY | Flagship bad practice: drug-dropping politician (7) VIC[e] TORY (politician) |
| 25/27 | FORCE DOWN | How you have to take a bitter pill? (Police numbers cut) (5,4) Double Def. |
| 26 | TOKEN | Starts to turf out Livingstone (of no real value)? (5) T[urf] O[ut] KEN (Livingstone) |
I will mostly likely be unable to respond to comments because by the time this blog pops out of the scheduling system I will be in France for the week. This is for golden wedding celebrations which are scheduled to take the best part of a week so I might not be able to reply even if I find a webby wiffi point.
I wonder if Professor Elemental is a close descendent of Richard III? He seems to crave horses as much: <link to short chap-hop video of the Prof. extolling the virtues of his horse>