Cyclops 502: Stating the bleedin’ obvious

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After the last one I blogged, a straightforward Cyclops puzzle. Some clever clues, with special mention going to 2d and 9/7d.

Across
1 TAHITI Country hat off before sex with one
*(hat), with ‘off‘ as the anagram indicator; IT = sex; I = one
4 AUCTION Try to get rid of a lot of effort grabbing inside of bum
ACTION = a lot of effort; ‘grabbing’ U = inside of bum
8 APOPLECTIC Cope with lap dancing with jerk beside oneself
*(cope lap), with ‘dancing‘ as the anagram indicator; TIC = jerk. Definition: ’beside oneself’
10/24 MOVE OVER Advance at an end: thus Brian’s demand of Brenda?
MOVE = advance; OVER = at an end.
As movingly documented in Heir of sorrows by Sylvie Krin, Prince Charles (Brian) longs for a turn as monarch, replacing his mother (Brenda). Ghastly thought, but I suppose it will happen sometime…
11 BLACK TIE Formal habit of jailed publisher associated with fix
BLACK = jailed publisher Conrad Black; TIE = fix
12 AUTHOR Just after gold — god, that could be Archer, to stretch a point?
AU = gold (atomic symbol); THOR = Norse god. It is stretching a point to call Jeffrey Archer an author, though he seems to make money from it.
13 ORGIES Leaderless party members securing good binges
[t]ORIES = leaderless party members; containing G = good
15 LEGLESS Incapable when member reduced in size
LEG = member; LESS = reduced in size
17 BAY TREE Evergreen Tory extremely contrary with a beer swilling exterior
*(a beer); around TY = ‘extreme’ letters of Tory. Definition: evergreen
18 DEBUNK Balls twisted when going to bed? Explode
ED Balls, reversed (twisted); BUNK = bed
20 OLD SAW Past saying “Shot loads, wife”
*(loads wife), with ‘shot‘ as the anagram indicator
22 ICEBOUND A French incursion into bodice-ripping: Frigidly Inaccessible
UN = French indefinite article (‘A’); in *(bodice)
25 DIG THE DIRT Do a Murdoch-style investigation: “Date Wants Rough Tight Ride”
D = date; *(tight ride). The Murdoch press famously likes to unearth (meaning ‘manufacture’) scandal.
26 WARM-UPS Practices of conflict politician overlapping America
WAR = conflict; MP and US overlapping
27 DRY RUN Test reveals “Not a boozer with endless diarrhoea”
DRY = not a boozer; RUN[s] = endless diarrhoea
Down
1 TIPPLER One preferred by those who wait to welcome Latin piss-artist
TIPPER = the kind of customer preferred by waiters; with L = Latin. Definition: piss-artist
2 HYPOCRISY Pathetic cry: “Physio can’t if unpunctuated!”
*(cry physio). If unpunctuated, ‘can’t’ becomes ‘cant’, the definition. Clever clue.
3 THEFT Nick to perpetrate this article by newspaper
THE = article; FT = the Financial Times newspaper. To perpetrate theft, you nick something.
5 UNCHANGED “Pissed”, “canned” — ugh, it’s all the same
*(canned ugh), with ‘pissed‘ as the anagram indicator
6 TEMPT Allure of top extremist Tory leaders pressing Cameron’s U-turn
First letters of ‘top extremist Tory’; containing PM (Cameron), reversed
9/7 THE BLEEDING OBVIOUS e.g. “Bloody platitudes reveal sod all that’s new”
A sort of &lit and double definition combined
14 SCREWED UP Scored high but made a complete balls of it
SCREWED = scored (rather loosely); UP = high
16 EMBROIDER Perpetuate a stitch-up and rather exaggerate the fact
Double definition: decorate with stitches; by analogy, exaggerate the facts
17 BOLIVIA State gets one through? Throw up first
LOB = throw, reversed (‘up’ in a Down clue); I = one; VIA = through
19 NON-IRON No need for press’s inaccurate description of Lady Thatcher?
Another double definition of sorts: description of garments etc; reference to the unlamented (by me, at least) Margaret Thatcher
21 SERUM Drugs tipped onto booze which provides immunity
Es, reversed; RUM = drink. Serum contains, among other things, antibodies, which are part of the immune response.
23 ETHER Nothing of much substance In Elizabeth, ERII
Hidden in ‘Elizabeth, ERII’. The upper-case I in ‘in’ is presumably a typo.
white

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I leave you with a very funny cartoon indeed:

HomoeopathicCartoon

5 comments on “Cyclops 502: Stating the bleedin’ obvious”

  2. Thanks for the blog, jetdoc. The Brian/Brenda reference was beyond me. Enjoyable stuff from Cyclops; particularly liked 8a. Not sure I like TAHITI as “country” (it’s part of French Polynesia). And THEFT clued as THE FT is a bit of, well, an OLD SAW.

  3. Brian and Brenda are the names commonly used for those two in the Eye (though not actually in Heir of sorrows). I agree that the wordplay in 3d is far from original; quite a good definition, though.

  4. Gosh. I got 2dn, but completely missed the now bleedingly obvious, that “unpunctuated” simply meant unpunctuated, so spent some time disgruntling quietly about it as a clue. I think I must have been applying an “ignore punctuation” mental set too rigidly. So thanks jetdoc.

    In turn I think I can slightly improve on your own parsing of 4ac. It took me some time before I realised, the full AUCTION definition was “Try to get rid of a lot”. Sly.

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