This one took more effort than most recent Eye crosswords.
It didn’t help that I immediately and incorrectly entered ABSTAINING at 10A – I should have checked the anagram fodder – I did not notice till halfway through. Which means the official “first answer” was 2D, one I was only attempting for a (misleading) confirmatory crosser. With half a dozen answers to to, the top right corner was all done, but I still had gaps elsewhere. 1D GASBAG finally cleared up the top left when I twigged “rattler” could be a definition of someone who continually talks. Then the bottom right was completed with 18D SRI LANKA which left me wondering why it took me so long. But it was the bottom left 15d /25A crossing duo that kept me guessing the longest.
Q. How do plants get drunk?
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 7 | MAYHEM | Uproar when one associated with Queen has a bit of skirt? (6) MAY (one associated with Queen, both as Brain May in the “national treasure” band, and Queen of May every mayday, which one do you think Cyclops meant?) HEM (bit of skirt) |
| 9 | REPORTER | Brenda’s back and forth getting in booze for press rep (8) PORT (booze) inside RE and ER (Brenda back and forth). Novel construction |
| 10 | ABSTENTION | Not voting, a first for Blair so intent on spinning (10) A B[lair] (SO INTENT)* AInd: on spinning. |
| 11 | PIPS | Thwarts spots (4) DD Terse clue |
| 12/27 | GENERAL ELECTION | Our politicians are preparing for this rank state of excitement when political allegiances are switched (7,8) GENERAL (rank) ERECTION swap R for L |
| 13 | IMPORT | Squeezing member, one should, it’s said, bring something in (6) “I ORT” (homophone “I ought”) around MP (member) |
| 14 | HOGWASH | Balls used to be in corner hospital (7) WAS (used to be) inside HOG (corner) H[ospital] |
| 17 | AGES AGO | One bloke half started to lose erection, love? Not recently (4,3) A GE[nt] SAG O |
| 20 | KEEP UP | After U-turn, peer on a high – “Stay with me!” (4,2) PEEK< (peer, after a U-turn) UP (on a high) |
| 22 | MIDRIFF | Pot may be produced here, half-way into guitar piece (7) MID (halfway) RIFF (guitar piece) |
| 25 | UKIP | Universal drop off that has the Conservatives worried? (4) U[niversal] KIP (drop off) Last answer entered. I suspect I subconsciously didn’t want to think about it. |
| 26 | RESISTANCE | Can see it’s shambolic, after ‘ultimate’ in Labour’s opposition (10) (CAN SEE IT’S + [labou]R)* AInd: shambolic |
| 28 | YOKELS | So Kylie’s knocked one out for the peasants (6) (SO KYLIE n- I)* AInd: knocked about |
| Down | ||
| 1 | GASBAG | Rattler making hippy fun with hippie’s thing (6) GAS (hippy fun – it’s a gas, man) BAG (hippy thing – it’s my bag, man) |
| 2 | WHAT’S NEW | West repeatedly squeezing poor Athens? Heard it all before (5,3) (ATHENS)* AInd: poor. inside WW (West repeatedly). After a recount: First “official” answer entered. Very nice clue too. |
| 3 | ARTICLE | Rectal irregularity – I entered object (7) (RECTAL + I )* AInd: irregularity |
| 4 | SPANKING | Quaintly excellent form of sexual contact? (8) CD/DD – It may be quaint but I still have a spanking good time when watching Timothy Spall in Blandings on a Sunday. Super line from Freddie in the last episode this evening, referring to Fecility Parsloe-Parsloe: “She clearly cranks the starter with a motion that’s not factory approved” |
| 5 | WRAP UP | Put on some sensible clothes and shut your face! (4,2) DD Say no more. |
| 6 | LEAPFROG | Play in which fop gets pissed with lager (8) (FOP + LAGER)* AInd: gets pissed |
| 8 | MINER | Digger accepted being covered in Hollande’s drink (5) IN (accepted) inside MER (Hollande’s drink = French for Sea) |
| 15 | OVERKILL | Balls delivered waste – more than enough (8) OVER (balls delivered – 6 at a time) KILL (waste) |
| 16 | SUPERFIT | Senior copper in correspondence with athletic body? (8) SUPER (Senior copper) FIT (in correspondence with) Tricky |
| 18 | SRI LANKA | F—ed up, as Larkin’s state (3,5) (AS LARKIN)* AInd: F-ed up. Fixated on the definition in the wrong part of the clue |
| 19 | AMUSING | You’d have had a hard job doing it to the old queen in the morning, being a junkie (7) A.M. (in the morning) USING (being a junkie) Good clue |
| 21 | PAPACY | Pope’s thing: forcing aide into fast (6) P.A. (aide – Personal Assistant) inside PACY (fast) |
| 23 | DUSTY | Mucky responsibility, protecting Sun (5) S[un] inside DUTY |
| 24 | FACILE | Row about Alistair Campbell’s introductions being slick (6) A C in FILE (row) |
A. Root beer.
===
Oh dear, that’s a bit lame. Let’s aim for higher quality plagiarism:
Q. What’s the first rule of anagram club?
A. Unarguably outdo banal mattock
Brian May, eh? I think you might be right – it’s a better syntactic fit – though it was only May Queens came to my mind. I somehow hadn’t thought of that beat combo as part of the Cyclopean corpus.
22ac, Midriff, is top clue for me by a long way. I like a good indirect definition, even more so when it’s part of a nice meld.
Thanks Beermat! Re 16d – I could see that nothing else seemed to fit/work but was a bit reluctant to use superfit as could not find it in my copy of Oxford Dictionary of English. Is it a pukka word? Do I need to update my dictionary?
Franko, it is in the online (OED Third Edition, June 2012) version, under super-, prefix:
“super-fit adj.
1914 Living Age 17 Oct. 61/2 Experience the delight of being super-fit or ‘feeling fit’.
1930 G. MacMunn Behind Scenes in Many Wars 259 The convalescent became super-fit.
2003 K. Slater & J. Borte Pipe Dreams (2004) ix. 204 Twenty-nine-year-old Mark Occhilupo, after spending a few years sitting on the sofa, was superfit again.”
Thank you, lemming. You have opened up a new resource for me as I did not realise the OED was available online with the use of my library card number.
Indeed, “super-fit” is a hyphenated word so the clue should have indicated (5-3). Last one in for me for this reason.
I wouldn’t hyphenate it now. The eventual dropping away of hyphens from some types of compound has been going on for a long time. Fowler refers to it in Modern English Usage (1926). The process may even be getting faster. We’ve probably both witnessed changes such as on-line -> online.
Help please! Fit = ‘in correspondence with’ ??? Thanks!
Skipster: In retrospect I think 16D it should be parsed:
SUPER (Senior copper, i.e. Superintendent) FIT (in correspondence) Defn: with athletic body
If something fits, it can be said to match or correspond to its purpose.