As I blog this Cyclops puzzle, I find myself in the company of some very unsavoury characters, not to mention deeply unpleasant military hardware. What a way to spend Monday morning (yes, I know, I should have done it earlier… sorry!)
Anyway, a quick solve, with no clue holding me up.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | FILL OUT | Put on weight? Complete a form Double definition |
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| 10 | NOT LIKELY | Tony transformed all around as leader of Labour? Wouldn’t bet on it *(Tony); around LIKE = as; L = leader of Labour |
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| 11 | TIDE | Do a Dacre over clean-up aid? EDIT, reversed The unspeakable Paul Dacre (I don’t like him) is editor of the Daily Mail (I don’t like that, either). ‘Tide’ could refer to the sea, or the laundry detergent |
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| 12/13 | HEIR TO THE CROWN | “What one needs if going bald on top: energy for one” — Brian One needs hair to the crown if going bald on top. Substitute E = energy, for A = one, to get Brian, Private Eye‘s name for Prince Charles (… whom I don’t like either — so far in this blog, I am not keeping good company.) |
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| 15 | GLADIATOR | Russell’s role, good laugh at first, one time in radio broadcast GLA = good laugh at first; A = one, T = time; in *(radio) Russell Crowe starred in the film of that name. |
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| 19 | STATE VISIT | Brenda’s foreign trip, say with viscount as precursor to sex STATE = say; VIS = viscount; IT = sex (in crosswords, anyway). Brenda is the Queen. |
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| 22/7 | HARD CHOICES | Being manifestly excited at elections: what politicians trying to sell unpopular policies claim to have faced HARD = manifestly excited; CHOICES = elections |
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| 24 | CLEOPATRA | A sign within Conservative party almost reformed by a well-known old queen LEO = sign of the zodiac; C = Conservative; *(part) = party almost, reformed; A Cleopatra |
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| 25 | STRAITS | Narrows artist’s nuts *(artists) |
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| 26 | SLOGANS | As long as spin liberates one, an electioneering politician will spout them *(as long s) — ‘spin’ is the anagram indicator; liberates one’ indicates that A is removed from the anagram |
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| Down | |||
| 1 | CHANNEL | Broadcasting outlet: a divisive feature that Eurosceptics are glad of, no doubt Double definition |
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| 2 | BIRTHRIGHT | Labour’s conclusion on Blair’s political leaning is due? BIRTH = Labour’s conclusion; RIGHT = Blair’s political leaning |
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| 3 | SEXIST | Sun getting to be so offensive to women? S = Sun; EXIST = to be. And the newspaper itself is pretty offensive. |
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| 4 | CITY GENT | e.g. Tiny freely accepted by court, epitome of the upright financier? (e.g. TINY); in CT = court Also a reference to Tiny Rowland |
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| 5 | PLOT | Lager primarily filling out beer gut area L = Lager primarily; in POT = beer gut. Definition: area |
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| 6 | PUT DOWN | “Leader not in blue” jibe PUT = [Vladimir] Putin (leader), minus ‘in’; DOWN = blue (sad) |
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| 9 | WESTMINSTER | ‘Mr S’ in tweets about MPs’ hang-out *(Mr S in tweets) |
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| 14 | RARING TO GO | Orating, or raving about Clegg finally being keen? *(Orating or G), with ‘raving’ as the anagram indictor, and ‘Clegg finally’ indicating G |
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| 16 | ADVOCATE | A nasty video I put out about Tom Champion A; *(vdeo), i.e. ‘video’ minus I; round CAT = tom |
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| 17 | STEALTH | ’High flier’ Nick starts to trail hopelessly STEAL = Nick; TH = starts to ‘trail hopelessly’ Stealth bomber |
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| 18 | LASAGNE | Dish’s way to contain ’droop’ SAG = droop; in LANE = way |
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| 20 | TIPPLE | New head on jug’s extremity is what the piss artist likes ‘Nipple’ = jug’s (breast’s) extremity, with a different first letter |
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| 23/21 | DRAW NEAR | Pulled on organ to get ever closer DRAWN = pulled; EAR = organ white white |
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No time to find jokes, but for those who haven’t yet seen it, I recommend this:
Politicians pulling pints
I got the put-down one almost immediately even though I didn’t work out how it should be!!! I ended up with some convoluted working related to WW2 flyers landing or ‘putting down’ and not being in the blue (sky)! The real answer now seems somewhat less exotic but, of course, more sensible.
Thanks jetdoc! Re 11ac I had TIDE as being in the sense of to tide someone over i.e aid. However, I didn’t account for the clean-up bit, so the soap powder seems to be a neat solution.