… or anyone else, come to that.
Better late than never, I hope. As I said earlier, after the disruption and upheaval of the past few months, we’re now getting settled into our new home in York, so maybe I can get back to something more like a routine. Looking forward to seeing some of you in York in October, by the way.
Nothing too complicated in this Cyclops puzzle, though I was held up for a while on a detail of the wordplay for 11a (an answer I’d probably just have written in anyway if I weren’t blogging it). No special clue of the month for me here, but a good selection of topical and not-so-topical-now references.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | MILITARY | Forces Archer to protect one drunk? MARY Archer; ‘protecting’ I = one, LIT = drunk |
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| 9 | SELDOM | Endlessly market the unfinished Millennium flop? Not that often, actually SEL[l] = endlessly market; DOM[e] = unfinished Millennium Dome |
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| 10 | TWANG | Savour cupping woman’s top then tweak suspender elastic? TANG = savour; ‘cupping’ W = woman’s top. Before tights, the unlamented suspender elastic used to be what kept ladies’ stockings up. |
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| 11 | AUSTRALIA | Country person underneath Clinton in a state AL Gore, Clinton’s vice-president; in AUSTRIA = a state. I confess that it took me a while to work out how the wordplay gave the AL part of the answer here. |
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| 13 | ERRATIC | Shifting Carter involved taking one *(Carter); containing I = one |
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| 16 | OSMOSIS | An absorbing process as perverse Kate secures independence SO, reversed = ‘as’ perverse; Kate MOSS; containing I = independence I’m not sure that ‘absorption’ is a good definition of osmosis. |
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| 18 | TROJAN HORSE | John Major’s right wing sore at devious means of “Islamification”? *(John R sore at), where R = Major‘s right wing. ‘Operation Trojan Horse’ |
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| 21 | LAWLESS | Perfect? Not Rolf ultimately — criminal, actually [f]LAWLESS, i.e. lacking the last letter of ‘Rolf’ |
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| 22 | SHYSTER | Unreliable counsel from Chuck: rest uneasily SHY = chuck (throw); *(rest). An unscrupulous or disreputable lawyer |
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| 23 | UNIVERSAL | Film producer luvvies ran amok (very lacking) *(luviesran) — i.e. ‘luvvies ran’ without V = very Universal Pictures |
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| 26 | EGG ON | The ambushed politician’s face might have… to be far from deterring Two meanings |
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| 28 | IDEALS | The very best you can hope for ladies is being messed about *(ladies) |
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| 29 | AFFLUENT | Rejected sports body: glib, awash with money FA reversed; FLUENT = glib |
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| Down | |||
| 1 | SMITTEN | Bob, once getting manual protection, is infatuated S = shilling — bob, once; MITTEN = manual protection |
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| 2 | OLGA | Name of Russian organisation: Let’s Goad American Leaders? First letters of ‘organisation: Let’s Goad American’ |
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| 4/25 | BEAR LEFT | Put up with old-style Labour faction and start a U-turn? BEAR = put up with; LEFT = old-style Labour faction (for those who remember when Labour had a left wing) |
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| 5 | ADOLESCENT | Yoof-like escalation — grabbing benefit DOLE = benefit; in ASCENT = escalation |
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| 6 | EMBASSY | Mission statement opening spikes M&S and ebay’s wrangling *(S MS ebay), with S being ‘statement opening’. Definition: mission |
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| 8 | TIGHTROPE | Get pissed, all round right pissed: it’ll make you tread warily *(right); in TOPE = get pissed |
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| 12 | SOOTHES | As love article (sexy top) gives relief SO = as; O = love; THE = article; S = sexy top |
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| 14 | ROTTWEILER | A ruthless Thatcher associate’s balls were lit outrageously? ROT = balls; *(were lit) A term used about various associates of Margaret Thatcher — most commonly, Bernard Ingham; also others, including Norman Tebbit and Alfred Sherman.I prefer this one:
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| 15 | CHASSIS | Un-PC woman’s body mangles his sac balls finally *(his sac s). Rather dated slang |
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| 17 | MERRY HELL | Pissed with Nick’s place (created to cause maximum disturbance) MERRY = pissed; HELL = (Old) Nick’s place |
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| 19 | PLAUDIT | Clap: the result of getting laid — put out *(laid put). So nut rude at all, then. |
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| 20 | GRANITE | Oldie Stone at last comprehending internet etc. rock GRAN = oldie; E = Stone at last; containing IT = internet etc |
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| 24 | EELS | Evasive characters, arses: hard to be got rid of HEELS = arses (unpleasant people); minus H = hard |
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| 27/3 | GREY AREA | Rather doubtful thing, head, in the case of oldies? Two meanings — an area between two extremes, having (mingled) characteristics of both of them, a situation in which there are no clear-cut distinctions; what an older person’s head may be |
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white
white
Here’s a thought for you:
Having read your blog Jetdoc, Joyce wishes she had completed the puzzle! Really liked the Thatcher clue and image plus the thought at the end.
Glad that you have settled into York – Bert and Joyce look forward to seeing you there!
Thanks jetdoc! I managed to complete, but there were a couple I couldn’t parse the solution. 11 and 18 Australia and Trojan Horse. I should have picked up on both, but particularly AL (Gore) as that seems to be a bit of a ‘reqular’ for Cyclops. Good luck in your new abode.
17d was much easier to solve after I realized I’d penciled in the divider bar in the wrong grid square (4,5 instead of 5,4)!
I’m not the only one who adds bars and hyphens, right?
No you’re not. We’ve lost count of the times we’ve been held up by entering them in the wrong place!
A couple of typos:
22. ‘check’ should be ‘chuck’
23. ‘luviesran’ should be ‘luvviesran’
And in case anyone is unclear:
26. The ambushed politician’s face might have
I knew it was smitten but couldn’t parse it to save my life. Thank you…..so obvious when explained.
I do appreciate those clues, like 19 and 27 down, whose surface reading looks like a wholly plausible and consistent bit of salaciousness.
jetdoc, I hope you’re settling in your new home well and envy you York. I lived there 65-72. I trust it’s not become too gentrified or tourist-oriented.