I thought I was going to comment what a very easy Cyclops this was, having finished it in around 5 minutes, well within the space of three bus stops… apart from 10a, which completely stumped me for ages. On arrival in the pub, the Enigmatic one got the answer from the definition and letter pattern, but it was left to me to work out the wordplay. So those of you who got it straight away can retrospectively mock my hubris and feel smug.
I think my favourite clue has to be 22a, simply because it’s great that these two phrases are anagrams of each other.
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| Across | |||
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| 7 | MINCE PIE | London Eye? Move like a queen, tart! MINCE = move like a queen; PIE = tart. ‘Mince pie’ is Cockney rhyming slang for ‘eye’. |
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| 8 | AFRICA | Fair pissed with Bill’s great mass *(fair ac) This looks like an indirect anagram — AC (‘a/c’ in Chambers) can mean ‘account’, hence ‘bill’, which a is fairly common abbreviation in crosswords; the nearest that CA means, however, is ‘Chartered Accountant’… who might be called Bill, I suppose… |
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| 10 | ADRIAN | Mole, one with something due shortly by editor? A = one; DR = debtor, [one] with something due (abbreviation given in Chambers); IAN Hislop, editor of Private Eye Adrian Mole |
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| 11 | LITIGANT | Turned on by giant nuts, getting engaged in suit LIT = turned on; *(giant), with ‘nuts’ as the anagram indicator. This is more commonly used as a noun, but can be an adjective. |
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| 12 | BY-ELECTION | Fickle celebrity on right deserts — gleefully anticipated by Ukip? Anagram of (‘fickle’) ‘celebrity on’ without R (right) |
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| 14/1/3 | LOOK KINDLY UPON | Take a benevolent view of Ukip, OK? Only 2/3rds of London is done for *(ukip ok only lond), with ‘done for’ as the anagram indicator |
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| 15 | ERASER | “Scrubber”: Times on Brenda ERAS = times; ER = Brenda (the Queen) |
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| 17 | NICETY | Clegg not quite finished yet? Sadly that’s a rather fine point *(Nic yet), ‘Nic’ being ‘Nick’ not quite finished |
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| 20/25 | SCAR TISSUE | Salmond’s first to bear outcome — it’s part of the healing process S = Salmond’s first; CART = bear; ISSUE = outcome |
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| 22 | YA-BOO SUCKS | Boris-style riposte? “Rollicking saucy books!” *(saucy books) |
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| 24 | EARNINGS | Desires no end to Tory’s income yearnings = desires, without Y (end to Tory) |
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| 26 | EMBRYO | Kate’s inner development? More by fancy *(more by). Too tedious a topic to discuss further |
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| 27 | THRENODY | Lamentation: “End Tory fiasco — put hearts into it!” *(end Tory H), where H = hearts (suit in cards) Threnody |
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| Down | |||
| 2 | W C FIELDS | Red-nose star puts convenience before specialities WC = convenience; FIELDS = specialities W C Fields |
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| 4 | GET LAID | Be an egg and have sex! Double definition |
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| 5 | FASTEN ONTO | Get attached, as not often screwed *(as not often), with ‘screwed’ as the anagram indicator |
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| 6 | FRUGAL | L&G involved with Frau Merkel’s approach to economics? *( L G Frau) |
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| 9 | CONSORT | Maybe Albert would get Cameron’s party put in order CON = Cameron’s party; SORT = put in order The Prince Consort. I also learnt from googling this that a Prince Albert is also a particularly scary form of genital piercing — don’t try this one at home, folks! (but maybe you all knew about it anyway…) |
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| 13 | CARRYING ON | Having illicit sex and not pulling out Double definition |
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| 16 | RECLAIM | Alec’s changed into skirt — get back! *(alec); in RIM = skirt |
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| 18 | CRUISING | On the lookout for sex and having a good time in the main? Double definition (‘in the main’ being ‘at sea’) |
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| 19 | OBESITY | Condition of large corporation? Cryptic definition, a ‘corporation’ being a belly |
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| 21 | RUN DRY | Stand for election (rather boring) and reach the end of the booze RUN = stand for election; DRY = rather boring |
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| 23 | KAUNDA | Ex-president, Conservative, left from Auckland, pissed Anagram of Auckland without C (conservative), K (left) Kenneth Kaunda, first president of Zambia |
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| 25 | TORY | Sort of politician Blair became: “Right” rather than “New” TONY Blair, with R (right) for N (new). You can decide for yourselves whether ‘Blair became’ should be included in the definition or not; maybe he was always one. |
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Here are a couple of images for you:
A real headline, I am led to believe:
10. Thinking about it, isn’t “one with something due” [to them, I presume] a “creditor”?
Yes, Will, I thought that. But it could be someone with a debt, i.e. something due to someone else.
Thanks for sorting ADRIAN jetdoc. Cunning use of ambiguity, of course, ‘my electricity bill is due’ means I’m the debtor while ‘this customer’s electricity bill is due’ means I’m the creditor. Good setters often come up with this sort of thing to frustrate us.
I thought that 27a was the hard one. I had t?r?n?d? with ehoy to fit in and while it was almost certain that the h had to go second, that got to thr?n?d? and thrynode seemed as valid as thronedy or thronyde .
Adrian I got once I had ?d?i?n -doubt if I would have got it until I had all three crossers.
Re: 8a. Is ‘great mass’ for AFRICA a literary term? It confused me for ages.
John, I just assumed that Africa, as a large continent, is a great land mass; nothing specific. Maybe someone knows differently…
Cyclops had an extremely similar cluing of FRUGAL last year. Otherwise, I thought this one was great.