It felt strange to be solving this knowing that, by the time I finalised the blog, the election results would be known and some of the political references within the puzzle would be somewhat out of date. Nothing like as strange, however, as I feel now that the result is known!
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | ABSTAINING | Monica’s dress accessory catching Bill’s head, which wouldn’t increase the vote A STAINING = what allegedly happened to Monica Lewinsky’s dress; containing B = Bill’s head |
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| 11 | BLADDER | It’s worse to cover Nigel’s butt — relieved by peer BADDER = worse; L = Nigel’s butt (last letter) |
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| 12 | TURNOUT | Revolution not an option for those who voted TURN = revolution; OUT = not an option |
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| 13 | THIRD TERM | Ultimate educational division? Not for a presumptuous Cameron Double definition — final term of the academic year; Cameron has ruled out a third term in office as PM |
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| 15 | THROB | Heath-Robinson houses movingly manifest an erection Hidden in ‘Heath-Robinson’. Quite a neat clue, I think. |
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| 16 | NIGGLE | Farage casually drinks gallons, live — “Bother!” NIGE = Farage casually; containing (‘drinks’) G = gallons, L = live |
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| 17 | CRESTA | Crown: Camilla’s ultimate downhill course CREST = crown; A = Camilla’s ultimate [letter] The Cresta Run |
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| 21 | TUTSI | African people voice disapproval — militant group rejected TUT = voice disapproval; IS (Islamic State), reversed = militant group rejected |
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| 23 | WOMEN’S LIB | “Blow men!” is perverted form of it? *(blow men is). No real definition in this clue, but it does work as a kind of &lit. |
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| 25 | HAS-BEEN | Spilling the beans, no time for Gordon Brown now? *(he beans) — i.e. anagram of ‘the beans’ minus T = time Gordon Brown’s not the only one recently to have achieved that status. |
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| 26 | TAFFETA | Material that’s gross, perverse cheesy stuff FAT, reversed = gross, perverse; FETA = cheesy stuff |
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| Down | |||
| 1 | GAMBIT | End of Clegg? Scope for game sacrifice G = end of Clegg; AMBIT = scope In chess, an opening move in which a player makes a sacrifice, typically of a pawn, for the sake of a compensating advantage |
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| 2/5 | HARD LABOUR | Inflexible Miliband’s lot, an unwelcome extra for the old time-server HARD = inflexible; LABOUR = Miliband’s lot |
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| 3 | SNORTER | Drug user who sounds a nag? Sort of double definition, I suppose — someone who snorts drugs; creatures who snort include horses |
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| 4 | ANATOMY | To many, a ballsed-up members’ division *(to many a), with ‘ballsed-up’ as the anagram indicator |
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| 6 | VERTEBRA | An element of a column: “Ever twisted round end of taut underwear?” *(ever); around T = end of ‘taut’; BRA = underwear |
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| 8/29/9 | STARING DEATH IN THE FACE | Farage incidents that he distorted, being about to cross over to the other side? *(Farage incidents that he). Clever anagram. |
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| 10 | BRETHREN | Blair’s vacant ’three’ irritated northern community members BR = Blair’s vacant (without central letters); *(three), with ‘irritated’ as the anagram indicator; N = northern |
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| 14 | DULCIMER | M’lud, Rice mangled A musical item *(Mlud Rice) |
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| 16 | NOT A HOPE | NATO manoeuvres bound to unite with East? That’ll be the day! *(NATO); HOP = bound; E = East |
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| 18 | SOLVENT | Express is after Sun, which is not to be sniffed at! VENT = express; after SOL = sun |
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| 19 | SWANKED | Squaddie at first beaten off, then paraded S = squaddie at first; WANKED = beaten off |
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| 20 | IMITATE | Cyclops is having sex with fed ape IM = Cyclops is (I am); IT = sex; ATE = fed |
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| 22 | TUSCAN | An Italian’s ’nut-sac’ nuts *(nut sac) |
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| 24 | BEAVER | Put much effort into Fanny Double definition — work hard at; female genitalia |
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| 27/28 | FAIR PLAY | The decent thing to do just before shag under piano FAIR = just; LAY = shag; under P = piano I rather like this clue, too. WHITE |
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A couple of cartoons for you:
Thank you. How about “ballsed-up members” as the anagram indicator in 4 down? My watch stopped and an MP3 player’s screen went dim the day after the election.
You could be right about 4d, lemming; I wasn’t sure.
From a purely crosswording perspective, the worst result of the night was definitely the loss of Ed Balls. How on earth is Cyclops going to manage without Balls? How will he indicate “ED”? “OO”? “ROT”? Most of the survivors have names that don’t lend themselves to wordplay (goodness knows what Cyclops will do if, as the bookies are predicting, Chuka Umunna becomes Labour leader), and even among those who do… well, they’re still not “Balls”.
As Cyclops himself put it a couple of years ago, Rejected Ed Balls finally voted in — then politically rejected!
@ 1 Lemming
The anagram indicator is ballsed-up and the definition is members’ division – anatomy being the study of parts (members).
@3 Schroduck
I can think of at least one word that Cyclops could utilise for Tristan Hunt… 🙂