This seemed tougher than many Eye grids of late. I certainly had trouble getting started – I read all the way down to 24A before finding the first answer, and after the “first pass” of all the clues only had 7 in place.
There were several where I pencilled in answers where I couldn’t fully understand the clue, either missing the wordplay or the definition. Whereas usually tentative answers are eventually proved correct, in this grid they often turned out to be wrong. For example at 17A I initially had PEACHES (from def. grasses, i.e. tells on) which seemed possible (if EACH was somehow derived from “Independent”, and if PES was a “legal charge”!). This really delayed getting 4D. 23D had me foxed too and I wondered if it could be the incorrectly spelled, non-PC, LOONY somehow getting LOO from “number 2’s place”. There was one that did eventually get proved correct: For RULERS at 19A I could not see the equivalence of “Strips” as rulers, somehow forgetting the meaning of strips as wooden laths.
Edit: 23A and 23D were originally completely wrong in this blog. Now corrected.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | GABBLE |
Suave Clark about Boris’s leader – “drivel!” (6) B[oris] inside [Clark] GABLE I don’t like this def. You might gabble, and it will likely be unintelligible, but it might not necessarily be drivel. |
| 5 | HUNTRESS | Diana sexist (some would say) with un-PC European hair (8) HUN (un-PC European) TRESS (hair) Huntress is sexist if you think all should be classified as “hunter”. Gender has nothing to do with it, but these days the quality of your genitals has everything to do with being a killing machine, for instance only someone like a dentist from Minnesota with an incredibly small dick would bother killing a lion. |
| 9/21 | NORTHERN POWERHOUSE | Honour presenter who ballsed up pie-in-the-sky future for Manchester etc (8,10) (HONOUR PRESENTER WHO)* AInd: ballsed up |
| 10 | VULGAR | Gross bit of vagina Virginia got rid of before tabloid’s backlash (6) VUL[va] RAG< |
| 11/14 | BANK STATEMENT | Formal response by HSBC, say, to misconduct allegations? This reveals all the ins and outs (4,9) Double Def. HSBC don’t need to respond – just influence the establishment and the press to ensure their misconduct is never exposed link (maybe even Private Eye?) |
| 12/23 | GOVERNMENT |
Cabinet minister with armed service crew and Tory chief support, which Boris apparently lacks (10,4) GOVE (Cabinet minister) RN (armed service) MEN (crew) T[ory] |
| 13 | MOUSSE | Cheese-eater claiming sex could be sweet (6) S[ex] inside MOUSE for so long I was thinking sex=IT and looking for something like COMFIT |
| 15 | RAMADAN | Hotel chain wants name – fast (7) RAMADA (Hotel chain) N[ame] |
| 17 | PLAINTS | Grasses implicating Independent in legal charges? (7) I in PLANTS |
| 19 | RULERS | Strips Brenda second? (6) RULER (Brenda) S[econd] |
| 24 | TAVERN | Boozer‘s tax rejected, Brenda needing last drop of gin (6) VAT< ER N |
| 25 | SMOOTHIE | Like Hugh Grant: rather thick, goes down readily (8) Double Def |
| 26 | BESTIARY | Sybarite’s dodgy work with animals (8) (SYBARITE)* AInd: dodgy |
| Down | ||
| 2 | AVOCADO | Green party’s after one plain-spoken non-Latin (7) DO (party) after A (one) VOCA[l] |
| 3 | BATIK | It involves waxing a bit off knob’s head (5) (A BIT)* AInd: off, K[nob] |
| 4 | EVERGREEN | Woman needs resistance with party member getting fresh all the time (9) EVE R[esistence] GREEN (Party member) |
| 5 | HANOVER | House‘s after-effects after Clegg finally kicked out (7) HANGOVER – G from [cleg]G |
| 6/27 | NEVER SAY DIE | Yes, Dave, “rien” negotiated – keep going! (5,3,3) (YES DAVE RIEN)* AInd: negotiated |
| 7 | ROLE MODEL | Who we’d like to be trashing Le Monde or kicking out Head of News Live (4,5) (LE MONDE OR L[ive] – N[ews])* AInd: trashing |
| 8 | SHANNON | Dynasty about to rise up between two extremes, which goes a long way in Ireland (7) BIFd this after getting the leading S. Wordplay analysis took some effort: HAN (dynasty) ON< (about,to rise up) inside S and N (south, North – two extremes) |
| 16 | MURDEROUS | Likely to axe, say, Olly, pocketing 500 euro roughly (9) (D (500) EURO)* AInd: roughly, inside [Olly] MURS |
| 17 | PROFANE | Coarse, disgraced entertainer, slipping “length”, is covered with sheet (7) RO[l]F (disgraced entertainer, – L[ength]) inside PANE (sheet) |
| 18 | SQUISHY | Yielding question is, uh, about getting into Sally’s skirts (7) (Q[uestion] IS UH)* AInd: about, inside S[all]Y |
| 20 | ROSSINI | He scored, having Diana in one (7) [Diana] ROSS IN I |
| 22 | HONDA | Rebekah on Dave’s housing company (5) Hidden in RebekaH ON DAve |
| 23 | Fanatical number two’s place? (5) Double-Def |
|
In keeping with the times here are far too many “Corbyn Jokes”
@corbynjokes
How many Labour leaders does it take to change a lightbulb?
None. The change will come from the bottom up.
@corbynjokes
A socialist lion walked into a bar, the barman said “what’s the big Clause Four?”
@corbynjokes
Have you heard the one about about the Englishman, the Irishman & the Scotsman?
They should be united in opposing establishment austerity.
@corbynjokes
What looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck?
Andy Burnham after being told he need to be more duck-like.
@corbynjokes
Why do elephants have big ears?
Because a fall in Noddy’s real terms wages leave him unable to afford a ransom.
@corbynjokes
How did Bob Marley like his doughnuts?
Produced in a fair manner by the Caribbean’s collectivized doughnut industry.
@corbynjokes
How do you turn a duck into a soul singer?
With a universal programme of apprenticeships and state-backed retraining schemes.
@corbynjokes
Who is this Rorschach guy and why does he always paint the struggle between capitalists and the proletariat?
@corbynjokes
Two nuns in the bath and one says “where’s the soap”. A shocking example of overcrowding and lack of basic supplies caused by Tory NHS cuts.
Plenty more like that here https://twitter.com/corbynjokes or of course just follow @corbynjokes
23 down — POTTY
23 across — POST
Thank you Camilla
When I saw your post I wondered how I could have got those so wrong.
These days when I blog the Eye crossword I download the puzzle from Private Eye’s website and solve it on the computer using the Crossword Solver software.
I remembered distinctly getting the “Congratulations you have finished the puzzle” message which I have always taken to indicate all present and correct. (That’s certainly the case for Independent puzzles.)
Testing just now I find for this one it gives that message with any old rubbish in the grid as long as it’s filled.
Oh well, live and learn
For 5a I had “Hen” sexist some would say -ie to call a woman a hen, un pc European hair “Irish” (as in Irish jig =wig”) giving the well known Diane Henirish.
25a took for ever to get. With s?o?t?i? I couldn’t get away from scott?i?
Tough one
25a was my last one too. My very sparse main mental index of smoothies probably doesn’t have a Hugh Grant entry, and none of the edible ones has ever crossed my lips.
Am I alone in thinking 10a semantically a bit iffy and that a vulva is not part of a vagina? Or maybe that’s the ontological model — so long as you’re in the right general area …
I do like 13 and 26. Have even taken to shouting “cheese-eater” at the little grey things as they scurry past.