Cyclops 568: AB de Villiers bats like a genius…

… and FRUIT BATS, of course, like a banana.

After already being late with this, I could not find my solved copy, so had to solve it again this morning. Fortunately, that didn’t take too long.

 

 

Across
8	FRUIT BATS	Fliers making Apple mad? FRUIT = apple; BATS = mad
9	ALLEY	Bellow applied to one’s back passage YELL = bellow; A = one; all reversed
10	ANKLE	Burn head off joint [R]ANKLE (‘to go on vexing, irritating or embittering’, which I suppose can be synonymous with ‘burn’)
11	RED CARPET	Arse injected with copper — dear treatment as befits a VIP? REAR = arse; containing DC = copper (Detective Sergeant); PET = dear
12	NEEDS	Oral massages producing desires Sounds like (‘oral’) ‘kneads’ (= massages)
13	ACERBIC	Care to get screwed by writer’s tart? *(care), with ‘to get screwed’ as the anagram indicator; BIC = writer (ballpoint pen)
16/18	UNHOLY ALLIANCE	Union hall lay in ruins, stuffing taken out of corrosive Lib Dem–Tory coalition? *(union hall lay); CE ‘corrosive’ without its contents
17	HAGGIS	Tentative shag, imbibing endless booze, which is not to everyone’s taste *(shag); containing [G]IN
21	JUMP JET	Have a bonk and spurt — most direct means of getting high? JUMP = have a bonk; JET = spurt Harrier Jump Jet
23	OGLER	Randy exploiter of viewers Someone who looks lustfully (using their eyes = exploiting their viewers
25	DEFENDANT	Balls retracted to resist TV personality, one in suit? ED Balls, reversed; FEND = resist, ward (off), shut out; ANT = half of Ant and Dec
27	AFTER	Fart around, recruiting last vestige of Nige’s following *(fart e), with ‘e’ being the last letter of ‘Nige’
28	CELLO	Where you might find a monk with nothing on, source of pleasure between the legs CELL = where you might find a monk; O = nothing
29	DIRT CHEAP	Scandal on Twitter said to be greatly discounted DIRT = scandal; CHEAP sounds like ‘cheep’ (‘twitter’, said)
Down
1/5	BUCKINGHAM PALACE	“Opposing cut, one’s put in spot” — one of Brenda’s BUCKING = opposing; HAM = a cut of meat; A = one; in PLACE = spot
2	ETHEREAL	Like nothing on earth, Dave’s butt, squeezed into fancy leather! E = Dave’s butt (last letter); in *(leather)
3	BAD RISK	Once deemed OK by lending banks quick to bring lawyer back in BRISK = quick; containing DA = lawyer (District Attorney) reversed
4	USED CAR	No stranger to being on the road, Trump, at heart, scared witless U = Trump, at heart; *(scared), with ‘witless’ as the anagram indicator
7	MYSTICISM	Jerk’s hacked my second SIM, disseminating ’spirituality’ TIC = jerk; in MY, S, *(SIM)
8	FLAB	Corporate excess: strong links with political party F = strong (forte); LAB = political party
14	BIG BROTHER	Dictator offers grand whorehouse, right for leader of Lords BIG = grand; BROTHELR = brothel, with R (right) instead of L (leader of Lords)
15	SUB JUDICE	Journalist sap swallows Dave’s introduction: “Not yet tried” SUB = journalist (subeditor); JUICE = sap; containing D = Dave’s introduction Sub judice
19	STRANDS	Enters presidential race — after Trump’s second interruption, leaves in helpless position STANDS = enters presidential race; ‘interrupted’ by R = Trump’s second
22/20	JUNIOR DOCTORS	Hunt opponents using dodgy journo’s dirt about odious Conservative leaders *(journos dirt OC)
24	CRAP	Shit drug charge C = drug (cocaine); RAP = (criminal) charge
26/6	FILM CLIP	Scum Conservative’s on edge — not much to see FILM = scum; C = Conservative; LIP = edge

white
white
By way of an appendix, here is a copy of the quiz compiled by Enigmatist, with some help from me, for the Listener dinner quiz. Sorry about the image quality — I’ve tried uploading JPEG and PNG files, and neither comes out very well. I don’t know how to make it work better on this site — these look fine on my desktop but not when I upload them. As far as I know, I can’t do a link to a PDF.

Questions for the microphone round are given after the answer sheet. I will put the answers up in a week’s time.

Questions for the microphone round

1 It is not especially well-known for its officers employing unorthodox methods to keep order, yet what is the common name of the English prison that was rebuilt following a major riot in 1990?

2 (Rank and surname) Over the course of a number of films, whose incompetence eventually transforms his direct superior (a character called Dreyfus) into a homicidal psychotic?

3 Which weekly puzzle for a British listings magazine has been compiled by Roger Prebble since 1999?

4 Since 1925, the slogan “Never Knowingly Undersold” has been used by which British department store chain, founded in 1864?

5 Manufactured between 1961 and 1975, (a) what make of (b) what car “sprang on the scene with 150 mph and a sub-7 second 0–60 time, monocoque construction, disc brakes, rack and pinion steering, independent front and rear suspension, and unrivalled looks”?

6 The town of Bayreuth, in Bavaria, is world famous for its annual festival at which whose compositions are presented?

7 What name connects an 18th Century ship used by James Cook in Pacific exploration with NASA’s last operational space shuttle?

8 Mexico City, Munich, Moscow: which M is missing from this consecutive sporting list?

9 Founded in 1701, which Ivy League University is based at New Haven, Connecticut?
LINK (last parts of) 8 and 9

10 What are the pictures in? Initial letters of the above answers might assist.

Casket competition: a suitable description, please, of the mystery person (3,6,5) containing a consecutive letter-mixture of his name.