With apologies to anyone who eagerly checks the website at 1 minute past midnight — I had this almost ready to post yesterday, but it was the first day for ages in York without heavy rain, and the (still partially waterlogged) garden was demanding my attention rather more loudly than my desk. So I really did go to pot.
It was only while blogging this that I realised how many anagrams there are, or that I had a problem parsing 25a — I didn’t notice when writing it in. Generally, I solved this pretty quickly, with a brief, and in retrospect strange, hiatus when I couldn’t get 9d despite having all the checking letters.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | EPIGRAM | End of Trump, with dodgy image — has to swallow Republican quip R = Republican; in *(p image), where p = end of ‘Trump’ |
|
| 7 | LULLABY | Which gets your “babe” off? Cryptic definition, using two meanings of ‘babe’ |
|
| 10 | GOING TO POT | Approaching the bloody dictator? Decline! GOING TO = approaching; Pol POT |
|
| 11/24 | FULL PELT | Groped all over, pull out as fast you can FELT = groped; containing *(pull), with ‘out’ as the anagram indicator |
|
| 12 | EU REFERENDUM | Due to split with “free” UN, erm, Cameron not so keen on it now? *(due free UN erm) |
|
| 15 | AT ISSUE | Audibly loud ejaculation being talked about Sounds like (‘audibly’) “Atishoo!”, a loud ejaculation |
|
| 17 | ODYSSEY | ‘Yes’ sod off on ‘Yes’ epic tour *(yes sod Y), with Y being shorthand for Yes on forms etc. The Odyssey |
|
| 19 | TABLOID PRESS | A bit old to spin and iron rags *(a bit old), with ‘to spin’ as the anagram indicator; PRESS = iron |
|
| 23 | TELEPATHIC | Doped athlete pic mysteriously communicated *(athlete pic), with ‘doped’ as the anagram indicator |
|
| 25 | BEARDED | Graduate dared to be screwy as Corbyn I read this as: BE; *(dared), with ‘to be screwy’ as the anagram indicator. But ‘Graduate’ would indicate BA, not BE, so maybe either: (i) I am wrong; or (b) it’s a mistake. It then occurred to me that maybe it should be parsed as: *(dared), with ‘graduate’ (verb) as the anagram indicator; on (‘to’) BE… no, because where would the ‘screwy’ fit in? So maybe it is a mistake… |
|
| 26 | CLARITY | A time Cyril abused, which is quite plain *(a t cyril), with ‘abused’ as the anagram indicator |
|
| Down | |||
| 2 | BUTTONED UP | Conservative holding tongue Double definition |
|
| 3 | ALL FOURS | Dogs, say, usually on these, fall foul of setters *(fall), with ‘foul’ as the anagram indicator; OURS = of setters |
|
| 5 | PROPERTY | Stuff peer — “love cocky inside” O = love; PERT = cocky; in PRY = peer |
|
| 6 | GONER | Stiff old monarch grabs you, as Brenda would say GR = King George, of whatever number; ONE = what the Queen might use as a pronoun, to indicate a person in general. Alternative terms for a corpse |
|
| 9 | APART | Luvvie covets this to bits? An actor covets a part; ‘to bits’, as in ‘blow apart’/‘blow to bits’ |
|
| 13/22 | FOUR-LETTER WORD | Tutor smitten with ’Free World’ shit, say *(tutor free world), with ‘smitten’ as the anagram indicator |
|
| 14 | RED SHIRT | Follower of old Italian is looking mad, right in the proverbial RED = looking mad; R = right; in SHIT = the proverbial Followers of Garibaldi |
|
| 16 | STANDARD | Norm, showing resistance, gets erect, losing head STAND = resistance (as in ‘last stand’); [ |
|
| 18/8 | BIBLE BELT | Where there’s a fervent belief in the USA Cryptic definition, using the double meaning of ‘belief in’ / ‘belief, in’ Bible Belt |
|
| 20 | ENTER | Put down Carpenters’ selection Hidden in ‘Carpenters’ |
|
| 21/1 | COME LAST | Climax and keep going? No medal if you do COME = climax; LAST = keep going white white |
|
Here are the answers to the quiz I gave you last time. I apologise for the image quality — the files I upload get somehow downsampled in the process, and there’s nothing I can do to prevent it. If anyone can offer advice, it would be welcome.
The dots and dashes in the three groups of pictures spell out his initials, CJM.
BE, bachelor of education apparently.
I thought that was BEd.
Bachelor of Education is definitely B Ed. I have seen Bachelor of Engineering listed as a ‘BE’ option (but without any specific example) in one online list of abbreviations, but that is not the norm (which is B Eng).
BE for bachelor of education is in Chambers, Oxford and Collins, seems quite justifiable.
Private Eye is a British publication, and I cannot think of any British educational institution which awards ‘BE’ degrees.
“I apologise for the image quality — the files I upload get somehow downsampled in the process, and there’s nothing I can do to prevent it. If anyone can offer advice, it would be welcome.”
How about uploading it to an image-hosting site (e.g. Photobucket) and providing a link here?
Since there’s no blog post for 571, I’ll make a note here: there’s a misprint in the magazine for 571. 11a should say “Voice” instead of a single italicised “v”. The corrected version is on the website.
I thought this might help other solvers who were as confused as I was by the printed version. (I wondered if it was some new internet-based slang term I hadn’t heard of.)
Thank you Steve!! As and when my printed version appears through the door, I shall bear this in mind!!!!