Private Eye/Cyclops 577 Inhumanity News

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I know by now I am very familiar with Cyclops’ style etc. but this must’ve been my shortest solve for any Private Eye puzzle, ever.

I made a few notes as I was solving too, and find that there were only 8 clues not solved on first reading, and only 5 unsolved after the “first pass” (all clues read).  So this must rate at the easiest end of Cyclops range.  I suspect he pitched the clues to counter the grid design which offers minimal first-letter crossing letters which usually makes for tougher solving.
Anyway, it was still a fun solve with a wide variety of clue devices and “meaningful” surfaces.

Eye577

Across
6 SWINDLE Sting wrong to throttle wife – led off (7)
W[ife] inside SIN (wrong), then LED* AInd: off.  First one read and first one solved
ST LEGER Rest uneasy, about member’s horsey affair (2,5)
REST* AInd: uneasy, around LEG (member)
10/23 HASH SIGN Drug character much evident in Twitter messages (4,4)
Double Definition. #Hash
<edit> No! It is a charade of HASH (drug) and SIGN (character). The underlining above has been corrected 
11 CONTESTANT Maybe Boris gets his party to assess “a new temperature” (10)
CON (his party) TEST (to assess) A N[ew] T[emperature].  Looks like this clue was written with some (not unreasonable) expectation that he would stand for PM.  Trouble is, I only had about 2 days early last week when I could exercise this joke:
Knock knock / Who’s there? / Boris / Boris who? / <sigh> A week’s a long time in politics innit
12 LESSON Down to your undies for punishment? (6)
LESS ON = wearing less clothes
14 HALF-INCH Nick Henry, pressed against female – creep! (4-4)
HAL (Henry) F[emale] INCH (creep – move slowly) Cockney Rhyming Slang for Pinch = Nick
16 HEAVYWEIGHT VIP, loaded, with crew (11)
HEAVY (loaded) W[ith] EIGHT (crew)
19 OLD FOGEY Conservative has-been, worn out by gloom and extremes of envy (3,5)
OLD (worn out), FOG (gloom). E[nv]Y
20 SOMBRE Depressed Britain in clutches of indeterminate number (6)
BR[itain] inside SOME (indeterminate number)
21 NEIGHBOURS In with Gore-Bush soft soap (10)
(IN GORE BUSH)* AInd: soft.  Soap as in the TV prog.
25 CROOKED Shady newspaper chief is after staff (7)
CROOK (staff) ED (newspaper chief) Last one in
26 AGITATE Following Archer’s lead, bastard gets tucked in stir (7)
A[rcher] GIT (bastard) ATE (tucked in)
Down
1 SWEATER ‘Labour united with Brenda’ cover-up (7)
SWEAT (labour) ER (Brenda)
3 BLOC Alliance let Kinnock’s no. 1 off (4)
BLOC[k]  Block = let, minus K = K[innock]
4/2 LEFT ON THE SHELF Abandoned as useless, Corbyn and his ilk – he felt no different about similar half-soaked leaders (4,2,3,5)
LEFT (Corbyn and his ilk), (HE FELT NO)* AInd: different, around S[imilar] H[alf-soaked]
5 REDNECK Ignorant reactionary‘s embarrassed snog (7)
RED (embarrassed) NECK (snog)
8 THE ALLIES Wartime pals of male, having whole caboodle packed into trusses (3,6)
HE (male) and ALL (whole caboodle) inside TIES (trusses)
9 ON THE WAY OUT Heading for oblivion, like post-referendum Britain (2,3,3,3)
Double Definition. #Sombre
13 NAVIGABLE Dotty (Lab.) gave in, so may be passed over (9)
(LAB GAVE IN)* AInd: dotty
15 INHUMANITY Scottish finally in a mutiny – terrible barbarism! (10)
( [scottis]H IN A MUTINY )* AInd: terrible
17 ALGEBRA Right out of large fancy underwear? That’s very symbolic (7)
(LA[r]GE)* AInd: fancy, BRA (underwear).  Favourite clue – laughed at the surface rading
18 FROWSTY Strong line taken with enclosure that’s stuffy (7)
F (strong) ROW (line) STY (enclosure)
22/24 GOOD NEWS Goes down swimmingly, you’ll be glad to hear (4,4)
(GOES DOWN)* AInd: swimmingly. #DingDong

gbs_pig

 

 

 

11 comments on “Private Eye/Cyclops 577 Inhumanity News”

  1. I didn’t think this was at the easier end of cyclops at all! We struggled to justify some of our answers fully.

    For example- it’s not clear to me where “sign” comes in in the double definition of 10ac, nor how “Let” should indicate “BLOCK” in 3dn.

  2. What is not clear about sign as a primary definition of character? (The Chambers definition of character begins ‘a letter, sign, figure, stamp, or distinctive mark’.

    The second (archaic) definition of ‘let’ in Chambers is ‘to hinder, to prevent’.

  3. John has explained the block/let synonym, but I see I mis-described 10A as a Double Def. when it is a charade of HASH (drug) SIGN (character) and the definition is the rest of the clue. I will edit it.

  4. Thanks for the clarification RE the “HASH SIGN”; that’s what we thought the answer had to be. The fact that that symbol isn’t actually called the hash sign remains moot I suppose.

  9. Apologies if this is question reveals my ignorance but could somebody explain what Alnd means? Thanks.

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