Well, Cyclops – take a bow! By my reckoning, 600 puzzles at approximately 25 per year is about 24 years…I hope you got a decent lunch and a long service award out of the editor!…
Assuming it has been the same Cyclops throughout, which I believe is the case(?)…so longevity approaching Araucarian/AZEDian levels, and much appreciated by this solver. I don’t remember when I first got into solving the Private Eye puzzle, but it would have been in my late twenties, and I have just turned 50, so I feel I have been with you almost all the way…with a couple of £100 cheques to offset all those Eye subscriptions and submission envelopes/stamps!
A celebratory message soon Nina-ed its way around the perimeter of the grid and, in the style of a testimonial football match, this didn’t seem too much of a competitive tussle with the solver – maybe compromises were made to fit the message in…
Some nice touches – my favourite was probably PORTALOO (Mobile business processor!). A minimal nod or two to Senhor Trump, and a (maybe valedictory?) reference to May-Trump having scrambled phone calls…I dread to think how those Boris-Donald Trump calls will pan out…oh yes, and Boris gets his own clue at 19D…’Conservative bounder is a prick’ – classic Cyclops-ean irreverence!…
Some obligatory smut – (B)ATHROB(E) becoming ATHROB (!), and various references to ‘bondage’ and ‘becoming tumescent’ in 28A and 1D – and of course no Cyclops would be complete without a mention of ‘Brenda’ (4D), although Charles gets a look in at 24A as well.
Hearty ‘Congrats’ to Cyclops on the milestone – and keep ’em coming, please!
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 8A | PEDLAR | False plead by Republican dealer (6) | dealer / PEDLA (anag, i.e. false, of PLEAD) + R (Republican) |
|
| 9A | EXPLORER | Maybe Livingstone no longer wants publicity about ‘traditional learning’ (8) | maybe Livingstone / EX (no longer) + P_R (publicity) around LORE (traditional learning) |
|
| 10A | OLD STYLE | Inside Dolly’s bust, temperature ultimately extreme – quaint (3,5) | quaint / OLD S_YL (anag, i.e. bust, of DOLLY’S) around T (temperature), plus E (ultimate letter of extremE) |
|
| 11A | ALLUDE | Hint: vice-president once improper, reportedly (6) | hint / AL (Al Gore, ex-Vice President) + LUDE (homophone, sounds like LEWD, or improper) |
|
| 12A | LESSEN | In Wales, sensational shrink (6) | shrink / hidden word in ‘WaLES SENsational’ |
|
| 14A | IN DEMAND | Elected “nuts” damned – much needed (2,6) | much needed / IN (elected) + DEMAND (anag, i.e. nuts, of DAMNED) |
|
| 15A | CLARITY | Non-profit-maker: “hard being replaced by Left, that’s plain” (7) | that’s plain / C( |
|
| 16A | GASTRIC | Abdominal cigars removed – about time (7) | abdominal / GAS_RIC (anag, i.e. removed, of CIGARS) around T (time) |
|
| 20A | YARMOUTH | English resort of volatile Trump (no political leader) – “Ahoy!” (8) | English resort / anag, i.e. volatile, of TRUM (Trump, without P the leading letter of ‘Political’) + AHOY |
|
| 23A | TALKER | Speaker, acquisitive type, grabs Labour’s lead (6) | speaker / TA_KER (acquisitive type) around (grabbing) L (the leading letter of Labour) |
|
| 24A | CHILLS | Charles, just got going, mounts – is nippy (6) | is nippy / C (first letter, i.e. just got going, of Charles) + HILLS (mounts) |
|
| 25A | PORTALOO | Mobile business processor? (8) | &lit-ish/CD? / A PORTALOO could be described as a mobile processor of ‘business’ (human waste products!) |
|
| 27A | YOUR MOVE | Respond to my initiative: not much time to be caught by inept voyeur (4,4) | respond to my initiative / YOUR_VE (anag, i.e. inept, of VOYEUR) around MO (a moment, not much time) |
|
| 28A | GROPES | Feels grand, having bondage equipment? (6) | feels / G (grand) + ROPES (bondage equipment) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | SELL WELL | Become tumescent (about 4 feet almost), as hit recording artists do (4,4) | as hit recording artists do / S_WELL (become tumescent) around ELL (measure of length, almost 4 feet?) |
|
| 2D | ILLS | Not leader: Clinton’s misfortunes (4) | misfortunes / ( |
|
| 3D | X-RAY UNIT | Broken bones a routine feature of this unknown character in dodgy taxi run (1-3,4) | broken bones a routine feature of this / X-RA_UNIT (anag, i.e. dodgy, of TAXI RUN) around Y (maths, character representing unknown quantity) |
|
| 4D | HERETIC | In hi-tec broadcast, Brenda’s no Defender of the Faith (7) | no Defender of the Faith / H_ETIC (anag, i.e. broadcast, of HI-TEC) around ER (Elizabeth Regina, Queen Elizabeth, called Brenda by Private Eye) |
|
| 5D | UPLAND | “Long live Britain?” gets you down, possibly (6) | down, possibly (e.g. the South Downs is an upland area!)/ UP (long live!) + LAND (Britain) |
|
| 6D | NOBLE METAL | Kinky balletomane, one going for gold? (5,5) | gold? / anag, i.e. kinky, of BALLETOM( |
|
| 7D | DEADEN | Day one breaks ex-PM Blunt (6) | blunt / D (day) + E_DEN (Anthony Eden, ex-PM) around A (one, again!) |
|
| 13D | SCRAMBLERS | Crawlers responsible for breaking up May-Trump phone calls? (10) | crawlers/double defn, ? / something that crawls could be said to be a SCRAMBLER; and a SCRAMBLER could be used to encrypt a phone line between May and Trump – at least for a brief time after the election result!) |
|
| 17D | ALTER EGO | Putting topless sort of bodice on oneself is second nature? (5,3) | second nature / ( |
|
| 18D | ICEBOXES | They’re cool, fights after stimulants (8) | they’re cool / ICE (stimuantts, slang for illicit drugs) + BOXES (fights) |
|
| 19D | CHOPPER | Conservative bounder is a prick (7) | a prick / C (Conservative) + HOPPER (bounder) |
|
| 21D | ATHROB | Having an active erection, so towelling garment needs ends removing (6) | having an active erection / ( |
|
| 22D | UNSHOD | Only wearing socks? Filthy hounds! (6) | only wearing socks / anag, i.e. filthy, of HOUNDS |
|
| 26D | AVOW | Declare anti-evolutionist view of world’s beginnings (4) | declare / beginning letters of ‘Ant-evolutionist View Of Worlds’ |
|
I really like the way the setter’s message begins and ends seamlessly with the same ‘S’. I didn’t spot the message myself because I always do this crossword in fairly faint pencil.
Thanks and congratulations to Cyclops, and thanks too to MC-R
Delayed myself with this one, as (a) I didn’t spot the nina, as I alsosolve in pencil, and (b) I didn’t think both 2 & 24 would include ILLS. No matter, a horoughly enjoyable solve.
Argh! I went for PURVEYOR for 25A. Needless to say, Cyclops’ solution is much funnier…
Also, could someone explain how “down, possibly” in 5D leads to UPLAND?
clanger9 @ 3
The rolling hills of southern England are known as The Downs
hth
Ah, thanks. Scuppered once more by a Southern-dialect clue! 😉
Thanks, Simon S – you beat me to it! And apologies to clanger9 – I could have given more of an explanation in the parsing of 5D.
In fact, Chambers, in its third definition for ‘down’ does give just ‘a treeless upland’, so no North/South bias there! It then gives an alternative as an ‘undulating upland tract of pastureland, e.g. the Downs, in SE England’… so ‘down’ is ‘up’ – the contrariness of the English language at its best…or worst (which can also mean ‘to best’, or beat!…)
John E and Simon S @ 1 and 2 – I’m not sure how the use of a pencil would necessarily cause you to miss a Nina – I have missed many a Nina when solving in bold black rollerball(!), but given the roundness of the number of this puzzle I suspected there might be something of the sort even before I started…
I am sticking to my excuse! Had I set out to find something out of the ordinary I think I might have taken the ‘X’ in 3D as a pointer to a hidden agenda.
Thanks Mc_rapper and Cyclops for making the Eye crossword such good entertainment .
Thanks mc_rapper67 – as usual there were one or two I couldn’t parse, but all is clear now.
Congratulations to Cyclops on reaching 600 in style.