A higher-than-average(?) number of anagrams (full, or partial) and some nicely-surfaced double definitions in this fortnight’s Cyclops, with ‘Strong’ and ‘Stable’ making appearances in a clue, after being an answer last time round…
Some recent political references – ‘voting twice for May and co’ at 27D and ‘strong, stable leader’ at 15A. And a few digs at Senhor Trump – ‘Trump’s lot jerks’ for YANKS at 13A, and POWER at 24A referring to his ‘obligation’ to the Russian leader – somewhat prophetic from Cyclops, given their head-to-head at the G20 summit this week…
A couple of older references from the 1990s as well – with Robert Maxwell’s ill-fated ‘(The) EUROPEAN’ newspaper at 17D and the left-wing magazine RED PPPER at 20A.
It wouldn’t be a Cyclops without the obligatory bit of smut… but SMUTTY at 1D, ENGORGED at 6D are almost token efforts this week!
(Talking of schoolboy sniggering, did anybody notice the bit of cricket commentary this weekend – not sure if it was Sky or TMS – when the South African player Quinton de Kock was caught out in their first innings? One commentator said ‘…and that’s the end of de Kock…’ and they all collapsed in a heap of background sniggering/guffawing, as one brave and professional soul managed to carry on the commentary!… Classic, along the lines of the (‘mythical?) ‘…the bowler’s Holding, the batsman’s Willey…’, and also Jonathan Agnew describing Ian Botham failing to ‘get his leg over’ the stumps…but I digress…)
Favourite clue/surface reading was probably 24A, closely followed by 8D – it probably won’t be long before journalists are releasing people’s endoscopies as ‘scoops’ on Tw@tter or Facebook…
NB. I wasn’t sure what ‘old’ was doing in 29A – is it part of the definition, or a reference to ‘LIB’ being an old politician? And my references all have PEN-PUSHER as either hyphenated or two words, rather than a 9…but a fairly minor quibble…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 7A | MULBERRY | Fruity thing at heart, Trump messed with Beryl (8) | fruity thing / anag, i.e. messed, of BERYL + (T)RUM(P) (Trump, at heart) |
|
| 9A | GOBLIN | Gnome’s energy on screen died away (6) | gnome / Go (energy) + BLIN(D) (blind, or screen, with D – died – away) |
|
| 11A | TENT DRESS | Camp sort of wear? (4,5) | &lit/CD? / a TENT DRESS is an item of ‘wear’, with ‘camp’ here indicating TENT |
|
| 13A | YOU SO | see 17ac. (5) | see 17A / see 17A |
|
| 13A | YANKS | Trump’s lot jerks (5) | double defn. / YANKS is slang for Americans, so ‘Trump’s lot’; and to YANK can also be to pull/jerk |
|
| 15A | STRAPPING | “Strong, stable leader” being deceptive (9) | strong / S (leading letter of Stable) + TRAPPING (being deceptive) |
|
| 17A | EYE TOLD | & 12ac. “EU dolt yo-yos wildly after commencement of election” as we predicted in an earlier edition (7) | as we (Private Eye) predicted in an earlier edition / E (commencing letter of Election) + YE TOLD YOU SO (anag, i.e. wildly, of EU DOLT TO-YOS) |
|
| 19A | TANKARD | Piss-taking mug drank at ground (7) | piss’-taking mug / anag, i.e. ground, of DRANK AT |
|
| 20A | RED PEPPER | Radical publication of bloody Lords member stuffed by papers (3,6) | radical (left-wing) publication / RED (bloody) + PE_ER (House of Lords member) around (stuffed by) PP (pages, paper) |
|
| 22A | UNION | Workers group sex act? (5) | double defn. / UNION can be a group of workers; or the act of sexual congress… |
|
| 24A | POWER | Might Trump, ultimately, have an obligation to Russian leader? (5) | might / P (ultimate letter of TrumP) + OWE (have an obligation) + R (leading letter of Russian) |
|
| 26A | SAFE HAVEN | Screw in Fens, a casual place offering protection (4,5) | place offering protection / SAFE _N (anag, i.e. casual, of FENS A) around HAVE (have sexual relations with, screw) |
|
| 28A | APLOMB | Look into May, dividing social classes, for assurance (6) | assurance / A_B (social classes) around (divided by) P_M (PM, Theresa May), itself around LO (look) |
|
| 29A | LIBRETTO | Book old politician with backing of Right-ousting arsehole (8) | book / LIB (old? politician) + RETTO (ROTTER, arsehole, ousting R – right – and backing) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | SMUTTY | ‘Blue’ must out Tony (not working) (6) | ‘blue’ / SMUT (anag, i.e. out, of MUST) + T(ON)Y (Tony, without ‘on’, working) |
|
| 2D | FLAN | Tart left in cooler (4) | tart / F_AN (cooler) around L (left) |
|
| 3D | BRIEFS | Underwear presented to defenders? (6) | underwear/double defn? / BRIEFS can be an item of underwear; or the evidence/documentation provided by a solicitor to a defence barrister |
|
| 4D | TORY | see 27dn. (4) | see 27D / see 27D |
|
| 5D | ILLUMINATI | Queasy tum in a dither, Cyclops gets enlightened types (10) | enlightened types / ILL (queasy) + UMINAT (anag, i.e. dither, of TUM IN A) + I (Cyclops) |
|
| 6D | ENGORGED | Sporting a hard-on is function in gender change (8) | sporting a hard-on / EN_RGED (anag, i.e. change, of GENDER) around GO (function, work) |
|
| 8D | ENDOSCOPE | Hacks need scoop which gives an intrusive view of someone (9) | (something) which gives an intrusive view of someone / anag, i.e. hacks, of NEED SCOOP |
|
| 10D | ESPRIT | Wit’s drugs trip goes weird (6) | wit / ES (Es, Ecstasy tablets, drugs) + PRIT (anag, i.e. weird, of TRIP) |
|
| 14D | NEER-DO-WELL | Trapping Brenda, rogue done good “good for nothing” (4-2-4) | good-for-nothing / NE_ DO (anag, i.e. rogue, of DONE) around (trapping) ER (Elizabeth Regina, Brenda to Private Eye), plus WELL (good) |
|
| 16D | PEN PUSHER | Hack gets prison (put with drug dealer) (9) | hack (journalist) / PEN (prison) + PUSHER (drug dealer) (my Chambers has this hyphenated 3-6, rather than 9) |
|
| 17D | EUROPEAN | Currency holder accepts one definitively loss-making Maxwell publication (8) | loss-making (Robert) Maxwell publication / EURO (currency) + P_EN (enclosure, holder) around (accepting) A (one, definitively)…or is it PAN (holder) accepting E (last, definitive, letter of onE?) |
|
| 18D | DEPOSE | Balls is on the up, with attitude topple! (6) | topple / DE (Ed, Balls, on the up) + POSE (attitude|) |
|
| 21D | RAFFIA | Fibre fair loosens a fellow inside (6) | fibre / R_FIA (anag, i.e. loosens, of FAIR) with A + F (fellow) inside |
|
| 23D | NON-COM | C’mon, no screwing, chaplain!? (3-3) | chaplain / anag, i.e. screwing, of C’MON NO |
|
| 25D | ROME | More bucks for the city (4) | city / anag, i.e. bucks, of MORE |
|
| 27D | VOTE | & 4dn. Stupid, very, to twice opt for May & co (4) | opt for May & co / anag, i.e. stupid, of VERY + TO + TO (twice) |
|
The Eye recently paid a out a tenner for this Commentatorballs quote from Jonathan Agnew: ‘I can see a lot of up and down movements from Kane Williamson. I think he’s applying a new rubber.’ As every regular listener to BBC cricket coverage knows, Agnew does ths sort of thing deliberately in the hope of getting a titter out of his co-commentators.
Thanks mc_rapper67 – re 29a, I took ‘old’ to refer to the fact the Liberal Party no longer exists as such after the merger of the Liberal Party and SDP to form the Lib-Dems. Might be another explanation though.
Slightly beside the point perhaps, but I was worrying whether 23d solution non-com meant non-commissioned or non-combatant. It was the latter that came to my mind, though dictionaries and other Google searches seem to point to the former (where I’d prefer NCO). The British Army Chaplaincy website is helpful to my view: chaplains are commissioned officers and non-combatants. http://www.army.mod.uk/chaplains/chaplains.aspx