It may just be a product of my febrile (50-year-old) teenage imagination, but this puzzle seems to be a bit of a homage to the late Hugh Hefner…
There is a WATER BED at 26A, COTTON (1A) for his ubiquitous dressing gown, a GERIATRIC (25A) PENIS (11A) and some PLAY(boy)ING (21A) and ROISTER(ing) (19D). Also a GENDER GAP (7D – which the Hef-meister didn’t really do much to address?), and a LAST FLING (10A), which I guess, chronologically, he must now have had…as might we all…
In a way, he probably ‘checked out’ just in time as, post-Weinstein, he might have seemed to be PLAYING WITH FIRE (21A) and faced the odd LEGAL SUIT (5D)…
To balance this out, I can’t imagine CELIBACY (1D) featured much in his vocabulary…unless he was a bit of a CISSY (8D) and it was all an ADROIT (27A) act to TOP UP (20A) the FINANCE(s) (22A) of his BOORISH (12A) empire with (AC)CREDIT (18A) and PLUS SIGN(s) (16A)…
Of course, I could just be barking up the wrong PAPAW (21D) tree (;+>)
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | COTTON | Bed not suitable for yarn (6) | yarn / COT (bed) + TON (anag, i.e. suitable?, of NOT) |
|
| 4A | ALLERGIC | Garlic’s wasted round the French (hypersensitive) (8) | hypersensitive / AL_RGIC (anag,, i.e. wasted, of GARLIC) around LE (the, definite article, in French) |
|
| 10A | LAST FLING | Affair to end all affairs? Hang on, Chuck! (4,5) | affair to end all affairs / LAST (hang on) + FLING (chuck) |
|
| 11A | PENIS | Member’s enclosure terrorists (5) | member / PEN (enclosure) + IS (terrorists) |
|
| 12A | BOORISH | Crass Ball embraced by Foreign Secretary – hard (7) | crass / BO_RIS (Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary) around (embracing) O (ball), plus H (hard) |
|
| 13A | LARCENY | Conservative nearly reformed? That’s wrong (7) | (something) that’s wrong / anag, i.e. reformed, of NEARLY + C (Conservative) |
|
| 14A | CASTE | Class project: “End of Literature” (5) | (social) class / CAST (project, as in one’s voice) + E (last letter, or end, of literaturE) |
|
| 16A | PLUS SIGN | Pulsing outrageously round S+ (4,4) | + / PLUS _IGN (anag, i.e. outrageously, of PULSING), around S |
|
| 18A | ACCREDIT | Bill by Conservative leader tried desperately to be attributing (8) | to be attributing / AC (bill, account) + C (leading letter of Conservative) + REDIT (anag, i.e. desperately, of TRIED) |
|
| 20A | TOP UP | Object of spin? To raise increase (3,2) | increase / TOP (object of spin) + UP (raise) |
|
| 21A | PLAYING | & 9 & 22dn. Circus act consumer might well be ignoring the danger (7,4,4) | ignoring the danger / A fire-eating circus act might be ‘playing with’, more specifically consuming, fire |
|
| 22A | FINANCE | Intended crushing last of Johnson’s support (7) | support / FI_ANCE (someone intended) around (crushing) N (last letter of JohnsoN) |
|
| 24A | PAINT | President, right at the start, isn’t for ‘colour’ (5) | colour / P (starting letter of President) + AINT (isn’t) |
|
| 25A | GERIATRIC | Old Spice personality, once a con almost (9) | old / GERI (Geri Halliwel, former Spice girl) + A +TRIC(K) (con, almost) |
|
| 26A | WATER BED | Wet dreams in this? (5,3) | this / cryptic (and smutty!) definition |
|
| 27A | ADROIT | Expert sex after road trip (6) | expert / ADRO (anag, i.e. trip, of ROAD) + IT (sex) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | CELIBACY | Congress disdained by this state (8) | this state (of not engaging in ‘congress’! / cryptic (and smutty!) definition |
|
| 2D | TESCO | Supplier, in quotes “Conservative” (5) | supplier (of groceries) / hidden word in ‘quoTES COnservative’ |
|
| 3D | OFFSIDE | Dicky on the verge? In no position to score (7) | in no position to score (in some sports) / OFF (dicky, ill) + SIDE (verge) |
|
| 5D | LEGAL SUIT | Action is permitted – financial executive (5,4) | (legal) action / LEGAL (permitted) + SUIT (financial executive, member of the board) |
|
| 6D | EXPORTS | Trades drink during wild sex (7) | trades / EX__S (anag, i.e. wild, of SEX) around PORT (drink) |
|
| 7D | GENDER GAP | Sexual differences when grandee ploughed into doctor (6,3) | sexual differences / G_P (General Practitioner, doctor) around ENDER GA (anag, i.e. ploughed, of GRANDEE) |
|
| 8D | CISSY | Ingredient of Big Mac is synthetic chicken (5) | chicken / hidden word, i.e. ingredient,, in ‘Big MaC IS SYnthetic’ |
|
| 9D | WITH | See 21A (4) | See 21A / See 21A |
|
| 15D | SOCIALIST | Convivial? It’s possibly not Corbyn’s idea of Blair? (9) | not Corbyn’s idea of Blair / SOCIAL (sociable, convivial) + IST (anag, i.e. possibly, of ITS) |
|
| 16D | PEDAGOGUE | Teacher gets to piss about melting G-Gouda (9) | teacher / PE__E (to piss) around DAGOGU (ahang, i.e. melting, of G-GOUDA |
|
| 17D | UPPERCUT | Potential knockout’s superior cleavage (8) | potential knockout (blow) / UPPER (superior) + CUT (cleavage) |
|
| 19D | ROISTER | Party forcing one into list (7) | party / RO_STER (list) around I (one) |
|
| 20D | TANKARD | Much obliged, drank to get pissed – mug! (7) | mug / TA (thanks, much obliged) + NKARD (anag, i.e. pissed, of DRANK) |
|
| 21D | PAPAW | Old man twice wants wife’s fruit (5) | fruit / PA + PA (father, old man, twice) + W (wife) |
|
| 22D | FIRE | See 21A (4) | See 21A / See 21A |
|
| 23D | NARCO | US drug dealer charged over company’s trimming (5) | US drug dealer / NAR (ran, or charged, over) + CO (abbreviation, or trimming, of Company) |
|
Thanks mc_rapper67 – I was fully expecting a cheque in the post until I checked your solutions. I had slotted in “celibate” for 1d then for 14a “taste”. Oh well, you live and learn!
I am equally skeptical of “suitable” as an anagram indicator (1-Across).
Jon @2. I think ‘suited’ might be more suitable than ‘suitable’ as an anagram indicator, but this is still a strangely worded clue, with no obvious surface logic to connect bed and yarn.
Need there be a surface logic connecting bed and yarn? There is the mislead, of course, if one thinks of a yarn as a story which might be told in bed. Suitable was a bit of a stretch though a an anag ind.
I thought the bed/story mislead could have been more effective with more careful wording.