A relatively quick/easy Cyclops, from a pure solving/timing perspective, but the usual level of quality in surface readings and sarcastic/satirical digs, as one would expect from Private Eye…
…only one mention of the Trumpster, thankfully, but a few swipes at Murdoch, the Tories and JC’s lot (Jeremy Corbyn, not the original bearded sandal-wearing JC…). And LIBERAL gets a run out at 25A – I haven’t seen many Lib Dem references recently – is Cyclops veering more to the extremes, or did they just drop off the political landscape?!!
6A/27A sums up the current Brexit GREY AREA around the ‘province’, and the hard/soft/slightly-crispy-round-the-edges border that is being thrashed out. 4D references Theresa May’s recent ‘sacrificing’ of her political ally Damian Green, driven by the editorials, or morning pieces. 21D/14A maybe presages when she has to eventually get rid of her Cockney-rhyming-slang Health Secretary…
A couple of the Labour references are a little dated – I mean, you know, does anybody remember Ed ‘Strictly’ Balls as a serious politician?…and Alan Johns-who? Or even TB himself, at 6D?…
28A painted a horrible tabloid image – would YOU turn to page 3 after that headline?…’Brenda from Windsor, in her SUNDRIES!’ And as for the reference in 13A to Murdoch’s ‘organ’ needing fixing…well, he is getting on a bit, and he has recently married a slightly-less-geriatric-than-him (ex-)super-model, so if he needs a bit of help in that department then that is what science and medicine are there for…
20D is pure Cyclops – nothing political, just a couple of rude words making up a great clue!
And the reading of 8D ‘coupled’ with the solution gave me a LOL moment. Equally 3D…in this age of political correctness and post-Weinstein #me-me-me-too, Cyclops is a breath of fresh air…as long as his tongue is held firmly in his cheek…oooerrr missus!…
All good fun and games, or an over-vivid and puerile imagination on my part? Either way, keep ’em coming, Cyclops!…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | SAUSAGES | USA’s abandoned wise folk – they’ve been stuffed (8) | they’ve been stuffed! / SAU (anag, i.e. abandoned, of USA) + SAGES (wise folk) |
|
| 6A | GREY | & 27 Province following the PM? Not too clear, that (4,4) | not too clear, that / GREY (Earl Charles Grey, UK Prime Minister, 1830s) + AREA (region) |
|
| 9A | DIAGRAM | Plan produced by heartless, beastly mother, confiscating sex rejuvenator, “very lacking” (7) | plan / D( |
|
| 10A | LATVIAN | European’s valiant “Out!” (7) | European / anag, i.e. out, of VALIANT |
|
| 11A | VIEWPOINT | Eye has tip: “Angle” (9) | angle / VIEW (eye) + POINT (tip) |
|
| 12A | NORTH | & 23 Hooker ran off on receiving Trump’s introduction – troublesome state! (5,5) | troublesome state / NOR_H KOREA (anag, i.e. off, of HOOKER RAN) around T (introductory letter of Trump) |
|
| 13A | SUNSET | Murdoch organ fixed – and so ends our enlightenment? (6) | so ends our enlightenment (each day) / SUN (Murdoch organ) + SET (fixed) |
|
| 14A | THE DUMPS | See 21dn. (3, 5) | see 21D / see 21D |
|
| 17A | OCCASION | Is smeared with cocoa at start of new party (8) | party / OCCASIO (anag, i.e. smeared, of IS and COCOA) plus N (starting letter of New) (or…OCCASIO before, i.e. at the start of, N – new?) |
|
| 19A | ICE TEA | Drink that is maintaining Conservative line-up without May’s lead (3,3) | drink / I_E (id est – that is) around (maintaining) C (Conservative) + TEA( |
|
| 22A | BLANK | Second-rate, flaccid? Ignore (5) | ignore (someone) / B (second-rate) + LANK (flaccid) |
|
| 24A | DROP A HINT | Be suggestive and trendy in kinky hard top (4,1,4) | be suggestive / DROP A H_T (anag, i.e. kinky, of HARD TOP) around IN (trendy) |
|
| 25A | LIBERAL | Progressive spewed bile at Republican vice president (7) | progressive (politically) / LIBE (anag, i.e. spewed, of BILE) + R (Republican) + AL (Al Gore, former US VP) |
|
| 26A | NOMADIC | Unstable domain : country’s leader is all over the place (7) | all over the place / NOMADI (anag, i.e. unstable, of DOMAIN) + C (leading letter of Country) |
|
| 27A | AREA | See 6ac. (4) | see 6A / see 6A |
|
| 28A | SUNDRIES | Sun: “Queen in lingerie”, and miscellaneous items (8) | miscellaneous items / S (sun) + UND_IES (lingerie) around R (regina, queen) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 2D | ALAMEIN | Two versions of Cyclops recruited by politician Johnson for the battle (7) | (WWII) battle (site, twice, in 1942) / ALA_N (Alan Johnson, Labour politician) around ME + I (two personal pronouns, or versions of Cyclops) |
|
| 3D | STRAPLESS | Cut down on corporal punishment (held up by a couple of tits?) (9) | (item of female clothing) held up by a couple of tits! / If one was to cut down on corporal punishmwent, one might STRAP LESS! |
|
| 4D | GAMBIT | “Sacrifice Green’s head!”: morning piece (6) | sacrifice / G (first letter, or head, of Green) + AM (morning) + BIT (piece) |
|
| 5D | SPLOTCHY | Chary about conspiracy by Corbyn’s no. 1 (rather patchy) (8) | rather patchy / S_HY (chary) around PLOT (conspiracy) + C (no. 1 letter of Corbyn) |
|
| 6D | GET ON | Age of Blair? Not quite, after e.g. reversal (3,2) | age / GE (e.g., reversed) + TON( |
|
| 7D | EPIGRAM | Saying “Erdogan’s top swine” and stuff (7) | saying / E (top letter of Erdogan) + PIG (swine) + RAM (stuff) |
|
| 8D | ENTHUSIASTIC | I fiddled with scanties, thus endlessly eager (12) | eager / anag, i.e. fiddled with, I + SCANTIES + THU( |
|
| 9D | DIVISION BELL | A warning that has Tory rebels going their separate way? (8,4) | &lit-ish/CD/charade?! / When the DIVISION BELL rings, Tory rebels might go a ‘separate way’, to vote against their party line?) |
|
| 15D | DECLAIMER | “Balls lifted – some sort of miracle!” (rhetorical type) (9) | rhetorical type / DE (Ed, Balls, erstwhile UK Labour politician, lifted) + CLAIMER (anag, i.e. some sort, of MIRACLE) |
|
| 16D | HOLDALLS | Lobbies about ‘old bags’ (8) | bags / H_ALLS (lobbies) around OLD |
|
| 18D | CHAMBER | House of Commons kind of pot? (7) | double defn. / the House of Commons is a (debating) CHAMBER; and a CHAMBER pot was kept under the bed for those caught short at night. |
|
| 20D | TWIDDLE | Spin is ultimately bullshit and piss (7) | spin / T (ultimate letter of bullshiT) + WIDDLE (urinate, or piss) |
|
| 21D | DOWN IN | & 14 Miserable, rattled PM disowned Hunt (4,2,3,5) | miserable / anag, i.e. rattled, of PM DISOWNED HUNT |
|
| 23D | KOREA | See 12ac (5) | see 12A / see 12A |
|
This was possibly my quickest ever Cyclops solve — straight through in one pass after opening my Eye. I don’t think 25A refers to any specific party but rather to the widespread use of ‘liberal’ as a term of political opprobrium by the right-wing trollerati.
It will be a long time before Cyclops drops his Blair and Balls references (they are far too useful to him), and his reminder that there is an Alan Johnson is a timely antidote to a media surfeit of Boris. The really dated politician is the gentleman at 6A.
Another great puzzle from Cyclops! Almost isn’t worth it trying to type a comment on this site, though. This is the second time I’ve started because the keyboard function on my Kindle began to give out on me! Anyway, best(and timeliest)cryptic clue for NORTHKOREA I’ve ever seen! Absolute genius using T for Trump and HOOKER together! If I had to come up with a clue, mine would’ve been something like “Took her and ran off, finding great danger here(5,5)”. My LOI was HOLDALLS, though I also had trouble figuring out was it BLANK or BLACK. Could’ve gone either way, IMHO. I also never knew about the battle of ALAMEIN. Last time I ever heard that term it was used in square dancing:
“Alamein left with a do-si-do, etc.” WIDDLE was new to me as well. I’d heard of PIDDLE, but I guess it’s like “wee” and “pee”(though the latter actually stands for “piss”, of course). Or “wee-wee” and “pee-pee”. Interesting internet conversation, isn’t it? “Abandoned” is also a new anagram clue for me. I would’ve figured if USA “abandoned” SAUSAGES, you’d be left with SAGES. My clue for it would’ve been something like “Wise people eating country breakfast(8)”. I like that you don’t have to know that much about British politics to get the references. Cyclops has probably gotten more mileage out of Ed Balls’ name than any other cryptic setter! Whenever there’s Balls, it usually means ED(unless it means ROT)! Then there’s May, Blair, Thatcher, or in this puzzle, Grey. Whatever might work for wordplay is fine with me! And then of course, DIVISIONBELL was a Pink Floyd album, but I wasn’t really familiar with the definition of the term itself. Funny how even Mc_rapper67 is confused about that clue! I think it’s just a pun myself. Again, my compliments to Cyclops. Great puzzle! Keep up the great work!
Patrick, I have to disagree. Can’t see lack as flaccid. Maybe it is an age thing… but Alamein was all over the place in my youth, even though the war had long ended. Also, the division bell would, I guess, not ring any warnings in the US but it has a huge history in the UK. Google it and then imagine why there is a need for party whips. It’s not like this nowadays but I think most divisions, not so long ago, took place in the late evening. MPS had a limited time to vote by walking through different doors/gates/corridors and many would be tired and emotional and needed help in finding the correct one to walk through.
I am wary of saying this puzzle was easier in case I fail miserably with the next one…..but I was surprised at how quickly it came together. Strapless the last one in but I was very amused by the clue.
I’m just saying sometimes you have a few letters showing so that it may be more than one word, and therefore parsing may indeed prove difficult. In the end, though, I realized it was BLANK, not BLACK. As for failing to understand certain British terms, that’s only because I’m American. At the very least I can always look up unfamiliar terms on Bing or Google. But I had heard of the Pink Floyd album(though I couldn’t name a track from it off the top of my head), so I merely looked the phrase up and found out its meaning. I don’t want anyone to think I’m complaining about having to look up anything. Far from it. I don’t mind doing it at all. Sometimes when you do these puzzles it becomes necessary. As for the “age thing”, I don’t know the average age of the solvers of these puzzles, but I’ll be 48 next month, so it’s not like I spend every day trying to remember details of WWII. I simply didn’t really know about ALAMEIN, but I still looked it up. Whenever I do puzzles like this I often learn something new along the way, and I certainly don’t mind. Some people act like they never learn anything new(e.g., our President!), but I am not one of them.
Thanks for the various comments/feedback – from the recent ‘usual suspects’…(does anyone else read these blogs?!)
john E – I like the image of you solving this after ‘opening my Eye’…would be pretty impressive to solve it without opening your Eye/eye, in either sense of the word!
Patrick J Berry – lots of interesting points – yes, I did consider mentioning the Trump/hooker angle, given his alleged ‘Stormy’ relationship currently being suppressed on all fronts. I live in (old) Hampshire, quite near to an army barrack-based area called Enham Alamein, so that came to me reasonably easily – from across the pond that might not have been so obvious…and the division bell is a UK parliament institution, so again, as Winsor points out, a reasonable reference over here, but maybe a Wiki-oogle required from your perspective. Keep at it – we will Anglicise you yet!
I take your and John’s points on the cruciverbal usefulness of politicians Ed (Balls) and Tony B – in fact I would suggest that maybe the ‘Victorian gentleman’ Ian Hislop (‘Ed’ of the Eye) also thinks of Earl Grey as a recent PM!…
Onwards and upwards, and happy solving to you all!…
I found 2dn somewhat grumble-inducing, actually – I don’t think I’ve ever heard the battle referred to other than as El Alamein.