I found this one of the most tricky Eye puzzles for a while. Looking back at it I can’t quite put my finger on why.
From the off I had trouble, reading through at least half a dozen clues before getting an obvious one at 14 CELEB.
Both clues that would deliver a clutch of first letters, 1d and 15d, proved resilient till I had a large number of those crossing letters and there were scant few other crossing first letters to be had in this grid design.
It took several passes to complete, and I left a scattering on question marks in my notes before starting this blog. One of which I now realise I had completely wrong: At 21d I wrote in HATTER thinking he was the “half nuts” leader of the tea party, rather than the psychopathic leader who was deficient to the tune of 1 in the nuts department.
And there is still one I’m not sure about 25a: Is Corbyn out of favour now?
So, for all that, one of the most enjoyable Eye puzzles for a while!
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 6 | CANING | A bit of S and M makes very old PM lose nerve initially? (6) CAN[n]ING George Canning was PM for a very short time a very long time ago |
| 8 | SHREDDER | Stripper about right as destroyer of evidence (8) SHEDDER around R[ight] |
| 13 | MERCENARY | Gay taking cane out, is doing it for materialistic reasons (9) CANE* AInd: out, inside MERRY (gay) |
| 14 | CELEB | Tabloid target Corbyn especially loves exasperating business heads (5) First letters (heads) of the rest of the clue. First one in after a barren start |
| 17/11 | HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT | The moon, say, is what Theresa May presented to certain immigrants (7,11) Double Definition. Second definition is understatement: The Maybot didn’t just purposefully create a hostile environment for certain immigrants but for many British people too. |
| 19 | TOT UP | Reckon May supporter only half put off? (3,2) TO[ry], PUT< I’m not sure why “put off” is used, implying an anagram of PUT, “put back” would suffice. (I know a reversal is technically an anagram, but …) |
| 21 | HAPPINESS | Being content to have Home Secretary holding used nappies (9) NAPPIES* AInd: Used, inside H[ome] S[ecretary] |
| 24/12/15 | ORB AND SCEPTRE | “One’s part bred, prepared to seize crown initially” – Brenda’s pompous combination (3,3,7) (ONE’S PART BRED C[rown])* AInd: prepared. |
| 25 | OUT OF FAVOUR | Arising from a good turn, does this sum up Corbyn’s position now? (3,2,6) OUT OF (arising from ) FAVOUR (a good turn). For a long time I though the last word was going to be Labour |
| 26 | THATCHED | House may be so rusticated, ex-leader has to ditch Republican for Democrat (8) THATCHER [-R +D] |
| 27 | STOLEN | Hot woman’s wear, the ultimate for Johnson (6) STOLE (woman’s wear) [johnso]N |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SCREAM | Taking Ed’s lead, piss off and cry (6) E[d] inside SCRAM (piss off) |
| 2 | UNIVERSE | “Nurse, I’ve orgasmed.” “Is that all there is?” (8) (NURSE I’VE)* AInd: orgasmed. Reminds me of some creation myth from the South Seas |
| 3 | CHEEKY | Audacious as an arse (6) Double Definition. Last one in. |
| 4 | LETTUCES | Healthy food obstruction day – carbon introduced (8) LET (obstruction) C[arbon] inside TUES (day) For “healthy food” after kale I thought of lettuce, but couldn’t justify it without some crossing letters |
| 5 | CREDIBLE | Credit OK for consumers – honest (8) CR[edit] EDIBLE |
| 7 | NERVE | Skinner very full of impudence (5) Hidden inside skinNER VEry |
| 9 | DRAWL | Pull out before Labour leader’s slow, boring speech (5) DRAW (pull out) L[abour] |
| 10 | INMATE | Familiar but not getting it up? Con! (6) IN[TI]MATE. TI to remove from IT< (it up) |
| 15 | SET FORTH | Declare “Mid-section of gusset for thong” (3,5) Well hidden in gusSET FOR THong. This had me trying to do something with the SS from gusset |
| 16 | TOP NOTCH | Put an end to Nick? Admirable! (3-5) TOP (put an end to – i.e. kill) NOTCH (nick) |
| 17 | HOP OFF | What to do at end of shuttle bus trip: make a toady departure? (3,3) Double Def. But I can hear the pens scratching green ink letters to pedants’ corner already – toads don’t really hop they crawl |
| 18 | ICE LOLLY | Collie pissed over large yard, getting treat (3,5) COLLIE* AInd: pissed, L[arge] Y[ard] |
| 20 | TIBIA | Not much taken up to cover one’s bony element of member (5) I (one) inside A BIT (not much) reversed |
| 21 | HITLER | Half nuts, this leader? (6) All together now: ? “Hitler, has only got one ball. The other, is in the Albert Hall” ? |
| 22 | INAPT | A pint drunk – that’s out of order (5) (A PINT)* AInd: drunk |
| 23 | SHRINK | Freud, the first to lose erection? (6) Double Def. Not sure about “the first” – Was Freud really the first psychoanalyst? |
I hear this has been widely nicked so let’s credit the progenitor.
Move over Paul the octopus, here comes Phlegm Clandango ( @cain_unable on twitter ) with his Quarter Finals Day Prayer published well before the match.
21D. Is that the only version of the song you know, or do you know the longer one?
‘Himmler was fairly similar,
And poor old Goebbels,
had no balls,
at all…’
21D was my LOI as well – a face-palming PDM worthy of some PhD research!…
Goering had two, but very small . . .
Aha – I only ever knew the second line quoted by beermagnet: ‘the other is in the Albert Hall…’
(Was this ever proven, or was it just improper-ganda’?…)
(the uni-gonad-ness, I mean, not whether it was in the Albert Hall!)
When I wrote this blog I didn’t expect it to engender this much testicular arithmetic.
trenodia’s mention of different versions brought me to its Wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Has_Only_Got_One_Ball which is worth a visit for a good explanation of variants.
I vaguely remember hearing the “Land of soap and water” prelude verse at some time.
I didn’t realise you could modulate from ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ into ‘Colonel Bogey’ so easily.
I was born in March 1936. During the war I was at a small boarding school for boys and I feel it was there that we sang the “common version” quoted in Wikipedia.
I suspect it would have been during the war or shortly after that this would have been sung.
I do remember the “Albert Hall” rhyme but we preferred the “two but very small”.
What a load of bo11ocks!…(;+>)
I also wondered about 25A defining Corbyn as ‘out of favour’ – not sure what this is based on – the initial honeymoon may be waning, but I suspect Mrs May is a tad more ‘out of favour’ today…will she even be around to shake the tiny hand of Ronald T Dump on Friday?!
I too enjoyed this one and started by regretting that I had begun to think the puzzles were getting easier. I got to ‘top up’ before making an input and after the first pass with no using of any letters created had solved very few. But slowly but surely it cam together. ‘Hitler’ was amongst the last few but not the last by along way. ‘Inmate’ was mine and it took me till yesterday evening to parse it (I looked at the blog this morning). From being hugely frustrated and angry at some form of lumpy clue I was entranced by it, when I came to understand. I still don’t see any link between ‘let’ and ‘obstruction’ though.
Winsor @ 9: think of the phrase “without let or hindrance”.
@Simon…thank you very much.
By the way, going back to balls, I always enjoyed “Himmler had something simmler!!!”
I never even knew there was a song about Hitler’s testicle. I saw the clue, figured out the letters from the other answers crossing it, and then had trouble parsing it out from “this leader”, as some sort of anagram indicated by “nuts” or “half nuts”. Now that I look at it again, you’re actually left with SADE, the singer(which isn’t even half, mathematically)! Smooth operator, that Cyclops!
I was also surprised by LETTUCES, because you don’t normally see it pluralized. I guess that was the only way it would fit.
@Patrick……in my garden I don’t usually plant one lettuce so I have lots of lettuces!!! Maybe in the US, you do. But surely the local Walmart has lettuces for sale? Or are they displayed individually….dotted around the store?