Cyclops has his finger on the Brexit pulse this fortnight…if it still has a pulse?…
…with references to the scheming Boris, ‘pathetic Remoaners’, a ‘burnt-out’ UKIP leader and loathesome Lords.
A passing mention for the Trump, and his ‘last prophecy’ – if only! – and a fairly unsubtle reference to Charles’ mater ‘ailing’…
Some nice surface readings – and several short and punchy 3-word clues: Get fat ranch; Niche-like sex; Balls – try drugs!
(Should the clue for 11A have a 10A – how many ‘pathetic Remoaners’ have this notion?…)
Thanks to Cyclops for an enjoyable solve.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | SCRIPT | Text: ‘Boris finally gets Conservative trip arranged’ (6) | text / S (final letter of boriS) + C – Conservative) + RIPT (anag, i.e. arranged, of TRIP) |
|
| 5A | MINDER | Digger recruiting daughter as bodyguard (6) | bodyguard / MIN_ER (digger) around (recruiting) D (daughter) |
|
| 9A | KEEP | &12/21/26 Pay heed, readers – don’t fold back your organs (4,4,4,4) | pay heed / if the readers (of Private Eye) don’t fold their ‘organs’ (copies of the Eye) then they will be keeping their ‘Eyes’ open…(?) |
|
| 10A | APOSTROPHE | Support right in a forlorn hope – sign of lack of character? (10) | sign of lack of a character (letter) / A + POST (support) + R (right) + OPHE (anag, i.e. forlorn, of HOPE) |
|
| 11A | ROAD TO HELL | Loathe Lords dismissing southern pathetic Remoaners notion of 8/19? (4,2,4) | Remoaners (no apostrophe. singular or plural?) notion of 8/19 (no-deal Brexit) / anag, i.e. pathetic, of LOATHE LORD( |
|
| 12A | YOUR | See 9ac. (4) | See 9A / See 9A |
|
| 13A | THANKFUL | Complete load of gas about husband being appreciative (8) | being appreciative / T_ANKFUL (complete load of gas/petrol) around H (husband) |
|
| 15A | DEARTH | Want date to get the dirt (6) | want (lack) / D (date) + EARTH (dirt) |
|
| 17A | SPREAD | “Get fat” ranch (6) | double defn.? / middle age ‘SPREAD’ catches up with us all!; and a ranch can be called a SPREAD |
|
| 19A | BUSYBODY | Interferer, active and stiff (8) | interferer / BUSY (active) + BODY (stiff, corpse) |
|
| 21A | EYES | See 9ac. (4) | See 9A / See 9A |
|
| 23A | PREDICTION | Republican and eminent leaders needing speech after Trump’s last prophecy (10) | prophecy / P (last letter of trumP) + RE (leading letters of Republican and Eminent) + DICTION (speech) |
|
| 25A | IMMATERIAL | “One is Charles’ mother (ail badly, but that’s of no consequence) (10) | of no consequence / IM MATER (the Queen might say I’M – or ‘one is’?! – Charles’ MATER -mother), plus IAL (anag, i.e. badly, of AIL) |
|
| 26A | OPEN | See 9ac. (4) | See 9A / See 9A |
|
| 27A | INCHES | Creeps residing in Winchester (6) | creeps (along) / hidden word in, i.e. residing in, ‘wINCHESter’ |
|
| 28A | TESTES | Balls: “Try drugs” (6) | balls! / TEST (try) + ES (Es, ecstasy tablets, drugs) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 2D | CREDO | Faith’s bloody gate-crashing company (5) | faith / C_O (company) around (being gate-crashed by) RED (bloody) |
|
| 3D | IMPEDANCE | Which is to say, grabbing member at a ball amounts to obstruction (9) | obstruction / I_E (id est, that is to say) around (grabbing) MP (Member of Parliament) + DANCE (ball) |
|
| 4D | TEAR OFF | Swell all round organ and remove a bit (4,3) | remove a bit / T_OFF (swell, posh person) around EAR (organ) |
|
| 5D | MOTTLED | Lott, terribly into the drink, gets blotchy (7) | blotchy / M_ED (Mediterranean Sea, the drink) around OTTL (anag, i.e. terribly, of LOTT) |
|
| 6D | NOOKY | Niche-like sex (5) | double defn.? / if something is like a niche, or nook, it could adjectivally be NOOKY; and NOOKY (or more usually nookie?) is slang for sex |
|
| 7D | EXHAUSTED | Burnt-out UKIP leader hated sex romps (9) | burnt-out / anag, i.e. romps, of HATED SEX + U (leading letter of Ukip) |
|
| 8D | NO-DEAL | & 19 Belated “Nix!” or other possible consequence of Leave vote? (2-4,6) | possibble consequence of Leave vote / anag, i.e. other, of BELATED NIX OR |
|
| 14D | HAPPY OMEN | Mildly pissed females going topless – good sign? (5,4) | good sign? / HAPPY (mildly drunk, or pissed) + ( |
|
| 16D | AMBITIOUS | American lump debts getting go-ahead (9) | go-ahead / AM (American) + BIT (lump) + IOUS (IOUs, debts) |
|
| 18D | DEPRESS | Street-wise way of saying the newspapers are getting people low (7) | are getting people low / ‘de’ could be a ‘street’ way of saying ‘the’. So ‘the press’ (newspapers) would become DE PRESS |
|
| 19D | BREXIT | See 8dn. (6) | See 8D / See 8D |
|
| 20D | SKILLET | Pan Scottish leader having large wings put into traditional wear (7) | (long-handled frying) pan / S (leading letter of Scottish) + KIL_T (traditional Scottish wear) around LE (outer letters, or wings, of LargE) |
|
| 22D | SLASH | Hack has sex with whip (5) | hack / S (sex) + LASH (whip) |
|
| 24D | OBESE | Chubby’s in bathrobe (see-through) (5) | chubby / hidden word in ‘bathrOBE SEe-through’ |
|
I solved this one quite quickly except for the last one in, SKILLET, which for some reason stumped me for a while. Still, I’m on the south coast so a long way from the land of kilts!
Also, a minor point, I parsed 1A sightly differently:
S (final letter of boriS) + C (Conservative) + RIPT (anag, i.e. arranged, of TRIP)
Actually it’s a very minor point but I’ll post it anyway…
Re (9/12/21/26)a – that was the only one I couldn’t fully parse. I’d falsely latched on to, don’t fold = keep and organs = eyes and convinced myself there must be some hocus pocus explaining the rest. Anyway thanks for revealing the truth mc_rapper67!
btw, I also parsed 1a in the same fashion as Will @1
Thanks for the comments and feedback – points taken – Will and Franko’s parsing of 1A is correct, as the C is not really part of the anagram – lazy blogging and duly corrected…
Franko – for the four-parter from 9A – I spent a while thinking it must be KEEP YOUR EARS <something>, as they can be folded back, metaphorically, if not literally…whereas eyes tend to be kept peeled – metaphorically only, one would hope!…