Because the Eye crossword allows us the luxury of over a week to solve it I often wait till the mood takes me.
This time I felt like solving it straight away …
… and I did, and constructed most of this blog. Inevitably, I didn’t write this preamble till just before the blog appears and now I cannot remember too much about it.
I see from my notes I had 5 unsolved after the first pass, mostly in the bottom-left including both 16a and 16d.
Silly that I didn’t get SCIATICA earlier – I certainly got it early on in life, after sledgehammering down an old WWII air raid shelter. Some relief was found from a chiropractor, but the pain didn’t completely go till after I stopped going to the chiro.
I cannot make the wordplay to 4D work
And I am not happy with the wordplay for my last one in 17A SOCIAL
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 9 | STUMBLE | Boris’s final “bonk trip” (7) [bori]S TUMBLE (bonk) |
| 10/23 | CONTROL FREAK | Political party talker for volatile type not keen on power sharing (7,5) CON (TALKER FOR)* AInd: volatile |
| 11 | FIT TO DROP | Party leader, Gerry O’Fall is done in (3,2,4) [gerry] FITT (Party leader, founder and the first leader of the SDLP in N.I. <Wiki> ) O’DROP (O’Fall) |
| 15 | FORSYTHIA | Brucie united with Cyclops and one Bush (9) FORSYTH (Brucie! Bruce Forsyth <Wiki>) I (Cyclops) A (one) The bush is named after William Forsyth <Wiki> I do not know if they are related |
| 16 | SINNER | Archer’s achievement after start of sentence? Criminal (6) S[entence] INNER (Archer’s achievement, as I know darts more than archery – the inner is what I would call the Bull). Archer in a clue without referencing |
| 17 | SOCIAL | Party doctrine is mostly at first lacking (6) SOCIA[lism] L[acking] ?? No. SOCIALISM (doctrine) lacking IS M[ostly] Last one in |
| 21 | INEFFABLE | National Front sources messed about with a belief? It’s beyond words (9) (NF A BELIEF)* AInd: messed about with |
| 25 | TOTAL | Childish sort, a Labour leader gets to do an exhaustive amount of damage (5) TOT (childish sort) A L[abour] |
| 26 | IRISH STEW | Got into by May over a border problem (making a meal of it)? (5,4) It’s a double Def. |
| 28 | CROCHET | Temperature taken from genital area by alien for decorative work (7) CRO[t]CH (genital area – T[emperature]) E.T. (alien) |
| 29 | FARRAGO | Nigel is incomplete, having just one ball which is a bit of a mess (7) FARRAG[e] O – I thought that was Hitler? Easy mistake to make |
| Down | ||
| 1 | USEFUL | American fuel disaster – that’s handy! (6) US (American) FUEL* AInd: disaster First one in |
| 2/12/27 | JUST FANCY THAT | Merely want Trump’s inauguration top wear to show “Blow me” (4,5,4) JUST FANCY (merely want) T[rump] HAT (top wear) |
| 3 | OBSOLETE | Old hat to be pissed about Sun – ultimately futile (8) (TO BE)* AInd: pissed around SOL then [futil]E. Penultimate one in, and now I understand the wordplay my favourite clue |
| 4 | PETRIFY |
Hollow Trump, playing with fire, has yen to scare one stiff (7) I cannot make this wordplay work: It looks like an anagram of TR and FIRE AInd: playing then Y[en]. But surely “Hollow Trump” would give TP not TR ?Edit: As pointed out by Mike at Comment #1 the correct answer must be PETRIFY then the wordplay works (T[rum]P FIRE)* AInd: playing then Y[en]. |
| 5 | SCEPTRE | Poor respect for Brenda’s staff (7) RESPECT* AInd: poor |
| 6 | SNIFFY | Condescending Poles undecided (6) SN (poles) IFFY (undecided) |
| 7 | CRUNCH TIME | Critical moment when rich men cut off (6,4) (RICH MEN CUT )* AInd: off |
| 8 | PLAY BALL | Co-operate after pressure to bonk and bonk again (4,4) P[ressure] LAY (bonk) BALL (bonk – again) |
| 14 | CONFECTION | It’s fine to replace name in relationship, sweet (10) CONNECTION (relationship) swap N[ame] for F[ine] |
| 16 | SCIATICA | Asiatic transport around Cambodia’s capital is a persistent pain (8) ASIATIC* AInd: transport, around C[ambodia] |
| 18 | OFFSHORE | Seedy old Labour minister, somewhat at sea (8) OFF (seedy) SHORE (old labour minister- Peter Shore <Wiki> ) |
| 19 | OBVIATE | Forestall Republican getting out of abortive fiasco (7) (ABORTIVE – R[epublican])* AInd: fiasco |
| 20 | BELIEFS | Complains about Latin international leader’s views (7) L[atin] I[nternational] inside BEEFS (complains) |
| 22/13 | FILTHY LUCRE | As Cyclops might clue cruel, sordid profit (6,5) Reverse wordplay: “Filthy lucre” might be a clue for CRUEL, via (LUCRE)* AInd: filthy |
| 24 | KOWTOW | Kavanaugh officially tops? Cripes – about time to do some brown-nosing! (6) K[avanaugh] O[fficially] then T[ime] in WOW! (Cripes!) |
I’m a fan of hummus and generally keep a tub or two in the fridge.
But you’ve got to watch it because their best-before dates are short and don’t lie – if you’re not careful you find a tub of fermented foam – not the kind of fermentation I like.
Anyway, I have discovered there are now tubs of similar tasty mushy dips made from lentils rather than chick peas, and they have a significantly longer fridge life.
So I asked a friend what’s the difference between a lentil and a chickpea?
She said: “Trump wouldn’t pay to have a lentil on him”
I think 4a is PETRIFY, not TERRIFY. And surely Nigel Farage has only 1 r in his surname?
4d, sorry
I have an appalling memory for detail so I enjoy doing the puzzle twice….once on my computer when it first comes out and once when the magazine hits my door…usually one day before entry date, if I am lucky. My performance on the second run is , of course, much better but I can still flounder!!!!!I have managed to split the difference this time. got ‘petrify’ first time around and ‘terrify’ the second time!!!! However, I forgot to put my electronic entry in so no Winsor in the Eye yet again.
Beermagnet’s approach would have worked if Trump was ‘endless’ ad not ‘gutless’….sorry hollow!!!
I, too, thought Farage was one r.
Thank you Mike – you are of course correct on both counts.
4D must be PETRIFY
So we now have a question on 29A. Farage has only got one R
I should’ve remembered as I normally pronounce his name same as Al Murray’s pub landlord: to rhyme with garage
I must have missed his career, as being noteworthy for Cyclops to use in a clue, but who’s Jeremy Archer (your 16a solution).
Probably the first time someone’s every mixed up Corbyn & everyone’s favourite perjurer!
11a Can’t remember now if I ascertained who Gerry Fitt was or just biffed it from O’Fall = ODROP
16a Jeffrey (sic) Archer. (Yes, it does!)
17a Your second parsing is what I read. What’s wrong with that?
2/12/27 Isn’t ‘hat’ part of the def?
18d Also not sure that I remembered Shore or just BIFD
FORSYTHIA was a special answer for me, as it was the answer to the first clue in the first crossword I ever had published (as Sphinx in the British Go Journal). Although I also started with a Brucie reference (using “Good game!” in the clue somehow), I thought that might be unfair on large sections of my (tiny) of solvership, so it became:
One found in garden concocting a story, with hopefully innocent face, initially
Gerry Fitt was the leader of Northern Ireland’s SDLP (Social Democratic & Labour Party) in the 70s and 80s.
Oh No! Oh dear. Did I type Jeremy instead of Jeffrey?
What-a-mistake-a-to-make-a
Tony: I can’t see what the issue is with 2/12/27
The change to 4d needs to be made on the grid as well.
Solved puzzle image now corrected (but I’m not claiming it’s necessarily fully correct)
Personally, I can’t see anything wrong with the solution/parsing as it now stands — the only fault is the setter’s for not clueing the extra ‘r’ in 29a.
beermagnet
Sorry, not 12 etc, but 3, OBSOLETE. You only underlined ‘old’, but I think the full def is ‘old hat’, no?
PS I reckon your grid’s bang on now.
Oh yes. 3D Def. should be “Old hat” I’ll fix that.
I know what happened – I didn’t spot the wordplay till writing this blog, after underlining the “def” in the clue. I thought that “sun” delivered just the S and wondered what kind of hat an OBELET was – maybe a beret worn on the slant?
Is a belet an Asian version of the beret? Like that famous watch company, Lorex?
“Is a belet an Asian version of the beret? Like that famous watch company, Lorex?”
You sirry iriot! /Benny Hill
Thanks beermagnet…I was also thrown by the extra R in 29a. It does seem to be an error which is very rare for Cyclops. It could be Nigel drops his R’s (so to speak).
Re 14d I didn’t know about Fine = F. Just wonder if anyone knows the context this abbreviation is used (weather reports maybe?).
Franko@16. Catalogues of items for sale (e.g. coins and antiquarian books) use F as an abbreviation meaning ‘in fine condition’.
Pencils that can be sharpened to a fine point have F stamped on them.
Thanks John E @17 and Mike M @18.