One of those where the last one in was the first one read and failed to solve, several times:
1A where I got totally fixated that the definition was some kind of egg stuffing that I didn’t know about.
Anyway I had all but 13a, 3d and 1a by the end of the first pass so it must’ve been on the easy side
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BEGGAR | Stuffing, say, grand into Rod’s bum (6) EG (say) G[rand] inside BAR (rod) Last one in. |
| 5 | BYPASS | Bill’s main yen: to get through skirt (6) B[ill] Y[en] PASS (through) |
| 10 | NEXT OF KIN | Nixon: “F–k the gutless, wussy ‘nearest and dearest’“? (4,2,3) (Nixon F k t[h]E)* AInd: wussy |
| 11/12 | BAREFACED LIAR | A close shave for a blatant purveyor of fake news? (9,4) Cryptic / Extended Definition. Enjoyable one |
| 13 | DISCREET | Guarded Corbynite source introduced to Ed, tires out (8) (C[orbynite] … ED TIRES)* AInd: out |
| 15 | OPTIC | Eye-related work on jerk (5) OP (work) TIC (jerk) |
| 17 | HABIT | After triumphant ejaculation, Brexit ‘King’ removed dress (5) HA! (triumphant ejaculation) B[rex]IT |
| 19 | VERANDAH | “Darn, have to play for the gallery!” (8) (DARN HAVE)* AInd: to play |
| 25 | CHURCHMAN | Cleric Charlotte cosied up to servant (9) CHURCH (Ref. Charlotte C <wiki>) MAN (servant) |
| 26/9/21/23 | HAVE IT ON GOOD AUTHORITY | Hear from very reliable source: “Enjoy sex, working with proficient, powerful body” (4,2,2,4,9) HAVE IT (enjoy sex) ON (working) GOOD (proficient) AUTHORITY (powerful body) |
| 27 | REEKED | Hummed in Greek? Edifying! (6) Hidden in gREEK EDifying |
| 28 | ERRORS | Tearaways lacking head for boobs (6) [t]ERRORS |
| Down | ||
| 2 | ESTABLISH | Found bliss at the works, taking time off (9) (BLISS AT THE – T[ime])* AInd: works |
| 3 | GENERIC | Perhaps in Greece, getting end away is common to a particular class (7) (IN GREEC[e])* AInd: perhaps |
| 4/18 | RUN OF BAD LUCK | ‘Fund Labour organisation’ – heartless cheek! Hardly welcomed by punters (3,2,3,4) (FUND LABOUR)* AInd: organisation , C[hee]K |
| 5 | BROADMOOR | Coarse space turned over for jail (9) BROAD (coarse) ROOM> (space, turned over) |
| 6 | PIKELET | Lance, say the magic word: “crumpet!” (7) PIKE (lance) LET ? Why is “Let” the magic word? |
| 7 | SANTA | Deliveryman gets head from sex worker in front of one (5) S[ex] ANT (worker) A |
| 8 | EXECUTIVE TIME | I have Romney almost brought back in to perform when Trump does nothing? (9,4) I’VE MIT[t]< inside EXECUTE (to perform) |
| 14 | ENTRANCED | Recent rumpy-pumpy with Dan was charming (9) (RECENT … DAN)* AInd: rumpy-pumpy |
| 16 | CRAZY OVER | Absolutely infatuated with nuts and balls (5,4) CRAZY (nuts) OVER (balls) |
| 20 | NEITHER | Not this or that element of Brunei, therefore (7) Hidden in bruNEI THERefore |
| 22 | ON CUE | Copper’s penetration of individual is timed perfectly (2,3) CU (Copper) in ONE |
| 24 | OUNCE | Catty thing‘s bound to get rid of leader (5) [b]OUNCE. The crossword cat |
Terrible April Fool joke:
I just saw a bloke driving a tractor and shouting “THE END IS NIGH!”
It was Farmer Geddon.
Thanks beermagnet. I to struggled with 1A, although I didn’t have 90% completed on the first pass, I’m more of division 2(north) solver. 7D made me smile, typical cyclops subtifuge. Minor point, I know the D & R keys are quite close but I believe meant to type ‘RECENT’ instead of ‘DECENT’ on 14D parse.
I solved 8d from the crossers and the parsing, only later checking the topical reference (which had slipped under my news radar).
Thanks to beermagnet and Cyclops
Are pikelets made from pressed dough?
Pressed dough as in “Hey pressed dough!” ( “Hey Presto” ) – I still don’t know why ‘let’ is the magic word in 14D
and I don’t know what pikelets are made from either
I have corrected 14D to be indecent – thanks Bhealy
I finished this quite quickly and also wondered about LET= magic word. I’d never heard of PIKELETs, but got ‘pike’ and googled it once I had the L?T. Turns out it’s another word for what I know as ‘drop scones’. They’re made from batter, not “pressed dough”.
Pikelets are like pancakes but the mixture is thicker and they are smaller and thicker in turn. Russians make something similar with chopped fruit in, called alladi. I must admit I sort of ignored the magic word bit and saw ‘say’ as ‘let’ as in solving a theorem….’let x = ….. etc.’
Pressed dough is wonderfully imaginative though….a great wordplay, but surely it takes us further away from the result rather than closer?
My full parsing was cryptic def + homophone +def
Lance = short pike = PIKELET
Pressed dough = homophone of PRESTO
All a bit strained and I’m still not sure what pikelets are made of, but one google result said they originated as a type of dark Welsh flatbread
RE 14d I don’t think ‘say’ indicates a homophone although I really like the creativity of “pressed Dough”. In Chambers Crossword Dictionary there is a reference Let = say the magic word. Will research where this comes from unless someone already knows this.
Re 14 d, I think it’s in the context of when we say something like “just say the magic word and I’ll get on with it” like an approval or OK.
Here is a link to an online definition of ‘let’ as ‘say the magic word’:
http://en.oxforddictionaries.com/thesaurus/let
PS — the batter used for pikelets and other crumpets is prepared by beating it (no pressing involved!).
Tony @ 5
PS 2 — According to Mrs Beeton, pikelets are not the same as dropped scones (aka Scotch pancakes). There is no egg in her pikelet recipe. My mother’s Scotch pancakes were usually made with milk that was starting to turn sour.
I didn’t imagine the correct parsing would be even more fanciful than mine.
Dansar @12. ‘Lance’ = PIKE and ‘say the magic word’ = LET provide the cryptic elements, while PIKELET = ‘crumpet’ provides the surface definition. Pike and pikelet are straight out of any dictionary and ‘say the magic word’ appears well to the fore in a reputable thesaurus. I see nothing fanciful about this clue. (Appropriately, the first phrase that occurred to me when I worked out the parsing was ‘Let there be light’!)
John @11
Who do you believe? Mrs Beeton or the internet? 🙂
I’ve heard ‘Scotch pancakes’ for (what I call) drop (and you, dropped) scones. When I was introduced to these snacks one night in Oxford in about 1973, I was also told sour milk was best. I’ve never been sure whether that’s right or if it’s just that they’re ok with sour milk and it’s a good way of getting rid of the stuff. As I recall we ate them with butter and possibly honey. I take it your mum’s Scotch pancakes didn’t contain egg either?
Tony @14
Mrs B is the only big cookery book in my possession, and certainly the only one that references both pikelets and ‘dropped’ (sic) scones. I assume that my mother put an egg in her Scotch pancake batter, as that is what the recipes call for (I’ve found another one in a book by Marguerite Patten). The ones that I eat these days are all shop-bought, as I never let my milk go sour and I wouldn’t want to cook them anyway without a proper griddle. (Memo to self: must ask my sister what happened to our mother’s griddle.) Were you an undergraduate in 1973?
I was and I assumed most on here are old codgers who were undergraduates in 1973.
John@15, I was an undergrad at the time, but not at Oxford, rather Bristol. I was visiting a friend who was (supposed to be) studying there.
Having completed Cyclops 648, I’ve just been through the rest of Eye 1493 and I see that there is a reader’s letter on page 21 complaining about the 5d clue in Cyclops 647, the complaint being that Broadmoor shouldn’t really be described as a jail (it is actually a secure hospital). I think the fact that no one here felt the need to comment on that distinction speaks for itself…