In theory, this should have been the last Cyclops before the B-word fright-mare of Halloween…
…and there are a few references in clues and solutions – ‘remoaner’/BELLYACHER, ‘Dominic’ sticking his nose in, and ‘no-deal Brexit’ leaving us OUT ON A LIMB – all in the first 5 clues. along with ‘shambolic’ seated MPs, and ‘Corbyn’s lot’ abstaining…
But it wasn’t to be, and once again we are stuck in Lib-Dem-bo, or purga-Tory, rather than crashing out and being ISOLATED – with Boris trying to SWEET-TALK THE COMMONS into a RECOUNT.
So maybe Cyclops was hedging his bets there?!
All good fun – I enjoyed the GRIMALDI double definition, and the surface read of 8D…23D is a poignant comment on Brian’s 65-odd year wait to complete his apprenticeship…
Only one slight quibble (or failing on my part) with the parsing of NAMIBIA at 18D – any clarifications gratefully received…otherwise thanks to Cyclops for an enjoyable solve…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | PAPACY | Catholic government makes father fast (6) | catholic government / PA (father) + PACY (fast) |
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| 4A | ASTRIDE | Mounting satire attacked when Dominic sticks his nose in (7) | mounting / ASTRI_E (anag, i.e. attacked, of SATIRE) around D (first letter, or nose, of Dominic) |
|
| 9A | BELLYACHER | Remoaner, windy type, poor lay at heart? (10) | remoaner / BEL_CHER (windy type!) around LYA (anag, i.e. poor, of LAY) |
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| 10A | CALL | See 19ac. (4) | See 19A / See 19A |
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| 11A | OUT ON A | & 25 Abroad, working with a member to reveal UK’s situation after no-deal Brexit? (3,2,1,4) | UK’s situation after no-deal Brexit? / OUT (abroad) + ON (working) + A + LIMB (member) |
|
| 12A | DENTURES | Ballsed-up US tender, removed overnight? (8) | (item) removed overnight? / anag, i.e. ballsed-up, of US TENDER |
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| 13A | PSALM | Hymn: ‘Trump’s Almost Content’ (5) | hymn / hidden word in, i.e. content of, ‘trumPS ALMost’ |
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| 14A | SWEET-TALK | Electioneering pitch? Tweets about “failed candidate being next to king” (5-4) | electioneering pitch / SWEET-T (anag, i.e. about, of TWEETS) + AL (Al Gore, failed US presidential candidate) + K (king) |
|
| 17A | GRAND SLAM | Dolled up, appropriating money for sporting achievement (5,4) | sporting achievement / G_LAM (dolled up) around (appropriating) RANDS (South African money) |
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| 19A | ALARM | & 10 Timely warning of Alabama member visit (5,4) | timely warning / AL (Alabama) + ARM (member) + CALL (visit) |
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| 22A | GRIMALDI | Royal family clown (8) | double defn. / Joseph GRIMALDI is a famous English clown (c.f. BoJo); and the GRIMALDIs of Monaco are a royal family |
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| 24A | METTLE | Police force: “Let’s spread guts!” (6) | guts / MET (Metropolitan Police Force) + TLE (anag, i.e. spread, of LET) |
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| 25A | LIMB | See 11ac. (4) | See 11A / See 11A |
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| 26A | THE COMMONS | Seated MPs comments? Oh, shambolic (3,7) | seated MPs / anag, i.e. shambolic, of COMMENTS OH |
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| 27A | INNARDS | One’s gutted to lose these pubs, cut through by a road (7) | one is gutted to lose these / INN_S (pubs) around (cut through by) A + RD (road) |
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| 28A | SHORTS | Pants “Drinks!” (6) | double defn. / SHORTS can be pants, maybe more in the US?; and SHORTS can be shots of alcohol |
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| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | PRECURSOR | It foreshadows PR course hacked by Right (9) | it foreshadows / PR + ECURSO (anag, i.e. hacked, of COURSE) + R (right) |
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| 2D | PALM OIL | Oi, all! PM’s prepared for a bribe (4,3) | a bribe / anag, i.e. prepared, of OI ALL PM |
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| 3D | CRAVAT | Car fitted with a TV? Male habit (6) | male habit / anag, i.e. fitted, of CAR with A TV |
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| 5D | SPRINTER | Athlete, one who makes an impression after sex (8) | athlete / S (sex – is this a valid abbreviation>) + PRINTER (one who makes an impression) |
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| 6D | RECOUNT | Brenda-elevated aristocrat called for when it suits a candidate (7) | (something) called for when it suits a (defeated) candidate / RE (ER, Elizabeth Regina, or Brenda, as the Eye calls her…elevated) + COUNT (aristocrat) |
|
| 7D | DELVE | Poke date (little folk need to get end away) (5) | poke / D (date) + ELVE( |
|
| 8D | SHADOW CABINET | Corbyn’s lot abstained – how to dither when shafted by Conservative leader (6,7) | Corbyn’s lot / SHADOW _ABINET (anag, i.e. to dither, of ABSTAINED HOW) around (shafted by) C (leading letter of Conservative) |
|
| 15D | LORDLINGS | Inferior peers left gin-sodden in ground (9) | inferior peers / LORD_S (cricket ground), around L (left) + ING (anag, i.e. sodden, of GIN) |
|
| 16D | ISOLATED | Dead, buried in ground, after one’s cut off (8) | cut off / I (one) + SO_D (earth, or ground) around (burying) LATE (dead) |
|
| 18D | NAMIBIA | Country’s main mistake: letting in sexually equivocal one (7) | country / NAMI (anag, i.e. mistake, of MAIN) + BI (bi-sexual, sexually equivocal) + A (one) – not sure what the ‘letting in’ alludes to? |
|
| 20D | LATIMER | Protestant martyr, subsequently recruiting Irish militant leaders (7) | Protestant martyr / LAT_ER (subsequently) around (recruiting) IM (leading letters of ‘Irish Militant’) |
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| 21D | SMOOTH | Suave drink that is chucked away (6) | suave / SMOOTH( |
|
| 23D | REIGN | Will our Brian ever … restrict weight with strap? (5) | will our Brian (Prince Charles) ever (do thi?) / REI_N (strap) around (restricting) G (gram/me, weight) |
|
I’m surprised that you have queried ‘s’ for sex in 5D, because it turns up fairly regularly in Cyclops crosswords, including several that you have blogged in the past without querying it. The ‘letting in’ in 18D just about works if one treats the final A as part of the anagram of MAIN and the earlier A as the ‘one’, but the fact that ‘BI’ and ‘A’ have to be let in separately and in reverse order works against the surface of the clue and makes it seem very clumsy.
Thanks, John E – re. 18D. As you say, at best a bit clumsy…
As for 5D and ‘s’ = ‘sex’…I’m sure I have queried it before – maybe in an Indy blog, rather than a Cyclops…and as you say I probably have let it slip past me often enough, when there have been other things to distract my interest.
I can’t find the abbreviation in any of my various paper and e-Chambers…but then again Cyclops and the Eye never specify a master reference source, so they can’t be chastised for not following the BRB…
Maybe it can be justified as the first letter of the regularly used SA = sex appeal?… I’ll take that – QED, and I can stop quibbling it!…
Mc, you’ll be opening a whole can of worms if you’re going to take s = sex on the basis that sa= sex appeal: h = house (of Lords), e = (royal) engineers, a = (bachelor of) arts, etc, etc. It’s given, standalone, in the free dictionary:
https://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/S
In 4a, shouldn’t it be ‘mounted’ for ASTRIDE? Could still work as ‘Mounted satire, attacked when Dominic’s nose stuck in’.
Regarding pants (28a), boxer shorts certainly are a familiar kind over ‘ere.
All valid points, Tony – and I will add that link to my list of references…
Thanks mc_rapper67, John E and Tony.
Re 18d I remember scratching my head at solve time for this one and parsed it in a very similar way to John E. One possible explanation for the word order that John E @1 has identified is as follows-
A sexually equivocal one could be described as “A Bi”.
A bit clunky but I seem to remember that was the rationale I used.
I’m not at all convinced by Namibia. Not that it matters……but someone should be held to account!!!!!
I enjoyed Bellyacher but lordlings as the last one in should have dropped a lot sooner!!!!!
Winsor, I thought NAMIBIA worked when I put it in, but it doesn’t really, does it? I suspect it was possibly a last-minute change to a clue that did work. What sanction were you thinking of, if and when you find someone to blame?
All the pieces of the jigsaw are supplied in the clue at 18D: NMAI (N-MI–A) lets in A BI. An example of a clue that is plain wrong (a jigsaw with one piece missing) is 29A in Cyclops 638, where something had been changed at a late stage.
Sorry, that should read NMIA, of course.
John, even if you accept you could put two elements into an anagram in two different places like that without indication, they come in the wrong order in the clue (as I now notice you remarked originally).
Tony @ 10 building on what John E has stated.
The order can be explained as in my post @5
Sexually equivocal one = A BI
e.g. Tall one = A Giant
Why would you use a stilted surface phrase like “sexually ambivalent one” to mean “a bi” rather than “a sexually ambivalent person” or even a phrase like “a double adapter” as a friend of mine likes to say? I’m sure it must have been a mistake.
Tony @12 — both of your suggested alternatives include the indefinite article as part of the clue. As ‘a’ is part of the solution, it is hardly surprising that the setter has looked for an alternative construction in the clue.
OK – that’s enough ‘NAMIBIAN’ discussions (to paraphrase!)…correspondence closed, and let’s all move on with our lives…
18D can be fairly conventionally parsed, NAM + IB + I + A, if one permits one bit of ‘cleverness’, the reversing of BI to IB. Bi’s do swing both ways.
.
Alternatively, NAMI + BI + A, but reading the clue as an ongoing description of the composition process with an anticipatory implicit reference to the finished product. Much as one might explain how to make a ham sandwich: first we take a slice of buttered bread, then some ham in the middle, and top it off with another slice of bread.