One of those Eye puzzles that I found difficult to finish despite getting most of it early on.
In my notes I marked 16 as solved on first reading.
1d was a lovely start to the puzzle (after failing to cold solve the first couple of across clues) a classic Cyclops clue and my favourite in this puzzle.
With so many crossing letters many other clues soon fell but I was left with a bunch in the bottom left corner. It took a while to make any headway with them.
In retrospect I cannot see why these clues misled me so much. For instance the last one in, 21d SCARED is very straightforward when you see the answer.
So no speed prize in sight this time.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1/10 | TABLOID INTRUSION | Crooked loan distribution claimed to be in the public interest? (7,9) (LOAN DISTRIBUTION)* AInd: crooked |
| 5 | HOTHEAD | Madcap uses piping with oral sex (7) HOT (piping) HEAD (oral sex) |
| 9/28 | STIFF DRINK | Neat whisky? Difficult by the sea (5,5) STIFF (difficult) DRINK (the sea) |
| 11 | INLAND SEA | Daniel’s troubled with an awfully large watery body (6,3) (DANIEL’S + AN)* AInd: troubled |
| 12/24 | BLOOD MONEY | Gore gets ready for shameful payment (5,5) BLOOD (Gore) MONEY (ready) Not Al Gore this time |
| 13 | LARKIN | Poet pissing about, giving away a lot of money (6) LARKIN[g] Larking from pissing about, G = Grand , a lot of money. |
| 15 | ST LUCIA | Member of West Indies cult is buggered by one (2,5) (CULT IS)* AInd: buggered, then A (one) |
| 19 | CHEERED | Iconic Leftie, before going on date, given encouragement (7) CHE (Iconic leftie) ERE (before) D[ate] |
| 20 | TWELVE | Latin vocalist’s entrance in schmaltzy number (6) L[atin] V[ocalist] inside TWEE (schmaltzy) – This time number is not as in song, or anaesthetic – this time it really is as in arithmetic |
| 23/3 | CHARM OFFENSIVE | Brown-noser’s strategy: Corbyn’s chief impairment – insulting (5,9) CHARM (Corbyn’s chief impairment) OFFENSIVE (insulting). The question is do you need to be charming if you’re simply honest? |
| 25 | UTTERANCE | Entire political party is against Pence’s final statement (9) UTTER (entire) ANC (political party) [penc]E |
| 27 | RESENTFUL | Bitter makes you relaxed, welcoming of vacuous election! (9) RESTFUL (makes you relaxed) around E[lectio]N |
| 29 | DELAYED | Unprofessional in action, just like the Brexit process (7) LAY (unprofessional) in DEED (action) |
| 30 | DRY-EYED | On the wagon, looked far from weepy (3-4) DRY (on the wagon) EYED (looked) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | TESTICLE | Jerk cuts into tempered steel nut? (8) TIC (jerk) inside (STEEL)* AInd: tempered. First one in. |
| 2 | BRILL | Boris pissed, so goes off with large double – “Fab!” (5) (BORIS – SO)* AInd: pissed, then LL (L[arge] double) |
| 4 | DRIEST | Tried desperately to squeeze end of penis? Most uninteresting (6) (TRIED)* AInd: desperately, around [peni]S |
| 5 | HOT PANTS | Lecherous bursts of breath? That’s sixties attire for you (3,5) HOT (lecherous) PANTS (bursts of breathe) |
| 6 | THUMB | Maybe Tom‘s in fact humbled (5) Ref. Tom Thumb. Hidden inside facT HUMBled |
| 7 | EDITORIAL | Groomed real idiot for a leader (9) (REAL IDIOT)* AInd: groomed |
| 8 | DENUDE | Pretend cowboy presses enrolled nurse to strip (6) EN (E[nrolled] N[urse]) inside DUDE (pretend cowboy) |
| 14 | REHEARSAL | Maybe Sarah Palin’s focus, er, is to store energy for a trial run (9) (SARAH [pa]L[in] + ER + E[nergy])* AInd: maybe |
| 16 | UNWORLDLY | Dolly run over outside entrance to Wetherspoon’s (no sophistication) (9) (DOLLY RUN)* AInd: over, around (outside) W[etherspoons] |
| 17 | REBUFFED | Balls underneath, about to touch bare skin – given the brush-off (8) ED (Balls, ref. Ed Balls the ex-politician), after (underneath) RE (about) BUFF (bare skin) |
| 18 | BEDECKED | Get knocked to the floor and covered with bloomers? (8) Double definition |
| 21 | SCARED | Given a bad mark, right away pissing your pants? (6) SCARRED -R[ight]. Last one in. |
| 22 | STYLED | Pen was a leader? Should be tagged (6) STY (pen) LED (was a leader) |
| 26 | NOISY | Blasting number one, Sally is gutted (5) NO I S[all]Y |
Why don’t people talk about slow ghosts?
Because they’re the last taboo.
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