Cyclops 685 – Cherish Nibbles

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Is it just me, or is Cyclops getting smuttier in his clueing lately?!…

…I tallied two ‘kinky’s, an ‘inserted’ nob, a ‘crushed’ penis, a ‘terrible’ shit, a ‘checked’ orifice, a ‘fisted’ aristocrat and a ‘touched’ bosom before I had to go for a cold shower and a lie down – ooo errr matron! 24A is an eye-watering surface read, and 1A is a little disturbing too… (I’m not complaining , just observing…all part of Cyclops’ unique style!…)

On a gentler note, and probably my favourite for this puzzle, was CHER-ISH at 26A. The LANDOWNER clue at 15D may be a subtle nod to the recent (non)story about Keir Starmer buying a piece of land for his mother to keep donkeys on/being a rich capitalist property development speculator, depending on which papers you read!

I enjoyed the definitions of STOCKINGS at 17D as ‘members’ cover-ups’, with the hint of a political scandal as diversion in the clue reading, and THROMBOSIS at 21A as a ‘clottish thing’! The PRESENTS/PERTNESS anagram at 16A was nice too.

My LOI was 5A DISROBE – it being a while since I saw ‘DI’ clued as a former royal…

 

 

Thanks, as ever, to Cyclops, and hope all is clear below…

Across
Clue No Solution Clue Definition (with occasional embellishments) /
Logic/parsing
1A SPYHOLE See anus as a surveillance aid? (7) surveillance aid? /
SPY (see) + HOLE (anus!)
5A DISROBE Peel: former royal’s mug (English) (7) peel (clothes off!)/
DIS (Di’s, former royal’s) + ROB (mug) + E (English)
10A DOWNFALL ‘Blue Season’ – disgrace! (8) disgrace /
DOWN (blue, sad) + FALL (season)
11A PASS BY Ignore – and maintain social distance when you do so? (4,2) ignore /
maybe a double defn? If you PASS BY someone these days, you try to do so maintaining/respecting social distance
12A HIGH & 9 Pissed with Gore, newspapers possibly rue the result of too much stress? (4,5,8) the result of too much stress? /
HIGH (pissed) + BLOOD (gore) + PRESS (newspapers) + URE (anag, i.e. possibly, of RUE)
13A HOODWINKED Eye opened and closed after criminal taken in (10) taken in /
HOOD (criminal) + WINKED (eye opened and closed)
14A SELLER One who convinces Sibyl to guzzle large double (6) one who convinces /
SE_ER (Sibyl) around (guzzling) LL (large, doubled)
16A PERTNESS Kinky presents – such impudence! (8) impudence! /
anag, i.e. kinky, of PRESENTS
18A ORDNANCE Alternative nob inserted in ball – old boy going great guns! (8) guns /
OR (alternative) + D_ANCE (ball), around N(OB) (NOB inserted, without OB – old boy, convoluted way of clueing ‘N’?!)
20A TREMOR U-turning Catholic Church: right time for a shake-up (6) a shake-up /
ROME (Catholic Church, generally) + R (right) + T (time) – all U-turning = TREMOR!
21A THROMBOSIS A clottish thing, right, touching bosom inappropriately? In terrible shit (10) a clottish thing (!) /
TH_IS (anag, i.e. terrible, of SHIT) around R (right) + OMBOS (anag, i.e. inappropriately, of BOSOM)
23A DUKE Fist an aristocrat (4) double defn. /
a DUKE is an aristocrat; and a DUKE (or dook) is also slang for a fist
24A BRUNEL Civil engineer turned bluer, when crushing penis in the middle (6) civil engineer /
BRU_ER (anag, i.e. turned, of BLUER) around (crushing) N (middle letter of peNis)
25A REINVENT Be creative in a new way: check orifice (8) be creative in a new way /
REIN (check, hold back) + VENT (opening, orifice)
26A CHERISH A bit like a pop singer, love? (7) love /
If one was a bit like Cher, the pop singer, then one might be CHER-ISH!
27A GYMNAST Angst aroused about Cyclops’s upset tumbler? (7) tumbler? /
G_NAST (anag, i.e. aroused, of ANGST) around YM (my, Cyclops’, upset)
Down
Clue No Solution Clue Definition (with occasional embellishments) /
Logic/parsing
2D PROFITEER Don needs sex and drugs, ultimately another one who gains from Covid-19 situation? (9) one who gains from Covid-19 (or any other?) situation /
PROF (professor, don) + IT (euphemism for s-e-x) + EE (Ecstasy tablets, drugs) + R (ultimate letter of anotheR)
3D HUNCH Hump? That’s an idea! (5) double defn. /
a HUNCH has be a hump, as in humpback; and a HUNCH can be an idea, intuition
4D LEATHER Kinky material he finally gets included in soap? (7) (possibly) kinky material /
L_ATHER (soap) around (including) E (final letter of hE)
6D IN POWER Labour isn’t now ripe for rehabilitation (2,5) Labour (currently) isn’t /
anag, i.e. for rehabilitation, of NOW RIPE
7D RESONANCE Strictures on ancestors houses sound quality (9) sound quality /
hidden word in, i.e. housed by, ‘strictuRES ON ANCEstors’
8D BIBLE Ill-temper surrounding Boris’s number one’s authority (5) authority /
BI_LE (ill-temper) around (surrounding) B (number one letter of Boris)
9D BLOOD PRESSURE See 12ac. (5,8) see 12A /
see 12A
15D LANDOWNER Labour leader together with one who admits being a laird? (9) a laird? /
L (leading letter of Labour) + AND (together with) + OWNER (one who admits to something)
17D STOCKINGS Members’ cover-ups (accepted a lot of money in shares) (9) members’ (legs’) cover ups /
STOCK_S (shares) around IN (accepted) + G (a Grand, a lot of money)
19D NIBBLES Bible wielded in North-South divide – doesn’t make a meal of it (7) doesn’t make a meal of /
N_S (North and South) around (divided by) IBBLE (anag, i.e. wielded, of BIBLE)
20D TESTIFY Assert cricket match dodgy? F-off! (7) assert /
TEST (cricket match) + IF(F)Y (dodgy, with one F off!)
22D HARSH Bitter Republican into pot (5) bitter /
HA_SH (pot) around R (Republican)
23D DIVAN Terrible old ruler on right side of daughter’s bed (5) bed /
D (daughter) + IVAN (the Terrible!) (this would work better as an Across clue, with IVAN to the right of D, rather than below?)

 

17 comments on “Cyclops 685 – Cherish Nibbles”

  1. I didn’t notice at the time…but surely a wink involves closing and then opening rather than the other way around? Lovely puzzle though……got a slow start but rattled along later.

  2. Quite right Winsor. Coincidentally the same word was a solution to a recent Guardian clue (Paul, last Friday). I found this one relatively hard going – exemplified by the time it took me to spot 7D, to find an anagram for PRESENTS, and to unravel 18A – not sure whether to blame my own mental fogginess or Cyclops for upping the difficulty level again. I had to google Sibyl and nearly screwed up by putting EYEHOLE for 1A until 2D forced me to think again. Thanks mc_rapper67, I share your favourite (also liked Brunel despite the rather off-putting imagery!), agree with the comment on 23D, and also took a while to twig re DI.

  3. Winsor at #1 – good point on the winking logic at 13A, although maybe the misdirection is Eye = Private Eye, and it makes more sense to open that first before closing it?! I think I either skimmed it too quickly, or assumed the opening and closing would happen multiple times, leaving the winker in a seeing state…but would that then be blinking rather than winking? Blinking hell!

    As Eric Idle said, in the ‘Nudge Nudge’ sketch: ‘A nod’s as good as a wink to a blind bat’!…

  4. Radio 4 heads will have clocked 26a as the ?first appearance here of a definition of the Uxbridge English Dictionary type, as proffered in the game show I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue. “Cherish” has apparently already appeared there as “Rather [or A bit] like a chair”.  I think Cyclops’ variant is better, and ideally suited to print.

  5. I think it’s at least open to empirical investigation, whether or not a brief opening of a closed eye can ever be taken to be a functional wink.

  7. lemming @4 — “Rather like a chair” is ideally suited to radio because it’s a sound gag based on a near-homophone. If I wanted to smuggle the good lady into Uxbridge I might say “shareholder”, with the definition Sonny Bono.

  8. lemming and John E – you guys! It is all ‘Cher, and Cher-alike’!…(I know, Chris Lancaster tweeted something similar recently in response to a Cher/diva clue thread…)

  9. Thanks mc_rapper67 and Cyclops -I enjoyed this one and found it a challenge but scraped through it. I had ‘starred’ 26a on my copy and also thought of ISIHAC like lemming @5. GAZZH @2, you’re not the only one that googled sibyl =seer.

    Just to show I’m paying attention, I think that 20a = TREMOR the TR component comes from RT (right time -reversed).

    In Private Eye ‘From the Message Boards -Bogbrush’ style I’m enjoying the rest of the ‘bants’.

  10. Thanks, Franko, at #7 – I needed to either include ‘time’ in the definition – ‘TREMOR = time for a shake-up’?, or use it in the wordplay as you suggest, otherwise it is redundant…I think it fits better in the wordplay…duly updated…

  11. I think the ‘?’ at the end of 1ac is not part of the definition, but there to indicate that “arse” is a definition of HOLE only by example.

    Re winking and blinking, isn’t it the number of eyes participating that distinguishes them?

  12. @Tony….mmm….I can blink one eye….as in……it happened in a blink of the eye. And even a blink is open-shut-open!!!!

  14. Eye, eye, what’s going on ear? No-one nose what Cyclops was thinking about winking – or blinking!…but no body has come to any ‘arm…

    Tony Collman at #11 – point taken on my questionable use of the ? in the definition at 1A. I tend to copy/paste the definition bit in, and I often scoop up any punctuation along the way!

  15. mc,

    “No-one nose what Cyclops was thinking about winking – or blinking!”

    Well, excuse my cheek, but it was a clue for hoodWINKED, so, on the face of it, it was the former.

  16. @Toe Knee Collman. Yes, butt, no, butt. I don’t have a leg to stand on. I will turn the other cheek. If we ever meet I will get you a beer and foot the bill.

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