Private Eye (Cyclops / 686) Volcanic Entombment

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On the tough side this time, though it may have been me having a bad solving day.

In retrospect, there isn’t anything madly difficult, so I must’ve been off Cyclops’ wavelength this time.  I wrote in 12A wrong but can’t blame that for holding me up too long because it was soon resolved when I got 2D.
A slow first pass ended up with less than half in place, and an even slower 2nd half had to run to extra time to get the last few slotted in in the top right corner.  [Sorry.  I seem to have drifted into a football report.]
Kicked self about the last one in 10/13 Vote Meddling which misled me into thinking of Caviar and Vodka etc. for a Russian speciality – I should have known – this is Private Eye after all.

Across
8 SHINBONE Shut up, accepted shag, US-style, showing a bit of leg (8)
SH (Shut up, “Ssshh!”) IN (accepted)  BONE (shag, US-style).
Took a while to solve this, misled into think it would have LAY in it, from that American shag.
9 CARTEL State right to sanction backing for criminal organisation? (6)
CA (state, California) R[ight]  LET< (sanction, backing)
10/13 VOTE MEDDLING Finally, Kate Middleton’s about to tuck into very good Russian speciality (4-8)
([kat]E (Kate, finally) + MIDDLETON)* AInd: about,  inside  V[ery] G[ood]
Last one in
11 CINDERELLA Bit of fire shown by singer – what a pantomime! (10)
CINDER (bit of fire) ELLA (sinder, singer, ref. Ella Fitzgerald)
First one in
12 TENDON Fibrous tissue not about to cramp butt (6)
NOT< (not, about) around (cramp[ing]) END (butt).
For a long time I had this written in as COTTON which I had carelessly entered thinking something like (NOT TO C[ramp])<
2d Incendiary eventually put me right
15 ADVANCE Loan from a former Secretary of State cut by Donald at first (7)
D[onald] inside A  VANCE  Ref. Cyrus Vance.
17 FLOWERY Ornate arch imprisons debtor (7)
OWER (debtor) inside FLY (arch)
20 ABEYANCE Suspended state of a singer-songwriter, giving away sod all and taking one in (8)
A BEYONCE – O + A
22 FAR CRY Pursuing female, carry nuts a long way (3,3)
F[emale] (CARRY)* AInd: nuts.
24 ENTOMBMENT Crazy mom bent on a little amusement comes to a monumental ending (10)
(MOM BENT)* AInd: crazy,  on ENT short for Entertainment (a little amusement)
27 PENCIL Member firmly has lead in this (6)
Cryptic def. referring to the simile “having lead in your pencil”
28 CAMPSITE Temporary housing location – state politician: “It’s bursting with energy!” (8)
CA (state, California, again) MP (politician)  ITS* AInd: bursting E[nergy]
Down
1 THRONE ‘Toilet’ article about Reagan shortened (6)
THE (article, definitely) around RON [Ronald Reagan, shortened first name]
2 INCENDIARY Provocative, coarse inner city ad (Time Out) (10)
(INNER CITY AD – T)* AInd: coarse
3 VOLCANIC Prone to outbursts against “laconic” screwing (8)
V (against, versus, v.) LACONIC* AInd: screwing
4 PEN NAME George Eliot? Pound? New answer: Cyclops (3,4)
PEN (pound, as in e.g. a dog pound) N[ew] A[nswer] ME (Cyclops)
5 SCREED A tiresome thing to read, Starmer’s main set of principles (6)
S[tarmer] CREED (set of principles)
6 URGE Eddy goes topless – sexual desire? (4)
[s]URGE (eddy, topless)
Edit: See Barry at Comment #6 [g]URGE works better.  GURGE is a whirlpool.  As the word is rare (I certainly had never heard of it) I wonder if it was intended
7 RECLINER For someone who likes to lie about Corbyn’s main row with right (8)
RE (about) C[orbyn] LINE (row) R[ight]
14 LOWER HOUSE MPs collectively raise the roof? On the contrary (5,5)
Cryptic wordplay – supposing the opposite of raising the roof is lowering the house
16 DEBUNKED Ridiculed and kicked out of bed? (8)
Double Definition, second one a bit cryptic/humourous
18 LIFETIME Perceived duration of Brexit and Coronavirus? I (and millions) feel pissed with it! (8)
(I M[illions] FEEL IT )* AInd: pissed
19 REGENCY Republican wants gene modification and city emptied – that’s the style! (7)
R[epublican] GENE* AInd: modification C[it]Y
21 NIBBLE Barely adequate food books dumped in river (6)
BB (books) in NILE (river)
23 RELATE Which hosts dodgy union discussions (6)
Cryptic Def. referring to the organisation previously known as the Marriage Guidance Council
25/26 ONCE ONLY Some ponce on Lycra: “Never again!” (4,4)
Hidden in pONCE ON LYcra

During lockdown for some exercise I tried Kung Fu but it was too hard and aggressive.
I tried Tai Chi but it was too soft and gentle.
So I decided on a very British compromise – Tai Fu
(it was much more my cup of tea)

10 comments on “Private Eye (Cyclops / 686) Volcanic Entombment”

  1. Thanks beermagnet,  took a while for the kopeck to drop for me too. And for a long time with those crossers I got fixated on Eddy Large => ARGE for 6D although of course that isn’t a word and he was an Eddie anyway.

    I agree that this was another with some trickier clues, and twice the device Main = first letter of a word was used: not sure if I have seen this much/at all but will have to keep an eye out in future, does anyone else feel uneasy about it – is it only acceptable for proper nouns when the first letter is a capital, as only then is it “main” in some sense?

    And after needing to google DEWEY for a Guardian crossword last week the obscurity level went up another notch (for me at least) with VANCE!

    Very enjoyable anyway, with PEN NAME along with VOTE MEDDLING getting the biggest thumbs up.

  2. Thanks beermagnet and Cyclops. I have to say I didn’t find this one more difficult than others but bear in mind I always find them a  challenge anyway.

    I’ve just looked up Cyrus Vance and was surprised to learn he was last in office 40 years ago. At solve time I was thinking oh yeah I remember the name Vance he was around about 20 years ago. Gazzh @1 – I thought main was ok as indicating first but I’m no expert.

    Re 24a across thanks for clearing up a mis-parsing on my part. I thought that ENT must come from the last letters of amusement which was pretty lame thinking on my part. So overall I think that clue gets my gold star.

    Bearing in mind a recent post, I would like to quote Mr Gary Neville 04/10/2020 “Dominant Spurs, Happy Spurs, Dancing Spurs” 🙂

     

  3. No, Beermagnet, you were not the only me to find this on a different wavelength. I had to put it aside for a day or two before I got back to it, but looking at it now, I do not know why. All very gettable.
    I noticed the “main” device too and thought someone would mention it (thanks Gazzh@1) but what made it worse was that there was only one clue between them so it was very fresh in the mind.

    Cyrus Vance was certainly pushing the use of the term “former” for general recall a bit far.

    Thanks Cyclops.

  4. Thanks beermagnet & cyclops. NHO RELATE in that sense, and wasn’t convinced that a surge is the same as an eddy, but got both in the end from crossers. I liked PEN NAME.

  5. Very many thanks to you good people. I, too, took three sessions to sort this one and also couldn’t see the problem when they finally dropped!!!! Like snoc, I find the surge/eddy thing a bit off. When there is a restriction in the flow, a surge may well cause an eddy but they are not the same. I think I am OK with main being used for the first letter too. (@Beermat…singer not sinder!! Ella was certainly hot stuff (cinder) but the spelling would be wrong)

  6. You guys are amazing. It takes me many, many tries to get even half the clues in these things. This latest one, 686, was the first time in years I got them all!

    Also, with EDDY, I was working with GURGE rather than SURGE, if that helps anyone.

  7. Barry Purcell @6 – GURGE is a new word to me, just looked it up and I think it makes much more sense that SURGE which was a bit of a stretch, thanks for that and congratulations on completing the crossword, fingers crossed for the hundred pound booty!

  8. Gurges is a Latin word meaning abyss, gulf, swirl (of water), raging current.  The English coinage gurge, meaning whirlpool, was devised by Oliver Cromwell’s Secretary for Foreign Tongues (John Milton), who was quite possibly the only author ever to use it.

  9. Not quite: this is from the online OED.  I’ve no memory of it, but intend  to use it at least one a year from now on.  Paludament?  Don’t ask.

    gurge, n. A whirlpool (literal and figurative); Heraldry = gurges n. b.
    1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost xii. 41 The Plain, wherein a black bituminous gurge Boiles out from under ground, the mouth of Hell.
    1730 N. Bailey et al. Dictionarium Britannicum Gurge,..a Whirl-Pool.
    1820 J. Keats Hyperion: a Fragm. ii, in Lamia & Other Poems 168 Horribly convuls’d With sanguine feverous boiling gurge of pulse.
    1866 J. E. Cussans Gram. Heraldry 40 Gurge, a whirlpool. This charge covers the entire field, and is always blazoned argent and azure.
    1893 ‘M. Field’ Underneath Bough 9 Life’s a tortured, booming gurge.
    ====
    gurge, v. 2 intransitive. To make a whirlpool, to swirl, surge.
    1578 [see gurging adj. at Derivatives].
    1897 F. Thompson New Poems 73 At all gates the clangours gurge in, God’s paludament lightens, see!
    ====

     

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