An enjoyable Cyclops, with a line-up of the usual suspects as clue-surface-reading targets…
Standout clue has to be 13A – summing up perfectly how DJT was probably feeling on 20-Jan – the day this was published and the day he became a back-issue!
23D addresses a conundrum I have struggled to get to grips with for years – that Ed Balls was/is some sort of sex symbol! There are also digs at the Beeb (16A) and the Daily Mail (7D), but I’m not sure who 21D is aimed at…
Keir gets a mention at 25D, and Winne Churchill at 28A, but the wannabee-Churchill, Boris, is nowhere to be seen:
Many thanks to Cyclops – can we now expect a few references to Joe and Kamala, and wordplay clueing for Bs and Ns as the start/end of Biden, etc.?
Hopefully all is clear below – and I hope you are all enjoying the new site look-and-feel…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | STOMACH | & 10 Bear with ‘strong handshake’ used on reckless drug-taker? (7,4) | (something) used on reckless drug-taker / STOMACH (bear) + PUMP (strong handshake) |
|
| 5A | SEETHE | Spot article and rage (6) | rage / SEE (spot) + THE (definite article) |
|
| 9A | FLAGELLATE | Whip gets western girl to return inside to give a blowjob (10) | whip / F_ELLATE (give a blow-job) around LAG (gal, or girl, from the west, or reversed) |
|
| 10A | PUMP | See 1ac (4) | See 1A / See 1A |
|
| 11A | MAGNUM | Mother grabs a gunman’s extremities, showing a lot of bottle (6) | a lot of bottle! / M_UM (mother) around (grabbing) A + GN (extreme letters of GunmaN) |
|
| 12A | WORKSHOP | Labour gets awfully posh studio (8) | studio / WORK (labour) + SHOP (anag, i.e. awfully, of POSH) |
|
| 13A | SWEARING-IN | & 22 Cursing: “Elected — my encore hijacked!”, Trump thinks it should be his second (8-2,8) | Trump thinks it (Biden’s first) should be his second / SWEARING (cursing) + IN (elected) + CEREMONY (anag, i.e. hijacked, of MY ENCORE) |
|
| 16A | DUNG | Shit organisation maintained by Director-General (4) | shit / D_G (Director-General) around (maintaining) UN (an organisation) |
|
| 17A | LIMB | Millions pocketed by former party member (4) | member / LI_B (Liberal, former party) around (pocketing) M (millions) |
|
| 19A | TOP HONOURS | CBEs in drunken stupor? Oh no! (3,7) | CBEs / anag, i.e. drunken, of STUPOR OH NO |
|
| 22A | CEREMONY | See 13ac. (8) | See 13A / See 13A |
|
| 24A | FLIRTY | Coming on to Fry, it’s stupid to embrace Left (6) | coming on to / F_IRTY (anag, i.e. stupid, of FRY IT) around embracing) L (left) |
|
| 26A | TANK | See 25dn. (4) | See 25D / See 25D |
|
| 27A | MENINGITIS | Blokes, elected bastards – one enters complaint (10) | (medical) complaint / MEN (blokes) + IN (elected, again!) + GIT_S (bastards) around (entered by) I (one) |
|
| 28A | CHURCH | Charlotte, Winnie but not Dicky? (6) | Charlotte (Church, singer) / CHURCH( |
|
| 29A | NETSUKE | Catch: southern Britain needs European source to procure a Japanese ornament (7) | Japanese ornament / NET (catch) + S (southern) + UK (Britain, loosely!) + E (first letter, or source, of European) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 2D | TULSA | US city’s upside down topping of apple tart (5) | US city / A (first, or ‘top’, letter of Apple) + SLUT (tart), all upside down = TULSA! |
|
| 3D | MAGENTA | Mobile meant to maintain a good tone (7) | tone / M_ENTA (anag, i.e. mobile, of MEANT) around (maintaining, again!) A + G (good) |
|
| 4D | COLUMNIST | Newspaper hack, Slim, involved with fraudulent count! (9) | newspaper hack / anag, i.e. fraudulent/involved, of SLIM + COUNT |
|
| 5D | SPEAR | Lance’s box is full of ecstasy (5) | lance / SP_AR (box) around (full of) E (ecstasy tablet) |
|
| 6D | EXPOSED | Revealed old flame was a model (7) | revealed / EX (old flame) + POSED (was a model) |
|
| 7D | HOMEOWNER | Daily Mail target reader gets nowhere, screwing with Mo? (9) | Daily Mail target reader! / anag, i.e. screwing, of NOWHERE with MO |
|
| 8D | EARWIG | Creepy thing’s organ with an artificial covering (6) | creepy thing / EAR (bodily organ) + WIG (artificial covering) |
|
| 14D | WHITEWASH | Hint: Private Eye rejected a quiet cover-up (9) | cover-up / WHIT (small amount, hint) + EW (we, Private Eye, from Cyclops’ viewpoint, rejected) + A + SH (interjection – be quiet!) |
|
| 15D | NO OFFENCE | Please don’t upset yourself getting number of criminal (2,7) | Please don’t upset yourself / NO (number) + OF + FENCE (criminal, receiver of stolen goods) |
|
| 18D | BREAKER | Mug appropriates ‘Republican wave’ (7) | wave / B_EAKER (mug) around (appropriating) R (Republican) |
|
| 20D | PAYING | Settling, getting on your knees? Not right (6) | settling (e.g. a bill) / P( |
|
| 21D | ORIGINS | For starters, ‘love tackle’ needs inches added to it (7) | starters / O (zero, love, score in e.g. tennis) + RIG (gear, tackle) + INS (inches) |
|
| 23D | OOMPH | Balls: politician with hot sex-appeal! (5) | sex-appeal! / OO (balls, round objects!) + MP (politician) + H (hot) |
|
| 25D | THINK | & 26 Consider Brown to lead Keir’s first problem-solving group (5,4) | problem-solving group / THINK (consider) + TAN (brown) + K (first letter of Keir) |
|
Thanks beermagnet and Cyclops. I also enjoyed 13a and would add 5a and 28a as my faves. The possible reference to the beeb in 16a hadn’t occurred to me. I think that chap Percy may know who 21d is aimed at.
It took me a long time to get into this and I now realise I never parsed WHITEWASH so thanks especially for that mc_rapper67. Agree that Cyclops does long topical/satirical clues such as 13A so well (but I’m probably not the only solver looking forward to far fewer mentions of the Tangoed One in the near future). I think OOMPH in this sense has appeared somewhere else recently, perhaps as part of wordplay, otherwise it would have given me much more trouble, and the rather vague definition of MENINGITIS led to it being my last in. But I am going to echo Franko@1 as CHURCH (what a bizarre triumverate that would be, but surely better than any 3 permed from the current mob?) leapt out as the top clue for me. Nice one Cyclops.
“Standout clue has to be 13A”. Agreed. 20 Jan was the first day of the rest of his life.
I agree with Franko that 5ac was a gem.
In 28ac, for some reason I thought I needed to subtract ‘hill’ from Churchill and was interested to learn that a narrator could be so famous.
Perhaps in 2dn, you should point out that A is the “topping of apple”?
6dn has a certain charm.
Alternative clue for 24A:
Frolicsome lesbian’s first one to penetrate Fry; time to get in there?
Franko at #1 – thanks, although beermagnet is off duty this fortnight (;+>) Not sure where you are based, but for me the term ‘D-G’ immediately brings the Beeb to mind, although lots of other organisations must have D-Gs as well…
Gazzh at #2 – glad to be of service with WHITEWASH!
Tony Collman at #3 – thanks, I have updated the parsing of 2D. No comment on your alternative for 24A!
Humble apologies mc_rapper67 @4.
I mixed up THE BLOG NAMES and it’s ended up ‘E MANGLES BOTH
I think the notion of Ed Balls being a sex symbol stems from his time on Strictly.
Thank you! Took me until now to do 3/4 of it. Agree 28ac is a good one.