Some classic Cyclops-ean smuttery and establishment-targeting in the clue readings, with some recent and more distant references…
The smuttery? 18D is pure and unadulterated Cyclops! 6D has a golfer flashing, with his fly undone, at ‘each green’; 4A features that unlikely sex symbol Ed Balls in a ‘kinky love’ scene; and 2D sado-masochistically suggests that pain and grief might be fun, in an odd way. Or is lock-down just playing with my mind?
The recent references include Trump at 9A and Pence at 13A (who they?!). Much further back we have a Sibyl at 10A – from Fawlty Towers, or ancient Greece?… More currently, ‘stumblin’ Joe’ also gets a mention – helping to form the DENI of DENIGRATE at 14D.
I enjoyed the destructive he-men’s zeal in VEHEMENCE at 5D, but my favourite must be MAYDAY at 12A – did Theresa MAY and Robin DAY ever share the same TV studio/interview desk? Maybe early on in her career. And my LOI was the wonderful clattering CLOG-DANCER at 23A.
Thanks, as ever, to Cyclops, for an enjoyable diversion. And I hope all is clear below.
(I’m busy scouring my contacts list to see if I can muster five friends for a ‘rule-of-six’ walk tomorrow…)
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | GO-SLOW | Industrial action has greedy western leaders appropriating capital (2-4) | industrial action / G_W (leading letters of Greedy Western) around (appropriating) OSLO (capital) |
|
| 4A | EVOLVED | Balls, cut by very kinky love, developed? (7) | developed / E_D (Ed Balls), around (cut by) V (very) + OLVE (anag, i.e. kinky, of LOVE) |
|
| 9A | SELF | & 25 Trump-like, though personally not having taken an extreme position? (4-7) | Trump-like / If one is SELF CENTRED, then one could be said not to have taken an extreme position, with regards to oneself, i.e. personally? |
|
| 10A | SOOTHSAYER | Sibyl’s so-so earthy broadcast (10) | sibyl / anag, i.e. broadcast, of SO-SO EARTHY |
|
| 11A | ABSENTEE | A bishop ‘delivered’ by drug (twice) – he’s at another place (8) | he’s at another place / A + B (bishop) + SENT (delivered) + EE (E, ecstasy tablet, or drug, twice) |
|
| 12A | MAYDAY | Ex-PM pitched against ex-political broadcaster – call for help! (6) | call for help! / MAY (ex-PM, Theresa) + DAY (ex-political broadcaster, Sir Robin) |
|
| 13A | INDEPENDENCE | Elected Democrat: “Need Pence to break up liberty” (12) | liberty / IN (elected) + D (Democrat) + EPENDENCE (anag, i.e. to break up, of NEED PENCE) |
|
| 17A | MARGINAL SEAT | On the outside an arse, not one to be taken lightly (8,4) | not one to be taken lightly / MARGINAL (on the outside) + SEAT (an arse!) |
|
| 19A | STRONG | Firm Melody squeezing T Rex (6) | firm / S_ONG (melody), around (squeezing) T + R (Rex) |
|
| 21A | TEMPTING | Seductive politician can get mad on the outside (8) | seductive / TE_G (anag, i.e. mad, of GET), around (on the outside of) MP (politician) + TIN (can) |
|
| 23A | CLOG DANCER | Choke Santa’s reindeer, one making a clatter (4,6) | one making a clatter! / CLOG (choke) + DANCER (one of Santa’s reindeer) |
|
| 24A | CODE | See 22dn. (4) | see 22D / see 22D |
|
| 25A | CENTRED | See 9ac. (7) | see 9A / see 9A |
|
| 26A | DECREE | Democratic experiment starts with a Native American order (6) | order / DE (starting letters of Democratic Experiment) + CREE (Native American) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | GOES BY | Acts in accordance with Fish, taking drugs (4,2) | acts in accordance with / GO_BY (fish) around (taking) ES (E, ecstasy tablet, again, in plural this time!) |
|
| 2D | SUFFERING | Pain and grief’s fun, in an odd way (9) | pain / anag, i.e. in an odd way, of GRIEFS FUN |
|
| 3D | ONSET | The place to make a film, ‘Storming’ (5) | double defn?/storming / taking into account punctuation, this is probably not a double defn…? The place to make a film would be ON (a) SET |
|
| 5D | VEHEMENCE | Zeal is a feature of destructive he-men, certainly (9) | zeal / hidden word in, i.e. is a feature of, ‘destructiVE HE-MEN CErtainly’ |
|
| 6D | LEAFY | Fly comes undone, going round each green (5) | green / L_FY (anag, i.e. comes undone, of FLY) around EA (each) |
|
| 7D | ELEGANCE | Finally, Conservative member gets cane out, showing refinement (8) | refinement / E (final letter of conservativE) + LEG (bodily member) + ANCE (anag, i.e. out, of CANE) |
|
| 8D | POWER POLITICS | Gunboat diplomacy? “Low prospect,” I repeated, “for change” (5,8) | gunboat diplomacy? / anag, i.e. for change, of LOW PROSPECT + II (I, repeated) |
|
| 14D | DENIGRATE | To belittle and head off Biden’s reform, strike a false note (9) | to belittle / DENI (anag, I.e. reform, of ( |
|
| 15D | ESTATE CAR | With intervention of the body politic, career is set back – it could get a whole family on the move (6,3) | it could get a whole family on the move / E_CAR (race, or career, set back) around (intervened by) STATE (the body politic) |
|
| 16D | PASTILLE | A medicinal sweet from Dicky, covered in mush (8) | a medicinal sweet / PAST_E (mush) around (covering) ILL (dicky) |
|
| 18D | ON EDGE | Feeling tense, love – need to be stimulated around top of genitals (2,4) | feeling tense / O (zero, love, e.g. in tennis) + NED_E (anag, i.e. to be stimulated, of NEED) around G (top letter of Genitals) |
|
| 20D | OUGHT | Should get tough pissed (5) | should / anag, i.e. get pissed, of TOUGH |
|
| 22D | MORSE | & 24 Flashy system buggered up some credo? (5,4) | flashy (or tippy-tappy) system / anag, i.e. buggered up, of SOME CREDO |
|
I’m struggling to get the role of ‘Storming’ in 3D … can you help me out … ?
Hi Shaun – Chambers has ‘a storming’ as the third of four definitions of ‘onset’ – along with ‘a violent attack’, ‘an assault’, and ‘the beginning or outset’.
Thanks mc _rapper67 and Cyclops. Like Shaun I didn’t know of storming = onset until I referred to Chambers for confirmation. Agree on 18d – I’d written “Cyclops” next to that clue on my copy (probably chuckling at solve time). 1d I had to confirm that Goby was the name of a fish. Marked 4a,10a,17a,5d as my favourites. All good stuff!
Tempting was my favourite….again, as last time, for the misleading ‘can’!!
Thanks mc_rapper67, and others above for confirming the veracity of ONSET which I had entered but was worried about (failure last time has clearly taken the wind out of my sails). I had to think hard to recall Robin Day! Vehemence is a clever hidden word (i might have plumped for aggressive over destructive), Independence and Power politics both very good longer clues, but I’m with Winsor@4 with favourite TEMPTING.
I had to check goby and wasn’t totally sure about ONSET, but reasoned that you set on your victim in a storming.
As I recall, PE used to run a strip (by Bill Tidy, possibly?) which was the continuing story of some clog-dancing folk. Is that still going?*
Winsor@4
Don’t know if you normally do the Saturday Guardian ‘Prize’, but your comment makes me think you might enjoy this one: https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/prize/28398 where there are a couple of cans central to the theme.
* Upon being arsed to google, I note the The Cloggies was “a long-running cartoon by Bill Tidy that ran in the satirical magazine Private Eye from 1967 to 1981”. (Wikipedia)
Thanks for the various comments…
Tony Collman at #6 – you have triggered ancient memories from the 70s/80s of reading my Dad’s subscription copies and the regular appearances of the Cloggies! Well before I started solving cryptic crosswords, or subscribing to the Eye myself, but fond memories. Surprised I didn’t make that connection while solving/blogging – your memory must be better than mine!
Mc, at my age you remember things from years ago, but can’t remember what you had for dinner yesterday.
I hope that if your dad is still with us you are passing on your subscription copies once you’ve done the crossword.
Tony C – I know how that feels, sometimes!
My dad is still with us, inshallah, but his interest in the Eye has waned, and he tired of the ‘schoolboy smuttery’ of the Cyclops crossword long before that…about the time I took up the baton!
I do recycle my subscription – to my itinerant brother, who has lived in Ethiopia, Cambodia, Tanzania, Myanmar and currently Madagascar over the past decade-plus…he passes through every six months or so and gets a wodge of Eyes to keep him going…
Mc, I suppose I should have grown out of it, too, but it’s sad in a way that your dad lost the savour for it. I wish you and yours all the best.
I see you use the Arabic ‘inshallah’. I learnt that language to a degree (but not a Degree), starting when I taught English in Cairo for a couple of years. It is ‘God willing’. There is also ‘alhamdulillah’, ‘Praise be to God’ (or “thanks God” as some of my students send to like to translate it).
Hmmm….
I always thought that “inshallah” was “if god wills”.
Yes, that’s what “God willing” means. People don’t say “if God wills” (the literal translation of ‘insha’allah’) in English, they say “God willing” to express the same thought. Tatanawwar, insha’allah = may you be enlightened, God willing.