Cyclops keeps us entertained with another round of clues with imaginative surface readings.
[ All of which are funnier than this blog’s final “joke” – sorry. ]
Solving did not start well. First clue read (5a) resisted until near the end. But the majority of the puzzle fell into place steadily, helped by the crossing letters. At the end of the first pass there were still a handful of empty lights at the top of the grid.
All good fun so thanks to the setter.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 5 | READILY | Handy cash secures ‘incorruptible’ left-wing leaders with no difficulty (7) I[ncorruptible] L[eft-wing] inside READY (handy cash) |
| 7 | AGGRESS | Go on the attack when miserable arses pocket two grand (7) GG (two grand) inside (ARSES)* AInd: miserable. First clue solved |
| 10 | FLOG | Whip: “F*** the record!” (4) F (F***) LOG (the record) |
| 11 | BINOCULARS | Awful Boris clan protects upper class – they’ll need to be focussed (10) (BORIS CLAN)* AInd: awful, around U (Upper class) |
| 12/14d | EXTINCTION REBELLION | Organisation prepared to demonstrate it’s no longer being associated with a revolting activity (10,9) EXTINCTION (it’s no longer being) REBELLION (a revolting activity) |
| 14 | ROMP | Boris, with sod all right, needs flipping sex frolic? (4) PM (Boris) O (sod all, zero) R[ight] all reversed (needs flipping) |
| 15 | SHAVER | One who keeps going round hospital – not Beardie’s thing (6) SAVER (one who keeps) around H[ospital] |
| 16 | ARABIC | Reversal of ban, with US spies going round about an area of north Africa (6) BAR (ban) inside CIA (US spies) all reversed (Reversal of) |
| 19 | I SAY | Boris, a year inside – bloody hell! (1,3) Hidden in borIS A Year |
| 21 | NO SUCH LUCK | Chuck consul out then Conservative leader out? Unfortunately not (2,4,4) (CHUCK CONSUL -C[onservative] )* AInd: out. |
| 22 | WORDSWORTH | Romantic‘s sword throw on getting pissed (10) (SWORD THROW)* AInd: getting pissed. |
| 26 | SCALPEL | Handed over by hospital aid for the purpose of operational cuts? (7) Cryptic Definition. |
| 27 | CLINTON | Ex-president‘s “Fraud!” – holding back nothing by end of count (7) CON (Fraud) around (holding) { [coun]T and NIL (nothing) } all reversed (back) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | REFLEXES | Knee-jerk reactions feel right, in short, when involved with sex (8) (FEEL R[ight] SEX)* AInd: involved. |
| 2 | SLOB | Good-for-nothing American swine crushes left (4) S.O.B (swine, American style, Son of a Bitch) around L[eft] Last One In – took a while to spot the American swine |
| 3 | EGOCENTRIC | Narcissist’s erection controlled with elastic and string finally (10) (ERECTION [elasti]C [strin]G)* AInd: controlled. |
| 4 | ORAL | A sort of sex examination (4) Double Def. |
| 6 | DIGNITARY | Tiring day screwing big shot (9) (TIRING DAY)* AInd: screwing. |
| 8 | SERUM | Drugs tipped onto spirit which is injected to give immunity (5) ES< (drugs, tipped) RUM (spirit) |
| 9 | ANTIC | Putting sex back into political party is a silly thing to get up to (5) IT< (sex, back) inside ANC (political party) |
| 13 | CLEAN SWEEP | Is a char putting on blubber, winning all prizes? (5,5) CLEANS (is a char) WEEP (blubber) |
| 17 | COCK-CROW | Dawn, Dick, Charles, initially and Barney (4-4) COCK (Dick) C[harles] ROW (barney) |
| 18 | USURY | ‘Up yours!’ – PO should quit the practice of high interest lending (5) (UP YOURS – PO)* AInd: practice. |
| 20 | STOIC | Uncomplaining sort of drunken sot in charge (5) (SOT)* AInd: drunken, I[n] C[harge] |
| 23 | DOLT | Party officer is a plonker (4) DO (party) LT (officer, lieutenant) |
| 24/25 | HALF INCH | Henry briefly following creep, Nick (4-4) HAL (Henry briefly) F[ollowing] INCH (creep) Half-inch is cockney rhyming slang for Pinch as in Steal, thus Nick |
Frog gets a DNA test – he was about half English, most of the rest Scottish, and only a tad Pole.
Thanks for the blog and the joke , I liked it anyway although should really say Polish to be consistent and that would spoil it.
Good crossword , think my solve was similar to you, SOB took a while, I assume it is just a mild insult like swine or git.
[ Romantic needs to be underlined for WORDSWORTH , sorry ]
22 Romantic now corrected. No need to apologise Roz, there are always some mistakes and omissions in my blogs.
For Wordsworth I was going to say something about how each half of the name is separately anagrammed, and/or the misdirection of “throw” as a potential anagram indicator, then after a bit of umm’ing and ah’ing didn’t do any of that and forgot to indicate the definition.
I enjoyed this one – Cyclops getting fairly topical with ‘Extinction Rebellion’, and three ‘Boris’es, to make up for the lack last time out. Thanks to beermagnet (one of your corniest jokes ever…do I dare try it out on my Polish friend?!)
My only query is 18D – I had the exclamation mark as the anagram indicator for UP YOURS, with PO quitting, and ‘the practice of’ as part of the definition?…
I’d definitely include “practice ” at the start of the definition of 18d; and a define:usury web check provides support. What then is the AInd? Is it perhaps the disarray caused by the PO struggling to get out, the upset of the “Up yours!” affront, or is it even unstated? I think I go Ockhamist on this and opt for the exclamation mark.
PS And I see I missed mc_rapper67’s own suggestion, which I should have noticed and acknowledged and, of course am happy to second.
I had FLAY (record = lay of the land?) for 10A early on, which blocked the top-left until the very end
Thanks beermagnet, I also queried USURY so I wonder if we will hear from the horse’s mouth – if you leaf through crosswording’s equivalent of Hansard is there precedent for the exclamation mark alone sufficing to be used in that way?
Starngely enough I fairly ROMPed through this, as you say plenty to smile about and especially enjoyed COCK-CROW – my favourite sort of clue, on first reading I had absolutely no idea what to do and had to step back and try various word-by-word interpretations to get anywhere (I think Roz@1 does this automatically from what she has written elsewhere, but I am still blinded by a surface far too often).
Gazzh @7 , I never even read the clues usually in the normal sense, I am just suspicious of every single word. My favourite clues have the definition at the end so I can sometimes solve it before even reading the definition. Other people like clues that read nicely, horses for courses, perhaps it is why I am not so keen on certain Guardian setters that most people seem to really like.
I think REFLEXES and EGOCENTRIC were early ones in, which helped me with EXTINCTION REBELLION to provide a lot of crossing letters, but still struggled a bit with COCK-CROW for some reason. Couldn’t parse DOLT even though the only obvious answer, guess just hit a blind spot.
@beermagnet, nothing wrong with bad jokes, or should that be dad jokes?
I whacked in ‘HEFT’ for 10 across, thinking it was an anagram of ‘f*** the’ and seeing in Chambers that it can be
“an installment of a serial publication”
Maybe that doesn’t constitute a ‘record’, but it was close enough to wrong foot this idiot for at least an hour!
11ac BINOCULARS: “they’ll need to be focussed”: lovely def
19ac “I SAY” and “bloody hell” are phrases we feel sure we’ve heard Boris say, too.
18dn I agree USURY is “the practice of high interest lending” and that means there’s no anagram indicator … unless mcrapper and lemming are right? “The practice” doesn’t really seem to be much of one, anyway. I don’t remember seeing a ! as an anagram indicator before (which isn’t saying all that much, really). It’s more often used for an & lit, isn’t it?
A tadpole’s not fully what, did you say? Oof! (5) G _ O _ N
Thanks beermagnet and Cyclops. Re 18d, at solve time it had to be USURY and when parsing I thought that UP was a reverse indicator on YOURS and then subtract PO. I didn’t look carefully enough as that would have given USRUY. It doesn’t help the debate, but thought I would salve my conscience.