Cyclops 724 – Leadership Enigma

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Cyclops’ fortnightly offering seems to have been overtaken by events…

…which is understandable, given how fast events have been moving recently.

We have a LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE possibly ‘finishing’ Boris’ career, while he is in the LAST CHANCE SALOON – all topical stuff a few weeks ago, under the shadow of Sue Gray (remember her?) and the Met Police investigation (remember that?), but in the interim – luckily for Boris, not so for the people of Ukraine – priorities seem to have changed. Hopefully he will still be held to account for all that at some point…

Aside from the turning wheels of politics and world affairs, there is maybe a higher-than-usual proportion of smut/innuendo in the clueing – the student squeezing the tip of their todger at 16D; spilt seed at 7D; balls being caught in a wheel at 17A; and a ‘colossal bust’ at 26D. Not to mention some possibly ‘dysfunctional’ performance, with a ‘bendy penis’ at 19D, and someone ‘playing nicely with a lady’s top, but not stiff’, at 27A.

I enjoyed the definition of HERCULES as a ‘Labour powerhouse’ at 12A; and there are mentions for a couple of tax havens – GUERNSEY and NASSAU…will the newfound zeal for finding and sanctioning the source of laundered (Russian) money continue beyond the current crisis? I’ll give you one guess…

 

My thanks to Cyclops for an enjoyable solve, and I hope all is clear below…

 

Across
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/parsing
8A CHALET Hard drink smuggled into court house (6)

C_T (court), around (smuggling in) H (hard) + ALE (drink)
9A GUERNSEY Rene’s broken into bloke’s tax haven (8)

GU_Y (bloke) around (broken into by) ERNSE (anag, i.e. broken, of RENES)
10A NEVER MIND Pest gatecrashed study retreat – don’t worry (5,4)

NE_D (den, or study, retreating) around (gatecrashed by) VER MIN (pest)
11A GEEK European outs king as a nerd (4)

G(R)EEK (European, with R – rex, king, out)
12A HERCULES Casually crush Lee, ‘Labour powerhouse‘ (8)

anag, i.e. casually, of CRUSH LEE

[Hercules was a (mythical) powerful person who performed many labours!]
14A RIALTO Capri altogether too much as a tourist attraction (6)

hidden word, i.e. the whole thing is too much, in ‘capRI ALTOgether’

[tourist attraction in Venice]
15A FLIES BY Access to penis? Heartless lad passes quickly (5,2)

FLIES (on men’s trousers, access to penis!) + B(O)Y (heartless lad)
17A WHEEDLE Balls caught in turning wheel – be persuasive (7)

WHE_LE (anag, i.e. turning, of WHEEL) around (catching) ED (Ed Balls, former Labour politician)
20A NASSAU Dodgy as a Sun’s tourist destination (6)

anag, i.e. dodgy, of AS A SUN
22A LIPSTICK Mouthy thing – cheek! – wants poke (8)

LIP (cheek!) + STICK (stab, or poke)
24A ANAL One presidential candidate who failed, just like an arse (4)

AN (one) + AL (Al Gore, failed presidential candidate)
25A CHALLENGE See 5dn. (9)

see 5D
27A INFORMAL Playing nicely with a lady’s top, but not stiff (8)

IN FORM (sporting, playing nicely) + A + L (top letter of Lady)
28A SALUKI In fairness, Al (Ukip) is a dog (6)

hidden word in ‘fairnesS AL UKIp’
Across
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/parsing
1D CHANCE See 26dn. (6)

see 26D
2D CLAVICLE Bone Clive and almost call out (8)

anag, i.e. out, of CLIVE and CAL(L) (almost all of CALL)
3D STAR Celebrity arses in need of a lift (4)

RATS, or arses, lifted up
4D AGAINST A political upset in an election, by the the way, is touching (7)

A + GAIN (political upset in an election) + ST (street, way)
5D LEADERSHIP (CHALLENGE) & 25 Boris’s ‘cool tackle’ could finish his career? (10,9)

LEADERS (Boris, leader(?), plus possessive S) + HIP (cool) + CHALLENGE (tackle)
6D ENIGMA Toss me a gin, poser! (6)

anag, i.e. toss, of ME A GIN
7D PEDESTAL Spilt seed on time, penetrating mate, showing support (8)

P_AL (mate), around (penetrated by) EDES (anag, i.e. split, of SEED) + T (time)
13D LABOUR CAMP Party with Conservative politician outside of a forced work environment (6,4)

LABOUR (political party) + C (Conservative) + A + MP (politician)
16D LEARNING Inclined to squeeze tip of todger, being a student? (8)

LEA_NING (inclined) around (squeezing) R (tip, or end, of todgeR)
18D ENTANGLE ‘New’ Brown embraced with unbridled glee? Get knotted! (8)

E_GLE (anag, i.e. unbridled, of GLEE), around (embracing) N (new) + TAN (brown)
19D PLIABLE Penis initially tending to be bendy (7)

P (Penis, initially) + LIABLE (tending to be)
21D SALOON See 26dn. (6)

see 26D
23D CHEEKY Arse-like revolutionary figure misplaced key (6)

CHE (Ché Guevara, revolutionary figure) + EKY (anag, i.e. misplaced, of KEY)
26D LAST (CHANCE SALOON) & 1 & 21 Enchant with a colossal bust – an opportunity that can’t be missed (4,6,6)

anag, i.e. bust, of ENCHANT + A COLOSSAL

[Somewhere Boris Johnson spent a lot of time recently, before Putin rescued him from ‘Partygate’…]

8 comments on “Cyclops 724 – Leadership Enigma”

  1. A pedant writes: the apostrophe s in the clue for 5D is not possessive when you move on from the surface reading to parse the cryptic content. It indicates a contraction of is (Boris is cool = leader’s hip).

  2. Thanks for the blog, punctuation can always mislead . It could be read as Boris=LEADER ans the s=S .
    I too liked HERCULES and LAST CHANCE SALOON is a great anagram.
    WHEEDLE is good but the wheel is only just about an anagram.

  3. Cyclops often exploits contrasting meanings of the apostrophe s (possessive versus comtractive) for the purpose of cruciverbal misdirection.

  5. Thanks mc_rapper67, another nice summary of another good Cyclops outing, as well as the highlights already mentioned I liked INFORMAL and my LOI AGAINST for their misleading surfaces. I also enjoyed the contrasting parties in LABOUR CAMP although I thought the “of” is unnecessary and perhaps even an Americanism, but maybe I am just confusing myself. And I learned a new sort of dog, clued in about as friendly way as possible, fortunately!

  6. Thanks mc_rapper67 and Cyclops. Like Roz@2 and Gazzh@5, I thought 12a was particularly neat. I had also marked 23d as a fave, being a typical cheeky Cyclops clue.

  8. Great puzzle, beautifully blogged.

    Gazzh@5, I’m pretty sure ‘outside of’ to mean simply ‘outside’ was part of the vernacular where I grew up, far from the USA. I think the ‘of’ is needed for the surface, too..

    17A WHEEDLE — Ed Balls has been a gift to Cyclops over the years, hadn’t he?

    14A RIALTO — I thought “too much” was a great hidden indicator. Don’t think I seen it before.

    7D PEDESTAL — or “pedal stool” as Jen had it in The IT Crowd (YouTube)

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