Cyclops is on good form this week – and doesn’t seem to have been overtaken by the fast-moving events of the last week or so…
I guess many setters had just about worked out how to fit clues around Kwasi Kwarteng, only to find that they won’t be relevant any more! Liz Truss makes a presumably rare and short-lived appearance at 25A, with her clue also referencing ‘lies’. And tangentially at 20D, as the Conservative leader causing an increase in debts…presumably serendipitous from Cyclops, but ‘them’s the breaks’, as an OVERSEXED TOSSPOT once said, what feels like a political lifetime ago…
Charles, Harry and Starmer also get mentions – as does Ronald T Dump at 3D, in a nice surface read alluding to his actions around January 6 and the Capitol insurrection…
There will be some interesting CABINET MEETINGs and sessions in the HOUSE OF COMMONS in the next few weeks, and I am interested to see what effect this all has on my NEST EGG/ASSETS, which seem to be ACCURSED and heading towards THE PITS…we just need a bit of STASIS, and then hopefully they will have RISEN again before I have URGES towards retiring…
It is two weeks, or about half a Kwarteng, to the next puzzle…can we expect some Jeremy Hunt rhyming slang, and/or references to a new Prime Minister by then?…
Many thanks to Cyclops, and I hope all is clear below…
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 1A | ACT UP | One caught sporting an erection? Carry on! (3,2)
A (one) + CT (caught, cricket) + UP (sporting an erection!) |
||
| 4A | ACCURSED | Bloody Bill has healed, having trapped end of balls (8)
AC (account, or bill) + CUR_ED (healed) around (trapping) S (last letter of ballS) |
||
| 10A | SMART BOMB | Surgically devastating device makes prick flop (5,4)
SMART (prick, stinging pain) + BOMB (flop) |
||
| 11A | GIRLS | Misses reverse gear (extremely listless) (5)
GIR (rig, or gear, reversed) + LS (extreme letters of ListlesS) |
||
| 12A | THE PITS | Article by ex-PM’s missing tons – couldn’t be any worse (3,4)
THE (definite article) + PIT( |
||
| 13A | NEST EGG | Funds, say, invested in fancy Gents (4,3)
NEST _G (anag, i.e. fancy) around (invested into by) EG (say, for example) |
||
| 14A | BEETROOT | Plant tree casually in arse? Almost (8)
B_OOT( |
||
| 15A | OUNCE | On the one occasion in which you texted ‘catty thing’ (5)
O_NCE (on the one occasion) around U (you, in txt spk) |
||
| 17A | TOPIC | Helmet on Conservative subject (5)
TOPI (pith helmet) + C (Conservative) |
||
| 19A | CLEMENCY | Muscle men, cynical, but showing compassion (8)
hidden word in, i.e. showed by, ‘musCLE MEN CYnical’ |
||
| 22A | ANAGRAM | Harry penetrates a sheep, which is rather mixed up (7)
A + RAM (sheep), around NAG (harry) |
||
| 24A | TOSSPOT | Boozer turned on Mark, another boozer (7)
TOS (sot, or alcoholic, boozer) + SPOT (mark) |
||
| 25A | TILES | At first Truss lies about the ones trodden underfoot? (5)
T (Truss, at first) + ILES (anag, i.e. about, of LIES) |
||
| 26A | OBNOXIOUS | So inbox is tampered with (nothing against university in it) – disgusting (9)
OBNOXI_S (anag, i.e. tampered with, of SO INBOX) around OU (O – zero, nothing + U – university) |
||
| 27A | SICKNESS | As it was written: ‘a thousand head’ getting BSE? (8)
SIC (thus, Latin, as it was written) + K (kilo-, a thousand) + NESS (headland, cape) |
||
| 28A | DISCS | Show no respect towards Charles’s top society circles (5)
DIS (show disrespect to) + C (top letter of Charles) + S (society) |
||
| Across | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 1D | ASSETS | Dogs missing bollocks initially – might they be frozen? (6)
( |
||
| 2D | TRAPEZE | Swinger’s equipment: it gets member up with ease, apparently (7)
TRAP (part, or member, up) + EZE (homophone, i.e. apparently, of ease) |
||
| 3D | PATRIOTIC | What Trump supporters claim to be (it’s represented with cap embracing insurrection) (9)
PAT_IC (anag, i.e. represented, of IT + CAP), around RIOT (insurrection) |
||
| 5D | CABINET MEETING | A big enticement to break up PM’s ‘work get-together’? (7,7)
anag, i.e. to break up, of A BIG ENTICEMENT |
||
| 6D | URGES | Desires Stalinist actions to get rid of leader (5)
( |
||
| 7D | SURGEON | Swell working as a theatre performer (7)
SURGE (swell) + ON (working) |
||
| 8D | DESIGNED | Condescended to welcome Starmer’s no.1, as planned (8)
DE_IGNED (condescended) around (welcoming) S (no. 1 letter of Starmer) |
||
| 9D | HOUSE OF COMMONS | UFOs, eh? So unlikely to abduct boorish lot of MPs (5,2,7)
HOUSE OF _S (anag, i.e. unlikely, of UFOS EH SO) around (abducting) COMMON (boorish) |
||
| 15D | OVERSEXED | Poetry covered by first two parts of Oxford edition – can’t get enough of it (9)
O_X (first two parts of OXford) around (covering) VERSE (poetry), plus ED (edition) |
||
| 16D | ATLANTIS | Fantastic place down under – moving in at last (8)
anag, i.e. moving, of IN AT LAST |
||
| 18D | PHALLIC | Lobby to get into photo, like a dick (7)
P_IC (photo, picture) around HALL (lobby) |
||
| 20D | COPIOUS | Numerous debts after Conservative leader at work! (7)
C (leading letter of Conservative) + OP (opus, work) + IOUS (I-owe-you-s, debts) |
||
| 21D | STASIS | Secret police’s unchanging state (6)
STASI (former East German secret police) + S (contraction) |
||
| 23D | RISEN | Faction of Labour is enduring having relinquished seats? (5)
hidden word in, i.e. faction of, ‘labouR IS ENduring’ |
||
Thanks for the blog, must be hard for the setter when things change quickly, I suspect the next puzzle is already written and out of date.
OBNOXIOUS was very neat and I liked HOUSE OF COMMONS.
Thanks mc_rapper67 and Cyclops. A really neat crossword. I had marked 15a and 7d as my favourites. I had a good laugh about your new unit of measure, a Kwarteng.
After finally finishing my first cryptic last week with Cyclops 737, I was convinced I’d be able to do the same with 738 but the punnery of the northeast corner eluded even me! My fixation on BURGEON was to be my downfall. I can’t believe I didn’t clock “theatre” — I work in healthcare.
Thanks for the comments so far…
Franko at #2 – I’m afraid I can’t really take credit, as there were people much quicker and cleverer than me with the ‘kwarteng’ time unit on Twitter, etc. There is even a letter in today’s Grauniad suggesting the ‘chancellor’ as a more generic unit of time…
Si at #3 – well done on your first solve with 737 – great to hear. Just keep going…it will get easier, and occasionally harder! And there is a lot more harder stuff out there once you get properly addicted…(;+>)
15A “ounce” is also an alternative name for a snow leopard (catty thing)
Mike — that’s the definition, I think. Was a new one on me. I suppose ounces pounce!
mc_rapper67 — cheers! I breezed through 739 though there are a couple that I’m not sure how the solutions work so looking forward to the solution for that. What other cryptics covered by this blog would you recommend I take a crack at in the meantime? I’ve played with some of the Graun ones with little success.
Mike at #5 – I did underline ‘catty thing’ as the definition, but I probably could have elaborated more. It is a fairly standard cruciverbal ‘chestnut’, due to the obvious misleading possibilities!
Si at #6 – there is a whole world of crosswords out there…let Go-ogle be your friend! The Everyman in the Observer is quite a gentle ‘entry-level’ cryptic puzzle, certainly not as hard as the typical Grauniad daily. It is available on the Grauniad crossword page for free. And it is blogged on this site.
The Telegraph daily is probably among the gentler cryptics, but that is only available by buying a subscription – or buying the dead tree version. The Indy daily cryptics are maybe a little harder – I think they are available free on the Indy website, and they are also blogged here. There are also many sites out there for aspiring setters who maybe can’t get published (yet) by the main dailies – I’m not a regular user of any, so don’t have any links to hand…
Thanks very much mc_rapper67, I’ll ease myself into the Everyman archives then. It’s nice having a grid I can carry around and fill in on my phone.
Si, if you’re still around, the Guardian Quiptic is an online, entry-level cryptic from the Guardian every Monday, also blogged here. Last week’s by Matilda was a cracker, praised by all and sundry.
Cheers — I have had the Quiptic on a mental list of things to check out ever since I first spotted it (I used to run through the Quick and Speedy whenever I could) as it sounded like my cup of tea, just as I always thought I should be a “cryptic person”. I hadn’t realised it was entry-level; I’d assumed it was the opposite. I’ll give it a whack! I’ve also realised I have a stack of Eyes I can go through.
@Si,
If you get accrosslite …free download, you can access all old PE crosswords here:
https://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/crossword/download/
There is no date on them which makes solving that bit more difficult since the political references need to be in one’s mind and it is difficult to work out which political figures were about then………a bit like today, I suppose!!!!
I’m new to these prize crosswords— can I ask how you guys are submitting your solutions to Private Eye? They weirdly don’t have any guidance anywhere at all. I am downloading and completing the Across Lite version then using the Print feature in that app to create a PDF with my solution, then emailing that to Private Eye with my name and address. I’ve submitted several solutions in this way and there haven’t been any complaints from them so far at least.
Any advice appreciated! Thanks