Cyclops 740 – Annexation Plebiscite

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Cyclops doing what Cyclops does…

…with some fairly topical stuff, such as ANNEXATIONs not quite going how Putin wants, after some dodgy PLEBISCITEs. In fact, Putin gets three mentions in the clues, although two of these are just as partial anagram fodder for TU(L)IP and the T of stalwarT.

Thankfully no sign of Boris any more, unless he is the excited Etonian in ANNEXATION, and no sign (yet) of Hancock – and Liz Truss was probably too ephemeral to make it into a fortnightly topical puzzle?!

The usual level of smuttery, with ‘ogle’ for EYE UP; Charles/Brian contributing to POKING; and the least said about the surface reading of 9D TISSUE the better!

And a couple of nice definitions – ‘superior flat’ for PENTHOUSE and ‘see-through top’ for SKYLIGHT.

 

 

All in all, nothing to scare the horses really, but a pleasant workout – thanks to Cyclops, and I hope all is clear below…

 

Across
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/parsing
1A UP-TEMPO More heat, love, quickly! (2-5)

UP (more) + TEMP (temperature, heat) + O (zero, love)
5A EFFORT Labour’s curse: “Nothing right!” (6)

EFF (curse, eff and blind) + O (nothing) + RT (right)
10A ANNEXATION An Etonian’s excited about vote – “It’s not going as Putin wants” (10)

ANNE_ATION (anag., i.e. excited, of AN ETONIAN) around X (vote)
11A FREE See 6dn. (4)

see 6D
12A CHIP IN Nick elected – make a contribution (4,2)

CHIP (nick, break off) + IN (elected)
13A SKYLIGHT Broadcaster with pale, see-through top (8)

SKY (TV broadcaster) + LIGHT (pale)
14A MUGS GAME Before match, faces a thankless task (4,4)

MUGS (faces) before GAME (match)
16A SKIMPY Heavens! Cyclops is having pee inside – most revealing (6)

SK_Y (heavens) around IM (I’m, Cyclops is…) + P (pee)
18A REMARK About to ruin king’s pronouncement (6)

RE (about, with reference to) + MAR (spoil) + K (king, chess notation)
19A SIDESTEP Dodge party’s blue-eyed boy making a comeback (8)

SIDES (party, plus contractive ‘s) + TEP (pet, or blue-eyed boy, favourite, making a comeback)
20A STALWART “Last mismanaged conflict”: Putin at heart is resolute (8)

STAL (anag, i.e. managed, of LAST) + WAR (conflict) + T (middle letter, or heart, of puTin
23A CARPET Crummy, crap energy handout ultimately results in reprimand (6)

CARP (anag, i.e. crummy, of CRAP) + E (energy) + T (ultimate letter of handouT)
25A ULNA Part of one’s member wrapped in awful nappy (4)

hidden word in, i.e. wrapped in, ‘awfUL NAppy’
26A PLEBISCITE Vulgar type forced cities’ referendum (10)

PLEB (vulgar type) + ISCITE (anag, i.e. forced, of CITIES)
27A POKING Solemn and humourless, our Brian, having sex (6)

PO (-faced, solemn and humourless) + KING (Charles, or Brian, as the Eye calls him)
28A MEASURE Determine the size of Bill? (7)

double defn. – to MEASURE can be to determine the size of; and a MEASURE can be a Parliamentary Bill
Across
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/parsing
2D PENTHOUSE Superior flat mobile phone – use with temperature reduced internally (9)

PEN_HOUSE (anag, i.e. mobile, of PHONE USE) around T (temperature, abbreviated, or reduced)
3D EYE UP Ogle organ in a state of arousal (3,2)

EYE (bodily organ) + UP (in a state of arousal)
4D PLAIN TALK One enrolled in scheme to get gas – antidote to politician’s speech? (5,4)

PL_AN (scheme) around (enrolling) I (one), plus TALK (gas)
6D FANCY (FREE) & 11 Easy-going supporter: “City’s losing it for nothing” (5,4)

FAN (supporter) + CY (CitY, losing it) + FREE (for nothing)
7D OFF LIMITS If film’s almost too dirty, you’re not allowed in (3,6)

anag, i.e. dirty, of IF FILMS + TO (almost all of TOO)
8D TEETH Effective power of the heartless and the reckless (5)

TE (ThE, heartless – either losing middle letter, or heart; or losing H – hearts, suit in cards?) + ETH (anag, i.e reckless, of THE)
9D TISSUE Used by tosser to get rid of evidence of time problem? (6)

T (time) + ISSUE (problem)
15D SMALL TALK Trail round shopping area – not conducive to sparkling conversation (5,4)

S_TALK (trail) around MALL (shopping area)
16D SEDUCTIVE Evict US Democrat unceremoniously before start of election? Tempting! (9)

SEDUCTIV (anag, i.e. unceremoniously, of EVICT US + D – Democrat) + E (start of Election)
17D PRESENTER TV host now about to get erection? (9)

PRESENT (now, the current time) + ER (re, about – reversed, or erected, for a down clue!)
19D SETTER Cyclops‘ temperature doubled when held by Sibyl? (6)

SE_ER (Sibyl, oracle or prophet) around (holding) TT (temperature, doubled)
21D TULIP Name-dropping Putin left out – might be found in bed (5)

subtractive anag., i.e. out, of PUTI(N) (dropping n, or name) + L (left)
22D ASPEN It trembles like a vice-president avoiding Capitol event leaders (5)

AS (like) + PEN(CE) (former US VP, avoiding CE – leading letters of Capitol Event)
24D RACES Meeting different sorts of people (5)

double defn. – the RACES can refer to a race meeting; and RACES can be different groups, or sorts, of people

14 comments on “Cyclops 740 – Annexation Plebiscite”

  1. Thanks mc_rapper67 and Cyclops. I had also marked 2d ‘superior flat’ as a favourite together with 8 d TEETH. I thought both were very clever and neat. I couldn’t fully parse 28a MEASURE and had written ‘why bill?’ on my copy. Annoying, as I am sure bill has come up before.

  2. Got to say, I was shocked by 9D…even taking into account Cyclops’ usual behaviour. I could also take issue with the definition………I know of and have heard of many other different ways of disposing of the evidence!!!!! Maybe better not to go there though.

  3. Thanks for the blog, yes quite a lot of Putin really, the TULIP one was neat.
    I see our Head of State is back to being Brian after a very brief period as Charles.
    SKYLIGHT was a very clever definition.
    RACES , the clue is fine but the idea of different races for humans is very discredited now.

  4. I liked 28A. Maybe my imagination, but ‘Bill’ Shakespeare and ‘Measure for Measure’ popped into my head.

  5. Managed it all except had Daylight (Sri Robin being the broadcaster) rather than skylight which meant I had riddle as the solution to 9 down which clearly wasn’t correct!!

  6. Thanks for the various comments – much appreciated, as always…

    Winsor at #2 – yes, best not!…

    Roz at #3 – I suspect Cyclops will continue to use both Charles and Brian, whichever fits best – an extra string to the setting bow. I have seen a couple of recent uses elsewhere of ‘king’ to indicate CR…

    TheFatController and Jezinho – nice to see some different names amongst the usual suspects! Jezinho – you had a couple incorrect…I (hopefully) had them all correct, but I forgot to submit my entry…so neither of us will be in the hat this fortnight!…

  7. For some reason I struggled with RACES and MEASURE, didn’t get them in until after the deadline (must learn to start the crossword BEFORE reading rest of mag)

  9. Thanks, Tony Collman – duly corrected – forensic as ever! (I was probably writing up a couple of blogs at the same time and got confused…either that or my ‘finger dyslexia’ is getting worse…)

  10. 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

  11. Hi Robin at #10 – apologies, I didn’t reply to your similar comment on 738 (I thought I had, but maybe I didn’t ‘send’), although beermagnet did reply on 739.

    Ultimately, no-one really knows, and there isn’t much guidance. In pre-Covid days, I used to fill in the paper version, scan it and e-mail it in, and then post it in as well (to cope with the anecdotal situation where they used to toss a coin each fortnight and then choose from the e-mailed versions or the postal versions for that puzzle.

    During and Post-Covid (if we are post-Covid yet?), they stopped taking postal entries, so I carried on scanning and e-mailing, and I know of people who do what you are doing, printing and scanning from AcrossLite. However, I have also seen advice from somewhere in the past that submissions should be a list of answers, so more recently I have been e-mailing in a list of the numbered answers (which isn’t such a bind, as I am blogging every other one anyway).

    All I can say is that it is a long, long time since I was lucky enough to win the prize, and I don’t know if I am just on an unlucky streak, or submitting in an incorrect way!

    I recently discovered the following from a crossword chat-site, where someone had taken the trouble to write in and ask about the prize draws, and they got the following answer:

    “I draw the winner at random from the email entries. I really do. There’s no plot or conspiracy. The winner is simply chosen randomly from the emails. I give the name of the winner to the financial director, and he writes out the cheque each fortnight and posts it to the winner. The winners do cash their cheques. Since the first lockdown we’ve had many more entries. More than twice as many as in normal times.”

    This doesn’t help with the question over submission formats, but at least it reassures that there is something happening behind the scenes – and those increased numbers reduce the odds of winning!

  12. Surely it would unfair to exclude an attached pdf or jpg (or whatever) of the filled grid without explicitly saying that is the case? Personally (as I have mentioned here before, I think), I recreate the grid using Crossword Compiler, then use that app to make a pdf of the final fill, which I attach to an email.

  14. The number of wins I have had since starting to enter two or three(?) years ago can be counted on the fingers of one foot.

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