A significant milestone for Cyclops, if the numerologists are to be believed, with puzzle number 750…three quarters of a millennium…
…or approximately 29 years, of fortnightly puzzles – give or take the odd 3-week and 1-week issues that occasionally interrupt the flow.
(Having said that, I can’t see anything particularly acknowledging this landmark…unlike Cyclops 700, which also fell on my watch.)
Not a Trump or a Boris in sight – have they finally fallen from cruciverbal grace? Yesterday’s men…unlike King Brian (12A), Jeremy ker-Hunt (14A) and Rich-i Sunak (17A), who are deemed topical enough to get mentions.
The surface reads of 5D and 22D are classic Cyclops-ean smuttery, and that of 21D could describe any of the B-list ministers send out to do the Sunday morning media rounds.
11D PEACE PROCESS could be a nod to the recent 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, whereas 20A SOLDIER ON poignantly references the current conflict in Ukraine…
Congratulations to Cyclops on yet another milestone… I hope you’ve all coped with being on tenterhooks, waiting an extra week for the blog to come out. I will be out creating 23A DIVOTS on a golf course tomorrow morning…will deal with the flood of comments after I get back!
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 7A | UNLOAD | As delivery drivers do, to share their trials and tribulations (6)
double defn. – delivery drivers UNLOAD their wares; and to UNLOAD can be to share your trials and tribulations |
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| 8A | SOUS CHEF | Cook said to bring a case against chain, English Forte (4-4)
SOUS (homophone, i.e. said, SOUS sounds like sue, bring a case against) + CH (chain) + E (English) + F (forte, music, loud) |
||
| 10A | HUMBLE PIE | You’ll not be proud, putting this away, when screwing Lee with bum hip (6,3)
anag, i.e. screwing, of LEE + BUM HIP |
||
| 12A | RULED | Did a King Brian and drew the line? (5)
double defn. – King Brian (the Eye’s nickname for Charles) currently rules, so if you did like him you RULED; and if you drew a line using a ruler you would have RULED |
||
| 13A | SANDY | Ginger wants S&—? In short, yes (5)
S + AND (&) + Y (yes, in short) |
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| 14A | AUSTERITY | Jeremy Hunt’s cure? “Try improvising with a suite” (9)
anag, i.e. improvising, of TRY + A SUITE |
||
| 15A | ROUBLE | Russia’s ready to get leader out of difficulty (6)
( |
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| 17A | INTEND | Mean Sunak lives here, figuratively, by day (6)
Rishi Sunak is IN TEN Downing Street (figuratively 10, not sure if he actually lives there?) + D (day) |
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| 20A | SOLDIER ON | What Ukraine must do, tragically, to keep going? (7,2)
poignant double defn. – Ukraine is currently having to SOLDIER ON in its defence against the Russian invasion; and to keep going, more generically, can be to SOLDIER ON |
||
| 22A | BOWLS | Game requiring guts when energy’s lacking (5)
BOW( |
||
| 23A | DIVOT | It’s a sod what a driver might come up with (5)
&lit-ish (or double defn.?) – in golf, you might create a DIVOT, or sod of earth, with a driver. [In my experience, it is quite hard to dig up a divot with a driver, as the ball is up on a tee – but it is not unknown for it to happen! I’m more likely to create a divot with a fairway iron…] |
||
| 24A | CHRONICLE | Persistent, the French – must be a record (9)
CHRONIC (persistent) + LE (the, in French) |
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| 25A | SATIRISE | Was an MP possibly one to get up and ‘do a Private Eye’ (8)
SAT (was an MP, possibly) + I (one) + RISE (to get up) |
||
| 26A | BASSET | Dog appears with singer on blockbuster movie (6)
BASS (singer) + ET (ET – the Extra Terrestrial, blockbuster movie) |
||
| Across | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 1D | DUCHESS | Chewing cud with high-ranking Nazi, as Wallis was? (7)
DUC (anag, i.e. chewing, of CUD) + HESS (Rudolph Hess, high-ranking Nazi) [Wallis being Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor – the Meghan Markle of the 1930s…] |
||
| 2D | FLAMINGO | Showy flier‘s furious, having just one ball (8)
FLAMING (furious) + O (circular letter, or ball) |
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| 3D | BALLSY | Dances at end of jetty – very brave! (6)
BALLS (dances) + Y (end of jettY) |
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| 4D | MONEY-SPINNER | Tender PR exponent for e.g. an oil company these days? (5-7)
MONEY (legal tender) + SPINNER (Public Relations exponent) |
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| 5D | CHILLI | Hot thing‘s mound visible in authentic Gucci bottoms (6)
C_I (bottom letters of ‘authentiC guccI’) around HILL (mound) |
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| 6D | OFF-DAY | Disenchanted with the old political commentator (not doing well at this time) (3-3)
OFF (disenchanted with) + DAY (Robin Day, former UK TV political commentator) |
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| 9D | SERPENT | Treacherous type‘s sad present (7)
anag, i.e. sad, of PRESENT |
||
| 11D | PEACE PROCESS | A course of conflict resolution and coppers cease to be bent (5,7)
anag, i.e. bent, of COPPERS CEASE |
||
| 16D | BLISTER | It’s painful being less than a top-rated celeb (7)
a top-rated celeb is an A-lister, so someone not quite of that league is a B-LISTER |
||
| 18D | NEWSCAST | Virgin’s shy TV transmission (8)
NEW (virgin) + S (contracted ‘s) + CAST (shy, throw) |
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| 19D | ASPECTS | Crawlers going round ground, etc, making faces (7)
ASP_S (snakes, crawlers) around ECT (anag, i.e. ground, of ETC) |
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| 20D | SADIST | One taking great pleasure in making others smart? (6)
&lit – a SADIST takes pleasure in causing others pain, or making them smart |
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| 21D | LEVITY | Live broadcast with vacuous politician is just silliness (6)
LEVI (anag, i.e. broadcast, of LIVE) + TY (TorY, or politician, empty, or vacuous) |
||
| 22D | BANTAM | Outlaw has time in the morning for cock (6)
BAN (outlaw) + T (time) + AM (in the morning) |
||
Thanks for the blog and the reminder last week , I had forgotten about the three week cycle , it is usually only at Christmas.
My post went early there . Good crossword but nothing spectacular , seemed to be quite a few with very small , just about anagrams. CUD=DUC is a reversal but is an anagram I suppose , the letters are mixed up.
I think Sunak is in number 10 , Johnson had 11 because it is larger but so much shuffling since , I have lost track. The clue does say by day .
Enjoy your golf, I prefer my walks to be unspoilt.
Thanks mc_rapper67 and Cyclops. I liked the word play in 15a and am still chuckling at the cheeky Cyclopsean humour in 22d. Congratulations all round. FORE!
I had a real nightmare with this one on first read through so put it to one side, and forgot to go back to it!
Three quarters of a century mc_rapper67? Surely you meant millennium
Roz at #2 – my walk was very enjoyable, in fact one of my better rounds of the year…only ‘spoilt’ by an 8 at the last hole… I suspect ‘ne’er the Twain shall meet’ on that one…
Franko at #3 – glad you enjoyed it…I only had to shout ‘FORE!’ once today, although I did use another F-word several times…
Areeno at #4 – you fell for my trick of inserting a deliberate mistake to prompt extra comments…ahem…duly (and sheepishly) corrected…
Never played golf, but my dad used to, so I knew what a divot was — although I had to check the spelling, only ever having heard it.
Surely Meghan would only have fully qualified as the modern-day Mrs Simpson if she’d married the big brother?
Which reminds:
There was a young monarch called Ed,
Who took Mrs Simpson to bed;
As they bounced up and down,
He said “Bugger the Crown!
Let’s give it to Bertie instead!”
(George VI’s given name was Albert.)