Cyclops serves up a dollop of serendipitous Schadenfreude, this fortnight…
…with 27A predicting the ‘start of Trump’s downfall’, along with ‘his retinue’, which does finally seem to have cranked up a gear or two this week. For balance, 9A TAX DODGER has a dig at Hunter Biden. Similarly, Rich-i Sunak’s LUXURIOUS lifestyle gets a mention at 2D, and then this is balanced with ‘a lot of muck about the Labour leader’ for MULCH.
VOYEURISM as ‘looking, for sexual arousal’ at 16D was worth the entrance fee alone, raising a chuckle and a little tick on my solving copy!
And a fair amount of other smut/innuendo, with ‘naked jogging’ for NUDGE; balls inverted using glue for DELUGE; the doctor ‘taking the piss’ for a SPECIMEN; ‘poor circulation’ causing a lost erection for DROOP; and a Bristol City (titty) helping with TACIT at 27D.
Not a lot else to say – just an enjoyable solve, and up to the usual Cyclops standards.
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
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| 1A | DELUGE | Balls being inverted, used glue – overwhelming amount (6)
DE (Ed, Balls, inverted) + LUGE (anag, i.e. used, of GLUE) |
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| 4A | SPECIMEN | Piss taken at the doctor’s? (8)
CD – if your doctor asked you for a urine SPECIMEN, they might be taking the piss! |
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| 9A | TAX DODGER | Biden’s son in the view of some Republicans: “Corrupt detox grad!” (3,6)
anag, i.e. corrupt, of DETOX GRAD |
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| 11A | NYLON | Material only about Biden’s end (5)
NYLO (anag, i.e. about, of ONLY) + N (last letter, or end, of bideN) |
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| 12A | NERDY | Deny bust covers bottom of jumper, like a geek (5)
NE_DY (anag, i.e. bust, of DENY) around (covering) R (last letter, or bottom, of jumpeR) |
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| 13A | NUDGE | It’s grand to break into naked jog (5)
NUD_E (naked) around (broken into by) G (grand, thousand, usually monetary) |
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| 14A | HOT (TIP) | & 24 Latest advice bound to restrict Times and Independent (3,3)
HO_P (bound) around (restricting) TT (time, twice) + I (Independent) |
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| 15A | EVOLVED | Early Viking leaders loved balls getting developed (7)
EV (leading letters of ‘Early Viking’ + OLVED (anag,i.e. balls, of LOVED) |
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| 17A | DROOP | Lose erection (dead poor circulation) (5)
D (dead) + ROOP (poor, circulating) |
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| 20A | HUSKY | Hard up lead broadcaster sounding croaky (5)
H (hard) + U (leading letter of Up) + SKY (broadcaster) |
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| 21A | ERRATIC | Shifting Carter involved one’s being on the inside (7)
ERRAT_C (anag, i.e. involved, of CARTER) around I (one, on the inside) |
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| 24A | TIP | See 14ac. (3)
see 14A |
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| 26A | UPEND | Stupendous housing tip (5)
hidden word in, i.e. housed by, ‘stUPENDous’ |
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| 27A | TRAIN | Start of Trump’s downfall – and retinue (5)
T (start of Trump) + RAIN (downfall) |
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| 28A | HANOI | Hospital needs a number one – and capital (5)
H (hospital) + A + NOI (No 1, number one) |
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| 29A | DIRECTIVE | “One has to follow Blunt’s command” (9)
DIRECT (blunt) plus (followed by) IVE (I’ve, contraction of ‘I have’, or one has…) |
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| 30A | DOCUMENT | For the record, desist from wrapping rod round Mordaunt’s head! (8)
DO_NT (don’t, desist from!) around (wrapping) CU_E (rod), itself around M (first letter, or head, of Mordaunt) |
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| 31A | ATTEST | Act like a witness going topless – most gross! (6)
( |
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| Across | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 1D | DÉTENTE | Tension relaxer produced by CID employee cut by criminal teen (7)
DET (abbreviation, or cut, of Detective, or CID employee) + ENTE (anag, i.e. criminal, of TEEN) |
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| 2D | LUXURIOUS | ‘Light unit’ initially unveiled at Rio and America: suitable for the Sunaks’ lifestyle? (9)
LUX (light unit) + U (Unveiled, initially) + RIO + US (America) |
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| 3D | GOOFY | Gum extremely flabby with teeth protruding (5)
GOO (gum) + FY (extreme letters of FlabbY) |
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| 5D | PARODY | State staff finally ready to take the piss (6)
PA (Pennsylvania, US state) + ROD (staff) + Y (final letter of readY) |
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| 6D | CONTENDER | Adversary makes political party sore (9)
CON (Conservative, political party) + TENDER (sore) |
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| 7D | MULCH | Muck – there’s a lot surrounding Labour leader (5)
MU_CH (a lot) around (surrounding) L (leading letter of Labour) |
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| 8D | NON-STOP | Negative Poles peak without a break (3-4)
NO (negative) + N-S (North & South, poles) + TOP (peak) |
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| 10D | GONADS | Try sand to shift balls (6)
GO (try) + NADS (anag, i.e. to shift, of SAND) |
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| 16D | VOYEURISM | You’ve tangled with Mrs I. looking for sexual arousal (9)
anag, i.e. tangled of YOU’VE + MRS I |
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| 18D | OSTRACISE | Outlaw‘s corset is tight with article concealed (9)
OSTR_CISE (anag, i.e. tight, of CORSET IS) around (concealing) A (indefinite article) |
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| 19D | BENDER | Who won’t stand for a drunken spree? (6)
double def’n – someone who bends over, a BENDER, doesn’t stand up straight; and a BENDER can be a drunken spree |
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| 20D | HITCHED | Snag on being married: wife leaves – to get married (7)
HITCH (snag) + ( |
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| 22D | CONVERT | Name implicated in sneaky reform (7)
CO_VERT (sneaky) around (implicating) N (name) |
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| 23D | LEADEN | Very dull duke (English) put in list (6)
LEA_N (list, lean over) around D (duke) + E (English) |
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| 25D | PANIC | Censure one Conservative and cause alarm (5)
PAN (censure, criticise) + I (one) + C (Conservative) |
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| 27D | TACIT | Silent air-conditioning installed in Bristol (5)
T_IT (breast, Bristol – Cockney rhyming slang, ‘Bristol City’ = ‘titty’) around (installing) AC (air-conditioning) |
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I had marked 29a as my favourite, but agree 16d is a gem. Thanks mc_rapper67 and Cyclops. Must have a kip now!
p.s 30a was a real blighter to parse for me but that made me appreciate the clue all the more.
Thanks for a great blog , very enjoyable and pretty high standard of clues.
HOT TIP was very neat but there were many I liked, although I do not agree for VOYEURISM,
“Mrs I ” is a bit of a cop out from the setter, unless this is some reference that I do not know ?
Other minor quibble for DET in DETENTE .
I agree with Franko@1 for DOCUMENT , a clever double wrapping.
Thanks to all! I enjoyed this although it was done in one sitting. Should upend have a hyphen?
It seemed to me that there were a lot of clues made up of one letter surrounded by synonyms or anagrams of synonyms?
Wiktionary has both up-end and upend. Personally I don’t use the hyphen, but.
Splendid collection of insults and obscenities, thanks Cyclops.
Winsor/AndyF – Chambers also gives equal billing to ‘upend’ and ‘up-end’ – I’d probably tend towards using the hyphenated version…
Roz at #2 – my appreciation of VOYEURISM was more for the definition than the word play!
16dn, VOYEURISM: I agree it was a great def, but also agree with Roz that ‘Mrs I’ is weak. Could Mrs & I have worked (but that’s bad English grammar)?
Winsor@3, “Should upend have a hyphen?”. I wouldn’t use a one andCollins online doesn’t even offer it as an option.
Mc:
In 29ac, “to” goes with “follow”, not “one has”.
In 30ac, “for” isn’t part of the definition, but a link meaning ‘in order to get a word meaning [(the) document]’. It’s more usual to see this link where the def comes at the end of the clue: ‘[wordplay] for [def]’, rather than ‘for [def], [wordplay]’.
In 5dn, “to” is part of the def (PARODY is a verb here).
Thanks, Tony C – tweaks applied!
Mc: perfect!