A tale of two halves for your blogger, this fortnight…the bottom half seemed to fill up rather quickly, but the top half was a bit chewier…
…although on revisiting it I’m not really sure why…maybe just a wavelength thing…
And…doh…after nearly three months of 2024, we have a Trump reference…I guess he is making a bit of a comeback, more’s the pity…
My favourite was probably 18A/1D, with someone’s balls at risk from a KNEEJERK REACTION – closely followed by FORCEPS at 12A, with Penny Mordaunt’s forces past referenced – timely, as Starmer referred to her holding the Sword of Damocles over Sunak this week!
I think the use of ‘Davey’ to indicate ED at 5A might be a first – it is usually Milliband or Balls, but ‘balls’ does make that appearance at 18A/1D. And I’m not sure I’ve ever seen 16D COLD SOBER used without the preceding ‘STONE-‘.
A blast from the past with the doubly-defined THATCHER at 15A; and some suitably Cyclops-ean smuttery dotted around – arses, butt, goolies, balls, kinky, testicles and penetration, to name but a few!
My thanks to Cyclops, as usual, and I hope all is clear below.
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
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| 1A | RECITAL | Performance of an arse loosely enthralling one (7)
REC_TAL (of an arse, loosely!) around (enthralling) I (one) |
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| 5A | POSED | Bribe returned – Davey was affected? (5)
POS (sop, or bribe, returned) + ED (Ed Davey, Lib Dem leader) |
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| 9A | AMONG | Cream on goolies – inside, not on the outside (5)
hidden word in, i.e. inside, in, ‘creAM ON Goolies’ |
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| 10A | CLICKBAIT | Cats start to tongue Harry which encourages mouse activity (9)
C (start of Cat) + LICK (tongue) + HARRY (pester, bait) [electronic mouse activity!] |
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| 11A | THEATRE | His Majesty’s now possibly pissed at three (7)
anag, i.e. pissed, of AT THREE [have any ‘Her Majesty’s’ theatres been renamed to His?] |
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| 12A | FORCEPS | Labour might require such a device as sticking Penny in the military! (7)
FORCE_S (military) around P (penny) |
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| 13A | OFFER | Dicky, on going arse over tip, gets tender (5)
OFF (dicky, ill) + ER (re, regarding or on, going arse over tip) |
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| 15A | THATCHER | House cover-up is effected by one old PM (8)
double defn. – a THATCHER might cover up a house; and Margaret THATCHER was PM) |
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| 18A | KNEEJERK (REACTION) | & 1dn. Balls possibly in line of fire from such an unthinking response? (8,8)
CD/charade? – if you performed a physical, rather than metaphorical, KNEEJERK REACTION then any testiculated person standing in front of you might have their balls in the line of fire! |
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| 19A | LATCH | Strip clubs inside bar entrance (5)
LAT_H (strip of wood) around C (with C – clubs, inside) [if you put the latch on a door, you are barring entrance] |
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| 21A | LOAFERS | For sale: kinky casual wear (7)
anag, i.e. kinky, of FOR SALE |
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| 23A | ROSTRUM | Speaker’s stand on unstable sort being introduced to drink (7)
R_UM (drink) around (introducing) OSTR (anag, i.e. unstable, of SORT) [or possible ROST before, being introduced to, RUM?] |
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| 25A | UNTUTORED | Turned out lousy, being in need of instruction (9)
anag, i.e. lousy, of TURNED OUT |
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| 26A | BONED | Screwed on entering appropriate place? (5)
B_ED (an appropriate place for screwing!) around (entered by) ON |
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| 27A | TACKY | Only recently painted as tasteless? (5)
double defn. – something recently painted might feel TACKY to the touch; and TACKY can mean tasteless |
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| 28A | EURASIA | Entrepreneur (as Ian?) protects massive land area (7)
hidden word in, i.e. protected by, ‘entreprenEUR AS IAn’ |
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| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 1D | REACTION | See 18ac. (8)
see 18A |
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| 2D | CLOSE (RANKS) | & 24 Fail to separate oddballs, as Republicans do around Trump (5,5)
C_RANKS (oddballs) around (separated by) LOSE (fail) |
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| 3D | TIGHTARSE | Mean Bottom or Scrooge? (9)
TIGHT (mean) + ARSE (bottom) |
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| 4D | LUCRE | Lords chief dodgy ‘cure’ for dishonest gain (5)
L (first, or chief, letter of Lords) + UCRE (anag, i.e. dodgy, of CURE) |
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| 5D | POKER | The game of Roger Roger (5)
POKE (roger, have sex with, slang) + R (roger, in signalling, radio communication, but not the phonetic alphabet, which uses Romeo!) |
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| 6D | STATEMENT | Government aimed to ditch a communiqué (9)
STATE (government) + ME( |
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| 7D | DETEST | Part inside testicles – can’t stand (6)
hidden word in, i.e. part of, ‘insiDE TESTicles’ |
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| 8D | HIPFLASK | In canteen, handy for the boozer (8)
HIP (in, trendy) + FLASK (canteen) |
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| 14D | FANTASTIC | A senior, given time, gets caught in fact, in ‘flagrante’ –”marvellous!” (9)
FANT_IC (anag, i.e. in flagrante, of IN FACT) around (catching) A + S (senior) + T (time) |
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| 15D | TREASURE | Arse wobbled in true style, darling (8)
T_URE (anag, i.e. style, of TRUE) around REAS (anag, i.e. wobbly, of ARSE) |
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| 16D | COLD SOBER | Like a strict TT, stony, son-of-a-bitch, eastern Republican (4,5)
COLD (stony) + SOB (son-of-a-bitch) + E (Eastern) + R (Republican) |
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| 17D | THE MEDIA | TV etc showing recurring image: ex-royal Alexandra’s butt (3,5)
THE_ME (recurring image) + DI (Princess Di, former royal) + A (last letter, or butt, of alexandrA) |
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| 20D | FLAUNT | Flash‘s uniform accommodating large body (6)
FLA_T (uniform) around (accommodating) UN (the United Nations, a large organisation, or body) |
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| 22D | ENTRY | Guardsman finally eases off penetration (5)
( |
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| 23D | RIDGE | Rooftop game: letting bastard go (5)
( [My PC Chambers doesn’t give B = bastard, but the Android version does…] |
||
| 24D | RANKS | See 2dn. (5)
see 2D |
||
Thanks mc_rapper67 your explanation of 18a was well worth me looking at your blog at silly o’clock on Saturday.
Re 23a ROSTRUM, I had thought of the 2nd option that you identified I.e. that INTRODUCED indicated that it preceded RUM. I missed your 1st option that INTRODUCED indicates an insertion. They both seem to work.
Excellent blog mc_rapper67 (the intro makes a lovely read)!
POSED: The def is cute.
CLICKBAIT: Harry The Happy Mouse!
KNEEJERK REACTION: Very funny! That’s nuts!
ROSTRUM takes the podium for the double act!
THE MEDIA: At the bottom of my list butt it’s as good as any!
A fun puzzle on the whole!
Thanks for the blog. very good set of clues , CLOSE RANKS was very neat.
B for bastard? I suppose it could be a polite form , I have seen it in older novels where they do not print swearing , just b……. , could be bugger of course. I wonder if it is used in family trees for the aristocracy. It is not in Chambers93.
CLICKBAIT I am still not really sure what the term means , got it last from the wordplay and letters. ( I have never used a mouse ) .
Roz@3
RIDGE
b=bastard (Chambers mobile app)
CLICKBAIT
I have never used a mouse
This bait will not lure you!
Thanks mc_rapper67 and Cyclops. Where I’m from referring to someone as ‘a right old B’ instead of using the word bastard is quite common. ‘A right old C’ is also used but a lot less frequently. I blame Presbyterians.
Wow – five comments on a Cyclops on the first day…and four of them before 6.30 am…what a bunch of early birds out catching worms…thanks for these – much appreciated, as usual…
Roz at #2 – I’m not sure how you comment on here without a mouse…you must be all fingers and thumbs on a phone or tablet? Technically speaking, the front page of this site is just CLICKBAIT, inviting you in to read the full blogs/comments…
TheFatController at #5 – leave BRITNEY SPEARS out of this!
mc@6 I have a Chromebook , open it and quite a large screen , full keyboard and a small rectangle where my finger can control the little arrow. Do not have a phone or tablet or any other device. Someone set this up for me with four pictures, this site , BBC , JWST and Euclid.
That must be my clickbait.
@Roz……I guess you are subject to Tapbait then.