Cyclops gives us his usual prurient take on our playful pastime.
This time there seemed to be quite a lot of arses in the clues. Suitablly in line with the current situation.
There also seem to be a few more anagrams than usual. Probably noticed because I got stuck solving a few of them.
Solving got off to a crap start when I typed in ABROAD instead of ABOARD at 8a and didn’t question till I’d failed on 2d and 3d several times. Otherwise, it mostly slotted in without too much fuss except for one or two clues that I had questions about. (Does that make them questionable? I guess so.) But when I re-read the clue I realised what I missed
11a I thought the H came from H[ard] and wondered why Cyclops though Hardliner could be used just to improve the service. But “starts” does the biz.
18d I though “about” was doing double-duty. I missed the importance of “recruit”
There is a slight question over 20d where “cops almost” is delivering POLI[ce]: As Lady Bracknell might say, losing 1 letter is one thing, losing 2 letters looks like carelessness.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 8 | ABOARD | On the craft of undoing bra (‘Nothing in it!’) during a date (6) (BRA)* AInd: undoing, with O (Nothing!) in it, all inside A D (a date) My fingers typed in ABROAD which confused me for 2d |
| 9 | PREACHER | Minister and president cosying up to one who’s made it (8) P[resident] REACHER (one who’s made it) |
| 11 | HOLD FORTH | Wait before pro Tory hardliner starts to speechify (4,5) HOLD (Wait) FOR (pro) T[ory] H[ardliner] (starts of these words ) At first, after thinking H came from H[ard] I wondered what “liner” was doing. |
| 12 | PECAN | Gregory’s incomplete with one nut (5) [Gregory] PEC[k] AN (one) |
| 13 | LATTE | Recoil at terrorists having drink (5) Hidden in recoiL AT TErrorists |
| 14 | FANCIABLE | If balance is falsified that’s all right (9) (IF BALANCE)* AInd: is falsified. |
| 16 | CAREFUL | Alert: regiment retreating in carbon fuel disaster (7) RA< (Regiment, retreating. Royal Artillary) inside C[arbon] and (FUEL)* AInd: disaster. |
| 18 | KINSHIP | Affinity with pinkish pants (7) (PINKISH)* AInd: pants. |
| 20/5 | POLITICAL CAMPAIGN | Party’s attempt to get elected – large sum invested in dodgy application claim (9,8) (APPLICATION CLAIM + G)* AInd: dodgy. G from large sum, Grand. This anagram fooled me longer than it should have. |
| 22 | CANAL | By which to barge around like an arse (5) C (around, circa) ANAL (like an arse) |
| 23 | LIBEL | Smear old politician with gooey stuff? Not good (5) LIB[eral] (old politician) [g]EL (gooey stuff – G[ood]) The Liberal Party is dead. Long live the Lib Dems! |
| 25 | THE STATES | He attests outrageously in USA (3,6) (HE ATTESTS)* AInd: outrageously. |
| 26 | CAMISOLE | Possibly aims to wear old king’s undergarment (8) (AIMS)* AInd: possibly, inside (wearing) COLE (old king, the merry old soul) |
| 27 | COMMIE | According to Trump, any Democrat from 2001 involved in CEO’s ruin? (6) MMI (2001) inside (CEO)* AInd: ruin. |
| Down | ||
| 1 | CATHOLIC | Liberal‘s gripe about woolly hat (8) COLIC (gripe) around (HAT)* AInd: woolly. |
| 2 | COLLATERAL | Lamentably all clear to civilian victims of war? (10) (ALL CLEAR TO)* AInd: lamentably. |
| 3 | TRIFLE | Treasury head gets sack for fiddle (6) T[reasury] RIFLE (sack, as in pillage) |
| 4 | ORPHAN | End of transmission after Oprah screwed Annie? (6) (OPRAH)* AInd: screwed, [transmissio]N |
| 6 | CHIC | Smart alec’s tip: ‘sound like a drunk’ (4) [ale]C HIC (sound like a drunk) |
| 7 | ORANGE | Trump’s tone? Zero anger management (6) O (zero) (ANGER)* AInd: management. |
| 10 | ARTFUL | Scheming female wearing ultra creation (6) F[emale] inside (wearing) (ULTRA)* AInd: creation. |
| 15 | BEHIND TIME | Overdue, making arse stretch (6,4) BEHIND (arse) TIME (stretch) |
| 17 | FATALIST | If at last sacked, he’s ‘resigned’ (8) (IF AT LAST)* AInd: sacked. |
| 18 | KILLER | Keir about to recruit to rebel, finally (twice) – criminal (6) (KEIR)* AInd: about, around (recruit[ing]) [rebe]L [rebe]L At first I thought “about” was doing double duty here until I noticed the importance of “recruit” as an insertion indicator |
| 19 | POLLSTER | Opinion-seeker tells pro to shift (8) (TELLS PRO)* AInd: to shift. |
| 20 | POLICY | Line of cops almost getting city emptied (6) POLI[CE] (cops, almost) C[it]Y Usually it is just the last letter of a word that’s truncated. I guess 2 off 6 is still “almost” |
| 21 | CATTLE | Whip let off ‘cud-chewers’ (6) CAT (whip) (LET)* AInd: off. |
| 22 | COTTON | Company about to suppress Times material (6) CO[mpany] ON (about) around (to suppress) TT (T[ime], plural) |
| 24 | BUMF | Arse associated with foreign head’s publicity material (4) BUM (arse) F[oreign] |
I cannot understand the relaxed attitude some people have towards the serious challenges and worry we all face as a country right now.
I’ve been discussing with friends and family, colleagues at work, in fact anyone I can! I’m trying to impress upon them how important the next few weeks or so are for our nation.
This is very serious. The wrong result could affect us all for a very long time.
Unbelievably, some people don’t even like football!
Late edit: Those of you read the Eye will probably like Jonathan Pie. His “Election Special” 15 mins of his usual sweary ranting is on at 23:15 Tonight Sat 29th Radio 4 – or the podcast here link to BBC Sounds
Great blog beermagnet. Liked your preamble. Nice puzzle. Thanks both.
COLLATERAL
Does COLLATERAL mean ‘a COLLATERAL damage’? I was/am not aware of this usage.
POLICY
Agree with the quibble in the blog. I find that POLIs means ‘the police’ (Scottish/Irish) but
it’s unlikely that polis was the intended word without any dialect indicator.
Thanks for a great blog, I know what you mean about putting in the answer slightly wrong, think I would do it more if I was typing .
COLLATERAL damage one of those euphemisms invented to disguise the horrors of war and I think it is increasingly being shortened to collateral in modern usage. It seems to have happened with collateral security as well .
POLIce I agree with you and KVa , it is unusual and I am not fond of it, perhaps the C from CitY confused things. KVa has a good suggestion , it could have said Scottish cops.
COLLATERAL
Roz@2
Thanks for your clarification.
POLICY – I had the ‘C’ doing double duty, I’m afraid. Put the lapse down to the ‘Joe Biden effect’.
🙂
Thanks beermagnet and Cyclops. I really enjoyed this blog and the crossword. I marked the following as favourites on my copy 22a, 27a, 1d, 2d and 15d. It was either for their sheer cleverness or just making me laugh (in some cases both). Cyclops @4, thanks for clarifying 22d .
Thanks to Cyclops and beer magnet, some great clues and wonderful blog.
Thanks beermagnet and Cyclops, another enjoyable blog and puzzle. Last in was 24d which for reasons unknown in my head ended with ‘ph’ instead of ‘f’. A bit of improvisation was required this month as I’m currently away and knew I’d have no access other than the website so I took a pre-printed 15×15 grid with me and spent a happy few minutes carefully drawing in the squares and the numbers before making a start on it. (My OCD wouldn’t let me miss out on my regular puzzle.) I’m heading home today so normal service will be resumed.
most enjoyable puzzle and whilst Cyclops is kind in owning up to a mistake, I did not have a problem with dropping two letters.
But thank you to Cyclops and beermagnet for a lovely time!!!
No real complaints from me except that I was surprised by BUMF….I’m a ph man myself.
@8, TFC….if you have access to electronic devices, try across lite and do it on your computer. Other than some need of a piece of paper for anagrams, it works well.
Thanks Winsor@9, I’ve used across lite on my PC a few times and I find it handy, but it’s not available for Android unfortunately. Due to a particularly bad experience with Apple in the early days of personal computing I eschew anything manufactured or operated by that company.