A rare beast…a Cyclops without a single mention or use of Ronald T Dump…
…make the most of it, because there are three more years of the KITSCH PRAT to come…
There is a tangential reference in the TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) at 10A, but away from all that we have a Starmer, an ARCHER, THE PRESS generally, a DRUG PUSHER and a possible reference to the ongoing TEST MATCH series between England and India:
What is not to like?! My thanks to Cyclops, and I trust all is clear below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 1A | MERDE | Starmer deciding to reveal Macron’s “shit” (5)
hidden word in, i.e. revealed by, ‘starMER DEciding’ |
||
| 4A | ODD-JOB MAN | Weird forbearing type on crew – of use if you need a fix (3-3,3)
ODD (weird) + JOB (biblically patient, or forbearing, type) + CREW (man) |
||
| 10A | OFFICIAL (SECRETS ACT) | & 24ac. Self-sacrifice and TACO – about time for legislation to stop public information leaks (8,7,3)
OFFICIAL SECRETS AC (anag, i.e. about) of SELF SACRIFICE and TACO) + T (time) |
||
| 11A | KITSCH | Trashy equipment at school (6)
KIT (equipment) + SCH (school) |
||
| 12A | DRUG PUSHER | Shit street trader? (4,6)
CD – a street trader selling ‘shit’, or drugs, would be a DRUG PUSHER |
||
| 13A | OVER | See 3dn. (4)
see 3D |
||
| 14A | HEWING | Whinge about being a lumberjack? (6)
anag, i.e. about, of WHINGE |
||
| 16A | NAMES | “Handles” in Vietnamese (5)
hidden word in ‘vietNAMESe’ |
||
| 19A | PODIA | Hull: first class return in stages (5)
POD (verb, shell or hull, e.g. peas) + IA (A1, or first class, returning) |
||
| 21A | REPORT | Bang in the middle of miniature portrait (6)
hidden word in, i.e. in the middle of, ‘miniatuRE PORTrait’ |
||
| 23A | PRAT | Wanker’s waterproof backing (4)
TARP, tarpaulin, waterproof, backing = PRAT |
||
| 24A | SECRETS ACT | See 10ac. (7, 3)
see 10A |
||
| 26A | SCREAM | Cry “Get lost!” when bored by economics head (6)
SCR_AM (get lost!) around (bored into by) E (head, or first letter, of Economics) |
||
| 27A | THE PRESS | Herpes outbreak covered by rejected Sunday Times hacks (3,5)
T_S (ST, Sunday Times, rejected) around (covering) HE_PRES (anag, i.e. outbreak, of HERPES) |
||
| 28A | TEST MATCH | Trial marriage: it needs a lot of balls (4,5)
TEST (trial) + MATCH (marriage) [a lot of cricket balls!] |
||
| 29A | SPASM | Bath then S&M for jerk? (5)
SPA (Bath, spa town, or just bath) + SM (S&M) |
||
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 2D | ENFORCER | Hitman‘s in heaven? For certain (8)
hidden word in ‘heavEN FOR CERtain’ |
||
| 3D | DOING (OVER) | & 13ac. Repeating insertion of oxygen, gin, rum into port (5,4)
D_OVER (port) around (inserted into by) O (oxygen) + ING (anag, i.e. rum, of GIN) |
||
| 5D | DOLPHIN | Good swimmer, Phil Hammond’s last piece on surgery (7)
anag, i.e. surgery, of PHIL + D (hammonD’s last letter) + ON |
||
| 6D | JOKER | Love interrupting jerk-off comedian! (5)
J_KER (anag, i.e. off, of JERK) around (interrupted by) O (love) |
||
| 7D | BOTTOMS UP | Toast arse – gulp! (7,2)
BOTTOM (arse) + S_UP (drink, gulp) |
||
| 8D | ARCHER | Topless protester, a story-teller (6)
( [Jeffrey Archer was a ‘story’ teller in more than one way, in his fiction and in his loose relationship with the truth!] |
||
| 9D | DIVULGED | Incomplete DVLC guide possibly contravened 10 & 24ac ? (8)
anag, i.e. possibly, of DVL(C) (incomplete) + GUIDE |
||
| 15D | INPATIENT | An actual hospital bed occupant? Smart, cool! (9)
IN (smart, hip, trendy) + PATIENT (cool, relaxed) |
||
| 17D | MERCEDES | After continental drink, gives up car (8)
MER (French, or continental, for the sea, or the drink) + CEDES (yields, gives up) |
||
| 18D | CROCUSES | Saffron’s source of employment in footwear (8)
CROC_S (an American brand of foam clog-style footwear) around USE (employment) |
||
| 20D | ASCETIC | Eye’s impounded by government agency – flipping harsh! (7)
CI_A (US government agency) around TECS (detectives, private eyes) = CITECSA, all flipped to give ASCETIC |
||
| 22D | ORACLE | Medium round? Clear off! (6)
O (round letter) + RACLE (anag, i.e. off, of clear) |
||
| 24D | SAMBA | Steps taken by US ambassador (5)
hidden word in, i.e. taken by, ‘uS AMBAssador’ [dance steps] |
||
| 25D | SCRAP | Second shit in a row (5)
S (second) + CRAP (shit) |
||
Many thank mc_rapper67 & Cyclops.
Re 4a, I slotted in the solution without fully parsing it. JOB =patient type, mystery solved, thank you.
I marked 1a as my favourite.
Couldn’t get ORACLE to work. Nice.
Also there were more clues-hidden-in-plain-sight this week than usual.
Lots to like about this – as is always the case with Cyclops. A host of ticks, with my faves being MERCEDES, MERDE, the 10/24A anagram and the well-concealed hitman.
Compared to today’s blatantly mendacious political bullies, old Archer seems almost harmless.
Almost.
(Sigh)
Salaams and thanks to mc_r and Cyclops.
Thanks both. I was pleased to get DRUG DEALER for 12a and only found my mistake when some of the downs didn’t fit. Lots of fun as usual.
Thanks for the comments, so far – much appreciated as usual.
I was wondering if Cyclops ever does reverse hiddens at all. My feeble memory doesn’t report any, so I searched back for one. Just a plain short one even — no need for a combination with a triple Salchow, or anything like Paul’s twelve letter reverse Mediterranean spread. And I did find a very nice little one, in #751, so maybe sometime …
Nothing found in number to match the five in this one though. Typically no more than one in a puzzle, occasionally two, afaics from a moderate sample. I was even wondering from their content, shit-enforcer-report-names-samba, whether there was some messaging going on here, and … [dreams on …]
Seemed very hard, I struggled on 14a, 15d, 19a and 9d for several days. Then coming back to it they slowly and reluctantly yielded.
Many thanks to mc_rapper67 and Cyclops.
Really enjoyed this one, made the same mistake with Drug Dealer initially and had to amend. Shame we get it too late here to submit solution, I’d like 150 quid.
Barry at #2 – interesting point about hidden words – and detailed research from lemming!
AndyF at #7 – glad they yielded with perseverance…
Barrie, Auckland at #8 – the puzzle is usually published online here (https://www.private-eye.co.uk/sections.php?section_link=crossword) on the Friday after Wednesday magazine issue – which gives a week to get it in by the next Friday. It can be downloaded into ‘Across Lite’, or even just screenshotted – and I am sure they will take a scanned version of either of those methods as your entry, since they stopped taking postal entries during Covid… Good luck – not sure if they would convert the £150 to NZD though!…
Thanks mc – yes I was aware of the online option and I’ve done it a few times but even though my solutions were correct they weren’t picked. You may be right about the currency thing even though I did say I have a UK account in GBP. 150 quid is quite a lot for a crossword prize, they may get a lot of bites.
Barrie at #10 – if it is any encouragement to keep trying, someone from Auckland just won £100 (or NZD226) in the latest Grauniad Genius (;+>)
Different organisation and different submission method, I appreciate, but ‘you gotta be in it to win it‘, as the lottery ads used to say…
Very enjoyable as per. Foi and cod 1.