I must have been having a bad solving day. It took three goes at the puzzle to finish.
There isn’t anything madly difficult, so I just cannot have been on Cyclops’ wavelength that day.
First one in 11A is certainly not very tricky, which was a relief after getting thoroughly confused by the first few clues I read, especially 4A (I would normally call that tasty morsel a Bhaji)
A slow first pass ended up with less than half in place.
An even slower 2nd half had to run to extra time to get the last few.
Mostly the top left corner, of course.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | MACRON | State “Mate almost president!” (6) MA (State) CRON[y] (mate, almost) |
| 4 | BHAJEES | Be a she, artfully grabbing Jack for starters (7) (BE A SHE)* AInd: artfully, around (grabbing) J[ack] |
| 9 | ADOLESCENT | One on benefit going to Cologne? Immature (10) A (one) DOLE (benefit) SCENT (Cologne?) |
| 10 | BABE | Love second-rate, familiar old president (4) B (second rate) ABE (old president, familiar[ly]) |
| 11 | ELON MUSK | Trump’s on-off buddy, lone rogue, odorous thing (4,4) (LONE)* AInd: rogue, MUSK (odorous thing) First One In |
| 12 | HOBNOB | Biscuit at first neatly inserted in bum by bishop (6) N[eatly] (neatly, at first) inside HOBO (bum), then B[ishop] |
| 14 | ENABLE | Be facilitating, acquiescent – but not in the morning (6) [am]ENABLE (AMENABLE (acquiescent) – AM (morning) Last One In |
| 16 | ASTER | Bloomer showing behind almost (5) ASTER[n] (behind, almost) |
| 18 | RABID | Raging Republican wants an offer (5) R[epublican] A BID (an offer) |
| 20 | ASSENT | Bill might be given it by King Brian – fool goes to hospital (6) ASS (fool) ENT (hospital, Hosp department anyway) |
| 22 | DITHER | Hesitate and only half do it with female (6) D[o] IT HER (female) |
| 23 | NEGATIVE | Being squeezed by local inhabitant, say “no” (8) E.G. (say) inside (being squeezed by) NATIVE (local inhabitant) |
| 25 | SPIT | Gob, ultimately famous, mine (4) [famou]S PIT (mine) |
| 27 | LACKLUSTRE | Want unpredictable result? How dull! (10) LACK (want) (RESULT)* AInd: unpredictable. |
| 28 | MYSTERY | Cyclops’s rest disturbed – end of Jimmy Riddle (7) MY (Cyclops’s) (REST)* AInd: disturbed, [jimm]Y |
| 29 | SCARCE | Start hoarding carbon (like gold dust) (6) SCARE (start) around (holding) C[arbon] |
| Down | ||
| 1 | MIDDLING | Mediocre, interfering head of education is replaced by one (8) MEDDLING (interfering) swap E for I |
| 2 | COLON | Almost the last conduit for our shit currency (5) Double Def. first crytic referencing the digestive system |
| 3 | OBSCURE | Sun rogue held in honour – cover up! (7) S[un] CUR (rogue) in OBE (honour) |
| 5/6 | HATCHET JOB | It’s bad for a person’s reputation, showing chopper at office (7,3) HATCHET (chopper) JOB (office) |
| 7 | ENBLOC | All together: “Incredible – noble Conservative!” (2,4) (NOBLE)* AInd: incredible, C[onservative] |
| 8/16/23 | NECK AND NECK | Have a snog, then do it again, side by side (4,3,4) NECK (have a snog) twice |
| 13 | BORIS | Disgraced leader‘s book: Alternative Lives (5) B'[ook] OR (alternative) IS (lives) |
| 15 | BIRCH | The old form of punishment: coming before terribly rich bastard (5) B[astard] (RICH)* AInd: terribly. |
| 17 | UNIVERSE | “Nurse, I’ve cocked up just about everything!” (8) (NURSE I’VE) AInd: cocked up. |
| 19 | BURGLAR | Criminal gang leader interrupting internet address in pub (7) G[ang] (gang leader) inside URL (internet address) all in BAR (pub) |
| 20 | ANGELIC | Very good name in Gaelic rum (7) (IN GAELIC)* AInd: rum. Edit: N[ame] inside (GAELIC)* AInd: rum. |
| 21 | PIMPLY | Spotted parking easily, being topless (6) P[arking] [s]IMPLY |
| 24 | TASER | Tears over stunner (5) (TEARS)* AInd: over. |
| 26 | TIT | Dope Cyclops introduced to race (3) I (Cyclops) inside TT (races) |
Just had the police knock on my door.
They said they were looking for a man with one eye.
I said they might do better using two eyes.
It was a relief to read that you also found this tricky, beermagnet – though, looking back at it now, I really can’t see why some clues took me so long.
The one that held out the longest, curiously, was 10A. My first thought was “Bibi”, till I remembered he’s a PM, not a Prez. It was an eternity afore old Lincoln occurred to me…
Other than that: ENABLE was neat, I liked the surfaces of TASER and BURGLAR, and UNIVERSE made me grin.
Thanks for an amusing blog, and a 21-gun salute to the ever-impressive Cyclops.
Many thanks as ever to all concerned-am I wrong but in 9A should immature be underlined rather than one on dole
I’ve been doing Cyclops puzzles for long enough now that I’m usually ‘on the wavelength’, but there are often one or two clues in each one whose parsing needs a bit of head scratching before the penny drops. This time it was the disgraced PM but I got it in the end, thanks beermagnet for confirming what took me longer than it should have. Also thanks to Cyclops for another enjoyable puzzle.
You are correct Gordon – I have fixed 9A underlining
Agree this was harder than usual to complete, relieved that I was not alone in struggling in places.
For 20 Dn I think N only is part of the anagram, the definition being simply “very good”
Also in 23A, ‘say’ should not be underlined. Sorry to be so NEGATIVE.
More underlining corrected. Thank you, MJ
And similarly for 20A plus correction of the wordplay/anagram fodder. Thank you David L
Thanks, beermagnet and Cyclops. I didn’t parse 20a correctly and had a note on my copy, “BEING = EG?”. I can see the word play now with SAY =EG. Quite tricky! That said, I didn’t find this puzzle anymore difficult than most, but I find them all quite tough. Wellbeck @1 re 17d it still made me laugh on rereading it after a couple of weeks.
Why does 20a have “Brian” in it?
@Seb at Comment #9 “Brian” is the way Private Eye always refers to Charles, now King Charles III.
Apparently the various nicknames originated from palace servants, presumably in the 60s and 70s
See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recurring_jokes_in_Private_Eye#Nicknames,_names_intentionally_misspelled_or_misstated
I’d been struggling to explain 23a, and had settled on “being” being EGO, and “squeezed” somehow justified dropping a letter. I much prefer the explanation given here – thank you!
@beermagnet, thanks for the explanation. I thought it was an Irish King!
I got most confused by the term “currency” for colon. I guess I’ve never heard of the Costa Rican Colón!
Late coming to this…not sure why. Missed BABE and had BIBI instead, couldn’t understand why!!!! For 16A, I took it as ‘showing behind’ meant that one was (f)aster?
Always nice to hear from you Winsor. I quite like your take on [f]ASTER. As someone who has been slower than most since I was about 12 I’ve seen a lot “behinds” getting away from me.
BIBI: I suspect you have been listening to too much news. If I hear anyone saying Netanyahu I have to stop myself saying “Bless you”
Aha! And I have only now seen ASTERN!!!