When I solved this I expected to be complaining here about the lack of references to a certain recently-arrested “man in his sixties from Norfolk”, but indeed a week is a long time in politics – in that time Peter Mandelson, the Prince of Darkness himself has also been assisting the police with their enquiries.
Perhaps the next issue’s puzzle will feature he-who-does-not-sweat.
This was fun to solve over a few drinks, albeit with quite a few references to people I prefer not to think about.
Nothing really held me up except LOI SOMERSET, largely because I misread ‘county’ in the clue as ‘country’. Definitely due to the small font.
Thanks to Cyclops for the puzzle.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 8 | RULING | Tempting to switch sides, being a monarch (6)
LURING (tempting) with the L & R swapped (switch sides). |
| 9 | TACTLESS | Imprudent time to reduce the stage appearances (8)
T (time) + ACT LESS (reduce the stage appearances). |
| 10 | MANDELSON | “Led astray in one of Epstein’s homes? Not I” – ex-peer (9)
DEL – anagram (astray) of LED, in[side] MANSON – mansion (one of Epstein’s homes) with the I subtracted (Not I). Mr Mandelson has resigned from the House of Lords but still technically has the title, for now. Schrödinger’s Baron, perhaps. |
| 12 | MEDAL | Head of Dept. involved in, say, Barbie award (5)
D (Head of Dept) inside MEAL (say, Barbie – BBQ). |
| 13 | RAYON | Shaft our national leaders for fake material (5)
RAY (shaft) + O[ur] N[ational]. |
| 14 | CYNICAL | Mocking Clegg not quite fitting into lacy creation (7)
NIC (Nic[k] Clegg, not quite) inside CY AL (LACY creation/anagrammed). |
| 17 | TOPLESS | Semi-nude cast going round some place east (7)
TOSS (cast i.e. throw) around PL (place) + E (east). |
| 19 | MYANMAR | Many jerks ruin the country! (7)
MYAN (jerks/anagrammed) + MAR (ruin) |
| 20 | NOTICED | “NO WAY IT’S MY IMMIGRATION TEAM!” Donald at first remarked (7)
NOT (no way) ICE (the stable genius’ immigration team – US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) + D[onald]. |
| 22 | DREAM | Delusion of Democrat: to have a following of many papers (5)
D (Democrat) + REAM (many papers). |
| 25 | HAREM | Group of wives shoot male (5)
HARE (as a verb, to move quickly/shoot) + M (male). |
| 27 | REMINISCE | Recall miners messing with ICE (9)
Anagram (messing) of MINERS, ICE. |
| 28 | SOMERSET | Those commonly held back by tosser playing for the county (8)
ME (’em, – those, commonly, back[wards]) inside (held … by) SORSET (anagram/playing of tosser). |
| 29 | CASTLE | Shed attached to the French chateau (6)
CAST (shed) + LE (the [in] French). |
| Down | ||
| 1 | CRIME RATE | Border enforcement chief, in case London’s not as bad as Farage & co claim (5,4)
RIM (border) + E (first letter/chief of enforcement) in[side] CRATE (case). |
| 2 | PLENTY | Pence temporarily given immunity at last, which is more than sufficient (6)
P (pence) + LENT (temporarily given) + Y (immunity at last). |
| 3 | INTERNMENT | Funeral introduces new form of detention (10)
N (new) inside INTERMENT (funeral). |
| 4 | BANNON | Far-right broadcaster producing book soon about “Nationalism chiefly” (6)
BANON – B (book) + ANON (soon) – about [N]ationalism chiefly. |
| 5 | STEM | Arse-over-tip police force’s making arrest (4)
MET’S reversed (arse-over-tip). I’m a little surprised but definitely glad they chose ‘tip’ over the cruder alternative. |
| 6 | PENDULUM | Swinger‘s nude balls hidden by fruit (8)
ENDU (anagram/balls of nude) inside (hidden by) PLUM (fruit). |
| 7 | PSALM | Chant “Trump’s almost content” (5)
Hidden (content) in TrumPS ALMost. |
| 11 | SOCKS | They come in twos, bashes (5)
Double definition. |
| 15 | CHARDONNAY | And Corbyn, pissed, stifles half-laugh – bastard’s gone for a drink (10)
CRDONNAY – anagram (pissed) of AND CORBYN, minus B (bastard’s gone), surrounding (stifles) HA (half-laugh). Presumably he’s having a nice glass of apple juice? |
| 16 | TRUMPETER | Announcer POTUS put off (“No depth!”) (9)
TRUMP + [d]ETER (put off, with no D – depth). |
| 18 | PANORAMA | View of old Republican stuffing a foreign country (8)
O (old) + R (republican) inside (stuffing) PANAMA. |
| 19 | MADAM | Precocious girl turns up without changing (5)
Double definition or maybe cryptic definition of the palindromic word for a young lady acting beyond years. |
| 21 | See 26dn. | |
| 23 | ERSATZ | Injured arse (raised pimple) – I must go for a substitute (6)
ERSA (anagram/injured of ARSE) + TZ – zit (pimple, raised/reversed) minus I (must go). |
| 24 | CHOSE | Elected Conservative put on tights? (5)
[C]onservative + HOSE (tights). |
| 26/21dn | MARK CARNEY | Nick, coach has itch to back a leader on Trump’s hate list (4,6)
MARK (nick) + CAR (coach) + NEY (yen i.e. itch/yearn, back). |
A bit of a celebration is in order. My first ever cryptic crossword was in March 2022 when a pal introduced Cyclops no.724 to our little Wordle group. This was my 100th Cyclops (824) as I’ve been doing them ever since, along with Daily Telegraph and Guardian puzzles as I got more into them. Thanks for the blog simonbyc and of course Cyclops for all the fun. Can I have a least favourite clue 10a? They should have issued a warning on the news before showing that image of him in his pants. That was scary.
Congratulations on the milestone, TFC @1!
Re 10a and that photo – at least he wasn’t topless.
TFC at #1 – congrats on the 100 Not Out, but may I disagree? 10A was probably my COD – not ‘clue of the day’, but of the decade! I am ‘intensely relaxed’ at his downfall, and that of the ’66-year-old man’ from Windsor/Sandringham…hopefully soon followed by an 80-odd-year-old from Florida…
Thanks, as usual, to Cyclops and simonbyc.