A mild Eye puzzle. Nothing terribly hard, but some lovely surface readings to the clues as usual.
Solving was quicker than usual with most in within 20 mins. Just 7 to go after that first pass but none of those held me up very long.
If I’d’ve known I might have strived for a 1-pass solve – Nah! Done that. Been there. Let’s just tackle these puzzles at your own pace, savour the quality of the setting, and have a few laughs along the way.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SPLASH OUT | Secret police heads launch fierce attack – and pay dearly? (6,3) S[ecret] P[olice] LASH OUT (launch fierce attack) Surprised Cyclops didn’t reference behaviour witnessed in most gents. First read – first one in. |
| 6 | STUFF | Material: shag (5) Double Def. It took less than a minute to solve this clue – unsatisfying |
| 10 | BIG BEN | Celebrated striker, well-endowed guy (3,3) Double Def. Is that a bell in your pocket, or just a clapper? |
| 11 | DRAINAGE | Duke gets drunk, in a rage – it gets rid of the effluent (8) D[uke] (IN A RAGE)* AInd: gets drunk. It’s where it gets to at the other end of the drain that is the problem these days Or rather the people in overall control whose objective is short-term profit over longevity of the systems |
| 12 | BOTTLENECK | Congestion of guts and cheek (10) BOTTLE (guts) NECK (cheek) Another reason never to drink from a bottle |
| 14 | COSMOS | Gutted creationists accepting massive flash would produce this (6) OS (massive, oversize) MO (flash, moment) in C[reationist]S I think this is a &Lit – the whole clue provides the definition, doesn’t it? |
| 16 | ONE-OFF | United rotten, so matchless (3-3) ONE (united) OFF (rotten) Other football teams are available |
| 19 | HUDSON | Navigator: “Treacherous sound hard ahead!” (6) (SOUND H[ard])* AInd: Treacherous. The explorer not the butler |
| 20 | TULIPS | Performing sit-up, squashing large bloomers (6) (SIT-UP)* AInd: Performing, around L[arge] The flowers that can whistle (please don’t ask me to explain) Last one in, together with 20d, for no reason other than they were the least looked at till the end. |
| 22/13 | BIG CAT | Kind-hearted whip or man-eater? (3,3) BIG (Kind-hearted) CAT (whip) Don’t all cats consider themselves big?  |
| 24/29 | REGISTER OF INTERESTS | Tories regret fitness fiasco – it reveals MPs’ involvements outside parliament (8,2,9) (TORIES REGRET FITNESS)* AInd: fiasco. Probably not all MP’s involvements. I had this answer without solving the anagram and only checked it worked when doing the blog. A shame really as it is a very good long anagram. |
| 26 | ARROGANT | Cocksure rag or crap TV presenter (8) (RAG OR)* AInd: crap, ANT. The one on the left (moving more to the right as time goes by) |
| 27 | BLIGHT | Blast Badenoch’s debut – “no heavyweight” (6) B[adenoch] LIGHT (no heavyweight) Kemi who? |
| 28 | STASH | Street criminal has hidden drugs? (5) ST[reet] (HAS)* AInd: criminal. Doesn’t have to be drugs. Could be valuables … or weapons. No I’ll go with drugs. |
| Down | ||
| 2 | PRISON | Prince is making an appearance? Should get jail! (6) PR[ince] IS ON (making an appearance) All appearances cancelled. |
| 3 | AMBITIOUS | Go-ahead from America on lump debts (9) AM[erica] BIT (lump) IOUS (debts) If you’ve got get-up-and-go please do. |
| 4 | HINGE | Swinger guy’s wrapped in glitzy top (5) HE (guy) around IN G[litzy] Weirdly reminds me of the gentle(*) humour of Dr Evadne Hinge. (*Early live shows could be quite risque) |
| 5 | UNDRESS | New York institution on Don’s strip (7) UN (New York institution) DRESS (don) It’s a global institution but I fear for the UN, can it survive the next 3 years? |
| 7 | TONIC | Boost to French city – no English! (5) TO NIC[e] (French city – E[nglish]) It would be Nice if you Cannes, but it takes Toulon |
| 8 | FIGHT OFF | Box decomposed – keep at bay (5,3) FIGHT (box) OFF (decomposed) Surely “fight off” is more successful than “keep at bay” |
| 9 | BANKROLL | Managed a bonk, right, given large double support (8) (A BONK R[ight])* AInd: managed, L[arge] (twice) I need a large double when I work out how much I’m “supporting” my twenty-something kids |
| 15 | MONTREAL | City‘s source of marble, not crappy concrete (8) M[arble] (NOT)* AInd: crappy, REAL (concrete) I suspect there’s more concrete than marble in Montreal |
| 17 | EXPLETIVE | I swear I’ll use one! (9) Cryptic Def. referencing the recent film “I Swear“, That’s what I ****ing think anyway. It delivered a Best Actor BAFTA for the lead. Hang on … Was it already in the news (providing more ammunition for people to slag off the BBC) when Cyclops set this puzzle? |
| 18 | OUTBURST | Expose Republicans involved in police operation storm (8) OUT (Expose) R[epublicans] in BUST (police operation) Shades of Watergate |
| 20 | TIGHTEN | Pissed, needing a small measure – “Make it fast!” (7) TIGHT (pissed) EN (a small measure, typographic unit half of the body height of the typeface) Difficult to get tight on small measures |
| 21 | SO WHAT | Broadcast cap? Who gives a toss? (2,4) SOW (Broadcast) HAT (cap) Defeatist sentiments |
| 23 | GROSS | Repulsive amount of money given to TV host (5) G (G[rand], amount of money) ROSS (TV host) He’s not that bad really. |
| 25 | SABLE | Bastard involved in marketing fur (5) B[astard] in SALE (marketing) Aren’t they all |
A friend of mine was on the London Eye the other day. He told me someone passed out in the capsule but she slowly came round before the paramedics could get to her.
Thanks for the blog , not very political this week , probably for the best the way things are . COSMOS was very neat . BIG CAT , there is no actual formal agreement for what species are in this group , I like the one that has BIG CATs can roar and the others purr .
Many thanks BM.
I’m not sure whether I’ve ever made a one pass solve of this puzzle, but this one was a one pint effort, certainly.
Thanks beermagnet and Cyclop. It’s guaranteed that when you find a puzzle easier than usual, I find it quite tough.
I had more than a few chuckle reading your blog by the way.
I marked 28a as a fave clue.
I enjoyed this one, a bit easier than usual I think. Favourite was the gutted creationists at 14a. Thanks to beermagnet and Cyclops. Re 4d: why can I not see that word without thinking of bracket?
Like Roz and the Fat Controller (a good name for a band, come to think of it) I found COSMOS decidedly pleasing and was also impressed with the anagram for 24/29A.
For an age I was certain that 26A was BRAGGART, but couldn’t do anything with the last three letters; then GROSS put me on the right path. (I doubt that Ant and Melv would ever present a programme together….)
Thank you Cyclops for the fun – and beermagnet for the blog (loved the London Eye gag!)
I’m with you Franko#3 – it took longer than usual for me. I just couldn’t fathom out 12a BOTTLENECK and 9d BANKROLL. They sat there for a week until I came back to it and solved them almost immediately. I somehow had it in my head that 9d should start with RAN (ie Managed) followed by one of the myriad of short words meaning a Bonk.
I am in the tougher than normal group.
I also found it tougher – notably so – than usual. It took me perhaps fifty per cent longer to complete than I would normally expect for the Eye.
Thanks Beermagnet.
I am struggling with HUDSON.
Why is UDSON a “treacherous sound”?
Tia
Gah anagram of SOUND. Durrr
My dream of solving in one pass is up there with breaking 90 on the golf course! Usual pattern is about 60% first-off, then put down and come back a few times (with attendant “of course, you muppet” imprecations).
I heard on the radio the other day of the sport of chess boxing; and it seems genuine enough to have its own Wikipedia entry. Might golf and crosswording make another such combination?
Took longer than normal to get going for me, and lots of groans and PDMs as I realised the clues were constructed more simply and the answers more obvious than I was assuming. They call it over-thinking I believe. I had NO SHIT for 21d which works with the other words and I’m pretty sure I can make a good case for lucid parsing to boot!