Some relatively ‘topical’ subject matter from Cyclops this fortnight…
…with a SCHEME of NEUROSCIENTISTS and an IOTA of NERVE AGENT leaving UPTOWN Salisbury needing a good DRY CLEAN! Did anybody TRESPASS on our soil to do this dastardly deed? Perhaps they flew to BRUGES, to escape the scene of the crime. I think someone should shed some DAYLIGHT on this, and the evidence should be put ON RECORD, AT LAST.
(I was in Salisbury recently, for a Barenaked Ladies gig, on their ‘Fake Nudes’ tour…not a HazMat suit in sight – just a load of tourists wandering around inquisitively in front of Zizzis and The Mill pub, making sure not to sit on any park benches! And a few bored looking hi-viz-ed policemen standing around making sure people didn’t go too close to anything interesting…)
Anyway, back to the puzzle – I’m not sure if anyone has treated this subject in a cryptic puzzle yet? It must take a while for things like this to filter through, and I don’t do (m)any of the weekday puzzles, so I may have missed it if anyone has. The usual mix of smuttery – HARD ON, CROTCH, CONSENTING ADULT – and establishment targets, including a retro reference to Maggie T Ted Heath as ‘the Grocer’. (see comment #1 below!)
After a few recent comments, by bloggers and commenters, about Cyclops’ puzzles becoming a tad on the relatively easier side, I found this one a bit harder than some recent ones – nowhere near half done on first run through, and a couple more passes needed to be close to mopping it all up…
All good Cyclops-ean fun – and hopefully all covered correctly below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 8A | SHORTAGE | A lack of sex with husband – pathetic toerag (8) | a lack of / S (sex) + H (husband) + ORTAGE (anag, i.e. pathetic, of TOERAG) |
|
| 9A | HARD-ON | Difficult performing? Without this, certainly! (4-2) | without this, (it would) certainly (be difficult to perform, sexually) / HARD (difficult) + ON (performing, acting) |
|
| 10A | IRIS | Satirise, not over-gratify, Murdoch (4) | (Iris) Murdoch / ( |
|
| 11A | NERVE AGENT | Audacity shown by spy – sadly no defence against this (5,5) | sadly, no defence against this / NERVE (audacity) plus (shown by) AGENT (spy) |
|
| 12A | AT LAST | What shows countries’ positions on Trump’s inauguration, eventually (2,4) | eventually / AT LAS (what shows countries’ positions) + T (inaugural letter of Trump) |
|
| 13A | SIDESHOW | Left? Start to see in what way it plays a subordinate role (8) | it plays a subordinate role / SIDE (Left?) + S (starting letter of See) + HOW (in what way) |
|
| 14A | CONSENTING ADULT | Politician (blue) tensing badly inside, who’s willing and able to give the OK (10,5) | (someone) who’s willing and able to give the OK / CON (Conservative – politician) + SENTING (anag, i.e. badly, of TENSING) + ADULT (blue, as in movie) |
|
| 18A | DRY CLEAN | Boring and respectable – smarten up one’s habit! (3,5) | smarten up one’s habit / DRY (boring) + CLEAN (respectable) |
|
| 20A | STYLUS | Old writer’s approach fails to finish America (6) | old writer (pen) / STYL( |
|
| 22A | ACT OF FAITH | A Paloma performance? That’ll test your convictions! (3,2,5) | (something) that’ll test your convictions / A performance by Paloma Faith might be an ACT OF FAITH! |
|
| 23A | IOTA | Hint: Radio Taliban is rather too much! (4) | hint (small amount) / hidden word, i.e. is rather too much, in ‘radIO TAliban’ |
|
| 24A | GROCER | Even more boorish-sounding, the ex-PM, in our eyes (6) | the ex-PM (Margaret Thatcher), in our eyes (Private Eye’s nickname for her) / homophone, i.e. sounding – GROCER sounds like GROSSER (even more boorish) |
|
| 25A | TOMAHAWK | Axe a likely Trump ally after pussy? (8) | axe / TOM (cat, pussy) + A HAWK (a Trump ally is likely to be hawkish, in the American political sense) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | THIRST | Model put before artist – “that calls for a drink!” (6) | (something) that calls for a drink! / T (model, as in Model-T Ford) + HIRST (Damien Hirst, artist) |
|
| 2D | TRESPASS | Tories: oi, out! Leave behind old-fashioned sin (8) | old-fashioned sin / T( |
|
| 3D | MAGNET | Attractive bar man? Get off! (6) | attractive bar / anag, i.e. off, of MAN GET |
|
| 4D | NEUROSCIENTISTS | ‘Icon’ conflicted with US interests – those responsible for the deadly 11? (15) | those responsible for the deadly 11 (nerve agent) / anag, i.e. conflicted, of ICON + US INTERESTS |
|
| 5D | SHEEP DOG | Meek followers on track to be a useful aid in a round-up (5,3) | a useful aid in a round-up / SHEEP (meek followers) + DOG (track, follow) |
|
| 6D | BRUGES | With sex for $1000, bugger naff tourist city! (6) | tourist city / anag, i.e. naff, of BUG( |
|
| 7D | BORN FOOL | “Flob, or no?” snapped twit, naturally (4,4) | twit, naturally / anag, i.e snapped, of FLOB OR NO |
|
| 15D | ON RECORD | Or Corden’s balls-up, available for public view? (2,6) | available for public view / anag, i.e. balls-up, of OR CORDEN |
|
| 16D | NO EFFORT | Negative Labour, lacking an attempt to accomplish something (2,6) | lacking an attempt to accomplish something / NO (negative) + EFFORT (labour) |
|
| 17D | DAYLIGHT | Sun responsible for this old political interviewer getting trivial (8) | sun responsible for this / DAY (Sir Robin Day, old political interviewer) + LIGHT (trivial) |
|
| 19D | CROTCH | Genital area cold – balls needing central heating (6) | genital area / C (cold) + ROT (balls, rubbish) + CH (central heating) |
|
| 20D | SCHEME | Contrive to be seen in Porsche, mellowing (6) | contrive / hidden word, i.e. to be seen in, in ‘porSCHE MEllowing’ |
|
| 21D | UPTOWN | Having an erection? Nowt wrong, it being a residential area (6) | a residential area / UP (havi an erection) + TOWN (anag, i.e. wrong, of NOWT) |
|
You clearly haven’t been reading the Eye for as many decades as I have (started at school in the 1960s). As any (old) fule kno, Lord Gnome’s Grocer was Edward Heath, the subject of a cartoon strip by the late John Kent:
http://www.lambiek.net/artists/k/kent_john.htm
Apologies, John E – I am just a late-80s Johnny-come-lately! You are quite right – I was mixing my Maggie memories – it was her father, Alfred Roberts who was a grocer:
“She was only a grocer’s daughter, but she taught Sir Geoffrey how!”
Duly corrected above, and thanks for the link…
I was very happy to get through this one and complete. It WAS tougher than the more recent ones and all the more enjoyable for that. Last one in was ‘thirst’ but ‘magnet’ was my favourite because of the many ways it could be hacked about before the obvious answer revealed itself.
Funny how you remember odd clues from the past. Tomahawk came up in a crossword at the time of the Iraq war – the clue was “Cruise, Rumsfeld, cruise”. Can’t remember if it was a Private Eye crossword or some other.
Thanks mc_rapper67. I concur with everything Winsor wrote and enjoyed 3d magnet also. I couldn’t parse 1d as I had forgotten about T representing model T. Mike M – that’s a good clue to remember for Tomahawk. Very neat!