A fairly routine puzzle from Cyclops…nothing obviously topical or too complicated…
…which is handy, as I am currently ‘walkabout’ in Australia on a family holiday, with minimal spare time for solving/blogging. A quick and uneventful solve, although 18D did seem a little OTT compared to the ‘usual’ levels of Cyclops-ean smuttery.
4D probably stands out – as a surface read and clever anagram, with Prozac contributing to SCHIZOPHRENIA.
Time zones and holiday activities may restrict my responsiveness to any comments – hopefully all is clear below.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 6A | BEAR | See 12ac (4) | See 12A / See 12A |
|
| 7A | ELECTORAL | & 24 Independent body keeping an eye on political candidates’ preferred type of sex task (9,10) | Independent body keeping an eye on political candidates / ELECT (chosen, preferred) + ORAL (type of sex) + COMMISSION (task) |
|
| 10A | CINCINNATI | Evil, evil-sounding – ain’t bad for the city (10) | the city / CIN CIN (double homophone, i.e. sounding – CIN sounds like SIN, or evil) + NATI (anag, i.e. bad. Of AINT) |
|
| 11A | BEST | & 22 Old churchgoer’s habit of jiggling bust? It’s covering bottom of blouse (4,4) | old churchgoer’s habit (i.e. Sunday best) / B_ST SUIT (anag, i.e. juggling, of BUST ITS) around (covering) E (bottom, or last letter, of blousE) |
|
| 12A | LITTLE | & 6 Stars wee on stand (6,4) | stars (i.e. constellation) / LITTLE (wee) + BEAR (stand, endure) |
|
| 13A | SCOFFS | Given some disc off Sting, takes the piss (6) | takes the piss / hidden word, i.e. given some, in ”diSC OFF Sting’ |
|
| 15A | OUTCAST | Reveal group of players is gay? Reject (7) | reject / if one was to reveal that a set of players/actors is gay, one might OUT the CAST |
|
| 17A | SHALLOW | Shut up and concede, ignorant! (7) | ignorant / SH (shut up) + ALLOW (concede) |
|
| 19A | WAIVER | Debtor let off by this flapper, it’s said (6) | debtor let off by this / homophone, i.e. it’s said – WAIVER (letting off a debt) sounds like WAVER (flapper) |
|
| 20A | EMBODY | Cyclops having turn, gets stiff, that’s manifest (6) | manifest / EM (me, or Cyclops, turned) + BODY (stiff, corpse) |
|
| 23A | HUNT | Minister? Ferret! (4) | double defn. / HUNT could be Jeremy Hunt, the current Foreign Minister; or to HUNT could be to ferret around |
|
| 24A | COMMISSION | See 7ac (10) | See 7A / See 7A |
|
| 25A | STEAM ROOM | Hot and sweaty place, source of sex at club salon (5,4) | hot and sweaty place / S (first letter, or source, of Sex) + TEAM (club) + ROOM (salon) |
|
| 26A | KICK | & 8 Put your foot down? Yes and no (4,4) | CD/definition by example? / If one was to KICK ARSE one might be metaphorically ‘putting one’s foot down’, i.e. ‘yes’; but to literally KICK ARSE, you would normally have to put your foot up to said arse, so ‘no’… |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | OBLIVIOUS | Ignorant Labour leader: “one’s in clear” (9) | ignorant (again!) / OB_VIOUS (clear) around LI (L – leading letter of Labour – plus I – one) |
|
| 2D | MASCOT | State Sean Connery’s fetish? (6) | fetish (as in good luck charm) / MA (Maine, US state) + SCOT (e.g. Sean Connery) |
|
| 3D | CLEANSE | To be a scrubber entails writing list in school exam (7) | to be a scrubber / C_SE (school exam) around LEAN (list) |
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| 4D | SCHIZOPHRENIA | With his Prozac in disarray, he exhibits psychotic disorder (13) | psychotic disorder / anag, i.e. disarray, of HIS PROZAC IN + HE |
|
| 5D | DOUBTFUL | Refined but loud female enters – dodgy (8) | dodgy / DOUBT_UL (anag, i.e. refined, of BUT LOUD) around (entered by) F (female) |
|
| 8D | ARSE | See 26ac (4) | See 26A / See 26A |
|
| 9D | INTENSIVE CARE | Important function of NHS – being elected, shamefully vet increase (9,4) | important function of NHS / IN (elected) + TENSIVE CARE (anag, i.e. shamefully, of VET INCREASE |
|
| 14D | ROADWORKS | Ways to catch Labour putting on a new surface? (9) | putting on a new surface / ROAD_S (ways) around (catching) WORK (labour) |
|
| 16D | CLAPTRAP | Smack and gin combination is shit (8) | shit / CLAP (smack) + TRAP (gin) |
|
| 18D | CRIMSON | Tone practises anal sex in study (7) | tone (as in colour, shade) / C_ON (study, mug up on) around RIMS (practices anal sex) |
|
| 21D | BOSNIA | Boris: right one to go in a transformation for northern region of the country (6) | northern region of the country / BO(RI)S (Boris, losing R – right – and I – one) plus NIA (anag, i.e. transformation, of IN A) |
|
| 22D | SUIT | See 11ac (4) | See 11A / See 11A |
|
No real problems with this one except that I couldn’t get Borneo out of my head for some reason so the bottom-right corner took longer than it should have done.
Bosnia is the northern region of the UN member state called Bosnia and Herzegovina, so the entire phrase ‘northern region of the country’ needs to be italicised in the 21D solution given here. The amount of surface detail in this clue made it a very easy solve for me. (Incidentally, part of the hidden agenda of the ‘Pointless’ TV quiz is to eradicate the notion that Borneo is a country!)
I don’t know why it stuck in my mind. Once it was gone there were no problems.
Thanks mc_rapper67 a working/walking holiday! I found this quite tricky for some reason. 4d was quite late in for me even though it seemed quite an obvious one when I got there. With 18d, Cyclops did seem to escalate the level of naughtiness, but it worked. 21d must admit had to google Bosnia to realise it was a northern region as John E noted.
A little belated, but I have updated the definition part of 21D as per John E…and thanks to Will and Franko for feedback…