Some typical fun and games from Cyclops this fortnight…
…with a smorgasbord of smuttery, sub-lebrity, and a couple of Covid-related clues/solutions.
‘Brenda’ appears twice, as does Starmer, once indirectly as ‘Labour leader’. No sign of Boris or, thankfully, Ronald T Dump. Some lesser spotted celebs – (Martin?) Sheen, Germaine (Greer?), (Jeffrey?) Archer, Prince (symbol?) and Dicky (Attenborough?) do get a run out.
11A has a wince-inducing surface reading, while 13A catches the zeitgeist, with the relegation of Portugal to the ‘Amber list’ causing an ‘unwelcome end’ to many foreign holidays. At 4A, Cyclops often refers to beer as ‘piss’, so ‘real’ ale becomes ‘proper’ piss!
I enjoyed the definition of MUNCHER as ‘Jaws operator’ at 19D, and the ‘bare skin enthusiast’ for BUFF at 15A.
Overall, a not-too-challenging solve, but enjoyable along the way. Many thanks to Cyclops, and I trust all is clear below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | COP OFF | Have sex with Bobby – at a distance (3,3) | have sex with / COP (Bobby, policeman) + OFF (at a distance) |
|
| 4A | REAL ALE | Eccentric earl needs adjustable legging elasticated tops for proper piss? (4,3) | proper ‘piss’! / REAL (anag, i.e. eccentric, of EARL) + ALE (first letters, or tops, of ‘Adjustable Legging Elasticated’) |
|
| 9A | OVERCOAT | On top, firm, coming to a violent end – that should keep you warm (8) | that should keep you warm / OVER (on top) + CO (company, firm) + A + T (end letter of violenT) |
|
| 10A | PATINA | “State ain’t budging!” – Sheen (6) | sheen / PA (Pennsylvania, state) + TINA (anag, i.e. budging, of AINT) |
|
| 11A | ACHY | Feeling pain from a chain applied to tip of willy (4) | feeling pain / A + CH (chain) + Y (end, or tip, of willY) |
|
| 12A | NO-NONSENSE | Working to switch round balls, nothing fancy (2-8) | nothing fancy / NO (on, working, switched round) + NONSENSE (balls) |
|
| 13A | QUARANTINE | Managed to get into quite an awful, unwelcome end to foreign holiday? (10) | unwelcome end to foreign holiday / QUA_TINE (anag, i.e. awful, of QUITE AN) around RAN (managed) |
|
| 15A | BUFF | Bare skin enthusiast (4) | double defn. / BUFF can be ‘the bare-skin’, as a noun; and a BUFF can be an enthusiast |
|
| 17A | CYAN | Cold? No turning blue! (4) | blue / C (cold) + YAN (nay, or no, turning) |
|
| 18A | REGIMENTAL | Germaine screwed around with short lieutenant of the colonel’s command (10) | of the colonel’s command / anag, i.e. screwed around, of GERMAINE + LT (short for Lieutenant) |
|
| 20A | WAFFLE-IRON | Hot air associated with club’s kitchen aid (6-4) | kitchen aid / WAFFLE (hot air) + IRON (golf club) |
|
| 22A | HARD | & 7 What an actor learns after having an erection: “Too bad” (4,5) | too bad / HARD (having an erection) + LINES (what an actor learns) |
|
| 23A | PRONTO | Immediately in favour of not getting pissed (6) | immediately / PRO (in favour of) + NTO (anag, i.e. getting pissed, of NOT) |
|
| 24A | EXHALANT | Former nickname of Henry, the TV presenter, a Covid-spreader? (8) | a Covid-spreader / EX (former) + HAL (nickname of Henry) + ANT (TV presenter, one of Ant & Dec) |
|
| 25A | SWEET FA | Wholesome female having been given one: “Not a thing” (5,2) | not a thing / SWEET (wholesome) + F (female) + A (one) |
|
| 26A | GREECE | The country’s broadcast smear (6) | (the) country / homophone, i.e. broadcast – GREECE (the country) can sound like GREASE (to smear) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | CIVIC DUTY | Violet chewed cud in London, say – mayoral obligation? (5,4) | moyoral obligation / CI_TY (London, say), around VI (Vi, diminutive of Violet, as a female name) + CDU (anag, i.e. chewed, of CUD) |
|
| 2D | PARTY | Prince affectedly “creative”: badly managed by Starmer? (5) | (something) badly managed by Starmer? / P (prince) + ARTY (affectedly creative) |
|
| 3D | FROWN ON | Disapprove of what Brenda has to have for ceremonial occasions (with new top) (5,2) | disapprove of / Brenda (the queen) would have a CROWN ON for ceremonial occasions – change the top letter to F! |
|
| 5D | EXPANSE | Stretch old underwear it’s said (7) | stretch / EX (old) + PANSE (homophone, i.e. it’s said – PANSE can sound like PANTS – underwear) |
|
| 6D | LITTER BIN | Family blood type acceptable? Refuse to go into it (6,3) | refuse to go in it / LITTER (family, brood) + B (blood type) + IN (acceptable) |
|
| 7D | LINES | See 22ac. (5) | see 22A / see 22A |
|
| 8D | STANDING ORDER | Arrangement with bank that should have you on your feet (8,5) | arrangement with bank / in the army, maybe, a STANDING ORDER might get you on your feet! |
|
| 14D | RING-FENCE | Call on crook to guarantee funds won’t be misused (4-5) | to guarantee funds won’t be misused / RING (call) on FENCE (crook, handler of stolen goods) |
|
| 16D | FRAGRANCE | Country confiscating tabloid gets bouquet (9) | bouquet / F_RANCE (country) around (confiscating) RAG (tabloid) |
|
| 18D | REEL OFF | Take a lecherous look back at Dicky and give a faultless recitation (4,3) | give a faultless recitation / REEL (leer, or lecherous look, back) + OFF (dicky, ill) |
|
| 19D | MUNCHER | Jaws operator responsible for artist and Brenda getting together (7) | jaws operator! / MUNCH (Edvard Munch, artist) + ER (Brenda, again!) |
|
| 21D | ARROW | London borough chief ignored Archer’s release (5) | archer’s release / ( |
|
| 22D | HALVE | Labour leader at centre of own split (5) | split / HA_VE (own) with L (leading letter of Labour) at its centre |
|
COP Off was my favourite and first one un. Maybe that’s why!!! Bu FRONT UP and PRONTO were there too. K needed this blog (thank you very much!) to parse FRAGRANCE- I had a note to bitch about tabloid not being ARG or GRA, without noticing that France fitted into the solution three ways and not just two.
I also got diverted for some time by 14D since STOP THIEF fit the clue rather well- well it does if you ignore the hyphen. I then got hung up on STOP ORDER before obvious crossers led me back to the true path of righteousness.
Thanks mc_rapper67, concur with your appreciation of the mixture of current affairs with a dollop of sauce- took me a while to run through the boroughs leading to ARROW and I took a while to see what was going on in FRAGRANCE.
One query – why is VIOLET = VI? It had to be that once I had made sense of the defn by example of London and I can see V for Violet from UV light etc but don’t think I know VI.
QUARANTINE was probably my favourite although I very much hope not to be facing it if and when we finally make it back to Blighty this summer!
Gazzh @2
Vi is a diminutive of the female name Violet.
‘Ex-pants’ made me laugh, but then that sort of thing amuses me. I think I’ve seen FRAGRANCE as ‘rag in France’ before, but nothing wrong with that — the word is crying out to be clued like that.
Winsor@1, you say FRONT UP was “there too”, but if it was, I didn’t see it.
Thank you Gaufrid@3, that never would have occurred to me!
Thanks for the various comments – especially Gaufrid for the explanation on Violet/Vi – you got in there before I could! (I will update the parsing for that clue)
Tony Collman at #4 – I suspect Winsor’s device ‘predictively’ amended FROWN ON to FRONT UP?
Winsor at #1 – glad to hear you eventually found the true path of righteousness…(;+>)
Sorry!!! A senior moment!!!! I can’t even blame my device….I looked at my scrap of paper where I keep my scores and do my anagrams and I see I inked over FROWN ON into FRONT ON….and then wrote my blog response and used FRONT UP.
Thanks mc & Winsor. FROWN (of puzzlement) now ‘OFF’
Actually I thought 2D would have been just as good if it said ‘badly managed by Johnson’.
A fair point, Morgan le Fay at #9 – perhaps Cyclops was trying to introduce a bit of even-handedness in his political jibes?!
(To be fair, I’m not sure Johnson ‘manages’ the Tory party – he seems to spend most of his time managing his personal affairs (in all senses of the word!)…and he can hardly manage to brush his hair or find a half-decently fitting suit to go and visit Brenda…)
May I disagree? The blowjob may be mismanaging the country in a spectacular manner but I fear he has his party exactly where he wants them. The female part seems to be clamouring to be under him and the male part want to be right behind him. Starmer, I fear, has no-one under him and those behind him seem to wish to stab him in the back.
Winsor at #11 – fair point, well made – a depressingly accurate summary of the current landscape…! (I stand by the lack-of-hair-brushing and ill-fitting suits bit though!)
Any reason why 705 not yet downloadable via internet?
Winsor at #13 – as a subscriber who usually solves it directly on the dead-tree version, no idea I’m afraid.
The Eye website doesn’t seem to have been updated with the .puz file, although 705 is displayed on the crossword page:
https://www.private-eye.co.uk/sections.php?section_link=crossword
I guess you might be able to screenshot it and print it out from there? Or contact them directly?
https://www.private-eye.co.uk/contact
Thank you mc…….my dead tree version always arrives too late!!! But I did get it off the site and printed it to solve it. Not my usual method these days. And it always somehow seems easier on the computer!!!!