Private Eye (Cyclops / 721) Conscious Scrounger

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A typical Eye puzzle.  Nothing too hard, nothing too easy, and some lovely smutty surface readings.  Just what we want and expect.

Solving followed a familiar pattern.  Failure to solve the first clue attempted, 1d, most of the puzzle filled in in the first pass – only 8 to go, mostly in the top left corner – those more gradually till the last one left is, guess what, 1d.  Then get it and wonder what was so tricky about it.
Then re-read all the clues to have a good old guffaw at some of the surfaces again.

My favourite this time is definitely 20d – for the reasons given by the explanation below.

Across
9 MAPLE Tree man crushes penis head (5)
MALE (man) around (crushes) P[enis]
10 CONSCIOUS Aware of Tories caught with debts (9)
CONS (Tories) C[aught] IOUS (debts)
11 OVERDRAWN In debt, so balls ‘sportingly’ stretched (9)
OVER (balls, ‘sportingly’) DRAWN (stretched).
This clue gave me the most trouble somehow
12 RIDER Condition of sex partner on top? (5)
Double Def.
13 AD HOC Makeshift promo by House taking on Conservative leader (2,3)
AD (promo) HO[use] C[onservative]
14 PANDEMIC Criticise medic for manipulating the situation we’re in (8)
PAN (Criticise) MEDIC* AInd: manipulating.
17 BUYERS REMORSE ‘Be sorry and resume disruption’ – what the Brexit voter feels now? (6,7)
(BE SORRY RESUME)* AInd: disruption.
I see Jacob Rees-Mogg, newly promoted to BOGEY minister (minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency) is asking for people to write to tell him some Brexit benefits – the only one he could trot out was the well-worn lie that Brexit was the reason the UK MHRA authorised the Covid Vaccine first.  You’d’ve thought after 6 years they’d have found some – there is probably a reason for that.
21 RHETORIC Hot air from HRH failing to start erotic stimulation (8)
[H]RH (EROTIC)* AInd: stimulation.
I wonder who Cyclops was thinking of?
He may have missed this but from Jan 2022, the Duke of York no longer uses HRH style due to “legal issues”
23 GULLY Heartless lady after bear’s back passage (5)
LUG< (bear, is back) L[ad]Y
25 VISIT Look up volume 1: Sun and Sex (5)
V[olume] I (1) S[un] IT (Sex)
27 NEWSNIGHT Sir Trevor McDonald possibly misheard rival late TV programme (9)
Cryptic Def. based on homophone of “News Knight”
28 SCROUNGER Sun gets involved with grocer, a Daily Mail bête noir (9)
(SUN GROCER)* AInd: gets involved.
29 SHEAF Truss – the woman needs a following (5)
SHE (the woman) A F[ollowing]
Down
1 IMMORAL Cyclops is getting ‘masculine’ examination – wicked! (7)
I’M (Cyclops is) M (‘masculine’) ORAL (examination)
Rare use of wicked in its tradional sense, rather than its modern usage of “good”.
Also, rare outing for ORAL where Cyclops has not clued using a sexual reference.
First clue attempted but last one solved, as happens sometimes.  I needed all crossing letters.
2 UPPER HOUSE Maybe Senate‘s excited by collapse of Europe – sh! (5,5)
UP (excited) (EUROPE SH)* AInd: collapse.
3 HEADACHE It’s a bother having type of sex that’s followed by pain (8)
HEAD (type of sex) ACHE (pain)
4 SCRAP Twit takes credit for trace (5)
SAP (Twit) around (takes) CR[edit]
5 INUNDATED Overwhelmed, being elected by international body (not current) (9)
IN (being elected) UN (international body) DATED (not current)
6 SCARED Balls positioned beneath Mark, getting alarmed (6)
SCAR (mark) ED (Balls)
7/26 GOOD SORT Nice person effects alternative Tory leader (4,4)
GOODS (effects) OR (alternative) T[ory]
8 OSTRICH Non-flier‘s so upset – time to get loaded (7)
SO< (so, upset) T[ime] RICH (loaded)
15 MISALIGNED Out of kilter, one’s wearing out glam undies with top missing (10)
(GLAM [u]NDIES)* AInd: out, around (wearing) I (one)
16 ESPIONAGE CIA’s business: abnormal powers given to one with an ego out of control (9)
ESP (abnormal powers) I (one) (AN EGO)* AInd: out of control.
18 ORGANIST Player‘s penis is tense? (8)
ORGAN (penis) IS T[ense]
19 PROVISO Rider‘s manoeuvring is poor (squashing vagina’s entrance) (7)
(IS POOR V[agina])* AInd: manoeuvring.
First clue solved (2nd attempted) with the clue’s surface meaning providing one of the biggest laughs for some time …
20 MYSTIFY Puzzle: Cyclops’ erection not strong (7)
MY STIFFY (Cyclops’ erection) minus one F (not strong)
… and here was another big laugh.
Kudos to Cyclops for basing a clue on his own failing virility.  I always assume Cyclops is roughly the same age as me and I can assure him he is not alone – the answer to the puzzle is age (possibly influenced by alcohol intake, in my case).  In the end you just got to laugh.
22 OUTPUT Processed data reveals forbidden lay (6)
OUT (forbidden) PUT (lay)
24 SWORD Steel‘s shameful opening promise (5)
S[hameful] WORD (promise)

Liz Truss told Dominic Raab that she was going to Moscow.
She misheard his response as “wear the fox hat”.

 

 

12 comments on “Private Eye (Cyclops / 721) Conscious Scrounger”

  2. Thanks for the blog, I prefer the more political puzzles to the schoolboy smut but there were some fine clues here, MISALIGNED ans ESPIONAGE were very neat. Fortunately Cyclops never seems to clue clitoris, none of the male solvers would be able to find it.

  3. Some have expressed disappointment that Paul seems to have dialled down the schoolboy stuff lately, but at least Cyclops is keeping his end up. Or not, if 20d is to be believed. Re 1d, I suspect even Cyclops thought it might have been a bit much to have ORAL and HEAD in almost-consecutive clues. Anyway, all good fun, some great clues here – ESPIONAGE and BUYER’S REMORSE were my favourites. Thanks Cyclops and beermagnet.

  4. Thanks beermagnet, I think the trickiness of OVERDRAWN comes from an uncommon link word “so” and that the following three might all be considered anagram indicators but none actually are in this case, so plenty of ways to misinterpret the wordplay.
    Roz@2 that is an outrageous slur on us male solvers, it is found in Chambers and most other reputable dictionaries as you are surely aware.
    I liked PANDEMIC while also hoping that we won’t be seeing this and its like clued for much longer, and was stuck that the RIDER in 12A is also then used in the wordplay for PROVISO (great if uncomfortable surface, agreed) but not referred to numerically as happens in dailies it seems.

  5. Thanks, beermagnet…
    Maybe 9A was the cause of Cyclops’ puzzlement at 20D?…eye-watering stuff.
    Roz at #2 – I also managed to find one – a quick search of this site reveals only one clued occurrence – in a Tramp Grauniad puzzle blogged by Eileen back in 2018… I hesitated to try any searches further afield!…

  7. Thanks beermagnet and Cyclops. Plenty of chuckles were had reading the comments today. I’ve not seen that video before of juddering Judd. Absolutely hilarious!

  8. Gazzh@4 I was very restrained and did not even mention the old dictionary joke.
    mc@5 fair play to Tramp , I did remember this, just checked in my diary and it was actually a golf themed crossword, bizarre.

  9. Many thanks to Beermagnet and Cyclops. I was a little taken aback and rider appearing twice in the whole shebang,
    @Gazzh…….I can’t find clyttorrish in any of my dictionaries……might I have a problem with this?

  10. beermagnet @6 – It’s when she says “It may not look like a horse… but it feels like one” that really makes the clip. Made me snort tea through my nose.

  11. Beermagnet, re 20dn clues aren’t necessarily literally true! It’s brave of you to go into personal details, but possibly more info than is strictly needed! 🙂

    I think the last time I heard the “fox hat” joke, it was being told by the late, great Barry Cryer and ‘she’ was going to Wolverhampton, somewhere perhaps rather more likely to provoke the remark than Moscow (but thanks for the reminder, anyway).

    Roz:
    Blimey! Getting bored by fine writing is something a man might often overlook (8)

  12. I don’t understand all this clitoris stuff. It took me less than ten minutes to find a couple this morning, all before breakfast. One was in a clue in 2003, and one a solution in 2005, both of them in Cyclops’ third century, if anyone wants to go spotting.

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