Private Eye (Cyclops / 727 ) Sex Starved Primate

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I found this a bit more tricky than usual.  This grid design does not lend itself to solving, with hardly any opportunity to get first letters for unsolved lights. (Or maybe I should try to get better at solving without the giveaway of a first letter.)

Anyway, I only had 10 in place at the first pass of the clues and that took about 20 minutes.  I forgot to note the time when restarting after an interruption so I’m not sure how long the rest took – but it was probably another 30 mins at least, perhaps more.  Certainly longer than usual for an Eye puzzle.

Which is all silly because reviewing the clues there are many that seem simple – not just those I got early on like (first in) 10A which I saw in a fraction of a second and then doubted because it seemed too easy – but also answers like 15A EXTRADITION which for some reason I needed all crossing letters to see.

There are a few with trademark Cyclops complex but precise wordplay and it is to one of those I award the favourite clue gong, the self-referential (twice) clue for 19A OLD TIMER – I expect it was Cyclops put him on a tether in the first place.

Across
7 FREEDOM Licence form falsified and filled out by press boss hoarding energy (7)
(FORM)* AInd: falsified, making FROM, around ED (press boss) around E[nergy]
8 PREPARE Coach provides agent with all-over shave (7)
REP (agent) inside PARE (shave)
10 OVERTHROWN A load of balls by cast that’s utterly defeated (10)
OVER (a load of balls) THROWN (cast) First One In thinking “is it really that simple?”
11 IOWA State of independence that hurt one (4)
I[ndependence] OW (that hurt) A (one)
12 WEASEL In awe, as elected treacherous type (6)
Hidden in aWE AS ELected
14 ACHIEVER Who succeeds in crushing her with a vice (8)
(HER + A VICE)* AInd: crushing
15 EXTRADITION Turning over old lover with ceremony (11)
EX (old lover) TRADITION (ceremony)
19 OLD-TIMER Veteran told off by Cyclops (twice) is at end of tether (3-5)
(TOLD)* AInd: off, I (Cyclops) ME ( Cyclops, again) [tethe]R
21 CANOPY Shady thing, sticking one in parrot (6)
AN (one) inside COPY (parrot)
22 SCAR Mark‘s second estate? (4)
S[econd] CAR (estate)
23 REMITTANCE Casually terminate Conservative leader, as payment (10)
(TERMINATE + C[onservative])* AInd: casually.
25 CREEPER Brown-noser providing Tarzan’s means of transport (7)
Crypic Def.  Last One In – weirdly I was thinking liana but failed to think of creeper
26 PRIMATE Gibraltar resident, stiffly formal, taking tea perhaps? (7)
PRIM (stiffly formal) (TEA)* AInd: perhaps.
Down
1 PREVIEW Advance screening of source of Putin’s appraisal (7)
P[utin] REVIEW (appraisal)
2/24 BEAR ARMS Be prepared to shoot naked members, it’s said (4,4)
Homophone of “Bare arms” HInd: it’s said.
3 POTHOLER Wicked hotel pro who explores down below (8)
(HOTEL PRO)* AInd: Wicked.
4 BRUNCH Stick tip of todger in Posy – make a meal of it (6)
[todge]R inside BUNCH (posy)
5 UPSIDE-DOWN Positive aspect associated with bum fluff being inverted? (6-4)
UPSIDE (positive aspect) DOWN (bum fluff)
6 CROWNED Like Brenda, on occasion, boasted about “one’s focus” (7)
CROWED (boasted) around [o]N[e]
9 DONALD TRUMP Academic on ‘a loud-mouthed, hollow, ultimately corrupt arse and bad loser‘ (6,5)
DON (academic) A L[oud-mouthe]D [corrup]T RUMP (arse)
13 SEX STARVED Not getting any dessert that’s been mixed with vax (3-7)
(DESSERT + VAX )* AInd: mixed.
16 TACITURN Pussy having been rejected, I become reticent (8)
CAT< (pussy, rejected)  I TURN (I become)
17 PLACARD Bill‘s position: getting end away on a highway (7)
PLAC[e] (position, end away) A RD (a highway)
18 OPACITY Dullness of love and sex in smart surroundings (7)
O (love) IT (sex) inside PACY (smart)
20 MARKET Fair to smear alien? (6)
MARK (smear) ET (alien)

I was at a local restaurant when a man suddenly called out, “My son’s choking! He swallowed a 20p! Help! Please, anyone! Help!”

A man from a nearby table stood up and said he was quite experienced at this sort of thing. With a look of no concern at all, he grabbed the boy’s balls and squeezed. The boy choked and out popped the 20p. The man then went back to his table as though nothing had happened.

“Thank you! Thank you!” the father, cried. “Are you a paramedic?”

“No,” replied the man. “I work for HMRC”

20 comments on “Private Eye (Cyclops / 727 ) Sex Starved Primate”

  1. Thanks for the blog and the joke. I agree about the grid , first letters are always so useful. It is a sticklebrick grid ( from TonyC ) and often used for a message on the perimeter.
    I found this a bit so-so , the clues were fine but not much politics and not even much smut this time.

  2. Meanwhile, over in the Guardian (crossword 28744), Brummie was clueing thus without any hint of a bum note — “By contrast, the benefits associated with feathers turned right over (6,4).”

  3. Thanks beermagnet, I needed a couple of stabs at this one, some of the equivalences eg PACY for smart took a while. I took a while to get past something involving a vine for CREEPER (good job I have never heard of Liana) and PRIMATE took even longer as I was looking for a specific variety thereof – otherwise you could replace Gibraltar with any city surely? Or perhaps I am just missing the misdirection joke there. Although we have all heard enough of him, I did think the orange one was well described.

  5. Hi Gazzh,
    I was just about to rebut your comment about replacing Gib with any city in 26A when I thought I’d better check that Gibraltar’s Barbary Apes are really Apes and thus Primates – They’re not!
    They are just a species of monkey. See Wiki here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_macaques_in_Gibraltar
    Not primates at all (monkeys are not Primates) <— This is my mistake (edit)
    I certainly thought they were Apes and had no trouble with the clue, so I suspect Cyclops thought the same, but now we see the clue is sunk – holed in the side by science

  7. Thank you John I now understand my mistake.
    I thought Apes and maybe a few other simians, including humans, were “Primates” and not to be confused with monkeys.
    I now understand the “Primates” includes monkeys and several other branches as shown in the lovely cladogram in the first section of this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primate#History_of_terminology

    So Cyclops made no error, the clue is sound, and I have learnt lots. I count that as a win (though I was in a bit of a tis for a while)

  8. Beermagnet@7 there is often a problem concerning “everyday” and “scientific” terminology. Cyclops is on very safe ground here because PRIMATES contain basically everything in this group, even the lemurs and lorises. Apes and monkeys are often slightly misused terms and their meaning has shifted in science as we have moved away from a “hierarchy” .
    You make a very good point about learning lots.

  9. Thanks for the primate primer everyone. My main point was that since you and I are also primates there is no particular reason to use Gibraltar in the clue rather than London, Chattanooga or any other human settlement. But I am very happy to have a fuller picture and won’t go on!

  10. Gazzh @9 — the clue describes a human activity that could happen anywhere. It is made Gibraltar-specific because that place’s well-known ape associations suggest a particular description of humans that other places would not suggest.

  11. Worth suffering the return of the Donald for a description like that.

    Is I really an abbreviation for ‘independence’? Collins online doesn’t even have ‘independent’, except in the section from American dictionaries, although I’ve often seen that used.

    So, according to gazzh, The clue for PRIMATE could as well have been ‘Person who is stiffly formal, taking tea perhaps? (7)’? ‘Archbishop’ would have worked, but that might have been too easy?

    I would like to clarify that I didn’t supply the grid, just the term ‘sticklebrick’ for a grid of this type, a term which has clearly tickled Roz.

  12. Gibraltar does not have an archbishop. It has a resident Roman Catholic bishop and a non-resident Anglican ‘Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe’. And who is to say that religious hierarchies don’t include a few laid-back coffee drinkers?

  13. Sticklebrick is a perfect term to describe this grid in one word. I meant the term was from you TonyC not this actual grid.

  14. Thanks, Roz. I’m glad you like it and, of course, I understood what you meant but it seemed a little ambiguous.

  18. Roz, ah, I see. I won’t be demanding royalties and will be happy to see it pass, with your help, into the public domain — or at least the crosswordy bit of it.

    I’m sure you will (not) find John E’s link helpful 🙂
    T

  20. Better to ask about the offside law in football………there’s a career in studying that!!!! everything seems to be a bit VARiable about it.

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