Some (reasonably) topical targets in this fortnight’s puzzle from Cyclops…
…with a little dig at Kwasi Kwarteng’s ECONOMICS prowess at 25A; PUBLIC OPINION being (presently) mostly against the Conservatives (depending on which polls you believe) at 1A; another little dig at those oligarchs who have lost their SUPER YACHTs at 23A; and Jacob Really-Smug’s need for multiple NANNYs for his multiple children at 6D (well, at least he knows who and where they all are, as he numbered them from Unus to Septimus, or whatever, and who the mother is…unlike his erstwhile and profligate employer, BoJo…to whom 26D may have been referring…)
The surface read of 24D RUMBA is nicely laced with innuendo, whereas that at 17D is a little more explicit!
And a blast or two from the past – with Henry KISS(ing)ER popping up at 20A; and Princess Di, as a ‘former royal’, as part of DISCLOSE at 16A – a little serendipitous here, as this puzzle was live during the time that her son, another former royal, has been leaking titbits from and flogging his tawdry memoirs, in an attempt to: bring down the monarchy / reconcile with his father and brother (** delete as appropriate).
There were some nice anagrinds (anagram indicators) – ‘terrible’ Cyprus heat at 23A; gin-‘sozzled’! at 20A; ‘undo’ bra at 24D; ‘fancy’ comic nose at 25A…but I wasn’t so sure about nut ‘freaking out’ for TUN at 11A, which could just be a reversal, although the ‘freaking out’ helps the surface read; or ‘suitable’ for ANY + NN at 6D – I guess the result is ‘suitable’ in terms of the surface read…or maybe the anagrind is actually the ? at the end of the clue? (Or maybe I should stop trying to analyse things too closely on a Sunday evening after a couple of sherries!…)
As ever, many thanks to Cyclops for a fun solve, and I trust all is clear below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 1A | PUBLIC OPINION | It’s presently mostly against Conservatives local wing involving Lithium company (6,7)
PUB (local) + PINION (wing) around (involving) LI (lithium) + CO (company) |
||
| 10A | IN FOCUS | Resolved to get gen on conservative America (2,5)
IN FO (information, gen) + C (Conservative) + US (America) |
||
| 11A | TUNEFUL | “Nut freaking out on liquid fuel” (Melody’s description) (7)
TUN (anag, or reversal, i.e. freaking out, of NUT) + EFUL (anag, i.e. liquid, of FUEL) |
||
| 12A | SATELLITE | Was an MP chosen to bestride Labour leader and moon? (9)
SAT (was an MP) + EL_ITE (chosen) around (bestriding) L (leading letter of Labour) |
||
| 13A | YACHT | See 23ac. (5)
see 23A |
||
| 14A | MISUSE | Think about lives getting ill-treatment (6)
M_USE (think) around IS (lives, exists) |
||
| 16A | DISCLOSE | Leak: “former royal’s meeting end” (8)
DIS (Di’s, former royal’s) + CLOSE (end) |
||
| 19A | DECADENT | Depraved TV presenter needs to get over a dip (8)
DEC (TV presenter, half of Ant & Dec) + A + DENT (dip) |
||
| 20A | KISSER | Henry’s thrown out gin-sozzled puss (6)
KISS( [‘puss’ being slang for the face, or mouth – hence KISSER] |
||
| 23A | SUPER (YACHT) | & 13ac. Oligarch might have been relieved of this terrible Cyprus heat (10)
anag, i.e. terrible, of CYPRUS HEAT |
||
| 25A | ECONOMICS | Fancy comic nose, not really Kwarteng’s thing? (9)
anag, i.e. fancy, of COMIC NOSE |
||
| 27A | ALARMED | Scared when singer Jones grabs member (7)
AL_ED (Aled Jones, singer) around (grabbing) ARM (bodily appendage, or member) |
||
| 28A | LIAISON | Carry-on Sailing, Love is out – no good (7)
subtractive anagram, i.e. is out, of SAILIN( |
||
| 29A | STRAIGHT-FACED | Frank mugged, so not smiling (8-5)
STRAIGHT (frank) + FACED (mugged – a face can be a mug, so having a face could mean you are faced, or mugged?!) |
||
| Across | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 2D | UNFIT | A French-style attack is feeble (5)
UN (a, French-style) + FIT (attack) |
||
| 3D | LOCALISED | Pinpointed pub on windy side (9)
LOCAL (pub) + ISED (anag, i.e. windy, of SIDE) |
||
| 4D | COSMIC | Immense head of state in laughable setting (6)
CO_MIC (laughable) around (providing a setting for) S (head, or first letter, of State) |
||
| 5D | PATHETIC | Pop article on Mark, almost pitiable (8)
PA (father, pop) + THE (definite article) + TIC( |
||
| 6D | NANNY | Any two short names suitable for Rees-Mogg’s minder? (5)
anag, i.e. suitable, of ANY + NN (two Ns, or abbreviations for name) [Jacob Rees-Mogg is known for his proliferating loins – six or seven children? – and his employment of various nannies to look after them…] |
||
| 7D | OFFICIOUS | Meddlesome, sub-standard, inept Conservative leaders with debts (9)
OFF (sub-standard) + IC (leading letters of Inept Conservative) + IOUS (IOUs, debts) |
||
| 8D | LISSOM | In general is Somerset flexible? (6)
hidden word in ‘generaL IS SOMerset’ |
||
| 9D | BLITHE | Knob finally not stiff, so happy (6)
B (final letter of knoB) + LITHE (not stiff) |
||
| 15D | SYCOPHANT | Crawler churns out any PC tosh (9)
anag, i.e. churns out, of ANY PC TOSH |
||
| 17D | CHIPOLATA | Unfortunate coital mishap, with young woman endlessly pulling out sausage (9)
subtractive anagram, i.e. unfortunate, of COITAL ( |
||
| 18D | UNDERDOG | A likely loser working for a bastard? (8)
UNDER (working for) + DOG (a bastard, disreputable fellow) |
||
| 19D | DISMAY | Hell might be appalling (6)
DIS (the underworld, Hell) + MAY (might) |
||
| 21D | RISING | Is inside roped area, getting erect (6)
R_ING (roped area, e.g. in boxing) around IS |
||
| 22D | GOBLET | Spit on obstacle as an aid to drinking (6)
GOB (spit) + LET (obstacle) |
||
| 24D | RUMBA | Take steps to undo bra without a word of hesitation (5)
R_BA (anag, i.e. to undo, of BRA) around (without) UM (a word of hesitation) |
||
| 26D | ISSUE | Sprog problem (5)
double defn. – one’s ISSUE can be one’s child, or sprog; and an ISSUE can be a problem |
||
Thanks for the blog, a good set of clues here . KISSER is very clever and a reminder of the Nobel Peace Prize winner who ended satire. RUMBA a little gem as well and we have sprog in the clues, one of my favourite words.
I had DISMAY very slightly differently with BE appalling as the definition.
I liked KISSER bt also PUBLIC OPINION for how it was built up. I put DISMAL and or the life of me I couldn’t parse it. Thank you, MC, for the help and also for the blog. once again, big thanks to Cyclops for the puzzle and the fun. One little moan: i’m not convinced of ‘dent’ for a ‘dip’.
Thanks mc_rapper67 and Cyclops. I thought this a really good puzzle with some laugh out loud clues and solutions. I marked 20a, 29a, 17d,18d and 26d as favourites. When looking at your entry for 11a, it set me musing as to what are the odds of a three letter anagram also being a reversal, I make it 1 in 5 or 20%. Great blog as always.
Roz at #1 – agreed, the ‘be’ is better as part of the definition – duly updated.
Winsor at #2 – I can straw-clutchingly triangulate ‘dip’ and ‘dent’ around ‘hollow’ in Chambers (;+>)
Franko at #3 – re. your musings – I’ll take your word for it!…
Quite right Franko @3 , six unique arrangements of three different letters . One is the original , of the other five only one can be the reverse .
For four different letters it is one out of eleven.
I also think it is not quite right when an anagram is a reversal although it is not technically wrong.
16ac DISCLOSE: perhaps the sad prince can take some comfort from the thought that his late mum is assured eternal memorial in cryptic crosswords?
There was a really clever one elsewhere, recently, for DISPENSER, which, of course, was her name before she was a princess. Or is it just a homophone? Whatever.
20ac, KISSER: don’t think I’ve heard of puss meaning mouth, before, or KISSER meaning face.
23ac/13ac SUPER YACHT: why are the owners of these ‘oligarchs’ if they’re Russian but ‘successful businessmen’ etc if they’re British?
6dn NANNY: I think the question mark is an apology for the dubious nature of “suitable” as indicator.
Roz @5 for 4 letter words (four different letters) I think it would be one in 23 (4×3×2)-1
Yes of course Franko , 4 factorial and take away the original . For some reason I was thinking of two of the four being the same even though I said all four were different.
@Tony…..I take it you’ve never been offered a smack in the kisser? Obviously, we’ve moved in different circles!!!!
Winsor, no, but when I’ve offered one, it’s always been a reference to the mouth, rather than the face in general.
Comments are closed for Cyclops 742, so I will add a footnote to it here. If anyone wants to listen to people referring repeatedly to the Reliant Robin, I recommend today’s edition of “Last Words” on BBC Radio 4 (obituary of Tom Karen).
Yesterday’s (sic) edition of Last Word sic) features the recently-deceased guitarist Jeff Beck as well as Robin designer, Tom Karen.
Karen spent most of his career working for Ogle Design Ltd in Letchworth. An exhibition of his work has been running since last May and doesn’t close until spring this year.
“A special exhibition at Letchworth’s unique ‘micro museum’ celebrates everything Tom Karen has done over the course of a long and varied life, focusing on the designs that have defined him and recreating the quirky charm of his Cambridge home, filled with his wondrous creations, with lots of interest for all ages.”
https://www.letchworth.com/news/new-exhibition-celebrates-designer-tom-karen
An exhibition I would love to visit if I was in better shape. Unfortunately I’ve recently been discharged from hospital with a host of nasty problems to be addressed.
Me@6: actually a letter substitution.