Cyclops has, serendipitously, put his finger on the pulse of the Zeitgeist this fortnight…
…with 29A – ‘Brave impertinence by presenter‘; 6D – ‘Opinion gets VIP into trouble…‘; and 22A ‘Conclude corporation’s doing a U-turn‘ – foresight indeed, given that most of the events below happened after the publication of this puzzle nearly two weeks ago!
The GREY HAIRed and ARTICULATE Gary Lineker expressed a VIEWPOINT about the STATECRAFT of our dear LEADER and his party on their policy towards those who undertake the STRESSFUL OFFSHORE journey across the WATER to COMMA to the UK, seeking refuge. His tweets were intercepted by GCHQ and said LEADER and his adVISORs imposed some CENSORSHIP on Saint Gary. His compadres, including the CLOTH-CAPped and GALLANT Ian Wright, closed ranks against this OPPRESSion and soon put a STOP to MOTD and Football FOCUS. The PAPERs were STREWN with articles and LEADERs, some supportive and some IMPARTing SCEPTICISM. The whole thing descended into PATHOS, with lots of earning opportunities for PARALEGALs…
Several other topical things going on – with EVASION at 5A and OFFSHORE COMPANIES at 8D/15D presumably a nod to Zahawi’s tax affairs; a ‘concentration of twisted coppers‘ at 14A as a nod to recent convictions of dodgy policemen; and some wishful thinking at 3D with ‘Fraught Truss upset with self?‘ – a trick clue, as she would never be upset with herself, she would just blame someone else, as usual…; with Sue GREY making a tangential appearance at 27A.
Lots of fun, as usual – only one Trump, and below-average smuttery, perhaps. Thanks to Cyclops for the entertainment, and I trust all is clear below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 1A | ELUSIVE | Dodgy, tortuous clues Cyclops has – not cold, though (7)
ELUS (subtractive anagram, i.e. tortuous, of ( |
||
| 5A | EVASION | Politician’s way of dealing with question: “No, I deliver retrospectively” (7)
NO + I + SAVE (deliver), all retrospectively gives EVASION |
||
| 10A | HAIR | See 27ac. (4)
see 27A |
||
| 11A | STATECRAFT | Art of leading a nation, say – trickery (10)
STATE (say) + CRAFT (trickery) |
||
| 12A | CENSORSHIP | Cor, his penis sadly lacks one! It may involve cuts (10)
subtractive anag, i.e. sadly, of COR HIS PEN( |
||
| 13A | GCHQ | Government agency starts to grow conceited? Hard question (4)
initial letters, or starts, of ‘Grow Conceited Hard Question’ |
||
| 14A | FOCUS | Concentration of twisted coppers (5)
FO (of, twisted) + CUS (Cu, copper, multiple) |
||
| 16A | IMPART | Cyclops and a political leader upset right – pass it on (6)
I (Cyclops) + MPA (A PM, a political leader, upset) + RT (right) |
||
| 19A | SLALOM | Ball put in small cast for the race (6)
SLAL_M (anag, i.e. cast, of SMALL) around O (circular letter, ball) |
||
| 20A | WATER | John deserts battle – wet! (5)
WATER( |
||
| 22A | STOP | Conclude corporation’s doing a U-turn (4)
One’s corporation can be ones belly, or POT (especially in middle/later age!), so if POTS, or corporations, do a U-turn, they could be STOP! |
||
| 24A | ARTICULATE | CIA utter bollocks, the French being in clear (10)
ARTICU_TE (anag, i.e. bollocks, of CIA UTTER) around LA (French, feminine, definite article) |
||
| 26A | SCEPTICISM | About to enter ruined cities, MP’s displaying doubt (10)
SCEPTI_ISM (anag, i.e. ruined, of CITIES MPS) around (entered by) C (circa, approximately, about) |
||
| 27A | GREY (HAIR) | & 10 Ex-PM with hard look, a visible sign of ageing (4,4)
GREY (Early Grey, former Prime Minister) + H (hard) + AIR (look) |
||
| 28A | OPPRESS | Work with crowd to keep down the people (7)
OP (opus, musical, work) + PRESS (crowd) |
||
| 29A | GALLANT | Brave impertinence by presenter (7)
GALL (impertinence) + ANT (TV presenter, half of Ant & Dec) |
||
| Across | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 2D | LEADER | Once Trump‘s opinion of a newspaper (6)
double defn. – TRUMP was once (and hopefully not again) a LEADER; and a LEADER can be an opinion piece in a newspaper) |
||
| 3D | STRESSFUL | Fraught Truss upset with self? (9)
anag, i.e. upset, of TRUSS with SELF |
||
| 4D | VISOR | ‘Noble Love’, manufacturer’s ultimate sun blocker (5)
VIS (Viscount, noble) + O (zero, love) + R (ultimate letter of manufactureR) |
||
| 6D | VIEWPOINT | Opinion gets VIP into trouble – the Eye’s about to get stuck in (9)
VI_POINT (anag, i.e. trouble, of VIP INTO) around EW (we, the Eye, from Cyclops’ point of view, about) |
||
| 7D | SPROG | Senior doctor with heart of gold brought up kid (5)
S (senior) + PROG (G_P, doctor, around OR, heraldic, yellow or gold, so doctor with a heart of gold, all brought up) |
||
| 8D | OFFSHORE (COMPANIES) | & 15 Tax avoiders putting hearts into surprising compassion – for fee! (8,9)
OFFS_ORE COMPANIES (anag, i.e. surprising, of COMPASSION FOR FEE) around H (putting H – hearts, card suit – in) |
||
| 9D | PATHOS | Old man gets hots badly, which arouses pity (6)
PA (father, old man) + THOS (anag, i.e. badly, of HOTS) |
||
| 15D | COMPANIES | See 8dn. (9)
see 8D |
||
| 17D | PARALEGAL | A large cock-up in China leads to aid for lawyers (9)
PA_L or P_AL (friend, Cockney rhyming slang, mate = China plate) around ARALEG or RALEGA (anag, i.e. cock-up, of ALARGE) |
||
| 18D | CLOTH-CAP | Cheltenham leader reluctant to meet head symbol of the working class (5-3)
C (leading letter of Cheltenham) + LOTH (reluctant) + CAP (head) |
||
| 20D | WITHIN | Surrounded by whips, initially hit out, getting elected (6)
W (initial letter of Whips) + ITH (anag, i.e. out, of HIT) + IN (elected) |
||
| 21D | STREWN | Tense Republican in news broadcast distributed by a tosser (6)
S_EWN (anag, i.e. broadcast, of NEWS) around T (tense) + R (Republican) |
||
| 23D | PAPER | Mediocre reading matter about to turn up – the Mail? (5)
PAP (mediocre reading material) + ER (re, about, turned up) |
||
| 25D | COMMA | Conservative odious members make awful leaders – it makes you pause (5)
leading letters of ‘Conservative Odious Members Make Awful’ |
||
Thanks for the blog and a great story, it does look like Cyclops had a crystal ball fof this one. Very slight typo for EVASION , D for S .
Good set of clues and I did not see any problems.
Thanks mc_rapper67 a great blog. I found this a bit tougher than usual. 20a WATER I couldn’t parse for ages. I solved the wordplay some days after I had emailed Private Eye the answers. Ironically, (a bit too much information), while I was on the loo. So my faves are 20a and 17d. Great work Cyclops!
Thanks for the puzzle and the blog. As has ben said, after a tough start it all started to drop into place and nothing to argue about, really. I love the start of the blog with so many clues being used in the diatribe- a good word for a future puzzle. LEADER was my last one in and I did like how OFFSHORE COMPANIES came together!!!
Thanks, Roz – typo corrected!
Franko – a little TMI, but I concur, some of my best solving is done while ‘seated’!
WInsor – I intended it more as a ‘commentary’ than a ‘diatribe’…I was trying to keep it impartial, to avoid being suspended myself!…
14ac FOCUS “coppers” dubious
2dn LEADER not just any “opinion piece in a paper” but the editorial “opinion of a newspaper”. Also “‘s” isn’t part of either definition, but the link between the two, so shouldn’t be underlined.
8dn/15 OFFSHORE COMPANIES You missed out the extra H inserted by “putting hearts [cards suit] into”. Also what’s with clue numbers becoming part of the clue? I think this is the latest weirdness connected with multi-part clues. Have you looked at how other bloggers manage them?
Thanks, Tony – good spot on the missing H.
As for linked clues, I have done this for donkey’s years – the Eye clues have a ‘/’, but that plays havoc with my Excel/HTML formulae so I change the / to a & and stick it in the clue text. No weirdness. Most other bloggers use the PD utility – not sure how that handles linked clues – but I work off my own spreadsheet/formulae/HTML system that I have evolved over the past 12+ years…if it ain’t broke, I won’t ‘fix’ it!…
@mc….bugger impartiality with this mob. If you get suspended, in solidarity with you, I promise not to take your place!!!!!
Winsor – he he – I’m Cruciverbalus…no, I’m Cruciverbalus…(;+>)
I don’t think too many Tory MPs will be contacting kenmac to complain…and my blogging salary is about £1.3m less than Gary L’s £1.3m BBC salary…
“the PD utility”
Is that something produced by blogger PeeDee? As far as I’m concerned, the closer any blogger’s practice is to Eileen’s, the better. However I do manage to work out what you’re getting at (even with what I regard as the back-to-front i.e.s when parsing anagrams 😉 ), so you’re probably right to characterize your system as “not broke”.
It takes all sorts…. I would say that the blogs for Cyclops are my favourite of all , in style and content. In fact my views are the direct opposite of Tony@9 on this issue.
Tony C at #9 – yes, PeeDee or PD. It is a very neat site that can pull in most of the mainstream puzzles and present the grid/clues to the blogger to parse and fill out. I believe it then (somehow, again very cleverly) publishes direct to the 15×15 site. I use it to create my grids, but I still rely on my spreadsheets for the clues/parsing, which I then paste directly into the WordPress blog and polish up…
Why, Mistress Roz, at #10 – you do flatter us! .
(I can’t speak for beermagnet, but I have to admit I don’t actually write the blogs anymore…I just throw the completed puzzle at ChatGPT and ask it to write a blog ‘in the style of mc_rapper67’ (;+>))
“I just throw the completed puzzle at ChatGPT and ask it to write a blog ‘in the style of mc_rapper67’ ”
Anyone who has seen how ‘Lady Labyrinth‘ parses clues will find this statement impossible to believe. The thing about chatbots is, they don’t understand the concept of meaning (or any other concepts, come to that) and meaning is central to cryptic cluing. I suppose it’s possible one could come up with a ‘commentary’ (not ‘diatribe’) like one of yours, but even that seems extremely unlikely.
Many thanks for clarifying 13 and 29. And a great opening commentary.
Peter K at #13 – thanks for your feedback – not sure I’ve seen you comment before, so always nice to see a new name among the regulars…