The overhasty egomaniac has been giving evidence at the Covid Inquiry this week. Amazing how he had a phone it was impossible to retrieve old messages from. But I’ll say not more about that.
There weren’t many references to the various egomaniacs that think they can rule over us, or even much in the way of sexual innuendo or potty humour in the Eye style. What it had was some very solid clues which were on the easy side. It must have been because I didn’t half whip through it.
In some ways I wish solving had lasted longer. All done in one pass. No hold-ups. Under twenty minutes even with making brief notes for this blog. Fastest ever.
This can’t last. I think I might retire now.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | UPTIGHT | Having an erection plastered makes you rather tense (7) UP (Having an erection) TIGHT (plastered) First read. First entered |
| 5 | SPECTRE | Shadow cabinet ultimately constrained by useless creeps (7) [cabine]T inside (CREEPS)* AInd: useless. |
| 10/26 | PLUS SIGN | Bonus clue: all part of the equation? (4,4) PLUS (Bonus) SIGN (clue) |
| 11 | RETIREMENT | Feel weary again, chaps? Tense? Withdrawal is the answer (10) RE-TIRE (Feel weary again) MEN (chaps) T[ense] |
| 12 | MISLAY | Fail to find ex-PM is initially likeable on the inside (6) IS L[ikeable] inside MAY (ex-PM) |
| 13 | FOLLOW UP | Bloke lacking energy to embrace love gets out of bed to pursue the matter (6,2) F[e]LLOW (Bloke, lacking E energy) around (to embrace) O (love) UP (out of bed) Edited for wordplay correction |
| 14 | ENEMY | Opposition helping to create ‘gene myth’ (5) Hidden inside gENE MYth |
| 16 | SLOUCH | Heartless scandal that hurt awkward person (6) S[canda]L OUCH (that hurt!) |
| 19 | TATTOO | Troops display body image? (6) Double Def |
| 20 | ISSUE | Kids matter (5) Double Def |
| 22 | Question put to idiot political leader: “Why don’t politicians think before communicating via this?” (8) WHAT (Question) SAP (idiot) P[olitical] |
|
| 24 | BEHEAD | Top male gets one in the sack (6) HE (male) A (one) inside BED (in the sack) |
| 25 | UNABRIDGED | Brigand due to be operated on, not having had ‘the snip’? (10) (BRIGAND DUE)* AInd: to be operated on. |
| 27 | ESSENCE | Core scenes bungled at end of Grease (7) (SCENES)* AInd: bungled, [greas]E |
| 28 | UNDYING | Immortal one in Glasgow covered in dung sadly (7) YIN (one, in Glasgow) inside (DUNG)* AInd: sadly. |
| Down | ||
| 2 | PULPIT | Speaker’s support – for advice to publishers of Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries? (6) PULP IT (advice to publishers of Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries) |
| 3 | INSOLVENT | Popular substance-abuser’s thing: getting strapped (9) IN (Popular) SOLVENT (substance-abuser’s thing). Strapped as in “strapped for cash”, not as in 18d |
| 4 | HARDY | Sporting an erection, ultimately funny and comic (5) HARD (Sporting an erection) [funn]Y. Ref. Oliver Hardy Edited for wordplay correction twice! |
| 6 | PARALYSIS | Loss of power means Trump’s final salary is pathetic (9) [trum]P (SALARY IS)* AInd: pathetic. |
| 7 | CAMEO | Had an orgasm – beginning of outrageously small role for a star (5) CAME (Had an orgasm) O[utrageously] |
| 8 | RENOUNCE | Disown venue where many got a divorce on cue, perhaps, with love abandoned (8) RENO (venue where many got a divorce) (ON CUE – O (love))* AInd: perhaps. |
| 9 | STUFFY | Close with shag at end of day (6) STUFF (shag) [da]Y |
| 15 | EGOMANIAC | Came in a flash, full of vitality – bighead! (9) GO (vitality) inside (CAME IN A)* AInd: flash. |
| 17 | OVERHASTY | Balls shy at dancing – too impulsive! (9) OVER (balls, as in cricket) (SHY AT)* AInd: dancing. |
| 18 | LASHINGS | Liberal content incurs whip’s administrations (8) Double Def |
| 20 | IMPUGN | Call into question one’s president: “gun-crazy!” (6) I’M (one’s) P[resident] (GUN)* AInd: crazy. |
| 21 | MARGIN | Fringe of Thatcher’s left wing elected? (6) MARG[aret] (Thatcher’s left wing) IN (elected) Last one in |
| 23 | TABLE | Put forward lie about Boris’s lead (5) TALE (lie) around B[oris] |
| 24 | BIDEN | Wait! New start needed for the old leader (5) BIDE (wait) N[ew] |
Notes from a SOCO’s notebook:
12:04 : Arrived at the scene
12:04 : Examine victim – appears to have been stabbed
12:04 : Discover bladed weapon in nearby bushes
12:04 : Deduce my watch has stopped
Thanks for the blog , good set of clues , steady solve , I agree it was not overly political or smutty. PULPIT was very neat and appropriate , UNABRIDGED had a clever definition. I too found MARGIN tricky, perhaps the soft G / hard G .
What do you mean by one pass ? Every answer straight in or you did not put it down and come back to it later ?
Thanks beermagnet, agree with your take on it (took me slightly more than one tram ride so I was a bit slower than you) though it took me a long time to spot the first def in LASHINGS and therefore to be confident about it. My heart sank on reading 2d as I have remained blissfully unaware of any specific details of that particular tome but luckily not needed and agree a great clue. Nice to see WHATSAPP in there too. Jeremy HARDY was also a fine comedian on various R4 shows but agree it is probably Ollie that Cyclops had in mind.
Hi Roz. By my definition the “first pass” is when I have attempted all the clues. As I solve, especially when blogging, I put a tick (solved) or a dot (unsolved) against the clue number. This doesn’t mean I don’t go back to previously read unsolved clues – when they get loads of crossing letters those answers become more obvious. When all clues are marked that is one pass. Usually there are a few/many clues unsolved. Sometimes I am infuriatingly stuck on just one or two. This time all got done in one pass!
And 21D was only last because I hadn’t read it before. By the time I got to it the given -A-G-N meant it was pretty obvious.
Gazzh: Thanks for reminding me of Jeremy H. There are likely other comic Hardys. No doubt Captain Hardy had Lord Nelson in stitches.
13ac, FOLLOW UP: you forgot to say UP = out of bed
20ac, ISSUE: brilliant clue; must have been done before, surely?
4dn, HARDY: Typo. HEAD for HARD
8dn, RENOUNCE: RENO appeared as ‘divorce capital’ in a recent charade in the Guardian (not Brummie, I don’t think).
9dn, STUFFY: haven’t heard ‘stuff’ for ‘have sex with’ since the sixties, I don’t think.
15dn, EGOMANIAC: “flash” is a bit dodgy as an indicator, isn’t it?
17dn, OVERHASTY: Ed didn’t look that shy on Strictly doing Gangnam Style!
24ac, BIDEN: old leader, haha!
Thanks Beermagnet@3 so basically one go with a hit of back and forth. One pass for me is all the Across in order then all the Downs in order without looking at the grid. I then tackle each corner and call this my second pass.
Tony@4 RENO was in a recent Imogen prize, entRE NOus .
Thanks Tony C I have corrected the typos. I should re-employ my proofreader.
You’re right about STUFF, it does seem archaic now.
For “flash”: I think the list of acceptable anagram indicators grows and grows. I recall some years ago someone building such a list but cannot remember who or where it might be found, but I think it was someone on fifteensquared.
Roz: I know some austere people use that “clue-based” solving method. I would never be able to cold-solve more than a few clues in a row.
For me the “cross” of crosswords is what excites me. If I get an answer that delivers some crossing letter I couldn’t stop myself from attempting that clue next. So I evolved this “ticking off clues” method which gave me some hope of a first-pass target. The number of clues solved/unsolved at end of that pass gives me a measure of how difficult the puzzle is, and over time how my solving is improving.
Beermagnet@6 I do the Guardian every day on my way home on the train so I like it to last for my 20 minute journey , helps me to ignore all the mobile phones. My method slows me down, it also means each clue gets one look all by itself even if only 10 seconds , I then like to solve each corner .
Thanks beermagnet and Cyclops.
Respectfully, it looks like you’re correcting the typo 4d in instalments, it now reads HERD not HEAD.
Like Tony @4, I enjoyed 20a and marked it as a favourite along with 24d.
The only answer I couldn’t fully parse was 20d, I still can’t see ONE’S = I’M( aah! as I’m typing I can see it’s a contraction of ONE IS… Doh!)
All I can say about 4d wordplay is “Aaargh!”
Beermagnet@6, I copied this note about anagram indicators from somewhere, possibly one of Peter Biddlecombe’s posts in his clue-writing competition:
“Tim Moorey’s ‘how-to-solve’ book includes a table that makes sense of the vast range of anagram indicators by listing the meanings behind them. His list of meanings is:
arrangement,
rearrangement,
change,
development,
wrongness,
strangeness,
drunkenness,
madness,
movement,
disturbance of order and
involvement (ie complexity)”
Not sure what meaning of ‘flash’ could fit one of those categories.
Roz@5, yes, that was it. Thanks.
Beermagnet@6, Crossword Compiler (setting software) lists several hundred anagram indicators alphabetically, but ‘flash’ isn’t amongst them.
Tony @12 I suppose “you’re looking a bit flash!” said to someone when they look unusually smart sort of fits the strangeness criteria?
Dave, I did consider that meaning of ‘flash’ but looking flash is just normal for some people (as in “he’s a flash ****”), so I don’t think it can really be so categorised, even if it would be strange, probably, for most crossworders to be looking flash! 😉
Dave, looking into it at Collins online, I think the meaning we were just discussing was “15. informal
ostentatious or vulgar”, but there is also “17. sham or counterfeit”, which does seem to fit the bill somewhat. That’s not a meaning I was aware of and perhaps I should have done my research before criticising rather than after!
When I solved 15d it didn’t enter my head that “flash” wasn’t suitable as an anagram indicator.
I consider anyone “flashing” to be a bit mixed-up.
I had in mind flash = ‘tarted up’
Thanks, Cyclops
This was one of the toughest I’ve come across for ages. The ‘behead’, ‘mislay’ and ‘tattoo’ ones just couldn’t see them at all ?
Coming to this very late!!! I must start solving via internet and not wait for my mag.
I got 4d completely wrong….I decided there was some comedian called Horn and therefore had Horny as ‘sporting an erection’! Echoes of ‘Round the Horn’ too.
I too considered Horn/Horne at 4d, though it doesn’t quite fit. The clue’s wordplay is the other way around.
There are indeed comics called Horne (don’t forget the “e” for fear of a visit from the pedant police):.
Kenneth of “Round the Horne”,
Matthew, who is Gavin of Gavin & Stacey
and the musical Alex, leader of The Horne Section and creator/gopher on Taskmaster.
As a part time juggler, I know a ‘flash’ to be when all the juggled items are thrown into the air at the same time (none are in the hands). In this sense ‘flash’ is an excellent anagram indicator.
When is the next Cyclops (769) due out? Is it this Fri, 29 Dec?
Next issue will not be till next week.
Current issue is a “Fun-filled festive issue” which covers 3 weeks, nominally 15 Dec – 4 Jan , so expect 769 on Fri 5th Jan
Thanks, beermagnet. I managed to finish the Christmas special, btw, and emailed it off on Tuesday. Hope you’ve managed it too.