A grid with external unches is rare in the Eye and I know Cyclops does not hide Ninas but I couldn’t help noticing HATE spelt out in the bottom row and (almost) EDGY on the right. I seemed approporiate in the week the Scottish parliament enacted their new unworkable hate speech law.
This grid design gives rise to some lights with very poor crossing quotient – two with only 3/7. One of those was inevitably my last in, though it is a cracking clue, and the other also needed all 3 crossers before solving. Indeed the rest of the puzzle seemed on the tougher end of the Eye spectrum.
Because I weirdly attempted and got 12/22 first subsequent lights solved were all over the place. The bottom half in place before the top, particularly top right, with the two middle row lights stubbornly resisting, providing no link from bottom to top so it was like doing two separate puzzles.
Go on – I’ll give 17A my favourite clue gong.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 7 | BANKRUPTCY | What some UK cities face, as reckless extreme wings of party turn back (10) (P[art]Y TURN BACK)* AInd: reckless. Pretty much a candidate for an &Lit. Not just cities going financially tits up, plenty of towns and counties too. |
| 9 | BIDE | Wait – presidential candidate name to be taken off! (4) BIDE[n] |
| 10 | SHOWER | One who reveals broadcaster takes heroin (6) H[eroin] in SOWER (broadcaster) |
| 11 | ELASTIC | Nigel (as Tice?) able to endure a stretch inside (7) Hidden inside: nigEL (AS TICe?) |
| 12/22 | DEAD WOOD | Useless wanker is late meeting court date (4,4) DEAD (is late ) WOO (court) D[ate] FOI: First One In after I thought I’d try an early shot at the “split answer”. I have often found those tricky. |
| 13 | NICOSIA | Capital is in a mess: company needs to be incorporated (7) CO[mpany] inside (IS IN A)* AInd: mess. A capital still divided coming up 50 years |
| 15 | BETRAYS | Gives away drawers after live introduction (7) TRAYS (drawers) after BE (live). Drawers are trays I suppose – not the first kind of drawers to spring to mind. |
| 17 | FARTING | Distant object, not hard, acting as a windbreaker (7) FAR T[h]ING (distant object – H[ard]) LOI: Last One In. I needed the third crossing letter – it was the “T” that gave it away. |
| 20 | SEVERAL | More than one cut by the state (7) SEVER (cut) AL (state, Alabama) |
| 24 | TRAGEDY | Get Yard organised? Disaster! (7) (GET YARD)* AInd: organised. Why capitalise the “Y” of Yard? Oh! To imply Scotland Yard. The Met disorganised? Never. It’s where the organised crime command is based … <checks> … I find I’m living in the past again. It has been renamed MO7 |
| 25 | INFAMY | Intelligence reduced May’s dubious shame (6) INF[o] (Intelligence, reduced) (MAY)* AInd: dubious. I cannot read, see or hear “infamy” without thinking of Kenneth Williams in Carry on Cleo. |
| 26 | BLOC | Political alliance head: “Keir’s first to go!” (4) BLOC[k] (head – K[ier]) |
| 27 | NONCHALANT | Offhand Macron’s negative election loser breaks into song (10) NON (No in French, Macron’s negative), AL (Gore, election loser) inside CHANT (song) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | CASHIERED | Sacked Eurosceptic, that is to say, revolutionary (9) CASH (Eurosceptic, ref. Bill Cash) IE (that is to say) RED (revolutionary) |
| 2 | SKEWED | Weeks spent on Democrat’s debut – biased? (6) (WEEKS)* AInd: spent, D[emocrat] Why the “?” ? Skewed and biased are synonymous in a primary meaning. |
| 3 | CURRENCY | Tender arse enclosed in raunchy fringes (8) CUR (arse), ENC[losed] inside R[aunc]Y |
| 4 | BYPASS | A bloody alternative route! (6) Cryptic Def. Ref. a heart bypass |
| 5 | ABSTRACT | Modern art? Remove! (8) Double Def. “?” on the first part indicating it is an example of modern art |
| 6 | EDICT | Conservatives just started to get in correct order? (5) C[onservatives] inside EDIT (correct) “?” on the def. as it is an example of an order |
| 8 | TRENCH | European leader replaced with time (depression) (6) FRENCH (European) swap F for T[ime] |
| 14 | INFORMANT | “Grass currently playing well,” TV presenter (9) IN FORM (currently playing well) ANT (TV presenter, the one on the left) |
| 16 | RESEARCH | “English taken in by Archer’s falsification” : investigate (8) E[nglish] inside (ARCHER’S)* AInd: falsification. |
| 18 | ALL RIGHT | Everything associated with Rees-Mogg’s position in the party is OK? (3,5) ALL (Everything) RIGHT (Rees-Mogg’s position in the party) |
| 19 | CRAYON | Draw produces Sunak supporter, say, harbouring glimmer (of hope?) (6) CON (Sunak supporter) around RAY (glimmer). Def. for crayon as a verb. |
| 21 | VIENNA | Naive move to acquire new capital (6) N[ew] inside (NAIVE)* AInd: move. Hmm. I must watch The Third Man again sometime. |
| 22 | WAFFLE | Evasive politician’s words he might have to eat? (6) Cryptic clue refencing the phrase “eat one’s own words” and the fact that a waffle is a foodstuff |
| 23 | STYLE | Technique offering an opportunity to get your leg over, it’s said (5) Homophone “STILE” – Please generate your own joke about something made of wood |
The modern term “Gaslighting” is derived from the film Gaslight (1944) starring Ingrid Bergman.
You may think you have heard that fact before but I can assure you this is the first time.
Top faves: FARTING, BYPASS and WAFFLE.
Thanks beermagnet for the excellent blog! Quite detailed and neat!.
FARTING
Should the def be ‘acting as a windbreaker’?
WAFFLE
The whole clue works as a lovely cryptic def (as the blog says).
I may split it into two CD’s like this:
Evasive politician’s words?
he might have to eat?
Thanks beermagnet (and Cyclops ), I totally agree with your thoughts ref Kenneth Williams on 25a. I liked BYPASS, short and to the point.
Thanks for the blog, I agree that a sticklebrick grid often makes it trickier, no first letters around the perimeter to help. Unusual for Cylops except for the Christmas special with the perimeter quote.
I think for BANKRUPTCY the clue could have said councils instead of cities, as you mention it is happening over a wide spectrum.
Thanks beermagnet for the great blog.
I also found this harder than usual – I had correct hunches for a lot of clues but the lack of crossers stopped me confirming for a while. Got FARTING quite early (very Cyclopsy) and also enjoyed BYPASS and STYLE.
Completely agree about Kenneth Williams.
Failed badly this time round. Had WEASEL for WAFFLE and that put it all off.
Also I struggled with CURRENCY by having the arse of tender (R) mixed into RAUNCHY.
Also couldn’t get CRAYON and it’s all downhill from there!!!
Thanks very much for the clarification!!!
I liked it, thanks beermagnet and Cyclops.
3d CURRENCY took a while and I never fully parsed it, missing the “enc” for enclosed, although I am sure I have written “enc” in a few mails; also wasn’t sure cur=arse, but it’s OK.
12/22 DEAD WOOD was excellent, even tho’ I hate the split multis generally.
DNF as inexplicably I wrote 26a CLIC rather than BLOC thinking of a clique but it doesn’t work at all atall. DOH!
I too thought of Kenneth Williams; they’ve all got it INFAMY!
OOPS! duplicate, sorry all.
Although I solved 17a I refused to write it in as I detest that word!
To Tony @ 8, Wiktionary says of the verb to fart:
Usage notes
This term, although considered somewhat impolite, is not generally considered vulgar. It once was, and there still may be some that do consider it to be, so it is best avoided in polite discourse.
The word became more acceptable to me when a Russian colleague, who had limited grammar but good vocab , said to me….”no fartering in the sauna!” it lost it’s vulgarity….altho the sentiment was good.