A relatively tame puzzle from Cyclops, in terms of political satire and skoolboy smuttery in the clueing, that is…
…with passing references to B-listers Michael Gove and Ron DeSantis, and just a kinky SPANK at 3D!
There are a couple of references to expensive separations, with a messy OVERPRICED divorce at 12A, and wealth splitting an unhappy couple in 27A OPULENCE – hope all is well chez Cyclops?…
There didn’t seem to be too much to ‘scare the horses’ amongst the rest – apart from the surface read of 28A ROTTER, of course!
I learned that 21A VERMICELLI can be a chocolate cake sprinkle topping, as well as slender pasta, and enjoyed the definition of 25A CRECHE as a ‘minor service provider’…
I think that just about sums it up – a relatively gentle solve and no doubt a brief hiatus before the tsunami of Trump references return, for another 4 years – heaven help us! The lunatics really have taken over the asylum…
My thanks to Cyclops, and I trust all is clear below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 1A | GOSSIP | Idle talk: “Leave, piss off!” (6)
Go (leave) + SSIP (anag, i.e. off, of PISS) |
||
| 5A | CLAIMANT | One hoping for beneficial response is unable to take Liam’s eruption? (8)
C_ANT (is unable) around LAIM (anag, i.e. eruption, of LIAM) |
||
| 9A | ATLANTIC | Double-crossed on UK & US round trip, leaders of Al-Qaida try launching stunt (8)
ATL (leaders, or first letters, of ‘Al-quaida Try Launching’) + ANTIC (stunt) [if you fly a round trip to the between the US and the UK you will cross the ATLANTIC twice!] |
||
| 10A | DIRECT | Frank‘s awful, Tom’s heartless (6)
DIRE (awful) + C( |
||
| 11A | BACK | See 24dn. (4)
see 24D |
||
| 12A | OVERPRICED | Extortionate, messy divorce overwhelms poor rep (10)
OV_RICED (anag, i.e. messy, of DIVORCE) around (overwhelming) ERP (anag, i.e. poor, of REP) |
||
| 13A | UTOPIAN | Free up AI? Not ideal (7)
anag, i.e. free, of UP AI NOT |
||
| 15A | TRAIPSE | Pisspoor parties trail (7)
anag, i.e. pisspoor, of PARTIES |
||
| 17A | SCALPEL | Nurse’s hand-out prior to operational cuts? (7)
CD – when performing an operation, the surgeon may ask the nurse to hand them a SCALPEL before making ‘operational’ cuts! |
||
| 19A | SMIDGEN | Dash from South Central General (7)
S (south) + MID (central) + GEN (general) |
||
| 21A | VERMICELLI | Topping liberal leader in revolting evil crime (10)
VERMICEL_I (anag, i.e. revolting, of EVIL CRIME) around L (leading letter of Liberal) [I thought vermicelli was a pasta, but it is also thin pieces of chocolate for cake decoration] |
||
| 24A | FACE | In brief, a celeb’s tackle (4)
hidden word in ‘brieF A CEleb’ [face up to] |
||
| 25A | CRECHE | Minor service provider chain acquired by Native American people (6)
CRE_E (Native American people) around (acquiring) CH (chain) |
||
| 26A | PEDIGREE | Descent of terrible dirge into tinkle (8)
PE_E (or P_EE, tinkle) around DIGRE (or EDIGR, anag, i.e. terrible, of DIRGE) |
||
| 27A | OPULENCE | Wealth measure splits unhappy couple (8)
OPUL_CE (anag, i.e. unhappy, of COUPLE) around (split by) EN (printing, measure of length of a dash, half an em!) |
||
| 28A | ROTTER | Rogue chops off racehorse’s head (6)
( |
||
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 2D | OUTLAST | Survive being declared gay at the end (7)
OUT (declared gay) + LAST (at the end) |
||
| 3D | SPANK | Round pub entrance, dropped kinky belt? (5)
S_ANK (dropped) around P (entrance, or first letter, of Pub) |
||
| 4D | PATRONAGE | Funding McFadden and DeSantis takes time (9)
PAT (Pat McFadden) + RON (Ron DeSantis) + AGE (time) |
||
| 5D | CACHE | Stock Conservative – pain (5)
C (Conservative) + ACHE (pain) |
||
| 6D | ADD UP | Summer will do, to make sense (3,2)
double defn. – a summer, one who sums, might ADD UP; and if something makes sense then it could ADD UP! |
||
| 7D | MORTIFIED | I’m tired of being beaten and ashamed (9)
anag, i.e. being beaten, of IM TIRED OF |
||
| 8D | NUCLEUS | Tabloid upset about cryptic clue’s central part (7)
NU_S (of N_US, Sun, or tabloid ‘newspaper’, upset) around CLEU (or UCLE, anag, i.e. cryptic, of CLUE) |
||
| 14D | POLEMICAL | Controversial European – he’s to be dismissed by Gove? (9)
POLE (European) + MIC( |
||
| 16D | REMAINDER | No Brexiteer recruits duke for balance (9)
REMAIN_ER (no Brexiteer!) around (recruiting) D (duke) |
||
| 18D | CHEER UP | Tweet about rugby players – “get more gay!” (5,2)
CHEE_P (tweet) around R_U (Rugby Union, or rugby players, generally) |
||
| 20D | EXCRETE | Old lover stuck on holiday island – shit (7)
EX (old lover) + CRETE (Greek island, and popular holiday destination) |
||
| 22D | CLEAN | China’s main bank is to get into laundering? (5)
C (main, or first letter, of China) + LEAN (bank) |
||
| 23D | LAPSE | Pal’s balls’ ultimately grotesque descent (5)
LAPS (anag, i.e. balls, of PALS) + E (ultimate letter of grotesquE) |
||
| 24D | FIGHT (BACK) | & 11ac.Scrap retreat and counter-attack (5,4)
FIGHT (scrap) + BACK (retreat) |
||
Many thanks for the solutions. I’ve been studying your forum for many years and my ability to solve Cyclops has improved although I had ORACLE rather the CRECHE at 25ac. 😊 Once again, thanks for helping me enjoy the world of cryptic crosswords.
Martin 👍
Nice one, Cyclops!
Alas, I fell at the very last hurdle: 3D. I presumed “kinky” was an anagrind – got nowhere looking for the correct 5 letters, and ended up crossing my fingers and bunging in SMACK (= belt). Oh well, can’t win ‘em all.
My faves were CRECHE, GOSSIP and the surfaces to PEDIGREE & MORTIFIED.
Thank you mc_r for the explanations – especially SCALPEL (a correct semi-parsed guess, but I couldn’t figure out how the nurse fitted into things).
Many thanks for the blog. I managed this one in only one sitting which is a rarity for me. I loved the clue for creche
Thanks mc_rapper67 and Cyclops.
Re 21a I also had never heard of vermicelli as a topping. In fact I had a vague idea it might be a cheese. Even google didn’t reveal the other meaning you identified.
I also marked 25a CRECHE and 9a ATLANTIC as favourites.
Umm, I think I remember vermicelli as multi-coloured little cylinders of stuff mother put on cakes and things, similar to hundreds and thousands? Those things Americans call sprinkles?
From Wikipedia:
“Names
In the UK and other Anglophonic Commonwealth countries sprinkles are denoted by different signifiers. For example, hundreds and thousands is the most popular denotation used in United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to refer to nonpareils, a type of sprinkles. Another UK variant of the term is vermicelli, especially when said of chocolate sprinkles”
many thanks to Cyclops and mc!!! Quite a quick solve for me…in an hour!!!!
Got stuck on PATRONAGE since I was locked into PATRONISE and couldn’t see the parsing, but I got there in the end.
Thanks for the various comments and feedback so far – much appreciated as usual, and nice to see a couple of new(?) names in Martin James at #1 and Steve at #3…
Nice research on VERMICELLI/sprinkles, AndyF – we live and learn! My Chambers says it is usually ‘chocolate vermicelli’ when referring to the cake toppings, chocolate worms, effectively…hmmm…