Cyclops is perhaps a little more Cyclops-ean than usual this fortnight…
…certainly in terms of smuttery, with a ‘lengthened knob’, some ‘stinky’ bollocks, someone ‘wrongly fingered’, some ‘mangled testes’, a ‘vibrating gismo’, a ‘celebrated erection’ and a ‘rush to have sex’…oo-err matron, as I’m writing this up on St Valentine’s Day, I may have to go and have a cold shower and a lie down.
There is also the disturbing image at 19D of the Iron Lady ‘atop’ George Galloway…eurghh…
Some topical Trumpery as well, with GREENLAND as something the political HYPNOTIST and ONE-MAN BAND Ronald T Dump wants to BREAK INTO, along with an ‘NDA settlement’. Unfortunately we have nearly four more years of this to come…read my lips…’FOUR MORE YEARS!’. And even worse, if anything happens to him we end up with his UNDERSTUDY, VD Jance… Still, it could be even worse-er, we could have Nigel Farage as PM before then!
I just wish they would all BUGGER OFF.
Hell and handcarts spring to mind, but at least we will have Cyclops to amuse and entertain us along the way…my thanks, as usual, to him, and I hope all is clear below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 7A | GREENLAND | Fresh large NDA settlement, that’s what Trump wants! (9)
GREEN (fresh) + L (large) + AND (anag, i.e. settlement, of NDA) |
||
| 9A | NOBLE | Earl‘s knob lengthened somewhat? (5)
hiden word in, or somewhat, ‘kNOB LEngthened’ |
||
| 10A | LODGE | Say party on left rejected retreat (5)
EG (for example, say) + DO (party) + L (left) = EGDOL. All reversed, or rejected, to give LODGE |
||
| 11A | HYPNOTIST | Who’ll put you under Tony – shit, lost without power! (9)
HY_NOTIST (anag, i.e. lost, of TONY SHIT) around (without, or outwith) P (power) |
||
| 12A | AMNESIA | Not a complaint expected of a retainer? (7)
CD – a retainer (of information) would not be expected to be suffering from AMNESIA! |
||
| 13A | THOUGHT | Considered: “However, Trump just got started” (7)
THOUGH (however) + T (start of Trump) |
||
| 15A | HUMBUG | Bollocks stink – infection (6)
HUM (stink) + BUG (infection) |
||
| 17A | SEND UP | Mock Dirty Den covered in drink (4,2)
S_UP (drink) around (covering) END (anag, i.e. dirty, of DEN) |
||
| 21A | MISTYPE | To wrongly finger some character is empty, desperate (7)
anag, i.e. desperate, of IS EMPTY |
||
| 22A | DIAGRAM | Indian city in stupid plan (7)
DI_M (stupid) around AGRA (Indian city) |
||
| 24A | BUGGER OFF | Quit one who taps Dicky (6,3)
BUGGER (one who bugs, or taps) + OFF (ill, dicky) |
||
| 26A | BREAK (INTO) | & 4 Be a burglar or beatnik bum (5,4)
anag, i.e. bum, of OR BEATNIK |
||
| 27A | LUNCH | One leaves to throw up a meal (5)
L( |
||
| 28A | ASCENSION | In case son screwed up, going up in life (9)
anag, i.e. screwed up, of IN CASE SON |
||
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
||
| 1D | LEAD ON | Show the way, swilling ale, fellow! (4,2)
LEA (anag, i.e. swilling, of ALE) + DON (fellow, academic) |
||
| 2D | UNDERSTUDY | Learn less than you should as an actor in waiting? (10)
punning double defn? – if you UNDER STUDY then you might learn less than you should; and an UNDERSTUDY is an actor in waiting – for something to happen to another actor |
||
| 3D | WARHEAD | Washington heard about missile tip (7)
WA (Washington, US state abbreviation) + RHEAD (anag, i.e. about, of HEARD) |
||
| 4D | INTO | See 26ac. (4)
see 26A |
||
| 5D | ABRIDGED | In the sack, free end of leg and cut (8)
In A B_ED (the sack) put RID (free) and G (end of leG) |
||
| 6D | SEXTET | Band, Mangled Testes – vote to replace son (6)
substitutive anagram, i.e. mangled, of TESTE(S), replacing one S (son) with X (vote) |
||
| 7D | GOLIATH | Opponent of David‘s record turned up with a hit broadcast (7)
GOL (log, or record, turned up) + IATH (anag, i.e. broadcast, of A HIT) |
||
| 8D | DEPUTY | Maybe Rayner‘s task is to hide former record (6)
D_UTY (task) around (hiding) EP (Extended Play, old type of vinyl record) [Angela Rayner, current Uk Deputy PM, being an example of a deputy] |
||
| 14D | ONE-MAN BAND | Madonna’s mad with Ben – “not one to share responsibilities” (3-3,4)
anag, i.e. mad, of MADONNA + BEN |
||
| 16D | MISOGYNY | Sexist quality of vibrating gismo covering tops of your natty Y-fronts (8)
MISOG (anag, i.e. vibrating, of GISMO) + YNY (top letters of ‘Your Natty Y-fronts’) |
||
| 18D | PUMPKIN | Fleshy thing turning up with politician relatives (7)
PU (up, turned) + MP (politician) + KIN (family, relatives) |
||
| 19D | FEDORA | Iron Lady atop George Galloway? (6)
FE (iron, chemical symbol) + DORA (example of a lady’s name) [UK politician George Galloway is known for wearing a fedora] |
||
| 20D | EDIFICE | In need, if I celebrated erection (7)
hidden word in ‘neED IF I CElebrated’ |
||
| 21D | MOBILE | Handy device that’s big in Alabama (6)
double defn. – a MOBILE phone is a handy device; and MOBILE is the 4th largest city in Alabama |
||
| 23D | RE-EDIT | Rush to have sex? Correct again! (2-4)
RE_ED (reed, or rush/grass) + IT (euphemism for, you know, how’s yer father, a bit of the other, S-E-X!) |
||
| 25D | ECHO | Parrot house downsized after energy cuts introduced (4)
EC (introductory letters of Energy Cuts) + HO (abbreviation, or downsizing, of house) |
||
[5d ABED = “In the sack”]
17a: A nod to EastEnders‘ (1985–) 40th (Ruby) anniversary this Wednesday? I finally found a way to do the Eye puzzles on a Chromebook: https://squares.io/
Thanks for the blog, yes Cyclops dialled up to 11 but a high and consistent standard of clues.
MOBILE , perhaps a handy device because people seem to need to hold it at all times like a child’s comfort blanket .
Great blog mc thanks, and a fine puzzle it was too.
Cheers all.
Cyclops’ creations are always good fun – but this one was especially satisfying.
EDIFICE and NOBLE were well-hidden, and I laughed out loud when I spotted the solution to 24A.
With regard to Roz’s comment about mobiles: I’ve always loved the fact that the German word for one is das Handy…
Many thanks to Cyclops and mc_r
“…known for wearing a fedora”. Amongst other things.
Thanks for the comments so far, much appreciated, as usual, and apologies for the tardy response…
FrankieG at #1 – in 5D that would mean the ‘In’ doing double duty? ABED = in the sack, and put RID + G in that?…
Etu at #6 – I was trying to keep it brief!
Very very enjoyable one this on the whole, thanks mc_rapper67. LUNCH was the only one that I couldn’t decide the clue for in the end.
Thought DIAGRAM was going to be another ENTEBBE (Cyclops 796, 18A) even after realising that DIAGRAM would satisfy “plan”; the “stupid” really sent me down the wrong path (anagrams, obvs).
LODGE was my absolute nemesis on this one, I eventually filled it in for the submission (and then forgot to submit it on time anyway) on the basis that it could mean “retreat” and was thus more likely than LADLE or LEDGE, but after over a week I just figured out how the clue works. Never seen “rejected” for a reversal indicator and I think “backed” might have worked better, but I’m glad there was at least some sense to it.
Not sure about BUGGER OFF meaning “quit” but at least there was little else it could’ve been with crossers in. And I don’t want to say how much time I spent trying to make a word out of TESTEV!