A bit of crudeness and a couple of references to the orange one. Yes, this is an Eye puzzle.
Kicking off with Trump at 1d and Cockney Rhyming Slang “Bristol(s)” in the wordplay at 20d. You cannot be anywhere else.
Very much the clue of the puzzle though, probably clue of the month, is 5/26. Apposite anagram material for the subject of the answer. At a time when thousands of people were dying, and many more laid low some for the rest of their lives, a certain section spotted an opportunity to profit from all this adversity by taking the country for as much as they could. I wonder if any of these people will really be held to account in the end.
I reached 5/26 just as I ran out of steam on the first pass of the clues with 9 to go. I thought I was on for a fast finish by quickly getting both 1d and 20d to deliver loads of first letters, but the right hand side proved more tricky. In particular I had trouble getting 23/9 which seems so obvious when I got it. It took me nearly all the crossing letters to see. Similarly my last one in: 22 NIGHT. What’s so hard about that!
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 7 | ADDLED | Bad Count Dracula started admitting the French (6) LE (the, French) inside (admitting, admitted by) ADD (Count) D[racula] |
| 11 | ANNULMENT | Abolition yearbook intended to get rid of AA (9) ANNU[a]L (yearbook) M[a]ENT (intended) remove both ‘A’s |
| 12 | USHER | Penny off Drug dealer’s Guide! (5) [p]USHER (Drug dealer, – P[enny]) |
| 13 | AVOID | Keen to conceal opposition leader’s dodge (5) O[pposition] inside AVID (keen) |
| 15 | SEMICOLON | House, shitty location – a break for writers (9) SEMI (House) COLON (shitty location) |
| 16 | OLD DEAR | Patronising address of name-dropping principal hosted by daft lord (3,4) DEA[n] (principal, N[ame] dropping) inside OLD…R from (LORD)* AInd: daft. |
| 18 | QUITE SO | Queen trashed suite, having a ball? Exactly! (5,2) Q (Queen) (SUITE)* AInd: trashing, O (a ball) |
| 20 | TOLERABLE | Role-playing welcomed by board – all right? (9) (ROLE)* AInd: playing, inside TABLE (board) |
| 22 | NIGHT | Dark drink (cap to be removed) (5) NIGHT[cap] |
| 24 | HAVOC | A piece from Posh – a vocal shambles (5) Hidden inside PosH – A VOCal |
| 25 | INSOMNIAC | One working conman is not someone looking forward to retirement (9) I (one) (CONMAN IS)* AInd: working. |
| 27 | THRASHED | Husband, knocked about and crushed (8) H[usband] inside TRASHED (knocked) |
| 28 | ENIGMA | Poser‘s morning drink – energy’s returned (6) AM (morning) GIN (drink) E[nergy] All reversed |
| Down | ||
| 1 | MAR-A-LAGO | Alarm spread at a work place of Trump (3-1-4) (ALARM)* AInd: spread, A GO (a work) |
| 2 | PEEL | To piss, start to loosen skin (4) PEE (to piss) L[oosen] |
| 3 | BOTTOM | William’s character: an arse (6) Double Def. Ref. William Shakespeare’s character from AMSND |
| 4 | INJUNCTION | Order one to have new union (10) I (one) N[ew] JUNCTION (union) |
| 5/26 | MICHELLE MONE | “Hell, me income’s dodgy!” – absent peer (8,4) (HELL ME INCOME)* AInd: dodgy !! |
| 6 | ALDRIN | Buzz off darling – butt out (6) (DARLIN[g])* AInd: off, Ref. 2nd person on the moon |
| 8 | DUNNO | “Not a clue Brown” about to retire (5) DUN (brown) ON< (about, to retire) |
| 10 | CENSOR | Well outside measure by Sun editor (6) EN (measure) S[un] inside COR (Well!) |
| 14 | DUE PROCESS | Trump’s not much bothered about this US seed crop distribution (3,7) (US SEED CROP)* AInd: distribution. |
| 17 | DELIVERY | Labour’s ultimate goal: food shop – really? (8) DELI (food shop) VERY (really). Labour in the sense of giving birth |
| 18 | QUEASY | Question by university, no trouble for Dicky (6) Q[uestion] U[niversity] EASY (no trouble) |
| 19 | OPTICIAN | Work by artist, said to be one involved with glasses (8) OP (work) then Homophone “Titian” |
| 20 | TAHITI | A hotel in Bristol, one exotic place (6) A H[otel] in TIT (Bristol) I (one) |
| 21 | BLIMEY | Buy empty container for fruit? Bloody hell! (6) LIME (fruit) inside B[u]Y |
| 23/9 | GOING DOWNHILL | Skiing but hardly getting any better? (5,8) Double Def. |
I stumbled over the news that Attenborough’s echidna has been rediscovered in the Cyclops Mountains, near Jayapura in West Papua, New Guinea: Nature article and I thought: “I wonder if Cyclops knows he has a whole mountain range named after him?”.
I probably should have been thinking about the poor little echidna living on a knife-edge.
Anyway, enough anagram material there for a whole crossword in that headline.
Thanks beermagnet, and Cyclops. Another enjoyable PE puzzle. As for 5/26, I suspect nothing of any consequence will ever happen to MM or others of her ilk. It speaks volumes about the type of human beings they are that they see a pandemic simply as yet another money making opportunity, and sod the rest of us.
This was a delight from start to finish: full of wit, clever touches, nicely-controlled disdain for certain individuals, and satisfying solutions.
Amidst a host of ticks, MICHELLE MONE really stood out (I agree with TFC @1) closely followed by ALDRIN, ANNULMENT & SEMICOLON.
Mind you, it took an eternity before the penny dropped regarding DUNNO – and I was sure there had to be more going on with BOTTOM (I even checked to see if a Bill Bottom existed).
Thank you Cyclops for the fun and beermagnet for the blog.
Censor was the last I got and I still dont understand it other than ‘editor’
@Peter Jones If an editor does anything they tend to remove extraneous words, sometimes words they think should not be there – thus censor. A good editor will tighten up passages of prose.
When my boss complained about the length of my emails once, I suggested they could be shorter if I spent more time on them, or I could ask him to edit.
Another joyful rummage through odd bits and pieces.
But, living on the other side of the world, I had to look up 5/26. That is not a criticism as UK knowledge is expected in a UK crossword. Having now read a bit more, it is an outstanding clue. Bravo.
Thanks to both.
Peter@3: Cor! around En+S I believe. Em and en, as in em-dash and en-dash, are measures in the printing world, who’ve done long meritorious service in the crossword one as well.
MM btw, or at least the company, aren’t necessarily out of it: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jun/11/dhsc-122m-claim-michelle-mone-linked-company-high-court. And she’s had the recent TV two-parter about her.
My first para in #6 looks rather superfluous. Apols if so.
Absolutely failed this one, my worst showing in a while. As of today I still had seven clues remaining (nine words in total) and gave up to come and check them.
I did have a fun moment when I already had “DUNNO” in but asked my neighbour to parse the clue for me as I couldn’t get the “NO”, and we had a bit of confusion when he thought I was saying “dunno” in relation to my getting the answer rather than actually saying the answer to him verbatim 🙂
I initially thought ‘Weasel’ for 10d, knew it was a lazy guess but couldn’t get it out of my head. And again with ‘Old Fart’ for 16a – anag Daft Lord (dropping the principal ‘D’).
Got there eventually though.
I only got round to this crossword this afternoon. It takes me nearly a fortnight to get through PE, what with its thin paper and small print.
It was worth the patience though, and great fun as usual.
Thanks all.
Not sure I’ve got my brain entirely fired up at the moment, but I’m still struggling to parse ‘on’ for ‘to retire’ in 8d. Any help gratefully received.
@Pete B. I am with you but have come to the conclusion that it’s the word ‘about’ that gives ON. As in somebody talking about/on a subject.
And hence ‘to retire’ signifies to reverse it to NO.
@beermagnet will confirm 🙂
@Nick, #12
Ah yes – that makes sense! Thanks Nick.
Can I be a pedant and propose that Shakespeare’s play in short should be AMND? Or maybe some other pedant can object?
Top pedantry Winsor!
In truth, AMSND was from my original shorthand and I meant to expand it to the full title when filling in but overlooked it.
Now I look at it again, I agree it looks wrong as an acronym.
So, as it can be shortened to AMND I will make I point of doing so in the future.
But I reckon you’re far too late for me to faff around updating the blog now, and as no-one else has objected I’m leaving it.