50th Anniversary of the Eye and I was half-hoping for a special Cyclops.
What did I get? A relatively easy crossie made hard by being printed in the fuzziest print I’ve seen since I broke my John Bull printing set.
In truth it didn’t take long. Never mind, gives me more time to get down to St Paul’s churchyard to bring down capitalism.
[ This Xword might’ve been on the easy side, but I’m completely stuck on many of the questions in the “50 years quiz” Page 18, which is a shame as I’d really like that runners up prize. ]
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 6 | BOOB JOB | Expanding operation at the front: Bush and Blair initially without balls to take on the task (4,3) B[ush] and B[lair] around OO (balls) JOB (task). Another time when the first clue attempted is effortlessly entered – this could become a habit. |
| 8 | ON GUARD | Prepared for assault: desirable position for a gay in Knightsbridge? (2,5) Doule Def. one of them Cryptic in an Eye style (Knightsbridge is the location of the Hyde Park Barracks for the Household Cavalry / Horse Guards etc.) |
| 10 | SUM | Schmaltz rejected to get rid of heroin problem (3) MUS[h]< (Schmaltz rejected) Def. Problem. Last clue entered. Like Scotsmen, sometimes the small ones are the hardest. |
| 11 | KYLIE | Pop star, left out, likely to throw a wobbly (5) (LIKELY – L)* AInd: to throw a wobbly |
| 13 | HAMILTON | Disgraced MP turned minor celeb and no stranger to the pits (8) Double Def. for a surname Neil H is the “disgraced MP”, Lewis H is familiar with pits (not in the mining sense). I wonder if they are related? |
| 14 | TRUANT | Not quite genuine TV presenter, one wilfully having no class (6) tru[E] (Not quite genuine) ANT (TV presenter – the other half of Antndec). I liked this Def. |
| 16 | ELECTORAL REFORM | Opening of Ed Balls’ centre designed for “moral erect” – potential threat to his and some other MPs’ seats? (9,6) E[d] [ba]L[ls] (FOR MORAL ERECT)* AInd: designed. I have to admit I wrote this in after seeing the answer from a few crossers and only bothered to decode the anagram for this blog. |
| 19 | SPLASH | Piss while holding pint – get it everywhere (6) P[int] inside SLASH (piss) I thought the abbreviation for Pint was Pt – Oh well, anyway it gives me a chance to point out the the Dutch counterpart of CAMRA is PINT which I always found surprising (Promotie INformatie Traditioneel bier) |
| 21 | LEGAL AID | Assistance needed by suitor getting shagged, having grabbed English lass? (5,3) E[nglish] GAL (lass) inside LAID (getting shagged) |
| 23/12 | FLIP FLOP | Skimpy wear reveals female “cheek sag” (4-4) F[emale] LIP (cheek) FLOP (sag) – and an unpleasant image conjured by that surface – means it’s my clue of the week! |
| 25 | CIGAR | Hamlet-like, topless, bent over – weedy thing! (5) [t]RAGIC< The def. here is “weedy thing” referring to tobacco as the evil weed, but you could be forgiven for thinking “Hamlet-like” referred to cheapo stogie when in fact it was the noble bard’s finest tragic play |
| 26 | GAS | Talk of ‘droop’ on the way back (3) SAG< Def. Talk (not a homophone) |
| 27 | BURNLEY | City born Hurley blowing top when interrupted by knight (7) B[orn] then N (knight – chess notation) inside [h]URLEY |
| 28 | IN A RUSH | Quickly! Ian’s turned on Geoffrey! (2,1,4) (IAN)* AInd: turned, [Geoffrey] RUSH (the actor) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | CODSWALLOP | Doc’s brewed beer is crap (10) (DOCS)* AInd: brewed. WALLOP (beer) Def. crap |
| 2 | COCKATOO | Bird starts to apply tension overtly inside penis ring (8) A[pply] T[ension] O[vertly] inside COCK (penis) O (ring) |
| 3 | ON HEAT | Randy queen vacating a throne when screwed (2,4) (A THRONE – R)* AInd: screwed |
| 4 | BUM FLUFF | Adolescent’s down behind, cock up (3,5) BUM (behind) FLUFF (cock-up) |
| 5 | TRIO | Go berserk, top to bottom, for a threesome (4) RIOT (go berserk) T moved to the top – Err. Hang on, why then does it say “top to bottom”? – I’ll think about this later. |
| 7 | BAMBI | After book, lid taken off errant Miliband (nameless cute creature) (5) B[ook] then (MILIBAND – LID – N)* AInd: errant. Strange, I’m sure there is another (New) Labour personality that could’ve been used to clue this word. |
| 9 | GLENDA SLAGG | Our columnist occasionally getting leg over and shaking up good girls (6,5) One for the Eye magazine aficionados. (LEG)* AInd: over, (AND)* AInd: shaking up, then G[ood] GALS reversed. I see Glenda’s byline picture has changed from demure to direct in recent weeks. What could this mean? |
| 15 | NARCISSISM | Self-conceit: can Sir Dicky miss out? (10) (CAN SIR)* AInd: dicky, (MISS)* AInd: out |
| 17 | CLAPPING | VD? Make high-pitched sound, showing appreciation (8) CLAP (VD) PING (Make high-pitched sound). Ping is a great word, and useful unix command and reminds me that I once worked with a Unix Administrator called Ping – Nominative determinism indeed. His brother was the famous Nimrod Ping. When his brother Peter returned to work after the funeral his hair was still dyed bright green – he explained it was that kind of funeral. |
| 18 | ROGERING | Shagging Ginger or Dotty (8) (GINER OR)* AInd: dotty. Talking of surnames, my girlfriend is French and has surname Roger “with hilarious consequences” (actually more usually written “Rodgers” Doh!) |
| 20 | HACKER | Tabloids’ dishonest, phoney operator gets chop – taken to casualty (6) HACK (chop) ER (casualty) |
| 22/24 | LAGER LOUT | Gruel: a lot could produce a tight pain in the arse (5,4) (GRUEL A LOT)* AInd: could produce. |
It’s a good job I popped around to see my dyslexic friend last Sunday.
He had just got the boot polish out when I said “No you fool! You’re supposed to turn your clock back”
Thanks beermagnet. I found it relatively easy and enjoyable. Not sure if Burnley is actually a city though?
You’re right Alice, Burnley’s website refers to it as a Town and Borough.
I should have checked that
I found this almost as taxing as all the others! Could not get codswallop, or sum, or hamilton. I shall endeavour to do better.
Can I also say ‘bad luck’ to jetdoc? I think I’ve just seen her on Only Connect.
Thank you. I was missing 6. boob job and 20. hacker for which I’m kicking myself; and 10. sum and 25. cigar for which I’m not – didn’t like the clue for the former and couldn’t find the definition in the latter – even after seeing your answer to 25 I got it wrong(!), so explanation much appreciated.
Yep. That was Jetdoc in the gallant Listeners team.
Very tight score, and that must’ve been a record for solving the wall.
Yup, TRIO clue is broken. These things happen.
10a was also last in. Had to look up schmaltz which didn’t really help. With s?m , sam ,sim or sum were possibilities -not totally convinced that a sum is a problem.
27a Wonder why Cyclops didn’t simply say “Town…
Quite tricky overall for me
Re: 5dn. Although the T was moved to the top, you could also say that RIO was moved from the top to the bottom…