It may have passed you by, but the Olympics is on at the moment in London, and Cyclops chose to draw attention to it by including a couple of well-known Olympic mottoes in the grid …
…and now the country has gone Olympics crazy!
OK. I admit it. I have trashed my original, cynical intro to this blog, written before the Olympics really got going, and have written this replacement – just after “Super Saturday” when GB got nearly all the Golds going. After watching far too much of the coverage available on at least 3 channels (sometimes at the same time) I find that this particular Olympics is absolutely wonderful. It seems that if you spend most of your waking hours concentrating on one thing you can do spectacular things. I would write more, but it’s Sunday evening and there’s Women’s Beach Volleyball on the Red Button, so you’ll excuse me if I retire to watch that.
How many G4S guards does it take to change a lightbulb?
Wait for it! Wait for iiit …
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4 | EPIDEMIC | Rash MP, Eddie, prepared one for date with Conservative leader (8) (MP EDDIE [swap one of the Ds for another I])* AInd: prepared, C[onservative] |
| 10 | NONET | Work for a number of players lacking means of containing balls? (5) Subordinate CD leading to NO NET |
| 11 | HARD LINES | Rows after having an erection? Tough titties! (4,5) LINES (rows) after HARD (having an erection) |
| 12 | REVEREND | Our godly Blair‘s right at any time to quit (8) R[ight] EVER (at any time) END (quit). The Eye refers to TB as the Rev. Blair after its long running section “St Albion’s Parish News” when he was the incumbent |
| 13/1/24 | FASTER HIGHER STRONGER | Motto for shagging athletes to shout in the Olympic Village? (6,6,8) Smutty CD. The Olympic motto is the hendiatris Citius, Altius, Fortius, which is Latin for “Faster, Higher, Stronger”. The motto was proposed by Pierre de Coubertin on the creation of the International Olympic Committee in 1894. (Oh all right. I nicked that explanation from here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_symbols ) |
| 15/22/5 | NOT TO WIN BUT TO TAKE PART | Having a bash, though without necessarily being on top: a cynical claim by most Olympic entrants? (3,2,3,3,2,4,4) DD in the Eye style. A more informal but well known motto, also introduced by De Coubertin “The most important thing is not to win but to take part!”. The most important thing according to the BBC coverage I’ve seen so far (written 3 days in) is to be British. It seems to me something has recently changed – the overriding concentration on the “Team GB” participants is frankly awful and embarrassing. E.g. Interviewing Alexandr Vinokourov from Kazakstan moments after he won the gold in the Cycling Road-race, Jill Douglas asked him what he thought about (Brit hopeful) Mark Cavendish’s performance. <later> That seems to have been a one-off. I have not heard anything as crass since. Yes, the coverage is naturally jingoistic, but it turns out there’s a reason for that – GB are doing rather well … |
| 19 | COME DANCING | Strictly, in reduced form, it became orgasm on the floor? (4,7) COME (orgasm) DANCING (on the floor). Ref. the long running show recently transformed into glitzy Saturday night celeb-fest |
| 26 | HOUSEWORK | Cleaning up parliamentary Labour? (9) HOUSE (parliamentary) WORK (Labour) |
| 27 | INTRO | Trio rocking and ringing Elton’s tip for first few bars (5) TRIO* AInd:rocking around [elto]N |
| 28 | DESOLATE | Lost seat – dole is grim! (8) (SEAT DOLE)* AInd: is grim. (Or is Def: “Lost” and Anagram Ind: “is grim”?) Cold solved after getting stuck elsewhere in the grid. |
| 29 | AGHAST | Gobsmacked when a shag fluctuated with temperature (6) (A SHAG)* AInd: fluctuated, then T[emperature] |
| Down | ||
| 1 | HUNGRY | Empty as indecisive parliament could be with royalty’s extremes (6) HUNG (as indecisive parliament could be) R[oyalt]Y First answer solved (after failing to get the long answers) |
| 2 | GENEVA | City has info on Hitler-loving, Germanic Brown? (6) GEN (info) EVA (Ref. Eva Braun) |
| 3 | ENTHRONED | Thrashed on the end, right in the middle, as our Brian dearly wants to be? (9) (ON THE END)* AInd: thrashed with R[ight] in the middle |
| 6 | DELIA | Cook: “Was sick brought up?” (5) AILED< |
| 7 | MANITOBA | Provincial place providing chap with sex (“boa tickled”) (8) MAN (chap) IT (sex) BOA* AInd: tickled |
| 8 | CASTRATO | One not fully equipped but able to reach the top as a singer (8) DD |
| 9 | THINK TANK | Advisory body: “Imagine Brown king!” (5,4) THINK (Imagine) TAN (Brown) K[ing] |
| 14 | NO MISTAKE | Doubtless getting Cameron’s credit-free kit off (2,7) (CAMERON’S -CR KIT)* AInd: off |
| 16 | INGROWING | Some blazing row in Greece, following a U-turn development (9) well hidden in: blazING ROW IN Greece |
| 17 | SCOTCHED | Balls weighed down with booze? Put lid on (8) ED (Balls) after SCOTCH (booze) Last answered |
| 18 | AMATEURS | No pundits like to hold dull troubled currency (sod all going) (8) AS (like) surrounding MAT (dull) EUR[o] (troubled currency – without the O) |
| 20 | AGATHA | Christie‘s “Silver Antique Todger Handler” auction starts? (6) AG (Silver) first letters of A[ntique] T[odger] H[andler] A[uction] |
| 21 | DRY OUT | Duo try screwing to keep off the booze (3,3) (DUO TRY)* AInd: screwing |
| 23 | KNEEL | Sink low as necessary to get a knighthood? (5) CD/DD |
| 25 | LOOT | Dick raised money (4) TOOL< |
How many G4S guards does it take to change a lightbulb?
Seven soldiers and a policeman.