Some particularly fine smutty surface readings to the clues this week. The simple but effective 18A is my favourite.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | POMPOM | Member squeezed between balls during Cameron’s fancy ball? (6) MP (member) inside O and O (balls) all inside PM (Cameron) Considered OOMPAH for a while |
| 5 | NAPOLEON | Sleep with nothing on next to Blair, ‘neutral’ warmongering leader? (8) NAP (sleep) O (nothing) LEO (Blair) N[eutral] Leo Blair – youngest child of Tony & Cherie, the most remembered of their 4 children (according to the 100 people asked by Pointless researchers in 2011). First child born to a serving PM in over 150 years. Can you believe that little baby will be a teenager this year? |
| 9 | AT A PINCH | Fancy Captain Henry? If I really have to (2,1,5) (CAPTAIN H[enry])* AInd: Fancy. A henry (symbol H) is the SI unit of inductance First answer attempted and entered – my eye is often caught by a letter count indicating a phrase. |
| 10 | OCCUPY | Round bra size has sexy end to hold (6) O (rond) C-CUP (bra size) [sex]Y |
| 11 | SPERM COUNT | Assessment of the result of coming to have new input in organic computers (5,5) (N[ew] COMPUTERS)* AInd: Organic. The wordplay comprising the second half of the clue almost implies a second def. Interesting Anagram Indicator |
| 13/14 | POLL RATINGS | They’re sickening for Cameron at present? A strong pill prepared (4,7) (A STRONG PILL)* AInd: Prepared. |
| 17 | SUPPORT | Back with a hard-on, entering the fun (7) UP (a hard-on) inside SPORT (fun) |
| 18 | EWER | Big jug but chopper not hard (4) [h]EWER |
| 20/12 | WHAT THEN | And the consequences when that’s ballsed up? (4,4) (WHEN THAT)* AInd: ballsed up. Last answer. A curious one this. The anagram was well hidden from me, and is essentially a Spoonerism i.e. not much shuffling of the letters. I had trouble finding the definition in the clue. |
| 22 | LOADS OF FUN | So gay is duff, also on rocks (5,2,3) (DUFF ALSO ON)* AInd: rocks. Gay in its original meaning – “such fun” |
| 25 | PAUNCH | Beer gut one located inside a now defunct organ (6) A (one) inside PUNCH (defunct organ – the magazine) |
| 26 | TEA PARTY | Conservative organisation wants state to intervene in ‘dodgy’ treaty (3,5) PA (state, Pennsylvania) inside TREATY* AInd: dodgy. Favourite clue best PDM |
| 27 | ISLANDER | Rum sort of person as the vilifier admits? (8) I SLANDER (self-description of a vilifier) Rum (or Rhum) is one of the “Small islands” of the Inner Hebrides |
| 28 | LAHORE | City of the Provencal topless tart (6) LA (the Provencal – i.e. French) [w]HORE. I spent too long trying to think of a city ending in ART |
| Down | ||
| 2 | ON TOP | Leading place for missionary in the union? (2,3) CD |
| 3 | PAPER CLIP | Rather flimsy material, Conservative on brink, often to be found in office (5,4) PAPER (rather flimsy material) C[onservative] LIP (brink) |
| 4 | MONICA | Name short woman reeling in Bill’s erection (6) MO (short woman) IN* (reeling in) AC< (bill’s erection) This was particularly tricky. I only solved it from the crossing letters (after getting the M) plus final AC< wordplay element giving M-N-CA whence the name commonly found in the Eye puzzle in association with Bill I think I have the wordplay but there may be more going on here. Again, the whole clue almost refers to Ms Lewinsky so could be a near &Lit. |
| 5 | NEHRU | Old leader tucking her bust into rounded large body for security (5) HER* AInd: bust inside UN< UN is a “large body for security” and rounded reverses it |
| 6 | PROSTATE | Supporting government semen production aid (8) PRO STATE |
| 7 | LICIT | Proper pests endlessly having sex (5) LIC[e] (pests endlessly) IT (sex) I expect I wasn’t the only one trying to make LOCUS[t] work |
| 8 | OPPRESSOR | Work with hacks primarily outing Rupert as a tyrant (9) OP (Work) PRESS (hacks) O[uting] R[upert] |
| 13 | PISSHEADS | Wee ambassador associated with sad bastard boozers (9) PISS (Wee) HE (ambassador) SAD* AInd: bastard. |
| 15 | NEWSFLASH | Virgin gets fluorine in piss, prompting programme interruption (9) NEW (virgin) F[lourine] inside SLASH (piss) |
| 16 | TOOL-SHED | Rake’s place to get penis to lose its skin? (4-4) TOOL (penis) SHED (lose skin) |
| 19 | ISRAEL | Country needs PM to dump extreme wings (6) [d]ISRAEL[i] |
| 21 | TONGA | Monarchy involved in “Clintongate” (5) Hidden in ClinTONGAte |
| 23 | ASTIR | e.g. Wandsworth on the move (5) A STIR i.e. a Prison e.g. Wandsworth – somehow found this tricky |
| 24/14 | UTTER ROT | Absolute bollocks, what most speechifying politicians do? (5,3) DD |
When I was driving to work the other morning and saw a cop texting whilst driving.
I was so shocked I almost dropped my pint.
I’m afraid I’m a bit thick here – how does “Bill’s erection” clue “AC” or “CA”?
AC is short for account or bill. Erection means build up from the bottom up of the clue.