… not engendered by George Osborne, obviously, but by the lovely weather.
The usual entertaining and not-too-taxing offer from Cyclops — a one-pinter for me (part from the clue I stupidly mis-solved).
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HOUSE OF COMMONS | UFO — so he’s forcefully abducting boorish load of MPs *(UFO so hes); containing COMMON = boorish |
|
| 8 | STITCH | Socialist leader, one of low stature, a right pain S = Socialist leader; TITCH = one of low stature In case you’re interested… |
|
| 9 | AT FIRST | Archer started off time fine — then stir crazy in the early stages First letters of ‘Archer time fine’; *(stir) |
|
| 10 | TOMMY ROT | Go off after soldier’s balls TOMMY = soldier (Tommy Atkins); ROT = go off. Usually written as one word |
|
| 11 | HEYDAY | Prime Tory finally trapped by male ex-interviewer on TV Thanks to Pandean for help on this one. Y = Tory finally; in HE = male; DAY = Robin Day, former interviewer. Definition: Prime |
|
| 12 | RECTUM | Curious about crooked, etc. arsehole RUM = curious; around *(etc) |
|
| 14 | CAMP BED | Portable sack — which is not, in fact, queen-sized Portable bed (I just typed ‘potable’, which is a strange thought); also a play on ‘camp’ meaning ‘theatrical, affected, exaggerated; effeminately homosexual’. Camp beds tend to be rather narrow, in fact. |
|
| 16 | COME NOW | Orgasm on getting present? You must be joking! COME = orgasm (which can be used as an intransitive verb, according to Chambers); NOW = present |
|
| 18 | PHILBY | Spy pub with pissed Billy spewing heart out PH = public house; anagram of ‘Billy’ minus its middle letter |
|
| 20 | CUT OFF | Conservative upper class snooty type interrupted mid-flow? C = Conservative; U = upper class; TOFF = snooty type |
|
| 22 | ROUND ONE | After stout, Brenda self-referentially causes start of fight ROUND = stout; ONE = the first-person pronoun used by the Queen (Brenda, in Private Eye-speak) |
|
| 24 | AT ISSUE | Sound like noisy ejaculation is in dispute Sounds like “Atishoo!” |
|
| 25 | TOPPLE | “Oust leader,” as Tories top people deviously point out? T = Tories’ top (which should have the possessive apostrophe!); *(peopl), with the E (point) taken out, and ‘deviously’ as the anagram indicator |
|
| 26 | FEEL GOOD FACTOR | Grope with kind consideration — which Osborne dismally fails to engender in the country FEEL = grope; GOOD = kind; FACTOR = consideration (‘a fact, etc which has to be taken into account’, according to Chambers) |
|
| Down | |||
| 1 | HIT HOME | Without southern crap House gets to achieve the desired effect [s]HIT (without S = southern); HOME = house |
|
| 2 | ULTIMATUM | Last month, Independent: “Kate extremely lacking, breaking mother warning” ULT = last month; I Independent; AT = Kate extremely lacking (without first and last letters); in MUM = mother |
|
| 3 | ETHER | Volatile stuff produced by article knifing Brenda THE = article; ER = the Queen (see above) |
|
| 4 | FRANTIC | Sex on the rise? In old money, that’s desperate! IT = sex, reversed; in FRANC |
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| 5 | OFF THE MAP | Dicky the politician, imbibing ale’s heading for uncharted territory OFF = Dicky; THE MP = the politician; containing A = ale’s heading |
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| 6 | MURKY | Dirty right ousts leader of Conservatives — rather shady MUCKY = dirty; with R (right) replacing C (leader of Conservatives) |
|
| 7 | NOT HARD | Simple Viagra failing to work? Double definition; no further explanation required, I think |
|
| 13 | MANIFESTO | Old leader covers up finest broken promises to electorate *(finest); in MAO = old leader (Chairman Mao) |
|
| 15 | BLIND SPOT | Pissed, Mark’s a dangerous area for motorists BLIND = pissed; SPOT = mark |
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| 16 | CRUSADE | Since going tits up in vulgar campaign? AS = since, reversed (‘tits up’); in CRUDE = vulgar |
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| 17 | WARHEAD | Fighting against the crown, which delivers the killer blow WAR = fighting; HEAD = the crown |
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| 19 | BUNGLER | Arse cheek and leg twisted right, cock up and you’ll be one BUN = Arse cheek; *(leg); R = right |
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| 21 | ORIEL | It sticks out clearly: there’s sod all that is separating Right and Left O = sod all; IE = that is; in RL = Right and Left Oriel window |
|
| 23 | ULTRA | Very extreme in resourceful transsexuals? Hidden in ‘resourceful transsexuals’ |
|
I shall leave you (in favour of the garden, and a bit of light lawn-mowing and crossword-solving activity, on this fine Sunday afternoon) with this link, to 25 ‘highbrow’ jokes:
Highbrow jokes
… and this picture, which made me smile:
11ac is HEYDAY (Prime), with Robin DAY as the ex-interviewer on TV.
25a – T+people(anag.) would leave one letter too many. I took it that ‘point out’ meant dropping the last letter.
I finished this crossword, but didn’t understand Why “last month” is ULT – any pointers?
Thanks for this blog!
It’s an abbreviation that was (and maybe still is, sometimes) used in formal correspondence, of ‘ultimo’; similarly, ‘this month’ is ‘inst’ and ‘next month’ is ‘proximo’ or ‘prox’.
Wow. Had no idea of that at all (and have been doing crosswords for quite a few years now). Good to learn something new. Thanks very much!