A Cyclops puzzle that I found slightly tougher on the journey through solving but which was somehow completed all of a sudden.
I only got about 10 answers in on the first pass, which is less than most recent Eye puzzles. There were many clues for which I needed the help of a few crossing letters but once they were there, the answer dropped out. That was certainly true in the final area to be finished: the top left corner was relatively bare till I final got 1A COHORTS Then that H was a give away for 2d HUMDINGER and the last couple 8A HERMIT and 12A WEIGHTY
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | COHORTS | Company gets passionate feelings about Republican groups (7) CO[mpany] HOTS (passionate feelings) around R[epublican] |
| 5 | MIMICS | Cyclops is doubly repulsed by Civil Service heads – apes! (6) I’M < twice C[ivil] S[ervice] First One In, despite the interesting wordplay. A very pleasurable clue. |
| 8 | HERMIT | Thatcher, Mitty-like, concealing the loner (6) Hidden in thatcHER MITty-like. Penultimate clue solved. I often miss the hidden wordplay and get lost in a maze of synonyms of the completely unrelated words hiding the answer |
| 9 | MONOGAMY | High after working in Missouri – a state Bill Clinton found hard to maintain? (8) GAMY (high) after ON (working) inside MI (Missouri). Looks like we’ll be banging on about William Jefferson Clinton’s personal life for several more years to come |
| 10 | IN-FIGHTING | If thing’s splattered with gin, it’s common in most parties (2-8) (IF THING GIN)* AInd: splattered |
| 11/1 | CAME CLEAN | ‘Reveal all’ orgasm’s on celeb’s top list (4,5) CAME (orgasm) C[eleb] LEAN (list) |
| 12 | WEIGHTY | Taxing wife at a great age (7) W[ife] EIGHTY a great age. Last One In. Getting the crossing G meant it couldn’t be much else (so I’m not grumbling about the 3/7 crosser ratio). To me, “tax” implies financial rather than any other kind of oppression so the definition dd not help. |
| 14 | PRAGUE | Prince gets sweats for “architecturally-distinguished place” (6) PR[ince] AGUE (sweats) |
| 16 | DURHAM | Hurd put out early day brief for the City (6) HURD* AInd: put out, A.M. (early day) |
| 18 | THRIFTY | Conservative hearts break when trapped by Tory extremes (7) H[earts] RIFT (break) inside T[or]Y. That was a tricky clue |
| 23 | PROFLIGATE | Promiscuous Rolf involved with “Private Eye-gate” (10) ROLF* AInd: involved, inside P.I. (Private Eye) GATE. I did a double take when I saw Gate was clued in the wordplay by, err, gate. |
| 25 | COURTIER | Palace type reportedly copped one with Brenda (8) Homophone “Caught” then I (one) ER (Brenda) |
| 26 | TAURUS | End’s off surgical appliance, encapsulating what comes before a V sign (6) A U (what comes before a V) inside TRUS[s] (surgical appliance, end off) |
| 27 | ARDENT | Randy daren’t (outed) (6) DAREN’T* AInd: outed. I could of sworn I’ve seen this DAREN’T/ARDENT anagram somewhere else recently |
| 28 | WIRE TAP | Whip shedding hot tear, suffering bug (4-3) (W[h]IP TAR)* AInd: suffering |
| Down | ||
| 2 | HUMDINGER | Clegg, ultimately wedged in under him, snapped “What a great thing!” (9) [cleg]G inside (UNDER HIM)* AInd: snapped. The surface reading of this clue conjures a memory of many Martin Rowson cartoons where pinnochio-Clegg is suffering, in splintred pieces, under massive Tory oppression |
| 3 | RATCHET | Liberal chatter – it needs to have teeth (7) CHATTER* AInd: Liberal |
| 4 | SUMMIT | In case two males climax (6) M M (two Males) inside SUIT (case) |
| 5 | MANAGER | Heartless Lewinsky wants to hassle ‘er boss (7) M[onic]A NAG (to hassle) ‘ER. Another where the final ER is clued by just, err, “‘er”. Nevertheless I had a struggle with this clue despite suspecting the M[onic]A wordplay |
| 6 | MAGIC | Wicked Private Eye in charge? (5) MAG[azine] (Private Eye) In Charge. Wicked in the modern sense of Good, and Magic in the modern sense of Good |
| 7 | CAMEMBERT | MP hugged by whip, which is rather cheesy (9) MEMBER (MP) inside CAT (whip). Now this decomposition of CA-MEMBER-T has definitely been done recently <searches> I give you 29A of Eye 505 <link> – does 3 years ago count as recently? |
| 13 | ENDEAVOUR | Struggle to conclude each victory against Labour’s right wing (9) END (to conclude) EA (each) V[ictory] [lab]OUR |
| 15 | GOING BUST | Medal one placed centrally on chest, being a business failure (5,4) GONG (medal) with I (one) in the middle, then BUST (chest) |
| 17 | APPOINT | To get set up in office, isn’t accepting Trump’s ultimate power ring (7) [trum]P P[ower] O (ring) inside AINT (isn’t) |
| 19 | HOLSTER | It should facilitate a quick withdrawal, tickling her lots (7) (HER LOTS)* AInd: tickling |
| 20 | SORROW | Jonathan almost turned round dispute? No joy (6) [Jonathon] ROS[s] Reversed, then ROW (dispute) |
| 22 | DIRGE | Crap written about Genesis’s lead sad song (5) DIRE (crap) around G[enesis] |
| 24/21 | TRUMP CARD | Democrat underneath high-profile Republican vehicle, which is an advantage (5,4) D[emocrat] after TRUMP CAR (high-profile Republican vehicle). The last Trump, eh? |
Just to really evil to you I will give you a range of “jokes” that were in my Father’s Day cards today:
Kid: “Look! A flock of cows over there”
Dad: “*Herd* of cows”
Kid: “Of course I’ve heard of cows – there’s a flock of them over there”
There’s going to be a new movie called ‘Constipation’ – it hasn’t come out yet …
Kid: “Did you hear about the kidnapping at school?”
Dad: “No! What happened?”
Kid: “He woke up”
Well. I suppose I’d wish you all adieu while I have the chance. As far as I understand it on Friday we are likely to have voted to Remain in Europe, or Leave – Al Murray summed it up recently:
So let’s end with a prayer
Our ale, which art from heaven,
Swallowed be thy aim,
Thy will be drunk,
I will be drunk …
At home, or in the tavern,
Give us this day our foamy head
And lead us not into incarceration,
But deliver us from hangovers,
Forever and ever…
Barmen
Surely 11/1 is COME CLEAN (present tense)?
You’re right John. That’s me just living in the past again.
By the way, for anyone who cannot see today’s (Monday) Guardian puzzle online yet, there is the pdf here: link
It’s by Tramp
9.
Missouri is MO
27.
“I could of sworn…” Ahem!
Unlike as usual, I shot through and got many on my first pass…. much more than normal. I knew the answers for ‘monogamy’ and ‘camembert’ but could not parse them to save my life for some time but I got there in the end. Indeed, it helped to spell Camembert correctly!!!
> Now this decomposition of CA-MEMBER-T has definitely been done recently
> I give you 29A of Eye 505 – does 3 years ago count as recently?
Then it co-occurred as a solution with POLYGAMY, whereas in this one it’s MONOGAMY. I wonder what’s for next time.
12ac was my last. I doubt it was a contributory factor, but I don’t now think of eighty as a great age. Advanced, perhaps.