Apologies for the lateness — I had intended to work on this during our visit to London (well, on the train), but my laptop is behaving badly. It was lovely to see various cruciverbal folk in London. Arrived back yesterday afternoon, exhausted, to an office which hadn’t been heated for three days, so my fingers were really not in typing mode.
A reasonably challenging Cyclops this week, though without any clues that seriously held me up. No special favourite among them… well, maybe 4d. And I wish I could think of a title for this blog!
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | ANTHEMS | Songs of Praise TV host’s all over a bit of skirt HEM = a bit of skirt; in ANTS |
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| 7 | DENSITY | Old Eastender’s having sex by end of Sunday mass DEN Watts from Eastenders; IT = sex; Y = end of Sunday Density is actually mass per unit volume, rather than just mass. |
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| 10 | GOING BUST | Working with main Jordanian asset and heading for financial disaster? GOING = working; BUST = the main asset (though I think she’s had them reduced now) of Katie Price, aka Jordan |
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| 11 | ROUT | Not re-elected after Labour’s last embarrassing defeat R = Labour’s last letter; OUT = not elected |
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| 12 | PLASMA | L-like “cracking” Cameron, a bloody sap L; AS = like; PM = Cameron; A The pale-yellow liquid component of blood that normally holds the blood cells in whole blood in suspension |
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| 14 | STRATEGY | Tactics, dirty, gets party seeing off Ukip finally Anagram of ‘gets party’ without P (final letter of Ukip), with ‘dirty’ as the anagram indicator |
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| 15 | THREE-LINE WHIP | Mid-afternoon row — best means of controlling MPs THREE (o’clock) = mid-afternoon; LINE = row; WHIP = best (in the sense of ‘defeat’) A Parliamentary division underlined three times, to indicate that members are required to attend and vote |
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| 17 | SPANKING | Boris-style top-notch sexual activity? Double definition — how someone who talks like Boris Johnson might describe something excellent; for some, sexual activity |
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| 21 | ACNE | Adolescent outburst from hollow Cameron in hospital CN= hollow Cameron; in A[&]E = hospital |
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| 22 | VENTRICLE | Lower chamber ever pissed with Clinton, no getting away from it Anagram (‘pissed’) of ‘ever’ and ‘Clint’ (minus ‘no’) |
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| 24 | PROTEST | “Balls in pain” complaint ROT = balls; in PEST = pain (as in ‘pain in the arse’) |
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| 25 | WEBSITE | Piss around, twerking ‘bits’ for YouTube? WEE = piss; around *(bits), with ‘twerking’ as the anagram indicator. YouTube is an example of a website, hence the question mark. |
|
| Down | |||
| 1 | THAI | In effect, Hain’s sort of language Hidden in ‘effect Hain’. The ‘sort of’ seems to be for the sake of surface reading — as far as I can see, Thai is a language rather than a group of languages. |
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| 2 | EMIGRATE | Good to enter state but Ukip don’t want certain foreigners to do so here G = good; in EMIRATE = state |
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| 3 | BELTER | Not so bad to swap Labour’s leader with time? That’s bloody marvellous in fact! BETTER = not so bad; with L (Labour’s leader) replacing T (time). Something outstanding or strikingly good |
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| 4 | STRUNG UP | Sting in past mode, on a high, smothering end of number — should be suspended STUNG = past tense of ‘sting’; containing (smothering) R = end of number; UP = on a high |
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| 6/19 | NIGEL FARAGE | Who’s got the better of Cameron in eager flag waving? *(in eager flag). I am not sure what the ‘Tory Mp’ is doing after the letter count; it seems to be in both the printed and online versions. |
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| 8/23 | STRETCHER CASE | Challenge Brenda with legal action — “One’s an injured party” STRETCH = challenge; ER = Brenda, the Queen; CASE = legal action |
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| 9 | MUDSLINGING | Splashing out on a smear campaign? Double definition |
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| 13 | STRINGENT | Bloke after ‘Strictly’ — half cut and casually tight STRI = ‘strictly’ half cut; N = ‘and’, casually; GENT = bloke |
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| 15 | TOP SCORE | Highest competitive achievement: to do away with Syria’s leader at centre TOP = do away with (kill); S = Syria’s leader; CORE = centre |
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| 16 | ENFORCER | Hit man in favour of gate-crashing English version of CERN? FOR = in favour of; in (‘gate-crashing’); E = English; *(CERN) = version of CERN |
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| 18 | INVEST | No shirt to put money in? Double definition — ‘in vest’; put money into something |
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| 20 | GUEST | Who’s invited to inject drugs in belly ES = drugs (Ecstasy tablets); in GUT = belly |
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The morning is drawing on, I have work to do and I am short of jokes. So just a selection of Twop Twips this week:
WEARING your spectacles while asleep greatly reduces their cost-per-hour ratio.
FESTIVE holly wreath can be recycled after Christmas as a toilet seat for sado-masochists.
FOR those who missed Ed Sheeran on Hootenanny, worry not: there is a squashed fox on the A470 just outside Cardiff.
TRICK people into thinking you’re drinking Earl Grey tea by pulling a face every time you sip from a mug.
CHANGING your name by deed poll to that of your friend’s new baby makes a unique and personal gift for the new parents.
A couple of typos, should be:
21. CN = hollow Cameron
13. STRI = ‘strictly’ half cut
Thanks, Will.
For a blogname, how about EyePatch? (As in Private Eye and filling in the gaps…)