Typical Cyclopsean fare, book-ended by two references to ‘members’, neither of which are MPs…but also two uncharacteristic setting/editing slips, at 1A and 20D?
Turns out this INFECTION does have a PRICE TAG…but luckily there was a magic money tree all along!…
Just the one Trump in the clues, plus one coronavirus, but no Boris or Keir – although ‘Tony’, Hattersley, (Lord) Adonis and Corbyn do make appearances, so some ‘old’ Labour as well as MANUAL LABOUR.
Some wonderfully naughty surface reads, e.g. 30A, 21A and 7D, and the CD/charade at 18D caused a snort. (I am all innocence in the parsing below, but I was once dragged along on a hen night – don’t ask why – and let’s just say it was a bit of an eye-opener…)
Clue of the day was probably the drunk at 8D GREEDILY eyeing a girl in a piggish way – great anagram and indicator, and also quite succinct.
Thanks, as ever, to Cyclops. My only quibbles are the member vs. bollox conundrum at 1A EUNUCH, and the extra O in the wordplay for 20D?…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | EUNUCH | He had a member removed from the UN (Uche) (6) | he had a member(?) removed / hidden word in, i.e. ‘from’, ‘thE UN UCHe’. (Surely eunuchs have their testy-clays removed, rather than their manly member?…) |
|
| 4A | PRICE TAG | Cost of getting Katie and Mark together? (5,3) | cost of / PRICE (Katie Price, aka former model ‘Jordan’) + TAG (mark) |
|
| 10A | HOBGOBLIN | Hotplate exploded bingo! over head of Lord Gnome (9) | gnome / HOB (hotplate) + GOB_IN (anag, i.e. exploded, of BINGO), around L (head, or first letter, of Lord) |
|
| 11A | PEACE | See 2dn. (5) | see 2D / see 2D |
|
| 12A | LILLE | Large, seedy, eastern European city (5) | European city / L (large) + ILL (seedy) + E (eastern) |
|
| 13A | COLLAPSED | US state briefly declined morally and gave way (9) | gave way / COL (Colorado, US State, briefly) + LAPSED (declined morally) |
|
| 14A | LABOUR | See 21dn. (6) | see 21D / see 21D |
|
| 16A | TINFOIL | Dope going round block for wrapping material (7) | wrapping material / TIN (NIT, or dope, going round) + FOIL (block) |
|
| 19A | TORONTO | City contributes to senator on tour (7) | city / hidden word in, i.e. contributes to, ‘senaTOR ON TOur’ |
|
| 21A | MUSCLE | Clue: S&M involved power (6) | power / anag, i.e. involved, of CLUE + S&M |
|
| 23A | INFECTION | Little data on aroused state about to go for coronavirus? (9) | coronavirus / INF (abbreviation, i.e. little, for information, or data) + E( |
|
| 25A | AWARD | Maybe Tony’s one to pull back (5) | maybe Tony / A (one) + WARD (draw, or pull, back) |
|
| 27A | PRIZE | See 2dn. (5) | see 2D / see 2D |
|
| 28A | ORANGEMAN | Ring kitchen equipment bloke who’s a staunch Protestant (9) | staunch Protestant / O (ring) + RANGE (kitchen equipment) + MAN (bloke) |
|
| 29A | ROYALIST | ‘Hattersley with an agenda’? Not how you’d describe Corbyn (8) | not how you’d describe (Jeremy) Corbyn! / ROY (Hattersley) + A LIST (an agenda) |
|
| 30A | TARDIS | Drat! I maligned penis ultimately, it’s much bigger than you might think (6) | its much bigger (inside) than you might think / TARDI (anag, i.e. maligned, of DRAT I) + S (ultimate letter of peniS) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | EXHALE | Old lover? Well, don’t hold your breath (6) | don’t hold your breath / EX (old lover) + HALE (well) |
|
| 2D | NOBEL | & 11 & 27 Pence, able to shake booty, accepts ring as prestigious award (5,5,5) | prestigious award / N_BEL PEACE (anag, i.e to shake, of PENCE ABLE) around (accepting) O (ring, again!), plus PRIZE (booty) |
|
| 3D | CLOSEDOWN | Stupid person nursing awful dose result of coronavirus? (9) | result of coronavirus / CL_OWN or CLO_WN (stupid person) around (nursing) OSED or SEDO (anag, i.e. awful, of DOSE) |
|
| 5D | RINGLET | It’s hairy, Buzz mounting Grant (7) | it’s hairy / RING (buzz) on top of (mounting, as it is a Down clue) LET (grant) |
|
| 6D | CUPPA | A tit’s place: by the old man’s drink? (5) | drink / CUP (the cup of a bra could be a tit’s place!) + PA (father, old man) |
|
| 7D | TOADSTOOL | Loathsome person’s penis don’t eat it! (9) | don’t eat it! / TOADS (loathsome person’s) + TOOL (penis) |
|
| 8D | GREEDILY | Drunk eyed girl in a piggish way (8) | in a piggish way / anag, i.e. drunk, of EYED GIRL |
|
| 9D | SLICER | Whack Rex’s kitchen aid (6) | kitchen aid / SLICE (whack, share) + R (Rex, king) |
|
| 15D | AIRY-FAIRY | Fanciful, getting fresh just before end of day (4-5) | fanciful / AIRY (fresh) + FAIR (just) + Y (end of daY) |
|
| 17D | NOSTALGIA | Go off with a Stalin white-washed version of the past? (9) | white-washed version of the past / anag, i.e. off, of GO + A STALIN |
|
| 18D | STRIPPER | Dick makes an appearance at the end of his act? (8) | CD? / Presumably the finale of a male stripper’s act is the appearance of his dick?! |
|
| 20D | OMINOUS | One appears in New Moon and Love the Land of Trump sinister (7) | sinister / A rare setting/editing slip here? OM_NO (anag, i.e. new, of MOON) around I (one), plus US (Land of Trump) – the Love (O) seems to be a superfluous O in the wordplay? |
|
| 21D | MANUAL | & 14 Hard work, getting party to follow instructions (6,6) | hard work / MANUAL (instructions) + LABOUR (party) |
|
| 22D | ADONIS | A party offence to back lordly politician (6) | lordly politician (Andrew Adonis) / A + DO (party) + NIS (sin, offence, back) |
|
| 24D | CREEL | Conservative with wind fishy thing (5) | fishy thing (basket) / C (Conservative) + REEL (wind) |
|
| 26D | ARMED | Having certain members injured (hospital avoided) (5) | having certain members (arms, this time)/ ( |
|
Thanks to Cyclops and mc_rapper67 – an enjoyable puzzle, with the usual vivid and misleading surfaces.
1A didn’t bother me, but I can see that it should have done. On the other hand, I spent ages trying to make 20D work, but had to opt for a setting error in the end. Just underlines the high standard of Cyclops’ compilations!
I take no pleasure in pointing out that Chinese eunuchs were indeed dismembered, as described in the section “Becoming a eunuch” in this article:
https://www.chinasage.info/eunuchs.htm
Thanks (I think!) to John E at #2 for his dedicated research… Almost as eye-watering as the size of the Coronavirus bailout/deficit!…
John R at #1 – absolutely agree with your conclusion – although I was quibbling these items, I was at pains to point out how rare a Cyclops mistake is…
Thanks mc_Rapper67 and Cyclops. I enjoyed this one and was convinced that the extra O in 20d must be due to me ‘mis-parsing’. I liked 26d. Re 9d -you have cleared up one misconception on my part, I had wrongly thought that slice = whack in the sense of slicing a golf ball (for example). I just hadn’t thought of alternative meaning =share. Thanks for the link John E, although I haven’t plucked up the courage to read it yet.
Superb cluing. As for the superfluous “love”, well, that’s nothing.
I didn’t make the leap to whack = share, either, but also thought of (golf) balls.
I am ready to take it John E cites trustworthy sources on a question that hadn’t actually occured to me at the time.
Is that a typo in the intro, MC? Shouldn’t that read “up on a hen night”?
Ha ha – you flatter me, Tony Collman at #5, that I might be dragged on stage for said act at 18D! I did actually get invited along, for some reason…
Interesting that you and Franko at #4 thought of golf shots for whack/slice – most of my whacks of golf balls end up as slices, but it didn’t cross my mind – it has been so Covid-ing long since I went out on a golf course…(;+<)