Financial Times 13,426 – Falcon
Posted by smiffy on July 1st, 2010
If it waddles like a Falcon and quacks like a Falcon then it’s probably a Falcon. An engaging solve, while it lasted, but ultimately a short-lived skirmish.
Across
1 BRASS BAND - brass + band.
6 CLIMB - C + limb.
9 ORMER - {d}ormer (‘window’).
10 MELODRAMA - melod{y} + ram + A{bba}.
11 MATRIARCHY - (arm charity)*.
12 JERK - jerk{in}.
14 SMOTHER - s + mother.
15 NOVELLO - novel + lo. Sir Ivor … a relatively recent ‘composer’, in whose name songwriting gongs are dished out.
17 LEG-PULL- leg + pull.
19 RENEWAL - (we learn)*.
20 TACK - double def’n.
22 FORGE AHEAD - I may be missing a trick here, but seems like a rather transparent cryptic-only clue.
25 IN CONCERT - double def’n.
26 DISCO - (is C) in do.
27 ERECT - ere + Ct.
28 SLAM DUNKS - s{pin} + lam + dunks. I was only aware of this manoeuvre within the sporting context of baskethoops – but a cursory check confirms that, in tennis it’s an alias for the shot that I’ve always referred to as an “overhead smash”).
Down
1 BROOM - b{reathing} + room.
2 ARMSTRONG - a RM + strong. ‘Jolly’ = Royal Marine.
3 STRAIGHT UP – straight + up.
4 ADMIRER - (married)*.
5 DOLPHIN - homophone of “doll fin”.
6 CODA - C + O(hio) + DA. I tend to prefer the two letter, rather than single character, abbreviations for US states.
7 INANE - in an E (“how moviE ends”).
8 BLACKPOOL - black + pool. The latest Premiership gatecrashers.
13 EVEN-HANDED - even + hand + ed.
14 SOLITAIRE - double def’n.
16 LOW SEASON - ‘devil’ = season/spice (as in devilled eggs).
18 LIONESS - cryptic definition; ‘with pride’ or ‘as pride’?
19 REGATTA - (target a)*.
21 CACHE - homophone of “cash”.
23 DROSS - r in doss.
24 KNOT - double def’n.
July 1st, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Hi smiffy
I don’t think a ‘slam dunk’ is a true overhead smash. If I remember correctly the term was introduced to describe a shot regularly played by thegreat Pete Sampras where he jumped and rose high in the air to hit a ball as it was still rising, with very little racket backswing, and the action looked rather like a basketball player jumping to fire the ball through the hoop.
The arm action in an overhead smash is more akin to that of a serve and is generally used when a lobbed ball is on its downward trajectory or after it has bounced.
July 1st, 2010 at 7:17 pm
Thanks for the elucidation, Gaufrid.
If I’ve understood you correctly I would argue that, technically, the shot in question sounds more akin to a basketballing ‘alley-oop’ than a ‘slam dunk’. (But any blame for that misappropriation presumably resides with the TV commentating fraternity, rather than Falcon!)
July 1st, 2010 at 7:23 pm
FYI, here’s a link to a video of the Pete Sampras shot in question: http://www.tenniscruz.com/content/view/92/125/
July 2nd, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Hi smiffy. Thanks for the blog.
Re 22ac FORGE AHEAD.
I read this clue as a charade: furnace = forge and ‘after this’ = ahead (or further on in time).
Maybe that’s what you meant in your blog?