I did the Times2 Concise today which is why “unfaulty” is on my mind. As per usual, I find Rufus’s style to be clean, with good surfaces and not very complicated wordplay. I tend to enjoy his puns which can be rather more subtle than might appear at first blush (e.g. 1A).
Across
| 1 | FLATTER – double meaning. Nicely misleading surface: “Not so high praise” which almost qualifies as an &lit. |
| 5 | CASCADE – another double meaning with a clever misleading surface. We all know that a cryptic “flower” isn’t a flower but somehow “flower sprays” had me thinking about bouquets until I managed to come to my senses. |
| 11 | BLOODY MARY – jokey cryptic definition of the drink (by contrast to vodka) and BLOODY for “Red” followed by Army*. |
| 12 | P(A,GOD)A – PA is “Pennsylvania” – it’s good to know your two-letter US State abbrevs (see if you can remember all the M’s). |
| 14 | GE,TS READY – rev(E.G.) followed by (rest day)*. The surface isn’t very convincing though. |
| 16 | LIBYA – (by ali)*: &lit? Not quite: all of N. Africa was transformed by Mohammed, not Ali, in the 7th century. |
| 17, 7 | IDEAL COMPANION – cryptic definition of “best of friends”. Anything else going on? |
| 23 | TRUSTEES – cryptic definition (you’re supposed to think tender nurses). |
| 27 | IRIS – double meaning &lit: a type of flower (not a river!) that is also called a flag that comes in many colours (e.g. yellow, blue). Also the IRIS in your eye comes in many colours. |
| 28 | HECKLER – clever cryptic definition: to barrack is Commonwealth for HECKLE: it shifts nicely from noun to verb. |
| 29 | ADMIRER – married* — an anagram that I’ve never noticed. Nice surface. |
Down
| 6 | AUDITS – cryptic definition for what the tax auditor does to your “books”. |
| 8 | DORO,THY– door* followed by archaic “your” (“your old”). Definition is just the name of a “lady”. |
| 9 | COURT DISASTER – double definition with one meaning being cryptic: “ruinous to the litigant”. |
| 15 | SLAP,STICK – my last clue solved: I think I was put off by the capitalized “Ludicrous” in the online edition. Anyway, nice meaning shifts of “Staff” and “strike”. |
| 21 | EDIFICE – I suppose you could call this a surround clue (complements a hidden clue): “EDItor’s ofFICE”. |
| 22 | H(EARS)E – I think the definition could have alluded somehow to a HEARSE being “a kind of transport” with a specific purpose. |
| 25 | ALIBI – cryptic definition: “it wasn’t me, because I wasn’t there”. |
There is an error in the Print Version on the website – the clue for 9dn is missing. It appears on the Interactive crossword, but not in the print version.
As to the puzzle itself, there are one or two clues that I didn’t like – I agree that the surface for 14ac reads badly; 27ac – not sure that this is cryptic, even with the double definition thing going on; 6dn – “Examines book work” may have been better.
On the other hand, some of the clues were very good. I especailly liked 23 ac and 3dn.
Yes 3D was rather good: from my notes…
TANG,O – it take “two” to TANGO… with a good convincing surface.
15d – ‘Ludicrous’ is capitalized in the newspaper version too. Just a printing mistake or does it serve a purpose (which escapes me – can’t see it is necessary for the clue to work)?
I see no purpose. Probably related to the other error: the missing 9D in the print version (and clue number in the online version) — which is the previous clue to 15D.