A mixed bunch today, some sports related clues, some misleading surfaces and some unusual indicators (eg ‘skin’ as an enclosure indicator in 29a). I thought this was a little more difficult than the usual FT and was held up deciphering one or two clues due to the aforementioned surfaces and indicators. Having said that, and to put my comments below into context, I welcome any attempt to get away from the ‘standard’ indicators (though others may not agree) and Aardvark has succeeded in doing so in many places.
Across
9 SPOONBILL OOPS (admission of error) reversed N (new) BILL (account)
10 CREEP C[hat] PEER (aristocrat) reversed – ‘facing’ as a reversal indicator, surely it should be ‘about facing’?
11 BLIGHTY LIGHT (illumination) in BY (past) – ‘home’ or ‘home country’ (military slang)
12 MANHOLE [pl]AN H (hydrant) in MOLE (spy)
13 RYE alternate letters in ‘dRaYmEn’
14 WAR AND PEACE P (parking) in *(A NEW ARCADE) – strictly speaking, ‘confuses’ should be ‘confused’ but this is just another attempt to mislead
17 DITTO DITT[y] (simple song) O (love) – if ‘late’ can mean ‘nearly at the end’ then I suppose the superlative ‘latest’ can equate to ‘the end’ or ‘last’
18 CHI C (clubs) HI (welcome) – Greek letter
19 TAMPA AMP (electronic equipment, amplifier) in TA (army) – a place in Florida
21 CHINESE LEAF *(CAFE IS HELEN) – altenatively this could be *(IS HELEN) in *(CAFE) since there are two anagram indicators. It all depends how you read the initial ‘in’
23 IVY IV (fourth) Y (year) – ‘IV’ is ‘four’ but can it also mean ‘fourth’?
25 DISTAFF hidden reversal in ‘stiFF AT SIDe’ – a stick that holds the bunch of flax, tow or wool in spinning
27 JANITOR *(INTO) in JAR (clash) – ‘bumping’, another unusual anagram indicator
28 NOT ON NOT[i]ON (concept)
29 ERNIE WISE WIEN (wine, in German) reversed in [c]ERISE (cherry-red) – of Morecambe and Wise fame. The last one to go in because, though the answer was obvious, I had a little difficulty parsing the clue.
Down
1 ISOBAR IS (one’s) O (round) BAR (pub)
2 LORIKEET [m]IKE (Michael) in LORE (learning) T[alking] – I wonder about the ‘spends months’ to indicate remove ‘M’
3 ON THE WHOLE homophone of ‘on the hole’
4 WILY WI (group of women) L[aundr]Y
5 CLEMENTINE *(TEN MILE) in C[ommo]N E (bearing)
6 SCAN CANS (tins) with S relocated
7 FEDORA ED (journalist) in FOR A (one)
8 EPHEMERA HEM (edge) ER (hesitating) in APE (mirror) reversed
15 ROCKET FUEL F (female) in (LECTURE OK) – ‘to brandish’ as an anagram indicator’?
16 PATHFINDER *(FAITH) in P[latoo]N DER (the, in German)
17 DECADENT CAD (rogue) in DEE (English flower, river) NT (books)
20 MAINTAIN MAIN (sea) TA (volunteers) IN (at home)
22 IN SITU I (one) *(UNITS)
24 YORKER YORK (house) E[xtol] R[hetorical]
26 ARNO ARNO[ld] – Arnold Palmer the famous golfer – ‘ball finally’ and ‘ending in hazard’ gave the two letters to be removed
27 JUNE JUNE[au] – Juneau, the state capital of Alaska
Hi Gaufrid
23ac: in regnal numbers, ‘IV’ = ‘fourth’.
Thanks, Eileen. I obviously didn’t have my brain in gear this morning!
I thought it wasn’t like you! 🙂
I was all set to criticise 17d on the ground that the River Dee lies in Scotland, but Wikipedia tells me there is an English River Dee in Cumbria (in addition to a second Dee in Scotland and one in Wales).
8d: isn’t “ephemera” a plural noun? So says the OED (I don’t have a Chambers here). If so, “it doesn’t last long” is flawed as a definition.
Agentzero: I had exactly the same doubts as you about this word the last time it came up. ‘Ephemera’ is a Greek neuter plural meaning ‘[things] lasting for a short time’ [literally, for a day – you see the word in connection with antique-collecting but the Latinised ‘ephemera’ [plural ephemerae] is an insect that lasts for only one day.
8d Ephemera – COED does indeed give this as a plural noun (though it does also say that it was originally used in the singular) but, ignoring the insect references, Chambers gives ‘something that lasts a short time’ and Collins ‘something transitory or short-lived’. Both give the plural as -eras or -erae.
Chambers and Collins also give ephemera as a plural of ephemeron.
Gaufrid, I agree with your point about spicing up indicator words but ‘confuses’ is just wrong – it should be ‘confused’. But I rather like ‘facing’ for a reversal and ‘spend’ for a removal.
Thanks for the explanation of 29a – I got the solution but had no idea why!
I think I shall look at the FT crossword more often if this is typical.
Eileen, thanks for the explanation of ephemera – I too was unsure about it being used as a singular until I read that.