Spectacular, a real treat! Difficult, but just about do-able in one sitting by mere mortals.
This took a while, both to solve and to blog. There is loads of good stuff in here: new words (for me), obscure and interesting snippets of general knowledge, devious constructions and misleading definitions. I particularly liked the way that many of the clues contained traps and red herrings: phrases that looked like anagram indicators that were not, definitions that looked like constructions, constructions masquerading as definitions.
Thank you Io.
| Across | ||
| 1 | NORMAN WISDOM | King of Albania, putatively learning French? (6,6) |
| NORMAN WISDOM is cryptically ‘learning, French’ and Norman Wisdom was a big celebrity (putative king) in Albania. In a Stalinist dictatorship largely cut off from Western culture, Norman Wisdom‘s shows were screened because the official view was that Wisdom’s hapless character portrayed “proletarian Norman’s ultimately victorious struggles against capitalism”. | ||
| 10 | ON TOAST | Not casseroled in oven, like beans? (2,5) |
| NOT* anagram=casseroled in OAST (oven) | ||
| 11 | MARTINI | Rifle paintings, etc stashed in car (7) |
| ART (paintings etc) in (stashed by) MINI (car) – a make of rifle, possibly the Martini-Enfield or the Martini-Henry | ||
| 12 | KETCH | The craft of cricket champions (5) |
| found in cricKET CHampions – a two masted yacht | ||
| 13 | AMORETTI | Bonkers at it again, locked in embrace? (8) |
| AT IT with MORE (again) inside (locked in embrace) |
||
| 15 | PIED-A-TERRE | Mademoiselle, say, moving into monsieur’s holiday home? (4-1-5) |
| DATE (Madamoiselle say, a lady partner) in (moving into) PIERRE (monsieur, a Frenchman) – definition is ‘is a holiday home’ | ||
| 16 | ANKH | Cross tucked away by Tutankhamun, thank heavens – and Imran Khan (4) |
| found in tutANKHamun, thANK Heavens – and ImrAN KHan (at various locations) – the Egyptian hieroglyph for ‘life’, cross-shaped | ||
| 18 | ROPY | Far from top quality work across the tracks (4) |
| OP (opus, work) in (across, is crossing) RY (railway, the tracks) | ||
| 20 | NOW AND THEN | Staff being overwhelmed by stag on occasion? (3,3,4) |
| WAND (staff) in (overwhelmed by) NOT HEN (stag) | ||
| 22 | REDARGUE | Scots deny backing for everyone to see in academically poor reading? (8) |
| U (for everyone to see, film classification) in E GRADE (academically poor) R (reading, one of the ‘three Rs’) all reversed (backing) – definition is ‘Scots deny’, Scottish word meaning to refute by argument. |
||
| 24 | IN PUP | About to drop glamour girl adjusting top (2,3) |
| PIN UP (glamour girl) with P moved (top adjusted) | ||
| 26 | SECONDI | Lower parts do, in woeful side . . . . (7) |
| CON (do,swindle) in SIDE* anagram=woeful – plural of secondo, the lower part in a piano duet | ||
| 27 | GUBBINS | . . . . stupid manager’s action, having had to change ends (7) |
| SUBBING (action of a manager, football say) with S and G (ends of) swapping places – a stupid person | ||
| 28 | BEYOND OUR KEN | We Londoners know that The Congestion Charge was not a radio show (6,3,3) |
| Beyond Our Ken was a late fiftys/early sixties radio program starring Kenneth Home and Kenneth Williams. The Congestion Charge is a clean-air tax on vehicles entering the centre of London, successfully introduced by the Mayor of London, Ken Livingston (against opposition). | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | OCTETTE | Group races alien across green, all turning up (7) |
| TT (races) ET (alien) in (across, going between) ECO (green) – definition is ‘group’ | ||
| 3 | MEATHEAD | Dope crossword compiler – he’s slightly overwhelming! (8) |
| ME (crossword compiler) with HE in (overwhelmed by) A TAD (slightly) – definition is ‘dope’ | ||
| 4 | NOT-I | Thought about missing Jekyll’s Hyde (3-1) |
| NOTIon (thought) missing ON (about) | ||
| 5 | IN MEMORIAM | Emin’s dreadful second run writer’s not forgetting! (2,8) |
| EMIN* anagram=dreadful MO (second) R (run) I AM (the writer is) | ||
| 6 | DURER | Old master, halfway through procedure, recaps (5) |
| in the middle of (half way through) proceDURE Recaps | ||
| 7 | MOISTEN | Young Maureen has a birthday wet (7) |
| MO (young Maureen, nickname) IS TEN (has a birthday) – ha! great stuff! | ||
| 8 | COCKSPUR GRASS | Tap Tottenham about Gross playing onfield “attacker” (8,5) |
| COCK (tap) SPURS (Tottenham Hotspur, UK football team) containing (going about) GR (gross) AS (playing, in role of) – definition is ‘onfield attacker’, a weed that is a major problem for farmers | ||
| 9 | FINISHING POST | Stranger in gift shop is taking first of nude photos here! (9,4) |
| anagram (stranger) of IN GIFT SHOP IS and N (first of nude) – photo finishes | ||
| 14 | REVOLUTION | Temperature university aficionado raised spinning number one Beatles hit (10) |
| T (temperature) U (university) LOVER (afficionado) all reversed (raised) then No I (number one) reversed (spinning) – definition is ‘Beatles hit’ | ||
| 17 | AD-LIBBER | This ham may have dried up, coming out in a dribble (2-6) |
| (A DRIBBLE)* anagram=coming out – a ham is an actor, drying up is forgeting lines | ||
| 19 | PEDICAB | Hire-vehicle picking up baron with drug record (7) |
| B (baron) ACID (drug) EP (extended play, record) – a cycle rickshaw | ||
| 21 | HOPLITE | Soldier’s something to make beer lo-cal (7) |
| a HOP LITE could be a low-calorie ingredient of beer – a citizen soldier of Ancient Greece | ||
| 23 | RANDY | I’m partial to affair and you’re up for it . . . . (5) |
| found in (partial to, part of) affaiR AND You’re – definition is ‘up for it’ | ||
| 25 | AGIO | . . . . what would you give to exchange something precious with me? (4) |
| AG (silver, chem symbol, something precious) with IO (me, the setter) – definition is “what would you give to exchange something”, or to quote from the OED: The percentage charged on the exchange of one currency, or one form of money, into another that is more valuable; (hence) the excess value of one currency over another. Now chiefly hist. 23 25 together are brilliant! | ||
*anagram
Thanks PeeDee and Io,
I agree with your assessment of the puzzle – tricky and satisfying.
Re AMORETTI – I took “Bonkers” to be the anagrind and the whole clue as a jokey definition.
Re REDARGUE (a new word for me) – reading is one of the 4 Rs.
Thanks Muffyword, I agree on both counts. I got there myself in the end, my update and your comment have crossed.
I thought it was Three Rs: reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic. What is the fourth?
This mortal had to hide this great crossword under her work and peep at it on and off because she couldn’t wait until lunchtime!
The perfect mix of sneaky trickiness and entertainment. Big thanks to IO (I wish you turned up in the FT more often) and PeeDee too.
Thanks for a tough puzzle IO and a great blog Peedee – This was on the tougher end of the spectrum for FT grids, I thought. Very educative – lot of new things I learnt from this one.
TL.
Thanks Io and PeeDee. Tough but good – I needed some aids to get there!
Many thanks PeeDee & IO
The only Albanian monarch I knew was King Zog until I recalled Norman Wisdom’s adventures there.
PeeDee @2
You may think there are 4 Rs if you are bad at the third.
Great fun and quite testing in parts and thanks Peedee – I think you got there a lot quicker than I did.
Still not quite convinced about REDARGUE. Is it really a Scots word or just an archaic English one more favoured up there – or does that amount to the same thing? My online deburnsifier didn’t know it – but that’s no proof. Scotch would have worked there too.
Norman Wisdom hit the funny bone. I had no idea about the Albanian connection but the def was too good to be true. I’m sure the stories about EEC (EU now) translations about “la sagesse normande” are apocryphal but the writer and académicien (author of The Silence of Colonel Bramble) actually said in all seriousness (being from Normandy):
“C’est la sagesse normande qui a modelé mon esprit.”
which translates roughly as
Norman Wisdom shaped my mind.
Oops – the “writer and académicien” in question was André Maurois.
JS
re: redargue
BRB marks it as obs or Scot !
The origin is from L. redarguere, from re(d)– again, arguere, argue
Hi JS,
OED has redargue as Scottish too (in the sense of refute by argument).
Love the Norman Wisdom mind control theory, Hoxcha clearly knew what he was doing.