Alberich makes us work hard today, but everything is there waiting to be found. Thank you Alberich.
I have blogged a few ALberich puzzles now and I place him firmly at the opposite end of the spectrum to Dante. There are very few cryptic or double definitions but lots and lots of intricate convoluted constructions.
One ALberich trademark seems to be throwing in as many words from the crossword setters’ stock vocabulary as possible but as misdirections, they turn out to be used literally. I like this as it makes it less obvious where the definition sits in the clue and the crossword cannot be solved as a modified concise puzzle using the “guess the defintion, ignore the construction” technique that some cryptic crosswords succumb to.
| Across | ||
| 1 | JOE SOAP | One saddled with nasty work heartlessly gags elderly person (3,4) |
| JOkES (gags) mising middle letter (heartless) OAP (elderly person) – British military slang | ||
| 5 | SPATTER | Splash drops liberally, primarily? (7) |
| SPlATTER (splash) missing (drops) L (primary letter of liberally) – definition is sort of &lit, I think the question mark indicates that it does not quite achieve this. | ||
| 9 | AFRIT | Father is possessed by island demon (5) |
| FR (father) in (possessed by) AIT (island) – a Arabic demon | ||
| 10 | SHIFTLESS | Keyboard that can’t do %&*@ could be so inefficient! (9) |
| cryptic definition – no shift key | ||
| 11 | OTHERWISE | Order wee shirt right away or else! (9) |
| anagram (order) of WEE SHIrT (missing R=right) and OR – definition is ‘else’ | ||
| 12 | PANDA | One eating bamboo soup and assorted preserves (5) |
| found in (preserved by) souP AND ASsorted | ||
| 13 | SCOWS | More than one boat or ship carrying some livestock (5) |
| SS (ship) containing (carrying) COW (some livestock) – a scow is a flat-botomed boat | ||
| 15 | EXPATIATE | Elaborate riff’s intro left out of An American in Paris indefinitely? (9) |
| EXPATrIATE (American living in Paris, for example) missing R (intro, first letter, of riff) | ||
| 18 | COMFORTER | Dummy company’s strength – hiding millions at first from Revenue (9) |
| CO (company) has FORTE (strength) containing (hiding) M (first letter from millions) then R (revenue) – a child’s dummy | ||
| 19 | YOUTH | Teenager’s hard after year abroad (5) |
| H (hard) following Y (years) OUT (abroad) | ||
| 21 | HEDGE | Principal sign of home’s boundary? (5) |
| H (principal sign, first letter of home) has EDGE (boundary) – definition is &lit. | ||
| 23 | KEEP AT BAY | Bet pa switched a crucial boxing fight off (4,2,3) |
| (BET PA)* switched=anagram and A in (boxed by) KEY (crucial) | ||
| 25 | BELLICOSE | Live with collie’s barking, becoming aggressive (9) |
| BE (live) with COLLIE’S* anagram=barking mad | ||
| 26 | IRAQI | Asian islands occupied by soldiers on cue, we hear (5) |
| I I (island, two of) contains (occupied by) RA (Royal Artillery, soldiers) on Q (sounds like cue, we hear) – definition is ‘Asian’ | ||
| 27 | TRAGEDY | For example Lear jet’s tail’s shabby- looking – not good (7) |
| jeT (tail of) has RAGgEDY (shabby-looking) missing G=good – the play King Lear for example | ||
| 28 | EPICENE | Effeminate English copper with awkward niece (7) |
| E (English) P (penny, a copper) with NIECE* awkward=anagram | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | JEALOUS | Change of leadership required by ardent Green (7) |
| zEALOUS (ardent) with first letter changed | ||
| 2 | EARTHWORM | Thrower – man mostly recollected as gardener’s friend (9) |
| anagram (recollected) of THROWER and MAn (mostly) – reference here is to Percy Thorwer, gardner and broadcaster | ||
| 3 | OTTER | One eats fish to excess – hospital drama follows (5) |
| OTT (excess) with ER (hospital drama) following | ||
| 4 | PESTILENT | Mischievous pet is fast becoming annoying (9) |
| (PET IS)* anagram=mischievous and LENT (fast) | ||
| 5 | SPILE | Plug leakage almost completely – peace at last (5) |
| SPILl (leakage, almost complete) peacE (last letter of) – a plug for stopping a barrel | ||
| 6 | ANTIPATHY | Dislike in a way books by one unknown (9) |
| A PATH (way) contains (in, in … you will find …) NT (books) by I (one) then Y (unknown) | ||
| 7 | TIE-IN | For example book of a film that is in the can (3-2) |
| IE (that is) in TIN (the can) | ||
| 8 | ROSEATE | Got up at nine finally? That’s very optimistic (7) |
| ROSE (got up) AT ninE (final letter of) | ||
| 14 | STOVE-PIPE | Hat that may be the top of the range? (5-4) |
| cryptic definition – a range is a stove | ||
| 16 | PERSEVERE | Exercise run’s tough, but don’t give up! (9) |
| PE (excercise) R (run) has SEVERE (tough) | ||
| 17 | ADUMBRATE | Artist initially wants stupid price for sketch (9) |
| Artist (first letter of) has DUMB (stupid) RATE (price) | ||
| 18 | COHABIT | Before it nothing’s gained by playing Bach live together (7) |
| O (nothing) with (gained by) BACH* anagram=playing all before IT | ||
| 20 | HAYWIRE | Spooner’s far more advanced – you’ll get confused (7) |
| Spoonerism of ‘way higher’ (far more advanced) | ||
| 22 | DELTA | Letter delivered with sinking heart (5) |
| DEALT (delivered) with A (heart of, middle letter) sinking to the bottom – definition is ‘letter’ | ||
| 23 | KOOKY | Stunner oddly rejected monkey nuts (5) |
| KO (stunner) with mOnKeY (odd letters rejected) | ||
| 24 | ALIBI | Clay walls for Bali’s defence (5) |
| ALI (Cassius Clay) BalI (first and last letters, walls for) | ||
*anagram
Well I enjoyed that, tough, deliberately misleading, a job well done.
thanks peedee, tricky to unwrangle this one.
Since it has been classified as quite tricky, I am not too dipleased to have gotten 3/4 way through. I would never have gottten 1a.Thanks peedee, and Alberich.
Some really lovely cluing here. I never usually do the FT, so this was a real treat for me. I had a long day of exam invigilation(!), so needed something in addition to the usual Guardian.
In the end the SE corner defeated me, so I was grateful for your blog PeeDee – many thanks.
Very enjoyable, if quite tough, solve – I’ll look out for future FT Alberichs.
In the clue to 15A ‘indefinitely’ is presumably telling us to ignore the indefinite article in (An) American in Paris.
Alberich is at or near the top of my favourite FT setters.
Thanks to PeeDee for his blog.
Hi ernie, I took ‘indefinitely’ to mean that the American is resident in Paris, stays there indefinitely. Hence he or she is an expatriate, not just a visitor.
Thanks, PeeDee. Your explanation is more convincing.