Excellent grid from Rosa! I got started with great gusto finishing nearly the entire left half of the grid in quick time, before grinding to a halt. A rough day ahead meant I couldn’t spend anytime on the puzzle until just a short while before this post.
Thanks to Geoff for helping with the missing pieces. Quite look forward to more such treats from Rosa.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BASE RATE | Level of interest when dons dress down (4,4) |
| AS (when) dons BERATE (dress down) | ||
| 5 | STRUCK | Small lorry stopped working (6) |
| S (Small) TRUCK (lorry) | ||
| 9 | EINSTEIN | In Heidelberg one plus one stumped previously brilliant scientist (8) |
| EIN (one in German, Heidelberg is in Germany) ST (stumped, abbreviation for one of the ways of getting out in the game of cricket) EIN (the second ‘one’, of the one plus one in the clue) | ||
| 10 | REDEEM | Convert into cash? Think again! (6) |
| Cryptic clue; Think again is parsed as Re-deem with deem having the meaning of think as in judge .. | ||
| 12 | YARNS | Anecdotes from sunny Arnside (5) |
| Hidden in sunnY ARNSide | ||
| 13 | BATTALION | Soldiers boast about their triumphs, at first with an element of pride (9) |
| BATT (Boast About Their Triumphs, at first) A LION (an element of pride, as in a group of lions) | ||
| 14 | FIDDLE | Toy violin scam (6) |
| Triple definition | ||
| 16 | WHISTLE | Make nonchalant noise when strangling saint (7) |
| WHILE (when) strangling ST (saint) | ||
| 19 | NEMESIS | Goddess, née Miss Batty (7) |
| Anagram of NEE MISS | ||
| 21 | HUSSAR | Soldier almost injured riding donkey wrong way round (6) |
| HURt (Almost injured) riding SSA (donkey wrong way round i.e. ass, reversed) – type of light cavalry | ||
| 23 | COSTUMIER | Tom Cruise, extravagantly theatrical dresser (9) |
| Anagram of TOM CRUISE | ||
| 25 | HYENA | Why men beheaded a scavenger? (5) |
| wHY mEN (beheaded, i.e. without first letter) A | ||
| 26 | CLUMSY | Periodically call us messy and maladroit (6) |
| Alternating characters of ..CaLl Us MeSsY.. | ||
| 27 | FORMALIN | Stiff surrounded by embalming fluid (8) |
| FORMAL (stiff) IN (surrounded by) | ||
| 28 | ENGELS | English debs perhaps pursuing National Socialist (6) |
| E (English) N (nationalist) GELS (debs perhaps) – Reference to Freidrich Engels who wrote The Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx | ||
| 29 | ONE HORSE | I nag, being small and unimportant (3-5) |
| ONE (I) HORSE (nag) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BYE BYE | See you run, twice (3-3) |
| BYE (run, in the game of cricket, twice) | ||
| 2 | SYNERGISM | Working together with Carney at last, engulfed by appalling grimness (9) |
| Anagram of GRIMNESS around Y (Carney at last) | ||
| 3 | ROTAS | Rolls goes off to tour southern tip of Ibiza (5) |
| ROTS (goes off) around A (southern tip of Ibiza) | ||
| 4 | THIMBLE | Sewer cover? (7) |
| Cryptic clue | ||
| 6 | THERAPIES | People in authority for the most part praise alternative aids to recovery (9) |
| THEm (People in authority for the most part (?) ) anagram of PRAISE (alternative – anagrind) | ||
| 7 | UTERI | Partially computerised baby carriers (5) |
| Hidden in compUTERIsed – plural of Uterus | ||
| 8 | KIMONOED | Exotically attired Korean finding drama in dictionary (8) |
| KIM (Korean, popular surname in korea, could refer to Kim Jong Il) [ NO (drama) in OED (Oxford English Dictionary)] | ||
| 11 | STOW | Place and time to stick pig (4) |
| T (time) in SOW (pig) | ||
| 15 | DISBURSAL | Spending ad lib, USSR collapsed (9) |
| Anagram of AD LIB USSR | ||
| 17 | TRAVELLER | She goes around with Rex, a very boring bank clerk (9) |
| [R (Rex) A V ( a very)] boring i.e. piercing TELLER (bank clerk) | ||
| 18 | UNICYCLE | Part of circus act, Sam perhaps nurses cold (8) |
| UNCLE (Sam, Reference to POTUS) nursing ICY (cold) | ||
| 20 | SLIP | Man in field knocking back beer (4) |
| PILS (beer, reversed) – Reference to slip fielder in the game of cricket | ||
| 21 | HARPOON | Marx discussing weapon (7) |
| HARPO (Marx, reference to the american comedian from the Marx brothers group) ON (discussing, as in ‘..on the topic…’) | ||
| 22 | SARNIE | Start to lose tons on new diet, cutting crusts off sandwich (6) |
| StARt (losing tons i.e. ‘t’s) N (new) dIEt (cutting crusts off) | ||
| 24 | SLUNG | Suspended, finally takes breather (5) |
| S (finally takes, last character) LUNG (breather) | ||
| 25 | HUMPH | Horse carrying sleeping policeman? I’m not impressed (5) |
| HUMP (sleeping policeman) H (horse) | ||
*anagram
Superb thank you Rosa. My marked grid would appear to show that I had 8 ‘favourites’ in this one but there are so many other runners up that I shan’t bother to list them all.
Thank you to Turbolegs too.
Thanks Rosa and Turbolegs
6dn: I took the start as THEy rather than THEm, as in “They ought to do something about this”.
Thanks, Turbolegs.
I agree, as usual, with crypticsue – except that I didn’t even start counting!
I did love the misdirection of Marx at 21dn, after ENGELS.
I read 6dn as Pelham did.
Huge thanks , as ever, to Rosa.
I’m new to the FT, so had no idea that the crossword that was causing me to gurgle with delight with each successive clue (which was slightly awkward, as I was invigilating an A Level at the time 🙂 ) was written by my favourite setter, Sarah Hayes. I should have twigged, as I remember smiling at the female TRAVELLER, and thinking that was very Arachne.
Some of the clues and surfaces were joyfully lovely. “..when dons dress down”, and the surface of “In Heidelberg one plus one stumped previously brilliant scientist”. In fact, what am I saying?…it’s all wonderful!
Many thanks to both.
I did myself no favours by putting “minute” in for 5a, parsed as a UTE (lorry) stopping MINe (a mine being a working), definition being small. Hey ho – still pleased to have got as many as I did after a very slow start. Many thanks for the blog – having the explanations really helps us infrequent completers to improve!
Thanks, RK, for great entertainment today.
I read 6dn in the same way as Turbolegs: them and us
any of various pairs of groups in society, such as management and workforce,
considered to be in opposition to each other. (Chambers)
Another joy from one of my favourite setters. I got 1a, but failed to parse it, so thank you turbolegs. I also parsed 6d as the(y), and briefly tried to fit ‘prams’ in at 7d, being temporarily seduced by the idea that computers have Random Access Memory (RAM).
Nothing more to add. Superb. Thank you Turbolegs and Rosa
When I first looked at the clues, I thought: this isn’t going to be that hard, looks like an Arachne Lite.
How wrong I was. I found it relatively difficult and a delight to solve.
My CoD was SARNIE (22d) because of its multiple misdirection: Start to lose = L? No. New diet = (DIET)*? No. Cutting crusts off sandwich? No.
Many thanks to Turbolegs and Rosa Klebb, of course (hope you’re well).
I love this blog! Thank you all for your excellent parsing. I love reading the comments, too. As I live across the pond, sometimes I can get the answer without understanding why. That said, I do have a correction for 18D. Uncle Sam stands for the US, perhaps even the flag, but not the prez. Thanks again.