Been a while since I saw Hamilton on a Friday. Today’s FT challenge was meaty, refreshing and in parts, fiendish. I had to refer to googling to confirm a couple of my solutions, and still have one clue whose complete parsing eludes me. In all, a very welcome challenge so thanks to Hamilton.
I was concocting in my head, a mini-aussie theme that may or may not exist. 🙂
FF: 9 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | BIAS BINDING |
Big band is in turmoil! Is it the edgy material? (4,7)
Anagram of BIG BAND IS IN |
| 7 | LEA |
Some colleagues put out to grass (3)
Hidden in “..colLEAgues..” |
| 9 | COPSE |
Bush police on the radio (5)
Sounds like COPS (police) |
| 10 | MYTHOLOGY |
Express surprise at the endless scientific study of legends (9)
MY (express surprise) THe (the, endless) -OLOGY (scientific study, suffix) |
| 11 | CAN OPENER |
C is for kitchen utensil (3,6)
Cryptic clue – C is the opening letter of Can |
| 12 | GLENN |
Pick up Australian in the valley (5)
I have a problem with this clue – I have generally understood Glen to be valley and Glenn to be the Aussie name. The construct of the clue (if the definition was taken to be at either end) seems to reverse this. Unless I am missing something … |
| 13 | AMIABLE |
Friendly; caught out, but still friendly (7)
AMIcABLE (friendly, without c – caught out) |
| 15 | MAID |
Abigail is beginning to make contribution (4)
M (beginning to Make) AID (contribution) |
| 18 | HOOF |
Dancer has no hesitation standing on it (4)
HOOFer (dancer, without ‘er’ – hestitation) |
| 20 | INFERNO |
In an awful afternoon, Nato withdrawn from hellish place (7)
IN followed by aFtERNOon (afternoon, with letters of NATO removed) |
| 23 | MOUSY |
Shy second under-secretary given 12 months (5)
MO (second, moment) US (under secretary) Y (12 months = Year) |
| 24 | GOVERNESS |
Idle chat about author to lady teacher (9)
GOSS (idle chat, short for gossip) about VERNE (author, jules) |
| 26 | LAND AGENT |
Broker wanting to capture James Bond? (4,5)
LAND (capture) AGENTÂ (james bond) |
| 27 | CHINO |
Wind is not alright, and that’s material (5)
Need some help here .. was wondering if it was a CHI+NO word play, or a subtraction device at work .. |
| 28 | SUE |
Petition university in the Home Counties (3)
U (university) in SE (home counties, South-East of england) |
| 29 | LIFE OF RILEY |
It’s easy, being on first with Rex in Yorkshire resort (4,2,5)
LIFE (being) O (On, first) [ R (rex) in FILEY (yorkshire resort) ] |
| Down | ||
| 1 | BACKCHAT |
Sag? Such impertinence! (8)
Cryptic clue. GAS can mean CHAT. Since SAG is the reversal of GAS, it can be clued as BACKCHAT. |
| 2 | APPENDIX |
Supplement that’s of no use to mankind (8)
Cryptic clue – supposedly this body part has no function. |
| 3 | BLEEP |
The sound of swearing on TV (5)
Cryptic clue – referring to how profanities are censored. |
| 4 | NOMINEE |
Someone appointed 9 to receive award on June 4th (7)
[NINE (9) receiving OM (Order of Merit , award)] on E (junE, 4th) |
| 5 | INTERIM |
One admitted during school time as caretaker (7)
I (one) in IN TERM (school time) |
| 6 | GOOD GRIEF |
Heavens above, what’s worthy about sorrow? (4,5)
GOOD (worthy) GRIEF (sorrow) |
| 7 | LOOTER |
Get new kit sent north for criminal (6)
RE – TOOL (get new kit), reversed (sent north) |
| 8 | ANYONE |
Girl has only half a toy in her possession; who could it be? (6)
ANNE (girl) containing YO (half a toy, YO-yo) |
| 14 | BOOTY CALL |
Tall boy wants little company, deviously making this to get it (5,4)
Anagram of TALL BOY CO (little company) |
| 16 | FREE WILL |
Film of an orca (year not given) was spontaneous (4-4)
FREE WILLy (a film about an orca, without ‘y’ – year) |
| 17 | SOB STORY |
Peter Carey novel “The Chemistry of Tears”, maybe (3,5)
cyrptic clue; one more clue that has me wondering if I am over simplifying the solution .. |
| 19 | FIG LEAF |
Agile moving around, fine fellow covers it with – not much really! (3,4)
F (fine) F (fellow) covering anagram of AGILE – something small to cover a big embarrassment potentially. |
| 20 | IN VITRO |
At home to Victoria, with CIA going crazy under laboratory conditions (2,5)
IN (at home) followed by anagram of VicTORIa (victoria, less the letters of CIA) |
| 21 | SMALLS |
Undergarments for shops on board (6)
MALL (shops) on SS ( board) |
| 22 | NUANCE |
Introducing neat uniforms and nice cords with extra fine distinction (6)
starting characters of “..Neat Uniforms And Nice Cords (with) Extra..” – can E denote ‘extra’ on its own? |
| 25 | RACER |
Car holding the best sportsperson (5)
RR (car, rolls royce) holding ACE (best)
|
TL
I don’t see any problem in 12a.
Pick up Australian in the valley
The present surface reading wants someone to give a ride to the Australian [living] in the valley.
As for WP, I believe the same prose order works. But to understand it we may change it:
In the valley – in GLEN (in the required word)
pick up – hear
Australian – GLENN
Re 27a The wind along the eastern slopes of the Rockies is called ‘Chinook wind’ or just ‘chinook’.
So the WP is actual deletion as you suspected, taking away OK. I would spell it “all right,” though.
I think 12 across is GLEAN.
Australians are called Bruce, not Glenn.
Re 12a I read this as ‘a’ for Australian, inside ‘glen’ for valley, giving the answer GLEAN meaning to pick up (something).
I think 27A is CHINOOK with the OK removed
Thanks Turbolegs and Hamilton.
I’m pretty sure too that 12ac is GLEAN (i.e. ‘Pick up’.
BOOTY CALL was new to me so thanks for that.
Ref. 17dn, I had assumed that the author concerned may have been referred to as a ‘Son of a Bitch’ (SOB) but have been unable to find any definitive quotes.
I wasn’t quite sure about ‘free will’ for ‘spontaneous’ in 16dn but that’s just me being picky!
Thanks Hamilton and Turbolegs
Very late to this one … and although it was finished in reasonably quick time, it didn’t feel like it was at all easy. In fact, there were a couple of clues that I thought (or actually did) get wrong.
I had GLEAN at 12a, as per the logic described by both Steven and Hamish. On checking the published solution, it is in fact the correct answer. Had TOY STORY in at 17d – as it turns out, I’m actually half way through reading this novel which is about the re-construction of a complex mechanical toy duck !! I guess the published answer is ‘more correct’, but I did feel a little deflated all the same. Unless there is something connecting Peter Carey to SOB (apart from what his ex wife may think of him after their bitter divorce), then I think that the clue is somewhat lacking.
Finished in the NW corner with BIAS BINDING (new term for me), COPSE (needed some crossers here) and APPENDIX (dunno whether it has been proven totally useless – lots of thinking on an auto-immune function of it).