An absolute treat from Peto, thanks to whom, for a challenge that had me tied up in all sorts of knots. There are times when a solver / blogger feels privileged/fortunate to have drawn an ace puzzle from an ace setter – this is one such time.
The puzzle, atleast for me, was impossible to solve without external help on a clue or two.
FF: 10+ DD : 10
| Across | ||
| 1 | TRAVESTY |
Hear about a couple of ways to make false representation (8)
TRY (hear) about [AVE ST (couple of ways – avenue, street) ] |
| 5 | ACCUSE |
Charge with the habitual consumption of drugs after Bill is found with cocaine (6)
USE (habitual consumption of drugs) after [ AC (bill) C (cocaine) ] |
| 8 | AIR |
Song from musical needing no introduction (3)
hAIR (musical, from the 60’s) |
| 9 | CORNISHMAN |
What AL Rowse was wrong about is featured in monarch’s broadcast (10)
NIS ( wrong = SIN, reversed) in anagram of MONARCH |
| 10 | TANKED UP |
Failed to get out of bed when drunk (6,2)
TANKED (failed) UP (get out of bed) |
| 11 | RAISES |
Remove Selfridges’ original lifts (6)
RAISE (remove) S (Selfridges’ original i.e. first character) |
| 12 | BRED |
Trained to make money say (4)
Sounds like BREAD (money) |
| 14 | NEWFANGLED |
Ostentatiously modern novel sought indirectly to embrace the onset of fascism (10)
[NEW (novel) ANGLED (sought indirectly)] containing F (onset of Fascism) |
| 17 | EXPEDITION |
Speed becomes an issue after endless use (10)
EDITION (issue) after EXPend (use, end-less) |
| 20 | EPIC |
Key selection not entirely impressive (4)
E (key) PICk (selection, not entirely) |
| 23 | ENDS UP |
Finds oneself eventually among Southend supporters (4,2)
Hidden in “…southEND SUPporters” |
| 24 | PHEASANT |
Nice bit of ham for Luftwaffe’s top flyer (8)
PlEASANT (nice) with H (bit of Ham) replacing L (Luftwaffe’s top) |
| 25 | PEACE CORPS |
Cop recaps drug review for US government agency (5,5)
Anagram (review) of COP RECAPS E (drug) |
| 26 | AIL |
Bottom doesn’t have time for trouble (3)
tAIL (bottom) without ‘t’-time. |
| 27 | ASCENT |
Starting to develop after commencement of climb (6)
nASCENT (starting to develop, after commencement – cryptically indicates that the first character is to be ignored) |
| 28 | MYRMIDON |
Miles stupid to come back after a year working as a henchman (8)
M (miles) [ MID (stupid = DIM, revered) after YR (year) ] ON (working) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | TRACTABLE |
Easily managed to get vehicle hoisted on board (9)
TRAC (vehicle = CART, reversed) TABLE (board) |
| 2 | ARRANGE |
Soldiers sent north need compass to find Settle (7)
AR (soldiers = RA, reversed) RANGE (compass) |
| 3 | ESCHEW |
Avoid getting key cut (6)
ESC (key, “escape” on the keyboard) HEW (cut) |
| 4 | TURBULENT |
Trout’s tail to turn blue when cooked having a disturbing effect (9)
T (trouT’s tail) followed by anagram (~cooked) of TURN BLUE |
| 5 | AUSTRIA |
Gangster leaves country for somewhere on the continent (7)
AL (gangster, Capone) leaves AUSTRalIA (country) |
| 6 | COMMINGLE |
Mix up married Medical Officer with chap initially standing by the fireplace (9)
[ M (married) MO (Medical Officer) C (Chap, initially); all reversed (standing) ] INGLE (fireplace) |
| 7 | SINCERE |
Not hypocritical after admitting hesitation (7)
SINCE (after) admitting ER (hesitation) |
| 13 | DEEP SPACE |
Better hurry back to Earth as it’s a long way off (4,5)
[ CAP (better) SPEED (hurry), all reversed (back) ] E (earth) |
| 15 | FOOLHARDY |
Rings Doctor Young at first after new loofah causes rash (9)
RDY (Rings Doctor Young, at first – initial characters ) after anagram (~new) of LOOFAH |
| 16 | DECATHLON |
Chat with Noel about taking on Germany in athletic event (9)
Anagram (~about) of CHAT NOEL after D (germany = Deutschland) |
| 18 | XENOPUS |
Frog flipped it over towards a higher place further forward (7)
‘it’ = SEX. Cryptically it is S UPON EX. To parse the clue though, it is XES (it, flipped) containing [‘ UP’ (higher place) ON (~further forward)]. I didnt know the solution to the clue so had to use help. I think my parsing is more or less there with some edits possibly. |
| 19 | IMPREST |
It covers incidental expenses for a politician involved in international support (7)
MP (politician) in [ I (international) REST (support, in pool) ] |
| 21 | PLACARD |
Notice eccentric pal dancing at the front (7)
CARD (eccentric) with anagram of PAL in front |
| 22 | RANSOM |
Writer falling short of kidnapper’s demand (6)
RANSOMe (writer , Arthur Ransome, without the last letter – falling short) |
Thanks Peto and Turbolegs
18dn: I think you are nearly there with the parsing, and closer than I had got. Having read your explanation, I think it helps to account for every word in the clue as follows:
Frog: definition
flipped: reversed
it: SEX
over: containing
towards a higher place: UP
further forward: ON
Then the wordplay becomes
reversed SEX continaing UP ON = reversed SUPONEX = XENOPUS
… and of course I meant containing not continaing in the last line of my previous comment.
Thanks for the blog, Turbolegs.
I totally agree with your preamble. I haven’t done many FT puzzles lately but I was really glad I chose to do this one.
None of the clues, for me, was a write-in but I was never totally stuck: the puzzle unravelled at a steady and therefore satisfying pace and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Lots of clever clues, with lovely story-telling surfaces: my biggest ticks were for TRAVESTY, CORNISHMAN, PHEASANT, MYRMIDON and FOOLHARDY.
The only one I had a problem with was 11ac: the definition clearly led to RAISES but I couldn’t parse it. The blog didn’t help until I finally resorted to Chambers and Collins to find that ‘raise’ can indeed mean ‘remove’ – Collins gives ‘raise a siege’ as an example’. It still seems a bit odd to simply add an s to supply a different ‘person’ of a verb which is not too far from its other meaning.
That in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the puzzle. Many thanks to Peto – I loved it!
PG@1, Eileen@3 – Thanks for stopping by and for the comments as well !!
PG@1 – Appreciate your elucidation of 18dn.
Cheers
TL
Thanks for the blog. Never heard of Al Rowse so took some time to solve.
Thanks Peto and Turbolegs
A good challenge with a lot of meat on most of the clues which took up the train ride into and out from work on Monday.
Had parsed 9a as an anagram of IN MONARCH’S which had me looking for what CORNISHMAN that he might have been wrong about. Missed the starting letters R.D.Y. in the 15d clue – had unconvincingly used Dr Y as my fodder.
Had not heard of the XENOPUS genus of frogs.
Finished with ESCHEW, XENOPUS and the cleverly hidden ENDS UP as the last one in.
Thanks Turbolegs for a great blog and Peto for a stunning puzzle – well I feel stunned after finishing it.
I parsed CORNISHMAN in the same way as Bruce which left me coming here to understand why ‘wrong about is featured’ – um – is featured in the clue.
I also needed your help to parse the EXP in 17ac – very clever.
The last few I’ve done in the FT and Guardian have all been tough so I’m hoping for something a bit gentler for a bit.
Thanks again.