Happy New Year everybody!! Its good to be back after a three week hiatus since both Christmas and New Year’s fell on Fridays. We have Alberich in the house, for the first FT Friday crossword in 2016 and true to his style, he gives us a smooth, intriguing challenge that was just within reach in terms of solving, and a touch out of reach (annoyingly so) in terms of parsing! 🙂 Several clues were refreshingly new (atleast to me) and as I solved them, made me upbeat about the rest of the year to follow. And of course, thanks to Neil !!
FF: 9 DD : 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | TROMBONIST |
It’s extremely rotten to mob rock musician (10)
Anagram of ITS RN (extremely RotteN) TO MOB |
| 6 | AMOS |
Writer’s love for one book (4)
AMiS (writer, Martin Amis) with O (love = 0) replacing I (one) |
| 9 | EIDETIC |
Recalled quote that’s long, having amazing memory (7)
CITED (~quote) IE (that is) , all reversed (recalled). I guess in some sense “recalled” denotes past tense for “CITED” to work. I am missing something here – why is “long” in the clue? |
| 10 | MORONIC |
Stupid male’s given gold coin that’s forged (7)
M (male) OR (gold) followed by anagram of COIN |
| 12 | LISTLESSLY |
Thus unprepared shopper visits supermarket without enthusiasm? (10)
cryptic clue and one that appeared in another crossword not too long ago – am trying to remember which one. |
| 13 | TAN |
Brown belt (3)
double def |
| 15 | ASLEEP |
Venomous type catches general napping (6)
ASP (venomous type) catches LEE (general, Robert) |
| 16 | SEAFARER |
Look more attractive, said Jack (8)
sounds like SEE (look) FAIRER (more attractive) |
| 18 | OBSCURED |
Former pupil’s successfully treated? That’s made unclear (8)
OB”S (former pupil = Old Boy) CURED (succesfully treated) |
| 20 | RUSSET |
Gates surely holds back Apple (6)
Hidden (reversed) in “GaTES SURely ..” |
| 23 | AGA |
Eliminating every second Afghan military leader (3)
Odd letters (eliminating every second) of AfGhAn |
| 24 | LIFELESSLY |
Jockey feels silly in an apathetic way (10)
anagram of FEELS SILLY |
| 26 | OPUNTIA |
One cracking old joke cheers prickly sort (7)
I (one) in [ O (old) PUN (joke) TA (cheers) ] – commonly referred to as prickly pear |
| 27 | NAIL BAR |
Two Scotsmen turn round large beauty salon (4,3)
RAB IAN (two scotsmen) reversed around L (large) |
| 28 | YELL |
Ring wife to avoid hue and cry (4)
YELLow [ hue, avoiding O (ring) W (wife) ] |
| 29 | DEFACEMENT |
Crack troops come in handy for obliteration (10)
[ ACE (crack) MEN (troops) ] in DEFT (handy) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | TREE |
Could be box number husband lost (4)
ThREE (number, without H – husband) – Box trees are trees of the genus Buxus. |
| 2 | OLD BILL |
Liberal Democrat in centre of Alloa upset the police (3,4)
LIB (liberal) D (democrat) in LLO (centre of aLLOa), all reversed (upset) |
| 3 | BITE THE BULLET |
But I bet he somehow reversed order to face the situation (4,3,6)
Anagram of BUT I BET HE followed by TELL (order) reversed. |
| 4 | NICKER |
Stripped underwear for a pound (6)
kNICKERs (underwear, stripped – without first and last letters) |
| 5 | SEMESTER |
Sees term out – this one? (8)
Anagram of SEES TERM |
| 7 | MINSTER |
Man’s address is around New York’s cathedral? (7)
MISTER (man’s address) around N (new) |
| 8 | SECOND RATE |
Do rats enter Canterbury? That’s poor (6-4)
[CON (do) DRAT (rats, as in an exclamation)] in SEE (canterbury, referring to a cathedral) – I struggled to parse this and only finally solved it after some martinis helped. 🙂 |
| 11 | RAY OF SUNSHINE |
One who makes you beam and beam (3,2,8)
(not so) cryptic clue |
| 14 | LABORATORY |
Choice between one party and another’s supporter for workplace? (10)
Nice clue .. cryptic .. choice between LAB (labour ) OR A TORY (conservatives) |
| 17 | SELF MADE |
English mother’s family mostly raised to be successful without help (4-4)
E (english) DAM (mother) FLESh (family, mostly) – all reversed |
| 19 | SEAGULL |
Bird is close, eating worm up (7)
SEAL (close) containing (eating) GUL (worm = LUG, reversed) |
| 21 | SOLUBLE |
Left wearing torn blouse? That can be explained (7)
L (left) surrounded by anagram of BLOUSE |
| 22 | GLINKA |
Join Academy headed by German composer (6)
[ LINK (join) A (academy) ] after G (german) |
| 25 | WRIT |
Court order, one producing gags? That’s about right (4)
WIT (one producing gags) around R (right) |
Thanks for the blog, Turbolegs and Alberich for a super puzzle – hugely enjoyable!
Favourites were SECOND-RATE and YELL – small but beautifully formed.
9ac is a reversal of CITE [quote] + DIE [long – as in ‘I’m dying for a Martini 😉 ]
This http://www.fifteensquared.net/2015/11/20/financial-times-15093-by-wanderer/ is the puzzle you’re looking for, Turbolegs.
Happy New Year Eileen .. I did consider the same explanation for 9ac as you have in the comment above, but concluded (even if it turns out to be erroneously so) that LONG did not equate to DIE as a single word. I am no language expert so happy to be corrected.
And thanks for the pointer to the earlier puzzle; then as now, you were the first person to comment.
Cheers
TL
Terrific start to the new year. Alberich at his stylish best. Salutations to him and Turbolegs.
Happy New Year, TL 🙂 – sorry I omitted to say that and I’ve been out shopping since commenting.
PS: I’ve just seen that Chambers gives die = long, as in the example I gave.
And that is how I saw it too.
[I mean, 9ac – my last one in]
I agree that this was another very good puzzle by one of the best in the business.
That said, I think 11d was untypically weak and I am also not a big fan of using ‘rock’ as an anagram indicator when it comes after the fodder (1ac).
I know, it can be justified so I am not complaining – just a matter of taste.
7d’s MINSTER was a great example of what we once called ‘lift and separate’: New / York’s cathedral.
Vintage Alberich.
Thanks Turbolegs.
Yes, Sil: I meant to include MINSTER.
Thanks Alberich and Turbolegs
HNY to you too !!!
Back to the more recent puzzles after spending a week on holidays catching up on some of the older back log crosswords that I had accumulated.
Found this one to be not as difficult as this setter can make them, although some of the parsing was very tricky. I had parsed EIDETIC as you did, with the same query … I think that the DIE = ‘long’ way is the right one.
Had to check up on RAB as a Scottish name at 27a.
Finished in the NW corner with OLD BILL, EIDETIC and TREE the last few in.
Thanks Alberich and Turbolegs.
I parsed 9ac in the same way as Eileen. I suspect Rab C Nesbitt hasn’t made it to Australia yet – but if you pick this up Bruce, I strongly recommend it to you.
Do I detect some New Year Blues in this puzzle? We have Listlessly, Asleep, Lifelessly, Moronic and Second Rate relieved only by a [little] Ray of Sunshine!