A breezy puzzle from Bradman today. Good fodder for beginners on the FT. Clean cluing and a few full length clues made for a pleasurable solving experience.
FF: 8 DD: 6
| Across | ||
| 1 | MEAT LOAF | Hot food for this person at start of lunch sitting by idiot (4,4) |
| ME (this person) AT L (start of Lunch) OAF (idiot) | ||
| 5 | BOTHER | Not just one of a pair taking endless time and trouble (6) |
| BOTH (not just one of a pair) ERa (endless time, i.e. without last character) | ||
| 9 | SET APART | Turning heads with skill, as one not with the common herd? (3,5) |
| charade of SETAP (heads = PATES, reversed) ART (skill) | ||
| 10 | PENANG | Article that’s no good by author in Far East location (6) |
| [A (article) N (no) G (good) ] after PEN (author) – Since I am based in Singapore, Malaysia (where Penang is located) as generally been referred to as part of South East Asia rather than Far East, which is reserved for Japan , Korea and west China typically. | ||
| 12 | UNION | Group of workers? A particular one puts Society off (5) |
| UNIsON (one, without ‘S’ for society) | ||
| 13 | CHASTISER | One severely scolding a naughty sister after church (9) |
| [ A SISTER*] after CH (church) | ||
| 14 | SPATHE | Track in Home Counties reveals something botanical (6) |
| PATH (track) in SE (home counties) | ||
| 16 | ARRAYED | Laid out report of an aggressive act (7) |
| sounds like (report) A RAID (an aggressive act) | ||
| 18 | CURTSEY | Certainly taken aback by abrupt gesture of respect (7) |
| [ SEY (certainly = YES, reversed) ] after CURT (abrupt)] | ||
| 20 | GODIVA | Travel with dominant female, one making notorious journey on horseback (6) |
| GO (travel) DIVA (dominant female) – wiki here | ||
| 22 | PLAYACTOR | Agreement by men to accommodate amateur performer who hams it up? (9) |
| [ PACT (agreement) OR (men) ] containing LAY (amateur)- should the clue be denoted (4-6)? | ||
| 23 | CADRE | Fighting unit in trouble when duke intervenes (5) |
| D (duke) in CARE (trouble) | ||
| 24 | LEIDEN | Icelander managed without car in the city (6) |
| IcELaNDEr* (i.e. anagram of ICELANDER without the letters of CAR) | ||
| 25 | AFFIANCE | A loud female that is holding party in Africa to get engaged (8) |
| {A F (loud) F (female) } [ IE (that is) holding ANC (party in africa, African National Congress) ] | ||
| 26 | ROTATE | Rubbish written by troublemaker makes one reel (6) |
| ROT (rubbish) ATE (troublemaker, greek equivalent of Loki) | ||
| 27 | PELL-MELL | Measure introduced by prime minister, that measure creating disorder (4-4) |
| [ ELL (measure) in PM (prime minister) ] ELL (that measure) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MESS UP | Confusion which gets them upset – and cat upset too (4-2) |
| ME ( reverse of ‘EM, them) SSUP (reverse of PUSS, cat) | ||
| 2 | ANTI IMPERIALIST | I’m Italian priest, working against old-style domination? (4-11) |
| IM ITALIAN PRIEST* | ||
| 3 | LUPIN | Plant goin’ into coiled shape by the sound of it (5) |
| sounds like LOOPING (going into coiled shape) | ||
| 4 | AURICLE | Timeless piece of writing about university – something “hearty”? (7) |
| ARtICLE (piece of writing, without ‘T’ for time) around U (university) | ||
| 6 | OVERTIRED | Evident I will get embarrassed and excessively weary (9) |
| charade of OVERT (evident) I RED (embarassed) | ||
| 7 | HEARSAY EVIDENCE | He, as any deceiver, will be unreliable, giving second-hand account (7,8) |
| HE AS ANY DECEIVER* | ||
| 8 | RAG TRADE | Anger about charge going up in the fashion business (3,5) |
| RAGE (anger ) about reverse of DART (charge) | ||
| 11 | MAYA | Illusion of S. American people (4) |
| double def | ||
| 15 | TESTAMENT | Exam on biblical word that’s first seen in group of holy books (9) |
| Charade of TEST (exam) AMEN (biblical word) T (That’s, first character) | ||
| 17 | SCAPULAR | Naughty rascal turning up in that monastic garb (8) |
| RASCAL* containing reverse of UP | ||
| 19 | YETI | There’s still one needing to be found (4) |
| &lit; YET (still) I (one) | ||
| 20 | GIRAFFE | Awful grief comes with the trapping of a fine animal (7) |
| GRIEF* containing A F (fine) | ||
| 21 | REVEAL | Show butcher’s ultimate English meat (6) |
| R (butcheR’s ultimate) E (english) VEAL (meat) | ||
| 23 | CHILL | Small child unwell – on account if this? (5) |
| CH (child, small) ILL (unwell) | ||
*anagram
Thanks, Turbolegs and Bradman. I agree with everything you say: a very precisely clued crossword. I wasn’t familiar with the other (illusion) use of Maya, so I learned something too. Interestingly, when I looked it up to confirm it this morning, I couldn’t find the word at all in the online Chambers dictionary.
Thanks Turbolegs and Bradman.
SPATHE, SCAPULAR (as a monastic cape) and MAYA as an illusion were new but elegantly clued but gettable from the clear wordplay.
Should 23 have said “of” rather than “if”?
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
I reckon that there would be a few places that a beginner would choke a bit, particularly down in the SW corner with the ‘monastic cape’, one of lesser known ‘cities of the Netherlands’, the ‘goddess of mischief’ and PLAYACTOR. Still for the Don it wasn’t nearly as hard as he can be – I agree – and his clueing is generally very fair !! So a beginner with lots of references and a will to win !!! 🙂
I speak of that SW corner as that is where I finished and the part that did hold out for as long as the rest of the puzzle.
Agree with your comments on PENANG being a part of SE Asia … but I think that you mean the eastern (rather than the western) part of China would be classified as the Far East.
Enjoyable solve overall.
Hi Bruce@3,
Indeed, I meant Eastern China. You make a fair point about some of the solutions being somewhat problematic to newbies, but the clues themselves were clean enough to lead the solver right up to the solution (or so I think).
Regards,
TL