A very pleasant and relatively easier challenge (compared to his past offerings) from Wanderer. It was smooth sailing all the way, with impeccable cluing (save for one which I have queried in my blog below) and some refreshingly semi-new wordplays. All in all, a bright spot on a dreary Friday, so thanks Wanderer !!
I am not sure whether this is an anniversary nina but there are 6 “pairs” of FT between the first row and the last row. Can anyone shed any light beyond this?
| Across | ||
| 7 | ALLELUIA | Thus everyone gets to feel musical regularly, praise the Lord! (8) |
| Charade of ALL (everyone) ELUIA (regular letters of “..fEeL mUsIcAl..”) | ||
| 8 | REVERB | Acoustic effect in long note recorded backwards by Queen? (6) |
| R (queen) followed by reverse of BREVE (long note) | ||
| 11 | IAMBS | One little creature’s lacking head and feet (5) |
| I (one) lAMB’s (little creature, without starting character) | ||
| 12 | HAIRINESS | Perilous state of child’s walking reins, perhaps, currently broken in two places (9) |
| HARNESS (child’s walking reins) with I (current) inserted in two places. Interesting clue this .. | ||
| 13 | YARDMAN | Story about Madoff’s gardener in New York (7) |
| YARN (story) about anagram of MAD (clued by MAD off) | ||
| 14 | ALERTED | Given tip-off tenor’s drunk beer and wine? On the contrary (7) |
| ALE (beer) RED (wine) containing T (tenor) | ||
| 15 | LAST BUT NOT LEAST | Finally, and yet significantly, there’s a lack of energy! (4,3,3,5) |
| cryptic clue; the lack of energy refers to the last word LeAST without E (energy) giving the first word LAST. | ||
| 18 | NUMERIC | Greek character has crime somehow figured out? (7) |
| NU (greek character) CRIME* | ||
| 20 | CONFINE | Do well to shut up (7) |
| CON (do) FINE (well) – Very elegant clue. | ||
| 22 | IRREGULAR | Soldier in Irish uniform (9) |
| IR (irish) REGULAR (uniform) | ||
| 23 | BASHO | Go over for wrestling tournament (5) |
| BASH (go) O (over) – I didnt know this one. | ||
| 24 | GEEZER | Cove with hot spring, say (6) |
| sounds like GEYSER (hot spring) | ||
| 25 | ASSASSIN | Like a special regiment confronting evil killer (8) |
| AS (like) SAS (special regiment) SIN (evil) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FAMILY PLANNING | Stupid fling – man plainly left out the need for this (6,8) |
| FLING MAN PLAINlY* (i.e. without L) | ||
| 2 | FLAMER | Person online abusing female gets disabled, right? (6) |
| F (female) LAME (disabled) R (right) | ||
| 3 | FLASH MOB | Cooked one third of shanks (of lamb) for group formed online (5,3) |
| SH (one third of SHanks) OF LAMB* | ||
| 4 | FISHING TACKLE | Catch crabs, say, with this primarily sexual sort of a night in unreliable setting (7,6) |
| [ S (primarily Sexual) A NIGHT* ] in FICKLE (unreliable) – I was wondering if i should underline “Catch crabs say ..” as part of the definition but didnt think it fit in my mind. This leads to the undesirable situation of the definition lying in the middle of the clue rather than at the ends. What am I missing here? | ||
| 5 | FELINE | Tom is one following row on Twitter? (6) |
| F (following) E-LINE (what a row on twitter could be described as) | ||
| 6 | FENESTRA | Fellow nearest broken window (8) |
| F (fellow) NEAREST* | ||
| 9 | BESIDE THE POINT | Where one number appears in a decimal fraction is irrelevant (6,3,5) |
| double def | ||
| 10 | VICAR OF CHRIST | The Pope misinterpreted Acts 5? Horrific! (5,2,6) |
| ACTS V (five) HORRIFIC* | ||
| 16 | SOMERSET | County cricket season broadcast starting sooner each time (8) |
| SOMER (sounds like SUMMER, cricket season) with starting characters of “..Sooner Each Time” | ||
| 17 | LONGBOAT | Wish to play cricket, when “empty” vessel (8) |
| LONG (wish) [ BAT (play cricket) contains O (zero, nothing , ~when empty) ] | ||
| 19 | REGRET | Be sorry some winter germs turned up (6) |
| Hidden reversed in “..winTER GERms..” | ||
| 21 | INSIST | Maintain relative has no hesitation following One Direction (6) |
| SISTer (relative, no hesitation i.e. without ER) after I (one) N (direction, north) | ||
*anagram
Thanks, Turbolegs, for the blog and Wanderer for another very stylish and enjoyable puzzle.
I initially entered – and ticked! – I[b]AMBI for 11ac: it parsed impeccably, I thought, but, of course, it made the obviously correct 3dn impossible. 🙁
I didn’t know BASHO either.
I don’t think this is the first time that these pairs of FT appear thus in a grid in this newspaper.
But I don’t know if this device is repeated on particular occasions.
Turbolegs,
I would think that the compiler intends “Catch crabs, say, with this” to be the def.
One might catch crabs, say, with FISHING TACKLE.
However, I was intrigued by the rest of the clue what with words like ‘sexual’ and ‘night’.
I wonder if the reference is to catch lice from private parts of humans.
Please excuse me if I have been carried away.
Having lived in Japan and enjoyed watching sumo I knew 23 across.
I needed the Nina, which I spied half way through the solve, to help me complete the puzzle, with 5 down my last one in.
Good fun. Thanks setter and blogger.
Thanks…some great clues. Could not get BASHO and got a couple and now I know why.
Thanks Turbolegs and Wanderer.
What a smashing puzzle.
Having solved 3, 4, 5 & 6 down I wrote “For F’s Sake” at the top and went hunting for the F’s at 1 & 2.
And as I worked my way down it dawned on me that I was looking for the Ts so that helped.
I thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish. Particularly liked the “empty” for O in BAT and the MADOFF device in 13ac.
FLAMER was a new term for me but was able to find it from the F, and BASHO was also new but gettable.
Great stuff.
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
This one held it’s appeal across the year’s gap in getting to it – a very good crossword. Wasn’t observant at all and completely missed all of the F’s and T’s 🙁
A number of very interesting clues – HAIRINESS (unusual word play), YARDMAN (from the clever surface), BASHO (unusual word so concisely clued), LONGBOAT (with the clever empty = O in it) and my last one in FELINE (neat play with Twitter as an E-LINE).
A setter who always manages to entertain regardless of how long it takes to complete his puzzles.