A quick post due to the crossword not appearing until late in the day on thr FT website.
Not the most exciting puzzle in the world…
| Across | ||
| 1 | CRACKPOT | Lunatic shot on vessel (8) |
| CRACK + POT | ||
| 6 | STRAIN | Air filter (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 9 | CARESS | Scares off pet (6) |
| *(scares) | ||
| 10 | NOSEDIVE | Reportedly understands seedy bar’s sharp decline (8) |
| Homophone of KNOWS + DIVE | ||
| 11 | EMMA | Novel taken from Jerusalem man (4) |
| Hidden in “JerusalEM MAn” | ||
| 12 | PERMISSION | Authorisation for each sortie (10) |
| PER + MISSION | ||
| 14 | PRESERVE | Look after piano store (8) |
| P + RESERVE | ||
| 16 | ORAL | Said of men the French backed (4) |
| O.R. + <=LA | ||
| 18 | TAIL | Time and trouble required to fetch dog (4) |
| T + AIL | ||
| 19 | BRACELET | Couple hired band (8) |
| BRACE + LET | ||
| 21 | VINDICATED | Volume shown proved to be right (10) |
| V + INDICATED | ||
| 22 | CUFF | Hit copper on force with force (4) |
| CU + F + F | ||
| 24 | ETHEREAL | Heavenly in chalet here, always (8) |
| Hidden in “chalET HERE ALways” | ||
| 26 | NEEDLE | Bug in hand (6) |
| Not sure about th “in hand” bit | ||
| 27 | SCARED | Frightened? Son was concerned (6) |
| S + CARED | ||
| 28 | SALINGER | Wait on head of state and a US novelist (8) |
| LINGER on S(tate) A | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | REALM | True male domain (5) |
| REAL + M | ||
| 3 | CAESAR SALAD | Emperor and daughter unfortunately brought over for a dish (6,5) |
| CAESAR + <=D ALAS | ||
| 4 | PASSPORT | Travel document and free ticket left (8) |
| PASS + PORT | ||
| 5 | TEN GREEN BOTTLES | Song, number eg tenor belts out (3,5,7) |
| TEN + *(eg tenor belts) | ||
| 6 | SISKIN | Bird is soaring above hide (6) |
| <=IS + SKIN | ||
| 7 | RED | Embarrassed about diamonds (3) |
| RE + D(iamonds) | ||
| 8 | INVIOLATE | Free from injury, one girl landing in slack net (9) |
| I + VIOLA in *(net) | ||
| 13 | SMOKESCREEN | Diversion created by cigarette (filter) (11) |
| SMOKE + SCREEN | ||
| 15 | REALISTIC | Practical articles reproduced about electric current (9) |
| *(articles) about I (“electric current”) | ||
| 17 | CARDINAL | A red ace, say, in a line (8) |
| CARD IN A L | ||
| 20 | SCREED | Long speech made by saint on faith (6) |
| S + CREED | ||
| 23 | FALSE | Fine beer across the south? Untrue (5) |
| F + ALE across S | ||
| 25 | EAR | Nobleman briefly getting attention (3) |
| EAR(l) | ||
*anagram
Thanks, loonapick – much appreciated.
You may find that this wasn’t ‘the most exciting puzzle in the world’ (which I agree to)
but just be happy that it wasn’t a Loroso or an IO today.
That is if you still had other things to do tonight.
I wondered about ‘hand’ too but I think it is like ‘needle’ in the sense of a ‘pointer’ (like the ‘hand’ of a clock).
Meanwhile, ‘in’ is just a link word.
Yep.. not very exciting but 3d made me grin
Thanks loonapick and Falcon.
All very straightforward except for that curious 26ac.
Maybe Sil’s got it as in the needle of a compass (which is better than anything I came up with) but I’m still not convinced. We must be missing something.
Are you out there Falcon?
Thanks Falcon and loonapick
A great beginner’s puzzle with very straightforward clues, apart from the ‘needle / hand’ trick at 26a. There was a lot of use of single letters throughout the puzzle which he can do – a favourite trick being to have a single letter plus a long word to create another long word – such as in VINDICATED today.
Finished with SISKIN and STRAIN purely because that was where the pen ended in the grid journey rather than them being any more difficult than the rest.