An unbelievably devious challenge from WANDERER this Friday. Thanks Wanderer.
On my first pass of the puzzle, I solved a grand total of 1 clue. After that, light bulbs started going off in a periodic manner. Several clues upon solving, left me with the same feeling as though I had completed the entire puzzle! Not ashamed to say that I had to use the web a few times to fill the gaps in my GK (or) confirm my parsing.
FF: 9 DD: 10
| Across | ||
| 1 | PLEBEIAN | Unrefined Ecstasy taken by quiet homosexual the Sun outed (8) |
| P (quiet) [ LEsBIAN (homosexual, without ‘s’ – sun) containing E (ecstacy) ] | ||
| 5 | SPRUNG | Having no children to manage, good as mattress may be (6) |
| SP (sine prole – latin for having no issue) RUN (manage) G (good) | ||
| 9 | SELF WILL | Obstinacy of writer putting last name first (4-4) |
| WILL SELF (writer) with last name moving in front | ||
| 10 | See 22 | |
| 11 | APIARIST | A Cockney bum overwhelmed by depression? He’s probably got hives (8) |
| A [ ARIS (cockney bum) covered by PIT (depression) ] | ||
| 12 | See 24 | |
| 14 | SAN ANTONIO | Grandma’s turning 100, seen by satellite in Texan city (3,7) |
| charade of SANAN (grandma’s = NANA’S) TON (100) IO (satellite) | ||
| 18 | REASONABLE | Subversive gets beheaded? That’s OK (10) |
| tREASONABLE (subversive, without first letter) | ||
| 22, 10 | EALING COMEDY | Passport to Pimlico possibly a Cockney’s way of better getting to Notting Hill? (6,6) |
| hEALING (cockney’s way of getting better) COMEDY (notting hill, a comedy movie starring hugh grant) – passport to pimlico was a movie made by ealing studios in 1949. wiki here | ||
| 23 | IAN SMITH | Former PM hasn’t one? I’m surprised (3,5) |
| HASNT I (one) IM* – found out that he was the PM in Rhodesia | ||
| 24, 12 | EDWINA CURRIE | Journalist to succeed with article prior to hearing of Indian politician (6,6) |
| ED (journalist) WIN (succeed) A (article) CURRIE (sounds like curry, indian) | ||
| 25 | BEDAUBED | Two bachelors outside a university, plastered (8) |
| BED BED (two bachelors, Bachelor of Education) outside A U (university) | ||
| 26 | NUDIST | Female’s in the buff, if this? (6) |
| DI’S (female’s) in NUT (buff) – lovely clue !! | ||
| 27 | STUDENTS | Those taking course south, following Stewart and Arthur hitch-hiking (8) |
| S (south) after [ STU (steward) DENT (arthur, from the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy) ] – Thats the only work of douglas adams i have read, and find it absolutely witty/amusing. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | POSTAL | East German in China gets this sort of vote? (6) |
| OST (german for east) in PAL (china?) | ||
| 2, 19 | EEL PIE ISLAND | Former hippy commune’s ideal: sleeping around endlessly (3,3,6) |
| IDEAL SLEEPINg* (endlessly, without last character) | ||
| 3, 20 | EDWARD GIBBON | Historian who wrote of a meeting of king and primate (6,6) |
| EDWARD (king) GIBBON (primate) – author “the history of the decline and fall of the roman empire” | ||
| 4 | ABLE SEAMAN | One to be found in cabin shortly? (4,6) |
| ABLE SEAMAN is abbreviated as AB, found in cABin shortly (i.e. without all the letters). I wonder if the usual usage of ‘shortly’ is being stretched here, unless I got the parsing wrong. | ||
| 6 | PRODUCTS | Things made for Tube stations, primarily (8) |
| PRO (for) DUCT (tube) S (Stations, primarily) | ||
| 7 | UNERRING | Sure sign of love given by one foreign Romeo (8) |
| UNE (french for 1) R (romeo) RING (sign of love) | ||
| 8 | GLYCEROL | Clergy corrupted with essentially diabolical sweetener (8) |
| CLERGY* with OL (essentially diabOLical) | ||
| 13 | PARLIAMENT | Seen in the Guardian, an Irish boy’s diet? (10) |
| LIAM (irish boy) in PARENT (guardian) | ||
| 15 | TREE FERN | Growth of tumour now starts to restrict joint (4,4) |
| TN (Tumour Now, starts) containing REEFER (joint) | ||
| 16 | HALLOWED | Hard-to-let sort of ground (8) |
| H (hard) ALLOWED (let) | ||
| 17 | MORNINGS | When The Times will appear as indicated by some chambermaids (8) |
| chAMbermaids (some) denoting mornings. | ||
| 19 | See 2 | |
| 20 | See 3 | |
| 21 | SHADES | Protection for pupils in Sunderland? (6) |
| S-HADES (s-underland) | ||
*anagram
This was quite a brilliant one, wasnt it.. had Sprung as Spring (had it as off-spring is issue, no issue is spring and beds have springs), SP latin stuff is way beyond me :)..hence unerring became inerrant which does not of course parse well with the romeo etc… damn the S-hades bit escaped me ! nice one.. also didnt get to the nut=buff part of nudist ..isnt Hallowed a kind of @lit.. same issues as above with able seaman.. unless it is a literal def of ship cabins
You got a tough one there Turbolegs, well done! I thought of PLEBEAN but my bad spelling let me down so failed to get that one. I should have looked it up in the dictionary.
AM in chambermaids seemed a bit tenuous to me, but I think your explanation is right.
4dn: I think “shortly” just means that ABLE SEAMAN is abbreviated to AB
Thanks for parsing of SPRUNG and NUDIST.I liked it.
A puzzle full of ‘light bulb’ moments perfect for a rainy Friday morning – I too wondered whether AM in chambermaids and AB in cabin were a bit ‘stretched’ but apart from that an enjoyable time was had.
Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs too
Yes, this was one of the hardest Wanderers I’ve done so far (and I’ve probably done them all).
I couldn’t parse 21d (SHADES) with a device more suitable to the Guardian – although, the FT has Goliath.
I was also a bit reluctant to enter MORNINGS at 17d.
Doing a similar trick as in 4d wasn’t very satisfactory – as others said, this one is even more of a stretch.
Altogether, a splendid crossword by one of the FT’s best.
One thing that always catches the eye in Wanderer’s puzzles is the symmetrical grid-filling of clues with multiple slots (today 22/10, 24/12, 2/19 and 3/20).
It restricts the setter when trying to fill the rest of the grid with non-obscure words.
Once more, he succeeded very well.
Only niggle for me was 2,19.
The clue tells us first to take the anagram and then to skip a letter (i.e. the last).
That does not have to be the G, it could be any of the fodder.
Perhaps, Wanderer should have said ‘endlessly sleeping around’.
I admit, the clue as it is reads better.
Many thanks Turbolegs for blogging.
In a 1 hour journey on public transport I managed 1 clue. Apiarist. And I was not even sure about that. Now looking at the solutions here I realise what a brilliantly devious crossword it is. Thanks Turbolegs and Wanderer. Woke up thinking about this one!
Thanks all, for stopping by. I couldn’t help but notice how the FT this week offered a wide range of difficulty, with the challenge from FLIMSY all the way to this one (and I did love Alberich’s as well).
I am yet to make the connect between PAL and China in 1d – I just left that there as it seemed to be the only way that clue would work. Would like to get closure on that if anybody can help.
PD@2 – I still am a bit “iffy” about your take on ‘shortly’ in 4dn. If it appeared earlier in the sentence, might have been ok.
SIl@5 – I had the same query as you did on MORNINGS for AM at 17d, but couldn’t do any better than that.
AFWard@6 – I can empathize with you quite well, I found myself in the exact same spot and was really having some serious doubts about being able to solve the grid in time for the blog. If my memory serves me right, my first one in was 8d – I find anagrams relatively easier to solve than other types of clues and try to make my way from there.
Regards,
TL
Srividya@1 – Sorry, missed you on the note above. Re 26ac, ‘buff’ here is used in the context of “..he is a sports buff!”, a keen enthusiast.
Regards,
TL
Excellent puzzle – most enjoyable. Wanderer is rapidly becoming a favourite setter.
Turbolegs, thank you for the blog. As regards your question @7 (and in the blog itself), I think “pal” and “China” are two words for mate / friend. The latter is rhyming slang, from “China plate”.
Hi Giudice@9,
Ref that clue, if that was indeed the intent, the clue would have worked better with a cockney reference.
Regards,
TL
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
It was a tough start – my first in was SHADES.
A lot of clever stuff going on here interlaced with both general knowledge (Arthur DENT, both comedy films and IAN SMITH) and local knowledge (EEL PIE ISLAND, WILL SELF and EDWINA CURRIE) which made it a good challenge.
Strangely enough, with the two similar devices of AB and AM – saw the first, but not the second !! Also hadn’t seen the Cockney ARIS before either.
Was satisfied to get it out with an initial session on the train ride home from work on Friday and another after dinner that night with a liberal amount of Mrs Google and friends. !