Trademark cheek-puffing anagrams and some evocative surfaces from Sayang this morning.
The two monster-grams also seem to form a mini-theme of Chinese landmarks though I can’t see much beyond them. Otherwise, a very satisfying solve. Thanks, Sayang.
| Across | ||
| 1, 6 | TERRACOTTA ARMY | Crematory art at assembled collection of sculptures (10,4) |
| Anagram (‘assembled’) of CREMATORY ART AT. Nearly 9,000 lifesize soldiers of the army of Qin Shi Huang, first emperor of China. | ||
| 10 | ENNUI | Don left out innuendo – producing boredom (5) |
| Anagram (‘producing’) of INNUENDO without DON. Are we missing an ‘of’ here? | ||
| 11 | THESAURUS | House he’s found in reference book (9) |
| TAURUS (the astrological ‘house’) contains HE’S. | ||
| 12 | FIREBALL | Live wire at the dance after excitement (8) |
| FIRE (‘excitement’) then BALL. | ||
| 13 | NONCE | Name a single occasion for the present (5) |
| N (for ‘name’) + ONCE. Nice word, ‘nonce’. Pity it’s been bagged as prison slang. | ||
| 15 | ANIMATE | Enliven a Northern Ireland colleague (7) |
| A NI mate is a ‘Northern Ireland colleague’. | ||
| 17 | SATISFY | One down rising to please (7) |
| The reverse (‘rising’) of 1 Down – TEEM – gives us ‘meet’, to ‘satisfy’. | ||
| 19 | AMNESIA | Mother back with anise treatment for loss of memory (7) |
| MA (‘mother’) + anag. of ANISE. | ||
| 21 | See 27 | |
| 22 | LOCAL | Watering hole in the neighbourhood (5) |
| Double definition, though slightly tautologous, I think. The pub is your local presisely because it’s in your neighbopurhood. Though maybe it’s a whole-clue, not-very-cryptic definition | ||
| 24 | ELECTRIC | To re-elect Richard Nixon was essentially startling (8) |
| Inclusion (‘essentially’) in ‘re-ELECT RIChard’, the ‘Nixon’ being a piece of tricky-dicky misdirection. America seems periodically to wish ill on itself. Not this time, we trust. | ||
| 27, 21 | GREAT WALL OF CHINA | Territorial protection from a whole flat racing programme (5,4,2,5) |
| Remarkable 16-letter anagram – Sayang’s specialitiy – of A WHOLE FLAT RACING. | ||
| 28 | OMEGA | Watch a precious stone beginning to opalise back (5) |
| A+GEM+O (first letter of ‘Opalise’), all reversed. | ||
| 29 | CORD | Rope in agreement without a consensus at first (4) |
| ACCORD without its first 2 letters. | ||
| 30 | KEEP TABS ON | Monitor to continue to wear labels? (4,4,2) |
| Double definition. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TEEM | To be full of private emotion (4) |
|
Inclusion in ‘privaTE EMotion’, the definition doing double duty as the inclusion indicator. |
||
| 2 | RENDITION | Performance I crashed into after break (9) |
| REND (‘break’) then ‘I’ then anag. (‘crashed’) of INTO. | ||
| 3 | ABIDE | Put up with a tender knee finally (5) |
| A+BID+E (‘kneE’, finally). | ||
| 4 | OUTRAGE | Resistance during power failure resulted in fury (7) |
| OUTAGE – good word, imho – seems to have been imported from the U.S. to replace ‘power break’. Here, it surrounds ‘R’ for ‘resistance’. | ||
| 5 | TRELLIS | Framework measure at risk without walls surrounding (7) |
| My CoD and last parsed. ELL is an old word for, roughly, an arm’s length. Around that, we place ‘aT RISk’, omitting those outside letters or ‘walls’. | ||
| 7 | RERUN | Another broadcast on career (5) |
| ‘RE’ (‘on’ or ‘concerning’)+RUN, (‘career’ as verb). | ||
| 8 | YESTERYEAR | Yes, tyre crack received attention in the past (10) |
| Anagram of YES TYRE, then EAR (‘attention’). | ||
| 9 | MAGNETIC | Attractive take-home pay in the occult (8) |
| Your ‘take-home’ pay is your NET wage. Put it into MAGIC (‘the occult’). Probably safer then a pension pot these days. | ||
| 14 | PARAPLEGIC | Physically challenged soldier floating down with leg wrapped in film (10) |
| Pleasing image. A PARA (parachuting soldier, one ‘floating gently down’), then LEG surrounded by PIC for ‘film’. | ||
| 16 | ABSOLUTE | Total absence leads to old lover undergoing tearful emotions (8) |
| Nice misdirection in ‘total absence’ and a neat parse, too. ABS (for ‘absence’, as in a school register), then the ‘leads’ – i.e. first letters – of the last 5 words. | ||
| 18 | SLIMINESS | “I’m sinless” articulated disgusting quality (9) |
| Anagram (‘articulated’) of I’M SINLESS. | ||
| 20 | AVERAGE | State takes a long time – this is mean (7) |
| AVER (‘state’)+AGE. | ||
| 21 | OVERLAP | Friend upset after deliveries coincide (7) |
| PAL reversed after OVER (6 ‘deliveries’ in cricket). | ||
| 23 | CHEER | Support companion always (5) |
| CH (for ‘Companion of Honour’) then E’ER, poetic for ‘always’> | ||
| 25 | TRONA | Electron accelerator producing a native salt (5) |
| Inclusion in ‘elecTRON Accelerator’. ‘Trona’ was new to me, as was the use of ‘native’ to mean ‘naturally occurring’… | ||
| 26 | MAIN | Principal game of chance (4) |
| … as was MAIN to mean ‘a game of chance’ in this double def. Educational chaps, crosswords. | ||
*anagram
Several ‘write-ins’ to get me started through to ‘rather tricky’ at the end.
Thank you Sayang and Grant (agree re 25.)
re “missing” ‘of’ in 10, maybe ‘out’ was intended as the anagrind?
Thanks Sayang and Grant
It does look like lonely Tuesday in FT blog-land.
Am afraid that I found this a bit of a curate’s egg to be honest, finding a number of clues not just straightforward, but ‘contrivedly’ so – almost what one might expect in the church magazine (if one subscribed to them) – 12a, 19a, 28a (if you knew the brand), 3d and 20d. There was also the repeated use of the inclusion device …
On the other hand, there were the two splendid Chinese clues, the well-constructed 30a and the clever ABSOLUTE (which was my last one in). There was also the new learning with MAIN (gambling term) and TRONA (completely new) and both imminently gettable from the wordplay.
I saw the invisible comma after ‘out’ in 10a – so I think that is fair enough.
Was able to fill the grid without any ambiguity, so in that sense the setter has well and truly done his job – thanks again, Sayang.
My first encounter with Sayang (though aware of his blogs/contributions here as Uncle Yap – does this help in securing a compiling slot I wonder?).
Though I solved many FT puzzles in a prior century, I rarely do now so my view is derived from a single example. And my view is that this would make a worthy appearance in a Monday Guardian.
Thanks to Sayang and Grant Baynham.
Hi William
Had also come back to the FT puzzles after breaking my teeth on them for a few years during the 1990’s. Generally, I have found that they are an order of magnitude harder these days than they were back then. Typically Weds – Fri are when the more challenging puzzles are set.
Suggest that you try puzzles by Aardvark, Alberich, Wanderer, Redshank, Chalmie and of course Io (aka Enigmatist, if you are really masochistic).
Hi Bruce – Many thanks for your advice, very useful. Yes, I am a little masochistic (but only cruciverbally of course!). And I can enjoy an Enigmatist/Io – though I recall a recent New Year’s Eve (I think) when JH was in three different places on the same day – a surfeit of Hendersons perhaps.
All the best – Wx