People, you should try this. The Tuesday FT can be a bit ho-hum but today, Crux has produced a little masterpiece. If you can access it, trust me, there are at least half-a-dozen way-hay moments. No theme, no tricks, not at all hard, just pretty and with moments of beauty.
For the first time I’m not including a grid, which can be a bit of a spoiler. I’m also not singling out clues in this header. The blogger’s stand-by that ‘there are too many clues to pick a favourite’ was never truer than today. It’s a pleasure and a privilege to be involved in this one and I do hope you agree. Read (preferably solving before you do) on…
| Across | ||
| 1 | PALINDROME | No, It is opposition also from the east that makes this! (10) |
| Whole clue definition because NO IT IS OPPOSITION – read normally (west-east) then reversed (‘from the east’) – is a perfect palindrome. Lovely. | ||
| 7 | EVEN | Flat number showing here cancels opening (4) |
| The ‘number showing here’ is SEVEN (across). Cancel its opening letter and there you are. Two corkers to start with. | ||
| 9 | PLEA | What appeal could also mean with a third off (4) |
| You need to lose an ‘A’ and a ‘P’ – 2/6ths of the letters (‘a third off’) of APPEAL – then jumble the remainder (‘could also mean’) to give its synonym. I think, classically, that there ought to be an indication of which ‘A’ & ‘P’ should leave the fray but, go on, I’ll buy it. | ||
| 10 | CO-DIRECTOR | Doctor Rice set out to be top business partner (2-8) |
| Anagram (‘set out’) of DOCTOR RICE. | ||
| 11 | DO TIME | Stay as guest of Her Majesty, perhaps (2,4) |
| Cryptic whole-clue def. A prisoner (euphemistically, an HM Prison ‘guest’) serves a sentence or ‘does time’. | ||
| 12 | REPORTER | A revolutionary olde-worlde for every journalist (8) |
| Reversal (‘revolutionary’) of RETRO (‘olde-worlde’) + PER (‘for every’). | ||
| 13 | IDENTITY | A mostly innocent sort of parade (8) |
| Cryptic whole, and very nice too. | ||
| 15 | OAST | Sunday lunch not right for this kind of oven (4) |
| ROAST (a ‘Sunday lunch’, hi, Pierre) without its R[ight]. | ||
| 17 | DIOR | Police officer or fashion icon (4) |
| D[etective] I[nspector] (‘police officer’) + OR, for Christian of that ilk, design giant. | ||
| 19 | EPHESIAN | A ship ENE, roughly, of old Turkish town (8) |
| Anagram (‘roughly’) of A SHIP ENE, to give one of St. Paul’s addressees in Ephesus. | ||
| 22 | BECOMING | Turning out to be attractive (8) |
| Double definition. You can put the break between defs pretty much where you like, I think. | ||
| 23 | NUDIST | Turning brown is, with time, totally possible for club member (6) |
| Has to be a whole-clue job for the def; you can argue about the legitimacy but I love it. The word-play is DUN (‘brown’, reversed or ‘turning’) + IS + T[ime]. | ||
| 25 | WIFE OF BATH | Much-married lady with a story to tell (4,2,4) |
| Another pleasing whole-clue cryp. | ||
| 26 | AIRS | Broadcasts put on by the pretentious (4) |
| Double def. Radio 3 producers beware. | ||
| 27 | GNAT | An insect’s taste repels (4) |
| Reversal of TANG (‘taste’). | ||
| 28 | ENTANGLING | Fishing net, damaged at first, getting caught up (10) |
| Anagram (‘damaged’) of NET first, then ANGLING (‘fishing’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ALL TOLD | How the secrets came out altogether (3,4) |
| Double def. | ||
| 3 | IRAQI | Arab leaders of intifada resent anyone questioning it (5) |
| First letters (‘leaders’) of last 5 words. | ||
| 4 | DECREPIT | Mine follows detailed ruling, being old and feeble (8) |
| PIT (‘mine’) after DECREe (‘ruling’, shortened or ‘de-tailed’). | ||
| 5 | ORDERLY SERGEANT | Tidy soldier could be in a mess (7,8) |
| Some slight duplication, perhaps, but heigh-ho. | ||
| 6 | EUROPE | Old rupee convertible in some 50 countries here (6) |
| Anag (‘convertible’) of O[ld] & RUPEE | ||
| 7 | ESCARGOTS | Non-fat feast with loads, say, of French food (9) |
| Neat combination of FEAST with the letters of FAT deleted, leaving ES + CARGOTS = homophone (‘say’) of cargoes (‘loads’). Fine clueing, again. | ||
| 8 | EXOCETS | Private Cox easily carries around one of these missiles (7) |
| Reversed (‘carries around’) inclusion in ‘privaTE COX Easily’ gives the singular (‘one of these’) of Exocets. Note the accuracy of the word-play, once more. | ||
| 14 | NARROWEST | Slightest quarrel occurs in breeding location (9) |
| ARROW (‘quarrel’) in NEST (‘breeding location’). | ||
| 16 | CHIN-CHIN | Cheers for Hitchcock’s double feature (4-4) |
| Cheeky (or chinny) double definition. Film director Alfred Hitchcock possessed a marked double (at least) chin. | ||
| 18 | IBERIAN | West African’s first to be deposed by a Portuguese? (7) |
| LIBERIAN (‘West African’) with first letter removed (‘deposed’), giving a citizen of the Iberian peninsular. The spare ‘A’ is I take it dealt with by the question mark but I think the clue would pass muster without both. | ||
| 20 | ALSO-RAN | An unplaced racehorse may be too controlled (4-3) |
| ALSO (‘too’) + RAN (‘controlled’). Really sharp surface. | ||
| 21 | PIFFLE | Two fellows seduced by a lot of nonsense (6) |
| FF (‘two F[ellows]) taken into (‘seduced by’) PILE (‘a lot’). | ||
| 24 | DRAWL | Speak slowly to portray ultimate self-control (5) |
| DRAW (‘portray’) + L (‘ultimate’ letter of ‘self-controL’). | ||
*anagram
Yes, one to savour today. To pick out a few, 1a was brilliant and I also loved the IDENTITY ‘parade’, REPORTER and NUDIST. Interesting juxtaposition of GNAT and ENTANGLING at the bottom of the grid as well.
Thanks to Crux and Grant.
Good tip-off Grant. If you hadn’t been so enthused I would probably have gone with Radian on the train. Very enjoyable. Thought ORDERLY SERGEANT was great. Thanks S&B.
Thanks Crux and Grant
I parsed 9 slightly differently, as PLEA(se), which works equally well for me, as the ‘third’ is a straight cut, and seems to mean (!) that ‘mean’ is a little closer to its actual meaning {possibly getting a little tautologous there}.
Great puzzle indeed.
To Simon @3:
I think you’re probably right but, perversely, I also think that yr parsing makes for a slightly worse clue by disobeying the convention of proximity (e.g., you can’t have an anagram of a letter-sequence that isn’t before your eyes, such that ‘follow confused deity (3)’ can’t be ‘dog’). One for the General Discussion tab, I think.
Grant @ 4
Yes I see your point. I also take the one about conventions being better discussed in General Discussion (repeating myself again, sorry), so to keep to this specific clue, “What appeal could also be with a third off” seems to avoid the ambiguous use of ‘mean’ as an anagrind.
Doesn’t detract from the puzzle, though.
And to Simon again:
In the absence of any crossers, 9 by your parsing might also be PRAY(er), might it not?
Simon:
Sorry, crossed posts. See you in General Discuassin.
I had plea/please for 9A too….but take the points above
Thanks Crux and Grant
Did this one on the day, but very late to post after being caught up in the now painfully protracted process of signing up a new work contract. Anyway, I also thought that this was an interesting and well constructed puzzle that was not all that difficult apart from the WIFE OF BATH, having not read the Chaucer classic.
It was probably the clever cryptic definitions that put the icing on the cake of a set of clues that had some really good misdirection of definitions and silky smooth surfaces.
Finished down in the SW corner with BECOMING and the ‘much married lady’ as the last couple in.