Quite a stiff challenge for a Tuestay FT from Armonie and I’m sorry but you’ll have to make up your own answers…
Only joking. The puzzle is solved but, apologies, I’m doing this on the road on a machine which doesn’t allow highlighting of solutions or anything else. Happily, no solutions today were particularly controversial (unless you think otherwise), although some of the clueing was hard graft. Read on…
| Across | ||
| 1 | TICKLE | The moment the Parisian gives delight (6) |
| TICK (‘moment’) + LE (‘the’, to a Frenchman or ‘Parisian’). | ||
| 4 | PAVEMENT | Flags welcome crew in port (8) |
| AVE (‘welcome’ in Latin) + MEN (‘crew’) in (‘welcomes’) PT, abb. of ‘port’. With ‘flags’ as a pretty skinny def. of ‘pavement’, I thought this dashed hard work for a Tuesday but, hey, keeps us on our toes. | ||
| 10 | LEND A HAND | Help finish a hotel in the country (4,1,4) |
| END (‘finish’) + A + H[otel] in LAND (‘country’). | ||
| 11 | TOILE | Work with oriental fabric (5) |
| TOIL (‘work’) + E[astern] or ‘oriental’. | ||
| 12 | COCK | Prepare to shoot a bird (4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 13 | MALEFACTOR | Man’s steward is a criminal (10) |
| MALE (‘man’s’) + FACTOR (‘steward’). Obviously, we were all looking for a 10-letter anagram (‘criminal’ a common indicator) of STEWARD IS A. Not this time. I’m not quite clear whether that’s conventional or not. Screwed me for a bit anyway. Fair(ish) play. | ||
| 15 | STIPEND | Allowance arranged? Spend it! (7) |
| Anagram (‘arranged’) of SPEND IT. Liked this. | ||
| 16 | SPOUSE | Partner sees prince in pickle (6) |
| P[rince] in SOUSE (‘pickle’). | ||
| 19 | STOOLS | Old Bob impresses designs on seats (6) |
| S[hilling], ‘bob’ being – for younger solvers – a nickname thereof + TOOLS (‘impresses designs on’, as done by leather- or metal-workers). | ||
| 21 | SEEPAGE | Notice attendant making dripping (7) |
| SEE (‘notice’) + PAGE (‘attendant’). | ||
| 23 | BY AND LARGE | Anger badly dealt with on the whole (2,3,5) |
| Rather nice anag. (‘dealt with’) of ANGER BADLY. | ||
| 25 | ATOP | In a superior position at work (4) |
| AT + OP (‘work’). | ||
| 27 | SEPIA | The colour of peas I cooked (5) |
| Anag. (‘cooked’) of PEAS I. | ||
| 28 | PROSCRIBE | Ostracise professional writer (9) |
| PRO[fessional] – tho’ that seems to me a bit duplicatory (should tha word exist0 – + SCRIBE (‘writer’). | ||
| 29 | DECODERS | Does without fish suppers initially? They’re crackers! (8) |
| DEER (‘does’ being another possible female plural, d’you see?) outside (or ‘without’, found only ever in crosswords or the in the hymn “There is a Green Field Far Away [Without a City Wall]… “, anyway DEER surrounding the word COD (‘fish’) then S(uppers) to finish it all off. I would say that there are enough plurals knocking around already for the ‘S’ to be unnecesssary, but still a lovely & lively clue & definition (the definition being ‘crackers’ for code-breakers, if you’re still following this). |
||
| 30 | VERGER | Limit rule of church official (6) |
| VERGE (‘limit’) + R[ule]. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TELECAST | Select at random what’s on TV (8) |
| Anagram (‘at random’) of SELECT AT. | ||
| 2 | CONSCRIPT | One enlisted to study calligraphy (9) |
| CON (‘study’) + SCRIPT (‘calligraphy’). | ||
| 3 | LEAR | Sovereign’s appreciation of humorist (4) |
| H’mm, not sure. King LEAR is clearly a ‘sovereign’ and Edward LEAR clearly a ‘humorist’. Chambers gives LEAR as ‘something which is learned, a lesson’ which could be construed as an ‘appreciation’, so I’m putting this down as a triple definition until told otherwise. | ||
| 5 | ADDRESS | Speak to a department on clothing (7) |
| A + D[epartment] + DRESS. | ||
| 6 | EXTRA COVER | More protection for fielder (5,5) |
| Boring to put it this way, but EXTRA (‘more’) + COVER (‘protection’) gives us ‘extra cover’, a ‘fielder’, the position where I would ask to play in my later cricketing years because at our ground it was closest to the bar. | ||
| 7 | EDICT | Tory introduced to rewrite act (5) |
| C[onservative] (‘Tory’) included in EDIT. | ||
| 8 | THEORY | People accepting alternative hypothesis (6) |
| THEY (‘people’) includes (‘accepting’) OR (‘alternative’). | ||
| 9 | HAZARD | Danger for firm receiving a final letter (6) |
| HARD (‘firm’) includes Z (‘final letter”). | ||
| 14 | SECOND HAND | Deputy seaman often found on watch (6,4) |
| Double def. | ||
| 17 | STARTLING | Begin with fish? That’s extraordinary! (9) |
| START + LING (‘fish’). | ||
| 18 | REAPPEAR | Come back to harvest fruit (8) |
| REAP + PEAR. | ||
| 20 | SNAPPER | Soldier eats a bit of nutritious fish (7) |
| SAPPER (Royal Engineer, a ‘soldier’) includes N(utritious). | ||
| 21 | SIGNOR | Sons endlessly cold-shoulder Italian (6) |
| S[ons] (abbreviation for ‘sons’ in e.g. Who’s Who where ‘2s’ = ‘2 sons’) then IGNORe, (‘cold-shoulder’ minus end letter). | ||
| 22 | ABUSED | Mistreated sailor took drugs (6) |
| AB (Able Seaman, ‘sailor’) + USED (‘took drugs’). | ||
| 24 | ASPIC | Delia’s pickle contains jelly (5) |
| Inclusion in ‘deliAS PIckle’. | ||
| 26 | ACRE | Champion protects king in Israel (4) |
| ACE (‘champion’) surrounds R[ex] (‘king’) to givei Israeli city. | ||
*anagram
All going in very smoothly until I reached the last few including MALEFACTOR – yes, conned into thinking ‘criminal’ indicated an anagram – and PAVEMENT my last in which I too thought was (too) hard work. Couldn’t parse LEAR properly as I’d never heard of the ‘something which is learned’ meaning, but it does look as though it could be a triple def.
I liked SEEPAGE (? a lavatorial coincidence it was next to STOOLS on the grid), but highlight for me was definitely DECODERS. A great clue and worth doing the crossword for this one alone.
Thanks to Armonie and Grant.
3d is L (pound, sovereign) + EAR (attention)
Put me down for another one confused about LEAR. I suspect your triple definition is correct but the second is also new to me. Failed to get 13a – I didn’t know that meaning for FACTOR and, yes, I also began by looking for an anagram. My favourite was 23a.
Thanks Andrew. That makes more sense.
Andrew’s parse of LEAR is clearly right (tho’ I thought my triple definition a valiant attempt) and I’d just like to say that the hymn is “There is a Green HILL Far Away” &c before Mycroft – who’s a vicar – jumps in.
Are you sure?
Why is EAR = appreciation?
Andrew mentions ‘attention’, the clue doesn’t.
On second thoughts, I withdraw my comment @6.
Thanks Armonie and Grant
Found this pretty straightforward as usual from this setter. There were a couple of definitions that did make me think though – FACTOR for steward and ‘flags’ to mean PAVEMENT. Liked ‘crackers’ for DECODERS.
Wasn’t able to properly parse LEAR – so thanks Andrew (dunno whether I could’ve copped the triple definition theory 😮 )