There were a couple of classical references in here that I did not understand. Normally I manage to guess what to do from the rest of the clue but this time I needed Wikipedia to come to my aid. History and Classics are not my strong point but I’m certainly not complaining as one of the things I enjoy about crosswords is learning all that new stuff along the way. Thanks Dogberry.
The PDF version of this puzzle did not display correctly when I opened it on my PC. The numbers in the grid were replaced with a seemingly random selection of symbols found on the top line of a keyboard: &, ( and * for example. There is also a typo in 6 down dipomatically, I don’t know if this is related.
| Across | ||
| 1 | COFFER | Chest sound of annoying concertgoer (6) |
| sounds like cougher (annoying concert goer) | ||
| 4 | YARMOUTH | Immature person carrying weapon to port (8) |
| YOUTH (immature person) containing ARM (weapon) | ||
| 9 | RETINA | A US compound’s inverted membrane (6) |
| A NITER (North American spelling of nitre, a compound) reversed (inverted) | ||
| 10 | PANDARUS | Shakespearean animals (black and white) adopting sport (8) |
| PANDAS (animals, black and white) containing (adopting) RU (Rugby Union, a sport) – Pandarus is a character is Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida | ||
| 12 | MOLASSES | Spies eating idiot’s treacle (8) |
| MOLES (spies) containing (eating) ASS (idiot) | ||
| 13 | STROLL | Ramble resulting in introduction to school bully (6) |
| School (introduction to, first letter) TROLL (bully) | ||
| 15 | CUTE | Pretty snub nose, finally (4) |
| CUT (snub) and nosE (final letter of) | ||
| 16 | DISPUTE | Place in wrong side of argument (7) |
| PUT (place) in anagram (wrong) of SIDE | ||
| 20 | PARAGON | Exemplar to knock back old sporting event (7) |
| RAP (to knock) reversed (back) AGON (old sporting event, in ancient Greece) | ||
| 21 | PINK | Flower power popular with king (4) |
| P (power) IN (popular) with K (king) | ||
| 25 | LEALTY | Fidelity, once – yet all go astray (6) |
| anagram (go astray) of YET ALL – once indicates the word is archaic | ||
| 26 | SCHUMANN | Composer’s examination covers smell with note (8) |
| SCAN (examination) contains (covers) HUM (smell) then N (note) | ||
| 28 | UNDERTOW | Don’t pull hard enough for submerged current? (8) |
| UNDER TOW (don’t pull hard enough) | ||
| 29 | SERENE | Calm song after sunset needing publicity (6) |
| SERENadE (song after sunset) missing (needing) AD (advertisement, publicity) | ||
| 30 | HANDSOME | Ample range wasting energy in domicile (8) |
| ANDeS (range) missing (wasting) E (energy, symbol in equations) in HOME (domicile) | ||
| 31 | MOPTOP | Beatle to choose to interrupt cleaner? (6) |
| OPT (to choose) inside (inerrupting) MOP (cleaner) – The Beatles trademark haircut in their early days | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CERAMICS | Time for love in works of graphic art or pottery (8) |
| CoMICS (workd of graphic art) with ERA (time) replacing O (love, zero in tennis) | ||
| 2 | FATALITY | The Greatest adipose coating causing death (8) |
| ALI (Muhammad Ali, “The Greatest”) inside (with…coating) FATTY (adipose) – causing is a link word, what the wordplay will generate | ||
| 3 | ERNEST | Man discovering bird’s nest, finally (6) |
| ERNE’S (bird’s, the Sea Eagle) then nesT (final letter of) – discovering is also a link word, “this definition reveals this wordplay”. In this case I would have preferred the wordplay to have revealed the definition. | ||
| 5 | ARAB | Save a rising Semite (4) |
| BAR (save) A | ||
| 6 | MEDITATE | Think to behave dipomatically? About time! (8) |
| MEDIATE (to behave diplomatically) containing T (time) | ||
| 7 | UPROOT | Eradicate, or put round about (6) |
| anagram (about) of OUR PUT O (round) | ||
| 8 | HUSTLE | Scam leaves saint and student in shade (6) |
| ST (saint) and L (learner, student) in HUE (shade) | ||
| 11 | SEMINAR | Academic gathering returning artist to French city (7) |
| RA (Royal Academician) to NIMES (French city) all reversed (returning) | ||
| 14 | SPLOTCH | Plan to plug school with messy mark (7) |
| PLOT (plan) inside (to plug) SCH (school) | ||
| 17 | TARTARUS | Underworld scotched a Stuart monarch (8) |
| anagram (scotched) of A STUART and R (rex, a monarch) | ||
| 18 | FILAMENT | Wire one on limping nag, initially, into this paper (8) |
| I (one) LAME (limping) Nag initial letter of) in FT (this paper) | ||
| 19 | SKIN DEEP | Ooze involving sort of beauty, say (4-4) |
| SEEP (ooze) contains (involving) KIND (sort) | ||
| 22 | SLEUTH | Detective’s dodgy 8 (6) |
| anagram (dodgy) of HUSTLE | ||
| 23 | PARDON | What average Spanish gent? (6) |
| PAR (average) DON (Spanish gent) | ||
| 24 | TUXEDO | Kiss during love duet damaged waistcoat (6) |
| X (kiss) inside (during) anagram (damaged) of O (love, zero tennis) and DUET | ||
| 27 | FORM | Class with prior convictions (4) |
| double definition | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Thanks, PeeDee.
Lots to smile at here – especially the annoying concert-goer, the Tudor monarch [lovely clue!] and the Shakespearean animals.
I liked the construction of CERAMICS.
I was surprised to find NEST in both clue and answer in 3dn but, otherwise, all sound stuff, as usual.
Many thanks to Dogberry for a most enjoyable puzzle.
Hello Eileen,
I had not noticed that. Thinking along those lines we could also have tERn (bird, uncovered) has NEST (finally, at the end of the solution)
Hi PeeDee – I didn’t notice it when solving, constructing it as you did: I had the crossers and ERNE pops up quite frequently. [I didn’t notice the typo in ‘diplomatically’, either.]
The PDF version of 15,641 didn’t display correctly on my PC either. The grid had little boxes to the top left of each clue’s first letter space, with no numbers in them, and the small solution grid for a previous xword had similar small boxes without letters in in every letter space. This is something that I’ve seen it a few times before, at seemingly random intervals. Mildly irritaing but doesn’t stop you solving it, you put in the clue numbers following each row left to right from the top down.
Also occasionally that day’s xword hasn’t been uploaded to ft.com/crssword when you open it!
I tried downloading the PDF and opening it using Adobe Acrobat and that worked OK. I think it must be a problem with the PDF plug-in for the browser. I expect it is missing some fonts that the desktop version of Adobe Acrobat has. Strictly speaking a PDF document like this should not be dependent on the reader having a particular font installed, but I doubt any of the setters or editors are that technically minded.
Re the download problem, I use Foxit Reader (less bulky, I believe, than Acrobat), and it opened fine.
hth
Nice puzzle but I had to check Tartarus and Pandarus, a new comic duo.
I think 3d was a bit of an odd clue.
It must be ERNE’S + T, though.
Thanks PeeDee.
In your blog, NITRE should be NITER (9ac).
Thanks Sil, fixed now.
I was astonished to see “tuxedo” equated with a waistcoat. I’ve always associated it with a dinner jacket and the dictionaries I’ve consulted do also.
Sasquatch – I can’t find it anywhere either. I’m sorry to say that at the time I just assumed that waistcoat was another meaning for tuxedo and didn’t bother to look it up. Lazy of me.
Hi. Anyone can upload a link to ft puzzle 15642? Does not appear on the FT page .
Pbzepellin – the puzzle is there now, try again.
Thanks Dogberry and PeeDee
Started this one yesterday with the write-in MOPTOP at 31a and finished with SEMINAR.
A good variety of devices used throughout and quite a few where it was a matter of constructing an answer from the wordplay and then looking up a new word to see what it meant – PANDARUS, PARAGON (the AGON part anyway) and TARTARUS.
Find this grid with those crossing 7-letter words (with only 3 lights exposed) in the middle tend to give me the most problems.
Still an enjoyable solve on what was a pretty miserable day down here !