My first Thursday, first Orense, and very nice too. Simple but satisfying. Sorry for late blog; the puzzle didn’t come on-line until mid-day for some reason.
So I solved it in the old-fashioned way with pen-and-(pink) paper. Enjoyed that, too. Thanks to Orense.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ARMISTICE | Ceasefire due to a fog covering river, and the effect of freezing (9) |
| A + MIST (‘fog’) surround R[iver] then ICE (‘the effect of freezing’). | ||
| 6 | ATRIA | A hearing finishing early in chambers (5) |
| A + TRIA(l) = ‘hearing’, foreshortened. | ||
| 9 | INDIA | Certain dialects found around part of Asia (5) |
| Inclusion (‘found around’) in ‘certaIN DIAlects’. | ||
| 10 | CLINGFILM | Wrap cold fish and initially freeze it with lime, oddly (9) |
| C[old] + LING (a ‘fish’) + F[reeze] + alternate letters (‘oddly’) of LiMe. | ||
| 11 | GOLDEN MEAN | The moderation of relocating gaoled men north (6,4) |
| Anagram (‘relocating’) of GAOLED MEN + N[orth]. | ||
| 12 | FELT | Experienced in soft fabric (4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 14 | THIN AIR | Into which mountain climbers may disappear? (4,3) |
| Eerie whole clue cryptic. I tried ‘hill fog’ for a while. | ||
| 15 | ECUADOR | Nation having trouble in developing cure (7) |
| ADO (‘trouble’) in anagram (‘developing’) of CURE. | ||
| 17 | SHEATHS | The girl has worried about time, and dresses (7) |
| SHE (‘the girl’) + anagram (‘worried’) of HAS, surrounding T[ime]. | ||
| 19 | ALPACAS | Animals unfortunately carrying the majority of packs (7) |
| ALAS (‘unfortunately’) surrounds 3/5 of PACks. | ||
| 20 | ARUM | Weapon used to protect uranium plant (4) |
| ARM (‘weapon’) around U[ranium]. | ||
| 22 | PORTCULLIS | Left on board, gather one’s entry may be barred by this (10) |
| PORT (‘left’ aboard ship) + CULL (to ‘gather’) includes 1, ‘one’s entry’ doing double-duty as part of the definiton. | ||
| 25 | ENCHILADA | Dish a client had suffered, with no end of salt (9) |
| Anagram (‘suffered’) of A CLIENT HAD, minus its ‘T’ (‘end of salT’). | ||
| 26 | KINKY | Unconventional black king taking precedence (5) |
| INKY (‘black’), preceded by K[ing]. | ||
| 27 | THREW | Cast finished on the radio (5) |
| Homophone (‘on the radio’) of THROUGH (‘finished’). | ||
| 28 | HEY PRESTO | The osprey flies as if by magic (3,6) |
| Pleasing anagram (‘flies’) of THE OSPREY. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | AGING | A spirit good for maturing (5) |
| A + GIN (‘spirit’) + G[ood]. | ||
| 2 | MADELEINE | Earned right of choice in business making cake (9) |
| MADE (‘earned’) + LINE (‘business’, as in ‘What’s My Line?’) containing ‘E’ (‘right’-hand letter of ‘choicE’), all evoking that Proustian almond taste… | ||
| 3 | SPARE PARTS | Uncast replacements? (5,5) |
| I.e., unfilled (‘spare’) rôles in a theatrical production may be said to be ‘un-cast’. | ||
| 4 | INCOMER | Immigrant needing wages before end of year (7) |
| INCOME (‘wages’) + R (= end of ‘yeaR’). | ||
| 5 | EMIRATE | English motorway charge for land in east (7) |
| E[nglish] + M1 (‘motorway’) + RATE (‘charge’). | ||
| 6 | ARGO | Ship of legend seeing freight skimmed (4) |
| cARGO. | ||
| 7 | RAISE | Listener’s up, accepting one’s lift (5) |
| EAR (‘listener’), spelt ‘upwards’ in this Down clue, to include ‘1’. | ||
| 8 | ARMATURES | Coils age in vehicles with no roof (9) |
| MATURE (‘age’) in cARS, (‘vehicles’) minus top letter. | ||
| 13 | LUMPSUCKER | Put up with mug and fish (10) |
| LUMP (‘put up with’, as in ‘like it or lump it’) + SUCKER (‘mug’, victim). | ||
| 14 | TESTAMENT | Legal document for international meant to be played (9) |
| TEST (‘international’ e.g. cricket match) + anagram (‘played’) of MEANT. | ||
| 16 | DOCKLANDS | Part of court estates in area by river (9) |
| DOCK (where accused stands in court) + LANDS (‘estates’). | ||
| 18 | STOMACH | Bear’s hunger felt here (7) |
| To tolerate (‘bear’) + cryptic (or double) def. | ||
| 19 | ACTUARY | Statistician in reality having right to replace lines (7) |
| ACTUALLY (‘in reality’) with its ‘LL’ (2x L[ine]) replaced by single R[ight]. | ||
| 21 | ULCER | Sore, but pulls clear reducing the odds (5) |
| Alternate letters (‘reducing the odds’) of pUlLs ClEAr. If indeed that is clear: an inordinate number of ‘L’s have to be deleted today which is irritating because the lower-case ‘L’ looks like an ‘i’, on my machine anyway. | ||
| 23 | SAY SO | Authority, for example, Scot regularly ignored (3-2) |
| SAY (‘for example’) + ScOt, alternate letters deleted (or ‘regularly ignored’). | ||
| 24 | VIEW | Struggle with opinion (4) |
| VIE (‘struggle’) + W[ith]. | ||
*anagram
Oops, slight mis-parse of PORTCULLIS. It’s PORT + CULL + 1’S, and def is just ‘entry may be…’ &c.
Nice puzzle. Failed to get KINKY and LUMPSUCKER. Never heard of the latter. Sounds dreadful. If it’s ever on the menu at my local chippy, I think I’ll give it a miss. Thanks to Orense and GB.
Thanks Orense and GB
in 10A, I think you have to have “initially F(reeze) I(t)”, as otherwise there’s no source for the I in FILM.
Worth doing this just to find out about LUMPSUCKER. I’d never heard of such a creature and I like the word, if not the look of the fish itself!
Generally quite gentle, which I’m not complaining about given my poor solving record lately, though with a few to make you think including the “small scorpaeniform marine fish of the family Cyclopteridae”‘, MADELEINE and ARMATURES.
Sorry to be picky, but 7d should be IS for ‘one’s’, not just I.
Thanks to Orense and Grant.
Having finished this crossword this morning, I just went back to read more of today’s (printed) FT and noticed that directly above the seven blanks in the grid for 14 across the Lex column had provided the answer, in the headline “UTC/Rockwell Collins: thin air”. I’ve never seen such a thing before.
Thanks, Orense, Grant and Lex.
To Simon@3
You’re quite right re the extra ‘I’ in 10a. Damn. I thought this was a simple puzzle but there’s always flippin’ something, isn’t there? My goal – all our goals – is to do The Perfect Blog, perfectly explained, perfectly punctuated, perfectly parsed and spelt. Three years now, and I’ve never once cracked it perfectly. Big party when I do.
Thanks Orense and Grant
Only got to this one today and found it a good level challenge that I finished off on the train ride home tonight. Quite a few terms that were new to me today – MADELEINE, ARMATURES, LUMPSUCKER, CLINGFILM (we call it Glad Wrap down here) and GOLDEN MEAN.
Thought that there was some nifty clueing in the puzzle, including a couple that took a bit of unravelling – PORTCULLIS and MADELEINE (had opted for a shipping LINE as the business, rather than just a ‘line of business’). Also enjoyed the neat ‘the osprey’ anagram.
Finished with KINKY which was another that took a bit of working out to get the wordplay which in hindsight looked rather simple.