I wasn’t anticipating having to blog this one, otherwise I would have made some notes when solving, but it seems that Turbolegs has work commitments that are preventing him from being here.
We were told that P has the same meaning throughout. It turned out to be painter. I found this trickier than the usual FT cryptics, partly because some of the painters were unknown to me and partly because of a couple of dubious anagram indicators. Then came the mental debate regarding 24dn which is still ongoing …
Across
1 Overdue by one fortnight, initially gets back in this position? (6)
FOETAL – LATE (overdue) O[ne] F[ortnight] (one fortnight, initially) reversed (back) – with extended def.
4 Cobbler’s headless nail from second Bible story (8)
SPARABLE – S (second) PARABLE (Bible story)
9 P reached around lunchtime? (6)
GIOTTO – GOT TO (reached) around 1 (lunchtime)
10 The FT’s said composer is a P (8)
AUERBACH – a homophone (said) of ‘our’ (the FT’s) plus BACH (composer)
12 Bride’s bottom drawer, although not primarily a P (8)
ROUSSEAU – [t]ROUSSEAU (bride’s bottom drawer, although not primarily)
13 Game Boy’s P (6)
RUBENS – RU (game) BEN’S (boy’s)
15 One who can predict P elsewhere will be out of country (4)
SEER – [land]SEER (P elsewhere will be out of country)
16 Supply euros to conceal libel that’s involved insurgent (10)
REBELLIOUS – an anagram (supply) of EUROS around (to conceal) an anagram (that’s involved) of LIBEL
19 Fourth Sunday in Lent, or alternative special date in month (7,3)
MOTHERS DAY – OTHER (alternative) S (special) D (date) in MAY (month)
20 P’s soft fruit, informally (4)
RASP – RA’S (P’s) P (soft)
23 P of sheep, for example (6)
RAMSAY – RAM (sheep) SAY (for example)
25 A new setter, one taking care of P (8)
ANGELICO – A N (new) GEL (setter) I (one) CO (care of)
27 P getting sand eel about right (8)
LANDSEER – an anagram (about) of SAND EEL followed by R (right)
28 Sailing ship making a right turn for P (6)
BRAQUE – BARQUE (sailing ship) with the A and R reversed (making a right turn)
29 Lousy bet, lost in stupid fashion (8)
OBTUSELY – an anagram (lost) of LOUSY BET
30 Way in which actress briefed model (6)
STREET – STREE[p] (actress briefed) T (model)
Down
1 People represented by P putting flower amongst fruit (7)
FIGURES – URE (flower {river}) in (putting … amongst) FIGS (fruit)
2 Posh people in motel brought about profit from working (9)
EMOLUMENT – U (posh) MEN (people) in an anagram (brought about) of MOTEL
3 In part, is this a P? (6)
ARTIST – contained in (in) ‘pART IS This’
5,14 A university lecturer in Penzance, employed as a P (4,7)
PAUL CEZANNE – A U (university) L (lecturer) in an anagram (employed) of PENZANCE
6 Those swimming largely with king or queen that’s beheaded P (8)
RORQUALS – R (king) OR QU (queen) [h]ALS (beheaded P)
7 P using soft reddish pigment (5)
BLAKE – B (soft {as in pencil leads}) LAKE (reddish pigment)
8 Sheep transported to American city once (7)
EPHESUS – an anagram (transported) of SHEEP followed by US (American)
11,26 P of weathercocks sailor found in market (7,4)
VANESSA BELL – VANES (weathercocks) plus AB (sailor) in SELL (market)
17 P elsewhere losing support, having first sold one a new female slave (9)
ODALISQUE – an anagram (new) of SOLD I (one) A followed by [bra]QUE (P elsewhere losing support)
18 Gets worse again, where errors are concerned (8)
RELAPSES – RE LAPSES (where errors are concerned)
19 Fruit content lacking for both Morisot and Uccello (7)
MORELLO – MOR[isot and uc]ELLO (content lacking for both Morisot and Uccello)
21 Launch / a venture (7)
PROJECT – double def.
22 P showing bum you are texting about? On the contrary (6)
SEURAT – U R (you are texting) in SEAT (bum)
24 P’s love for a P (5)
MONET – MaNET with the a changed to O (love) – I could make an equally valid case for MANET being the entry (it depends how you interpret the ‘s) and as the second letter isn’t checked this seems to me to be ambiguous.
Thanks, Gaufrid, for a great blog, especially given the circumstances.
I really did enjoy this challenge, which I made even tougher for myself initially. I always attempt the clues in order and my first entry was ROUSSEAU. ‘Aha’, I thought, ‘Philosophers!’ and then got absolutely nowhere with the next five P clues. Fortunately, it didn’t take log for LANDSEER to sort me out and put me on the right track.
Some of the painters were new to me, too, but excellently clued, so gettable. Fortunately, I remembered ODALISQUE and then wasted some time trying to fit DALI in as the painter.
I was left with the top right corner completely bare. I couldn’t get PARABLE out of my head for the bible story, so, to exorcise it, I looked up SPARABLE, ‘just for fun’ and, to my astonishment, found the cobbler’s headless nail! I then hazarded a guess at AUERBACH [a decent homophone] and found he did exist and a word search took me to the last unknown – RORQUALS: I loved the definition!
[I’m still kicking myself for searching for a painter called RASP.]
Some super clues – I think my favourites were PAUL CEZANNE and EPHESUS.
Huge thanks to Wanderer for a brilliant puzzle – I’ll even forgive MOTHER’S DAY as the fourth Sunday in Lent. 😉
This one was very tough.. couldnt get many. Tks for the blog
Quite an interesting challenge with a few too many obscurities. I have never ever heard of anyone calling raspberry RASP which rather upset the SE for me.
Many thanks to Gaufrid.
Hi copmus @3
I’d never heard of raspberries being called rasps until I met my Scottish husband. Chambers has it as ‘informal and Scottish’.
Gaufrid, I forgot to say that I parsed 24dn as you did: it seemed the obvious way to me.
Pretty hard work and ended up missing SPARABLE (which just seemed too improbable to be a real word), RASP (never come across this) and BLAKE (missed the B for ‘soft’ and didn’t know LAKE for the ‘reddish pigment’). A few other obscure, half-remembered words such as ODALISQUE also took a while to work out.
Still, fun trying to think of all the painters and worth the effort, even if I did fail in the end.
Thanks to Gaufrid (also agree about 24d) and Wanderer.
Thanks Wanderer and Gaufrid
This was tough – starting late on Friday night and lasting across the elapsed weekend when the tricky SEURAT (who I didn’t know) was finally written in late Sunday afternoon. LANDSEER was also my entry point into the theme, although with the number of painters that I didn’t know, it was still a long road to work through them all. I did like the reference to the P’s elsewhere in the couple of clues that utilised that – one quite easy .. the other quite testing.
Finished in the SE corner with BRAQUE (another new name for me), ODALISQUE (which I can never remember what it means until looking it up) and that SEURAT the last few in.
Great weekend entertainment …