Good puzzle with flashes of wit.
I liked 13 & 20 particularly. Coupla quibbles but otherwise a solid Tuesday offering. Thanks, Jason.
| Across | ||
| 1 | FACTOR | Influence female luvvie? (6) |
| F[emale] + ACTOR (‘luvvie’). | ||
| 4 | FLOTILLA | Fleet stacks one in unfortunate fall (8) |
| LOT (‘stacks’) in anagram (‘unfortunate’) of FALL. | ||
| 10 | BURNISH | Buff brand is hot (7) |
| BURN (‘brand’) + IS + H[ot]. | ||
| 11 | BOARDER | Wild pig facing the German schoolchild (7) |
| BOAR (‘wild pig’) + DER (‘the’ in German). | ||
| 12 | AFAR | Seafarer’s heart is long way away (4) |
| Centre (‘heart’) of seAFARer. | ||
| 13 | FEET OF CLAY | Weakness? No, these used to float like a butterfly (4,2,4) |
| Cryptic, ref. boxing. The Greatest, Cassius Clay, later Mohammad Ali, used to ‘float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’. | ||
| 16 | CANYON | Gorge and get rid of that (6) |
| CAN (‘get rid of’) + YON (‘that’ in t’north). | ||
| 17 | VOLCANO | Very cool, an active smoker? (7) |
| V[ery] + anagram (‘active’) of COOL AN. | ||
| 20 | BANSHEE | One of The Wailers outlaws incomplete list (7) |
| BANS (‘outlaws’) + HEE(l), to ‘list’ without end letter. | ||
| 21 | FACILE | Superficial dossier about a college (6) |
| FILE (‘dossier’) around A C[ollege]. | ||
| 24 | WELL I NEVER | Gosh! Oil supplier, popular always (4,1,5) |
| WELL (‘oil supplier’) + IN (‘popular’) + EVER (‘always’). | ||
| 25 | AGAR | Backing newspaper about food thickening (4) |
| RAG (‘newspaper’) + A[bout], all reversed. | ||
| 27 | AIRLIFT | Transport overhead if trial must be shifted (7) |
| Anagram (‘must be shifted’) of IF TRIAL. | ||
| 29 | COMPERE | MC is brother from Bordeaux on committee (7) |
| COM[mittee] + PERE (French – from e.g. ‘Bordeaux’ – for senior monk or ‘brother’, confusingly). | ||
| 30 | SINISTER | Left base (8) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 31 | MORRIS | Folk dance in Nottingham or Risley (6) |
| Inclusion in ‘nottinghaM OR RISley’. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FOBWATCH | Timepiece turned up of black guard (3,5) |
| FO (‘turned up OF’) + B[lack] + WATCH (‘guard’). Not quite sure the surface here is grammatical. | ||
| 2 | CURTAIN CALL | Acknowledging appearance I run with catcall happily (7,4) |
| Anagram (‘happily’, an unusual indicator, ‘sadly’ being more frequent) of I RUN + CATCALL. Slight duplication here? | ||
| 3 | OMIT | Miss nothing with German (4) |
| O (‘nothing’) + MIT (German for ‘with’). | ||
| 5 | LIBATION | Monarch set aside freedom offering gift (8) |
| LIBerATION (‘freedom’) without ER (‘monarch’) for drink as gift-offering. | ||
| 6 | TRAFFIC JAM | A rift developed about fine cloudy preserve – no-one moves in it (7,3) |
| Anagram (‘developed’) of A RIFT around F[ine] + C[loudy] (new abbreviation to me) + JAM (‘preserve’). | ||
| 7 | LID | Top firm thus toppled (3) |
| soLID without SO (‘thus’). | ||
| 8 | ARROYO | A run with Rovers’ footballer round gully (6) |
| A + R[un] + ROY (of the ‘Rovers’, Wizard comic-book ‘footballer’) + O (’round’). | ||
| 9 | CHEEK | Chap with attitude (5) |
| DD. | ||
| 14 | LANDING GEAR | Potentially are dangling in wheels etc (7,4) |
| Anagram (‘potentially’) of ARE DANGLING. | ||
| 15 | LOW SPIRITS | Sad state to be in, short on gin and bottle? (3,7) |
| Crytic def, ‘bottle’ here taken to mean determination or ‘spirit’. | ||
| 18 | RESETTLE | Move disturbing letters by European (8) |
| Anagram (‘disturbing’) of LETTERS + E[uropean]. | ||
| 19 | PEERLESS | Without equal – like the House of Commons (8) |
| Peers may not sit in the lower house of Parliament. | ||
| 22 | SWEATS | Women occupying chairs in “day wear”, for some (6) |
| W[omen] in SEATS (‘chairs’) to give abb. for ‘sweatpants’. What an unpleasant word. | ||
| 23 | REACH | Run with every contact (5) |
| R[un] + EACH (‘every’). | ||
| 26 | AMMO | Modus operandi topped by morning rounds (4) |
| AM (‘morning’) atop M[odus] O[perandi]. | ||
| 28 | RUN | Trip breaking urn (3) |
| Anagram (‘breaking’) of URN. | ||
*anagram
Chap=cheek? 9D
To Oldham,
Yup, chap = cheek in Chambers. Pork chaps, slow-cooked, are delicious.
Thanks
Hi Grant, excuse me, but you’ve done it again! I’ve just finished writing my blog to find that I’ve wasted my time!
Nice to have a quick solve after the marathons from the Guardian and the Independent. Failed to get CHEEK being unaware of this meaning of ‘chap’. Also unaware of C for cloudy or A for about.
Gentle offering for a post-dinner solve. Still, a few uncertainties as I didn’t know CHEEK for ‘Chap’ either and C for ‘cloudy’ (presumably in weather forecasts – it’s in Chambers) was also new. Missed the A for ‘about’ but I was unaware of this like Hovis @5. Again, it’s in Chambers.
Yes, I liked FEET OF CLAY and BANSHEE and ‘brother from Bordeaux’ as PERE was good.
Maybe you meant the same thing, but I parsed 15d as ‘Sad state to be in’ = LOW (‘short on’) and SPIRITS (‘gin and bottle’), ie in the sense of both an alcoholic drink and resolve.
Thanks to Grant and Jason.
Thanks Jason and Grant
A bit tougher than normal from this setter and was another who missed out with CHEEK – had opted for
W HEEL (as a US word for an important chap) but struggled to equate HEEL to ‘attitude’ and it would have been a double up with HEEL at 20a too I suppose!!
Didn’t know the ‘luvvie’ term for an actor either before today. Finished with that along with CURTAIN CALL and the wrong ‘in at 9d.
Good puzzle.
My first comment here. I’m a US resident and do mostly FT puzzles which I’ve known for a long time since the paper is widely available here. I love this site. It has helped me get better as a cryptic solver seeing how answers are parsed. Also I found out about Chambers through you all.
PEERLESS I knew because it was also in a certain American magazine (won’t give away since it’s a prize puzzle).
CHEEK is the only one I didn’t get, as I didn’t know chap for a definition.
Welcome Jeff … it is a great site ! The FT puzzles present a wide variety of setting styles – have been doing them for years too … and love ’em !