Mostly a steady romp but with some moments of class and a coupla head-scratchers.
Doubtless, some of you will have thought ‘not that old thing’ for EME in 20, but a first for me and noted. Also, a triple def today, rare for a Tuesday FT. Thanks, Jason
| Across | ||
| 8 | GALORE | Stacks of good with adult learning (6) |
| G[ood] + A[dult] + LORE (‘learning’). | ||
| 9 | PEACEFUL | Lively pace and fuel gets wasted still (8) |
| Anagram (‘lively’) of PACE + another (‘wasted’) of FUEL. | ||
| 10 | DONE | Socially acceptable daughter, single (4) |
| D[aughter] + ONE (‘single’). | ||
| 11 | LAST RESORT | Hotel at Land’s End? One must try this in dire straits (4,6) |
| Double def, 1st cryptic. | ||
| 12 | FETA | In cafe taste crumbly cheese (4) |
| Inclusion in ‘caFE TAste’. | ||
| 13 | LIGHTHOUSE | ———- shines and the lough is lit up (10) |
| Anagram (‘lit up’) of THE LOUGH IS and blank def, plus whole-clue charade. | ||
| 17 | KNIT | Clothing involving new way to make pullovers (4) |
| KIT (‘clothing’) includes N[ew]. | ||
| 18 | UNRIP | Open quickly being not entirely green? (5) |
| UNRIPe. | ||
| 19 | EVEN | Fair contest cut short (4) |
| EVENt. | ||
| 21 | SUPERHUMAN | He runs with puma all over the place – extraordinary (10) |
| Anagram (‘all over the place’) of HE RUNS & PUMA. | ||
| 23 | SHED | Female had a place to potter in Slough (4) |
| SHE’D (‘female had’) & double def. | ||
| 24 | BARBERSHOP | Where harmonious singers go to get trim? (10) |
| Jocular cryptic whole clue def. Barbershop quartets, of course. | ||
| 28 | SAIL | Cruise giving small trouble (4) |
| S[mall] + AIL (‘trouble’). | ||
| 29 | CLARINET | Instrument is at home, covered in blood (8) |
| IN (‘at home’) surrounded by CLARET (‘blood’, informally). | ||
| 30 | OSMIUM | Maker of nibs is outsize and quiet about one (6) |
| OS (‘outsize’) + MUM (‘quiet’) around 1. Osmium, the densest naturally-occuring element, is used to make pen-nibs. The clue could plausibly end after ‘outsize’, ‘Os’ being also the symbol for osmium. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | NAPOLEON | Emperor’s down on Trotsky, say (8) |
| NAP (‘down’ as in textiles) + O[n] + LEON (T’s first name). | ||
| 2 | FORECASTLE | Warning drove the French into ship’s storage area (10) |
| FORE (‘warning’ in golf) + CAST (‘drove’) + LE (F. for ‘the’). | ||
| 3 | BELLYLAUGH | Guts shown by comedian causing guffaw (10) |
| BELLY (‘guts’) + LAUGH (‘comedian’). Not over-cryptic. | ||
| 4 | OPUS | Work round discharge (4) |
| O (’round’, from shape) + PUS (‘discharge’). | ||
| 5 | LAIR | Left carriage for a place of seclusion (4) |
| L[eft] + AIR (bearing or ‘carriage’). | ||
| 6 | MESS | Where to find officer’s stew? (4) |
| Double def (‘stew’ as in ‘a mess of pottage’). | ||
| 7 | HUBRIS | Focus on master, say, overturning pride (6) |
| HUB (‘focus’) + SIR (‘master’), reversed. | ||
| 14 | GARUM | Sort of sauce Caesar liked – bizarre jokes when half-cut first (5) |
| Roman fish sauce. GAgs (‘jokes half-cut’) first, then RUM (‘bizarre’). | ||
| 15 | TYPING POOL | New poly opting for old-style admin dept? (6,4) |
| Anagram (‘new’) of POLY OPTING. | ||
| 16 | OPEN SESAME | Old writers start to enjoy unchanged magic spell (4,6) |
| O[ld] + PENS (‘writers’) + E[njoy] + SAME (‘unchanged’). | ||
| 20 | EMERITUS | Uncle slowing down Amercian Prof who’s retired (8) |
| EME (an ‘uncle’, obsolete but new to me) + RIT[ardando], ‘slowing down’ in musical Italian + US (‘American’). | ||
| 22 | UNABLE | Inadequate peacekeeping force bale out (6) |
| U[nited] N[ations] + anagram (‘out’) of BALE. | ||
| 25 | BARK | Covering sailing boat in bay (4) |
| Triple definition. Nice. | ||
| 26 | RANK | Complete class (4) |
| Double def. | ||
| 27 | HUTS | Son moving down locked cabins (4) |
| SHUT (‘locked’) with S[on] moving down to end. | ||
*anagram
Always find Jason to be difficult. Guessed GARUM then checked in Chambers. Then guessed UNRIP and checked that – strange use of UN. Didn’t know OSMIUM but straightforward to guess. Also never seen EME for ‘uncle’, although I have seen OOM, a variation on this. I see the FT is again challenging the Grauniad for typos, with Amercian in 20d. Don’t remember ever seeing so many 4-letter words, so to speak, in a crossword. Thanks to S&B.
Thanks, Jason and GB.
I got 2d but parsed it as FORECAST = warning (as of bad weather) and I “drove” LE onto the end. Your way makes more sense.
Re: 6d: I’d considered this clue to be &lit double-def, with one straight definition and the second a crytpic def. where “stew” was short for “stewardess”. But perhaps that’s too American of me.
Thanks Jason and Grant
Found this a tougher assignment than normal from Jason with GARUM a new word for me and a couple that weren’t parsed correctly – didn’t know of a BARBERSHOP quartet and didn’t know the EME (‘uncle’) and then didn’t see the RIT part either of 20d. OSMIUM as the metal used for nibs was also new learning.
Finished down the bottom with that OSMIUM, BARK and RANK. Always some trepidation with that many four letter words in the grid – they’re usually the ones that I trip over.
A good and interesting challenge.