9An excellent puzzle from Redshank to round up my 2017 blogging efforts. I did this in a hurry so please excuse the brevity. Thanks to Geoff for the help where required. Would have loved to do more justice to this crossword.
FF: 9 DD: 9
Happy 2018 to all .
| Across | ||
| 1 | UNPACK | Nice one forwards empty bags (6) |
| UN (one, french, nice is a place in france) PACK (forwards) – i was quite misdirected by the NICE part of the clue initially | ||
| 4 | TARMAC | Thanks to drivers saving money this smooths the way (6) |
| [TA (thanks) RAC (drivers)] around M (money) | ||
| 8 | HANOVER | Abandoning Germany, transfer house (7) |
| HANdOVER (transfer, without D for germant,, deutschland) | ||
| 9 | LION CUB | Cat’s funny double chins she’d missed (4,3) |
| dOUBLe ChINs* (without letters of SHE’D) | ||
| 11 | MEDICATION | What Acas offers involves constant treatment (10) |
| MEDIATION (what acas offers) containing C (constant) | ||
| 12 | EXAM | Test chopper returned to Mark (4) |
| EXA (chopper = AXE, reversed) M (mark) | ||
| 13 | ELEMI | Resin found in fuel emissions (5) |
| hidden in “..fuEL EMIssions..” | ||
| 14 | LOG CABIN | See note about book in tree house (3,5) |
| LO (see) G (note) CA (about) B (book) IN | ||
| 16 | GASWORKS | Amusing guy pays off energy supplier (8) |
| GAS (amusing guy) WORKS (pays off) | ||
| 18 | ESSEN | German city’s prerequisites? Not half! (5) |
| ESSENtials (prerequisites, without half the letters) | ||
| 20 | DOZE | Take five or twelve, unfinished (4) |
| DOZEn (twelve, unfinished) | ||
| 21 | BRONTOSAUR | Big beast’s urban roots disputed (10) |
| URBAN ROOTS* | ||
| 23 | RATTLER | In America it might kill Simon King (7) |
| RATTLE (simon) R (king) | ||
| 24 | DELIGHT | Len Deighton novel nonetheless exudes joy (7) |
| Len DEIGHTon* (without letters of NONE) – really witty clue | ||
| 25 | ELEVEN | Team all square tackling the French (6) |
| EVEN (all square) containing LE (the, french) – cricket | ||
| 26 | WRENCH | It’s painful leaving St Paul’s, for instance? (6) |
| cryptic clue; st paul’s is a church designed by christopher wren and can be described as “wren ch” | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | UKASE | Proclamation from Putin: ‘Utilise Ford parts’ (5) |
| USE (utilise) parted by KA (ford, car type) – an edict with force of law in tsarist russia. i didnt know this. | ||
| 2 | PROMISE | Firm undertaking concert is English (7) |
| PROM (concert) IS E (english) | ||
| 3 | CHEVALIER | Maurice, member of the Légion d’Honneur (9) |
| double definition – first one referring to the french actor, and second referring to one of five levels of the legion d’honneur. | ||
| 5 | ALIGN | Head off to blacken dress (5) |
| mALIGN (bkacken, without starting character) | ||
| 6 | MANDELA | Nelson, servant of the French? (7) |
| MAN (servant) DE LA (of, the, french) | ||
| 7 | CAUCASIAN | Someone from Georgia? About time, some might say (9) |
| C (about) AUCASIAN [sounds like OCCASION (time)] | ||
| 10 | RIFLE SHOT | Report unrest involving one’s family (5,4) |
| FLESH (one’s family) in RIOT (unrest) | ||
| 13 | ELABORATE | European dined after work in US complex (9) |
| E (european) LABOR (work, in US) ATE (dined) | ||
| 15 | GREAT BEAR | Huge grizzly stars (5,4) |
| GREAT (huge) BEAR (grizzly) | ||
| 17 | WREATHE | Wind makes you weather- beaten (7) |
| WEATHER* | ||
| 19 | SESSION | Sitting close to actors in Noises Off’ (7) |
| S (close to actorS) NOISES* | ||
| 21 | BREVE | Note reverberations echoing a bit (5) |
| hidden reversed in “..rEVERBerations..” | ||
| 22 | UH-HUH | “That’s OK”, Ruth thought, ignoring the odds (2-3) |
| “..rUtH tHoUgHt..” (without odd letters) | ||
*anagram
Tougher than his Crucible puzzle I thought. 26 was a beauty but took ages to fathom 10 even with the crossers. Didnt much like 7d or 17d-or 6d for that matter. I had no idea what ACAS was but didnt let that get in the way.Curate’s egg really but the good bits were well tasty.
Thanks, Turbolegs.
What a lovely puzzle! I agree that it was more of a challenge than his Guardian one but, as I said over there, I enjoyed it even more.
Some absolute gems here – favourites DELIGHT, UKASE [no, I didn’t either, so was chuffed to be able to work it out], RIFLE SHOT and WRENCH – a beauty indeed.
Many thanks, Redshank, for the double helping today. 😉
Lovely stuff, as usual from Redshank. I wondered why Georgia in 7d. I then looked up Caucasia to discover why. Thanks to S&B.
Thanks for the blog.
A bit OTT for my liking especially 1dn & 7dn.
‘aucasian’ does not sound the same as ‘occasion’.
St Paul’s is a cathedral, not a church.
I don’t think ‘pays off’ and ‘works’ are truly synonymous.
Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs
TomB @ 4:
‘aucasian’ is a pun. Say it with a grin and it works (or pays off).
Chambers defines ‘cathedral’ as ‘The principal church of a diocese, containing the bishop’s throne’, so no problem there.
Thanks Turbolegs and Redshank.
I didn’t manage to get RIFLE SHOT but enjoyed the puzzle.
I share Copmus’s unfamiliarity with “Acas,” and sympathize with my American cousins who may well wonder about “breve” (we use fractional notes in North America,) “pack” (rugby is arcane), “Ka,” “Hanover,” “Wren ch.” and “Rattle.”
Hi Sasquach @7
I totally sympathise re ACAS and BREVE, if you have a different connotation, PACK [perhaps, except that we’re supposed to know about baseball 😉 ] KA – perhaps a bit too small – but, come on! – HANOVER, the house reigning at the time of the American revolution, WREN CHurches,, Sir Simon Rattle, internationally acclaimed conductor ??
@ Eileen 8. That’s what happens when one presumes to speak for other people, I guess. But speaking of matters Hanoverian, I once solved an American cryptogram. The answer boiled down to something like this: “The movie was not called “The Madness of King George lll” lest people assume that it was a sequel and wonder what happened to “The Madness of King George l and ll.”
Hi Sasquash – thanks, yes, that’s one of my favourite stories. 😉
Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs
Quite a tough puzzle for me … was able to work my way though the right hand side in normal time for this setter – but the left hand side was quite visibly empty for ages. After not been able to sleep I got up and looked at it again at around 4am … and bingo it fell out in about a quarter of an hour!
A lot of clever clues and a wide mix of how to get them out – particularly liked WRENCH and MEDICATION (once I learnt what Acas was).
Last couple in were RATTLER (pleased to eventually recall Sir Simon RATTLE) and RIFLE SHOT (which was fittingly tough for the last one in).
Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs. I downloaded this puzzle thanks to Eileen’s suggestion on the Guardian site and much enjoyed it. UKASE used to be a standard item in US puzzles, but I had to look up ACAS (though I thought the solution most likely to be Medication or Meditation). WRENCH was a treat..
A question. I have printed out FT puzzles in the past but whether owing to my HP printer or Windows 10 each time the result is a batch of words or small letter groups (6-10 of them) being blocked out (with a [ ]), a feature that gets progressively annoying. Does the problem lie in my equipment or is there a simple solution? I do enjoy the FT puzzles, but …
FT prints perfectly here in the uk. I use various Apple devices and HP printer.
To ACD @12, I print out the Ft puzzle almost every day in the US and have no problem. I’m using Windows 10 and Chrome and an ancient HP 6MP laser printer. Chrome seems to be superior to MS Edge, since it expands the layout to fill the page (landscape), whereas Edge does not go the edges . . . There may be some setting to make it do that, but I haven’t looked for it.
Thanks to Redshank for another beauty, esp WRENCH and RIFLE SHOT, and to Turbolegs for the blog. Finished in the SE corner with RIFLE SHOT, RATTLER and WREATHE. Had to look up ACAS.