A really challenging puzzle from WANDERER thanks to whom for a breath of fresh air in FT grids. Several clues that caught my fancy, and thus difficult to pick a favorite.
FF: 9 DD: 9
| Across | ||
| 1 | HYDRIDE | Compound of gas and metal keeping surprisingly dry in leather case (7) |
| DRY* in HIDE (leather case) | ||
| 5 | BEMUSED | Source of inspiration when retired was puzzling (7) |
| MUSE (source of inspiration) in BED (retired) – i would have thought it would be puzzled rather than puzzling? | ||
| 9 | READY | Willing to give cash (5) |
| double def | ||
| 10 | STAPLE GUN | One that fires those fixing faulty 10A plugs |
| TEN(10)A PLUGS* | ||
| 10 | ||
| 11 | LORDLIEST | Most magnificent ties sported by otherwise droll characters (9) |
| DROLL TIES* | ||
| 12 | RURAL | Where short river meets long one outside the city? (5) |
| R (river, short) URAL (river, long) | ||
| 13, 15 | FOUR NO-TRUMPS |
Bid to see rear on model through moving sunroof (4,2-6) |
| RUMP (rear) after T (model) in anag (moving) of SUNROOF | ||
| 18, 19 | MANDARIN DUCK | Male singer, possibly 8 or 20, gets the bird (8,4) |
| MAN (male) DARIN (singer, bobby darin possibly as i found out from google) DUCK (possibly 8,20 donald) | ||
| 22 | OZONE | Gas ring area (5) |
| O (gas) ZONE (area) | ||
| 24 | ARMADILLO | Toothless Native American going crazy in Texan city after losing mother (9) |
| MAD (crazy) in AmaRILLO (city in texas, without MA – mother) | ||
| 26 | APARTMENT | Some people into alternative technology – Gaff, for one? (9) |
| [PART (some) MEN (people)] in AT (alternative technology) | ||
| 27 | MOTIF | Theme word Parisian provided (5) |
| MOT (word, french) IF (provided) | ||
| 28 | DIAGRAM | Understand sign incorporating a plan (7) |
| [DIG (understand) RAM (sign, aries)] containing A | ||
| 29 | SUBEDIT | Smartly-dressed teacher that’s qualified to make changes to a paper? (7) |
| B.ED (teacher that’s qualified, bachelor of education) in SUIT (smartly dressed) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1, 20 | HAROLD DONALD |
Boy band member with former No 1’s in England and Scotland (6,6) |
| member of take that; clue refers to kings of england and scotland | ||
| 2 | DIARRHOEA | Hearing very bad tail’s got the runs (9) |
| sounds like DIRE (very bad) REAR (tail) | ||
| 3 | IDYLL | Extremely dodgy content in bad piece of poetry (5) |
| DY (extremely DodgY) in ILL (bad) | ||
| 4 | EASTERNER | Leading lady entertains a novelist – one from Boston, or Beijing? (9) |
| ER (leading lady) containing A STERNE (author) | ||
| 5 | BOAST | Crow circling small vessel (5) |
| BOAT (vessel) around S (small) | ||
| 6 | MILK ROUND | Limo drunk used for delivery job (4,5) |
| LIMO DRUNK* | ||
| 7 | SUGAR | Missing daughter: a drug’s involved, possibly LSD (5) |
| A dRUGS* (without D – drug) | ||
| 8, 21 | DONALD WOLFIT | I’d to fall down when playing former actor (6,6) |
| I’D TO FALL DOWN* | ||
| 14 | RED SETTER | Journalist at the Sun, say, after first appearance of Ronnie Barker (3,6) |
| R (first of Ronnie) ED (journalist) SETTER (sun) | ||
| 16 | TINSMITHS | Metal workers can mostly forge British coin? Not any more (9) |
| TIN (can) SMITHy (forge, mostly) S (british coin) | ||
| 17 | PECULATED | Gambled, taking off cap and stole (9) |
| sPECULATED (gambled, without starting character) | ||
| 20 | See 1 | |
| 21 | See 8 | |
| 23 | OBAMA | President’s regular use of bomb has me slightly annoyed (5) |
| bOmB hAs Me (regular -> alternate letters) A (slightly Annoyed) | ||
| 24 | ABEAM | A timber perpendicular to ship’s length (5) |
| A BEAM (timber) | ||
| 25 | DEMOB | Briefly disband part of motorcade (M23) (5) |
| hidden in “..motorcaDE MOBama” (answer to 23d is OBAMA) | ||
*anagram
5a: ‘was’ is surely part of definition, and ‘bemused’ is used intransitively, so clue and definition do agree, albeit somewhat inelegantly.. E.g. ‘the riddle was puzzling’/’the riddle bemused’.
The Take That member is actually Howard (which of course doesn’t fit, and isn’t a King of England), not Harold: setter’s mistake? And it’s strange to have two DONALDs in the grid – just when I was feeling relieved that we had OBAMA as the Prez in 23d.,
I agree with beaulieu about 5a.
Indeed an excellent puzzle as ever from Wanderer. I couldn’t complete 1/20 although I guessed the answer (nothing much else it could be).
As far as I can see the Take That guy is HOWARD Donald, and searches for Harold lead to nothing of consequence. Then again, I’m no expert on boy bands…
Sorry Andrew we crossed.
I had trouble with 1 and 20D because the Take That member is Howard Donald, at least according to the band’s official site and some other places I checked. But I put in Harold because nothing else fit and it met the wordplay — are Harold and Howard two sides of the same coin?
Looks like a bunch of us crossed, sorry.
Thanks, Turbolegs – an enjoyable challenge, indeed.
I enjoyed the misdirection of the numerals in 10ac [I think ‘those fixing’ is part of the definition] and 25dn and the reminder of Bobby Darin in 18,19 [nice clue] and Donald Wolfit [clever anagram].
I didn’t know that meaning of Gaff.
I too would have crossed re Howard Donald but I’d taken so long over my comment that I checked before posting – and I agree with beaulieu and Andrew.
I’ll once again record my admiration of the trademark way in which Wanderer’s composite clues run on in the grid – so satisfying and less irritating than having them dotted all over the place.
Many thanks to Wanderer for a lovely puzzle.
I think the clues are connected wrong. It’s supposed to be “four no-Trumps”, so I’d bet three words go with 8D to make three names (leaving 1D as the one we don’t know) and Obama as the fourth. So who is Harold Donald or Donald Harold?
Perhaps the four no-trumps are..
Harold (sic) Donald
Donald Wolfit
Obama
Lord(liest) Sugar (his UK Apprentice counterpart)…?
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
A challenging and enjoyable puzzle that took a couple of sessions to get out. A pity about the wrong name for the Take That member and I too was surprised to see DONALD appear twice in the grid. Wasn’t able to parse TINSMITHS properly, had to look up to see that AMARILLO was in fact in Texas and didn’t know ‘gaff’ as an APARTMENT.
Finished with PECULATED, that APARTMENT and the apparently erroneous HAROLD DONALD as the last few in.