Good straightforward Tuesday FT puzzle.
Fun despite an epic battle of wills with the iGods this morning. Still, a win on points & I hope you all had a better experience with a very nice set from Slormgorm to whom thanks.
| Across | ||
| 1 | AND SO ON | Old dons with child, etc (3,2,2) |
| O[ld] in AND (‘with’) + SON (‘child’). | ||
| 5 | HUMIDOR | Place to hold potentially hot- headed Cubans? (7) |
| Whole-clue cryptic = case for cigars. Apocryphal anecdote: a man insures sordidly expensive case of cigars against, inter alia, fire, then smokes them & sues on the policy & wins but is successfully prosecuted for arson. | ||
| 9 | OFFER | Propose cold must be got off of chest (5) |
| C[old] removed from cOFFER (‘chest’). | ||
| 10 | REPENTANT | Sorry parent with ten kids around (9) |
| Anagram (‘kids around’) of PARENT + TEN. | ||
| 11 | INCESSANT | Endless popular ascents to go up (9) |
| IN (‘popular’) + anagram (‘to go up’) of ASCENTS. | ||
| 12 | ETHER | That woman chases gents regularly? Heavens! (5) |
| HER (‘that woman’) after odd letters of gEnTs. | ||
| 13 | GRIND | Masticate good bit of bacon (5) |
| G[ood] + RIND. | ||
| 15 | IN REVERSE | River seen flowing backwards (2,7) |
| Anagram (‘flowing’) of RIVER SEEN. | ||
| 18 | PIECEMEAL | Bit by bit, chancellor tucks into pastry breakfast? (9) |
| C[hancellor] of the E[xchequer] in PIE + MEAL. | ||
| 19 | END UP | Finish parody, ignoring head of satire (3,2) |
| S (1st letter of Satire) subtracted from sEND-UP (‘parody’). | ||
| 21 | ATOMS | A cat heading for son’s building blocks? (5) |
| A + TOM (‘cat’) + S[on]. | ||
| 23 | TEMPERATE | Locum worried about the Queen not drinking? (9) |
| TEMP (‘locum’) + ATE (‘worried’) around ER (Her Majesty, Gawd bless ‘er, how wd crosswords work without her?). | ||
| 25 | UNCLOTHED | He couldn’t run around naked (9) |
| Anagram (‘run’) of COULDN’T around HE. | ||
| 26 | TIMID | Thick relations coming round for chicken? (5) |
| Reversal of DIM (‘thick’) + IT (sex, ‘relations’). | ||
| 27 | SWEETIE | Candy Darling (7) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 28 | LEARNER | One making ready to surpass Latin student (7) |
| EARNER (one making cash, ‘ready’), after L[atin]. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ADORING | Act to stop a group worshipping (7) |
| DO (‘act’) in A + RING (‘group’). | ||
| 2 | DEFECTIVE | Cop making third fine bust (9) |
| 3rd letter of DEtECTIVE is replaced by F[ine]. | ||
| 3 | OGRES | Beasts sheepdog resents corralling (5) |
| Inclusion (‘corralling’) in ‘sheepdOG RESents’. | ||
| 4 | NARRATIVE | A bishop appearing in local story (9) |
| A + R[ight] R[everend] (‘bishop’) in NATIVE (‘local’). | ||
| 5 | HOP IT | Work during strike or go away (3,2) |
| OP[us] (‘work’) in HIT. | ||
| 6 | MANOEUVRE | Skilful plan of chap to get work in Paris (9) |
| MAN (‘chap’) + OEUVRE (Fr. ‘work’). | ||
| 7 | DEATH | Expiration date stamped on top of ham (5) |
| Anagram (‘stamped on’) of DATE + H (‘top of Ham’). | ||
| 8 | RETIREE | One going to bed as she’s finished work? (7) |
| Double (& gender-blind) definitions. | ||
| 14 | DRESS COAT | Scots dare to get changed into formal wear (5,4) |
| Anagram (‘to get changed’) of SCOTS DARE. | ||
| 16 | ROLE MODEL | Good example of English way to fill bun (4,5) |
| E[nglish] +MODE (‘way’) in ROLL (‘bun’). | ||
| 17 | RED SALMON | Older man struggling to catch small fish (3,6) |
| Anagram (‘struggling’) of OLDER MAN around S[mall]. | ||
| 18 | PEANUTS | Loony in vegetables makes little cash (7) |
| NUT in PEAS. | ||
| 20 | PLEADER | I beg boss to support cap on pay (7) |
| LEADER (‘boss’) under P (‘cap’ of ‘Pay’). | ||
| 22 | ON CUE | When you must get in? At the arranged time! (2,3) |
| ONCE (‘when’ as in e.g. ‘once complete’) includes U (‘you’ as in ‘I.O.U.’, ‘U-Haul’ &c). | ||
| 23 | TAHOE | Time to have a laugh on European lake (5) |
| T[ime] + A + HO (‘laugh’, or half of one anyway) + E[uropean]. | ||
| 24 | EXTRA | Old vehicle missing rear end and more (5) |
| EX (‘old’) + TRAm (endless ‘vehicle’). | ||
*anagram
Thanks Slormgorm and Grant
Nice puzzle that steadily unravelled from top to bottom. Some nice clues in HUMIDOR (and nice anecdote !), MANOEUVRE and TIMID.
Didn’t see the parsing for ON CUE, so thanks for that.
Finished down the bottom with that TIMID, ON CUE and LEARNER (which was quite witty).
Thanks, BG, I too was flummoxed by the parsing of 22dn. A great romp, with Slormgorn’s usual opaque parsing: to whom many thanks.
Nice straightforward and entertaining puzzle. I’m always impressed by simple, almost Rufus-like elegance, e.g. “River seen flowing backwards” and “He couldn’t run around naked”. Glad to see the queen, the relations, and the cuban in there.
Many thanks Slormgorm and Grant
Bah! One error, TEHEE for TAHOE, otherwise a fairly gentle solve. LOI HUMIDOR.
Thanks for the blog, Grant Baynham
This was OK, apart from the dreadful old cliche ‘relations = it’, and the over-contrived ‘one making ready’ = earner.