An entertaining puzzle from Redshank this morning.
I enjoyed solving this morning’s FT, but I’m afraid it wasn’t perfect. Among some excellent clues, there were a couple of clues that were disappointing. The first is a minor thing (see 19 ac) and probably an easy mistake to make, but the second at 26ac leads me to wonder whether the FT has a crossword editor at all, as, unless I am mistaken (and I could well be!), the wordplay leads to a different answer from the one intended.
Those clues aside, I thought Redshank demonstrated some ingenuity and a great range of devices were used in the puzzle, so overall I liked it very much.
Thanks, Redshank.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SYNERGY | Benefit of merger, say, shedding a work unit in New York (7) |
| S(a)Y (say, shedding A)+ ERG (“work unit”) in NY (New York) | ||
| 5 | MADAME | Woman’s first man in Middle East (6) |
| ADAM (“first man” according to the Bible) in ME (MIddle East) | ||
| 8 | ADVENTURE | Exciting time, coming by river (9) |
| ADVENT (“coming”) by (river) URE | ||
| 9 | INERT | Dubliner tempted to incorporate still (5) |
| Hidden in “dublINER Tempted” | ||
| 11 | ORLOP | Swimming pool covers last bit of rear deck (5) |
| *(pool) covers [last bit of] (rea)R | ||
| 12 | HALF-DOZEN | Six nap fitfully close to futon (4-5) |
| HALF-DOZE (“nap fitfully”) + [close to] (futo)N | ||
| 13 | CLANGOUR | Caught monkey pinching old racket (8) |
| C (caught, in cricket) + LANGUR (“monkey”) pinching O (old) | ||
| 15 | FIANCE | He’s promised work in cafe (6) |
| *(in cafe) | ||
| 17 | BEDSIT | Flat piece journalist’s brought in (6) |
| BIT (“piece”) with ED’S (“journalist’s”) brought in | ||
| 19 | GOLD RUSH | Good getting on high-priority film (4,4) |
| G (good) + OLD (“getting on”) + RUSH (“high-priority” as in “rush job”)
I assume that Redshank is referring to the classic Chaplin movie where the tramp is so hungry he is forced to eat his own boot, but that was called “THE Gold Rush””. There have been movies called “Gold Rush” but none worthy of inclusion in a crossword. |
||
| 22 | NOSTALGIA | Lost again at sea, longing for home (9) |
| *(lost again) | ||
| 23 | PUKKA | Excellent posh weekends during every year (5) |
| U (“posh”) + KK (end of “week” twice, so “weekends”) during PA (per annum, i.e. “every year”) | ||
| 24 | TARSI | Mariners start to inscribe bone collections (5) |
| TARS (“mariners”) + [start to] I(nscribe) | ||
| 25 | TIME LIMIT | Magazine writer’s breaking reading deadline (4,5) |
| TIME (“magazine”) + I’M (“writer’s”) breaking LIT(erature) (“reading”) | ||
| 26 | AS IT IS | A sibling maintains pose unchanged (2,2,2) |
| I think this is an error as the word play gives us A SIS (“sibling”) maintaining SIT (“pose”) which leads to AS(S IT) IS | ||
| 27 | AERATED | Beer with no heart judged to have a head? (7) |
| A(l)E (“beer” with no heart) + RATED (“judged”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SHADOW CABINET | How sad can it be, reshuffling opposition leaders (6,7) |
| *(how sad can it be) | ||
| 2 | NOVELLA | Make short work of English lines collected by star (7) |
| E (English) LL (lines) collected by NOVA (“star”) | ||
| 3 | RUN-UP | Quickly make approach (3-2) |
| Double definition, although the first would not have the hyphen. | ||
| 4 | YOUTHFUL | Boyish solver, thoughtful, ought to leave (8) |
| YOU (“solver”) + TH(ought)FUL | ||
| 5 | MUESLI | Light cloth mostly covering energy breakfast (6) |
| MUSLI(n) (“light cloth” mostly) covering E (energy) | ||
| 6 | DRIP-DRIED | Wimp forgot his lines, hung up on other line (4-5) |
| DRIP (“wimp”) + DRIED (“forgot his lines”) | ||
| 7 | MUEZZIN | Prayer leader regularly immured in cramping zones (7) |
| [regularly] (i)M(m)U(r)E(d) IN cramping ZZ (zones) | ||
| 10 | TENDERHEARTED | Kindly offered to accept card (13) |
| TENDERED (“offered”) to accept HEART (“card” suit) | ||
| 14 | GUITARIST | Distribute gratuities, ignoring European picker (9) |
| *(gratuitis) being GRATUITI(e)S ignoring E (European) | ||
| 16 | TOXAEMIA | Stewed ox meat one answer for blood problem (8) |
| *(ox meat) + I (“one”) + A (answer) | ||
| 18 | DESERTS | Abandons son leaving courses (7) |
| S (son) leaving DES(s)ERTS (“courses”) | ||
| 20 | UNKEMPT | Blue Berets stayed guarding male in a mess (7) |
| UN (United Nations, so “Blue Berets”) + KEPT (“stayed”) guarding M (male) | ||
| 21 | AGATES | A billionaire’s gems (6) |
| A + (Bill) GATES (“billionaire”) | ||
| 23 | POLAR | Icy rivers protect city (5) |
| (River) PO + R (river) protect LA (Los Angeles, so “city”) | ||
*anagram
Yes, shame about 26a. I always feel that setters should have someone who tries it out first to help find errors, possible ambiguous answers etc. Whether this should be the editor I wouldn’t like to say. Mistakes like this shouldn’t get to publication.
Didn’t know the film at 19a so any issue with that went over my head. MUEZZIN was a new word for me.
Despite the above, Redshank can always be relied on for an entertaining puzzle so thanks to him and to loonapick.
Thanks for the blog, loonapick.
I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. Had I been blogging it, I would no doubt have picked up on the error in 26ac but, as it was, [that was not intentional] I missed it, because I’m going out for the day and didn’t want to miss out on doing a Redshank, so entered it without thinking. The omission of the definite article in the film didn’t bother me, either.
15ac and 6dn both made me smile and I also particularly liked 22ac and 1dn: both great surfaces – but then there wasn’t a dud one to be seen.
It’s a long time since we’ve seen ORLOP – it used to crop up quite often.
Many thanks, Redshank, as ever.
I didn’t see what else 26a could be so assumed it must be a homonym of 13a. Maybe it was intentional after all then.
The ‘monkey’ and ‘prayer leader’ were both new to me.
I liked the surface for 1d, the ‘Wimp forgot his lines’ wordplay for 6d and the ‘picker’ def for 14d.
Thanks to loonapick and Redshank
Apart from the previously mentioned 26a I really enjoyed this.
Favourites were SHADOW CABINET @ 1d for its surface, and TENDERHEARTED @ 10d – such a compact clue for a thirteen letter solution.
Thanks to Redshank & loonapick.
Add me to the ‘enjoyable but shame about 26a’ club
Thanks to Redshank and loonapick
Apologies for my error at 26a. Clearly a sign of laziness – and old age.
Thanks to loonapick and Redshank
I didn’t notice the missing THE in 19a, and the clues were generally so tight that I tried to come up with an alternative parsing for 26a. I thought I had cracked it with IT = POISE, and a typo in publication, only to come here and find that the setter has put his hands up.
Favourite I think was 1a for having me drop ERG from MERGER and look for synonyms of BENEFIT for a while.
Thanks Redshank and loonapick
Unusual to see the error in FT puzzles, but was able to fill in 26a and place a question mark after the second S Also wondered about the missing THE at 19a – originally thought that a GOLD RUSH may have referred to the best of the early unedited parts of a film.
A lot of other excellent clues to atone for these though – particularly liked 1a, 25a, 27a, 4d and 14d.
Finished in the NW corner with SYNERGY, NOVELLA and the clever CLANGOUR as the last few in.