A bank holiday FALCON eases us into the week…
A nice mix of clues with a few definitions we’d not seen before (like PACKET for mailboat, and KITTIWAKE, which were our last ones in as it happens).
22a was probably our favourite, and the anagrams in 14a and 18a had lovely surfaces.
Thanks FALCON!
Across
1 Large amount of money in mailboat (6)
PACKET
Double definition
5 Try fish the American way (8)
TURNPIKE
TURN (try) + PIKE (fish)
9 Hot-tempered person leans back to shoot (8)
SPITFIRE
(TIPS)< (leans, <back) + FIRE (to shoot)
10 Lack of interest in a course ending in July (6)
APATHY
A + PATH (course) + [jul]Y (ending in)
11 Lawsuit curtailed against popular old gaming place (6)
CASINO
CAS[e] (lawsuit, curtailed) against IN (popular) + O (old)
12 Herb garden enthralling the old lady (8)
ROSEMARY
ROSERY (garden) enthralling MA (old lady)
14 “Stay with Me”, Bogie’s other song (2,4,4,2)
AS TIME GOES BY
(STAY with ME BOGIES)* (*other)
18 Camp internee beaten for excess drunkenness? (12)
INTEMPERANCE
(CAMP INTERNEE)* (*beaten)
22 Container intended for chow? (5-3)
DOGGY-BAG
Cryptic definition
Chow = food, or a type of dog
25 Rod’s corner close to bar (6)
ANGLER
ANGLE (corner) + [ba]R (close to)
26 Young girl heading for disco, followed by unruly males (6)
DAMSEL
D[isco] (heading for) followed by (MALES)* (*unruly)
27 Suffering a raid? Yes, quite possibly (1,4,3)
I DARE SAY
(A RAID YES)* (*suffering)
28 Recommend a lawyer (8)
ADVOCATE
Double definition
29 Weather phenomenon broadcast online (2,4)
EL NINO
(ONLINE)* (*broadcast)
Down
2 A new paper to be published (6)
APPEAR
A + (PAPER)* (*new)
3 Bird in pool heard on path? (9)
KITTIWAKE
“kitty” (pool, “heard”) on WAKE (path)
4 Fine leg spinner, balding (4,2,3)
THIN ON TOP
THIN (fine) + ON (leg) + TOP (spinner)
5 Article on more complex proposition (7)
THEOREM
THE (article) on (MORE)* (*complex)
6 Extremely rare, a manuscript fetches a very large amount (5)
REAMS
R[ar]E (extremely) + A + MS (manuscript)
7 Song? Starts to play “Something” after “Lady Madonna” (5)
PSALM
P[lay] S[omething] A[fter] L[ady] M[adonna] (starts to)
8 Vegetable oil, bar, King’s Head, initially used (8)
KOHLRABI
(OIL BAR K (king) H[ead] (initially))* (*used)
13 Conceit, for example, shown by Oscar (3)
EGO
EG (for example) shown by O (oscar)
15 Drinking place – fashionable friend inside good one (3,6)
GIN PALACE
(IN (fashionable) + PAL (friend)) inside (G (good) + ACE (one))
16 Always fresh in box, perhaps (9)
EVERGREEN
EVER (always) + GREEN (fresh)
Box = an evergreen shrub
17 Unusually drawn out – that may be unfortunate (8)
UNTOWARD
(DRAWN OUT)* (*unusually)
19 Month in Irish county cut short (3)
MAY
MAY[o] (Irish county, cut short)
20 I’m great playing this style of piano music (7)
RAGTIME
(IM GREAT)* (*playing)
21 Check about scholar’s stay (6)
REMAIN
REIN (check) about MA (scholar)
23 Blow in bursts with old vigour (5)
GUSTO
GUST (blow in bursts) with O (old)
24 Tree that produces most of resin (5)
BALSA
BALSA[m] (resin, most of)
A puzzle full of super surfaces with 14a as the standout clue but a shame about the nonsense surface of 8 down.
Thanks all
Thanks to Falcon and Teacow. Enjoyable. I too took a while with KITTIWAKE and PACKET and also with KOHLRABI which was new to me.
After struggling last week, it was nice to tackle one of the easier FT offerings. Plenty of enjoyable clues. Being as bald as a coot, henceforth I’ll describe myself as a fine leg spinner.
Thank you
Thanks Falcon and Teacow
A nice straightforward puzzle with enough grist in clues like 22a and 2d to keep it interesting. Liked the surface and how the wordplay was used to build A TIME GOES BY.
Finished in the SW corner with GUSTO, DAMSEL and UNTOWARD the last few in.