A mixed bag from Jason in today’s FT.
I’m not sure how to sum up this puzzle as it genuinely was a mixed bag, so I’ll start witht he good – I ticked 1ac, 19ac, 27 ac and 18dn as being very good clues.
However, there were a few loose definitions (15dn, 17dn), some obscurities such as OLENT in 8dn and LORNE at 11ac (which for me as a Scot was a write-in, but some of my Southern friends are not likely to have heard of it); there were a few superfluous words in some clues, and then there was 25 ac, whch simply does not work for me.
Some of the answers went in really easily (GLEEeg); others took a bit more thought, and the last one went in without my being sure of it until I had checked the dictionary (REDOLENT).
Thanks Jason
| Across | ||
| 1 | RESEARCH | Look into carer, she must be shattered (8) |
| *(carer she) | ||
| 5 | SPIDER | Web designer’s rest (6) |
| Double definition, the first slightly cryptic, the second referring to a rest in snooker. | ||
| 9 | BRACELET | Band allowed to follow secondary career (8) |
| LET (“allowed”) to follow B (“secondary” as in B-road) + RACE (“career”) | ||
| 10 | PAUSED | Dad, having been taken for a ride, took five (6) |
| PA (“dad”) + USED (“taken for a ride”) | ||
| 12 | NECTARINE | Fruit which could be nice and neat with recipe (9) |
| *(nice neat r) where R is recipe | ||
| 13 | ENROL | Sausage such as Scots favour flipped and put on a roll (5) |
| <=LORNE (“sausage such as Scots prefer”, flipped)
Lorne sausage is another name for square sausage, a Scots breakfast item very often served on a roll |
||
| 14 | DAFT | Wacky first for Daniel Stern (4) |
| [first for] D(aniel) + AFT (“stern”) | ||
| 16 | SURGEON | One making cuts in theatre to rush about (7) |
| SURGE (“rush”) + ON (“about”) | ||
| 19 | NIGHTIE | Lingerie is no longer near couple (7) |
| NIGH (“no longer near”) + TIE (“couple”)
The “no longer” bit is because NIGH is considered an obsolete term for NEAR |
||
| 21 | GLEE | Delight in German shelter (4) |
| G (German) + LEE (“shelter”) | ||
| 24 | MANIC | Chap in charge is run off his feet (5) |
| MAN (“chap”) + IC (in charge) | ||
| 25 | IRASCIBLE | Touchy Latin in bar is upset with ice melting (9) |
| L (latin) in *(bar is ice) This doesn’t work for me, as there are two anagram indicators for what is actually one anagram. For this to work, the letters of ICE would need to be together and separate from those in BAR IS. | ||
| 27 | NOSHOW | She doesn’t appear to eat what’s in bowl (2-4) |
| NOSH (“eat”) + [what’s in] (b)OW(l) | ||
| 28 | MISSPENT | The sort of youth enjoyed by maiden darling pocketing note (8) |
| MISS (“maiden”) + PET (“darling”) pocketing N (note)
The “the” at the start is superfluous. |
||
| 29 | CUDGEL | “Clobber” is clued cryptically, good too (6) |
| *(clued g) where G = good | ||
| 30 | MANDATED | Delegated authority to gent with old hat (8) |
| MAN (“gent”) with DATED (“old hat”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | RUBENS | To some extent cherub enslaved this artist (6) |
| Hidden in [to some extent] “cheRUB ENSlaved” | ||
| 2 | SCARCE | “Hard to find” is what gets conservative going into shock (6) |
| C (conservative) going into SCARE (“shock”) | ||
| 3 | ARENA | Plot involving new place for the audience (5) |
| AREA (“plot”) involving N (new) | ||
| 4 | CHEMIST | Scientist popping note in box (7) |
| MI (musical “note”) in CHEST (“box”) | ||
| 6 | PLANE TREE | Earth, eg, and grass mostly being a feature of city park? (5,4) |
| PLANET (“Earth, perhaps”) + REE(d) (“grass”, mostly) | ||
| 7 | DISCREET | Careful not to upset record run with rising support (8) |
| DISC (“record”) + R (run) + <=TEE (“support” for a golf ball, rising) | ||
| 8 | REDOLENT | Suggestive of commie having a nose? (8) |
| RED (“Commie”) + OLENT (“having a nose”)
According to Chambers, “olent” means “having a smell”, but I haven’t come across it before – is “scented” the same as “having a nose”? |
||
| 11 | MESS | Fix English in manuscripts (4) |
| E (English) in MSS (manuscripts) | ||
| 15 | ARTICHOKE | Skill I plug – it’s easy to scoff (9) |
| ART (“skill”) + I + CHOKE (“plug”)
Don’t like the definition – I hate artichoke, so would not find it “easy to scoff” |
||
| 17 | MNEMONIC | Such as helps master number once I’m listing (8) |
| M (master) N (number) + *(once im) | ||
| 18 | AGONISED | Thought long and hard before end is altered (8) |
| AGO (“before”) + *(end is) | ||
| 20 | EMIT | Session over in shed (4) |
| <=TIME (“session” over) | ||
| 21 | GRANITA | Baboushka tops it with a dessert (7) |
| GRAN (“baboushka”) tops IT with A A granita is a type of grainy textured sorbet | ||
| 22 | ABSENT | A book mailed is miles away (6) |
| A B (book) SENT (“mailed) | ||
| 23 | HEPTAD | Group knowing a little bit (6) |
| HEP (“knowing”) + TAD (“a littel bit”) | ||
| 26 | CASED | Checked out suit with daughter (5) |
| CASE (“suit”) with D (daughter) | ||
*anagram
Thanks loonapick – I agree with most of your points, and would add a couple: REDOLENT is basically a compound of “olent”, which would make this a very weak clue, perhaps saved by the obscurity of “olent” (by the way, nose = scent when talking about wine), and “put on a roll” for ENROL is a strange case of “answer in the clue”; I wouldn’t call “nigh” obsolete, though it tends only occur mostly in fossilised phrases such as “nigh on impossible”. I do like artichokes, but, at least if eaten whole, they must be one of the most complicated things to scoff.
The reference to Lorne sausage reminded me of this recent story.
Andrew@1
I agree with you about NIGH, but when I checked Chambers it said NIGH was an obsolete term (I don’t think it is, but the BRB seems to be considered a Bible by the cruciverbalist community, so it would be heresy to suggest otherwise!)
Thanks loonapick
I don’t think Lorne sausage is too obscure. What intrigues me is how they breed animals with square section intestines to make the sausage skins.
A mix of the R&W and the “what?” I didn’t know the sausage and would agree that nigh isn’t obsolete
Thanks to Jason and loonapick
Thanks, loonapick.
I had to think about 25ac too but, in my opinion, it should be read as: L inside (BAR IS + (ICE)*)*.
Same view as others on this. Didn’t know the Lorne sausage but it had to be this. Although I don’t like “put on a roll” used as definition for ENROL it is such a nice surface that I can forgive it.
Definition for ARTICHOKE seems very poor. I’m another who wouldn’t class “nigh” as obsolete but it did check with Chambers and Collins. Don’t know what criteria they use to decide this. Maybe it’s only us oldies that still use it. I guess it’s nigh on impossible to find out (to pinch Andrew’s example).
I went for PENTAD at 23d thinking of PEN sheep as “group sheep (together). Think this works but HEPTAD is clearly a better answer.
Thanks to S&B.
I bunged in REDOLENT in hope, but ended up failing on the flipped square sausage which I’d never heard of. I wondered if NIGHTIE ‘is no longer’ a PC term for this particular item of night attire. It’s reassuring that we can continue to use the word without a guilty conscience.
Thanks to Jason and loonapick
Ignore my comment @7 on PENTAD. A senior moment perhaps – makes no sense. Used “group” twice and ignored “knowing” altogether.
On a side note I originally parsed REDOLENT completely differently before looking up “olent” in Chambers. I took “nose” as the definition and RED 0 (nothing) LENT to be “suggestive of commie having”. Must be having a bad day. Haven’t even looked at today’s indie yet and I struggle with Hob even when on good form. Eek!
Thanks to Jason and loonapick. I struggled with the items already mentioned but also did not figure out IRASCIBLE, my LOI, until I finally got EMIT.
Thanks Jason and loonapick
First error for a while with an FT puzzle and no wonder I could never fully parse SEARCH at 2d – not even sure why I thought it would work in the first place ! Thought that it was a bit of a curate’s egg as well, with the ‘dodgy clues’ called out above – didn’t stop me from getting the rest in correctly though.
Didn’t know LORNE but had come across OLENT in crossword land before.
Finished in the SW corner with HEPTAD (a group that I hadn’t seen before), GRANITA (after correcting it from and early GRANDMA entry) and MISSPENT (after I made life easier for myself when getting 21d correct).