Another tussle with this mercurial setter, and good fun, too.
*And a late, late edit: there is a subtle nina, pointed out only by the setter himself.*
As usual, Hamilton plays fast and loose with the ‘filler’ words in his clueing, but I’m finding that as long as you’re on your toes (and prepared to give the chap a bit of slack) there’s plenty to enjoy. You can take issue with several clues today, but I don’t suppose he’s about to change his USP. Thanks, Hamilton.
| Across | ||
| 1 | NOTIONAL | Speculative but flawed consultation from which TUC’s withdrawn (8) |
| Anagram (‘flawed’) of ‘cONsuLtATION’ minus TUCS. | ||
| 5 | MOLTEN | Second young chap takes a little taste it’s liquefied (6) |
| MO[ment] (‘second’) + L.EN (‘young chap’) includes T{aste}. | ||
| 9 | PRETENCE | Recent changes in gym are a sham (8) |
| Anagram (‘changes’) of RECENT in PE (‘gym’). | ||
| 10 | VIOLIN | Tailless 12 revolves after 6 and takes a bow! (6) |
| Anagram (‘revolves’) of LIONs (‘tailless’ answer to 12a), all after VI (=’6′) w cryptic def. | ||
| 12 | LIONS | England has three such superstars (5) |
| Double definition, 1st referring to England sports teams’ “3 lions” badge. | ||
| 13 | INTENSELY | Clandestinely unclad, causing chaos with a vengeance (9) |
| Anagram (‘causing chaos’) of ‘claNdESTINELY’ without CLAD (i.e., ‘unclad’). | ||
| 14 | MINION | Hanger-on wearing something short? (6) |
| Thus, with a mini on. | ||
| 16 | SMARTEN | Groom small animal (7) |
| S[mall] + MARTEN. | ||
| 19 | DISTEND | Expand study to include top Democrat (7) |
| D.EN (‘study’) includes 1ST (‘top’), then D[emocrat]. | ||
| 21 | EXEUNT | They leave on river with craft losing power (6) |
| River EXE + pUNT (‘craft’) without P[ower]. | ||
| 23 | TENDERISE | I resented being forced to soften up (9) |
| Anagram (‘being forced’) of I RESENTED. | ||
| 25 | OXIDE | Beast and fish compound (5) |
| OX + IDE. | ||
| 26 | BIOGAS | Influence over westerly turn to green fuel (6) |
| BI.AS surrounds reversal (‘westerly’) of GO (a ‘turn’). | ||
| 27 | SENTENCE | Have chosen ten cellmates to reveal judgment (8) |
| Hidden in ‘choSEN TEN CEllmates’. | ||
| 28 | EXISTS | Lives with bigot with front at last (6) |
| SEXIST (a ‘bigot’), 1st letter moved to end. | ||
| 29 | ATTENDEE | A supporter that takes care of delegate (8) |
| A T.EE (‘supporter’) surrounds TEND (‘care’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | NAPALM | Almost snatch and grab sticky jelly (6) |
| NAb (‘snatch’, nearly) + PALM (to ‘grab’). Almost a euphemism for the vile ‘napalm’. | ||
| 2 | THE MOVIES | He has motives about making films (3,6) |
| Anagram (‘about’) of HE + MOTIVES. | ||
| 3 | OGENS | Sailor gathering information on fruit (5) |
| O[rdinary] S[eaman] around GEN (‘information’). Round, juicy melons. | ||
| 4 | AUCTION | University involved in litigation on sale (7) |
| A.CTION contains U[niversity]. | ||
| 6 | ORIENTATE | Get used to London team number, it’s said (9) |
| (Formerly Leyton) ORIENT + ATE (homophone of ‘eight’). | ||
| 7 | TULLE | That Jethro, ‘e made silk fabric (5) |
| Ref. historical activist (Jethro) ‘TULL’ + E. | ||
| 8 | NANNYING | Girl in US city, gin-crazed, needs nursing (8) |
| ANN in N.Y. + anagram (‘crazed’) of GIN. | ||
| 11 | UTES | Aussie trucks have some minute scratches (4) |
| Contained in ‘minUTE Scratches’. | ||
| 15 | INELEGANT | Graceless heroine without her man gives stage to worker (9) |
| ‘heroINE’ without HERO (‘my hero!’ = “her man”, I s’pose) + LEG (a ‘stage’ in a race) + ANT (‘worker’). H’m. | ||
| 17 | TENSIONED | Notes Enid rewrote when stressed (9) |
| Anagram (‘rewrote’) of NOTES ENID. | ||
| 18 | EDITABLE | Half fit to eat on board but that can be changed! (8) |
| Half of EDIble + TABLE. | ||
| 20 | DAIS | Welshman’s platform (4) |
| DAI’S. | ||
| 21 | ELEMENT | Simple? No, but 7/10 for module! (7) |
| 1st 7 letters of ELEMENTary (‘simple’). | ||
| 22 | RED-EYE | Radical sleuth finds fault with photo (3-3) |
| RED (a ‘radical’) + (private) EYE (a ‘sleuth’). | ||
| 24 | NAOMI | Up to first person to complain about girl (5) |
| MOAN, read upwards, then ‘I’ (‘1st person’). Either ‘up’ or ‘about’ feel somehow redundant. | ||
| 25 | OUTRE | Caught, say, on something unusual (5) |
| OUT (‘caught, say’ in cricket, baseball &c) + RE (concerning, ‘on something’). | ||
*anagram
Yes, enough to keep you thinking with some less common words like OGENS and BIOGAS. The dreaded ‘could be any short name for a boy/man’ did me for 5a, not helped by trying to make ‘liquified’ into an anagram indicator. I also missed EXEUNT by being too lazy to go through a ‘craft trawl’.
I liked the surface and wordplay for MINION.
Thanks to Hamilton and Grant.
Thanks Hamilton and Grant
in 15, I think ‘her man’ = HERO simply because it’s inevitably a male role. No need for the ‘my’ extrapolation.
To Simon @2…
H’m, not quite.
Back in the 80s, I was Musical Director & Composer-in-Residence for the Young Shakespeare Company (hem, hem) and wrote a song for Hero in Much Ado. She’s a (very girly) girly.
Point taken, Grant, but that’s a character named Hero. One would reasonably expect the role of *a* hero to be male.
Thanks for the challenge Hamilton. Done in by OGENS (new word to me), EXEUNT, ORIENTATE (could not parse, thanks Grant) and SMARTEN which I should have seen. By the way, “hero” is a sandwich in parts of the US as well as the person who saves the day — yet another layer for some setters to use in definitions.
Thanks Grant et al.
I’ll reappear long enough just to mention that this month is the tenth anniversary of my first FT cryptic. So the across clues contain either io (10), x, or ten itself, as did a couple of down clues.
What a nice touch!
Thanks for dropping by, Hamilton.
Nice ghost theme, shame you couldn’t have built an X into 17D 😉
To Hamilton:
Congrats on the anniversary and thanks for the beautiful and ingenious theme. None of us got anywhere near it, on this site anyway. Grr. I wonder whether that’s a source of satisfaction or disappointment? Pure admiration on our part, anyway. Thanks again.
Thanks Hamilton and Grant
Congratulations on the milestone … and the clever way that you have been able to bring our attention to it. My first one of yours that I did was back in July 2014 by the looks, which was themed on artefacts that had been ‘appropriated’ from other countries by Britain ! 🙂
Found this one entertaining, doing it on the train ride into work this morning. No real holdups and nice to see OGENS again – always promised myself to try one but am pretty sure that we don’t get them down here. Had LIONS as the names of three national teams – cricket, rugby league and rugby union – didn’t realise that there was a three lion symbol as the team logo.
Finished in the NE corner with the tricky pair, MOLTEN and ORIENTATE.
Thanks for the blog, Grant Baynham. I see no reason to cut this setter any slack. This was self-indulgent setting.