Some Monday morning fun with ZAMORCA…
Some nice clues here, with a lack of straight double definitions, and some great surfaces. Some of the parsing was a bit fiddly, but enjoyable nonetheless.
Thanks ZAMORCA!
(I believe that this is Teacow’s 100th FT blog)
ACROSS
1 Disdain Tory lure (8)
CONTEMPT
CON (tory) + TEMPT (lure)
6 Traditional roofing which is associated with church (6)
THATCH
THAT (which) associated with CH (church)
9 Mutiny of soldiers against ordinary officer (6)
REVOLT
RE (soldiers) + V (against) + O (ordinary) + LT (officer)
10 Used ropeway to carry nationalist arms (8)
WEAPONRY
(ROPEWAY)* (*used) to carry N (nationalist)
11 However, being locked in is part of sentence (4)
VERB
[howe]VER B[eing] (locked in)
As in “This sentence no verb.”
12 Special section copper’s taken in by crafty liar (10)
PARTICULAR
PART (section) + (CU (copper) taken in by (LIAR)* (*crafty))
14 Went to sleep by 12, mostly before party gets very loud (5,3)
DOZED OFF
DOZE[n] (12, mostly) before DO (party) gets FF (very loud)
16 Weep when Doctor returned letter from Greece (4)
DRIP
DR (doctor) + (PI)< (letter from Greece, <returned)
18 Bit of data from home for contract (4)
INFO
IN (home) + FO[r] (contract)
19 Learnt to fake being easy- going (8)
TOLERANT
21 Island’s soldiers engaged in specialist trial (10)
EXPERIMENT
(I (island) + MEN (soldiers)) engaged in EXPERT (specialist)
22 Anger about one’s last navel piercing (4)
RILE
RE (about), (I (one) + [nave]L (last)) piercing
24 Wishing good health to a former member of the Police (8)
TOASTING
TO A + STING (former member of the Police)
26 Feisty qualifier celebrated inclusion (6)
FIERCE
[quali]FIER CE[lebrated] (inclusion)
27 Hope for quiet when anger’s over (6)
ASPIRE
P (quiet) (AS + IRE (anger)) over
28 Take 30 minutes of the hour given for interval? (4-4)
HALF TIME
Double cryptic definition
DOWN
2 Following rampant bad smell see mouldy fat (5)
OBESE
(BO)< (bad smell, <rampant) + (SEE)* (*mouldy)
3 Foreign currency hidden in volume is problematic (11)
TROUBLESOME
ROUBLE (foreign currency) hidden in TOME (volume)
4 Satisfied a number picked up analogy (8)
METAPHOR
MET (satisfied) + A + “four” (number, “picked up”)
5 Having to cover debtor’s fine might be a great help (5,2,8)
TOWER OF STRENGTH
having TO cover (around) OWER (debtor) + F (fine) + STRENGTH (might)
6 Wagon coming back carrying soldier’s very sad (6)
TRAGIC
(CART)< (wagon, <coming back) carrying GI (soldier)
7 A cheat’s in trouble (3)
ADO
8 Evaporated milk could be in a carton (9)
CARNATION
(IN A CARTON)* (*could be)
13 The German revolutionary artist adopted by rebellion’s in custody (5,6)
UNDER ARREST
(DER (the,German) + (RA)< (artist, <revolutionary)) adopted by UNREST (rebellion)
15 Nasty old coach is receiving no team love (9)
OBNOXIOUS
O (old) + BUS (coach) receiving (NO + XI (team) + O (love))
17 Lazy animal’s had enough to eat, almost? (8)
SLOTHFUL
SLOTH (animal) + FUL[l] (had enough to eat, almost)
20 Share joint round – I would! (6)
DIVIDE
DIVE (joint) round ID (I would)
23 Stand in line backing company’s union man initially (5)
LOCUM
L (line) + (CO)< (company, <backing) + U[nion] M[an] (initially)
25 Nearly miss winter sport (3)
SKI
I remember your first blog, Teacow. Has it really been that long? Congrats.
Had a quick look at previous offerings by Zamorca and I think this is the best of the bunch. Admittedly, a fairly small bunch. Nothing too tricky but a few unusual anagram indicators slowed me up. I thought the inclusion at 11a was particularly clever.
Thanks to Zamorca and Teacow.
Yes, a pleasant amble that had some robust stopping-points. I’m going to use it to show a cryptic novice how things work. Thanks, Teacow and Zamorca.
Thanks to Zamorca and Teacow. Very enjoyable. I needed the crossers to get several of the short items and also (for some reason) ASPIRE
Thanks Zamorca for a well crafted crossword. Didn’t realize that DO could mean “cheat” (7d) as well as “party” (14a). It seems that tiny word can cover a lot of ground. Took forever to get 2d as I did not see “rampant” as a reversal indicator for BO. One of my favorites was my LOI, 20d. Thanks Teacow for the blog.
This was another well-written crossword from a setter who we also know as Hectence.
Same style, same consistency.
However, unlike Hornbeam, I wouldn’t use this particular puzzle to show a novice what’s it all about.
In my opinion, there were a handful of things novices should stay away from.
Like the indicator ‘contract’ in 18ac (perhaps, meant to be an imperative?).
Or the nounal indicator ‘inclusion’ in 26ac – ‘fodder inclusion’ just doesn’t work for me.
Neither does the construction in 27ac which is formulated rather clumsily (though others may be fine with it).
And then there is ‘last navel’ = L – not in my book of crosswords but, yes, that is only a (and not the) book.
While all this is perhaps just a matter of taste, I think the definition in 23d is simply not right.
Zamorca gives us ‘stand in’ (which suits the surface) but a LOCUM is really a ‘stand-in’.
For me, proof that punctuation sometimes does matter.
Anyway.
Many thanks to Teacow & Zamorca.
Thanks Teacow and Zamorca for a pleasant solving experience.
Thanks Zamorca and Teacow (congrats on reaching the 100)
A fairly quick but enjoyable solve with enough little tricks to keep things interesting all the way to the finish. There looks to be an S missing from ROUBLES in 3d.
Didn’t have as much grief as Sil with the aspects mentioned, although ‘stand in’ without the hyphen did make me look twice.
Finished with SLOTHFUL and INFO as the last couple in.