A solid work out dished out by Wanderer this Friday. Thanks Wanderer.
FF: 9 DD: 9
| Across | ||
| 1 | WASTED | Breaking into bundle of notes, set off to get very drunk (6) |
| SET* in WAD (bundle of notes) | ||
| 4 | SKITTISH | Saint Christopher? Sporting this, when nervous and easily scared (8) |
| S KITT (saint christopher, two names of the same caribbean island) THIS* | ||
| 9 | LAPTOP | PC Plod’s tip: suspect a plot at first (6) |
| A PLOT* P (Plod, first letter) | ||
| 10 | STIPPLED | After small drink, daughter did something dotty (8) |
| S (small) TIPPLE (drink) D (daughter) | ||
| 12 | TARP | Sailor paid upfront for protective cover (4) |
| TAR (sailor) P (Paid, first letter) | ||
| 13 | COMBUSTION | Burning bush initially featured in Milton work? Wrong – in OT! (10) |
| [ B (Bush, initally) in COMUS (milton work) ] (IN OT)* | ||
| 15 | DEATH PENALTY | End with what might be a fine sentence (5,7) |
| DEATH (end) PENALTY (fine) | ||
| 18 | CHEFS DOEUVRE | Masterpieces from cooks badly overdue (5-7) |
| CHEFS (cooks) OVERDUE* | ||
| 21 | IMPEACHING | One politician with base longing for what some think Trump needs? (10) |
| I (one) MP (politician) E (base) ACHING (longing) | ||
| 22 | ORFE | Somewhat poor female swimmer (4) |
| hidden in “..poOR FEmale..” | ||
| 24 | ELOQUENT | The Spanish books cover heartless ruler that’s fluently persuasive (8) |
| EL (the, spanish) [ OT (books, Old Testament) containing QUeEN (ruler, heartless) ] | ||
| 25 | TUMULT | Upheaval in corporation last month (6) |
| TUM (corporation) ULT (last month, ultimo) | ||
| 26 | REASSESS | Have another look at animals kept in reserve briefly (8) |
| ASSES (animals) in REServe (briefly) | ||
| 27 | UGANDA | Characteristic content of sugar in African country (6) |
| cryptic def; sUGAr (content of) described as U G AND A | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | WELL-TO-DO | Bustle previously spring- loaded? (4-2-2) |
| WELL (spring) TO DO (bustle) | ||
| 2 | SUPERTAX | Great 11, perhaps, for what 1 down might pay (8) |
| SUPER (great) [ TA (thanks) X (cross) – answer to 11d ] | ||
| 3 | EBOR | Dress up as an archbishop (4) |
| reverse of ROBE (dress); guessed the answer and then confirmed the parse on google | ||
| 5 | KITEBOARDING | Surfing before getting on plane (12) |
| KITE (~surfing?) BOARDING (getting on plane) – not sure if surfing is doing double duty here | ||
| 6 | TYPESETTER | Printing machine of sort used by Wanderer? (10) |
| TYPE (sort) SETTER (wanderer, one of the most delightful crossword creators at the ft) | ||
| 7 | INLAID | Treated nail – one with diamonds embedded (6) |
| NAIL* I (one) D (diamond) | ||
| 8 | HIDING | Drawing a veil over bad defeat (6) |
| double def | ||
| 11 | VOTE OF THANKS | Formal show of appreciation, given actor playing R Langdon’s cross? (4,2,6) |
| cryptic def; read as VOTE OF Tom HANKS (actor who plays robert langdon in dan brown’s novels) | ||
| 14 | CHIHUAHUAS | N American state capital: third of visits for man’s best friends (10) |
| CHIHUAHUA (north american state capital, place in mexico) S (third of viSits) | ||
| 16 | OVERTURN | Capsize public vessel (8) |
| OVERT (public) URN (vessel) | ||
| 17 | DEMENTIA | Dine with mate suffering form of insanity (8) |
| DINE MATE* | ||
| 19 | LINEAR | One-dimensional storyteller touring Geordieland (6) |
| LIAR (storyteller) around NE (geordieland) ] | ||
| 20 | APNOEA | Problem sleeping? One surprisingly found in alpha male relative (6) |
| ONE* in [A (alpha) PA (male relative) ] | ||
| 23 | BUNG | Cake, good for a bribe (4) |
| BUN (cake) G (good) | ||
*anagram
Great puzzle.
In 4a, it is KIT not KITT.
For 5d, I had KITE = PLANE coming before BOARDING = GETTING ON. That is, before getting on (we have) plane.
Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs.
Thanks for the blog, Turbolegs.
In 10ac, ‘did’ is part of the definition, as is ‘at’ in 26ac. In 2dn, I think you meant to write ‘TA [thanks] X [vote] and you’ve left out the explanation of 3dn: the Archbishop of York signs himself EBOR [abbreviation of Eboracum, the Roman name for York].
I’m feeling very disgruntled, as this great puzzle was a dnf for me. Early on, I confidently entered TYPEWRITER for 6dn – I knew TYPESETTER only as a person, not a machine – which meant I could find no words to fit 13 or 15ac. I’m doubly cross at not getting COMBUSTION, as I did COMUS for A Level!
Disgruntlement aside, I did enjoy the puzzle, especially LAPTOP, TUMULT, VOTE OF THANKS and APNOEA. Many thanks to Wanderer.
Thanks for the blog, Turbolegs.
I guess it was too much to expect all of this week’s FT crosswords to be as good as Wednesday’s and yesterday’s.
I always have issues with Wanderer’s clueing and this was no exception. An mishmash of many very simple clues with 5,11, & 14 requiring obscure general knowledge needing the solver to resort to google.
…and a bun is not a cake!
… and I would have had a tick beside COMBUSTION if I’d got it!
Great fun solving this one — favorites included ELOQUENT and WELL-TO-DO. Got EBOR and ORFE just through parsing/guessing — both new to me. Never knew BUNG was a bribe so I had to use a reference to solve. Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs.
Grumpy @ 3
In parts of Yorkshire, what most of us know as buns, baps or rolls are called breadcakes.
I thought the definition for SKITTISH was nervous and easily scared, with sporting as the anagram indicator for THIS. Nice clue.
Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs. I struggled with LAPTOP and SUPERTAX, but I knew EBOR and ORFE from previous puzzles.
I’m with Nila Palin re SKITTISH.
Excellent puzzle as one would expect from Wanderer. VOTE OF THANKS was particularly good.
It’s difficult to take seriously a poster who calls himself “Grumpy” – especially when (s)he sets out to emulate the so-called “acerbic” columnists in the likes of the Daily Mail. At least the latest contribution from this poster isn’t as rude as some previous efforts, although a quick look at Chambers would have informed him/her that the dictionary definition of BUN starts with “a kind of sweet roll or cake”.
I guess that we have to put up with this sort of thing but the comments from such respected posters as Turbolegs, Hovis and Eileen say all that’s needed and one wonders why some people feel the need to be controversial just for the sake of it.
cruciverbophile @10
Don’t be so grumpy!
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
Was able to complete this on the train-train-bus trip to the airport. A fun puzzle with a lot of meat in it as is usual from this setter.
Had to check BUNG for bribe and CHEFS D’OEUVRE for masterpieces, but both hD clear wordplay. Dragged COMUS from the depths of the grey matter.
TARP was the first in but had to come back to complete the NE corner with SUPERTAX (with its tricky wordplay) and LAPTOP (with its cleverly disguised definition).