Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of April 19, 2020
This proved to be a considerably slower solve than last weekend’s but still one that gave me no great difficulty. My favourites are 22ac (LIMA BEAN), 2dn (RAT RACE), 5dn (COMBINATION LOCK) and 14dn (ESTRANGED).
| Across | ||
| 1 | FREELANCER | Part of film in France tormented mercenary (10) |
| REEL (part of film) in (in) anagram (tormented) of FRANCE | ||
| 7 | PIPE | Churchwarden perhaps just beat earl (4) |
| PIP (just beat) + E (earl). A churchwarden, as defined here, is a tobacco pipe with a long stem. | ||
| 9 | STUB | End time in boat (4) |
| T (time) in SUB (boat) | ||
| 10 | DOMINATION | Party lackey impresses at authority (10) |
| DO (party) + AT (at) in (impresses) MINION (lackey) | ||
| 11 | WANDER | Stray rook follows opposite directions (6) |
| W AND E (opposite directions) + R (rook, as in chess) | ||
| 12 | IDENTIFY | Finger impression provided in case of injury (8) |
| DENT (impression) + IF (provided) together in (in) I[njur]Y | ||
| 13 | DEMERARA | Rum old man hosts returning groups of soldiers (8) |
| RA REME (groups of soldiers) backwards (returning) in (hosts) DA (old man). Here RA is the Royal Artillery and REME is the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. And DA is an Irish term for ‘father’. An Irish child might say “me da” where an English child would say “my dad”.
I know demerara best as a kind of sugar but it is also the name of a rum from Guyana. |
||
| 15 | OKRA | Ladies’ fingers soak bread, missing odd bits (4) |
| [s]O[a]K [b]R[e]A[d] | ||
| 17 | AUNT | Hill-dweller accommodates posh relative (4) |
| U (posh) in (accommodates) ANT (hill dweller) | ||
| 19 | INTERVAL | Break in travel for refreshment (8) |
| Anagram (for refreshment) of IN TRAVEL | ||
| 22 | LIMA BEAN | Jack sliced fruit and chopped vegetable (4,4) |
| AB (jack, as in sailor) in (sliced) LIME (fruit) + AN[d] | ||
| 23 | COBWEB | You and I chase horse hitched to black trap (6) |
| COB (horse) + WE (you and I) + B (black) | ||
| 25 | FINGER BOWL | After meal, hands in this brown gel if spoiled (6,4) |
| Anagram (spoiled) of BROWN GEL IF. I think this definition is okay but I think of a finger bowl as something provided after a particular course of a meal rather than a complete meal. While I have been served finger bowls a few times in my life, being given a moist wipe in a sachet is more common these days. | ||
| 26 | ROOM | Bouncer primarily manages space (4) |
| ROO (bouncer, as in kangaroo) + M[anages] | ||
| 27 | BYRD | Teetotal bishop repelled old scorer (4) |
| DRY (teetotal) + B (bishop) together reversed (repelled). The “old scorer” is William Byrd, an English composet of C16. | ||
| 28 | POKER-FACED | Impassive royal couple placed in stern (5-5) |
| K ER (royal couple) in (placed in) PO-FACED (stern)
Po-faced is a term I had little sense of so I looked it up. One definition is “stupidly solemn and narrow-minded”. Apparently the origin of the term is unknown although one suspicion is that the ‘po’ part derives from an abbreviation of chamber-pot. |
||
| Down | ||
| 2 | RAT RACE | The Gunners draw contest for dominance (3,4) |
| RA (The Gunners, i.e. the Royal Artillery) + TRACE (draw) | ||
| 3 | EMBED | Bass hiding in European sea plant (5) |
| B (bass) in (hiding in) E (European) MED (sea) | ||
| 4 | ALDERMAN | Councillor and nearly all the foreign staff (8) |
| AL[l] + DER (the foreign) + MAN (staff) | ||
| 5 | COMBINATION LOCK | Search one country to secure safe access? (11,4) |
| COMB (search) + I (one) + NATION (country) + LOCK (to secure) | ||
| 6 | RENNET | Note upcoming cheese agent (6) |
| TENNER (note) backwards (upcoming) | ||
| 7 | PETIT FOUR | It’s fed to cat perhaps for keeping you sweet (5,4) |
| PET (cat) + IT (it) + U (you) in (keeping) FOR (for) | ||
| 8 | PROFFER | Present teacher and revolutionary judge (7) |
| PROF (teacher) + REF (judge) backwards (revolutionary) | ||
| 14 | ESTRANGED | Grinding gears tend to become separated (9) |
| Anagram (grinding) of GEARS TEND | ||
| 16 | STICKLER | Insert line in notice for pedant (8) |
| L (line) in (insert…in) STICKER (notice) | ||
| 18 | UTILITY | It’s pointless wasting fluorine gas, for instance (7) |
| [f]UTILITY (it’s pointless wasting fluorine) | ||
| 20 | AWESOME | We split apart, staggering (7) |
| WE (we) in (split) A (a…) + SOME (…part) | ||
| 21 | BEAR UP | Manage transport at university (4,2) |
| BEAR (transport) + UP (at university)
I originally had this as GEAR UP but several commenters have noted that they have BEAR UP and I am now satisfied that that is better. |
||
| 24 | BURKA | Edited UK-Arab article omitted religious coverage (5) |
| Anagram (edited) of UK [a]RAB | ||
Thanks Pete & Redshank!
I’ve been waiting for this to be blogged as I couldn’t work out why 13a was `demerara` – closest we could get was “old man” => ADAM and “groups of soldiers” => RE RE, but it needed an anagrind that wasn’t there.
For 7a I had PIPE, with the same construction. I wasn’t previously aware that Churchwarden was a style of pipe.
Oh my! I had 7a wrong! Thanks for setting me right.
Thanks Redshank for an enjoyable Saturday puzzle. I ticked IDENTIFY, LIMA BEAN, ROOM, and ALDERMAN as particularly satisfying. DEMERARA was my downfall — I hadn’t heard of it before and the parsing turned out to be way too byzantine for me. Thanks Pete for the blog.
Thanks Redshank and Pete
PIPE was my first one in – the memories of illustrations in Charles Dickens novels with them in always springs to mind for some reason. I had BEAR UP at 21d for ‘manage’.
Lots to like, especially with the word play of a number of clues – FREELANCER, LIMA BEAN, POKER FACED and PETIT FOUR.
Finished in the NW corner when I finally saw FREELANCER which then confirmed that my initial TENNER was indeed RENNET.
I had BEAR UP as well.
Thanks, for the blog, Pete. I agree with your favourites, with the addition of DEMERARA [having lived in Northern Ireland long ago, I was quite familiar with ‘me da’] and POKER-FACED [because I love ‘po-faced’].
I had BEAR UP at 21dn, too.
Many thanks to Redshank for a very enjoyable puzzle.