Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of September 19, 2020
A fine brew of easy, clever and difficult clues. I sailed through most of it then took a while to get 17 and 26, and finally another while to finish with 22 and 27. I would say the most difficult is 24 which involves an obscure meaning of ‘fell’. My favourites are 6ac (LOCUST), 12ac (SHED), 20ac (RASCAL) and 14dn (ITINERANT).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | AMENABLE | Awfully mean bachelor cracks beer open (8) |
| Anagram (awfully) of MEAN + B (bachelor) together in (cracks) ALE (beer) | ||
| 6 | LOCUST | Officer in charge consumed by passion for stripper? (6) |
| OC (officer in charge) in (consumed by) LUST (passion) with a clever cryptic definition | ||
| 9 | SCORED | Heartlessly scrubbed and scratched (6) |
| SCO[u]RED (heartlessly scrubbed) | ||
| 10 | ALLERGEN | Everyone turned green, finding a harmful substance (8) |
| ALL (everyone) + anagram (turned) of GREEN | ||
| 11 | IDEALISTIC | One is securing trade with credit, mostly? That’s impractical (10) |
| DEAL (trade) in (securing) I (one) + IS (is) + TIC[k] (credit mostly) | ||
| 12 | SHED | The woman had to get rid of outhouse (4) |
| SHE’D (the woman had) with two definitions! | ||
| 13 | INDICT | Popular detective faces court charge (6) |
| IN (popular) + DI (detective) + CT (court) | ||
| 15 | DATELESS | Unaffected by time without a romantic partner? (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 18 | PATIENCE | Job’s virtue is time in peace, working (8) |
| T (time) in anagram (working) of IN PEACE | ||
| 20 | RASCAL | Contributor to misbehaviour, a scallywag? (6) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 21 | ACHE | Long article by revolutionary (4) |
| A (article) + CHE (revolutionary) | ||
| 23 | FAR-FETCHED | Football’s governing body gagged entertaining fellow? Unlikely (3-7) |
| FA (football’s governing body — in the UK at least) + F (fellow) in (entertaining) RETCHED (gagged) | ||
| 25 | FATALIST | One resigned to destiny of overweight top celebs (8) |
| FAT (overweight) + A-LIST (top celebs) | ||
| 26 | TAILOR | Turkey possesses crude oil after a fashion (6) |
| A (a) + anagram (crude) of OIL in (possesses) TR (Turkey) | ||
| 27 | JESTER | A fool to scoff sandwiches fast? Not half (6) |
| [fa]ST in (sandwiches) JEER (to scoff) | ||
| 28 | CORVETTE | Old soldier heading for trouble aboard key warship (8) |
| VET (old soldier) + T[rouble] in (aboard) CORE (key) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | MACEDONIA | Country club put on one extravaganza at last (9) |
| MACE (club) + DON (put on) + I (one) + [extravaganz]A | ||
| 3 | NORMA | Opera singer Jessye, without second name? (5) |
| NORMA[n] (singer Jessye without second name). Norma is an opera by Vincenzo Bellini. | ||
| 4 | BADMINTON | I’m not playing with band – it entails a racket! (9) |
| Anagram (playing) of IM NOT BAND | ||
| 5 | EXALTED | Old Cockney’s stopped getting high (7) |
| EX [old] + [h]ALTED (Cockney’s stopped) | ||
| 6 | LILAC | Drop in around one, having climbed tree (5) |
| I (one) in (around) CALL (drop in) backwards (having climbed) | ||
| 7 | CHRYSALIS | Cast has lyric soprano as potential Butterfly? (9) |
| Anagram (cast) of HAS LYRIC + S (soprano) | ||
| 8 | SIEGE | Investment is, in recession, regularly meagre (5) |
| IS (is) backwards (in recession) + [m]E[a]G[r]E. I am not certain about this but my guess is that putting, say, a city under siege can be looked at as an investment since it can take a long time to get results, years I believe in some historical cases. | ||
| 14 | ITINERANT | I can hold forth about European travelling (9) |
| I (I) + TIN (can) + E (European) in (about) RANT (hold forth) | ||
| 16 | TORMENTOR | One persecutes soldiers surrounded by hills (9) |
| MEN (soldiers) in (surrounded by) TOR TOR (hills) | ||
| 17 | SPACED OUT | Jet carries one above cloud, finally – that’s high (6,3) |
| ACE (one) + [clou]D in (carries) SPOUT (jet) | ||
| 19 | ERRATIC | Wandering sailor turns up in Morecambe? (7) |
| TAR (sailor) backwards (turns up) in (on) ERIC (Morecambe?) | ||
| 22 | CRAVE | Sigh for Conservative Party (5) |
| C (Conservative) + RAVE (party) | ||
| 23 | FRIAR | Heard someone cooking chips, perhaps for brother (5) |
| Homophone (heard) of “fryer” (someone cooking chips, perhaps) | ||
| 24 | CHIDE | Rate fell below 100 (5) |
| C (100) + HIDE (fell). This clue depends on an obscure meaning of ‘fell’ in the sense of a skin or hide. | ||
Thanks Mudd and Pete
A typically enjoyable puzzle from this setter that was quite a deal easier than his previous weekend puzzle, notwithstanding a couple of obscurities along the way. Found the top half pretty straightforward going and was only after getting to the bottom half did the solve slow up.
Looking it up, it would appear that INVESTMENT in the ‘siege’ sense is derived from the medieval Latin invest?re to install, invest, surround.
Finished in the SE corner with SPACED OUT (with its deceptive surface leading away from the definition), CORVETTE and CHIDE (where had faint memories of that definition of ‘fell’) the last few in.
Oops … did I say Mudd … apologies to Alberich !!! But it was still easier than last week’s Mudd !!
This was a fairly straight forward, cleanly-clued offering from Alberich with the SE quadrant last to fall. 15d and 16a proved most obstinate because I kept reading ‘soldiers’ as OR rather than MEN. A fresh look at the grid later on having finally cracked DATELESS and I could finish.
Investment as ‘siege’ was an obscure usage for me but the parsing left no doubt and the crossers confirmed it. CHIDE, however, stumped me. Favourites were ERRATIC and LOCUST. I did wonder if for 7d, ‘cast’ (something shed) was the definition and ‘lyric’ the anagrind?
Thanks to Alberich and Pete.
Many thanks to Alberich for a very enjoyable solve, and to Pete. My (childish) favourite was fat A-list. I wanted to grumble that the lilac is a bush, but Dr. Google confirms there are (rather lovely) tree varieties. But Macedonia is still causing debate at this end. Is it really a country? Or only a former country now covering parts of Bulgaria, Greece and the former Yugoslav state? Do the 2 states if Korea form one country or two? Was Germany one country or two when it was two states?
Thanks to Pete and Alberich for an enjoyable weekend crossword. Much like fluffikins my favorite was 25A; it made me smile. I was not familiar with the definition of ‘fell’ so I had to resort to the dictionary for some extra help, which I also did to find another definition of ‘investment’ as ‘siege’.
Fluffikins, Thank you for commenting. Your question about countries prompted my mind to wander back to a visit I made many years ago to the Caribbean island called either Saint Martin or Sint Maarten. Its northern half is owned half by France and its southern half by the Netherlands but, for most practical purposes, it seems to operate as a single nation. So how many countries did I visit while I was there? I think it must be two: Sint Maarten (the Dutch side) and France (the French side). Is Macedonia really a country? According to Wikipedia, strictly speaking there is no country called Macedonia. However there is a country called North Macedonia that was formerly called simply Macedonia. So I think “Macedonia” is close enough for crossword purposes. I gather what was Macedonia became North Macedonia to distinguish it from the region of Greece that is called Macedonia.
Once again, I’m kicking myself for having mislaid my copy (and solving notes) of this puzzle, so it’s hard to remember, with twelve days of puzzles in between.
I do remember that, as usual with this setter, I really enjoyed this puzzle and agree with the favourites mentioned above, plus a special mention for the innovative cluing of the crossword favourite NORMA at 3dn.
Pete, I think there’s something missing in the blog @23ac: FA RETCHED (gagged) entertaining F (fellow) but thanks for a great blog, as ever, and many thanks to Alberich for another super puzzle.
Eileen, Thank you for pointing out that omission in 23ac. Now corrected.
Thanks to all. ‘Fell’ as hide isn’t that obscure: we had a fellmonger in our town in Scotland until recently.
A fellmonger! Well, why not. Thank you.