Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of October 3, 2020
This, our third puzzle by Artexlen, proved fairly easy for me. My favourites are 29ac (LUMBAR PUNCTURE), 9dn (NORDIC) and 19dn (COUNSEL).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | LONG JOHN SILVER | Pirate’s underwear turned vile with runs (4,4,6) |
| LONG JOHNS (underwear) + anagram (turned) of VILE + R (runs) | ||
| 10 | OCEAN | The drink hock; seal and all wrapping removed (5) |
| [h]OC[k] [s]EA[l] [a]N[d] | ||
| 11 | FRACTURES | French ones crossing channel to bring back chips (9) |
| FR (French) + RUT (channel) backwards (to bring back) in (crossing) ACES (ones) | ||
| 12 | DISCERN | Pick out record, Queen number (7) |
| DISC (record) + ER (queen) + N (number) | ||
| 13 | SCROOGE | One tight score revised, letting in own goal (7) |
| OG (own goal) in (letting in) anagram (revised) of SCORE | ||
| 14 | CRISP | Gent nabbed by policeman turned terse (5) |
| SIR (gent) in (nabbed by) PC (policeman) all backwards (turned) | ||
| 16 | INSURGENT | International partners joining desperate rebel (9) |
| I (international) + NS (partners, as in bridge) + URGENT (desperate) | ||
| 19 | COLLEAGUE | Mate’s dog shaking current fever (9) |
| COLL[i]E (dog shaking current) + AGUE (fever). ‘I’ is the standard abbreviation for electric current as in the classic equation V=IR | ||
| 20 | TACKY | Vulgar eccentric having head in textbook for week (5) |
| WACKY (eccentric) with the ‘W’ (week) replaced by ‘T’ (head in textbook) | ||
| 22 | UNCLOGS | Removes jam from one in French footwear (7) |
| UN (one in French) + CLOGS (footwear) | ||
| 25 | POT LUCK | Draw over books, whatever’s available (3,4) |
| OT (books, i.e. Old Testament) in (over) PLUCK (draw) | ||
| 27 | SPADEWORK | Electrician restricting moisture, ordinary toil (9) |
| DEW (moisture) + O (ordinary) together in SPARK (electrician)
The informal use of ‘spark’ to mean an electrician is something I have come across before but I think it is not common. |
||
| 28 | BATON | Staff flap about working (5) |
| TAB (flap) backwards (about) + ON (working) | ||
| 29 | LUMBAR PUNCTURE | Spinal Tap played up current album (6,8) |
| Anagram (played) of UP CURRENT ALBUM | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | OVERSPILL | Excess fluid covers pillow somewhat (9) |
| HIdden word | ||
| 3 | GENRE | Eagle coming up following golf class (5) |
| G (golf) + ERNE (eagle) backwards (coming up)
An erne is a sea eagle and is frequently seen in crosswords. |
||
| 4 | OFFENDING | Not working close is displeasing (9) |
| OFF (not working) + ENDING (close) | ||
| 5 | NEARS | Regularly sneer at rush approaches (5) |
| [s]N[e]E[r] A[t] R[u]S[h] | ||
| 6 | INTERPRET | Explain playwright dropping intro? About time (9) |
| INTER P (playwright dropping intro) + RE (about) + T (time) | ||
| 7 | VIRGO | Content to forgive misspelled sign (5) |
| Anagram (misspelled) of [f]ORGIV[e] | ||
| 8 | RESPECT | Value soldiers quietly infiltrating group (7) |
| RE (soldiers, i.e. Royal Engineers) + P (quietly) in (infiltrating) REST (group) | ||
| 9 | NORDIC | Scandi Noir, not one policeman cold? (6) |
| NO[i]R + DI (policeman) + C (cold) | ||
| 15 | PHENOMENA | Climbing plant starts to hatch, passer-by marvels (9) |
| ANEMONE (plant) + H[atch] + P[asser-by] all backwards (climbing) | ||
| 17 | SHEEPSKIN | Material repairing hips and knees (9) |
| Anagram (repairing) of HIPS KNEES | ||
| 18 | ENCOUNTER | Come across military officer uniform within lodge (9) |
| NCO (military officer) + U (uniform) together in (within) ENTER (lodge) | ||
| 19 | COUNSEL | Love to interrupt uncle’s bad advice (7) |
| O (love) in (to interrupt) anagram (bad) of UNCLES | ||
| 21 | YOKING | Finally, enemy and old ruler uniting (6) |
| [enem]Y + O (old) + KING (ruler) | ||
| 23 | CLAIM | 150 train for profession (5) |
| CL (150) + AIM (train) | ||
| 24 | SLOOP | Boat from south on circular course (5) |
| S (south) + LOOP (circular course) | ||
| 26 | TIBET | I live in dry mountainous region (5) |
| I (I) + BE (live) together in (in) TT (dry) | ||
An enjoyable weekender from Artexlen with some delightfully witty surfaces.
TACKY and SCROOGE were among my favourites but the real crowd-pleaser was 29ac for its apt surface.
CLAIM and SPADEWORK were the last 2 standing: it took a while to see ‘profession’ as ‘declaration’ and I’m more accustomed to ‘Sparky’ so wasn’t altogether sure if ‘restricting’ in 27ac put paid to the ‘y’.
Anyway, much fun to be had.
Thanks to Artexlen and Pete.
A nice little Saturday afternoon trundle with nothing too much to terrify the wildlife. Thanks for the challenge Artexlen.
I also looked sideways at the SPARK bit, being comfortable with sparky or sparks as an electrician, which made me wonder if “restricting” was doing double duty. Having looked, I see it is, “as they type”, in the dictionary.
29a was lovely. Nice to see “drink” meaning something than other a drink in 10a.
I also wondered about the “playwright dropping intro” which suggested to me the P was removed, rather than everything after it.
Thanks for the explanations Pete.
Thanks Artlexen and Pete
An unusually straightforward puzzle from this setter with his knife-edge crisp clues. Only failed to properly parse ENCOUNTER by only having CO and wondering where UN= uniform.
There were no special standouts and it was all over quite quickly. Finished down the bottom with SPADEWORK (and the abbreviated electrician where I’d normally expect a Y or an IE at the end), CLAIM (taking a while to equate it to profession – actually had to look at definition of profession to see how it worked rather than at the definition of claim) and POT LUCK the last one in.
Mystogre: the playwright is [Harold] PINTER, whose P is “dropped” to the end
LONG JOHN SILVER was my favourite clue — even at my advanced age I still take pleasure in that sort of humour. VIRGO and PHENOMENA were also rewarding as was most of this crossword. THANKS A & P.
Many thanks Andrew @4. My own lack of education agin.