Today's FT features a teaser from Redshank
This was a pleasant solve that took me a little longer than I normally take on a typical Thursday FT.
My favourite was PLAYING CARD but there were others that got ticks, including DECRESCENDO.
NEWLY-WEDS may have been difficult for non-Brits as Newlyn is not a particularly big or famous place, but it was also one of my ticked clues.
I don't like "apprentice" for L in PLASTERER. L for Learner has a very specific meaning, but has gradually come to be synonymous with "beginner" which is almost acceptable as a learner driver is also likely to be a beginner, but L is also used for student and now in this puzzle, apprentice. You don't study to be a driver (apart from the Highway Code of course) and there is no apprenticeship involved.
I'd also be interested in other people's opinions on "anonymous" in ALOE (23dn) – is expecting the solver to come up with "nameless" as a synonym for "anonymous" not the same kind of leap that makes indirect anagrams a no-no in Crosswordland?
Neither of these detracted from the enjoyment of the puzzle, but nevertheless, we have to have rules. After all a football match without the offside rule may appear to be more exciting, but it isn't football, and would soon ruin the game.
Thanks, Redshank.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | TOP UP |
Supplement to produce litter (3,2)
|
|
TO + PUP ("produce litter") |
||
| 4 | TOADSTOOL |
Car-mad character’s device that may be lethal (9)
|
|
TOAD ("car-mad character" in Wind in the Willows) + 'S + TOOL ("device") |
||
| 9 | ROAD MAP |
Travellers quietly hide commercial guide for other ones (4,3)
|
|
ROMA ("travellers") + P (piano in music, so "quietly") hide AD ("commercial") |
||
| 10 | EARNEST |
Serious eastern novel (7)
|
|
*(eastern) [anag:novel] |
||
| 11 | INEXACTITUDES |
I demand some oomph among naturists – and boobs (13)
|
|
I + EXACT ("demand") + IT ("some oomph") among NUDES ("naturists") |
||
| 14 | URGE |
River engulfs grand drive (4)
|
|
(River) URE engulfs G (grand) |
||
| 15 | CHA-CHA-CHA |
One dance, three drinks (3-3-3)
|
|
CHA (tea, so "drink") three times |
||
| 18 | PLASTERER |
Former ruler twice hires apprentice hawk handler (9)
|
|
PAST ("former") + ER (Elizabeth Regina, so "ruler") + ER ("ruler") hires L (learner, so "apprentice") |
||
| 19 | CEDE |
Told fancied player to give up (4)
|
|
Homophone [told] of SEED ("fancied player") |
||
| 21 | HYDROELECTRIC |
He and I’d correctly rigged current type (13)
|
|
*(he id correctly) [anag:rigged] |
||
| 24 | GARAGED |
Scrap wheels, old, given space at home? (7)
|
|
<=RAG ("scrap" wheels, i.e. turns round) + AGED ("old") |
||
| 26 | ORDINAL |
Eg second line installed for railway in common (7)
|
|
L (line) instead of Ry. (railway) in ORDINA(ry>L) ("common") |
||
| 27 | NEWLY-WEDS |
Cornish port docked days for honeymoon couple (5-4)
|
|
NEWLY(n) ("Cornish port", docked) + WEDS (Wednesdays, so "days") |
||
| 28 | EVOKE |
Call up the day before to collect fine (5)
|
|
EVE ("the day before") to collect OK ("fine") |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TARN |
High water that runs in odd places (4)
|
|
T(h)A(t) R(u)N(s) [in odd places] |
||
| 2 | PLAYING CARD |
Poster about one Glaswegian golf club perhaps (7,4)
|
|
PLACARD ("poster") about YIN ("one" to a "Glaswegian") + G (golf) Billy Connolly, the famous Glaswegian comic, is also known as the Big Yin. |
||
| 3 | PAMPER |
Spoil marks in exam (6)
|
|
M (marks) in PAPER ("exam") |
||
| 4 | TAP DANCER |
Record short reindeer, one shod with metal bits (3,6)
|
|
TAP(e) ("record", short) + DANCER (one of Santa's "reindeer") |
||
| 5 | AVERT |
Turn away very briefly at stores (5)
|
|
AT stores VER(y) [briefly] |
||
| 6 | SCRATCHY |
Like 78 yachts at sea rounding Costa Rica (8)
|
|
*(yachts) [anag:at sea] rounding CR (Costa Rica) A 78 was an old record that played at 78rpm. They were popular until the 1950s. Like all records, they would have become scratchy, but to my mind this is a weak definition. |
||
| 7 | ONE |
Operating drug unit (3)
|
|
ON ("operating") + E (ecstasy, so "drug") |
||
| 8 | LOTUS EATER |
Hedonist left swimmer downing posh drink (5-5)
|
|
L (left) + OTTER ("swimmer") downing U ("posh") + SEA ("drink") |
||
| 12 | DECRESCENDO |
Complex score ended with C, fading gradually (11)
|
|
*(score ended c) [anag:complex] |
||
| 13 | JUMP THE GUN |
Gee them up possibly in June mostly to start early (4,3,3)
|
|
*(g them up) [anag:possibly] in JUN(e) [mostly] |
||
| 16 | ATROCIOUS |
Awful amateur threesome, our lot lugging old clubs (9)
|
|
A (amateur) + TRIO ("threesome") + US ("our lot") lugging O (old) + C (clubs) |
||
| 17 | STRONGLY |
Scheming to kettle mob hotel ejected with force (8)
|
|
SLY ("scheming") to kettle T(h)RONG ("mob" with H (hotel) ejected) |
||
| 20 | TRUDGE |
Plod right to wrap up drug case (6)
|
|
TRUE ("right") to wrap up D(ru)G [case] |
||
| 22 | LADLE |
Scoop! Foreign articles about duke (5)
|
|
LA and LE ("foreign articles") about D (duke) |
||
| 23 | ALOE |
Anonymous solitary plant (4)
|
|
ALO(n)E ("solitary" with N (name) removed) ("nameless" = "anonymous") I think some people may see this as falling into the same category as an indirect anagram, as you need to take two steps to work out the N is missing. I quite like the clue, but it's not entirely fair. |
||
| 25 | ROW |
Dispute two or three abbreviations in cricket (3)
|
|
RO (run out) + W (wicket) ("two abbreviations in cricket") or R (runs) + O (over) + W (wide) ("three abbreviations in cricket") |
Found this very hard but all the more enjoyable for completing it. I liked the device for ALOE but accept your criticism. I wasn’t mad keen on the plurals “ones” in 9a & “marks” in 3d. Also didn’t like the definition for SCRATCHY. Wondered if it might be a reference to DJ’s using scratching.
Hawk as a plasterer’s tool was new to me. Despite being a Brit and having visited Cornwall several times in my youth, I’ve never heard of Newlyn but the solution was obvious. PLAYING CARD was my stand out clue for today.
Yes, I see what you mean about ALOE, but probably because I cottoned on straight away and it was my FOI, I didn’t have a problem with the wordplay. I admit I may well have had a different view if I’d been agonising over it at the end as the last unsolved clue.
Having listened to quite a few 78’s on an old-fashioned gramophone, I thought SCRATCHY was fair enough. I recognised NEWLY(N) from the “Antiques Roadshow” as the location of a pottery, ? in about the 20′-30’s, but that’s as much as I know. A ‘hawk’ as a PLASTERER(‘s) tool was also unknown, and I wondered if the def instead referred to another unknown word for the trainer of a bird of prey.
Favourite was my LOI, the clever ROW at 25d.
Plenty therefore to make for a challenging and enjoyable solve.
Thanks to Redshank and loonapick
Thanks for the blog, loonapick.
Like you, I wasn’t keen on apprentice for L but then I’ve never liked ‘student’ in the same context but I’ve been seeing that, I think, for as long as I’ve been doing crosswords, so it’s pretty well established by now.
I do see what you’re saying about ALOE but, like Wordplodder, I thought immediately ‘minus N, name’, so didn’t give it a second thought. The one that held me up right to the end was PLASTERER, until I finally thought of looking up ‘hawk’ in Chambers and finding that it’s a plasterer’s slab. – one to file away, perhaps.
My favourites today were TOADSTOOL, NEWLY-WEDS, PLAYING CARD and SCRATCHY. I also liked the definition of ‘high water’ for TARN, reminding me of lovely walks round Tarn Hows in Cumbria – and, of course, I always love a mention of my beloved Wensleydale river.
I have been to Newlyn, too – people might have heard of it from the School of Painters
Many thanks to Redshank for another lovely puzzle – and the memories1
Thanks Redshank and Loonapick.
Quite tough and unlike others, ALOE was my LOI.
My second solve, after ROW, was NEWLY WEDS. Newlyn immediately came to mind because of Ordnance Survey setting all spot heights, trig points and contours on the Datum at Newlyn (ODN).
This was as tough as Vlad’s in the G for me. ALOE was my next to last (which was EVOKE) and I really liked the construction as I took anonymous to be “no Name” and was chuffed when I got it. The L in PLASTERER didn’t bother me as I thought the definition was brilliant (and I was probably a bit smug for knowing it). The one I thought was a stretch – both for the wordplay and definition – was INEXACTITUDES, but I can see it’s ok. I also ticked ORDINAL and found this an excellent puzzle overall – thanks to Redshank and loonapick.
I found this this tough, and I missed Tap Dancer ( I put in top dancer, as “record” sent me in that direction. I even had a Lap Dancer in for awhile, before the tricky Toadstool fell). Somehow I didn’t think of Tap Dancer, as by this time I was losing the will to live.
Plasterer also took ages to find, though I thought it was very good clue, when I finally cracked it. I was simply convinced the answer was something to do with falconry.
I liked the simple Ladle and also Tarn.
No issue with Aloe, though for awhile I thought the answer might be Sloe, being some strange anagram of sole = solitary. Oh the blind alleys we explore.
Thanks
This began slowly for me but I was nearly able to complete it (missed PLASTERER, not knowing hawk, as well as PLAYING CARD.) In any event, I thought it was a nicely clued crossword with TAP DANCER, LOTUS-EATER, and LADLE among my favourites. I had no issue with ALOE, the most common among crossword plants. Though I didn’t know Newlyn, NEWLY-WEDS was the obvious answer. I also enjoyed “awful” as a definition instead of an anagram indicator. Thanks to both.
Thanks for the workout Redshank as it really was today. Like others, hawk was an interesting discovery. Loonapick you have highlighted my other concerns but I would like to add another. HYDROELECTRIC does not equate to current although they can be intertwined. It is the method that uses a river current to produce electricity but is not the current itself. Nevertheless the answer was obvious and I guess that is the main thing.
Thanks, Redshank and Loonapick. I didn’t get TOP UP and PAMPER. ALOE required serious brain-wracking but made sense. Got PLASTERER from crossers (with help of Word Wizard) but thanks for parsing, as Hawk was unfamiliar in that sense.
Re: SCRATCHY – I have a lot of 78s; in addition to getting scratchy as they age, the large grooves and needles used to play them always made the sound quality “edgy”, so I found it appropriate.
Agreed this was a challenge, but not insurmountable. We knew ‘hawk’ as a PLASTERER’s tool and thought of that meaning as soon as we realised that ‘falconer’ didn’t have enough letters and wouldn’t parse anyway. And we didn’t have any problem with ALOE. Our LOI was TOADSTOOL; until 8dn settled the last letter as L we were trying to lift and separate ‘car-mad’ to give ‘transport’ as a definition of ‘car’ but of course couldn’t parse it.
Favourite was PLAYING CARD.
Thanks, Redshank and loonapick.
Him good setter.
I’m with you on “anonymous” and “apprentice”, Loonapick. And “scratchy”. But I still enjoyed the puzzle, even though I could not complete it in one hit at bedtime.
Thanks Redshank and loonapick
Did this last Thursday in a single longish session and had a similar experience to a number of others here, with a new meaning of ‘hawk’, appreciation to the clever device at 23d and a bit of a head scratch with SCRATCHY.
Wasn’t able to fully parse PLASTERER even thinking of ER twice for the ruler – kept going down the LAST for former dead end.
Many excellent clues with my favourites including ROW (simple but a clever way to use all of the different cricket abbreviations into the word play), INEXACTITUDES and LOTUS EATERS (both for their complex charades that needed to be winkled out). Finished in the SW corner with that ROW, STRONGLY (another one I found hard to put together) and PLASTERER the last one in.