Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 19, 2022
Alberich brings us a fine puzzle with a totally brilliant &Lit. at 9ac (RHEOSTAT). I found it a moderate challenge and very satisfying. My favourites are 9, 17 (ULAN BATOR), 21 (ABRIDGE) and 26 (OUTWIT).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BASILISK |
Herb is known primarily as one with killer looks (8)
|
| BASIL (herb) + IS (is) + K[nown] | ||
| 5 | CIRCUS |
State of one’s affairs briefly limits university entertainment (6)
|
| U (university) in (limits) CIRCS (state of one’s affairs briefly — as in abbreviation for circumstances) | ||
| 9 | RHEOSTAT |
One ultimately installed, so that resistance changes? (8)
|
| [on]E in (installed) anagram (changes) of SO THAT R. &Lit. | ||
| 10 | RENOIR |
US city associated with Irish artist (6)
|
| RENO (US city) + IR (Irish) | ||
| 12 | TARRY |
Remain covered in dark sticky stuff (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | AGREEMENT |
Conformity shown by American soldiers stopping to salute (9)
|
| A (American) + MEN (soldiers) in (stopping) GREET (to salute) | ||
| 14 | COZENS |
Cheats relatives, reportedly (6)
|
| Homophone (reportedly) of “cousins” (relatives). I had only a vague idea of the meaning of ‘cozen’ until this clue prompted me to look it up. | ||
| 16 | STATUTE |
Trade union breaks government law (7)
|
| TU (trade union) in (breaks) STATE (government) | ||
| 19 | PEDICAB |
Vehicle I raced right away shot into lead (7)
|
| Anagram (shot) of I [r]ACED in (into) PB (lead). A pedicab is a vehicle like a tricycle rickshaw | ||
| 21 | ACTUAL |
Oddly unable to perform at first? True (6)
|
| ACT (to perform) + U[n]A[b]L[e] | ||
| 23 | CONQUEROR |
Eccentric crooner entertaining Queen is a winner (9)
|
| QU (queen) in (entertaining) anagram (eccentric) of CROONER. I do not recall seeing this abbreviation for queen before. | ||
| 25 | TIBIA |
Bone china I bitterly returned, but only some (5)
|
| Reverse (returned) hidden word (but only some) | ||
| 26 | OUTWIT |
Be smarter than fool from Oxford University? (6)
|
| OU (Oxford University) + TWIT (fool) | ||
| 27 | IDOLATER |
Admission by one who puts off besotted admirer? (8)
|
| I DO LATER (admission by one who puts off) | ||
| 28 | SKEWER |
Seamstress grips end of black pin (6)
|
| [blac]K in (grips) SEWER (seamstress) | ||
| 29 | JEOPARDY |
Jack faces wild animal, heading off unknown peril (8)
|
| J (jack) + [l]EOPARD (wild animal, heading off) + Y (unknown) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BERATE |
With 50% off, best price for carpet (6)
|
| BE[st] + RATE (price) | ||
| 2 | SWEAR-WORD |
Brand clothes deteriorate with use? Bad language results (5-4)
|
| WEAR (deteriorate with use) in (clothes) SWORD (brand) | ||
| 3 | LUSTY |
Impaired by inactivity, left for run to get healthy (5)
|
| RUSTY (impaired by inactivity) with the ‘R’ (run) changed to ‘L’ (left) | ||
| 4 | SEA BASS |
We’re told to look deep to find fish (3,4)
|
| SEA (look) + BASS (deep) | ||
| 6 | INELEGANT |
Crude and funny line cracked up agent (9)
|
| Anagram (funny) of LINE + anagram (cracked up) of AGENT | ||
| 7 | CHORE |
In essence, husband gets boring job (5)
|
| H (husband) in (in) CORE (essence) | ||
| 8 | SPRITZER |
Salesmen turned up outside posh hotel for a drink (8)
|
| RITZ (posh hotel) in (outside) REPS (salesmen) backwards (turned up) | ||
| 11 | IRIS |
She’s represented by the rainbow flag (4)
|
| Double definition with the first referring to Greek mythology | ||
| 15 | EXCLUSIVE |
Hard to catch around 90 sole (9)
|
| XC (90) in (around) ELUSIVE (hard to catch) | ||
| 17 | ULAN BATOR |
Learn about revolutionary saving European capital (4,5)
|
| Anagram (revolutionary) of L[e]ARN ABOUT | ||
| 18 | SPECIOUS |
False product description? Ring us after one (8)
|
| SPEC (product description) + I (one) + O (ring) + US (us) | ||
| 20 | BERG |
Some work to support British composer (4)
|
| B (British) + ERG (some work). I originally had (Lionel) BART here but, thanks to commenters, I have now realized that BERG fits much better and must be the correct answer. Thank you Andrew and Pelham. | ||
| 21 | ABRIDGE |
Contract – a game involving several of them (7)
|
| A (a) + BRIDGE (game involving several of them — contracts, that is) | ||
| 22 | FAIRLY |
Pretty tune penned by pilot (6)
|
| AIR (tune) in (penned by) FLY (pilot) | ||
| 24 | NITRE |
Compound that’s inert? Wrong! (5)
|
| Anagram (wrong) of INERT | ||
| 25 | TULIP |
Plant, large one, fed to sheep (5)
|
| L (large) + I (one) together in (fed to) TUP (sheep) |
Super crossword and a pangram as well — thanks Alberich. Favourites included PEDICAB, OUTWIT (amusing surface), JEOPARDY, SPRITZER, and FAIRLY. I missed COZENS and couldn’t parse CIRCUS. Thanks Pete for the help.
Thanks for the blog, a fine puzzle full of neat clues. I agree about RHEOSTAT, quite rare for the whole clue to give the definition and the word play. Tony@1 has a good list, I will just add SWEAR-WORD .
I found this pretty hard and missed out on COZENS. As it turns out, I didn’t know either the meaning or the pronunciation of the word, so no hope! Managed to get the right answer, but didn’t know SWORD for ‘Brand’ at 2d.
I agree about RHEOSTAT and also liked the wordplay for ABRIDGE amongst many other good clues.
Thanks to Alberich and Pete
We had Berg for 20D. Erg for some work after British, definition is composer.
Thanks Alberich and Pete. I too had (Alban) BERG at 20dn.
I too had BART for 20d (after looking him up and confirming he was a composer), but I also agree that BERG is better. I couldn’t parse 5a, never having heard of “circs” for circumstances. So thanks to Pete for that explanation and a couple of other for which I was less than certain. And thanks to Alberich for the pangram and some truly fun clues, especially 9a, 16a, 19a, and 15d.
I had a similar experience to you all – an enjoyable challenge with some great clues. Like EdK@USA, circs was new to me, as was the unknowable COZENS.
The list of my most favourite clues exactly matches Pete’s. In addition, no-one has mentioned BASILISK, so I will. I also add AGREEMENT and BERATE, both of which took a day or two to parse, and the enjoyment matched the effort once done.
I had a couple of nits to pick too, but they are pretty minor.
All in all, a nice puzzle with a long list of satisfying clues. Thank you Alberich and thanks to Pete for the super explanation
Thanks Alberich and Pete
Did this one only last Thursday after work, knowing that the blog was coming and it required a number of sittings across the evening to get it out. After all of that, I ended up making the same mistake with BART instead of BERG in at 20d and missed seeing the pangram.
Some intricate parsing required for a number of clues and particularly liked that for PEDICAB and JEOPARDY. Whilst reasonably easy, compared to other clues, thought that ABRIDGE was quite good with its work around ‘contracts’.
Finished in the NW corner with RHEOSTAT, LUSTY and the previously unknown COZENS as the last one in.