Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 12, 2022
I found this Mudd a little harder than average. My favourite clues are 10 (MANITOBA), 12 (BULLDOZING) and 13 (ZOROASTRIAN). There seems to be an error in 3 (CAMARADERIE).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | STOCKPOT |
Cooking vessel in ordinary sink (8)
|
| STOCK (ordinary) + POT (sink) | ||
| 6 | CHARGE |
Fee good to invest in cleaner energy (6)
|
| G (good) in (to invest in) CHAR (cleaner) + E (energy) | ||
| 9 | CRIMEA |
Act of trespassing, say, on a peninsula (6)
|
| CRIME (act of trespassing, say) + A (a) | ||
| 10 | MANITOBA |
Moan a bit about somewhere in 6 down (8)
|
| Anagram (about) of MOAN A BIT | ||
| 11 | PEAR |
Fruit crop, by the sound of it? (4)
|
| Homophone (by the sound of it) of “pare” (crop) | ||
| 12 | BULLDOZING |
Working on building site, 6 across unlikely then? (10)
|
| A dozing bull is unlikely to charge (6 across) | ||
| 14 | VINDALOO |
Doing a twirl, old boy in red or white? Hot stuff! (8)
|
| O (old) + LAD (boy) together backwards (doing a twirl) in (in) VINO (red or white) | ||
| 16 | RING |
Contact band (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 18 | BEAR |
Tolerate large carnivore (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 19 | APPLAUSE |
Encouraging sound when Paul moves into part of church (8)
|
| Anagram (moves) of PAUL in (into) APSE (part of church) | ||
| 21 | MALEFACTOR |
Rogue fine in embrace of man on stage (10)
|
| F (fine) in (in embrace of) MALE ACTOR (man on stage) | ||
| 22 | TUCK |
Gather food (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 24 | DISCLAIM |
Deny player has left goal (8)
|
| DISC (player) + L (left) + AIM (goal) | ||
| 26 | UNISON |
Seconds into marriage, noted coincidence? (6)
|
| S (seconds) in (into) UNION (marriage) with a cryptic definition | ||
| 27 | JERSEY |
Top bovine (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | STERNEST |
Expression ultimately adopted by cryptic setters, most severe (8)
|
| [expressio]N in (adopted by) anagram (cryptic) of SETTERS | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | TERSE |
Short clip from better series (5)
|
| Hidden word (clip) | ||
| 3 | CAMARADERIE |
Close friendship bitter people ridicule, second daughter having fled (11)
|
| CAMARA (bitter people?) + DERI[d]E (ridicule, second daughter having fled). I think there must be a mistake here because I do not see how ‘bitter people’ can clue CAMARA. Surely, it must clue CAMRA (for the Campaign for Real Ale) leaving an ‘A’ unaccounted for. | ||
| 4 | PLAY BALL |
Cooperate with party after theatrical performance (4,4)
|
| PLAY (theatrical performance) + BALL (party) | ||
| 5 | TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS |
Wonder where part-timer has misplaced item for sale (6,2,7)
|
| TEMP (part-timer) + anagram (has misplaced) of ITEM FOR SALE. Said temple is considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Does ‘part-timer’ properly clue TEMP? My understanding is that ‘temp’ describes someone who works for a short period with no implication of that work being either full-time or part-time.
Artemis is the ancient Greek goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, the Moon, and chastity. |
||
| 6 | CANADA |
Accountant given nothing in country (6)
|
| CA (accountant) + NADA (nothing) | ||
| 7 | ANT |
Small animal in a hollow nest (3)
|
| A (a) + N[es]T | ||
| 8 | GO BANANAS |
See red match yellow fruit (2,7)
|
| GO (match) + BANANAS (yellow fruit) | ||
| 13 | ZOROASTRIAN |
Follower of ancient religion in Arizona, sort seeking conversion (11)
|
| Anagram (seeking conversion) of ARIZONA SORT | ||
| 15 | ITERATIVE |
Repeating it twice, ever a failing (9)
|
| Anagram (failing) of IT IT EVER A | ||
| 17 | APERTURE |
Lippy in gold on mouth, perhaps? (8)
|
| PERT (lippy) in (in) AU (gold) + RE (on) | ||
| 20 | GALAXY |
Happy once to welcome loose host (6)
|
| LAX (loose) in (to welcome) GAY (happy once) | ||
| 23 | CROSS |
Ford steamed up (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 25 | COS |
Island in Barbados occasionally promoted (3)
|
| Reverse (promoted) hidden word (occasionally) |
I agree with Pete,
A bit tougher than usual, but not over the top. No real favourites this week, but overall I enjoyed it
I came to the same conclusion as Pete on CAMARADERIE. I also note that CAMRA is completely unknowable for anyone not British (even though I visit UK regularly and do drink ale there). I stumbled across the term on google. It will be interesting to see whether there is a correct parsing we are not seeing.
Thanks Pete and Mudd
Thanks Mudd for your usual wit. I enjoyed this crossword quite a lot with CHARGE, VINDALOO, APPLAUSE (nice nod to your more difficult alter-ego), ITERATIVE, and APERTURE being favourites. I had some problem parsing 3d but I have heard of CAMRA despite being in the US — it helps to have beer experts for friends. Thanks Pete for the blog.
Thanks for the blog , 3D is a bit of a mystery, perhaps a late edit gone wrong ? A shame really – bitter people is a nice way to clue Camra.
Tony@2 has a good list, I will add MALEFACTOR.
Good on you, Tony Santucci @2 – it is nice to hear your knowledge of CAMRA came from friendship. And possibly experience?
CAMRA has come up in crosswords before and, like everyone else it seems, I found myself an “A” short in the answer. Still cannot explain it.
But, all good fun with 9a being horribly topical.
Thanks for the blog Pete and Mudd for the exercise.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Got through this one in a couple of shortish sittings but with a couple of queries coming to the blog – couldn’t parse the top bit of CAMARADERIE although I have come across the Campaign for Real Ale before, it slipped my mind as did the unaccounted A by the setter or editor. The other one I found hard to reconcile was the ‘player’ as a definition for DISC – know that there is a DISC PLAYER and a board game player may be represented by a disc but think that they are tenuous.
Had parsed the first part of 5d as TEMP[O], but that is probably more like ‘part time’ I guess and the blog parsing is better. Grinned at the BULLDOZING clue and enjoyed putting VINDALOO together (even though I still baulk at ordering one !)
Finished down the bottom with the JERSEY / GALAXY crossers then back up to the top for STOCKPOT as the last one in.