A tough nut to crack from BRADMAN today.
FF: 9 DD: 10
Nearly a double pangram.
I might need help on a couple of clues as noted in the blog.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DESIRE |
Little boy turned to father with longing (6)
|
| DE ( little boy = ED, reversed ) SIRE ( father ) | ||
| 4 | CHEERFUL |
Happy church always not quite full (8)
|
| CH ( church ) EER ( always ) FULl ( not quite i.e. without last letter ) | ||
| 9, 16 | DOUBLE GLOUCESTER |
Orange food gets coloured blue ridiculously (6,10)
|
| [ GETS COLOURED BLUE ]* | ||
| 10 | MAFEKING |
Town getting 3, having iron-reinforced construction (8)
|
| FE ( iron ) in MAKING ( construction ); 3d is RELIEF – mafeking was under siege which was lifted (relieved ) after 7 months. see comments below for the much needed help. | ||
| 12 | RONDEAUX |
Compositions making man money, from what we hear (8)
|
| RON ( man ) DEAUX ( sounds like DOUGH – money ) – didnt know the word and needed help to solve. | ||
| 13 | MUSKET |
Gun encountered in journey across river (6)
|
| MET ( encountered ) across USK ( river ) | ||
| 15 | TWIN |
Mark, heartless child with relation of similar age (4)
|
| TWaIN ( mark, heartless i.e. without central character ) | ||
| 16 |
See 9
|
|
| 19 | REGIMENTED |
Organised meeting disrupted – get embarrassed about it (10)
|
| RED ( embarrassed ) around [ MEETING ]* | ||
| 20 | ZOLA |
Author has alternative to 9,16, putting monstrous sister off (4)
|
| gorgonZOLA ( alternative to 9,16 ; another type of cheese, without GORGON – monstrous sister ) | ||
| 23 | VESTRY |
Room with views regularly blocked off? Check out! (6)
|
| ViEwS ( regularly blocked off i.e. alternate letters ) TRY ( check out ) | ||
| 25 | WOLFFISH |
Swimmer is ravenous, eating loudly (8)
|
| WOLFISH ( ravenous ) containing F ( loudly ) | ||
| 27 | SPOUTING |
Carol, concealing sulk, is gushing (8)
|
| SING ( carol ) containing POUT ( sulk ) | ||
| 28 |
See 26
|
|
| 29 | DISASTER |
Failure could be satirised with one being taken off (8)
|
| reverse clue; [ SATIRiSED ( without I – one ) ]* = DISASTER | ||
| 30 | PTOSIS |
Drooping eye – bit of problem to little girl (6)
|
| P ( bit of Problem ) TO SIS ( girl, little ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DIDEROT |
Philosopher rushed up after 6 (7)
|
| EROT ( rushed up = TORE, reversed ) after DID ( 6d is EXECUTED ) | ||
| 2 | SQUINTING |
One of five children, outwardly smart, peering (9)
|
| QUIN ( one of five children ) in STING ( smart ) | ||
| 3 | RELIEF |
Feature of map that may be associated with 10 (6)
|
| cryptic def; 10a refers to frieze | ||
| 5 | HEAT |
The athlete in the race? Quite the opposite (4)
|
| hidden in “tHE AThlete..”; see comments below for help on this. | ||
| 6 | EXECUTED |
Flower on head of delightful daughter that’s performed (8)
|
| EXE ( flower, river ) CUTE ( delightful ) D ( daughter ) | ||
| 7 | FLICK |
Female given bit of paint is a picture (5)
|
| F ( female ) LICK ( bit of paint ) | ||
| 8 | LIGHTER |
Baddie’s first to be thrown off boat (7)
|
| bLIGHTER ( baddie, without first letter ) | ||
| 11 | CURLING |
Dog on heather, not lying straight? (7)
|
| CUR ( dog ) LING ( heather ) | ||
| 14 | JUKEBOX |
Hear member of aristocracy fight – an old-fashioned player (7)
|
| sounds like DUKE (? member of aristocracy ) BOX ( fight ) | ||
| 17 | TWO-TIMERS |
Deceitful types watch clock maybe (3-6)
|
| cryptic clue; watch and clock are two timers. | ||
| 18 | EMERITUS |
Like people who have left their chairs? (8)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 19 | REVISED |
Naughty verse I’d modified? (7)
|
| [ VERSE ID ]* | ||
| 21 | ACHENES |
Fruits in fancy case invaded by bird (7)
|
| [ CASE ]* containing HEN ( bird ) – didnt know the word but getable from wordplay | ||
| 22 | AFLOAT |
A note about duck on the pond? (6)
|
| A [ FLAT ( note ) about O ( duck, 0 ) ] | ||
| 24 | SPOTS |
Observes small vessel inside larger one (5)
|
| POT ( small vessel ) in SS ( larger vessel, steamship ) | ||
| 26, 28 | ANNE BOLEYN |
An eccentric noble with improper yen for a queen (4,6)
|
| AN [ NOBLE ]* [ YEN ]* |
10ac is ‘Mafeking’, which was relieved after a siege during the Boer. The construction is Making arounfdFE for iron.
5d is ‘Heat’, hidden in tHE AThlete.
Thanks DON for a good workout TL for the blog. and
I had HEAT for 5d, hidden in tHE AThlete (indicated by ‘Quite the opposite’) and MAFEKING for 10a, FE (iron) in MAKING (construction) but haven’t looked up how this relates to 3.
Beat me to it, Steven. Thanks for the extra info on Mafeking.
10ac is ‘Mafeking’, which was relieved after a siege during the Boer War. The construction is Making around FE for iron.
5d is ‘Heat’, hidden in tHE AThlete.
Thanks DON for a good workout and TL for the blog.
(Sorry rather garbled first effort!)
Thanks all! I was so convinced that I had cracked 5d/HERA that it never occurred to me that my problem was there. In any case , I am pretty sure I wouldn’t have got MAFEKING even if I had 5d solved correctly. My GK needs a massive upgrade.
Regards,
Mahesh / TL
One of those “more Pasquale than Bradman” Friday puzzles. My last two in, MAFEKING and then the related RELIEF took ages to get at the end and there were several other hold-ups on the way including the ‘Philosopher’ at 1d and the never heard of ‘Fruits’ at 21d.
Frustrating at times, but worth it for the pangram and especially for ZOLA, my favourite of the day.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs
Thanks to Steven for explaining the two answers which puzzled and eluded me.
I liked the two cheesy answers, as well as DIDEROT (Jacques Le Fataliste is a favorite picaresque novel of mine). Also found the surface of 26, 28 rather neat, making a sly reference to Viscount Rochford perhaps.
Thanks for the tussle, Bradman, and Turbolegs for filling in a few other gaps.
RONDEAUX, RELIEF, TWO-TIMERS and ANNE BOLEYN are my picks.
Thanks, Bradman and Turbolegs!
The Don is on form this week
The NW corner held us up for ages thinking 1dn had to begin VI… (6 in Roman numerals) so we obviously couldn’t see anything for 1ac. But once a few crossing letters helped us unscramble the anagram of DOUBLE GLOUCESTER (a facepalm moment there) things began to fall into place, and we also understoof the clue for ZOLA which we’d already got from crossing letters.
A stiffish challenge but enjoyable. MUSKET, SQUINTING and EMERITUS were among our favourites.
Thanks, Bradman and Turbolegs.
After slowly solving half of this crossword I realized that I was wasting my day; seeing Turbolegs blog confirmed my suspicion. Pasquale’s mid-week offering in the Guardian was much more my cup of tea. Thanks to both.
Finished with breakfast coffee again. Great fun from Bradman.
Um, Turbolegs, you might need to change your blog explanation of 3d for the reasons mentioned above. Thanks for the blog.
Out of my league. A couple of hours on the bus lost to thought and therefore worthy
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
This one spilled over from Friday to the weekend and just checked off tonight. A toughie for sure taking more than double the normal FT solve time to get it out. The cheese, fruit, fish and the drooping eyelid were the new learning from the puzzle.
Had heard of MAFEKING and the siege of it by the Boers and was pleased to see ANNE BOELYN very early on.
Very neat clueing throughout which made the derivation of the new terms imminently gettable. Have always been a ZOLA fan so was pleased to get him, although he was the penultimate one in. PTOSIS was last.