Today's FT is brought to us by Steerpike
This was a fairly typical Steerpike puzzle, with clever surfaces and lots of charade-style clues, where you have to put together several short elements to get the final answer. It was all over a little too quickly.
Thanks Steerpike.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SPRAIN |
Injury from run in country (6)
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R (run) in SPAIN ("country") |
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| 5 | WATCHDOG |
Women at church party meeting German ombudsman (8)
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W (women) + AT + Ch. (church) + DO ("party") + G (German) |
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| 9 | FLURRIES |
Female ruler is weaving spells (8)
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F (female) + *(ruler is) [anag:weaving] |
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| 10 | ROBOTS |
Machine workers initially broke into parts of plant (6)
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[initially] B(roke) into ROOTS ("parts of plant") |
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| 11 | APPARITION |
Associated Press division stifles a trainee’s original spirit (10)
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AP (Associated Press) + PAR(t)ITION ("division" stifles a T(rainee) ['s original]) |
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| 12 | REEK |
Discovered Europeans stink (4)
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[discovered] (g)REEK(s) ("Europeans") |
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| 13 | PLUTARCH |
Liberal set in place by sly historian (8)
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L (liberal) set in PUT ("place") by ARCH ("sly") |
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| 16 | SPADES |
Earl’s preceded by page wearing blue suit (6)
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E's (earl's) preceded by P (page) wearing SAD ("blue") |
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| 17 | AMBUSH |
Waylay British doctors returning to American hospital (6)
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<=BMA (British Medical Association, so "British doctors", returning) to US ("American") + H (hospital) |
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| 19 | BOOK ENDS |
Matching items lad briefly tinkered with on desk (4,4)
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BO(y) ("lad", briefly) + *(on desk) [anag:briefly tinkered] |
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| 21 | TOFU |
It’s consumed in most of Uruguay (4)
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Hidden [in] "mosT OF Uruguay" |
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| 22 | TEDDY BEARS |
Rushes around whirlpool with bachelor’s toys (5,5)
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TEARS ("rushes") around EDDY ("whirlpool") with B (bachelor) |
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| 25 | ANNEXE |
Queen entertaining former lover in new wing (6)
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(Queen) ANNE entertaining EX ("former lover") |
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| 26 | INSTINCT |
Drive home point with model in court (8)
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IN ("home") + S (south, so compass "point") with (Model) T + IN + Ct. (court) |
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| 27 | PROTESTS |
Company department experiments on ordinary objects (8)
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PR (Public Relations, so "company department") + TESTS ("experiments") on O (ordinary) |
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| 28 | YIELDS |
Bears wandering idly around eastern Sierra (6)
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*(idly) [anag:wandering] around E (eastern) + S (Sierra, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) |
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| DOWN | ||
| 2 | POLYP |
Old educational establishment essentially hampers growth (5)
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POLY(technic) ("old educational establishment") + [essentially] (ham)P(ers) |
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| 3 | ATRIA |
Tenor breaking into song in chambers (5)
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T (tenor) breaking into ARIA ("song") |
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| 4 | NOISIER |
Comparatively loud siren goes off outside old institute (7)
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*(siren) [anag:goes off] outside O (old) + I (institute) |
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| 5 | WASPISH |
Venomous snake concealed in pine (7)
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ASP ("snake") concealed in WISH ("pine") |
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| 6 | THRONGS |
Romeo squeezed into skimpy underwear for crowds (7)
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R (Romeo, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) squeezed into THONGS ("skimpy underwear") |
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| 7 | HIBERNATE |
On Ecstasy, the brain struggles to remain inactive (9)
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On E (ecstasy), *(the brain) [anag:struggles] |
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| 8 | ON THE MEND |
Convalescent cruising Aegean, say, accepts physician’s conclusion (2,3,4)
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ON THE MED ("cruising Aegean, say") accepts (physicia)N ['s conclusion] |
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| 14 | LAMPOONER |
He mocks a politician getting old in solitary (9)
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A + MP (Member of Parliament, so "politician") getting O (old) in LONER ("solitary") |
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| 15 | TRUCULENT |
Belligerent nutter raving about endless craze (9)
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*(nutter) [anag:raving] about [endless] CUL(t) ("craze") |
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| 18 | HOTBEDS |
Sexy teachers in nurseries (7)
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HOT ("sexy") + B.Ed's (Bachelors of Education, so "teachers") |
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| 19 | BODKINS |
Snob upset about detective seizing knight’s weapons (7)
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*(snob) [anag:upset] about DI ("detective" inspector) seizing K (knight) |
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| 20 | ODYSSEY |
Unopened trunk on ship eventually emptied for voyage (7)
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[unopened] (b)ODY ("trunk") on SS (steam"ship") + E(ventuall)Y [emptied] |
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| 23 | EXILE |
Force overseas team to stay in the Spanish quarter (5)
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XI (eleven, so "team", as in cricket XI) to stay in EL ("the" in "Spanish") + E (East, so "quarter") |
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| 24 | RACED |
Embarrassed about account being rushed (5)
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RED ("embarrassed") about A/c (account) |
Thanks, S and l!
ON THE MEND: Excellent.
Liked TEDDY BEARS and TRUCULENT as well.
I found this tricky until one grasped Steerpike’s style of many abbreviations in one answer as Loonapick has said. 5 ac is an example .One gripe is that WASPISH does not mean venomous.
Otherwise greatly enjoyed so thanks to both.
SM@2 – Chambers has waspish = spiteful, and venomous = full of spite; that’s good enough for me.
I rather liked BOOK ENDS for its surface, along with LAMPOONER and BODKINS.
Thanks to Steerpike and Loonapick.
I agree that this was pretty easy although my last one in was 19D. I had all the letters and thought that “bodkins” was the answer but the only association of that word was remembrance of my mother using bodkins for sewing. Eventually I cheated and an internet search confirmed that they were also ancient weapons.
It also took me a while to equate “teachers” with “beds” despite my own daughter having one!
Thanks loonapick, maybe I am getting onto Steerpike’s wavelength as I agree that this was less devious than the setter’s previous ones (of those I have tried). Also I thought there was more use of the compass than normal, perhaps a corollary of the Lego style. But no less enjoyable and I had INSTINCT, YIELDS and ODYSSEY all in the SE as highlights, thanks Steerpike.
Took a while to get going, trying in vain to make “journey” fit the wordplay for 20d. Couldn’t parse AMBUSH, being stuck on MB/MD/MO for ‘doctor(s)’, but the rest went in steadily enough.
Favourite was TRUCULENT. Always brings to mind Ivan Skavinsky Skavar donning “his most truculent sneer” in “Abdul Abulbul Amir”.
Thanks to Steerpike and loonapick
Thanks Steerpike for an amusing crossword. I liked the humourous surfaces throughout this puzzle with THRONGS, PROTESTS, TRUCULENT, and REEK my top choices. I’m pleased to have seen through the “discovered” trick in REEK; I needed to confirm ANNEXE was the same as the American “annex” but mostly this was fairly straightforward to solve. Thanks loonapick for the blog; having been stung by wasps before I didn’t need a dictionary to tell me that they are venomous.
Thanks Steerpike and loonapick
A quicker solve than normal for me after getting ATRIA first up. Went straight into wordplay-solve mode and only got to appreciate the fine surfaces by re-reading the clues post solve.
Had to confirm a couple of terms, such as MBA and ‘solitary’ as a noun in this sense.
Finished back in the NW corner and did lazily use a word finder to get APPARITION as the penultimate clue before POLYP came as the elusive ‘growth’.
I was held upon the NE corner as my discovered Europeans we “fRANKs” for quite a while. Re BODKINS, I recalled Shakespear’s “…did his quietus make with bare bodkin”. Thoroughly enjoyed once I moved east to gREEKs! Thanks Steerpike and loonapick.