Weekend puzzle from the FT of October 26, 2022
This was the most challenging puzzle for me in a long time. My first-in was 6 and I finished the top half fairly quickly. The bottom half however occupied me over a couple of days. My top favourites are the superb 1a (GALLIVANTING) for its terrible ruler and its having nothing to do with time travel and 16 (ANTIPODES) for its curious surface and clever wordplay.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | GALLIVANTING |
Irksome to catch terrible ruler time travelling for fun (12)
|
| IVAN (terrible ruler) + T (time) together in (to catch) GALLING (irksome) | ||
| 8 | IN-GROUP |
Voguish women ejected from mature clique (2-5)
|
| IN (voguish) + GRO[w]UP (women ejected from mature) | ||
| 9 | ALEMBIC |
Old-fashioned retort discombobulated male writer (7)
|
| Anagram (discombobulated) of MALE + BIC (writer). ‘Bic’ is European usage for a ballpoint pen. | ||
| 11 | ILL FAME |
Current case for lay-off accepted by weak, bad rep (3,4)
|
| I (current) + L[ay-of]F in (accepted by) LAME (weak) | ||
| 12 | HOODLUM |
Crook’s loud partying in residence, dropping ecstasy (7)
|
| Anagram (partying) of LOUD in (in) HOM[e] (residence dropping ecstasy) | ||
| 13 | TIRED |
Overworked painter finally drew borders (5)
|
| [painte]R in (borders) TIED (drew) | ||
| 14 | SERENGETI |
Place, one around green ground in national park (9)
|
| Anagram (ground) of GREEN in (around) SET (place) + I (one) | ||
| 16 | ANTIPODES |
Poles from Poland wanting land in Barking instead (9)
|
| PO[land] in anagram (barking) of INSTEAD. It took a while for me to get this wordplay. | ||
| 19 | MOPES |
M&S skirts mostly available for Eeyorish people (5)
|
| OPE[n] in (skirts) M S. This clue does not read well to me. | ||
| 21 | INQUEST |
In Spain, what stops this month’s legal process (7)
|
| QUE (in Spain what) in (stops) INST (this month) | ||
| 23 | CHEERIO |
No end of cereal and toast (7)
|
| CHEERIO[s] (no end of cereal) | ||
| 24 | NAIVEST |
Scot returned garment greener than the rest (7)
|
| IAN (Scot) backwards (returned) + VEST (garment) | ||
| 25 | INTENSE |
Heated home maybe perfect (7)
|
| IN (home) + TENSE (maybe perfect) | ||
| 26 | PARSIMONIOUS |
Tight, religious clothes are cut by simple fellow (12)
|
| AR[e] + SIMON (simple fellow) together in PIOUS (religious). In British English, a Simple Simon is a foolish man or boy. This usage derives from a nursery rhyme. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | GIGGLER |
One tickled extremely graceful royal behind carriage (7)
|
| GIG (carriage) + G[racefu]L + ER (royal) | ||
| 2 | LEOTARD |
Pope with curse about clingy garment (7)
|
| LEO (Pope) + DRAT (curse) backwards (about) | ||
| 3 | IMPRESSED |
Forced into service, Buccaneer has to hurry (9)
|
| I’M PRESSED (Buccaneer has to hurry) | ||
| 4 | ABASH |
Disconcert leader of air strike (5)
|
| A[ir] + BASH (strike) | ||
| 5 | TIE DOWN |
Fix diet, getting mashed bananas now (3,4)
|
| Anagram (getting mashed) of DIET + anagram (bananas) of NOW | ||
| 6 | NEBULAE |
Hill rising for all to see above oddly leaden clouds (7)
|
| BEN (hill) backwards (rising) + U (for all to see) + L[e]A[d]E[n] | ||
| 7 | MINISTRATION |
Little Queen Victoria, say, welcomes assistance (12)
|
| MINI (little) + R (queen) in (welcomes) STATION (Victoria, say) | ||
| 10 | COMMISSIONER |
Official is going both ways, hugged by man in the street? (12)
|
| IS + SI (is going both ways) in (hugged by) COMMONER (man in the street) | ||
| 15 | RESECTION |
In theatre, removal of clothing for rude part (9)
|
| R[ud]E + SECTION (part). With ‘theatre’ referring to an operating one. | ||
| 17 | TEQUILA |
Old writer briefly tucks into one drink or another (7)
|
| QUIL[l] (old writer briefly) in (tucks into) TEA (one drink) | ||
| 18 | PEERESS |
Lady, second to none, shedding pounds (7)
|
| PEER[l]ESS (second to none shedding pounds) | ||
| 19 | MAESTRO |
Ace communist leader snatching rest at work (7)
|
| Anagram (at work) of REST in MAO (communist leader) | ||
| 20 | PARENTS |
Rears about to be covered by underwear (7)
|
| RE (about) in (to be covered by) PANTS (underwear) | ||
| 22 | TOTEM |
Carry on Matron’s opening? It has symbolic value (5)
|
| TOTE (carry on) + M[atron] |
Took me a while to track down the piece of paper for this crossword but I see that I thought it was tricky in places. My favourites were the same as our blogger’s, but I’d also add 19d as I always love an Eeyore clue
Thanks very much to Buccaneer and Pete
Thanks Buccaneer for the challenge. I found this much more difficult than Picaroon’s prize of the same day and I needed several sessions over a few days before completing it. (I think that’s ideal for a Saturday puzzle.) In any event I thought this was excellent with many favourites including IN-GROUP, ANTIPODES, CHEERIO, INTENSE, PARSIMONIOUS, MAESTRO, and PARENTS. Thanks Pete for the blog.
Thanks for the blog , surprised to see it on a Thursday again , have just got used to Saturday.
I cannot improve on , or disagree with, the list from Tony @2.
The blog was published early by mistake. My mistake although I am not sure how I managed it!
I am not surprised Pete , you must have got so used to Thursday , I should have just waited for Saturday, it will still be here.
Pete, I was wondering why the blog appeared unexpectedly. No harm done – it was a nice surprise.
I agree about level of difficulty. I think it may be due to the large number of long answers. The longer the answer, the more possibilities for each component of the cryptic section.
I got GALLIVANTING and INGROUP off the bat, but the SE corner was the first section out and the NW corner the last.
I agree with the favourites already mentioned, and add MINISTRATIONS for its clever wording.
A couple of questions and musings: would someone please tell me why “for all to see” is parsed as U in 6? Also, I thought “INST” in 21 stood for “this instant”. Is it really used to mean “this month”? I am not sure I have seen or heard “bad rep” before and imagine it is slang unknown to me. And, I wonder when we are going to start seeing ER replaced by CR? It will cut down the cluing possibilities, I imagine.
Thanks Buccaneer for a difficult but enjoyable puzzle, and thanks Pete for another great explanation
Martyn: I’ve come to learn that U is a British film rating that means a film is suitable “for all to see.” “Bad rep” is common in the U.S. for a sullied reputation. I can’t explain how INST means “this month.”
Thanks Tony! I appreciate you solving UK and US language mysteries for me in one hit. Cheers and 23
Inst is legal jargon, it means the present month, We also have ULT which means in the last month.
They are still used in legal documents, letters etc.
U is from the BBFC , essentially means no need for a classification so young children can see the film.
Further to Roz@9:
As well as ULT(imo) and INST(ant), there is also PROX(imo) for “next month”. I do not know how many people (if any) still use these terms. Personally, I would always use the actual name of the month in question, either in full or abbreviated to the first three letters.
As to the issue of film classifications, I would prefer to put it that U is a classification indicating that no restriction is necessary. For recorded matter such as DVDs, there is a category E (exempt from classification). When I went into HMV in Birmingham City Centre this morning (for other reasons), I took the opportunity to look around and found that there were some DVDs with this category on sale. The ones I found were all recordings of live music performances.