Weekend puzzle from the FT of December 3, 2022
Zamorca, a.k.a. Wendy Law, has been setting for the FT since 2019 but this is her first puzzle in our Weekend spot. You can learn more about her here including the fact that she often produces pangrams (puzzles that include every letter from A to Z in the grid), for which this is a good example.
I found a slightly different flavour in this puzzle: several multi-word answers, some fine surface readings, and a couple of tricky bits of wordplay. My favourite clues are the fine &Lit. 3 (ORDER) and 9 (STEADY ON), I also like 15 (NEWSAGENT) and 26 (BRAZEN).
Welcome Zamorca and thanks. Hope to see more of you.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | THOROUGH |
Efficient by virtue of assuming nothing (8)
|
| O (nothing) in (assuming) THROUGH (by virtue of) | ||
| 5 | MARBLE |
Rock and roll band leaders with macho clothing (6)
|
| R[oll] B[and] in (clothing) MALE (macho) | ||
| 9 | STEADY ON |
Just a Minute’s still broadcasting (6,2)
|
| STEADY (still) + ON (broadcasting) | ||
| 10 | PLANET |
Mars perhaps has energy feeding living organism (6)
|
| E (energy) in (feeding) PLANT (living organism) | ||
| 12 | OTHER |
Worry boy’s ignored, being different (5)
|
| [b]OTHER (worry boy’s ignored) | ||
| 13 | BEHAVIOUR |
Conduct live audio-visual interviews, initially filling time (9)
|
| BE (live) + AV (audio-visual) + I[ntervals] in (filling) HOUR (time) | ||
| 14 | QUINCE |
Queen ordered nice fruit (6)
|
| QU (queen) + anagram (ordered) of NICE | ||
| 16 | ALABAMA |
American former President’s heading off, crossing Louisiana state (7)
|
| LA (Louisiana) in (crossing) A (American) + [o]BAMA (former President’s heading off) | ||
| 19 | DIE AWAY |
Idea to reform system in decline (3,4)
|
| Anagram (to reform) of IDEA + WAY (system) | ||
| 21 | MUESLI |
Mothers’ Union takes on lies concocted for healthy breakfast cereal (6)
|
| Anagram (concocted) of MU LIES | ||
| 23 | INGRAINED |
Fixed gin cocktail and threw it down (9)
|
| Anagram (cocktail) of GIN + RAINED (threw it down) | ||
| 25 | TASTE |
Test sample of barista’s tea (5)
|
| Hidden word (sample of) | ||
| 26 | BRAZEN |
Unabashed, zebra strays close to lion (6)
|
| Anagram (strays) of ZEBRA + [lio]N | ||
| 27 | DISTRESS |
Bandage is not ultimately stopping pain (8)
|
| IS (is) + [no]T together in (stopping) DRESS (bandage) | ||
| 28 | DEPUTY |
Second-in-command takes responsibility, keeping record (6)
|
| EP (record) in (keeping) DUTY (responsibility) | ||
| 29 | FELL FLAT |
Pitched apartment failed to impress (4,4)
|
| FELL (pitched) + FLAT (apartment) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TV SHOW |
Programme with very wearing new host going ahead (2,4)
|
| V (very) in (wearing) anagram (new) of HOST + W (with) | ||
| 2 | OPEN HOUSE |
Start up hotel by river where everyone’s welcome, any time (4,5)
|
| OPEN (start up) + H (hotel) + OUSE (river) | ||
| 3 | ORDER |
Quiet in class! (5)
|
| Double definition &Lit. | ||
| 4 | GOODBYE |
Fine times echo for so long (7)
|
| GOOD (fine) + BYE (homophone of “by”) | ||
| 6 | ALLEVIATE |
Moderate a tale about tackling vile criminal (9)
|
| A (a) + anagram (criminal) of VILE in (tackling) anagram (about) of TALE | ||
| 7 | BANJO |
Instrument’s seize-up curtailed task (5)
|
| NAB (seize) backwards (up) + JO[b] (curtailed task) | ||
| 8 | EXTERNAL |
Next real trip is not in this country (8)
|
| Anagram (trip) of NEXT REAL | ||
| 11 | RHEA |
Last to try travelling north to see bird (4)
|
| HEAR (try) with the ‘R’ moved to the top (last to…travelling north) | ||
| 15 | NEWSAGENT |
Spy novels put at the front in WH Smith perhaps (9)
|
| NEWS (novels) + AGENT (spy) | ||
| 17 | ALL IS WELL |
When nursing bad back competently, everything’s OK (3,2,4)
|
| ILL (bad) backwards (back) in (nursing) AS (when) + WELL (competently) | ||
| 18 | AD-LIBBED |
Drunk lad, losing leader, lied and improvised (2-6)
|
| Anagram (drunk) of LAD + [f]IBBED (losing leader, lied) | ||
| 20 | YANK |
Jerk’s always turning up heartily zonked (4)
|
| AY (always) backwards (turning up) + [zo]NK[ed] | ||
| 21 | MIDWIFE |
Person who delivers morning’s first papers with mate (7)
|
| M[orning] + ID (papers) + WIFE (mate) | ||
| 22 | LEGS IT |
Runs away taking member’s computer stuff (4,2)
|
| LEGS (members) + IT (computer stuff) | ||
| 24 | GRASP |
Sharp intake of breath over king’s command (5)
|
| R (king) in (over) GASP (sharp intake of breath) | ||
| 25 | TOTAL |
Complete non-drinker’s getting in round with alcohol content removed (5)
|
| O (round) in (getting in) TT (non-drinker) + A[lcoho]L |
Thanks Pete
You summed up my feelings very well. Zamorca was new to me, too, and I also wish her welcome. I share your favourites
Not too many new words for me this week, and thanks to the setter for that. “Throwing it down” was about the only expression I did not know. I agree with your comment about tricky wordplay, and as a result RHEA was my LOI, it taking me forever for me to work out what the setter was doing. MARBLE took me a while too, as I could not convince myself to ignore the initial “and”.
I know this is really nit-picky, but I think W (width) in 1d should read W (with).
Thanks Pete for the great explanation and for the overview of the setter, and thanks Zamorca for the puzzle.
I remember trusting to the fact that Zamorca likes a pangram to help complete this one…which confirmed BANJO and QUINCE.
I too liked ZEBRA, MARBLE and BEHAVIOUR but failed on STEADY ON.
Good fun though. Thanks to Zamorca and Pete.
Thanks Zamorca and Pete. During the worst of the pandemic I had time to attempt multiple crosswords from multiple sources. Since then I pick and choose among the setters since other activities take my time. Somehow I always have time for a Zamorca crossword because she never disappoints. This was most satisfying with THOROUGH, BEHAVIOUR, FELL FLAT, OPEN HOUSE, ALL IS WELL, and the best of all, BRAZEN among my favourites.
Thanks for the blog, the FT using more variety on a Saturday and it is very welcome. I will agree with the fine lists and comments above.
I love phrases like “threw it down” and LEGS-IT , and the word BRAZEN .
I had GOODBYE slightly differently , times=BY ( as in multiplication ) and E=echo ( NATO alphabet ) . I think both ways work.
Thanks Zamorca and Pete
I had 4dn the same way as Roz@4, and in 21ac I parsed it keeping MU out of the anagram. In both cases I think either parsing works, but feel that the alternative fits the clue more smoothly.
Still don’t get 1d. W = with? Why? Width I could understand but thats not what the clue says and if it did it would be clunky.
Malcom@6 the answer is always it is in Chambers but not always satisfactory.
When I was a student waitress we did write w or w/o ( without ) on orders to save time. I think hotels use it as well .
W = With was also used in the days of vinyl singles, which were advertised as c/w (coupled with) or b/w (backed with) their B-sides.
Apologies for my typo with ‘width’ in 1d which should of course have been ‘with’. And now is.
Malcolm+Caporn @6: Before computers medical and nursing notes sometimes used w/ for with and w/o for without. Also the letter “c” (with a line over it) could be used for the word with. That comes from the Latin word “cum” meaning with.
Anyone know why I appear to be solving 17,274 puzzle on the app ?
Malcolm/Roz/Simon @ 6/7/8: And when I was a chemistry student 50+ years ago we used ‘w’ for ‘with’ in writing up experiments, as in ‘extracted w NaOH’ or whatever.
Anyway, a great puzzle; we were held up for a while in the NW corner till we got ORDER, after which the rest fell into place. And being ready for a pangram from this setter helped us get BANJO when the only missing letter was J.
Thanks, Zamorca and Pete.
Huntsman@11 the Saturday FT blog is always a week later, this puzzle was last Saturday. 17,274 will have a blog next week.
It appears that w=with is with us in many forms.
Hello! New poster here. I stumbled on 20D: I got PUNK (also a JERK), as in turning UP, but that doesn’t account for ALWAYS. Meant I didn’t get 19A. Took me quite a while to understand the reasoning for 1D. Nice and taxing tho.
I often see W= with on cafe blackboard menus. Schnitzel w chips + salad.
Very enjoyable puzzle but couldn’t get 11d at all and also forgot AY as crosswordese for always which meant I couldn’t parse 20d. Great fun, though.
I think cw was also used as “coupled with” for the 2 sides of a gramophone record.
…and CWO means “cash with order”
1dn: w for with is in Chambers 2014. I do not like the suggestions that it could be justified by taking the single letter w from longer abbreviations: that really is getting us uncomfortably close to the notion that any word can be used to stand for its own first letter without any further indication.