The second in the FT’s new online-only Sunday series is the April edition of its monthly News Puzzle, brought to us by Basilisk. Find it on the FT website to print or solve interactively, or via the FT’s smartphone app.
Well, I don’t mind admitting I found this one pretty tough, with several fairly complex clues that forced me to work hard to unravel them. But as is always the case with Basilisk, it was all well worth the effort and ultimately very satisfying to solve.
There was much of Basilisk’s customary wit and invention on display – I particularly liked the pointed definition for 19a UNAPPETISING, and the surface reading for 24d JANET (concealing some very tricksy wordplay), but my outright favourite was the relatively simple but brilliant anagram at 26a DENIALS.
Many thanks, Basilisk.
Incidentally, in case you missed it, last week’s Sunday No.1 was a fiendishly difficult US-style crossword. The FT promises the slot will feature News, World, US and Numbers in rotation. It remains to be seen what form the World and Numbers puzzles take.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1/25 | DAME EDNA EVERAGE |
Woman tempted to lose it after name gets confused with dead cultural icon (4,4,7)
|
| EVE (woman tempted) + RAGE (to lose it) after an anagram (gets confused) of NAME + DEAD
Australian comic Barry Humphries, most famous as the creator of Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson, died on 22 April aged 89. An obituary appeared in the Telegraph written by Dame Edna herself. |
||
| 5 | ISRAEL |
Turbulent state lives with tragic king’s return (6)
|
| IS (lives) with a reversal (return) of LEAR (tragic king) | ||
| 10 | FOX NEWS |
Main points introduced by cunning individual who settled case (3,4)
|
| FOX (cunning individual) + NEWS (North, East, West, South = main points of the compass)
Fox News this week paid $787.5m to Dominion, the largest provider of voting machines in the US, to settle a defamation case brought by Dominion over claims of vote-rigging broadcast by the network’s top presenter, Tucker Carlson. As a result, Carlson was fired. |
||
| 11 | KISHIDA |
Targeted prime minister is concealed in car (7)
|
| [IS + HID (concealed)] inserted in KA (a small car made by Ford)
On 15 April, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was about to make a speech when a person in the crowd threw an explosive device at him. Luckily, he was moved to safety before it exploded. |
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| 12 | MORET |
Radical French journalist again last to submit (5)
|
| MORE (again) + [submi]T (‘last to submit’)
Ernest Moret, the French journalist who was arrested last week on terrorism charges after getting off the train on arrival in London, relating to his participation in recent anti-government protests in France. The definition immediately suggested to me that the answer should be Jean-Paul MARAT (the Revolutionary French journalist famously murdered in his bath) which conveniently fits with the crossing letters but a) doesn’t fit the wordplay, and b) isn’t exactly topical. |
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| 13 | EL ALAMEIN |
Battle scene frightened male alien (2,7)
|
| Anagram (frightened) of MALE ALIEN | ||
| 14 | GRAHAM POTTER |
Manager no longer employed every other German amateur writer (6,6)
|
| Alternate letters (every other) of GeRmAn + HAM (amateur) + POTTER (Dennis Potter, English playwright and journalist)
On 2 April, Graham Potter was sacked from his job as manager of Chelsea FC. |
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| 19 | UNAPPETISING |
Somehow insinuate leaders of political parties generally like attack ads? (12)
|
| Anagram (somehow) of INSINUATE + first letters of Political Parties Generally
The Labour Party has come in for criticism lately for a series of adverts making personal attacks on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Unappetising is a good word to describe them. |
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| 22 | BLIND DATE |
Screen most of old-fashioned show hosted by Paul O’Grady (5,4)
|
| BLIND (screen) + DATE[d] (most of old-fashioned)
Paul O’Grady, the comic who came to fame as Lily Savage, died aged 67 at the end of March. He hosted Blind Date from 2017 to 2019. |
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| 24 | JUICE |
Spacecraft’s source of power (5)
|
| Double definition
Juice is an acronym for the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, a spacecraft launched on 23 April to investigate whether three of the moons of Jupiter – Callisto, Ganymede and Europa – have the potential to support life. It is expected to reach Jupiter in 2031. |
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| 25 |
See 1
|
|
| 26 | DENIALS |
Trump’s reaction to Stormy Daniels? (7)
|
| Anagram (stormy) of DANIELS
A reference to the ongoing case investigating whether Donald Trump made hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and claimed them as business expenses. |
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| 27 | SPACEX |
Starship creator’s second-rate sign of error (6)
|
| S (second) + PACE (rate) + X (sign of error)
The SpaceX Starship was launched from Texas on 20 April. Around four minutes after take-off, it suffered a rapid unscheduled disassembly, a euphemism for ‘it blew up’. |
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| 28 | ARCTURUS |
Demonstration uncovered sign releasing a Covid variant (8)
|
| [m]ARC[h] (demonstration uncovered, ie with first and last letters removed) + T[a]URUS (sign of the zodiac, releasing A)
Arcturus is a new highly transmissible Covid-19 variant. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DEFAME |
Run down vacuous despicable celebrity (6)
|
| D[espicabl]E (vacuous, ie having nothing inside it) + FAME (celebrity) | ||
| 2 | MIXERS |
Title IX, the beginning of equality, divides outgoing people? (6)
|
| MRS (title) ‘divided’ by IX + E[quality] (the beginning of equality)
Title IX is a US civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools. |
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| 3 | EVENT |
English person concerned with animal welfare besieges national race (5)
|
| E (English) + VET (person concerned with animal welfare) containing (besieges) N (national)
A reference to last week’s Grand National race at Aintree, which was disrupted by animal rights protestors. |
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| 4 | NISSEN HUT |
Is Hunt upset about nurse’s accommodation during conflict? (6,3)
|
| Anagram (upset) of IS HUNT containing (about) SEN (State Enrolled Nurse)
The surface is a reference to the ongoing dispute over pay and working conditions between the Government, in particular Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, and the Royal College of Nurses. |
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| 6 | SASKATOON |
Child accepting answer in request to Canadian city (9)
|
| SON (child) containing (accepting) [A (answer) inserted in [ASK (request) + TO]] – more succinctly: S(ASK(A)TO)ON | ||
| 7 | ANISETTE |
Cordial article is based on contents of letter (8)
|
| AN (indefinite article) + IS + [l]ETTE[r] (contents, ie middle, of letter) | ||
| 8 | LEARNERS |
People who are inclined to accept Republican interns? (8)
|
| LEANERS (people who are inclined) containing (to accept) R (Republican)
Scotty Campbell, a Republican leader in the Tennessee House of Representatives was forced to resign recently after allegations of sexual misconduct with an intern. I don’t know if Basilisk had this particular story in mind when writing this clue – it seems a bit obscure. |
||
| 9 | OKRA |
Fine artist represents ladies’ fingers (4)
|
| OK (fine) + RA (Royal Academician = artist) | ||
| 15 | REPUDIATE |
Deny restraint briefly had to accommodate Unionists being upset (9)
|
| [REI[n] (restraint, briefly) + ATE (had)] containing (to accommodate) DUP (Unionists) reversed (being upset) | ||
| 16 | MISLEADER |
Unreliable source distorted Emerald Isle visits (9)
|
| Anagram (distorted) of EMERALD which IS (isle) is inserted into (visits)
A reference to the recent visit to Ireland (aka the Emerald Isle) by US President Joe Biden. |
||
| 17 | NUMBNESS |
Stupidity’s beginning to give way to new lack of feeling (8)
|
| [d]UMBNESS (stupidity) with the first letter replaced by (beginning to give way to) N (new) | ||
| 18 | MARINERA |
American sailor leads folk dance (8)
|
| MARINER (sailor) leads A (American)
A Peruvian folk dance for couples which is a stylised representation of courtship. |
||
| 20 | MIDAIR |
Radium and iodine but not uranium could be present in the atmosphere? (6)
|
| Anagram (could be) of RADI[u]M + I (iodine) less U (uranium) | ||
| 21 | CENSUS |
Population data, according to reports, are aware of you and me (6)
|
| Homophone (according to reports) of ‘SENSE US‘ (are aware of you and me) | ||
| 23 | ABEL |
Raab eloquently inhibits victim (4)
|
| Hidden (inhibits) in [ra]AB EL[oquently]
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab resigned this week after the publication of a report detailing his bullying behaviour towards staff. |
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| 24 | JANET |
Suspect sources for Jack Teixeira’s exfiltration are close to Pentagon network (5)
|
| Anagram (suspect) of the first letters (sources) of Jack Teixeira’s Exfiltration Are + last letter (close to) pentagoN
Jack Teixeira is the US Airman accused of leaking classified military documents from the Pentagon. Janet is the information and research network for UK academic establishments. |
Widdersbel, thanks again for pointing out the newsy references in the clues and not only the answers. I’m sure the setters also appreciate it, and I’m amazed by how quickly they can turn out puzzles with this time element, first from Julius, then Leonidas, Neo and now Basilisk. Thanks to all. I agree that this felt like the most difficult, but I especially enjoyed unraveling the Dame Edna clue.
Yes quite tricky, after the first pass I had only 9 solutions, but a second cup of coffee helped the rest in, if rather slowly for a few of trickier ones.
I couldn’t for the life of me remember the name of the Japanese PM but the clue was clear, and the helpful K-S-I-A crossers sorted that out nicely.
My favourites were UNAPPETISING, MISLEADER and of course the rather &littish DENIALS.
Thanks Basilisk & Widdersbel.
Excellent puzzle.
Here is a dog joke by Sir Les:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FwWmLQB61k
An enjoyable puzzle, with so much extra built in.
Thanks to Widdersbel and Basilisk
Many thanks to Widdersbel for the excellent and comprehensive blog, and to everyone who has taken the time to solve and comment.
what an impressive feat. i lacked the knowledge for a lot of the newsy answers which i suppose means i should read the news a bit more. thanks basilisk for the puzzle and widdersbel for explaining
Thank you for the blog, widders, which prompted me to do the puzzle – which made me realise, like Gillafox above, that there is some news I have missed. That said, I was delighted to recall that JANET is a network and to be able to piece together most of the solutions for which the GK was lacking. A few were dnf – I didn’t know the dance and forgot SPACE-X and I was defeated by the interlinked Japanese PM and Canadian city. Given this is a topical puzzle, I thought I should check whether SASKATOON had been in the news recently. According to Google News, ‘Circle Drive exit ramp to Idylwyld Drive northbound closed on Sunday’
Thanks Basilisk and Widdersbel
Thanks Widdersbel and Basilisk.
Slightly off topic – is there an item on the US crossord No 1? I can’t find anything.
If anyone can point me in the right direction that would be most helpful.
Thanks
Julia @8 – there wasn’t a blog for the US puzzle. The format is general knowledge/definition-only, so I’m not sure there would be any point in blogging it – although some of the definitions cryptic. My favourite was: ‘Train stop?’ – for which you need to think laterally for the type of train referred to (solution is five letters, though it’s a feature of US crosswords that enumerations are not given).
PM @7 – I also looked up whether there was a topical reason for the Saskatoon inclusion and didn’t find anything, but I think you might be on to something! Surprised that story didn’t reach the BBC. How parochial we Brits are.