Goliath has set today’s FT puzzle.
This was a challenging and fun solve that took me a while to complete due to the SW corner. Once I got CANCER, the others soon followed.
I do have some quibbles though – 12ac could have been either RUED or RUDE and required the crosser of 2dn to identify which was right, STARLIT SKY is not a dictionary term and the clue for APPRECIATE was a straight definition.
Thanks, Goliath
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DRAGON |
Take too long to find mythical creature (6)
|
| DRAG ON (“take too long”) | ||
| 4 | GAZUMPED |
Forrest in which extreme characters hide journalist deprived of home (8)
|
| (Forrest) GUMP in which A + Z (“extreme characters” (of the alphabet)) hide + Ed. (editor, so “journalist) | ||
| 10 | AVARICE |
Gardner seed? Inordinately wanting more (7)
|
| AVA (Gardner) + RICE (“seed”)
Ava Gardner (1922-1990) was an American actress, whose third husband was Frank Sinatra. |
||
| 11 | TITANIC |
Crudely put, it ain’t captain’s top liner (7)
|
| *(it aint c) [anag:crudely put] where C is C(aptain) [‘s top] | ||
| 12 | RUDE |
Regretted sounding discourteous (4)
|
| Homophone [sounding] of RUED (“regretted”) | ||
| 13 | STARLIT SKY |
Hutch friend protecting drunk seen on a clear night (7,3)
|
| STARSKY (“Hutch friend”) protecting LIT (“drunk”)
Starsky and Hutch was an American cop show of the late 1970s starring David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser. |
||
| 16 | BANGOR |
Britain’s first organ transplant taking place in Wales (6)
|
| B(ritain) [‘s first] + *(organ) [anag:transplant] | ||
| 17 | GESTAPO |
Police tapes go astray (7)
|
| *(tapes go) [anag:astray] | ||
| 20 | CHARIOT |
Carriage that could describe Boston uprising? (7)
|
| CHA is tea, and a RIOT an uprising, so the Boston tea party could have been described as a CHA RIOT | ||
| 21 | ENTRAP |
Catch mate briefly going west (6)
|
| <=PARTNE(r) (“mate”, briefly. going west) | ||
| 24 | APPRECIATE |
Go up in value (10)
|
| (Barely) cryptic definition, and that’s being kind as this is a straight definition. | ||
| 25 | VICE |
Deputy’s iniquity (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 27 | CONCUSS |
Cause injury and use profane language after cutting one’s nails to begin with (7)
|
| CUSS (“use profane language”) after C(putting) O(ne’s) N(ails) [to begin with] | ||
| 29 | APPRISE |
Sounds like you could win this brief (7)
|
| Homophone [sounds like] A PRIZE (“you could win this”) | ||
| 30/26 | ROTATING SPIT |
Tips for cooking meat? (8,4)
|
| ROTATING SPIT is a cryptic clue referring to an anagram for “tips” | ||
| 31 | STANZA |
Lines sailing to Auckland, New Zealand are primarily taken (6)
|
| S(ailing) T(o) A(uckland) N(ew) Z(ealand) A(re) [primarily] | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DIATRIBE |
Harangue aloud awful extended family (8)
|
| Homophone [aloud] of DIRE (“awful”) + TRIBE (“extended family”) | ||
| 2 | ABANDON SHIP |
As 11 musicians didn’t? (7,4)
|
| Hartley Wallace’s band on the Titanic (solution to 11ac) were reported to have kept on playing as the ship sank in a vain effort to calm the passengers, so they didn’t ABANDON SHIP | ||
| 3 | OVID |
Providence protects the poet (4)
|
| Hidden in [protects] “prOVIDence”
Ovid was a Roman poet, whose most famous work was probably Metamorphoses. |
||
| 5 | ATTORNEY |
Lawyer with yet another fiasco he weaseled out of (8)
|
| *(yet anotr) [anag:fiasco] where ANOTR is ANOT(he)R with HE weaseled out | ||
| 6 | UNTWISTING |
Setting straight nitwit fooling around with guns (10)
|
| *(nitwit guns) [anag:fooling around] | ||
| 7/28 | PUNNET |
Born in something that floats: a basket (6)
|
| NE (“born”) in PUNT (“something that floats”) | ||
| 8 | DECOYS |
Lures used to get cod? Yes, in a way (6)
|
| *(cod yes) [anag:in a way] | ||
| 9/18 | HEATH ROBINSON |
He created contraptions to make hot cooked nosh for bird to tuck into (5,8)
|
| HEAT (“to make hot”) + *(nosh) [anag:cooked] with ROBIN [tucked in]
W. Heath Robinson (1972-1944) was a British cartoonist famous for his humorous drawings of overly elaborate machines designed to carry out simple tasks. |
||
| 14 | SUPERVISION |
Foul previous sin or oversight (11)
|
| *(previous sin) [anag:foul] | ||
| 15 | POOR RESULT |
Perhaps Ulster is not what one desired (4,6)
|
| POOR RESULT is a cryptic indication (anagram) for “ulster” | ||
| 18 |
See 9
|
|
| 19 | EPHEMERA |
Their lives are short, having kept theme to get rid of extremists a long time (8)
|
| (k)EP(t) (t)HEM(e) [to get rid of extremists, i.e, outer letters)] + ERA (“a long time”) | ||
| 22 | CANCER |
Tropical disease? (6)
|
| Cryptic definition referring to the Tropic of Cancer. | ||
| 23 | STOAT |
Ermine Street’s beginning perfectly (5)
|
| S(toat) [‘s beginning] + TO A T (“perfectly”) | ||
| 26 |
See 30 Across
|
|
| 28 |
See 7
|
|
Enjoyed this and agree with loonapick’s comments. Small slip :3d Ovid was a Latin poet!
Thanks to both.
Or to be exact Ovid was Roman and wrote in Latin. Can still faintly remember some of it!
Mostly enjoyable, thanks Goliath. I share Loonapick’s quibbles re the ambiguity of RUDE/RUED and APPRECIATE not being cryptic. I can see that the latter is trying to be cryptic in that it is offering two distinct meanings, “go up” and “value”. Never heard of Heath Robinson, but the wordplay made it fairly easily gettable. Does it matter, Loonapick, that “starlit sky” isn’t in a dictionary?
Very happy to see Goliath at the helm today and his grid didn’t disappoint.
A steady write-in and all parsed satisfactorily.
Favourites were STARLIT SKY (for fond memories of the TV series), CHARIOT (wordplay) and ROTATING SPIT for the neat reverse engineering.
Thanks to Goliath and Loonapick.
SM@1 – having studied Latin at school, I did of course know that, so don’t know where the Greek came from. Have amended the blog – thanks.
GDU@3 – except for proper nouns and themed entries, yes, I do think that answers should appear in a dictionary, otherwise you could have clues for any old arrangement of words. If it had been STARRY NIGHT for example, that may have been passable as the name of a painting, although technically it is THE STARRY NIGHT.
Diane @4 – given my comment at 5, was STARLIT SKY a TV show? If it was, then maybe my objection would no longer stand, although without reference to the show or a theme, I would still want to avoid it in a crossword.
Well, Loonapick, I confess was referring to Starsky and Hutch! I’ve no idea if STARLIT SKY refers to a programme, book, song or otherwise, I’m afraid.
Like Geoff, I took appreciate to be a double definition though, admittedly a weak one.
Of course, Diane – I was just trying to find a way to justify STARLIT SKY.
Just noticed I have Heath Robinson being born before he died! He was born in 1872. Will amend when I get a chance.
Geoff @3. I thought 24a was a straight definition as well and never considered “value” as a verb = “appreciate”, which improves the clue no end. 12a is a terrible clue imo. Not only is it ambiguous but RUED is by far the most obvious answer.
Meant to add that I thought CHARIOT was superb.
Starlit sky definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
Collins Dictionary
https://www.collinsdictionary.com › dictionary › starlit…
Starlit sky definition: Starlit means made lighter or brighter by the stars. […] | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples.
trenodia @12 – that isn’t a dictionary entry but an example sentence showing how to use “starlit”. My hard copy of Collins only has “starlit” under the main heading “starlight” with no mention of sky.
Re 2d, I think this is also supposed to be a double definition, with “11 musicians” being “A BAND ON SHIP” and “as [they] didn’t” being the second definition.
Overall, I found it very entertaining, as I always do with Goliath – he has a quirky style that plays fast and loose with “the rules” but it’s all done so playfully that you can’t help but smile. And I agree with Hovis that it was worth the entry fee for CHARIOT alone – superb clue. (Also agree with Hovis that RUED was the more obvious answer, but it works either way, and at least the checking letters do resolve the ambiguity.)
Thanks, Goliath and Loonapick.
Well spotted Widdersbel
Very impressive Widdersbel!
Thanks Goliath. I found this a mixed bag, enjoying clues such as AVARICE, STARLIT SKY, CHARIOT, and ATTORNEY but needing to reveal GAZUMPED, PUNNET, and POOR RESULT. (I missed the reverse anagram in the latter.) I looked up Rube Goldberg to give me confirmation of HEATH ROBINSON who appeared recently in another crossword. Thanks Loonapick for the blog.
I liked this one and moved through swiftly by my standards. I took Appreciate to be a clever double definition. As others, I didn’t like Rude.
2D is very clever, as Widdersbel helpfully points out.
I thought Starlit Sky was fine – something seen on a clear night.
Thanks