Weekend puzzle from the FT of June 17, 2023
There must be many thousand solvers of English-language cryptics around the world but there are times when it seems like a small community, as now with the death of Roger Squires (Dante here in the FT and Rufus in the Guardian) in the news. He was one of the most prolific setters of all time and we had plenty of his puzzles in our FT Weekend spot although, according to my records, the last was ten years ago. He retired in 2017.
I thank the FT for giving us this nostalgic tribute to Dante. I do not recall his work well enough to be able to say if this crossword is typical of his but it is certainly an impressive one with no obscurities and a considerable number of cryptic definitions. My favourites are 9 (ALMANAC), 11 (MINESTRONE) and 24 (SPINNEY).
RIP Roger Squires.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SPARSE |
Disputes with sweetheart are not frequent (6)
|
| SPARS (disputes) + [sw]E[et] | ||
| 4 | GHOSTS |
Shades of Ibsen (6)
|
| Cryptic definition, “Ghosts” being the name of one of Ibsen’s plays. | ||
| 8 | ENGULFS |
Swallows what’s flung out in two directions (7)
|
| Anagram (out) of FLUNG in (in) E S (two directions) | ||
| 9 | ALMANAC |
Girl able to recall where dates can be found (7)
|
| ALMA (girl) + CAN (able to) backwards (recall) | ||
| 11 | MINESTRONE |
Cook sent in more soup (10)
|
| Anagram (cook) of SENT IN MORE | ||
| 12 | IN RE |
Anger about one point in the matter (2,2)
|
| N (one point) in (about) IRE (anger) | ||
| 13 | AESOP |
Story-teller for soap set around English capital (5)
|
| E[nglish] in (around) anagram (set) of SOAP | ||
| 14 | DISEASED |
In poor health and expired taking the waters (8)
|
| SEAS (the waters) in (taking) DIED (expired) | ||
| 16 | GARDENER |
A good one can always grow better (8)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 18 | AISLE |
A tissue of lies divides the church (5)
|
| A (a) + anagram (tissue of) LIES | ||
| 20 | IDLE |
Out of work, one gets led astray (4)
|
| I (one) + anagram (astray) of LED | ||
| 21 | MINT HUMBUG |
The sweet nonsense of moneymaking (4,6)
|
| MINT (money-making) + HUMBUG (nonsense) | ||
| 23 | ANODYNE |
Annoyed when out — of painkiller? (7)
|
| Anagram (when out) of ANNOYED | ||
| 24 | SPINNEY |
Wood found where one river enters another (7)
|
| INN (one river) in (enters) SPEY (another) | ||
| 25 | DENIAL |
An idle form of rejection (6)
|
| Anagram (form of) of AN IDLE | ||
| 26 | EYELID |
Optical shutter (6)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SINAI |
Is climbing in a rough mountainous area (5)
|
| IS (is) backwards (climbing) + anagram (rough) of IN A | ||
| 2 | AMULETS |
Charming things to wear (7)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 3 | SAFETY-PIN |
The point of this device is not always apparent (6-3)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 5 | HALVE |
Draw a hole (5)
|
| Cryptic definition (with a reference to golf) | ||
| 6 | STAMINA |
Power at mains switch (7)
|
| Anagram (switch) of AT MAINS | ||
| 7 | SEA BREEZE |
Deep breath? (3,6)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 10 | COLD FRONT |
It affects the weather in a winter battle zone (4,5)
|
| COLD (winter) + FRONT (battle zone) | ||
| 13 | ABANDONED |
Gave up and left (9)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | SLAPHAPPY |
Upset friends, content to be casual (9)
|
| PALS (friends) backwards (upset) + HAPPY (content) | ||
| 17 | DRESDEN |
China ends red revolution (7)
|
| Anagram (revolution) of ENDS RED | ||
| 19 | SEMINAL |
It is highly important to change lanes entering M1 (7)
|
| MI (M1) in (entering) anagram (to change) of LANES | ||
| 21 | MANNA |
Heaven-sent sustenance for many a girl (5)
|
| M (many) + ANNA (a girl) | ||
| 22 | UP-END |
Tip in stupendous style (2-3)
|
| Hidden word (in) |
An enjoyable Dante puzzle. A great tribute to the excellent setter.
Thanks, Pete Maclean for your beautiful blog.
Liked many. I must say I liked almost all cryptic defs.
UP-END
Was wondering what style was doing in the clue other than for the surface.
Could UP-END or UP END be a style (I could not find any such style)?
For us non-golfers, could a golfer please explain 5d?
Thanks Pete for the blog. Dante/Rufus retired the year before I began my hobby of British crosswords. If this is an example of his work I would have enjoyed him quite a lot.
Thanks Pete
Ditto on all the comments so far.
LOI was SPINNEY – a word I do not know (nor does my spell check it seems). My efforts to solve it were rather hampered by not knowing the Inn River. I have built up a formidable knowledge of British river names of five or fewer letters, with European rivers to come it seems.
I was going to comment that halving a hole may be obscure to non-golfers. Kevin@2 – in match play in golf, if both players score the same number of strokes for a hole, it is called halving the hole. It it in effect a draw.
A few of the anagram indicators were new to me, and it was interesting to see the large number of cryptic clues (some of which took quite a bit of thinking).
Enjoyable and a nice tribute
Thanks for a great blog, a nice touch from the FT to repeat this puzzle.
I used to solve Rufus puzzles in the Guardian back in the 1980s, so had come across his style before. It was really nice to be reminded of his quirky humour.
Thank you to Pete Maclean for the blog.
From the app (and the pdf):
‘Roger Squires, crossword setter, died on June 10, aged 91. For many years the world’s most prolific compiler, he set for the FT as Dante between 1981 and 2017.
We reproduce here a Dante puzzle from 2001. His obituary appears (on the opinion pages of today’s main section and) on ft.com’.
As another who cut his teeth as a solver on the regular Monday Rufus in the Guardian, I very much enjoyed this.
Thanks, Pete, for the blog, and to the FT for giving us this treat by way of a fitting tribute.
Btw, any thoughts on KVa@1’s question about ‘style’ in 22d?
I didn’t have time to comment this morning before setting off for Nottingham for a highly enjoyable S and B, but simply can’t let the little gem MINESTRONE @11ac pass without comment.
Thanks for the explanation of HALVE, Martyn @4.
What a pleasure to meet a vintage Roger Squires puzzle again; his succinct, ingenious cryptic clues gave me so much pleasure, and I am delighted still to find them such purely satisfying specimens of good crossword setting. Thanks to the FT for reproducing this.
What a pleasure to meet a vintage Roger Squires puzzle again; his succinct, ingenious cryptic clues gave me so much pleasure, and I am delighted still to find them such purely satisfying specimens of good crossword setting. Thanks to the FT for reproducing it.
I don’t know if anyone’s posted this elsewhere. When Rufus retired…
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/shortcuts/2017/dec/18/farewell-rufus-the-guardians-record-breaking-crossword-setter
‘Rufus’ first puzzle for the Guardian, No 16,398, was published on 30 August 1982. It is republished without alteration today.’
Here’s the puzzle – No 27,383, republished on 18 December 2017…
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27383
…and the blog by PeterO…
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2017/12/18/guardian-cryptic-27383-by-rufus/
Great fun. Dante has always been among my favorites.
Thanks, Pete.
I think “waters” is “seas” in the solution to 14A?
For KVa re 22D, I eventually spotted that the letters are in the clue -…stUPENDous style.
I guess it could be stupendous anything really.