Leonidas is today's FT compiler.
I found this one quite chewy, but that is not a complaint. Everything in the puzzle is gettable even if you needed a little general knowledge (CAPO, MODI, and VICTOR Hugo come to mind). The top half went in quite quickly but it took me a while to complete (and parse) the lower half.
Thanks, Leonidas
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CANTANKEROUS |
Bolshy American on short boat circling big one (12)
|
|
US ("American") on [short] CANO(e) ("boat") circling TANKER ("big one (boat)") |
||
| 8 | RIOT ACT |
What may be read in SA city with diplomacy (4,3)
|
|
RIO ("SA (South American) city") with TACT ("diplomacy") |
||
| 9 | OSSICLE |
Tiny bone slices prepared by Centre for Histology (7)
|
|
*(slices) [anag:prepared] by [centre for] (hist)O(logy) |
||
| 11 | MODICUM |
Prime Minister with Latin getting small part (7)
|
|
(Narendra) MODI (Indian "prime minister") + CUM ("with" in "Latin") |
||
| 12 | SIAMESE |
Cat crosses these maisonettes to the west (7)
|
|
Hidden in [crosses…to the west] "thESE MAISonettes" |
||
| 13 | NORMS |
A lack of room ultimately lowers standards (5)
|
|
NO ("a lack of") + Rm. (room) + [ultimately] (lower)S |
||
| 14 | TIGHT-KNIT |
Carefully managed drunk fool in audition (5-4)
|
|
TIGHT ("drunk") + homophone [in audition] of NIT ("fool") |
||
| 16 | AD HOMINEM |
Hit on him made personal (2,7)
|
|
*(on him made) [anag:hit] |
||
| 19 | ILEUM |
Cereal rejected, not having second part of gut (5)
|
|
<=MUE(s)LI ("cereal" rejected, not having S (second)) |
||
| 21 | OSMOSIS |
Universe losing edges by relative diffusion (7)
|
|
(c)OSMO(s) ("universe", losing edges) by SIS ("relative") |
||
| 23 | HOSTAGE |
Prisoner secreting label into leggings (7)
|
|
TAG ("label") secreted in HOSE ("leggings") |
||
| 24 | EVICTOR |
Hugo perhaps on tail of renegade bailiff? (7)
|
|
VICTOR ("Hugo. perhaps") on [tail of] (renegade)E |
||
| 25 | ECLIPSE |
Obscure film footage hidden in middle of reel (7)
|
|
CLIPS ("film footage") hidden in [middle of] (r)EE(l) |
||
| 26 | RESPLENDENCE |
Beauty of dwelling one’s left for Priest Len (12)
|
|
RES(i>P + LEN)DENCE ("dwelling" with I (one) replaced by [left for] P (Priest) + LEN) |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CHOWDER |
German article appended to Food and Soup (7)
|
|
DER ("German article") appended to CHOW ("food") |
||
| 2 | NUANCES |
Sister welcoming a church with small differences (7)
|
|
NUN ("sister") welcoming A + CE ("Church" of England) with S (small) |
||
| 3 | AUTOMATON |
Robot Paul peeled fruit before noon (9)
|
|
[peeled] (p)AU(l) + TOMATO ("fruit") before N (noon) |
||
| 4 | KNOBS |
Handles aristocrats overlooked by king (5)
|
|
NOBS ("aristocrats") overlooked by K (king) |
||
| 5 | RESTART |
Begin anew on second cake (7)
|
|
RE ("on") + S (second) + TART ("cake") |
||
| 6 | UNCLEAN |
Family member, one in need of a bath? (7)
|
|
UNCLE ("family member") + AN ("one") |
||
| 7 | TRUMAN CAPOTE |
President on bridge with note for writer (6,6)
|
|
(Harry S) TRUMAN ("president") on CAPO ("bridge") with TE ("note") A capo is a bridge over the fingerboard of a stringed instrument. |
||
| 10 | EVEN-TEMPERED |
Placid affair with English MP on English wine (4-8)
|
|
EVENT ("affair") with E (English) + MP + E (English) + RED ("wine") |
||
| 15 | GUMSHIELD |
Protection he slid off after Cup lifted (9)
|
|
*(he slid) [anag:off] after <=MUG ("cup", lifted) |
||
| 17 | HEMLINE |
Nothing mediocre about her exposed level of dress (7)
|
|
<=(NIL ("nothing") + MEH ("mediocre"), about) + (h)E(r) [exposed] |
||
| 18 | MISSTEP |
Teacher starts to tell everybody pupil’s error (7)
|
|
MISS ("teacher") + [starts to] T(ell) + E(verybody] + P(upil's] |
||
| 19 | INSULIN |
Endlessly abuse vacuous Italian sugar regulator (7)
|
|
[endlessly] INSUL(t) ("abuse") + [vacuous] I(talia)N |
||
| 20 | EXAMPLE |
Specimen test periodically applied (7)
|
|
EXAM ("test") + [periodically] (a)P(p)L(i)E(d) |
||
| 22 | SARGE |
Gears up to view officer’s address (5)
|
|
*(gears) [anag:up] |
Thanks, Leonidas and loonapick!
Liked TIGHT-KNIT, TRUMAN CAPOTE and HEMLINE.
Gave up on Vlad’s in the Guardian and found this one more approachable. A guitarist of sorts, I never thought of a capo as a bridge. Was unable to parse RESPLENDENCE & HEMLINE. Never heard of Truman Capote (but my predictive text clearly has!). And I’ve never been comfortable with “up” as an anagrind.
Thanks Leonidas & Loonapick.
Enjoyable puzzle from Leonidas – not too hard, not too easy. Some like HEMLINE were pretty tough to parse and it was good to see the ‘Prime Minister’ in 11a not being one of the usual suspects. I liked the TRUMAN CAPOTE clue, one component of which has a link to another offering today. (By the way, it’s probably old news to everyone here, but I only learnt recently that as a child, Capote’s neighbour in the town of Monroeville, Alabama was another literary giant, Harper Lee).
After CANTANKEROUS at the top, it was good to progress to EVEN-TEMPERED along one side and then the poetic RESPLENDENCE along the bottom row.
Thanks to Leonidas and loonapick
Hi loonapick, you’ve parsed everything perfectly.
But I’m wondering why the app and the pdf have Food and Soup in italics in the clue for CHOWDER and the blog doesn’t.
I can’f find a book, film, tv series, album or song by that name. Is it a typo?
Like Wordplodder, I found this puzzle to be of just the right level for enjoyment. I wasn’t aware of the meaning of ‘capo” but the answer was clear enough. I did need the blog, however, for my partially parsed RESPLENDENCE.
There was much I liked here but favourites were the very neat GUMSHIELD (ah, memories of Jonny Wilkinson et al) and ECLIPSE which while cluing ‘obscure’ made me think of the Antonioni film starring Monica Vitti (certainly not obscure though as it won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes).
Many thanks to Leonidas and Loonapick (nice alliteration!)
Thanks Leonidas for an excellent crossword. I found this on the easier end of the Leonidas spectrum i.e. I was able to solve and parse everything which might be a first for me with this setter. I had many favourites including CANTANKEROUS, MODICUM, OSMOSIS, NUANCES, TRUMAN CAPOTE, and HEMLINE. I was pleased to have remembered GUMSHIELD from other crosswords; in the U.S. this is called a mouthpiece. Thanks loonapick for the blog.
I found this enjoyable in parts (and liked several of the clues mentioned above). But I must admit I felt annoyed rather than amused at some of the clues – a bailiff an EVICTOR, a CAPO a bridge, a SARGE an officer? Really? Probably me, more than the setter – I did not have time to sit down and spend time with it, and I felt hurried as I wrestled with the SW corner in 10 minute bursts. Funnily, I managed to get the really obscure answers (OSSICLE and ILEUM) early in the piece.
I had never heard of a GUMSHIELD and thanks for the explanation, Tony @6. It is called a mouthguard where I come from. And thanks for yet another movie recommendation Diane @5. I will seek it out.
Thanks to loonapik for the great blog, and thanks Leonidas for the puzzle
Thanks for the blog, really good puzzle , HEMLINE is very neat.
WordPlodder@3 Truman Capote is DILL in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Welcome back everyone. The Great Outage appears to be over. Many thanks to all who took the time to comment and thank you Loonapick for the blog.