A gentle challenge from LEONIDAS this Friday.
FF: 8 DD: 6
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | AS THE CROW FLIES |
Directly organise search with wife lost (2,3,4,5)
|
| [ SEARCH WIFE LOST ]* | ||
| 10 | CIGAR |
Hamlet maybe disastrous without lead on reflection (5)
|
| tRAGIC ( disastrous, without its first letter ), reversed ; didnt know this brand of cigars | ||
| 11 | TRICOLOUR |
Scowl after brief prank with old Jack (9)
|
| TRICk ( prank, briefly ) O ( old ) LOUR ( scowl ) | ||
| 12 | OPTIMUM |
Best drug cut with end bits of talcum separately (7)
|
| OPIUM ( drug ) containing [ T and M in different places ( end letters of TalcuM ) ] | ||
| 13 | NICOSIA |
Capital one sunk into struggling casino (7)
|
| I ( one ) in [ CASINO ]* | ||
| 14 | DWEEB |
Yankee nerd with dope cycling back to pub (5)
|
| DWEE ( dope = WEED, with D cycling to the front ) B ( puB, last letter ) | ||
| 16 | RED CARPET |
Raw fish inside of fete for VIP treatment (3,6)
|
| RED ( raw ) CARP ( fish ) ET ( inside of fETe ) | ||
| 19 | HARDLINER |
Complicated vessel, one with a fixed course? (9)
|
| HARD ( complicated ) LINER ( vessel ) | ||
| 20 | TORAH |
Holy scroll I see to the right of Mount (5)
|
| TOR ( mount ) AH ( ~ i see ) | ||
| 22 | MAGNIFY |
Exaggerate version of Fagin in Moody’s clothes? (7)
|
| [ FAGIN ]* in MY ( end letters of MoodY ) | ||
| 25 | CHIFFON |
Fabric bird with 50% off (no returns) (7)
|
| CHIFFchaff ( bird, without second half of its letters ) ON ( reverse of NO ) | ||
| 27 | RATIONALE |
Reason allotment has beer (9)
|
| RATION ( allotment ) ALE ( beer ) | ||
| 28 | CELLO |
What Ma plays from some contrary collection (5)
|
| hidden , reversed in “..cOLLECtion” ; the internet tells me the ma here refers to yo-yo ma, cellist from france | ||
| 29 | MOTHER SUPERIOR |
Abbess in car crossing the lady’s lovely isle (6,8)
|
| [ HER ( the lady’s ) SUPER ( lovely ) I ( isle ) ] in MOTOR ( car ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | SIGHTSEER |
Hot soldiers climbing trees excited tourist (9)
|
| reverse of [ H ( hot ) GIS ( soldiers ) ] [ TREES ]* | ||
| 3 | HAREM |
Race male to see where females are (5)
|
| HARE ( race ) M ( male ) | ||
| 4 | CATAMARAN |
Boat charts army abroad regularly with navy (9)
|
| CATARMARA ( alternate letters of “ChArTs ArMy AbRoAd..” ) N ( navy ) | ||
| 5 | ORION |
Hunter stringing up black French duck (5)
|
| reverse of [ NOIR ( black, french ) O ( duck ) ] | ||
| 6 | FLOWCHART |
Diagram of fine church among vulgar drawings? (9)
|
| F ( fine ) [ CH ( church ) in { LOW ( vulgar ) ART ( drawings ) } | ||
| 7 | IRONS |
Jeremy possibly working to block NY tax collectors (5)
|
| ON ( working ) in IRS ( tax collectors in the usa ) | ||
| 8 | SERVANT |
Right vehicle in place to get help (7)
|
| [ R ( right ) VAN ( vehicle ) ] in SET ( place ) | ||
| 9 | ECHOED |
Copied English chapter on dictionary (6)
|
| E ( english ) CH ( chapter ) OED ( dictionary ) | ||
| 15 | BALTIMORE |
A Christian touring island city (9)
|
| BALE ( a christian ) around TIMOR ( island ) | ||
| 17 | DIRT CHEAP |
Repackage third cape that’s going for a snip (4,5)
|
| [ THIRD CAPE ]* | ||
| 18 | PORTFOLIO |
Case of alcohol and of grease both upended (9)
|
| PORT ( alcohol ) [ reverse of OF ] [ reverse of OIL ( grease ) ] | ||
| 19 | HUMDRUM |
Drone beat pedestrian (7)
|
| HUM ( drone ) DRUM ( beat ) | ||
| 21 | HANSOM |
German guy probably reversed second carriage (6)
|
| HANS ( germany guy probably ) reverse of MO ( second ) | ||
| 23 | GET AT |
Huge Tatar provides accommodation for nag (3,2)
|
| hidden in “huGE TATar..” | ||
| 24 | YEATS |
Keep heading north to catch eastern poet (5)
|
| reverse of [ STAY ( keep ) ] containing E ( eastern ) | ||
| 26 | INCUR |
Suffer in short treatment (5)
|
| IN CURe ( treatment, without last letter ) |
Nothing too taxing, although quite a few things that eluded me, viz …
Never heard of chiffchaffs.
Never heard of Internal Revenue Service (US).
Didn’t know a hamlet was a cigar.
Just one unknown Brit this time … Christian Bale. I thought the I in Baltimore was the island, and was trying to work out why Baltmore was a Christian.
I also didn’t parse DWEEB, but should have.
An enjoyable pursuit today, thanks Leonidas & Turbolegs.
Thanks for the blog, I really enjoyed this. I appreciate the precision of clues such as OPTIMUM ( seperately ) , DWEEB and IRONS with the US indicator , and “A” Chrsitian for BALTIMORE.
CELLO a nice reference to Ma , I hope Cellomaniac sees this.
Chiffchaffs are easy to identify, they say their name over and over.
Happiness is a CIGAR called Hamlet , the mild cigar from Benson and Hedges.
Classic UK TV advertising from the 1970s , very funny when you are 6 years old.
I too really enjoyed this. First time I’ve tried a Leonidas puzzle – I’ve only tried a few FT puzzles so far. Usually stick to the Guardian and Observer. Having only done a few it seems to me that they are a bit more straightforward than many in the Guardian but maybe I have just stumbled on easier ones in the FT. Be interested to know what regular FT and Guardian solvers say.
Favourites included: TRICOLOUR, OPTIMUM, IRONS, ECHOED
Thanks Leonidas and Turbolegs
You beat me to it, Roz @ 6, re the Hamlet cigar adverts and I think I found them amusing too.. then.
Fastest I think I’ve ever solved a Leonidas but I did enjoy it. Is it me or was there more than the usual number of clues requiring reversals?
Definitely needed help parsing from Turbolegs today despite the speed of the solve.
Reference to Yoyo Ma was very nice too.
Thanks both.
Fiona, for what it’s worth, I have nine in my “Don’t attempt” list of FT compilers, and ten with the Guardian.
I agree with Diane in this being probably my fastest-ever Leonidas solve – but don’t let that put you off, Fiona! He’s one of my favourites and this was as enjoyable as ever.
In addition to favourites mentioned already – CELLO was lovely – I admired the construction of CATAMARAN.
The Hamlet ads certainly were classics – see here:
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2022/06/14/world-s-best-ads-ever-64-hamlet-brings-happiness-with-single-shot-slapstick-spot
Here’s the top favourite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR-klQIt_Hg
Waiting for the music was always fun.
Many thanks to Leonidas and to Turbolegs.
Ah those old Hamlet ads. Brilliant. Much like this puzzle.
Yes, Eileen @7, on my list of favourites too (indeed this has been a good week for those I particularly enjoy).
I never time myself but naturally, I notice if it has been particularly quick or slow. I usually care more about entertainment value so today’s grid fit the bill.
Fiona@4 I do the Guardian every day and the FT most days, I would say the overall difficulty is now very similar, with a lot of variation in both each week . There is quite a bit of overlap with setters although Mudd/Paul is much easier in the FT . IO(FT) is by far the hardest setter, he is ENIGMATIST who seems to have been frozen out of the Guardian , perhaps he refuses to dumb down.
The good thing about the FT is that you are not supporting a righi-wing, tax-dodging , billionaire owner.
What everyone else said – smashing puzzle. Thanks to Leonidas and Turbolegs.
Fiona @4 – I believe Leonidas is scheduled to do the News puzzle this month, so look out for that on the 27th.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_on_the_G_String
For the Hamlet CIGAR ads the music was always Bach’s Air on the G String
I was surprised to find it was the Jacques Loussier version – the clip used was so short, it cut out before the music gets jazzy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EPKPWfLpMA
I made a mistake even though I got them all right— wondering when the puzzles become available I logged on at midnight and sure enough there it was — so of course I had to finish it… luckily it was an easy one.. if it had been Tuesday’s I’d have had a sleepless night! Thanks for this blog by the way — a most enjoyable complement
There’s also this beautiful version I’ve just discovered: Yo Yo Ma on CELLO and Bobby Mcferrin on vocal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CcnDi67qaI
The 50% off the bird has migrated elsewhere today.
Fiona@4: I reckon on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays FT puzzles are generally straightforward. Wednesdays can be rather gnarly, with IO/Enigmatist and Gozo/Maskerade prominent. John Halpern’s puzzles as Mudd are more straightforward (or less experimental) than his Guardian puzzles as Paul. Goliath/Philistine and Buccaneer/Picaroon are of equal excellence in both papers. The Don consciously makes his Guardian puzzles harder than his FT ones.
Brian Head, who runs the Crossword Club (or at least, used to) considered the FT to be the highest quality of all the Daily puzzles. I wonder whether the editing standards are just more consistent..
Thanks to all who responded to my query @4
I might have to get a printer. I get the Guardian paper every day and, although I use the online version as well, I like to annotate the clues on the paper version to show how they worked – and highlight those I failed to solve or parse. Writing out clues where I have some crosses also helps me solve them – particularly down clues. I have used the online version of the FT for the few I have done but I like having a paper version to annotate and help me solve – so, like I said, I need to get a printer.
Fiona you need a friend who takes the FT , I am lucky , I swap the back page of G2 for the FT puzzle every morning when we go swimming.
Fiona @17 – don’t rush to buy a printer if you don’t need one otherwise.
Presumably you’ve been scrolling down to ‘Interactive crosswords’ for the FT puzzles.
Go to ‘Download crossword’, just above that, right click on the puzzle and click ‘Print’ – and you get a nice jotter pad, too, for your annotations. 😉
Fiona – please forgive me! How can you click ‘Print’ if you don’t have a printer!
(I got muddled: my own printer is on the blink just now, so I have to do it interactively.)
[I wish I’d blogged this puzzle – then I could have deleted my stupid comment. 🙁 ]
Thanks Leonidas. I found this more of a challenge than Turbolegs did but it’s still on the easier end of the Leonidas/Wire spectrum. I liked many of the clues including ORION, IRONS, and HUMDRUM. I couldn’t parse DWEEB and BALTIMORE even though Christian BALE is one of the best actors in the business IMO. [Fiona @4: If you like Jack in the G, you’ll like Basilisk in the FT and Serpent in the Indy.] Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
I wondered whether 10a might prompt a trip down memory lane for some. I will try to shoehorn CINZANO into my next offering. Thanks to all who have commented and to Turbolegs.
Leonidas you could try the Humphreys – Unigate milk. Very funny adverts using big stars from the 70s. The Arthur Mullard one is the best.
Leonidas @ 22
It certainly did! Thanks again.
Good to see that we’ll be seeing you again in York. 😉
Indeed, Eileen@24, it will be my third S&B. A great event, looking forward to it. Mine’s a pint, if you get there before me.
Roz@23 I’m not sure I can remember those, but will YouTube-igate later
… and good to see, just now, that you’ll be there too, Fiona!
… bit nervous – probably just stand on the sidelines
Don’t worry – you’ll be very welcome. 😉
Minor point, but the IRS is not a state agency, but rather the federal tax collectors, so not sure I understand why NY is added.
Sorry, was referring to 7D with the above comment.
Brian @29: When setters want to emphasize that something is uniquely American they sometimes use one of the 50 states to make that point.
William Butler YEATS was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923 – a centenary.