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Quite a lighthearted and jokey entry today from Moo . . .
. . . which I have tried not to spoil with overwrought explanations.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PREACH |
Lecture good-looking girl Romeo seduced (6)
|
| R (Romeo) inside (seduced [by]) PEACH (good-looking girl) | ||
| 4 | COMPOSED |
Brahms and Liszt did this together (8)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 10 | ERSTWHILE |
Former sweetheart Whistler abandoned (9)
|
| Middle letter of (heart [of]) [SW]E[ET] + anagram of (abandoned) WHISTLER | ||
| 11 | LONER |
Recluse left Nevada city, heading west (5)
|
| L (left) + RENO (Nevada city) reversed (heading west) | ||
| 12 | TOWN |
Time to accept settlement (4)
|
| T (time) + OWN (accept) | ||
| 13 | STARK-NAKED |
Keats drank merrily in his birthday suit (5-5)
|
| Anagram of (merrily) KEATS DRANK | ||
| 15 | FORBEAR |
Avoid anxiety about brother’s retirement (7)
|
| FEAR (anxiety) around (about) BRO (brother) reversed ([in] retirement) | ||
| 16 | NORWAY |
Country embracing king? Absolutely not! (6)
|
| NO WAY (absolutely not) around (embracing) R (king) | ||
| 19 | ESTEEM |
Judge is introduced to E in recession (6)
|
| MEETS (is introduced to) + E, all reversed (in recession) | ||
| 21 | RAMPAGE |
Go berserk and smash into boy at court (7)
|
| RAM (smash) + PAGE (boy at court) | ||
| 23 | OUTLANDISH |
Shouldn’t AI development make one curious? (10)
|
| Anagram of (development) SHOULDN’T AI | ||
| 25 | PLOD |
Encouragement to change political allegiance, becoming PC? (4)
|
| P[R]OD (encouragement), with R (right) changing to L (left) (“changing political allegiance”), referring to the Police Constable of literature | ||
| 27 | INUIT |
Feel time is running out for occupant of White House? (5)
|
| IN[T]UIT (feel) minus (running out) T (time), referring presumably to an igloo | ||
| 28 | ABUNDANCE |
Might bakers enjoy this social occasion a lot? (9)
|
| “A BUN DANCE” (a social occasion that bakers might very well enjoy) | ||
| 29 | EXPORTER |
Old chap carrying bags for Brexit malcontent? (8)
|
| EX (old) + PORTER (chap carrying bags) | ||
| 30 | ANGERS |
Bishop missing fireworks in French city (6)
|
| [B]ANGERS (fireworks) minus (missing) B (bishop) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PRETTIFY |
Tart up, and quite accommodating I initially find (8)
|
| PRETTY (quite) around (accommodating) {I + first letter of (initially) F[IND]} | ||
| 2 | EASTWARDS |
Player encountering divisions heading to Orient? (9)
|
| EAST (player [in bridge]) + WARDS (divisions) | ||
| 3 | COWL |
Tory member of parliament is a hood (4)
|
| C (Tory) + OWL (member of [a] parliament) | ||
| 5 | OVERRUN |
Storm ended at last (7)
|
| OVER (ended) + RUN (last) | ||
| 6 | PALINDROME |
Noon sees two examples of one (10)
|
| Cryptic(?) definition, which might be punctuated as: “Noon, sees: two examples of one.” | ||
| 7 | SUNAK |
Tabloid article the end for weak PM? (5)
|
| SUN (tabloid) + A (article) + last letter of (the end for) [WEA]K | ||
| 8 | DERIDE |
Make fun of journalist knocked over on her bike? (6)
|
| ED (journalist) inverted (knocked over) + RIDE (bike) | ||
| 9 | BITTER |
Drink making you resentful? (6)
|
| Cryptic and/or double definition | ||
| 14 | BENEFACTOR |
France to be unexpected backer (10)
|
| Anagram of (unexpected) FRANCE TO BE | ||
| 17 | AT A GLANCE |
Canal gate needing repair immediately (2,1,6)
|
| Anagram of (needing repair) CANAL GATE | ||
| 18 | WEEDLESS |
Without dope, didn’t visit ladies so much (8)
|
| “WEED LESS” (didn’t visit the ladies so much), the definition referring to a lack of marijuana | ||
| 20 | MEDIATE |
Intervene, drug knocking Charlie out (7)
|
| MEDI[C]ATE (drug) minus (knocking . . . out) C (Charlie) | ||
| 21 | RISQUÉ |
Bawdy Boris questioning nurses (6)
|
| Hidden in (nurses) [BO]RIS QUE[STIONING] | ||
| 22 | NOVICE |
Trainee losing his grip? (6)
|
| “NO VICE” (which might be said about someone who has lost his grip) | ||
| 24 | TRUMP |
One-time leader ultimately left behind (5)
|
| Last letter of (ultimately) [LEF]T + RUMP (behind) | ||
| 26 | ADEN |
Port providing a place of concealment (4)
|
| A + DEN (place of concealment) |
Goldilocks difficulty, and good fun, thank you Moo. I didn’t think the clue for COMPOSED was cryptic, but the penny dropped when I saw your blog, thanks Cineraria. I was picturing Johannes and Franz getting together over a few beers (isn’t “Brahms and Liszt” also rhyming slang?) and settling the score, so to speak!
GDU@1
LOL. Liked your last line above.
Thanks, Moo and Cineraria!
An enjoyable puzzle and an excellent blog.
Liked PLOD and WEEDLESS.
Thanks GDU. I did not know the rhyming slang.
Thank you also ,Moo and Cineraria, for a moment of pleasure in a depressing world.
Enjoyable. I could not see a couple of parsings until I read the blog (missed RISQUE and WEEDLESS, would you believe?). Will keep Brahms and Liszt in mind for the future too.
Favourites could have been any of several clues, but I narrowed them down to COWL, SUNAK and STARK-NAKED.
KVa put it nicely : Thanks, Moo and Cineraria!
An enjoyable puzzle and an excellent blog.
I enjoyed this as much as those commenting above.
My favourites were INUIT, WEEDLESS, TRUMP and PALINDROME (cute).
I didn’t know the rhyming slang either but remember a weak lolly stick joke with the punchline – A Chopin Liszt – for something along the lines of what composers use when buying groceries. Told you it was weak!
Thanks to Moo and Cineraria.
I think the Brahms and Liszt (pissed) cockney rhyming slang has appeared in many Guardian puzzles.
Sweet old men or Brahms and Liszt given piano (5,4)–FT, Buccaneer.
Diane, your Chopin Liszt also reminds me of that famous Indian composer – Haydn Sikh.
Thanks for the blog, very good puzzle with quite a few digs hidden away. I know B+L from Minder and Del-Boy .
PLOD is a term often used for a PC or the police in general. Did it come from the Noddy books or did the term go the other way ?
Would one of you kind geniuses help me understand the double definition in 4a? I’m still stuck at seeing the one uncryptic definition that they are both composers.
Kevin – together means composed , in the sense of being all calm and organised.
Roz, the physicist in you may want to have a look at today’s independent (the blog & posts anyway).
Enjoyed this. I would describe it as middling difficulty, rather than easy. Bottom left hand corner held me for a little while. Favourites included Inuit and Cowl.
Thank you for explaining Overrun.
The Last sense of Run had eluded me
Roz@9 – https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/plod#Etymology_3 – ‘From PC Plod.’
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/PC_Plod#Etymology – ‘From the policeman in Enid Blyton’s Noddy books.’
Delightful – is Moo a regular contributor? (Haven’t solved the FT regularly for twenty years or more!) I really like his/her style
Thanks both
Thanks Hovis@12 , too late to get it printed now but will look at the blog later.
Thanks Frankie @14, I never look at links but you are implying that Noddy got there first.
Moly @13 – I had the same experience. The right hand came out nicely, and the left side took more thought. I even got stuck for a while on 23ac, which I was sure was an anagram. It was eluding me because I was reading AI as AL rather than A.I.
Took dope to literally and kept thinking clueless or even glue less. Still not sure I understand the definition of not visiting ladies much for weedless though.
Thank you all
AS@18: “Wee” means “urinate,” so if women weed less, they visited the ladies room less often.
Moly@13: I also got stuck on “last” = “run,” but I took it in the sense of “how long does a movie last?” = “How long does the movie run?,” or something along those lines. Definitely a brainstretcher for me.