Puzzle from the Weekend FT of November 11, 2023
This was a quick solve for me. My favourite clues are 1d (CASTLE), 6 (CRASS), 17 (UNGULATE) and 21 (BLUEGRASS).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | COOLIDGE |
Stylish appliance France exported for ex-President (8)
|
| COOL (stylish) + [fr]IDGE (appliance France exported) | ||
| 5 | SCHEME |
Plot with small border covered by hollow crate (6)
|
| S (small) + HEM (border) in C[rat]E | ||
| 10 | SAND EEL |
Coating of spice applied to the Spanish fish (4,3)
|
| S AND E (coating of spice) + EL (the Spanish) | ||
| 11 | REAGENT |
Spy at back of class makes chemical substance (7)
|
| RE (class, i.e. religious education) + AGENT (spy) | ||
| 12 | LEEDS |
English city guides announced (5)
|
| Homophone (announced) of “leads” (guides) | ||
| 13 | KICK-START |
Give impetus to celeb after break with Time (4-5)
|
| KICK (break) + STAR (celeb) + T (time) with ‘kick’ used in the sense of kicking a habit | ||
| 14 | UNCHARITABLE |
Mean aunt stripped furniture set setter shifted slightly (12)
|
| [a]UN[t] CHAIR TABLE (furniture set) with the ‘I’ (setter) shifted one place to the right (shifted slightly) | ||
| 18 | CONVENTIONAL |
Sister’s place by island lake is nothing special (12)
|
| CONVENT (sister’s place) + IONA (island) + L (lake) | ||
| 21 | BLUEGRASS |
Rubes slag off style of music (9)
|
| Anagram (off) of RUBES SLAG | ||
| 23 | KORMA |
Indian dish Mo divided amongst ship heading west (5)
|
| M and O (Mo divided) in (amongst) ARK (ship) backwards (heading west) | ||
| 24 | UNAWARE |
Section of Verdun:A War Exhibition is in the dark (7)
|
| Hidden word (section of) | ||
| 25 | EQUINES |
Note about housing one of 5 in 17s (7)
|
| QUIN (one of 5) in (housing) SEE (note) backwards (about) | ||
| 26 | DIESEL |
Hawk briefly follows the Austrian car? (6)
|
| DIE (the Austrian) + SEL[l] (hawk briefly) | ||
| 27 | ESOTERIC |
Old Crete is oddly mysterious (8)
|
| Anagram (oddly) of O (old) CRETE IS | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CASTLE |
Move within first row threw the French (6)
|
| CAST (threw) + LE (the French) with the definition referring to chess | ||
| 2 | OINKED |
With a pen, mark in lexicon how Napoleon went? (6)
|
| INK (mark) in (in) OED (lexicon, i.e. Oxford English Dictionary) with the definition referring to Napoleon, the pig in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” | ||
| 3 | IN ESSENCE |
Fundamentally popular church south of German city (2,7)
|
| IN (popular) + ESSEN (German city) + CE (church) | ||
| 4 | GO LIKE HOT CAKES |
Leeks cooked with a thick goo quickly sell (2,4,3,5)
|
| Anagram (cooked) of LEEKS A THICK GOO | ||
| 6 | CRASS |
Stupid stupid person crowned with crown (5)
|
| CR (crown) + ASS (stupid person) | ||
| 7 | EWE-LAMBS |
Smew able to agitate youngsters in flock (3-5)
|
| Anagram (to agitate) of SMEW ABLE | ||
| 8 | ENTITLED |
Being short, local mine hand finally qualified (8)
|
| ENTIT[y] (being short) + [loca]L [min]E [han]D | ||
| 9 | PRECARIOUSNESS |
Insecurity of elevated artist held in high esteem (14)
|
| RA (artist) backwards (elevated) in (held in) PRECIOUSNESS (high esteem) | ||
| 15 | TRACKSUIT |
Stretches in starts of triathlon usually in this? (9)
|
| RACKS (stretches) in (in) T[riathlon] U[sually] I[n] T[his] | ||
| 16 | ICEBOUND |
Aircrew regularly on jump, as was Shackleton (8)
|
| [a]I[r]C[r]E[w] + BOUND (jump) | ||
| 17 | UNGULATE |
Mould exposed on dead hoofed animal (8)
|
| [f]UNGU[s] (mould exposed) + LATE (dead) | ||
| 19 | PRUNER |
Trip in exercise on river clipper (6)
|
| RUN (trip) in (in) PE (exercise) + R (river) | ||
| 20 | PARSEC |
Officer guards rear unit NASA uses (6)
|
| ARSE (rear) in (guards) PC (officer) | ||
| 22 | GRADE |
Mark turned ashen in auditorium (5)
|
| Homophone (in auditorium) of “greyed” (turned ashen). I struggled with this one! It took a long time for me to clock ‘in auditorium” as a homophone indicator. |
Thanks Leonidas and Pete. A couple of minor points on the parsing:
14ac: Technically I think this is I (setter) moving one place to the right, with the R being passively displaced, rather than actively swapping places with the I.
27ac: This really has to be anagram of O CRETE IS, as O is not the first letter of the answer and there is no containment indicator.
One more: in 25ac, it is SEE that is reversed, not QUIN.
Thanks Leonidas for a nice set of clues. I particularly liked OINKED, GRADE, and the very well written TRACKSUIT. I thought TRACKSUIT could be clue-as-definition since triathletes might do their warm-up stretches in a TRACKSUIT prior to their swimming segment. I needed assistance for EQUINES and I couldn’t parse ENTITLED and PARSEC. Thanks Pete for the blog.
Thanks, Leonidas and Pete!
Liked SAND EEL (appeared elsewhere yesterday and kept ‘you’ wondering), UNCHARITABLE, OINKED and ENTITLED.
OINKED
A minor observation
with pen, mark=INK
Thanks for the blog, very good set of clues, SAND EEL was very neat and UNCHARITABLE was a clever idea.
For PARSEC the “NASA uses” is not really needed but I suppose it gives some context to the type of unit required.
I really enjoy Leonidas’ puzzles. Getting the two long down ones early helped get several across ones quite quickly then slowed down a bit but got there in the end.
Liked lots: COOLIDGE, SCHEME, UNCHARITABLE, KORMA, DIESEL, OINKED (made me laugh), UNGULATE, PRUNER, GRADE
Thanks Leonidas and Pete Maclean
And Rosa Klebb today!
I needed help to parse UNGULATE and OINKED – thanks Pete
Not sure i understand CASTLE – is it a chess reference?
My favorites have been noted. I think I wrote this previously, but the more I do Leonidas the more I enjoy his puzzles.
Martyn@8 CASTLE is a special move in chess , involving the king and the rook on the back row. Easy to show with a diagram if you can find one, often called castling.
Another lovely puzzle from Leonidas. (I agree with Martyn’s last sentence: he’s been in my top rank for a long time now.)
My favourites today were 1ac COOLIDGE, 14ac UNCHARITABLE (I’m with Pelham Barton re the parsing), 2dn OINKED, and 17dn UNGULATE.
Quite remarkable to see SAND EEL twice in a week.
Many thanks to setter and blogger.
I missed this last week so I’m pleased to be prompted by the blog’s appearance to give it a go. Nice tight imaginative cluing and I’m in full agreement with those who give this setter a big tick. And the big ticks today went to UNCHARITABLE (lovely spot), CASTLE which held out til late on, CRASS, SAND EEL and ENTITLED. I held myself up in the SE with CASSIO for PARSEC: officer = CO guards rear = ASS unit = I and suspected it was a NASA vehicle or similar. The Cassio is actually an electric hybrid airplane, I discover. So I wasn’t a parsec off …
Thanks Leonidas and Pete Maclean
Cassini was the NASA probe , visited Saturn and the moons, released the Huygens lander for Titan. First to orbit Saturn and lasted 13 years in orbit. Perhaps off by just a petametre.
Thanks Pete for the blog and to everyone else for the comments today. Have a good weekend, y’all
[Roz @12: 😉 ]