A fun challenge from LEONIDAS to end the last work day of the year with.
A couple of parses needed a little bit of devious thinking so that sure kept it interesting. As a side note, I realized that I have completed 10 years blogging the Friday FT on 15^2 ( the first one being FT 14495 by MAGWITCH from Dec 13, 2013 ). It has been an absolute blast, and I want to thank everyone here who have made the 15^2 community a wonderful virtual oasis for crossword lovers .
Would be remiss if I didn’t specifically thank Geoff ( Gaufrid ) for everything he did to help me along the way. Someday, I will share some profound communications that he and I exchanged on life, atheism and whisky. May his soul rest in peace.
Happy New Year. Wish you all yet another fantastic trip round the sun, better than all the other trips that preceded it.
FF: 9 DD: 8
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CORDELIA |
King’s daughter joins failed rockstar in retirement (8)
|
| hidden, reversed in “..fAILED ROCkstar..” | ||
| 5 | NAPKIN |
Vessel returned with family linen? (6)
|
| reverse of PAN ( vessel ) KIN ( family ) | ||
| 8 | ASS |
Creature in a state before noon taken away (3)
|
| ASSam ( state, without AM – before noon ) | ||
| 9 | COLD TURKEY |
Caught nameless ex-jailor making sudden withdrawal (4,6)
|
| C ( caught ) [ OLD ( ex ) TURnKEY ( jailor, nameless i.e. without N ) ] | ||
| 10 | LITERATI |
Rite translated into language mostly for educated lot (8)
|
| [ RITE ]* in LATIn ( language, mostly ) | ||
| 11 | RARELY |
Briefly cooked outside of lobby once in while (6)
|
| RARE ( briefly cooked ) LY ( LobbY, outer letters ) | ||
| 12 | THEM |
Time with fringe group opposing us (4)
|
| T ( time ) HEM ( fringe ) | ||
| 14 | MARBLE ARCH |
London landmark rally blocked by British king (6,4)
|
| MARCH ( rally ) containing [ B ( british ) LEAR ( king ) ] | ||
| 17 | NEWSAGENTS |
Young son spies purveyors of magazines (10)
|
| NEW ( young ) S ( son ) AGENTS ( spies ) | ||
| 20 | EPIC |
Long long record originally is criticised (4)
|
| EP ( long record ) IC ( “..Is Criticised”, first letters of ) | ||
| 23 | DRY ROT |
Medic retreating Blue Fungal Disease (3,3)
|
| DR ( medic ) reverse of TORY ( blue ) | ||
| 24 | PLEASURE |
Gratification guaranteed on request (8)
|
| PLEA ( request ) SURE ( guaranteed ) | ||
| 25 | HINTERLAND |
‘Backwater’ from clue ‘Animal crossing river’ (10)
|
| HINT ( clue ) [ ELAND ( animal ) containing R ( river ) ] | ||
| 26 | AID |
Support radius, twice twisted? (3)
|
| cryptic def; radius twice = DIAmeter, reverse of | ||
| 27 | GNOSIS |
Starts to get narky over relative’s spiritual knowledge (6)
|
| GNO ( starting letters of “..Get Narky Over..” ) SIS ( relative ) | ||
| 28 | BEIGNETS |
Fried food big teens demolished (8)
|
| [ BIG TEENS ]* | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CHARLATAN |
Phoney map outlining city limits of Aden (9)
|
| [ CHART ( map ) containing LA ( city ) ] AN ( AdeN, end characters ) | ||
| 2 | ROSETTE |
Old Leonidas at last lifted award? (7)
|
| O ( old ) SETTER ( leonidas, with the last letter R moving to the front ) | ||
| 3 | ENCORE |
Play some more once composed at top of class (6)
|
| [ ONCE ]* RE ( class, Religious Education ) | ||
| 4 | ILL AT EASE |
Wind up below column naked. Awkward! (3,2,4)
|
| TEASE ( wind up ) after pILLAr ( column, naked i.e. without end characters ) | ||
| 5 | NEUTRAL |
Non-partisan UN later reassembled (7)
|
| [ UN LATER ]* | ||
| 6 | POKER FACE |
Inscrutable player thrust fellow into contest (5,4)
|
| POKE ( thrust ) [ F ( fellow ) in RACE ( contest ) ] | ||
| 7 | IDYLLIC |
Heavenly midday ale regularly left inside of nick (7)
|
| IDYL ( mIdDaY aLe, alternate letters of ) L ( left ) IC ( nICk, internal letters ) | ||
| 13 | MISPRINTS |
Note dashes and more than one typo (9)
|
| MI ( note ) SPRINTS ( dashes ) | ||
| 15 | BATTLE AXE |
Scold Club Ecstasy stocking defective latex (6-3)
|
| [ BAT ( club ) E ( Ecstasy ) ] containing [ LATEX ]* | ||
| 16 | HACIENDAS |
Danish ace redeveloped estates on Majorca (9)
|
| [ DANISH ACE ]* | ||
| 18 | EARTHEN |
Clay layer beneath 80% of planet (7)
|
| EARTh ( planet , 80% of ) HEN ( layer ) | ||
| 19 | GUTLESS |
Lacking courage, as he is compared to heroine? (7)
|
| cryptic def; gutless HeroinE i.e without inner letters would be HE | ||
| 21 | PLUMAGE |
9 maybe is missing such fruit over long period (7)
|
| PLUM ( fruit ) AGE ( long period ) | ||
| 22 | LAPDOG |
Police dept. moggy periodically scratched mutt (6)
|
| LAPD ( police dept ) mOgGy ( alternate letters of ) |
Thanks for the blog and all the others this year and congratullations for the 10 years, a sterling effort.
A very good puzzle with many neat clues but I do have two issues.
AID I agree with you for diameter but think the clue should be “partly twisted” or something simlilar .
ILL AT (T)EASE your explanation is fine but your answer has gained a stray T.
Pleased to complete this. I did use a word fit to get the unknown-to-me BEIGNETS rather than trawl through all the possible anagrams. Took a while to parse AID. Had to check in Chambers that DIA is an acceptable abbreviation for ‘diameter’, which goes some way to answering Roz’s issue @2. GUTLESS was a nice penny-drop clue and 1a was a cunning inclusion.
I’ll echo Roz in congratulating Turbolegs on reaching a remarkable landmark and would add that today’s blogger is one whose help I particularly appreciated when I first started doing these puzzles and still do so now! I like – and always note – the FF and DD!
As to the puzzle, I suspect it was at the easier end of the Leonidas spectrum as I completed it pretty quickly. (I did need some clarification from Turbolegs on a couple, including AID and agree with Roz’s comment).
It was no less enjoyable for all that and I nominate PLUMAGE, CORDELIA and BEIGNETS (liked the surface) as favourites.
Thanks to Leonidas, Turbolegs and Happy New Year to everyone here.
I suspect BEIGNETS was just one of those dead-ends in the grid where not much fits , often happens in the bottom right corner. They seem to be having a popular moment , far too sweet for me.
I will echo the Happy New Year from Diane, Technically we have perihelion on January 3rd at o.38 Uk time.
I parsed ASS using “a” different “state” – A+MASS(achusetts), with the morning taken off the front.
The United States Postal Service tells me that abbreviation has been out-of-date since 1963 – a diamond anniversary. Congratulations Turbolegs on your tin one.
Knew BEIGNETS from TV and films set in New Orleans (Louisiana – for which the abbreviation has always been La./LA)
Thanks L&T
Congratulations, Turbolegs! Time flies, doesn’t it? (I share your fond thoughts of Geoff, who was an invaluable help to me, too.)
Another super puzzle from Leonidas – Peter @6, I don’t understand your comment!
CORDELIA was a lovely start and when I reached 14ac I started looking for Goneril and Regan – but it was not to be. Never mind, lots of other great clues – I had a dozen ticks, which I’ll reluctantly whittle down to COLD TURKEY, LITERATI, CHARLATAN, MISPRINTS, HACIENDAS, EARTHEN and GUTLESS.
Many thanks to Leonidas and Turbolegs and a Happy New Year to all.
Thanks Leonidas and Turbolegs
8ac in reply to Frankie@7: The United States Postal Service may have stopped using the abbreviation MASS, but why should the rest of us be bound by that? “Boston, Mass” fits nicely into a song lyric – the one that comes to mind being one of Rambling Syd Rumpo’s on Round The Horne, which ran from 1965 to 1968.
11ac: This clue was a lovely temporary trap for the experienced solver. I was of course looking for a something like ROAS(t) or FRIE(d) as “briefly cooked”. It is always nice when a standard crossword term is used in its normal sense.
I heartily endorse the thanks to Turbolegs who has been an outstanding setter . Thanks also to Leonidas for a great puzzle , just right for the holiday season
Btw I think beignets can be either sweet or savoury. Roz@5
Enjoyed this – MARBLE ARCH and COLD TURKEY probably my favourites.
The parsing of AID eluded me, as I’d forgotten quite what a radius was, and my efforts were only confused by the appearance of ADI within it! I think I’ve come across BEIGNETS before, and it was the only assemblage of letters that seemed to work.
Thanks Leonidas, and thanks & congratulations turbolegs.
Sorry . I meant Turbolegs was an outstanding blogger.
Congratulations Turbolegs. I wondered whether Leonidas could have had “Support is rad, twice twisted”, but I can see objections to that, too. I liked the nameless jailor turning turkey and admired the reverse hidden in 1 across.
Thanks to Turbolegs (congrats on reaching this milestone) and to all who have posted today.
26a was clued as intended. Dia. is in Chambers as an abbreviation of diameter, as Hovis@3 correctly points out. With the QM, I think that still works for me.
Recently watched Branagh’s King Lear in the West End. An interesting interpretation, shall we say.
All the best for 2024.
Thanks Leonidas for my favourite crossword of the week. I thoroughly enjoyed this with the nicely hidden CORDELIA, ASS, NEWSAGENTS, NEUTRAL, EARTHEN, GUTLESS, and LAPDOG being my top picks. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog. Congratulations on your milestone. Happy 2024 to all.
Thanks to Leonidas and congratulations & gratitude to Turbolegs from me also
It was a lovely puzzle with many great clues. I had many clues with ticks – far too many to mention. COLD TURKEY and ROSETTE had two ticks.
I wished for a bit for direction from the setter at several points. Is “King’s daughter” sufficient for CORDELIA? Well, I guess it is better than “woman”. Same with king = LEAR. There have been hundreds of kings and many more daughters, and this king is not even a real one. At least this fictional king is well-known. I also wonder how setters expect us to choose the right “note” when there are 16 musical notes (do, ray, mi etc and A, B, C etc) and there must be thousands of police departments / forces in the world (probably 30 in LA alone), so it is quite a feat to come up with the LAPD based merely on “police dept”.
I am afraid my “bit vague” comment has taken up more space than my “great clues” comment. That is not a reflection on my experience solving the puzzle. Leonidas’s puzzles have proved reliably enjoyable for me, and this was no exception.
Thanks again Leonidas and Turbolegs
[Martyn @16: You forgot to mention that there are 50 US states, 54 African countries, and approximately 1500 rivers in the UK. Setters have many ways to amuse us.]
Congratulations Turbolegs. Here in the states magazines are sold at newsstands and blue is for democrats and the kings daughter is Priscilla (presley). So it took me some tries but enjoyed every bit of it. Thank you Leonidas.
Happy new year to all
Spot on Tony S@17. And, amused we are!
Hi all,
Thanks for the kind words and encouragement. Wish everyone here a super 2024!
Regards,
Mahesh / TurboLegs