I found this very challenging for a Tuesday, and about halfway through, I was not sure that I was going to be able to finish this for the blog.
The words are ordinary enough, but there are a few unusual or even innovative cryptic devices at play here, so I hope the parsing holds up.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BACK-DOOR |
Sneaky instruction that makes you cross (4-4)
|
| Following the instruction of the solution, reversing (turning BACK) DOOR will give you ROOD (cross). I am not sure whether I would classify this as &lit or double definition? | ||
| 5 | DALLAS |
Prosecutors across everything in city (6)
|
| DAS (prosecutors) around (across) ALL (everything) | ||
| 9 | RESOLVED |
Determined to break up with girlfriend at last (8)
|
| RESOLVE (to break up) + last letter of (at last) [GIRLFRIEN]D | ||
| 10 | ELEVEN |
Cardinal emerging from brothel eventually (6)
|
| Hidden in (emerging from) [BROTH]EL EVEN[TUALLY], referring to “cardinal number” | ||
| 12 | AMITY |
Friendship, the very thing girl welcomes (5)
|
| AMY (girl) around (welcomes) IT (the very thing) | ||
| 13 | ADULTERER |
Cheat later rued becoming so (9)
|
| Anagram of (becoming so) LATER RUED, “so” I suppose indicating “false” like a cheat, thus the anagram | ||
| 14 | SAMPLE |
Trial of backbencher involved in dealing (6)
|
| MP (backbencher) inside (involved in) SALE (dealing) | ||
| 16 | NONPLUS |
Puzzle of Parisian’s refusal to take advantage (7)
|
| NON (Parisian’s refusal) + PLUS (advantage) | ||
| 19 | ONEROUS |
Heavy burden borne by Cockney star? On the contrary (7)
|
| [H]ERO (Cockney star) inside (borne by) ONUS (burden), with “on the contrary” indicating that the elements of the clue are reversed | ||
| 21 | STEAMY |
Passionate pair in Sicily on vacation (6)
|
| TEAM (pair) inside (in) outside letters of (on vacation) S[ICIL]Y | ||
| 23 | DECATHLON |
Sadly can’t hold European event (9)
|
| Anagram of (sadly) {CAN’T HOLD + E (European)} | ||
| 25 | PARIS |
Trojan capital (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 26 | IONIAN |
Greek island I will visit before November (6)
|
| I inside (will visit) IONA (island) + N (November) | ||
| 27 | AMBROSIA |
Heavenly food in bar — I am so made up! (8)
|
| Anagram of (made up) BAR I AM SO | ||
| 28 | KENNEL |
One male turning on another in the doghouse (6)
|
| KEN (one male) + LEN (another [male]) reversed (turning) | ||
| 29 | ANTELOPE |
Run off with soldier, one from Africa? (8)
|
| ANT (soldier) + ELOPE (run off [with]), “with” kind of doing double-duty here | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BARMAN |
This chap might get you shot (6)
|
| Cryptic definition, i.e., might get you a shot of liquor | ||
| 2 | CASTIGATE |
Criticise Tory over wine scandal? (9)
|
| C (Tory) + ASTI (wine) + -GATE ([generic suffix for] scandal) | ||
| 3 | DOLLY |
You really should catch this sheep (5)
|
| Double definition, the former, an easy catch in cricket; the latter, the clone | ||
| 4 | OVERAGE |
Charlie giving up reporting: too long in the tooth! (7)
|
| [C]OVERAGE (reporting) minus (giving up) C (Charlie) | ||
| 6 | ALL AT ONCE |
Article on Lancelot rewritten suddenly (3,2,4)
|
| A (article) + anagram of (rewritten) LANCELOT | ||
| 7 | LOVER |
Paramour let down after change of heart (5)
|
| LO[W]ER (let down), substituting V for the central W (after change of heart) | ||
| 8 | SUNDRESS |
Use this ultimately to cover nakedness? (8)
|
| semi-&lit and last letter of (ultimately) [THI]S + UNDRESS (nakedness) | ||
| 11 | BURN |
Poet not quite finishing ‘Flower of Scotland’ (4)
|
| BURN[S], (poet, i.e., Robert Burns) minus last letter (not quite finishing), “flower” in the cryptic sense of “something that flows,” i.e., Scots for a small river | ||
| 15 | PROSTRATE |
Exhausted F1 driver taking speed (9)
|
| PROST (F1 driver, i.e., Alain Prost) + RATE (speed) | ||
| 17 | LAMBRUSCO |
At sea bishop clamours for this wine (9)
|
| Anagram of (at sea) {B (bishop) + CLAMOURS} | ||
| 18 | HOODWINK |
Deceive tattooed criminal apparently (8)
|
| Cryptically reading it as “HOOD W [i.e., with] INK” (tattooed criminal, “apparently”) | ||
| 20 | SOLO |
Alone and extremely sad, one hears (4)
|
| Homophone of (one hears) SO LOW (extremely sad) | ||
| 21 | SANDMAN |
Polish boyfriend who sends you to sleep (7)
|
| SAND (polish) + MAN (boyfriend) | ||
| 22 | ESTATE |
Reckon Moo’s lost all his money (6)
|
| EST[IM]ATE (reckon) minus (lost) I’M (Moo’s) | ||
| 24 | CANON |
Cleric shot at snooker table, did you say? (5)
|
| Homophone of (did you say?) CANNON (shot at snooker table) | ||
| 25 | PURSE |
Ready for a fight? (5)
|
| Cryptic definition, “ready” here meaning “money” |
Many lovely clues. Enjoyable surfaces. Thanks Moo!
Yet another lovely blog. Thanks Cineraria!
The words are ordinary enough, but there are a few unusual or even innovative cryptic devices at play here…
So true!
BACK-DOOR: Parsed it as in the blog but took it as def (as underlined)+WP. Liked it.
ADULTERER: I took ‘becoming so’ as ‘becoming a cheat ‘. The only difference is that I thought the ‘so’ was just referring back to the ‘cheat’ mentioned in the clue already.
AMBROSIA: Lovely surface. ‘I am so made up!’ Not a happy hour but a happy moment for sure.
KENNEL: One male=LEN—->turning/reversing. NEL on KEN (another male). No big difference, I agree.
ANTELOPE: I don’t think the ‘with’ needs to do a dual role. elope with=run off with or elope=run off.
SUNDRESS: Sexy one! An all-round beauty!
HOODWINK: Innovative indeed.
Thanks both once again!
Thanks for the blog, really good set of clues showing a lot of variety.
SUNDRESS , I have seen the idea many times, undress is too hard to resist, but a very neat clue today.
I agree with comments from KVa and Roz in terms of surfaces, devices and variety.
My favourites were BACK DOOR, DOLLY, KENNEL and CASTIGATE.
It was just the ‘w’ of HOODWINK that gave me pause.
Thanks to Moo for some great entertainment and Cineraria for doing the honours.
Message for Gloria.
Your comment is in the moderation queue. Unfortunately there seems to be an error with your email address. When I tried to send you a message, the email bounced. Please check the validity of your email address and try again. Thanks.
Gloria. Presumably you use your email address for purposes other than posting on this site. It appears that you have typed your email address differently with the replies you’ve posted this morning.
Please don’t “give up” and don’t worry about your age. You’re probably a “baby” compared to most of this community.
Please seek out whoever looks after your shared computer and have him or her contact Fifteensquared admin. The address can be found here: https://www.fifteensquared.net/site-feedback/
I’m afraid that (and it’s the same for all new commenters) until I can confidentially associate your replies with a valid email address, your comments will continue to go to the moderation queue.
I hope you get this sorted as I’d hate to drive someone away.
Apologies to everyone else and especially to Cineraria.
I try to keep these interventions to a minimum.
I echo the praise for this. BACK DOOR and AMBROSIA both excellent.
Thanks Moo. I always enjoy good surfaces so I was pleased with this crossword. My top picks were BACK-DOOR (nice trick), STEAMY, KENNEL, and HOODWINK. I guessed but didn’t understand ESTATE, CANON, and PURSE so thanks Cineraria for explaining.
Tticky in places but nothing we couldn’t work out. Lots to like, including ‘Trojan’ and ‘Greek’ as consecutive clues – deliberate or just coincidence?
Thanks, Moo and Cineraria.
Only problem I had was not knowing ready was synonymous with money—not a term used in the states, at least as far as I know. Wonderful fun—thanks Moo!
I had to check a couple of answers, and couldn’t parse them all, but I got there in the end.
One stumbling block, and this has happened a few times, is that I failed to recognise the setter’s name in a clue, because the FT app hides this information. Surely the Financial Times could find enough Marxism in their hearts to credit workers at the top of the page.
I got stuck in the bottom right hand corner and missed several before abandoning ship.
I should’ve seen sand (in Sandman) but certainly don’t believe that it is polishing.
If you sand something, you leave it covered in scratches. If you sand your best furniture, you will get a very different effect than if you polish it.
Missed the easy antelope, even though I was thinking of elope and ant. Alas, in that order…..
Does Ionian mean Greek? All Ionians are Greek but not all Greeks are Ionian. I don’t think a definition Greek means Ionian any more than a definition British means Welsh. No doubt I’m wrong, but I didn’t like the clue.
Well done with the blog.
How does ‘resolve’ mean ‘to break up’?
Heather@13: That is one of the primary definitions in Chambers.
Cineraria@14: thank you! I only started doing cryptic crosswords a few weeks ago, so I’ve got much to learn…