Puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 30, 2024
Gozo usually comes around on holiday weekends and this time, for Easter, it is with a normal-sized, thematic puzzle. The very evident theme is boys’ and girls’ names. Every across clue includes either ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ while four of the down clues do. It must be one of the easier themes to apply to a crossword’s clues but it is still a splendid example. Thank you, Gozo.
My favourite clues here are 7 (ROSES), 11 (GEORGIA) and 21 (MESS TIN).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SLEEPY |
Agent holding boy is about to nod off (6)
|
| LEE (boy) in (holding) SPY (agent) | ||
| 4 | DECLARED |
Dukes flanking English girl, as stated (8)
|
| D (duke) + E (English) + CLARE (girl) + D (duke) | ||
| 9 | ARCHER |
Ambridge resident is a royal girl (6)
|
| A (a) + R (royal) + CHER (girl) | ||
| 10 | CONTESSA |
Against girl, Italian woman (8)
|
| CON (against) + TESSA (girl) | ||
| 12 | REMARKED |
Commented about does around boy (8)
|
| MARK (boy) in (around) DEER (does) backwards (about) | ||
| 13 | LENSES |
Boy with three points on camera attachments (6)
|
| LEN (boy) + SES (three points) | ||
| 15 | DRAY |
Penny and boy’s farm truck (4)
|
| D (penny) + RAY (boy) | ||
| 16 | PROPELLENT |
Support girl by junction, driving (10)
|
| PROP (support) + ELLEN (girl) + T (junction) | ||
| 19 | HYSTERICAL |
Some healthy stallion holding boy is very funny (10)
|
| ERIC (boy) in (holding) HYSTAL (hidden group of letters) | ||
| 20 | ATOM |
Particle from active boy (4)
|
| A (active) + TOM (boy) | ||
| 23 | SERENE |
Home Counties boy from France is placid (6)
|
| SE (Home Counties) + RENE (boy from France) | ||
| 25 | PURITANS |
Highly moral folk’s word plays about girl (8)
|
| RITA (girl) in (about) PUNS (word plays) | ||
| 27 | ANNEALED |
Wayward dean without boy is now tough (8)
|
| NEAL (boy) in anagram (wayward) of DEAN | ||
| 28 | RELICT |
Take boy to court old widow (6)
|
| R (take, as in a prescription) + ELI (boy) + CT (court). ‘Old’ here tells us to find an an archaic word for a widow. | ||
| 29 | EPHESIAN |
Wandering sheep with boy, recipient of an NT letter (8)
|
| Anagram (wandering) of SHEEP + IAN (boy) | ||
| 30 | ANDEAN |
Leading alpinist nurtures boy from the mountains (6)
|
| A[lpinist] N[urtures] DEAN (boy) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SCARRED |
Showing injury, frightened about start of raid (7)
|
| R[aid] in (about) SCARED (frightened) | ||
| 2 | ENCOMPASS |
Include revised cops’ names (9)
|
| Anagram (revised) of COPS NAMES | ||
| 3 | PIERRE |
French lad with clothes taken from French revolutionary (6)
|
| [robes]PIERRE[s] | ||
| 5 | EBOR |
Sentamu’s old signature on dress lifted (4)
|
| ROBE (dress) backwards (lifted). Ebor is an abbreviation for Eboracum, the name given by the ancient Romans to the city we know as York. | ||
| 6 | LATTERLY |
Coffee half-hourly, not so long ago (8)
|
| LATTE (coffee) + [hou]RLY | ||
| 7 | ROSES |
In more ways than one, they may make a fine spray (5)
|
| Double definition.. Rose flowers could make a fine spray and roses that one puts on the end of hoses could make a fine spray too. | ||
| 8 | DEAD SET |
Sedated, oddly determined (4,3)
|
| Anagram (oddly) of SEDATED | ||
| 11 | GEORGIA |
US state or country girl (7)
|
| Triple definition | ||
| 14 | SPEAK UP |
Awkward pause with Kevin Pietersen initially having to state his opinion boldly (5,2)
|
| Anagram (awkward) of PAUSE K P | ||
| 17 | EXTRADITE |
Send back crowd actor with crash diet (9)
|
| EXTRA (crowd actor) + anagram (crash) of DIET | ||
| 18 | BEANBAGS |
ABs began modifying large cushions used as seats (8)
|
| Anagram (modifying) of ABS BEGAN | ||
| 19 | HOSTAGE |
One held to get on with army (7)
|
| HOST (army) + AGE (to get on) | ||
| 21 | MESS TIN |
Hash can appear in Tommy’s! (4,3)
|
| MESS (hash) + TIN (can) | ||
| 22 | EILEEN |
Girl who says how she tilts? (6)
|
| Homophone (who says) “I lean” | ||
| 24 | RANCH |
Hurried, getting caught by Henry’s farm (5)
|
| RAN (hurried) + C (caught) + H (Henry, in the sense of the unit of induction) | ||
| 26 | LENA |
And another girl who tilts, we’re told (4)
|
| Homophone (we’re told) of LEANER |
Oh, I did not see this. I did the jumbo and did not realise this was available too.
I eagerly await the jumbo blog
Martin @1
I am only halfway through the jumbo – but intend to keep going.
Saw your comment about the Guardian jumbo prize – I think it is worth having another go. I really enjoyed it.
Thanks Gozo for a nicely constructed crossword. My top picks were HYSTERICAL (great wordplay), PIERRE, DEAD SET, and EILEEN. I missed RELICT and couldn’t fully parse MESS TIN — thanks Pete for explaining.
Thanks Gozo and Pete!
Liked HYSTERICAL (ditto Tony’s words), MESS TIN and the EILEEN-LENA combo!
EBOR
Found this disgusting news item (May 2023):
The former archbishop of York [John Sentamu] has been forced to step down from duties [dress lifted} after failing to act on allegations of sexual abuse.
John Sentamu last week rejected the findings of a report that found he failed to act on disclosures that a C of E vicar repeatedly raped a teenage boy in the 1980s.
Preferred the Down clues – DisROBE 3d RobesPIERRE, then put one back in 5d EBOR.
Ah, like others I was expecting to see a review of the (very enjoyable) jumbo from last Saturday’s FT. This one looks quite fun too, but the biggie was splendid, with one LOL clue straight from Private Eye.
Thanks for the blog, I am never that keen on girl/boy clues even in a normal crossword so this was a bit of overload for me.
My least favourite type of clue made into a theme!
I did this yesterday on the tube – was away last weekend, expecting to spend time solving puzzles, but didn’t – without checking the setter. It wasn’t the toughest of challenges.
Thank you Gozo and Pete Maclean.
I was expecting the answers to 17694 today. Since that day’s puzzle also provided the results to the previous weekend’s puzzle (17688), I presumed it was the weekend puzzle.
Frustrating as completed 17695 but stuck on a couple of the jumbo one. :-S
Me too – on more than a couple! Any plans for a blog on the jumbo?