Excellent puzzle from Basilisk.
A most enjoyable challenge to invigorate the brain this Wednesday morning. As ever, Basilisk has set creative and witty clues. Have you spotted the wonderful symmetry in the down clues? Many thanks to Basilisk.
SE (Home Counties, i.e. South East) + TOFF (aristocrat)
An SE TOFF is a TOFF from the South East/Home Counties
STICKER (one who’s determined) to preserve [ru]L[es] (essentially) – &lit
RA (artist) + RING (circle)
The question mark tells us to think a bit laterally. In 1a or 28a, very similar clues, this is not used. That’s because in this clue, RA literally means ARTIST, and the setter has used ARTISTIC, making the clue slightly more cryptic.
ANGST (anxiety) associated with ROM (indelible memory)
NA[p] (fuzzy surface, short) + IN + SO (very) + OK (good)
(AGED (senior) + OB (pupil once, Old Boy))< (<recalled)
AXE< (cut, <brought about) + [factotu]M (end)
TOURISTS* (*drunken) around K[nightsbridg]E (on vacation)
(HE (male) + OMANI (from Arab state)) caught in ACT* (*dubious)
[do]G (tail) transfixes SIN (stray)
ASSES (fools) + S (son)
(TRIO SANG)* (*with new order)
Double definition
MY in the sense of OH MY!
UN (international body, United Nations) + FAIR (trade show)
A UN FAIR is a fair organised by the UN
Cryptic definition
Referring to the silencer that is fitted to a gun, and that its function is to suppress ‘report’ or sound of the bullet (potentially hazardous discharge) leaving the gun
(THE L[i]ST (omits I (one))* (*unfortunately)
ST (stone) + RANGE (fireplace)
TERM (period) + IN (home) + ATE (had)
“FINNISH” (language, “as it’s spoken”)
TIN (can) + [journe]Y (finish off)
ST (saint) supporting C (Catholic) + U (University) + ROME* (*upset)
[scho]LAR + GE[ntleman] (feature of, meeting)
I.e. put the words together so that they MEET
RAM (attack) + PART (element)
A RAM PART is an element of attack
Double definition
The question mark is used because a ‘routine’ could be the act of a number of different performers; a comedian being an example of one that has a routine.
BIZ (business) + [b]ARRE[d] (prohibited, within limits)
(TO NIGERIA)* (*flying)
(MISS (discover absence of) + ION (charged particle)) following E (electron)
TEAR (career) + GAS (talk)
Double definition
For ‘gifted individual’, think ‘she’s a natural!’
A (area) probing LUNCH (what consumers may do)
[anti-capitali]SM ALL[iance] (element of)
NO (number) leaving E[no]UGH* (*to go around)
I thoroughly enjoyed this — as far as I got. The southwest quarter just wouldn’t yield, despite my staring at it for some time. So now I’ll read through the above and indulge in a “D’oh!” or two.
Thanks Basilisk & Oriel.
Thanks Basilisk and Oriel!
Excellent puzzle and great blog!
Yea. Spotted the symmetry…
Top ones today: STICKLER and SILENCER.
RARING
Maybe we should read the particles together as ‘RA RING’ (The explanation below the
parse in the blog indicates this, I think).
A fine puzzle, indeed. Artful and elegant cluing throughout. I was beaten by BODEGA as I simply wasn’t thinking of a non-English word and had not clocked that the whole WP was being reversed. NHO NAINSOOK so was pleased to get it – though I will confess to judicious use of the Check button.
STICKLER, EXAM, TERMINATE, CUSTOMER, TEAR GAS and HUGE are my picks today. I think I parsed RARING in the same way as KVa, taking the two items together – a circle of artists could be an RA RING.
Thanks Basilisk and Oriel
Knew 26d was going to be HUGE before even reading the clue.
Loi – surprise surprise – 12a NAINSOOK, which I slowly entered, letter by letter, Checking each time, for a jorum.
Liked 25a ORGANIST for using New Order as an anagrind…
…Thanks B&O
14D: Surely ARRE is “prohibited without limits”? This was my LOI for that reason. But thanks for the blog and the puzzle, Oriel and Basilisk.
NAINSOOK
To anyone interested in it:
NAIN means eye in Hindi.
SUKH (the kh sound is similar to the ch in Munich –That’s how I hear the German pronunciation.
I may be wrong) means pleasure.
You can say it’s something pleasant to one’s eyes.
AGN@6
BIZARRE
You may call it BIZARRE or novel/ingenious clueing. The ‘within limits’ part works for me.
Thanks for the blog, very good set of clues, some neat and clever wordplay .
I know NAINSOOK as a material and I thought it was Indian but I had never thought about the meaning so thanks to KVa@7 .
SHTETL is pretty obscure to me, think it was just a dead end in the grid, my guess for the order of the missing letters was right.
EMISSION is a good clue but e=electron ?? I would never use that without a small minus sign top right because of positrons.
On the matter of e=electron, it is in Chambers but listed as an abbreviation from Chemistry rather than Physics. Live and learn.
Thanks Basilisk for an excellent crossword with my top picks being ANGSTROM, STRIKES OUT, ORGANIST (great surface), TERMINATE, LARGE, ORIGINATE, and TEAR GAS. I was beaten by BIZARRE. I did not spot the symmetry in the down clues; how I miss such things troubles me. (I’m still trying to see how CUSTOMER and EMISSION are related.) Thanks Oriel for the blog.
By their carbon footprints?
I agree that this had plenty of interesting clues and I too did not notice the pattern in the down clues. Favourites and questions have been well covered – thank you – so I will not repeat them.
I wonder whether this is too difficult for a weekday. I am probably a typical FT reader who spends about 10 hours in the office. Crosswords such as this and yesterday’s take quite some time, and I am afraid it is time I just do not have. I have not been doing the puzzle midweek for too long – has it always been like this?
Thanks to Basilisk for an interesting puzzle and Oriel for an equally good blog
I really liked this, even though I had to leave about a quarter of the puzzle unfinished. TIL Nap is a fuzzy surface, SHTETL I remembered from a documentary film and I thought CUSTOMER was clued very well. Many thanks to Basilisk and to Oriel
Knowing Basilisk as his alter ego Serpent (in the Indy) we thought there must be something going on but completely missed the symmetry. Nice puzzle, though. NAINSOOK and SHTETL were guesses nbut readly confirmed in Chambers.
Thanks, Basilisk and Oriel.
Very fun. The symmetry is great. I still need to get used to basilisk style. Got about seventy percent. Thanks Basilisk and Oriel
Many thanks, as always, to Oriel for an excellent explanation of the puzzle and clues. And thanks to everyone who has taken the time to comment.
Northwest DNF, partly because of the unknown NAINSOOK. I discussed the converse of ANGSTROM – ROM ANGST – with my music production students yesterday – gotta have backups to your backups. Well, maybe that was RAM ANGST….
I think SILENCER could be a double def: if a company fired, say, a whistleblower or disgruntled employee to shut them up, that could potentially be a hazardous discharge? Or am I overthinking this? Thanks to Basilisk & Oriel.