Jumbo puzzle from the Weekend FT on May 25, 2024
I understand that crosswords using Printers’ Devilry (“PD”) clues appear once in a while but, even with fifty years of solving, I have never come across one myself. Until now. And I will be blunt: I do not like them.
A PD clue is a bit like a hidden-word clue but the word you have to find is not actually hidden in the clue. Rather it is a word that could be added to the clue to change its meaning.
What with these PD clues, some obscure terms (CACOTOPIA, PARALLELOGRAMMICAL, THEORBISTS, TUATARA) and some difficult normal clues, I had a long and arduous time trying to complete it. So much so that I turned to other Fifteensquared bloggers for help. And I received a lot of help. And I thank you all who gave it. And still my grid is not 100%. Maybe some readers can help to finish it off. I do not feel bad at all for failing to solve those PD clues that are still blank in the grid.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SUOMI |
Some magnanimously returning a country to its people (5)
|
| Reverse (returning) hidden word (some). Suomi is the Finnish word for Finland. | ||
| 4 | AILMENT |
US addressees furious as more letters in pieces (7)
|
| US addressees furious as mAILMEN Tore letters in pieces | ||
| 8 | CACOTOPIA |
California company recalled first-class cannabis in worst possible state (9)
|
| CA (California) + CO (company) + AI POT (first-class cannabis) reversed (recalled) | ||
| 13 | OLEORESIN |
Eccentric on isle consuming mineral and plant extract (9)
|
| ORE (mineral) in (consuming) anagram (eccentric) of ON ISLE | ||
| 14 | PREORDAINMENT |
Fate of mad modern painter (13)
|
| Anagram (mad) of MODERN PAINTER | ||
| 15 | CHELSEA |
Preoccupied with mum, neglecting dad (7)
|
| Preoccupied with muCH ELSE Am neglecting dad | ||
| 16 | TANTRUM |
Novel tarp designed for his Scottish golf links (7)
|
| Novel tarTAN TRUMp designed for his Scottish golf links | ||
| 17 | EYEWASH |
We resoak beech and elms, suffering during drought (7)
|
| WerE YEW ASHes oak beech and elms suffering during drought? | ||
| 18 | VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE |
Often condone vice of misguided attempt to bring down government? (4,2,2,10)
|
| Anagram (misguided) of OFTEN CONDONE VICE OF | ||
| 21 | SOAR |
Find storm less terrifying and grim (4)
|
| Finds torSO ARmless terrifying and grim | ||
| 23 | REPOSSESS |
What bailiffs do about gang leaders in squalid squat (9)
|
| RE (about) + POSSE (gang) + S[qualid] S[quat] | ||
| 25 | INTERN |
Wow! Brings impossibly high heating bills! (6)
|
| wINTER Now brings impossible high heating bills | ||
| 26 | PAPYRI |
Photograph your current manuscripts (6)
|
| PAP (photograph?) + YR (your?) + I (current) | ||
| 28 | DELIBERATELY |
Shop yard containing carpet, left on purpose (12)
|
| DELI (shop) + BERATE (carpet) + L (left) + Y (yard) | ||
| 30 | SHOOFLY PIE |
American tart retiring to embrace silly fool, confused type (7,3)
|
| Anagram (silly) of FOOL in SHY (retiring) + PIE (confused type — see comment #23) | ||
| 33 | ANDALUSIAN |
Spaniard bothering lad in sauna (10)
|
| Anagram (bothering) of LAD IN SAUNA | ||
| 34 | BRING UP SHORT |
Suddenly stop and vomit small amount of alcohol (5,2,5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 37 | ONSETS |
Attacks count’s leftism on a regular basis (6)
|
| [c]O[u]N[t]S [l]E[f]T[i]S[m] | ||
| 39 | YARROW |
During archery practice man’s missed target (6)
|
| During archery practice manY ARROWs missed target | ||
| 40 | BODY IMAGE |
Physical self-perception that tattooist might provide? (4,5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 42 | AFAR |
Totally deranged audiologists visit (4)
|
| Totally deAF ARranged audiologists visit | ||
| 43 | PARALLELOGRAMMICAL |
Preglacial loam and marl twinkling like diamonds? (18)
|
| Anagram (twinkling?) of PREGLACIAL LOAM MARL | ||
| 46 | HUSBAND |
Manage hot American group (7)
|
| H (hot) + US (American) + BAND (group) | ||
| 47 | SYNOVIA |
Finally impress my new love by means of lubricant (7)
|
| [impres]S + N (new) + O (love) + VIA (by means of) | ||
| 48 | CUSTARD |
Sweet partner regurgitated food over heavenly body (7)
|
| STAR (heavenly body) in (over) CUD (regurgitated food) | ||
| 50 | BOON COMPANION |
Intimate gift and free ticket soon brought round Head of Innovation (4,9)
|
| BOON (gift) + COMP (free ticket) + I[innovatiion] in (brought round) ANON (soon) | ||
| 51 | OUT WITH IT |
Say what you need to get the better of winner (3,4,2)
|
| OUTWIT (to get the better of) + HIT (winner) | ||
| 52 | CHEQUERED |
Vicissitudinous, articulate Slav socialist (9)
|
| Homophone (articulate) of CZECH (Slav) + RED (socialist) | ||
| 53 | GASTRIC? |
A skint teacher to be more flexible? (7)
|
| AskinG A STRICt teacher to be more flexible | ||
| 54 | ENDED |
Sward, heath, grass and mead encouraging relaxation (5)
|
| SEND EDward [H]eath grass and mead, encouraging relaxation | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SNOW-COVERED |
Cocaine and wine bolstering fellow under frozen blanket (4-7)
|
| SHOW (cocaine) + COVE + RED (wine) | ||
| 2 | OBESE |
Hasten to be believed (5)
|
| HastO BE SEen to be believed | ||
| 3 | IRESPONSIBILITY |
Folly of Rio trip I sensibly abandoned (16)
|
| Anagram (abandoned) of RIO TRIP I SENSIBLY | ||
| 4 | ABSTAIN |
Disliked red glass in church (7)
|
| Dislike drAB STAINed glass in church | ||
| 5 | LINSTOCKS |
Cannon-firing tools available to buy in case of lawlessness (9)
|
| IN STOCK (available to buy) in(in) L[awlessnes}S | ||
| 6 | EXPONENTIALS |
Epstein lax on dodgy functions (12)
|
| Anagram (dodgy) of EPSTEIN LAX ON | ||
| 7 | THEORBISTS |
They speculate about British lute players (10)
|
| B (British) in THEORISTS (they speculate) | ||
| 8 | CAROM |
American shot in Madagascar, ominously (5)
|
| HIdden word (in) | ||
| 9 | COALESCE |
Come together in church, receiving amazing solace (8)
|
| Anagram (amazing) of SOLACE in CE (church) | ||
| 10 | TENDER |
Viewer put one ass in TV room (6)
|
| Viewer put on [E]asTENDERs in TV room | ||
| 11 | PREFATORY |
Opening rum atop ferry (9)
|
| Anagram (rum) of ATOP FERRY | ||
| 12 | ANTIHEROINE |
Madame Bovary perhaps reportedly opposed to hard drug (4-7)
|
| Homophone (reportedly) of “anti heroin” | ||
| 19 | TIPPLED |
Upset with myself for nothing, drank regularly (7)
|
| TOPPLED (upset) with the ‘O’ (nothing) changed to ‘I’ (myself) | ||
| 20 | EARTHEN |
Timid type’s fight might get stormier later (7)
|
| Timid type’s fEARTHEN ight might get stormier later | ||
| 22 | BALLISTIC MISSILE |
Globe is twitching over failure to hit island with extremely large weapon (9,7)
|
| BALL (globe) + IS (is) + TIC (twitching) + MISS (failure) + I (island) + LE (extremely large???) | ||
| 24 | EGRESS |
Leaving Kew Gardens, is oddly shunned (6)
|
| [k]E[w]G[r]E[n]S [i]S | ||
| 27 | ROTUND |
Discover wrinkled old carers eat (6)
|
| carROT UNDer seat | ||
| 29 | TUATARA |
Artist stressed about a reptile (7)
|
| A (a) in (about) RE (artist) + TAUT (stressed). A tuatara is a reptile found in some parts of New Zealand | ||
| 31 | PROSAIC |
Unpoetical experts are initially in charge (7)
|
| PROS (experts) + A[re] + I C (in charge) | ||
| 32 | CROWN LIVINGS |
Adorn existing features at last in royally appointed churches (5,7)
|
| CROWN (adorn) + LIVING (existing) + [feature]S | ||
| 33 | AGORAPHOBIC |
Compelled to stay home in the past, crime writer found under house (11)
|
| AGO (in the past) + RAP (crime) + H (house) + OBIC (writer) | ||
| 35 | TREBLE-DATED |
Singer of a bygone era significantly outliving man (6-5)
|
| TREBLE (singer) + DATED (of a bygone era) | ||
| 36 | PROLONGING |
Stretching out, excitedly ogling porn (10)
|
| Anagram (excitedly) of OGLING PORN | ||
| 38 | SOAPSTONE |
Tech-savvy youngster expected help with IT (9)
|
| Tech-savvy youngster expected helpS OAPS TONE with IT | ||
| 40 | BEGLAMOUR |
Hope co-star follows request to dazzle (9)
|
| BEG (request) + [Dorothy/] LAMOUR ([Bob] Hope co-star) | ||
| 41 | MAL DE MER |
For it is a bad mark in North America (3,2,3)
|
| ForMAL DEMERit | ||
| 44 | ASCETIC |
Austere, vinegary nurses start to scowl (7)
|
| S[cowl] in (nurses) ACETIC (vinegary) | ||
| 45 | MANCHU |
Picking up germs, the worse for wear in bierkeller (6)
|
| gerMAN CHUms | ||
| 47 | S?A?D |
Old Dani? She’s sexily famous for pacifism (5)
|
| Old Danish [E]ssex iS HARDly famous for pacifisim | ||
| 49 | APHID |
Stoics approve of aching pain (5)
|
| Stoics approve of a chAP HIDing pain |
I read the instructions, decided this was not the puzzle for me and did Paul’s alphabetical in the Guardian instead. Your comments vindicated my choice. Thanks Pete.
Nonetheless your blog is very interesting reading. Thank you
REPOSESS
about=RE, gang=POSSE, leaders in squalid sqaut=SS
OUT WITH IT
OUTWIT HIT
TIPPLED
TOPPLED I in place of O
TUATARA
RA TAUT < +A
I didn't have access to this puzzle online and so missed it.
17A. WerE YEW ASH oak beech and elms suffering during drought?
42A. Totally deAF ARranged audiologists visit
52A. AskinG A STRICt teacher to be more flexible?
54A. SEND EDward [H]eath grass and mead, encouraging relaxation
10D. Viewer put on [E]asTENDERs in TV room
32D. CROWN (adorn) + LIVING (existing) last letter of (at last) [FEATURE]S “royally appointed churches”
47D. Old Danish [E]ssex iS HARDly famous for pacifisim
49D. Stoics approve of a chAP HIDing pain
This was a very hard puzzle, and I have to credit the collaboration of the other bloggers for some of these parsings. And I do not like PD clues either.
I found this really difficult – still stuck with 47 down
17 ac: EYEWASH – werE YEWS ASHes oak
23 ac: re (about) posse (gang) ss (leaders in squalid squat)
42 ac: AFAR – totally deAF ARranged
51 ac: outwit (get the better of) hit (winner)
53 ac: GASTRIC – askinG A STRICt teacher
54 ac: ENDED – sEND EDward
10 dn: TENDER – put on easTENDERs
19 dn: toppled (upset) with i (myself) replacing o (nothing)
29 dn: ra (artist) taut (stressed) reversed (about) gives tuatar then add a
32 dn: crown livings – crown (adorn) living (existing) s (features at last)
38 dn: SOAPSTONE – helpS OAPS TONE with IT
47 dn: SHARD – maybe dan iS HARD – though I don’t really like it
49 dn: APHID – achAP HIDing
I see I crossed with Phil@4.
38D. I had: Tech-savvy youngster expectS OAPS TO NEed help with IT
47D. We differ on the placement, although I am not sure that my suggestion (originating from yet another blogger) is much more comprehensible.
To be fair, the sense of the completed PD clues does more or less hint at the missing piece, although the missing word itself has nothing to do with the sense of the clue. I find these very hard.
PAPYRI
Collins:
to take photographs of a famous person, usually after following them and without permission, for newspapers or magazines:
She didn’t look happy about being papped without make-up.
(to) photograph=PAP
For ‘your’ I have been using ‘ur’ (seen many others use it) on the social media.
However, Yr is given as an abbreviation for ‘your’ in Chambers and many other dictionaries.
Having managed to complete the previous FT jumbo, and seeing Rosa as the setter of this puzzle, expected a few hours of enjoyable solving. Hope severely dashed. Much of the top half completed, very few lower down and only two PDs.
Gave up when unable to solve several clues even with all the crossers present.
Frustration now alleviated, seeing the solutions and finding our expert bloggers had a hard time too.
Very well done and congratulations and thanks to all.
I too saw Rosa Klebb’s name and looked forward to an enjoyable solve. But I have never seen this kind of puzzle before and really hadn’t any idea how to solve the PD clues so after a half hearted attempt I gave up and did the puzzles by Pedrock and Paul instead.
Thanks for the blog , a thankless task this time really.
PD puzzles invented by Afrit , we get one from Azed about every two years , a complete puzzle of PD clues, perhaps they are more suited to barred grids because you get far more crossed letters for the tricky ones.
I do not like them because you are not actually solving a cryptic clue but I do admire the skill in setting them.
Just looking in out of curiosity, as I was away when this was set, and never do the jumbo puzzles anyway now that a 15 by 15 option is available on the same day. PD as set by Azed has been my favourite special ever since I first met it. I would go further than Roz@9 and say that PD is completely unsuited to blocked grids. I would also add that, in my view, the words “closing the gap” in the instructions should be strictly observed, so I would not regard 41dn as a satisfactory PD clue, as the insertion point is between two clue words, rather than within a single clue word. Of course, I am setting myself up for a fall here, in that someone may point to an example where Azed has done this. Also, someone may come up with an alternative parsing that does fit, although I could not do so on a quick look at the clue. On that basis, I would take the parsing from Phil@4 for 17ac and from Cineraria@3 for 47dn.
Thanks Pete for the blog.
Taken all week to do 13 across clues and 13 down. Don’t think I got any PD clues at all. Very disappointed with this type of crossword. Trying to be too clever perhaps.
Correction to Cineraria@3:
17A. WerE YEW ASHes oak beech and elms suffering during drought?
I think Araucaria once did a PD puzzle for a Graun genius but I wasnt game
But this time, upon seeing RK’s name I abandoned my apathy for Jumbos
I liased with another solver in England and we got most of the way
I cant find my copy so I may reprint it
I thought it was a great challenge especially If 2 or 3 got together in a nice venue
and nutted it out
Thanks to all!
I’ve learned something – when I see the next Printer’s Devilry puzzle, I won’t waste several hours trying to solve it!
(I see this is from ‘John’, who is Wil Ransome)
I really enjoy PD puzzles and have done several of Azed’s over the years. They are very difficult, but the penny-drop moment is usually (when not accompanied by ‘it must be that, but …’) delightful. The peculiar thing is that in Azed’s competitions the people who win (prizes for 1st-3rd, and quite a few who are ‘very highly commended’ (VHC), also quite a few who are HC) are generally the same people as those who do well in the regular clue-setting competitions, so there must be a link.
Azed’s preamble is rather cumbersome, and less good than the one here (although it didn’t cope with words that start or finish at words in the clue) and I’ve suggested to him that he changes it to “a split should occur in the middle of a word in the clue and the clue-word should fit into it. After adjustment, neither end of the clue-word should be the end of a word in the clue.” but no dice.
Well done Pete, getting all this together.
I am happy to say I puzzled this one out by myself over three days. I had an alternate answer for 38D though:
My answer is STARSTONE (a precious stone that reflects light in a starlike pattern)
Tech-savvy youngster expectS TARS TO NEed help with IT.
It worked my brain a different way! Maybe too much. Thanks to Rosa Klebb and to Pete and other commenters for helping me with the several I was missing. Once the answers were in print I looked at them and still failed to fit the five I was missing into the proper spots in the clues. Very tricky indeed (OAPs, the Essex and Eastenders). I made a case to myself for some different answers but then the surfaces did not make sense or made less sense than the others: To (a men)tally deranged audiologists visit; Find(s our) storm less terrifying and grim. I thought maybe the puzzle had a couple of mistakes, but no. So, good setting and editing.
Sarah and Julius are my two favorite setters and this one only raised her standing with me.
Re #15, I think “in the middle” could maybe be seen as specifying the centre of a word, which is, I guess, not intended.
Thanks to everyone who provided enlightenment to my missing answers, all but one of which were printers devilry. Not sure if I would attempt another of that sort.
Re 30 across, I wonder whether types might refer to pie typefaces – not sure about the confused although they do look a mess.
Thank you, Pete, and thank you to all who assisted with you.
Like others, I saw Rosa’s name and thought I was in for an enjoyable solve only to be bitterly disappointed.
This was a tough solve but very rewarding. I had SLABSTONE instead of SOAPSTONE for 38d. My answer makes a bit less sense but is somewhat defensible (labs in universities are filled with very technically skilled people, but they too may need IT support occasionally). Still, that makes this an “almost” rather than a full solve for me.
I was lucky in that some of the obscurities were familiar to me. I learned about TUATARA in the 1970s reading about living fossils in books about dinosaurs, the more serious of which would inevitably have a chapter on extinction. And in the late 1980s when I used to listen to a lot of Radio 3, I once taped a baroque violin sonata performed by Micaela Comberti and THEORBIST Nigel North.
Thank you to Rosa Klebb, and especially to our blogger Pete Maclean: you did a heroic job.
Julia 20:
For 30A, apparently printers use the word “pie” to refer to a jumbled up collection of letters (the metal ones used in printing presses), as opposed to letters neatly arranged in a sorting tray. Someone then has to do the work of separating and sorting. So it is “type” (in the sense of metal blocks with reversed letters on them, ready for printing with) but “confused” (jumbled up). That’s my reading of the clue.
My thanks to all who have commented here. I believe I now have the grid completed and all the clues explained. I remain in awe of those who can figure out these PD clues.
I remember noticing Printers Devilry clues in the Listener in the 70s and thinking they looked impossible, not least because the example they always gave seemed mad and random (“Ximenes had a solver in hobo, I’m told” as the PD clue for ARTS (Ximemes had a solver in Hobart, so I’m told”). This was my first go at seriously trying to solve one, and I much enjoyed it, not least because it really makes you think about the clue’s surface; a good PD clue will read better after solving than before. In RK’s hands, this meant appreciating the apparently superfluous words that nudged one to think on the right lines; archery practice, audiologists, TV room, pacifism, stoics, flexible etc. If you trusted the setter to be playing fair, I found you got there and admired the results. So very many thanks to Rosa Klebb, and congratulations to the FT for running a puzzle like this over the bank holiday.
Alas, I do not agree with Sagittarius but sense I’m with the bulk of commenters
A foul, horrible crossword.
I would go so far as the say it was disgrace that it was published.
I gave up about a third of the way through. When you think we have one shot on this planet, to waste life with this gruel is infuriating.
I’ve left an equally blunt comment under the crossword in the FT.
I pay for this nonsense. It would be fascinating to know how many subscribers managed to finish. Intellectual masturbation from the new editor? No doubt there is a place for such crosswords, but it isn’t the Financial Times.
I got most of it done – only to realise (from counting uncompleted clues) that almost all the remainder had to be PD. I got some of the PDs – I really liked GASTRIC, EYEWASH and TARTAN – but some of them really don’t make much sense even when reading the answers above. There seems to be an inconsistency in the handling of these PD clues: some give a strong hint of the answer through their theme, others are worse than useless (eg SOAPSTONE, SHARD). Overall, not a very satisfying experience, and it’s good to know I wasn’t alone!