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Puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 24, 2024
I was impressed by this puzzle, especially because Pedrock has included a good number of fine double definitions. I especially liked 1d (HYPHEN), 4 (MANCHESTER CITY) and 26 (LA-DI-DA).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | HANDSOME |
Attractive worker takes part (8)
|
| HAND (worker) + SOME (part) | ||
| 5 | PARSEC |
About to analyse first something that’s an astronomical length (6)
|
| PARSE (to analyse) + C (about, i.e. circa) | ||
| 10 | POLYGON |
Figure that parrot is missing as reported (7)
|
| Homophone (as reported) of “polly gone” (parrot is missing) | ||
| 11 | LEISURE |
Money certain to be spent in one’s own time (7)
|
| LEI (money) + SURE (certain). The lei is a monetary unit of Romania. | ||
| 12 | EASED |
Relaxed, having stopped hundred short (5)
|
| [c]EASED (stopped hundred short) | ||
| 13 | HOOVER DAM |
Move hoard over this blocking river (6,3)
|
| Anagram (move) of HOARD OVER | ||
| 14 | CROSS-EXAMINE |
Angry way to interrogate (5-7)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 18 | HEAVY WEATHER |
Hard work made of it during storm? (5,7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 21 | SPECTACLE |
Show strange places, etc (9)
|
| Anagram (strange) of PLACES ETC | ||
| 23 | YEAST |
You had a way with cause of ferment (5)
|
| YE (you) + A (a) + ST (way) | ||
| 24 | CHAPLET |
Diminutive fellow’s garland? (7)
|
| CHAP-LET (diminutive fellow).. A chaplet is flower arrangement consisting of a circular band of foliage or flowers for ornamental purposes. | ||
| 25 | HOEDOWN |
Gardened, now change for the dance (7)
|
| HOED (gardened) + anagram (change) of NOW | ||
| 26 | LA-DI-DA |
Youngster and I had article that’s affectedly elegant (2-2- 2)
|
| LAD (youngster) + I’D (I had) + A (article) | ||
| 27 | EPHEMERA |
Insects reaching edge in record time (8)
|
| EP (record, i.e. extra play) + HEM (edge) + ERA (time) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HYPHEN |
Dash that makes Lee- Enfield double-barrelled (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 2 | NO LESS |
Phrase used to express admiration for bare minimum (2,4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 3 | SAGE DERBY |
Wise to have Cathedral City cheese (4,5)
|
| SAGE (wise) + DERBY (cathedral city) | ||
| 4 | MANCHESTER CITY |
Team ordering synthetic cream (10,4)
|
| Anagram (ordering) of SYNTHETIC CREAM | ||
| 6 | ALIKE |
A counterpart that is similar (5)
|
| A (a) + LIKE (counterpart) | ||
| 7 | SQUADDIE |
Soldier from working party to fail (8)
|
| SQUAD (working party) + DIE (fail) | ||
| 8 | CREAM TEA |
Top of the milk drink, rich fare (5,3)
|
| CREAM (top of the milk) + TEA (drink) | ||
| 9 | ALL OVER THE SHOP |
Spread round large area of retail space (3,4,3,4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | ACETYLENE |
Can let eye adjust to the gas (9)
|
| Anagram (adjust) of CAN LET EYE | ||
| 16 | PHYSICAL |
Type of education requiring bodily effort (8)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | FACE CARD |
Encounter amusing person who could be the knave (4,4)
|
| FACE (encounter) + CARD (amusing person) | ||
| 19 | CAJOLE |
From Jamaica, Jo learning to wheedle (6)
|
| Hidden word (from) | ||
| 20 | STANZA |
Ollie’s partner’s spoken a few lines (6)
|
| STANS (Ollie’s partner’s, as in Laurel and Hardy) + A (a) | ||
| 22 | TILED |
I’d let out that bathroom had been covered perhaps (5)
|
| Anagram (out) of ID LET |
I did this and took notes on my phone. Unfortunately, I now realise I deleted the notes a couple of days ago.
I remember enjoying this, and reading the blog confirms why. I share Pete’s favourites, and had a couple more that elude me now. I took “way” in 14ac to mean “weigh”, and so “EXAMINE”. I found this variant of “weigh” in the SOED, and cannot claim to have known it. I liked the variety of clues and it was great to have no other obscurities or stretched synonyms.
Thanks Pedrock for an enjoyable puzzle and thanks Pete for the great blog.
This is a pangram.
I still do not quite understand the parsing of HYPHEN? A dash is not a hyphen, and I see the hyphen in Lee-Enfield, but how does double-barrelled come into play?
Does “double-barrelled” mean something like “compound noun”?
I took 14a to be a whimsical whole clue as definition. To interrogate in an angry way is to CROSS(ly) EXAMINE.
Lots to like in this puzzle. My favourite was the aural wordplay of 10a POLYGON – one that Monty Python inexplicably overlooked. And 4d MANCHESTER CITY was an admirable anagram.
Thanks, P & P for providing the pleasing puzzle and parsing.
Thanks Pedrock for a most satisfying crossword. My favourites included POLYGON, HOEDOWN, and CAJOLE. I had no parsing difficulties or quibbles about any of the clues, a rarity for me. Thanks Pete for the blog.
13a HOOVER DAM – Anagram (over) of MOVE HOARD
14a CROSS-EXAMINE – a cd
1d HYPHEN – Posh English people, who didn’t want to lose the wife’s maiden name, would hyphenate it with the husband’s producing a “double-barrelled” name.
e.g. Blanche Blanco-White…
…Oed.com: ‘double-barrelled …2. 1777– figurative. Serving a double purpose; having a double reference; double, twofold.
…1959 In surnames the double-barrelled form does not appear before the eighteenth century. J. P. Hughes, How you got your Name vi. 103′
This quote, too: ‘1889 Every one they know has a double-barrelled name and a great-grandfather of renown. Universal Review November 345′
I found this quite straightforward – thank you Pedrock and Pete Maclean.
The famous quadruple barrelled surname is Plunkett-Erle-Ernle-Drax, Richard Drax, the MP’s full surname. These names quite often came about as the result of wills requiring names adopted to inherit monies from the female line. (I’ve just checked another quadruple barrelled surname from the 1800s that I’m aware of, and basically each additional name got added in line with some will – and by the 1950s they were back to double-barrelled or losing the extra names as extra Christian names without the hyphens).
Thanks for the blog , very enjoyable with lots of neat and clever clues. Like Cellomaniac@4 I took the whole clue to mean CROSS-EXAMINE , on films and TV it is often quite angry .
Frankie has sorted out double-barrelled, the really posh have four names. The Saxe-Coburg-Gothe-Battenbergs pretend to be the Windsors. It is a clever clue as the Lee-Enfield rifle has a single barrel.
PARSEC has a nice play on the double meaning of astronomical.
5d PARSEC – First heard the word in Star Trek: The Original Series (1968-9), and thought it might be the distance light travels in a second.
But it’s not that kind of second – it’s: ‘Astronomy. 1913– A unit of length equal to the distance at which a star would have a heliocentric parallax of one second of arc, approximately equivalent to 3·086 × 10¹³ kilometres (19·2 × 10¹² miles, 3·26 light years). Symbol pc.’ Never too old to learn.
Liked the very appropriate anagram of 4d MANCHESTER CITY,
and especially 27a EPHEMERA, very appropriate insects for crosswords, with their lifespan of a single day.
Thanks P&PM
Thank you, I have now changed the explanation for 14 (CROSS-EXAMINE) to cryptic definition.
Not clear if I’d done this or not.. the first couple of clues in the blog looked vaguely familiar so I went back n did the rest of it to make sure… my memory appears to be as 27ac… good puzzle!! Had not heard of CHAPLET, but wordplay didn’t leave much doubt, similarly in 9d. I was in same camp as Cellomaniac@4and Roz@11 for CROSS-EXAMINE… quite a few of those pesky dashes around in this, even a doubler at 26ac..
Thanks Pedrock n Pete Maclean