Puzzle from the Weekend FT of November 23, 2024
Another fine puzzle from Julius with a great Spoonerism in 1a (POT NOODLE), a cracking cryptic definition in 2 (TRAWLER), a charming charade in 9 (GRANDMA), a yummy hidden word in 19d (PENGUIN) and an exemplary surface in 29 (PAL). We are so fortunate.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | POT NOODLE |
Typical Korean food Spooner orders (something other than dog) (3,6)
|
| Spoonerism of “not poodle” (something other than dog) | ||
| 6 | VETCH |
One tending to animals taps fodder crop (5)
|
| VET (one tending to animals) + CH (taps, that is Cold and Hot) | ||
| 9 | GRANDMA |
King George VI & Mary of Teck (an older lady) (7)
|
| GR (King George VI) + AND (&) MA (Mary of Teck, to her children that is) | ||
| 10 | TURF OUT |
Eject solicitor importing fake fur (4,3)
|
| Anagram (fake) of FUR in (importing) TOUT (solicitor) | ||
| 11 | NYLON |
Material revenue-generating route for BA? (5)
|
| NY-LON (revenue-generating route for BA, i.e. British Airways) | ||
| 12 | HARBINGER |
Difficult letting go Democrat, periodically heavy drinker — Herald (9)
|
| HAR[d] (difficult letting go Democrat) + BINGER (periodically heavy drinker) | ||
| 14 | PER |
For each salesman getting a kickback (3)
|
| REP (salesman) backwards (getting a kickback) | ||
| 15 | NEAR-SIGHTED |
Myopic northern listener quoted on the radio (4-7)
|
| N (northern) + EAR (listener) + homophone (on the radio) of “cited” (quoted) | ||
| 17 | NETHERLANDS |
Country beginning to need NHS-related reforms (11)
|
| Anagram (reforms) of N[eed] NHS RELATED | ||
| 19 | PIX |
Photographs put on page 9 (3)
|
| P (page) + IX (nine) | ||
| 20 | TOM SAWYER |
My two are excited about the introduction of Shania Twain’s character (3,6)
|
| S[hania] in (about) anagram (excited) of MY TWO ARE | ||
| 22 | RANGE |
Peeled citrus fruit spread (5)
|
| [o]RANGE[s] | ||
| 24 | OIL LAMP |
Light crude fuels? (3,4)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 26 | NEPTUNE |
Planet starts to notice extremely polluted air (7)
|
| N[otice] E[xtremely] P[olluted] + TUNE (air) | ||
| 27 | EGRET |
Rue not starting winger (5)
|
| [r]EGRET (rue not starting) | ||
| 28 | LAZYBONES |
Sleazy, drunken retired nob, boring sluggard (9)
|
| BON (retired nob) in (boring) anagram (drunken) of SLEAZY | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PAGAN |
Heathen dad runs away from his mum (5)
|
| PA (dad) + G[r]AN (runs away from his mum) | ||
| 2 | TRAWLER |
Floating asset looking to return healthy net yield (7)
|
| Cryptic definition – and a very ingenious one | ||
| 3 | ORDINANCE |
Ruling over road funding cancelled at the outset (9)
|
| O (over) + RD (road) + [f]INANCE (funding cancelled at the outset) | ||
| 4 | DEATH VALLEY |
Delay the lav breaks where it’s often too hot (5,6)
|
| Anagram (breaks) of DELAY THE LAV | ||
| 5 | EFT |
English newspaper that’s tanked domestically (3)
|
| E (English) + FT (newspaper) with a cryptic definition referring to an ‘eft’ in the sense of a newt. Apparently some people keep newts in fish tanks. I had not known this before. | ||
| 6 | VERDI |
Noted Italian scuba enthusiast cycling (5)
|
| DIVER (scuba enthusiast) circularly shifted two letters to the left (cycling) | ||
| 7 | THOUGHT |
Still time for an idea (7)
|
| THOUGH (still) + T (time) | ||
| 8 | HETERODOX |
Relating to heresy originally rooted in evil spell (9)
|
| Anagram (originally) of ROOTED in (in) HEX (evil spell) | ||
| 13 | ROSENCRANTZ |
Hamlet’s friend rebelled — northern commander evacuated soldiers, we’re told (11)
|
| ROSE (rebelled) + N (northern) + C[ommande]R + ANTZ (homophone of “soldiers”) | ||
| 14 | PANETTONE |
Secretary, single, receiving after tax sweetener at Xmas (9)
|
| PA (secretary, i.e. personal assistant) + NETT (after tax) + ONE (single) | ||
| 16 | GASTROPUB |
Throwing a strop, UB40 besieges posh boozer (9)
|
| Hidden word (besieges) | ||
| 18 | TEMPLAR |
Inner London lawyer, part-timer, left bar having stolen book (7)
|
| TEMP (part-timer) + L (left) + [b]AR (bar having stolen book). Would not “…. having book stolen” be better? | ||
| 19 | PENGUIN |
One accustomed to cold open Guinness bottles? (7)
|
| Hidden word (bottles) | ||
| 21 | ABAFT |
Tummy muscle floppy, fat behind (5)
|
| AB (tummy muscle) + anagram (floppy) of FAT | ||
| 23 | EVENS |
Nevertheless, with depleted oxygen the odds are 50-50 (5)
|
| EVEN S[o] (nevertheless with depleted oxygen) | ||
| 25 | PAL |
Drink up mate! (3)
|
| LAP (drink) backwards (up) |
I’m in agreement with Pete today and shared his favourites too though GASTROPUB was my preferred hidden answer.
I also liked the ‘Shania Twain’ play, the clever NY-LON and PANETTONE.
I can never think of ‘eft’ without thinking of P. G. Wodehouse’s newt-fancying Gussie Fink-Nottle.
Great puzzle, as 14 usual.
Thanks Julius and Pete.
Thanks Julius for an excellent crossword. My favourites included POT NOODLE, NYLON, PAGAN, THOUGHT, GASTROPUB, and TEMPLAR. The very clear clueing left me with no parsing questions. Thanks Pete for the blog.
I always greatly enjoy puzzles by Julius and, as Diane, Tony and Pete wrote, this was a good one too. I found it very approachable, and basically solved the entire puzzle on my first pass.
I shared some favourites with the trio just mentioned, namely PENGUIN, NYLON, PAL, and PAGAN. I add HARBINGER and NEPTUNE
There were a few mysteries: I am still not sure I understand why Mary of Teck is MA, and I am afraid I do not know what Korean POT NOODLE is. ABAFT was a jorum, while EFT was a sort of jorum, sort of lucky guess.
Thanks for the very enjoyable puzzle, Julius. And thanks for the great blog, Pete
As said by others this was a great puzzle.
My favourites were ROZENCRANTZ, EGRET, HARBINGER, VETCH
I was last to finish in the NW where I was looking for something a little more specifically Korean for 1ac – although I did get the dog reference. And took me a while to parse 11ac.
Like Martyn I had not heard of ABAFT but what a lovely word.
Thanks Julius and Pete
In agreement with everyone that this week’s puzzle was highly enjoyable. Pot noodle is one of my favourite spoonerisms, so I was particularly pleased to see it included. I’m putting ABAFT in my back pocket for scrabble use.
I parsed 9A rather simpler as a double definition, as I understood Mary of Teck to have been King George VI’s grandma.
GR+AND+MA seems nice but I’m not sure I would have thought that Mary of Teck =MA would be reasonable?
Loved the puzzle, especially ROSENCRANTZ and, for someone who generally does not appreciate homophones or Spoonerisms, did enjoy the negative canine in 1A.
Thanks to Julius and Pete
Mary of Tek was married to George V – so was the mother of George VI – so it’s GR AND (his) MA to get GRANDMA.
Pot Noodles were a Welsh invention following a visit to Japan, having just looked it up, but Koreans eat a lot of ramen which is where the idea comes from – and pot noodle is a fair description of ramen. (Ramen are wheat noodles, but they do come in buckwheat, udon, and rice).
Abaft is sailing terminology – sort of thing I’ve written in protest forms – the boat came from abaft and did not respond to my call for water by changing course, which is how I was hit amidship and have a hole in the hull where their bow punctured the boat I was sailing. (If you’re sailing and cannot move out of the way, because there’s a dirty great buoy or another boat where you need to go, the cry is “Water!” – as in the boat heading your way has to change course. If they don’t obey the rules, they pay the damages, but it has to go through the protest committee, and the forms needing filling in.)
An entertaining puzzle – thank you Pete Maclean and Julius
Ah! I looked at the line of succession and saw Edward VIII between GV and GVI and didn’t consider the actual relationship 😆
That’ll teach me – objection withdrawn and I’ll stick to my much simpler Norwegian royal family instead!
[typo – 8a HETERODOX: ‘Anagram (originally)…’]
A most enjoyable puzzle; our only complaint being that it was over too quickly. We didn’t know of Shania Twain but we guessed there must have been a reason for the clue quoting ‘Shania’ rather than any other name starting with S. ROSENCRANTZ was a bit of a write-in but we took a whiloe to see the parsing.
Thanks, Julius and Pete.
Loved it. Finished it. Always a good sign. Love Shania Twain too, but was not fooled by the clever joining together.