A trademark GAFF challenge this Friday.
FF: 9 DD: 9
Couple of clues that I need help with on the parse. Also, couldn't figure out whose birthday it is that the puzzle is supposed to be a tribute to.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | REDEEM |
Free to think again (6)
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cryptic def; read as RE DEEM |
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| 5 | ORGANONS |
Endless gross confusion about someone’s scientific systems (8)
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[ GROSs ( endlessly ) ]* around ANON ( someone ) |
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| 9 | JULIENNE |
Cut charge during month (8)
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LIEN ( charge ) in JUNE ( month ) |
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| 10 | RAVAGE |
Destroy a sign in anger (6)
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[ A V ( sign ) ] in RAGE ( anger ) |
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| 11 | SANTA CLAUS |
Dancer’s driver guided by red light (5,5)
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cryptic def |
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| 12 | RITA |
Rather irritating woman (4)
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hidden in "..irRITAting.." |
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| 13 | DINNER |
Start diet with essential meal (6)
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D ( Diet, first letter ) INNER ( essential ) |
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| 15 | LABRADOR |
Current pet (8)
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double def |
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| 18 | AGNUS DEI |
Prayer to throw gun aside (5,3)
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[ GUN ASIDE ]* |
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| 20 | LADIES |
Birds can, maybe (6)
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double def |
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| 21 | ABBA |
Singers and seamen back to back (4)
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AB ( seaman ) BA ( seaman, reversed ) |
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| 23 | CALENDARED |
Scheduled performance of lead dancer (10)
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[ LEAD DANCER ]* |
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| 25 | PAUNCH |
Box containing a pot (6)
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PUNCH ( box ) containing A |
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| 26 | GOOD BOOK |
Muck about too much, but initially acceptable in Bible (4,4)
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[ GOO ( muck ) around { OD ( overdose, too much ) B ( But, initially ) } ] OK ( acceptable ) |
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| 27 | BESTOWAL |
Rule out strange water-soluble gift (8)
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[ WATer SOluBLE ( without letters of RULE ) ]* |
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| 28 | TERSER |
Better sermons entail less rambling (6)
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hidden in "..betTER SERmons.." |
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| DOWN | ||
| 2 | EDUCATING |
Training teenage regular to straddle bike (9)
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ENG ( tEeNaGe, regularly ) around DUCATI ( bike ) |
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| 3 | ELIOT |
Top French star turned writer (5)
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eTOILE ( french for star, without first letter, reversed ) |
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| 4 | MANICURED |
Soldier needs treatment area with bloody cut (9)
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MAN ( solider ) ICU ( treatment area ) RED ( bloody ) |
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| 5 | OVERALL |
Complete protection (7)
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double def |
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| 6 | GIRLS |
Misses soldiers holding hands (5)
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GIS ( solider= GI, plural ) containing RL ( Right, Left , hands ) |
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| 7 | NEVERLAND |
Hook turf with lever and non-stop wiggling (9)
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[ LEVER AND N ( noN, last letter? ) ]* ; i wonder if i am overthinking the last N in the anagram fodder |
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| 8 | NIGHT |
Dark Lord beheaded (5)
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kNIGHT ( lord, without first letter ) |
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| 14 | NEURAL NET |
Computer trainer’s failure to learn tune (6,3)
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[ LEARN TUNE ]* |
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| 16 | BALING OUT |
Save keeping a dialect by leaving (6,3)
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BUT ( save ) containing [ A LINGO ( dialect ) ] ; i am iffy about this as i haven't come across 'baling' before |
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| 17 | OVEREMOTE |
Show too much new, content with control (9)
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i need help with this parse ; OV (?) E( nEw, content ) REMOTE ( control? thinking tv sets ) |
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| 19 | ILLEGAL |
Not allowed to report below-par score (7)
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sounds like ILL ( below par ) EAGLE ( score ) |
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| 22 | BRAVE |
Confront party following business leader (5)
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RAVE ( party ) after B ( Business, first letter ) |
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| 23 | CAHOW |
Food containing a seabird (5)
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CHOW ( food ) containing A |
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| 24 | AMBER |
Gold artefacts maybe bedecked Egyptian rulers’ heads (5)
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starting letters of ".. Artefacts Maybe Bedecked Egyptian Rulers.." |
9a JULIENNE 27a BESTOWAL TERSER 28a, 75 tomorrow
16d BALING OUT = “leaving” a plane, (with a parachute. let’s hope). 17d “new, content” = [N]OVE[L].
OVEREMOTE
nOVEl (new) content=OVE
7d NEVERLAND maybe N is an accepted abbreviation for “non-stop” in train timetables?
Julie Walters.
EDUCATING RITA, DINNERLADIES, ABBA, CALENDAR GIRLS, Billy ELIOT, Mrs. OVERALL, GIRLS NIGHT, BRAVE…
…and OVEREMOTE Mowlam (2010) – Happy Birthday, Dame Julie!🎂
My Chambers app only gives ORGANA as the plural of ORGANON. Maybe other dictionaries differ.
Thanks Gaff and Turbolegs
In 7, I saw the spare N as the stop of noN.
There seemed to be a fair few unindicated DBEs today – pet, bike etc.
7d NEVERLAND: maybe we need to repunctuate “non-stop” as “non’s top”. Hovis@8, oed.com allows “organa, organons”,
5ac: Collins 2023 p 1403 has organon n, pl -nons or -na.
Thanks for the confirmation of ORGANONS. I quite like the idea of non’s top but doubt it. As others, I suspect it is where the word ‘non’ stops.
NEVERLAND
I am with the blogger, Simon S and Hovis on this.
Some tough-ish clues in service of the theme. Spotting the theme helped me finish the NW corner. I am aware of Educating Rita, but unfortunately, I do not really know her work, and I wondered what theme words I might be missing. Apparently she also played a Mrs. MORGAN once (top row nina?). I also wondered whether ELIOT was a sideways reference to Billy Elliot? I think FrankieG has spotted the rest.
Thanks for the blog and Frankie@6 for all the references. Good set of clues and glad to see so many of them are brief .
First FT crossword, I’ve been well and truly beaten by for a long time.
Couldn’t get into the theme, too many unknown words, didn’t enjoy
Gave up with about ⅔ done
As Cineraria@14 said, Some toughish clues in service of a theme.
One tick for OVERALL. I could not parse GOOD BOOK, so thanks for the help Turbolegs. I am still unsure of how the second N in NEVERLAND (thanks all for the theories), ‘rather’ as a hidden word indictor was new to me, I never knew the LABRADOR current and I am still not sure why Santa follows red lights. And I agree with Moly@16 about the unknown words due to the theme
Finally, I wonder why Harry Potter movies were omitted given there were so many of them
Thanks Gaff and Turbolegs
Martyn@17 , Santa, and Dancer , follow Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer .
Thank you Roz. I must confess I did not know the nose was used like that. A digression follows.
Reading up about Rudolph (on Wikipedia of course) I thought the following was interesting. The story of Rudolph was written in 1939 as an assignment for Chicago-based Montgomery Ward. It was initially rejected because of the association of red noses with drunkards. And perhaps my favourite line: “the fantasy story made to order for American children: each child has the need to express and receive approval for his or her individuality and special qualities.”
This was tough for me, but what I got was fun. I’ve not heard of Julie Walters! But I’m not a celeb person generally.
Here in the states its George Washington’s birthday tomorrow! So I got hijacked thinking that for a bit (and wondering why Brits would care!)
Also it’s George Washington’s birthday here in the states tomorrow! And I got distracted by that for a little while!
I finished the puzzle without figuring out whose birthday it was. When I saw the name posted here I still didn’t know who that was but when I googled her I recognized the face. Definitely is not as well known on this side of the pond.
Like Martyn@17, I was briefly surprised/miffed by ‘rather’ as a hidden word indicator (4a, Rita) but on reflection, I suppose it can be a synonym of ‘somewhat’ or ‘to some extent’.