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ARTEXLEN kicks off the week…
A fun puzzle with some lovely surfaces and the odd quirky parsing.
Thanks ARTEXLEN!
ACROSS
1. Bribe from worker collected by sponsor (4-6)
BACK-HANDER
HAND (worker) collected by BACKER (sponsor)
7. Clean article covered in web (4)
NEAT
A (article) covered in NET (web)
9. Too casual, some coats (4)
ALSO
10. Definite replacement of vice-consul (10)
CONCLUSIVE
(VICE CONSUL)* (*replacement of)
11. Silver, hoofed animals returned and settled (6)
AGREED
AG (silver) + (DEER)< (hoofed animals, <returned)
12. King dined with ex-President and singer (4,4)
KATE BUSH
K (king) + ATE (dined) with BUSH (ex-President)
13. Fraud punished and locked up (8)
CONFINED
CON (fraud) + FINED (punished)
15. Aristocrat taking lead role in prime locations (4)
EARL
[l]EA[d] R[o]L[e] (prime locations, as in prime numbers, 2, 3, 5, 7, etc.)
17. Secure gun after taking ear off (4)
FIRM
FIR[ear]M (gun, after taking EAR off)
19. Cook too much; essentially conserve excess (8)
OVERDOSE
OVERDO (cook too much) + [con]SE[rve] (essentially)
22. Nothing gained in bothering reviled miscreant (8)
EVILDOER
O (nothing) gained in (REVILED)* (*bothering)
23. Cut good timber case of elmwood (6)
GASHED
G (good) + ASH (timber) + E[lmwoo]D (case of)
25. Fluster when two music events overlap (10)
DISCONCERT
DISCO CONCERT (two music events, overlap)
26. Woman fed mamba regularly (4)
EMMA
[f]E[d] M[a]M[b]A (regularly)
27. Fruit couple picked up (4)
PEAR
"pair" = PEAR (couple, "picked up")
28. Polish official joining eminent rogue (10)
REFINEMENT
REF (official) joining (EMINENT)* (*rogue)
DOWN
2. Roll moulded with age rather fast (7)
ALLEGRO
(ROLL with AGE)* (*moulded)
3. Kingdoms originally run with single currency (5)
KRONE
K[ingdoms] (originally) + R (run) with ONE (single)
4. Unforeseen event upset inspector beset by stress (8)
ACCIDENT
(DI)< (inspector, <upset) beset by ACCENT (stress)
5. Snapped kind of desultory rebuttal to delusional person (4,3,8)
DON’T KID YOURSELF
(KIND OF DESULTORY)* (*snapped)
6. Tell end of rib-tickler with delight (6)
RELATE
[rib-tickle]R (end of) with ELATE (delight)
7. Minor condition no issue, getting balder regularly (9)
NOSEBLEED
(NO + SEED (issue)) getting B[a]L[d]E[r] (regularly)
8. Commercial on screen is source of guidance (7)
ADVISOR
AD (commercial) on VISOR (screen)
14. Practical vehicle that’s blue loudly crossing capital from south (6,3)
FAMILY CAR
((RACY (blue) + F (loudly)) crossing LIMA (capital))< (<from the south)
16. Figure hugged by fellow author of spy novels (8)
DEIGHTON
EIGHT (figure) hugged by DON (fellow)
18. Bill is popular tenor, perhaps (7)
INVOICE
IN (popular) + VOICE (tenor, perhaps)
20. Tank is fine one scrubbed by fellow after aquatic creatures (7)
SHERMAN
[fi]SHERMAN (fellow after aquatic creatures, F (fine) I (one) scrubbed)
21. My knight and queen put in difficulty (6)
CORNER
COR (my) + N (knight) and ER (queen)
24. Cook’s small crew (5)
STEAM
An unremarkable puzzle. I liked DON’T KID YOURSELF and EARL
Thanks Artexlen and Teacow
Thanks for the blog , I thought this was really good , lots of clever wordplay such as SHERMAN , DISCONCERT and FIRM .
EARL is very neat and I always like this idea but it is hard for the setter not to give the game away , difficult to clue without using prime in some way .
This is a Nigel Havers of a puzzle: smooth, charming, and entertaining.
Yes, some clues are perhaps “cryptic-lite”, but like Mr. Havers, the surfaces are rather classy.
I found a lot to enjoy, and there’s a variety of devices and difficulty.
Lovely stuff, Artexlen & Teacow
Easily my quickest solve ever (I never time, just know) and no less enjoyable for that. In fact, it was tremendous! 😊.
Thank you for explaining both Fisherman and Earl.
The next time I go fishing, I will tell my wife that I’m after aquatic creatures….
DON’T KID YOURSELF, FIRM, SHERMAN and DISCONCERT were my faves.
Good puzzle and neat blog.
Thanks Artexlen & Teacow.
Not the most puzzling puzzle ever but highly enjoyable. Like others I particularly enjoyed SHERMAN and DISCONNECT – the latter’s methodology seems to be derived from the Word Smash round in Richard Osman’s House of Games
Another fan of DISCONCERT. It doesn’t seem that long ago that the “prime locations” device was really innovative. Was it Bluth/Fed? I look forward to seeing the Fibonacci series next.
Peter@7 , Fed did use it a few times but has been around for over 10 years , have seen Monk use it sometimes .
Apart from not parsing EARL (we missed the ‘prime locations’ device, although we’ve encointered it before) this was all pretty straightforward. We liked the ‘overlap’ device for DISCONCERT. And the long entry at 5dn was one of those where a few crossing letters lead to the answer without having to unscramble the anagram.
Thanks, Artexlen and Teacow.
Thanks Artexlen for an enjoyable crossword. This seemed to have ‘Monday level difficulty’ though I don’t believe the FT follows the pattern of increasing difficulty over the week. Lots of neat clues like BACK-HANDER, AGREED, KATE BUSH, OVERDOSE, ACCIDENT, and NOSEBLEED. Thanks Teacow for the blog.
Thank you. This was enjoyable. I like overlap clues and Deighton pleased me too.