A most enjoyable but tricky puzzle from Guy.
This started very smoothly for me, but I was admittedly held up by a handful of very tricky clues in the end. Still, a very enjoyable and creative puzzle, with some fantastic clues, so many thanks to Guy.
RE (dealing with) + D[esk] (front) has CROSS (infuriated)
CRIES (weeps) outside P (quietly, musical)
UP (happy) + PLIERS (gripping tool, back (S) to front)
Cryptic definition
‘US’ translates as ‘Uniform Sierra’ in the NATO alphabet
Sierra is a mountain CHAIN (Sierra Nevada)
ANNE X (sign-off from affectionate old queen)
Anne is your old queen, and she is signing her name with a kiss
L (league) + AIMED (trained) on REC (playing field)
AD (notice) + AG (silver) + IO (bits on your computer, binary code)
Adagio is an Italian musical term
SIR< (knight, <turning) + TAN (brown) after T (time)
Tristan is a well-known knight in Arthurian legend
ROM (memory) + PER (for each) + S (son)
PEE RED (possible symptom of beetroot consumption)
LUSH (drunkard) on [bu]S (finally) + F[o]UND (discovered, O (nothing) taken)
HEAR (try) + T[his] (a bit of)
PRIM (proper) + US (American)
C (about) + ON (about, hence repeatedly) + TRITE (employing cliche)
ADO (trouble) after ROD< (angler, <returns)
S (Sulphur) + KILLS (is fatal) + ET (life in remote planet)
RA (painter) + SCAL[e] (proportion of things in picture, reduced)
(DAME IN PURDAH RUE[ing] (half-finished))* (*novel) – &lit
LAX (American airport) + RE (engineers, Royal Engineers) given contrary order (so switch the two elements)
(WORSE AT)* (*sports)
MAGI (three kings) captivated by REINE (French queen)
‘Reine’ is the common noun for ‘queen’ in French language
(CAMPUS HERE AT MIT)* (*exciting)
S[mar]T (clothes) + AND (added to) + ING (professional, engineer’s qualification)
Double definition
HAY (cattle fodder) + GROUND (turned into meal) – Spoonerism (switch the starting sounds)
RASH (reckless) + PA (old man) breaks CD (album)
BUTS< (objections, <raised)
[loo]K COLD AP[preciating]< (blankets, <brought over)
Cryptic definition
‘At’ is the preposition indicating ‘reacting to’, and a spider is a physical rest in a game of snooker
H (Henry) + OTE (expected money for selling, on-target earnings) + L (large)
My faves: SIERRA, ANNEX, PEERED, CONTRITE, REIMAGINE and PADLOCK.
Thanks Guy and Oriel.
Thanks Guy and Oriel
For 8D, I parsed it as ST_ING (smart) ‘clothing’ AND (added to).
Parsed 8d as Simon @2. Although I find Guy’s crosswords quite hard, I do enjoy them immensely due to the innovative clueing. Lots to enjoy here.
I agree with SimonS@2 on STANDING.
I do not understand the parsing suggested for AT REST, even with the snooker slang explanation? How is “at” = “reacting to”?
I did not see the hidden word for PADLOCK, and just guessed from the crossers.
Thanks Guy and Oriel
8dn: I was with Simon@2 and other commenters. To clarify, I took “professional” as part of the definition – as I am sure others did.
21dn: Collins 2023 p 123 has at¹ prep “7 used to indicate the object of an emotion: angry at the driver; shocked at his behaviour“. That just about works for me as “reacting to”. Incidentally, “spider” is not slang, but the regular name for a piece of equipment used in billiards and snooker.
Only a couple of nho bits — the fish and the ote acronym — so not sure why I took ages staring dumbly at this in places: peered, contrite, skillset, pure maths and crashpad in particular. Nothing fiendish about any of ’em. Hey ho, enjoyed it nonetheless, ta Guy and Oriel.
PB@5: If it is what I think it is, I would have called it a “bridge,” but I claim zero expertise. Thanks for the other information, but the clue is still unintelligible to me.
Grimly Fiendish, for me.
Very much, the top-end of my solving ability, and I hate to say it, but some of the clues/wordplays/ solutions, do not seem clever, but forced.
So, ( for me….BUT most others will disagree ) , some pretty naff surfaces, too.
If, “Leave jam for singer”, is your kind of clue ( 11 dwn) SCAT, then fair enough.
If you have heard of “OTE”, as ” on target earnings”, fair enough.
CRASHPAD, ditto, but for me, pretty rubbish.
If HEART clicks, for “inexpensive meat”, 23(ac), fair enough.
I really like this setter, but this puzzle is far too contrived/ clumsy, and one that I did not enjoy.
I can feel the knives in my back, already.
But, thanks, Guy & Oriel
21dn revisited: I took this as simply AT (reacting to) + REST (spider?). The definition for AT is discussed in comment 5, and “spider?” is a definition by example. Collins 2023 p 1910 has spider n “9 billiards, snooker a rest having long legs, used to raise the cue above the level of the height of the ball”.
Thank you Guy for the crossword.
I did not parse SIERRA. Guessed it from the crossers, but the explanation is neat. Thank you Oriel for the blog.
Thanks Guy. I found this difficult & not always enjoyable. I revealed a handful that just baffled me — SIERRA, RECLAIMED, RASCAL, & SWEAR TO. My favourites were REIMAGINE, STANDING, & my COTD, PURE MATHEMATICS. Thanks Oriel for parsing this bear.
Quite tough, but we got everything except SIERRA, for which we needed a wordfinder and then couldn’t parse. But we found the clue for 19dn ambiguous, needing crossing letters to establish if the answer was STUB or BUTS.
Thanks, Guy and Oriel.
I got there, but it took a couple of trips. Sierra was my LOI, not because I hadn’t thought of the answer much earlier but because it took ages for the parsing and definition pennies to suddenly drop. Doh.
Guy is a very clever setter whom I generally enjoy, although today I found some of the clues slightly more contrived than usual. Rather too many where I worked out the answer from the definition or the crossers and then struggled away to understand the parsing.
I’d always thought Rompers was the plural. A Romper. Two Rompers.
Those of us brought up watching pot black in the early days of colour television will fondly remember the appearance of a Spider.
I too found this difficult, with the large % of charades raising the level of the challenge and making it a bit monotonous. I agree a few clues seemed overly complicated and contrived. Favourites and clues where I struggled have already been mentioned.
Thanks Guy and Oriel
E.N.Boll& @8 👍
E.N.Boll& @8. Come now, this is the FT! Of course OTE is appropriate. And of course CRASHPAD works for an unaccountably affluent financial audience. This is their world Guy’s writing for.
(Not sure about front desk though.)
The horror! Don’t worry, it can be … front desk has …
Of course. I thought I’d considered everything. Missed that though. Nice.
1ac further to Guy@17: Thank you Guy for dropping in. It took me a while to work out what you meant. If I have it right, the indicator for D should be read as “[the] front [that the word] desk has”. You are not claiming “front desk” on its own as the indicator for the first letter of the word “desk”.