Steerpike is this morning’s inquisitor in the FT.
A typical Steerpike pangram. It took a lot longer to write the blog than it took to solve the puzzle because of the convoluted nature of much of the wordplay, which I hope I have adequately explained in the clues below. Thanks, Steerpike.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | EQUIVOCAL |
Peer defending company against international revolutionary? It’s unclear (9)
|
| EQUAL (“peer”) defending <=(Co. (company) + v (versus, so “against”) + I (international), revolutionary) | ||
| 6 | FLUNK |
Fail to include line in entertaining book’s conclusion (5)
|
| Include L (line) in FUN (“entertaining) + (boo)K [‘s conclusion] | ||
| 9 | STILL |
Even now, some call it sleeping around (5)
|
| Hidden backwards in [some… around] “caLL IT Sleeping” | ||
| 10 | OPULENTLY |
Dressed up on telly in lavish fashion (9)
|
| *(up on telly) [anag:dressed] | ||
| 11 | EPICENTRES |
Focal points of poems claiming watchman unmasked earl (10)
|
| EPICS (“poems”) claiming [unmasked] (s)ENTR(y) (“watchman”) + E (earl) | ||
| 12 | ZERO |
A duck hiding in prize rosebush (4)
|
| [hiding in] “priZE ROsebush” | ||
| 14 | GRIMACE |
Expert put on edge by German’s pained expression (7)
|
| ACE (“expert”) put on RIM (“edge”) by G (German) | ||
| 15 | SLEEPER |
Train spy (7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | INSULTS |
Hollow toolmarks on giant skull oddly dismissed as wounds (7)
|
| [hollow] T(oolmark)S on (g)I(a)N(t) S(k)U(l)L [oddly dismissed] | ||
| 19 | APOGEES |
Summits see Republicans beginning to attract backing (7)
|
| <=(SEE + GOP (Grand Old Party, so “Republicans”) + [beginning to] A(ttract), backing) | ||
| 20 | EXAM |
Test drug before ten in the morning (4)
|
| E (ecsatsy, so “drug”) before X (ten, in Roman numerals) + am (ante merifiem, so “in the morning”) | ||
| 22 | LAST-MINUTE |
Cured ailments consuming upper-class model at the eleventh hour (4-6)
|
| *(ailments) [anag:cured] consuming U (upper-class) + (Model) T | ||
| 25 | IN ADVANCE |
Upfront attorney turned on popular vice-president (2,7)
|
| <=DA (District “Attorney”, turned) on IN (“popular”) + (JD) VANCE (current” vice-president” of the US) | ||
| 26 | ICING |
Islands around Cuba leaders in naturally grown sugar product (5)
|
| II (island twice, so “islands”) around C (IVR code fro “Cuba”) + [leaders in] N(aturally) G(rown) | ||
| 27 | ENDOW |
Give money to discontented European women after party (5)
|
| [discontented] E(uropea)N + W (women) after DO (“party”) | ||
| 28 | DEPENDENT |
Journalist catches writer in study essentially importuning subordinate (9)
|
| Ed. (editor, so “journalist”) catches PEN (“writer”) in DEN (“study”) + [essentially] (impor)T(uning) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ENSUE |
Survey discovered English succeed (5)
|
| (c)ENSU(s) [discovered] + E (English) | ||
| 2 | UTILITIES |
Service providers united with instiitute acquired by elitist rogue (9)
|
| U (united) with I (institute) acquired by *(elitist) [anag:rogue] | ||
| 3 | VULNERABLE |
Endangered, blue raven flying across lake (10)
|
| *(blue raven) [anag:flying] across L (lake) | ||
| 4 | CHORTLE |
Routine task interrupted by extremely theatrical laugh (7)
|
| CHORE (“routine task”) interrupted by [extremely] T(heatrica)L | ||
| 5 | LAURELS |
City on river the Spanish festooned with American shrubs (7)
|
| LA (Los Angeles, so “city”) on R (river) + EL (“the” in “Spanish”) festooned with US (“American”) | ||
| 6 | FOES |
Tricks disheartened adversaries (4)
|
| [disheartened] FO(x)ES (“tricks”) | ||
| 7 | UNTIE |
Free group of soldiers one sent south-east (5)
|
| UN(I)T (“group of soldiers”) with I (one) sent south becomes UNT(I) + E (east) | ||
| 8 | KEYBOARDS |
Cold-blooded type runs over detective tracking crucial computer components (9)
|
| BOA (“cold-blooded type”) + R (runs, in cricket) over DS (“Detective” Sergeant) tracking KEY (“crucial”) | ||
| 13 | DEMOLITION |
Protest threw light on satellite nation’s ultimate destruction (10)
|
| DEMO (“protest”) + LIT (“threw light on”) + IO (moon of Jupiter, so “satellite”) + (natio)N [‘s ultimate] | ||
| 14 | GUIDELINE |
General rule Steerpike breaks in deluge at sea (9)
|
| I (“steerpike”, the setter) breaks *(in deluge) [anag:at sea] | ||
| 16 | PREJUDICE |
Influence cost, keeping Japan in trading alliance with Germany (9)
|
| PRICE (“cost”) keeping J (IVR code for “Japan”) in EU (European Union, so “trading alliance”) with D (IVR code for “Germany”) | ||
| 18 | SPAWNED |
Gave rise to endless Native Americans entering South Dakota (7)
|
| [endless] PAWNE(e) (“Native Americans”) entering SD (South Dakota) | ||
| 19 | ANTWERP |
Idiot crushed by article in port (7)
|
| TWERP (“idiot”) crushed by (i.e. beneath) AN (“article”) | ||
| 21 | AWARD |
Grant is a flipping lottery! (5)
|
| A + [flipping] <=DRAW (“lottery”) | ||
| 23 | EIGHT |
Boat crew scoffed audibly (5)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [audibly] of ATE (“scoffed”) | ||
| 24 | AVOW |
Declare absolute victory over Welsh (4)
|
| A (absolute) + V (victory) + O (over, in cricket) + W (Welsh) |
I couldn’t think of what letter turned FOES into “tricks”. Should have. It all fell into place, with a few rather complicated wordplays.
I was pleased to have persevered with this as it did all eventually fall into place. I entered a number based on their definitions alone but was satisfied to parse all in the end.
Liked STILL (for ‘sleeping around’), OPULENTLY and VULNERABLE.
Thanks Steerpike and Loonapick for a fine blog.
Pleasantly chewy. I got a few solutions from an element of the wordplay and parsed the rest in retrospect. There are so many elitist rogues that I nearly missed that it was an anagram.
This was tough, but I coped. Quite a few of what I think of as “Matroushka doll clues,” such as DEPENDENT, where you need to put a PEN in an ED in a DEN and then add a T; or PREJUDICE, with a J in the EU plus a D all in PRICE; often with only vague or even ass-backward instructions on what order the particles should be nested in. It’s inelegant and I don’t like it. But I coped.
Sorry–on review that sounded harsher than I intended. That style of clue isn’t my cup of tea, to be sure, but there’s nothing objectively wrong with it.
I am not a big fan of these convoluted charades either. Like others, there was quite a bit of solving first and parsing later. I ticked the same clues as Diane@2 plus GRIMACE.
Thanks Steerpike and loonapick
Nothing much to add as I concur with all the above.
Thanks both. Some fiddly ones but not insuperable.
I enjoyed this one, as ever coming up short on a few but having fun.
Thanks to Steerpike and Loonapick
Agree, quite a few parsings for which one cqba …
A bit chewy in places but, having had to leave it for an hour or so to attend to other matters, when we came back to it all the tricky ones seemed to sort themselves out, apart from FOES which was the obvious answer but we coulodn’t parse. No problems with the ‘Russian doll’ clues, though.
Thanks, Steerpike and loonapick.
PS I thought of disheartened follies for FOES, but foxes seems even better