A pleasant and breezy challenge from MUDD.
FF: 8 DD: 5
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PICKLE |
Relish tricky situation (6)
|
| double def | ||
| 4 | SNITCH |
Seen on the edges, long grass (6)
|
| SN ( SeeN, edges of ) ITCH ( long ) | ||
| 8 | ATTACKS |
Read out loud, a charge is offensive (7)
|
| sounds like A TAX ( charge ) | ||
| 9 | WALLABY |
Within reach behind screen, a jumper (7)
|
| WALL ( screen ) A BY ( ~within reach ) | ||
| 11 | BANGLADESH |
Outlaw happy she moved country (10)
|
| BAN ( outlaw ) GLAD ( happy ) [ SHE ]* | ||
| 12 | IRIS |
Flower girl with initials on invitation, Rose it seems (4)
|
| double def; first letters of “,,Invitation Rose It Seems” | ||
| 13 | GIRTH |
Measure of circumference reversed in height, rightfully (5)
|
| hidden reversed in :..heigHT RIGhtfully” | ||
| 14 | FILMGOER |
Picture lover in golfer: I’m abandoned! (8)
|
| [ GOLFER IM ]* | ||
| 16 | LAUGHTER |
Expression of repugnance in future fits? (8)
|
| UGH ( expression of repugnance ) in LATER ( future ) | ||
| 18 | BACON |
Meat cookin’, as some Americans might say? (5)
|
| sounds like BAKIN’ ( cookin’ ) | ||
| 20 | EDEN |
Garden furniture behind table then, always at the back (4)
|
| last letters of “..furniturE behinD tablE theN..” | ||
| 21 | CLEAR AS MUD |
Obviously like me, would you say? Too cryptic (5,2,3)
|
| CLEAR ( obviously ) AS ( like ) MUD ( sounds like MUDD, me ) | ||
| 23 | LUCIFER |
Devilish clue, if right — for him? (7)
|
| [ CLUE IF ]* R ( right ) | ||
| 24 | PITCH IN |
Help when colliery hit (5,2)
|
| PIT ( colliery ) CHIN ( hit ) | ||
| 25 | TENNER |
Note general meaning in report? (6)
|
| sounds like TENOR ( general meaning ) | ||
| 26 | LEEWAY |
General method, slack (6)
|
| LEE ( general, robert edward ) WAY ( method ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PITTA |
Bread ready to be thrown away, served up (5)
|
| AT TIP ( ready to be thrown away ) , reversed | ||
| 2 | CLANGER |
Fault in bell? (7)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 3 | LIKE A SHOT |
Immediately fancy, when sexy (4,1,4)
|
| LIKE ( fancy ) AS ( when ) HOT ( sexy ) | ||
| 5 | NEATH |
Under stone, a thousand nails (5)
|
| hidden in “..stoNE A THousand..” | ||
| 6 | TELLING |
Powerful being a 4 Across? (7)
|
| cryptic def; 4a refers to an informant who would be telling …. | ||
| 7 | HEBRIDEAN |
Scottish bairn, heed changes (9)
|
| [ BAIRN HEED ]* | ||
| 10 | PERFORMER |
Through with old player (9)
|
| PER ( through ) FORMER ( old ) | ||
| 13 | GRAND AUNT |
Currency banked by skinny relative (5-4)
|
| RAND ( currency ) in GAUNT ( skinny ) | ||
| 15 | LIBERTINE |
Pollution of Tiber and Nile, immoral (9)
|
| [ TIBER NILE ]* | ||
| 17 | GENTIAN |
Herb spoiling neat gin (7)
|
| [ NEAT GIN ]* | ||
| 19 | CASH COW |
Beef dripping with gravy? (4,3)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 21 | CRETE |
Tribe originally occupying native American island (5)
|
| T ( Tribe, first letter of ) in CREE ( native american ) | ||
| 22 | UNIFY |
Uniform provided in US city, join (5)
|
| U ( uniform ) [ IF ( provided ) in NY ( us city ) ] |
Unlike Turbolegs with his DD of 5, I found this difficult in places.
I ticked NEATH (being a down clue created nice misdirection), GRAND AUNT (nice surface), GIRTH (nicely hidden), and LUCIFER (nice anagram)
I could not parse PITCH IN (not remembering CHIN for hit) and CASH COW just does not work for me
Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs
Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs.
Liked LUCIFER and CASH COW.
ATTACKS
I think the def should be ‘is offensive’.
BANGLADESH
Does the surface hint at Hasina?
Very enjoyable and relatively straightforward for once. Liked laughter, clear as mud, libertine, like a shot. Thanks both.
Our second lucifer this week!
Great Friday entertainment from Mudd in which my favourites were PITCH IN, WALLABY and the self-referential CLEAR AS MUD.
Thanks to Mudd and Turbolegs.
Grand-aunt was new to me. Always called great-aunt when I was growing up. Maybe a regional thing.
Me too Hovis@5. I liked the clue regardless
Quite entertaining. I’m aware of course that one can have fits of laughter, but does that make them synonyms? GENTIAN is new to me.
Raised same eyebrow, GDU, can’t think how to substitute them …
Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs
13dn: grand-aunt is given in Chambers 2016 p 665 and ODE 2010 p 761. Collins 2023 p 850 has grandaunt without the hyphen. Fowler 2015 p 355 recommends grand aunt written as two words. None of these sources suggest any sort of regional limitation.
16ac: I think the question mark on the end of the clue is sufficient to make “fits?” a perfectly good definition by example of something that can happen in fits, in this case LAUGHTER. I have never understood, let alone accepted, the idea that a definition has to be a synonym of the word defined, or that it has to be possible to exchange the definition with the defined word or phrase in a sentence.
I have it at the back of mind that “grand aunt” and “grand uncle” tend to be used more in America. Perhaps some of our US solvers can tell us whether there’s any basis for my belief.
I was stumped by TENNER. Very clever clue as I was convinced that the word “note” must refer to “te” from the tonic sol-fa scale.
I’d say “great aunt” is more common at least on east coast. Maybe different elsewhere.
Thanks Mudd for a clever crossword. My top picks were PICKLE, CLEAR AS MUD, LUCIFER, TENNER, LIKE A SHOT, and PERFORMER. In the US I’ve only heard ‘great aunt’, never GRAND AUNT; I assumed it was a British term but apparently not. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
Never finished a Mudd in the half year or so ive been doing the FT daily. In my ‘compiler table’ by clues unsolved today’s nine undone means he drops well out of my top ten.
Rambling aside can someone enlighten me what FF and DD refer to ?
Thanks.
Just to (possibly) add to the debate. What do you call the sister of a great grandmother? A great-grand-aunt? I never knew any, so it never cropped up.
Apart from initially entering ‘great-aunt’ for 13dn, which held us up for a while with 16ac and 29ac, we finished this quite quickly although a few parsings weren’t immediately obvious. LUCIFER was in yesteray’s puzzle too (although clued differently) and we remembered ‘chin’ from ‘chin-chin’ in Tuesday’s puzzle.
A most enjoyable solve; thanks, Mudd and Turbolegs.
Oh dear, Big Al@16, I needed time to remember CHIN = hit and it was only in Tuesday’s puzzle? Even the recent past can be dim and dark, it seems.
Thanks Mudd and TL. Talking of the (fairly) recent past, GOZO 18310 on March 5 had a somewhat similar clue/answer for 14A (at 13A in his case).
Sorry I’m late to this. I wanted to know which part of BACON = bakin’ is an Americanism.