An excellent friday challenge from a familiar setter on the FT but not so much on Fridays. Thanks Mudd!!
F: 9 DD:8
| Across | ||
| 1 | TIFFIN | Spat in midday meal (6) |
| TIFF (spat) IN | ||
| 4 | OFT TIMES | Regularly, newspapers following our lead (3-5) |
| FT TIMES (newspapers) after O (Our, lead character) | ||
| 10 | NEAR THING | Armageddon: Earth in grief, not entirely a lucky escape? (4,5) |
| contained in “armageddoN EARTH IN Grief…” | ||
| 11 | MASON | Builder like that cuts staff (5) |
| AS (like) in MON (staff) | ||
| 12 | RUMP | Unusual place originally for seat (4) |
| RUM (unusual) P (Place, originally) | ||
| 13 | SAN ANTONIO | Nation so controversially welcoming an American city (3,7) |
| NATION SO* containing AN | ||
| 15 | FEBRILE | Month with bug, sick (7) |
| FEB (month) RILE (bug) | ||
| 16 | PATRON | Two little boys, one sponsoring another (6) |
| PAT (patrick) RON (ronald), short for two boys | ||
| 19 | CEMENT | Setter, setter in the money (6) |
| ME (setter) in CENT (money) | ||
| 21 | TWO STEP | Dance favourites, anything following twist? (3-4) |
| reverse of PETS (favorites) OWT (anything) | ||
| 23 | INSATIABLE | Eat blini, as terribly greedy (10) |
| EAT BLINI AS* | ||
| 25 | BUST | Model’s head and shoulders – and chest (4) |
| double def | ||
| 27 | KYOTO | Japanese city suitable to host play from the east (5) |
| OK (suitable) containing TOY (play), all reversed (from the east) | ||
| 28 | CONSTABLE | Fraud: firmly established artist (9) |
| CON (fraud) STABLE (firmly established) | ||
| 29 | DIOGENES | Cynic is on edge after conversion (8) |
| IS ON EDGE* | ||
| 30 | CHORUS | Part of a number that’s recurring? (6) |
| cryptic clue | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TENERIFE | Figure common south of English island (8) |
| TEN (figure) [ RIFE (common) after (south of) E (english) ] | ||
| 2 | FLAMMABLE | Story about US city over the last millennium potentially dangerous? (9) |
| FABLE (story) around [LA (us city) MM (the last millennium, 2000 AD)] | ||
| 3 | INTO | Enthusiastic about horse, non- starter (4) |
| pINTO (horse, without first character) | ||
| 5 | FOG LAMP | Lighter bubbles keeping skin of girl soft (3,4) |
| [FOAM (bubbles) containing GL (skin of GirL)] P (soft) | ||
| 6 | TEMPTATION | Allure in absurd panto, time after time (10) |
| PANTO TIME* after T (time) | ||
| 7 | MESON | Little elementary bit in feature film finally sent up (5) |
| NOSE (feature) M (filM, finally) , all reversed (sent up) | ||
| 8 | SENIOR | Older, one is wrinkly, right? (6) |
| ONE IS* followed by R (right) | ||
| 9 | TIRADE | Diatribe, outspoken Siamese attack? (6) |
| sounds like (outspoken) THAI (siamese) RAID (attack) | ||
| 14 | MINESTRONE | Cook sent in more soup (10) |
| SENT IN MORE* | ||
| 17 | OUTNUMBER | Count higher than published rank (9) |
| OUT (published) NUMBER (rank) | ||
| 18 | SPOTLESS | Clean sink initially without a pan? (8) |
| S (Sink, initially) POT LESS (without a pan) | ||
| 20 | TRANCHE | Farm in outskirts of Tallahassee gets a portion of the money (7) |
| RANCH (farm) in TE (outskirts of TallahasseE) | ||
| 21 | TALENT | Word of appreciation provided for gift (6) |
| TA (word of appreciation, thanks) LENT (provided) | ||
| 22 | WICKED | Super nasty! (6) |
| double def | ||
| 24 | SLOVO | Anti-apartheid activist thus inspiring endless passion (5) |
| SO (thus) containing LOVe (passion, endless) – joe slovo, south african politician | ||
| 26 | ITCH | It can’t happen, principally, for long (4) |
| IT [ C H (Can’t Happen, principally) ] | ||
*anagram
A very enjoyable challenge thank you to Mudd and Turbolegs. It will also cheer up those humbuggy grumpies who don’t like seasonal clues in their cryptics.
I have thirds as an alternative for 30 across, divide by 3 often gives .3 recurring?
Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs
I had 11 as SO (like that) in MAN (staff, verb). I don’t know MON as staff, where does it come from?
Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs
11ac: I agree with Simon S @3
30ac: I am not sure that Dave W’s suggestion of THIRDS really works. The clue strongly suggests that the answer is a singular noun.
Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs
A little harder than usual from Mudd and probably why it has been scheduled for the Friday spot. It seemed to take a long time to break into the puzzle, but typical of this setter, once one had a toehold, the rest slowly unravelled at a satisfying pace.
Agree with the MA – SO – N parsing of 11a, even though I had originally parsed it, without conviction, the same as TL. Unusual for JH to have two such similar words crossing with 7d / 11a.
Finished in the NE corner with TENERIFE, TIFFIN and INTO (even though had seen this recently and was my last in there as well) the last few in.