Today’s FT puzzle can be found here.
At first sight, I thought this wouldn’t be too troublesome, but I found the last two or three entries took a while to come together (HOKUM, TONNAGE and NIHIL being the guilty parties), but I got there in the end.
Thanks, Neo
| Across | ||
| 1 | CLAMANT | Petitioner lets one go that’s noisy (7) |
| CLA(i)MANT (“petitioner”, letting I go) | ||
| 5 | TEMPEST | European politician in tax storm (7) |
| E(uropean) MP (“politician”) in TEST (“tax”) | ||
| 9, 15 | PETER PRINCIPLE | Disciple with virtue gives explanation for incompetence (5,9) |
| PETER (“disciple”) with PRINCIPLE (“virtue”)
Roughly speaking, the Peter Principle states that a person will rise to the level of their incompetence. |
||
| 10 | EPICUREAN | Pie cooked to fix a northern gourmet (9) |
| *(pie) + CURE (“to fix”) + A N(orthern) | ||
| 11 | IDEALISED | Unrealistic contract is sealed by Independent editor (9) |
| DEAL (“contract”) + IS sealed by I(ndepenent) ED(itor) | ||
| 12 | TETRA | Little swimmer takes part in elite training (5) |
| HIdden in “eliTE TRAining” | ||
| 13 | TREAT | Nurse gets husband out of danger (5) |
| T(h)REAT ((H)usband out of “danger”) | ||
| 15 | See 9 | |
| 18 | HIMALAYAN | Cat may be animal hard to catch indeed (9) |
| *(animal h(ard)) to catch AY (“indeed”) | ||
| 19 | EL CID | Classic film festival allows in 50 approximately (2,3) |
| EID (“festival”) allows in L (“50”) + C(irca) (“approximately”), so E(L-C)ID
Eid is the Islamic festival which marks the end of Ramadan, and El Cid was a 1961 epic starring Charlton Heston. |
||
| 21 | AMONG | Silver inscribed with second name between (5) |
| Ag (“silver”) inscribed with MO (“second”) + N(ame) | ||
| 23 | WOOD NYMPH | NY speed cops initially reported Bowery girl? (4,5) |
| WOOD (himophone of COPSE) + NY + MPH (“speed”) | ||
| 25 | ELISABETH | Priest beats wickedly hot girl (9) |
| ELI (Old Testament “priest”) + *(beats) + H(ot) | ||
| 26 | HOKUM | Make low noise devouring fine gammon (5) |
| HUM (“making low noise”) devouring OK (“fine”) | ||
| 27 | OVERHIT | Clear about health initially, one given too much wallop (7) |
| OVERT (“clear”) about H(ealth) + 1 (“one”), so OVER(H-1)T | ||
| 28 | MALARKY | Rubbish PM keeping job (7) |
| MAY (“PM”) keeping LARK (“job”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | COPYIST | One imitating policeman lives in vacant yurt (7) |
| COP (“policeman”) + IS (“lives”) in Y(ur)T | ||
| 2 | AT THE HELM | Leading in a race, three males going round lake (2,3,4) |
| A + T.T. (Tourist Trophy, so “race”) + HE HE M(ale) (“three males”) going round L(ake) | ||
| 3 | APRIL | Papa runs into trouble in cruellest month (5) |
| P(apa) + R(uns) into AIL (“trouble) | ||
| 4 | THEOSOPHY | Mystical system Henry introduced to strange Soho type (9) |
| H(enry) introduced to *(soho type) | ||
| 5 | THIRD | What sort of man was Kim Philby? (5) |
| Not sure this is terribly cryptic – Kim Philby was the “Third Man” in the Cambridge Spy Ring | ||
| 6 | MOUSTACHE | Witty remark about compilers with long whiskers (9) |
| MOT (“witty remark”) about US (“compilers”) with ACHE (“long”) | ||
| 7 | ELECT | Sun god deserts Mycenaean princess awaiting power (5) |
| ELECT(ra) (“Mycenaean princess”, deserted by Ra, Egyptian “Sun god”) | ||
| 8 | TONNAGE | Tax on wine old news in Times (7) |
| O(ld) + N + N (“news”, i.e. new twice) in T AGE (“times”, i.e. time twice), so T(O-N-N)AGE | ||
| 14 | TELEGRAPH | Member given blame in the shoddy newspaper (9) |
| LEG (“member”) given RAP (“blame”) in *(the) | ||
| 16 | IAN BOTHAM | Obtain stewed meat – it’s Beefy! (3,6) |
| *(obtain) + HAM (“meat”)
Ex-cricketer Ian Botham’s nickname was Beefy. |
||
| 17 | PACEMAKER | It revitalises heart with due deference to God (9) |
| PACE (“with due deference”) + MAKER (a creationist’s view of “God”) | ||
| 18 | HEAVE TO | English getting aboard must stop vessel (5,2) |
| E(nglish) getting aboard HAVE TO (“must”) | ||
| 20 | DAHOMEY | Old country house secured in 24 hours (7) |
| HOME (“house”) secured in DAY (“24 hours”)
Until 1975, Dahomey was the name of the country now known as Benin. |
||
| 22 | OPINE | Have say in Co-op in Eltham (5) |
| Hidden in “co-OP IN Eltham” | ||
| 23 | WREST | Forcibly remove speaker’s refreshment (5) |
| Homophone of REST | ||
| 24 | NIHIL | Elvish giant oddly dismissive over nothing (5) |
| <=eLvIsH gIaNt | ||
*anagram
There’s a typo in your solution for 18d – HEAVE TO not HO. Struggled with this. Didn’t know DAHOMEY, didn’t know ‘gammon’ could mean ‘hokum’, not met TETRA before (but easy inclusion) and LARK to mean JOB isn’t the first meaning I would think of. Good puzzle overall, but 5d has no place in a cryptic imho. Thanks to S&B.
Thanks, Hovis – now edited. Agree completely with your comment re 5dn.
Thought this would be a moderately difficult challenge, knowing the setter’s alter ego elsewhere. Perhaps a bit more difficult than that but all gettable.
Plenty to like, such as EPICUREAN, THEOSOPHY, MOUSTACHE, TELEGRAPH and PACEMAKER, but I agree with you about 5dn. ‘Third’ might be awkward to clue, but it could have been replaced by ‘triad’ or ‘tried’ so I’m surprised the editor let it through.
Thanks, though, to Neo and loonapick
Philby = Lime, they say. I’m not clear on the full story behind that: if I were I might be able to help explain the clue! Come out Neo wherever you are.
Neat stuff, most enjoyable.
Is it just me or is it really true that Neo/Tees is a bit more around than he used to be?
None the worse for that.
Good crossword!
I entered AGENT at 5d.
Because the guy was perhaps ‘a gent’.
That was quite stupid of me because after I took this puzzle to bed in the early hours [not writing anything in] I already found TEMPEST at 5ac!
But I agree with others the actual answer (THIRD) was quite weak.
Soit.
Tahnks Loonapick & Neo.
I played with ‘trait’ for 5d after getting tempest. Nihil had me.
Thanks Neo and loonapick
Found this at the harder end of Neo’s difficulty scale with quite a bit of general knowledge required in both overall definitions and in some of the word play components as well.
Finished in the NE corner with ELECT (good definition as the princess) and that THIRD (which I’m sitting on the fence as to whether it should’ve been let through or not, but certainly found it quite difficult until all of the crossing letters were in).