Rather challenging for a Tuesday, and the more fun for it.
Nothing petrifying but not a lot being given away for free, either. Some tough stuff and quite a few proper nouns which led me to think that there might be Something Going On, though I can’t see it. (If its to do with 1a, I’m afraid you’re knocking on the wrong door here). Thanks Neo; enjoyed it a lot.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MORRISSEY | Singer absolutely rebuffed by textile designer (9) |
| YES (‘absolutely’) reversed after William MORRIS (‘textile designer’). Quite a toughie to start with. | ||
| 6 | OMAHA | Woman and chap in middle American town (5) |
| ‘Middle’ letters of ‘wOMAn’ and ‘cHAp’. | ||
| 9 | PANACEA | Old man accepting an excellent remedy for disease (7) |
| PA (‘old man’) includes AN + ACE (‘excellent’). | ||
| 10 | TRAFFIC | Disastrous bringing folios in for good trade (7) |
| TRAgIC (‘disastrous’), its G[ood] replaced by FF (‘folios’]. | ||
| 11 | EWING | Dallas company for example snatching victory (5) |
| WIN (‘victory’) included in EG (‘for example’), Ewing Oil being the company at the centre of the TV soap Dallas. | ||
| 12 | EXECRABLE | Appalling manager somewhat disheartened crowd (9) |
| EXEC (‘manager’) + RABbLE, a ‘crowd’ minus one of its central Bs. | ||
| 14 | FOG | Fuddy-duddy endlessly causing confusion (3) |
| FOGy (‘fuddy-duddy’) lacking end letter. | ||
| 15 | See 14 down | |
| 17 | NECROMANCER | Church probes Cranmer on mutilated magician (11) |
| C[hurch] in anagram (‘mutilated’) of CRANMER ON. | ||
| 19 | EYE | Detective in study (3) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 20 | NONPAREIL | Matchless – nothing keeps cricket side level with English (9) |
| NIL (‘nothing’) includes ON (leg ‘side’ in cricket) + PAR (‘level’) + E[nglish]. | ||
| 22 | EIGHT | Reportedly an island crew (5) |
| Homophone (‘reportedly’) of ‘eyot’ or ‘ait’, an ‘island’ as in Chiswick Eyot in the Thames. | ||
| 24 | IMPASTO | Current doctor protects by putting thick coat on (7) |
| I (electrical symbol for ‘current’), then MO (‘doctor’) includes PAST (‘by’). ‘Impasto’ as in the technique rather than the finish itself. | ||
| 26 | EARNEST | Firm guarantee (7) |
| Double def. An ‘earnest’ can be a deposit or ‘guarantee’. | ||
| 27 | LISZT | Barman is the last an officer embraces (5) |
| IS + Z (‘the last’) included in LT (lieutenant, an ‘officer’), with cryptic def of one who wrote musical ‘bars’. | ||
| 28 | FLESHPOTS | Husband stops following topless dancing in strip clubs (9) |
| H[usband] in F[ollowing] + appropriate anagram (‘dancing’) of TOPLESS. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MAPLE | River missed by elderly sleuth in wood (5) |
| R[iver] removed from Agatha Christie’s Miss MArPLE. | ||
| 2 | RANKING | Prominent new family appearing in tabloid (7) |
| N[ew] + KIN (‘family’) in RAG (‘tabloid’ newspaper). | ||
| 3 | INCOGNITO | Noticing outrageously surprised cry’s disguised (9) |
| Anagram (‘outrageously’) of NOTICING + O (‘surprised cry’). | ||
| 4 | SHAKESPEARE | Bard pronounced tribal leader’s equal (11) |
| Homophone (‘pronounced’) of “sheik’s peer”. | ||
| 5 | YET | Still legendary creature’s not completely visible (3) |
| YETi. | ||
| 6 | ON AIR | Addicted to tune being broadcast (2,3) |
| ON (‘addicted to’ as in ‘on heroin’) + AIR (‘tune’). | ||
| 7 | AFFABLE | Warm female appears in a moral tale (7) |
| F[emale] in A FABLE (‘moral tale’). | ||
| 8 | ARCHETYPE | Model sportsman losing right to work in pool (9) |
| ARCHEr (‘sportsman’, minus R[ight]) + TYPE (‘to work in’ a typing ‘pool’). | ||
| 13 | ETON COLLEGE | Cool teen rude about stage school (4,7) |
| Anagram (‘rude’) of COOL TEEN surrounds LEG (‘stage’, as in a sports competition). | ||
| 14, 15 | FINANCIAL IMPROPRIETY | Backing provided by Pliny, patrician Rome arranged dodgy dealings (9,11) |
| IF (‘provided’), reversed, + impressive anagram (‘arranged’) of PLINY PATRICIAN ROME. | ||
| 16 | RARE-EARTH | Unusually good ground yields element (4-5) |
| RARE (‘unusually good’) + EARTH (‘ground’) for type of metallic ‘element’. | ||
| 18 | CANOPUS | There’s prison work in ancient coastal town (7) |
| CAN (‘prison’) + OPUS (‘work’, in full unusually). ‘Canopus’ was an ancient Egyptain port. | ||
| 19 | EL GRECO | Coleridge upset having lost identity as artist (2,5) |
| Anagram (‘upset’) of COLERidGE without ID (‘identity’). | ||
| 21 | ASSET | When position brings advantage (5) |
| AS (‘when’) + SET (to ‘position’). | ||
| 23 | TITUS | Square it with American for holy work (5) |
| T (-‘square’) + IT + US (‘American’) to give one of St. Paul’s correspondents. | ||
| 25 | OAF | Sort of a yahoo (3) |
| Anagram (‘sort’) of OF A. | ||
*anagram
Some nice, clever and misleading clues. Wasted a bit of time on 12a, assuming it was an anagram of MANAGER+ST. 28a was also a tricky anagram to spot. There’s a small error in parsing of 17a where Church is CE not C. Have only seen FOGEY spelled with the E but did check that FOGY was ok. Canopus was new to me, as was that meaning for EARNEST. Thanks to S&B.
A nice new clue for the bard
A very enjoyable Tuesday challenge, thank you Neo and Grant
I really enjoyed getting most of the way through this during a short lunch break.
I think 26 & 27 are poor clues. Liszt wasn’t a barman. Referring to him a barman is not clever and it’s not funny and it just makes the clue annoying.
27 was poor for using such an obscure meaning of earnest.
Barman is just a convention though Grumpy, as linesman is for a poet. Surely a little licence is in order!
Good puzzle that looks like a pangram, but I’m not of a mind to check, with some nice clues. I agree with Grant about the ‘impressive’ anagram at 14 15.
Thanks Grant & Neo.
I am that husband in strip clubs.
Re NHS I think not quite a pangram (I can see no J for example), but an extremely enjoyable solve. I’m also a fan of that long anagram, which seems quite appropriate for an FT outing.
What I like most about Neo’s crosswords is the combination of precision and lightness of touch.
This wasn’t a toughie as far I am concerned. ‘Morrissey’, quite a toughie to start with?. Well, perhaps the man himself is but I hardly ever start a puzzle at clue number one. Usually, I work my way back from the SE.
Pangram? A long way off, not a Q in sight and – remarkably – no D!
25ac (OAF) is pretty good, isn’t it. As is 13ac for the imagery of ‘that kind of Britain’.
Thanks Neo and Grant
Also did this over lunch and it took a good bit of the hour to finally get out. A couple that I didn’t parse properly – NONPAREIL (got locked in to NONE around PAR and then no IL) and FLESHPOTS (where H STOPS dancing got in the road of the now obvious).
Well done to anyone who could start with 1a and 1d … they were my last two in and took quite a bit of time at the end of that lunchtime!
Thanks to Grant and Neo. I’ve just started downloading FT puzzles so I’m way behind. I much enjoyed this one though I was stumped by 1 across and 1 down (I had Copse, not MAPLE).