Nothing too difficult in this Falcon puzzle.
The three long across entries, once solved, provide many hints to the down answers, which in turn, allow the reamianing across solutions to be slotted in fairly quickly.
Falcon’s clues read well, although they often require extra articles to aid the surface.
Thanks, Falcon.
| Across | ||
| 9 | HOTEL PROPRIETOR | Unwisely rile porter with photo showing Basil Fawlty, say (5,10) |
| *(rile porter photo) | ||
| 10 | LOTUS | American after fortune for plant (5) |
| U.S. (“American”) after LOT (“fortune”) | ||
| 11 | DECATHLON | Sporting contest put on outside chalet in resort (9) |
| DON (put on) outside *(chalet) | ||
| 12 | SCHOOLBOY | Billy Bunter perhaps in train, getting by eating nothing? (9) |
| SCHOOL (“train”) getting BY eating O (“nothing”) | ||
| 14 | PATIO | Piano note – it reverberated round courtyard (5) |
| P (piano) + A (“note”) + <=IT [reverberated] + O (“round”) | ||
| 16 | LET IT ALL HANG OUT | How does one get the washing dry and relax? (3,2,3,4,3) |
| You would indeed get the washing dry, assuming the weather was congenial, if you let it all hang out(side). | ||
| 19 | YPRES | Pair in quite a battle (5) |
| Pr (pair) in YES (“quite”)
Ypres, in Belgium, was the site of several battles during World War One. |
||
| 21 | ILL AT EASE | Unwell, a guy is uncomfortable (3,2,4) |
| ILL (“unwell”) + A + TEASE (“guy”)
Hadn’t come across “guy” equal to “tease” before, but Chambers includes “joke” or “lark” as archaic meanings of “guy” |
||
| 23 | ASSAULTED | Lads set off to bring in gold struck (9) |
| *(lads set) to bring in Au (“gold”) | ||
| 25 | OUTDO | Cap dismissed – Benaud’s last over (5) |
| OUT (“dismissed” in cricket) + (Benau)D [last] + O (over) | ||
| 26 | HOME SECRETARIES | Ministers, in private, sign (4,11) |
| HOME (“in”) + SECRET (“private”) + ARIES (astrological “sign”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CHILD’S PLAY | Something easily done in Peter Pan, for example (6,4) |
| Peter Pan was indeed a play for children (“child’s play”), written by J.M. Barrie, who hailed from the same town as I grew up in – Kirriemuir. | ||
| 2 | STITCH | Close to tears, very small person with a sharp pain in the side (6) |
| [close to] (tear)S + TITCH (“very small person”) | ||
| 3 | GLASNOST | Last song about a Gorbachev initiative (8) |
| *(last song)
Glasnost means “openness and transparency” and was a policy adopted by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbechev in the late 1980s. |
||
| 4 | PROD | Poke pochard’s head with a slender stick (4) |
| P(ochard) [head] with ROD (“a slender stick”) | ||
| 5 | APOCRYPHAL | Carol happy to change? That’s questionable (10) |
| *(carol happy) | ||
| 6 | BIG TOP | Famous spinner in tent (3,3) |
| BIG (“famous”) + TOP (“spinner”) | ||
| 7 | STILETTO | Knife fight about it upset league’s leader (8) |
| SET TO (“fight”) about <=IT [upset] + L(eague) [leader] | ||
| 8 | IRON | Smooth things out in golf club (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | BALLISTICS | A scientific study – basic still, unfortunately (10) |
| *(basic still) | ||
| 15 | ON THE HOUSE | Where there may be slates free (2,3,5) |
| Technically, slates would be on the roof, but I can see what the setter is getting at. | ||
| 17 | TIRESOME | Boring book about anger on top of softbacks (8) |
| TOME (“book”) about IRE (“anger’) on [top of] S(oftbacks) | ||
| 18 | NOTIONAL | Out? A Liberal admitting nothing speculative (8) |
| NOT IN (“out”) + A L (liberal) admitting O (“nothing”), so NOT I(O)N AL | ||
| 20 | SQUASH | Put down soft drink (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 22 | ALTAIR | Sim, maybe, as overlooked star (6) |
| AL(as)TAIR (“Sim, perhaps”) with AS overlooked
Alastair Sim was a Scottish comic actor who played, among other roles, Scrooge in 1951 and the headmistress of St Trinians in a series of movies. |
||
| 23 | ACHE | One going round hospital in pain (4) |
| ACE (“one”) going round H (hospital) | ||
| 24 | DIET | What one eats in assembly? (4) |
| Double definition | ||
*anagram
I found this a lot easier than the last few Falcon puzzles, which is a shame, but I’m sure many prefer it this way. The only clues that had me head scratching for a bit were ALTAIR and YPRES.
Thanks to Falcon and loonapick.
Thanks Falcon and loonapick
Nice gentle puzzle for a Thursday but with some pretty interesting clues thrown in along the way. Got the top two long ones in quite quickly but HOME SECRETARIES was among the later ones to be filled in.
Had parsed 22d a little differently, but not as convincingly, as the blog. Had SIM (Subscriber Identity Module, like in a mobile phone) as a three letter acronym (TLA) over and AIR as look (and couldn’t work out what to do with the ed on the end though!). Dunno whether I would’ve ever stumbled across Alastair Sim. This one was actually my last one in.
Not too difficult, but the parsing was tricky in a few which I admit I just lazily bunged in from the def. Highlight was undoubtedly the reference to Alistair Sim. I haven’t seen it for years (=decades) now, but ‘The Happiest Days of Your Life’, also starring Margaret Rutherford and Joyce Grenfell, used to be a real favourite. Well worth a look if you can find it somewhere.
Thanks to Falcon and loonapick
This Falcon puzzle was FT 15986 so I had a long time finding the blog! I also had trouble finding that for FT 15985 by Aardvark. All fine today except 22d, should have known Alistair – one of my favorites as a youth.
Thank you Falcon and loonapick
john @4
Thanks for the heads-up, puzzle number now corrected.
Thanks to Falcon and loonapick. I knew guy = tease but like Hovis@1 took a while working out YPRES and then took even longer playing with Sim until Alastair and ALTAIR emerged.