Redshank’s puzzle in this morning’s FT is a joy to solve.
I really ejoyed this puzzle, whcih had a generous smatttering of &lits throughout. The clues which yielded RECESS, SLALOM and CONFETTI were particularly excellent. I have blogged Redshank before, but I think this may be the best I have had to blog.
Thanks Redshank
| Across | ||
| 1 | ACCEDE | Allow European record company to be withdrawn (6) |
| => E DECCA (European + “record company”, withdrawn)
Decca is a record label that has been around for 90 years. |
||
| 4 | ICE-PICKS | Reserve chooses tools for alpinists (3-5) |
| PICKS (“tools”) put on ICE (“reserve”) | ||
| 9 | IGNITE | Put a match to fuel, wasting litres (6) |
| (l)IGNITE (“fuel” wasting L (litres)) | ||
| 10 | ASPERITY | Rough state of tripe cooked in, say, nuts (8) |
| *(tripe) in *(say) | ||
| 12 | TREK | Tramp starts to trudge round eastern Kalahari (4) |
| [starts to] T(rudge) R(ound) E(astern) K(alahari) | ||
| 13 | PRO-RUSSIAN | Old German recruits troops favouring Putin (3-7) |
| PRUSSIAN (“old German”) recruits OR (other ranks, so “troops”) | ||
| 15 | INTRANSIGENT | Diehard en route to collect data (12) |
| IN TRANSIT (“en route”) to collect GEN (“data”) | ||
| 18 | NEUROSURGEON | Northern pieces encourage top person in theatre (12) |
| N (northern) + EUROS (“pieces” i.e. coins) + URGE ON (“encourage”) | ||
| 21 | TALE-TELLER | Gossip less likely to take in the summer in Paris (4-6) |
| TALLER (“less likely” as in tall stories) to take in L’ÉTÉ (French for “the summer”) | ||
| 22 | PEEL | Go by lake to strip (4) |
| PEE (“go”) by L (lake) | ||
| 24 | WILD BOAR | Game with one left on table last to start (4,4) |
| W (with) + I (one) + L (left) + D-BOAR (“table” (ie BOARD) with its last letter first, indicated by last to start) | ||
| 25 | MORASS | Slough gunmen board second ship (6) |
| R.A. (Royal Artillery, so “gunmen”) board MO (“second”) + SS (steam”ship”) | ||
| 26 | DAMPENER | Stop house member stealing new muffler (8) |
| DAM (“stop”) + PEER (“house member” (ie House of Lords)) stealing N (new) | ||
| 27 | RECESS | Ideal place for small Ceres bust? (6) |
| *(s ceres) and &lit. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | AVIATRIX | Pilot’s excellent times crossing by way of Turkey (8) |
| A1 (“excellent) + X (“times”) crossing VIA (“by way of”) TR (international vegicle registration letter for “Turkey”) | ||
| 2 | CONFETTI | It often flutters below entrance to church (8) |
| *(it often) below [entrance to] C(hurch) and &lit. | ||
| 3 | DUTY | Doubt even members ignored youth leader’s job (4) |
| D(o)U(b)T [even members ignored] + Y(outh) [leader] | ||
| 5 | CASH REGISTER | Till around tree log (4,8) |
| C (around) + ASH (“tree”) + REGISTER (“log”) | ||
| 6 | PLEASANTRY | Polite remark from bottom class choking lecturer (10) |
| PEASANTRY (“bottom class”) choking L (lecturer) | ||
| 7 | CRISIS | Emergency credit is doubled (6) |
| Cr. (credit) + IS IS (“is” doubled) | ||
| 8 | SAYING | Saw one in Glasgow filling sink (6) |
| YIN (“one” in Glasgow dialect) filling SAG (“sink”)
Here in Glasgow, Billy Connolly is also known as The Big Yin (The Big One) |
||
| 11 | PRESS RELEASE | How to start machine that’s given to media? (5,7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 14 | WATER TABLE | If high, this could produce a wet Alberta (5,5) |
| *(a wet alberta) and semi &lit. | ||
| 16 | SERENADE | It’s composed to capture lady’s heart (8) |
| SERENE (“composed”) to capture (l)AD(y) [‘s heart] | ||
| 17 | ANALYSIS | Fussy Yankee sibling’s breakdown (8) |
| ANAL (“fussy”) + Y (in the phonetic alphabet, Yankee) + SIS (“sibling”) | ||
| 19 | STOWED | Packed in broadcast? About time (6) |
| SOWED (“broadcast”) about T (time) | ||
| 20 | SLALOM | Race over small twists (6) |
| *(o small), where O = over | ||
| 23 | NODE | Note: lines branch perhaps at this point (4) |
| N (note) + ODE (“lines” of verse) | ||
*anagram
NODE! Couldn’t get this despite spending ages on it. Thanks for the elucidation. Favourite was SERENADE. Also, thanks to Redshank.
Yes, despite my comments on Jason’s Tuesday offering, there is much pleasure to had from clever surfaces and they were in abundance today. I particularly liked the image of a Noble Lord quietly nicking his colleague’s new scarf.
All the &lits were fun, SERENADE indeed a stand-out.
One teeny-tiny grump, and I mention it because I’ve seen it twice recently, is that a chef might use an ‘ice-pick’ to break up ice but that would be the last thing a mountaineer wants; he needs an ‘ice-axe’ to cut footholds or transiently support his weight.
Many thanks to Redshank & loonapick (!) for a fine puzzle.
Thanks for the blog, loonapick – I’d wholeheartedly go along with your preamble.
I held myself up a bit with DAMPENER, trying hard to include MP as the house member, but then shared Grant’s amusement at the picture painted by the correct parsing.
My other ticks were for NEUROSURGEON, SERENADE and ANALYSIS – and SAYING made me smile, because I immediately thought of Billy Connolly [and I’m always taken with that use of ‘saw’].
Interestingly, one of the solutions in Vlad’s brilliant Guardian puzzle today features in 15ac – both great cues.
loonapick, ‘a’ is not part of the anagram fodder in 14dn – in fact, I wondered why it was there, as it sounds a bit awkward.
Grant @2, not being an alpinist, I didn’t think twice about ICE-PICKS – it sounded right – but I’ve now looked it up. Collins and Chambers both give ‘ a pointed tool [not ‘utensil’] used for breaking ice’, which would justify Redshank’s usage. I also found, in an online dictionary, ‘a small pick used by climbers to traverse ice-covered slopes’.
Many thanks to Redshank for an excellent puzzle, which I really enjoyed.
Thanks to loonapick and Redshanks
From the ridiculous to the sublime in just 24hrs, (I notice yesterday’s grid hasn’t been fixed). Whatever might tomorrow bring?
I only wish it had been 3,14
Brilliant. COD the perfect SERENADE. Though a Kenyan unused to British slang, go=pee will never beat me again after it was pointed out to me by a regular blogger here who started filling cryptics in 1969.
And the surface of 22a is, well, somewhat risque, he he.
Chadwick Ongara, risque? Time to do a Hoskins puzzle (here known as Slormgorm)! 🙂
This was a crossword that made clear what the difference between Redshank and his aliases (Crucible, Radian) can be: a much lighter touch and an abundance of (semi-)&lits.
Meanwhile, I found this puzzle also very easy (but that doesn’t say anything about the quality of it).
Very enjoyable with SERENADE and, perhaps even more, CONFETTI as the highlights (for me).
In the blog of last week’s Tramp puzzle someone said that we should now dump ‘pee’ and ‘wee’ (for ‘go’, or the other way round) and I agreed. Today we had it even twice (Phi was in need too – but we all are, at times). Probably, a matter of taste or distaste.
Many thanks Loonapick & Redshank.
ps, I do so many crosswords nowadays that I cannot tell A from B anymore, apparently.
Forget about what I said about Phi, not even last week’s crossword had that ‘device’ in it.
Call the doctor!
Also agree re ice pick, which is what was used to murder Trotsky (a tool for gripping ice blocks and moving them around). An ice axe is what an alpinist would need for ascending frozen water. No mountaineer would ever refer to their ice pick.
Great puzzle and like Hovis@1 I didn’t get NODE, although as it’s late I didn’t spend ages on it. SERENADE and CONFETTI were my top clues too, along with ACCEDE for the inclusion of DECCA records – takes me back to vinyl the first time around. ICE-PICKS was fine with me too. Thanks to Redshank and loonapick.
Thanks Redshank and loonapick
An enjoyable puzzle in which the longer clues all gave me trouble and because they all intersected, slowed up the solve quite a bit.
Had originally entered RYDE (RY – lines + D E (notes) in at 23d with the intention of looking up to see if it was a key station in the London network – didn’t have to as MORASS debunked it, leading to the NODE.
Finished in the SW corner with SLALOM (a tricky cd) and DAMPENER (which, like Eileen, I was held up by being fixated on MP as the ‘house member’ for ages).