A good challenge from MUDD this Friday. Generally easy across the board, with just a sprinkle of some unusual words holding up a quick solve. Thanks MUDD.
FF: 8 DD: 7
| Across | ||
| 1 | TOP HAT | Old film that’s about work (3,3) |
| THAT around OP (work) | ||
| 4 | SLAPBANG | Hit shot immediately (8) |
| SLAP (hit) BANG (shortly) – this should be hyphenated | ||
| 9 | RETAIN | Keep part-timers in check (6) |
| TA (part-timers, territorial army) in REIN (check) | ||
| 10 | PARAQUAT | Poison some drinking water (8) |
| PART (some) containing AQUA (water) | ||
| 12 | NUTSHELL | Ridiculous suffering that’s hard (8) |
| NUTS (ridiculous) HELL (suffering) | ||
| 13 | ETHANE | Egghead and chief of clan gas (6) |
| E (Egg – first letter) THANE (chief of clan) – weird surface in my opinion | ||
| 15 | OBOE | Musical producer in stereo, bouncing back (4) |
| hidden, reversed in “..sterEO BOuncing..” | ||
| 16 | SMUTTINESS | Sense of the blue distortion of mist with sunset (10) |
| MIST SUNSET* | ||
| 19 | PARADIDDLE | Usual trick to pen a series of hits (10) |
| [PAR (usual) DIDDLE (trick)] containing A | ||
| 20 | AHEM | A bit of skirt – excuse me! (4) |
| A HEM (bit of skirt) | ||
| 23 | DONGLE | Golden buckles for attachment to computer (6) |
| GOLDEN* | ||
| 25 | CONSIDER | Think about drink, welcoming prodigal son (8) |
| CIDER (drink) containing SON* | ||
| 27 | ARCHIVES | Rash line precedes historical records (8) |
| ARC (line) HIVES (rash) | ||
| 28 | DURIAN | I’d run off to grab a tropical fruit (6) |
| ID RUN* containing A (fun fact – this fruit is banned on public modes of transport here in singapore, due to its very pungent smell) | ||
| 29 | THEREMIN | Electronic instrument present, first of many in metal (8) |
| [HERE (present) M (first of Many)] in TIN (metal) | ||
| 30 | SENECA | Roman philosopher making a scene (6) |
| A SCENE* | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TORONTO | High hill upon North American city (7) |
| TOR (high hill) ONTO (upon) | ||
| 2 | PETIT FOUR | Miniature treat – favourite square describing it? (5,4) |
| [PET (favorite) FOUR (square)] around IT | ||
| 3 | ALIGHT | A gentle glowing (6) |
| A LIGHT (gentle) | ||
| 5 | LEAD | First element (4) |
| double def | ||
| 6 | PLANTAIN | Worker splitting open banana (8) |
| ANT (worker) in PLAIN (open) | ||
| 7 | ARUBA | Caribbean island where a dance lacks heart (5) |
| A RUmBA (without heart i.e. without central character) | ||
| 8 | GUTLESS | Chicken – insides removed? (7) |
| cryptic def | ||
| 11 | A LA MODE | Mission accomplished finally, English up to date (1,2,4) |
| ALAMO (mission) D (accomplisheD, finally) E (english) | ||
| 14 | STILTON | Leg up, then, for cheese? (7) |
| STILT (leg up) ON (for) – not sure about the second part of the parsing | ||
| 17 | EPHEDRINE | Drug deep in her, circulating (9) |
| DEEP IN HER* | ||
| 18 | ADELAIDE | Oz city where British singer gathering support (8) |
| ADELE (british singer) containing AID (support) | ||
| 19 | PODCAST | Case to select for audio file (7) |
| POD (case) CAST (select) | ||
| 21 | MIRANDA | Space station with a satellite (7) |
| MIR (space station) AND (with) A | ||
| 22 | ASSUME | Suppose example doesn’t begin to contain problem? (6) |
| cASE (example, without starting letter) containing SUM (problem) | ||
| 24 | NICHE | Slot in macaroni cheese (5) |
| hidden in “..macaroNI CHEese” | ||
| 26 | SEMI | House with trees to climb, initially avoided (4) |
| lIMES (trees, without starting letter, reversed) | ||
*anagram
Where did you finf it? It’s not on the FT website at the moment.
Hi,
Not sure if you need to refresh your page. It has been uploaded to the FT website (just checked now).
Regards,
TL
As TL says, pretty straightforward. But was held up – infuriatingly – by having GOLD for 5d (DD, ‘first’ & ‘element’ ), which I still think is valid. Ah, well, it happens.
Thanks to Turbolegs and the compiler (whose name is currently mud in this house. Well, only a bit).
Turbolegs -@2 – Thanks. Got it now
Mudd on good form so thank you to him and Turbolegs
For 14d, I just read it as saying if you have a stilt on then your leg is up.
Goujeers@1. I notice these days that when the FT page first loads you see a page that doesn’t include today’s puzzle but if you wait a little it appears. Perhaps those with fast machines don’t notice this. I downloaded mine at around 5:30 (uk time) so it wasn’t late appearing.
Annoyingly, I failed to get NUTSHELL. I convinced myself it must end with ILL for “suffering”.
Thanks to Mudd and Turbolegs.
Thanks both. I was defeated in the SW corner having never come across PARADIDDLE, DONGLE or THEREAMIN. However I did write in the latter from the clue ( fortunately there is only one metal with three letters!).
Thanks Mudd & Turbolegs.
In 13 across the surface meaning is not weird if you understand gas in the informal sense of talk excessively about trivial matters.
Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs
Didn’t find this easy at all, taking over an hour to get it done, mainly being held up in the top right and bottom left corners. PARAQUAT, MIRANDA and PARADIDDLE were all new terms for me and I didn’t help the cause by initially writing in SLAPDASH at 4a.
Got tricked by the Oz city for too long – thinking the land of the wizard rather than down here.
Finished in the SW with THEREMIN, SEMI and ARCHIVES the last few in. Not easy but very enjoyable.