80% straightforward 20%obscure , is how I would describe today’s FT solve. Thanks Bradman, for the treat.
FF: 8 DD: 9
I am of the opinion that a couple of the parsings could be further improved upon.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CARILLON | Vehicle badly functioning? Stop (8) |
| CAR (vehicle) ILL (badly) ON (functioning) – organ stop, new meaning for me | ||
| 5 | PATTEN | Design not right for wooden shoe (6) |
| PATTErN (design, without R – right) | ||
| 8 | GIB | Rock that’s large rolling over (3) |
| reverse of BIG (large) | ||
| 9 | CAFETERIAS | A rice feast organised in eateries (10) |
| A RICE FEAST* | ||
| 10 | RUFFLING | Bird on heather twitching (8) |
| RUFF (bird) LING (heather) | ||
| 11 | SUPPLY | Contribute, not in a stiff manner (6) |
| double def | ||
| 12 | TUSK | Donald having time by river (4) |
| T (time) USK (river) | ||
| 14 | DISTENDING | Expanding daughter is needing looking after (10) |
| D (daughter) IS TENDING (looking after) | ||
| 17 | EAST ANGLIA | Region in which eating alas is terrible (4,6) |
| EATING ALAS* | ||
| 20 | PERM | Hairstyle of supermodel (4) |
| hidden in “..suPERModel” | ||
| 23 | BEHELD | Suffer detention, as witnessed (6) |
| cryptic def; read as BE HELD (suffer detention) | ||
| 24 | DEVOTION | County stocks old books I love (8) |
| DEVON (county) containing [ OT (books) I ] | ||
| 25 | EVIL SPIRIT | Demon drink maybe that was once thought to cause illnesses? (4,6) |
| double def? i am assuming thats the case although i haven’t come across this specific origin before. else its just a straight up cryptic def. | ||
| 26 | OTT | Love abstaining from booze? That’s excessive! (3) |
| O (love) TT (abstraining from booze); Over The Top | ||
| 27 | V-SIGNS | Five bad actions suppressing good getting digital gestures (1-5) |
| V (five) [ SINS (bad actions) containing G (good) ] | ||
| 28 | FLATHEAD | See fish jerk crossing lake (8) |
| FATHEAD (jerk) across L (lake); iffy construction? | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CIGARETTE | Mention about great wrong coming from dangerous product (9) |
| CITE (mention) around GREAT* | ||
| 2 | REBUFFS | Snubs two groups of soldiers (7) |
| RE (royal engineers, soldiers) BUFFS (regiments like east kent in the uk, soldiers) | ||
| 3 | LOCALE | See cold drink offered by venue (6) |
| LO (see) C (cold) ALE (drink) | ||
| 4 | OFFENDING | Rotten conclusion is distressing (9) |
| OFF (rotten) ENDING (conclusion) | ||
| 5 | PRESSIE | Endlessly urged to accept one gift (7) |
| PRESSEd (urged, endlessly) containing I (one) | ||
| 6 | TRIPPED UP | Travelled north and made a mistake (7,2) |
| TRIPPED (travelled) UP (north) | ||
| 7 | EPSILON | One Greek character or another in the course of drunken Noel (7) |
| PSI (greek character) in NOEL* | ||
| 13 | KETTERING | Town in Kent with tiger on the loose (9) |
| KENT TIGER* | ||
| 15 | TRIHEDRAL | Like a sort of solid figure in test that the male doctor’s probed (9) |
| [ HE (male) DR (doctor) ] in TRIAL (test) | ||
| 16 | GEMINATED | Get maiden that’s awkward paired up (9) |
| GET MAIDEN* | ||
| 18 | AGELESS | Eternal message of some wrinkle-defying products? (7) |
| cryptic def; read as AGE LESS | ||
| 19 | NUDISTS | Certain exhibitionists, possibly mad, seen around underground area? (7) |
| NUTS (mad) around DIS (underground area, pluto’s hood) | ||
| 21 | EPITOME | Standard record introducing one large book (7) |
| EP (record) I (one) TOME (large book) | ||
| 22 | TOMTIT | Bird – cat finally caught it (6) |
| TOM (cat) T (caT, finally) IT; cat doing double duty | ||
*anagram
A few unknowns but mostly clued well enough to get. Failed to get FLATHEAD but, seeing the explanation with the confusing “see”, I forgive myself. Poor clue imo.
I think 25a needs a different split. “Evil drink maybe” and “(that was) once thought to cause illness?”.
Seeing double in the intro.
22d: the second T comes from caughT, not caT, so no double duty needed.
Agree with Hovis about 25a.
And yet a 3rd possible construct for 25a. I saw it as ‘evil’ being an adjective (as in, appropriately, ‘the demon drink’) and ‘spirit’ as ‘drink possibly’, then the rest as def.
Enjoyed the puzzle anyway, some nice light-bulb moments and I only knew ‘flathead’ as a type screw-driver.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs.
Grant– Coincidentally, Flathead is a lake in Montana as well as a fish and a screwdriver.
@Tony, flathead is also a type of early Ford V-8 motor.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Still in catch up mode it seems … and found this at a medium difficulty level, taking my average 3/4 hour to get it nutted out across three sittings. A few new words – BUFFS (as soldiers), CARILLON (organ stop), USK (river) and had trouble equating ‘twitching’ to RUFFLING. It also took a while to wonder why KETTERING wasn’t in Kent, even though Kent was a part of the anagram fodder.
Although FLATHEAD was near the end of the solve, once I ignored the ‘See’, it was a gimme – common fish in our Port Phillip Bay and I think the only fish that I’ve even caught there. ‘Flattie tails’ are often served up in pubs here, very sweet and tasty !
Had a bit of trouble untangling EVIL SPIRITS, but ended up down the same line of thinking as Hovis & Andrew.
Finished with REBUFFS (and those unknown soldiers), AGELESS and the tricky BEHELD the last few in.