[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
All relatively straightforward, as is traditional for a Tuesday FT, but…
There are some intriguing constructions and a definite error, which slowed the blog somewhat. Bit tricky for a Tuesday but very enjoyable and far from Flimsy, to whom thanks.
| Across | ||
| 1 | LOCATION | Spot about to be covered by ointment (8) |
| C[irc]A (‘about’) surrounded by LOTION. | ||
| 5 | SWEEPS | Succeeded with cries to get strokes (6) |
| S[ucceeded] + WEEPS. | ||
| 9 | SUNDRIES | Small drawers containing Romeo’s miscellaneous things (8) |
| S[mall] + UND.IES includes R[omeo]. | ||
| 10 | ENDURE | Bear dying by river (6) |
| END (one’s ‘dying’) + River URE. | ||
| 12 | READY | Prepared to study by taking out book (5) |
| READ (to ‘study’) + bY without B[ook]. | ||
| 13 | ASSEMBLED | See lambs – about 500 – flocked together (9) |
| Anagram (‘about’) of SEE LAMBS + D (Roman ‘500’). | ||
| 14 | TOUPEE | Topping for smooth crumpet? (6) |
| Cryptic. ‘Crumpet’ is v old-fashioned slang for ‘head’ (Chambers def. 3). One might cover a bald pate with such a hairpiece. | ||
| 16 | DOLPHIN | DPhil with no struggling? One’s intelligent, apparently (7) |
| Anagram of DPHIL+NO. | ||
| 19 | EXPLODE | Former policeman initially expected to get angry (7) |
| EX + PLOD (slang, ‘police’, from Enid Blyton’s P.C. Plod) + E(xpected). | ||
| 21 | ASSIST | Help from a relative in street (6) |
| SIS (‘relative’) in A + ST[reet]. | ||
| 23 | DIFFERENT | New doctor fired, entertaining fine hospital department (9) |
| Anagram (‘doctored’) of FIRED includes F[ine] then E[ar] N[ose] & T[hroat] (‘hospital department’). | ||
| 25 | LATER | Phil ate Roger’s sandwiches afterwards (5) |
| Inclusion (‘sandwiches’) in ‘phiL ATE Roger’. | ||
| 26 | NEWEST | Most recent newts moving around Fink-Nottle’s back (6) |
| Anagram (‘moving’) of NEWTS around last of ‘fink-nottlE’. Ref Gussie Fink-Nottle, Bertie Wooster’s newt-obsessed chum in the P.G. Wodehouse tales. | ||
| 27 | IMPORTED | Brought in minute drink – editor’s after one (8) |
| 1 + M[inute] + PORT (‘drink’) then ED[itor]. | ||
| 28 | STRESS | Anxiety as adult’s lost hair (6) |
| ‘aS’ without A[dult] then TRESS (‘hair’). | ||
| 29 | ATTENDED | Took part in a bike race and finished (8) |
| A + TT (‘bike race’) + ENDED. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LOSERS | Some mountaineers resolve to climb? They’re not successful (6) |
| Inclusion in ‘mountaineerS RESOLved’, reversed (‘climbing’ in this Down clue). | ||
| 2 | CANTALOUP | Throw up a lot after Canadian melon (9) |
| CAN[adian] + anagram (‘throw’) of UP A LOT. | ||
| 3 | TARDY | Slow run around yard (5) |
| I think this is a slight error. DART (to ‘run’) reversed + Y[ard] would give the non-existent TRADY. The euphemism DRAT would have worked but it’s not there. None of the lurking anagrams (‘around’?) of R[un] &/or YARD seems to work either: too many Rs & a missing ‘T’. Or else it’s me that’s missing something but, for once, I don’t think so. | ||
| 4 | OPERATE | Aida perhaps put on tie regularly for work (7) |
| OPERA (‘Aida’, perhaps) + alternate letters of ‘TiE’. | ||
| 6 | WINDMILLS | They turn poorly within months after gale (9) |
| ILL (‘poorly’) within M[onth]S after WIND. Rather skinny def, I thought. | ||
| 7 | EQUAL | Queen wearing each large uniform (5) |
| QU[een] in EA[ch] + L[arge]. | ||
| 8 | SPENDING | Lashing out from son anticipated (8) |
| S[on] + PENDING. | ||
| 11 | USED | Mistreated sailor’s going to be employed (4) |
| abUSED (‘mistreated’) minus AB (‘sailor’). | ||
| 15 | PROCESSES | Handles old clubs including irons? On the contrary (9) |
| I.e., ‘irons’ includes ‘old clubs’, so it’s PR.ESSES to includes O+C. | ||
| 17 | HESITATED | Waited, excited to embrace model (9) |
| HE.ATED (‘excited’) includes SIT (to ‘model’). | ||
| 18 | DEAD ENDS | Uninteresting aims – they won’t get you anywhere (4,4) |
| DEAD + ENDS. | ||
| 20 | EDEN | Ecstasy then retreat for old PM (4) |
| E[cstasy], the drug, then DEN (a ‘retreat’). Ref Anthony Eden (PM 1955-7). | ||
| 21 | ATTEMPT | Try a lure, pursuing last of trout (7) |
| A + TEMPT (to ‘lure’) after ‘(trou)T’ | ||
| 22 | TRADED | Tense with dread at sea – getting flogged (6) |
| T[ense] + anagram (‘at sea’) of DREAD. | ||
| 24 | FEWER | Not as many sheep in France (5) |
| EWE in FR[ance]. | ||
| 25 | LOOSE | Ladies almost set free (5) |
| LOO (“ladies'”) + SEt, shortened. | ||
*anagram
Good Tuesday fun, but I’m sure you’re right, GB, about 3dn TARDY. I spent far too long trying to figure it out. Thanks all the same to you and Flimsy.
The boo-boo passed me by, though it seems I’m in the good company of both Flimsy and the FT crossword editor. I did wonder about CANTALOUP without an E, but the wordplay was clear and a post-solve look at Chambers confirms it is an alternative spelling.
I progressed pretty quickly through this until I became stuck on DOLPHIN (nice surface), PROCESSES and then my last in and favourite TOUPEE.
Thanks to Flimsy and the eagle-eyed Grant
I’m inclined to agree that 3d is a mistake, I’m just glad it wasn’t me missing something obvious.
The rest of it flew in nice and easy with plenty to enjoy. I particularly liked the reversed container logic in 15d PROCESSES.
I’m curious about the apostrophe S in 25a, though: I know they can switch meaning from possessives in surface readings to contractions (of ‘is’ or ‘has’) in the cryptic parsing, but how would it work in this case?
Thanks to all.
I too was unsure of TARDY@3d, and could only guess that “around” was an anagram indicator of DART (run). followed by the Y for yard?
Thanks to Flimsy & Grant.
To Niltac@4:
That would be illegal: letters for anagrams have to appear physically in the clue, no matter how obscurely indicated.
Thanks for the blog, Grant Baynham.
I found this all quite straightforward, except for 14ac which made me grumpy.
Thanks for the clarification Grant@5. I’ll admit my parsing of TARDY was a bit of a stretch.
Thanks to Flimsy and Grant. I settled for TARDY as a default and correctly guessed TOUPEE without parsing it. All in all, good fun.
Unlike the GO OUT error in the Grain yesterday which beat me, TARDY was easily gettable from T_R_Y (slow).* Graun
Wasn’t 100% convinced by Tense being “T”- am I missing something? Confused as everyone else about TARDY, ended up writing it in assuming TAR was somehow “RUN” and “DY” as yard (YD) reversed, despite a brief flirtation with TARRY which I suppose is “being” slow rather than “slow”.
Juan @ 10
T = TENSE is a standard linguistic abbreviation – nothing to do with the stress sort of tense.
My first run through this fine crossword left me wondering if Flimsy was a setter I could not solve. Slowly but surely I managed nearly all of it though a few were lucky guesses like TARDY, TOUPEE, and EXPLODE. Favorites were 13a and 4d. Thanks Grant for clarifying the anagram rule.
Thanks Flimsy and Grant
Mostly good apart from the glitch at 3d (have seen an anagram of a defined word before and that can be the only explanation other than an error) and the loose definition for DOLPHIN (without at least a ?). Actually found it a bit tougher than the usual puzzle by this setter.
Started off with the quite well hidden LOSERS and finished with TOUPEE (after checking that a ‘crumpet’ did actually refer to a head).
TARDY: Slow run around yard (5)
Maybe it’s run as in rat run, rat around –> TAR + yard –> YD (also around :shrug:)
Simon @ 11
A quick google for “present t”, “past t” etc don’t immediately yield any results- I did suspect it was a linguistic thing but I’ve never seen it in an xword before.
In the absence of an erratum for 3d I suggest (supported by recent precedent)
RUN = COURSE = TENOR = T
+
AROUND (as an imperative) YARD = ARDY
Complete bollocks of course, but no more than much else we’ve seen lately.
Thanks to Grant and Flimsy