ZAMORCA kicks off the week…
A lovely puzzle this, and a pangram too, which helped me out with the X in my LOI, 20 and 23.
Plenty of good clues, with 27 being my favourite I think.
Thanks ZAMORCA!
1. Player leading Manchester United accurately quoted Independent article (8)
MUSICIAN
M[anchester] U[nited] (leading) + SIC (quoted accurately) + I (independent) + AN (article)
5. Consider putting in poles for vegetable (6)
FENNEL
FEEL (consider) putting in NN (poles)
10. Adapt bizarre container for burning coals (7)
BRAZIER
11. Work enquiry’s incomplete on area that’s less clear (7)
OPAQUER
OP (work) + QUER[y] (enquiry, incomplete) on A (area)
12. Bend over backwards dancing for boy in luxurious car (5)
LIMBO
B (boy) in LIMO (luxurious car)
13. Moon’s a little hazy in London area (9)
SATELLITE
(A LITTLE)* (hazy) in SE (London area)
14. Do take dogs perhaps, they love going out (5,7)
PARTY ANIMALS
PARTY (do) take ANIMALS (dogs perhaps)
18. Went straight to Lincoln after girl read out eastern route (4,1,3-4)
MADE A BEE-LINE
ABE (Lincoln) after “maid” (girl, “read out”) + E (eastern) + LINE (route)
21. Put on spectacles finally for actors’ entrance (5,4)
STAGE DOOR
STAGED (put on) + OO (spectacles) + [fo}R (finally)
23. Army corps reportedly needs to ease off (5)
RELAX
RE (army corps) + “lacks” (needs, “reportedly”)
24. Renoir work initially rejected by mistake (2,5)
IN ERROR
(RENOIR) *(work) + R[ejected] (initially)
25. Still not affected (7)
UNMOVED
26. Find out girl’s name before coming back (6)
GATHER
HER (girl’s), (TAG)< (name, before, <coming back)
27. Rum punches making feet uncoordinated? (3,5)
ODD SOCKS
ODD (rum) + SOCKS (punches)
1. New 12 key phone (6)
MOBILE
(LIMBO)* (12, *new) + E (key)
2. Masses get friendly aboard ship (6)
SWARMS
WARM (get friendly) aboard SS (ship)
3. Recall a short anecdote behind Nick’s old banger (9)
CHIPOLATA
(A + TAL[e] (anecdote, short))< (<recall) behind (CHIP (nick) + O (old))
4. Love penetrates throughout Shakespeare, affecting everything (6,3,5)
ACROSS THE BOARD
O (love) penetrates (ACROSS (throughout) + THE BARD (Shakespeare))
6. Fib upset Mum in online message (1-4)
E-MAIL
(LIE)< (fib, <upset), MA (mum, in)
7. Ocean-going wild tuna one caught on a line (8)
NAUTICAL
(TUNA)* (*wild) + I (one) + C (caught) on A + L (line)
8. Student Rag sees amazing generosity (8)
LARGESSE
L (student) + (RAG SEES)* (amazing)
9. Old Trafford maybe has good session of bat swinging, including over with beginners first (8,6)
FOOTBALL GROUND
(G (good) + ROUND (session)), ((OF BAT)* (*swinging) including O (over) with LL (beginners)) first
15. Idiot to neglect contract, a total set-up (9)
IGNORAMUS
IGNOR[e] (neglect, contract) + A + (SUM)< (total, <set up)
16. Hammering Special Brew at home with girl (8)
SMASHING
S (special) + MASH (brew) +IN (at home) with G (girl)
17. Alongside a record player, great to have books (8)
ADJACENT
A + DJ (record player) + ACE (great) to have NT (books)
19. Pop idol very restrained around London theatre (3,3)
OLD VIC
(IDOL)* (*pop) restrained V (very) + C (around)
20. Migration of deer going north’s protected crossing America (6)
EXODUS
((DOES)< (deer, <going north) protected X (crossing)) + US (crossing)
22. Look round Rhode Island for bird of prey’s nest (5)
EYRIE
EYE (look) round RI (Rhode Island)
A quick yet enjoyable solve with pangram to boot, which helped snag 17d. Rather quicker to solve than parse, though, so I’m grateful to Teacow for explaining more than a few. Still unsure why ‘poles’ at 5a yields ‘NN’ – probably very obvious…
Favourites were 3d and 27a. 9d and 19d made me wistful for the day we can visit once again.
Thanks to Zamorca and Teacow.
Diane, North and South (NS) poles
Thanks, Billy. I’d considered that but was deterred by the ‘S’.
Not too challenging, but the parsing for a few, eg FOOTBALL GROUND and CHIPOLATA, needed some nutting out.
A good way to wind down after a busy Monday. The surface and ‘(making) feet uncoordinated?’ def for ODD SOCKS was my highlight – an early candidate for clue of the week which will be hard to beat.
Thanks to Zamorca and Teacow
A little tricky in places but hunting down K and Y for the pangram helped us finish. We got 9dn from definition and crossing letters but couldn’t parse it.
Very enjoyable, though. Thanks, Zamorca and Teacow.
I assume NT = New Testament for books?
I found this pretty difficult!
Thanks Zamorca and Teacow
My printer was out of action for a couple of days, so only got started on this weeks FT offerings today and this puzzle was a nice way to do it. Not hard but with enough grist in the word play to make it interesting. Didn’t parse MADE A BEE LINE properly going with MADELINE as the girl and forgetting about the ‘route’ part. There was also tricky work to be done to unravel the construction of FOOTBALL GROUND.
Got the feeling of a pangram quite early on and it did help when the X and K helped finish off the SE corner with RELAX, ODD SOCKS, IGNORAMUS and PARTY ANIMAL.