Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 7, 2021
This was my first meeting with Basilisk. I know that he has been setting for the FT for some time but this is his first crossword in the weekend slot. And one thing I had to learn about Basilisk is that he is a master of ninas. Until it was pointed out to me, I completely missed this:
“Alfred Hitchcock, master of suspense.” From now on I must remember to check all Basilisk puzzles for such surprises.
My first-in was the very easy 3 (BOSOM) and I got 5 (ALFRED HITCHCOCK) almost immediately which gave me a lot of traction. I proceeded to quickly finish the top half but needed some time to complete the bottom especially 16, 17 and 21. My favourites are 9 (BIAS), 12 (EXEGESIS) and 27 (LEFT).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | LUMBERJACK |
Sailor on land makes a decent feller? (10)
|
| LUMBER (land) + JACK (sailor) | ||
| 7 | USER |
Addict requires attendant to leave hospital (4)
|
| USHER (attendant) with the ‘H’ (hospital) removed (requires…to leave) | ||
| 9 | BIAS |
Mental tendency observed in brainwaves periodically (4)
|
| B[ra]I[nw]A[ve]S | ||
| 10 | INFINITUDE |
Limitless number happy if United behind at home (10)
|
| IN (at home) + anagram (happy) of IF UNITED. Do we like ‘happy’ as an anagram indicator? | ||
| 11 | DISMAL |
Sadism always involves causing misery (6)
|
| Hidden word | ||
| 12 | EXEGESIS |
Inner parts of sexy legs resist scholarly explanation (8)
|
| [s]EX[y] [l]EG[s] [r]ESIS[t] | ||
| 13 | SET FORTH |
Firm in favour of half that’s left (3,5)
|
| SET (firm) + FOR (in favour of) + TH[at] | ||
| 15 | APEX |
Cross on the right of primate’s crest (4)
|
| APE (primate) + X (cross) | ||
| 17 | ONER |
Outstanding person supported by the Queen (4)
|
| ON (supported) + ER (the queen)
I originally parsed this wrongly thinking that ‘person’ clued ONE and ‘the Queen’ clued R. |
||
| 19 | TIRELESS |
Time to replace lead on old radio never switching off? (8)
|
| WIRELESS (old radio) with the ‘W’ (lead) replaced by ‘T’ (time) | ||
| 22 | STRENGTH |
AI must not be used in deployment of shattering power (8)
|
| Anagram (in deployment of) SH[a]TTER[i]NG | ||
| 23 | MAGNET |
Impressionist artist introduces good way to draw certain objects (6)
|
| G (good) in (introduces) MANET (impressionist artist) | ||
| 25 | OBOE DAMORE |
Old bore eating round cheese gets wind (4,6)
|
| O (old) + {O (round) + EDAM (cheese)} in (eating) BORE (bore) | ||
| 26 | ISLE |
19 at sea possibly rest here (4)
|
| Anagram (at sea) of TIRELESS (19) with the letters of REST removed | ||
| 27 | LEFT |
Radical article in French newspaper (4)
|
| LE (article in French) + FT (newspaper) | ||
| 28 | TAKE EFFECT |
Produce results with appropriate impact (4,6)
|
| TAKE (appropriate, as a verb) + EFFECT (impact) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | UTILISE |
Exploit 26 sacked after backing international trade union (7)
|
| I (international ) + TU (trade union) together backwards (backing) + anagram (sacked) of ISLE (26 across) | ||
| 3 | BOSOM |
Bust ultimately ends in boom (5)
|
| [end]S in (in) BOOM (boom) | ||
| 4 | RAILLERY |
Low-profile swimmer receives more sick banter (8)
|
| ILLER (more sick) in (receives) RAY (low-profile swimmer) | ||
| 5 | ALFRED HITCHCOCK |
Eastender’s somewhat embarrassed by setback with male director (6,9)
|
| [h]ALF (Eastender’s somewhat) + RED (embarrassed) + HITCH (setback) + COCK (male)
I originally parsed this differently supposing that Basilisk was referencing Alf Garnett of “Till Death Us Do Part” here. He was supposed to be an archetypal Eastender. |
||
| 6 | KENNEL |
Core component’s speaker finally replaced by new housing for woofer (6)
|
| KERNEL (core component) with the ‘R’ (speaker finally) replaced by ‘N’ (new) | ||
| 7 | UP THE WALL |
Where climbing plant might grow bananas or nuts (2,3,4)
|
| Double definition. The second refers to a British slang expression, “go up the wall”, which I did not know. | ||
| 8 | ENDWISE |
Finish questions for the audience standing up (7)
|
| END (finish) + WISE (homophone of “whys”) | ||
| 14 | FORCEMEAT |
Stuffing might upset team (9)
|
| FORCE (might) + anagram (upset) of TEAM | ||
| 16 | PREMIERE |
Person leading by example’s first to make earliest showing (8)
|
| PREMIER (person leading) + E[xample] | ||
| 18 | NOTABLE |
Board meeting about backing VIP (7)
|
| ON (about) backwards (backing) + TABLE (board) with ‘meeting’ apparently intended to convey that the two parts are commutative in the mathematical sense. That is, “A meets B” is semantically the same as “B meets A”. | ||
| 20 | SHELLAC |
She will perform briefly in preparation for making film (7)
|
| SHE’LL (she will) + AC[t] (perform briefly) | ||
| 21 | AGHAST |
Shocked at being bored by good experiences (6)
|
| G (good) + HAS (experiences) together in (being bored by) AT (at) | ||
| 24 | GRIEF |
Figure leaving university could be source of sadness (5)
|
| Anagram (could be) FIG[u]RE |
In 4dn, Pete, you will kick yourself: ILLER (and not AILLER) inside RAY.
As to 10ac, I do accept ‘happy’ as an anagram indicator (seen a lot worse), and BTW – strangely enough – ‘unhappy’ is also a well-known one too.
D’oh. That was embarrassing. Thanks, Sil. Now corrected.
Nice puzzle, and I failed to see master of suspense too
I started with the same parsing of ALFRED HITCHCOCK, but the ‘s after Eastender did not make sense. I think ALF is actually “Eastender’s somewhat” = (h)ALF. That is “half” without the H, the way the mythical person from the east of London would say it. That would leave “embarrassed” to be RED
I was not able to parse SET FORTH, or ENDWISE – so thanks for the solution. Glad to see Mudd used “audience” this weekend as a homophone, so I was able to put my lesson immediately to use.
I liked MAGNET and SET FORTH (now I understand it) EXEGESIS and ALFRED H
Thanks Pete and Basilisk
I’ve only done a handful of Basilisk puzzles but always look forward to them even if I rarely finish without recourse to some online assistance. So it was a treat to savour this offering over a weekend and by now, I know to be on the lookout for that special something.
As it happens, scoring 5d early on was the key to a successful solve, for once, providing so many crossers while the associated nina was the cherry on top.
5d makes regular appearances in crosswordland but this was one of my favourite outings so far.
The puzzle itself included gems like the surface for 3d and 25a.
I ended up where I started in the NE corner with 8d my LOI.
A gratifying grid that will be added to my little book of favourites.
Thanks to Basilisk and Pete – a super blog.
Martin @3,
I parsed ALF as you did (‘alf) although I do rather like Pete’s connection with Alf Garnett.
Basilisk/Serpent has become one of my favourite setters; after finishing with this crossword I completed the Serpent offering in the Indy of 8/7. (Highly recommended.) While reading that blog I saw an oblique reference to a nina in this puzzle so I knew to look for one. Quite clever, but even without that bit of fun this was a top-notch crossword with clues like ALFRED HITCHCOCK, DISMAL, MAGNET, BOSOM, KENNEL, and FORCEMEAT. Thanks Basilisk and to Pete for the blog.
This was a bit of fun sorting it all out. I think I have seen happy used before as an anagrind but I did wonder.
LUMBER for land bothered me more as that was an unfamiliar useage which rang no bell at all.
I also thought of Alf Garnett although considered “somewhat” could mean “not half” which an Eastender might shorten to ‘ALF.
Of course I missed the Nina, but that is not unusual.
Thanks for the explanations Pete, and the exercise Basilisk.
Mystogre @7,
I confess, I was so pleased at spotting ‘feller’ that I didn’t even stop to consider ‘land’ = ‘lumber’ as I had ‘jack’ and all the other crossers.
Seeing that only now just increases my admiration. An example might be, “I was lumbered/landed with my sister’s dog again”.
Thanks Diane – that does make sense.
Very enjoyable Saturday pre-lunch entertainment. Second of the day for Basilisk/ Serpent with the Nina revealing itself at the end. Couldn’t see other specific references to his films in the answers or clues.
The puzzle started off well with LUMBERJACK and there were many good ones to follow including AGHAST (surprisingly, bald), the misleading surface for KENNEL and my favourite, the surface for OBOE D’AMORE. Missed that GRIEF was an anagram (!) and I only sort of understand ISLE, which was too clever for me.
Minor variations on a theme, but at 5d, I parsed an Eastender who was ‘somewhat embarrassed’ as being ‘ALF RED. ‘Happy’ is OK as an anagram indicator for me, in the sense of being tipsy, or on the way to becoming drunk. New one for the day was FORCEMEAT.
Thanks to Pete and Basilisk.
Thanks for the super blog, not fond of HAPPY to give an anagram, excited would be much better.
KENNEL was my favourite, I also liked the 19Ac , 26 Ac , 2D sequence.
I did not know ALF at all but the rest of the clue was clear, I just assumed ALF was someone in Eastenders ??
Is OBOE D’AMORE really three words ? Did not really matter.
Like you, Roz, I paused over the oboe’s enumeration as it did hold me up for a while but it by no means dimmed my overall enjoyment .
Basilisk rocks.
Thanks Basilisk and Pete
17ac: I took this as definition “Outstanding person” then ON (supported by) + ER (the Queen).
Many thanks to Pete for the excellent blog and to everyone who has taken the time to solve and comment on the puzzle.
The intention with “Eastender’s somewhat” was indeed to indicate ‘ALF, and Pelham Barton @14 has the correct parsing of ONER.
I thought this was a fine puzzle but am now a little shocked that I managed to incorrectly parse three clues.
This was a challenge. I have never met Oboe Damore before. Oner, as an outstanding person is also a usage that I have never met before.
2ac is confusing. Surely it should be “requires hospital to leave attendant” rather than the other way round?
Malcolm @17,
I thought of it as USHER leaves (out) H to give USER.
I did wonder about this but satisfied myself that it works as Diane describes.
I came a cropper with this one after arriving at a number of correct answers which I found difficult to parse. I agree with 7a still not being quite right and am not quite happy with 26a but I admit that I was flummoxed by oboe d’amore. So this was a marathon for me rather than a sprint, and a marathon where I fell over rather too often! I remain in awe of the nina.
Thanks Basilisk and Pete
I usually have trouble with this setter, often leading to a mistake somewhere – maybe a reason for being so late to it. Happy to say that this one was completed in a single sitting with all answers correct, all parsing except for the ‘ALF bit of 5d accomplished but with a typical failure to see the nina.
Really enjoy the complexity of his clues that generally have excellent surface reading to them as well. Liked unravelling the subtraction anagrams at 22a and 26a and both KERNEL and ENDWISE brought appreciative nods.
Finished in the SE corner with MAGNET, PREMIERE and TAKE EFFECT the last few in.