Weekend puzzle from the FT of November 19, 2022
I understand that Leonidas is well known to solvers of FT’s weekday puzzles but this is the setter’s first Weekend appearance. It proved an enjoyable and reasonably fast solve for me. My favourite is 25 (MARMALADE) — which is a favourite fare for me too! Welcome and thanks to Leonidas.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SAPLING |
Youth flipping old man’s fish (7)
|
| PAS (old man’s) backwards (flipping) + LING (fish) | ||
| 5 | APIECE |
Each one stuffed with something baked (6)
|
| PIE (something baked) in (stuffed with) ACE (one) | ||
| 8 | MILESTONE |
Trumpeter at front of pitch for key event (9)
|
| MILES (trumpeter, i.e. Davis) + TONE (pitch) | ||
| 9 | EARLS |
Attention Lowry perhaps gives noblemen (5)
|
| EAR (attention) + LS (Lowry perhaps) with Lowry referring to the British artist L.S. Lowry | ||
| 11 | LUCRE |
Catholic overcome by enticement to see something filthy? (5)
|
| C (Catholic) in (overcome by) LURE (enticement) | ||
| 12 | TOP BANANA |
Kingpin’s best headgear shorn of diamonds (3,6)
|
| TOP (best) + BAN[d]ANA (headgear shorn of diamonds) | ||
| 13 | KITEMARK |
Indicator of quality cooked meat eaten by Captain (8)
|
| Anagram (cooked) of MEAT in (eaten by) KIRK (Captain). A kitemark is a certification symbol placed on products by the British Standards Institute. | ||
| 15 | ATTLEE |
PM extracting British from engagement with Spain (6)
|
| [b]ATTLE (extracting British from engagement) + E (Spain, i.e. España) | ||
| 17 | INCITE |
Encourage characters bringing together zinc items (6)
|
| Hidden word (characters bringing together) | ||
| 19 | LOG CABIN |
Record vehicle by empty Italian residence (3,5)
|
| LOG (record) + CAB (vehicle) + I[talia]N | ||
| 22 | HUNCHBACK |
Feeling support for Hugo’s character (9)
|
| HUNCH (feeling) + BACK (support) with ‘Hugo’ referring to French author Victor Hugo | ||
| 23 | LARVA |
Grub from back of cooker covered in hot stuff (5)
|
| [cooke]R in (covered in) LAVA (hot stuff) | ||
| 24 | TROPE |
European left over figure of speech (5)
|
| E (European) + PORT (left) backwards (over) | ||
| 25 | MARMALADE |
Mother and boy splitting horse fare for Paddington? (9)
|
| MA (mother) + LAD (boy) together in (splitting) MARE (horse) | ||
| 26 | REASON |
Not initiating a serious crime makes sense (6)
|
| [t]REASON (not initiating a serious crime) | ||
| 27 | LATINOS |
Some Americans sink money into Asian country (7)
|
| TIN (money) in (sink…into) LAOS (Asian country) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SOME LIKE IT HOT |
Film very masculine poet hugging Keith (4,4,2,3)
|
| KEITH (Keith) in (hugging) SO (very) + M (masculine) + ELIOT (poet) | ||
| 2 | POLECAT |
Animal chart regularly hung from post (7)
|
| POLE (post) + C[h]A[r]T | ||
| 3 | ISSUE |
Children with unlimited pieces of thin paper (5)
|
| [t]ISSUE[s] (unlimited pieces of thin paper) | ||
| 4 | GOOD TURN |
Revolutionary drug too new: one deserves another (4,4)
|
| Anagram (revolutionary) of DRAG TOO N (new) | ||
| 5 | ALEPPO |
Drink pop finally being promoted in Levantine city (6)
|
| ALE (drink) + POP (pop) with the last ‘P’ moved up (finally being promoted) | ||
| 6 | INELASTIC |
Unyielding island site clan reconfigured (9)
|
| Anagram (reconfigured) of I (island) SITE CLAN | ||
| 7 | CURTAIL |
Shorten most of drape length (7)
|
| CURTAI[n] (most of drape) + L (length) | ||
| 10 | SPACE INVADERS |
Chop pies and carve small game on screen (5,8)
|
| Anagram (chop) PIES AND CARVE + S (small) | ||
| 14 | MATCHLESS |
Superior maybe in need of a light (9)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | COCKEREL |
Noisy bird singer skinned well (8)
|
| [Joe] COCKER (singer) + [w]EL[l] | ||
| 18 | CONSOLE |
Comfort 10 often found on this? (7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 20 | BARGAIN |
Exclude spirit that’s consumed a good deal (7)
|
| BAR (exclude) + A (a) in (that’s consumed) GIN (spirit) | ||
| 21 | PAC-MAN |
18 classic elevated part of Vietnam capital (3-3)
|
| Reverse (elevated) hidden word (part of) | ||
| 23 | LEAPT |
Tips of pink tulips beneath meadow sprang up (5)
|
| LEA (meadow) + P[ink] T[ulips] |
Not much to add to what Pete wrote
I did not really have any favourites, but it was nostalgic to see SPACE INVADERS and PAC MAN.
KITE MARK is very British and unknown to me as someone that has never lived in the UK. Perhaps setters could mark peculiarly British words the same way they mark peculiarly Australian or American terms? I point out again that the majority of FT readers reside outside the UK.
Thanks Leonidas and Pete
Thanks for a great blog, really good set of clues and quite a lot of nostalgic references which I really like. SOME LIKE IT HOT was very neatly put together and I liked HUNCHBACK for the feeling.
PACMAN is the only computer game I have ever played .
I have an original 1970s Paddington Bear standing on my desk at work, I am told they are quite valuable, Paddington having a bit of a thing at the moment.
[ An S has escaped from your blog for 1AC, they are very slippery ]
Pleased to see one of my favourite setters this weekend and was surprised to whip through it fairly quickly. I usually have to get my brain in gear!
Like Roz and Pete, I particularly enjoyed KITEMARK, MARMALADE (lovely surface), SOME LIKE IT HOT and the connected 10, 18 and 21 though I was never a devotee of such games.
All cleanly clued thpugh I failed to parse APIECE.
Thanks to Leonidas and Pete for the blog.
When I saw that it was Leonidas in the old prize slot I was expecting a slog that would result in a DNF. I had the opposite experience. This crossword went in very quickly but I thought it was also very good with favourites being APIECE, MILESTONE, LARVA, SOME LIKE IT HOT, and ISSUE. I was unfamiliar with KITEMARK but Captain Kirk came to the rescue. Thanks to both.
Thanks to Pete M and all who have posted. Fair point, Martyn@1, KITEMARK slipped under the wire. I have enjoyed my first Weekend FT outing, see you all next time.
As Pete says, Leonidas is well known to solvers of FT’s weekday puzzles; he also appears, as Wire, in the Indy, where we struggled with his last offering. So we were pleaasantly surprised to raattle through this pretty quickly. At 5ac we had a feeling of déja vu as Paul had a similar clue in the Graun the other day. MILESTONE was one of our last ones in and a real d’oh! moment when we got it. It made a change to see ATTLEE as an answer for once instead of an element in wordplay which we have encountered a few times recently in various places.
Favourites were LARVA, MARMALADE and INELASTIC.
Thanks, Leonidas and Pete.