Gurney provides this morning's FT puzzle.
This was over far too quickly for me (the whole process including parsing and writing this blog has taken 35 minutes). It was a very enjoyable solve, but after my first pass of the across clues only 27ac was missing, and I think I would have got that had the enumeration been right. NON-ATTENDANCE needs a hyphen so it should have been (3-10). Because I had so many of the across solutions in place, the crossing letters helped me to complete all bar CRITERION and SPOKEN in the down clues. Once I worked out NON-ATTENDANCE, CRITERION was obvious, and SPOKEN soon followed.
Thanks, Gurney.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | COST-EFFECTIVE |
After review, TV cites coffee as good value (4-9)
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*(tv cites coffee) [anag:after review] |
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| 9 | PLATOON |
Military unit which is also in scheme (7)
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TOO ("also") in PLAN ("scheme") |
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| 10 | RETSINA |
Some clarets in Athens or another wine? (7)
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Hidden in [some] "claRETS IN Athens" |
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| 11 | ASIDE |
Arsenal’s first team in seclusion (5)
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A(rsenal) ['s first] + SIDE ("team") |
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| 12 | SPEARHEAD |
Leader of parade, he’s out of order (9)
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*(parade hes) [anag:out of order] |
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| 13 | NINETEEN |
Score just one short (8)
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"one short" of a "score" (20) is NINETEEN |
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| 15 | RESCUE |
Regret hiding key needed for delivery? (6)
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RUE ("regret") hiding ESC (escape "key" on a keyboard) |
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| 18 | SCREAM |
Society the best? A joke! (6)
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S (society) + CREAM ("the best") |
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| 19 | HIRELING |
Linger around after greeting mercenary (8)
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*(linger) [anag:around] after HI ("greeting") |
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| 22 | OBSTINATE |
Self-willed former pupil’s essentially fine in gallery (9)
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OB'S (old boy's, so "former pupil's") + [essentially] (f)IN(e) in TATE (Gallery) |
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| 24 | SNEER |
Barb from son? Never! Heartless! (5)
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S (son) + [heartless] NE(v)ER |
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| 25 | EVENING |
Period of levelling off (7)
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Double definition |
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| 26 | STAMINA |
Enduring quality of good person in morning I note, admirable from outset (7)
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St. (saint, so "good person") + A.M. (ante meridiem, so "in morning") + I + N (note) + A(dmirable) [from the outset] |
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| 27 | NONATTENDANCE |
Absence of new tenant, back working earlier, observed at social event (13)
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[back] <=ON ("working") earlier than (i.e. before) *(tenant) [anag:new] observed at DANCE ("social event") Enumeration should have been (3-10). |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CAPTAIN |
Chap, missing home at first, cheers popular team leader (7)
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C(h)AP missing H(ome) [at first] + TA ("cheers") + IN ("popular") |
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| 2 | STATIONER |
Source of something to write on Waterloo? I’m not sure (9)
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(Waterloo) STATION + ER ("I'm not sure") |
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| 3 | ELOPE |
Oddly ignored? Well, couple run off (5)
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[oddly (i.e odd letters) ignored] (w)E(l)L (c)O(u)P(l)E |
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| 4 | FINISHED |
Turned up home provided with outbuilding and needing no more done (8)
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[turned up] <=(IN ('at home") + IF ("provided")) with SHED ("outbuilding") |
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| 5 | CAREER |
Work run (6)
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Double definition |
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| 6 | INTERVENE |
Step in replacing thin veneer, not hard (9)
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*(tin veneer) [anag:replacing} where TIN is T(h)IN, but not H (hard) |
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| 7 | ELITE |
Part of hotel I term best (5)
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Hidden in [part of] "hotEL I TErm" |
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| 8 | HANDLE |
One offered to help with the French name (6)
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HAND ("one offered to help", as in "do you need a hand?") with LE ("the" in "French") |
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| 14 | TRADITION |
Enduring custom — conduct ultimately helping to protect police officer (9)
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(conduc)T [ultimately] + RATION ("helping") to protect DI (Detective Inspector, so "police officer") |
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| 16 | CRITERION |
Rising anger follows review covering standard (9)
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[rising] <=IRE ("anger") follows CRIT (criticism, so "review") + ON ("covering") |
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| 17 | LICENSEE |
Pub manager’s story about drunken scene (8)
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LIE ("story") about *(scene) [anag:drunken] |
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| 18 | SPOKEN |
Said to be almost used up — about right (6)
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[almost] SPEN(t) (used up") about OK ("right") |
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| 20 | GARBAGE |
Rock music style with second-class content? Nonsense (7)
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GARAGE ("rock music style") with B ("second-class") content (i.e. inside) |
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| 21 | CAUGHT |
Instructed with Charlie for time? Heard accurately (6)
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TAUGHT ("instructed") with C (Charlie) for (i.e. instead of) T (time) becomes (t>C)AUGHT |
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| 23 | STERN |
Authoritarian back (5)
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Double definition |
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| 24 | STAND |
Street with exhibition area (5)
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St. (street) + AND ("with") |
Very similar experience here – only SPOKEN and CRITERION took this past the 10 minute mark. Not that solving time is necessarily an indicator of clue quality; this was an enjoyable puzzle, thanks, Gurney and Loonapick.
I would prefer a hyphen in NONATTENDANCE (as it is given in Chambers) but I’ve seen it without and I think it’s acceptable – hyphens can seem fussy to modern tastes, except where needed to avoid ambiguity. Maybe it’s an FT house style thing?
I was going to say that 27a should have been (3-10), but I see loonapick has beaten me to it. No obscurities, nothing controversial and nothing too British (Waterloo station’s fine!), which is how I like ’em.
Plenty of smiles, thanks Gurney.
A neat, almost wrinkle-free puzzle from Gurney that would be a good one for those new to crosswords.
Loonapicks’s parsing confirms the one clue I wasn’t entirely sure of, ie, whether ‘on’ represented ‘covering’ (16d).
My favourites were the cleanly clued PLATOON and SPOKEN.
Thanks to Gurney and Loonapick.
Thanks Gurney for a pleasant crossword. I needed a word finder for SPOKEN but all else went in quickly. Favourites were COST-EFFECTIVE (good anagram), EVENING, LICENSEE, and STAND. Thanks loonapick for the blog.
Thanks for the blog , good set of clues , many very concise. A hyphen for 1Ac but not 27Ac ? I favour them being ignored in crosswords.
Many thanks, Loonapick, for the excellent blog and thanks also to those who commented.
Hyphenation follows Collins dictionary (which is available free on-line).
Managed 7 clues. Thought I was on to something, then the wheels fell off.
The slog goes on, but I’ll be back for more.
[Steffen: Looking at the times of your Guardian post and this post my guess is that you’re not spending enough time trying to solve the clues. Clues often need a second or third look to see them differently.]
Steffen@7 when I was learning I used to spend all week on a crossword, Everyman and Monday Guardian , going back to them as Tony says . I would do twenty minutes here and there . The best way to get better is to be very stubborn , do fewer puzzles, and do not look at the answers anywhere for a week.