Puzzle from the Weekend FT of September 2, 2023
Mudd set this crossword to go with the FT’s FTWeekend Festival and several people who are speaking at this event are included. I have coloured the names in the grid.
Mudd does a fine job of including relevant names and gives us some great clues too, notably I think 1 (NIMBUS), 18 (PSEUDO) and 27 (IMPUNITY).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | NIMBUS |
Rayner announced? Hiding in kitchen, I’m busy! (6)
|
| Hidden word (hiding in) with a homophone definition of “rainer” | ||
| 5 | HANGOVER |
Hospital an intergovernmental minister runs — big headache! (8)
|
| H (hospital) + AN (an) + GOVE (intergovernmental minister, i.e. Michael Gove) + R (runs) | ||
| 9 | CREAM TEA |
With jam finally going in, make a light meal (5,3)
|
| [ja]M in (going in) CREATE (make) + A (a) | ||
| 10 | THEFT |
Crime in newspaper? (5)
|
| THE FT (newspaper) | ||
| 11 | NEIL JORDAN |
Irishman making pictures put country on wiggly line (4,6)
|
| Anagram (wiggly) of LINE + JORDAN (country) with the definition referring to the Irish film director who is perhaps best known for The Crying Game. | ||
| 14 | MONS |
Battle covered by Simon Schama (4)
|
| Hidden word (covered by) | ||
| 15 | FI GLOVER |
Journalist and broadcaster, fan of fruit? (2,6)
|
| FIG LOVER (fan of fruit) | ||
| 17 | CELLAR |
Where wine found, someone flogging it to the speaker? (6)
|
| Homophone (to the speaker) of “seller” (someone flogging) | ||
| 18 | PSEUDO |
Counterfeit, native American money, reportedly? (6)
|
| Homophone (reportedly) of “Sioux dough” (native American money!) | ||
| 20 | DETONATE |
Set off from school in time (8)
|
| ETON (school) in (in) DATE (time). We had a very similar clue in last weekend’s Moo. | ||
| 22 | DISH |
Food served up, gorgeous thing (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 23 | STREET CRED |
Cachet in clubs rare by the way (6,4)
|
| STREET (the way) + C (clubs) + RED (rare) | ||
| 25 | AMBER |
Rudd with fishy bream? (5)
|
| Anagram (fishy) of BREAM with the definition referring to the former Conservative politician | ||
| 27 | IMPUNITY |
I play with words, it’s in my freedom to break rules (8)
|
| I (I) + PUN (play with words) + IT (it) together in (‘s in) MY (my) | ||
| 29 | MIXED BAG |
Potpourri, GBA? (5,3)
|
| Reverse clue: “mixed bag” could clue GBA | ||
| 30 | REEVES |
Severe labouring for Shadow Chancellor (6)
|
| Anagram (labouring) of SEVERE with the definition referring to Rachel Reeves, the current Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | ISRAELI |
National PM once doffing cap (7)
|
| [d]ISRAELI | ||
| 3 | BRAWL |
Shout about right for noisy fight (5)
|
| R (right) in (about) BAWL (shout) | ||
| 4 | SIT |
All kicking off with simply incredible theatre, take a pew! (3)
|
| S[imply] I[ncredible] T[heatre] | ||
| 5 | HOARDER |
One keeps everything: more difficult keeping nothing (7)
|
| O (nothing) in (keeping) HARDER (more difficult) | ||
| 6 | NOT |
Far from urban, alfresco event ultimately (3)
|
| [urba]N [alfresc]O [even]T | ||
| 7 | OGEN MELON |
Fruit, lemon gone wrong (4,5)
|
| Anagram (wrong) of LEMON GONE. An ogen is a small melon with a green skin and sweet pale green flesh.
It was named after a kibbutz in Israel where it was first developed. |
||
| 8 | ESTONIA |
Land observed climbing in Dubai, not sea (7)
|
| Reverse (climbing) hidden word (observed…in) | ||
| 12 | OBVIOUS |
Opening bank vaults first of all, promissory notes plain to see (7)
|
| O[pening] B[ank] V[aults] + IOUS (promissory notes) | ||
| 13 | NECKTIE |
Drink taken before match — something formal? (7)
|
| NECK (drink) + TIE (match) | ||
| 16 | LAUGHABLE |
Absurd, ridiculous label inscribed with a word expressing revulsion (9)
|
| A (a) + UGH (a word expressing revulsion) together in (inscribed with) anagram (ridiculous) of LABEL | ||
| 19 | SLIMANI |
Slight injustice originally inspiring an author from Morocco (7)
|
| SLIM (slight) + AN (an) + I[njustice] with the definition referring to Leila Slimani (who is new to me) | ||
| 20 | DARLING |
Alistair, sweetie! (7)
|
| Double definition with the first referring to the Labour politician. | ||
| 21 | TRESTLE |
Supportive structure in anagram of letters (7)
|
| Anagram of LETTERS | ||
| 24 | CANOE |
Vessel, one empty boat (5)
|
| CAN (vessel) + O[n]E | ||
| 26 | RIB |
Josh, one of those in a cage (3)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | PAR |
Bit short — not quite a birdie! (3)
|
| PAR[t] (bit short) |
I have not heard of 90% of these people, and even an OGEN MELON is new to me, so it was quite the adventure this week.
I did get there and did parse almost everything. As usual, I failed to spot the reverse clue for GBA – so thanks for the showing me that, Pete. Favourites were IMPUNITY, THE FT and SLIMAMI.
Would someone mind explaining why make = crate, please?
It is always nice to do a Mudd puzzle, so thanks to Mudd and thanks also to the ever-informative and reliable Pete.
CREAM TEA
Martyn@1
make=CREATE.
Or are you referring to some other clue?
IMPUNITY
A minor omission
The opening I in the clue is not included in the explanation.
KVa@2 create and not crate! Thank you for the reply and apologies for my temporary inability to read English. Looking at my crumbled page, I realise I even had that as part of my solution.
AMBER
More catch in the surface beyond the cryptic angle:
AMBER-fish, Rudd, bream and fishy!
REEVES
Severe ‘labour’ing! What’s Left to do?
Loved SIOUX DOUGH (also LOGGER RHYTHM & KINK EARN NEWT) – all by “John Halpern – FT crossword setter Mudd” – aka Paul
NIMBUS – “Jay Rayner – The Observer‘s restaurant critic” would be “Hiding in kitcheN, I’M BUSy!”
EarWorm: Dave Berry –The Crying Game(1964) – the original and best version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIAfvWVFEt8
Thanks for a great blog and grid , DETONATE turned up a third time on Thursday . Tramp in the Guardian – Set off from school during particular time (8) . I suppose these things must happen occasionally.
I did know all the names apart from SLIMANI , I thought the clues for them were very fair and I hope it was okay for non-UK solvers.
Frankie@ 8 , I was thinking Angela Rayner for NIMBUS but your kitchen idea works better.
Thanks Mudd. I enjoyed this despite total ignorance of the theme and missing both NEIL JORDAN and SLIMANI. My favourites were HANGOVER, PSEUDO, HOARDER, and LAUGHABLE. Thanks Pete for the blog.
[Roz @7: I noticed the repetitiion of DETONATE as well. ISRAELI in this crossword was much like DISRAELI clued by Tyrus (Vlad) on Sept. 2nd as “PM with Dutch national”. I think setters must use common software programs or other aids for creating clues because this repetition happens more frequently than mere coincidence would suggest.]
Thanks as always for the blog Pete.
Also thanks to Roz and TonyS for identifying the word of the week.
Thankfully Mudd’s clueing made having a decent go at the clues involving names possible. From this side of the world this was more a “googleword” than a crossword where most of those names were concerned.
Still, all good fun. Now for this week with my breakfast coffee.
The 21d TRESTLE clue (“anagram of letters”) seems rather lame. I wonder whether Mudd had done half the clue and wrote “anagram of letters” as an instruction to himself to finish the clue.
I especially liked 18a PSEUDO, and I thought 5a HANGOVER was hilarious political commentary. Thanks Mudd and Pete for the fun.
Roz@8 – Jay is on this list of 166 speakers, whereas Angela isn’t, and Claire couldn’t be:
https://ukftweekendfestival.live.ft.com/page/2852868/speakers
Thx Pete v much for the blog. And I should say I went to the FT festival and met Mudd and Basilisk who attended a session and solved and talked about the puzzles. Both absolutely lovely people and a brilliant session, particularly inclusive for those like me who like doing the puzzles but rarely get many clues. They both recommended fifteensquared.net I should add. Thanks to them and this whole community.