Puzzle from the Weekend FT of October 14, 2023
My first-in was 6 (NONET) and last was 21 (HAIRDO). My favourites are 4 (INSOMNIAC) for its clever definition, 5a (BUN FIGHT) for its fighting spirit, 8 (HATHAWAY) for its sly definition, 11 (STREAM for its simplicity) and 26 (PLASMA) for its gory wordplay.
Thank you Neo for a very enjoyable puzzle.
ACROSS
1 Magical character one’s associated with Black Country (6)
BRUNEI – B (black) + RUNE (magical character) + I (one)
5 What might be Chelsea versus Bath? Noisy occasion! (3,5)
BUN FIGHT – double definition with the first cryptically referring to two types of bun, Chelsea buns and Bath buns
9 Doctor prescribed after damage seen in monkey (8)
MARMOSET – MAR (damage) + MO (doctor, i.e. Medical Officer) + SET (prescribed)
10 South Bank gallery closed down? Record in writing (6)
NOTATE – NO TATE (South Bank gallery closed down?)
11 Way sheets of paper burn (6)
STREAM – ST (way) + REAM (sheets of paper) with a Scottish definition
12 Spontaneous occurrence in public holiday (8)
OUTBREAK – OUT (public) + BREAK (holiday)
14 Moving critter to ark — an American custom (5,2,5)
TRICK OR TREAT – anagram (moving) of CRITTER TO ARK
18 Two adults run ahead to catch country composer (5,7)
AARON COPLAND – A (adult) + A (adult) + R (run) + ON (ahead) + COP (to catch) + LAND (country)
22 Tea taken by unprepossessing clergyman (8)
CHAPLAIN – CHA (tea) + PLAIN (unprepossessing)
25 In which we find leaves gathered for potting? (3,3)
TEA BAG – cryptic definition
26 Blood component — litres pumped into paternal grandmother? (6)
PLASMA – L (litres) in (pumped into) PA’S MA (paternal grandmother)
27 What’s white and sparkling as teeth? (8)
CHAMPERS – double definition
28 Soldier with large snake taken round curved path (8)
PARABOLA – PARA (soldier) L (large) in (taken round) BOA (snake)
29 People’s Knight having effect, ousting Camelot’s leader (6)
NATION – N (knight) + A[c]TION (effect ousting ‘C’)
DOWN
2 Retreat back to Venetian district (6)
RIALTO – LAIR (retreat) backwards (back) + TO (to)
3 Vice and brace under freezer? (6,3)
NUMBER TWO – NUMBER (freezer) + TWO (brace)
4 Bother, Monica’s in — she won’t get off lightly! (9)
INSOMNIAC – anagram (bother) of MONICAS IN
5 The Half Moon? Male revolutionary outrageous inside (7)
BUTTOCK – OTT (outrageous, i.e. over the top) backwards (revolutionary) in (inside) BUCK (male)
6 National Trust engages a certain ensemble (5)
NONET – ONE (a certain) in (engages) NT (National Trust)
7 Playwright of menace blowing top in Bury (5)
INTER – [p]INTER (playwright of menace blowing top)
Harold Pinter’s early plays are sometimes referred to as “comedies of menace”.
8 Getting out after hours at hotel, wife left bed (8)
HATHAWAY – H (hours) + AT (at) + H (hotel) + AWAY (out) with the definition referring to William Shakespeare who, famously in his will, left his wife Anne Hathaway his second-best bed.
13 Vampire perhaps in cricket club? (3)
BAT – double definition
15 Radiator cracked on new Aussie truck (4,5)
ROAD TRAIN – anagram (cracked) of RADIATOR + N (new)
16 Maybe cat in northern town gets special welcome? (3,6)
RED CARPET – REDCAR (northern town) + PET (maybe cat)
17 Deity with ladies for example elevated in palace of bliss (8)
VALHALLA – ALLAH (deity) + LAV (ladies for example) all backwards (elevated)
19 There’s nothing lying around in Hillingdon (3)
NIL – reverse (around) hidden word (lying in)
20 Pot very good with a remedy (7)
PANACEA – PAN (pot) + ACE (very good) + A (a)
21 One involved in puzzling over style (6)
HAIRDO – I (one) in (involved in) HARD (puzzling) + O (over)
23 Military title remains in old man’s possession (5)
PASHA – ASH (remains) in (‘s possession) PA (old man)
24 Apprehension of danger losing right old battle (5)
ALAMO – ALA[r]M (apprehension of danger losing right) + O (old)
My last one in was HAIRDO also
Neat cluing from Neo. Favourites were OUTBREAK, PLASMA, HAIRDO and TRICK OR TREAT for their surfaces (and I am a sucker for a good anagram), with CHAPMERS for its cleverness.
Thanks for explaining why HATHAWAY = “wife left bed”. Would someone please explain why brace = TWO, and the purpose of “lightly” in 4D?
Aside from the story about Anne Hathaway being left the bed, not too many unknowns this week. It took me all the crossers to realise there must be such a thing as a Bath bun, I did not connect rune with magical character and I do wonder how we are expected to know of Redcar – a small geographically remote village.
All in all, not easy but enjoyable. Thanks Neo and thanks also to Pete.
errr, CHAMPERs that is
Martyn@1
NUMBER TWO
To score a ‘brace’ in football means: ‘score two goals in a game’.
I think ‘brace’ just means ‘a pair’/’a couple’.
A brace of shirts, birds….anything is possible, as I understand.
INSOMNIAC
She won’t fall asleep lightly/easily–This is my understanding.
Top faves: BUTTOCK and CHAMPERS.
Thanks, Neo and Pete!
Thanks KVa@2.
I have never heard brace used for football. Given I hardly watch it, it is not surprising. But you made me remember references in hunting scenes in novels (not a hunter myself). Thank you.
I felt the same way as you about lightly but I was wondering whether there is a meaning I had missed, given Neo words his clues so tightly and the clue would work just as well without lightly. Does not sound like it.
Glad you liked CHAMPERS too.
Thanks Neo for an excellent crossword. My favourites included NOTATE, TRICK OR TREAT, RIALTO, BUTTOCK, and VALHALLA. I didn’t understand BUN FIGHT, not knowing either type of bun. I also didn’t get the “white and sparkling” portion of CHAMPERS nor did I fully twig HATHAWAY. Despite these failures I enjoyed this. Thanks Pete for the blog.
Thanks for the blog, very enjoyable puzzle, neat wordplay throughout the clues. I agree with all the favourites mentioned . Some imaginative definitions here.
Martyn and KVa , yes brace mainly from the awful world of shooting, perhaps a brace of pheasants the most common usage. Our market still sells birds by the brace.
4d – INSOMNIAC – Bother, Monica’s in — she won’t get off lightly! (9) – https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/get_off_lightly
Given the bother she’s in, Monica won’t receive a milder punishment than she deserves.
Very enjoyable with some lovely surfaces. Notate my favourite.
“X bagged a brace for Fulchester” could easily be part of a fairly standard, perhaps slightly old school, sports report.
@1 Martyn I assume the comment about Redcar is tongue in cheek. Hope so, anyway.
Martyn@1 try and track down the story “Casting the Runes ” by M.R. James , but do not let anyone hand it to you.
Let’s hear it for Redcar!!
Good puzzle … thanks Neo n Pete Maclean
…continued from @8 – According to this recent Observer article “Monica” Lewinsky is still being punished 25 years later:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/08/once-shamed-forever-a-slut-doomed-to-stay-in-the-internet-spotlight
She certainly didn’t “get off lightly”.
Can somebody tell me why, at 3 down, vice = number two? Ta
In the ‘Vice=Deputy’ sense.
Thanks Neo and Pete
Martyn @ 1 Redcar is very well known as a horse-racing course.
Keith @ 13 it’s vice in the sense of deputy, eg vice-captain.
Thanks Neo and Pete
16dn (RED CARPET) – from Wikipedia as of 21 October 10:55 UK time:
Redcar is a seaside town on the Yorkshire Coast in the Redcar and Cleveland unitary authority in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It is located 7 miles (11 km) east of Middlesbrough. The Teesside built-up area’s Redcar subdivision had a population of 37,073 at the 2011 Census.
Whatever Redcar is, it is not “a small geographically remote village”.
Great puzzle from Neo as ever. My wife comes from Redcar, so I’ve been asking her what life was like in the village (population c.30 000). I’d best not repeat her comments here. Thanks to Neo and Pete
KVa @14, thank you.
Hello all, and thanks for comments. Thanks too to Pete for his great blog.
The INSOMNIAC def is intended to convey the idea that insomniacs do sleep, but that they don’t generally get enough of it. So, as someone said up the thread, you don’t get off easily, but you do (occasionally) get off. Apparently it affects one in three in UK, esp the elderly, and presumably anyone being tortured as per sleep deprivation. I recommend Calpol in the form of Guinness as a remedy, and voting Conservative*.
* not really.
The defence of Redcar has been quite touching to read. I must confess to a certain amount of cheek in my “small and remote” comment. But there was a point. Aside from someone deeply into horse racing, how would anyone outside UK have heard of this town on the north coast of Yorkshire with an unlikely name and a population of 37,000?
Great puzzle, although we couldn’t get the CHAMPERS/HAIRDO crossers. We liked STREAM, PARABOLA and HATHAWAY among others. It was a little unfortunate, we thought, that ‘tea’ should occur in the clue to 22ac and the answer to the adjacent 25ac; not really a problem though.
Redcar is not only noted for horse racing. Much of the (now closed) Teesside Steelworks complex was located in Redcar.
Thanks, Neo and Pete.
Nice to see Martyn coming in again for the Neo thread, as we were denied his opinions on the September offering. James comes in for the Tees ones sometimes.
In the US, we might have said “Monica’s in trouble. She won’t get off lightly” to capture the surface.
Very good puzzle. Thank you Neo and Pete.