Puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 10, 2014
Continuing a run of top-notch setters we have a puzzle in fine form by Rosa. My first-in was 8 (BLEMISH) and I finished with 6 (PEAFOWL). My favourites are 1d (CILIA), 3 (DYSPEPSIA), 5 (YACKS), 20 (EDGE) and 21 (VAUDEVILLE).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | COMEDY |
Director replacing line in pretty funny play (6)
|
| COMELY (pretty) with the ‘L’ (line) replaced by ‘D’ (director) | ||
| 4 | MYOPIC |
One’s work initially is cliched and short-sighted (6)
|
| MY (one’s) + OP (work) + I[s] C[liched] | ||
| 8 | BLEMISH |
Part of problem is his fault (7)
|
| Hidden word (part of) | ||
| 9 | SCRAPPY |
Ragged rear of malodorous pants (7)
|
| [malodorou]S + CRAPPY (pants, in the sense of poor quality) | ||
| 11 | LAWN TENNIS |
Lenin wasn’t playing game (4,6)
|
| Anagram (playing) of LENIN WASNT | ||
| 12 | OURS |
Setters’ occasional uncouthness riles some at first (4)
|
| O[ccasional] U[ncouthness] R[iles] S[ome] | ||
| 13 | ASSES |
Nanas heading off amorous advances (5)
|
| [p]ASSES (heading off amorous advances) | ||
| 14 | RUTHLESS |
Husband stifled by routine without becoming unfeeling (8)
|
| H (husband) in (stifled by) RUT (routine) + LESS (without) | ||
| 16 | SHIPYARD |
I spy hard rum in dock (8)
|
| Anagram (rum) of I SPY HARD | ||
| 18 | ASHEN |
Grey layer on sides of Agas (5)
|
| A[ga]S + HEN (layer) | ||
| 20 | EDGE |
Incisiveness of Heidegger regularly noted (4)
|
| [h]E[i]D[e]G[g]E[r] | ||
| 21 | VAUDEVILLE |
Liberal luvvie led a variety show (10)
|
| Anagram (liberal) of LUVVIE LED A | ||
| 23 | COPIOUS |
Generous officer promises to pay (7)
|
| COP (officer) + IOUS (promises to pay) | ||
| 24 | SILENCE |
Still seeing that entertaining lassie after vacation (7)
|
| L[assi]E in (entertaining) SINCE (seeing that) | ||
| 25 | SHEATH |
Heartily kissing ex-PM in close-fitting dress (6)
|
| [kis]S[ing] + HEATH (ex-PM) | ||
| 26 | UNUSED |
University students, extremely entitled and idle (6)
|
| U (university) + NUS (students, i.e. National Union of Students) + E[ntitle]D | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CILIA |
Pain mounting after 101 lashes (5)
|
| CI (101) + AIL (pain) backwards (mounting) | ||
| 2 | MOMENTS |
Import last of files in seconds (7)
|
| MOMENT (import) + [file]S | ||
| 3 | DYSPEPSIA |
Pepys said to suffer indigestion (9)
|
| Anagram (to suffer) of PEPYS SAID | ||
| 5 | YACKS |
About to feed cattle and rabbits (5)
|
| C (about, short for circa) in (to feed) YAKS (cattle) | ||
| 6 | PEAFOWL |
Reportedly water-repellent bird (7)
|
| Homophone (reportedly) of “pee foul” (water repellent) | ||
| 7 | CAPARISON |
Criminal pinching a Trojan horse’s finery (9)
|
| A (a) + PARIS (Trojan) in (pinching) CON (criiminal) | ||
| 10 | SNARE DRUM |
Half of Cubans backing racehorse that gets beaten (5,4)
|
| [cub]ANS (backwards) + RED RUM (racehorse) | ||
| 13 | ANHYDROUS |
Mixed our shandy without water (9)
|
| Anagram (mixed) of OUR SHANDY | ||
| 15 | TRAGEDIAN |
Actor and oddball are dating (9)
|
| Anagram (oddball) of ARE DATING | ||
| 17 | PUERILE |
Childish whimper stopped by Tudor queen (7)
|
| ERI (Tudor queen, i.e. Elizabeth Regina I) in (stopped by) PULE (whimper) | ||
| 19 | HEIRESS |
One inheriting their mess after leaders ousted (7)
|
| [h]HEIR .[m]ESS | ||
| 21 | VAULT |
Cellar clearance (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 22 | LUCID |
Clear clue uncovered by detectives (5)
|
| [c]LU[e] + CID (detectives) |
Quick solve but oh what fun! Perhaps the best Rosa puzzle I’ve done so far. Like Pete, I admired CILIA but my hands-down favourite was the wonderful doubly defined VAULT.
Thanks to our gifted setter and to Pete for his usual sterling blog.
Sorry, one more…the surface for VAUDEVILLE was particularly inspired.
Clean surfaces, concise wording, clear cluing, minimal obscurities and even a sense of humour beneath the surface. What more would you want from a weekend crossword? I was thinking exactly the same as Diane@1: perhaps the best Rosa puzzle so far.
My favourites were different to Pete’s for a change, and in the end most clues deserved ticks of approval. Slightly embarrassingly, I mixed up my nouns & adjectives and boldly entered PEACOCK for 6d at first. I had never heard of pants meaning rubbish (I thought malodorous was doing double duty) and pule was new to me too.
Thanks Rosa Klebb and Pete
Such lovely smooth surfaces and love the humour. I got MYOPIC in first, but I’ve been wearing glasses a long time to correct my myopia.
Thank you to Pete Maclean and Rosa Klebb.
Has Rosa Klebb ever written a bad clue? I didn’t think so. This crossword had plenty of excellent ones including BLEMISH, RUTHLESS, SILENCE, UNUSED (great surface), CILIA, and LUCID. Thanks Rosa, and thanks Pete for the blog.
Thanks Rosa and Pete!
Enjoyed it all!
Shanne@4
Liked your comment! 🙂
As always lovely puzzle with great surfaces. Wish we saw Rosa more often.
Favourites included: SNAREDRUM, PUERILE, YACKS, LUCID
VAUDEVILLE was a great anagram.
Not heard of CAPARISON but gettable.
Thanks Rosa Klebb and Pete
An insomnia solve because I saw it was recently blogged (after coming here looking for a parsing on zamorca’s 17658 – done around 0230!)
Lovely well-made crossword. I have only recently started FT crosswords and I feel the quality is very high.
Thanks Setter and Blogger
Noticed how, in the app, the down clues are so LUCID and concise that they fit on the screen with four blank lines to spare, and no need to scroll down at all, at all.
It’s even more apparent in the dead tree edition – acres of space, not even marked with the usual “JOTTER PAD” (because you wouldn’t need to jot anything down).
Thanks RK&PM – “Not bad” (my highest praise)
Thanks for a great blog, Diane@1 says it all. I liked SNAREDRUM with the horse not involved in murder for once. I had better not comment on UNUSED.
A great spot for EDGE – Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar who could think you under the table.
Thanks Rosa and Pete. Was 12ac (OURS) a deliberate allusion to 9ac (SCRAPPY)?
Small correction on the parsing of 7dn, which needs to be:
A (a) PARIS (Trojan) in (pinching) CON (criiminal)
I’m totally in accord with Tony Santucci’s opening @5. Rosa on top form – but when isn’t she?
As always, too many ticks to list them all but I must just mention the superb anagrams (as well as VAUDEVILLE, already praised), in LAWN TENNIS, DYSPEPSIA (actually, according to Wiki, it was bladder stones that plagued Pepys for much of his life), 13dn ANHYDROUS and 15dn TRAGEDIAN, along with CAPARISON, a lovely clue for a lovely word – I remember being charmed when I first met it in primary school.
No one else has mentioned it, so perhaps I’m the only one for whom PULE was new. It put me in mind of ‘the infant mewling and puking in his nurse’s arms’ – from around the same time, according to Collins.
Many thanks, as ever, to Rosa and to Pete.
Eileen,
I doubt very much that you’d be the only one for whom PULE was new. I confess that the definition and crossers were enough for me to clinch this one.
I cannot remember where I know PULE from.
To Pelham#11 (and Pete) surely it is finger and thumb that are outside and do the pinching, so here it is the CON that “pinches” A PARIS?
Brian L @15: CON “pinches” A PARIS is equivalent to A PARIS in CON. Pete’s style is always to give things in the order “X in Y” (see also the parsing for 24ac). When offering my correction, I kept to the basic format that Pete was using. Personally I think it is a strength of this site that different bloggers have their own individual ways of doing things.
Thanks, Pelham. I’m quite happy with 24ac. Entertaining is allowing someone or something to come in.
Very enjoyable. I think the CAPARISON clue is parsed correctly in the blog.
lady gewgaw@18: The correct version is there now. Originally the first A was missing.
Thought I knew PULE, but maybe I was just Spoonerising Eileen@12’s “mewling and puking” to “puling and mewking”.
oed.com has lots of quotations here, but none I’d ever have come across.
That link won’t work unless, in the UK, you join your local library, and sign in with your library’s name (first few letters) and 14-digit library card number (I paste mine from a permanently open text file).