Puzzle from the Weekend FT of December 21, 2024
Gozo usually appears around holiday time and here he is with a puzzle that includes three Scottish islands. Ah, but even more if you count hidden ones! So, fitteen Scottish islands: Coll, Arran, North/South Ronaldsay, Harris, Mull, Bass Rock, Iona, Islay, Hoy, Tiree, Stroma, Jura, Bute and two that I, a Scotsman, had never heard of Lee and Seil. Or seventeen if we count SKIE/SKLYE and EGG/EIGG. Or maybe nineteen if we dare to count BERMUDA. What a feat! Applause for Gozo, please.
My first-in was 5 (ALOFT) and last was 10 (JURANT), a new word for me. My favourites are 12 (SUNSTROKE), 18 (HARRISON) and 25 (WARRANTED).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | COLLAPSE |
Fall down at pass. What a mistake! (8)
|
| COL (pass) + LAPSE (what a mistake) | ||
| 5 | ABSEIL |
Get down to rock bottom (6)
|
| Cryptic definition. (I was originally unsure about this and thank commenters for confirming it.) | ||
| 9 | RATIONAL |
On trial, a criminal who’s not lost it (8)
|
| Anagram (criminal) of ON TRIAL A | ||
| 10 | JURANT |
Making an oath, managed project outside (6)
|
| RAN (managed) in (outside) JUT (project) | ||
| 12 | SUNSTROKE |
Holiday ailment affected Turk’s nose (9)
|
| Anagram (affected) of TURKS NOSE | ||
| 13 | SCRUM |
Huddle showing resistance in film (5)
|
| R (resistance) in (in) SCUM (film) | ||
| 14 | AHOY |
Call to leading airman and Olympic champion cyclist (4)
|
| A[irman] + HOY (Olympic champion cyclist) with the latter referring to Sir Chris Hoy.. | ||
| 16 | TRIBUTE |
British university in hackneyed accolade (7)
|
| B (British) + U (university) together in (in) TRITE (hackneyed) | ||
| 19 | GRADUAL |
Greek F1 driver coming back by degrees (7)
|
| GR (Greek) + LAUDA (F1 driver, Nikki) backwards (coming back) | ||
| 21 | BASS |
Rock singer (4)
|
| Double definition with the first referring to is an island in the Firth of Forth. | ||
| 24 | TIREE |
Initial investigation into family line on isle (5)
|
| I[nvestigation] in (into) TREE (family line) | ||
| 25 | WARRANTED |
Justified fighting and shouted (9)
|
| WAR (fighting) + RANTED (shouted) | ||
| 27 | MISLAY |
Mass killer’s confession: ‘Forget where’ (6)
|
| M (mass) + homophone (confession) of “I slay” | ||
| 28 | MULLIONS |
Cornish resort’s window parts (8)
|
| Double definition with the first referring to the resort village of Mullion in Cornwall. | ||
| 29 | RONALD |
Hamburger mascot otherwise named Wesker or Rat? (6)
|
| Anagram (otherwise named) of ‘ARNOLD [Wesker]’ (the British playwright) and of ‘ROLAND [Rat]’ a British television puppet character. | ||
| 30 | BASE CAMP |
Bottom affected at start of the climb (4,4)
|
| BASE (bottom) + CAMP (affected) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CARESS |
Pet shop’s opening under many worries (6)
|
| CARES (many worries) + S[hop] | ||
| 2 | LATENT |
Hidden overdue books (6)
|
| LATE (overdue) + NT (books) | ||
| 3 | ALOFT |
Float freely, on high overhead (5)
|
| Anagram (freely) of FLOAT | ||
| 4 | SHADOWY |
Dim and ostentatious, nowadays, inside (7)
|
| AD (nowadays) in (inside) SHOWY (ostentatious) | ||
| 6 | BLUE SKIES |
Having little practical relevance, like buses could be (4-5)
|
| Anagram (could be) of LIKE BUSES | ||
| 7 | EVA BRAUN |
Awfully brave relative has no time for WW2 photographer (3,5)
|
| Anagram (awfully) of BRAVE + AUN[t] (relative has no time) | ||
| 8 | LETS MEET |
Shall we get together and settle with me writhing (4,4)
|
| Anagram (writhing) of SETTLE ME | ||
| 11 | SETT |
Home for French joiner in street (4)
|
| ET (French joiner!) in (in) ST (street) | ||
| 15 | HOUSE CALL |
Doctor ‘s visit — ho ho! (5,4)
|
| HO (house) + HO (call) | ||
| 17 | EGG TIMER |
Get grime mixed with a drop of sand (3,5)
|
| Anagram mixed of GET GRIME | ||
| 18 | HARRISON |
Ford out horse-racing without GCE (8)
|
| Anagram (out) of HORS[e] RA[c]IN[g] | ||
| 20 | LAWN |
Garden feature with heads of lobelia and wisteria needed (4)
|
| L[obelia] A[nd] W[isteria] N[eeded] | ||
| 21 | BERMUDA |
Triangular shorts! (7)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 22 | STROMA |
Island saint on European capital (6)
|
| ST (saint) + ROMA (European capital) | ||
| 23 | ADDS UP |
Does some maths — that seems reasonable! (4,2)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 26 | ALLEE |
No good to maintain garden path (5)
|
| ALLE[g]E (no good to maintain) |
5A: Cryptic definition
27A: M (mass) + “I SLAY.”
I don’t think I remembered Eva Braun as a photographer, but it is right there in her Wikipedia entry. I found this puzzle pretty difficult in places, but I think that the clues are OK–mostly a matter of words/references that were not familiar to me.
Lots of mostly Scottish islands hidden in this – ISLAY, MULL, COLL, TIREE, JURA, HOY, STROMA, HARRIS, ARRAN, ROMA, RUM, IONA – not all Hebrides as HOY is part of Orkney. BASS is an islet, ish and BERMUDA.
I thought ABSEIL was a cryptic-ish definition too.
Thanks Gozo and Pete
5ac and 27ac: I agree with earlier comments
29ac: I looked for a Ronald Wesker, but did not find one, so this appears to be a pair of linked indirect anagrams. I know that Azed has done single versions of this sort of thing at least twice, across a period of over fifty years, and of course Azed has no authority in the FT. Perhaps this is a case where doing the same thing twice in the clue actually makes it easier for the solver.
Small point: there is (currently) superfluous underlining in the parsing of 16ac.
I also got a few more islands: SEIL, BUTE, LEE, and perhaps EGG (Eigg) and SKIE (Skye)… Fun crossword. Thanks Gozo and Pete!
Not long ago we had the clue ‘Rock singer (5)’ for SIREN – A much better clue imo.
A crossword in two parts for me. I greatly appreciated the many lovely surfaces that were witty and concise. But the bottom half needed so much GK that I wondered whether I was doing the Polymath.
I loved RATIONAL (great surface and anagram), and also ticked TRIBUTE, WARRANTED (clever and simple observation), CARESS, HOUSE CALL.
A few frowns, but aside from my GK harrumph I thought it was a top-class puzzle
Thanks Gozo and Pete
MISLAY and HOUSE CALL were my faves.
Thanks Gozo and Pete
Thanks Gozo. I missed the islands even though I know many of them and have even visited Islay. I failed with RONALD and couldn’t parse ALLEE but all else eventually fell with TRIBUTE, EVA BRAUN, and BERMUDA being my podium. Thanks Pete for the blog.