Today’s offering from Peto . . .
. . . certainly felt like heavy sledding as I was working through it, with a few rather convoluted clues, but having completed it, I am not sure what in particular was holding me up on solving it. A solid puzzle.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | INSIDE RIGHT |
One with access to select info on crew ignoring energy of No. 8 in the past (6,5)
|
| INSIDER (one with access to select info) + [E]IGHT (crew) minus (ignoring) E (energy), referring to the classic association football position number for the inside right forward | ||
| 7 | BAT |
Money Henry lost in club (3)
|
| BA[H]T (money, i.e., Thai currency) minus (lost) H (Henry) | ||
| 9 | STRIA |
Songs about arresting tenor found with flutes (5)
|
| AIRS (songs) reversed (about) around (arresting) T (tenor). See JOFT@6. | ||
| 10 | CONTENDER |
Competitor’s fiddle requiring gentle handling (9)
|
| CON (fiddle) + TENDER (requiring gentle handling) | ||
| 11 | ANOMALIES |
Irregularities of style ultimately evident in fake Mona Lisa (9)
|
| Last letter of (ultimately) [STYL]E inside (evident in) anagram of (fake) {MONA LISA} | ||
| 12 | TRAIN |
Aim of Garfunkel? To go back home (5)
|
| ART (Garfunkel) reversed (to go back) + IN (home) | ||
| 13 | CONCERN |
Business interest (7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | SHED |
Lose friends he dated? Only some (4)
|
| Hidden in (only some) [FRIEND]S HE D[ATED] | ||
| 18 | TIES |
Periods without motorway restrictions (4)
|
| TI[M]ES (periods) minus (without) M (motorway) | ||
| 20 | PATRIOT |
Vigorous supporter of country park’s opening engaged in unrestrained revelry (7)
|
| First letter of (opening [of]) P[ARK] + AT (engaged in) + RIOT (unrestrained revelry) | ||
| 23 | LLANO |
Plain Jane’s heart captured by the Italian student earlier (5)
|
| L (student) + {inside letters of (heart [of]) [J]AN[E] inside (captured by) LO (the [in] Italian), with “earlier” indicating the order of the elements of the wordplay | ||
| 24 | TRUNCHEON |
Right about a French revolutionary working in a club for police officers (9)
|
| RT (right) reversed (about) + UN (a [in] French) + CHE (revolutionary, i.e., Ernesto Guevara) + ON (working) | ||
| 26 | CURRICULA |
Arising from circular about university’s courses of study (9)
|
| Anagram of (arising from) CIRCULAR around (about) U (university) | ||
| 27 | DIANA |
Not available after help’s withdrawn by goddess of the hunt (5)
|
| AID (help) reversed (withdrawn) + N/A (not available) | ||
| 28 | YEN |
Yearning for money (3)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 29 | LEAVE BEHIND |
Forget to take Bottom on holiday (5,6)
|
| LEAVE (holiday) + BEHIND (bottom), with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | INSTANCE |
Metamorphosis of an insect for example (8)
|
| Anagram of (metamorphosis of) AN INSECT | ||
| 2 | SURMOUNT |
Almost certain to rise and overcome (8)
|
| SUR[E] (certain) minus last letter (almost) + MOUNT (rise) | ||
| 3 | DRAMA |
Mythological princess removed from model of scene in play (5)
|
| D[IO]RAMA (model of scene) minus (removed from) IO (mythological princess) | ||
| 4 | RUCTION |
Uproar caused by technique of literary analysis? Not half (7)
|
| [DECONST]RUCTION (technique of literary analysis) minus (not) [first] half | ||
| 5 | GENESIS |
Beginning with information on European ship carrying ivory primarily (7)
|
| GEN (information) + E (European) + {SS (ship) around (carrying) first letter of (primarily) I[VORY]} | ||
| 6 | TREATMENT |
Way of handling soldiers and volunteers upset by months under canvas (9)
|
| {RE (soldiers) + [TA (volunteers) inverted (upset)] + M (months)} inside TENT (under canvas) | ||
| 7 | BEDLAM |
Plot to strike causing pandemonium (6)
|
| BED (plot) + LAM (strike) | ||
| 8 | TYRANT |
Despot’s extremely tetchy tirade (6)
|
| Outside letters of (extremely) T[ETCH]Y + RANT (tirade) | ||
| 14 | EDITORIAL |
Censor has spoken about Italy’s leader (9)
|
| {EDIT (censor) + ORAL (spoken)} around (about) I (Italy) | ||
| 16 | LITERATI |
Simpler version of Republican teacher’s reading tool sent up by scholarly people (8)
|
| I think this parses as: LITE (simpler version of, in commercialese) + R (Republican) + ITA (teacher’s reading tool, i.e., Initial Teaching Alphabet) inverted (sent up) | ||
| 17 | STANDARD |
Established model maker’s latest promotional poster seen around market stall previously (8)
|
| STAND (market stall) + {AD (promotional poster) around (seen around) last letter of (latest [of]) [MAKE]R}, with “previously” indicating the order of the elements of the wordplay | ||
| 19 | SATSUMA |
Hesitation after exams on a kind of ornamental pottery (7)
|
| SATS (exams) + UM (hesitation) + A | ||
| 20 | PLUMAGE |
Especially valued mature bird’s feathers (7)
|
| PLUM (especially valued) + AGE (mature) | ||
| 21 | PLUCKY |
Gutsy to carry on hiding friar after time runs out (6)
|
| PLY (to carry on) around (hiding) [T]UCK (friar) minus (after runs out) T (time) | ||
| 22 | BARREN |
Unprofitable for a powerful financier they say (6)
|
| Homophone of (they say) BARON (a powerful financier) | ||
| 25 | CADRE |
Be concerned about daughter’s group of political activists (5)
|
| CARE (be concerned) around (about) D (daughter) |
Began well, but I didn’t finish. Never heard of TA/volunteers or sats/exams or Initial Teaching Alphabet. Nor STRIA, LLANO, or SATSUMA as pottery. Aim/TRAIN?
“Heavy sledding” and “rather convoluted” summed it up nicely for me. As highlighted by GDU, there were quite a few obscurities too, which saw me solve first then scurry to the internet to enable parsing.
No favourites. I could not parse DRAMA or LITERATI so thank you for the help.
Thanks Peto and Cineraria
GDU@1: SAT = Scholastic Aptitude Test, well known to me in the US as the main college entrance exam, but perhaps not to others elsewhere.
AIM = TRAIN as a weapon on a target.
TA for volunteers (Territorial Army) should be familiar as a cryptic crossword staple. I don’t believe I have ever seen it anywhere else, come to think of it.
Thank you, Cineraria. I should have got aim/train. I’ll try to remember the other two.
Thanks both. Well crafted but somewhat tricky in places.
Thanks for the Aim/Train explanation which I was struggling with. Students in the UK sits SATS as well – they are National Curriculum assessments which happen at regular intervals and cause a lot of stress.
The TA disappeared a long time ago so I think “volunteers” needs a “once” but it is a crossword staple and worth storing. I think the definition for “stria” should be “found with flutes” as, in architecture, they are the flat spaces between flutes on a column. 1ac had me racking my brains for old tyrants but I should’ve remembered that the FT was more likely to go the route of “insider trading”…
Some good fun clues but quite a few took a long, hard stare to parse after “solving”. Thanks Cineraria and Peto.
JOFT@6: I have corrected STRIA, about which I was confused. “Stria” now apparently refers to a fillet between flutes (or grooves), as on a column, but–confusingly–“stria” in Latin apparently meant “a furrow, flute of a column,” according to Chambers, which sounds like the meanings got transferred somewhere along the line. I wonder whether there is more to the etymology of this word. Any architects out there?
Thanks Peto and Cineraria
6dn: Although the British Territorial Army has changed its name to Army Reserve, there still appears to be a Territorial Army under that name in India, which is actively recruiting in 2026, so, even if that was not the setter’s intention, I think the clue can stand as it is.
Yep as above, some dnks, like the connection between plums and pottery. Vaguely knew about fluted columns (stria was still a bung and pray), but not about the soccer thing, so I was seeking an inside person-who-knows. So, grid filled but thanks to all for the good gen.
Hard work but solved, can’t ask for more than that really. Some unknown words for me but I think everything parsed, a bit confused by editorial until the blog. Thanks both setter and blogger
NHO strias but striations is used to describe rocks with regular ridges / fluting
Oops sorry about the url thingie. Didn’t look like that on my browser.
I think that if we insisted on all things that existed once but are no longer the correct term being qualified by”once” or “at one time” it would make for very awkward surfaces. The test for me is whether TA is still recognisable as the Territorial Army. There will come a time when it isn’t, and then even “once” won’t save it.
A bit too subtle for my modest talents but there was still enough for me to have an enjoyable go.
Thanks to Peto and Cineraria.
I agree that this was convoluted; for some reason the top half was slightly smoother than the bottom. My last one in was LITERATI, and I was so glad to have finished that I decided to come here to let Cineraria sort out the parsing of that one for me. 😉
Cineraria #7, my Latin dictionary (Cassell’s 1948) defines STRIA as “Furrow, ridge” and cites Pliny. On that basis it would seem that you could define any part of the surface of a fluted column as “stria”! It seems to be one of those take-your-pick words like “hospes” meaning either a host or a guest.
Babbler@16: The Latin word stria is singular, so I do not think it translates to the plural “flutes”. As Jack@6 has pointed out, the definition “found with flutes” can be justified based on the English language meaning(s) of stria found in the English dictionaries. As a general rule, if a word incorporated into English from some other language is used in a crossword, I take the view that any reference to the meaning in its original language requires indication.
PB #17. Noted. I wasn’t really commenting on the use of the word in this puzzle, but responding to Cineraria’s more general comment #7 – not that I’m an architect!
Thanks Peto. As a fan of compact, economical surfaces I found some this on the convoluted side. I guessed 1a but had no idea what it meant. I revealed both EDITORIAL and LITERATI and I couldn’t parse RUCTION and PLUCKY so this wasn’t my best outing. There were clues I enjoyed, however, such as INSTANCE, BEDLAM, and TYRANT. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.
Babbler@18: Thank you for the polite tone of your response. I think I jumped rather too readily on to one of my hobby horses. While I stand by the general principle I stated in the final sentence of comment 17, I can happily accept that there was no need to mention it in response to your comment today.