This was a challenge for me: more difficult than the usual Tuesday FT fare. However, Alberich has rewarded our efforts with a very clever puzzle. Particularly nice were several clues in which … (don’t read further if you haven’t solved the puzzle yet)
…what appeared to be a unitary phrase in fact represented separate parts of definition and wordplay, e.g., “web page” (15 across) and “fish egg” (19 down).
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SIMILE I in SMILE (look happy) |
| 4 | EDIFICES E[uropean] + *(DEFICI[t]) + S[ociety] |
| 10 | AIRFARE cd |
| 11 | STAPLER STAPLE (that’s essential) R[ight] |
| 12 | DRAB BARD (Shakespeare) reversed |
| 13 | REJUVENATE JUVENA[l] (Roman poet briefly) in *(TREE) |
| 15 | SPIDER P (quiet) in SIDE (page) + R (resistance) |
| 16 | BERLIOZ homophone of “barely owes;” I got the name of the composer quickly from crossing letters, but it took me a while to see the pun |
| 20 | HABITUE A BIT (somewhat) in HUE (shade) |
| 21 | ATTEST AT (attending) TEST (trial) |
| 24 | BAD HOMBURG BAD (wicked) HOMBURG (headgear) |
| 26 | EWER [s]EWER (channel) |
| 28 | COASTER dd; a coaster is a ship |
| 29 | PHONEME PHONE ME (I’d like you to call) |
| 30 | SONORITY *(IN O [love] STORY) |
| 31 | VERMIN V[ery] ERMIN[e] (short fur) |
| Down | |
| 1 | SOAP-DISH d&cd; Corrie is a British soap opera |
| 2 | MARGARITA *(TIA MARIA minus I (one) plus R[equire] G[reek]) |
| 3 | LOAF L[eft] + OAF (lout) |
| 5 | DISQUIET D[aughter] IS QUIET (makes no noise) |
| 6 | FLAGELLATE *(LEGAL) + L[abour] in FATE (lot) |
| 7 | CELIA I[ndependent] in ALEC (smart fellow) reversed |
| 8 | SHRIEK I in SHREK (film) |
| 9 | FEVER F[ellow] EVER (always) |
| 14 | HELICOPTER *(THE POLICE R[un]) |
| 17 | OVERWHELM OVER (having too much) W[eight] HELM (tiller) |
| 18 | OUTBURST *(OUR BUTTS) |
| 19 | STURGEON ST[one] + URGE ON (egg) |
| 22 | ABACUS CAB (vehicle) reversed in AUS[tralia] |
| 23 | TRIPE cd |
| 25 | DRAIN This was tricky: SPANIARD (European) with SPA removed (“well off”) and reversed. |
| 27 | MORE Henry MOORE, minus the middle letter, yields Thomas MORE |
Great entertainment as always from Alberich and, as you say Agentzero, full of his (typically) clever lift-and-separate components; the other Alberich trademark much in evidence is the smoothness of the clues.
A couple really had me struggling for a while, 16a finally succumbing with an appreciative groan, 27d embarrassing me because it took so long to dredge up from memory, and finally 20 because I was sure the answer had to include an X to make the pangram. Knowing Alberich, I bet this was deliberate ploy!
Super fun.
Very good puzzle from Alberich, which I found tricky in places.
Re 2d, is it *(TIA MARIA minus I(one) plus R[equire]G[reek])
Thanks to Agentzero for the review
Yes, thank you Jezza. I was careless in typing the explanation; I’ve fixed it now.
Got most of the lhs out but the rhs was completely barren.
13a I racked my brains for Latin poets but I’m afraid I have never heard of Juvenal
15a Couldn’t be anything else but couldn’t get wordplay.
29 & 30a Not words I have come across before.
Disappointing effort after solving most of the Saturday and Monday prize puzzles.
A clever crossword from Alberich, but I think not his cleverest so far.
But don’t worry, folks, I did like it!
I had the feeling that he was a lot more fiendish on other occasions, and I think there were some clues that weren’t even thát brilliant, like ATTEST (21ac) which is too similar to ‘attending’, AIRFARE (10ac) or MORE (27d) which I found so obvious that I thought it couldn’t be right [I wouldn’t call Thomas More a writer in the first place anyway].
26ac hád to be EWER [vessel], but the clue as such is not completely unambigious, as it cán be read as ‘a vessel with its first letter removed’ to give us a ‘channel’ [with a capital? – only for the surface, I guess?].
Maybe it looks that I’m negative now, but all of this is relative.
Many highlights, especially SIMILE (1ac) [very elegant], 15ac (SPIDER) & STURGEON (19d) [for reasons already given; ‘building society’ in 4ac was another of these lift-and-separate devices, as Anax calls them], the homophone of BERLIOZ (16ac) [it took me a while to understand this], DRAIN (25d) [ingenious construction] and HELICOPTER (14d) [my anagram of the day – despite the brilliant surface of MARGARITA (2d)].
So, a very good puzzle [of course, I would say – haven’t seen a bad Alberich so far] – yet, let’s say, nót a Friday crossword.
Thank you, Alberich [and I hope it’s not too much of a mess still, in the Golden City].
And thank you, Agentzero – after all you had to blog this crossword without having the option to cheat every now and then (like Guardian and Indy bloggers), which is quite an admirable feat for a crossword of this calibre.
Thank you, Sil. About ten minutes in, I had a flash of fear that I would have to post a blog full of blanks! Fortunately everything became clear in the end.
A very enjoyable puzzle, I loved 1A and 15A. Even the simpler clues have beautiful surfaces, like 12A and 9D. Thanks Alberich, and thanks Agentzero for the blog.