[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
I cant say I enjoyed this one much – Falcon probably didnt feel like taxing any of us and made it quite easy. Like several grids I have covered before, this one would be just nice for newbies on the FT get started.
| Across | ||
| 1 | WARDROBE | Eccentric wore drab clothes (8) |
| Anagram of WORE DRAB | ||
| 5 | OGRESS | Monstrous woman therefore capsized vessel (6) |
| ERGO (therefore, reversed) SS (vessel) | ||
| 9 | LEARNING | Lecturer getting paid for knowledge (8) |
| L (lecturer) EARNING (getting paid) | ||
| 10 | JETSAM | Discarded stuff from plane, almost identical (6) |
| JET (plane) SAMe (almost identical) | ||
| 12 | EERIE | Ghostly English lake (5) |
| E (English) ERIE (lake) | ||
| 13 | SCHINDLER | Small children worried Oskar, hero of film (9) |
| Anagram of S (small) CHILDREN – Schindler’s List being the movie. | ||
| 14 | UNISON | Trade Union alliance across the south (6) |
| UNION (alliance) across S (south) – 2nd largest trade union in UK. I didnt like this clue much, with the obvious overlap between the direct and the cryptic parts. | ||
| 16 | CHOWDER | Cowherd could make a soup (7) |
| Anagram of COWHERD | ||
| 19 | TRELLIS | Report is about right support for climbers (7) |
| [TELL (report) IS ] about R (right) | ||
| 21 | ADMIRE | Look up to one in weird dream (6) |
| I (one) in anagram of DREAM | ||
| 23 | REPECHAGE | Here pace altered, round middle of tight supplemetary heat (9) |
| Anagram of HERE PACE round G (middle of tiGht) – I confess I have never come across this word before. | ||
| 25 | PADRE | Chaplain in flat connected with religious education (5) |
| PAD (flat) connected with RE (religious education) | ||
| 26 | UTOPIA | More would have us believe this is the perfect place (6) |
| More refers to the writer Thomas More – who coined this word in his book by the same name in 1516. | ||
| 27 | CARNIVAL | One very impressed by sensual and riotous feasting (8) |
| [ I (one) V (very) ] in CARNAL (sensual) – Am not convinced that the “by” in the clue leads to the intended parsing. | ||
| 28 | TALENT | Special gift, article left in shelter (6) |
| [A (article) L (left)] in TENT (shelter) | ||
| 29 | HERCULES | A very powerful man, he controls boxing clubs (8) |
| HE [RULES (controls) boxing i.e. containing C (clubs)] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | WILDER | Filmmaker, more passionate (6) |
| Double def – Billy Wilder, Australian Director | ||
| 2 | REARRANGE | Change bottom line (9) |
| Charade of REAR (bottom) RANGE (line) | ||
| 3 | RINSE | Wash resin off (5) |
| Anagram of RESIN | ||
| 4 | BENISON | Blessing given by one disciple at foot of mountain (7) |
| [I (one) SON (disciple)] at foot of BEN (mountain, referring to Ben Nevis) | ||
| 6 | GREENROOM | Place in TV studio for the rest of the guests? (9) |
| (not so) Cryptic clue | ||
| 7 | EASEL | Sly person lacking wife’s support (5) |
| wEASEL (sly person, without W – lacking wife) | ||
| 8 | SOMBRERO | Dark finish to bowler, old hat (8) |
| SOMBRE (dark) R (finish to bowleR) O (old) | ||
| 11 | CHIC | Elegant young woman docked (4) |
| CHICk (young woman, docked) | ||
| 15 | SELECTION | Choice piece about the Parisian (9) |
| SECTION (piece) about LE (the, french) | ||
| 17 | DAREDEVIL | Challenged wicked adventurer (9) |
| Charade of DARED (challenged) EVIL (wicked) | ||
| 18 | STARDUST | Magical feeling beginning around twilight, mostly (8) |
| START (beginning) around DUSk (twilight, mostly) | ||
| 20 | SCAM | Fraudulent operation in tennis camp (4) |
| Hidden in tenniS CAMp | ||
| 21 | AVERAGE | Mean to declare seniority (7) |
| Charade of AVER (declare) AGE (seniority) – This clue is ripe for retirement. | ||
| 22 | WELLES | US actor and British writer broadcast (6) |
| US Actor refers to Orson Welles – Sounds like (H.G.)Wells, a prolific British writer. | ||
| 24 | PROWL | Move stealthily in bow (front of liner) (5) |
| PROW (bow, of a ship) L (front of Liner) | ||
| 25 | PANIC | A grass, an informant originally arrested by policeman (5) |
| [AN I (informant originally)] in (arrested by ) PC (policeman) – I didnt know this before, that there is something called Panic Grass, relating to important cereal grasses. | ||
*anagram
There’s more to 22d than a mere “sounds like.” Orson Welles did a famous broadcast of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds.
Thanks Turbolegs and Falcon,
I think that in the clue for GREENROOM, “rest” is referring to relaxation rather than meaning “other”. That makes it cryptic enough for me, but I know what you mean.
Thanks Falcon and Turbolegs.
The Ben in Benison
‘Ben’ is a general term in English for a mountain peak in Scotland and Ireland.
Ben Nevis, of course, is well-known as being the highest one. In most cases,
however, the original Gaelic ‘beinn’ is retained as in Beinn na Caillich and
Garbh bheinn on the Isle of Skye.
‘mik04, And Benbulben.
Thanks Turbolegs, I was stuck on the actor/writer (22d).I thought it was anjoyable puzzle.thanks Falcon.
Thanks, Turbolegs. I agree.
Thanks for the comments all, and apologies for the delayed response.
@Muffy #2, I penciled in ‘Greenroom’ even as I read the clue the first time, and hence made the observation on the inadequate cryptic nature of the clue.
@Coby #1, @Mike #4 – Thanks for the inputs. I remember now that “War of the Worlds” trivia was common quiz fodder back in the day.
@grimalkin #4, @Hornbeam #5 – Am hopeful that next time around, Falcon will crank it up a notch or two to keep things interesting yet within reach of most daily solvers (me included!).
Thanks Falcon and Turbolegs
Into my backlog of FT puzzles and found this one the most challenging of the three puzzles that I have done by this setter. The LHS went in quickly enough but the SE corner had quite a bit more grist with PANIC, HERCULES and WELLES the last in.
Agree that 14 was clumsy – and didn’t know of this trade union.
Can always remember REPECHAGE from watching the Olympic rowing and cycling (there did always seem to be good Aussie representation in these sports!)
I thought ‘impress by’ works quite well – if you use the definition of impress to mean ‘seize or coerce into’. So when I V is seized / impressed by CARNAL, then it looks OK to me.
Thought coby@1’s comment on the link between WELLS and WELLES was well-spotted. Originally thought that it was a bit tough to have two characters to fit into -E-L-S, but it was still solvable and the link gives a good surface to is as well.