A good old fashioned crossword from Magwitch. Sometimes setters seem to be falling over themselves to be novel and inventive (which of course is a good thing) but I also like getting the some quality plain puzzles to solve and blog too. I feel they get a bit overlooked. Thank you Magwitch.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CERTAIN |
Convinced company’s boss ran it badly (7)
CE (Cheif Executive, company’s boss) then (RAN IT)* badly=anagram |
| 5 | STRICT |
Tough to make limit without fraud (6)
STRICT would make conSTRICT (limit) missing CON (fraud) |
| 8 | REALISTIC |
Extraordinary article is true to life (9)
(ARTICLE IS)* anagram=extraordinary |
| 9 | LEPER |
Sick person to fight off retiring (5)
REPEL (to fight off) reversed (retiring) |
| 11 | UNITE |
Make one’s followers go back to get shaved (5)
rETINUe (followers) reversed (go back) missing the outside letters (shaved) |
| 12 | VORACIOUS |
You French touring around Cairo unfortunately just can’t get enough to eat (9)
VOUS (you, in French) containing (touring around) CAIRO* anagram=unfortunately |
| 13 | SAGACITY |
Urban destination for older travellers shows sound judgment? (8)
SAGA (travel company targetting older people) CITY (urban destination for travel) |
| 15 | DAMSEL |
Girl in poem checks veil regularly (6)
DAMS (checks) vEiL (regular selection from) |
| 17 | ASTRAY |
Wrong way to cut a fish (6)
ST (street, a way) inside (to cut) A RAY (fish) |
| 19 | SPIT UPON |
Show contempt for media manipulation about organisation of workers at post office (4,4)
SPIN (media manipulation) containing (about) TU (trade union) with (at) PO (post office) |
| 22 | COMPLAINT |
Gripe makes politician flat on his back in bed (9)
MP (politician) LAIN (flat on his back) in COT (bed) |
| 23 | THERE |
Word of reassurance to boost her ego a bit (5)
found inside (a bit of) boosT HER Ego |
| 24 | STERN |
Unrelenting sun starts to turn everyone red before noon (5)
S (sun) then Turn Everyone Red (starting letters of) before N (noon) |
| 25 | DEFICIENT |
Wanting infected individual treated (9)
anagram (treated) of INFECTED and I (one, an individual) |
| 26 | STREAM |
Burn gas without resistance (6)
STEAM (gas) outside R (resistance) – a small river |
| 27 | LOTTERY |
Animal found in empty laboratory as a matter of chance (7)
OTTER (animal) found in LaboratorY (empty, no middle letters) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | CIRCUMSTANCES |
Attitudes support show finishing early on Monday in these conditions (13)
STANCES (attitudes) following (support, go underneath in a down clue) CIRCUs (show, finishing early) on M (Monday) |
| 2 | ROAMING |
Straying can come at a high price (7)
I think this is a reference to mobile phones and the high cost of using another network when one has no signal on one’s own network (roaming) |
| 3 | ARISE |
Over in the Hebrides I rarely get up (5)
found reversed (over) in hebredES I RArely |
| 4 | NATIVITY |
Clever to conceal one’s very inauspicious beginning at birth (8)
NATTY (clever) contining (to conceal) I (one) with V (very) Inauspicious (beginning, first letter of)) |
| 5 | SECURE |
Assured of rescue in a storm (6)
RESCUE* anagram=in storm |
| 6 | RELUCTANT |
Unwilling to relaunch product at the borders with a new model (9)
RELaunch prodUCT (at the borders, outside letters of) with A N (new) T (model, Ford car) |
| 7 | COPIOUS |
Lots of policemen keep a promise (7)
COPS (policemen) contain IOU (a promise) |
| 10 | RESPLENDENTLY |
Reply sent out: “Surrounded – left to die in a blaze of glory” (13)
(REPLY SENT)* anagram=out contains (surrounded) L (eft) with (to) END (die) |
| 14 | CHALLENGE |
French town with six missing blocks alteration of summons (9)
viLLE (French town) missing VI (six) inside (blaocks) CHANGE (alteration) |
| 16 | SPITEFUL |
Nasty pet flu is foreign (8)
(PET FLU IS)* anagram=is foreign (strange) |
| 18 | TEMPEST |
Could be a drama with the stormy weather (7)
when you add THE to TEMPST (stormy weather) you get THE TEMPST (a drama) – hum. |
| 20 | PRECEDE |
Go ahead with advertising chance finally to give up (7)
PR (advertising) with chancE (finally) CEDE (to give up) |
| 21 | WISDOM |
Women’s group’s sphere of influence is halved for good reason (6)
WI (Women’s group) ‘S (has) DOMmain (sphere of influence) with half the letters missing |
| 23 | TACIT |
Time to do something about setter being taken for granted (5)
T (time) ACT (to do something) about ( (the setter) |
definitions are underlined
I agree this was a lovely crossword. I did not fully understand why ‘strict’ was correct in 5a so thanks for explaining PeeDee.
I enjoyed the misdirection in 26a and thought the two long down clues were nicely constructed.
Thanks Magwitch and PeeDee
Backlog puzzle that to me had a slightly different feel to it than the usual Magwitch and took slightly longer than normal to take control of. Looking back, it is hard to see why that was – maybe the issue was more with me than the crossword.
SAGA as the travel company for seniors was new learning. Had gone down the path of SAGA CITY, an ancient city in Kyushu, Japan during the Edo period – so a destination of ‘older travellers’ in the sense of from a bygone time.
Agree that it is good to see a more tradionally constructed puzzle in the mix of those presented in the FT – it is one of the attractions to have the wide variety of setters in this paper.