Prize crossword from the Weekend FT of May 16, 2015
Peto is new to me and, I believe, to this space. I understand also that he is, like me, a Brit who lives in the U.S. My clue of the week is 6d (SHEEPSKIN).
ACROSS
1 Help injured raven found in street (7)
SERVANT – anagram of RAVEN in ST (street)
5 Excuse of sailor on crack (7)
ABSOLVE – AB (sailor) + SOLVE (crack)
9 Ministers to have an influence on society (5)
TENDS – TEND (to have an influence) + S (society)
10 Kettle element (9)
PROTESTER – cryptic definition
11 Travelling with Italian nurses can lead to naughtiness after a time (9)
ITINERANT – TIN (can) + ERA (time) + N[aughtiness] together in IT (Italian). ‘Nurses’ is the insertion indicator.
12 Hidden in country houses close to Bedford (5)
PERDU – [bedfor]D in PERU (country)
13 Restaurant owner eventually having a breather? Just the opposite (5)
GRILL – [owne]R in GILL (breather)
15 Girl stifling an expression of surprise at Mark’s defeat (9)
CHECKMATE – HECK (an expression of surprise) + M (Mark) together in CATE (girl)
18 Imagine Frank having no commitments (5-4)
FANCY-FREE – FANCY (imagine) + FREE (frank). I blocked my progress for a while by initially choosing WORRY-FREE!
19 Jack in conversation maintain Peto’s ingenuous (5)
NAIVE – I (Peto) in NAVE (homophone of “knave”)
21 Wrong to take last piece of chocolate cake (5)
TORTE – TORT (wrong) + [chocolat]E
23 Maria not failing to stand by absent lover (9)
INAMORATA – anagram of MARIA NOT + A (absent)
25 Appropriate old books containing exercises to cut out (9)
EXPEDIENT – EX (old) + PE (exercises) + DIE (cut out) + NT (books, i.e. New Testament)
26 Some idealistic celebrities make it up (1-4)
A-LIST – hidden word
27 Rushed back to meet accomplished philosopher (7)
DIDEROT – DID (accomplished) + TORE (rushed) backwards
28 Longed for Dicky, Rex and Dean to follow you at one time (7)
YEARNED – YE (you at one time) + anagram of R (rex) DEAN
DOWN
1 Pitt oddly neglected to stop fraud when in office (7)
SITTING – [p]I[t]T in STING (fraud)
2 Hint of desperation in Orient’s poor performance (9)
RENDITION – anagram of D[esperation] IN ORIENT
3 A passage from Isaiah fills man with hope at last (5)
AISLE – IS (Isaiah) in AL (man) + [hop]E
4 What Astaire was originally doing around North Carolina is featured in record by Queen (3,6)
TAP DANCER – D[oing] A[round] + NC (North Carolina) together in TAPE (record) + R (Queen)
5 Regarding a spell (5)
ABOUT – A (a) + BOUT (spell)
6 A material witness’s back, hip and knees get broken (9)
SHEEPSKIN – [witnes]S + anagram of HIP KNEES
7 Sincere about touring Thailand in the near future (5)
LATER – T (Thailand) in REAL (sincere) backwards
8 Stuff lining space shuttle’s tail in transit (2,5)
EN ROUTE – EN (space) + ROUT (stuff) + [shuttl]E. I easily guessed the answer but had trouble understanding the wordplay as I was unfamiliar with the relevant meaning of ‘stuff’.
14 Study during course to become a licensed preacher (3,6)
LAY READER – READ (study) in LAYER (course). Does this definition work?
16 See about unravelling tangle in a simple and effective way (9)
ELEGANTLY – anagram of TANGLE in ELY (see)
17 Former president returning to instil leaderless people with vigour (9)
ANIMATION – [Idi] AMIN (former president) backwards in [n]ATION (leaderless people)
18 Fool of a lawyer turned on dad right away (7)
FATHEAD – FATHE[r] (dad right away) + DA (a lawyer) backwards
20 Extremely happy when high (7)
EXALTED – double definition
22 Sally’s going over earliest of pamphlets by Swift (5)
RAPID – P[amphlets] in RAID (sally)
23 Foolish of writer to flip through it (5)
INEPT – PEN (writer) backwards in IT (it)
24 It’s seen in Tacoma, Harrisburg and somewhere in Nebraska (5)
OMAHA – hidden word
Thsnks Peto and Pete.
2dn: I think this has to be anagram of D IN ORIENT – otherwise “in” would be doing double duty.
Ah, yes, of course! I have corrected the explanation. Thanks, Pelham.
I particularly liked 27A. Good surface reading. Accomplished was used as an adjective but we actually needed a verb in the past tense – so a nice misdirection.
Thanks to Pete & Peto.
Thanks as ever Pete. I think that Lay Reader (14d) works fine as a licensed preacher; it applies certainly in the Methodist church where my sister-in-law is one.
Struggled with this one
9a I don’t think that tend =have an influence on is common usage of tend.
10a No idea how you could spot this.
11a Too much going on for me to get this.
13a What is “Just the opposite” doing here, please?
19a I got mixed up with ingenious.
8d as per 11a
Bamberger, In 13a the main part of the wordplay ostensibly tells us to concatenate R and GILL. “Just the opposite” reverses this instruction so that, instead of “R has GILL”, it becomes “GILL has R”. I have occasionally seen phrases like “just the opposite” used to reverse or negate a definition but I cannot remember such a mechanism being used before to switch wordplay around.
Malcolm, Thanks for your confirmation about 14d.
ernie, Yes, that ‘accomplished’ in 27a had me fooled for a while.
Thanks Peto and Pete
Only did this one today … and not sure that I enjoyed it terribly much. It seemed to be overly convoluted in places – for example, 11a, 25a, 4d and 8d. Didn’t manage to parse ITINERANT or EN ROUTE.
PROTESTERS was my last in – have only seen this meaning of ‘kettle’ in crosswords. I wonder if it’s used in common language in Britain.
I also liked the SHEEPSKIN clue.
Thanks Pete and Peto.
An average puzzle for me this. Nothing particularly enjoyable or witty and a couple of the Clues seemed a bit lame. Like Bamberger I thought ‘tend’ for have influence was questionable but gettable.
Bruce @ 7, kettling was in quite common usage for some time in the UK although the tactic has come into disrepute due to issues of unlawful restriction of freedom to move and instances of those in the kettle becoming unwell.
Nevertheless, I always have great respect for anyone that can set a half-decent puzzle. Horses for courses as they say (especially when we’re talking about certain brands of frozen lasagne!)