A very enjoyable puzzle from CHALMIE this Friday. There were some devious twists and turns that extended the solving time by atleast 25% for me. A couple of clues also had me googling feverishly for checking the parsing but otherwise relatively unambiguous.
Progress was slow but steady. Trouble came in the form of the SE quadrant where I had to get all the crossers in before solving for CELESTA.
FF: 9 DD: 9
| Across | ||
| 1 | BROADCLOTH |
It’s material how Spooner’s cat attacked soup (10)
Spoonerism of CLAWED (cat attacked) BROTH (soup)
|
| 6 | FARM |
Cultivate key member (4)
F (key) ARM (member)
|
| 9 | BED REST |
English medic in top sort of treatment (3,4)
[ E (English) DR (medic) ] in BEST (top)
|
| 10 | REHEATS |
Warms up food behind woman’s back (7)
EATS (food) behind REH (woman’s = HER, back = reversed)
|
| 12 | DOUBLE BILL |
Gates and Clinton performing separately in the same show? (6,4)
Cryptic clue
|
| 13, 25 | EMULATE |
Match Australian native, not before time (7)
EMU (Australian native) LATE (not before time)
|
| 15 | PASTRY |
Old railway croissant? (6)
PAST (old) RY (railway)
|
| 16 | CLEANSER |
Is inclined to enter church – in the end, prayer is what purifies (8)
[LEANS (is inclined) entering CE (church) ] R (end of prayeR)
|
| 18 | IMPLYING |
Meaning the rest of the House of Commons are telling the truth? (8)
I liked this clue. IMPLYING can be read as 1 MP LYING.
|
| 20 | MINCED |
Be bothered by holding curate’s clothing cut into small pieces (6)
MIND (be bothered) holding CE (CuratE’s clothing, i.e. first and last characters)
|
| 23 | SKA |
Music from Saskatchewan (3)
Hidden in “..saSKAtchewan”
|
| 24 | OVERSUPPLY |
Provide too much too flexibly (10)
OVER (too) SUPPLY (flexibly)
|
| 26 | ORPHEUS |
Shore up trembling musician (7)
Anagram of SHORE UP
|
| 27 | AMNESIA |
Forgetting names worried current archivist at the outset (7)
Anagram of NAMES I (current) A (Archivist, at the outset)
|
| 28 | TANS |
Gets Brown, primarily to annoy Nicola Sturgeon (4)
Starting characters (primarily) of “..To Annoy Nicola Sturgeon.”
|
| 29 | CATTLE CAKE |
Feed pet Ancient Briton brought back, having taken heart (6,4)
CAT (pet) TLEC (Ancient Briton = CELT, reversed) AKE (heart of tAKEn)
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | BOBS |
Your uncle perhaps rises and falls (4)
Cryptic clue
|
| 2 | ODD JOBS |
Bond villains which are executed around the house (3,4)
Cryptic clue. Odd Job was an henchman in Goldfinger, an iconic 007 movie.
|
| 3 | DREW BARRYMORE |
Film star was super-attractive to Manilow (4,9)
Cryptic clue – DREW BARRY MORE could be descriptive of something super-attractive to him.
|
| 4 | LUTHER |
In Honolulu there is a turbulent priest (6)
Hidden in “..honoluLU THERe..”
|
| 5 | TORTILLA |
Pancake beginning to titillate men Swinton left for dead (8)
T (beginning to Titillate) OR (men) TILLA [Swinton, TILDA with L (left) replacing D (dead)]
|
| 7 | AZALEAS |
Plants one last beer on a coaster’s centre (7)
A (one) Z (last) ALE (beer) A S (coaSter’s centre)
|
| 8 | MASQUERADE |
Fancy dress party compelled to hold square dance (10)
MADE (compelled) holding anagram of SQUARE
|
| 11 | HALF A SIXPENCE |
3d film (4,1,8)
This clue had me all tied up in knots. For a long time, I was thinking about a Drew Barrymore movie (solution to 3d).
3d is short for the British Threepence, which is literally Half a Sixpence. The solution is also the name of a hit 1967 British musical, as I learnt from Wiki.
|
| 14 | SPOILSPORT |
Loot San Francisco, say, to be a killjoy (10)
SPOILS (loot) PORT (SF, say)
|
| 17 | UNDERSEA |
Omitting the first two, washes each submarine (8)
laUNDERS (washes, omitting first two characters) EA (each)
|
| 19 | PLAYPEN |
Things Shakespeare wrote and wrote with juvenile restraint (7)
PLAY (things shakespeare wrote – am a bit uncomfortable about the plural usage) PEN (wrote – likewise, with the past tense).
|
| 21 | CELESTA |
Play this card first, then the last spade, in case the ace is needed (7)
C (Card first) E (last spadE) LEST (in case) A (ace)
|
| 22 | ASLANT |
Regularly bars old worker sloping away? (6)
ASL (regularly i.e. even characters of bArS oLd) ANT (worker)
|
| 25 |
See 13
|
|
*anagram
Thanks Turbolegs and Chalmie
I think that his was my 4th Chalmie puzzle and all of them have been challenging and his last memorable one where he had over 20 song titles scattered though the grid.
Finished off in the SE corner as well with CELESTA the second last in, followed by MINCED.
A lot of really lovely clues here, including DREW BARRYMORE, IMPLYING and BOB’S (your uncle). Liked the Spoonerism as well.
Liked the research required to find ODD JOB and TILDA SWINTON. I do like this setter a lot.
Thanks, Turbolegs for the blog and brucew@aus for the lovely compliment.
In 19d, a PLAY is a thing S wrote, and a PEN is a thing S wrote with, so that’s why it’s thingS and they’re both “wrote”.
Thanks Turbolegs, and thanks Chalmie for the best FT crossword this week. Lots of witty clues and a joy to solve.
I liked the spoonerism though I’ve never heard of broadcloth.
My only gripe is that I cringe every time I see ‘OR’ clued as men. Not only is it archaic and obscure, it is also inappropriate now that the armed forces are no longer exclusively male. I do which setters would stop using it.
Lynette @3:
Good call about the implicit sexism in OR. I don’t actually agree about it being archaic or obscure, but I will attempt not to use it for “men” in future – although it occurs to me that it might work in a clue like “Snappers place men in stag party (6)” for GATORS where the context makes clear that it’s male-only.
The one that bugs me in this field is the use of “officer” for NCO, which always jars because they aren’t officers. I know you can easily argue that they are “officers”, but I think it’s a bit of a cheat. YMMV.
As I said last time when Chalmie was around, he (or whoever he is) is getting better and better.
Years ago, in his first Indy puzzle, I didn’t like ‘Abba finish’ for A.
Today he did similar things in the clue for CELESTA – ‘card first’, ‘last spade’.
Don’t do it, Michael, leave it to the Gozos and Magwitches of this world.
Otherwise, this was a really terrific crossword.
With 18ac (IMPLYING) my absolute favourite.
And the explanation of 19d’s fully accepted.
Chapeau, chap!