I very much enjoyed this morning’s challenge from Zamorca. The right level of not-too-easy.
Zamorca has put together some admirably witty clues. Some of my favourites include 5a (quiet diplomacy), 19a (celebrity status), 6d (game to tease boy), and 16d (Peter’s carved ‘P’).
I’m not 100% convinced on my parsing of 11a as a double definition – I presume the “going ahead” definition is along the lines of “unobstructed”, although in my opinion this works better with the words of the solution the other way round, and I can’t find this as a reference in Chambers online or elsewhere. If you have different thoughts on this, let me know in the comments. Thanks Bruce @1. Betrayed by my lack of cricketing terminology.
RUM (spirit) + (SUP)< (drink, <knocked back)
TACT (diplomacy) protecting I (international) + URN (vessel)
QU (question) + A N (a new) + GO (function)
AILING (poor) following R (river) + S (south)
WIDE (extra); OP (work) + EN (space) going ahead
Thanks to Bruce @1. I had originally mistakenly had this as a double definition.
YE (the old) + B (bishop) found inside BY (near to) [th]E (final)
[boa]THOU[se] (hid in)
ID (papers) collecting (GENTS)* (*confused) + E (key)
GIG (performance) taking on ANT (worker) + IC (in charge)
FA (nothing, f*** all) + ME (I)
G,G (goods) in (JADE)* (*sculpted)
SKIT (comedy sketch) about [wes]T (end) + IS + H (hard) to follow
MACRON (French president) importing A (top grade) + I (Italian)
HYPE (publicity) around H (hotel) by N (noon)
(NICE EELS)* (*cooked)
RUN (series) + [availabl]E (at last) in NL (the Netherlands)
U (union) + (PUS)< (matter, <raise) about [manage]R (behind)
PEN (writer) IN (AUS)< (Australia, <retired) acquiring L (long)
S (son) + TOLD (informed) about [h]I[s] (heart)
THREE-PIECE (trio) + SUITE (musical sequence)
RIB (to tease) + B (boy) in CAGE (lock-up)
TINE (part of fork) secured W (with)
(UMBRAGE)* (*extraordinary) about Y (unknown) + T[rainee] (starting)
HAIL (wintry weather) on TAX (stretch) in A1 (Great North Road)
SAFE (Peter) has (TINY)* (*carved), + P inside
STUDIO (workshop) with US (American)
WIT (humour) on HER (woman)
G (government) + LAZE (lounge)
[repri]E VE IS (<held up, part of)
Hi Teacow
Had 11a as an &lit definition with WIDE (extra, in cricket) and OP (work) + EN (space) going ahead
I found this quite easy and noticed the pangram toward the end of a quickish solve. I liked 23ac.
has the ft puzzle site changed as i am not able to download the cryptic as a pdf? or is just me pressing the wrong button? any help would be appreciated.
spindrift @3
No, it’s not you. On Saturday, and again today, the FT cryptic was initially behind a pay wall and could not be accessed without a subscription. On both occasions, when the pay wall was removed the ‘download crossword’ option linked to a .png image file rather than a pdf version.
thank you gaufrid
Very easy but some nice constructions. As in yesterday’s Independent, we have that ‘thorny’ issue at 12a again. I don’t really mind it but some might.
I have always taken SKITTISH to mean “nervous” but my Chambers confirms that it can mean “playful”.
Why the FT is messing about with the format and its availability is anyone’s guess. Very annoying. I ended up rotating the image, reducing it and then printing first page only but not as nice as the pdf we used to have.
Hovis (and others).
Download the file from the FT site (as a PNG).
Then open the downloaded file (in my case, from somewhere in Windows 10).
There you have a print option in which you choose “Landscape”, “Full page” and “Shrink to fit” (although the latter doesn’t seem necessary).
What you’ll get is a proper A4 print, not much different from how it was before.
Thank you Zamorca and Teacow. Re pay wall, I changed my browser to Firefox on my iPad and was able to print out PDF as normal.
Thanks Zamorca. Overall I found this satisfying though it took a minute to get the flow going. Liked TACITURN, THOU, HYPHEN, and RUGBY TEAM — the Wasps were unknown to me but the parsing made it clear. Less clear to me was the parsing for USURP and TAXI — thanks Teacow. QUANGO was a new word for me.
Regarding printing — on my Samsung phone I download the crossword, then go to my Samsung files, click on the Gallery icon, and I print from there.
We found this a very quick solve with no unknowns. Spotted we were on course for a pangram which helped with our last few but we’d have finished anyway.
QUANGO, INGESTED and FAME were among out favourites.
Thanks, Zamorca and Teacow
PDFs should be back ok by now
Thank you Colin
Am I being dim – why is matter “pus” in 2d?
George,
As Teacow’s blog suggests, PUS at 2d comes from matter – oozing matter/discharge – as from a seeping wound
Thanks Zamorca and Teacow
Did this one on the day but only got around to checking it off properly this weekend, where I found that there was an initial error with my not fully parsed RUNLET at 28a. One knows that one has been doing English crosswords for way too long when you immediately know that the WASPS are a rugby union football team !
A perfect Monday puzzle that didn’t seem to take up a lot of time but with enough grist in it to make one think that it did. This was probably caused by some really clever word play that for me was only unpicked fully in the checkup – took ages to see the workings of that RUNNEL, FAME and HYPHEN. Thought that ‘napkin holder’ was a clever definition for SAFETY PIN. These four were my last ones in.