Redshank serves this morning’s cruciverbal breakfast in the FT
I rattled through this puzzle until I came to the SE corner, where I hit a brick wall. Eventually FARO and DOLLOP revealed themselves, but then I had to find a way to parse GAZUMP and that took almost as long as the rest of the puzzle until I had a moment of inspiration, dragging MAZUMA from the memory banks.
I enjoyed the crossword, which required a wee but of general knowledge to complete, but not so much that it was inaccessible. There were some clever cryptic definitions. among them “leaves box”, “jerks lift this” and “serving officer”. The puzzle was also unusual in that it had only one anagram. At one point it looked like being a pangram as well, but it falls short by two or three letters.
Thanks, Redshank
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CUSTOM | Copper checks over practice (6) |
| Cu (chemical symbol for “copper”) + <= MOTs (vehicle “checks”, over) | ||
| 4 | SLIPSHOD | Careless errors by head office department (8) |
| SLIPS (“errors”) by HO (head office) + D (department) | ||
| 10 | BAILIFF | Trouble during strike for serving officer (7) |
| AIL (“trouble”) during BIFF (“strike”) | ||
| 11 | NONAGON | Figure 12 captivates Harry (7) |
| NOON (“12”) captivates NAG (“harry”) | ||
| 12 | LOUD | Flashy student with Open University departs (4) |
| L (learner, so “student”) with OU (Open University) + D (departs) | ||
| 13 | TALLEYRAND | Lanky Jane’s not finished with former French diplomat (10) |
| TALL (“lanky”) + (Jane) EYR(e) [‘s not finished] + AND (“with”)
Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754-1838) was a French diplomat whose career spanned the regime of Louis XVI, the French Revolution, Napoleon and then Louis XVIII and Louis-Philippe. |
||
| 15 | SPEED | Drug rush (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | UNBIDDEN | A foreign VP once hosted Democrat spontaneously (8) |
| UN (“a” in French, so “a foreign”) + (Joe) BIDEN (“former VP” under Obama) hosted D (Democrat) | ||
| 19 | REPARTEE | First of ripostes with sword involving skill and wit (8) |
| [first of] R(ipostes) with EPEE (“sword”) involving ART (“skill”) | ||
| 21 | SCUBA | Young reporter blocking South Africa tanks (5) |
| CUB (“young reporter”) blocks SA (South Africa) | ||
| 25 | CHEQUE CARD | Guarantee European picked up Jack for one (6,4) |
| Homophone [picked up] of CZECH (“European”) + CARD (“Jack for one”) | ||
| 26 | ORCA | Tommy and his mates caught a big fish (4) |
| OR (other ranks, so “Tommy and his mates”) + C (caught, in cricket) + A | ||
| 28 | PRICKLE | Needle Republican in hot water (7) |
| R (republican) in PICKLE (“hot water”) | ||
| 29 | CHATEAU | Switzerland demolished a top- class castle (7) |
| CH (Internet domain code for “Switzerland”) + ATE (“demolished”) + A + U (“top-class”) | ||
| 30 | TEMERITY | Crime writer Josephine pens Award for Audacity (8) |
| (Crime writer Josephine) TEY pens MERIT (“award”) | ||
| 31 | DOLLOP | Serving party by returning vote (6) |
| DO (“party”) + <= POLL (“party”, returning) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | COBALT | Cold old Latvian perhaps in his element (6) |
| C (“cold”) + O (old) + BALT (“Latvian perhaps”) | ||
| 2 | SKI JUMP | Alpine event 6 covering half of June (3,4) |
| SKIMP (be miserly, see “6”dn) covering [half of] JU(ne) | ||
| 3 | OVID | Old poet’s current disease beginning to disappear (4) |
| (c)OVID (“current disease” with its beginning to disappear) | ||
| 5 | LANOLINE | Reformulated all-in-one lotion (8) |
| *(all in one) [anag:reformulated] | ||
| 6 | PENNY-PINCH | Behave like Scrooge with 2p in church (5-5) |
| PENNY + P (“2 x p”) + IN + CH (church) | ||
| 7 | HAGGARD | She’s writer, looking run down (7) |
| Double definition, the first referring to H Rider Haggard (1856-1925), an adventure novelist, one of whose books was called “She”. | ||
| 8 | DING-DONG | Battle at the Belfry? (4-4) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 9 | OFFAL | Old king left rubbish (5) |
| OFFA (“old king” of Mercia) + L (left) | ||
| 14 | SEERSUCKER | Gullible type nicks English queen’s material (10) |
| SUCKER (“gullible type”) nicks E (English) + ER’S (“queen’s”) | ||
| 17 | CRACKPOT | Weirdo takes one drug after another (8) |
| POT (“one drug”) after CRACK (“another” drug) | ||
| 18 | TEA CHEST | Leaves box made of pine wrapped in paper (3,5) |
| ACHE (“pine”) wrapped in TEST (“paper”) | ||
| 20 | PREMIUM | Superior music company cuts drink under pressure (7) |
| EMI (“music company”) cuts RUM (“drink”) under P (pressure) | ||
| 22 | BARBELL | Jerk lifts this, omitting source of 8 (7) |
| BAR (“omitting”) + BELL (“source of ding-dong” (see 8dn)) | ||
| 23 | TRUCE | Note goes round old police: “Ceasefire!” (5) |
| TE (“note”) goes round RUC (the now defunct Royal Ulster Constabulary, so “old police”) | ||
| 24 | GAZUMP | Outbid doctor holding unlimited cash (6) |
| GP (general practitioner, so “doctor”) holding [unlimited] (m)AZUM(a) (“money”) | ||
| 27 | FARO | Ring service about port (4) |
| <= (O (“ring”) + RAF (Royal Air Force, so “service”)) [about] | ||
Your deliberate typo today is AIL not ILL in 10a.
Lots of unknown GK for me today but I finished without cheats but didn’t parse GAZUMP, so thanks for the edification.
Thanks to Redshank and loonapick.
Hovis@1
Like to keep people on their toes… (also guarantees at least one comment).
Thanks – now edited.
Like today’s blogger, I became unstuck in the SE corner. Fortunately, general knowledge and crossers helped where I couldn’t always parse, such as 11ac in which ‘Harry’ wrong-footed me. Thanks for putting me straight, Loonapick. Favourites included 8d and 22d, while 15ac and similar 17d were fun. 25ac was a blast from the past.
Thanks, Redshank, for a testing yet enjoyable grid.
Thanks for that blog, loonapick – and congratulations to Hovis for solving without cheats.
I also filled in the top half very quickly and then shuddered to a halt before losing patience with 14, and parsing 24 & 29.
God help anyone with little general knowledge.
On a lighter note, equating offal to rubbish is an insult to all lovers of black pudding!
Thanks for the blog, loonapick. I had the same final hold-ups as you did but, unfortunately, mazuma was not in my memory bank, so I couldn’t parse GAZUMP – an ugly word for an unpleasant experience: I still smart at the memory of a big disappointment we had back in the ’70s, when I pass a particular house near here.
My favourites today were 1ac CUSTOM, 11ac NONAGON, 30ac TEMERITY and !8dn TEA CHEST.
I almost commented the other day, when Redshank, wearing one of his other hats, gave us ‘Hardy girl’, that we hadn’t seen ‘Haggard heroine’ for what seemed like a long time – and we’ve another of my favourite characters today in 13ac TALLEYRAND.
Lovely stuff all round – many thanks, Redshank.
DNF for me, because
(a) an orca is a mammal not a fish, and
(b) I had BALLOT (party = ball + to rev, defn “vote”), which I think beats DOLLOP as an answer.
These rendered it impossible to find any candidate solution for 24D
Maybe a rhetorical question but is 24d kosher?
I entered 11ac grudgingly, since to me it’s an enneagon.
Thanks Loonapick — I had similar thoughts as you. I noticed the paucity of anagrams and the lack of “hidden” answers — they’re usually my one-two punch into cracking crosswords. Despite that I had fun with this until the SE corner — GAZUMP was never going to drop and I missed FARO and ORCA (not a fish.) Favorites were OVID (great surface) and CRACKPOT. Thanks Redshank.
It was the NE corner that held us up most, though in hindsight it’s hard to see why.
A varied spread of GK required, from the current at 3dn via the obsolete at 25ac to the historical at 13ac. And could the ‘VP once’ at 16ac become POTUS soon? We can but hope!
Grumpy@4: We agree about black pudding – and haggis for that matter!
Thanks, Redshank and loonapick
Thanks Loonapick. I rattled this off except my final fill-in of GAZUMP.
Mazuma was a common term in my father’s card school with his old navy friends.
I can envisage a future clue for ex-President Jacob Zuma’s mother, with his upcoming trial for corruption and £2.5bn of “mazuma”.
I too loved the surface (my first time using this term, as I only recently learned its meaning) of 3ac. And I pray that the VP in 16ac becomes POTUS. I must confess that I enjoy how the current POTUS is skewered in the daily (except Monday) political cartoon.
Thanks, Redshank and Loonapick. I also didn’t finish SE corner; Goujeers@6, I also had “ballot” for 31, and GAZUMP completely stumped me. And thanks for parsing CUSTOM, not familiar with MOTS as auto checks. Liked UNBIDDEN and TALLEYRAND.
I thought we were supposed keep politics out of our comments!!!!!
Thanks Redshank and loonapick
Was able to finish the grid-fill much quicker than normal for this setter in two short sessions, however the parsing took an age to get through (well nearly, had no idea about the middle bit of GAZUMP). Hadn’t heard of CHEQUE CARD before and didn’t know Josephine TEY in 30a until I took a punt and looked her up.
Thought that 3d was very topical and wish that it had started to disappear while we enter week 3 of our second lockdown as the second wave takes off again in Melbourne. :(
Finished in the SW corner where CRACKPOT (even though have seen that numerous times before somehow didn’t click today), PREMIUM (ditto) and TEMERITY (which I found difficult to see the solution and even more so looking for ‘Josephine’).