Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of June 27, 2020
Our second weekend puzzle from Artexlen had me working hard for a while. Guess I need a bit more time to easily tune into his clues. The ones I liked most are 7dn (CUR) and 13dn (TIDDLYWINKS). I think there may be a minor error in 17dn (BECHAMEL).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SPARE RIB | Leave kid some meat (5,3) |
| SPARE (leave) + RIB (kid) | ||
| 6 | RECOUP | Make good soldiers revolt (6) |
| RE (soldiers, i.e. Royal Engineers) + COUP (revolt) | ||
| 9 | TRAGIC | Awful time with smoke around (6) |
| T (time) + CIGAR (smoke) backwards (around) | ||
| 10 | DISGRACE | Shame having gas with cider drunk (8) |
| Anagram (drunk) of GAS CIDER | ||
| 11 | CEDE | Turn over broadcast of player in tournament (4) |
| Homophone (broadcast of) “seed” (player in tournament) | ||
| 12 | ALIMENTARY | Fruit in an assorted tray of food (10) |
| LIME (fruit) in AN (an) + anagram (assorted) of TRAY | ||
| 14 | CONTEMPT | Dislike Italian with charm (8) |
| CON (Italian with) + TEMPT (charm) | ||
| 16 | DEAL | Agreement from chief to switch banks (4) |
| LEAD (chief) with the first and last letters (banks) switched | ||
| 18 | STUB | Little bit pig-headed, born to lose (4) |
| STUB[born] | ||
| 19 | NEEDLING | Irritating rogue in legend (8) |
| Anagram (rogue) of IN LEGEND | ||
| 21 | UNDERNEATH | Below ground, erne at high shelters (10) |
| Hidden word (shelters) | ||
| 22 | WEAK | Poor tip of small change gets disregarded (4) |
| [t]WEAK (tip of small change gets disregarded) | ||
| 24 | BILLHOOK | Charge pirate in cutter (8) |
| BILL (charge) + HOOK (pirate). A billhook is a long-handled saw with a curved blade. | ||
| 26 | MINTED | Some time after ditching university, daughter becomes rich (6) |
| MINUTE (some time) with the ‘U’ removed (after ditching university) + D (daughter). I do not recall hearing ‘minted’ used to mean rich before but a dictionary confirms the usage. | ||
| 27 | SELDOM | Diggers returned carrying diamonds rarely (6) |
| D (diamonds) in (carrying) MOLES (diggers) backwards (returned) | ||
| 28 | TALISMAN | Dutch explorer circling large island that may provide fortune (8) |
| L (large) + IS (island) together in (circling) TASMAN (Dutch explorer). The Dutch explorer is Abel Tasman whose name was given to the Tasman Sea and Tasmania. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | PURGE | Clarify golf fair hosts (5) |
| G (golf) in (hosts) PURE (fair) | ||
| 3 | REGRETTABLE | Unfortunate upset: the Spanish pummel Germany (11) |
| EL (the Spanish) + BATTER (pummel) + GER (Germany) all backwards (upset) | ||
| 4 | RECLAIMS | Gets back about one to tuck into seafood (8) |
| RE (about) + I (one) in (to tuck into) CLAMS (seafood) | ||
| 5 | BADMINTON RACKET | Dominant suspect divides support one held in court (9,6) |
| Anagram (suspect) of DOMINANT in BRACKET (support) | ||
| 6 | RUSHED | Top crumpled, getting pressed (6) |
| [c]RUSHED (top crumpled) | ||
| 7 | CUR | Short, short dog (3) |
| CUR[t] (short short) | ||
| 8 | UNCERTAIN | Dodgy tune in car played (9) |
| Anagram (played) of TUNE IN CAR | ||
| 13 | TIDDLYWINKS | Having had a few triumphs capturing king for game (11) |
| TIDDLY (having had a few) + K (king) in (capturing) WINS (triumphs) | ||
| 15 | OSTENSIVE | This compiler’s inferior to old guns, it’s apparent (9) |
| O (old) + STENS (guns) + IVE (this compiler’s) | ||
| 17 | BECHAMEL | Happen upon ruminant consuming hot sauce (8) |
| BE (happen) + H (hot) in (consuming) CAMEL (ruminant). I believe there may be an error here. According to Wikipedia, camels are not ruminants. | ||
| 20 | INFORM | Rat where hare might be (6) |
| IN FORM (where hare might be). ‘Form’ can mean the bed of a hare. (This was news to me!) | ||
| 23 | ARENA | Regularly seen fairies near ring (5) |
| [f]A[i]R[i]E[s] N[e]A[r] | ||
| 25 | LID | Cover opening in Lyceum with mounted policeman (3) |
| L[yceum] + DI (policeman) backwards (mounted). I used to bitch and moan a lot about reversal indicators that I thought were poor. Recently I have tended to keep quiet about them but this one makes me wonder again. It is hard for me to see how mounted can properly suggest reversing. I do note that ‘mounted’ can well clue ‘up’, and ‘up’ is a fine reversal indicator (for a down clue) — but this would be indirect. | ||
Thanks, Pete, particularly for explaining 26A. I stared at it for ages and entered MONIED because at least it fit the definition, but I could not see how it fit the rest of the clue. The parsing as it turns out was not that hard, but I too would not have guessed that MINTED = RICH.
Thanks Artexlen for the weekend entertainment. I ticked TRAGIC, ALIMENTARY, STUB, TIDDLYWINKS, and CUR as favorites — CUR was a real gem. Thanks Pete for parsing — I’ve heard a rich person described as “worth a mint” so I guess “minted” would be along those lines. I failed to get WEAK so thanks for that enlightenment.
Thanks to Artexlen and Pete. Some very clever and entertaining clues; my list of favourites was similar to Tony’s. Plodded through it all quite well by my standards but couldn’t work out “cede” without the blog. One question: when are uncertain and dodgy synonyms?
Thanks Artexlen and Pete
Can always rely on an entertaining puzzle from this setter. Started off with that LID – think that it was made easier by seeing the ‘cover’ definition and the construction just flowed from there – in a harder clue it may have been different – it still made for a lovely surface though. It’s an interesting point raised about camels not being ruminants – I knew that they chewed their cud, but apparently they are a Pseudoruminant - a classification of animals based on their digestive tract differing from the ruminants. What you learn from this pastime !!!
Thought that the long hidden at 21a was well done and liked the word play of the long 5d.
Originally entered MONIED at 26a but after quite some time at not being able to parse it, looked elsewhere and found the British slang term for wealthy.
Finished in the left hand side with STUB, OSTENSIVE (which I hadn’t heard of) and CONTEMPT (where I was saved by seeing the Italian word for ‘with’ in a recent Sunday Times crossword).
Thanks, Artexelen and Pete. “Mounted” in LID puzzled me too; but it reminds me of when Aardvark used “promoted” in FT last week, which also was strange to me. PeeDee replied that more obscure indicators are becoming common in cryptics since the usual ones have been used so often. I guess the form is evolving.
Well, I am all for the form evolving in general but not, way not, in this particular way.
Thanks to both. Pete, my eChambers starts the Camel entry by stating large ruminant. A bit of source confusion? I was another MONIED but it didn’t feel right as I was darn sure MON wasn’t “some time”. Things eventually sorted but the whole exercise occupied me for some time on a cold winter afternoon.
Thank you, Mystogre. My bad! I should have checked my Chambers and not relied solely on Wikipedia. I see now that other dictionaries also state that camels are ruminants or ruminant mammals.