Financial Times 12,492 by Cinephile
Posted by Pete Maclean on July 5th, 2007
A tiny bit of a theme here: beheading for crimes against the state. For me this puzzle proved a little easier than most of Cinephile’s and left me wondering if he has an iPod!
Across
1. TRIPOD - R[igh]T backwards + IPOD
6. VILIFIED - VI + L(IF I)ED
9. STAR CAST - double definition
10. EQUITY - double definition. Equity is the actors’ union.
13. BOTHAM - BOTH + AM. This refers to Sir Ian Botham, a great cricket player, a former captain of England and, as so befits the clue, a true all-rounder.
14. CONSPIRE - CON + SPIRE
14. RIDING SCHOOL. The county of Yorkshire used to be divided into areas called ridings.
18. BRINKMANSHIP - BR + INK + MAN SHIP
22. SPRINGER - SP[aniel] + RINGER. This was the hardest clue for me; I am so used to “dead ringer” that it took me a while to remember that “ringer” serves by itself to mean something exactly the same.
26,25. PUMPERNICKEL - PUMP + ER + NICKEL. A nickel is a 5-cent piece in the US. My dictionary suggests that the actual etymology of “pumpernickel” has something to do with German goblins farting!
27. OUTBURST - *(TO BRUTUS). I saw a very similar clue just a few weeks ago.
28. EDITIONS - [s]EDITIONS
29. RETINA - hidden word
Down
2. RATION - [o]RATION
3. PERCHERON - PERCHER + ON. “Passerine” describes an order of birds characterized by their being perchers.
4. DEAR MADAM - DE + ARMADA + M.
5. VATICAN - I CAN with VAT on top
6. LIE IN - LIE(I)N
7. FRUMP - F + RUMP. No, I did not look for a footnote! (Okay, I was tempted to for about one millisecond.)
8. EXTERIOR - [d]EXTERI[ty] + OR
13, 19. SICKEN - SIC + KEN.
15. SPHINCTER - *(CRISP THEN). This is a challenging anagram!
20. NERVOUS - NER(V)O + US
21. REASON - [t]REASON
23. INPUT - PUTIN shifted
24. GARBO - GARB + O. Nice combining of “dress” and “circle”.