Financial Times 12,652 by Cincinnus
Posted by Pete Maclean on January 10th, 2008
Cincinnus again brings us an enjoyable puzzle with a few brilliant clues. I particularly like 4D, 7D and 18D.
Across
1. JOYSTICK - JOYS (delights) + TICK (parasite)
5. CHASER - double definition
9. BACKCHAT - BACK (second) + CHAT (bird)
10. ARCTIC - ARTIC (lorry) around C (central)
12. OCTET - OCT[ober] + E[igh]T
13. SNARE DRUM - SNARED (caught) + RUM (odd)
14. AMIENS - AMIS (friends) about EN (in)
16. PALADIN - LAD (50% of ladies) in PAIN (distress). This one I had to look up.
19. NONPLUS - double definition
21. CLEAVE -double definition
23. MEGAPHONE - anagram of EH MAP GONE
25. TORCH - CH (church) on TOR (high ground)
26. NOTION - IT (it) in NOON (time)
27. EVENSONG - [st]EVEN + SONG (lied — think German)
28. CANADA - CAN (is able) + ADA (woman)
29. FLUTTERBY - FLY (fly) around UTTER (say)
Down
1. JOB LOT - JOB + LOT
2. YACHTSMEN - anagram (singular) of CHEST MANY
3. TACIT - TACIT[us]
4. CHASSIS - CHAS (Charles) + S (Stuart’s head) + IS (is)
6. HARPER LEE - HARPER (musician) + EEL (fish) backwards
7. SATYR - SAT[urday] + Y[ea]R
8. RICHMOND - RICH (wealthy) + MON (Scottish man) + [ba]D
11. RASP - hidden word
15. ELLIPSOID - anagram of SOLID PILE
17. DOVER SOLE - DOVE (bird) + R (river) + SOLE (only)
18. MNEMONIC - MNE (one not employed in mine) + MONIC[a]
20. SHOE - double/cryptic definition
21. CHERVIL - CHER (Sonny’s former partner) + V (versus) + IL (the Italian)
22. SHAGGY - SHY (coy) about A (a) + GG (horse)
24. GET ON - double definition
25. TENET - palindromic doctrine