Financial Times 12778 / Highlander
Posted by C G Rishikesh on May 27th, 2008
Quite an easy crossword that I finished in just ten minutes. A beginner-level puzzle with simple words and uncomplicated and rather familiar wordplay.
Across
1 TUMBLE DRIER - tumble, Dr., i.e., R - charade :: I would hyphenate this word. I find that it is indeed so in Chambers as well as COD.
7 PAM - p, a.m. - charade
9 LARGO - r in lago (anag. of ‘goal’) - partial anag., container-contained
10 SUPPORTER - sup, porter - charade
11 RIGMAROLE - rig, ma, role - charade
12 MANGO - man, go - charade
13 TILLAGE - anag of ‘leg’, ‘tail’ - anag.
15 SITE - si (rev. of ‘is’), te - charade
18 USED - U.S., Ed. - charade
20 MASSAGE - mass, age - charade
23 CORGI - cor, G.I. - charade
24 ARRESTING - two def. :: “surprising” does not appear to be quite an apt def. for the reqd. word
26 AGREEMENT - anag. of ‘green meat’ - anag.
27 REIGN - re, ign (anag. of ‘gin’) - charade
28 RON - from ‘wRONg’ - hidden :: ‘group’ dangles after the hidden fodder; “Boy is in the wrong”, while being idiomatic, would obviate the extra word, I think.
29 TIDDLYWINKS - tiddly, winks - charade
Down
1 TOLERATE - to(lera)te - anag. of ‘earl’ in ‘tote’ - partial anag, container/contained
2 MARIGOLD - mar, I, gold - charade
3 LOOFA - rev. of ‘a fool’ - reversal
4 DISROBE - Di’s, robe - charade
5 IMPRESS - I’m, Press - charade
6 ROOMMATES - anag. of ’same motor’ - anag.
7 POTENT - anag. of ‘top ten’ - anag.
8 MARROW - R in anag. of ‘a worm’ - anag.
14 ABSTINENT - ‘tin’ in ‘absent’ - container/contained
16 TAHITIAN - ta, hit, Ian - charade
17 LEGGINGS - anag. of ‘g, g, single’
19 DEAD END - charade :: this and 19d below, employ obvious word divisions
20 MARITAL - (On edit) anag. of ‘martial’ - anag.
21 ECLAIR - I in ‘eclar’ (anag. of ‘clear’) - partial anag, container/contained
22 DRY RUN - charade
25 SHREW - shrew(-d) - deletion (tail off)
May 27th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Agreed - no challenges here.
May 27th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Even by Highlander’s generally Telegraph-ic standards, this one was a cinch.
I appreciate the need for beginner-friendly puzzles, but since when does easy necessarily equate to unimaginative? Too many of the clues here seem to be “cryptic” only insofar as they contain some wordplay with a simple definition tacked on. It all seems too mechanical, or gives the impression of having been dashed off in a hurry.
A pity, given that they is no shortage of able wannabes out there who would likely never dare to submit a clue like 20D.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
What was the clue for 20D? The explanation seems to be saying that the answer was marital, an anagram of marital (!)
May 28th, 2008 at 1:39 am
Sorry! It should have been ‘anag.’ of ‘martial’. The clue was: “Martial variety of marriage (7)”. Don’t ask me about other varieties of marriage!