Financial Times 12814 / Quark
Posted by C G Rishikesh on July 8th, 2008
Across
1 CRUISE - “crews”
4 LACERATE - lace, rate
9 LEDGER - L(edge)R
10 GOODWOOD - Guessable from wordplay. A racing course in England.
12 FALLS DUE - F(all)s due* - “under duress” is the anag. signal.
16 ANTENNA - a, n, tenna (”tenner”) - The def. “provides good feeling” does not point to a noun and maybe that is why there is the question mark at the end of the clue.
20 CHINWAG - chin, wag
26 FREE FALL - f(reef)all - One can solve this clue with just the definition
28 CALORIES - anag. of ‘close air’ - I don’t get the drift of the surface reading.
29 Not solved
30 THROTTLE
31 Not solved
Down
1 COLD FEET - One might have these if one were wearing “inadequate hose”.
2 UNDULATE - un(dulat*)e
3 SPEISS - S(PE is)S - The clue does not really indicate that the word required is a noun. Not an everyday word but easily obtainable from wordplay.
7 ADONIS - anag. of ‘is on ad’
8 ELDEST - anag. of ’setled’ after removing t (time) from ’settled’. This raises a question. The word ’settled’ has two t’s but we are required to remove only one ‘t’. In such situations should the clue-writer give suitable direction?
11, 14 RUNNING REPAIRS - The surface reading is no great shakes. Do repairs bring about improvements, I wonder.
17 THEOCRAT - rather a straightforward def.
18 Not solved
19 Not solved - I do see the stuttering element yet I am unable to get the answer immediately.
24 REFILL - ref.,i’ll
July 8th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
18d - I have ‘malarkey’ for this but can’t see the work-play.
19d - ‘table top’ - (able in t-top)
29a - ticket - he is on the train when he checks it.
31a - play up -(shades of Vitai Lampada at school, play up, play up and play the game)
I agee with your comments - perhaps not the most satisfying of puzzles. ‘Antenna’ did not seem very exact.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
“18d - I have ‘malarkey’ for this but can’t see the work-play.”
‘malar’ - of or relating to the cheek
‘key’ - a set of answers to problems
IMO a slightly deficient clue in that ‘answer’ should have been in the plural.
July 8th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Thanks Geoff. Malar is a new word for me - if I ever knew the Latin for cheek-bone I had certainly forgotten it!