A very breezy challenge from XELA this Friday.
FF: 8 DD: 1
This was my fastest solve for an FT grid, and it was good fun. 🙂
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CALIFORNIAN |
African lion travelling from the west coast? (11)
|
| [ AFRICAN LION ]* | ||
| 7 | BIB |
Two books separated by one plastic shield (3)
|
| BB ( books ) containing I ( one ) | ||
| 9 | MOTTO |
Words to live by ultimately seem so excessive on reflection (5)
|
| MO ( “..seeM sO..”, last letters of ) TTO ( reverse of OTT, excessive ) | ||
| 10 | PAST TENSE |
Beyond anxious and scared, for example (4,5)
|
| PAST ( beyond ) TENSE ( anxious ) | ||
| 11 | ELECTRODE |
Choose staff to accompany European conductor (9)
|
| ELECT ( choose ) ROD ( staff ) E ( European ) | ||
| 12 | RAISE |
Rear level in an auditorium (5)
|
| sounds like RAZE ( level ) | ||
| 13 | CALLOUS |
Request, periodically roguish and insensitive (7)
|
| CALL ( request ) OUS ( “..rOgUiSh..”, alternate letters of ) | ||
| 15 | TALE |
Story featuring in text alert (4)
|
| starting letters of “..texT ALErt” | ||
| 18 | AFAR |
Nadal casually making a comeback is some distance off (4)
|
| reverse of RAFA ( nadal, casually ) | ||
| 20 | WAY TO GO |
Excellent route provided by GPS? (3,2,2)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 23 | RUN-IN |
Manage during unpleasant encounter (3- 2)
|
| RUN ( manage ) IN ( during ) | ||
| 24 | GLAMORGAN |
County’s stylish magazine? (9)
|
| GLAM ( stylish ) ORGAN ( magazine ) | ||
| 26 | IN SPITE OF |
Notwithstanding if it opens freely (2,5,2)
|
| [ IF IT OPENS ]* | ||
| 27 | DWEEB |
Nerdy individual we introduced to young socialite (5)
|
| WE in DEB ( young socialite ) | ||
| 28 | GIN |
Liquor going into negronis primarily (3)
|
| &lit; starting letters of “..Going Into Negronis..” | ||
| 29 | GASTRONOMER |
Good scientist – one who understands food? (11)
|
| G ( good ) ASTRONOMER ( scientist ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | COMMERCE |
Business force netting millions and millions (8)
|
| MM ( millions ) in COERCE ( force ) | ||
| 2 | LATTERLY |
Recently, really mangled boxes split apart at the back (8)
|
| [ REALLY ]* containing TT ( “..spliT aparT..”, end letters of ) | ||
| 3 | FRONT |
Type to protect Republican leader’s position (5)
|
| FONT ( type ) containing R ( Republican ) | ||
| 4 | RAPTORS |
Wild parrots and eagles, perhaps (7)
|
| [ PARROTS ]* | ||
| 5 | INSPECT |
Scrutinise the introduction of powerplays in cricket, say (7)
|
| P ( Powerplays, first letter ) in INSECT ( cricket , say ) | ||
| 6 | NATURALLY |
Mostly kind colleague? Absolutely! (9)
|
| NATURe ( kind, almost ) ALLY ( colleague ) | ||
| 7 | BANDIT |
Criminal also involved in scrap (6)
|
| AND ( also ) in BIT ( scrap ) | ||
| 8 | BREMEN |
British guys touring East German city (6)
|
| [ BR ( british ) MEN ( guys ) ] around E ( east ) | ||
| 14 | OFFENDING |
Bad finale rubbing people up the wrong way (9)
|
| OFF ( bad ) ENDING ( finale ) | ||
| 16 | LONG-TERM |
Barking mongrel guards front of tower for significant period of time (4-4)
|
| [ MONGREL ]* contains T ( Tower, first letter of ) | ||
| 17 | SOUNDBAR |
Our band’s dodgy speaker (8)
|
| [ OUR BANDS ]* | ||
| 19 | REGRESS |
Right way out is to go back (7)
|
| R ( right ) EGRESS ( way out ) | ||
| 20 | WHAT FOR |
Sharp reprimand? Why? (4,3)
|
| double def | ||
| 21 | ARMING |
Getting tooled up and causing damage in Hackney? (6)
|
| ARMING ( {h}’arming, damage in hackney ) | ||
| 22 | UNISON |
Educational institution’s working agreement (6)
|
| UNI’S ( educational instituition’s ) ON ( working ) | ||
| 25 | OLDEN |
Poem — new — containing line from bygone times (5)
|
| [ ODE ( poem ) N ( new ) ] containing L ( line ) |
Also a very fast solve for me. Why is it that Friday puzzles can end up on Monday and Monday puzzles on Friday? That said, as a Californian, I really enjoyed it so thank you to Xela and also thanks to Turbolegs for a great blog.
Enjoyable and brisk. Liked Californian and gin. Thanks both.
Thanks for the blog , perfect for the beach , the FT should have two puzzles like this every week , need to encourage newer solvers . Neat and concise clues with good variety , PAST TENSE a very nice idea .
DD: 1. Is that a first? A breeze indeed. I don’t recall ever seeing the ‘African lion’ anagram before – it’s a beaut.
I think Turbolegs has resolved to be more decisive with the DD – the last one was a 10. I liked INSPECT and the African lion.
Lots of fun, rattled off before breakfast.
Thanks Xela and Turbolegs.
I join all the previous responses. Flew through this before my coffee cooled down sufficiently to drink.
Thank Xela and Turbolegs.
As everyone, I enjoyed this and agree that a couple of puzzles like this every week would be great – just to reassure me when I fail with the difficult ones that I can still complete some puzzles without help. (And I am still trying with the more difficult ones – I know that’s how I will improve.)
Thanks both.
I rattled through this and began to think I was getting cleverer in my old age. Then I read all the other comments and realised I wasn’t. It was a bright sunny solve, perfectly in tune with the weather in Bognor Regis. I agree that some crosswords like this would be a good idea for the FT and would encourage those relatively new to the joys of the crossword. And I did like “African lion” as an anagram for Californian
How long did you take turbolegs?
A quick solve here, too. We wondered if the clue for 7ac should have a question mark as a BIB isn’t necessarily plastic. Otherwise no problems or queries. Favourites were CALIFORNIAN and GLAMORGAN.
Thanks, Xela and Turbolegs.
My quickest ever.
I don’t time, but I do know
And thoroughly enjoyable. A few more like this would be great.
Thanks for the blog.
A quick solve for me too, although it took a bit of time for ARMING and GLAMORGAN to come to mind
Good solid clues, all parsed. I ticked SOUNDBAR, COMMERCE and CALIFORNIAN
I echo the comments on DD1 – it is nice to see a scale that really does go from 1-10
Thanks Xela and Turbolegs
I was repeatedly interrupted during this solve, so I can’t say it was my fastest ever. (Even if the actual time spent solving is added up, since it always takes me a moment or two to transition back into the “solving a cryptic” mindset.) But it was both quick and fun. Proof that a puzzle needn’t be difficult to be good.
It was fun and quite quick but I had some issues with wordplay perhaps being a new Yorker myself. I put bagman in for 7d for example because in New York all the scrap goes in bags on the sidewalk! I thought soundbar for a minute but it’s not in my chambers app. So then I thought had that wrong. Anyways thank you all.
Martyn@14: It’s even better if it goes to 11…
Nothing to scare the horses though I struggled with 24A owing to mistyping two of the crossers. I blame the fact that I started the puzzle after a very nice barbecue and some drinks. The mind still works but the fingers don’t quite keep up it seems!
The only ones I had to reveal were GLAMORGAN, which I’ve not heard of, and ARMING — and I’m still unaware of what Hackney has to do with it. All else was completed very swiftly and enjoyably.
Thanks Xela and Turbolegs
21dn: Hackney is a part of East London and is often used to indicate the Cockney habit of dropping the sound of the initial H from words. Mind you, there are plenty of other parts of England where Hs are routinely dropped.
[24ac: GLAMORGAN last appeared on its own as an answer in an FT main series crossword in August 2022 (blogged in September):
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2022/09/01/financial-times-17178-by-mudd/?highlight=GLAMORGAN
SOUTH GLAMORGAN appeared in February 2025:
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2025/02/12/financial-times-17973-by-goliath/?highlight=GLAMORGAN
South Glamorgan is one of the “new” administrative counties created in the 1970s.]
Thank you for going to the trouble, Pelham. They were two puzzles I didn’t attempt.
I’ve worked hard to assimilate all the British usages, along with rivers etc, that some compilers use more than others, but I must draw the line at trying to learn all the places where residents drop their ‘H’s! And in your first example, I’d also have needed to know that Morgan is a Welsh name — which I didn’t.
A pity we don’t have a bigger stable of decent cryptic compilers in Australia; then we addicts wouldn’t need to depend on you Brits for our daily fix. 🙂
Geoff@20: Finding the two puzzles cited was a simple matter of typing GLAMORGAN into this site’s search engine. I agree that it would be unreasonable to expect you to know all the places where Hs are dropped, but I would suggest that Hackney is probably worth remembering.
Further to 21, I meant to say that, although there are plenty of other places in England where Hs are dropped, I think it would be seriously unfair of a setter to indicate the dropping of an H by a reference to anywhere other than the East End of London.