Apologies for the late blog.
I woke up this morning and looked at the FT website and thought today’s puzzle had not been posted, so got up and got ready for work. Once I checked again, I noted that the puzzle was actually there but had been loaded yesterday, so I had mistakenly assumed that this was yesterday’s puzzle. Anyway, it is done now.
This was a slightly tougher puzzle than I have become used to on a Thursday. It relied on knowing GARTH is a courtyard and MACON is smoked mutton. I don’t think I’ve come across either before (or if I have, I’ve forgotten them). None of the general knowledge was too challenging, as HOGARTH, NORMA and REICHSTAG aren’t overly obscure, and it makes a change to see “president” referring to somewhere other than the US. I’m not 100% sure I’ve parsed FEMME FATALE correctly (thanks Hovis for putting me right) and Hovis also put me right on the parsing of RED GUARDS.
Thanks, Neo.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PROBATIONER |
Novice morphed into a penetrating examiner (11)
|
| *(into a) [anag:morphed] penetrating PROBER (“examiner”) | ||
| 7 | FOG |
Obscure hawk avoiding lake (3)
|
| F(l)OG (“hawk”) avoiding L (lake) | ||
| 9 | RAGED |
Boss on tabloid had a meltdown? (5)
|
| A RAG ED. (editor of a rag would be a “tabloid boss”) | ||
| 10 | PANTIHOSE |
God one wearing the specified tights (9)
|
| PAN (“god”) + I (one) wearing THOSE (“the specified”) | ||
| 11 | MINT SAUCE |
Dressing thrown at us going into chopped lamb? (4,5)
|
| *(at us) [anag:thrown] going into MINCE (“chopped lamb?”) | ||
| 12 | HAD ON |
Tricked where subatomic particle has no radius (3,2)
|
| HAD(r)ON (“subatomic particle”) has no R (radius) | ||
| 13 | UNSOUND |
Blue Berets report not reliable (7)
|
| UN (United Nations, so “Blue Berets”) + SOUND (“report”) | ||
| 15 | YETI |
Himalayan legend still current (4)
|
| YET (“still”) + I (symbol for electric current in physics) | ||
| 18 | ETNA |
Smoker new among old Basque separatists (4)
|
| N (new) among ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, a former “Basque separatist” organisation) | ||
| 20 | HOGARTH |
Satirical artist in house with courtyard (7)
|
| Ho. (house) with GARTH (“courtyard”)
Refers to William Hogarth (1697-1764), best known for his The Rake’s Progress. |
||
| 23 | ARIES |
Tooth decay shows no initial sign (5)
|
| (c)ARIES (“tooth decay”, showing no initial) | ||
| 24 | ARLINGTON |
Departs from Durham town for cemetery (9)
|
| D (departs) from (d)ARLINGTON (“town” in County “Durham”) | ||
| 26 | RED GUARDS |
Maoists argued about blocking road south (3,6)
|
| *(argued) [anag:about] blocking Rd. (road) + S (south)
|
||
| 27 | RURAL |
Country sport — run length around area (5)
|
| RU (rugby union, so “sport”) + R (run) + L (length) around A (area) | ||
| 28 | NEE |
Born in Cambridge alongside Backs (3)
|
| Backs of (i)N (cambridg)E (alongsid)E | ||
| 29 | FEMME FATALE |
Woman captivating fellow in the flesh? (5,6)
|
| FEMALE (“woman”) capturing F (“fellow”) in MEAT (“flesh”)
My original parsing was wrong, but Hovis@1 put me right. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PARAMOUR |
Lover for Parisian entertaining alpha male? (8)
|
| POUR (“for” in French, so “for Parisian”) entertaining A (alpha, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) + RAM (“male”) | ||
| 2 | ORGANISM |
Maybe spleen is beginning to motivate creature (8)
|
| ORGAN (“maybe spleen”) + IS + [beginning to] M(otivate) | ||
| 3 | ANDES |
Chain in patrician descent not complete (5)
|
| Hidden in [in…not complete] “patriciAN DEScent” | ||
| 4 | IMPOUND |
Commandeer one penny bank invests (7)
|
| I (one) + P (penny) invested in MOUND (“bank”) | ||
| 5 | NUNNERY |
Fugitive losing head in New York convent (7)
|
| (r)UNNER (“fugitive”, losing head) in NY (New York) | ||
| 6 | REICHSTAG |
Monied speculator acquiring East German house (9)
|
| RICH (“monied”) + STAG (“speculator”) acquiring E (East) | ||
| 7 | FRONDS |
Leaves father and daughter among statisticians (6)
|
| Fr. (Father) + D (daughter) among ONS (Office for National Statistics, so “statisticians”) | ||
| 8 | GREENS |
Environmentalists putting on these vegetables (6)
|
| Triple definition (for the second, think of putting on a green in golf) | ||
| 14 | UP TO SNUFF |
In good order until put out (2,2,5)
|
| UP TO (“until”) + SNUFF (“put out”) | ||
| 16 | PRETORIA |
City airport redeveloped covers Spain (8)
|
| *(airport) [anag:redeveloped] covers E (IVR code for “Spain”) | ||
| 17 | CHENILLE |
Church charged by female over evil material (8)
|
| CE (“Church” of England) charged by HEN (“female”) over ILL (“evil”) | ||
| 19 | ANAGRAM |
Dish a man chews is one of ham sandwiches (7)
|
| *(dish a man chews) is one (an ANAGRAM) of *(ham sandwiches) | ||
| 20 | HOLY SEE |
Vatican report altogether groundless? (4,3)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [report] of WHOLLY (“altogether”) + SEA (“groundless”), i.e. all water, no ground | ||
| 21 | MACRON |
President right into smoked mutton (6)
|
| R (right) into MACON (“smoke mutton”) | ||
| 22 | GIRDLE |
Belt held right over trousers (6)
|
| Hidden backwards in [over trousers] “hELD RIGht” | ||
| 25 | NORMA |
Line excised from standard opera (5)
|
| L (line) excised from NORMA(l) (“standard”)
Norma is an opera by Bellini, first performed in 1831. |
In FEMME FATALE, I had F in MEAT in wordplay and in RED GUARDS I had the anagram of ARGUED inside RD.
Very entertaining from Neo; favourites included FLOG, MINT SAUCE and above all, ANAGRAM.
Lots of fun a-ha moments, interesting wordplay and things to learn like ‘garth’ and ‘macon’ .
Needed to confirm the parsing of a few here though agree with Hovis on RED GUARDS and FEMME FATALE.
Thanks to Neo and Loonapick.
Thanks, Hovis, have now edited the blog. Was in a bit of a rush as I’m supposed to be working!
Thanks for the blog , very good set of clues , I will agree with Diane@2 and add GIRDLE , neat and concise .
I know GARTH only from crosswords .
MACON is Mutton bACON , for people who like bacon but do not eat pork .
Interesting, Roz; I must try this meaty Macon, perhaps with some vinous Mâcon rouge!