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!
A good challenge. I was beaten by MACRON.
I assumed (wrongly, as I discovered) that in 6 the word “Monied” must be part of the wordplay since I could think of no reason why anyone would otherwise want to use that spelling in preference to “Moneyed”. Sadly in my view the language has also journied in the direction of “monies” rather than “moneys”.
On the same theme as Babbler@6 what about PANTIHOSE? It was always pantyhose. What is the point of changing it?
Neat and fun puzzle. Thanks to Neo and loonapick.