A regular poster around these parts is Arthur Maynard, a cryptic crossword junkie who spends a lot of time trying to pass on his cryptic knowledge to others. He mentioned a short time ago about his attempt to solve a Guardian cryptic by Crucible that contained a theme that wasn’t stated, and lots of slang English terms he didn’t know. It’s a dilemma for solvers in Australia, both novices and experienced ones, as there aren’t many appropriate crosswords that celebrate Australian culture and words and have a style that provides the foundation needed to tackle the celebrated more difficult crosswords. When solvers want to look beyond the locally-produced product, what choices are there? It’s not surprising that UK newspapers carry UK-centric crosswords – that’s their traditional market and there’s no need for them to try and engage the whole world. There are, of course, pockets of UK-born solvers scattered around the world who can access crosswords online and are mostly familiar with the culture and language, but very few newspapers actively seek solvers outside their local sphere. Foreign-based solvers, as such, are forced to adapt to them, rather than the other way round. One newspaper that does make an effort is the Financial Times (FT) which is described on Wikipedia as “an English-language international daily newspaper”. I wrote cryptics for the FT for a couple of years after a friend suggested that it was a potential outlet for me since they discouraged the parochial nature that dominates most of the crosswords in the UK. As it turned out, he was right, and I basically produced Stickler Weekly-style cryptics keeping the Australian references to a minimum.
The FT cryptic has two other things going for it: all the crosswords are available free online (for the time being at least) and there are many different setters, providing a great deal of variety. After you’ve finished the Stickler Weekly this week, gives some a go.
| Across | Answers and Clues | Explanations |
| 1 | PROVINCE | |
| Area in front of courthouse featured in show (8) | [IN + (C)OURTHOUSE] inside PROVE | |
| 5 | SOFTEN | |
| Tone down opening of song again and again (6) | (S)ONG + OFTEN | |
| 9 | ANIMAL MAGNETISM | |
| An enigmatic mate smiling about mother with personal charm (6,9) | AN + anagram of MATE SMILING outside MA | |
| 11 | ONE-MAN BAND | |
| Soloist on label rewound tape (3-3,4) | ON + (NAME reversed) + BAND | |
| 12 | COPS | |
| Catchers of prime suspects primarily? (4) | (C)atchers (O)f (P)rime (S)uspects | |
| 13 | ALLOWS | |
| Large base bordered by, for instance, green lights (6) | (L + LOW) inside AS | |
| 15 | BEATNIKS | |
| Head of brotherhood takes in terribly young people who are unconventional (8) | (B)ROTHERHOOD + anagram of TAKES IN | |
| 18 | MONEY BOX | |
| One involved in my fight with coin collector (5,3) | ONE inside MY + BOIX | |
| 19 | TAUGHT | |
| Gave lessons in expression of tense (6) | Sounds like TAUT | |
| 22 | TINE | |
| Skin disease without a point (4) | TINEA minus A | |
| 23 | DELIBERATE | |
| Considered food store facing censure (10) | DELI + BERATE | |
| 26 | BERMUDA TRIANGLE | |
| Mature bird changed direction in mysterious Atlantic region (7,8) | Anagram of MATURE BIRD + ANGLE | |
| 27 | ENDING | |
| Finish broadcasting after the conclusion of programs (6) | S-ENDING | |
| 28 | RECKLESS | |
| Inattentive clerk messed up e-sales with alcohol discounted (8) | Anagram of CLERK + (ESALES minus ALE) | |
| Down | Answers and Clues | Explanations |
| 1 | PIANOLA | |
| Leader of orchestra pencilled in arrangement of a plain music player (7) | (O)RCHESTRA inside anagram of A PLAIN | |
| 2 | OLIVE | |
| Source of oil and oxygen burning (5) | O + LIVE | |
| 3 | IN A BAD WAY | |
| I catch first of dozens breaking out suffering from serious injuries (2,1,3,3) | I + NAB + [(D)OZENS inside AWAY] | |
| 4 | CAME BY | |
| Century may be incorrectly scored! (4,2) | C + anagram of MAY BE | |
| 6 | OVER | |
| Four fifths of patent is completed (4) | (OVER)T | |
| 7 | TAILORING | |
| Dog washer’s fitting work (9) | TAIL + O-RING | |
| 8 | NEMESIS | |
| Agent of retribution is after recalled seed (7) | IS after (SEMEN reversed) | |
| 10 | GANNET | |
| Large seabird is bothering person returning with catch (6) | NAG reversed + NET | |
| 14 | LENINGRAD | |
| Large number lifted successful student in old Russian city (9) | L + (NINE reversed) + GRAD | |
| 16 | TRADEMARK | |
| Time to comment about commercial brand (9) | T + REMARK outside AD | |
| 17 | BODEGA | |
| Short boy and senior set up wine shop (6) | (BO)Y + (AGED reversed) | |
| 18 | MUTABLE | |
| Changing quantity of drugs carried by smuggler (7) | TAB inside MULE | |
| 20 | TEETERS | |
| Rest re-scheduled after part of course moves unsteadily (7) | Anagram of REST after TEE | |
| 21 | FIERCE | |
| Ferocious wild fire gutted cottage? (6) | Anagram of FIRE + C(ottag)E | |
| 24 | ARGUE | |
| A dishonest person losing round in fight (5) | A + (ROGUE minus O) | |
| 25 | BURN | |
| Cut a Scottish flower (4) | Double Definition |
Thank you for the guide to the Financial Times. I will give that a try nest time I finish Stickler early
Arthur
I noticed the missing E in 28-ac. I didn’t think to check the puzzle page (though I checked clue hints) as I didn’t think there’d be any discussion until the solution was published. No Dictionary gives “al” as an abbreviation for alcohol, so I don’t accept that as a solution, but e-sales is a real thing and an elegant solution for me.
25-ac: I got that “flower’ was river and found BURN, though I struggle to equate it with CUT. The closest I can get is disks, but you ‘cut’ a vinyl disc or its master, and ‘burn’ an optical disk. I can’t think of any place they’re actually interchangeable. Am I howling up an inappropriate woody plant?
1-ac had me stumped for ages (that “in”) as did 27-ac. Some slapping of the forehead followed.
Overall, I really enjoyed this puzzle’s challenge and my only other comment is that I thought the definition for 26-ac was a little obvious and I didn’t need to look at the wordplay.
And on to this week’s …
Thanks,
Steve = : ^ )
Steve, You are right about the early discussion. My fault, and out of order. I am used to discussion within my U3A group, and got carried away.
I also had some issues with burn as cut. Google found some references to burn cuts in a mining context – relating to blast holes, but they are rather remote from general usage.
There are many references to slash and burn, which indicates that they are separate activities. I wound up accepting the concept cutting a disc using the current terminology of burn. To me this equates with changes in usage as exemplified by the use of aps/programs. When I first started working with computers we used applications, later we changed to programs, and now we are back to aps. Are they interchangeable?
David, the gremlins got into your parsing for 18a and put an I in an inappropriate place.
Arthur
David, I still ponder burn as cut. I imagine I am not alone. Could you outline the context in which it is used.
Thanks in anticipation.