Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
A blog that takes a look at the highlights from the week’s cryptics, and some of the puzzles coming up this weekend.
Clues of the weekend
Julius has the Saturday cryptic puzzle slot, and here’s a fractionally clever teaser —
49%? Very much! (3,4)
and a simple one —
Beatrice married Ray (4)
Hint: think of a shortened version of Beatrice.
Sleuth, setter of Saturday’s Polymath general knowledge puzzle, gets to grip with Willy Wonka, a spiny lobster, the drink of the gods and —
A small termite-eating Australian marsupial (6)
… which is not the one you might first think.
And for Aldhelm’s Numbers puzzle on Sunday, it will help if you know Year of the Battle of Agincourt, the Number that’s 11000 in binary and the US emergency telephone number.
How to solve
This anagram clue featured in Artexlen’s Monday cryptic —
Pals feud over what’s been dug up? (8)
Over indicates an anagram, Pals feud have been turned over to give us what’s been dug up —
SPADEFUL
On Wednesday, Goliath teased us with —
Band’s tour is from the 5th of August to the 2nd of September (6)
from the 5th letter of August — S — to the 2nd letter of September — E, take a word for tour (TRIP) to get an alternative word to band —
S-TRIP-E
In Jason’s Thursday puzzle, a simple synonym wordplay —
Beef or grouse? (4)
Is it food-related? Actually here’s two items of food, that also mean to moan, complain, or —
CARP
… which happens to be another type of food.
And on Friday, Solomon offered —
O Romeo . . . Romeo? (5)
O is love as in the tennis score, Romeo = R (in the Nato phonetic alphabet), which gives us —
LOVER — which is what Romeo was.
Phrase of the week
EAVESDROP
Aldhelm’s Weekend hybrid puzzle had this straight clue —
Secretly listen in (9)
The OED says the word means to stand within the “eavesdrop” of a house in order to listen to secrets; hence, to listen secretly to private conversation. The Old English meaning of the noun eavesdrop was the dripping of water from the eaves of a house.
From the FT Style Guide
DESULTORY
Jumping from one thing to another; without rational or logical connection; rambling; hasty; loose. It does not mean lazy or languid.
To access the FT’s Cryptic, Polymath and FT Weekend crosswords, go to https://www.ft.com/puzzles-games or solve them on the iOS and Android apps.
Read the full article here