Crossword setters meet their downfall

A blog that takes a look at the highlights from the week’s cryptics, and some of the puzzles coming up this weekend.

Word of the week

Solomon on Friday has this clue —

Loiter under the influence alongside taxi car (9)

It is solved by seeing that the drunken term under the influence is an anagram indicator for loiter. Taxi = cab, so CAB alongside the loiter anagram gives us —

CABRIOLET

The OED suggests various French terms before cabriolet came to mean a type of car — a kind of light horse-drawn vehicle with a folding hood, a kind of ladies’ bonnet, on account of its similarity to the vehicle’s hood, kind of small armchair with a curved back, probably so called on account of its similarity to the vehicle’s seat), all of which derive from the 16th Century French verb cabrioler — to leap or bound.

Clues of the weekend 

Julius in Saturday’s cryptic puzzle offers —

Party switching leader from Republican to Democrat — such duplicity! (9)

This one requires finding a word for party and switching the R in the word for a D. And in this clue —

Played the leads in Alien, Crash, The Exorcist and Dune (5)

This one involves looking at the lead letters in the clue.

Hamilton, setter of the Polymath general knowledge puzzle, seeks your expertise on a tourist attraction on the New York State/Ontario border (7,5), the name of the viewing area created by Charles Barry in the Palace of Westminster after the 1834 fire (6,7) and the name of the cryptanalyst portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game (4,6)

How to solve

Solomon offers this teaser —

Zips zip? (5)

Think of a word for things that zip about and a word for a trouser item and you get —

FLIES

Jason on Thursday constructed this clue —

Support Victor facing trouble for boasting? (7)

Support = BRA. Victor = V. Trouble = ADO. Which put together gives us —

BRAVADO — which means boasting.

Monk on Wednesday offered —

Brass-section’s sound lacking a vitality (5)

Brass-section’s sound = OOMPAH, which when it lacks the a, gives you -

OOMPH — meaning vitality

And a curious one from Gozo on Tuesday —

Unwilling? (9)

If you lack a will, you are —

INTESTATE

From the FT Style Guide

INCHOATE

Note the spelling. It means just beginning, at an early stage; do not confuse inchoate with chaotic; or with incoherent.

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.