Financial Times 13,303 by Mudd
Posted by Pete Maclean on February 18th, 2010
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 6
Mudd gives us some jolly good double definitions here (notably 5A, 21A, 29A, 20D and 21D) but my choice for best clue is the cannibal one, 18D.
Across
1. WINDPIPE – D (died) + PIP (seed) in WINE (drink)
5. STITCH – double definition
9. ARTISTIC – IST (first) in ARTIC (lorry)
10. DRAWER – REWARD (prize) backwards
12. ORCHESTRA – anagram of OTHER CARS
13. ISSUE – [t]ISSUE (cleaner with top wiped)
14. OVER – double definition
16. TRAVAIL – A (a) + V (victory) in TRAIL (course). I wonder about the definition here: “requiring great effort”. It would seem to call for an answer that is an adjective but, as far as I can determine, TRAVAIL is only a noun or verb.
19. AGAINST – AGA (important Turk) + IN (in) + ST (way)
21. BEEF – double definition
24. JUNTA – N[icaragua] in JUT (project) + A (a)
26. CHURCHILL – CHURCH (something sacred) + ILL (funny)
27. RABBIT – double definition
28. SCORPION – [soldie]R in COP (policeman) in SION (Jerusalem)
29. MILLER – double definition
30. PROLOGUE – O (old) + LOG (record) in PRUE (little girl)
Down
1. WEAPON – A (a) in NO PEW (no seat) all backwards
2. NOTICE – cryptic definition (“not ice”)
3. PASTE – S[upposition] in PATE (head)
4. POINTER – double definition
6. TERMINATE – [c]AT in TERMITE (insect)
7. TOWNSMAN – OWNS (keeps) + MA (mother) in T[uscan]Y
8. HORSEFLY – anagram of SERF in HOLY (blessed)
11. PACT – homophone (“packed”)
15. VANDALISE – VAN (vehicle) + anagram of LADIES
17. MARJORAM – MAR (ruin) + OR (yellow) in JAM (preserve). It seems that “yellow” must clue OR here but I do not understand how that works.
18. CANNIBAL – NIB (end of writer) in CANAL (water)
20. TICK – double definition
21. BOUNCER – double definitio22. VIKING – [George] VI Rex23. GLANCE – G (good) + LANCE (cut)
26. CORAL – R[ed] in COAL (black stuff)
February 18th, 2010 at 12:39 am
Good old OR. Yes, it’s bit of a chestnut which never seems to appear outside crossworld. The heraldic term “or” is the tincture gold or yellow; it’s based on the Latin aurum (gold) but I’d guess more directly from French (as in Carte d’Or).
Damn. That’s made me peckish.
February 18th, 2010 at 9:20 am
Thanks for the blog, Pete
I thought there was a mistake in the clue for 6dn: ‘insect eating headless cat’ leads to TERMI(AT)TE.
How about ‘insect eating tailless nag’?
February 18th, 2010 at 10:04 am
We found this one extremely easy for a (prize) Mudd.
Typical for it the undemanding cluing of CHURCHILL.
We were sure that Mudd used ‘artic’ for lorry in a recent Paul to get the same word, ARTISTIC (9ac).
There we good clues as well, of course.
We thought 19ac (AGAINST) and 11d (PACT) were probably the best.
But then 6d.
This is – as Mike04 pointed out – clearly a mistake.
Quite unusual.
Finally, in 2d ICE is defined as ‘water over 1 degree C’.
We thought ice becomes water starting at 0 degree Celsius.
[and BTW, not very nice to see the solutions of today's Araucaria at the start-up of 15^2]
February 18th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Sil
“[and BTW, not very nice to see the solutions of today's Araucaria at the start-up of 15^2]”
Sorry about that. I don’t know how that one got through the automatic summary generator but I have now achieved the same effect by manual intervention.
February 18th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Thanks, Pete.
I thought 19ac was the best: I think ‘V’ [versus = against] is the definition, rather than ['very'] part of the wordplay.
February 18th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Re #4:
Gaufrid, I saw it, closed my eyes, yet picked up the first solution, but forgot about it instantly ……….
Well, these things do happen.
[like that mistake in the Mudd crossword]
Pete, thanks for the blog (of course), and I agree with Eileen that V must be seen as the definition (therefore I liked this clue so much).
And in 28ac there’s a typo (SCION must be SION).
As to your question about TRAVAIL: one can read it as “great effort” is required for “course taken to claim a victory” – though I admit it’s a bit the other way around. But I think this what Mudd meant.
February 19th, 2010 at 2:18 am
Thanks for all the comments. Typos in 19 and 28A corrected.
I had thought there was something wrong with 6D but failed to analyze just what. It occurred to me that the TRAVAIL clue might have been intended as an &lit. but it did not seem to work that way.