Financial Times 13,611 / Dante
Posted by Agentzero on February 17th, 2011
Prize puzzle from the FT of Monday 7 February
Another Monday, another Dante. As usual, there are some clever cd’s (4 down, 8 down stand out for me) and dd’s (I particularly liked 24 down).
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SHOULDER SHOULD (ought) ER (hesitation) |
| 5 | SHREWD SHREW (spitfire) + D[ay] |
| 9 | BREAKS UP dd |
| 10 | SPLITS dd |
| 12 | AS WAS alternate letters in wArSaW’s AlSo |
| 13 | TITLE PAGE TITLE (right) PAGE (servant) |
| 14 | NETHER N[ame] + ETHER (number) |
| 16 | WRAITHS *(THIS RAW) |
| 19 | SEMIPRO *(PROMISE) |
| 21 | SVELTE T (square) in *(ELVES) |
| 23 | OWNERSHIP *(PRO HE WINS) |
| 25 | SWELL dd |
| 26 | SAILOR “ABC-man” is a homophone of A[ble] B[odied] SEAMAN |
| 27 | DECREASE dd |
| 28 | LASTED *(SALTED) |
| 29 | CONDENSE CON (swindler) DENSE (slow-witted) |
| Down | |
| 1 | SUBWAY A cd, I suppose, but a bit too close to a plain definition for me |
| 2 | OVERWHELM W (first [in] “watch”) in OVER (too muc) HELM (rudder) |
| 3 | LIKES dd Would Uncle Yap call this a “dud”? Usually a dd involves two senses of the defined word. Here only one sense of the defined word is involved; the misdirection lies in the use of two senses of one of the definitions. |
| 4 | EQUATOR cd |
| 6 | HYPHENATE cd |
| 7 | ERICA hidden in AmERICAn |
| 8 | DISPERSE cd |
| 11 | STOW S[outh] (180 degrees) TO W[est] (270 degrees) |
| 15 | HYPERBOLE *(BE HER PLOY) |
| 17 | TITHE BARN THE BAR (advocates) in TIN (money) |
| 18 | ESPOUSAL dd |
| 20 | OOHS SHOO (drive away) reversed |
| 21 | SUPREMO SUP (drink) + *(MORE) I was confused at first by the word “starts”, but I think it just indicates that SUP is the first half of the wordplay |
| 22 | FLEECE FLEE (run) CE (church) |
| 24 | NAILS dd |
| 25 | SHRED SH (quiet) RED (embarrassed) |
February 17th, 2011 at 10:13 pm
Got completely becalmed in the North East but only had 14a missing elsewhere. Not for the first time took number as referring to something methematical rather than medical.
Shrew =spitfire was an unknown, horrified to miss a hidden word.
I’d be grateful for further explanation of 8d. Sure if you move something you disperse it -but why are you breaking concentration? Maybe I’m concentrating too hard and can’t see the ood for the trees. Thanks
February 17th, 2011 at 10:19 pm
Hi Bamberger
If it’s any consolation, it took me quite some time to see that 7 down was a hidden word. Since a number of female names fit the pattern (E-I-A) made by the crossing letters, I wondered for a while whether Eliza Doolittle had some secret anti-American sympathies.
Regarding 8 down: a crowd, for example, is a concentration of people; if the police disperse a crowd, they are moving people in a way that breaks that concentration.
February 27th, 2011 at 10:27 am
I hope I am not too late to ask a couple of questions.
Why does Shrewd man fly, and espousal mean adoption? Surely you espouse something then either adopt it or not? I put it in because I could see nothing else but with not much conviction.
I liked this puzzle and I like Dante. I was going to ask why ether means number but I fell for the old trick yet again.
cheers
John