Financial Times 14,171 – Dante
Posted by Sil van den Hoek on December 6th, 2012
Monday Prize Crossword/Nov 26
Mostly straightforward, but as always with a Dante puzzle there were these final bits that held me up. I think the end-product is right, but I need some help to justify one or two clues.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HOODOO | Robin needs spectacles – bad luck! (6) |
| HOOD (Robin) + OO (spectacles, a familiar visual device in crosswords) | ||
| 4 | PAY COURT | Meet fine, attractive lady – giving reason to do this? (3,5) |
| Cryptic definition (probably a kind of Double definition) | ||
| Or is there a construction going on? With ‘fine’ alluding to something that has to be paid? I think our beloved Gaufrid @5 is right. | ||
| 10 | ADJUTANTS | Notice goes to workers accepting project for military assistants (9) |
| {AD (notice) + ANTS (workers)} around JUT (project) | ||
| 11 | LUGER | Automatic right to go on toboggan (5) |
| LUGE (toboggan) + R (right) | ||
| A luger is an automatic weapon. | ||
| 12 | DICE | They are outnumbered in play (4) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 13 | GET UP AND GO | A pet gun-dog involved in drive (3-2-3-2) |
| (A PET GUN-DOG)* | ||
| 15 | NAIVETE | I have innate artlessness (7) |
| IVE (I have, I’ve) inside NATE (in/nate, in The Guardian way) | ||
| 16 | TABLET | Prescription for sober man with healthy heart (6) |
| TT (sober man, teetotaller) around ABLE (healthy) | ||
| 19 | UNITES | Joins military formations round the east (6) |
| UNITS (military formations) around E (the east) | ||
| 21 | PANICKY | Fearful of cut in one’s wages (7) |
| NICK (cut) inside PAY (one’s wages) | ||
| 23 | SECOND-HAND | Used to support worker (6-4) |
| SECOND (to support) + HAND (worker) | ||
| 25 | OPAL | Gemstone in ring presented to friend (4) |
| O (ring) + PAL (friend) | ||
| 27 | ERATO | Bend an ear to the muse of poetry (5) |
| (EAR TO)* | ||
| I do not like this. “Bend an ear to’ suggests an anagram of ‘an ear to’. That said, I am used (even immune) to Dante’s love for padding with articles. Yet, don’t like it. | ||
| 28 | LAUNDRIES | Under sail, perhaps, they may look after the sheets (9) |
| (UNDER SAIL)* | ||
| 29 | PINAFORE | Garment one may have to fasten in front (8) |
| One may have to PIN (fasten) this garment AFORE (in front) | ||
| 30 | TENNIS | Game entangled in nets (6) |
| (IN NETS)* | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HOARDING | Setting great store by a spot of publicity (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 2 | OBJECTION | Notice job is diversified – protest (9) |
| (NOTICE JOB)* | ||
| 3 | OATH | One shouldn’t lie under it (4) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 5 | ASSAULT | Attack by a saint about one who became one (7) |
| A + {ST (saint) around SAUL (one who became one, a saint that is)} | ||
| 6 | COLLARBONE | It may be broken by colonel stumbling round strange bar (10) |
| (COLONEL)* around (BAR)* | ||
| 7 | URGED | Did some pressing (5) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| How cryptic is this? | ||
| 8 | TERROR | Fear to make the initial mistake (6) |
| T[he] + ERROR (mistake) | ||
| 9 | SNEEZE | Suddenly expire, having snuffed it? (6) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| One I liked. | ||
| 14 | GETTING OFF | Going for acquittal (7,3) |
| Double definition | ||
| I first had here ‘letting off’which fitted ‘acquittal’, though ‘Going (for)’ cried out for ‘setting off’. Peter Groves @1 offered another possibility, one that got support from Dante himself (@9). | ||
| 17 | EXCEPTION | Omission that may be taken as an offence (9) |
| Double definition | ||
| 18 | CYCLISTS | They’ll get nowhere unless they push themselves forward (8) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 20 | SCHOLAR | Student starts singing choral arrangement (7) |
| S[inging] + (CHORAL)* | ||
| 21 | PENT-UP | Enclosure sheep is held in (4-2) |
| PEN (enclosure) + TUP (sheep) | ||
| 22 | ASLEEP | Successfully retired (6) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 24 | CHAIN | A measure of restraint (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 26 | ADZE | Axe broadcast commercials (4) |
| Homophone of ADS (commercials) | ||
December 6th, 2012 at 8:34 am
I am sure that FINE alludes to a sum of money that has to be paid to the court, but I do find that clue difficult to work out.
A further alternative for 14d is “getting off”, which fits “acquittal” and seems to me to be closer to “going” than “letting off”.
December 6th, 2012 at 12:34 pm
Re 4a PAY COURT: I too am unable to get a completely satisfactory explanation. “Pay court” we may derive from “meet, fine lady”. And if we “meet fine”, in a manner of speaking, we might “pay [the] court”. But the wording of the clue does not quite lead us through all this.
December 6th, 2012 at 12:45 pm
In the above message, please read “meet fine lady” instead of “meet, fine lady”. When we pay court to her, we must be visiting her frequently, I suppose.
PS: I made a mistake in the elementary arithmetic, but I was given a second chance, without my having to retype!
December 6th, 2012 at 6:52 pm
I couldn’t get 4a across either Maybe Dante can enlighten us?
December 6th, 2012 at 7:21 pm
Thanks Ringo
Here’s my take on 4ac, the clue needs to be split after ‘fine’.
To ‘meet [a] fine’ you would PAY [the] COURT and if you see an ‘attractive lady’ you might be given a reason to woo or PAY COURT to her.
December 6th, 2012 at 10:50 pm
That makes sense, Gaufrid, so it’s more of a double definition.
Leaves me with 14d and the alternative that Peter Groves offers us.
What’s your opinion on that, Gaufrid?
December 7th, 2012 at 8:14 am
Hi Sil
Sorry I thanked Ringo instead of yourself. I’ve had a very busy few days and my mind wasn’t as clear as it should have been. I thought I was adding a comment to yesterday’s FT. Doh!
I didn’t solve this puzzle so I don’t know the checked letters in 14dn. Chambers does give let=leave which would account for LETTING but then there’s no wordplay for the OFF.
December 8th, 2012 at 1:25 am
Well, Gaufrid, if only my name would have been Ringo while being the drummer in a band …..
Thanks for giving your thoughts on 14d.
I think I’ll stick to LETTING OFF (sorry, Peter) but perhaps next Monday’s FT will prove me wrong.
December 8th, 2012 at 10:59 am
Apologies for delay. We are in Lanzarote having our villa rewired with everything going wrong! ( and we now hear our boiler at home needs replacing). Without a grid I would go for “getting off” , as a double definition. In haste!
December 8th, 2012 at 2:54 pm
Many thanks, dear Rufus/Dante, for dropping by.
Especially given the fact that currently you have a lot of other things to worry about. But keep smiling!
In the end, I guess, Lanzarote is a more comfortable place to be than Shropshire this time of year.
So, 14d is from now on GETTING OFF.
And a plus for Peter Groves too ….
December 10th, 2012 at 7:24 am
Today’s paper gives ‘getting off’ as the answer to 14d.
Not Dante’s clearest clue.