Prize puzzle from the FT of December 31, 2010
An end of year surprise – prize puzzle on a Friday. The clue for 19D sums it up for me. Liked many clues such as 23A and 7D, got some quickly others after a struggle, and there were a couple I wasn’t too happy with.
Cincinnus puzzles nearly always have a composer or two in them, this was no exception. Elgar is an old friend now; for 18A this Wiki page came to the rescue.
Across
1 CLAMMY dd; the second definition referring to clams (shellfish)
4 ABOUND A (area) BOUND (destined)
8 EL GRECO ELGAR (English composer) – A, ECO (Italian writer, Umberto Eco)
9 CARRIER CARRIE (girl) R (right); HMS Ark Royal was an aircraft carrier in the Royal Navy.
11 DISORDERED D (daughter) IS ORDERED (told what to do). It’s a bit dull when the charade is broken along its natural join, as in this clue.
12 GOSH GO (split) S (second) H (hours)
16 BEAU NASH BEAUN[e] (burgundy, mostly) (HAS)*. Beau Nash was a celebrated dandy in the 18th century.
18 NYMAN NY MAN; the composer is Michael Laurence Nyman.
20 TRAD TRAD[e] (unfinished business). “Trad” is short for traditional jazz.
21 RESEMBLING (GERBILS MEN)*, an easy anagram.
23 BELIEVE VEIL (cover) reversed in BEE (worker)
24 STAND-IN STANDING (position) – G
25 DOGGED DOGE (old magistrate) around G (grand), D (duke)
26 ASCEND AS (when) C[urrents] END (stop)
Down
1 CALVI hidden in ‘theologiCAL VIrtues’. Got this through the wordplay, and verified that Roberto Calvi was an Italian banker nicknamed “God’s
Banker” because of his close association with the Vatican.
2 AIRPORT AIR (song), TROP (French for ‘too much’) reversed. Charles de Gaulle is the main airport in France.
3 MACEDONIA (OCEAN MAID)*
5 BLAND B (British) LAND (territory)
6 UPRIGHT dd
7 DRESS DOWN A lovely dd; to dress casually i.e. be “unsuited”, and to scold/lecture.
10 FRANCHISE FRANCE (part of Europe) around HIS (man’s)
13 SPEARHEAD SPEAR (possibly iron) HEAD (lead). “Iron spear” is a type of spear. Not a fan of this clue for the same reason as 11A, but I like the misdirection with “lead”.
15 GUNSMITHS cd; “piece” is slang for firearm.
17 UNDYING NU (Greek character) reversed, DYING (longing)
19 MELANGE ME (Cincinnus, the setter), G (good) in LANE (way)
21 REVUE EVER (at any time) reversed, around [yo]U[th]
22 NAIAD (DIANA)*
I found it impossible to get the bottom left hand corner out. 16A I doubt that I would ever get. 13D and 17D I could not get because of my answer to 20 across. My answer is “Comp” which I think is a better answer for the clue (although obviously not what Cincinnus intended). Comp is unfinished company and comp is the act of accompanying along impromptu “in Jazz”.
John, while there will be the very odd exception, ‘unfinished’ generally indicates removal of just the last letter of a word as in ‘trade’ here. I enjoyed the puzzle which I found tricky enough.
Surprisingly given the comments above,I finished this in a reasonable time. Must have had a going day helped by knowing beau nash, having seen trad in numerous xwords and doge having appeared in a FT crossword a few days before this one
Anyone done mine today (Friday)?
Re 13d, is it not a dd SPEARHEAD = “lead (v)” and SPEARHEAD = “part of weapon, possibly iron”