Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of June 8, 2013
As usual I found this Bradman more difficult than the average puzzle in this slot. The lower half was especially challenging for me. My favourite clues are 1A (SCATTERBRAINED), 25A (ETHICAL) and 21D (KILLER). There was one answer that I was unfamiliar with, 23D (CULET).
ACROSS
1 Transcribe date inaccurately, being poorly focused on the task? (14)
SCATTERBRAINED – anagram of TRANSCRIBE DATE
10 No artist, a retiring priest (5)
AARON – NO (no) + RA (artist) + A (a) all backwards. This refers to a character in the Old Testament who was a priest.
11 Dismissed, wanting big feast to be extended (9)
OUTSPREAD – OUT (dismissed) + SPREAD (big feast)
12 Group of lords look somehow to have maturity (7)
PEERAGE – PEER (look somehow) + AGE (maturity)
13 Horse with stamina right for stabling – one isn’t on course (7)
STRAYER – R (right) in STAYER (horse)
14 Frigid female provides backing (5)
STIFF – F (female) + FITS (provides) all backwards
16 A non-drinking worker must go round boundary as a guard (9)
ATTENDANT – A (a) + TT (non-drinking) + END (boundary) + ANT (worker)
19 A non-royal leads in our time (6,3)
COMMON ERA – COMMONER (non-royal) + A (a)
20 Fire engulfing hospital building made of wood? (5)
SHACK – H (hospital) in SACK (fire)
22 Worked out precise formulae (7)
RECIPES – anagram of PRECISE
25 The drunk I describe as “not quite upright” (7)
ETHICAL – anagram of THE + I (I) + CALL (describe as, not quite)
27 What’s taking place briefly in sanctum – glorious little Mass (9)
MILLIGRAM – hidden abbreviation (‘mg’). While I guessed the answer confidently once I had a few crossing letters, I pored over the clue for ages to understand its wordplay. And I was defeated; I had to ask for help. So we have a substantial bunch of words to hide two little letters. I cannot fault the clue but what do you think? Is it fiendishly clever or too unconventional and difficult? I tend to the former.
28 Italian designer sending out bill in a few lines of writing? (5)
VERSE – VERS[ac]E (Italian designer sending out bill)
29 Foolish person accommodated by archbishop at home, heretic not bound by narrow doctrines (14)
LATITUDINARIAN – TIT (foolish person) in LAUD (archbishop) + IN (at home) + ARIAN (heretic). The archbishop here is William Laud who was archbishop of Canterbury from 1573 to 1645 (that’s a long time!) and, fortunately for me, one that I had heard of.
DOWN
2 Scot getting round gentleman always on the up – creeping for promotion? (9)
CAREERISM – SIR (gentleman) + EER (always) in MAC (Scot) all backwards (on the up)
3 Any number wearing classical garb in Pacific kingdom (5)
TONGA – N (any number) in TOGA (classical garb)
4 Acquit former partner, individual to think highly of (9)
EXONERATE – EX (former partner) + ONE (individual) + RATE (think highly of)
5 Victims in casks such as the one that did for Clarence? (5)
BUTTS – double definition. The Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV, was reported to have drowned in a butt of Malmsey.
6 Spartan is in struggle with the hopefuls (9)
ASPIRANTS – anagram of SPARTAN IS IN
7 Born dreadfully devoid of things possessed, wanting much (5)
NEEDY – NEE (born) + D[readfull]Y
8 Philosopher making point about notion not quite right (7)
DIDEROT – IDE[a] (notion not quite) + R (right) in DOT (point)
9 University location where French writer has penned short page (6)
CAMPUS – P (short page) in CAMUS (French writer)
15 Impression made by Oxford? (9)
FOOTPRINT – cryptic definition
17 Supply me a stand, for ultimately I must sell stuff (9)
TRADESMAN – anagram of ME A STAND [fo]R
18 Tree excellent rescue team must climb after a game’s trapped adult (9)
ARAUCARIA – A (a) + A (adult) in RU (game) + (AI (excellent) + RAC (rescue team)) reversed. RAC here is the Royal Automobile Club.
19 Dark brown substance in a river crossed by mammal (7)
CARAMEL – A (a) + R (river) together in CAMEL (mammal)
21 King and Queen imprisoning bad criminal? (6)
KILLER – K (king) + ILL (bad) + R (queen)
23 Fad for collecting eastern armour (5)
CULET – E (eastern) in CULT (fad). I had to look this one up.
24 Divided into portions to avoid a scrap (5)
SHRED – SH[a]RED (divided into portions to avoid a)
26 Be poised, as maiden possibly wanting husband first (5)
HOVER – H (husband) + OVER (as maiden possibly — as in cricket, that is)
re 27a I too got the answer from the definition and then had to work out the subsidiary part of the clue. So in that sense it is an unconventional type of clue.
My favourite clue was 15D.
Thanks as always, Pete, for the blog.
Thank you, ernie.
Similar experience -except the bottom below 19a & 20a was blank except for 22a.
I could have sat here until eternity and not got 27a, 29a & 23
Well done for finishing
Well, being committed to blogging the puzzle works as a strong incentive to finish it! By the same token, it serves as a powerful excuse to use pattern-matching and similar tools when one is stuck.
Many thanks Pete & Bradman
Very enjoyable but, like you, I was unsure about MILLIGRAM.
Also, I hesitated to enter BUTTS and SHRED and these made up my list of queries.
But no complaints on this puzzle.
However, I do have a major complaint about today’s puzzle: the online version has gone AWOL – yet again!
I think 27 ac is fiendish, not unconventional. Needless to say I didn’t get it, not 23d, 24d , and 18d, which I should have but didn’t get to checking the tree.Frustrating to be so close!
Thanks for the blog, Pete. I was wondering what BUTTS had to do with someone named Clarence. CULET was new to me also.
I got 27a straightaway, but only because I recalled a similar device used by Bradman not long ago. In FT 14,321, he clued MILLIWATT by hiding mW in Opium Wars. I quite like the inventiveness of this device (even if the insertion of a hyphen/dash in this instance is a bit awkward).
Thank you for your comments Bryan, Malcolm and Keeper.
So, is hidden-abbreviation a Bradman speciality? Must try to keep it in mind! And, since it was new to me, I will go with fiendish!
Thanks for the solution.
I still don’t really get 27a, even after reading your explanation. Can someone spell it out to me?
In my opinion it’s too clever for its own good. Maybe a reference in the clue to the hyphen would have been better.
I enjoyed the rest of the puzzle though
Michael, I shall endeavour to explain it in detail.
What’s taking place briefly in sanctum – glorious little Mass
“What’s taking place…in” indicates that something is hidden — somewhat cryptically since “taking place” typically suggests an event rather than a piece of text.
“briefly” is supposed to tell us that the hidden material is an abbreviation (rather than the explicit answer).
“sanctum – glorious” is the hidden-word fodder.
and “little Mass” is the definition — which is again cryptic because of the capital M.