Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 22, 2014
As far as I know, Rosa Klebb is a new pseudonym but its owner is not a new setter. She is Sarah Hayes, best (?) known as Arachne in the Guardian. I may have solved one or two of her Guardian puzzles, I cannot be sure, but she seems new to me and brings a fresh style to this FT Weekend space. She seems to be fond of cryptic definitions, good surfaces and she uses some cluing techniques that are looser than I am used to (see, for example, 12a and 28a). My favourite clues in this puzzle are 15a (ABEL), 23a (EQUIPS) and, top of the heap, 29a (ANTIDOTE). As I trust most people will know, the name Rosa Klebb is borrowed from Lotte Lenya’s memorable character in the James Bond movie “From Russia with Love”. Welcome Sarah (and please be careful with those shoes)!
ACROSS
1 Organs and head of toad stored in glass bottles (6)
VITALS – T[oad] in VIALS (glass bottles)
4 Daily traveller being firm with silent, boring man (8)
COMMUTER – CO (firm) + MUTE (silent) in MR (man)
9 Right-winger has one nasty trick (6)
NEOCON – anagram of ONE + CON (trick)
10 Artfully flexible reinterpretation of libel act (8)
BALLETIC – anagram of LIBEL ACT
12 Side has good lead, so pay attention! (6,2)
LISTEN UP – L (side) + IS TEN UP (has good lead)
13 Neighbour’s expertly hedging stock market (6)
BOURSE – hidden word
15 Categorise missing leader as “Third Man” (4)
ABEL – [l]ABEL (categorise missing leader)
16 Everything was once distributed in rations (10)
ALLOWANCES – ALL (everything) + anagram of WAS ONCE
19 US star who’d fallen down (10)
SOUTHWARDS – anagram of US STAR WHOD
20 Unaffected, like the Queen on vacation (4)
REAL – RE[g]AL (like the Queen on vacation). In my original posting I was unable to provide any satisfactory explanation of this clue. Fortunately a commenter filled me in. I don’t much like the technique: “on vacation” meaning vacated, in turn meaning “remove (only!) the middle letter”.
23 Supplies Ecstasy pills cut with crack (6)
EQUIPS – QUIP (crack) in ES (Ecstasy pills)
25 Place to bring eggs to fry? (4,4)
FISH FARM – cryptic definition
27 Will man check roster on return? (8)
TESTATOR – TEST (check) + ROTA (roster) backwards
28 Drive into Florida shanty town (6)
FAVELA – AVE (drive) in FLA (Florida). I am surprised to see ‘drive’ (as opposed to, say, ‘dr’) used to clue AVE[nue]. Or do I have this wrong and ‘drive’ clues AVE in some other way?
29 Counter-agent has Sunday off, stationed abroad (8)
ANTIDOTE – anagram of [s]STATIONED. Very clever cluing for a great surface reading!
30 Exercise freak eating a snack (6)
PEANUT – A (a) in PE NUT (exercise freak)
DOWN
1 Plain article in nice house (7)
VANILLA – AN (article) in VILLA (nice house)
2 Woman’s property act finally getting support of Swiss philosopher (9)
TROUSSEAU – [ac]T + ROUSSEAU (Swiss philosopher)
3 Ladies say little Edward stole stuff (6)
LOOTED – LOO (ladies say) + TED (little Edward)
5 Nil, really oddly, by mouth (4)
ORAL – O (nil) + R[e]A[l]L[y]
6 Neighbours get hold of out-of-date eggs from eastern Europe (8)
MOLDOVAN – OLD (out-of-date) + OVA (eggs) together in MN (neighbours). It took me some time to understand ‘neighbours’ cluing MN.
7 Teach trout to swim (5)
TUTOR – anagram of TROUT
8 Their science is notoriously hard and moves fast (7)
ROCKETS – double definition. I like this clue but think it is technically a little weak since the two meanings of ROCKETS are so close. (By the way, I believe I am right in saying that “rocket science” is, in reality, rather easy!)
11 Seduce bloke in train carriage (7)
PULLMAN – PULL (seduce) + MAN (bloke)
14 British-Brazilian couple upside down in bedroom (7)
BOUDOIR – RIO DUO (Brazilian couple) + B (British) backwards
17 Cutting delivery? (9)
CAESAREAN – cryptic definition
18 I pay periodically to enter London landmark, birthplace of Queen Elizabeth? (8)
SHIPYARD – I + P[a]Y together in SHARD (London landmark) with a cryptic definition
19 Carpets displayed bands of colours (7)
SPECTRA – anagram of CARPETS
21 Uppsala MBA student, full of rubbish (7)
LAMBAST – hidden word
22 Piece of music wears thin for listener (6)
PHRASE – homophone (“frays”)
24 Cheerful group becoming unhappy (5)
UPSET – UP (cheerful) + SET (group)
26 Stanley perhaps left drink (4)
PORT – triple definition (the first referring to Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands)
Fine puzzle by Rosa Klebb and I’m glad you liked her style.
While it was of a different calibre compared to the incomparable Arachne, much easier, I had some trouble the fit the final pieces together. Unfortunately, I cannot remember anymore which pieces …. 🙂 [but I think it was in the SE corner]
I particularly liked the use of Neighbours for the M-N combination. I don’t think I have seen this before.
As to 20ac, that’s REGAL (like the Queen) minus the letter in the centre (‘on vacation’).
I certainly buy your explanation of 20ac. Thanks. But I don’t like it.
Many thanks, Pete, for the excellent blog and the lovely welcome. Thanks, too, to Sil for kind comments and correctly explaining 20ac. Apologies for being so late here, but had totally forgotten about this puzzle!