Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of April 5, 2014
An okay puzzle with two clues that stood out for me: 1d (GARISHLY) and 19d (SQUANDER). And it has a couple of unusually good hidden-word clues.
ACROSS
1 Nation’s lubricant, allegedly (6)
GREECE – homophone (“grease”)
4 Second bit of musician’s equipment left out of range (8)
SPECTRUM – S (second) + P[l]ECTRUM (bit of musician’s equipment left out)
9 Law restricting the Spanish reception room (6)
RUELLE – EL (the Spanish) in RULE (law). I did not know this word which means a chamber, especially as formerly used in France to hold a reception or a literary gathering.
10 Burden with indicator of additive including carbon (8)
ENCUMBER – C (Carbon) in E NUMBER (indicator of additive)
11 Short emission from wimp bearing right (6)
SQUIRT – R (right) in SQUIT (wimp). I cannot recall hearing the word ‘squit’ since I was a schoolboy over 50 years ago!
12 Apostle almost welcoming dullard to beano (8)
JAMBOREE – BORE (dullard) in JAME[s] (apostle almost)
13, 25 4s not beginning to weave rug (6)
CARPET – anagram of [s]PECTRA (4s not beginning)
14 Scrubber returning dessert with sigh of relief (6)
LOOFAH – FOOL (dessert) backwards + AH (sigh of relief)
17 Beast of burden eating artist’s sweet (7)
CARAMEL – RA (artist) in CAMEL (beast of burden)
21 Resort forever wanting energy to get measure of twist (6)
TORQUE – TORQU[ay] (resort forever wanting) + E (energy)
25 See 13
26 Prominent feature of frolic involving an old currency (8)
LANDMARK – AN (an) + DM (old currency) in LARK (frolic)
27 Go back in captivity, losing heart (6)
DEPART – TRA[p]PED (in captivity, losing heart) backwards
28 Gutter-dwellers backing the likes of Oscar Wilde, reportedly, to engage in astronomy (4-4)
STAR-GAZE – RATS (gutter-dwellers) backwards + GAZE (homophone of “gays”)
29 Increase scope to cover Sweden’s porting record (6)
WISDEN – S (Sweden) in WIDEN (increase scope). Wisden is the known as “the Bible of Cricket”.
30 Turn over and kiss on top, maybe (4-4)
ROLL-NECK – ROLL (top, maybe) + NECK (kiss). Does “top, maybe” refer to something like a roll-top desk?
31 Fraction of a minute qualification (6)
DEGREE – double definition
DOWN
1 Hollow Holy Grail’s recast in flashy fashion (8)
GARISHLY – anagram of H[ol]Y GRAILS
2 Estate manager finding old, old coin on hill (8)
EXECUTOR – EX (old) + ECU (old coin) + TOR (hill)
3 Without hesitation, girl has cold vegetable (8)
CELERIAC – ER (hesitation) in CELIA (girl) + C (cold)
5 Rapid revision concealing name of poet from 1 across (6)
PINDAR – N (name) in anagram of RAPID
6 Well-padded nymphomaniac’s last diminutive partner (6)
CHUBBY – [nymphomania]C + HUBBY (diminutive partner)
7 York, joining navy, given new lease of life (6)
REBORN – EBOR (York) in RN (navy). Ebor, a term I did not know, is an abbreviation of Eboracum, the Roman name for York.
8 Once again beat up and kill? (6)
MURDER – RE-DRUM (once again beat) backwards
12 Composer finding one high-scoring card between two others (7)
JANACEK – AN ACE (one high-scoring card) in JK (two others, i.e. Jack and King)
15, 16 Lousy actor permitted role ill-suited to him? (6)
HAMLET – HAM (lousy actor) + LET (permitted)
18 Sex in single file voluntarily given up (4,4)
LOVE LIFE – reverse hidden words
19 Waste of n2? (8)
SQUANDER – anagram of N SQUARED
20 Grammatical unit feeling heartless (8)
SENTENCE – SENT[i]ENCE (feeling heartless)
22 Final remark from Charterhouse’s first hopeless case (6)
CLOSER – C[harterhouse] + LOSER (hopeless case)
23 Involve broken toenail (nothing missing) (6)
ENTAIL – anagram of T[o]ENAIL
24 Some kine go missing, having been raised by woman (6)
IMOGEN – reverse hidden word
25 Upper down under swallowed by rising fish (6)
PROZAC – OZ (down under) in CARP (fish) backwards
I struggled with this one, but did get (among others) 30ac. However I constructed it differently. Thus: ROLL (turn over) + NECK (kiss) giving ROLL-NECK as in roll-neck sweater, so something worn “on top, maybe”
Is this a feasible explanation?
P.S. I am particularly partial to roll-neck sweaters, so this may have influenced my reasoning!
Malcolm, I think that is feasible, yes. In fact I think it may be a better explanation than mine. But I can’t say I like the clue either way. “On top, maybe” is a weak definition for ROLL-NECK SWEATER; for ROLL-NECK alone, I think it is very marginal. Or maybe I am wrong about this and you roll-neck sweater aficionados talk about “roll-necks” meaning sweaters and I am just not used to that?