Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of June 28, 2014
I have to say that I found this to be a relatively poor and faulty puzzle. The obvious fault lies in 25a (SALAMANCA). I don’t see any outstanding clues but I do like 23d (CANDY). Some might mention having two obscure musical terms 5a (RIPIENI) and 26a (BUFFO) but, especially given that the answers can be guessed from the wordplay, I don’t see them as much of a problem. The answer to 2d (LOCATELLI) may be obscure generally too but I had heard of the fellow.
ACROSS
1 Beat back fat duck (7)
MALLARD – LAM (beat) reversed + LARD (fat)
5 Ensembles attain maturity keeping one on one (7)
RIPIENI – I (one) in RIPEN (attain maturity) + I (one). A ripieno is a set of accompanying instruments in baroque concerto music.
9 Philosopher’s unclosed cupboard (5)
LOCKE – LOCKE[r] (unclosed cupboard)
10 Computer stirred tonic into side order (9)
MACINTOSH – anagram of TONIC in MASH (side order)
11 Rubbish hauled over by critic (9)
DETRACTOR – ROT (rubbish) + CARTED (hauled) all backwards
12 Not initially lower number (5)
ETHER – [n]ETHER (not initially lower) – with a cryptic definition
13 Little whale swallowing one spiritual leader (5)
CALIF – I (one) in CALF (little whale). Calif is an alternate spelling of caliph.
15 Toys with limbs broken by Mallarmé, for instance (9)
SYMBOLIST – anagram of TOYS LIMBS
18 Minister with site cast in iron (9)
PRIESTESS – anagram of SITE in PRESS (iron)
19 Cessation of hostilities brings abrupt return to peace, finally (5)
TRUCE – CURT (abrupt) backwards + [peac]E
21 Coin from Europe reminted – nothing lost (5)
RUPEE – anagram of EUR[o]PE
23 Thin carp’s unstable stabiliser of headgear (9)
CHINSTRAP – anagram of THIN CARPS
25 Fresh scan capturing a beast in Spanish town (9)
SALAMANCA – LAMA (beast?) in anagram of SCAN. Surely many solvers will have spotted the error in this clue. A lama is Tibetan holy man while the beast is llama. The distinction is problem best remembered by way of Ogden Nash’s well known poem that reads: The one-l lama, He’s a priest. The two-l llama, He’s a beast. And I will bet A silk pajama There isn’t any Three-l lllama.* (There are many variations on the original.)
26 Head of cattle dropping a line to comedian (5)
BUFFO – BUFF[al]O (head of cattle dropping a line). A buffo is a comic actor in Italian opera.
27 Potential to be frilly without 10 (7)
LATENCY – TEN (10) in LACY (frilly)
28 Understanding Tolkien creature’s repeated point (7)
ENTENTE – ENT (Tolkien creature) + ENT (… repeated) + E (point). Ents are a race of beings in Tolkien’s fantasy world Middle-earth who closely resemble trees.
DOWN
1 Look into doctor’s musical (7)
MELODIC – LO (look) in MEDIC (doctor)
2 Composer’s places in which to find a Rossini hero (9)
LOCATELLI – A (a) + TELL (Rossini hero — as in William Tell) in LOCI (places)
3 Part of plane raised up from battlefield (5)
ARENA – reverse hidden word
4 Day return smothered in Death By Coffee? (9)
DEMITASSE – SAT (day) backwards in DEMISE (death)
5 Happen again to military dog? (5)
RECUR – RE (military, i.e. Royal Engineers) + CUR (dog)
6 Judaeo-Christian festival enclosed electric charge (9)
PENTECOST – PENT (enclosed) + E (electric) + COST (charge)
7 Ambassador holds officer up for significant period (5)
EPOCH – COP (officer) backwards in HE (ambassador, i.e. His/Her Excellency)
8 Be left with woman inside, n’est-ce pas? (7)
INHERIT – HER (woman) in IN’IT (n’est-ce pas). In’it is a lazy way of saying “isn’t it”.
14 Food supplier’s lift provided by tank (9)
FISHERMAN – IF (provided) backwards + SHERMAN (tank). I don’t like ‘lift’ as a reversal indicator.
16 Chew it over in case ATM’s out of order (9)
MASTICATE – IT (it) backwards in anagram of CASE ATM
17 One roll academic egghead’s eaten with painkiller (9)
IBUPROFEN – I (one) + PROF (academic) + E[gghead] together in BUN (roll)
18 Country girl’s reading (7)
PERUSAL – PERU (country) + SAL (girl)
20 Burst of energy supporting retired policeman (7)
EXPLODE – EX-PLOD (retired policeman) + E (energy)
22 Scheme to trap one navigator (5)
PILOT – I (one) in PLOT (scheme)
23 Sweet tin disappointingly empty (5)
CANDY – CAN [tin] + D[isappointingl]Y
24 Sailor wearing drunk’s footwear (5)
SABOT – AB (sailor) in SOT (drunk)
Thanks Pete. I think you’re a bit harsh on Dogberry.
Yes, 25ac contains a mistake, agree, but why is the puzzle as such a poor one?
In my opinion, there’s technically speaking not much wrong with it.
That said, there was not much variation in devices.
A lot of envelopes, also several reversals.
Very unlike this setter who usually (and certainly in Guardian disguise) give us more to think about.
But poor? Mmm.
Hi Pete – thanks for the blog.
I feel a bit cheeky, commenting now, as I was away for a long weekend when this puzzle was published and too busy when I returned to catch up with it. However, I do, usually, read the blogs [I hate to miss anything!] so I was particularly miffed this morning to find that I’d missed one of my favourite setters.
I have to admit that, if I’d been solving on the day, the glaring mistake at 25ac [thanks for the poem, Pete!] might have clouded my overall impression of the puzzle but, at this distance, I have to agree with Sil that you’ve been rather hard on Dogberry.
I did know RIPIENO, BUFFO and LOCATELLI but, as you admit, they were all, anyway, evident from the wordplay, so I don’t really understand your blanket ‘poor and faulty’ assessment.
I smiled at 8dn – I’ve always loved this as a perfect equivalent of ‘n’est-ce pas? – and at the retired policeman, which reminded me of the silly joke posed by my grandchildren: What do you call Postman Pat when he’s retired?
Many thanks to Dogberry – I’m so sorry to have missed this!
I didn’t know Ripieni, Locke, Buffo, Locatelli or Calif. I guessed Buffo but not getting 1d meant little chance of guessing Locke or Calif which meant missing two crossing letters for Locatelli. Tough NW. I think five obscurities is too many.
Thanks for blog .
The captcha doesn’t think 4 x 7 =28 so have had to cut and paste -fortunately it allows 7 +6 =13.
No 7 x 8 to catch Mr Osborne out
Sil, I deemed the puzzle relatively poor mostly for the very reasons you cite. And I stand by that assessment.
Eileen, I guess the answer to the joke is “Pat”. Of course, once he dies he’ll be an expat (like me).
Bamberger, I heard something on the radio recently about 7 x 8 but did not understand why it came up. Now I have googled “George Osborne seven times eight” and found the news story. Thanks!
Thanks for that, Pete – a nice start to the day. 😉
Thanks Dogberry and Pete
Just completed this one today on a cold and wet weekend in country Victoria. I didn’t find it at all poor (sorry Pete).
Think that the setter can claim a technical win with LAMA as the genus of beasts that includes the llama, guanaco and alpaca – either way it didn’t get in the way of confidently writing SALAMANCA in as the answer. Still, it could have been more elegantly clued by using priest instead of beast for example.
There were a number of new words for me – RIPIENI, LOCATELLI, DEMITASSE, MALLARME and BUFFO which is fair enough in a weekend prize and all very gettable from the cryptic part of the clue.
Needed your help to parse RIPIENI properly.
I’m with you Pete in not liking this one. Several words I’ve not met before – ripen, mallarme, locatelli. I can just about cope with “lift” as a reverse indicator in a down clue.
Typo in your answer to 1 ac – LAM not LAN
Malcolm, Thanks for your support and for pointing out that typo (which I have corrected).