Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 9, 2014
I got through this puzzle fairly quickly even though I found some clues challenging. For example, I had a hard time understanding the wordplay of 6d. I suspect that some people may not like the quantitative vagueness in some of the cluing (in, for example, 15a, 30a, 6d and 7d). My favourite clue this time is 23a (SCANDALOUS) and I also like 30a (IDLERS) and 2d (BUTTERFLY).
ACROSS
1 Discuss a fresh approach to repayment (6)
DEBATE – REBATE (repayment) with ‘R’ changed to ‘D’
4 Approval of a democratic election (8)
ADOPTION – A (a) + D (democratic) + OPTION (election)
10 Unconscious mother found behind car initially thought injured critically (9)
AUTOMATIC – AUTO (car) + MA (mother) + T[hought] I[njured] C[ritically]
11 Have an allergy possibly to some leisure activities (5)
REACT – hidden word
12 Heard to beg for creature at risk of slaughter (4)
PREY – homophone (“pray”)
13 Not the main change in northern dialect (10)
INCIDENTAL – anagram of IN N DIALECT
15 Smarten up slave returning home after indenture finishes (7)
REFRESH – [indentu]RE + SERF (slave) backwards + H (home)
16 Whole retina damaged without at first affecting front of eye (6)
ENTIRE – anagram of RETIN[a] + E[ye]
19 I definitely stifle sympathy a bit in retrospect (6)
MYSELF – reverse hidden word
21 Refrain from the use of a bung (7)
STOPPER – STOP (refrain) + PER (from the use of). I think I may be wrong about this. An alternative parsing is offered in comment #2 below.
23 Shocking cold seen off with saunas (10)
SCANDALOUS – anagram of COLD SAUNAS
25 Capital briefly connects to German Morse signal (4)
LONG – LON[don] (capital briefly) + G (German). There are several terms used for the two signals used in Morse code; I am more used to dot and dash and dit and dah, but long and short do the job.
27 Right to weep over what’s printed on the book jacket (5)
BLURB – R (right) in BLUB (weep)
28 Only appearing in slightly dishevelled attire is characteristic (9)
ATTRIBUTE – BUT (only) in anagram of ATTIRE
29 Highly prized English horse bites setter (8)
ESTEEMED – E (English) + ME (setter) in STEED (horse)
30 Without the slightest doubt, over half of compilers are layabouts (6)
IDLERS – D[oubt] in [comp]ILERS
DOWN
1 Dispersal of uprising announced by Italian army leader (8)
DIASPORA – SAID (announced) backwards + PORA (Italian army leader). I had to look up Pora.
2 Food to avoid a stroke (9)
BUTTERFLY – BUTTER (food) + FLY (avoid)
3 Gentle river (4)
TAME – double definition
5 Mislead about no new evidence (7)
DECEIVE – anagram of EVIDE[n]CE
6 Community agent promoted limited choice to make an impression (10)
PERCEPTION – EC (community) + REP (agent) together backwards + [o]PTION (limited choice)
7 Unsuitable downy covering implicated in early signs of itching (5)
INAPT – NAP (downy covering) in IT[ching]
8 Annoy people with change of direction (6)
NETTLE – SETTLE (people) with ‘S’ changed to ‘N’
9 Head of scorpion fish produces a vile smell (6)
STENCH – S[corpion] + TENCH (fish)
14 Can be relied on to depart terminus without timetable (10)
DEPENDABLE – DEP (depart) + END (terminus) + [timet]ABLE
17 Complicated procedure to copy (9)
REPRODUCE – anagram of PROCEDURE
18 Improvement in gardens regularly netted by experts (8)
PROGRESS – G[a]R[d]E[n]S in PROS (experts)
20 Leaves girl to fall back in enemy hands (7)
FOLIAGE – GAIL (girl) backwards in FOE (enemy)
21 About time a daily starts to tackle security checks (6)
STUNTS – T (time) in SUN (a daily) + T[ackle] S[ecurity]. The definition is ‘checks’ in the sense of checks the growth of something.
22 Employ to keep messy lab in working order (6)
USABLE – anagram of LAB in USE (employ)
24 X-rated trailer with mostly cult following (5)
ADULT – AD (trailer) + [c]ULT
26 Regain original faith in God (4)
FIND – F[aith] + IN (in) + D (God)
Thanks Pete
I could not parse 1D. I was thinking that ‘por’ came from the Italian word for ‘by’ plus ‘a’ for army leader ie first letter of army. Except that ‘por’ seems to be Spanish rather than Italian!
Thanks also to Magwitch for giving us agood workout.
Thanks Magwitch and Pete
21ac: I read this as STOP = refrain from the use of, PER = a, with the definition simply being “bung”.
Pelham, I had been a little unsure about 21ac and think you could well be right. Thanks.
Thanks Pete .. for the underlines as promised! 🙂 Not much to say except thanks for a great blog and to Magwitch for being uncharacteristically difficult than usual.
Thanks Magwitch and Pete
Only my second Magwitch and found it much harder than the first – seemed to go down the wrong track with clues a couple of times – mainly in the NW. Had ‘wear’ instead of TAME initially, ‘rebate’ instead of DEBATE and ‘ryotwari’ instead of DIASPORA 🙁
Finished with the similar pairs of clues – DIASPORA – PREY in NW and PROGRESS – LONG in SE.
Think that my main problem was that a number of words were oblique definitions – BUTTER for food, LONG for Morse signal, AUTOMATIC for unconscious, etc. Still it was good to get it all finished !
Turbolegs, Thanks for commenting.
brucew, ‘ryotwari’!?!?! Ah, it’s a system for collecting revenues. I thought I knew a good number of British Indian words but this one is new to me.
I found this a struggle and still don’t follow some of the explanations. e.g. 16ac what does the “affecting” do to the clue?, and 14d why is “without timetable”, ABLE? Not a good one for me.
Hi Malcolm @7
16ac is an anagram (damaged) of RETIN[a] + E[ye]. The ‘without at first affecting’ indicates that the first letter of ‘affecting’, ie A, must be removed from ‘retina’ to leave the anagram fodder.
In 14dn you need to split the ‘without timetable’ to give ‘without time table’ which tells you to remove the ‘t’ (time) from ‘table’ to leave ABLE.
Hi Pete
Hmm … must’ve been lookin cross-eyed (maybe those beers at the new beer-hall didn’t help !) as I thought ‘ryotwari’ was some sort of leader – the rest parsed quite well …
Hi malcolm
Thought ABLE was a cracker without time (T), (t)able :).
Read the at first affecting to give the A of affecting as the one to be taken from retina.
Thanks, Pete. I agree with your comments — it’s slightly dissatisfying to complete all the clues without completely understanding why. But Magwitch has her own way of looking at the world, and it’s a very entertaining one.
Yes I finally got 14d just driving home now. Running timetable together fooled me. Ugh!
thanks for the enlightenment anyway.
Ye gods I found this hard and had 4a, 13a,21a,30a and 5d,6d,7d,8d,21d and 26d all missing. Definitely this setter has his own style.
Thanks for the enlightenment.
Bamberger, “Definitely this setter has her own style”.
By far, the hardest crossword Magwitch produced for the FT.
Also the most satisfying thus far.
Thanks once more Pete!
How is the Tame a river (3dn)? I know there is a place called Tameside, but my gazetteer doesn’t mention Tame as a river, nor does Bradford or the Chambers Crossword Dictionary. Am I missing something?
Oh yes, there is a very significant English river called The Tame. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Tame,_West_Midlands
Well yes there it is, quite clear. What I can’t understand is why it isn’t in any of the reference works I used.