Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of September 20, 2014
As usual Mudd gives us a lot of double definitions in this puzzle including two with cryptic definitions that I rather like. My top clues here are 6d (ROOF RACK), 13d (PAGE-TURNER) and 15d (SLUGGISH).
ACROSS
1 A banking centre on top gets the maximum amount (8)
CAPACITY – CAP (top) + A (a) + CITY (banking centre)
5 Conclude phoney war with setter’s issue? (4,2)
WRAP UP – anagram of WAR + PUP (setter’s issue!)
9 Time inside unit booked? (8)
SENTENCE – double definition
10 Hog cut a part of the eye (6)
CORNEA – CORNE[r] (hog cut) + A (a)
11 Howling, decapitate butcher (8)
LAUGHTER – [s]LAUGHTER (decapitate butcher)
12 Scot’s head crushed by wee bear (6)
URSINE – S[cot] in URINE (wee)
14 New set matches part of an old engine (5,5)
STEAM CHEST – anagram of SET MATCHES. I don’t recall whether I have come across the term ‘steam chest’ before but it was an easy guess.
18 Rabbit behind flea mistaken for an insect (10)
LEAFHOPPER – anagram of FLEA + HOPPER (rabbit)
22 Possible cause of slip-up in musical (6)
GREASE – double definition
23 Butcher ultimate butcher! (8)
MUTILATE – anagram of ULTIMATE
24 Unexpected description of metal, perhaps? (6)
IRONIC – double/cryptic definition. ‘Ironic’ certainly indicates something unexpected but ‘unexpected’ seems a bit loose to clue ‘ironic’, no?
25 Suggest it’s personal (8)
INTIMATE – double definition
26 Strangled by weed, issue being respect (6)
HOMAGE – MAG (issue) in HOE (weed)
27 Gold coin, last of money as standard (8)
ORDINARY – OR (gold) + DINAR (coin) + [mone]Y
DOWN
1 “Dear Sir”, typical letter starts, outwardly flirtatious (6)
COSTLY – S[ir] T[ypical] L[etter] in COY (flirtatious)
2 Restrained in pound, sheep (4-2)
PENT-UP – PEN (pound) + TUP (sheep)
3 Brave companion’s entered scene of wailing and screaming? (6)
CRECHE – CH (companion) in CREE (brave). With a clever but perhaps excessive definition!
4 Cardiograph that’s kind of welcome? (6-4)
TICKER TAPE – double/cryptic definition
6 Carrier that’s OK for car going abroad (4,4)
ROOF RACK – anagram of OK FOR CAR. I think we can call this an &lit.
7 Core feature in glass instrument (8)
PANPIPES – PIP (core feature) in PANES (glass)
8 Site not bad, regularly required as temporary organ (8)
PLACENTA – PLACE (site) + N[o]T [b]A[d] (not bad, regularly)
13 Contact artist for captivating work (4-6)
PAGE-TURNER – PAGE (contact) + TURNER (artist)
15 Slow – or like a bullet? (8)
SLUGGISH – double/cryptic definition
16 Sucker spraying mop with water (8)
TAPEWORM – anagram of MOP WATER
17 Broken hip bone good for tactic of online fraudster (8)
PHISHING – anagram of HIP + SHIN (bone) + G (good)
19 State north of little Italian city (6)
RIMINI – RI (state, i.e. Rhode Island) + MINI (little)
20 Cigar? On your head be it! (6)
PANAMA – double definition
21 Blasphemy present with extremes of sanctity extremes of sanctity (6)
HERESY – HERE (present) + S[anctit]Y
Thanks for the blog, Pete.
I remain slightly mystified by 20d, as I haven’t found a generic type of cigar called a panama, only a brand name.
The form of the clue seemed clear enough, and on a first read through I pencilled in “corona”, it being a cigar and (notionally) a crown. Crossing letters soon showed that to be wrong, and at the end I was left with a space for “havana”, which is a cigar but not a hat, or “panama”, which is a hat but not a cigar.
There is (or at least was) a brand of cigars called Panama, made by Imperial Tobacco, and marketed in the UK. They made some quite funny TV adverts (though not quite as good as the Hamlet cigar ads). I wonder if that’s what Mudd was thinking about. They would not have been seen for some time now, with the current ban on tobacco advertising.
I guessed sentence for 9a but why it is a unit booked? Indeed what is meant by a “unit booked”? Something to do with buying a single item -but what has that got to with sentence? Otherwise all ok -it’s always the last one that slows you down.
I took it to mean that within a book (i.e. “booked”), a unit could be a chapter, paragraph, sentence, word or letter, so a SENTENCE is a “unit booked”.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Not straightforward and enjoyable puzzle from Mudd, that I only got to today !
May have been a bit looser than normal with a few in this:
HOPPER – rabbit
IRONIC- unexpected
PANAMA – cigar
Wouldn’t be getting over-antsy about them all the same.
It felt like doing four mini puzzles with the grid…
I don’t like the grid and agree that it feels like doing four mini-puzzles. Found this unusually hard and was defeated by 1dn, 3dn and 9ac. Very unconvinced by a sentence as a unit booked.