Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of October 4, 2014
I am getting used to Magwitch’s cluing style and managed to complete this puzzle more quickly than the earlier ones I blogged. I still had trouble with a couple of clues, especially 6d (BAD GRACE). My favourites in this one are 4a (COMBINED) and 10a (WINDFALL) for their smooth surfaces, and 17d (SACRIFICE).
ACROSS
1 National Insurance payment returned to source (6)
ORIGIN – NI (National Insurance) + GIRO (payment) all backwards
4 Joint committee dumped after losing direction (8)
COMBINED – COM (committee) + BI[n]NED (dumped after losing direction)
9 Relative is extremely nice – that’s a relief (6)
NEPHEW – N[ic]E + PHEW (that’s a relief)
10 Idle talk leads to drop in unearned income (8)
WINDFALL – WIND (idle talk) + FALL (drop)
12 To forget about resistance by early gladiators is a crime (8)
BURGLARY – GLA[diators] + R(resistance) together in BURY (forget)
13 Forced Polish leader to stand up against Germany (6)
PRISED – P[olish] + RISE (stand up) + D (Germany)
15 Announced ending of pensions relief (4)
SAID – [pension]S + AID (relief)
16 Banished Castro dies in revolution (10)
OSTRACISED – anagram of CASTRO DIES
19 Allow collapse of engagement after I’d returned cut stone (10)
DILAPIDATE – ID (I’d) backwards + LAPI[s] (cut stone) + DATE (engagement)
20 Cheat by switching over computers (4)
SCAM – MACS (computers) backwards
23 Rush about in drug-free county (6)
SCURRY – C (about) in SURR[e]Y (drug-free county)
25 Massaging is demanding we hear (8)
KNEADING – homophone (“needing”)
27 Despite being firm about ending of fatwah, a Liberal comes first (8)
ALTHOUGH – A (a) + L (liberal) + [fatwa]H in TOUGH (firm)
28 Lunatic starts to manufacture nightmarish accusations (6)
MANIAC – MA[nufacture] NI[ightmarish] AC[cusations]
29 Profound myopia is a sign of great weariness (4,4)
DEEP SIGH – DEEP (profound) + SIGH[t] (myopia!)
30 Ring again to cancel (6)
REPEAL – RE-PEAL (ring again)
DOWN
1 Riotous mob in America could be from Clapham (7)
OMNIBUS – anagram of MOB IN US
2 Neutral role I held in Lima after reconstruction (9)
IMPARTIAL – PART (role) + I (I) together in anagram of LIMA
3 Hopes for the French uprising during the 15th March say (6)
IDEALS – LA (the French) backwards in IDES (the 15th March say)
5 Skip over part of debt I’m owing (4)
OMIT – reverse hidden word
6 Show of resentment at criminal possibly coming before dinner (3,5)
BAD GRACE – BAD (criminal) + GRACE (possibly coming before dinner)
7 Comes close to treason not to get involved (5)
NEARS – anagram of [t]REAS[o]N
8 Deceived that flooding cut off half of Dedham (7)
DELUDED – DELU[ge] (flooding cut off) + DED[ham]
11 Campaign for South Africa to invest in oil (7)
CRUSADE – SA (South Africa) in CRUDE (oil)
14 Ready in France to do away with make believe (7)
PRETEND – PRET (ready in France) + END (do away with)
17 Give up second car I crashed following freeze (9)
SACRIFICE – S (second) + anagram of CAR I + F (following) + ICE (freeze). I am not used to ‘following’ cluing F but I cannot make sense of the wordplay by any other means. Can someone illustrate how this is used?
18 Bogus husband almost captured tourist’s heart (8)
SPURIOUS – [to]URI[st] in SPOUS[e] (husband almost)
19 Drop girl with disfigurement on back of head (7)
DISCARD – DI (girl) + SCAR (disfigurement ) + [hea]D
21 Wonderful gift-givers take the leading part in calamities (7)
MAGICAL – MAGI (gift-givers) + CAL[amities]
22 How old a mother is leads to harm (6)
DAMAGE – DAM AGE (how old a mother is)
24 Loose relative goes topless (5)
UNTIE – [a]UNTIE (relative goes topless)
26 Silver ring gets leading geologist highly excited (4)
AGOG – AG (silver) + O (ring) + G[eologist]
Thanks Magwitch and Pete.
I enjoyed this puzzle. Touches like SIGH = myopia always add to the fun and I was relieved
to hear that the nephew was nice. The surface readings in 19ac and 24dn also raised a smile.
In both clues the single-letter subtractions, LAPI(S) and (A)UNTIE, were clearly indicated.
I wasn’t so keen on the other Subtractive clues. In fact, I remember at the time having problems
with the double-letter and triple-letter subtractions: ‘the leading part in calamities’…CAL(AMITIES),
‘flooding cut off’…DELU(GE) and ‘early gladiators’…GLA(DIATORS).
Perhaps a more definite indication would have been fairer in these clues?
Thanks Magwitch and Pete
Enjoyable puzzle which I kept for today (easier to remember what I did in it!)
Favourite was DEEP SIGH which I parsed slightly differently with myopia= short SIGH(ted). There is an M missing from the shortened COMmission at 4a.
Missed seeing LAPIs in 19a, so thanks for setting that straight. Never heard of the term ‘the man on the Clapham omnibus’ before either – which is probably just an antipodean issue.
BAD GRACE was the last one in.
Found this hard and came up short on 4a, 6d,7d,23a & 29a. Definitely a setter that you need to get used to
mike04, Thank you for your comments. I could be wrong but I fancy that we are seeing a loosening of conventions about how precise indicators of part words need to be. Certainly there are some setters who would never use a construction like ‘the leading part in calamities’. I am getting used to this with Magwitch but still find some examples uncomfortably awkward, such as ‘early gladiators’ in this puzzle.
brucew, Thanks for the tip on the typo in 4a. BAD GRACE was my last in too.
Thanks Pete and Magwitch. I had problems completing it first time round, but came back to it today and things came into place.
That said, my LOI was sacrifice–had trouble parsing the F. S=second, ACRI=car I anagram, ICE=freeze. Does the F stand for Following? That’s new to me.
Thanks again.
ilene, Thanks for your gentle tip that I completely missed the F in SACRIFICE (17d). It seems that ‘following’ must clue it but I am not used to that.
You have this catalogued as 14,570 but don’t you mean 14,750 ? This is a fantastic site btw, I lurk here, it will take me a lot of practice to get as good as you guys, I enjoy watching and seeing how it all fits together.
Danny, Yes, I had the number wrong. Thanks for spotting that and letting me know. It is now fixed. Please keep coming.
Bit late now and probably not many people will read this. But I felt I should add my voice to the people who are uncomfortable about things like ‘flooding cut’ for delu{ge}. I don’t like it. OK if it’s delug{e} but not for anything else.
Another thing I didn’t like was the cluing of ‘grace’ in 6dn by a phrase like this, which doesn’t seem quite right. Does ‘coming before dinner’ indicate a noun? Rather tenuously I think.
Pity, because otherwise it was good.