Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of December 14, 2014
I am getting to like Magwitch more and more. My favourite clues in this puzzle are 7d (BRIAR), 14d (EXISTENCE) and 17d (OVERSIGHT). I suspect there is a fault in 22d (REMIT).
ACROSS
1 Reverse record arrears (7)
BACKLOG – BACK (reverse) + LOG (record)
5 Keen agency backs imprisoning outspoken Balkan resident (7)
ACERBIC – CERB (homophone of “Serb”) in CIA (agency)
9 I’m extremely begrudgingly behind new protester against local development (5)
NIMBY – N (new) + IM (I’m) + B[egrudgingl]Y. Would this clue not be better with ‘protest’ instead of ‘protester’?
10 Bad work by copper turning into arrangment for forcible removal (9)
ABDUCTION – ABD (anagram of BAD) + UC (copper, turning) + TION (anagram of INTO). Presumably, “arrangment” was a typo.
11 Pay for advertising in time to make an impression (9)
FOOTPRINT – FOOT (pay for) + PR (advertising) + IN (in) + T (time)
12 Sauce is not initially put on the table without trimmings (5)
NERVE – N[ot] + [s]ERVE[d] (put on the table without trimmings)
13 Visit to Europe is rubbish (5)
TRIPE – TRIP (visit) + E (Europe)
15 Support me to develop at top level (9)
UPPERMOST – anagram of SUPPORT ME
18 Failing to pay attention to nightwear ends in embarassment (9)
NEGLIGENT – NEGLIGE (nightwear) + [embarassme]NT. Do we have here another typo, an embarrassing misspelling, or a variant spelling?
19 Select the best among mediocre amateurs (5)
CREAM – hidden word. This is a good example of an unusual clue construction with the definition in the middle.
21 Worth money to return not completely exhausted (5)
MERIT – M (money) + TIRE[d] (not completely exhausted) backwards
23 Paid tribute to soldier buried in ransacked Seoul beside newspaperman (9)
EULOGISED – GI (soldier) in anagram of SEOUL + ED (newspaperman)
25 Factor staff into decision to abandon Europe (9)
DIMENSION – MEN (staff) in D[ec]ISION
26 Spirit shown by blackleg named in revolution (5)
ANGEL – reverse hidden word
27 Implements stoppage by the French train service (7)
CUTLERY – CUT (stoppage) + LE (the French) + RY (train service)
28 City’s Tory leader in England was the first returned (7)
ELECTED – E (England) + EC (city) + T[ory] together in LED (was the first)
DOWN
1 Use computer-generated image to go after man (7)
BENEFIT – BEN (man) + EFIT (computer-generated image)
2 Soothing fellow politician with nothing to confess (9)
COMPOSING – CO (fellow) + MP (politician) + O (nothing) + SING (confess)
3 Amateur ahead in scoring makes reserve (3,2)
LAY UP – LAY (amateur) + UP (ahead in scoring)
4 Appreciation for doctor urged to accept carrying on (9)
GRATITUDE – AT IT (carrying on) in anagram of URGED
5 Scrutinise vehicle manufacturer over introduction of tachographs (5)
AUDIT – AUDI (vehicle manufacturer) + T[achographs]
6 Entire three centuries turned out different from normal (9)
ECCENTRIC – anagram of ENTIRE CCC
7 After the bar emptied Sinatra regularly used to smoke tobacco (5)
BRIAR – B[a]R + [s]I[n]A[t]R[a]
8 Call in question international support for prisoner (7)
CONTEST – CON (prisoner) + TEST (international)
14 Executioners scattered after taking away our life (9)
EXISTENCE – anagram of EXEC[u]TI[o]NE[r]S
16 Singer cancels midway in a fit of pique (9)
PETULANCE – PETULA (singer, i.e. Petula Clark) + [ca]NCE[ls]
17 Evidence of weariness in obvious mistake (9)
OVERSIGHT – SIGH (evidence of weariness) in OVERT (obvious)
18 Vagrant mother appears at end of drama about detectives (7)
NOMADIC – NO (drama, i.e. Japanese) + MA (mother) + CID (detectives) backwards,
20 Woolly animal ate two dates, died (7)
MUDDLED – DD (two dates) in MULE (animal) + D (died). Is ‘woolly’ by itself an adequate definition. I would say “woolly minded”.
22 Period before resistance is over (5)
REMIT – TIME (period) + R (resistance) all backwards. This clue seems to be faulty in that it lacks a definition. The only other possibility I can see is that it was meant as an &lit. but I cannot explain how the whole clue would define ‘remit’.
23 Improve understanding of opposition leader by providing right of reply (5)
EDIFY – ED (opposition leader) + IF (providing) + [repl]Y. Clever use of “right of reply” here!
24 Prayer addressed to an archbishop possibly? (5)
GRACE – double definition
Found this hard and unsolved were
1d, 8d,11a, 12a and 22a.
I don’t envy you having to solve the Xmas Gozo!
Thanks Magwitch and Pete
9ac: Chambers 2011 gives NIMBY as a noun, so “protester” is correct.
19ac: I agree that your parsing works if “Select” is taken as part of the hiding mechanism, but I think the clue works more simply with “Select the best” as the definition of CREAM (verb).
I had the same problems as Pete with 10ac, 18ac, and 22dn.
Pete, my first impression was that 22D lacked a definition and am glad that you agree.
Wishing you and all a Merry Christmas.
Thanks Magwitch and Pete
Interesting puzzle this …
I failed to parse both 16 (where I did think of Petula Clark, didn’t see the NCE bit and then thought “Nah, it’d be a stretch to make PETULA = singer anyway!”) and 17 (because I just didn’t 🙂 ).
At 18 I had the NT from the ends of iN embarrassmenT, otherwise it should have read ‘ends of embarrassmeNT, surely.
At 22, I read it as an &lit. There is a definition of REMIT – “the transfer of the record of an action from one tribunal to another, especially from an appellate court of original jurisdiction”. This would then be the ‘period before resistance is over’ or before a decision on the case was made.
Well spotted with the typo at 10 – I hadn’t noticed it.
Found it quite challenging in places , but an enjoyable one all the same.
Merry Christmas to all … we are officially there now, down here !
Hi brucew@4 and season’s greetings to you.
18ac: I read “ends in” as meaning “final letters of”
22dn: I would really like to be able to agree with you on this, but I cannot quite make the definition you quote (which refers to an action) match the clue (which refers to the time in which such an action could take place).
“E-fit”, that’s new to me.
As for 22d, I can’t squeeze an &lit out of it either.
E-FIT (Electronic Facial Identification Technique) is a computer-based method of producing facial composites of wanted criminals, based on eyewitness descriptions. I guess it is a contemporary counterpart to the manual IdentiKit of years past.
I am very late to the party here but I am sure at least Pete will read my comment.
Yes,
-I had to think deeply about “without trimmings” being right for removing first and last letters [12ac],
-I do not like “ends in embarrassment” for NT very much (the word has only one ‘end’, at the end that is) [18ac],
-no music lover calls Petula Clark just Petula [16d],
-the anagram in 14d is taken after deleting ‘our’ but not in that order which I find less elegant (to say the least) while many others cannot be bothered (it’s a returning issue),
-there was, as others said, no proper definition in 22d
Still these more or less minor things were not preventing me from enjoying this crossword which was thoughtfully clued and clever in many places.
So many thanks to Magwitch for another good work-out.
However, I have doubts about the use of E, in both 13ac and 28ac.
As a stand-alone abbreviation E can be European and English, but not Europe or England. I have looked in Chambers, Oxford and Collins and cannot find a justification.
Also, in 25ac EC is not Europe for me, but there we can differ.
Funny how tricky the world of abbreviations sometimes is.
For example, M = man and L = long seem correct but they aren’t.
Still they pop up every now and then.
And in the most recent Gozo puzzle we had “heartless German” for [h]UN. Unfortunately, H is not ‘heart’ but ‘hearts’.
Thanks for the blog Pete.
Only in 27ac the definition should be “implements” with RY clued by “train service”, I think.
Happy New Year.
Jeepers Sil, go ahead and say it. There is wiggle room for interpretation in some cases, but a poorly edited puzzle should be called out for what it is. Your “good workout” was someone else’s waste of time.
Sil, Ah, yes, I got 27a wrong and will correct it. Thanks. It had seemed strange to me that ‘train’ by itself should clue RY. And I take your point about those Es. Thanks again. I don’t understand your comment about ‘heartless German’ though.
Pete, the otherwise fine Eva Braun clue (25ac of the Christmas Crossword by Gozo) is “She was awfully brave with a heartless German”. So, as you explained at another place: (BRAVE)* + A + [h]UN.
Now, a Hun can be a (derogative term for a) German while the deleted H (in Gozo’s eyes) stands for ‘heart’. However, this is not a recognised abbreviation, unlike H = ‘hearts’ (plural, i.e. a suit in a deck of cards). That was my point.
And Peter Mork, don’t push me too far! 🙂
On the whole I do like Magwitch’s crosswords and this one was no exception, but yes, she is not always precise enough for me (in previous puzzles sometimes even annoyingly so).
But when Magwitch and I have different views, it’s not a matter of she is right and I am wrong or the other way around. It’s often more a matter of taste.
Meanwhile, I like the fact that the editor leaves her style intact.
So, no real complaints from me.
Ah, I think I understand your point about heart and hearts now. You may be right but I see it differently although not with great confidence. If you want to declare a number of people uncaring, you might call them heartless meaning that they lack hearts metaphorically. You would not call them heartsless. To my mind this makes the clue okay.