Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 14, 2015
Welcome back Rosa! Good to see you here again. And with a puzzle as clever and as challenging as usual with a few spectacular clues and some devilish wordplay. My clue of the week has to be 11a (FAVOURABLE) and I also applaud 1a (KIMONO) and 13d (SCATOLOGY). There were two clues that I quickly solved but which had wordplay that flummoxed me for a long time: 3d (NEPHRITIS) and 10d (IBUPROFEN).
ACROSS
1 Japanese clobber dictator in Pyongyang, or thereabouts (6)
KIMONO – KIM (dictator in Pyongyang) + ONO (or thereabouts). “O.n.o” stands for “or near offer” or “or nearest offer”.
4 Frank read on loo (6)
CANDID – CAN (loo) + DID (read). I am guessing that ‘read’ here is meant in the sense of ‘studied’.
8 They help to pull out infant prince held by soldiers (7)
FORCEPS – P (prince) in FORCES (soldiers)
9 Equestrian male astride donkey, back to front (7)
COSSACK – ASS (donkey) backwards in COCK (male)
11 20 Balfour Ave, Barking (10)
FAVOURABLE – anagram of BALFOUR AVE. The definition is “good” — see 20 across.
12 On vacation, end day in whirlpool (4)
EDDY – E[n]D D[a]Y (i.e. “end day” vacated!)
13 “Wheat” represented orthographically (5)
SPELT – double definition
14 Infidel in Italy is fellow on the fiddle (8)
PAGANINI – PAGAN (infidel) + IN (in) + I (Italy)
16 Exaggerated masculine pride of male probing misplaced comma (8)
MACHISMO – HIS (of male) in anagram of COMMA
18 Deviating from normal right of way moving eastward (5)
OUTRE – ROUTE (way) with R (right) moving to the right (eastwards)
20 Try and censor content of op-ed promoting welfare (4)
GOOD – GO (try) + O[p-e]D
21 What most women do, sexually, close to important promotion (10)
PREFERMENT – PREFER MEN (what most women do, sexually) + [importan]T
23 Strauss-Kahn describing love trap in Ukrainian city (7)
DONETSK – O (love) + NET (trap) together in DSK (Strauss-Kahn). Dominique Strauss-Kahn is known as DSK. How very topical!
24 Biannual event involving docked horse and castrated bull (7)
EQUINOX – EQUIN[e] (docked horse) + OX (castrated bull)
25 They obey their bosses and fix currency, according to Spooner (3-3)
YES-MEN – Spoonerism of MESS YEN
26 In retirement, enthusiastic about good music (6)
REGGAE – G (good) in EAGER (enthusiastic) backwards
DOWN
1 Two kings in contact with a Scandinavian capital (5)
KRONA – K (one king) + R (second king) + ON (in contact with) + A (a)
2 During epidemic Rob encounters pathogen (7)
MICROBE – hidden word
3 Write about why British banks failed – it’s viscerally inflammatory! (9)
NEPHRITIS – PEN (write) backwards + [w]H[y] [b]RITIS[h]
5 American person with English home (5)
ABODE – A (American) + BOD (person) + E (English)
6 Recognise Cinders, dancing (7)
DISCERN – anagram of CINDERS
7 Immoral behaviour of northern Anglicans ten years previously (9)
DECADENCE – DECADE (ten years) + N (northern) + CE (Anglicans )
10 Independent review originally called for local anaesthetic (9)
IBUPROFEN – I (independent) + NE (originally called) + FOR (for) + PUB (local) with the last three parts together reversed. Ibuprofen is, strictly speaking, an analgesic not an anaesthetic but we can see why Rosa chose to use that as a definition.
13 Coy gals to be punished for dropping science (9)
SCATOLOGY – anagram of COY GALS TO with a splendidly coy definition!
15 Weird request: go bust (9)
GROTESQUE – anagram of REQUEST GO
17 Husband with garden tool beginning to scrape layers off (7)
HEDGERS – H (husband) + EDGER (garden tool) + S[crape]
19 Way of working which over time would become attractive (7)
TERMPING – TEMP[t]ING (attractive with T removed)
21 Sporting tips lead to extremely slippery slope (5)
PISTE – anagram of TIPS + E[xtremely]
22 Shoving egg into orifice, old execution method (5)
NOOSE – O (egg) in NOSE (orifice)
I solved all bar 3d but I couldn’t parse 1d, 4a,10d,17d, 18a & 19d which must be a record non parse for me.
In 10d I thought it was nee and not ne -is ne correct, please?
Thanks Rosa and Pete
Bamberger@1: NE is the masculine form and NEE the feminine, from the French: there should really be an acute accent on the (first) E. The feminine is much more familiar traditionally as used before a married woman’s original (birth) surname.
Bamberger, I am not surprised people had trouble parsing some of these. As I said, I did myself, including 18a and 17d.
Thanks Rosa and Pete
This is my first puzzle by Rosa since her return (her first one back is still in the to-do pile) and it’s great to see that none of her devilry and sharp wit has gone missing !! Thought that PREFERMENT was a perfect example and laughed when it dawned on me after trying to work with ‘preference’ for a while.
Was able to parse most correctly – although I moved the R in the wrong direction from OUTER (dubious starting point anyway) rather than the correct movement from ROUTE.
GOOD was my last in … and it took a goodly while to understand – was one where I eventually worked out the GO and O-D and the saw that GOOD was the definition. Forgot to go back to 11a for help.
Thought that MACHISMO and DONETSK were excellent.
Very enjoyable, although I couldn’t parse 3 down so thanks for the explanation, Pete.
11ac has to be my favourite clue. Brilliant!