Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of April 25, 2015
I found this puzzle much more challenging than the average Mudd but just as good. My clue of the week is 21d (HUNGARY) and I also especially like 5a (PHYLUM), 2d (SPHINX), 15d (POINTLESS) and 22d (ANNEXE).
ACROSS
1 Primate hot to a degree, wearing bearskin (8)
BUSHBABY – H (hot) + BA (a degree) together in BUSBY (bearskin). A busby is a furry military head-dress that may be made of bearskin.
5 Closely-related group on the fringes, heavily into Deep Purple (6)
PHYLUM – H[eavil]Y in PLUM (deep purple)
9 Those just passing time popping a concoction of hemp and ecstasy (8)
EPHEMERA – anagram of HEMP E (ecstasy) + ERA (time)
10 Free junk, nothing to collect? (6)
UNKNOT – hidden word
12 Hopeful political party, sore (9)
CONTENDER – CON (party) + TENDER (sore)
13 That kiss is overlooked for a long time (5)
YONKS – YON (that) + K[is]S
14 Something to take from tin to bin? (4)
SPAM – double definition
16 Eruption in rash is attributed to a pungent sauce (7)
HARISSA – anagram of RASH IS + A (a)
19 Punching nose, the last word in decency (7)
PROBITY – OBIT (the last word) in PRY (nose)
21 Promotion of worthy people (4)
HYPE – hidden word
24 Maladroit in record time! (5)
INEPT – IN (in) + EP (record) + T (time)
25 Set money aside for criminal going after gang (4-5)
RING-FENCE – RING (gang) + FENCE (criminal)
27 Note musician sounded (6)
TENNER – homophone (“tenor”)
28 Characters from central Helsinki travel beyond eastern US city (3,5)
SAN DIEGO – S AND I (characters from central Helsinki) + E (eastern) + GO (travel)
29 Salad ingredient is hard to misspell (6)
RADISH – anagram of IS HARD
30 Pacifying youth leaders, extraordinarily serene mountains (8)
PYRENEES – P[acifying] Y[outh] + anagram of SERENE
DOWN
1 Strand into which runs gap (6)
BREACH – R (runs) in BEACH (strand)
2 Poser showing a bit of leg, getting softly squeezed before a kiss (6)
SPHINX – P (softly) in SHIN (a bit of leg) + X (a kiss)
3 Dessert that may go off, did you say? (5)
BOMBE – homophone (“bomb”)
4 Good time to admit cardinal showing lack of interest (7)
BOREDOM – RED (cardinal) in BOOM (good time)
6 Sting – a ruse created by a bee? (5,4)
HONEY TRAP – double definition
7 Record describing revolutionary figure as Communist (8)
LENINIST – NINE (figure) backwards in LIST (record)
8 Waterbird chap assumes made us wet (4,4)
MUTE SWAN – anagram of US WET in MAN (chap)
11 Highest curve (4)
ARCH – double definition
15 As is a map lacking North, South, East and West? (9)
POINTLESS – cryptic definition
17 One rushing to place hideous bottom on office equipment (8)
SPRINTER – [hideou]S + PRINTER (office equipment)
18 Father accepting French writer was in control (8)
GOVERNED – VERNE (French writer) in GOD (father)
20 Enclosed area, not far? (4)
YARD – double definition
21 Acre in empty land (7)
HUNGARY – A (acre) in HUNGRY (empty)
22 Extra room where queen accommodates old lover (6)
ANNEXE – EX (old lover) in ANNE (queen)
23 Lovely to transport oxygen through the blood vessels (6)
VENOUS – O (oxygen) in VENUS (lovely)
26 Sweet stall (5)
FUDGE – double definition
I had no idea
What 5a was on about
Couldn’t see 8d
19a Got fixated by amen being the last word even though it wouldn’t fit.
27a I have solved this clue so many times -but not on this occasion.
18d I assume French writer was plume or similar and never thought of an author and assumed father was pa, pop etc so totally failed here.
That left 23a which I have never heard of.
Tough? Yes
Yes, tough it really was. I had trouble with 5a and 18d (among others).
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Did this one on Thursday and had to work on and off with it for most of the day, so by Mudd’s standards it was pretty tough. It was made a little harder by seeming like four smaller puzzles making up each corner.
Both the NW and SE didn’t present too many problems with them producing the clever SPHINX and the lovely SAN DIEGO clues, respectively.
The NE caused a few problems with MUTE SWAN and HARISSA (both new terms for me) and PHYLUM (which I remembered after working it out from the cryptic part and then recognising when looking up it’s definition in the dictionary).
The SW was the last to fall with GOVERNED (after failing to make DIRECTED work), TENNER (which took way longer than it should have), YARD (a tricky double definition) and PROBITY (which took an age to get, even longer to parse and a ‘why was that so hard’ question when I did) the last four in.
Interesting. As I noted, I found this puzzle tough too but the parts I had the greatest difficulty with were different from yours. Like you however TENNER took me way longer than it should have!