Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of November 28, 2015
I was happy to find a Rosa Klebb puzzle for this weekend and it proved to be a very enjoyable one. I found most of it easy but got stumped for a long time at the end with 26d and 28a. My clue of the week is the delightfully risque 21a (LUSTFUL). Other favourites are 4a (RAMPARTS), 9d (STOATS) and 14d (SEPARATION). On a few rare occasions I have found a crossword that has a clue with two justifiable answers. In this case, I believe for the first time, I have spotted two such: 7d (ROYAL or REGAL) and 26d (HERO or LETO). Thank you, Rosa.
| Across | ||
| 1 | FRISKY |
Spirited, hairy fellow on the left (6)
F (fellow) + RISKY (hairy) |
| 4 | RAMPARTS |
Heads of regulatory authorities may bring back corporal punishment for banks (8)
R[egulatory] A[uthorities] + M (may) + STRAP (corporal punishment) backwards |
| 10 | SODAWATER |
Two dears getting tipsy over a drink (9)
A (a) in anagram of TWO DEARS |
| 11 | TRYST |
Judge dismissed secret meeting (5)
TRY (judge) + S[ecre]T. Another and, I think, better explanation has surfaced (see comment #7 below): ‘dismissed’ clues ST as an abbreviation of ‘stumped’ (as in cricket). |
| 12 | LOCK |
Opening for key rugby player (4)
Double definition |
| 13 | PAINKILLER |
Dad, not so well, swallowing liquid analgesic (10)
PA (dad) + INK (liquid) + ILLER (not so well) |
| 15 | EARLESS |
Unable to hear, brave female left (7)
[f]EARLESS (brave female left) |
| 16 | MUTTON |
Dog leg meat (6)
MUTT (dog) + ON (leg) |
| 19 | IMPACT |
One’s reportedly ready to leave collision (6)
Homophone (“I’m packed”) |
| 21 | LUSTFUL |
Lascivious Lulu’s prepared to accommodate organ backwards (7)
FT (organ) in anagram of LULUS |
| 23 | LASSA FEVER |
Complaint of girl footballers reviewed endlessly (5,5)
LASS (girl) + FA (footballers) backwards + EVER (endlessly) |
| 25 | EPIC |
Depict unclothed Spartacus? (4)
Hidden word |
| 27 | CAPRI |
Tricky day pursuing cocaine in Italian resort (5)
C (Cocaine) + APR I (tricky day, i.e. April 1st, all fools’ day) |
| 28 | SNAKEBITE |
Wind power producing cider and lager (9)
SNAKE (wind, as a verb) + BITE (power, as in something has bite). ‘Snakebite’ is a British term for a drink that’s a mixture, usually half and half, of beer and cider. |
| 29 | STAGNANT |
Male grandparent finally slept, not moving (8)
STAG (male) + NAN (grandparent) + [slep]T |
| 30 | TONGUE |
Poor gnu cutting part of foot and part of mouth (6)
Anagram of GNU in TOE (part of foot) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | FUSILIER |
He’s trained to fight if rule is broken (8)
Anagram of IF RULE IS |
| 2 | INDECORUM |
Impropriety in sport concealed by demonic manouevring (9)
RU (sport) in anagram of DEMONIC |
| 3 | KIWI |
Kiss wino, half-cut Antipodean (4)
KI[ss] WI[no] |
| 5 | ACRONYM |
Perhaps Nato ally invades before noon? (7)
CRONY (ally) in AM (before noon) |
| 6 | PATRIOTISM |
Flag-waving chump at riot is mounting fence (10)
Hidden word |
| 7 | ROYAL |
Two blokes related to the Queen (5)
ROY (one bloke) + AL (a second bloke). There is another solution that fits the clue: REGAL. It does not however fit with 11a and fits the definition only rather poorly. |
| 8 | SATIRE |
Ridiculing father bears leads to awful trouble (6)
A[wful] T[rouble] in SIRE (father) |
| 9 | STOATS |
Extremely succulent food for small carnivores (6)
S[ucculen]T + OATS (food) |
| 14 | SEPARATION |
Uncoupling from Blatter, scratching bottom a lot (10)
SEP[p] (Blatter, scratching bottom) + A (A) + RATION (lot) |
| 17 | OFFSPRING |
Children bound to follow at a distance (9)
OFF (at a distance) + SPRING (bound) |
| 18 | BLACK EYE |
Injury is hampering servant (5,3)
LACKEY (servant) in BE (is) |
| 20 | TREASON |
Troublemakers primarily cause crime (7)
T[roublemakers) + REASON (cause) |
| 21 | LEEWAY |
Flexibility of Spooner’s small sexual partner (6)
Spoonerism of WEE LAY (small sexual partner) |
| 22 | SLACKS |
Son has no trousers (6)
S (son) + LACKS (has no) |
| 24 | SEPIA |
Detective wearing deep brown (5)
PI (detective, i.e. private investigator) in SEA (deep) |
| 26 | HERO |
Mother of screen idol (4)
Hidden word. But does ‘screen’ really work as a hidden-word indicator? My original answer was LETO which I think also works well. Then the clue would be a double definition identifying Leto who was the wife or mistress of Zeus and mother of Apollo and Artemis in ancient mythology and movie actor Jared Leto (“Mr. Nobody”, “Dallas Buyers Club”). I would not have thought of Jared Leto as a screen idol but I can imagine that some people might. Anyway, the published solution tells us that the answer is HERO which seemed to have the majority vote. |
Thanks Pete Maclean. Enjoyed this one and 28a remained unsolved never having heard of the drink. Went in for the simpler ‘hero’. Thanks Rosa Klebb.
A super puzzle, some very amusing clues. Agree with you about LUSTFUL being clue of the week.
Re 26 down, I think the definition is simply IDOL, screen being the hidden word indicator.
Thanks Pete.
jmac, That’s actually what I meant to say about 26d but somehow managed not to! Thanks for making the clarification.
Thanks to Pete and to Rosa. 1 across sums up a lot of this setter’s style, as evinced by clue for LUSTFUL.
Great stuff.
Hi Conrad, Good point about 1 across! Thanks.
Thanks Pete and Rosa.
For 26dn to be HERO, surely it should say “…screens idol” or “….screen for idol”.
I seem to recollect that there was a group of cinemas called Apollo – so for these combined reasons I opted for LETO.
Bet I’m proved wrong on Saturday!
Otherwise thoroughly enjoyable so thanks again.
Great fun.
I had TRYST as TRY (Judge) + ST (dismissed [= stumped]) with secret meeting as the definition.
LUSTFUL is very good and I thought the smooth surface for PATRIOTISM was ideal for disguising the clue type.
For HERO, I saw screen as the inclusion indicator, but I agree with Hamish that it doesn’t quite work. Perhaps as a noun? LETO never occurred to me, but I like that parsing. I thought he (Jared Leto) was brilliant in Requiem for a Dream (as was the whole cast, in fact).
Thanks to both Pete and Arachne.
In TRYST I could not see why secret should lose its inside to complete the word. I much prefer phitonelly’s explanation of ST being stumped. that makes sense. Not my favourite and didn’t get six of the answers.
I like phitonelly’s explanation too. I often spot cricket references but missed this one. I happened to find this list of abbreviations for various types of dismissal:
ct or c caught
b bowled
ro run out
st stumped
lbw leg before wicket
ht wkt hit wicket
It was 24a/27a that did for me. Never thought of tricky day =April Fools’ day or Detective =PI instead of DI or even the dreadful “busy”.
Thanks Rosa Klebb and Pete
Always look forward to puzzles by this setter and this, even though on the easier end of her difficulty spectrum, was another good one with some shades of the risqué in it. CAPRI was my favourite – think that I’ve seen it before but APR 1 for ‘tricky day’ is excellent.
Missed the ST as stumped in 11a. Interesting homophone at 19a – whilst I get where she was going, it really is only the ‘packed’ bit that does sound like the second syllable of IMPACT – I’M doesn’t.
Finished in the bottom half with LASSA FEVER (clever construct), SEPARATION (missed the FIFA man part of the parsing), SNAKEBITE (hadn’t heard of the drink, which doesn’t sound all that inspiring) and HERO (which as Hamish and Pete mention could just as well be LETO – let’s see in a couple of hours).
Sincere thanks to Pete M for the excellent blog, thanks to all for commenting, and apologies for not getting here earlier.
In 11ac “st” was indeed intended to be the abbreviation for “stumped” (further thanks to Pete M @9 for the useful cricketing reminders).
As for 26dn, a plural verb always feels more comfortable and natural – to me, at any rate! – when an embed is concealed in two or more words: here, the two words “mother” and “of” screen the word “hero”. Others may, and indeed do, beg to differ 🙂
Best wishes and season’s greetings,
Rosa K
Thanks Rosa. I totally buy your argument about 26dn.
All the best of the season to you.