Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of January 2, 2016
What a great way to start a new year! Thank you, Rosa, for this very enjoyable puzzle. My clues of the week are 11a (FOGHORNS) and 25a (HEADHUNT). I also especially like 9a (TROTTERS), 3d (HOTPOT), 4d (LARYNGITIS) and 6d (TANKED UP).
| Across | ||
| 1 | CATCHALL | Cry of disapproval over heroin in comprehensive (8) |
|
H (heroin) in CAT CALL (cry of disapproval) |
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| 5 | STRAIT | Sound honest on the radio (6) |
|
Homophone (“straight”) |
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| 9 | TROTTERS | They carry pigs and rats on boat, but not snake (8) |
|
[boa]T (boat but not snake) + ROTTERS (rats) |
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| 10 | ENIGMA | Energy and spirit returning, mum closed book (6) |
|
E (energy) + GIN (spirit) backwards + MA (mum) |
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| 11 | FOGHORNS | Warning signals for NHS go off (8) |
|
Anagram of FOR NHS GO |
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| 12 | DEWLAP | Moisten tops of thighs and drooping throat (6) |
|
DEW (moisten) + LAP (tops of thighs) |
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| 14 | SINE QUA NON | Essential condition of greed? EU to tackle question soon (4,3,3) |
|
SIN (greed) + Q (question) in EU + ANON (soon) |
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| 18 | ITALICISED | Drew attention to idealistic founders (10) |
|
Anagram of IDEALISTIC |
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| 22 | SPARSE | Poles are ultimately thin on the ground (6) |
|
SPARS (poles) + [ar]E |
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| 23 | RADIANCE | Joy of artist, one captivated by spring (8) |
|
RA (artist) + I (one) in DANCE (spring) |
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| 24 | LEAVER | The French allege he’s deserting (6) |
|
LE (the French) + AVER (allege) |
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| 25 | HEADHUNT | Recruit Attila, given time (8) |
|
HEAD HUN (Attila) + T (time) |
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| 26 | ESTATE | Car from Spain, say (6) |
|
E (Spain) + STATE (say) |
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| 27 | HEN NIGHT | New name welcomed by ultimate prematch party (3,5) |
|
N (new) + N (name) together in HEIGHT (ultimate) |
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| Down | ||
| 1 | CUT OFF | Disinherit coppernob (3,3) |
|
CU (copper) + NOB (TOFF) |
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| 2 | TSONGA | Bets on Gasquet eclipsing his rival? (6) |
|
Hidden word |
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| 3 | HOTPOT | Boiling kitty in stew (6) |
|
HOT (boiling) + POT (kitty) |
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| 4 | LARYNGITIS | Tiny girl’s suffering with a respiratory condition (10) |
|
Anagram of TINY GIRLS A |
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| 6 | TANKED UP | Very drunk, puked all over the place after function (6,2) |
|
TAN (function, i.e. tangent) + anagram of PUKED |
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| 7 | ANGELENO | Californian starts to achieve nirvana on one leg, upside down (8) |
|
A[chieve] N[irvana] + ONE LEG backwards |
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| 8 | TRAPPING | Catching muscular son out (8) |
|
[s]TRAPPING (muscular son out) |
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| 13 | SENEGALESE | Eagles seen flying from West Africa (10) |
|
Anagram of EAGLES SEEN |
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| 15 | DISSOLVE | Nullify and criticise what you do (8) |
|
DIS (criticise) + SOLVE (what you do) |
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| 16 | CATARACT | Many locally see you engaged in deed that may cause blindness (8) |
| C (a hundred;many) + TARA (Northern English dialect;locally, for “goodbye”;see you!) in (engaged in) ACT(deed) | ||
| 17 | MISSPENT | Like many a youth or girl, putting exercise before books (8) |
|
MISS (girl) + PE (exercise) + NT (books) |
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| 19 | BIDDEN | Asked Veep to embrace daughter (6) |
|
D (daughter) in BIDEN (Veep) |
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| 20 | UNSUNG | Remarked by no-one, wildebeest keels over under boiling sun (6) |
|
Anagram of SUN + GNU (wildebeest) backwards |
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| 21 | BEAT IT | Get lost and behave stupidly (4,2) |
|
BE AT IT (behave stupidly) -or possibly- BE A TIT (behave stupidly) |
||
*anagram
Thanks Pete and Rosa Klebb.
You’ve accidentally left out 16 down:
CATARACT: C(a hundred;many) + TARA(Northern English dialect;locally, for “goodbye”;see you!) in(engaged in) ACT(deed).
Thanks Rosa and Pete
We seem to be missing the wordplay for 16dn: C + TARA in ACT
I took the wordplay in 21dn as BE A TIT: is your parsing a different reading or a typo? It could genuinely be either.
Thank you sschua and Pelham. I had written an explanation of 16 down and somehow it disappeared. I did not see that alternative way of looking at 21 down and I agree that either could be intended.
I prefer BE A TIT — to me it sounds more like Rosa Klebb (to whom many thanks). Thanks, Pete.
Thanks Pete and Rosa.
Put me in the BE A TIT camp!
Good fun.
Thanks Rosa and Pete
Started this on the morning train ride into work and finished it over lunch – a nice challenge.
I wonder if I have seen a very rare sloppy clue with 7d from Rosa – I actually had the answer as ANGELINO (an alternate spelling to ANGELENO, as the inhabitant of Los Angeles). Both work – A. N. followed by a reversal of ON I LEG. Will be interested to see which is the published solution.
Finished in the SE corner with HEADHUNT, RADIANCE and BEAT IT (which I had parsed as per the blog, but think that BE A TIT is better) as the last few in.
ANGELENO was it !! 🙁