Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of 30 January, 2016
I finished the right half of this puzzle fairly easily then the left took me a while. My clue of the week is 2d (WEBMASTER) and I also very much like 1a (MOWGLI).
| Across | ||
| 1 | MOWGLI | Feral child cut head off fruit (6) |
| MOW (cut) + [u]GLI (head off fruit) | ||
| 4 | ESOTERIC | Secret tippler frequenting endlessly spooky clubs (8) |
| SOT (tippler) in EERI[e] (endlessly spooky) + C (clubs) | ||
| 10 | TABASCO | Scholars tucked into pancake with sauce (7) |
| BAS (scholars) in TACO (pancake) | ||
| 11 | RELIANT | Trusting unstable latrine (7) |
| Anagram of LATRINE | ||
| 12 | PEAL | Friend entertaining drug ring (4) |
| E (drug) in PAL (friend) | ||
| 13 | GINGIVITIS | Problem with gum – is it giving out? (10) |
| Anagram of IS IT GIVING | ||
| 15 | OUTFOX | Prove wilier, supplying neat wrapping for dodgy tofu (6) |
| Anagram of TOFU in OX (neat). An archaic meaning of ‘neat’ is a bovine animal, hence OX in this case. This was, however, unknown to me until a commenter brought it to my attention — thank you, Simon S. I originally invented a different explanation for OX being clued by ‘neat’; that was in the sense of undiluted. In homeopathy, and maybe other disciplines, the number of dilutions applied to a remedy is expressed as, for example, 3X. So OX (that is, zero X) could indicate that no dilutions were applied. While I still think this is justifiable, I accept that it is almost certain that Dogberry intended the archaic meaning. | ||
| 16 | CLOSURE | Remedy involving large – initially very large – resolution (7) |
| L (large) + OS (initially very large) together in CURE (remedy) | ||
| 20 | FREEWAY | Major road offering small return in conflict (7) |
| WEE (small) backwards in FRAY (conflict) | ||
| 21 | MODULE | Course of foreign shellfish including squid’s tail (6) |
| [squi]D in MOULE (foreign shellfish, i.e. mussel in French) | ||
| 24 | BRIGANTINE | Soldier turning to another in sea ship (10) |
| GI (soldier) reversed + ANT (soldier) together in BRINE (sea) | ||
| 26 | SHOT | Attempt to photograph (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | ENTWINE | Braid net, befuddled by drink (7) |
| Anagram of NET + WINE (drink) | ||
| 29 | TRIREME | First to row in weary setter’s boat (7) |
| R[ow] in TIRE (weary) + ME (setter) | ||
| 30 | SCRUTINY | Science and sport given minute examination (8) |
| SC (science) + RU (sport) + TINY (minute) | ||
| 31 | ROCKET | Vegetable to shoot up (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | METAPHOR | Shooting star swapping energy for a boozer’s figure of speech (8) |
| METEOR (shooting star) with second ‘E’ replaced by A (a) PH (boozer, i.e. public house) | ||
| 2 | WEBMASTER | Lexicographer’s mother introduced to IT supremo (9) |
| MA (mother) in WEBSTER (lexicographer) | ||
| 3 | LOSE | Come off worse and end with no beginning (4) |
| [c]LOSE (end with no beginning) | ||
| 5 | STRAGGLE | Lag behind good person and good composer standing up outside (8) |
| ST (good person) + G (good) in ELGAR (composer) backwards | ||
| 6 | TELEVISION | Medium for which one English novelist might be adapted (10) |
| Anagram of I (one) E (English) NOVELIST | ||
| 7 | ROAST | Royal oven and what to do with it (5) |
| R (royal) + OAST (oven) | ||
| 8 | CUTEST | Most smart: assay copper first (6) |
| CU (copper) + TEST (assay) | ||
| 9 | TOXIN | Sounded alarm: poison! (5) |
| Homophone (“tocsin”) | ||
| 14 | MONETARIST | Economic thinker, painter and loveless toff (10) |
| MONET (painter) + ARIST[o] (loveless toff) | ||
| 17 | ROUGHNECK | Lout gutted hen wearing make-up, and gutted chick (9) |
| H[e]N in ROUGE (make-up) + C[hic]K | ||
| 18 | PANTHEON | Big cat almost appearing in temple (8) |
| PANTHE[r] (big cat) + ON (appearing) | ||
| 19 | SENTIENT | Feeling ecstatic about new obligation (8) |
| N (new) + TIE (obligation) in SENT (ecstatic) | ||
| 22 | ABBESS | Senior ecclesiastic babes travelling south (6) |
| Anagram of BABES + S (south) | ||
| 23 | GNATS | Insects, or what they did going up (5) |
| STANG (what they did) backwards | ||
| 25 | INTER | Bury decapitated playwright (5) |
| [p]INTER | ||
| 27 | DIDO | Ancient queen acted with love (4) |
| DID (acted) + O (love) | ||
Thanks Pete and Dogberry.
9dn has to be TOXIN but I still don’t get the homophone.
I enjoyed the surface of RELIANT.
I think that 9d is a very clever clue but it depends on knowledge of the word ‘tocsin’ meaning an alarm bell or signal. I first came across it as a French word (with the same meaning); it is commonly used in French. Later I learned that it is also in English dictionaries and I have seen it crop up in crosswords several times.
Thanks again Pete. It is encouraging to hear that even the experts struggle some times. I solved all except 20a and 14d, but confess I could not always work out why I had an answer even when it was correct. My first failure in 4 puzzles; I feel I am improving!
Thanks Dogberry and Pete
In 15, I think neat = OX is simply the archaic term.
I remember thinking while solving that it was unfortunate that TRIREME had also been a solution in the previous day’s puzzle, so the answer to 29 was printed just a little below it!
Thanks Pete, I enjoyed this and ticked lots of clues. I also found some of them a bit loose. The word ‘to’ in 26 is just a filler but it makes you look for a verb when the answer is a noun. I originally entered Sprout as the vegetable to shoot up. I have never heard salad leaves, such as rocket, described as vegetables before. The clue for Webmaster was a nice idea but I think it indicated that the Ma should go inside the IT expert rather than the Lexicographer. I was not happy with Gnats because the reversal Stang did not appear to me to be a word. Chamber gives it as Scottish for sting, in which case the past tense in the clue would be incorrect. Collins gives it as an archaic or dialect past tense of sting. If this is what Dogberry intended I think he should have made it clearer. Maybe “what they did” is intended to indicate the archaism.
Simon S, Thank you for bringing to my attention that archaic meaning of ‘neat’ — I had not known it. So I invented an alternate explanation for ‘neat’ cluing OX that I still think is justifiable. However I accept that Dogberry must have intended the clue as you interpreted it.
lenny, Thanks for commenting. I am okay with the WEBMASTER clue but agree with you on GNATS. It’s easy to imagine that STANG could be a past tense of ‘sting’ but I don’t recall ever hearing it used. Having, say, “what they once did…” would fit much better.
I got most of the top but little of the bottom. I did not get toxin and if you had given me the answer and asked me to explain it, I would have failed. I don’t think I would have made much more progress on this one if I’d had a year to do it -it would have gone into the (overflowing) too hard drawer.
Thanks Dogberry and Pete
Late to this one and was able to knock it over after dinner tonight. Started off with INTER quite quickly and found it a workmanlike puzzle rather than one which produced a lot of ahas or humour, but there was nothing wrong with that.
A couple that I had mis-parsed – METAPHOR – had just missed the PH for public house (boozer) – often do with that abbreviation as it’s not commonly used in Oz. Also needed help with ESOTERIC – illogically got tricked into using SECRET as anagram fodder rather than the definition and then could not find where the other I and O came from.
Finished in the SE corner with ROCKET (didn’t readily think of it as a vegetable), SENTIENT (where the obligation was hard to spot) and MODULE (didn’t know the French word for mussels previously) as the last few in.