Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 13, 2016
Gaff gives us another themed puzzle to mark Valentines Day. The occasion makes it easy to guess that R in the clues stands for ROSE but one also has to figure out that any meaning of the word ‘rose’ can apply, not just the obvious one.
My clue of the week is 25d (OWNER) and I also like 18d (FISH FARMS).
| Across | ||
| 1 | ALCOVE | Niche business in processed 3 (6) |
| CO (business) in anagram of VEAL (3) | ||
| 4 | OUTDATED | Even lusty boyfriend wears extremely odd old hat (8) |
| [l]U[s]T[y] + DATE (boyfriend) together in O[d]D | ||
| 10 | COMPASS | Range using R for direction (7) |
| COMPASS [rose] | ||
| 11 | DEVIOUS | Use Ovid’s formulation for calculating (7) |
| Anagram of USE OVID | ||
| 12 | NAIL | Where to find quick fix (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | FLORIBUNDA | RNLI with four bad wrecks (10) |
| Anagram of NLI FOUR BAD | ||
| 15 | EXTORT | Wrong to be after old fleece (6) |
| EX (old) + TORT (wrong) | ||
| 16 | TREMAIN | R writer furious at miner (7) |
| Anagram of AT MINOR. Rose Tremain is an award-winning English writer | ||
| 20 | PENGUIN | King perhaps screwed up with engine that doesn’t start (7) |
| Anagram of UP [e]NGINE | ||
| 21 | WEBCAM | Mesh protection put back on eye of surfer (6) |
| WEB (mesh) + MAC (protection) reversed | ||
| 24 | SHOWERHEAD | 23 R from lavish chief (10) |
| SHOWER (lavish) + HEAD (chief) | ||
| 26 | VETO | Slightly swerve towards black ball (4) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 28 | BANKSIA | R sounds more like street artist (7) |
| Homophone (“Banksyer”). A Banksia Rose, one I don’t recall coming across before, is one from China. | ||
| 29 | ELAPSED | Expired from return of the French pasty (7) |
| DES (the French) + PALE (pasty) all backwards | ||
| 30 | EARLDOMS | Lugs around lady’s regular order for titles (8) |
| L[a]D[y] + OM (order) together in EARS (lugs) | ||
| 31 | GARDEN | Plot for beds to be R maybe (6) |
| I am unsure of how to categorize this clue. In a garden, beds may be rose beds. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ASCENDED | R when cold front takes over (8) |
| AS (when) + C[old] + ENDED (over). I originally failed to see how ENDED was clued. Thanks to commenters for filling me in. | ||
| 2 | COMMITTEE | Group that takes many minutes talking shop (9) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 3 | VEAL | Have a little bit of meat, R maybe (4) |
| Hidden word. Rose veal is a type of veal — not one I knew of though. | ||
| 5 | UNDERARM | Neglect service with poor delivery (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 6 | DIVE BOMBER | Jolly threatening gannet? (4,6) |
| Double definition. This clue uses ‘jolly’ in the sense of a Royal Marine, something one often sees in crosswords, but extends it to another nickname, dive bomber, that I had not known of. I do know about the gannet having been dive bombed by one myself! Happened in Shetland when I was, I suppose, in danger of intruding upon its nest. Gannets are large birds and being attacked by one in this way was scary. | ||
| 7 | THORN | Stormy north tip of R (5) |
| Anagram of NORTH | ||
| 8 | DISMAL | Some sadism allowed in dark (6) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 9 | PSALM | Song from little girl in the afternoon (5) |
| SAL (little girl) in PM (afternoon) | ||
| 14 | PROGRESSED | Quiet giant held by rare R in station (10) |
| P (quiet) + OGRESS (giant) in RED (rare, as in meat) | ||
| 17 | INCREASED | R lest cuddling concerning to daughter (9) |
| RE (concerning) in IN CASE (lest) + D (daughter) | ||
| 18 | FISH FARM | Breeding ground for schools (4,4) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 19 | EMBOLDEN | Make daring clot mostly retreat (8) |
| EMBOL[ism] (clot mostly) + DEN (retreat) | ||
| 22 | USABLE | Practical and posh fur (6) |
| U (posh) + SABLE (fur) | ||
| 23 | WATER | Inundate Cologne with R (5) |
| [rose] WATER | ||
| 25 | OWNER | She has finallly flown debtor prisons (5) |
| [flow]N in OWER (debtor) | ||
| 27 | SAGA | Oxygen may be raised in old story (4) |
| A GAS (oxygen may be) reversed | ||
I think 1d is just like this:
AS (when) + C (cold front i.e. the starting letter of ‘cold’) + (indicated by ‘takes’) ENDED (over).
Thanks Pete and Gaff.
Nice to be given a bunch of roses for St Valentines Day.
I agree with Sil on 1dn.
Generally this was a very unusual style with some enjoyably strange clueing.
I thought that the misdirection in FLORIBUNDA was masterful and it took me an age to work out what was going on at 23dn with ROSE WATER.
This was tough but rewarding from start to finish.
Thanks Gaff and Pete
28ac: I think the homophone here is actually something like Banksier (with a silent R) as “more Banksy”.
Hamish — Not just a “bunch” but precisely one dozen, which I thought was a nice touch!
The rubric said “R has the same meaning throughout.” It did not – it meant for instance the flower or a girls name or rising up. Should have said “Is the same word throughout”
I made very little headway and gave up after 30 mins or so which turned out to be a wise move on my part.
To have a chance of 1a you needed 3d and 3d is not easy despite it being a hidden word.
Even if you had told me that 16a was an anagram of at miner, I wouldn’t have got it as I’ve never heard of Rose Tremain -award winner or not.
I’ll have to be spoon fed with 5d-how does underarm =neglect, please?
6d Never heard of Jolly in that context.
14d How does in station = progressed , please?
Pelham, Thank you for that. I managed to overlook the ‘more’ in that clue.
Bamberger, 5d is a bit unclear. I described it as a double definition but it may be more accurate to call it a charade since, as best I can determine, the word ‘underarm’ does not have an accepted meaning of to supply with arms (in the sense of weapons) in a deficient way. Anyway, the point is that “neglect service” can suggest “supply one the the armed services with insufficient weapons”. A fair few of Gaff’s clues are hard for me to pin down.
The “royal marine” meaning of Jolly was brought to my attention by Bradman and is a good one to remember as it crops up in puzzles occasionally. In 14d, it is “rose in station” that clues PROGRESSED.
Thanks Gaff and Pete
I reckon that this was the hardest Gaff puzzle that I have attempted – had started this on Friday and only finished tonight – it took forever to break into the SW corner . Having said that it was one of my favourite puzzles by him as well and thought that the use of R-Rose was very cleverly used throughout, often bringing a severe ‘aha’ as the penny finally dropped. I think the separation required with RNLC was the highlight of these, closely followed by SHOWERHEAD
Had not heard of ‘rose veal’ and had actually generated the answer from solving 1a – seeing the anagram of AL VE and then finally saw the hidden answer.
As intimated above, I finished in the SW corner with the tricky PROGRESSED, WATER (which I could only make sense of after getting SHOWERHEAD and working backwards) and PENGUIN (again quite hard until one realised what the anagram fodder was) as the last few in.