Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of May 21, 2016
As usual, Goliath gives us a challenging but rewarding puzzle with some unusual clues. My clue of the week is 5,14 (MEAT CLEAVER). That is also one of the more unusual clues; others are 20a (GETAWAY) and 18d (LOCATION).
| Across | ||
| 1 | STIGMA | Mark the return of a thousand bastards (6) |
| A (a) + M (thousand) + GITS (bastards) | ||
| 4 | SMUGGLES | Runs unclothed a person with no special powers (8) |
| MUGGLE (a person with no special powers) in SS (clothed). It seems that the particular letters used for this ‘clothing’ are not clued…or am I missing something? | ||
| 9 | LA-DI-DA | Aladdin almost ridiculously pretentious (2-2-2) |
| Anagram of ALADDI[n] | ||
| 10 | MARINATE | Without a discount at the end this would be jolly steep (8) |
| A (a) + [discoun]T together in MARINE (jolly) | ||
| 12 | CALFSKIN | Fine material from bull or cow? (8) |
| CALF’S KIN (bull or cow) | ||
| 13 | ANCHOR | Newsreader’s fix (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | SING | Divulge information twice in prison (4) |
| Double definition, the second referring to the US prison named Sing Sing | ||
| 16, 21 | THE LAST WORD | Amen, Lord, what set out the best decision (3,4,4) |
| Anagram of LORD WHAT SET. And I guess “the best decision” is a second definition. | ||
| 20 | GETAWAY | Escape entry having dined, on reflection (7) |
| GATEWAY (entry) with ATE (dined) reversed | ||
| 21 | See 16 | |
| 25 | ALLUDE | Overheard a salacious hint (6) |
| Homophone (“a lewd”) | ||
| 26 | PENCHANT | Bent writer, 15 (8) |
| PEN (writer) + CHANT (sing, i.e. 15 across) | ||
| 28 | SANCTION | Approve punishment (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 29 | ULTIMO | April’s multimodal component (6) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 30 | NUTCASES | Are they out to lunch or out to get courtesans? (8) |
| Anagram of C[o]U[r]TESANS | ||
| 31 | TRUNKS | Boots and pants (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SOLECISM | Smile, cos’ it could be a grammatical error (8) |
| Anagram of SMILE COS | ||
| 2 | INDOLENT | Kind of undressed and fast becoming lazy (8) |
| [k]INDO[f] (kind of undressed) + LENT (fast) | ||
| 3 | MODISH | In second course . . . . (6) |
| MO (second) + DISH (course) | ||
| 5, 14 | MEAT CLEAVER | . . . . met clever chopper, as included (4,7) |
| A+A (as) in MET CLEVER. An unusual clue style with a rare case of a definition in the middle. | ||
| 6 | GLIBNESS | Being suave is a mixed blessing (8) |
| Anagram of BLESSING | ||
| 7 | LOATHE | See articles producing hate (6) |
| LO (see) + A (article) + THE (article) | ||
| 8 | SHEARS | Audience follows quiet clips (6) |
| SH (quiet) + EARS (audience) | ||
| 11, 27 | HIGHWAY CODE | Which gay dissolute poem rules? (7,4) |
| Anagram of WHICH GAY + ODE (poem) | ||
| 14 | See 5 | |
| 17 | VENDETTA | Examine soldiers about death feud (8) |
| END (death) in VET (examine) + TA (soldiers, i.e. Territorial Army) | ||
| 18 | LOCATION | Place showing tenfold boost to start of career (8) |
| VOCATION (career) with ‘V’ i.e. 5 multiplied by 10 to give 50 or ‘L’. While I am satisfied that this must be how Goliath meant the wordplay to work, I originally concocted a different idea: that it meant shifting ‘V’ 10 places forward in the alphabet to ‘L’ | ||
| 19 | EDITIONS | Rabble-rousing leader gets to the base of the issues (8) |
| SEDITION (rabble-rousing) with the ‘S’ (leader) moved to the end (the base) | ||
| 22 | DAMSON | Mother and child can make jam (6) |
| DAM (mother) + SON (child) | ||
| 23 | PLANET | Jett’s world (6) |
| PLANE (jet) + T (t) | ||
| 24 | OCULAR | Funny top out of sight (6) |
| [j]OCULAR (funny top out) | ||
| 27 | See 11 | |
I wasn’t sure about 6ac either.
But, on second thoughts, I think Goliath means that if you ‘unclothe’ SMUGGLES you will get ‘muggle’.
That may make sense but I do not really like it.
Pete, re 18d, do you really think that shifting V ten places forward gets you an L?
It is surely 5 (=V) times 10 equals 50 (=L).
Thanks Goliath and Pete.
I read 4ac in the same way as Sil – take the clothes off SMUGGLES and you get MUGGLE.
Having had that specialist word at 4ac (I have to admit to not reading the books) I became fixated at 29ac searching online for a comic-book character whose real name is April and whose “super-power” name is ULTIMO.
And the the penny dropped – doh!
I solved the NW corner and got a few elsewhere but the NE was blank. Way out of my league.
14d I’ve never seen that before and if you had given me the answer but not explained it, I think I’d still be sat here now trying to work it out.
18d Again I’d never have got this whichever was intended.
If they were all like this, I’d give up the game.
> Pete, re 18d, do you really think that shifting V ten places forward gets you an L?
> It is surely 5 (=V) times 10 equals 50 (=L).
It is the case, yes, that I really think that shifting V ten places forward produces an L. However I no longer imagine that that is what Goliath intended; your explanation is much superior and is, I trust, what was intended.
I am a bit puzzled by the responses regarding the MUGGLE clue. I understood it exactly as Sil and Hamish do. Is my explanation not clear?
Thanks Goliath and Pete
Did this one quite late last night and tiredness drew an error with MARINADE – was looking at the wrong end of ‘discount’ (wonder if he chose that particular word with a D and a T at each end to trap the unwary or overtired 🙂 ).
With 4a, I think that it is a type of reverse clue where by ‘undressing’ the answer (SMUGGLES) of its ‘special’ (S) then you get a MUGGLE (a person with no powers) – so Pete he does clue the particular letters. (I can see that after a good sleep!). Interesting to see a similar device going the normal way at 2d.
The clever insert of an A in MET and an A in CLEVER is nearly pure genius – especially to create a lift and separate of the two letter ‘as’ – again I didn’t see that last night, had assumed that ‘as’ was anagram fodder.
I like the style of this setter a lot – he really does make one think laterally throughout the entire journey.
Thanks for putting me out of my misery re 18d. Excellent puzzle. Many thanks for the blog.
Didn’t know gits meant bastards. Learn something new every time. Thanks Pete and Sil for explaining smuggles. I’d totally forgotten muggles from the Harry Potter series.
brucew, You raise an interesting idea about the SMUGGLES clue but I have to say that I am doubtful about it. For one thing I can find no support for ‘special’ cluing S. And if it did, it would either be serving double duty or be out of place in the clue.
Karen, I think that using ‘bastards’ to clue ‘gits’ is a bit of a stretch.