Monday Prize Crossword / Jun 13, 2016
Mudd, making one of his infrequent Monday visits, gave us a puzzle of two halves.
I know, every crossword has two halves but in this particular situation I found the right hand side much easier than the other half.
Normally, I do not need much help from Mrs Chambers or the like in a Mudd puzzle but this time I couldn’t finish the left hand side without it.
Enjoyable crossword for which thanks to our well-respected setter.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | RACIST | Head of recruitment is indeed a bigot (6) |
| R[ecruitement] inside ACT (deed) The (in)famous ‘in/deed’ to start with. |
||
| 4 | SPIRIT | Genie in bottle? (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 8 | COCAINE | One seized by staff behind joint, delivering blow (7) |
| I (one) inside CANE (staff), coming after CO (joint) ‘Blow’ is a US slang word for Cocaine. |
||
| 9 | ANOMALY | Loamy ground beyond an exceptional thing? (7) |
| AN + (LOAMY)* [* = ground] | ||
| 11 | SANCTIMONY | Unfortunately, it’s my canon that’s affected devotion (10) |
| (IT’S MY CANON)* [* = unfortunately] | ||
| 12 | EROS | Dawn about right for love (4) |
| EOS (dawn) around R (right) Eos is the greek goddess of the dawn. |
||
| 13 | DOLCE | Sweet lump rolled over on to sweetheart (5) |
| Reversal [rolled over] of CLOD (lump) + [sw]E[et] ‘Sweetheart’ for E is another one of those (in)famous devices that crop up quite regularly. |
||
| 14 | POOLSIDE | Fish on boat repelled by the water (8) |
| Reversal [repelled] of SLOOP (boat) + IDE (fish) | ||
| 16 | COSMETIC | Superficial film screened by Universal (8) |
| ET (film) inside COSMIC (universal) | ||
| 18 | AMBER | Warning, a politician has ignored me (5) |
| A + [me]MBER (politician, ignoring ‘me’) | ||
| 20 | PLUG | Mention item chained, perhaps? (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 21 | BACKGAMMON | Game, something cured by champion (10) |
| BACK (champion) + GAMMON (something cured) | ||
| 23 | ABRAHAM | Patriarch, a racing driver once losing heart (7) |
| A + BRA[b]HAM (racing driver once, minus the letter in the middle) Sir Jack Brabham (1926-2014), Australian motor-racing driver. |
||
| 24 | JACKASS | Fool, as in cards (7) |
| AS inside JACKS (cards) Insertion of AS, #1. |
||
| 25 | GREASY | Horse boxes as slippery (6) |
| GREY (horse) around AS Insertion of AS, #2. |
||
| 26 | PEANUT | Strip cut in seed (6) |
| PEANUTS (strip, i.e. cartoon) minus its last letter | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | RIOJA | Red port, endless stuff (5) |
| RIO (port) + JA[m] (stuff, missing its last letter) | ||
| 2 | CHANCEL | Break line where communion taken (7) |
| CHANCE (break) + L (line) | ||
| 3 | SENTIMENT | Feeling delighted to eat porridge, ultimate for Scotsman! (9) |
| SENT (delighted) around {TIME (porridge, time in prison) + [scotsma]N} | ||
| 5 | PONGY | Hurdling first of gates, horse high (5) |
| PONY (horse) around G[ates] | ||
| 6 | RIMLESS | Lacking an edge – with British leading just the same? (7) |
| BRIMLESS would be the same as RIMLESS, the additional B being ‘British’ | ||
| 7 | TALL ORDER | Formidable task in directive from on high? (4,5) |
| Double / Cryptic definition | ||
| 10 | POPPYCOCK | Rubbish tip supporting source of drug (9) |
| POPPY (source of drug) + COCK (tip) | ||
| 13 | DOODLEBUG | Bomb drawing wind up (9) |
| DOODLE (drawing) + BUG (wind up) | ||
| 15 | ORANGEADE | Drink angered a drunk after round (9) |
| O (round) + (ANGERED A)* [* = drunk] | ||
| 17 | MIGRATE | Relocate speed of fighter? (7) |
| MIG (fighter, Russian airplane) / RATE (speed) | ||
| 19 | BUMPKIN | Rustic in poor family saving a little money (7) |
| BUM (poor) + KIN (family), together around P (a little money, pence) | ||
| 21 | BRASS | Silver alloy (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 22 | ONSET | Start in the theatre? (5) |
| When ON SET you might be ‘in the theatre’ | ||
*anagram
Thanks Mudd and Sil
A bit tougher than normal from JH this time. My split of the puzzle was more top and bottom (the harder bit). ABRAHAM was nearly a write-in with the B in the second spot. Had seen the DOODLEBUG bomb before so it didn’t present too many problems either.
My holdups were with the parsing of PEANUT (taking ages to twig to the ‘comic strip’) and BRASS (where likewise it took a long time to get the ‘money’ connection)
A good challenge with his signature good fun !
Always nice to see this man on a Monday.
No wonder I struggled with cocaine didn’t know US slang blow!! 26ac ahh couldn’t work out what the strip meant, so got it by default that only peanut, a seed, fitted. 21dn brass is silver why? Thanks for the blog Sil.
Ahh silver is money, okay understand it now.
This is my Monday morning commute solve which with the normal setters is usually there or there abouts solved-not however with this where I gave up about half way through and read the Metro instead. Ok for a Saturday but not what you come to expect on a Monday.
I too got more of the RHS than the LHS .
8a did not know blow and don’t consider American street slang befitting the FT crossword.
12a Didn’t know Eos
14a Obviously when you see sloop you think of the Beach Boys but when I think of boat , sloop just doesn’t come to mind.
23a Good grief -how many racing drivers has there been -to me impossible without some crossers.
26a Clearly this had an American theme but even if you had asked me to say what was meant by Peanuts, I would not have said comic strip.
10d I had to thin hard as to why cock =tip
21d Thanks Karen -I couldn’t see it.
Thanks to Mudd and Sil
Bamberger @ 5: in my “interesting” earlier 1970s-80s years in NW England, ‘blow’ was regular slang for items, legally dubious, of herbal or powdery nature, so it’s not restricted to American slang.
I hope I’m outside the statute of limitations!!
I am not an expert on these things, I just followed Mrs Chambers.
‘Blow’ for Cocaine is apparently American, ‘blow’ for cannabis (which is surely not Cocaine) is British.
However, Mudd used ‘Cocaine’ which, in my opinion, rules out the latter.
Anyway, I hope you had a good time then, Simon!
Thanks Sil and Mudd.
Enjoyable as ever from this setter.
Had to check EOS but clear enough.
PONGY and POPPYCOCK were good fun because they were unexpected.
COCAINE to finish!