Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 13, 2016
I found this puzzle tougher than most from Rosa, especially in the lower left quadrant. My clue of the week is 9d (BONNIE), a real gem, and I also especially like 2d (UROLOGIST).
| Across | ||
| 1 | ALUMNA | Graduate training manual (6) |
| Anagram (training) of MANUAL | ||
| 4 | MENSWEAR | Chaps curse Y-fronts etc (8) |
| MEN (chaps) + SWEAR (curse) | ||
| 10 | PROVOLONE | “Cheese Expert”, Volume 1 (9) |
| PRO (expert) + VOL (volume) + ONE (1) | ||
| 11 | CLOUT | Thump Conservative oaf (5) |
| C (Conservative) + LOUT (oaf) | ||
| 12 | TOOL | Saw plane or chopper? (4) |
| Triple definition by examples | ||
| 13 | UNGAINLIER | More lumbering wildebeest returned, disrupting airline (10) |
| GNU (wildebeest) backwards + anagram (disrupting) of AIRLINE | ||
| 15 | TRIREME | Reportedly go with engineers in ancient boat (7) |
| TRI (homophone of “TRY” (go)) + REME (engineers) | ||
| 16 | TEHRAN | The bastard was in charge of Middle Eastern capital (6) |
| Anagram (bastard) of THE + RAN (was in charge) | ||
| 19 | STATUE | Take legal action over rubbish artwork (6) |
| TAT (rubbish) in SUE (take legal action) | ||
| 21 | CONTAIN | Unfortunately I cannot hold back (7) |
| Anagram (unfortunately) of I CANNOT | ||
| 23 | WHOLEGRAIN | Kind of bread with jam one feeds old lady (10) |
| W (with) + HOLE (jam) + I (one) in GRAN (old lady) | ||
| 25 | TAME | Cheers setter without vigour (4) |
| TA (cheers) + ME (setter) | ||
| 27 | SOLVE | What you do alone round back of lav (5) |
| [la]V in SOLE (alone) | ||
| 28 | ORCHESTRA | Band of men box with artist (9) |
| OR (men, i.e. other ranks) + CHEST (box) + RA (artist) | ||
| 29 | POTTERED | Wandered about and spotted Freda scrubbing clothes (8) |
| [s]POTTE[d] [f]RED[a]. So, “scrubbing clothes” tells us to remove the first and last letters from SPOTTED and FREDA. | ||
| 30 | HYBRID | Shy bride clutching cross (6) |
| Hidden word | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | APPETITE | Vacuous archbishop with small stomach (8) |
| A[rchbisho]P + PETITE (small) | ||
| 2 | UROLOGIST | Expert on plumbing and renovation of igloos is in terrible rut (9) |
| Anagram (renovation of) of IGLOOS in anagram (terrible) of RUT | ||
| 3 | NOON | 12 regularly nipping out into town (4) |
| [i]N[t]O [t]O[w]N | ||
| 5 | ELEGANT | Graceful queen perhaps overcome by short poem (7) |
| ELEG[y] (short poem) + ANT (queen maybe) | ||
| 6 | SECOND HAND | Watch part of extra round of applause (6,4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 7 | E COLI | Nancy’s school closing early, source of identifiable health hazard (1,4) |
| ECOL[e] (Nancy’s school) + I[dentifiable] | ||
| 8 | RETORT | Sally finally chose between right and wrong (6) |
| R (right) + [chos]E + TORT (wrong) | ||
| 9 | BONNIE | Clydeside bank robber? (6) |
| Double/cryptic definition. Read “Clydeside” as Clyde’s sidekick. | ||
| 14 | WEATHER EYE | Means of predicting if one can be heard (7,3) |
| Homophone (“whether I”) | ||
| 17 | ALABASTER | A place to experiment on flower, 19 material (9) |
| A (a) + LAB (place to experiment) + ASTER (flower) | ||
| 18 | IN DEMAND | Popular rise of some airhead named Nigella (2,6) |
| Reverse hidden phrase | ||
| 20 | EARLOBE | Lug part of each costume round Lima (7) |
| EA[ch] + L (Lima) in ROBE (costume) | ||
| 21 | CLINCH | Twelve and a half foot seal (6) |
| CL (number of inches in twelve and a half feet, i.e. 150) + INCH | ||
| 22 | OWNS UP | Admits private matter retrospectively (4,2) |
| OWN (private) + PUS (matter) backwards | ||
| 24 | OWLET | Old wife oddly ignoring Albert’s small hooter (5) |
| O (old) + W (wife) + [a]L[b]E[r]T | ||
| 26 | SEXY | Sensual and extremely seductive kiss unmanned many (4) |
| S[eductiv]E + [man]Y | ||
Thanks Pete Maclean and Rosa Klebb.
Yes, I found this hard, too – guessed POTTERED and TOOL. Thanks for parsing those.
Didn’t get WEATHER EYE.
A beauty s usual from her. And nice blog as usual.
Thanks Pete and Rosa.
Lovely puzzle.
I particularly liked CLINCH too – as well as your favourites BONNIE and UROLOGIST.
Thanks, Pete.
Another lovely puzzle from Rosa. As usual, I had too many favourites to mention but I loved the picture conjured up by 13ac. I often say that it’s well worth revisiting the clues to savour the surfaces. I don’t think there’s a dud one here.
Many thanks, as ever, to Rosa.
Yes indeed, 13ac is vivid!
Thanks Rosa Klebb and Pete
Savoured this over three sessions during the last week of a memorable stay in Malaysia. Found that with fresh eyes each time, was able to make steady progress with it, although was held up for a while with the very clever BONNIE and the ‘untame’ TAME as my last couple in.
As Eileen found 13a a lovable surface, the one at 27 made the eyes water :).
Particularly liked the BONNIE clue and thought the economy of MENSWEAR was also good.
Hi Bruce. I had completely forgotten this one! And now am finding it a renewed pleasure to revisit some of Rosa’s great clues. BONNIE is a bonnie clue all right!