Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 20, 2016
This was another Mudd that I found tough in places. My clue of the week is the &lit. 13a (SUPERGIANT) and I also applaud 6d (MADAGASCAN) and 25d (AMATI).
| Across | ||
| 1 | POTASH | Fertiliser compound contrarily rested in spring (6) |
| SAT (rested) in HOP (spring) all backwards | ||
| 4 | CHAMPERS | Those staying outside to imbibe hot drink (8) |
| H (hot) in CAMPERS (those staying outside) | ||
| 10 | NEPTUNE | Planet – one lacking oxygen, phosphorus and air (7) |
| [o]NE (one lacking oxygen) + P (phosphorus) + TUNE (air) | ||
| 11 | LADETTE | A daughter in character wiping rear, offensive female (7) |
| A (a) + D (daughter) together in LETTE[r] (character wiping rear). This one gave me trouble because I knew the word but not its meaning. | ||
| 12 | ROAN | Heading off beef, horse (4) |
| [g]ROAN (heading off beef) | ||
| 13 | SUPERGIANT | Filled with power, great sun I suspect? (10) |
| P (power) in anagram (suspect) of GREAT SUN I. ‘Supergiant’ is an astronomical term for an extremely bright star of very large diameter and low density. | ||
| 15 | ARARAT | A king and a knave in symbol of Armenia (6) |
| A (a) + R (king) + A (a) + RAT (knave) | ||
| 16 | MESSIAH | Saviour, I am he, struggling to rescue ship (7) |
| SS (ship) in anagram of I AM HE | ||
| 20 | BACKLOG | Unfinished work in finance, something to burn (7) |
| BACK (finance) + LOG (something to burn) | ||
| 21 | TARTAN | Plaid, something black and brown (6) |
| TAR (something black) + TAN (brown) | ||
| 24 | SOAP POWDER | Cleaner criminal opposed war (4,6) |
| Anagram of OPPOSED WAR | ||
| 26 | TROT | Pace wrong, stepping back (4) |
| TORT (wrong) backwards | ||
| 28 | AGAINST | Con once more stumped (7) |
| AGAIN (once more) + ST (stumped) | ||
| 29 | POPCORN | Fizzy drink and cheese snack (7) |
| POP (fizzy drink) + CORN (cheese) | ||
| 30 | SHIPYARD | Craft building here, one practically empty in London skyscraper (8) |
| I (one) + P[racticall]Y together in SHARD (London skyscraper) | ||
| 31 | ORANGE | Primate beginning to eat fruit (6) |
| ORANG (primate) + E[at]. I fancy I have seen a version of this clue before. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PANCREAS | Piper cares to play an organ (8) |
| PAN (piper) + anagram (to play) of CARES | ||
| 2 | TOP BANANA | Commander, something yellow under jumper (3,6) |
| TOP (jumper) + BANANA (something yellow) | ||
| 3 | SLUG | Misshapen bullet, slow-mover (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 5 | HELMETED | Protected on top, parcel carried boxes (8) |
| METE (parcel) in HELD (carried). I came up with HELMETED as an answer early on but had trouble justifying METE for ‘parcel’. I guess the meaning is as in to mete out or to parcel out. | ||
| 6 | MADAGASCAN | Which barmy people can lead an Ottoman army from an island? (10) |
| MAD AGAS CAN (which barmy people can lead an Ottoman army?) | ||
| 7 | EXTRA | Fixed rate includes ten more (5) |
| X (ten) in anagram (fixed) of RATE | ||
| 8 | SLEUTH | Solver taking nothing from point about foreign article (6) |
| LE (foreign article) in S[o]UTH (taking nothing from point) | ||
| 9 | REBUS | Puzzle taken up by hapless ubergeeks (5) |
| Reverse hidden word | ||
| 14 | HANKY-PANKY | Something up one’s sleeve with knight and king in reward for working mischief (5-5) |
| HANKY (something up one’s sleeve) + N (knight) + K (king) together in PAY (reward for working) | ||
| 17 | AFTERNOON | A newspaper editor running leaders certainly not working for PM (9) |
| A (a) + FT (newspaper) + E[ditor] R[unning] + NO (certainly not) + ON (working) | ||
| 18 | HOT WATER | A jam that’s required to make coffee (3,5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 19 | INSTANCE | An insect after metamorphosis, for example (8) |
| Anagram of AN INSECT | ||
| 22 | OSCARS | Players’ awards without a blemish? (6) |
| O SCARS (without a blemish, i.e. no scars) | ||
| 23 | WEEPY | Little puppy extremely sad (5) |
| WEE (little) + P[upp]Y | ||
| 25 | AMATI | Those starting out in accountancy miserable, as tax inspectors fiddling people? (5) |
| A[ccountancy] M[iserable] A[s] T[ax] I[nspectors] | ||
| 27 | SPUR | Egg, side cut (4) |
| SPUR[s] (side cut) | ||
Thanks Pete and Mudd.
Yet another fine puzzle from this setter.
It took me a while to parse HELMETED too. I parsed it in the same way – to mete out in the sense of to allot seems to fit with parcel as a verb.
My favourite was CHAMPERS.
I failed on 15a where my best guess was a r a j (jack=knave) an (couldn’t get the an)
On 6d I wasn’t sure if the answer was madagascar or madagascan.
Hi Bamberger, I bet a lot of people were unsure between MADAGASCAR and MADAGASCAN. I was initially.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Also found this one pretty tough going, done mostly on an airplane trip from KL to Melbourne. Clever use of charades that needed to be carefully constructed in many clues, particularly MADAGASCAN (which was probably my favourite when the penny dropped .. and after I’d dismissed my original MADAGASCAR). Had to check up on the fact that Mt ARARAT was a symbol of Armenia when I got internet connectivity back and didn’t see the tricky parsing of O SCARS to define ‘without a blemish’ at 22d until coming here.