Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 27, 2016
I found this puzzle challenging, as usual with Alberich, but still managed to complete it fairly quickly. My clue of the week is the &lit. 12a (NIGHTCAP) and I also find a number of other very clever ones to mention: 26a (VERTEBRA), 1a (POPINJAY), 7d (EAT OUT), 17d (ABSINTHE) and 22d (FRESCO). In a few other cases, he seems to make clues fuzzy or unnecessarily tricky such as 24d (STREEP) and 30a (OMELETTE).
| Across | ||
| 1 | PREFIX | Referee’s parting shots for sub, for example (6) |
| REF (referee) in (parting) PIX (shots) | ||
| 4 | SPOTLESS | For a start, swimming pool’s not so very clean (8) |
| S[wimming] + POT (pool, in the sense of kitty) + LESS (not so). Is the ‘very’ intended to go with the ‘not so’ or with the ‘clean’? I am going for the ‘clean’ but I think I could be wrong. | ||
| 9 | PIRACY | Vehicle’s turned in one year after parking offence (6) |
| P (parking) + CAR (vehicle) backwards in IY (one year) | ||
| 10 | CLOISTER | Son cuts college to hang around arcade (8) |
| C (college) + S (son) in LOITER (to hang around) | ||
| 12 | NIGHTCAP | Drink knocked back, around time chap crashes? (8) |
| GIN (drink) backwards + T (time) in anagram of CHAP | ||
| 13 | CARUSO | Without limits, José Cura could be a legendary tenor (6) |
| Anagram (could be) of [j]OS[e] CURA | ||
| 15 | AVER | State eclipsed by Montana and Vermont combined (4) |
| [montan]A VER[mont] | ||
| 16 | MAYORAL | Springtime examination of public dignitary? (7) |
| MAY (springtime) + ORAL (examination) | ||
| 20 | OBELISK | Blokeish freak, needing shot of heroin, produces needle (7) |
| Anagram of BLOKEIS[h] | ||
| 21 | AJAR | Indian prince is making comeback, or just about to (4) |
| RAJA (Indian prince) backwards (is making comeback) | ||
| 25 | RUSTIC | Are you on the phone, getting endless flak? That’s awkward (6) |
| RU (homophone “are you”) + STIC[k] (endless flak). I do not much like ‘awkward’ as a definition for rustic but my thesaurus supports it. | ||
| 26 | VERTEBRA | Outside bet backing King’s Lynn? That shows some backbone (8) |
| BET (bet) backwards in R (king) in VERA (Lynn). Is there not something missing regarding the placement of the ‘R’? | ||
| 28 | STAR TREK | TV show to turn on right geek regularly (4,4) |
| START (turn on) + R (right) + [g]E[e]K | ||
| 29 | REFUSE | Fellow stops recycling rubbish (6) |
| F (fellow) in REUSE (recycling) | ||
| 30 | OMELETTE | Before European character runs off, order dish (8) |
| OM (order, i.e. of merit) + E (European) + LETTE[r] (character runs off) | ||
| 31 | SPRINT | Make an impression, following second career (6) |
| S (second) + PRINT (make an impression) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | POPINJAY | Briefly visit Japan? Yes, that’ll be dandy (8) |
| POP IN (briefly visit) + J (Japan) + AY (yes) | ||
| 2 | EARL GREY | Leaves in good time, catching up some work (4,4) |
| ERG (some work) backwards in EARLY (in good time) | ||
| 3 | INCITE | Encourage awareness when holding forth (6) |
| Homophone (“insight”) | ||
| 5 | POLK | Dance is cut short for former president (4) |
| POLK[a] (dance is cut short). James K. Polk (1795–1849) was the 11th President of the U.S.A. | ||
| 6 | TRIMARAN | Craft dress with a certain knitwear style (8) |
| TRIM (dress) + ARAN (a certain knitwear style) | ||
| 7 | EAT OUT | Have meal in café? It may offer tea! (3,3) |
| Reverse anagram of TEA | ||
| 8 | SERMON | Son has more fancy new address (6) |
| S (son) + anagram (fancy) of MORE + N (new) | ||
| 11 | FATALLY | They run football match catastrophically (7) |
| FA (they run football) + TALLY (match) | ||
| 14 | WORSTED | Argument about way journalist’s spun yarn (7) |
| ROW (argument) backwards (about) + ST (way, i.e. street) + ED (journalist) | ||
| 17 | ABSINTHE | Muscles in on half of Blithe Spirit (8) |
| ABS (muscles) + IN (in) + [bli]THE | ||
| 18 | DJIBOUTI | Country club entertainer meets singles keeping fit (8) |
| DJ (club entertainer) + BOUT (fit) in II (singles) | ||
| 19 | ORNAMENT | Our unit oddly has reputation for interior decoration (8) |
| AMEN (???) in O[u]R [u]N[i]T. Does ‘reputation’ somehow clue AMEN? | ||
| 22 | FRESCO | Opening for film score in motion picture (6) |
| F[ilm] + anagram (in motion) of SCORE | ||
| 23 | ESCAPE | Avoid key issue (6) |
| Triple definition (with ‘issue’ meant in the sense of an opening that provides an escape) | ||
| 24 | STREEP | Plane perhaps possessed by special actress (6) |
| TREE (plane perhaps) in SP (special) | ||
| 27 | BEAT | Flutter nets a pound (4) |
| A (a) in BET (flutter). Non-Brits may be unfamiliar with the use of ‘flutter’ to mean bet. In Britain it is common to say, for example, that one will have a flutter on the horses to mean one will bet on horse races. | ||
Thanks Pete for your blog of another satisfying Alberich crossword.
I don’t see anything wrong with VERTEBRA (26ac).
It is as you say a reversal of BET plus R (King), and outside all this we have VERA.
Maybe, you were fooled by the wrong R?
Years and years ago, Alberich was the master of what we then called ‘lift & separate’.
A term later hijacked by solvers, mainly Guardian solvers, to indicate something slightly different.
This puzzle was Alberich at his very best in that category.
So many seemingly connected ‘terms’ have to be disconnected within the construction:
swimming/pool, parking/offence, King’s/Lynn, Blithe/Spirit, film/score, motion/picture – perhaps, there were more.
Surprisingly, Alberich used S = ‘son’ twice (10ac, 8d – they even cross).
Not wrong, of course, but just a bit unexpected looking at how he normally is.
Great stuff!
Thanks Pete and Alberich.
A good solid and enjoyable puzzle this – one could almost say 5 mini-puzzles for the price of one given the grid.
It took a fair bit of off-line thinking to spot the homophone at 3dn and I failed to spot 23 as a triple – makes perfect sense now.
I took the “very” at 4ac as doing double duty.
Particularly liked VERTEBRA and DJIBOUTI.
Thanks Alberich and Pete
I think the definition in 16 is “of public dignitary”.
In 19 it isn’t AMEN in ORN-T but NAME (reputation) in OR-NT.
hth
I agree on both points with Simon S @3.
Perhaps, in 19d, you were fooled by the wrong N – just like in 26ac by the R?
BTW, ‘rustic’ has in Chambers as definition #5 just ‘awkward’, so I think it’s fine.
This was my least successful attempt at a Saturday or Monday solve for quite some time with less than half the grid completed. Of course the more clues you solve, the more you have a chance of getting more.
Thanks Alberich and Pete
Terrific puzzle, done two years on – taking about 50% longer than my average solve for him. Very good use of misdirection to make the path to the answers just that little bit harder.
Had parsed 16 and 19 the same way as Simon@3. Took quite a while to understand the construction of OMELETTE, SPOTLESS and the triple definitions of ESCAPE.
Finished in the top left hand corner with POPINJAY (which I had to build and then remember the term) and PREFIX (one of the clever misdirections) as my last two in.