Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of December 17, 2016
I solved the left half of this puzzle quickly and easily while the right half took some time and thought. My favourite clue is the &lit. 25a (CONFETTI) and I also like 1a (WITHER), 26a (COFFIN) and 4d (RETAIN) which has two sets of wordplay and an intriguing surface reading. 7d (PUMPS) gave me loads of trouble, I am still not 100% confident of the explanation of how it works, and if it does truly work that way then I must call it a poor effort!
| Across | ||
| 1 | WITHER | After onset of winter their nuts shrivel up (6) |
| W[inter] + anagram (nuts) of THEIR | ||
| 5 | FACE PACK | What hooker does to get pan cleaner (4,4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 9 | ASSIST | Second string player’s beginning to go off (6) |
| [b]ASSIST (string player’s beginning to go off) | ||
| 10 | UNTIMELY | Minutely prepared yet premature (8) |
| Anagram (prepared) of MINUTELY | ||
| 11 | HEDONIST | Epicure boss of 22 captured during robbery (8) |
| DON (boss of 22, i.e. Mafia) in HEIST (robbery) | ||
| 12 | OBSESS | Extract of Ulysses Bono returned to haunt (6) |
| Reverse hidden word | ||
| 13 | ORAL | Dental examination? (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | DWINDLES | Short day, still short, is getting shorter (8) |
| D (short day) + WINDLES[s] (still short) | ||
| 18 | COLISEUM | In which ELO music is played? (8) |
| Anagram of ELO MUSIC | ||
| 19 | RATE | Assess area covered by Irish transmitter (4) |
| A (area) in RTE (Irish transmitter, i.e. Raidió Teilifís Éireann) | ||
| 21 | SCAMPI | Sulphur affected international seafood (6) |
| S (sulphur) + CAMP (affected) + I (international) | ||
| 23 | NUISANCE | Pest lives in shade (8) |
| IS (lives) in NUANCE (shade) | ||
| 25 | CONFETTI | At entrance to church it often gets scattered (8) |
| C[hurch] + anagram (gets scattered) of IT OFTEN | ||
| 26 | COFFIN | Fines put in money box (6) |
| FF (fines) in COIN (money) | ||
| 27 | ASSASSIN | Ruby, for example, popular with idiots (8) |
| ASS ASS (idiots) + IN (popular). ‘Ruby’ refers to Jack Ruby who shot Lee Harvey Oswald. | ||
| 28 | LANDAU | Carriage left with a uniform (6) |
| L (left) + AND (with) + A (a) + U (uniform) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ISSUE | Children’s publication is certain to lack one of the 3 Rs (5) |
| IS SURE with the ‘R’ (one of the 3 Rs) removed — with two definitions. “To lack one of the three Rs” is clever in a way but I do not much like it. It would be better if there were 3 Rs in the fodder and one had to be removed. | ||
| 3 | HOI POLLOI | Hot oil sprinkled twice over river for masses (3,6) |
| H (hot) + PO (river) in anagram (sprinkled) of OIL OIL | ||
| 4 | RETAIN | Keep soldiers in check and Parisian in bucket (6) |
| TA (soldiers) in REIN (check) -and- ET (and Parisian) in RAIN (bucket) | ||
| 5 | FOURTH DIMENSION | I found horns struggling with time? Yes, time (6,9) |
| Anagram (struggling) of I FOUND HORNS TIME | ||
| 6 | CATHOLIC | Universal problem for baby clothes at hospital (8) |
| AT (at) + H (hospital) together in COLIC (problem for baby) | ||
| 7 | PUMPS | Mike produces trousers and shoes (5) |
| M (Mike, in the phonetic spelling alphabet) in (trousers) PUPS (produces) — as noted by brucew in the first comment below. I had much trouble with this clue — see my original attempt at explaining it in the next paragraph. Thank you, Bruce.
Quadruple definition? I solved this using checked letters and assuming ‘shoes’ as the definition. It took me a while to realize that it is a multiple definition since I did not know there are trousers called pumps and, even now, I am not sure of how “Mike produces” works. My next thought was that it is a triple definition but my final suspicion is that it is a quadruple because ‘produces’ can well serve to define PUMPS by itself. I found that there is a brand of shoes called Mike Pumps but I hope that is not the reference; I am not against brand names being used in crosswords when they are well known but this one is, surely, not well known. |
||
| 8 | COLD SWEAT | Officer wasted hysterical reaction to fear (4,5) |
| COL (officer, i.e. colonel) + anagram (hysterical) of WASTED | ||
| 14 | ROOT CROPS | Batsman whips Swedes, say (4,5) |
| ROOT (batsman, referring to Joe Root) + CROPS (whips) | ||
| 16 | DORSAL FIN | Scary sign for island divers? (6,3) |
| Anagram (divers) of FOR ISLAND | ||
| 17 | DEVIATES | Leaves course meetings about a quarter to 6 (8) |
| E (a quarter) + VI (6) together in DATES (meetings) | ||
| 20 | FISCAL | Criminal fails to hide first of crimes from Revenue (6) |
| C[rimes] in anagram (criminal) of FAILS | ||
| 22 | MAFIA | Mob always fraternised in America initially (5) |
| M[ob] A[lways] F[raternised] I[n] A[merica] | ||
| 24 | CHINA | Tea bags in service (5) |
| IN (in) in CHA (tea) | ||
Hi Pete
Had trouble with 7d as well for a while !! It is PUPS (produces as in little dogs) around (trousers) M (phonetic code, Mike) to give you the shoes … nice clue !!!
Hi Bruce, Wow, I was waaaay off with my interpretation. Thank you very much for setting me straight.
No worries … it was certainly a bit tricky !!
I actually did this one on publication date and had a similar experience with solving the LHS then battling away at the RHS. Agree with the 3-R’s thing – cute idea but unless I’m missing something it doesn’t quite work for me either.
A few new terms – didn’t know of the London COLISEUM, the Irish radio broadcaster, RTE, or the slang word, PAN, for the face. The Jack Ruby clue got me to read the Wiki article on his role in the JFK incident – lots of things just still don’t add up after all of this time !
Thanks to Redshank for an enjoyable challenge.