Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 11, 2017
Here’s another delightful puzzle from Rosa. My clue of the week is 18d (FEMINIST) and I also applaud 14a (MASTERMIND) and 29a (YACHTING). Thank you, Rosa.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SECURE | Acquire case of Sauterne – it’s restorative! (6) |
| S[autern]E + CURE (it’s restorative) | ||
| 4 | RHUMBAED | Husband in Bermuda whirled and danced (8) |
| H (husband) in anagram (whirled) of BERMUDA | ||
| 9 | COURSE | Old dons swear in classes (6) |
| O (old) in (dons) CURSE (swear) | ||
| 10 | ON AND OFF | Seedsman with shed, but not all the time (2,3,3) |
| ONAN (seedsman!) + DOFF (shed) | ||
| 12 | EXTERNAL | Superficial old bird, vacuously amoral (8) |
| EX (old) + TERN (bird) + A[mora]L | ||
| 13 | MANIOC | Am about to invent reverse- operating staple! (6) |
| AM (am) backwards (about) + COIN (to invent) backwards (reverse-operating). I wondered about what ‘operating’ was doing here, originally suspecting that it was intended to be part of the reversal indicator but being far from sure about that. With some commenters now backing me up, I am fairly confident that this is the case. | ||
| 15 | EWER | Jug used to be back to front (4) |
| WERE (used to be) with the last ‘E’ moved to be the first letter (back to front) | ||
| 16 | CHAIRLIFTS | Charles, accepting I flirt outrageously, means to get high (10) |
| Anagram (outrageously) of I FLIRT in CHAS (Charles) | ||
| 19 | MASTERMIND | Einstein taking part in Michaelmas term indiscretions (10) |
| Hidden word — and maybe the best hidden-word clue I have seen of late. | ||
| 20 | RUMP | Dowdy woman initially left behind (4) |
| [f]RUMP (dowdy woman initially left) | ||
| 23 | JERKIN | Idiot wearing jacket (6) |
| JERK (idiot) + IN (wearing) | ||
| 25 | ASHTRAYS | Satyr has massaged butts in these (8) |
| Anagram (massaged) of SATYR HAS | ||
| 27 | SOLDIERY | Armed forces very direly mistreated (8) |
| SO (very) + anagram (mistreated) of DIRELY | ||
| 28 | SPRITE | Super 8 is then periodically ditched for Brownie (6) |
| S[u]P[e]R [8] I[s] T[h]E[n]. I got this wrong originally, spelling out e-i-g-h-t. | ||
| 29 | YACHTING | Cynthia playing golf, an expensive hobby (8) |
| Anagram (playing) of CYNTHIA + G (golf) | ||
| 30 | BATMAN | Black hole in wall starts to alarm nervous attendant (6) |
| B (black) + ATM (hole in wall) + A[larm] N[ervous] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SECRETE | Conceal empty suitcase on island (7) |
| S[uitcas]E + CRETE (island) | ||
| 2 | COUNTLESS | Very many are of inferior significance (9) |
| COUNT LESS (are of inferior significance) | ||
| 3 | ROSARY | Errors fairly regularly found in prayers (6) |
| [e]R[r]O[r]S [f]A[i]R[l]Y | ||
| 5 | HUNG | Tail of skittish wildebeest lifted and dropped (4) |
| [skittis]H + GNU (wildebeest) backwards (lifted) | ||
| 6 | MENTALLY | People add up in their heads (8) |
| MEN (people) + TALLY (add up) | ||
| 7 | AIOLI | Feet of Mahatma Gandhi removing skin from solid mayonnaise (5) |
| [mahatm]A [gandh]I + [s]OLI[d] | ||
| 8 | DEFACES | Vandalises Home Counties eaterie and departs northwards (7) |
| SE (Home Counties) + CAFE (eaterie) + D (departs) all backwards | ||
| 11 | SASHIMI | Japanese scoff and point when male is half-cut (7) |
| S (point, i.e. South) + AS (when) + HIM (male) + I[s]. While very used to ‘scoff’ as a verb meaning to eat hurriedly, I was unfamiliar with its usage as a noun to mean food. But my dictionary confirms that this is fine. | ||
| 14 | WITNESS | Name for large, foolish bystander (7) |
| WITLESS (foolish) with ‘L’ (large) replaced by ‘N’ (name) | ||
| 17 | FEUDALISM | Filmed us raging over a medieval social system (9) |
| A (a) in anagram (raging) of FILMED US | ||
| 18 | FEMINIST | Iron short skirt and submit, content to be invisible? Not she! (8) |
| FE (iron) + MINI (short skirt) + S[ubmi]T | ||
| 19 | MAJESTY | Mum and kid close to extraordinary grandeur (7) |
| MA (mum) + JEST (kid) + [extraordinar]Y | ||
| 21 | POSTERN | Back entrance of post office not yielding (7) |
| PO (post office) + STERN (not yielding) | ||
| 22 | UTOPIA | High-class crack and dope served up, in an ideal world (6) |
| U (high-class) + (AI (crack) + POT (dope)) backwards (served up). ‘Crack’ in the sense of skillful (as in “a crack shot”) clues A-1 which is written as AI. | ||
| 24 | RELIC | Reminder of immature licentiousness (5) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 26 | GRIN | Smile broadly and run into trap (4) |
| R (run) in GIN (trap) | ||
Thanks Rosa and Pete.
15ac does not work as a complete reversal, so we have to take “back to front” as meaning that the last letter of WERE is moved to the beginning of the word.
I should add that I think 28ac works more smoothly by treating the figure 8 as a single character, as S[u]P[e]R [8] I[s] T[h]E[n].
Always a pleasure to solve a Rosa Klebb puzzle.
As a bit of a tosspot, I think Sangiovese or Spumante might have worked better in 1a…. “Sauterne” doesn’t really exist, I think.
Thanks to RK&PM
Pelham, Thank you very much for those two corrections, now fixed. The first was an oversight while blogging but in the case of the second I wonder what my brain was doing!
baerchen, I think you make a very good point. The wine that is meant has to be Sauternes. Thank you!
Thanks Pete. In 13 across I agree with your suggestion that reverse-operating is the reversal indicator. The definition is then staple, meaning a food, with the word play implying a new form of paper clip.
Bearchen and Gaufrid: ‘sauterne’ (either with capital or not) is in Chambers and Collins!
For Chambers it is an alternative spelling of Sauternes, a French wine.
For Collins, sauterne is a sweet Californian wine.
Although my first thoughts were with Sauternes [my first thoughts are often with wine 🙂 ], I think one cannot blame Rosa Klebb.
Another good puzzle with an original (novel?) trick in 28ac.
Thanks Pete, and the Lady of Spider Towers, of course.
Thanks Rosa and Pete
Nice puzzle that used up about an hour of my life across a couple of sessions. One can generally find something novel in her clues and today it was the clever use of 8 as simply another character to be skipped over in the alternatively lettered SPRITE.
Had to also double check that ‘scoff’ could act as a noun in 11d. Didn’t know the biblical character and his basic method of contraception (obviously successful but not ending well for him!)
Finished in the NW corner with EWER, the trickily defined SASHIMI and the brilliantly hidden MASTERMIND as the last one in.