Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 25, 2017
I find lots of fine clues in this puzzle which I also found relatively easy. My clue of the week is 15d (POT-BELLIED) and would also pick as stand-outs 4d (ANNA) and 21a (INSINCERE).
| Across | ||
| 9 | MEXICAN STANDOFF | One can’t fix sad struggle between the sexes, resulting in impasse (7,8) |
| M (sex) + anagram (struggle) of ONE CANT FIX SAD + F (sex) | ||
| 10 | LITHE | Low-calorie sandwiches help initially to make you agile (5) |
| H[elp] in LITE (low-calorie). The ‘you’ seems a bit intrusive in the cryptic reading of the clue, no? | ||
| 11 | ADVERSARY | After short notice Charlie’s eliminated by frightening opponent (9) |
| ADVER[t] (short notice) + S[c]ARY (Charlie’s eliminated by frightening) | ||
| 12 | ACCLAIMED | Renowned Langdon’s principal character in “academic” novel (9) |
| L[angdon] in anagram (novel) of ACADEMIC | ||
| 14 | RECAP | Bill turns in theatre review (5) |
| AC (bill) in REP (theatre) | ||
| 16 | AS A MATTER OF FACT | Area with a pedestrian crossing’s fourth to be included, actually (2,1,6,2,4) |
| A (area) + [cro]S[sing] + A (a) + MATTER OF FACT (pedestrian) | ||
| 19 | ELIOT | Revolutionary work by English writer (5) |
| E (English) + TOIL (work) backwards (revolutionary) | ||
| 21 | INSINCERE | One sinner reformed, embracing church? Not true (9) |
| CE (church) in anagram (reformed) of I (one) SINNER | ||
| 23 | PLASTERED | Quiet boy keeps hi-fi mostly for Brahms and Liszt (9) |
| P (quiet) + STERE[o] (hi-fi mostly) in LAD (boy). “Brahms and Liszt” being Cockney rhyming slang for ‘drunk’, that is pissed. | ||
| 25 | IMPEL | Mischievous lie about mounted police force (5) |
| MP (mounted police) in anagram (mischievous) of LIE | ||
| 26 | ON ONES HIGH HORSE | Acting superior, he’s shooing her off after performing (2,4,4,5) |
| ON (performing) + anagram (off) of HES SHOOING HER | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | AMALGAMATE | A kind of rock climbing gets a working team to come together (10) |
| A (a) + GLAM (kind of rock) backwards (climbing) + A (a) + anagram (working) of TEAM | ||
| 2 | EXOTIC | Glamorous and sexy – that gets vote for Republican (6) |
| EROTIC (sexy) with the ‘R’ (Republican) replaced by ‘X’ (vote) | ||
| 3 | SCHEMATA | School’s to break up, with one making plans (8) |
| SCH (school) + TAME (to break) backwards (up) + A (one) | ||
| 4 | ANNA | Some vegetarian naan bread once seen in India (4) |
| Hidden word. The anna in this sense is a former currency unit of India that was worth one-sixteenth of a rupee. I remember seeing Indian postage stamps in my youth with denominations in annas. | ||
| 5 | STEVEDORES | Jobs perhaps provide residence for dock workers (10) |
| JOBS (Steve) + DO (provide) + RES (residence) | ||
| 6 | SNORER | Relatively irritated about new annoying bedfellow? (6) |
| N (new) in SORER (relatively irritated) | ||
| 7 | FOCCACIA | Ordered Coca Cola at first, if having a type of Italian bread (8) |
| Anagram (ordered) of COCA C[ola] IF + A (a) | ||
| 8 | IFFY | Tick Jack off? That’s risky (4) |
| [j]IFFY (tick, Jack off) | ||
| 13 | MATRIARCHY | One sly in attempt to support mother and her rule of family (10) |
| MA (mother) + I (one) + ARCH (sly) together in TRY (attempt) | ||
| 15 | POT-BELLIED | With large corporation it’ll be dope circulating (3-7) |
| Anagram (circulating) of ITLL BE DOPE — with a nice cryptic definition | ||
| 17 | AGITATOR | Overthrown capital holds thanks to subversive (8) |
| TA (thanks) + TO (to) together in RIGA (capital) backwards (overthrown) | ||
| 18 | FANLIGHT | Fellow left in darkness grabs a window (8) |
| F (fellow) + A (a) + L (left) in NIGHT (darkness) | ||
| 20 | TITLED | Lady, say, is so inclined, having uplifted heart (6) |
| TILTED (inclined) with middle two letters interchanged (having uplifted heart) | ||
| 22 | EMPIRE | Politician stops republic getting supreme control (6) |
| MP (politician) in (stops) EIRE (republic) | ||
| 23 | POOH | Bear an expression of disgust (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 24 | DIGS | Lodgings – could be lodgings long abandoned (4) |
| I first saw this clue as a double definition. It works as such but, as Sil points out in comment #1 below, a better interpretation is: Anagram of [lo]DGI[ng]S (that is, “lodgings” with “long” removed). | ||
Yes, another nice one by Alberich, indeed at the easier side of his spectrum.
24d is not a double definition.
‘Lodgings’ is the definition and it’s an anagram [could be] of LODGINGS minus LONG.
Thanks Pete & Alberich.
Thanks Alberich and Pete
This was surprisingly easy from Alberich taking about a third of the time as normal. I think this was probably because the definitions were much easier to see … could quickly deduce the answer and then confirm it with the wordplay – even the Steve Jobs trick in 5d has come up a few times in recent puzzles that I’ve done. Having said that, there were a few clues where it was quite difficult to see the wordplay – EXOTIC (usually see these swap out letters much quicker than I did here), FOCACCIA and AGITATOR (couldn’t dismiss LIMA as the capital for too long). Finished the puzzle with the last two of these.
Agree with Sil that 24d is a subtraction anagram and a very good one at that.
Hi Bruce, I had trouble with EXOTIC too.
Pete
Thanks. In 17 down the capital is Riga of course.
D’oh! Yes, of course. Thanks for the correction.