Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 4, 2017
I breezed through most of this puzzle then had a little trouble completing the bottom-left. My clue of the week is 19a (BANGLADESH) in which Mudd manages to include a masterful number of cricket references. I also especially like 12a (QUAGMIRE) and 13a (IMPALA).
| Across | ||
| 1 | BENGAL | Boy and girl in South Asian region (6) |
| BEN (boy) + GAL (girl) | ||
| 4 | BALLROOM | One sweeping around everyone in dance hall (8) |
| ALL (everyone) in BROOM (one sweeping) | ||
| 9 | RARELY | A bank adhering to minimum of regulations, not so often (6) |
| R[egulations] + A (a) + RELY (bank) | ||
| 10 | LEAFLESS | Character lying back in meadows, bare in winter? (8) |
| SELF (character) backwards in LEAS (meadows) | ||
| 12 | QUAGMIRE | Entanglement, meeting between the sheets (8) |
| AGM (meeting) in (between) QUIRE (the sheets) | ||
| 13 | IMPALA | Monkey according to an antelope (6) |
| IMP (monkey) + A LA (according to) | ||
| 15 | EXIT | Way out is no longer the thing (4) |
| EX IT (no longer the thing) | ||
| 16 | UNDERSIZED | Minute to clear zone in sudden riot, not half disorganised (10) |
| Z[on]E in anagram (disorganised) of SUDDEN RI[ot] | ||
| 19 | BANGLADESH | Boycott clearing sightscreen helps openers for cricketing nation (10) |
| BAN (boycott) + GLADE (clearing) + S[ightscreen] H[elpers] | ||
| 20 | GNUS | Animals warbled, travelling west (4) |
| SUNG (warbled) backwards (travelling west) | ||
| 23 | DRONGO | Doctor on leave, Aussie twit (6) |
| DR (doctor) + ON (on) + GO (leave) | ||
| 25 | PANORAMA | View otherwise obscured by hat (8) |
| OR (otherwise) in (obscured by) PANAMA (hat) | ||
| 27 | GIANTESS | Amazon in South America initially gets redirected (8) |
| Anagram (gets redirected) of IN SA GETS | ||
| 28 | STUDIO | Moon behind the boss in the workplace (6) |
| STUD (the boss) + IO (moon) | ||
| 29 | SHIPYARD | Odd bits broken off simply held in fragment, where vessels built (8) |
| [s]I[m]P[l]Y in SHARD (fragment) | ||
| 30 | REALLY | Very unstable ultimately during partial recovery (6) |
| [unstabl]E in (during) RALLY (partial recovery) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BAROQUE | Boat carrying nothing extravagant (7) |
| O (nothing) in BARQUE (boat) | ||
| 2 | NARRATION | Storytelling has arrived in the country (9) |
| ARR (arrived) in NATION (the country) | ||
| 3 | AFLAME | Excited, getting a line in musical (6) |
| A (a) + L (line) in FAME (musical) | ||
| 5 | APEX | Top copy on end of fax (4) |
| APE (copy) + [fa]X | ||
| 6 | LEFTMOST | Newspaper entering shabby motels, sinister in the extreme (8) |
| FT (newspaper) in anagram (shabby) of MOTELS | ||
| 7 | OPERA | Dramatic performance by leader of extremists during chat show, cut (5) |
| E[xtremists] in OPRA[h] (chat show, cut) | ||
| 8 | MUSTARD | Brownish-yellow feature in something brown (7) |
| STAR (feature) in MUD (something brown) | ||
| 11 | GRENADE | Work unit holding European up as potential killer (7) |
| DANE (European) in ERG (work unit) all backwards | ||
| 14 | PERSIAN | Cat in China is reportedly doing a backflip (7) |
| Reverse hidden word | ||
| 17 | ZINFANDEL | Wine that’s unknown in cooler having shown up (9) |
| Z (unknown) + IN (in) + FAN (cooler) + LED (shown) backwards (up) | ||
| 18 | SLIGHTLY | Somewhat devious, easy parts (8) |
| LIGHT (easy) in (parts) SLY (devious) | ||
| 19 | BODEGAS | Forecast wind in wine shops (7) |
| BODE (forecast) + GAS (wind) | ||
| 21 | SHADOWY | Vague, pompous commercial breaks (7) |
| AD (commercial) in (breaks) SHOWY (pompous) | ||
| 22 | BOTTLE | Preserve confidence (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 24 | OMANI | Asian lady wiping brow with bottom of sari (5) |
| [w]OMAN + [sar]I | ||
| 26 | TSAR | Emperor in pants, a rapscallion (4) |
| Hidden word | ||
Thank Mudd and Pete
This was Mudd at his most gentle and it presented no problems at all this time. There was a micro thing happening with the subcontinent with BENGAL and BANGLADESH (which I also thought was quite cleverly clued with the cricket overtone) both present.
QUAGMIRE started to go down the known JH track with the surface reading and was another clever clue.
Finished in the bottom right corner with PERSIAN, PANORAMA and BOTTLE the last few in.