Monday Prize Crossword / Jun 12, 2017
Good start of the FT week with a friendly Falcon puzzle.
Falcon never keeps himself far from cultural references and there were many today.
Mostly, from a time that I wasn’t even born.
I had to look up the horse in 3d and to check how to spell the play in 13d.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 9 | EVERY NOW AND THEN | English extremely negative – stick therefore follows, from time to time (5,3,3,4) |
| E (English) + VERY (extremely) + NO (negative) + WAND (stick) + THEN (therefore) | ||
| 10 | DRAKE | Navigator, duke, and playboy (5) |
| D (duke) + RAKE (playboy) Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596), the first Englishman to sail around the world. |
||
| 11 | REBELLION | Beer off? Flipping poorly on rising (9) |
| (BEER)* + reversal [flipping] of ILL (poor) + ON [* = off] | ||
| 12 | SERVITUDE | Slavery in novel riveted us (9) |
| (RIVETED US)* [* = novel] | ||
| 14 | DETER | To put off, in crude terms (5) |
| Hidden solution [in]: crude terms | ||
| 16 | RACING CERTAINTY | Sure-fire winner? Cite Cary Grant in broadcast (6,9) |
| (CITE CARY GRANT IN)* [* = broadcast] | ||
| 19 | YEATS | Poet sure to receive a first from Trinity (5) |
| A + T[rinity], together inside YES (sure) William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet and dramatist. |
||
| 21 | EPHEMERAL | Power held by male here, surprisingly short-lived (9) |
| P (power) inside (MALE HERE)* [* = surprisingly] | ||
| 23 | STIR-CRAZY | Disturb bats, distraught because of prolonged confinement (4-5) |
| STIR (disturb) + CRAZY (bats) | ||
| 25 | HOTEL | Inn very popular with the Spanish (5) |
| HOT (very popular) + EL (the, in Spanish) | ||
| 26 | THE LADY VANISHES | Film magazine awfully vain female’s after (3,4,8) |
| THE LADY (magazine) + (VAIN)* + SHE’S (female’s) [* = awful] The Lady is Britain’s longest-running woman’s weekly, with its first issue published on 19 February 1885. The Lady Vanishes is a Hitchcock thriller from 1939. |
||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LEAD ASTRAY | Corrupt deal, by implication? (4,6) |
| Reverse anagram: (LEAD)* [* = astray] might become DEAL | ||
| 2 | REPAIR | Put right about couple (6) |
| RE (about) + PAIR (couple) | ||
| 3 | HYPERION | Very excited over one riding Derby winner (8) |
| HYPER (very excited) + I (one) + ON (riding) In 1933 it won the Epsom Derby, more here . |
||
| 4 | MOOR | Take up space in dock (4) |
| Reversal [(take) up] of ROOM (space) | ||
| 5 | MARBLE ARCH | London landmark, indistinct during parade (6,4) |
| BLEAR (indistinct) inside MARCH (parade) | ||
| 6 | ADDLED | Confused, a theologian left editor (6) |
| A + DD (theologian, Divinitatis Doctor (Latin for Doctor of Divinity)) + L (left) + ED (editor) A word that also cropped up in last week’s prize crossword. |
||
| 7 | CHRISTEN | Name murdered snitcher (8) |
| (SNITCHER)* [* = murdered] | ||
| 8 | ANON | Soon rule Conservative out (4) |
| CANON (rule) minus C (Conservative) | ||
| 13 | UNCLE VANYA | Incredible lunacy involving Welshman in play? (5,5) |
| (LUNACY)* around EVAN (Welshman) [* = incredible] Uncle Vanya is a play by Anton Chekhov, premiered in Moscow in 1899. |
||
| 15 | ROYAL FLUSH | Magnificent having lots of money in hand (5,5) |
| ROYAL (magnificent) + FLUSH (lots of money) | ||
| 17 | CLARINET | What Acker Bilk played may be popular in Bordeaux (8) |
| IN (popular) inside CLARET (Bordeaux, wine) | ||
| 18 | ARMCHAIR | A jolly cleaner skirting one item of furniture (8) |
| A + RM (jolly, Royal Marines) + CHAR (cleaner) around I (one) | ||
| 20 | SOCIAL | Colas I ordered for party (6) |
| (COLAS I)* [* = ordered] | ||
| 22 | ROTCHE | The little auk Hector trained (6) |
| (HECTOR)* [* = trained] | ||
| 23 | SITE | Location shown in news item (4) |
| Hidden solution [shown in]: news item | ||
| 24 | YEAR | Period of time – long? short? (4) |
| YEAR[n] (long, shortened) | ||
*anagram
Thanks Falcon & Sil.
A couple of horse racing references this time, perhaps left over from Falcon’s prize crossword of the previous fortnight.
Thanks Falcon and Sil
Quite a straightforward puzzle as usual from this setter – and did notice the horse racing reference as well. No real holdups apart from having to look up ROTCHE to confirm that it was the little seabird.
Finished with the poet YEATS.