Monday Prize Crossword / Aug 7, 2017
No surprise to have another Falcon this week.
Immaculately clued crossword at the easier end of the FT spectrum.
It looks like Falcon has a new hobby: pangrams.
For the second time in a row we have one here.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | AMANUENSIS | PA a chap uses in resort (10) |
| A + MAN (chap) + (USES IN)* [* = resort] | ||
| 7 | SILK | QC – sort after acquittals, ultimately (4) |
| [acquittal]S + ILK (sort) Two abbreviations in a row used as definition! |
||
| 9 | JACK | Device used for raising a flag (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 10 | PACK A PUNCH | Put a magazine in suitcase – some boxers do (4,1,5) |
| PACK (put in suitcase) A PUNCH (magazine) | ||
| 11 | MURDER | Comprehensively beat famous racehorse backed (6) |
| Reversal [backed] of RED RUM (famous racehorse) We haven’t seen that one for a while – must be quite comprehensively! |
||
| 12 | RECORDER | Judge first half of recipe book (8) |
| REC[ipe] + ORDER (book, as a verb) | ||
| 13 | RED ALERT | Warning of critical situation altered, changed after last of thunder (3,5) |
| [thunde]R + (ALTERED)* [* = changed] | ||
| 15 | LINZ | Elizabeth shortly to entertain any number in a place on the Danube (4) |
| LIZ (Elizabeth, shortened) around N (any number) How many places in Austria do you know? Vienna, Graz, Linz, oh, and Salzburg – that’s how far I get. |
||
| 17 | EPIC | Marathon: old record I start to challenge (4) |
| EP (old record) + I + C[hallenge] Let’s say the definition is somewhat ‘original’. |
||
| 19 | BRAGGART | Boastful chap in card game having good skill (8) |
| BRAG (card game) + G (good) + ART (skill) | ||
| 22 | PANORAMA | Country holding alternative view (8) |
| PANAMA (country) around OR (alternative) | ||
| 23 | REFUSE | Say no to litter (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 25 | GREAT LAKES | Unusually large skate in five interconnected expanses of water (5,5) |
| (LARGE SKATE)* [* = unusually] Lakes Superior, Michigan, Erie, Huron and Ontario. Apart from Lake Michigan all on the US-Canadian border. |
||
| 26 | VOTE | Election over in Zimbabwe to validate (4) |
| Hidden answer [in]: Zimbabwe to validate, then reversed [over] | ||
| 27 | MERE | Only a small expanse of standing water (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | WITNESS BOX | Best six now playing? Provide evidence here (7,3) |
| (BEST SIX NOW)* [* = playing] | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | MEASURE | Size of Maine by area, proven (7) |
| ME (Maine) + A (area) + SURE (proven) | ||
| 3 | NAKED | Exposed, a king in retreat, heading north (5) |
| A K (king) inside a reversal [heading north] of DEN (retreat) | ||
| 4 | EXPORTER | Former commissionaire, one sending goods abroad (8) |
| EX (former) + PORTER (commissionaire) | ||
| 5 | SECURITY BLANKET | Protection, comprehensive – a source of comfort (8,7) |
| SECURITY (protection) + BLANKET (comprehensive) | ||
| 6 | STANCE | Name missing in policy (6) |
| INSTANCE (name, as a verb) minus IN | ||
| 7 | SQUARE LEG | Level with member, one on the field (6,3) |
| SQUARE (level) + LEG (member) Cricket, of course. |
||
| 8 | LECTERN | New centre after large reading desk (7) |
| L (large) + (CENTRE)* [* = new] | ||
| 14 | ANCHORAGE | A new job guarding silver in harbour (9) |
| A + N (new) + CHORE (job) around AG (silver) A general word for something like a ‘harbour’, others may think of Anchorage, the Alaskan seaport. |
||
| 16 | LACROSSE | A mixture in the French game (8) |
| A CROSS (mixture) inside LE (the, in French) | ||
| 18 | PRAIRIE | Couple bagging last of flour that is plain (7) |
| PAIR (couple) around [flou]R, then + IE (that is) | ||
| 20 | RISOTTO | Rice dish very dry in Brazilian port (7) |
| SO (very) + TT (dry, teetotal), together inside RIO (Brazilian port) | ||
| 21 | SALLOW | Pale pig devouring everything (6) |
| SOW (pig) around ALL (everything) | ||
| 24 | FIVES | Ball game is fun, initially, for learner (5) |
| LIVES (is) with L (learner) replaced by F[un] A construction that is relatively ‘difficult’ for a Falcon clue. Nice though! |
||
*anagram
I vaguely remember pathetically not being able to spot the hidden VOTE, prematurely thinking a Z would be involved, and so being stuck on FIVES for ages too. I agree that the latter was a fantastically nifty clue though.
Cheers Falcon & Sil.
Thanks Falcon and Sil
Really enjoyed this one and for once did spot the pangram en route – surprising as it was to see it for the second time in a row from him.
Finished in the NW corner after making life a little tougher than it should have been by confidently writing in BARED ( A R (king) in BED (retreat) – without really accounting for the ‘heading north’ bit). Eventually got that sorted after tracking down that tricky to remember AMANUENSIS dictation taking type at 1a and then JACK.
Took an age to see the trick with FIVES – often find those little joining words as their alternative definitions quite hard to spot.
Really enjoyed this one – thank you, Falcon.
Took a little while to arrive at the parsing for 6&24d but reasonably plain sailing elsewhere.
To two for me were 10a & 5d – I’m always a fan of the humorous ones!
Thanks also to Sil for the review.