Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of September 30, 2017
Another slightly challenging puzzle from Mudd. My clue of the week is 5ac (ARMPIT) and I also like 11dn (LOOS) and 18dn (ANGLICAN).
| Across | ||
| 1 | SEASCAPE | Safe’s opening before key secures a painting (8) |
| S[afe] + A (a) in ESCAPE (key) | ||
| 5 | ARMPIT | Part of the body – part I’m to freshen up? (6) |
| Anagram (to freshen up) of PART IM | ||
| 9 | TRUMPERY | Attempt to squeeze behind back of settee, finding trash (8) |
| RUMP (behind) + [sette]E together in TRY (attempt) | ||
| 10 | EVOLVE | Mature, very deep emotion backfiring on wife in the end (6) |
| V (very) + LOVE (deep emotion) together backwards (backfiring) on [wif]E | ||
| 12 | CENTESIMO | Old currency beginning to circulate, then monetise differently (9) |
| C[irculate] + anagram (differently) of MONETISE. A centesimo was a fractional currency unit of several countries including Italy. | ||
| 13 | LOTUS | The blooming thing scores, netting header for United (5) |
| U[nited] in LOTS (scores) | ||
| 14 | BRUT | Having wiped rear, animal is dry (4) |
| BRUT[e] (having wiped rear, animal) | ||
| 16 | SHINGLE | English rocks, small pebbles on a beach (7) |
| Anagram (rocks) of ENGLISH | ||
| 19 | PANACHE | Criticise long dash (7) |
| PAN (criticise) + ACHE (long) | ||
| 21 | MEGA | Time machine initially returning to see Titanic (4) |
| AGE (time) + M[achine] backwards (returning) | ||
| 24 | CALVE | In Antarctica, separate line found in hollow space (5) |
| L (line) in CAVE (hollow space) | ||
| 25 | SANDPIPER | Bird with seed in middle of reserve (9) |
| AND (with) + PIP (seed) together in [re]SER[ve] | ||
| 27 | ROCKET | Spaceship leaves (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | ORGANISE | As region unfamiliar, get map out (8) |
| Anagram (unfamiliar) of AS REGION | ||
| 29 | MANTRA | Truism from femme fatale cut short (6) |
| MAN TRA(p) (femme fatale cut short) | ||
| 30 | CASHMERE | Pool of money, might you say, for fine fabric (8) |
| CASH MERE (pool of money, might you say) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SHTICK | Club welcoming laugh, finally, in comedy routine (6) |
| [laug]H in (welcoming) STICK (club) | ||
| 2 | ALUMNI | Rugby boys once in maul, taking a battering (6) |
| Anagram (taking a battering) of IN MAUL | ||
| 3 | COPSE | Force members to talk in wood (5) |
| Homophone (to talk) of COPS (force members) | ||
| 4 | PERSIST | Carry on forward to embrace relative (7) |
| SIS (relative) in PERT (forward) | ||
| 6 | REVOLTING | Defying authority is abhorrent (9) |
| Double definition | ||
| 7 | PILOTAGE | Fly with such skill I left in the soup (8) |
| I + L (left) together in POTAGE (soup) | ||
| 8 | THE ASHES | Contents of a tiny urn she hates to scatter (3,5) |
| Anagram (to scatter) of SHE HATES | ||
| 11 | LOOS | Not entirely lax, ladies and gentlemen (4) |
| LOOS[e] (not entirely lax) | ||
| 15 | RACKETEER | Gangster as tennis player? (9) |
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | SPECTRUM | Muscle in to play the guitar for a colourful band (8) |
| PEC (muscle) in STRUM (play the guitar) | ||
| 18 | ANGLICAN | English align converts with John (8) |
| Anagram (converts) of ALIGN + CAN (john) | ||
| 20 | EAST | Point made, a story’s covered (4) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 21 | MINERVA | Underground worker needing victory over a wise woman (7) |
| MINER (underground worker) + V (victory) + A (a). Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom. | ||
| 22 | SPLICE | Marry, having a piece of cake with soft filling (6) |
| P (soft) in (filling) SLICE (a piece of cake) | ||
| 23 | FREEZE | Figures in the East End said “hold it!” (6) |
| East End (of London) homophone of “threes” (figures) | ||
| 26 | POACH | Nick Cook (5) |
| Double definition | ||
Enjoyable puzzle from Mudd. Struggled with Mantra for Truism in 29a. Didn’t fink about freeze for threes in 23d, and tried other coins first in 12a like centimeos and centemios before settling for centesimo.
Logoch, Thank you for commenting. I don’t care for the contemporary usage of ‘mantra’ to mean truism but I accept that we have to live with it. And I had to look up centesimo.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Not such an easy Mudd puzzle … and ended up drawing the error with my FRIEZE (not quite sure what I was thinking – got the homophone but headed way off course with the definition!) Found myself having to correct my first entries with a number of other clues as well.
Lots of his characteristic humour in the surface reading of many of his clues – two that you highlighted plus others.
Finished in the SW corner with RACKETEER, ROCKET (not as hard as I made it out to be … but very clever all the same) and BRUT the last few in.
BRUT was my last in.
CALVE was my LOI. I had to look up the iceberg related meaning.
A good puzzle. Thanks to setter and commentator!
Plus a point of order on 12a: in Italy the euro is still made up of 100 centesimi.
Thank you for this, Lippi. In Italy the centesimo was originally the fractional monetary unit of the lira but, as I now see, Italians these days refer to Euro-cents as centesimi.