Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of January 20, 2017
Yet another highly enjoyable and brilliant puzzle from Rosa. My clue of the week is 7dn (SKEIN) and I also applaud 16ac (ABSOLUTION), 25ac (FEROCITY), 14dn (COURSES), 17dn (INANIMATE), 19dn (PADDING) and 24dn (DETER).
| Across | ||
| 1 | HIGHLY | Very articulate precursor of Selassie (6) |
| Homophone (articulate) of “Haile” (precursor of Selassie) | ||
| 4 | SYNOPSIS | Sketch of Charles I’s pony scampering backwards (8) |
| Reverse hidden word | ||
| 9 | APATHY | Quietly entering self-help group with your old lack of emotion (6) |
| P (quietly) in AA (self-help group) + THY (your old) | ||
| 10 | CAMELEER | Driver in desert arrived with lascivious look (8) |
| CAME (arrived) + LEER (lascivious look) | ||
| 12 | SIDEREAL | Not supposed to follow team of stars (8) |
| SIDE (team) + REAL (not supposed) | ||
| 13 | WHINGE | Women’s joint complaint (6) |
| W (women) + HINGE (joint) | ||
| 15 | NOON | Twelve regularly skipping into town (4) |
| [i]N[t]O [t]O[w]N | ||
| 16 | ABSOLUTION | Release lions, about to be mauled (10) |
| Anagram (to be mauled) of LIONS ABOUT | ||
| 19 | PLEASANTRY | Polite remark from student in class (10) |
| L (student) in PEASANTRY (class) | ||
| 20 | PAPA | Father and married son leaving plains (4) |
| PA[m]PA[s] | ||
| 23 | DEDUCE | Infer two diamonds held (6) |
| D (diamonds) in (held) DEUCE (two) | ||
| 25 | FEROCITY | Wildness of female erotic dancing ending in orgy (8) |
| Anagram (dancing) of F (female) EROTIC + [org]Y | ||
| 27 | INTROMIT | Grant entry to hidden parts of wintry home city (8) |
| [w]INTR[y] [h]OM[e] [c]IT[y]. ‘Intromit’ means to allow to enter or, as a noun, a permit to enter. I knew the word vaguely. | ||
| 28 | SALAAM | Greeting sadly returned in the morning (6) |
| ALAS (sadly) backwards (returned) + AM (in the morning) | ||
| 29 | GYRATING | Extremely giddy sailor pirouetting (8) |
| G[idd]Y + RATING (sailor) | ||
| 30 | RESEAL | Drew skinned aquatic mammal in close up again (6) |
| [d]RE[w] + SEAL (aquatic mammal) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HOARSEN | Make husky turn north, east and south after frost (7) |
| HOAR (frost) + NES (north, east south) backwards (turn) | ||
| 2 | GRANDIOSE | Bombastic bully adores gin (9) |
| Anagram (bully) of ADORES GIN | ||
| 3 | LAHORE | Punjabis here learning to restrain sigh? (6) |
| AH (sigh) in (to restrain) LORE (learning) | ||
| 5 | YEAR | Interminably long revolutionary period (4) |
| YEAR[n] (interminably long). This clue seems curious to me because, if I understand it correctly, ‘interminably’ is used to mean exactly the opposite of what it actually, literally means. The word properly means being without any end, not with an end removed. In cryptic contexts, ‘endless’ is often used to mean tailless (which I think is fine) but that does not, to my mind, justify ‘interminable’ being used in the same way. | ||
| 6 | OVERHAUL | Old vicar gets up and spoils service (8) |
| O (old) + REV (vicar) backwards (gets up) + HAUL (spoils) | ||
| 7 | SKEIN | Hank Williams’s last relatives touring Europe (5) |
| [william]S + E (Europe) in KIN (relatives) | ||
| 8 | SURGEON | Doctor and nurse go travelling (7) |
| Anagram (travelling) of NURSE GO | ||
| 11 | LAMBENT | Brilliant reworking of Mantel book (7) |
| Anagram (reworking of) MANTEL B (book) | ||
| 14 | COURSES | Routes and fare stages (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | INANIMATE | Dull single grandma and I have sex (9) |
| I (single) + NAN (grandma) + I (I) + MATE (have sex) | ||
| 18 | PSYCH OUT | Intimidate poltroons, lacking guts and oddly touchy (5,3) |
| P[oltroon]S + anagram (oddly) of TOUCHY | ||
| 19 | PADDING | Prowling Peruvian bear losing weight (7) |
| PADDING[ton] | ||
| 21 | ABYSMAL | Very bad baby’s malodorous clothes (7) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 22 | MORALE | Mormon half-cut on beer and spirits (6) |
| MOR[mon] + ALE (beer) | ||
| 24 | DETER | Stop cleaners ignoring men’s toilets (5) |
| DETER[gents] (cleaners ignoring “gents”) | ||
| 26 | FINN | Motor racing roots of veteran champion Raikkonen? (4) |
| FI (motor racing, i.e. Formula One) + [vetera]N [champio]N | ||
Thanks Rosa & Pete.
I was pleased to see Year = Revolutionary Period at 5 down, having failed to understand the equivalence when Rosa used it in a previous puzzle. I did not share your reservation about “interminably”: interminable does mean endless.
Lovely stuff as usual. In fact flawless (but what would I know?)
1ac immediately brought a smile to my face and from then on this was a pleasure to solve. Rosa has wit and style.
I do wish the FT would publish more of her crosswords in their weekend edition instead of publishing so many Mudds.
Thanks to Rosa Klebb and PM. A delightful puzzle. INTROMIT was new to me and I needed help parsing YEAR but everything else fell into place.
Thanks Rosa Klebb and Pete
This was a typically elegant puzzle by Rosa that was a lot of fun to do. A mix of her wit with a couple of new words (INTROMIT and LAMBENT) and hadn’t realised that was how one pronounced the given name of the former Ethiopian president.
Finished with OVERHAUL (tricky and well concealed definition) and PADDING (after having to refresh the knowledge about ‘the friendly bear from deepest, darkest Peru).