Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 4, 2018
I enjoyed this Mudd very much. My clue of the week is 14dn (SLIMEBALL) and I also especially like 18ac (PERSIMMON), 19ac (SEIZE) and 17dn (ARISTOTLE).
| Across | ||
| 1 | MASTIFF | Pa supple, however, for a dog? (7) |
| MA STIFF (pa supple, however) | ||
| 5 | COBBLER | Last worker to get a drink (7) |
| Double/cryptic definition. As a drink, a cobbler is a tall, sweetened, iced drink of wine or liquor with fruit. I was familiar only with cobbler as a shoemaker or a dessert. | ||
| 9 | DRAKE | Admiral, male taking instinctively to water? (5) |
| Double definition, the first referring to Sir Francis Drake. | ||
| 10 | REVOLTING | Horrible participating in a putsch? (9) |
| Double definition | ||
| 11 | INELEGANT | Awkward tangle in middle of web after weaving (9) |
| Anagram (after weaving) of TANGLE IN [w]E[b] | ||
| 12 | INGOT | Block when batting, then caught (5) |
| IN (when batting) + GOT (caught) | ||
| 13 | FLOSS | Casualty after fine thread (5) |
| F (fine) + LOSS (casualty) | ||
| 15 | ADVERSARY | Opponent very sad, a competitor finally beaten (9) |
| Anagram (beaten) of VERY SAD A [competito]R | ||
| 18 | PERSIMMON | Someone eating very little fruit (9) |
| IMM (very little, i.e. one millimetre) in (eating) PERSON (someone). | ||
| 19 | SEIZE | Arrest Catholic extremists, did you say? (5) |
| Homophone of “Cs” (Catholic extremists) | ||
| 21 | BADGE | Token nocturnal animal having tail docked (5) |
| BADGE[r] (nocturnal animal having tail docked) | ||
| 23 | FIREWATER | One swallowing a tree drinking western liquor! (9) |
| W (western) in (drinking) FIR-EATER (one swallowing a tree) | ||
| 25 | INELASTIC | Rigid tails, nice when wagging (9) |
| Anagram (when wagging) of TAILS NICE | ||
| 26 | DITCH | D-desire to dump (5) |
| D (D) + ITCH (desire) | ||
| 27 | HUMBLED | Novel held, I’m not sure book held will be put down (7) |
| UM (I’m not sure) + B (book) together in anagram (novel) of HELD | ||
| 28 | ELEMENT | Beginning to eat fast, Mudd getting trapped wind, perhaps (7) |
| E[at] + ME (Mudd) in LENT (fast) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MIDRIFF | Tummy, if here? (7) |
| This is a sort of reverse clue. IF could be clued as “mid-riff”. | ||
| 2 | STAGE DOOR | Players’ entrance, where male journalist and Australian native turned up (5,4) |
| STAG (male) + ED (journalist) + ROO (Australian native) reversed (turned up) | ||
| 3 | IRENE | Fury, one having no head for peace (5) |
| IRE (fury) + [o]NE. Irene (or Eirene) was the Greek goddess of peace. | ||
| 4 | FIRE ALARM | Safety device I placed on concrete in rural property (4,5) |
| I (I) + REAL (concrete) together in FARM (rural property) | ||
| 5 | CIVET | Heading for cheetah, I check out catlike carnivore (5) |
| C[heetah] + I (I) + VET (check out) | ||
| 6 | BILLIARDS | Third of poachers feeling awful standing among pheasants perhaps, pocketing game (9) |
| ILL (feeling awful) + re[po]A[chers] together in BIRDS (pheasants perhaps) | ||
| 7 | LYING | Dishonest swimmer given unknown injection? (5) |
| Y (unknown) in (given injection) LING (swimmer) | ||
| 8 | RIGHTLY | Girl they upset having expended energy, for good reason (7) |
| Anagram (upset) of GIRL TH[e]Y | ||
| 14 | SLIMEBALL | Green Party supporting leader in scandal, one involved in sleaze (9) |
| S[candal] + LIME (green) + BALL (party) | ||
| 16 | VENTRICLE | Bodily chamber opening, contamination’s first found in gall (9) |
| VENT (opening) + C[ontamination] in RILE (gall) | ||
| 17 | ARISTOTLE | Great thinker once designing toilets south of the centre of Kilmarnock (9) |
| [kilm]AR[nock] + anagram (designing) of TOILETS | ||
| 18 | PUBLISH | Local liberal is last to finish, so put out (7) |
| PUB (local) + L [liberal] + IS (is) + [finis]H | ||
| 20 | EARSHOT | One’s heard within this ethos a right to change (7) |
| Anagram (to change) of ETHOS A R (right) | ||
| 22 | DREAM | Vision, draft initially put on paper (5) |
| D[raft] + REAM (paper) | ||
| 23 | FETID | Foul in football? Expect trouble in derby, all kicking off (5) |
| F[ootball] E[expect] T[rouble] I[n] D[erby] | ||
| 24 | WEDGE | Club, where wife evidently nervous? (5) |
| W (wife) + EDGE (evidently nervous, i.e. on edge) | ||
I also enjoyed this xwd and am indebted to Pete to clearing up the parsing of SEIZE and ARISTOTLE which gave me a little pause as you would expect a great thinker to do. I decided to do this online without pen in my head as an exercise, a possibility we discuss when i caught with MUDD in the BHCR studio the result of which can be found here https://www.mixcloud.com/alanjcannon/alan-j-cannon-talking-with-john-halpern-10-jan-17-xwds/
*up
Alan, Thank you for posting that link. I enjoyed listening to your talk and found myself wishing that I could attend John’s masterclass. By the way, BHCR is Brighton and Hove Community Radio.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Was able to finish this off a bit quicker than normal for a Mudd. IRENE was the only one to give me trouble with parsing – spent way too long looking for the name of one of the Furies (Erinyes) that I could take the head off – before finally seeing the obvious IRE [O]NE.
Hadn’t heard of the COBBLER drink either and I think my favourite was SEIZE and his trademark MASTIFF type clue.
Finished in the NE corner with REVOLTING and RIGHTLY.