Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 24, 2018
It is good to find Ms Klebb appearing fairly regularly (about once a month) in this space. My clue of the week is the deft 21ac (PREHENSILE). I am also impressed by 1dn (CHIRP), 2dn (AMNESTY), 7dn (SLUSH FUND) and 25ac (GNEISS). Thank you, Rosa.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CHARGE | Cost of cleaner energy after introduction of grant (6) |
| CHAR (cleaner) + G[rant] + E (energy) | ||
| 4 | BATHOS | Hit hard by huge anticlimax (6) |
| BAT (hit) + H (hard) + OS (huge, i.e. out sized) | ||
| 8 | DIMNESS | Stupidity of son wearing shredded denims (7) |
| S (son) in anagram (shredded) of DENIMS | ||
| 9 | CALLOUS | Hard-hearted soprano on the radio (7) |
| Homophone (on the radio) of CALLAS (soprano, referring to Maria Callas) | ||
| 11 | APOSTROPHE | Punctuation mark, perhaps too complicated? (10) |
| Anagram (complicated) of PERHAPS TOO | ||
| 12 | SOHO | Area of London is posh now, having evicted odd characters (4) |
| [i]S [p]O[h]H [n]O[w] | ||
| 13 | TRYST | Date stone on half-empty tray (5) |
| TR[a]Y + ST (stone) | ||
| 14 | TABLEAUX | US DJ transfixed by clever answer in dramatic scenes (8) |
| ABLE (clever) + A (answer) together in TUX (US DJ. i.e. Dinner Jacket). I originally had the answer as TABLEAUS and even managed to justify this by finding a reference to a Disc Jockey called TUS. It did seem very obscure though! I am obliged to Oldham for pointing out the correct solution (see comment #1). | ||
| 16 | DISTASTE | Revolutionary cadet sat sideways, hiding repugnance (8) |
| Reverse hidden word | ||
| 18 | OGLED | Eyed contents of toga and ran (5) |
| [t]OG[a] + LED (ran) | ||
| 20 | SKIN | Small relatives hide (4) |
| S (small) + KIN (relatives) | ||
| 21 | PREHENSILE | Capable of getting hold of mobile in her sleep (10) |
| Anagram (mobile) of IN HER SLEEP | ||
| 23 | PILULES | Tablets finally heal you, stopping embarrassing ailment (7) |
| [hea]L [yo]U in (stopping) PILES (embarrassing ailment) | ||
| 24 | MAJORLY | Seriously congested traffic around Paris airport (7) |
| JAM (congested traffic) backwards (around) + ORLY (Paris airport) | ||
| 25 | GNEISS | Rock singers wanting Queen to reform (6) |
| Anagram (to reform) of SINGE[r]S | ||
| 26 | PEPTIC | Digestive spasm after fizz (6) |
| PEP (fizz) + TIC (spasm) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CHIRP | Tweet about why I erupt on a regular basis (5) |
| C (about) + [w]H[y] I [e]R[u]P[t] | ||
| 2 | AMNESTY | Pardon means rebels got lucky in the end (7) |
| Anagram (rebels) of MEANS + [go]T [luck]Y | ||
| 3 | GASTRITIS | Talk tough at first, ignoring case of British disease (9) |
| GAS (talk) + T[ough] + [b]RITIS[h] | ||
| 5 | APACE | Laplace subtracting 50s at great speed (5) |
| [l]AP[l]ACE | ||
| 6 | HOLY SEE | Reportedly liable to leak and spy for state (4,3) |
| HOLY (homophone of “holey”) + SEE (spy). The Holy See is another term for the Vatican City. | ||
| 7 | SLUSH FUND | Money for bribes and lavish entertainment held by heartless sod (5,4) |
| LUSH (lavish) + FUN (entertainment) together in S[o]D | ||
| 10 | SPUTTERED | Articulate dons rushed and spoke incoherently (9) |
| UTTER (articulate) in (dons) SPED (rushed) | ||
| 13 | TWINKLING | Mo initially treated with suspicion (9) |
| T[reated] + W (with) + INKLING (suspicion) | ||
| 15 | BROKERAGE | Penniless kid supported by European Commission (9) |
| BROKE (penniless) + RAG (kid) + E (European) | ||
| 17 | TONSURE | Train nurse to shave hair (7) |
| Anagram (train) of NURSE TO | ||
| 19 | LASH OUT | The French scream and throw a wobbly (4,3) |
| LA (the French) + SHOUT (scream) | ||
| 21 | PRESS | Part of apres-ski crowd (5) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 22 | LILAC | Olive’s relative left extremely impartial account (5) |
| L (left) + I[mpartia]L + AC (account). The olive tree and lilac are members of the same botanical family. | ||
14a should be tableaux being tux (abbreviation for tuxedo or dj (dinner jacket) in US)
Thank you, Oldham. That works much better! I am plenty familiar with “tux” but don’t recall ever hearing DJ used as an abbreviation for dinner jacket.
It’s probably too late to comment on this now, but I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed it. This was my first time with Rosa Klebb. I’m more familiar with her alter ego Arachne in the Guardian. This did not disappoint. The surfaces are splendid.
Thank you Rosa, and Pete for the blog.
Crossbar, Thank you for commenting. It may be that few people will see this last pair of comments but I think it’s never too late to post one. I know that some people keep a backlog of puzzles to solve and do not get around to doing them for up to a year. And, yes, Rosa is a treasure, her surfaces most impressive.
Thanks Rosa Klebb and Pete
Enjoyable puzzle as is to be expected from this setter – and yes, she is known for her silky smooth surfaces (thought that SOHO was sublime – similarly CHIRP with its reference to the ‘twittering US pres.’) and her crisp and unambiguous wordplay !
Hadn’t seen PILULES (my last in) before and it was only in my last parsing run through that I changed PATHOS to BATHOS.
Took a bit longer than normal which only stretched the enjoyment out !
Thanks to Rosa Klebb and Pete M. I’m another who only recently got to this puzzle (and am a big fan of Arachne in The Guardian). I messed up the SE corner because I convinced myself that 17d was tendril not TONSURE (I was shaving off final letters from Ten(d) and Dril(l) so that I did not have even a shot at PILULES (unknown to me) and missed GNEISS that I had in mind but did not parse and had ruled out. Still, a delightful puzzle that I’m glad I did not miss.
Never heard of a dinner jacket referred to as a “DJ” – yes I’m American – some sources may proffer that but I guarantee it’s not common.
Good to know. Thanks, Peter.
Ah, the Cambridge Dictionary has this: UK abbreviation DJ, us tuxedo.
No wonder I never heard of it.