Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 10, 2018
This was probably my fastest Redshank solve to date. However the relative ease of filling the grid was offset by the difficulty of understanding some of the wordplay. My clue of the week is 16ac (CENTRAL AMERICAN) and I also am taken by 9ac (OPTICAL ILLUSION), 21ac (RARE EARTH) and 6dn (KUNG FU).
| Across | ||
| 9 | OPTICAL ILLUSION | Fancy political hero harbouring American misperception! (7,8) |
| US (American) in (harbouring) anagram (fancy) of POLITICAL + LION (hero) | ||
| 10 | KOALA | Floor in the style of Oz native (5) |
| FLOOR (KO, as in Knock Out) + A LA (in the style of) | ||
| 11 | DOWNGRADE | Lower feathers got darker, so some picked up (9) |
| DOWN (feathers) + GRADE homophone (so some picked up) of “greyed” (got darker). I originally missed the homophone here and must thank Clovis for pointing it out in a comment below. | ||
| 12 | ANDALUSIA | Part of Spain joined with States, inter alia (9) |
| AND (joined) + US (States) in (inter) ALIA. Redshank had another rather splendid clue for ANDALUSIA in a puzzle in the summer of 2016 and a search of the site happened to turn up one from Rufus in a Guardian puzzle that is very similar to this one. I guess ANDALUSIA is a word that easily fits into a grid. | ||
| 14 | ULTRA | Extremist caught in Istanbul trap (5) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 16 | CENTRAL AMERICAN | Person from Panama or Rhode Island? (7,8) |
| RI (Rhode Island) is central in AmeRIcan | ||
| 19 | REBUS | Puzzle on coach for Edinburgh cop (5) |
| RE (on) + BUS (coach) with two definitions | ||
| 21 | RARE EARTH | Element of Blue Planet? (4,5) |
| RARE (blue) + EARTH (planet). When I first solved this clue it seemed very clear that I had the right answer but I could not understand how ‘blue’ could clue RARE — and my Chambers could not help. Then someone brought to my attention (thank you, BC) the fact that an extremely rare steak can be referred to as blue. Considering that ‘rare’ is often used to clue RED, this seemed surprising but it is a fact based on the perception that raw meat can have a bluish hue. | ||
| 23 | PREJUDGED | Dredge up rocks about 1st of July? It’s decided beforehand (9) |
| J[uly] in anagram (rocks about) of DREDGE UP | ||
| 25 | HOVEL | Husband nearly finished large hole (5) |
| H (husband) + OVE[r] (nearly finished) + L (large) | ||
| 26 | WEATHER FORECAST | Stand for European pitch met estimate (7,8) |
| WEATHER (stand) + FOR (for) + E (European) + CAST (pitch) with a nice cryptic definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FOLK DANCER | Laden with frock, twirling Morris fan? (4,6) |
| Anagram (twirling) of LADEN FROCK | ||
| 2 | STRAND | Maroon thread (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 3 | SCRAWLER | Lousy writer yet singular swimmer (8) |
| S (singular) + CRAWLER (swimmer) | ||
| 4 | FLED | Ran off, following light (4) |
| F (following) + LED (light) | ||
| 5 | CLAW HAMMER | Dig into old film company for dress coat (4,6) |
| CLAW (dig into) + HAMMER (old film company). I was highly surprised to learn that, at one time, a dress coat of swallowtail design was referred to as a Claw Hammer Coat! | ||
| 6 | KUNG FU | Britain upset farmers over government defence system (4,2) |
| UK (Britain) backwards (upset) + G (government) in NFU (farmers, i.e. National Farmers’ Union) | ||
| 7 | GIGANTIC | Towering performance by old clown (8) |
| GIG (performance) + ANTIC (old clown) | ||
| 8 | KNEE | Joint’s been known to go belly- up, ignoring margins (4) |
| Reverse hidden word | ||
| 13 | SELF-REGARD | Alfred’s mad hiding, say, rare trait of narcissus (4-6) |
| EG (say) and R (rare) in anagram (mad) of ALFREDS | ||
| 15 | ANNIHILATE | Wipe out Athenian rebels, saving the Italian (10) |
| IL (the Italian) in anagram (rebels) of ATHENIAN | ||
| 17 | NOBLEMAN | Call left good Parisian looking up count maybe (8) |
| NAME (call) + L (left) + BON (good Parisian) all backwards (looking up) | ||
| 18 | RE-ECHOED | Nymph in grass bounced back again (2-6) |
| ECHO (nymph) in REED (grass) | ||
| 20 | SOUGHT | Tried to locate son with nothing except number (6) |
| S (son) + [n]OUGHT (nothing except number) | ||
| 22 | REVEAL | Let slip show, touching flesh (6) |
| RE (touching) + VEAL (flesh). I do not recall seeing ‘touching’ used before to clue RE but a search of this site shows that such use has plenty of history. The connection is referring-to as in “touching on”.
I have labeled “let slip show” as the definition although I am unsure that this is correct. It seems possible that Redshank intended “let slip” and “show” to be two distinct definitions although I find that strange since it seems to me that the inclusion of “show” muddies the surface reading rather than improving it. |
||
| 23 | PAWN | Roughly handle new puppet (4) |
| PAW (roughly handle) + N (new) | ||
| 24 | DOOR | Cross over entrance (4) |
| ROOD (cross) backwards (over) | ||
I am a great fan of this setter but today’s puzzle raised some question marks.
I am with you, Pete, re 22d. Perhaps indeed two definitions. Not great.
I do not see why Redshank used ‘yet’ in 3d. Just a link word? OK, but a rather odd one. And the surface? Well, does it mean anything?
I do not like clues like 24d which could have led to ‘rood’, although that is less likely.
My main question mark goes to 13d. EG (say) and R (rare) are indeed ‘hidden’ but not as an entity. Perhaps the (second) comma justifies what Redshank’s done?
All in all, enjoyable as ever but not as clean as his cluing usually is.
Thanks Redshank and Pete
9ac: This must be
US (American) in (harbouring) anagram (fancy) of POLITICAL + LION (hero)
Oops! That was careless of me. Yes, thanks Pelham, I have made the correction.
Well I liked it.
Thanks Redshank & Pete.
Copmus @ 4.
Yes, I liked it too, mainly because I solved it, unlike Mudd’s offerings.
Sil @1.
As you say, 24 down could be a clue for either ROOD or DOOR, but (apart from DOOR being the more likely) in a crossword puzzle it is reasonable to rely on the crossers to resolve the ambiguity — though in this instance there is only one, the D.
Thanks to Redshank and PM. I struggled with the rare = blue in RARE EARTH, had trouble parsing KUNG FU (I eventually guessed correctly about NFU), and was surprised by CLAW HAMMMER, even after parsing it. Lots of fun.
Thanks Pete as ever. I misspelled Andalusia, with a “c” which did not help. Only just now understood the cleverness of the met estimate in 28
Isn’t 11ac feathers +sounds like greyed: “got darker, so some picked up” ?
Dickens liked claw hammer coats, I think.
Ah, yes, you have to be right. Many thanks for the correction – from a big Saki fan.
Thanks Redshank and Pete
Also found this a quicker solve than normal for this setter but none the worse for it. Enjoyable as ever with my stand out clues being CENTRAL AMERICA and ANDALUSIA. Thought that the MET estimate at 26a was quite neat.
I think it’s pretty common for this fellow to use multiple definitions and so REVEAL went through as one of those quite happily for me.
CLAW HAMMER was my last in – knowing neither the CLAW HAMMER coat nor HAMMER Film Productions – had to go searching for both of them !
Sil, Regarding 3d, the clue makes little sense on the surface to be sure but, I fancy, just enough to be passable. I think it would make almost as much sense with a comma instead of the “yet” and would present much better.
3d Yes, I like the comma better than ‘yet’.
5d Claw Hammer as dress coat? Who knew?
26a is now a favorite clue: ‘met’ was hiding in plain sight but I still didn’t clock it until reading the explanations, above.