Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 24, 2018
I sailed through this enjoyable puzzle stumped only for a while by 1ac. My clue of the week is 28ac (THATCHER) and I also really like 16ac (ALTO) and 17dn (BACTERIA).
| Across | ||
| 1 | GORILLAS | Our close relations suffering or ill, as to finish third (8) |
| Hidden word but I do not understand what purpose “third” plays | ||
| 6, 9, 23 | WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE | We accepted an old idea: advert devised to catch criminals (6,4,2,5) |
| Anagram (devised) of AN OLD IDEA ADVERT in WE (we). This interpretation means that “advert” and “devised” play dual roles which is unconventional. Maybe Goliath intended the clue to be seen as an &Lit. which would make it more okay. | ||
| 10 | HARDWARE | Hospital road taken in conscious gear (8) |
| H (hospital) + RD (road) in (taken in) AWARE (conscious) | ||
| 11 | BEEF | Buzzer loud? Complain! (4) |
| BEE (buzzer) + F (loud) | ||
| 12 | EXONERATED | Previous partner I valued is let off the hook (10) |
| EX (previous partner) + ONE (I) + RATED (valued) | ||
| 14 | APRES-SKI | Papers in evenly backlit Alpine fun? (5-3) |
| PRESS (papers) in (in) [b]A[c]K[l]I[t] | ||
| 16 | ALTO | Voice that can cause a lot of mental torture (4) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 18 | HYPE | Promotion of extremely holy place (4) |
| H[ol]Y P[lac]E | ||
| 19 | GLASS EYE | Switching parts of lens to make tear-resistant device (5,3) |
| EYE GLASS (lens) with the words switched. I don’t know what is especially tear-resistant about a glass eye. | ||
| 21 | FIT TO BURST | Having overeaten, hand round back massage? Too much! (3,2,5) |
| RUB (massage) + OTT (too much, i.e. over the top) together backwards (back) in FIST (hand) | ||
| 22, 27 | HEAD STANDS | Acrobatics in toilets with Eliot’s initials (10) |
| HEADS (toilets) + T AND S (Eliot’s initials) | ||
| 24 | HISTORIC | From Memphis to Richmond? That is momentous! (8) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 26 | RETAIL | Pretax bill no case for selling (6) |
| [p]RETA[x] [b]IL[l] | ||
| 27 | See 22 | |
| 28 | THATCHER | PM once rocked the chart (not this singer) (8) |
| Anagram (rocked) of THE CHART and “not this Cher” (singer) so THAT CHER | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | OBESE | Big gongs ultimately resonate (5) |
| OBES (gongs) + [resonat]E | ||
| 3 | INDIFFERENT | Type of music comes across very loud, divided and uncaring (11) |
| FF (very loud) in INDIE (type of music) + RENT (divided) | ||
| 4 | LARGESSE | GiftS, they say (8) |
| Homophone (they say) of “large S” | ||
| 5 | SCHRODINGERS CAT | 15’s 9 23 pet (12,3) |
| Cryptic definition. Or actually more of a cryptically stated straight definition although I imagine Schrodinger did not consider his cat to be a pet. | ||
| 6 | WARDEN | Guardian study supporting conflict (6) |
| WAR (conflict) + DEN (study) | ||
| 7, 25 | NEWTON | 15 novel written by heavyweight (6) |
| NEW (novel) + TON (heavyweight) | ||
| 8 | EARNESTLY | Seriously, leaving home would be premature (9) |
| EAR[nest]LY (leaving home) would be EARLY (premature) | ||
| 13 | ANAESTHETIC | Can hesitate to produce a number (11) |
| Anagram (to produce) of CAN HESITATE with a common cryptic definition | ||
| 15 | PHYSICIST | Doctor Ian becoming first scientist (9) |
| PHYSICIAN (doctor) with “IAN” changed to IST (first) | ||
| 17 | BACTERIA | Stalin’s secret police chief conceals pretend bugs (8) |
| ACT (pretend) in BERIA (Stalin’s secret-police chief). The clue refers to Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria as one might know from the recent movie “The Death of Stalin”. | ||
| 20 | ABORTS | First aboard bus, on reaching the station, terminates (6) |
| A[board] B[us] O[n] R[eaching] T[he] S[tation] | ||
| 23 | See 6 across | |
| 25 | See 7 | |
On gorillas. It is 8 letters from a 24 letter string, hence the third. Quite a nice one.
Good puzzle. Thanks for blog.
Thanks Goliath and Pete
Not only a third of ‘sufferinG OR ILL AS to finish” – but the middle third !
Excellent puzzle that I did on a flight back from Queensland with no aids, although I did have to check Mr SCHRODINGER’s spelling when I landed. An interesting set of clues that filled in the first half of the flight and had to fill the rest of the trip finishing off the Booker novel, Vernon God Little.
Finished in the NW corner with the clever LARGESSE, the hidden GORILLAS and the dead and alive cat at 5d.
Also had GORILLAS as 8 letters amongst 24. Failed to parse 22,27 as I didn’t know ‘stands’ for ‘toilets’ but should have guessed it. Thanks to S&B.
I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle and thank you both.
I couldn’t see the relevance of “third” in GORILLAS so thanks for the explanation.
19a. I saw the pun on “tear” which I liked. Glass-eyes cannot cry.
I liked the scientific thread through this.
Thanks Pete and Goliath
Thank you Andrew B, brucew and Hovis for filling me in on 1ac. I actually considered the possibility that “third” meant take a third of something but was considering the whole rest of the clue not just the wordplay text.
I got the TS Eliot clue but couldn’t really explain it, being unfamilar with heads = toilets and thrown by the fact that TS Eliot is an anagram of toilets. This didn’t have anything to do with it, I think. Or did it?
I did not consider the fact that TS Eliot is an anagram of toilets at the time of solving. Thinking about it now, I have to conclude that this had nothing to do with it.
I have heard the expression ‘ bring tears to a galls eye’ meaning that the story was extremely sad.
glass sorry
I take “tear-resistant” to mean that the glass eye is not adversely affected by the presence of tears. (A glass eye doesn’t cry, but neither does any other eye; it’s the tear ducts that cry and they’re not part of the eyeball.)
Thanks Pete and Goliath.
Steve, thanks for commenting. You confirm what I had suspected all along but was not confident enough to state.