Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of May 5, 2018
This puzzle took me a while. I am getting used to Redshank’s style but somehow was not well in tune with it during this solve. My favourites are the down clues 4, 8, 11 and 14.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TYPEWRITER | Carriage returns here for kind author (10) |
| TYPE (kind) + WRITER (author) | ||
| 6 | GRUB | Start to guzzle Polish food (4) |
| G[uzzle] + RUB (polish) | ||
| 9 | LEAFLET | Tract of grassland left ploughed (7) |
| LEA (grassland) + anagram (ploughed) of LEFT | ||
| 10 | IN-DEPTH | Thorough training of pathfinder gets this far (2-5) |
| Anagram (training of) P[a]TH[f]INDE[r] (i.e. PATHFINDER with the letters of FAR removed). While I am accustomed to Redshank’s use of wordplay of this style, the indicators he uses in this particular clue strike me as very awkward. | ||
| 12 | ANTARCTICA | Soldier with truck advanced across cold continent (10) |
| ANT (soldier) + C (cold) in (across) ARTIC (truck) + A (advanced) | ||
| 13 | INN | Popular northern flower (3) |
| IN (popular) + N (northern). The Inn is a river in Austria. Probably better known is the town of Innsbruck which takes its name from the river. | ||
| 15 | UNRIPE | Developed in Peru but not yet edible (6) |
| Anagram (developed) of IN PERU | ||
| 16 | REPROACH | Carpet expert cuts hand (8) |
| PRO (expert) in (cuts) REACH (hand) | ||
| 18 | OF A PIECE | Homogeneous round baked food in pan (2,1,5) |
| O (round) + PIE (baked food) in FACE (pan) | ||
| 20 | SCREEN | Show or hide rocks at bottom of mountain? (6) |
| SCREE (rocks) + [mountai]N. ‘Screen’ is one of those curious words that can mean nominally opposite things. | ||
| 23 | OOH | Husband loves taking lead? How exciting! (3) |
| OO (loves) + H (husband) | ||
| 24 | TRAGICOMIC | Like Shakespearean fool’s appalling old microphone (10) |
| TRAGIC (appalling) + O (old) + MIC (microphone) | ||
| 26 | DWINDLE | Arid wind leads palms to shrink (7) |
| Hidden word with an unusual indicator (palms) | ||
| 27 | NOISILY | Top seed stupid to ignore length with racket (7) |
| NO I (top seed, i.e. number one) + SIL[l]Y | ||
| 28 | RUMP | What’s left after Potus loses his head? (4) |
| [t]RUMP | ||
| 29 | APOLOGETIC | A car with good quote has to be withdrawn, sorry (10) |
| A (a) + POLO (car, i.e. a Volkswagen Polo) + G (good) + CITE (quote) backwards (has to be withdrawn) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TILT | Large bird boxes lean over (4) |
| L (large) in (boxes) TIT (bird) | ||
| 2 | PLANNER | Woodworker collects new diary (7) |
| N (new) in PLANER (woodworker) | ||
| 3 | WELL-APPOINTED | We recruited nursing apprentices with good equipment (4-9) |
| WE (we) + LL (apprentices) + APPOINTED (recruited) | ||
| 4 | INTACT | It can’t hurt – it’s not broken (6) |
| Anagram (hurt) of IT CANT | ||
| 5 | ELICITED | Spain allowed journalist to be brought out (8) |
| E (Spain) + LICIT (allowed) + ED (journalist) | ||
| 7 | REPLICA | Dummy keepsake a priest nicked (7) |
| P (priest) in (nicked) RELIC (keepsake) + A (a) | ||
| 8 | BEHINDHAND | Bum worker in debt (10) |
| BEHIND (bum) + HAND (worker) | ||
| 11 | DEAD RECKONING | How to establish one’s position on deck reading novel (4,9) |
| Anagram (novel) of ON DECK READING | ||
| 14 | OUT OF ORDER | Untidy, like monks with unacceptable habits? (3,2,5) |
| Double definition, the second implying that monks who have unacceptable clothes could be thrown out of their order. | ||
| 17 | SCRAPE UP | Manage to gather jam at college (6,2) |
| SCRAPE (jam) + UP (at college) | ||
| 19 | ATHEISM | Bloke lives in hole in the wall, showing disbelief (7) |
| HE (bloke) + IS (lives) together in (in) ATM (hole in the wall) | ||
| 21 | ELITIST | In Israel it is typically highbrow (7) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 22 | SIGNAL | Prompt old archbishop is on his way up (6) |
| LANG (old archbishop) + IS (is) all backwards (on this way up). Cosmo Gordon Lang was Archbishop of York (1908–1928) and Archbishop of Canterbury (1928–1942). I had to look him up. | ||
| 25 | SYNC | Go down to the audience together in this (4) |
| Homophone (to the audience) of “sink” (go down) | ||
Thanks Redshank and Pete
Likewise this took a couple of steady sittings to get out. Good quality crossword as usual from this setter and his trademark subtraction anagram, as you say, quite convolutedly presented here.
Hadn’t heard of the Inn river before this and funny how serendipity works – I came across a very old Times puzzle that I did a couple of days later and there it appeared again and was my first entry into that one !
Was pleased to recall the Volkswagen POLO model, the British ARCTIC term and Archbishop LANG without having to resort to electronic help – well apart from confirming that he was Cosmo Gordon.
Didn’t know of the monks being thrown out of their order for bad dress … I had thought of it more as a person breaking wind, picking their nose, etc. in company that was an unacceptable habit that would be OUT OF ORDER.
Finished in the SE corner with SCRAPE UP, TRAGICOMIC and SIGNAL as the last few in.
Thanks for the blog, Pete.
I enjoyed this. A good weekend solve.
Thanks Pete and Redshank.
Strangely enough I did not find this too hard. I took INN as a play on beer flowing and like Bruce “habits” for “behaviour”.
As I say at a certain age you learn one new thing every day and forget two.