Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of July 7, 2018
I have often had occasion to call Mudd the master of the double definition and he proves himself again with six fine clues of this type here. I sailed through the puzzle and found it very satisfying. Clue of the week is 6dn (NOEL COWARD) and I also applaud 26dn (ERGO).
| Across | ||
| 1 | CANARD | Joker perhaps filing an untrue report (6) |
| AN (an) in (filing) CARD (joker perhaps) | ||
| 4 | ON AND OFF | Son of Judah has to raise hat sometimes (2,3,3) |
| ONAN (son of Judah, as in the bible) + DOFF (to raise hat) | ||
| 10 | TEMPTRESS | Attractive woman, interim staff member with long hair (9) |
| TEMP (interim staff member) + TRESS (long hair) | ||
| 11 | ERATO | Time and time again, love providing poetical inspiration (5) |
| ERA (time) + T (time again) + O (love). Erato being the muse of lyric and love poetry. | ||
| 12 | LIED | German notes proved untrustworthy (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | CARJACKING | Caught, a boy in gang – for violent crime (10) |
| C (caught) + A (a) + JACK (boy) in RING (gang) | ||
| 15 | SATIATE | A tearjerking intro penned by French composer, fill up (7) |
| A (a) + T[earjerking] together in SATIE (French composer) | ||
| 16 | BOW-WOW | Dog – Cockney sensation? (3-3) |
| BOW (cockney) + WOW (sensation) | ||
| 19 | GOSSIP | Dirt thus brought back to feed wild pigs (6) |
| SO (thus) backwards (brought back) in (to feed) anagram (wild) of PIGS | ||
| 21 | STRETCH | Time to raise your arms up? (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 23 | DISHWASHER | Beautiful person a shrew mistreated, one found in the kitchen? (10) |
| DISH (beautiful person) + anagram (mistreated) of A SHREW | ||
| 25 | MELA | Fair bit of game languishing (4) |
| Hidden word. With mela referring, presumably, to Indian fairs such as the Khumba Mela. | ||
| 27 | SINCE | Church going after evil from that moment (5) |
| SIN (evil) + CE (church) | ||
| 28 | INEBRIATE | Outsiders in Europe, Britain vaguely drunk (9) |
| Anagram (vaguely) of E[urop]E BRITAIN | ||
| 29 | NESTLING | Silent cuckoo covered by wings of neighbouring chick (8) |
| Anagram (cuckoo) of SILENT in (covered by) N[eighbourin]G | ||
| 30 | HOWLER | Loud wind, perhaps? Big mistake (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CUT GLASS | Good to load weapon, that’s clear (3,5) |
| G (good) in (to load) CUTLASS (weapon) | ||
| 2 | NUMBER TWO | Vice a shade into seedy town (6,3) |
| UMBER (shade) in (into) anagram (seedy) of TOWN | ||
| 3 | RUTH | Top fact for book (4) |
| [t]RUTH (top fact). Ruth being a book of the bible. | ||
| 5 | NOSE JOB | Surgery faced by Jones, unfortunately, old boy (4,3) |
| Anagram (unfortunately) of JONES + OB (old boy) | ||
| 6 | NOEL COWARD | Chicken when turkey expected? Great wit! (4,6) |
| NOEL (when turkey expected) + CHICKEN (coward) | ||
| 7 | OKAPI | Well, a good African animal (5) |
| OK (well) + A (a) + PI (good, as in pious) | ||
| 8 | FROGGY | Unclear about recovery primarily, likely to croak? (6) |
| R[ecovery] in (about) FOGGY (unclear) | ||
| 9 | BEWARE | Bear, we suspect, in cave (6) |
| Anagram (suspect) of BEAR WE. With the definition being ‘cave’ in the Latin sense of the word. | ||
| 14 | DAISY WHEEL | Printer part jammed at the bottom, while easy to fix? (5,5) |
| [jamme]D + anagram (to fix) of WHILE EASY. Ah, I had a daisy-wheel printer some 30 years ago. | ||
| 17 | ON THE BALL | Alert and effective playing soccer, say? (2,3,4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 18 | WHEATEAR | Preliminary race in sport for bird (8) |
| HEAT (preliminary race) in WEAR (sport). I do not recall hearing of this small songbird before. | ||
| 20 | PASSION | Die to embrace one love (7) |
| I (one) in (to embrace) PASS ON (die) | ||
| 21 | SEE RED | Become angry – then prepare to stop? (3,3) |
| Double definition | ||
| 22 | EDISON | In bed, is one a creative thinker? (6) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 24 | SONGS | Numbers – or Psalms? (5) |
| Double definition. This is a rather unconventional double definition in that the two definitions define a single meaning of the answer. However I think it can be justified by the fact that clue appears on the surface as a by-examples definition of something completely different (i.e. books of the Bible). | ||
| 26 | ERGO | So the Queen must abdicate? (4) |
| ER (the Queen) + GO (abdicate) | ||
Thanks Mudd and Pete
I also breezed through about 80% of the puzzle before getting back to the top right corner where CUT GLASS, CANARD and LIED proved quite troublesome.
Wondered why the toilet matter of 2d was going to be a vice … until the penny dropped with the vice captain !! Also smiled at the memory of the old DAISY-WHEEL printers that I had to support in about the same time frame.
I had MEGA for 25a with it being an anagram (languishing) of ‘game’.
A really entertaining puzzle which is a credit to this prolific and fun-making setter.
Did this in under a week (unheard of for me). Unfortunately I also got “mega” and not “mela”
Hi Malcolm@2 … don’t think that you are wrong – either answer will work but MEGA as a ‘fair bit’ with a ‘languishing’ anagram of ‘game’ worked for me.
,,, but MELA is the published answer … so good call, Pete !
I chose to wait for the published solution before commenting, just in case, but I felt very confident that MELA had to be the right answer. When solving the puzzle, I never considered any other possibility although I do grant you that MEGA is supportable although, I think, only marginally so.