Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of September 15, 2018
I finished this puzzle quickly and easily, partly because several of the clues seemed familiar, especially 23ac (MOSQUITOES). I failed however to recognize what has now been pointed out to me, namely that this puzzle has been published before! It appeared in the Weekend FT of July 29, 2017 under the name Rosa Klebb and I blogged it at the time (see https://www.fifteensquared.net/2017/08/10/financial-times-15614-by-rosa-klebb/).
The people at the FT who might be able to shed some light on this matter are apparently keeping mum, perhaps out of embarrassment.
| Across | ||
| 1 | WALLOW | Permit wife to go ahead and roll about in mud (6) |
| W (wife) + ALLOW (permit) | ||
| 4 | TWIDDLED | Toyed with weed after beginning of term (8) |
| T[erm] + WIDDLED (weed, in the sense of the past tense of to wee) | ||
| 10 | SUBLIMATE | Divert south Asian people carrier round back of garage (9) |
| TAMIL BUS (south Asian people carrier) backwards (round) + [garag]E | ||
| 11 | LATER | Hands round stewed tea in due course (5) |
| Anagram (stewed) of TEA in LR (hands, i.e. left and right) | ||
| 12 | RARE | Bloody unusual (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | CONTAGIOUS | Catching cook cooing at American (10) |
| Anagram (cook) of COOING AT + US (American) | ||
| 15 | ORIFICE | Opening of soporific elegy (7) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 16 | NOTING | Observing sweet Fanny Adams losing heart (6) |
| NOT[h]ING (sweet Fanny Adama losing heart) | ||
| 19 | HEIGHT | Measurement of side of bath cube (6) |
| [bat]H + EIGHT (cube, i.e. 2 cubed) | ||
| 21 | ADORNED | Beautified much-loved houses close to London (7) |
| [londo]N in (houses) ADORED (much loved) | ||
| 23 | MOSQUITOES | Doctors resigned over drugs for disease carriers (10) |
| MOS (doctors) + QUIT (resigned) + O (over) + ES (drugs) | ||
| 25 | OVAL | Periodically non-viable, like some cricket grounds (4) |
| [n]O[n] V[i]A[b]L[e] | ||
| 27 | UNFIT | 1 across female is out of shape (5) |
| F (female) in (across) UNIT (1) | ||
| 28 | UTTERANCE | Cruelly neuter cat, it’s said (9) |
| Anagram (cruelly) of NEUTER CAT | ||
| 29 | NEAR EAST | Ned dared dad to drop daughters by road in part of Asia (4,4) |
| NE[d] [d]ARE[d d]A[d] + ST (road) | ||
| 30 | BOLSHY | Combative throwback, uneasy in company (6) |
| LOB (throw…) backwards (back) + SHY (uneasy in company) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | WASHROOM | Where Americans go with a recreational drug? (8) |
| W (with) + A (a) + ‘SHROOM (recreational drug) | ||
| 2 | LIBERTINE | Sensualist corrupting Nile tribe (9) |
| Anagram (corrupting) of NILE TRIBE | ||
| 3 | ODIN | Clamour to lie beneath love god (4) |
| O (love) + DIN (clamour) | ||
| 5 | WHEATEN | In Lucknow he ate naan of a pale yellow colour (7) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 6 | DELEGATION | Remove support from one in a hundred representatives? (10) |
| DE-LEG (remove support from!) + A (a) + I (one) in TON (hundred) | ||
| 7 | LOTTO | Draw old bottom without clothes (5) |
| [o]L[d] [b]OTTO[m] | ||
| 8 | DURESS | Force you finally to put on female garment (6) |
| [yo]U in (to put on) DRESS (female garment) | ||
| 9 | GALORE | Miss source of metal in abundance (6) |
| GAL (miss) + ORE (source of metal) | ||
| 14 | DISGRUNTLE | Day ruined, resulting in anger (10) |
| D (day) + anagram (ruined) of RESULTING | ||
| 17 | NON-EVENTS | Individual lets off steam after new disappointments (3-6) |
| N (new) + ONE (individual) + VENTS (lets off steam) | ||
| 18 | ADULTERY | Raging rudely at illicit sex (8) |
| Anagram (raging) of RUDELY AT | ||
| 20 | TUT-TUTS | Nice solver, time and again bottom in class, expresses disapproval (3-4) |
| TU (Nice solver) + T (time) + TUT (again) + [clas]S | ||
| 21 | AGENTS | Spies ace public toilet (6) |
| A (ace) + GENTS (public toilet) | ||
| 22 | IMPUGN | Troublemaker organising gnu attack (6) |
| IMP (troublemaker) + anagram (organizing) of GNU | ||
| 24 | SOFIA | Capital of Italy, boring place to relax (5) |
| I (Italy) in (boring) SOFA (place to relax) | ||
| 26 | BRIO | Rich French scoff, ignoring revolutionary spirit (4) |
| BRIO[che] (rich French scoff, ignoring revolutionary) | ||
Thanks for the blog. Not much to say but wanted to recognise the lonely beat you patrol 12 days after publication. I liked near east.
AndrewB, Thanks for the feedback. Your mention of NEAR EAST prompted me to look back at my explanation of the clue only to realize I had omitted a ‘]’. Now corrected.
All a bit strange – this puzzle is a word for word duplication of a Rosa Klebb FT prize from July 2017. I was in touch with the pink ‘un last weekend who agreed this was the case and who were referring the comment to the appropriate department but not heard a word since. Back to the lurking shadows now!
Duncmeister, You are so right! I am rather shocked that I failed to recognize this myself given that I blogged the Rosa Klebb puzzle in question. But there were a few clues that seemed familiar, especially 23ac (MOSQUITOES) which I had questioned in that earlier blog.
Well, how strange! Thanks for pointing it out.
Gosh, how strange. I didn’t say so in my post @1 but I did think that I enjoyed it a little more than usual with this setter; and looking again the clues seem recognisably RK. More concise than Paul.
The Sat FT is my favourite newspaper by a country mile, so the odd slip gets forgiven
Well, I enjoyed it anyway: I’ve only just started doing the prize puzzle, so it was new to me at least. I liked the ‘dropped daughters’ & the ‘Nice solver’ particularly.
Looking back at the discussion of this puzzle on the weekend of 15th September, I find comments like “I have an idea that I have seen essentially the same clue before” (26) and “Last in was 30, which I miraculously recalled from an earlier puzzle”. Going back to July last year (the day of my daughter’s wedding, so the crossword took second place), I see the string of comments starts with one of my solving buddies writing “You have a treat in store if you have not started this weekend’s puzzle yet. I finished it in one session.” General agreement that 23 was a great clue: 26 was . Perhaps because my mind was elsewhere on the first occasion, I didn’t recognise any of the clues second time round, and 26 still required to be slept on.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Found this one of the easiest ‘Mudd puzzles’ that I’d done – so maybe there was some latent mental muscle memory kicking in from a year ago.
In that one I started with WALLOW and finished with BRIO … this time a different start with LIBERTINE but still finished with BRIO.
Still enjoyed it and it didn’t feel like it was a repeat experience as I did it.