Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of September 22, 2018
As usual with Alberich, I found this puzzle fairly challenging. There are a few very easy clues such as 12ac which made it easy to get started and a few I found difficult such as 16dn and 24dn. My clues of the week are 11ac (ZABAGLIONE) and 14dn (HOROSCOPE) for its splendid surface.
And did you notice “PUZZLE ONE HUNDRED”? If not take a look at the completed grid here.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PEIGNOIR | I’ll enter to fasten Nancy’s black gown (8) |
| I (I) in (‘ll enter) PEG (to fasten) + NOIR (Nancy’s black, i.e. black in Nancy, France) | ||
| 6 | STABLE | Billion netted by old firm (6) |
| B (billion) in (netted by) STALE (old) | ||
| 9 | UPDATE | Daughter’s accepted by university – spread the latest news! (6) |
| D (daughter) in U (University) + PATE (spread) | ||
| 10 | SKIRMISH | Brush him off? Risk’s involved with that (8) |
| Anagram (off/involved) of HIM and RISKS | ||
| 11 | ZABAGLIONE | Capture wild animal in South Africa close to cape? That’s sweet (10) |
| ZA (South Africa) + BAG (capture) + LION (wild animal) + [cap]E | ||
| 12 | ECRU | Portion of apple crumble is greyish-brown (4) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 13 | ZITHER | Spot the female music-maker (6) |
| ZIT (spot) + HER (the female) | ||
| 15 | EMISSION | Discharge duty with energy (8) |
| E (energy) + MISSION (duty) | ||
| 18 | LEARNERS | Prince periodically is entertained by King’s students (8) |
| [p]R[i]N[c]E in (is entertained by) LEARS (King’s) | ||
| 20 | STYLED | Designated journalist is next to pen line (6) |
| STY (pen) + L (line) + ED (journalist) | ||
| 21 | EARS | Cockney listens – using these (4) |
| [h]EARS (Cockney listens). I think either this clue is poor or there is something I am missing in it. | ||
| 23 | PARTICULAR | Noteworthy character crucial to play missing first of cues (10) |
| PART (character) + anagram (to play) of [c]RUCIAL | ||
| 25 | OPPONENT | Shut up about Penny performing with love rival (8) |
| O (love) + P (penny) + ON (performing) together in PENT (shut up) | ||
| 26 | GOALIE | Pass by a porky footballer (6) |
| GO (pass) + A (a) + LIE (porky) | ||
| 27 | NAMELY | In extremes of necessity male resorted to wit (6) |
| Anagram (resorted) of MALE in N[ecessit]Y | ||
| 28 | HARDENED | Edward’s back in race, dead set (8) |
| NED (Edward) backwards (back) in HARE (race) + D (dead) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | EMPHASISE | Stress when one supports English speed limits in Shropshire (9) |
| E (English) + MPH (speed) + AS (when) + I (one) + S[hropshir]E | ||
| 3 | GUAVA | Boss retains area with a fruit tree (5) |
| A (area) in GUV (boss) + A (a) | ||
| 4 | OVERLARGE | Excessively big deliveries mailman’s core rage, possibly (9) |
| OVER (deliveries, as in cricket) + [mai]L[man] + anagram (possibly) of RAGE | ||
| 5 | RISSOLE | Gentleman returned fish dish (7) |
| SIR (gentleman) backwards (returned) + SOLE (fish) | ||
| 6 | SPIKE | One’s pointed to lace (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 7 | AIMLESSLY | I’ll mess about after a year without purpose (9) |
| A (a) + anagram (about) of ILL MESS + Y (year) | ||
| 8 | LOSER | Failure is more imminent without leader (5) |
| [c]LOSER (more imminent without leader) | ||
| 14 | HOROSCOPE | Henry Cooper so confounded predictions (9) |
| H (Henry, as in a measure of inductance) + anagram (confounded) of COOPER SO. Henry Cooper was one of Britain’s greatest boxers. I don’t know if he ever did confound predictions but it makes for an excellent surface. | ||
| 16 | INSWINGER | Wife interrupts popular performer’s ball (9) |
| IN (popular) + W (wife) in SINGER (performer). An inswinger is a type of bowled ball in cricket. | ||
| 17 | OPERATIVE | Worker has to choose clothing a long time before I have (9) |
| ERA (a long time) in OPT (choose) + IVE (I have) | ||
| 19 | SCRATCH | Nick hastily got together cash, having no handicap (7) |
| A quadruple or maybe even quintuple definition! The definitions are: ‘nick’ in the sense of an indication of damage, ‘cash’ in US slang, ‘hastily got together’ as for example in a hastily assembled sports team, ‘having no handicap’ as used in golf, and possibly ‘Nick’ again in the sense of the devil. I knew only the first two of these. | ||
| 22 | ALPHA | In Greece, a river with origin in Athens (5) |
| ALPH (river) + A[thens]. Alph is another name for a river in the Greek peloponnese called the Alpheus. | ||
| 23 | PIETY | Ruth nurses Earl, showing devotion (5) |
| E (Earl) in PITY (ruth) | ||
| 24 | UKASE | This country’s announced an edict (5) |
| Homophone (announced) of UK’s (this country’s). A ukase is an edict of a tsar. | ||
Thanks Alberich for the workout and thanks also to Pete for the blog.
On the subject of 14d, I suspect he confounded predictions when he floored Muhammad Ali, even though he lost in the end.
I remember having to learn Kubla Khan by Coleridge at school so the river Alph mentioned there made 22d an easy guess, although this Alph was in Xanadu not Greece.
I enjoyed this very much, and have to say the Nina helped to simplify what would otherwise have been a much harder puzzle to solve. Congratulations Alberich on attaining 100 not out, and many thanks to Pete for the usual excellent blog.
Hovis, Thanks for that bit of history. You know more about boxing than I do.
Richard, Congratulations on spotting the Nina early enough for it to help you!
Thanks Alberich and Pete
Enjoyable puzzle that took a shorter time than normal for this setter and also saw ECRU as my first one in and then roughly went clockwise around the grid to finish up in the NW corner with UPDATE and ZABAGLIONE (a word that I hadn’t seen for ages and now seen in two puzzles in the last few weeks) the last couple in. Completely failed to see the nina down both sides.
Like Hovis@1, I remembered the literary river ALPH from Coleridge’s poem (one of my favourite poems) more than the real one at 22d.
A lot of clever clues, particularly the multi-definitional SCRATCH (only saw three of them though) and the homophonic UKASE.
I try to remember to look for Ninas but have not quite established it as a regular habit. In this case, I think the presence of two adjacent words both starting with Z tipped me off that there might be something to spot.