Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of December 8, 2018
Rosa is back with another fine puzzle. I see no stand-out favourite here but I do like 11ac (VINOUS), 18dn (HAY FEVER) and 22dn (STAMEN).
| Across | ||
| 1 | SATYRS | Posed with your small goats (6) |
| SAT (posed) + YR (your) + S (small) | ||
| 4 | ESCALATE | Discontentedly expostulates about dead mushroom (8) |
| E[xpostulate]S + CA (about) + LATE (dead) | ||
| 9 | ENIGMA | Beaming head off, boisterously closed book (6) |
| Anagram (boisterously) of [b]EAMING | ||
| 10 | PREDATOR | Sci-fi villain parroted rubbish (8) |
| Anagram (rubbish) of PARROTED. I take it that the definition refers to the 1987 movie “Predator” that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger although I observe that there is also a 2018 science-fiction film called “The Predator”. | ||
| 11 | VINOUS | Very trendy old setters like wine (6) |
| V (very) + IN (trendy) + O (old) + US (setters) | ||
| 13 | PURCHASE | Grip tea bag boxes (8) |
| CHA (tea) in (boxes) PURSE (bag) | ||
| 14 | SHOOT | Go away and start to tighten belt (5) |
| SHOO (go away) + T[ighten] | ||
| 15 | NILE | A duck, last to leave river (4) |
| NIL (a duck) + [leav]E | ||
| 17 | PUDENDA | Bits of blancmange perhaps hitting Dane (7) |
| PUD (blancmange perhaps) + anagram (hitting) of DANE | ||
| 20 | CARE | Prudence and Carmen turning east (4) |
| RAC (carmen, i.e. the Royal Automobile Club) backwards (turning) + E (east) | ||
| 24 | STOUT | Good person ignoring the odds, robust and resolute (5) |
| ST (good person) + [r]O[b]U[s]T | ||
| 26 | ACTUALLY | Work with university pal, in fact (8) |
| ACT (work) + U (university) + ALLY (pal) | ||
| 27 | MUFFLE | Dull, obstinate person eating very loudly (6) |
| FF (very loudly) in (eating) MULE (obstinate person) | ||
| 28 | TIMELESS | Newspaper describing the French as “immutable” (8) |
| LES (the French) in (describing) TIMES (newspaper) | ||
| 29 | DRIVEL | Labour leader getting behind campaign for tripe (6) |
| DRIVE (campaign) + L[abour] | ||
| 30 | MINDS EYE | Is offended by articulate letter, in imagination (5,3) |
| MINDS (is offended by) + EYE homophone (articulate) of I (letter) | ||
| 31 | STERNE | Novelist partaking of lobster Newburg (6) |
| Hidden word. The novelist is Laurence Sterne, author of Tristram Shandy among others. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SHELVING | Putting aside verse in broken English (8) |
| V (verse) in (in) anagram of ENGLISH | ||
| 2 | TRIANGLE | Half-cut pedestrian ogles unclothed figure (8) |
| [pedes]TRIAN + [o]GLE[s] | ||
| 3 | RUMPUS | Terrible noise from strange Manx cat (6) |
| RUM (strange) + PUS[s] (Manx cat) | ||
| 5 | SPROUT | 14 in drunken stupor (6) |
| Anagram (drunken) of STUPOR with the definition being 14 across (SHOOT) | ||
| 6 | ADDICT | Mad dictator imprisoning fanatic (6) |
| Hidden word (imprisoning) | ||
| 7 | ASTRAY | Missing most of sidereal year (6) |
| ASTRA[l] (most of sidereal) + Y (year) | ||
| 8 | EYRIES | Regularly defy arbiters in high places (6) |
| [d]E[f]Y [a]R[b]I[t]E[r]S | ||
| 12 | SHRUG | Indifferent gesture and silence over toupee (5) |
| SH (silence) + RUG (toupee) | ||
| 13 | POVERTY | Need to evacuate Torquay after parking terminated (7) |
| P (parking) + OVER (terminated) + T[orqua]Y | ||
| 16 | ODIUM | Prince leaves platform in disgust (5) |
| [p]ODIUM (prince leaves platform) | ||
| 18 | HAY FEVER | According to Spooner, whimsical tosser is seasonal irritation (3,5) |
| FEY (whimsical) + HEAVER (tosser) Spoonerized | ||
| 19 | REVEILLE | Signal to wake First Lady, not so well after cycling (8) |
| EVE (first lady) + ILLER (not so well) cycled (i.e. circularly shifted by one letter). You might think that ‘iller’ is an invention because the common term would be ‘worse’ but ‘iller’ is in dictionaries. | ||
| 21 | BANTAM | Little but combative Scotsman supports prohibition (6) |
| BAN (prohibition) + TAM (Scotsman) | ||
| 22 | STAMEN | Sweetheart’s first pet name for male sex organ (6) |
| S[weetheart] + TAME (pet) + N (name) | ||
| 23 | CALLUS | Thick skin of cold, retired Roman general (6) |
| C (cold) + SULLA (Roman general) backwards (retired) | ||
| 24 | SLUSHY | Mawkish drinker in empty speakeasy (6) |
| LUSH (drinker) in (in) S[peakeas]Y. I had not known that ‘slushy’ can mean mawkish although it sort of feels right. | ||
| 25 | TURRET | Rebellious blighter ruthlessly guarding gun enclosure (6) |
| Reverse hidden word | ||
Thanks for the blog, Pete.
A classic Rosa, this. Brilliant. Witty, Entertaining.
Naughty Rosa. Great stuff!
As Grumpy @1 says, There’s always something about an RK puzzle that lifts the heart. And, as Copmus alludes to, a couple here that had me chuckling away much to the bemusement of my fellow train passengers.
Thanks, as ever, to RK and Pete for the blog.
Thanks Rosa Klebb and Pete
This puzzle played out for me like an exquisitely told joke and when I reached the punchline with my last one in at 17 across, I nearly fell off my chair laughing!
Indeed, naughty Rosa !!
Thanks for the [early?] blog, Pete – you lucky person, getting so many Saturday Rosas!
The trouble with Rosa getting the Prize slot is that it’s such a long time before we have a chance to comment. I always tick as I go along but invariably run out of ticks and realise that I ought to have written much fuller notes on the day I solve.
Or why try to gild the lily? – the previous comments sum it up perfectly.
Huge thanks, Rosa – I loved it, as always 😉
So happy when I happened to see Rosa’s name in the listings here, and then found the puzzle was available on the FT labs online page.
Delightfully wicked and wickedly delightful, just as expected. Big thank-you to Rosa.
“Delightfully wicked and wickedly delightful”, yes indeed! Thank you.
Thanks to Rosa and Pete. I’m another who lights up when I see her name at the top of a puzzle – and this one was no exception.