Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 23, 2019
Thanks to Rosa for another fine crossword. My clue of the week is 17dn (BISMARCK) and other gems are 1dn (DROOPY), 15dn (BUTTERFLY) and 20dn (DOWN).
P.S. My mind keeps coming back to the BISMARCK clue and I am more and more tempted to think it is one of the best ever. It occurred to me to wonder how common “Batty” is as a surname and Wikipedia tells me “Batty is a surname and is most commonly found in Yorkshire, northern England. ” And it lists 20 well known Battys. For me, the best known is a fictional one, Roy Batty, of Blade Runner fame, played in the movie by Rutger Hauer.
P.P.S. As you may gather from the comments, I decided the “Mrs Batty” clue was a gem without even knowing about Nora Batty from Last of the Summer Wine. Now that I do know about Nora and the presumed significance of her in the clue, I am even more impressed.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DISPATCH | Report quarrel between policeman and companion (8) |
| DI (policeman, that is Detective Inspector) + SPAT (quarrel) + CH (companion) | ||
| 5 | KISMET | Destiny fulfilled after brief snog (6) |
| KIS[s] (brief snog) + MET (fulfilled) | ||
| 9 | OBEISANT | Worker following order is deferential (8) |
| OBE (order) + IS (is) + ANT (worker) | ||
| 10 | ON EDGE | Partially stoned, get apprehensive (2,4) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 12 | POLYTHENE | Python and eel entangled in plastic (9) |
| Anagram (entangled) of PYTHON EEL | ||
| 13 | RAITA | Ravi half-heartedly cheers Indian food (5) |
| RA[v]I + TA (cheers) | ||
| 14 | ABLY | Sailor emptying lavatory with skill (4) |
| AB (sailor) + L[avator]Y | ||
| 16 | RAMPAGE | One’s inclined, with time, to run amok (7) |
| RAMP (one’s inclined) + AGE (time) | ||
| 19 | IGNITED | Sparked off furious editing (7) |
| Anagram (furious) of EDITING | ||
| 21 | COST | Expense leaves them without margin (4) |
| COS (leaves, as in lettuce) + T[hem] (them without margin!). Cos is the British term for the type of lettuce that Americans know as romaine. | ||
| 24 | MAUVE | Faces of men are unusually violet, even purple (5) |
| M[en] A[re] U[nusually] V[iolet] E[ven] | ||
| 25 | WALLABIES | Rabbi regularly introduced to buffoons and bounders (9) |
| [r]A[b]B[i] in (introduced to) WALLIES (buffoons) | ||
| 27 | REBUFF | Spurn scripture fanatic (6) |
| RE (scripture, i.e. Religious Education) + BUFF (fanatic) | ||
| 28 | SUKIYAKI | Southern British couple eating ox dish in Japan (8) |
| S (southern) + UK (British) + YAK (ox) in (eating) II (couple) | ||
| 29 | KYRGYZ | Kindly repairing hollow axes from central Asia (6) |
| K[indl]Y R[epairin]G YZ (axes) | ||
| 30 | SEALSKIN | Hide from runner in winding lanes (8) |
| SKI (runner) in anagram (winding) of LANES | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DROOPY | Doctor on rounds, plainly exhausted and sagging (6) |
| DR (doctor) + OO (rounds) + P[lainl]Y | ||
| 2 | SWELLS | Delicacies we’ll savour, clutching bellies (6) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 3 | ASSET | It’s useful when rigid (5) |
| AS (when) + SET (rigid) | ||
| 4 | CANNERY | Row in Monterey may drive nun out of convent (7) |
| CAN (may) replacing NUN in NUNNERY (convent). Cannery Row is a waterfront street in Monterey, California. It is popular with tourists as the site of a number of now-defunct sardine canning factories and reminiscent of John Steinbeck’s great novel of the same name. | ||
| 6 | IGNORAMUS | Fool hitting Rosa in mug (9) |
| Anagram (hitting) of ROSA IN MUG | ||
| 7 | MADRIGAL | Irate cook with extremely antisocial air (8) |
| MAD (irate) + RIG (cook) + A[ntisocia]L | ||
| 8 | TEENAGER | Break agreement, expelling male youngster (8) |
| Anagram (break) of AGREE[m]ENT | ||
| 11 | LEER | Ogle Virginia, perhaps from below (4) |
| REEL (Virginia perhaps) backwards (from below). The Virginia reel is a folk dance that dates from the 17th century. | ||
| 15 | BUTTERFLY | Stroke goat, say, and run away (9) |
| BUTTER (goat, say) + FLY (run away) | ||
| 17 | BISMARCK | I back Mrs Batty for chancellor! (8) |
| Anagram (batty) of I BACK MRS. Since the battleship of this name is probably better known that the man himself, I decided to add some history here. Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) was the first Chancellor of the German Empire (1871-1890). | ||
| 18 | ENCUMBER | Redneck oddly ignored brown saddle (8) |
| [r]E[d]N[e]C[k] + UMBER (brown) | ||
| 20 | DOWN | Jones’s average partner, ultimately taciturn and glum (4) |
| DOW (Jones’s average partner!) + [tacitur]N | ||
| 21 | COLLUDE | Boring old Conservative rebelling over European plot (7) |
| DULL (boring) + O (old) + C (Conservative) all backwards (rebelling) + E (European) | ||
| 22 | HIJACK | Seize four consecutive letters about account (6) |
| AC (account) in (about) HIJK (four consecutive letters) | ||
| 23 | ASSIGN | Entrust with reporting a function (6) |
| Homophone (reporting) of “a sine” (a function) | ||
| 26 | ARIEL | Moon and endless stars over lake (5) |
| ARIE[s] (endless stars) + L (lake). Ariel is a moon of Uranus. | ||
Found this tough for a Rosa Klebb. Didn’t know Cannery Row or the Virginia Reel. Also failed to parse COST to my eternal shame.
Thanks to Rosa Klebb and Pete.
Thanks for a great blog, Pete – another fine crossword, indeed.
I agree with your favourites – BISMARCK has gone into my little book of classics – and I had a tick, too, for the small but perfectly-formed COST.
I also admired the inventive cluing of KYRGYZ and the appearance of ROSA [rather than I or ME] in IGNORAMUS.
It’s always worth going back to savour Rosa’s brilliantly witty surfaces. Nearly two weeks after solving, I’ve just had a few chortles all over again.
Many thanks, Rosa, for lots of fun [and especially Mrs Batty 😉 ].
A fun puzzle and excellent blog. This went in smoothly except for the SE which resisted for reasons I can’t remember now – I think SUKIYAKI was loi. I liked MAUVE SEALSKIN KYRGYZ BISMARCK and COLLUDE and didn’t see the COS leaves or HEM margin – very neat. Great stuff – thanks to Rosa and PM.
Thanks to Pete and Rosa Klebb
Another fine piece of setting. If I had to write clues for KYRGYZ or SUKIYAKI I’d hide behind the couch.
Just one thing, I can’t quite form a sentence where ENTRUST WITH replace ASSIGN, but perhaps I’m not thinking hard enough.
Hovis, thanks for commenting. Parsing COST took me a good while!
Eileen, I have added a postscript to the blog saying how the BISMARCK clue has been continuing to grow on me and I am now thinking it may be one of the best clues of all time.
Dansar, thank you for commenting. I think you may have a point about ENTRUST WITH and ASSIGN. But I will continue pondering the matter.
Thanks Rosa & Pete.
I imagine that for Rosa the best known Mrs Batty was Nora in the BBC comedy series Last of the Summer Wine that ran from 1973 to 2010.
Hi Pete @5ac
Thanks for that – but it seems you perhaps still haven’t fully appreciated the brilliance of the clue. psmith @6 is quite right in his imagining: Nora Batty is described as ‘a national icon’ in Wikipedia and ‘a British institution’ in this article.
Try googling ‘Nora Batty’ for some images. 😉
Thanks Rosa Klebb and Pete
Must have zoned straight on to Rosa’s wavelength for this one as it was over quite quickly for me and I think that has been the case for the last couple of her puzzles. Typically slick surfaces and wordplay throughout which more than makes up for the brevity of the solve. I have tried to ‘unsee’ the image conjured up by 14a.
Not knowing of the television series, I missed the cleverness of the play on ‘Mrs Batty’. COST was one of the early entries where ‘leaves’ immediately triggered lettuce after seeing ‘expense’ as the definition. Had to wrangle my brains with KYRGYZ (initially thinking of X-Y as the axes).
Finished in the NW corner again with DISPATCH (which I for some reason was spelt with an E for some reason in this context), SWELLS (where this definition of ‘belly’ was new to me) and CANNERY (that was more about Steinbeck’s novel which I know of but haven’t read, rather than it’s location in Monterey).
Oh dear! I was totally unaware of a national icon and a “British Institution”. I was aware of the existence of Last of the Summer Wine and knew that it was the longest-running sitcom in history but I never saw a single episode and had no knowledge of its characters. I think the only thing I knew about it was that Peter Sallis was in it. I have no excuse; certainly I have never intentionally avoided it!
Thanks to Rosa Klebb and Pete. Delightful puzzle as usual, though I was defeated by KYRGYZ (but I did know VIRGINIA REEL and have read CANNERY ROW).
So YZ are axes? News to me. I’ve never heard of them. Only XY and XYZ.
But otherwise very nice.
It may be that one would never find Y and Z axes without an X axis to go with them, but I have no problem accepting Y and Z as axes in their own right.