Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 3, 2019
I found this puzzle fairly challenging and took several sessions over a day to complete it. It features two words that were new to me, 3dn (ICTUS) and 10a (OPUNTIA), and another whose meaning I was unsure of 17dn (SOLECISM). My clue of the week is 5dn (UTOPIA) with its cracking cryptic definition. I am also impressed by 1ac (CARMINA BURANA), 11ac (ARRAS), 15ac (RABBIT) and 27ac (THE GRIM REAPER). So, a lot of fine cluing.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CARMINA BURANA | Primarily, missing a bar can ruin a fantastic piece of music (7,6) |
| Anagram (fantastic) of M[issing] A BAR CAN RUIN A | ||
| 9 | MISSTEP | Teacher having favourite on reflection is a bad move (7) |
| MISS (teacher) + PET (favourite) backwards (on reflection). Do we like “on reflection” as a reversal indicator? A true mirror reflection would have a reversed ‘P’ and a reversed ‘E’. | ||
| 10 | OPUNTIA | Prickly sort wrecked uncovered Fiat Punto (7) |
| Anagram (wrecked) of [f]IA[t] PUNTO. Opuntia refers to the genus of cactuses native to America that are commonly called prickly pears. | ||
| 11 | ARRAS | Hanging around in disarray (5) |
| Reverse hidden word | ||
| 12 | SWINBURNE | Scoundrel carries torch for poet (9) |
| BURN (torch) in (carries) SWINE (scoundrel) | ||
| 13 | EDENTATE | Earl consumed by depression and sloth? (8) |
| E (earl) + DENT (depression) + ATE (consumed). The edentates are an order of mammals that includes sloths as well as anteaters and armadillos. | ||
| 15 | RABBIT | Bun or waffle? (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 18 | ACTING | Caretaker’s bill can start to grow (6) |
| AC (bill) + TIN (can) + G[row] | ||
| 19 | NOSE JOBS | Recognises vocal person who’s patient having special operations (4,4) |
| NOSE (homophone of “knows” for ‘recognizes’) + JOB (who’s patient) + S (special) | ||
| 22 | HYPHENATE | Add dash to publicity about female artist on vacation (9) |
| HEN (female) + A[rtis]T together in (about) HYPE (publicity) — with a clever cryptic definition | ||
| 24 | THYME | Cooks use it to season bird, we’re told (5) |
| It seems that the wordplay here must be a homophone (we’re told) and my best guess is that it is referring to ‘time’ in the sense of a prison sentence, as served by a jailbird or simply ‘bird’. I have subsequently learned from commenters that ‘time’ and ‘bird’ are synonymous in this sense and that this is well know, at least in the U.K. It is completely new to me though. | ||
| 25 | RAILING | Trouble penetrating sound barrier (7) |
| AIL (trouble) in (penetrating) RING (sound) | ||
| 26 | INHERIT | Anyhow, heir in time has to do this? (7) |
| Anagram (anyhow) of HEIR IN T (time) | ||
| 27 | THE GRIM REAPER | Death penalty’s introduction is accepted by regime, rather oddly (3,4,6) |
| P[enalty] in anagram (oddly) of REGIME RATHER | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | COMRADE | Upstanding member breaks rules for friend (7) |
| ARM (member) backwards (upstanding) in (breaks) CODE (rules) | ||
| 2 | RESURGENT | Eg returns anew, being this? (9) |
| Anagram (anew) of EG RETURNS | ||
| 3 | ICTUS | Horrified grimace right off indicates stress (5) |
| [r]ICTUS (horrified grimace right off). Ictus is a new word to me. It refers to stress in the metrical sense while, in medicine, it means a stroke or seizure. | ||
| 4 | APPOSITE | Apt to take off clothes after embracing one (8) |
| I (one) in (embracing) POST (after) in (clothes) APE (to take off) | ||
| 5 | UTOPIA | More work, you said, needed on cracked patio (6) |
| U (you said) + anagram (cracked) of PATIO with a very cryptic definition that refers to the book titled “Utopia” written by Sir Thomas More. | ||
| 6 | ADUMBRATE | Overshadow a stupid judge (9) |
| A (a) + DUMB (stupid) + RATE (judge) | ||
| 7 | ASTER | Flower maiden abandoned by ruler (5) |
| [m]ASTER (maiden abandoned by ruler) | ||
| 8 | TALENT | Thankyou letter half written, receiving new gift (6) |
| TA (thankyou) + N (new) in (receiving) LET[ter] | ||
| 14 | TANGERINE | Spike eats passion fruit (9) |
| ANGER (passion) in (eats) TINE (spike) | ||
| 16 | BOOBY TRAP | Squad dug up a concealed danger (5,4) |
| PARTY (squad) + BOOB (dug) all backwards (up). I needed some help understanding this wordplay as I was unfamiliar with ‘dug’ in its meaning of udder or teat. | ||
| 17 | SOLECISM | Charlie is put in grave briefly – that’s a mistake (8) |
| C (Charlie) + IS (is) togther in SOLEM[n] (grave briefly) | ||
| 18 | ADHERE | Daughter wraps a present? On the contrary, getting stick (6) |
| A (a) + D (daughter) in (wraps) HERE (present) | ||
| 20 | SWEATER | One visibly too hot for this garment (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 21 | MANGER | Crib from administrator heartlessly (6) |
| MAN[a]GER (administrator heartlessly) | ||
| 23 | POINT | Mark has a beer, getting round in (5) |
| O (round) in (getting…in) PINT (a beer) | ||
| 24 | TAHOE | Old boater maybe capsizes on English lake (5) |
| O (old) + HAT (boater maybe) together backwards (capsizes) + E (English). Lake Tahoe is a lake in the Sierra Nevada north of San Francisco. | ||
I had 3D as (r)ictus, both new words to me, rictus being a gaping grimace. Also did not know edentate as a noun. I am with your thinking on bird as prison at 24A. Thanks to Pete and Alberich.
I thought this was superb. At the time I wrote “one of the best puzzles I’ve ever done – no tricky devices just consistently brilliant misdirection with clean precise cluing.” Hence my encouragement in the blogs around the time for others to have a look at it. It showed me how Ximinean setting can be every bit as inventive and challenging as the more relaxed style of other setters. I had too many ticks to list and would happily go along with PM’s highlights. I thought THYME was fine and parsed it as prison bird as well. Many thanks to Alberich and Pete – it took me several sessions as well but I relished that.
Agree with WhiteKing. Thought this was really splendid. Loved the grim reaper
Thanks Alberich and Pete
Another entertaining weekend offering from this setter with work to be done on nearly every clue but spread across five shortish session across the weekend gave it plenty of time to be savoured properly.
Had no issue with the ‘bird’ time at 24. ‘On reflection’ is commonly used as a reversal instruction so have become very used to that. Didn’t parse the [R]ICTUS part of 3d – didn’t work it out on my first doing and forgot to pick it up and look harder in my final sweep through.
Not even going to try and nominate a favourite in a page full of them. Finished in the NE corner with OPUNTIA, SWINBURNE (a poet whom I didn’t know) and APPOSITE as the last few in.
Thanks to Pete and Alberich
Very, very good. This a setter at the top of his craft.
I agree with everything in the blog except your reservations about 24a and 3d.
In the U.K. “do your bird” is exactly synonymous with “do your time”
When you revisit 3d you won’t need me to relieve of your concern re “horrified” as an anagrind!
Ictus was unknown to me also until recently, but has cropped up fairly regularly in the last couple of years (mostly in the Guardian as I recall)
<red-faced>I was utterly out to lunch when I wrote my original appraisal of 3dn. I actually understood the clue perfectly when I solved it and cannot see now how I managed to completely misunderstand it when blogging time came. Sorry, and thanks for pointing it out so gracefully. </red-faced>
I had a busy day yesterday and so I didn’t have time to comment but I just have to add my twopennorth to the praise [especially as expressed by WhiteKing @2] for this excellent puzzle, which I enjoyed so much when solving and savoured all over again when reading Pete’s great blog.
I had no problem with ICTUS, which I met at school when learning to scan Latin poetry and I remember being fascinated when I learned, through crosswords, I think, that it could also mean another kind of stroke.
Pete, I just want to offer commiseration and solidarity re 3d: I know only too well the weird and totally inexplicable hiccups that can arise between solve and blog. 🙁
Huge thanks, as always, to Alberich.
Thanks Alberich and Pete.
10ac: The anagram fodder here must be [f]IA[t] PANTO.
19ac: I took “special” as the indicator for S. I cannot see where else the S comes from.
Sorry, PUNTO not PANTO. I failed to spot an auto(mis)correct before submitting.
Pelham, Thank you for the corrections. The OPUNTIA one was just a mistake in blogging but the NOSE JOBS clue was one I parsed wrongly from the start. I have now corrected both.