Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 30, 2019
This puzzle had several new and newish words for me. ‘Squiffy’ and ‘negus’ (other than as an Arthur) were completely new. ‘Noggin’ (in the sense of a liquid measure) and ‘shedload’, I have only come across once or twice before. My favourite is 3dn (MARGE).
| Across | ||
| 1 | CASHMERE | Fine material in suit dressing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth (8) |
| HM (Her Majesty) + ER (Queen Elizabeth) in (dressing) CASE (suit) | ||
| 5 | DIM SUM | Failure of mathematician, possibly, to find parcels from China (3,3) |
| DIM SUM (failure of mathematician possibly) | ||
| 9 | UNDERDOG | Feebler party? Don’t cook enough goulash for starter (8) |
| UNDERDO (don’t cook enough) + G[oulash]. Mmmm, goulash! | ||
| 10 | HUMOUR | Sense of wit I’m not sure is found in time (6) |
| UM (I’m not sure) in (is found in) HOUR (time) | ||
| 12 | BEEFEATER | Feeding bird, fine yeoman (9) |
| F (fine) in (feeding) BEE EATER (bird) | ||
| 13 | NEGUS | Old drink tipped back into tiramisu, generously (5) |
| Reverse hidden word. Negus is a drink made with wine, hot water, sugar, lemon juice and nutmeg. | ||
| 14 | PROP | Lean forward (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | ORDINAL | Shoved in mouth, racket first perhaps? (7) |
| DIN (racket) in (shoved in) ORAL (mouth) | ||
| 19 | LEOPARD | US writer back to poke fat cat (7) |
| POE (US writer) backwards (back) in (to poke) LARD (fat) | ||
| 21 | MONK | Day, then week, missing little prayer? (4) |
| MON (day) [wee]K (week missing little) | ||
| 24 | ATOLL | Circular reef, a ring (5) |
| A (a) + TOLL (ring) | ||
| 25 | NIGHTHAWK | Bird expected soon to melt heart of fakir (9) |
| NIGH (expected soon) + THAW (to melt) + [fa]K[ir] | ||
| 27 | SPONGE | Bum that’s full of holes (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | SHEDLOAD | Abandoned boy admitting love for legion (8) |
| SHED (abandoned) + O (love) in (admitting) LAD (boy) | ||
| 29 | DONATE | Grant’s about to cut fruit (6) |
| ON (about) in (to cut) DATE (fruit) | ||
| 30 | STILETTO | Item of footwear in toilet ruined, by the way (8) |
| ST (the way) + anagram (ruined) of TOILET | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CHUBBY | Overweight, married man under a ton (6) |
| C (ton) + HUBBY (married man) | ||
| 2 | SODDEN | Beneath turf, burrow wet (6) |
| SOD (turf) + DEN (burrow) | ||
| 3 | MARGE | Spread betting finally grasped by horse (5) |
| [bettin]G in (grasped by) MARE (horse) | ||
| 4 | ROOFTOP | Might one be slated for too incompetent performance, primarily? (7) |
| Anagram (incompetent) + P[erformance] | ||
| 6 | IGUANODON | Waste of animal in dinosaur not half tragic, reptile now extinct (9) |
| GUANO (waste) in anagram (tragic) of DINO[saur] | ||
| 7 | SNOGGING | Quarter of a pint drunk by squiffy gentlefolk initially connecting romantically (8) |
| NOGGIN (quarter of a pint) in (drunk by) S[quiffy] G[entlefolk]. ‘Noggin’, in addition to being an informal term for ‘head’, means a quarter-of-a-pint measure, the same as a ‘gill’. | ||
| 8 | MOROSELY | Second: loser upset, ending in theory with sullen disposition (8) |
| MO (second) + anagram (upset) of LOSER + [theor]Y | ||
| 11 | BRIO | Sparkle in opening of bubbly and port (4) |
| B[ubbly] + RIO (port) | ||
| 15 | REAR LIGHT | Noble right hooks producing shiner (4,5) |
| EARL (noble) in (hooks) RIGHT (right) | ||
| 17 | CLEANSED | After rewrite of scene, lad missing the filthy bits? (8) |
| Anagram (after rewrite of) of SCENE LAD | ||
| 18 | GO TO TOWN | To do well, shift about two religious texts (2,2,4) |
| OT OT (two religious texts) in (about) GOWN (shift) | ||
| 20 | DANE | European from England, an Englishman (4) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 21 | MEGAHIT | One entering the game not entirely surprisingly a great success (7) |
| I (one) in (entering) anagram (suprisingly) of THE GAM[e] | ||
| 22 | WAY OUT | Hit wicket, for example, unusual (3,3) |
| Double definition | ||
| 23 | SKIDOO | Infant in very old winter vehicle (6) |
| KID (infant) in (in) SO (very) O (old) | ||
| 26 | TIDAL | Going back and forth, virtually unlikely to retain passport (5) |
| ID (passport) in TAL[l] (virtually unlikely) | ||
Thanks to Pete and Mudd
I’ve not come across LEAN as PROP before, I’d have thought they were almost antonyms, but I suppose the usage is justified somewhere.
HIT WICKET for WAY OUT, though I really can’t see.
Not bad fun though. BTW in 25a I took NIGH to be “expected soon” and THAW to be simply “melt”.
Thanks Pete and Mudd.
I had RAN OUT for 22d wondering why it’d not parse.
Re 25a, I also thought NIGH = expected soon
Is 22d perhaps FAR OUT?
That’s what I had.
I agree with Dansar (and ilippu) about the parsing of 25ac.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Not quite as hard as he has been recently but very enjoyable as usual.
I had WAY OUT – ‘hit wicket’ is a way that you can get out in cricket – when the batsman hits the wicket with his bat or himself. Way out also means being bizarre or extreme or just unusual.
I liked the ‘prayer’ being a noun at 21 and the surface of LEOPARD was quite humorous.
Same parsing as the rest with NIGHTHAWK. Finished with DONATE (where I took time to equate it to ‘grant’) and PROP (where it took longer to find it to equal ‘lean’ – but there it was).
Yes, folks, I messed up on 25ac. Sorry. It seems obvious now that it does and only can work as you say. I have corrected the explanation.
Like Bruce, I took “hit wicket” to refer to a way of being out in cricket but I do think it is a rather awkward matter.
I took 22d as a cricket reference but I can only see it as WAY to get OUT, or WAY to be OUT. Perhaps someone will come up with a phrase that works but I can’t think of one.
Today’s FT gives indeed WAY OUT as the correct answer to 22d.
So, there you are.
I hardly know anything about cricket, and therefore I’ll keep schtum.
Please explain 26d. How does TAL[I] come from “virtually unlikely”? I read this as meaning that “unlikely” gives “TALI” but can’t see how that works.
Bob, Thanks for commenting. I am happy to explain 26d but first I must acknowledge that someone had to explain it to me! (Thanks for that to Bob — another Bob.)
‘Unlikely’ clues TALL (as in a tall story) and ‘virtually’ is intended to mean “most of it”. So the missing letter is an ‘L’ not an ‘I’ which, I realize, was not clear. And, while we probably have to live with it, I will stick my neck out and say that I do not like ‘virtually’ used as it is here.