Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of April 27, 2019
I found this puzzle a bit harder than most of Rosa’s. I quickly completed the top-right quadrant then finished off the bottom over a few sessions. At that point the top-left quadrant remained totally blank and seemed impenetrable! In retrospect, 1dn, 3dn and 11ac are not difficult but, I think, 1ac, 4dn and especially 2dn are.
My favourites are 18ac (HYPOTENUSE) and 15dn (SHERIDAN). Thank you, Rosa!
| Across | ||
| 1 | GIMCRACK | Tinpot state exercises resolve (8) |
| Homophone (state) of “gym” (exercises) + CRACK (resolve) | ||
| 5 | PROMPT | Encourage hanky-panky in outskirts of Pontefract (6) |
| ROMP (hanky-panky) in (in) P[ontefrac]T | ||
| 9 | FRIESIAN | Milk producer condemning heartless financiers (8) |
| Anagram (condemning) of FINA[nc]IERS | ||
| 10 | AGENDA | Things to be done and undone after time (6) |
| AGE (time) + anagram (undone) of AND | ||
| 11 | ATTENDEE | She’s present when news is on, curtailing activity (8) |
| AT TEN (when news is on) + DEE[d] (curtailing activity) | ||
| 12 | COWRIE | Shell company we raided regularly (6) |
| CO (company) + W[e] R[a]I[d]E[d] | ||
| 14 | BEAR MARKET | Speculation over reserve when stock prices fall (4,6) |
| EARMARK (reserve) in (over) BET (speculation) | ||
| 18 | HYPOTENUSE | You and Stephen changed side (10) |
| Anagram (changed) of YOU STEPHEN | ||
| 22 | RENTED | Let rip, exhausted after vacation (6) |
| RENT (rip) + E[xhauste]D | ||
| 23 | LIGAMENT | Bond advanced, protecting wise men from the east (8) |
| MAGI (wise men) backwards (from the east) in (protecting) LENT (advanced). I had to check a dictionary to be satisfied that ‘bond’ clues ‘ligament’. | ||
| 24 | DRIVER | Don perhaps on date in club (6) |
| D (date) + RIVER (Don perhaps) | ||
| 25 | REACTION | Erotica stirred up new backlash (8) |
| Anagram (stirred up) of EROTICA + N (new) | ||
| 26 | NIGHTS | Men on board reported dark times (6) |
| Homophone (reported) of KNIGHTS (men on board) | ||
| 27 | ASTONISH | Stagger, since weight is heavy at first (8) |
| AS (since) + TON (weight) + IS (is) + H[eavy] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | GUFFAW | Cobblers start to attack with roar (6) |
| GUFF (cobblers) + A[ttack] W[ith] | ||
| 2 | MOIETY | Nice setter oddly cutting sex toy in half (6) |
| MOI (Nice setter, i.e. me in Nice) + [s]E[x]T[o]Y. ‘Moiety’ is a new word to me. One dictionary defines it as meaning, “One of two (approximately) equal parts”. | ||
| 3 | RISING | Lacking leader, forcing rebellion (6) |
| [p]RISING (forcing lacking leader) | ||
| 4 | CHAMELEONS | Fickle folk clean homes carelessly (10) |
| Anagram (carelessly) of CLEAN HOMES | ||
| 6 | REGIONAL | Bubbly galore in local (8) |
| Anagram (bubbly) of GALORE IN | ||
| 7 | MANDRAKE | Murphy’s relative operated tool, we hear (8) |
| Homophone (we hear) of MANNED RAKE (operated tool). In the definition, ‘murphy’ means potato — a new meaning to me — of which the mandrake is indeed related; they both belong to the nightshade family. | ||
| 8 | TRAVESTY | Sham attempt to get hold of a grant (8) |
| A (a) + VEST (grant) together in (to get hold of) TRY (attempt) | ||
| 13 | FRISKINESS | High spirits following danger (10) |
| F (following) + RISKINESS (danger) | ||
| 15 | SHERIDAN | Haggard heroine recalling low point for dramatist (8) |
| SHE (Haggard heroine) + NADIR (low point) backwards (recalling) | ||
| 16 | SPANKING | Cross relatives finally demanding punishment (8) |
| SPAN (cross) + KIN (relatives) + [demandin]G | ||
| 17 | STEEPEST | Most expensive cases of Sekt ease pain (8) |
| S[ek]T E[as]E + PEST (pain) | ||
| 19 | GAUCHO | Finish off ungainly old cowboy (6) |
| GAUCH[e] (finish off ungainly) + O (old) | ||
| 20 | GEMINI | Stars for example jet over island province (6) |
| GEM (for example jet) + I (island) + NI (province, i.e. Northern Ireland) | ||
| 21 | STENCH | Nasty smell nauseates ten charge nurses (6) |
| Hidden word | ||
Thanks setter & solver … I had the same experience, staring at an empty top left quadrant for about a week, until ‘guffaw’ came out of nowhere.
I convinced myself in 20d Rosa had misspelled MiG as Meg (“jet over”), too excited about the Russian connection…
Enjoyable solve with a few new pieces of knowledge for me including the meaning of MOIETY as referring to ‘one of two parts’ (I thought it just meant any old part) and the relationship between the exotic sounding MANDRAKE and the humble spud.
I liked the FRISKINESS in a few of the clues and answers, the uncommon HYPOTENUSE for ‘side’ and the ambiguous ‘wise men from the east’ in LIGAMENT.
Thank you to Rosa and Pete
Thanks Pete, I’m glad it wasn’t just me! I was staring at the half-blank grid for over a week before Friesian got me going again. Some great clues and chuckles as always from Rosa. One bit I’m still not sure about – in 15d could you elaborate on Haggard Heroine for me?
At the time I wrote “superb as usual, very tough but consistently tight and lucid clues with excellent surfaces.” I made the NE much harder for myself by misspelling FRIESIAN which made the unknown MOIETY even more difficult until MrsW came to the rescue and said “it’s IE not EI”. Then GIMCRACK came out of nowhere all of a sudden which led to GUFFAW. Thanks to Rosa and Pete.
I think 1ac was extremely difficult which is why I didn’t get it and 2dn I’ve never heard of and I found the clueing impossible. Do not understand how nice setter becomes moi. Also how does haggard heroine become ‘she’. Needless to say totally failed to complete this one, but thanks to solver and setter, I’m sure it gave a lot of pleasure to those who did complete it. Well done.
Thanks Rosa and Pete
K3vin @3 and Karen @5 re 15dn: This refers to the novel She by H Rider Haggard.
Pelham, Thank you for chipping in with that.
Haggard is probably best known for King Solomon’s Mines (which I have read) and second best for She (which I must acknowledge I have not read).
Karen, ‘setter’ clues ME (Rosa referring to herself) and ‘Nice’ tells us to translate that into French becoming MOI. We often see clues using elements of the form “me in Nice” or “me in Paris” to indicate such translation. Using simply “Nice setter” or “Nice me” is nicely deceptive but, I think, a bit of a liberty.
Thank you Pelham.
Pete
Thanks for explaining 14ac – I got the answer quickly but had a blind spot about the construction.
I also found this a bit harder than usual for Rosa and also finished in the top left, Gimcrack then immediately Guffaw being the last two in. I did know the word moiety, mainly because a similar word is commoner in French.
I have a slight niggle about 11ac – the clue suggests we are looking for a specifically feminine word, which attendee isn’t. But to be fair I’d probably have a niggle whatever pronoun she chose.
Derek
Derek, Ah, I know the French word very well myself (moitié) but failed to make the connection to moiety! Thank you for mentioning it.
Thanks Rosa Klebb and Pete
Also found this more difficult than her usual setting in the FT – this was more in line with her Arachne persona in the Guardian.
Her usual excellent standard of clues and surfaces generated an hour of solving pleasure across a number of sittings. Didn’t realise that the humble potato was related to the mandrake or other nightshade plants – had heard of the ‘murphy’ term for them so knew what I was trying to relate from with MANDRAKE.
Finished in the NE corner as well with ATTENDEE and MOIETY the last couple in.
Karen@5, a person from Nice, France would refer to the word ‘me’ as MOI. Me is a reference by the setter to herself.
@Derek White – you have fallen for one of Arachne/Rosa Klebb’s favorite misdirection. “She” is an unspecified person just as “he” is: my take on this practice is it is a feminist’s way of exposing a hidden bias towards the male being the default gender. Assume this at your peril in a Rosa grid.