Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 1, 2020
As usual, it took me some time to work through this Alberich. My first-in was an almost instant 13ac and last 21dn. My favourites are 12ac (CADDY), 16ac (LET SLIP), 21ac (PARDON), 7dn (SLING) and 18dn (FORCIBLE).
| Across | ||
| 1 | FAIR COPY | Clean document produced by Yankee after justifiable arrest (4,4) |
| FAIR COP (justifiable arrest) + Y (Yankee). ‘Fair copy’ is a term that I have heard of but did not have a clear sense of. It refers to a clean copy of a corrected draft. | ||
| 5 | KANSAS | One state or another short of gas (6) |
| [ar]KANSAS with ‘Ar’ referring to Argon. | ||
| 9 | INVESTOR | Elected by desperate voters, one aims to make profit (8) |
| IN (elected) + anagram (desperate) of VOTERS | ||
| 10 | DANISH | Backed husband to do wrong puff pastry (6) |
| H (husband) + SIN (to do wrong) + AD (puff) all backwards (backed) | ||
| 12 | CADDY | Driver’s assistant leaves container (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | HYDRANGEA | Hot year ruined a garden plant (9) |
| H (hot) + Y (year) + anagram (ruined) of A GARDEN | ||
| 14 | NOUGHT | New book discounted, purchased for nothing (6) |
| N (new) + [b]OUGHT | ||
| 16 | LET SLIP | Accidentally revealed undergarment after cancelled service (3,4) |
| LET (cancelled service — as in tennis) + SLIP (undergarment) | ||
| 19 | ONSTAGE | Male stops individual performing (7) |
| STAG (male) in (stops) ONE (individual) | ||
| 21 | PARDON | Withdrawing criminal charge, fellow shows forgiveness (6) |
| RAP (criminal charge) backwards (withdrawing) + DON (fellow) | ||
| 23 | CASTIGATE | Carpet from shed placed by one entrance (9) |
| CAST (shed) + I (one) + GATE (entrance) | ||
| 25 | SPACE | Walk past front of sitting room (5) |
| S[itting] + PACE (walk) | ||
| 26 | BROGUE | British rascal – he might put his foot in it! (6) |
| B (British) + ROGUE (rascal) | ||
| 27 | PIRI-PIRI | I tear around twice to find spicy sauce (4-4) |
| I (I) + RIP (tear) backwards (around) repeated (twice) | ||
| 28 | EILEEN | Wanting No 1 among bloggers, beeline specially made for her? (6) |
| Anagram (specially made) of [b]EELINE.
This clue is evidently a tribute to Fifteensquared’s blogger, Eileen. And I am dismayed that I originally failed to recognize it as such. I realized its true nature only after a commenter pointed it out. I do not know Eileen personally but I certainly know of her and have exchanged emails with her a few times. My apologies to you, Eileen, for overlooking the import of this clue. |
||
| 29 | SEVERELY | Very badly cut, see? (8) |
| SEVER (cut) + ELY (see — in the bishopy sense) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FLINCH | Quail is a bird seen around lake (6) |
| L (lake) in (seen around) FINCH (a bird) | ||
| 2 | INVIDIOUS | United enters high division? That’s enviable (9) |
| U (united) in anagram (high) of DIVISION | ||
| 3 | CUSHY | Copper on retiring is comfortable (5) |
| CU (copper) + SHY (retiring) | ||
| 4 | PROPHET | Job for one speaker’s benefit (7) |
| Homophone (speaker’s) of “profit” (benefit). There seems to be some debate about whether the biblical figure Job was actually a prophet or not. According to Wikipedia he was, and is held to be so by both Christianity and Islam. | ||
| 6 | ALABASTER | Labour in a plant producing gypsum (9) |
| A (a) + LAB (labour) + ASTER (plant). I had not realized that gypsum and alabaster are the same thing. | ||
| 7 | SLING | Chuck Norris at last meets swimmer (5) |
| [norri]S + LING (swimmer) | ||
| 8 | SCHNAPPS | Pile into school playgrounds, lacking guts and spirit (8) |
| NAP (pile) in SCH (school) + P[layground]S | ||
| 11 | IDOL | One deified or loved, primarily? (4) |
| I (one) + D[eified] O[r] L[oved] | ||
| 15 | GRATITUDE | Thanks Greek with feeling? Not the first time (9) |
| GR (Greek) + A[t]TITUDE (feeling, not the first time) | ||
| 17 | LOOKALIKE | Double oil leak? OK, that’s awful (9) |
| Anagram (that’s awful) of OIL LEAK OK | ||
| 18 | FORCIBLE | Strong Catholic admits weakness? On the contrary (8) |
| RC (Catholic) in (admits) FOIBLE (weakness) | ||
| 20 | ELAN | Dash inside chapel, annoyed (4) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 21 | PRESIDE | Sit after prince offers chair (7) |
| P (prince) + RESIDE (sit) | ||
| 22 | LEVITY | Cutting tax, it displays flippancy (6) |
| IT (it) in (cutting) LEVY (tax) | ||
| 24 | SEOUL | Style of music on Radio Capital (5) |
| Homophone (on radio) of “soul” (style of music). So, is Gangnam Style an example of Seoul Music? | ||
| 25 | SWINE | Scoundrel wants second drink (5) |
| S (second) + WINE (drink) | ||
Bloated or not, 28a is a nice tribute to everyone’s favourite fifteensquared blogger 🙂
Enjoyed this crossword — thanks Alberich. Especially liked PROPHET, SCHNAPPS, and GRATITUDE. EILEEN was fun because part of the parsing, ” wanting to be No 1 among bloggers,” may also be considered the surface as well as “her.” Thanks Pete for the blog.
Thanks to Pete and Alberich
Nice crossword, nice tribute.
Shouldn’t 2d be “unenviable”?
Thanks Alberich and Pete (nice blog)
HYDRANGEA was my second in (sometime after an instant … and after LEVITY). Found it a good work out in between taking a few sittings over a couple of days to get there. No new words for me just cleverly constructed clues throughout.
Finished with CUSHY and the well disguised PROPHET at the top and then with than “Gangnam Style” SEOUL as the last one in.
Nice crossword. I blithely entered ODOL at 11dn, thinking that Odol was probably a minor god who gave his name to a mouthwash in the 60s, so far as I remember. IDOL never even occurred to me.