Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 21, 2020
Some nice clues here including a couple with slightly cryptic definitions, 11ac (PHILATELY) and 6dn (COALFIELD), and a couple of good double definitions, 15ac (ON THE ROAD) and 4dn (NUMBER ONE). But my favourite is 26ac (AMOUR).
| Across | ||
| 1 | JACOBIN | Indian worshipper saving bread for French republican (7) |
| COB (bread) in (saving) JAIN (Indian worshipper). A Jacobin was a member of the radical movement that instituted the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. | ||
| 5 | RECITAL | Performance backfiring after touring Guernsey etc (7) |
| CI (Guernsey etc – that is the Channel Islands) in (touring) LATER (after) backwards (backfiring) | ||
| 9 | CORAL | Pink champagne primarily for the mouth! (5) |
| C[hampagne] + ORAL (for the mouth) | ||
| 10 | MINIATURE | Little blossom in Italy’s cut (9) |
| IN (in) + I (Italy) together in (in) MATURE (blossom) | ||
| 11 | PHILATELY | Greek character not long ago collecting small pieces of paper (9) |
| PHI (Greek character) + LATELY (not long ago). This was my first-in, perhaps because I was a serious stamp collector at one time in my life. | ||
| 12 | FATWA | Large wife served with a religious decree (5) |
| FAT (large) + W (wife) + A (a) | ||
| 13 | TROOP | Tramp left, getting up, clutching nothing (5) |
| O (nothing) in (clutching) PORT (left) backwards (getting up) | ||
| 15 | ON THE ROAD | Driving book (2,3,4) |
| Double definition with the second referring to Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road”. | ||
| 18 | GREAT BEAR | Ashes evidently lost, did you say, for group of stars? (5,4) |
| Homophone (did you say) of GRATE BARE (ashes evidently lost) | ||
| 19 | DEFOE | Novelist, certainly English (5) |
| DEFO (certainly + E (English). ‘Defo’ is an informal term in British usage meaning definitely: an expression of agreement or consent. This was new to me. | ||
| 21 | TASER | Weapon trademarked, and stunning errant rogues, initially (5) |
| T[rademarked] A[nd] S[tunning] E[rrant] R[ogues] | ||
| 23 | FOOTLOOSE | Free service’s ending, pay ladies and gentlemen to go ahead (9) |
| FOOT (pay) + LOOS (ladies and gentlemen) + [servic]E | ||
| 25 | EARPIECES | Parts attached to side of head, each terribly precise (9) |
| EA (each) + anagram (terribly) of PRECISE | ||
| 26 | AMOUR | Fury has no limits after a second affair (5) |
| A (a) + MO (second) + [f]UR[y] | ||
| 27 | SAMOYED | Kind of dog, someday barking (7) |
| Anagram (barking) of SOMEDAY | ||
| 28 | SPARROW | Fish caught by female bird (7) |
| PARR (fish) in (caught by) SOW (female) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | JACKPOT | All to win, flag best raised (7) |
| JACK (flag) + TOP (best) backwards (raised) | ||
| 2 | CORTISONE | Steroid forming nice torso (9) |
| Anagram (forming) of NICE TORSO | ||
| 3 | BALSA | A hunk climbing in wood (5) |
| A (a) + SLAB (hunk) all backwards (climbing) | ||
| 4 | NUMBER ONE | Hit yourself (6,3) |
| Double definition. And a very fine one. | ||
| 5 | RANDY | Hot wingers in rugby? (5) |
| R AND Y (wingers in rugby) | ||
| 6 | COALFIELD | Indifferent about Michael Caine film – the pits? (9) |
| ALFIE (Michael Caine film) in (about) COLD (indifferent) | ||
| 7 | TAUNT | Portrait in the end, relative insult (5) |
| [portrai]T + AUNT (relative) | ||
| 8 | LEEWARD | Haul fish up with the current (7) |
| DRAW (haul) + EEL (fish) all backwards (up) | ||
| 14 | PATERNITY | Doctor in a pretty kind of suit (9) |
| Anagram (doctor) of IN A PRETTY | ||
| 16 | TORTOISES | Those shelled, when bombed resist too (9) |
| Anagram (when bombed) of RESIST TOO | ||
| 17 | OFF COLOUR | Sick of Man United say, old menace (3-6) |
| OF (of) + FC (Man United say) + O (old) + LOUR (menace) | ||
| 18 | GUTLESS | Weak – becoming wk? (7) |
| Semi-&lit. | ||
| 20 | EYEBROW | Heading for execution, relative hiding in tree – that’s hairy! (7) |
| E[xecution] + BRO (relative) in (hiding in) YEW (tree) | ||
| 22 | SCRUM | Fight delicious? O my! (5) |
| SCRUM[my]. I see how ‘O’ could serve as a removal indicator but I am not sure that I like it. | ||
| 23 | FACED | Up-ended drink dealt with (5) |
| DECAF (drink) backwards (up-ended) | ||
| 24 | LHASA | Far Eastern city in Nepal has appeared (5) |
| Hidden word | ||
Thanks as ever, Pete.
I got everything right but I couldn’t see how 10ac (MINIATURE) worked.
After I read the blog I could kick myself.
SCRUM (22d) was my penultimate one in and I am actually fine with “O”.
Took a while before the penny dropped, though.
I think that ‘getting up’ in 13ac doesn’t work properly, in a Down it would.
Quite unlike Mudd who is usually very precise in these kinds of things.
Apart from that, lots to like.
Ah, I did not acknowledge this in the blog but I too could not see how 10ac worked and relied on one of my solving buddies to explain it. (Thanks, P.)
As always, I always like crosswords by Mudd. Required a look-up for JACOBIN. Favorite was LEEWARD. TROOP would have been better clued with “Tramp left, going West, clutching nothing” but it was solvable nonetheless. Thanks Pete for the blog.
Thanks to both. I also was unaware of the term DEFO but got the right answer without knowing why. The rest I enjoyed although it took me a long time to get TROOP. I had TROMP for a long time but it didn’t seem right. In 22d I read the O as a zero – eventually.
I agree with Sil @1 about ‘getting up’ in 13ac not working, but that was my only grumble in another terrific puzzle from Mudd. My favourites were the brilliant semi-&lit reverse logic GUTLESS and the equally brilliant double definition NUMBER ONE.
Thanks to all.
I have got used to Mudd so can now often solve it all as in this one, but I still rely on you Pete to explain some of the answers that although I get I can’t always explain. Thanks again. For instance 22dn. I got scrum which had to be right, but i couldn’t explain why.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Great puzzle and excellent blog as usual from both. Was able to solve in about my average time – around the 40 minutes in a couple of sessions – so a mid-level difficulty crossword. Funny how we are have different solving approaches, for this one my eye was immediately drawn to the last clue with LHASA jumping straight out. Your PHILATELY went in well into the second half of the solve.
Hadn’t parsed SCRUM at the time and meant to go back to it and didn’t – not sure whether I would’ve untangled it anyway. Always admire his double definitions and both 15a and 4d were excellent renditions here. Agree that AMOUR was the best of a very good bunch – a brilliant related surface.
Finished in the NE corner with DEFOE (hadn’t heard that DEFO term for years), FATWA and COALFIELD.