Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of October 24, 2020
This puzzle is highly unusual in that I strongly suspect that there are two typographical errors in it. The suspect clues are 10ac (AU REVOIR) and 2dn (LUTHERAN).
I somehow think that Mudd especially enjoyed setting this one given the particular inventiveness in 4ac (ADULTERY) and 15ac (THANK HEAVENS). My favourite clues are 18ac (FRANK SINATRA), 25ac (FORINT), 5dn (DOUBLE VISION) and 17dn (GANGSTER).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | VOLUME | How loud one’s read (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 4 | ADULTERY | On leaving Luton, ready to travel, playing away (8) |
| Anagram (to travel) of LUT[on] READY | ||
| 9 | RATTLE | Throw baby’s toy (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 10 | AU REVOIR | Gold ring round in ebbing water, I’m off! (2,6) |
| AU (gold) + O (ring?) in (in) RIVER (water) backwards (ebbing). It would seem that one of ‘ring’ and ’round’ is unneeded and intrusive here but I wonder if there is simply a typo and ’round’ should have been ‘found’. | ||
| 12 | OWEN | Modern orator initially backing old poet (4) |
| NEW (modern) + O[rator] all backwards (backing) Wilfred Edward Salter Owen, MC was an English poet and soldier, considered to be one of the leading poets of WWI. |
||
| 13 | COS LETTUCE | Church confiscating fancy culottes, leaves from island? (3,7) |
| Anagram (fancy) of CULOTTES in (confiscating) CE (church) | ||
| 15 | THANK HEAVENS | Star circling sky, what a relief! (5,7) |
| HEAVEN (sky) in (circling) T[om] HANKS (star). Using ‘star’ to clue something like T HANKS is unusual but I think it works. | ||
| 18 | FRANK SINATRA | Honest artisan destroyed old entertainer (5,7) |
| FRANK (honest) + anagram (destroyed) of ARTISAN | ||
| 21 | WINE REGION | Touring, I ignore new area like Tuscany? (4,6) |
| Anagram (touring) of I IGNORE NEW | ||
| 22 | DRAG | Puff and yawn (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 24 | INIQUITY | At home I’ve had enough: last seen of deadly sin (8) |
| IN (at home) + I QUIT (I’ve had enough) + [deadl]Y | ||
| 25 | FORINT | Capital in Budapest, in Cardiff or in Tbilisi (6) |
| Hidden word. The ‘forint’ is the monetary unit of Hungary. | ||
| 26 | SOLIDITY | Dependable quality, sauce bottles top it (8) |
| LID (top) + IT (it) together in (bottles) SOY (sauce) | ||
| 27 | DAGGER | Knife stuck in another egg, a duck taken aback (6) |
| Reverse hidden word | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | VERMOUTH | Aromatic beverage clergyman knocked up: drinker, arguably? (8) |
| REV (clergyman) backwards (knocked up) + MOUTH (drinker, arguably) | ||
| 2 | LUTHERAN | Initially lazy, neutral converts Protestant (8) |
| It seems that there must be an error in this clue. To give Mudd the benefit of any doubt, it could be a simple typo with “lazy” instead of “hazy” which would mean it works as: Anagram (converts) of H[azy] NEUTRAL | ||
| 3 | MALT | Island nation cut liquor (4) |
| MALT[a] (island nation cut) | ||
| 5 | DOUBLE VISION | Eye disorder v. v. important originally, issue consuming one (6,6) |
| DOUBLE V (v.v.) + I[mportant] + I (one) in (consuming) SON (issue) | ||
| 6 | LIEUTENANT | European Union figure in translation of Latin, rank (10) |
| EU (European Union) + TEN (figure) in (in) anagram (translation of) LATIN | ||
| 7 | EXODUS | Book where old puzzle, two- thirds finished, turned up (6) |
| EX (old) + SUDO[ku] (puzzle, two-thirds finished) backwards (turned up) | ||
| 8 | YORKER | Queen after royal house for ball (6) |
| YORK (royal house) + ER (Queen). In cricket, a yorker is a ball bowled which hits the cricket pitch around the batsman’s feet. | ||
| 11 | COME AND GET IT | Detecting a fuss about order, dinner is served! (4,3,3,2) |
| OM (order, i.e. Order of Merit) in (about) anagram (fuss) of DETECTING A | ||
| 14 | SKIRT ROUND | Avoid drunks with riot out of control (5,5) |
| Anagram (out of control) of DRUNKS RIOT | ||
| 16 | STERLING | Excellent money (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | GANGSTER | Villain in Joker catching Batman, finally (8) |
| [batma]N in (catching) GAGSTER (joker) | ||
| 19 | SWAINS | Lovers, elegant things impressing yours truly (6) |
| I (yours truly) in (impression) SWANS (elegant things) | ||
| 20 | ONEILL | Person suffering, US playwright (6) |
| ONE (person) + ILL (suffering) | ||
| 23 | COLA | Drink taken in Monaco, lager (4) |
| Hidden word (taken in) | ||
Thanks Mudd and Pete
A really enjoyable offering from JH with this one with some classic clues such as ‘playing away’ for ADULTERY, the ‘DOUBLE V’ in 5d, the T HANKS trick (which I’m annoyed at myself for not seeing here as I’m sure that I have seen it before), the clever word play for the tragic WW1 poet and the very well put together O’NEILL.
Didn’t notice the two L’s and no H in the fodder for 2d. I think that the word play for 10a is OK though, albeit quite complicated – had it that ‘ring’ meant that the ‘ebbing river’ was to go around ’round’ (O).
Finished with those two literary fellows along with SOLIDITY.
22a took some dragging out. A neat double definition. Had a cross against 2d and agree that 10a also looks wrong but didn’t seem to notice it at the time. I put in MALI for 3d, hoping that it might be an island nation (geography is not my strength) and was a shortened MALIBU.
My favourite clues here were COS LETTUCE, INIQUITY and DRAG, one of Mudd’s sly double defs.
Scored 2d despite noting the odd ‘lazy’ and as for AU REVOIR, I arrived at it using ‘au’ + re(ser)voir for ‘water’ but can’t remember why or how – clearly not right!
Finished with MALT and OWEN.
Thanks to Mudd for another enjoyable Sunday solve and to Pete for reminding me of the T.Hanks trick.
6d EU for European Union not just U
Couldn’t get drag, which looks like two slang definitions. Also put in Mali for no good reason as I know it isn’t an island Nation
Enjoyed it all though. Couldn’t get O”neill
For a change I had no difficulty with this puzzle except over LUTHERAN and its effect on OWEN. I could only think of Ovid as the old poet and thought I was missing something (apart from the misprint) with the clueing of Lutheran. I saw the “odddity” in AU but thought it might be idiomatic for, say, a gold wedding ring which you would explain.
My trouble with Owen was that my love of poetry was nurtured in my teenage years when Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Owen were my principal mentors. Owen had only been dead some 30 years so was “young” but 70 years later he is “old”. Heigh ho!
Thank you both.
After discussion, my wife and I reached your conclusion on Lutheran. We did note that there was extra wordplay to enjoy as the clue was both hazy and lazy.
Thanks to Mudd for an enjoyable afternoon solve and to Pete for the explanations. I came here searching for the missing “H” in LUTHERAN as well and decided typos are not the province of just The Guardian. With AU REVOIR, I took “round” to mean the ring was in the reversed river – another typo did not occur to me. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this with lots of smiley moments.
Thoroughly enjoyed this — thanks Mudd. ADULTERY, FRANK SINATRA, DOUBLE VISION, and O’NEILL were particular favorites. Thanks Pete for the blog as always.
There was a typo a few weeks ago too – at least in my edition. A whole clue was missing. Did anyone else experience that?