Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of July 17, 2021
This proved to be my most difficult solve for quite a while. My first-in was 1ac (FLAMBE). I then messed myself up for a good while by entering a wrong answer (GOLD) for 12 (LEAD). I admit to using look-up tools for a couple of clues, not that any answers were terms I did not know but some of the clues are, I think, really tough, notably 13dn (SHEEPCOTE) and 23 (POLEAXE). I congratulate Mudd for two clues that I think we can call &Lits, 4 (EGG SAC) and 25 (EATING). My favourites are 11 (GO TOGETHER), 16 (BECHAMEL), 21 (NANOSECOND) and 25 (EATING).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FLAMBE |
Flexible wrapping containing meat, served very hot (6)
|
| LAMB (meat) in (containing) F[lexibl]E
This was my first-in and came easily even though I wonder about Mudd’s definition. Some flambed dishes are, I believe, made very hot so that the brandy will catch fire by itself but even cold dishes can be flambed if one manually lights the brandy. |
||
| 4 | EGG SAC |
Female spider produces this spun sheath to protect goods (3,3)
|
| GG (goods) in (to protect) of CASE (sheath) reversed (spun). We could alternatively view the whole clue as the definition. | ||
| 8 | ARSENAL |
Dump team (7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 9 | ANTONIO |
Vegetable cut by worker for Venetian merchant (7)
|
| ANT (worker) + ONIO[n] (vegetable cut) with the definition referring to Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice | ||
| 11 | GO TOGETHER |
Travel to pick her up for match (2,8)
|
| GO (travel) + TO (to) + GET HER (pick her up) | ||
| 12 | LEAD |
First element (4)
|
| Double definition. I managed to sabotage myself for a good while by entering GOLD which fits the clue but not nearly as well since the definitions are too close. | ||
| 13 | SHEER |
Total going straight up (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 14 | CABIN BOY |
Servant on ship rocking baby in cot, endlessly (5,3)
|
| Anagram (rocking) of BABY IN CO[t] | ||
| 16 | BECHAMEL |
Live animal fed hot sauce (8)
|
| BE (live) + H (hot) in (fed) CAMEL (animal) | ||
| 18 | MASON |
Builder uniting family members? (5)
|
| MA + SON (family members) | ||
| 20 | SPIT |
Head tilts to the left (4)
|
| TIPS (tilts) backwards (to the left) with the definition referring to a spit in the sense of a headland | ||
| 21 | NANOSECOND |
Instant backing regarding article by supporter (10)
|
| ON AN (regarding article) backwards (backing) + SECOND (support) | ||
| 23 | POLEAXE |
European having let go, fell (7)
|
| POLE (European) + AXE (let go) | ||
| 24 | BEDEVIL |
Plague in bottom, foul! (7)
|
| BED (bottom, as of a river) + EVIL (foul) | ||
| 25 | EATING |
Scoffing a container of baked beans, for example? (6)
|
| A (a) + TIN (container of baked beans) in (scoffing) EG (for example) and &Lit. | ||
| 26 | FLEECE |
Skin coat (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FORGO |
Sacrifice in honour of deity, detailed (5)
|
| FOR (in honour of) + GO[d] (deity detailed) | ||
| 2 | ACETONE |
Organic compound, fine quality (7)
|
| ACE (fine) + TONE (quality) | ||
| 3 | BRAKE DRUM |
Found in Birmingham, scratched revolver in car (5,4)
|
| RAKED (scratched) in (found in) BRUM (Birmingham) | ||
| 5 | GONER |
Person without hope in future, no gin served up (5)
|
| Reverse (served up) hidden word (in) | ||
| 6 | STOLLEN |
German bread taken round Leipzig, initially (7)
|
| L[eipzig] in (round) STOLEN (taken) | ||
| 7 | CHINATOWN |
Wind can now hit ethnic enclave (9)
|
| Anagram (wind) of CAN NOW HIT | ||
| 10 | CHUCKLING |
Darling swimmer having a laugh (9)
|
| CHUCK (darling) + LING (swimmer, i.e. fish) | ||
| 13 | SHEEPCOTE |
Pen novel, adaptation of Poe etc (9)
|
| SHE (novel) + anagram (adaptation of) POE ETC | ||
| 15 | BOMBSHELL |
Lovely shock (9)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | HOT SEAT |
Pants perhaps on fire with this stressful situation (3,4)
|
| I was unsure how to categorize this clue — it seemed barely cryptic to me. Some commenters see it as a double definition and I am going along with that now. | ||
| 19 | SECRETE |
Squirrel ends in eucalyptus tree on island (7)
|
| [eucalyptu]S [tre]E + CRETE (island) | ||
| 21 | NIXON |
Disgraced leader baring all? (5)
|
| NIX ON (baring all) | ||
| 22 | NOISE |
Sound, one caught by sensory organ (5)
|
| I (one) in (caught by) NOSE (sensory organ) |
More like Paul (who’s been more than usually difficult himself lately) than Mudd. Very hard to build up a head of steam and the answers went in slowly one by one, especially towards the end. I liked the ‘Squirrel’ and ‘Plague’ defs being verbs rather than nouns and the misdirection of the ‘fell’ def at 23a which made me think of the past, not the present, tense. I couldn’t parse 10d as hadn’t come across CHUCK for ‘Darling’ before.
Just to pick a few, favourites were the two &lits (good enough to qualify for me anyway), SHEEPCOTE (helped by having seen a TV program about Cotswold sheep a week or so ago), NANOSECOND and especially NIX ON. Does anyone less than about 45 remember him these days I wonder.
Thanks to Mudd and Pete
I was unable to finish this one. Funnily, I managed to solve the clues that challenged Pete but struggled with left hand side, in particular. I might add that, even after reading Pete’s explanation, there are still some clues I do not understand!
Thanks Mudd for the challenge, and thanks Pete for the great explanations.
Thanks for the blog, I agree this was trickier than a usual Mudd. I had GOLD in mind , it does work just as well, but I did not put it in until I had looked at the down clues fortunately.
Have learnt from WordPlodder that Mudd is Paul, yesterday I learnt that IO is Enigmatist. Like Paul this one seemed slow to start but any letters you get always seem very useful.
I took HOT SEAT as a straight double definition with the break after THIS, perhaps an allusion to our lying leader.
EGGSHELL and NIXON are my favourites , NIX ON can be deceptive in the opposite way .
I parsed HOT SEAT as Roz @3.
Dear Pete. Forgive me for writing but this is a personal message of thanks and gratitude for your blogs over the last few years.
I have been a reader of the FT for more than 60 years and a fairly regular solver of their puzzles. A few years ago I became a little disillusioned with it and downgraded to the weekended edition. For some strange reason. they publish Mudd’s puzzle every other week. I have now closed my subscription and this was the last puzzle I did. I am not on his wavelength and find his attempt at wit not at all amusing.
But – as usual – your comments were a delight.
Thanks Pete – I found this a hard Mudd too – the LHS was mostly blank for about a week, and then one evening everything fell into place! I do sometimes feel that given time, new neurons grow specifically to solve particular clues that previously seemed inaccessible…
It took several sittings to complete this crossword and I needed a word finder to solve a number of clues — it wasn’t easy but that’s OK. FLAMBE and ANTONIO were favourites. Thanks Mudd and Pete.
Very much in sync with custard@6 … but none the less enjoyable I found… in fact some great clues .. faves would be 11ac.. probably frequent in crossword world, but new to me.. n 3dn which was pretty much last to go.. played with derivations of BRUM for ages.. I felt the def for FLAMBE was fair given the plan is often to serve the dish actually flaming..?.. 9ac brought vague memories of Owen Teale (from GoT) in that role in about 1993.. turns out he was Bassanio.. well there you go then..!! Had to confirm SHEEPCOTE… I mean really!!?
Thanks MUDD n Pete Maclean
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Was another late start – forgot to have this ready for the Thursday blog. Like others, this took several sessions and was only filled in piece by piece with a lot of overwriting of dud initial entries.
[Pity to see trenodia@5 decide to give these puzzles away and hope that you find some alternatives to fill the gap.]
Ended up making an error with 26d, reading it as a cryptic definition with SLEEVE (a tattoo that covers the skin) rather than Mudd’s preferred double definition which gives the correct answer.
Finished in the NW corner with my erroneous SLEEVE, ACETONE (easy in hindsight, but held out till nearly the end) and ARSENAL (another neat double definition, but tricky with the available crossers, ended up using a word search for it).
Thanks to Mudd for another fun puzzle and Pete for an impeccable blog.
Surprisingly I managed to complete this and yesterday’s Mudd within 24 hours . I struggle with some other setters so the difficulties experienced by more proficient solvers is hard to understand. I agree with custard@6 about new neural pathways . Solutions creep up on one when doing something else like going for a walk or lying in bed. All part of the puzzle experience.
It’s amusing that ‘SHE’ might live forever as a cryptic clue.
I have been learning about brain plasticity of late and am now thinking a lot about cruciverbal neurons.