Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 28, 2021
I thought this was a fine puzzle from Mudd although it does have what I believe to be one serious error — see 5dn (HEATH ROBINSON).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BOGOTA |
Capital city, where a country bumpkin’s heading back (6)
|
| A (a) + TOGO (country) + B[umpkin] all backwards (back) | ||
| 4 | WHIPCORD |
Promise to bind joint with last of elastic, fibres twisted together (8)
|
| HIP (joint) + [elasti]C together in (to bind) WORD (promise) | ||
| 9 | CARER |
Losing head, person frightening nurse, say? (5)
|
| [s]CARER (losing head, person frightening) | ||
| 10 | HEARTLESS |
Cold as a deck when quarter scrubbed? (9)
|
| Double/cryptic definition | ||
| 11 | LEBANON |
A noble sort of northern country (7)
|
| Anagram (sort of) of A NOBLE + N (northern) | ||
| 12 | HEBREWS |
Book chap formulates (7)
|
| HE (chap) + BREWS (formulates). Hebrews is a book of the bible. | ||
| 13 | SELF |
Individual muscle cut back (4)
|
| FLES[h] (muscle cut) backwards.
I originally took the answer to be SOLE[us] (muscle cut back) which I think works as well. A commenter suggested that SELF is a better answer and the published solution confirmed that this was Mudd’s intention. |
||
| 14 | OBSOLETE |
Black fish in hotel, skinned, well past sell-by date? (8)
|
| B (black) + SOLE (fish) in (in) [h]OTE[l] | ||
| 17 | INFRA DIG |
Riding a filly originally, ground beneath one (5,3)
|
| Anagram (ground) of RIDING A F[illy]. “Infra dig” means beneath one’s dignity. | ||
| 19 | BLUE |
Down and dirty (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 22 | REBIRTH |
Second appearance in Scottish tribe recently recalled (7)
|
| Reverse (recalled) hidden word (in) | ||
| 24 | SPOONER |
Before securing page he made errors in speech (7)
|
| P (page) in (securing) SOONER (before) | ||
| 25 | VELVETEEN |
Fabric in check, around which eleven buckles (9)
|
| VET (check) in (around which) anagram (buckles) of ELEVEN | ||
| 26 | MAINE |
State channel broadcast (5)
|
| Homophone of “main” (channel) | ||
| 27 | RHAPSODY |
Joy drops hay all over the shop (8)
|
| Anagram (all over the shop) of DROPS HAY | ||
| 28 | PLIERS |
Tool competitors discussed in Australia? (6)
|
| Strine pronunciation (discussed in Australia) of “players” (competitors) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BACKLASH |
Hostile reaction when champion goes on strike (8)
|
| BACK (champion) + LASH (strike) | ||
| 2 | GARIBALDI |
Biscuit again unwrapped, slightly dirty inside (9)
|
| RIBALD (slightly dirty) in (inside) [a]GAI[n] | ||
| 3 | THRONE |
Seat launched, it’s said? (6)
|
| Homophone (it’s said) of “thrown” (launched) | ||
| 5 | HEATH ROBINSON |
Ludicrously complex alliance of former British and Irish premiers (5,8)
|
| HEATH (former British premier) + ROBINSON (former Irish premier?)
A Heath Robinson is a machine that intentionally does something simple in an unnecessarily complicated way. The British premier is obviously Ted Heath but what about the Irish one? I can find no record of an Irish PM named Robinson and I suspect Mudd was thinking about Mary Robinson. But she was President of Ireland, never the Taoiseach. Or am I missing something? |
||
| 6 | POTABLE |
Account behind the bar reserved by staff for drinking (7)
|
| TAB (account behind bar) in (reserved by) POLE (staff) | ||
| 7 | OX-EYE |
Beef, yours truly said, for Daisy (2-3)
|
| OX (beef) + homophone (said) of “I” (yours truly)
There are apparently two different daisies called ox-eyes. |
||
| 8 | DESIST |
Stop in scruffy side street (6)
|
| Anagram (scruffy) of SIDE + ST (street) | ||
| 10 | HANG BY A THREAD |
Look precarious, as did Damocles’ sword? (4,2,1,6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | EGLANTINE |
Flower, elegant in wreathes (9)
|
| Anagram (wreathes) of ELEGANT IN | ||
| 16 | TERRIERS |
In lines, stray dogs (8)
|
| ERR (stray) in (in) TIERS (lines) | ||
| 18 | FORCEPS |
Instrument: piano appearing in unusual fresco (7)
|
| P (piano) in (appearing in) anagram (unusual) of FRESCO | ||
| 20 | DRIVER |
Loon perhaps guzzling last of cider – one for the road? (6)
|
| [cide]R in (guzzling) DIVER (loon perhaps) | ||
| 21 | NORMAL |
Conventional piece from bohemian or malcontent (6)
|
| Hidden word (piece from) | ||
| 23 | BALSA |
Floater, a large piece coming up (5)
|
| A (a) + SLAB (large piece) all backwards (coming up) |
Thanks for the blog Pete.
I suspect you are correct about Mary Robinson, but a premier can be the head of government and a president is that. It does seem a bit loose though.
Clueing HEBREWS like that is surely approaching chestnut stage these days.
I was, thankfully, delighted to see SPOONER in a different guise.
4a, 1, 5 & 10d could almost be a mini-theme.
I did enjoy this, so thanks Mudd for the entertainment.
Talk about expanding the vocabulary. There were a ton of words that were new to me – WHIPCORD, GARIBALDI, HEATH-ROBINSON, Soleus, OX-EYE, and EGLANTINE. Plus I did not realise that BALSA was used for floats, nor that a LOON dives. So, it may not surprise you that I found this a challenge in places.
But, I chipped away and chipped away, and somehow managed to get it out and parse all the clues correctly.
I had a lot of tick marks, indicating there was a lot I liked about this puzzle. Favourites included BOGOTA, REBIRTH, PLIERS, BACKLASH, and TERRIERS.
Thanks, as always, to Pete and Mudd
Mudd was in good form with this grid. The biscuit at 2d was a favourite due to an old family joke but ticks also for HEARTLESS (definition), THRONE and PLIERS (sound), REBIRTH (well disguised) and RHAPSODY (surface).
I had only the vaguest recollection of HEATH ROBINSON and needed all crossers to land it.
Couldn’t parse a number including LOI, SOLE as I didn’t know that muscle so thanks Mudd for your detailed blog.
Thanks Pete — I needed the blog more than usual because I found this Mudd crossword more difficult than most of his offerings. I never got HEATH ROBINSON nor would I have understood it if I guessed it. I also failed at WHIPCORD and POTABLE. I was able to get GARIBALDI and OX-EYE mainly because I’ve seen them multiple times in other crosswords. Favourites were HEARTLESS and BOGOTA. Thanks Mudd.
Thanks for the blog, good spot on HEATH ROBINSON , I just wrote it in without thinking .
Premier means head of government, Mary Robinson was head of state, a very different role in Ireland. There is also Peter Robinson who was First Minister in the NI assembly but this is not head of government either. Perhaps LEADERS would have been better in the clue.
Like Tony I have seen OXEYE a lot in crosswords , a change from obese.
I did not know that BALSA was actually a raft , I did know the wood was very light.
Oh, me @3
I meant thanks to Pete for the well-considered blog!
Thanks to both setter & blogger.
For 13a, I think a better answer is SELF = Individual – FLESH (muscle/muscular tissue) without the last letter (cut) and reversed (back). It is unfortunate that SOLEUS without the last 2 letters also parses to make SOLE but I don’t think it fits the wordplay quite as well.
Shikasta, Thank you for commenting. I am not convinced that SELF is the better answer but I am now thinking that it is at least as good.
I agree with Pete @8. I will be eagerly awaiting the published answers on Saturday to see what Mudd thought.
The published solution has SELF and I bow to shikasta for getting it right.
Indeed! I had SOLE, as did the other contributors, I suspect. Well done Shikasta
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Very late to the party with this one, only getting to It a week ago and then sitting there with my uncomfortable SOLE in at 13a. Finally used a word search to find other alternatives, saw SELF and was more than comfortable that it was the required answer with the same parsing as shikasta@12.
See that it took just under the three hours across three sittings to complete, so that is as hard as I have found this setter for a while. Oddly enough it was the ‘Australian pronunciation of players’ that led to 28a being the only answer not fully parsed – perhaps I’m not ‘Strine enough – can now empathise with some UK solvers that have difficulty with homophones.
Finished with POTABLE, WHIPCORD (a new term) and of course that SELF as the last one in.