Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of November 6, 2021
The struck me as a fairly routine Mudd. My first-in was the easy 4ac (PIE CHART) and last was the trickier 23dn (MATCH). My favourites are 13ac (FOR CERTAIN), 16ac (WELFARE) and 25dn (PINOT). And I am unsure as to how 1dn (ON STRIKE) is supposed to work.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | OPPUGN |
Challenge old dog within confines of prison (6)
|
| O (old) + PUG (dog) in (within) P[riso]N. Oppugn, a new word to me. means to challenge the accuracy, probity, or propriety of something. | ||
| 4 | PIE CHART |
Patchier, blurred diagram (3,5)
|
| Anagram (blurred) of PATCHIER | ||
| 10 | SAINTLY |
Badly written list any good? (7)
|
| Anagram (badly written) of LIST ANY | ||
| 11 | PONTOON |
Twenty-one boats forming bridge (7)
|
| Double definition, the first referring to a card game that is also known as twenty-one | ||
| 12 | ROCK |
Sweet, dependable type (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | FOR CERTAIN |
Train affected by impact, surely (3,7)
|
| FORCE (impact) + anagram (affected) of TRAIN | ||
| 15 | KIPPER |
Person in bed, one’s been cured (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | WELFARE |
Pixie in good health (7)
|
| ELF (pixie) in (in) WARE (good) | ||
| 20 | FLAT CAP |
Uninspiring peak for hat (4,3)
|
| FLAT (uninspiring) + CAP (peak) | ||
| 21 | SLICER |
Sharp tool chopping up relics (6)
|
| Anagram (chopping up) of RELICS | ||
| 24 | HOPPING MAD |
Very sore, having burned foot perhaps? (7,3)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 26 | WREN |
Bird with rather exotic name, originally (4)
|
| W[ith] R[ather] E[xotic] N[ame] | ||
| 28 | PENGUIN |
Swan trap catching head of unfortunate bird (7)
|
| PEN (swan) + U[nfortunate] in GIN (trap) | ||
| 29 | CLEMENT |
Fine novel ultimately put in binder (7)
|
| [nove]L in (put in) CEMENT (binder) | ||
| 30 | LATTERLY |
Really upset about vacuous twit, not long ago (8)
|
| T[wi]T in anagram (upset) of REALLY | ||
| 31 | SORTIE |
Military flight in store, I gathered (6)
|
| Anagram (gathered) of STORE I | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ON STRIKE |
Out awaiting delivery (2,6)
|
| I had expected that this was a double definition but could not explain “awaiting delivery” as a definition until Roz helped me out — see the comments. Thank you, Roz. | ||
| 2 | PRINCIPAL |
Chief belief, we hear? (9)
|
| Homophone (we hear) of “principle” (belief) | ||
| 3 | GUTS |
Middle bottle (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 5 | IMPACTED |
Rascal seemed crushed (8)
|
| IMP (rascal) + ACTED (seemed) | ||
| 6 | CENTREFOLD |
Prominent feature, tenor clef scribbled on top of desk (10)
|
| Anagram (scribbled) of TENOR CLEF + D[esk] | ||
| 7 | AROMA |
Whiff in European capital, as the locals would say? (5)
|
| A ROMA (European capital, as locals, that is Romans, would say) | ||
| 8 | TENANT |
Article penned in temporary accommodation for paying resident (6)
|
| AN (article) in (penned in) TENT (temporary accommodation) | ||
| 9 | SYNOD |
Council somewhat busy, no doubt (5)
|
| Hidden word (somewhat) | ||
| 14 | CENTRIFUGE |
Spinner seeking money, questionable figure (10)
|
| CENT (money) + anagram (questionable) of FIGURE | ||
| 17 | RECURRENT |
Repeating, concerned with wind (9)
|
| RE (concerned with) + CURRENT (wind) | ||
| 18 | MARGINAL |
Minor found near the border (8)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 19 | BRUNETTE |
Brown beast circling trap (8)
|
| NET (trap) in (circling) BRUTE (beast) | ||
| 22 | CHAPEL |
Place of worship man left after end of service (6)
|
| CHAP (man) + [servic]E + L (left) | ||
| 23 | MATCH |
Light tie (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 25 | PINOT |
Wine to drink up (5)
|
| TO (to) + NIP (drink) all backwards (up) | ||
| 27 | ZERO |
Duck kept in freezer often (4)
|
| Hidden word (kept in) |
Got off to a false start writing NASTILY (‘badly’) for 10a, my FOI. Luckily, my next was PRINCIPAL which clearly showed I’d got the wrong end of the stick. A nice misdirection.
Aside from that, I found this Mudd puzzle a straightforward and steady solve with just WELFARE and OPPUGN (come again?) holding me up – both parsable, however.
Favourites included KIPPER, CENTRIFUGE and CLEMENT, my LOI. I also liked the surfaces of REPEATING and HOPPING MAD and the usual bouquet of double definitions.
Thanks to Mudd and to Pete. I also did not understand ‘on’ in 1d, thinking it was a cricket term?
For some reason I had difficulty with the double definitions in this crossword and I missed GUTS, MARGINAL, and MATCH. I did get ON STRIKE based on “out,” i.e. workers being on strike; according to Wiktionary, ON STRIKE also means “due to face the next delivery from the bowler.” (I don’t understand cricket at all so I can’t clarify any further.) I did enjoy clues like IMPACTED, CENTRIFUGE, and ZERO. Thanks to both.
Great fun but not as difficult as some. Thanks for that Mudd.
Pete, ON STRIKE is a double definition with the workers out and then facing the bowler in cricket, or waiting for the delivery from the bowler, as Tony has said. This is one where the word ON does not mean a side of the field in cricketing terms.
While I had run into OPPUGN before I wasn’t completely happy with the wording as the first two letters could be swapped, which would be nonsense.
Diane, I also considered NASTILY for 10a until I read it carefully.
There was a lot to like here and PENGUIN raised a smile.
Thanks for the blog Pete.
Not much to add this week, given prior comments. I needed outside help to realise minor means MARGINAL, and had the sense (for a change) to look up GIN and learn it means trap.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Thanks for the blog, I took ON STRIKE to mean a batter in baseball but I know as little about baseball as cricket so thanks to Tony@2 for the explanation. Have see OPPUGN in older novels, usually someone’s good name being oppugned.
A lot of nice clues here most of them mentioned above.
WELFARE has good=ware ? Probably being very dumb here but I can’t see it, can someone explain please ?
Roz, I understood ‘good’ and ‘ware’ here to be unusual singular forms of ‘goods’ and ‘wares’, which are, in the plural, unproblematic as synonyms – i.e. products offered for sale, eg by an itinerant or market trader.
@Roz re good = ware. I thought of the plural in terms of “my shop sells goods” and “my shop sells wares”
Thank you both very much, I did not think of the plural at all so could not get to the singular.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Took a while to get the first clue in this one, as it can sometimes be with this setter, but eventually saw the WREN at 20a and was then off, getting to it during breaks throughout a working day here today.
Was another who lazily wrote in NASTILY, although half expecting that it wasn’t correct – it also took PRINCIPAL to force the correction. No real problems with the rest of it, until coming back to the NW corner, with that PRINCIPAL getting it started and eventually finished with KIPPER, GUTS, ON STRIKE (was across the cricket term) and ROCK the last one in.
ON STRIKE It’s from cricket (as mentioned). There are two batsmen (or batswomen), one at each of the two wickets, depending on where they finished up after the last run. The one facing the next ball (delivery) from the bowler is said to be ON STRIKE.