Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of October 15, 2016
Mudd swings back to a more challenging style in this puzzle. My clue of the week is the lovely 1a (DOORSTEP) and I also like 12a (PATISSERIE) and his use of Red Sea in two clues.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DOORSTEP | A lot of bread where the milk’s left? (8) |
| Double definition. I like this clue very much although the age of leaving of milk on doorsteps must be almost over. For anyone who does not know, a large hunk of bread may be called a doorstep. The clue brings to mind a scene in an old episode of “A Touch of Frost” in which a woman kills her highly unpleasant husband after he complains over breakfast about how she slices the bread saying, “I can’t eat your bloody doorsteps”. | ||
| 6 | FRAPPE | Female hip-hop artist, not entirely chilled (6) |
| F (female) + RAPPE[r] (hip-hop artist, not entirely) | ||
| 9 | PLAICE | Sound house for swimmer (6) |
| Homophone of “place” (house) | ||
| 10 | NORTH SEA | Shorten screws getting to a source of gas (5,3) |
| Anagram (screws) of SHORTEN + A (a) | ||
| 11 | SPRY | Small nose, active (4) |
| S (small) + PRY (nose) | ||
| 12 | PATISSERIE | Shop in Paris, see it abroad (10) |
| Anagram of PARIS SEE IT | ||
| 14 | DEMERARA | Rolling Red Sea with a brown crystalline substance (8) |
| RARE (red) + MED (sea) together backwards (rolling) + A (a) | ||
| 16 | ACER | Tree – one beginning to rot (4) |
| ACE (one) + R[ot] | ||
| 18 | ODDS | Chance one in ounces, perhaps? (4) |
| O N E are the odd letters in OUNCES. My first guess for this was SHOT, which I think works with the clue as a double definition. | ||
| 19 | IDENTITY | Character I refuse to accept has stolen bird (8) |
| I (I) + TIT (bird) in DENY (refuse to accept) | ||
| 21 | BRANDY SNAP | Make pastry ultimately that’s the same for sweet biscuit (6,4) |
| BRAND (make) + [pastr]Y + SNAP (that’s the same). Non-Brits may wonder how “that’s the same” clues SNAP. The usage comes from a children’s card game called Snap in which a player gains cards (and therefore winning potential) by being the first to call out “snap” when two cards played are the same. | ||
| 22 | COSH | Found in Mexico, sharp weapon (4) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 24 | ANACONDA | South American killer has a sting to pierce duck (8) |
| A (a) + CON (sting) in NADA (duck). I had some trouble figuring out the wordplay in this one. My thanks to Peter for this help. | ||
| 26 | ERASED | Red Sea waves wiped out (6) |
| Anagram (waves) of RED SEA | ||
| 27 | JERSEY | Top farm animal (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | KNEE-DEEP | Obligation in store as a wader? (4-4) |
| NEED (obligation) in KEEP (store) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | OXLIP | Flower, very large one in centre of metropolis (5) |
| XL (very large) + I (one) together in [metr]OP[olis] | ||
| 3 | RAINY SEASON | Motive to keep inside say, in stormy, stormy weather (5,6) |
| Anagram (stormy) of SAY IN in REASON (motive). The rainy season in a tropical location typically brings stormy weather but the two are not quite the same. | ||
| 4 | THESPIAN | Actor with the drive to embrace Aristophanes, for a start (8) |
| THE (the) + A[ristophanes] in SPIN (drive) | ||
| 5 | PUNCTUATION MARK | Entering public land, mountain cut off for a period in Wyoming, say? (11,4) |
| Anagram (off) of MOUNTAIN CUT in PARK (public land). Americans call a ‘.’ a period while Brits refer to it as a full stop. | ||
| 6 | FOREST | Many trees old fellow pulled up with the others . . . . (6) |
| O (old) + F (fellow) together backwards + REST (the others) | ||
| 7 | ASH | . . . . One of which remains (3) |
| ASH (one of [many trees]) | ||
| 8 | PRESIDENT | Leader here filing personal papers (9) |
| ID (personal papers) in PRESENT (here) | ||
| 13 | ELASTIC BAND | Group that’s yielding something loopy (7,4) |
| ELASTIC (that’s yielding) + BAND (group) | ||
| 15 | ENDURANCE | Lasting quality in unearned cash primarily inauthentic (9) |
| Anagram (inauthentic) of UNEARNED C[ash] | ||
| 17 | BEL PAESE | Main commoner brought up on English cheese (3,5) |
| SEA (main) + PLEB (commoner) together backwards + E (English) | ||
| 20 | SYDNEY | Vicious, fully vocal Commonwealth city (6) |
| Homophone (vocal) of “Sidney” (Vicious fully). I think this is a bit of a stretch. As I understand it, “Sid Vicious” was a totally assumed name so the guy was never a Sidney. And I know someone commonly called Sid whose full name is Siddhartha. | ||
| 23 | SUEDE | Kid persuaded to speak (5) |
| Homophone (to speak) of SWAYED | ||
| 25 | COS | It’s a function, for that reason (3) |
| Double definition (the second referring to the abbreviation of ‘because’) | ||
too much of a challenge for me
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Started this one at lunchtime on Tuesday and finished it off that night – assuming that I did focus on work during the afternoon, assume that it took between 1-2 hours to finish and parse all bar ANACONDA on which I spent all my time trying to make ANDA somehow equate to ‘duck’. Had never heard of the term NADA anyway – so still would have struggled.
The DOORSTEP for a thick slice of bread was also new to me. There were a few other clues where I was able to bung in the answer and then had to spend time to unravel the word play – PUNCTUATION MARK and DEMERARA the most notable.
Had the same misgiving with the stretch in the SYDNEY clue.
Finished in the top half with PATISSERIE, THESPIAN and DEMERARA the last few in.
Failed on 9a and 20d. Sydney Vicious ? Pretty vacant clue imo