Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of November 5, 2016
I found this to be one of Alberich’s more challenging puzzles and even took some outside help with a couple of clues. My clue of the week is the brilliant 21a (SELF-EVIDENT) and I also especially appreciate 11a (NEUTRAL) and 13a (SET).
| Across | ||
| 9 | DIPHTHONG | Oi, perhaps husband’s after a swim, having beachwear? (9) |
| DIP (swim) + H (husband) + THONG (beachwear) | ||
| 10 | PEACH | Fruit £1 for 100, presumably (5) |
| P EACH (£1 for 100, presumably) | ||
| 11 | NEUTRAL | Ne plus ultra could be not taking sides (7) |
| Anagram of NE ULTRA | ||
| 12 | RECITAL | To a large extent, literacy’s about reading (7) |
| Anagram (about) of LITERAC[y] | ||
| 13 | SET | Decline to arrange location for filming TV series (3) |
| Quintuple definition!!!!! In the case of the first, I take it to mean SET as in ‘sunset’. | ||
| 14 | OFF ONES GAME | Switch positions with me, after ages struggling and playing badly (3,4,4) |
| OFF ON (switch positions) + anagram (struggling) of AGES + ME (me) | ||
| 17 | PARTY | Celebration’s long – that’s right for New Year (5) |
| PANT (long) with ‘N’ (new) replaced by ‘R’ (right) + Y (year). I found this wordplay very tough to figure out and must thank Bob C. for his insights. | ||
| 18 | SEI | Caught for example a whale (3) |
| Homophone of “say” (for example). I am not crazy about ‘caught’ as a homophone indicator. | ||
| 19 | RAFTS | Fellow submerges vermin? On the contrary, they float (5) |
| F (fellow) in RATS (vermin) | ||
| 21 | SELF-EVIDENT | Harry Enfield’s TV entertainer, primarily? That’s obvious (4-7) |
| Anagram (harry) of ENFIELDS TV E[ntertainer] | ||
| 23 | LAM | Latin American beat (3) |
| L (Latin) + AM (American) | ||
| 25 | PLATEAU | Dish given to a university’s high table (7) |
| PLATE (dish) + A (a) + U (university) | ||
| 27 | LEGLESS | Showing effects of drinking like a fish? (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | NOOSE | Nothing’s caught by scent trap (5) |
| O (nothing) in NOSE (scent) | ||
| 29 | FLAGSTONE | It paves the way for initially criminal character to embrace society (9) |
| F[or] + LAG (criminal) + S (society) + TONE (character) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ADONIS | A fellow’s touring island? That’s dandy (6) |
| A (a) + I (island) in DONS (fellow’s). I originally parsed this a little differently. | ||
| 2 | SPLUTTER | Splash drops when hot, say? (8) |
| SPL[ash] (splash drops AS [when] + H [hot]) + UTTER (say) | ||
| 3 | STEREOTYPE | Too readily categorise person keen on hi-fi, as it were? (10) |
| Double definition | ||
| 4 | COIL | Around one, pass wind (4) |
| I (one) in COL (pass) | ||
| 5 | AGGRANDISE | A grades in everything, finally? Sadly that’s to exaggerate (10) |
| Anagram (sadly) of A GRADES IN [everythin]G | ||
| 6 | EPIC | European gets shot? It’s a long story (4) |
| E (European) + PIC (shot) | ||
| 7 | TANTRA | Bronze sculpture perhaps reflected holy writings (6) |
| TAN (bronze) + ART (sculpture perhaps) backwards | ||
| 8 | SHELTERS | Officer enters flat overlooking South Shields (8) |
| LT (officer) in SHEER (flat) + S (south) | ||
| 15 | FISTICUFFS | If around, copper stops tough son fighting (10) |
| FI (if around) + CU (copper) in STIFF (tough) + S (son) | ||
| 16 | STRATEGIST | In a couple of ways, think highly of soldier becoming general? (10) |
| ST (way) + RATE (think highly of) + GI (soldier) + ST (way) | ||
| 17 | POSTPONE | Open new mail first, or do it later? (8) |
| POST (mail) + anagram (new) of OPEN | ||
| 20 | FOLDEROL | Fellow’s learning up about ancient nonsense word (8) |
| F (fellow) + OLD (ancient) + LORE (learning) backwards | ||
| 22 | LEAN ON | Pressurise state to release bishop (4,2) |
| LE[b]ANON | ||
| 24 | MUSTER | Is leading lady obliged to enrol? (6) |
| MUST ER (is leading lady [i.e. the Queen] obliged?) | ||
| 26 | EVER | Brought up minister’s poor grade in history (4) |
| REV (minister) + E (poor grade) all backwards | ||
| 27 | LEAD | See in Rattle a desire to conduct (4) |
| Hidden word | ||
Thanks Alberich and Pete.
1dn works as A DON’S containing I.
Ah yes, thank you, Pelham.
Thanks as ever Pete. I resorted to help to solve this (and still got Tantra wrong) as as a result didn’t understand why some answers were what they were. You have enlightened me as usual.
I have never found so many ridiculous clues. Thanks for trying to make some sense of them for me Pete.
After an absurd amount of time, I got all bar
16d -is a strategist really a general?
20d -never heard of
24d I think this is wrong -muster in is to enrol not muster by itself
This did not come in the enjoyable category
Bamberger,
Is a strategist really a general? I have little familiarity with military ranks but one thing I can tell you that argues for the case is that, in Greek, the word for ‘strategist’ and ‘general’ is the same.
Regarding ‘muster’ and ‘enrol’, I share your doubt. There is certainly a connection but neither my Chambers nor my thesaurus validates any overlap in meaning.
Chambers gives for ‘muster’ as a definition (#2, transitive & intransitive verb) ‘to enrol’.
Oxford tells us: ‘muster someone in’ = ‘enrol someone into’ (US usage).
As to ‘general’ = ‘strategist’, Chambers says: ‘strategy’ = ‘generalship, or the art of conducting a campaign and manoeuvring an army’.
Also: ‘strategist’ = ‘a person skilled in strategy’.
All completely fair to me.
Moreover, both clues left no room for anything else.
Be aware that 16d contained a question mark, not unimportant.
Finally, ‘caught’ (18ac) is a very common homophone indicator.
As in ‘picked up’, ‘heard’.
I actually don’t remember anymore whether I thought this crossword was difficult or not.
I am usually 100% on Alberich’s wavelength, knowing exactly what to expect.
He is certainly no Dante or Mudd, nor is he an IO (to name the one I struggle most with in this newspaper).
Thanks Alberich and Pete
Not quite sure what all of the negativity is about with this – the only clue that has a question mark on it to my mind was MUSTER (IN) – but the setter actually had a ? on it as well !! There were a number of other clues that before reading the proper parsing in the blog, I thought were similarly questionable, but the fault was more with me for not ‘getting it’ with them than with the setter. They included ADONIS (which I parsed the same as what I presume that you originally had), SPLUTTER (because I failed to see that it was an excellent &lit clue with a superb word play as it turns out) and SEI (from my ignorance of the pronunciation of the word – always thought of it as ‘sigh’ and was looking for something happening with SEI[ZED] /caught to form the word play).
The quintuple definition was subliminal – the surface reading had lulled me into thinking that it was a pretty good triple definition. NEUTRAL was the other excellent construction with the misleading French phrase forming a very clever instruction to build the anagram. I didn’t have second thoughts about STRATEGIST being equivalent to a general at 16d and thought it another fine clue.
Finished in NE corner with RECITAL, EPIC (short and tricky) and PEACH (which I struggled a little with the grammar of the construction but eventually saw what he was trying to get at) as the last few in.
Alberich is a multi-layered setter, and a very good one at that, who’s clues can leave one frustrated if you are not prepared to work down through these layers – thought that this was excellent !!!
Well said Bruce and Sil. One or two posters would be better off with the Sun puzzle, judging by their comments here and on other FT puzzles.
Cruciverbophile. Ok as I’m not wanted, I’ll never post again on this site.
Bye everyone -I thought I was being critical not offensive.
@9 Cruciverbophile: Be fair – at least the posters at 3 and 5 have been honest enough to admit their limitations as solvers. Post No 4 on the other hand is obviously written from under the bridge while waiting for the Billy Goats Gruff to come along.
Sil, Thank you for establishing that about ‘enrol’ and ‘muster’ for us.
Don’t think it was you being got at. It was me I think, but one is entitled to ones own opinions. Please don’t stop making your comments as they often help me. Rude re Sun though!!!!!
@13: Yes, you’re entitled to your opinion, but you expressed it in a rather inflammatory way. Some puzzles are easy and some are hard, but as Pete, Sil and Bruce have shown this puzzle was quite fair and logical, so calling it ridiculous is unlikely to endear you to those who appreciated it. I neither like nor understand jazz but I would expect to get flamed if I called it ridiculous music on the basis of my own lack of comprehension.
Quite right Kaja. I apologise I obviously got out the wrong side that morning.