Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of January 14, 2017
I rate this as one of the harder of Mudd’s efforts; 1d in particular gave me a lot of trouble. My favourites are 13a (TOUCHPAPER) and 19d (RIGHTO).
ACROSS
1 Cushion regularly found on back of beds (6)
SOFTEN – [bed]S + OFTEN (regularly found)
4 Swimmer getting trim doing the backstroke? Then exhausting! (8)
PILCHARD – CLIP (trim) backwards (doing the backstroke?) + HARD (exhausting)
9 A free woman in the family (6)
AUNTIE – A (a) + UNTIE (free)
10 French author’s close to litigious in ribaldry (8)
RACINESS – RACINES (French author’s) + [litigiou]S
12 Light breeze’s ultimate wind say (4)
EASY – [breez]E + anagram (wind) of SAY
13 Clapped out old pickup starts up, the car a bit of a banger? (10)
TOUCHPAPER – anagram (clapped out) of O[ld] P[ickup] UP THE CAR
15 Hopeful to drink a blend of wine that’s stunning (3-9)
AWE-INSPIRING – anagram (a blend of) WINE in ASPIRING (hopeful)
18 Amid awful dread, European queen ending in ecstasy – happy occasion (3-6,3)
RED-LETTER DAY – LETT (European) + ER (queen) together in (amid) anagram (awful) of DREAD + [ecstas]Y
21 100cm OK to be cut off (10)
IMPASSABLE – IM (100cm) + PASS (OK) + ABLE (to be)
22 Giant a wonderful thing when knocked over (4)
MEGA – A (a) + GEM (wonderful thing) all backwards (when knocked over)
24 Female gymnastic event for swimmers (8)
HERRINGS – HER (female) + RINGS (gymnastic event)
25 I offer nothing beyond lust primarily – that’s the urge (6)
LIBIDO – L[ust] + I (I) + BID (offer) + O (nothing)
26 Initial move unconcealed, virgin having lost head (8)
OVERTURE – OVERT (unconcealed) + [p]URE (virgin having lost head)
27 Bum smell in outskirts of Stevenage (6)
SPONGE – PONG (smell) in S[tevenag]E
—
DOWN
1 ET getting kiss finally, then a quickie (8)
SPACEMAN – [kis]S + PACEMAN (a quickie)
2 Done with it, searched clothes (8)
FINISHED – IN (with it) in (clothes) FISHED (searched)
3 Issue the enemy brought up? (4)
EMIT – TIME (the enemy) reversed (brought up)
5 Elected, a Conservative minister likely to be eviscerated wrongly (12)
INACCURATELY – IN (elected) + A (a) + C (Conservative) + CURATE (minister) + L[ikel]Y
6 Ring round wild ape, circling Antipodean primate (10)
CHIMPANZEE – NZ (Antipodean) in (circling) anagram (wild) of APE in (around) CHIME (ring)
7 Syrian city bitter, power doubly offensive, primarily (6)
ALEPPO – ALE (bitter) + PP (power doubly) + O[ffensive]
8 Walk away from dry land (6)
DESERT – double definition
11 Double trouble around people almost despairing over Greek capital (12)
DOPPELGANGER – anagram of PEOPL[e] + G[reek] together in DANGER (trouble)
14 Kid returns dressed in petticoat (10)
UNDERSKIRT – anagram (dressed) of KID RETURNS
16 Bond, man in tortured Adonis (8)
ADHESION – HE (man) in anagram (tortured) of ADONIS
17 Tree, rotten affair, did you say? (8)
SYCAMORE – homophone (“sick amour”)
19 Nowt lower than One Direction, I agree (6)
RIGHTO – RIGHT (one direction) + O (nowt)
20 Second in reserve, rarely seen (6)
SPARSE – S (second) in SPARE (reserve)
23 Weed was invading my patio, initially (4)
WIMP – W[as] I[nvading] M[y] P[atio]
Thanks Pete Maclean and Mudd.
I found this hard, so much so, I had NW wide open.
1ac misdirection with ‘regularly’ and staring at 9a, 12a, 1d and 2d didn’t help.
Didn’t we see a BBC-A for untie, recently? Must file this away.
I too was stuck in the NW though I eventually got Auntie and Time as my last two solved. Thank you Pete for the explanations; touchpaper had to fit but I couldn’t work out how, just the “banger” definition. same with Sycamore.
Typo in 6d. APE not API
Malcolm, Thank you for pointing out that typo. I have made the correction.
illipu, I don’t recall BBC-A for ‘untie’ but I have seen BBC used in the same kind of way a couple of times.
Pete@3: sorry, I meant the same using shortcuts.
The last one was in Paul’s prize 27100, due tomorrow; hope this won’t be considered a spoiler.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Found this entertaining as per normal from this setter with his trademark twists in both word play and definitions. Particularly found his long clues took quite a while to unravel the charades (18a, 6d, 11d) and the anagram of 13a took quite a bit of thought.
I also ended up in the NW corner with FINISHED (so straightforward after you get it, but fiendishly difficult to get a start on it), EASY (even more so) and SOFTEN (more so again).