Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of April 8, 2017
Another gem from Ms. Klebb! My clue of the week is 18d (AVIATRIX) and I also applaud 1a (MAHOGANY), 21a (WINNOW), 23a (AQUITAINE), 27a (BERATING), 28a (XANADU), 4d (NIGHTIE) and 17d (PROMOTION). Thank you, Rosa.
My usual practice is to underline the definitions in the clues. This time I find myself unable to do so in the normal way so have bolded them instead.
ACROSS
1 Hogmanay parties for Brown (8)
MAHONGANY – anagram (parties) of HOGMANAY
5 Prestige of century-long growth without war (6)
CACHET – C (century) + ACHE (long) + [war]T (growth without war)
9 Give bare jockey flannel (8)
VERBIAGE – anagram (jockey) of GIVE BARE
10 Regularly ignored as grey – it’s mass problem for the old (6)
AGEISM – A[s] G[r]E[y] I[t]S M[ass]
12 Perfect example of pusher’s confession? (5)
IDEAL – “I deal” (pusher’s confession). I believe we have seen this clue before.
13 Depravity? Nice solver unkind about mine (9)
TURPITUDE – TU (Nice solver, i.e. ‘you’ in France) + PIT (mine) in RUDE (unkind)
14 Prefer articulate champs (6)
CHOOSE – homophone (articulate) of “chews” (champs)
16 Trump seen unclothed, eating prunes (7)
ECLIPSE – CLIPS (prunes) in [s]EE[n]. Is Rosa going to have a Trump clue in every one of her puzzles now?!
19 They see six female sheep repel senior (7)
VIEWERS – VI (six) + EWE (female sheep) + SR (senior) backwards (repel)
21 Separate fish head turned up (6)
WINNOW – MINNOW (fish) with ‘M’ (head) changed to ‘W’ (turned up)
23 Leave road to enter lane, heading off for French region (9)
AQUITAINE – QUIT (leave) + AI (road, i.e. the A1) together in [l]ANE
25 Hit yob with clubs first (5)
CLOUT – C (clubs) + LOUT (yob)
26 Notice about introduction of modern flood survival plan (6)
REMARK – RE (about) + M[odern] + ARK (flood survival plan)
27 Member atingle, accepting chastisement (8)
BERATING – hidden word. Many words would fit the checked letters here and my first guess was a different one.
28 Kiss a Tamil follower in idyllic place (6)
XANADU – X (kiss) + A (a) + NADU (Tamil follower)
29 Scraps, at last, to feed displaced people with empty tums (8)
ODDMENTS – [t]O [fee]D [displace]D + MEN (people) + T[um]S
DOWN
1 Take possession of second vessel (4,2)
MOVE IN – MO (second) + VEIN (vessel)
2 Charm of hero – he’s so amazing! (9)
HORSESHOE – anagram (amazing) of HERO HES SO
3 After change of heart lass left cook (5)
GRILL – GIRL (lass) with center letters switched + L (left)
4 Garment from beginning of nineteen eighties with no fringes (7)
NIGHTIE – N[ineteen] + [e]IGHTIE[s]
6 Articles about fool touring island in Caribbean (9)
ANGUILLAN – AN (article) + I (island) in GULL (fool) + AN (article)
7 Poem is great success, read aloud (5)
HAIKU – homophone (read aloud) of “high coup” (great success)
8 Did tinker empty tankard over physicist? (8)
TAMPERED – AMPERE (physicist) in T[ankar]D
11 Without payment, charge nurses start to revolt (4)
FREE – R[evolt] in (nurses) FEE (charge)
15 Verdi wrote week off, creatively burnt out (9)
OVERTIRED – anagram (off) of VERDI [w]ROTE
17 Advertising porn? I’m too embarrassed! (9)
PROMOTION – anagram (embarrassed) of PORN IM TOO
18 Johnson, perhaps leader of America through state subterfuge? (8)
AVIATRIX – A[merica] + VIA (through) + TRIX (homophone (state) of “tricks” (subterfuge)). The definition refers to Amy Johnson who was the first female pilot to fly alone from Britain to Australia. My initial take on the wordplay was wrong and mistakenly ignored the ‘T’. Thank you psmith for giving me the correction.
20 Knock back lager and lose your grip (4)
SLIP – PILS (lager) backwards (knock back)
21 Little lad departs for 48 hours (7)
WEEKEND – WEE (little) + KEN (lad) + D (departs)
22 Legs saved by Reichstag escalators (6)
STAGES – hidden word
24 Emasculate Mr Guterres? (5)
UNMAN – U.N. MAN (Mr Guterres). The definition refers to António Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations (who is Portuguese).
25 Insurance application of individual bitten by bivalve (5)
CLAIM – I (individual) in (bitten by) CLAM (bivalve)
Thanks Rosa & Pete. I enjoyed this, perhaps because I found it easier than expected. In 18 down TRIX is a homophone (state) of tricks (subterfuge).
This was hard for me and I didn’t get half of it. I like 4d, which I didn’t get; a clever clue.
For 18d, where does the “T” in aviatrix come from? Pete you haven’t explained that part and I still don’t see where it might come from. I managed the “via” bit but couldn’t finish it off. Not my brightest week.
Ah psmith’s explanation has just come through.
psmith, Thank you very much for that correction.
Thanks Rosa Klebb and Pete
Entertaining puzzle as per normal from Rosa with the usual wit in both definitions and wordplay. Didn’t help myself down in the SW corner by writing in SATAMI (a hidden ‘word’ that I didn’t check but thought was a Buddhist idyllic place) and followed that up by having something other than REMARK (can’t tell what now with my overwritten letters) at 26a.
After finally correcting 28a, it took a while to understand that the NADU part referred to the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu – quite clever.
CACHET was my last in after having to look up that particular meaning of the word.