Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of July 1, 2017
As often with Gaff, I found parts of this puzzle very challenging, especially some clues in the top-right quadrant. My clue of the week is 19ac (TRAIN WRECK) and I also especially like 16ac (CHAMPIONED) and 11dn (INSHORE). And I must give good mention to 27ac (NO LONGER) that has very clever construction, a smooth and intriguing surface, and starts with three words any of which could be an anagram indicator. Kudos in addition to the neat cryptic definition for ELECTOR (21dn).
I suspected that, like most of Gaff’s puzzles, this one marked some anniversary. I was however unable to spot it. My thanks to various commenters who were more perceptive than I and made the connection to the 1977 Wimbledon Championship.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SKERRY | Stray into source of channels to find island (6) |
| ERR (stray) in SKY (source of channels). I assume the second part of this refers to Sky television. | ||
| 4 | MELVILLE | Creator of Dick Gibson maybe having a place in France (8) |
| That is the creator of Moby Dick. MEL (Gibson maybe) + VILLE (a place in France). This was my last in and, I think, a very tough clue. I spent a long time suspecting the answer must be the name of a place in France and a small amount of time thinking that the motor-racer Dick Gibson was somehow involved. | ||
| 9 | ODOURS | Lose heart about forbidding bouquets (6) |
| DOUR (forbidding) in [l]OS[e] | ||
| 10 | COURTIER | Setter that is right to succeed where one serves (8) |
| COURT (where one serves) + IE (that is) + R (right). In the original version of this blog, I stated that, “it seems pretty obscure but I understand that there is a breed of setter called courtier.” I determined this by googling “courtier setter” but it turns out that I got the wrong association. Courtier actually refers to a crossword setter, John Barrett, an ex-tennis, commentator and reporter for FT who sets a puzzle in the first week of Wimbledon each year. He set the FT’s puzzle on July 4th this year but is not listed on this site’s Setters page. (My thanks to Bruce W. for setting me straight about this.) | ||
| 12 | EVERTING | Turning out for football club, mostly in goal initially (8) |
| EVERT[on] (football club mostly) + IN (in) + G[oal]. ‘Evert’ is a verb I was not familiar with; its basic meaning is to turn inside out. | ||
| 13 | HI-TECH | Advanced case of athlete’s foot is a problem (2-4) |
| [athlet]E in HITCH (a problem) | ||
| 15 | NAIL | Perfectly execute tack (4) |
| Double definition. I have one particular friend who is inclined to say things such as, “Ah, nailed it!” | ||
| 16 | CHAMPIONED | Was supportive when Chopin made mistake (10) |
| Anagram (mistake) of CHOPIN MADE | ||
| 19 | TRAIN WRECK | Instruct basket case of likely result of hard Brexit (5,5) |
| TRAIN (instruct) + WRECK (basket case) | ||
| 20 | WADE | Ford mass produce at last (4) |
| WAD (mass) + [produc]E | ||
| 23 | KISMET | Mike’s lost finally in Wheel of Fortune (6) |
| Anagram (in wheel) of MIKES [los]T | ||
| 25 | ROULETTE | Dangerous game with Russian (8) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 27 | NO LONGER | Strange foreign novel wants five characters but not any more (2,6) |
| Anagram (strange) of [f]ORE[i]GN NO[ve]L (foreign novel wants five characters) | ||
| 28 | ASSIST | Brass is the section to provide backing (6) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 29 | SMARTING | Spill the beans about trade centre suffering from sting (8) |
| MART (trade centre) in SING (spill the beans) | ||
| 30 | BARKER | Tout for setter, perhaps (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | STOVE IN | Broke into sweet wrappers round tube (5,2) |
| S[wee]T + O (round) + VEIN (tube). ‘Stove’ is the past tense of the verb ‘stave’ which means to make a hole in. | ||
| 2 | ESOTERICA | Obscure ideas as coterie designed (9) |
| Anagram (designed) of AS COTERIE | ||
| 3 | RARITY | Thinness could be something of value (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 5 | EROS | Burning up with love (4) |
| SORE (burning) backwards (up) | ||
| 6 | VIRGINIA | State of pure sloth returned (8) |
| VIRGIN (pure) + AI (sloth) backwards | ||
| 7 | LOIRE | See passion flower (5) |
| LO (see) + IRE (passion) | ||
| 8 | EARTHED | Messed around with her date and was grounded (7) |
| Anagram (messed around with) of HER DATE | ||
| 11 | INSHORE | Protect from loss of hearing when coming in to land (7) |
| Homophone (of hearing) of “insure” (protect from loss) | ||
| 14 | OMICRON | Very small working clothes for character from Athens (7) |
| MICRO (very small) in ON (working). Omicron is the short O in the Greek alphabet. | ||
| 17 | NEAT TRICK | For Spooner to attend to small cut is clever ploy (4,5) |
| Spoonerization of TREAT NICK (to attend to small cut) | ||
| 18 | INTERNET | Different ending for one held by web (8) |
| INTERNEE (one held) with ending changed from ‘E’ to ‘T’ | ||
| 19 | TAKINGS | Income derived from skating (7) |
| Anagram (derived from) of SKATING | ||
| 21 | ELECTOR | One who makes one cross with his choice (7) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 22 | PLASMA | State in which cells are suspended (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 24 | SALSA | Sauce of spice and lime served as starters (5) |
| S[pice] A[nd] L[ime] S[erved] A[s] | ||
| 26 | BEAN | Runner’s pulse (4) |
| Double definition | ||
Thanks Gaff and Pete
Great puzzle and one in which I was able to spot the ghost theme for a change – hinted at by 10a – COURTIER who is a setter (John Barrett) who presents a puzzle once a year at the time of Wimbledon.
As it turns out that Gaff has managed to hide the names of all of the quarter finalists of the 1977 Wimbledon ladies championship – including the champion of that year, VIRGINIA WADE.
Quite brilliant !!!
The date of the puzzle (1 July) was 30 years to the day that Wade beat Betty Stove in the ladies final and became the most recent British woman to win. The other semifinalists I saw in the puzzle are Chris Evert and Sue Barker. Don’t think the other quarterfinalists are in there — it might be a challenge to fit Navratilova in the grid!
I mean 40 years to the day, 2017-1977!
KERRY MELVILLE across the top
MARTINA along the bottom and turned up
Sue BARKER along the bottom
Rosie CASALS in the third column
Billie Jean KING in 19d
@4 Bruce, outstanding spotting!
Thank you so much, Bruce and ub, for all this good stuff. I was something of a tennis fan back in those days but did not spot the names at all.
I’m sorry, Pete, I don’t agree with everything here, possibly as a result of lack of understanding:
19ac looks to me to be messy, with its ‘of’, and what right has a crossword setter to go all political and say that it’ll be a disaster if we have a hard Brexit? It may be true, but they shouldn’t be spouting any line.
In 11dn I don’t reckon that ‘inshore’ exactly equals ‘when coming in to land’.
I think 10ac is ludicrously difficult: if you don’t know that John Barrett sets under the name ‘Courtier’ then you’re lost. Does ford = wade, and in the same clue does mass = wad? Seems a stretch.
But very clever to get all those quarter-finalists in.
Wil, I agree with you on all three counts. I did not voice it in the blog but I had similar qualms about 7dn.