Monday Prize Crossword / Jul 10, 2017
Nowadays it’s mostly either Dante or Falcon on a Monday.
This time it was Falcon’s turn, offering an elegant and easy(ish) crossword .
A couple of years ago, Allan Scott handed over his Observer’s Everyman slot to the very different but excellent Colin Gumbrell.
But it seems like he is back now, more or less every two weeks in the FT.
And I like it!
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BACKCHAT | Teasing repartee from stern about sou’wester, perhaps (8) |
| BACK (stern) + C (about) + HAT (sou’wester, as an example of) | ||
| 5 | CRISES | Conservative rebels in times of intense difficulty (6) |
| C (Conservative) + RISES (rebels) | ||
| 10 | BLOOMER | Something made by a baker in error (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 11 | EXCLAIM | Demand by former partner may make one speak sharply (7) |
| EX (former partner) + CLAIM (demand) | ||
| 12 | LAGER | Drink in village restaurant (5) |
| Hidden answer [in]: village restaurant | ||
| 13 | STUD POKER | Rod follows boss in card game (4,5) |
| STUD (boss) + POKER (rod) | ||
| 14 | HUNT SABOTEUR | Animal activist’s about-turn she condemned (4,8) |
| (ABOUT TURN SHE)* [* = condemned] | ||
| 18 | WELL-DRESSING | Very probably relish demonstrating an ancient custom (4-8) |
| WELL (very probably) + DRESSING (relish) I wasn’t familiar with it but ‘well-dressing’ is, according to Oxford, “the decoration of wells with flowers at Whitsuntide, especially in Derbyshire, as an ancient custom originally associated with the belief in water deities”. |
||
| 21 | TOADSTOOL | A wild fungus? A lot stood out (9) |
| (A LOT STOOD)* [* = out] | ||
| 23 | PRICE | Pair getting diamonds – amount to be paid (5) |
| PR (pair, abbreviation for) + ICE (diamonds) | ||
| 24 | HOOSIER | A resident of Indiana, heir’s excited receiving rings (7) |
| (HEIR’S)* around O,O (rings, two of them) [* = excited] US states have nicknames and the one for Indiana is the Hoosier State. |
||
| 25 | IMITATE | Do like friend eating Italian on island (7) |
| I (island) + {MATE (friend) around IT (Italian)} | ||
| 26 | NEEDLE | Want the French style (6) |
| NEED (want) + LE (the, in French) ‘Style’ probably as in ‘stylus’, the needle of a gramophone. |
||
| 27 | GREENERY | Leaves lines by English author (8) |
| GREENE (English author) + RY (lines, short for railway) Graham Greene (1904-1991), writer of Brighton Rock and The Third Man to name a couple of his works. |
||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BABBLE | British bishops, overcome by beer, talk incessantly (6) |
| B (British) + {B,B (bishops, two of them) inside ALE (beer)} | ||
| 2 | CHOUGH | Hawk grabbing tail of smallish bird (6) |
| COUGH (hawk) around [smallis]H I liked this one very much as Falcon uses two different meanings of ‘hawk’, one of which makes up for an excellent surface. Not that I like the imagery very much, though. |
||
| 3 | COME ROUND | Visit me during company patrol (4,5) |
| C (company) + ROUND (patrol), then ME inside of it | ||
| 4 | ACROSS THE BOARD | How chess players sit, at every level? (6,3,5) |
| Cryptic / Double definition | ||
| 6 | RECAP | Go over, step right up (5) |
| Reversal [up] of: PACE (step) + R (right) | ||
| 7 | SPARKLER | Firework, a gem (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 8 | SOMBRERO | Dismal, beggar ultimately, with nothing in hat (8) |
| SOMBRE (dismal) + [begga]R + O (nothing) | ||
| 9 | REGULAR SOLDIER | Orderly, maybe? (7,7) |
| Kind of reverse double definition: ‘orderly’ can be ‘regular’ and also a type of ‘soldier’ Not sure whether I’ve seen a reverse clue like this before – a novelty? |
||
| 15 | OENOPHILE | Graves? One may know a lot about them (9) |
| Cryptic definition Not where the dead are but the region to the south of Bordeaux where wine lovers come alive. |
||
| 16 | SWITCH ON | Cause to operate this now, unfortunately having caught cold (6,2) |
| (THIS NOW)* around C (cold) [* = unfortunately] | ||
| 17 | AL CAPONE | Gangster, without assistance, nicking crown (2,6) |
| ALONE (without assistance) around CAP (crown) Al Capone (1899-1947), infamous gangster who actually died of a stroke! |
||
| 19 | PIRATE | Power mad, eg Long John Silver (6) |
| P (power) + IRATE (mad) Long John Silver, the main villain in Stevenson’s Treasure Island, became kind of prototype of a pirate. |
||
| 20 | HERESY | What Peter Cameron was convicted of, at this place on outskirts of Sydney (6) |
| HERE (at this place) + S[ydne]Y Finding the answer was easy enough but here is the full story. |
||
| 22 | STILL | First to sell plough, for all that (5) |
| S[ell] + TILL (plough) | ||
*anagram
Thanks Falcon and Sil (for the entertaining bylines with a number of the answers)
Used to find this fellow quite easy – not any more – there was a lot more thinking required to get through this one !! A new learnings with WELL-DRESSING and BLOOMER along with some clever word plays used. Interesting to see that both prize puzzles this week used AL CAPONE and both having original takes on how to derive him.
Ended up mainly in the SE corner with the long REGULAR SOLDIER and GREENERY the last couple in.