Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 5, 2017
I found this a slightly difficult Mudd, especially in the top-left quadrant. My clue of the week is 16ac (FRIGATE).
| Across | ||
| 1 | MOTHBALL | Postpone event with dancing in the moonlight? (8) |
| MOTH BALL (event with dancing in the moonlight?). I wonder if I am understanding this clue correctly. “Event with dancing in the moonlight” seems a stretch to give us MOTH BALL. Although considering ‘postpone’ as the likely definition led me to think of MOTHBALL, I was unaware that ‘mothball’ could precisely mean ‘postpone’ — but it does. | ||
| 5 | MIDRIB | Part of leaf in flier I’m flipping over (6) |
| BIRD (flier) + IM (I’m) together backwards (flipping over). The midrib is the large, strengthened vein along the midline of a leaf. | ||
| 9 | ASTONISH | Shock as heavyweight is hurt, initially (8) |
| AS (as) + TON (heavyweight) + IS (is) + H[urt] | ||
| 10 | STANZA | Canonised Antipodean soldier scratching rear – that’s poetic! (6) |
| ST (canonised) + ANZA[c] (Antipodean soldier scratching rear) | ||
| 12 | RALLY | Improve some court action? (5) |
| Double definition with “court action” referring to tennis | ||
| 13 | GOOFINESS | Stupidity, winger endlessly netting penalties (9) |
| FINES (penalties) in (netting) GOOS[e] (winger endlessly) | ||
| 14 | MARNIE | Remain baffled, seeing Hitchcock film (6) |
| Anagram (baffled) of REMAIN. Marnie, which starred Sean Connery with Tippi Hedren, is one of Hitch’s lesser known movies. | ||
| 16 | FRIGATE | Ship’s scandalous day? (7) |
| FRI-GATE (scandalous day?) | ||
| 19 | THERMAL | Current account’s closure has Harlem in a frenzy (7) |
| [accoun]T + anagram (in a frenzy) of HARLEM | ||
| 21 | DONATE | See wrapping on present (6) |
| ON (on) in (wrapping) DATE (see) | ||
| 23 | INCLEMENT | Client upset about workers being rough (9) |
| MEN (workers) in anagram (upset) of CLIENT | ||
| 25 | SIMON | Among disciples, I’m one! (5) |
| Hidden word &lit. I take it that this refers to Simon Peter in the Bible (and not Simon the Zealot as I had originally). | ||
| 26 | POMPOM | Twice turned around, cleaner ball of fluff (6) |
| MOP (cleaner) backwards twice | ||
| 27 | ROULETTE | Chance to win money, obstacle in the way (8) |
| LET (obstacle) in ROUTE (the way) | ||
| 28 | REAPER | One using a scythe, back- breaking exercise? (6) |
| PE (exercise) in REAR (back). Is this wordplay not backwards? Should be “exercise breaking back”, no? | ||
| 29 | ETHERNET | System connecting computers three and ten, malfunctioning (8) |
| Anagram (malfunctioning) of THREE TEN | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MEAGRE | Very little silver, bare boxes (6) |
| AG (silver) in (boxes) MERE (bare) | ||
| 2 | TITILLATE | Thrill seeing ultimate in prize, unlikely it doubled up (9) |
| [priz]E + TALL (unlikely, as in a tall story) + IT + IT all backwards (up) | ||
| 3 | BANDY | Bowed by constituents? (5) |
| B AND Y (by constituents!) | ||
| 4 | LASAGNE | While feeding convict, one missing starter in pasta (7) |
| AS (while) in (feeding) LAG (convict) + [o]NE | ||
| 6 | INTUITION | Instinctive belief in teaching (9) |
| IN (in) + TUITION (teaching) | ||
| 7 | RINSE | Wash in water in secret (5) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 8 | BRASSIER | More shamelessly bold in short underwear (8) |
| BRASSIER[e] (short underwear) | ||
| 11 | LOAF | Idle brain (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | NUMBER ONE | Musical success for me (6,3) |
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | AUTOMATON | A fruit in June peeled, one not thinking? (9) |
| A (a) + TOMATO (fruit) in [j]UN[e] | ||
| 18 | STRIPPER | Tourist after second, one dropping gear? (8) |
| S (second) + TRIPPER (tourist) | ||
| 20 | LIEU | Place where story ending in Peru (4) |
| LIE (story) + [per]U | ||
| 21 | DETROIT | US city in Delaware, hurry around one (7) |
| DE (Delaware) + I (one) in TROT (hurry) | ||
| 22 | INVENT | Design fashionable outlet (6) |
| IN (fashionable) + VENT (outlet) | ||
| 24 | COMMA | Text mark in delicate flier (5) |
| Double definition, the second referring to the Comma butterfly | ||
| 25 | SOLVE | Work out five into one (5) |
| V (five) in SOLE (one) | ||
Thanks Pete. I found this much more than slightly difficult and solved less than half.
The wordplay of 28 across is OK I think. The exercise breaks the back because it is back-breaking.
16D. I read the GATE as scandalous as in Watergate so quite a nice clue.
16A. Sorry! – too early in the morning and I handn’t read everything properly.
Yes challenging. I couldn’t solve six (mostly SE corner) and got two more wrong, so only three quarters correct. 3d too clever for me. Liked and got 16ac. Moth Ball seems ok to me, and I had the disciple as Simon (Peter)
Malcolm, I take your correction about the disciple Simon. Thank you.
Thanks Mudd and Peter
Found this an enjoyable puzzle and not as tough as others here did – maybe a seaside cafe setting for doing it had adequately cleared the mind for the task. Did end up in the NW corner with the interestingly word-played MOTHBALL, TITILLATE (that took a little while to understand the parsing) and the lesser known Hitchcock movie, MARNIE, as the last few in.
Thought that ETHERNET was quite clever as it is an anagram of THREE and then TEN to get the answer with the surface reading as two points on a network that were not working (as was the case too many times when I was supporting another type of network before converting it to Ethernet many years ago).
Was nice to see a reference to the ANZACs at 10 with what would be their typical humour in the surface reading of it.
Not that it matters overly much, but I had gone with SIMON (the Zealot) as the apostle at 25 as Simon Peter was more commonly referred to as just Peter as far as I could see – and it is far from a core strength subject matter of mine!!
Simon Peter is usually listed as the first disciple, so could reasonable say “Among disciples I’m (number) one”. On the other hand, he did deny being one (thrice before cock crow). But then he regretted his words. So the uncertainty attached to 25 across may echo his wavering commitment.