Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 17, 2018
I found this puzzle a bit harder than the average Mudd. My clue of the week is 6dn (EYESORE) and I also especially like 23ac (RING OFF) and 3dn (REHEARSAL).
| Across | ||
| 1 | MINERAL WATER | Sparkler perhaps lit near warm campfire, finally flickering (7,5) |
| Anagram (flickering) of LIT NEAR WARM [campfir]E with a rather cryptic definition. Do we like ‘flickering’ as an anagram indicator? | ||
| 8 | TRIUMPH | Success, as better bandages beginning to improve health at first (7) |
| I[mprove] in TRUMP (better) + H[ealth] | ||
| 9 | AIMLESS | Lacking direction, there’s road chaos around Lebanese capital (7) |
| AI (road, i.e. the A1) + L[ebanese] in MESS (chaos) | ||
| 11 | PETUNIA | Plant seed, burying one with another seed the wrong way (7) |
| I (one) + NUT (another seed) together backwards (the wrong way) in PEA (seed) | ||
| 12 | TURN-OFF | Revolution, rotten bore (4-3) |
| TURN (revolution) + OFF (bore) | ||
| 13 | FENCE | Criminal in fight (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 14 | SPEEDWELL | Veronica has to race brilliantly (9) |
| SPEED (race) + WELL (brilliantly). Speedwells are a family of plants in the genus Veronica. | ||
| 16 | CABRIOLET | Convertible article, bolt only half screwed up (9) |
| Anagram (screwed up) of ARTICLE BO[lt] | ||
| 19 | DEGAS | Artist taking reins, finally, after getting on back (5) |
| AGED (getting on) backwards (back) + [rein]S | ||
| 21 | INSTALL | Elected leader on sofa unlikely to get fit (7) |
| IN (elected) + S[ofa] + TALL (unlikely, as in a tall story) | ||
| 23 | RING OFF | End call, evidently prepared for a divorce? (4,3) |
| Double definition. I imagine that some younger solvers may not be familiar with the expression “to ring off”. In some early telephone systems, including one I used as a boy, at the end of a call one had to turn a little handle on one’s telephone to signal to the operator that one was finished and should be disconnected. This was called ringing off but the expression endured and came to be used to refer to ending a call even with totally automated systems. | ||
| 24 | NETTING | Scoring my job, but header couldn’t be further off? (7) |
| SETTING (my job) with the ‘S’ (implying south) replaced by ‘N’ (implying north) | ||
| 25 | ABETTAL | A black coffee sent over, supporting a tea leaf, perhaps? (7) |
| A (a) + B (black) + LATTE (coffee) backwards (sent over). ‘Tea leaf’ is Cockney Rhyming Slang for a thief. | ||
| 26 | ETHNOCENTRIC | Favouring one’s own kind, rich uncle ultimately content to be phoney (12) |
| Anagram (to be phoney) of RICH [uncl]E CONTENT | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MOISTEN | Figure after a second is wet (7) |
| MO (second) + IS (is) + TEN (figure) | ||
| 2 | NOMINEE | Candidate has no time to overcome extremists in Eurozone (7) |
| NO (no) + MIN (time) + E[urozon]E | ||
| 3 | REHEARSAL | Drill tries to penetrate concrete (9) |
| HEARS (tries) in (to penetrate) REAL (concrete) | ||
| 4 | LEANT | Was bending fast, say? (5) |
| Homophone of “lent” (fast) | ||
| 5 | ADMIRED | Reckon outside bog is held in high regard (7) |
| MIRE (bog) in (outside) ADD (reckon) | ||
| 6 | EYESORE | Sight somewhat grotesque, yes, or execrable? (7) |
| Hidden word &lit. | ||
| 7 | STUPEFACTION | Terribly upset, party in shock (12) |
| Anagram (terribly) of UPSET + FACTION (party) | ||
| 10 | SOFTLY-SOFTLY | Delicate couple of pianos? (6- 6) |
| SOFTLY (p) + SOFTLY (p) | ||
| 15 | ENTERTAIN | Please come in, having run from public transport (9) |
| ENTER (come in) + T[r]AIN (having run from public transport) | ||
| 17 | BUSH TIT | Bird however sheltering this cuckoo (4,3) |
| Anagram (cuckoo) of THIS in BUT (however) | ||
| 18 | IRANIAN | Upstanding character, queen an Asian native (7) |
| I (upstanding character) + RANI (queen) + AN (an) | ||
| 19 | DANSEUR | Nureyev perhaps has nothing to regret, not quite doing a backflip? (7) |
| RUE (regret) + S (has) + NAD[a] (nothing…not quite) all backwards (doing a backflip). In French, the word ‘danseur’ means simply a male dancer; in English it is used more specifically to refer to a male ballet dancer who partners a ballerina. And Rudolf Nureyev was a great one, especially in partnering Margot Fonteyn — as I was fortunate enough to witness myself several times. | ||
| 20 | GNOSTIC | Number up, correct mark erased in the end, according to facts known (7) |
| SONG (number) reversed (up) + TIC[k] (correct mark erased in the end). I know the word well in contexts where it is written with a capital G but not so much its generic meaning which is “relating to knowledge, especially esoteric mystical knowledge”. | ||
| 22 | LOGIC | Reason smoke on land starts to rise (5) |
| CIG (smoke) + O[n] L[and] all backwards (to rise) | ||
Thanks for the blog, Pete.
Indeed the usual Mudd stuff only harder.
I must say that I found clueing ‘mineral water’ as ‘sparkler perhaps’ is really rather poor.
Ludwig, Thank you for commenting. You are not alone regarding “sparkler perhaps”.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Must’ve been in his zone when I did this the Monday after publication over a late lunch, as it was a rare time that I got his crossword finished in a single sitting.
MINERAL WATER, which was one of the early entries, did strike me as a bit of a stretch to be defined as a ‘sparkler’ (soda water, maybe!) – but with the easy anagram fodder, it was clear it could be nothing else.
I liked the ‘couple of pianos’ and the clue for DANSEUR. Also liked your extended thoughts on a couple of the clues.
Finished down the bottom with ETHNOCENTRIC (the only one I ‘cheated’ on with a word finder – lunch time was running out!), GNOSTIC and ENTERTAIN the last few in.
“MO” = second? Monday (second day), or what?
Peter M @ 4
A standard UK colloquialism is “I’ll do it in a mo”, ie in a moment/second or two.
hth