Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of April 21, 2018
I found this puzzle a bit more tricky than most Mudds. My clue of the week is 17ac (MOSELLE) and I also like 13ac (MUDSKIPPER), 30ac (SEVERELY) and 18dn (GERMINAL).
| Across | ||
| 1 | GOBLET | Little mouth, perhaps, drinking glass (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 4 | SPLATTER | Second page, second splash (8) |
| S (second) + P (page) + LATTER (second) | ||
| 10 | ON THE GO | Busy time without leader and I (2,3,2) |
| [m]ONTH (time without leader) + EGO (I) | ||
| 11 | ENCHANT | He can put out books in entrance (7) |
| Anagram (put out) of HE CAN + NT (books) | ||
| 12 | NOEL | Present time inside volcano, electrifying! (4) |
| Hidden word (inside) | ||
| 13 | MUDSKIPPER | Fish sounding like my fish! (10) |
| Homophone (sounding like) of “Mudd’s kipper” (my fish!) | ||
| 16 | SWATHE | Doctor was requiring the bandage (6) |
| Anagram (doctor) of WAS THE | ||
| 17 | MOSELLE | Wine trade in champagne curtailed (7) |
| SELL (trade) in MOE[t] (champagne curtailed). Moët & Chandon is the name of one of the best known champagne wineries and, incidentally, the company that also owns Louis Vuitton. | ||
| 20 | SIXTEEN | Witnessed about nine heading for Tiananmen Square (7) |
| IX (nine) + T[iananmen] together in SEEN (witnessed) | ||
| 21 | LEFTIE | Socialist European newspaper’s breaking story (6) |
| E (European) + FT (newspaper) together in (breaking) LIE (story) | ||
| 24 | CONSUMMATE | Perfect fool has problem with lover (10) |
| CON (fool) + SUM (problem) + MATE (lover) | ||
| 25 | HELL | Misery welcome briefly (4) |
| HELL[o] | ||
| 27 | LIGHTEN | Reduce awkward length, squeezing one in (7) |
| I (one) in anagram (awkward) of LENGTH | ||
| 29 | CATALAN | Persian, say, in the style of new language (7) |
| CAT (Persian, say) + ALA (in the style of) + N (new) | ||
| 30 | SEVERELY | Very much cut off, see (8) |
| SEVER (cut off) + ELY (see) | ||
| 31 | BANGER | Reporter, possibly, a wreck (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | GOODNESS | My virtue (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 2 | BOTHERATION | Batter in? Ooh, out! Drat! (11) |
| Anagram (out) of BATTER IN OOH | ||
| 3 | EDEN | PM last to take office (4) |
| [tak]E + DEN (office) | ||
| 5 | PEEPSHOW | Pervert hopes to occupy seat for voyeuristic entertainment (8) |
| Anagram (pervert) of HOPES in PEW (seat) | ||
| 6 | ARCHIMEDES | Ancient scientist sounded into God (10) |
| CHIMED (sounded) in (into) ARES (god) | ||
| 7 | TEA | Vocal character leaves (3) |
| Homophone (vocal) of “tee” (character) | ||
| 8 | RETORT | Error message ends: wrong answer (6) |
| [erro]R [messag]E + TORT (wrong) | ||
| 9 | BOGUS | Claiming posh, common ladies and gentlemen phoney (5) |
| U (posh) in (claiming) BOGS (common ladies and gentlemen) | ||
| 14 | PULL THE PLUG | Stop – or unstop? (4,3,4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | SHOT-PUTTER | Thrust initially in store, say, for athlete (4-6) |
| T[hrust] in SHOP (store) + UTTER (say) | ||
| 18 | GERMINAL | Creative girl with name to conjure with (8) |
| Anagram (to conjure with) of GIRL NAME | ||
| 19 | BERLINER | Doughnut: rank filling in endless fruit (8) |
| LINE (rank) in (filling in) BERR[y] (endless fruit) | ||
| 22 | ECCLES | Book somewhere near Salford (6) |
| Double definition, the first being an abbreviation of Ecclesiastes (a book of the Old Testament) | ||
| 23 | STOCK | Standard merchandise (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 26 | STOA | Almost shut down, a covered walkway (4) |
| STO[p] (almost shut down) + A (a) | ||
| 28 | GUV | Chief giving up vodka, for starters (3) |
| G[iving] U[p] V[odka] | ||
I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle.
19d. My German son-in-law put me right about Kennedy’s 1963 speech and it is entertainingly told in this Wikipedia article.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner#%22I'm_a_doughnut%22_urban_legend
13a. You have not bracketed the final t in MOE[t].
Thank you both.
and the answer isn’t in 29ac. I found this hopelessly impossible. (even with an extra week to do it) MUDD has got hard!
trenodia, Thanks for pointing out that oversight, now corrected. I know the “Ich bin ein Berliner” story and thought of it when I solved the clue; wish now I had mentioned it in the blog but, as might be evident, I wrote it up in a hurry.
Malcolm, Thank you for noting that omission, also now corrected.
Thanks for explaining Moët, which I have never heard of.
Ah, well I did not really explain it, did I? I will add some material.
Hovis. I can add something. Moet et Chandon is a delicious champagne and is situated in Epernay in the champagne region of France. My wife and I visited the chateau 24 years ago and were given a tour at the end of which a bottle of wine was ordered by our guide which we three drank in a courtyard where Napoleon had been enteratined before one of his battles.
Memories are made of this.
Thanks to Mudd and PM. I did not know ECCLES as a town but assumed that that the short form of the OT book was right. I also paused over BERLINER as a doughnut but did finally dredge up the anecdote. A good workout.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Enjoyable puzzle as usual from this setter with a new term in BERLINER (as a doughnut) and a number of cracking clues including 1a, 6d and 29a.
Finished in the NE corner with the clever ARCHIMEDES, his ‘toilet humour clue’ BOGUS and MUDSKIPPER as the last few in.
Reading the Wiki article, it would seem that Moet & Chandon is one of the brands along with Hennessey Cognac and Louis Vuitton that is owned by the French conglomerate LVMH. (Would love to be in the marketing department of that place !)