Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of May 26, 2018
I managed to forget to post this blog at the usual time and ended up doing so 11 hours and 40 minutes late. My apologies to anyone who has been wondering where it was.
I found this Mudd on the difficult side. My clue of the week is 11dn (BALL-BEARINGS) and I also especially like 1ac (HANDMAIDEN) and 12ac (POTTY-TRAINED).
| Across | ||
| 1 | HANDMAIDEN | Geisha and mother in disguise, ending in Japan (10) |
| AND MA (and mother) in (in) HIDE (disguise) + [japa]N | ||
| 6 | OPUS | Old Tom’s detailed work (4) |
| O (old) + PUS[s] (Tom’s detailed) | ||
| 9 | MUSICOLOGY | A noted course of study? (10) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 10 | PLEA | Large number missing Thor’s appeal (4) |
| PLE[thor]A | ||
| 12 | POTTY-TRAINED | Suggested trade-in going as instructed? (5-7) |
| Reverse anagram (“potty-trained” could clue TRADE-IN) | ||
| 15 | WATER POLO | One wrested from server, sweet game (5,4) |
| WA[i]TER (one wrested from server) + POLO (sweet). “Polo” is the name of a popular mint in Britain. | ||
| 17 | LARGO | Somewhat unspectacular, goalkeeper’s speed (5) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 18 | THREW | Broadcast finished, delivered (5) |
| Homophone (delivered) of “through” (finished). Originally I saw only this one interpretation of the clue but some commenters suggest another: Homophone (broadcast) of “through” with “delivered” being the definition (in the sense of delivering young). They now seem equally good to me! We do occasionally come across clues that could be seen to work in different ways but this one seems unusual even among them in that one parsing does not stand out, at least for me, as the one that must have been intended. | ||
| 19 | LADIES MAN | Rake in money at first, as deal made (6,3) |
| Anagram (made) of IN M[oney] AS DEAL | ||
| 20 | HABERDASHERY | Stuff fit for the sewer, book penned by Hardy here as out of order? (12) |
| Anagram (out of order) of B (book) HARDY HERE AS | ||
| 24 | DRAW | Tight result constituency returned (4) |
| WARD (constituency) backwards (returned) | ||
| 25 | UKRAINIANS | British nationals primarily dropping back a couple of places, as Europeans (10) |
| UK (British) + IRANIANS (nationals) with the initial ‘I’ moved right two positions (primarily dropping back a couple of places). I originally parsed this wrongly, thinking that ‘dropping’ clued RAINING. But that did not work out well so I suspected I was wrong and I thank commenters Hovis and passerby for the correct interpretation. | ||
| 26 | NADA | Not a sausage from Bologna – Dagenham! (4) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 27 | BRIDESMAID | Train in front of her travels miles ahead initially – try to catch it? (10) |
| RIDES (travels) + M[iles] A[head] all in BID (try to catch it) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HEMP | Border on soft fibre (4) |
| HEM (border) + P (soft) | ||
| 2 | NEST | Home open, not house (4) |
| [ho]NEST (open, not house) | ||
| 3 | MICROBREWERY | Merrier boy requiring WC desperately, in little drinking establishment (12) |
| Anagram (desperately) of MERRIER BOY WC | ||
| 4 | INLET | Going over obstacle, popular bay (5) |
| IN (popular) + LET (obstacle) | ||
| 5 | EIGHTFOLD | Delight of failing a number of times more? (9) |
| Anagram (failing) of DELIGHT OF. Is ‘more’ really needed in the definition? | ||
| 7 | PALINDROME | One’s a nana! (10) |
| Definition by example. While solvable there seems to be something missing in this clue. | ||
| 8 | STANDPOINT | Supporter with aim to find view (10) |
| STAND (supporter) + POINT (aim) | ||
| 11 | BALL-BEARINGS | Revolvers in every direction under belligerent leader (4-8) |
| B[elligerent] + ALL BEARINGS (every direction) | ||
| 13 | SWITCHED ON | Alert activated (8,2) |
| Double definition | ||
| 14 | STORYBOARD | Show plan said to be heartless, inspiring Conservative swine (10) |
| TORY (Conservative) + BOAR (swine) together in (inspiring) S[ai]D | ||
| 16 | OIL TANKER | Painting taken abroad on right ship (3,6) |
| OIL (painting) + anagram (abroad) of TAKEN + R (right) | ||
| 21 | HOARD | Treasure formidable banking opportunity at first (5) |
| O[pportunity] in (banking) HARD (formidable) | ||
| 22 | SAGA | Drop a story that’s old (4) |
| SAG (drop) + A (a) | ||
| 23 | USED | Worn in shade, sunglasses lifted (4) |
| Reverse hidden word | ||
For 25a, I had UK + IRANIANS (nationals) with I moving 2 places (primarily dropping back a couple of places).
I thought it was a bit naughty clueing ‘plethora’ as a large number in 10a but Chambers does allow it saying it loosely can mean this (from popular misuse over the years).
Thanks to Mudd and Pete.
I think 25a is UK (British) plus IRANIANS (nationals) with its initial letter ‘I’ moved ‘back a couple of places’.
Thanks Mudd and Pete. I had 25ac the same way as Hovis and passerby.
18ac: I read this with “Broadcast” as the homophone indicator and “delivered” as the definition. with the thought that this must be as in baseball, not cricket, where in the new (2017) Code of Laws, it is Law 21.2 which begins “For a delivery to be fair in respect of the arm the ball must not be thrown.” However, I see that the Official Baseball Rules give the definition “A THROW is the act of propelling the ball with the hand and arm to a given objective and is to be distinguished, always, from the pitch.” On refection, I prefer Pete’s parsing.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Found this one challenging as well, taking three sittings to get it out – and over an hour in the process all told.
Agree with the logic for 25a in the comments above, which is how I had parsed it. THREW was one of my last ones in and I am sort of in the camp of Pelham Barton@3, except I had THREW as the definition of an animal’s delivery of it’s young (gave birth to; the foal had thrown to it’s dam; throw-back to it’s grand-dam, etc.)
Finished with LADIES MAN which cleverly disguised what the definition was. A very enjoyable puzzle that put up a good fight till it was completed.
Thanks to Mudd and Pete. A challenge for me that took some time but was well worth the effort. My major problem came with SAGA and BRIDESMAID because I had confidently chosen PAST for the former owing to drop a story.
Nice puzzle, with ‘going as instructed’ the pick for me.
Thanks both.