Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 16, 2019
I made a good start on this puzzle by getting 1, 16ac instantly and then polishing off several more clues at top speed. But the last few came slowly which meant it ended up being a decent challenge. The only clues that gave me significant trouble were 7dn (BEELZEBUB) and 23ac (RUBICON). My favourites are 1, 16 (HOW NOW BROWN COW), 6dn (OCTOBER) and 15dn (SEA ANCHOR).
I note that the completed grid has an unusually large number of W’s, eight, not to mention two Z’s.
| Across | ||
| 1, 16 | HOW NOW BROWN COW | The way the present and past PM intimidate is an exercise in elocution (3,3,5,3) |
| HOW (the way) + NOW (the present) + BROWN (past PM, that is Gordon) + COW (intimidate) | ||
| 4 | APLOMB | Cool maps, all bombs (no shells) (6) |
| [m]AP[s] [a]L[l] [b]OMB[s] | ||
| 8 | FLORIST | Endless learning in hand, gripping high street presence (7) |
| LOR[e] (endless learning) in (in) FIST (hand gripping) | ||
| 9 | PARTNER | Standard rent in arrears, mate (7) |
| PAR (standard) + RENT (rent) backwards (in arrears) | ||
| 11 | BOWDLERISM | Awfully lewd content for Mr Johnson, might start clean-up operation (10) |
| Anagram (awfully) of LEWD in (content for) BORIS (Mr Johnson) + M[ight] | ||
| 12, 20 | BUZZFEED | Rang about extremely fashionable source of news (8) |
| F[ashionabl]E in (about) BUZZED (rang). BuzzFeed is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. | ||
| 13 | PAYER | One foots the bill for actor (exit left) (5) |
| PLAYER (actor) with the ‘L’ removed (exit left) | ||
| 14 | DESCRIBE | Outline of French writer (8) |
| DE (of French) + SCRIBE (writer) | ||
| 16 | See 1 | |
| 18 | ACERB | A 21 neighbour, reportedly bitter (5) |
| Homophone (reportedly) of A SERB (a 21 neighbour — referring to 21dn CROAT). I am more used to ‘acerbic’ but have come across ‘acerb’ before — it has exactly the same meaning. | ||
| 20 | See 12 | |
| 21 | COPENHAGEN | Capital accessible in loose change (10) |
| OPEN (accessible) in anagram (loose) of CHANGE | ||
| 23 | RUBICON | Polish figure of reverence is a cause of conflict when crossed (7) |
| RUB (polish) + ICON (figure of reverence) | ||
| 24, 17 | SHOTGUN WEDDING | He dug Downing St out, expecting match? (7,7) |
| Anagram (out) of HE DUG DOWNING ST | ||
| 25 | EIGHTY | 4 score they deployed around soldier in retreat (6) |
| GI (soldier) backwards (in retreat) in (around) anagram (deployed) of THEY | ||
| 26 | ORACLE | She prophesised the lamentable end of Monte Carlo (6) |
| Anagram (lamentable) of [mont]E CARLO | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HELLO | The man will love this magazine: (5) |
| HE’LL (the man will) + O (love). I take the colon at the end of the clue to be a typo. | ||
| 2 | WORLDLY | Cosmopolitan (it’s verbose, housing a couple of learners) (7) |
| L and L (a couple of learners) in (housing) WORDY (verbose) | ||
| 3 | OBSTETRIC | Reproductive erotic novel about summertime (9) |
| BST (summertime) in (about) anagram (novel) of EROTIC | ||
| 5 | PSALM | A song which praises trees (promoting the root) (5) |
| PALMS (trees) with ‘S’ (root) moved up (promoting) | ||
| 6 | OCTOBER | Planned car boot sale alas cancelled this month (7) |
| Anagram (planned) of C[a]R BOOT [sal]E | ||
| 7 | BEELZEBUB | Left cattle in BBC coverage of Lord of the Flies (9) |
| L (left) + ZEBU (cattle) together in BEEB (BBC) | ||
| 10 | WINDSWEPT | Dishevelled Falkland Islanders finally cried after victory (9) |
| WIN (victory) + [falklan]D [islander]S + WEPT (cried). The reference to the Falklands is fitting in that it is one of the most windblown places on Earth! | ||
| 13 | PERSECUTE | Inherently quaint to victimise (9) |
| PER SE (inherently) + CUTE (quaint) | ||
| 15 | SEA ANCHOR | Ocean has turned nasty? Right equipment here (3,6) |
| Anagram (turned nasty) of OCEAN HAS + R (right) | ||
| 17 | See 24 Across | |
| 19 | ELASTIC | The last ichthyosaurus not wholly adaptable (7) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 21 | CROAT | European cormorant’s odd features (5) |
| C[o]R[m]O[r]A[n]T | ||
| 22 | ELUDE | More fool you! Old people finally escape (5) |
| [mor]E [foo]L [yo]U [ol]D [peopl]E | ||
Thanks to Pete and Goliath
Just off to bed till I noticed your blog.
After being on your best behaviour last week I couldn’t resist nitpicking
13a def is ONE FOOTS THE BILL
going to bed happy now -)
Re 1dn. I think the magazine has an exclamation mark thus: Hello! The setter probably used the EM after magazine but it has not been rendered properly by the printers. So a typo as you have noted.
Thanks, Pete, especially for the information re BUZZFEED, which I’d never heard of but the clue was clear.
I entered BEELZEBUB immediately from the definition – and I think we’ve had ZEBU somewhere pretty recently.
A lovely puzzle, as always, from Goliath. My favourites were BOWDLERISM, COPENHAGEN [partly because my son lives there], RUBICON, ORACLE [interesting new word ‘prophesised’ 😉 ] and WINDSWEPT. And I just loved the ‘expecting’ in 24,17.
Many thanks, as always, Goliath.
Dansar, Thank you for pointing out that mistake, now corrected.
Rishi, I cannot recall ever buying a copy of this magazine but I have looked at copies enough times that I should have remembered the exclamation mark.
Eileen, I knew that Buzzfeed was something but had to look it up to find out exactly what. And thank you for mentioning “expecting match?” which I now think I did not give Goliath enough credit for.
Thanks Goliath and Pete
I found this a fairly challenging puzzle with most of my trouble coming in the NE corner where I finished. RUBICON was one of my first in – I have always enjoyed the phrase ‘crossing the Rubicon’ – it was especially relevant when making changes in my work in IT infrastructure where after analysing and mitigating the risks of major changes, you went ahead knowing that generally there would be no turning back ! Or at least knowing that backing out was just as much or more work.
Got stuck with ACERB for a while – scratching my head to see which map had Serbia adjacent to Denmark !!!
Loved the SHOTGUN WEDDING and ORACLE (excellent use of ‘end of Monte Carlo’ to create the fodder) .
BUZZFEED (which I sort of recognised when it finally landed) and BEELZEBUB (similarly) were my last couple in.
I did enjoy this, 19d was an excellent hidden word clue, and there were some top class surfaces (6d,15d, and others), but 24,17 could have done with a tweak I think. Downing street is not known for matches but unions were once commonplace.
Nice crossword, but one or two things:
18ac threw me since 21 seemed to be COPENHAGEN, and I thought Goliath’s geography was a bit awry. Should we have been alerted to the fact that it was 21dn not 21ac?
Why ‘she’ in 26 ac? Why is an oracle female?
In 6dn it would have been more conventional to say that the letters of alas were jumbled, since they don’t appear in order. And ‘planned’ as an anagram indicator?
Thanks Goliath & Pete.
Wil Ransome @7.
In 18 across the surface reading is meant to suggest the person who lives next door to No 21.
An oracle was a priest or priestess. Would you have asked: ‘Why is an oracle male?’ if the clue had said he prophesied?
In 6 down the letters of alas don’t appear in any order — they are omitted.
In answer to psmith@8:
Of course in 18ac the surface is meant to suggest the person next door. My point was that there are two 21s in the crossword.
I’d thought that an oracle was a thing; but thank you for correcting me. You’re right: in this case it can perfectly well be ‘she’. However, this politically correct stuff has appeared before. I have no cross to bear for the male sex: it’s just that if we see ‘she’, then at this moment in history we expect something special that I’m afraid we don’t expect when we see ‘he’.
I’m sure the Ximeneans will have something to say about subtractive anagrams where the letters of the bit subtracted don’t appear in order, which is something Goliath does (is guilty of?) in 6dn.