Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 31, 2019
I completed the bottom half of this puzzle fairly quickly and easily then had a bit of a struggle to finish the top half, resorting to a pattern-matching tool for 3dn (RETROUSSE) a word I did not know. My clue of the week is the splendid triple definition of 19dn (PIT) and I also applaud 9ac (NOCTURNE), 5dn (TREACLE) and 15dn (AYATOLLAH).
| Across | ||
| 1 | LET RIP | Before excursion, the French act without restraint (3,3) |
| LE (the French) + TRIP (excursion) | ||
| 5 | TUTELAGE | One learning to keep prisoner in custody (8) |
| LAG (prisoner) in (to keep) TUTEE (one learning). I had been ignorant of the defined meaning of TUTELAGE here, which one dictionary has as “attention and management implying responsibility for safety”. | ||
| 9 | NOCTURNE | Piece, once composed, receiving performance (8) |
| TURN (performance) in (receiving) anagram (composed) of ONCE | ||
| 10 | BRAHMS | Hindu priest’s not at home, he noted (6) |
| BRAHM[in]S (Hindu priests’ not at home) | ||
| 11 | CHROME | Decorative finish seen in church, the Catholic one? (6) |
| CH (church) + ROME (the Catholic one?) | ||
| 12 | CASSETTE | Group in project facing unlimited red tape (8) |
| SET (group) in (in) CAST (project) + [r]E[d] | ||
| 14 | STUPEFACTION | On return, European expresses dissention and bewilderment (12) |
| E (European) + PUTS (expresses) backwards (on return) + FACTION (dissention) | ||
| 18 | STEEPLECHASE | Exorbitant rent includes central heating? This involves several obstacles (12) |
| STEEP (exorbitant) + CH (central heating) in (includes) LEASE (rent) | ||
| 22 | CONSTRUE | Interpret in exotic countries? Not I (8) |
| Anagram (exotic) of COUNTR[i]ES. This clue reminds me of how I learned the word ‘construe’. It was reading Billy Bunter books as a boy. Bunter’s Latin master, Mr. Quelch, would tell a boy to “construe” meaning to translate Latin to English. | ||
| 25 | ORALLY | By mouth of river, initially meets friend (6) |
| O[f] R[iver] + ALLY (friend) | ||
| 26 | ALBION | A celebrity pens book portraying ancient Britain (6) |
| A (a) + B (book) in (pens) LION (celebrity) | ||
| 27 | MILLINER | Underground worker nurses sick seller of ladies’ wear (8) |
| ILL (sick) in (nurses) MINER (underground worker) | ||
| 28 | WRETCHED | Women getting gagged? That’s unfortunate (8) |
| W (women) + RETCHED (getting gagged) | ||
| 29 | HATRED | Abhorrence in Balmoral for one commie (6) |
| HAT (Balmoral for one) + RED (commie) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | EPOCHS | Revolutionary range keeps hot for ages (6) |
| H (hot) in (keeps) SCOPE (range) backwards (revolutionary) | ||
| 3 | RETROUSSE | Trousers, lost at first, eventually turned up (9) |
| Anagram (lost) of TROUSERS + E[ventually]. ‘Retrousse’ means turned up at the end and is usually applied to noises. I suspect that Alberich is being witty here in that trousers could well be turned up at the end. | ||
| 4 | PERPETUAL | Everlasting ill repute acquired by mate (9) |
| Anagram (ill) of REPUTE in PAL (mate) | ||
| 5 | TREACLE | Regularly visited La Scala, sitting in box? It’s sweet! (7) |
| [l]A [s]C[a]L[a] in (sitting in) BOX (tree?) | ||
| 6 | TUBAS | Article found among ship’s instruments (5) |
| A (article) in (found among) TUBS (ship’s) | ||
| 7 | LEAVE | Go in chopper with no wings (5) |
| [c]LEAVE[r] | ||
| 8 | GUMPTION | To impugn criminal shows courage (8) |
| Anagram (criminal) of TO IMPUGN | ||
| 13 | SIC | So speaker’s indisposed (3) |
| Homophone (speaker’s) of “sick” (indisposed) | ||
| 15 | AYATOLLAH | Religious leader always returned greeting with thanks (9) |
| AY (always) + HALLO (greeting) + TA (thanks) backwards (returned) | ||
| 16 | THERAPIST | Bitten by bug, the woman first finds provider of treatment (9) |
| HER (the woman) in (bitten by) TAP (bug) + IST (first) | ||
| 17 | STROLLER | One sauntering along street’s given wave (8) |
| ST (street) + ROLLER (wave) | ||
| 19 | PIT | A stone to match mine (3) |
| Triple definition. This clue is the pits! (No, really the opposite.) | ||
| 20 | CREAMED | Yelled head off, being soundly beaten (7) |
| [s]CREAMED (yelled head off) | ||
| 21 | ALLEGE | A place of learning has no business making claim (6) |
| A (a) + [co]LLEGE (place of learning has no business) | ||
| 23 | SWIFT | Wife cracks riddle fast (5) |
| W (wife) in (cracks) SIFT (riddle) | ||
| 24 | RANCH | Farm contributing to Lutheran Church (5) |
| Hidden word | ||
This is the first FT I’ve done and it was fun. Hadn’t come across the custody aspect of tutelage before, or that faction can in itself mean dissention (tho of course factions, eg political ones, do fight among themselves). But sure enough there they both were, those meanings, in my elderly Collins. Always learning in crosswordland! Thanks Alberich and Pete.
PS curious as to why this one, 16,260, is blogged today, when yesterday’s Julius is 16,269 and today’s FT crossword is 16,270 by Chalmie…??
GinF,
This is a prize puzzle and is not blogged until after the closing date for entries.
grantinfreo, Thank you for commenting. As Bracoman kindly stated, we delay the publishing of blogs for prize puzzles until a time past the deadline for entries. I generally write the blog for the FT Weekend puzzle on the Saturday it appears or the next day but key it to be posted at one minute past midnight U.K. time on the Thursday of the following week.
Thanks Alberich and Pete
Enjoyable puzzle that I only got to yesterday and was one of those ones that I could only grab a few minutes at a time to add 2-3 answers through the morning and finished over lunch. Had the same solving experience as the blog, with some of the parsing up in the top half taking quite some time to figure out – especially CHROME (remembering the use of Rome for Catholics) and THERAPIST (where the phone TAP took ages to see).
Thought that he was using ‘turned up’ in the surface of 3d to just refer to his trousers being found again 🙂 – I remembered the RETROUSSE term and think that it is an appropriately cute word.
Finished with TUBAS (and had originally written in TUBES initially) and that CHROME as the last couple.
Thanks Bracoman and Pete, all clear now.
Thanks to Pete and Alberich
Excellent,
13d Might be the best triple def I’ve ever seen.
Re 3d – is that why they’re called hooters?
Dansar, I take it that you mean 19d as maybe the best triple def you’ve ever seen (seeing that it is the only triple definition in the puzzle). It sure is a fine one.
Yes, I meant 19d
My comment about 3d refers to a slight typo!