Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of November 16, 2019
I solved this puzzle in a very orderly fashion with 1ac my first-in, from which I completed the left half, then ascended back to the top of the right half and finished with 26ac my last-in. And I had trouble only with one clue, 24ac (CHIDDEN).
My favourites are 9ac (AILMENT), 16ac (TOM HANKS) and 23ac (MAKE HAY).
| Across | ||
| 1 | BONOBO | Singer with personal hygiene problem is our nearest relative (6) |
| BONO (singer) + BO (personal hygiene problem — that is body odour) | ||
| 4 | WRAITH | Ghostly figure accompanied by entertaining artist (6) |
| RA (artist) in (entertaining) WITH (accompanied by) | ||
| 8 | PIG IRON | Regularly spying press in rough bars (3,4) |
| [s]P[y]I[n]G + IRON (press). Pig iron is the raw output of a smelter. | ||
| 9 | AILMENT | Pair heartily keen to drop a complaint (7) |
| [p]AI[r] + L[a]MENT (keen to drop A) | ||
| 11 | SECOND-RATE | Poor son reacted badly (6-4) |
| Anagram (badly) of SON REACTED | ||
| 12 | REEK | Reportedly cause terrible smell (4) |
| Homophone (reportedly) of “wreak” (cause) | ||
| 13 | PEEVE | Water vole eviscerated bug (5) |
| PEE (water) + V[ol]E | ||
| 14 | NEPALESE | Nine pale security guards from Asia (8) |
| Hidden word (guards) | ||
| 16 | TOM HANKS | Hollywood star cheers gagging order (3,5) |
| OM (order) in (gagging) THANKS (cheers) | ||
| 18 | BLOWN | Squandered last of pension on cannabis (5) |
| BLOW (cannabis) + [pensio]N | ||
| 20 | ZING | Vivacity of Zulu monarch’s beginning to go (4) |
| Z (Zulu) + [k]INGS (monarch’s beginning to go) | ||
| 21 | SPURIOUSLY | Half-cut Pict slurs you cruelly and falsely (10) |
| Anagram (cruelly) of PI SLURS YOU | ||
| 23 | MAKE HAY | Spooner’s fish is allowed to do this when it’s sunny (4,3) |
| Spoonerism of HAKE (fish) MAY (is allowed to) | ||
| 24 | CHIDDEN | Conservative kept dark study carpeted (7) |
| C (Conservative) + HID (kept dark) + DEN (study). I needed to look up this one since I would have said CHIDED. But my dictionary confirms that, while the past tense is CHIDED, the past participle of CHIDE is indeed CHIDDEN. | ||
| 25 | EMETIC | European with extremely macabre habit making you throw up (6) |
| E (European) + M[acabr]E + TIC (habit) | ||
| 26 | GROINS | Privates from Ohio wreathed in smiles (6) |
| O (Ohio) in (wreathed in) GRINS (smiles) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BRINE | Newton tucked into cheese and pickle (5) |
| N (newton) in (tucked into) BRIE (cheese). The ‘N’ here is the abbreviation of a newton as a unit of force. | ||
| 2 | NOISOME | Malodorous moose in Barking (7) |
| Anagram (barking) of MOOSE IN | ||
| 3 | BROAD BEAN | Vegetable husks cut by old American dame (5,4) |
| O (old) + A (American) + DBE (dame) all together in BRAN (husks). I failed to figure this out and had: BROAD (old American dame) + BEAN (husks cut) although the second part did not work. I am obliged to Gaufrid for revealing what I am sure must be correct (see comment #2 below). Thank you, Gaufrid. | ||
| 5 | RAISE | Lift shafts, so to speak (5) |
| Homophone (so to speak) of “rays” (shafts) | ||
| 6 | IMMORAL | Bad months after one’s exam (7) |
| I (one) + MM (months) + ORAL (exam) | ||
| 7 | HANGERS-ON | Minions in hospital infuriate boy (7-2) |
| H (hospital) + ANGER (infuriate) + SON (boy) | ||
| 10 | MAGNESIUM | Metal guineas melted down in empty museum (9) |
| Anagram (melted down) of GUINEAS in (in) M[useu]M | ||
| 13 | PROXIMATE | Closest friend follows professional team (9) |
| PRO (professional) + XI (team) + MATE (friend) | ||
| 15 | PUBLISHER | Bookmaker and boozer relish revels (9) |
| PUB (boozer) + anagram (revels) of RELISH | ||
| 17 | HYGIENE | Husband eyeing dodgy sanitary practices (7) |
| H (husband) + anagram (dodgy) of EYEING | ||
| 19 | OPUS DEI | Poem about matter initially incensing religious group (4,3) |
| PUS (matter) in (about) ODE (poem) + I[incensing] | ||
| 21 | SWAMI | Guru perhaps crawled over island (5) |
| SWAM (crawled) + I (island) | ||
| 22 | LOESS | Child leaves Loch Ness, ignoring new geological feature (5) |
| LO[ch] [n]ESS. I remember this word well from geography classes at school but could not recall exactly what it means. One dictionary says, “A fine-grained unstratified accumulation of clay and silt deposited by the wind.” | ||
Can’t find my printout of this but, looking it over and recalling, snap with Pete on three counts: can’t make broad bean parse, enjoyed learning chidden, and remember loess from school geog (along with orher odd stuff like gneiss, terminal moraine and ox-bow lake [billabong in Oz]). Otherwise a gentle stroll, with SH’s usually succinct cluing, thanks both.
Thanks Pete
Regarding 3dn, I think the parsing is BRAN (husks) around (cut by) O (old) A (American) DBE (dame).
Thanks, Gaufrid, I couldn’t fathom it either. Anyway, Rosa Klebb at her elegant best, as usual.
Exquisite stories as always. I particularly liked the clues for BONOBO and HYGIENE and OPUS DEI.
Thanks, Pete.
‘Elegant’ and ‘exquisite’ clues and story-telling: yes – but almost enough nasty smells, in clues and answers [BO, reek, pee, noisome, dodgy sanitary practice] to constitute a theme – with emetic for good measure!
I guessed CHIDDEN from the analogy with ride / ridden and was interested to see, when I checked it, that ‘chode’ is also an archaic past tense.
Isn’t it interesting how we remember words like LOESS – super clue! – and the others that Grant mentions?
Many thanks, Rosa, as ever – great fun, despite the smells. 😉
Thanks Rosa Klebb and Pete
Like Pete, started in the NE corner with BRINE then BONOBO but then proceeded like a clock to get around to the SW – I guess like water we travel in the path of least resistance. It took my full quotient of average solve time (around the 3/4 hour) to get to the end, although there didn’t seem to be too many holdups until I got to the actor at 16 where my H looked like an M and threw me off track for a while.
A couple of new words but all clued with the crispness to be able to work them out – and with a lovely surface in most of them. Initially went down the BROAD path at 3d for a while, but eventually saw BRAN around the outside and after looking up the previously unknown DBE was good.
Always a joy to complete a puzzle by this setter.
Thanks to Rosa Klebb, one of my favorite setters and to Pete for completing my understanding of why I got to some of my answers. I had fun with this crossword.
Thank you all for your comments. I delight in sharing Rosa’s puzzles with you.
I have just completed this today (Sat 30th) having spotted that last Saturday’s FT was by Rosa Klebb on this site.
What a breath of fresh air! Every single clue an absolute gem.
Thank you Ms Hayes and really pleased to see all the other favourable comments above