Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of November 30, 2019
Goliath treats us to another puzzle that could hardly be anything but a Goliath one. And one with two knock-out clues: the fine anagram of 1,5 (FOURTEEN POUNDS) and the clever topical 12ac (HALLOWEEN). I also especially like 28ac (SLOTHFUL) and 3dn (TEMPO). The clues introduced two new words to me, ‘oxter’ and ‘axilla’, which happen to mean the same thing (armpit).
| Across | ||
| 1, 5 | FOURTEEN POUNDS | Stone found, pure rolling stone (8,6) |
| Anagram (rolling) of STONE FOUND PURE. I don’t know if this is necessary but, for the benefit of American solvers and others, I would mention that Brits traditionally measure weights, especially body weight, in stones and pounds where a stone is 14 pounds. Our use of the word is unusual too in that we tend to say “stone” even when we mean it as a plural. | ||
| 9 | INTIMATE | Personal hint (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 10 | DE NOVO | Study one’s very own origins from the beginning (2,4) |
| DEN (study) + O[nes] V[ery] O[wn] | ||
| 12 | HALLOWEEN | Not Brexit’s day, how everyone got taken in, even poetically (9) |
| ALL (everyone) in (got taken in) HOW (how) + EEN (even poetically). The definition here refers to what was to be the official start of the U.K.’s exit from the EU, October 31st 2019, prior to the last extension. | ||
| 13 | ALACK | A shortage, sadly (5) |
| A (a) + LACK (shortage) | ||
| 14, 20 | MAKE LOVE | Go all the way around lake, perhaps relocate (4,4) |
| Anagram (perhaps) of LAKE in (around) MOVE (relocate) | ||
| 16 | DRIVE-IN | What goes to the heart after 27, oddly, is a kind of cinema (5-2) |
| D[a]R[w]I[n] (27 oddly) + VEIN (what goes to the heart) | ||
| 19 | ETHICAL | Among others to accept this Latin moral (7) |
| HIC (this Latin) in (to accept) ET AL (among others). Ah, yes, I remember hic, haec, hoc from Latin classes! | ||
| 21 | See 26 | |
| 24 | OXTER | Fox terrier’s pit (5) |
| Hidden word. ‘Oxter’, a word that was unknown to me, means a person’s armpit and is used in Scotland and Northern Ireland. | ||
| 25 | VOX POPULI | People say that Eve, foxy when undressed, had pupil going mad with love (3,6) |
| [e]V[e] [f]OX[y] + O (love) in (with) anagram (going mad) of PUPIL | ||
| 27 | DARWIN | Biologist turning inward (6) |
| Anagram (turning) of INWARD | ||
| 28 | SLOTHFUL | Lazy sodomite in a busted flush (8) |
| LOT (sodomite) in (in) anagram (busted) of FLUSH. This Lot is a character in the Bible who was from Sodom (of Sodom and Gomorrah fame), not a sodomite in the modern sense of the word. Lot’s wife’s lot was to become a lot of salt. | ||
| 29, 30 | RACING CALENDAR | Here meets tracker about canceling arrangement (6,8) |
| Anagram (arrangement) of CANCELING in (about) RADAR (tracker) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1, 17 | FLIGHT RECORDER | Fairy instrument’s black box (6,8). There is some discussion of this clue in the comments. |
| F (f…) LIGHT (…airy) + RECORDER (instrument) | ||
| 2 | UNTOLD | Staggering is not related (6) |
| UN-TOLD (not related) | ||
| 3 | TEMPO | Some Corbynite MP on speed (5) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 4 | EXTREME | Minehead and Exeter turning radical (7) |
| Anagram (turning) of M (minehead) + EXETER | ||
| 6 | OPERATION | Choice includes time of surgery (9) |
| ERA (time) in (includes) OPTION (choice) | ||
| 7 | NEONATES | Type of light seat designed for the very young (8) |
| NEON (type of light) + anagram (designed) of SEAT | ||
| 8, 23 | STOCKING FILLER | Present leg? (8,6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 11 | ENID | Eat up, girl! (4) |
| DINE (eat) backwards (up) | ||
| 15 | ACCORDION | Rope in action to remove the end of blunt instrument (9) |
| CORD (rope) in (in) AC[t]ION (action to remove the end of blunt) | ||
| 17 | See 1 | |
| 18 | RHETORIC | Oratory could be almost retro- chic (8) |
| Anagram (could be) of RETRO CH[i] | ||
| 20 | See 14 | |
| 21 | MAXILLA | M24’s jaw (7) |
| M (M) + AXILLA (oxter, from 24 across). ‘Axilla’ is another word I did not know that means ‘armpit’. | ||
| 22 | PUFFED | Fed up with foxtrot dancing, took a breather (6) |
| Anagram (dancing) of FED UP F | ||
| 23 | See 8 | |
| 26, 21 across | ON THE MEND | Making progress, and then some, but not as planned (2,3,4) |
| Anagram (planned) of [a]ND THEN [s]OME | ||
I thought Goliath was in top form with this puzzle. Like you I did not know the two “medical” terms but knowing that Goliath is a “medical” man I did not mind having to look them up.
Thank you.
Thanks to Goliath and Pete. I did know AXILLA from previous puzzles but not OXTER. I enjoyed FOURTEEN POUNDS when I worked it out. Very enjoyable.
Thanks to both. A thoroughly enjoyable solve. I liked the four long edge answers. I am fairly sure I have met OXTER before in a crossword but when I do not recall.
Thanks to Pete and Goliath
I gave up on Philistine in the Guardian some time ago, but the FT seemed unwilling to countenance his worst excesses so I carried on solving him here, until now.
There are so many very good things here so why resort to the nonsense at 1,17d?
What next?
Savoir pare (5)
Beat member (4)
Sold it (3)
Particle slate (3)
Cup man (6)
Trump’s Russian agency? (4)
The list is endless and dreary
Thank you all for the comments. Let us consider Dansar’s issue.
Goliath is the only setter I know who makes use of the cluing mechanism that we see in 1dn, 17 in this puzzle. And he uses it sufficiently much that I have come to expect it in his puzzles and usually spot cases fairly easily. Is it a justifiable mechanism? I think there is a case to be made that it is because a basic tenet is that the solver may have to repunctuate a clue in order to obtain its proper cryptic reading. And surely inserting a space can be counted as repunctuating. (I point this out because I think the matter is arguable but not because I choose to promote the argument.) I suppose the main case against is that other setters do not use this mechanism, although I am not sure that this is even true as I rarely do crosswords other than the FT Weekend ones.
In the particular case of FLIGHT RECORDER here, I think the clue is weak anyway for two reasons. First the surface reading is not up to much. Second the word ‘instrument’ is used as part of the wordplay but could also apply to the definition.
I invite more comments on this. And, Dansar, thank you for your “endless and dreary” list. I am not getting the last one.
Many thanks to Pete Maclean and others for your kind comments. They are very much appreciated. The clue that is the subject of contention uses a device which blurs the spaces and punctuation, as Pete says, and this has always been acceptable in cluing. A few other setters do use it (to a lesser degree) and bloggers have dubbed it the ‘lift-and-separate’ type of clue.
I do think that it’s important to use and develop new methods of cluing, if the cruciverbalist art is to remain fresh, interesting and innovative, but this of course should always be done with precision and taking care to ensure that the clue is fair. I had hoped that ‘fairy instrument’ fulfilled these criteria and, regarding the surface, I can imagine that a fairy could very well keep her instrument in a black box.
As for Dansar’s list, dreary it most certainly is not! I particularly liked ‘Beat member’, ‘Sold it’ and ‘Trump’s Russian agency’.
Thanks Goliath and Pete
Firstly – T ASS (the Russian news agency).
Enjoyed this one a lot on the way into work, mostly on the train yesterday – had to finish off the last couple on the tram leg. A couple of political surfaces that raised a grin – had sort of dropped off the Brexit saga a bit and had to look up which date the October 31 was referring to.
I’m a big fan of the lift and separate type clues, of which this setter is a common user of. The 21d clue is not much different actually – a little more telegraphed. Am sure that Goliath is not the only setter to use this but too lazy to look for examples. The more tricks they can throw at us the better is my mantra.
Finished in the NE corner with NEONATES, STOCKING FILLER and DE NOVO the last few in.
There seems to be some dispute about what constitutes a “lift and separate” clue. There was a post on this site fairly recently asking bloggers not to apply the term to a clue that required a word to be split. The poster (I can’t remember their name), supplied a link to a website where crossword jargon was explained. This website maintains that “lift and separate” was coined to describe a clue whose surface reading was so smooth that the solver was required to “lift and separate” the definition from the wordplay.
That’s by the by though because I understand how Philistine is using the term here. Or do I? I could be wrong but I can only recall other setters splitting a word into components that are still words – not shaving single letters off.
I welcome innovation and I agree with Philistine that new things need to be tried, but this one isn’t for me.
None of this would matter much if Goliath were a mediocre setter but as I said in my original comment, there are so many good things in this crossword that it just seems a shame to me to spoil it.
(BTW I don’t do any crossword which uses “first” as a standalone indication of a first letter which is the reason I don’t do Philistine in the Guardian)
Perhaps my biggest objection to the device is that, I suppose in recognition that it might be unreasonably difficult to spot “letter shaving”, the definition BLACK BOX makes the clue a write-in.
I like my definitions to be a little better hidden, in the spirit of the alternative meaning of “lift and separate”.
If we must have splits involving non-words then perhaps something like this:
Black boxer appears on Steps album (6,8)
Very gracious of Philistine to express appreciation of my examples after my rather intemperate post. I was in a bad mood from watching Election Special, that’s my excuse!
Dansar, things only spoil it for you when things spoil it for you.
I am not a great fan of this kind of device either but I have totally accepted it through the years.
Seeing the name Goliath/Philistine (or Boatman) on a puzzle, should make you aware of the fact that things like this might happen. And why not?
Just like what I call the multiple fodder clues (with a ‘singular’ indicator).
Meanwhile, it all depends on the newspaper and/or the editor.
In particular, in The Guardian and the FT 1,17 is totally fine but it would not stand a chance in The Times.
Nor in the Independent, I think.
As someone who occasionally makes a contribution to that paper (tomorrow!), I am sometimes tempted to use what some call ‘lift & separate’ (I don’t – but what’s in a name).
Especially if it leads to a better surface (which, unfortunately, 1,17 doesn’t really do, IMO).
Perhaps, I might try it some day and see what happens.
I am not completely with Philistine when he says that punctuation (spaces, etc) never matters.
I clearly remember a Boatman clue from years ago in which he equated ‘it’s’ to ‘its’ (which was a step too far for me).
But the last time I spoke to Boatman (a couple of years ago in a Brighton pub) I also told him that since his and Philistine’s arrival something changed in Crosswordland.
It really did.
That’s not by definition a bad thing, although some emphasise every now and then that I should read books on Ximenes et al to get a better understanding.
Everything I do, however, is based on a combination of knowledge and intuition.
The knowledge bit just comes from solving many many many crosswords.
And the intuition bit? Well, I don’t know
To come back to the original issue, Goliath/Philistine has his own style.
That’s quite something, isn’t it?
Indeed it is, and if others enjoy it then sobeit.
But on days when I find myself a crossword short I end up putting another £1.80 in Rupert’s pocket.
I’d rather not.